Breaking Through the Mainstream: Red Bull BC One and a Glimpse Into the Future for B-Boys

An essay on breaking in 2014 from attending Red Bull BC One in Las Vegas.

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Complex Original

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Few forms of dance have blossomed and endured as much as breaking, a style that originated in the streets of New York during the 1970s within hip-hop. It has grown alongside hip-hop music, albeit at a different pace, with both sides reaching mainstream success and mass appeal in culture today.

Listening to Top 40 radio or watching televised talent shows reveals how popular hip-hop and breaking have become. When the niche becomes mainstream, though, it’s often a problematic process. For instance, the term "breakdancing" has proliferated as an incorrect, media-produced term that misrepresents breaking (by including California-born styles of popping and locking). 

Such is the course of misappropriation for any popular art form. However, most would argue that both hip-hop music and breaking have farther to go. In other words, these art forms are thriving and evolving more than ever. 

"Breaking is going more mainstream and commercial in a good way, because the right people are representing it, and the right people are preserving the culture," says b-boy Ronnie, member of Full Force and Super Cr3w (the latter of which won MTV's "America's Best Dance Crew" in 2008). He adds, "As far as the competition world goes, one-on-one is taking over."

Red Bull BC One, which has been around since 2004, produces this type of one-on-one global competition; many refer to it on the North American level as "the Super Bowl of breaking." The knockout battle format, which is the original competitive breaking style, contrasts the crew vs. crew battling that became popular in the 2000s on television shows and in music videos. 

When asked about all of his accomplishments over the years, including numerous titles and television appearances, b-boy Ronnie holds his 1st place Red Bull BC One win in high regard. 

"In my garage, all the trophies and stuff that I've won are pushed into a corner, except the Red Bull BC One trophy that’s on my fridge. I won in 2007,” he says. Since then, Ronnie was a judge for the competition in 2009 and has opened up DISTRCT, a breaking studio in his hometown of Las Vegas—the city where Red Bull BC One just held its national finals last Friday.

On August 15, b-boy Victor from Orlando, Fla. won the BC One North American title out of 16 participants who competed in an intense, multi-layered national qualification phase to get to the final stage. In November, he'll compete at the global finals in Paris. "This is giving b-boys the opportunity to travel the world,” says Ronnie, who performed with Super Cr3w during the event's intermission. “Once these b-boys get that exposure, they are more prone to getting a sponsor. They're getting important exposure.”

As the b-boys of today travel and expand their horizons, so does the art of breaking. The most recent BC One took place in Las Vegas, but it has previously been hosted everywhere from Zurich to Johannesburg. In expanding their horizons, the most successful b-boys still maintain their roots, as Ronnie has with opening DISTRCT and performing with his friends, the famed Jabbawockeez crew, at their 2010 MGM Grand show in Vegas.

"Once you’re a b-boy, you're always a b-boy, regardless of where you go. It’s the purest form, the purest component of hip hop," says media personality Sway Calloway, who hosted the live-streamed event, a b-boy himself. "Whether I sit down with the President, or when I was sitting down with Tupac, I’m doing it with a b-boy mentality."

This "b-boy mentality" is a multi-faceted one that embodies all sides of hip-hop's roots. "If you gave them a Sharpie, they’d probably tag something. If you try puttin’ them behind the turntables, they can probably mix back and forth. But you can’t take a DJ or a rapper and tell him to do some flares into a backspin and end it with a freeze pose," Sway says. When later commenting on how money has complicated parts of the hip-hop game, he adds, "When you’re in these breaking circles, it’s still 100 percent pure."

As the b-boys of today keep hip-hop close, it's easy to wonder if hip-hop has returned the gesture. The other facets of hip-hop—graffiti, DJing, and rapping, among them—have superseded breaking in terms of mainstream popularity. But this doesn't mean that breaking won’t continue to ascend gracefully, and perhaps, more meaningfully.

B-boy RoxRite, one of the three judges at the BC One nationals, expands on the slower pace of breaking’s entrance into the mainstream. “Hip-hop has reached a very high level. In a sense, breaking is the forgotten element of hip-hop. There are graffiti artists doing fashion and designing now. DJs and MCs are more successful than ever. Breaking is the last part of hip-hop to fully rise and get respect from society.” 

As for what’s holding breaking back, RoxRite says there's “a stigma stuck to it from the ‘80s and the movies that came out of the ‘80s.” On the other hand, he says, “It’s easier to learn; it’s at your fingertips now. Everything is continuing to grow and expand and inspire, and that’s what matters.” As a member of the Renegades crew and winner of 82 breaking titles to date, RoxRite announced that he'll win 100 titles before retiring—something no b-boy has ever done. His perseverance speaks to that of breaking and the enduring, life-encompassing b-boy mentality.

Breaking may be the last component of hip-hop to reach widespread commercial success in the way that the music has, but it's on an upward path. With competitions like Red Bull BC One giving b-boys more authentic opportunities to compete and travel, and with elders like Ronnie and RoxRite guiding the new generation of b-boys, it's only a matter of time before breaking’s ubiquity is impossible to ignore.

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