Vinyl and Verses, a true hip-hop cypher has been enriching the Albuquerque arts scene every Thursday night at the Liquid Lounge since January, providing a forum for breakers, emcees and DJs to show off their stuff and expand their craft.
"Originally it was just a place for emcees and DJs to chill, but then stuff started happening and we started doing competitions and it just kind of grew," said UNM Fine Arts student DJ Scientific. "It gives a lot of kids a reason to practice. We all go home kind of excited because we suddenly have an excuse to practice and we have a place to perform what we do."
DJ Scientific is one of the founders of Vinyl and Verses and a regular DJ on KUNM's "Street Beat," an underground weekly hip-hop show.
Vinyl and Verses features a different event every week, ranging from simple open-forum cyphers to breaking, emcee and dj competitions. The show also features bands and hip-hop acts like Geodesic, Tagg, Common Cause, The Dirtheadz, Element, Keys, Nameless, the 2bers and Los Brown Spots, the monthly house band.
Battles usually have a $5 registration/entrance fee and there is a $100 award for the winner of the competition. The award money comes in part from the fees, but the rest of it comes out of the pockets of the organizers - a testament to their commitment.
"It's a place to go and enjoy underground hip-hop," said TVI student Phillip Torres who goes by Flux. "It's better than anything else we got going on right now because it's a place for people to come and perform, put together by people who perform it themselves - people who actually live in this culture, people who live and breathe hip-hop."
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Torres is an emcee, beatboxer, promoter and one of the organizers for Vinyl and Verses.
On the third Thursday of every month, Vinyl and Verses has its Urb Magazine release party. Urb is a national hip-hop and electronic music magazine and the celebration includes magazine giveaways.
Every Thursday audience members should anticipate DJ Scientific and others spinning old-school favorites and underground hip-hop selections - there's almost always an open mic for aspiring emcees.
Vinyl and Verses is also the only consistent year-round forum for break dancing in Albuquerque.
"A lot of clubs won't let us break," said breaker Rudy Montoya a UNM business student who goes by Verse. "It gives us our own spot. It's all level. They actually want us to go out there and break."
Xavier Sanchez (MC Solution), a regular at Vinyl and Verses and a member of Common Cause, said the event provides a comfortable forum for newcomers to the scene.
"It definitely helps ease out the pressure for emcees and breakers," Sanchez said. "A lot of people are too nervous to get up and try their thing like they're too self conscious about their style or whatever."
Liquid Lounge is on the northwest corner of 4th Street and Central Avenue. Contact Phillip Torres at www.2bers.com or www.conceptflux.com. There's no cover and events get started at about 10:30 p.m.
