A blog by BBoy Focus of Flow-Mo Crew

Got inspired to post this after Alien Ness’ topic “give ‘em a shout out”. Hip Hop’s always been about giving credit when credit is due, you gotta give respect to get respect! The topic is about giving props to your teachers, pointing out who helped you on your way a b-boy of -girl. Also Hatsolo’s blog post got me on the mood for some classic Gangstarr

I always looked up to people who not only can break good but are able to make somebody else understand and develop, teaching is a skill that comes from experience. Also a dope bboy is not always a dope teacher hhaha. Notice that all of these, except for Zulu Gremlin, have been to Finland so once again, support your local organizer, take your workshops and pay your entrance to your local jam!

My list is long and grows every week so i’ll only name the ones who made the biggest impact:

1995-2002
Mikko Ahlgren, hhaa my first mentor, a bboy from the 1980’s Finnish scene, taught me everything he knew when I started. Also told me ” a teacher’s best accomplishment is to train somebody to be better than him”

All of Flow Mo members, some dissed me hard on the early days so I went back to the lab, worked on my weaknesses and came back stronger. Everybody who’s part of Flow Mo made a big impact on my style, we always exchange a lot, still learning today from everybody.

Quake BeefNoodles crew Sweden. A well rounded underground bboy from Sweden, took me under his wing for a while and gave me a lot of my foundation. Later he started with Kung Fu and ended up training in a Shaolin Temple in China last year.

Ata When we used to train together more, we always exchanged everything we had. A lot of talent, taught me a lot.

Freeze Big influence for the Scandinavian scene, he was over in Helsinki teaching these days, ended up traveling a lot with him and listening to what has to say about breaking and life in general.

2003-present

Poe One I’ve been lucky to have him sharing many times, learnt so much about foundation, terminology and all round approach. Great teacher.

Storm Introduced us with the pretzel / knee sweep style among many other styles of footwork which
ended up shaping my footwork in many ways.

Zulu Gremlin Here’s a definition of a good teacher, so informative it makes no sense. All round structure of the dance, all round flava.

MrWiggles Wigz came to Finland a few times to teach, inspirational speaker with so much knowledge. Learned a lot about the history from social party dances to what breaking is today.

Ken Swift Got a chance for his class at Beat Riders camp, and after went to his spot in Brooklyn. Learned a lot from him all the way from funk to making my footwork complete and powerful.

Alien Ness Taught me so much in all ways, face to face, online and on the book as well about battling, foundation, longevity, history, the list goes on. Always sharing like a great teacher should.

Like my friends know I’m a mixtape fiend. A stack on mix cd’s is essential for a decent practice session. A lot of the mixtapes I get I listen to once and they end up getting dusty while there’s some I still get back after almost 10 years.

Here’s a list of mixtapes that have influenced my dancing the most during the years, in no special order.

- Dj Leacy, Moves Per Minute: Allmusic Lovers

Got this in 2002 from UK, Leacy gave me two of his mixes for the price of one cause he was feeling our style. “You know who really took that battle”, classic words by a classic dj. All his mixtapes are classics but Allmusic Lovers especially gave me an idea what it really is to be a break dj, how a great mix is supposed to sound. Rhythmic and melodic breaks, each and every single one of them became classics after Leacy dropped them. Leacy raised the bar for break djs with skills, crazy selection, timing and originality RIP

- Dj Slynkee Rock Steady Crew: Break on the break vol 2

Got this from Bboy Summit X 2004. One hype mix that never lets a heated session down. Not a traditional mix and a little bit different from the others on this list with remixes, effects and all, but still one of the if not almost the most played mixtape of all times. Heard that Slynkee moved on to the club scene after this, haven’t seen him in jams ever since.

- Dj Skeme Richards Rock Steady Crew: Bboy Essentials vol 2

All of the Skeme’s mixes are master pieces, if I’d had to say one it would be Bboy Essentials volume 2. Banger after banger on this one, from the beginning’s latin funk all the way till the Moment of Silence for James Brown at the end. Same thing as with Leacy, Skeme is making the world follow his footprints. After this mix also a lot of these tunes have been played around the world in jams. Damn I’ve even heard a whole Skeme Richards mixtape beeing played in a jam, I guess that says it all. What’s special about Skeme is that besides being an extremely skilled and well rounded dj he’s a character as well, never hesitated to hop on the mic if the party needs to be hyped up. The world waits for Bboy Essentials vol 3!!!

- Dj Tibbz and Rome One: All mixes

There hasn’t been too many Finnish dj’s with break mixes. Early 2000’s even less, dj’s Mista Tibbz and Rome One (Flow Mo) had a monopoly status. That time also other mixes were pretty hard to get so a lot of years Tibbz and Rome were defining how we danced. My favorite is drums and more drums, still a great mix, even did a battle to in the UK once. Nokia Urban Music Festival with Ghost Crew, big stage with bboy battles and concerts. For the organizer’s surprise, the semifinals had no room on the main stage program and the battles had to be done backstage with a boombox. Somebody asked if anybody had a mix and Tibbz’s and Rome’s mix was there when you needed one. The boombox’s sound level wasn’t really on point so during the battle you could hear the other crew talking shit hahaha.

- Dj Timber Bad Taste Crew MZK: Adventures in Rhythm

The newest mix on the list. A well structured mix combining classics and unheard of breaks. Like Timber said, every break has been doubled four times to give structure on the mix. Timber is a dancer himself and you can tell it from the way he plays.

- Dj Woo-D, Horse Power Crew: Payback mixtape

The mix that for me put Woo-D on the International Break DJ map, made for the Finnish jam “Payback”. A well mixed, melodic and funky oh so funky mixtape.

- Dj Billy Brown: Sky’s the Limit

The cover art of this mix is straight terrible. Black background with a guy doing airflares with knee and elbowbads. Don’t let the cover fool you, one of the rare mixes that make you go “hey haven’t heard this one for a looong time”, track after track. A heated mix, one of my favorites to practice to.

- Dj Skeme and Rome One: Flow Mo 5 year anniversary tape: LIfetime of Soul

Another classic by two masters, a collabo limited edition mix. Skeme going all out on the mic and the turntables, Rome holding it down with his section and selection.

- Kenny Dope: Rollerboogie 80’s

Little something different, a disco mix that you won’t really practice to but more of a going home after practice on a good mood or getting ready for a party kind of a mixtape. If you were feeling the disco funk on Swiftrock’s and Storm’s videos in the 90’s, you find them all in here. Classic!

Big up also to break djs like Renegade, Element, Mercy-1, LeanRock, Cut Nice, Bles One, Cosmic, Scream, Aidan Leacy, Mr. Tee etc

The spot number ten is still open, 2010 dj’s step your game up! While we’re waiting, Nordic Moves Jam this weekend in Helsinki!

I’m sitting in an airplane back to Helsinki, back from the last trip of the year. It’s been a great year, had lots of work, trained really good, started school again and made lots of new friends. The trip back home has been the longest one in my life though. This is my fourth day traveling and finally reaching Helsinki in a few hours. The airports are in chaos on the east coast and UK, it’s weird how for us a snow blizzard is perfectly normal but can cause so much trouble for people who’re not used to it.

Travel home: Waking up 4.40 am, flight from Aruba to Miami. Renting a car in Miami, cruising around Miami Beach and staying a night in hotel. Waking up 7.15, driving to Orlando for 5 hours. Flight to Chicago, finding out my flight to London is delayed 12 hours, checking in to Sheraton hotel, gym, chicken wings and a heineken and sleep over night. Waking up 5 am, catching a flight to London. Missing a connection flight, checking in to hotel, fell asleep at 4 am. Waking up at 7 am, finding out my ticket’s been cancelled to Helsinki, catching the next flight home. Wow.

Ok back to Orlando, Fifth Outbreak was a good experience overall. The jam was thrown in a club which made the atmosphere nice and warm. My battle against Roxrite was the last thing of the weekend before the finals, so really enjoying the weekend, relaxing and chilling was kind of hard. 12 rounds is no joke so it took a lot of concentrating to get the confidence and feel: I can do this. Still caught some nice circles on day one with people like Rock Steady, Havikoro, Moy, Unique Styles etc. A.T. rocked the B-girl battles hard but lost to a Japanese girl with some flares and tricks.

Day 2. Long day with 2 on 2’s with tons of people entering. Good line up though. Most of the day I was relaxing and getting ready for the evening. I started feeling pretty confident, realized I’d done everything I could to be in good shape. Trained hard, went running, swam, went to the gym, trained fighting a bit, fixed my diet, even cut down on drinking heavily during the last 6 months. I was sick for a month during this period which cut down training but over all felt healthy and good. Also rested almost the whole week before the event. I had my girl with me and a holiday in Caribbean waiting the next day. “There’s nothing more deadly than a happy fighter”, clever words by Mike Tyson.

The battle was announced, the organizer, Mex, did it boxing style introducing me first and I walked in with N.Y. State of Mind banging on the backround. Mex wanted to introduce out “knockout record”, we both got 15 years in the game but my 39 won battles did not look too special against Roxrite’s 65, made me an undertaker in this battle and more hungry. I wonder if there’s anyone in this planet who’s won more b-boy battles than 65? If so there can’t be too many. Rox was announced and walked in with a killer squad, I was waiting on the other corner with A.T. and Ness having my back.

12 rounds, we both lasted good. Mex gave us a 2 minute break after 6 rounds, then back in action. Rox came crazy hard with confidence. original text and tons of freezes and variety, I wanted to keep it complete, dance hard and bring my ideas to the table. I was surprised that the audience was also getting hype about small details this time, the energy was on point, supporting both of us. While Roxrite had tons of fans in the audience, this was my first time in Florida so I got a chance to surprise people who hadn’t seen me before that much. Skeme Richards was living up to his name on the decks, Mr Fantastic. After the battle was over, I was just happy we both made it through.

Also was good to see a lot of OG’s come through, you had Trac-2, Dj Magic (who spun Dynamic Rockers vs Rock Steady in Style Wars), some of The Bronx Boys (NY crew dated back to no later than 1975) and original New York City Breakers like Powerful Pexter and Speedy in the building.

The next day we hit Aruba to enjoy the sun, sea and sand, celebrate the hard working year of 2009. That meant a whole lot of beaches, good food and drinks, scupadiving on a ship wreck, dancing salsa, the list goes on. Now the batteries are charged for another heavy year of adventures. I’m ready, bring it on!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everybody! For my friends thanks for being there for me, good luck all for 2010!

The intro for the battle (full footage available when the dvd comes out):

Roxrite vs Focus intro on Vimeo by Roxrite

Bugaloe bar on Palm Beach Aruba:

Over the Top 4 Poland last weekend!
Ill event with good energy:

Edit:
Decited to add my inspirations list training for this battle in no specific order:

edit: oh shit forgot about Tyson:

Edit: the list goes on

This is a dedication to the dopest bboy jam in Europe. Circle Kingz.

When we started coming up and travel Europe a little in early 2000’s, European events were more, well, events. People came from all over only for the competition, stretched on the side, did their couple of solos and went home happy. Superstars of that time were more concerned about winning the most 1990’s contest than vibing. We were looked at weird and dissed on hard when we were making circles and the most terrible, doing footwork with out a single blowup.

The difference between a jam and an event is huge. When an average person goes home from an event, all he or she remembers is whoooa that one dancer was amazing, he did this and that. When he goes home from a jam, what he remembers is the energy of the place, people gathered to have good time.

Circle Kingz is the jam that chanced Europe. Amjad, the organizer, felt the same we did. The scene was weird and needed a chance. So he threw a JAM with a very simple concept, the best djs and best bboys, the best venue and that’s it. Rest is European bboy history.

Here you are 2009, with over a hundred teams from all over the world coming to Lausanne just to qualify by rocking circles. You got people with not that many years of dancing looking for inspiration and living legends like Maurizio entering battles for the first time after 18 years, just for the fun of it. I have to admit after not going there last year and hearing rumors of the jam growing too big, I had a few doubts for this year but Lausanne proved them wrong.  CK is still the real deal, if you never went start saving your money for next year.

Next weekend Over The Top 4 in Poland, exhibition battle against Flearock SKMZ. If you’re free saturday night, check the live broadcast of the battle at www.overthetoppoland.com

Now hold up, is it even possible to have an event with a guest list like this:

ALIEN NESS usa BRUCE YKANJI fra

FOCUS fin HONG 10 kor J-SMOOTH usa

KITE jap KEN SWIFT & SEVEN GEMS usa

KMEL & BOOGIE BRAT KIDS usa KOHFIE KONNECT hol LEFTIES SOUL CONNECTION holMAURIZIO ita MARTHA COOPER usa

POE ONE usa RENEGADE uk SALAH fra

SKEME usa
AMJAD swi ASFALTE swi AT fin AYUMI japBEBE usa BIG BAND Heerlen hol BIONIC usaBLUE kor CANDY usa CHANYC kor CHUNGhol

CIRUJANO mex CHUBBY LOUIS & THE DIXIE

DUKES hol CHUNG hol C-MENT hol DIFFERkor

DJIDAWI fra DUCKY kor EYES kor FEDEL & mr AND-7 rus FLEXICAN hol FLOOR BURNIN’CREW hol FLOSKEL ger FLYING BUDDHA rus

GRACIE spa HAT SOLO fin HILL mex

HOOCH uk ISSUE kor IVAN SKI rus JAZZY IVY kor JUSTDOIT hol KATSU jap

KATSUYA jap KHALIL fra KID DAVID usa POCKET kor PRINCE jap REBEL hol ROBINrus

RYOMA jap TONY ROCK rus SHIE CHAN japSKIM kor SLIM BOOGIE usa SMURF usaSTEVE KHZ usa STYLE M kor TAISUKE japTAKASHI jap TAYA T-FLOW fin TBONE holTHESIS usa TIMBER ire TOSHIKI jap

TOYZ usa TRIX uk TUMBA fin VERO kor

VIEZE VINGERS hol WICKED hol WING korWOO D slo ZO MOEILIJK hol
YES but only IBE can make it happen. This weekend in Holland. Pre IBE interviews at http://morethanastance.com
More info at www.thenotoriousibe.com

KID GLYDE usa
KODACHO mex KOLOBOKukr KURASHIKI jap LAGAET mar LAMINE fraLIL KEV fra LOCK ‘n LOL kor LONESTAR uk

LU - CHI’SZ hol MAR jap MENNO hol MERCY ONE fin MIKE fra NAG & TWAN bel NAGI jap

NARUMI jap NASTY RAY usa NEGUIN braPANIC hol PAR TERRE / ANNE NGUYEN DANCE COMPANY fra PELEZINHO braPHARSIDE usa P-LOCK & JIMMY SOUL fraPLUTO THE PLANET ukr

Just finished a small Finland tour, three cities on one weekend. The weekend kicked off with a theatre show in the city of Tampere, followed by RedBull Streetstyle tour in Vaasa and Jyväskylä.

At Street Science festival I had a talk with the reporters of morethanastance.com, an ill US based webmagazine for bboys and bgirls. The final article is out, check the result at the website. Came out nice, that’s the best article ever written off me, I’m proud of these guys. The whole website is an ill concept, very refreshing in this day and age.

They also reviewed my newest dvd, here’s the link for it:

http://morethanastance.com/features/2009/09/focuss-b-boy-workshop-vol-1/