Session No. 5: On musicality, with Griimsen
The b-boy formerly known as Zoopreme talks about musicality, the difference between good dancing and being on beat and why breakers hate songs made for breakers.
What’s up everyone, I hope y'all had a good weekend. Thanks for coming back for another issue of Breaking News (letter).
This week, I had the opportunity to talk to Griimsen, of The Ruggeds. You might recognize him as Zoopreme, the musicality mastermind behind countless highlights killing the beat. Here’s one from the WDSF World Championships in Belgium back in September.
The good news is, he’s still all of those things, he just goes by Griimsen now. The even better news is, I got to talk to him about musicality, the difference between good dancing and being on beat and why breakers hate songs made for breakers.
Our conversation is edited and condensed for clarity. Thanks for reading!
When we met in Copenhagen, you corrected me and told me you don’t go by Zoopreme anymore. Can you tell me why? And how you picked Griimsen as your new b-boy name?
I went back to my old name because there’s so many Zoos out there in the scene now. (Among them: Lil Zoo, Zooty Zoot)
Grim was actually my very first b-boy name. My first teacher gave me the name as a joke, because Grim in Danish means “ugly.” He was like, “When you hear a dope song, or taste some good food, or see something really nice, you usually make a face, and that face is really ugly. But that’s coming from a place of very simple, but authentic and pure enjoyment.”
And the Sen part is a very common last name in the Scandinavian region. I added it because it makes it more personal. There’s other subtle details, like the double i’s, which makes it a higher pitch than just Grim.
How are you processing the music right before you’re about to throw down a set?
Most of the time, I just hope that I get a dope song. I chance so much. I can come with a full strategy and have a perfect idea planned out, but then you hear a song you don’t like, and now you’re off.
That’s my kryptonite. Music really dictates my performance. I just listen, that’s it – I just try to enjoy it. It’s that simple, there’s no mathematics to it.
What’s your approach to your rounds like?
I’m not trying to hit everything all the time, even though it actually looks like it. I just use my imagination to try to play and have fun for myself. What I hear, and how I can respond to that, how can I visualize what my idea of this track is.
Do you have a preferred music genre for breaking?
If you play a classic boom-bap track, there’s a 99 thousand percent chance that I’ll beat somebody up. I might crash, but the crash will look good. This is like an ace card for me.
What are the hardest types of beats to break to?
The made-for-b-boys music. This isn’t me taking away from anybody or their craft, or their contributions, it just doesn’t correlate to me.
Usually when you have the livestreamed stuff, there’s super programmed beats that are very predictable. It’s so predictable that it kind of takes away the mystery behind what you’re going to do.
Those beats, they hurt.
Why is it that breakers hate made-for-breakers beats?
It’s forced. Back then, you would listen to quality music, and that would inspire you to get down.
Nobody really made break music like that, they would just have breaks in songs that gave you the inspiration.
How do you feel about Musicality being a judging category for Olympics qualifiers for breaking?
It’s good that there’s emphasis on musicality, but the way that people are musical, it’s very different. And it feels like there’s only this one version of what musicality is.
Everybody hits the beat, and then they get a high musicality score, but you’re just being on beat – which is the bare fucking minimum.
This should be normal, you should be on beat.
But at the same time, a musical dancer, you can instantly see it – just from the way that they dance. You can tell that they’re musically a dancer, rather than just being on beat. There is a difference.
What is the difference between being a musical dancer and being on beat?
Their style resonates with the music. Some would say you look like the instruments, or everything that’s being played in the song, but you visualize it through physical movements.
It gives you a feeling when you actually see someone musically in tune with a song. It creates a certain type of feeling that makes you feel what they’re doing.
There are technical ways to explain it, like the way you pace yourself, you can add an extra rhythm to the bass beat. Those things are all musical intelligence. If you are really aware of all these things, you can add or subtract certain things that make it more interesting.
Beating on beat is just kicking on 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8.
So what’s your advice for people who want to be better dancers and not just good at being on beat?
Listen to actual music – don’t keep practicing to the same break mixtape or only listening to breakbeats over and over again.
Also, get comfortable, get familiar with yourself, and allow yourself to look stupid.
Whoever is “cool,” is pretty much the person that is at peace with themselves. That’s cool to me. You might not have the coolest choice of movement, but it’s cool to me that you stick to your guns and evolve in a way that you see fit.
Do you see people imitating your beat kills?
Hell yeah, I’ve seen that several times now.
At Unbreakable in 2019, Lean Rock was playing “The Games We Play” by Pusha T. At the guitar fade echoes. I did criss-crosses that had a delay into it, and ever since that came out, I’ve seen so many people do it on that part.
But it doesn’t really bother me. At the end of the day, I am who I am, which makes it look the way it does, which is the reason why it was impressive. If I see somebody else do it, I’m not really worried, because we don’t look the same, we aren’t the same people, we don’t understand the dance in the same way.
I’ll always be 5000% steps ahead of anybody trying to be me.
Get recc’d:
Another piece of advice Griimsen shared was to listen to a wide variety of music to help expand your musicality knowledge. It made me wonder what kind of music he’s been listening to lately. So I asked him about his Recently Played tracks on Spotify. They are:
- Ghetts – Laps
- EPMD – So Whatcha Sayin’
- Cult Classics – Lamas
- Matthew Halsall – Mountains, Trees and Seas
This article about the Oceania Breaking Championships in Sydney, an Olympics qualifier event, has one of the funniest opening lines that I’ve seen as both a journalist and a b-boy.
“If we all cock, they can’t disqualify all of us, right?” At the start of Australian breaking’s biggest ever tournament, the question muttered by a male competitor following Friday morning’s athlete briefing had merit.
This compilation of Roxrite and Luigi battling together shows why they are two of the best to ever do it.
Breakin’ MIA continues to be on a tear at every battle they enter. Check out their rounds from Temple Rock Vol. 9 over the weekend.