REVIEW | BREAKIN’ CONVENTION PARK JAM 2019

By Apex Zero • On Reviews ,

bc1After the incred­ible events of Jonzi D’s Breakin’ Con­ven­tion, held for its 16thyear at Sadler’s Wells, it was time for the 2019 Park Jam. The fam­ily friendly, day­time block party encap­su­lates the best prin­ciples of Hip Hop and Breakin’ Con­ven­tion in a free event full of dan­cers, cal­lis­then­ic workouts, live graf­fiti, inde­pend­ent stores selling books, hair­cuts, cloth­ing and I Am Hip Hop Magazine issue 5 (go kop that!!), good food, good vibes and amaz­ing live music, all stuffed into Spa Fields Park. The music stage, pro­grammed by DJ Snuff – a cer­ti­fied ver­teb­rae of the back­bone of London’s Hip Hop and live music scenes – is always adorned with a huge line-up ran­ging from new­comers to legends. This year the stage was rammed full of tal­ent, as has come to be expec­ted, all held togeth­er by DJ Jazz T on the decks and Mys­Diggi & Mas Law on crowd control.

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The day star­ted kinda cold, threat­en­ing to rain but instead warmed up, break­ing into glor­i­ous sun­shine as the day went on, peak­ing just as the head­liners hit the stage; renowned Soul star Terri Walk­er and the God­fath­er him­self Rod­ney P, with these OGs of our scene run­ning through solo sets of clas­sic mater­i­al. Rod­ney P moved through bangers like ‘The Nice Up’, ‘Holes in the Build­ing’ and ‘Live Up’ where he was joined on stage by Peoples Army Gen­er­al Logic, before Terri Walk­er came through drop­ping body movers like ‘Draw­ing Board’ and ‘Guess You Didn’t Love Me’, tak­ing me back to the days vibes­in’ to these tracks as an adoles­cent. Rod­ney joined his sis­ter on stage for their new fyah col­lab­or­a­tion ‘The Break­out’ a bass heavy dub rid­dim, due for release on her forth­com­ing 2019 EP with the same name.

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The head­liners were pre­ceded by the legendary record break­er Daddy Freddy, per­form­ing his new col­lab­or­a­tion with Sleepy Time Ghost ‘Bun Dem Out’, and a dope per­form­ance by one of London’s best lyr­i­cists Reveal from Pois­on Poets. The stage was also blessed by 3x EOW Eng­land Champ Gee Bag with DJ Down­stroke (and his daugh­ter), ragga sing­er K9, spe­cial­ist sheller Janset, R&B song­stress Vanessa Jam­ie, poet I.Am.Shaheed, ill emcees Eerf  Evil, Ver­bz and Kieron Boothe, a show­case by the young tal­ents of Breakin’ Convention’s Future Ele­ments, as well as the immense tal­ent of house bands Nihil­ism and Hyper­nova. The show ended with a crazy open mic cypher, held togeth­er by an ever-chan­ging lineup of mem­bers of each band and emcees includ­ing Oliv­er Sud­den and Skandouz of FRSHRZ.

It was anoth­er beau­ti­ful Park Jam event, with legendary Hip Hop heads pop­ping up through­out the whole day, many with their kids, really show­ing how united good vibes can make people. Take a look at our playl­ist of per­form­ances below, it’ll be enough to tie you over until Park Jam 2020!

Foot­age by: Apex Zero

Pho­to­graphy by: Paul Hampartsoumian

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Apex Zero

An emcee, beat­maker, film­maker and writer from Lon­don with Gren­adian roots, Apex Zero has spent his life learn­ing and liv­ing Hip Hop cul­ture, using it to inspire and affect change. Based in Beijing for a few years and reg­u­larly tour­ing the globe, Apex is well trav­elled, and uses the les­sons this provides to inform his art and out­look. He is a mem­ber of the Glob­al­Fac­tion digit­al pro­duc­tion house and the inter­na­tion­al Hip Hop col­lect­ive End of the Weak.

About Apex Zero

An emcee, beatmaker, filmmaker and writer from London with Grenadian roots, Apex Zero has spent his life learning and living Hip Hop culture, using it to inspire and affect change. Based in Beijing for a few years and regularly touring the globe, Apex is well travelled, and uses the lessons this provides to inform his art and outlook. He is a member of the GlobalFaction digital production house and the international Hip Hop collective End of the Weak.