Essay On Hip Hop As A Subculture

In today’s world, music is played just about everywhere around the world. There is not many days that go by that you don’t hear some type of music. Those music’s can be broken down into their own sub categories and with that they can become into a subculture that people belong to or just claim to be a part of. To explain it more a subculture is defined as a cultural group within a culture, that often has beliefs or interest that is apart from those of the main culture itself. Subcultures are often made so that those who are actively participating within them can be set apart from those of other groups. They feel the need to establish their own ideas, traditions, languages, and criteria to form something that is their own and that makes them different from anything else. That can also cause for conclusions to be made up in the form of stereotypes that can sometimes be

made up accusations from people outside of the subculture itself. I have done my research on hip hop to prove whether these stereotypes are true and to find the real meaning of this subculture.
Now a days everyone has heard some type of musical piece that has come from hip hop, so that is not what I was looking for when researching the subculture of hip hop. I was looking for what made an individual person a part of this culture, but with that in mind, I had to find the origin of hip hop its self. The hip hop culture was first emerged in African American economically depressed South Bronx section of New York City in the late 1970s (Light, A, & Tate, G). It wasn’t just the music that started this movement of hip hop, it was first the graffiti painting and break dancing that first took wind to the public’s eye. This art form of painting was new to the world and many people were drawn to the unique style and the break dancing was also something that was new on the scene and made people wonder where it came from. These two art forms of hip hop didn’t last much longer than the late 70’s and up to the point of the mid 80’s but, the other pillars that make up hip hop and that is still relevant to this day is DJ’ing and rapping or known as MCing (Light, A, & Tate, G). The term DJ’ing reference to a person that mixes and scratches existing music to create a new sound and also an abbreviation for disc jockey (Dj). Rapping is the main focus of this hip hop culture even till this day. Rapping is the ability to rhyme to a beat in the form of words that are placed together in a rhyme scheme or in other words that flow together in a clever way. These all tied into what the beginning of hip hop was, people dancing, graffiti painting, and rapping, which made this new subculture stand out more with this new exotic form of music.
After looking over the beginning history of hip hop as a subculture I figure from the skills and abilities of the beginning people who made this culture that I was an outside of the culture.

So I decide to look deeper into the language of the subculture. What I found was a language that was so divergent to anything else I have heard before. The language of hip hop was almost backwards from the English language. I found that words were interchangeable with other words, for the soul purpose of making them mean other things. For example the word dope could actually mean something cool or awesome, but in the literal sense the word dope actually refers to drugs (Baldwin, James). When first researching this I wasn’t surprised at all because I too use this form of language amongst my friends. I also found that within hip hop culture, people do have the tendency to use explicit language as well, for instance the use of the “F” word is very common but not with everyone in the subculture. The style of rapping is different with each individual and is looked at as something that identifies you in the

subculture.
The typical person that belongs to the hip hop culture is a stylish person. In the culture your clothes or gear, which most people in the subculture like to call it, it’s basically your own. Hip hop is such a very self-expressive culture that your style is your own in most cases, but you also have a vase majority that all follow the same style that appeals to them. The style of fashion has changed over the years of the subculture. When it first began it was considered stylish to wear baggier clothes to represent a sense of carelessness, but today the person of this subculture has its own style, you have people who prefer baggy clothes or maybe clothes that fit slim so that the clothes fit just for the individual wearing them. “Though it lacks a singular look, hip-hop style initially stood out with tracksuits, sporting gear, oversized T-shirts, overalls and combat boots. During the 1990s, this “homeboy” look was adopted by major fashion labels, trickling up to become part of the mass culture” (Cutler, Sarah). So this subculture has grown from its humble beginning to a major influence on a global scale.
From the style of hip hop to its sometimes vulgar language it has been criticized and looked down on for years by some people. When I first decided to research this subculture I did not feel that hip hop was considered something bad, but I also decide to look deeper into the history of the stereotypes of this subculture. To find out a better understanding of this I decided to get this information from someone inside the culture so I interviewed James Baldwin, who was a participating member of the hip hop culture. I asked James what were so of the stereotypes facing the hip hop subculture. I found out that there is a large mass of people who believe that hip hop culture promotes violence and is the cause of some people participating in criminal acts. When I found this out I asked James Baldwin about what the reality of this situation was? I was told by James that hip hop is sometimes a controversial culture and there is a type of aggression in the art, but there is no way people can blame hip hop for the violence in the world it’s crazy too. I figure that this information was interesting coming from someone who was in the culture so I decided to research this topic from others on the outside. I found that Hip-hop is a voice for everything from violence to commercialism, but despite its rage and brutal honesty, despite its willingness to make a buck, it has also always been a force for good (Waters, Rosa 51). From looking over this stereotype I can tell that it’s exactly what it is a stereotype, people are different and not everyone is the same in this culture so even if one person is rapping or talking about the violence you cannot put everyone in this category of promoting violence and destruction.
Hip hop subculture beliefs and rituals are not that complex they do believe in being original and finding your own way of style and rhyming. For example, in the hip hop culture today, it is looked down on for using someone else to help when writing your own raps. It’s not usually done so when it is heard of people tend to say you are not a real MC when it comes to rapping. That makes hip hop culture different from other genres of music because it is ok for receiving help when writing songs, for instance in R&B or country music they receive help all the time or even have songs that someone else may have wrote for them. This subculture also includes both genders, men and women, although there are more men than women there is some women that participate in the rapping aspect of hip hop, but for the most part you will find more women participating in the dancing aspect of hip hop and in graffiti painting (Bartlow, Dianne, and Janell Hobson).
Something else hip hop culture different from any other group or music genre would be the electronic background of the music which is one essential factor in hip hop culture. Hip hop culture is more than just the music, but the music is what makes it different. Its usage of sampling other genres of music plays a big role in making music. For those who don’t know sampling is when you take pieces of songs, most of the time it’s the beat and piece it together to form a new beat and you then can rap over that beat. Hip hop is not the only genre of music that uses this process of sampling music, but it is something that is used a lot within this culture when making music. This aspect is what draws people to the culture, but not being able to do this skill itself does not mean that you are not part of the hip hop culture?
I wonder that myself because I know that I didn’t have these skills either, but I felt that I was a part of the culture. I found that simply being a fan of these styles wasn’t just it either. You had to play some type of row in the collection of hip hop culture, whether that was being an advocate listener or participating in the movement of hip hop. I also found that hip hop was not just the music that made you a part of the subculture. It’s more of a mind state and how you carry yourself because hip hop was first made up to be able to express yourself from the new dancing to the graffiti painting which were also looked down upon because it was painted in unwanted places. It first made people who did not matter have a voice for the first time and still does till this day. People who want to be heard can have a plate form and can use it to speak their mind or show it through dancing and fashion. The belief of hip hop has always been to show your true colors that’s why it has been controversial because people have always told the brutal truth and many people may have not experienced these things so they find them to be dangerous or hostile. I have found and learn much more about the subculture of hip hop than I knew before. It has opened my mind more on the reasons on why hip hop was started and why the subculture is still very much alive till this day. Since I have concluded my research, my knowledge and love for hip hop has grown even more.