0:00 [Music] welcome back to another Mike song episode of Mike song on Mike song Mike song Mike song Can You Feel The Brand when you hear your name feel what brand yeah the household name Mike Mike song is a household name dude Mike song is you know do you know I had a dream about you before I met you tell me about it it was just naked right it was like I feel like I was in Glendale for some reason and I was eating dinner and I look over and I was like holy ████ that's Mike song I remember thinking that and then I was like that's the guy Anthony always hangs out with and I was like that's crazy and then that was the end of the dream so that's pretty cool now you can go on with your life like it never somehow energy like entered my brain that was before I and I was like I'm going to start taking Jiu-Jitsu lessons but it is
0:50 crazy cuz this dude just ended up at the gym and you told me you were like oh he's going to start training jiujitsu I was like yeah ████ right cuz you know when people tell me they're going to come train and it's like a cliche it's like yeah okay after you stay like a couple months then I'll believe you're going to stay right wow you're one of those guys this guy showed up and I was like holy ████ Mike song's really about this life and he really does Jutsu every ████ yeah man he got hurt over you dude he got hurt for he hurt his neck you ████ up his neck no he didn't do it I didn't do it he ordered it though yeah I was like ████ is he ordered the hit he's all make Mike feel a little something Nick's a good jiit a teacher oh he's great he's my coach like I'll be rolling with him and then like I'm just doing the dumbest ████ and you're just like just do that man I'm like okay sorry yeah I stutter in my instructions a lot to does that make sense I don't know what I'm doing there
1:40 but I just feel fun hey I got a question for you Mike cuz like I feel like you're one of the first people from like our circle of dance friends that um when when cabba modern was on ABDC and became Superstars how did it how did it really feel for you yeah to be able to walk around and have people be like That's Mike it's interesting you say that because when I think the first of like dance TV shows I think of you and so you think you can dance really you think of me for that 100% I do think of you you were on TV before them yeah season one of so you and dance was before yeah that was before ABDC 06 is yeah 05 yeah got two OG Legends I was riding their cail so I just feel lucky but we got ████ like OG TV dance Superstar people in the room
2:33 right television when it used to mean something hey clap yourself yeah when there was something there but that was the not to deflect but truly like the first D big dance television show there's like a bunch of little ones like Wade rosson project and all that oh yeah dance 360 yeah but the big one was So You Think You Can Dance clearly there's like season 100 right now and yeah but season one was like we had heard of you as the B boy but seeing you it was like the icon I was you already killed it but it was when you salsa one suddenly we're like what this B boy is like doing salsa like hair is all different you had the spiky hair but for that one it was he did a salsa joint he was hitting it he was hitting the steps and watch on YouTube yeah I'm sure it's on you knew him before that right through the scene yeah of school uh just through the dance
3:23 gone yet I had no idea So You Think You Can Dance was before just come to I went to like helaba parties events oh wow prior to me on so you think yeah so we were like just like acquaintances and then through Victor we knew each other right right right but it was like the big thing for the D Dance Community when I was like yo Ryan is ████ on so dance right now that's a ████ big deal so yeah like how did it feel for you this guy's good I don't know dude I just wanted to do more Community shows as soon as I got out I was so excited to have found like the dance community and it was right before that so like you remember we went straight back to doing six-step show czy you know what I mean like I didn't look at it like now I'm here I was just like I want to get back to having fun and we just we thought maybe it'll help us get more gigs as a team but then when Cabo was on that felt
4:14 like this the thing that everyone knew was always so good cuz I was watching cabba live like uh many years before I was on TV so then I it's like a thing that everybody always knew it's a matter of time before like this really blows up but how is it going to do it and then once the whole world once people are telling me about cabba that was a different thing was what the ████ dude Nick's never seen I've never seen this bro you want to see the real me who is your dance partner you're hitting it like your ████ that's your natural dance style she's also a um she's like a jazz oh ████ jazz dancer that she I was partnered up with mindblowing for the dance Community because this is insane at that time he had crazy hair too he only had like your crazy long spikes so
5:06 this was just a that was the whole point of the the show right it was make all these dancers like do different styles it used to be the point the point was to be a fish out of water and like bro look at this ████ killing but you're doing hard ████ though I don't know it you're wearing heels bro what the ████ I'm wearing heels yeah that's hard and like yeah my whole crew is back there six step was all back there dude the have to resist the urge of spitting on your head yeah no I was actually glad I didn't have to for once yeah but then I think that's what was really cool was I wait wait this move that was a good moment I just cut that move right here dude wait for it wait for it oh my yeah yeah holy ████ replay it two times I want to see that again dude it
5:58 really was though that was cra that's crazy doing that that is big fcking that was kind of like that was game Chang for the scene it was still like only dance Community really knew the context out of all the performances you did on So You Think like what was the biggest reaction you got was it this one it had to be right yeah no I still think the ████ the sweater head yeah yeah the elimination elimination solo my solos probably were like a poison yeah cuz that was more exactly me but then this was like I guess to show that I like the stereotype was that if you were a b boy then you were just kind of like a a onetick pony you're a waste like do the other and then you can't do nothing and then it ends there but I think for that like everyone was like oh we can hire B boys for other ████ and like it's kind of kind of works yeah so it felt like a win I felt the same thing where like I
6:49 still felt like I belonged to the community like really hardcore so like when when uh you know like I remember pack modern people were in the audience like people that were from our like scene were there so it felt like doing that when I came I just wanted to come back to the scene hella bad I feel that like I feel like when we did uh America's Best Dance Crew it it felt like such a microcosm show did you guys do season one we did season one yeah season one and like you know we heard all sorts of crazy ████ like um like we had like one of our mutual friends had like some aunt that was like an exec at MTV and she was telling us that like they they weren't anticipating so many Asians being good right and they literally said in the room like Asians are not cute like like cuz they they wanted to get so many Asian teams like they were clearly the best but at that time they weren't ready for that which is truly like now we're in this
7:39 generation where like Asians Just Dance but like at that time it was not soccer yeah like wait where's all the was tripping out cuz I've never seen I didn't know anything about dance crews or nothing I didn't know what the ████ a b boy was and every Dance Crew had Asians in them I'm like what the that's the most normal thing it almost looks like like season five and that they were forcing other groups and Crews to come that clearly weren't up to bar with everybody I me they were just making up Crews by then people were just like you want to make a crew for this TV show totally but then season one those are people that been together forever like yeah that first there was like this moment where um like they after the first round of auditions the second round was put everyone in a small ass studio and it was all the crews and we had to like learn this combo and they're like we're going to give you 20 minutes to like change the Coro like your crew style like make your
8:30 and so everyone's just ████ working on ████ in this small ass room together do you remember that I was there with you guys that ████ was crazy okay so you we were there we auditioned season one oh so that's the other totally so Quest Crew was there too and Quest Crew was like the very last like they were going to be on season one with us but we couldn't we couldn't do it yeah cuz you're So You Think You Can Dance contracts but we were there that's right and that okay Legend and that room was insane that room was like the that was like craziest yeah cuz everyone like no one will ever see that but it was was like all the people like you got to see everyone in 20 minutes what can you ████ do with your crew to change what this like choreographer gave you and like you know people like I'm sure Quest Crew like took the the huddles and we just like all right and you got to see like B boy Cru be like all right instead of this slide here we're going to ████ head slide here and for us we're like we're going
9:20 to ████ make that clean you know just like our ████ we'll like switch everything and then Jaba was there too and it was just like all stars and everyone give each other props there's people that you never saw that were like Idols to us that we have we have to go up against in that room so it's like someone that I haven't even seen in person ever yeah that I've only seen as a legend on a videotape is in there also doing the same thing as me and I'm like oh ████ do you guys ever drive by the um Jabba show and go that could have been me I mean they're like the kings of ABDC like they won and then they got a show they are definitely like the example and then like no one else got a show for sure they have like the per like they have the perfect formula I won't boil it
10:10 down to one thing but the formula for the brand is just so intelligent yeah they at the luxur yeah but even without that I don't really care what they did after they're still the kings of that like 100% cuz before the scene even before when they weren't jabas like and they were on their respective teams like we were all fans of them in the scene right like they were like the ogs of our scene as well in the Coro community and like mixture of freestyle Community also felt like people were so disappointed cuz they'll see Jaba right oh damn these guys are like really hip-hop and then they take off their masks and it's the Asian person it's like what but that's why it's the perfect brand cuz it's just like it's not it's colorless for yeah yeah there was something so cool about that where's the black people I feel like Chinese seeing seeing
11:02 Caba modern like finally become I guess like a pretty much a global household name was a proud moment for me because I it's like that thing where it's a secret that everything in the scene was our secret it was like oh we know where all the best people are and you have to come here to see it and then now it's like people are like hey you seen that crew cop of Moder it's like ████ yes been saying that something I loved about that time was um like I feel like so many teams from Community including Quest Crew just came in and started like whooping on that show right and what what I loved about that not to disrespect any of Crews is that is that the show's formula I feel like there's so many ill Crews it's like it's hard to say who's the best dancer it's like music you don't say that's the best ████ musicians in the world there's so many ill dancers but it just ends up being the format of that show favors a
11:54 certain type of specialty so you had some Crews from like New York like bone Breakers who are like n nasty and if it was like a bone breaking battle freestyle battle we would get destroyed but the format of whoever wrote the show was like this is for choreography Crews who know how to make routines really quick and make it clear and digest like that it was like functioning for that and that just happened to service the SoCal Asian Collegiate scene where we're all really good at that specific thing a show coordination that's maybe not visible to everybody and you don't know why our show is better than the next guy and it probably shouldn't be when you break down the skills but it is because of behind the scenes how you arrange every moment the way that I viewed it was like the same thing I saw in like the drum line world yeah I'm like black drummers are hella good by themselves
12:46 but they cannot work together Asians I'm like dude if it's like oneon-one I don't know if one Asian dancer could smoke the black dancer but if you want to get people to work together the Asians are going to come to together whoop everybody that's what I noticed and that's why it's choreography where Asians dominant cuz choreography essentially is Ensemble teamwork like that's dance M yeah yeah yeah if you get like it's the ancient DNA we got synchronizing the ████ rice Patty pickup that ████ turned into ████ trying to match you imagine you had like five pairs of lay twins I don't even know if they they would be that clean together much that's people whatever five pairs of ████ 10 Asians dude they'll be ████
13:36 clean I'm curious what did it feel like once you started going on tour as Caba Moder and then you're just all over the world yeah it was um it was super fun man like I remember I'll always remember like we were in our microcosm just focused on the show and then we were just so like we felt like we got jipped when we lost and we're just like Dad and we're like anyways we you got number two though uh no we got number three oh who was after Jabba exactly but what we heard I always thought you guys got number mat two yeah it's because there's like uh and then we heard from behind the scenes later I never tell the story cuz I don't want to sound bitter but it's just the literal stories that we hey I'll say it if you don't want to say it oh sure I mean I could say it now I don't really care it's just like truly they wanted like we were both the la Asian Crews and they were like no and
14:26 there was like a black crew from the East Coast to again I don't think they were the best representation of the East Coast at all there are so many other better Crews than them but they just happened to not have a good East Coast crew but they were like this is not going to fly we can't have two Asian no one's going to watch like a bunch of Asians on a show like these are the literal conversations and so they they organized it where there was like all sorts of crazy Stu that people don't know that like they changed our music like the day before and they tried to sabotage and ████ all sorts of like and you still came up on top and and so they they made it where they're like the bottom two vote getters are jabawaki and Caba modern and everyone was like what they're the top just so that there's no way that they could have got eliminated right wow and it was just so unbelievable to everyone yeah so it was just literally so that we had to go again anyways so we the only reason I'm sharing that is cuz like we were in our
15:16 like microcosm of like man ████ the show blah blah blah and then when we go back to UCI like we go to like the Irvine dmbs and I feel like that was like our first like public outing and we were just like yeah let's just drink with the homies I hella remember this blew my ████ mind I was at that dmbs and remember we were watching like the game real quick the second we walked in people were watching the game and then somebody comes up and they're like yo are you my song from CBO modern I watch and I'm standing there and I'm like I'm just shrinking slowly this is crazy but it was like that was like one of a million times it was going to happen from that point on and I was like this is ████ that was the first time I feel like something about that timing though was interesting that maybe it'll never happen again was like on the cust of smartphones and ████ I only for season one I don't know if they did it for season 2 but still smartphones you
16:08 know people start have blackberries it's like sidekick era you know and so at that time all the contestants we had to give our phones to production for the week so we're not like really connecting and so we literally just would go to the production to be able to use our phones really in a microphone yeah so we're very like not knowing how like people are receiving this there no no social media blowup version at all we're just giving our phones back so when we were done it was like the people are watching this ████ what the ████ yeah yeah it was a and and like also funny enough like during the time that cabba was going on tour and all this stuff I was already living with you so I got to see you like come in and out and everything I was just like wow that's so cool yeah it was like we started going on our like Asian Club tours and this is when like at
16:58 least 21 old me didn't realize that there's all these like the Asian club promoter scene we're just like just partying and seeing the Asian microcosms of every city of like oh snap did somebody watch you and they they touched your pee pee cuz they liked watching your dancing these are the important questions I think uh that was the last Act of this I think Lawrence got his bare ass grabbed once because he used to you know Lawrence Cal and if you know thing about Lawrence Cal College he didn't he didn't wear underwear like it's just whatever and his ass would always hang out sometimes like his ass and we're just coincidentally performing at a gay club yeah and and dudes were're like reaching for his bare ass that's not the kind of groupy I
17:49 want that's not the kind of groupy I want through the Asian club shows is when I also realize I'm like dude our organization is like everywhere cuz like we would do shows right and then like we are like JK films JK news fan base is Multicultural oh hey ████ you're ████ here damn F I didn't know you going to do show here D how we going to get you I'm like oh dude we got brought out here by like korean-american Chinese American whatever Association I'm like the the Latin Association whatever you know bring us out like oh man we don't ████ organize like that I was like I would see like dude this whole like YouTube era it was like a perfect storm of like organization on all ends and it became this giant tour cuz all of our other friends that were other ethnicities in YouTube no one had that
18:39 circuit there was no like white YouTuber circuit or Latin or black YouTube circuit it was just like a perfect storm across the board it was crazy that's true we were talking about this earlier cuz when Eric was sitting here about like that moment that you know you basically didn't want to do a regular job and wanted to like you know find something else and now I was just sitting over there and I was referencing that you know not only did I get laid off uh from inclusive at the time but I had you in my life right next to me like doing this dance thing for living under like your name and it was the craziest concept but it was like that's what gives you the belief cuz if you see somebody else do it you're like oh it's possible but before like Cabo was doing it you know or just that era like even Ryan going on stage and doing what he did like it was just so like possible
19:29 for especially for Asians too to just be doing that type of stuff you know what I'm saying so it's like it was that perfect storm also I think like was the it wasn't just them doing it it's because they did it they like pulled the whole ████ Community with them afterwards in the next few generations and then other people surpass you and you're like hold on wait I brought you up you're like you bring me to Joe's bringing out his past traumas that really is like probably the one of the proudest qual ities I think like like I always carried that with me that like even if I don't accomplish anything past this like when I was Fresh offic So You Think I'm like to have helped with a positive stereotype for Asians is enough for me like I'm like that's tight but then they're getting laid not you oh I was getting [Laughter]
20:20 laid sex sex ha sex H that's the right answer [Music]
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