history of hip hop research paper

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Hip-hop, identity, and conflict: Practices and transformations of a metropolitan culture

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In this paper, I expose how it is possible to investigate the hip-hop culture on three levels of analysis—historical, semiotic, and phenomenological—precisely as theorized by Cohen (1997) for his study on modern subcultures. The analysis will focus on the hip-hop of the beginning, since the middle of the Seventies and Eighties in the United States, but then it will broaden to a reflection on its diffusion and re-invented, with particular reference to the interactions with the globalization and the changes occurred in contemporary metropolis. In this sense, considering hip-hop as a subculture in the following pages, I reflect (a) on the origin of rap music, its interrelation with the Afro-American culture and the concept of blackness which it conveys. Subsequently, I clarify (b) that the art of writing, in the form of Tag, and break dance have certificated the presence of young people from the United States outskirts, and then the passage to a precise historical moment. Finally, I try to demonstrate (c) that today, a different dimension of hip-hop is implemented, whose features have changed in parallel with the transformations that have affected the metropolis and the youth cultures. These last one are increasingly hybrid and involved in a recreational, market system, where the changing nature of hip-hop allows: its enormous success, with the domain of the musical market and other assimilation processes, such as clothing, which have contributed to its mutation in a global culture, some margins of autonomy.

Introduction and methodological note

In this paper, I expose how it is possible to investigate the hip-hop culture considering three levels of analysis—historical, structural-semiotic, and phenomenological—precisely as theorized by Cohen ( 1997 ) for his study on modern subcultures. The analysis will focus on the hip-hop of the beginning, since the middle of the Seventies and Eighties in the United States, but then it will broaden to a reflection on its diffusion and re-invented, with particular reference to the interactions with the globalization and the changes occurred in contemporary metropolis.

The English sociologist illustrates at a first level of analysis, the necessity to investigate the historical and social context where a group is rooted and develops. The structural and semiotic analysis refers to the means through which a culture reveals itself. The third level consists in an analysis of the way in which the subculture is actually experienced by its builders (Cohen, 1997 , p. 57–58).

This means that, from these conceptualizations, a study of hip-hop articulated in this way should necessarily include the following:

• a reflection about geographical and territorial maps which have fostered its development (social, inter-ethnic ghettos);
• the investigation of its rituals—the subject areas of rap, writing and breaking 1 ;
• the analysis, as a whole, of the symbolic values and of the meaning that these articulations represent for the main subjects of this culture.

Considering hip-hop as a juvenil culture, in the following pages, I reflect on (a) the origin of rap music, its interrelation with the Afro-American culture and the concept of blackness which it conveys. Subsequently, I clarify (b) that the art of writing, in the form of Tag, and break dance have certificated the presence of young people from the U.S. outskirts and then the passage to a precise historical moment. Finally, I try to demonstrate (c) that today, a different dimension of hip-hop is implemented, whose features have changed in parallel with the transformations that have affected the metropolis and the youth cultures. These last one are increasingly hybrid and involved in a recreational market system, where the changing nature of hip-hop allows the followings:

• its enormous success, with the domain of the musical market and other assimilation processes such as clothing, which have nevertheless contributed to a mutation of hip-hop in a global culture;
• some margins of radicalism and autonomy.

The choice to propose a study of the hip-hop culture starting from British cultural studies is hereafter explained. Anglo-Saxon analysis allow us to afford the issue from a hybrid theoretical perspective, with a particular attention to the concepts of cultural resistance, symbolical conflict, identity, and territory. Moreover, the development of the aforementioned subject, declined as follows, makes it possible to intertwine, in the second part of this paper, the different levels of analysis proposed by Phil Cohen with other more contemporary theoretical approaches, related to post-cultural studies. This provides a wider interpretative dimension from an evolutionary perspective about hip-hop.

The same Cohen, referring to specific thematic elements, as reported above, in “Subcultural Conflict and Working Class Community” (1997), states that the emergence of symbolical systems (“plastic” and “infrastructural,” in other words clothing and music, jargon, and rituals) represents the distinctive character of street groups.

Through these subsystems, the subcultural groups transfer intrafamilial conflicts outside the domestic environment, in a public dimension, where it is possible to negotiate and enhance their own identity. This occurs as a consequence of the collapse of a model of integration in the slums and the underlying subcommunitarian structure which forges the collective identity.

Through the hip-hop culture, these teenagers and young adults have used new communicational codes to react against the limits imposed on their condition. The resources they possess to affirm their identity are as follows: linguistic agitation, graffiti, symbolisms, and corporeality.

The organization of these elements, writes John Clarke, together with “activities and outlooks, which produce an organized group-identity in the form and shape of a coherent and distinctive way of ‘being-in-the-world”’ (Clarke et al., 2003 , p. 54) establishes what Paul Willis has defined as homology (Willis, 2003 , p. 106). The “homological relationship” between the subjective experience of the group, its values, its practices, and the use of objects evokes therefore a precise lifestyle, which I shall try to analyze below.

Rap, blackness, and the ghetto language

The hip-hop culture of the ‘70s produces a severe conflict outside the original group—preserving by this way the relationships and social life of the group from destructive shockwaves—and one internal, oedipal, based on the affirmation of a cultural difference, as was for some classical subcultures (Cohen, 1997 , p. 57 sgg.). Reflecting on the outward conflict, the hip-hop 2 has thus generated a tension starting from the politicization of slums, through rap music used as a fundamental condition to objectify its identity in the space-time dimension of contemporary societies.

George Lapassade and Philippe Rousselot in their book Rap il furor del dire , from the very first pages, define rap not only as a music genre, but also “inside the ghettos where it was generated, it was soon associated to a more general attitude” (Lapassade and Roussellot, 2009 , p. 13). In fact, dress styles, social stances, frequentation of places revolve around rap music, “and […] also tags, graffiti covering the walls of the city and the metro cars. This is what is described as ‘hip-hop culture’. Without this culture, rap would not exist. The first holds the second one and not vice versa” (Lapassade and Roussellot, 2009 , p. 13).

The two authors, going further and deeper, illustrate the etymology of the word rap, which

comes from the American to rap , which means to talk, to tell, to “blurt out.” Some American philologists (Chapman, 1987) indicate a more slangy origin and associate it to the plausible abbreviation of rapid, or repartee, meaning “back and forth,” “cut and thrust” (Lapassade and Roussellot, 2009 , p. 13).

The North American rap is permeated by a complex system of cultural and ethnic ties. Its roots embrace the Jamaican Toastin, the Last Poets, the Soul, and Funk music (ivi, p. 14 sgg.) On the one hand, rap is generally considered as an emancipatory reaction to the anonymity assigned to Afro-American groups by the industrial modernity. On the other hand, lyrics in rap music have been the device through which the local identity has been forged and the “Jamaican popular music has represented the somehow unavoidable spark […] after the years of black activism in America” (ivi, p. 14). Dick Hebdige writes that

rap did for poor blacks in America in the 1980s what reggae had done for the “sufferers” in Jamaica a decade earlier. It got them noticed again and it helped to forge a sense of identity and pride within the local community. Like reggae, the music later found an international audience. Additionally then, the sense of identity and pride that went along with rap became available to other people who listened to the music (Hebdige, 2004 , p. 223–224).

Furthermore, by pointing out the link among rap, reggae, and the common social environment which encouraged its birth and its following development, Hebdige refers:

both reggae and rap also grew out of city slum environments. Rap started in the South Bronx of New York, which had been a mainly black and Hispanic ghetto for decades. By 1930, nearly a quarter of the people who lived there were West Indian immigrants. Additionally, most of the Spanish speakers living in the Bronx nowadays either came originally from Caribbean islands such as Puerto Rico and Cuba or are the children of Caribbean immigrants. The Cubans began arriving in the Bronx in the 1930s and 1940s and the Puerto Rican community goes back even further. There are now three million Puerto Ricans living in New York—as many as live in Puerto Rico itself. The Bronx had never been prosperous. But in the 1960s, it went into a sudden decline and by the end of the decade, it had become the poorest, toughest neighborhood in the whole of New York City (ivi, p. 224).

Rap is also and mostly connected to the “black problem.” In the Seventies, “Martin Luther King's and Black Panthers' fights seemed to be bearing fruits, and promised to the black community a brighter future.” (Lapassade and Roussellot, 2009 , p. 44). If “a black middle class started to join the American middle class,” aligning to the American way for life (Lapassade and Roussellot, 2009 , p. 44), the slums of Bronx, Harlem, and Wax highlighted by contrast the ambiguity of the economic integration and of the Nixon and Reagan administrations' social policies. The persistent lack of assets and opportunities to access the life standards corresponding to the American way for life leads the inhabitants of the slums, young people over all, to assume a reactive identity toward society.

Rap music, as well as describing the daily life of the ghetto, discloses the need for affirmation. The rap of the beginning is not an entertainment but a protest music (Lapassade and Roussellot, 2009 , p. 48 sgg.) through which an opposition and a conflict against the American society can be expressed (the lyric of GrandMaster flash, entitled The Message and recorded in 1982, is significant in this respect). In some way, rap “becomes the chance to take back the word for those social groups condemned to extraneity, silence and desert.” (Petrelli, 1992 , p. 87). It is an instrument which enables the subject from the slums to regain the power to speak, right that media, whose message is always unidirectional, “take off from him” (Petrelli, 1992 , p. 87). Here—writes Stefano Petrelli—there is a word which hides, that of media and the mainstream. Additionally, there is […] one which unveils and consequently cures. Rap, by disclosing the existence of an underground social world, “treats” the impossibility of a live, authentic word, in the metropolis of media (Petrelli, 1992 , p. 87).

These further developments frame rap even more deeply in its original culture, the blackness:

this blackness is the unique and not shareable historical experience of an entire people; it is part of the black culture of America […]. Going back to the history and the American black cultures, it seems to be universally accepted that this people have shaped two different weapons to resist the oppression and the disgraces. One is the spirituality and one is the language. From the one hand, the hope and the strength; from the other hand, the verbal agitation and the code (Lapassade and Roussellot, 2009 , p. 68).

The rap of the beginnings—Seventies and Eighties—is deeply rooted in a blackness based on the biblical hope and the black activism (many texts of Public Enemy, Ice-T, and other artists will describe the life of the ghetto and will resume the unfinished fight of Martin Luther King and the Black Muslims, ivi, p. 45).

In rap music, the main role is played by the language. This is not only a way to communicate and express, but represents the attempt to put a strain on the cultural hegemony of the ruling class. Antonio Gramsci used the term hegemony

to refer to the moment when a ruling class is able, not only to coerce a subordinate class to conform to its interests, but to exert a “hegemony” or “total social authority” over subordinate classes. This involves the exercise of a special kind of power—the power to frame alternatives and contain opportunities, to win and shape consent, so that the granting of legitimacy to the dominant classes appears not only “spontaneous” but natural and normal (Clarke et al., 2003 , p. 38).

Compliance and social order are reproduced not only through the organization, the management of relationships, and social interactions, but also through marks. Language, as well as objects, has a specific social connotation and is charged with cultural meaning (ivi, p. 54–55).

Rap was conceived in the ghetto, for the ghetto (Lapassade and Roussellot, 2009 , p. 141). To fully understand the aesthetic of rap, we should analyze

blues lyrics and the ancient tradition of toastin' —an aspect of the oral Afro-American tradition consisting in telling a kind of epic story from the street with rhymes and all sorts of improvisation—and of signifyin '—the activity of the continuous playing with semantic neighborhoods, rhymes, and alliterations, thus creating linguistic double meanings with the often unconscious aim of deconstructing the mainstream language, to impose one's own. (u.net, 2006 , p. 65).

Dozens, or the “linguistic obscenity,” the “rhymed sneer,” the “high school prank” which in blocks have similarly been the core of social relations and have organized social roles within the peer group, have their own characterization. The rap vocabulary is provided by the ghetto and the hip-hop culture (Lapassade and Roussellot, 2009 , p. 79). This model of communication, claimed by Rap Brown and the Black Panthers, recalls the double essence of language, that of signified and of signifier. To analyze rap music means to observe the key relations of domination and subordination “in which these configurations stand; to the processes of incorporation and resistance which define the cultural dialectic between them; and to the institutions which transmit and reproduce ‘the culture’ (i.e., the dominant culture) in its dominant or ‘hegemonic’ form” (Clarke et al., 2003 , p. 13).

The linguistic transfiguration “consists in a series of practices […] through which a person in a subordinate position tries to manage or modify the existent relation of power for his or her own benefit,” with the aim of “transforming the existing order of things or defining an open space within that order” (Pitti, 2018 , p. 6).

Black culture, with its blues and popular music, has always cared about oratory and rap, in summary, represents the consequence of this folk tradition (Lapassade and Roussellot, 2009 , p. 73–74): “from the first rural chants, to gospel and blues, there has always been a double level of interpretation, one for white people, who were pleased to listen to the ‘bravo nigger’, and one for black people who could understand the message” (ivi, p. 76).

A political, existential message will use oratory and new aesthetic values, like writing.

Writing and identity. From rumble to bombing

Hip-hop presents itself as a strong antagonist philosophy developed in the ghettos of U.S metropolis (Barile, 2019 , p. IX). From the beginning, we have seen that the leading force of rap music represented the distinguishing mark of this culture, whose set of languages includes, besides Rap (or Mc'ing), Writing, Dj'ing (or Turntablism), and break dance. The art of writing has a significant development with the Rats in the Street to whom Malcolm X refers in some of his famous speeches pronounced between the end of the Fifties and the beginning of the Sixties (Naldi, 2020 , p. 48). Taki 183, Cornbread, Julio 204, just to mention the pioneers of writing (Castleman, 1982 , 2004 ), or better still of “lettering” to be more precise. (ivi, p. 49), are among the first Rats in the Street who choose to assume a new identity to record their passage through scratched signs on the wall (Naldi, 2020 , p. 48).

These processes of individual and social identity building, referred to writing, are present in one of the first European reflection on the phenomenon proposed by Jacky Lafortune, who outlines:

le tag est une signature individuelle réalisée avec un lettrage particulier. Le 21 juillet 1971, le New York Times consacre son premier reportage au tag. Les exploits du taggeur surnommé Taki 183 y sont relatés. Comme Roger Mettalic Avau le remarque, “le New York Times en tête donne un sérieux coup de pouce [aux taggeurs] en parlant d'eux. Une nouvelle forme de graffiti était née [...]. Quoi de plus facile, la nuit tombée de se glisser dans un dépôt du subway et de reproduire son tag en grands caractères sur les rames? Des centaines de tags vont ainsi déferler [...]. On entre de plain-pied dans l'ère'du moi je', le désir de sortir de l'anonymat [...]. Ce qui différencie le tag du graffiti soixante-huitard [en Europe], c'est qu'il s'agit, non plus d'une revendication mais d'une affirmation” (Lafortune, 1993 , p. 74).

Also according to Petrelli, with the Tag, the writer develops a presence on his own. In fact, this “graphic and linguistic explosion” (Naldi, 2020 , p. 48), reflected on the increasing occupation of portions of urban territory—particularly in the outskirts—offers the possibility to express and perceive oneself as an active subject:

[tags can be seen] as an attempt—made by the author—to Become Visible in a metropolis whose social politics, and cultural practices, tend to make invisible even wider social groups. It is not only an economical, social, cultural marginalization: it is a physical one. It is physically that people in the Hispanic or Afro-American outskirts in the United States […] perceive this exclusion. They, […], feel that today, the action of mass media, which produce signs and therefore of meaning, is relevant – without foreseeing their presence. Against this kind of production, tags [impose] themselves as a signature-presence (Petrelli, 1992 , p. 87).

Young people from the outskirts, excluded from the educational and work system, are in search of redemption. Thus, they “try to establish their own identity developing a culture of the negative. The positive values of mainstream culture are therefore distorted and inverted to better fit in a philosophy of dissent and protest” (Gatti, 1983 , p. 136).

The search for a sense of identity is achieved in the concept of gang, which, in the Seventies in the US, was already growing to include hundreds of young members, whose main activity revolves around the turf , the “territory under their dominion in a constant need for defense and expansion” (Gatti, 1983 , p. 135). According to Gatti

The gang is the collective reply to the misery and the troubles of the so-called “high-risk neighborhoods,” the urban areas with the highest crime rates, overpopulation, child mortality rate, and epidemics (ivi, p. 136).

The control over the territory exerted by the gang, in legislative (the law of the strongest), economic (illegal activities), and cultural terms (Afro-American, Hispanic, Italians, etc.), is implemented through the involvement in violent physical confrontations

or gang war, an activity which was even feared by the gang leaders […], the only way to gain respect for the other gangs. To increase one's individual reputation, there is the fair one , the loyal fight between two selected members of rival gangs [loyal because it is not possible to use weapons or any help from their fellows] (ivi, p. 136).

Nevertheless, it is with the first tags realized by a young of Greek origins, Demetrius aka Taki 183 (in 1971)—the numeric code refers to his house number—that the phenomenon of the gangs, the system of symbols and signifiers which mostly inspired the action of the Turf, assumes a new form:

in the new era opened by Taki 183, the gang war is no more called rumble, but a cross-out, an erasure war, not implying weapons but cans of spray paint. It is no longer the stronger or more popular gang to win, but the one writing more and better. The gash perceived as a war declaration consists in smearing other gangs' graffiti. The reply of the enemy triggers a conflict, which can last for weeks or entire months (ivi, p. 138).

Tags become for young writers the opportunity to be noticed, to move and escape from their turf, alone or together with the gang. “From the poorest outskirts, hordes of young people invade the city center and hit each train and stop with their spray paint, their enormous brushes and their guerrilla warfare techniques” (ivi, p. 137).

According to Castleman ( 1982 ), the elements in common between the art of writing and the phenomenon of gangs are to be searched in the practice of illegal activities, which require ability, skills, and practical knowledge; but also in the use of heteronyms to escape the repression of the police, and most of all, they share the power to affirm their identity (in the case of graffiti by infringing on the private or public property).

In a few years, thousands of young people “attracted by the power of ubiquity” (Gatti, 1983 , p. 137) hit, with a bombing action, hundreds of train cars, and metro stations. As time goes by, with an extraordinary expansion, both quantitative and qualitative, the first tags become a genuine urban art, with different forms and styles:

so tags, born from acronyms and signatures, thus as a form of writing , become real and autonomous artistic forms, complex compositions planned and then realized (pieces). Letters dilate in space and fill in color creating large-scale images ( masterpieces ). Characters ( block letters ) swell up ( bubble style ), acquire an additional dimension ( 3d style ), and finally loose their function becoming deliberately unreadable shapes ( wild style ) (Dal Lago and Giordano, 2018 , p. 39).

An important individual and collective participation is balanced by a sensational reaction of displeasure on the part of the institutions, which conceive graffiti as a mere act of vandalism. The war against graffiti, inaugurated by Lindsay, the mayor of New York city, will last for decades and will cost the community several hundred million dollars (Castleman, 2004 , p. 22 sgg.; Mansbach, 2013 ). Only in the first Seventies, the police arrested more than 1,500 young people, most of all minors from the suburbs. Anyway, the years when Taki becomes a popular hero, and thousands of his peers follow his example, are the “exciting time of the hip-hop culture,” linked to the Afro-American and Latinos' claims, “in other words to the attempts of taking the floor from the voiceless in the American society of the time” (Dal Lago and Giordano, 2018 , p. 38). The war against graffiti can then be interpreted as a pretext to contain the demands of generations of excluded, articulated through rap music, writing and, as we will analyze in the next paragraph, also through dance, with break dance. About this war against the entire hip-hop culture, Mansbach remarks:

those stakes become clearer when one examines law enforcement's public profiling of graffiti writers. They were described as “black, brown, or other, in that order,” and vilified as sociopaths, drug addicts, and monsters. This was a fight over public space, and we would do well to remember that at the time the fight began, teenagers were also being arrested for break dancing in subway stations, and throwing un-permitted parties in the asphalt schoolyards of the Bronx. Taken collectively, these three activities also represent the birth of hip-hop, the single most influential subculture created in this or any country in the last half-century (Mansbach, 2013 ).

Break to dance. styles, fashion, mainstream

If on the one hand, hip-hop culture “has found in urban spaces a fundamental place of production and reproduction since the beginning,” then on the other hand, some areas of the city “have been deeply influenced by hip-hop practices and its performance.” Owing to the fact that

the city is recorded in rhymes and infiltrates in block parties , hip-hop snakes the corners of the streets, is inscribed on the walls, and re-signifies the spaces: a biunivocal relation in which none of the two directions can be neglected (Giubilaro and Pecorelli, 2019 , p. 24).

This re-signification of the urban space, about which the authors speak, is also part of the reflection of Gatti, who focuses on the places sharing break dance, writing, and rap music as ways of expression. Breaking requires a public arena, as well as “other forms of youth culture – writes Gatti. Differently from other dances, it wasn't born in night-club, but in the street, in the park and in the metro station, of course” (Gatti, 1983 , p. 141).

We have abundantly explained (above) that the hip-hop culture, through its disciplines, originates from a need for subjectivation and participation. The transfer in the spare time context of those pleasures forbidden in institutional places (school and work) is a reply to a specific social and economic condition, as the consequence of a structural violence. Hip-hop is a means to bring the knowledge, or “self-awareness,” cultural independence, and autonomy to the surface. It is the search for a political collocation, aimed at weakening the prevailing power relations, together with rap, street style (graffiti art), body language (break dance) to become the mouthpiece of new individualities and a social status, otherwise denied.

Like a graffiti artist makes use of his name to build an identity, at the same way the breaker uses his body—outlines Martha Cooper. “Break dance is a genuine celebration of flexibility and sensuality of the male teenager body.” The speed of movements and the smoothness of drawings are essential both in breaking and in graffiti art. What matters is mostly the degree of difficulty. For this reason, like in graffiti and rap music, breaking is an ever-changing form of art. The purpose is, in fact, the development of new techniques and styles to overcome the others and affirm one's supremacy. What is at stake is the social position in the community, which often represents for the young inhabitant of the ghetto everything he owns. (ivi, p. 141).

If through bombing, it is possible to exorcize the rumble, break dance avoids the reference to bombing with the individual and collective involvement in creative works, instead of criminal activities (Cristante, 1983 , p. 37). In fact, according to Holman ( 2004 ), “the first real breakers were the gang members of Black gangs in the Bronx in the late 60s, early 70s. These guys did a dance called the Good Foot, from James Brown's record of the same name. The Good Foot was the first freestyle dance that incorporated moves involving drops and spins and resembled the beginnings of breaking” (ivi, p. 36). So, the “acrobatic and athletic ritual embeds some elements of ballet and fight, becoming an artistic substitute of a physical confrontation” (Gatti, 1983 , p. 141).

With the break dancing phenomenon, exploded in the Eighties and Nineties, the B-boys (or Fly-Girl) acquire a visibility (also in the media), mostly identifying in a process of stylistic creation, or in the rearrangement and re-contextualization of objects and communicating “new meanings, inside a system of values which already includes connotations sedimented from the origin and connected to those objects” (Clarke, 2003 , p. 205). By expropriating and re-appropriating in this way cultural meanings (Clarke et al., 2003 , p. 76), the B-boys were used to wear “suits, sport shoes, caps, chains, and ornaments [like rappers]: a clear sign of fetishist re-appropriation of an item which used to be read as an expression of the cultural subordination of the ‘black nation’ since colonialism” (Barile, 2019 , p. IX).

Style objectifies the image that the group has of itself. It is clear therefore why the subcultural group is interested in a certain kind of objects and not in others.

In this respect, Clarke writes:

The important point here is that the group must be able to recognize itself in the more or less repressed potential meanings of particular symbolic objects. This requires that the object in question must have the “objective possibility” of reflecting the particular values and concerns of the group in question as one among the range of potential meanings that it could hold. It also requires that the group self-consciousness is sufficiently developed for its members to be concerned to recognize themselves in the range of symbolic objects available. This developed self-consciousness both in terms of its content (their own self-image, etc.) and in terms of its orientation toward symbolic objects is the means through which the style is generated. The selection of the objects through which the style is generated is then a matter of the homologies between the group's self-consciousness and the possible meanings of the available objects. (Clarke, 2003 , p. 179).

To the uptown culture, the first name given to hip-hop—being born in Uptown Manhattan—was often associated with the so-called sky fashion, the use of glasses, coats, and ski hats (u.net, 2006 , p. 41). This clothing, originally very expensive but in use by under-class people thanks to subjective intuitions, caught the attention of fashion magazines (such as, among others, East Village Eye).

At the same time, in the middle of the Eighties, an increasing interest from the part of mainstream media was mostly addressed to break dance dancers. Sally Banes comments:

although breaking is the newest part of hip-hop culture, it's the part that has made hip-hop, a media obsession. Then, 5 years ago, the only people who had ever heard of breaking were the kids in New York's ghettos who did it. They didn't even have a definite name for the form—they sometimes called it “breaking,” but they also referred to it as “rocking down,” “b-boy,” or just “that kind of dancing you do to rap music.” By 1980—when the form had already been around for a few years—they weren't even very interested in it anymore. This kind of dancing was a passing fad, they felt, that would soon be replaced by roller disco. But history was to prove them wrong. Not since the twist, in the early sixties, has a dance craze so captured the attention of the media (Banes, 2004 , p. 13).

Although long, we report another quote from Banes, which provides a clearer idea about the impact of break dance in cultural industry and entertainment. This suggests the beginning of an influence of globalization on the hip-hop culture:

By 1984, only a hermit could not have known about breaking. It had arrived, not only in the United States but also in Canada, Europe, and Japan. Breaking had been featured in the 1983 Hollywood film Flashdance , the independent hip-hop musical film Wild Style , and the documentary Style Wars (which aired on PBS), served as the inspiration for the 1984 films Breakin ' and Beat Street , and was rumored to be the subject of fifteen forthcoming Hollywood movies. Countless how to books and videos had hit the market. Breaking had been spotlighted on national news shows, talk shows, and ads for Burger King, Levi's, Pepsi-Cola, Coca-Cola, and Panasonic. In total, one hundred break dancers heated up the closing ceremonies of the 1984 summer Olympics in Los Angeles. In addition, Michael Jackson had given the form national currency. Breaking made the cover of Newsweek in 1984. Newspapers all over the country regularly carried stories on its latest ups and downs. The paradox emerged, as you flipped the pages of the Washington Post or the Los Angeles Times , that break dancers who would come up in the ghetto were banned from city streets and shopping malls for causing disturbances and attracting undesirable crowds, while at the same time, middle-class housewives and executives could learn to break dance in their spare time at classes proliferating throughout the suburbs. Doctors added to the form's acceptability by giving medical advice on how to survive it unbruised. In addition, the New York Times began using breaking as a metaphor even in articles that had nothing to do with hip-hop (Banes, 2004 , p. 13).

Hip-hop goes hand-in-hand with the transformations of styles, youth culture and urban space. These changes have given new life to the content of rap songs and have encouraged the street art exposition in galleries and the creation of a Decalogue of acrobatic steps to be hanged in dance schools. This has partially emptied hip-hop of its social context and has consequently driven it away from its significance. Nevertheless, with several disciplines—and rap in particular, as we will analyze afterward—young people of the end and the beginning of the century still explore creativity and identity through a new relationship with the territory and the cultural industry.

The transformation of youth cultures and of street style. The two souls of hip-hop

It has been frequently outlined through the study of its origins, of the three main areas of hip-hop culture and of the link with the ethnic group and the reference territory, that the place of expression for the young generations has always been the metropolis. Articulated in micro-forms and relegated to the borders of the urban space, these expressions of identity concern social and territorial groups often represented by the mainstream media as problem generators. It is a conflict which refers to forms of typical antagonism (cultural endurance) characterized by new elements and that, in a short time, has acquired transnational contours through the media.

Furthermore, this internationalization of the conflict will be fostered by the rapid development of the Net and the deterritorialization of cultures, factors which will influence the socio-economic structure beyond the lifestyle of the street groups of the Nineties.

With the development of sophisticated systems of information, in Western countries at least, the factory and the productive process—as a scene of struggle and social aggregator—have given way to communication and new lifestyle. Forms of traditional living have melt, impoverishing stable relationships, district economies, and implicit mechanisms of social safety nets. The impact of these transformations on specific social groups (privatization of needs, functionalization of some urban areas to the reproduction of low-paid workers, gentrification of districts, such as Gracia district in Barcelona or the ghettos of Los Angeles) compels us to focus on the restrictions imposed on street-based entertainment activities. This has encouraged the emergence of a new institutional framework, which has represented the end of Foucault's disciplinary society (with the comeback of a pre-bourgeois system of prevention, with still clearer physical boundaries), determining the advent of forms of social control not aimed at the creation of bodies functional to the productive cycle, but to the constrictive limitation of the surplus of human groups (De Giorgi, 2002 ), part of a power dynamic which does not guarantee anymore a social citizenship (De Giorgi, 2002 ).

Thinking the coexistence of safety policies in metropolis, clearly visible in the technical rationalization of the physical space, with socialization processes explicated by consumption, is considered a precondition to the production of a feasible plan of analysis for the study of youth cultures. It is starting from the acceptance of this new definition of relations and interactions within the social system, that we want to stress the individualistic impulse of new generations, and the commercial co-optation of street style, as a consequence of the “increasing collusion with the brand system” (Barile, 2019 , p. IX). “Both of all are dynamics which cross the rap arena (and mostly trap) characterizing representations, lyrics, and professional choices of its main actors in a more or less explicit way” (Cuzzocrea and Benasso, 2020 , p. 343):

the aesthetic intentions and the demands created in the contexts of contemporary youth arenas are definitely more focused on politics of existence than of resistance, thus aiming at the social recognition of a self-sufficient personal identity, which defines itself as singular, authentic, creative, and free (Ferreira, 2016, p. 68, cited by Cuzzocrea and Benasso, 2020 , p. 243).

Nevertheless nowadays, analyzing collective behaviors from a cognitive perspective, discussing class and territorial affiliations (the street, the pub, the square, and the corner shop), could result in a timelessness in the time of sharing , of fake , of the absolutization of cyberspace and of the performative subject (from work to consumption).

In the last decades, a set of completely new living conditions have firmly established their position. They have benefited a process of osmosis among “image-consuming” cultures, no more identifiable in a changeless collective subject, but inspired to a hybrid collectivity (Pohlemus, 1994 ) based on an aesthetic peculiarity. At present, the countless articulations of youth cultures do not allow the understanding of what is meant by radicalization of indicators in performative subcultures, in proletarian suburbs, in the critical and reflective elaboration of aestheticization, analyzed as means of conflict together with a class and generational factor.

In this context, it is possible to observe an objective condition of accelerated cut-up on the part of the new generations, inscribed in a contingency where social and political borders are no more valid. The dividing line among opposed cultural genres begins to crumble with gothic cultures, where the antithetical visual dualism between working class subculture—referring to Skinhead, Mod, and Ted styles—and middle-class counter culture (Hippies, Provos, etc.) splinters and all those forms of re-enchantment based on new forms of religiosity, often new age, dematerialize.

From the Eighties and Nineties, the classic concepts of subculture and street style enter into crisis because of “two simultaneous processes: on the one hand, the increasing value of communication, which rapidly circulates the signs of various ‘stylistic isles’, fostering hybridization and crossover phenomena in two different ways of style surfing and of sampling'n'mixing ” (Barile, 2019 , p. IX); on the other hand, the commercialization of a young lifestyle is always more sensationalized by marketing requirements. All these aspects have in some way also influenced hip-hop.

From the block of flats in Sedwick avenue—in the Bronx of 1973—, during an event organized to encourage socialization among teenagers living in the neighborhood and collect money to buy school uniforms (Nexus, 2020 , p. 20 sgg.), a popular history started and still today, after more than 40 years, holds together in a global but binary dimension, thousands of territorial realities. In fact, whereas at the beginning of the Seventies, the militant soul of hip-hop was prevailing and then, during the Eighties, a certain balance between the strong political connotation and the playful soul was reached, and finally, during the Nineties, 3 the commercial aspect became the predominant one (Barile, 2019 , p. IX).

Anyway, even if the commercial soul “will become a distinctive sign of this style” (Barile, 2019 , p. IX), “hip-hop, declined in rap, in some areas of the outskirts is simultaneously place of agency and personal success and a means for negotiation of spaces and collective identities” (Giubilaro and Pecorelli, 2019 , p. 24), and also daily practice of activism. In this respect, Giubilaro and Pecorelli write that

The diffusion of rap and its commercialization have made the genre so articulated and heterogeneous to make it difficult to state anything except for analysis based on the singularity of its practices and manifestations […]. Furthermore, as well as any other cultural expression, rap is the product of complex hybridizations among hegemonic and counter hegemonic practices, which sometimes can coexist inside a same performance, lyric, or rhyme (Giubilaro and Pecorelli, 2019 , p. 25).

If on the one hand, the commercialization of rap music “has permitted the diffusion of the hip-hop culture at an international level” (Neal interviewed by u.net, 2006 , p. 37), on the other hand, this cooptation from the cultural industry has transformed it in an accessible product. In this way, it occurs what Clarke has defined as the “defusion” of a life style, concept which can be understood within the usual opposition between reappropriation from the bottom or from the top (thus from the mass media) of a culture:

“defusion” we mean that a particular style is dislocated from the context and group which generated it and taken up with a stress on those elements which make it “a commercial proposition,” especially their novelty. From the standpoint of the subculture which generated it, the style exists as a total lifestyle; via the commercial nexus, it is transformed into a novel consumption style. Typically, the more “acceptable” elements are stressed, and others de-stressed. (Clarke, 2003 , p. 188).

Nevertheless, the hip-hop of the new millennium has also succeeded in both taking the transformations and saving spaces for authenticity (Pedretti and Vivan, 2009 , p. 168). From Europe to Americas, from the French Casey, Kaaris, NTM, who participated and “commented” the riots in Parisian banlieue of Clichy Sous Bois, to the Chilean Ana Tijoux and the Doblecero, hip-hop presents a “transnational” (Meghelli, 2012 ; Gardner, 2014 ) version, with the purpose of reinforcing social nets among people living at the edges of the great productions, or precariously. Hip-hop resumes, one more time, the concept of territory (metropolitan quarters), of ethnicity, of youth, and of the self who realizes himself in a collective subject assuming the will of a critical and self-reflecting position about his own condition.

From these examples, it can be noticed that the existence of spaces for autonomy—understandable within what we can define the proliferation of styles and distinctive signs, typical of contemporary youth cultures (Pohlemus, 1994 ; Muggleton, 2000 )—still gives the possibility to the hip-hop culture to speak about social injustices, poor districts, and power more than a mere bling bling . This happens inside the entertainment industry, exploring those channels (especially digital) whose aim is to promote an artificial image of the hip-hop movement.

The hip-hop “‘beats his time’—writes Riccardo Pedretti—proposing a critical analysis of contemporary society which follows a harsh path and full of pitfalls using its same means in a subversive manner” (Pedretti and Vivan, 2009 , p. 169).

The socio-historical contexts, and the rituals of the hip-hop culture which we have discussed in these pages, have permitted a comparison among the socio-anthropological complexity of young hip-hoppers' cultural productions, referring to Cohen's three levels of analysis. Showing a continuity with the concepts of the English sociologist, the key points of the analysis have been represented by a generational culture, born and grew up in ethnic ghettos (corresponding to the historical level), by the different areas of hip-hop (the semiotic level) and the lifestyles (sense of territory, affiliation, solidarity, creativity, etc.), referring to the phenomenological level. In this conceptual frame, a reflection has been developed about subjective and collective affirmation processes, created since the Seventies and the following decades, starting from the outskirts of U.S. metropolis. Subsequently, these aspects have enabled us to reason about the means through which we can understand the transformations of street style, after fundamental changes in the metropolis and the youth culture.

Starting from a territorial perspective, it has been possible to understand an action collocated in a wider space and provided by communicational codes which, crossing contemporary world, have overwhelmed several youth groupings. Their reaction to the continuous socio-economical conflicts in the metropolis has been lived in other places than those imposed by the dominant codes (school and work), and in more symbolic subsystems, “infrastructural” and “plastic” (objects, clothes, music, and places attended).

These processes of affirmation, which have often had the less social protection among their protagonists—at the beginning of the hip-hop culture over all—have revealed themselves in spatial practices of re-appropriation of the neighborhoods in a “street grammar” as arrogant as diversified.

With reference to the U.S. context, the young subject has started to impose himself since the de-fragmentation of the (social and cultural) self-perception, in those areas overwhelmed by a runaway urban renewal (which was also in all respects an anthropological and cultural change). In the years of a large-scale gentrification since the Sixties, an irreplaceable crack began to reproduce in the secular balance of traditional economic and family structures. From their contradictions, a new youth symbolic and cultural universe took shape.

The hip-hop subculture has thus become an opportunity for redemption and for the conquest of a status, modifying the processes through which identity is shaped and changing the modes of (extra-familiar) socialization of the new generations, focused on the construction of their personal histories by subverting social routines.

In a retrospective evaluation, hip-hop has been determined by the convergence of several factors. Social contingencies, cultural trends, and endogenous variables are peculiar elements to understand the features, the complexity, and the increasing reaction to the hegemonic culture.

Finally, changes in the hip-hop culture of the last decades have been mentioned, and the unbalance toward the commercial soul more than toward the political one has been observed, even if it has not consisted in a loss of its original force. This is given to the fact that “the underground version continues to carry ideas, besides it enables a social protest and represents an educational instrument […], so it can significantly enter the opinion-making processes, particularly among young people […]” (Privitera, 2016 , p. 72).

In addition, these changes have to be contextualized inside a larger break, which affects youth culture and the generations born and grew up in the society of consumerism and globalization. In this case, street style cannot be related to a relationship of power, to social classes, and it is not the epiphenomenon of economic structures which forge experiences of marginality and realize some reactive choices (Corchia, 2017 , p. 308). In fact, as Luca Corchia illustrates in his analysis of youth contemporary identities, “cultural affiliations [are] multiform and changing, some partially or totally opposed to the mainstream , others, partially or totally adherents to the hegemonic culture”. Paraphrasing Bennett, Corchia continues commenting on “relational nets characterized by fluid temporal borders and ‘floating’ forms of belongings”, in which “the existence develops through a fragmented series of real and virtual spaces, in which identities and roles dependent on the interactions of here and now are explored, before collocating in new contexts and acquiring still different roles and identities” (ivi, p. 311).

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1 The hip-hop architecture is also composed by other practices, such as Djing, which I shall not explore in this paper, because it is considered part of the sound system (soundtrack consisting in the plates to the disks and the microphone). In fact, the rapper must mark his elocutions (timing) in time with the dubbing line, produced by the Disc Jockey (Lapassade and Roussellot, 2009 , p. 154–155).

2 Before proceeding with the analysis, it is important to clarify that the prevailing models of reference of the hip-hop culture mostly reproduce the features of hegemonic masculinity, just as theorized by Connell ( 1995 ), even if over time a new space for not hegemonic masculinities is developing (see for example Frank Ocean). Territorial and/or ethnic relations are homosocial and, as occurring in classical subcultures (Hall and Jefferson, 2003 ), the presence of women, at least in the hip-hop of the beginning, is marginal and subordinate. Nevertheless, female artists or women-only groups have emerged over the years, from music to break-dance. Their role has become increasingly central and they have raised questions connected to gender relations in the hip-hop culture. Anyway, given the vastness of the subject, I shall not include the analysis of gender models in this paper. Given the obvious impossibility to provide a complete bibliography, I shall therefore just mention: Morgan ( 1995 ) and Schloss ( 2009 ).

3 According to Grag Tate, the TV channel MTV plays a key role in this sense: “it has been the functional means for the diffusion of these videos at a global level. Many teenagers got to know rap through this channel. While the hard-edged and lean sound of the hip hop productions captivated increasing market shares, the capitalistic system began to take action to co-opt this culture, diluting it to make it more appealing to a white public. Productions started to be imposed from the top instead than from the bottom, by the artists' creativity […]. From an aesthetic point of view it has had an impact similar to the revolution brought by jazz and bebop, whilst from a commercial point of view it obtained the same popularity than soul and funk (Tate interviewed by u.net, 2006 , p. 137).

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Rap Music and the Empowerment of Today’s Youth: Evidence in Everyday Music Listening, Music Therapy, and Commercial Rap Music

• Published: 16 November 2012
• Volume 30 , pages 139–167, ( 2013 )

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• Raphael Travis Jr. 1  

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Pioneers of various elements of Hip-Hop culture have been empowered through the ability to voice their reality and find a meaningful identity alongside others who found purpose and function in embracing Hip-Hop culture (Chang, Can’t stop won’t stop: A history of the hip-hop generation, 2005 ). This empowerment persists in various reinventions of the culture within the United States and worldwide. The present study examines whether evidence exists in research to support the value of esteem, resilience, growth, community and change as empowering dimensions outlined in the individual and community empowerment framework. Research questions ask: (1) Does youth self-expression in rap music created within music therapy sessions reflect framework dimensions? (2) Does content in commercially recognizable rap music reflect framework dimensions? (3) How well does the framework align with a model of empowerment-based positive youth development? First, data collected to examine the validity of the framework were reviewed. Next, two peer-reviewed research studies published after articulation of the original framework, were examined to investigate commonality between themes and framework dimensions. One study was in a music therapy context and another explored themes in commercial Hip-Hop recordings. Original framework data supports theorizing that rap music content actually comprises developmental narratives (Travis and Deepak, 2011 ; Travis and Bowman, 2012 ). Data in the present study further suggest that these developmental narratives are relevant for Hip-Hop in every day music engagement, in therapeutic self-expression, and within commercially available musical content. Framework dimensions also aligned with a conceptual model of positive youth development that allows specification of intervention pathways and empirically testable outcomes for Hip-Hop integrated change strategies. Results suggest that rap music is a discourse in lifespan development. Rap music’s developmental narratives may be used by practitioners, parents and researchers. The narratives exist within a framework and model that (a) provides a template for better understanding these narratives and (b) positions this understanding for use as a tool to promote and research positive change strategies for individuals and the communities that they value.

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Travis, R. Rap Music and the Empowerment of Today’s Youth: Evidence in Everyday Music Listening, Music Therapy, and Commercial Rap Music. Child Adolesc Soc Work J 30 , 139–167 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-012-0285-x

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AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Chronicling hip-hop’s 45-year ascendance as a musical, cultural and social phenom.

The groundbreaking box set “Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap” features 129 tracks, liner notes and an illustrated 300-page compendium

Isis Davis-Marks

Correspondent

In the 1970s, New York City was reeling from an economic collapse ushered in by the decline of the manufacturing industry, white flight and the construction of the Cross Bronx Expressway . To cope with the financial and social hardships of the era, many people turned to art, and the Bronx became a hotbed for creativity. By the latter half of the decade, graffiti covered subway cars, and abandoned buildings provided the perfect backdrop for block parties set to the soundtrack of a new sound: hip-hop.

In 1977, DJ Afrika Bambaataa began hosting his own hip-hop events in the borough. Today, having such festivities might seem insignificant, like a fun way to relieve tension after a day at work or a way to meet new people. But at the time when Bambaataa began throwing these fetes, he felt that they served a larger cause and that hip-hop played a fundamental role in New York’s Black community.

After an influential trip to Africa, Bambaataa realized that he could use hip-hop to help poor youths, and he also founded a street organization called Universal Zulu Nation to help his mission, wrote hip-hop historian Jeff Chang for Foreign Policy in 2009. Before long, local critics were writing that Bambaataa was "stopping bullets with two turntables."

“DJ Afrika Bambaataa used the concepts of peace, unity, love and fun to lessen the realities of systemic hate and institutional racism [people] faced in everyday life,” writes Public Enemy front man Chuck D in the newly released Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap .

Chuck D’s essay on Bambaataa—as well as Bambaataa’s influential 1982 track “ Planet Rock ”— is just one of many that appears in the anthology, which will be released by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) today. The project is part of the African American Legacy Recordings , a collaboration which seeks to explore musical and oral traditions in the Black community across the United States. The anthology includes 129 tracks on 9 CDs, which are accompanied by a 300–page book designed by Cey Adams , artist and founding creative director of Def Jam records.

“I waited my whole life for an opportunity like this,” says Adams, an artist who played a pivotal role in the development of the visual narrative of hip-hop, designing covers for a host of artists from Run DMC to the Notorious B.I.G. over the years.

“Hip hop is like a brother or sister [to me],” says Adams. “It has been there the whole time. There was never a moment where I was looking up to hip-hop [and saying] ‘Oh my God, look how amazing this is!’ We started out at the same time.”

The Adams-designed tome is filled with essays and quotes penned by prominent critics, historians, and cultural figures, including music writer Naima Cochrane , Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch , who is also the founding director of NMAAHC, and even former President Barack Obama .

“There was a whole committee that was working with me. We had people sourcing the images from around 50 photographers,” says Adams. “I made a lot of creative decisions. But there was a team of people that were helping to source the images [and] write the essay[s].”

Curators at NMAAHC assembled an advisory committee of around 40 musical artists, industry leaders, writers and scholars to create a list of about 900 songs to include in the compendium. To trim the list, a ten-person executive committee—which included Chuck D, MC Lyte, historians Adam Bradley, Cheryl Keyes, Mark Anthony Neal, and industry insiders Bill Adler and Bill Stephney—gathered in Washington, D.C.

“We were all committed to telling the story and preserving this history,” says Dwandalyn Reece , NMAAHC's curator of music and performing arts. “So, [we made] a lot of the decisions, but it was never really an issue. I mean, the hardest thing that we had to decide was those tracks and … having to narrow something down. But it’s just the same kind of thing that we do [while preparing for an exhibition]. If we can only have 300 objects, because we can't have 400, who do you leave out? It's not a value proposition.”

Some songs that the committee had initially selected didn’t make it to the final cut because of licensing issues. For example, there aren’t any songs with Jay-Z listed as the lead artist, and he is only featured as a guest on Foxy Brown’s “I’ll Be.”

The anthology includes a host of important tunes, starting with songs from the 1970s such as The Sugarhill Gang ’s “ Rapper’s Delight .” The 1980s featured tracks include Kurtis Blow ’s iconic song “ The Breaks ” and Whodini ’s “ Friends .” Later discs contain everything from DMX ’s “ Ruff Ryders Anthem ” to Lil’ Kim and Puff Daddy’s “ No Time ” to The Notorious B.I.G. ’s “ Juicy .” Though most of the artists featured in the anthology identify as Black, some white rappers like Beastie Boys, Vanilla Ice and Eminem are also featured.

“In order for hip-hop to be studied properly over the next 40 to 60 years it has to be placed in some type of organizational method or in chronological order,” says 9th Wonder , a producer and member of the executive committee. “Telling the story of how something started in the Bronx as a multicultural [movement], based on immigration [because] the restructuring of the Bronx [made it] multicultural. It's hard for one race to say hip-hop is ours because if you know the history of it [it’s diverse]. You have African diaspora as ours, but the culture was created by many people, and [it needs to] be placed in the canon by these people that know a culture and what it means.”

The anthology speaks to such diversity: All the tracks included were selected for their cultural relevance to communities across the U.S. Though hip-hop emerged as a genre in the Bronx, the sound proliferated throughout the country, and the anthology reflects this by including artists from different locations, like Georgia’s Outkast and Florida’s 2 Live Crew .

One artist in the collection, 2Pac , even moved from New York and eventually made his way to California. “Another song I like that is on there is Dear Mama from 2Pac,” says Reece. “We looked at this set as not just being for the afficionado or for people who don't understand, don't appreciate or only know the propaganda about hip-hop.”

“ Dear Mama ” describes 2Pac’s complicated relationship with his mother, Alice Faye Williams. Born as Tupac Shakur in 1971 in Harlem, New York, 2Pac chronicled his life through songs, documenting his experiences in both New York and his adopted home in California. As a child, 2Pac and his mother had a strained relationship because she was raising two kids on her own as a single mother, and she often struggled to make money to support her family. In the song, 2pac rhymes:

But now the road got rough, you're alone You're tryin' to raise two bad kids on your own And there's no way I can pay you back But my plan is to show you that I understand You are appreciated

Adams—who was born in Harlem, New York and raised in Jamacia, Queens—says that many hip-hop tracks reflect the hardships that people experienced and the multifaceted relationships that individuals have within their communities. “New York is a tough place, but if you are an artist, [either a] recording artist [or a] musician that's who you are. It's in the blood, you know, there is nothing else. You have no choice but to [express] who you are.”

The stories that these artists tell help document cultural changes and communal narratives, which is something that many Black music genres such as funk, jazz, gospel and afrobeats all have in common. This isn’t a mere coincidence: The oral tradition remains an important aspect of the African diaspora, and Black communities have preserved their narratives through word of mouth for years, as historian Janice D. Hamlet pointed out in a 2011 issue of Black History Bulletin .

Now, codifying such histories in a written form is giving the Smithsonian the opportunity to archive them in more textually grounded way.

“It's a reflection of who we are,” says Reece. “The history is more serious than people realize. When you take something like hip-hop and give it the Smithsonian treatment [it has an effect.] I don’t like to say canonize. We're not canonizing. Not intentionally, but in the broader landscape there is a certain kind of value we're bringing as a public institution to validating and valuing this cultural art form, in a way that it means something to people.”

Furthermore, by couching these narratives in musical scholarship and personal anecdotes, it gives curators the opportunity to contextualize hip-hop in a broader cultural setting that a casual listener wouldn’t get from just hearing a CD or streaming a song on YouTube.

“Our agenda is to tell the American story through the African American lens,” says Reece. “Hip-hop is just as American as anything else, and this filters through the entire culture of society. There's so much if you take it from a macro level to really study it, its influence, bridging culture and commerce.”

Such a mission may be particularly pertinent to African American communities because so much of Black history has been lost to the vestiges of colonialism. In a world where enslaved people were unable to keep written records or remain connected to their families, many personal histories have been forgotten. “You know a lot of [African Americans] don't know where we come from,” says 9th Wonder. “We don’t know what tribe we come from, we all know what country we come from, or a region we come from in the motherland. We know nothing. A lot of us [are] walking around with new names. We don't know what our real family name is. When it comes to this music and what we've accomplished in it, [we] at least know that much, [even] if we can't know anything else.”

Get the latest on what's happening At the Smithsonian in your inbox.

Isis Davis-Marks | | READ MORE

Isis Davis-Marks is a freelance writer and artist based in New York City. Her work has also appeared in Artsy , the Columbia Journal , and elsewhere.

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Article contents

• Austin McCoy Austin McCoy Department of History, University of Michigan
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.287
• Published online: 26 September 2017

Rap is the musical practice of hip hop culture that features vocalists, or MCs, reciting lyrics over an instrumental beat that emerged out of the political and economic transformations of New York City after the 1960s. Black and Latinx youth, many of them Caribbean immigrants, created this new cultural form in response to racism, poverty, urban renewal, deindustrialization, and inner-city violence. These new cultural forms eventually spread beyond New York to all regions of the United States as artists from Los Angeles, New Orleans, Miami, and Chicago began releasing rap music with their own distinct sounds. Despite efforts to demonize and censor rap music and hip hop culture, rap music has served as a pathway for social mobility for many black and Latinx youth. Many artists have enjoyed crossover success in acting, advertising, and business. Rap music has also sparked new conversations about various issues such as electoral politics, gender and sexuality, crime, policing, and mass incarceration, as well as technology.

• hip hop culture
• authenticity
• gender and sexuality

Rap is the musical practice of hip hop culture that features a vocalist, or master of ceremony (MC), reciting lyrics over a beat. Rap music is an example of what scholars have called polyculturalism, which refers to the notion that various racial and ethnic groups have historically exchanged and borrowed ideas and cultural practices. 1 Black and Latinx youth in New York City, many of them Caribbean immigrants, responded to poverty, urban renewal, deindustrialization, and inner-city violence by creating their own cultural practices—throwing parties featuring DJs playing breakbeats, MCs rapping and regulating the crowd, dancers breaking to the beat, and graffiti artists tagging trains and walls.

Historically, rap music and hip hop culture have been a male-dominated realm. Much of rap music performed by men has raised questions about masculinity because of the prominence of sexist, homophobic, and misogynist lyrics. The rap industry also suffers from gender inequities as fewer women have been able to pursue a lengthy career rapping and producing. This has not stopped women from participating despite often vacillating between the margins and center of rap music. This process has led women artists not only to use rap to critique sexism within the culture, but also to contribute to the development of intersectional feminism. Other marginalized groups such as genderqueer people have remained on the margins of the rap industry.

Rap music sparked new conversations about race and authenticity, gender, sexuality, and respectability, social problems such as police brutality, as well as Black and Latinx youth’s relationship to politics, technology, and the economy. In addition, Rap music reflects a running conversation and commentary on authenticity. The questions of who is a “real nigga” and what is “real hip hop” often intersect with masculinity, place and space, and aesthetics. 2 Rap also illustrates how inner-city youth repurposed music technology such as record players, records, mixers, and samplers to create a new genre of music. Rappers have also commented on their geographic location and politics, often highlighting racial discrimination and state violence. Critics have raised questions about the violent and misogynistic lyrics contained in rap culture, even going as far as to censor it.

But despite censorship and controversy, rap music is positioned centrally within American popular culture. Rappers have earned Academy Awards and have entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Corporations use rap to market products to customers. Rap is featured in movies, television, and on Broadway. Rappers have also leveraged their success into accumulating large amounts of wealth and influence. And since 1973 , the culture has spread beyond New York to all regions of the United States and throughout the world. Oppressed youth in places like Ghana, the United Kingdom, and Paris have adopted the cultural form in response to their particular surroundings.

The Birth of Hip Hop Culture and Rap Music, 1973–1979

Hip hop culture was born in a first floor recreation room at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue on August 13, 1973 , in Bronx, New York City. Clive Campbell, also known as DJ Kool Herc, spun records for his sister’s party. Staying true to his Jamaican roots, he was known in the Bronx for having the loudest sound system. While Herc played a number of dancehall and funk records, including selections from James Brown’s live albums, his friend Coke LaRock served as the master of ceremony, or the MC. Little did the Campbells know that their party featured several elements—DJ’ing, MC’ing, and dancing—of a new innovative culture. 3

While many rap artists and scholars locate the birth of hip hop culture in the United States, the origins of the burgeoning genre was always diasporic and polycultural. 4 Hip hop, in part, was the product of the migration of people and culture. The first three prominent DJs were born either in the Caribbean or into an immigrant family. Campbell and the other DJs such as Afrika Bambaataa brought elements of Caribbean DJ culture, such as loud mobile sound systems and “toasting,” which referred to deejays talking over music. Hip hop also drew from other musical genres such as funk, disco, soul, and electronica. DJs sampled this music, which entailed using parts of songs or reinterpreting them.

The breakbeat formed the sonic backbone of rap music. Kool Herc discovered the break while deejaying. Herc noticed dancers enjoyed grooving to the intermittent drum break found within particular songs. 5 Deejays also enlisted MCs to assist in regulating the crowd. Emcees engaged the crowd by screaming rhyming catch-phrases and leading chants. Grandmaster Flash discovered the “scratch,” another vital deejay technique that turned the turntable into an instrument. Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaataa also featured break dancers, many of whom were Puerto Rican and Latino, in their performances. 6

Hip hop culture emerged in the context of New York City’s economic restructuring during the 1970s. In that decade, fiscal crisis, deindustrialization, white flight, and urban renewal decimated the Bronx. The South Bronx shed tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs. Forty percent of the industrial sector disappeared. The youth unemployment rate rose to 60%. Urban renewal projects and the construction of the Cross-Bronx Expressway displaced African Americans and Puerto Ricans. Around 60,000 Bronx homes were razed during the 1960s and 1970s. 7 The decline of the Black Power movement, the rise of drug markets, and street gangs provided the backdrop for young blacks and Puerto Ricans who sought to make sense of their lives artistically during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Deejays formed the base of hip hop culture during the 1970s. They organized parties and served as the primary artists. By the mid-1970s, DJs Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, and Afrika Bambaataa dominated the burgeoning hip hop scene. Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, and Herc controlled sections of the Bronx (Figure 1 ). 8

Figure 1. Grandmaster Flash spinning records, 1999.

Herc played in the nightclubs in East Bronx and in neighborhoods in the West. Grandmaster Flash and his Casanova Crew controlled the South Bronx from 138th to 163rd streets. However, Bambaataa saw hip hop culture as a path out of gang violence and an instrument of black and brown unity. 9 Inspired by a trip abroad and the movie, Zulu , Bambaataa formed the Universal Zulu Nation, which would draw from black nationalism and pan-African themes and sought to use hip hop as an organizing tool against gang violence. 10

The number of DJs proliferated after the July 1977 blackout in New York City. During the 24-hour power outage, residents looted hundreds of stores and committed almost a thousand acts of arson. 11 Stores selling music equipment represented prime targets for many New Yorkers. Consequently, the blackout provided more aspiring DJs and artists greater access to necessary expensive equipment. Even DJ Grandmaster Caz, who performed that evening, admitted to going to the store where he first bought his equipment and taking a mixer. 12

Women also helped shape the culture’s founding. In 1977 , Sheri Sher and seven other women formed the first all-women rap group, The Mercedes Ladies (Figure 2 ).

Figure 2. Event flier for a hip hop performance at the Renaissance Ballroom on June 28, 1979. The event featured several notable DJs and rappers, including Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, and the Mercedes Ladies, an all-woman hip hop group.

The Mercedes Ladies emerged out of the all-female crews that roamed the Bronx. 13 The group featured several MCs and DJs: Ever Def, Zena Z, Tracey T, RD Smiley, Baby D, MC Smiley, and DJ La Spank. The group encountered sexist treatment in the industry. Promoters tried to book the group without paying them. The Mercedes Ladies’ attempts to break into the rap industry and to be compensated fairly anticipated the struggles that women artists generally faced. 14

Rap music began its transition from moment to commodity in 1979 . Before then, hip hop music was merely distributed through taped dance parties. 15 Former R&B singer-turned-record executive Sylvia Robinson released the genre’s first record. With her career flailing, Robinson sought to capitalize on the growing rap phenomenon. She and her brother discovered Henry “Big Bank Hank” Jackson, a worker at a local pizzeria. Jackson then recruited two of his friends and formed the Sugar Hill Gang. Shortly after, Big Bank Hank, Wonder Mike, and Master Gee recorded the first rap song, “Rapper’s Delight.”

Rapping over Chic’s “Good Times” instrumental, Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” put rap on record. Clocking in at over fourteen minutes, the song tried to capture the spirit of the original block parties. “Rapper’s Delight” also introduced another tension in rap music that persisted—that of authenticity, what was “real” and what was not. To some DJs and MCs, hip hop could not be captured on record because it was a moment. Also, the Sugar Hill Gang was a manufactured group, while other collectives assembled out of prior relationships and in relation to specific conditions.

In the wake of the success of Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight,” Robinson signed three more rap groups to record singles, The Funky 4 + 1 (which included a woman, Sha Rock), The Treacherous Three , and an all-women rap group called The Sequence. Robinson’s signings helped pave the way for women artists to record rap music. The Sequence included Cheryl Cook, also known as “Cheryl the Pearl,” Gwendolyn Chisolm, known as “Blondie,” and Angie Brown Stone, who went by “Angie B.” The Sequence released “Funk You Up” in December 1979 . The Sequence challenged notions of rap as being thought of as an all-black male domain. 16

Rap Music’s First Golden Age, 1980–1991

While rap music’s popularity increased among young African Americans, Latinxs, and whites, rap groups and solo rappers struggled to gain credibility among older black DJs and a skeptical and discriminatory music industry. Yet, hip hop culture eventually expanded into other entertainment forms during the 1980s.

Figure 3. Event flier for a hip hop performance at Walton High School on January 12, 1979. The event featured Grandmaster Flash and members of the Furious Five.

Rap was featured prominently in movies and documentaries throughout the 1980s. Released in 1983 , Style Wars and Wild Style documented the lives of graffiti writers. Krush Groove , starring Blair Underwood as Russell Simmons, comically dramatized the founding of Def Jam Recordings. Rap music was on TV as well. For instance, Yo! MTV Raps migrated from MTV Europe to the United States where it debuted in October 1987 . 17

Several releases in the early 1980s signaled the greater innovation of rap music. The DJ’s influence decreased while the MC emerged as the focal point. Kurtis Blow’s early success exemplified this development. His hit song, “The Breaks,” was the first rap song to feature a chorus and a theme. The up-tempo disco rap track introduced wordplay as he used “the breaks” to list bad situations and decisions one makes in a daily basis. 18 Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force’s “Planet Rock” and the rock band Blondie’s “Rapture” illustrated the polyculturalism of rap music. “Rapture” included a rap verse from Debbie Harry, while the video featured her friend, graffiti artist Fred Brathwaite, also known as Fab 5 Freddy. 19 Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force sampled German electronic band Kraftwerk’s “Trans Europa Express” in “Planet Rock,” which tapped into afrofuturist themes. 20 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message” illustrated how a socially conscious message could be expressed through rap. The first “reality” rap song, “The Message,” captured the frustration of black and brown folks living in the midst of economic recession, inflation, urban divestment, and Reaganomics.

No group had a bigger impact on hip hop culture during this period than Run-DMC. The Queens-based group consisted of rappers Run, DMC, and DJ Jam Master Jay. Their first single, “It’s Like That/Sucker MC’s,” sold 250,000 copies. Their 1987 Raising Hell sold three million albums. They distinguished themselves from other artists by wearing black leather jackets, black fedora hats, large gold chains, and Adidas sneakers. Run-DMC not only rapped over familiar breakbeats, but also they were the first rap artists to synthesize rap and rock music. Their third single from their 1984 self-titled debut album, “Rock Box,” prominently featured riffs from guitarist Eddie Martinez. In 1986 , Run-DMC’s cover of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” and the music video catapulted the group into the mainstream. 21

In 1984 , Russell Simmons, who also managed Run-DMC, and New York University (NYU) student and producer Rick Rubin, started Def Jam Recordings. They signed the first rap vocalist to cross over into mainstream stardom, a young Queens rapper who went by the name, LL Cool J. LL Cool J released his debut album, Radio , in November 1985 . Simmons and Rubin also recruited a quartet of Jewish party-loving-punk rockers—Adam Horowitz, Adam Yauch, Michael Diamond, and drummer Kate Schellenbach—who called themselves the Beastie Boys. 22 The Beastie Boys’ debut album, Licensed to Ill , sold more than a million records. Their early catalog featured punk-rock-influenced anthems such as “Fight for Your Right” and the frat boy humor featured in singles like “Hey Ladies.” Despite being one of the few Jewish, if not white, rap acts, the Beastie Boys illustrated how hip hop and punk rock emerged in the same historical, spatial, and political context. 23

Some DJs such as Mr. Magic, Kool DJ Red Alert, and DJ Marley Marl became players in the industry. Mr. Magic and Marley Marl found themselves at the center of the genre’s high-profile rap battles during the 1980s. The battle between MC Shan and Boogie Down Productions (BDP) vocalist, KRS One, centered on rap music’s origins. MC Shan claimed in the song, “The Bridge,” produced by Marley Marl, that hip hop began in Queens. KRS One pointed to Kool Herc and Coke LaRock’s parties and Afrika Bambaataa’s Zulu Nation as the progenitors of the culture in “South Bronx.” KRS One effectively won the battle with “The Bridge Is Over” where he rapped over a dancehall track using a Jamaican accent, underlining the historical Caribbean–Bronx connection. Both songs appeared on BDP’s debut album. Criminal Minded . While KRS One and Scot LaRock were the first to pose with guns on their album cover, Philadelphia’s Schoolly D introduced listeners to “gangsta rap” with his song, “P.S.K.: What Does It Mean?”

Figure 4. Rapper Rakim performing in Hamburg, Germany, June 3, 1998.

It took longer for hip hop culture to take root in California than in New York. Many of the genre’s stalwarts like Dr. Dre and Arabian Prince cut their teeth in Los Angeles’ electronic DJ culture. Also, West Coast rap grew out of the decline of black social movements, street gangs such as the Crips and Bloods, the illicit drug economy, and the war on drugs. Producers such as Dr. Dre created a distinctive sound, which sampled 1970s funk and artists like Parliament Funkadelic. In 1986 , Eric “Eazy-E” Wright founded Ruthless Records, which featured the group he and Dr. Dre founded, Niggaz Wit’ Attitude (NWA). NWA included Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, DJ Yella, and MC Ren. Ruthless Records also featured the all-woman group, J. J. Fad, whose platinum-selling album, Supersonic, provided the funding needed to release NWA’s debut album, Straight Outta Compton . NWA’s Straight Outta Compton , made NWA an instant cultural phenomenon. Their brash and vulgar gangsta style appealed not only to black youth, but also to young white men. The group generated controversy with their antipolice brutality song, “Fuck tha Police.” The song prompted the FBI to send a letter demanding they stop performing the song. However, the Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD’s) killing of Eula Love in 1979 over a gas bill and their fifteen killings while using chokeholds during the early 1980s supported NWA’s criticisms of policing. 24 Yet, while NWA appeared as another source of resistance against state violence, these songs appeared alongside others such as “A Bitch iz a Bitch” and “She Swallowed It,” which contained sexist and misogynistic lyrics. Members of NWA lived out some of these lyrics. For instance, producer Dr. Dre physically assaulted rapper and journalist Dee Barnes in 1991 .

During the 1980s, a few women rappers would move from the margins closer to the mainstream. Queensbridge’s Roxanne Shante made a name for herself after confronting the rap group, U.T.F.O., for their song called “Roxanne, Roxanne,” which was about a woman refusing their advances. She responded with “Roxanne’s Revenge,” where she claimed that she had better rap skills and that she would have “fired them” if they worked for her. 25 MC Lyte performed songs that captured the lived experiences of black women. The rap group, Salt-N-Pepa, was the first group of women performers to achieve mainstream success. The group included Salt, Pepa, and their DJ, Spinderella. Salt-n-Pepa’s 1987 “Push It” was their breakout single. They commented on various issues of importance for many black women, notably sexism, relationships, and moral panics around sex and sexually transmitted diseases. 26

Queen Latifah distinguished herself from other women rappers in the late 1980s by combining black nationalism and feminism in her lyrics. Latifah’s and Monie Love’s “Ladies First” represented the genre’s first black feminist anthem. 27 Latifah also spoke out against domestic violence and sexism. Latifah and Salt-N-Pepa illustrated that black women could rap about a number of topics and could control their own image. Latifah’s and Salt-N-Pepa’s success did not preclude black women artists from being marginalized, however. The masculinism and corporatism of the rap industry represented a barrier of entry that many black women struggled to overcome.

Rap Music, Politics, and Sampling in the Late 1980s

Like Queen Latifah, other rap artists and groups turned to black nationalism and racial solidarity as modes of expression. No group exemplified the adoption of black power iconography better than Def Jam signees, Public Enemy. The group ushered in a harder, more intellectual, black nationalistic, version of rap music. Public Enemy included Chuck D, the wacky Flavor Flav, DJ Terminator X, their version of the Fruit of Islam, the Security of the First World (S1W), and the production crew, the Bomb Squad. Their first four albums— Yo! Bumrush the Show , It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back , Fear of a Black Planet , and Apocalypse 91 . . . The Enemy Strikes Black —commented on a range of political issues, including black empowerment, racism in Hollywood, the history of minstrelsy, and police brutality. Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power,” which appeared on Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing soundtrack, is often recognized as one of the genre’s iconic protest anthems. In the song, Chuck D took aim at America’s cultural icons like Elvis and John Wayne and reminded listeners that those he admired were too radical to be mainstreamed by the media and the state. 28 Chuck D saw rap as more than just party and braggadocio music. It was a form through which African American artists could report on their surroundings and communicate politics. Rap music was “the Black CNN.” 29

The late 1980s also saw the rise of rap collectives such as the Juice Crew and the Native Tongues. The Native Tongues collective crafted and presented an aesthetic that departed drastically from dominant forms of hip hop masculinity and femininity. Rather than wearing large gold chains, Adidas sneakers, sweatsuits, or Los Angeles Raiders jackets, members of the collective often dressed in Afrocentric garb. The Native Tongues initially consisted of the Jungle Brothers, De La Soul , A Tribe Called Quest , Black Sheep, Monie Love, and Queen Latifah. A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad attended the same high school as Mike G and Afrika Baby Bam, members of the Jungle Brothers. Mike G’s uncle, Kool DJ Red Alert, helped the Jungle Brothers and A Tribe Called Quest establish a foothold in the industry. The Native Tongues’ rap style was playful, yet serious. Rather than the straightforwardness of Chuck D or the in-your-face style of NWA, the collective’s songs often featured pro-black views, albeit subtly. 30

Other rap acts, such as Houston’s Geto Boys and the Miami-based 2 Live Crew, were ensnared in the culture wars during the early 1990s. Christian fundamentalist groups criticized the Geto Boys for their explicit lyrics detailing gruesome killings. 31 These groups also sought to pressure President George H. W. Bush to ban 2 Live Crew. Politician Jack Thompson claimed that 2 Live Crew violated obscenity laws. He successfully lobbied to get 2 Live Crew’s album, As Nasty As They Wanna Be , banned in Broward County, Florida. 32 Luther Campbell and other members of 2 Live Crew were arrested in June 1990 in Hollywood, Florida, for performing songs on their album. They were eventually acquitted of the charges. 33 The dispute over obscenity raised the same questions about artistry and the first amendment as the FBI.’s dispute with NWA. Thompson continued his protests against Geto Boys. 34

Sampling in hip hop changed as music technology transformed. Rather than just relying on techniques such as using two records and turntables to create a breakbeat, creating pause tapes, producers began using electronic samplers and beat machines such as the SK-1, SP-1200, and the Akai MPC. However, sampling became a point of contention among musicians, critics, and lawyers as artists sought to collect a share of profits. In 1991 , Gilbert O’Sullivan sued Biz Markie over using a sample in “Alone Again.” The 1960s rock group, The Turtles, settled with De La Soul for $1.7 million over the rap group sampling “You Showed Me.” 35 Some musicians such as Mtume criticized rap producers’ use of sampling. Stetasonic, rap’s first act to perform with instrumentalists, responded by recording “Talking All That Jazz.” 36 Disputes over different styles of sampling also generated debates around authenticity within the genre as producers such as Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs would rely more on samples recognized to the mainstream to craft songs.

Hip Hop Goes Mainstream, 1990–1999

Rap music invaded American popular and political culture during the 1990s. By the end of the decade, rap simultaneously grew both more national and more regional. Publications such as The Source , Vibe Magazine , and XXL , as well as television shows such as Yo! MTV Raps and Black Entertainment Television’s Rap City , helped construct what some have called the “hip hop nation.” 37 At the same time, regionally based record labels and rap artists developed rap music that was distinct from New York’s and California’s sounds. This decade also saw the proliferation of black-run rap record labels, which were often subsidiaries of larger conglomerates.

Rap intersected with electoral politics during the early 1990s. For a politician such as Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton, confronting hip hop culture represented an opportunity to demonstrate that he would not back down in the face of racial politics. In a conversation about the 1992 Los Angeles uprising with Washington Post journalist, David Mills, activist-rapper Lisa Williamson, also known as Sistah Souljah, wondered whether African Americans would be right to retaliate against white Americans in response to racism and police brutality. Clinton not only criticized Williamson’s comments, but he equated her with white supremacist David Duke at a Rainbow Coalition gathering convened by Reverend Jesse Jackson in 1992 . Many in politics labeled Clinton’s criticism of Williamson as the “Sistah Souljah moment,” an instance where a politician demonstrates “political courage” in the face of the excesses of racial politics. Clinton demonstrated that he was willing to stand up to rappers and Jesse Jackson while at a gathering Jackson organized. 38

Ice-T’s and Bodycount’s “Cop Killer” thrust rap into debates about the First Amendment, censorship, and policing. In the recorded version of the song, Ice-T referenced the LAPD’s beating of Rodney King. The song depicts Ice-T engaging in a revenge killing of a police officer in response to police violence against African Americans. 39 Police organizations, politicians, and other public figures protested Ice-T and Warner Brothers’ refusal to censor the song. Vice President Dan Quayle, Tipper Gore, and Charlton Heston roundly criticized the song. Law enforcement organizations across the country protested. 40 The protests worked as stores pulled the record from their shelves. Ice-T took “Cop Killer” off the Bodycount record. 41 The response to “Cop Killer” produced a chilling effect on politically charged music as labels began to disinvest in promoting such music and forced artists such as Paris off of the label. 42

The Staten Island, New York, group, Wu Tang Clan, revolutionized the rap industry. The nine-member group led by The RZA—GZA/Genius, Inspectah Deck, Raekwon, Ghostface Killa, Method Man, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, U-God, and Masta Killa—announced themselves in October 1992 on the aggressive single, “Protect Ya Neck.” 43 The Wu Tang Clan’s contractual arrangement with Loud Records altered the way rap groups interacted with record labels. Their contract allowed The Wu Tang Clan to sign as a collective while providing each member the freedom to sign individual deals with other record companies. The group’s most charismatic member, Method Man, signed with Def Jam Records. Elektra Records signed Ol’ Dirty Bastard, and GZA signed a deal with Geffen Records. Ghostface Killah signed with Epic Records, while Raekwon and Inspectah Deck stayed with Loud Records. The group released five solo albums between the Wu Tang Clan’s first two releases, Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers) in 1993 and Wu Tang Forever in 1997 . Each album not only showcased the individual artists’ talents, but they continued to feature the rest of the group.

Lyricists and producers also innovated rap music. Dr. Dre unleashed his debut album, The Chronic , in 1992 after he left Ruthless Records for Suge Knight’s Death Row Records. Songs like the Snoop Doggy Dogg-assisted “Nuthin’ But a G Thang” exemplified the “G-Funk” sound. Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg followed up The Chronic with his debut album, Doggystyle (Figure 5 ).

Figure 5. SnoopDogg performing on the High Road Summer Tour 2016 at the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre.

Queensbridge’s Nasty Nas, released his debut album, Illmatic in 1994 . Some critics refer to Illmatic as the greatest rap album of all time because of the combination of Nas’s poetic rhymes and its sonic backdrop composed by multiple up-and-coming producers such as Main Source member Large Professor, DJ Premier from Gangstarr, A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip, and Pete Rock. Bad Boy Records also released Notorious BIG’s debut album, Ready to Die , which put Notorious B.I.G. and the label at the vanguard of East Coast and New York rap. The album marked the return of the use of blatant samples such as “Juicy,” which sampled Mtume’s “Juicy Fruit .” 44

The infamous rivalry between East and West Coast rappers, mainly between Death Row and Bad Boy Records, consumed hip hop during the mid-1990s. The beef allegedly began the night of November 30, 1994 when several burglars ambushed, shot, and robbed Tupac Shakur at Quad Studios while the Notorious BIG recorded inside. Tupac was born in 1971 to Afeni Shakur, a member of the Black Panther Party. Shakur had garnered much notoriety for his rapping and acting before he was convicted of sexual assault. He released two albums, starred in movies Above the Rim and Poetic Justice , and appeared as a guest on The Cosby Show . Tupac was the wild card in the coastal dispute. In an interview with Vibe Magazine before his sentencing, Shakur implicated Sean Combs and the Notorious BIG in the robbery, charges they subsequently denied. 45

Tensions between California and New York rappers spilled out in the open in 1995 . While on stage at The Source Hip Hop Music Awards, Suge Knight called out Puff Daddy for overshadowing his artists in their videos. 46 Puff Daddy took a more conciliatory tone, stating that he was “proud” of Death Row. 47 Snoop Dogg’s and Tha Dogg Pound’s “NY, NY,” escalated the rivalry. The song ridiculed New York City, and the video featured a giant Snoop Dogg kicking down the city’s buildings. Queens-based Capone-n-Noreaga, Mobb Deep, and Tragedy Khadafi recorded a response, “L.A., L.A.,” mocking Tha Dogg Pound’s “New York, New York” song and video.

Tupac signed with Death Row Records after Suge Knight posted Tupac’s $1.4 million bail. Soon after, Tupac released the double album, All Eyez on Me , which included the Dr. Dre-produced anthem, “California Love.” He escalated the attacks, claiming to have slept with singer Faith Evans, Notorious BIG’s wife, in the song, “Hit ‘Em Up.” Tupac also targeted other East Coast artists such as Mobb Deep, Nas , Jay-Z , Q-Tip, and De La Soul. The deaths of Tupac and Notorious BIG virtually ended the East Coast–West Coast rivalry. Tupac Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas in September 7, 1996 , and died of his wounds six days later. The Notorious B.I.G. met a similar fate in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997 . He was shot while his vehicle was at a stoplight. Much mystery surrounded their deaths. It appeared that Shakur’s death was related to a physical altercation with a gang member the night of his death. In Wallace’s case, it is possible his killing was in retaliation of Shakur’s death, although there is little substantiated evidence linking him, or Sean Combs, to it. Law enforcement failed to solve either murder.

Other rappers sought to position themselves as leading artists in the culture in the wake of Shakur’s and the Notorious B.I.G.’s deaths. Rappers DMX, Jay Z, Nas, and Ja Rule were among those who sought to fill the void left by the two slain artists. Jay Z released a series of critically acclaimed albums on Roc-A-Fella Records, which he owned along with Damon “Dame” Dash and Kareem “Biggs” Burke. Jay Z earned a taste of the type of commercial success that he would enjoy later on his 1998 album, Hard Knock Life . DMX appeared to capture hip hop’s zeitgeist on songs such as “Ruff Ryders Anthem” on his 1998 debut album, It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot . DMX, like Shakur, rapped with intense emotion over dark beats crafted by producers like Swizz Beatz and Dame Grease. He mixed personal tales of hardship with momentary expressions of spirituality. In an unprecedented feat, DMX released his second platinum-selling album, Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood , in a single calendar year.

The Resurgence of the Underground, Women Rappers, the South, and Latinx Rap, 1997–2001

The East Coast–West Coast beef provoked a critique from more “conscious” artists, revealing another division within the genre bubbling beneath the surface. These divisions revolved around long-standing debates over cultural authenticity—“real” hip hop versus “commercial” rap—which sporadically sprang up in rap music. Rap artists and groups such as Kool Keith, Xzibit, A Tribe Called Quest, The Roots , The Fugees, Common, Apani B. Fly Emcee, and Mos Def and Talib Kweli mocked and criticized mainstream artists such as the Notorious B.I.G. and Puff Daddy for their violent lyrics, materialism, and striving for more commercial success. De La Soul drew fire from Treach for Naughty By Nature and Tupac Shakur for “Ego Trippin’” and remarks they made on the 1996 album, Stakes Is High , which served as a rebuke of rap’s gangsterism.

Latinx rappers continued to impact the culture as well. Cypress Hill, a West Coast rap group consisting of B Real, Sen Dog, and producer DJ Muggs, was the first Latino group to achieve mainstream success. In 1993 , the group released its second album, Black Sunday, which sold more than 3 million albums. The album included their biggest hit single, “Insane in the Brain,” which also sold more than 3 million records. The Queens-based group, The Beatnuts, comprising JuJu and Psycho Les, were fixtures in the East Coast rap underground. Bronx rapper Fat Joe also appealed to underground audiences in the first half of the 1990s, until he discovered another Latino rapper who would push Latinx rap further into the mainstream, Big Punisher (Big Pun). The Beatnuts helped thrust Big Pun into the mainstream when they featured him on their hit song, “Off the Books.” Big Pun released his debut solo album, Capital Punishment , in 1998 . The album went platinum, making Big Pun the first Latino solo artist to sell more than a million albums.

During the 1990s, a more diverse group of women rappers emerged, and some moved closer to the mainstream. Lil’ Kim and Foxy Brown were affiliated with two of rap’s burgeoning collectives, Notorious B.I.G.’s Junior Mafia and The Firm, which included Nas, AZ, and Nature. Lil’ Kim’s and Foxy Brown’s lyricism and image on songs such as “Crush on You” and “Gotta Get You Home” embodied sexual freedom. The Fugees’s Lauryn Hill, however, presented a complex picture of black womanhood. She did not discard her sexual appeal, but her lyricism on her 1998 album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill , proved that she could comment on serious topics such as reproductive freedom while demonstrating that she could hold her own lyrically. 48 Hill’s blending of rap, R&B, and soul music paved the way for artists such as Mos Def, Kid Cudi, and Drake to synthesize various musical genres. Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliot was another trailblazer in rap (Figure 6 ).

Figure 6. Missy Elliot , December 2015.

She, along with producer Timbaland, introduced and popularized “bounce,” on her album, Supa Dupa Fly . This sound was characterized by frantic drums, inconspicuous samples, and other futuristic sounds. Elliot presented a black feminism distinct from that of Lil’ Kim and Foxy Brown. She challenged beauty standards in her videos and performances, famously wearing a black inflatable body suit. 49

Southern rap took off during the 1990s as well. 50 Jermaine Dupri’s So So Def Records was among the first southern rap music labels to enjoy mainstream success. However, artists like Outkast and rap labels like No Limit Records created a permanent home for the “dirty south” in hip hop culture. Based in Atlanta, Andre Benjamin and Big Boi adopted the playa persona on their first album. Their name—Outkast—also underscored the group’s outsider status. Outkast seemed to draw from various influences that included P-Funk, Afrika Bambaataa, black southern culture, and the Native Tongues. The group’s style evolved to include lyrical content that extended to afrofuturist themes, black solidarity, spirituality, and mortality. The group also belonged to a collective called the Dungeon Family , named after the studio where they recorded their music, which consisted of the producers Organized Noize, Goodie Mob, Sleepy Brown, Big Rube, the Witchdoctor, and Cool Breeze. 51

Master P’s No Limit Records was one of the most successful black-owned and independent rap labels. The label originated from a record store called No Limit that he opened while living in Richmond, California. 52 Master P formed No Limit Records in 1994 and moved it to New Orleans. His label featured a small roster of performers in the beginning—him, his wife, Sonya Miller, his brother, Silkk the Shocker, rap producer E-A-Ski, and their group Tru. After selling around 150,000 albums across the South and on the West Coast, Master P and his partners at No Limit signed a distribution deal with Priority Records. 53 Backed by the production collective, Beats By the Pound, No Limit Records released fifty albums—selling over 30 million records—which included records from Master P and his brothers, Mia X, Mystikal, and Snoop Dogg, who signed with the label after leaving Death Row Records.

Debates regarding race and authenticity took a different turn during the late 1990s when Detroit’s Marshall Mathers, also known as Eminem, released his debut album, The Slim Shady LP on Dr. Dre’s struggling record label, Aftermath Entertainment. Eminem’s single, “My Name Is” and album launched him and Aftermath into the stratosphere of rap and popular culture. A shock rapper, Eminem’s over-the-top provocative lyrics often aimed at pop stars like Britney Spears and political figures like Tipper Gore and C. Delores Tucker. His violent and misogynistic lyrics attracted the ire of many critics. Eminem’s success raised questions about race and whether or not he was a cultural interloper. Did he represent rap’s version of Elvis Presley, a white performer who so successfully repackaged black cultural practices for mass audiences? 54 The answer to the question was more complex. Eminem’s participation in local rap battles earned him the respect of black artists such as Royce da 5’9 and Proof. Eminem’s class position also allowed him to traverse rap music’s color line as well. He rapped about growing up in a single-parent household in an impoverished trailer park in Detroit. 55 Eminem built on the success of his first two albums, which included Marshall Mathers LP , by releasing albums with his group of Detroit rappers, D12, and starting his own label, Shady Records. Eminem’s movie, which was loosely based on his experiences seeking acceptance and success in local hip hop culture, 8 Mile , and its soundtrack , propelled him further into the mainstream.

Hip Hop in the 21st Century: Rap Takes Control of the Mainstream

Rap music further embedded itself in popular culture and in the record industry in the 21st century . Corporations such as McDonald’s began using hip hop music as marketing tools. More rappers began partnering with corporations to endorse or create products.

Figure 7. Eminem graffiti mural in Shanghai, China (2012).

By the end of the decade, television networks began investing more in rap-themed shows such as Empire , The Breaks , and The Get Down , and Marvel’s Luke Cage . Rap even found audiences on Broadway. Scores of Americans, mostly white and wealthy, have packed the theater to watch Lin Manuel Miranda’s hip hop musical— Hamilton —dramatizing the life of founding father, Alexander Hamilton. Ed Piskor has released a critically acclaimed comic book series based on the history of rap, Hip Hop Family Tree . “Hybrid” artists, such Janelle Monae, Erykah Badu, Childish Gambino, and Kid Cudi blurred the boundaries between the genres as they sung and rapped on their projects.

Even though more women continued to rap, their influence in the genre waned during the 2000s. Lil’ Kim, Missy Elliot, Trina, and the Ruff Ryders’s Eve all recorded albums that enjoyed mainstream success. The Grammy Awards dropped the Best Female Rap category in 2005 due to a decline in the number of mainstream women recording artists. The restructuring of the music industry made women and men more disposable. Instead of investing in artist development, record labels now sought more polished artists who could sell more records at a lower cost. Women artists were disproportionately affected by this development. The cost for labels to not only record albums and produce videos, but to invest in a woman’s upkeep, was more expensive, thus, making her more expendable. 56

These struggles have not totally foreclosed success for women. Queen Latifah has successfully crossed over from rap to acting in television and movies. She has also served as a Covergirl model. Young Money’s Nicki Minaj and former T.I. affiliate, Iggy Azalea entered the mainstream during the 2010s with songs like “Fancy.” Like Lil’ Kim, Missy Elliot, and Eve, both artists blended hip hop and catchy pop music. Both artists have endured criticisms over their authenticity, albeit for different reasons. At the 2012 Hot97 Summer Jam Concert, DJ Peter Rosenberg alleged that Nicki Minaj was not “real” hip hop because of her hit, “Starships.” This sparked a controversy as Minaj pulled out of the event arguing that Rosenberg would not advance such claims if she were not a woman performer. 57 In 2014 , rapper Azalea Banks accused white Australian rapper Iggy Azaelia of cultural appropriation.

Big Pun’s sudden death in 2000 due to a heart attack and respiratory problems appeared to have left a void in Latinx rap. However, New York City radio DJ Angie Martinez embarked on a short, yet rather successful, rap career during the mid- to late 1990s that culminated in the release of two albums, Up Close and Personal in 2001 and Animal House in 2002 . Big Pun’s comrade, Fat Joe, enjoyed more mainstream success during this period. Rather than remaining in New York City, Fat Joe moved to Miami and began collaborating with singers, southern rappers, and DJs like R. Kelly, Ashanti, Lil’ Wayne, Rick Ross, and Arab-American turntabalist DJ Khaled . Cuban American rapper, Pitbull, surpassed Big Pun in commercial success in the 2000s. Pitbull named his debut album after the city in which he was born and raised, M.I.A.M.I . Pitbull specialized in recording and performing fast-paced dance music. He forged partnerships with products such as Kodak, Dr. Pepper, and Budweiser, and his music has been featured in NBA advertisements on the ESPN and ABC networks.

Jay-Z continued his mainstream success in the new century. He released The Blueprint in 2001 , an album that many critics heralded a classic. The album also included the diss song aimed at Mobb Deep and Nas entitled “The Takeover.” Tensions between Jay-Z and Nas bubbled beneath the surface after Notorious B.I.G.’s death with both artists trading subliminal disses. Jay Z’s “The Takeover” represented the first high-profile rap battle since the East Coast–West Coast feud. Nas returned the favor with his response, “Ether,” that appeared on his 2001 album, Stillmatic . Even though many in the hip hop world considered Nas the winner of the battle, both artists traded lyrical barbs on their follow-up albums. Jay Z announced his retirement from recording upon the release of The Black Album in 2004 . Soon after, he parted ways with the other Roc-A-Fella co-owners. Then Def Jam changed ownership and leadership as it briefly employed Jay-Z as its president after the CEOs of his label. The decline of Roc-A-Fella reminded those in the music industry that even the most popular labels could dissolve under the weight of an executive’s ambitions and internal tensions.

Kanye West emerged as one of the most important rap artists of the decade as Roc-a-Fella Records declined. West, a Chicagoan, made his mark with his production on Jay-Z’s The Blueprint . Although West supplied beats for the likes of Roc-A-Fella artists such as Jay-Z and Beanie Sigel , as well as other artists such as Talib Kweli and Scarface , he saw himself as a vocalist. On his 2004 debut album, The College Dropout , West deemphasized tales of drug dealing and violent lyrics embedded in gangsta rap. Yet, West’s lyrics remained materialistic and misogynistic. West also incorporated lyrics about dropping out of college , politics , spirituality, and his struggle to be taken seriously as a rapper. He also bridged generation and stylistic gaps in rap music. West became famous by reinvigorating sample-based production, often relying on soul samples that he chopped and sped up. Kanye’s rap and beatmaking style also drew from the likes of Pete Rock and A Tribe Called Quest. West was the first prominent rapper and producer in the late-1990s and early-2000s to collaborate with both “commercial” and “underground” artists and groups such as Dilated Peoples , Jay-Z, Scarface, Common, and Talib Kweli.

West emerged alongside other producers and groups who took their musical cues from the Native Tongues and other producers such as Pete Rock . Even though Detroit-based producer J. Dilla’s group, Slum Village, released their debut album, Fantastic, Vol. 1 , in 2000 . J. Dilla, Baatin, and T3 rapped over J. Dilla’s sample-based beats . J. Dilla drew from various genres like soul, jazz, and electronica. Before he succumbed from complications from Lupus, Dilla released Donuts , where he arranged loops of sampled beats in a manner that contemplated mortality. 58 North Carolina’s Little Brother also represented a descendant of the Native Tongues. Rappers Big Pooh and Phonte traded rhymes of 9th Wonder’s soul-laced tracks.

The 21st century has represented a golden age for Southern and non-New York City hip hop. In 2000 , St. Louis rapper Nelly released Country Grammar , which featured the hit song by the same name. Nelly seemed to draw from Cleveland’s Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony’s melodic delivery . Three 6 Mafia earned the genre its first Academy Award in 2006 for its performance of “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” in the movie, Hustle & Flow .

The popularity of the South’s “trap music” surged in the 21st century . 59 Atlanta’s T.I. reemphasized the subgenre during the 2000s. New Orleans’s Lil’ Wayne, and Miami’s Rick Ross also emerged as the South’s biggest solo artists during the 2000s. While T.I released his first album, I’m Serious , in 2001 , he did not reach mainstream stardom until the mid-2000s. Cash Money’s Lil’ Wayne released three albums before he was considered one of the genre’s best rappers. Lil’ Wayne solidified his position at the top of the rap industry with his Tha Carter series and his mixtapes. Rick Ross’s persona and hit song, “Hustlin,” raised questions about authenticity in hip hop. Ross adopted the name of drug dealer Freeway Ricky Ross, who admonished the rapper for taking his name. Then, in 2008 , evidence of Ross’s past employment as a correctional officer surfaced, raising questions about his legitimacy. However, Ross’s use of his imagination is what made his song, “Hustlin’” and his role as a performer significant. 60

Rap Music, Technology, Moguls, and Politics in the 21st Century

The maturation of .mp3 technology and the advent of digital music players such as Apple’s IPod may have been the most consequential advances in the music industry in the 21st century . These developments reordered the industry as they changed the production, distribution, and consumption of rap, and music generally. Record labels and artists struggled to adapt to the burgeoning digital era. While many record labels continued to produce and distribute rap music on compact discs, the advent of the .mp3 and digital music players allowed for consumers to share music across disparate networks on platforms such as Napster. While rappers had to deal with bootleggers and album leaks as far back as the early 1990s, such practices increased as more people could copy compact discs and acquire music digitally.

This change in the market actually boosted the careers of some rappers like 50 Cent, who recorded numerous mixtapes with his group, G-Unit. 50 Cent’s mixtapes were more advanced than those in the past that featured freestyle verses over other artists’ songs. 50 Cent and G-Unit would rerecord other artists’ songs, infusing them with their gangsta style. This method paved the way for artists to sidestep the traditional recording process through labels. They could record new music and release them via mixtapes on their own. 50 Cent’s mixtape productivity launched him to the fore of the rap industry. He caught Eminem’s ear, and Eminem eventually signed him to Shady-Aftermath where he released hit songs such as “In Da Club” and the overwhelming successful Get Rich or Die Tryin’ and The Massacre . 50 Cent turned his mixtape hustle into a record label deal—G Unit Records—with Shady-Aftermath’s parent company, Interscope Records.

Rap artists and executives also became moguls during the 21st century . Dr. Dre and Interscope Records’ Jimmy Iovine invested in Beats headphones, which was subsequently bought by Apple. Jay-Z runs his own entertainment company, Roc Nation, which specializes in music, film, television, marketing, and talent representation. He is also a co-owner of the music streaming company, Tidal. In addition to running Bad Boy Records and a television network, Revolt TV, Combs has established lucrative partnerships with Ciroc Vodka. Dr. Dre’s and Sean Combs’s earnings have pushed northward of $800 million, making them the first rap artists and executives to possibly earn $1 billion. 61

Rap groups and soloists emerged during the 2000s to speak out against racism, economic exploitation, mass incarceration, and the war in Iraq. Dead Prez’s Let’s Get Free criticized poverty, the education system , and policing . West Coast rapper Paris teamed up with Public Enemy to record an album calling for greater black solidarity called Rebirth of a Nation , which played upon D.W. Griffith’s white supremacist movie, Birth of a Nation . The X-Clan returned in 2007 with Return from Mecca , which included one of the genre’s most potent songs, simply called “Prison,” which criticized mass incarceration. Latino rapper Immortal Technique spoke out against racism, the corporatization of rap , and the international drug trade on all of his albums: Revolutionary , Vol. 1 , Revolutionary, Vol. 2 , and The 3rd World . White rapper Macklemore recorded songs about homophobia, white privilege, and police violence . However, the overwhelming success of his and Ryan Lewis’s debut album, The Heist , raised questions about race and authenticity in hip hop. Women rappers like Angel Haze and Detroit-based rapper, Invincible, continued to speak out on political issues in song. Drawing from the city’s history of deindustrialization, Invincible has spoken out against urban disinvestment and gentrification.

Between 2008 and 2016 , rap drew inspiration from electoral politics and social movements. Will.I.Am, Jeezy, and Nas recorded songs praising Obama and encouraging Americans to vote. Obama also publicly exhibited his affinity with hip hop culture. In April 2008 , he famously brushed his shoulder in response to a criticism from Hillary Clinton. The gesture referenced Jay-Z’s song, “Dirt Off Your Shoulder,” that appeared on The Black Album . Social movements such as Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter also inspired hip hop artists during the Obama era. Talib Kweli supported Black Lives Matter by participating in the Ferguson October protest in 2015 . Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco has recorded songs criticizing the history of settler-colonialism , foreign policy , and mass incarceration . Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly features songs such as “The Blacker the Berry” confronting police killings, mass incarceration, and inner-city violence. One song, in particular, however, “Alright,” has become a protest anthem for many Black Lives Matter activists.

Discussion of the Literature

Hip hop studies has expanded in the previous three decades despite academia’s questions regarding its relevance and rigor. 62 The number of studies of hip hop culture increased during the 1990s and the 2000s. Tricia Rose’s Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America was among the first theoretical analyses of hip hop culture. Rose analyzed the relationship between technology, political economy, and space in the development of rap music. She also presented analyses of rap music’s relationship between race, gender, and politics. Bakari Kitwana’s The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African-American Culture analyzes the rise of what he defines as the “hip hop generation”—those born between 1965 and 1984 —and its relationship to mass incarceration, film, unemployment, and sexism and the gender divide. 63 Murray Forman’s and Mark Anthony Neal’s That’s the Joint: The Hip Hop Studies Reader and Jeff Chang’s edited collection, Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop illustrate the breadth of the study of rap music as a field. Chang’s edited collection features various articles on hip hop historiography, aesthetics, authenticity, space, gender, politics, and technology. Chang’s collection also frames hip hop as a cultural movement in the vein of the Black Arts movement.

Many of the rap histories are journalistic. Jeff Chang’s Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation remains the best synthetic history of the genre. Chang contextualizes the emergence of the genre in the Jamaican diaspora and the political, economic, and spatial transformations of New York City. The author uses culture and politics to analyze the development of hip hop culture from 1973 until 2001 , ending with an analysis of the corporatization and globalization of rap music at the end of the 20th century . Dan Charnas’s The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop is the first economic history of the genre. In The Big Payback , music executives emerge as the prominent players in the genre’s development alongside pioneering DJ’s and rappers. Ben Westhoff’s Original Gangstas: The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, and the Birth of West Coast Rap and Dirty South: Outkast, Lil Wayne, Souljah Boy and the Southern Rappers Who Reinvented Hip Hop are the first journalistic histories that shift the focus of rap’s origins to places such as Compton, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, New Orleans, and Atlanta.

Many scholars have focused on analyzing the relationship between hip hop culture, rap music, feminism, and gender. Gwendolyn Pough builds upon black feminist scholars such as Tricia Rose in her book, Check It While I Wreck It: Black Womanhood, Hip-Hop Culture, and the Public Sphere . Pough illustrates how black women rappers had to “wreck it,” demonstrating great lyrical skill, to carve a space in the predominantly black male rap counterpublic. Due to this struggle, according to Pough, this space becomes a launch point for black feminist thought, pedagogy, and politics. Sociologist Michael Jeffries concentrates on the relationship between rap music and masculinity in Thug Life: Race, Gender, and the Meaning of Hip-Hop . His method is notable because he focuses more on audience than on rappers and other performers. 64

Many scholars have been interested in the political potential of rap music and the hip hop generation. 65 These texts specifically explore the intersections between hip hop culture and its relationship with traditional politics. The title of S. Craig’s Watkins’s book, Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture, and the Struggle for the Soul of the Movement serves as a rebuke of those critics who claim that hip hop does not contain any politics. Political Scientist Cathy Cohen takes up questions regarding black youth participation in electoral politics and activism, moral panics and respectability politics, and their relationship with Barack Obama in Democracy Remixed . Political Scientist Lester Spence considers the development of hip hop culture in relation to the emergence of neoliberalism. Spence confronts critics of rap music and black culture who claim that it has no political significance. While analyzing the production, consumption, and circulation of rap music, the author identifies the points where rap artists and black culture transmit messages supporting neoliberal logic.

Music critics and journalists have published anthologies analyzing many of the genre’s most notable albums. 66 Hip hop journalists Sasha Jenkins, Elliot Wilson, Chairman Mao, Gabriel Alvarez, and Brent Rollins put together Ego Trip’s Book of Rap Lists . This 352-page book features scores of lists exploring the genre’s greatest producers, the best DJs, the greatest rap groups of all time, and “twenty colorful songs about racism.” Journalist Brian Coleman published two volumes of Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies, which has offered deep analyses of albums from the Beastie Boys, Diagable Planets, Raekwon, Black Star, Eric B. & Rakim, and Ice Cube. Shea Serrano’s The Rap Yearbook analyzes the best rap songs from the Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight,” released in 1979 to Rich Gang’s 2014 “Lifestyle.” Michael Eric Dyson and Sohail Daulatzai edited a collection of essays analyzing every song from Nas’s debut album, Illmatic .

Rappers have also published memoirs documenting their experiences in the hip hop industry. 67 Journalist Joan Morgan’s memoir, When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: My Life as a Hip-Hop Feminist , interrogates the nuances of black feminism and some of the problematic aspects of hip hop culture. The Roots’ drummer, Questlove, mused about his musical influences and the story of his band’s rise in Mo’ Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove . He contextualizes The Roots’ career in the development of hip hop culture during the 1980s and 1990s. Wu Tang Clan’s The Rza frames his coming of age story within the lessons he gleaned from his various influences in The Tao of Wu . Jay-Z also published Decoded , which featured the artist’s annotations of some of his most famous verses.

Primary Sources

Harvard University and Cornell University have opened archives containing primary sources. The Cornell Hip-Hop Collection in Ithaca, New York, contains collections from Afrika Bambaataa, journalist Kevin Powell, and Def Jam music executive Bill Adler. 68 Harvard’s Hip Hop Archive and Research Institute at the Hutchins Center, Harvard University, features profiles of several hip hop artists and contains 200 vinyl records in their Classic Crates Project. It also includes an extensive bibliography. 69 Adam Bradley and Andrew DuBois published a collection of rap lyrics in 2010 , The Anthology of Rap . This compilation contains lyrics from rap artists from 1978 to 2010 . Genius is an annotation website that stores rap verses from thousands of songs. The Original Hip Hop Lyrics Database also contains rap lyrics. 70

Links to Digital Materials

• History of Rap Spotify Playlist .

Further Reading

• Chang, Jeff . Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation . New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005.
• Charnas, Dan . The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip Hop . New York: New American Library, 2010.
• Coleman, Brian . Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies . New York: Villard, 2007.
• Coleman, Brian . Check the Technique, Volume 2: More Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies . Everett, Mass.: Wax Facts Press, 2014.
• Collins, Patricia Hill . From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism . Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006.
• Dyson, Michael Eric , and Sohail Daulatzai , eds. Born to Use Mics: Reading Nas’s Illmatic . New York: Basic Civitas, 2010.
• Forman, Murray , and Mark Anthony Neal . That’s the Joint! The Hip-Hop Studies Reader . New York: Routledge, 2004.
• Jeffries, Michael P. Thug Life: Race, Gender, and the Meaning of Hip Hop . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.
• Jenkins, Sasha , Elliot Wilson , Chairman Mao , Gabriel Alvarez , and Brent Rollins , Ego Trip’s Book of Rap Lists . New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1999.
• Kitwana, Bakari . The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Culture . New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2002.
• Kitwana, Bakari . Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop: Wankstas, Wiggers, Wannabees, and the New Reality of Race in America . New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2005.
• Lipsitz, George . Dangerous Crossroads: Popular Music Postmodernism, and the Poetics of Place . New York: Verso, 1994.
• Morgan, Joan . When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: My Life as a Hip-Hop Feminist . New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999.
• Ogbar, Jeffrey O. G. The Hip-Hop Revolution: The Culture and Politics of Rap . Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2007.
• Perry, Imani . Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop . Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2004.
• Piskor , Ed. Hip Hop Family Tree . Seattle, Wash.: Fantagraphics Books, 2013.
• Pough, Gwendolyn . Check It While I Wreck It: Black Womanhood, Hip-Hop Culture, and the Public Sphere . Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2004.
• Rose, Tricia . Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America . Nanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2004.
• The Rza . The Tao of Wu . New York: Riverhead Books, 2009.
• Serrano, Shea . The Rap Yearbook: The Most Important Rap Song From Every Year Since 1979, Discussed, Debated, and Deconstructed . New York: Abrams Image, 2015.
• Spence, Lester . Stare in the Darkness: The Limits of Hip-Hop and Black Politics . Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011.
• Thompson, Ahmir “Questlove,” Mo’ Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove . New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2013.
• Vibe Magazine Staff , Hip-Hop Divas . New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001.
• Watkins, S. Craig . Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture, and the Struggle for the Soul of the Movement . Boston: Beacon Press, 2005.
• Westoff, Ben . Original Gangstas: The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, and the Birth of West Coast Rap . New York: Hachette Books, 2016.

1. Robin Kelley, “Polycultural Me,” UTNE Reader , September–October 1999.

2. Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar , The Hip-Hop Revolution: The Culture and Politics of Rap (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2007), 5–7.

3. Jeff Chang , Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005), 67–70; Angus Batey , “DJ Kool Herc DJs his first block party (his sister’s birthday) at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, Bronx, New York,” The Guardian , June 12, 2011 .

4. George Lipsitz , Dangerous Crossroads: Popular Music, Postmodernism and the Politics of Place (New York: Verso, 1994), 25.

5. Chang, 79.

6. Dan Charnas , The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop (New York: New American Library, 2010), 18.

7. Chang, 10–14.

8. Ibid. , 83.

9. Charnas, 19; Chang, 101.

10. In 2016, the leadership of the Zulu Nation marginalized Bambaataa after activist, politician, and music executive Ronald Savage accused him of sexual assault. The Zulu Nation issued a formal apology to Savage. See Marc Hogan , “Zulu Nation Apologizes to Afrika Bambaataa’s Alleged Sexual Abuse Victims,” Pitchfork, June 1, 2016 .

11. Sewell Chan , “Remembering the ’77 Blackout,” The New York Times , July 9, 2007 .

12. 99% Invisible and Delaney Hall , “Was the 1977 New York City Blackout a Catalyst for Hip Hop’s Growth?,” Slate.com, October 16, 2014 ; Chang, 84.

13. Vibe Magazine Staff , Hip-Hop Divas (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001), 8–9.

14. Vibe Magazine Staff, 9.

15. Charnas, 15.

16. Sasha Jenkins , Elliot Wilson , Chairman Mao , Gabriel Alvarez , and Brent Rollins , Ego Trip’s Book of Rap Lists (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), 30.

17. Charnas, 233.

18. Shea Serrano , The Rap Year Book: The Most Important Rap Song Every Year Since 1979, Discussed, Debated, and Deconstructed (New York: Abrams Image, 2015), 17–20.

19. Charnas, 57.

20. Chang, 92; J. S. Rafaeli , “We Spoke to Afrika Bambaataa about Hip-Hop, Afrofuturism, and ‘Bewitched’,” Vice.com, October 2, 2014 .

21. Chang, 203.

22. Schellenbach’s was marginalized as Horowitz, Yauch, and Diamond concentrated more on producing rap music. Charnas, 134.

23. Austin McCoy , “Fight for Your Right to Party”?: The Politics of Hip Hop’s ‘Funky Ass Jews,’” Another Level, August 17, 2012 .

24. Kelley, 184.

25. Adam Bradley and Andrew DuBois , eds., The Anthology of Rap (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2010), 283.

26. Tricia Rose , Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1994), 151.

27. Chang, 445.

28. Bradley and DuBois, 257.

29. Chang, 251.

30. Eric Thurm , “A beginner’s guide to hip-hop collective Native Tongues,” The Av Club, July 5, 2013 .

31. David Mills , “ The Geto Boys: Beating the Murder Rap ,” The Washington Post , December 15, 1991.

32. Ibid. , 393.

33. Steve Hochman , “Two Members of 2 Live Crew Arrested,” Los Angeles Times , June 11, 1990 ; “The Anatomy of a Crusade,” Los Angeles Times , June 18, 1990 .

34. Sara Rimer , “Obscenity or Art? Trial on Rap Lyrics Opens,” New York Times , October 17, 1990 .

35. Oliver Wang , “20 Years Ago Biz Markie Got the Las Laugh,” NPR Music .

36. Jeff Mao , “Interview: Mtume on Miles Davis, Juicy Fruit and Donny Hathaway’s Last Recording Session,” Red Bull Music Academy, May 13, 2014 .

37. Greg Tate, “Hip Hop Nation,” The Village Voice , January 19, 1988.

38. Charnas, 381; Chang, 394–395; Matt Latimer , “Why There Are No More Sistah Souljah Moments,” Politico , June 24, 2015 .

39. Bodycount, “Out in the Parking Lot/Cop Killer Lyrics,” Rap Genius .

40. Chang, 396–399.

41. Charnas, 389.

42. Chang, 399.

43. The Rza , The Tao of Wu (New York: Riverhead Books, 2009), 107.

44. Serrano, 103.

45. Charnas, 474–475.

46. Nadirah Simmons , “Today in 1995: The 2nd Annual Source Awards Makes Hip Hop History,” The Source.com, August 3, 2016 .

47. Charnas, 475.

48. Lester Spence , Stare into the Darkness: The Limits of Hip Hop and Black Politics (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011), 1.

49. Noisey Staff , “The Evolution of Timbaland,” Noisey , February 3, 2015 ; Kat George , “Why Missy Elliot’s feminist legacy is criminally underrated,” Dazed (January 2016).

50. David Mills , “The Geto Boys Beating the Murder Rap,” Washington Post , December 15, 1991.

51. Pitchfork Staff , “Atlanta to Atlantis: An OutKast Retrospective,” Pitchfork , November 5, 2013 .

52. Ben Westhoff , The Dirty South: Outkast, Lil Wayne, Soulja Boy, and the Southern Rappers Who Reinvented Hip-Hop (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2011), 118.

53. Charnas, 516–157.

54. Charnas, 522.

55. Jonah Hahn, “The Politics of Race in Rap,” Harvard Political Review , June 8, 2014; [another citation]

56. Austin McCoy , “In Between Cultural Appropriatation, Racism, and Sexism: Azealia Banks and the Erasure of Black Women in Rap,” Nursing Clio , January 29, 2015 .

57. Austin McCoy , “Holding it Down For Women: Nicki Minaj and the Problem of Gender Inequity in Hip Hop,” Nursing Clio, July 25, 2012 .

58. Jordan Ferguson , Donuts (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014).

59. Christina Lee , “Trap Kings: How the Hip-Hop Sub-genre Dominated the Decade,” The Guardian , August 13, 2015.

60. Serrano, 177.

61. Zack O’Malley Greenberg , “Cash Kings 2016: Hip-Hop’s Highest Earning Acts,” Forbes , September 7, 2016.

62. For a comprehensive bibliography on the history of hip hop, see Andrew Leach , “’One Day It’ll All Make Sense’: Hip-Hop and Rap Resources for Librarians,” Notes , 2d ser., 65.1 (September 2008): 9–37.

63. Bakari Kitwana , The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African-American Culture (New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2002), 3.

64. Gwendolyn Pough , Check It While I Wreck It: Black Womanhood, Hip-Hop Culture, and the Public Sphere (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2004); Michael P. Jeffries , Thug Life: Race, Gender, and The Meaning of Hip-Hop (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2011). Also see Patricia Hill Collins , From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006).

65. S. Craig Watkins , Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture, and the Struggle for the Soul of the Movement (Boston: Beacon Press, 2005); Cathy J. Cohen , Democracy Remixed: Black Youth and the Future of American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010); Portia Hemphill , “Rebel Without a Pause: Discovering the Relationship Between Rap Music and the Political Attitudes and Participation of Black Youth” (PhD diss, University of Michigan, 2015).

66. Brian Coleman , Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies (New York: Villard, 2007); Check the Technique, Volume 2: More Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies (Everett, Mass.: Wax Facts Press, 2014); Michael Eric Dyson and Sohail Daulatzai , eds., Born to Use Mics: Reading Nas’s Illmatic (New York: Basic Civitas, 2010)

67. Jay Z , Decoded (New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2010); Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson , Mo’ Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2015).

68. “Guide to the Cornell University Library Hip Hop Collection, circa 1975–2008,” Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Cornell University Library . Ithaca, New York.

69. “Bibliography,” The Hip Hop Archive, Hip Hop Archive and Research Institute at the Hutchins Center , Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.

70. The Original Hip-Hop Lyrics Archive .

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While there is some debate over the number of elements of hip-hop, there are four elements that are considered to be its pillars: deejaying, or “turntabling”; rapping, also known as “MCing” (emceeing) or “rhyming”; graffiti painting, also known as “graf” or “writing”; and break dancing, or “B-boying,” which encompasses hip-hop dance, style, and attitude, along with the sort of virile body language that philosopher Cornel West described as “postural semantics.” Many also cite a fifth essential component: “knowledge of self/consciousness.” Other suggested elements include street fashion and language.

There are various explanations for the source of the term hip-hop . However, the most popular one involves Keith (”Keef Cowboy”) Wiggins, a member of the rap group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five . The rapper used the words hip/hop/hip/hop , imitating the sound of soldiers marching, in reference to a friend who had joined the army. According to some accounts, Kevin (”Lovebug Starski”) Smith was with Wiggins and helped create the phrase. Hip-hop was subsequently popularized in songs, notably the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight.”

While a number of people were influential in the creation of hip-hop, much credit is given to Kool Herc (Clive Campbell), a Jamaican immigrant who was the first major hip-hop disc jockey. At a Bronx party on August 11, 1973, he introduced the technique of playing the same album on two turntables and extending the drum section (which became known as the breakbeat). Many recognize this night as the birth of hip-hop. Other pioneering hip-hop deejays include Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash . The three men are often called the “holy trinity” of early hip-hop.

Although not the first hip-hop song, the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” (1979) was considered the first significant single of the genre. Within weeks of its release, it became a chart-topping phenomenon and gave its name to a new genre of pop music. Part of its crossover appeal was attributed to its lighthearted lyrics, which were atypical of most rap songs at the time.

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hip-hop , cultural movement that attained widespread popularity in the 1980s and ’90s and also the backing music for rap , the musical style incorporating rhythmic and/or rhyming speech that became the movement’s most lasting and influential art form.

Although widely considered a synonym for rap music, the term hip-hop refers to a complex culture comprising four elements: deejaying , or “turntabling”; rapping, also known as “MCing” or “rhyming”; graffiti painting, also known as “graf” or “writing”; and “B-boying,” which encompasses hip-hop dance, style, and attitude, along with the sort of virile body language that philosopher Cornel West described as “postural semantics.” (A fifth element, “knowledge of self/consciousness,” is sometimes added to the list of hip-hop elements, particularly by socially conscious hip-hop artists and scholars.) Hip-hop originated in the predominantly African American economically depressed South Bronx section of New York City in the late 1970s. As the hip-hop movement began at society’s margins, its origins are shrouded in myth , enigma , and obfuscation.

Graffiti and break dancing , the aspects of the culture that first caught public attention, had the least lasting effect. Reputedly, the graffiti movement was started about 1972 by a Greek American teenager who signed, or “tagged,” Taki 183 (his name and street, 183rd Street) on walls throughout the New York City subway system. By 1975 youths in the Bronx, Queens , and Brooklyn were stealing into train yards under cover of darkness to spray-paint colorful mural-size renderings of their names, imagery from underground comics and television , and even Andy Warhol -like Campbell’s soup cans onto the sides of subway cars. Soon, influential art dealers in the United States , Europe , and Japan were displaying graffiti in major galleries. New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority responded with dogs, barbed-wire fences, paint-removing acid baths, and undercover police squads.

The beginnings of the dancing, rapping, and deejaying components of hip-hop were bound together by the shared environment in which these art forms evolved. The first major hip-hop deejay was DJ Kool Herc (Clive Campbell), an 18-year-old immigrant who introduced the huge sound systems of his native Jamaica to inner-city parties. Using two turntables, he melded percussive fragments from older records with popular dance songs to create a continuous flow of music. Kool Herc and other pioneering hip-hop deejays such as Grand Wizard Theodore, Afrika Bambaataa , and Grandmaster Flash isolated and extended the break beat (the part of a dance record where all sounds but the drums drop out), stimulating improvisational dancing. Contests developed in which the best dancers created break dancing, a style with a repertoire of acrobatic and occasionally airborne moves, including gravity-defying headspins and backspins.

In the meantime, deejays developed new techniques for turntable manipulation. Needle dropping, created by Grandmaster Flash, prolonged short drum breaks by playing two copies of a record simultaneously and 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 called “scratching.”

Kool Herc was widely credited as the father of modern rapping for his spoken interjections over records, but among the wide variety of oratorical precedents cited for MCing are the epic histories of West African griots , talking blues songs, jailhouse toasts (long rhyming poems recounting outlandish deeds and misdeeds), and the dozens (the ritualized word game based on exchanging insults, usually about members of the opponent’s family). Other influences cited include the hipster-jive announcing styles of 1950s rhythm-and-blues deejays such as Jocko Henderson ; the Black power poetry of Amiri Baraka , Gil Scott-Heron, and the Last Poets ; rapping sections in recordings by Isaac Hayes and George Clinton ; and the Jamaican style of rhythmized speech known as toasting.

Rap first came to national prominence in the United States with the release of the Sugarhill Gang ’s song “ Rapper’s Delight ” (1979) on the independent African American-owned label Sugar Hill . Within weeks of its release, it had become a chart-topping phenomenon and given its name to a new genre of pop music . The major pioneers of rapping were Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five , Kurtis Blow, and the Cold Crush Brothers, whose Grandmaster Caz is controversially considered by some to be the true author of some of the strongest lyrics in “Rapper’s Delight.” These early MCs and deejays constituted rap’s old school.

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Critic’s Notebook

How Do You Capture Four Decades of Hip-Hop? Very Broadly.

“The Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap,” a 129-song boxed set, has a very challenging (and maybe impossible) goal: pinning down a constantly evolving genre.

By Jon Caramanica

In 1990, hip-hop was in the throes of an identity crisis. That summer, MC Hammer released “U Can’t Touch This,” his flashy, breakout single that, thanks to the flamboyant fashion and quick footwork in its video, became a pop music phenomenon. Hot on its heels a few months later was Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby,” which sampled “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie and became the first hip-hop single to top the Billboard Hot 100.

While wildly popular in the pop mainstream, both songs were — in differing but related ways — derided in hip-hop, kept at arm’s length. Rap music, then still barely over a decade old, had only just begun to reckon with attention from outside the genre’s walls. These hits — including one from a white rapper, no less — were different, nigh unprecedented phenomena.

And yet here they are, back to back in the middle of Disc 5 of “The Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap,” a 129-song collection and boxed set due out Aug. 20 that acts as a foundation, primer and master narrative of the genre’s growth from 1979 to 2013. They come right after “The Humpty Dance” by Digital Underground and “Me So Horny” by 2 Live Crew — different sorts of breakouts by bug-eyed humorists from opposite ends of the country — and just before Brand Nubian’s strident “All for One,” which arrives like a mean sentry striving to restore order.

In 2021, with hip-hop the dominant musical force in popular culture globally, there’s little to debate: MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice’s blockbuster songs are eruptions and intrusions that in retrospect sound inevitable. Hip-hop long ago reconciled with its pop ambitions, and then became the very core of pop music itself. Along the way, it became a very wide tent.

To properly anthologize the genre in full is to reckon with its contradictions, its competing narratives and its inconsistencies. By this measure, the “Anthology” is an impressive work of scholarship, design and logistics. It is, of course, unavoidably flawed too, the point of departure for a shadow collection of exclusions, alternate histories and near-misses.

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• Hip Hop Culture

Hip Hop: A Culture of Vision and Voice

Hip hop is global, lapping on every shore and landing at every airport. But what does hip hop  mean? Is it the music with a chest-thumping beat? The rapid-fire lyrics rapped into a handheld mic? Gravity-defying dance steps? Writers turning walls into canvases with larger-than-life letters and illustrations?

Lesson Content

DJ Tony Tone and DJ Kool Herc, 1979 © Joe Conzo, Jr. photographs and ephemera, #8091. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.  

DJ Kool Herc is credited with throwing the switch at an August 1973 dance bash. He spun the same record on twin turntables, toggling between them to isolate and extend percussion breaks—the most danceable sections of a song. It was a technique that filled the floor with dancers who had spent days and weeks polishing their moves.  The effect that night was electric, and soon other DJs in the Bronx were trying to outdo Herc. It was a code that has flowed through hip hop ever since: 1) Use skills and whatever resources are available to create something new and cool; 2) Emulate and imitate the genius of others but inject personal style until the freshness glows. Competition was, and remains, a prime motivator in the hip hop realm. Like a powerful star, this dance-party scene quickly drew other art forms into its orbit. A growing movement of hopeful poets, visual artists, and urban philosophers added their visions and voices by whatever means available. They got the word out about what was happening in their neighborhoods—neighborhoods much of mainstream, middle-class America was doing its best to ignore or run down. Hip hop kept coming, kept pushing, kept playing until that was no longer possible. Today, some hip hop scholars fold as many as six elements into hip hop culture. They include:

• DJing —the artistic handling of beats and music
• MCing , aka  rapping —putting spoken-word poetry to a beat
• Breaking —hip hop’s dance form
• Writing —the painting of highly stylized graffiti
• Theater and literature —combining hip hop elements and themes in drama, poetry, and stories
• Knowledge of self —the moral, social, and spiritual principles that inform and inspire hip hop ways of being.

From its work-with-what-you-got epicenter in the Bronx, hip hop has rolled outward to become a multibillion-dollar business. Its sounds, styles, and fashions are now in play around the world. DJs spin turntables in Sao Paulo, Brazil. MCs rap Arabic in the clubs of Qatar. B-boys and b-girls bust baby freezes in Finland. Graffiti rises on the Great Wall of China. Young poets slam poetry in D.C. So what is hip hop? All of the above and more—whatever we love enough to bring.

The Evolution Of Hip Hop [1979-2017]

Breaking: The Dance Style of Hip Hop

Richard Colón was just 10 when his cousin took him to his first schoolyard bash in 1976. “Ah, I was just blown away,” he says in Jeff Chang’s history of hip hop,  Can’t Stop Won’t Stop . “I just saw all these kids having fun...checking out the whole scene, and it was my first time watching the dance with the music being played...I just immediately became a part of it.”

He soon became a  big  part of it. By his early teens, the boy now immortalized as “Crazy Legs” became a trendsetter for breaking—a dance revolution still popping, locking, and rocking the world.

Making a B-line from the Bronx

As hip hop culture rose from the streets of the Bronx, breaking spun up and stepped out from the concrete itself. Early b(reaker)-girls and b-boys like Crazy Legs and his Rock Steady Crew earned their skills on that hard ground, admiring each other’s cuts, bruises, and “battle scars” as they pushed one another to evermore audacious displays of style and guts.

In keeping with hip hop’s ethic of improvisation, breaking is often a create-on-the-fly dance style. It mixes super-quick footwork with body-torquing twists. Robotic movements flow into smooth whole-body waves before dropping into acrobatic leg flares that suddenly halt in mid-spin freezes that seem to defy gravity. Breaking is the ultimate 3-D dance—flipping high, spinning low, and putting a premium on physical imagination and bravado.

Getting on the Good Foot

Breaking has copied from many dance styles to generate this uniqueness. These styles include the Charleston from 100 years ago that loaned its characteristic leg kick and arm swing as a top-rocking move. The ad-libbing of the Lindy Hop, popular from the 1920s on, also lives in breaking’s style. For individual inspiration, though, no one can best soul singer James Brown. His high-energy dance moves in the 1960s and 70s have inspired b-boys and b-girls ever since, and his song “Get on the Good Foot” is one of breaking’s early anthems. Tap, steppin’, ballet, disco, and modern all continue to contribute.

Breaking has rummaged beyond the dance floor and stage to find many of its most dramatic moves. The whirling torsos and legs of gymnasts on the pommel horse are seen in leg flares, for example. Down-rocking reflects techniques from gymnastic floor routines.The world of hand-to-hand combat has also provided inspiration for b-boys and b-girls. Hip hop scholars often link breaking with  capoeira , a martial arts dance with roots in Angola and Brazil that displays acrobatics, grace, and power. A full-blown showdown makes it clear why breaking contests are referred to as “battles” as dancers mix dance moves with shadow kicks, leg sweeps, and fake attacks in the faces of the competition.

Breaking is much more than a sum of moves from various dances and disciplines, though. It is a living, breathing art form unique every time dancers take their turn in a cypher (see sidebar). Through the years the Rock Steady Crew, the Mighty Zulu Kings, the Lockers, the Electric Boogaloos, and thousands of other individuals and crews have continuously renewed and refreshed the style with original spins, fresh freezes, and new twists on power moves—often laced with body-bending humor. Competition and innovation in breaking—as with all things hip hop—is essential and inspired, and today its style inspires wherever people dance.

Flying Legs Crew: Kings of New York

Hip Hop Vocabulary

B-Terms to Know

The basic vocabulary of breaking—hip hop’s dance style include:

popping  fluid movements of the limbs, such as moving arms like an ocean wave, that emphasize contractions of isolated muscles  locking  snapping arms or legs into held positions, often at sharp angles, to accent a musical rhythm  top-rocking  fancy footwork performed upright  down-rocking  dance moves performed on or close to the ground  up-rocking  martial arts strikes, kicks and sweeps built into the dance steps often with the intent of “burning” an opponent  power moves  acrobatic spins and flares requiring speed, strength, and agility  freeze  sudden halt of a dance step to hold a pose, often while balanced on a hand, shoulder, or head  cypher  group of b-boys/b-girls taking turns in the center of the dance floor

DJing: The Artist at the Turntable

DJs are the soul behind the beat that pleases, surprises, and puts people on the dance floor. The best DJs have an almost mystical sense of mood at a party or club. They sense the right moment to cue the right song using the right technique to take the party where it’s ready to go. It is that insight, a passionate knowledge of music, and technical know-how that make DJing one of the pillars of hip hop culture.

Working the Sound System

A DJ’s sound system is a laboratory for making music magic. Twin turntables are standard, allowing the DJ to switch easily between songs, or spin and manipulate records in tandem to create effects or unique musical combinations. The turntables are wired to a receiver, amplifier, and earthquake-causing speakers. The DJ may use headphones to cue up the next song or song segment as the current music plays. Then he or she uses a mixer, or fader, to make transitions from one turntable to the other—hopefully without missing a beat. Today’s DJs often incorporate digitized and computerized components, as well. But most hip hop purists frown on DJs who button-push preprogrammed playlists. Hip hop culture saves its greatest praise for inspired improvisation.

Before the rise of hip hop, the DJ’s basic role was relatively simple—spin records at a party, club, or on the radio. DJ Kool Herc’s keen observations changed that game. He noticed the energy on the dance floor went off the charts during the “breaks” of songs. Breaks are the instrumental sections in many pop and rhythm & blues numbers that highlight percussion and rhythm.

Herc experimented with methods to extend these sections by playing the same record on both turntables, a technique refined by fellow pioneering DJ Grandmaster Flash. With needle-fine timing, they switched back and forth between the turntables to multiply the break. Crowds, especially dancing b-boys and b-girls, couldn’t get enough. Since the beginning, hip hop DJs have been instrumental in channeling youthful energy away from trouble and toward creative fun.

Good DJs constantly explore ways to pleasantly shock their audiences. They may give people the songs they expect, planning out smooth transitions by matching beats and musical keys from one number to the next. They also innovate by listening for songs within songs, lifting and linking snippets to take the music somewhere new.

In the never-ending quest to distinguish their mix, DJs often haunt used-record stores. They are on the prowl for long-lost songs or sounds they can make new again through the magic of hip hop. Legendary DJ and all-around hip hop luminary Afrika Bambaataa is famous for creating sets that spin from the Pink Panther theme to Kraftwerk to calypso to speeches of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. All that is good from the past and present has a place at the hip hop turntable.

Scratching and Turntablism

As part of the hip hop style of life, DJs are constantly experimenting to set themselves apart from competition. One technique DJs embraced is scratching. To scratch, the DJ physically manipulates the record beneath the needle. Grand Wizzard Theodore stumbled on the technique in the mid-70s. He was a young teen blasting his music when his mom scolded him to turn it down. He fumbled the needle, liked the effect, practiced it, and began using it in shows. Other DJs quickly added scratching to their repertoire as a way to inject more personal style into the music flow.

More recently, turntablism has become an astounding source of new style. It involves extensive real-time sampling from spinning records to create something funky and fresh. Watching an experienced turntablist create in real time is an awe-inspiring experience.

Kool Herc "Merry-Go-Round" Technique

DJ-Terms to Know

The basic vocabulary of  DJing —hip hop’s music style include:

back spinning  turntable technique that quickly “rewinds” a section of a recording beat juggling  manipulating two or more recordings to create a unique musical arrangement beat matching  following a song with another that uses an identical or similar rhythm break , or  breakbeat  instrumental section of a song that emphasizes percussion and rhythm cue  positioning a recording to play at a specific point DJ  short for “disc jockey,” a person who plays recorded music for an audience drum machine , or  beat box  electronic device used by DJs to synthesize drum beats looping  replaying a section of a song to extend it sampling  lifting a section of a recording and using it in a different number or recording scratching  technique of physically manipulating a recording to create a unique effect turntablism  live and extensive manipulation of recordings to create a unique song

MCs: Masters of Rhythm, Rhyme, and Flow

Today, MCs like Jay-Z, MC Lyte, and Kendrick Lamar fly high profiles in the world of hip hop. But that wasn’t always the case for the poets of the microphone.

In hip hop’s early years, its music scene focused on the disc jockey and the dance floor. The MC—short for “master of ceremonies”—was often a kind of sidekick to the DJ. In  Yes Yes Y’all , an oral history of early hip hop, Grandmaster Caz describes the rise of MCing this way: “The microphone was just used for making announcements, like when the next party was gonna be, or people’s mom’s would come to the party looking for them, and you have to announce it on the mic.”

Before long, though, MCs wanted to showcase their own talents. Grandmaster Caz continues: “Different DJs started embellishing what they were saying. I would make an announcement this way, and somebody would hear that and they add a little bit to it. I’d hear it again and take it a little step further ’til it turned from lines to sentences to paragraphs to verses to rhymes.”

More and more, MCs earned the right to grab the mic using freestyle skills to entertain and command a live audience. A “master of ceremonies” might make all the needed announcements; but the job of an MC then and now is to guide everyone’s good time with their energy, wit, and ability to interact with people on the floor. And good MCs don’t just demand the mic—the audience honors their skills by demanding they take it.

Rappers emerged as a somewhat distinct group as rap gained commercial success. They were the voices and characters that created and sold the records. In some ways, the talents and responsibilities of rappers overlap with MCs, and an MC might also rap. The interaction with the audience is the big difference.

In 1979, a trio of MCs rapped over the break from Chic’s “Good Times.” The result was The Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight,” rap’s first hit. Three years later, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five released  The Message , a funky but unblinking account of hard times in an inner-city neighborhood. As the 1980s unrolled, MCs and rappers rose rapidly from second fiddles to big dogs including Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Run DMC, and Public Enemy. They created personas, cooler-than-life characters that might be super-smooth or gangland tough. They boasted about their style and talents and made sure to honor the DJ. MCing and rapping went from sideshow to main event as one of hip hop’s essential elements.

Hip Hop’s Rapping Poets

An MC or rapper’s “flow” is crucial to his or her performance. The flow is the combination of rhyme and rhythm to create the rap’s desired effect: fluid and soothing to communicate romance, for example; staccato and harsh to signal anger and conflict.

Before hip hop and rap took hold in the United States, spoken-word poetry occasionally worked its way into jazz performances. Many history-minded rappers also connect their art to The Last Poets, a Harlem-based group, and The Watts Prophets out of Los Angeles. Both emerged in the late-1960s and paired political poetry with improvisational jazz. Gil Scott-Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” resembles rap before it got the name.

Increasingly, students of hip hop culture recognize the best MCs as accomplished formal poets. They rap complex rhyme schemes, most built on a rock-solid four-beat rhythm, or meter. But again, a good MC surprises audiences with syncopation and other off-the-beat techniques. hip hop aficionados reserve special respect for MCs with freestyle skills—the ability to improvise fresh rhymes while standing in the heat of the spotlight.

The Sugarhill Gang - Rapper's Delight

MC-Terms to Know

The basic vocabulary of  MCing —hip hop’s vocal style:

end rhyme  rhyming words at the end of lines flow  a rapper’s vocal style freestyle  improvised rapping griot  (gree-OH) oral storytellers and historians of West Africa internal rhyme  rhyming words within the same line MC  short for “master of ceremonies”; also performer who uses rap techniques to interact with an audience meter  rhythm of a poem persona  character assumed by a performer rap  spoken-word lyrics performed to a beat; one of the elements of hip hop rapper  performer that rhymes lyrics to a rhythm spitting  speaking, performing a rap syncopation  shifting a rhythm away from the normal beat

Writing: Graffiti and Hip Hop Culture

One element of hip hop predates the music and dance scene itself—graffiti writing, or simply  writing  as the artists themselves call it. But it blossomed at the same time the music and dance scenes were finding their feet, and its wild and color-outside-the-lines improvisational style were influenced and inspired by the desire to create something new and fresh.

Graffiti has been around since humans first painted, etched, or carved on rock walls. But urban youth put a new spin on it in the 1960s. In 1967, a Philadelphia teen named Darryl McCray spray painted his alias “Cornbread” wherever he could reach on walls and trains. (He was striving to impress a girl named Cynthia.) In 1968, the budding art form made the jump to New York City. The names JULIO 204, TRACY 168, and TAKI 183 became familiar sights here, there, and increasingly everywhere.

Writing’s Heyday

The number and talents of writers spiked in the mid-1970s as hip hop’s competitive drive kicked in. They added illustrations and second colors to outline stylized bubble and block lettering. The writers—many if not most of them young teens—jumped the limits of size, complexity, and color. Their finest designs seemed to bring life to whatever they graced. They called it  wild style —and it was.

They also jumped over fences, snuck into subway tunnels, and trespassed in nighttime yards where subway cars slept. There, they practiced their art with blank walls and unstained trains as their canvases. When opportunities arose, they painted the whole sides of subway cars and even entire ten-car trains with their elaborate, colorful designs.

They had no illusions their creations would last long. But the opportunity to see their art rolling through the subway was the ultimate payoff for writers like DONDI, LADY PINK, FAB FIVE FREDDY, KASE2, and ZEPHYR. It was outrageous to think thousands of New Yorkers saw their creations each day in one of the richest cities in the world. “If art like this is a crime let God forgive me!” wrote the writer known as LEE of the Fabulous Five crew. They embraced the identity of outlaw artists and admitted the dangers and thrills were part of the appeal. They were on missions to prove they were not only the most imaginative and talented writers in their neighborhood, but the most fearless.

Not surprisingly, NYC officials were not amused. Cops cracked down on writers, and train yards were encircled with new security. At the same time, the art world was catching on that something fresh was happening in the city beyond their fancy uptown galleries. Graffiti-inspired exhibitions popped up, and some writers took the opportunity to commit their passion to canvas instead of granite and steel.

Wild, Hungry, Inspired

Writing's place in hip hop culture was cemented by the early 1980s. Early rappers used wild style on their album covers. Writers painted cool kids’ clothes with designs and got paying gigs painting murals. And two movies— Style Wars  and  Wild Style —debuted. The films made the case that a similar hungry, inspired creativity flowed through writing as well as hip hop’s music and dance scene.

Today, graffiti-influenced writing styles show up worldwide in graphic design, fashion, and street art. Outlaw artists like Banksy are still out there painting trouble. But the vision, passion, and humor the best of these writers display—legit or not—give people the chance to see the work-a-day world in new ways. They seem to say if we pay attention, we can find beauty, meaning, and art most everywhere we look.

Dan One: Alphabetical Engineer

Writing Terms to Know

The basic vocabulary of  writing graffiti —hip hop’s visual art include:

all city  being known for one’s graffiti throughout a city; originally referred to the artwork on subway cars appearing in all five New York City boroughs bite  to steal another writer’s design or style black book  sketchbook used by graffiti writers bombing  to paint many surfaces in an area burner  elaborate, large designs crew  team of writers that often work together gettin’ up  developing one’s reputation or “rep” through writing graffiti graffiti  writing, or drawing on surfaces in public places, usually without permission kings  or  queens  highly respected, experienced writers with most tags piece  short for “masterpiece,” a large, complex graffiti design stencil graffiti  premade designs of paper or cardboard that allow quicker, more exact transmission of images or lettering tag  or  scribble  stylized, but basic graffiti writer’s signature throw up  quick execution writing; generally one color outline and one color filled in toy  inexperienced writer wild style  style of writing that usually involves bold, interlocked letters writer   graffiti artist who has a distinct way they design their letters

Knowledge: A Philosophy of Hip Hop

The 1970s were lean, mean years in sections of New York City. This was especially true in the Bronx and the city’s other low-income areas. Much of the optimism of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement had faded. New York was broke. City officials sliced and diced basic services, school funding, arts education programs, and job training. Life-destroying drugs and crime haunted the streets. Absentee landlords neglected properties until building after building fell into disrepair or went up in flames.

In the face of all that, however, the energy of urban youth refused to shut down. Young people, many of them teens, created new ways of spinning records and dancing. They experimented with new styles of poetry and visual art that revealed their thinking and feelings. Eventually, the elements grooved together into a culture. A name started to stick to it: hip hop .

The Fifth Element

Hip hop’s fifth element of “knowledge” teaches the hip hop community about its identity and ways to express that identity. It places great importance on claiming a stake in one’s own education. “Knowing where YOU come from helps to show YOU where YOU are going,” writes legendary MC KRS-One. “Once you know where you come from you then know what to learn.” (By the way, “KRS” stands for “Knowledge Reigns Supreme.”)

Hip hop believes that people can take control of their lives through self-knowledge and self-expression. Knowledge influences style and technique and connects its artists under a collective hip hop umbrella. It engages the world through hip hop’s history, values, and ideas, and adds intellectual muscle to support and inform its music and moves and its poetry and art. Most importantly, it allows for a shared experience against an uncertain world.

Bambaataa Brings It

Afrika Bambaataa deserves much credit for putting this concept of knowledge into word and action. Bambaataa is a pioneering DJ and MC from the Bronx. A one-time teen leader of a gang, Bambaataa had universal respect and a powerful ability to make peace with and between enemies. His legendary music and dance parties brought together rivals to party in peace. “Free jam!” his flyers announced. “Come one come all, leave your colors at home! Come in peace and unity.”

The young Bambaataa was also a devoted student of history. He absorbed the tactics and strategies of historical leaders—from the French emperor Napoleon to the South African chieftain and military commander Shaka Zulu. He grasped the power of music as a strategy for clearing barriers that divided people, whatever their backgrounds.

By the 1980s, Bambaataa and his large and growing crew had founded the Universal Zulu Nation. Dedicated to hip hop values, the organization’s motto is “Peace, Love, Unity, and Having Fun.” They developed “Infinity Lessons”—principles and codes of conduct for living an honorable hip hop life. They emphasize community, peace, wisdom, freedom, justice, love, unity, responsibility, respect for others, and respect for self. He put his knowledge into words, and the words radiated around the Bronx, throughout New York, and across America.

Boogie Down Productions - My Philosophy

Knowledge Terms to Know

The basic vocabulary of  knowledge —hip hop’s philosophy include:

culture  the behaviors and beliefs of a particular group of people didactic  intended to teach a lesson, especially a moral lesson empowerment  increasing of economic, political, social, educational, gender, or spiritual strength of individuals or communities praxis  process when a theory, custom, or lesson is practiced society  social, economic, and cultural system strategy  plan to reach a desired result worldview  ideas about how the world works

Hip Hop Theater and Literary Arts

“Be warned, this  is  theater—but it’s hip hop  theater,” a loud voice booms before the curtain rises for  Into the Hoods . This show has been blowing away London audiences since 2008. It is an urban re-visioning of the fairy tale-genre, following a pair of school kids into a tough part of town instead of a haunted forest. But as with all fairy tales, not everything or everyone is what they seem. Ultimately the stage blazes with wild style art, DJ voiceovers, beats from multiple musical styles, b-boys and b-girls breaking in high-flying choreography, and fresh takes on familiar characters. (DJ Spinderella or Rap-On-Zel ring a bell?)

More and more, the stage has been welcoming hip hop’s elements, energy, and world view. Graffiti writing may splash across the scenery. DJing, rapping, and breaking are likely to take turns in the spotlight. Some shows, like  Into the Hoods , tell their tales mainly through dance and music, while others lay hip hop style over more traditional scripts. Hip hop artists are tackling drama, comedy, and tragedy, and some classic material is getting the hip hop makeover. Will Power’s  The Seven , for example, retells the ancient Greek tragedy  Seven Against Thebes  by Aeschylus using a DJ and rapping cast.

Collaboration and Content

Collaboration is a core ingredient for most hip hop theater groups. In the tradition of the culture, producers, directors, and playwrights stress input and participation by stakeholders—the very people the play is intended to speak to and entertain. Long-time hip hop theater writer/actor/director Danny Hoch says it this way: “Hip-hop theatre… must be  by ,  about  and  for  the hip hop generation, participants in hip hop culture, or both.”

This collaborative process clearly informs the content in hip hop plays and musicals. Plots often tackle current social issues, especially as they relate to urban communities, with characters exploring the strengths and limits of activism and empowerment. Questions of identity are often front and center, including race, class, gender, sexuality, and anything regarded as “different.” The struggle between the individual and society is a central theme as characters seek to create meaning in their lives while struggling to claim their place in the world.

Hip Hop in Prose and Poetry

MCs tell complex stories in rhythm and rhyme. Rappers write and polish their lyrics before delivering them in raps. The secret is out: hip hop poets love words. “The toughest, coolest, most dangerous-seeming MCs are, at heart, basically just enormous language dorks,” cracks music critic Sam Anderson. “They love puns and rhymes and slang and extended metaphors ….” These skills can translate smoothly into literary forms—short stories, novels, scripts, poetry, and comic book-style graphic novels. Some works relate the gritty realities of poverty or inner-city living; others find the humor there and wherever; all describe trying to survive and thrive in a rapidly changing world.

Rapped aloud or published on paper, hip hop-influenced literary forms have roots in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s. BAM inspired a generation of African American, Latino, and feminist writers, including Amiri Baraka, Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, the Last Poets, and many others, to share stories and views often overlooked or outright rejected by mainstream America. Along the way, spoken word—a forerunner of rap—injected energy into performance. Through poetry slams, it has developed its own fans with its forceful, fun wordplay.

As in theater, the literary world is making more space for hip hop style, subjects, and themes. Scholars Andrew DuBois and Adam Bradley recently edited and published  The Anthology of Rap , a huge collection of lyrics. Says Bradley: “[R]appers are perhaps our greatest public poets, extending a tradition of lyricism that spans continents and stretches back thousands of years… They expand our understanding of human experience by telling stories we might not otherwise hear.”

Some hip hop-savvy teachers are bringing the best of hip hop literature into their classrooms. And writers for kids, teens, and young adults are telling hip hop tales in books like  Think Again  by Doug E. Fresh, Debbie Allen’s  Brothers of the Knight , and the  Hip-Hop Kidz  series by Jasmine Bellar.

Theater and Literary Terms to Know

The basic vocabulary of hip hop theater and literary arts  include:

choreography  arrangement of dance moves collaboration  working together content  subject or information genre  category of literature, such as fairy tales or historic fiction lyricism  poetic or musical style metaphor  symbolic figure of speech scenery  backdrop for a theater production stakeholder  someone who shares interest or responsibility

All The Way Live - Hip Hop Connections

Sean McCollum

Lisa Resnick

October 30, 2019

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133 Hip Hop Topics & Essay Examples

Looking for exciting hip hop topics to write about? This music genre is still very popular and definitely worth exploring!

• 🏆 Best Essay Examples & Topic Ideas

🎧 Interesting Rap Topics for Essays & Research Papers

• 📌 Most Interesting Topics to Write about
• 👍 Good Essay Topics

❓ Questions About Hip Hop

In your hip-hop essay, you might want to make an overview of the genre or talk about its history. Another option for your rap essay is to compare the old school and the new school of hip-hop. One more idea is to discuss the consequences of the genre’s commercialization.

Want more title ideas? Continue reading! We’ve prepared for you a collection of rap topics and questions for essays and research papers. Hip hop essay examples are added for your inspiration!

🏆 Best Hip Hop Essay Examples & Topic Ideas

• Jazz and Hip Hop: Similarities and Differences Both hip hop and jazz are closely linked and for that matter there are a number of similarities they share prompting some individuals to pronounce that hip hop is ‘the jazz of young individuals in […]
• Hip-Hop Music Other creations of hip-hop are the components of the hip-hop lifestyle. A number of unacceptable behaviors in the society have been encouraged by hip-hop leading to a conflict between the ambassadors of hip-hop and the […]
• Similarities between Ballet and Hip Hop Dance is and always shall be a form of expression where the movements performed speak volumes of the emotions and feelings that the dancer is trying to impart to the audience.
• Hip-Hop and the Japanese Culture The prevalence of soul dancing in Japan in the earlier years also formed the basis for the wide acceptance of the hip-hop culture into the Japanese culture because soul dancing was common in the streets […]
• Jay-Z’s Contribution to Hip-Hop and Fight for Social Justice One should admit that the crime rate among black people in some poor areas is really quite high, and that is another problem Jay-Z covers in his music.
• Hip Hop Dance The TV shows such as the Wild style, Soul Train and Breakin, Beat Street also contributed in showcasing hip hop dance styles during the early periods of hip hop hype.
• Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar, Hip-Hop Revolution: The Culture and Politics of Rap This will be addressed in this book review as we look at how the author represents his views, interpretations and research about the hip-hop culture2 In this book, Ogbar explores the lyrical world of rap […]
• Poverty and Hip-Hop: Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy” Notorious B.I.G.’s music video for the song “Juicy” was chosen for the analysis because the rapper explored the theme of poverty that deeply affected his life.
• Literature Study on the Hip-Hop Concept: A Social Movement and Part of the Industry Hip-hop is a genre that does not obey the taboos but creates new stereotypes, allowing itself to use risky language to convey the text of the songs in a much recognizable and provocative manner.
• The Impact of Hip-Hop Music Education in Elementary School The theoretical justification of the article is the importance of music, in particular the style of hip-hop, in the formation of the system of interests and career goals of schoolchildren.
• Hip-Hop and Rap Impact on Social Inequality For instance, Beyonce is one of the most famous artists in the world who have stated her opinion regarding misogyny related to artists and other black women.
• 50 Cent: Hip-Hop Violence in Modern Media At first, society might negatively react to this example because it is associated with the disorder and the desire to break something to deliver the message.
• History of Hip-Hop: Identifying the Organizational Learning Issues The samplers of the 1980s were also more technically limited compared to the artist equipment of the 1990s, which produced a richer and more authentic sound.
• The Hip-Hop Phenomenon of Hyper-Masculinity Sociological Research Question: What lies behind the dominant hyper-masculine paradigm in Hip Hop and Black culture and its various manifestations in lyrics and music videos?
• Hip Hop: Common’s Song “Black America Again” His rap is underground and can be said to be street, as many of the poems cover the theme of the streets and what is happening on them.
• Hip-Hop Culture Breaking Down Racial Barriers The hip-hop culture going mainstream was the event reflecting the societal concerns of the ethnic minorities. It presents an example of sports and the arts breaking down racial barriers as their participants efficiently cooperate.
• Relationship of Hip-Hop With Race and Identity The beefing between the two hip-hop artists, Iggy Azalea and Azealia Banks, indicates a misapprehension existing on hip-hop’s history. Due to the competitive nature of the market, artists try to survive by beefing with their […]
• Hip-Hop Music and Its History in the 80s-90s Hip-hop music was on the rise in the late 80s, and influential rap collectives such as Run DMC and the Beastie Boys provided an outlet for the hip-hop culture to acquire national recognition.
• Hip-Hop and Marijuana Use in College Students It has been estimated that over half of the college student population regularly use marijuana, while over 25% used it during past month.
• Hip Hop Evolution and Racial & Political Conditions A significant influence on the emergence of political and conscious hip hop can be attributed to the Civil-Rights Movements and the Black Power Movements of the 60s and 70s in the United States.
• Hip-Hop as a Vehicle for Unification in Beat Street This resistance to the vilification and stigmatization of their neighborhoods as spaces of crime, chaos, and evil is one of the factors that strengthen community bonds and communal identity in the neighborhoods in question. The […]
• Understanding Hip Hop Made by Jay-Z The story of a hustler is a story of the struggle to make a living. I think the “story of a hustler” is like the stories of the Wild West outlaws.
• Seattle Hip-Hop Scene: Michael “The Wanz” Wansley He was born in 1961 and has been a part of the hip-hop and pop scene of Seattle for the most of his life.
• The History of Hip-Hop Culture in the United States The discography which is represented in the 3rd disc gives a scope of understanding of the main things which worried rappers at the time.
• Analysis of Rap and Hip-Hop Culture: Audience of the Songs and the Purposes of the Singers The same is with the analysis of the songs and music, the critics should be aware of the lived realities of the authors and demographic characteristics of the aimed audience.
• Hip Hop Culture and Music Scratching is a technique which in hip hop culture is used to gauge the expertise of a DJ, as he is expected to produce new sounds simply by moving a record back and forth while […]
• Gay Culture’s Influence on Hip Hop Fashion Gay men have the influence of female fashion design due to the fact that most of the designers of female clothes are men and most of them are homosexual.
• Jazz and Hip Hop Concerts in Comparison Two pieces in the second performance, In Germany Before the War and Mysterious Barricades, were well performed during the concert. There was a deejay on the deck and background dancers to back up the performance […]
• Social Inequality: Hip-Hop Culture and Movement When it comes to defining the term ‘social movement’, it is important to understand that the process of a particular group of people striving to have their voice heard in the public sphere, must be […]
• Social Constructions and Hip Hop Music This process involved the description of the things that I saw at the concert. I described the tone, tempo, and style of music that they sang.
• Hip-Hop Theory and Culture in the Discography G explains the changes in day-to-day living within the ghettos between the artist’s childhood and the present. Most of the lines from the song praise the person that the song is dedicated to.
• Hip Hop Culture in “The Otherside” Documentary Regardless numerous discussions about Hip Hop, this culture remains to be a considerable part of human life that helps to understand that such issue as racial profiling is not only something that is required by […]
• Hip Hop Duo: Kung Foo Grip Though the history of this duo is neither too complicated nor full of some unpredictable and fatal decisions events, it can be used to explain how the lives of two fans of Hip Hop can […]
• Planet B-Girl: Community Building and Feminism in Hip-Hop The main idea of the article under analysis is the intentions of female hip-hop artists to prove their choices and demonstrate their abilities by using the same rights male hip-hop artists have already got.
• The Documentary “Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes” Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes is a documentary movie that helps not only to understand the nature of hip hop but to connect a single style of music with the necessity of such crucial issues […]
• Hip Hop Definition In fact, many authors underline the fact that commercialization of hip-hop has changed its essence considerably and deprived modern people of the possibility to understand the essence of hip-hop and true reasons for its appearance. […]
• Old School Hip Hop Versus New Hip Hop Music However, although today’s hip hop music does share some similarities with old school hip hop, it is much more superficial and generic, compared to the timeless music of the old school hip hop.
• Blacks’ Prison Experiences in Hip Hop Culture Though considering the controversy that has been the “elephant in the room” for quite a time, Dyson clearly takes his argument to an admittedly high level of convincingness, it is not only the consideration of […]
• Hip-Hop Subculture as Answer to Social Inequality One of the most notable aspects of a contemporary living in America is the fact that, as of today, the sub-culture of Hip-Hop had ceased being considered in terms of a largely marginalized socio-cultural phenomenon.
• “Reflections on Hip Hop” by Eric Dyson In the first place, it is necessary to note that prison is seen as the most important factor affecting development of black males’ identity and three types of experiences are singled out.
• Hip Hop Music as Media Influence on the Youth Personally, I love listening to rap music, which many people claim that it has led to the spread of violence among young people.
• Hip-Hop Music and the Role of Women in It: Fight for Women’s Rights in Society While looking at the various roles of women in hip hop and rap, it is also important to note that the way women are presented has various effects on society.
• Women in Hip-Hop Music: A Provocative and Objectified Gender Roles It is one thing that men want women to be in music videos and play a particular role, but women are willing to participate in the videos.
• R&B and Hip-Hop Effect Western Music The music that Michael Jackson released was not based on gender but was based on truth and hope to the people and this gave him a lot of influence in the community reason being that […]
• Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation The book Ca not Stop Wo not Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation brings out the history of the United States from the eyes of a person who would have been considered a loser […]
• Hip-Hop: News From a Ghetto’s Point of View Youths living in the ghettos have had Hip Hop as one of the most effectual means to voice the social injustice that they experience.
• “Hip Hop“ Subculture: Music, Vocabulary, and Roots Based on an interview with a member of the subculture, the paper will discuss some of the terms used in the subculture, how its members dress and look, as well as how they act.
• Fashion Controversies about Hip Hop Garments The paper will look into controversy that arose over hip hop garment design with the aim of identifying the source of the controversy, key players in the controversy as well as political, social and economic […]
• Hip Hop Infiltrates Asian Music Industry Therefore, if American hip hop music genre infiltrated Asian music industry and an Asian hip hop music variety was invented then hurdles in Asian hip hop can be conquered.
• The Hip-Hop Genre Origin and Influence Hess, in addition, notes that from 1970s, the development of Hip-hop as a culture has been very complex due to immigrants from different parts of the world, who in one way or another equally contributed […]
• Hip Hop Dancing: The Remarkable Black Beat Because the drum beats was the most danceable segment of the hip hop music, the hip hop musicians increased their focus on the quality of drum beat sequence.
• Hip-Hop in Japan However, this was not the case, most of the artists focused on refining their music in the Japanese languages to give it a Japanese flavor.
• Hip Hop Influence on Youth: Statistics and Effects Hip hop music is also said to perpetuate the rise in criminal activities among the youth. It is therefore recommendable for the youth to shun away from the vice brought about by hip hop music.

📌 Most Interesting Hip Hop Topics to Write about

• Copula Variation Across Two Decades Of Hip Hop Nation Language
• How Hip Hop Affect The Way People Think About Politics
• An Overview of the Talk by Tupac Shakur, an American Hip Hop Artist
• Bad Influence Of Hip Hop On Youth
• African American Hip Hop and its Influence
• Hip Hop Music is More Than a Couple of Words
• Codes and Abstraction in Hip Hop Culture
• Black Women’s Role in Popular Culture: An Analysis of The Venus Hip Hop
• Argumentative Essay On Hip Hop Culture
• A Comparison of Classical Ballet and Modern Dance – Hip Hop and Jazz Style
• Should We Accept The Hip Hop Industry Negative Images
• Hip Hop And Politics: Attacking The Political Powers Of Government
• Comparison Of Yorkville Crossing : White Teens, Hip Hop
• Effects Of Hip Hop And Country Music On Society
• A Description of the Image of Hip Hop/Rap Music
• Racial Stereotypes Associated With Rap And Hip Hop Music
• Does Hip Hop Influence Other Parts of the World
• Music Videos Involving Women And The Hip Hop Industry
• Hip Hop : The Commodification Of African American Women
• Hip Hop Culture And Its Impact On The American Society
• The Assault Of Women In The Hip Hop Community

👍 Good Hip Hop Essay Topics

• An Analysis of the Performance of American Hip Hop Group, Travis Porter
• Hip Hop : Beyond Beats And Rhymes By Byron Hurt
• Gender In Black Media Hip Hop Culture
• Positive Women in Hip Hop: Feminism in a Patriarchal Society
• Hip Hop And Rap Has Been The Mainstay For Youth
• Influences of Hip Hop on Today’s Generation: Rising Deviance
• Hip Hop’s Influence on Popular Culture: Expression or Oppression
• An Analysis of Hip Hop and Its Influence on Listeners
• Essay Hip Hop Music and Music Technology
• Existentialism Case – Tupac Shakur: Existentialist Hip Hop Artist
• An Overview of the Rapping and the Hip Hop Culture in the Music of the United States
• Harlem Renaissance & the Hip Hop Movement
• An Analysis of the Elements of Hip Hop Culture
• Contemporary Urban Music: Controversial Messages in Hip Hop and Rap Lyrics
• Compare and Contrast the Subcultures of Hip Hop
• Differing Mentalities In Hip Hop And Rock
• An Analysis of the Music of Talib Kweli, a Hip Hop Artist
• Hip Hop And Its Effects On African Society
• Black Films and Hip Hop Music Videos: Race Representation
• Does Hip Hop Influence Violent Behavior
• Hip Hop And The Birth Of African American Poetry
• American History of Hip Hop Culture
• Does Hip Hop Culture Influence Youth Gangs?
• Who Does Hip Hop Belong?
• Does Hip Hop Harm Black Americans?
• Does Hip Hop Have a Place in the Church?
• What Is the Hip Hop Style of Music?
• Does Hip Hop Influence Other Parts of the World?
• Does Hip Hop Provoke Drug Use and Misogyny?
• How Does Hip Hop Effect Teenagers?
• How Does Hip Hop Affects Society?
• How Does Hip Hop Affect the Way People Think About Politics?
• How Does Hip Hop Connect With Many Different Real-World Problems?
• Is Hip Hop Black Culture?
• How Did Hip Hop Culture Develop During the Seventies?
• How Hip Hop Culture Remains Superfluous With Overspending?
• How Hip Hop Music Is a Culture of Resistance?
• Who Invented Hip Hop?
• How Hip Hop Negatively Affects Society?
• How Hip Hop Negatively Influences Today’s Teen?
• Does Hip Hop Influence Violent Behavior?
• How Does Hip Hop Promotes Violence?
• How Does Hip Hop Start?
• What Has Hip Hop Ever Done?
• How Have Race and Gender Shown Within the Genres of Hip Hop and Rap?
• How Did the Backout 1977 Affect Hip Hop?
• How Are Women Represented in Hip Hop Videos?
• What Are Different Styles of Hip Hop?
• Why Do White Kids Love Hip Hop?
• What Does Hip Hop Stand For?
• How Has Technology Influenced Hip Hop?
• Are Hip Hop and Rap the Same?
• Hobby Research Ideas
• Ethnicity Research Topics
• Dance Essay Ideas
• Inspiration Topics
• Jazz Research Topics
• Youth Titles
• African Americans Paper Topics
• Graffiti Research Ideas
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• Chicago (N-B)

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Research Paper On The History Of Hip-Hop

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Topic: Literature , Culture , Teenagers , Music , Song , World , Popularity , Artists

Published: 03/17/2020

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Hip-hop music is a genre of music that comprises of schematic rhythmic music and generally involves rapping, and is characterized by four fundamental stylistic elements; breakdancing, DJing, MCing, and graffiti. Besides these four primary elements, other elements such as sampling and beatboxing are also used in hip-hop music. Hip-Hop music evolved as a component of the hip-hop culture during the 1970s. The history of the evolution and reinvention of hip-hop music is interesting. Hip-hop music traces its roots to African-American music, and finally to African music. The griots belonging to West Africa are a faction people that specialize as storytellers, musicians, poets, praise singers, or a combination of the former, who follow the oral tradition. Their singing style closely resembles that of rappers. Hip-hop surfaced in the 1970s when the block parties were gaining popularity in New York, especially in Bronx, which had a collective African-American and Puerto Rican influence. Separation of percussive breaks from famous songs was the usual style of Jamaican music, which was presented to New York audiences by immigrated Jamaican DJs. One such DJ was Kool Herc who is regarded as the pioneer of hip-hop. Hip-hop derived influence from disco music, which was losing popularity in the later part of the 1970s. During these times, hip-hop music was based on disco tracks; this gave rise to a new genre called “disco-rap”. In 1979, DJ Disco Wiz developed a mixed dub sound recording by mixing special effects, sound, and paused beats. Major hip-hop records released thereafter included The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" and Fatback Band’s "King Tim III (Personality Jock)" Band amongst others. The 1980s saw the diversification of hip-hop as it became multi-faceted. Hip-hop was combined with electro, dub music as well as rock music. Advancements were noticed in the lyrical content of hip-hop as well. Hip-hop flourished with record labels like Prism Records, Tommy Boy, and Profile Records fervently releasing records. Artists like Afrika Bambaataa, Cybotron, and Hashim largely influenced hip-hop movement in the 1980s. New age hip-hop originated and flourished during this period. This music was characterized by drum-machine minimalism and rock music. The period between the mid-1980s and early 1990s is termed as the golden era of hip-hop music as many ground-breaking, diverse, and innovative albums were released during this era. Popular hip-hop artists of this era include Boogie Down Productions, Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane and Gang Starr amongst others. In the 1990s, hip-hop was the bestselling genre in music having sold around 81 million CDs. Diddy, the Fugees, and Wu-Tang Clan were notable artists during the 90s. The 2000s and subsequent years saw hip-hop retain their popularity. Eminem, Jay-Z, Nelly and Lil John were some of the artists who reigned during this era. This era also saw the rise of alternative hip-hop, which consists of styles that are not mainstream styles of hip-hop. Hip-hop contributed widely to the world of music with its international acceptance in various forms. Artists belonging to Denmark and Sweden gained international acclaim owing to their contribution to hip-hop music. Hip-hop also spread across Canada, China, Korea, India, Vietnam as well as Japan. East-Asian variations which combined hip-hop with local beats include C-pop, J-pop, and K-pop. Hip-hop gained popularity in the form of gangsta pop in France and Germany where hard-hitting lyrics were favored by the youngsters. While in France, Kery James lent a revolutionary and anti-despotic color to his songs through his work in Idéal J. In Israel, Subliminal produced lyrics with religious and political ideas that influenced youngsters. UK witnessed the rise of Grime, a by-product of hip-hop, with the success of Dizzee Rascal. Hip-hop has etched out a global position in the world of music owing to its ability to be effortlessly fused with regional music and culture. Various perceptions of hip-hop has inspired music in different parts of the world, each time becoming successful. Hip-hop has largely emerged as people’s music giving form and voice to their feelings and ideas. Through its universal appeal, it has transcended boundaries; nevertheless, it has carved a unique presence in every region that it traversed maintaining strong ties to the local culture.

Works Cited

Reese, Renford. "Dr. Renford R. Reese's Homepage." Dr. Renford R. Reese's Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2014. <http://www.csupomona.edu/~rrreese/HIPHOP.HTML>. Scaruffi, Piero. "A History of Hip-hop and Rap Music." A History of Hip-hop and Rap Music. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2014. <http://www.scaruffi.com/history/hiphop.html>.

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