Korean Hip Hop - B-boying Scene

B-boying Scene

B-boying enjoys a great deal of popularity in South Korea, so much so that it has become a great cultural export for the country as the South Korean government tries to promote a dynamic image of South Korea. South Korean B-boys say that the B-boy movement dates as far back as 1990s where young men took up the activity as a result of the lack of diversion to military duties. But it is wasn't until 2001 that they received international recognition, when they debuted at the 2001 annual Battle of the Year competition in Germany represented by the crew Visual Shock, although coming 4th in the competition the following year (2002) the Korean team Expression came back to win the competition. Since then South Korea has won several Battle of the Year titles, and breaking crews frequently appear on national television. As of 2009, South Korea is the world's leading country in breaking. Some of the well-known breaking crews include Rivers crew, Drifterz crew, Gamblerz crew, T.I.P., Jinjo crew, Extreme Crew, Last For One, Expression, Maximum crew, Lead Mos, TG Breakerz, 20th Century Bboyz, Soul Kingz, Floor Gangz, Universal Crew, People crew and Visual Shock.

As the Korean bboying scene became internationally renowned, it sparked the Korean government for supporting to host Korea's own bboy championship for the international audience. R-16 Korea is one of the most recognized bboy championships that invites bboys from all around the world to now Asia's bboy capital South Korea.

Bboy scene in Korea has been proactive in blending the bboying style with other dance forms and inspirations. Whilst keeping the essence of American style of bboying, many bboys in Korea have infused their own traditional style into bboying. With elements of Korean traditional dances like Pungmul (which also incorporates head-rotating and complex jumps) and Taekwondo-inspired moves, Korean bboys have benefitted from taking two different cultural styles and putting into one unique style. In 2006, the apartment company e편한세상 released a TV ad where bboy members from Last for One were shown dancing to a hip-hop remix of Pachelbel's Canon blended with the traditional Korean Gayageum. The mix of cultures caught a global audience on Youtube. Since then various hip-hop/Korean-traditional hybrid music bands began to appear with examples like Sorea (Sound of Korea) which made the hit track 'Seoul in Panic'.

Korean-American director Benson Lee has captured this 'blending' phenomenon very well in his bboy documentary Planet Bboy where there is a scene of Korean bboys reflecting the North-South Korea conflict. North and South Korean guards (all played by South Korean bboys) battle out in the DMZ border.

As it is hard to have a stable income source for bboys, many crews have ventured out to doing theatrical performances and musicals. Since 2006, Expression crew have been performing a new style of bboying called the Marionette, which incorporated puppet-like movements and was responsible for influencing JabbaWockeeZ crew who have succuessfully used this style during their performances on America's Best Dance Crew. Extreme crew has combined Ballet with Bboys as they ventured into the musical 'Ballerina who fell in love with a bboy' (비보이를 사랑한 발레리나).

Hip hop dancing is also pretty popular in Korea. Some well known hip hop dance groups include Prepix.

Another well known dance group, is popping group K-OGS. Their member Pop Kun won the UK BBoy Championship in 2008 Other well-known popping groups are Cyborg G (Popping Hyun Joon, well-known member of the dance community), FREEZE and Newest35.

Aside from various dances involved in hip-hop, Krumping has also become popular within a niche underground supporters. The krumping crew Monster Woo Fam lead by Monster Woo has been one of the many crews that have gained a great international attention via Youtube.