Dance
Charting the course of Afrobuck
A look at Afrobuck and it's place in the Nigerian dance scene
When Nasir Mohammed was growing up in Kogi State, Nigeria over two decades ago, his father was his source of pop culture artifacts, presenting young Nasir and his siblings with pop albums and materials that stimulated Nasir’s mind and made him engage his creative side. By the time he was nine-year-old, his family had moved to Lagos and Nasir’s parents had recognised his talent for dancing, inviting him to dance for guests and at parties; kick-starting the journey that would eventually lead to the formation of an indigenous dance culture out of Nigeria.
As he grew up, Nasir connected with a series of dancers and went for a series of auditions at a Street Dance competition, hoping to secure a pathway into the dancing industry. However, that plan didn’t go as expected as they kept getting dropped by the judges. “I kept training harder but when I went in 2009, I didn’t get far again; I tried once more after 2010 and a judge said he couldn’t keep watching a bunch of six confused people,” Nas says. Inspired by that rebuke, he planned to shock the judge when next they met, but his plan changed when he got admitted to study at the University of Ilorin, a six-hour trip to Lagos.
There, however, he took his dancing more seriously, watching videos from the cast of films like Step Up and web series like The League of Extraordinary Dancer (LXD), as well as researching their work and getting into more dance content from a then rapidly-developing YouTube. “At that time, it was very hard to download these videos because the internet was just coming into the country but luckily my dad got a phone for me and a laptop,” Nas Magnificent says halfway through our phone call.
“But that’s basically how it became something I started doing it every time. It became an escape for me because I was a shy person but dancing just made me bold.”
While going down Internet rabbit holes and researching dance styles from across the world, Nas fell upon the dance style that changed his life: Krump. Founded in the early by the duo of Ceasare "Tight Eyez" Willis, and Jo'Artis "Big Mijo" Ratti, Krump is a highly energetic form of dancing characterized by expressive, fluid dance steps that help the participants express their feelings in a non-violent manner. Krump evolved from Clowning, a less aggressive dance pioneered by Thomas Johnson in 1992 in Compton.
“I liked the dance from the get-go because it was a very attractive and energetic style of dancing,” Nas tells me about his fascination with Krump. “It’s also a very confusing style of dance for people not used to it because they almost can’t understand what is being done or if the people dancing are okay because it can look like they are fighting the air. I also found out that it was used to curb gangsterism and that got me interested because I was searching for positive things at that moment.
Nas magnificent
© Kirsner Tsengou Dingha
Nas Magnificent
© Kirsner Tsengou Dingha
Nas Magnificent
© Kirsner Tsengou Dingha
Nas Magnificent
© Kirsner Tsengou Dingha
Continuing, Nas says,
“Krump is more than a dance, it’s almost like a way of life, like a brotherhood. Right now, some people call me big homie. They bear my Krump name like I’m their father. My Krump name is Madt Praize.”
By the time Nas was ready to move back to Lagos in the early 2010s, he was already deeply steeped in Krump culture but he had to win over the community of dancers in the coastal city. “When I newly came back to Lagos, they were already in groups and I had to battle-dance with a lot of these people before I was accepted because they saw me as a rival, but over time, we blended and I’m now one of the leaders,” he says. Together with his new group, they set about pioneering Afrobuck, the dance culture that is now putting them on the map.
“We wanted those abroad to know that there was a community of Krumpers in Nigeria too but after a while, we grew beyond that and started to realize that we can’t be clones and expect any form of recognition,” Nas says. “We needed to be careful not to live beneath people’s shadows for our lives.”
Thankfully, Krump allowed distinct communities to put their cultural stamps on the dance, enlivening its food stomps, jabs, and chest pops with more local dance routines that give Krump a new flavor. The realities of life in Nigeria were also not favorable as Krumpers typically didn’t get dancing gigs because of stereotypes about them trying to be western. Motivated by all this, Nas and Smack decided to start mixing their Krump routines with local dance styles. “I and several people started trying Krump to our local music. It was crazy at first because Krump is highly specific,” Nas says. “Niniola was one of the first musicians to post our videos, we kept doing more videos and suddenly there was recognition from the international scene.”
All this while, there was still not a recognizable name for the dance despite evolving to go beyond just Krumping; this changed when a Krumper named KidEyez Kwame visited Nigeria for a dance workshop and, impressed with the stylistic divergence of the dance, proposed that it be named Afrobuck. That quickly helped distinguish what the dancers were doing and gave them a growing international profile.
Nas Magnificent
© WILDSHOT PHOTOGRAPHY
While they got the attention of the international scene, in Nigeria, Nas and his collaborators were criticized for tweaking the Krump formula. “There was a rift in the community,” Nas explains. “Many people felt we were taking away from the essence of what Krump was. We explained that Afrobuck is a style under Krump that didn’t detract from the source because varying styles are allowed in Krump.”
Over time, the detractors have quieted down and Afrobuck has risen in popularity. Earlier this year, Nas judged in an international Krump competition that now heralds the international appeal of the dance culture. It gives Nas motivation for the future. “Before I used to think we’d always be under Krump and move in whatever direction Krump is moving but I’m thinking differently now,” he says.
“Afrobuck can be bigger than Krump but it’ll always be something that’s inspired by and a product of Krump. I’m seeing it as a whole movement with worldwide effect.”
