Rize Page #3

you have tap...

and this is all those

prestigious academies...

you can go to.

It's nothing like that

available to you...

when you live where we live.

I grew up around here...

Menlo, Normandie...

I grew up in this area.

It's real hard for kids like me,

'cause, OK, you have school.

You go to school,

but you have gangbangers...

and you can't even wear

certain colors around here.

So you tend to have an outlet...

and sometimes...

well, most of the time...

your outlet is music.

This is where a lot of music...

And you just think

of stuff in your head...

it goes through your mind...

and a lot of times,

dancing comes out.

When you know

that there's a krump session...

me, myself, and I know

a lot of people...

will stop whatever is going on

if there's a gathering...

because it's the spirit

that's there.

There's a spirit in...

In the midst of krumpness...

there is a spirit there,

you know.

A lot of people think

it's just, you know...

"Oh, they're just

a bunch of rowdy...

"you know, just ghetto,

just heathen and thugs."

No. No, what we are

are oppressed.

It's more of the...

not the black sheep...

but just a raw version.

Like, you have organized ball,

then you have street ball.

Krumping is the street ball.

You have a boy who gets krump...

and just coincidentally,

his girlfriend gets krump.

They face off. It's the

classic battle of the sexes.

And that's what makes it like...

"Oh, my God.

Females do this, too?"

It looks like we're

fighting somebody...

but we're not fighting anybody.

Like, you can push somebody,

but they see nothing of it.

Fighting is the last thing

on our mind when we're dancing.

It is the last thing.

The style changes,

believe it or not, every day.

Every day, the style changes.

And if you haven't

danced in two days...

if you come to a krump session,

we're gonna know.

"What did I miss?"

"You've been slacking off.

Go home."

Once you see the real thing...

you're gonna know

it's the real thing.

You're gonna know.

You're gonna be, like, "That has

to be the real thing...

"because I will never see

anything like this again."

When they dance,

you know it's on.

Especially if you have somebody

that's wildin' out like...

krumping themselves out.

It gets the girls more amped...

to get out there

and handle their business.

Some of us may look gritty.

Some of us may not have

the prettiest smiles.

You know what I'm saying?

But we are krumping.

That's the part

of what makes us krump.

It seems

a little bit aggressive...

but it's a good way

to take out your anger...

when you go through stuff

in your personal life.

But say people have problems...

you know, didn't get this,

didn't get that.

Short on this bill.

Short on that bill.

Just the fact

that you can get krump...

you can channel that anger.

Anything negative that has

happened in your life...

you can channel that

into your dancing...

and you can release that

in a positive way...

because you're releasing it

through art, the art of dance.

This is our ghetto ballet.

This is how

we express ourselves.

This is the only way

we see fit of storytelling.

This is the only way of making

ourselves feel like we belong.

If I know someone is looking

at me, it's gonna be hard.

Some people can't dance if they

have someone looking at them.

But if you know there's a mask

sort of covering your face...

you know, then you feel that

it's just you by yourself...

and that your identity

is hidden...

so you can dance

as freely as you want to.

There's not just a bunch

of people acting wild.

This is an art form.

It's just as valid

as your ballet...

as your waltz,

as your tap dance.

Except we wouldn't have

to go to school for this...

'cause it was already

implanted in us... from birth.

Tell us what's happening.

What happened? Tell me.

She just struck.

It's what

we all been waiting on.

Yep.

She has reached...

That's what all of us

been waiting on.

I marked my grandfather.

That was the first battle

I really won.

Before he a preach...

he would sing a song, "Lord,

Lift Me Up and Let Me Stand."

So I just followed

the words to that song...

but I was really dancing to

the song that I was dancing to.

But I was just... In my mind,

I was dancing to those words.

I live with Reverend Turner.

He was always there.

I miss my family...

because that is my family,

my blood family.

But on the other side,

I still...

when I need

a family to go to...

I have my church family

to come to.

Clown groups are,

in a real sense, like families.

We laugh together.

We cry together.

We go through... Whatever

one person goes through...

that whole group

goes through it.

Me and my homie,

Baby Tight Eyez...

we went to school together.

He played instruments,

and I was always dancing.

It was this one performance...

when I got into this whole

clown dancing thing.

I was just beginning.

I seen him perform...

and I was already labeled

as the tightest clown dancer.

I said to myself,

"I want him to be under me.

"I wanted to take him under

my wing so I can train him."

'Cause I think he got potential

to be just as tight as I am...

because I see some

of my characteristics in him.

I knew about his background

before I knew him...

'cause people would tell me,

"This dude has problems.

"He doesn't go to school.

He has no clothes.

"His brother stays

in and out of jail."

I used to be like that.

My moms, she... she in jail.

She in jail 'cause...

she don't wanna live right.

She been smoking dope

for as long as I know...

since I was a baby,

since before I was born.

He's had a lot of obstacles.

His mom, um,

had a drug problem...

and he's had to face a lot of

challenges as a young person...

more so

than the average young person...

who has the advantage

a having a mom who was sober...

or a dad who was sober.

He calls me mom, you know...

but not just his mom,

his play mom...

but I'm proud to be his pastor.

My dad, he was my idol...

'cause I never saw

a man do so much...

and make so much

of the day like he did.

I saw him

as a father figure...

and a role model

at the same time.

He was my friend, also.

I see, like, lights

flashing in the back.

Then my mom comes,

and she's telling me...

she's like, "I'm gonna tell you

your dad committed suicide."

You know...

shot hisself in the head

in the backyard.

You know, came home,

we found him like this.

He was the only child

that kept it...

kind of quietly inside of him.

I felt as if...

I was his only child

that didn't cry...

you know, at the funeral

like everybody else did.

I didn't, you know,

rant and rave.

So for a long time,

I thought, you know,

does that mean

I loved him any less?

And I realized

it doesn't mean that.

It's just that everybody

mourns in a different way.

I've been in a lot

of family situations.

I've been shot

by a family member.

My grandfather

shot me in my arm.

Right here.

Went in through this way

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