B Girl
For the professional wrestler, see B-Boy.
A B-boy or B-girl is a person devoted to hip hop culture, more specifically, bboying/breakdancing. Crazy Legs of Rock Steady Crew explains the origin of the term - “the word b-boy originated from Kool Herc… b-boys and b-girls… break boys, break girls”.
Although numerous b-boys suggest that the term refers to the 'breaks' on a record, Kool Herc says that this is not the case - “b-boy – boys that break, it didn’t come from breaks on the record, it comes from… this man he ‘broke’, he went to a point, a breaking point… we just used that exaggeration of that term to the dancing – the b-boys, break boys”. The term quickly came to include any follower of hip hop, identifiable by clothing habits, listening tastes or lifestyle, but has returned in latter years to the more specific usage in connection with dance.
'B-boying' and 'breaking' vs.
'breakdancing'
What is popularly known as breakdancing is referred to as “b-boying” and “breaking” by the majority of the art form’s pioneers and most notable practitioners, as well as by many of Hip-Hop’s most prominent figures.
“B-boying” and “breaking” are the terms used throughout QD3 Entertainment’s documentary The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-Boy. KRS-One, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, and DMC of Run-DMC refer to it as “breaking”, Michael Holman and Fab 5 Freddy refer to it as “b-boying”, and Jo Jo of Rock Steady Crew uses “breaking” and “b-boying”.
The terms 'b-boys' and 'breakers' are used to describe the actual dancers - B-Boy London of New York City Breakers and Michael Holman refer to “breakers”, Frosty Freeze of Rock Steady Crew says, “we were known as b-boys”, Afrika Bambaataa says, “b-boys, what you call break boys… or b-girls, what you call break girls”, and Jo Jo and Mr. Freeze of Rock Steady Crew and Fab 5 Freddy use the term “b-boy”.
The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-Boy explains how the term ‘breakdancing’ was a term coined by the media and is not the term used by the actual dancers - Crazy Legs of Rock Steady Crew says, “when I first learned about the dance in ’77 it was called b-boying… by the time the media got a hold of it in like ’81, ’82, it became ‘breakdancing’ and I even got caught up calling it breakdancing too”, and Action of New York City Breakers says, “you know what, that’s our fault kind of… we started dancing and going on tours and all that and people would say, oh you guys are breakdancers - we never corrected them”.
Jo Jo of Rock Steady Crew adds - “b-boy… that’s what it is, that’s why when the public changed it to ‘breakdancing’ they were just giving a professional name to it, but b-boy was the original name for it and whoever wants to keep it real would keep calling it b-boy”.
The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-Boy presents two versions of why the ‘b’ stands for ‘break’. The first is that it comes from the ‘breaks’ on the record - Mr.
Freeze of Rock Steady Crew says, “the break of the record… ‘b’… break, we are the b-boys”, and Mr. Wiggles of Rock Steady Crew and Electric Boogaloos says, “the DJs used to cut breaks, and the b-boys would break to what? The breaks.
Alternatively, it is said to come from the street slang of the term break and breaking – Grand Mixer DXT says, “breaking boys - because people would be breaking at the party, starting trouble… when somebody would get mad - yo he’s breaking, stop breaking man, and when Kool Herc says it, it’s official”, and DJ Kool Herc himself (billed as ‘The Father Of Hip-Hop’ in the documentary) says, “b-boy – boys that break, it didn’t come from breaks on the record, it comes from… this man he ‘broke’, he went to a point, a breaking point… we just used that exaggeration of that term to the dancing – the b-boys, break boys”.
Overview
There are four basic elements which form the foundation of B-boying. The first is Toprock, a term referring to the upright dancing and shuffles that B-boys do when they enter a circle.
These are acrobatic moves normally made up of circular motions where the dancer will spin either on the floor, or in the air.
A related dance form which influenced B-boying is Uprocking / Rocking / The Rock Dance, also performed while standing, and a style of dance in which both dancers fabricate ways of beating the opponent using fictional weaponry and embarrassing situations in rhythm with the music ("Burning"). This style involves moves called Yerkes (pron-en| "jerks") which are a set of motions executed to the break of a track and are where most of the battling occurs; outside of the break of a track is where the freestyle element of the dance is executed.
B-boy fiction
The first B-boy-themed novel, Kid B, was published by Houghton Mifflin in 2006.
The author, Linden Dalecki, was an amateur B-boy in high school and directed a short documentary film about Texas B-boy culture before writing the novel. The novel was expanded from a B-boy-themed short story The B-Boys of Beaumont, that won the 2004 Austin Chronicle short story contest.
B-boy in Entertainment
The acclaimed documentary film "The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-Boy" (2002) provides a comprehensive history of b-boying, its evolution and its place within hip-hop culture and beyond.
"Planet B-Boy" (2007) brings contemporary b-boying alive as it follows crews from around the world in their quest for a world championship at Battle of the Year 2005. The award-winning documentary "Inside the Circle" (2007) goes deep into the personal stories of three talented b-boys (Omar Davila, Josh "Milky" Ayers and Romeo Navarro) and their struggle to keep dance at the center of their lives.
Crews
A crew is a group of two or more b-boys or b-girls who choose to dance together for whatever purpose, either simultaneously or separately.
Example of crews would be, Flava Squad, Mighty Zulu Kings, Rockforce Crew, Floorlords Crew, Skill Methods Crew, Street Masters, Rivers Crew, Last For One, Ichigeki, Jinjo Crew, Unknwn Crew, just to name a few of the main international bboy crews. They can take the form of a cypher battle and an organized battle.
There are no judges (other than the participants of the cypher itself), concrete rules or restrictions in the cypher, only unsaid traditions. This type of battle is how b-boying was originally and it is often more confrontational and more personal.
There are however, times when non b-boys or non b-girls are chosen to judge by some organizers, and these type of events (jams) are often looked down upon by the b-boying community. Organized battles are far more publicized and known to the mainstream community, and include famous international-level competitions such as Battle of the Year, UK B-Boy Championships, Redbull BC One, Freestyle Session and R16 Korea.
Although there are some generalizations on the kind of styles that exist, many b-boys and b-girls will try to combine elements from different styles with their own ideas and knowledge in order to create their own style.
Power
When people ask b-boys if they "breakdance," usually this is what comes to mind. Power moves deal with full-body spins and rotations that give the illusion of defying gravity.
Headspins, backspins, windmills, flares, airtracks/airflares, 1990s, 2000s, jackhammers, crickets, turtles, airflares, hand glide, halos, elbow spins, etc. B-boys who almost only use "power" moves are termed as "powerheads".
Abstract
A very broad b-boy style, but may include the incorporation of threading footwork, freestyle movement to hit beats, the inclusion of house dancing, broken link styles and "circus" styles (balance, tricks, contortionism, etc.)
Trick (Blowup)
A type of dancing based on the "wow factor" of some power, freeze, trick, and circus style.
Blowup styles are made to pile as many difficult trick combinations together right after one another to "smack" the other b-boy. Usually comes after becoming proficient in other styles first due to the amount of control and practice needed.
B-boys who base their dance on "flavor/style" are also known as "styleheads".