DharmaEater
Member
BGz is shorthand for BattleGroundz.
I see a lot of people on here have their own opinions on footwork, but people in Chicago have even stronger opinions...
my 2¢: I regularly went out to BattleGroundz, and fucked with da WarZone a couple of times. During the time I was there, they were completely different environments, with pretty different scenes. They were/are both on Sunday evening (sometimes there are BGz or WZ special events on other nights), so there's kinda a divide in the scene on who can go to which event. Most people kinda have a defacto allegiance to their spots, which kinda has to deal with location (BGz=South, WZ=West) and a few other factors. Some people have even put out diss tracks to the other location, which can be fucking hilarious. Anyone catch EQ Why's "Them Girls at WarZone Suck Dick" track he put up on soundcloud a few weeks ago?
BattleGroundz is at dance studio/community center on the Southside and is raw as fuck. Reese, the main organizer of the dance studio, is a fucking dawg and supposedly has a documentary coming out about him and his studio. Before moving to Chicago I was involved with the DIY punk scene from my area, and I think if you try, you can draw a lot of parallels between something like DIY punk spots and places like BGz or the Slaughterhouse (the footwork equivalent of an underground Punk House out on the far west side of Chicago). People who go out to BGz are there to dance, DJ, socialize, and chill, but when it boils down to it, everyone is there to support footwork music and culture with relatively little BS. As an outsider to the scene, I felt much more welcome at BGz than at WarZone.
From the videos I've seen, WZ looks like it's been at a ton of different spots and had a few different "eras". No disrespect to WZ/Wala, cuz his videos have helped make this shit accessible to people outside of Chicago, but whenever I went to WarZone I felt like I was at a middle school dance or a fucking bar mitzvah afterparty. I think it's Spinns track that's like "Damn, that bitch is 14"? I never felt like that was more true than at WZ, haha. Don't get me wrong... the youth rule. It was just weird to feel like the oldest person there, and I'm only 19. When I went they just found a new spot at a giant rec hall or some shit that Wala rented. There was security guys in suits who frisked everyone down, door price was higher than BGz, and you had to sign in on a list stating your gender, age, name, and maybe e-mail. Way more commercial than BGz, and way more party oriented. Mostly just top 40 hip-hop, with some underground chicago rappers thrown in (DGainz/Staingang/etc), then a couple footwork battles for like an hour, and then hiprolling for the rest of the time. WarZone was only half a mile away from where I stayed, but I never really fucked with it cause it seemed too watered down. Unless I could get someone to drive me, I had to take the bus and train for like an hour and a half each way to get to BGz, but it was always worth it to me.
BGz and WZ are the two main events, but there were some other ones that popped up briefly as well. And of course, people don't need an "event" to footwork. If you're in Chicago for long enough on the south or west side, you will see people workin at bus stops, train stations, parking lots, etc.
I'm not the grand expert on this shit, just trying to give some insight into how I perceived the scene for the time period that I was there. hopefully someone finds it interesting haha
I see a lot of people on here have their own opinions on footwork, but people in Chicago have even stronger opinions...
my 2¢: I regularly went out to BattleGroundz, and fucked with da WarZone a couple of times. During the time I was there, they were completely different environments, with pretty different scenes. They were/are both on Sunday evening (sometimes there are BGz or WZ special events on other nights), so there's kinda a divide in the scene on who can go to which event. Most people kinda have a defacto allegiance to their spots, which kinda has to deal with location (BGz=South, WZ=West) and a few other factors. Some people have even put out diss tracks to the other location, which can be fucking hilarious. Anyone catch EQ Why's "Them Girls at WarZone Suck Dick" track he put up on soundcloud a few weeks ago?
BattleGroundz is at dance studio/community center on the Southside and is raw as fuck. Reese, the main organizer of the dance studio, is a fucking dawg and supposedly has a documentary coming out about him and his studio. Before moving to Chicago I was involved with the DIY punk scene from my area, and I think if you try, you can draw a lot of parallels between something like DIY punk spots and places like BGz or the Slaughterhouse (the footwork equivalent of an underground Punk House out on the far west side of Chicago). People who go out to BGz are there to dance, DJ, socialize, and chill, but when it boils down to it, everyone is there to support footwork music and culture with relatively little BS. As an outsider to the scene, I felt much more welcome at BGz than at WarZone.
From the videos I've seen, WZ looks like it's been at a ton of different spots and had a few different "eras". No disrespect to WZ/Wala, cuz his videos have helped make this shit accessible to people outside of Chicago, but whenever I went to WarZone I felt like I was at a middle school dance or a fucking bar mitzvah afterparty. I think it's Spinns track that's like "Damn, that bitch is 14"? I never felt like that was more true than at WZ, haha. Don't get me wrong... the youth rule. It was just weird to feel like the oldest person there, and I'm only 19. When I went they just found a new spot at a giant rec hall or some shit that Wala rented. There was security guys in suits who frisked everyone down, door price was higher than BGz, and you had to sign in on a list stating your gender, age, name, and maybe e-mail. Way more commercial than BGz, and way more party oriented. Mostly just top 40 hip-hop, with some underground chicago rappers thrown in (DGainz/Staingang/etc), then a couple footwork battles for like an hour, and then hiprolling for the rest of the time. WarZone was only half a mile away from where I stayed, but I never really fucked with it cause it seemed too watered down. Unless I could get someone to drive me, I had to take the bus and train for like an hour and a half each way to get to BGz, but it was always worth it to me.
BGz and WZ are the two main events, but there were some other ones that popped up briefly as well. And of course, people don't need an "event" to footwork. If you're in Chicago for long enough on the south or west side, you will see people workin at bus stops, train stations, parking lots, etc.
I'm not the grand expert on this shit, just trying to give some insight into how I perceived the scene for the time period that I was there. hopefully someone finds it interesting haha
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