Event Review: Destructive Steps 4 ft Mr Wiggles, Bboy Ynot, Bboy Blond, Jinjo Crew and Poppin Hozin

So it’s been a minute since I last reviewed an event and that’s probably because I’ve stopped going to a bunch of them after years of attending almost every single one in Sydney to the point where I can predict sets across a bunch of local street dancers (mostly the bboys).

Destructive Steps 4 was pretty dope; there was a good turnout and lots of energy around. I’ll admit I came 3.5 hours after the event started (which was a big improvement from last year when I arrived just as they finished announcing the winners). I didn’t see any of the popping battles except for the finals and the exhibition round with Mr Wiggles which was too dope. This was mainly because the popping room was packed with sweaty guys and the humidity and smell turned me away. Ok, it’s also because my vertical challenges prevented me from being able to see anything.

Luckily there were chairs lined up at the back of the bboy room that I could stand on. I caught the quarter finals onwards and was happy to see the highlight battle of the day was Jinjo Crew vs 143 Liverpool St Familia. If you peep this video of all the Jinjo Crew sets, you will see from 10.20 onwards the most hype sets of the day from Jinjo.

Perth outshone all other states by making it into the bboy and toprock finals, while 17 year-old Alan from Sydney’s outer west pushed himself to make the finals against Hozin from Korea (Brand New Mind). Check out the finals and exhibition round here:

The other highlights of the day were Bboy Baba (repping Sydney/Parramatta and Zealous Crew) as the crowd favourite and MC Mistery’s inappropriately hilarious calls. There was “Duc the Racist” as Duc was apparently whispering obscenities about his own race in Mistery’s ear and Bboy Edit’s shoe-shining stunt in the semi-finals of the toprock battle, getting Bboy Ippy to polish his sneakers causing Mistery to make a comment about race. If anyone can get away with it, it’s Mistery. He later told me that he has fears that one day he’ll get bashed in the parking lot by people who were offended by his comments.

All in all, it was a really great event, with the presence of 2 of Rock Steady Crew‘s legendary members plus Bboy Blond (Extreme Crew) as judges with a bboy crew and popper from Korea as battle guests, who are all on top of their game right now. The dedication by the secret leader of the Korean mafia, Bboy jOne of 143 Liverpool St Familia and his trusty sidekick Donna V in putting such a massive event together is highly commendable – I hope the majority of the attendees personally contact both of them to thank them for giving Australia a great day of Hip Hop culture.

I was fortunate enough to spend a lot of time with Mr Wiggles and Bboy Ynot through various lunches, dinners and a dance/graffiti jam session which I’ll write about in a separate post. It was an incredible experience.

A special mention to Deejay Naiki who continually proves himself the best DJ for dance battles in Australia. His skill is amazing, song selection highly appropriate and he just understands the scene so well and stays super humble!

Looking forward to next year’s DS5 to be even bigger and better!

Thanks to Tim Wyers for the photos.