Ch. 3: Soul Control and Beyond
Soul Control
As talented as Climax was as a crew, the two Butler Park boys, Goku and B-boy Pablo, stood out for their athleticism and creativity; in addition, years of dancing with and against Fresno b-boy crews, both Hmong and non-Hmong, helped them develop a variety of power move spice to their Central Valley flavor. In 1996, Goku and B-boy Pablo brought that flavor to Radiotron and took out b-boys from Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, serving them with unique moves born from a community neglected by society at large and isolated from larger b-boy networks in metropolitan hubs.
In the process, Goku and B-boy Pablo caught the attention of Soul Control, a collection of California b-boy all stars who were already leaving their mark in the b-boy world. Goku and B-boy Pablo were invited to join Soul Control and ended up dancing with bona fide legends like Sean “Mega Man” Burgess, Jacob “Kujo” Lyons, Tyrell “Tiny” Martinez, Carlos “Inferno” Alvarez, Omar “Love” Espinoza, Barmak “Floor Molester” Badei, and Babak “The Flying Monkey” Badei. As Soul Control members, Goku and B-boy Pablo found themselves at the heart of the b-boy universe, battling crews they had only seen on grainy, overdubbed VHS tapes, and visiting corners of the nation and the globe they had not even heard of.
As members of Soul Control, Goku and b-boy Pablo helped innovate a variety of important power move combinations that are now part of the b-boy dance cannon. Most importantly, on an empty stage at the Ted C. Wills community center B-boy Pablo, surrounded by his Climax crewmates, methodically pieced together what would become his signature move, the continuous airflare. Airflares require a b-boy to execute a complete vertical body rotation using only their hands. Airflares are difficult, requiring strength, balance, and precision. B-boy Pablo wanted to up the ante by stringing together two airflares. On the Ted C. Will stage B-boy Pablo kept willing his body to defy basic laws of physics; at various points he would get through a rotation and a half only to have gravity rudely smack him down. He persisted, relying on process to overcome obstacles. In 1998, on a recreation center stage in Fresno, B-boy Pablo executed the first known continuous airflare.
B-boy Pablo Forever
B-boy Pablo repeated the continuous airflare in competition at Freestyle Sessions 3 in 1998, and continued executing it in numerous competitions. Goku also kept pushing himself to go bigger with his moves and would add his own innovative power move transitions to the b-boy dance cannon. Even with their respective success, Goku and B-boy Pablo always returned to Fresno; once in Fresno, they witnessed new generations of Climax members help the crew cement its local status. Marcio Santos came up with the idea to throw an “all elements” jam at local parks in a series of events known as Hip Hop at the Park that brought together local b-boys, DJs, graffiti writers and emcees and featured the deft DJing of Alex “A-Wax” Aranda. Climax now drew from a full roster of talented b-boys including Martin “Toxic” Hernandez, Mike “Little Mikey” Lopez, Kilo “X Man” Zaysongkhma, Erik “Este” Thurman, Rudy “Smith” Salazar, Omar “Tot” Gonzales, Nathaniel “Panthro” Lewis, Vince “Link” Gonzalez, Chris “Puma” Lewis, and Peda “Gohan” Thik who continued to battle local crews. Goku and B-boy Pablo also brought Soul Control and other well-known b-boys to the Central Valley. In return, Fresno provided comfort and nurtured their continued growth.
Then came 2004, when the Climax world collapsed on itself. Pablo “B-boy Pablo” Flores decided to take his own life. There is no clever metaphor to describe the impact Pablo Flores’s death had on those close to him; no historical angle to provide meaning to the loss of someone you met at 10 years old; no description of the near superhero feats of the children of neglect to explain the unexplainable. Rather, pain, anger, resentment, and sorrow simmered in response to the tragic loss of human life, and the mourning of the many chapters left unwritten.
The void will never be filled but Goku and his crewmates, his brothers, eventually had to move on. Goku took over leadership of Climax and blended it with Soul Control to create Climax/Soul Control. He became the b-boy elder that his generation never had, helping to train and mentor the next generation of Fresno b-boys and b-girls in his own studio. Goku stays active in the b-boy world, rising through the ranks and often judging in the battles he built his own b-boy reputation in.
The distance between three Butler Park houses, a pre-teen’s desire to fly, neighborhood and school networks, the length and width of a community center stage; these are the mundane building blocks from which history is made. In places like Fresno these stories are too often ignored or drowned out by stories coming from bigger cities or from well-funded archives.
These stories matter. Charles Montgomery, Pablo Flores, Eric Costello, Ygnacio Haro, and Alex Flores matter; Goku, B-boy Pablo, Flip, JR, and Footloose matter. Hmong crews matter, Bulldog gang members matter. Fresno matters. All these stories matter because they speak both to the ways communities like Butler Park are left to fend for themselves in a hostile world but also because they epitomize the creativity, passion, and struggle of those who live in these communities. It is easy to miss these stories. Sometimes you need to sit on the roof and wait for someone to puncture the sky around you.