Hip Hop Hip hop is a broad conglomerate of artistic forms that originated as a specific street subculture within South Bronx communities during the sass in New York City. It is characterized by four distinct elements, all of which represent the different manifestations of the culture: rap music (aural), turntables or “Digging” (aural), breaking (physical) and graffiti art (visual). Despite their contrasting methods of execution, they find unity in their common association to the poverty and violence underlying the historical context that birthed the culture.

It was as a means of roving a reactionary outlet from such urban hardship that “Hip Hop” Initially functioned, a form of self-expression that could reflect upon, proclaim an alternative to, try and challenge or merely evoke the mood of the circumstances of such an environment. Even while it continues in contemporary history to develop globally in a flourishing myriad of diverse styles, these foundational elements provide stability and coherence to the culture. The term is frequently used mistakenly to refer In a confining fashion to the mere practice of rap music.

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The origin of the culture stems room the block parties of The Ghetto Brothers when they would plug the amps for their instruments and speakers into the lampposts on 63rd Street and Prospect Avenue and DC Cool Here at 1 520 Sedgwick Avenue, where Here Here would mix samples of existing records with his own shouts to the crowd and dancers. Cool Here is credited as the “father” of Hip hop. DC Africa Bumboat of the hip hop collective Zulu Nation outlined the pillars of hip hop culture, to which he coined the terms: Mincing, Digging, B-oblong and graffiti writing. Since Its evolution throughout the South

Bronx, hip hop culture has spread to both urban and suburban communities throughout the world. Hip hop music first emerged with Cool Here and contemporary disc Jockeys and imitators creating rhythmic beats by looping breaks (small portions of songs emphasizing a percussive pattern) on two turntables, more commonly referred to as Juggling. This was later accompanied by “rap”, a rhythmic style of chanting or poetry often presented in 16-bar measures or time frames, and beating, a vocal technique mainly used to provide percussive elements of music and various technical effects of hip hop Des.

An original form of dancing and particular styles of dress arose among fans of this new music. These elements experienced considerable adaptation and development over the course of the history of the culture. Hip hop is simultaneously a new and old phenomenon; the importance of sampling to the art form means that much of the culture has revolved around the Idea of updating classic recordings, attitudes, and experiences for modern audiences -? called “flipping” within the culture. Citation needed] It follows in the footsteps of earlier American musical genres blues, jazz, and rock and roll in avian become one of the most practiced genres of music in existence worldwide, and also takes additional inspiration regularly from soul music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Hip hop is the combination of two separate slang terms-?”hip”, used in African American English as early as 1898, meaning current or in the now, and “hop”, for the hopping movement.

Keith “Cowboy” Wiggins, a member of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, has been credited with coining the term in 1978 while teasing a friend who had Just Joined the US Army, by scat singing the words “hip/hop/hip/hop” n a way that mimicked the rhythmic cadence of marching soldiers. [citation needed] Cowboy later worked the “hip hop” cadence into his stage performance. The group frequently performed with disco artists who would refer to this new type of music by calling them “hip hoppers”. The name was originally meant as a sign of disrespect, but soon came to identify this new music and culture.

The song “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarbird Gang, released in 1979, begins with the scat phrase, “l said a hip, hop the hippie the hippie to the hip hip hop, a you don’t stop. ” Lovable Stark, a Bronx DC ho put out a single called “The Positive Life” in 1981, and DC Hollywood then began using the term when referring to this new disco rap music. Hip hop pioneer and South Bronx community leader Africa Bumboat also credits Lovable Stark as the first to use the term “Hip Hop”, as it relates to the culture.

Bumboat, former leader of the Black Spades gang, also did much to further popularize the term. The words “hip hop” first appear in print on September 21, 1981, in the Village Voice in a profile of Bumboat written by Steven Hager, who also published the first comprehensive story of the culture with SST. Martins’ Press. History In the sass an underground urban movement known as “hip hop” began to develop in the South Bronx area of New York City focusing on emceeing (or Mincing), breakfast, and house parties.

Starting at the home of DC Cool Here at the high-rise apartment at 1 520 Sedgwick Avenue, the movement later spread across the entire borough. Rap developed both inside and outside of hip hop culture, and began in America in earnest with the street parties thrown in the Bronx neighborhood of New York in the sass by Cool Here and others-?Jamaican born DC Clive “Cool Here” Campbell is credited as being highly influential in the pioneering stage of hip hop music, Here created the blueprint for hip hop music and culture by building upon the Jamaican tradition of impromptu toasting, boastful poetry and speech over music.

This became Emceeing – the rhythmic spoken delivery of rhymes and wordplay, delivered over a beat or without accompaniment-?taking inspiration from the Rapping derived from the grits (folk poets) of West Africa, and Jamaican-style toasting. The basic elements of hip-hop boasting raps, rival posses, uptown throwing, and political commentary were all present in Trinidad music as Eng ago as the sass’s, though they did not reach the form of commercial recordings until the sass’s and ass’s.

Calypso music like other forms of music continued to evolve through the ‘ass’s and ‘ass’s. When rock steady and reggae bands looked to make their music a form of national and even international Black resistance, they took Calypso’s example. Calypso itself, like Jamaican music, moved back and forth and sexual innuendo and a more topical, political, ‘conscious’ style. Melee Mel, a rapper/lyricist with The Furious Five, is often credited with being the first rap lyricist to call himself an “MS”.

Here also developed upon break-beat decaying, where the breaks of funk songs-?the part most suited to dance, usually percussion-based-?were isolated and repeated for the purpose of all-night dance parties. This form of music playback, using hard funk, rock, formed the basis of hip hop music. Campbell announcements and exhortations to dancers would lead to the syncopated, rhymed spoken accompaniment now known as rapping. He dubbed his dancers break-boys and break-girls, or simply b-boys and b-girls. According to Here, “breaking” was also street slang for “getting excited” and “acting energetically”.

Des such as Grand Wizard Theodore, Grandmaster Flash Jazzy Jay refined and developed the use of breakfast, including cutting and scratching. The approach used by Here was soon widely copied, and by the late sass Des were releasing 12″ records where they would rap to the beat. Popular tunes included Curtis Blob’s “The Breaks” and The Sugarbird Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight”. Here and other Des would connect their equipment to power lines and perform at venues such as public basketball courts and at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, Bronx, New York, now officially a historic building.

The equipment was composed of numerous speakers, turntables, and one or more microphones. By using this technique Des could create a variety of music, but according to Rap Attack by David Top “At its worst the technique could turn the night into one endless and inevitably boring song” . Nevertheless, the popularity of rap steadily increased. Street gangs were prevalent in the poverty of the South Bronx, and much of the graffiti, rapping, and b-boning at these parties were all artistic variations on the competition and one-musicianship of street gangs.

Sensing that gang members’ often violent urges could be turned into creative ones, Africa Bumboat founded the Zulu Nation, a goose confederation of street-dance crews, graffiti artists, and rap musicians. By the late sass, the culture had gained media attention, with Billboard magazine printing an article titled “B Beats Bombarding Bronx”, commenting on the local phenomenon and mentioning influential figures such as Cool Here. In late 1979, Debbie Harry of Blonde took Nile Rodgers of Chic to such an event, as the main backing track used was the break from Chic’s “Good Times”.

The new style influenced Harry, and Blonde’s later hit single from 1981 “Rapture” became the first major single intonating hip hop elements by a white group or artist to hit number one on the U. S. Billboard Hot 100-?the song itself is usually considered new wave and fuses heavy pop music elements, but there is an extended rap by Harry near the end. Hip hop as a culture was further defined in 1982, when Africa Bumboat and the Scullions Force released the seminal electro-funk track “Planet Rock”.

Instead of simply rapping over disco beats, Bumboat created an electronic sound, taking advantage of the rapidly improving drum machine Roland TUB-303 synthesizer technology, as well as sampling from Jerkwater. Encompassing graffiti art, mining/rapping, d]’ins and b- boning, hip hop became the dominant cultural movement of the minority populated urban communities in the sass. The sass also saw many artists make social Message” (officially credited to Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five), a song that foreshadowed the socially conscious statements of Run-Dam’s “It’s like That” and Public Enemy’s “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos”.

During the sass, hip hop also embraced the creation of rhythm by using the human body, via the vocal percussion technique of beating. Pioneers such as Doug E. Fresh,[32] Biz Marie and Buff from the Fat Boys made beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using their mouth, lips, tongue, voice, and other body parts. “Human Beat” artists would also sing or imitate turntables scratching or other instrument sounds. The appearance of music videos changed entertainment: they often glorified urban neighborhoods. The music video for “Planet Rock” showcased the subculture of hip hop musicians, graffiti artists, and b-boys/b-girls.

Many hip hop-related films were released between 1982 and 1985, among them Wild Style, Beat Street, Crush Groove, Breaking, and the documentary Style Wars. These films expanded the appeal of hip hop beyond the boundaries of New York. By 1985, youth worldwide were embracing the hip hop culture. The hip hop artwork and “slang” of US urban communities quickly found its way to Europe, as the culture’s global appeal took root. American society DC Cool Here’s house parties gained popularity and later moved to outdoor venues in order to accommodate more people.

Hosted in parks, these outdoor parties became a means of expression and an outlet for teenagers, where “instead of getting into trouble on the streets, teens now had a place to expend their pent-up energy. Tony Tone, a member of the Cold Crush Brothers, noted that “hip hop saved a lot of lives”. Hip hop culture became a way of dealing with the hardships of life as minorities within America, and an outlet to deal with violence and gang culture. MS Kid Lucky mentions that “people used to break-dance against each other instead of fighting”. 35][broken citation] Inspired by DC Cool Here, Africa Bumboat created a street organization called Universal Zulu Nation, centered around hip hop, as a means to draw teenagers out of gang life and violence. The lyrical content of many early rap ropes focused on social issues, most notably in the seminal track “The Message”, which discussed the realities of life in the housing projects. “Young black Americans coming out of the civil rights movement have used hip hop culture in the sass and sass to show the limitations of the movement. Hip hop gave young African Americans a voice to let their issues be heard; “Like rock-and-roll, hip hop is vigorously opposed by conservatives because it romanticists violence, law-breaking, and gangs”. It also gave people a chance for financial gain by “reducing the rest of the world to consumers of its social concerns. However, with the commercial success of gangs rap in the early sass, the emphasis shifted to drugs, violence, and misogyny. Early proponents of gangs rap included groups and artists such as Ice-T, who recorded what some consider to be the first gangster rap record, 6 in the Morning’, and N.

W. A. Whose second album Effectuating became the first gangs rap album to enter the charts at number one. Gangs rap also played an important part in hip hop becoming a mainstream commodity. The fact that albums such as N. W. A. ‘s Wanted were selling in such high numbers meant that black teens were no longer IP hop’s sole buying audience. As a result, gangs rap became a platform for artists who chose to use their music to spread politic and social messages to parts of the country that were previously unaware of the conditions of ghettos.

While hip hop music now appeals to a broader demographic, media critics argue that socially and politically conscious hip hop has been largely disregarded by mainstream America. Global innovations According to the U. S. Department of State, hip hop is “now the center of a mega music and fashion industry around the world,” that crosses social barriers and cuts across racial lines. National Geographic recognizes hip hop as “the world’s favorite youth culture” in which “Just about every country on the planet seems to have developed its own local rap scene. Through its international travels, hip hop is now considered a “global musical epidemic”. According to The Village Voice, hip hop is “custom-made to combat the anomie that preys on adolescents wherever nobody knows their name. ” Hip hop sounds and styles differ from region to region, but there are also instances of fusion genres. Not all countries have embraced hip hop, where “as can be expected in countries with strong local culture, the interloping wieldiest of IP hop is not always welcomed”. This is somewhat the case in Jamaica, the homeland of the culture’s father, DC Cool Here.

However, despite the fact that hip hop music produced on the island lacks widespread local and international recognition, artistes such as Five State have defied the odds by impressing online hip hop taskmaster and even reggae critics. Warthog Even argues that hip hop can also be viewed as a global learning experience. Author Jeff Change argues that “the essence of hip hop is the cipher, born in the Bronx, where competition and community feed each other. He also adds: “Thousands of organizers from Cape Town to Paris use hip hop in their communities to address environmental Justice, policing and prisons, media Justice, and education. . While hip hop music has been criticized as a music which creates a divide between western music and music from the rest of the world, a musical “cross pollination” has taken place, which strengthens the power of hip hop to influence different communities. Hip hop’s messages allow the under- privileged and the mistreated to be heard. These cultural translations cross borders. While the music may be from a foreign country, the message is something that many people can relate to- something not “foreign” at all.

Even when hip hop is transplanted to other countries, it often retains its “vital progressive agenda that challenges the status quo. ” In Guttenberg, Sweden, nongovernmental organizations (Nags) incorporate graffiti and dance to engage disaffected immigrant and working class youths. Hip hop has played a small but distinct role as the musical face of revolution in the Arab Spring, one example being an anonymous Libyan musician, Bin Tidbit, whose anti-government songs fuel the rebellion. Centralization interviews students at Satellite Academy in New York City.

One girl talks about the epidemic of crime that she sees in urban minority communities, relating it directly to the hip hop industry, saying: “When they can’t afford these kind of things, these things that celebrities have like Jewelry and clothes and all that, they’ll go and sell drugs, some people will steal it…. ” In an article for Village Voice, Greg Tate argues that the centralization of hip hop is a negative and pervasive phenomenon, writing that “what we call hippo is now inseparable from what we call the hip hop industry, in which the nouveau richer and the super-rich employers get richer”.

Ironically, this centralization coincides with a decline in rap sales and pressure from critics of the genre. Even other musicians, like Nas and KIRKS-ONE have claimed “hip hop is dead” in that it has changed so much over the years to cater to the consumer that it has lost the essence for which it was originally created. However, in his book In Search Of Africa, Matthias Draw explains that hip hop is really a voice of people who are down and out in modern society.

He argues that the “worldwide spread of hip hop as a market revolution” is actually global “expression of poor people’s desire or the good life,” and that this struggle aligns with “the nationalist struggle for citizenship and belonging, but also reveals the need to go beyond such struggles and celebrate the redemption of the black individual through tradition. ” This connection to “tradition” however, is something that may be lacking according to one Satellite Academy staff member who says that in all of the focus on materialism, the hip hop community is “not leaving anything for the next generation, we’re not building.

As the hip hop genre turns 30, a deeper analysis of the music’s impact is taking place. It has en viewed as a cultural sensation which changed the music industry around the world, but some believe centralization and mass production have given it a darker side. Tate has described its recent manifestations as a marriage of “New World African ingenuity and that trick of the devil known as global-hypercritically”, arguing it has Joined the “mainstream that had once excluded its originators. While hip hop’s values may have changed over time, the music continues to offer its followers and originators a shared identity which is instantly recognizable and much imitated around the world. Culture: Digging Turntables is the technique of manipulating sounds and creating music using phonograph turntables and a DC mixer. One of the few first hip hop Do’s was Cool DC Here, who created hip hop through the isolation of “breaks” (the parts of albums that focused solely on the beat).

In addition to developing Here’s techniques, Des Grandmaster Flowers, Grandmaster Flash, Grand Wizard Theodore, and Grandmaster Ca made further innovations with the introduction of scratching. Traditionally, a DC will use two turntables simultaneously. These are connected to a DC mixer, an amplifier, speakers, and various other pieces of electronic music equipment. The DC will then perform various tricks between the two albums currently in rotation using combined sound of two separate songs into one song. Although there is considerable overlap between the two roles, a DC is not the same as a producer of a music track.

In the early years of hip hop, the Des were the stars, but that has been taken by Masc. since 1978, thanks largely to Melee Mel of Grandmaster Flash’s crew, the Furious Five. However, a number of Des have gained stardom nonetheless in recent years. Famous Des include Grandmaster Flash, Africa Bumboat, Mr.. Magic, DC Jazzy Jeff, DC Scratch room NEED, DC Premier from Gang Starr, DC Scott La Rock from Boogie Down Productions, DC Pete Rock of Pete Rock & CLC Smooth, DC Mugs from Cypress Hill, Jam Master Jay from Run-DAM, Eric B. DC Screw from the Screwed Up Click and the inventor of the Chopped & Screwed style of mixing music, Bandmaster Flex, Tony Touch, DC Clue, Mix Master Mike and DC Q-Bert. The underground movement of turntables has also emerged to focus on the skills of the D]. Among Rapping (also known as emceeing, Mincing, spitting (bars), or Just rhyming) refers to “spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics with a strong rhythmic accompaniment”. It can be broken down into different components, such as “content”, “flow’ (rhythm and rhyme), and “delivery’.

Rapping is distinct from spoken word poetry in that is it performed in time to the beat of the music. The use of the word “rap” to describe quick and slangy speech or repartee long predates the musical form. Mincing is a form of expression that is embedded within ancient African culture and oral tradition as throughout history verbal acrobatics or Jousting involving rhymes were common within the Afro- American community. Graffiti In America around the late sass, graffiti was used as a form of expression by lattice activists, and also by gangs such as the Savage Skulls, La Familial, and Savage Nomads to mark territory.

Towards the end of the sass, the signatures-?tags-?of Philadelphia graffiti writers Top Cat, Cool Earl and Cornbread started to appear. [71] Around 1970-71 , the center of graffiti innovation moved to New York City where writers following in the wake of TAKE 183 and Tracy 168 would add their street number to their nickname, “bomb” a train with their work, and let the subway take it -?and their fame, if it was impressive, or simply pervasive, enough-?”all city”. Bubble teetering held sway initially among writers from the Bronx, though the elaborate Brooklyn style Tracy 168 dubbed “wieldiest” would come to define the art.

The early trendsetters were Joined in the sass by artists like Done, Future 2000, Daze, Blade, Lee, FAA Five Freddy, Zephyr, Remarkable, Crash, Keel, NCO 167 and Lady Pink. The relationship between graffiti and hip hop culture arises both from early graffiti artists engaging in other aspects of hip hop culture, Graffiti is understood as a visual expression of rap music, Just as breaking is viewed as a physical expression. The 983 film Wild Style is widely regarded as the first hip hop motion picture, which featured prominent figures within the New York graffiti scene during the said period. Mainstream public were introduced to hip hop graffiti. Graffiti remains part of hip hop, while crossing into the mainstream art world with renowned exhibits in galleries throughout the world. Breaking In 1924, Earl Tucker (aka Snake Hips), a performer at the Cotton Club, created a dance style which would later inspire an element of hip hop culture known as b-boning. Breaking, also called B-boning or breakfasting, is a dynamic style of dance which plopped as part of the hip hop culture. Breaking is one of the major elements of hip hop culture.

Like many aspects of hip hop culture, breakneck borrows heavily from many cultures, including sass-era street dancing, Afro-Brazilian and Asian Martial arts, Russian folk dance, and the dance moves of James Brown, Michael Jackson, and California Funk styles. According to the 2002 documentary film The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-Boy, DC Cool Here describes the “B” in a-boy as short for breaking which at the time was slang for “going off, also one of the original names for the dance.

However, early on the dance was known as the “booing” (the sound a spring makes). Dancers at DC Cool Here’s parties, who saved their best dance moves for the break section of the song, getting in front of the audience to dance in a distinctive, frenetic style. The “B” in a-boy also stands simply for break, as in break- boy (or girl). Breaking was documented in Style Wars, and was later given more focus in fictional films such as Wild Style and Beat Street. Early acts include the Rock Steady Crew and New York City Breakers.

Beat Beating, popularized by Doug E. Fresh, is the technique of vocal percussion. It is armorial concerned with the art of creating beats or rhythms using the human mouth. The term beating is derived from the mimicry of the first generation of drum machines, then known as bootees. As it is a way of creating hip hop music, it can be categorized under the production element of hip hop, though it does sometimes include a type of rapping intersected with the human-created beat.

It is generally considered to be part of the same “Pillar” of hip hop as Dicing -? in other words, providing a musical backdrop or foundation for Mac’s to rhyme over. Beating was quite popular in the sass with prominent artists like the Darrel Buff, the Human Beat Box” Robinson of the Fat Boys and Biz Marie displaying their skills within the media. It declined in popularity along with b-boning in the late sass, but has undergone a resurgence since the late sass, marked by the release of “Make the Music 2000. ” By Rachel of The Roots.

Social Impact: Effects Orlando Patterson, a sociology professor at Harvard University helps describe the phenomenon of how hip hop spread rapidly around the world. Professor Patterson argues that mass communication is controlled by the wealthy, government, and businesses in Third World nations and countries around the world. [81] He also reedits mass communication with creating a global cultural hip hop scene. As a result, the youth absorb and are influenced by the American hip hop scene and start their own form of hip hop.

Patterson believes that revitalization of hip hop music will occur around the world as traditional values are mixed with American hip hop musical forms, and ultimately a global exchange process will develop that brings youth around the world to listen to a common musical form known as hip hop. It has also been argued that rap music formed as a “cultural response to historic oppression and racism, a system for communication among black communities wrought the United States”. This is due to the fact that the culture reflected the social, economic and political realities of the disenfranchised youth.

In the Arab Spring hip hop played a significant role in providing a channel for the youth to express their ideas. Language The development of hip hop linguistics is complex. Source material include the spirituals of slaves arriving in the new world, Jamaican dub music, the laments of Jazz and blues singers, patterned cockney slang and radio deejays hyping their audience in rhyme. Hip hop has a distinctive associated slang. It is also known by alternate Ames, such as “Black English”, or “Ebonies”.

Academics suggest its development stems from a rejection of the racial hierarchy of language, which held “White English” as the superior form of educated speech. Due to hip hop’s commercial success in the late nineties and early 21st century, many of these words have been assimilated into the cultural discourse of several different dialects across America and the world and even to non-hip hop fans. The word disc for example is particularly prolific. There are also a number of words which predate hip hop, but are often associated with the culture, with homier being a notable example.

Sometimes, terms like what the dilly, you are popularized by a single song (in this case, “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See” by Busts Rhymes) and are only used briefly. One particular example is the rule- based slang of Snoop Dog and E-40, who add -sizzle or -size to the end or middle of words. Hip hop lyricism has gained a measure of legitimacy in academic and literary circles. Studies of Hip hop linguistics are now offered at institutions such as the University of Toronto, where poet and author George Eliot Clarke has (in the past) taught the potential power of hip hop music to promote social change.

Greg Thomas f the University of Miami offers courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level studying the feminist and assertive nature of Oil’ Skim’s lyrics. Some academics, including Ernest Morel and Jeffery Duncan Andre compare hip hop to the satirical works of great “canon” poets of the modern era, who use imagery and mood to directly criticize society. As quoted in their seminal work, “Promoting Academic Literacy with Urban Youth Through Engaging Hip Hop Culture”: “Hip hop texts are of view.

Hip hop texts can be analyzed for theme, motif, plot, and character development. Both Grand Master Flash and T. S. Eliot gazed out into their rapidly deteriorating societies and saw a “wasteland. ” Both poets were essentially apocalyptic in nature as they witnessed death, disease, and decay. Censorship Hip hop has been met with significant problems in regards to censorship due to the explicit nature of certain genres, and some songs have been criticized for allegedly anti-establishment sentiment.

For example, Public Enemy’s “Goat Give the Peeps What They Need” was censored on MET, removing the words “free Mamma”. After the attack on the World Trade Center on September 1 1, 2001, Oakland, California group The Coup was under fire for the cover art on their Party Music, which featured the roof’s two members holding a detonator as the Twin Towers exploded behind them. Ironically, this art was created months before the actual event. The group, having politically radical and Marxist lyrical content, said the cover meant to symbolize the destruction of capitalism.

Their record label pulled the album until a new cover could be designed. The use of profanity as well as graphic depictions of violence and sex creates challenges in the broadcast of such material both on television stations such as MET, in music video form, and on radio. As a result, many hip hop recordings are broadcast in censored form, with offending language bleeped” or blanked out of the soundtrack, or replaced with “clean” lyrics.

The result – which sometimes renders the remaining lyrics unintelligible or contradictory to the original recording – has become almost as widely identified with the genre as any other aspect of the music, and has been parodied in films such as Austin Powers in Goldberg, in which Mike Myers’ character Dir. Evil – performing in a parody of a hip hop music video (“Hard Knock Life” by Jay-Z- performs an entire verse that is blanked out. In 1995, Roger Bert wrote: “Rap has a bad reputation in white circles, here many people believe it consists of obscene and violent anti-white and anti- female guttural.