This is the old clip of Electric Trouble’s performance back in 2003 I believe. At that time, the Electric Trouble consists of three members, Yokoi, Shohei and Bon. The first guy who is doing solo is Shohei and the yokoi is the next. This is my favorite Yokoi’s solo.
If you are one of the people who got inspired by PBS’s legendary documentary ”Reckn’ shop Live from Brooklyn”, you must appreciate this clip. Yes, it is Kito from Misfits. He is the member of Misfits crew along with Prancer (dancer for Special ED also a member of Zhige), Peek A Boo, Rubber Band. As I mentioned earlier in this blog, Kito has a very unique style of dancing. It is very hard to describe but he hits the beat in a very different manner. or somebody else can describe his style better, please. Although he didn’t appear in many music videos (maybe only Mariah Carey’s “emotion” and Lalah Hatherway’s “Baby Don’t Cry”, I heard he was very prominent at NY club scene in early 90s. (By the way, I think a guy who is hanging around Mariah in her “Dream Lover” video, is Kito.) If you know anything about him, (like other video he did or what he is doing now), please leave your comment, please.
And I just want to talk about the background story of this clip. This clip is so called “Underground Zoo video” among dancers in Japan. What it means is that there was a Japanese pop group called “ZOO” and in 1992 ZOO went to NYC featured NY dancers like Link, E-Joe, Brian Green, Marjory, Marquest, Voo Doo Ray, and Tony (Saku) in their music video that you see at the bottom of this blog. During the shoot, one of the members from ZOO videotaped NY dancers dancing being videotaped behind the camera. And the footage was circulated among limited dancers in Japan first. It was a kind of video people talked about but never be able to see it. Later, I was lucky enough to see the same video but the quality was so bad because the VHS tape I got was copied after copied so many times. So, I was so surprised to see this video on youtube, I mean in public. Time really changed!!
Kito’s dance appeared at 3:00 in this clip.
The legendary hip hop crew, Elite Force appeared and choreographed the opening act for Soul Train 25th Anniversary show. The members are from Mop Top Family, a group of hip hop/house dancers in NYC, who appeared on PBS’s legendary documentary “Reckin shop live from Brooklyn”. The original dancers of Elite Force were Buddha Stretch, Link aka Henry, and Calef and Ejoe (according to the their website.) In Japan, their first appearance was in 1994 when they were invited to perform for the 1st Japan Dance Delight. (the members were Stretch, Link, and Loose Joint) Next year, they were invited again for 2nd Japan Dance Delight and the members were Stretch, Link and Ejoe. Currently, the official members of elite force are buddha Stretch, Link, Terry and Bobby. It is safe to say that Elite Force has had the biggest influence on the freestyle scene or new school hip hop or whatever you call it (basically the hip hop style after bboying). Elite Force choreographed and appeared so many music videos mainly in 80s and 90s including Heavy D, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson (Remember the Time) and etc.. The members are still very much active and they are traveling all the time being invited to perform or judge for dance events around the world.In this clip, the dancers are Loose Joint, E-Joe, Stretch, and Link dancing to aretha franklin’s “Rock Steady”. You can see the style is very different from what you see on MTV these days. This may be just me but the thing I like about their choreography is the flow. I see lot of young dancers who put so many moves in the routine but each moves are often disjointed and not flowing well with the music. Elite Force’s choreography has very smooth flow to the music.
For more information please check their website at www.eliteforcecrew.com
No need to explain. Electric Boogaloos. I haven’t posted their clips because most of the clips are already well known in youtube.but someone pointed out that at least I should mention them since they are the originator of popping. Also, I am posting this because these days people tend to focus on “animation” and “Boogaloo” aspect seems to be less emphasized. But Boogaloo is very very important foundation of popping and I want people to understand that. Here is the information copied from their website.
The group responsible for the creation of the dance styles known worldwide as popping and boogaloo style. In the mid 70’s Boogaloo Sam created a set of movements, evolving each into their own style. He then taught these to the members of his group - The Electric Boogaloos.
Three decades later, the EB’s are still active, performing in shows, teaching around the world and spreading knowledge of their own and other dance styles that were created during the funk movement in the west coast.
The EB’s were born in 1977 when Boogaloo Sam founded the Electronic Boogaloo Lockers - Original group was:
THE ELECTRONIC BOOGALOO LOCKERS
(1977, FRESNO, CA)
BOOGALOO SAM: Creator of popping and boogaloo style.
SLIDE (NATE) : Co-founder of the group with Sam.
ROBOT JOE: OG member and robot was his main style.
TOYMAN SKEET: Originator of the toy man style
TICKIN WILL: Learned the style ticking from Sam.
TWIST-O-FLEX DON: Don was (R I P) the hardest hitting popper around.
ANT MAN: (Anthony) Was the locker of the group. Also popped.
THE ELECTRIC BOOGALOOS
(1978, LONGBEACH, CA)
BOOGALOO SAM: Creator of popping and boogaloo style.
POPIN PETE: Little brother of Boogaloo Sam.
TICKIN DECK: The other little brother of Sam.
ROBOT DANE: Became a member after Sam battled him. (SAM WON)
PUPPET BOOZER: Known for the puppet style that Sam taught him.
CREEPIN SID: Sid came from Arkansas to learn how to boogaloo.
SCARECROW SCULLEY: Sam taught him the scarecrow style.
DARRYL (KING COBRA): Creator of the style snaking.
GEORGE (KING RATTLER): One of Long Beach’s first poppers.
I just noticed that IBM dancers’ clip was deleted by youtube. So, I posted it again.In case you missed before, here it is
when you think of poppers in Japan, the first names you may come up with would be Gucchon, Accky, Kei. They are all from Osaka City not Tokyo. Osaka is traditionally known to have many good poppers (according to the Mr. Wiggles, the best city of poppers in the world.) This is because of the strong influence of OGs from California since 80s. Dancers like Poppin Pete, Sketer Rabbit (R.I.P.), Boo Ya Tribe were frequently visiting Osaka creating the strong foundation of popping. O.G.S (Osaka Gang Star) is a crew that has had the strongest connection with Pete and Sketer and lot of Japanese dancers including Gucchon, Accky, and Kei were inspired by O.G.S. You can say O.G.S is a sort of Japanese popping version of Rock Steady Crew which has been around for a long time and actually still active with original members and the new generation members.
But what about poppers from Tokyo. Yes, we have many new young poppers from Tokyo, too. Kite is my favorite popper from Tokyo and he is one of the best poppers in Japan just like Gucchon and Acky. His name is relatively less known outside Japan simply because in the past years, Gucchon or Kite has kept Kite from going to the final of international battles like UK bboy championship and Juste Debut in Paris. Kite and his crew mate Madoka from Former Action are so close to beat Gucchon and Kay in this years Juste Debut preliminary battle in Japan that they went to the extra round. Mr. Wiggle pointed out Gucchon and Kite should do one on one for the extra round.
If you see Kite, you can instantly notice his style with crazy crazy footwork with solid boogaloo foundation. People tend to get impressed easily by flashy animation moves but to me, boogaloo is what popping make it funky and make this dance style more dance. The clip above is from the 1 on 1 popping solo battle at Street Dance Kemp 2008 in Czech Republic. He won this battle. The video was taken by Tatsuo from Grasshopper. I took it from Tatsuo’s website. Thank you, Tatsuo for taking this video!
First of all, as many dancers agree, I don’t like the show MTV’s “America’s best dance crew”. I don’t like it for the fact Most of the dancers in this show are not impressive with a few exception of dancers from knuckeheadzoo (super crew) and soul sector (supreme soul) yet with staged over hyped studio audience reaction and judge clueless comments made them look like super star. Jabbawockees, for instance, their routine are nothing new and the individuals are a kind of weak. (Imagine, if any member from jabbawockees enter the 1 on 1 battle… could they win? ) Although, I don’t like the show, I have to admit and appreciate the fact that the show could promote this dance culture to the mass audience. But I worry that kids who are only exposed to this MTV’s show would have misunderstanding about lot of things in culture.There is a similar dance show in Japan which is not big scale as much as this mtv’s show. I like their show for the fact that they actually talk about the cultre. They often invite the OG dancers who have been in the game for a long time and has made contribution to the culture and have them talk about it. MTV doesn’t do that.
By the way, do you know why some of the crew enters this show with different name? After the success of Jabba, they see lot of potential to make some profit. So, now they want to hold the right to use the crew name in case they become famous. After all, it is MTV, though…
Anyway, I am just wondering why MTV’s been ignoring house dancing as a style. Only the reference to house was (though I don’t watch the show all the time, so I might be missing) In the beginning of the season 2, there was a crew from chicago supposedly they said they were doing house, which was not House at all. I guess house is still least known style though last 5 years, finally people started to recognize it especially on net. I remember in early 90s, nobody in West Coast, and nobody in Europe except France does House. The house dance scene only existed in NY, Japan and France back then.
The clip here are linked from Tatsuo’s website. (They don’t start dancing until 1 min so just be patient…) Tatsuo is from Grasshopper in Japan and recently he won the 1 on 1 house dance battle at street dance kemp in Chez republic. The dancers in this video are Pino, Hirossy from Alma, Tatsuo, and Hiro. I like all the dancers here but especially I love Hirrossy (the guy with red thing on his head). His move is so smooth and sexy. plus if you notice that he does lot of little extra things during the routine, which shows his character.
This is the clip from Juste Debout 2008 Hip Hop. Twins (Left) vs Meech & Joseph Go (Right) and they are both from France. The best moment from this battle is at 1:55 - 2:41 done by Joseph Go. This is HIP HOP, Not hip hop mixed with Jazz on MTVs… When I first saw this, it gave me a chill!! I hope you appreciate this.
IBM Dancers are known for being backup dancers for Nice & Smooth from NYC. According to E. Boogie, the member of the group, they also danced for Akinyele and Mary J. Blige. This clip is from Nice & Smooth performance at Yo! MTV Raps. In this video, I really like the light skin dude on Red. It maybe hard to see on youtube video but he has a sick flavor on his move. I am not sure if he is the official member of the IBM dancers since I didn’t see him on other Nice & Smooth performance. Please let me know if you know anything about this guy.IBM dancers and Nice & Smooth is supposed to be appeared on 2008 VH1 HIP HOP HONORS AWARD. So, please check out.Talking about Nice & Smooth, they are my favorite rap group. Their songs like “Hip Hop Junkies”, “Funky For You”, “Sometime I Rhyme slow”, and “DWYCK” used to make all dancers on the floor go crazy. I remember at clubs in 90s, when you start hearing the intro beats of DWYCK, I felt like the entire floor was shaking because of the excitement from the crowd.
