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The Internet dance craze called the “Harlem Shake” has garnered over 44 million YouTube views worldwide, but there’s one person that has yet to speak on the phenomenon. That’s G-Dep, the former Bad Boy Records artist, that helped popularize the original version of the dance that came out of kids in Harlem, USA.
“Yea I got an idea of whats going on with it, them guys that put that out, they from China?” G. Dep asked, speaking to AllHipHop.com exclusively. “Thats crazy, I mean that’s love, at the same time but coming from Harlem, if it’s not the Harlem Shake that’s not what it is. I mean that’s obvious. “
Presently, Dep is serving 15-life after confession to a 2-decades old unsolved murder.
While the first version of Harlem Shake originally spawned from G Dep’s song “Special Delivery” back in the late 1990′s, the newest version of the song only slightly resembles the strut G. Dep and Diddy created.
In the videos people from across the world have attempted the new Harlem Shake synching their flailing body movements to Baauer’s EDM song called “Harlem Shake.”
Currently, Baauer is an artist signed to famed producer Diplo’s imprint called MadDecent, a label and artists that G. Dep was unaware of at the time of the interview.
G. Dep even was still a little unclear about what exactly the dancers were doing, and while he said he appreciated the “love,” he also made it explicitly clear that the new dance is not the Harlem Shake as it was known in the 2000′s.
“We gonna call it the ‘Harlem Shake Part 2.’ We can’t call it the Harlem Shake, we gotta at least call it the Harlem Shake part 2, because from what I understand they aren’t even doing the Harlem Shake,” G Dep said. “So we just talking about anything now? Anything is the Harlem Shake? Its like, I had a bowl of cereal today, lets call it the Harlem Shake.”
Jokingly G. Dep suggested that Harlem should adopt the phrase “Harlem Shake” as a slang term of sorts.
“It ain’t really defining the culture of Harlem, coming from Harlem and bringing the rhythm, but you know we can call it the Harlem Shake Part 2. We gonna make a new slang out of it. It’s like, ‘I was walking down the street and… oh man that was the Harlem Shake.’ ” G. Dep joked.
Just last year G. Dep turned himself in for having shot a man in 1993 unaware that he killed the man. G. Dep was sentenced to a 15-year to life sentence and is currently serving his bid on Rikers Island.
As for G. Dep’s music and if he’s had any contact with Diddy, G Dep said has music on deck and that he only remains in contact with Black Rob.
“I’m still writing, we got some music we gonna put out real soon. I’m going to put out that we were working on before I came in . Look out for that sooner than later, as far as me getting something out there that would be a plus and we working on getting something out there on a bigger scale,” he said.
“I haven’t spoken with Diddy, but I still write back and forth with Black Rob from time to time, we write each other and I know he’s putting out his album.”
As our time on the call with G Dep was running out due to Rikers Island jail call restrictions, G. Dep left AllHipHop with a few parting words.
“I just want to thank everyone for their support, keep shaking man. This telephone call is Harlem Shake man,” he ended with one last quip.
Check out the original “Harlem Shake” in G-Dep’s “Lets Get It”
Here is the new version of the dance…that’s not quite a dance.
