Body Rock Wins Epiphany Juggling Competition

So the relatively unknown Body Rock Sound won the $2,000 in the Epiphany Juggling Competition, an event that started with 16 sound that eventually were cut down to a final two. Sounds who got a buy (they bypassed 1st round elimination’s) included Black Reaction, Military, Lindo P., and Black Mellody, but with the exception of Black Mellody, all of these sounds forfeited, leaving the stage for Black Mellody and a bunch of new and relatively unknown sounds to make a name for themselves by taking the competition. Judges for the competition included Fabo (Vibes Promotions), Rosa (Soul To Soul), Tyronne (Epiphany/Paradise), and City Kid (City Kid Records). Sounds participating agreed to adhere to rules spanning five categories which included originality, creativity, no swearing or profanity, crowd response, mixing, and juggling etc.

In the 1st round elimination’s, Body Rock prevailed over Killa Force and Nu-X, while XL prevailed over Super Fly and Black Ace. When Ninja Ryders, Team Bravo and Asteroid clashed, it was initially announced that Team Bravo and Asteroid would both advance as they had scored a tie from the judges. Later, Team Bravo were disqualified, leaving Asteroid to advance. Apparently, in reviewing that night’s competition, judges agreed that this sound could not advance as they had essentially borrowed a reggae DJ by using the services of DJ Wiz, who is mostly a solo selector going by the name Wiz Kid. Wiz made matters worse for Team Bravo by drawing a dub plate calling his name, but not Team Bravo’s. In the fourth and final elimination round, Prophet prevailed over Alpha One and Super Force.

The semi-finals started with Body Rock going up against the only experienced clash sound in the competition, Black Mellody. Black Mellody prevailed with little trouble from Body Rock. When Asteroid clashed XL in their semifinals, the two sounds had to fight out a virtual draw that saw XL eventually taking it from Asteroid. When Military forfeited their buy, Barry Culture jumped in to take their place but eventually lost to Prophet. Lindo P. was supposed to go up against Team Bravo in a later quarterfinal, but while Team Bravo had been eliminated, Lindo P. also forfeited With only a lob-sided three sounds left, organizers drew for the fourth sound to be the competition’s loosing sound with the highest point total. That sound was Body Rock. This left the stage for a final four sounds to clash it out – Black Mellody would go up against XL, and Prophet would go up against Body Rock, the winner receiving a nice crisp $3,000 cash prize.

On Wednesday March 28th, Body Rock, who had been previously eliminated by Black Mellody, defeated Prophet, who were eliminated by the judges for not abiding by the rules of microphone and music content. Ironically, Body Rock had been previously eliminated by Black Mellody in an earlier round, but since they had the highest points amongst sounds previously eliminated, were allowed back into the competition as a replacement for sounds who had forfeited They had now earned their ticket to the finals, and were awaiting the outcome of the Black Mellody Vs XL semifinals scheduled for the following Sunday. In a tight finish, Black Mellody narrowly escaped the antics of XL, and had earned their ticket to the finals against Body Rock, a sound that they had already beaten in the competition’s first round.

So finally the stage was set for the first Epiphany Clash champion. Would it be the relatively new yet confident Body Rock, or would it be the mighty Black Mellody, a sound who had already tasted victory with a victory a few years back over Studio Mixx. In the first round, Black Mellody charged through the gate, and clearly outplayed and outperformed Body Rock with their first round performance. Body Rock came back strong in Round Two, and by winning this round, evened up the competition. This set the stage for one final round (there was no dub-fi-dub) where winner takes all.

That round belonged to Body Rock, who thrived off the fact that Black Mellody for some unknown reason, deviated from their reggae and were focusing on hip hop to prove their versatility. The only problem was – Black Mellody had brought in two new White DJs who clearly were out of their environment. Their specialty was hip hop, but hip-hop wasn’t working that night. They were then made to play the reggae, but it didn’t look real (clearly, they knew nothing about reggae) and the crowd primarily reggae crowd wasn’t fooled.

Body Rock was quick to point out that the White guy in their crew was the only real White guy in the place – one who could not only select and mix, but who could also talk the mic and speak the patois. There were right, and the Black mellody antic had backfired, ultimately costing them dearly in the competition. Once Body Rock knew that had the crowd with their antics, it was just a matter of sealing the competition by play;ying well selected championship reggae tunes. They got straight to the point, and experienced 15 minutes of glory as it was clear by their crowd’s loud and excited response that they had won the clash.