Local Hour: "Breaking" News
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You're listening to DraftKings Network. Ryan Reynolds here for, I guess, my 100th Mint commercial. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, honestly, when I started this, I thought I'd only have to do like four of these. I mean, it's unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month. How are there still people paying two or three times that much? I'm sorry, I shouldn't be victim blaming here. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash save whenever you're ready. For

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The tequila that invented tequila. Go to Cuervo.com to shop tequila or visit a store near you. Cuervo, now's a good time. Trademarks owned by Bekle. SAB, the CV. Copyright 2024. Proximo. Jersey City, New Jersey. Please drink responsibly. This is the Dan Levitar Show with the Stugatz Podcast. Today's episode is sponsored by DraftKings. Stay tuned because you'll hear more about DraftKings and all it has to offer throughout the show. DraftKings, the crown is yours.

The show is playing Hurt today. We've had a sickness outbreak around here, and it allows us to have a great blessing in August, the Real Hoopers Know Show.

of Tony Amin El-Hassan and Izzy Gutierrez, not Mike Ryan. What? Not Mike? Mike Ryan has announced that he is incapable of an interesting Miami Heat opinion. He does not have anything interesting to say on the Miami Heat. He had to announce that. He did announce it. It was about six months after the rest of us realized it. Hear ye, hear ye.

He is out of opinions on the Miami Heat. I am excited, though, because we've got Izzy Gutierrez, we've got Amin Elhassan, and we have the ability to talk about an assortment of things today, basketball included, and the rare thing of, in an hour, we're going to break news.

And I want to know the enthusiasm of the group. I don't want to over-tease it. I want to under-promise and over-deliver. But we have a news-breaking item that will be interesting to a certain segment of people in an hour. How would you guys help me classify this without ruining the surprise and over-promising so that I'm not teasing people with expectation who are expecting something that is too big a news? But for this show and...

for this show's obsession with a certain thing. What we're announcing in an hour is gonna be pretty interesting to our constituency. - Well, I've seen several things aggregated about this one topic, and I will say that people forget. People forget that several years ago, a promise was made from one artist to another, that something was ours.

And today, we rightfully take it. Tell the tale. Tell the tale. We're a storyteller. We're not going to tell the tale right now, but in an hour. Just the idea of climbing to a mountaintop and seeing this old, wise, you know, hermit of a monk...

And he looks into your eyes and he says, I give this to you. It is. It feels a little religious and a little spiritual. What is being given to us in an hour to share with the world exclusively? It's also a beautiful thing in that in a complicated world of

digital video and rights issues and whatnot, not to get too far ahead of ourselves, that this is just as simple as one word was given and it is being honored. Again, from one artist to another. And that's important. In this crazy age where lawyers want to get involved in everything, we kept it simple and today this tree bears fruit. Wow.

It's a bit of a treasure, and it's adjacent to one of the things that I wanted to start with. We'll get to Olympic coverage in about a half hour when Andrew Siciliano will join us and...

We're going to make a foray, hopefully, if the video works and the technology and the sound, and we're going to talk to a breaker, B-Boy Ronnie, who is going to explain to us some things that we absolutely need to know as breaking begins at the Olympics. He's bailing you out again because you're the one that should be telling us about breaking. And I haven't heard not one update from you on breaking. By the way, I have an update. The U.S. medaled in weightlifting for the first time since 1984. Wow. So that is my beat.

Consider that covered. I have not covered breaking at all, never mind well. I consider it covered for you. I did see that the Jamaican relay team lost to the Chinese because they screwed up the baton. That has to hurt when you train. You train that way for once every four years, and then you don't qualify in the... In breaking? No. It is not the 4x4 relay in breaking. That would have been hot. It's track and field. I am...

I'm going to wade into these waters because I'm worried about this take. Because there have been certain moments in sports where I'm like, how are they doing this? Sometimes it's during the Tour de France. Sometimes it's during the World Cup where Spain is trying to outpass Russia, but Russia seemingly has six lungs per player. Something's going on over here with China. You know what I feel like?

Mike, with regards to that, during these Olympics, the one person no one seems to be asking that question about, Snoop. How's he doing this? That's very true. How is he at every event? How does he have custom clothing? He had a Noah Lyles winning the gold. Where? There's a deep fake, Snoop. Come on.

They've got to be carbon copying him, right? He's in a fencing costume. He's in the equestrian costume. He's in a Greco-Roman costume. He's in a beach volleyball costume. Some of these shots may be pre-taped. He's sitting next to Asia Wilson at the USA game. No, it's not because I'm telling you there are things that it's like holding up a newspaper. He's at the USA game with Asia Wilson. Then he's somewhere else wearing a Team USA jacket that has Noah Lyles winning the gold.

And the 100 meters. Like, how is that possible? So you want him to hold up a newspaper to prove that it's the same date that he is there, like in a hostage video? No, I'm saying he's already doing that with his actions. I'm saying that we have a Poodie Tank situation where they hired a bunch of lookalikes for Snoop and then they just...

Insert him in different places. Tracking back quickly to the China thing. This is very clearly my American superiority complex speaking here. And also the fact that contextually, there is a tainted meat scandal. The U.S. always takes the gold in that relay. Always. Not this year, because a bunch of tainted meat swimmers decided to crash the party. And if I were afraid of Chinese bots, I'd say off of X altogether. But what I'm saying here is...

We're going to revisit all of this. I'm taking mental notes. Okay, very good. Mike Ryan has threatened you with mental notes are being taken, China. He's not afraid of whatever your retaliation is to his mental notes. I'm not on TikTok for a reason. You don't have my data. When you say tainted meat swimmers, do you mean these are swimmers who have eaten tainted meat or are they meat swimmers who are tainted? Meat, M-E-E-T. Oh, never mind.

Never mind. I didn't even consider that. So they tested positive for elevated levels of things that help them in the pool. I think that is the actual term. What, gills? What are things that help you in the pool? Why are we still talking about swimming? Swimming is over. I've got this Olympic fever and I'd like to talk about a couple of events, but I'm a little thrown off here.

And I say little is because, and those looking on the screen is, I've never felt smaller than I feel right now sitting next to Tony. Tony does this, you know, bully move where he stands up and wants to sort of, you know, I mean, look. - You do look tiny. - You look so tiny. - You look like Billy sitting next to Derrick Henry. But now watch me stand up.

It's not any better. I'm still tiny. We got to Tony Scott this. Get an apple crate for Tom Cruise. I don't know what to do here. I just feel like a gymnast compared to, I don't know, a decathlete or something. He does look giant. I'm...

I'm surprised because we've been hurt by sickness here today to hear something that Amin said right before we turned the microphones on because some of it's sickness and some of it is August vacation. Amin said something I've never heard before.

He said he hates extended vacation time. I've never heard anybody say that. - What does he mean by that? What do you mean by that? - So, I am a creature of routine. I crave the routine. I like doing, I get up, I do this, I do whatever, right? And so my elite version of a vacation is, it's not really a vacation, it's just I work less. I don't stop working, but I do a little bit every day. When I go off the grid, as I did for the last couple of weeks,

I find it so hard to get back into the routine. I don't want to do any of this. Ladies and gentlemen, I don't want to be here today. Like on the way to the airport. That is not the way to sell what we're doing. Danny's wearing a t-shirt that says day drink. He needs a vacation from the vacation. It's a real thing. In a perfect world, I would go on vacation and never come back.

That's it. That's not a vacation. It is a vacation. Death, I believe. The ultimate vacation. The ultimate vacation. The real vacation, right? I put it on the poll, Juju. Is death the ultimate vacation? I don't want to make it seem like, oh, I hate being here. Depends on where you're going. Wait. You made it sound like you hate being here. No, no. I just hate working after I haven't worked. I like working. If I had just been coming all along, I'd be fine. But the fact that I tasted what freedom is actually like.

And then it's like, all right, back to the salt mines. Like, oh, no, not this again. I'd rather just be digging a little less salt and then more salt. You cannot be describing what you are presently doing as back to the salt mines. Like, you cannot. There's no. Copper. I mean, come on. Cobalt. I'm a little salty.

What are you doing with this? There are people watching and the people listening to this, many of whom have real struggles in real jobs, have to be looking at you and be saying, like, what is he talking about? Well, like what I would say to all those people is, first of all, thank you for your service. Where's my camera? Thank you for your service. We really appreciate everything that you do for us as a society. I don't know.

what you do, but I appreciate it. You're making it less personal. No, this is very, I'm speaking to the camera. I know, but you're saying I don't know what you do. Pretend like you do know what they do. I know what you do and I appreciate it. And so does everyone else here. What I'm saying is this. I would rather be doing

My job, whatever my job is, continuously. And then in a vacation time, just do it a little less. So you're speaking specifically to salt miners right now? Just that portion of our audience. Absolutely. And the cobalt miners too, right?

I just don't want to be off completely and then be asked to come back on because it is so hard to train my body and my mind back into a let's get work done mentality. Put this on the poll as well, Juju, please, at Levitard Show. Do you find yourself needing another vacation as soon as you return from vacation?

Summer's the best time to run the way you want. Dial it up with new challenges and programs and bring your workouts with you to make the most of outside sunny days. Stugatz, guess what? What? You know what you can do with Peloton? What? Get the app, go outside, ride a bike. Well, I thought you ride Peloton inside. Well, you do. You can ride Peloton inside if it's a rainy day or if it's cloudy or you just don't want to get outside. Maybe it's too hot.

summertime, go outside. I record a lot from my office with you and you've noticed it's sitting there yet. It hasn't been used. Well, now's the time. Summer's the best time to start that push. Right. Can we do it together? Not on the same bike, but we could join a class together. I used to do that. We used to have Guillermo Tan. I'd invite people. We'd all take a class together. Okay. So I think you're starting to get concerned about my health and my age, Billy. I,

I sense that with you. We're beyond starting. Okay. Whatever road lies ahead, your training starts here with Peloton Tread and Tread Plus. It's not just a bike, a treadmill too. I'm going to go outside. I'm going to get in shape. I'm going to do it with Billy Gill. I want to be in your class. I want you to be my instructor. You know what? I won't be your instructor. You don't want to spend more time with me. No, I can schedule a class and we can ride together. I won't be the instructor of the class. We can have Camila could be our instructor. I like the Grateful Dead class. My daughter, she uses the Peloton. Mm-hmm.

She was on it once and an instructor who was playing Grateful Dead tunes. Let's do that. Okay. Why don't we go for a run outside? Guided run. Peloton. Me and you. That's something we can do together. Okay. Turn on the app. Me and you go outside. Enjoy the summer. Call yourself a runner with Peloton at onepeloton.com slash running. All right.

Don Libetard. Again, started on the breakfast flan. Oh, man. I've been singing a song to myself all morning long. Breakfast flan. Stugatz. Have you never heard the breakfast flan song? No. Hit me with it. Okay. I wish I had some breakfast flan. Breakfast flan. Where can I find a breakfast like that? Da, da, da, da.

This is the Don Levitas Show with the Stugats. The thing that I wanted to talk about with you guys that is basketball related, it's a couple of different topics, actually. One is in Charles Barkley's return to TNT, which surprised me. Did it? It did.

It did surprise me that he returned to TNT. Yeah, because they're not going to have games. Look, man, I understand that the people, Stu Gott suggested this. Oh, just do it without the games. You need highlights. You need the rights you need to have to be able to play basketball video that you can talk about. You can think you can do

a four-hour show without that video? You cannot do a four-hour basketball show without that video. Well, a couple things. One, it wasn't a four-hour show. It was a little bit here and then they play the game and a little bit at halftime. Like a means vacation. Exactly. That's exactly how it is. Number two, you can't do a show without basketball video or basketball highlights? Ha!

Someone hit this guy to a little thing called oddball every day but Monday right here on DraftKings Network. We do it every day. And Dan, the point that you're making is a valid one, but that also sounds like Turner's problem. Because Charles is just going to honor this contract.

But they're going to create, reportedly, a show around some of the other sports that they're doing there. And what I'm saying, I mean, I'm not saying you can't do a basketball show without video. I'm saying they can't do that show without video and without being able to react live to all the things that have just happened in a basketball game and then be able to show them to you. First of all, I would disagree with that also because...

if you think of many of the best moments of inside the NBA, it's them just sitting around riffing or interviewing someone. Remember the Dwight Howard interview that went like 12 minutes long, which is unheard of on TV for a post-game show or for a live basically event like that? They did it because they have the freedom and they have the chemistry to have those kind of conversations and they hold viewers.

And so I think they can absolutely do it because all you really need is Ernie, full screen, still shot as LeBron going like this, Lakers lose another one, and then let them rip Charles and whoever else is on. But more importantly, I'm not here to argue the logistics of how you do a show without showing any video. I'm here to say, do you really believe Charles Barkley is going to do like seven more years of non-NBA coverage?

Well, yeah, but he doesn't have to just do non-NBA stuff, too, because without highlights, you can still, first of all, it's a show on TNT. They're going to get rights to a 15-second clip, right? And when you watch the highlight shows, they're reacting to one moment from the game. They're not reacting to a series of moments from the game. And then even if you don't show the moment, fine. Quick explanation, maybe even have people act it out. Maybe that could

be their thing. But in terms of talking about it, they don't need much video. That's a Kenny Smith thing. Don't give away the goods. Christ, man. Season two down the drain. That show in sports history, there have been very few shows ever. I know that the stars get a lot of credit for that show that has had better production

than that show. So I would trust them to be creative with incredibly funny things like reenactments of a play because they don't... I'm talking about reenactments! I've watched that before I watched the highlight. I would watch the reenactment first. Will you stop talking about this, please? You guys have done a great job in highlighting some of the challenges that face Turner and Charles, the whole cast and crew of that show. But at the heart of the matter is

Charles will never retire as long as there's huge piles of money around. We told you this before. He's talked about retiring longer than he's actually been doing this stuff. It's crazy. He just doesn't retire. And I know for a fact because I've overheard him. He seriously considers these things. I don't doubt that, but it always comes back to...

I'm not retiring. I'm taking this easy money. What do you mean you've overheard him? I've snuck around people on the phone with Charles Barkley and I've eavesdropped. And yeah, I'm reporting this exclusively. Charles Barkley, he means it when he says he seriously considers these things. And I mean it when I said, bullshit, you're never retiring. You're taking that easy money.

I don't know how I feel about Mike eavesdropping on my phone conversations. They didn't teach that in journalism school, I gotta tell you, Mike. That is some sketchy journalism. I was just legitimately hurt by the fact that Mike revealed something that he overheard in a conversation that I was walking around here having. Whoa, I didn't reveal my sources, you did. And I would say, just as a caution to anybody, stop talking on speakerphone for everybody to hear you. That's weird. I was in a private room you walked into. And I overheard it and I am but a journalist.

Speaking of which, at some point here today, please remind me, because Colorado football is really mad at us, and I want to get back to something we've done the last couple of days. Let me say right now, the list of people who are mad at y'all is very lengthy, and I'm having to put out fires. I'm not going to say about where or who, but I do know that I have received communiques saying, what's the deal? And I say, hey, man, you just...

That's just them. I've had to smooth over some things. Why don't you want to tell us what some of those things are? Because unlike you, Dan, I am not leaky. Unlike Mike Ryan over here, I am not snitching all over the airwaves. I know what the value of discretion is. I am discreet.

The listeners would love to know in your discretion, because what you've done now is just tease the listener and then not given them information. The listener would like to know who's mad at us. You're going to tell me during the break and then I'm going to leak it or talk to somebody. Michael over here and he'll leak it. So it'll get leaked somewhere around here. But just remind me before we get out of here today to talk about everything that's happened with Colorado Buckeye.

because it reminds me so much of everything that happened 30 years ago with the University of Miami. It's the modern version of us against the world in Colorado, where they think they have this precious thing that the rest of the world doesn't understand, and it just makes them all the stronger in their unity. Minus the success. Now, Mike, I want to ask you, hearing that, does that feel like the ultimate victory?

like victory over Florida State is that Deion Sanders went and stole you guys' culture and brought it to Colorado. I understand how people get defensive. Lord knows I'm a very defensive Miami Hurricane. You? It wasn't... Forget about kneeling. It wasn't a fumble. Not enough people talk about this. That's also true. But what I will say is...

Colorado, if you're struggling with this, you gotta toughen up. There was a report out there that spoke to anonymous people. You're lucky. Mainstream, we're like the most mainstream entity that picked up

on this story. Networks have their journalistic standards. Maybe it didn't meet that. That's totally fine. But this is not anything close to what Miami endured. Everybody was pretty unified in this program has to go. It goes on the cover of magazines that mattered at the time. They need to end this. If you're having difficulty with this...

I wish you luck this season because you actually meet real adversity and you're getting sensitive about this. Maybe you're not cut out for it.

We will get to all of that because Miami got cut out for it after 20 years of enduring it. And it, you know, Dennis Erickson, with all the winning in the world, was still throwing up into buckets before games with fever blisters. Because once you have everybody on your neck rooting against you and you lose, it doesn't feel very good. But it's also a fallacy.

I kind of feel like most big media companies are rooting for Colorado because they benefit from the prime bump. Everyone saw this. Ratings were up across the board. Anytime anybody did anything with Colorado, as long as they were winning, it meant buku ratings. So there isn't this huge conspiracy of people gathering around. If anything, they're trying to shoo this story away because no one's actually covering it. So I don't think that argument holds water at all. It's the Floyd Mayweather thing, right? Like it,

Everyone feels like there's a large, loud contingency that wants to see failure, but it all hinges on him being successful in order for us to root for failure. No one wants to root for failure for a failing organization or a failing entity. It only works when they're really good. - If you dig into any program that maybe is high profile, that maybe is struggling a little bit, doing worse than they expected,

Getting a lot of transfers. You'll probably find a lot of stories about this. You'll probably find stories dotted with guns. You'll probably start to find some stories about violence, you know, teammates butting heads. I don't think it's unique to Colorado unless Dion's allowing this stuff. But I think what's unique is that he brings all the attention. And so there are people, even Athlon Sports, digging in.

We will get to that, but where I would stop you is the objection is it runs along a really interesting journalism fault line to me. They're not objecting to it being covered. They're alleging that it's all made up, that it's not overblown, that it's all made up, which is a different way of doing it in 2024 when you simply don't understand how journalism vetting works. But this particular report,

reporter, and Athlon Sports, which is from a different time, doesn't have the credibility you need to withstand what is presently hitting it. We'll get to that later. The guns thing is interesting, though, because I do remember watching with Butch Davis a

One of the University of Miami movies on ESPN where Butch Davis was revealed on the screen to have said he gets here and says he's going to change the culture. And he says, I want all the guns. I need all the guns. And I remember I'm sitting next to him in the theater and he leans over to me and says, I didn't even get half of them. Yeah.

Shame on you. That was a private conversation. It was. I just leaked it. I want to play some Draymond Green sound for you guys because I can't believe this is the messenger on this particular message. Listen to this. But y'all chasing the game like all young dudes do. Come down. I need to get a three. And ain't nobody Steph Curry. But everybody want to get to three. Shooting it well. But you took three bad ones in a row. Or you took two. One of y'all took another one. Right? Right.

And then, y'all cried about every call that was called. I get a lot of texts. So, I'm actually fucked up on that part. But it's also cost me two and a half million dollars. Which is more money than probably everybody in here preparing to make that ain't a risky. It's probably 50 times the amount of money my mom made in her life. So it'll cost you. And also, what have y'all done to get calls?

I was this close from, by the way, not giving y'all one. And there's nothing any of y'all can say. So why are we crying about cars? It's pickup. He didn't say nothing about a file. He didn't say nothing about a file. Say, yo, we still had the ball. And y'all crying about every car. Why? Who's done something? I just want to know which one of y'all done something. Quite frankly, I don't think any of y'all have done anything. But that's just me.

I mean, it's amazing to have him talk about crying about calls and he's explaining to you why he thinks he's entitled to it. It's just because he's done something. Yes. I mean, like, I don't think he said anything untoward. By the way, the done something he's talking about isn't winning four championships, winning defensive player of the year, being an all-star, being all-NBA, all-defense team, all those things. It's...

I'm an NBA player. You're in high school. Did he just finish an NBA game, by the way, because he was sweaty and out of breath and he's coaching? What is going on? He was watching Cops. Man, let me tell you something. Playing with kids, man, that shit is tiring, man. Because they just have...

pools of energy that aren't natural. I'm like, how do you keep doing, what is this? You're just running around. It has no rhyme or reason to it. Juju, put it on the poll, please. Who has more energy? NBA players or toddlers? Kids. Kids. Just kids. But I was thinking toddlers are even more exhausting than just kids. Am I wrong about that? That might come back 100%. Might be the first one ever.

I also wanted to get into what Draymond said and his dedication to hating, just saying of Rudy Gobert, you cannot be an NBA player and benched by an Olympic team that isn't Team USA. That is...

That's a bar. It is a bad look. Evan Fournier is playing a ton on that France team. When's the last time he saw the NBA floor? Dude, it seems like the adjustment for France was let's get some of these NBA players out of here. Can we do what I asked and make the in-season tournament truly international and bring it like

Just make that an actual in-season tournament like a Leagues Cup where you bring in another league from another country. It'd actually be an interesting game. Hockey's doing this with the Four Nations. NBA's talking about doing that too. We may have a breaker from Paris next.

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The Smell Not Company, New York, New York. Please do not share with anyone under legal drinking age. Dan Levatard. Amino Hassan. Stugatz. Amino Hassan. This is the Dan Levatard Show with the Stugatz. ♪

I was assigned the task of covering breaking on behalf of the show from the Olympics. I have failed. I have not had the bandwidth to get as updated as I should have gotten, but we're bringing in an expert. I do know you're not supposed to call it break dancing. That's about all I know. You're supposed to call it breaking and B-Boy Ronnie, Ronnie,

Abaldonado is with us. He's a legend in the scene. He's been breaking for three decades. He's a judge. He's been a judge for the sport. And he's going to be one of the official commentators for NBC Sports. Are there any curiosities the room has on this? Because I mean, I'm sure you...

Is New York and cardboard on sidewalks before your time? No, that's the New York of my childhood. Okay, that's the New York of your time. And so this is where I was introduced to breakdancing and the evolution of it, obviously, athletically, is a total insanity. Mike learned the other day that you don't know what song...

you're going to break crazy, which is, which seems crazy. And he says, you know, it's odd if they throw a, you can call me Al at you before you're expecting it. I don't think you're allowed to do that, but Ronnie, Ronnie is here to be on, to explain it to us. So thank you, Ronnie, for joining us. And, and I'll begin with how much ignorance are you confronted with people?

are about to be delighted when this finally starts on Friday and they discover what is a novelty sport because it's not going to be at every Olympics but it is at this Olympics and this has to be exciting for people like you and people from this community. Yes, definitely. Thank you guys first of all for having me.

Yes, breaking, you know, this is a milestone for the breaking community. We're very excited that it's finally going to be in the Olympics. I feel like it should have been a while ago, but, you know, everything's about timing. And now that breaking is going to be in the Olympics, we have like the best of the best from around the world representing.

What is going to stun people? What are they going to be surprised by? One of the great things about the Olympics has been all the awe and discovery and wonder of people like being, holy shit, how do those water polo people survive playing that sport?

- Well, you know, it's very close to gymnastics. You know, we took a lot of inspiration from, you know, gymnasts, from martial arts and vice versa. If you were to watch some of the floor exercises and gymnastics, they actually got inspired from some breaking moves. We have a move called the air flares, which they now do in the Olympics and they actually give credit to breaking and vice versa. We took the Thomas flares.

So I think breaking has evolved so much in the past 40, 50 years. And it's just undeniable that it's going to be groundbreaking. And it's definitely a breakthrough for the hip-hop culture. Ronnie, speaking of the culture, when you think about breaking, like Dan said, it's something that originated on the streets. It was free. It was unencumbered, unregulated. And now you bring it to something like the Olympics, which is the...

epitome of the establishment and people are going to score it and grade it and all that. How does the culture react to that transition from this is our thing to this is something that we're going to be basically calculated on? Yeah, well, you know, we're at the elite level now. It's not confined to the streets. It almost graduated

to sports and to the Olympics. And there is a structure behind breaking. It's not like breaking just jumped onto the Olympic stage. You know, you have huge competitions that have been going on for like the past few decades. You have competitions like freestyle session, battle of the year, Red Bull BC1, and these are world-class events and they have different point systems specifically for the Olympics. It's a comparative, uh,

judging system that they're using that's judged on five different categories. So it's very structured. They're going to be judging on technique, vocabulary, execution, musicality, and originality. And of course, you have professional judges on the panel. Well, walk me through that, though. What does musicality mean? Musicality is obviously rhythm. If you're on beat, you're

You know, you're not dancing with two left feet, right? So you have to be dancing because it's really important that, you know, everyone understands that even though they're doing acrobatic moves, that this is still a dance at the end of the day. And it's part of a hip hop culture. So there's a bigger picture. You know, breaking is the dance element of the hip hop culture, along with DJing, emceeing and graffiti.

What does vocabulary mean? Vocabulary, like what does that mean? Vocabulary is like your quantity of moves. You know, because there is a structure in breaking, like I was saying, there's the foundation of breaking. You have your top rock, footwork, power moves, and freezes. So essentially in a battle, you have

to be able to showcase all those four elements. And those are like the fundamentals of breaking. - So when you say originality though, how surprised do you ever get by anybody's originality as someone who has been watching, judging and has expertise about this that goes back three decades?

Exactly. So, you know, judges, they definitely have an eye for originality because a lot of these breakers, especially the breakers that are going to be competing at the Olympics, they have signature moves. So, you know, a lot of them that have created their moves throughout, you know, these years.

30 years we we know their moves but it's also you know uh creating unique patterns unique transitions and innovating a lot of the foundational moves so that's basically what originality is is just stage presence just having a very unique style charisma could be part of that too someone that just has a very unique stage presence right like character is very important as well

Ronnie, I'm curious. There's a lot of people around here who think they can do more than they actually can. A lot of people who think they're like Olympians in just a couple of months of training. I'm wondering what it would take for you. How easy or difficult would it be for you to teach somebody not to be an Olympic level breaker, but to kind of look like they know what they're doing?

Yeah, I mean, I actually have a dance studio in Las Vegas, so we do teach lessons, right? So you have to just start from the basics. It's starting from ground level, teaching your top rock, just like I was mentioning, and that's easily a two-step, right? And from there, you go to the floor, you start to teach footwork, which one of the most basic footwork steps is called the six-step. And then from then on, you start elevating, right? That's why...

with breaking, we always talk about before you learn how to fly, you got to learn how to, you know, crawl, walk, run, then you could fly. What's the training regimen like outside of actually practicing how to dance outside? Well, you know, back then there was real, really no regimen because competition really wasn't that big. But now that it's an Olympic sport, you know, breakers are, are training like athletes, but creating like artists. So I think there's, you know, uh,

How can I say this? There's like two different types of breakers. You have your artistic breakers and you have your athletic breakers. The athletic breakers, the breakers that are competing for a competition like

The Olympics, you know, they train every day, day in, day out. They have, you know, a diet that they go by. But then for those that literally just break because they love it, they don't count the hours. You know, they just break every day. We call it a cypher, right? So they'll just go to the club and then they'll just have fun. It's more fun.

leisure you know so there's there's different type of breakers and that's a beautiful thing about breaking too because there's different avenues for breaking yes there's a competition world but as you know breakers perform in shows like if you go to las vegas there's a breaker in almost every show you have a breaker in magic mike you have a breaker in cirque du soleil you have tons of breakers in the jabawaki show so and if you watch music videos you'll always see that there is a breaker you know

You know, that's a backup dancer for an artist or a breaker that's in the movie acting. And this is not new because in the 80s, breaking was huge. It was everywhere in the 80s. I mean, there was even breakers at the closing ceremony at the 1984 Olympics performing with Lionel Richie. So this is nothing new, guys.

Ronnie, respectfully, if I see a breakdance cypher going on at the club, I'm probably going to leave. But I did want to ask you one question. It's like a musical breakdance. I am out of there. No biggie. But respectfully. But as a B-boy novice, when you guys start doing this move right here, kind of before you start...

Like you start doing the dance moves prior to getting on the floor? The capoeira fighter in Tekken. Right. Yeah, you look like a couple at a... Come on. Yeah. So when you start doing these moves, are you setting up a move or is that just like you warming up the body? Like what's the idea with that? It's a combination of both. Yeah. So like I said, it's the top rock, right? The top rock is the dance element. It's the introduction to your set. So there's actually...

People that don't even go down to the floor, right? They'll stay up top the whole time, you know?

Is there an approved uniform for this? Like in the 80s, it was track suits and the Adidas shoes. Is there like a standard uniform that people have for this? Or can someone get bonus points for doing this in jeans? Oh, that's a good question. Yeah, fashion is very important. I think everyone has their own style, right? So sometimes the way someone dresses kind of defines their style. And like I was saying, you have breakers that dress like athletes, that wear...

track suits and then you have the breakers that you would never know that they were breakers. You know, they look like they could be skaters. So yeah, fashion is crucial. Specifically for the Olympics, I believe there is a dress code. Obviously everyone's going to be representing their countries.

But I'm not quite sure what they're going to be wearing. But the most comfortable are usually, yeah, like a track suit is definitely comfortable. Something light would be comfortable to wear in a competition. Any tension between the artists and the athletes? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, when it was leading up to the Olympics, because they announced this like in 2019. So like five years ago is when they officially announced that breaking was going to be in the Olympics.

And yeah, there was a little tension between the purist, right, the traditionalist in the scene. But I think when they see that this whole culture is bigger than us, that most of them have turned their heads and they're definitely supportive. But obviously, there's going to be a few that are

just cynical about breaking being in the Olympics, but definitely we've been getting majority positive feedback. - Ronnie, what can you tell us about the music? Because music choice is hugely important and we learned earlier that these answers are gonna be surprised by this. Is there a hypothetical where there is a song that gets played that is very difficult to breakdance to? - Yeah, I mean there's cases where breakers, they're very specific about the type of music they listen to.

So you'll definitely have the advantage if it's a classic or if there's a song playing that you know well. And what's beautiful about the Olympics is they cleared like over 300 songs. So there's going to be like classic breaks, hip hop songs.

And that's the beauty about breaking too, is just the improvisation, right? Like listening to the music and just adapting to it. You have to let the music kind of dictate your moves. And everyone has a different style. There's some breakers that have a set from beginning to end. And there's some breakers that just freestyle and that are in the moment, right?

And that's what breaking is about too. It's about creating those moments, creating those moments that could not be recreated. So that's going to be the funnest thing to see, is just hearing the music and seeing how the breakers adapt to it. So they cleared 300 songs. That was a big concern because breakdancing and music, they go in.

hand in hand yeah is that do you know all 300 songs i'm not asking you to tip it i'm just asking you to let me know if like bobby mcfarren's don't worry be happy is in here because the idea of a wild card song like just all of a sudden boom chamber music go no no it's it's i think there's specific genres right like funk hip-hop some soul you know because we grew up listening to like um

songs from like James Brown. So I'm hoping they have some of those songs cleared. I don't know specifically what songs, but I definitely know it's, there's going to be a curated playlist and a lot of it are songs that are from our breaking community. And, you know, we have a very tight knit breaking community of breakers that have been competing at some of the same events annually and they play the same, you know, same tracks every,

So we're hoping that the DJ actually are going to be playing that for the Olympics. Ronnie, I got a question for you. Before you came on, I looked at your name and I went to Dan. I said, bet you 20 bucks. He's a Filipino descent. Yeah.

Am I correct? My last name? Yes. I am Filipino, yes. Okay. Why is the Philippines the source of all the best breakdancers in the world? That's my unofficial, not an expert opinion, but from what I've witnessed throughout my 45 years on this world, is the Philippines is always incredible. And what nation is favored to win in men and women? Well, he's a judge. Really? I don't know if he's allowed to say that. It's like that and karaoke. Yeah.

Music and dance is just in our DNA. It's encoded in our DNA. And boxing. We have many back y'all, right?

You don't think he's allowed as a judge to say who's favored? No. You don't think? I think that's incredibly prejudicial. Well, but I mean, I think that there would be common knowledge within the expertise of the sport of if there's a champion or if there's some. In all the sports that we're watching, there's a favorite. Yeah, but I don't know if the judges, like you think, you think,

like a referee like Kenny Maurer can say oh I think the Celtics are going to win it again can you say or can you not say wait what are we talking about right now don't try to get my man in trouble here alright fine women are we talking I'm just talking about who's supposed to win like what country is supposed to win historically who's the best at this

Well, there is a Filipino American that's going to be representing Team USA. There you go. And yeah, she has a good chance. I think obviously USA has a very good chance to win. It started in the US, so we're hoping that someone just brings home the gold. But ASL,

Asia is doing really well. Japan, Korea, there's a competitor from Korea. And I think that's what's beautiful about breaking in the Olympics too. It's like we're bridging the age gap. You have teenagers there and you have breakers that are like in their thirties. And one specifically from Korea, he's like pushing 40, he's 39. And he's like a three-time Red Bull BC One World Champion. His name is Hong Tan and he's an amazing breaker. And he just,

pushing the envelope right now. Appreciate you illuminating us. The women start Friday at 10 a.m. Eastern on Peacock, and the men are Saturday at 2 p.m. You can check out Ronnie's video on YouTube at Red Bull BC1. We appreciate the insight, sir. Thank you. Thanks, Ronnie. Thank you guys for having me.

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