THE MIS UNDERSTANDING OF STREET TERMINOLOGY

WITH THE INTRODUCTION INTO AN INTERNATIONAL SCENE MANY INNERCITY TERMS  & TERMONOLYGY IS MIS UNDERSTOOD , THIS IS DUE TO THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INNERCITY STREET COMMUNICATION AND ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRIES TRANSLATIONS. THERE HAVE MANY PHRASES,TERMS AND INTERPRETATIONS OF STREET CULTURE THAT HAS BEEN MISUNDERSTOOD OR EVEN INTENTIONALLY TWISTED AND THEREFORE TAUGHT WRONG FROM ITS ORIGINAL STREET MEANINGS.

Recent story:   

 Recently a pretty popular 1980s locking style dancer who teaches internationally became upset over , the outcome of a Locking battle , and he began to tell various members of our locking page ,what the culture in Locking should be. well in arrogance, without knowing who he was exchanging with he attepted to corrected termonolygy of  known cultural activist, telling him he did not understand street language when he refers to him by using the greeting ” Homes”

however the un educated teacher insisted that the term was spelled “Holmes” as in “Sherlock Holmes” lol , much to his suprised he embarrassed himself as well as questioned his credibility as a teacher of a cultural dance art form,when the advocate and old school locker corrected him

 The term HOMES or HOMEY also refers to ones HOMEBOY, it was used by black soldiers as early as world war 1 and continued into the prison system where people identified with people who were from the same location or Set they were from … therefore if two people were both from California they were HOMEBOYS & often called each other “HOMES”….

so know and learn the culture and its terminology before you consider yourself an expert in someones’  culture

STREET TERMONOLOGY

SET:    The term “SET”  but most commonly means the Gang , club or organization are from or represent, In the hoods of Los Angeles ,when someone ask you what set you are from , most likely they are saying they do not recognize you , and you may be from a set that is not welcome in their area, In Locking it may be simply what crew you are representing

TO BOOK OR BOOKING:. A term from the Locking dance street era, which had various meaning depending on the context it was used in, “To Book” in a party could simply mean to dance well.ie “When the music got funky he was really booking”

But it could also mean to Leave in a hurry, ie. “When everything got crazy he had to book”

CUT UP, the term in its general form means to show out or show off. used in its dance form the term would mean to use dance to show off. to cut someone up would mean to outdone someone on the dance floor who was trying to out do you

WHAT THEY HIT FOR; was a term used on the streets when someone wanted to engage someone in a Crap (dice game) used in dance to challenge someone

DAP: to acknowledge someone with a unique handshake. to give someone Dap is to engage in that hand shake.This is the origin of the street handshakes , that inspired handshakes done using the Campbellocking style of dance

The Term “MOVEMENT” is often misunderstood when not understanding the context its used in. there are physical movements that a person does when dancing , or when the body is in any motion.

However that’s not always the intent. there are social /political STREET movements are groups banning together to advocate a message for social political change. streetdance has been part of those social?political movements.

FUNK and FUNKY is one of the most widely mis understood when used as a street term because it has ben interpreted by several cultures down through the years. In the African American culture of the early 1960s

The term Culture is often confused between the streetdance culture that developed from the culture of an ethnic group