Interview with Midnight

And let's have midnight come in. All right, Midnight, can you hear or see me? I see. Hey, awesome. Yes. Yes. Let me see. I see you. How are you? Let me put you a spotlight so we can all see you. Awesome. Awesome. How is everybody this morning? Yeah, Miranda, go first. Let's share a little bit. How we all doing this morning? Doing good. Just had some coffee. Good breakfast. Ready to take in some What do we eat for breakfast? We hungry, too. My My husband's a little bit of a chef. He made a hash brown. A hash brown mixed with some eggs. Mhm. Some sausage and then a little after. Just What's your What's your address? Me and James, we can be over there 20 minutes. Take you a little while. We're in Calgary. I'll do it. I might take you a little bit. We'll figure it out. Right. Colin, how about yourself? How are you doing this morning? Doing well. Uh had had some crepes myself. I did not make them myself, but I had them. But yeah, but it's a pleasure to meet you. Midnight. Excited to hear. Pleasure to meet you, too, sir. Yeah. And then myself. Yeah, man. I just got up like 10 minutes ago, so I haven't eaten nothing. But where do you live at, James? You live I'm in Long Beach now. Oh, okay. What part of Long Beach? Uh, like downtown Long Beach, like where the aquarium is, like the Okay. that that area where the the stadium they have that that stadium the staple center kind of in Long Beach. Um, yeah, so I'm here now and then uh two years ago I was living more in downtown LA like Pico Union like where I remember Yeah. Yeah. Um so yeah, man, it's been an adventure, too. It's crazy cuz I remember man Midnight like the first time I think I met you was like probably like seven years ago when I first moved out to LA. That was with my friend and that was our first time uh I was we met and then I would see you you know here and there either with Boogie Bot or I know Flattop performing or Right. Right. different different man there's other names I have I haven't seen in a while. So time went by so fast. Um Right. A lot of people that are quote unquote superstars now I was seeing them when they were kids cuz everybody would go to Homeland. Yeah. 2001, 2002, 3, 4, the West Coast stuff in LA, Southern Cal, everybody was at Homeland. Everybody that you can think of that's um you know that's popular or whatever, they used to go to Homeland. That was the start. That's how they started their careers. Wow. Yeah. And and Homeland, it's still happening. I Right. Is it still It is. It is. It is. Um Ice Master does it on Mondays. Trying to build it back up. um after the the picnic on Monday and try to blow it back up to homeland. But now everybody's grown up. Uhhuh. They gotten used to it and they want to try to do their own things, stuff like that. So they need to push the newer generation to start going to homeland and start getting the knowledge in, you know. Right. Right. It's understandable, you know. But no, Iceman's still there. Okay. Okay. I I think you know um there in um Do you know Yaya? You know Yaya? I know Yaya. So Yaya is having an event. I'm not sure if you're aware of Unimate. It's Yeah, she she doesn't really talk to me, but I see it. People tell me about it, you know, but I mean, it's cool. I guess the robot animation. Um, which is kind of what's this that kind of influenced why we've been doing these interviews. Um, hearing people's stories about robot animation. Um, but I think uh in UNIMA it's May no July 5th but that whole week. That whole weekend fourth of July weekend. Yeah. It's that whole week uh like July 1st to the 5th I believe. But I think man one of it would be great if one of those days because a lot of people like Colin he's coming from Utah. There's people coming from all over. It'll be great to either go to homeland or to you know if you're having something too like connect with you afterwards. And we were thinking cuz that's that's Fourth of July weekend. Yeah. People do the fireworks and stuff. Um Yeah. But no, I'm always available. Yeah. I'm always available. Yeah. We'll figure something out. Figure something out. The when she had the last time that's when I first saw Ebony from UK person and she's like, "Man, I got to meet you." This that and the other. I'm like, "Okay, let's let's hook up." And a couple of other people. Um, see J, what people got to understand, a lot of the newer generation, they're so used to studios, they're used to events when the real activity and the real actions and mindsets is in the streets. It's in the communities. It's uncontrolled environments. But that's where you get the real thoughts, the real processes, and you catch people really as they are. Yes. Then you can understand and see like, okay, it feels like this. then you'd see the difference. Yeah. You know, and I want to go into that too of your experience like what have you uh picked up? What have you learned from uh street performing? Like real street performing really being out there in the public with people you don't know every day? Like I I I want to touch up touch up on that. Um, but before I guess my first question I want to ask is how did you get into this dance? How did you how did that begin getting into the robot and mannequin and it Okay. Okay. Um I started in 76 when I really started to get into it. But my mom um by me being little I came from Detroit. I came out here when I was three. Okay. So my mom was also artist and she was also into dance. Um the parties um just the regular dance and then I'm watching a lot of television shows. um Soul Train, American Band Stand, Carol Bernette, Flip Wilson, the variety shows and they have different acts. So by me being a kid, little watching that, watching a lot of cartoon um and I'm got into the drawing, but then she's playing music on Okay. And in cultures and black cultures, Hispanic cultures nowadays, but back then Saturdays was cleanup day. and clean the house. So, and in my family, they'll turn on the music, the radio, and they turn on the records, play the 45s and the 38 33s. So, that's when I'm hearing music over again and watching shows from the disco perspective. And then we had the eight track tapes. So, I'm listening to music and going to when my mama take me to little family gettogethers and I'm watching the older kids and stuff dance. They're doing the party dances. They're doing the funky chicken. They're locking the jump. And I'm a kid, you know. So, I'm watching all this. And then my mom, she taught me how to twostep. That's the first thing she gonna learn. And I'm just speaking from my perspective. Can't really speak nobody else, but watching the twostep. show ages four, five, six. I'm watching cartoon. I'm watching Gone Show. I'm watching um Dance Fever and come on like 7879. But it was really American Band Stand and and Soul Train and then I had the radio. So naturally, when you hear music, you're going to start dancing. You're going to feel it, you know. So, I'm dancing and I'm seeing all the locking from the different programs and in the streets. I'm seeing the older kids um going to parties, jumping off tables, splitting, um trying to do robot, sliding, and then party dancing. And I'm sucking all this in and and watching. And I just started doing it. I just started um from my mom. M she wasn't really a um a locker locker per se, but she was into that party dance. You know, she wasn't out there in a negative way, but she go to birthday parties. That's usually how we would have fun when the kids would go to the the teens and the young adults. They had birthday parties in the house, house parties. Wow. Okay. I can have a babysitter. So, she would bring me to these parties, sit me on the couch. So, I'm watching, I'm listening to the music, the funk, the Yes. just the straight the soul, the R&B and the soul and the funk and I'm absorbing it as I'm getting older older and I'm watching cartoons. It's a lot, James. So, let me start there. It's a lot, you know. Okay. Okay. So, you're getting older. You're going to the house parties, watching cartoons. When does When do you start? And you're in LA. When do you start making a name for yourself? When midnight, when where does that come from? But when did that came from doing parades in 85? Um, okay. I got to go back. Um, in junior high. Okay. Not even junior high school. Elementary. So, we're doing a recital. You know, every elementary school has a recital. Um, I'm not sure. Cinco de Mayo or some kind of holiday recital, right? So, we're dancing off um Stevie Wonder um Superstition and we're doing a routine and I'm always doing a routine, doing it, doing it. But now I'm watching TV and I'm seeing all this stuff. So, I'm trying to imitate this stuff, the stuff that I'm seeing on TV and the stuff that I'm seeing on the streets. Um, the first uh dancer group that I saw um was Mechanical Device, the Black Messengers. Black Messengers. Remember, I was watching the G show all the time, right? So, all that time and then my cousin, he was in the Navy. So, when he would take leave from Navy, my mom would let me go with him. So, he's out. He's coming. So, he's taking me to the parks where they're having the park parties. He's taking me to these parties and I'm watching the older kids now. He knows I like to dance a lot. So he would put money on me to bet against other kids, just regular dancing. I didn't know. I'm just trying to be a kid, just trying to blend in and do the regular stuff, you know, this that and the other. So I had to speed it up to then I went to the service for Knox Kentucky. But back before then, before I went to as I went to Emanuel, Maryland High, that was considered poplock high that was 80. M everybody was dancing. Everybody was dancing. You had the pop lockers. You had lockers that were leave. Well, the locking scene was dying down. The disco scene was dying down. But then the popping was coming in the funk. Boom. Females are doing it. Everybody was doing it. Every every school mascots, it was all that. Wow. Um I wasn't men. I was just Eddie. But then the neighborhood kids, they would call me Chocolate Pop. Okay. blackhead in the neighborhood doing it. So to answer your question for the name when it was a a dance battle, a street battle on 24th and Western and it was the kids members only. That was a group. They was at Hoover Park. They came over to the other side of Vermont where our side was at and it was a big street battle. Two little kids came knocking on doors trying to find me. These are like nine 10 year old kids on bikes trying to find chocolate pop. They finally found me. My mom was telling me there's two little Mexican kids out here looking for you. She didn't know my name was Chocolate Pop. You just assume, you know, because I'm I'm dancing. She they I go with them after I just come back from work cuz I got a regular job. Take me down the street, James. It's about 900 people. They blocked off the street, 24th in Vermont. If you can Google that, you can see the small sides of the street and it's old circle. I'm like, "Wow, the [ __ ] is all this?" And I'm running and people they see me from the neighborhood, they get hyped. Oh, there go chocolate pop. There go chocolate pop because they know what's about to be on. Uhhuh. We had the face off. Left um uh I got to I got to explain this kind of but I'm trying to speed it up to get to the name. No worries. Don't take it. I got to when um they left, they left. They got in their trucks. Yeah. Yeah. We turned y this that and the other. No y'all didn't. No y'all didn't. So told all the guys, all the young guys, all us because I was 19, um, get together tomorrow. We'll meet here and we'll go to their park, which is Hoover Park. We're going do the same thing for them. So next day after work, I get my vest, I get my white glove. But a lot of people's trying to imitate the Michael Jackson because he imitated fashion, created fashion like to the fullest, right? down there and then after we battled the members only their leader um he ran Hoover Park. He was saying um we want you guys to be in our group. Me, Aaron, Kevin Favors, um um Prince of Waves and me and Kevin Favors, we was calling ourselves People's Republic of Pablo. But then I was kind of friends with the LA Breakers, the younger generation LA Breakers. Uh the per It's a lot. It's a lot. I go to I get in a parade. It was single de Mayo parade. Okay. Oh, we was in the back of a truck dancing and popping. And that's when we first went to Venice Beach as a group. Um, but I was thinking about that parade. The people, [ __ ] James, I want to get back in this. So, when I went to go fill out the application, CO mayo parade, I couldn't use chocolate pop. I didn't name. But I remember I going to a party cuz remember I'm always dancing. So we went to a party by USC and it's a guy he saw me. It was like 11:30 12:00. See James back in the days parties would jump off 3:30 4 5 in the afternoon. That's when it was like cracking and crowded. Everybody's at their height. Nowadays when do parties start getting really live and activated? 9 later. Right. Right. Yeah. Right. So when I go to went to that party, it was 11:30, 12 o'clock. People are tired. The girls are with the guys in the corners. They, you know, everybody's tired, but I'm still dancing. I'm still moving. Wow. Still getting in. And the guy was like, "Damn, you like a freaking midnight dancer. Aren't you tired?" I said, "No." So I thought about that. Wow. Let me put that in application. Midnight dancer. Okay. Um, so I used that and that that was a good name to use in the application. So I went to the Cinco de Mayo parade. Let me show you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wait, wait, wait. I still had the the exact same thing. Um, so I made the I made that was my first parade. And here's the thing. 86 the next year. Wow. Midnight dance certificate of coma. Wow. That's 86. So that was the first time that was that name was on paper. Somebody and I and I got first place. Wow. The people were like and I I got hooked. I'm like because there was no dancers and no parades. It was no dance groups. It was no individuals. You just had drill teams and drum squads. Wow. And the black community or you had schools but individual dancers on foot dancing. It was none. I said okay. Because nobody was doing it. So I had to go on variety entry. So then Black History Parade, the um the Christmas parades, um I use Midnight Dancer and then I started adding Kevin, remember Kevin Favorites, People's Republic of Pop Lock. Then later on um I teamed up with Popcorn and then we started doing the parades. But that was it. And so when I started that name Midnight Dancer, I just kept that name and people started remembering that's Midnight Dance. And then we hit the skating rings. Mhm. We hit Uncle Jam's Army at the sports arena. But let me stop there. But that's where that name started and I established that name in ' 85. Okay. Wow. People started asking me who is that? That's Midnight. That's Midnight Dancer. And I was start wearing the shirt with my name on the back cuz everybody wanted to try to be known. Cuz it was so much competition. It was so much mindsets. People got to realize J was huge. Everybody was getting down dancing. Everybody wasn't no certain group. So everybody wanted establish theelves. Everybody wanted to be the best that they can be and try to turn people out. That was a reputation. So me and you going to a party soon as they walk in, oh [ __ ] that's James at Midnight. They nervous cuz they know we about to put it down. We're looking for action. First you go to parties. So first you're looking for girls. girls, you know, but then when a certain music comes on, somebody steps up, be ready to send it back. Yeah. But I'mma stop there. But that's how the name started. Midnight. Okay. And I see also behind you, you have a photo of your of Midnight of the the character you've created behind you. Oh, right there. That um David Cablla painted that for me when I did the 10th anniversary, the Poppers picnic. He painted that to me as a birthday present. Wow. What inspired the design of of Midnight of the character? Okay. Cuz that character um after we did the the the first Poppers picnic. Mhm. You know, after events, a lot of people they want to go to the clubs and the after events, the after parties. James, I didn't want to do that. I wanted to take it back to the streets. And then for that year prior, I was talking with um Anthony Morfield, Golden Robot. Okay, now he's an icon on Hollywood. It was also um Gold Mine and Automatic. They would do shows that in Santa Monica Pier. Same with Animation. Santa Animation had Venice Beach. He held down speech. Flattop held Universal Citywalk and Auto um sometimes Automatic and Gold Mine. They either separate or they're together. They either hit um Hollywood Boulevard or they're at Santa Monica um pier. But Anthony Morfield, he either hit Santa Monica Pier, but Hollywood, that was him. Wow. So when I was talking with him over the months, the past years, he was talking about how everything was extra crowded. Everybody was encroaching. The breakdancers had they spot magicians, food cars. What about the the the poppers, the robots, the magicians? Nothing for us. So I told Anthony, "Fuck it. After the picnic, we gonna come down to where you at on Hollywood. We gonna shut it all down. You can go look on Google um OG Hollywood popping and you can see that video I'm I'mma He was at the bus stop. He was posted at the bus stop and we came and met him. We was out there till like 3 in the morning with the speaker box packed going. So I said, "Wait a minute. The people now they're seeing the real they're not seeing the stuff that's on TV. They seeing the real real stuff. Keep this going." So I want to start doing street shows. Everybody, a lot of people's doing this the box, the mannequin, the mind popping on the box. Uh oh. Is this is this the Oh, no. Um I know. Um was it OG Hollywood popping part one? Part one and part two. Um and people never saw a older white gentleman and that's OG Mike. They never saw a lady um AK that you know we had our gloves, we had our stuff. Nope. Nope. Um it was on Hollywood Boulevard. I have to No, that's Poppers Picnic cuz it was me and Ticklot. We started doing actual popping street shows. Yeah. Okay. Let me do one more. Okay. I know. I've seen it's at night, right? Yeah. Yeah. I've seen it. It's two parents, right? And um one of the guys from the Bay Area came, Alex, he tapes um a lot of it and caught it on tape. Um, you know, no it wouldn't say that. It's a certain title. Um, but it's so old it came down viral came back. Is it I'll have to find We'll come back. Yeah, we'll we'll come back. Um, but then where we me and Tigot we started doing street shows. I was just in a karate suit, me and him doing chain racks and doubles. But then we're on Hollywood. So you see the characters, you see the Superman's, Iron Man's, the Hulks, the um the pirates of Penzans, you know, all the the characters, right? But I look in the stores and I see the mannequins posted up in different stores. So, James, what if that mannequin came alive with a human heart, started dancing and popping? But, you know, a mannequin's made out of metal and wood, so it's going to be heavy. So, it's not going to be as fast and as fluid as a human would, but now it had that human mentality. So, like when I'm doing street shows, the music is a little bit faster and boom, ba boom, but it's all in sync, but it's panicking. So I wanted to see that'll be cool. The mannequin came off the box and started hopping. Yeah. Became human, started interacting with the women as a guy would interacting, playing with the kids. You know, remember that movie, The Mask? Yes. Yes. Okay. That same arrogant attitude, but in a fun way. Playfulness. Yeah. So I saw um my main performance partner, Everett, Bo Woods. He had an Iron Man suit. He made it cuz back then those suits and outfits they was like three four $5,000. He wasn't paying $5,000 for them. So you had to get it online, right? He made this suit at his house in his room. So he's walking down the street and I'm looking, oh [ __ ] that's Iron Man. But now wait, that's a black dude in that suit. This man cuz he had that certain walk. Right. Right. Right. Later he told me it was his feet was hurting he made. But um I pulled him over and I was talking with him and I said to myself, "Okay, me and him, we need to team up because I already had ideas for the community, the popping community, cuz um James, anybody can dance, robot, pop, whatever. But can you entertain, right?" And that's a lot of dancers, they can't do. So I I got with him and I had him. I told him what I wanted. Since he's making costumes, he made my face. I wanted something that can contour so it can look like a mannequin in the face so you could tell. And I just put everything together from a hood perspective. So I was thinking about the mechanical device. I was thinking about Mad Monster Party. Um that's an animated movie. Mad Monster Party. Yes. I've never That's great. See, that's that's the thing. I try to show people that when I first when they try to do one-on- ones and I show them, they're like, "Oh, shoot." with the skeletons, the um the bones and Phyllis Diller, they all had voices, but everything was all in claimmation of all the all the monsters. This is interesting because I know people talk about claimation and and so this film punch up mad monster party right here. Okay, those are snippets, but you have to watch the whole thing and that's the trailer. Let me see real quick. just a trailer. Okay. So, when I was a kid, that's what I was looking at besides watching cartoons of Gigantor, watching um Land of the Lost with the Sle Stacks, that that walk with the sleeve stacks, and then Monster Party Monster Party starring Boris Carlo. And in order of their appearance, those are all of the horses. Frankenstein, the werewolf, the henchback, the mummy, Dr. Jackal, Mr. and in order of his disappearance, the invisible man. Also starring Phyllis Diller as the hostess with the least. He was an actor, comedian. [Music] Bones, honey, let's dance. The mummy dance. See, but James, nobody want to talk about this cuz they don't Nobody was knowing. Okay. When I try to explain to them, it's like, oh, shoot. Really? Yeah. Cuz a lot of cats, they do. Uh, that's let me hush. He's gonna No, no, no, no. Because you can't you can't tell all the information. So when you do, you go into details. You tell one person all this information. They'll go way over here, right? And broadcast that same information, but the people that they're telling it to, they think he's the original source. He takes all the credit. When you can send me like, look, I learned from such and such or I was told this by this person. Just like when you go to colleges, you look at the books, everything has that person's credit, right? The reference up. Yep. Everything, right? But the um my monster party, the cartoons, Gigantor, um Land of the Lost with the Slee Stacks, the um Creature from the Black Lagoon, and when a guy was coming under the water, you know, and I've seen some guys imitate those things to at this earlier parties. Okay. I didn't really understand it because I'm a kid, but I'm like, what the [ __ ] is this, right? You know, but you know, that's just a little bit of it. So now I want when at this time around this time, which I think you were saying like mid80s around this time of when Oh, the the mannequin the the mannequin character. Oh, right after right after the picnic. right after the first picnic and I saw Everett and I hadn't put my face together so I had to put the shirt and put everything together that I had in mind. So I started doing street shows in Hollywood because it wasn't no it wasn't no popping acts. It wasn't no robot popping axe. It wasn't a lot. It was a few but it wasn't a lot. the Bay Area had a lot over in the warfish warf and again animation had um he had that unlocked Venice Beach the certain spot Mr. animation when you go to um Venice Beach every pop or whatever you had to go visit animation and watch him do his shows in front of the tourist and the tourist responses. Okay, they were we know what he was going to do cuz that was the homie but it's just the tourist but he was representing the culture. Okay. So, so during this time were there already a lot of robot movers established like robot dancers established already or and animators? So like like were there I guess. Yeah. During this time, during the first Poppers picnic and now you're getting you're putting the ideas together. Were there other already established robotterers? Yeah, I was I'm going say yeah. But a lot of them had retired. They stopped because the popping died down. It died. Then you got to the trendy the trendy dancers. Then you got to the house dancers. Then you got to the hip-hop. Oh, okay. A lot of them, you know, they retired. They stopped like got fans. But a lot of them, they still do come to the picnics. You see like these older dudes and you don't think nothing of them where it's like, "Oh, no, that's um that's Dr. Business. Oh, that's Lady Mason. That's such, you know, because I've known them from back in the days when I was going to LA." Wow. Back in Manuel and back in those early 70s. I used to try to hit those festivals. I would try to hit the malls. Um the skating rings. Um Uncle Jam's Army. That was the biggest the the biggest stage for for dance. Okay. And um you know like you can put five poppers picnics, five B boy summits. Wow. That event that they do up in in France, I've never been out there, but I saw Yeah. It'll never compare to um Uncle Jen's Army Dance. 10,000 people at the sports arena on the floor. Not including not just sitting down. I'm talking about on the floor and they'll take the seats out to expand that floor. Wow, man. See, Jame, nobody want to talk about that because they they wasn't there. Okay. Okay. What about anim? Okay. How I want to I know you want to get into the animation. I want to I want to talk I want to get into I'm just seeing how to how to really I'm not really an animation expert. focus more on the the robotics. It's just it people try to make it so more much more complicated than what it is. J. Okay. Here's my question. Here's my question. When did you hear about animation being used and talked about within the dance when deuce? Um just being honest as far as being talked about and starting to be publicized. um when Deuce wanted to come back into the mix. um Gizmo when he did when he came when he did the picnic and um go look at at prior people's doing workshops. um 2000 2001 everybody was focused on um popping bugaloo some waving tutting. That's cool. Um, but in your case, you want to know about that animated perspective. Nobody wasn't really talking and focusing on animation pretty much when Gizmo did that. That's um that showcase at Poppers Picnic five or six. Mhm. Or it was I believe five or six. Okay. Go look at the video. He cleared he cleared the floor and then afterwards every like okay now what is this? Let me see. Scorpio was standing right there. Everybody was standing right there. Poppers picnic. So, it's a showcase by Gizmo. Let me see. Well, you know, you know, I have the floor. Okay. And people just going out and he just happened to step out. Um, is this 2012? No, no, no. I'm not sure. And this is just my personal take. I can't speak to nobody else. And probably some people might have different opinions, but I'm just telling you from um my perspective. Mhm. Then later on, Nope, it wasn't them. It wasn't that. This one was at at Griffith, but it was before them. Was before them. 2013. See, it was a it's a lot of videos of it. Uh Jay, um also on a side note, I got to say the Poppers picnic is what is what is probably the most incredible event of bringing poppers from all over. I even before I came to LA before I was watching videos of the picnic and I was like wow this is like the motherland where everyone is at and that's when I came to LA I had to go to it so I did attend one of the picnics just for yeah and you know and and when you did and you started doing your stuff I don't know if you noticed it was so quiet because everybody's looking they're like what the [ __ ] is he doing what this you might not can can understand what he's doing but now you are being entertained because you are watching. Yeah. You know, you're not walking away. You're you're doing stuff, right? Huh? I I I I'll find a video um exactly the scene and show it to you. So, he started doing Creepomatic. Okay. Um he was doing stuff now. I don't know. Maybe somebody else was saying was speaking animation beforehand. I don't know. But as far as from me, that's when people started really speaking on it in depth really and they started adding it into their workshops later on contrast. You know, Dre was doing his boopping. Um, his robots. Um, I was doing my robots and popping. Um, but a lot of the other people they were doing waving, the popping, bug, tutting, you know, which which was cool, you know, which was cool. was looking trying to get into the stuff too. But that's when everybody was trying to get into the mix. Okay. And you're asking about the animation part. That's when and afterwards then later on people started adding that into their workshops and scenarios. Like really right now about that before. They wasn't doing that before. So that's cool. There's uh uh Colin is writing a question. He says Deuce, Gizmo, and Andre. He says, "Was Deuce their teacher or was he Andre's student? Do you know anything about uh don't let me know they were brothers, half brothers or not?" Let Andre tell you. He going to tell you. Um you have to ask him more on that. But no, he wasn't. I de was his own man. I I first met him at a parade. Um 86 Black History Parade. Okay. I remember I'm popping in the parades. So I'm going straight popping, vibrating, you know, hitting wasn't doing roboting because it was slower robot. You got to take your time and do it popping and movement. So for Western and 70 something, it was a couple of dudes. They came out. I drove by, got on them quickly and they said, "Oh no, let me go get my G." And it was Deuce. He came down. I said, "Oh shit." And I already heard about him, you know. Now he was kind, you know. Okay. A lot of entertainers gang members, real talented dudes was gang members. But Jay, you wouldn't know about them because a lot of them was so set in their ways in their communities doing what they're doing. But you take go to a party like a hood party on certain music. Oh, you're going to get a show. You're going to get a show. But with um um when I had Sardus, I'm like, "Oh [ __ ] me and him about to go at it." But the parade, you got to keep going. You can't stay stagnant for so long. Mhm. Um and then Gizmo brought him back to my attention. He got a hold of him and then me and Giz had talked um No, me and De um Deuce had talked Maria Ray because he remembers he remembers because remember he was in the Olympics the 84 Olympics. Okay. I didn't you know when they had it in LA. Okay. Deuce was in it. Yeah. And he was also breaking and entering. Oh right. Dang. I gotta go back now and find footage. Okay. That's a lot of things. Um um the culture is to be is not to be told or sold. You got to be around it to know it. You got to be around the people to really get the the full knowledge, right? If that makes sense. I'm only gonna say some. But as far as that question, ask okay. Okay. passed away. But now when he wanted to to do the pics with me, oh no, he was fully in, you know. Um he gained a lot of weight. His men's had his hair, but he always had the love for dance. A lot of we had a love for dance. So when we did picnic five, um he spent part of his rent money for the food. I spent some of money. Yeah. We fed over 300 people. Wow. Yeah. at the P, you know, trying to get the people that didn't have money out oftowners that didn't were able to bring lunches and stuff, right? Oh, you come on. No, we got you. That's the whole point. Trying to bring community together and he was with that. And then he created time zone. Okay. Right. Construction, trying to bring, you know, certain ones together to stabilize the culture and make it grow, make it expand, you know. That's a I want to come back to that question. I'm g stop there, you know, growing there because a lot of subjects, you know. Yeah. No, and it it's this is needs to be heard. It needs to be shared. Some people probably going to mad at me, but Oh, well, I'm just, you know, Yeah, you're saying that's that's the reason why I do the the the picnics so that everybody can be included. Um, but then they can see the authentic culture. It's not just one side. It's not just my partner, you know, if that makes sense. So I can bring the the veterans, the pioneers and the veterans, well, a lot of them I know because I grew up went to LA with the new generation close the gap so they can see how stuff was. Now, yes, it's 2025, so you don't hear the the funk and electro on the radios no more like we used to. You hear the stuff that you hear now. Um, but you if you apply your foundations um keep your foundations core and authentic you know um and then you can create some other stuff you know cuz the music of today wouldn't recommend I mean people can but some of we look like no you know and some people think we're hating no it's just for me personally I seen so much So, a lot of stuff that people do now, I seen before. A lot of cats that LA people do, barricads seen before. Um, but that's not like when you was at the picnic, the 10th one, stuff you did, ain't nobody seen that [ __ ] had the potential. Just like um Marcus, I was telling Marcus and I was telling Tyrone, you know, when they're doing shows in Hollywood, I gave them some on the spot pointers right then and there. Mhm. And I said, "Just try it much." And when they did, oh [ __ ] it opened their eyes. So, I didn't want the pat on the back. I just want you to be the best that you can be. Right. Right. And that's always I've always sensed that from you of the very giving and wanting to just you, you know, you create the picnic. You're you're you're teaching lessons and helping everyone out. A very giving, very supporting. That's like what I feel from you. When I was a little younger, we didn't The only lessons was just watching, looking, watching, and taking notes. And in that mirror, that mirror is your your best friend. My best friend was the radio. The radio. My dad gave me that radio. So, it was the cassette radio. Synical cassette. So, I'm trying to a lot of dancers, you have to try to transform the sound into physical form. Do what the music tells you to do. Some beats is going to be faster. So, Some moves are going to be broken down. Some moves are going to be slower. So, some moves, bam, are going to be slower in depth. You translate the music. So, you're seeing something. You're hearing a certain jam and you're seeing somebody dance to it. You want it to match like peanut butter and jelly. Yes. Yes. If that exactly you want to match. Yes, man. A question uh Colin just brought up as well is uh what what did the term bugaloo mean when you first got into dance? What did the term mean? with a boo as a as a um as a dance as part of cuz out here LA um um we were calling damn either you was doing it was poplock dancing popping or some people saying bugaloo but the majority of LA culture stuff was was poplock that was the term okay that was the term out in the Bay Area it was Baloo so I'm hearaloo I'm thinking I'm thinking in terms of funky dance, hopping per se, bugaloo, but I knew it was going to be a little bit different. I remember being a kid, but uh me being older, my 20s and 30s, I know it was from the certain region when you go to Oakland and me and you start start dancing more than likely a senior citizen going to call it bugaloo. But now we come to LA like Taste of Soul and some Booaloo cats come down to LA and start start doing their dances and popping the senior citizens that grew up in LA, they're going to like, "Oh, look at the Pop Lockers." Interesting. Right. The word, right? Do you it what what is the relationship between Oakland and LA? What it's like cousins? They're like cousins. I went when my um me and my mom went to went to Frisco. Let me see. And I only thing I can remember was those hills and that wind. That cold wind. That wind was cold. But no, me and and Chuck Vic, we have conversations all the time. We talk people will migrate LA to Oakland, LA to Frisco, Frisco to Compton, Watts to um San Jose, um San Diego to Sacramento. Everything was going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Okay. So, it was it was all Cali. You had the north and they represent the north and then you had the south, but it still all was Cali. That's just me. That's how I you know, right? So, it's like family. It's just um they like hot links. Okay. You know what they what truck say? Taco links. Taco links. Okay. But now when we talk, I learn a lot of um Oakland history from um um Baloo Vic and especially from Chuck Chapa Colonel. But then I tell them LA stuff, LA culture, too. A lot of people didn't think it was a term poplock. They didn't think it was no such thing. I'm like, when you ask them, have you ever grew up in LA? A lot of time they're going to say, no. Right. There it is. How did pop blocking come about? What's the origin? or at least to your knowledge of when that term came out and what it represented. We had a I'm not going to go too much in details, but we had a meeting in Bandit's house. It was like eight of us and everybody put their eagles aside and we put timelines together and from what I that that term started in Compton. Interesting. Okay. Compton, LA, Watts, it's right there and you have South Central LA. That was the mecca. The mecca of South Central LA because you have South LA, but then you also have East LA. See, it's a whole different perspective. You got Southwest LA, right? And then over down this way, Venice, Cover City, Hollywood is over here, the Valley is over here, but the majority stuff LA, Watts, and Compton. It's a lot. It's a lot, but people got to actually come over here. Okay. It was a time when Asia won, she did the Funk and Soul Summit in Libert Park, which is right down the street from my house. Mhm. Um J, we had a ball. Had a ball. Um I did a workshop like a a workshop tour out in the open field. Um oh shoot. Um I can't the names off the tip of my head. Um this lady, she did a hip-hop class and that's when we had our summit. So, um, skater rabbit was there at the summit. Um, I was at the summit. Um, um, ah, the tip of my tongue. Um, okay. I'm losing my mind now. No worries. But we had a we had a summit and we laid down the timelines from the dance. What was the timelines that you shared? Well, Ski and and Deita um Deita Jones, they got the timeline with the locking. Okay. As far as LA, Locking comes from LA. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, the party dancers and that's Skate. You have to ask Skate. And then Ma Jones came. Um and then me and and um Sir Pablo, we was there for this. Gizmo was there. Asia was right there. And it was like a group of about nine 10 people because it was a small little studio because action was outside. It's Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So we only had like about 20 30 minutes and then Tiarara Strike, she did the hip hop, put her on the panel and then we had the youngster that got the crump and started. Okay. Was there cuz the the house and the raves that started kicking into gear. But then so with the disco era, so I'm trying to get start explain the part with the disco and the popping started coming in, the popping into the trendy dance coming in, the rave and stuff and then the hip-hop stuff was coming in. You know, I didn't first see break dance until I saw um Snake and Dave at Manuel 84 because I saw him, we was off c we was on campus but it was off the school hours. Mhm. And me and and Dr. Business and Count Papula, we was just walking and oh, there go Snake and Dave. And we was already gonna mess around and then he started doing some floor rock. I'm like, oh, that's that hip hop and break dance stuff. Yes. And I understand it. You remember when I um I I graduated from Emanuel in ' 83 and then I went to Fortn um and over there. Oh, it was it was racist to the fullest. Um on the walls on the bus going there um because I was doing the um Army Reserve. Mhm. So it was only for 6 months. So I left in August, came back in December, but on the way there it had on the wall kill all [ __ ] Um [ __ ] excuse my language. I'm just No, it's true. So when it was time to get off the base, I wasn't getting off that base, maybe go to the PX, but I wasn't get off the base. So on the weekends, it's going to be the radio. The only video station that was playing videos was VH1, right? Boom. Michael Jackson. He came with Thriller. Yeah. Thriller video changed everything. Changed everything. They were playing it 24 hour 26 hours a day nonstop. Boom. Boom. Now we're in for Knox, Kentucky. So, and my sergeant, one of my sergeants, he caught me in the mirror on a Sunday. It was like off day. So, I'm in the mirror just messing around because I'm thinking about back home in LA, right? He he calls me. I'm thinking I'm going to get a section 8 article 15 because I'm desecrating a uniform or out of care. He took

me to his dorm. He pulled out uh Green Records. He pulled out BT Express. He pulled out because he's like, "You're from LA, huh?" Said, "Yes, Sergeant." He's like, "Oh, so you guys do that Pop Lock stuff?" Interesting. He's from Arkansas. What you doing about this? Right. He pulled out the albums. He pulled out the Parliament albums. He pulled out um Casey and the Sunshine Band. So, it regulated. It went further out. But that's another topic. Wow. Okay. So much. But the bugaloo the Yes. Yeah. That word when I when I heard that I knew it was funky, but I didn't really think too much what it is exactly, right? Had something similar to do for when I was doing the podcast, you know.

Okay. And and you when you were sharing about the timeline of the dance in LA, the beginning from my perspective, from what I saw, from what I from from your perspective, it was during the disco era funk, it was locking and robot. Locking, roboting, and party dancing. Party. And then in LA. In LA. LA. In LA. Locking roboting. Um, party dance. This is what I'm seeing as a kid. M knocking robotics. Um yeah, um that was it. That was I don't know what the Hispanics was doing. Oh, and in and disco and the the disco dancing, you know, for um a lot of people miss mixing the locking with with the the disco music because that disco music was going on too. Um, Ring My Bells. Um, um, Gloria Gainor, um, Caseing the Sunshine Band. Um, Brick, Cameo had earlier stuff and but then I was into Parliament. Remember, I like to draw. So, the Parliament had albums with the popup pictures and it had the book. Sir Nose was the enemy and Starchild was the was the good guy. So it was always a conflict entrance. So every album it continued the story. Oh, that's cool. That's okay. That's dope. That's really cool. You were looking forward right to the next. Yeah, it can story. So with that story, the music remember the music was dictating the dances the music. Mhm.

So Jay, when I'm coming, when I'm I was trying to explain to them hard rock, disco, you had the funk, um you had the R&B, um you had early gospel, um and when I go into into rock, um Led Zeppelin, um Black Sabbath, B52s, um that part disco So, and with Dance Fever with um Danny Tero, everybody was watching that. Um um Soul Train on Saturdays before you went anywhere. Everybody was watching that. Everybody was watching Soul Train flipping channels doing the commercial cuz American Band stand was on. So watching this, someone said, "Okay, this is what the blackheads well us what we're looking at. Let's see what's what were the whiteheads listening to. You go over here and you see and you see how they dance. See white boy swim. Oh, there was a party dancer. So, a lot of the black kids, they would use those dancers too. And then you had the UK um new wave all that was kicking in, but nobody want to talk about that part. See, interesting. What what what tell when when the the UK when was this? What was happening? Um, go to go to um Oh, here we go. I I got stuff on here. Let me think real quick. Um, you had um um Yazu. Move out. Don't mess around. Move out. You had Oh, jeez. You gotta listen to um the K-Rock. They'll play certain songs or um Oh, [ __ ] It was a lot. It was a lot. Um, and a lot of their music influenced um, Culture Club, even though they were like American, but you know, British. Okay. The Britain, you had the Britain sound. The Brits was coming in. Um, um, Blinding Me with Science. That Thomas [Music] Dolby. Oh, that was Poppers was getting that in, but also Mod Squads was getting in. Remember I was talking about the trending, right? You had Michael Jackson, you had Rick James, you had Parliament, you had Zack, and you had Prince. Okay, Prince followers. They had the trench coats, they had the buttons. Um Um and you when you're going to parties, you're looking for girls, Buffalo. That's why I said go Buffalo girls go around the outside around the dude with the trench coats and they're doing the skin and the trench coat with the hats or the Levis's flooded Levis's with um with the penny loafers. Okay. With the argal socks and the um the lacas it's a lot. Wow. The styles. No, that's great how you're naming the clothes styles so we can look back as well and see how it, you know, put together. Hoppers and Bugaloos had their stuff in their area, but the trendy dancers and they were dancing off the electro, but they was doing the dances, cop, the George Jefferson, the guests. Um, and these are names off of off of people off of people or certain items and they would turn them into dances. Um, you know, the Blues Brothers had they had their their ties and stuff. Go back to the bread, the new wave. I see. Okay. Okay.

So, I'm remember my radio is my best friend. So, I'm listening to all this different stuff and it's playing. So, now the parties and stuff was being played. Uncle James. This is where people started making money as DJs because now DJs was the thing to start making money. Latinos had their party down the street, right? And they high disco, right? Music is it's faster. Um, you had Let me stop. No. No. So much. So much. But it's wonderful. All of it is wonderful. A question I want to ask is uh, well, I know you mentioned about drawing that you've been drawing since a young age. Correct. Because of my mom. My mom got me into music and got me into drawing. And I see you have some drawings behind you. Those are those you created or tell me what about those are um, ink pen drawings. This one right here is a pencil drawing. Right. Right there. That's a pencil drawing. I got the dates on there. This Okay, I'll show you this one. I kept this one. This I did in ' 83. This one right here. So, it was um it was raining. This is on my birthday on 71382. That's when I turned 17. It was raining that day. So, I got bored. So, I saw this picture in the magazine. So I drew it. So with the fashion styles and the blacks, everybody had curls. Jerry curls. Yeah. So I gave him made him have lighter eyes and I made her hair a little bit shorter. Wow. So after I drew that picture by me going to junior high school and high school, the majority of my major and classes was art. Art classes. Okay. It was easier for me to to pay be able to graduate. Yeah. You know, because I So I entered that in a contest. Arco the gas station. They had an art in the LA school district. They had a big um art competition um with all the schools LA and South Bay. So that made first place in drawing for the whole schools, man. But I was always drawing drawing portraits. So and when I was drawing this one over here, but now during the pandemic, we couldn't go anywhere, right? So I was trying to draw this picture for this lady, but now my pencils broke. Oh no. No more pencils. Oh, wait. I'm an artist. Just like with dance. Yes. You don't make mistakes. You create on the spot with the drawing. I had pens. Only thing left, I had pens. So, I said, "You know what? Let me finish this with a pen." So, I finished this with a pen. Then I went and did another one and another one and another one. So, all those are ink pen drawings just straight. So, I'll get the picture and then and redraw it. Wow, man. in it's I just I think it's so I just really respect how you are able to share in multiple dimensions. you know, you're able to share your mind and your experience through dance, through fashion, through drawing, through even event hosting like you it's like there's people and you know nothing nothing against anyone if they focus on one thing or you know but I think it's just there's a lot of respect and it's really cool to see someone that can share in multiple multiple forms you know so I want to just just share that um trying to give people trying to do stuff that I haven't seen done. Like when I started doing the food for funk, food drives. Um, back then Jerry Lewis, he had the Jerry Lewis teleathon. It was 24 hours straight. No commercials, no nothing. It was people was on the phones and it was every act, every minute. It was an act act act 24 hours straight from musphy. So I was thinking, wait a minute, let me do that with the dancers. Get all the dancers together. So, um, I tried to find somebody that can donate the space and if I can give people eight hours of free space, music, and put up money in my pocket for dance contest, they can give me like four. That's why I call it food for funk. Four canned goods or and two new toys. Put that all together. You seen the flyers from the last two? I'm do I'm gonna do a third one in December. Okay. Um, and then I'll give that a donation of gifted things to um a community church or an organization that can give it to the people immediately, not just sitting in the warehouse somewhere. Right. So, it takes a lot to do that. And then with the memorial, the wall of legends, you know, the ones that passed on. Yes. The military has wall of legends, right? Um, and the sports people have wall of legends, right? Music rock and roll hall of fame. Um, what about the dancers, right? The ones that passed by. That way their names are not forgotten. Yeah. If I didn't put that up there, nobody would know about 3D Bob. Nobody. Nobody would know about um all these other names, you know. Um they wouldn't have known about them. So that way it'll stay floating, you know, everybody's social medias and stuff like that. And that's another reason why I did I wanted to do the picnics. Um because I was it was started to be a thought for my birthday. But then as it got more and more Jay um the Grammys, all the musicians get together once a year for the Grammys. Right. Race car drivers, they get together for the Indie 500. Right. Right. Um um baseball, all baseball lovers, they get together for World Series, right? Right. Um the Oscars, all the actors get Oscars. What about the dancers? Right. There was nothing out there. There was nothing. I'm sorry. nothing out there. So when I was standing at a bus stop waiting to go home from work and my birthday was going to come up, I wanted to see what could I do for my birthday, something different. Cuz LA was having festivals. I'm like, hm, let me do something in a park. And then it just grow and grew. Let me get a whole bunch of poppers in a park. My friends, they used to dance, right? Let's let me Let's do a poppers picnic. Everybody else had their picnics. But there was nothing for dancing. It wasn't no wackers picnic. It wasn't no picnic. No B boy picnic. No lockers. It was no lockers had lockers legends. The the breakers had B boy summit. What was there for the poppers that was main historical? Oh, nothing there. When I say no, I'm getting all the hate. But but that some old person told me when you're doing good things, the hate is going to come. Of course, you're making waves, you're making movements, people are catching on. Of course, some people they're not going to they're not going to agree. People Yeah. You know, it's it's I think it's like anyone that once they be they reach a platform and people's eyes are on them, people just, you know, oh, they disagree, they feel ways about it. But, you know, yourself and I'll say what you've done has impacted people all over the world. I mean, you know, you know, Midnight, how many people from the Netherlands, Tavata, uh, Ebony, everyone coming through, hearing about you, wanting to learn from you, you know? So, I'm just a regular dude. Exactly. You just you're just doing your thing, giving, and people people see that. I'm just trying to help. I'm just trying to help the culture. That That's all. And help the community at the same time. That's all, man. Exactly.

So when when I got the with the the poppers ball and that became viral like twice over like a 100 million views but it was from a cell phone camera from Nater and Poplock and G's two dates and one date that Nater brought was from Africa got on our African site and then that video got on one on Bannon site bandit rest in peace and that's when it blew up from from what I saw 300 to 80 something million. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Start trying to help. No, I hear you. Colin has a question. He's sharing. Where did What's up, Colin? Colin says, "Where did robot as a dance come from and what are its foundations?" That's that's the first question I'll ask the next one after that. But I guess yeah, where did you where did robot as a dance when did you start seeing people doing a robot as a dance? And what are the foundations of that? when I saw it. Okay. On TV, um it was Deita Jones and it was another guy on the side. I never figured out his name in person. It was at a party. We was in Watts and he wasn't doing, you know, the robot slide and you know, he um I don't want to give out too much info, but I I will say this. He was at a party and the song was um um Oh, um Bop Gun. Okay. He was No, no, no, no, no, no. Um um so um One Nation Under a Groove. Okay. So he was in a party. We was in Watts. Remember I told my mom was taking me to these parties babysitter and he was doing this name. He was just doing this this basis. Now, it's it's probably probably gonna be mad people, but I'm just telling what I saw. I didn't know what it was, but it was different. It wasn't just the normal stuff. And he was moving his head to the side. He was sliding and he turned around like And then he did something that made me think a $6 million man. The show. That show. Yeah. There was a show with slow motion. Yes. Moonwalk. And And it's We're watching this and I'm seeing that in person. I don't know the guy's name. That's when I first saw that. So, and then me, I'm watching cartoons. You remember that the um the the drawing that I did, the um the booklet and released that showed that and I started showing the framework, the pictures of all the poses, the body pages, and nobody's like, "Wait, what the [ __ ] is this?" Nobody never saw them like this. So I said let me share a little bit of that because I was teaching classes but I wanted to leave homework assignments not just one day for hour taking money in and bounce. No I wanted some less come back next week so here's a homework assignment and I tried to break it down to a science so he could understand. So I showed a few veterans a few G's. They were like oh man this [ __ ] is tight. This is good you know. So, I got credit for that. But robot, robot, robot. Yeah. Or or even like who were the people maybe even like who were the people that were pushing robot? Nobody was really pushing it. Castle was just doing it. And it again it depended on the music. The music would tell you. Um um Funky Town, when you think of that, oh Robot, right? um craft for it. You're going to think robotic. Remember when we was talking about translating the music into physical form? Yeah. So a lot of people like ah that's too robotic or too mechanical but there's always that one person in the back you know. Right. Okay. So Okay. So but it was simple. It was simple but it was effective. Nowadays everybody wants to make it so complex so difficult. Interesting. Yes, because it has a it's definitely actually What are your thoughts of how I understand? Yeah. What are your thoughts on I understand it's 2025. I understand people want to grow and stuff but that's just my opinion. You put more into it and what it should be. Just keep it simple but effective. Sometimes simple is better than complex movement, you know. And I always tell people all the time, um, and I've been quoted, but I hear people say it, you know, but I've already said this since 2005 and six. Um, don't be the dancer trying to be the robot. Be the robot trying to imitate a human, right? That's a flip. That's a flip way of thinking of it. That's the key, you know? You got the animatronic robot, you got the cyborg robot, you got the humanoid robot, you got the mannequin robot. You know, you got to try to imitate. Just like when I'm doing my my stuff, my street show stuff, it's the mannequin trying to imitate the human. So, they see the wire, they see the wires come out my shoe because, you know, the robots, you need power, right? So, you got to see machines always plugged in. So, they I want them to see that. And that's when people really don't think I'm real. M and when I'm doing robot stuff, they're like, "Okay, they don't then they want to come take pictures like that robot is so cool. So cool." Yeah. And start popping and busting. Oh, that's when it freaks them out. Interesting. Right. Like, whoa, it turns on now. Like you and I told you to your face at the picnic. Um, be you see with you were doing something that I was trying to explain to people as far as the the um, the python anaconda. One person asked me, "What's the anaconda?" They know the cobra. But the anaconda and I showed it to you and you like, "Oh, I see." Because anaconda is a big snake with a big head. So the movements is going to be wide, right? You know when a snake is going through the mud, brother the mud and you did just that at the picnic, but you didn't know that you were doing it. No. Because you wasn't thinking, right? You were just doing. Yes. Yes. That's the people stop thinking and just start doing being themselves. Mhm. Chad, you gonna find a lot of stuff. No, right. No, it's a reflection.

Um, I want to ask about back kind of coming back to the animation. Yeah, I'm sorry. I know we drift. No, no, no. No apologies at all because everything that you're sharing for it's it's so much value because we're hitting different things. We're hitting talking about the history of what was going on in LA, the different uh, you know, what was going on at different times, talking about the popper sp. Everything is I think it's nobody wants to talk about the history of it. Nobody wants to talk about the culture and that's why and move on. And they want to get from A to Z. What about G and M and and I and you got to get through all that before you can get here. Everybody wants to get here. Yeah. Then they're all connected. You can't get to Z without going through BC, you know. So, we got to get through that. But also, sorry, I meant to cut you off again with the dancers, the tap dancing. that too. The top dancers. Okay. Trying to get into dance because in in the 70s it wasn't no dance studios. It wasn't no dance. We have martial arts studios. So a lot of people also was into martial arts. Interesting. Okay. You know, and some people include their martial arts into into their dance styles if they want to call it that or the disciplines of martial arts. For instance, the stork, the tiger, the the bear, the lion, the eagle. Wow. That into into dance movement at that movement animation, making the creature trying to imitate the creature, right? The creature's perspective. But nobody want to talk about that. It's think it's all just robotics and it's robotics animation is different. What's the That's exactly I was going to ask. What's the difference between robot and animation? Animation is in my opinion is is making something come alive. You're imitating the creature stuff. Robotics is mechanical. Mechanical. Okay. So if I'm So I'm here. I'm moving the arm. Moving my arm. I'm moving my arm. The swivel of the shoulder. The swivel of the shoulder. Swivel of the elbow. Swivel the elbow. That's all it is. Swivel the elbow. The wrist. Swivel the wrist. Now, if I'm moving everything, okay. Okay. Keeping that mechanicalness on every part of yourself. It's the machine. The machine um doing um human parts, doing human tasks. Okay. What? And then mannequin. Would you say when you really pushed that style of mannequin, would you say people were talking about mannequin as well or I didn't see nobody talking about mannequin? Well, the the the ones that were when I was coming up and doing it, you know, they don't dance no more. A lot of people don't dance no, you know, when they retire, they got families, they older, some passed away, some have health issues. You know, it's it's played out. It's played out a lot, especially in the black culture. But now you go to a big festival and presentation means everything. You can't go to a big stage looking halfway decent, sloppy. That's disrespectful, J. So if you're going onto a stage, you're going to perform about a 500 5,000 people, right? I'm expecting you to wear something's like, "Oh, shoot. What's he about to do?" Right? You can bust the mood, right? A lot of people they just want to come regular jeans, t-shirt, jacket. Yeah. Just dress normal and think that's it. So I don't be impressed with that. I want to see creativity with the appearance. Appearance is half the look. Yes. It's half that's part of the culture. Yes. The look, right? And that's interesting because like it's the whole package. It's not just the movements. It's the the outfit, the your presentation. Um, and it is interesting. I do think it's interesting how maybe current now maybe more because how do I say since YouTube and social media all that is out people can see the dance they see the dance and they like the dance right but they don't necessarily understand the culture part that comes with it the attitude the approach the clothes you got to understand that too go to certain events right like um Gizmo he invites everybody all the time come to the low riding events He speaks on that all the time. Come to the low riding event. The low riders, they're going to play that music. And when you hear that certain music, if you're a real one, it's gonna take you boom. And I'm going to go accordingly to what I'm hearing. Yes. On the fly. You're not going to pre-plan it another, you know. Um, when I do my events, I try to make it where it is it's what it is, is that real field culture. And I try to invite everybody. Some people don't come because others. Uh, that's fine. Right. Right. Personal, but you fine. Yeah. You can't you can we not everybody gonna you always be part of it's okay. Yeah. He likes that. It makes me want to go harder. Right. Right. Exactly. Go ahead. No, go ahead. I was going to say um Colin, he another question because Colin's really into robots. No, that's good. Colin, we can talk later on. Yeah. Like you I think definitely it'll be great for you guys to meet in person. Um, but Colin was asking what are the main differences? What are the main different types of robot and what distinguishes each of them? So, I guess you know you have the mannequin, you have android. Do that. We gota do that. That's in person. Okay. Okay. It is. It is a little difference. It is a little It is a difference. Some slightly, but in my opinion, some more than others and some slightly. But also now Collins and any of us you have to have the mindset. You have to think of that particular character. You got to think as a mannequin would think trying to be human or android. You see the movies like Terminator. You see the Terminator. You see the the cyborg the the lady Terminator and she's trying to move a certain way. You see the the $6 million man. So you got to go over um back more. Um, you see the Avengers. Yes. See how the Iron Man is. Um, you see certain movies try to do it, but now you're trying to put it onto the street dance platform, the real and raw stuff. Um, yeah, we got to do one person, but I I have people come to the picnics so when they see the the veterans in the conversations, they'll get a lot of information. They'll just watch them. When they hear music, they're going to respond. You know, I was coming from, where was I coming from? I was coming from Western. This was before my first car got wrecked. And I I got to a light and I was playing so rough, so tough. Me, I like my music live. That's how I grew up on. And it was a a younger lady. She was like in her late teens. It was an older lady with her cane. I wish I had my camera and it was she started busting out cane and all. I'm like, "Oh shit." I wasn't surprised because again it's LA. You can see it anytime. I got to show you. Wait. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. This is an older lady. So she had her king and she was walking and she heard this. Next thing you know, she started doing this. Hey, oh [ __ ] I was like, what the what was this? I wanted to get her information and stuff. She was getting down. But at first when she was walking, she's walking like she had ailments. But that proves my point. When you hear the music, you forget everything, right? And you get it in. And her daughter, her granddaughter's like, "Grandma, stop. You embarrassing me." My grandma was getting it in. And another person was looking and honking. She had her to do like, "Yeah, that's right. That's right." Um, I was impressed. And this was this was earlier um last year. Wow. Okay. Okay. So that proves my theory different LA is is known. Wow. That's that's some Mecca. You have to play the music and be in the right atmosphere. You know, we can go to events. Um Oh, here we go. We can go to events and it'll be a certain like a one-on-one popping event. Everybody knows the environment, every the protective um space, you know, you know. But now go in an unprotected space. something that you can't control. Go to the streets. Go to a major festival like Lmer Park, right? Have somebody put on some music, some less work by Prince or even some um Megatrons. Um or Planet Detroit. Put on some Planet Detroit. Watch. You gonna see somebody get in. Wow. They haven't done it in a long time because this played out, right? Right. Their mindset, they have forgotten. So, they're trying to bust it out and it's like, oh, okay. and their foundations, you can tell they used to get down back in the day. They used to be raw. Right. Right. It it comes out like the they go back into that time when they were when they were going at it. So it's like it's like Yeah. But that's the reason why a lot of times I still try to do my street shows or whatever, trying to keep everything alive and and you know, and people they love it. They like, "Oh shoot." And then they get to dance in the girls, women too, not just guys. It be women busting some moves and stuff. When I did a parade in Gardina, a lady almost got me. She came out. I, you know, I like to offer my cane to the people to put them on the spot. I had to like, oh [ __ ] it was busted. She used the full cane. This is in Gardina. And I'm saying to myself, who is this? But you know, with parades, remember I was telling you, you have to keep going. So I couldn't really stop. So I was trying to come back later to get information, but I couldn't. But I wish I had. Oh, she would have blew your mind. Wow. Okay. to blow your mind. Speaking speaking of street performing, how many years have you been street performing? The first one I did 90. No, no, no. Um, yeah. 200 two, um, I was because I was going to Venice Beach. We used to go to Venice Beach. So during Halloween, I had a Frankenstein mask. It looked like Frankenstein, but I put ponytails in his head. Okay. A lot of times we go to Hollywood, you know, in Hollywood, they would block off the street so the revelers can come out and a lot of times getting pictures. So I'm like, they like this Frankenstein mask. What if Frankenstein was popping? So I went to Venice. Michael Carier, the actor, the the comedian, he was doing um um shows on on Venice Beach at that that similar spot where they showed the thing um white men can't jump. Remember the three seners? Right. Right. It's that same little that same little corridor. Okay. So, I said, "Let me do a couple of street shows right there because I'm thinking all animation. I'm thinking flat top." Okay. Right. So, I said, "Let me try this." H. They wasn't ready. I wasn't ready. So, after like 30 minutes and Michael Coller did come. I said, "Give me 20 minutes, bro." Because that was his that was his stage. I'm disrespecting him. He was cool with it. So, I did it. Uh, nah. H, but that was my very first one. But then after the poppers picnic, and after a couple of times until, remember I told you ever made my face. Yes. Went to the magic store, got my top hat, got my gloves. Um, and then I did that three weeks later on Hollywood just to see how the people respond to it. I got a old picture. This is before I put the bandanna on it. It was just white with the white house shoes. But I wanted them to see the hood side of things as well as the classy side of things. Know the Broadway nights, the um Broadway stage. Yes. And you have the the dancers with the top hats with the canes. Right. And you had the Nicholas Brothers with the canes. So I want to have that aspect, but I also want to have the the hood perspective with the the house shoes, the black and white um sometimes the letters. So my my first I'm g say 200 [ __ ] eight 2008 okay after the picnic and then was doing stuff ever since Hollywood um the all the festivals um and then trying to get the street performers that were set up and trying to bring them up and out because a lot of them they weren't on boxes. A lot of the bad casts is on boxes, but a lot of the other cats, nah, they weren't on boxes and then they started learning to be on boxes. I had to get on them by keeping their gloves white. If you g You're you're a dancer, performer. Yeah. Right. So, you're representing a whole culture. So, people that I see on here, I'm representing for Rhonda, Mary, Chibi, you Colin. When I'm doing a show, I want to make sure I'm representing for everybody at correctly. So when they see it, okay, okay, that's what's up. So when they see it and them doing it, maybe they might think of me. They like, okay, the level, the quality is high. At least I'm trying to I'm trying to, you know, I wanna I know Ebony, she's just sharing some questions in here. Hey. Yeah, she's the one that first told me about this. Yeah. Yeah. So I got I gotta bring it up. Um Ebony asked she has uh two questions. The first one is, can you tell us about some female leaders in robot or animation that people should know about and speak to for information? And then the second question is, do you have any advice for people who are trying to learn about robot and animation but can't travel to meet people like yourself? How can they learn what the styles are and how to do it correctly? So, one is about, you know, the women in the community and the other one is about learning the how to do it. You got to go. You got to come to the community. I hate to go that way. Yeah. Remember, wait, there's a motorcycle that's coming through. Remember what I was telling you when I was driving and that lady started getting down and dancing with the cane. Ebony, you you got to come to the where ground zero. You got to come out of action on a regular basis. You never know. There's a lot of women that that come to the picnics that used to get out. That's why they come. Um, Silver Street Robot, she's coming out. She's in Louisiana right now. She's coming back to Cali. Um, Lady Mason said she's coming. She's going to try to come this time. AK's always there. Um Um um from from Groovatrons. She's always there. Um Mona um um this ladies there. Okay. But a lot of the youngsters or the ones that have events don't really reach out to them. Why? I don't know. I try to, you know, make it where they can meet and greet, but but they're they're out. As far as your second question, just be yourself. Um, don't try to be like nobody else, per se. You can see something, you might get an idea. Hm, that was tight. But I want to try and flip it and do it maybe this way or this way. We all eat foods different. We all listen to different music. So, we all should be able to dance different, but the fundamentals should be the same. You know, stay on be with the music. Don't look raggedy. Um, don't bite nobody's moves direct and then claim you did it. Um, yeah, just just um Ebony, you know, me and you talked before when she came out here, she she got a a glimpse and stuff, you know, very nice. I'm looking forward to seeing you again, too. Um she's a real nice lady, but anybody can dance, but not can you entertain, you know, for example, go look on on um No, I I think you can dance, the new one. You'll see some of the the axe on there. They look okay. You think they're getting down. They look okay. They pressed the part. And then when you see them, it's like, uh, that was okay. And then you see others, t-shirt, jeans, or whatever. Oh, they good. They got potential. Now, put them in a tux, right? Put them an outfit. It's gonna be a whole different ball game. Right. Right. And it's not that expensive. You know, the outfits that we had, well, for me, they weren't real expensive outfits. You know, you just had to be creative and put stuff together. A lot of the street shows that the guys have that you see, they were, they put those outfits together, you know, like the hat or they preserving if they really care. Well, this is the same hat I've worn since 2008. Wow. Same hat. It hasn't changed. I had showed up at the Avenue. So that's a secret from you guys. It's the same hat. So you guys can count 2008, all the shows I've done, all the this, that, and the other. That's the same hat. Taking care of everything, your appearance, everything. Everything you have to because you're representing a culture, right? And that's one thing people got to understand. Learn the culture, Ebony. Try to. If you don't know everything, ask questions like you're asking me right now. So no, that's cool. Um, learn the culture. learn what the past was. So when you're in the present, you can create the future to make it better. So like Jay, if you're teaching students, you want them students to be better than you. You don't want them to be mediocre. You want them better. So you find the best qualities of somebody and build on that and their weaknesses. Have them practice on that. Right? For me, if I'm when I'm doing my workshops, I ask people, "Are you left-handed or right-handed?" They're right-handed. So, naturally, their right hand is going to have the most robotic work. So, I had them put this hand down and work on your left, to match, then close your eyes and do that same movement, right? Getting really deeper into it, right? You have to know the mindset. Anybody can robot, but do you have the mindset of the robot trying to be a human? Here's a question. What makes, in your opinion, what makes someone an incredible robot or a a a great robot? Because so many people do it. But what what's what do you think is the thing that separates those that are good to those that are great? Making them not look human when they don't look human. M so like I'm standing here and we're talking you know so now I'm not human I'm here know I'm human but I'm not human right robot trying to imitate the human if that makes sense right you you were doing you're you were a human imitating a robot or were right there that's something you got to figure out okay okay but no it's just it's just you trying to be the robot okay You're trying to be the robot, but now you're trying to be the robot trying to imitate the human. It's another there's a whole different approach in my in my personal opinion. You can ask people, they probably have different other aspects and perspectives and that's cool. That's cool. That's what makes this um our culture so because it's a lot of various perspectives, right? You know, but as everybody's on the same train, you know, when you see a train, you got different cars in different cars, but they're all on that same track. They're going to that same destination, right? They're all connected some kind of way. That's how you got to think. Okay. Unfortunately, some people don't think that way, and that's fine, right? Right. But, but no, that's that's that's what it is for me. I want to see somebody I want to see something unreal. me I want to be like I want to be entertained. I'm like I want a certain task. Okay, he's doing this. I want to see the storytelling, the robotic mind, the the aspect, the mentality. Okay. What Go ahead. I'm sorry. No, no, no. Continue. Continue. No, I say the first thing I look at, especially if they're performing, I look at their their outfit, their dress. I look at the shoes, gloves. Okay. had if they got a hat on, outfit, face, facial expression. Um, I look at all that right off the top before you even bust the move because I'm already hearing the music. So, I the music I'm hearing it. So, I want to make sure the movement matches the music whether you're in two speed or or three speed or off speed. Coming back to speed. Okay. Okay. A another uh actually this was I was thinking this as we were talking. No, let's let's draw. What? Damn. Okay, I have two questions. I feel like these are probably this may be the last two because I know we're at that was cool. But uh my first question is what are some of the how do I say what were some of the moments when you were robotting when you were in LA either battles or you saw that you were like wow like what what is a highlight or a memory you have where you saw someone do something crazy that you it's just still in your memory till today that someone impressed you or maybe it was a battle or was is there any memory that comes comes up of something like, "Wow, that person, he did this and never going to forget that." Okay, before we go into persons, we can go into the battle situation. Okay, I'm sorry, baby. It was um Bugaloo Dan and Gizmo when we went up to the Bay Area. Oh, they went at it. Okay. Yes. Yes. Yes. I love Interesting. Okay, that one. Um Oh, shoot. I gotta um Hold on. That's a lot. Yeah, I'm trying to It's a lot. Me and Flattop at the um street scene. Me against Flattop. It was me and and and Kevin Favors. We was People's Republic of Pop Lock. Okay. And we was the two finalists against Flattop. Me and Flattop was cool and we we spoke kind of briefly got each other whisper, "Let's give him a show." I already knew he was going to do and two of his moves I couldn't mess with. I already know when he did that Chinese split. Now, this is when he was in his prime. This is downtown LA. Uh 80 8 Oh, don't let me get the long 87 86. That that was the festival everybody would go to the LA street scene. That was the same festival that um um it was just that was big. 6,000 people. We downtown and me and Flattop and Flattop did his strobe, came down to the ground, held it, boom, all it was done. Now, now Kevin, Prince of Waves, he had waves, you know. He was doing anacondas, he was doing cobras, you know. He was doing um worms like [ __ ] He was like going crazy and I'm boom bow b I'm hitting I'm hitting Frankenstein on him. I'm hitting old scarecrow on the um on the pole type stuff. But that flat top, it was just that move. I'll never forget that. But it was so much fun, you know. Um that one. Um that thing with Gizmo and and Bugal Dan. Um now what people that that I saw that was Jerry Jerry Cooper at Manuel 10th grade. Oh, it was him. He took out 10 dudes. I'm standing right there watching. Went to Man. Remember I told you Manuel Art High was like pop high. Everybody was getting down. Guys and girls. Every time a guy did something, Jerry did something. Next person come, he do something. That's how I got my battle mentality. It was from from watching Jerry. And he had the the cigarette and he rol it wave his eyebrow eyebrow came around side um um he did a move um the the eggshell. I can't describe it, but like he was an egg show like a um a bird that was hatching and came out like oh [ __ ] Um um Snoopy was there. Earthquake was there but Earthquake back then was called one-on- on Pop Locker. Okay. County was there, Count Bopula, Dr. Business, Snoopy, um um Anthony Bailey. Um rubber band man. I always think of him. He's short, but he had bigger feet. So, he would have his angles and his waves. And when you talk about animation, it wasn't animated, but he'll spoon and boom, boom, and he'll turn. Interesting. Now, he's he's already leaning. He's already leaning. And I'm looking like And I'm I'm attributing that to maybe his feet was longer and he was a short guy, you know, like I'm 51. Mhm. He's about maybe about like this. Okay. He's down there. He's straight and he's leaning. And then next thing you know, he he's like a crocodile. You know, a crocodile is going to the swamp. Yes. He's taking his time. He's looking. I'm like, the [ __ ] is this? That was that was one person you couldn't battle against because it was so unorthodox. And the song that makes me remind me of that one is Fat Back Backstroke. Every time when I hear that, that's why that song is so popular with me because I think about that moment. So, you know, when it comes in, that's when he'll lean, he'll come in, bam, and he'll go again. You think it's gonna come back? No. He's like, we can do this more. He'll come in more. Bam. Then he'll look at you. Then he come in more. Boom. I'm like, [ __ ] that's interesting. You know, he's shorter, so he doesn't have that much. I'm just assuming he doesn't have much weight to hold on to, right? He was short and slim. Oh, he was killing folks. It's Anthony Bailey River ban me. I know you've mentioned on the what's popping page a couple of times you when people talk about a very flexible mover or even uh storyboard P which he's from New York but I think people I think you may have said like it reminded you of Anthony the rubber band man which now you're bringing him up again. Um interesting. That's very I wish there was footage of Yeah, we didn't have cameras back then. J, that's the thing. If we had cameras back then, I hate to go there. A lot of guys today, they wouldn't have a chance. They I'm sorry to say, they wouldn't have a chance because everybody was original. Everybody was different, and everybody was being creative in their stuff. And a lot of things they would do, they wouldn't understand because it came from a hood perspective. Because again, a lot of dancers were gang members. Mhm. So, but it's a different era. It's 2025. You know, we do what we do for 2025. Uh Ebony asked, "Do you think modern

"Animators and robots have lost originality?" Have lost their originality. No, I wouldn't say they lost originality. I would say try to go outside the box. Don't try to be, try stuff. My advice is to try stuff that nobody's never done and seen before. And I say this before, um, try it. If it doesn't work, okay, your conscience is clear. But now, if you do like it, you see it, let me try this in front of your people and see their responses to it. Yeah. Because a stranger is going to tell you, your friends are like gonna pump you up regardless if you're doing bad or good. But go in front of a bunch of strangers that you don't know. Do something and see the responses, you know. Oh, here. See, um, here we go. China, when you see videos, um, some of guys in China dancing. Oh, this is going to make people so mad. I think I know where you're going with this, but continue. I think I know. No, no, no, no. And then they go, "Ah," or stuff. And I'm like, "Okay, what is what does he do to make me go, 'Ah, let me back.' Maybe I didn't see nothing. Maybe I missed something." I go back, I see it again. And in that case, they've only seen so much. They haven't seen the full spectrum, so I can't knock them. Um, so that's when it goes back to her question about originality. Try to go outside the box. At least try to, right? You know, but then go look at certain movies, go look at certain cartoons, go look at not videos. Don't look at nobody else's videos. Um, you can might look at other videos to inspire you like, "Okay, he got me fired up. Let me go grab and go get it in." But go look at different stuff that you wouldn't think. Yeah. And just try to perceive that or imitate that into physical form. Right. It I was gonna say like interviewing you, uh, recently, I also interviewed Chuck Powell. I did Bugaloo. And again, it sounds again, every time I interview, uh, these individuals when they talk about how everybody was just trying to push the boundary. Everyone was coming up with different movements and because it wasn't so, I feel classified and termed how it is now. Like I feel nowadays everyone's, you know, like they they're trying to label every movement, which I'm not saying that's bad, but I feel because so much labeling and and trying to, uh, scientific it, you know, remember I was telling you, complex, it becomes very, uh, book-like, reading a book, like, here's the, here's the manual of the dance versus back then, there was no manual. It wasn't. That's what I was trying to tell you. People like, like when when people talk about animation. Yeah. Some people are going to say they're doing a dinosaur. Some people say they're doing a cartoon. Like it was free. There was this freedom of of of this creation going on. Um, and and I can see maybe to Ebanese's question of modern animators. Everybody wants to be so complex and stuff. Keep it simple, right? Yeah. Like, or or just people just watching maybe too much of other people. They're like, "Okay, this is I need to look like this." You know, they have a person in mind. Just stay on beat. Stay on beat with your music, Jay. Um, try different songs. Try practicing. Not practicing, but put on some classical music. Listen to the harmonies of the horns. Listen to the harp. Um, and look at other people doing performances of a different aspect. I I I I don't want to give too much info on that, but, um, um, but I will say like Harper Marks, watch him perform and see how not imitating him, but that'll give you that mindset of a person playing a harp, that makes any sense. I'll stop right there. But no, everything's so, try to make it so complicated. Jay, why is they trying to make it so complicated? Just like you said. I yeah, I know it's I know it's 2025. Everybody everything wants to evolve or whatever. So me and you go on when what's it when NECA, we we look up for a certain topic and we can physically go in there, change the definition, punch it in. The next person that sees that same definition, they're gonna see what we just read, right? Like, "Oh, wait a minute. What happened to the U.C.?" Yeah. It's it's interesting. I I do feel technology has played a role on how people view the dance now. Um, the availability of it, the information that's out, social media, um, versus before, you know, there wasn't any social media. It was just you had to go out and you had to go and and you were lucky if you saw someone doing something that you're like, "Wow."

Wait, and I don't mean to cut you off. I'm sorry, but it just came to my head. Also, another thing I looked at a lot of Star Wars R2-D2 and C3PO. Maybe I was trying to imitate them and how they, you know, it was a man in there, but you know, we're kids. We're looking like, "Oh, what the [ __ ] is this?" The computer age in in the in the 70s, so we're trying to do certain movements like that, you know? So, it was a lot of things. You guys have a whole lot more to look at. You guys got so much more stuff, um, in your repertoires. We didn't have the stuff. We just have the streets and each other and experiences. You guys got, um, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, all that [ __ ]. It's almost overwhelming. I think with the information that's out that's just so much to look at. It's I think it's a bit, it's it's too much at some point. I will say it's way more global. It's way more global. Cats in China wasn't thinking about no popping '80 something. UK. N remember they was doing New Wave. Everybody was into New Wave. I'm going to write you a list of of certain songs and tracks. As soon as we get off here, it's all going to come to my head and you're gonna be like, "Oh, let me listen to this." Then when you listen, then you're gonna stand I'm talking about now. I see. I see more, you know, because it was a lot. We just had the music and we had the experiences of each other and our friends and the streets, right? Those that was your that was your source, that was the source.

Uh, I want to ask, uh, two more questions, actually. My first question is, um, from your experience street performing, what were some of the highlights or things you've learned from from street performing that that really much, I'm sure like what me and you do, it's a blessing. There's a lot of people that can't move, that can't walk, can't talk. Um, and I speak on this all the time. I've done it five, six times. I saw Gizmo do it twice, Flat Top three times, Take A Lot twice, Snap once, Gold Mine like four times. When we're doing our shows, um, we hit the kid, the youngsters, kids and people with disabilities, especially kids in wheelchairs, crutches, or whatever, cuz we can do, including you. You can do things that doctors can't do. That's creative smile. That's why I try to tell all poppers and these rough butters, you guys have a [ __ ] gift. Use that to you because a lot of people can't do. I was at a thing. Yes. Um, last Saturday. Uh, it's a festival for people with disabilities and their families. Um, go look at the tape and you know me after, um, um, Iggy, Iceman, Adverb, B Boy Down in Tourist France, they doing a locking and popping and I did my skit, my 10-minute skit afterwards. You know me, Jay, I'm going to the people. I'm bringing them out. I didn't pull out the regular Tim and Jose. I pull out the little kid that may have a, um, mental issue or little kid that's kind of disabled because nobody pays attention to them. Okay, I'mma [ __ ] with them. Bring them out. Oh, now everybody's smiling. Daddy's crying because he seen he ain't seen his son happy in so long. This, that, and the other. Um, that right there. And then it was a person that has, um, muscular dystrophy. What's that, that that disease that, um, uh, Michael J. Thomas has where you can't control your muscles? Oh, I'm not sure. Okay. Anyway, anyway, somebody was making a comment about that cuz he can't control his muscles. It was a certain scene, but now, Oh, Parkinson. Maybe Parkinson might be. It looks like he's popping like all right, good with it, but he can't help it. It's like, "Oh, [ __ ], that'll make you feel like kind of bad. It's like, I can control this [ __ ] all day. He can't. He that's a that's a curse for him or her, but that's a gift for us. So what do you do? You try to encourage that. See, but people don't want to talk about that. They just want to learn about this dance or whatever. What if for every one person that can do what we do, there's five people that can't. Got to think about that. So you gotta that's just me me personally. So, I just try to spread love and use the street shows on that and then try to use that to spread the culture. So, if I can get five people interested and want to learn how to robot and pop, oh, I've done my job. When I go to the community events with, um, Click Radio because he's the DJ Devonte for the for the parks and Rex, or we're doing a, um, a parade. So, I'm promoting that culture, but I'm reaching out to the people. I'm not reaching out to the 50 and 60 year olds. I want that little seven, eight year old that never seen [ __ ] like this before. It's like, "Well, mama, I like this," because he sees how their reaction is. Next thing you know, I'm getting an email or something. "My daughter want to learn. How did you do that? And can we get some lessons done?" I get quite a bit of that, you know, like when you go to these battles, Jay, let's keep it real. What's the age ranges for a lot of these these dance battles? Yeah. I mean, I want to say probably like mid-20s. You have teenagers, but like probably like 30s, 20s. I would say 20s. Now, those in there, just my opinion, people going to be mad at this. They gonna be mad at this. Instead of them being in the contest, why don't you train three and four, eight, nine, 10 year olds? Put them in the contest. That's how you make it grow. In my opinion, you don't see the martial arts, um, tournaments and stuff with the veterans. The veterans got students. They putting them in their tournaments and now their tournaments big cuz now those students, they got bigger. Now they're teaching it. But now their sensei is still there, right? You see what I'm saying?

Why also you make a point and this is a thought I've had. I feel that a lot of these dance events, the audience are also dancers. Why is it that only dancers are paying to to be an audience for other dance? Does that make sense? It's like a it's like you have a battle or an event and the people that are there are dancers competing and the people that are watching the dancers compete are also dancers versus like the public, like I I would think that wouldn't we want to have the public being viewing it? Like, does that make sense? You go to those festivals when I do when I'm with Taste of Soul, when Gold Mine's at Taste of Soul and stuff. It's the public. That's the the festivals once a year and it's in LA on Crunch and it's like 400,000 people. Do the math, right? So, it's not the tips because I have a regular job. It's the smiles. You know, my motto, you look at all my Facebooks, I try to create smiles one face at a time. So, you know, and any popper, any robot or stuff, you're already you're walking entertainment. M why use it? So, let's like you said, a lot of the dancers, they're dancers, too, right? Uh, how do you solve that? Maybe don't have battles. Interesting. Cuz where I come from, the battles is in the streets. You'd have eight, nine circles. Um, and you can battle within your peers or go to a major center, but make it where everybody's involved. Invite the common family person. Don't just invite all the dancers, you know. Invite the neighbors that you never talked to before. They might be interested, but they wouldn't know if they don't know about it. Right. Yeah. That's cuz I hearing hearing your perspective of like the children, the the people with, uh, support needs, like how you you see them and you bring them into it. Let me ask you a question. When you, what, how old were you when you first saw what you're doing? Yeah, I was I It had to be like 2007. So, I mean, when you was a kid, did you see dancing when you were a kid? So, when I was like elementary school, I mean, I knew of Michael Jackson. So, I would, you know, and who didn't, right? Like everybody like I would like, you know, on the floor acting spinning around acting like I knew breaking, you know? But but it wasn't only until probably like 18 or no, probably like 17 where I saw the ABDC, the America's Best Dance Crew. And I think that that was when it really I was like, "Oh, wow." Um, that's the new generation type thing. And that was cool for me personally. When I first saw that show, I watched it a couple of times. I'm like, "Ah, that's okay." You know, because I I've seen it all. I've seen it all in the 70s and 80s, you know? I'm just trying to help and do my part. That's all. Yeah. Yeah. No.

Uh, my last question I want to ask Midnight is, what's a message you would like to tell the current generation or the future generation of, uh, dancers, uh, for anyone here that's watching or for anyone that will be watching this video. I got a few messages. Um, uh, damn, that's a, it's hard to say. Just be yourself. Um, again, anybody can dance and stuff, but can you entertain? You know, if you're gonna go that route, and I don't mean just street shows. I mean like actually, um, do some things, help your community out. Um, you use it, use the dance in in other ways, in in good ways. You know, we're we're at times right now. Um, well, a lot of for a lot of people, it's messed up right now. So they can use a smile, they can use some encouragement, they can use something to look forward to, you know, um, create some [ __ ], create some boundaries or make it easier for others to, um, put people in a position to where they can, where they can, if they can't create the smiles. I'm not saying for me, business in general, if they can't create stuff, put everything in the position so they and bring them so they can come and create the stuff and entertain the youth, right? Because the youth only respond to what they see. They see positive stuff, more likely they're going to be positive minded people, right? And don't just listen to one source of person. Get a variety and then you can choose your own dots, you know, just connect the dots, you know, right? Would that make sense? Yeah. No, no, it does. It does. Wow.

Well, you sir, um, for you, um, go more. Go more into the box. Go longer. Um, look into stuff. I'm for you because the way your movement is, you can do so much today, Jane. You can get technical, you can stay in your box, you can get robotic and all of a sudden you can get electric, then all of a sudden, bam, you can, um, turn into the animal, bam, then you can turn into the machine, then you can turn to the abstract art form, the, um, um, you know, in a computer, I don't know how to describe it, but, you know, when you're changing information, goes from here to here, right? How is that seen in physical form? Electric current. Is it seen? Nobody is it numbers and a change fraction of a second? You know, think of your family, um, your your family situations, your past experiences. Tell the stories. Be the be the waving mind. Be the See, the mind tells a story without speak, without using their voice. They use body language. Use more mind into your act. I guarantee you, you put on a tux, nice tie, and you're white, I guarantee you, I'm just being honest, and you're younger, uh, a person with money, capital, they're not going to invest in an older person like me. They're going to invest in a a young, a kid or a youngster that's 20 years, they can invest in and make money. In with a veteran like myself, older, they like, uh, they don't. But we have the, like with Chuck Pow, Vic. Um, we have the the knowledge and the info, but you just can't put the knowledge out there all the time, you know. That's sad. You want I'd want to, you know, like when I did my my first class at JB, um, because I'm so proud of her, Briana, she's with Funny Bones now. She was six when I when she first started popping with me. Mom brought me to the house, practiced with her. She came to slept at JB and look at how old she is now and still getting down. Wow. I use her as an example a lot because I'm so proud of her because she didn't know nothing. I have to show her hit slow motion ting, all that stuff. She came to Homeland, everybody's like, "Who the [ __ ] is this? What is this?" She cleared the whole floor out. Nobody had no video because nobody didn't expect it. Right. But I heard the stories. So that made me proud. Wow.

No, that's beautiful. That's beautiful to see like somebody growing over time. They Yeah. And then make other people want to do the stuff. Like when I did Carver, there's a lady, she a girl there. Some of the videos are out and you can see the kids trying to imitate me or I put them on the box. Now they're somebody special for once. They are somebody. You guys want to use your dance to make somebody, make them somebody. That makes sense. Man, I want to say, uh, Midnight, I want to thank you for sharing your story and also the word. Thank you for reaching out to me. Words of wisdom, you know, like it's not just dance that we're learning that we're talking about here, but just life in general, of how to the human relationship with others. And and I really love and and Ebony and we all really love it in the comments about what you said about Ebony says, "I'm going to get a shirt that says, 'You guys have a [ __ ] gift. Use it.'" Because that is so true. Like we have a gift and I think sometimes it go over people's heads. They they they keep that gift and they don't, it becomes a big ego. They keep it to themselves or maybe for their own benefit. But but like you said, to give it to to bring other people up. That's that's the, I would say that's the core of this of of Okay. But there's a there's a twist. I don't mean to cut you off. I'm let you go back. You want to give it to the people that's going to use it correctly. Can't just put it out there because you don't, you don't want to waste nobody's time because you don't want your time wasted. So you don't want to give it to somebody and they're gonna [ __ ] it off, right? You want to give it somebody with some potential, they can use it. So now I just want to put that out there. Yeah. Using giving it responsibly. Yeah. You got to be responsible. Yeah. That's the key. That's why you can't really just give out free information like that, you know, because if if you don't, if you don't value your craft and your art forms and respect it, don't expect nobody else to. Yeah. So, when they see that you respect your art form and your craft, oh, then they'll respect you and then your art forms, then they'll look into it more, you know. Right. Right. I'm trying I'm trying to do it like you animated Jay. You trying to do it like me? Yeah, man. We're We're doing it. We're Yeah, man. Yeah, man.

Well, Midnight, I want to thank you again for taking this time to share. Thank you for making out to me. This this video will be posted on YouTube and Instagram so that people can watch this again. Um, also for any donations, uh, there's a link we have so for anyone watching here, you can leave a donation for Midnight for his time. Oh, thank you. Appreciate it. Yeah. And, uh, and again, because a lot of these events, I come out my pocket. I do. I do. But for me personally, a lot of guys not going to come out their pocket. I didn't think it's worth it. I personally think it's worth it. Yeah. You know, for all the kids, black, brown, red, green, yellow, you know, color doesn't matter. I came around, I went to a junior high school and it was predominately Hispanic, white, Asian, and stuff. And nobody was popping until Roosevelt Wilson, the milkman, came out and did the show, ninth grade. Oh, wait a minute. Now he's representing for the blackheads. Cuz again, the Mexican kids was into the disco and heart rock. Well, let me stop because I can't. It's so much, right? Oh, yeah. You understand? They come out here for like about a week. Yes. Then maybe, uh, like I can give you a name. Um, Oh, I don't want to put him out there. He came out here for one day. He hadn't left yet. Really? Yeah. And it's two ladies. They came out here thinking they come visit CLA. They didn't realize it was this, um, it's a Chinese dude. He went to the picnic last year. He didn't realize all this stuff that he never heard of or seen. He was only taught shown this one thing. He's still out here. I can't pronounce his name. He's still out here to this day. He's like, he like, "No, I I like I want to learn this this." I'm like, "Okay, okay, go ahead." You're welcome. It's a whole new world. It's a whole new world to him. Wow. And he likes to robot and animate and pop, you know. That's perfect. He's in the right spot. In the right spot, you know. But no, I thank you for appreciating. I hope to see you guys soon. You guys can reach out to me anytime, you know. Cool. I'm always available, you know. I work a regular job and, um, when I get home on social media, watching the news or trying to plan another event because I have something, um, the dance, the party part two, that's next Saturday. Now, we did the one was the old school party where you can bring a couple or sing and just dance music where you can have party people, hot lockers, B boys, hiphop dancers, training people, just regular people and just have a good time. Old school party where you can slow dance with a couple with your person. And next week I'll be in Santa Ana and then June the 28th, San Diego Poppin' the Park Day. Wow. And then the papers picnic, pop pandemonium, and that's when a lot of people, including me, will be 60. That's gonna be big. It's gonna be some lot of stuff jumping on. And that's I'm having a female funky robot. See, that's another thing too. And that started, um, a tickers challenge and a glider and floaters challenge. Who that's also part of popping, the glide and then them foot movement. Remember I turn the tap dancers? Yes. Yeah. Okay. But Jay, that's a whole another topic. To be continued. To be continued. Yeah. But thank you, bro. Thank you for Thank you. And thank you everyone for tuning in. And, uh, yeah, man. Hope you have a rest of your day. It's calm. Midnight. You too. I know you got a busy day. I do. Yeah. Yeah, I do. And today's my birthday, so I'm doing all. Oh, is it? Oh, happy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How old are you? Do you mind me asking? Uh, I'm 32. 32. Okay. 32. 32. I was just roller skating, dancing. I wasn't doing no popping. I kind of. No, no, let me stop. I was once you start, once you start, you don't stop. Right. A lot of these people that I seen in Homeland, took them homeland for the first time and let them see the real Jay, they still dealing stuff. Wow. Once you get into this culture, you don't leave. You don't. That's what I was trying to explain to Ebony. You sure you going to get this? Because once you start, you're not going to leave. You're gonna be 80 years old and still trying to do this. Right. Right. Right. It's always going to be with you. But I know you got stuff to do. It was nice talking to you guys. Um, reach out to me sometime whenever you guys want. I'm right here. Yes. Yes. Hopefully, hopefully during July, people going to be coming through. So hopefully there'll be a time around there can connect in person. It's a lot going on. Venice Beach Takeover, Asian Ones doing the Funking Soul Summit. Um, MacArthur Park. It's a lot. There's a lot going on. July. July is gonna be busy. July and August. It is. Yes. So, go to work. Take care, everyone. Take care. Take care. And, uh, yeah, thank you both. Thank you. Midnight. It was a pleasure. Oh, bye, everybody. So much. Oh, they are there. I didn't know they was even there where I can talk to them. Yeah, everyone. They're just like in the back waiting. Hey, Chibi. How you doing, sir? Yeah, Chibi's in here, too. So, okay. All right. I think Zilla's trying to get on. Zilla. Okay. Um, what I'm going to do, I'm going to stop this recording and then I'm going to close the Zoom meeting and for everyone that wants to be, because I'm going to do another interview right now with Kumay and Andre. So, anyone that wants. Tell them I said what's up. Okay. We'll do. We'll do. All right, everyone. I'll see you in the future.