Black Line Dance Power Rankings feat Cupid

rap? They say I'm a rapper. But I say no.

“Answer the song. Answer the question in the song for it.”

Leveled over. Being a young black kid singing over rap beats. Oh, god. Yeah, you rap. They love rap all day. You're a rapper. And furthermore, if you get in trouble, you're going to be right. And then I didn't help it by backing you know the way I dressed clearly. I was head on the hat. I had on the hat with the jersey flip back in with the wristbands. Who

know you know it? So I always wanted to rap.

Well, come to the Almanac rap. The show that has way to many instructions to be a good line dance. I'm your host Don Will. And today's guest is Cupid. A.K.A. The Line Dance King. We talked them about his come up, creating line dances, and ask him, is there any beef in the world

“of line dancing? We'll get to that in a second. But first, I got to kick the ballistics.”

When you hear the term line dancing, there's a 96% chance. You think country bars, cowboy boots, and a whole bunch of other white people. But if you've been to a black family reunion, black wedding, or kickback, you've seen the magic of the line dance. Nothing, I repeat, nothing unifies a dance floor like a line dance. Dating back to longer than I care to think about, we've been turning the family gathering dance floor into that scene from so full forever.

You know that scene? The one when Burr got married and Big Mama had to step in because her husband couldn't stop being a thirst bucket? Yeah, that scene. Anyway, back to line dances. Today, we'll be taking a look at the best of the best and finding out which one

ranks number one in our first and only black line dance power ranking. Number six, to

me as line dance. Look, I love to meet it. And I love this song. But the dance that goes along with the song is my mortal enemy. It's also just a dance choreograph to an existing

“song. So there aren't instructions for the dance moves that you need to pull off. Not my”

favorite at all. Number five, booty call. This one is basically like the Cha Cha Slide and Electric Slides smashed together. There are no instructions on this one either, but the dance is simple and based on the subject matter of the song, goals. Number four, swag surfing. Okay, so technically this isn't a line dance at all, but functionally, it pretty much is, except instead of a line, think of it like a zigzag, a huge zigzag, designed to ignite homecoming crowds,

and annoyed the f*** out of funk flex. Number three, the wobble. Since 2008, this song has been getting everybody from your grandma to your bad ass little cousins to the dance floor. If I was feeling poetic, I'd say we could look at the song as a metaphor about how us black folk may wobble, but we don't fall down. But that, I'll just say it checks in at number three on our list. It also has one of the greatest intros of any song on this list. Number two, the Cha Cha Slide.

Released like 30 years ago, DJ Casper's Cha Cha Slide never gets old, musically it's fine,

but the lyrics where it gets extra points because they lay out the instructions so clearly that literally anyone can do it immediately. Just hit the floor and Cha Cha real smooth. Number one, the electric Slide. The electric Slide has roots in Jamaica, but it's become as American as soul food, with black families making Marshall Griffith's 1982 classic, the ultimate cross-generational anthem. The song gets bonus points because you can do the electric Slide to basically everything.

And when I say everything, I'm looking directly at you before I let go by either Frankie Beverly or Beyonce and Candy by Cameo. I've seen some electric Slide sessions last for three to four songs. It just takes up the whole party. And if you're wondering why the Cooper shuffle isn't on the list, it's because he's on the show today. We talk about the smash hit and how he became the line dance king in general. Let's jump into that conversation right now. Oh, and by the way, if I had to

rank the Cooper shuffle, it'd be tight for the number one spot. What's up, everybody? Welcome to the Almanac rap. My name is Don Will and today's guest is the six times platinum recording artist,

Ladies and gentlemen, it's cute. It's good, man. Good, man. Good to see you. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, man. Big fan of this show. I'll be fan of you work my brother so it's all good. Oh, man. Thank you, man. That means a lot straight up. You know what I'm saying? Like I love it. I'm happy that it's resonating. You ask the good question. Thank you. So I got a lot of good

“questions for you. I think I got a lot of good questions. We've been talking a lot of”

cameras and the conversation has been just amazing. So I'm I'm looking forward to just

voting that back in. But let's get it started. All right. So first and foremost, line dance king of the world is crazy. That's got to be a crazy feeling to be appointed that. You know, like how does it feel to be given that title by your home state? Man, the thing is, you know, there was a period of time where I would go out with my CDs, CD days. How to Trump. Right, man. And you know, line dance music wasn't even a thing.

It was kind of just like, you know, a line dance here and there or whatever. So I paid, I really went through a lot to get to this point to where, you know, one, I can be crowned at and two for it to be something that people are actually doing like culturally throughout the world and it's being recognized where it is. So it feels good, man, because I took a whole bunch of, you know, beatings, you know, to get it to the end. It's worth to see it to be at this point. So I'm,

I'm grateful for that, man. Have you, have you taken it to the world? Like, what's one of the furthest reaching places you've seen the line dance culture pop off? Man, you know, last year, this time I was in Saudi Arabia. I did a Middle East and tour, did Saudi Qatar, Djibouti Africa, all through either Middle East and everywhere you pop up, man. You know, keep the shuffle as the golden key. That's crazy. If they don't know anything else,

they go a little shuffle. Yeah. So that's always good to see, man, especially in a different

culture like that. Yeah, because I mean, initially, I want to say the first line dance I interacted with, I mean, wasn't the hustle I was too young, but the electric slide. So that's kind of all got new. It was like the electric slide. Oh, there's a thing called the hustle, then the Cuba shuffle. Like for me, it's just, and then so on and so forth. Crazy. But so going from now until back then, you launched your career as a solo artist in 2001. And the Cuba shuffle dropped around

“2006. Right. So my question is, what was happening in those five years?”

Man, last year the Louisiana is a small city, man. And it's stuck in between Houston and New Orleans. And New Orleans is heavy on the balance. At that time, Texas was heavy on the screw music. But you catch like big mold. Yeah. Um, big heart, um, that would sing, you know, like, you know, so it was singing our rap beats. For me, in order for me to be able to get radio in play or get DJs to play my music, I had to sing either over rap, bounce beats,

or over rap beats. So I was in the club that started off doing that, man. I would, you know, they'll play a beat and I'll sing whatever the hot song is and stuff like that. Like kind of flip the

lyrics. Yeah, man. And I was always in the dancing. Like, you know, we'll be in the club dancing from nine

PM to two in the morning. You know, don't dance no more. That's a whole other thing. That's a whole other thing. I'm sorry. I mean, the country. And so that's kind of how that started. And then maybe right around 2004, the bounce music in Iowa City started to kind of weed his way out. And that's when that Crunk ever came in. Yeah. So now for me, I could sing all rap beats, but I couldn't sing all crunk beats. That aside crazy. You know, I've never thought I've never heard anybody sing on. What

mean, I guess usher, yes, the only kind of thing that made it. But no, like it was, it was, it was a time. It was so I had to kind of switch up and at that moment at that time, I started venturing off into the Southern Seoul world. So I was going around, man, singing, stupid drawback, you bull by Sam Cook and singing all kinds of old school songs. And I ended up doing a few little blue shows with led me to being on the road with male waiters, man. Who's, you know, a legend. A giant, a giant. Google

male waiters. Yeah, man. So I was in there, man. Getting chased by the aunties.

“You know, stuff like that, man. But that's how I got into the, like, that's what got me closer”

to the line dancing and that older crying and so young was being on the road with a male waiters and it was Southern Seoul music at that time. Yeah, because like, so how old were you then? Oh, man, I was in my 20s, man. And in your 20s, how, what was the average age of the road? Man, I, I, I know could get more. So man, I had a lady. She walked up to me. She was like, "Come in. Let me test drive you for my daughter." I was like, "Why are you?

it was, it was this good time, man. But I actually learned a lot about what I wanted to know.

Like what did you learn being on the road with like, um, you know, it was male waiters, male, male waiters, Marvin Seat, Sacer Seat, Marvin Seat and Big Cynthia. Yeah, man, um, one thing I learned about them is, you know, these guys didn't really have a lot of radio play or opportunities to have the media present them at superstars. So the reason the way they became superstars was their shows, they were killed. Like, I don't care who you thought you were. If you

got, try to open up or try to come behind one of them or school or part of their kill you. Yeah, they're killed. You're like, they're gift the gap, the way they story tell, the way they sell their music and make the people feel like they're part of the whole show. Like, you learn a lot from that. And then you had, when you have like a, a Marvin Seat's in a male waiters on the same show, they was battling. That's crazy. Just like you would have a get man and a, uh, uh, uh,

when the fire and a Charlie Wilson and, uh, uh, that man and, uh, you know, Frankie Beverly, let me do this man. Yeah, that's cool. We on the show, but not in the, I'm feeling to kill you on the show.

“Trying to mop the floor with them. So I, that's how I, that's how I became such a, uh,”

in Tits in a Tane of Man is in learned from them. It's like, even if you don't know my music, I'm a substitute to where you go dance and learn all these dances. By the time I'm finished, it's from them guys, just they ain't playing old games. Yeah, like, I would imagine that they could do a show and not even perform the music, but the, the, the, the interstitial talking stuff was so engaging

that the audience was just like, I don't know who this guy is. It's amazing. Man, we were just talking

back about a simple extent to you. She had so hard even in. It meant she didn't. She used to bring a donor on the stage and she would like put it like, like a powder donor and she'd be like, just such a such a such and when your man came home, he looked like he had a powder donor. If you put a donor that I'm trying to go crazy, bro, this random stuff like that. Oh, man. They knew how to tell that story and how to sell it, bro. Yeah. So this was, this was basically the

Chetlin circuit. Chetlin circuit. Yeah. So like, what was some of the, the bigger markets in the

“Chetlin circuit for you? For me, man, I mean, honestly, I mean, for just in that time. It wasn't even”

that far, bro. Like, if you hit a van rouge, Mississippi, and maybe Texas are used in your mind, you was rocking their room. Yeah. So I was just opening up for these local shows and stuff and I thought I was killing the bro. You thought you were killing it. And then you dropped the cup of shuffle. Right. So like, talk to me a little bit about how, because again, we were talking off of camera. And you said the cup of shuffle was a Zidico song, or supposed to be Zidico.

Like, for the, for the audience who might not be familiar with the term, what is Zidico music? Zidico music, man, is like, you know, Creole-based man, and it's heavily influenced with the accordion, heavily influenced with a lot of percussion in the Rubin board. It traditionally was sang in French. Oh, wow. So it was a lot of French, you know, back in the day, you know, when the shifts came, do, man, I brought everybody was coming from that way, a lot of them. The

initial language was French. Yeah. But it was broken French, and so on and so forth. So they sang in that kind of way. The tempo is kind of similar to Cupid shuffle, and it's super big what we

throw. Yeah. My home girl, shout out to Toya. She was from Houston. And she's the one of the first

people I heard mentioned that, mentioned that genre to me. And I was like a sounds like a prescription drug, personally. But that's jamming. You know what I'm saying? Man, I mean, once you get involved, man, it's, once you get into a man, you know, dance for hours. And a Cupid shuffle, like you were saying, was supposed to be a Zidico song. And I was like, my initial goal, but I couldn't find any artist to play the accordion only. So my producer, you know, I was like, look, man, we're going to drop this

regardless. And you know, we need to get the accordion, we need to do, you know, put the sound,

“silently make it a certain type of way. But I think that's, maybe one of the best things because”

I think in a way, if there was a accordion initially, it may not have, you know, been as big because I think what I dropped it. Well, I dropped that. Nobody even knew what to classify it at. Right. And that feeds into another question I'm going to ask you later, which is about just DJing and playing at parties and stuff. But my back, go on. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, I'm just, so that was, you know, it was supposed to be a Zidico song. And I got said in lyrics, they say,

I'm a rapper, but I say no, they say what you're doing, trying to do some Zidico. Zidico, right? That's when I was trying to do, and, um, it worked out the way it was supposed to do. It really did because, man, you took over the world. And Genius Kitchen annotations, right? It's trying to do some Zidico. If you're a Genius annotator out there on the internet. So, you drop a cup of shuffle. Right. You change the world. You change a lot of it. And you also

your genre or is it? Well, well, we were younger. Of course, we dove into the old people music.

“It's what we call it. But imagine being 20 years old trying to make”

shittling sort of music. Right. So, the sounds that we would hear, Sonically, and the things that we would put in it gave it more of a more up-tempo kind of vibe. That's it. And so, there's this dance in our city called Swing Out. You know how that's stepping in Chicago? Yeah. When the Lafayette, the 337 area code, we swing out. And so, everything that was in that temple was a different type of dance. And that swing out was dominant. I had a song right before

Cupid Shuffle called Swing Around the Rowsy Bro. Swing Around the Rock. That's a jam. Man, that was my biggest song. That was the song that had me going on a chitlin circuit. That was my hit. And we referenced that at Swing Out music, because it wasn't the bluesy guy, true. Kind of vibe. It was still more up-tempo, but it was useful. So, I was going to high schools perform at Swing Around the Rowsy. And yeah, kids swing it out. So, you know, Swing Out is something

coming out of that 337 area code. And it's like a happy blue gap. Did you pitch Swing Out to the labels? And they were like, "Well, I know what that shit is." They were like, "We don't know what that is. We're not doing that." Not only did they laugh at that. They laugh at that cup of shuffle. Like, let's, let's, let's be honest. We talking 2,000 in 7. I want you to really think about what that music industry was in 2,000. I'm like, "Yeah, I know exactly where I was."

And every and/or, every record company in the world was like, "Man, it's got to be the goofy stuff I've ever heard." And so, yeah, I tried to pitch Swing Around the Rowsy. Actually,

as a second single after shuffle, then it was like, "Man, you crazy." I show my heart,

you think we've been to put a sludge behind it. But, um, so it was a lot of things, you know, I went through, but Swing Around the Rowsy is a regional hit. If you put up to Louisiana and then play that, man, they're a little crazy. A regional hit and just a jam, play it. Go, spin it right in the positive show, listen to this song and come back, trust me. All right. So,

“this is a show about rap. So, I have to ask you this obligatory question. Have you ever rap?”

They say, "I'm a rapper." But I say, "No, I'm a rapper." Answer the song. Answer the question and sound for it. Oh, ever, no, bro. Being a young, black kid singing over rap beats. Oh, god. Yeah, you rap. They

will always rap all day. You're a rapper. And furthermore, if you get in trouble, you're going to

be a rap. Oh, there. There you go. I didn't help it by backing you know the way I dressed. Clearly, I was a head on the hat. I had on the hat with the jersey flip back now with the wristbands. We know, you know it. So, um, I always wanted to rap, bro. I always wanted to rap, but I don't think I would fit anywhere. You know? I think the, but I think that your whole thing is not even about fitting in, but it's about making other people gravitate towards you. Like you stand out in a lot of ways that

I don't know. It's, it's almost inspirational. Like a dance rapper. Yeah. Exactly. I don't know who else would be in that category, but like, you know, you got to link up a catering honor or something. Yeah, y'all don't want to do anything. But so you said, uh, the styling lot, Lafayette, Lafayette, Lafayette, I was my, my pronunciation just messed up. But you said it's Idaho and swing out. Um, has Louisiana bounce, New Orleans, bounce influence your style. Oh my god. Like back in the day that New Orleans

dudes was famous to us. We two, I was a way. So, part is in crime. DJ Jubilee, cash money. Um, I mean, the list goes on and fit while we be resting piece, um, maybe that bounce music. Yeah. Bounce music penetrated because like even in Ohio, I'm from Cincinnati, that DJ Jimmy, when they act, or where they act, that's, we had to write the eight-minute club mix. DJ will put that shit on and just write it right. They're running to the other mixes. The, uh, the remix,

“uh, I forget the women's name, but you know, if you want to see some shaking, pull up into one of”

them. I'm telling you, it's nothing like you, man. So, that was a heavy influence for me, 'cause that was our superstar. So, of course, I wanted to be like them, you know, was, yeah, that, yeah. Yeah. So, this is a similar question. But are there any rap songs you think that could use a lot of dance? Like current ones that you can hear? Um, uh, uh, it's a tough one. No, funny, funny. I, I, I, I would love to see, and this might be crazy. But I would love to see,

I, I forgot, I don't know the name of the song about Chief Keith. The, um, the, um, but I would love to see a drill line. A drill line dance would go. Just, yeah. Just because people say drill,

together, doing that? So, I'm just going to cast cover. The sexy drill is popping off,

“cast cover, and we might need to make that happen. I would love to see, I'm, I'm sure of a”

crazy viral. Yeah, what? I can say what? Like you can see, go to drill club and, our club, what he playing drill and everybody just saw the, the glumes just start hitting others. Have you seen the, the people that choreographed a dance to the long order theme song? Yeah, that is wild. I kind of like it. I'm not going for it. Yeah, it's hard. You know, I ain't gonna lie. They didn't lie dancing to everything right now, right? Yeah, I went into club

one day and saw a lie dance for busy body. But, um, I did this par wall and no, and maybe I think, but a busy body, busy and, um, in mouth. So it's like, I don't know what happened, but one day

somebody pressed the line dance button and the world opened up. And here we are, you know, saying,

but within that rap has a lot of beef. Beef happens in rap. Is there a line dance beef? It's man. There he is. Like anything else, man. There he is. I'm not involved. Okay. Okay. You know, but yeah, it's some cats, man. Like, it's, it's, it's not really line dance beef with the artists, right? It's line dance beef with a lot of these dance clubs. Like, you might have the, the, the red steppers and the blue steppers and the green steppers and

the sun. So, and they come out and they dance. It's a group of those. Okay. I, yeah, keep going.

“I keep going. I was gonna admit it. I'm about, you're breaking my brain. That's why I don't”

know if you see my face. I'm like, I see. It's like you're like, well, lined up dance clubs, like, man. So it's line dance groups. And they're all over the south, all over the, through the east, where it'll be 50 people. And they're the sun, so steppers. I'm just throwing so riders or whatever. Yeah. And they'll go out and they'll dance. But then you have another group who will dance now. Well, we started doing line dance. And it was unity. But as of late, social

media and everybody getting, you know, what they brought, like, man, you have two groups that will be beef and they'll go at it. That's crazy. Like, I'm filled on a YouTube rabbit hole one night of just Chicago steppers. And they had like, a big ball room. And it's like, like, stepping groups. So I would kind of was prepared for to hear that. But it's still broke my brain in the way, like, lion dance clubs. I'm imagining assuming people like travel. Oh, I'm talking about

fancy shirts, colors, bandanas, tie to the boots and different colors. They in the green, they go orange. They wear red. Oh, it's, it's, it's real. Which that means we got to go to a cup of concert. We got to go to a cup of chef as a family. Okay, play every going to a cup of show. Yes, indeed. But okay. So the, the last wrap comparison I want to make is the big three. Is there a line dance big three? And is it cute? A cute, a cute, a cute, a cute bit. So the thing,

I'm not trying to get, I'm not trying to get one of those spicy tanks, but I'm trying to get one of those spicy tanks. I have to have some beef. I'm not even going to believe it. So now, man. So honestly, bro, it all started with it. So the big three would be me. Well, initially it's Casper, Casper, or arrested. We're gonna get, oh, get Casper. Cute bit, and big moochie. Big moochie is the guy who made the biker shuffle. I don't know the biker shuffle. Yeah, he's the biker shuffle. And I big moochie

been doing, it says the 90s man. And I think every song he makes is like us, is on my dance. It's like call the response. Casper was the big dog. But before Casper passed, Casper kind of had a conversation

“with me. And he was like, look, you're going to have to hold his nine dance thing down. And that's why”

our own, the nine dance king so much is because Casper was that guy, but he's, he and I were communicating a lot. And he was like, you know, you got to be the king of this and take it to the next level. So that's the big three Casper cubic big moochie. And Casper's from Chicago, right? Chicago, man. Yes, indeed. Okay, this explains it. For the longest time, I thought you were from Chicago. Yeah, everybody. I had it mixed up. Because again, like, I know the Chicago has like such a huge

stepper scene. I know that just in Detroit, they got the house dancing. So in my mind, it was just like, oh, the Midwest is where kind of, I just, I overlook the South and I'm sorry. I want to apologize to you. I'm sorry for overlooking the South. But yeah. Oh, man, no, everybody thought that man,

when I first came out, he from Chicago. But, um, no, man, old Casper bro, Casper was the guy.

So Casper, you and Big Moochie. All right, I got, I got to check out Big Moochie. I didn't know about the motorcycle show. Oh, yeah. He's a biker, actually, too. So, man, he got the whole biker community. Oh, yeah. And that's the whole other thing. It's just to my god, Joe Scudder. He told me, my friend told me I got to get a motorcycle. And I was like, I'm, I, because I ride a bike everywhere. He's like, you got to get on that motorcycle wave. And biker stuff is a thing. It's huge.

All right, so getting out of rap and into line dancing, which is rap adjacent, why are you here?

asking this because as a DJ, sometimes I find it hard to mix out of line dance songs and go to

other things. Right. Is line dancing like an island into itself? Should it be? How do I, I guess this is a question for me to answer on my own. I'm trying to figure out how to integrate line dancing better into DJ sets. Right. Like what? I'm sorry. I was going to say, was, have you heard any like cool blends of your songs? Like a cup of shuffle blend that blends like, takes it out of the, the Zydeco context a little bit. I've heard it being, I've heard it

mixed with swag syrup. I've heard it mixed with that party like a rock star. I've heard, I've, you know, tempo wise. What I've tried to do to me with line dance music is because I wanted to only people who have more than one. I try to make it sonically easy for DJs to mix them in. For instance, the flex record. The flex. I know that that can go into a million other records. You know, with that, from that, that usher in city girl's record. So on and so forth, like on the BPM side,

“then you got the cookout that can go into like more of a track kind of vibe. I think what happened”

with line dance was it never had a sound. It was just we're going to dance it as song. And my goal

has been to make sonically good music, bro. Like sometimes the old school, um, line dance songs, they were nothing you would play in the car. Yeah. So I'm like, if you can make these songs sound sonically good enough to be able to be to mix in a set, it could fit and it would be more of a thing. But to ask you a question in detail, I don't think line dance right now has a specific sound. Okay. That's, so I'm kind of my assumption was kind of correct. My struggle, my internal battle,

my cerrado struggle was was was was right. Okay. So my next question is your album, the king of army, the king of line dance, not army. That's Bobby Brown. But the king of line dance, you have 15 songs and they touch 15 different genres or so. And each of them have

it has a line dance. So when you're writing these 15 songs, are you developing 15 line dances at the

same time? Yeah. You like, are you making the dance and the song simultaneously? Like you programed a kick, didn't get up and black. All right, none of this. Right. That's 100% right. That's incorrect. Yeah. Yeah. Like, like, like, with flex, I remember getting in there with flex playing

“the chords. And then I came over with the hook then I was like, okay, how am I doing the dance?”

So that's okay. Right from that time. So I'm thinking about how do I make right foot left foot turn. Sonically sound correct. Left leg. So I'm putting the dance together. But every time I do a step, it's like, I'm creating the lyrics in my head. Because you want to tell the people what to do. Yeah. But you don't want it to sound quality. Right. So, um, you know, do I say turn? Do I say spin? Do I say something that Sonically rhymes at the same time? That's the challenge. And that's

why people ask me to do features or they'll call me and say, man, write me a line dance. I'm like, oh, you know, I got to put a dance to that too. Yeah. And that's a whole different part of the song. Right. You know? And so like, even within that, there's, like, there's this complex nature between writing a song and the choice of words that like, I don't think a lot of people understand. And this is why like, people who say pop, they don't like pop music,

come on. You don't have to like pop music, but you got to understand a great pop song is perfectly engineered in the same way McDonald's friend Friday is. Like, that is market tested that meant to succeed. So for you to be able to write a song while you're simultaneously making a dance and making choices with the beat and the lyrics. Like, you're Albert Einstein edition. And you're like an inventor after this. Thank you, man. It could get frustrating. It

could get frustrating, man, because when you watch people dance, everybody moves, you know, like, like, if you step with your right foot, you can't step with your right foot again. Yeah.

“You have to step with your left. So everybody moves in a way that, you know, that's this, like,”

like, all the same way. How do you take that and make that and take those movements and make people want to move in a direction or way simultaneously? That's not going to have them confused. Yeah. And that's, it's tough. But it's easier than it looks, but it's not easy at all. There's this DJ Casper edit that I've seen online where it's just like, it just keeps saying to the left. Yeah. Have you seen this? We're just like to the left.

Yeah. To the left. To the left. That's what this hilarious. Yeah. But within that, it may be one of like, do, where did you get the choreography skills from? Like, are you, you said you used to dance when you were like younger? So it kind of just was the natural thing. In them clubs, bro, being in them clubs, man. You know, DJ Jubilee is one of the artists we have

I got that from just being in the clubs, man. Dancing every week, watching people dance, you know. And then, too, like, I understand that people want to dance. But so many people are free to dance. They are free. Like, it's like, I don't, people say, actually, dance. So I'm not going to try it. So by me telling you the instructions, you are like, it's like, you know, like a heavenly voice. To the right. And you know, psychologically, you have more comfortable doing it. Because I'm telling

“you what to do versus getting out there and feeling like you just lost. So that's why I think”

I get so much support. It's because you're basically telling people what to do. It's like that

Jamie Fox, a bit like, I have become. All right. So this one, this one is a kind of spicy question. I go front, most spicy. All right. Who's more important to the lion dance community? The dance instructors on YouTube or the DJs? Oh, me. That's important. That's cool. I got my opinion. That's cool. I got my opinion. Me. That's got to be one A and one B. One A. Okay. All right. Because I credit all my success to both of them. Yeah. Like, I made flex during COVID. So everybody was in the house.

Yeah. And people asked me, how did you make that sound blow up without anybody being outside? It was that structure. And it was them DJs, man. You know what, man? I can't get in trouble without what I can't say that one. I don't you do that one. I'm going to say that the YouTube lion dancers.

“I'm saying this to camera too. The YouTube lion dancers are probably more important in this”

conversation. Yeah. Shout out to all the DJs I am a DJ. But I've seen a dance floor just clear when they don't know what to do with the music. So it's almost like, that's yeah. It's almost like not being taught a thing. You can't implement it properly. So again, like I'm being a little bit hyperbolic. I want to walk that back. But the internet's going to clip it. And then somebody watches that episode and like, oh, he walked that back. It's fine. But yeah, they're both as equally

as important. But again, I fall down a lot of YouTube rabbit holes. And there was definitely a week where I was trying to learn a lot of dances. Like, I was to me to me a thing, man. I was just about that if you learned it. I know. So I started out trying to learn boots on the ground. Right. Cool. Because you, you, you, you give the instructions. Like, I'm like, cool,

I can do your boots on the ground. Let me figure it out. I figure out like the first half of it.

And when it gets, when it gets to the turn of any lion dances, when I get kind of confused. Like, my motor skills get thrown off a little bit. See, but there's a difference in the line between a lion dance song and a song with a lion dance. Funk flex. We drop in bombs on this button. You different. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Boots on the ground is a song with a lion dance. Yeah. Cupid shuffle is a lion dance song. Got you. Chacha slide is a lion dance song. Okay. This is

that because it was created specifically to do that. Like, you wouldn't play Cupid shuffle and just ride your car. You know what I mean? I mean, you can't, you can't like pause it and turn the car. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's gonna be that. But you could lift like Boots on the ground fresh and like, you know, he'll be a great singer to me. And that was already a hit. Yeah. It was a hit. Before, and a lot of people don't know what that, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the to me,

dance is actually a country mountain dance song. So yes. Oh, yeah, my bad. So what I don't know, it's like, they are there, they're all in the lion dance lane. But some of these songs are songs that people be cool choreographers online, put dances to and then you got guys like myself and like to cast with them and say, okay, this song won't be online. It's nothing else. And that's the difference between the two. Here's a weird question. Have you ever seen somebody do some

other dance to yourself? Like they just been like freestyleism. No, not for me, not for mine. Because I say, yeah, yeah, but I've seen other songs like, man, I've seen a version of the wobble the other day at a country club, bro. It was kicking in. It was a white country club. Doing that, if I get a link from some failed shit, the ground. Yeah, but I'm like,

“that ain't the wobble that I know, that's the, you know, yeah, get your shit off. You know?”

All right. So, I learned that I tried to learn that to me a thing. And that just, you saying it's a country line dance that's been retrofitted to a song. It makes total sense. It doesn't make, like there's a fake turn that happens. Like you piece, like you get the

little juice. Listen man, always, I love that to me a song and the line dance looks crazy,

but the two things together are chaotic. It's not a read. It's not in peanut butter and jelly.

There we go. You're not learning it on the fly. You're not learning it on the fly. Absolutely not. All right.

Thank you. I feel so vindicated right now. Nobody has any idea. All right. So we were talking about this a little bit off camera, too. But line dances are popular everywhere, but I feel like they're more popular in the Midwest, South, Midwest and the South. Like on the coasts, is it true that they're a little bit less? The impact is a little bit less. You can't really have a show in some places? Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of places I haven't done shows in a while,

because they just don't have that element there. Okay. But I started to spread, like I mean from Virginia, I mean even I can Delaware stuff like that. There's their sprinkles of it, but it's real dominant, like in the Carolinas in Virginia, down in Florida, Atlanta, Georgia area, or Georgia,

and then Louisiana all up to Texas. Okay. Yeah. That's kind of like that whole. That's kind of like

the area where super dominant. So you got to come up with like a grip walk line dance for LA.

“I saw one online and then I see Snoop had a cat. I think his name is Isaiah. Isaiah J. I think”

his name on Instagram. But yeah, like I've been seeing people kind of sprinkle and try to and do online dances and put stuff together since the moment of it's here, you know? The moment of it's here. The moment of it's here, Cupid's here Snoop. He's right here. Just how that the guy? You know what I'm saying? How good the guy? Everybody's trying to, you know, and it's cool, man, because people want to dance, you know, that West Coast vibe they got

their own sounds, so it'll be cool to see them stepping on stuff that, you know, they're vibe, you know? I love that West Coast ship. That Midwest in me. Midwest, Midwest, most of my Midwest, but okay, back to there. All right. So we're living through some pretty divided times. And the thing with line dance, it feels like unity. Like I would imagine in my mind that line dance gets kind of a bipartisan thing. Like you said, you're in the South. I would imagine

that some of the audience, like political views aside. Everybody knows how to do the Cupid shuffle. So I would imagine people of all sorts come to your shows. Yeah. Yeah, that was just the question. Like, is it, is it the utopia of, in my mind that it is in reality? Like, is it just like this, line dance and bring people together? It is, man, it is especially like for festivals. When I do these for large festivals, it's just different people from all. I mean, like the audience

is always just real crazy, real dispersed. Oh, I love it. Yeah. You know, I love it because, um,

you know, when you say Cupid, I ask any, like, I ask all my friends, I'm like, what would you, what would you, if you were a record executive, what would you even classify to keep a shelf of that as? I have no idea. My audience doesn't really have a face because it's just, it's like, you know, it's kind of like that. Like, you know, what to put it in, but we know we like it, and we know we want to dance together. So, people come up from all different, like ages and

groups. Well, you know, a smart record executive with a class of out of that swing out music, you could have, you could have been right here, and then do it. I want no smoke, but I want the smoke. I need the, I need the views. He don't need the views. I need the views. I need them. We're coming to the end of the interview. Um, the question I have for you now is a new bit, there were a, a new, a new segment on the show called The Big Playback, where I want to get

your opinion on a song or album that you feel is underrated, overlooked, or just play it out. You know what I'm saying? And this could be anything from your categorical or the greater

“whole of existence of music. You could say Beethoven is underrated if you want to. But,”

yeah, like, anything you want to defend? Man, um, yeah, I leave. Well, you know, I'm a 90s R&B do. Yeah. Big time, man. So it's a bunch of, um, a bunch of them 90s R&B songs that I, I feel like man should have been bigger, man. You familiar with static major? Yes. So, static, maybe one of my favorite artists, man. He's from Louisiana, right? He's from, uh, from Kentucky. Oh, Kentucky. Yeah, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Kentucky and um, you know, man. That's one of

my favorite. That's an album by this group called Player. Player who, the two of the members are now with Drew Hill. What? Yeah, uh, uh, Smoky and black and not. Smoky is with Drew Hill. Smoky and black and not with Drew Hill. When did this happen? Yeah, that, that, that, that a new Drew Hill, man. It's Cisco and jazz and Nokia and, um, and, and then to bless me. No, no, no, no, no, no. But I'm going to say it on camera because that's like two of my, one of my favorite artists. I feel like they had

“one in done album and I think that's that he made it with one of the coders with the pin and”

played that player album. It's probably one of the most open look R&B albums ever made. What's

different thing. All that. That's it. Yeah, man. So, that's one of my favorite, but I'm, I'm one

of them. I'm a B side guy. So, like any time I would get an album or some, I don't, I don't want

“to hit a man hit. I don't want to hit a B side. That's why I get my ideas from to write them. Okay.”

Okay. That's too. So, yeah, man. Shout out to players. Shout out to smoking, man. Shout out to black, bro. Y'all know what it is, man. Listen, man. Smoky has a song that was only on YouTube from, from what I can, I don't think he ever recorded it. What's up? Let's call, um, Refreshing.

Refreshing. That's it, man. I'm no man, man. Yo, oh my god.

So, I'm very excited. Hey, there with Drew Hill now. Yeah, yeah, man. And killing it, killing it, man. Shout out to Drew. Shout out to, um, to the brothers, man. I'm, yeah. All right, I, I got a calm down. You just, I'm so excited. All right. Boy, Jay, I'm, bro. And closing. I was going to ask you to help me come up with the things with a, a line dance for the show. Like, I figured podcast.

“Let me just rewrite, bro. Podcast are traditionally a sedentary kind of thing. You know what I'm saying?”

You listen to them like you're typing, driving or doing your dishes. So, I was like, maybe we can

get people to get up and dance. But in light of you telling me how difficult it is to not only compose the song, make the dance, pick the words. I'm not going to belittle your talent in that way. You know what I'm saying? That, what I will ask you is, do you got a new line dance you can show me? I do, bro. I got, um, I got two. I got one called Flakes and I got one called Cook Up. I'm, I think I'm sure you cook out for Cook Up. I'm more rationed. Okay. Yeah. Shostabun, be Paul Waldy,

in the video. I need a trail burger and a grill. Come through, get me the Texas starter kit. But yeah, keep it. Thank you so much for stopping by, man. It's been a great conversation. Thanks, man. I appreciate the platform, bro. Big fan, much love, man. For real. Yeah, bro. That means a lot. Once again, shout out to Cuba for dropping by the table to chop it up with me. He actually showed

“me how to do the cookout. And if you want to see that footage, you got to wait till the credits roll.”

The Armanac of Rap is created and hosted by Don Will. Executive producers are Don Will. ICCA and Travis Harris. The show is directed by Travis Harris. The show is produced and edited by Colby Balfour. Art Direction for the show was handled by Kaushik Karadindi. The production coordinator is Bianco Ortiz. Audience development is handled by Hassan Sproul and Ashana McCullen. The show's camera operators are Travis Harris. Colby Balfour, Trigger Bowden, and Compton Timber Wolf.

Graphic Design was done by Jefferson Harris. Compton's also our technical director and audio engineer. The show's associate producers are Brianna Harris, T.R. Jackson and Javans Stephenson. The show's theme music was provided by Vaan Pea. The show is written by Don Will and Peter Barry. Run up and then you just say "Huddle". Then you go and do your little thing and then the last move will be step back until the right day three times. One, two, just like the whole step, three,

and in turn, and then you repeat. Okay, I saw a lot of information. I don't know. I don't know. Five, six, seven, thank you. Got a rock. Young Brown in his way. You go like, "Oh, like you Mary Jay." In the next step, two times in a row. To the left, we need to do it all night. Run up and then you run up. Run up. Run up. Let's see if you've got a rock. Got a rock. Got a rock. Got a rock for back. One, the Rock for back time. Rock for back, three times. Then you turn right on.

That's all for this week. Thank you guys for watching and I'll see you guys next time on the Almanac of Rap.