University of Maryland March Madness Benefit Battle

March Madness Benefit Battle poster

DJ Tony Drake gave me a heads up about a freestyle battle tournament he's setting up for the top 10 freestylers from the DC/Maryland/Virginia area called the March Madness Benefit Battle. The winner of the tournament will get to choose a charity where all the proceeds will be donated to. A-Class will be competing in this tournament as well as another Asian rapper who goes by the name of Blasian.

The event will go down on March 30th at 8pm. In case you aren't in Maryland to watch the battle, the battle will be streamed live on wmucradio.com.

Press release:

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BENEFIT BATTLE- MARCH 30, 2010, 6-8PM

10 Emcees, 1 Winner, All Proceeds Go to the Charity of The Winner’s Choice

COLLEGE PARK, MD – On Tuesday, March 30, “The Blender w/ Miss DJ Gemz and DJ Tony Drake" on WMUC Radio (University of Maryland, College Park’s FM station) will put on one of the biggest Freestyle Battles to ever hit the DMV! 10 of the area's best rappers are coming together to battle it out for a good cause. All of the proceeds from the event will go to the non-profit charity of the winner’s choice.

What separates this battle from the countless other “freestyle battles” in the DMV? Rather than gathering 10 talented artists who will come and perform verses from their songs (which tends to happen at a lot of freestyle battles), all of the artists have been carefully chosen based on their ability to creatively compose bars on the spot based on current events, their competition’s appearance, and any other topic that immediately comes to mind. One emcee will be announced daily via twitter through Dj Tony Drake (@djtonydrake) and Miss Dj Gemz (@missdjgemz), starting Sunday, March 21 until the day of the competition. All of the emcees have a strong battle background and many of them have been featured on Grind Time Now, The World’s #1 Rap Battle, Scribble Jam, and WorldStarHipHop.com.

The event is free, but charitable donations of at least $3 are recommended to go towards the Grand Prize Donation. There will also be free give-aways provided throughout the event by the event’s various sponsors which include: Mcdonalds, EA Sports, Fuse Box Radio, Community Roots, Iota Phi Theta Fraternity Inc. and Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc., (University of Maryland Chapters), BraeonArt, Art Lyfe Entertainment, The BaltimoreScene, Words Beats & Life Inc., Xclusively Yours, and Broccoli City.

If you can’t make it out to the event at the Nyumburu Cultural Center on the University of Maryland’s campus on March 30, it will be broadcasted live on wmucradio.com! That means as long as you have an internet connection you can be a part of this event! Be sure to tune into the "The Blender w/ Miss DJ Gemz and DJ Tony Drake" every Tuesday at 6PM EST on wmucradio.com for new music first and the hottest events in your community.