Introduction
The hip hop musical genre developed at the same time with the hip hop culture which we can define by stylistic elements such as Raping, Djing,
The hip hop music was born at the Bronx of New York city in 1970’s basically from African Americans and Jamaican Americans. Often the word rap is used as same meaning with the hip hop but hip hop has an entire subculture. Usually rapping is also called Mcing (emceeing) which is a vocal style in which the artist speaks lyrically in rhyme and with the company of an instrumental or synthesized beat. Beats mostly are created by looping and mixing portions of other songs.
The roots of hip hop are found in African-American music and ultimately African music. The griots of West Africa are a group of traveling singers and poets who are part of an oral tradition dating back hundreds of years. Their vocal style is similar to that of rappers. The African-American traditions of signifyingHYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signifyin’”‘, the dozens, and jazz poetry are all descended from the griots. In addition, musical ‘comedy’ acts such as Rudy Ray Moore and Blowfly are considered by some to be the forefathers of rap. Within New York City, griot-like performances of poetry and music by artists such as The Last Poets, Gil Scott Heron and Jalal Mansur Nuriddin had a significant impact on the post-civil rights era culture of the 1960s and 1970s. Hip hop arose during the 1970s when block parties became increasingly popular in New York City, especially in the Bronx. Block parties incorporated DJs who played popular genres of music, especially funk and soul music. DJs, realizing its positive reception, began isolating the percussion breaks of popular songs. This technique was then common in Jamaican dub music and had spread to New York City via the substantial Jamaican immigrant community. A major proponent of the technique was the ‘godfather’ of hip hop, the Jamaican-born DJ Kool Herc.
Clive Campbell (born April 16, 1955), also known as Kool Herc, DJ Kool Herc and Kool DJ Herc, is a Jamaican-born DJ who is credited with originating hip hop music, in the Bronx, New York City. His playing of hard funk records of the sort typified by James Brown was an alternative both to the violent gang culture of the Bronx and to the nascent popularity of disco in the 1970s. In response to the reactions of his dancers, Campbell began to isolate the instrumental portion of the record which emphasized the drum beat-the “break”-and switch from one break to another to yet another.
Hip hop was almost entirely unknown outside of the United States prior to the early 1980s. During that decade, it began its spread to every inhabited continent and became a part of the music scene in dozens of countries. In the early part of the decade, break dancing became the first aspect of hip hop culture to reach Germany, Japan, Australia and South Africa, where the crew Black Noise established the practice before beginning to rap later in the decade. Meanwhile, recorded hip hop was released in France and the Philippines (Dyords Javier’s “Na Onseng Delight” and Vincent Dafalong’s “Nunal”). In Puerto Rico, Vico C became the first Latino rapper, and his recorded work was the beginning of what became known as reggaeton.
Japanese hip hop is said to have begun when Hiroshi Fujiwara returned to Japan and started playing Hip-Hop records in the early 1980s. Japanese hip hop generally tends to be most directly influenced by old school hip hop, taking from the era’s catchy beats, dance culture, and overall fun and carefree nature and incorporating it into their music. As a result, hip hop stands as one of the most commercially viable mainstream music genres in Japan, and the line between it and pop music is frequently blurred. Hip hop has globalized into many cultures worldwide, as evident through the emergence of numerous regional scenes. It has emerged globally as a movement based upon the main tenets of hip hop culture. The music and the art continue to embrace, even celebrate, its transnational dimensions while staying true to the local cultures to which it is rooted. Hip-hop’s inspiration differs depending on each culture. Still, the one thing virtually all hip hop artists worldwide have in common is that they acknowledge their debt to those African American people in New York who launched the global movement. While hip-hop is sometimes taken for granted by Americans, it is not so elsewhere, especially in the developing world, where it has come to represent the empowerment of the disenfranchised and a slice of the American dream. American hip-hop music has reached the cultural corridors of the globe and has been absorbed and reinvented around the world.
Hip Hop music has had many different effects on teens since its inception in the late 1970’s. When most people think of rap music today, they immediately think of the gangster or thug mentality that has infested suburban teens with an attitude that reflects the heart of the ghetto. This may normally be revealed through a change in language or slang, as well as a change in appearance or dress. Rap nearly paints a picture to a child of what is going on in the streets. It has a much bigger influence on suburban teens because children who live in poverty strictened areas already have an idea of what that life is really like. Lots of times it comes down to children wanting to be considered “cool”.
As a cultural movement, hip-hop manages to get billed as both a positive and negative influence on young people, especially on Black and Latino youth. On one hand, there are African American activists, artists and entrepreneurs, such as Russell Simmons, who seek to build a progressive political movement among young hip-hop fans and who have had modest success with voter registration efforts. On the other hand, there’s no shortage of critics who denounce the negative portrayals of Black people, especially women, in hip-hop lyrics and videos.
Recently, a few critics in major U.S. newspapers took note of a well-publicized marketing firm study that cited the cultural influence of hip-hop and reported on sexuality among African American youth in households earning less than $25,000 per year in 10 cities. The study revealed that Black adolescents are becoming sexually active at ages younger than other youth and are suffering from HIV/AIDS at a rate higher than other groups.
Political hip hop (also political rap) is a sub-genre of hip hop music that developed in the 1980s. Inspired by 1970s political preachers such as The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron, Public Enemy were the first political hip hop group. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five released the first well-known sociopolitical rap song in 1982 called “The Message”, which inspired numerous rappers to address social and political subjects.
Explicitly political hip hop is related to but distinct from conscious hip hop because it refers to artists who have strong and overt political affiliations and agendas, as opposed to the more generalized social commentary typical of conscious hip hop. It can also be used to include political artists of all ideological stripes, whereas the term conscious hip hop generally implies a broadly leftist affiliation or outlook.
There are hundreds of artists whose music could be described as “political”.
Black HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_nationalism”Nationalism was one of the driving ideologies behind the militant wing of the North American civil rights movement in the 1970s and early 1980s. It played a major role in early political hip hop and continues to be a major animating force for many contemporary political hip hop artists. Prominent Black Nationalist artists include Tupac Shakur, Public Enemy, Paris, and many others.
Marxism has long been a major animating force in social movements worldwide and is no less so in Hip Hop. Without a doubt the two most overtly Marxist groups in the english language have been Marxman and The Coup. Both groups also incorporate(d) Revolutionary Nationalism into their message, Irish Republicanism for Marxman and Black Nationalism for the Coup. For these artists, as with Marxism in general, class struggle and anti-imperialism are major recurring themes.
Anarchism has been a major motivating ideology for popular movements around the globe for over a century and is just as relevant in Hip Hop culture. Like Marxist hip hop, class struggle and anti-imperialism are major themes in anarchist hip hop music along with Anti-parliamentarianism and a strong emphasis on intersectionality and the connections between different movements.
The need for community-level grassroots organization and opposition to political hierarchy and illegitimate authority are also common themes. Unlike Marxist acts, several of which have been signed to major labels, anarchists artists have generally followed a DIY ethos which has led them to remain independent.Many other artists object to Capitalism in general but prefer not to explicitly identify with either Marxism or Anarchism and instead advocate various other forms of Socialism. The most prominent hip hop acts that describe their politics as “socialist” are Dead Prez, Blue Scholars, SNIPED, and Sun Rise Above. Immortal Technique identifies himself as a socialist and supports Castro and Leninism. Looptroop Rockers is an anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist hip-hop project from Sweden. Askari X, a rapper hailing from Oakland, CA, has also expressed his loyalty to the African People Socialist Party.
Other political hip hop artists advocate a wide range of positions, and often disagree with one another, as can be expected from an extremely diverse global scene. Zionist hip hop acts like Golan and Subliminal, and Palestinian nationalists like the Iron Sheik have obvious fundamental disagreements about a wide range of issues, but both use hip hop music and culture as a vehicle to express themselves and spread their ideas. As hip hop becomes increasingly widespread, artists from many different countries and backgrounds are using it to express many different positions, among them political ones. The nature of hip-hop (as with much music) as an opposing force to the establishment lends itself to such a use.
Listening to rap has not been shown to increase suicidal ideation and anxiety or adversely affect self-esteem among college-aged men and women. Oddly enough, students listening to a nonviolent rap song experienced more depressive symptoms than those who listened to a violent rap song. Overall, rap songs are more inclined to generate angry emotions than heavy metal songs.
Every so often a new style of music emerges that takes America by storm and comes to represent the generation that grows up with it. In the 50’s it was rock’n’roll, followed by the Motown sound of the 60’s. The 1970’s brought folk music and disco, and in the 80’s it was rap. Perhaps no other form of music has crossed as many boundaries and become a bridge between America’s many cultures as rap has
I believe that hip-hop is bringing the cultures together. The sound of hip-hop is
one element that shows that our work can be less divided and more united. I support the joining of artists to create unique styles of music. I think that shows that people are more open to change these days. Anymore, most people do not see the differences in colors or backgrounds. This generation has not only grown up with the rap music, but it has grown up with many different cultures. My peers and I grew up and went to school with many black children. From the very beginning, my generation has accepted the differences in body color. It’s not strange to see an interracial marriage or two children of different races that are best friends. Hip-hop has pushed the sounds of the different ethnic backgrounds together to speak to all people.
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