Jailhouse rock is a name used to describe a collection of fighting styles that were practiced or developed within black urban communities in the 1960s and 1970s. The many different manifestations of JHR share a commonality in blending western boxing with other stylised martial arts techniques. The basic principle of these styles is constant improvisation, blocks and effectiveness in real-life situations. 52 Hand Blocks has been referenced numerous times by contemporary media including by journalist Douglas Century's Street Kingdom: Five Years Inside the Franklin Avenue Posse, as well as numerous Wu-Tang Clan songs and Ted Conover's book Newjack. Recently, celebrities including actor Larenz Tate and rapper Ludacris have taken up the fighting system for film roles and self-defense, shining a brighter light on this previously underground martial art. Origins The existence of this martial art was originally some what debated, but mainstream media exposure has contributed towards raising the awareness of the martial art. According to Dennis Newsome, a well-known JHR practitioner, JHR is an indigenous African American fighting art that has its origins in the 17th and 18th centuries, when slaves were first institutionalized and needed to defend themselves. Oral tradition has the skill evolving secretly within the U.S. penal system, with regional styles reflecting the physical realities of specific institutions. This theory relates JHR to the fusion of African and European/American bare-knuckle fist-fighting styles known as "cutting", which is said to have been practiced by champions such as Tom Molineaux, and also to the little-known African-American fighting skill known as "knocking and kicking", which is said to be practiced clandestinely in parts of the Southern US and on the Sea Islands. Alternatively but unlikely and unfounded; it may be that JHR was not a product of penal institutions, but rather an evolution of the many African martial arts or fighting games which were practiced by slaves, with different styles evolving separately in different penal institutions. According to this theory, some people believe Jailhouse Rock may be a modern American manifestation of the many African martial arts that were disseminated throughout the African diaspora, comparable to martial arts including Afro-Brazilian Capoeira, Cuban Mani and Martiniquese Ladja. It has a mythological origin story of having originated in the US penal institutions back in the 1960s and 1970s. Some have cast doubt on this origin story, as the teaching of fighting systems by inmates is generally not allowed in jails and