Jabbawockeez: 1st Season America’s Best Dance Crew Champions

Some Facts About This All-Male Hip-Hop Dance Group

I was watching our local version of a noontime variety show last Sunday and I just thought, okay not another bunch of dancing, singing and the like. Then suddenly, something caught my interest. 7 men, dressed in blue coveralls, wearing white masks and caps, were dancing a slow hip-hop song (I think the title was Apologize). And what a dance number! I can see a lot of their fans in the studio enjoying the dance and my curiosity got all fired out. What’s the name of their group? Where do they come from? Who are the members? Where do they perform? All these questions were racing through my mind. So I have to seek the answers, right?

Okay, first stop. The group’s name? Jabbawockeez. I know I’m late by like a year and a half in terms of knowing this group but for this Hubmob, I thought about writing a hub for them – mainly about the answers I sought. So without much further ado: the Jabbawockeez.

What Are They

Jabbawockeez is an all-male dance group. The group hails from California. Their genre? Hip-hop. This group won the first season of the America’s Best Dance Crew in March 2008. There are 11 members of the group but only the original six members performed during the show. They were supposed to be seven but the seventh member, Gary Kendell, died shortly before they started performing in the show. Their win in the ABDC launched them to stardom and they haven’t looked back ever since.

Who Are They

To introduce them briefly, here are the six original members of this group:

Jeff “Phi” Nguyen – from Phoenix, Arizona. Residential address: LA, California. He’s a hip-hop instructor and a dancer, at the same time.

Rainen (or Rynan) “Kid Rainen” Paguio – Yep, this guy’s a Filipino (hence my interest in this group). He’s a professional dancer from San Diego, California.

Ben “B-tek” Chung – Also a dancer from Mission Hills, California

Kevin “Keibee” Brewer – the oldest member in the group. He is from Sacramento, California. He is a certified Apple Technician.

Phil “Swaggerboy” Tayag – the youngest among the members featured in this hub. Also from Sacramento, California, this one is another Filipino member of this group.

Chris “Cristyle” Gatdula – Another Filipino (the third one) who’s hometowns are Las Vegas, Nevada and San Diego, California.

The other members are:

Eddie “Eddie Styles” Gutierrez

Saso “Saso Fresh” Jimenez

Randy “DJ Wish One” Bernal

Joe “Emajoenation” Larot

Alvin Paul “Albenergizer” Saflor

Where Did They Perform

The group has performed in various shows, commercials and music videos. They were featured in the commercials of Pepsi and Gatorade. They performed in the Ellen DeGeneres Show, Live with Regis and Kelly, MTV Movie Awards, MTV Asia Awards, and the NBA All-Star Game (2009 with Shaquille O’Neal). This is just to name a few. In 2009, the group was one of the front acts in the Full Service Tour of the reunited New Kids on the Block. The group also did a cameo appearance in the movie Step Up 2 the Streets (where Rynan Paguio was one of the dancers).

And that’s basically it. I seldom get impressed with dance groups (having two left feet, I just end up envying them) but for this one, I was really, really impressed (and that was before I knew that some of the members are Filipinos). I hope to add on to this hub in the future (like more information about the members). Shown below are just some of the videos I collected from YouTube. So for all of you Jabbawockeez fans out there, enjoy!

Some Sites Where You Can See and Read About Jabbawockeez

• http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/dance_crew_season_1/crews.jhtml?crew=jabbawockeez
  Includes short bios of the six original members. Also the source of my pics for these members.
• JabbaWockeeZ - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  
• JBWKZ-A Figment of your Imagination
  The official site of the Jabbawockeez (and where I got some of the pictures).

Comments

lamiaseyer@yahoo.com on August 02, 2012:

idol

Give congo on December 13, 2011:

THIS CREW IS BEST I WISH I CAN SEE THEM LIVE ONE DAY.I'M ALSO A DANCER WISH TO BE LIKE THEM.

Joe Loo on March 03, 2011:

Wow, they are so cool, great dancer, I love them :)

Jana08_cute on December 17, 2009:

Nice hub. I'm a fan of Jabbawokeez, too!

emievil (author) from Philippines on October 25, 2009:

Thanks amel.

amel mastouri on October 24, 2009:

well it have been such an honor to wach a verrrrryyyyyyyy talented group and they took my breath in every step they make.Yo,ranand you r the best in yo group

amel mastouri on October 24, 2009:

ilove you jbbw you r the best group ever

emievil (author) from Philippines on October 18, 2009:

Thanks KentJacob.

KentJacob on October 18, 2009:

hello emie,

great hub exposing more great filipino talent. took me a while to post a comment as i've been on hubpages hiatus for a while. i love jabba as well... every kid in town is just imitating them!

emievil (author) from Philippines on October 09, 2009:

You're welcome chima4u.

chima4u from all on October 08, 2009:

well am also a dancer and i love theme thanks

emievil (author) from Philippines on September 19, 2009:

Info Help, I'm not much into hip-hop but they're really something aren't they? =) thanks for the comment.

Info Help from Chicago on September 19, 2009:

Hi Emie,

I like this group also, they are a very talented bunch of dancers. Keep up the great work with your hubs.

emievil (author) from Philippines on September 17, 2009:

Thanks fezluvr70s =).

fezluvr70s on September 17, 2009:

i luv jabba!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and kabba!!!!!!!!!

emievil (author) from Philippines on September 12, 2009:

Thanks Appletreedeals.

Appletreedeals from Salisbury, Maryland USA on September 12, 2009:

good hub - talented dancers

emievil (author) from Philippines on September 10, 2009:

Frieda, LOL, I completely agree. I like Shaquille and seeing him in action, well, he and the Jabbawockeez look really great. And thanks for the tweet.

Am I Dead Yet, seriously you played the video while in lecture? I would have been glad to be there.

Brian and hello, hello, thanks for dropping by. Yup better late than never. I wonder who their choreographer is, they look really good on stage.

KCC, you do know that I got the idea from your hub (and from watching that show). Thanks for that hub.

KRC from Central Texas on September 10, 2009:

Thanks for sharing! I love the Jabbawockeez. I and my daughter were fortunte enough to see them perform live last year when Season 1 & 2's top crews went on tour. I've written a hub about that experience as well as a weekly review of this season's episodes of America's Best Dance Crew. I'm a huge fan of all of them.

Hello, hello, from London, UK on September 10, 2009:

Thanks for a geat hub. They are really great and I hope we see more of them

Brian Stephens from Laroque des Alberes, France on September 10, 2009:

They really are a good dance group, timing looked to me to be just about perfect and they just work so well together. Maybe late but was worth the wait.

Am I dead, yet? on September 10, 2009:

Frieda, thanks for 'tweeting' this one. I enjoyed reading this Hub very much. I forgot I had the sound 'on' on my laptop when I started to play the video--while in lecture....well lets just say any excuse was better than none.

Frieda Babbley from Saint Louis, MO on September 10, 2009:

How totally way cool! Love it. They're good. Glad you shared this. Perfect opportunity. I've heard of their name, but that's it. Fantastic to finally see them in action. Shaquille O'Neal did a great job in that first vid. (he's like twice as tall as them! crazy!).