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Hiphop

Chris James
4/20/06

"The Evolution of Hip Hop"

Hip hop has taken major strides in order to advance from being a musical subculture to crossing over and ordaining a mass pop appeal. Although being first created by black youth in American inner cities; hip hop's influence has touched all races in many countries around the world. A large number of the hip hop audience is no longer primarily black. Hip hop has time and time again challenged the system in ways that have unified individuals across a diverse spectrum. Generations consisting of Blacks, Whites, Latinos, and Asians have grown up with hip hop as their primary choice of music. Hip hop is representing a realignment of America's cultural choice in music. Nevertheless, many people however do not realize that it is much more than music. Hip hop is an art form that expresses culture, style, and language. With that said, the purpose of this paper is to examine hip hop and how it affects the American culture. Different aspects of hip hop will also be examined to create an awareness about what hip hop actually is. In order to understand hip hop as a cultural influence we need to take a look at its history.
In the early 70's, a Jamaican DJ known as Kool Herc moved from Kingston section of Jamaica to NYC's Bronx neighborhood. He attempted to incorporate his Jamaican style into his form of music. This involved reciting improvised rhymes over the dub versions of his reggae records. Unfortunately, New Yorkers were not interested in reggae types of music at this time. To satisfy the likeness of New Yorkers, Kool Herc adapted his style by chanting over instrumental percussion sections of the day's popular songs. Since these breaks were relatively short, he learned to extend them indefinitely by using an audio mixer and two identical records in which he continuously replaced the desired segment. This particular combination is one of the major factors that contributed to the creation of present day...