B-Boy Tino Rock was born in December 27th, 1984. He is concerned one of the pioneers in Korea Breakin Scene. He has been dancing over 16 years now and currently live in Busan, Korea. He represents Max Crew, Floor Gangz World Wide, The Bronx Boys Rockin Crew Korea.
First of all, thank you for accepting the interview. Please introduce yourself Tino!
Alright. My name is Tino Rock and a person who is thankful for my people to able to dance together and other people who loves Hip-Hop culture.
There are a lot of people wondering what are you doing these days. Could you tell us how you doing and what you up to?
I was living in Seoul City about 8 years. I decided to move down to Busan, which is my hometown. Now I could see my family more often and share knowledge and communicate with Busan B-Boys and B-Girls. I am trying to find a job in Busan..haha.
It is easy to get know and get involve with Breakin. However, it is very hard to accept Hip-Hop, the culture of itself in Korea. When did you start Breakin and when is the moment that you acknowledge Hip-Hop?
First of all, before I was dancing, I wasn’t very interested in Breakin. I saw in on TV sometimes but I was more fascinated in soccer and video games when I was young. My best friend Mars [Max Crew/Floor Gangz] started dancing first and when I saw him dancing, It was FRESH. Seeing Breakin in front of me with my eyes was very attractive. The vibe was totally different from seeing it through some medias. It was awesome. After that happened, I begin Breakin looking at a famous Korea Breakin Comic called “HIP-HOP”. The way that I got in to Hip-Hop culture was very natural. When I started dancing, I began with power-moves then started developing my foundation and got close with the music. If you understand “music”, you could feel the history, emotion, people, and philosophy of life. The statement “music is the key” is not a phrase to win competitions or jams. It means respect, love, trust, and unity. It is Hip-Hop. If people understand culture is created because of unity, they could share and learn more and get involve with this culture deeply.
You could tell that Korea Breakin Scene is changed from the past. What is your perspective of today’s Korea Breakin Scene?
Korea is very fast. Because of that it is convenient . But also because of that, We have less time communicate with others. There have been a lot of competitions that cooperation are throwing and this caused B-Boys and B-Girls to get greedy and want to have high honor. It is hard for dancers to get together at jams in today’s Korea Breakin Scene. Dance style or mind is not that important. This could be develop by communication. That is why jams or competitions that have environment to share and communicate is very important. We need to balance ourselves. We need and need to make our own playground.
You had chances to go to other countries and experienced other countries culture. Which particular country had similarity culture as Korea and had opposite culture of Korea?
It is hard for me to speak about other country’s culture because I am from Korea. But what I experienced was Asia had their own kind of life style and culture and I think all Asia have similarity. I felt America’s personalities are made by their own state’s weather and of course the music. Europe had their own character of their culture. It was very nice to see and feel other countries life.
Recently, 2014 K.O.D (KEEP ON DANCING) National Qualifiers were held in Korea. You were one of the judges of K.O.D. It was a big competition in Korea and there were tons of B-Boys and B-Girls signed up for K.O.D. How was K.O.D?
It was very hard for me to judged K.O.D. There were a lot of crews and project teams that signed up for K.O.D and battles were competitive. I trusted my believes and my judgment when I made my decisions. It was unusual and fun to watch Jinjo against Jinjo in the final. It was great to communicate with a lot of B-Boys in a long time.
What do you want to tell to Korea’s Breakin Scene?
As I said, environment is very important to us. People will naturally get involve with Hip-Hop if we keep protecting and keep the culture real. Respect is where it’s at. I wish that new generation B-Boys and B-girls will keep dancing in the future no matter how hard society is. Hope you guys could keep continue feeling the pureness of Hip-Hop.
Any last words Tino?
Peace, Unity, Love, and Having fun..and JUNG.
TINO ROCK
[MAX CREW/FLOOR GANGZ/TBB KOREA]
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