Breaking is a style of hip-hop dance that has been around for nearly 50 years.
Along with hip-hop and other associated Black and Latinx street cultures, breaking began in the late 1970s in the Bronx with dancers such as Crazy Legs. The word “breaking” comes from DJs choosing to use only the percussive breakdown parts of songs for breakers to dance to.
Breaking debuted at the 2024 Paris Olympics and has been gaining considerable traction for several years with events such as Red Bull’s BC One international breaking competition, which has been held for 20 years now. This major event attracts thousands from across the world and is held in a different city each year, coming to Japan twice. Other popular events include DanceSport Federation’s breaking competition.
Hip-hop dance is extremely popular in Japan, with studios offering lessons in the vast majority of cities and towns. Breakdancers (referred to as “b-boys” and “b-girls”) from Japan are also a major force in international competitions.
Ami Yuasa, the 2024 Olympic breaking gold recipient, won the BC One in 2018 and 2023.
Shigeyuki Nakarai won in 2020 and Issei Hori won in 2016. Japan was represented by four dancers at the Olympics this year.
The Olympics and breaking: strange bedfellows
Adding breaking as an Olympic sport was said to be an attempt to woo a younger audience.
Although Rachel Gunn’s performance and controversial scoring for some other performances contributed to a chaotic debut, some fundamental aspects of hip-hop culture may have doomed it.
Having been born and raised in the Bronx and a huge fan of hip-hop, breaking and graffiti, I was excited to see it debut at the Olympics, but I had doubts that it would become permanent. Hip-hop culture is notorious for being a counter-culture, and thus it’s difficult to sanitize it for mainstream television. For instance, grabbing one’s crotch is a traditional breaking move to taunt your opponent. Many Olympians, in fact, did this despite it not being family-friendly.
Famous hip-hopper Snoop Dogg was a special correspondent at the 2024 Olympics. While he is now a lovable character making TV appearances with the likes of Martha Stewart, he also has a history connected to drugs, gangs, and violence. He has been featured on songs that glorify killing police, is an ex-convict, and was once on trial for murder.
While it is commendable if someone can turn their life around, the plain reality is the Olympics is a conservative event aimed at pleasing the general public and hip-hop’s darker aspects do not suit it well.
Moreover, despite hip-hop dance studios being present in nearly every city across Japan, it’s unlikely that the Japanese public will ever fully embrace the darker aspects of culture connected to breaking.
Hip-hop culture has a notoriously bad rap
Society has had issues with hip-hop since day one.
Since hip-hop music features talking over music, it was not considered “real music” by many at its inception. Moreover, many rappers describing their experiences with crime and violence in dangerous urban areas did not help the genre win over parents.
However, times have changed. In 2018, Kendrick Lamar won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his hip-hop lyrics. Although hip-hop has made huge strides in recent years, cultural denial persists.
“Breaking is not just a sport, it’s also expressing myself and art.” –Ami Yuasa, 2024 Paris Olympic gold medalist
For instance, one YouTuber commented that the sport was just making up words regarding the terminology used to judge the dancers. These terms have been around since breaking’s inception. Breaking moves themselves have been around for a long time before they were popularized in the 1970s by Black and Latinx hip-hoppers. The earliest recorded example is in Thomas Edison’s 1898 silent film A Street Arab, where a boy does a “headspin.”
Hip-hop fashion is another aspect of Black culture that has not been taken seriously.
RUN-DMC popularized wearing Adidas without laces in the early 1980s. Granted, this is obviously not a practical way to wear sneakers, but when you don’t have much, you have to be creative with what you have. Baggy clothes, particularly pants that hang so low that one’s underwear shows have also been ridiculed. To mock something that represents a group’s identity and something they feel proud about is hurtful at the least, perhaps unconsciously biased, and bigoted at its worst.
Graffiti (street art) being considered as an art form has also made significant strides. Although it has illegal roots, it is now established as a legitimate art form across the world with museums dedicated to it, such as Chiang Mai’s Dream Space Gallery. In fact, that city has embraced the art so much that many locals have permitted international artists to cover hundreds of locations across the city with massive pieces. The small city’s vibrant street art scene is just another example of hip-hop culture’s reach and staying power. Even in conservative Japan, high-quality street art can also be found nowadays.
After Japan’s Ami Yuasa brought home the gold in women’s breaking, she stated: “Breaking is not just a sport, it’s also expressing myself and art.”
This quote highlights an understanding of breaking which detractors seem to lack.
Japan’s Ono brought to tears after controversial scoring
Although a favorite and top-four finalist, Japan’s Nakarai did not end up with a medal. All three medalists were established b-boys who had amazing performances, though, so there wasn’t much controversy in that regard. However, another Japanese b-boy’s results did create quite a bit of controversy.
The crowd erupted in shock at one score Japan’s Hiroto Ono received. His loss to USA’s Victor Montalvo really stunned the audience and brought Ono to tears. Although he successfully landed seemingly endless, spectacular power moves, some criticized his lack of balance with other important aspects. I felt it was close but I would have given him the win myself. The crowd’s reaction spoke for itself, roaring as he landed huge moves and booing when the score was announced.
So, some improvements may be needed regarding judging. It’s too late now, though, and I don’t think breaking is coming back to the Olympics anytime soon. At least Japan nabbed one gold while they could.
In the past, Italians referred to their language as Vulgar Latin in comparison with the formal register of the language. Now the language is usually associated with luxury and classiness.
Before the term art brut was coined in the 1940s, art created by the self-taught was not accepted in art circles. Now such art, like Henry Darger’s works, sell for millions of dollars. As Alexander Pope said, “Time conquers all…”
As time goes by, hopefully, so will any conscious or unconscious biases that people have that will enable hip-hop’s various cultures to flourish as proper forms of art and expression.
Dr. James Rogers is a tenured university professor who has published books and over 50 articles on linguistics and Japanese studies. He is the author of the book “On Living and Working in Japan.”
© Japan Today
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