American History of Hip-Hop Culture
Uploaded by sls465 on Apr 18, 2007
American History of Hip-Hop Culture
Hip-hop culture developed during the seventies. Throughout its formation, the various elements were at some time or another, deemed unacceptable. Graffiti artists faced jail sentences, break dancing became illegal in some areas, and rap music has been severely criticized for various reasons. These elements were never analyzed in an oppositional manner until recently, however.
Hip-hop culture represented the claiming of urban communities by the residents. Writers decorated the empty walls of their communities in an attempt to personalize their surroundings. They also painted trains, which traveled to other communities, and in this sense they developed a living and moving art form. Break dancing claimed space simply because it utilized community space for the performance of a culture specific dance form. Finally, DJing and MCing claimed public space because the main stage for performance was often local parks where they would throw parties for the community. “The power was supplied by the city unknowingly as community members discovered ways in which they could tap into the city's power boxes at no expense to themselves” (Shomari, 45). Therefore, the development of hip-hop culture was inherently oppositional.
Rap music now viewed as an area for political debate by many, did not begin with this in mind. Rap music was developed by DJs, who used two of the same records and looped the break beats of the record, which then allowed the beat to be extended infinitely. They also used the record for “scratching.” Scratching is defined as “rapidly moving the record back and forth under the needle to create rap's famous swishing sound” (Small, 12). As the DJ developed the break beat and began to incorporate it into parties, the role of the MC arose. At first the role of the MC, or master of ceremony, was to interact with the crowd by speaking off the top of his head and sometimes rhyming. Soon MCs started competing with each other over who had the most skills at rhyming and hyping the crowd. The original form of rap music was not ground for political expression but rather an arena for entertainment and competition.
Rap music, as well as graffiti, eventually moved into the political sphere with the appearance of groups such as Boogie Down Productions and Public Enemy. Very few issues were left untouched, however as one may assume,...