'Bros defying physics': Delaware TikTok star has over 130 million views for dancing on air

Before the pandemic, Stephen Kirton of Newark wasn't a popular student at Hodgson Vo-Tech.

"I used to get bullied a lot because I was trying to fit in," said Kirton, 20, who graduated from Hodgson in 2022. "I was like a nerd." 

That nerd now has over 1 million TikTok followers. He’s better known as Smoove Stevo (@SmooveStevo), a legend at performing the Jubi Slide dance, and he's been recognized by celebrities like Lil Nas X and Kai Cenat.

TikTok star has over 100 million views from Jubi Slide

Today, Stevo has 1.7 million TikTok followers, with a chunk of his views coming from his dance moves.

Over the last year alone, he's racked up well over 100 million views from his various versions of the Jubi Slide, a dance that looks like he's walking on air.

The Jubi Slide was created by his friend Jouberson Joseph.

Last fall, Stevo posted a video of him doing the Jubi Slide on the beach, racking up over 94 million views. He's done it on grass, a water surface, snow and concrete. Stevo has also done it at church.

His fans are amazed, especially those who commented on his beach video.

"I swear bro was floating for a sec," an impressed TikToker wrote. "Bros defying physics," another said. "bet you can't jubi slide on volcanic ash," a third joked. 

Kai Cenat praises Delaware TikTok star

In 2022 Stevo decided dancing would be his niche. The influencer started getting "Sturdy," a dance where you keep one foot on the floor while the other is elevated.

Stevo is originally from New York and his mom enrolled him in hip-hop dancing lessons there when he was much younger. In his teenage years, he didn't remember those hip-hop dances. "But I still had rhythm," he said.   

He rebranded himself as a TikTok dancer.

The Hodgson grad got Sturdy by doing quick movements that mimicked one of his favorite superheroes.

"I like to do things fast because I was obsessed with The Flash," Stevo said.

In spring 2022, Kirton posted a video of popular streamer Kai Cenat (who has 10 million TikTok fans) reacting to him doing a fast Sturdy dance.

Kai's jaw hit the floor in the video, which has 296,000 views.

"Kai was Flabbergasted bro," one commenter wrote. "Man's the flash," praised another TikToker. "bro you look like lil nas x," a third person pointed out.

Lil Nas X learns dance moves from Delaware TikTok star

Lil Nas X wanted to learn how to get Sturdy like Stevo, he said. The TikTok sensation made a video where he slowed down his movements so people could learn.

At the Grammy Awards in 2022, Lil Nas showed off a slower version of Sturdy moves during his song "Industry Baby."

Delaware influencer: 'I made like $10,000' from Roblox

Stevo had a partnership with Roblox, a popular gaming app beloved by children. So, he became the "Roblox Guy."

Every time someone purchased Robux, which allows gamers to purchase upgrades for their avatars or special abilities in the Roblox world, Stevo would earn about $5, the young dancer said.

"I made like $10,000 in like a week.''

Around Christmas 2020, Lil Nas dropped a Roblox concert which now has over 9 million views on YouTube. The audience from that concert helped to blow up Stevo’s early content that exploded in 2020.

That’s when he was a junior at Hodgson and found a niche making Lil Nas videos.

Lil Nas tagged Stevo in a Sturdy dance clip the rapper posted to TikTok from his Grammy performance. The video caption read: "shoutout @The Roblox guy."

Swavy TikTok star was friends with Smoove Stevo

Stevo was good friends with Wilmington TikTok star Matima "Swavy" Miller, who was one of the biggest TikTokers in Delaware, before he was shot and killed in 2021. He was 19 years old.

Swavy, a dancing sensation, helped to mentor Swavy and his friends who were aspiring influencers. "We were all sorrowful when he passed. He was like a real good friend of ours," Stevo explained.

Delaware TikTok star almost deletes breakthrough video

Stevo's first huge video was in November 2020 when he posted a TikTok that tried to convince his small audience that he looked like Lil Nas.   One morning while riding the bus to school, he checked his phone to see how many views that new video generated since he posted it the night before. It only had 1,000 views, so he deleted it.

Stevo posted a similar TikTok to his secondary account that he also planned to delete. But he realized the second video exploded with over 80,000 views.

"I'm like freaking out on the bus," he recalled. The most views he'd generated from a single TikTok before then were under about 40,000 views.

At school, the rising influencer eased into being a student. While in his culinary class, he told his peers about the viral video. Then the chef asked him to take out the trash.

When he returned to class, he and his peers learned Lil Nas reposted his look-alike video. The rapper even wrote "LilNasXlilbrother" in the video caption and "it's twin."

"My heart just dropped," Stevo explained. "We all start going crazy like, 'Oh my goodness, Stevo got duetted by Lil Nas X!" Even the chef was like, "Yeah man, that's crazy," Kirton said.

Lil Nas X helped him gain 100,000 TikTok fans overnight

Stevo says the only true friends he had at the time were in his culinary class, and their support for him seemed genuine, he added.

But around the school, more students were learning he was TikTok famous; and not everyone wanted to jump on the bandwagon.

"Even though I was getting attention, people were thinking I was corny because I was doing TikTok."

In less than 24 hours, he went from 15,000 followers to 100,000 fans on the app.

Smoove Stevo hid TikTok from his mom

While Stevo found success with his Lil Nas content, he got blindsided during Christmas break 2020, a day after school let out.

His mom had something to tell him.

"I come in the door and she's looking at me really mad. I'm like, 'Oh, no.'" Kirton said. "I wasn't supposed to have any type of social media at the time."

He eventually convinced his mom he could be responsible on the app. But not before he was grounded for a month.

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This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Kai Cenat, Lil Nas X recognize Delaware TikTok star Smoove Stevo