Samantha Long realized something was amiss with James Derrick’s friend when they started discussing fringe ideas in their first phone conversation in months. “It was essentially two hours of conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory, from things like ‘Covid isn’t real,’ to [theories about Joe] Biden, who was about to be sworn in as president,”Long speaks of the call. “He would say things along the lines of, ‘Just do your own research.’ The tone he was speaking in really concerned me and I could tell that something was really off.”
Long, a Los Angeles–based choreographer and dance captain for J Balvin on his 2019 tour, met Derrick around 2015 on the city’s commercial dance scene. Long says Derrick — who goes by “BDash” — was “world-renowned”Krump is a high-intensity street style that originated in L.A. They would both take classes at the same studios, and then audition for gigs together. He’d teach Long krump and she’d help him pick up hip hop choreography. In 2018, she got to see him compete on NBC’s World of DanceThey shared a house together with another dancer prior to the pandemic. Long claims she even introduced Derrick (33), to his wife.
Long was forced to move out of her home by Covid and began seeing Derrick less often. “Obviously we weren’t around each other as much,”She said. “But when things started to clear up a little bit, I was reaching out to him, like, ‘Hey, let’s get together.’” Throughout late 2020 and into 2021, she says, he’d agree to meet up but repeatedly bail. Then, in January 2021, she received a strange phone call. She described it as feeling like she was speaking to another person. “It was very unlike him,” she says of Derrick’s new conspiratorial bent. “That’s not that’s not the BDash I know.”
Around that same time, the family of Derrick’s girlfriend, Miranda Wilking (now Miranda DerrickThey were also concerned about the recent changes she was making in her behavior. Miranda, 25, and Melanie, 22, are trained dancers and have appeared in commercials and music videos. They also started a career as influencers by sharing videos on social media. Wilking Sisters. In 2020, they had more than 2,000,000 followers on TikTok. They were well-known for their quarantine trend videos featuring Derrick sometimes including theirs. Parents, who seemed game to embrace their Boomer roles for their daughters’ growing audience.
In 2021, the sisters abruptly stopped posting videos as a pair. MelanieContinued posting home videos of dance with parental cameos. Miranda switched filming locations, cut her locks, and created new Instagram and TikTok profiles where she posts exclusive high-production videos with Derrick, as well as a rotating cast other scene partners. The videos are made by 7M Films, a management company Derrick and Miranda began working with — it is unclear exactly when, but their social media posts suggest it was in late 2020 or early 2021. Most of the dancers appearing in the videos with them are also represented by 7M, according to the dancers’ social media bios. In recent weeks, the company has drawn attention on social media from some of its dancers’ loved ones. According to the Wilkings, and other people who claim their friends work for 7M, the company, which specializes on social media dance videos and is isolating customers from their family and friends.
Recent tears were shed. Insta live videoMelanie and her parents claimed Miranda had stopped communicating with them one year prior to the time that she and Derrick started working for 7M. They said she had also begun attending a church — Rolling Stone confirmed the owner of 7M is also the founder of a church (it is unclear whether it is the same church the Wilkings referred to since they did not share the name of it in their video) — and had married Derrick without telling them. “Miranda is a part of a religious group, and she’s not allowed to speak to us,” Melanie said in the video, seated on a sofa, flanked by her and Miranda’s parents. They said Miranda had refused to come home for her grandfather’s 2021 funeral, had blocked her family members — even her grandmother — on social media, and had transformed into a different person who was behaving like she wanted nothing to do with them,. The occasion for the instagram live announcement, the family explained, was Miranda’s birthday, Feb. 24, the second one they had been unable to celebrate with her, her father said in the video. “We always had hope that she was going to come back,” Melanie said.
In the video, the Wilkings stated that their concerns over Miranda led them to investigate cults in order to find out how to convince Miranda to return home. Diane Benscoter, a specialist in helping people to leave cults or other high-control groups, said Rolling StoneAccording to the Wilking family, they had spoken with Miranda about Miranda’s concerns in the early 2021. This was the same time she said she stopped communicating with them.
“They don’t need anybody to tell them who they can’t be around. They’re smart enough and talented enough to be their own boss.”
Both the Wilkings family and Miranda and Derrick have not responded to multiple interview requests. Miranda and Derrick both made public statements denouncing any involvement in a cult after the Wilkings posted their video. 7M provided a statement supporting Miranda, and a lawyer for them. “Miranda Derrick is a successful businesswoman and a loving wife and daughter who cares very much about her family,”This statement is part of the original. “It is pathetic and contemptible to try to turn her private family matters into a tawdry public scandal for clicks and clout.”
Derrick and Miranda aren’t the only 7M dancers people have expressed concerns about. Since the Wilkings went public, several people in the L.A. dance community have spoken out on social media saying they’re worried about friends involved with the management company. Rolling StoneThey are not naming any 7M dancers because they have not made public statements in the same way as Miranda and Derrick. Some members posted videos laughing about the controversy or sparring in comments sections with others social media users. They claim they are happy, safe and successful working for 7M. None of the dancers from 7M, nor members of its creative staff, responded to DMs requesting comments on their experiences working with the company. Los Angeles dance industry representatives who spoke to Rolling Stone They say that they want their friends and family to leave this company. They claim it has changed the people they once knew and dominated their lives, causing them to worry about their loved ones’ wellbeing. “We’re trying to come to their defense because we’re all friends, family, so we love them,”Joey Turman is a krumper who has many dancers that 7M knows, says Joey Turman. “They don’t need anybody to tell them who they can’t be around. They’re smart enough and talented enough to be their own boss.”
You can make your living as a professional ballet dancerThis is a difficult job. These avenues are very limited and there are many unforgiving schedules and low wages. Even dancers who have relative stability within an established company usually have an unpaid off-season in which they need to find other means of making ends meet. Other dancers are freelancers, booking one job at a time, whether it’s in a run of a musical theater performance, a tour with a recording artist, or a one-day shoot for a TV commercial. In an unpredictable career, social networking can give you some agency and stability. It allows dancers to promote themselves, book jobs, build their brand and possibly earn money. If a dancer makes it big on social media, the paychecks and opportunities they might earn as an influencer — big brand deals, TV appearances, viral videos — have the potential to easily outstrip those of a dancer working more traditional gigs. Derrick spoke with the following in 2019. Washington PostAbout the freedom social media has given him in his career. “With these platforms, at the end of the day you don’t need a label, all you need is fans,”He said. “That’s why social media is golden for people like us, because you can become an artist without anyone holding us back and telling us what to do.”
7M appears to be capitalizing on the popularity of dance videos on social platforms by pooling creators’ popularity for views. This follows the example of TikTok content houses, where several popular TikTokers form a collective, appear in each other’s videos, and everyone reaps the rewards. Long believes that the chance to work in a company where you can focus on your craft and not hustling for work is very appealing. “Every creative’s dream is to not have to worry about logistical things and bills and payment and just create,”She said. Some collab houses are helmed by a company that takes a cut of creators’ earnings.
7M specializes in putting out a high volume of short dance clips — all featuring talented performers and set in appealing locations like picturesque patios, inside fancy homes, or near landmarks like the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The videos are well-produced, catchy and even hypnotic. It’s content tailor-made to go viral, and 7M’s approach seems to be working. Several of 7M’s 11 dancers have millions of followers on TikTok and Instagram (although it is unclear whether they earned those followers before or after joining the company). The dancers’ success extends beyond social media, too. According to 7M dancers’ videos, some of the company’s clients have recently appeared in national ad campaigns and performed in the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show led by Dr. Dre.
“Every creative’s dream is to not have to worry about logistical things and bills and payment and just create.”
In the Wilking family’s live video, they offered more insight into how they claim Miranda made her way to 7M – and cut herself off from her loved ones. Melanie shared that she and her sister recently started attending church. This was something they had never done growing up. While it seemed fun at first — with lots of other dancers in attendance and music during the services — Melanie said she was put off when the congregation became increasingly demanding of her time. She said that she once had to miss a service in order to pick up a friend from the airport. Members called her multiple times trying to get her cancel her plans. She claimed that when she didn’t, she wasn’t invited to the next service. She said that she stopped going to the next service soon after. “I was like, this is not healthy and this is not normal.”
In January of 2021, the Wilking family claimed in their video, Miranda refused to go home to Michigan for her grandfather’s funeral. Miranda, Miranda’s mother told them. “she was sorry, and you won’t understand.” She said that when she’d pressed Miranda to come, Miranda had told her, “I’m afraid I’m going to make a mistake. I’m just learning.”
Miranda’s parents said in the video that, out of concern, they’d traveled to check on her at her California apartment. They said she behaved like “a different person,”She eventually stormed out and took her belongings with him.
After Miranda’s family released their live video, she and Derrick posted long blocks of text, rebutting the family’s account. MirandaShe claimed that she had spoken to her family several times in the past year but that she has recently decided not to because her family disapproves of her decision to move in to Derrick’s home. “I am not involved in a religious cult,”According to the statement. She wrote that she had missed her grandfather’s funeral because she was afraid she would be “held captive in Michigan,”It is as follows. “I didn’t feel safe with my dad.”
Miranda described a heated argument with her parents when Miranda returned home to her apartment to get her last belongings. Then she was ready to leave. “My dad took his car and blocked me in my own driveway and my mom was holding my arm speaking out to me and reading what a cult meant and saying I was part of one,”The statement was as follows: After she left, her parents called police and claimed that Derrick had kidnapped them. She said that the cops asked her to meet them and assure them she was okay. “They saw that I was fine and we actually laughed about the situation because they said wow it seems that your family was really upset that you moved out,”She stated that.
Derrick’s post said Miranda’s parents disapproved of their relationship because he is a “poor Black man from Compton.” He said Miranda’s father had told police he was worried for her safety and had falsely accused Derrick of kidnapping and domestic abuse. He went on to praise the management company he said they’d both “joined.” “I’ve been able to pay off my debts, buy a new car and move into a nice home,”He stated that. He said that the company is not a religious organisation, but an organization for promoting entrepreneurship. “secular for-profit company run by people who have faith in God.”He stated that the company “manages [his] bookings and helps with taxes and finances.”He continued, “Talents pay agencies and management companies to control their bookings and finances. That is not a cult activity. It’s called doing business.” 7M declined to comment on the record about the management of clients’ finances.
Miranda and Derrick took Miranda on a March trip to Michigan, which Miranda describes in an Instagram story. “a family meeting”Both sides have now communicated that the meeting did not go as planned. Miranda’s mother posted on her own Instagram account saying she had been hopeful when Miranda and Derrick reached out to meet with them, “but sadly very little progress was made.” For his and Miranda’s part, Derrick reiterated that it’s not that they can’t talk to their families, but that they choose not to talk to Miranda’s parents “because of the harassment and the hate.”
“I was like, it’s standard SAG rates, and she was like, what are those? That’s what agents and managers would know off the top of their heads.”
One L.A.–based choreographer who’s been in the industry for more than 20 years tells Rolling StoneShe had an unusual experience hiring a 7M dancing artist for a gig. (She requested anonymity in order to avoid backlash online. While scoping out talent for an early-2022 project, she DMed a dancer she’d interacted with before on social media who now works with 7M. “I was like, Hey, are you interested in doing this project with me?”She said. “And I was just asking what styles he did. And he’s like, ‘Please reach out to my manager for any questions.’” This was out of the ordinary to the choreographer, who says she doesn’t typically communicate with managers. Every follow-up question she asked, she said, from confirming whether he could do a particular style to whether he was vaccinated — a requirement to work on the project she had in mind — she says he would direct her to his manager at 7M. That manager didn’t seem particularly knowledgeable about the dance industry, either. “She was asking for the rates and I was like, it’s standard SAG rates, and she was like, what are those?”She said. “That’s what agents and managers would know, like off the top of their heads.”
7M declined to discuss its business practices on the record, but one thing is clear: the company’s owner and CEO, Robert I. Shinn, is also the founder and pastor of Shekinah Church, based in Santa Ana. They are distinct entities. 7M declined to comment on Shinn’s connection and said that they are separate entities.
According to an archived version of the Shekinah Church International website from 2009, the church was founded by Dr. Israel Shinn — another name apparently used by Robert Shinn — whom the website describes as “a former medical doctor who had successfully practiced medicine for seven years before God spoke to him to go into ministry full time.”Although the current website does not mention the founder, it states that the church has a mission of saving the world. “one billion souls”Calls on followers “support the gospel with all means.”
In the past, the church has survived many attacks. YouTuber Katie Joy first made public a 2009 lawsuit that was unsuccessful. She has been closely following the latest developments and independently obtained and reviewed the information. Rolling Stone, shows a woman named Lydia Chung sued Shekinah’s pastor, Robert Shinn, allegedly also known as Israel Shinn, and several other defendants for alleged fraud and labor laws violations. Shinn claimed Chung. “exerted undue influence, mind control, coercive persuasion, oppression and other intimidating tactics”She should be able to convince her to sell $3.8million worth of assets and property. “all in the name of God,” and that she’d been forced to work six days a week without pay. Shinn and the other defendants successfully rebuffed all of Chung’s claims. Shinn and the other defendants were convicted after a bench trial.
Many social media users noted that 7M and 7MM are common abbreviations for the Seven Mountains Mandate in conservative Christian religious circles. Peter Montgomery, a Senior Fellow at People for the American Way who has been writing and observing the religious right for over 20 years, says that the Seven Mountains Mandate was espoused in part by a group of Pentecostal Dominionists, who believe Christians should have control of seven areas of society influence, including media and business. “For years, the religious right has complained about how Hollywood is a purveyor of godless secular values,”Montgomery: “There’s definitely a push to have conservative Christians exert more influence over movies and music and everything else, because they have a big cultural impact.”7M refused to speak publicly about whether the name of the company refers the Seven Mountains Mandate. California business records reveal that Shinn was CEO for 7th Millennium, Inc., a company that was dissolution in 2008.
Joey “Knucklehead” TurmanHe told 7M Films that he saw Derrick with a few of his friends from the krump dance scene, dancing to disco and Spice Girls in videos. Rolling StoneHe knew there was something up. “I said, bro, they have lost their damn minds,”He says. “What are they doing? It was funny to see because of the personal level that I know them on. Like, I know you guys would laugh at this if you were me. But at the same time, I was like, this is kind of weird.”
The 7M Films dancers share high-gloss videos via social media that look almost like they were created by youth pastors. The music and moves look a bit dated and unprofessional, even compared with the fast-paced TikTok trends. Grease reenactments, air guitarAnd disco numbers abound — which is surprising, especially for performers established in the street dance world. “BDash was always open to trying new styles and doing new trends,”Long. “But I can say that his style of dancing and the music that he would dance to is completely different from the music that he dances to now.”
When Turman saw the Wilking family’s video about Miranda, he said his friends’ odd videos suddenly made sense to him — and brought back chilling memories. Turman and Long both claim Derrick was a member of a high-control group over a decade back. Long claims that Derrick had shared the story with her. He recently reminded her of it. “I texted him, like, ‘Please look out for similar warning signs and red flags from your past,’ because he’s been down this road before,”Long agrees. Turman says he knows about Derrick’s past experience first-hand, because he was a member of that high-control group, too.
Turman says that Derrick and Turman were dancing in a Los Angeles krump troupe in 2008. He also said that they had to attend church at least once a week. Turman pointed out that this wasn’t Shekinah Church. “Pretty much, we weren’t allowed to go anywhere,”He claims. “We weren’t allowed to go back home to visit family because we were told that there would be a natural disaster or we’d be cursed.”
Turman claims that the dance group was performing well in the dance business and that he was earning money by teaching krumping workshops around the globe. According to Turman, the success made it easy to ignore the situation that he was trapped in. Turman describes not caring what other people were saying about it, telling Rolling Stone, “We were like, ‘Look, we’re following this, and we’re successful.’”
When he saw the Wilkings’ video, he says it reminded him of the excuses he and others in the group used to make for not visiting their loved ones. “We would just tell them that we couldn’t make it, or we’re practicing, or we’re really focused on what we’re doing with dance,”He says. He thought that he was doing right at the time. “There was so much religion pushed on us, we felt like we’re doing what we’re supposed to do because this is what God said,”He says. “We were already groomed to have a certain mindset with family, so when people would be like, ‘Man, that sounds like a cult,’ we’d already been programmed to think, ‘Yeah, we knew you guys would say something like that.’”
“It was really important for me to make sure that these people knew that they weren’t alone.”
Dr. Janja Lelich, professor emerita at California State University-Chico in sociology and an expert on coercion and cults, states that it is common for people who are involved in high control groups to react defensively. “People who are in a cult don’t know they’re in a cult,” Lalich says. “Nobody joins a cult on purpose. And if people accuse them of that, they’re going to get very defensive because that’s what they’re trained to do. The cult will always do damage control and say, ‘People are going to persecute us, people don’t understand what we’re doing.’”
It wasn’t until 2011, when, according to Turman, a prophecy the pastor had made related to a major event didn’t come true, that Turman says things started to fall apart. Turman and Derrick both left the church soon after other problems were revealed. Turman returned home to Oceanside in California, where he was born, and has been dealing with the aftermath ever since. “It’s still hard to this day,”He says. “When you look back and you just realize all of the years that you were being controlled and manipulated, and all the friends that I lost in the process, and all of the things I was not here for, for my family.”
Turman is concerned about the success of 7M’s dancers. “We didn’t have millions of followers verified on Instagram, Super Bowl halftime show,”He says. “We weren’t doing anything close to that, and it was hard to get us out. So I just feel bad. I don’t know what angle to come at it, to try to get them to see.”
In recent weeks, Turman says he DMed Derrick and talked to another 7M dancer he’s friends with, expressing concern for their situation. He claims both dancers assured him that everything was fine. Derrick wrote: “Bro, Life is good. I have money now, I am married to a beautiful woman that I want to be married to! I don’t see a problem with that. So if people are jealous and have something against that, then that’s their problem.”
Turman felt like the reply didn’t line up with the message he’d sent. “I’m like, well, I didn’t say anything about your success or if you have money or not; I wrote you because I was concerned that you’re involved in the same thing, because your wife has not talked to her parents and all that, and it’s looking exactly the same, like what we went through,”He says. He wants his friends know that he cares about them.
To Long, the Wilkings’ video was a turning point. After speaking publicly about Miranda, Long streamed a 30-minute live video in which she described her friendship with Derrick. “It was really important for me to speak out to make sure that these people knew that they weren’t alone,”She refers to Derrick and other 7M dancing artists, “And to let them know that there is a community of us who are fighting to save all of our loved ones…and bring them out of this.”
Long reached out to Derrick in late February. She claims she gave her all. “I was just like, I feel like I’ve lost my brother,”She said. “I broke down my emotions, and how I was not even invited to the wedding of him and the woman I introduced him to,”She said. “His response was along the lines of, ‘I have a lot of people wanting to collaborate with me. I can make time to collaborate with you.’ And I’m like, I’m not a collaboration, I’m your friend.”