DJ-ing: The person in charge of the music played at any jam, the DJ also creates the energy of the crowd by the records he or she selects. Any good DJ knows what to play and when to play it, in order to get a positive response from the people attending the jam. The DJ’s objective is to control the emotion of the crowd by making the Poppers Pop and the Breakers Break.
MC-ing: An MC is the master of ceremonies. The job of an MC is crowd control. An MC also is a hype man or woman for the DJ. An MC is also a poet/storyteller who has lyrics that slice any audience as the words that come from your mouth are very powerful and can make a positive or negative impact in someone’s life. Lyrics can be crucial. Last but not least the MC is an educator to the world abroad. What the MC decides to teach is at their discretion.
Graffiti: A graffiti artist or writer’s claim to fame is through visual art usually applied by spray paint. This element of the Hip-Hop culture started in the early 70’s and some of the first people to start this movement were Taki 183, Cornbread (in West Philly) ,Tracy 168, and Top Cat (also in Philly). These were some of the first writers to write their names and images everywhere, from subway trains to city walls and buildings. Soon after graffiti became the most visible form of expression in Philadelphia and New York City, movies like Style Wars and Wild Style best capture this ingredient of the culture in its truest form. Graffiti is illegal to do on public property when the artist is not given permission or hired to write, but it still remains one of Hip Hop’s key elements.
Breaking: This is a combination of martial arts and gymnastics as well as funk and free style dance.
Breaking originated in the Bronx close to Harlem New York in the first half of the 70’s. The term for a person who does this style of dance is a B-Boy or B-Girl, which is short for break boy or break girl. DJ Kool Herc created something called break beats in this same time period. He noticed that people went crazy at the break of a song so he bought two of the same songs and when the break came, he cued it up on a second turntable and as one break ended he repeated it on the second turntable which extended the break. The Breakers would dance on the break of a song so that’s why they were called Break boys and Break girls which eventually was shortened to b- boy and b- girl, and later the media gave it the name Break dance. The first to start b-boying were the Nigger Twins, Keith and Kevin who were African American as were most of the first b-boys. But quickly kids from the same block followed and shortly after that, b-boying became largely associated with Latinos because they too would rock jams, but in much larger numbers. Some of the first b-girls to hit the scene were Bunny Lee, Mama Maribel, and Sunkist Evie. Some of the first crews to break were the Rock Steady Crew, The Dynamic Breakers, the New York City Breakers, The Incredible Breakers and the Floor Lords. Breaking is the culture’s truest and first style of Hip-Hop dance forms.
Popping or Hitting and Boogalooing The origins of these styles started with mime, which is a form of physical story telling without words. This also goes as far back as 1963 with movies like Chittie Chittie bang bang and its robot scene done by Dick Vandyke. In that same movie there were toy soldiers who had choreographed steps completely in sync with a very staccato way of movement. Later the robot became a very popular dance amongst the urban culture.
Eventually kids began to personalize the robot with there own punctuation. That punctuation is what we know as a Pop or Hit. It’s really impossible to determine the first person to ever do that since the robot was such a popular dance, but we can certainly credit a style called boogalooing to a man by the name of Boogaloo Sam. Boogalooing started in the early 70’s and is primarily done to funk music (Parliament Funkadelics, Roger and Zapp etc…), but can be done to anything with a bass hit. There is also the wave, which came from Compton California and can be credited to Pop-n-Taco a legendary dancer who also worked as a personal trainer to another legend named Michael Jackson who also Pops in his famous Billy Jean solo.
The people responsible for bringing the two worlds of west coast Popping and Boogalooing together with east coast Breaking are groups such as chain reaction and Mr. Wiggles of the Rock steady crew (and Electric Boogaloos) and Sugar Pop of the Electric Boogaloos, as well as Oz Rock and Mr. Freeze who took breaking to Los Angeles for its debut. There are many styles of Popping most influences from television to animals to puppets and martial arts films, but ultimately with the ecseption of Boogalooing which has a specific way of movement it’s all up to you what style you create.
Campbell Locking: The definition of Campbell Locking is "Freedom of movement through music and dance" as given straight from it’s creator Don Campbell who created this dance in 1970. Don a St. Louis native move to the West Coast in the early seventies where he accidentally made this dance up through clumsy experimentation. Don entered several contests and won, so other dancers quickly began to mimic his style. Don noticed that some were as good as he was at this dance he created so he formed a performance group call the Campbell Lockers. They toured around the world and made regular appearances on shows such as Soul Train, American Band Stand, and The Carol Burnett show to name a few. Don has always had the ability to bring people out of their shell with positive reinforcement through dance, and still today Don passes his dance and positive message to people all over the world.
Beat boxing: Beat boxing is making music with your mouth. In the early days of crooning on the street corners there was no music needed to accompany these harmonizers, but as times changed so did the activity of the crooner. As you may know, MC-ing or rapping are a major part of the Hip- Hop culture, so just as much as you had Breaking battles you had MC battles, and because these battles were so spontaneous, there wasn’t always music available to assist the MC, so this is where beatboxing came into play. In some cases the MC would make his or her own beat by hitting the wall with an open hand or the side of a closed fist. Some of the most popular beatboxers of our time have been Dougie Fresh, Biz Markie, Buffy (Fat Boys), and most recently Razel (Roots). Beat boxing is a part of America’s everyday influence from Twix candy commercials to Chili’s Baby back rib commercials it is recognized as a legitimate form of expression.
Fashion: What makes Hip-Hop’s evolution is the range of flavor the culture has to offer and what Hip-Hop heads thrive on is individuality and creativity, which is never more apparent than in Hip-Hop fashion. From head to toe we show style that is recognizably of our ever-vast culture. From one pant leg up to backward upside down sun visors we create trends like a team of advertisers do slogans. One of the first trend setters is one of Hip-Hop’s most profound figures Afrika Bambaataa who when doing shows would wardrobe his crew in a futuristic costume to make his show and his message unique from the rest. The tradition of flavor still continues today from Run DMC and Jam Master Jay with their leather suits, Adidas sneakers and black brim hats to LL Cool J and his kangol Hip-Hop fashion represents freedom of expression and is the fatigue of a Hip-Hop soldier.
Knowledge: The person responsible for consciousness in Hip-Hop is known as the grandfather of Hip Hop Afrika Bambaataa, who taught the infinity lesson to MC’s like KRS-One who helps the never-ending battle of preserving the true essence of Hip-Hop. The true essence of Hip- Hop is peace, love, unity, justice, respect for all especially God above all and having fun through expression. It is important to read as much as you can to gain knowledge and awareness of yourself and your surroundings, and remember when you’re looking for change start with yourself.
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