Vin Roc vs Infamous - 1998 ITF World Finals

"The more emotion I put into it, the harder I rock!" The Advancement Class Finals of the 1998 ITF World Championships, Amsterdam, between defending champion Vin Roc (Fifth Platoon) and Miami's DJ Infamous (The Allies). Who deserved to come out on top from this epic confrontation?

[@namelesswon]

Maybe it’s just me but the reason why I enjoyed beat juggling was seeing how you can flip a known tune and remix it live and create something new with it. In this action it synthesises a key element which is essential to hip hop. Again it’s something lost on new generations and current competitions.

[@MichaelShum]

agreed-juggling with battle breaks records that started in 97/98 took a lot of that element out of the form

[@namelesswon]

Michael Shum I think the combination of both always made the best sets for me. A lot of the classic battle break records used original recognisable tunes as well. I think there was a turning point in sound taste, people left behind the swamp and rectangle and favoured more technically interesting samples and shorter cutting sentences of the dirtstyle generation. I think when le jad’s pre made wax hit the masses it offered DJs even more technically impressive fader play at the sacrifice of musicality and using known breaks. This also coincided with a lot of stuff being put on you tube and with tony princes dvds now not having to worry about copyright infringement .... well it’s a conspiracy theory. Battle wax is a brilliant music genre in itself. Some of the best music ever made was by artists who were DJs making sick beats to cut to but inadvertently creating cool music too. Case in point - Toadstyles ufo beat.

[@MichaelShum]

@@namelesswon excellent points-i just personally prefer routines that don't have a lot of different samples in them

[@namelesswon]

Michael Shum yes I’m of that partiality to. I always thought it was a standard to have a cut sentence from different rap records introducing your name, then someone just made a record with their name on it and destroyed that skill. I guess what I’m trying to say is imagination has been removed from the competition experience. It’s gone full circle. It’s gone from scratching badly with your feet and an inflatable parrot to robotic hand gestures with sullen baseball cap face pulling drag. I think we were lucky to experience or be part of that middle ground.

[@MichaelShum]

namelesswon i’m also partial to the scratching with a parrot age 🙂

[@MichaelShum]

vin roc was basically the apotheosis of the traditional mid-90s beat-juggling techniques created by the x-men and the beat junkies-the "next wave" of juggling from the allies, p-trix, swift rock, were already taking hold by this point

[@facksvillain2296]

The complexity of that Who am I juggle!!!, Vinroc took a limitless pill this year.

[@djmichaeltimex4511]

This was one of my favorite Head to Heads in ITF history. Vinroc redeemed himself from the fluke in 97'.....Vinroc's "Who AM I" "Times Up" scratch routine and "Nasty Boys" juggle routines were classic and Infamous was just tearing through EVERYONE.

[@namelesswon]

This was a really classic era for juggling. The who am i routine is one of my favourites of this time along with ptrix’s itzsoweezee juggle.

[@garywinston3044]

VinRoc for sure got this one.

[@DJServiceFrankfurt]

The final for the ITF Advancement was always something special - but man, these two declared turntable war on each other...

[@joe2grand]

This was filmed at the ITF finals in Amsterdam by my good friend and famous graffiti writer Siege 52 and my then very younger little brother Daniel (who owns a gallery in Brighton now). Not sure how they got asked by ITF but I was DJing at the time (R.P.M on Mo Wax and RunawaysUK) so it may have been through a contact I had. This same event had the amazing routines by Craze when he humiliated First Rate in one of the best turntablist performances ever and also the amzingly tight yet funky Beat Junkies Routine ('dont say nothing just give it here...come on!) ....Wow what an era ! I remember they never got paid properly for filming it, but still delivered a beautifully filmed and edited video with all the titles/names added also

[@MichaelShum]

joe2grand awesome information, thanks for the post! is there any way to get a hold of the original footage from your brother?

[@joe2grand]

@@MichaelShum well yes I can ask Siege - He may have it but remember this was over 20 years ago! Ill let you know.....I saw the raw footage and I know they filmed the Beat Junkies doing a club/dj set in a venue there and of course JRocc was killing it

[@DJServiceFrankfurt]

What I really like about this video is that lighting was perfect. Everything you need to see as a DJ watching this is visible. And there are no annoying cuts and crazy transitions. This is how it should be done!

[@joe2grand]

@@DJServiceFrankfurt yeah good point- It was at The Melkweg in Amsterdam and in Holland / Germany and northern European countries they have a LOT of tech / lights and stuff at their disposal- The Melkweg is like a floating club on the river/ canal side - played there a few times as RPM and Runaways: Its a good venue - In terms of not over doing the cuts and too many edits : Youre absolutely right, this footage is soooo good for that - like a historical documentary! They had one main film quality camera and then my bro was also taking a few B roll extra stuff--- U can see him in Vin Roc's routine filming on a little hand held- They did use a few shots of that but in general the camera was up on a balcony with my mate next to it and they had it on a tripod so apart from other people walking by the shots are pretty rock solid - Both of the camera men as mentioned went on to do more films / pop promos etc and Dan has a gallery in Brighton UK

[@joe2grand]

wow !!! What performances .....I always loved Infamous and he is still excellent here but WOW ! Vin Roc is crazy inventive here ....he sorta flys under the radar a bit in the hall of fame but he should be there rightfully !!

[@DJAUDIO1]

Still one of the nicest guys on the planet and can still rock an incredible set. All.praise due to Vinroc. Big shoutout to Infamous. I always felt he always held it down on his own with the Allies crew. 🙏🙏

[@facksvillain2296]

Do you have the Turnstylez team set from this video?

[@MichaelShum]

Deejay Facts i’ll look for this

[@j-boogiebrown9961]

You should upload their Western Hemisphere set from the same year instead. The reaction they got from that crowd is one of the best I've ever heard.

[@facksvillain2296]

@@MichaelShum ✌✌

[@sethbclark]

What happened to the first minute of Infamous' 2nd set? He gets the 30 second warning almost right away

[@MichaelShum]

sorry i just realized that... i will get the full version up soon...

[@sethbclark]

@@MichaelShum awesome! Thanks!

[@bruceclark4959]

I had this battle on VHS...lol...When he does upload it...Infamous disses Vinroc with a Song from Cam'ron " Confessions of Fire " Album.. Track 16...Straight Fire.

[@hititlan]

It is impressive to use a dancehall. I don't think he's used it since

[@manuelemariani4609]

Infamous last juggles were hella technical but sounded like shit 😅