King of the Beats July 2011 Highlights
21th July 2011 - written by Keith Mckenzie
Another challenge and live came into effect for King of Beats and to start the summer season in style. With the live event took place on July 16th.
The challenge itself for King of the Beats started one week before the event at a record store Notting Hill Gate area when 3 contender beginning their records search for the beat battle. Each Contender has only one week to produce new quality instrumental hip-hop beats from the records they have purchased within a spending limit of £20, then present their sounds live on stage.
The contender for July 2011 are:
Agor
19 years old from west London creating beats for many years. Unlike many hip hop producers who uses classic soul records to produce from, Agor looks out for more rock & live music records also checks for obscure beats to produce from. He is into chopping up sounds as one of his approaches for producing beats.
Uses MPC 100 as part of his production studio.
First-Hand
The first London based contender from the West of England representing Bristol
As part of his production studio he uses MPC 2400 for sampling/producing and also uses Logic Effects as his drum machine
Hi-Soul
London based producer found out about King of the Beats project through his friends. I attended one of the previous events in London and enjoyed the vibe so much he wanted to be part of it. He looks onto more experimental sounds for producing.
Also on the same day when the pre -event challenge took place, the King of the Beats team headed to the east end of London with an exclusive video interview to King of the Beats with one of the legendary names in the UK Hip-Hop scene MC Mello.
The event
Another quality night & beat challenge took place at London's Vibe Bar for King of the Beats.
The night was hosted by Sparkii Skii
The regular face to kotb Tha 4orce provided the mix for the night.
Three of the legendary names in hip-hop attended this King of the Beats event from NYC Jazzy Jay and UK's very own MC Mello & Cutmaster Swift.
The main part of the night was The original Beat Challenge - Who's Gonna Take the Crate
After one of searching, and producing the contenders (Agor, First-Hand and Hi-Soul) present their sounds fro the records their purchased. They also brought along all the records purchased for the challenge on stage onto the create for one winner to own.
After all the sounds played to the crowd the judges makes their decision of the winner. This is made of of key King of the member and previous contenders and one member from the audience.
After deliberation the judges made the decision and winner for July 2011 is
Hi-Soul.
He won the entire collection of records brought by every contender and received a Picture framed King of the Beats record.
The night continued with Chase Rockwell providing live beat boxing. This is followed by Dappa provided mixes and live performances
Back by popular demand a raffle draw to win a limited edition large scale J Dilla illustration by Pritt Kalsi with the winner announced and collected the painting on stage.
Watch out for more event and challenge in 2011 with King of the Beats.
The Video
A special King of the Beats video, partly filmed by myself is now available to view online.
It features highlights of the july's event at London's Vibe Bar with additional features
for this spacial edition.
The video is divided in two parts both parts. The duration is about 60 minutes for each videos.
Follow the links below for both parts.
King of the Beats July 2011 film, Part one
Meets the contenders and in depth interview with support and people in hip-hop who respects King of the Beats project. As well has the familiar faces some of the key people behind the scenes also featured.
In addition the director of the King of the Beats Pritt Kalsi is interviewed and myself also being interview on video for the first time.
King of the Beats July 2011 film, Part two
This part features highlights of the king of the beats event back in july 16th at London's Vibe Bar and a special Hip-Hop event at London's South Bank when Chuck Chillout, Donald D and Brother B did live freestyle on stage with the Funk band The Impellers and a lot more.
http://www.kingofthebeats.com/blog/?p=541
Additional links
A summary of images from King of the Beats London Challenges in 2011
Full Collection of images from July's King of the Beats
Click here to my facebook page
You can also able to view previous challenges and events
However you need to be a social networking friend on both pages have full access.
Take a look the rest of the pages part of my special feature on King of the beats
...and don't forget look at the
official King of the Beats website for full updates and developments
and on king of the beats facebook page, to see the page click here
The King of the Beats name, logo or any elements from the project must not be reproduced without permission.
Unless otherwise stated photos from this website is copyright Keith Mckenzie
