The Essence of Hip Hop Music
The Beginning of Hip Hop
In the 1970’s Hip Hop progressed. To the oppressed, Rap is music without restrictions, unique, it can be whatever you want it to be and be something that is alluring. According to Pastor Calvin Butts notes “rap is the essence of who we are”. It began in Bronx and Harlem, New York and has affected cultures all over the world. It provides a way to express music in one’s own way through instruments, beats and lyrics.
Hip Hop started out as an affiliation movement but evolved into a protest movement. In the midst of this, crack was just being introduced in the Bronx and heavily used. The Message from people such as The Furious Five and Grandmaster Flash illustrates the metropolitan parts of America and can only be understood by those who lived that life. Additionally, it had an effect on societal records that came after its release. Hip hop is a vehicle for spreading awareness on social issues by making those issues more well-known to the audience. Hip Hop embodies and values resilience, understanding, community and social justice.
Essential Artists and Modern Day Influence
The block party movement Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa were DJs, and allured a multitude of cultures, mainly black and Hispanic, eventually leading to the creation of Hip Hop. Also, KRS-One created music that illustrated society in the 1980’s. He mentioned the drug use and violence that was affecting street culture in his music.
Hip hop connects with fundamental notions of identity and purpose. Every hip hop song or rap song contains something that we can learn something that can help us grow but, it also influences the decisions young people make about their lives, lifestyles and health. Hip hop is still popular 40 years later. Artists such as Lil Wayne, Drake and Nicki Minaj emerged during the 2000s-2020s to further develop the genre of hip hop.
