Foundationz

Probably the most significant part of this event was that it was my introduction to Playtime (WCR) and The Word (fka ed-word). 

I had seen Playtime spin at a Juicebox/cypherborn jam a couple months prior and was so impressed with his track selection. Both Playtime and Word had bboyed in the past, but Playtime just had such great taste with bboy tracks and I think was still an active dancer at the time? I remember being enamored with his stories of breaking in the Philippines with his crew (Walled City Rockers). I DJ'd with Playtime a couple other times after this (Alcove block party and ftlo), but would love to get some more shows in with him and Edward and our other homie Jaycee too.

Meeting Edward was another one of those defining moments in DJing for me. I should probably write an entire blog page on this dude. I believe he was 17 at the time but he was already so passionate and skilled at the craft. In the years since, we've played together at other bboy jams, a local cocktail lounge, and done a lot of cutting together. Seeing his progress and approach has always been extremely inspiring to me. I find that reaching out to him or showing up to one of his sets is one of the best ways for me to break out of any slumps I might be having with DJing.

I think I used to spend a lot of time worrying about catching up with him, but over time I've had the chance to realize that we just occupy totally different areas. Edward is one of the most genuine, mature, and kind people that I've ever met and I'm extremely thankful for any chance I get to collaborate or hang with him. 

As for the event itself, one of my first introductions to DJing in real life was through attending bboy jams/battles as a high school/undergrad student. I was pretty involved with organizing events with the Hip Hop Funk Styles club while I was at UofC (It Takes Two, One Touch), but didn't dance a ton myself outside of entering It Takes Two one year.

Foundationz was the first bboy jam that I had the chance to DJ for. It was a local event with different brackets for toprock, footwork, and power. There were also some rap battles going on that we threw on beats for.

I remember being so nervous for it that I barely slept the night before. This was kind of my first time DJing in person with some sort of pressure to keep the music going properly in terms of matching beats and song selection. 

Similar to the other events in my first year or so of DJing, the biggest takeaway was that I really had to do some better research and crate organization if I wanted to DJ more breaking events. I think I did fine, but I was running out of appropriate tracks so quickly, and some judges commented that I didn't have the right tracks for the power battles which is totally fair.