Button Bashers Episode 1: The Founders

 Button Bashers is a monthly beat battle hosted by weekly hip-hop party Uppercut, created to scope out South Africa's most talented Beat Makers and DJs and to build a community in a space where ideas and skills are nourished and honed. Founded by Matt Hichens and Luc Veermeer in 2013 they joined forces with Alvhin Adendorff and Stephan Viollier of Uppercut soon after to bring it to the Waiting Room. At the core of each battle is a sample which is given to the producers a week before the battle. In this week they get to chop, edit and flip this sample into a new track.

On the night of the battle the judges, selected from Button Bashers alumni, first play the original sample for the crowd before playing the new tracks from the four producers. Taking into account how well the sample was used and its originality, the judges then decide the winner, but if they can't agree it's down to how much noise the crowd makes for each producer.

The upcoming battle features Sumo Jac, Kay Faith, Hawkword and Damascvs, four very different producers with very different approaches and sounds. We went behind the scenes with them to find out how they approached their tracks and utilised the sample.

Click here to get the low-down on what this beat battle is all about.

This video was produced and first appeared on Red Bull.