Crip Walk
This is a dance style, popularized by the Crips gang of Los Angeles.
Technically, it involves pivoting on the balls and heels of the feet to spell out C-R-I-P. Often, the hands are held high, sometimes pointing at your feet. An authentic gang member might make gang signs with their hands during the dance.
In practice, the dance tends to just look like a random shuffle and distinctive foot movement. I suspect many people don’t realize it was originally meant to spell something.
I watched lots of videos of the dance. Many of the videos were of Snoop Dogg, as he’s known to do the dance often. It’s kind of his “signature move.”
While I could correlate many of the videos as being related to or derivative of one another, there doesn’t seem to be any particular science or canon to it. It’s less of a specific dance, and more of a general style. In some instances, it seems to morph into popping, or break-dancing.
The dance has been considered divisive at various times. It’s been used as a symbol of gang violence, and a method of taunting rival gang members. MTV supposedly banned videos featuring crip-walking during the height of 90s gang violence, but I couldn’t find an actual source for that claim.
There’s an entire documentary about the dance and the culture around it on YouTube: C-Walk – It’s a Way of Livin’.
A quote:
This ain’t no walk; this ain’t no dance. This is a way of life. This is Crippin’. Don’t get it twisted.
Why I Looked It Up
I saw a video meme of Snoop Dogg at the Super Bowl halftime show doing a dance move that I was familiar with and had mentally associated with him.
Here’s a four-second video clip of that moment
The caption said:
Snoop doing the C-walk at the Super Bowl is iconic
I searched for “C-Walk” and ended up at “Crip Walk”
Some comments from the YouTube video:
100 million people saw him c walk live on TV when this aired, plus millions more on the internet. This is the most seen crip walk ever.
[…] No drugs, gang colors, or moves representing gang affiliation! Snoop: Hold my blunt
[…] I heard they told Snoop not to represent his gang affiliation… So not only did he wear a blue flag outfit, he hit the crip walk on national TV LMFAO
Notably, Serena Williams also did the crip walk on the court after winning the gold medal at the 2012 Olympics. (Note: It’s hard to tell what music or sound from that video is diegetic.).