SITE TOOLS
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Blaze Battle Royale
By David Dodson
When I heard about the 2000 Source Awards, I shook my head. When I left Blaze
Battle 2000, my head was hung low. Hip-hop, it seems, just can’t get it right. We
strive earnestly to legitimize the music and culture as more than another version of
American exploitation. We want to ensure its longevity. But continually, embarrassing
episodes occur. Monthly, hip-hop artists appear before judges. Yearly, despite numerous
successful hip-hop shows, a few incidents cause promoters to think twice about booking
such acts. We created our own award shows when the industry didn’t properly recognize
our artists. Yet since their inception, these shows have been marred by controversy worthy
of NY Post headlines. The struggle to legitimize continues with little hope in sight.
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When I learned that HBO planned to record the Blaze Battle
for subsequent telecast, I was optimistic. The battle is the heart of hip-hop and when
properly understood, the battle explains almost everything about hip-hop - good and bad.
If there is a network suited to present this art form, then HBO is the one and that
Raymond O’Neal successfully pitched this production is a tremendous accomplishment.
Hosts KRS-One and Doug E. Fresh began the evening with performances that were completely
live and on point, proving that old school still excites an audience. Thereafter, things
took a turn for the worse.
By their nature, battles are tense situations. Participants think they’re the best
and most performers bring their crews along for support. The crew is responsible for
hyping the crowd for its favorite MC, making the most noise and making sure everyone knows
the crew is in the house. Conversely, you have street teams that are usually record label
volunteers that let people know the label is represented.
At the Blaze Battle, the loudest crew was F.O.D. (Faces of Death) from Jersey for their
boy Mooney D and the loudest street team was from Bad Boy to cheer performances by Bad
Boy’s G-Dep, Black Rob and Shyne. These two groups engaged in loud shouting matches
prior to the start of the show. But when Shyne took the stage, more than words were
exchanged between the groups.
Irritated by technical difficulties, Shyne began to perform “That’s
Gangsta” only to be disrupted by an F.O.D. helmet thrown onstage. While Shyne was
restrained by backstage personnel, that didn’t prevent the Bad Boy street team from
getting physical with F.O.D. in the audience.
After event security restored calm, the taping resumed. But the Bad Boy-F.O.D. altercation
was just the beginning. That many of the contestants weren't coming with ‘IT’
only exacerbated the situation. In the first round battles, the crowd was primarily
unenthused, often having difficulty choosing between two contestants when neither was a
clear winner. This was rather odd since the MCs were all previous Blaze Battle winners. It
made me wonder how they got to the championships.
For example, Motown artist Riece won her first round battle because the audience booed too
loud. But in the second round, things got strange. As a result of heckling from the crowd
during her second round bout, Riece dropped her mic at the thirty-second mark, jumped off
the stage, climbed into the crowd and started swinging. Bystanders were caught up in the
melee and a brawl ensued. Again, security intervened and settled matters. Surprisingly,
the event continued, I assume for recording purposes.
During another second round battle featuring Outsidaz member Young Zee, problems also
arose. Probably emboldened by too much alcohol, someone in the audience threw trash at
Young Zee. Within seconds, Outsidaz members in the audience surrounded the heckler and
began a beatdown that swirled from the front of the stage and out the door. After this
incident, KRS put it into perspective, stating that the altercations had ruined hopes for
a successful event and implored the audience to chill so HBO could finish recording. Folks
did and the winner Eyedea was finally declared, but the damage was done.
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On November 25th, HBO will begin airing
what I anticipate will be an edited version of the Blaze Battle. However, HBO should use
the raw footage for its America Undercover documentary series. If we’re about keeping
it real, as unpleasant as it seems, the events at the Blaze Battle are as real as they
get. It’s neither funny, nor entertaining - it’s sad. And unfortunately, tabloid
behavior overshadowed this amazing opportunity to promote true hip-hop. Tune into the HBO
program, it may be the only one of its kind featured on the network. M
November 2000
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