Hip hop is a cultural phenomenon. It is a connected ecosystem of music, art, lifestyle , and culture that permeate d beyond racial lines to become a powerful influence on many members of society. Hip hop was first and foremost conceptualized as a genre of music but also ha s several pillars ascribed to it at its point of inception ( Chang, 2007 ) . These pillars include r apping/ ’ MCing ’ , ‘ djing, ’ graffiti writing , and ‘ b-boying. ’ However, the culture of hip hop and the rapping side of it, in particular, have changed dramatically since the late '70s in New York. In this light, this paper attempt s to discuss the various aspects of hip hop. Specifically, it will cover the social, artistic and political roots of the genre ; the present state of its art, music, and culture ; and finally a reflection on the current social and political climate , and the future of hip hop.
The Roots of Hip Hop
Hip hop as a style of music involves two aspects; the beat and the rap or emceeing. The hip hop musical beat is based on heavy drum beats and other percussion instrument inclusions and looping for the duration of the song . The lyrical lines are spoken in stylised fashion over the beat in what is known as rapping. However, this definition is a narrow understanding of the medium and does not satisfactorily explore the immense diversity of the hip hop genre of music . While many facts on hip hop’s beginning are disputed, there is a consensus on various facts about its origins. For instance, it is argued that hip hop began in New York, in the Bronx borough ( Chang, 2007 ) . O ne of the first hip hop DJs was DJ Kool Herc , also known as Clive Campbell . Campbell resided in Sedgwick Avenue (Black, 2014). During hip hop’s inception, individuals bought two records of the same track and interlaced the beat breaks on two different turntables in order to create a large loop. Later, artists began laying lyrical raps over th e s e beats. Th is new music led to the creation of a culture of rap, break dancing , and graffiti style of art. The latter entails individuals artistically express ing themselves with spray paint on the side of buildings or other places. The act of placing graffiti is known as tagging.
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Artistic Influence
A key aspect of hip hop’s nature as a musical style is the use of sampled sections of music from other genres together to form a track. Individuals started doing this by picking breaks from songs and merging them using mixers. Breaks were sections of a song where there was no lyrical input from the artist, but only the basic beat of the track played. According to rapper Ice-T's explanation in the 2012 hip hop documentary Something from Nothing , the best individuals in this section of hip hop were those who had the best breaks thus leading to intense enjoyment from the crowds. Those who danced to these looped breaks were known as ‘break dancers' or ‘b-boys/ b-girls'. The first individuals to successfully mix two tracks came to be referred to as disc jockeys (DJs). On the other hand, the l yrical artists who rapped over the beat were known as MCs (microphone commanders). Artistically, early hip hop was influenced by various genres of music at the time. While hip hop’s earliest tracks were sampled from beat breaks from disco, reg ga e and funk hits, this genre is characteri z ed by an ability to incorporate other genres of music, collaborations , and creating different styles through experimentation. This feature makes hip hop extremely versatile.
At its roots, hip hop is primarily about enabling the artistic expression of the oppressed youth and minorities and the creation of awareness. A key aspect of the history and inspiration behind hip hop is that some of its pioneers are still alive and therefore available to clarify what informed their decision to begin this experimental form of expression that has gone ahead to become a global phenomenon instead of a gimmick that would fade away after some time.
Socio-Political Influence
To explain the socio-political basis of the hip hop movement, there is a need to examine founding artists like African Bambaataa and Dj Kool Herc and how they found it necessary to express the ir concerns via hip hop . Contrary to popular belief, hip hop as a culture was not built solely for the African American s . It is true that this group has embraced the genre the most . However, according to the pioneers , the movement 's principal objective was to create a force to awaken the populace to various socio-political issues, no matter the individual racial background, creed or social class ( Chang, 2007 ) . Notable issues of concern include d war, racial discrimination, drugs , and lack of opportunities . In a past interview , Afrika Bambaataa explained why he felt the need to embrace hip hop (Reid, 2010). According to this artist , the populace was not aware of what was happening around them. People were ignorant of the problems that had begun to surface, particularly those affecting African Americans . They were also unaware of the impacts of war on the world. This led him to want to educate people, and one of the best way s of achiev ing this was through entertaining music. His music and that of many early hip hop artists was therefore heavily influenced by the teachings of civil rights thinkers such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X (Clay, 2012). This was because th ese were the teachers who sought to have the very same effect on the population during the Civil Rights movement of the '60s. Thus, e arly hip hop called on the rise of awareness of the population . S ince most of the budding artists were African American s , it called for the specific rise in awareness of the African American population. This explains hip hop’s dominant nature in the black culture (Morgan & Bennett, 2011).
Progressio n from Original Ideologies
Hip hop, however, moved towards less philosophical ideologies and cultural awareness and instead, built itself into something entirely different. As Afrika Bambaataa put it, “People have got fed up with being lectured as if it was their mother and father. Who wants to go to a party and be lectured? You can stay at home to hear that” (Reid, 2010). This was indicative of the genre’s movement away from conscious hip hop and a desire for more relevant music. This was the birth of anti-establishment hip hop. A landmark example of such music was the 1988 N.W.A. album Straight Outta Compton . The movement led to the emergence of a whole subgenre of hip hop known as gan g sta rap (McCann, 2012). Gangsta rap was characteri z ed by a rough language and an anti-establishment feel to the music. It glorified violence and the drug industry and usually showed great contempt for the police as indicated by Ice-T's ‘Cop Killer ’ and N.W.A's ‘Fuck the Police.'
Other rap songs at the time also had explicit and a general disdain for women usually depicted in music videos in skimpily clad dressing. Rap moved towards more expressive topics such as getting rich, having fun at clubs , and being with as many women as possible. This misogyny became ingrained in rap culture with intense popularity among both black and the white populations that began to like rap music (Rebollo-Gil & Moras, 2012). This does not imply that all hip hop moved towards this motif of music. There were still many musicians who retained production of music that deviated from this norm. N ewcomers in the scene began to direct their musi c towards popular motifs of violence, sex, and drugs, especially in the 90s and 20 0 0s. This was because angling your music in this direction made one more popular and financially successful.
There was also a movement of hip hop from its original intent that with time , people began feeling that the medium had be en lost. Due to over-commerciali z ation, some artists such as KRS-ONE and more popularly, Nas started to say that hip hop was dead (Abbott, 2007). This was because of the mass commerciali z ation of the medium that happened from the '80s through to the '90s . Commercialization peaked in the latter with most artists choosing popular themes of wealth and entrepreneurship as opposed to sticking to the heart of hip hop. This was particularly brutal on the medium’s original philosophy because it pushed against hip hop’s original ideology of cultural and political awareness and replaced it with content meant for mass consumption ( Chang, 2007 ) . There have been several attempts to explain this phenomenon, with some saying that this was just a movement for the show of masculinity (Boylorn, 2017).
Present State of Hip Hop, Art Music and Culture, and the Social and Political Climate
The modern age of hip hop has given rise to many subgenres built around different ideologies. There has been an increase in culturally aware music covering topics that are important to the black community like systemic racism and police violence against minorities. Modern hip hop, particularly rap subculture, has also helped fuel debates on political issues all across the world. In Russia, rap groups have become well known for call ing out domineering individuals in society, such as President Vladimir Putin. This has led to the arrest of various rap artists . Rap has also had a significant influence on social issues offering both commentary on situations and calling out the oppressors on their actions such as can be seen with Kendrick Lamar's DNA where he samples a reporter ’ s reaction to his song from his previous album To Pimp A Butterfly (Glen, 2017).
As it stands now, hip hop is even more diverse than it was at its beginning. One of the arguments that can be made for this is that hip hop is a mouthpiece for all people’s without a mainstream voice. This is primarily a reason why hip hop has become widespread internationally. Hip hop has grown into a diverse field with many artists originating from outside the United States ( US ) still finding commercial success. Furthermore, hip hop has been amalgamated into various languages to create different fusions by blending cultures of its adopted nation’s sounds. This is because unlike other genres of music, hip hop allow s for insertion of non-traditional motifs. The result is a culture that may have started in the US but is recogni z able all across the world by its nature in its own right, but also in its fused state with the local music narrative (Taviano, 2013).
T here has also been a rise in a m usic al narrative that glorifies violence and degrades women. Artists such as Chief Keef gained massive popularity as rappers by glorif ying violence and gang culture, drug dealing , and murder that exists in Chicago (Stehlik, 2012). Such artists speak narratives that bec o me popular enough in the music industry to catch on and result in a whole new kind of hip hop culture. This might be as a result of the characteristic of hip hop culture to depict masculinity. Scholars have made arguments that hip hop is a genre of music that is built mainly around mal e artists displaying their masculinity in one way or another. At its infancy, this was executed by bragging about one’s credibility as having gang affiliations, having been a drug dealer, having committed murder or been incarcerated for a crime. However, in the modern era, the masculinity narrative has moved towards being an entrepreneur and making deals that earn individuals millions (Hunter, 2011).
This phenomenon can also be tied to the movement of hip hop culture from having issues with mainstream popularity to embracing commercial success. In the beginning, hip hop artists were expected to remain authentic. This was translated to mean that they would not produc e music for mass consumption but instead would stay true to the craft. However, in modern hip hop, this is no longer an issue. With 50 Cent bragging about his deal with Vitamin Water and the fact that Jay Z is the world’s richest hip hop artist (Abadi), gaining mainstream success is no longer frowned upon. Instead, it is actively encouraged. However, Jay Z himself critics being flashy with money for its own sake in his song ‘The Story of O.J ’ (Genius, n.d)
On the other hand, t he current state of the global political and social climate is that of an increas e in the right wing, nationalist agendas that are focussed on protect ing their nations and peoples while becoming much stricter on issues of immigration and the support of people's access to opportunities. In this context, h ip hop might be used by the people in these situations to highlight their struggles, just as others before them did.
Reflection
When looking at hip hop, its origin, past and how it seems now, one thing stands. This is the fact that the genre will undoubtedly c hange. Of all genres of music, hip hop is the most versatile, embracing all influences imposed on it to take any form as determined by the artist. This implies that the hip hop culture will always be fluid, covering various issues , and attacking and defending various schools of thought. However, there is a concern that the medium is becoming too commercial and that the message is being lost. Th is argument is m ade by those who do not want to embrace the fact that hip hop is a tool for anyone and that their choice of the material to cover, no matter what it is, does not matter to the medium. All that the medium requires are individuals who want to, and can properly use it. In this sense, hip hop can go anywhere, from continuing and increasing its focus on social justice messages, to self-aware caricatures of its own culture and the showy, macho, boastful nature that some of its artists espouse. The genre can also be use d by unpopular minority movements to highlight their beliefs. Thus, h ip hop is a versatile tool for any one’s use. All it requires is an excellent artist to embrace it.
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