After nearly 25 years of creation, experimentation, application, and evolution in Memphis Jookin, Daniel Price has stamped his name in all the aforementioned street dance development categories. The latest era of his production is the method of Generalizing Rhythm: processing and embodying the style's motions, levels, and detailed accents into a global symbolic language system.
Looking back at the 1980s into the early 1990s, the world witnessed the evolution of the sound known as Gangsta. The origin of the Hip Hop sound introduced a signature drum and bass scheme that delivers a rhythmic bassline followed by a hard snare, leading to a breakdown that starts the loop over again. This was not indigenous to one city. Gangsta Rap became a natural adaptation of urban youth in big cities. The sound continued to unveil different shades of its seemingly limitless potential. As it developed in real-time, the national connection was not yet in full view.
In New York, LL Cool J and his music producers were among the first to enter this sound pattern. His 1985 album, Radio, relates to G-Rhythms with several hits that left skating rink dance floors in the South in frenzies in 1987. In a Jooker's ear, singles like "I Need A Beat," "I Can't Live Without My Radio," and "You'll Rock" were made for the original style. His lyrics were loud and synced into the popping snares that ignited the rhythm of the cymbals cast over the looming bassline. It was faster than the Memphis rap that evolved the dance style of Memphis Gangsta Walk into Memphis Jookin. However, its layers are the basis and foundation of the very sound Memphis Rap used to develop its own Hip-Hop subgenre in the early 1990s. Early versions of the sound were courted by upcoming Memphis DJs, developing a natural curiosity about what moved them. It would be a few more years before Memphis Rappers led the new frontier.
Though one of the most popular, LL Cool J wasn't the only artist Memphis dancers could research today to find interesting ways to express Jookin in its natural form before its evolution. In 1986, producers for the rap group The Showboys created the Triggerman beat for the timeless urban hit "Drag Rap," which set a fire under dancers from Memphis to New Orleans. On the West Coast, the late Eazy-E had an overall sound that makes you want to Gangsta Walk if you know how. His beats and style were as signature as LL Cool J's sound but from a different musical historical location. Their sounds encompass the G-Rhythm format that led to Memphis Rap. The duo Rodney O and Joe Cooley offered a variant quality of the sound that was hard enough to make you "get buck" when they released the records "Everlasting Bass" and "Nobody Disses Me" from their debut album, Cooley High, in 1988.
It wasn't until the late 1980s that the world experienced the cultivated process that birthed Memphis-born creators of the Gangsta sound. This was found in the music of DJ Spanish Fly when he released Unfinished Business in 1987. His music is cited as a hybrid mixture of electro-funk and Gangsta rap, revealing the infinite purpose of funk styles and Jookin style evolution using G-Rhythms. Two original Memphis singles from the album that stayed in cultural rotation are "Smoking Onions" and the time's newly founded cultural phenomenon, "Gangsta Walk." His rendition of "Drag Rap" in the timeless Memphis Rap classic "Shoot Trigga Man" is noted as one of the most inspirational songs in the genre, identifying the secret ingredient to what would become a city that used lyrics from one song to create new songs.
The making of Memphis Rap created several different timelines with a new web of urban dance generations. The inception of the Gangsta Walk was based on a reliance on outside music, which became a mainstay in the culture as their creativity as dancers revolved around various tempos of their interpretation. Nevertheless, Memphis rappers stormed the city in the traditional form of Hip Hop creation stories through DJs. Skating rinks and nightclubs witnessed their adaptation of Hip Hop nightlife in Memphis. By 1989, real rappers began to make themselves known in Memphis. Over the next five years, the city began to experience the rise of a more developed sound as the now legendary DJ Squeeky was coming into view. How songs were mixed became more fashionable for Memphis dancers to turn the Gangsta Walk into a progressive urban ballet, becoming solo artists. In the wake of Memphis' music revolution, a rap group formed to express the individuality of the rising parallel dance culture. The group was called G-Style, and their all-time cultural hit "Gangsta" became a historical artifact that authenticates the style's origin in Memphis Hip Hop.
As individuals, Memphis dancers began to regenerate the essence of the style through music artists of their choosing. With the sounds of SMK, 8Ball & MJG, Gangsta Pat, Tommy Wright, Playa Fly, Al Kapone, and Triple Six Mafia, several other rappers were brought into the genre, creating a wide palette for Gangsta Walkers to develop their style without dance groups like Poppers in California did. Notably, Gangsta Pat had the most versatile sound in the early era with a West Coast sound made for Southern listeners. However, 2Pac and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony were regular alternatives in the creative process of dance in Memphis. Throughout the mid-1990s, creativity was distributed as local rap beef in the musical realm, making the clubs as rowdy as ever. Beef paved the way for the Gangsta Walk's evolution as the new generation that was entering high school teens with more youth and athleticism. They are the true pioneers of what is known as Jookin today. At that time, audio cassettes were still in rotation, so they had the entire historical collection at their disposal.
As the new millennium approached, Memphis Rap had grown in other cities' rap markets, changing the world of Memphis Urban Dance to the present day. It wasn't until the year 2000 that the Memphis rap sound became a pop culture mainstay with 3-6 Mafia's release of the album When The Smoke Clears. Included was the national hit record "Sippin on Some Syrup," which alluded to the Houston, Texas rap custom to drink promethazine and codeine, later coined as Lean. This song created the gateway for Memphis sound to become popularized in nationally produced music.
With the many subparts that created the ideal archetype of a Gangsta Walker or a Jooker, the variant musical styles of Gangsta rap can be focused on for personal productivity and growth into new levels of dance talent. The era from which Memphis Jookin rose was similar to the '80s era that featured its predecessor. The term "Get Buck" led to the term "Crunk." These terms both have indigenous roots in Memphis. The word "Crunk" was mainstreamed in Atlanta through Lil Jon and the Eastside Boyz. These energy descriptions created the style foundation chart for Memphis Urban Dance, providing perspective on how and when to move with various levels of purpose.
To the outside world, the generation that introduced the world to Memphis Jookin in 2006 was the authority on the style's creation, which was the furthest from the truth. The golden era was made up of unique idealists with different tastes in business, dance, music, and media production. Video media has been a hot topic for Memphis urban dancers since the late 1990s. Every major name in the city thrived to release their VHS tape at their local high school until home DVD production became available in 2005. The beginning of underground Memphis dance tapes dates back to 1997, featuring culturally monumental figures, Jaquency and Roland, among others from the era. These tapes were the gems that survived into the future, causing the style to reform with traditional values intact. In 2001, Bobo released Out The Frame, featuring nearly all of the current Jookers of the time, igniting a new form of competition for youth at citywide parties.
The promoter Shunn Gunn is known by some as The Godfather of Jookin. He moved from California to lead a better life and bring about change in his new environment. His company popularized Jookin on major Memphis radio stations, announcing the names of teenage kids who wanted to be the best at their artistic sport. Children who never had a chance to play basketball or football now had a chance to create their own style of Jookin and use it to achieve money and fame. Shunn Gunn Entertainment was the turning point of the era. It brought every neighborhood together to showcase a decade of cultural differentiation built into the musical DNA of four main areas in the city. Every area uniquely embodied their overall Memphis Rap musical palette. Not everyone knew about certain North Memphis or South Memphis rappers based simply on location. Music selection caused different details related to how Jookin combinations started and finished. Since there weren't many teachers from the previous eras, Jookers had to relearn the natural groove and identity that Gangsta Walkers created. It became a blessing as we witnessed the rise of Bobo, Rome & Tarrik, Twine, Kesean, Dre, and the late great legendary god of Jookin, Lil Gino.
Following the amazing introduction to the next generation in Memphis Urban dance, Jookin contests ushered in a new group even younger than the first. This era featured the one Jooker that would supersede all cultural-historical hype: Daniel Price. Shortly before his arrival on the scene, another great was already gaining heavy momentum. The late Antonio Jenkins, aka King Tudy, was the youth highlight of the next generation in the social world. He had a style that embodied an alpha figure in the dance world and exhibited an adult-like presence. DP would see him first as he entered the building where he would have his first shot at fame. The energy of this story symbolizes the entire narrative of Jookin. The feeling one gets watching 8 Mile, You Got Served, and Get Rich or Die Tryin is the feeling felt while building this culture in Memphis. Since 2001, DP has been on a mission to master the style, as he understood then what the other great Jookers knew—that being original in your delivery was key. Producing Jookin tapes was the common denominator among Bobo, Tudy, and DP as legends of the culture. They found ways to show the viewers and potential fans that we were all different and that certain versions were the best.
DP's fourth VHS tape release, Tictatious Volume 1, premiered during his senior year of high school. The massive two-hour compilation featured many of his peer inspirations at the time. The tape was the catalyst that brought Shunn Gunn to his school campus to recruit him. The media empire DP was amassing expanded his rise to victory by teaming up with Dr. Rico, Lil Gino, G-Nerd, and Lil Black over the next few years. His fame and success as a self-made local celebrity made him the primary target to help Tarrik Moore build UDig Dance Academy in 2006, which awakened a more potent cultural environment that would birth the most impactful generation in the culture's history. By 2007, digital media became increasingly prevalent, ending the old world of cultural development and introducing a global social media dynamic that changed our world forever.
