DJ Lazy, an organizer of Battle Basics 4, says he and his cohorts love to discover new talent.
By GINA VIVINETTO
Published June 24, 2004
If you saw the Eminem flick 8 Mile and dug the competition among freestyling rap emcees, you may want to check out Battle Basics 4 on Friday at the Orpheum in Ybor City.
For $7, you can see some of the Tampa Bay area's most innovative hip-hop voices compete in a battle of verbal dexterity, rhyme, storytelling and whatever else makes for master emceeing.
Feeling brave? Toss in five bucks and grab a mike yourself. You'll go head to head against emcees from all over Florida and beyond.
That's right. Battle Basics 4, begun several years ago in Tampa by local rap luminaries DJ Lazy, DJ Sandman and DJ Nak-1, has become a nationally recognized event.
The Battle Basics grand prize is $300, recording time in a professional studio and, naturally, bragging rights.
You don't have to be a local hip-hop star to participate. Lazy, a member of local hip-hop outfit Red Tide, says Battle Basics organizers love discovering new talent. "The beautiful thing is," Lazy says, "that actually does happen."
The DJ recalls the year High Collide, an emcee no one around here had ever seen before, dazzled the judges and nabbed the grand prize.
"Collide walked in and just took it," says Lazy. "None of us knew who the guy was. That was very exciting. It made us extremely happy."
Lazy says the crowd at Battle Basics makes a lot of noise, but it's up to the judges, all hip-hop artists themselves, to decide who most rocked the house.
"The judges definitely pay attention to the audience response. It's like Rakim (of rap icons Eric B. & Rakim) said, you've got to move the crowd. Did the emcee connect with the audience? Did the audience respond?" Lazy says.
"But ultimately we let the judges decide. That's so an emcee can't win just because all his boys were making noise."
Do ladies compete?
"So far, none have," Lazy says with a sigh. "And that makes me very sad. It would do wonders for our scene to have some women come out.
"Admittedly, it (the local hip-hop community) is a boys' club right now. But we want the ladies to know it's not a tree fort with a "No Girls Allowed' sign outside the door. We welcome girls. It would only make the scene stronger."
Friday marks the fourth Battle Basics event. This time, Insomniac, a national hip-hop trade magazine, will be in the house to cover the competition, now sponsored by Scion (that new funky car that looks like a toaster with wheels).
Battle Basics, once a little grass roots party, is helping to put Tampa's talented hip-hop scene on the map. As it should be.
The Tampa Bay area boasts a small, terrific roster of rap talent, including Red Tide, DJ Rock-It-Rod and Double Helix, whose emcee , Surreal, hosts Battle Basics with Deacon of www.recordpushers.com)
Also, Celph Titled (a.k.a. "The Rubix Cuban"), who recently returned to Tampa from his stint in the Big Apple, and DutchMassive, both of the Equilibrium collective.
Celph Titled is also one of the Battle Basics judges. His credentials are stellar: The talented emcee-producer is a member of the supergroup the Demigodz and has worked with Ice-T, Kool G. Rap and Kurious.
Get to know the local hip-hop community by logging on to www.tampahiphop.com or www.peripheralrecords.com Or tune in to community radio WMNF-FM 88.5 to hear Hip Hop Flavors from 1 to 4 a.m. Wednesdays. The program is hosted by DJ Lazy, who spins underground hip-hop from all over Florida.
Battle Basics 4 kicks off at 9 p.m. Friday at the Orpheum, 1902 Republica de Cuba, Ybor City. Admission is $7; $5 to compete. (813) 248-9500.
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THE BEASTIE BOYS: The Beastie Boys recently released To the 5 Boroughs, their sixth album, a collection of old school hip-hop songs about their beloved hometown of Manhattan, the state of the world and food.
Boroughs has quite a few references to cheese.
In a recent interview with feminist music 'zine Venus, Beastie Mike D. addresses important issues. Here are excerpts:
On the Beasties' proclivity for announcing their names on the new album (as in "My name's Mike D., made in New York"):
"I guess it's just kind of an MC thing to do. . . . I guess it's just in the tradition of MCing. But I guess it's true - it's a valid point. Like in the Patti Smith record, not once does she say, "I'm Patti Smith.' . . . Well, maybe she should start."
On cheese:
"The band itself has a bit of a love affair with cheese, even though I spent a few years being a vegan, which took me out of the cheese realm. But now that I am back to just being a vegetarian, I am open to the cheese.
"On this album, cheese came mostly in the form of sandwiches. And for some reason, Muenster - which is, you know, a good cheese, good in the context of a sandwich, but probably not a cheese worth messing with outside of the sandwich game - became popular."
On the importance of lyrics, and when the group knew it was time to grow up:
"The first time we had our eyes open to the effect that our lyrics had on people was kind of during the License to Ill tour and shortly after that. At a certain point during that tour, we all got sick of going onstage every night in a form of self-parody, almost playing a role. . . . (We were) just being these cartoon characters, throwing beer around and saying rhymes.
"So the combination of becoming disenchanted with that and really coming into contact with people and seeing how seriously they took our lyrics and having someone come up to you and go, "You guys rhyme about smoking dust? I smoke dust all the time!' And we'd kind of go, "It was a joke.'
"It was really disconcerting but a really eye-opening thing to realize that and go, "Oh wow, what we say does have an influence on people and that actually causes a reaction.' "
On getting hip to sexism and the power of music: "I have to give credit to bands like Bikini Kill for bringing to the forefront a lot of the issues of sexism in music - at least my consciousness and awareness. It made me realize how powerful it can be to really put music out there that will make people think and change people's perception."
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DJ MEGA IN THE ROOM: Wednesdays in 'da burg can be ho-hum for the late night hipster set. Why not head over to the Green Room, 242 First Ave. N in Jannus Landing, in downtown St. Petersburg, where DJ Mega has been spinning "rare groove," everything from funk to 1980s jams, from 9 p.m. until the wee hours. Get your Clash, your James Brown, your Devo, all for $2. (727) 550-0419.
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JOKE: Blender magazine recently asked classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma to share a joke with readers, one too good to not pass on.
His joke:
"A boy says to his father, "Daddy, I know what I want to be when I grow up!' "
"What?"
"When I grow up, I want to be a musician!"
"I'm sorry, son, you can't have it both ways."
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TELEVISION: Catch supertalented rapper Kanye West as a panelist and guest musical artist on Jimmy Kimmel Live just after midnight Friday on ABC (WFTS-Ch. 28).
- Gina Vivinetto can be reached at 727 893-8565 or gina@sptimes.com
