"Mission 45 Clash Tournament" Date: 4/18 (Sat) Loaction: Studio Partita (大阪府大阪市住之江区北加賀屋4-1-55 名村造船跡地) Time: Open 22:00 / Start 0:30 All Night Ticket: Adv 3000yen / Door 3500yen
Featring Sound: Sound Platinum from Osaka Rock Desire from Osaka Oasis Rising Sound from Osaka Fire Works from Osaka Blazing Master from Kyoto Sweetsop from Tokyo
"Roots Steppers Dubdance" Feat. Judah Eskander Tafari, Digital English, Black Redemption Date: 4/19(Sun) Location: Santo Party House (96 Lafayette St, New York) Time: 10pm Open Subway: Canal St Admission: $10
On Friday, April 10th the Legends David Rodigan, Jack Scorpio, King Jammy and Downbeat the Ruler met at Amazura for one of the biggest clashes of the year.
The rules for this one were fairly complex but important to keep in mind for this narritive. There were four 15 minute rounds. Each of these rounds were worth 3 points. When these rounds were done, all artists go straight to Chune Fi Chune. Each win in the Chune fi Chune round is worth 1 point. After 5 tunes one person gets eliminated and then there are 5 more chune fi chune worth 1 point each.
ROUND ONE:
Rodigan was up first -- dressed to the nines -- and set the tone with a nice Peter Hunningdale Dub of Marley's THANK YOU LORD. He then went into some nice likkle set of chunes highlighting both his knowledge and his awareness of the dancehall vibes of Brooklyn.
Jack Scorpio then got up and appeared to seriously be a giant -- Dude must be 6' 7" and towered over the st age. His first tune was Beres' No Disrespect and it seriously flopped. I started almost to get nervous that Scorpio would just play some seriously boring music and totally kill the vibe. But, surprise of surprises, the man started pulling a heap of nice dubs of Jammy's sleng teng including Bushman's "Call the Hearse" and John Wayne's "Call The Police". Scorpio felt the vibes and was doing all sorts of crazy dances and basically getting the crowd on his side by surprising everyone with his energy.
Down Beat was next and played a good, but uninspired set including Gladiators "Tribulation Dub" and Sluggy's "Lightning & Thunder". However, this set kind of fizzled out in the end with some Gregory dubs that didn't really work.
Jammys got up and played some classic Jammys and got an okay response with Johnny's "In The Area" and Nitty Gritty "Good Morning Teacher" but slowed down with selection and fizzled out.
Winner: SCORPIO
2nd Round:
Rodigan had a wicked round going into his Bounty Killer box and dropping a heap of nice dubs. Ended the round with some old pre-release specials from Slim Smith that I thought were wicked. These were specials that Rodigan picked up in the 70s from KING TUBBY that were one-of-a-kind mixes of "My Conversation" and "Beatude".
Scorpio got up and started his set with some weird ass soca shit and just basically flopped himself from the start.
Downbeat Took this round in a massive way playing a killer set of Marcia dubs including "I Shall Sing" and a massive set of Dubs that started with Ken Parker's "My Whole World is Falling Down" and then rode that riddim with a Shabba and a nice Sluggy dub of "95% Black".
Jammy then took the stage and en ded up getting booed.
Winner: DOWNBEAT!
3rd Round:
Rodigan just kind of flopped in this round playing nothing special.
Scorpio got up and did nothing special except for one Dobby Dobson dub which got a nice forward.
Downbeat came out wicked starting with a killer Jr. Delgado dub on the Revolution riddim and then tore down the place with a set of Pressure & Slide Dubs. Then got a HUGE forward with Roy Richards "Freedom Blues" and ended in a massive way with a Mighty Diamonds dub of "Tear off the Roof"
Jammy came out and flopped again and got mad boos.
Since time was moving fast, they went straight for the Chune Fi Chune.
J ammy won this one with Super Black - Deh Wid You.
Jammy continued to win the Chune fi Chune with a set of classic Jammys tunes, a Tenor Saw dub, so me Nitty Gritty and eventually eliminated Rody and Scorpio.
Then it was Chun e fi Chune with Downbeat and Jammys both having 6 points.
At this point Downbeat lost his stride getting too caught up in incontroversies relating to a suspect B urning Spear dub that Jammys played. If I were Down Beat I would have countered Jammy's selections with some classic 80s material that I know he has like Red Rose "Tempo" or something like that. If he had done that it would have thrown Jammy's momentum. In any case Jammy's ended up winning with 9 points to Downbeat's 7 points. I thought it was too bad that Downbeat played so wicked in the Rounds and ended up getting beaten out in the Chune fi Chune as Jammy's played TERRIBLE in the rounds. But that is the Clash Life and these things happen.
Big up to ECさん (Overheat) as his brilliant film "RuffN' Tuff - Founders of the Immortal Riddim" debuts in the US at the Sacramento Film Festival on April 2.
"Dub Club Presents Brigadier Jerry Backed By Yellow Wall Dub Squad Mixed By Scientist Inna Dubwaise Fashion"
