Just like any true offspring, new school hip hop has many characteristics of its parental predecessors. Taking cues from ancestral African dances and thriving on the creativity that has come to characterize both hip hop music and dance, the next generation of hip hop's creative culmination represents today's inner city strife while often acting as an escape from it. From crip walking, krumping and gangsta walking to clowning, snap dancing and the Harlem shake, new school hip hop is a conflicted genre providing a channel of release for both positive and negative emotions. As dance is a physical expression of emotion and feeling, crip walking and its staple "V" move are pedal representations of gang-related messages and images. The fancy footwork that characterizes this dance form may be used in the initiation of a new gang member, act as a signal during a robbery or be performed as a macabre celebration in the death of a rival gang member. Named after the infamous Compton, California gang, crip walkers spell out the names of people and places in their social and geographical worlds with their foot movements. Some argue that c-walking is not a true dance form, but it has been featured as an accompaniment to rap songs by artists like WC and Bow Wow. Clown dancing, which has come to be known as krumping, is a dance form with a bipolar personality. Originally developed by Tommy the Clown (aka Thomas Johnson) as an improvement on uninspired birthday entertainment, clown dancing has now become a nonviolent expression of the aggression of the streets with movements that may appear violent and confrontational. It is characterized by fast paced, intense moves and is enhanced by face painting. This cosmetic addition originated from its party clown origins but also symbolizes African war face paints and highlights its African dance influences. Given public recognition by rappers like Missy Elliott and praised by adults and teens alike for keeping kids off the streets, clowning/krumping provides ample room for personal variation and creativity. Alternately called buckin, jookin and choppin for its many variations, gangsta walking draws many similarities to krumping. As a healthy option to juvenile delinquency, gangsta walking is often executed within a group of other participants who aid vocally in the performance by egging the performer or performers on. This crowd involvement, similar to that found in krumping, extends physically with the dancer pushing and bouncing off observers in an act similar to moshing and is focused on the drum and bass aspects of the music is it performed to. From an onlooker's stance, this expression may appear dangerous but is instead a safe and nonviolent display of the urban hardships many of its participants undergo. Unlike other coastally derived hip hop dances, gangsta walking was supposedly founded in Memphis, Tennessee and is still commonly found within this area. Snap dancing is a debatable dance form that is as simple to perform as it sounds. Often used to punctuate the stripped down tracks of snap music, snap dancing is not as focused on the art of dance as it is on the use of snapping fingers to accentuate musical beats and interlacing this digital percussion with basic dance moves. Snap dancing was supposedly created by the dance group the Flo Masters in Atlanta, Georgia. Like many other forms of modern hip hop, snap dancing has relied on music video features to reach the masses. Although its name belies its New York origins, the Harlem Shake crosses the seas to "the mummies as they were lying down but trying to get back up... They was all wrapped up and taped up. So they couldn't really move, all they could do was shake" according to its creator Al B in an interview with www.InsideHoops.com. Translated, Al B is making reference to the dance's Egyptian influences. The action he is alluding to is the shake in Harlem Shake, which is done by shaking and shimmying one shoulder while lowering it to the ground, then switching shoulders and repeating. The Harlem Shake was originally performed during the Entertainer's Basketball Classic and although it has spread to more commonplace events, it is essentially a celebratory dance done for affirmative reasons. Just as many forms of dance find strength in the stability of their roots, hip hop's growth has depended on its ability to change with and reflect the times. New school is a testament that hip hop is still a relevant, evolving art form that hasn't stagnated. From crip walking to the Harlem Shake, new school hip hop dances have already sprouted off shoots that will become the next generation of hip hop dance's family tree. The strife that new school hip hop reflects is interlaced into the genre itself, with numerous dances.