Krumping

The tradition & historical record

Krump is a type of dance culture that evolved through African-American street dancing popularized in the United States during the early 2000s, characterized by free, expressive, exaggerated, and highly energetic movement. The people who originated krumping saw the dance as a means for them to escape gang life. ¹

The root word krump came from the lyrics of a 1990 song and is sometimes explained as a backronym for Kingdom Radically Uplifted Mighty Praise, which presents krumping as a faith-based art form. Krumping was created by dancers: Ceasare "Tight Eyez" Willis, Marquisa "Miss Prissy" Gardner, Christopher "Lil' C" Toler and Jo'Artis "Big Mijo" Ratti in South Central, Los Angeles, during the early 2000s. Clowning is the less aggressive predecessor to krumping and was created in 1992 by Thomas "Tommy the Clown" Johnson in Compton, California. In the 1990s, Johnson and his dancers—known as the Hip Hop Clowns—performed clowning for children's’ birthday parties and other general-public functions. In contrast, krumping focuses on highly-energetic battles and dramatic movements which Tommy the Clown describes as intense, fast-paced, and sharp. CBS News compared the intensity of krumping to that of moshing. Although krumping was not directly created by Tommy, it was inspired by his “clowning”. Originally, Willis and Ratti were clown dancers for Tommy, but as their dancing was considered too "rugged" and "raw" for clowning, they left and developed krumping. Tommy 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. ¹

David LaChapelle's documentary, Rize, explores the clowning and krumping 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." LaChapelle was first introduced to krumping when he was directing Christina Aguilera's music video "Dirrty". After deciding to make a documentary about krumping, LaChapelle produced a short film titled Krumped, which was screened at the 2004 Aspen Shortsfest, and gained more funding to produce a longer version as a result of the positive response. In 2005, the longer version was released as Rize and screened at the Sundance Film Festival, the Auckland International Film Festival, and several other film festivals outside the United States. Aside from Rize, krumping appeared in several music videos including Missy Elliott's "I'm Really Hot”, The Black Eyed Peas' "Hey Mama", Chemical Brothers' "Galvanize" and Madonna's "Hung Up". Krumping is also demonstrated in Skinny Puppy's "Pro-Test" video, and displays several other aspects of krumping. Krumping has also appeared in the movies Bring It On: All or Nothing, Step Up, Stomp the Yard and Climax; the television series Community; and the reality dance competitions So You Think You Can Dance, Street Dance of China, and America's Best Dance Crew. Russell Ferguson. ¹

There are five basic moves in krumping: stomps, jabs, chest pops, Buck hop, and arm swings. Krumping is rarely choreographed; it is almost entirely freestyle to a song (improvisational) and is danced most frequently in battles or sessions rather than on a stage. Krump is stylistically different from other hip-hop dance styles such as breaking and turfing. Krumping is very aggressive and is danced upright to upbeat and fast-paced music, but it does not promote aggression or fighting – moves are meant to take up space and challenge other dancers to feed off and return the energy, whereas breaking 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, and more freestyle, than turfing. Thematically, all these dance styles align under the term street dance as they all share common attributes of their street origins, their freestyle nature and the use of battling. ¹

Battle: A direct dance competition often featuring concepts, materials, combos, and get-offs. 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 their own inventions, i.e. plagiarism. Session: When a group of krumpers form a semi-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, as well as high-quality adherence to the tenets of the Krump ethos. Live: An adjective used to describe someone raising the energy in the session or battle. Call-out: A krumper's initiation or request for battle with another krumper. Lab: Deliberate experimentation by krumpers, either by themselves or with other krumpers, to create new concepts and/or advance their style. Get-off: A set of movements that determines that a krumper's round is over, usually a pattern consisting solely of foundations, bang-outs, or arm-swings. Kill-off: 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", hence the name. Krumper: A dancer who specializes in krumping. Krumpography: Krump used as a choreography. Concept: An abstract movement that helps krumpers tell a story. Material: A material movement krumpers use to show a random item to further storytelling, e.g. pouring water on the ground and slipping. Jab: A short, sharp, staccato movement of the arms. ¹

Atmosphere: Feeling the vibe of the environment and having the environment feel the krumpers' presence. Intro: Starting one's rounds; usually with small movements, sometimes used to introduce a krumper's character or concept. Rounds: A set of combos, materials, concepts, and foundations taken together. Buckness: The part of the storyline where krumpers are already hyped up with their rounds, showing a series of heavy and/or fast movements; usually done with a stance of the knees slightly bent, while the arms and feet are moved far out in front of the lower extremities of the body. Krump: The part of the storyline where the krumper is doing a series of foundations, concepts, and materials while standing upright, while the arms and feet are moving in front of the upper extremities of the body. Liveness: The part of the storyline where the krumper is doing a series of foundations, concepts, and materials, with the body bent upward, while the arms and feet are moving outside of the body, either upwards or to the sides. Get-off: The part of the storyline where the krumper is expressing feelings most intensely, letting out by rapidly showing repetitive movements such as bang-outs, jabs and redundancy. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Krumping”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Krumping is Type of street dance originating from the United States, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 3 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²