Teach Me How to Dougie

Cali Swag District: "Teach Me How to Dougie":



I live under a rock, mostly. So when I tell you I've only just caught dougie fever you'll understand that it's because my time is generally absorbed pondering Ernest Hemingway's bizarre masochistic fantasies, asking myself was Shakespeare gay? figuring out how best to approach teaching writing to college freshman, and tragically tending my doomed fantasy basketball team (there's nothing like JR smith erupting for 31 bones after you're already eliminated from the playoffs).

But I was talking about "dougie fever." Unlike "Bieber fever," it concerns a dance move, making it less warped and pederastic. The reason I'm writing a post about the dougie is because when I saw John Wall start doing it at the beginning of a Wizards game I realized I haven't been this interested in someone dancing since:

a) Watching Michael Jackson dance for the first time
b) Watching Ian Curtis dance for the first time
c) Watching Shomik get down at reggae and ska shows

Anyway, with Wall doing the Dougie and Brandon Jennings sporting first a fade and then the illustrious "gumby," I'm left wondering whether or not hip-hop culture, which first entered the league in the '80s (correct me if I'm wrong) and reached its zenith with Allen Iverson showing up to games "with a little bit o' gold and a pager," isn't getting back to its more care-free roots. We've seen the return of skinny jeans and stunner shades. Did Kanye bring back '80s cool? It's a genius move, really. If you aren't fly by today's standards, bring back yesterday's and make it tomorrow's.

Check out Brandon sporting a high-ass fade right here:



And now the illustrious gumby:



DOPE, right? But I was talking about "dougie fever." I watched John Wall do it, duly noting that dude can get down! So I decided to snoop around the net and uncover its origins and iterations.

Cali Swag District released their song, "Teach Me How to Dougie," on April 12, 2010. The kids in Cali Swag District, who hail from Inglewood, CA (hometown of greasy bastard Paul Pierce), wrote the song after a friend of theirs came home from college in Texas and was all, "Friends, do you know about the newest dance sensation that's sweeping the nation?"

So they wrote the song, signed to Capitol, and made an instructional video for Billboard. According to the WIKI OVERMIND: "The 'Dougie' involves 'casual shoulder leans and elbow twists,' compared to snap dancing. A version of the dance originally started in Dallas, as a song called the 'D-Town Boogie,' which the group [Cali Swag] references in the song." HOWEVER: it should be noted that the name "dougie" comes from rapper Doug E. Fresh. But more on the Get Fresh Crew in posts to come.

If you don't know what snap dancing is, I can't really tell you (because I don't know myself). I do know that it accompanies snap music, which also has southern origins (Bankhead, West Atlanta). The most famous example is probably Soulja Boy's "Crank That (Soulja Boy)." Superman that ho! etc. The OVERMIND says that 2007 was the year snap was at its most, uh, snappy. Fun fact: T-Pain (str8 outta FLA!) has a song called "Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin').

Here's some guy doing a FRESH "D-Town Boogie": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZGqGAwPceQ:



His moves are kinda similar to Wall's:



My favorite move of his is the "flag wave" about seven seconds in. GENIUS.

Personally, I'm a big fan of this 2008 track by Lil Wil "My Dougie"

Here's Skip Bayless doin' it:



So maybe hip-hop's fun again? Maybe it always has been. I was never a fan of all that murder rap shit that was hot throughout the '90s and early '00s. Unless we're talking about "Damn It Feels Good to be a Gangsta," which I've always considered a Monty Python version of gangsta rap anyway. Why do so many rappers want to talk about people dying? Fuck verisimilitude! Teach me how to dougie!

-ST Sinclair