2008 Woodie Awards
Rap Battle packs Pub
Kate Brindisi
Issue date: 2/9/06 Section: A & E
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Students with varying music tastes and interests showed up on time and ready for a show on last Wednesday night in the Outpost. The pub was packed with an anticipated audience. Groups of people were continuing to trickle in after all the seats and most of the standing space was gone.
"This type of interaction is a great way to get involved with other students and also the dancers are very nice," said Andrew Clayton, freshman, Atlantic City, N.J.
Even though the turn out for the battle was huge, the pool of competitors was somewhat small. In the dance off, only two girls competed, and for the men four competitors entered. The rap battle competition had four competitors.
Both competitions were scored by crowd response to their performances. The Dance Off had each competitor show off their moves to a song of their selection spun by DJ Tristan Levy. The Rap Battle had a few more rules for rappers to abide by.
The Rap Battle's four participants each had two rounds of competition against another rapper and the winner of those two rounds went to the finals. Each round lasted about a minute or so.
The rappers were prohibited against using profane language; an announcement that upon hearing had an unruly response from the crowd and competitors.
Battling for rap glory was Jared "J-Rod" Faircloth, Sam "Livid" Baker, Brian "B-Real" Powell, and Corey Bundy. For the first round of the competition J-Rod and B-Real battled as did Livid and Bundy for a spot in the finals.
The dance off was a sight to be seen. The dancer's movements were so fluid they seemed as if they were barely touching the ground. For the women's competition Sarana Hyatt came out on top; and for the men's competitor Sean Hilderbrand took home the win. Its was obvious that they had done this before.
The first round started with J-Rod and B-Real. J-Rod, became the first person at a Freestyle event to enter both the rap battle and the dance off. However, J-Rod's words didn't flow as easily as B-Real's. After two rounds the winner was clearly B-Real.
The battle between Livid and Bundy was a little more entertaining, due to the fact that both rappers had their flow a bit more fine tuned than the previous competitors. Their first round was cut short due to Livid's use of profanity after he had been given a warning. Livid won both rounds and moved onto the finals with B-Real.
The battle between Livid and B-Real really turned on the heat. The rappers started their battle consisted mainly of them throwing insults back and forth for the extent of the competition. Despite their originality of lyrics, Livid was the decided champion and B-Real came in as the runner up.
Rich Deeckan, founder of the Freestyle Club, said "I was amazed by the event once again. If you were there, then you know the feeling. If not, then you have to come to our next battle, March 1, [at] 10:10 p.m., in the Outpost."