Hip Hop Music on the Whole
Hip Hop music has become an identity, a character, and a new world on its own. It may be now a craze but it can be originally traced back to South Bronx in the 1970s. This style of music is a worldwide genre now, but this culture developed amongst the African Americans and it was their way of life. No wonder, we hear about violence, crime, gangsters, mafia, drugs, guns, women, money, cars and such, all the time.
Hip hop has a history of DJ battles, graffiti, disco rap music and the new emerging techniques like Jamaican toasting, scratching, MCing and Old School Hiphoppers like DJ Kool Herc, who is known as the Founding Father of Hip-hop, Afrika Bambaata, Grandmaster Theodore, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Lovebug Starski who coined the term ‘Hip Hop’, The Cold Crush brothers and many other legends.
The advent of New School Hip hop was around mid 1980s with hip-hop collective like Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, Eric B & Rakim, A Tribe Called Quest, Def Jam, Juice Crew, Busta Rhymes, Charlie Brown, Dinco D, ODB, Native Tongues, Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, Wu Tang Clan, Kool G Rap, Outkast, Black Sheep and many more. The list now keeps on increasing as artists like Puff Daddy, Eminem, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Kanye West, Linkin Park, Destinys Child, Missy Elliot and many more.
Hip hop lyrics, the face of hip hop culture, have mostly been controversial, encompassing the life of ghettos and economy and decrying poverty to godly lyrics of conscious and Christian hip hop. To speak about controversies, this culture brags about having murders and mafias, and also juicy hip hop gossips about “beefs” and “missions”. Rumours may be spread by stars to be in the limelight, just as the apparels of stars become the latest trend. Fashion in hip hoppers is ever-changing but the general picture depicts African-inspired clothing with colourful shirts or oversized basketball jerseys, military baggy denims or cargos, Nikes and baseball caps. The surge of designer labels and bling accessories is ever-increasing with accessories for every body part.
As hip-hop is traced back to origins, it is a must to mention its predecessor, Rap music; it had a great influence on this music style and it combined funk and R&B as well as poetry. New rap songs and new rap music lack the old charm and thought provoking, metaphor-laden lyrics and social commentary to its finest with gut-wrenching tales of the street life combined with innovative and experimented music. With rap as its history, hiphop gradually became the origin of many sub-genres like country and freestyle rap, Reggae, rap core, conscious hip hop, Ragga, alternative and avant-garde hip-hop, G-Funk, chopped and screwed, christian hiphop, electro hop, gangsta rap, house music, mafioso rap, reggaeton, New Jack Swing or dance-pop, etc. as a perpetual list. But the new hiphop music is criticized to not being real anymore. And not only the music or the lyrics, but even the videos of albums have become a rage. The all time great videos are Eminem’s Not Afraid, We made you, Lil Wayne’s Lollipop, Black Eyed Peas’ my humps, Missy Elliot’s Work It, Lose Control and many more. And now, a new trend of hip-hop mixtapes have emerged which has many artists featuring in the same album and also going on world tours together.
Hip-hop On the Whole has risen from being a local culture in the streets of Bronx to an international, multi-billion dollar industry.
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