R16 B boy championship Korea, 2014

R-16 Korea, the annual international b-boy competition and urban arts cultural festival struck Seoul, so hard, fast and full of thrill that it will be remembered for long. Returning Seoul for its eighth times, the B Boys hit the ground with their solo performances amazingly. The foremost episode features sixteen B-Boy crews representing fifteen countries competing in a two day tournament for world championship titles in 05 categories: B boy, Locking, Popping, best crew performance and best crew battle. The festival fetched together graffiti performers, street wear stylists, musical artistes and dancers who specialize in hip-hop, popping, locking and other urban arts subcultures from South Korea and other countries. R-16 is a festivity of the artistic energy representing the urban youth culture.

Based on a theme of "Respect" (which is what the "R" in R-16 refers to), the Hip Hop culture has acknowledged South Korean b-boys as a distinct part of its history. The concept of respect is an amazing thing to be experienced in the 2 days of World B Boys championship in Korea. Where people from different regions gathered to practice their skills and earn respect for their countries and promote the urban youth activities. Like previous years this time too the big battle was arranged by the Korea tourism organization with its co-organizers to promote the urban youth culture in the region and around the globe. 

This youth festival was a massive success like previous years entertaining more than 8000 Koreans and internationals in the Olympic park of Seoul. Over 300 hundreds musicians, artists, promoters, producers, hip hop specialists, urban enthusiasts and b boys gathered in this festival to promote inspiration and love for the urban youth and B boys championships. Korean-American b-boy, singer, and rapper, Jay Park, has been the official ambassador of R-16 for years 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. 

It was a great honor for me to be there and watch some incredible B boy’s competitions for the consecutive 3^rd year since 2012. A massive crowed smash Seoul Olympic park this year to enjoy these competitions from the winners of different regions and to choose the best B boy, and the best team of the year 2014. R16 offers many prizes for the winner and runner up (1000 USD-3000USD), which is presented at the spot. The judges were former b boys, famous loking and popping satrs from USA, France, Korea, Japan and Germany for different categories. The gamblers from Korea won the crew battle after a tough competition with Predators from Russia. However the crew performance won by the predators. B boy champion 2014 won by Issie of Japan for the consecutive 3^rd year, this time defeating lil Zoo from Morocco. Wawoo isn’t amazing? Cio won the Loking championship and Kid boogie remains unbeaten in popping championship. Here is a link for the amazing Bboy battle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2j4X_7D8yE&feature=youtu.be

B boy is considered an art in Korea and the Korean youth has a craze about b boy championship. This might be a reason B boys sow is becoming essential part of different cultural and traditional festivals including the K pop industry and non-verbal performances.  Enthusiastic participation from the audience especially the internationals reveals that B boys championship is on the right direction to achieve its target of youth urban arts promotion.