Suga Pop is an internationally-recognized "street dance

Street dance

Street dance, more formally known as vernacular dance, is an umbrella term used to describe dance styles that evolved outside of dance studios in any available open space such as streets, dance parties, block parties, parks, school yards, raves, and nightclubs, etc...

" practitioner and choreographer based in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. He is renowned for his work in "popping" and "locking", styles of dance collectively grouped under the umbrella term "funk styles". These styles are associated with the U.S. West Coast, particularly California. He has been affiliated with the performance groups Electric Boogaloos

Electric Boogaloos

The Electric Boogaloos are a street dance crew responsible for the spread of popping and electric boogaloo. They were founded by Boogaloo Sam in Fresno, California in 1977. Their original name was the Electric Boogaloo Lockers but "Lockers" was dropped the following year....

 and Rock Steady Crew

Rock Steady Crew

Rock Steady Crew is a b-boying crew and hip hop group that was established in the Bronx, New York City in 1977. The group was initially formed by b-boys named Jimmy D and Jojo. In subsequent years, Rock Steady Crew became a franchise name for groups in other locations. The Manhattan branch was...

.

History

Suga Pop worked with artists such as Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

, James Brown

James Brown

James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...

, Lionel Richie

Lionel Richie

Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr. , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Since 1968, he has been a member of the musical group Commodores signed to Motown Records...

, Janet Jackson

Janet Jackson

Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years...

, and Sheila E in the 1980s and 1990s, touring as a dancer, featuring in televised performances such as Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock

Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

's performance of "Rockit" at the 1984 Grammy Awards, and appearing in such seminal pop musical videos as Michael Jackson's "Beat It" and "Thriller," and Janet Jackson's "That's The Way Love Goes." After touring as a dancer with Lionel Richie, and then with Sheila E in support of Prince

Prince (musician)

Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...

's Purple Rain Tour

Purple Rain Tour

The Purple Rain Tour was a concert tour by Prince following up on the success of his 1984 film Purple Rain. According to Spin the tour sold over 1.7 million tickets.-History:...

 of 1984-1985, Suga Pop ventured into music collaboration and production. He has subsequently played live with such acts as A Tribe Called Quest

A Tribe Called Quest

A Tribe Called Quest is an American hip hop group, formed in 1985, and is composed of rapper/producer Q-Tip , rapper Phife Dawg , and DJ/producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad. A fourth member, rapper Jarobi White, left the group after their first album but rejoined in 2006...

, De La Soul

De La Soul

De La Soul is an American hip hop trio formed in 1987 on Long Island, New York. The band is best known for their eclectic sampling, quirky lyrics, and their contributions to the evolution of the jazz rap and alternative hip hop subgenres...

, Amp Fiddler, Cypress Hill

Cypress Hill

Cypress Hill is an American hip hop group from South Gate, California. Cypress Hill was the first Latino hip-hop group to have platinum and multi-platinum albums, selling over 18 million albums worldwide...

, Brand Nubian

Brand Nubian

Brand Nubian is an American hip hop group from New Rochelle, New York, consisting of three MC's: Grand Puba , Sadat X and Lord Jamar , and two DJs: DJ Alamo and DJ Sincere...

, LL Cool J

LL Cool J

James Todd Smith , better known as LL Cool J , is an American rapper, entrepreneur, and actor...

, Third Bass, and the Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E.

Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E.

Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. are a hip hop group from Carson, California, composed of the Devoux brothers Paul, Ted, Donald, Roscoe, Danny, and David. Their family is from Samoa. They first began playing music in their father's Baptist church. Before anyone else arrived, they would play P-Funk and experiment...

, in addition to recording and releasing his own material under the band name Pop's Cool Love, and mostly recently, under the name Pop. A video for the single "My Suga" was loaded to YouTube in 2011, and the single is available on iTunes.

Legacy

Suga Pop is recognized as a key contributor to the international street dancing scene, regularly teaching and delivering workshops on the dance forms of locking

Locking

Locking may refer to:* Locking , a style of funk dance invented in the early 1970s* Locking, Somerset, a village in the United Kingdom...

 and popping

Popping

Popping is a street dance and one of the original funk styles that came from California during the 1960s-70s. It is based on the technique of quickly contracting and relaxing muscles to cause a jerk in the dancer's body, referred to as a pop or a hit...

around the world. He is recognized by other dance practitioners as playing a key role in teaching these West Coast forms to dancers in New York in the early 1980s, and in subsequently teaching the New York street dance form b boying or breaking in Los Angeles after returning from the East Coast.