, ,

Suspect Red Bull Music

On the 21st of August, Red Bull held their "Big Tune" beat making competition out in Chicago. I got an anonymous e-mail from a head who was at the venue that night, speaking about some suspect fuckery that went down that night. I'll quote them throughout this piece. Here's the start of it:

...something wasn't right last night... there's supposed to be 12 producers in the battle... before 9pm (they) only had 10 so they went out into the crowd waiting outside to find 2 cats that had beats on em... they found two.. one, a production duo that they didn't give too much of a shit about... THEN a young energetic but shy kid (about 17) named Rob Bates... Now dont get me wrong, Bates did his thing and we were all VERY proud of the kid, but there is reason to believe he was set up to win. They sent the final 2 contestants to New York.... C-Sick and Rob Bates... Both dope... dope enough? im not too sure to be good and honest...they grab producers out the crowd to fill every year, but again this wasn't right. here's what went down... about a half hour before the show, i was standing in the green room and the coordinators of the event were sitting there talking and bullshittin like i wasn't even there. They start talking about the two producers that end up filling the last two spots.. but emphasize on Rob Bates for the duration of the conversation... that's when i heard something that im not entirely sure was meant for my ears. one coordinator said to the other AND I QUOTE "you know it sure would be a hell of a crowd pleaser if Bates came off the street and took this thing"... there was a pause, dude smiled and they started laughing... at this point thinking nothing of it, i left and went back outside... ut once we got going something was definitely wrong... 3 of the STRONGEST producers... the 3 producers that didn't sound like replicas of the other 9 were ALL eliminated within the first fifteen minutes. the first fifteen minutes dog! i started to be concerned. basically they seemingly knocked them out in order to make it a bit of an easier road for Bates to dominate a crop of producers he could easily dominate... he WASNT challenged... all his competition was the same.. they all sounded like southern replicas... C-Sick also had his moments; J-Slikk, Tall Black Guy and J-Rell woulda given them fits in the finals...

Sounds kind of wild, right? Like, you ever watch pro wrestling, where some cat is seemingly picked out of the audience and thrown into a match, only to win (ala Santino Marella's entry into the WWE)? Sounds kind of like that; the e-mail goes further, though:

the winner is judged solely on "crowd participation"... so when the three producers that shoulda competed throughout the evening were knocked out... it MAY not have been the case. the crowd was louder for all 3 of them... it was close so they had them scream again... in all 3 cases the db level for them was slightly louder but the challenger was awarded the win... and ANOTHER thing... one of the coordinators was all in the camera for his interview with him big uppin' Bates like crazy. He didn't do that with any others. its also funny how, the red bull staff was on everyone's nuts for two days... soon as you were eliminated they wouldn't even look in their direction. bates was just really there to pass out fliers for the Pac Div show next weekend... he just so happened to have a beat CD on him...

So what say you? Definitely sounds like some suspect fuckery goings on at this event to hype up the NY show...
Share:

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Big ups to homie for the look on the beat battle. I was in attendance and I'm also good friends with Bates and J. Slikk who competed in the competition.Here's my spin on it.

I was actually outside talkin to Bates when Jonathan Moore and Jake One came out to select Rob to be in the comp. We were just talkin about him (Rob) doin a beat on my project. Coincidentally, Jonathan Moore overheard our convo. Long story short, Moore asked Bates if he had some beats he was willing to play. Bates responded yea and he played about 4 beats for him off his iPod. After listening to the beats, Moore and Jake One gave him the thumbs up on being in the competition.

The rest was history from there. It's crazy because when Bates first arrived, I asked him if he was in the competition. He replied "No. I sent the application but no one responded". Now my homie is on his way to NY.

Bates knocked out the Defending Champ, he knocked out the crowd favorite, lost to C-Sick, but came back as the wild card. Won his wild card match. Ended up losing in a close championship round. Pretty impressive for someone who had no idea he would compete

Anonymous said...

And this is exactly why I will continue to do what I do, by making good music that will take me places. Keep on with the [[anti]] love. I need more haters like you.

What's most disappointing about this is you don't know anything about who I am or where I come from. I can not say what you did or did not hear backstage but what I will say is I heard it for myself, with my own ears, the roar from the crowd when they voted for me each round. I heard the roar when they voted to bring me back. I heard the roar for when I made it to the final round, thus I will be going to New York because I earned it. Now, it is sad that the fellas from Red Bull felt as if they had to do something to "spice it up." Just as other producers feel, I feel as if they need to let the music and overall craftsmanship speak for itself.
The fact that you actually went home and took the time to write up this nonsense about it being rigged is ridiculous though. I mean really, what do you have to gain?

Lastly, I just want to say you need to learn a thing or two about respect, sir. I am 19, not 17. I am not just a child. I have had my fair share of battles, probably more than you, but I won't make any sort of assumptions about who you are, because that is not who I am or what I do. I was talking to C-sick, who is 17, when we were backstage and I said to him along with my boy Rio, who was a finalist last year, "I'm mad they made us, the two youngest producers, go head to head so early on in this competition when clearly we're two of the best here."
I said this because I knew, as did he, as did everyone else in the building, that our music was ill and that compared to these other cats with years of production under their belts, we were really bringing the heat, which they did not expect us to do so.

Now I will save the unpleasant words of which I had for you when I first sat down and read this and I will close this with a message to you and all other readers:

I am Rob Bates, not just a producer, but someone who works hard and earns his keep. Why did I have a beat CD? Well, anyone who knows anything about music knows that the Red Bull Big Tune Beat Battle is a great place to network and you never know who you might run into. NO, THEY ARE NOT PAYING ME TO SAY THIS. I knew Premier was going to be there, I have a lot of respect for him. I knew there would be a lot of other producers there too. I always come prepared, it is who I am as a person, and it is a skill that many others need to learn still. You should have come prepared to hear good music instead of wasting your time trying to hate on those in the competition/those hosting the competition. Hating won't get you anywhere. Also, any idiot would know that it is a smart idea to bring music incase any other producers dropped out. I happened to be there early enough. I had the confidence in myself that I could do well in this competition, because if I didn't I would have never spoken up when they said that two producers hadn't shown. I overheard their conversation and spoke up, fam. I would have just saved myself the embarrassment if I had any doubt in my mind I wouldn't do well.

PS. If you go back and watch the videos, listen to the crowd reaction, listen to the tracks, etc. youll see I'm right. If they lost out then they should have came harder, regardless of what was rigged in your opinion. There shouldn't have been any doubts or questions as to who was better. But somehow there was, thats why in the first round alone, we had to go 3 and 3 with beats. YEAH, it was that close. If they were oh so much better, it shouldn't have been. Stop being a sore loser, and show support for real city cats, damn it. I'm tired of BS from haters like you when I've busted my ass time and time again to prove myself.

If you have an issue you can take it up with me, my myspace is http://www.MySpace.com/RobBates

khal said...

@Rob Bates. Dog, I am not disrespecting you at all. Dunno who directed you to this post (possibly the same Red Bull people who emailed me on Saturday), but obviously you didn't read this. I did not say I was there, nor did anyone discount the work YOU did. What I am doing is posting some views that heads hit ME with. Re-read the post before you fly off the handle making accusations about shit I didn't even say, or calling ME a sore loser when I wasn't even in the competition, nor do I produce!

Anonymous said...

I've seen rob bates win based on rigging before. Don't know why. Not all that great. Most chicago producers don't have their own style in the first place. STeal it from us on the east