Krumping

A krumper dancing in Australia.

Krump is a street dance popularized in the United States, characterized by free, expressive, exaggerated, and highly energetic movement.^[1] The youths who started Krump saw the dance as a way for them to escape gang life^[2] and "to release anger, aggression and frustration positively, in a non-violent way."^[3]

Origins

The root word "Krump" came from the lyrics of California’s Mean Streets.^[4] It is spelled K.R.U.M.P., which is an acronym for Kingdom Radically Uplifted Mighty Praise,^[5][3] presenting Krump as a faith-based artform.^[6] Krump was created by two dancers: Ceasare "Tight Eyez" Willis and Jo'Artis "Big Mijo" Ratti in South Central, Los Angeles during the early 2000s.^[2][3][7][8] Clowning is the less aggressive predecessor to krump and was created in 1992 by Thomas "Tommy the Clown" Johnson in Compton, California.^[1][3] In the 1990s, Johnson and his dancers, the Hip Hop Clowns, would paint their faces and perform clowning for children at birthday parties or for the general public at other functions as a form of entertainment.^[9] In contrast, krump focuses on highly energetic battles and dramatic movements^[3] which Tommy describes as intense, fast-paced, and sharp.^[9] CBS News has compared the intensity within krump to what rockers experience in a mosh pit.^[10] "If movement were words, krump would be a poetry slam."^[1] Krump was not directly created by Tommy the Clown; however, krump did grow out of clowning.^[1][8][11] Ceasare Willis and Jo'Artis Ratti were both originally clown dancers for Johnson but their dancing was considered too "rugged" and "raw" for clowning so they eventually broke away and developed their own style.^[2] This style is now known as Krump. Johnson eventually opened a clown dancing academy and started the Battle Zone competition at the Great Western Forum where krump crews and clown crews could come together and battle each other in front of an audience of their peers.^[3][10]

Spread and influence

David LaChapelle's documentary Rize explores the clowning and krump subculture in Los Angeles. He says of the movement: "What Nirvana was to rock-and-roll in the early '90s is what these kids are to hip-hop. It's the alternative to the bling-bling, tie-in-with-a-designer corporate hip-hop thing."^[12] LaChapelle was first introduced to krump when he was directing Christina Aguilera's music video "Dirrty".^[2] After deciding to make a documentary about the dance, he started by making a short film titled Krumped.^[2] He screened this short at the 2004 Aspen Shortsfest and used the positive reaction from the film to gain more funding for a longer version.^[2] In 2005, this longer version was released as Rize and screened at the Sundance Film Festival,^[13] the Auckland International Film Festival,^[14] and several other film festivals outside the United States.^[15]

Aside from Rize, krump has appeared in several music videos including Madonna's "Hung Up", Missy Elliott's "I'm Really Hot", The Black Eyed Peas' "Hey Mama", and Chemical Brothers "Galvanize".^[9] It is demonstrated in Skinny Puppy's "Pro-Test" video as well, which also displays several other aspects of krump- the plot thereof being based on the call-out and battle.

The dance has also appeared in the movie Bring It On: All or Nothing and Stomp the Yard , the television series Community, and the reality dance competitions So You Think You Can Dance, America's Best Dance Crew. Russell Ferguson, the winner of the sixth season of So You Think You Can Dance, is a krumper. Contestants on World of Dance B-Dash and Konkrete were krumpers (2018).The original web series The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers also featured krump in season one during the fifth episode, "The Lettermakers".

Krump has since spread to many different countries around the world. Even as far as Australia and New Zealand, an American-Born dancer named Darrio "Street Dance" Philips introduced it into Australia's existing dance culture, and has grown to be an underground form of dance expression.

Mentorship in krump is done in a way unique to the practice. Every dancer embodies certain styles and characteristics that make them the dancer that they are. The mentor, called a big homie, can take a part of their style and teach it to the mentee, called a little homie. A big homie and their collection of little homies is called a fam. For example, Tight Eyez, as a big homie, mentors multiple littles. Each little is under him and takes on a different part of his krump persona. The part of the persona that the little takes on is usually the one that they most naturally connect to. Sometimes you can take on their entire persona instead of just a portion. In this case, you would be called the twin, or the deuce. As a little, even if you have your own personality, you take on an additional name. Some examples of little homie positions under Tight Eyez are Baby Eyes, Little Tight Eyes, Mama Eyez Junior Tight Eyez, and Kid Tight Eyez. You are not confined to just a single fam. There are instances where a little is being mentored by two bigs. The little BullzEye is a personality made from a fusion of one of Tight Eyez' and one of Boy Mijo's personalities. The two work together to help develop a new style and mentor a single person under that name. Once you leave mentorship, you also give up the little name. Whoever was the last little sets the standard for how good you have to be to take on that name and become the next little under that particular name. It is the big homie's responsibility to not only teach the dance, but also mentor the little in the history and culture of krump. Much like a real family, eventually you leave the nest and start your own family. The big homie is responsible for making sure you can teach a new generation.^[16]

Krump has since spread to many different countries around the world

Style

There are four primary moves in krump: jabs, arm swings, chest pops, and stomps.^[7] Krump is rarely choreographed; it is almost entirely freestyle (improvisational) and is danced most frequently in battles or sessions rather than on a stage. Krump is different stylistically from other hip-hop dance styles such as Breakdancing^[9] and turfing. Krump is very aggressive and is danced upright to upbeat and fast-paced music. Despite the style, krump does not promote aggression or fighting - moves are meant to take up space and challenge other dancers to feed off and return the energy, ^[3] whereas b-boying is more acrobatic and is danced on the floor to break beats. The Oakland dance style turfing is a fusion of popping and miming that incorporates storytelling and illusion. Krump is less precise than turfing and more freestyle.^[3] Thematically, all these dance styles share common ground including their street origins, their freestyle nature, and the use of battling. These commonalities bring them together under the umbrella of hip-hop dance.

Vocabulary

• Krump: an Acronym for Kindom Radically uplifted mighty praise; Never refer Krump as krumping.
• Battle: when competitors face off in a direct dance competition where the use of Concepts, Materials, combos, and Get off takes in place
• Biter: someone who attends sessions or watches battles in order to feed on others' styles and originality so that they can mimic those moves later at another battle and pass them off as coming from their own inventiveness i.e. plagiarism.
• Session: when a group of Krumpers form a circle, or cypher in hip-hop context, and one-by-one go into the middle and freestyle.
• Buck: an adjective used to describe someone who excels in Krump. it is also used to describe one's movement to be different or out of the Foundations making it worthy for the eyes
• Live: an adjective used to describe someone raising the energy in the session or battle.
• Call-Out: when a Krumper initiates/requests a battle with another Krumper by calling them out.
• Lab: when Krumpers get together or by themselves create new concepts and/or advancing their style.
• Get-Off: when a Krumper performs a set of movements that determines that a Krumper's round is over, Usually is determined by seeing the krumper doing nothing but foundations, bang outs, or arm-swings.
• Kill-Off: when a Krumper performs a set of movements that excites the crowd to the point where the battle is over and the crowd surrounds the Krumper; the opponent is "killed off."^[17]
• Krumper: A dancer who specializes in the Art of Krump.
• Concepts: An abstract movement that helps Krumpers tell a story.
• Material: A material movement Krumpers use to show a random item to further story telling. (i.e. pouring water on the ground and slipping.)
• Jabs: short, sharp, staccato movements when the arms extend from the chest outwards and with the same energy pulling it back.
• Stomps: Stomping the foot to the ground in a way that they Krumpers are getting their energy from the ground itself.
• Chest pop: Making an upward motion with the chest the same manner as breathing into the lungs; Krumpers usually do Chest pops for breathing in air while in a session or in a round.
• Arm Swing: Moving an arm in a swinging motion. There are two types of arm swing, Small arm swing and Big arm Swing; Small arm swings are like throwing a baseball kind of motion while Big arm swings are like using the whole arm as the bat.
• Praise Krump: The art of Krump to religious songs; way of praising for krumpers through Krump.^[18]
• Story Line: a set of Combos performed by Krumpers to build up the Hype and the Spazz Meter to get to a moment to get off or kill off their opponent.
• Hype: The intense feeling of being swept away; usually if a Krumper does something buck or different or kills the music, the crowd is hyped up thus leading to a kill-off. Common Krump audience would think that the Hype comes from the Krumper doing his rounds but Krumpers also get their Hype and boost their Spazz Meter from the crowd.
• Spazz Meter: a term used to determine the level or extent of the Hype.
• Krump Talk: The act of trash talking while in a Krump Battle.

Round's Story-line (basic)

• Atmosphere: feeling the vibe of the environment and having the environment feel you presence.
• Intro: starting one's rounds; usually with small movements, sometimes used to introduce a Krumper's character or concept.
• Rounds: The round of a Krumper where he/she uses a combination of Combo's, Materials, Concepts, Foundations.
• Buckness: the part of the story line where the krumper is already Hyped up with his rounds, showing a series of Heavy or fast, or heavy and fast movements; usually done with a stance with 2 knees slightly bent while arms and feet are moving in front of the lower extremities of the body.
• Krump: the part of the story line where the krumper is doing a series of foundations, concepts, materials while in a standing stance position while arms and feet are moving in front of the upper extremities of the body.
• Liveness: the part of the story line where the krumper is doing a series of foundations, concepts, materials while body is in a bent up position while arms and feet are moving outside of the body, may it be upwards or side-wards.
• Get-off: The part of the story line where the Krumper is getting off with the feelings contained, letting out by showing repetitive movements like bang outs, jabs, redundancy, and alike.

References

External links

• Origins of KRUMP by Tight Eyez & Big Mijo on YouTube
• Street Knowledge Passed on from Big homies to lil' homies