Let’s get one thing straight: I’m as fanatical about hip hop as Boko Haram is about kidnapping school girls… so my views on other music and dance sub-cultures are undoubtedly skewed and somewhat condescending. For example, I can barely stand house music or sbhujwa culture and I think anything associated with pantsula is as backward as grown-ass men with cornrows.
Look, hip hop has the best dancers in the country hands down, and if you disagree then consider that 90% of all major dance competitions in SA are won by hip hop dancers. Consider the annual Red Bull Beat Battle, which was held last weekend at Walter Sisulu Square in Soweto. The 100k cash prize and drum trophy has (almost) always rotated amongst hip hop crews, ever since the competition’s inception in 2011. The only exception was when a sbhujwa crew called Prophelaz broke the tradition by winning last year.
So I went into the hall confidently thinking I would see MY culture reclaim the drum and consolidate its dominance in SA’s dance scene… but oh I was so wrong.
There were eight crews, half were hip hop and the other four were sbhujwas and pantsulas. By the second round it was clear that the non hip hop crews were going to dominate.
Take the battle between hip hoppers Supreme 1 and Panzan Entertainment – while Panzan performed, Supreme huddled up and wrote “boring” on a large piece of paper and held it up until their competitors finished performing. But their protest was nothing but a gimmick. When it was Supreme’s turn to dance, they were met with howls and boo’s from the audience and discerning dance heads. Even their ghoulish make up couldn’t hide the disappointment on their faces when the judges and crowd voted unanimously for Panzan to progress to the next round.
The other hip hop crew, Psyko Souljahz, also got knocked out in the early stages and Prophelaz took out Warrior Knights from Durban who wore riot gear to bolster their battle tactics. Sure, but all I can remember is the image of a Warrior Knight member crying backstage after losing to Prophelaz. It just shows that the tide is turning… it will go down in history that 2014 was the year sbhujwa dancers sent hip hop crews home crying to their mommies!
In the end, the hip hop crew Freeze Frame proved to be the last bastion of the culture, and they were too good for their competitors. The destroyed pantsula crew Fire, and eventually went on to take overall victory after squeaking past Prophelaz in the final to take the crown.
But for me (and most people at the battle), the real heroes of the day were Panzan Entertainment, a sbhujwa crew from The Vaal. Panzan fuse elements of Latin American beats and rhythms with basic indigenous dance and their own sbhujwa flavour. Early in the competition, I noticed that one of its members was dancing on steel crutches, which I thought were props… just to add flair to their routine. It was only later on that I realised Musa Motha of Panzan was an actual amputee. Panzan Entertainment made it to the semi’s of arguably the biggest and most competitive dance battle in the country, despite one of their members having a disability. Musa’s bravery and skill humbled me greatly.
But in the semi’s, Panzan ran out tricks and energy and were beaten by the far superior Prophelaz, who went on to face Freeze Frame and take second place on the podium.
After Panzan’s performance in the semi’s, one of the judges, Somizi Mhlongo, stood up from the judge’s table with a mic and awarded them R20 000 for “showing us that nothing is impossible in this world.”
So instead of gloating about a hip hop crew winning the 2014 Red Bull Beat Battle, I must instead pay homage to Somizi Mhlongo and Panzan Entertainment for teaching everyone a few lessons in life last weekend. I learned that you can NEVER underestimate anyone and it’s irrelevant what music you dance to… what matters is how you use your passion to achieve things haters said you never could. It took one sbhujwa dancer to open my mind to the bigger picture. Respect.
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