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A-tone’s What Is Hip Hop
I subscirbe to A-tone’s blog and wanted to share this one with you because it’s a question I get asked a lot..
What Is Hip Hop?
by A-tone, the Hip Hop Historian
http://www.classichiphopllc.com
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=31061760
This question was asked of me by someone who was led to believe that commercial rap in its current form is Hip Hop, so forgive me if I’m about to share information with you that you already know.
What you have been led to believe is "Hip Hop" is very far from what is actually the case. "Hip Hop" as talked about by members of Congress and as it appears on Oprah is really a misnomer. What is being played on commercial radio and what is being viewed on cable television is Commercial Rap that masquerades itself as a caricature of only one element of Hip Hop Culture and is fed back to the masses as "Hip Hop".
Let’s go back in time for a moment when Hip Hop Culture first began:
DJ Kool Herc was the first "Hip Hop" DJ. Why? Because he wasn’t like the Disco DJ or the other DJs that were prevalent at the time. He was the first DJ to play B-side funk music at parties and jams on two turntables and isolate the "breakbeat" of the record, the section where all of the other instruments "lay out" and let the drummer "get some". He didn’t have a mixer. He just cued the song to the beginning of the break on two turntables and let the break play on one. As it ended, he switched (guitar amp style) the sound to the second turntable and played the break again. He kept repeating this and called it the "merry-go-round". His method of music manipulation inspired the "B-boys" or "Break-boys" to "go down", but only when they heard Herc say, "B-boys, are you ready? B-girls, are you ready?" and only when he began the merry-go-round. But the word, "Hip Hop", didn’t exist in 1973. Herc performed the function of a "Hip Hop" DJ before the label.
Writing, or Graffiti as it was mislabeled later, already existed, but it wasn’t until young Writers like Stay High and Taki 183 were inspired by this new form of music manipulation, that it took on a higher level of visualization.
Inspired by Herc, other DJs, most of them in high school, began to emerge. DJ Love Bug Starski, DJ Afrika Bambaataa and DJ Tony Tone were all attending Herman Ritter High School, in the South Bronx, when they saw DJ Kool Herc. They, and a kid from the other side of town, DJ Grandmaster Flash, wanted to take what Herc was doing to another level.
It was Love Bug Starski who coined the term "Hip Hop". At the time (circa 1974), there were no MCs, or rappers as they were later mislabeled. DJs used to get on the microphone and make announcements, do shoutouts and some call-and- response. However, Starski used to do short phrases where he would say "To the Hip, Hop...Hip, Hop, you don’t stop". The term stuck and other DJs, and later, MCs, picked up on it.
Although Starski and other DJs were on the microphone, it was DJ Grandmaster Flash’s first MC, Cowboy, who was able to step out in front of the DJ and control the mic as well as the crowd with full-length rhymes. This was significant because Flash was the first Hip Hop DJ to use the turntable as an actual instrument. He took what Herc had been doing and took it to the next level. Party people would stop dancing and just stand and watch Flash perform. MC Cowboy had enough presence and rhymes to direct the attention of the party people to himself. He was joined by Kid Creole and Melle Mel. The four of them became known as DJ Grandmaster Flash and the Three MCs.
In 1975, it was DJ Afrika Bambaataa of the Zulu Nation that decided to pull the four elements together and place it all under the popular term, Hip Hop. He called it a culture and introduced its fifth element, Knowledge. Bambaataa later defined Hip Hop as "Peace, Love, Unity and Having Fun". Of course, the way this was accomplished was through DJing, MCing, Breaking and Writing.
Hip Hop existed, in one form or another, for approximately seven years (1973-1979) before it was recognized by the commercial music industry. What caused this recognition was the rise of the MC crews and how young people became attracted to their personalities aside from the umbrella crews led by the DJs.
Record industry execs like Sylvia Robinson and Bobby Robinson labeled what the MCs were doing as "Rap" and wanted to translate the popularity of the "Rapper" into record sales. As a result, the first Rap records were introduced in 1979. After "Rapper’s Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang (who were Rappers, not Emcees) blew up, the media called what was being produced, Rap Music. The MCs (not Rappers) began to feel that the only way they were going to cash in on "Rap" was to become Rappers and sign with a record company. As evidence that record execs were more familiar with the act of Rapping and not the Hip Hop lifestyle, check the name of the first three "rap" records. They were "King Tim III (Personality Jock)" by the Fatback Band, "We Rap More Mellow" by The Younger Generation (aka Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Four) and "Rapper’s Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang.
Keep in mind that MCs were still performing with their DJs in their respective neighborhoods while Rappers (and MCs turned Rappers) were being promoted by the Rap music industry with their DJs in the background or not present at all. DJs, Breakers and Writers (along with some MCs) were left out of the Rap music industry because the culture as a whole did not translate to a record sale but Hip Hop Culture was still going in the neighborhoods across the country. It was the movie, "Wild Style" that captured a snapshot of what Hip Hop Culture was and is about even while the Rap music industry was taking off. In 1982, while Run-DMC was forming, Hip Hop artists from the Wild Style movie were touring the world and introducing the youth in other countries to Hip Hop Culture with all its elements intact.Therefore, Hip Hop Culture has been running and continues to run parallel to Rap music.
Back in the states, as Rap music took America by storm and Hip Hop Culture was still in the neighborhoods, the film industry recognized another element of Hip Hop Culture. Breakers began to see the same kind of popularity that early MCs enjoyed. Rappers began to share the spotlight with Breakers, who were mislabeled as "Breakdancers" and were featured in major movies across the country and the world. From 1982 to 1985, "breakdancing" was all the rage. During this term, another element was introduced in Hip Hop Culture by Doug E. Fresh, the Original Human Beat Box.
By 1986, the film industry dropped the Breakers and MCs made a resurgence in the form of "Conscious Rap", which was again co-opted by the Rap music industry. "Yo! MTV Raps" and BET’s Rap City capitalized off the latest wave of popular rap music. Curiously, around 1992, a sea change in the way the music industry portrayed Rap music began to happen. A decision was made to stop promoting conscious Rap. It was decided to promote "Gangsta Rap" and eventually this style of music became the music of choice for the entire industry. Somewhere along the line, the label of Rap as promoted by the music industry, was changed to Hip Hop. Yet, the DJs, MCs, Breakers, Beatboxers and Writers were still living Hip Hop Culture, even while Rap was given the label, Hip Hop. Confusion ensues because those who represent Hip Hop Culture continue to represent positivity while the Rap music industry continues to promote negative "Hip Hop", or c ommercial Rap music, which is really gangster, pimp, thug and prison lifestyle, packaged in the form of music.
So, what is Hip Hop? Hip Hop is Peace, Love, Unity and Having Fun via the Arts of DJing, MCing, Breaking, Writing and Beatboxing. If you are watching 106th & Park and Flavor of Love or listening to a radio station "blazing Hip Hop & RnB" but it doesn’t fit the above description, it isn’t Hip Hop. Hip Hop is your friendly neighborhood DJ setting up a sound system in community center, rec room, park or nightspot. It is the DJ performing the original music manipulation inspired by Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash. Hip Hop is the B-boys and B-girls "riding" the breakbeat while the MCs control the mic, the crowd and the ceremony. Hip Hop is the Writers creating masterpieces using aerosol cans on different types of media and everybody doing it, "To the Beat, Y’All!"
Peace.
Anthony "A-tone" Muhammad
The Hip Hop Historian
Classic Hip Hop Radio
866-832-2756 (requests/drops/fax)
http://www.classichiphopllc.com/radio.html
Classic Hip Hop Ringtones
http://www.jivjiv.com/classichiphop
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I know i'm not great at blogging but it's something i want to get better at..