A viral Instagram Live in February 2022 prompted headlines about Miranda Derrick, a TikTok-famous dancer, being “held hostage” by “a cult.” Inside the dancefluencer community in L.A. though, the response wasn’t exactly shock.
In May 2022, the Cut published “Dancing in the Name of the Lord,” which unpacked allegations that 7M Films, a talent-management agency run by Robert Israel Shinn that boasted a roster of TikTok-famous dancers including Miranda Derrick, was functioning as a cult and controlling the lives of its talent. These allegations are now the subject of a three-part Netflix docuseries,followers, sat in front of a camera, flanked by her weeping parents.
Soon after, the Wilkings said in the livestream, Miranda cut off almost all contact with her former friends and family, even blocking her grandmother from her social-media pages. She cut her hair into a blunt, chin-length bob and dyed it blonde. She began dancing differently in her Instagram videos, trading in the poppy dances made for the TikTok algorithm for choreography more associated with music videos and.
Miranda describes having asked her family for space and patience while she figured out what all this meant. “I told Melanie I would love to continue doing videos with her as Wilking Sisters but I just didn’t want to continue doing it as we did,” the statement reads. “I wanted more control over my schedule and I wanted it to be an equal partnership rather than her controlling our business as it had been.
It started with krump. Characterized by its energetic, sharp freestyle movements and dance battles, krump was unofficially founded by a group of Los Angeles–based dancers including Marquisa “Miss Prissy” Gardner, Ceasare “Tight Eyez” Willis, Christopher “Lil’ C” Toler, and Jo’Artis “Big Mijo” Ratti in the early aughts.. Suddenly, krump was everywhere, featured in music videos and tours with artists like Missy Elliott, Madonna, and Chris Brown, as well as in ads for major brands like Sony.
Joey “Knucklehead” Turman was in his early 20s when Tight Eyez invited him to join Street Kingdom in the late aughts. “Street Kingdom stood for God’s kingdom outside the four walls,” Turman says. Membership came with costs, Turman soon learned. This extended professionally, too. The Hospitality church dance crew often booked work through Girley, Turman says, who discouraged industry jobs and instead arranged for the Street Kingdom dancers to put on “Krump Christ shows” at other churches throughout the West Coast.
“When that would happen, we’re like, ‘Okay, he has to be legit,’” Turman says, “‘because how the hell did he know that about me?’” He theorizes now that Tight Eyez had perhaps been feeding Girley information about them. “But we didn’t think about it that way,” Turman continues. Or, he says, maybe Girley was just playing into stereotypes associated with South Central L.A. “Everything he’s saying is just what most people went through,” Turman says.
Dancers stopped attending services, marriages fell apart, and the formerly tight-knit crew disbanded, dispersing across the country in search of new starts. After Turman left the church, Tight Eyez dropped Turman as a friend and collaborator, and Turman says they haven’t been in contact since. Tight Eyez later moved to Las Vegas for a time. Girley, who is now the head of a churchEveryone, it seems, tried to move on with their lives — until 7M brought all those memories flooding back.
While Shekinah has kept a low profile, public records suggest the church has a turbulent history — and a lot of cash. According to a 2010 deposition given under oath by Shinn, the church had a peak of about 70 members between 2000 and 2008, who donated $4.7 million during that time. Shinn also testified that he had encouraged his congregation to donate not only to the church but to him personally as “the man of God.
It turns out the Wilkings are not the first people to accuse Shinn of cultlike practices.
After the collapse of Hospitality, BDash enjoyed some mild industry success, booking commercials and posting viralish dance videos on social media. In early 2019, Several sources — all of which are outsiders of 7M but familiar with its members — say 7M requires its clients to participate in regular Bible studies as a prerequisite for representation.
Something perhaps everyone can agree on seems to be one of the biggest differences between Girley’s church and Shinn’s 7M: 7M is getting its clients real paying jobs. Within months of joining up with 7M, the dancers started booking major gigs, including McDonald’s and Toyota ads, and dancing on daytime TV. “I don’t know how 7M has these industry relationships,” Tyree says, “but I can tell you that ever since they got with them, they’ve blown up in a matter of eight months.
Gardner says her initial reaction to Melanie’s video was, “Holy shit, is this happening again?” Her second: “With people with money?” To sum it up, Shekinah is my family . 7M revived my career and gave me my dreams back. I wouldn’t go back to the nothing I came from.In BDash’s statement to the Cut, also through 7M’s lawyers, BDash describes first connecting with the Shinns at a time when he “needed help financially at the time and was in the middle of closing a really big deal that could help me with my finances. Closing this deal with something I needed help with.
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