(Shock)

Since the early seventies b-boys and girls have been popping and wiggling to electro and hip hop sounds and have created a cult-like following to the dancing style they’ve created. Recently there has been an increase of interest in break dancing that has been fuelled by the popular extreme sport phenomenon. Kids from all walks of life have been captured by the funky beats and athletic manoeuvres that make this style of dancing so dramatic and enthralling. Since this culture has started to evolve again, small events and competitions emerged throughout the dance scene. As these little known events started to grow and become better known it seems that the big boys have noticed and decided to help push this culture further into the mainstream. The Battle of the Year event and CD are testament to this.

This particular compilation of beats and breaks is a brilliant representation of the sounds that have shaped the break dancing scene over the last 20 odd years as well as the sounds of newer artists starting to emerge within the scene. Some of the older artists featured include West Street Mob with the funk filled “Rock the Party”, Eric B and Rakim “I know you got soul” and Mantronix with the classic “King of Beats”. The more recent artists setting new benchmarks in b-boy breaks productions featured are 1200 Techniques with “Battle Master”, Flying Steps’ new wave electro “We Gonna Rock it” and Yasushi’s heavy breaks orientated “Reppin’ for Wicked Force”.

Compiled by well-known hip-hop and breaks Dj Nick Toth, this CD really encompasses the sounds that have shaped and created an ever-growing scene of dancers. Not only will this CD give you a great cross section of new and old tracks it will also rock any party. The music is clearly aimed at getting the dance floor up and moving and would get any b-boy spinning before the end of the first track.

Throughout the flow of music there are small vocal snippets from breakers and rappers describing how they feel about the scene and what inspires them about break dancing. I found this really added some personality to the release. The people who dance to this music are the people who inspired this release so it only seems fit that they get a chance to voice the way their chosen sounds makes them feel. This CD goes a little bit further than the usual compilation style release, as it’s almost an audio documentary of where break dancing has been and where it aims to go.