Between them, they possess potent love for Beyonce, dreams of learning to breakdance, and a weakness for dropping gs from the end of words. Meet Wade Askew, Chika Nwosu and Jerred Roggensack, DM’s newest emcees. We played 20 questions with them. Note: Roggensack was interviewed separately due to scheduling conflicts.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Wade Askew: 30-hour long dance party.
Chika Nwosu: Living in a candy store.
Jerred Roggensack: I see perfect happiness as like being with people that I love. You know what? Dancing with people that I love.
What is your greatest fear?
Chika: Being stuck in an elevator. I don’t like crammed spaces.
Wade: I’ll go with being stuck in a cage of all tarantulas, scorpions and snakes. All at the same time. That’s number one.
Jerred: I’d say to look back at my life at the end and just have a lot of regrets.
Which living person do you most admire?
Chika: Beyonce. She’s a baller.
Wade: Beyonce is a baller. I can’t believe you took Beyonce, what’s left now? I’ll go with Alicia Keys.
Jerred: My roommate, Speedy, who’s in Scotland – he’s a baller. He’s the man.
Which living person do you most despise?
Wade: I’m full of love. But I’d say the Grinch. He stole Christmas, and I’m not down with that.
Chika: Well, I’m gonna have to say Miley. Even though I love her music. She’s supposed to be a sweet little Disney star, and she’s not. But her music’s good. I love “Party in the USA.”
Jerred: I’d probably say the lead singer from Nickelback.
What is your greatest extravagance?
Wade: Gosh, I’m a pretty simple man. You see how I dress, I wear sweatpants and slippers. I’d say free lodging, wherever I can get with my free flights.
Chika: Getting to go backstage and be VIP for any concert. To be able to walk in and just be like, “Hey, Miley Cyrus, what’s up?”
Jerred: My Macbook. It’s my baby.
What is your current state of mind?
Chika: Should I go to my next class?
Wade: I would just say my mind is just a continually bubbly, happy place that is kind of like bunnies prancing through a meadow with blooming flowers everywhere. And I’m just bouncing around in that happy meadow – with the bunnies.
Jerred: I’ve got an Empire State of Mind.
What is the quality you most like in a person of the opposite sex?
Chika: Someone who likes me just the way I am.
Wade: A genuine caring person with a big smile.
Jerred: Someone who’s passionate about helping other people.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Chika: I always say, “You da bomb dot com.” That’s like my tagline.
Wade: I feel like being around Jerred just makes me say things like “homes” and “tight.”
Chika: “Ballin’” – he always says ballin’.
Wade: Jerred really does rub off on you. He’s like a hybrid between California surfer and ghetto language. So mesh those two together and if anything falls in those categories, it’s starting to rub off on me. But I’ll go with “y’all.” That’s my official answer. I’m from Georgia.
Jerred: Oh gosh, you’re gonna get a couple here. “Dude,” “man,” “ballin’,” “homie,” “dawg,” “whatup whatup” – the double. I call my parents “dudes” sometimes. It’s just the weirdest thing. For a while they resisted, but now, they accept it.
Which talent would you most like to have?
Wade: I would love to be able to do back flips and back handsprings on command. That would be ballin’.
Chika: I wish I could be super flexible and be a human pretzel.
Wade: Wait – are superpowers in play here? That changes everything.
Chika: I think to be invisible.
Wade: Flying is kinda cliché, who doesn’t want to fly? I would love to just be smart. To have some intelligence, that would be great.
Jerred: I wish I was an amazing break dancer.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Chika: This. Being a DM emcee.
Wade: Yeah, Dance Marathon.
Jerred: I just don’t like looking at stuff I’ve done like achievements. I’d say becoming an Evans Scholar.
If you were to die, what would you want to come back as?
Chika: I already said Beyonce…
Wade: I would probably be the bunnies in my state of mind.
Chika: I think I want to come back as the president.
Jerred: Actually, I’ve had this conversation. But my answer always switches. I would really love to fly. Because of Space Jam, I want to fly like an eagle. So an eagle.
Where would you most like to live?
Wade: Atlanta, Ga.
Chika: Somewhere really warm, like Jamaica.
Wade: I feel like I should do something better than just my hometown. I would probably say the British Virgin Islands.
Chika: Ooh, snazzy.
Jerred: This is tough, I want to live everywhere. I’d say top three are the Canadian Rockies, I’ve heard awesome things about Kenya, and then you gotta Chi-town dude. You gotta say Chi-town. Chi-town’s where it’s at.
What is your most treasured possession?
Wade: Jerred Roggensack.
Chika: I would say my phone. I always lose it, but I really love it.
Jerred: It’s probably my baby. My MacBook.
What is your favorite occupation?
Wade: Choreographer of Beyonce’s music videos.
Chika: Back-up dancer for Beyonce’s music videos.
Wade: Can we both be back-up dancers for “Single Ladies?”
Jerred: Being Bono.
What’s your most marked characteristic?
Chika: I’m always jumping, moving, I can’t sit still.
Wade: I’ll just say upbeat, optimistic. Smiley. That’ll be the official adjective.
Jerred: I’m an extremely positive and energetic person, and on the dance floor, I always look like I just got done swimming in Lake Michigan. (I sweat. A lot.)
Who are your favorite writers?
Wade: I’m illiterate, so…
Chika: I haven’t read a regular book in so long – like not for school…
Jerred: C.S. Lewis, Dostoyevsky and Phillip Yancy.
Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Chika: All I can think of are celebrities that are not historical figures…
Wade: I’ll go with the guy who invented the Harlem Shake.
Jerred: Can I say Will Smith? That dude’s the man. I wish I was more like Will Smith.
What is your greatest regret?
Chika: That I didn’t meet Wade sooner.
Wade: Same.
Jerred: Not starting a band sooner.
How would you like to die?
Wade: Yes, good question. A lot of thought has been put into this.
Chika: I think in my sleep, cause then you can’t feel it.
Wade: I think I would like to be –
Chika: Oh dear.
Wade: I have to be doing something awesome at the time. So at the time of my death, I will be saving a school bus of children while the bus is on fire. And at that point, somebody’s going to try to attack the children, and I will simultaneously disarm them, and catch fire from the flaming school bus while I do, lighting the people who killed the children on fire. So I take them out and save the children. That didn’t make any sense. I need to start over. I would like to die in a ball of flaming glory.
Jerred: Skydiving. That’s gotta be it. Only way to go.
What is your motto?
Wade: Pop, lock and drop it. I don’t even know what that would mean.
Chika: Better light a candle in the curse of darkness.
Jerred: Don’t worry, everything’s gonn be alright. “Gonn’.”