Break Dancing And BMX Flatland, How Are They Connected

HipHop and BMX have had a long intertwining history throughout the years. Especially when it comes to the HipHop element of B-Boying aka Breakdancing In the early days of BMX freestyle, Flatland was a just as popular and important as the other BMX freestyle disciplines. We had a BMX Freestyle sanction called the AFA – American Freestyle Association and in those competitions there were three ish disciplines, Vert, Wedge and Flatland. 

In the 80’s Flatland BMXers would do rolling tricks, a lot of balance tricks all over their Bikes and hopping tricks. During that same time HipHop was gaining popularity with LL, Public Enemy, Run DMC and other legendary artist. B-Boying was really popular back then especially when movies like Wild Style, Beat Street, Breakin and Rappin came out.

So kids like myself at the time were heavy into HipHop and BMX! We were all experimenting with Djing, breakin, emceeing, BMX freestyle, making beats, graffiti and BMX racing! 

Now one of the essential B-Boy moves at lest for kids around my way was footwork. You had to be nice with the footwork. There are a variety of ways to do footwork which include shuffles, kick outs, freezes, sweeping spins, etc. Similarly BMX Flatland had moves like Breakin so it was only a matter of time that two forms of expression collided.

 BMX flatland riders had footwork moves in their routines but they were not really the same as the Breakin footwork moves…. That is until Dennis McCoy. BMX Hall Of Famer Dennis McCoy, one of the greatest overall BMX freestyle riders was nasty at flatland! Dennis elevated BMX flatland when he incorporated the B-Boy inspired “Foot Work” break dance move which he said he stole from Ron Wilkerson into his Flatland routine. Dennis McCoy was the first BMX freestyle pro to incorporate the HipHop element into BMX

He even started calling himself DMC which was inspired by Darrel Mc Daniel from the Iconic HipHop group RUN DMC who were huge at the time. The popularity of Run DMC and BMX plus the fact that Dennis was representing B-Boying in his Flatland routine and going by DMC at the time lead to Dennis landing a sponsorship with Adidas in 1988. That was a big cross pollination of the BMX and HipHop cultures.

Dennis McCoy even recorded a Rap Record for A&M records back in 1987 which I did not know until I looked on 23mag..That’s crazy! I don’t think it ever came out though

Ever since that time BMX flatland and B-boying have been crossing paths most notably with Flatland Vs Breaking competitions and exhibitions held overseas. You even have B-boys incorporating BMX flatland into their routines. The evolutions is amazing! These days you can also see footwork moves being incorporated with the wheelie tricks that Bikelife BMX riders are doing.

So yes, the parallels and cross pollination between Hip Hop and BMX as stronger than ever and I’m loving it. This just scratches the surface of the parallels of HipHop BMX

Let me know what you think about the long History between HipHop and BMX in the comments below.