00:00I definitely feel like hip-hop has chosen me.
00:02Considering my background, I don't feel like I should have been here
00:05because I've traveled all over the world and I've done things that,
00:08with my background, people don't usually do.
00:10It was destiny.
00:11I'm grateful that hip-hop chose me.
00:42The origin of hip-hop originated from a group of people being oppressed
00:45in urban and street communities.
00:47They created something to stay out of trouble, something to express themselves.
00:51If I was to explain hip-hop, it would definitely be something that's radical
00:55because it can't be boxed in, it can't be controlled.
00:59Everybody wants to do the social popular dances like the nay-nay, the whip, and the shoot,
01:03but they're not realizing that hip-hop came from the struggle of a community
01:06that they're racist against.
01:10Definitely gonna keep growing and keep moving regardless.
01:13Hello, my name is Angel. I'm 26 years old. I'm here from Kansas City, Missouri,
01:17and I am a hip-hop person.
01:22When I pop and hit, I definitely imagine my body running into something
01:28and preventing me from going any further, creating that illusion of stopping
01:32and creating that consistency of contracting and release with my muscles.
01:37I'm definitely an athlete. Being a dancer, I'm representing my athletic ability
01:42in an artistic and creative way.
01:44The elements of breaking consist of top rock, down rock, or footwork.
01:49Eventually, people started touching the floor, breezes,
01:52then moves got added a little later. We call them power moves.
01:59Breaking is an art form because we use it to express ourselves.
02:03We can really tell you if you are or are not being yourself because that's what this dance is for.
02:07I am Imani. I'm also known as Blue Chaos.
02:12I'm from Charlotte, North Carolina. I'm 24 years old, and I am a b-girl. I breakdance.
02:18Everyone says breaking has saved them in some way.
02:21I found a bunch of breakers.
02:24My boyfriend at the time told me, he was like,
02:26why do you want to do this? What are you doing?
02:28You're about to be out and dancing? I don't get it.
02:30I'm trying to explain to him, yeah, I like this, and it's a lot of fun.
02:41When I started breaking, I was 19.
02:43I was training ballet and modern in high school.
02:46I was doing it basically because as a dancer, the only way that you could be legitimate
02:50is to do Western-style dances.
02:53Being a woman in a male-dominated art form, it is a lot of times very lonely.
02:58I find myself comparing myself more to men, which sometimes can be unreasonable.
03:03Finding my own lane of balancing between feminine and masculine, a lot of things
03:08is something I feel like I explore a lot in my art form.
03:11Hey guys, my name is Kamari, also known as Pepsi.
03:14I'm 23 years old, and I'm a b-girl.
03:17Hip-hop allowed me to be myself because it allowed me to express myself freely.
03:21It allowed me to stand up for the things that I believe in and stand up for the people
03:27that didn't necessarily feel so confident to stand up for themselves.
03:31Yeah, and that's it.
03:33Got it.
03:34Cool, boy.
03:35Yeah.
03:37She thinks that one was a fit.
03:37You
