Picture this: Saturday morning, the sun rises over Cockatoo Island, where 150 b-boys are waiting, prim n proper, for the last leg of their journey to their long awaited annual calling. Anyone calling themselves a b-boy/b-girl were there. Crews from Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney, not to mention a few b-boys from Korea, Japan,Holland and the US, were all in attendance. This was no field trip across the water. This was the seventh and final battle of Shadow Wars, the largest and longest running b-boy jam in Australia.
Set in a historic turbine industrial warehouse, the battlegrounds were equipped with the ultimate rubber linoleum flooring (same as those used in Red Bull BC One) that would make any b-boy froth in the mouth. A classic pick up truck sporting Red Bull DJ decks was parked on the corner where LuChi’z of the Dutch Crew, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (LXG), conveyed to the mass the funky rhythms that defined the soul of hip-hop.
Judging the battles, Sydney was graced by the presence of legendary Circle of Fire’s B-Boy Orb, FleaRock of Skill Methodz, and 2009 Red Bull BC One Champion, Wing of Jinjo Crew (Korea). Red Bull also flew out some of the scene’s heavy hitters and up n coming: Born & Goblin of Rivers Crew (Korea), Incredible Josh of Skill Methodz (NYC), Ark of 808 Breakers (Hawaii), FE of Jinjo crew (Korea). Not to mention in attendance was the well respected CrosOne, B-boy Wicket and MC Lee Munro as the battle hosts with special exhibitions by Zulu King Grandmaster Theodore, inventor of the DJ scratch, and BMX guru Simon O’Brien.
More than 1000 spectators flooded through the gates and the B-boys and b-girls repped hard as they fought their way through single elimination rounds against the country’s best. Having devoted all their heart, blood and sweat for the past decade+ to provide the b-boy community of Australia with dope jams, the fathers of Shadow Wars, Mason Rose and Rush Wepiha couldn’t have been more proud at the sight that beheld them at their final Shadow Wars battle. It was an iconic moment not only for them, but also for the hip-hop community of Australia. It may have been the last of Shadows, but as far as hip-hop is concerned, it showed the world that the b-boys and b-girls from Down Under are a force to be reckoned with.
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