** Personal notes towards The Rough Guide to Hip Hop, Peter Shapiro
Despite worldwide successes from.The Sugar Hill Gang, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, Afrika Bambaataa and Run DMC, you've got to wonder if hip hop would have really made it out of New York if it wasn't for the infectious athleticism of the b-boy. The phrase may have been brought to mainstream attention by Run DMC's "Sucker MCs" ("Cold chill at a party in a b-boy stance"), but b-boying actually had nothing to do with cold chillin'. "B-boy" is short for "break boy", Kook Herc's term for the dancers who went crazy when he dropped for the breaks (segments of records where all the instruments drop out to let the drummers do their thing) of records such as The Incredible Bongo Band's "Apache" and Mandrill's "Fencewalk". In fact, without the b-boys (and b-girls) reacting the way they did to Herc's records, there wouldn't be any hip hop at all.
Disrespects of hip hop culture, b-boying is ultimately a firm of competi- a facet that was crucial to its original popularity, since b-boying began when New York's ghettos were run by street gangs. Afrika Bambaataa's Zulu Nation organization helped channel violence into dancing competitions: where b-boys would prick (criss-crossing their arms and Pro-Keds-69ers-clad feet, while keeping everything else still) and then drop and scuff the floor with their creased Lee jeans while performing backlinks(spinning on your back) and turtles (a bizarre-looking manoeuvre executed In a quasi-yogic-crouch).
While break dancing (a term disowned by all true b-boys) began with crews like the Nigger Twins, the Zulu Kings, the Salsoul Crew, the City Boys, Freeze Force, Starchild La Rock, The Disco Kids and the KC Crew, the most influential was undoubtedly the Rock Steady Crew. Formed in 1977 by Jo-Jo Torres, Jimmy Lee, Mongo Rock, Spy and Jimmy Dee, the Rock Steady Crew gathered together the best of the second wave of Latino b-boys who had come to dominate the field since it migrated of the Bronx in the early 1970s. The RSC's main innovation was to make b-boying more athletic and more gymnastic. Many of these moves were pioneered by the two b-boys who are generally considered as the greatest: Richie "Crazy Legs" Colón and Ken "Swift" Gabbert. Moves such as The windmill, the whip, the 1990, the chair and the sspider are credited to Crazy Legs and Ken Swift, who helped the RSC become the dominant crew in legendary battles against the Dynamic Rockers, and the Floor Master and the New York City Breakers.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, a kid called Don Campbell invented locking (freezing in between moves). The dance became so popular that he formed his own troupe in 1973, the Campbellock Dancers, which included such minor celebs as Fred "Rerun", Toni Basil and "Shabba-Doo" Quiñones. The style was expanded upon by The Electric Boogaloos ("Boogaloo Sam" Solomon, Timothy "Popin' Pete" Solomon, Skeeter Rabbit, Twisto Flex Don, Creep in Cod and Tickin' Will) who invented moves like poppin', boogaloo, region's, twisto-flex, and the old meanwhile dancing to Zapp records. Less of a Mitch Gaylord floor routine than the East Coast style, poppin' and lockin' emphasized upper body movements in almost geometric patterns. Thanks to Pop'N Taco, Mr Wiggled, Sugar Pop, and Loose Bruce, the style continues today and continues to influence the legions of Europeans and Japanese b-boys who have helped keep break dancing alive while American hip-hoppers ran from its Flashdance associations.
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