Breaking legend Crazy Legs of The Rock Steady Crew is sharing his reaction to Aussie b-girl Raygun who went viral for all the wrong reasons with her performance at the Olympics.
Raygun, Australian professor Rachael Gunn became a meme goldmine after competing in Breaking at the 2024 Olympics. However, amid all the jokes, multiple Hip-Hop icons have spoken up about her inclusion in the event.
As president of the Rock Steady Crew, Crazy Legs, born Richard Colón, is a foremost expert on breaking. After facing pressure to share his take, he took to Instagram to address the controversy.
“My personal opinion is that she should’ve never been on that stage,” he said.
The veteran breaker believes Raygun should have admitted the competition was “out of my league,” and said that Australian Olympic authorities should have told her to “fall back on this one because you’re not ready yet.’”
Crazy Legs also addressed the idea that judges should have stood up and said Raygun was unqualified to perform on that level to “protect Hip-Hop culture with that statement.”
However, he fears the backlash could negatively impact her mental health. “Do I think she deserves the amount of criticism that she’s getting? Nah,” he stated. “Homegirl’s been dragged globally, dragged hardcore. People should ease up because the focus at this point should be all the good that came out of it.”
He went on to highlight “suspect judging” and called for reform. He added that although “my credibility as a judge is dope,” he was not asked to judge and would have probably declined if offered.
Dr. Dre & Jermaine Dupri Weigh In
Dr. Dre was not a fan of the Aussie b-girl’s viral performance. “I did not like that,” he told Entertainment Tonight. “It’s so many great breakdancers that I don’t know why they had this particular person doing that.” Although he laughed along with the jokes, he added, “I don’t know how that happened.”
Meanwhile, Jermaine Dupri also added his two cents into the mix.
“Taking it easy on the young lady to me doesn’t train her and give her the true essence of what hip-hop is about.,” he explained. “Hip-Hop is about battling and if you lose, you come back. You go home, practice and come back.”
He added, “that’s a essence of hip-hop. That’s an element of hip-hop and for some reason, I don’t know who it is and how why, but some people are trying to take that element out of this s###. Man, Hip-Hop is not meant to be soft.”