Doc Awesome’s Guide to B-boy Insults

I’ve been watching the Olympic Qualifiers for Breaking, and it’s been quite entertaining. You can find them on the official Olympics YouTube channel. After listening to the painful banter between commentators who have no idea what they’re talking about, it occurred to me that the 2024 Games will be a lot of people’s first time seeing a breakdancing battle. And the questions I see getting asked the most are about the various hand signals b-boys use to taunt each other when they’re not dancing. So I decided to write this helpful glossary of breakdancing insults for all the newcomers (and the Olympic commentators). 

This guide is going to focus on gestures unique to breaking. While there’s a lot of middle fingers and crotch-grabbing in the average battle, I don’t think anyone needs me to explain what those mean. Pointing and laughing is also universal, no matter what language you speak. Same for pantomiming violence—more aggressive b-boys will pretend to punch and kick their opponents, shoot them with finger guns or slice them up with invisible swords. Not exactly subtle. But at least if they make physical contact with anything other than a friendly handshake it’s an automatic disqualification. In this DJ’s humble opinion, miming violent acts is the easiest and lowest form of taunt, and the best b-boys almost never resort to it.

With all that said, let’s learn some b-boy insults. 

Home: Sometimes you’ll see this during the face-off at the beginning of a battle, when you’re waiting to see which b-boy will go first. Especially in international competitions. A dancer will hold his arms up over his head in a triangle that resembles the roof of a house. He’s saying that since he’s in the opponent’s hometown, they should go first. But the opponent may reply with a house of his own, insisting that since it’s his hometown, his guest should graciously take the first round. Usually results in a tedious waiting game for the battle to start. Thankfully, the Olympics will eliminate this particular headache with their 10-second start timer.

Smoke: B-boys will often conclude their best sets by doing a pantomime of smoking a cigarette. He’s saying he “smoked” the other dancer, meaning the opponent was completely defeated and it wasn’t even close. This one is the most overused. Sometimes you sit through four rounds and see four smokes, which is just absurd. While b-boys tend to suffer an abundance of confidence, competitive battles are rarely blowouts where one dancer completely “smokes” another. 

Listen: If you see a b-boy pointing to or tapping his ear, he’s saying his opponent is not listening to the music. No matter how impressive your power move set may be, it doesn’t matter if it’s not on the beat. B-boying is a dance, not a competition of strength.

Crash: When the b-boy not dancing slaps the floor, he’s saying his opponent crashed. A “crash” is when a dancer messes up a trick in an obvious way without managing to recover. Quite simply the most embarrassing thing that can happen to a b-boy during their set, made even worse by getting called out by their opponent. It’s so effective that even calling a false crash can throw your opponent off their game by making them overthink, which is the enemy of good freestyling. 

Almost: Holding your thumb and forefinger close together, as if requesting a tiny amount of something, means “almost,” or “so close.” This is for when your opponent doesn’t completely crash, but still doesn’t quite nail the move. Maybe their foot slipped, or they didn’t hold that freeze long enough. The audience might not even see it, especially if the dancer recovers, but an “almost” lets him know you saw that mistake. Another good way to attack your opponent’s confidence during their set.

Bite: Opening and closing the forearms like a large mouth says your opponent is biting. A b-boy “bites” if he copies another dancer’s move, and that’s a very serious accusation in breaking. This only applies to signature moves. Nobody “owns” basic staples like the flare or the headspin, but many dancers develop their own unique variations on these moves, and copying those is considered disrespectful and unoriginal. The one common exception is when a b-boy immediately repeats his opponent’s best move just to show it isn’t that difficult. Bonus points if you do a harder or faster version.

Repeats: When a dancer holds up two or more fingers like they’re counting, they’re saying their opponent is repeating themself. In competition, repeating moves costs you points and makes you look tired and unoriginal. This is often deployed against powerhouses that spend most of their set spinning around on different parts of their body. But, just because two moves look similar doesn’t always mean a repeat—a headspin is different than a headspin while holding one foot, and both are different from a headspin that ends in a freeze. This one is frequently miscalled, but it isn’t as disruptive as a crash.

Choreography: If your opponent pretends to be writing on a notepad, he’s accusing you of just performing choreography rather than freestyling to the music. That’s a big no-no in a one-on-one setting. Both dancers are supposed to freestyle rather than perform a practiced set, and their ability to meaningfully connect with the beat is a huge part of how they are judged. Musicality can often be the deciding factor in a close battle, so no dancer wants to even appear to be rehearsed.

Show me: When a b-boy points to the dance floor, he’s basically challenging you to “put up or shut up.” Maybe you’re spending too long toprocking, or just having a really weak round. Whatever the case, your opponent is unimpressed with your performance, and demands you step it up. This is also frequently used against obnoxiously aggressive b-boys who act like they’d rather start a fight than win a dance battle, and can’t back up their bravado with any moves to match. Another version of this is when the b-boy who just finished his set makes a big show of presenting the dance floor to his opponent, basically daring him to “top that.”

Eye contact: When a b-boy points to his eyes, he’s telling his opponent to face him. You use this one to remind your opponent he’s dancing against you, not the audience or his feet. A battle is basically a conversation between the two dancers, and you can’t respond properly if you don’t pay attention to what the other person is saying. It’s not just about being rude to your opponent, but also a skill-check—the best b-boys don’t need to look at their feet. They can maintain eye contact and even emote with their face while still dancing. It’s a small detail that really sets the amateurs apart from the pros.

Now when you watch breaking’s Olympic debut, you’ll know what the b-boys are saying to each other from the sidelines. Hopefully this will add another layer to your enjoyment of what promise to be some epic battles. I’ll leave you with a great example of these insults in action from this year’s world championship. In this battle, Dany Dann from France is able to use some tactical taunting to undermine his opponent’s confidence, which results in Poland’s B-boy Wigor losing his flow and making several crashes that cost him the match. And since he was able to make his opponent flame out, Dany Dann got to save a lot of his good moves for later battles. A well-placed insult can be surprisingly powerful in a breakdance cypher.