Marianne Merten
‘If a kid is breaking [dancing] he is not breaking in,” says Emile XY? from the rap group Black Noise, who helped organise last Saturday’s Battle of the Year breakdancing competition.
Emile (formerly Jansen, which he abandoned because of its slave history) has been breaking, popping and spinning since 1982. Since giving up his career as a teacher, Emile has taken hip-hop’s positive message to teenagers across the Cape Flats.
On Saturday night more than 400 unarmed teenagers came to the Battle of the Year.
American designer labels were in abundance: Nike, Tommy Hilfiger, Fubu and Levi. Jeans and tracksuit pants were baggy, the jackets humungous. They wore ski goggles and little backpacks. Although there were a handful of adults present, they were obviously just chaperones.
Officially there are four elements to hip- hop. There’s an MC who raps about almost anything; a DJ who spins, ”scratches” and mixes the vinyl; a breakdancer, ”B-boy” or ”B-girl”, to perform gravity-defying spins on the back, head and hands and graffiti artists who spray walls, trains or any other clean surface.
The prize at the Battle of the Year was that the six best dancers would go to Leipzig in Germany to compete against B- boys and B-girls from across the world.
Thomas Hergemroetter, official organiser of the international Battle of the Year competition, has been breakdancing since 1983, but since the early Nineties has focused on running workshops and organising the contest which attracted 6 000 entrants last year.
Hergemroetter says competitors come from Brazil, Japan, the United States and all over Europe.
Emile admits gangsta rap – particularly the American brand which is often misogynist and violent – may have a negative influence on teenagers. He said it was discovered during a recent investigation into teenage murders in Guguletu and Nyanga that it was linked to a dispute between rappers in the US.
But he blames the media, not the music, saying there is a lot of other hip-hop which could be played on radio stations instead of the gangsta rap promoting violence and portraying women as ”hos” (whores) of the likes of 2-Pac or Snoop Doggy Dogg.
Emile says at his workshops he steers the youth to other hip-hop music. ”Kids will listen to gangsta rap. We need to show them there are alternatives.”
For many in the crowd on Saturday, skills like discipline and positive attitude have paid off. ”Tarro” (aka Bizzarro Brooks), who is a judge in the competition, has become a professional dancer. He started breakdancing in 1985 in the wake of the Michael Jackson craze. Then the first hip- hop movie, Beat Street, was released.
”I didn’t know you do this with the human body.” After two months of bruises, carpet burns and grass burns, Tarro got the spins, twist and steps right. ”Hip-hop is like a godsend. If you look at where we come from and we look at the crime and gangsterism in our areas, there’s a lot worse we could do,” he smiles.
The only women or girls around on Saturday night seemed to be girlfriends. ”Opium” (aka Portia Everts, 21) from the Mitchells Plain badlands of Tafelsig is a member of the three-woman group Femme Fatale. The group got together a few months ago.
Together with ”Illouise” (aka Louise Ardendorf) and ”Controversy” (aka Jo Ann Petersen), they want to bring a lighter, but responsible note to hip-hop. Says Opium: ”We try not to be hardcore. We rap about partying, having a fun time but with responsibility.” Being a young all-female group in a male-dominated field has its hazards. ”There are people who try to exploit us, saying do girlie things, wear short skirts. I’m not going to exploit my sexuality!”
Lulamile Mohapi (21) from Langa came to check out the scene. He says breakdancing is not big in the township, but MCing is. He and his crew often go to clubs in town or organise their own functions closer to home.
Hip-hop that evening was far removed from the mean gun-toting gangster image of gold chains and rings, R1 000 sneakers and reflective sunglasses. Outside near the entrance someone put up a notice. It read: ”Battle of the Year. Please note. Strictly no guns, knives, petrol bomb, hand grenades and cultural weapons.”