This is Hip Hop for today
I give props to Hip Hop so Hip Hop hooray
-Naughty by Nature
What would you respond if I asked you; what comes to your mind when you think about the term 'hip hop'?
When we think about the term 'hip hop', we often just think about Jay-Z, Kanye West, Eminem or if you are a 'hip hop enthusiast' then you would probably say Tupac, Biggie or possibly Nas.
Either way, its most likely to be a rap artist. Today, hip hop is mostly known as a genre of music so we often forget it is also a culture, a movement.
The hip hop movement is so great because music, art, dance and language move together and are apart of the same culture. Its like how the impressionism movement consisted of art influencing music. However, it is so unique that under that one name, 'hip hop', it can consist of so many things.
Jay-Z once explained the hip hop influence on the Great Gatsby soundtrack saying something along the lines that we currently live in the "hip hop age" as in the 1920s it was in the "jazz age" and that by having the hip hop influence on the soundtrack, it allows the audience to feel how the people felt about jazz in the 1920s. Hip hop has been a growing genre/movement/culture since the 80s and continues to grow with possibly the fastest rate out of the "genres" (except for the techno/house/dubstep/electro/dance genre as that is currently dominating the top40 charts). If we just talk about the rap artists; you can see a big difference and development in rapping ability if you compare a rap song from the 80s such as 'The Message' by Grandmaster Flash (I love this song) to one from today such as .. hm, lets just say... Ten Thousand Hours by Macklemore. I'll talk more about rap and rap artists at a later date.
The "N" word is often associated with hip hop as many rappers use this word and it has become a popular word in today's culture even though its origins are very offensive. However, the hip hop community have been saying it as a way to desensitise and wear out the meaning of it, it's almost as if their rubbing it into people's faces (mostly white people's faces - not being racist, just referring back to history). With hip hop's world domination, I even hear rich white boys saying it, which really makes me cringe.
Hip hop has truly dominated the world as it has broken barriers of race as it is acceptable for a hip hop fan/dancer/rapper to be white, hispanic, asian, european, etc. However, there aren't many asian rappers and I feel that barrier still has not been fully broken and I've noticed that successful rappers are often either black or white, nothing in between. I recently saw an instagram photo of A$AP Rocky on stage with many white arms reaching out to him and I thought this photo was so interesting as it showed a total reversal of roles.
This movement/culture/genre has developed so much since its humble beginnings in South Bronx in the 1970s. Hip hop seriously consists of so many things that i can't all cover in this post or you would get bored and not read everything but I will most likely talk about it in the future.
If someone asked you, "what comes to your mind when you think about the term 'hip hop?"
I hope your answer would be different to what you would say before you read this post. Hopefully now you see hip hop as more than a genre but also a movement, a culture and an influence on today's society.
That's all for today, folks.
- Freak
P.S.This post was mainly aimed to set out a basis of my future posts but I hope it shows you the greatness of hip hop.
Jay-Z once explained the hip hop influence on the Great Gatsby soundtrack saying something along the lines that we currently live in the "hip hop age" as in the 1920s it was in the "jazz age" and that by having the hip hop influence on the soundtrack, it allows the audience to feel how the people felt about jazz in the 1920s. Hip hop has been a growing genre/movement/culture since the 80s and continues to grow with possibly the fastest rate out of the "genres" (except for the techno/house/dubstep/electro/dance genre as that is currently dominating the top40 charts). If we just talk about the rap artists; you can see a big difference and development in rapping ability if you compare a rap song from the 80s such as 'The Message' by Grandmaster Flash (I love this song) to one from today such as .. hm, lets just say... Ten Thousand Hours by Macklemore. I'll talk more about rap and rap artists at a later date.
The "N" word is often associated with hip hop as many rappers use this word and it has become a popular word in today's culture even though its origins are very offensive. However, the hip hop community have been saying it as a way to desensitise and wear out the meaning of it, it's almost as if their rubbing it into people's faces (mostly white people's faces - not being racist, just referring back to history). With hip hop's world domination, I even hear rich white boys saying it, which really makes me cringe.
Hip hop has truly dominated the world as it has broken barriers of race as it is acceptable for a hip hop fan/dancer/rapper to be white, hispanic, asian, european, etc. However, there aren't many asian rappers and I feel that barrier still has not been fully broken and I've noticed that successful rappers are often either black or white, nothing in between. I recently saw an instagram photo of A$AP Rocky on stage with many white arms reaching out to him and I thought this photo was so interesting as it showed a total reversal of roles.
This movement/culture/genre has developed so much since its humble beginnings in South Bronx in the 1970s. Hip hop seriously consists of so many things that i can't all cover in this post or you would get bored and not read everything but I will most likely talk about it in the future.
If someone asked you, "what comes to your mind when you think about the term 'hip hop?"
I hope your answer would be different to what you would say before you read this post. Hopefully now you see hip hop as more than a genre but also a movement, a culture and an influence on today's society.
That's all for today, folks.
- Freak
P.S.This post was mainly aimed to set out a basis of my future posts but I hope it shows you the greatness of hip hop.
i love this. :-) have you heard of akala? i stumbled across this ted talk of his one time (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgM-WXr-0gM)and your post reminded me of it.
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