As we learned in our interview with him, there are few people on Cros1’s level when it comes to the business of b-boying.
In his latest venture, the man behind Freestyle Session and Armory is putting together the world’s first ever b-boy flash mob, choreographed by Flo Master. It’s set to go down in LA at the end of this month.
If you’re not familiar with the concept, hit the jump for a video of one of my personal favorite examples.
The artist that opened my mind to the power of production. When I traveled to Japan, I staked out his shop Guinness Records hoping he would show up. I grabbed his album off the shelf and kept pointing to it, hoping that they had some of his rare titles. Unfortunately, I never got to meet him, but I was able to come home with a few of his albums.
Regardless of the fact that they probably trained to it for weeks before and listened to it on the way to the jam, b-boys will always get massive battle boners to Babe Ruth’s song “The Mexican.”
It is a classic — sometimes it’s hard to tell if b-boys are excited about the song, or if they’ve been trained to react to it like one of Pavlov’s dogs. Or is it more hype just to hear everyone else get hype?
In any case, there will always be some guy who pretends to shoot his opponent during the part with the two snare hits, another guy who pretends to laugh during the “ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”, another guy who pretends to pop his neck during the rattle, and another guy who shakes while the singer is actually singing “share.”
But the real beauty of this song is that it can make anyone sound like a complete racist. For example:
- Do you like the Mexican? So hype!
Nah. Played out.
- Yo! Are you hearing this? He hates the Mexican! I could listen to the Mexican all day! [The Mexican guy in the corner slowly edges toward the door.]
You drove 10 hours to the jam, paid an extra $15 to bring your camera in, and asked some random girl to film your crew’s first battle. You drove the 10 hours back home, transferred the footage to your computer and uploaded it to YouTube. You waited for feedback from your peers on how you did and what you should work on. Instead, you got four people asking “wutz da song?”
Although there seems to be some debate about it, I thought that the LXD’s performance at the Oscars was pretty fun, especially the part set to the UP theme music.
Of course, that could have been due to me shouting out the name of every dancer I recognized under the assumption that it made me look cooler.
The Adidas track suit has been inextricably linked to b-boying since the battle at the Roxy in Beat Street. A group of guys in red track suits on the street can only mean one thing: TRACK MEET! B-BOYS!
Pat La Rock, the guy who brought us the Fog City Nights series (which ended recently with this dope last episode), put together this spot featuring some track suited b-boys getting down outside of an Adidas store and then stealing someone’s wheelchair (in a nice way).
I could talk here about how much of an honor it is when interview subjects say we ask the right questions. Or I could comment on how social networking sites like this democratize the interview process by eliminating the middle man between “celebrities” and their fans.
But none of that means much when you’re hit in the face with some tough, hard-hitting questions like:
With the weather starting to warm up, b-boys and b-girls all over are getting the itch to dance in their favorite outdoor spots again. A park, street corner, or even just a driveway just has a different vibe than being cooped up between four walls.
Skeme Richards put out this mix on the Super B-Beat Show in an effort to show b-boys and b-girls what they might have heard at some of the original NYC park jams. It’s easy to imagine these beats pumping out of the speakers on a hot day while b-boys and b-girls scrape their knuckles on the bare pavement at some dusty NYC park. Click here to download.
I don’t even really like Nikes that much. But the legacy (and comfort!) of the already-legendary Huaraches — combined with something-or-another that gives it the “dance” label and a clean redesign? Sign me up.
I’m even willing to forgive the fact that Zappos describes them by saying, “Let ‘em bite your moves, your style and even your kicks—but no one’s going to be able to rock these Nike® Huarache Dance Low sneakers like you princess!” Wait, what? Still fresh!
There’s something about dancing to a drummer that can’t be replicated by dancing to a track with sequenced drums. Why do you think Get On The Good Foot hypes you up after hearing it for the 400th time?
On the flip side, the sound of a good DJ/turntablist at work is unparalleled in its ability to get people on their feet.