How Silverback prizing impacted the paradigms of breaking
Hip Hop Genius is Creative Resourcefulness in the face of limited resources.
— Sam Seidel
JUNE 28th, 2019
AUTHOR: Geoff Reyes
It was a stimulus package injected into a community that was just not ready for it. No matter what kind of money was thrown in.
I've learned that the hard way.
Paying Talent
In 2013 we had our initial discussions with Steve Graham about being involved with the Pro Breaking Tour. It was Glen that initially reached out to Steve, they had their conversations, talked freestyle soccer, niche sport, and growth. Steve heard I was an engineer, so I guess he wanted to chat with someone with credentials. We had our lengthy conversation and it was a good talk. At the time, I brought up that we had just started UBL with one goal in mind, to crown a champ and extend bboy careers.
Mantis and Zack reached out to us after, and we simply agreed that we, UBL, were not ready to partner. We did not want to let down a significant investor at the time, and we were right. I don’t think anyone was ready. The following year, when I saw the type of events that UDEF would support and the actual funding dollars that came through, we couldn’t not ask. For those that don't know, UDEF support is primarily prize money with a minority percentage that is provided for production costs. Roughly 70/30 depending on the level. No matter whatever total monies you would be provided, the money mainly was only allocated towards prizing.
However, along with that, several items must be met for consistency and branding purposes for the Tour sponsor. This is all understandable. Yet with all the requirements...we knew already...we weren't ready. Nobody was.
You get a thousand… you get a thousand… everyone gets dollars!!! Steve Graham became Oprah gifting the North American Pro Breaking Tour scene with prize money, a "free" Silverback Open and top Tier talent were winning and making great prize money income. It set the standard for events in the US. Win big bucks at a UDEF sanctioned event. Pay $20 …sign the waiver...The PBT owns all photos...videos...branding...and get a chance to win Hundreds.…Thousands…25+ events a calendar year with the Pro Breaking Tour.
Pretty cool! But still...we weren't ready.
I would be surprised if a handful, if any, local events broke even abiding by the rules of the contracts. There is NO money in Breaking. Yes, we used to get bonuses depending on how we did. We never got a breakdown of how we did...just an amount of money after that would help recover from losses. Sometimes we would do more and get less...it was weird…anyway...it was still a very nice gesture for the hard work and lessened the blow we organizers would take. UDEF knew this and wanted to help but they were tied to the one mandate…get the talent paid.
In the process we had provided names, a registry, branding, and thousands upon thousands of photos and video to last 10 lifetimes. All technically now owned by UDEF as per the agreement. All of this reward the Top Tier talent for the most part. Organizers do the work and top echelon talent gets paid. Seems hardly fair…but that’s just the way it went...it kind of made sense… maybe?
The system was not ready to reward the Talent only...heck...im not sure why this was the case and how this came to be and what the goals were...but we simply were not ready to give top tier talent a ton of money...UBL learned it the hard way…
To put this in perspective...in 2013 we hosted three inaugural UBL Main Events which featured Main event and headliner battles alone (10 battles in total). The dancers were paid win or lose in the amount of roughly $3000 in total. Some headliners had included Illz, Styx, Onton, and Burn to name a few. Each battle was 5 rounds...we paid talent talent relatively large amounts to battle 5 rounds…we did not recover any of that...headliners did their best to promote but crowds were relatively the same...sponsors didn’t really exist and even if they did...it wasn’t much...
We came to one conclusion…
This approach goes against what Hip Hop is….paying top tier talent does not stimulate growth or lead to the start of a sustainability community…
Hip Hop culture did not flourish because someone paid a bunch of money to stimulate it. Hip Hop is building something out of nothin. It’s tryna make a dollar out of 15 cents... and its Genius is Creative resourcefulness in the face of limited resources (Hip Hop Genius)…
Favors the talent, not the organizers
Fast Forward to glamorous arena filled Silverback Open with talent from all over the world. A Steak Dinner for a few busloads of guests. Hotel Lobby gatherings and a collection of the worlds BEST in one roof. Everything screams Money Money Money Money. Cater to the talent.
Again...from an Organizers point of view...Ive paid my own way to Silverback Open every single year… never got a flight or hotel paid for...never got invited to the Steak Dinners…although I have been told by UDEF staff that our events remain as one of the top events of the tour…but no additional support for lil old me...we don't matter...
One year...after actually being invited to the actual dinner… there was a mix up and I was not allowed on the bus...Jilou and Vicious can also attest to that as they too were also left outside watching several loads of school bus. Again proving, the SBO is NOT meant for Organizers. Organizers make ZERO money...heck ...guys like me are even left alone to walk to a Hooters next door to Ruth Chris because they wouldn't even let us ride on the bus!
And even after being treated like a goof...I still believed and supported UDEF as it is still acts in an overall good gesture to the community.
Mo Money, Mo Money, mo money
I am deeply sad for those that relied on the support from Silverback. The paradigms of North American jams were dependent heavily on what kind of prize money was up for grabs. We labelled our flyers with Prize Money! Immediately thinking about attending a jam outta town to support…whats the prize? Whats the trip? And heck...depending on who attended...we already knew who would win...so why even go right? This is the new Paradigm of breaking.
The way we thought about support shifted from celebrating culture to economics and accounting and if it became worth our time. Because if not, I could just hit up another jam and battle to make money there next week anyway. There was lots to choose from.
The Shakedown and the end
Just recently, the community was shocked again. Not at the sudden influx on money that was poured into prize money and support, but how it was so quickly taken away from it. Steve Graham had been threatened far too much and has decided he is no longer interested in supporting this community.
This entire shakedown, by a certain few alarmists was completely backwards. Lead organizers were attacked, yet organizers DO NOT make the money… the TALENT do! And well, even though the organizers and big bboy governing bodies are taking the hit it's up to them to pull back up. In the grand scheme of things… those who are already working on things aren't really affected at all...in fact… this opens up way more opportunities to grow.
I hate to say that I saw this coming back in 2013 cuz we simply weren't ready for it but I’m gonna say it anyway. We. Weren’t. Ready.
And by the feeling of things as they are right now, I still don't think we are. But that is actually the best part.
Cuz now we can truly build our own way of doing things...fuck the contracts...cookie cutter copy n paste shit…
Paying talent hasn't worked because the infrastructure built for the talent isn't ready. It won't be until it is proven to thrive on its own.
And that's what we have been trying to do this whole time.
Build something out of nothin...
…this IS HIP HOP, right?
