support your scene campaign

everybody has a "support your scene" mentality when they are setting up an event or doing anything when they are trying to rally support for themselves. In my scene i think it's hillarious when people attempt to lecture me on the support your scene mentality (from here on out will be "sys")

Now here's why i think this is funny. Almost no body upstate has a true support the scene mentality. They only want to support those that support them, which is fine, but that goes against the whole support everybody thing. You should attempt to give your support first and hope that people support you back. A scene CANNOT EXIST without the local community.

Now here's a little history about my events.

I started breaking with the Binghamton university break dancing crew (at the time called) "Nervous Breakdown". They used to host an event called Battle in The Boonies hosted by Abe Heisler who also started the nervous breakdown crew. (Sometime around 2000-2001). It stopped being hosted around 06 a few years before i even knew about breaking. 
~2008~ i enter the scene and am practicing from time to time, i was working a full time landscaping job making 10 an hour, so at 18 i was ballin for money. the NBC wanted to host an event but didnt have the funds, i wasn't really into the breaking as much but i decided to host the event with the support and promotion of the club.


Battle in the boonies returned for another 12 or so events from 2008 when i started hosting again to 2011 with us looking to host a BIG event sometime in 2012 (i wanted it to be in the spring but it looks like it's going to be in the fall) reason being is that the middle man between me and the company "girl a" was attempting to embezzle money and make it look like i did it. So we canceled the promotion for the event and are attempting to do this our own way.


After throwing my first event i got hit up by David Bryant an Allentown, PA local who was working for a company that wanted to venture out into something different for their events. David and his breather Xavier break a little bit (i don't know how much anymore) but primarily David was a runner. So long story short they contracted me to setup the event with a list of dj's and judges that i thought would be good for the gig. They then asked me to come down and help run the event to make sure everything ran smoothly. This later became the event known as Mayfair Breakdancing Challenge. I would help setup and be a silent co-host for another 2 years until David stopped working for that particular company and handed control of the event over to his brother Xavier. Who apparently had so little to do with the actual event that he didn't even know who i was.




After silently co-hosting with david, i decided to throw another few events for Battle in the boonies. I was contacted by a local bboy named Ian Turner who wanted to host an event. I didn't even know there was bboys in ithaca until the day i got the facebook/myspace message (i cant remember which). Again my whole thing is giving people the tools to do the event. This came to be known as Break IC, which later turned control over to Kyle Fenton, and now Ninjong Lu. This was in 09 i believe. And am working with them to this day at every event they have hosted since. The only one i didn't have a major hand in was the most recent one where Dj Kaos was on the 1+2's, I judged along side with Outbreak (binghamton) and a syracuse bboy (whos name escapes me atm, but ill come back and edit it)

  
When World Of Dance came to NYC, i was the lead promoter for upstate ny. I was offered a spot for an expo battle as well as free entry into the event and a place to crash with some of the other promoters for the event. Having looked back on it, i wish i had done it, but at the time no one knew anything about WOD in ny so i didn't really trust the whole thing.



Picking up steam i was contacted by a few promoters in philly who wanted me to co-host/judge an event. I didn't want to judge because after the battle in the boonies fiasco (i wasn't good enough to judge, and because of a man holding the DMV at gunpoint and killing a ton of people across the street from the bus station,2/3 judges couldn't make it. so i had to judge and just wasn't qualified) and i didnt want it to look bad on that event. The host of this jam is Jed Lin, the jam Break the Limits. I helped him compile a list of dj's and judges, ultimately he went his own way with the event but that's the bonus of being the host, you do what you want.It turned out to be a solid event. Since BTL has started they have thrown a total of 6 events in the last 2 years i believe. this jam started in 2010


The co-founder of the original rocksteady crew JoJo had me setup his events in elmira, ny. He has started a crew called Orignal Skillz and thus named his events that. 2 years later he's still hosting the event on his own for the most part, he'll ask me about judges from time to time.

Kathryn Sundiang Hosts Technical Grounds, when Rit was first setting up the event, they contacted me for suggestions and asked me to come help make sure everything ran smoothly and to this day ask me for input and people to judge/dj and what i think.


Buffalo Breakdown hosted by Ryan Nash contacted me for suggestions about hosting his event, who to judge/dj. He ultimately only wanted information on the actual running of the event which is dope. Not everyone shares the same idea's on judges/djs.


Lovers Rock hosted by Ill-literate/emergy of Sessions 31 when hosting this event asked me for ideas on judges as well as different idea's on running the event and then invited me down with free entry to the event to come check it out. I didn't have an overwhelming amount of input into this event but i have helped promote it and have had a part in the decision making process



I have set up bboy tactics with the host phat lam from the ground up and am apart of almost every major decision made concerning the event. I could go into details but some of them are more on personal issues then they actually have to do with the event. The main decision made is to not host it on the same day as buffalo so there isn't competition between the two.



Battle in the boonies
mayfair
break ic
original skillz
break the limits
lovers rock
BBoy Tactics


are the events i've helped get off the ground


That's not even talking about the local events that i only support and don't have a hand setting up. When i first started doing events i wasn't doing everything right, and honestly no one besides battle at buffalo upstate was. There was an event host (who will remain nameless for the time being) who was constantly doing things wrong. We got into a huge beef and basically shut down any of his events, and he shut down any of mine. Forcing people to only have one option (battle at buffalo). This feud did wonders for them and really helped them make the local scene like syracuse,rochester,ithaca, go to an event further away, that way they didnt step on anyones toes because everyone has some sort of allegiance to them.


when the actual beef settled, we called a truce and decided it's best for the scene to not have an issue like this where they can only choose one event. So i started promoting his events for him and helping him with the events. he would call me to see my personal views on events, have me help him choose dates for events, judges. and work with him. Since this happened, his events have tripled in attendance and people enjoy his events now


Now in more recent times i have had a beef with buffalo's host because i feel he's not doing things right. he's doing things on a business base which is fine but selling stuff otherwise. I dont buy into voodoo, and i don't buy into what people sell either until i see some actual action from it. I dont support how he does things, but i still support his events because i think its good for people to go to. 


Zero Gravity
Battle at Buffalo




So when you come to me about supporting my scene... i'm writing the book right now. Do i always do things right? No def not. But you always know where i stand, and if i make a mistake i own up to it. So next time you come talk to me about support my scene, you should know how much effort i put into events that i'll never get credit for aside from this little blog that maybe 10 people will read