The Hip Hop genre of music was established in the 1970’s in the Bronx, due to the poverty and gang violence, which were at an all time high. It is an art form and a cultural movement, which "includes rap music, graffiti writing, particular dance styles (including break dancing), specific attire, and a specialized language and vocabulary" (Droppin science, p 224). It is a culture originating from disco music and the improvement of funk. As mentioned, the four main elements which are included within the Hip Hop genre are; Djing, Graffiti, Breakdancing and Mcing. At the beginning these four elements of hip hop were a way in which the young people of that particular society at the time distracted themselves, in order to better themselves and not be involved in ‘the streets’. This essay will examine these four elements of the hip hop culture, where they originated from, and how, perhaps, their meaning has changed over time.
As hip-hop was founded in the early 1970s, Djing (which stands for ‘Disc Jockeys’)
also developed and was part of the hip hop/rap culture. The most significant names in
the history of Djing are; Clive Campbell also known as DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash (real name Joseph Saddler) and Grand Wizard Theodore (real name Theodore Livingston). These three were crucial to Djing as they each invented a DJing technique, which are today the key to the music produced by world known DJs. Clive Campbell (DJ Herc) deemed today to be the "father of Hip-Hop"(Walker, 1997), mixed different genres of House music, dancehall, disco and hard funk, he achieved this by mixing and fading each music genre onto each other to create a flow. He founded the breaks and deejayed at the first hip-hop event in 1973. On the other hand, Joseph Saddler is the discoverer of turntable wizardry. He improved Campbell’s breaks by "quick mix theory" this was when headphones were used to listen to the upcoming music before it was combined before playing it to the audience. This meant that there was a smooth changeover. Grand Wizard Theodore is recognized as the founder of ‘scratching’. The story behind this invention of the scratching technique is that Theodore’s mother had stormed into the room after asking him to turn the music off, he tried to stop the record instantly by placing his hand on the record and this made a scratching noise. However, the style of Djing has changed over time, mainly due to the technological advancements, this is due to the fact that records have been replaced by CDs and now deejays use laptops and computers instead of the whole DJ deck. This has made it easier for deejays and nowadays, many people can become deejays even if they have the creativity but lack the skill. However, DJs still play an important role within the hip-hop society today.
MCing, also known as Rapping, is one of the most famous features of the Hip Hop Culture. MCing originates from West Africa, when "Griots" who were narrators, they would narrate stories in a musical way by having drum rhythms in the backdrop whilst they were telling the stories (Rhodes, 1993). Initially, MC stood for "masters of ceremonies" this meant that they were the entertainers of the parties and their job and key responsibility was to excite the crowd before asking the DJ to come up on stage (Walker, 1997). Mcing is said to have been found by DJ Herc, as it is said that he got this from his Caribbean origin, as in the Caribbean, they have a tradition known as ‘toasting’ which is a recital with a tune in the background that tells of significant stories of bravery.This technique began to be a success amongst his crowds and slowly spread amongst other DJs who adapted this technique in their own performances. Rhodes (1993) mentions that Afrika Bambaataa, a DJ and MC from the Bronx was a huge promoter of MCing, he became a self-proclaimed representative for Hip-Hop, in faith to substitute the criminal groups and drugs of the time with the Hip-Hop culture, he did this by creating a group so that MCs, DJs, and Graffiti artists could create a deeper sense of community with one another. Today, Mcing is still progressing and is a big part of the music community, it doesn't seem as if it is going to be disappearing in the foreseeable future.
Graffiti is defined as writing or drawing "scribbled, scratched, or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public place." (Google, 2017). Graffiti has been around for many many years, it was found on the walls of caves when scientists discovered traces of human life. Contemporary graffiti is also noticed back in Ancient history. The Ancient Greeks and Romans used graffiti as a way for citizens to inscribe things on walls like; their names, political puns, and even announcements for prostitution on the walls of buildings near footpaths where they could be easily seen. There is a huge dispute regarding the origins of graffiti, but a majority of people agree that New York and Philadelphia were key locations concerning the development of Graffiti and its recognition.
Felisbret (2009) mentions that all around cities, graffiti was mainly a way to make political declarations for campaigners or for gangs to mark land. However, in the late 1960’s, artists of graffiti seemed to want credit for their graffiti and to earn respect. Cool Earl and Cornbread were two of the first recognized graffiti artists at the time, they both achieved this by ‘tagging’ (the system they founded) their names in as many visible places around the city as possible.
As Graffiti became more and more popular, more graffiti artists surfaced and each one pursued a unique style in order to differentiate themselves from the other artists out there. In the mid 1970s there was a clear change in the goals that graffiti set out to achieve, instead of earning recognition by placing their tags around cities, writers of graffiti now appreciated the worth of the artistic piece that they made. This period in the history of graffiti was essential in establishing many styles, which are still evident in the graffiti today.
The graffiti being created started to become more complex as pieces began to take on different forms such as bubble letters, the words used were complemented by backdrops, the images being created were more complicated as they started to portray social problems and, of course, the quality of the pieces were getting better and better as time went on. Due to this progression, graffiti became very competitive by artists taking up huge spaces and making extremely big pieces to out-do other pieces of work (Felisbret, 2009). Unfortunately, due to the joint efforts of people and authorities worried with city redecoration, Graffiti is less dominant in the society today.
In 1973, DJ Herc, the founder of hip hop, who was also well known at the time for organizing ‘block parties’ around different areas in New York. Dj Herc played music and the crowd would dance, the music had breaks in it where the beat was still on going (Brenner, 2002). On these particular fragments of the music, people who started to be called ‘Break boys’ and ‘Break girls’, would start to dance and display their impressive and distinct dance moves to the crowd around them. The term ‘break’ was coined due to the breaks or pauses in the music to allow the crown to dance (Brenner 2002).
Towards the end of the era, break dance’s recognition had declined as a dance at parties but had become more of a competitive dance with different groups being created in order to challenge each other and show who had most dancing skills.
However, later on in 1980 break dancing became popular again thanks to Henry Chalfant who was a photographer. Chalfant hosted a show, which combined rap, graffiti and breakdancing (Brenner, 2002). The show earned many followers after the media noticed it.
Two years later, the group named ‘Rock Steady Crew’ who were part of Chalfant’s success hip hop show, earned a job doing shows at a hip hop club, this meant that break dancing started to extend beyond and became popular once again across the US. Different types of moves also arose from many different states. Breakdancing became greatly commercialized, by being introduced in Hollywood movies and famous shows. However, although years later break dancing started to fade, it has arisen again amongst the new generation, as new styles and moves are being introduced.