Intro by Chinyere Ogbue, Head of Workforce Development
If you haven’t read our initial post to kick off Black History Month, I would highly encourage you to do so. We republished a brilliant interview with Peter Badejo OBE, led by Ukachi Akalawu, where they spoke about the myriad of issues including language, body image, barriers to support and much more, that seem to have plagued Black Dance.
To close off Black History Month, we are concluding with a much-needed reminder of the history of Hip-Hop’s development in the UK. This brief but crucial history was provided by Robert Hylton within the Voicing Black Dance reader. Hylton pays important homage to not only the key individuals in the movement of hip-hop, but also epicentres where expression took place and the important interconnectedness of hip-hop dance and hip-hop music. Hip-Hop is a vibrant dance form that has and will always be attributed as a signifier of resistance. It expresses the power and pride that has been the theme of this years Black History Month that we are encouraged to stand firm in. The end of Black History Month does not denote an end to using whatever mediums we have in our arsenal to resist and be proud of. I imagine most reading this are dance artists / practitioners, so I would like to continue to encourage you to move to the rhythm of resistance. Maybe put on Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation as you do so.
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The development of hip hop dance and hip hop music are inseparable, as they stem from a culture and philosophy which also incorporated graffiti, DJ-ing, poetry and a way of life. For a comprehensive timeline of US hip hop development, go to www.mrwiggles.biz. The history of hip hop music and dance in the UK owes its emergence and development to the longstanding vibrancy of the US hip hop scene.
1979
hip hop emerges musically in the UK through the international – and still fresh – hit Rapper’s Delight by The Sugar Hill Gang (using the unmistakable bassline of Chic’s Good Times).
1980
Blondie featured Debbie Harry performing a rap on their record Rapture, which further introduced hip hop culture to a wider audience through its merging of hip hop, Pop and Punk. Although Blondie was considered a Punk group, Debbie Harry mentioned hip hop artists Fab 5 Freddie and Grand Master Flash during her rap. This gave Rapture credibility amongst hip hop artists.
1981
The UK’s first major taste of hip hop as a dance form can be attributed to Jeffrey Daniel of the pop group Shalimar, who performed the ‘backslide’ or ‘moonwalk’ to their smash hit A Night to Remember on Top of the Pops.
1981 / 82
Jeffrey Daniel came to London for a few months with a group called Eclipse which included Poppin Pete, Skeeter Rabbit and Suga Pop. The mecca for hip hop was Covent Garden where, each Saturday, people would gather, dance and interact.
This activity generated one of the first London scenes of B-Boys, DJs, MCs and rappers such as DJ Pogo, Billy Biznizz and The London Posse.
1982
Malcolm McClaren released Buffalo Gals and Double Dutch, further introducing hip hop to a UK audience.
1983
The Rock Steady Crew (a group of B-Boys from the Bronx, New York) featured in the film Flashdance. They also performed at the Royal Variety Performance and released the UK top ten hit Hey You, The Rock Steady Crew. They toured the UK and went on to feature in the hip hop film Beat Street in 1984.
Styles of hip hop that were first practiced in the UK
Locking was created by Don Campbellock and the Campbellockers in the nightclubs of Los Angeles in the early 1970s. This dance and subculture quickly caught on and was soon the rage of a new television dance show called Soul Train. Individual dancers displayed quick locking and pointing movements along with hand slaps and splits.
Some of the early Lockers in London were:
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Feathers
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Hoffmeister
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Pat Cezar
The Body Poppin first practiced in the UK came from New York and was called Electric Boogie, which was a variation of the original style of hip hop coming from the West Coast created by individuals, such as Boogaloo Sam. The original basis of Poppin is a mixture of Locking and Robot. Poppin is actually an umbrella term for many styles of hip hop dance, which include:
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Boogaloo
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Toyman
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Scarecrow
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Animation
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Hitting
In the early 1990s, with access to various sources, hip hop artists were able to research and reconnect with the original West Coast styles of hip hop. Breakin (East Coast) came from The South Bronx and was made famous by The Rock Steady Crew (2nd generation Crazy Legs, Ken Swift, etc) from which emerged the Street Dance styles that we can see today, such as Krumping. Krumping did not necessarily come from breaking, but is its own emerging new street dance.
UK hip hop epicentres in the early 1980s:
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Rock City – Nottingham
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Covent Garden Piazza – London
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Electric Ballroom – London (which also involved the British jazz dance scene)
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Spatz – London
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All-dayers in all the UK’s major cities (eg. London, Birmingham, Wolverhampton,
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Manchester and Leeds)
People gravitated to these places to dance and meet others who shared an interest in the music, the dance and the life-style. There was intense energy from these young people, some who were facing difficult situations under Thatcherism, so these events were a way of channelling emotion via a mode of dynamic creative expression. American GIs, stationed at US bases in the UK, were partly responsible for bringing the latest hip hop sounds, thus introducing more hip hop music into Britain. In the late 1980s, hip hop began to suffer from over-exposure and interest waned. Subsequently, Acid Jazz and House became fashionable. This has been termed the Winter Period. Hip hop was reintroduced by groups such as Public Enemy, De La Soul, Run DMC and MC Hammer. The difference with this type of hip hop was that the focus was the music rather than the dance.
Sound Systems who catered for hip hop lovers:
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Mastermind Roadshow
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Imperial Mixers
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Beatfreak
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Nutrament
Major hip hop Jams
In 1985 a major hip hop jam was organised by the Covent Garden hip hop community (Imperial Mixers, Cosmic Jam, DJ Pogo, Sargent V, The Chrome Angels, Live 2 Break and Artful Dodger). This jam encompassed all the elements of hip hop and had hip hop collaborators from all over the UK. Other major shows took place at the Shaw Theatre with Afrika Bambaata, Jazzy J and Wanda D, and also the Albany Empire in Deptford. In the late 80s / early 90s other jams were held at Swiss Cottage, Shady Grove and Nutrament’s Rock Box.
The mixing of many styles of dance and music also brought about the Warehouse party era including: Family Function, Shake & Finger Pop and Party, Don’t Worry About It with the Bash Street Kids.
Benji Reid – UK hip hop pioneer
There were various hip hop crews around the UK which grew out of particular areas or friendships. Most crews in this era would battle in clubs but would also perform hip hop shows in clubs, on television, in theatres and festivals.
These crews included:
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Rock City Crew – Nottingham
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B-Boys – Wolverhampton
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Live to Break, London All Stars – London
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Electro Rock gig at Hippodrome run by Capital FM
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Broken Glass – Manchester
Benji Reid was one of the UK’s first and best hip hop dance artists. As a young man, from using dance to entertain at family gatherings, as well as to avoid bullying at school, Reid took inspiration from Jeffrey Daniel’s famous ‘back slide’ and the music of Malcolm McClaren. He went on to join Broken Glass, a hip hop crew from Manchester with whom he toured for two years. Reid became UK Poppin Champion in 1986, as well as winning a host of other accolades. His trademark was his particular sense of character and fun, and his willingness to take hip hop movement vocabulary to a different level where it became theatre. Upon graduating from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds, Reid gained further performance experience with Dundee Rep, Soul II Soul, Davis Glass Mime Ensemble and Black Mime Theatre. Added to Reid’s own inimitable skills and style, this experience began the consolidation of his own particular language of expression, which is inarguably rooted in the culture of hip hop.
To find out more about the life and works of Benji Reid in his own words, go to www.benjireid.com
Where did people hone their skills?
hip hop moves were practiced everywhere by serious lovers of the form; on the street, in youth clubs, at home and, if one had to, even at work. And also they would have their moves ready for the weekend. In order to practice, there was no need for a sprung floor, or temperature-controlled atmospheres. The most one might need was a cardboard mat. hip hop dance was an art form that was truly ready-to-go.
Hip hop and the trained dancer
This crossover happened in the 1980s at the same time as the emergence of Hot Gossip and other similar groups on TV. These groups occasionally used street dance type moves but were more commercially influenced by the movie Fame than by hip hop, the London Boogie and UK jazz scene. Companies such as Torso were an early bridge between the different choreographic styles of ballet, jazz and street. There was also more exposure through the late night music/clubbing programme The Hitman and Her, which featured Jazz and Break dancers (including Benji Reid). Much of the crossover happened in the clubs, where you would find ballet dancers and jazz dancers alongside hip hop dancers. Some dancers went on to create a name for themselves using this fusion of styles. For example, Stuart Arnold and Ozzie were trained dancers who went to the clubs and picked up movement which they integrated into their particular jazz styles, which were popular in both the clubs and the dance studios.
From the The Urdang Academy came Brothers In Jazz with Irven Lewis, which mixed funk, soul, contemporary, ballet and jazz, to create a style Lewis termed Be Bop. In 1988, Brothers in Jazz and fellow jazz dance group Back Street Kidz, (previously ‘IDJ’ – I Dance Jazz) took part in a dance-off challenge in a boxing ring, which was televised on Channel 4. This was a direct spin-off from them regularly battling each other at the Wag Club in London on Monday nights.
There were also Disco dancing championships, which were places where dancers might incorporate moves like the ‘robot’ or the ‘freeze’.
hip hop reached the theatre stage via companies such as Union Dance, which used break-dancing in their work through collaborations with choreographers such as Doug Elkins. To find out more about Union Dance, go to www.uniondance.co.uk
The term hip hop Theatre was coined by Jonzi D, through works such as Safe and Aeroplane Man. For more information, see https://www.breakinconvention.com/jonzi-d *
*This link has been updated to reflect the accurate site to see further information about Jonzi D.
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To read more interviews and further reflections from those who have put brick to mortar in building and voicing black dance, we have the full resource available here.