The club solved the problem by registering as a UF sports club, so they could secure a room in the Sports and Recreation building.

"We're actually two clubs: the Hip Hop Collective and the UF break-dancing club," Tate says.

That little garage crew has grown into a club of more than 80 members from around the world.

The club's diversity is the power of hip-hop, Tate says.

"It appeals to a person's creative tendencies. It's dynamic. It's rhythmic. It's competitive. It's artistic." Tate says, "It opens itself for anyone who wants to be a part of it."

Tahitian native Preston "Air Statle" Robinson says the draw is being able to do what others can't.

"When you do it in front of people, they look at you like you're an NBA superstar because you're doing stuff that most people can't do," Robinson says, still dancing even though he has moved away from the music to talk.

Collective treasurer Andres "Dre" Zori, a citizen of Denmark, attributes the club's diversity to music.

Andres Zori demonstrates an air chair. (Photo by Claudia Katz)

"That's something that everybody relates to no matter where you're from," he says.

Collective vice president Riyanna Hartley, who was born in South Africa, thinks creativity is the key to hip-hop.

"At first it's the novelty that draws people, but then you discover hip-hop as a creative expression," Hartley says. "The movements a person can make with the body— they don't seem possible. And the turntable— that's the modern violin."

Another extension of hip-hop's creative style is the unique language used to describe almost everything imaginable. B-boys and B-girls are break-dancers. The B can stand for beat, break or boogie. Several types of break-dancing include popping (robotic, mime type dance), Brooklyn uprocking and burning (a taunting, warlike dance) and locking (a funky style dance).

Graffers are graffiti artists, and a black book is where they keep their collection of sketches. A cypher is an enclosed area where crews or individuals engage in battles, or competitions. If their arsenal or collection of dance moves, rhymes, lyrics, beats or graffiti art isn't good enough, they get burnt. The vernacular is so extensive that in 2002, Broadway Books published the Hip-hoptionary, a dictionary of hip hop terms.

Collective members participate in four of hip-hop's five elements: deejaying, break-dancing, emceeing and graffiti art. The fifth element varies from person to person.

"Some people say it's philosophy, others say knowledge, and some say it's beat-boxing," Tate says. "If it's philosophy or knowledge, then I think that encompasses all the elements of hip-hop."