Celebreak

DJ’s and Music

Posted on January 15, 2009

When you see dynamic power moves and unbelievable freezes, it’s sometimes easy to forget that breaking isn’t a sport, it’s a dance. Breakers and music are joined at the hip. It’s our muse to create and motivation to continue. 

I couldn’t have a blog about breaking without paying homage to the music, and more importantly, the providers of it: the DJ. If it weren’t for the original hip hop DJ, Kool Herc, breaking might not even exist. Kool Herc was the first to loop rock records and repeatedly play their breakdowns, which is the part of the song that had the first b-boys dancing. Herc saw how the breakdown moved them and had the genius idea to loop it with multiple records, keeping that part going–and with it, the breaking–as long as possible.

This idea of looping and mixing appealed to many in the 70’s and is now bigger than ever. Today, DJing has competitions, events and workshops all over the world. It has it’s own culture and history that evolved philosophies, rules and mantras. It’s much more than just playing a couple of records.  

At b-boy jams, the DJ can make or break the event. And if you’re not fortunate enough to have a live one at your local practice spot, the perfect DJ mixtape can have you dancing non-stop for hours.

A decade ago, we searched far and wide for underground mixtapes but thanks to the web, it’s a lot easier to find DJ’s and their music. I just created a new Music page with links to some dope DJ’s including Skeme Richards, blesOne, Honey Knuckles and Zeno. I’ll be updating this page regularly, adding new DJ’s as I find them. If you’re a DJ, or know of any DJ’s that should be included, please contact me and let me know. 

It’s the music, stupid.

Groovaloos on the Ellen Degeneres Show and Superstars of Dance

Posted on January 13, 2009

If you’ve seen Dance Flick, Idlewild or any season of America’s Best Dance Crew, then you’ve seen a member of the award-winning Groovaloos. The L.A. based hip hop dance company, which consists of b-boys, lockers and funk stylers, has been a part of nearly every recent movie and TV show that showcases breaking. They are currently representing America on NBC’s new dance show, the Superstars of Dance, and also stopped by the Ellen Degeneres Show last Monday to show the avid dancer how they get down.  

Week 3 on the Superstars of Dance:

The Ellen Degeneres Show:

Also be sure to view their extended dance clip on the Ellen Degeneres Show’s website 

500+ Breakdancing Events in 2008!

Posted on January 11, 2009

There were over 500 breakdancing competetions and jams around the world in 2008. I got that figure from Action.by, a European Breaking website that collected flyers last year and came up with this collage:

And these are only the events with nice flyers. But what about the impromptu jams at clubs when tons of breakers show up or the events that didn’t have a budget for flyers? What about those whose flyers aren’t on here? There are 500 flyers here but it probably represents a small percentage of all the events that went down!

Hip Hop Tours in NYC

Posted on January 9, 2009

Whoa, check it out! You can go on a hip-hop tour in NYC to see the roots of all the 4 elements. They offer different tours such as the  ”Birth of Hip Hop”, a Bronx-based tour that takes tourists to the heart of hip-hop’s origins, and “Rappers Row”, a Queens and Hollis tour that takes you to the early landmarks of Nas, Marley Marl, Roxanne Shante and many others pioneers. 

The tours were stared by Debra Harris, a hip-hop head who wanted to show the rich history of hip-hop, a cultural movement she felt wasn’t always portrayed positively.

Hip-hop’s origins have been a resounding influence on the fashion and media businesses, which you see and get to actively celebrate on the Hush Tours trip. “H’us’h Tours stands for the ‘us’ in hip-hop”, Debra explains. “We live the hip-hop culture and I felt it was extremely important to give our youth both nationally and internationally a place to learn about the beginnings of the culture, while at the same time enabling our original hip-hop fans to reflect on year’s past”.

And the tours aren’t given by your average Joes. Grandmaster Caz, DJ Red Alert and Kurtis Blow are among the legendary tours guides. 

This is definitely on my list of things to do on my next trip to NYC

Planet B-Boy and Inside the Circle on MTV

Posted on January 8, 2009

Two of last year’s b-boy documentaries, Planet B-Boy and Inside the Circle, will begin being broadcasted on MTV this Sunday. If you haven’t already seen them (and even if you have), be sure to check them out. Here’s the schedule:

January 11, 2009:
- 9 am PST/EST (8 am CST) - Inside the Circle
- 11 am PST/EST (10 am CST) - Planet B-Boy
- 7 pm PST/EST (6 pm CST) - Inside the Circle
- Midnight PST/EST (11 pm CST) - Planet B-Boy

January 12, 2009:
- 1 pm PST/EST (12 noon CST) - Inside the Circle

January 14, 2009:
- 1:30 am PST/EST (12:30 am CST) - Planet B-Boy
- 8 am PST/EST (7 am CST) - Planet B-Boy
- 10 am PST/EST (9 am PST/EST) - Inside the Circle

January 15, 2009:
- 8 pm PST/EST (7 pm CST) - Inside the Circle

 

Related Posts

• Interview with Inside the Circle photographer Peter Tsai
• Planet B-Boy Movie Review

Top 9 and Russian Breakdance Foundation Film

Posted on January 7, 2009

Breaking films are coming out left and right! There’s another one in the works about Top 9 crew and the Russian breaking scene.

The film is set to be released in 2009 by Curiouser Films

Little Breakdancing

Posted on January 7, 2009

There’s a clip of 2 midgets battling at an event in France where the guy on the left breaks and the other does capoeira. Is this exploitation? I’m still not sure how to feel about having this sort of set-up battle. Regardless, it’s still another example of b-boys overcoming obstacles:

Breakdancing on Mr. Rogers

Posted on January 7, 2009

Mr. Rogers asks a b-boy to be his neighbor in 80’s breakploitation fashion:

Mooncricket’s B-Boy Connection Film and Webisodes

Posted on January 4, 2009

Some great breaking documentaries have come out in recent years and there are still more on the horizon. B-Boy Mooncricket from Termites Crew has been collecting footage since 1994 and currently has over 600 hours of film (and still growing) for his film, The B-Boy Connection. While there is no known release date, he has started releasing weekly webisodes with different b-boys and and clips from his film to give an idea of what it’s about. 

Webisode 1: B-Boy Chicano

Webisode 2: Moshen of Skill Methodz Crew

Webisode 3: B-Boy Ivan, the Urban Action Figure

Breakdancing Widget on Google Module’s

Posted on January 4, 2009

Here’s a fun little breakdancing widget from Google Modules: