Saturday, November 03, 2007

I wanna Crip Walk

By the left, quick march may appear innocuous to the uninitiated but to the ancients setting out on a journey with the left foot first meant no mercy would given to the foe. Walking and marching are learned activities and involve complex leg, hand, and body co-ordination that only sophisticated humans can display. From the 11th century in Europe mend wore their shoes longer than their feet, so long in fact that by the 14th century the shoes were 24” longer than the foot itself. Young courtiers stomped (walked with a high stepping gait) just to look cool. To indicate sexual attraction to young maidens, youths of the 14th century, gestured their long pointed toes in a vulgar and overtly sensual manner. Such was the norm at the time. Today the Crip walk preoccupies many of our young people. Originally seen in South Central Los Angeles in the early eighties the form of choreographed deportment was part of the street gang culture. Controlled gait included body movements which spelt out certain words and co-ordinated hand movements demonstrating sacred gang signs. The best known step was the C-Walk which was used to celebrate the initiation of a new gang member by the JoeShow Riots. Typically the choreographed steps were performed to West Coast gangsta rap and G-funk. Soon pro crip rappers like Ice T and WC transformed the street cred steps into boogie for their stage performances. Meantime on the streets the non verbal communication was used to warn other Crips of a crime going down or the presence of the police or rival crew, like the Bloods. Like all fads the passion for Crip Walking may become passé although it has been around for a quarter of a century and now that it has crossed over into mainstream entertainment, like to be around a little while longer. If you would like to learn how to do the crip Walk there are several websites but Crip walk how to do it has a simple set of instructions with useful videos to help you truck right.

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