Crip Walk

About

Crip Walk or C-Walk is a gang-affiliated dance originating in the 1970s by the South Central Los Angeles-based gang the Crips. The Crip Walk involves smooth intricate shuffle footwork. In the 1990s, the crip walk began its pop culture debut in some rap music videos but still remain affiliated with the gang. In 2019, TikTok users began dancing the crip walk and posting tutorials seemingly unaware of its affiliations.

Origin

In the 1970s, soon after the gang was formed, the Crips invented the crip walk or the c-walk.^[2] In the 1990s rappers like WC began dancing the crip walk on tour and in music videos (shown below, left). In 2003, the documentary C-Walk It's a Way of Livin' was released (shown below, right).

Spread

In August 2012, after winning her first singles gold medal, Serena Williams performed the c-walk on the tennis court which sparked some outrage from viewers due to its gang-connection.^[1] In 2019, TikTokers began dancing there own simple shuffle version that they labeled to "Fuck It Up feat. YG" by Kamaiyah.^[3] Rapper YG is associated with The Crips rival gang The Bloods. On November 26th, 2019, TikToker @kayliebell uploaded a crip walk tutorial which garnered over 1.3 million likes in two months (show below, left). On December 8th, TikToker @payton wore possibly unknowingly wore red while crip walking (shown below, center). The color red is associated with the Bloods while Blue is associated with the Crips. That same month, @shreddedmilitary uploaded a dance video captioned, "War dance OG style #cripwalk #cripwalkchallenge #fyp #military" (shown below, right). The video gained over 1.4 million likes in a month.

On December 14th, 2019, Twitter user @PatsOnYaBack tweeted a video with the caption, "Tiktok got Crip Walk tutorials now yall. Just sayin🤷🏽‍♂️😭" (show below). The tweet which talked about the TikToker's ignorance garnered over 72,000 likes and 25,400 retweets in a month.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References