The History Of Hip Hop Dance And Culture

Being in this semester of Hip Hop Dance and Culture I have learned many new things about the history of Hip Hop. I started getting interested in hip hop in middle school and I would watch my cousins perform with their dance company. That was what I thought hip hop was, I now have learned that it was basically commercialized hip hop. Hip hop is a fairly new culture when compared to older contemporary dances like ballet which has been around for centuries. Through this paper I want to go deeper into the history of hip hop, both dance and music, and how it turned into a commercialized world. Hip hop dance originated in the late 1960's/ early 1970's on the East coast but wasn't name as "hip hop" until the 1980's. The birth of hip hop as

Hip hop music was created out of the expression of the younger generation African American and Latino kids. This was through the culture's poverty and rebellion against the world ignoring them. Hip hop was created as a way for cultures to converge and cross for the youth. This outlet allowed youth to be more self-expressive in a new way. Out of hip hop music emerged rap. The exact origin of rap is slightly disputed but it can be traced back to around 1979 when "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang debuted. As rap grew, it was pretty limited to inner city neighborhoods, especially in New York City. There were the OG's like Funky 4 plus 1, Kool Moe Dee, Busty Bee, Afrika Bambaataa, Cold Rush Brothers, Kurtis Blow, DJ Kool Herc and Grandmaster Melle Mel. They started rapping about social, economic and political factors like drug addiction, and police

This was the first-time hip hop artists signed a contract with a non music related corporation. This then started the commercialization of a once meaningful style and culture. The group Run DMC was composed of New York rappers, Joe Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jason Mizell. They became Run DMC in 1982. Their debut album went gold in 1984 which was the first time a rap group was awarded with that honor. They were the first rap group to have a video screened by MTV, cover feature on the Rolling Stones and of course their Adidas endorsement. They took hip hop and made it