Remix correspondent James O‘Connor represented at last weekend‘s Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival (Saturday, June 23) and Beast of the Beats (Sunday, June 24), and here‘s what he had to say:

The weather was perfect for the third-annual Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival, organized by Brooklyn Bodega (www.brooklynbodega.com). Wedged right between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, the event is held at the Empire Fulton State Park, right on the water of the East River and with an amazing view of Lower Manhattan.

Essentially the ground zero for hip-hop, the lineup at this year‘s festival included Large Professor, Consequence, Sean Price, Kidz in the Hall, Tanya Morgan, Ghostface and many more, not to mention the special guests such as Fat Joe, Smif-N-Wessun, Jeru the Damaja and more. Each performer was backed in typical hip-hop fashion by two turntables and a mixer, although it would appear that Serato has become the industry standard for today‘s DJs. One after the other, hip-hop legends interspersed with up-and-comers graced the stage making thousands of heads bob to the beats booming out the speakers.









The next day, the Beast of the Beats was held indoors at Manhattan‘s Club T-NY on 52nd Street, humorously enough, directly next to the Neil Simon Theater where the show Hairspray is running. Planned by the partners of iStandard (iStandardproducers.com), J Hatch hosted the producer battle. The judges rated the beats of 40 different producers, who turned out from as far away as North Carolina to claim the title of “The Beast.” The judges included producer heavyweights Just Blaze (Jay-Z, Saigon, Dipset, many more), Buckshot (Boot Camp Clik), Lenny S (A&R Exec at Def Jam Records) and Riggs Morales (A&R Exec at Shady Records).

Unfortunately, there seemed to be a few too many producers with the exact same mindset to create the same larger than life, club-banger sound–not that there is anything wrong with that, but with forty producers playing three beats each at one minute per beat…you can do the math. Alhough there were some standouts, which is ultimately the point of an event such as this.

Roland was also in the house, demoing its first- and second-prize giveaways. First place was the new MV-8800 studio monster, which was awarded to the AppleJuiceKid (www.applejuicekid.com), and appropriately so because when his beats came on, it was music that perked everyone‘s ears and got the crowd most hyped.



Winner AppleJuiceKid gave Remix a little insight into why he thinks he scored the Beast of the Beats title. “I am a professional drummer and work with a lot of musicians on my tracks to give it something different, which I think helped me win the showcase,” he says. “I also try to make my music as unique as possible, incorporating all my influences from Mark Ronson to Nirvana to Pharrell to ?uestlove to 4 hero to Daft Punk. Everything I hear, I try to mash up and make something different out of the combination.”



But a couple other competitors at Beast of the Beats came close to bringing the same unique flavor. The second-place prize went to producer GI Joe, who was awarded with the Juno-G keyboard–essentially the baby brother to the Fantom-X keyboard.



And coming in third place was P.Riot, a female producer originally from Japan. P.Riot was awarded Roland‘s SH-201, which is conceived to give analog sounds coupled with today‘s technology.



Other highlights included featured performances by Big Lou of New Jersey‘s Streetsweepers. Also, Atlantic Records‘ MC Saigon came through and paid us a visit at the Remix booth before jumping onstage and finishing out the night.
Be sure to come visit us at the Remix Hotel event coming up September 20-22 in Atlanta for the next round of stories and events!

[Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival photos by Robert Adam Mayer. Beast of the Beats photos courtesy klubspots.com.]