The while it is not clear just who invented the jump rope, information suggests has a long history, going back as far as the ancient Egyptians. It probably made it’s way to North America through the Dutch, but didn’t really catch on until the pantaloons came around. Once women wore more fitted clothing and didn’t have to worry about their dresses catching on the rope, young girls everywhere took up the jump rope. It became a sort of symbol for women who, at the time, were neither expected nor permitted to participate in sports or physical activity, so when the jump rope became big in the Bronx, Harlem, Brooklyn, and Queens in the 50’s, the girls took it as their own. They made up rhymes to the rhythmic ticking of the rope slapping the pavement and these rhymes and songs because intertwined with the jump rope itself. The jump rope became a symbol for the girls on the playground, who made that item something that was theirs and theirs alone and made sure that the boys were not included, and it has truly traveled through time. It became so ingrained in the culture that it even made it into Nelly’s music. The jump rope has carried memories.
Key Points:
- 1Jump rope in form double dutch was and is important cultural expression for black girls in the black urban community.
- 2The game has not only physical moves. but also rhyming cadences that have passed through the generations.
- 3Hip-hop artists have been heavily influenced by the lyrics in the rhyming songs of the girls in their jump rope play.
