Eng 101 - the Birth of Hip Hop: Beginning of the 70's

Sarah Hill

ENG 101.53

6/29/2011

The Role of Hip-Hop in Society

-THE BIRTH OF HIP HOP: BEGINNING OF THE 70's.

The principal definition of Hip Hop is that it is an urban cultural movement. It covers many forms of artistic expressions that are all different but complementary. Hip Hop emerged in the Bronx at the beginning of the 70's, just after the Hippy movement and the Vietnam war, in a disillusioned America. The word itself Hip Hop is onomatopoeia of a jump, an image of social advancement, a creative progression. Hip Hop is not just music in the strict technical sense but mainly an opportunity for personal expression. It includes a way of thinking, of dressing, of speaking, of walking; it is a "total image".

It all started in North America during the 50ies and 60ies, great social barriers between white middle-classes Americans living out the "American dream" and small out-cast minorities who were excluded from the promise of a better life. It is during this period that voices such as those of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and the Black Panthers, raise and demand equal rights for all Americans coloured or not. But it's also a time during which all sorts of gang appear and the use of illicit drugs often "pushed" by a powerful white establishment becomes a real social issue.

During the seventies, everyone was listening to disco when a young Jamaican, Clive Campbell called later DJ Kool Herc arrives in New York. He had invented a truly new style of music, called Hip Hop. "Blocks parties were invented: streets are closed, music is played, and people dance; Hip Hop is on its way.

In 1973, Hip Hop becomes socio-cultural movement with Afrika Bambataa. He was first a member of a gang but wishes to go beyond violence and transform frustration and negative energy into a creative, positive, universal art form. Afrika Bambataa creates Universal Zulu Nation during 1974, a new formation defending ideas such Peace, Love, Unity and respect of the others.

During this same period there is a clear decline of gang activity due to very high mortality rate in its ranks but also and mainly thanks to the positive influence of Hip Hop.

-HIP HOP IN THE 80's TO 90's: THE WEST AND THE EAST COAST:

At the end of the 80's, hip hop started to change its philosophy. What was ten years ago four different disciplines, the MC's battle, the break dancers, the dj's and the graffitists is put behind leaving rap in the line light. Another aspect is that New York City and the east coast is not the only owner of the culture anymore, the west coast started to raise his own vision of hip hop especially in