the.com/gangsta walk
footwork so sharp it turned Memphis sidewalks into a percussion section nobody asked for.
means A loose-limbed, exaggerated style of street dance—and the swaggering, hip-rolling stride it borrows from—marked by sliding, gliding footwork that flaunts attitude as much as rhythm.
from Born in Memphis in the late 20th century, where it grew up alongside crunk and buck dance into what locals also call the 'G-walk' or 'choppin'.' 'Gangsta' is the hip-hop respelling of 'gangster,' which traces back to 'gang'—a word of Old Norse stock (gangr, 'a going, a walking') that once meant simply a way of going, then a set of things that go together, then a band of people up to no good. So the name folds neatly back on itself: a gang's walk, the strut of those who travel as a crew.
- birthplace
- Memphis, Tennessee, mid-1980s street corners
- also called
- buck, jookin, or simply tickin
- evolved into
- jookin, blending ballet-level toe control
- ballet crossover
- Lil Buck danced jookin with Yo-Yo Ma
- signature move
- gliding heels that fake gravity's absence
the c-walk — originated in compton, california in the 1970s by crips gang members as a distinctive dance and hand movement
snoop dogg's strut — popularized the gangsta walk style in 1990s hip-hop culture through music videos and performances