Imagine a Rap Battle with DJs. Kinda. That would be KnockOut, and fuck – I love KnockOut. It’s one of the funniest parties to be at and the entire concept is just fucking amazing. My partner-in-crime and me decided to attend this year’s edition (for me it was already the third time attending KnockOut) and had high expectations: We were not disappointed!
So what is KnockOut? KnockOut takes the “vs-Battle” concept a step further by pairing two artists together and sending them into a battle of edits, fun tracks and videos. The videos mostly get released the days and weeks before the event and feature humorous disses of the artists against each other, in the battle edits and tracks the artists take it a bit further and make fun of their opponents music, attitude and basically anything that leaves some space to get exploited for a fun battle!
KnockOut always takes place at the Ahoy in Rotterdam, which is pretty well-situated concerning public transport. We arrived by tram and (a very, very packed) metro. When you step out at Zuidplein, the Ahoy is just a 5min walk away! We entered the building around the beginning of the Atmozfears & Adrenalize set and were hyped to see what the guys had in store for each other.
Atmozfears of course had to pull the Avicii card on Adrenalize (how couldn’t he?) whilst Adrenalize started a whole #iSupportTim campaign to humiliate his stage partner. The battle was fun, a great and euphoric set with lots of cool tunes and the one or other fun edit. I danced my ass off, it was the perfect start for a great night! After the set we decided to get some drinks. The prices were standard for a b2s event and also the food was great! Since it was getting a bit hot in the Ahoy later on the refreshing “Ice Rockets” for 1 token were our highlight that day.
Next up were Coone and Psyko Punkz who delivered the best edits and fun tracks that night. “I love your wife!” If I wasn’t dancing, I was busy laughing or translating the jokes to my non-dutch friends. It was hilarious! The set was a constant exchange of tongue-in-cheek disses and great tracks from both guys. Next to the diss tracks and edits, the guys delivered a fantastic feel-good party set that left no room for breaks from dancing!
Max Enforcer and Frontliner kept it pretty civil concerning edits, but their set was somewhat a highlight of the night for me. It was just beautiful. Both artists are masters of the melodic and the set was nothing else but absolutely stunning. Lifting the set off with “On The Go” the guys just delivered a massive performance. Fronliner played new tracks and old favorites and the general atmosphere of their entire performance was a dreamy journey into the melodic wonderland of both producers! Max Enforcer also played his Rebirth anthem, which was just amazing to hear in a big venue like the Ahoy.
Next up were Hard Driver and Ran-D, who were transitioning from the euphoric sounds to raw euphoric to a continuously harder sound. Their edits were fantastic as well (“Hi, we’re Hardstyle Bitches and we wanna thank our Ghostproducer: Ran-D!”) and the guys definitely looked like they had a good time on stage! A solid set with great moments in it, but my friends and me were just a bit disappointed that Ran-D didn’t play his Defqon Anthem.
Frequencerz and Digital Punk were playing a neat set, filled with favorites from both artists. It wasn’t exactly my piece of cake, but I still enjoyed it. During the set I took it a bit easier and I went to get some more tokens, drinks and another one of those tasty Ice Rockets. We moved around a lot during this set and tried to find the perfect in-crowd spot to see the entire stage, lasers and production.
During the middle of E-Force vs. Chain Reaction we took a small break at the seats situated over the dance floor. The chill area at KnockOut are basically the best seats in the entire venue, they’re placed at the very back of the venue, some meters above the dance floor, facing directly to the stage. From there you can not just excellently see the entire stage, crowd and lasers, but sit down, have a drink and enjoy the show while chilling and not missing a thing of the show! The set was solid, I really liked the atmosphere in it and I couldn’t wait to hit the dance floor again after some time off for my feet!
Word has it that I’m not too much of a fan of Rawstyle, but Radical Redemption v.s. B-Front really was amazing. Bob stunned the crowd with his wonderful, dark & atmospheric sound and “The Radical” topped it up with some bangers including his new tune “Die Bitch” which probably caused my bitch calves to die for a second or two due to excessive “hakken”. The edits the guys provided (including: “Everyone can make a B-Front Track!” and “Brutal 38,5”) and their entire stage performance was brilliant and it was fun to see them having so much fun on stage, which definitely also translated into the crowd reaction!
We left like 20min into the set of Deetox and Warface, who pulled off quuuuiiiite some raw stuff – the crowd was still going absolute mental! As far as I was concerned the two really battled themselves off! I would have loved to stay a until the end, but my feet hurt so much that we decided to call it a night and leave the venue. What was really practical is that there were already come Taxis lining up in front of the venue, so it was no problem to find back home.
Conclusion: What a night! The DJs delivered amazing sets and edits and the Battle concept of KnockOut is not just a fun thing for the crowd and DJs but also outstanding and unique. I was stunned by the great stage design and light show as well as the generally fun attitude that was radiating from the crowd. KnockOut proved once again proved why it is one of my favorite indoor events and I just can’t wait for the next edition!
Picture Credit: b2s