Twerking Competition 2015, Riga, Latvia

Background
The dance move originates from West Africa (for instance the mapouka dance) and has been around for several generations. It was then adopted by African American culture in the 1990s. The dance originally was not done with sexual intent until it hit the hip hop scene in America in the early 1990s, where it became sexualized as part of the hip hop industry performed by video models in rap videos. Twerking can carry both gendered and racialized connotations; given its origins and the dance itself it is often associated with Black women, as the Samba dance is with Latino women. In the United States, twerking was introduced into hip-hop culture by way of the New Orleans bounce music scene. In 1993, DJ Jubilee recorded the dance tune "Do The Jubilee All" in which he chanted, "Twerk baby, twerk baby, twerk, twerk, twerk." The video for the song increased the popularity of twerking. In 1995, New Orleans-based rapper Cheeky Blakk recorded the song "Twerk Something!" a call-and-response dance song dedicated to twerking. In 1997, DJ Jubilee recorded "Get Ready, Ready" in which he encouraged listeners to "Twerk it!".