There was a tournament in the venue Paradiso, De Grote Prijs van Nederland (Grand Award of the Netherlands). It was an event where a lot of Dutch rappers and R&B singers have shown their skillz, by performing on stage. It was the night of the finals. Seven contenders were given a chance to win a large amount of money.
When we came in we received a coin to vote for the best live act. It was quite. You could hear the heavy base coming out of the dancehall into the hallway. As I stepped to the dance floor I saw the crowd waiting for the shit to start. It was dark, too dark because like a chappie discoteque, this is typical for Paradiso. As the DJ spinned the records people started coming in. Nobody was dancing but the tension was hot. You could see by the way they moved. It became little more crowded. Some people started dancing, but everybody was waiting for the show to begin. And finally when the show began the dance floor was full of niggaz and niggetz.

By ten o'clock the shit started. Seven competitors showed their skillz on stage. All of them were eager to win the Grand Award of the Netherlands. From all over the country people did come to support their group. There can only be one winner ofcourse, but surely every contender was happy just to perform live on stage in Paradiso, where a lot of celebrities have given dope (and some wack) performances.

Contender one: was AVALANCHE group of two boys from Zaandam. They began with raw underground beats. With that they immediately caught the audience's attention. The sounds system in Paradiso was just as fucked up as it only can be in Paradiso and the VJ misspelled Avalanche, he/she wrote it as Avalange. It was almost impossible to hear their dope skillz. It was easy to see that they were a little bit nervous by the way they moved. With dope east coast like flavor beat they created a positive atmosphere in the venue. The crowd was down with this group. They made one mistake, which made it look unprofessional. They did not remove the microphone standards, which created a border between the audience and them.

Contender two: was a group called Ebony Impact from Amsterdam and Zaandam. They were the winners of Wanted Final in Paradiso, which automatically puts them in this final. They are a party-Rap/R&B group who has always had dope shows. The show started with a freaky 'Phantom Of The Opera'-like act. These guys easily entertained the crowd with their shows. They were one of the few contenders who used video acts. Brainpower, last year's winner also used a lot of video shit during his performance. Ebony Impact showed up with a big extra crew, dancers, a soul band and a brass band, which is a lot especially when they win the finals. Then they'd have to split the money. The show was dope, but there wasn't much of rapping' and singing'. It all had a nice wrap paper but without it the RnB and Rap act ain't jack.

 

Contender three: Shine a group of two from Eindhoven. The intro was raw. They had dope skillz, a good flow that satisfied the crowd (including the whole busload of supporters). No video show, but Shine was unfortunate because they had technical problems. It only made them more nervous. They had quality, it was better than the last one. After a while more technical problems followed. They went mad and decided to quit and they left.

Contender four: were the Draztik Measurez from Rotterdam. You know them from the battle between them and Killa Tactics on the second edition of School Of HardKnocks. They came up with five young men. The intro original and funky. It contained dope samples from the mid seventies. The Reggae swinging beats really made the crowd moving around. You could hear they were from Rotterdam. The groove was just as that from Postman or E-Life. They used a lot of video acts. These guys definitely were candidates to win this shit.

Contender five: were 3 men from Amsterdam, named Just Da Soul. This was a R&B group. They could sing and of course they managed to give the girls a little bit of satisfaction. They had great voices, but they did not give a show at all, which is very important for an R&B group to do. That was the reason the crowd wasn't fully satisfied.

Contender six: El Zumo a group of three guys from Amsterdam. These guys had a totally different flow than the others. It was a little bit jazzy, sorts like Gangstarr. The flow was good, the performance was dope. They had enough quality to win, but the crowd wasn't down with the jazzy flow. They didn't move at all. There wasn't even participation from the crowd.

The last contender: was Dice a group of 4 boys from Rotterdam. They were wack. They had dope beats, the performing was original. They started with two boys rapping in English. After that two other boys came up and started rapping in Dutch. The show was nice, but the quality wasn't good enough to win this thing.

After that the winner of last year, Brainpower & DJ TLM featuring Loyd from the Dutch R&B group Arnhemsgewijs, performed. It was dope. The crowd was loosened up after hearing the shit. After I heard them, I wasn't surprised that they won last year. If they had participated this year, they would have won it again, I think. When they left, Murth announced the winner. The winner of this year's Grand Award of the Netherlands were Avalanche. This was a complete surprise for all of us. So many others and I, taught that Draztik Measurez were the winners, but apparently most jury men voted for the number one. They did win the Samson Cup, an amount of FL12.000,- . The runner up, Shine was awarded for best musicians and they received FL 2500,-. Murth: "Buy a Mini Disc or a DAT player with it!" The Publieks Prijs (Awarded by the audience) went to Ebony Impact, they left the Paradiso with an amount of FL2000,- which they have split by five brass band members, four soul band members and four dancers. And of course between themselves. So what is left?

Eric