1 00:00:00,206 --> 00:00:02,666 If you do it right, it should sound like: 2 00:00:02,690 --> 00:00:06,569 TICK-tat, TICK-tat, TICK-tat, TICK-tat, TICK-tat, TICK-tat. 3 00:00:06,593 --> 00:00:08,300 If you do it wrong, it sounds like: 4 00:00:08,324 --> 00:00:09,823 Tick-TAT, tick-TAT, tick-TAT. 5 00:00:09,848 --> 00:00:12,699 [Small thing. Big idea.] 6 00:00:13,574 --> 00:00:15,460 [Kyra Gaunt on the Jump Rope] 7 00:00:16,321 --> 00:00:19,754 The jump rope is such a simple object. 8 00:00:19,918 --> 00:00:22,517 It can be made out of rope, a clothesline, twine. 9 00:00:22,541 --> 00:00:25,067 It has, like, a twirl on it. (Laughs) 10 00:00:25,091 --> 00:00:26,863 I'm not sure how to describe that. 11 00:00:26,887 --> 00:00:29,392 What's important is that it has a certain weight, 12 00:00:29,416 --> 00:00:32,793 and that they have that kind of whip sound. 13 00:00:32,817 --> 00:00:36,615 It's not clear what the origin of the jump rope is. 14 00:00:36,639 --> 00:00:40,575 There's some evidence that it began in ancient Egypt, Phoenicia, 15 00:00:40,599 --> 00:00:44,671 and then it most likely traveled to North America with Dutch settlers. 16 00:00:44,695 --> 00:00:49,333 The rope became a big thing when women's clothes became more fitted 17 00:00:49,357 --> 00:00:51,635 and the pantaloon came into being. 18 00:00:51,659 --> 00:00:54,539 And so, girls were able to jump rope 19 00:00:54,563 --> 00:00:57,269 because their skirts wouldn't catch the ropes. 20 00:00:57,293 --> 00:01:01,173 Governesses used it to train their wards to jump rope. 21 00:01:01,197 --> 00:01:04,438 Even formerly enslaved African children in the antebellum South 22 00:01:04,462 --> 00:01:05,904 jumped rope, too. 23 00:01:05,928 --> 00:01:10,539 In the 1950s, in Harlem, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, 24 00:01:10,563 --> 00:01:15,039 you could see on the sidewalk, lots of girls playing with ropes. 25 00:01:15,063 --> 00:01:18,785 Sometimes they would take two ropes and turn them as a single rope together, 26 00:01:18,809 --> 00:01:22,595 but you could separate them and turn them in like an eggbeater on each other. 27 00:01:22,619 --> 00:01:25,132 The skipping rope was like a steady timeline -- 28 00:01:25,156 --> 00:01:26,673 tick, tick, tick, tick -- 29 00:01:26,697 --> 00:01:30,759 upon which you can add rhymes and rhythms and chants. 30 00:01:30,783 --> 00:01:32,831 Those ropes created a space 31 00:01:32,855 --> 00:01:35,077 where we were able to contribute to something 32 00:01:35,101 --> 00:01:37,211 that was far greater than the neighborhood. 33 00:01:37,602 --> 00:01:41,288 Double Dutch jump rope remains a powerful symbol of culture and identity 34 00:01:41,312 --> 00:01:42,465 for black women. 35 00:01:42,489 --> 00:01:44,807 Back from the 1950s to the 1970s, 36 00:01:44,831 --> 00:01:46,966 girls weren't supposed to play sports. 37 00:01:46,990 --> 00:01:49,791 Boys played baseball, basketball and football, 38 00:01:49,815 --> 00:01:51,156 and girls weren't allowed. 39 00:01:51,180 --> 00:01:53,704 A lot has changed, but in that era, 40 00:01:53,728 --> 00:01:55,569 girls would rule the playground. 41 00:01:55,593 --> 00:01:58,013 They'd make sure that boys weren't a part of that. 42 00:01:58,037 --> 00:02:00,283 It's their space, it's a girl-power space. 43 00:02:00,307 --> 00:02:02,403 It's where they get to shine. 44 00:02:02,427 --> 00:02:03,989 But I also think it's for boys, 45 00:02:04,013 --> 00:02:05,489 because boys overheard those, 46 00:02:05,513 --> 00:02:07,957 which is why, I think, so many hip-hop artists 47 00:02:07,981 --> 00:02:11,277 sampled from things that they heard in black girls' game songs. 48 00:02:11,301 --> 00:02:14,377 (Chanting) ... cold, thick shake, act like you know how to flip, 49 00:02:14,401 --> 00:02:17,402 Filet-O-Fish, Quarter Pounder, french fries, ice cold, thick shake, 50 00:02:17,426 --> 00:02:18,881 act like you know how to jump. 51 00:02:18,905 --> 00:02:22,925 Why "Country Grammar" by Nelly became a Grammy Award-winning single 52 00:02:22,949 --> 00:02:25,307 was because people already knew 53 00:02:25,331 --> 00:02:28,806 "We're going down down baby your street in a Range Rover ... " 54 00:02:28,830 --> 00:02:32,243 That's the beginning of "Down down, baby, down down the roller coaster, 55 00:02:32,267 --> 00:02:34,696 sweet, sweet baby, I'll never let you go." 56 00:02:34,720 --> 00:02:37,569 All people who grew up in any black urban community 57 00:02:37,593 --> 00:02:39,878 would know that music. 58 00:02:39,902 --> 00:02:42,124 And so, it was a ready-made hit. 59 00:02:42,656 --> 00:02:46,775 The Double Dutch rope playing helped maintain these songs 60 00:02:46,799 --> 00:02:50,800 and helped maintain the chants and the gestures that go along with it, 61 00:02:50,824 --> 00:02:54,831 which is very natural to what I call "kinetic orality" -- 62 00:02:54,855 --> 00:02:56,656 word of mouth and word of body. 63 00:02:57,133 --> 00:03:00,006 It's the thing that gets passed down over generations. 64 00:03:00,030 --> 00:03:02,961 In some ways, the rope is the thing that helps carry it. 65 00:03:03,696 --> 00:03:06,569 You need some object to carry memory through. 66 00:03:06,943 --> 00:03:10,887 So, a jump rope, you can use it for all different kinds of things. 67 00:03:10,911 --> 00:03:12,466 It crosses cultures. 68 00:03:12,490 --> 00:03:16,495 And I think it lasted because people need to move. 69 00:03:16,519 --> 00:03:21,906 And I think sometimes the simplest objects can make the most creative uses.