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Hip Hop Influence On American Culture

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What movement changed the world and created many traditions, movements, and even lifestyles? Hip-Hop. This is a name for four elements, created in the late seventies, which includes turntablism, emceeing, graffiti, and break dancing. Hip Hop attained widespread popularity in the 1980s and ’90s. Today, many view this as just “Rap,” but Hip Hop is not just music, it is a cultural movement that influenced America in positive ways. These influences can be seen in the traditions, fashion, art, music, and lifestyles of America. It is important to recognize the voice of an otherwise underrepresented group and how it influenced lifes. The culture of hip hop has a wide variety of influences that led to its creation. Hip Hop originated in the neighborhoods …show more content…

This results from descendance of rappers from Griots. Griots were keepers of knowledge, including tribal history, and news of birth, death, and war. Many griots spread knowledge through spoken words just like hip hop rappers (Blanchard). Rappers create songs that spread news of their daily lives, dreams, and childhoods. They are viewed as the voice of the poor and urban African American youth who are misrepresented by the media. Rap is more than just saying words on a hip hop beat, it allows rappers to speak for their community and voice concerns. Rap was well known in African-American communities, but became prominent in 1979 with the song “Rapper’s Delight” by Sugarhill Gang. Within weeks, rap began topping the music charts which ultimately led to it gaining the name “new genre of pop music.” The first group to bring rap to a mainstream audience, MTV, was Run D.M.C. Run D.M.C was a trio of middle-class African Americans who came together in the early-1980s. They mixed rap with hard rock, shaping a new style of hip hop known as “New School Hip Hop.” New School Hip Hop was also pioneered by Def Jam which was a rising record label for rappers and DJ’s. Def Jam introduced many artist such as LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, and Public Enemy. The Beastie Boys broadened rap’s audience, becoming one of rap's first all white male band, On the other hand, Public Enemy invested rap with radical black political ideology

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