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DJ Webstar - Chicken Noodle Soup For The Soul
Interview By: Kevin L. Clark
DJ Webstar, the 19-year-old sensation, has the clubs all across the East Coast grooving to his infectious dance craze, “Chicken Noodle Soup.” The youngest in charge is on the verge of releasing his debut album, “Caught in the Web” via Scrilla Hill Records. Not all of the fanfare has been positive, as critics and haters alike rally to point out its eerie resemblance to an earlier… more darker dance craze, shucking and jiving.
Harlem, NYC, U.S.A. is known for coming out with a new dance every so often. Always innovative and dead set on being ahead of the curve, DJ Webstar sets his sights on following his predecessors like Diddy, Quincy Jones, and Russell Simmons. Nothing is going to stop him from being on top of the game.
The Harlem native sits down with NobodySmiling.com to talk about his start as the youngest Kay Slay in the game, how the dance and song originated, and will point out that his music is not only positive for the kids, but is also nourishment for the soul.
NobodySmiling.com : I read that you had got your start doing high school parties in Harlem. How did that come about?
DJ Webstar : I’m nineteen years old, so, I was pretty much the youngest DJ in Harlem. Any party that was going on, I was the one throwing them. The dance comes from doing all the parties. My artist, Young B, was the one who really started it out. We decided to do a song for it and from then on, people caught on to it and it just took off from there.
NobodySmiling.com : Where did the idea come from and why the name “Chicken Noodle Soup”…?
DJ Webstar : It just comes from kids playing around on day and it just was birthed out of there. It came out of the St. Nick projects. As far as the name, I am going to be honest with you, man, I really don’t know how the name came about. Young B came around one day and she just started calling it “chicken noodle soup” and it was on.
NobodySmiling.com : You guys have a video for it? Can you talk about the concept and who directed it?
DJ Webstar : It’s already on full rotation at MTV and BET. The video was directed by Lenny Bass and shot in Harlem, of course. The concept is just showing kids doing the dance. There’s a heat wave in Harlem, I mean… you’d really just have to see it. It was just showing the movement that’s coming from New York. It’s a new way of living -- from how they dress to how they walk. This is a new movement! There are new faces, new voices, who have a new way of thinking. Some of these kids have their own unique way of dressing. They dress like how kids used to dress in the 80s.
NobodySmiling.com : With the dance, some would think that it resembles a shuck and jive. Do you believe that people can really see the racial overtones within the dance?
DJ Webstar : You know what?! The kids that created it are too young to even know about what shucking and jiving is. The kids made this up not knowing anything about what went on in the past! How could you attach something negative to something that’s only a positive for the kids? I mean, we’re in the middle of a war, the first year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is going on – how can you try and criticize something that’s not even on the level of what’s important in today’s current events?
NobodySmiling.com : I can dig that. Focusing more so on the dance, does its creation have anything to do with the South’s dominance within the culture and the proclamation that New York is “back”…?
DJ Webstar : I mean we don’t want to have a competition with them [the South]. The album, “Caught in the Web,” comes out September 26th of this year. The album is so New York, but it’s different than what’s out there now. We’re not really on the whole thug tip. The album is more about fashion, money, and clothes to where to go to for the rawest parties. That’s all we rhyming about. I love the South’s music. I’m not taking anything away from New York, but they’re just not having fun in the music anymore. We’re just trying to take it back to when everyone had fun with the music. It’s no different from that. It’s just new people taking the movement and pushing it forward.
NobodySmiling.com : Yeah, but the South is clowning your dance, just like how New York emcees tried to rank on snap music and their dances.
DJ Webstar : I mean… if anyone should understand the dance, here in New York, it should be the South! All of the dances that were popular back in the day came from here. The South has always had fun. Me, personally, I dance to their music because it’s fun. I just want to bring that same feeling back to my city and put Harlem, as well as New York, back in the game for having fun too!
NobodySmiling.com : Critics say that the dance (along with the song) is helping rap and the hip-hop culture to continue to “deteriorate into a cartoonish joke.” For those who aren’t in Harlem, what does the dance provide the kids who do it?
DJ Webstar : Man, it’s just fun. Good clean fun. It’s positive. There are so many negative things going on in the world. People are dying out here. This keeps kids from putting their energy into something that’s not cool. The music that we are making is more calm, yet it’s just as energetic as a Lil’ Jon track. I mean he has critics just like I’d have critics and look where he is!
NobodySmiling.com : The streets seem to be taking to it, just like they did with the “Harlem Shake” and other dances that flowed from New York during the nineties and early 2000s. When it comes to dance crazes, what is it about Harlem that makes people take notice?
DJ Webstar : Harlem is just so creative. Harlem cats are trendsetters. You may see something that originated here somewhere else and people know where it came from. I mean “Chicken Noodle Soup” wasn’t even the most popular thing that we did. We created a song and dance called the “Tone Wop” and that was bigger than “Chicken Noodle Soup.” But Harlem World does exactly that – influence the world with our creativity.
NobodySmiling.com : Amidst the backlash, though, you’ve been able to sign a recording deal. Can you go into a little detail about that?
DJ Webstar : I’ve actually been signed to Scrilla Hill Records. I’m signed as an artist and CEO of a label. My artist, Young B is signed to the label, as well. All in all, it feels good. My inspirations were Puff, Jay-Z, Russell Simmons, and Quincy Jones – this is just like a dream. A few months ago I was just trying to have fun with the music to having a record label.
I’m 19 years old and I own a label. People who have been trying to get into this business for 10-15 years are mad at me. Why? I do parties. Puff and Jermaine Dupri started out by doing parties. Just because I didn’t put work in on that level of hitting the underground and doing heavy in the mixtape scene doesn’t mean that I don’t work hard.
NobodySmiling.com : What about if it doesn’t work out? The album goes double wood, the fans become fickle, and the dance dies hard – what would you do afterwards?
DJ Webstar : I would still do my parties. I’ve already gotten offers to do two movies. I’d really want to work on some fashion. Radio has even come to me wanting to know if I want to be a part of that function. But I always like to think positive, so I don’t want to even look at failure as an option.
NobodySmiling.com : How did you and Young B – the 16 year old featured on the song – link up to do the track and is she the only guest appearance on the album?
DJ Webstar : My album is actually a compilation album to set up all my artist that I have. Cats like Shawn Don, Young B, T-Rex, Cash Flow, Young Wee, and myself are all featured on this album set to drop on September 26th. Harlem is like a small village, I knew her through my little cousin. She would always attend my parties. Ever since I’ve met her she’s been like my little sister. Our chemistry is crazy.
NobodySmiling.com : Will she be releasing an album too?
DJ Webstar : Yes, her album will drop the first quarter of next year. It’s self-titled, so just be on the lookout for that.
NobodySmiling.com : Looking back at past dance crazes, like the Pee Wee Herman, the Whop, the Fila – all were phenomenon’s that were dead by the time that videos came out. How was it that this craze was able to be accepted by the mainstream and how did it find its way onto YouTube?
DJ Webstar : Really, the kids put it on YouTube. I mean people were doing it before the song was even really released at a high school basketball tournament. They had it, I don’t even know how they had it! It’s accepted by the underground because it was respected in the streets. It sold heavy in the streets, then the radio started playing it, and then the mainstream came knocking. I figured that if them other dances had a video, I think that they’d have a longer run. Technology changed so much. BET is holding us down, lovely. They’re doing a dance contest across the world. Whoever wins gets a chance to be in the next video. And for that we’re going to let the people decide what the next single should be. There will be a remix to “Chicken Noodle Soup.” I would love to have Diddy, Ludacris and Chris Brown on it.
NobodySmiling.com : Speaking of Chris Brown, how did it feel to have him doing the dance on a recent episode of 106 & Park?
DJ Webstar : It was a good feeling. I actually thanked him, personally, for showing us so much love. He makes positive music for kids. I’m glad that he understands what we’re trying to do with our music.
NobodySmiling.com : Lastly, for the haters, congratulators, spectators and the like – is there anything that you’d like to say to the readers of NobodySmiling.com?
DJ Webstar : Honestly, I just want to say that you have to support this because it’s positive and it’s for the kids. It deters them from living that negative life. You’ll see what we got in store when the album comes out.
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