N.C. State’s Hip-Hop Organization, H20, kicked off the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend with its second annual Rap Battle, held in Bragaw Residence Hall Friday. The Bragaw Activity Room, pulsing with live beats delivered by James “DJ Ill Digitz” Meyer, quickly filled with hip-hop enthusiasts, break dancers, several hyped emcees and local talent from groups like Inflowential and Odd Numbers.
“We are trying to bring people together, to get out of the dorms and join the world,” Marianna “Rapsody” Evans, the hosting emcee and a founding member of H20, said. “We want to give artists and students an outlet to express themselves and connect.”
According to Evans, the group was born out of a pure love for hip-hop. As students at NCSU, the six original members: Alexander “Charlie Smarts” Thomas, Taylor “Tab 1″Burgess, James “DJ Ill Digitz” Meyer, Thomas “Tom Foolery” Kevin, Peter “PTK” Kreuser and Evans, wished to create an alternative to the genre of rap popularized by big media like MTV.
H20 artists turn to their roots for inspiration for their rhymes and beats. Many of their songs flow from members’ experiences as artists and kids growing up in North Carolina. The group’s success and impact in the community is, for H20 members and competitors at the Rap Battle, evidence that the people resonate with their message.
“Hip-hop kind of lives in the college community,” Shakir “Halo” Fullenweider, a competitor in the Rap Battle, said. “College students are more in touch with what’s going on in the underground music scene. The performers here tonight definitely want to impress this audience. If they like what we do then the rest of the world will catch on.”
As in 2006, the entry fee for this year’s Rap Battle was $10 for each emcee and the grand prize was set at $200. The Battle featured competitors calling out their opponents using successions of well-spun insults, using beats in some rounds and going a capella in others.
“I haven’t battled since last year,” Brian “B-Wise” Waggy, a competing emcee, member of the group Odd Numbers and NCSU alumnus, said. “I was runner-up in that battle. I felt pretty good coming out of the first round this year, but there’s a lot of talent here.”
There were only two minor differences between last year’s Battle and this year’s. This year, H20 asked that the emcees not touch each other while performing, after tensions last year during the competition almost erupted into conflict. Also, while last year the group hosted a guest, producer 9th Wonder, this year the response from the audience declared the winner.
“Sometimes people disagree about what makes talent,” Gabrielle Daniel, a freshman in First Year College, said. “So it’s good that the audience is deciding. I was up in my room studying and heard the music, so I came down to see what was going on. I’m really impressed — I give props to anyone who can do what these guys are doing.”
H20 estimates between 200 and 300 people have attended the event each year. This year the audience gave the grand prize to Robert “Ama-Man” Grey, a local hip-hop artist trying to support himself and his family with his music. Any insults and tensions built up during the battle dissolved as the final round ended. Both B-Wise and Ama-Man focused their final comments on the importance of supporting the growth of the hip-hop community.
“It feels great to win,” Grey said. “I’ve won a lot of battles, but I’m still out there strugglin’. The important thing — the reason we are all here — is to get the word out about our music, to spread everything positive that hip-hop has to offer. I’m out in Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Durham, on MySpace all day trying to do just that.”