Posts tagged Dj Renegade

Think u know about these dances?
Really?
U been here a few years, done nothing, been nowhere and u think u have it all figured out?
Had a few workshops and took some pictures with ur favourite dancer and now ure an expert?
'Poe said this', 'Brian said that', 'Greg said...', 'Pete told me...'.
Without context these statements can mean anything. I have these lame discussions with noobs all the time. They actually think their opinion carries weight. It's a sad affair.
Can u imagine this attitude in any other field? U'd be laughed at. But for some reason, our dance is a free for all where even the most inept beginner feels that they have some deep insight into something they barely understand.
It's even worse when it comes to comments on judging. Then they really show their ignorance. Their opinion that so and so was robbed cos somehow they know more than Pete or Storm or Link or whoever.
Judging is subjective and people don't necessarily like what u like. Or what uve been told to like!
If u don't understand, JUST ASK! I know all these guys and they are all more than willing to fix ur lack of understanding. But don't look for one line sound bites. Try to understand what they are trying to convey.
Try to increase ur knowledgebase so u can know what ure talking about.
I've been here 30 years and I'm still learning. It never stops.
So don't think u have it all figured out when u just got here.

K.

Phew!!
That was a busy one!

2010 has been another great year for me.
I did a LOT of djing and a fair amount of judging.
Covered many of the usuals but I've also observed a few things that are new.
I can't cover every event but some have stuck in my head...

At the beginning of the year Juste Debout added toprock as one of the categories at this major dance event.
I had the privilege of djing this milestone.
The winner, and deservedly so, was Y Not.
In my opinion he has been very instrumental in bringing toprock back into focus.

World BBoy Classic was dope.
The dutch seem to come up with these dope concepts all day!!
I was one of the judges and the competition was fierce.
Winners were Thesis and Keebz.
I was honoured to see Lamine KILLING it all day.
Showing everyone that older dancers can still compete at this high level.
(Along with Ness, Poe and others who also still rep).

Focus opened a dance school in Finland.
Called Saiffa, it's a step in the right direction for producing the next generation.
Flomo are one of the only true school crews in the world. They have stuck to their style throughout the years.
Not following trends, but making them.
They also have 2 of my favourite bgirls of all time. Taya and AT.
Hatsolo is also one of my favourite bboys. Raw character that only few dancers have these days.

IBE?
Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig.
'Nuff said.
This is THE mammoth event of the year.
Too many things to cover.
Judged the UK qualifiers with Lamine and Kwikstep.
Unanimous calls every battle except maybe one.
Heard so much BS after.
IF U DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW JUDGING IS DONE, JUST ASK!!!
Don't make shit up cos ure ignorant.

UK Champs!!
For the first time in 8 years a UK crew made it through the first round!
This may not mean anything to any of you, but for us it is a 'making history' achievement.
Not only that but it is the crew I gave birth to and train/ed.
Soul Mavericks.
I am so proud.
We still have a long way to go but things are definitely changing.
Overall winners were Vagabonds, making a great return, and Flying Buddha in the solos.

Battle of the Year moved venue, and country, to Montpelier, France.
12,000 people at a bboy event!! Insane!
Had a great time.
Dj'ed for the solo competition, which Thesis won.
Jinjo won the crews.

Redbull BC One was the last big event of the year.
Looks like Redbull are here to stay.
Absolutely crazy on a production level.
It was on the level of a TV program.
Interesting battles with a few surprises.
Neguin was crowned winner. Killed it all day.

I finished off the year by being voted best BBoy DJ of 2010 on BBoyWorld.
Thank you to all those that voted for me and recognise my hard work.

Hello reader.
And welcome.

You've probably reached this blog through a new portal called bboyinsiders.com
It's a fresh idea by BBoy Amjad, of 7$ and Circle Kingz/Princz.
Basically, it's a way to keep abreast of what's happening in the bboy world firsthand from some of the key players in the game.
I think it's a great idea. Many of us have been on this scene for a looooooooooong time and have amassed quite a bit of knowledge. In Hip Hop, we use the term 'Each One, Teach One' and this is an interesting application of the concept.
I am honoured to be included in the list.
I travel a hell of a lot to events around the globe and am quite opinionated.
I hope you'll get a few laughs from some of my blogs.
I'll comment/blog on other dances and dance events as well because I don't just DJ at bboy jams.

Anyway, nice meeting u. Stay a while.

K

I recently had a discussion with Lamine from France.
He was wondering why most dancers etc on this scene have psuedo names.
Whereas most French dancers keep their original names.
Why Renegade? Why JustDoIt? Why Mouse?
It was a question that had come up before, but from the other perspective.
I've been asked on occasion 'How come French dancers use their real names?'
I had thought about it but never took the time to ask anyone who might know so the answer eluded me.

This is easier to understand now after the talk with Lamine.
Culturally, most of the 'street' dancers in France are from immigrant backgrounds. Algeria, Morocco, etc.
It seems that many of their parents would be offended if they chose to be known by another name than was given to them.
On the other hand, in the 'west' there is a tradition that stretches waaaay back, of having an alias or nickname. Sometimes to the degree that it's used more than ones original name.
Louis 'Satchmo' Armstrong, Benjamin 'Bugsy' Siegel, Norma Jeane Baker (Marilyn Monroe) immediately spring to mind.
Interestingly, many Brazilian dancers keep their original name also...Pelezihno, Neguin, Bidu. I need to find out why.
A discussion for another day.

K

It's 2009. Soul Mavericks is now 4 years old!!
I formed the crew in 2005.
The UK scene was HURTING!

At the time there were a number of reasons for making the crew, but the main ones were a chat I had with Storm and Raphael in Denmark and another with Poe 1, also in Denmark, on another occasion.
They basically advised that if I felt the scene was so bad in the UK, I should do something about it!

When I returned from Denmark I started to ask around who was interested in going to the next level.
I could see we had some good potential here but a severe lack of direction and instruction.

I asked Mouse if he would lead the team and he agreed. He was my brother's old breaking partner and a real light shining through the darkness.
With him on my side confidence was assured.

Next step was seeing who else was serious.
I had had my eye on quite a few dancers who were on the brink of giving up or were going nowhere with their own crews.
It was offered as a type of sabbatical. "Take a year off from your crew and if this doesn't work out, you are free to return to whatever you were doing before."
The only stipulations were that they could only rep one crew and they would train as hard as I made them. No excuses.
If I could do the drills, they could too.
Gabs, Bugs and Lee from FDC joined.
K(Banner) and Lazy James from Foundations Crew joined.
AJ and Yujin from Having Fun joined.
Cake from Ghetto Lowlifes joined.
Maze and Ghost joined.

Also at the time I discovered that Hooch was offering a training spot to the scene that was completely free for use.
It was called Breakstation. No one was using it!!!
I asked him to put his trust in me and I would provide the goods for UK Champs.
No way we were gonna win but we weren't gonna embarrass the UK. We had just over 8 weeks to get ready with 1/2 the crew being beginners!
Looking back, the idea was completely insane.
Training was HARD!! None of them had ever trained like that before. There was a lot of blood, sweat and tears.
We usually started after hours, 10pm, until 2 or 3am in the morning.
I had a full-time job at the time so I basically got about 3-4 hours sleep went to work, then did the same thing again the next night.
It wasn't just a place to train. I physically taught and advised them on everything I had learnt from various sources and stuff I had made myself.
We're talking concepts, vocabulary, moves, tricks, transitions, musicality, foundation, uprock, toprock, downrock. U name it, we covered it.
It was fast-track.
To think inside, roundside, upside, downside and outside the box.

Scene-wise there was quite a bit of resistance.
Even to this day I hear untrue stories about our formation and the effect it had on our scene.
Mainly I think people were scared and were happy with the status quo of mediocrity we had here.
Many of the naysayers have either disappeared or have remained at exactly the same level(or copying shit we were doing 3 years ago hahaha).
Haters came out the woodwork. If only they knew it was their hate that kept me on it even when I was completely exhausted!!
Hahahah. Idiots.

UK Champs 2005 was a trip. 1st major battle for newly formed crew. 1st round against Pockemon! WTF!!
The guys were completely scared. This was one of the best crews in the world.
But we would not go lightly. Personally I think we took the first few rounds until Pockemon realised we weren't rolling over.
I remember afterward Rudolf commenting on how close it was.
To this day people tell me that was the day UK got it's mojo back since Second To None times.

After Champs, I extended training to anyone who wanted to improve.
We were joined by La Familia, NT, Flowzaic who were my all female crew, Broken Jazz who I had spent time training previously, and one or two other dancers that were around.
I shared the same info with them as I had with my own crew. Forget Each-One-Teach-One. This was Each-One-Teach-Twenty.
As anyone who was around at the time can testify, the level went thru the roof.
The guys I was training were either winning or placing high in any UK comp we entered.

Sadly, Breakstation was closed down shortly after.
We had a good run and a lot of development had been made.

We also lost a couple but gained a lot more dancers since that time.

We have repped in France, Spain, Estonia, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Greece, Norway, Austria, Brazil, Ireland, Korea, USA, Finland, China, Hong Kong; and have battled the likes of Pockemon, Mortal Kombat, Flomo, Rock Force, FoundNation, 36 Chambers, Hustle Kids, FDM, East Side BBoys, KLP, RuffNecks, MonsTribe, Legiteam Obstruxxion, Submission.

SM Roll Call; past, present and future:

AJ, Angel, Angry Abdul, Azrawk, Banner, Big Ben, Blend, Bugz, Cake, Coop Dog, Dr Gabs, Ghost, Lazy James, Lee, Maze, Mid-Air, Mouse, Reckless-Lee, Roxy, R-Qi-Tek, Sam-I-Am, Sunni, Tyrant, Watch Diss, Yu-Genius, Zero.

SM Family: Darkstar, Debo, Fase, GG, Genesis, Ill, Jort Steady, Jurr, Killaman, Lil Bob, Lil Crooked, Moysex, Oby, Olly, Puyan, Reveal, Socto, Spin, Steady, Storm, SunSun, Ther, Wild Willy, FDM, Renegades, Rugged Solutions.

All have helped or contributed to our history and as such my appreciation goes out to them.

K