Dropped cell phones and scraped elbows were the battle scars of a takeover that happened Wednesday afternoon, but it was all for the love of hip-hop.
Breakdancers, beatboxers and rappers representing the Hip-Hop Collective drew wandering students to the center of Turlington Plaza during the second Turlington Takeover hosted by the organization this semester.
The takeover was meant to promote the Hip-Hop Collective’s A Night of Hip-Hop, a showcase occurring tonight in the Orange & Brew.
The Turlington Takeover started at 12:15 p.m. and lasted until 1:30 p.m.
Breakdancer J.J. Richardson, a graduate student in industrial and systems engineering, started the show.
He stopped to tell the audience of more than 50 what hip-hop meant to him.
“This is all love,” Richardson said. “It’s about you.”
Patrick Wanninkhof, who was wearing an orange jumpsuit covered in pink balloons to promote UF’s World’s Largest Water Balloon Fight Against Breast Cancer, played the drums.
Throughout the takeover, he found creative ways to make a beat for the takeover artists: using an empty soda can, an overturned trash can, a PVC pipe and the balloons on his own jumpsuit.
“I love music, so it’s fun for me,” said Wanninkhof, a UF materials science and engineering sophomore.
Off to the side of the spiraling breakdancers was a small group of four beatboxers.
Valerie Panting, a UF telecommunication sophomore and secretary of the Hip-Hop Collective, was a part of the group.
“We were in the zone, character rapping, pretending we were rapping in the ‘80s,” Panting said.
An onlooker at the takeover could sense the enthusiasm of the members of the Hip-Hop Collective.
“They are a diverse group of people, and they all love it,” said Shivani Gogna, a UF public health and French junior. “They may not be experts, but they love it.”
