Hip to Hip-Hop

Allowing music to influence ones life is something that I believe everyone should
partake in but being influenced by the hip-hop community will open up a broader horizon
when it comes to music. It was all a dream, I used to read Word-Up magazinesBiggie Smalls. Members of the hip-hop discourse community know that this is a line
from Biggie Smalls song Notorious. He is one of the most known rappers to this day
even though he is deceased. Knowing those lyrics is one of the requirements to being in
the hip-hop community along with many others.
Of course there has to be a brain that keeps the music beating literally which
would be the rhythm and beats. Beats are one of the top priorities when it comes to hiphop from making the song all the way to dancing. A song is composed of lyrics that are
catchy but its the beat of the song that catches the attention of listeners. Parts of hip-hop
beats have been used in other songs, which is called sampling. For example, a current
hip-hop artist by the name of J.Cole has a song called Can I holla at ya. The beginning
of this song has a sample from Lauryn Hills Zion that plays her exact song for the
beginning and then the instrumental of it for the rest of the song. Not all beats use
samples but a lot in newer songs are from samples. Beats are also used to make your
typical instrument sounds, such as the piano, drum, and guitar. A commonly used
instrument used is the 808 beat which is a standard beat to replicate a drum sound. Kanye
West has an album 808s and Heartbreaks named after the instrument. Moving from the
beat allows someone to gain rhythm, which allows them to go along with the beat in a
smooth transitional way. Rhythm within this generation really refers to whether someone

can feel the beat enough to dance to it and be on rhythm. A popular song called the Nae
Nae is a dance where the body moves back and forth along with your hand in the air. If
the rhythm isnt there, then being off beat is going to be at a higher chance. This is
usually frowned upon in the hip-hop community. Rhythm is not something that
everybody has so there is leniency. Rhythm is not the most important aspect of the hiphop community but it is so prevalent that its almost second nature to its members.
Right along with rhythms and beats come dances like already mentioned previously. All the
dances about to be mentioned are hip-hop dances that have in another way brought the
hip-hop community together. Dances like Doing the Butt, Tootsie roll, Butterfly,
Hammer Time, Running Man eventually turned into 2 steps, Jerking,
Dougie,Catdaddy and then the Nae Nae. Dancing of course has changed over time
with hip-hop and not only is the newer generation of dances seem to be more difficult to
do versus the self-explanatory dances that were created back in the older days of hip-hop.
The diversity in the moves is what sets hip-hop apart from other styles of dance like
ballet, classical, or an 8-count dance.
There are some popular dancers out there that everyone within the hip-hop
community should know and everyone outside of it should make sure that they know.
Kid-N-Play and Chris Brown would definitely be two major hip-hop artists that have
heavily influenced the dancing aspect of hip-hop and they are extremely well known
within the community. Dancing goes so far back into hip-hop and its just being remolded
by the younger generation of hip-hop but as far as someone who doesnt know hip-hop,
they should know that dancing of some kind will always be present when it comes to hiphop.

Even though the hip-hop community all has the same goals different regions and
their style of hip-hop causes variation as to what they are trying to say when it comes to
their version of hip-hop. Northern hip-hop has a more hard core, street style kind of
music with a lot of artist such as Jay-Z, Tupac, and Biggie Smalls for representing that
region. Moving towards the east coast brings more hip-hop music that you can dance to
and its not as hard-core as up north. Artists such as Chris Brown and J.Cole are both
from this region. The east coast also has a tendency to release mellow music and dancing
music. The west coast brings two different sides, with one being more mainstream and
the other more gang-related side of hip-hop out. Majority of the music comes from
California, especially out of Los Angeles. L.A has Hollywood which automatically makes
everything more mainstream and thats where several artist reside to start off with, but
then you also have cities like Compton where the rapper Kendrick Lamar comes from.
Compton is one of the most dangerous cities in America which affects the musical
content. Rappers usually rap about their life growing up and what they had to go through
in life. Different regions and styles of hip-hop allows for more people to relate that are
already within the community and the prospective members.
Of course being apart of a community it may cause changes in your behavior and
personality. Members tend to behave based on what their favorite rapper is currently
rhyming about. For example, alcohol and drug use is talked about heavily and many
teenagers are trying them just because they heard about it first in a hip-hop song.
Members of the hip-hop community know that majority of hip-hop songs relate to that
artist getting out of the hood and changing their life for the better, especially for their
mother. So rapping also allows for a positive change and to not have that primary focus

on drugs and other bad habits, but actually doing something with their talent of rapping
and expressing themselves by telling a story. Artist that are known for telling about their
lifestyle that their story is almost second nature if you know the hip-hop community well
would be J.Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Tupac, Biggie Smalls, Meek Mills, and Drake.
The components previously mentioned would be pointless if you didnt have
legends and artist to make hip-hop music. The difference between legends and current
rappers is that legends have been around for longer and have made such a great impact
that a reference is made about them at least once by current rappers. Their names will
also live forever on in the hip-hop community. Biggie Smalls, Tupac, Eazy-E, RunDMC, P-Diddy, Doug E Fresh, and MC Lyte just to name a few. Identifying legends
establishes a foundation of knowledge in the hip-hop community.
Another goal of hip-hop is to continue and make sure that it stays relevant in the
public. Underground music can consist of so many unknown rappers and isnt in the
typical style of hip-hop. Underground rappers also tend to have a heavy view of a certain
topic causing them to a advocate of that topic and the music can come across very raw
and aggressive. Mainstream is what is most popular because its music that a majority of
their listeners will like enough to buy. Mainstream music is constantly being played on
the radio and everyone knows it. Artist that are considered on the come up of mainstream
but carry an underground vibe would be A$AP Rocky, Childish Gambino, Tyler the
Creator, The Weekend, and Partynextdoor.
Hip-hop has progressed exponentially with the help of its discourse community.
The common goal of the hip-hop discourse community is to be able to relate to anything
on the subject of hip-hop, and spreading hip-hop with others so they can be

knowledgeable about the current and past of hip-hop all while enjoying what hip-hop
itself has to offer.