Attack the Beat, Ride the Beat, Freak the Beat, Love the Beat

Hey guys, I’m Otis Funkmeyer, the professor of popping! I write an article about popping here at WCP every Sunday. I have lots of lessons, articles, DVDs, downloads, and music at my website www.funkmeyers.com!

Riding the Beat

Riding the beat is the basis of your love. When you ride the beat, you flow with her. Not too fast, just nice and easy. Let her tell you when to switch it up. Just stay with her, go at her pace. She isn’t going anywhere!

When you’re riding the beat, your focus is on the drums and the bass–the rhythm. You become the drummer, just setting down a groove and letting it take you where it will.

Like I said, this is the basis of all your love. If you can’t ride a beat well, don’t even bother trying with the more advanced concepts. You gotta run before you walk. And you gotta ride before you attack.

But once you got her feeling good, well now it’s time to switch it up. You gotta ATTACK that beat.

Attacking the Beat

Sometimes the beat throws something your way that makes you feel aggressive. Well, show her how you feel. It might be a drum breakdown like kah-da-dah-da-kah-da-da-da-boom-ksssh. ATTACK IT. GET IT.

When you attack the beat, you’re light on your feet. You’re ready for anything. There’s more tension in your body. You’re alert and ready. Your movements are quick, sharp, and precise.

Attacking the beat shows her that you’re paying attention, that you like what she’s throwing your way.

And now all that’s left is to freak her.

Freaking the Beat

The holy grail of beat love is beat freaking. The reason it’s so important to ride the beat before you freak the beat is that it just turns the whole process magical.

Picture it. You’re right in there, grooving along, riding that beat, a smile on your face. You’re feeling good, she’s feeling good. You get warmed up, start feeling aggressive and you go at it. You attack her. She throws a changeup. You’re all over it. You are deep in that beat. And then… the stars align, the mood is right, the timing is perfect, and you freak that beat.

It’s enough to make a popper cry. A perfect beat freak is a thing of beauty. Like a Michelangelo or a Da Vinci. But you can’t just throw it in out of nowhere. It needs context. It needs a reason to exist, a raison d’etre as the French spit it.

The beat freak is the proverbial cherry on top. Work up to it. Make sure you the layers beneath it. When you see someone else freak it so good, whether it’s Salah, Poppin Pete, Buddha Stretch, or J Smooth, look at what they were doing before. Watch how they rode the beat and then attacked it. They set the mood, got the candles lit, and THEN they freaked it.

And that my friends is how you work the beat.

The Wrap-Up

So, enough with the sex metaphor and all that. The point is this. The beat IS THE DANCE. Don’t go backwards and try to come up with the move and then put it to the music. Come up with the music and then let the move come naturally.

That’s how you love the beat. That’s how you love the dance. And that’s how the mystical journey that is popping evolves. Cuz the music made it so.

PEACE and KEEP IT POPPIN!
Otis Funkmeyer, Ph.D. of Popping

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