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Discover how the Jabbawockeez revolutionized hip-hop culture in this exclusive interview on Sway In The Morning. Join Sway Calloway as he dives into the iconic story of the Jabbawockeez, from their humble beginnings in garage dance sessions to their game-changing performances on MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew. Hear firsthand how their unique masked style became a symbol of unity and creativity, shaping modern hip-hop dance.
The Jabbawockeez share the behind-the-scenes tale of their rise to fame, the evolution of their craft, and their groundbreaking residency at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Learn about their latest production, "Frequency," and how they’ve continued to merge classic hip-hop foundations with contemporary trends while staying true to their roots. From battling B-boy crews worldwide to dancing alongside icons like Shaquille O’Neal and collaborating with Timberland, this interview celebrates their legacy and the power of collective creativity.
Don’t miss out on this inspiring conversation and rare insights into one of hip-hop’s most influential dance crews. Subscribe now for more exclusive interviews, highlights from Sway In The Morning, and the best in music and culture. Follow Sway’s Universe for more updates and watch now to experience the magic of the Jabbawockeez!
#performanceart #maskculture #mtvimpact #hiphopdance #dancecrew
CHAPTERS:
00:00 - How the Jabbawockeez formed
04:41 - Significance of the Jabbawockeez mask
11:27 - Creating Jabbawockeez shows
12:36 - Understanding Frequency
17:40 - Sway In The Morning interview
19:29 - Shaquille O'Neal and Jabbawockeez
22:43 - Testing after winning ABDC
24:40 - Storytelling through dance
32:45 - Caller interaction
33:53 - Personal identity and mask anonymity
38:10 - Staying relevant as Jabbawockeez
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
I had to remind them. Hey Tracy, I had to remind them I run deep with these guys. I forgot I run deep with these
0:07
guys. Come on man. Give it up for KB. Pick KB. Big round of applause. Give it up for Raining. Big round of applause.
0:14
Give it up for Punky. Big round of applause. Give it up for five. Big round of applause. Give it up for the Jaba in
0:20
the building. This way. I got to tell you that's Fee.
0:26
Oh, I'm Fe. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. My bad. No, you good. [ __ ] it. We got to battle now, dog.
0:32
There you go. There you go, Fee. I'm sorry, Fee. My bad, man. I know you are, Fee. We go way back.
0:37
That clip I played was from 2009. Wow. Yeah, bro.
0:43
You remember that? Get up on that mic, Randy. No, I just remember that interview because we were so hyped to see you. I
0:48
remember like being like in the back and we're like, "Oh, shoot. Yo, that's way he's he's right over there." And then we finally get on the mic with you and then
0:54
Chris is talking and then they were like, at that time, too, I'm like, "I'm going to break." Yeah.
1:00
I don't know. I'm not gonna talk, but I'm gonna do something on the floor. Right. Right. Yeah. That was dope. Well, that was such a big deal. Um
1:06
because it was MTV and and you guys had your relationship with them by then, but
1:11
it was still relatively new. And with that, I think all of us, even including myself, like um
1:18
are always so surprised when we find ourselves in those pop mainstream
1:23
spaces. At that time, that was almost taboo. Yeah. right? To come from the culture
1:29
and to be coexisting on these on these pop platforms. We shied away from it.
1:35
Like I was apprehensive to going to MTV. I was like screw that. It was the best decision I could have
1:41
made at the time, man. But uh congratulations to y'all the Jabbais, man. Get them a
1:47
round of applause. Thank you. It's been How many years now have you
1:54
been in Vegas? We're what we at 15 years since 2010.
2:02
This has been so long my brain. We got in there 2010. Uhhuh. And uh we just dropped our latest
2:08
production frequency uh 2025. You know, we still about to be at MGM for at least
2:15
another five years as of recently. So we we still growing, bro. We still keeping
2:20
it pushing. KB, congratulations. They are at MGM for at least another five years.
2:27
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Who are the Jabawakis, man? Give me the history. Where did it all begin?
2:34
Randy, who did that? K. Randy. Anybody? Anybody? Go ahead. Well, I mean, so Jabawakis actually came from Kevin and Joe.
2:41
And you got to remember we were part of this. Oh, that's KB. That's Punky and KB.
2:47
Yeah. So, like, you know, they he knows by by the real names, you know.
2:52
be using our government names right now. That's crazy right there. He's setting y'all up for something. I don't know what that but go ahead.
2:57
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so a part of this dance community that we were all a part of, we were all in different crews and uh and KB and Punky, they were like the
3:03
first people to be like, "Hey, you know what? We always chill. We always hang out together. Our boy Gary kind of brought us all together because they
3:09
were from up north. I was from down south." And um you know, at that point, even though we were a part of these different
3:15
crews, we were always sessioning together. And so this is even before Jabbawaki's formed. We were just always just vibing, having a good time at studios, in garage
3:23
sessions, all that type of stuff. It got to the point where they moved to San Diego from Sacramento. And at that
3:30
point, they came up with the idea, yo, we need to just have a crew together because we always vibe in session and dance together.
3:35
Um, and I just remember hearing about the crew randomly with them. They I go over Joe and uh uh Kevin's house and
3:43
they're like, "Hey, what do you think of this?" They showed me the mix. It was crazy. And they were like, "Yeah, but I'm gonna call it Jabalokis." And I
3:50
remember thinking to myself, "What is a Jabalaki?" What like because it wasn't your normal crew
3:56
name. It wasn't like full force. It wasn't like, you know, it wasn't like some, you know, rhythm bugs or style
4:02
elements or, you know, I mean, like, you know, rock steady crew. It was like Jabawokes. I was like, what does that mean? And then the whole thing came
4:08
from, you know, uh, Alice in Wonderland. It came from, uh, Lewis Carol's book of poems that he wrote. And then when they
4:13
were opening opening my mind to that, I was like, that's crazy. with the Java is this mysterious dragon that comes in and
4:19
roams the Told you Woods and no one could kill him and you know he's always vanishing. He's like in and out.
4:24
Yeah. And that was our style. Like back in the day in 2003 when we started the crew and we started covering up our faces.
4:30
It was like they had a dressing room for us but we wouldn't change in the dressing room. We would change in the bathroom because we didn't want anybody to know
4:36
cuz we were all a part of different dance groups. We didn't want people to know who we were. Is that why you wear the mask?
4:41
Yes sir. That's exactly why I wear the mask. Who came up with the mask concept? So, you know, it's just I think it was just
4:48
kind of like uh like an iteration over time, right? So, um we were working with
4:54
Gary at the time, right? We're doing Monster Shop Bump in Gary. Rest in peace. That's our big brother. It's his birthday today, too.
5:00
Yeah, it is our Oh, man. G. Happy birthday, G. This is divine alignment,
5:05
bro. This is timing. It's amazing. Yeah, man. But, um G was the glue like Rainan said
5:11
and uh he put us on, man. like he helped us to understand our value in the dance space. You know, we were teaching at
5:18
different studios and he was like, "How much they pay you here?" He was like, "Oh, we getting this." And he was like, "Nah, bro. Like, you got way like they
5:25
benefiting way off of your talent than you are." So, he what put us on, we started fellowshipping together. And
5:30
there was this one piece he did in particular with the clowns where he had the uh the white mask, right? It was expressionless mask,
5:36
Marott. Marriott. It was like a quick little thing that they did, right? And so fast forward a little bit later,
5:44
we're, you know, devising this plan to like take over the the dance space by covering our faces or we just didn't
5:50
want people to know who we were. And Joe was like, "Yo, we should use that mask that Gary used for the for the
5:56
thing, this monster shop bumping this production that he had this was traveling around California or whatever." It was like a small
6:02
production, two little characters. But um that's kind of like how we we uh we
6:08
just took that mask cuz it was a prop that was already available to us. So we were just like throw it on. And
6:14
you know you know what the first mask was? What was the first Wait, let me turn you up a little bit. Can you mind turn? I got you. I got you. Our first mask was
6:20
um was actually the they call it the shy mask or Oh, that's what they call it now. Yeah. Oh, yes. On our first performance,
6:28
we didn't Yeah. We didn't even have the mask of the first performance. You got pictures of that? It's on YouTube, bro. Like we wearing
6:34
the little ski mask we got from like Walmart or something like that. Yep. I bought it. So you were
6:40
y'all were the first Joe. You want to go on records and say this [ __ ] That's what I'm trying to say. I'm trying to say it. Say it, man.
6:45
Yeah. We were the we were the ones to coin that that that shy mask. If if you look back in 2003.
6:51
Yeah. 2003. 2003. You'll see our first showcase. We got the shy on.
6:56
But I will be honest with you. The reason why we took that mask off is cuz it was hard to breathe. Yeah. We going to do the dancing with
7:02
Yeah. Yeah. It was hard to breathe in that mask, man. And then and then from that point on, we ended up changing it to a silver mask.
7:08
But the silver mask was so small that it showed people's chins. Yeah. And then that's when they were like,
7:13
"Yo, we wore this white mask before. I remember the silver mask." Yeah. Let's wear our white. Let's wear the white mask. And it ended up becoming
7:18
a better silhouette. Anyway, you know, that for the audience to see. And even I was saying before, like the
7:24
crazy part is like during all this time, a lot of people when when in the underground scene, they were like, "Who
7:30
are the Jabbawakis?" And we weren't letting them know. We were very much like our peers didn't even know, right?
7:35
I think maybe that that was probably the only Did Did Did the the team know like the culture? They didn't know that
7:41
culture shock. Some people didn't. Not in the beginning. Okay. Not in the beginning. Okay. So, we we did our best to keep that joke. For
7:47
real. I I felt like the cool part was you perform and then you're in the audience and then some guy next to you is your
7:52
friend like, "Yo, did you see the Jabies? I think they're from Japan." Yeah. People thought it was all literally Peter Parker and
7:58
like you know, they from Japan from China. they're from somewhere. I'm like, I don't know. I don't know what you're talking about. Wow, man.
8:05
Ironically, that mask probably is one of the most standout best branding tools
8:12
ever to come out of hip-hop culture. Let's give that a big round of applause
8:17
because once y'all went on America's Got Talent with those mask on
8:22
and the world grabbed a hold to that, how did that change your lives,
8:28
man? Well, America's America's Got Talent. So, we we we did America's Best Dance
8:34
Crew. That's that was the pivotal moment. But, okay. When we were on America's Got Talent, we actually
8:39
we came to Vegas for for a round, but we got we got eliminated. I don't think uh David Hassoff he
8:46
I saw that. He wasn't feeling us at the time. That's the [ __ ] we hated about pop culture.
8:52
Yeah. Merge with what we do, right? But I mean, you know, I think it wasn't our
8:57
time yet either. I think our time was meant for ABCDC. It was on the MTV platform.
9:03
Um, right demographic. Yeah. The right demographic. And, you know, mind you, we were kind of hesitant to even go on the show cuz kind of like
9:09
you, like we didn't know how to feel about MTV, cuz you know, there's a lot of shows like a lot of kind of like reality TV at
9:16
the time, 2008. Uhhuh. that um I mean I get why they're popular, but you know, we didn't know
9:22
what they're going to do with a bunch of hip-hop kids, street kids. Like, you're gonna make us just look kind of not cool. You know what I mean? Like,
9:29
but try to dilute it a bit. Yeah. But we uh we we took that risk, man. And and it ended up being the best
9:35
decision that we ever made. But yeah, that from that moment on it was, you know, we we it almost felt like we
9:41
were a boy band. You know what I mean? Like Yeah. People were freaking out. Hey, we could sing too, by the way.
9:47
together. We shall throwing a beat. Throwing a beat. No. Okay. We're not doing that. We're not doing that. Okay. All right. Let me
9:53
know. We got to rehearse first, bro. We actually talk with the man. My bad. Okay. All right. Okay.
9:59
Um, well, congratulations on that, but I can and let me ask you this, Fee. Like, when
10:05
I went to MTV, by the way, let me keep promoting this. The new show is called Frequency. Yes, sir.
10:11
It opened October 24th. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. MGM Grand. If you're in Vegas, go to
10:17
this show. I'mma come back to you fe because it was years ago. I don't know if y'all remember this. I was in Vegas
10:23
for a family reunion. Okay. And I needed tickets for my daughter who
10:29
at that time was I don't know 10 or I don't know how old she was at that time. And and her little cousin and I needed
10:36
to look big. Yeah. Right.
10:43
That was important. They was like, "Daddy, can you take us to see the Jabais? You say you know them." And I was like,
10:50
"I do know them." And I just couldn't figure out how to get to y'all. I don't know who I got to. I don't remember that
10:55
part. Might have been you, Rain. Okay. Um, and you guys gave us you gave us the best [ __ ] seats
11:02
in the house. Of course. And my daughter thought I was the dand of and but what was amazing is
11:11
they were so thoroughly I can't think of how young they were at that time
11:17
but they were fascinated. It was like they were in a fantasy
11:22
watching this show. Right. Yeah. And I'm curious to how do you guys come
11:27
up with the show? the concepts, the the choreography, the
11:33
the language, you know, as Mike Muse puts it. How do you come up? How do you agree to
11:38
what's going to be done, man? Kevin, that's that's a good question for you, man. I mean, that's a good question for all
11:44
of us. I mean, so it depends on what we're talking about.
11:50
Like when if we first started off, it was just a melting pot of creativity. Like no creativity was denied. You know
11:58
what I mean? I'd have material, Rain would have m we all have material and we just put it together and then the mix,
12:04
you know, was more like a art of storytelling. So, we was putting in like, you know, the Matrix samples and stuff cuz we're trying to, you know,
12:12
give you something like a thread to pull, but but ultimately how you interpret the show at the end of the day
12:18
is really what the theme of it is. We could tell you, oh yeah, this is Star Wars and the lightsabers, but like if
12:25
you didn't really get that, but what you got was, man, I just was inspired by how you d then that's really what the show
12:31
was. It's kind of open in it, but we do start off with a concept and an idea.
12:36
Frequency being um it's in everything when where we're talking about color, where we're talking
12:42
about, you know, the rhythm of your heartbeat. Like frequency is the foundation for everything. It's it's
12:48
reality as we know it. And so um we just paying homage to these concepts, right?
12:53
The frequenc the frequency of sound in music is what has been a blessing to us. So that's what we're showcasing through
13:00
this this uh particular production, right? Timeless was the one just before that. And we're saying music is
13:06
timeless. It don't matter you go back to the 60s or whatever, the music still is amazing. And it's time it's beyond time.
13:13
You know what I mean? Dance also, you know? So nowadays though, we have a creative
13:19
team. We got a whole new generation of Jawbawakis. We're ultimately creative directors.
13:25
So y'all y'all y'all taking a backseat now? Uh well, you know, y'all still performing though, right?
13:31
We we still get down. We're still very much involved with like the rehearsal process and and the material, making
13:36
sure it's got that flavor from when we've been coming up. You know, it hasn't gone a completely corporate where
13:43
we're so detached. We're still very much involved with the creative process from the music to the movement. Uh but we do
13:49
I mean it's just like you know Apple where they have these they hire the geniuses to create you know new
13:55
technology. So like we have that we have geniuses in our fold that that helps
14:01
continue that creative process. But the show is like a big inside joke. Like the humor is just stuff that makes us laugh.
14:08
You know what I mean? and and and we just kind of trust it and put it out and
14:13
people kind of they get it too, you know what I mean? And that's that's how we bring everybody together. But yeah, it's
14:19
it's just, you know, creative team nowadays. All the creative direction kind of comes
14:25
through us, but we're also trusting our team also to cuz they know the art of storytelling. They've been with us for
14:30
such a long time. So that's what's helpful and that's what's allowed us to level up even just in the business point
14:36
of view is uh us having a team that we can help or that can that we can rely on
14:42
to help continue to push the creativity be in two two places at one time. Two places at one time. I also want to
14:49
add too, I mean even within our creative team that we have now, it's still they're still in that, you know, mind
14:54
state, which not a lot of people have, but uh respecting, you know, the history, respecting the art, respecting
15:00
the pe the elders, respecting, you know, the music before them, you know, like that's what I think from what from what
15:06
how we uh started off as well and what has been instilled with the guys that have been training, you know, under us
15:11
or with us uh during this whole entire process of creating shows with us is like, you know, when it comes to any
15:18
type of movement, any type of song, any type of thing. They're always going, you know, back to, you know, I know that you
15:25
guys like this type of 70s song. I know that you guys, you know, this is the inspiration for this song, so I know you guys like that. It's it it's not like
15:32
going left field, you know what I mean? Like it never goes left field. It still has that foundation, I guess you could
15:38
say, of from what Jabawakis and within us, our foundation is the foundation from what we learned from a lot of our
15:43
elders, too. Can you name some of them? Some of them, you know, you have like Pete, you have Wiggles, you have Ken Swift, um, you
15:49
know, crew, BRS, Media Circus, Wiggles, like all of them, you know, we have Flow
15:55
Master, Flow Master, everybody within that style elements, you know, like a lot of those guys, you know, even from
16:01
Germany, you know, Storm, Crumbs, you know what I mean? Pujo Pujo,
16:08
Crazy Kujo, Soul Control out here in LA, you know, uh, San Diego people. Caesar uh wicked air crew man like it
16:18
goes down the line and the good thing is we always try to make sure that even uh our creative team understands that as
16:23
well they know the history they know the history as well and so that's why they were able to still interpret it to the new show within
16:28
bringing in the the new music as well you know that's out there. So yeah, this new show, Frequency, man, it to me,
16:35
it's a great mix of music from, you know, old to new to what's out now. And
16:41
that's what I've been getting from a lot of people who've been coming to the show. A lot of times when we're watching the show, getting research with people
16:47
that come in, they're like, "Man, this show has a great mix like of of new school music and as well as, you know,
16:53
like paying homage to a lot of old school uh music as well from 90s and even before and ' 80s, like a type
16:58
hip-hop uh music." And I think, you know, it it's been great that we've been able to do that throughout these years.
17:03
You know, even from when we started our show in 2013 when uh or 2010 when we did
17:09
our show, Muse IC, just like what Kevin said, like Muse IC was spelled Musi.
17:14
Cuz music music is our muse. Oh, music. Okay. But it's Muse IC.
17:19
I like that. Mike, tell them your last name. Mike. Muse. Mu S is in Sam E.
17:26
Let's go. Thank you for calling me at the
17:31
residency. I appreciate y'all, man. That was too kind. Yeah, let's go. Let's go. I want to do something.
17:36
Mask up. I know. I want to do something I don't think anybody's ever done. As I'm sitting there looking in your faces
17:41
having this interview right now. Make sure you get this too. PB. Uh to give me some applause when I do this. Ladies and
17:49
gentlemen, introducing to the world for the first time in front of the mask.
17:55
Give it up for the Jaba walk. In front of the man.
18:03
You wanted to see their faces. Here's their faces. Yeah. Yeah. The devil walking.
18:11
They're like, "Put the mask back on. Put the mask back on, man." Yo, this what I want to do. I want to
18:17
come back. I want to open up the phone lines. 8887423345. We got some more questions. I know Mike
18:23
and Tracy want to jump in as well, but it's an honor to have you all here. Shout out to Laura
18:29
who always I don't know how y'all found her, but I'm glad you did. Awesome. Cuz she's incredible at what she does.
18:37
She's the ultimate connector. Let's go. And uh her follow-up game is incredible.
18:42
Okay. She won't let you sleep till she gets what she wants.
18:48
She knows it, too. and I met her in a cool setting in in Florida and then she really um amazed me
18:55
and we've been in contact um ever since. And when she told me she was working with you all, what I you know I man I celebrated that
19:03
because I knew she needed to be in some higher vibration environment and I knew
19:08
you guys would provide that. We're going to come back with the Jaba walks 888742 3345. Let's take them back. Jimmy C45,
19:17
man. We got the Jabawalkis in the building with us right now. We got DJ Baboo
19:24
from the Beat Junkies in the building with us right now.
19:29
What an amazing journey this movement has gone through and it's
19:36
they're not even halfway done, which is amazing. Uh, five more years at the MGM
19:42
Grand. Give that a round of applause. The new show is called Frequency. Take your kids.
19:48
This is the kind of show I promise you. I took me and my daughter both enjoyed Mike Muse. I could have brought my
19:54
grandmother wanted to go, but she had to stay at the reunion and at that time she was in her 80s.
20:00
Wow. And uh she she really and she could have went. I thought, well, maybe you might, you know, I didn't know if she would
20:06
have been able to s, you know. Oh, no. There was something in there. Yeah, there was something in there. and
20:11
she was mad when we came back cuz we had we had u such a good time. Man, you
20:16
know, I wanted to ask you guys too. There's there's a um couple moments that happened for you that
20:22
may not have seemed like much at the time but became really like if what we would call viral moments.
20:29
I remember when Shaquille O'Neal danced with the Jaba walks.
20:34
Yeah. Yeah. How did that happen? Fee, you who wants to hit that one?
20:40
Arizona, right? That was actually um I I don't I forgot how it happened, but
20:45
he I mean he knew who we were and was just like, you know, he was playing for the Suns at the time and I'm originally from
20:51
Phoenix, so it was kind of cool to go back and and perform at the All-Star game with Shaq, but um yeah, he just
20:58
reached out to us and and just wanted us to do his I think that was his last year. He was about to
21:04
retire. Yeah. So he wanted to do something big and he's a dancer, you know.
21:10
Shaq's a dancer. So he he he called us and man, he literally I I remember he
21:15
choreographed it pretty much. That's the story cuz we were we were backstage. I'm going to do this and you guys are
21:20
going to do that. He's like, "Hey, so this is what we're going to do." Hey, there it is. It's right there. I'm gonna what you're going to do is you
21:26
guys going to stand around me and I'm going to do a chest pop thing, but you I'm going to hit you and you're going to knock out and you're going to hit him and I'm gonna smack you in the face and
21:32
you're going to go over here and after that you guys going to chest pop him. You guys cool with that? We were like, "Yeah, yeah,
21:37
yeah, sure. That's what you want to do." Sh, right? Like that's what you want, man. Like
21:43
Yeah. We got it on the screen right now, bro. How tall was he next to y'all?
21:49
That look like the giant. Look at that. Hell, I mean, this is Yeah, this is like a memorable
21:54
moment. He pretty much directed it. He was just like, "Yo, I'm going to you guys, you know, slap and then you do a roll off and then you, you know, and then and
22:00
then you can you dig it. All right.
22:06
He's so cool. But we forget Shaq is a DJ. He's a beat boy. He's an MC. He's
22:14
probably a graph writer. Yeah, man. Food and all of that. Like Shaq is truly
22:20
hip-hop, bro. Yo, and when he did and and he understands if anybody there's
22:25
nobody him and Snoop, a couple dudes, nobody's branding better than them. And
22:30
I think it was intentional that he did that, you know, to put y'all on that, you know, you've been on these
22:35
platforms, but to even continue to put you on these platforms, salute to Shaquille O'S
22:43
Now, let me ask you this. When I went to M MTV, a lot of folks um thought they
22:49
could test me after that. Like something had changed from who the guy was prior to going. And
22:54
a lot of them found out they were wrong. Right. Of course. Now I imagine in the dance community
23:00
a lot of that happens, right? Did y'all ever get challenged by other B
23:06
boys because of Jabba success or because they didn't know who you were, they never could challenge you?
23:12
No, I I I know for sure for me like anytime especially after we won the show, I was still going out. I was still
23:17
going to B boy events and still battling, you know. So yeah, every every cipher that I went to, everyone test me at that
23:23
point. I mean, you're always battling in ciphers, but at that point, like I remember going to New York and you
23:29
know, like just people just calling me out, you know, that was normal regardless, but now they're calling me out on a different scale.
23:34
Okay? You know what I mean? Um, and uh, and that was happening worldwide at that at that point. I remember us doing the
23:40
Gatorade commercial in Spain, and we just wanted to go out to the club just to go out that night just to cipher
23:46
and just to dance a little bit. And as soon as we get in, people found out who we were. And right away all the B boys from Spain just started coming in and
23:52
started calling us out and bowing us, you know. So for at least for the first like five five years after we won the show.
24:00
Yeah. We were I was battling a lot and even these guys were at some point, you know. We were at Japan one time and I
24:05
remember the club was kind of dead and then people found out who we were and all of a sudden all these dancers start coming in and they start battling
24:10
me and Kevin and all of you know like oh you know what's funny? Sometimes I don't even realize it's a battle. I just think it's just an
24:17
exchange bro. I'm like, "Look, I'm just showing you what I got." You know, but but yeah, he I think that B boy
24:22
mentality random was like, "No, they're No, they're battling us right now." I was like, "Oh, okay. Let's get him then."
24:29
Cuz my face changes from smiling to being like, "Yeah, I put on the mugsy." I'm like, "Yeah,
24:34
all right. We're going in right now, guys." Yo, Punky over there. You just I can see you just thinking back like visualizing
24:40
this stuff. What are you seeing in your mind while they tell these stories? I'm I'm visualizing all the the the
24:46
journey that we went through. Oh my gosh. Um, trying to remember any any moment. Australia.
24:51
Australia. When we first had our show out in Australia and we went, it was in Sydney. I think they just
24:57
opened Marquee out in Sydney. And, you know, and you know, our kind of culture doesn't really go to
25:03
clubs like that, but we were doing club performances. And so, you know, that night it was a little bit more dance friendly.
25:09
Okay. You know what I mean? And and yeah, there was this crew. I forgot the name of the crew, but they were calling us out. Oh, yeah. I remember that.
25:15
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we're gonna let them know just like you just let them know they're wrong, you know? We're just gonna let
25:21
them know they're wrong. But at the end of the day, it's a friendly exchange. Yeah. So, let me ask you this and then I I'm sorry, Tracy and Mike. I'm just, you
25:28
know, I'm in my zone right here, you know, just catching up. We haven't we haven't seen each other.
25:33
Now that I'm on the West Coast, man, I'm [ __ ] I'm I'm coming. All right. Um,
25:39
I've hosted like BC1 events for Red Bull. I've hosted just the Boo recently.
25:45
I hosted the uh dance your style world finals um here in LA and I and y'all
25:50
know I've been doing this for years hosting King Tech and I always put B boys in our music videos on purpose
25:57
intentionally right we've always had B boys you know we're about to honor Prince Ken Swift you know December 14th right and
26:05
so we're going to we're going to continue to do that B boy Ronnie him and I hosted something overseas it was one of
26:12
his first hosting gigs Yeah. Yeah. He told me he told me you put him on. He did. Yeah. He said that.
26:17
Yeah. He said that. He's like, "Dude, he help gave me points and like trained me." And he said that. Yeah. He said that.
26:22
I mean, look at where I mean, even with Ronnie, like he he was uh hosting um uh
26:28
the Olympics. Damn. Yeah. Ronnie hosted the Olympics, right? And he and he said I was the one I was
26:34
the sensei. Like you you put you put him on game. Yeah. That's what's up. Let's go. No, I wanted him to uh And see, that's the exchange,
26:42
right? Okay. I'm over in this space hosting. Turn out that decades later I'm doing all this stuff on TV and radio.
26:48
Yeah. Ooh, Ronnie, let me keep give you this game. Absolutely. You know, that's like showing you a move, right? Like we going through a
26:54
move. Yeah. But what I've seen though and and and this is not a knock.
27:00
But there are a ton of really good dancers
27:05
out there, right? Um but they're not fully developed in my
27:11
opinion. the time that we came through uh came up in was also like you know the
27:17
foundation knowing that was really a big deal to all of us coming up you know like you said it's like if I'm going to
27:24
do some popping then I want to make sure I understand the vocabulary of that that genre or you know whether it be breakin
27:30
or housing or whatever party dances or whatnot. Um, but then you know, you look at what's going on right now and how
27:37
people are consuming knowledge dance-wise. It's like through social media and that's not necessarily like a
27:43
oneon-one and we didn't necessarily get one-on- ones, but there was al there was people in the community that had the
27:50
information that could share it that that that you know in person type of thing. But, you know, these days, you
27:56
know, you got people learning dancing from Tik Tok and and social media, which is not bad because ultimately they're
28:03
dancing, which is dope. They're they're expressing themselves, but it's what you're seeing. I I have a theory is that
28:10
what you're seeing is kind of like that lack of a a defined foundation of what
28:15
people are pulling from. Cuz like for me, I'm pulling from the old school. I'm pulling from the OG's, from like Mr.
28:21
wiggles like you know watching his footage like on videotape hours and
28:26
hours and watching how he moves and just like wow that's crazy popping Pete Electric Bugaloo like those are my
28:32
influences I mean even just rhythm bugs when raining was rhythm bugs before we even knew who he was watching him
28:38
getting down like dang man that's so sick how he did so that's how we consumed it and and there was like but
28:44
he was also reflecting foundation some of these kids out here is teaching classes and don't even have foundation
28:51
to teach like what did you really teach? I mean, you're teaching creativity, which is good. Like you said, it's not a knock.
28:56
It's just you can see the difference coming from where we come from. It's like, yeah, we using organic
29:02
products, but y'all are using what is that? There's something not organic about that. Yeah, I can add to that.
29:08
But they're just they're just pulling from what's available though. You can't knock it for cuz that's that's what's available. Our OGs are far removed from
29:16
the dance scene. So, they can't even tell. We got Wiggles that's still traveling around and Pop and Pete, he's
29:21
still they're still doing that, right? Um but like compared to what we had access to back in the day,
29:27
it's not that anymore. Yeah, exactly. Also, I also I'm been thinking about this too cuz as soon as you asked me
29:33
that question, I was like, what is it? What is it? And um it's the foundation, but also I'm also
29:39
thinking like everyone has their social media. Everyone's trying to gain their own style and and kind of make their
29:44
mark and be different. Mhm. Um they're missing the foundation, but also Gary um he instilled in us this
29:51
kind of like Pokemon theory or like philosophy where we're just like, "Hey, yeah, we're
29:57
getting foundation, but we're also like trying to collect them all." Yeah. Okay. We're trying to collect them all. Like
30:02
all dance moves, all dance styles, all dance, anything, movement, we were trying to collect.
30:08
Okay. And so, and so that was our foundation on top of foundation. Right. Yeah. It was running. So there people are missing that I think and
30:14
rushing to the Tik Toks and it's cool everyone's dancing but you're missing the or maybe not. Maybe there's just us that
30:21
we were like okay maybe we're the Pokemon collectors and you guys are just kind of staying in one lane or two lanes
30:26
or you know what I'm saying? That's an interesting and easy access too. I think everything is real it's easy access now. Like even
30:32
when I think about coming up in my days, like I remember in order to figure out what's going on in the underground hip hop
30:39
scene, I would literally from Marietta would drive all the way to Sunset to go to Workman's Outlet to get every flyer
30:45
that I could get to really, you know, like, oh yeah, um, you know, Beat Junkies are spinning here. Oh, there's
30:51
this event. Oh, there's Radiotron. Oh, there's B Boy Summit. And there was only like a handful. Now, I remember events
30:57
back then there was only a handful. Dance events was like maybe four a year. Yeah. Now there's like a million
31:02
everywhere you go. You know what I mean? You could find it. It's everything's easy access even from, you know, nowadays people don't have to go to take
31:10
the workshop from your elders or from your OGs. You could just find it on YouTube. Yeah. You could just find now you could just
31:16
find it on Instagram. You could just find it on Tik Tok. And just like what Joe was saying, now everything is just short access like, "Oh, I like that
31:22
move. I'm going to do that move. I like this dance. I'm going to do that dance." Half of the younger dancers when you ask them where do you know where that dance
31:28
came from? You're like, "Yeah, it came from Tik Tok." Yeah. Well, do you know why why it's called
31:34
the Fresno? Do you know why you're popping? Do you know who what the who the Electric Bugaloos are?
31:39
Nah, I just saw this one guy do it and I thought it was cool, so I just started doing it, you know? So, it's it's different now, which I feel like they're
31:46
getting the cool stuff. It's even happening in the Bway community, too, where it's like, you know, you see the coolest moves that are in style right
31:52
now. So, every competition is starting to look like that. and in all styles everybody now just wants to look
31:59
extremely different you know I don't like and do you understand what popping is do
32:04
you understand I kind of but I just want to be different so let me move differently and so and I think that's
32:10
why you that's why sometimes even for us and maybe it's us being older too when you hear people cheering for
32:15
something sometimes you're like but why wait wait wait what did they do that's what
32:20
wait what just happened easy that's crazy you know where you have to talk to a
32:25
younger person be like, "Hey, what was that?" Like, "How come they cheer?" "Well, you know," and then they call you, right? "You know, it's because they
32:31
did this move and they did this and that's popular on TikTok. 67 that's on Tik Tok." They're like, "Oh, I I guess I kind of get it, but
32:38
okay, cool." You know, you don't get it. Don't get straight up. Straight up.
32:43
All right, man. Uh, we got the Jabawalkies here. Cynthia's on the line from Cincinnati. What up, Cynthia? Hey,
32:48
Cynthia. We got a question. Hey, S. Hey,
32:54
what's up, S? What's on your mind? What What's going on? I I I seen you all
32:59
in August when we came out to Las Vegas. My husband and I pulled me out the
33:05
audience and I danced with you. Let's go. Yeah, we got down, honey.
33:13
There you go. She's a part of the crew. Y you a Jaba walking now. part of the
33:19
group. Oh, it was awesome. How was the show? How was the show? It was the best show. Best
33:25
Oh, man. Thank you. That's Thank you so much. And and and my husband bought a lot of things out of
33:31
the store. So, thank you. A Thank you for supporting us.
33:37
Sure. And that's why we do it, man. Right there. Right there. Right. That's it. Right there.
33:43
Cynthia, you a citizen in a Jaba walking. There we go. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yes.
33:48
All right, Tracy, you you want to jump in? Yeah, I got to, man. Because let me tell y'all, in the early 2000s, I know we
33:55
have Baboo here from the Beat Junkies. I was an MTV junkie. Very heavy in the
34:00
early 2000s. That's true. And there were three main stays that I was drawn to. One you're sitting across
34:07
from and next to Sway Callaway, CRL, and then also a little show called
34:13
America's Best Dance Crew. And I remember in 2008 for that inaugural
34:19
season and I was like, yo, who the hell are the Jabawakis? Because y'all on that
34:26
stage just were so dynamic and precise, but there was this like mystery and you
34:32
guys were so hypnotic and I just I fell in love and I followed you guys ever since. So, it's so beautiful to have you
34:38
on the show. It's a really crazy moment going on for like my inner adolescent
34:44
right now with Sway and the Jabawakis. Yo, imagine if Heather was here today.
34:49
It was a whole MTV. Oh yeah, that's what's up. I grew up Yeah, we grew up watching Heather, too.
34:56
Absolutely. And you know what Sway was saying about the mask obviously having
35:01
been so iconic. Um, but they also remove individuality. And it's funny because it
35:07
ties into the kind of um evolution of dance that we're speaking about right now and how a lot of the kids just want
35:14
to do anything anything to stand out and build their personal brands. With y'all
35:20
with the mask, how would you how do you each express your personal identity
35:28
through the animity that comes with the mask? And what kind of power would you
35:33
guys say exists in moving as one versus standing out solo?
35:42
Shoot. That was a really good question. That was a good question. The second part of that moving as a unit as opposed
35:48
to one. And I guess this for me would wrap it up like I guess give you a good
35:53
idea of where I'm coming from. It's like it's that saying and I'm going to paraphrase where it's like you can get
36:01
so far by going alone but you get further when you're with other people right and and there is this definite uh
36:09
value in team that we place uh our identities when it comes to the dances
36:16
it's never been something where we needed we felt like we needed to be upfront or whatever we we took the
36:24
backseat for music and movement, for the culture, for the art, because that was more important showcasing that than who
36:32
we were individually. And so, and it and it worked for us, right? It it it it
36:37
worked. Like, you I can only do so much. You're going to There's been times where, you know, you surf the web and
36:42
you're looking at all these dance uh videos. You know, you might find your favorite person and you're watching them
36:48
video after video after video and then after a while you be like, "Yo, I seen him do that move like the last video or
36:54
you can only do so much as one person, but together you have an infinite amount of movement that you have access to. And
37:01
so that's just been our strength. So to answer that second question, yeah, like the there's definitely strength in
37:08
the collective when it comes to what we're doing and our personalities, we we never needed to be in the front. Anytime
37:15
someone tried to be in front of the mask by divine like movement, that person's
37:20
been removed. So, we kind of like, you know what? I'll just play the back seat because this is what this this that's
37:27
the most important part of what we do. It's bigger than us. The mask removed him though. The mask removed him.
37:32
Yeah. It wasn't it wasn't it was it I want to say it was the most high like real like you know how when like you know you see some things it's
37:39
just okay that's crazy how that worked out or that's crazy how this it was nothing that we really did and like I
37:45
said anytime someone tried to move in front of the mask they just by divine alignment they took him out and it was
37:50
just like yo yo you just go and stay line that sound like a good good story line for a horror
37:58
film yo Oh, the way you said that.
38:03
Yeah. It's just like we're cursed. We can't take the mask off, man. We going to die. Jabawakis are here. I'm going to keep
38:09
repeating. They're at the MGM Grand. The new show is called Frequency. Mike Muse, you want to jump in?
38:15
Yeah. I kind of want to pick up where we were kind of ending. Well, where we left the conversation off uh regarding
38:21
looking at the Tik Tok dances and looking at all the other things. I feel like every dance troop and I'm
38:26
thinking about legacy dance companies. I don't want to name names names but legacy dance companies are also too wrestling with this idea of
38:34
incorporating contemporary and modern versus what is their traditional cannon that they're used to presenting in front
38:40
of the world. How are you guys actually reconciling that?
38:45
Like like staying foundation but also uh being relevant. Is that condent what you're saying? Yeah. I mean
38:52
you guys I mean yeah I think about it this way when I mean we've been doing that since 2003. So even when within the dance
38:58
community, everybody was dancing to of course like a lot of the most popular music at the time. When we started the
39:04
crew in 2003, we wanted to do something that was just totally different from what everybody else. So a lot of the
39:09
music that we got was in a sense kind of contemporary. It was a little bit different. We danced to Principles of Lust at the time. One of our mixes, we
39:16
danced to Fallen by Blink 182, which was very melodic. We danced to uh a lot of DJ Shadow stuff because the beats were
39:23
so like like heavy heavy that you and so solid that we wanted to see people understand the
39:29
music and movement which is the reason why we covered our faces too because you're more focusing not just the individual you're focusing on what the m
39:35
what's happening with the music within our movement and how we're doing that. And so through that a lot of our
39:41
movements because of that music ended up becoming a little bit more contemporary at the time. it ended up becoming a little bit more um you know like out of
39:48
the box out of the box more modern type of type of styles which I think that's the reason why even a lot of modern and
39:53
contemporary dancers at that time even showed us a little bit more respect because they're like man you guys are kind of stepping out of the box of
39:59
hip-hop and hip-hop heads were like yo you guys are still staying true to the music so I felt like since 2003 and on
40:05
we kind of stayed within that flow just like what Joe was saying oh you know we're just catching a bunch of different
40:10
styles catching and then not even styles in um uh dance but also and different uh
40:15
uh styles in art, you know, and comedy, you know, from Bruce Lee to Charlie Chapel.
40:23
Yeah. The Hollywood. So, I I really feel like um you know, we've been doing that as far as trying
40:28
to, you know, blend the two, I guess you could say. Even within our show, there's a lot of comedic moments in our show.
40:34
There's a lot of moments where it it kind of breaks out of uh not necessarily breaking out a hip-hop movement, but
40:39
it's just it's different because you flow with whatever music you're playing. If you're playing Frank Sinatra, Fly Me
40:45
to the Moon, you know, I'm not going to pop during Fly Me to the Moon. I'm going to add certain type of jazz movements, certain type of like tap movements, all
40:52
this type of stuff that could filter into what we do with Jabawakis. I think that's what we kind of uh made our style
40:58
in that way. It's a like Bruce Lee, it's a we call it Jabify. Jabify Jabify those things.
41:03
And even like with with the with the Tik Tok dance or something that's more relevant on social media, we will run it
41:09
through that Jabawaki filter. we have a part of this new generation are people
41:15
that understand those dances. So, it's not um disingenuous. It's like it's like
41:21
they're really doing it. You know what I mean? We probably won't be able to execute it that way, but there is a job
41:28
that can look authentic in that space. And you know, there's uh just one thing that Uncle Snoop said. He said being in
41:34
the way and out the way. And I think you understand what you're good at and then
41:40
see what people like or what's relevant and just find maybe a way to have an
41:46
identity in that new thing. You know what I mean? Without it feeling like it's not authentic or it's just I'm just
41:53
trying to catch a train just because, you know, but it's just like, okay, I'm I'm one of the OGs. Let me try that
41:59
dance. But, you know, just even an attempt and and just the the background that we have, like everything that we're
42:05
doing, we're running it through that foundation that we grew up with. Like I said, popping breaking. Even if it is
42:10
like the woe or like dabbing or whatever, it's going to have that filter to it. So,
42:16
y'all make it look flyed old man. We jabbify it. So, I guess I'm not sure if that answer your question, but
42:21
ultimately that's how we reconcile it is that we just take whatever it is and we jabbify it. No, you didn't answer it. You got to run
42:27
with that. Thank you. Every company is experiencing this conversation right now. Yes.
42:33
Everyone, right? And you guys have done really well placing yourself in the right spaces,
42:39
which is important when you have this kind of visibility. When we brought up Shaq, we bring up Dave Chappelle, right?
42:46
You know, these people who who are the greatest at what they do. One of the moments I enjoyed most is when y'all got
42:52
with Kais. Oh, bro. That was funny. Yo, that would look that cuz his crew they they're dancers, right? Like them
42:59
boy them boys dance dance dance, right? Did Laura do that? Who hooked that up? Yeah. What was your name there?
43:04
Nick. No, it was Nick. Okay. Okay. Nick was our our manager. Yes. Okay. Were y'all familiar with Kai? What
43:11
was that? Was you surprised by the the the dance that they could actually dance? Well, no. I mean, I had to get educated
43:18
on on Kai. I wasn't tapped in. I will admit. Um my my children showed me like
43:23
my yo was like yo kas is a big deal. Then I started watching them and I'm like this dude is like genuine. You know
43:28
what I mean? He's mad cool. But uh yeah they got moves. They didn't Everybody thinks like oh man job walkies is so
43:34
hard. We're not really doing anything that's that complicated. We're just interpreting the music a certain way and
43:40
we're running it through our f dance foundation or whatever. Right. So when we got to the point of the fellowship
43:46
with him and uh you know they were wanting to do some dance especially this last one that we did he was thinking I
43:52
can't do it I can't do it. I was like well what do you got? And he showed us and he pulled up. I was like bro you got white boy you trying to make it look
43:58
like you didn't know what you was doing but you would know what you was doing. I can't do jaw. I was like bro you doing jabba walkies. Trust me bro. As long as
44:05
you stay true to what you doing and you do it like 100 then that's jabba walkies. You know
44:10
what I mean? That's jaifying. But they his team building does they got moves. They got moves. I like those dudes. Um
44:15
and then you guys did the Timberland video, right? Yes, sir. Yeah. And shout out Timberland and the OG
44:21
for his AI artist. Yes, sir. You hear that, Mike? They did the Timberland video for the AI artist, you
44:27
know, which means I just played a AI, you know, generated promo that King Tag
44:32
produced for our December the 14th event. We're finding ways to embrace the technology
44:38
that works for us, right? Is that how y'all feel about it? Absolutely. Absolutely. Did you do you
44:43
any of you guys wanted to talk on that? I mean, for me, it's a tool. It just helps uh get me to my creative
44:49
destination faster or or in a different way or in a way that I didn't think, you know, and so it's it's a it's a great
44:56
tool for me. Okay. Hey, man. I want to say now what what's this guy doing? Who's this guy writing? This guy walk right here, man.
45:02
What's going on, dude? Just talking to M for the vibes, man. It's for the vibes. What's going on? It's just for the vibes.
45:08
That's the homie. You know, you want to pull up and hang out, bro? You got somebody right here.
45:14
We're not used to the faces, so we got to we got to bring him. He's our card. You know, they're like, "Who are you guys?"
45:19
People don't know who we are. So, y'all can't even get in. Y'all can't even get free candy, huh? We need him actually.
45:27
Yo, I want to thank you all, man. You guys are more than welcome. Let's keep doing Let's keep talking.
45:34
Keep coming to see us. Yes, sir. I'm tremendously proud of you all, man.
45:40
Thank you. Just like DJ Baboo, sir. Right. And the Beat Junkies, the Jaba
45:45
Walkies, what you know what King Tech and I have done and my crew here with Sway in the morning. We've been
45:51
authentically ourselves. And this is why we've been able to sustain and transcend
45:56
through generations. We are who we are no matter what year it is. And with the attitude and energy we have, we're going
46:03
to figure out who we are tomorrow like we did today. Right. Okay. So, I want to say thank
46:09
you, Fee. Give this man a round of applause. Punky, what up, man? Come on,
46:15
man. Raining, come on, man. KB, I love Laura. Uh, the Jabawi.
46:22
All right. There we go. There you go. If they want to reach Jabbais, how can they do it? They want to get tickets, go to
46:28
MGM Grand in Vegas. MGM, you go www.jbwkz.com
46:33
or Jabawakis, you know, on all socials. Uh, mgm.com.
46:39
Um, yeah, you can just pick up some tickets from there. Okay. If you know Sway, just let just let us
46:44
know. You know Sway. Yeah. Sway knows a guy that knows a guy. You know somebody that knows somebody. All right. All
46:50
right.
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