Over the weekend on November 20th and 21st, the large scale music festival to celebrate urban music, "BEAT CONNECTION 2010," was held at the Yokohama Arena, and it was met with great success.

The festival was created to celebrate and bring together performers of all the different sub-genres of urban music; R&B, hip-hop, soul, and even funk.� Day One's opening act featured Kobbepan, Hamutsun Serve (dance group), Matsushita Tayuya, MCU, May J., JAY'ED, SONOMI, and Fukuhara Miho.

The middle section of the first day moved on to performances from popular artists such as KEN THE 390,� LITTLE, Sakai Yuu, Suga Shikao, Synergy (dance group), COMA-CHI, TARO SOUL, and SOUL POWER Unit.� Of particular note was the performance from KEN THE 390, COMA-CHI, and TARO SOUL, who held a three way rap freestyle battle with call and response segments from each participant. �It was especially notable because female MC COMA-CHI had announced the day before the BEAT CONNECTION show that this would be her last live event for a while.� Suga Shikao also had a great performance and surprised many fans when rapper Mummy-D from RHYMESTER showed up to perform their collaboration single together.

The first day closed with some of the greatest rappers in Japan, lead by KREVA, AK-69, Zeebra, Schadaraparr, and Kubota Toshinobu.� KREVA performed several of his hit songs, such as "Strong Style," "Seikou," and "Have a nice day!"� After KREVA, the stage was taken over by AK-69 and Zeebra, who did a condensed version of ten different songs in a distinct street style.� The day closed with a fantastic live stage from Schadaraparr and Kubota Toshinobu.



The second day of BEAT CONNECTION featured a performance from new singer KIRA, followed by GROOVIN/SLASH (dance group), Kuroki Meisa, Nishino Kana, DEEP, and lecca as the opening act.� Nishino Kana took the stage with WISE to perform their popular collaboration, "Tookutemo feat. WISE."

The day continued with appearances from SEAMO, Kusuo, Sugar Shack Family, HOME MADE Kazoku, Shimizu Shota, HighEnd (dance group), and RHYMESTER.� Staple hip-hop group RHYMESTER even debuted a new song, titled "Hands", from their new album that is still in production.



The final day of the music festival featured powerhouse performers Kato Miliyah, Crystal Kay, Hilchryme, SOUL'd OUT, and Dohzi-T.� SOUL'd OUT garnered the most attention with their appearance, as they haven't done a group performance in over two years due to solo work within the group.� They eagerly took the stage and yelled out, "Sorry for the wait, Yokohama!!"� The group really got the audience into the performance, and did such hits as "Wake Up People," "Flyte Tyme," "Dream Drive," "TONGUE TE TONGUE," and "To All Tha Dreamers."

Dohzi-T made a star-studded appearance, as the collaboration loving artist brought out TARO SOUL, "E"qual, KEN THE 390, DELI, Aoyama Thelma, and Takemoto Kenichi as his special guests.� Dohzi-T was followed up with lives from Shimizu Shota, Crystal Kay, Mummy-D, and SEAMO, all of whom participated on the event theme song, "Lovin' You", which was performed at BEAT CONNECTION for the first time.

The show closed with a live from CHEMISTRY.� The R&B duo took the stage and performed with Synergy their new collaboration singles, "Aishisugite" and "My Gift to You," captivating the fans in the audience.

MUSIC ON! TV has already announced that they will be broadcasting footage from this landmark music festival.� Dates and times for the broadcast will be announced at a later date on the MUSIC ON! official site.

This is the first year holding this large music festival, but it is going to become a yearly event, so there should be many more to come in the future.� Fans should look forward to the yearly announcement of BEAT CONNECTION festivals!

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypbU0tthMMM

Source & Photos : natalie