Hip Hop Through the Years

By Maggie Allen * click on images for photo credit

In the 1970s, an underground movement known as "hip - hop" began to form in the South Bronx section of New York City. Though often considered a synonym for rap, hip - hop specifically refers to a complex culture comprising four elements: deejaying, or “turntab ling”; rapping, also known as “MCing”; graffiti painting, also known as “graf” or “writing”; and “B - boying,” which encompasses hip - hop dance, style, and attitude.

Supposedly, the graffiti movement of hip - hop was inspired by Greek American teenager in 1972. He tagged, or signed, “Taki 183” (his name and street, 183rd Street) on walls throughout the New York City subway system. By 1975, youths all over the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn neighborhoods were sneaking out after dark, spray - painting colorful mural size renderings of their names, favorite imagery, and even Andy Warhol - like Campbell’s soup cans onto the sides of subway cars and trains. Some considered it vandalization; New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority responded with dogs, barbed - wire fen ces, and undercover police squads as deterrents. However, many other people recognized the visual speech and its artistic value. Influential art dealers in the United States, Europe, and Japan began collecting and displaying graffiti in major galleries.

In the Iced - T directed documentary “ Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap ,” Lord Jamar remarked that Black people, having no room or money for instruments at home in major cities, turned their voices into instruments. It was a transition from the jazzier sound s of previous generations, while innovating and expanding upon them. "We created something from nothing, with hip - hop. That's what the whole spirit of hip - hop is. It was at a time when they were taking instruments and s**t out of the schools and all that type of s**t. See, Black people used to be pretty musical back in the days...and at some point, all of that s**t was removed from us, you know what I mean?...So they tried to take the music from us..."

Many artists and fans argue that hip - hop has a fifth element, called “knowledge of self/consciousness,” which is shown when the music

addresses systemic issues and injustices. At its inception, hip - hop was used by teens and young adults in urban Black and Latino communities as a form of expression, channeling anger, frustration, sadness, and other emotions into a unique art form that would take the world by storm in the decades to come.

"Hip - hop is not made up from scratch. The music and the foundation of the music of hip - hop comes from records that we found in our parents' crates,” said Grandmaster Caz, a rapper, writer, and DJ for the Cold Crush Brothers. “Old funk and soul, blues; we've given new life to artists like James Brown and Isaac Hayes...and so many other groups. Because we're rapping over their be ats...So hip - hop didn't invent everything, but it reinvented everything."

To many people, hip - hop was born in the late summer of 1973. An 18 year old Jamaican immigrant calling himself DJ Kool Herc deejayed his sister's August back - to- school party. “He extended the beat of a record by using two record players, isolating the percussion ‘breaks’ by using a mixer to switch between the two records. Kool Herc's sister, Cindy Campbell, produced and funded the Back to School Party that became the ‘birth of hip - hop .’”

"A rapper is, you know, someone that rhymes. I mean, you could consider Dr. Seuss a rapper... MC is someone that either has that party-rocking While Kool Herc was widely credited as the father of modern rapping for his sp oken skill or that lyrical skill. Doug E. Fresh, Busy interjections over records. T here Bee, these are MCs because these are people who are many historical precedents know how to get on the mic." cited for MCing , such as talking - Big Daddy Kane (Something from blues songs, the epic histories of

Nothing: The Art of Rap) West African griots, the dozens (the ritualized word game based on exchanging insults, usually about members of the opponent’s family), and jailhouse toasts (long rhyming poems recounting outlandish deed s and misdeeds). He and other pioneers like Grand Wizard Theodore, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash also isolated and extended the break beat (the part of a song where all sounds except the drums “drop out”). This would often get the crowds to dance ; contests soon developed, sparking the invention of “break dancing,” a style involving many acrobatic, and sometimes even airborne, moves.

Deejays began developing new techniques for turntable manipulation. Needle dropping, created by Grandmaster Flash, prolonged short drum breaks by playing two copies of a record simultaneously, moving the needle on one turntable back to the start of the break while the other played.

Sliding the record back and forth underneath the needle created the rhythmic effect we kn ow as “scratching.”

It wasn’t long before hip - hop artists outside of New York City began to make their mark. Among some of the most notable were DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince (Will Smith), from Philadelphia; the provocative 2 Live Crew, from Miami; an d M.C. Hammer, from Oakland, California, who experienced short- lived but massive crossover success with a pop audience.

The new school of hip - hop began in the mid 1980’s, with Run - D.M.C. (pictured left) at the forefront. This was a trio of African Americans who fused rap with hard rock, defined a new style of hip dress, and are credited with bringing rap to a wider mainstream audience. Run - D.M.C. recorded for Profile, one of several new labels that took advantage of the growing market for rap music. Def J am featured three important innovators: LL Cool J, rap’s first romantic superstar; the Beastie Boys, a White trio who broadened rap’s audience and popularized digital sampling (composing with music and sounds electronically extracted from other recordings) ; and Public Enemy, who invested rap with radical Black political ideology, building on the social consciousness of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message” (1982).

By the late 1990s hip - hop was artistically dominated by the Wu Tang Clan, from New York City’s Staten Island, whose combination of street credibility, neo- Islamic mysticism, and kung fu lore made them one of the most complex groups in the history of rap.

Where You From? You can’t discuss the origins of hip-hop One of the most significant responses without mentioning Salt-N-Pepa, Queen to New York hip - hop came from Los Latifah, Monie Love, Yo-Yo, and Roxanne Angeles, beginning in 1989 with Shante. N.W.A.’s dynamic album Straight Outta Compton . N.W.A. (Niggaz With Attitude) and former members of that group — Ice Cube, Eazy E, and

I was your standard sheltered white kid, but maybe more so because my brother is autistic and I spent a lot of time helping to watch him for my parents. In college, I started to branch out in my music taste. I also started to put on weight towards the end of high school, which made me even more shy than I usually was. I felt ugly and unsocial, which made it hard when I moved away to go to school.

Over time, I met a lot of great friends, including my now husband, who got me more into rap and hip hop. I think the thing that affected me most was Sir Mix-aLot, because even though it wasn’t directed at white women, having someone so adamant and excited about “dating” plus sized women helped me to realize that it’s not a dealbreaker. Some guys actually really like it.

It’s all fun and great self expression, for me listening and the artists making the music. ~Maggie Allen

Dr. Dre — led the way as West Coast rap grew in prominence in the early 1990s. Their graphic, frequently violent tales of real life in the inner city, as well as those of Los Angeles rappers such as Ice - T (remembered for his 1992 single “Cop Killer”) and Snoop Dogg and of East Coast counterparts such as Schoolly D, gave rise to the genre known as “gangsta rap.”

As the Los Angeles- based label Death Row Records built a n empire around Dr. Dre, Snoop , and Tupac, it also entered into a rivalry with New York City’s Bad Boy Records.

Popularity grows

By the 2000's, many of the biggest figures rose from the American South, including Houston’s Geto Boys, Master P, Atlanta’s T.I. and Lil Wayne from New Orleans.

From the beginning, the commercialization of hip - hop caused controversy. Seen as a passing fad, h ip - hop even showed up in TV commercials. However, if a negative consequence of popularity is commercialization, then a benefit would be its influence on other genres and popular culture as a whole

The thing I love most about hip-hop is the storytelling. Music, especially hip-hop, is about celebration, common understanding, and healing. I think the memory that resonates with me the most when I think about hip-hop is the incredible queen of hip-hop soul Mary J. Blige.

Growing up, I owned her album the Breakthrough and I listened to it so much that everyone in my house knew the songs too. I'm pretty sure I burned a hole into the CD too. In that album, she spoke about joy and suffering in a beautiful way.

But so many songs bring back memories such as dancing to them in the car on the way home from school because they allowed you to escape through the music. To this day when I hear a classic Ashanti song like What’s Luv? I can’t help but sing along.

~ Natalie Rodriguez-Steen

When the century turned, hip - hop soon solidified its standing as the dominant influence on global youth culture. Hip - hop influenced the sound of some of the boy bands of the 1990’s, and to this day, there are variations across cultures all over the world. The Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC drew heavily on hip - hop sounds and styles, and rhythm and blues and even gospel had adap ted so fully to the newer approach that stars such as Mary J. Blige, R. Kelly, and Kirk Franklin straddled both worlds. It also began to generate huge sales of products in the fashion, liquor, electronics, and automobile industries that were popularized by hip - hop artists on cable television stations such as MTV and The Box and in hip - hop - oriented magazines such as The Source and Vibe .

Music has always played such a major part of my life. I have always loved every genre of music and the way that it people together. Music is what really got me through my high school years, I NEVER watched TV and spent all my time listening to music.

Although, I have always loved every genre of music, the stories that hip hop tells taught me so much and gave me a different perspective on life, equality, poverty, and justice. My favorite memories primarily revolve around me learning and having self-awareness. One of my favorite memories is me and my best friend driving around late at night with the music turned up LOUD and listening to DMX’s cd’s Blood of my Blood.

We listened to this CD every day on the way home from school for at least a month, and we made sure that we always recited “BLOOD of my BLOOD, Flesh of my FLEEEESSSSHHHH” which was obviously our favorite part because we would also yell it to each other in school between class to get each other's attention in the hall. What makes this story even funnier, is this is the exact opposite of the music that my best friend would listen to. It really showed how music can reach and resonate with anyone!

~ Porche Proffit

Hip - hop has always been a powerful medium. It has shared so many lived experiences with people who might never have known otherwise, by elevating Black and other minority voices. It has brought to light structural injustices, and many people are fighting to this day to get them fixed. Artists and their listeners have formed strong connections, and now, rap and hip hop also serve as platforms to celebrate the acquisition of power, where once there was none at all. Cardi B was a teenage stripper who used social media and music to elevate herself into financial stability and fame. Drake’s “Started from the Bottom” details his jou rney from having nothing to rising to the top with his “whole team.”

Hip - hop is the music of strength and solidarity, in the face of adversity. It has been bringing more and more people together, and while a lot of progress has happened, I think we need its power now more than ever before.