Women make a move into hip-hop

Once exploited as sexy decoration, women are making moves both feminine and fierce in the hip-hop world, holding their own as true contenders from the social dance battleground of the breaking scene to the crews of theatrical hip-hop performers. And though this weekend's Clas/Sick Hip Hop festival at the Yerba Buena Center Forum will feature an evenhanded mix of male and female hip-hoppers from across generations, one can't help noticing that women are rising to prominence in what was once a male-dominated culture.

"We need to get this message across that women are out here on the planet doing amazing physical moves," says New York b-girl Ana "Rokafella" Garcia, who has also made a film about the b-girls of her generation titled "All the Ladies Say."

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