Can You Understand "The Message"?

Since its conception, hip hop has been a very necessary and influential art form in the way that it gives a voice to people who would normally not have one. The fact that it was often the sole voice for a marginalized community meant that the genre has often shouldered the “burden of being a genuine political force.” Hip hop’s role in addressing the concerns of urban Black Americans has led people to refer to it as “CNN for Black people.” However, in recent times, the commercialization of the genre (and growing popularity with white audiences) has generated a lot of criticism from many who feel that the essence of hip hop is being destroyed and it does not have as much of a meaningful effect on dispossessed Black youth as it used to have.

Living in communities that are run down, neglected and forgotten takes a toll on all members of the community. This is especially true when residents witness new properties being erected around the city as their own neighborhoods are deemed “ghettos” and not receiving the investment necessary for improvements. Many of the low income housing that is available to city residents aren’t the most desirable properties as they may have structural deficiencies, lead paint, rats and roaches running amuck. Many older properties also do not have adequately functioning heat or hot water availability. The housing projects also do not have air conditioning. On hot days, having no cool break in addition to all the other negative social factors, this can be a deadly combination that may perpetuate frustrations and ultimately lead to violence.

Even though, hip-hop is viewed as primarily of promoting negative message, however, it has reveled the pain behind the lyrics. “Hip hop music, had for over three and half decades, delivered a resounding message of freedom of expression, unity, peace, and protest against social injustices”. (Anderson & Jackson) As hip-hop continues to grow it has continued to remain a strong influential social impact. Hip-hop created a way for many individuals to express themselves on controversial issues seen throughout society.

Hip Hop was birthed in the neighborhood, where young people gathered in parks, on playgrounds, and neighborhood street corners, to verbalize poetry over spontaneous sounds and adopted melodies. Hip Hop was not just the music; it was also a way for the young to show their skills in break dancing, gymnastic dance style that was valued, and athleticism over choreographed fluidity. Hip hop was also fashion such as: hats, jackets, gold chains, and name-brand sneakers. Hip Hop was a form of graffiti, to a new way of expression that engaged spray paint on the subway walls as the canvas. In addition, today’s hip hop have changed as where the DJ was once is now the producer as the key music maker, and the park is now a studio.

Breaking through in the heart of the Bronx, Hip Hop was designed to empower and teach the youth, while providing them an outlet for creative expression. Developed on five essential pillars, all working towards: giving African Americans knowledge that they didn’t have access to, inspiring them to read and acquire true knowledge of self, and to understand the role that self has in America in relation to the actual worth of self. Since the inception of Hip Hop, the genre has evolved through the times while transcending new depths aligned with its original pillars.

“The reality is that if you are poor in a fast, cold city like this, they don't care how you live so long as you are not out on the streets worrying people,? 83 year old Maria Pagan told The Times. Mrs. Pagan lived for a decade in a Bushwick building that was crumbling around her ?the landlord, the City of New York, only began making improvements when her bathroom ceiling collapsed. In comparison, Riis’s description of his photograph of Baxter Street in The New York Sun, “At 59 Baxter Street . . . is an alley. . . with tenements on either side ?so close as to almost shut out the light of day.?

In this article, the speaker must be an expert in politics, ethnicity and the music industry. There is a linkage between the above fields hence the speaker must have had a superlative background on these issues. The audience targeted by this literature were seemingly music enthusiasts to be educated on understanding what Hip-Hop entails and hoped to achieve this as it was established. The subject was Hip-Hop as a music genre that was largely developed by African American men to express their plight on injustice and oppression. The principal issue was how Hip-Hop has been used as a form of resistance and need for deliverance of the African Americans.

In order to understand hip-hop dance, it is important to recognize hip-hop music and where it came from. Many scholars of rap music relate the founding of rap to African and African American oral and musical traditions, specifically African griots and storytellers. They link the rhythm of rap to the use of drums in Africa and to African American music in the United States, from slave songs and spirituals to jazz and R&B. Scholars have found very interesting connections between rap music and Black nationalist traditions (traditions historically practiced by black people that serve as part of their racial identity). Rap is similar to the “call and response of the black church, the joy and pain of the blues, the jive talk and slang of the hipsters and jazz musicians, the boasting of street talk, the sidesplitting humor of comedians, and the articulateness of black activists.” All of these African American oral traditions, including rap, can be traced back to West African oral traditions. In traditional African societies, the spoken word and oral culture included poetry, storytelling, and speaking to drumbeats. The links between rap music and African American oral and musical traditions demonstrate that hip-hop music represents more than just sound. It represents history. This aspect of it, in my opinion, makes this type of music very unique and makes it carry more value.

From the early 1980’s into the early 1990’s, hip-hop was an integral tool in the dissemination of young people’s voices against mainstream politics. These times were tense and rather controversial. It began with Reagan’s call for the reemergence of state rights; this call was a form of political messaging which utilized coded language targeting different groups with dual messages also known as dog whistling. It allowed individual states total power and control in instituting their own policies including segregation. On top of the aforementioned and in light of the increased state regulation, intense and increased police brutality became an unfortunate reflection of the times. As a result, many people, especially those of color, lost trust in

In the early 70's, a Jamaican, DJ known as Kool Herc attempted to combine his Jamaican style of disk jockey, that involved reciting improvised rhymes over the dub versions of his reggae records (Davey 1). He also invented turntables, which kept the music going, with the occasional voice on the top of records, which started the roots of rap music. Over time, the culture broke into mainstream, spread around the world, and young people who did not have much to do, created not only multi-million industry, but have also created a way we can speak to each other all around the world. Hip hop is linked to other music such as rap which is embraced by urban black population. It is raw self-expression, sometimes features expletive lyrics, and violence. “Hip hop artists spoke to despair and pain of urban youth and the poor who were often without a voice. The rappers themselves were, the product of that reality, and it was conveyed through their lyrics” (Muhammad 1).

Hip-hop culture began to develop in the south Bronx area of New York City during the 1970s. It had a significant influence in the music industry. Hip-hop music generally includes rapping, but other elements such as sampling and beatboxing also play important roles. Rapping, as a key part in the hip-hop music, takes different forms, which including signifying, dozen, toast and jazz poetry. Initially, hip-hop music was a voice of people living in low-income areas, reflecting social, economic and political phenomenon in their life [1]. As time moves on, hip-hop music reached its “golden age”, where it became a mainstream music, featuring diversity, quality, innovation and influence [2]. Gangsta rap, one of the most significant innovations in

Rap music, also known as hip-hop, is a popular art form. Having risen from humble origins on the streets of New York City during the mid-1970s, hip-hop has since become a multifaceted cultural force. Indeed, observers say, hip-hop is more than just music. The culture that has blossomed around rap music in recent decades has influenced fashion, dance, television, film and—perhaps what has become the most controversially—the attitudes of American youth. For many rappers and rap fans during it’s early time, hip-hop provided an accurate, honest depiction of city life that had been considered conspicuously absent from other media sources, such as television. With a growing number of rap artists within this period, using hip-hop as a platform to call for social progress and impart positive messages to listeners, the genre entered a so-called Golden Age

It has been 30 years since Hip-Hop was first “introduced” to the world. Whether it be fashion or politics, this musical genre/culture plays a huge role in everyday life and has generated billions of dollars across the globe. In this paper I will be discussing when, where, and how Hip-Hop was created, “old school Hip-Hop, “Hip-Hop’s Golden Age”, “Hardcore rap” “Gangsta rap”, “G-Funk”, 21st century Hip-Hop, and how Hip-Hop affects society.

Hip-Hop is a cultural movement that emerged from the dilapidated South Bronx, New York in the early 1970’s. The area’s mostly African American and Puerto Rican residents originated this uniquely American musical genre and culture that over the past four decades has developed into a global sensation impacting the formation of youth culture around the world. The South Bronx was a whirlpool of political, social, and economic upheaval in the years leading up to the inception of Hip-Hop. The early part of the 1970’s found many African American and Hispanic communities desperately seeking relief from the poverty, drug, and crime epidemics engulfing the gang dominated neighborhoods. Hip-Hop proved to be successful as both a creative outlet for

Hip Hop music became one of the primary constructive outlets for Black Americans to release their thoughts, pain, and anguish about the injustices and mistreatments of Black people. Even though most of the pioneers in Hip-Hop either were not born in America or are 2nd generation immigrants that proves that common oppression can lead to unity. The fact that that these individuals were impoverished and felt marginalized is what brought them together and lead to the culture today. Deep rooted racism in the United States kept the genre of music suppressed for a while before it was allowed to even be played on the airwaves. Now, in 2011, the main consumers of byproducts of hip hop are White Americans.