New Boyz 'Skinny Jeanz and A Mic' album

Ben J and Legacy of The New Boyz will join multi-platinum recording artist Chris Brown on an 18-city North American Tour. When "You’re A Jerk" hit the internet earlier this summer, the group had no idea how fast the song would pick up. Within days of uploading, youth across the country were recording hundreds of videos imitating the fancy footwork prompting other viewers to virally one-up their cyber counterparts with their own videos.

The song eventually made its way into the Top 5 on the Billboard music charts and garnered over a million views for the video’s Music Choice debut in its first week (the 2nd highest in the VOD network’s history)—not bad for two teens who initially recorded the song in their closet. Tour-mate Chris Brown even got in on the action uploading acrobatic videos with jerk dancing associates Scooter “Lil Scoot” Smiff and Mijo.

Their current single “Tie Me Down” featuring Ray J just landed the #2 debut at radio and is currently #1 at Music Choice with over 1.6 million orders to date.

The recent graduates have become the ambassadors of this counter-culture marked by loud colors and form-fitting garb, most notably their notorious skinny jeans. “This is us. We’re showing a different side of hip-hop and a different style from the West Coast. We’ve never been worried about the haters or critics,” says Ben J.

Their debut album Skinny Jeanz & A Mic was released September 15th on Asylum/Warner Bros. Records and chronicles the life and experiences of normal, carefree teenagers. “People think we only do jerk music, but we do a whole lot of everything,” says Legacy. “The album is about having fun and the typical teenage life. The show will capture this.”

New Boyz tour dates
SAT 11/14 Houston, TX House of Blues
SUN 11/15 Dallas, TX Palladium
WED 11/18 Los Angeles, CA Avalon
THU 11/19 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
FRI 11/20 Miami, FL Charity Event
SUN 11/22 Richmond, VA Landmark
WED 11/25 Detroit, MI Royal Oak
THU 11/26 Chicago, IL House of Blues
SUN 11/29 Ft. Lauderdale, FL Revolution
TUE 12/1 Orlando, FL House of Blues
WED 12/2 Atlanta, GA CenterStage
FRI 12/4 Washington, DC Warner Theater
SAT 12/5 Providence, RI Lupo’s
SUN 12/6 Boston, MA House of Blues
WED 12/9 Sayreville, NJ Starland
FRI 12/11 Baltimore, MD Gilliam-Morgan State U
SAT 12/12 Walling Ford, CT Chevrolet Theatre
SUN 12/13 Philadelphia, PA Electric Factory
TUE 12/15 New York, NY Nokia

New Boyz biography
New Boyz started 2009 as a Los Angeles underground youth phenomenon, but in only a matter of months, they’ve become rising stars on a national level. In this short time period, 17-year-olds Ben J and Legacy have gone from shows in local high school gyms to performing on the red carpet at the BET Awards and booking an impressive lineup of concerts across the country.

This astounding jump comes from the success of their song “You’re a Jerk,” a hypnotic dancefloor-filler that the New York Times called “pretty much perfect.” Though it started as a favorite on MySpace, it has turned into a certified hit. It not only became the most requested track on influential L.A. radio station Power 106, but it’s taken over playlists around the country. During its first week for sale on iTunes, “You’re a Jerk” sold over 53 thousand copies.

The duo of Ben J (born Earl Benjamin) and Legacy (Dominic Thomas) met as freshmen at Hesperia High School in San Bernardino County. Both were part of the same extra large rap group, but then each left to become solo artists. With their October birthdays only a day apart, they pooled their gift money to buy rudimentary recording equipment. After Legacy transferred to a new school, they decided to combine forces as New Boyz, creating a sound, slang and fashion sense that’s made them the biggest hip-hop group to emerge from L.A. in years.

While “You’re a Jerk” has helped bring New Boyz global recognition, the song has also shown a spotlight on Los Angeles’ growing, and teen-driven, jerk music movement. Jerk music is a stripped down party sound, largely created on home computers for kids with crazy haircuts, and has been building in popularity around the city for years. The neon bright video for “You’re a Jerk” features appearances from many of the rubber-limbed dance crews associated with the scene. In fact, it was these dancers that helped popularize the song in the first place, taking it from MySpace to YouTube and eventually gaining the attention of radio DJs. “We just did ‘You’re a Jerk’ as another song, the fans are the ones that did all the promoting,” says Ben J. “They started making jerk video after jerk video after jerk video to it.”

Though “You’re a Jerk” is the first single from Skinny Jeanz & A Mic, their forthcoming album on Asylum/Warner Brothers, New Boyz is bigger than just one sound. “People think we only do jerk music, but we do a whole lot of everything,” says Legacy. “The album’s about the typical teenage life.” For instance, “Colorz” finds them repping the colorful clothing worn by today’s youth, while “Tie Me Down” takes on girls who are overeager to lock them down in relationships.

Though Skinny Jeanz & A Mic features the sonic imprint of modern movements like hyphy and Atlanta’s own teen rap madness, it’s also heavily influenced by the minimal bass and drum machine sound from hip-hop’s earliest days. While Legacy handled the distinctive production on half of the album, including “You’re a Jerk,” initially this move was done out of necessity. “I knew if we didn’t make our own beats, we’d have to pay people, and we didn’t have any money at the time,” says Legacy. “I had to teach myself to make beats. I’d watch YouTube for tutorials.”

For the rest of the album, New Boyz are going into the studio with Diplo, the internationally respected DJ and producer responsible for MIA’s “Paper Planes,” but are also working with other young L.A. producers including JHawk, Jukebox, Talent and Jay-Nari. The results only enhance Skinny Jeanz & A Mic’s celebration of teenage talent. “They’re kids like us,” says Legacy.

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