- Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and London, UK - these were the cities that were represented at All City at the Globe - a mash up of hip hop, breaks, old skool funk and electro. The Globe was split up into two levels, with the top floor for the party rockin funky hip hop beats and emcees and the bottom floor for the electro breaks.
Representing each city on the night was:
Canberra - Koolism
Melbourne - DJ J-Red
London - DJ Regal from the Bronx Dogs and K-Delight of the Jeep Beat Collective
Sydney - Hyjak & Bones, Pitty The Kid, Blaze, Simon Caldwell and Fly's own Frenzie
Upon arrival, I was treated to the sounds of DJ J-Red. Hip Hop anthems mixed in with some big beat breaks, old skool funk and a dash of R&B with cuts and scratches by one of Melbourne's premier turntablist DJ's. Downstairs, K-Delight opened up the basement level with more funky headnod shit dropping some J5, Ozomatli and Dilated Peoples before moving onto some electro towards the end.
The main reason for going to the Globe last Friday was to see Koolism and what a show they put on! MC Hau was on the mic rockin it with such intensity, dropping freestyles, getting the crowd hyped and generally putting a bit of flare into his MC style. DJ Danielsan in turn was controlling the beats, cutting it up and scratching like you expect a DMC competitor should, dropping Koolism beats, rockin fresh beats from a laptop or MPC and as you would expect from a hip hop show, dropping the old skool breaks that made the scene what it is today. Nothing like mixing in a bit of Bob James and James Brown to get the crowd hyped. The best thing about watching a Koolism show is watching how Hau and Daniel work off the energy they give each other during their performance and you can see it in the crowds faces as well. Assisting them on the mic was Sydney's own MC Kye helping out Hau with backup vocals and reggae lyrics as well. I missed out on Hyjak and Bones' set earlier in the night, but Hyjak came up on stage to bust off a few rhymes alongside Hau and Kye.
In all respects, Koolism rocked! I was speaking to DJ Regal while they played and we both shared the same sentiments. For those that missed out on them, you have a chance to catch them at Summer Breaks with the Freestylers and also as support act for The X AKA Xzibit when he tours here in January.
After an hour of getting the crowd hyped, the Koolism show came to an end. No matter, DJ Regal stepped up to the decks to show Sydney how to rock a breaks set. Kicking it off with hip hop's guaranteed head nod and bounce inducing, Witness, Regal started off with the hip hop anthems and sped things up slowly to get into the Bronx Dogs style of hip hop breaks, even mixing in Katalyst's Showtime to show his support for our breaks scene. Things got so hot on the floor that the crowd opened up a bit of space for the breakdancers to get their moves on.
I caught the very last bit of Blaze's set as he moved through the breakdancey spectrum of electro - nice! Caldwell came up next to play on from Blaze, pulling out some more breakdancey beats and a bit of ghetto-tech styles. Pity the bottom floor was quite empty for most of the night as it is good to have a change from the usual sounds and see DJ's pull out different plates.
The night came complete with visuals by VJ's Morph and Spook playing visuals that included very urban images such as graffiti art, breakers, DJ's, MC's and trains - a statement of where the hip hop scene came from - the streets and urban life.
All in all, All City was a hip hop and breaks fan's ultimate night out - a celebration of hip hop, it's 4 elements (DJing, MCing, breakdancing and graffiti) and it's offshoot genres. Each artist pulled off an inspirational performance and it's something that needs to happen a bit more on Friday nights with the lack of hip hop and breaks dedicated clubs around.