On an average Saturday night at Room 18, patrons are losing their minds to music filled with big bass drops and crunchy synth sounds. But last weekend, Africa Bambaataa, who was dressed in black and topped with a Sonic the Hedgehog hat and summer scarf, took the enormous crowd of poppers and lockers on a stroll down memory lane.
The songs that got the most screams were Everything She Wants by Wham!, Rock the Casbah by The Clash and Prince’s Kiss. Other highlights included his first hit, Planet Rock, some ghetto funk remixes of old school songs and even tunes from today like Lil Jon’s Turn Down for What.
Bambaataa was not just here for the DJ gigs and then out. Instead, he was immersed in Taiwan’s hip-hop history by all the b-boys from HRC’s 15th anniversary as well as DJ Chicano and DJ Vicar, two of Taiwan’s DJ godfathers. There were pictures popping up all weekend on Facebook and Instagram of Bambaataa giving workshops about hip-hop, posing with Taiwan’s flag and even praying at Longshan Temple.
Photo courtesy of Red Bull Content Pool/ UpAgainstTheWall.Asia
Bambaataa says that the four core values of the Universal Zulu Nation is what has made hip-hop so successful in the world today. Anyone who saw him, took a picture with him or listened to his music this past weekend knows that peace, love, unity and having fun are the keys to life.
THRE3STYLE WORLD FINALS
Taiwan is the only place in the world that is sending two contestants to the Red Bull Thre3style World Finals in Tokyo, Japan, starting Monday.
Last year’s champ from Tawian, DJ Dindin (real name Chang Wei-chun, 張為鈞) and this year’s champ, Mr Skin (real name: Lai Chung-hung, 賴重宏), have been locked in their rooms and getting their routines ready to show the world.
The week-long competition is basically the coolest event in the battle DJ world with different headliners each night ranging from Jazzy Jeff to Z-Trip to a reunited Invisbl Skratch Piklz.
Each participant chooses a day to compete, and the winners of each day will compete in the finals on Sept. 19. A world champion is then crowned.
It is an intimidating challenge for everyone involved, but Dindin and Mr Skin are excited for one of the best weeks of their lives.
“Every day, I spend 10 hours listening to music, and now I spend two hours practicing,” Dindin said.
Mr Skin says he finished his routine last week and the most important thing now is to relax.
“I don’t really want to get too excited or strained because it will ruin my usual standards of performance. I need to calm down and enjoy the upcoming unknown journey,” Mr Skin said.
■ All Red Bull Thre3style World Finals events will be streamed live on www.redbullthre3style.com from Monday to Sunday next week.
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