« Event Recap: Adidas "Earn Your Stripes" Cypher »

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Rarely is an event so dope that immediately upon leaving I find myself thinking about when it’s gonna happen again. This Sunday’s Adidas "Earn Your Stripes" Cypher at the Adidas store on Telegraph in Berkeley was one of those occasions. What was billed as a free freestyle showcase hosted by Do D.A.T. and featuring artists like WordUp and C Plus, turned more into an opportunity for every type of MC imaginable, from all over The Bay, at all different stages of their careers, to come together, perform for each other, promote their music, and get to meet and hang out with other members of the community.  

The event broke down like this: Do D.A.T. hosted everything and freestyled all day, but he kicked the event off by performing an ill solo track and busting a few flows off the top of the dome. Then the four featured artists of the event, 2011 Bay Area Freshmen Rafael Casal, Daveed Diggs, C Plus and Wordup each took a couple turns rapping verses over instrumentals provided by DJ Aebldee. All of the above MC’s killed it and set the right tone for the rest of the day. While I think most of the Thizzler readers are more than familiar with Rafael Casal and what he brings to the table, especially when it comes to live performances, the lesser known Diggs, C Plus and Wordup really came with it and showed why they are artists to consistently be looking for if you aren’t already. Also, at the end of the featured cypher, the mic was unexpectedly passed to ST Spittin, and despite not expecting to get it at that moment, he came through with a monster verse. It sounded ill to hear him rhyming over some dirty sample based instrumentals, and it makes me hope that we get to hear more of that in the near future. After ST’s verse came the audience portion of the day. A list was passed around prior to the event starting, and everyone who put their name down got an opportunity to step to the mic and spit a written or freestyle. Over 30 MC’s ranging from 2011 Bay Area Freshmen Symba, Priceless Da Roc, Pro2col, Plane Jane, Esque Coast, Enormous Tha Ox, D-Boi, DJ Upgrade, and El Negro, to a whole bunch of great rappers that I had never heard of, all blessed the mic. After the event officially ended inside, the people all headed outside and practically shut down the sidewalk with a massive freestyle cypher that attracted not just those who came to the event, but all sorts of people walking by as well. I think it also scared a handful of parents taking their students to visit UC Berkeley!

As a fan, Earn Your Stripes was impressive to me on two levels: First, practically all of the 30+ MC’s who rocked the mic showed a desire and dedication to being lyrical that hasn’t been seen in The Bay for way too long. Wordplay, cadence, and flow took center stage all day regardless of the content delivered. I don’t know whether to attribute it to the cameras, the crowd full of rappers, producers, DJ’s and promoters, or the overall feel good in the name of hip-hop atmosphere of the day, but it seemed like every performer brought their A game on Sunday. Secondly, after all of the constant talk that’s been going on for years about The Bay needing to come together and have each other’s backs, it was inspiring to see it actually happen. Sunday’s event allowed artists to reach out and support each other regardless of sets, cities, styles/lyrical content, race, career progress or any other dividing lines that exist within hip-hop. Everyone got to rock together, everyone got the crowds attention, and everyone received a round of applause. It was the type of event that even if an MC was scared shitless, and fucked up on the mic (which mos def happened), instead of booing and talking shit, the audience cheered them on and convinced them to keep going. To be honest, that’s kind of unprecedented out here.

I got to give props to the Adidas store for having such a dope event on their premises (everything was 10% of during the show, so make sure to take advantage of that next time!), Vitamin Water for sponsoring and providing free drinks, Do D.A.T. for being the perfect host, Carl Wilson for all the photography in this article, and the audience and hip-hop community for coming together the way they did. Like I said earlier, I can’t wait until the next event, and if you are an aspiring artist looking to gain performance experience, exposure, and to get to know the rest of the local hip-hop community who’s really out there grinding to get their voices heard, then this is something that you have to be a part of next time as well. It’s every first Sunday. Don’t miss it.

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