Khoa - The Chemist - Noise of the Broke Boys Episode 009

Khoa, a chemist by day and a bboy by night, discusses his approach to creativity and learning, and how hip hop has shaped his life.

 

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A broke degenerate hooligan documents conversations about being a Bboy, Breakin', Hip Hop, Dance, Art, Music, Creativity, Innovation, and the slow subtle crumble of society in audio form.

[Music]

this episode of noise of the broke boys

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now onto the show

[Music]

in today's episode I sit down with a

b-boy I've known since high school we

attended rival schools and met in a

call-out battle between the b-boys of

our respective schools

he is a UC Irvine alumni and currently

works as a chemist I love goofing around

with this guy

and I'm excited to bring him on the show

please enjoy this episode with my good

friend qua hello everybody welcome to

patient zero of the online infection of

corona virus yes you heard that right

that's crow no virus not corona virus

although this guy might have that as

well but chrono as in time he's got a

tardiness problem but anyways yet today

I have a special guest he is my friend

qua the chemist or he used to go by

quality but he was a biter so he changed

his name he is a b-boy he is a actual

chemist and he's also a douchebag how

are you doing my friend what's up

nothing much again my apologies for

being late today very very clever

impromptu fake ad as well so what's up

dude you've been living out here for a

minute right so we're out here in LA

you've been out here since college right

cuz you went to UC Irvine oh yeah that's

right you studied chemistry out here or

something right mmm that's right so yeah

I studied um first I studied biology

that I realized I hate memorizing shit

so I decided to get into chemistry

because I thought organic chemistry was

actually surprisingly interesting and

kind of fun to do at that time which is

contradictory to what everybody around

me was saying everyone used to say like

man fuck okay that shit sucks dick

that's the reason why I don't even want

to do chemistry anymore

so but then I was against the green I

suppose in this case so I would

that chemistry and then after I

graduated I found a job in the area and

was testing out food oh that's right

yeah you were like a food tester yeah oh

man so it was you who is putting all

that freaking coronavirus in the food or

whatever they don't mean a thing I don't

know I'm just making sure though oh no I

put it in the Modelo virus virus that

PBR virus

well dope dude so yeah so you are a

chemist and you are also a b-boy so you

moved out here and you've been a b-boy

since high school right I think I met

you man what were you probably like a

freshman or something so or maybe that's

correct we met during high school I

officially started back in middle school

I I just saw my friend at the Buddhist

template I go to every Saturday and mmm

he was one of the I don't know you ever

heard of Turtle Wax crew back then and

Sacramento hurdle wax crew I don't know

yeah it's like they I mean that just

sounds like someone's racing cars that

night turtle wax is the stuff that makes

your car real shiny that's right yeah so

that was like his crew back then what

I'll call it rice rocket I went out he

drove a rice rocket back then chewed

yeah and it was probably busted too it

was like one of those you know one of

those messed up like CR X's with like a

nice body kit but it doesn't match

everything else is like like the color

of the car is different than the color

of the eye of the body kit oh yeah

that's definitely player those back in

the back in those days did you have a

rice rocket oh no I couldn't even afford

one okay all I had back then was just a

nice reliable Camry

a silver cat we solid color all around

so okay so okay so

and so you've been breaking since middle

school in that I guess for reference you

are how old you're almost thirty right

almost 30 so I'm 29 right now so it's a

bit about living over 16 years since I

started breaking it's a long time it's

it's it's so weird to me because like

we're like I mean maybe it's just

getting old I guess in this scene

because like I remember being the young

person in the scene and now I'm like

legitimately the old person in the scene

and I'm like oh crap dude what the heck

it's kind of weird to just to look at

that cuz you go to like a an event or

whatever a breaking event and you see

you know 12 year olds and stuff 13 14 15

16 all the way up to like 20 year olds

and I'm like dang dude I'm 10 years

older than all of you guys so I guess it

get it just goes to show you that this

is such a young a young dance a young

culture but you know as we're all

getting older and it's getting more

popular I think we're gonna see more old

people older people in the scene so

anyways so like what got you into

hip-hop cuz you you are from the same

city that I'm from which is Carmichael

mm-hmm

in Sacramento which is not necessarily

known for its hip-hop it's a rich

hip-hop culture it's not known for its

rich like urban scene it's not known

like it's known for some cows some old

people

and that's probably it I don't know what

else is it's got a good school district

I guess yeah we definitely do have some

of that but yeah so what would what got

you into to HIPAA I mean I guess yeah

you said you're in the Buddhist temple

you saw someone breaking but is that

what hooked you into and then how did

you go back home and then figure out how

to do this oh yeah so after I saw my

friend doing like a couple of flares and

dude even doing a 90 on concrete and I

shouldn't was hella cool so I want to

learn how to do that so the only

resource I had back then was I went on

to my 56k dial-up internet and I was

looking for b-boy tutorials online

mm-hmm

and I notice always talk to people which

is like kind of frowning apart like

looking at people looking at a b-boy

tutorials however I was like the only

resource I had at the time so I just

read into these message sports and what

everyone probably knew as b-boy got hard

back in the days so that's how I first

got started and I just started

practicing flares and windmills in my

living room what some really shitty

carpet where you get carpet burns and

you have a big living room so it's like

you got some room for sure it's

definitely like enough space to I get

some breaking in I know your your house

was like freakin big at least that one

big entryway is like really big is that

where you did it

um that's what I did in my later years

but in the beginning actually ya know I

think by the living room was so pretty

big yeah well cause like I'm just

comparing it to my parents living room

and like there wasn't much because it

was more long than it was like yours is

wide in all directions my parents was

like shorter in one direction so they

have the couch there and so I give you

tried windmills you definitely kicked

the couch but I know yours I don't think

you would hit anything

yeah no you had big room yeah I don't

know yeah there's definitely my plenty

of space in the living room but when I

was like a super newbie back then I

would I wanted to try learn

on a smooth floor so I had this really

small like tile section between the

entryway door and the living room so I

would say it's like maybe just a 5 feet

by like I don't know 10 feet rectangle

of tile saw we just tried to win those

love that mmm so that's why I first

started learning uh windows and that's

what got me even more into it so it's

like I realized oh I can do this shit

maybe I could try learn some other moves

okay and so then 16 years later you're

still into it you work in full time in

your chemistry thing or what what is

actually your exact job title so I went

through a series of different career

changes so I work over three years it

has a food chemist and then I realized

this doesn't pay very well I need to

look for a new job okay but you know

being like 2425 a time I don't know what

to fucking do I don't have a strong

passion in this career to be a broke boy

yes exactly I would be a broke boy if I

didn't work so all I care about was

alright how do I get more money and I

didn't know what to do at the time so I

just went on a job board so that's I

look for anything relevant to my skills

so I found this one small company I

looked for a chemist it said chemists

this much salary and assistant project

manager I was like what the hell is a

project manager sounds pretty cool okay

so you manage projects and I guess like

in the industry what is the industry

exactly because it's not food anymore

right so right now I I work for a

biotech company diode that makes media

for you to develop vaccines or they also

make stuff to freeze your eggs or make

your sperm swim faster so I work for

that kind of company right now and I do

more of the project management stuff now

rather than the laboratory work wait so

that just made me think of a sperm bank

the is there do you have like a section

of the building you are kidding that's a

sperm bank that's like you got dudes

coming in they're like hey hey hey guess

what I got you know that's a good

question I don't know we have like a

reservoir of like semen in the

laboratory or something to put them to

run their tests I wouldn't doubt it

that's hella funny okay so you're over

there mix and freaking people's semen

all day that's what's up

b-boy so you're mixing semen by day and

doing windmills by night that's what's

up

that's hella tight' but so okay so what

got you into chemistry though so because

you you were into breaking first and all

of a sudden you wanted to get into

chemistry and I don't know was that was

that something you were always

interested in you know as much as I want

to provide like what do you what I call

a LinkedIn response which is like a very

optimistic professional sounding

response about to be like very genuine

and learn about it I have to say I just

wanna look for something that will make

me money in the future and chemistry

just seemed like something about more

feasible where hey I can do this shit I

can't say I love it but it's interesting

enough for me to keep going with it as

at that time like I wasn't sure what to

really do because I grew up in a family

where as we know like a lot of Asian

families especially with Vietnamese

families we have a kinda like a I guess

a pre-arranged kind of life stage of

life stages where okay you're gonna go

to school study biology you're gonna

become either a pharmacist or a doctor

or an ale person nail painter yeah what

is their time

Oh nail salon specialist you know salon

specialist is that in your career path

at all I'm not I was like trying to find

my mom so I wouldn't consider it like

you know no no I'm gonna get into that

you go mixed semen instead now now I

manage key for the mixed semen no cakes

and shit like that's the soap so you're

like hey all you Pez

over here you mix my semen for me and

they're like oh yes sir

yes project manager especially is hey

let's get this shit done on time ah I'm

about to get some corporate shaking from

my boss

oh yeah he's gonna throw his semen at

you you're not doing your job o'clock

here's my semen now wipe it up and go

give it to your peons oh no I'm just

trying to do my job man

damn dude all right that's tight but I

guess kind of going back to like when I

was like 18 or younger stages so I never

got to exercise a lot of my own

decision-making back then so I was just

relying upon the whole okay I'm just

gonna follow this preset life stages

system because there's like guarantee

security and money and I realize when I

was showering for a pharmacist so I it's

kind of boring it's kind of a link I

mean I'm not gonna knock on that kind of

job because that makes hella money and I

respect people that go through the whole

pharmacy school and go through all drug

dealers oh yeah exactly yeah you don't

want to go the drug dealer path that's

what's up um so the reason I was I'm

asking about chemistry and stuff and

breaking is because I know that you've

all you grew up in like a situation

where there was like you were kind of

guided towards a certain path but I

think breaking most people that get into

breaking are like kind of going against

the grain usually so I'm curious if

there was like if any like pushback from

your parents to not break oh all the

time I remember like when I was in high

school I would try to session at home in

the living room and the living room day

you saw before and I remember my stepdad

would always tell me to stop doing Jeff

the gymnastics as he would college

[Laughter]

[Music]

yeah just what this purpose I guess we

could just use that voice yeah and there

was your mom's voice like oh that's

supervening me I can't even do that

accent ah she would just tell me like

just just focus on my studies enough bad

boy kick I give you spanking like that

no your mom's only nice I like her yeah

but um yeah I just never my parents just

didn't support it cuz um my stepdad

would hear me like flopping everyone you

hear a lot of thud or he walks out of

his office and he's just like tapping

the ground like dude you flop bro you're

only ten but your abiders - yeah he

would basically be doing this so I

didn't really get like a whole lot of

support earlier on but I like doing it

because I thought it was cool so I just

kept on doing it and then eventually I

forgot how the story went but I guess my

fault my mom finally recognized that hey

carla has some dope shit and now instead

like discouraging me she's not bragging

to all her friends about me that's right

so she eventually turned around and I

was like alright all this rolling on the

ground is is kind of cool but go be a

pharmacist but you can roll around on

the ground afterwards

I guess callaghan unspoken compromise

because she saw that oh hey quad

graduated from college and he did pretty

well he got a job

I mean he's still breaking so I guess

she saw some nitrous you can see that

the breaking didn't really kill my I

guess career path from her eyes you

wouldn't call her that yeah yeah and she

probably also recognized that it's like

something that you love doing and that

it you know it is a creative outlet to

you and that has a lot of benefit

I mean that I think I'm comparing it to

to my parents who my mom is an artist my

dad is a general contractor and Mike

carpenter furniture makers well he

actually made this table so they're both

like creatives and so they were always

you know looking at breaking as I mean

they would say oh don't break your neck

don't you know crash too hard or

whatever but they always looked at it as

like a good thing because it was like a

creative outlet to me and my brother and

so they were pretty supportive of it

other than don't break your neck don't

do them head spins but everything else

they're like yeah that's cool so I

imagine maybe your mom started seeing

that as well

you know because chemist chemistry and

breaking it seems like such different

things to me and that's I think why it's

so fascinating to me that the this is

this is your reality is that you have

this very like technical skill set and

then this very creative skill set and

I'm very curious about like how those to

coincide could collide with each other

do you see any kind of overlap with it

in terms of like maybe mentality or

anything I mean I imagine there's a lot

of creativity in the work that you do

but it's just not so apparent to someone

who's stupid like me you wouldn't see it

you know I don't know shit about

chemistry I got an A in chemistry warm

actually I set the curve in that class

yeah that's really impressive and on

life you look for people below the curve

yeah no I was like uh I'm a chemist dude

and then I'm like okay you gave everyone

I'll just smoke back there and the smoke

in there like oh dude he's gonna be such

a good chemist and then I'm like nah

fuck this shit I'm gonna go study some

math or whatever I don't know mmm bang

you know actually that's a really good

question about tying in like I guess the

chemistry background went breaking thing

honestly as of right now I

I kept them pretty separate in this

fight like some sort of unconscious

parallels that probably happen I just

never really gave that much thought

about it well here's here's something

that maybe you can consider is like for

me uh you know I'm an engineer I studied

math and structural engineering in

school and so I have a very like you'll

have like a very set process I mean it's

very math oriented and so when I

approach breaking I have kind of like a

process of doing it in a way you know

we're not necessarily formulaic although

it might look that way it's it's more

like so when when you get good at math

right you you're not just memorizing

like a bunch of formulas or something

you're understanding the process of how

like numbers work and how you know and

variables and stuff and so what you do

is you know how to manipulate you know a

mathematical equation right or just a

mathematical statement you know how to

alter it because you have all these

tools at your disposal and so I approach

breaking kind of in the same ways where

I like try to learn all these new tools

so that when I come into break I can

pull pieces of it and kind of get me to

wherever I want which is the same thing

as math really like if you're trying to

get you're trying to turn an equation

into something that's usable so you're

applying all these different tools so

you know whatever this formula you

learned back in the day or this other

like substitution you can do these are

all little tools you use to alter the

equation which I know is somewhat

similar in chemistry so I I don't know

actually no I now that you bring that up

that kind of like I guess woke up

side of my brain that actually have some

feedback on this so I do agree I do see

one parallel at least where I think you

can relate to this square we had like a

complex problem and if we want to be

able to figure it out we just break it

down to the simplest of basic form of it

and I think that I you I definitely use

that a lot more recently with when I

need to fix my foundation and breaking

like I realized fuck my footwork looks

like shit right now

and if I want to break it down I always

did no no you're right it looked like

shit for a longest time and it wasn't

until like I don't know maybe roughly at

least over two years ago I started to

try to fix it and the best way to fix it

I guess supposed to break it down one

step at a time because like if I just

look at a six step my own six attack

then yeah I'm like man it looks like

crap yeah I just I just break it down to

like individual steps on how to make it

look crispy yeah yeah exactly and I

think that's the same with math is like

you have this equation here and you can

memorize that

but what's probably more important is if

you learned how that equation was

derived the process of which and so when

I compare that to a sixth step you have

the Move six steps sure and I you know

you learned that but then if your sixth

step looks like shit what you should be

doing is looking at each of those six

steps and figuring out how to make each

of those six steps look better and in a

way now you have six moves rather than

one move right and so now instead of

doing a six step you're doing just steps

and you can alter the steps as you as

you want and I think it gives you so

much more depth to your dancing and if

you apply that to like literally every

step you have I think at least for me I

found that footwork you're no longer

thinking about it in terms of six step 7

step 8 step twine whatever all these

stupid steps I don't think of it like

that anymore I just think of it as like

a certain movement like I'll move my hip

this way in

my foot that way or whatever on my leg

or I'll have my head up higher have it

lower have my arm reaching out more so

it's you know in you combining those

moves together and then yeah that looks

like a six step but I can also alter it

now it becomes like a you know a twine

step or whatever and so yeah that's the

that's the correlation I have with the

technical background and in the creative

background no you're absolutely right

about that like it was until recently

when I've realized the importance of

like committing for example the hook in

your sixth step okay I just thought like

oh it's just a part of the six step but

I realized now you gotta make that hook

look really good for that stick stuff to

be really good yeah yes well it it's

like every every piece of the move has

the ability to make a statement so if

you want to make the statement at the

part where you're hooking your leg

around you want to make sure that that

hook looks perfect or at least the way

you want it so cuz that's gonna be this

that's gonna be the exclamation point on

your on your sentence right or you know

like like if you're stepping forward

like one of the one one of the ways they

do it is like I think it'll be it's like

it's basically a step out but you kind

of stick your butt up in the air

mm-hmm from a sixth step all you're

doing is just accentuating that one step

you're still sticking your hips up

higher so you can see it but that so

that now that's the exclamation in the

in the sentence so I don't know I think

having a good a good balance of

exclamation points and subtle movement

is what really makes it's so interesting

the dancing so interesting I agree I

just feel like it I guess if you want to

compare it to like if you want to reach

up to a broader audience overcharged all

a nice pretty picture but we can't draw

this pretty picture without having a

nice knowing how to draw a nice square

nice triangle a nice nice circle or else

you have like all these bluff tight-ass

circle

ugly-ass warehouse guys look like shit

yeah it looks like dope so like okay so

in terms of creativity like what

creatively inspires you in this dance

hmm you know honestly the whole create

every part was the one I struggle the

hardest with like for the longest time

it wasn't until maybe again like roughly

two years ago at the same time when I

started fixing my foundation am I

breaking that's when my creativity

finally started like flourishing back in

the days hate to admit that I most of my

creativity was I really creativity was

just watching my friends Freddy's ideas

were just basically biting Oh always be

both to be while fighting shit he's a

biter so that was like me back in the

days and then it wasn't until like when

I saw like fixing my foundation when I

can finally learn how to creatively add

on stuff so I guess the more of the

story being that it's really important

to really build the basic b-boy

foundation first because that's how to

create these creativity starts flowing

as cliche as that sounds but that shit

is true and I wish I learned that like

many years back and I think that would

have like expend my growth a lot faster

early on but moving forward going back

to the creativity part and I'll say all

of it is just like just starts with

working with my friends whoever I

session with and then anytime someone

has a cool idea we just try to build off

of that yeah yeah it's definitely

helpful to have like a bunch of a group

of people to kind of bounce ideas off of

a lot of times when I train with my

brother well me and him are like really

good at this cuz we just will do

something and it's like a you know a

shitty moving

like say he does a shitty move and I'll

be like oh can you do this after it and

then he'll try it but he'll do it shitty

or whatever and then it wasn't quite

what I had in my mind but then what he

did actually looks better than what I

had in my mind or whatever and so then

we were just like oh that was tight just

like clean that up or whatever and same

thing for me I'll do a move and I'll be

like yo what should I do after this or

whatever and so we just bounce ideas and

I think the the part that makes it

really interesting is kind of the Lost

in Translation thing because he might

have an idea for what I'm trying to do

and he'll try to say it and I won't

quite understand it but I'll go I think

I understand let me try it and it's

completely the diff the wrong thing but

it's like he'll see it and go oh that

was tight actually shit try to do that

or whatever so I don't know yeah I just

play it's just playing around really

it's playing around and and not caring I

think is the two most important things

for me at least I'll actually no I agree

just I guess being in a relaxed state of

mind really does it really is important

for the creativity part especially I

don't know you have I'm sure you had

these kind of moments where and either

you're in a shower or you're taking your

your your work shits and all of a sudden

while you're taking a shit you're like

oh I have a dumb idea like it does

relaxed State oh yeah yeah yeah yeah no

uh definitely like you have some weird

ideas in the weirdest times yeah cuz I

mean it I think what's what's really

important for creativity is to like

fully immerse yourself into the moment

into it I mean they call it like a flow

state where like ideas are just flowing

and so it's like you're hyper focused in

the moment of you know trying to do

something and and so I think the times

when I'm most creative is when I get

that flow state and I'm hyper focused on

just music and you know just caught up

in my own head trying to do

something in but also not being afraid

to just go with the flow you know if

you've if your body is saying do this

just try it

I mean don't get injured or anything but

like see what happens yeah and then

maybe maybe it's still maybe it's wack

I don't know but actually I was gonna

ask you about the whole flow State thing

so that's like one of the topics I've

been trying to explore a lot more

recently and I've experienced that flow

state where things just like

everything's you should have just turns

into going that moment like I guess what

I'm trying to figure out and ask from

you is how do you obtain this flow state

a lot more consistently because

sometimes like you I'll be at practice

I'm like trying to take deep breaths and

try to calm myself but I can't always

obtain that flow state consistently so I

just want to ask you from what's on your

end uh well so yeah I've actually been

really interested in this topic as well

and so I've been listening to a few

podcasts that have experts in the field

that have you know they're like what are

the scientists that study the brain

psychology as AI neurology they're all

yes something like that but basically

they're studying what the brain looks

like in that state so they'll get like

test subjects to like get into that

state and then they're looking at what's

going on in their brain and like

figuring out what was the best way to

get them there and I mean I think it

hasn't been conclusive of what it is but

they have a few things that help and I

might get this wrong but I guess maybe

it's better if I just speak from

experience what I find is that yeah it's

kind of like a meditative exercise in a

way is like you gotta calm yourself and

become high like again hyper focused in

a certain moment which you know is is a

meditative state you're you're not

thinking about what anyone else is doing

if anyone's looking I mean it's almost

like you're in a room by yourself right

and you're there you're on the ground or

whatever and you're not thinking about

any

other than music for instance for me for

me it's it's the easiest one you know I

have this music going and it you know

it's like my favorite music or whatever

and it's an empty room it's just me I

find myself getting into that state a

lot easier because they're there I'm not

there's no one around me to like you

know to give me some kind of

subconscious stretch distraction yeah

yeah I'm not trying to like perform for

them or whatever so not that you can't

do that with other people around I mean

I do that all the time too but you just

it's a little bit harder because you

have this thing in the back of your mind

that oh there's these people here or

whatever you can't be crashing all over

the place oh but yeah so like I think

yeah if you I think the things that

apply to meditation also apply to like a

flow State for creativity

I don't know I'll have to send you some

of the podcasts I've listened to about

it because it's it's a very interesting

subject and it's not fully understood

but there are a lot of methods that

people have figured out and it's not

just and it's not um it's not only for

you know typical arts things like you

can get into like a float a creative

flow State for really anything and

that's I think that's how a lot of the

most the coolest accomplishments have

happened is when people get hyper

focused on something and they date you

know they'll come up with cool ways to

do it I mean I have a I have a theory

that Elon Musk is like really good at

this because that guy just has some

wild-ass ideas all the time and then

he's also good at executing them so you

know I feel like he just gets into this

crazy State of Mind where he's coming up

with all these ideas and then he goes

okay

let me reach into my deep bass pocket

with all this money and now let's make

it happen you know and then got a rocket

that's going all over the place and

stuff so well yeah kind of continuing

off of that how it's just kind of

curious

kind of a side question did you start

drinking

matcha recently because of the

l-theanine properties it has the what

Elvis theanine l-theanine I have no idea

what that is

I drink it cuz it's good that's good

yeah yeah I don't know yeah it cuz it

tastes good and it's I mean like I like

coffee a lot but sometimes coffee give

you like a headache and stuff and like

matcha has some caffeine in it and I

don't know it's I guess it's not so

harsh in terms of like caffeine spike

yeah the caffeine spike so I'll drink

matcha like more often now but I don't

know I don't know what what is

l-theanine with l-theanine it's a

component in commonly found in matcha

tea and I've read this recently where

Buddhist monks in Japan which work

matcha tea for the healthy earning

because l-theanine is supposed to be

like this meditative component that

helps your brain relax a lot more so

it's supposed to help them with their

meditation sessions and I started I

guess reading about how to like calm my

breaking down a lot better because I go

I go to jams and so you know consciously

I know that I feel hella nervous and I'm

trying to like take deep breaths and

calm myself and I've been trying to do

research on how to like optimize the

whole relaxation process you know I

started buying like the l-theanine self

amazed to see that kind of helps and I

would say it made my sessions a bit

better in recent days and be more so I

just thought that maybe you started

drinking matcha green chief what else do

you need no but maybe that maybe that's

maybe that's what's been helping me I

mean I didn't watch it pretty often so

and I drink a lot of tea too so if

there's any of that l-theanine and like

regular ass tea to you know just regular

good green tea then maybe that helps me

I don't know I'll have to look into that

cuz I've never heard of that

I mean shit if it helps then that's dope

I don't know for me I think for me I've

always just not cared so much about what

other people think so

I think that helps me a lot when I go to

like an event I mean obviously that's

not a hundred percent true because I do

care I don't want to crash I don't want

to look like shit but I also recognize

the fact that if any of that does happen

it's not the end of the world so that

like helps me a lot and also the

experience you know I've been doing this

for so long it's kind of like I know

what to expect

so I've been in this situation you know

I've been dancing in front of people for

like most of my life so it's you know

just remembering that this isn't I'm not

a newcomer to this so I can just jump in

and make it happen I think that helps

call me the most you know so do you like

consciously perform these kind of mental

exercises you want to call it that uh I

guess so ya know I mean there's moments

when like say you're in a crazy battle

and you're just getting blown the fuck

up that I think that's when something

really sparks up in me because you know

like back when I used to do martial arts

s like when you're against someone who's

really good who's just lighting you up

you know they're like kicking and shit

and you're like oh dude this guy's gonna

knock me out or whatever um you get this

like fear in your body and like once you

have a fear you're like I'm definitely

gonna lose I'm gonna get fucked up and

you have to like turn something on to

tell yourself you know no you're not

gonna get fucked up you can do this you

can handle it you know what I mean

because you don't you don't want to get

yourself in the defeat state of mind

when you haven't been defeated yet I

mean even if you get knocked out you

haven't really been defeated you want to

get back up you know and train get

better come back at it

percent later on you know yeah so it's

it's it's always been a thing for me to

do to to not be defeated by anything and

so yeah I think something maybe switches

on in my mind to go it

I guess I've kind of trained this is

where what I like what triggers in my

mind is like it is kind of like a

feeling of this guy is trying to take

something from me this guy's trying to

like you know I don't know kidnap my

family or whatever take some shit from

me you know like I turned some kind of

like thing on in my mind where it's like

in a way life or death which then makes

me go okay all this scared this is going

away all this fear is going away cuz I

don't have I have no time for that right

now

you know I can go back and reflect on

this later but at this moment there's no

time for this and so training that I

think has helped me a lot not that I I'm

like super good at it or anything but I

think I've gotten a lot better at it

just because it's I'm more conscious of

it so that you like start training your

mental state a lot more recently uh

maybe not super recently I mean within

the last probably like six or seven

years it's I think what I've mostly

trained myself in thinking is like when

that happens and you start having like a

fear or a doubt in your mind to

automatically go no that's not gonna

happen

in fact I'm better than this I got this

I've been in the situation many times

and you know let's just handle this you

know I you know and again yeah this guy

is trying to take something away from me

which then triggers like I don't know if

it's some like primal thing inside like

humans where you know like a maybe it's

like a fight-or-flight kind of feeling

so then you get this adrenaline spot

so that now you you're more equipped to

handle that situation but yeah I think

just training yourself to think about

that at that moment that it like that

trigger so when you hit that fear level

automatically there's a trigger to go no

wait that's not gonna happen I mean it

doesn't happen all the time but I I've

gotten better at making that happen

probably in the last six or seven years

I sounds like you're just challenging

these I guess irrational fears are

irrational yes or oral or I don't know

it's I think because I think as humans

people we all have these instincts in

ourselves and we just need to know how

to trigger them and like you know in in

the situation of a dance battle I think

maybe we're all like it maybe doesn't

get naturally triggered all the time for

everybody because you're not really in

danger you just freakin somebody spin it

on their head or with some shit and

you're like oh I'm just getting blown up

or whatever you know but but if you can

I guess trigger that to fight

fight-or-flight kind of mentality or

maybe not flight fight you're triggering

the fight in you you get that adrenaline

spike I can handle this I'm not gonna

run from it yeah I don't know that's a

pretty interesting point I think I might

start taking notes on this yeah I you

know one of the things one of the things

that always crossed my mind when I do

this is and I think it helps a lot is is

I imagine my grandpa who was in the

Japanese internment camps I imagine how

he probably felt as soon as that started

happening because he was probably like

you know oh shit everything's getting

taken from me fuck this you know it's a

yeah it's like a firefight mentality at

that moment so I try to think of that

and that gets me better into

state of mind like okay someone's trying

to take something from me let's let's

fight for this you know so I don't know

that helps me a little bit yeah actually

that's that's actually a really

interesting point I guess try to make

that conscious continual decision yeah

the fight rather than just caving into

the oh fuck I'm getting roasted I'm

getting smoked kind of moment yeah it's

it's hard to though because I also don't

take myself too seriously so like

sometimes if I'm getting blown up I'm

like oh shit that was a tight ass move

though and so I'll like be cheering and

then I'm like oh dude wait what is the

fuck are you doing you got it you gotta

like battle this guy's so yeah I don't

know yeah I guess fighting that

laid-back nough Stu is a little bit

challenging too so I don't know but I

don't have a huge issue with the

laid-back nice just because you know

dancing should be fun so if you're a

good if you're laid-back and it's fun I

think you're doing it right if you're

not having fun then I think you're not

doing it all right

oh no I totally see that if you're

having fun and that shit's like

contagious with everybody in the room

yeah uh so um other than breaking do you

have any other creative hobbies mmm

other than breaking I would say I don't

know if cooking counts it's like a

creative hobby yeah I think so nice at

least my cooking I don't know how to

cook so I'm like oh I want this to taste

uh you know acceptable so let's throw

some soy sauce in it cuz it soy sauce is

good it's a sugar or something all right

hopefully this shit tastes good actually

you're right though I guess if you learn

some some basic foundations of cooking

like what happens if your food is too

salty use that a little bit of sugar to

like balance it out so I guess in a way

you're kind of making creative decisions

optimize your cooking for that moment

yeah I mean I've like never learned how

to cook properly

but the way I always do it is I just

like taste it and then I go okay this is

like a little bland I should add this

and like I'm familiar with flavors of

you know different spices and stuff so I

go okay this probably would taste good

if I threw a little bit of this on it

and then I just freaking do it and if it

tastes like shit then whatever I'll

still eat it yeah I of a freestyle just

cook okay Cole probably be like this is

nasty so you got to eat it okay

I mean I've eaten worse I mean what yeah

one of my favorite foods is freakin

Kraft macaroni and cheese with tuna in

it so you know oh that's the standard is

kind of low so I never had that

combination before I used to eat it all

the time because my grandma would always

cook it for us cuz it's like I don't

know the cheapest freakin meal that you

can make for like a bunch of kids you

know it's like at that time probably

Kraft macaroni and cheese was like 50

cents and tuna can was like 50 cents or

whatever so it's like a dollar and you

make the whole thing and you can feed

like three kids or four kids or whatever

do you know you're right crap is hella

cheap I used to live off of that during

my college days dude I still eat it

and it's because I legitimately like it

and it's probably because I ate it as a

kid and it probably tastes disgusting to

everybody else but I like it but ya know

so yeah anyways my standard of cooking

is very low and so if I messed up some

food I'll probably still eat it just I

mean unless it's just burnt to shit or

something which which that's happened

before you know genic toast dude no

that's some ghetto shit I mean yeah it's

some ghetto shit just like this podcast

but ya know I think cooking has a lot of

creativity in it I mean if you think

about all the stuff you can do with food

and how people learn how to do that

I don't know I don't know any other way

they could have figured it out other

than just playing around with shit you

know what I mean like who knew how to

make what caramel what do you do like

you cook butter and sugar and like you

got to cook it a certain way and it

becomes that you know and it tasted

delicious who knew that that would

happen and when you cook it that way I

don't know they probably just threw it

all in a pan and started doing it you

know or whatever I don't know yeah I

don't know how like some people come up

with some of them most wild things like

who knew that people would come up with

like haggis for example yeah I'm

stuffing some sheeps stomach with random

stuff or like I guess I don't know how

people would pick open a durian from a

tree and just break it nope just spiky

fruit and break it open and start eating

it like there's a spiky ass heavy fruit

this looks dangerous it's not like

something that would kill me if it falls

on my head and it smells like throw-up

let's eat it yeah no oh man this is

actually a really funny thought because

I was always like there's so many

freaking poisonous things in the world

like how the hell did we figure out not

to eat you know that one specific

mushroom without trial and error bro you

know some cavemen are just like yo go

eat that shit real quick and then like

the dude dies and they're like oh I

guess we can't eat that one like how

else do you figure that out you know

there's some poisonous ass shit you know

for sure and there's some foods where if

you don't cook it the right way then

it's poisonous to you which that's even

wilder to me because then that was like

yo go eat that mushroom real quick oh he

died hey let's try it again but let's

cook it hey bro eat this cooked mushroom

oh you're alive don't we can eat it if

we cook it seriously what the hell I

don't know how that happened but that's

it if I had a time machine I'd love to

like go back inside and just see that

moment when the caveman was like you eat

that much quick

nah that's crazy I don't know how people

even come up with just even like this

okay like I don't know if you ever use

fish sauce during cooking yeah and it

doesn't smell too great it's not

something that you would drink out of

but it make it gives that amazing mommy

in your food when you add it into your

cooking and I don't know how people come

up with like oh no drying a bunch of

anchovies or I get a big-ass barrel

right like that's how they cook it or

they make it it's like a bunch of fish

just in a barrel with what like vinegar

or something I don't know like hella

salt so I'm Sonia and I don't just click

all the drippings and that just becomes

your fish sauce and yeah it's crazy how

something with such a strong pungent

smell can make your food like wow and

actually some of it is made with like

squid or something right or some kind of

like non fish oh I'm pretty sure some of

them put like a squid or something you

know I wouldn't be surprised yeah I

don't know that's crazy how people think

of this stuff back dead yeah I mean fish

sauce in general I'm like I wonder if

what they did was they just like tried

to pickle the fish and they fucked up

and they're like yo we're not gonna eat

this fish but this sauce smells kind of

good let's throw it in our food let's

throw it in our bland ass food to make

it taste better or you know what maybe

they did pickle the fish and the fish

was good but they ran out of the fish

and then they're like oh we still need a

you know we need to eat all we have is

rice let's pour this fucking sauce on it

so it tastes better I mean but that's

creativity right they're like dude you

know we fucked up pickling let's try to

see what happens

so that's dope so uh how have you taken

any like cooking classes or you just

kind of figure it out on you on your own

I know Vince is kind of like a he cooks

he cooks a lot and I don't he I don't

think he take took any classes but he

watches a lot of YouTube videos and

learns how to cook from YouTube no I

just only took like one semester cooking

class

during high school just to get started

and I just learned from my mom growing

up so it's all just like informal

learning here and there and I just

basically copy off for YouTube videos

nowadays just yeah I can't like kind of

figure out like this sort of pattern

between like a lot of those videos so

that's how I got started

yeah that's tight so have you ever like

cooked a big meal like a Thanksgiving

meal or something for a bunch of people

it was just kind of a hobby I guess uh

biggest call people I made food for was

yes for my R&D department in my current

company and every Ally doing a potluck

so I just made like hella Vietnamese

spring rolls and as a pretty

labor-intensive because you have to like

you got to cook the pork you got to cook

the shrimp now you got to cut the

vegetables now you have to roll every

individual roll and I probably roll like

I think maybe 40 rows 40 doesn't sound

like much no it takes hella long yeah so

I'll show you when you fuck one up and

you're like oh can't make can't give him

this one you gotta keep going if I did

that you know what I would have done is

I would have had all the ingredients and

then I would have just had the little

rolls and be like yo just take that dip

it in the water and then you roll it

yourself you motherfucker I doing this

for you

hey I've made all this food for you

there's a little picked up grab

instruction how to roll your own food do

you not want even do that I would just

go like yeah watch me real quick Boop

roll all right you're on your own dude

I'm out peace I'm gonna go eat something

else oh yeah that's a good way to go

about it have have people figure it out

yeah have them figure it out because

somebody had to figure it out okay so

cook so cooking um do you have any other

hobbies um that's not a hobby which is I

don't actively practice it I do like

drawing or painting

I took one dose it was a group on taking

classes so are those paint Knights oh

yeah yeah like where you drink you get

drunk or whatever in paint yeah exactly

except the one I had didn't really have

drink spa I mean usually salon does wine

in Cape nights and

9 - wine bye anyways because I've always

done pain during high school I was like

why am i first creative outlets - so I

would say yeah I'm in - I'm not gonna

say I'm takasi or anything but that's

that's not a creative outlet that I had

in the past

that's Heights oh so have you done any

paintings recently I would say like

about two weeks ago okay

did went to like one of those paid

nights okay that's pretty dope to just

really explore the something that I've

done in the past yeah yeah yeah I used

to paint all the time my mom she's

really into acrylic painting she and she

used to be into like oil painting now

she does a lot of watercolors too but

you know from a young age she taught me

how to paint and so uh I used to paint

all the time so I did this probably 10

years ago I made this one I don't know

this was recent because I started this

podcast and I was like oh I need a

frickin logo I think I got drunk and

painted this and then that one I don't

remember when I painted that that was

maybe like a year ago I don't know I

don't really paint too often though

those ones over there damn those prop

those are oldest fuck actually those are

probably ten years old - and then I have

a lot of even older stuff at my parents

house

all right I like painting but I just

don't have a lot of time to do it it's

kind of messy - and like back in the day

who I used to do is I would throw a

canvas on my bed and I would paint on it

cuz I didn't have like a you know a

place to like paint mm-hmm so just use

my bed dad like she has like think so

there's like I have these old sheets and

stuff they have like paint all over them

because I would paint on my bed

dank cuz I didn't give up here do this

some real bro yeah I live this life dude

I still have those sheets by the way and

I actually use them

so that's some real broke bullshit but

yes I used to paint all the time and

yeah I would actually do it a lot more

often if I had more time more recently

I've been into mic music production and

it's mainly because it's a skill set

I've never had before other than I kind

of knew how to play piano a little bit

but I'm not good at or anything um so

I've been getting more into that but

painting has been a part of my life

since I was a kid

drawing too and I used to do uh ceramics

as well but I haven't done that in a

very very long time actually you've been

exposed to art for like your most of

your life dead there's a lot of

creatives in my family I mean my mom

again is an art an artist and she's a

art teacher and then my dad you know

he's you know he makes a lot of

furniture and so in a way it's he's an

artist with wood my grandpa on my mom's

side he's kind of the same way he's a

carpenter he made a lot of friends here

and stuff so uh you know and he he's a

very creative person because he would

you know he could you know he he has the

broke boy mentality to you I mean but I

mean he he because he lit he came from

like war times and stuff he's from from

Germany he was an immigrant in America

he came here with like not much money

and stuff so he had to make shit happen

so in lieu of not having money to do

something it was like he had to figure

out a way to do it you know and so you

got to have some creativity creativity

to make that happen so I've just been

surrounded by that a lot in my life so I

don't know I think that's probably why

I'm so interested in so many creative

outlets and maybe see the creativity in

other things that aren't traditionally

labeled as creative endeavors but you

feel like a lot of those past creative

diverse kind of help shape your I guess

your minds framework and when you

approach to breaking because I remember

you would tell me you be

practicing in your living room just on

the floor just figure out how to go from

point A to point B differently ya know

it definitely does because I mean

there's an argument to be made that

creativity is itself just a skill you

know not just in this specific topic or

whatever it's a skill because in a way

you have to turn a piece of your mind on

in a certain way and apply that to

anything just like you would have to do

with with like any kind of skill in

terms of you know building something

with your hands you need to you need to

have certain skills to do that right

same thing I think with creativity is

you need to have you need to have skills

to turn on this piece of your brain to

do it and I think if you can do it well

in one thing say breaking I think you

can also probably do it well in other

things and that's why I think it's been

easy for me to pick up a lot of things I

mean mainly I mean because I started as

an artist a painter and I then I got

into breaking and I think a lot of those

skills transferred into breaking so

breaking I mean not that it was easy to

learn because it takes a lot of skill to

like pick up on the the the athletics of

it but once I got to that point and the

Athletics became easy I think everything

just started making everything started

clicking more together because now I

could apply this creative creativity

that I've always you know been a it's

always been a part of my life into this

new thing and the same thing with music

production and you know not that I'm

good at it or anything but like i

learning more about music theory and

stuff it's just giving me more tools to

play with and then that part of my brain

that lets me play which is creativity

boom it just happens i think and so so

you feel like a lot of those actually

it's kind of started making your

creativity muscles like get buffer and

buffer

yeah I guess yeah it's uh yeah I don't

know it it's is such a weird thing to me

because cuz yeah people will ask me like

what how how the hell did you do this

and it's always just it's creativity to

me is a broke boy mentality it's like

alright here you have these tools now

what can you do with it and a lot of

people would be like oh I need more

tools to do something but I feel like a

broke boy would be like well I need to

do this so alright all I have is this

microphone this empty thing of coffee

and this piece of paper let's make a

fucking podcast bruh you know what I

mean so it's like just make it hat that

it's just like make make it happen you

know and then as you refine your tools

maybe get more tools you come back make

it better make it better make it better

I don't know I guess it kind of falls

Anette on the whole problem solving kind

of mindset yeah holla dad it is a

problem-solving mindset for sure it it

very much is because um you know I think

if you looked at any art endeavor let's

say a painting you have this picture in

your mind let's see what let's see what

I can do a lot of times you start

drawing or painting or whatever and it

comes out a little differently than what

is in your mind but then you go oh

actually I like this let's play around

with this a little bit more boom let's

keep playing around and so you're it's

it's like a process of playing and doing

at the same time in a way you know I

don't know creativity is a very

interesting subject to me and that's

what that's that's why I like talking to

other creatives and that's why I made

this podcast to talk to other creatives

to kind of more understand that process

you know I'm not like an expert on it or

anything I mean I would say I'm not a

expert at all

I just know my own process and I think

that other people's processes can help

me better refine my own process and

hopefully help other people to if

they're listening so anyways I think

that's a good discussion we're hitting

the one hour mark at this point so we

can probably close the show up pretty

soon um let's see I got a bunch of

questions here uh is there anything else

you want to say before we close out the

show no I'm pretty much good to go

actually um well thank you guys for

listening let me set this show up so we

can turn it off because it's a little

bit bad you two bronies hit the jackpot

[Laughter]

thank you guys for listening um this has

been noise of the broke boys with my

friend claw

is there any way what's your Instagram

and everything where do people where can

people find you so people can find me at

my Instagram called a quality sesh so

that's KH o al ity SE sh t sesh

what a sesh it's just a short version of

the word session so that if scream was

intended just to capture all my practice

clips or my breaking clips though

because I it just become kind of

cumbersome of the switch back and

forward to my own Instagram account

I decided users that's my primary

Instagram account so I'm pretty sure

people are just clicking around clicking

on following my old account and I just

never really liked

check or update it so you want to follow

me please

but a quality sesh follow him quality

sesh alright thanks for having for

showing up man thank you for having me

and fuck you for being late alright

thanks for watching thanks for listening

sorry the show sucks peace

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