A dance created in Atlanta. The dab quickly caught on with all entertainers, athletes and even grandparents. The dab went viral with celebs like Cam Newton dabbing frequently. The dab is the latest dance to come out of Atlanta following the Quan, the nae nae and many others. The dab is just as mysterious as it is popular.
A few Atlanta artists like Skippa da Flippa, PeeWee Longway and Rich the Kid, claim to be the originators of the dance, but most notably the Migos are attributed with introducing the dab dance with their song “Look at my Dab.”
Of course there is usually someone to disputes the origins. In the case of the dab, it was Bow Wow who claimed that the Migos had it wrong. The guy who was once a rapper, then became an actor and television personality though the dance came from smoking marijuana. In the smoking culture, dabbing is taking concentrated THC oil, often called wax and smoking it. Bow Wow claimed the wax is so strong that users often cough in their elbow which he believed originated the dance craze. Migos and Rich the Kid quickly took to Twitter to dismiss Bow Wow’s claim.
With Cam Newton taking the dab mainstream many people believed that the dab was strictly a sports celebration created by the Panthers quarterback himself. To add to the confusion, a FOX affiliate wrote that the dab was named after the Clemson head coach, Dabo Swinney.
“After [Cam] Newton scored a two-yard rushing touchdown, he let loose a few dance moves in the end zone, including ‘The Dab,’ named after Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney.”
Readers reacted quickly, correcting the news affiliate on their Twitter account. One-third of the Migos, Quavo claims, “It wasn’t even called dab. We didn’t even know it was called dab. Y’all just called it the dab.” This puts us back to square one.
There are many stories as to how the dab came to be. No matter where the dab originated, it stuck. You can still catch artists, fans, the elderly and celebrities dabbing for various reasons. Some people feel the dab has become played out and a new dance should emerge to take its place. Even Cam Newton announced that he is retiring from using the dab as his celebratory dance. Until something new comes along, continue to dab on.
