Monday, May 30, 2011

Zekeish's Review of ABDC's Kanye West/Last Chance Challenges

Now for my grading scale, I’m not a big numbers fan, so I have decided to do this review with words serving as my ratings. My scale is as follows
OH MY TITS= A perfect performance. Their transitions were on point, their choreography was squeaky clean, and they had wow moments that made you want to disrespect the nearest replay button. Basically the performance that makes a season
FANTABULOUS= Close to a perfect performance. There was just one thing that kept them from being perfection incarnated.
FREAK A LEAK= A great performance. Definitely an eye catcher, but had some problems with some aspects of their performance
GOODISH= A good performance. Had some noticeable problems but still had an overall solid performance that has rewatchablitly
MEH= An okay performance, nothing outside the ordinary. Had some glaring problems or provided no real wow factor.
INCREDIBLY MEDIOCRE= A very average performance. Worse than okay, but good enough to where I could sit through the performance, Barely.
WELL, THAT SUCKED= A less than average performance, nothing really went right here. Had some concepts that could have been executed better, but nothing really made you like the performance. You wanted to find the nearest dark place and hide there until the performance is over. And maybe binge eat your feelings. Whatever floats your suck fest boat.
I'D RATHER WATCH A JUSTIN BIEBER CONCERT= A horrible performance. You’d rather be subjected to Bieber and thousands of 11 year old girls screaming in your ear… Like seriously, the crew might as well incorporate taking a dump on the stage into their choreo.
So let’s get right into it…

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-ICONIC BOYZ- The first saved crew is ICONic Boyz. Surprised/shocked/upset? Don’t be, it was expected, mainly because their marketability is off the charts. Yes they are nowhere near good, but they are kids, thusly, they make the show money. So let’s all hold hands and get through this rough time together. 


Each crew had three specific challenges to attend to. They had to do the boogaloo, dougie and isolations. Two of these styles require you to be talented; the other is just a vibe swag type of thing. As always, the ICONic Boyz did not do very well. It was very sloppy in each section, and they never really came together for anything. Even their supposed “best” part, which was the dougie, wasn’t together. The performance started with Thomas coming through the middle holding his hands in a circle shape by his face, he also was rocking a purple bowler cap and a blazer. This whole part didn’t make any sense to me, mainly because I couldn’t decide if they wanted make Thomas look like a Pimp or not. I didn’t get the whole hat and blazer thing. They then went into a very weak boogaloo section, all the while, stealing Super Cr3w’s jump move. I love how their “wow” moment was from stolen from someone else. Anyway, their boogaloo section was sloppy, not really boogaloo at all and consisted of some awkward moments where it looked like they were just waiting for something to happen. Case in point, watch right before they take the blazer off of T-Swag, there is a momentary pause where they just stop dancing, then go into the next section. They used taking off a blazer as a transition, are you kidding me? 


Their next section was their “Iso” section. This was very sloppy as well. Not only are they not together, but their Isos aren’t even clean. They don’t pull off the illusion of an Iso at all. After their supposed isolations, they went into some filler (basic) choreography until they got to what was their best part -- The dougie section. You knew that Iconic Boyz were going to do okay with this, mainly because being able to dougie doesn’t involve you being talented at dance in general. I liked that they did the dougie on the floor; the way they got into that though, was very sloppy. They tried to do a little push off of the ground, shimmy shake, then go right into it. Some of the kids missed their timing, Thomas didn’t even get off the ground and the rest of them did what they were supposed to do. Only half the crew was in sync with each other at this point. But, they did their dougie on the ground, got back up went into another dougie section that wasn’t clean (this time standing up) and afterwards, went into some less than basic choreography, which once again wasn’t clean. CAN someone please get me my can of ICONIC-CLEAN? They finished out with some poses and threw some money in the air. The camera panned to Thomas looking like what they just did was hard, and it was over, finally. This week was their weakest week since Black Eyed Peas week, mainly because nothing was together, and what they were doing wasn’t remotely hard. 


*Last Chance Challenge- It was awful and a half. No words can describe how much I regret seeing that. It was cocky, self-absorbed, and not even good* KANYE WEST CHALLENGE DUB THEE… WOW THAT SUCKED
LAST CHANCE CHALLENGE… ID RATHER WATCH A JUSTIN BIEBER CONCERT 7 TIMES
OVERALL I DUB THEE… ID RATHER WATCH A JUSTIN BIEBER CONCERT

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*Bottom Two*
We all knew it would come to this. Honestly, I was very excited to see them battle, because each crew knew they had to be 110% awesome to make it through. This battle was amazing, and made everyone see who the true top 2 crews are.

-PHUNK PHENOMENON- We knew that Phunk Phenomenon had to come out and rip the stage in order to stay alive tonight, and that’s exactly what they did. This performance had a crazy high energy level, and was full of some great moments although this performance was still not their best.
They started this performance with a great dougie section, where they started out in a line, exploded out from that line, flipped Kassandra on Exclusive’s back and started the dougie. This was an incredible visual that I didn’t think was possible with the dougie, but they did it, and started their routine with a bang.  They then gave Kassandra a chance to shine by some booty shaking! A booty boogie solo. They then passed it off to Bebo, who did an impressive looking freeze at first; it got a little sloppy at the end. His foot touched down and he had to pick himself back up to do the pushups from that position. That trick didn’t wow as much as it was supposed to.  Then a series of flips led them into the next section in the song (Backflip, freeze, spin flip as well as a very impressive gainer off another member’s chest). This next section was their boogaloo section, but they started off with some top rocks (Bboy Choreography) which led off with Bebo and one of the brothers doing an impressive duo section. Bebo spun on the ground, got lifted back up above the head of the other member and went straight into boogaloo choreography. The impressive part about it is that Bebo had JUST landed on his feet and in less than a second went right in with the rest of the group. 


Their boogaloo section was okay, nothing to write home about. Some of the members struggled with it a bit (especially Bebo); mainly because boogaloo is hard to do, but it wasn’t the worst boogaloo I’ve ever seen. They then did a walking transition (made me sad to see that) into their Isolation section. Their isolation section would have been more impressive if the camera QUIT ZOOMING IN! I was so angry at this camera work in this performance but this topped the cake. I thought to myself, “they are doing their most visual section, and you’re going to cut to certain people and take the illusion completely away. God you guys are great”. But what we did see as an audience was just okay. I wanted them to do a bit more with that section, mainly because the ending of it was so cool. With three of the members in the middle doing some neck iso's while the rest of the group collapsed back to the center. They weren’t the cleanest of Iso's (Rihanna week was better), but it was good enough to call them iso’s. They then went into more of their element with a nice housing section to end it off and a crazy back dive thing by Exclusive. I looked at my TV screen like what did he just do? It was a very simple move to explain, but made an incredible impact. All he did was jumped high in the air and landed flat on his back, period. Super impressive. Overall the performance was a great one, with some minor problems keeping it from being perfect. I can’t sit here and say I was blown away by it though, because I wasn’t. While parts of it were great, the whole thing didn’t strike me as much as their Black Eyed Peas week performance did. So for me, this wasn’t their best performance of the season. Thusly
I DUB THEE… FANTABULOUS
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-IAMME- If there was any challenge that was suited for IaMmE, it was this challenge. The producers basically told them “hey you. Win”. Isolations? Check. Boogaloo? Check, and the dougie is easy enough to do anyway. I couldn’t wait to see what they would hit the stage with, and they didn’t disappoint. 


They started with the Iso section. Chachi and Millie were standing on Pacman, who was standing over Jaja with 747 and Moon on either side of them. The bottom 4 did neck to shoulder isolations which gave a great visual to start the routine. Like Phunk, this routine started with a huge bang. Then Pacman did some weird arm formation and bent over in a bridge position while Jaja ran over his belly straight into some more choreography. At the end of this though, I could see that Millie got a little lost (where they wave their hands over their head, bring their head up, and then move their arms back down). You could easily see Millie get lost mainly because everyone else was on with each other. Right after this section, they went into some walking backwards popping arm waves while moon was sliding on the floor pushing the rest of the crew backwards. That was a very creative section, which was capped off by this head spin thing, which was framed by Pacman and Moon’s arms. Chachi, Millie and Jaja but their head into the frame created by the other member’s arms, and spun 360 degrees, with 747 popping up behind the whole thing, giving an added depth to it. This was an incredible visual that not many crews could pull off, let alone think of. Pacman and Moon did a duet in the middle as 747 and Millie lifted the other two members on their shoulders, and they got right into the dougie section. There was a very good flow to this routine so far and this transition furthered that flow. Their last couple have weeks have been very “start-stop’, but they fixed that this week. 


Their dougie section was awesome. It included levels (with them starting on each other’s shoulders, then going to some ground work slides afterwards), it included moments and gave off a great vibe. They ended this section with a good duet section, then added on that with Millie and 747 shoulder-cartwheeling off of the other members backs. Directly after the cartwheels they went into another partner section, this time featuring some arm tutting followed by a great visual of the three that were standing doing some neck nods downward, with the people under them doing the same thing. Another great transition and visual. This led way to their boogaloo section, with featured some more partner work to start with. They then jumped up and went into a little boogaloo groove, then when the lyric said “touch the sky baby girl” they swung and lifted Chachi up in the air, Jaja came right underneath straight into the camera’s face. 

They then went into some more boogaloo. This sectioned surprised me; it looked a tad bit sloppy at first, then straightened back up again. It was still an impressive section, and I'm love the fact that they were the only crew to really do it for a good amount of time, but I saw that little bit of sloppiness at the beginning of it. But just as they started out (with a bang) they end on an even bigger one. Everyone not named Millie got into a 3-2 pyramid formation; they waved their feet in a circle as Millie flipped right through the middle. That was and awesome stunt AND visual to end the already great routine. This performance had some problems, but overall was amazing. Although this performance was not their best, it still impressed me beyond belief, mainly because they still are doing stuff we have never seen before. This crew reminds me of the JabbawockeeZ so much. Not because of their style, or what they wear, but their creativity. Every show we have seen something we haven’t seen before, and that’s exactly the feeling that JabbawockeeZ provided me with. Don’t get me wrong, IaMmE and JabbawockeeZ are two completely different crews, but both of their creativity factors (in their own ways) are on another level. 

*Last Chance Challenge- This was impeccable. It was amazing, incredibly creative and let each member shine in their own way. I love this routine with a burning passion. Mainly because of how creative it was. Spoken word choreo, solo’s and that end section that looked like it was a moving game piece. It was super cool. While their Kanye west challenge was not OH MY TITS level, this routine was OH MY JESUS TITS level. *I'm not A fanboi, I just love creative pieces, and this was creative* Absolutely incredible.
KANYE WEST CHALLENGE DUB THEE…  FANTABULOUS
LAST CHANCE CHALLENGE DUB THEE… OH MY JESUS TITS
OVERALL I DUB THEE… OH MY TITS
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HEY YO ZEKEISH, DEY MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE?
Yes and no. No because they should have eliminated ICONic Boyz on the spot, yes because IaMmE did slightly better than Phunk tonight. JC (in his own little way) basically told everyone that these two should not have been in the bottom, and Lil Mama (After dusting the white powder off her nose) told the kids what they wanted to hear. But tonight I felt that IaMmE wowed me more, and while Phunk did incredible, I feel like we have seen everything they can give. IaMmE also has a better chance of taking the title away from Iconic Boyz than Phunk did, so in this close of a race, I would rather have IaMmE win it. Phunk is a great crew which deserves the best possible, and they definitely left their permanent (positive) mark on the ABDC stage. To put it plainly, you weren’t going to hear the majority of the crown booing Phunk if they were to have gone up against IaMmE. We all love you Phunk, good luck in your future endeavors. Oh, and MTV! YOU BETTER RELEASE FOOTAGE OF PHUNK’s LAST CHANCE CHALLENGE! Or ill do something crazy! Be like 0__o. BAM.
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*POWER RANKINGS*
(Do I even have to do this, like really?)
1)    I.aM.mE-----------------------------------Fantabulous & 1/6
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2)  ICONic Boyz------------------------------- I’d Rather Watch a Justin Beiber Concert & ½
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This marks the end of my review. I hope you enjoyed it to its fullest extent, leave me some comments and tell me what chu thought. BTW, my crew’s new video is now up on our YouTube channel . Please go check it out and give us some feedback. We performed to Katy Perry’s E.T. YAY. Happy Belated birthday to Nancy, and shout out to Ninjaboi for giving me some good advice. ADIOS

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