B-boy Stripes: “I’m still happy to just break alone for no reason”.

Stripes (Main Ingredientz and Flipside Kingz) is one of the b-boys, who despite his success in commercial competitions like Redbull BC One, stays true to his original b-boy style – rich of signature moves and foundation. Even if it is easy to be said, succeeding in the world b-boy scene without having a “trendy” style and moves is more than difficult. But Stripes does it.

Hello, Stripes. The first question is a classic one – tell us, please, your story how did you start breaking?

What’s up! Well, first an older friend in my neighborhood was breaking a little bit and I started to break with him, but only for about two weeks, then I forgot about it. A few years later in 2001, I moved to another area of my city and got the radiotron tape. I started to practise alone for almost a year, then I went to high school and met some people who were also breaking. In 2004 I joined Main Ingredientz, that’s when I started travelling to battles and taking it more serious.

We know you have dance on a lot of events worldwide. Tell us, please, do you have some toplist of the events you would suggest to all the b-boys and b-girls?

My toplist is:

• SkillzOmeter (Montreal, Canada)
• The Gathering (Oslo, Norway)
• Freestyle Session
• HipOpsession
• Flipside Kings Anniversary
• B-1 Battle (Osaka, Japan)
• CDC Breakerz Anniversary (Chengdu, China)

Also if you can, go to some of the smaller events in Florida, because we still battle out here. Even when there is no prize money people still show up and get it on.

If we talk about the biggest events in the world like Redbull BC One, BOTY and others, why haven’t you ever been invited there to represent your style? And would you like to take part in some of those events?

Well, I did get invited in 2012 to the North America BC One final. I feel fortunate though, because I’m still happy to just break alone for no reason, I’ll never outgrew this. I consider everything that comes my way, I used to say YES to every invitation, but I realized this isn’t good because I started to lose my sensibilities. Now, I will only do things if it makes sense to me and my life. If I do enter them, I will try my best to do good though.

If you were a promoter and need to invite b-boys to your event, what would be your criteria?

Well, I’m working now to have my own event eventually, but I would like to invite people who just like to break. After travelling a lot, I realized that a lot of times there is emphasis on everything, except the actual act of breaking. I went to places like France, Japan, China, etc and there are many good people who just like to break. If I get the money, I would first try to invite people like them.

Give us your thoughts about social media power today? Negative and positive sides.

The bad part is most of the online talking, it’s mostly grown adults commenting and arguing on the actions of people they do not know at all. Although, for children to do this, I think it’s normal. As to the positive parts, you can share music with people and contact people you might have no other way of contacting, learn about health, like if you have an injury or something, actually there are so many good things about it. 

What is the perfect cypher for you? What do we need for it?

Nothing really special – just loud, ignorant, rap music.

As every b-boy probably, you had a tough time in your career. What is the reason behind this and how do you deal with them?

Although, I am grateful to make money just from doing what I want, I never really wanted a b-boy “career”. I’m thankful, but It was never my goal, I have/had no problem with having a regular 9 to 5 job. I realized a lot of people act like it’s the worst thing in the world, but if your mind is at peace, it’s not so bad whatever you do. A lot of honorable people work 9-5 jobs. Although I think we should all have some kind of plan to be financially free, you could be a millionaire tomorrow and still be miserable if you’re not a peace with yourself. If your “tough times” are only related to breakdancing, you should consider yourself lucky, lol.

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What is the b-boy or crew that influenced you most and make the b-boy you are today?

Main Ingredientz + Flipside Kings. I learned slowly and they all helped me. Outside of my own crew, I would say Aktuel Force, Battle Squad, SkillMethodz, Ghost Crew, there are more though obviously. My biggest inspiration and influence since I started was Kevo though, as far as breaking I really have him to thank for a lot.

The last question is always the same. As we want to show the world that there are many b-boys that deserve to be known and Chronix Pro wants to support them, tell us, please, several names of those b-boys/b-girls that should be in the list, according to you?

• Cibils – Funkobotz
• Mikey – Wian (Sweden)
• Vision – Dragon Style (China)
• Gerald – Checkered Minds (Singapore)
• Dave – Dragon Style (China)
• Sway – Dragon Style (China)
• 3yardgo – CDC Breakerz (China)
• Mould T- CDC Breakerz (China)

You can follow Stripes on Instagram here.

Core Team is thankful to Stripes for this interview and support to our idea of spreading valuable knowledge.

*Used images and videos are taken from the web or given by the interviewed person and belongs to their respected owners.