Crip Walk

I was hired to shoot some footage for a video by a rap group last year. I noticed this shot I got of a group of guys walking towards the camera and one of them broke out into this dance. It really caught my eye and I decided I would save it as a clip. Anway, I'm going thru YouTube and I come across this video entitled "Crip Walking." I check it out and lo and behold it's the same dance that the guy was doing.

I love this dance. It's a manly dance started by poor African-American boys and young men to express how unafraid they were. Crip walking expresses the machismo, coolness and sexiness of thug-life and yet the movements are not vulgar, not sexual, not violent but intimidating. It reminds me of so many things - an indian war dance - a fighter flexing his muscles - an agile creature of nature - and yet it is so original.

The dance is hopping, skipping and sliding and most of all, strutting. The purest form of crip walking is done by, well, Crips, and has been around for at least 30 years. I don't like it when they add the pop-lock, moonwalk or other fad dances to the crip walk like the younger generation has done. What can I say? I like the "classic" crip walk, lol!

I do not find thug-like exciting, attractive, enticing - none of that - but I do admire the originality of African-Americans and even tho this dance is suppose to be intimidating, if it weren't for all the gang accutremount it would look like a "happy dance."

Excuse the language...