School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry “Our Lives are Lived in Freestyle”: Social and Dynamic Productions of Breaking and Hip Hop Culture Lucas Marie This thesis is presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Curtin University September 2018 DECLARATION To the best of my knowledge and belief this thesis contains no material previously published by any other person except where due acknowledgment has been made. This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any other university. Signature: ………Lucas Marie………….……….. Date: …28/9/2018… ABSTRACT Based on fieldwork with breakers living in New York, Osaka, and Perth, as well from prior experiences within my field of study, this thesis builds on a growing body of scholarship which examines the productions, expressions and consumptions of hip hop culture. This study looks at how breakers—hip hop dance practitioners—work to produce, sustain and transform hip hop culture in ways that are local and unique. It is not, however, my intention to set out a definitive list of good or bad, authentic or unauthentic, notions of hip hop, or to suggest that there is one true or correct way in which to participate and identify as a member of. What is emphasised are the ways in which breakers, through their embodied dance practices, negotiate, express, understand and conceptualise hip hop. The title of this thesis, “Our Lives are Lived in Freestyle”, is a line from a spoken word poem, by a breaker from Texas named Marlon. In breaking, to “freestyle” means to improvise in the moment; to use the tools one has at their disposal to perform and create. Hence, this term “freestyle” is an apt metaphor for this thesis as it illustrates the dynamic and improvisational modalities by which hip hop is reflexively constituted, pushed and pulled in a variety of different directions, by a diverse and ever-changing aggregate of different peoples from around the world. Throughout the chapters of this thesis I demonstrate how hip hop is a globalising and diverse social field, governed not by any institutions, offices or titles, but rather by individual hip hop persons, within and across different local settings. This study contributes to contemporary anthropological writings on culture, process, agency and social action. Additionally, this research also contributes to a growing body of hip hop scholarship, which consider hip hop and its many practices as a living, transformative, global phenomenon. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis could not have been completed without the support, encouragement and involvement of numerous people who I would like to acknowledge. First and foremost I want to thank all the people who agreed to be interviewed and photographed in this research. There were many people who I spoke with and who graciously endured my presence and my many questions at various breaking jams and events. I would like to thank everyone who was involved and in particular, those who generously gave up their time in order to share stories or debate the deeper hip hop questions with me. Without them, this thesis would not have been possible. I would also like to pay tribute to the many breakers whose voices are not included in this thesis but whose passion and commitment is truly what keeps breaking and hip hop culture alive. I would like to thank my supervisors, Associate Professor Dr. Philip Moore and Dr. Kara-Jane Lombard. First, for all their advice, time, encouragement and passion towards my project. And second, for all their feedback on numerous drafts and their limitless patience and understanding. Their analytic insights and constructive criticism was always spot on and I could not have hoped for a stronger or more supportive team in which to undertake this project. I would also like to acknowledge my friends and colleagues, Elizabeth, Daniel, Serena, Maddy and Lana, for their advice, ongoing support, friendship and comradery throughout the whole journey. I am also very grateful for all the help and support received from Curtin University, the Faculty of Humanities and the School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry. To my parents, Greg and Susan, thank you for encouraging me to always keep learning and to pursue my goals. And to my siblings, Rachel, Dan and Chris, and to my partner Ellen, who has listened to so much and has always believed I would eventually finish this thesis, thank you! ii CONTENTS ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .........................................................................................................i CONTENTS .......................................................................................................................... iii GLOSSARY OF TERMS .......................................................................................................... iv “TOP ROCKING” Locating Hip Hop in The Social ...............................................................................................1 “UP ROCKING” Theory, Method and My Reading of the Scholarly Hip Hop Literature .................................... 29 “GETTING DOWN” The Politics of Hip Hop Culture ............................................................................................ 53 “RUNNING FOOTWORK” The Expressions and Experiences of Hip Hop: Similarities and Differences Between The Breaking Scenes of New York, Osaka and Perth .................................................................... 79 iii “IT’S A BATTLE!” The Contestable Nature of Hip Hop’s Origins ...................................................................... 129 “ORIGINALITY”, “RAW ENERGY” AND “STAYING RELEVANT” Making Legitimacy Through Breaking Performances ........................................................... 155 “POWER MOVE COMBOS FOR DAYS” The Dynamic Craftings of Aesthetic and Sensory Hip Hop Knowledge: Ethnographies of Breaking Cyphers .............................................................................................................. 185 “THE GO OFF” The Fragility of Hip Hop Culture ......................................................................................... 210 “OKAY JUDGES… 3,2,1” Dancing Towards a Hip Hop Theory ................................................................................... 231 Works Cited ..................................................................................................................... 242 List of Figures ................................................................................................................... 262 iv GLOSSARY OF TERMS Baby-Freeze: A common bboying (freeze) position/pose that rests all of one’s body on their wrists/arms. Bboy: Refers to a male breaker. Bgirl: Refers to a female breaker. Biting: Refers to the act of stealing breaking moves from other breakers (i.e. plagiarism). CC: A common breaking (footwork) dance step. Crew: A group of breakers. Footwork: A way to describe a range of dance steps and movements that are performed in the deep-squat position or in the push up position. Freeze: A way to describe a static position or pose. Powermoves: A way to describe an acrobatic or gymnastic style breaking tricks or moves. Top-Rocking and Up-Rocking: A range of dance steps and movements breakers perform in the standing upright position. Top-rocking and Up-Rocking are often the first moves that breakers perform before they move towards the floor. Halo: A common breaking (powermove) trick. Knee-drop: A common breaking (footwork) dance step or drop. Knock-out: A common breaking (footwork) dance step. Signature footwork set, throw down, or run: is a sequence of dance steps performed in a set order that is unique to the individual. Signature runs, sets, tricks and styles are praised by others as being original and unique. Swipe: A common breaking (powermove) trick. OG: “Original Gangster”, refers to a respected hip hop elder or pioneer. v – Chapter 1 – “Top Rocking” Locating Hip Hop in the Social In March of 2016 I flew to Singapore from Perth to attend the Radikal Force (RF) jam, a three day hip hop dance event which brings together people from all over the world. The RF jam is host to a variety of hip hop dance competitions, parties, workshops, discussion panels and a lot of time in which to hang out and dance with one another. The jam has been running every year since 2009 and 2016 was my sixth visit. Figure 1. Sentosa Island, 22nd March 2016. Photograph by JYN Photography. 1 The third day of the RF jam is typically held at Wave House Sentosa, a small beach bar located on Singapore’s Sentosa Island. Figure 1 depicts a bunch of breakers, myself included among them, dancing together. As I jump into the middle of the dance circle—or cypher as many breakers tend to call them—the breakers around me begin to chant: “Oh! Oh! Oh!” As they chant, I try to dance along with each of the “Oh!” sounds that they make. The more that my movements connect with the sounds of the chanting crowd, the more applause and the wilder the breakers around me become. As I pop up from my back and land on my bum, a gesture and mark of punctuation that ends my performance for the moment, breakers around me laugh, point, smile and shout. As quickly as I leave the cypher another breaker jumps in right after me. Like me, he also dances along with the chanting crowd and it becomes a sort of game between us. The game being: who can garner the most cheers from