The Crip Walk originated in the 1970s in Compton, a suburb of Los Angeles, California. The Crip walk is often referred to throughout many rap songs, including Xzibit tracks such as "Get Your Walk On" and J-kwon's "Hood Hop".
The C-Walk was originally a symbolic dance strictly for Crip gang members in the early 1980s in South Central Los Angeles, however by the early 1990's the dance had evolved into a popular hip-hop dance. Today the dance is known to many as the "Clown Walk".
The dance was originally used by Crip members to spell out their names and other Crip symbols. Gang members would often spell out the word "Bloods", the name of their rival gang, before crossing it out with a nimble movement of the feet.
It is believed that the Crip Walk was used as a signal to initiate robberies - a lookout would scout out a location while other crip members watched and waited for the C-Walk to signal that the coast is clear. It is also believed that the Crip Walk was performed soon after the slaying of a rival gang-members.
Today the C-Walk has received mass media coverage and now has now become mainstream after West Coast rap icons such as Ice-T and WC performed the dance live on stage.
Rapper Snoop Dogg has made it very clear to his listeners that the dance is dangerous and should not be performed by non-gang members:
Snoop Dogg - Streets
"And just cause we talkin', what you doin' C-Walking?
It's not just a dance it's a way a' living
Now if ya C-Walking, ya best to "see" Crippin'
And that goes for kids too, and R&B singers
N1gga quit Crip-Walking if ya ain't a gang banger"
In an attempt to perform the same style of dance while distancing itself from previous ties, variations on the dance such as the Clown Walk have appeared.
The original move has been now labeled The "V". This move involves moving your body by making "V" shaped movements with the feet. Bouncing around in the "V" motion allowed gang members to spell out names and words.
Variations
Other variations have been developed, such as:
The Shuffle - This involves moving the feet backwards and forwards. This style of dance appears in Snoop Dogg's music video "The Streets"
The Heel-Toe - This move involves crossing on leg to make a part twist with the toes and heels. This move involves your right foot being directly at 90 degrees behind the left foot to make the partial twist. It is said to be a much harder move to learn. This move has recently been popularized as one of the major Clown Walking techniques.
The Snake - This is another Clown Walk movement. The dancer must move his front leg left and his right on his heel, shortly being followed by his back leg.
Misspelled and Altered spelling
In recent times The Crip Walk or C-Walk has been referred to as the "Crypt walk", "Krypt walk" and "Krip walk" - Possibly by mistake, or possibly to remove all reference to the original dance.
Dance Origins believes The Top 10 Songs to Crip Walk to are:
1 - Xzibit – Get your Walk On
2 - Xzibit – Multiply
3 - J-kwon – hood hop
4 - 2Pac – Loyal to The Game
5 - Westside connection - gangsta nation
6 - Tonedeff -Heads Up
7 - Xzibit – Alkoholik
8 - Mase - Breathe, Stretch, Shake
9 - 2pac - Still Ballin
10 - Cunninlynguists – 616 Rewind
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