from your hop Know your Hip

Many would associate Hip Hop with music alone but there many more artistic elements involved that form this popular culture. Introduced by African Americans and Latinos from economically deprived areas residing in the Bronx New York city, it became hugely popular owing to its innovative style involving Deejaying, Breaking, Turntabling, Rapping and Graffiti.

Graffiti

Although Graffiti is often associated with gangs and vandalism, hip hop artists use Graffiti to express emotion, communicate a message and mark territory. It is used to capture visual attention in areas such as Subways and artists, often concealing their identity, exhibit their creative skills using colourful spray paints.

Urban Fashion

Hip Hop style dates back to streetwear during the 1970’s. As it became mainstream the style remained unchanged as the traditional baggy pants, sneakers, gold jewellery, bomber jackets and hooded sweatshirts, only over time different accessories contributed to the fashion like bandannas, side wearing baseball caps or carrying boomboxes. Women often wore 6 bamboo earrings, hair weaves, bra tops and oversized jewellery.

Breakdancing or B-Boying

Breakdancing is globally recognised as an energetic form of dance. Overtime it has become more diverse and involves athletic movements such as head and backspins, freezes, drops, swipes, stylized footwork, popping and locking, top rock and down rock and incorporates co-ordination, style and acrobatics.

As the Hip Hop culture has advanced so have the dance competitions or battles that have become popular around the world. The term ‘break’ dates back to DJ Cool Herc’s deejaying style of ‘cutting breaks’. He recognised that dancers grew ecstatic during the ‘breaks’ in the song which allowed audiences to stimulate their dance moves.

Deejaying and Rapping

Old School Music

Hip Hop music owes its growth to the early pioneers including Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa and DJ Kool Herc who is arguably the credited founder of hip hop. The first hip hop song to become a commercial success was ‘Rappers Delight’ by ‘The Sugar Hill Gang’ released in 1979.

New School Music - The Golden Age of Hip Hop - Record Labels recognised hip hop as an emerging trend, invested more money and used advanced technology to edit, sequence and mix music to begin remixing. Several breakthrough artists came to prominence including LL Cool J, Run DMC, Public Enemy, and Will Smith. ‘Gansgsta Rap’ also emerged during the East and West Coast Feud which led to the murders of Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. A lot of socially conscious hip hop music was produced highlighting issues such as poverty, injustice, drugs and crime. Artists like Snoop Dogg, P Diddy, Ice Cube and Dr Dre dominated the industry.

Modern Day Hip-Hop - A commercial success, hip hop continues to dominate the charts with artists like 50 Cent, Kanye West, Jay Z and Eminem making chart history. Hip Hop has been successful in forming a diverse culture of extremely talented artists from around the globe.

BY SOHANA PATEL 7