when you think of poppers in Japan, the first names you may come up with would be Gucchon, Accky, Kei. They are all from Osaka City not Tokyo. Osaka is traditionally known to have many good poppers (according to the Mr. Wiggles, the best city of poppers in the world.) This is because of the strong influence of OGs from California since 80s. Dancers like Poppin Pete, Sketer Rabbit (R.I.P.), Boo Ya Tribe were frequently visiting Osaka creating the strong foundation of popping. O.G.S (Osaka Gang Star) is a crew that has had the strongest connection with Pete and Sketer and lot of Japanese dancers including Gucchon, Accky, and Kei were inspired by O.G.S. You can say O.G.S is a sort of Japanese popping version of Rock Steady Crew which has been around for a long time and actually still active with original members and the new generation members.But what about poppers from Tokyo. Yes, we have many new young poppers from Tokyo, too. Kite is my favorite popper from Tokyo and he is one of the best poppers in Japan just like Gucchon and Acky. His name is relatively less known outside Japan simply because in the past years, Gucchon or Kite has kept Kite from going to the final of international battles like UK bboy championship and Juste Debut in Paris. Kite and his crew mate Madoka from Former Action are so close to beat Gucchon and Kay in this years Juste Debut preliminary battle in Japan that they went to the extra round. Mr. Wiggle pointed out Gucchon and Kite should do one on one for the extra round.
If you see Kite, you can instantly notice his style with crazy crazy footwork with solid boogaloo foundation. People tend to get impressed easily by flashy animation moves but to me, boogaloo is what popping make it funky and make this dance style more dance. The clip above is from the 1 on 1 popping solo battle at Street Dance Kemp 2008 in Czech Republic. He won this battle. The video was taken by Tatsuo from Grasshopper. I took it from Tatsuo’s website. Thank you, Tatsuo for taking this video!
First of all, as many dancers agree, I don’t like the show MTV’s “America’s best dance crew”. I don’t like it for the fact Most of the dancers in this show are not impressive with a few exception of dancers from knuckeheadzoo (super crew) and soul sector (supreme soul) yet with staged over hyped studio audience reaction and judge clueless comments made them look like super star. Jabbawockees, for instance, their routine are nothing new and the individuals are a kind of weak. (Imagine, if any member from jabbawockees enter the 1 on 1 battle… could they win? ) Although, I don’t like the show, I have to admit and appreciate the fact that the show could promote this dance culture to the mass audience. But I worry that kids who are only exposed to this MTV’s show would have misunderstanding about lot of things in culture.There is a similar dance show in Japan which is not big scale as much as this mtv’s show. I like their show for the fact that they actually talk about the cultre. They often invite the OG dancers who have been in the game for a long time and has made contribution to the culture and have them talk about it. MTV doesn’t do that.
By the way, do you know why some of the crew enters this show with different name? After the success of Jabba, they see lot of potential to make some profit. So, now they want to hold the right to use the crew name in case they become famous. After all, it is MTV, though…
Anyway, I am just wondering why MTV’s been ignoring house dancing as a style. Only the reference to house was (though I don’t watch the show all the time, so I might be missing) In the beginning of the season 2, there was a crew from chicago supposedly they said they were doing house, which was not House at all. I guess house is still least known style though last 5 years, finally people started to recognize it especially on net. I remember in early 90s, nobody in West Coast, and nobody in Europe except France does House. The house dance scene only existed in NY, Japan and France back then.
The clip here are linked from Tatsuo’s website. (They don’t start dancing until 1 min so just be patient…) Tatsuo is from Grasshopper in Japan and recently he won the 1 on 1 house dance battle at street dance kemp in Chez republic. The dancers in this video are Pino, Hirossy from Alma, Tatsuo, and Hiro. I like all the dancers here but especially I love Hirrossy (the guy with red thing on his head). His move is so smooth and sexy. plus if you notice that he does lot of little extra things during the routine, which shows his character.
This is the clip from Juste Debout 2008 Hip Hop. Twins (Left) vs Meech & Joseph Go (Right) and they are both from France. The best moment from this battle is at 1:55 - 2:41 done by Joseph Go. This is HIP HOP, Not hip hop mixed with Jazz on MTVs… When I first saw this, it gave me a chill!! I hope you appreciate this.
IBM Dancers are known for being backup dancers for Nice & Smooth from NYC. According to E. Boogie, the member of the group, they also danced for Akinyele and Mary J. Blige. This clip is from Nice & Smooth performance at Yo! MTV Raps. In this video, I really like the light skin dude on Red. It maybe hard to see on youtube video but he has a sick flavor on his move. I am not sure if he is the official member of the IBM dancers since I didn’t see him on other Nice & Smooth performance. Please let me know if you know anything about this guy.IBM dancers and Nice & Smooth is supposed to be appeared on 2008 VH1 HIP HOP HONORS AWARD. So, please check out.Talking about Nice & Smooth, they are my favorite rap group. Their songs like “Hip Hop Junkies”, “Funky For You”, “Sometime I Rhyme slow”, and “DWYCK” used to make all dancers on the floor go crazy. I remember at clubs in 90s, when you start hearing the intro beats of DWYCK, I felt like the entire floor was shaking because of the excitement from the crowd.
This is a battle between Gambler (Korea) and Japanese bboys from different crew. There is a crazy move I haven’t see before in this video.
go to the very end of the video at 8:15. it is backflip to airchair!!
1/8 - o Jr Boogaloo & Walid vs KMoon & JJ x
1/8 o Poppin J & Crazy Kyo vs Iron Mike & Linda X
1/8 - o Richard & Franqey vs Kallse + his partner X
1/8 - o Djidawi + Pepito vs chechz poppers x
1/8 - o Gucchon + Kei vs unknown poppers
1/4 o Franqey & Richard vs Djidawi+Pepito x
1/4 o Jr Boogaloo & Walid vs Kidboogie+Yuzuru
1/4 o Salah & Acky vs Poppin J + Crazy Kyo x
1/4 o Gucchon & Kei vs Kris + Swan X
Semi final
o Salah + Acky vs Jr.Boogaloo + Walid x
o Gucchon+Kei vs Richard + Franqey x
I noticed that U min or Woo min got appeared on Missy Elliot’s music video. It seems like many people are searching the U min videos.Unfortunatelly, U Min as a full group has not been active for the last two years in Japan. Maybe their appearance on Missy’s video made them reunite and start to perform together again. Meanwhile, two guys from the Woo Min has been active as a group called “Woo min no kokoro” or “The core of Woo min”. In case you miss the fast video of Woo min I put, you can see it here
Juste Debout is one of the hottest street dance events right now!!. The final for 2008 event is going to be held this weekend, March 2 at Paris. Juste Debout is the international street dance 2 on 2 battle event. It has hip hop, house, locking and popping. This year, they had preliminary event in different countries such as Swiss, Germany, Japan, Italy, Paris, etc.. and the only the team who won these preliminary event are going to enter the final event. I don’t know why there was no preliminary event in the US. Since the preliminary event are organized by local people, I guess there was no organizer who was willing to host the event in the US. This is the same case with Battle of the Year. The US being the pioneer of this culture, It is a shame!!!! The US needs somebody who think more about preserving the true essence of this culture as opposed to having a show like “MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew” .
Anyway… This year, I expect the level of the competition to be really really high!! Many dancers I mentioned on this page are actually going to be at the final. Since I was at the Japanese event, I can tell Japanese dancers who won the preliminary events.
Hip Hip: Yokoi&Dominic (Electric Trouble -no need to explain!)
House : Pino & Kenji (Pinocchio: Pino is my favorite house dancer and he is also the member of ALMA)
Popping: Gucchon & Kei (Coo-Thkoo: -they went through the most intensive battle of the all category. Guccho was 2nd place at 2007 UK BBOY Championship)
Locking: Seiji & Yukari (They beated Hilty & Bosch. )
On top of these dancers, I heard the rumor that there are more big name dancers entering the contest from Paris preliminary event which will be held the day before. They are:
Acky & Salah for popping (what a team!!)
Yoshie & Akane (BE BOP Crew) for locking
Hiro (ALMA) & Tatsuo (Grass Hopper) for house
So anyway, I was going to fly to Paris just for this event. But I end up not being able to… If you happen to live near Paris, I must go to see this event. Yoshie said, “If you are a street dancer and you are missing this event, then you are not a street dancer.”For more information, visit at www.juste-debout.com
But what about poppers from Tokyo. Yes, we have many new young poppers from Tokyo, too. Kite is my favorite popper from Tokyo and he is one of the best poppers in Japan just like Gucchon and Acky. His name is relatively less known outside Japan simply because in the past years, Gucchon or Kite has kept Kite from going to the final of international battles like UK bboy championship and Juste Debut in Paris. Kite and his crew mate Madoka from Former Action are so close to beat Gucchon and Kay in this years Juste Debut preliminary battle in Japan that they went to the extra round. Mr. Wiggle pointed out Gucchon and Kite should do one on one for the extra round.