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Hip Hop: The Positive Impacts Of Hip-Hop Culture

Decent Essays

Introduction

Hip-Hop culture is constructed by different elements including Mcing (Rapping), Djing, Breakdancing, Beatboxing and Graffiti. (George, 2006) Hip-hop culture does not only reflect the spirit of African American youth and working class but also severed as a cultural form to express their views on politics and the society. It is believed that Hip-hop is an evolving spirit that connects the past and the presents to the urban youth. It is not only a genre of music, but also a combination of different ideas, values and concepts that conveys influential messages to the public. Although violence in hip-hop has always been the target in social media, it has positive impacts on youth politically and socially. Therefore, it has become a …show more content…

Is it first emerged among Black youth? Hip-hop music is pioneered in New York’s South Bronx in 1973 by DJ Herc. (George, 2006) He used an innovative turntable technique to stretch a song’s drum break by playing the break portion of two identical records consecutively during his sister’s dance party. (George, 2006) This innovation caught attention of hip-hop fans and was carved out by popular African-American radio disc jockeys in New York during the early 1970s, which introduced songs and artists with spontaneous rhymes. Since then, rapping was widely used by DJs at dance parties and clubs, the popularity of rapping was increased dramatically. Since rapping was getting more popular in the downtown area in New York, more youngsters were curious to learn the technique and became DJs and MCs. They kept improving their technique with a good sense of rhythm and creativity. The first official album of hip-hop single is called “Rapper’s Delight”, which was released in 1979 by The Sugarhill …show more content…

It is because rap brings changes to their traditional values and beliefs. Before 1970s, Black youth were used to derive values and identity from traditional community institutions such as family, schools and church. They seldom have changes on their lifestyles and cultures. However, the advancement of media and entertainment such as pop music, film and fashion encourage the transformation of black youth culture. When hip-hop music was emerged, rappers and hip-hop fans tended to spread news of their daily lives, dream and disappointments through songs and lyrics. “…rap’s dense, poetic, lyric content [was] often underpinned by African-American messages about a historical marginalized status”. (Osumare, 2001) Usually, themes of rap songs focus on the social problems in black community such as the inequalities between black and white, poor policy of government institutions etc. As a result, rappers are viewed as the voice of poor African American youth. As they helped the powerless youth to express their thoughts on different issues, rapping became a popular youth culture since

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