“It needs to be more transparent,” Wizard said. “This person won. Why did they win, by what margin and with what technical details? We have to work much harder to make it more easily understandable.” Those may not have been issues organizers or circuit breakers thought about before the Games, he said, but with a world of first-time fans and newbies tuning in now, it’s something that needs to be changed.
Wizard hopes that in the future, breakers and sport organizers as a whole will work a little harder to connect the sport to its hip-hop roots. The connections between rappers, emcees, graffiti artists and breakers have become blurred as generations have passed, he said, noting that while some rappers declared themselves supporters of breaking at the Olympics, others called it “crazy.” . It’s important to recognize the sport’s roots in the hip-hop community, where breakers would dance during the break or what he calls “the most over-the-top part” of a record.
“Context and generations have diluted that message over time,” Wizard says, “and it’s the responsibility of anyone with a platform like me or any other high-level breakers to teach that, because if we don’t, we’ll lose it. “
Rahul (left) and Phil Wizard breaking up on The Big Interview.Photography: Tristan deBrauwere