the difference in battles now compared to bak in da 90s and early 2000s

[nyc gravity 5cd]

please tell me where all the attitude went i fell in luv wit this art because of how raw it was .....who can agree theres a freakin difference....sure the moves are dope now but wheres da rawnesss......i just would luv to hear pplz opinions to dis cause i just saw the 5 finger discount dvd and bboys where so freakin raw and everyone brought sumthin different in each crew

[KayahtikKID]

yo gravity. i def understand whatchu mean man. I've been in the scene since 99' and I was about 11 or 12. I remember watching people go at it for days. I remember how cats used to call out somebody just because they weren't from the area no matter who it was. It just seems like nowadays everyone just wants to win jams and get the fame rather than just dancing because they LOVE to dance.

[ddelgado]

Yo on the real I totally understand I think we are in the age of the pussys! No one has the dont give a shit attitude and just call out fools cause they looked at them wrong I missed that. Being from Chicago we still have some of that but sometimes it does go far where there is fightin involved but its cool when you gotta fight you gotta fight! I need that uhf back and not be in age of the pussy.

[Gecko1989]

ahh i have scene battles from 1999 and earlier and today i still see the same rawness i don't really know what you are talking about. Every like 2 or 3 month i see alteast one or battles that makes my eyes pop open. So really i think you are not giving the new guys credit.

[IamCROS1]

Biggest difference I can tell you is the internet. Shoot back in the 90s you would have to hear about moves being done or see them on video and it would take awhile to get footage. Now adays you can know whats happening across the world in a matter of minutes or hours. I think it takes the fun out of it. Back in the days if you went to france all you had to go by was the few videos you might have watched or just hearing about it then experiencing it. Now adays you type up french bboys and you can see them all. I think thats the number one difference. And back in the 90s there was more of a style that each region had. Now alot of the regions are looking all the same.
peace
CROS1

[Fracture]

I remember when certain parts of areas had there own style... cali style, new york style, texas style.....

Vegas had transfers or floats and that was our "style"

[homeopt]

Originally Posted by IamCROS1

Biggest difference I can tell you is the internet. Shoot back in the 90s you would have to hear about moves being done or see them on video and it would take awhile to get footage. Now adays you can know whats happening across the world in a matter of minutes or hours. I think it takes the fun out of it. Back in the days if you went to france all you had to go by was the few videos you might have watched or just hearing about it then experiencing it. Now adays you type up french bboys and you can see them all. I think thats the number one difference. And back in the 90s there was more of a style that each region had. Now alot of the regions are looking all the same.
peace
CROS1

There are two things going on, and you touched on one of them.

The first is NOSTALGIA. That's right, the phenomenon where everything in hindsight is better than it is now. It's funny to hear guys talk about the 'fun days' when hip-hop first started coalescing in the mid 70's in NYC.

Fun days ? Man, NYC was grimy as hell back then. Do you remember the South Bronx? It was the poorest county in the entire nation. Jimmy Carter came to look at it, just like Eisenhower did when he went to visit nuked out Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And to be honest, I think Hiroshima and Nagasaki looked better !

NYC was a cesspool in many areas. You couldn't travel to many areas in the Bronx or Brooklyn or even Queens without taking your life in jeopardy. Some of ya'll are young, so you may not remember pre-Disneyfied Time Square, or even Hells Kitchen in Manhattan. Manhattan is like a wonderworld right now, but even it used to be grimy as hell. NYC used to regularly catch approx 1800 homicides a year in the late 70's, topping out at 2100 circa 1986 when the crack wars were going on.

So, we have a tendency to reimagine the past by glorifying the positive aspects and conveniently skimming over the negative aspects.


Cros, you touched on the 2nd aspect which is true for not just bboying but many aspects of culture and that is the shrinking of the world with the internet and 24 hour cable with hundreds of channels. Regionalism is not as striking as it used to be. I remember when I used to vacation in Florida back in the day and would hear all kinds of music that never made it up to NYC except via tape that your 3rd cousin shipped to you if you were lucky. Doo Doo Brown ?!? That stuff never got play in NYC. Granted, back in the 80's, NYC was the center of the hip-hop world and there was a certain arrogance that tuned out regional music, but even now, when we look at music and bboying worldwide, we see a greater level of homogenization than occured locally back in the 80's.

So yes, bboying is perhaps less individual and not quite as unique as it was back in the 80's and 90's, but so is everything else. Just as with anything else, there will always be those who innovate and lead the way. Typically, these people account for 1% of the population. The rest are followers. That will not change.

I suggest that we all try to appreciate rather than deprecate what we have. That is surely a recipe for killing a culture.

[mjg]

i like when i watch old footage how they all battled move for move back then....we still do it now but not as much. what i mean is like someone does swipes and then the other guy who has crazy swipes comes out and then someone else does a freeze combo and the other guy with the freezes comes out....now people will throw down power and someone will come back with straight footwork or vice versa.

[Factz]

I started in the mid 90's... I'd say.. the biggest difference is no originality like the 90's....& believe me you don't act all hard like you from the streets & try responding to someone's run with just some simple footwork ending with a "w" pose.... you'd get laughed at....I mean don't get me wrong there were always bboys that had that in your face style like Bebe...ectect... but you didn't have every other bboy trying to swag like him.. you had just one Bebe....originality.....na mean... also bboys were still limited to moves not as much style & moves were created yet with the likes of today.....so seeing someone respond to your run with their own version of it was very dope...it was like... man this nigga really trying to out do me with my own moves...& it was like a burn with out all that negetive shit you see nowadays... Nowadays muthafuccas that aint even at your level but will arrogantly call you out drop some simple wack shit...get up act like they took you out...and it gets worst..the trend even got lil 8 yr olds & lil girls acting like they all hard & shit on the floor... does that look right?... nah and muthafuccas be talking about moving to bigger & better things in bringing this dance to the public eye so that bboys can get paid.... I don't think so... truth be told...FeverOne even brought that raw NY style up here in NW in 90's & even he didnt have to act all hard like he was gonna mug & beat somebody down to win battles...his swagger & style was flawless fuciin illll!..when I first saw that style in person other than the rsc videos... like I siad before Originality is lacking nowadays...

[mikeyice]

the difference i see i started off in the early early 90's is that today really more like a "image thing" back then you wore what ever you got your hands, on thrift store puma's but the heart part i see it really missing from
today. when i say heart part i am talking about dancing for no cash$$$$$$$ in the middle of the street just
going city to city, battling in mc donalds parking lot's inside the malls raves!!! i love today b-boys but that's the
difference..

p.s. one love to entire b-boy community still got love for ya'll..
93 til.

[serebros]

its def the internet. i started bboying at the end of 8th grade in what 02, 03? not too long ago, but its not like i started yesterday.youtube wasent as big back then. i think that is also whats killing the crowds these days, people have seen everyones moves on youtube already, and they act like oh they done that before so im not gonna give them props... lol, if hong10 was never seen on video/youtube/dvd and then came to the states everyone would be like WTF, honestly dont start some hong10 hate shit either, insert any dope foreign or hell domestic bboys name. another thing, routines and commandos at jams have taken over like wildfire, if a crew is relying on tons of routines and commando sets to win a battle, they arent strong enough individually. 90% of routines look gay, have been done before, not original, are off beat, too simple, or consist of all flips, this is my opinion, hate on it all you want. promoters please have more jams that dont allow routines or commandos, mad props to united styles miami.

my 2 cents.

[ToyzOfZion]

hahaa yea.... the 90's was the best time for bboying....

huge growth spurt in creativity and innovation.... now it kinda hit a wall...

no one wants to commit to that kind of hard work anymore besides a handful of crews out there..

most bboys jus look for easy props now...