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What is hip-hop and why is it so important? It is a lifestyle or culture with its own unique language, style of dress, music and mindset. You can not label hip-hop as one specific term, it is composed of many elements. Initially it consisted of four main elements; graffiti art, break dancing, deejaying, and emceeing, but it has now evolved into something much bigger than that. In this day and age, hip-hop culture is immersed into youth culture as if it were innate. Everywhere you go you can hear and see hip-hop culture. A major problem in today's society is that many people (mainly older adults) choose to be ignorant on the subject of hip-hop culture. They choose to base their perceptions solely on the mass media and pin today's youth who are involved and influenced by hip-hop culture as simply 'gangsters'or 'troubled teens.' But in fact, this is definitely not the case; teenagers who live in high-class communities and private schools are also influenced by hip-hop culture. It is not a culture that is bound to only African Americans or people who live in the 'ghetto', but it is a part of society which is embraced by people of all ages, genders, and ethnicity. Whether people like it or not, hip-hop culture is here to stay.
The roots of Hip-Hop.
The term hip-hop as we know of it today originated and exploded in the South Bronx section of New York City around the mid-1970s. Break dancing, "bombing" or gratifying trains/buses, and going to listen to deejays became a fundamental part of New York street life. The deejay or "master of ceremonies," who at first would only encourage the crowd as they danced, began to talk more freely. A Jamaican deejay known as Kool Herc moved from Kingston, NJ to West Bronx and he created a style of reciting improvised rhymes over the dub versions of his reggae records. Eventually, the deejay or "M.C." would become today's rap musicians. Then in 1979, an African-American woman named Sylvia Robinson founded Sugar Hill Records in Englewood, NJ, and put out "Rappers Delight," the first rap album. They called themselves the Sugar Hill Gang and 'Rapper's Delight' went on to sell 5 million records. The tremendous popularity of the rap music began to spread like wild fire across the nation. People began to take notice of the hip-hop phenomenon and like all trends, people wanted to emulate the rap musicians' dress, talk, and lifestyle. Since the birth of hip-hop culture in the South Bronx of New York, there has been no looking back and the effects have been great on our American society.
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