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The guy who taught MJ how to Moonwalk? The best Pop Locker Ever

BabeBeMine

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I just thought i would share this with everyone. From what i heard MJ learned how to Moonwalk from Boogaloo shrimp who was in the 1984 movie Breakin.

Shrimp was one of the best, if not the best pop locker of all time. He went to school with my uncle at Banning high school in Wilmington CA in the early 1980's. He could pop lock, break dance, do the moonwalk in cirlcles, sideways, the basic style. He gained his reputation battling guys on the streets in 1 on 1 dance battles. Here's a clip of him

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jU6WG9sGI0M&feature=related

Here's another Clip

http://youtube.com/watch?v=faeH-EY0aI8
 
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There's no coincidence here. I'm very glad MJ and Boogaloo worked together and because of Boogaloo, MJ's has perfected some great dance moves over the last 2 and a half decades. He's had a real influence on MJ and MJ has gone a added his own magical touch to the moves we see him perform.

Moonwalk, sidewalk, robot, walking against the wind, circular moonwalk, popping and locking. Everyone should go check out more vids on this guy and see the influence he's really had on MJ :)
 
BabeBeMine said:
I just thought i would share this with everyone. From what i heard MJ learned how to Moonwalk from Boogaloo shrimp who was in the 1984 movie Breakin.

Shrimp was one of the best, if not the best pop locker of all time. He went to school with my uncle at Banning high school in Wilmington CA in the early 1980's. He could pop lock, break dance, do the moonwalk in cirlcles, sideways, the basic style. He gained his reputation battling guys on the streets in 1 on 1 dance battles. Here's a clip of him

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jU6WG9sGI0M&feature=related

Here's another Clip

http://youtube.com/watch?v=faeH-EY0aI8
Click to expand...

W.O.W.

I just watched both clips with my jaw on the floor. That's amazing. Very talented and amazing guy. :punk:
 
He is an amazing streetdancer, and the movie is just the best
P.S. Can you tell me the song on the first clip - the song on the background?
 
He and how many other guys taught Michael the moonwalk? lol. Nobody is ever gonna really know where he picked it up from specifically. Anyway, the term pop-lock actually is incorrect, just to point out. Popping and locking are two totally different forms of movment. Popping is when you pop your joints, or mucsles, locking is sort of akin to hitting a pose, then stopping, going limp, then reanimating and going in to another pose, pointing your fingers, etc.... People get it mixed up as one type of movement because poppers will often incorporate locking in to their style, while lockers will often incorporate popping in to theirs. Michael did a lot of locking in the 70s, before he hooked up with any of these guys actually, and he still does a lot of it today. Popping I consider to be something different from dance, much like pantomime. I classify it as a type of movement in and of itself. Boogaloo Shrimp was really good at that particular type of movement.
 
@Keymaster

that's Afrika Bambaataa's Looking For the Perfect Beat

legend
 
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wannabestartinsomthin21 said:
He and how many other guys taught Michael the moonwalk? lol. Nobody is ever gonna really know where he picked it up from specifically. Anyway, the term pop-lock actually is incorrect, just to point out. Popping and locking are two totally different forms of movment. Popping is when you pop your joints, or mucsles, locking is sort of akin to hitting a pose, then stopping, going limp, then reanimating and going in to another pose, pointing your fingers, etc.... People get it mixed up as one type of movement because poppers will often incorporate locking in to their style, while lockers will often incorporate popping in to theirs. Michael did a lot of locking in the 70s, before he hooked up with any of these guys actually, and he still does a lot of it today. Popping I consider to be something different from dance, much like pantomime. I classify it as a type of movement in and of itself. Boogaloo Shrimp was really good at that particular type of movement.
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Thanks for the explanation, but doesn't the guy actually do both movements though?
 
Yeah, like I said, a lot of them combine both forms of movement, but poplock is not a real term., nor is pop n lock.
 
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See, here's the difference. In the first clip, when Michael jumps off the table, he performs a standard locking routine. And also in the second clip, when he dances with Marlon and after Marlon steps away, Michael is performing locking, and also at varying other times throughout the clip, like when they slap eachother's hands, etc...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EybdtdIAT1Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD6TaLJJmcs

In the 95 VMA's, when Michael does that robotic walk forward, he is popping his muscles, or more specifically, contracting and then relaxing them, giving that popping effect. He is combining popping here with pantomime by walking forward while popping. Pantomime is the art of acting out a situation or scenerio with your body.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH-QDOZqdus

Subsequently, in the clip of Michael and his brothers with Dom Deluise, Michael also does the robot, which is derived from pantomime, and heavily influenced both popping and locking as forms of movment.
 
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wbss21 said:
Michael did a lot of locking in the 70s, before he hooked up with any of these guys actually, and he still does a lot of it today.
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when was michael supposed to have met up with funk dancers like Chambers?

either way, he would have been influenced by the Electric Boogaloos and The Lockers in the 70s.
 
I don't know when they met, but my uncle who grew up in that era just told me that Boogaloo Shrimp taught MJ how to to the moonwalk the basic way, plus sideways and in circles. I agree MJ already knew how to lock from the 1970's.

My uncle could be wrong, but you can tell by Motown 25 in 1983 that MJ was still a beginner when it came to doing the moonwalk.
 
Obviously, he picked it up from watching it on TV or on the streets. Locking started around the late 60s, with a guy named Don Cambell. Popping started around the late 70s, with a guy named Boogaloo Sam, though some speculate that popping had been around before that in places like Oakland, California and no one can trace it back to any specific source. Michael didn't work with Boogaloo Shrimp until the 80s, nor did he work with people like Poppin' Pete or Poppin' Taco or Jeff Daniels until the 80s either. No one specifically taught Michael how to lock. He just picked it up on his own and had incorporated it in to creating a unique style of his own. He was doing the robot too in the 70s, which is closely related to popping and pre-dates it.
 
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I just meant the moonwalk.

The basic way which is backwards, in circles and sideways.
 
wannabestartinsomthin21 said:
Obviously, he picked it up from watching it on TV or on the streets. Locking started around the late 60s, with a guy named Don Cambell. Popping started around the late 70s, with a guy named Boogaloo Sam,
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yeah those guys both maintained the Electric Boogaloos and The Lockers, hence why i said Mike would have been directly influenced by them.

Michael didn't work with Boogaloo Shrimp until the 80s, nor did he work with people like Poppin' Pete or Poppin' Taco or Jeff Daniels until the 80s either.
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cheers, i didn't know that.

we should have an Experts section on here with the likes of you, Korgnex, TSCM etc. etc. just to post random ish lol
 
MJ was a great basic locker in the 1970's, but he didn't really start to develop great pop locking ( which is different) skills until around 1995, 1996 during the history tour when he started to bust out pop lock moves at the end of his Billie Jean performance.
 
BabeBeMine said:
I just meant the moonwalk.

The basic way which is backwards, in circles and sideways.
Click to expand...

Oh, I was referring to arXter's post before yours. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

And lol at arXter. Maybe that would be a good idea. Although, this kinda thing is SUPPOSED to be discussed in the music and madness forum, but nobody ever visits there, lol. Well, except the lot of us. :D
 
Dutchie said:
Ahh ok...maybe people just like to shorten the two :lol: Like...it's pop and lock so they call it poplock ;) ^_^
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Well most people use that term because of media use and thinking that it's actully one type of movement. Since popping looks very rigid, they assume that pop and lock go hand and hand, you pop your muscle, then lock it. But that's not the case. The term poplock is used because there are those who combine the two forms of movement. But poplock isn't a specific kind of dancing in and of itself, but rather just the combination of the two forms, someone may pop, and then go into a locking sequence. People combine pantomime with popping, as Michael did in the VMA clip, also, and locking with other dance forms. But combining them doesn't create one specific, totally different form. Locking is a very fluid form of movement and something which I would clasify as dancing, getting from one pose to the next, fluid movement of the limbs and torso. Popping I don't consider to be dancing, per say, but an entirely different form of movement, because it's all about muscle control, the ability to individually contract and relax each muscle. That's why you see guys like Poppin' Taco who send a "wave" through their body. It's the contraction and release of individual muscles in the body.
 
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I watched the clips and it's fair to say that the guy is very talented. I can definetly see the the influence he's had on MJ.

Here is what i think. Alot of people have influenced MJ, but, no one IMO can claim to have "taught" him any moves. There are many similarities to other artist in MJ's dance routines but the reason why he is considered one of the best dancers (imo the best) is because of the way he delivers. This guy is indeed talented and a very good dancer in certain areas but he is RAW. he is kinda all over the place and he just bursts out moves.

Michael delivers. He takes a simple dance move and use it's full potential, perfects it and makes it he OWN, In that way the moonwalk is Michael's because of the way he delivers it, and because of no one really can do it like him. When someone think of the moonwalk they automatically think of michael and not the random kids on the street. If the original "inventors" of the moonwalk executed it the way michael does and perfected it like him they too would have had the same impact on the people. He does it smoothtly and gracefully, and that comes to all of his moves.
 
BabeBeMine said:
MJ was a great basic locker in the 1970's, but he didn't really start to develop great pop locking ( which is different) skills until around 1995, 1996 during the history tour when he started to bust out pop lock moves at the end of his Billie Jean performance.
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that's debatable...i saw footage of his 70's moves. they were fantastic.
 
he done it better during the late 90s - hence perfecting it then. that doesn't mean it wasn't good before, just not as ingenious.
 
arXter said:
he done it better during the late 90s - hence perfecting it then. that doesn't mean it wasn't good before, just not as ingenious.
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i still beg to differ. in the later years he was not doing stuff that he did in earlier years. for instance i didn't know he could tap dance..and all that is from his earlier years. as far as what you see as perfect, or ingenius...that's for the eye of the beholder. i can't ever see a time when MJ hadn't already perfected a dance move.
 
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he infused a lot of tap steps during just about every era - including the video i just posted. and yes, i guess it is for the eye of the beholder - "perfection" is a subjective term and it's evident for me he progressed throughout the years.
 
Either way, since Jackson was into dance since the middle of 1960s and long before some of those who claim they "taught" him, the claims are rather questionable. And neither of their stories have confirmation yet. Different people insist on "teaching" and either everyone of them but one or they altogether do not tell truth about this.

As to "Moonwalk", it is rather strange to say that back in 1983 Jackson did it in "beginners" comparing to earlier poppers since the effect of such performance was in favour of Michael (I do not mean publicity/fame here, but just visual effect; of course, Jackson performs "Moonwalk" differently now, but this is another matter).

Also, we should remember that appearance of "Moonwalk" has nothing to do with anyone who claims teaching anything to Michael. The dance appeared very long time ago, maybe even before XX Century, and was firstly filmed in 1950s.

But, as I said, no filmed performance in 1950s or in 1982 (earliest from the new era; in UK) was anywhere near as visually expressive as Jackson's in 1983.
 
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