You want to become a Hip Hop expert? Learn the info below and you’re on your way, yo!

WHAT IS HIP HOP DANCING? PART 2 - STYLES Now that you know Hip Hop dancing is either (1) dancing done to Hip Hop music or (2) dancing connected to one of the original Funk/B-boy styles, it’s time to learn more about those original styles. The first Funk Style out of California was Locking. Locking was created by a young man named Don Campbell around 1969. One of the most popular origin stories tells that Don was trying unsuccessfully to do a popular dance at the time called the “Funky Chicken” when he accidentally founded Locking. He couldn’t remember the moves for the Funky Chicken and therefore would stop suddenly in the middle of movements. He began to exaggerate these stops and started calling them locks. Even the exaggerated faces and points famous in Locking came from Don trying to hide the fact that he really didn’t know what he was doing but was still trying to entertain party crowds while poking fun at himself. Locking was made famous through many TV appearances (“Soul Train”, “Tonight Show”) and live shows (Grammy/Oscar Awards). Locking is known for its fast, flashy movements, unique style and clown-like costumes. Some of names of Locking moves are the Rocksteady, Whichaway, and the Funky Guitar. To see an example of Locking, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbHJiTu-7hU. B-boying started around the same time in the Bronx area of New York. The “B” in B-boy stands for “break”. In music, the break is the part of the song where nearly everything in the song drops out (melodies, basslines, vocals) except for the most basic percussion. B-boys got their name because they were dancers known to hit their unique moves especially when the break portion of a song would come on. Most of what we think of as B-boying centers around all the awesome floor moves and tricks. However, in the beginning, the floor moves or “down rocks” were not nearly as complex or done as often as they are today. B-boying started with Uprocks (http://youtu.be/ucwaLemiV0g). Uprocks would occasionally go to the floor. As the Uprocks went to the floor more often, the B-boys started to add more style and skill to the floor moves until the evolved into what we know today. To see an superamazingawesomefunkalicious example of B-boying, check out http://youtu.be/Gfw9bUyOHXo. Boogaloo is another Funk Style created in the 1970s. Boogaloo brought together waving, popping and even a bit of gliding and robot. This style was created by a guy from California named Sam Solomon (aka Boogaloo Sam). Original Boogaloo style does not include popping, but when it was later included, they changed the name of Boogaloo to “Electric Boogaloo” (EB). EB is characterized by fluid, waving leg and arm movements punctuated by sudden pops. Check it out @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FauOsBt_IFA. Other original Hip Hop styles were Robot (http://youtu.be/VP0R_uFV2Oo), Gliding (http://youtu.be/a1q6n_q5Kek) and Tutting (http://youtu.be/z40pvDQia1g). Other Hip Hop styles developed as Breaking and Funk Styles started to die down in the late 1980s. New Jack Swing brought us a more upbeat, party dance style. It combined moves from 1920s-1940s Swing dancing with funky body waves and isolations from earlier Funk Styles. Whereas B-boying and Funk Styles came from relatively unknown kids in the inner cities, New Jack Swing was made popular by famous Hip Hop artists through music videos, TV and movies. Example of New Jack Swing artists were Kid N Play, Bobby Brown, Bel Biv DeVoe and a kid group called Another Bad Creation. See an example @ http://youtu.be/EcIxQoAleWE. MC Hammer (Bay Area) also had a big hand in helping move Hip Hop dancing forward with his super hype style and innovative moves. Check him out @ http://youtu.be/-Xp72g5rOuo. Most recently, a couple of new styles have come out of Los Angeles. Thomas Johnson (aka Tommy the Clown), a birthday party entertainer, created a style of dance called “Clownin”. His students, Ceasare Willis (aka Tight Eyez), Christopher Toler (aka Lil C) and Jo'Artis Ratti (aka Big Mijo), took Clownin to a new level with a much more aggressive and hard hitting style which they called “Krump”. Krump has so much power that at times it looks unreal. See it for yourself @ http://youtu.be/lSMvHf-59VM. Another style that is so new it maybe isn’t even right to call it a full style yet is Jerkin. Jerkin is really just a combination of a few dance moves at this point. However, just like the rest of these styles here, if people keep adding moves and their own style to it, Jerkin may be a complete style in the next few years. Check it out @ http://youtu.be/PsanwIA0pIE. * These links were functional as of 09/19/2011