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Hip hop (also spelled hip-hop or hiphop) is both a music genre and a cultural movement developed in New York City starting in the 1970s, predominantly by African Americans and Latinos.[1]
Since first emerging in the Bronx in the 1970s, hip hop music has grown into an entire lifestyle, commonly referred to as hip hop culture, which has today spread around the world and is practiced by people regardless of nationality, ethnicity or religion. Hip hop as a cultural movement encompasses a wide array of human activities, so called elements, including but not limited to hip hop music, breakdance, graffiti, DJing and MCing.
Elements of Hip Hop
Widely referred to amongst the Hip Hop community as 'The Four Elements of Hip Hop', Hip Hop culture is usually considered to centre around the following 4 activities:
* Breakdancing
* Graffiti
* DJing
* MCing
One of the early pioneers of Hip Hop was a young lady known only by the name "Julie", often thought to be a misnoma. In Hip Hop folklore, it is said she brought her African experiences to the Bronx, attempting to start a new culture on which she would one day do a presentation.
However, Hip Hop would be ill defined as a list of activities; one could be considered Hip Hop without partaking in any of the above (for example, Human Beatboxing is a distinctly Hip Hop activity), just as there are many DJs that are not Hip Hop. Clothes, attitude, language and many other social factors can also be included; it is often said that "Hip Hop is not a spectator sport"; one of the pioneering members of Hip Hop culture, KRS-One once said "Rapping is something you do; Hip Hop is something you live".
[edit] History of Hip hop
Main article: History of hip hop music
[edit] Hip hop music and DJing
During the early 70s, Clive Campbell, a Jamaican DJ who went by the name "Kool Herc," arrived in New York City. Herc introduced the Jamaican tradition of "toasting," or boasting impromptu poetry and sayings over Reggae, Disco and Funk records, during parties in the Bronx, New York.[citation needed] Herc also was the originator of break-beat deejaying, where the breaks of funk songs—being the most danceable part, often featuring percussion—were isolated and repeated for the purpose of all-night dance parties.[citation needed] Later DJs such as Grandmaster Flash refined and developed the use of breakbeats, including cutting.[citation needed]
Herc's idea was soon widely copied, and by the late 70's a myriad of DJ's were releasing 12" cuts where they would rap to the beat. Popular tunes included Kurtis Blow's The Breaks, and The Sugar Hill Gang's Rapper's Delight.'
[edit] Evolution of the MC
Rapping then developed as MCs would talk over the music to promote their DJ, promote other dance parties, or take light-hearted jabs at other lyricists. This soon developed into the rapping that appears on earlier basic hip-hop singles, with MCs talking about problems in their areas and issues facing the community as a whole. Melle Mel, a rapper/lyricist with The Furious Five is often credited with being the first rap lyricist to call himself an "MC."[2]
By the late 1970s myriad DJs were releasing 12" cuts where MCs would rap to crowd-moving beats. Popular tunes included Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five's "Supperrappin'," Kurtis Blow's "The Breaks," and The Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight". In 1982, Melle Mel and Duke Bootee recorded "The Message" (officially credited to Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five), a song that foreshadowed socially conscious hip hop.[citation needed]
[edit] Origin of the term "Hip Hop"
Coinage of the term hip hop is often credited to Keith Cowboy, a rapper with Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. Though Lovebug Starski, Keith Cowboy, and DJ Hollywood used the term when the music was known as disco rap, it is believed that Cowboy created the term while teasing a friend who had just joined the US Army, by scat singing the words "hip/hop/hip/hop" in a way that mimicked the rhythmic cadence of marching soldiers.[3] Cowboy later worked the "hip hop" cadence into a part of his stage performance, which was quickly copied by other artists; for example the opening of the song "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang.[3] Former Black Spades gang member Afrika Bambaataa is credited with first using the term to describe the subculture that hip hop music belongs to, although it is also suggested that the term was originally derisively used against the new type of music.[4]
[edit] Hip Hop Embraces Technology
Hip hop as a culture was further defined in 1983, when Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force released a track called "Planet Rock." Instead of simply rapping over disco beats, Bambaataa created an innovative electronic sound, taking advantage of the rapidly improving drum machine and synthesizer technology. The accompanying music video for Planet Rock showcased a unique subculture of musicians, graffiti artists and breakdancers, at times performing seemingly impossible feats. The release of Planet Rock, along with the film Wild Style and the documentay Style Wars (both also appearing in 1983), increased the multicultural appeal of Hip hop beyond the boundaries of New York. [citation needed]
By 1985, youth worldwide were laying down scrap linoleum or cardboard, setting down portable stereo and spinning on their backs in tracksuits and sneakers to music by Run DMC, LL Cool J, the Fat Boys, Herbie Hancock, Soulsonic Force, Jazzy Jay, Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, and Stetsasonic, to name a few. The Hip hop artwork and "slang" of US urban communities quickly found its way to Europe and Asia, as the culture's global appeal took root.
Legacy
Early hip hop has often been credited with helping to reduce inner-city gang violence by replacing physical violence with hip hop battles of dance and artwork. However, with the emergence of commercial and crime-related rap during the early 1990s, an emphasis on violence was incorporated, with many rappers boasting about drugs, weapons, misogyny, and violence. While hip hop music now appeals to a broader demographic, media critics argue that socially and politically conscious hip hop has long been disregarded by mainstream America in favor of its media-baiting sibling, gangsta rap.[5]
Many artists are now considered to be alternative/underground hip hop when they attempt to reflect what they believe to be the original elements of the culture. Artists/groups such as Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Immortal Technique, Dilated Peoples, Dead Prez, Blackalicious, and Jurassic 5 may emphasize messages of verbal skill, unity, or activism instead of messages of violence, material wealth, and misogyny.
Though born in the United States by African Americans, the reach of hip hop is global. Youth culture and opinion is meted out in both Israeli hip hop and Palestinian hip hop, while France, Germany, the U.K., Africa and the Caribbean have long-established hip hop followings. 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.[6] 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.
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