0:00 [Music] and welcome back to JK out of the clauset today we have Ryan wow wow exciting thanks man uh today we're talking about how you did City Drifters and six step sounds so weird to hear you say my first cruise how am I how do I what does that mean no it just it just sounds like a freaking one of these moments yeah it does Ste fed up with the dancer ████ it's hilarious AK dude hip-hop uh yeah this was um I guess like I would I still would look at this as the first lifechanging uh thing that I went through was uh discovering dance which you're going to ████ love but it's it's not so much like just be
0:51 supportive Steve I am I love this guy it's not so much discovering dances it is discovering a better sense of self and like self-esteem and stuff trying to make him throw up all right so I guess like for context most of my life like uh leading up to becoming a dancer I was super used to having like low self-esteem like really low like I would just put myself beneath everybody all the time and for people to like see me punking someone or bullying somebody that's because I think come below them like it's it's a response that you do when you just think you're like always lesser than everybody and I would just be used to that why did you have such low selfish I don't know I have no idea why iard it's genetic yeah I don't know I maybe just like the way I was raised I think it's because like in my family like academics
1:42 is the only thing that mattered and then uh I just wasn't doing as well my second year of high school as I like thought I would do and so like if I wasn't getting like good grades and basically that was just like filant life so then I always looked at myself like damn I'm I ████ my future cuz I got a d in algebra or something R do something stupid how stupid you stupid hi Ryan my favorite student 4.3 GPA guys don't say that in front of these people after graduation Ryan when you march down the aisle I will miss having the most intelligent student
2:33 years of teaching all right so the way that I discovered dance is because I failed algebra it's like it's so closely if not like completely correlated to that it's like such a strange coincidence but it all started because in high school uh I did really well in uh I tested well in math to like get into the um I guess or regular high school algebra but then like halfway through the year I was just having trouble with it and then my teacher was like such a dick I I talked about it here before where like um I started making jokes about algebra and we got to that point in algebra where like the equation would say like L equals D over it was all letters variables and then uh I was like saying when is that going to be useful
3:23 like am I going to go to the check out and they'll be like your total comes to X over 5 I was just being a dick and then she was like out and then uh damn over that yeah over that um and then she she made it so that she told the principal that like if he wants to be an algebra then he's got to go to another school cuz I'm not going to teach that guy anymore so she basically that that school didn't have enough algebra teachers so like there's nowhere else I can take algebra in that high school so because of that I got sent to Don Bosco Tech which was like nearby but I would have to go there in the summer to do my math cuz she wasn't going to teach math to me so you would go to that school for one class I would go to that school for one class yeah just in the summer but then uh in uh I guess like in high school this maybe like was my freshman year I was already kind of uh figuring
4:13 out breaking I was just kind of like doing it for fun but everybody that I knew uh was just making fun of me about breaking because with breaking unlike most other dances when you're bad at it it looks really funny [Music] obviously we all the world knows that now that's the fact it's not like other dances where if you're learning like even cultural dancing you don't look stupid you just you know you could just be better but breaking you look horrible so for a year straight all my friends are just making fun of me about it saying that was I was never gonna be good at it like but it's kind of like a joke with your homies were like they just look at you like an idiot for doing
5:06 it stupid ass and so I was just used to that was this during the San Gabriel date when yeah San Gabriel Academy so this is like 1997 and then 98 once it turned 98 I had to go to Don Bosco Tech that's when I met other B boys for the first time like in the same I guess like phase as me where we're just kind of figuring it out and I noticed I wasn't really that bad I was like oh dude I'm not like the worst one here and then I made friends with these guys and we started our very first crew together uh and it was called it was actually called Boombastic
6:27 his which is like a really stupid name but there five of us in it and uh uh the other guys they ended up like going different paths later on which is pretty funny but the five of us we would just practice all the time at school like between classes and stuff and then one day somebody's friend was like Hey this local park wants like a group to like perform at this one like Park day would you guys be willing to uh do a little like B Boy show we were like oh my God yeah like it felt like like we made it or something and so like we do this little Park show it's like on a little like tiny ass stage in the park I think it was in Arcadia or something and there's like eight people watching it and then we all like we um you got to bring out the lolium to roll yeah yeah
7:17 we do like this his ████ whack and everything uh and then like afterwards like we were all so emotional with each other we're like dude friends forever I love that ████ yeah like so ████ dumb uh so two of the guys ended up moving to uh moving out of state cuz their family moved cuz this is back when if your mom and dad do something then you're going too yeah so they left uh one of those guys coincidentally ends up being the same guy that I was telling you guys about where I had a friend who would jizz in the vanilla at the ice cream shop oh that guy that's that guy and then um true so you're friends forever with the jizzer yeah well I'm not friends with him anymore but those two guys moved to another state and they ended up joining like a really uh like a really big b boy team that was like really known and then uh just say it dude just say it and then there's
8:07 another I don't want to out this dude and then another guy uh vanilla jiz guy jiz guy and his brother who became like a medical doctor they both like moved to you could probably narrow that down in a dance Community yeah good luck and then the third dude we had this uh black dude named uh Dominic who's now like a really big uh like a DJ he's like a pretty pretty known DJ in Hollywood and then uh the fourth guy was a friend named Mike burn who's like the guy that I started my next crew with called City Drifters City Drifters in the house congratulations City Drifters you guys earned it dude let me see my ass Wily
8:57 Wily we all ripped it everybody and in that crew it was like we had like 10 guys and uh we called it City Drifters because uh we kept getting kicked out at like practice spots cuz like we would practice at Barnes Park or at like like Lobby of some building and they would always be like you guys can't do that here so we would have to like literally switch our whatever City we made up in all the time and then also for some reason all these guys kept moving too so uh that was my first crew all of the battle footage I have of me from like doing real actual B boy battles was with that crew wow and then um basically that's all I did for maybe like two two and a half to three [Applause]
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11:29 that Anthony was like in and everything which is where like they would do these big events and they would have all these like uh big dance teams with like 40 people do these shows and then we would go to those and I would just watch them I didn't know anybody there or anything I only went to uh one called ultimate brawl which was held in uh UCR because one of my friends went to UCR and she was like volunteering at the event and she was like you might like it so then I went out there and then I saw this one team called six step and they had like B Boys in it they had people that looked like they were breaking but then I was like damn these guys are ████ whack dude they suck and then uh what was her name six-step their name was six step and then like I would always just like talk ████ about them and say they were terrible and then uh just so happens
12:20 like one of my friends ended up meeting one of those guys and he was like Hey those those guys are actually pretty cool like you should come practice with them at the session or whatever and and I was like yeah we'll see about that I'll go over there and I'll smoke him like I wanted to like like push him around or some ████ and then uh we get there and they're like the nicest guys and then I remember telling one of them I was like yeah you you know you guys aren't really that good right like I was Dam like that but then like his response was like oh well maybe like if you want to like help us out or join us It'll like we could actually be pretty Co oh that's the worst you guys suck oh maybe you guys you can teach us how to not suck and it's like oh they were like they were just so nice they were just like really good good dudes yeah they were really good dudes so then like d like trash when when they I feel like ████ cuz I think it's a first time that like anyone ever responded that way about like me
13:10 like negging them yeah so uh you thought they were going to you thought they were going to be like what's up fool and you're like let's show down then I really wanted them to be like ████ like me cuz I was like oh that's but it turned around verbal loving yeah it flipped it and then and that that guy was Richie like Richie's just is like a nice really nice dude and uh he was like yeah man we got a show coming up maybe you might want to like like be a part of it somehow like just super friendly and I was like damn I could be on that same stage of like all those people I was watching like that'd be pretty cool and so they uh let me make a section of like a one of their shows and have a solo and then um and I just loved it man I was like this is dope
14:14 [Music] [Applause] make real quick uh and then from there like a couple of other friends like they we we all joined it was like me Aeris and then Hawk also like joined and yeah we were like uh I remembered that there was just like we were used to not winning like we would always be last place and uh but then their whole vibe was like ah we just like to go on there and have fun we're not really trying to win anyway whatever we're not going to we don't have the same formula with the satisfies a criteria to win anyway let's just go out and have fun so like you know that except never was winning yeah uh and then there was this one competition coming up called Vibe and
15:06 that's the competition that Anthony now like he's been hosting and it's a it's it's basically like the big one that everybody wants to win and uh I remember I I had went to this as a spectator one time and I was like damn I would I could never be like good enough to be on the stage and then uh cuz everyone was like super good yeah it was like some we wouldn't even be able to I don't think be approved to even compete we would we were that low but because there was basically like a circuit and there's only a couple that are kind of like the mecca of the the actual scene and so you know different like universities or organizers might throw like different competitions and you get your kind of like B Lev teams to be a part of that but like only like the top tier competitive teams would go to like a couple events so that way the criteria it was harder if you were like
15:56 last place in most regular competitions you weren't invited yeah and I think the only reason that six-step was eligible is because they were just such a token group like they were so like oh it wouldn't be the same if they weren't here you know what I mean like we they were so socially close to everybody that it was like just let them like compete you know it just it felt like that a showrunner too you don't want just like the top scoring ones all the time you also want a good it's a show people got to go to the bathroom I intermission people we knew that that was coming coming up later in the year so we're like let's make a really good uh show and like train it so that by the time like we get to Vibe we actually like can do pretty well so then we were like we made this new show and it was like based off of The Lost Boys from like hook and uh we thought it was
16:46 like so good and then we did our first competition with it called Prelude and we got last place oh ████ and then I remember like we got we had not just last place but we had like our score was very far from the person second to last like we were really like low and I remember reading the ████ scoring sheet and I was like God damn we really ████ suck that bad it was like some guy named Mario or whatever was like one of the judges and he and he had like scored us so ████ low I was like I'm gonna kill this ████ guy you guys think you guys suck or like when you guys are done with their routine are you guys like hey this is tight and then you find out know back then I think when you first start out like cuz like my experience of making real shows is almost zero so we're just doing what we think is cool to us and I at the time I hadn't yet learned how to like present stuff so that everyone would know what you're doing instead of
17:36 just you yeah so uh that first run of that show was like ████ awful and I was like damn we really do suck and then uh we just kept revising it and every time we would take different uh gigs we would change it a little bit to like figure out how to like maximize how it looks and uh just get it would just get better and better by the time Vibe came up I remember Victor was like he's like Victor was like he went to UCI at the time so to Victor that's also like a really big uh event in his own like Community versus Just the Dance World so he was like looking at it like dude like if we if we do well here he's like that's that's like my dream and I was like dude that's my dream too I I used to come to this event and then so uh this was I think this was 2006 056 or
18:26 something I think 06 yeah and then we uh we competed and we got first place wow ████ which is like when you compare that to what happened at Prelude it's like night and day wow completely night and day and uh that changed my life for the first time because I was like dude I think I might have been wrong about like where my value stood as a member of something like cuz even up until that point I just thought I would like I've always looked at myself like a novelty person I've never had a big man on campus moment my entire life I've never had like a celebrated moment in that way uh and I think from that happening it really uh especially because I didn't get to go to college until much later in life so I didn't really have the college experience how old were you when you won that I think I was like like
19:18 203 so do you think cuz you started off saying you had low self-esteem do you think till this point you've always had low self-esteem until you won something yeah I think I really did but that's but it wasn't that I had high self-esteem I just stopped thinking about it and I think that's the key like it wasn't that I was like now I'm ████ cool like I didn't think that I just stopped being concerned about like when like whenever I first shake hands with someone I immediately I'm like a dog that goes below you know what I accepted your like kind of oh it's not even going to work anyway I just realized it just doesn't ████ matter numb it just doesn't matter and no one cares but me so I'm like why the ████ do I care you know it just it kind of like just helped shake my ████ like when you shake a baby like that it was just like they usually die because it was just like it's not it's not important this is important like what you do is more important than
20:08 how you feel about it to me so then like from that moment it just I realized like I started having days where like it it would slit my mind I just wasn't I realized I wasn't thinking anymore about Where I Stood with people and like I wasn't jealous about people all the time I wasn't like every time I met a new person I was instantly finding everything that like about them that I wish I had like oh I wish I looked like this guy I wish I was you know like had this guy's car I wish I had this guy's bike like I was always like envious about him but then from that day I was like I think what I have now is okay and you think that happened because you want a competition you have purpose or something or I think to see that there was value in what I had to offer oh when when they were like if you guys hadn't joined us we wouldn't have experienced
20:58 this was like to see that the timeline changed for the existence of this team because of a decision that that I had made yeah I was like oh ████ it mattered like it actually really like mattered and they were like really cool about it the captain of that team is the same guy that you guys were flaming for the tulsy gabber thing oh dude no way bezler boy yeah yeah but but they they're really like good people it just it didn't end well like for that portion but yeah but but that moment was crazy that moment was like it was like an upset for the community at the time because like these guys have never won any they're just looked at as the class clowns of the day honestly I remember that moment because it really was crazy obviously like I was very close to Victor and so like I was familiar with even who Ryan
21:48 was but if you weren't paying attention you wouldn't pay attention to six step that much they were they were like a dope show to have a performance in a group but like they never won or anything and you always thought that the people who were judging these compet were usually judging the same way so you just expected things to be a certain way and when these guys came through they just like took the whole ████ event like out of nowhere so like people were genuinely like wo so that I think that woke up and changed the culture of like how people perceived entertaining entertainment in that even ecosystem you know what I mean cuz often times it's like Studio dance competitions too it's like there's like this criteria of how you have to do certain things or like what types of styles or like you know what I mean and then you you build your Artistry around trying to win versus representing whatever it is you do I honestly believe that when 6step one
22:38 people started waking up to the idea of like representing yourself versus like doing cuz back then you literally would be like you have to have an intro a boy piece a girls piece a duet a locking piece a breaking piece a popping piece and a closer like it it was formulaic and it was so stupid now that you really look back on it and when they came in and they were like the boys and they were just messing around they were like ripping each other's clothes off or doing crazy explosive tricks and stuff suddenly it was like wait you can just be entertaining you know what I mean as long as you're good you can just be entertaining and honestly that was a huge shift in the culture of like our scene crazy yeah it was like you know those movies those typical films where like a mly crew of idiots makes a baseball team and they ████ suck and then they win the series it was exactly that except I got to see what happens after I'm like oh sh
23:29 like I feel like I could do cooler things now like if it wasn't for that I wouldn't have even you know I wouldn't have had the inclination of like oh I could accomplish something like that like I didn't I just didn't think that and I think uh with that Captain like yeah it ended up really bad where like some ████ happened with money on the team and then uh embezzled funds happen yeah and then we left and ████ but then like years later when I reconnected with that guy like over a decade later I was like like hey man like just so you know like for some of us and that this was a lot of people on the team that didn't have a college experience cuz we didn't get in and whatever like this replaced that and it might have been even better and then he we were just like he was like in tears like ████ like that means so much because like he's a lot older than us and he was kind of like kind of like a dad in a way but it he gave us
24:21 something that like I would have probably if not for dance in at that exact point in life I probably would have skipped straight into just being like a actually like a depressed loser and having really just get a regular job and just be sad all the time you know what I mean stealing was just tuition yeah it was like a protection fee for myself but yeah that's I think that the reason why that's so Monumental to me is it really does Mark the first time that I it's not again like this is my advice to people it's like it's not that I had a higher self-esteem I just stopped being concerned about it and I think that's what makes all the difference now when you shake hands do you still you suck your dick daddy
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