"[Drew’s dance] was Graystone. It looks nice but it’s not Walking? Graystone and Walking are two different words. He is winning doing Graystone [so] don’t stop a Graystoning."
T. Pratt: I know you worked hard on your walking game.
Tyk Myn: Yeah, I actually took a damn class. And I feel like I had it. I took a class for [the] 2010 Walking Category with Darrel Davis and Dimples.
T. Pratt: So what does it feel like to watch the youngin (Drew Alexander) come in and win it two years straight?
Tyk Myn: I asked on Charnice’s Facebook … I put it up there to Dave Maxx … [Drew’s dance] was Graystone. It looks nice but it’s not Walking? Graystone and Walking are two different words. He is winning doing Graystone [so] don’t stop a Graystoning. Keep getting it and keep getting it, but I feel like if you going to do original Walking … Let it have been Magic Mike or Haywood up there and he wouldn’t have won. That ain’t fair. I feel like the Walking Category is a little favoritism. I [also] felt that Charnice and Maxx put the wrong song on to really get at him for it. He’s comfortable now so you really got to bring it.
T. Pratt: Right! So it’s been a few since they were complaining that all of the new schoolers were looking alike. Do you feel like some of them are starting to spread their wings now and show some individuality?
Tyk Myn: Un uh! They all look alike to me man, it’s like once Dre did the [drop] in ‘05, everybody followed Dre. He set the trend for the tricks and the drops and I think now they’re following Carlos. Carlos came in right behind him with about fifty of them. Everybody [thinking] now we got to out do Carlos. But now it’s about perfection, you all got to have this stuff perfected. You got three minutes, four minutes of a song to have this stuff perfected. It’s hard. They’re putting more pressure on them as far as the new school category [and] I don’t want to put no pressure on me that’s why I stay in original. (Laughing) I’m not going to drop nobody. Un uh, that’s not happening.
T. Pratt: Now let me switch gears on you. You’re DJing now. Are you still doing Clubsteppin.com’s show?
Tyk Myn: I’m trying. No, [I was doing it on] Monday’s but the traveling has been having me out on Mondays, sometimes I’ll come back Tuesday. I might be gone Thursday to Tuesday, or Thursday to Monday night, and it just hasn’t been convenient for me.
T. Pratt: Your DJing is not as heralded as your Steppin. A lot of people say on the DJ side that you favor the instrumentals a little bit too much?
Tyk Myn: It depends on where you’re at … I can’t play what I play [in Chicago] in other cities. I was just in Orlando everything was at ninety beats a minute. That’s fast compared [to Chicago].
T. Pratt: Right!
Tyk Myn: I’ll go out to teach a class but I have to come [Chicago] to get the groove back before I go to another city. And then I’m hearing … I can’t think of his name from Vegas, the DJ who said I couldn’t DJ …
T. Pratt: John Pierre?
Tyk Myn: Yeah I want you to put that in [the interview] to. You in Vegas, you don’t know nothing about to dance, or the music -- this here is about the culture and they’re letting the culture go. I know a lot of old songs. I can put on an old song but these people ain’t going to be able to move to it. I know a lot of stuff they don’t play. Like I go ask Sam Chatman for songs, and he says I ain’t played that in so long. Also, Terrible Ted [and] sometimes Mellow Khris. But New Skool is running it, so you got to play to them so instrumentals with that old flavor is what I be playing.
T. Pratt: Every time I interview you always keep it a 100% real … Sometimes to your own detriment.
Tyk Myn: I’m trying to.
T. Pratt: Dre was saying it to me one day, it seems like Tyk Myn gets more respect than me because he says what he feels, and I try to be diplomatic, and because I’m diplomatic they don’t respect me as much.
Tyk Myn: No they won’t! You got to tell them how it is. They’ll honor it later. It took ‘em a minute to honor what I said. But you gotta think, I’m critiquing like I was being a critiqued. You asked me how your dance was … man it was garbage. (Laughing) I think you do a lot better than in the club … bring that to the [contest] floor. Don’t sugarcoat it. These people need a (pauses) [Pete’s] not eliminating in the contest so people they think they got it when they get there—that’s what’s making it hard.
I remember you put up a question asking where are our students at?
T. Pratt: Right.
Tyk Myn: But everybody is teaching the same students so it’s hard to get somebody and say I need you to be in the contest.
T. Pratt: Uh-huh.
Tyk Myn: You go to Rick and Dominique and LC. So you’re going to them and we’re trying to get this in you, and they’re saying it’s this way and everybody got their way of doing it.
T. Pratt: Why haven’t you found one person to really pull to the side and work with them until they get to that level.
Tyk Myn: It’s hard (Pauses) The way I learned is the way that I look at it. I learned really on the floor so I tell the people I need you to dance with everybody that you now call “heavy hitters.” I need for you to see how it feels. Especially when it comes to guys. Guys are more intimated and they don’t like when a woman tells them something. But how will you know how to lead these women if you can’t listen to them?
T. Pratt: Uh-hum.
Tyk Myn: So I can’t see teaching one person … not in this day and time. They’d have to already be advanced so I can show them how to go to contest level. Because you’re doing Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced [in class] but that don’t have nothing to do with dancing in the World’s Largest.
T. Pratt: Right.
Tyk Myn: Just because you can do a few turns in the club don’t have nothing to do with [the contest]. Three minutes is serious. So they’re not feeling it yet. They don’t understand how when the music changes you’re suppose to change.
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