JAMMIN' Magazine

Jammin’ is a digital magazine for dancers who wants to know everything about Hip Hop dance scene in London and UK.

Nowadays London and UK Hip Hop scene, as in other different countries, seems to be focused more on business rather than on the community. The magazine aim is to focus on the community, to write about dancers, their history and events that reunites us all.

Everyone is welcome to suggest features on events, clubs, dance classes, performances, and which artist they would like to know more about. You need just to comment directly on the website or on our social media platforms.

Let’s share some love for Hip Hop culture and for Hip Hop community !

Let’s see how some of the dancers who made the story in the UK Hip Hop feel about the current scene.  

In the last decades, especially because of globalization and social media platforms, Hip Hop dance has been commercialized watering down the history and roots of the traditional styles, but many pioneers and old school dancers have and are stepping forward to preserve the culture and the social dancing. 

G1; you as a social dancer what do you think about the current UK Hip Hop scene? 

“The scene is very vibrant nowadays, it covers all the styles of Hip Hop, from the old to new, but I feel that the social element of the Hip Hop community has been compromised with the business side. Especially after the Covid-19 situation, that shut down different great clubs, the focus seems to be on the battles and on making money. Do not get me wrong, that is great, but I think we have lost some of the soul out of the culture and the scene still needs to fully recover from the pandemic.”  

Bboy Lil’ Tim, a few weeks ago there was the RedBull BC One Cypher UK, what do you think about events owned by these big companies?  

I love Red Bull events, but I thought that they could have afforded the music license instead of making all this clunky music. In a way they are changing the music that we dance to, it’s not like the original. DJs aren’t even allowed to play James Brown anymore. They have got a category and a catalog of music, their own music and all the DJs must play that; they are taking the soul out of the competitions. You watch it and after 10 minutes I get bored of listening to that same rubbish music.  

We need back the community jams that we used to go to, we were going all over the country and there is when you get the proper vibe! When I was first introduced to Hip Hop culture, you had everything under one roof, you had the MCs, the DJs and the dancers. Everything is just being separated, but now people are trying to pull it back together again.  

Bgirl Sunsun how important is the knowledge of steps, styles and culture? 

Well, yeah, it is not just about dance, about doing steps and this is what I teach also to students at UEL. What I always tell them to do is go and watch the Freshest Kids, a Hip Hop B-boy documentary, that has got everything there that you can see, obviously there are loads of documentaries, but it is very important to watch them. A lot of young breakers don’t even know their own history.  

It is about a culture and feeling those steps. To be a B-boy or a B-girl is not just to know how to do a head spin or a freeze. It is about: Why am I doing this? Where does this come from? What expression am I doing out of this and how am I feeling this move and why?  

I think history is important, especially with regards to the style of dance. When you go back to the Uk history you see like common garden where, as Tim said, they were all coming together: the graph, the rappers, the breakers, the DJs and a lot of us cross over anyway into different elements. Many young people don’t realise how important it is. 

Bboy Tuway How is the Hip Hop scene after the pandemic? 

The dance scene is absolutely thriving. There are multiple competitions, hundreds of dance classes and a myriad of old to new school dancers are still participating. The covid-19 situation has, and I think it will enhance the community. Most of the people have used online methods during the pandemic, and even though virtual jams stopped, online jams increased making the scope and reaching a wider audience. Now individuals like myself and many others are trying to educate and ensure that dancers are more focused on the business side to increase sustainability, in the early days many artists were ripped off. 

Amelia, as a foreigner how did you find the UK dance scene? 

I find the UK Hip Hop scene very welcoming; all the dancers are willing to share their passion with everyone. I remember when I moved here there was a place in Piccadilly Circus called The Trocadero where dancers from all over the world used to meet up, practice and train together. But sometimes it is difficult to meet with friends on a regular basis, London is a hard city to live in, people work different shifts and to travel between various parts takes up to 1 hour. 

The full interviews are available on our website under the section “Interview”. Do not miss it out !