Red Bull Lords of the Floor 2002

June 1st, 2002 marked a memorable day for the Pacific Northwest hip-hop
community as Red Bull assembled some of the hottest professional urban
dancers and B-Boys in the world for a no-holds barred tag team competition
with $5,500 in cash prizes at stake and $4,000 going to the grand champions.

One of the pioneers of the hip-hop culture and founding member of the
World Famous Rock Steady Crew, Ken Swift along with Kujo from the Soul
Control crew in Cali and Storm the legend from Germany were the 3 selected
judges for the event with DVS-Crew pioneer Soul-One DJing the first round
and J-Rocc of the Beat Junkies and Power 106FM's Friday Night Flavors in
Los Angeles. The event was hosted by Kutfather from 90.3FM KEXP's Street
Sounds and the hilarious Jo Koy from Las Vegas, NV.

With dancers coming from Thailand, to Japan, to Finland to the United
Kingdom the international flavor was a great addition from last years
first event. The Red Bull team along with producer Bob "The Balance"
Foxhoven of the world famous dance crew Circle of Fire brought out the
great 8 including great duos like Remind & Crumbs of the Style Elements
crew and Texans Moy & Lil John of the crew Havikoro. Massive Monkees
repped 3 dance teams deep with Domes & Bryson, Juse-Boogy & Lil Lazy, as
well as Twixx & Jeromeskee all getting ousted in the first round to VERY
loud boos on the latter with LA Breakers advancing amongst a high sea of
controversy as Jeromeskee and Twixx electrified the crowd.

There was plenty of upsets as Iron Monkey & Este, known as the Rhythm
Bugs, surprised everybody with an upset win over what many believe to be
the best duo in the world in StyleElements. However the stars of the
event repped the Boogie Down Bronx and Boston, respectively as the Floor
Brats two-man tandem of Kamel & El Nino consistently made the sellout
crowd of over 1500 people in a jampacked Naval Base Hanger in Sand Point
lose their marbles in amazement. The duo put on a show, from pulling the
little 12 year old El Nino out of a duffle bag to Kamel's style,
confidence, athleticism and charisma that tout him easily as the most
talented and respected B-Boy in the World.

The Floor Brats took home the title this year with a very impressive
Havikoro coming in second. Orbitron & Free of the Seattle urban dance
crew Circle of Fire placed 3rd narrowly beating the Rhythm Bugs crew in a
tiebreaking decision. This was hands down the most professionally run
hip-hop competition the Pacific Northwest has seen since Brainstorm's MC
Battle of the Year and will go down in history as a tremendous event for
the Pacific Northwest.

Samuel L. Chesneau
chesneau@u.washington.edu