The Jerkin Movement is the first time in history where dance, music, fashion, collaborative groups (Jerk Crewz), entrepreneurship, and technology have been fused together to create a culture/lifestyle that has swept across the United States and is now global. The name “The Jerkin Movement” has already begun to evolve into “The Skinny Jeanz Movement”. The New Boyz, YG, Cali Swagg District, The Ranger$, etc. went from doing Jerk songs to now performing more mainstream music. This shift of making the music more mainstream has broadened the audience to be more about skinny jeanz fashion, entrepreneurship, and the desire to be positive in sometimes hostile environments and less about Jerkin the dance craze.
The generation that grew up with Gangsta Rap culture did not see a lot of changes in fashion, music, and imagery in almost a 20 year period. For kids who grew up in the age of personal websites, social networks, and software, the idea and the culture of upgrading, change, and new capabilities are not only familiar to today’s teenager but a way of life. Looking at The Jerk Movement with a new lens, you can clearly see that the seeds of this movement are exactly what I previous stated: dance, music, fashion, collaborative groups (Jerk Crewz), entrepreneurship, and technology.
This fusion has made its way into every single city in the United States; from the high school kids mimicking their peers/crewz (Team Dummy, UCLA Jerk Kings, Kream Kidz, and The Ranger$) all the way to elementary school kids in 5th grade dressing in their own individualistic way, using technology to engage their imagery on social networks, and looking to monetize their social network for profit based opportunities. If you are reading this from another country it may seem bizarre that 10 and 11 year olds are looking for ways to monetize their personalities through technology but, when you live in an amazing country like America, even the youngest in our society are dreamers of what they can contribute in the world.
The unifying relationships of all the elements that came together to form this culture came about organically. What I was able to do was to categorize, organize, and develop a compelling narrative to engage and monetize this organic society in the private sector (mostly with media conglomerates) here in North America. A simple way of looking at the potential affects of this movement, we are at this time calling “Jerkin”, is to see the growth and affect of Gangsta Rap culture internationally. One could make the argument that Gangsta Rap was the soundtrack or anthem for the street drug business (crack and cocaine).
Gangsta Rap created heroes out of individuals law enforcement considered to be drug offenders and gang members while simultaneously creating a legal multi-billion dollar enterprise producing hundreds of millionaires globally. The Jerkin Movement doesn’t have a soundtrack or anthem because the participants in The Movement are the artists themselves and, for them, music was a byproduct of their want to expand their self-expression through their social networks.
The Jerking Movement can go anywhere in the world where Hip Hop has made an impact and give the youth of a given geographical setting a blueprint for expanding their perception of Hip Hop into a mindset more conducive to operating and having success in the 21st century. In closing, when thinking about rebuilding your nation from the grassroots level, the fusion of dance, music, fashion, collaborative groups (Jerk Crewz), entrepreneurship, and technology should be taken into account as a primary investment opportunity to educate and direct the next generation needing to develop the skill sets necessary to compete in the Conceptual Age and global economy.
