Indeed debuted the first edition of its bimonthly beat battle series, “Heat Check,” on Thursday, February 26. The battle, hosted by local producer and musician, Griswald, featured four seasoned producers going toe-to-toe in an on-the-spot beat making competition. Each producer was provided sound bites captured at “Ice Out” protests on the streets of Minneapolis, along with a small bank of melodic and harmonic loops, and given 20 minutes to chop it all up into their own original beat. When the 20 minutes was up, the beats were played / performed aloud in the room, and the audience voted on their favorite.

With little creative constraints beyond the requirement of using the provided samples, the four producer each had a very unique approach to this competition. Differences in equipment, from MPCs to to SP404s to DAWs, and differences in styles, from boom bap to EDM, made for a wonderfully eclectic batch of beats for the audience to judge. It was Chandler Jarvis who narrowly came out on top at the end of the two rounds and went home with a Burst Variety 12-pack as his trophy.

Participating Producers:

Chandler Jarvis – @chandlerjarvis123

Indigo Onyxx – @indigo_onyxx

Headtriiip – @headtriiip

Fruit Punch Lover Boy – @fruitpunchloverboy

The next “Heat Check” Beat Battle is scheduled for Thursday, April 23 and will feature a different set of four producers, each bringing their own instrumentalist to help create sound bites for live sampling.