Generation Jerk: the New Boyz

The leaders of hip-hop's latest dance craze hit the road with Chris Brown

By Tamara Palmer

Special to Metromix

Rappers Legacy (Dominic Thomas) and Ben J (Earl Benjamin) can already lay claim to a top 40 hit single and a top 10 debut rap album, and have reached these dizzying heights all before their recent 18th birthdays. Hailing from Los Angeles, the duo called New Boyz have influenced an explosion of urban youth clad in bright colors and skinny jeans, and transformed a quirky swagger of a dance into a cultural phenomenon with the rise of that first single, “You’re a Jerk.” Surely the gangster rap pioneers of L.A. never predicted anything like this.

But, as proven by subsequent single “Tie Me Down” (featuring Ray J) and album “Skinny Jeans and a Mic,” this charismatic duo have the flair to outlive a dance craze. Ben J and Legacy chatted with Metromix about the so-called “jerk movement” they helped take global, and explained why people should cut current tour-mate Chris Brown some slack.

How did it feel to hit the top 40 pop charts and top 10 rap albums before you were even legal?
Ben J: It’s dope!
Legacy: It felt good, we were just surprised it happened so quick. It’s a just a good feeling.

How do you explain jerking to people who have no idea what the heck it is?
L: There are four moves: the jerk, the reject, dip, and pin drop. Everything all together is jerking, just mix it all together. It has a lot in common with break-dancing.
BJ: Jerk came from Los Angeles as a little inner city dance; this is what we were doing. We made a song because we thought it had bigger potential than just that and we wanted to reach out to people who didn’t know about it. It works in two ways, though, because people that didn’t know the dance just picked up on the “you’re a jerk” part of the song. But it’s also more than the dance and the music; it’s also our style and how we dress. It’s all fun and positive.

Since you came out with the first jerk song, what were you jerking to before that?
BJ: We were jerking to a lot of the hyphy stuff [from the Bay Area] and [Southern] stuff like [Fabo’s] “Geeked Up.” You can jerk to anything though; you just gotta feel the beat.

“You’re a Jerk” samples “Geeked Up.” Has Fabo heard it? What does he think?
L: He loves it. He recorded his own little version and they play it all through the South.

Were you concerned at all about going on tour with Chris Brown? Were you worried that people might associate you with something bad?
BJ: Not at all. I just feel like people need to move on. It’s their business. We’re still looking at Chris as how we did before the situation. We’re happy to be on the tour and are ready for everyone to just move on and get out of their business.

Did you know Chris before this?
L: Yeah, we’re all young and have fun. We wanted him for our single “Tie Me Down” and he wants to work with us, but we couldn’t work it out in time, so we chose Ray J to do it.

Maybe that was for the best anyway. “Tie Me Down” fits in real well with Ray J because the reason there’s a season two of [VH1 show] “For the Love of Ray J” is because [Season One winner] Cocktail couldn’t tie him down.
BJ: Huh?

You know, Cocktail? Do you even watch the show?
BJ: Oh, yeah, actually we do, and it’s because of the show that we thought of Ray-J for the song. It all ended up falling into place.

It does sound like it all worked out, and now maybe you can vibe with Chris on the road and create a new track?
BJ: Yeah, he wants to do it. Chris is dope. It’d be a good look.

Are you nervous to play for big crowds on this tour?
L: No, we’ve been doing this for a long time now. We did a whole tour of Summer Jams [radio concerts] and they were all like at least 10,000 people.