'The New West': The Rej3ctz Rap Along And Dance
Catch The Rej3ctz sportin' the Red and Black Skunk Snapback in their latestest MTV Video Interview.
Hip-hop and dancing go together like peanut better and jelly or MCs and mics. So if you have beef with a kid in Barbie colored gear jerkin’, then you should have a problem with the Biz Mark dance and the wop, too. Keep in mind that the Pharcyde started out as dancers and that Soulja Boy ended up making a few hits besides “Crank That (Soulja Boy).” Then there’s the Harlem Shake, Dutty Wine, the Chicken Head, and on and on. That said, as well as assumptions and regional preferences aside, with all the new dances coming out of the Southern California hip-hop scene, it can get difficult to find out who’s who and who created what when it comes these dances and their accompanying music. Here’s a short (note: we didn’t say extensive) primer to get you started.
Krumpin’/Clownin’
Dave Chappelle dropped a flick called “Rize” in 1985 that captured the krump music scene in California that can be considered a precursor to the jerkin’, street dance movement. The Rej3ctz were in the film and say they incorporated dancing they learned from a Chicago native which they in turn dubbed “the reject.” The reject became the jerk. Keep up.
Jerk/Jerkin’
There were songs heads did the jerk too before the New Boyz dropped their “You’re a Jerk” single in 2009, but theirs was the first to get major airplay. “Teach Me How to Jerk” by Audio Push soon followed as well as a gang of other.
The Dougie
The dougie is pretty much an update of the jerk, or jerkin’ (no, it has nothing to do with the Jamaican dish). There was also a dance heads were doing in Texas. Legend is a co-ed came back home to Inglewood, CA and put everyone in his crew on to the dance, and Cali Swag District made it into a hit song.
The Cat Daddy
The same cats that claim to have created jerkin’ are also responsible cat daddy. Chris Brown helped bring the simple yet easily variated/TK moves to mainstream attention when he appeared in the song’s original viral video, shot on location in Venice Beach. Check the how to in the video of MTV’s News’ New West spotlight on the Rej3ctz in the above video.
