The Four Elements Of Hip Hop Culture

As hip hop began to gain popularity, it started to include people beyond poor urban neighborhoods. As this occurred, new members of the hip hop generation struggled to define themselves beyond the slums. Although it was the birthplace of hip hop, it was dangerously misleading to allow society to continue to perceive hip hop as the child of neglect, poverty, and suffering. Though by no means an collective response to outsider views, songs attempting to define hip hop began to appear. From “We Rap More Mellow” to “Damn it feels good to be a gangster, 13 years pass (1979-92), but the ideology expressed in the lyrics remains thematically the same, in hoping to redefine hip hop and what it means to be member of

“Hip hop: Beyond Beats and Rhyme” (2006), by Byron Hurt is a documentary which tells the hidden side of a today’s Hip Hop culture. The documentary was made in 2006 in the United States by a lifelong hip hop fun and lover Byron Hurt, who realized that each hip hop video has something nearly identical; therefore he decided to make a documentary based on music, politics of hip hop and its culture.

Clive Campbell, better known as DJ Kool Herc, created hip-hop at a Halloween party in the Bronx of New York City in 1973. After noticing positive reactions from the crowd, DJ Kool Herc used a groundbreaking turntable technique to elongate the drum breaks in songs (Blanchard). The success of extended drum breaks caused many DJ’s around New York to use DJ Kool Herc’s technique. The technique led the birth of hip-hop music. During hip-hop songs, party hosts, better known as MC’s, told personal stories and expressed viewpoints

The block parties, graffiti art, rapping, disc jockeying and diverse forms of dancing built Hip Hop by the black youth. They expressed their feelings, thoughts, but most importantly the problems they had to face, which were related to their race, gender and social positions. The rights that were given to black people during and after the Civil Rights Movement left the following generations at a lack of how to continue the fight for black rights. Hip Hop gave them this platform and with the usage of black nationalism, Hip Hop can explore the challenges that confront American-Americans in the post-Civil Rights Movement era. In the 1990’s Hip Hop lived its prime, sub genres started to appear and famous groups, MCs led the whole community, providing a voice to a group of people trying to deliver their message. Through their lyrics they were able to express their opinions about society, the government and the treatment of African-Americans in the U.S. for decades. The black community used this platform to protest against social attitudes and try to change them. The famous MCs like 2Pac, Biggie, Snoop Dogg and rap groups for instance the one and only Wu Tang Clan or the generally known gangster rap group from Compton called N.W.A. were orators of a generation with the intention of raising the black culture and community from the oppression remained in the

Hip Hop was the wildfire that started in the South Bronx and whose flames leapt up around the world crying out for change. James McBride’s Hip Hop Planet focuses on his personal interactions with the development of Hip Hop culture and his changing interpretations of the world wide movement. Many of his encounters and mentions in the text concern young black males and his writing follows an evolution in the representation of this specific social group. He initially portrays them as arrogant, poor, and uneducated but eventually develops their image to include the positive effects of their culture in an attempt to negate their historical misrepresentation.

The birth of hip hop took place in the Bronx, New York , during a time of poverty , Initially when Hip Hop first came about no one would have imagined how vastly and quickly it grew nor would they have predicted the influence on society it has today. This particular enriched and animated, genre of music went from the local backwoods of the projects to a multi millionaire industry. If you ask most people today their definition of Hip Hop , generally they would say a cool rhyming scheme with a hook and a catchy tune, which is not too far off. But it is much deeper than that .Hip hop is a form of expression like a factory , if you may . You take the reality of the world or the “ bad,” you ball it around with the latest slang, trends and

Grabber(Topic Starter). Hip hop has been around since the 1970s and it has changed from what clothes they wear, and the rhythms you hear as well as the lyrics. Here we will go in further in how hip hop culture has impacted young people in different cultures, why hip hop is important to the listeners and what is hip hop culture.

Ever since its birth in the 1970s in West Bronx, Hip Hop has been known as “Gangsta” music and most commonly associated with black culture. Since its creation it has become a fast growing genre of music and has growing fame all over the world. The popularity of it has increased to all races, age and gender. However the growing popularity of hip hop has come with several controversies among scholars. Some scholars argue that the growing popularity of the genre is very helpful to low income families who can use this as their outlet into going to Universities, on the other side some believe associating the genre to black culture is bad for the culture as a whole and they should not be associated together.

There has been disputes regarding the true origins of hip hop. Many would say that Hip Hop originated outside the country, such as Africa. As Washington indicated, “The terms “rap” and “hip hop” originate in the Wolof language of West Africa. “Hep” or “hip” means to have knowledge or insight; “to open one’s eyes, to be aware of what is going on’” (73). Even if Hip Hop happened to originate in certain meanings and life styles, it still doesn’t defeat the fact that artists from the Bronx helped shaped the culture and shared it to fans across the globe. Jackson and Anderson hinted that, “On a larger scale, it is important to understand that U.S. hip hop culture has expanded to include a vast international audience and to recognize the extent of that expansion” (23).

From the exasperation of their felling from boasting how famous they are or how much money they have. Mcbride state that the genre has become dominated by the rapper who brag about their lives of crime. Mcbribe also shows that hip-hop star 50 cent trumpets his sexual exploits and boasts that he has been shot nine times. You see that hip-hop is now a way to exploit and boast about them self. Eventually, McBride shows that most rap songs are mostly walking advertisement for car clothes and liquor. Sadly Mcbride remembers when hip-hop used to represent a better dream or the feeling of discrimination by other people. you and I may know this feeling of racial discrimination or even dreaming of a better life than you have now. for sure do know that I have this

African-American pop culture and pop culture in general, may be researched by a lot of researchers but I still get the impression that its roots are badly overlooked. Pop culture isn’t only an entertainment but it has some great depth into it that makes it worth learning the subject. In my thesis, I want to give more attention to the development of the African-American culture throughout all these years from the very beginning. How only one race can make a significant changes, not only in their own nation but in the country they’ve been brought to ruthlessly. It’s amazing how the human race that used to be treated literally like animals, representing the lowest class, benefitted the ones that used them in the past with their creativity

The term Hip Hop is used as a subcultural movement. Scholars such as Carl and Virgil Taylor emphasize “Hip-Hop is not only a genre of music, but also a complex system of ideas, values and concepts that reflect newly emerging and ever-changing creative correlative expressive mechanisms including but not limited to song, poetry, film and fashion.” Hip hop includes, rapping, graffiti, breakdancing, and DJing. It grew in popularity after a lot of house parties and basement parties. DJ Hollywood and DJ Afrika Bambaataa are known for coming up with the term "hip-hop". What Hip hop containes, is considered “artistic variations” of street gang competition and one’s ability to be better.

From the underground streets of New York to the global stage, Hip Hop can be seen as one of the most influential genres of its time. As a style of music that ultimately originated from black street culture, much of its context can be pinpointed to the issues of political and social equality that are often kept in the dark. When Hip Hop emerged throughout the late 70s, new artists were experimenting with an advancement in technology and used various devices including turntables to create certain beats. As time went on, Hip Hop turned the page to more of a lyrical genre where artists ultimately began using words in their lyrics to convey a certain theme or message to the public eye. (Wahl, 1999)

Hip-hop music was initially developed in the late 1970s, only few people knew about its existence as it was created in the most unprivileged districts of New York City in America by African-American citizens. Hip-hop is not a bunch of entertaining words but a poetic language about issues around us, and movement within a culture interrelating ethnicities. The messages of rap music/hip hop tells stories of how life is in the streets dealing with drugs, crime, and violence. Most messages are a reflection of how the youth feels about the system, the police. Hip-hop constitutes of clothing, language (poetic) graffiti art, break dancing, Mcing/ rhyming and beatboxing.

The African American community has not gained full equality to this day. Even after fighting for many years this present day issue has come to light in Hip-Hop artists songs like Macklemore & Ryan Lewis song, White Privilege II. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are respected in their line of work because they have become very popular in today 's Hip-Hop music. Hip-Hop has been the newest way of news being broadcasted. As many artists like Macklemore have become more of an activist in this day and age. This song matters because Macklemore is established and this song will inform everyone around the country, even world what’s happening. This song message affects all of us as citizens of this country surrounded by racism and inequality. The action macklemore wants us to take is to stand up and end this war against racism.