2014

Bboy Bgirl Summit ~ Strictly Bboy Bgirl Business was incredible! Truly the best one in years, probably I dare say 2012. Maybe I’m tripin, and I probably am since you really can’t match the years that people stormed into the Summit in droves, all styles together in solidarity, it was like a symphony of styles, flavas, all mixed up in the pot dished up fresh and hot.. that is Summit, so tasty you just want more! The theme this year was Pros 2 Proteges, in ode to 2012’s theme that included panel and battle series delving into mentorship, and how the artforms of Hip-Hop, in this case, breakin, gets passed along through the generations. It was cool having Ken Swift + Flomaster, and Alien Ness + Tyquan + Moose, and Ervin + Lily Breeze as examples of this theme. We must credit and give thanks to the United Hip-Hop Vanguard for the major support for this panel which is in line with the UHHV mission of supporting regrowth of Hip-Hop through education, music, and leadership of Black and Brown people. The Strictly Business theme ripped from EPMD (thanks Big Jeff), our star guests, brought everything together lovely. We topped it off with Prince Paul (thanks to Illijahbeats for the rec), his featured career keynote, and the ultimate Bboy Breaks DJ Jazzy Jay! Doesn’t get much juicer than that but add that West Coast funk with Jungle Fire (thank you Ervin), and Dezzy Hollow (thanks to Dyno for the rec) and now we got a partay! I do believe the crowd this year was almost doubled of last year, probably with 2,000 Sunday at Grand Park this year, and a larger turnout Saturday too for the mix sets by Ervin Arana, Shortkut, Jazzy Jay, Prince Paul, XL Middleton. We mixed in the battles, the Bgirl 7 to Smoke kicked it all off, and the Bgirls went hard, it was a fight to the finish but Kate hit 7 and took the W. The Poppin 2v2 was funky fresh and the talent was exceptionally high level! The requirement of having a routine seemed to really up the ante as well. Armani and Smurfzation repping AZ took it, and all da smoke too. The 3v3 was super hype without a doubt! It could have been anyone’s day, the Bboy trios were outstanding, I thought maybe Middle Beast was going to take it, but the all-star team of Illson, Samo, and Victor was too diverse and flavorful to beat that day. The real stars were all the DJs! Super shout out to XL Middleton who brought the funk to new levels that night and DJ Shortkut who was cutting and scratching all night long! It was cool seeing the crowd enjoying bugging out to Prince Paul’s party rock set too.

Lets get to the main course…EPMD. what more can I say, they are now officially my fave Hip-Hop group. Total package, official NY creed, production, lyrics, delivery, content.. sold and I’m buying! But leading up to all that was so much goodness, starting out with the opening ceremony traditional Chinese Lion Dance by East Wind Lion Dancers. Being that we are right by Chinatown we wanted to pay homage and bring culture forward. The visual demo was so playfully colorful again our Strictly Business banner artwork, the kids in the audience were mesmerized and overjoyed! We started the kids battle right after and the energy was lit!! We had plenty of kid competitors that wanted to showcase their budding bboy skills. We picked just four of the best to battle and Gokito took it, upsetting the reigning champ Flowskills. The future looks bright and shout out to the great teachers out there including We Break, Little Rock, and Venom bringing up the next generation. We wanted to light up the stage with lots of great dancing this year with a showcase of all the styles including Locking (thanks to Adobolock for coordination) with LA Locking Lab and Funktionpoint along with Flomaster, Khi, D Rock, and Kleen, they brought the social dance element and took the stage over! Love eternal to the creator of Locking Don Campbellock. LA Boppin Crew had to represent of course their Poplock and Bop hit style. We performed our current show as No Easy Props, and got busy breakin and locking, while Zulu Gremz, and his family, Sophia and Izzy finish out the showcase with a Struttin routine. I think thats one of the things that makes the Summit so special is the multiple generations involved, our kids, the elders, we are all together in Hip-Hop community and both the performers and crowd really reflected that! Big shout out to our Fortify Our Rebel Youth teen tent (thank you Koko and Monica), full of comfy blow-up furniture, phone charging stations, games, and snacks, it was the hip spot for teens to connect and chill. Meanwhile the Graff heads were getting up on the panels with Nasa crew repping along with King Cre8, Gaso and Dewy. It’s not the Summit if there is no graffiti, remember that. The music was paramount, breaks by Jazzy Jay followed by live set by Jungle Fire with Bboys and Bgirls on stage catching wreck, and an illmatic sexy NYC inspired party rock set by Prince Paul before the ultraheavyweight performance by EPMD!! The crowd was bugging and we were all in Hip-Hop force together. It felt magical, God blessed us undoubtably, as we asked Him to bring the people to hear His word, the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we are obedient and faithful there is nothing God won’t do to bring His glory forward. Amen!

The Summit Reborn theme proved to be prophecy. Based on so much feedback people really felt the Summit was back! The feeling & balance of a well-produced and orchestrated jam still with the spontaneity and the freestyle fun and consciousness of Hip-Hop was Summit this year!

But it does all really start with intention we don’t believe in doing anything randomly and just for the sake of doing it but to keep showing up in new in relevant ways to keep raising the bar in the standards of excellence in hip-hop culture and to always do better than we did last year and never repeat ourselves is the goal. Saturday started off with a bang at a new location that we hope to have a semi-permanent home at which is West Hollywood‘s Plumber Park Fiesta hall. We initially had a partnership that did not move forward and since we had already announced the battle categories we needed to continue without the financial support of the sponsorship. This proved challenging for us but through the goodwill of a lot of people and some companies coming along side of us towards the last moments we were able to follow through on everything that we intended for the community. The battles were dope because of the high level of talent and everybody’s good-natured vibes even if some of judging calls were of course subjective. Why? Because judging art and dance is always going to be subjective LOL! Olympics try to figure that one out nudge nudge. This was our 10th anniversary of The Color Wars Crew Battle, the Alien Ness curated concept. This year we didn’t have TC Islam (rest in peace) to host he was definitely an amazing MC host, but Funky Maya from Mexico did a great job! Good call on that LoRock! Got to give credit where credit is due this isn’t a one woman show there are several people that you see at the Summit running things that contribute greatly to this event, shoutouts to Yaya! The beauty of Summit is there’s so many people that care about it that cut their teeth on it that just love it for all that it was and still is and they want to contribute to it so it is because of these people that we can continue moving this event forward into a new time with new faces. I will say on Saturday that I feel we did a disservice to the poppers and to the Funk Freaks. The Funk Freaks our incredible band of DJs and entrepreneurs that really curate funk extraordinarily. We intended on having this really super fresh popping patio that’s pretty spacious and just have it just going off the whole day. But due to unforeseen circumstances and requirements last minute by the venue we weren’t able to use the whole patio and we had to squish everything in a small space. On top of that the tent we originally had didn’t fit and so we had to make do and it looked a little bit poorly executed. It made me realize that I think it’s important to return to bringing everybody back into one room and even if there are multiple rooms kind of rotating what’s going on in different rooms so everybody gets the main stage the big room and we all integrate together because that’s really what Hip-Hop is so we can connect with one another and learn more about the different artforms that we don’t practice. Poppers we’re gonna do you better next year although you are a fickle bunch lol! And you really need to listen to the OG‘s ha ha! We already got the idea to cook up a really beautiful show for next year so get ready for that.

Sunday was epic truly it really was the Summit, and everybody knows that they have to bear the heat of Grand Park everybody knows it’s always hot the weekend of Summit and we just enjoy it we enjoy the rosy cheeks brown people in the sun Black people glass with melon all that good stuff! The talent was extraordinary! But it’s Hip-Hop so what else would you expect?! One of the cherries this year was Grand Wizard Theodore a very cool man and expert artist and an all-around community around the way brother. And I say that because he loves hip-hop, he is hip-hop, and he knows hip-hop when he hears it, he was really excited by Skeme Richards and what Skeme was playing and couldn’t wait to connect with him. That’s love right there! Battlecat was a big win for us this year and we really wanna express our thanks to him for getting on board with us of course he brought the heat everybody was so excited that he was going to be at Summit he plays no games he’s all business in raw skills. He definitely threw down a heavy set for everyone to appreciate. Gaslamp killer and the funky geometrics I’ll leave that one for you to decide lol Gaslamp Killer is an innovator and an expressional is abstract in every way shape and form. The highlight of course is Farside yes spelled differently I got tired of hearing all the people clown on me on social media thinking I didn’t know how to spell their name. I didn’t even ever bother responding because “I’m a lady” in my best Martin voice. I gots to say watching those brothers work that stage they were so happy with the vibe of the Summit it was definitely their cup of tea as they said, and we are just all parlay together doing hip-hop like we know how. I even started liking those little roundhouse kicks that Imani does LOL! Some of the finest emcees, we take our hats off to them and honor them on their 30-year anniversary of the bizarre ride to The Far side. I can’t front that ultimate circle for Grand Wizard Theodore‘s set was really on some BBoy Bgirl-ish. We got to remember what the Summit is all about, bringing all the other elements together to pay respect to the Bboy and Bgirls and the original dance of Hip-Hop called breaking! We got some really good time with the crowd to talk to discuss issues going on in our communities and world. I really believe based on a lot of feedback again that we felt everyone was on one accord. In a strange world we live in Hip-Hop is our saving grace given to us by none other than the creator magnificent magnifico himself our Lord! Shoutouts to the kids from the kids battle and shout outs to Zulu Gremlin and Ken Swift with the Bonnie and Clyde presentation this year that was a lot of
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fun and we’re happy to see such a great concept back on the map. Led by two extraordinary hip-hop gents. What more can I say the young folks are coming up! They’re getting better and that doesn’t mean we’re irrelevant it just means that we need to keep teaching them showing up for them providing cultural experiences so that they know that they are not alone. It’s not all about them and we are a community strong and intact moving together forward so thank you to all of you out there all you Summit aficionados we’re gonna keep doing the best we can for a community God willing will see you in 2023 peace!

Friday Recap

The Summit has a long history, 25 years of Hip-Hop culture honoring the Bboy and Bgirl dance form. Since our early days from Bboy Summit 2 in 1995, we have incorporated Funk & Soul styles of dance into our event platform, starting with our afterparty. Eventually we became the first Hip-Hop Bboy/Bgirl event to incorporate a Funk Styles platform at our event.

We thought it was only fitting at our 25th Anniversary to pay homage to the roots of Funk & Soul dance of South-Central LA, the home of Locking, and Poplocking, and the subsequent breeding ground for LA Hip-Hop dance. Leimert Park Plaza and the Kaos Network partnership allowed for a historical look into the people and social culture of South-Central LA that contributed to the birth of Funk & Soul dance.

What transpired was a deep connection to music and people’s reaction to it that was funky soul filled with many ingredients including symbolic gestures, clothing, and social structure emulating the street code foundation laid down by gangs as broken down by Skeeter Higgin Rabbit, Sir PopLock, and Midnight. Damita Jo added in the freestyle character and social approach and connection of people to music, shown in the nature of Locking style of dance and soul dance in general. Medusa connected the impact of pre-Hip-Hop music, Electro Funk, and the emerging battle scene spread across southern California, in schools and lunchrooms where notorious battles popped off, literally, and important spots such as Uncle Jams Army, and later Unity.

As the music changed so did the dance, and the trendy days of Hip-Hop stimulated a new style of dance and music, dressy and flashy with fast paced syncopated movements. This branched out into freestyle dance era with the Soul Brothers holding court in LA. Vluv and Legendary talked about the significance of the dancers to Hip-Hop music acts of that time, including Def Jeff and Divine Styler who all had dancers incorporated in their groups.

Lastly, J styles and Tierra, who spent the evening enraptured by their elder statemen and women, connected the lineage of LA rooted street dance heritage to their predecessors and them following suit, creating dances like Krump in response to music, and the energy and social culture of the streets and experience of Black people there.

After the panel, the energy was pumped up and we went outside into the street plaza and just danced! Damita, Midnight, Vluv, and Tierra got us all on the good foot with social dance combinations including Locking, Popping, Freestyle Hip-Hop, and choreo. After all that people just grooved to the music – Popping, Locking, Freestyling, and Breaking. The feedback was strong, that this evening was an important milestone and needed to happen, and more importantly that the story of LA rooted in Funk & Soul dance needs to be told, and we need to work together to make the story that started in South Central and spread around the world known. Mad props to Mark Luv, Kid Fresh, and Rox Swift for keeping the DJ continuity funky soul, breaks and electro all night.

Saturday Recap

Bboy Bgirl Summit is deeply rooted in the tradition of Hip-Hop, so it was only right to have the 25th Anniversary be a park jam celebrated in the open and expansive location of Grand Park. We have never produced an event on this scale and production value, and in collaboration with such an established location like Grand Park, so we would like to state our gratitude and appreciation to the Grand Park staff, especially Nicole Mauricio, for helping us out throughout the whole day.

We would also like to thank Utmos from Utmos Marketing for helping us organize all of our vendors. We had many vendors, and we would like to take this moment to say thank you to each and every vendor. Vendors provide a special environment to a Hip-Hop jam where people can come, browse, and find something unique that they can bring home, which hopefully reminds them of the event.

Thank you to Ho Lee Chow from Green Truck Sales for providing great quality + healthy Asian cuisine to our event. Please reach out to them for any food truck needs in the future at greentruck.sales@gmail.com.

We began the day with an info session and panel on breaking being in the Olympics. House from Furious Styles Crew and Eric Luu, Bboy Bgirl Summit’s intern, helped facilitate the conversation amongst other legends on the panel – Easy Roc, Jeskilz, Zulu Gremlin, and Asia One. The crowd was given all the current facts and information that is released at the moment, which was organized after talking to Jean-Laurent Borquin, a former IOC executive who consults to international sports federations and serves on the UDEF Board, DJ Renegade, Storm, Moy, Crazy Legs, Cros One and Ken Swift. The panel answered questions on how the events are to be structured and ways the community can help increase the likelihood of the Olympic Games representing breaking in the correct manner. This was one of the first community discussions on breaking being in the Olympics, and we are proud of continuing our tradition of panels being a part of Bboy Bgirl Summit. They continue to create a space where the community can come together and find solutions for the scene in a proactive and productive, efficient, and straightforward manner.

We strive to make Bboy Bgirl Summit as much of a family friendly event as possible, and with the addition of the kids all-style battle, we were able to invite families to come and celebrate their children in an authentic Hip-Hop environment. Thank you to everyone who battled and put their heart on the floor, because Hip-Hop was created by and for kids. A strong shout out to Jeskilz, Brother, and Swoop for judging, and Kid Fresh for djing, as well as Zulu Gremlin for hosting. This battle was dedicated to Cameron “Bboy Truth” Boyce who was a part of X-Mob. His loss was a huge hit to the breaking community, so we felt that it was only right to dedicate the battle to him. We love and miss you, Cameron.

Thank you to DJ Luman for kicking everything off with your super Hip-Hop selections and the DJ Safire who spun her personally crafted breaks after. These DJs play an integral part of a jam, because without them we would not have the music to dance to. Thank you to the Bboys who took part in our Bboy Exhibition Battle including Jihad and All Nations Rise and Invince, Kid Flight, Dale, and Problems.

As ambassadors and leaders of Hip-Hop culture, we work to create a platform that highlights all of the people who love and practice the culture. This is why our Bgirl Showcase is so important for us because it gives visibility to the Bgirls who are important contributors to the scene. Shout-outs to those who danced on our stage – Asia One, Ladie One, Jeskilz, Mantis, Jessica Aceret, Eizel Lingad, Pebblez, Feenx, Mia Flows, Ruby, Lily Breeze, Goldi Rox, Shan and Logistix. Maximum respect to DJs Tiff Starr, Kaotic Blaze, and Safire along with GI Soul Beatboxer for the music coordination for this segment.

Always showing respecting for the art of Popping, such an integral part of the West Coast and Summit is the reason for the Poppers Showcase this year, to display for the public the incredible, artistic, and animated nature of the dance. Thank you to Midnight and all the poppers representing – Phantom Poppers, Medusa, Lil Rob, Animated J, Jeckle, Playboy Eddie, Tronic, and Lil Niko. Much love to OG Hex for showing us so much love with the artwork for Summit including the flyer, stage banner and t-shirt, and to Ervin Arana for his design work for our promotion campaign.

Bboy Bgirl Summits originality stems from putting the culture first, all elements together, in honor of the Bboy and Bgirl. We celebrate the pillars of Hip-Hop: peace, love, unity, positivity, knowledge, skills and having fun. Big love to Infamy Art, Mobile Graffiti Yards, and Loop paint for being a part of Summit. They together facilitated the Graffiti Yard, complete with Walls, Infamy writers supply booth and writers bench where families and kids of all ages were getting down in the black books. Shout-outs to all the writers who painted – Cease MZK, Skew MZK, Teal FC, Teknyc FC, View FC, Ladie One HRTBRKZ, Cre8 RTN, Fearo UTI, Bus166 MSK, and for them dedicating their work to the Bboys and Bgirls, especially Cameron “Bboy Truth” Boyce and fallen Bboy hero’s Frosty and Float. R.I.P

Continuing our development of Hip-Hop, we created a history of Bboy Summit throughout the years, which was curated and developed by Bboy Easy Roc with photography asset assistance by Ani a longtime Summit photographer and supporter. As one of the cofounders of Summit, Easy Roc created a retrospect timeline of all of the major pictures and videos, artifacts, and history for participants to see and remember the growth and impact Bboy Bgirl Summit has had over the past 25 years. It was a very special part of the event, and without Easy Roc’s help, would not have been possible.

Later in the day, we began our performances, and our first showcase of the night was by LA luminary MC, Medusa. Medusa had an electric energy that captivated the crowd with her bravado and presence. She was able to get the crowd hype, and perfectly demonstrated the creative personalities that Hip-Hop helps develop and nurture.

Following Medusa was LA’s finest funky sole group headed by Miles Tackett, The Breakestra. We’ve missed them in the past years at Summit and wanted to bring back the funky energy that only they brew for the people. Seeing how the crowd was alive charged with music and dance was satisfying! After, in tradition of bringing a legendary DJ to bless the wheels, we sought Breakbeat Lou who performed a full DJ set with 45s. He started off with breaks and slowly transitioned into 80s-90s era music that got the crowd and the dancers hype. He helped develop a party vibe that was open to all ages and styles of dance. Much love and respect to Breakbeat Lou for blessing our event with his magic.

Lastly, we had Souls of Mischief perform. This was special for both them and us since they hadn’t performed in LA for years. With their Oakland outlaw style vests on they took the stage, while many crowded the stage for their showtime, and you could see and feel the crowd connect to their music. They played many classics including their infamous “93 ‘Til Infinity” which was a great closer to their set.

We want to give a special shout-out to everyone who came and was a part of our 25th year anniversary. Keeping an event going this long isn’t easy, especially to keep it thriving on a creative level. The Bboy Bgirl Summit is something special for the community that we are honored to be organizing and a part of, produced annually by 501c3 nonprofit No Easy Props. This event would not be possible without the support of the community who we do it all for, who came out and celebrated on the hottest day of the summer! Equally thank you to DCA for their financial support and help with making the Summit possible and free for everyone, especially the people of Los Angeles.

Sunday Recap

After a jam-packed two days of workshops, panels, music, dancing, and graffiti art, we thought the best way to wind down and relax was to host a beach day at Dockweiler Beach. It’s important as a community to not only just break and get down but have the opportunity to chill and socialize outside of the frenzy of an event.

We had many different crews and communities come to decompress and enjoy the beach with us. Special shout-outs goes to Teknyc, Ladie One, Wonda, Teal Steel’s family, Pebblez, Dyno and the SD family along with folks who brought food and drinks for the event.

This event was simple, but what made it special was the people who were there. Thank you to all of those who came and chilled with us.

The Bboy Bgirl Summit is produced annually by No Easy Props, a 501c3 Hip-Hop cultural arts nonprofit. Your donations enable us to keep the Summit an annual tradition of 3 days of events for free! Please consider donating at our go fund me: https://www.gofundme.com/f/1paor80dw0