Hip Hop isn’t just a mere genre of music, nor is it strictly limited to the derogatory things the media mainly focuses on. Hip Hop is an entire culture that is looked upon under the wrong light in most cases. It ranges from the way one dresses to how we express ourselves and much more. The media seldom chooses to shine the spotlight in the positive affects of the Hip Hop culture to the world.
Many people in this day in time don’t realize how much more there is to this thing we call “hip hop”. It was built upon four major components: Emceeing, DJ’ing, Art/Graffiti, and B-Boying. Eventually, it grew out to other elements such as beat boxing, fashion, and slang. Most of all, hip hop eventually grew into a culture. The movement started in The Bronx & Harlem, predominantly by African Americans, around the 1970′s. When it began, it was originally based off DJ’s who made up rhythmic beats by “scratching” a record on one turn table while looping the break of various other records on another. These beats were eventually fused with rhythmic chants knows as “rapping”. Nobody knew these chants would evolve into life changing lyrics for many of people to come. As a cultural movement, hip hop seems to always take the blame for both positive and negative influences on the lives of young people, mainly African Americans and Latinos. This is only because the relevancy of the culture side began to fade and the business side made its appearance more known. Used as one of the biggest promotional tools for the media, they choose to focus on sex, violence, and harsh language, consequently tainting the while genre. Thank God for such great positive figures such as Sean Carter, Russel Simmons, & Jeff Johnson who utilized hip hop as a gateway to accomplishing many other great accolades. Nonetheless, the negative and positive affects of hip hop are very apparent amongst society.
In my opinion, hip hop is double sided. It has been a vocal diary and release for many of young people, allowing them to speak their mind about the troubles of reality they may face on a everyday basis. Everyone also agrees that having a way to release such stress is very beneficial to ones development. Them being able to tell their story to thousands of others who can relate has been saving lives for years and continues to do so in present day. In the same breath, a good amount of lyrics contain dark subjects such as killing, drug abuse, & other violent behavior without any kind of positive reinforcement. These same lyrics travel to the mind of the insecure and lead them to believe that this way of living is correct. Again, this relates back to hip hop becoming more of a business rather than staying a culture. Whatever sells the most is what the media chooses to get behind and push out. They pick what artists they want polluting the brains of individuals in society, and push them forward. This is the main reason why artist who actually deliver a message rarely ever make it to the mainstream light.
Despite all the criticism hip hop receives, this genre has done many great things in American history. In all things change occurs, and hip hop is no exception. From someone who knows the culture and has a true love for it, I can honestly say that we are in a good state right now with artists such as Big K.R.I.T., Joey Badass, Kendrick Lamar, and many others making some noise with their own positive movements. We as African Americans should take more pride in something so great that we created, but the nonchalant attitude towards it is also understandable. All I ask is that you search for real hip hop, & listen to it. You are not supposed to judge a book by its cover, so don’t judge a whole culture and genre of music off of the negative music your heat pushed from the mainstream media. Love Hip Hop.
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