I remember it like it was yesterday. I was on the playground of my middle school, McKinley, in Newark NJ when the encompassing sounds of Jersey Club first introduced themselves to me. DJ Jayhood and Ms Porsh’s “Rock Ya Hips” came blaring out of the speaker of my best friends Sidekick as she taught me this new dance she had learned (the “Rock Ya Hips”). Since then, Jersey Club has been making strides, and breaking ground as it has fought for it’s visibility and validity in our music market today. Now, over a decade later, we are finally experiencing the genre at its maximum potential and it is all thanks to Jersey Club pioneer and visionary Cookiee Kawaii.
Drawing visual inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 thriller classic The Birds, the visual opens with Kawaii inside a phone booth, being swarmed by thousands of crows, one of which becomes anthropomorphized to perform a dance choreography. Once the beat drops, she becomes a bandleader and a space explorer in turn, flanked by theme-appropriate dancers. The video packs plenty of eye-grabbing imagery into such a short song — “Vibe” is only about a minute long — that literally leaves us yearning for more.
Up until now, music videos for Jersey Club tracks were most often captured in a very humble manner. You’d either have a dance crew perfectly synched to the DJ’s cues on a playground/party, or you’d have a very candid reel of people simply having fun and freestyling to the rhythm while hanging out with friends. It always carried a “follow along” or “DIY” essence that invited you to participate without feeling shy, or pressured to achieve a certain standard. You simply listened, or joined to have fun. However, Kawaii has elevated this culture, and presented it to the world in a refined, sophisticated, and competitive manner. Now, it is safe to say that Jersey Club will be revered as a chart topping genre, whoms dance style is worthy of recognition and inclusion. The game will literally never be the same. She has single handedly raised the bar, and set the tone for the genre forever.
“Vibe” has been bubbling all over TikTok and is poised to boil over into a mainstream hit — especially with not only the release of the song’s official music video, but the remix featuring Tyga.
In both visuals we get to see Jersey Club in all its glory as the dancers perform signature moves and as Kawaii serves look upon look! Watch the videos for “Vibe (If I Back It Up)” listed above to get pulled into the magnetizing world of Jersey Club brought to us by Cookiee Kawaii.
