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[email protected] WHO IS JOHN HYPE?
Jamaicas dancehall king.
Real name: Jonathan Prendergast
Stage name: John Hype, given to him by Firelinks
Schools attended: Melrose All Age and Holy Trinity Comprehensive
Community grew up: Dillon Avenue, Kingston 5
People who have inspired him: Bogle is my inspiration, we danced together, him teach mi certain t'ings 'bout dance and we go all over the place together until the tragedy of Willie Haggart. Bogle taught me a thing at Asylum. He said, 'never hold the back page, always go up front, that is where everything is happening'.
Hobbies: Football. He played forward for a Division One side, Arlington in the Spanish Town/Portmore league, and won a top goalscorer award.
John Hype has been revolutionising the dancehall game with his edgy creativity and dancing savvy, creating new moves to match the slamming dancehall rhythms coming out of the island's studios. In the last 18 months he has created a slew of dances with self-explanatory names such as 'Signal Di Plane', 'Fan Them Off' and the ultra-popular 'Pan Di River' that rock dancehalls from Kingston to Negril.
Youthlink caught up with the dancer at the offices of Shocking Vibes in Kingston studio last week. Dressed in a blue and yellow colour scheme, with two bandanas wrapped around his head, John Hype shows firsthand his avant-garde mastery of street fashion.
I created all those dances at 'Hot Mondays' (an event held at Hagley Park Road in Kingston). Hot Mondays ah my place, ah my house, ah my dancing school. I build it, I have been going there from it start when it was only five persons in the venue. That's where I create all my dances except the 'Drive By', I just listen to the rhythm, and my mind and body do the rest.
BLACK ROSES CREW MEMBER
Although he made his debut music video appearance in Bling Dawg's 'Zip It Up', John Hype, a member of the Black Roses crew, came to prominence in the period after fellow Black Roses member Bogle migrated following the death of William 'Willie Haggart' Moore on April 18, 2001.
After Willie died dancehall stop, nobody was going out, everybody was afraid to go out but me start over everything. Mi start touch the road again. People ask mi if mi fraid, and mi tell them seh wha gwaan bigger than me, and ah just God ah do it, and the dances began to come.
He created the 'Drive By' that was all the rage in the last few months of 2001. When I created that dance, I called it the 'Bentley', but the people call it 'Drive By' and what the people say is law, he said.
In early 2002, he created the 'Higher Level' dance which immediately vaulted him into the spotlight. I invented the 'Higher Level' to go with the 'Diwali' because the clap thing didn't feel real, so I just gave the public a different style that would appeal to them more, he said.
Since then he has created the 'Pan Di River', 'Signal Di Plane', 'Chaplin', 'Head No Good' and new Summer dances, the 'Rockaway' and the 'Blaze'.
I have changed the dancehall, we say that dancehall is nice again, and we get back people in the dance, so I have to big up Father Powell of Stone Love, and Firelinks who named all of the dances I have created.
Asked why deejays and other performers tend not to respect the work of dancers, John Hype said: It is a ratings thing, Jamaican deejays don't highlight dancers. Look at how foreign artistes like Janet Jackson operate, they don't go anywhere without their 20 plus dancers behind them. That's why I have to be grateful to Shocking Vibes and Moses Anthony Davis (Beenie Man) for signing me and giving me the chance to do what I am doing.
I never thought I would reach the stage where I have to fly out to do a show every other weekend ah foreign,he said with a shake of his head.
John Hype recently returned from gigs in St. Maarten and St. Thomas where he was introduced to famed producer/rapper Jermaine Dupri and megastar Janet Jackson.
I love dancing, it is my life. I dance for the women and the children. Some people might say that my dances are pretty simple but why do a dance only you alone can do? he asked, laughing.
Dancing has taken over, first time, it used to be a modelling hall where people just posed, now everyone is dancing 'til they're soaking wet. Dance can end wars, everywhere I go, I spread joy and love, I don't hold no borders, is just straight love and entertainment, he said.
RELATIONSHIP WITH BEENIE MAN
John Hype met Beenie Man during his heyday as part of the Black Roses crew. They've became close friends in the last few months.
I was at Hot Mondays one night when Beenie Man came up to me and said, 'register yu dance or else five or six years time, yu might not see what you were dancing for'. It just go through one ears and come out through the other, but when he returned from a six-week tour he asked me again, and he called me a joker. Then I went home, and pree (considered) what he said, and he gave me the courage and inspiration to take things to a higher dimension
People might say that me and Beenie Man friendship is a hype t'ing but, no, is a friendship t'ing straight. Beenie Man is a true dancer, he can appreciate what I can do.
FEELS SLIGHTED BY ELEPHANT MAN
Although Elephant Man mentions him in his hit single 'Pan Di River' with the lines 'John have a new dance ah lock Jamaica and Bronx', John Hype says he hasn't gotten the credit that he deserves for inventing the dance.
Elephant Man needs to get real. Mi love Elephant Man as a deejay, but he needs to get real. He doesn't want to recognise my talent. Did you know that he wake me out of my bed early one morning to ask mi about the 'Signal Di Plane' dance and from that, him no come check mi back, but him cannot stop me from dance.
He added that he also felt slighted by Elephant Man who did not invite him to be a part of the 'Pan Di River' video, especially since it was John who originally created the dance.
The man refuse fi gi me my props (respect). He didn't invite me to the video shoot, is just coincidence why I was even at the river out by Caymanas Polo Club (St. Catherine), close to the border with St. Andrew) when it was being shot. I went to the river that day with my girl and I saw them shooting the video so I walked over and that's how mi get inna de video. Elephant shock when him see me, he added.
The video should have been shot the day before but rain wash it out, so is just Jahworks, 'cause look how mi dress in that video, how could I dress like that for a video? Elephant Man needs to just get real, he said, anger rising in his voice. Elephant Man's manager Q45 said that he didn't know anything about the video incident.
BEEF WITH BOGLE
John Hype is a long-time protege of acclaimed Black Roses dancer Bogle. However, the two parted ways in recent months because of personal differences. Mi love Bogle but he has to clean up his heart above all things. People have always recognised me as the man beside Bogle for years, and when he was overseas, I was the man who told him that he could come home from foreign, everything alright. When he came home Bogle start to lick out against me, and that's how he lost the love of the people. Me neva diss Bogle so him fi start lick out against me? Him must just clean up his heart.
HIGHER LEVEL SQUAD
To create more respect for the art of dancing in Jamaica he has also helped to form a core of 11 dancers, the Higher Level Squad, who all hail from the Lyndhurst Road, Dillon Avenue and Rousseau Road areas in Kingston.
Seven members of the squad are currently performing overseas. He has also had a hand in helping 60-year-old dancer 'Labba Labba' (who had created a series of Water dances) to perform overseas in shows set up through the Shocking Vibes network.
It is not about yourself. It can't be all about me, there are other dancers out there who can contribute to the Jamaican music scene. I am trying to help them to buss as well, said John, who still lives in the Dillon Road area.
He has also set up 'River to the Bank' production which falls under the umbrella of Shocking Vibes production to manage his career.
JOHN HYPE, The creator of several of the dancehall moves used in Sean Paul's latest music video Like Glue is unhappy. Although glad to see dancehall music getting attention through the video the popular dancer is unhappy that local dancers were left out However, as much as Sean Paul's video has given the dances international publicity, the creator says, A we should a deh do dem dance deh, going on to say Dem a use American a do Jamaican ting. Hype says that since dancehall has received ample exposure over the last year, now is the time to expose the local talent rather than relying on international ones. It come in like a sell out. Dancehall done expose already to the point that dem can use di dance. But everybody a do video fi go pon BET an' dem a use other people tings fi do it,he adds.
