We hear a lot of people saying Hip hop is trash or Hip hop is dead. Hip hop is more than music, it’s one of the biggest cultural movements that was created in the United States. Even though Hip Hop is a famous movement known worldwide not just in the United States, some people still don't know the history of this movement.
Hip hop is a sub cultural movement that was formed during the early 1970's largely by African-American and Puerto Rican youths residing in the South Bronx in New York City. It became popular outside of the African-American community in the late 1980's and by the 2000's became the most listened-to musical genre in the world. It is characterized by four distinct elements, all of which represent the different manifestations of the culture: rap music (oral), turntablism or DJing (aural), b-boying (physical) and graffiti art (visual). Even while it continues to develop globally in myriad styles, these four foundational elements provide coherence to hip hop culture. The term is often used in a restrictive fashion as synonymous only with the oral practice of rap music.
Hip hop music was mostly a platform for the people to discuss social and political issues and sometimes it would go further to give solutions for those issues. Hip hop music is the modern poetry, a poetry with rhythm. The beat makes the lyrics more catchy. You can say it's a hidden message under the catchy music. I personally learned the English language from Hip hop music, that shows you how influential Hip hop is.
Hip Hop sometimes was "the thing" that kept a lot of young men away from trouble. Some young men have made fortunes from Hip hop and got away from a life style that was eventually going to kill them or put them in jail, some have helped their friends and family members out of the same circumstances once they became successful.
There are many rappers who have a big fan base and are known in the streets but they never get signed by major labels or get featured on big shows. Their work is very honest and honesty never sells. They use their platform to discuss social and political issues and their purpose is higher than just making money. They are called "under ground rappers".
Hip hop music was a poetic platform to bring attention to community problems or to share personal experiences that others might relate to, it connected a lot of people together, motivated and gave hope to a lot of people and it helped to fix many issues. Today, Hip hop became a platform to everyone, people who want to talk about money and or girls. Some people are taking it too far by using Hip hop music to brag about their crimes, and a new type that I call “gibberish”, just many sentences that rhyme, but they make no sense, and sometimes they don't even rhyme. These types of songs are the most successful type today. Obviously some people think it’s entertaining but others who don't know Hip hop are confused by this new trend. Then there is the romantic Hip hop. They say the person who started the romantic Hip hop is LL COOL J (short for Ladies Love Cool James) He is known for songs like “Doing It”. We have another rapper today who took the romantic Hip Hop to another level when he mixed it with Pop music, I’m talking about Drake. Drake is from Toronto, Canada. He was signed to young money records which was his bridge to the United States and then to the world. Drake is the most successful rapper today. He created his own record label “OVO Sound”. Some People say that Hip hop is dead today but actually we still have many good rappers like; J Cole who has made successful albums like "2014 Forest Hills Drive", and Kendrick Lamar who won 5 Grammy's in 2016 for his successful songs discussing social issues.
Some people judge many things including Hip Hop music and culture without knowing the history of it. It's a very creative form of art. you can use it in different ways, just like any other art. Today, we have different kind of rappers. The mainstream rappers are the artists who have been chosen by the majority of the people.
