Battle of the Aux competition with BSU
November 8, 2021
Two teams competed during Battle of the Aux, an event put on by Eastern’s Black Student Union on Tuesday night.
The competition, which took place in the 7th St. Underground, featured two teams of 11 and 12 members, respectively, who were tasked with picking a song from a provided genre in three minutes or less and then performing it, through dancing, singing or both, in front of the audience.
Round one started with the rock genre and saw Team 1 dancing to “Kiss” by Prince. Team 2 won the round with their selection and interpretation of “Proud Mary” by Tina Turner.
Team 1 took round two with “Gimme the Light” by Sean Paul, and Team 2 chose “Murder She Wrote” by Chaka Demus and Pliers for the reggae round.
The lead went back to Team 2 for round three with their hip-hop selection of “Fiesta” by Sicko Mobb. Team 1 chose “Crank That” by Soulja Boy and performed the song’s coordinated dance.
Intermission featured a five-person game of musical chairs.
The battle recommenced with an R&B-based round four, where Team 1 tied up the score with their pick of “Ignition” by R. Kelly, and Team 2 selected “Think About You” by Nya G.
The expected last round proved to be not so. Both teams picked Kirk Franklin songs, Team 1 going with “Revolution” and Team 2 selecting “Melodies from Heaven.” The results were indeterminate enough to warrant a rematch.
Yaree Wilson, a junior computer informational technology major, was the DJ for the event and said the gospel round was his favorite part.
“I think toward the end, when everybody was singing that little gospel song and everybody’s Kumbaya and everything like that, I think that might’ve been my favorite,” Wilson said.
The rematch, which faced the two teams with a country selection, ended with a Team 2 victory with the song “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus over Team 1’s “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X.
Destiny Dye, a junior early childhood education major and BSU’s administrative assistant, said that the Battle of the Aux was the first event the BSU’s executive board had put on.
“We really just got together as a board and was like ‘We need to do something that’s fun,’ you know something to get everybody more comfortable, we still getting into the swing of things, the exec board is a new thing, we probably been together for about a month, and we all click and we all like to do the same things, all interested in the same things, and we just want to get more people involved in our organization,” Dye said.
Wilson didn’t expect the event to have as many attendees as it did and attributed the weather to be the cause of a turnout that Dye estimated to be around 60-65 people.
“In all honesty I did not because what we noticed with BSU, our numbers start to dwindle when it starts to get colder outside, but it was nice outside today and I’m guessing that’s what contributed to everybody coming out tonight,” Wilson said.
Dye, who also emceed the event, said she was happy with the turnout and found herself participating in some of the performances.
“It was really a gray cloud at first,” Dye said. “I’m like, ‘I don’t even know what to tell people,’ but just to see the turnout tonight and how amazing it was… I’m sweating, I had so much fun tonight and everybody just was like it was a great event. I’m so proud of the board for how we executed it.”
Ryan Meyer can be reached at 581-2812 or rameyer@eiu.edu.
