Jess and I watched a documentary the other night on the history of breakdancing, called The Freshest Kids.  I highly recommend it - they had it at the Ypsi public library.  It gives a great history on breakdancing, known as b-boying to the true old schooler, including how it started in New York City and how the dance actually shaped the entire art of hip-hop. 

The movie runs a soundtrack all the way through and has amazing footage of street breakdancing.  The art itself is fascinating; both athletically and creatively.  Many of the early pioneers are interviewed, including Crazy Legs and Ken Swift from the Rock Steady Crew.  I also found out the historical significance behind the New York City Breakers, who have a poster insert on how to breakdance inside my electric Breakdance album pictured above.

I can’t say enough about the movie.  It was very inspirational - for some reason it made me want to go outside and play basketball.  You learn all about how b-boying started with 70s funk - with the break being the climax of the getdown in the dance - hence break-dancing.  From there the disco era of the late 70s ruined the breaks with the continuous beat and groove - so hip-hop started with DJs, spinning old records and prolonging the breaks to give the dancers more time to do their thing, rapping over the beat.  The dancing was always the big thing, the main attraction, the true art form - the rapping just went along with it.  But then the record industry, unable to capatilize on an intangible thing such as dancing, pushed rap to the forefront.  Breakdancing blew up commercially in 1984 (the year my record came out), but was soon forgotten and swept under the rug as being too old school.

But b-boying went back to it’s roots - underground - and remains so today.  The Freshest Kids shows thew new up-and-comers and some unbelievable moves that they do.  Many of the old schoolers say they’re disgusted with today’s brand of hip-hop, complaining that instead of booty-dancers in videos there should be b-boys.

I remember breakdancing from when I was in elementary school and middle school - the cardboard on the cement in the playground, a boombox blaring, kids gathered ’round in a circle as the freshest kid jabbed and spun to the claps, ahhhs, did-you-see-thats, and high fives of the rest.