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The SAGE Encyclopedia of African Cultural Heritage in North America The SAGE Encyclopedia of African Cultural Heritage in North America Hip-Hop Dance Formations and the Jazz Continuum Contributors: E. Moncell Durden Book Title: The SAGE Encyclopedia of African Cultural Heritage in North America Chapter Title: "Hip-Hop Dance Formations and the Jazz Continuum" Pub. Date: 2015 Access Date: August 22, 2015 Publishing Company: SAGE Publications, Inc. City: Thousand Oaks Print ISBN: 9781452258218 Online ISBN: 9781483346373 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483346373.n152 Print pages: 458-462 ©2015 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This PDF has been generated from SAGE knowledge. Please note that the pagination of the online version will vary from the pagination of the print book. SK Reviewers ©2015 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SAGE knowledge http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483346373.n152 The jazz continuum resides in the African American hip-hop experience base; it is the collective consciousness of a community’s members reaching out to one another. Its ideological practices are deeply rooted in the sociocultural fabric of African concepts of communication found in songs, linguistic retentions, and reinventions in dance and musical structures of American ragtime, jazz, blues, rock and roll, funk, and soul, which all culminated in hip-hop culture. The Elements of Hip-Hop Born in the concrete jungle of New York City’s Bronx neighborhoods and shaped by sociocultural and sociopolitical circumstances, the youthful energy of hip-hop emerged out of economic struggles and environmental turmoil to give voice to restless and tumultuous inner-city youth. Hip-hop embodies four basic elements: emceeing (rapping), deejaying, writing, and dance. Emcees are the storytellers, the voice of the community, and the modern- day griots. Deejays contain the sounds and memories of the community; they are the recorders of time and space. Graffiti art, also known as writing, is the vivid and visual language of the culture, a kind of abstract calligraphy. Last, there is dance, or as the dance historian Sally Banes called it, “physical graffiti,” which comprises the nonverbal movements and gestures of the people. Combining these four components manifests the aesthetic of hip-hop and roots its cultural characteristics in African and diasporic identity. Cultural characteristics of hip- hop include individuality, creativity, improvisation, originality, spirituality, stylization, coordination/cooperation, vocalization, and polyrhythms. What’s in a Name? Hip-hop got its name much in the same way that the Lindy Hop received its name. In the 1920s, when “Shorty” George Snowden was approached by a reporter about the name of the dance he was doing, Shorty referred to a local news headline about aviator Page 3 of 10 The SAGE Encyclopedia of African Cultural Heritage in North America: Hip-Hop Dance Formations and the Jazz Continuum SK Reviewers ©2015 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SAGE knowledge Charles Lindbergh that read “Lindy Hops Across Atlantic Ocean,” and called the dance the Lindy Hop. In the 1970s, there was no name for the hip-hop culture; people referred to it as “Going off,” “Boyoing,” “Rockin,” or “B-boying”—names that mostly described the dance moves. In the early 1980s, the “godfather” of hip-hop, Afrika Bambaataa, inadvertently coined the term hip-hop when asked by a reporter to describe the new expressions of inner-city youth. Bambaataa referred to the lyrics of the 1979 hit song “Rapper’s Delight” by rap trio Sugar Hill Gang, saying, “it’s that, hip-hop the hippie the hippie to the hip hip-hop, you don’t stop the rock.” The reporter wrote “hip-hop,” and thus the name of the culture was born. The relationship between hip-hop and the jazz continuum exists in the meaning of the words as they are phrased in the song “Rapper’s Delight.” During the Harlem Renaissance, the word hep, [p. 458 ↓ ] which is a stylized way to say “hip,” referred to a person who was “in the know.” Some scholars believe the word hip has roots in the language of Wolof-speaking people in the West African areas of Senegal and the Gambia, among whom “hip” means to open one’s eyes or to be aware. Hop in American societies relates to dance, as in the phrase “Going to a sock hop,” which meant to dance in your socks, or “Hop around the clock,” which meant to dance all night or past midnight. Disc Jockeys, Scat-Rhyming, and the Hip- Hop Emcee (MC) The early hip-hop MC was influenced by radio disc jockeys like New York’s most popular Black disc jockey, Frankie Crocker, who used to introduce songs on the air through rhyme with comments like, “I’ll put a dip in your hip, more cut in your strut, and more glide in your stride.” This was a format used among many disc jockeys on the radio; others included the legendary Hal Jackson, Ralph Waldo “Petey” Green, and Douglas “Jocko” Henderson, to name a few. Jocko was a popular disc jockey in the 1950s whose catch-phrase was, “Eee tiddly ock, Oh this is the Jock, And I’m back on the scene with the record machine, saying, Ooh pop-a-doo, a how do you do.” These Page 4 of 10 The SAGE Encyclopedia of African Cultural Heritage in North America: Hip-Hop Dance Formations and the Jazz Continuum SK Reviewers ©2015 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SAGE knowledge DJs used the same scat-rhyme style later adapted by early hip-hop MCs; their sound and vocal tone on the radio, what many called the “Radio Voice,” is what hip-hop MCs imitated. Scatting Scatting is a style of jazz singing that uses nonsense syllables; it is a type of vocal improvisation, mimicking the rhythmic tone and flow of instruments. Popular artists that sang in this style include Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, and Louis Armstrong. Legend has it that Armstrong, during a recording session for his 1926 song “Heebie Jeebies,” dropped his sheet of lyrics and began to scat-sing instead of using lyrics. Louis had been scatting since his days in New Orleans, which is where the style has been credited as being invented by Joe Sims in the late 1800s. The lyrical style patterns used by the Sugar Hill Gang blend scat with rhyme; for example, “Skiddlee bebop a we rock a scoobie doo, guess what America we love you.” So when Bambaataa consciously referenced the phrase in “Rapper’s Delight,” he subconsciously chose from the jazz continuum. From Authentic Jazz Dance to Hip-Hop The impact of the dance called the Charleston was a global phenomenon, spurring multiple variations such as the Drop Charleston, Scissor-kick Charleston, and Precision Charleston. The Charleston is named after the South Carolina city, and is suggested to have originated with the Asante, or Ashanti, people of West Africa. Popularized in the 1920s, the Charleston became the foundation for many dances to come, generating a myriad of dance crazes throughout the 20th century. The basic Charleston later became the Mashed Potato, the Slop, the Camel Walk, and the Stroll—the latter of which might have been an influence on the famous Soul Train lines of the 1970s and 1980s. In the early 1940s, a preteen James Brown witnessed a popular dance that involved walking across the floor on one leg. That dance was called the Apple Jack, and when he became a famous singer and dancer, Brown performed it and other authentic jazz dances he grew up watching— dances like the Camel Walk and the Shuffle Page 5 of 10 The SAGE Encyclopedia of African Cultural Heritage in North America: Hip-Hop Dance Formations and the Jazz Continuum SK Reviewers ©2015 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. SAGE knowledge Charleston. In fact, the combination of these three particular dances became the basis for his eponymous dance, the “James Brown.” In 1987, rap duo Super Lover Cee and Casanova Rud created the song “Do the James Brown” as an homage, and this dance became a staple step in the hip-hop dance community. Tap dancer Charles “Cholly” Atkins of the tap team Coles and Atkins also played a major role in the continuum of jazz dance into hip-hop. In the 1950s and 1960s, Atkins began choreographing doo-wop groups, teaching soft-shoe steps and dances from the 1930s and 1940s. He eventually ended up at the Motown Record Corporation, training and choreographing artists like the Temptations, and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. [p. 459 ↓ ] Dances from the 1960s had a profound effect on the dance scene of the following 2 decades. One of the biggest influences connecting dances throughout the 20th century was pop singing sensation Michael Jackson. Jackson absorbed skills from artists like James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Bob Fosse, Fred Astaire, the Soul Train gang, the Lockers, the Electric Boogaloos, and hip-hop dancers, in his turn influencing global generations of dancers with steps ranging from the Shout to Popping. Dancers that copy the “King of Pop” are therefore imitating, in some cases, steps that are up to 70 years old. Jackson’s biggest influence was his use of the Backslide, which many have come to know as the Moonwalk. The Moonwalk is actually a forward-moving step, a type of sustained, floating, animated movement that simulates walking on the moon. Jackson first saw Soul Train dancer Jeffery Daniels perform the Backslide on Soul Train in 1978, and Daniels, along with his friend Jerome Candidate, taught Jackson how to do the Backslide. In the 1940s, this move was originally called the Get Off, and sometimes called the Buzz. Credited as the creation of tap dancer Bill Bailey, this step was used by tappers when they would exit the stage, hence “get off.” Break Boys and Break Girls Hip-hop dance consists of two forms: b-boying, which is the correct term for breaking or break dancing; and popular dances, such as the Running Man or the Cabbage Page 6 of 10 The SAGE Encyclopedia of African Cultural Heritage in North America: Hip-Hop Dance Formations and the Jazz Continuum SK Reviewers ©2015 SAGE Publications, Inc.
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