Umum Dance Cipha: Streetdancing to B-Boying to Hip Hop Phenoms and G’s

C = Crazy Legs
W = Mr. Wiggles
SP = Suga Pop
SK = Skeeter Rabbit
PD = Poppin’ Pete
SS = Steve Shields
S = Spady

S: Why was it called, “The Electric Boogaloo”?

PP: Well, it was called The Electric Boogaloo and that was the name of a style of dance we do which is from a previous dance James Brown had out called “The Boogaloo” back in the day. See, what happened is my brother Boogaloo Sam created a style of dance called “Popping” and “Boogaloo-ing.” Later on, we put the name Boogaloo to the dance my brother Boogaloo Sam was doing. Now we know how the name came about was…

S: What city were you in at that time?

PP: Fresno, California. That's central California. My brother's uncle saw Sam dancing.

S: What was your uncle's name?

PP: “Uncle.” We just called him “Uncle.” He saw Boogaloo Sam doing this weird dance style and he told Sam, “Hey, you're Boogalooing.” Sam said, "What is that?' Uncle said, “Oh, that means you getting down. Boy, you getting down.” So that's how the name stuck with my brother, Boogaloo Sam. And then from there, everyone just said, “Hey man, Boogaloo Sam do that Boogaloo-style stuff.” But the name came from the other dance.

S: How did it become Electrified? It's one thing to Boogie but it's another thing to do the Electric Boogie.

PP: In those days you wanted to have a dynamite name and what it was we were called… The original group name was “The Electronic Boogaloo Lockers.” Had to have a dynamic name. Everybody had to have a name that had something to do with power. Then we moved from Fresno to Long Beach, California California and got with this guy called Jeff Gutierrez.

S: On the East Side?

PP: Oh yeah, in East Long Beach. That's right! Where Snoop Doggy Dogg was at. The guy got with us and what he did was shorten the name from “The Electronic Boogaloo Lockers” to “Electric Boogaloo” for marquee purposes. He said the name was too long. This guy called Jeff Gutierrez said that.

S: [Turns to the New York B-Boys in this cipha] Had you guys seen the Electric Boogie in New York City prior to seeing it on Soul Train?

C: We didn't have a TV, so we must not have seen it. You know what, I was out running around on Saturdays. I was sleeping late. I wasn't trying to watch Soul Train. I was the type that didn't even want to wake up for cartoons. My home girl, this girl Melody used to hang out with Rock Steady back in ‘82-‘83. She’d be like, “Yo, you catch all the new
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