Ricky Flores photographs of B-Boys in the 80s.

April 21, 2008 5:19 PM

Ricky Flores photographs of B-Boys in the 80s.

Also enjoyable: The Boombox.

posted by chunking express (14 comments total)

jonmc may have been generally correct about the 80s over in that Atari thread, but a little bit of American culture definitely peaked around 1981, as documented in these sorts of photos.
posted by rxrfrx at 6:08 PM on April 21

Here's Mr. Wiggles site. Featured in the pics, he's still dancing. He lives in Vegas, and he has a busy hip-hop site. [Note: The private videos are down, but the public ones continue to run.]

He is one of the best. Here's what I mean.
posted by humannaire at 7:02 PM on April 21

These are great! I paged through some of them earlier (I subscribe to the RSS feed for the tag BRONX) but didn't seem them all on one page. (PS add the Bronx tag!)
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 7:31 PM on April 21

This was, of course, before Al Gore invented color film in 1990.

/hates pretentious b&w shots
posted by damn dirty ape at 7:59 PM on April 21

damn dirty ape, do you develop and print your own C41 film?
posted by chunking express at 8:11 PM on April 21

damn dirty ape, this was also before he invented the digital camera, which eliminated much of the cost and manual labor previously required to take lots of photographs. B&W film is both easier and cheaper than color to develop and print on your own; don't confuse an artist on a budget with pretentiousness.
posted by bizwank at 8:13 PM on April 21 [1 favorite]

humannaire: Did Mr. Wiggles moonwalk on his knees at the end of that video clip? That's INSANE.
posted by bettafish at 8:49 PM on April 21

Does that tape predate Michael Jackson's moonwalking? They seem to share a lot of moves in common.
posted by Fupped Duck at 9:07 PM on April 21

Michael Jackson's moonwalking was indeed stolen from Crazy Legs, Mr Wiggles or some other B-boy.
posted by asok at 6:04 AM on April 22

Awwwww yeeeah!
posted by Pollomacho at 6:17 AM on April 22

Didn't we call these people 'breakdancers' in the 80s? Did all the female ones spontaneously decide to quit so that the name could be shortened, or something?
posted by gurple at 7:39 AM on April 22

This post and all the links in it are made of awesome. Chairdancing now.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 11:20 AM on April 22

I was watching he-man in the 80s, so I have no idea about proper nomenclature, sorry.
posted by chunking express at 3:10 PM on April 22

Does that tape predate Michael Jackson's moonwalking? They seem to share a lot of moves in common.

I don't think Jackson ever claimed to invent the Moonwalk. It was a pretty standard pop-locking move dating back to the late 70s at least. Jackson just popularized it.

Didn't we call these people 'breakdancers' in the 80s?

"B-boy" means more like "enthusiast of hip hop culture in general and dancing in particular" than simply "breakdancer". The term was coined by DJ Cool Herc and predates "breakdancer", although they're usually used interchangably.
posted by DecemberBoy at 3:46 PM on April 22