What is Hip-Hop? Hip-hop is a cultural movement best known for its impact on music in the form of the musical genre of the same name. It has its origins in the Bronx, in New York City, during the 1970s, mostly among African Americans but with some influence from the Latin American population of the area as well. The culture has gone from being a relatively underground style to being a major style throughout the world, and it has been commercialized and popularized, especially in the United States. The four traditional pillars of hip-hop are DJing, rapping, breakdancing, and graffiti art.
These artists wrote about various meaningful topics - unity, social issues, politics, and the search for identity. These are the kinds of songs I would listen to because these are topics that people could easily relate to, while also providing an insight. Rap artists today always rap about how much money they can wave in their hands, wearing Versace, and clubbing. This made me realize how prejudice I was
These distinctive beats and bass lines became the foundation of a new type of music in these clubs, and Djs can be seen as the prime movers of hip hop.” “MCs (Master of Ceremonies) in the clubs were there to introduce the hot new DJ. Between songs, though, MCs began to talk to the crowd. Like MC's even today, this talk varied between jokes, biographical anecdotes, as well as attempts to excite and energize the audience. Eventually, some local MCs began to talk over the music, and this talk soon became part of the music performance. These MC's became known as "rappers".” “Eventually, "rap music" was refined to become a mixture of rhythmic poetry, and rappers were getting noticed by 1979 and some commercially successful records were selling locally, though rap had hardly made an impact on the U.S. mainstream.” As the eighties went by, hip hop got more popular and we had some station that would play our music such as BET, but MTV only played everything besides African American music.
Hip-hop, while opposed to rap, generally defines the whole culture. Rap formed during the 1970s with the rise in popularity of block parties in New York, particularly among African American youth residing in the Bronx. Rapping developed as a vocal style in which the artist speaks along with an instrumental or synthesized beat. The roots of rapping are found in African-American music and ultimate African music, with roots originating from the griots of west African culture. The African American traditions of signifyin' (an early form of wordplay), the dozens (game of spoken words between two communities) and jazz poetry all had an influence on rap music.
Reggae music originated from Jamaica in the early 1960's. In the streets and ghettos of Kingston, shortly after independence from Britain in 1962, reggae started to evolve from Mento, which was a local form of Jamaican music in the 30's to what it has become today. Originated in Jamaica, reggae music is recognized by rhythmic accents on the offbeat, usually played by piano, guitar, or sometimes both. Changing American popular music, the genre began to be played in the 1960s producing a new and different sound. Reggae's origins are in traditional African and Caribbean music, American rhythm and blues, and in Jamaican ska and rock steady (Scaruffi, Piero).
In the mid 60s”Rock Steady”-a slower tempo with emphasis on syncopation-grew out of “Ska”. However, by the late 60s, yet another new Jamaican musical form had emerged-“Reggae”, the most famous of the musical styles developed on the island. Reggae spans the globe and has influenced the music of internationally famous performers in the US, Japan, UK, South America, and the rest of the world. Cuba: For most of the eighteenth
Nick Crain Comp 1 October 17, 2011 Heroin in America 1960s and 70s During the 1960s and 70s the United States was a turbulent place. Racial tensions grew as Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were shot down in broad daylight. The Vietnam War was raging and the streets were filled with protests. Gangsters ran rampant throughout the cities. Drug trafficking, heroin in particular, was the choice drug of law enforcement, people and gangsters alike.
In 1959 a man by the name of Theoptilus Beckford recorded the first ska record. Ska music was a mix of Caribbean mento, jazz and the blues. A group called The Wailers made the next big move in music when they slowed down the tempo in the ska music. When the 1960s came along another music genre came about, reggae. This music style sometimes aquired chanting and emphasized the syncopated beat.
Changes in Hip Hop Subculture The history of Hip hop subculture has come a long way and has made many changes along its way. Hip hop as it may seem started off as being positive and coming from the heart and having meaning to now people becoming a part of it and not even knowing the real meaning of its background. Now, it is said that many people are in the “rap game” just for the love of money and not because it’s something that they really love to do. Hip hop started in the late 60s early 70s in the Bronx, New York. Clive Campbell, known as DJ Kool Herc, is the credited as being the pioneer of hip hop in the United States.
Introduction Hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambataa is often credited with coining the name “hip-hop”. When asked during a lecture at Cornell University how the youth movement that he helped to create was named, he referred to the words “hip” and “hop” as they were chanted by rappers in their rhymes saying, “I liked that sound … I said, ‘This is hip and when you feel the music you gotta hop to it, so that’s when we called it ‘hip-hop.’”(Chang, 2014) However, the true nature of the hip-hop movement is not that simply defined. Hip-hop names a musical and cultural phenomenon that might have begun as a local youth arts movement but has now grown into a “generation-defining global movement” (Chang, 2005) which has not only claimed to have saved lives and changed the way minorities all over the world express their frustrations (Chang, 2007) but is also a major commercial industry. (Tate, 64)