An in depth look at Biting among other things by BBoy Mantis (serious dialogue)

[lil_crooked]

its gotten to the point now where original, creative bboys are looked up to more so than they were before. its like the argument of free will - if you are good, that means you are extra good, but u have the choice of being bad. if you are a creative bboy, its extra points because you fought the temptation of being of biting. because as you say, everyone is clones of each other, the ones who arent are heros. the clones are just followers of their heros.

whether one says battles have become boring is a matter of one's own opinion. i think the way forward is to battle more worldwide. it's becoming easier as transport becomes cheaper, safer and easier. i find international battles very interesting, for examples, uk champs, freestyle session, the load of recent small battles in france. i personally would love to travel more with my crew and battle more in other countries. you said bboys had fun back in the day when you guys were training, and creating your own style. bboys still have fun! thats why everyone is still doing it right?

i say bboying is evolving to a much more stricter form of dance. a univeral 'style' or basic 'style' is growing. thats the way its gotta go. i know many people will disagree with this, but it cant stay underground and changing forever. we already have this thing called 'foundations' and as the rules of these foundations grow, it means bboying is taking a stronger root. bboying is so young and so there's no way to tell whether bboying will stick around forever. bboying will survive by becoming a more structured dance, its inevitable. i dont think it'll happen in our generation or even our lifetimes, but it will happen unless it disappears completely. the 'clone' style as you've put it, is from bboys who are young or arnt destined to become great bboys. they are just doing the basic and not exploring the dance itself. they will not change bboying but they are the mass of people who do bboy, because they do the basic. im sure it was much more interesting when towns and districts had their own styles, but it just shows how young bboying was then and you're looking at the picture too small. you were watching bboying expanding and growing. although bboying is still growing and evolving, its reached a certain maturity because of the sudden fashion trend and because now the whole world has contributed to its growth.

maybe it IS time for bboying to go back in time a bit. maybe bboying has grown too quickly in the last 5 years. maybe its time to go back to the roots and and taking things back before moving on again. someone i know said that bboying will be out of fashion again within the next 5 years. maybe thats the time when we can start to control the bboying world again and take things back to teach the everyone what bboyin really is and was. but it will be very difficult while bboyin is still at the peak of fashion and while all the bboys are spread all over the world. time will tell whether bboyings evolving in the right way.

im not trying to justify people who bite. biting is bad. most bboys and people know this. im just trying to explain why it seems to evident, and why its seems a big enough problem for a discussion to be held about this. its just a natural tempatation and the people who do bite are the ones who succumb to the temptation. the real heros in the bboy world and this life, are the ones who don't and they are the ones who come out on top. so i say dont worry, keep your interests in bboying wide as possible, ignore the ignorant, and try to avoid the 'o well, back in MY day...' complex. the world changes and so must we learn to tolerate.

lil C

[lil_crooked]

appreciate anyone who can actually b bothered to read all of my response

lil C

[Simeon]

I did, it was a good post, and Im on the same line as you are. Everyone just was not ment to do anything extra special, like once I heard this one guy say:"I bite sets coz I dont think Im up for making my own, I leave it to the professionals" Now I myself was like WTH?! but then I realized, he didnt bother to try, coz he didnt have the courage or the self esteem to try. Some do, some dont, some will.

But anyways, I know this is kinda off topic, but kinda not. If you havent noticed the oil recourses are going to peak this year, it means theres more demand than there is product. That means that oil prices will start to rise quite quickly, and that means that traveling will cost more and more, when only carrying recourses from one place to another becomes more important than your holiday to cobaca bana. So, if things turn out as every sign shows, bboying will be underground faster than expected, though who knows what will happen to the internet, it probably will stay, though only in countries that get enough energy from non-oil recourses..

[lil_crooked]

thanks simeon and i agreed with everything you said in the last post btw

lil C

[mantiis_en_zk]

I heard this one guy say:"I bite sets coz I dont think Im up for making my own, I leave it to the professionals" Now I myself was like WTH?! but then I realized, he didnt bother to try, coz he didnt have the courage or the self esteem to try.

YES! This is what I am talking about trying to fight! See I am not so much worried about those who already have a thought out opinion on biting. It is the kids like that kid that I want to reach and make them understand that you can make up your own stuff. and also that professionals are just like you and I.

There is a very important phase to get past in bboying. Eventually you have to get past looking up to famous bboys as untouchable superstars! The only thing that seperates you from them is not knowing them. They could be your crewmate, your childhood buddy, or your new best friend. All it takes to get into a video is to just show up, battle, and do well. When I first first started we looked up to them like famous people. I very quickly got over it, and I am sure that was to the relief of people who stayed with me when they were in Rochester (Moy, Liljohn, Kujo, Iron Monkey, Doknock, the list goes on). There was this kid who was like a total fanatic and came to the friggin grocery store with a video camera to get moy n john on tape when we met up with the promoter. It was just plain annoying and creepy. BBoying does not have a super professional circuit where people make tons of money, therefore everyone is on the same level competing for the same prizes. Anyone who acts like a big headed superstar is just an asshole. If they don't have time to talk to the average kid, then screw them. There is no "I am too famous to talk to you" level. But a lot of kids act too much like fanatics and it scares people away from actually having down to earth serious conversations with fans. I treat everyone I meet in the BBoy community the same. I encourage everyone to do that as well.

I had said somewhere else that it is funny that when you are getting good, you are always trying to "catch up" to the people who inspired you and you looked up to. Those are the people you want to talk to, etc. But once you are a really good bboy, it is the KIDS that will start looking up to YOU. You are in the same position that those guys you looked up to were when you were starting. Now kids look up to you and if you don't realize that and set an example it can be harmful to their development. (after all you wouldn't want YOUR idols blowing YOU off.)

But back to the subject of biting: I want to make kids understand that you don't HAVE to bite. If they need a better explaination I am happy to answer PMs. I have already and it seemed to help.

[mantiis_en_zk]

Oh and furthermore this is also why people who don't bite come into their own fame eventually.

If you look at bboys as "professionals" just because they are respected... The how would you get to an even level with those guys? If you simply pick one of them and bite their shit, then you can't simply replace them, because they are still there. By being an original you secure your own place right NEXT to them in your OWN spot. They will be able to respect YOU because you have come up with things that they never did and they are amazed by YOU.

[shaggy_man]

Dude plain and simple you are a bboy,that alot of bboys should look up to and admire your wisdom and knowledge of what bboying is,i never met u,and i must say i have such high respect for you just from your veiws on all this

[dayreck]

Mantiis whats your addy I'm gonna send you some toblerone and an Oscar for best bboy. Well its also made out of chocolate but you can just keep the foil or something.


ALL OF YOU BITERS: STOP BITING.

[bboyTITS]

some of your points are well stated. but you have to let some "mimicing" of moves just for the actual development of the dance... every other type of dance has certain moves that are taught an learned exactly the same way... but are they callled "bitters'??"....(example" leaps and turns in balie")

[erwin123]

When is a move considered as a bboymove and reconized.

Back in the days Benji was the shit , but all he did was joga tricks and airchairs not 1 person told him where is your foundation every1 cheerd and wanted him to visit there events. (same with ruen)..ruen is dacing for a few years, all he did back in the days was power, now he is starting to dance more. but still every1 praised him like best of best.

How can some1 who didnt do his homework become best of best, we are all quilty.

because kids that start bboying now will buy a tape seeing benji do tricks and they will thinks thats bboying.

[B-Boy Z.E.D.D.]

^myself i don't believe in "breakdance moves"
I mean...everything yo do to the beat and expresses you feeling is bboying for me.
Benji does bboying
KYS does bboying
Bruce does bboying
Different styles..but all breakdance..but heah u true..what right do we have to say ppl have no foundation while we're chearing for bboy's that have no fucking clue what foundation is

[erwin123]

Another example k-mel said this one time:

The difference between a b-boy and break-dancer? Well a break-dancer is going to have no style and no originality but they're probably going to have some incredibile dynamic shit that people can't do because they practice so hard. A bboy ain't going to care about a dynamic move they're going to care about a dynamic style." -Kamel (Boogie Brats).


But k-mel & ruen danced in the same team at Bboy Summit 9, So according k-mels words ruen is a "" Breakdancer"& k-mel is a ""Bboy"". because we all know ruen do only power that most cats cant do.