Red Bull Culture Clash NYC

The Red Bull Culture Clash held in New York City unofficially kicked off the summer for me! Not only is it Caribbean American Heritage Month, the event was inspired by parades in New York City tied to cultural heritage, where teams from the West Indies, Latino, Pride, and Asian American communities showcased their unique cultural elements in a friendly yet fierce sound clash. 

Tune in to hear about my experience rooting for the West Indian team “No Long Talk” team, who displayed their competitive edge in understanding “clash” culture. Fans who created the loudest cheers for their teams helped them win relatively undisputed. I dive into the meticulous setup, the spirited interactions with fellow attendees, and the unique decorations that made each cultural group stand out. Whether you're a Caribbean music aficionado or someone who loves cultural festivities, this episode promises to bring you right into the heart of the action, capturing the essence of a summer kickoff like no other.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the Style and Vibes podcast with yours truly Makayla. I hope you are doing well. If you are new to the family, welcome to the family. If you're returning, welcome back, family. Today it's another solo episode with me. I've been in the streets.

Speaker 1: 0:21

I wanted to do a quick recap of the Red Bull Culture Clash. As you guys know, red Bull Music does a lot of cultural events related to different genres of music and of course, caribbean music is one of them, but also they like to highlight clashes. They've done stuff in Atlanta, in Jamaica, and so they brought it here to New York. So I was in town, I was available and was able to attend the New York version of that culture clash. So they did a take on parades in New York. So every culture kind of has their own parade. Representing the West Indies was the no Long Talking team, so I'll get more into that. You also had Ramezcla. They are a Latino-focused music brand based here in New York, and then you had Poppy Juice, which was representing pride, as well as Eastern Standard Times. So that was the Asian American community representing all the different facets of Asian culture. So it was really a connection of different cultures and really what I would like to call a showcase. So you know, you tell West Indian people, caribbean people, that is a clash and we come for war. So I think that that is probably one of the biggest distinctions that I had, but it was overall, it was a great event. It was really great to kick off the summer that way.

Speaker 1: 1:57

It was the beginning of June. The first day in June, it was really warm, nice weather. Couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. I was in Brooklyn, so that's where they had it. It was right over I think it was in Williamsburg, so it was a nice outdoor venue. When you walked in, you kind of saw all of the Red Bull trucks and they had a bar. They had a small market where you could buy from different vendors. You could buy merch as well as food. The bar, of course, was branded with all things red bull.

Speaker 1: 2:35

So how I heard about the event, dj puffy, who I follow on instagram, he posted about it and so you could either rsvp it was a free event or you could buy a t-shirt. So that would give you like a promo code, which I never actually got, but I was able to get in anyway, so I did buy the t-shirt, the no Long Talking t-shirt so you could buy the t-shirt for the truck that you wanted to represent. You had to pick up the shirt there, so it's not like you could wear it to kind of represent. But what I loved about the decor is they centered it around this meter. It was like a mini circle and each stage had a truck an actual truck on it and it was decorated for that particular cultural group representation. So each one was very different. So of course, me take up the Nulang Takin truck and they were giving out flags and they were giving out horns.

Speaker 1: 3:35

So by the time I actually got there, I think I was maybe in the second round, so I wasn't there for the opening round. I do know that I think it went maybe about three or four rounds. I was coming in at the, the tail end of the first round, so by the time I had walked around they were already kind of in that end round. So I don't know who got. Who got there first. I don't know what the pre vibes were, so I can only give you the, the vibes and the setup from when I got there.

Speaker 1: 4:07

So the sound meter is important because essentially, each team went, they did their set. They might've had maybe five to eight minutes to play their set and then you would cheer into this small microphone that was located in front of each truck and, based on the sound of the people, the meter in the middle would go up and so you wanted to make sure that you had the loudest sound. So it's similar to West Indian culture, jamaican culture, where you do sound, clash and you're kind of looking for the biggest forward or the biggest excitement. So in that respect it was similar. However, I do think that, aside from Ramezcla, the other two teams Eastern Standard Time and Papi Juice really just came to showcase their culture, because essentially it wasn't really a battle necessarily. They were literally just, you know, displaying different sounds, dances, they had performances, the decor, they had their own merch that they were were giving out like freebie items. I think poppy juice gave out like fans. Um, I can't remember what eastern standard time gave out, but I really enjoyed seeing the, the, the cultural exchange.

Speaker 1: 5:39

However, you put clash in adenium and the people then was not ready for a clash, so in my opinion, it was definitely more of a showcase. Um, and I do think romesco got robbed of the, the round that I walked into because I think that they should have won that round. Um, they had a really good set and essentially each round you get um a certain level of points, and so Poppy Juice had won a round and then, no Long Talking, basically won the rest. So it was very one-sided in terms of the scoring because essentially they just didn't really come prepared, in a sense, and then they had one round where they had to. They each had a particular New York theme song in which they had to remix. So that was done prior to them even getting on stage and they were able to create this song and showcase it for the first time.

Speaker 1: 6:47

And because no one, I don't think, really enjoyed that round, so it was kind of set a different tone, I guess you would say. I mean, it was good, it was creative, but it wasn't really, you know, typical Clash things. So, as a Jamaican, when I think of Clash, I think of dub plates and I think of, you know, sounds going at each other in terms of who had the best delivery, who had the best bravado, like it's a competition. So I don't think that that was clearly understood and I think we've seen this happen in the US when they did the one in Atlanta, even to some degree in the UK. So I really think that they should restructure this whole entire thing. It's either going to be a clash and people really kind of stick to what the rules are and I'll get to that in a minute or you present it as a showcase and then you're basically just displaying cultures and everyone is more of a cultural exchange than it is a clash because, as I said, you put clash in that anything we did Ready for War, and that was very evident because we were really the only team with dub plays. No Long Talking was I'm saying we, like as if I was on stage no Long Talking was the only one that came prepared with actual dub plays. I think the others they had drops, they had a special guest, but they didn't really have any actual dub plays. So I think that was kind of what I observed as well. And Romesco, like they had some good job.

Speaker 1: 8:33

I thought that they were going to play some dubs, but they didn't. I think they had a really interesting strategy because they played a lot of dancehall rhythms, the Diwali rhythm. They had Lumi D come out. Nina Sky was on their team officially because they actually DJ now. So if you know Nina Sky from the early 2000s, they've had a good number of songs, but then they kind of transitioned into DJs their twins and so they were on the team as well as some other DJs.

Speaker 1: 9:07

They had Tony Touch, you know, and he's an amazing DJ. I've heard him, I've seen him play and so he had some drops. So he had like a Sean Paul drop. He played Coffee's song and I was just like, oh, did he get a coffee double? So that would have been a really great opportunity for them to really have an actual dub. I I was surprised to even hear the the drop, to be honest. Um, but also, it wasn't a dub play, it was more like a drop that he would play like on the radio during his set. Um, so again, that's not really a dub play.

Speaker 1: 9:44

Whereas no Long Talk and they came, came with this allison hindubs murdery ashan, murdery ashan, murdery ashan, and that was only in. I think that was like in round three, three, I think it was round three. They played that. Uh, they did a really good job. No long talking did a really good job like building up, because all the other groups had their special guests come on early, and so no Long Talk and Save their special guests.

Speaker 1: 10:13

For the last round they had Shasia Payne, who is Stephen Marley's daughter, bob Marley's granddaughter. She was there and she's a DJ and so she had good dubs. You know she had dubs with her dad and Uncle Damien, and then she brought out her cousin YG Marley, and then he brought out Y Club Sean. So they really didn't stand a chance in terms of the other teams because you know they brought out their special guests early. I think you know they brought up their special guests early, I think.

Speaker 1: 10:50

But Ramez Club, to me they had like the closest idea of understanding what they came to do because essentially they used dancehall rhythms. They had the special guests, they really brought the vibes. You know, they added a vibe to the entire cultural showcase, um, and they they had Jim Jones came out. They had I can't remember he's on a song with Big Pun and it's really famous and got a big forward on, just like the guests you know that they had and that they brought in the last round, and so they put up a good fight. So I was kind of upset that it didn't get have any points on the board, um, but again it was the screaming meter that really kind of decided who won um and you know, said we load all the time.

Speaker 1: 11:40

But I think the interesting thing too is how they could have restructured it. So, so, as I'm observing and Eastern Standard Time, like I would have loved them as a showcase, like to be honest, I really enjoyed their set. I enjoyed their special guests. They gave a huge shout out to Black culture and Black people because, you know, there's definitely has been some tension, particularly over the last few years, in terms of really bubbling up with the Black community, asian community. They wove that in, you know, really talking about how much Black culture has contributed to their creativity and their creative musical process. They got a big forward, you know, for just really acknowledging that. And then their artists were actually really good. Like I felt like I was listening to like a new artist or someone I had never heard before, and they had like some R&B and hip hop sounds. They had dancers, they had a violinist, they had costumes. So I really enjoyed their set, but just in a different way, because I was ready to hear a clash and I didn't hear it. So here's how I think that this thing could be restructured. If we're going to continue to do this in the US and we're going to continue to call it a clash Because there were so many opportunities for them to really, really clash they could have taken a sample out of Ramezco's book but actually go there and really get different artists from different genres to create the dub plates, like that was core number one.

Speaker 1: 13:24

It looked like they need like an advisor for each team, someone who actually knows clash and who knows what a dub plate is, to really give them a little bit more um, structure around how they execute, because this just wasn't it, this this wasn't it. And I think where they would value, particularly if they had an advisor a clash advisor, if you will is they would understand how to structure a dub blade, how to structure comebacks, how to talk on the microphone, because then just kill, kill the people, them them, just kill the people, them, um, and so it wasn't really a fair fight. Or what they could do is do the showcase of all the different cultures and then have two west indian crews really do a clash, so that you can really see what a true clash looks like. So, if you're going to have that name, really live up to the clash. So the one in Jamaica, I think, was the perfect one. Of course it's in Jamaica, so that's what they do, but they really got local crews in Jamaica.

Speaker 1: 14:36

It created different teams. That's why the energy of the Jamaica show was different, and I watched that because I wasn't there, but watching that on YouTube it was definitely a different energy. All in all, I had a really good time. It was a great way to kick off the summer. Like I said, I really enjoyed the cultural showcase with all the different cultures and what everyone brought to the table. But I do think that there is an opportunity to restructure it. If you're going to call it a clash, make sure everybody understand the rules and make sure they follow them. Give them a clash advisor, or just make it a showcase. Don't make it a clash, don't make it a competition and then expect a different vibe. So would love to hear your thoughts. I'm sure you've seen some of the clips. Please let me know what you think if you were there and what are your thoughts. Just let me know. So until next time, leah Tomei Peeps.