As Red Bull BC One World Finals approaches this weekend, I was looking at the line up and was excited to see Moy in the mix with many competitors of today’s generation. When my crew, Unique Styles Crew, was coming up in the scene, HaviKoro was one of the crews we always looked up to. Moy was always one that stood out. Back in 1999 we remember when HaviKoro was making noise at Freestyle Session 5 and seeing Moy throw down moves and power that was ahead of its time. Fast forward to 2017, Moy is still strong in the game and in the battle scene. Today we spoke to Moy on how he is keeping up with the young guns, and how he has stayed relevant for so many years, while also being a community leader running the Break Free Hip-Hop School in Houston, Texas.
Moy:
“I think at one point, I lost passion for it. I lost passion for it because I accomplished a lot at such a young age. I traveled all over, I won multiple titles from competitions all over the world. I lost that first love that I had for the dance and for the culture. I started to think about what was next. You start to get older and you start to second guess “Is this what I want to do forever?”. I would say starting in 2006 I was stuck in a rut of “What am I going to do with my life?”.
In 2011, my son was born and it really sparked up something different in me. I looked for a way to continue what I started a long time ago, even if it wasn’t on a competitive side, so I started Break Free. This started to open a lot of different things for me. I was surrounded by youth and it was sparking up that first feeling of when I first fell in love with the dance by seeing the kids fall in love with it. This made me question myself and why I slowed down. The kids and the youth really inspired me. 2013 rolled by and I was feeling better than ever, so I took a shot at the competition thing again. Even if my skills didn’t match everyone else, I knew that my energy and conditioning would not be matched. My goal wasn’t to be the next champion, I did it because I enjoyed the challenge. I found myself competing with guys half my age, in some cases I’ve been breaking longer than they have been alive. I wanted to give the current champion a very hard time, and let them know if they are having a hard time with me, you’re going to have a hard time with the younger generation after them. A lot changed when I started to not simply practice, but I started to train. I mixed what I learned from fitness and used it together with breaking to push the physical limits of my body.
As I got older, I have been able to understand conceptual thinking a lot better. I’ve gotten a lot wiser and am able to put together things that make sense, not just musicality-wise and flow-wise, but physically. Implementing practice and training, you are no longer going up against skill or talent, you’re going up against hard work.
There is a saying, “Work smarter, not harder.” I believe it is both, work harder and smarter. There is a misconception that working harder is beating yourself up. It really means you are putting more time and effort into achieving what you want and that’s hard work.
Ultimately, if you love what you are doing, there are sacrifices you are going to have to make. It doesn’t mean cut off the things that mean the most, you just have to find a way to distribute time in a more effective manner. I’m married with two kids and I have to give them just as much or even more time than I do in my dancing or training. That makes it extremely hard, but I love what I do so much that I’m going to give the extra effort. People constantly ask me why I like to wake up so early. It’s not that I like waking up early, it’s that the morning is the only time I have to get that done if I want to continue doing what I do. There is not enough time in the day so we have to create time and make time for what is important.
It’s pretty exciting for BC One to want me to do this. To me, that’s a win already. I’m definitely the oldest one in the line up and have been breaking for almost 23 years. I’m not battling because I have something to prove. I just want to be an example for people from my generation and people getting older that you can still do this no matter what, you just have to put the time and effort. I just take everything day-by-day, and just live in the moment making every moment last forever.”
We want to wish Moy good luck this weekend as he competes at the Red Bull BC One World Finals going down Saturday, November 4th! Be sure to check the live stream and see it all go down!