Throwback Post: You're a Jerk, A Movement?

In the Fall of 2009 as a Freshman at Bowling Green State University I was enrolled in Intro to Pop Culture (you can major in Pop Culture at BGSU) and for my final paper for the class I wrote a 10 page paper that focused on the song "Your a Jerk" by the New Boyz. The paper also compared current hip hop to the past along with other issues.

Side note: one year for Halloween along with a few friends I dressed up as "jerks" which included skinny jeans, backpacks (I had Cookie Monster) and constant dancing.

Here is the essay in it's entirety:

Matt Ostrow

Instructor Brown

Intro to Pop Culture

20 November 2009

I’m a Jerk

If someone says to you, “You’re a jerk”, it may be considered an insult. However, in some places the word jerk has taken on a new meaning.  According to interview done by (ABC 7 2009) the New Boyz and other popular jerkin’ groups a “jerk” is some one who partakes in the new dance movement known as jerkin.  The dance was made sometime last year in northern California and is known as “jerkin” (Stidham “Skinny Jeans”).  Jerkin’ consists of a couple of different dance moves including the “reject” which is basically a backwards “running man”.  However many people can get confused but the reject isn’t the “jerk”, the jerk where you bend down with your legs together and move in a freestyle.  The final move is called “the dip” where you bend your knees and simply dip. Jerkin’ is also known as the Skinny Jeans Movement.  It breaks hip-hop stereotypes, promotes positivity and acceptance in a widely negative genre of music.  

At the surface, jerkin’ is just some new dance craze, but looking closer it is much more than that.  The Skinny Jeans Movement is about acceptance.  Today when many people think of hip-hop they tend to think of baggy jeans, drugs, violence and gangster personalities.  Jerkin’ is usually people in tight jeans dancing who aren’t drug dealers or gangsters.  As compared to traditional hip-hop, jerkin’ is all about acceptance because anyone can jerk.  Someone who partakes in jerkin’ is known as a “jerk” (Stidham “Skinny Jeans”).  The typical jerk wears skinny colorful jeans, skater shoes and colorful accessories.  These are all things that change what you think of when you think of a typical hip-hop artist. Wearing colorful clothes and dancing isn’t very common in when it comes to the current status of the hip-hop genre.  So not only does jerkin’ break many stereotypes in the hip-hop culture, but it is a positive movement that promotes acceptance and individuality.

Jerkin’ started in northern California and is aimed at helping urban underprivlaged youth overcome the struggles of having to deal with gangs and drugs.  This has been a social problem that the hip hop culture previously hasn’t overcome yet and has embraced as something that is just part of the culture. The hip-hop culture is not the only one reinforcing negative stereotypes on urban youth culture. Mainstream culture, media and government have been doing so since the 1990s.  “Despite the fact that youth crime had decreased since 1990, news stories continued to report, ‘soaring youth crime rates among black youth’. Legislators responded by crafting public policy that underscored the idea that to be black, young and poor was also criminal,” (Ginwright 31). The idea of being black, young and poor and also to be a criminal, is constantly reinforced in the hip-hop community and what the Skinny Jeans Movement is working on stopping to bring positivity to the community.

Jerkin’ is an activity that anyone can do according to the jerk group The Pink Dollaz who said “It’s like a new time now. Where everybody can come together, whether you can dance or can’t dance.  It’s like have fun, your daughters, your grandma’s, yours mom’s, your dad everybody can jerk!”(Stidham “Skinny Jeans”).  This shows the theme of acceptance that is being promoted throughout the jerk movement.  Today, hip-hop has become a competition of who is the hardest, who has the most money and who is the best rapper.  When these questions arise this starts bringing negativity to the community, which brews conflict between artists.  These fueds rarely end in a compromise because in hip-hop, you want to be the “hardest” and “save face” keeping the street credibility that you have.  Rappers create their reputation of being hard from the moment and if let another rapper win the “beef” or fued you are lower then them.  Today hip-hop has turned into all a contest of who’s on top.

The jerk movement is a positive thing that can keep kids away from gangs and drugs.  According to Legacy of The New Boyz “a lot of people used to be involved in gangs and like a bunch of drug sales, drug dealing all that stuff, you feel me? But ever since the jerkin’ movement came along people like changed they’re life around.  People used to go to parties and get shot up but now people go to parties just to jerk and have a good time” (ABC 7 2009).  Jerkin’ is an activity that is keeping kids out of trouble and letting them express themselves.  Bill Lucas the founder and President of the web series The Skinny Jeans Movement said, “This is something that bridges all economic levels. This bridges all racial lines” (Stidham 2009).  There have been many hip-hop movements in hip-hops brief but eventful history.  The Skinny Jeans Movement is very similar to these movements but also does many new things that haven’t been done before. 

Arguably the biggest hip-hop movement was Public Enemy’s political statement with the song “Fight the Power”, it’s the main song in Spike Lee’s award winning film Do the Right Thing (Keyes 87).  The song is a message to fight back and to stand up for your rights.  This is something very similar to what the Skinny Jeans movement is trying to do as well, promoting positivity and empowerment.  Both movements have symbols for what they stand for.  Chuck D said, “We’re out for one thing only and that’s to bring back the resurgence of Black power.  But we’re not racist. We’re nationalist, people who have pride and who want to build a sense of unity amongst our people” (Keyes 87).  The Fight the Power Movement had many symbols including the fist for black power and other emblems relating back to African-American pride.  The Skinny Jeans Movement uses tight colorful jeans, colorful accessories, skate shoes and little kid backpacks, if you compare that to Public Enemy and “Fight the Power” they differ greatly while aiming for similar goals. The Fight the Power Movement focuses on trying to get African-Americans out of stereotypical roles in the media and to stop all the violence and drug use (Chuck D 20).   Chuck D of Public Enemy uses his music to send his message to stop being one of the masses and that people needed to realize what was going on across America specifically with African-Americans. Throughout the movie Do the Right Thing whenever a conflict arose that song would come on symbolizing the concept of fighting racial and economic stereotype conflicts.

The biggest issue most people have had with “jerks” and the Skinny Jeans Movement is the style it promotes and the retro 80’s looks most “jerks” wear.  This kind of thinking started long before jerkin’ was even thought of.  When hip-hop artists Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac were making records and whenever records that promoted positivity were never picked by industry executives to be produced people began to think the only way to get your songs played were to play yourself in a negative light (Chuck D 4).  This caused many artists to become negative or turn into more negative rappers.  Soon, all rappers in the hip hop industry kept making “dark music” causing the masses to become accustomed to that. 

 The biggest example of a rapper changing to become darker is Tupac Shakur.  In his early albums, Tupac was very political much like the artists Public Enemy and N.W.A. being very motivating to the community calling people to action.  But then he realized that people were not listening to what he was saying so Tupac decided to move more into the side of negativity.  He started to become more like his character he played in the gangster movie Juice saying things like, “Fuck that. Thug life like a motherfucker.” (Chuck D 3).  The more he played up the bad boy image, the more popular he became (Chuck D 4).  Exposing the culture was promoting the uses of drugs and violence through the popularity of Tupac and artists like him came with all the negativity that tended to be glamorized.

Just like The New Boyz and their outspokenness at times with what they do and how they do it, Chuck D took very firm stances on things that many others opposed or didn’t see the same way in the hip hop community.  The issue of drugs has been a topic that has been glamorized as a way to get out of the projects into the high life full of cars, clothes, and money.  It has become sort of the urban american dream shown through many rappers the most visible one being Jay-Z.  He grew up in the Marcy Projects selling drugs amidst violence.  Then he was discovered as a rapper and many of his songs glamorize his lifestyle as a drug dealer telling of all the money and power obtained because of it.  In the song “Give it 2 Me” from his album “The Dynasty – Roc La Famila 2000” Jay-Z tells of the glamorous lifestyle of being a hustler or drug dealer (Jay-Z).

drunk of crist', mommy on E

cant keep her little model hands off me

both in the club, high, singing off key…

“AND I WISH I NEVER MET HER AT ALL!”

its gets better, ordered another round

its about to go down

got 6 model chicks ,6 bottles of crist' 4 belvederes, 

got weed everywhere

Chuck D was one of the only rappers to come out on his records and put himself out there saying he was anti-drugs.  He made many songs about how drugs destroy the community and people as a whole.  He caught a lot of criticism for that because another group member Flavor Flav was doing drugs so people were saying that Public Enemy as a group were contradicting themselves.  Chuck D admitted that they were “real” and not trying to hide from anyone and they still were against anything that would harm or destroy the community (Chuck D 15).  

What these movements both have in common is that they go against the cultural stereotypes and to improve the overall culture of our country.  While Public Enemy and Fight the Power used almost militant images to get their point across, The Skinny Jeans Movement does the same thing except presenting an image of tight jeans, colorful accessories and little kid backpacks.  The biggest difference is obviously how they call people to action by the movements is so differently put.  The Fight the Power Movement is very in your face and aggressive and similar to the Black Panther movement in the 1970s.  It’s confrontational and specifically tells you everything you need to know in the lyrics and what you need to do as an individual.  

The Skinny Jean Movement takes a different approach while being an alternatative to street life and violence.  It takes on most of the same issues that Fight the Power was talking of.  The Skinny Jeans Movement is all about promoting dance moves, giving youth an activity that is positive and fun.  It’s not supposed to be a contest to see who’s the best and see if only certain people can jerk it’s aimed to promote acceptance and encourage individuality.  It takes the mind off violence and gets youth away from drugs and violence and gets them dancing.  

The great thing about the Skinny Jeans Movement is that it promotes acceptance and individuality something that I feel has been lost throughout the years in this country.  Especially in hip-hop when you have to act “hard” all the time and you need to dress a certain way with those types of cultures people aren’t being themselves and stereotypes are reinforced.  Without artist such as the New Boyz, we wouldn’t have the creativity to bring a whole new genre of music.  

Many rappers hate on the New Boyz because of the types of jeans they wear and how they dress.  I think these are how many serious hate crimes and discrimination occurs.  Saying that wearing skinny jeans is “gay” or using put downs like that just bring us all down as a culture.  Even though its not calling people into action into the streets with protest signs saying “we need to change certain things about our government or society”, jerkin’ brings positivity and acceptance into a community viewed as very dark and negative.  

Not only does jerkin’ and the Skinny Jeans Movement provide positivity energy and acceptance into the hip-hop culture but it breaks culture, stereotypes that are set throughout hip-hop.  Artists such as Audio Push, The Pink Dollaz and The New Boyz dress like no one else in hip hop and promote positive values.  While The Skinny Jeans Movement won’t cause an immediate impact into our country that’s visible to everyone, jerkin’ is getting kids off drugs and violence and has them dancing in the streets having fun and being positive and accepting.  This type of attitude can cross into all walks of life whether you know how to jerk or not or whether you even want to know how, take away that sometimes positivity and acceptance can be just as big as to address the exact issue at hand. When you hear the song “You’re A Jerk” or see some one that’s dress like a jerk don’t be a hater, acknowledge their cause and join in by treating all with acceptance.

Works Cited 

D, Chuck. Fight the Power. New York: Delacorte Press, 1997

Ginwright, Shawn A. Black in School Afrocentric Reform, Urban Youth, and the Promise of Hip-Hop Culture. New York: Teachers College Press, 2004

Jay-Z. “I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me),” The Dynasty-Roc La Famila 2000, Roc-A- Fella Records, LLC. New York, 2000  

Keyes, Cheryl L. Rap Music and Street Consciousness. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2002

Skinny Jeans & Jerk Movement on the Rise. Interview. ABC News. ABC. ABC 7, California, 19 Aug. 2009. Television.

Stidham, Lindsay “Skinny Jeans Movement’ Bringing Jerkin’ Online.” Tube Filter News. July 31 2009  HYPERLINK "http://news.tubefilter.tv/2009/07/31/skinny-jeans-movement- bringing-jerkin-online/" http://news.tubefilter.tv/2009/07/31/skinny-jeans-movement- bringing-jerkin-online/

Skinny Jeans & Jerk Movement on the Rise. Interview. ABC News. ABC. ABC 7, California, 19 Aug. 2009. Television.