With 1.2 million subscribers on TikTok and more than 680,000 YouTube subscribers, Joel Joseph has a huge following as Lord Hec. His road to success has included multiple challenges, ultimately leading him to be the dancer and artist he has always wanted to be. “We only have one life. Why would I not be who I want to be? I am big on individuality and want everyone to be themselves, so I honor that,” he described.
Fans of his quickly recognize his frequently dyed dreadlocks, and his tattoos and big veneered smile that match his huge personality. Those self-expressions have led to hard lessons learned and some career-changing decisions.
INDIVIDUALITY VERSUS THE DANCE BUSINESS
Lord Hec, who began dancing at age 13 after watching Step-Up 2, the sequel to the 2006 original, at the Linden Movie Theater in Brooklyn, New York. Influenced greatly by the musical’s character Moose and by the dancing of Chris Brown, he went by the name Moose Brown. “I had my dyed hair at the time, but I didn’t have any of the accolades to back up why I wanted to be the person that I am. You shouldn’t need to have an accolade to do the things you want to do,” he suggested. “We choose to be artists to express ourselves to the best of our abilities. For people to say that you must look a certain way to be a dancer is a slap in the face to that.”
This duality has been a reoccurring theme in his career. “I didn’t want to be in the limelight if I had to dance a certain way. Choreography is great, but if I have to lift a finger precisely when someone else tells me to and I must dance the exact way the choreographer taught it, when do I get to interpret the dance my way?” Lord Hec questioned. “That is what turned me off about being offered gigs. When I would take one, I didn’t feel like my authentic self. What is the point of my dancing if we are all the same?”
Even with all the success he has built, he still faces similar challenges. “I was offered a television show earlier this year. They told me I had to do this and that to be on the show. My response was, ‘You came to me. I didn’t come to you. Can we build a middle ground?’ I am not going to sign my life away for years to not be myself,” he explained.
Lord Hec remembers back to what he refers to as a humiliating experience as B-Boy Hectic on “So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD),” which ran on U.S. television for 17 seasons. “I freestyled my way. Choreo is dope, but it doesn’t capture what you feel in that moment. Emotions wane off,” he explained. “I love to freestyle and raw 100 percent. I made it to the producer round/the tv aspect of it. I had my friends and family there (which I usually don’t because I protect my dance) and they had banners for me. I was going to do whatever I wanted and hope it turned out well. The producers stopped the music mid-performance and told me I wasn’t hectic enough for the show. I just started crying. The crowd was booing. The camera was getting my whole reaction. At that point, I didn’t know if I wanted to dance anymore.”
At first, it looked as if the SYTYCD rejection broke him. “I had 50,000 YouTube subscribers at the time, but I didn’t dance at all for two or three months. I didn’t want to dance. Then a friend told me not to let others dictate my life for me,” he recalled. “I decided to dance my way. I am very off gigs and things of that nature. I don’t want anyone else to put a level or stamp on how good a dancer I am. I want to be hired for me. If that doesn’t work for your tv show or event, don’t hire me. I had to come to terms with that and lose some money to dance from joy.”
CHALLENGES OF REACHING OUT TO OTHERS
Dancers and fans alike were stunned by the suicide of Stephen “tWitch” Bass on Dec. 13, 2022. The DJ for “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” was a legendary freestyle hip hop dancer and choreographer known for his multi-faceted talents and his seemingly constant smile.
“I never met tWitch, but he inspired me when I watched him,” Lord Hec described. “He was someone who was that light for others, but he didn’t want anyone to know what he was going through. People choose who to share private information with. Even when you do share, others often don’t realize the deepest things that bother you. It is common for those of us who are artists and those in artistic fields to have things in our minds that are difficult to share.”
Even artists like Lord Hec, who nearly always presents as being happy and in a good mood, have bad days and deal with issues of self-worth. “I do not have a good way of dealing with bad days, other than letting it pass and trying to look ahead to tomorrow as a better day. Like so many people, I Google my problems and sometimes I don’t feel like am enough and that I am an impostor,” he admitted. “I usually try to distract myself to cope. Sometimes I will just stop everything and sit down looking at the ceiling. Then I put my air mattress up and start dancing. It doesn’t always work. Distraction is not perfect, it is escapism.”
“We put on this façade and act out a character like Jim Carrey in The Mask,” he continued. “You don’t want to be that person who is in a bad mood around others. No one wants to be around that. I mask it every time when I am down for days.”
He learned early on that social media was not an effective therapeutic tool. “When I was in a performing arts high school, I used Facebook as my diary to the world with online venting. I look back at it now and think, ‘What the heck were you doing?’ I practically raised myself in my household. I didn’t have that emotional support I wish I had, where I could feel comfortable talking to others,” communicated Lord Hec, who was even uncomfortable dancing as a young man, much less reaching out to others for help. “I learned to dance in secret. I would dance in the corner when my brother went to sleep. When he moved, I would stop like nothing was happening. I didn’t want to get shamed for wanting to be a dancer. I did this from middle school through graduating high school.”
LOOKS AND “LOOKISM”
One of the challenges Lord Hec faced throughout his young career was having teeth that were different. “I got bullied hard over my teeth. I got comments every day about my teeth and my mouth. I know what it is like to be mistreated and picked on for being different,” he recollected. “I wondered what I was doing wrong. I would walk into class, and somebody would pick on me for no reason. Looks play a big part in your life, often being the difference between getting a job or not, particularly in jobs that include sales of any kind.”
Even as he became a well-known and highly regarded dancer, Lord Hec still struggled with the way his teeth looked. “The only thing I loved about COVID was the masks. People treated me differently after seeing my face. Society and performers specifically have been socially engineered and crafted to have a certain look. People back away from someone they deem abnormal. It was why I began looking into veneers,” he explained.
Veneers are a layer or covering placed over a tooth (or teeth) to give it a more natural look. “I go the veneers for my mental health. It plays a huge role in self-confidence if you don’t feel good about yourself and the way you look. It made a big difference for me,” Lord Hec recognized. “Even when I worked out, wearing the same shirt I always wore, I felt better because my teeth looked better.”
The change to his teeth was to benefit his own self-confidence, rather than to fit into an established standard. “The more you try to be a professional dancer, the more it will detract from your own personality and look. How successful one can be in the industry often depends on looks. Lookism especially stands true for women who are required to look a certain way. A more talented dancer won’t be hired as quickly as one who has the ‘look’ that fits in,” he elucidated.
Another part of Lord Hec’s look that stands apart is his multiple tattoos, including those on his face. “I purposely got the tattoos to combat the lookism of the industry. I did want to get them anyway, but there was also a point to it, to show that you can still be an awesome person regardless of looks,” he explained.
MAKING A LIVING
“We have to make money and that builds a lot of stress,” he remarked. “I’ve tried Patreon and private lessons, but it is hard doing those things as an introvert. I hope that the information I am sharing and teaching is enough, but I don’t want to come off as a person who knows everything. I question whether I am qualified to reach enough people.”
The struggle to monetize talent in dance is an ongoing conundrum that has existed since dance began. “It takes you being a business-oriented person to make a decent amount of money. You can’t just be the best or be great. As your dance skills improve, your finances should also improve, but they may not if you don’t have a certain look. There are factors that you can only control so far,” stated Lord Hec. “Dancers who have a million or two million followers are in regular living conditions like anyone else. Where is the money for dancers? If I was in a financial career and had the same number of followers I do now, I would have millions of dollars.”
One thing that has helped him both financially and in terms of independence is his lack of need for possessions. “If I can get rid of it, I will. I only need the essentials in life. A lot of dancers want to acquire things and look like something. I don’t care about that,” expressed Lord Hec, who moved to Houston earlier this year after living in New York City his whole life. “I have freedom to be where I want to be because I live so minimally. I get the stuff I need. I make my videos as easy to do as possible. I have a tripod set up and if I want to make a video, I just do it. The hardest thing for me is turning on and off the lights, and making sure my phone is centered.”
One of his major concerns is that the number of YouTube subscribers does not translate into monetizing his dancing. “Subscribers don’t matter anymore. There are times it seems only people not subscribed are seeing the videos. The algorithm has changed a lot so I may have 680,000 followers, but only 1,000 of them are seeing the video,” he explained. “I can do other things besides dance. I made one video where if someone could beat me at UNO, I would give them $50. It ended up being my worst performing video of the month, which really bummed me out because I loved it. It sent me back to the drawing board.”
With 1.2 million subscribers on TikTok and more than 680,000 YouTube subscribers, Joel Joseph has a huge following as Lord Hec. His road to success has included multiple challenges, ultimately leading him to be the dancer and artist he has always wanted to be. “We only have one life. Why would I not be who I want to be? I am big on individuality and want everyone to be themselves, so I honor that,” he described.
Fans of his quickly recognize his frequently dyed dreadlocks, and his tattoos and big veneered smile that match his huge personality. Those self-expressions have led to hard lessons learned and some career-changing decisions.
INDIVIDUALITY VERSUS THE DANCE BUSINESS
Lord Hec, who began dancing at age 13 after watching Step-Up 2, the sequel to the 2006 original, at the Linden Movie Theater in Brooklyn, New York. Influenced greatly by the musical’s character Moose and by the dancing of Chris Brown, he went by the name Moose Brown. “I had my dyed hair at the time, but I didn’t have any of the accolades to back up why I wanted to be the person that I am. You shouldn’t need to have an accolade to do the things you want to do,” he suggested. “We choose to be artists to express ourselves to the best of our abilities. For people to say that you must look a certain way to be a dancer is a slap in the face to that.”
This duality has been a reoccurring theme in his career. “I didn’t want to be in the limelight if I had to dance a certain way. Choreography is great, but if I have to lift a finger precisely when someone else tells me to and I must dance the exact way the choreographer taught it, when do I get to interpret the dance my way?” Lord Hec questioned. “That is what turned me off about being offered gigs. When I would take one, I didn’t feel like my authentic self. What is the point of my dancing if we are all the same?”
Even with all the success he has built, he still faces similar challenges. “I was offered a television show earlier this year. They told me I had to do this and that to be on the show. My response was, ‘You came to me. I didn’t come to you. Can we build a middle ground?’ I am not going to sign my life away for years to not be myself,” he explained.
Lord Hec remembers back to what he refers to as a humiliating experience as B-Boy Hectic on “So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD),” which ran on U.S. television for 17 seasons. “I freestyled my way. Choreo is dope, but it doesn’t capture what you feel in that moment. Emotions wane off,” he explained. “I love to freestyle and raw 100 percent. I made it to the producer round/the tv aspect of it. I had my friends and family there (which I usually don’t because I protect my dance) and they had banners for me. I was going to do whatever I wanted and hope it turned out well. The producers stopped the music mid-performance and told me I wasn’t hectic enough for the show. I just started crying. The crowd was booing. The camera was getting my whole reaction. At that point, I didn’t know if I wanted to dance anymore.”
At first, it looked as if the SYTYCD rejection broke him. “I had 50,000 YouTube subscribers at the time, but I didn’t dance at all for two or three months. I didn’t want to dance. Then a friend told me not to let others dictate my life for me,” he recalled. “I decided to dance my way. I am very off gigs and things of that nature. I don’t want anyone else to put a level or stamp on how good a dancer I am. I want to be hired for me. If that doesn’t work for your tv show or event, don’t hire me. I had to come to terms with that and lose some money to dance from joy.”
CHALLENGES OF REACHING OUT TO OTHERS
Dancers and fans alike were stunned by the suicide of Stephen “tWitch” Bass on Dec. 13, 2022. The DJ for “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” was a legendary freestyle hip hop dancer and choreographer known for his multi-faceted talents and his seemingly constant smile.
“I never met tWitch, but he inspired me when I watched him,” Lord Hec described. “He was someone who was that light for others, but he didn’t want anyone to know what he was going through. People choose who to share private information with. Even when you do share, others often don’t realize the deepest things that bother you. It is common for those of us who are artists and those in artistic fields to have things in our minds that are difficult to share.”
Even artists like Lord Hec, who nearly always presents as being happy and in a good mood, have bad days and deal with issues of self-worth. “I do not have a good way of dealing with bad days, other than letting it pass and trying to look ahead to tomorrow as a better day. Like so many people, I Google my problems and sometimes I don’t feel like am enough and that I am an impostor,” he admitted. “I usually try to distract myself to cope. Sometimes I will just stop everything and sit down looking at the ceiling. Then I put my air mattress up and start dancing. It doesn’t always work. Distraction is not perfect, it is escapism.”
“We put on this façade and act out a character like Jim Carrey in The Mask,” he continued. “You don’t want to be that person who is in a bad mood around others. No one wants to be around that. I mask it every time when I am down for days.”
He learned early on that social media was not an effective therapeutic tool. “When I was in a performing arts high school, I used Facebook as my diary to the world with online venting. I look back at it now and think, ‘What the heck were you doing?’ I practically raised myself in my household. I didn’t have that emotional support I wish I had, where I could feel comfortable talking to others,” communicated Lord Hec, who was even uncomfortable dancing as a young man, much less reaching out to others for help. “I learned to dance in secret. I would dance in the corner when my brother went to sleep. When he moved, I would stop like nothing was happening. I didn’t want to get shamed for wanting to be a dancer. I did this from middle school through graduating high school.”
LOOKS AND “LOOKISM”
One of the challenges Lord Hec faced throughout his young career was having teeth that were different. “I got bullied hard over my teeth. I got comments every day about my teeth and my mouth. I know what it is like to be mistreated and picked on for being different,” he recollected. “I wondered what I was doing wrong. I would walk into class, and somebody would pick on me for no reason. Looks play a big part in your life, often being the difference between getting a job or not, particularly in jobs that include sales of any kind.”
Even as he became a well-known and highly regarded dancer, Lord Hec still struggled with the way his teeth looked. “The only thing I loved about COVID was the masks. People treated me differently after seeing my face. Society and performers specifically have been socially engineered and crafted to have a certain look. People back away from someone they deem abnormal. It was why I began looking into veneers,” he explained.
Veneers are a layer or covering placed over a tooth (or teeth) to give it a more natural look. “I go the veneers for my mental health. It plays a huge role in self-confidence if you don’t feel good about yourself and the way you look. It made a big difference for me,” Lord Hec recognized. “Even when I worked out, wearing the same shirt I always wore, I felt better because my teeth looked better.”
The change to his teeth was to benefit his own self-confidence, rather than to fit into an established standard. “The more you try to be a professional dancer, the more it will detract from your own personality and look. How successful one can be in the industry often depends on looks. Lookism especially stands true for women who are required to look a certain way. A more talented dancer won’t be hired as quickly as one who has the ‘look’ that fits in,” he elucidated.
Another part of Lord Hec’s look that stands apart is his multiple tattoos, including those on his face. “I purposely got the tattoos to combat the lookism of the industry. I did want to get them anyway, but there was also a point to it, to show that you can still be an awesome person regardless of looks,” he explained.
MAKING A LIVING
“We have to make money and that builds a lot of stress,” he remarked. “I’ve tried Patreon and private lessons, but it is hard doing those things as an introvert. I hope that the information I am sharing and teaching is enough, but I don’t want to come off as a person who knows everything. I question whether I am qualified to reach enough people.”
The struggle to monetize talent in dance is an ongoing conundrum that has existed since dance began. “It takes you being a business-oriented person to make a decent amount of money. You can’t just be the best or be great. As your dance skills improve, your finances should also improve, but they may not if you don’t have a certain look. There are factors that you can only control so far,” stated Lord Hec. “Dancers who have a million or two million followers are in regular living conditions like anyone else. Where is the money for dancers? If I was in a financial career and had the same number of followers I do now, I would have millions of dollars.”
One thing that has helped him both financially and in terms of independence is his lack of need for possessions. “If I can get rid of it, I will. I only need the essentials in life. A lot of dancers want to acquire things and look like something. I don’t care about that,” expressed Lord Hec, who moved to Houston earlier this year after living in New York City his whole life. “I have freedom to be where I want to be because I live so minimally. I get the stuff I need. I make my videos as easy to do as possible. I have a tripod set up and if I want to make a video, I just do it. The hardest thing for me is turning on and off the lights, and making sure my phone is centered.”
One of his major concerns is that the number of YouTube subscribers does not translate into monetizing his dancing. “Subscribers don’t matter anymore. There are times it seems only people not subscribed are seeing the videos. The algorithm has changed a lot so I may have 680,000 followers, but only 1,000 of them are seeing the video,” he explained. “I can do other things besides dance. I made one video where if someone could beat me at UNO, I would give them $50. It ended up being my worst performing video of the month, which really bummed me out because I loved it. It sent me back to the drawing board.”
In terms of making money, Lord Hec explained that there is a difference between what he wants to do and what pays the bills. “I am trying to balance what others care about versus what I care about. I dance differently in real life than on the internet. If I go to parties or clubs, I dance the way I want to. There are so many moments that are not captured,” he stated. “Short form content has mixed reviews, but it has allowed me to teach and get my tutorials to a wider audience thanks to TikTok’s algorithm.”
Lord Hec believes that TikTok is in our best interest, though he never intended to get on it. “I didn’t want to be a part of it, but I wanted to adapt. It’s dope to see some great dancers like (Dushaunt) Fik-Shun (Stegall, winner of season 10 of SYTYCD) break out on there being who he is. The shortform content is a plus,” he discussed. “From a monetization standpoint, TikTok pays me 50 cents some days and I have a million followers. That is an unfortunate truth.”
STAYING TRUE TO HIMSELF
“Something that comes with being a dancer or an artist is that often what we do goes over people’s heads. If someone is dancing at a mall, others may see him or her as a nuisance instead of as an artist. That is another reason I really like dancing at home. I don’t need that negative energy,” he exclaimed. Big Mijo, widely heralded as one of the creators of Krump was expressing his art form at a George Floyd protest in Los Angeles in 2020. “Instead of people seeing the krumpers genuinely protesting the way they know how, it was turned into a funny meme. People didn’t get it.”
Lord Hec determined to continue focusing on those things that make him the dancer he is, personality and the natural emotion of dance. “Personality is what separates you from other dancers. Typecasting takes away from that. I watch a lot of dance tutorials where people who had not shown that personality before, try to duplicate my energy. That is forced. I love that you are inspired by me, but don’t try to be like me unless it’s in your own way,” he offered. “Personality got me to where I am. I could never be that loud in my mom’s house, so I would do tutorials by a garage gate down the street. I always had this personality, and I get to express it when I am talking to the camera.”
He notes that many of the most popular TikTok’s are the same dances over and over to the same sounds. “That diminishes the value of having a certain number of followers and the substance of dance. People can come in and dominate without caring about dance,” he bemoaned. “Often, people don’t actually want to learn about dance, but rather, what is cool or popular now. I have a real connection to the Red Bull Dance Your Style. There are some dancers I can feel through the screen! I am a person who is about feelings. I learned how important that is from Step-Up 2. There are a lot of dancers who capture emotion well. That feeling is unmatched and underappreciated.”
“I am not trying to sell out. There is a difference between longevity and trueness. Every day I am just figuring it out, how to dance my way,” he summarized. “I have been a lot better lately as saying no to things that take me away from my authenticity. I used to be a ‘yes man’ to make customers comfortable to reach a higher level in dance, but my happiness suffered. I had to take a hit financially to truly be happy.”