Located on Woodburn Ave., the Music Resource Center is a non-profit music studio for teenagers grades 7-12. They have 6 studios for beat making, music production, audio engineering, rap and DJ classes, as well as music and voice lessons. The coolest part; MRC offers this for only $2 (!) a month and is available to both Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky teens.

Eclypse with Heroes Rise Street Dance Academy opened MRC’s Winter Live Music Series with the history of breaking. Very fun and interactive with the audience, he led us through the start of breaking in 1973, at a house party in the Bronx, NYC.

“Breaking evolved organically,” said Eclypse. “This is the most important part of hip hop or street culture in general. The connection to people.”

The audience had a blast learning to cross step and salsa rock. “It's all about feeling the music and creating the space,” Eclypse stated.

Cincinnati’s legendary, award winning turntablist collective The Animal Crackers were the evening’s main event. Tobotius (along with members Nati Kid and DQ) opened their segment discussing the beginning of AC, how they got their start working with broken equipment, “borrowing” records from family, and practicing in his parent’s basement (shout out to Tobotius’s Mom) and evolved to the, “delicate art of the Wickie Wickie.” Inspired by an orchestral display of scratching, AC ended their segment with a symphony of sound that got the crowd moving.

It only takes a moment and a look around the room to feel the je ne sais quoi of The Animal Crackers. You feel lucky to be in their presence and honored to hear their tales.

“One of the greatest things about hip hop culture is really being open enough to share it with whomever’s in the room. We want to learn about each other to find out what's different so we can figure out what is the same,” said Nati Kid. Hip hop connects people together.