Like Israel having a huge nuclear weapon arsenal, an open secret that is known by almost everyone but rarely discussed is the fact that gangsters and cops are heavily involved in the nightlife scene in Taiwan. Last Saturday night, this came to a head when a tragic and senseless murder happened in front of the ATT4Fun building, which hosts four of the hottest nightclubs in Taipei: SPARK ATT, Myst, Halo and Hive
After nearly a week of gossip, and even with the three main suspects in custody, the details on the killing of the undercover officer, who has been referred to as a fixer for some clubs, are still murky. People working at these venues or those who are in the know refuse to go on the record. One thing is for certain, though, the government will not take this matter lightly and club goers can expect police to be out in full force this weekend doing a lot of searches, ID checks and walk arounds with drug sniffing dogs at venues in Taipei. Hopefully, this isolated incident does not cripple Taipei’s nightlife like the fire at ALA club did to Greater Taichung’s in 2011.
A CAPELLA RAP BATTLE
Photo courtesy of zuo chung-wei
In other combat news, albeit much less violent, the first round of an all-Mandarin eight-person a capella rap battle called Road to the Throne (冠軍之路) will be happening on Oct. 11 at The Wall (這牆). Instead of aluminum bats and extendable batons that gangsters use, combatants will face off with their lyrical skills to degrade, belittle and discredit their opponents and become the master of ceremonies.
Each competitor gets three 90-second rounds to prove themselves, with the winners being determined by crowd response and the judges’ scorecards. Winners advance to the semi-finals in Greater Tainan in December, with the finals being held at a yet-to-be-determined venue in January or February. The winner of this first-of-its-kind battle will receive NT$30,000 in prizes and get to be the face of Diss RBL, the organization that is holding the events.
Dallas Waldo (real name Dallas Waldie), knows a thing or two about a capella rap battles because he participated in King of the Dot, which is the scene’s biggest and most popular rap battle. After he moved to Taiwan nearly a year ago, Waldo still had the battling itch and saw that there were no a capella battles in Mandarin so he started Diss RBL.
Over the past year, Waldo has been scouting all the cities in Taiwan to find out who the most ferocious emcees are. In Road to the Throne, there are four emcees from Taipei, two from Greater Kaohsiung, one from Greater Taichung and one from Greater Tainan. They have been chosen to battle for supremacy because they have shown that they have the most potential in smaller events.
Old school rap battles were purely freestyle, which meant that emcees flowed off the top of their heads about anyone and everyone around them with an instrumental beat playing in the background. These new school a capella battles focus on delivering punchlines, and all the emcees know who they are going against and have over a month to prepare.
Waldo’s battles have become popular because of the high quality YouTube videos that his team has been putting out after the shows.
“If you have a great event, you automatically have good videos,” he said.
■ Nebula Entertainment presents Diss RBL’s Road to the Throne (冠軍之路), Oct. 11 from 7pm to 11pm at the Wall (這牆), 200, Roosevelt Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路四段200號B1). Presale tickets are available at all iBon/FamiPorts for NT$400 and cost NT$500 at the door.
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