Get the story of Red Bull BC One 2021 B-Boy champion Amir
The first breaker from Kazakhstan to do so, Amir was crowned the champion at the 18th edition of Red Bull BC One in Poland last weekend. We sat down with the new king to tell his story.
At the 2021 Red Bull BC One World Finals in Gdansk, Amir made history by becoming the first breaker from Kazakhstan to win a Red Bull BC One title and also the first Cypher champion to make it through the Last Chance Cypher and go on to win the world final.
After advancing through the Last Chance Cypher, Amir confidently said that on the World Finals stage he planned to be "10 times better" and he did that in an epic night of memorable competition, where he started every battle as soon as the DJ scratched and dropped the first beat.
But who is the Kazakhstan-born b-boy who just won the most prestigious solo title in breaking and in just under two years has become a force of nature on the scene?
Amir was born and raised in Kazakhstan, before moving to Russia at 16-years-old. A member of Predatorz and PDVL crew, he started breaking in 2009 at the age of 12, remembering exactly the time and date.
"It was October 8, around 6pm," Amir recalls. "I remember this time because my birthday is October 10 and my first practise was two days before that. I also joined Predatorz crew on October 12, so in my mind I have three birthdays – October 8, 10 and 12."
Amir doesn't remember when or how he first saw breaking, just that it was something he wanted to do, but coming from a small city in Kazakhstan there were no breaking classes, so as a kid he practised parkour. Then, one day whilst walking home from school he saw a poster for a breaking class, stole it and took it home. He needed his mum's permission to attend the class and was afraid that she wouldn't give it to him, so instead he got his sister to call and put his name down for the class.
Even though this worked, Amir's family didn’t have a lot of money, so he had to find a way to pay for the breaking class. He'd already been working from 10-years-old selling copper, so he had money from that, and then he scarified eating at school to have money for the breaking class.
"I used the money my parents gave me for lunch in school to pay for the breaking," he says. "Because of this I had stomach pains from not eating all day, making it really hard to concentrate in school, but I wanted to use this money for breaking."
Luckily for Amir this didn't go on forever. When his breaking teacher, B-Boy Polovinka, found out about him skipping lunch he said that he could practise for free.
Amir blew up on the breaking scene in 2020, when he came out of nowhere to win the solo battle at Legits Blast in Prague. Amongst the breakers he beat that day were B-Boys Xak, Johnny Fox and Thomaz in the final, all of whom were in the top 16 of the 2021 BC One World Final. That was the first time that the breaking scene truly saw the thunderous, floor-pounding style of Amir and he became an overnight name.
Before that he'd only travelled to Europe once, his first time in 2017 with his then crew, Animal Crew. Broke and with only enough money to fly to Europe and then back to Russia, Amir and his crew hitched-hiked for four days to get from Outbreak in Slovakia to IBE in the Netherlands.
"We had a map and we would hitchhike," he remembers "We went from Slovakia to Austria, Germany and then on to the Netherlands. We slept in cheap hotels and hostels, and sometimes had to sneak pass security guards into gyms and places to have somewhere to sleep for the night."
At Outbreak Amir and his partner failed to qualify in 2on2, but helped Kazakhstan get second place in the country versus country battle. At IBE they did okay in the competitions, but it wasn't anything that made the scene take notice.
Finally, going to the Legits Blast in Prague three years later, Amir's lack of travel experience gave him low confidence about his breaking level compared to European breakers, whose level he didn't know. All he wanted to do was get through the pre-selection and it wasn't until he was cyphering and got into the main battle that he realised that his level was much higher than he thought, putting this down to the amazing level of breaking in Russia.
Since taking the win that day Amir's confidence in himself has sky rocketed. He also won the 2021 Unbreakable championship and defeated previous multi-time Kazakhstan Cypher champion Killa Kolya on his way to victory in the 2021 Kazakhstan Cypher.
By the time he got to the BC One World Finals in Gdansk, only the championship win was on his mind, stating before the battle: "When I first came to Europe, my aim was to pass pre-selection, but this time it's to win the Red Bull BC One World Finals." That's exactly what he did.
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The winner's interview
How did you create your style?
I'm a perfectionist and when I create a move it, it might not be a blow up, but just a little step. However, I work to make every step I do in my dance interesting. It takes a lot of time, I could be working on it for maybe one month, but after 12 years of working like this, I've created this style.
I had problems as a kid, but they gave me power. In Russia we believe that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I also think a lot of artists have some past pain and because of this they practise a lot and make art. This is how it is for me as well.
You started every battle without hesitation. Is this your mentality in competitions?
I feel this power in me and I just can't stand there and wait. I just have to go like that.
Have you been training your stamina?
Yes. I battle 10 rounds every day with my crew and I also battle with my students a lot.
Amir scored with creativity and unconventional moves
It's freestyle with moves that I've practised before. In a battle you can't just freestyle and you can't just do sets of moves that you've trained before, because it’s about the moment. You need to be in the moment, to take your time and freestyle with the moves that you've trained.
How do you train to be on the music like you are?
I practise to dance on the music all the time and I like other music, not only break beats. I dance and practise to boom bap rap music, trap, opera and more. It does give me problems sometimes, though, because when I dance I want to hit every sound in the music, but it's hard to do that in the battle and show your moves at the same time. So, sometimes I can't show my moves because I'm trying to hit the music.
What do you do when you're not breaking?
I make films with some animation, but it's not for money yet, it's just for me. I'm going to make a crazy video from Red Bull BC One, because when I win a championship I always like to make a video from it. Next year, I'll make some serious video work with dance and I plan to show it in cinemas, online and also at festivals. Right now, my work is showing in festivals in Spain, Greece, Russia and USA. I also teach breaking and have my students.
