Entry · catalog no. 4169
gangsta walk
/ /ˈɡæŋstə wɔk/ /GANG-stuh-wawk
noun · south · 1980s
✓ Verified
1.
A Memphis street dance built on heavy, marching steps, swinging arms, and circling the floor. The foundation that later smoothed out into jookin.
“They were gangsta walking in a circle till the whole rink cleared.”
Origin & Attribution
Born in Black Memphis in the mid-1980s, taking the arm-swing and stomp of New Orleans buck jumping and marching it into a circle on the floor. DJ Spanish Fly's late-1980s record "Gangsta Walk" named it. Through the early '90s it smoothed into the gliding, pantomiming style Memphis calls jookin, out of the Crystal Palace rink.
1984
Memphis puts its spin on buck jumping
late 1980s
DJ Spanish Fly's 'Gangsta Walk' names the dance
1990s
Smooths into jookin at the Crystal Palace
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
south · 1980s
Spoken by
Black Memphis dancers and rappers
$GANGSTThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady42 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
40/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1984
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
"Gangsta Walk" — DJ Spanish Fly — song · late 1980s
researched
■
+ Cite a sourceOxford American — "From Gangsta Walkin' at the Palace to Jookin' Online" — article
researched
See also