The two students concentrated like guys hooking up new televisions. Clip in, clip out, a wire here and there. Cables are docked in ports and dials are turned. But these aren’t flat screens, they’re turntables and mixers, tools of expression. The needles drop into the groove and DJ Pryme and DJ Lou Rawk do the same.

It’s UW Stand Up, a recent gathering of the Hip Hop Student Association (HHSA) and the B-Boy B-Girl Breakin Crew Association (BBBCA), and a chance for those who specialize in different aspects of hip-hop culture at the UW to get together.

“Sure, DJs get gigs for clubs, battles etc., and emcees rock shows at various venues, whether it is their parents’ basement, or on center stage in front of 50,000, but they all share the same roots and principles,” wrote Alexander Chauhan in an e-mail.

Chauhan is a junior and the HHSA vice chancellor and resident stencilist.

“For some people, their means of expression might be making beats, so they tend to focus on that aspect, but this doesn’t mean that they don’t all stem from the same ideology and beliefs.”

The speakers at the event, including Michael Huang, president of HHSA, and Seung Kim, president of BBBCA, spoke to a small audience about bringing the elements of hip-hop together while people set up equipment.

Kim had never thought of joining with HHSA until Huang suggested it.

“He told me that HHSA has lots of other sources of hip-hop, but do not have dancers,” Kim wrote in an e-mail. “Therefore, we were perfect to combine with them as a filling of empty gap of our hip-hop project of UW. I am very glad that we have joined them and that we will create an even bigger wave of hip-hop to UW.”

To Chauhan, the hip-hop community in general is a community of a common appreciation of elements that define its members, namely creative expression.

“It is composed of people from all different nationalities and races, perspectives and thoughts, all coming together in various forms of expression, whether it be through dance, music, song and painting,” he wrote.

DJ Pryme, or David Monroe, a senior, licks his fingers before letting them do the walking over the 12-inch record spinning on his turntable. He uses his right hand to flick the cross fader in time with the beat. That turns the sound off and on, while he scratches the record with his left hand. His fingers skip and stop, kick and chirp the vinyl as he demonstrates a series of scratches for the crowd.

“A lot of it’s about hand control,” he said, as students lined up to try it for themselves.

“DJ’ing is definitely an art because it takes a great amount of both mental and physical skill to be good,” he wrote. “On top of that, you have to know about the many, many, many different types of music. Then you have to be able to physically control what you’re doing and mentally understand the structure of the music.”

The way a DJ moves his or her hand fluctuates the sound, and those ways have names. There’s the baby scratch, which is the simplest, Monroe said. Then the crab scratch and the flare — which includes a sticker on the record and turning one beat into two — and the rolling crab.

He pinched the fader, drumming his fingers against it, while he pushed and pulled the record with his fingertips. A circle started on the floor of Terry Lounge, and pretty soon there was a guy spinning on his head and throwing his feet to the ceiling.

Nahid Tewelde, a freshman, attended UW Stand Up and was watching the break dancing.

“They’re just using their bodies, which is amazing,” she said.

Her brother break-dances, but she said she would probably break her wrists trying to freeze. She signed up to join the Hip Hop Students Association.

“There’s music, but there’s also a culture behind it,” she said. “It’s something to get connected to.”

The UW Stand Up was meant to bring the four elements of hip-hop together — DJs, art, break dancing and emceeing — by bringing together the clubs.

The UW hip-hop scene, wrote break-dancer Khris Dizon in an e-mail, is like a big family. He is a freshman and is vice president of BBBC.

“We have a habit to sticking at what we like,” Dizon wrote. “UW Stand Up wants help unite DJs, break-dancers, emcees, etc. to show them we are very much alike.”

Dizon started break dancing when he needed a change in his life, and a path away from video games, which he felt weren’t the best hobby.

“[Break dancing is] a great way to get your head off the school environment,” he wrote. “Break dancing is a great way for me to relieve stress. I feel as if ... I didn’t pursue b-boying, I wouldn’t of ended up where I was now.”

Majoring in physiology, he splits his time between dancing and studying.

“If you really love something, you make time for it,” Dizon wrote. “However, we all know that our education always comes first before b-boying.”

It takes a lot of time to be a b-boy, plus hard work, determination and passion, and a little patience, he wrote. You have to work up to it, and with something so physical, there is always the chance of injury.

“You start sweating after the first set,” Dizon wrote. “After receiving a knee injury I was afraid that I wasn’t capable of dancing anymore. With determination and hope, I was able to work around my problem. The thought of losing what you love to do is pretty scary.”

The hip-hop community can be divided, wrote Kim, and the UW’s hip-hop scene is weak. However, with the clubs combining in events such as UW Stand Up, perhaps the beat will change.

“We would like to show not only random people, but also break-dancers that we all gather and work as one and that hip-hop is created,” Kim wrote. “Our goal is to stick each other together so that we show people what truly hip-hop is other than just break dancing or rapping or clothing styles.”

Reach reporter Erinn Unger at features@dailyuw.com.