Patiently Waiting C
alifornia has had its share of dance movements over the last few years. First, there was Krump in Los Angeles. Shortly after that, Hyphy exploded out of the Bay Area. Now, a new Hip Hop dance frenzy has emerged out of L.A. called the Jerk. At the forefront of this new movement is Audio Push, a rap duo consisting of 20-year-old Oktane and 19-year-old Pricetag. “The Jerk’s been out forever,” says Pricetag, of the origins of Audio Push’s breakthrough single “Teach Me How To Jerk.” “It was a dance that gangbangers did. They thought they were too cool to do any other dance, but they never did it as energetic as everyone does now. The teenage and party crowd saw it, took it, and turned it into a big movement.” Oktane and Pricetag were raised in Inland Empire, just east of L.A., where they met in middle school. Their mutual love for Hip Hop led to them joining forces in Krump battles and rap cyphers. They went on to record “Teach Me How To Jerk,” an ode to the area’s burgeoning Hip Hop movement. As the Jerk movement started to grow, so did the song, which caught the attention of production duo Kadis and Sean. They soon signed Audio Push to their production company, RozMusic Entertainment. Under Kadis and Sean, Audio Push remixed “Teach Me How To Jerk.” The song landed on local radio, and numerous major labels began offering deals. In the end, the Jerk duo inked a deal with Interscope Records, through RozMusic. Audio Push wasn’t the first Cali rap group to break their Jerk record on a national level; before them came Asylum’s New Boyz, whose single “You’re a Jerk” topped charts months before “Teach Me How To Jerk” broke nationwide. Still, Oktane and Pricetag insist they came out with their Jerk song first. “A lot of people that did their research on Jerk [music] know that we came out with [our] jerking song first,” Oktane says. “But what separates us from [the New Boyz] is we really rap. A lot of people put the New Boyz and this whole Jerking thing in a box. We’re not in that box.” Audio Push insists that they want to be respected as bonafide emcees, and in the process, lead a new generation of rappers into Hip Hop’s limelight. The duo hopes their latest mixtape, Soundcheck, and debut album in 2010 will prove their skills. “[Soundcheck] shows that we really make good music. We really spit,” Pricetag says, continuing, “This is a new generation. The style has changed, the music has changed, everything has changed.” “A lot of people think this new generation is a group of little dancing kids that wanna Jerk for a couple months, and then we’re just gonna fade out,” Oktane adds. “But we actually have something to say.” Words by Randy Roper Photo by Meeno
OZONE WEST // 9