By Jen Thuy-Tien
Contributing Writer
Staff Page
Last night at The Social, Florida’s best emcees battled for a spot to compete at Detroit in the final round of Red Bull Emcee: The Road to 8 Mile. The Road to 8 Mile is a freestyle rap competition composed by Eminem. The Road to 8 Mile stops in several cities throughout the United States to search for the country's finest freestylers. Thus far, an emcee has been chosen from New York City, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Orlando. On August 5, the battle series will be making a stop in Greensboro, North Carolina.
The battle in Orlando was hosted by D.R.E.S. tha BEATnik and Orlando’s own MADD ILLZ. Florida’s ultimate emcee was chosen by Orlando rappers, Swamburger and Drect and Minnesota’s Brother Ali. The list of battling emcees included High Collide, Johnny Strom, Rugged, Isaac Folch, Strife, Surgeon General, LMS and Alex Minor. The battle came down to Surgeon General and Johnny Strom. Johnny Storm ultimately seized the title of Florida’s Red Bull Emcee. After his victory, Storm addressed the crowd by saying, “You know, we’re [Orlando] going to take this home." To this, the crowd clapped and cheered.
The night was eye-opening for me, because it was the first freestyle event I have ever attended. I laughed, I “oohed” and I learned. In the battle’s first round, emcees were given five images at random to base their freestyles on. The winners from that round later rapped in the second round about words that were texted by both the judges and the live audience before being shown on a screen. These were some of the words: Platypus, high thigh socks, perpendicular square, and anthropology. In the third and final round, the remaining two contestants went head-to-head in a traditional freestyle battle. It was amazing to watch the contestants rap on the spot with rhymes that were witty, on rhythm and--every now and then--packed with substantial content. I learned that there are so many underlying messages in an emcees’s freestyle.
As much as it was a great showcase of Florida’s best freestylers, last night’s battle at The Social was also a great event that presented humor, entertainment, the meaning of real hip-hop music and the general love for the genre. Before the winner was chosen, judge Brother Ali performed some of his own songs concerning love and peace.
I left The Social with a new perspective on freestyling. The insults, which were humorous, were not the main point of the freestyle but the deliverance and the underlying message of it.
Good luck to Johnny Storm in Detroit.See more pictures from the event by Danh Nguyen.