Gangsta Walking
Encyclopedia
Gangsta Walking is a street dance
that originated in Memphis, Tennessee
alongside "Buck" music during the 1990s. Some have speculated that the dance was originally created during the late 1980s. The dance has been suspected to be created by a street dancer named “Capital D” - real name Dima Grinevich. In Memphis, in an alley, he decided to display his new idea for crunk
dancing, which evolved into the Gangsta Walk. The Gangsta Walk is commonly performed to crunk music due to the particular 'bounce' in the beat and the movement the dancers make to keep with it. Though Gangsta Walking has been around for many years, much of the dance is still exclusive to the city and surrounding areas.
Due to video streaming websites like YouTube
and social networks like myspace.com and others, "gangsta walking", "jookin', "choppin", "buckin" or whatever it may be called, has spread all across the globe. In 2007, Memphis rapper–director–producer Young Jai, of Jai Productions / Black Star Enterprisers, released Memphis Jookin Vol 1 DVD. This DVD featured the new generation of jookers/Gangsta Walkers. It featured such Jookin as G-Nerd, Lil Daniel, Dr. Rico, Lil Buck, Lil Black, Bobo, female Jooker Shuante, Underground King Keviorr, DJ Sidewalker, North Memphis Legend Lil Jayson and many others. This DVD helped springboard the movement that has been spreading around the globe for Jookin/ Gangsta Walking. In November 2007, Jookin was featured on Channel 3 WREG news in Memphis and also on Channel 5 WMC. There are several videos on Jookin on http://www.memphisjookin.com and Youtube.com, with some videos receiving hundreds of thousands of views in months and thousands of views in a week's time. Jai Productions and The Memphis Jookin community was also featured in the December issue of the French magazine Juste Debout
as the Dance of the Month. Jai productions also released a solo Jookin DVD on G-Nerd entitled "Truth Be Told" and Tutorial entitled "Memphis Jookin wit G-Nerd". Jai Productions has also released the entire Memphis Jookin Vol 2. 3-part series, which showcases more of the Jookin community that is involved in the movement to help get this dance on the map. Nowadays our youth have somewhere to go and learn the Memphis style. Memphian Tarrik Moore And Marico Flake (Dr Rico) have opened U-Dig Jookin Academy, located in the Raleigh Springs Mall.
and saw dance the most practiced dances (e.g. breakdancing, popping
, gliding
, locking
, etc.) and incorporated these styles into the traditional Walk. When they returned, they brought back a new style Gangsta Walking that was new and notably similar yet distinctly different dance that matched the new wave of rap music,which matched the beat down to the bass
, snare
and hi-hat
. Others suggest a New Orleans connection. Early gangsta-walking in Memphis was often called "buck jumping", and "buck jumping" was another name for second-lining in New Orleans. The two cities shared a love for the Showboys' "Dragrap" (a song that would become the basis for New Orleans bounce music) and New Orleans performers such as Gregory D and Mannie Fresh often appeared at Memphis' Century 21 club on Winchester Road.
due to it steering many the youth away from street violence and exacting their energy into something positive and constructive. The dance can commonly be found in urban areas of Memphis like North Memphis, South Memphis, Orange Mound, Whitehaven
, East Memphis
, West Memphis etc.
(an acronym for Taking Up Room On The Floor, an Oakland, California
based street dance that heads the Hyphy
Movement, has its roots in Gangsta Walking. In the late 1980s, native rapper, MC Hammer
, toured in Memphis and saw the dance in the crowd while performing. He began performing the Walk and the dance eventually caught in hometown to create a more rugged, less smoother version of the Walk. Many people consider Turf dancers as a recreation or a "knock off" of their own Gangsta Walking style.
Street dance
Street dance, more formally known as vernacular dance, is an umbrella term used to describe dance styles that evolved outside of dance studios in any available open space such as streets, dance parties, block parties, parks, school yards, raves, and nightclubs, etc...
that originated in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
alongside "Buck" music during the 1990s. Some have speculated that the dance was originally created during the late 1980s. The dance has been suspected to be created by a street dancer named “Capital D” - real name Dima Grinevich. In Memphis, in an alley, he decided to display his new idea for crunk
Crunk
Crunk is a music style that originated in Memphis, Tennessee in the mid-to-late 1990s and gained mainstream success around 2003–2004. Performers of crunk music are sometimes referred to as crunksters. An archetypal crunk track most frequently uses a drum machine rhythm, heavy bassline, and...
dancing, which evolved into the Gangsta Walk. The Gangsta Walk is commonly performed to crunk music due to the particular 'bounce' in the beat and the movement the dancers make to keep with it. Though Gangsta Walking has been around for many years, much of the dance is still exclusive to the city and surrounding areas.
Due to video streaming websites like YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
and social networks like myspace.com and others, "gangsta walking", "jookin', "choppin", "buckin" or whatever it may be called, has spread all across the globe. In 2007, Memphis rapper–director–producer Young Jai, of Jai Productions / Black Star Enterprisers, released Memphis Jookin Vol 1 DVD. This DVD featured the new generation of jookers/Gangsta Walkers. It featured such Jookin as G-Nerd, Lil Daniel, Dr. Rico, Lil Buck, Lil Black, Bobo, female Jooker Shuante, Underground King Keviorr, DJ Sidewalker, North Memphis Legend Lil Jayson and many others. This DVD helped springboard the movement that has been spreading around the globe for Jookin/ Gangsta Walking. In November 2007, Jookin was featured on Channel 3 WREG news in Memphis and also on Channel 5 WMC. There are several videos on Jookin on http://www.memphisjookin.com and Youtube.com, with some videos receiving hundreds of thousands of views in months and thousands of views in a week's time. Jai Productions and The Memphis Jookin community was also featured in the December issue of the French magazine Juste Debout
Juste Debout
Juste Debout is an international and annual dance competition founded in 2002 by Bruce Ykanji in France which focuses on street dance styles. The four main categories are hip hop new style, house, locking and popping.-History:...
as the Dance of the Month. Jai productions also released a solo Jookin DVD on G-Nerd entitled "Truth Be Told" and Tutorial entitled "Memphis Jookin wit G-Nerd". Jai Productions has also released the entire Memphis Jookin Vol 2. 3-part series, which showcases more of the Jookin community that is involved in the movement to help get this dance on the map. Nowadays our youth have somewhere to go and learn the Memphis style. Memphian Tarrik Moore And Marico Flake (Dr Rico) have opened U-Dig Jookin Academy, located in the Raleigh Springs Mall.
Origin
The origin of the Walk itself is a mystery. Gangsta Walking has constantly evolved over the years into the much smoother version it is today. Some state that this style was created during the early 1980s, a Memphis based dance & rap group, G-Style (composed of Romeo, Wolf, and Hurricane) went to New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and saw dance the most practiced dances (e.g. breakdancing, popping
Popping (dance)
Popping is a street dance and one of the original funk styles that came from California during the 1960s-70s. It is based on the technique of quickly contracting and relaxing muscles to cause a jerk in the dancer's body, referred to as a pop or a hit...
, gliding
Floating (dance)
Floating, gliding or sliding refers to a group of footwork-oriented dance techniques and styles closely related to popping, which attempt to create the illusion that the dancer's body is floating smoothly across the floor or that the legs are walking while the body travels in unexpected directions....
, locking
Locking (dance)
Locking is a style of funk dance, which is today also associated with hip hop. The name is based on the concept of locking movements, which basically means freezing from a fast movement and "locking" in a certain position, holding that position for a short while and then continuing in the same...
, etc.) and incorporated these styles into the traditional Walk. When they returned, they brought back a new style Gangsta Walking that was new and notably similar yet distinctly different dance that matched the new wave of rap music,which matched the beat down to the bass
Bass drum
Bass drums are percussion instruments that can vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished. The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum . It is the largest drum of...
, snare
Snare drum
The snare drum or side drum is a melodic percussion instrument with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or gut cords stretched across the drumhead, typically the bottom. Pipe and tabor and some military snare drums often have a second set of snares on the bottom...
and hi-hat
Hi-hat
A hi-hat, or hihat, is a type of cymbal and stand used as a typical part of a drum kit by percussionists in R&B, hip-hop, disco, jazz, rock and roll, house, reggae and other forms of contemporary popular music.- Operation :...
. Others suggest a New Orleans connection. Early gangsta-walking in Memphis was often called "buck jumping", and "buck jumping" was another name for second-lining in New Orleans. The two cities shared a love for the Showboys' "Dragrap" (a song that would become the basis for New Orleans bounce music) and New Orleans performers such as Gregory D and Mannie Fresh often appeared at Memphis' Century 21 club on Winchester Road.
Positives of Gangsta Walking
Along with being a popular street dance, the Gangsta Walk is often viewed as a form of self expression and relief from the hardships of living within the inner city. Some have even considered Gangsta Walking as being a less extreme kin of KrumpingKrumping
Krumping, also spelled Krumpin, is a street dance popularized in the United States that is characterized by free, expressive, exaggerated, and highly energetic movement involving the arms, head, legs, chest, and feet...
due to it steering many the youth away from street violence and exacting their energy into something positive and constructive. The dance can commonly be found in urban areas of Memphis like North Memphis, South Memphis, Orange Mound, Whitehaven
Whitehaven, Memphis
Whitehaven is a predominantly African-American community in Memphis, Tennessee, first organized in the late 19th century. Its current population is about 50,000.-Geography:...
, East Memphis
East Memphis, Memphis
East Memphis is a region of Memphis, Tennessee, that includes several defined and informal subdivisions/neighborhoods such as Colonial Acres, White Station-Yates, Sherwood Forest, Normal Station, High Point Terrace, Belle Meade, Normandy Meadows, St. Nick, Pleasant Acres, Balmoral, and Ridgeway...
, West Memphis etc.
Types of Gangsta Walk
There is a variation of styles for the Gangsta Walk:- One particular style requires the dancer to take (in a jerking motion) quick steps, stomp, twists and throwing their arms around all while moving to a beat, the best example being Crunchy Black's style, referred to as G-Walking http://tv.memphisrap.com/vids/406/crunchy-black-memphis-gangsta-walkin.html. The style is considered the basis of all Gangsta Walking done in Memphis since the 1980s.
- Another style requires three or more people hopping around in a circle in a rhythmic motion, while throwing their hands into the air and yelling "Get Buck" or the lyrics to a Buck song. This style of the Gangsta Walk is more commonly referred to as the G-Train. It is said that this style was banned from the clubs shortly after being created due to the wildness it invoked in performers as well as onlookers. Reminders of its existence are still left behind in older clubs or closed down night spots around the city http://beerandrap.com/2005/01/buck-jump-motherfucker-buck-jump.htm.
- The most known style of Gangsta Walking is within the standard crunk atmosphere, involving a crowd of people slamming and pushing off one another on the dance floor.
- The most famous and practiced style of Gangsta Walking around the city takes bits and pieces from other street dance styles like liquid dancingLiquid dancingLiquid and digits is a type of gestural, interpretive, rave and urban street dance that sometimes involve aspects of pantomime. The term invokes the word liquid to describe the fluid-like motion of the dancer's body and appendages and digits to refer to illusions constructed with the dancer's...
(the waveWaving (dance)Wavinging along his arms, start and end a wave at any point on his arms, and transition the wave through his body as a bodywave. There are seven and eleven point waves. The eleven point wave runs as finger knuckes-knuckles-wrist-elbow-shoulder-chest-shoulder-elbow-wrist-knuckles-finger knuckles...
, tuttingTuttingTutting is a contemporary abstract interpretive street dance style modeled after Egyptian hieroglyphics. The term Tutting is derived from the name of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun...
, tracing, contours and hand flowing), the robot, locking, popping, gliding and even breakdancing all merged together with the traditional dance. The most recognizable moves in the dance is the dancer does moves similar to the two-stepTwo-step (dance move)The two-step is a step found in many folk dances, and in various other dances. It seems to take its name from the 19th century dance related to the Polka....
between making another motion and spinning or walking on the tips of their toes. This style of the Gangsta Walk is mostly done by the younger generation and the generation behind them who grew up shortly after the invention of Buck music, thus titling it Buckin.
- Jookin took the classic steps and combined a much more smoother look due to the music change in Memphis Music during the early 90's. Jookin is most noted for not only its smooth steps, but it introduced pantomiming into the styles heavily. Jookin took to the isolation of the footwork in a way that focused the crowds attention on the feet. Jookin is really characterized for their abilities in sliding and stepping
- Buckin brought in the exaggerated movements of Gangsta walkin and Jookin. The movements were made to appear even bigger because of the buckness of the dancer. Clearly the most explosive style of Gangsta walking. Buckers began to lift the slide off the ground and creating even higher glides than ever seen before.
- Choppin came in the mid 90's as dancers in Memphis started to add the animated effect of Gangsta walkin, jookin, and buckin to the dance floor. Choppin consisted of stiffening the muscles until they began to vibrate and then moving trying to create a very unreal stiff Gangsta walker.
- Icin the newest form of Gansta walkin is most known for the ability of sliding one foot while gliding with the other. Icers give the illusions of ice skating with fire by the explosiveness they applied while icing across the floor. Some nickname it "Blazing." Icers also included different ways of freezing the body parts while carrying yourself around the floor.
- Basics of all the styles include stepping, pacmans, and buck jumps.
Spin-offs
TurfingTurfing
Turf dance is a form of American street dance that originated in Oakland, California. An acronym for Taking Up Room on the Floor, the name was coined by L.A. born, Bay Area raised turf and mixed house dancer Jeriel Bey because the terms "having fun with it" or "hitting it" didn't seem marketable...
(an acronym for Taking Up Room On The Floor, an Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
based street dance that heads the Hyphy
Hyphy
The word hyphy is Conor Devlin's preferred short word meaning "hyperactive." It was created by Bay Area rapper Keak Da Sneak when he used the term on an album he recorded in 1994. From the USA Today article: "Every record label was getting at us at that time, but we fumbled the ball," says E-40,...
Movement, has its roots in Gangsta Walking. In the late 1980s, native rapper, MC Hammer
MC Hammer
Stanley Kirk Burrell , better known by his stage name MC Hammer , is an American rapper, entertainer, business entrepreneur, dancer and actor. He had his greatest commercial success and popularity from the late 1980s until the mid-1990s...
, toured in Memphis and saw the dance in the crowd while performing. He began performing the Walk and the dance eventually caught in hometown to create a more rugged, less smoother version of the Walk. Many people consider Turf dancers as a recreation or a "knock off" of their own Gangsta Walking style.
Music videos featuring the Gangsta Walk
- Al KaponeAl KaponeThis article is about the American rapper, for the notorious gangster, see Al CaponeAlphonzo Bailey, better known by his stage name Al Kapone, is an American rapper from Memphis, Tennessee.-Career:...
- "Buckin' and Jookin'" - Three 6 MafiaThree 6 MafiaThree 6 Mafia are an Academy Award-winning, American rap group originating from Memphis, Tennessee. Formed in 1991 as Triple 6 Mafia, by DJ Paul, Juicy J, & Lord Infamous, the group at its most featured six members including; Crunchy Black, Gangsta Boo and Koopsta Knicca...
feat.ChamillionaireChamillionaireHakeem Seriki , better known by his stage name Chamillionaire, is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. He is the CEO of Chamillitary Entertainment. Chamillionaire is also the founder and an original member of The Color Changin' Click...
- "Dope Boy Fresh" - Three 6 Mafia feat. Bow Wow & Project PatProject PatPatrick Houston, better known as Project Pat is an American rapper originating from Memphis, Tennessee. He is the older brother of Juicy J, co-founder of the Three 6 Mafia....
- "Side 2 Side (remix)Side 2 Side"Side 2 Side" is the 3rd official single from Three 6 Mafia's album Most Known Unknown. A music video has been released for the song as a remix which features Project Pat and Bow Wow in addition to Three 6 Mafia's existing members...
" - Three 6 Mafia feat. Lil' FlipLil' FlipWesley Eric Weston, Jr. , better known by his stage name Lil' Flip, is a American multi-platinum hiphop artist best known for his singles Sunshine, "Game Over" and Rollin on 20's from the 2 Fast 2 Furious Soundtrack....
- "Ridin' Spinners" - Project PatProject PatPatrick Houston, better known as Project Pat is an American rapper originating from Memphis, Tennessee. He is the older brother of Juicy J, co-founder of the Three 6 Mafia....
- "Raised in the Projects" - Da Volunteers feat.MJG - "Favorite Color"
- HueyHuey-People:* Huey * Huey Lewis, rock musician, noted for his band Huey Lewis & the News* Huey Long , US democratic party politician, known as "The Kingfish"* Huey Long , American musician* Huey P...
feat T-PainT-PainFaheem Rasheed Najm , better known by his stage name T-Pain, is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, and actor, currently signed to Young Money Entertainment. His debut album, Rappa Ternt Sanga, was released in 2005. In 2007, T-Pain released his second studio album Epiphany,...
-"G5G5G5, G.V, G.5 or G-5 is a two character combination which may refer to any of many items, classifications, and entities:-Groups and organizations:* G5 nations...
" - Janelle MonaeJanelle MonáeJanelle Monáe is an American R&B/soul musician signed to Bad Boy Records and Atlantic Records.Monáe debuted with a conceptual EP, Metropolis: Suite I ...
feat. Big BoiBig BoiAntwan André Patton , better known by his stage name Big Boi, is an American rapper, song-writer, record producer and actor, best known for being a member of American hip hop duo OutKast alongside André 3000. His work in the duo has produced six studio albums. During the duo's hiatus, he and André...
- "Tightrope"
External links
- Memphis Jookin, Vol. 1 DVD: The History and Evolution of Gangsta Walking website
- Gangsta Walking the Movie Website
- Gangsta Walking the Movie trailer
- http://www.myspace.com/jaidakingproductions Jai Productions Music