Hip-hop culture

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Hip hop (also spelled hip-hop or hiphop) is both a music genre and a cultural movement developed in urban communities starting in the 1970s, predominantly by African Americans. 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. 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. 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.

Since first emerging in New York City in the 1970s, hip hop has grown to encompass an entire lifestyle that consistently incorporates diverse elements of ethnicity, technology, art and urban life. There are four fundamental elements in hip hop:

Hip hop dance: Breakdance and various forms of street dance;
Hip hop art: Urban inspired art, often as graffiti;
Hip hop music: DJing, beats and beatmaking, and hip hop production;
Rapping: MCing and urban inspired poetry.

File:Graffiti stylaz.jpg

Examples of graffiti styles.

History of hip hop

On 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the west Bronx, an otherwise unremarkable high-rise just north of the Cross Bronx and hard along the Major Deegan, houses the birth-place of Hip Hop. “This is where it came from,” said Clive Campbell, pointing to the building’s first-floor community room. “This is it. The culture started here and went around the world. But this is where it came from. Not anyplace else.” As D.J. Kool Herc, he presided over the turntables at parties in that community room in 1973 that spilled into nearby parks before turning into a global assault. Playing snippets of the choicest beats from James Brown, Jimmy Castor, Babe Ruth and anything else that piqued his considerable musical curiosity, he provided the soundtrack savored by loose-limbed b-boys (a term he takes credit for creating, too)." (NYTimes May 21, 2007). There is currently an effort by the buildings tenants as well as some notable members from the heyday of hip hop who are making an effort to have the building declared a historic landmark, in hopes to have the building remain an apartment complex for the working class.

Rapping then developed as MCs would talk over the music to promote their DJ, 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."

By the late 1970s myriad DJs were releasing 12" cuts where MCs would rap to the beat. Popular tunes included Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five's "Supperrappin'," Kurtis Blow's "The Breaks," BPN's "Spacewalk," 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.

Hip hop as a culture was further defined in 1983, when former Black Spades gang member 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.

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.

Legacy

Early hip hop has often been credited with helping to reduce inner-city gang violence by replacing physical violence with hip hop battles. 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.

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, 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, 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, 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. 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."

General	Alternative Hipster hop Boom bap Bounce British Road rap Chipmunk soul Chopped and screwed Chopper Cloud rap Comedy Crunk Crunkcore East Coast Freestyle rap Hyphy Jerkin' Instrumental Latin Chicano rap Lofi Lowend Miami bass Mumble rap Nerdcore Chap hop Political Conscious Progressive rap Religious Christian Jewish Snap music Southern Turntablism Underground
Hardcore	Dirty rap Gangsta rap Mafioso rap G-funk Horrorcore Memphis rap
Trap music	Afro trap Drill Brooklyn drill Jersey drill Sample drill UK drill Latin trap Phonk Plugg Rage Tread UK trap

Fusion genres

General	Country rap Electro Emo rap Hip-hop soul Hip house Industrial Jazz rap New jack swing Pop rap Psychedelic rap Punk rap Ragga Rap opera Rap rock Trip hop
Rap metal	Trap metal Nu metal
Regional	Afroswing Bongo Flava Boomba music Cumbia rap Genge Hip-hop galsen Hipco Hiplife Igbo rap Kwaito Low bap Motswako Nā mele paleoleo Nuyorican rap Romani hip-hop Songo-salsa Scam rap Stronda Urban Pasifika Vigilante rap Zenji flava

Derivatives

Electronic	Breakbeat Baltimore club Florida breaks Ghetto house Ghettotech Glitch hop Grime Illbient Freestyle Wonky
Other	Funk carioca Reggaeton Alternative reggaeton

Regional scenes

African	Algerian Angolan Beninese Botswana Gambian Ghanaian Ivorian Kenyan Malawian Mauritian Moroccan Namibian Nigerian Port Harcourt Nigerien Senegalese South African Tanzanian Togolese Zambian Zimbabwean
Asian	Armenian Azerbaijani Bangladeshi Burmese Chinese Indian Desi Indonesian Japanese Korean Malaysian Mongolian Nepalese Pakistani Philippine Singapore Sri Lankan Taiwanese Thai
European	Albanian Austrian Belgian Bosnian and Herzegovinian British Celtic Scottish Bulgarian Croatian Czech Dutch Finnish French German Greek Portuguese Hungarian Icelandic Irish Italian Macedonian Montenegrin Norwegian Polish Romanian Romani Russian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Spanish Swedish Swiss Ukrainian
Middle Eastern	Arabic Egyptian Iranian Israeli Lebanese Palestinian Saudi Arabian Tunisian Turkish Yemeni
North American	United States: East Coast Baltimore New Jersey New York City Philadelphia Washington, D.C. Midwestern Chicago Detroit Minneapolis/St. Paul Milwaukee Omaha Southern Atlanta Memphis Miami West Coast Northwest Alaska Asian American Latin Native American Outside the US: Canadian Cuban Dominican Haitian Mexican Salvadoran
Oceanian	Australian New Zealand Samoan
South American	Brazilian Brasília Chilean Colombian

Misplaced Pages

History of hip hop

Legacy

See also

References