DJ Beats brings ‘Battle’ to Spokane

They call it The Beat Off in Portland.

But it’s not what you might think. The Beat Off is like a poetry slam with drum machines.

Beatsmiths gather with minimal gear and are given one hour to create a beat using only provided sounds.

Former Spokane producer, performance poet, DJ and emcee Erik Beats relocated to Portland a few years ago and took first place in the then fledging Beat Off – twice.

And now he’s bringing the blueprint to the growing local beatmaker community for Spokane’s first Beat Battle on Saturday, drawing beat producers from around the Northwest.

The winner, decided by crowd vote, advances to the Beat Off finals in Portland.

The Spokane Beat Battle features live performance painting, improvisational rap challenges, secret performances and DJ sets.

Also organizing the event is Erik Beats’ former partner in rhyme, considered one of Spokane’s finest, Freetime Synthetic, who is competing under the handle Iwerks.

Typically, having contest coordinators take part in the competition might raise questions. But Synthetic said the audience can’t help but be honest.

“This is definitely about community as much as competition,” said Synthetic, aka Jason Corcoran, who is also a visual artist as well as a rapper.

“Having 10 producers side by side and sitting across the table from each other – you’re not going to make the same beat you would have made by yourself at your house,” he said. “It adds intensity, but the motivation is about the fun of competing with other people doing the same thing as you.

“Plus there is the challenge of there being a time restriction,” he continued. “Erik B. said the winner has to be the person who makes the most beats the most often and thinks about making beats the most.

“No matter how rigged it might be, if you bring all of your friends to vote for you, no matter what, when you’re in there with a live audience, the best beat always wins.”

Beat this

Here’s a look at some of the standouts competing in the Beat Battle. There may still be entry slots available; contact freetimesynthetic@ gmail.com.

Erik Beats: Perhaps best known for his passion for poetry, the Portland beats and rhyme artist, formerly of Spokane, sports a Spokane Indians baseball jersey in his profile pic on MySpace. His headline reads: “Poetry is the blood of man, music is the soul.” He continues to make beats for his former rhyme partner Freetime Synthetic. The two co-fronted locally legendary hip-hop/punk-rock trio Upper Class Racket in the mid-1990s.

Ocean: Steeped in symphonic sounds and darker tones, Ocean’s compositions use a full range of instrumental samples and intricate rhythms. Ocean is the DJ half of the Cheap Meat Suits hip-hop duo along with Gun of the Sun emcee Quiz Ten. Ocean self-released a solo instrumental album last week.

Jaeman: The co-founder of the Beat House rhythm collective makes music for some of the most respected emcees in the Bad Penmanship rhyme collective, including Jaeda, Quiz and Freetime Synthetic.

Existance: Formerly known as Poons, formerly known as Snoop, this at-large hip-hop producer keeps his beats simple, but chops and stutters loops to interlock unrelated samples without overcomplicating the song.

Audio Affiliated: Sound engineer Dave Skaggs has provided sound at various local events including Terrain and last week’s inaugural Junkfest, but it’s relatively rare for him to perform live.

Juice Lee: This beat maker for EWU-based crew Bela Union creates bubbly, Golden Age-era hip-hop. He’s often seen manually punching out loop-less beats in live performances.

Iwerks: This is the beatmaker persona of Freetime Synthetic, regarded as the elder statesman of Bad Penmanship and co-captain of the Gun of the Sun rap team with Quiz. The music he’s composed for his solo rap projects is raw, low-fi and slightly experimental, but always rap-able.