Gangbanging is sooo 2009, now kids just want to look like skate hiphoppers….

“Jerking started off in L.A. as just a little inner-city dance,” said one of the New Boyz (seen above RHS), Earl Benjamin, 18, known as Ben J.  “It reminded you of how fun hip-hop used to be”.

What’s that? – Is there a new street movement going on set to rival hip-hop?  Well maybe not rival it but certainly move it on a bit.  The name of this new movement is Jerking.  It started out in LA in 2008 when bored inner-city kids started making their own brand of music, creating dance moves like the sponge-bob and the reject, and embracing more skate inspired fashion.  They put video’s of themself up on myspace and youtube and it caught on, and somehow came to be known as jerking.

newboyz2 Are You a Jerk?

Some original jerk video’s:

What is a Jerk?

A Jerk is basically someone who dances in a jerk style, listens to jerk music and rocks jerk-inspired threads – kind of like a hip-hop indie kid. Jerking dance moves are like a chilled out version of break-dancing and you don’t need to be that acrobatic to do them….so it’s great for people who are never going to crack that whole – spinning on your head thing.  Jerk fashion is colour.full, skate-punk inspired, and includes mad accessories like faux furry fox tails, Hi-top sneakers and Gucci backpacks.

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Famous Jerks:

The best representatives of the jerking lifestyle at the moment are The New Boyz – two precocious teenagers from LA who’ve already had a hit song with ‘You’re a Jerk’ and now have reached the apex of all black boy dreams – in that they have a new song out with Ray J (I’m being sarcastic).  You can check out their 2009 hit, You’re a Jerk below:

They’ve even tried to teach Alexa Chung how to jerk:

Audio Push are also worth a mention, and you can check out their video below:

How to be a Jerk:

Baggy jeans are out, skinny jeans are in…and forget the Macarena or chicken dance…you need to learn how to jerk.  The four basic moves are the jerk, the reject, the dip and the pin drop. Check out the ‘how to…’ video below:

Is it me, or do they come across very John n Edwardish during the intro to their video….lol. Are John n Edward our version of LA jerks:

 Are You a Jerk?


4 Comments
  1. Nice blog Aika,lol! Keep up the good work xx

  2. lol so we got about 100 more lil souljah boys….

  3. Nice work Aika, i never actually realised there was such a trend.

  4. This is a great article on spreadin the love for jerking, its gr8 to see it coming up to a certain level now and hopefully it will progress more.
    really wel done x keep it nerdy!x

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