Battle of the Beatmakers Producer Lottery 2012

The 32 producer finalists who were chosen to compete in this year’s Battle of the Beatmakers, along with dozens of producers, artists and music industry elite, met at the Pantages Hotel yesterday to take part in the full-day producer retreat. Immediately following the Pro Audio Conference with Grammy Award winning producer Just Blaze and hip-hop powerhouse Statik Selektah, the 32 finalists, supporters and music industry professionals prepared for the Beatz-Meets-Rhymez Producer Lottery, where the first round match-ups were chosen and announced.
The tension was in the room as Statik Selektah spun the ones and twos, while everyone bobbed their heads, taking in the classic beats while waiting with anticipation. Although there was tension, it was playful competition as the producer peers joked about who they would love to see go head to head, while drinks were served at the bar.

Statik Selektah killed the beats as Just Blaze pulled names from the spinning lottery basket, announcing who will go beat for beat in the first round of today’s Battle of the Beatmakers competition. The crowd cheered as last year’s winner Mr. Magic was announced to face Jude and Kollins, WondaGurl to take on FrancisGotHeat, while the producer dubbed “The Captain of Dubstep”, ThrizzoBeatBoss, was chosen to face High Score.
“It’s always interesting because you don’t know what to expect from anybody and that’s what makes it more exciting,” ThrizzoBeatBoss says. He plans on hitting up the studio for the remainder of the time before the battle to finalize his beats and plan his strategy and a great way to prepare for a beat battle is to do homework on his opponents. But it all depends on the coin flip of who goes first in each round, he says. “It’s been 365 days preparing for this battle.”

Statik Selektah, who will also be judging this year’s competition alongside Skyzoo and JD Era, says that he wishes there were more events such as Battle of the Beatmakers while he was coming up, as it is amazing networking experience. “It’s dope. I always get excited to hear new sounds and new producers,” he says.
In terms of judging, he says that he will be mostly focusing on originality and mixing. “The beat’s got to bang. It’s got to be mixed right. There could be a dope beat but it won’t bang if it’s not mixed right,” he says.
Out of the 32 producers fighting for the title, there will only be one winner, and it was obvious that each producer is going to bring everything they have to war in order to take home that trophy.

Photos By: Michelle Green