Breaking
Breaking
You don't know breaking unless you know these 4 principles
Breaking belongs to hip-hop culture and has its own set of rules and values. Find out about four of the most important principles behind the ethos right here.
Hip-hop is a vibrant, artistic culture that's inspired millions. Its four elements of graffiti, DJing, breaking and MCing empower people to express themselves through art, music, dance and poetic speech. But what truly inspires people to live the culture as a way of life is the ethos it embodies and the values that underpin everything the culture stands for.
Through breaking, b-boys and b-girls learn about the values in hip-hop and pass them on to others. Many are attracted to the dance by its spectacular and dynamic moves, but then find a culture with an ethos that they aspire to embody.
Here are four of the most important principles within breaking and hip-hop culture, along with perspectives and examples from key breaking figures.
01
Each one, teach one
This ethos is about taking the positive things someone has learned through breaking and hip-hop culture, and passing them on to those who come after. It's about passing on tips, being a mentor and ensuring that the essence of the culture isn't forgotten but continues to uplift and empower.
Learn more about legendary B-Boy Roxrite
The first-ever Red Bull BC One Champion, Omar, and Red Bull BC One All Star RoxRite both remember the people that helped them, with Roxrite saying: “Throughout the years as I grew up I wouldn't have been able to learn the dance had all these people not taught me."
Roxrite remembers those who taught him
© Kien Quan/Red Bull Content Pool
Throughout the years as I grew up I wouldn't have been able to learn the dance had all these people not taught me
Omar adds: “I look at all the people who helped me along the way, all the people who steered me in the right direction, all the mentors I had keeping me out of trouble, guiding me, advising me, helping me become successful. I consider myself an ambassador now to provide another platform for the next generation so that they can have even larger opportunities.”
Another example of the 'each one, teach one' mentality in breaking was in the '90s, when the trend of breaking was at a low and west coast B-Girl legend, Asia One, created one of the most iconic breaking events in the history of the scene, called, B-Boy Summit. This event was created to preserve the culture of breaking and pass on knowledge to others.
Asia One explains: “We wanted to spread information and knowledge because at that point it was really hard to get it, and the only way people would learn is if somebody came from New York and planted themselves in LA."
02
Knowledge – the fifth element of hip-hop
In hip-hop culture having knowledge is valued so highly that it is always spoken of as the culture’s fifth element. This fundamental value came from the black empowerment groups who formed in the '60s and then spent years spreading positive ways of thinking, and different forms of education, in the ghettos.
Asia One poses for a portrait at Red Bull One Camp USA in Houston
© Maria Jose Govea/Red Bull Content Pool
Asia One says: "The Nation of Islam and the Five Nation were movements that were changing the African American people in these inner-city communities with the way they thought about things, and their knowledge base, which ended up bleeding over to hip-hop."
Asia One goes on to reminds us that: "We can't forget that a large part of hip-hop is understanding. It was never cool to be dumb, it was never cool to be like you didn't know anything.”
It was never cool to be dumb, it was never cool to be like you didn't know anything
The value of knowledge is also linked to how the concept of a cypher (the circles breakers form and dance in) came into breaking. Another concept learned from the Five Percent Nation, one meaning of a cypher is a circle or zero, and when people formed a cypher it was known as a place of knowledge sharing.
That concept also bleeds into hip-hop, with the cypher becoming a place in which rappers would take turns exchanging verses, competing and practising. For breakers, the cypher became the place where b-boys and b-girls would battle, get down and exchange moves. In a cypher a breaker displays their physical knowledge of breaking through their skills, the way they get down and their vocabulary of moves.
03
Peace, love, unity and having fun
Peace instead of violence. Love instead of war. Unity and helping each other instead of unnecessary division. And having fun together instead of living at odds. These are part of the most important values that hip-hop created and spread around the world.
Hip-hop culture came from an intense time of gang violence and extreme poverty in the boroughs of New York. Peace, love, unity and having fun were seeds planted by the very gangs who decided to form peace treaties and stop the violence, with young people coming together to party instead of fight, and those who found the creative outlets (the four elements of hip-hop) to positively channel their frustrations.
Tyquan, the President of MZK, and Omar, the first Red Bull BC One champ
© Kien Quan/Red Bull Content Pool
“Zulu Nation was a big part of hip-hop culture history, coming up with certain principles like peace, love, unity and having fun," explains B-Boy Tyquan, of the MZK (Mighty Zulu Kingz). "They were kind of an organisation that were the gatekeepers of hip-hop culture, making sure that everything was in line with what hip-hop is about, meaning giving back, community awareness and empowering the youth.”
04
Something from nothing
Kids in New York had nothing and yet created a dance that's now spread across the planet, become a competitive art form, has had movies and documentaries made about it and will be part of the programme for Paris in 2024.
This is probably the most empowering implication of hip-hop, that you literally can have nothing but still create something that positively changes people’s lives around the world, as Tyquan says: "Hip-hop is about taking nothing to something, that's why it’s an empowerment culture – this dance came from nothing [and turned] into something very beautiful.”
