Live Review: Producer Battle at Apache Cafe (3-6-2007)
Last Tuesday night I went to Apache Cafe to watch my friend, JR Christ, compete in the Producer Battle. Every Tuesday night, Apache cafe hosts the weekly World Famous Mic Club night there where MCs can battle each other in freestyle competitions. I've been to these many times and have always had a great time. Now, once a month, instead of the MC battles, they have producer battles and this was the first one I have seen. Dres the Beatnik hosts the event and has a lot to do with the success of this weekly. Sometimes there is a live band featured for the MCs, but this night it was DJ Scissor Hands and some other DJ throwing down records.
The way the producer battle works is each producer brings a bunch of one minute tracks they made. It's done tournament style where two producers go head to head in the best of three rounds. Each round, one producer plays a track, then the other producer plays a track, and afterwards the winner is decided by how loud the crowd cheers for each producer, measured by some device that reads the decibels of loudness that Dres wields. 110 decibels marked the best crowd response. When someone scored in the lower 90s, Dres had a catch phrase: "Good Year, Bad Score".
It's obvious that the producer who goes last tends to have an advantage so coin flips decide who goes first. Watching the battles, there were certain things that gave producers clear advantages. The best tracks had a about a 10 second intro/build up and then would explode with some heavy bass and serious beats making the crowd go wild. Getting Dres into a track and having him dance around on stage clearly helps get crowd approval. JR Christ battled the very first battle and won 2-1. In the semifinal round, he battled a very animated character from the Battery 5 crew (which was highly represented in the battles) who had a dance routine for all of his tracks and had some guy sitting close to the stage playing cheerleader for him. JR Christ battled hard losing the first round, winning the second round, and forcing a tie in the third. In the overtime round, the Battery 5 producer dancing on stage with Dres was too much for JR Christ to overcome, but the battle was clearly the best of the night and much respect was given to both.
The most interesting part of the night came in the MC freestyle battles that occurred between the producers battles. Dres explained in detail before the battles began that MCs were expected to freestyle, not come in with a rap they had already written, and that if they caught an MC using something they already wrote, they would be banned from Apache Cafe for life. About halfway through the night, an MC started a battle with what sounded clearly previously composed to even my ear and suddenly Dres stops the kid. All the lights come on inside the club and Dres makes everyone in the place stand up. A mock court goes in session to determine whether the MC was freestyling or not. First, people from the crowd come up and say why they thought he wasn't freestyling, and if there are 3 good reasons, the MC is in serious trouble. This particular MC got called out on having his rhymes not go along with the music, one girl saw him practicing before he went on, and finally none of his words ever specifically addressed the MC he was battling. With this, the MC had one last chance. He had to freestyle about a subject that the audience came up with and prove he can freestyle. The subject that the audience finally settled on was "underground pigeons with herpes at the waffle house". The MC did a somewhat decent attempt, but the final decision would come with the audience cheers for and against banishment from the club, and the crowd overwhelmingly cheered for him to get kicked out. They took a photo of the kid, and he was promptly showed the door. It was such a surreal experience.
I highly suggest checking out Apache Cafe on a Tuesday night, especially the monthly producer battles. It's nice to see a place where true old school hip-hop is still alive and well. Make sure to bring your blunts.
The way the producer battle works is each producer brings a bunch of one minute tracks they made. It's done tournament style where two producers go head to head in the best of three rounds. Each round, one producer plays a track, then the other producer plays a track, and afterwards the winner is decided by how loud the crowd cheers for each producer, measured by some device that reads the decibels of loudness that Dres wields. 110 decibels marked the best crowd response. When someone scored in the lower 90s, Dres had a catch phrase: "Good Year, Bad Score".
It's obvious that the producer who goes last tends to have an advantage so coin flips decide who goes first. Watching the battles, there were certain things that gave producers clear advantages. The best tracks had a about a 10 second intro/build up and then would explode with some heavy bass and serious beats making the crowd go wild. Getting Dres into a track and having him dance around on stage clearly helps get crowd approval. JR Christ battled the very first battle and won 2-1. In the semifinal round, he battled a very animated character from the Battery 5 crew (which was highly represented in the battles) who had a dance routine for all of his tracks and had some guy sitting close to the stage playing cheerleader for him. JR Christ battled hard losing the first round, winning the second round, and forcing a tie in the third. In the overtime round, the Battery 5 producer dancing on stage with Dres was too much for JR Christ to overcome, but the battle was clearly the best of the night and much respect was given to both.
The most interesting part of the night came in the MC freestyle battles that occurred between the producers battles. Dres explained in detail before the battles began that MCs were expected to freestyle, not come in with a rap they had already written, and that if they caught an MC using something they already wrote, they would be banned from Apache Cafe for life. About halfway through the night, an MC started a battle with what sounded clearly previously composed to even my ear and suddenly Dres stops the kid. All the lights come on inside the club and Dres makes everyone in the place stand up. A mock court goes in session to determine whether the MC was freestyling or not. First, people from the crowd come up and say why they thought he wasn't freestyling, and if there are 3 good reasons, the MC is in serious trouble. This particular MC got called out on having his rhymes not go along with the music, one girl saw him practicing before he went on, and finally none of his words ever specifically addressed the MC he was battling. With this, the MC had one last chance. He had to freestyle about a subject that the audience came up with and prove he can freestyle. The subject that the audience finally settled on was "underground pigeons with herpes at the waffle house". The MC did a somewhat decent attempt, but the final decision would come with the audience cheers for and against banishment from the club, and the crowd overwhelmingly cheered for him to get kicked out. They took a photo of the kid, and he was promptly showed the door. It was such a surreal experience.
I highly suggest checking out Apache Cafe on a Tuesday night, especially the monthly producer battles. It's nice to see a place where true old school hip-hop is still alive and well. Make sure to bring your blunts.
Labels: Apache Cafe, Battery 5, Dres the Beatnik, JR Christ, Live Review
posted by Sugarkane at
3/11/2007 03:36:00 PM
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