HIP HOP AND MODERN MUSIC

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Hip Hop means the whole culture of the movement when you talk about rap. Rap is part
of the hip hop culture. The emceeing, the djaying is part of the hip hop culture. The dressings the
languages are all part of the hip hop culture. The break dancing the b-boys, b-girls, how you act,
walk, look, talk are all part of hip hop culture and the music is colorless. Hip Hop music is made
from Black, brown, yellow, red, white whatever music that gives you the grunt that funk, that
groove or that beat.

Afrika Bambaataa's Definition

Hip hop is a music genre and cultural movement which developed in New York City in
the early 1970s primarily among African Americans and Latino Americans. Hip Hop's four main
elements are Mc'ing (often called rapping), DJing, graffiti writing, and break dancing. Other
elements include beatboxing, hip hop fashion, and slang. Since first emerging in the Bronx, the
lifestyle of hip hop culture has spread around the world. When hip hop music began to emerge, it
was based around DJs who created rhythmic beats by looping breaks (smalls portions of songs
emphasizing a percussive pattern) on two turntables. This was later accompanied by "rapping" (a
rhythmic style of chanting). An original form of dancing, and particular styles of dress, arose
among followers of this new music. These elements experienced considerable refinement and
development over the course of the history of the culture.

The relationship between graffiti and hip hop culture arises from the appearance of new
and increasingly elaborate and pervasive forms of the practice in areas where other elements of
hip hop were evolving as art forms, with a heavy overlap between those who wrote and those
who practiced other elements of the culture. Beatboxing is a mainly percussive vocal form in
which various technical effects of hip hop DJs are imitated.

The word "hip" was used as African American Vernacular English as early as 1904. The
colloquial language meant "informed" or "current," and was likely derived from the earlier form
hep. The term "hip hop" also followed logically the previous African-American music culture of
"Bebop". Keith "Cowboy" Wiggins, a rapper with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five has
been credited with the coining of the term hip hop in 1978 while teasing a friend who had just
joined the US Army, by scat singing the words "hip/hop/hip/hop" in a way that mimicked the
rhythmic cadence of marching soldiers. Cowboy later worked the "hip hop" cadence into a part
of his stage performance. The group frequently performed with disco artists who would refer to
this new type of MC/DJ produced music by calling them "those hip-hoppers".

The name was originally meant as a sign of disrespect, but soon come to identify this new
music and culture. Other artists quickly copied the Furious Five and began using the term in their
music; for example the opening of the song "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang in
addition the verse found on Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's own "Superrappin'", both
released in 1979. Lovebug Starski and DJ Hollywood then began using the term when referring
to this new disco rap music. Hip hop pioneer and South Bronx community leader Afrika
Bambaataa also credits Lovebug Starski, a Bronx DJ who put out a single called "The Positive
Life" in 1981, as the first to use the term "Hip Hop," as it relates to the culture. Bambaataa, a
former Black Spades gang member also did much to further popularize the term.

Jamaican born DJ Clive "Kool Herc" Campbell is credited as originating hip hop music,
in the Bronx, New York, after moving to New York at the age of thirteen. Herc created the
blueprint for hip hop music and culture by building upon the Jamaican tradition of toasting, or
boasting impromptu poetry and sayings over music, which he witnessed as a youth in Jamaica.
Herc and other DJs would tap into the power lines to connect their equipment and perform, at
venues such as public basketball courts and the historic building "where hip hop was born," 1520
Sedgwick Avenue, Bronx, New York. Their equipment was composed of numerous speakers,
turntables, and one or more microphones. In late 1979, Debbie Harry of Blondie took Chic co-
founder and lead guitarist Nile Rodgers to such an event, as the main backing track used was the
break from Chic's Good Times.

Herc was also the developer of break-beat deejaying, where the breaks of funk songs, the
part most suited to dance, usually percussion-based, were isolated and repeated for the purpose
of all-night dance parties. This breakbeat DJing, using hard funk, rock, and records with Latin
percussion, formed the basis of hip hop music. Campbell's announcements and exhortations to
dancers would lead to the syncopated, rhymed spoken accompaniment we now know as rapping.
He dubbed his dancers break-boys and break-girls, or simply b-boys and b-girls. According to
Herc, "breaking" was also street slang for "getting excited" and "acting energetically". Herc's
terms b-boy, b-girl and breaking became part of the lexicon of hip hop culture, before that
culture itself had developed a name.

Later DJs such as Grand Wizard Theodore, Grandmaster Flash and Jazzy Jay refined and
developed the use of breakbeats, including cutting and scratching. The approach used by Herc
was soon widely copied, and by the late 1970s DJs were releasing 12" records where they would
rap to the beat. Popular tunes included Kurtis Blow's "The Breaks", and The Sugar Hill Gang's
"Rapper's Delight".

Emceeing is the rhythmic spoken delivery of rhymes and wordplay, delivered over
a beat or without accompaniment. Rapping is derived from the griots (folk poets) of West Africa,
and Jamaican-style toasting. Rap developed both inside and outside of hip hop culture, and began
with the street parties thrown in the Bronx neighborhood of New York in the 1970s by Kool
Herc and others. It originated as MCs would talk over the music to promote their DJ, promote
other dance parties, take light-hearted jabs at other lyricists, or talk about problems in their areas
and issues facing the community as a whole. Melle Mel, a rapper/lyricist with The Furious Five,
is often credited with being the first rap lyricist to call himself an "MC".

Hip hop as a culture was further defined in 1983, when Afrika Bambaataa and the
Soulsonic Force released a track called "Planet Rock." Instead of simply rapping over disco
beats, Bambaataa created an innovative electronic sound, taking advantage of the rapidly
improving drum machine, synthesizer technology as well as sampling from Kraftwerk. The
appearance of music videos changed entertainment: they often glorified urban
neighborhoods. The music video for "Planet Rock" showcased the subculture of hip hop
musicians, graffiti artists and breakdancers. Many hip hop-related films were released between
1983 and 1985, among them Wild Style, Beat Street, Krush Groove, Breakin, and the
documentary Style Wars.

These films expanded the appeal of hip hop beyond the boundaries of New York. By
1985, youth worldwide were laying down scrap linoleum or cardboard, setting down portable
"boombox" stereos and spinning on their backs in Adidas tracksuits and sneakers to music
by Run DMC, LL Cool J, the Fat Boys, Herbie Hancock, EPMD, Soulsonic Force, Jazzy Jay, Dr.
Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, and Stetsasonic, just to name a few. The hip hop artwork and "slang" of
US urban communities quickly found its way to Europe and Asia, as the culture's global appeal
took root.

The 1980s also saw many artists make social statements through hip hop. In 1982, Melle
Mel and Duke Bootee recorded "The Message" (officially credited to Grandmaster Flash and
The Furious Five), a song that foreshadowed the socially conscious statements of Run-DMC's
"It's like That" and Public Enemy's "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos".

During the 1980s, hip hop also embraced the creation of rhythm by using the human
body, via the vocal percussion technique of beatboxing. Pioneers such as Doug E. Fresh, Biz
Markie, and Buffy from the Fat Boys made beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using their mouth,
lips, tongue, voice, and other body parts. "Human Beatbox" artists would also sing or
imitate turntablism scratching or other instrument sounds.

Over time, the effects of "the postmodern sentiments of hip hop" have "leveled out" the
"differential authority between generations" in black America. Early hip hop has often been
credited with helping to reduce inner-city gang violence by replacing physical violence with
dance and artwork battles. In the early 1970s, Kool DJ Herc began organizing dance parties in
his home in the Bronx. The parties became so popular they were moved to outdoor venues to
accommodate more people. City teenagers, after years of gang violence, were looking for new
ways to express themselves. These outdoor parties, hosted in parks, became a means of
expression and an outlet for teenagers, where "Instead of getting into trouble on the streets, teens
now had a place to expend their pent-up energy."

Tony Tone, a member of the pioneering rap group the Cold Crush Brothers, noted that
"Hip-hop saved a lot of lives." Hip hop culture became an outlet and a way of dealing with the
hardships of life as minorities within America, and an outlet to deal with violence and gang
culture. MC Kid Lucky mentions that “people used to break-dance against each other instead of
fighting.” Inspired by Kool DJ Herc, once-gang leader of the Black Spades, Afrika Bambaataa
created a street organization called Universal Zulu Nation, centered around hip hop, as a means
to draw teenagers out of gang life and violence.

Contrary to popular belief, the hip hop movement was not centered around violence,
drugs, and weapons in the early days. Many people used hip hop in positive ways. The lyrical
content of many early rap groups concentrated on social issues, most notably in the seminal track
"The Message". "Young black Americans coming out of the civil rights movement have used hip
hop culture in the 1980s and 1990s to show the limitations of the movement." Hip hop gave
young African Americans a voice to let their issues be noticed. It also gave young blacks a
chance for financial gain by "reducing the rest of the world to consumers of its social concerns."

This shows that hip hop's social impacts on the country have not been all negative. It has
positively affected many youth and encouraged them to voice their opinions on world and
personal issues. "Like rock-and-roll, hip hop is vigorously opposed by conservatives because it
romanticises violence, law-breaking, and gangs". Both hip hop and rock-and-roll were musical
movements used by teens in order to express how they felt about certain issues. Now hip hop and
rock-and-roll are combined in many ways including rewriting songs where a rapper or rock band
play with the other.

Mexico City Hip Hop Zócalo Street Dance 149

With the emergence of commercial and crime-related rap during the early 1990s,
however, an emphasis on violence was incorporated, with many rappers boasting about drugs,
weapons, misogyny, and violence. While hip hop music now appeals to a broader demographic,
media critics argue that socially and politically conscious hip hop has long been disregarded by
mainstream America in favor of gangsta rap.

Though created in the United States by African Americans and Latinos, hip hop culture
and music is now global in scope. Youth culture and opinion is meted out in both Israeli hip
hop and Palestinian hip hop, hile France, Germany, the U.K., Brazil, Japan, Africa, Australia and
the Caribbean have long-established hip hop followings. According to the U.S. Department of
State, hip hop is "now the center of a mega music and fashion industry around the world," that
crosses social barriers and cuts across racial lines. National Geographic recognizes hip hop as
"the world's favorite youth culture" in which "just about every country on the planet seems to
have developed its own local rap scene." Through its international travels, hip hop is now
considered a “global musical epidemic,” and has diverged from its ethnic roots by way of
globalization and localization.

Although some non-American rappers may still relate with young black Americans, hip
hop now transcends its original culture, and is appealing because it is “custom-made to combat
the anomie that preys on adolescents wherever nobody knows their name.” Hip hop is attractive
in its ability to give a voice to disenfranchised youth in any country, and as music with a
message it is a form available to all societies worldwide.

Even in the face of growing global popularity, or perhaps because of it, hip hop has come
under fire for being too commercial, too commodified. Artist Nas said it himself in his 2006
album Hip Hop is Dead. While this of course stirs up controversy, a documentary called The
Commodification of Hip Hop directed by Brooke Daniel interviews students at Satellite
Academy in New York City. One girl talks about the epidemic of crime that she sees in urban
black and Latino communities, relating it directly to the hip hop industry saying “When they
can’t afford these kind of things, these things that celebrities have like jewelry and clothes and
all that, they’ll go and sell drugs, some people will steal it…”Many students see this as a
negative side effect of the hip hop industry, and indeed, hip hop has been criticized all over the
world for spreading crime, violence, and American ideals of consumerism although much of the
hip-hop dancing community still chooses to refer back to more "oldschool" types of hip-hop
music that does not preach violence and drugs.

In an article for Village Voice, Greg Tate argues that the commercialization of hip hop is
a negative and pervasive phenomenon, writing that "what we call hip hop is now inseparable
from what we call the hip hop industry, in which the nouveau riche and the super-rich employers
get richer". Ironically, this commercialization coincides with a decline in rap sales and pressure
from critics of the genre. However, in his book In Search Of Africa, Manthia Diawara explains
that hip hop is really a voice of people who are down and out in modern society. He argues that
the "worldwide spread of hip-hop as a market revolution" is actually global "expression of poor
people’s desire for the good life," and that this struggle aligns with "the nationalist struggle for
citizenship and belonging, but also reveals the need to go beyond such struggles and celebrate
the redemption of the black individual through tradition."

This connection to "tradition" however, is something that may be lacking according to

one Satellite Academy staff member who says that in all of the focus on materialism, the hip hop
community is “not leaving anything for the next generation, we’re not building.”

As the hip hop genre turns 30, a deeper analysis of the music’s impact is taking place. It
has been viewed as a cultural sensation which changed the music industry around the world, but
some believe commercialization and mass production have given it a darker side. Tate has
described its recent manifestations as a marriage of “New World African ingenuity and that trick
of the devil known as global-hypercapitalism”, arguing it has joined the “mainstream that had
once excluded its originators.” While hip hop's values may have changed over time, the music
continues to offer its followers and originators a shared identity which is instantly recognizable
and much imitated around the world.
 From its early spread to Europe and Japan to an almost worldwide acceptance
through Asia and South American countries such as Brazil, the musical influence has been
global. Hip hop sounds and styles differ from region to region, but there is also a lot of
crossbreeding. In each separate hip hop scene there is also constant struggle between "old
school" hip hop and more localized, newer sounds. Regardless of where it is found, the music
often targets local disaffected youth.

Hip hop has given people a voice to express themselves, from the "Bronx to Beirut,
Kazakhstan to Cali, Hokkaido to Harare, Hip Hop is the new sound of a disaffected global youth
culture." Though on the global scale there is a heavy influence from US culture, different
cultures worldwide have transformed hip hop with their own traditions and beliefs. "Global Hip
Hop succeeds best when it showcases cultures that reside outside the main arteries of the African
Diaspora." Not all countries have embraced hip hop, where "as can be expected in countries with
strong local culture, the interloping wild style of hip hop is not always welcomed".

As hip hop becomes globally-available, it is not a one-sided process that eradicates local
cultures. Instead, global hip hop styles are often synthesized with local styles. Hartwig Vens
argues that hip hop can also be viewed as a global learning experience. Hip hop from countries
outside the United States is often labeled "world music" for the American consumer. Author Jeff
Chang argues that "the essence of hip hop is the cipher, born in the Bronx, where competition
and community feed each other."

Hip hop has impacted many different countries culturally and socially in positive ways.
"Thousands of organizers from Cape Town to Paris use hip hop in their communities to address
environmental justice, policing and prisons, media justice, and education."

While hip hop music has been criticized as a music which creates a divide between
western music and music from the rest of the world, a musical "cross pollination" has taken
place, which strengthens the power of hip hop to influence different communities. Hip hop's
impact as a "world music" is also due to its translatability among different cultures in the world.
Hip hop's messages allow the under-privileged and the mistreated to be heard. These cultural
translations cross borders. While the music may be from a foreign country, the message is
something that many people can relate to- something not "foreign" at all.

Even when hip hop is transplanted to other countries, it often retains its "vital progressive
agenda that challenges the status quo." Global hip hop is the meeting ground for progressive
local activism, as many organizers use hip hop in their communities to address environmental
injustice, policing and prisons, media justice, and education. In Gothenburg, Sweden,
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) incorporate graffiti and dance to engage disaffected
immigrant and working class youths. Indigenous youths in countries as disparate as Chile,
Indonesia, New Zealand, and Norway use hip hop to advance a new sort of generationalism.

REFERENCES

1. Afrika Bambaataa, (1996), Afrika Bambaataa's Definition Of Hip Hop?. Retrieved on

March 9, 2009 from http://www.daveyd.com/whatisbam.html
2. (2009), Hip Hop. Retrieved on March 9, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop