Cali Swag District didn’t originate The Dougie, but the West Coast hip-hop group sure made the most of the routine inspired by beatbox master Doug E. Fresh.
In 2009, a high school pal returned from university in Texas and hipped the foursome — rappers C-Smoove, Yung and JayAre, dancer M-Bone — to the dance which originated in Dallas and suggested they make a song about it.
“Teach Me How to Dougie” and the video filmed on the streets of Cali Swag District’s Inglewood, Cal. neighbourhood became a YouTube hit and pop culture phenomenon.
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At its zenith last fall, such celebs as talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, NBA rookie John Wall and New York Jets wide receiver Braylon Edwards were doing The Dougie. The tune spawned a remix with Jermaine Dupri, Bow Wow and B.O.B., not to mention dozens of fan versions and parodies.
Even Barbara Walters got in on the action, inveigling Justin Bieber to teach her the dance, which is built around Fresh’s signature move of palming the back of his head with a swirling flourish.
With various Cali Swag Dougie videos racking up more than 30 million You Tube views, the group has toured North America and made the talk show rounds on the strength of the track, which hit No. 9 of Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
The Star spoke with C-Smoove, 20, by phone ahead of the group’s first Toronto appearance March 24, opening for Nelly at Kool Haus.
Q: Do you have a sense of CSD’s reach outside of the U.S.?
A: Yes. Most of our followers on Twitter are from overseas, places like Australia, Brazil and Africa. Canada is the only place we’ve been out of the country and we know they know “Teach Me How to Dougie” for a fact, because we did two shows (in Calgary) and when we performed they were screaming out “Teach Me How to Dougie” as the show was going on.
Q: How many songs into your set did they have to wait for it?
A: Five. We want to get away from this song once we get to a certain level. We want to be known as hip-hop artists, period, because we’re kind of sick of the fact that people just label us as the Dougie boys. We have better talent than that.
Q: Your debut album, which apparently is finished and could help people move on, has been delayed again. When is it coming out?
A: I don’t even know. They just keep pushing the date back to get the exposure going so we can build a base before we put the album out. There were doubts about the album selling just off “Teach Me How to Dougie,” so we’ve been going to all these markets and showing people our live performance and hope that they will support us more.
Q: With more than 30 million YouTube views and all the appearances you’ve made, how much more exposure do you need?
A: That’s the same question I’ve been asking. I feel like we’ve been enough places and we have enough fans, that we have a big enough following that we’re ready to drop an album. Management seems to think otherwise; we’ll see what happens.
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Q: When did you realize the song had reached a mass audience?
A: When I saw (CNN anchor) Wolf Blitzer doing The Dougie (at the Soul Train Awards) it was like, “Whoa!”
Q: Which celebrity’s interpretation most impressed you?
A: Well, Chris Brown, he’s the dancer of the industry and he’s done it the best.
Q: The few songs I’ve heard from CSD, like the new single “Kick Back,” are much lighter than traditional California hip-hop.
A: We don’t want to put out the typical West Coast sound, because it’s been done. And times have changed. It’s not about gang violence and the street side of everything on the West Coast anymore. It’s not that hard nowadays. Everyone in our generation is about having fun and that’s what we try to portray in our music.
Q: Is it that you don’t come from a tough, thugging background or that you just choose not to illuminate it?
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A: We do come from that background and we’re still living in that area. We know it in and out, but we don’t rap about it, because everybody knows that everybody from the West comes from the same type of background. We have songs where we do talk about it, but that’s mix tape type stuff, it won’t be on our album. Snoop talked about his Long Beach days, Game is from Compton and they talked about all that. We want to go in a different direction. We make party music.
Q: That’s a switch from rappers dirtying up their backgrounds to sell records.
A: Exactly. The easiest thing in the world is to talk about your life and what you’ve been through growing up and the struggles of the streets, but people don’t want to hear that anymore.
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