Lord Jamar Angers Legendary DJ By Saying Breakdancing Isn’t Element Of Hip-Hop

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DJ Rob Swift spoke out against Lord Jamar, who claimed breakdancing shouldn’t be considered an element of Hip-Hop. The respected DJ lamented how Hip-Hop culture suffered from what he described as “truth decay” in an X (formerly known as Twitter) post on Thursday (August 29).


“The issue is microphones are shoved in the faces of some Rappers who share untruthful stories and narratives,” Swift wrote. “These unvetted Hip-Hop accounts are then spread throughout social media by podcasters and influencers who sacrifice facts for views and feed their followers with lies. Then we’re left to argue about misinformation, and round and round we go.”

He added, “In our age of ‘Information’ overload, Hip-Hop needs to channel the energy from discriminating against each other towards correctly discriminating between truth and falsehood—guard against being led astray by rappers like @lordjamar who falsely claim Breaking, the element responsible for introducing our culture to the world, isn’t a part of Hip-Hop!”

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Jamar complained about breakdancing’s longstanding status as a core element of Hip-Hop on a podcast. The controversial rapper scoffed at breakdancing’s relevance and suggested it wasn’t a critical part of the culture.

“Breakdancing been f###### faded out,” Jamar said. “I don’t even know why they attach themselves to breakdancing. I’ll tell you why: to try to include the Puerto Ricans. Black people make dances every other f###### week. What the f### are we holding onto breakdancing for?”

He continued, “I don’t think it’s an element … Breakdancing is just a dance. It’s just a form of Hip-Hop dance. Stop singling it out. And when people stopped breakdancing and we played Hip-Hop, it still was Hip-Hop. When m############ stopped writing graffiti, it still was Hip-Hop. These were just byproducts of the music … even rapping is a byproduct of what Hip-Hop was.”

Swift was outraged by Jamar and others minimizing breakdancing’s role in Hip-Hop culture. The DJ said attempts to write off breaking will always fail.

“Of all the elements of HIp-Hop (DJing, MCing, Graffiti, Breaking), Breaking is the one I revere the most because it resurrects despite its multiple deaths,” Swift wrote. “To those of you trying to kill it again, you can’t kill what WON’T DIE!”

Breakdancing experienced renewed attention from mainstream audiences due to its inclusion in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Canada’s Philip “Phil Wizard” Kim and Japan’s Ami Yuasa won the first Olympic gold medals for breaking.