Miami’s favorite YouTube sensation and loudmouth cigar smoking puppet, Pepe Billete, hosted the Red Bull Music Academy Culture Clash at Miami’s hottest, sweatiest and loudest venue, Grand Central. With Billete as host, you know it’s going to have his favorite things like hot girls twerking on stage and EDM that’ll make the shyest guy move his entire body.
The sold-out event, with more than 750 attendees, featured four of the nation’s hottest DJ crews battling out for the title of Red Bull Music Academy Culture Clash Miami winning crew. The four unique crews that battled for the title were BassHead Music, Slow Roast Records, Moombahton Massive and Black Chiney, who teamed up with Eccentrix Sound.
The competition was set up with five stages around the venue, one for each crew and for the host. A decibel meter measured the noise by the crowd to determine the winner of each round.
Each crew brought their own surprises with a variety of special appearances. Trick Daddy, the 69 Boyz and Quad City DJs joined Basshead Music; Noreaga and JT Money played with Slow Roast Records; Major Lazer (Diplo and Walshy Fire) and Serani appeared with Black Chiney and Eccentrix Sound; and Caribbean drummers, vocalists and brass instruments accompanied Moombahton Massive.
The event kicked off with the “Temperature’s Rising” round, where each crew played a seven-minute set of any music to warm up the crowd. The next round, “The Selector,” judged each crew on their tune selection and presentation. Following was the “Sleeping with the Enemy” round, which challenged each crew’s ability by playing one of the other crew’s styles instead of the style they would normally play. The final round, “The Decider,” allowed crews to demonstrate their specially made, custom tunes and live performances. Miami-based BassHead Music won and performed a victory set.
“I had hopes of winning, and I’m ecstatic we did because of the amount of love and respect and admiration we have for the other crews. If people think we are on the same level as them, that is unbelievable to me,” said Juan BassHead, leader of BassHead Music.
At the end, everyone left reeking of cigarettes, as well as with their ears ringing from the loud music and, above all, a story to tell their friends.