Members of Oakland, CA,-based Tornado Rider were busking in downtown Asheville during a night off from their tour earlier this year when they were aggressively approached by Miami, FL,-based rapper Layla Youssef Bessiso. The resulting musical combat may not be safe for work (NSWF), but grows increasingly entertaining as the back-and-forth continues.
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5 thoughts on “Busk Break: The Battle”
That girl calls herself a rapper? Seriously? Not a shred of rhythm, meter, rhyme or timing in her ‘delivery’.
Dude with the cello thing is kinda nice, tho.
just one small caveat – none of these performers are local. shooting the vid in Asheville doesn’t make it local.
I’m not sure anyone has ever claimed all the buskers in ‘busk break’ are ‘local’, cp. Just that they are ‘buskers’. Hence the title “Busk Break’.
Now, that girl calling herself a ‘rapper’ is a whole nuther box of onions.
I have not been able to find words to properly describe how great this is…especially the section from 3:10 – 4:00ish.
I wanna know what those people who parallel parked right beside them were thinking as they got out of their car!
@CP: Most buskers featured in Busk Break aren’t local, actually. Most — maybe two-thirds — are passing through town, or are here for a few months or a season. My only real mission with Busk Break is to document the music and performing arts taking place on the streets of Asheville.
That said, I’m fairly certain Layla Bessiso now lives in Asheville. This video was shot in early summer, and I saw her walking around town last week.
@Bill Smith: She called herself a rapper. I’m not here to judge, I’m here to document.
@ashevillain7: It was a truly magical moment. I was walking home and happened to run across this when it happened. By total luck, I had my camera on me, and was TRYING to capture Tornado Rider doing their thing when Bessiso started pestering them. Easily one of my favorite Busk Break moments.
It’s really a video that pays off if you can stick with it. A Better editor than me probably could have gotten this down to half the time, but I couldn’t figure out where to cut without losing the back-and-forth.