This topic I’ve been meaning to write about for a while, especially
after several discussions about "who is in" & "who is not".
I remember there was a post about this a few years ago on the
old d2mg forums. I know different people will have a
different perspective on this... I'm just sharing mine.

Crew Vs. Group

Everyone likes to socialise (except for those who are anti social). Dancers
form groups or crews for many reasons
- To enter a competition of some sort
- You and your group of friends are doing a performance
- To rival your arch rival's crew
- You are the left over people that haven't been recruited so you form your
own group or crew
- For the sake of it because everyone else is doing it
- You want to be like Jabbawokkies
etc etc

I really enjoy the co-op factor of being in a crew or group – it really makes you feel you are
a part of something... except when doing group work at school and everyone relies
on you to get all the work done, because they are super lazy!


"I want to join your crew!"

So there is no confusion, these are just my definitions.

A GROUP;
is a bunch of people together for a particular purpose, for a routine,
showcase etc. A group can eventually become a crew when the friendship grows
(just look at the bboy crew RAW). A group comes and goes just like that, they
are very short term. They usually only see each other when they are dancing
or training for something.

It's like when you were at school when the teacher puts you into groups for
some group work and you get grouped in with people you don't really talk to
(you still know their name though). You guys get the task done and that's it....
you go back to hanging with your normal friends.

Acquaintances maybe?

A CREW;
is pretty much the same thing, but with the extra ingredient
'friendship' in the mix. A crew can become a group when the
friendship of the crew breaks down (for what ever reasons... over a girl maybe?)

When you see a crew dance in a comp (in a freestyle battle) you can see
their good friendship just by looking at how well they work together
(eg Sydney Bboy crew's SKB and Juse).

I remember when Hybrid Formz were at their peak in 2007, the friendship
between each crew member was very strong as well.... lol Grass Cutters!


My only requirements before I acknowledge someone as my 'crewmate';
1. The person must be down/friends with EVERYONE (and NOT just one person)
So in theory as a crew gets bigger it will be harder for someone to join the crew. That's it!

I know some crews who will discuss and or vote to have a new member.


"Once I'm in, I'm in!"

I don't believe so. To me you have to maintain your spot in the crew I.e.

- You have to train and rep with the crew.
What's the point of joining a crew or group if you are not participating?
How many people out there join gyms and then don't go? It defeats the purpose.
I'm pretty sure this is the same for a dance group.

- Maintaining the friendship.
This is pretty obvious, if people don't maintain their friendships, people
will start to drift away and if that happens to most of the crew, it's gg.

Certainly in Hybrid Formz there are ex members that drifted apart and are
no longer a Hybrid Formz member any more.

Just like when you were in primary school, when everyone went to high school
everyone drifted apart and started hanging with their new high school friends.


"I'm in many crews!"

Yeah that's fine if you're in a group or if you are able to maintain the friendship
among your many crews.

The pickle is, especially if you're in a crew for one specific style... let's say popping
What's going to happen if there was a battle (a heated battle) among
your two crews? Which side are you going to battle for? Are you going
to sit this battle out? Are you going to reply to your own set?

I personally don't want to get in a situation where this is the case, because I hate
sitting out from a battle! But in Sydney I don't think this scenario will happen,
everyone is too friendly...

Till next time.... keep dancing and socialising!
Danis Kool

-----------------

Judging in Competitions/Contests

Lately I’ve been asked to judge a handful of competitions (not a raw battle), this post is basically
an insight into my way of judging and issues associated with judging that I
have experienced (as a judge and a person being judged).

**That judging will always be opinionated**

I say this because it is their experiences (with the dance) that will
eventually dictate them (of course it’s also based on whoever they are judging
at that current time). A typical example that I've seen very frequently in
Australia popping comps, is that a judge will tend to favour the style that
they normally do compared to a style they don't normally do (obviously they will
have a better insight to a style if they actually do it). Even if there is a
criterion for them to follow, their experiences will always play a major part
(duh!).

The bottom line is there will always be some bias in judging. The trick is to minimise it and to get it as neutral as possible. It’s a balancing act.

Pity how some people will only enter a competition if
“certain” people judge. I say, just call out the wack judges if they make the
wrong decisions. Support the scene!

**Things that shouldn't be considered when judging**

“ Friendship”

Just because you're good friends or even in the same crew as the person you are
judging doesn’t mean they have an advantage over the other person that you
don’t know. I know judging against your friends/crewmates might jeopardize your
friendship with them, but hey if you're scared then don't judge.

Same goes with teachers judging their students, of course you're proud of them,
but don't let that cloud your judgment.

“Reputation;”

I've have been on both sides of the equation. By judging for them even if they
shouldn’t have won is just fuelling their ego. And you know what happens when
someone gets too much ego?

I have seen where judges judge for someone just because they are "up and
coming" or because they are a "lil kid". Judge what you see!

“What they could have done”

If someone only comes out only 50% of their full potential or if they are
having a bad day, don't go judging what you know they could have done.... Judge
what you see!

“Personal Beef;”

Just because you have beef with a certain person (for whatever reason) doesn’t
mean they get a disadvantage. The end result, your creditability is lowered,
more beef?

“Cloning and Biting;”

A contest is not who can look like **insert name** the best............. well
not yet anyway. It's about being yourself (which I hold in high regards) and
out doing your opponent.

There will be judges that will judge for someone when they look like whoever
they hold in high regards... I personally think this type of judging is wack
and very bias. Just because someone dances like someone you "sucked
on" doesn’t mean they get brownie points, unless that experience was so
"magical". haha!

Same goes with moves, do you think that no one will not notice if you do the
pacman wave thing?

Bottom line, Judge What You See! But that doesn't mean you totally
disregard what a person does during the earlier rounds of the comp. Use your
common sense... it's funny how many will forget that.

**My judging Criteria**

These criterions are based off my experience as a contestant, observer
and as a judge. I know different judges have their own way of doing things.
When I watch raw battles, I pretty much follow the same criteria but with some
adjustments. I'll talk about raw battles in a future post.



I personally try to do as many styles (of popping) as possible so I could
understand it internally rather than just externally. Understanding both
internally and externally (i.e. observing) will give your judgment more depth
and clarity.

Doing different styles opens up new perspectives than just seeing it through
one.

----------------

You will probably realise that I talk and refer to interactions/connecting (with the audience) a lot, simply because in any competition (and during a battle) there WILL be an audience (judges, friends etc) there watching, so why not get them involved and use them to your advantage?

By simply making that connection to the audience, you have
made a path where you express what you want. If there is no connection, how
could you express what you want to express? Unless it’s a personal secret of
yours and you don’t want to share it.

It’s like trying to ring someone on a land line phone then finding out you
haven’t connected the phone to the phone socket.

-----------------

In competitions/contest, I judge round for round and pick
the winner based on whoever won the most rounds. I also issue ties in rounds.

“On Beat”

Very simple, if you’re off beat (basically the counts 1,2,3,4 etc)... you
lose!.... unless there is a legit reason like skipping a beat so it gives a
break from just hitting the beat or even hitting the "and" between
two beats.

“Foundations”

This one is a bit iffy with me simple because I believe that there is more than
one way of doing things and everyone has their own way of doing the
"foundations". It all goes back to context; if it makes sense (to the
feel the song) then yeah it's good, if it is out of context then it's the same
as doing fast movements to a slow song. Doing "foundations" where
you're basically trying to copy whoever taught you it, to me is simply biting.

“Biting”

If you do someone’s move or someone’s personal flavour and don't put in the
effort to at least mask or change it up, I will harshly mark it down. Sometimes
people might get lucky and get away with moves they bite just because I haven't
seen it before. But if it has context or a reason behind it, then you need to
make sure I (and the audience) know that... inside jokes?

“Cleanliness”

Bottom line is, clean or sloppy if it is within context to the feel/music then
its fine. Given that most popping songs has a hard "snare" so having
a sloppy hit will look out of context.

“Originality”

If there is a comp and 99% of poppers are wavers; more or less that 1% of
poppers that are not wavers will have will have an advantage over the 99%. It's
just like a job interview, be like the rest and you probably won't get the job,
it's the ones that stand out that gets the job (if everyone has the same
credentials and experience). Normally this won’t be as much of an issue for a small competition, but for larger competitions where you have 100+ more people
entering it will be.

Simple, just be you and you should do fine.

“Musicality”

How well you use the music; i.e. using and transitioning between different
parts of the music (vocals, drums, bass line, funny noises etc).

"Freaking" the beat or song refers to when a dancer hits the part of the music that makes everyone go 'Woo'... eg the "Hooo" part in Knee Deep by Parliament or the breakdown part in Going Back to Cali by Biggie (I’m sure all the poppers know what I’m talking about). The issue about Freaking the beat is that A LOT of poppers tend to just do it and very obviously wait for that part to come up. Anyone can do that (if they know the song), the trick is to build up to it and don’t make it too obvious that you're planning to hit it.

Even if you plan to hit it randomly don’t make it look like "oh no, this part is coming up and I’m still half way through what I’m doing but I want to freak the beat to get props, f**k it! I’ll just freak the beat and interrupt what I am doing".... it will look forced.

“Be unpredictable but not too random”.... keep it in context of whatever you’re
doing.

“Feel”

Feel is probably one of the underlining things I tend to look for (esp if it’s
an all style competition or even styles within popping eg Tutting vs Waving).
Basically what I’m looking for is if your movements and dancing suit the music
that is playing.

For example if there is a gangster type song let’s say Movin by Dogg Master,
I’ll be expecting movements that are very hard (eg hard pops, sharp movements)
or if it’s a slow song Moments in Love by Art of Noise, I’ll be expecting more
slow moves, so doing hard pops and very fast movements will obviously look out
of context. Basically your movements should be within the same context of the
song.

Different dance styles tend to have a genre of music that 'naturally'
accompanies it. So it is expected that some songs will give some people an
advantage over the other people.

Let say we have a 1v1 poppin comp and person A's main style the robot and we
have person B Boogalooing. From my experience the Robot naturally suits more to Electro songs while Boogaloo suits more to Funk. If the dj plays an Electro
song during their battle, obviously person A will have the advantage. If person
B is able to change up his boogaloo to suit electro and do it better than
person A, then person B wins in that category! It's is basically the same
situation in an all style comp.

People that tend to dance to one particular genre of music will be very deadly
if they get their genre but if they don’t, they will be disadvantage.... be
flexible and adaptive, that is the art of free styling.

“Dragging Sets”

If someone is obviously dragging their set, they lose the round for me (even if
the person has done enough to beat the other persons set).

Dragging a set = a super long sentence = boring!

Having that in mind, if someone was able to put full stops' during their long
set so it really paces it out, then I won’t consider it dragging.... basically
it's keeping my attention.

“Interactions with the Crowd and Opponent”

A lot of poppers I’ve seen have little or no interactions with anyone when they
are doing their sets, they just get lost in their own world. But if they are
able to portray to everyone that they are feeling it (and have the people
watching understand it) then that's fine... it's a hard thing to do though.

I feel that interaction with the people who are watching you is very important,
why? Because it gives them another way to connect/relate to you.

How many of you have experience this? You're in a lecture for uni and not
really paying attention, then your lecturer asks you a question.... you get
startled because you weren’t paying attention... you then try to answer it or
admit that you weren’t paying attention, whatever the case is, I personally
tend to pay attention straight after this experience.

Another example, let’s have a comedian, you tend laugh at the jokes that you
can relate to (hence understanding the joke). It is this interaction/connection
that will determine whether the comedian is good or not.

If there is some sort of connection established between you and the people who
are watching then the chances of them not getting bored is reduced. That is why
some people tend to like to watch people dance if they dance to a song they
like.

“Battling”

Even though it is a competition where there are limited rounds per 'battle', I
expect to see some sort of battling aspect to it (as you would when you see a raw battle). Interacting with your opponent is fine (eg pointing at them), I see some people doing that but it doesn’t cause your opponent any harm. Good battlers will mess with their opponent's mind (there are many ways of doing it) so hard that he or she stuffs up their set during their turn = win for you. It makes the whole battle a whole lot better to watch = higher attention span! I tend to look at their body
language to see what is going through their minds.

Most of the time, I won’t look for it because in a competition situation, it’s
really short to really take notice, unless it’s really dramatic. Battling is
more for call outs and ciphers (with longer rounds).

“Character and Presence”

A lot of poppers in Australia don’t really have character when they dance. They
come onto the dance floor and look straight at the ground, nothing, blank!
Character creates a connection between you and the crowd hence they will want
to watch you and maybe enjoy it as well. On the other hand, is having no
character a character itself?

Sometimes there are dancers that have too much character
compared to their dancing, they become too “gimmicky”. I know this because
sometimes I get too carried away when I get too hyped.

It’s the matter of balancing them.

If you are able to connect to the audience without having a
character, that’s fine. I tend to use character to draw the people in then
connect to them with my movements and dancing.

I think the easiest character to be is to be you, but feel
free to experiment with other characters (and maybe create an alter ego).

“Keep me Guessing”

Again this relates to the interactions part. Once you get the audience in
your grasp make them guess because it will make them keep watching you. If you
do the same s**t over and over, they will eventually lose interest in you and
stop watching (and yawn). If that was a judge, then you probably just lost your
battle.

If you’re too consistent, you will eventually get boring,
for example a popper comes onto the dance floor with super hard hits, at first
everyone will be “Woooo! That’s some hard hits”, but do it long and consistent
enough (let’s say for 50sec nonstop) it will become the norm and lose its
initial “Wooo-ness”. Mix up the pace with some pauses, speed, and direction and
style changes to name a few that I personally do.

I say it again
“Be unpredictable but not too random”.... keep it in context of whatever you’re
doing.

**As a judge**

“I’m calling you out”

Unless you are OG (which I believe that no one has reached that status
yet), expect to be called out (for whatever reason). Being a judge will
definitely put you in the spot light, if you’re scared of the pressure, then
don’t bloody judge!

So to all those future judges that will be judging, if I feel that I was
wrongly or unjustly judged against don’t be surprised if I call you out on the
mic or go after you in the ciphers. And to those judges that I may be judging
along side of, be prepared to explain your decision (and thought process) to
everyone if I feel that your decision was quite controversial.

Dancekool Vol.23 in five days!
Danis Kool

Wow there is a word limit with Myspace blog! So im going to spit this up into two parts.
-----------
Version 1.1 (17-Jan-09)
- Fixed up some typos
- Added a few more points in the "The God O Mighty Suga Pop" and "Gstyle Boogie Frantick" Sections.

Danis Kool's Poppin Review and Awards for 2008

It’s that time again for my annual reviews and awards blog. Just to remind everyone that this is based on my own perspective and experience of the scene (so it is mainly based on the Sydney scene), so if anyone disagrees with me, write your own bloody review thing (or you can just leave me a comment). Sorry for taking so long to post this, took a lot longer than I first thought. 4000ish words Jebus!!!

SECTION 1 - REVIEW:

The People:

Many of the newer dancers from the previous year are maturing. They are really stepping up their game and some of them are even giving the older dancers a run for their money.

This year, I didn’t really see much new dancers that are really stepping up even though there are more classes (compared to last year).

Still mainly a male dominated dance. Have yet to see any girls really stepping up and giving the males a run.

The Styles:

This year the styles are much more evenly spread. It’s always good to see the younger dancers not limiting themselves to a specific style (can be a good thing though).

The Mentality:

“How could you truly know if it’s your dream job if you only ever had one job?”

This topic can be quite controversial depending on which chain of mind or mindset that a certain dancer follows. Depending on which mindset you have will determine whether it is good or bad.

“The real truth or the perceived truth? If it happens to be the perceived truth all this time, then at least I know it rather than just hoping”

I’m sure most of you know what type of mindset that I have about the dance, for those who are not sure you can read my previous blogs and you’ll probably get the basic idea.

I can say (well based in Sydney) that I am no longer the ‘lone ranger’ that is actively asking the hard questions (which some people find it as “offensive” or “blasphemy”) to question the legitimacy of the current and more ‘popular’ mindset.

“If you can’t change the people at the top just influence the people around them” – An Australian Popper which I will not name.

The tide is changing….

The States/Cities:

Again Sydney has the most active and abundant scene out of the whole country. Sydney has many ‘fractions’ within the community which in turn gives the scene a high sense of competitiveness among the fractions (let alone the style and mentality preferences). Sydney can also run a very competitive competition even without the attendance of interstate poppers (as shown at SRB 3 and DK 21).

Brisbane is probably the fastest growing scene this year, with the younger dancers maturing and the numbers are starting to increase (thanks to the Shift-1 crew). They are still number one in terms of choreography for popping routine in the country. A force to be reckon with in 2009.

I haven’t seen or heard much change in Melbourne. When I was a Federation Square early in the year I was told that a handful of poppers that turned up to the comp were outside the main community. I heard nothing since, except from the top poppers and some of their students, a secret society is brewing?

Met a small handful of Canberra dancers this year, good to see there are people doing their thing, definitely hear more about them next year. Adelaide? Hmm one of the main poppers has moved to the UK, so that’s a bummer. The rest of the country I’ve pretty much heard nothing.

International Guests (not including those who are staying for long periods):

Big names this year that visited Australia were Salah, Suga Pop and Boogie Frantick.

Salah - Formula 1

I wasn’t able to witness Salah dance myself but based on some of my crew-mates comments, he can dance and make you want to dance as well! Pity he didn’t have time to travel to the rest of the country. I think due to the lack of knowledge that ‘Australia has a Popping scene’.

The God-o-Mighty Suga Pop

A god like figure to a lot of people, Suga Pop was probably the most influential and the most popular/wanted guest out of the three. Sydney and Melbourne being a Boogaloo dominated a city, who else is to teach them the ‘correct’ (and ONLY) way of Boogalooing. He is definitely dope dancer, charismatic, intelligent, experienced, intimidating and has a lot of ‘interesting ‘thing to say. When i say interesting i meant that a lot of stuff he said about the dance, (to me) is very questionable yet a lot of the poppers took it as straight fact. I can tell he has these questions asked before (very frequently). Some answers were good, some answers he kinda side steped (very cleverly i might say), and some answers he just gave a 'because i said so' impression.

ie when i asked him about if you can bring technique to groove (or 'dance') level, he just said "Technique is technique!". Though i didnt have a comment to comment back on his comment at the time, but after some thinking i noticed that comment he made has a lot of flaws in it (I'll will address this in future articles).

I noticed a sense of control he wanted to portray to the scene (he got me thinking for weeks). A resistance to change, innovation and freedom of the dance was also expressed yet very subtle (I doubt many people picked that up). I get the impression that he only agrees to change, innovation and freedom only when it is done within HIS boundaries and rules. His reason for leaving the Lockers is a prime example.

But what really got my interest was the direction that he wants to take the dance to, that is to make the dance more like ballet where each move has a name and done a certain way. He then gave an example about how he can go anywhere in the world and ask two ballet dancers (from different parts of the world) to do a Pirouette and will be doing exact same movement. Though it may not be a bad thing to make the dance more 'established' but the major consequence of this direction is that the dancers (poppers) will lose their individualisms (hence all the topic about 'Clones'). The freestyling element is also in jeopardy.

But another question is raised, who gets the credit for the dance once the dance is 'established'? By disregarding certain styles, groups and people and calling them "Not a dance", "...for Pussies" "He can't dance" etc one cannot help to wonder, does credit bring big money?

With the one of his fellow crew mates 'known' to have 'created' this dance. A power card indeed to get people into the bandwagon and with his group already taken a head start for more than a decade, this direction is inevitable. A potential split in the dance is hard to avoid.

"You're either doing what they want you to do, or your not doing it right"

I had to rethink some of the beliefs I had about the dance (more on that some other time). Also gave me a clearer understanding of the ‘funkstyle’ condition. Pity that I was the only few that were asking the hard questions… could be harder though. Next time I'll better prepared, a video interview perhaps? (unless he has to "see his schedule" again lol).

Milked in the cash hardcore! 2k for a 2min showcase? Wow! No wonder he is so keen on coming back! Who wouldn’t like a free all expenses paid trip?

The next Taiwan? Hmm interesting....

Gstyle Boogie Frantick

Boogie Frantick is probably the least known out of the three. “A bag of tricks” “This guy can entertain but he cant dance” were some of the words said about him before his arrival. And I guarantee who ever see him in real life will know that those words are indeed far from the truth. That just shows how ignorant those people are. Pity that the reception wasn’t as warm as Suga Pop’s (for many reasons). He definitely boosted the confidence for those who choose to go ‘against the grain’ and gave/showed people that there is more than one way of doing this dance. Frantick was a blessing to the scene (I know there are people out there that think otherwise).

His ability to adapt to any sort of music is truly amazing. He is able to push the boundaries (I'm sure to some of you he leaped over it) to the maximum and still be considered popping. With only his body, the music and certain popping rules as his limits, he is the true meaning of freestyle. He doesn't teach moves, he teaches the thought processes behind them so he doesn't care whether or not you can do the move exactly.

Who could ever forget (i know there are some people that already did haha) his eyes watering set to ‘Portishead – Roads’. It was the first time ever where I came close to crying when watching someone dance. My eyes were watery but not enough to make tears to run down my cheeks so you cant say that i cried.

"Why do you need permission to jump into a cypher?"

The Singapore or Malaysian Dancers

Their stay was very short they only came here for Groove Battle Grounds. Wow! all of them have heaps of charisma when they dance. I forget their names but one of them had dope control in his animation, strobing and botting. Will be interesting if he had battle Kenky because they both use the same strategy.

Routines and Showcases (not in battles):

“A technical or complex routine doesn’t necessary mean it will be entertaining”

This year there were a lot more routines this year. What I learnt this year first hand about routines and showcases is that choreographing a routine is not as simple as it looks there are so much variables you got to keep in mind to successfully make a good routine.

Too many groups and crews I’ve seen focus too much on the complexity of their routine so they don’t focus on the entertaining part (imo should be top priority). What is the point of making a complex (or “educating”) routine if it’s boring as bat shit? Who’s going to watch it?

As mentioned before the Brisbane scene is probably the best in the country in terms of chorography.

“A routine without reason/meaning gets boring very quickly”

Jam, Events and Competitions:

Compared to last year, there weren’t as many Popping competitions this year. But there were many All Style comps throughout the year, which really pushes the poppers to be able to adapt to different genres. Too many poppers have gotten too comfortable to funk songs. It’s funny how some people complain about “This is not a popping song”, that just shows how limited they are.

Major popping comps for 2008 are Federation Square (Melb), Dancekool v.21 (Syd), Rumble (Bris) and Super Round Box 3 (Syd).

The events/competitions have yet to adapt to the ever so changing dance scene, now with more people doing styles other than boogaloo. The events and competitions (especially with the judging) MUST cater for the ever so changing dance scene. Choosing judges that are not bias to a particular style is only one of many factors that must be considered, you have to keep in mind the overall balance of the judging panel, if the competitors are willing to be judged by this person and of course the cost and all.

I would say Super Round Box was probably the best popping comp of 2008! I was part of the committee that organised it. So I was able to address the issues that other comps failed to do. I think it’s time to have Popping comps separate (at least in a different room with our own DJ) to bboy comps.

Jams are more frequent in 2008 than the previous years, groups of poppers are segregating into their own secret training spots. Competitions and rivalry will heat things up.

The Nate Cracker and SYTYCD:

“You dance? You should try out for SYTYCD?”

“Do you know Nacho Pop?”

haha I’m sure poppers throughout the country had been asked these questions or similar.

The show definitely boosted the public awareness of the dance, but so did the other dance styles and dance in general. Have I seen any major changes since the show aired? Nah not really. Like i mentioned on my other article “So You Think You Can Entertain”, it’s up to the dancers to fully utilize what the show has given us, because the general public won’t know what was shown on tv was just a small aspect of the whole dance culture. We have to show them, and not just the ‘studio’ and ‘routines’ aspect of the dance. The freedom of the dance must be shown.

As you would probably know Nacho Pop is the person that is representing the scene on the show. Though he is not really doing anything wrong except for the ‘Animation Hip Hop’ thing (lol), he definitely could have done a lot more for the dance (esp he is the only one at the moment with that kind of status). With his narrowed and bias mentality he is not best person to be representing this dance. Until the scene is able to bring forth a worthy replacement, we have to make do at what we got. A highly influential person indeed, but for the right reasons?

“Money and fame have the tendency to corrupt the weak.”

We’ll see what is installed for the 2^nd season of SYTYCD. Have a look out of the nerd dude.

2009 Prediction:

Hmmm, we have yet to see a national competition, but it could easily be done if all interstate poppers are willing to travel.

I personally would like to see more call outs, I’m sure under all the friendly smiles and handshakes there is a sense of competitiveness and rivalry among everyone. And it also keeps everyone on their toes. Who knows, I might be calling you out at the next event or jam. Crew battles anyone?

Im also hoping to see Australian popper go travelling overseas and representing (I’ll be doing the same once I get the money) and to show the world that Australia does indeed have a scene. Especially among the older dancers where new inspirations may not be as frequent it will be good get some fresh air from a different scene. Same goes with interstate travels (Im still waiting on Brisbane to hold something haha).

With Suga Pop’s (maybe even with Poppin Pete) second coming to Australia (proli towards mid this year?) and the G Style crew (Tempo and Slick Dogg) at the end of year or early 2010. Two holding opposing views to each other, will it split the scene in two (just like in the USA)? Already we are seeing signs of the segregation taking place. We will just have to wait and see.

Hopefully we will be hearing more from the rest of the country (esp South Australia!)

Stay Tune for part 2 (the Awards) next week
Danis Kool