To start everything off…I just wanted to say that I’m still shocked about randomly winning the STA Travel plane ticket to experience this event. Jarius King (ManOfGod) hosted this contest along with STA and it just so happened that my name was picked out of several contestants! So with a bit of luck, I was off to the Midwest a few weeks later…
video still frame from the facebook announcement
BTL 7 Official Flier
DAY 1 | EXPLORING MADISON | BREAKIN’ THE LAW 7 PRELIMS
So within 30 minutes of landing in Madison at midnight. I was picked up by Jarius King and brought to the bar that he was spinning at! I was attacked by Ari from StrifeTV and off we went to the bar. Be expecting a hilarious StrifeTv segment of me that night eating at Pizza di Roma. Good way to start any trip HAHA.
Anyways, the rest of the day consisted of chilling at the C0-op crib with Rhythm Attack (Hong Kong) and exploring Madison with Ari and Eric. After grabbing some lunch, we arrived at the beautiful Mononoa Terrace Ballroom venue where I met up Minnesota Joe and the rest of the Warriors Crew…Los Boogie, Boogie B, Jesse, and Shia. Much love to them for letting me team up for the crew on crew battles. It was a smoke festival in the prelims!!
The co-op crib where everyone stayed, felt like I was in a fraternity or something haha
Breakin' the Law 5 poster, OFFICIAL
Walking around the Capitol
Got the most delicious roast beef sandwhich with Ari and Eric from StrifeTv here
Chowed down here with all the tanked college kids on the 1st night lol
"Cypher" book by Charles Peterson, booklet of amazing photos
Casper retaliating against T-co's callout! So crazy to see this in a photo. Now here's the video (go to 4:16) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKK2hotBkHI#
The Monona Terrace Grand Ballroom Venue
Redbull Floor, unfortunately it was too small for the main competition
Amazing venue, setting up
The competition has just begun!
StrifeTv Camera Man #1 Unmasked! Eric Nemcheck...dope bboy, he might just put down the camera and SMOKE U. He was a Semi-Finalist!
StrifeTV Camera Man #2 Unmasked! Ari Levin, a real down to earth guy who loves this culture and dedicates much time documenting our wonderful dance
DAY 2 | MIFFLIN BLOCK PARTY | BREAKIN’ THE LAW 7 MAIN EVENT
Today was finally the main event! I practiced routines with The Warriors the night before and stayed at the Hilton with them. Real cool peoples! After getting a decent night sleep, I traveled over back to Jarius’ crib to gather my stuff and paid a visit to the Mifflin Block Festival. I think I’ll just let the pictures below speak for themselves lol. It’s also worthwhile to mention that one of the dancers got arrested and thrown in jail bc of the block party and I believe Ari has footage of it hahah, such bad luck.
The Warriors and I were so hype for the top 16 battles. By chance, we ended up battling Weapons of Mass Creation which was a combination of Motion Disorderz and a some real dope Texas cats. They were former champions of event and we knew this 1st battle was going to be all out war and indeed it was! WAR MACHINE vs WEAPONS OF MASS CREATION…now that is an epic title for the youtube clip. It’s a shame that battle happened early since it was of semi-final calibur too! Check the battle footage out below (after the pictures).
After our battle, I spent most of the time enjoying the other competitions. I ALMOST entered the house battles…ahh maybe next time. Anyways major props to B-Girl Peppa from L.A. for taking the international 1v1 B-Girl Competition. On fire all night! The martial arts tricking competition was nuts, definitely one of the genres I was looking forward to. Highlight of the night, one of the trickers landed a double backflip and the next tricker attempted to match the same combo and let’s just say it turned out to be the DOUBLE BACKFLIP COMBO TO DEATH COMBO!!! The footage is at the bottom of the page. Pretty scary moment in the comp. On a lighter note, I ran into Tyquan (VP of Mighty Zulu Kings) who was juding the rocking battles, he came out to claws out 3 to support his crew member casper who was going up against Menno at the time.
Towards the end of the night, Jarius and Katrina were freaking out because they were running out of time and were about to be charged extra money for the venue. People starting pulling out money to help but a certain woman from Dance Fabulous company saved the day and fronted the $250 to have the venue a little longer. Definitely brought a smile to everyone’s faces. Now that’s what’s up!! The event ended with Rhythm Attack beating Weapons of Mass Creation in the semis and then Brickheads (Chicago) in the finals! Never seen a crew happier than them 🙂
Chillen with Cha Cha from Rhythm Attack (Hong Kong)
Mifflin Bloc Party Festival, so much craziness
It is apparently the largest Block party in the US...everyone looked like trashed zombies
Minnesota B-Boys prepping before the battle lol
hanging with Jenny from Iowa
Getting ready with The Warriors...WAR MACHINE was in full effect
All female judging panel: Narumi, Sie-Chan, AB-Girl, Rockafella; BTL pushing the boundaries!
The most hype crowd ever!!! - Picture credited to Alyssa Macy
The Trickin' Comp was super hype too! Great Photo - Picture credited to Alyssa Macy
Franco De Leon from Chicago was killing it! - Picture credited to Alyssa Macy
ran into one of the gurus of TRICKING
BTL Bracket, would be sick to have for Claws Out
teamed up with "The Warriors" from Minnesota ; real humble and an amazingly talented crew
Minnesota rolling deep ; watch out for them, one of the most upcoming scenes
Found my clothing company at the jam!! "JUSSROCK" Underground Clothing, it's spelled a little different but who cares, it's dope! They are based out of Chicago. Future collabo hopefully? 🙂 Check their website out --> http://www.jussrock.com
Katrina Flores! Jarius' partner in crime
w/ B-girl Narumi from Japan!!
Rhythm Attack from Hong Kong took 1st Place over Brickheads! Congrats guys, you finally won - photo from Bigki Chan
Day 3 | Recover from After Party | Hanging out
Last night’s after party was pretty crazy. The Zanders spot was off the hook and everyone came through since it was free! They finished up a few more competitions at the club while the rest of us got our drank on lol. Pretty much spent the whole day sleeping and kicking it with the out of state dancers. I finished off the night with the StrifeTv people and Jarius, watching the BTL footage at the hotel.
Hanging out with Jose from Hazardous Zombies (Texas), Up and coming monster
Just wanted to share that the Doubletree hotel gives the best free cookies EVER, served warm ; Get on it if you don't know!
Jarius aka ManOfGod aka DJ King GNS is a super sick DJ too! What doesn't he do haha
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VIDEO FOOTAGE FROM BTL 7
War Machine (Minnesota/L.A.) Preliminary Battle
War Machine (Minnesota/L.A.) vs Weapons of Mass Creation (Milwaukee/Texas) | Top 16 Battle
Rhythm Attack (Hong Kong) vs Weapons of Mass Creation (Milwaukee/Texas) Semis **HYPEST BATTLE OF THE NIGHT**
Double Backflip to Death Combo | Tricking Competition
Mifflin Block Party Snippet
CONCLUSION:
Jarius and I representing active B-Boy Promoters to the fullest!
I told Jarius King (ManofGod) that, “Seriously, from one promoter to another…this is one of the best events I’ve been to in a long time.” The event was an EXPERIENCE, not your ordinary competition. There were crew battles, house battles, footworking battles, locking battles, popping battles, B-girl battles, Rockin’ battles, and even a martial arts tricking battle! The way the event was executed from beginning to end thoroughly impressed me. Jarius cares about the smallest details and that is rare to find in event producers. The event pushed the boundaries and there was even an all female judging panel which was refreshing and rare to see! The crowd was ridiculously hype…never have I seen such a large crowd give so much energy and props throughout the ENTIRE competition. It definitely set the tone.
The biggest shoutouts to Jarius King, Katrina Flores, The Warriors Crew, all the Minnesota B-Boys, StrifeTV, and all the familair & new faces that showed me an amazing time. It truly was a festival of urban movement 😉 Also big ups to Edukation Athletics for the customized T-shirt piece for the battle. I am so grateful for this memorable trip and only have one thing to say to end this post…PEACE OUT AND SEE YOU ALL AT BREAKIN’ THE LAW: ELEV8TION 2011!
JUSTROC 