We arrived at 7 PM- the specified time to pick up Summit passes- and saw a few hundred people already lined up in front of UCLA's student union. By 7:45 we had barely moved and most in line were getting restless. Chants of "Open the doors!" were heard repetitively. At about 8:35, we approached the entrance. Although I'd never waited this long to get into anything I'd already paid for, the frustration subsided as we hit the doors. A large open ballroom on campus was now home to about 1,500 B-Boys and girls from all parts of the world. Crews from Japan to Miami were already ripping shit on the floors and several circles were in effect. Most of the sponsor booths were not fully staffed yet (except for an angelic lingerie model named Alley Baggett) and after briefly checking the action, we decided to attend the Urban Survivalist Panel. Panelists who discussed the Y2K problem included Xzibit, Iriscience (Dilated Peoples) and Eclipse 427. Unfortunately, there was very little cohesiveness and the often groundless discussion was mainly on the super scientifical madness conspiracy tip. One panelist tried to impress the crowd by suggesting he "knows his way around the Internet." After profound words such as those, we laughed amongst ourselves and quickly exited the room. We then caught a brief, but hype performance from Xzibit and were out for the night.

The Summit came alive in the afternoon. Crazy Legs and Bobitto were in the house, as were many more industry
players-several more than the night before. Spotted by our crew were, among others; Poppin Pete (he invented popping!), Charlie Roc, Frosty Freeze, Xzibit, Sir Jinx, Peanut Butter Wolf, Cut Chemist, Shortkut, the Arsonists, Roc Raida, Planet Asia, Defari, Vinroc, the Beat Junkies, Dilated Peoples and Styles of Beyond. Dance circles were everywhere, battles too. On several occasions circles would form and like a rolling tidal wave, hundreds of bodies shifted to check out the floor movements. That made security and the organizers (Asia One, Easy Roc and UCLA Special Events) apprehensive. Appearances can be deceiving and it was hard to tell if heads were seriously beefing or just battling. At one point after seeing a circle form too quickly, Asia-One said to the crowd with a tense laugh, "That makes us nervous."

Meanwhile, the bombers had been tagging wherever they could without getting caught. Surprisingly, the organizers didn't think this would happen. (Would you have a rapper's convention and not let anybody grab the mic and bust?) Because of the "vandalism," security got tighter and by about 6pm, it was extremely difficult to get back in the venue, even with a pass. Security, clearly agitated by the amount of extra work they had to do, searched everyone thoroughly and made many think twice about leaving the main venue. Simply using the bathroom became a thirty-minute experience due to the wait getting back inside the main ballroom. Other security guards took the problems in stride. One guard who identified himself as 'Knapsack,' shocked everyone when he erupted with lyrics during a freestyle cipher which included Q-Unique of the Arsonists.

Later on we tried to hit the MC panel with Evidence, Defari, Afu-Ra, etc. "Sorry," we were told by security. "It's already started." A Sunday Service must have been taking place because they refused to open the doors to latecomers. After that ended, our next stop was the DJ panel. We arrived early this time and were immediately disappointed that Grandmaster Caz and Afrika Islam did not make their scheduled appearances. Despite the no shows, many of the world's best were there, all sitting at one table: Rhettmatic, Cut Chemist, Vinroc, Eclipse, Roc Raida, Peanut Butter Wolf, Shortkut, and Kiilu (Freestyle Fellowship). Most questions were asked by the same person, which made for groans each time the well meaning aspiring DJ popped out of his chair, but science was dropped by Vinroc who confirmed that DJs are now creating written musical notes for scratching sounds (it's rumored to be the Skratch Piklz).

At the evening's close were performances much of the crowd had been fiending for all weekend. After a hype Rock Steady Crew performance including Tommy T from Japan, Crazy Legs announced his retirement from breaking, telling fans, "I'm a dinosaur, I'm a fucking fossil." Several groups ripped it, but the event was behind schedule, so most only got approximately 10 minutes or less to perform. The Visionaries and Arsonists delivered hype performances, despite continuous mic troubles. Following that was Defari and Afu Ra who were less than spectacular, but solid nonetheless. Conversely, Planet Asia lived up to the hype that had the crowd buzzing all weekend and along with partner Flex, ripped it like no one else that night. The High and Mighty also caught wreck during an all to brief performance. Ending up the evening was the legendary Los Angeles group Freestyle Fellowship; actually it was three members Aceyalone, Micah Nine and Abstract who've formed Haiku De Tat. They'd hardly made a dent into their set list when, very abruptly, the lights went out. It seems folks at UCLA decided that the show was going too far over the allotted time and found shutting down the power to be the appropriate ending. People began to boo loudly and security responded by jumping on the stage and agitatedly screaming at people to "Get out now!" This all happened within a minute of the shutdown and conference goers were angry that security was tripping and booed some more. It was here that Summit co-organizer Asia One exploded. "FUCK YOU," she angrily told the crowd through a booming microphone that was just given power. "Don't ever come back to a fucking B-Boy Summit again!" Many left feeling ripped off and insulted and some were even burning trash outside in protest. The cops rolled up and the area was soon vacated, but not without a sour taste in the mouths of attendees.

I have to admit, I had to catch a plane back to the East Coast that day, but after reading numerous reports of the so called "riot" and talking to those b-boys that were actually there, it seemed to be quite clear what took place. It's actually the recurring theme for most of the weekend-poor organization. First, according to Venice Police, there was no permit obtained for the Sunday event. I've got to ask, can several hundred B-Boys get together in public and have graf writers bombing freely without any type of permit? Hell no! That's a recipe for disaster. Although the police may have grossly overreacted to a couple of skirmishes between B-Boys, the fault must also lie with the organizers and their lack of preparation. If these event producers themselves mistook b-boy battles for more serious conflict, how would the cops react to the same situation? We saw exactly how-in riot gear. Asia One and Easy Roc should be praised for even attempting an event such as this in an organized setting, but they should also be dissed for going about it the way they did.