NIKE BATTLE FOR THE STREETS DAY 1 RECAP: BY HOST KEITH TOOBLACKTOBEWHITE

The music would have been enough for any festival, but this is AFROPUNK, baby! The Nike BATTLE FOR THE STREETS competition is the largest street skate competition in America, and it went down at AFROPUNK FEST 2012. You may remember our colorful hosts Alex Corporan and Keith "TooBlackToBe" White who kept the crowd hype, and the skaters kicking, pushing, and flipping. Check the DAY ONE recap from ya boy, KEITH TOOBLACKTOBEWHITE after the jump! (see what we did there)

Words by: Keith "TooBlackToBe" White

What's up AFROPUNKS! It's your boy Keith Tooblacktobewhite here, filling you lovely folks in on what you missed at the BATTLE FOR THE STREETS 2012 presented by Nike at the 2012 AFROPUNK FESTIVAL.

Day 1 kicked off the weekend filled with skating, music, graff artists, fashion, and the thousands of fans, old and new, who came to pack out Commodore Barry Park. Alex Corporan and I (the hosts with the most) and the infamous DJ SMOKE L.E.S, had the entire NYC skateboarding scene out vying for a spot in next days' finals. There was an illustrious panel of judges that made the event that much more epic. Ray Mate aka GIZMO and owner of MIGHTY HEALTHY NYC, Matt Kruz from TRE TRUCK, Shawn Powers of SHUT SKATEBOARDS, and OG Rodney Torres, owner of TORRO! SKATEBOARDS completed the lineup of #SKATEVERYDAMNDAY royalty. Before NINJASONIK's performance took over the skatepark, the tricks and obstacles hadjaws dropping, judges' pens scribbling on paper, cheers as skaters and hard cold cash being thrown around. All for a chance to earn $10K in cash and prizes during the finals the next day. And if that wasn't enough, NIKE brought in the amazing Shane O'Neil, Clark Hassler, and Ishod Wair to rip it up with the locals and lend some judging for the comps.

Post-skate, Brooklyn's own NINJASONIK killed one of the dopest up-close-and-personal performances i have ever seen from these guys! Ben Robey appeared from under the stage and proceded to get ignorant with Telli. The audience grew to a stupid mass around after performances on the Green & Red stages wrapped. When the Ninjasonik (lovingly called SONIKFK!N9 NINJAS by fans) finished in

a sweaty, moshing rager of a set, the skating resumed and the night ended by the most electric performance from the gorgeously talented Ms. Erykah Badu. What a night, eh?

From beginning to end, Afropunkers congregated to the grassy field just to catch a glimpse of what was going down. Once Erykah's sang her goodbyes, it was time to say bounce until the until Sunday afternoon, when we DID IT AGAIN! Only this time we were gonna wreck with Flatbush Zombies on the skate stage and a day filled with other awesome acts like Janelle Monae, Straight LIne Stitch, and TV on The Radio. Not to mention the FINALS FOR THE NIKE PRESENTS:BATTLE FOR THE STREETS 2012.

If you wanna know who took over the ramps and won bragging rights for the streets (and some sweet swag and cash) check for my DAY 2 RECAP tomorrow!