Transcription
[Music] Certain movements that I learned from a guy named Toy Master and Derek, who his dad's name was Diamond D. They were in my, or I was in their group called the Master City Breakers. And they were breakers for the most part, all of them. But a couple of them had like popping backgrounds and came from Sacramento. And they taught me a bunch of footwork stuff, you know.
So Toy Master and Derek Tobias taught me sacking. They told me about this is it's a, I can't remember if they said an old park or Oak Harlow. So I, I don't remember if it's Oak Park or old park, but I remember seeing the styles because there was a show also in the Bay Area. I, there's a few of them. I can't remember if it was People Are Talking or Good Morning America or what it was, but they had a whole, an issue like what one of the shows that that dealt with breaking and popping. And they had people from Sacramento because that's where they were from. And they showed people doing this style and it was crazy.
And basically, if the, because one, two, three, four, like maybe they, they hang in these really awkward, awkward positions on on a two or four, but not right after each other. So like one, two, and they wait and they spin around and they may get in like sailor positions or when they'd be better balancing on one leg like they're about to fall. And yeah, if magically exactly on the beat, they would freeze in these positions. And it's really hard to do. And and and also there was like this kind of like breathing sort of thing in between, like, like and they, and it was kind of like this little, this little waiver thing, you know.
And yeah, so I have this on VHS. All right, I have a box of these VHS tapes that that I could dig out and that I've been meaning to convert for years and years and years. It's like an ongoing project for my book. But this, all these things have been on TV. So I, if I can remember what the TV show is, somebody must have, I mean, somebody must have posted this on on YouTube. It's just there.
There's a few events that the that also is a really good indicator of the styles at certain times. So Chucky Cheese restaurant chain had sponsored a popping or breaking sort of either. And then and people are coming from Richmond, Vallejo, San Francisco, Antioch, Oakland, Berkeley, all around the Bay. And they're in this talent contest. And they're, I can't remember the the two gentlemen that come from Oakland. But but these guys, they danced to, I think it was maybe Atomic Dog. And they came out of a cardboard box. So they crept out of this box like, and they were so incredible. I didn't ever, and you got to see the different styles because the different styles from the different areas, there was so many representatives in this talent show. And I'm like, ah, this is good.
Sacramento, I had, I'm sure there's gotta be some footage that talk about sacking because they specifically say the name sacking on the show. Okay. And this is this predates Skeeter talking about sacking. Yeah, yeah. And and there's though at the time when Skeeter was showing like a bunch of different styles and he said, and this is sacking. But this looked nothing, didn't like this the sacking that I see, not even remotely at all familiar to what I had considered sacking or or Oak Park.
And there's some things that are really cool about this uh the style that comes from Sacramento though is that a lot of these guys could flip. Yeah, yeah. It's just like really uncanny to me. Remember that like the first person I saw do a flip while while they were doing a popping solo, it had to be Popping Pete. Breaking, yeah. In otherwise, I just, I would never think to to put these two things together. But these guys would, remember I said how they land on the beat? Yeah. So they would flip and land on one leg and hold the pose from it. It's like, wow, like what, you know, super skillful and acrobatic and really cool at the same time.
And and a lot of people that did this style also worked with canes. Okay. You know what I mean? And so that that was also a neat element. Really stylish. Yeah. So about the twist of next question, I'll get back to that. About the sacking, the way looked on this the feet, these people I would say had the most intricate footwork that that didn't look like the New York glides, that didn't look like the New York boogie glides or backslide or so. I thought it looked really different. And I incorporate some of that in in in in what I do.
Some of the stuff that the Toy Master and and Diamond D showed me was this. I know a lot of pivot, like pivoting in the feet, like on the toes and the and the toe heel action type things. Absolutely kind of military looking, like ROTC drill team. No, no, no. Like, um, let me, um, there's, there's a clip of, I, I did. It is just a book. I wouldn't know one. Me and Salah, we're competing in 2004. I'm gonna see if I can find the exact. Oh, okay. Then I'll show you it at what minute this thing happened. Like, okay, you know, didn't you, I get it. Hmm. Did, um, you, I remember you showed me that that arm sequence that Toy Master showed you, right? Is that what some people the screen? Yeah. Is that something from sacking that he was doing? Yeah. And just in that same way, it involved like a bunch of like footwork and knee working things combined. This is like very indicative of what the people were doing sacking. For him, particularly since his name was Toy Master, that that puppet stuff was a part of his theme. Okay. But yeah, that the way he did it was in a, it was in a real Sacramento style. Okay. So that was he was really pushing that style. Yeah. And and and I wasn't aware of it until Master City Breakers and the Tobias family showed me what it was.