The types of battle in hip hop. And my favorite battle of all times !

 

Hi there everyone.

Today is the day where I continue to procrastinate on writing the next hip hop style article by talking about my favorite types of battles and go over the different types of battles in hip hop.

Indeed, battles are modular (just like anything in hip hop really), so let’s look at the different categories of battles, and before making any changes to the rules here, we will start of by talking about the classics.

There are are 3 types of classic battles.

Solo

Duo

And crew.

The definition of a crew for battles is a team of dancers, some contests have a limit on the number of people in a crew. For example, in UNSS championships, the one that are monitored by schools in France, a crew has to have at least 3 members and maximum of 8 members.

But in more classic competition the limit is much more easily bendable, you can see small crew of 6/10 people, but there are also more average sized crews of 10/25 people which, IS A LOT, and in some instances there are massive crews which go from 40 to 60 people!

 

Personally, I enjoy them all for different reasons, generally solos show one’s mastery and are often shorter battles with not a lot of variety in terms of style. It’s mostly to show musicality and free style.

Whereas the crews tend toward having a much stricter set of music and one of each styles so that the pros of each style, that compose a well made crew, can have their time to shine.

In crew competition its also more obligatory that different types of choreography happen, there are some where you are free to take as many members of your team as you want, but more than often the require one crew, one duo and one solo, and they get to chose for one passage .

That’s why I have more of a soft spot for duo competition, because it both gives a break by giving a variety, but still keeping a lot of the solo elements that are essential to judge A dancer. Plus almost all solos are improvised, and you know that I love me some impro. What is even better with duos, is that some people are so close and have already done so many things together that they do “connection passages”, where its total impro but with 2 people and so they follow the music and the other and try to create something beautiful on the spot and the amount of knowledge, care and closeness that emanate from them is insane. I mean, not only do you need to think of what the music's going to do, BUT ALSO you need to have a close enough bond with your partner that you should be able to predict what they're going to do !

 

So that’s about the match-ups. But then what are famous bending of those rules.

Well there’s the "armagedons", or "dancemagedons", or "tri battles", whatever you want to call it, it is when a battle is between 3 sides, most often done with duos and solos, it also sometimes happens between 3 small crews, and so you have this triangle of forces that is very interesting. 

Because if I were to draw a schematic, based on where you look you appeal to different types of audiences. (here on the classic schematic above its the judges and the audience). 

But in an armagedon the structure entirely changes and it forces you to rethink how you interpret space in your dance, because if you flaunt you have to do it to 2 sides (or it would be weird, you wouldn't respect one but you'd respect the other), the audience isn’t just one side anymore, its 2.  And appealing to the judges would mean turning your back on your audience and opponents

 

Another honorable mention are the "experts battles" that I discovered through the UNSS and that have a ton of other names. Its battles where you have a set style that is given for each passage, you have to do for example popping or you’re out. These battles are set in 6 rounds, so they are looooong, and the last one is obligatory a solo, BUT, on a music that isn’t hip hop at all, it could totally be classic, metal, rock, jazz… and in these solos to end the battle there are wonderful displays of sensibility and originality its jaw dropping.

 

Finally my favorite type of contest with my favorite battle of all times is the French invention the “I love this dance” which is a solo competition, where each dancer comes with a music of their own. And the first round is the dancers discovering and dancing on the music of the opponent and the second round is the dancers dancing on their chosen music.

Here, you have display of strategy that is wonderful in term of choosing the music. There are 4 main tendencies that I found in those battles, so lets look at those scenarios.

1.       You are a mastermind in one style so you take your favorite song in your style so that you can crush it with your performance, but possibly give a nice song to your opponent but you’ll get a comeback after it because you are a master on this particular subject.

2.       You know your opponent has aprticular strong suit so you get around it by chosing something else, or even more vicious you know they’re very bad at one style so you take a music where its almost impossible to do any other type of dance on it and look good. And so you can take up the advantage, but it could be something at which you’re not particularly good at so you’ll do better but it’s not the best case scenario for you.

3.       Another strategy is taking musicality behemoths of songs, where your opponent will get destroyed by taking a crack at an unpredictable music. However, on your passage you will have studied the music and know all of its nuts and bolts (it might even give you an advantage by showing to the judges much better their choreography before could have been because you make them discover whole new elements of the music they wouldn’t have discovered otherwise)

4.       Last and certainly not least (and my personal favorite) people that take something that’s not hip hop at all like classic/jazz… but this is rookie level of trickery, I’ve seen someone come in with a recording of an inspirational speech… the opponent when discovering it like waited for it to start off, but it never started, because the speech wasn’t an intro to the sound, it was the sound. SO not only to you surprise them, but also take them to grounds they wouldn't have discovered before. However, this level of trickery bears a disadvantage, you need to be able to dance onto it better than your opponent on a sound that is made for them in second round.

 

So, now I think I can talk about my favorite battle of all times.

And my favorite battle is between popping C and Zyko in the I love this dance tournament.

Popping C went for the 1^st strategy while zyko went for the 4^th.

Here is the link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXydlS4hOG8

And… allow me to nerd over these performances

 In the first pass there’s Zyko, who showed a great display of some of his freestyle… (To be honest Zyko was for a long time what I’d think of doing if I could get to pro level. It's this kind of movement that I find really interesting and fun to play around in. This idea of collapsing and going back up while sort of puppeteering yourself is what I look for)

I don’t really have anything more to say but to look at the dance, there’s nothing particularly interesting to look at or any real mistake/flaw to nitpick… its just… great.

 

I think that in popping C’s response you can see how popping C was taken aback by this and tried to make the most of thisunusual audio. He gave a great display of musicality and technique but he wasn’t confident. Well, he was but we can clearly see that he didn’t truly recover from the shock of a music that he knows but didn’t expect. He started off with great confidence on the first sound that popped up without waiting to discover the actual music, and had to slow down to think when the piano appeared and when he heard the lyrics he finally understood but you can still see that he is puzzled and doesn’t hide it well.

But overall real great passage with very beautiful popped waves. Even where he incorporated some of the lyrics in his dance with the 2 lovers that are mentioned.

 

THEN ! THEN THE BEST PART, we move on to the second round where dancers dance on their music and there is my favorite part.

But before that, please debate one which passage was best from the first round, feel free to pause. Ponder. Give your opinions on who won for you in each round

 

AND NOW, we come to my favorite passage of all time… (I haven’t seen a lot of battles but shush here, I was new to hip hop when I first saw it and it struck me… and it still does… the first display of a champion on a music that isn’t hip hop)

 

Ne me quitte pas is already a powerful song, its lyrics show a man that hit rock bottom... AND BROUGHT A SHOVEL. 

Zyko has a display of skill, playing with his articulations beautifully. Its just jaw dropping, there’s imagery oozing everywhere, there’s the symbolism of the song that oozes back, you can see the fields, the golden light falling down on him, the waters springing forth… but what truly hit me is when he sort of mimicked hanging himself, and then his feet moving a little to always push him up a little more, it’s a powerful move he did there and it hits hard I think. This is creativity andorigiality at its finest.

And the best move here was during the chorus of ne me quitte pas, where I think I could do a whole analysis of these move without having to invent anything. He is turning his back to his audience, showing us the hands where we can almost see as if this love and this embrace was taking him down just like this relationship does. Further on, the way its loose and then digs itself in before actually pulling on him sort of does this chain-like effect where he is once again trapped in this desired embrace, this illusion of a relationship that once was and that pulls him into despair and pain.

But if you look at it from the perspective of the judges, they can only see someone hugging himself, the ultimate act of comforting oneself and when people are at their lowest and alone. and he gets lost into it, his torso pulled into this, he alone is the one pulling himself further down, but he can’t let go, he is trapped and can’t do anything just like in a forced camisole. This breakup incapacitates him and drags him on the floor.

 

(I don’t have a lot of things to say about the response but it’s also beautiful it’s just compared to that personally I think Zyko destroyed him but it’s still a wonderful response, one is all about originality and creativity, and the response is jaw dropping technique and musicality)

Popping C is showing a great display of technique, he is a master of popping, and he shows it. The confidence, the easiness yet precise aspect of his dance show a particularly interesting sense of how well he incorporated this style. After all, it’s not for nothing that he is called POPPING c.

 

And for me at this point, popping C barely won the first round but its Zyko who won by a large margin the second round… but what is your opinion, which one did you find best, and why, even if its just a hunch say it, a hunch in art is a valid argument in my opinion, especially when you're not usd to it. Your feelings are always valid in art, and in this one you don't ahve to justify yourself because you're not really analysing a performace, you are comparing 2.

 

SO yeah that’s my break down of the different types of battles, competition and my favorite battle ever.

 

If you’re craving any more battles I advise you to check out the accounts of the big events (just debout, i love this dance, WOD...), but you can also find compilations of dancers or just search hip hop battle and add whatever you want next to it and you’ll find it.

Hope you had a great time, and, until next time, don't forget the pillars of hip hop :

- peace - love - and have fun !