Early elimination from ‘Street Man Fighter’ becomes springboard for future success

The fifth episode of Mnet’s dance competition show, “Street Man Fighter,” which aired on Sept. 20, shocked many viewers. Dance crew PrimeKingz — which was thought of as one of the heavy favorites — became the first team to be eliminated from the program after losing the battle with Bank Two Brothers (BIIB.) Some viewers even took to social media platforms to criticize the program’s judges — singer BoA, Eunhyuk of K-pop boy group Super Junior and Wooyoung of boy band 2PM — for making an “unfair and biased” judgment.

However, the six members of PrimeKingz — Trix, Knucks, 2face, Counter, Door and Kyoyung Jr. — say they have no grudges or regrets.

“At first, it was hard to believe that we were the first crew to be eliminated, and we did go through some difficult times,” leader Trix said during a media interview on Zoom, Tuesday. “But thanks to support from so many people, we are perfectly fine now. We know how to use failure as a springboard toward success and that is how we have won a series of dance competitions worldwide. So, in the days to come, we might be able to showcase a better version of ourselves.”

PrimeKingz is a crew specialized in “krumping,” which has seen them win major dance competitions at home and abroad since their formation in 2015. Krumping is a style of street dance created by the Black community in Los Angeles during the early 2000s, which is a style of free, energetic and aggressive movements. Trix, in particular, was crowned as the winner of “THE KRUMPIRE” — the biggest krumping camp in the world — in 2018, becoming the first Asian to pull off the feat. He added, “We watched ‘Street Woman Fighter’ (2021) — Mnet’s hit dance competition program featuring female dance crews — so we knew from the beginning that K-pop stars would appear as the judges of ‘Street Man Fighter.’ Since they are the ones who judge the performances, I think we cannot say anything about their decisions. We were never angry about our defeat, but were more thankful to see so many people supporting and comforting us.

A YouTube video featuring our performance for the ‘Mega Crew’ mission exceeded 2 million views in only two days and ranked fourth on the platform’s most trending video chart.”

For the “Mega Crew” mission, eight dance crews — 1Million, WDBZ, Eo-Ddae, BIIB, YGX, Mbitious, JustJerk and PrimeKingz — had large-scale performances in cooperation with dancers who do not belong to their teams. PrimeKingz’ performance, which was filmed shortly before its elimination, became the talk of the town for its visual splendor after Trix shared it on YouTube on Sept. 25. By incorporating the elements of “haka,” a ceremonial dance of New Zealand’s Indigenous Maori people, 25 dancers showed off eye-opening dance moves against the backdrop of contemporary high-rise buildings.

“When I visited New Zealand three years ago, I accidentally heard a song for haka dance and thought I should use it for our future performance,” Knucks explained. “I could not prepare for it right away because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but this time, I could do so as a team (thanks to ‘Street Man Fighter’). Both haka and krumping allow dancers to express their emotions through energetic moves, so I thought they would make a good mix. I think this performance is something only PrimeKingz can do because it might be quite challenging for other dancers to completely reveal their raw sides like us.”

Trix added that “Street Man Fighter” has dramatically changed the dance scene, especially in the ways that Korean dancers are treated.

“With the success of ‘Street Woman Fighter’ and ‘Street Man Fighter,’ the number of dance performances has increased and the amount of prizes has jumped. Dancers are making more money and are being treated better too,” he said. “Thanks to ‘Street Man Fighter,’ we could also learn a lot of different things from top-tier dancers.”