Lord Jamar Faces Backlash After Saying Breakdancing Has “Faded Out” Of Hip-Hop

Lord Jamar claims that breakdancing isn’t a pillar of Hip-Hop, and he has since faced backlash for his take.

During a recent interview with The Bigga Picture podcast, the Brand Nubian artist opened up about a myriad of topics pertaining to the culture. One of the talking points led him to share his opinion on breakdancing and how it has faded into the background of Hip-Hop’s story.

“Breakdancing been f**king faded out,” Jamar said. “I don’t even know why they attach themselves to breakdancing. I’ll tell you why—To try to include the Puerto Ricans. Black people make dances every other f**king week. What the f**k are we holding onto breakdancing for?”

Jamar then took aim at graffiti writing, claiming that the past time has also become an afterthought in the culture. In another controversial spin on his take, he then claimed that the art of rapping was at risk of suffering the same fate.

“I don’t think it’s an element…Breakdancing is just a dance,” he continued. “It’s just a form of Hip-Hop dance. Stop singling it out. And when people stopped breakdancing and we played Hip-Hop, it still was Hip-Hop. When mothaf**king stopped writing graffiti, it still was Hip-Hop. These were just byproducts of the music…even rapping is a byproduct of what Hip-Hop was.”

Backlash poured in from fans, critiquing the artist for his hot takes and accusing him of seeking attention. DJ Rob Swift was the most critical of the emcee, taking to X/Twitter to break down what he examines as “truth decay.”

“The issue is microphones are shoved in the faces of some Rappers who share untruthful stories and narratives,” Swift typed. “These unvetted Hip-Hop accounts are then spread throughout social media by podcasters and influencers who sacrifice facts for views and feed their followers with lies. Then we’re left to argue about misinformation, and round and round we go.”

“In our age of ‘Information’ overload, Hip-Hop needs to channel the energy from discriminating against each other towards correctly discriminating between truth and falsehood—guard against being led astray by rappers like @lordjamar who falsely claim Breaking, the element responsible for introducing our culture to the world, isn’t a part of Hip-Hop!”