Poppin Pete

Written by Cynthia Wiggins from Rap Pages Magazine

Where did you grow up?

I was born in Fresno [Central California, four hours north of L.A.]. Stayed there for 16 years and then we moved to Long Beach in 1977. My father had gone down to look for a job, and we had family in Southern California in the Compton area.

How long have you been dancing?

I been dancing all my life. My first foundation, I was hooked into doing the robot. My first talent show, I was in the seventh grade and I was like 12 years old. I remeber doing it off of Kool & The Gang. I went to an all-white school. White people ain't never see anybody dance like that before. I went out there, did my little robot, got my standing ovation.

Explain the different street dance terminologies.

Poppin' is the dance style that everybody do like hittin' your joints, hittin' hard with your leg, your neck, your head. Poppin' and boogalooin' are totally different; a lot of people don't understand that. boogalooin' is an old name from a James Brown song called "Do the Boogaloo." My brother, Boogaloo Sam, said the name was weird. Like a weird dance. Boogalooin' is rollin' of the body. When you move, you go in different positions your body normally wouldn't go. It's makin' your body do weird things. Like fluid. Poppin' is more jerkin' or harder style, and we combined both. and that's what electric boogaloo style is-combining poppin' and boogalooin'. My brother started electric boogaloo-style poppin'. a guy from the Bay Area [once] said they did boppin' style or dime stoppin', where it almost looked like a robot, but it was an added adaptation of boogalooin'. That's where Electric Boogaloo Sam's style came from. He wouldn't take the credit: "Well, I started waving and cutting." All that stuff, it has a place. But poppin' and Boogalooin', what New York is tring to do, what L.A. did, what the world is doing, is basically what electric boogaloo started.

Did you guys have a term for all the styles?

We pretty much had separtes styles. Everyone had their own styles. It got commercialized...everybody generalized it, "Oh, breakdancing or street dancing." Back then you had tickin', animation, puppet, scarecrow, you had all these different styles that were from different areas. Like Sac- styles from Sacramento; Richmond styles; every region had a style. Every region also had an origin. Everybody knew that so-and-so did this. That's what I used to like about back in the day. Everybody would go to this big four-day track meet called West Coast Relays. Every night they'd have a dance down at the convention center, a place that holds like two to three thousand. Everybody from the Bay Area and L.A would go to Fresno. And L.A. at that time hadn't seen it. They had nobody to represent, so they were just checking it out on the side.

Is it true that some poppin' moves were inspired by the Church?

Well, I told the guy in a [Rolling Stone] interview that when we were coming up, this is what Sam told me: when you get the Holy Ghost, you know how the person jerks their body, you get limber, well, Sam seen these people and they inpired him. He was like, "Wow, if you do it to music and then control it..."Basically, that's how he came up with it. It looks like poppin'.

Who had a rep up in Northern and Central California?

There was a group that Sam had stared called the Electronic Boogaloo Lockers; they were Central california's top...from Fresno to Bakersfield, we turned everybody out. Scarecrow Scally, Boogaloo Sam, Robot Dane, me, Creepin Sid was the Backslide king. The backslide is not the moonwalk. That is a totally different dance where you're goin' in circles like you're floatin' like there is no gravity, like you're on the moon. Backslide, you're sliding backwards. Puppet Boozer, he's a sheriff now [laughs], Tickin' Deck, that's my little brother, Tickin' Will. You had people like Granny and the Robotronics, Demons Of the Mind. There were a lot of groups.

Let's talk about how you guys spread your styles from Long Beach up to L.A.

the first time Sam came to Long Beach in '77, that weekend there was a party around the corner. It was given by this guy named Macky Boy, a locker. He was known in his neighborhood. So I said, "Sam, let's go." It was me and my big brother, so I'm happy, I'm bragging. Everyone was like, "You see that guy with Pete, man? Who's that? Why he trippin'?"'Cause people knew me off the little rep I had. We seen Macky Boy and we was like, "Damn, he got a nice style." But Sam was up there and i said, "My brother can beat him." Everybody was like, "Yeah, right." then this song came on by the Ohio Players called "Ohio," and my brother loved that song. And the guy called Sam out. Macky Boy went and did his thing. Everybody was like, "Wooo, Macky Boy!" My brohter went out there and hit him with like four moves: boogaloo, this thing called the old man, rolled it a little bit, dime-stopped on him and ended the party. women, homeboys, you couldn't count how many chins hit the floor. They had never seen anything like that. Macky Boy just loved that. He became my brother's shadow. Actually, Same came to Long Beach and Turned out Everybody. Took out this guy named Larry Mcgraw, even Robot Dane.

With Bruno [Pop 'N' Taco], we used to hear about this Mexican guy: "He's bad." At that time I was poppin'. wasn't as good as my brother, but I had the confidence to be like, "What? Nah." One day we went to a Poly Technic High homecoming dance with Sam and all the Boogaloos. We were like, "Where is Bruno, King Snake?" I was walking down this path and I saw this Mexican guy come out the bathroom. He had his hair net on. And someone said, "that's him right there." I said, "Get him." Bruno was scared. He knew who we were Sam said "I want you to get down." He did a little something, but then he started hitting and I was like, "He's a'ight".