The guys of Super Cr3w

So how did you guys first start dancing?
A: That’s hard because I started when I was 3, but not b-boying, just dancing. You know watching Michael Jackson, Madonna videos on TV when I was little, that’s probably when I first started dancing.
B: When did you first start b-boying?
A: I started b-boying…I was probably around 15, 16.

What inspired you to start b-boying?
A: Beat Street movie

What about you?
B: I started when I was ten, and I started learning from my older brother and my cousins. So pretty much my relatives, just trying to do what they do, trying to imitate them. And I’m the only one who ended up taking it serious as a career.

So I’m guessing you’ve developed a lot since then, with your style.
B: Yeah. Over 15 years of b-boying and dancing, it’s a long time.

It is, and it’s something you guys wish to continue?
B: I think we still have a couple more years of this.
A: Until we start getting seriously injured.
B: Yeah.

Have you had any serious injuries while dancing?
A: I’ve had bursitis in both knees, fluid, so they had to drain it out. That was like in 2003, I should be fine now, just here and there I have to ice it.
B: Just pulled muscles, nothing too major. Maybe we’ll be out of commission for a month at the most; I think that’s the longest I’ve ever been out of commission, a month.

But injuries and all it’s definitely worth it because it’s something you love.
A & B: Yes.
B: It’s definitely all conditioning. I think we’re prone to injuries now, I mean if someone tried doing what we’re doing now, and they’ll probably get injured faster than us. I think our muscles and bones are use to it now.

So you guys must be pretty damn fit to do what you do?
B: Yeah, you have to be physically conditioned, like any other sport.

So what are your tricks and tips and things that you do to stay in shape?
A: Do it every day.
B: Do it every day, stretch before you practice, that’s crucial.
A: I wouldn’t say you have to lift weights, just do push-ups I would say every day as much as you can.
B: It’s all muscle memory, so just running the same moves over and over again so it becomes second nature to you.

What about food wise? Do you have to eat certain proteins?
A: Well he has a better diet than I do; I just eat everything in sight.
B: B-boys have different diets, I just started a diet, and you know I’m getting older, I just trying to stay healthier or maintain my health. When you’re younger, I think it’s easier to do this, because when you’re younger you don’t even have to stretch because you’re naturally limber, and you can eat whenever you want because your metabolism is fast. The older you get, if you’re going to get into it at a later age, its better that you do have a diet or stretch better.
A: True.

Ronnie

So you guys were from Super Cr3w?
B: Yes.

How was that whole experience and how did it affect your career?
B: How did it as far as winning the show or since we started, because Super Cr3w actually started in 2000 and we were battle squads, so we were already competing abroad internationally. We actually competed at the Wembley arena in 2004 for Road B-Boy Championship, it was actually hosted by LL Cool J and Super Cr3w placed second. And we’ve been battling and America’s Best Dance Crews started last season, so we decided to enter, and at that time b-boys weren’t really considered dancers, so we just wanted to change the game we wanted to prove a point.
A: That b-boys can do it too, you know?
B: And we wanted the whole thing.

A revolution.
A: Yeah, basically.

Did it work?
A: Yeah, I think after that a lot of b-boys started to enter that competition, like auditioning, a lot of people with crews actually. Massive Monkees was last season.

So did it really accelerate from there, or was it sort of just another trophy to add?
B: No it definitely was, in the sense that it was more commercialized, and it was in the mainstream media, so it kind of gave us a face. It gave us an identity. A lot of times b-boys or dancers in general are known to be backup dancers for certain artists, but no one knows who they are, unless you’re in the dance community.
A: It just put us in the forefront.
B: Winning on that show actually gave us a name to face, people know who we are in the public eyes now, we actually did our own concert, the ABDC concert and we had musicians opening up for us.
A: The other way around.
B: Yeah. So it was kind of turned.

That’s brilliant. And you guys are friends with JabbaWockeeZ and people like that?
A: Yeah, we’re friends with all the crews on the show.

That’s great. Describe your dancing in three words.
B: Our dancing as a crew or individually?

As individual style, like what your dancing is.
A: Mine is energy. That’s me,
B: Yeah I would say energy. Two more words. Okay, my style if I could choose three words would be intricate, I’d like to think that I am well-rounded, I try to do everything, I try to incorporate other levels of b-boying, and aggressive.
A: I use to be really comedic, but I got a little older and mature, so that kind of changed. I’m different on different days; it depends on how I’m feeling, so my mood I would say.

Chameleon?
A: Chameleon, yeah.
B: Drinking master.
A: Oh, yeah I dance better…
B: Yeah he can dance better when he’s under the influence.
A: Yeah I can dance better whenever I have a little beer.

You think that would make you less agile, less able to dance.
A: Yeah, I don’t know, it makes me more loose so I don’t think about my steps.

You guys have so much energy, I’ve seen some of your videos and put so much into it, and then I saw some of the auditions and some people just didn’t have that energy. How do you guys reach that level when you dance?
B: I think to be a dancer, to reach that level, you have to have a certain charisma. And in order to get that charisma I think you just…
A: Experience.
B: Yeah, a lot of experience.
A: You have to dance in front of a lot of people, many of times, not just a couple times. You have to do it pretty often.
B: It has to come naturally, a lot of times when dancers look like it was rehearsed, and you can tell they’re not really dancing from the heart. So I think it’s really just more of an emotional expression, like when you go out there you really just have to feel it.
A: Music has a lot to do with it too, like if they’re not feeling a certain song…
B: Exactly if you’re not feeling the music then…
A: You’re not going to do it well.

But could you dance without music?
A: Yeah, you can.

Like make a beat in your head?
A: Yeah you can, there’s always beats.
B: Soul clap.
A: Yeah that’s what b-boys use, soul clap.

So that’s how b-boys just go for it, sounds good. What is your favorite move to do? It’s going to be very difficult to describe.
A: Just one that I can do it over and over because it’s fun, I don’t know, there are so many moves out there, just a move you like to do every day.
B: Maybe windmills, but there’s different names for it, watch-mills, baby windmills…it’s pretty much windmills, but with your legs crutched in, so they call them crutch mills… is that a name?
A: Lunch mills.
B: Lunch mills, yeah.
A: I like to do flares.
B: Flares are fun.
A: Fares are fun, yeah.
B: Actually Flares, it’s a good move to actually work out with. That’s what I use to actually warm up. That’s the move you actually see a lot gymnast do on the Pommel Horse, that move, no, any idea?

Rockadile

So you’re actually in Greece to judge a competition, how does it fell to be a judge not a competitor?
B: Less pressure, we’re just kind of lay back, be on the other side, and not have to worry about…not really, I mean we were always constantly trained for a competition, but it’s just cool to see what b-boys are doing in the competition, because we kind of learn from it. So we know as judges, what we need to when we compete and what judges are looking for because it’s the same thing.
A: Yeah, pretty much what he said.

So what advice would you give to up and coming dancers?
A: Keep doing it, for sure.
B: Don’t give up.
A: Yup, don’t give up no matter what.
B: yeah I think a lot of dancers in general, they lose motivation just because they lose a competition or lose a battle or you’ll hear a lot of negative criticism, but they’ve got to take it as a learning experience and just a stepping stone. So anytime you lose a battle or anytime people bad mouth you or give you any kind of criticism, you should take it as constructive criticism and use that to fuel your fire and get better.
A: Another thing I would say is be open-minded, not to just one style, but to every style. Even if you don’t like it just try to practice it, because the more balance you are, the better you are.
B: In general too, not just with b-boying. I think that’s why we had the mentality that if we were going to get in the show, ABDC, we were going to try and step our game up and do all dances, any challenge we had, we had to take it and do our best with at and not just break. We wanted to evolve.

So as you mentioned rejection is actually really difficult to deal with, have you guys had rejections in the past and how did you deal with it?
B: Rejections…
A: Oh yeah. A lot. We had actually tried out for the first season of “America’s Best Dance Crew.”
B: Exactly, so we got rejected the first season.
A: It was between us and JabbaWockeeZ and they were just like JabbaWockeeZ’s you’re fire and they were our friends so we were just like you guys better win and they won, so we were happy for them.
B: Second season they encouraged us to audition again and some guys from the crew didn’t want to; just because they thought it was a slap in the face that we didn’t get in first season, but we ended up being chosen to do second season and we went all the way. And I think that’s how ABDC is too, I think if they know they’re doing a certain amount of seasons, they want to split up the crews, and they wouldn’t want to put them all in one season, so they kind of split them up. So if a certain crew auditions for say third season and they know there’s going to be a fourth, then they won’t have them on third, but on fourth.
A: With battling I would say rejection like…I won a bunch of battles, but I’ve also gotten second place in a bunch of battles, and that’s like still last. Win or lose, I still dance though. It just makes you stronger when you lose, when you win there’s nowhere else to go but down. So you just have to keep fighting if you lose.

Just get you more determined.
B: You should always have the mentality that when you enter a competition or battle, even though you lose, but you do well that’s a win in your eyes, because I think that’s what a lot of b-boys stress out too, because sometimes they feel like they won and the judges will vote against them or sometimes a b-boy will win and feel like they didn’t do enough and they would feel like they didn’t deserve it, so it would be good to actually do well and have the judges vote against you then do bad and end up winning…so I don’t know what my point is but… Basically don’t worry about what the judges have to say, if you feel in your heart you did good then you should be content.

Unless you’re pretentious and really did bad, but feel good about yourself.
B: There are actually some people that are like that.
A: Yup.
B: It’s like I ripped it…
A & B: But in reality…
A: Some people take rejection really bad and they try to battle the judges sometimes, it happens quite often.

We’ll see what’s going to happen to you guys tonight. What’s the hardest thing about dancing?
B: The hardest thing about dancing is… What is the hardest thing about dancing?
A: Me, staying really inspired, because sometimes I’ll lose motivation, but I’ll just dance just to dance because I love to do it. But there’ll be a certain moment where I will really love dancing and it’s hard to keep that, for me. It’s hard to stay, let’s go dancing, let’s go dancing right now, it hard to stay like that for me.
B: With me I think it’s just the stability. I mean you could always be passionate about dance, but doing it as career isn’t like a regular 9 – 5. It’s whatever gigs you can book or if you’re going on tour or doing commercials and movies. It’s not real stability as a opposed to having a real job like being a doctor or nurse, which is actually what I like about it because it’s a very spontaneous career, you never know where you’re going to be in the next year or what country. We got invited to come here a couple of months ago and a year ago we didn’t think we’d be here. So it very unpredictable.
A: Yeah, it’s crazy

So have you ever felt like just giving up and getting a normal 9 – 5 job?
A: It’s actually hit me a couple of times, like oh I’m getting old now. Actually before the second season of ABDC I was just about to give up and go back to school and Ronnie called me and he was like “hey come on let’s do this show we could win”, and I was like we can’t win we already lost the first season of this show, why do we get to do it and I was actually going to go back to school. He persuaded me, I don’t know how, but he did and I’m glad we did it. Now I know where I stand and what I need to be doing is dancing.
B: Personally I feel I’d rather be doing what we’re doing and struggle, well we’re making decent money, but I rather be doing this and be happy travelling the world than having a 9 – 5 or whatever and be miserable doing the same thing every day, it gets so redundant. At the end of the day we’re experiencing things that a lot of full time workers would want to do at least once a year and we’re doing it throughout the year. People save up for a vacation to come to Greece, to go anywhere and we’re actually getting paid to do what people want to for vacation, I mean it’s ironic, but I think that’s what I love about it. That’s why I keep doing it. On top of that it keeps us young, it’s like the fountain of youth. We’re actually almost 30, but we don’t move like were 30 or dress like we’re 30 or look like we’re 30.

So what does the future hold for you guys?
A: The future for Super Cr3w or b-boys in general.
A: Like he said, I think it’s unclear right now, but I’m kind of excited to find out.
B: We’re still going to all want to dance, but as far as doing it professionally and battling and doing shows, who knows, but in a couple of years I know I still want to be involved in the community as far as giving back, maybe be the one organizing and being the whole production hand behind the dance competition or maybe open up a dance studio, sky’s the limit.
A: Sky is the limit.

What food can’t you live without?
B: I love strawberries.
A: You have to have them though?
B: Have to have them.

Are you serious, you’ve such a bad-ass image and you have to have strawberries?
A: Mine is chicken, because I can eat chicken anytime.
B: Actually just recently we ate at this restaurant in Las Vegas and I think it’s one of the only restaurants to service this dessert it’s called…Honey Toast. You know what I’m talking about?
A: I was going to say mango.
B: It’s Honey Toast. Well that too, but they sell that at all types of restaurants. It’s a Japanese restaurant and what it is, is a certain toast and they put honey on it and vanilla ice cream. So I think at this point it’s hard to live without Honey Toast.

Nice. Better than strawberries.
B: I have withdrawals at night, because I’m not at home having any.

That bad, huh? If you could be a cartoon character who would you be?
B: I would be Wolverine from X-men or Darkwing Duck. No you know what, I’d be a Transformer.
A: A cartoon I use to watch a lot… I wouldn’t be Doug or Rugrats. I’d be Superman because I want to fly and all that stuff.
B: I’d be Optimus Prime.
A: Superman, because he can do anything. If I was Superman and I could break, I’d be dope.

Yeah, the whole world would love you. What song is stuck in your head right now?
B: Um, this one P.Y.T. No actually, I always end up having a new song every day that I keep singing.
A: Oh, I know! I Got a Feeling…
A & B: That tonight’s gonna be a good night…
B: Black Eyed Peas new song. I use to really not like that song, but I guess it grew on me. So I’d say that song. I’ve been singing it all week.
A: I think it because we go out to the night clubs and they play it and we have a good time when they play so remember those good times.
B: It really is a feel good song, so I’d say that song.

So what’s your favorite place to relax?
A: That restaurant… Oh my goodness.
B: That restaurant last night was amazing. We ate at some restaurant last night, but we don’t know the name.
A: Somewhere in Athens behind the Acropolis.

Did you have a good view?
B: We overlooked the whole thing…
A: We could see the whole thing.
B: It was amazing. It was actually one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had.
A: It was his birthday too.
B: And it was my birthday

Aw happy birthday.
A: Yeah that was probably my new favorite place to relax.

Okay complete this sentence: Life isn’t worth living without…
A: Music.
B: I like that. Music, I’d say music too.

How can fans contact you?
B: supercr3w.com

Why the three?
B: There are three crews in two, my crew Full Force, Battle Monkeys, and Knucklehead Zoo. But there are hybrids like he’s in Battle Monkeys and Full Force. So I mean pretty much we all decided to all combine forces.
A: We actually met battling each other. And then we all just ended up being friends.

That’s awesome.
B: We’ve all grown together and started battling together and we’re still together to this day.
A: It’s been a long time man.
B: Ten years. We actually have a watch coming out and it’s going to be our ten year anniversary watch.
A: Meyster Watches, google it. There only making 300 watches sold worldwide, so limited time pieces.

On what site are they selling them?
A: Meysterwatches.com. We’re coming out with watches…
B: T-shirts. Just go to the website supercr3w.com and check it out.