From training on the streets of Khouribga, Bilal Mallakh made it to the Olympic stage as the first African and Arab b-boy.
Just six years after he started practicing breakdancing, 20-year-old Bilal “Billy” Mallakh won the 2023 African Championship in Rabat, Morocco, earning him a spot at the Paris Olympics where the sport makes its official debut. This victory makes Mallakh the first African and Arab to qualify for the competition.
“It wasn't easy to win the African Championship, especially for me, because I was younger than the other competitors, and I didn't have much experience compared to them,” says Mallakh in an interview with OkayAfrica. “So I'm proud of myself that I'm going to represent Morocco and Africa.”
Mallakh’s older brother introduced him to breaking, back in their hometown Khouribga, one hour outside of Casablanca. “I went to a practice and liked the vibe,” he says. “Then I started practicing with my brother’s friends, they were kind to me.”
He fell in love with the artform of elaborate spins, flips, balances, and footwork, which has its roots in hip-hop culture and originally evolved amongst African American and Latino American youth in the South Bronx in New York City in the early 1970s.
Morocco’s breaking scene is small, everyone knows each other and Mallakh quickly found his own community. He can dance different styles, but breaking is his preferred form of expression and he soon began joining competitions around the country. Now that he’s putting the scene on the map in global competitions, he believes the community will grow.
“I do breakdancing especially, because in my city there was no gym and no place to practice, except for the street. So what's the best thing to practice? Breakdance! The other types need more space, but to breakdance you just need music.” Mallakh makes music himself, and he dances to all kinds, preferably breaking or rap music. In the Moroccan scene, he asserts, rapper El Grande Toto is the best.The b-boy keeps stressing that his love for breaking goes beyond the desire to win a medal; but it is exactly this passion that got him to first place in the African Championship, and consequently to the Olympics. “If you love something, you want to be the best at it,” he says. “So I want to be the best at breakdancing.”
While this mindset is echoed by other athletes, like Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan or Sudan’s Yaseen Abdalla, OkayAfrica has profiled/interviewed ahead of the games, Mallakh says that he is not only an athlete, but also an artist. “When you do breakdance, you need your body, but you also need your mind and soul,” he says. “There is an artistic side, because you should create something. You should do something different. You should be yourself, not like the other sports when you just do the technique.”
Mallakh’s practice is not only about building physical strength, it also involves working on his creativity and being in touch with himself. He prepares choreographies, but because breakers don’t know the music that will be played during their battles, they ultimately have to be able to freestyle to anything.
“You need to organize yourself and at the same time, freestyle to the music,” he says. “I train my mind to change directions fast, so I can choose what to do in the moment. I first just stand and listen to the music, then I decide how to move.” One of Mallakh’s hallmark strengths is his arsenal of explosive sequences, known as “blow ups,” which are perfect for large stages.
“Being a breaker has an athletic and an artistic side.” - Bilal Mallakh
Photo courtesy of Bilal Mallakh.
At his age, Mallakh falls between very young Olympics participants and the older generation he grew up watching on YouTube. “It’s not easy to compete against them now,” he says. “But at the same time, I feel more energy to do this competition, because it was my dream and now it’s happening.”
The breaking category is made up of 16 b-boys and b-girls competing at two events, facing off in one-on-one battles. To prepare, Mallakh spent the past six months in Austria, training with his coaches Fouad Ambelj, aka Lil Zoo, and Boutni Rochdi aka Rochdi Soon, a Moroccan breaker who represents Austria and won the World Championship in 2018.
Mallakh trains for three hours every morning, and depending on the strength of his body on a given day, will train a second time in the evening, sometimes for another four hours. “It’s not easy, but I don’t care about feeling tired, because I love it and I can do it anywhere and all the time,” he says.
To Mallakh, participating in the Olympics is about doing his best. “If you give 100 percent, at the end of the day, you will be proud of yourself,” he says. “I don't care about the results. If I do my best, I will be proud of myself, and even if I win and I didn't do my best, I will not be proud of myself.”
