Although many may think that hip hop is a music genre, it is truthfully a culture—a culture that is recognized by its “main elements: graffiti, DJing, breakdancing (B-boying), MCing (rapping), and beatboxing” (Global Awareness). Hip hop is known in academic literature as a way to get youth involved in the arts and the terms rap and hip hop can be used interchangeably (Hadley and Yancy 41). When many people think about hip hop, they think about Rappers Delight by the Sugar Hill Gang. However, officially hip hop was created on November 12, 1974 when this new music culture was born (Hip Hop History). Afrika Bamabaataa, a Bronx DJ known to be one of the godfathers of hip hop, created the hip hop culture (Hip Hop History). “Afrika Bambaataa was hip-hop’s foremost DJ, an organizer and promoter at large block parties during the mid-to late ‘70s” (Afrika Bambaataa). Afrika Bambaataa stated, “when we made Hip Hop, we made it hoping it would be about peace, love, unity and having fun so that people could get away from the negativity that was plaguing our streets (gang violence, drug abuse, self hate, violence among those African and Latino descent)” (Hagedorn 93). Hip-hop is empowering and therapeutic to those that can gain understanding from it in music therapy. This is evidenced by music therapists who use hip hop so that their clients can express themselves.
In fact, hip hop was intended to be a positive culture by its founder Afrika Bambaataa. He saw that “music and the not-yet-named hip-hop had the potential to pull kids from the self-hatred and destructive behavior that is all-too-common response to poverty and racism” (Hagedorn 95). Born as Kevin Donovan, Afrika Bambaataa was a part of the Black Spades—a gang that either battle...
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... serves approximately 70 youth per year through our Hip Hop Therapy TAG’s. Program Outcomes include: an increase in self-esteem, increase in connectedness, and increase in positive coping skills and decrease in stigma towards mental health” (BRL). Another hip hop therapy program is called The Hear Our Voices [program]. The Hear Our Voice program is a music therapy songwriting program that serves at-risk school-aged children who attend Philadelphia-area afterschool programs (Hadley and Yancy 155), the program last for 14 weeks (Hear Our Voice). “The songwriting program provides the children with a creative outlet for exploration and expression of issues relevant to their lives (violence, gangsterism, family situation, drug use, anger management, school, and peer pressure). After the 14 weeks, there is a release party for the CD the youth created.” (Hear Our Voice).
Hip-hop culture has been a global phenomenon for more than twenty years. When introduced into the American culture, the black culture felt that hip-hop had originated from the African American community. The black community was being denied their cultural rights by the supremacy of the white people, but hip-hop gave the community the encouragement to show their black pride and televise the struggles they were facing in the world. The failure and declining of the movements, the influential, rebellious, and powerful music is what reshaped Black Nationalism, unity and to signify the struggle. The African Americans who suffered from social and political problems found that they similar relations to the political movements, which allowed the blacks to be able to voice their opinions and to acknowledge their culture openly.
Hip hop is a culture, it is a way many people use to connect to one another, it allowed many African Americans to express their own point of view in their story. But in the early 2000’s it became commercialized and went from storytelling from many perspectives like a party, politics, self-celebration, and gangstas to consisting of mainly of the lives of hustler, pimps, and hoes. Though it has become quite profitable and a successful form of music it cause arguments in American of whether it is more detrimental than beneficial to black community. Hip hop is in fact in a crisis and critics of hip hop believe it is just angry stories of black males and females but do not see it as proof that black behavior was created from the condition of living in a ghetto.
In the words of rapper Busta Rhymes, “hip-hop reflects the truth, and the problem is that hip-hop exposes a lot of the negative truth that society tries to conceal. It’s a platform where we could offer information, but it’s also an escape” Hip-hop is a culture that emerged from the Bronx, New York, during the early 1970s. Hip-Hop was a result of African American and Latino youth redirecting their hardships brought by marginalization from society to creativity in the forms of MCing, DJing, aerosol art, and breakdancing. Hip-hop serves as a vehicle for empowerment while transcending borders, skin color, and age. However, the paper will focus on hip-hop from the Chican@-Latin@ population in the United States. In the face of oppression, the Chican@-Latin@ population utilized hip hop music as a means to voice the community’s various issues, desires, and in the process empower its people.
It goes without saying that hip-hop has changed. It began as a social practice of African-centered liberation to transform the black community or bring the youth together in unity, but towards the 90’s and onto the hip-hop scene in todays day and age, it is anything but that. The youth of today will know Tupac Shakur and beautify or streamline his self-destructive “thug life” but remain in the dark of figures like Mutulu and Afeni Shakur. Although this is a sad reality to live in, it is not hip-hops responsibility to change this. It is the responsibility of artists alike representing an oppressed populace to speak meaningfully in their art, in someway or another, for the liberation of their people.
Hip hop is both a culture and a lifestyle. As a musical genre it is characterized by its hard hitting beats and rhythms and expressive spoken word lyrics that address topics ranging from economic disparity and inequality, to gun violence and gang affiliated activity. Though the genre emerged with greater popularity in the 1970’s, the musical elements involved and utilized have been around for many years. In this paper, we will cover the history and
Hip Hop has been around for decades. Due to positive perceptions behind the idea, many DJs and artist started to come about. Hip Hop solely originated in New York city where DJ Kool Herc is the founding father of Hip Hop. The main components within hip hop was Break Dancing, Rap, Beat Boxing, and Graffiti. These components originated from the Ghettos of New York city. Hip Hop culture formed in the 1970s during many block parties and gatherings in New York, where DJs from all over Manhattan and the Bronx came and created mixes and breaks on the turn tables. Alongside Kool Herc is GrandMaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa who created Universal Zulu Nation, which was music to decrease violence, drugs and get kids involved. Around this time funk,
The longevity of Hip-Hop as a cultural movement can most directly be attributed to its humble roots. For multiple generations of young people, Hip-Hop has directly reflected the political, economic, and social realities of their lives. Widely regarded as the “father” of the Hip-Hop, Afrika Bambaataa named the cultural movement and defined its four fundamental elements, which consisted of disc jockeying, break dancing, graffiti art, and rapping. Dating back to its establishment Hip-Hop has always been a cultural movement. Defined by far more then just a style of music, Hip-Hop influences fashion, vernacular, philosophy, and the aesthetic sensibility of a large portion of the youth population (Homolka 2010).
Hip-hop music is the best base form of music to invoke change because songs can be written quickly by rappers to address their communities. Hip-hop started in the early 1970’s in minority-filled neighborhoods that were surrounded with poverty, crime, and drugs. Over time, hip-hop has been changed to express different messages. At its beginning the message was positive addressing the problems of poor neighborhoods and now the message is flashy and unclear. With this change
The hip-hop community has been greatly influenced by the Black Arts Era. Both groups have addressed social, political issue as well as giving voice to the emotional discord of the black man. These groups push the boundaries using words meant to inflame the black man and shock the Caucasians.
Hip hop culture has been around since the 1970s. Multiple sources all come down to the South Bronx in New York City, as the origin of hip hop culture. The culture began to take its shape within the African American, Afro-Caribbean, and Latino communities. The father of the start of this culture was a Jamaican-born DJ named Clive Campbell but also known as DJ Kool Herc. He brought forth a new sound system and the Jamaican style of “toasting.” Toasting was when Jamaicans would talk or rap over the music they played. This whole new style soon brought what is now known as DJs, B-Boys, MC’s, and graffiti artists (Kaminski).
Hip hop originated in the ghetto areas of New York during the 1970’s and is a mixture of DJ, MC, B boy and Beat boxing. In his studies of defining hip hop, Jeffries concluded that these mixtures of art forms do not define hip hop but rather that Hip hop itself is a culture of these elements. “Hip-hop is like a culture, it’s a voice for black people to be heard. Our own style, our own music” (Jeffries. 2011; 28). Jefferies identifies hip hop as a social movement, which stems from the concept of ‘collective identity’ (Jefferries.2011; 27). This can be defined as “an individual’s cognitive, moral and emotional connection with a broader community” (Polletta and Jasper. 2001; 84). Which relate to Smitherman’s views that hip hop is a celebration of black culture uniting these individual to form a collective community. (Smitherman. 1997; 20) .These Theorists generally accept that hip hop is culture and it’s the production of its creators and the individuals who consu...
Hip hop has permeated popular culture in an unprecedented fashion. Because of its crossover appeal, it is a great unifier of diverse populations. Although created by black youth on the streets, hip hop's influence has become well received by a number of different races in this country. A large number of the rap and hip hop audience is non-black. It has gone from the fringes, to the suburbs, and into the corporate boardrooms. Because it has become the fastest growing music genre in the U.S., companies and corporate giants have used its appeal to capitalize on it. Although critics of rap music and hip hop seem to be fixated on the messages of sex, violence, and harsh language, this genre offers a new paradigm of what can be (Lewis, 1998.) The potential of this art form to mend ethnic relations is substantial. Hip hop has challenged the system in ways that have unified individuals across a rich ethnic spectrum. This art form was once considered a fad has kept going strong for more than three decades. Generations consisting of Blacks, Whites, Latinos, and Asians have grown up immersed in hip-hop. Hip hop represents a realignment of America?s cultural aesthetics. Rap songs deliver a message, again and again, to keep it real. It has influenced young people of all races to search for excitement, artistic fulfillment, and a sense of identity by exploring the black underclass (Foreman, 2002). Though it is music, many people do not realize that it is much more than that. Hip hop is a form of art and culture, style, and language, and extension of commerce, and for many, a natural means of living. The purpose of this paper is to examine hip hop and its effect on American culture. Different aspects of hip hop will also be examined to shed some light that helps readers to what hip hop actually is. In order to see hip hop as a cultural influence we need to take a look at its history.
Black culture in our society has come to the point where it is allied with pop culture. The most popular music genres, slang terms, to dance forms it all comes from black culture. Hip hop emerged from black culture, becoming the soul of it that is seen in the media. Hip hop helped the black community by creating new ways of expressing themselves, from breakdance, graffiti, rap and other music, to slang. This culture was rooted in their tradition and created from something new. Hip hop created a new form of music that required the use of turn tables, ‘cuts’, loops, rhythm, rhyme, stories, and deep-rooted emotions, but also incorporated black oral forms of storytelling using communal authors.
In recent discussion of hip hop culture, a controversial issue has been whether if hip hop makes people believe that money is everything you need to get respect and power. Some argue that you need to build respect and by building respect you become powerful and that will lead you to money. On the other hand, however, others argue that hip hop life helped them a lot by writing the lyrics and saying the things that they can’t do or say. One of this view’s main proponents, “money brings power, ” according to this view, people who have more money will get more power and then they usually use this power to do the most disturbing activities, such as crime. In sum, then, the issue is whether having too much power is good or it’s just a life destroyer.
Not only is hip-hop a way of expressing ones feelings or views, but it is a part of the urban culture and can be used as a communication tool. Slang originally came from hip-hop music and has become a very popular use in today’s society, especially the urban parts. Hip-hop is a standout amongst the most compelling musical sorts on the globe. There are rappers everywhere that know what amount of an impact their music can have. Some entertainers attempt to utilize that force of impact to do great (Ruiz INT).