The Art of Hip Hop

Art gives the world a foundation in which every human being can express themselves. Music is one art form that can be interpreted to create a better relationship with one another. To be more specific, hip hop has created a mass movement throughout the world ranging from preteens to adults. Recently it has had an immense impact on our society, many believe it is a negative influence that affects our culture. Generally, hip hop has a bad reputation and is not seen as music to the public with its vulgar, violent and sexist lyrics. It has been the scapegoat of our underlying problems in our society by the media. The constant resentment to rappers in the mainstream media demonstrates how prejudice our society has come to this form of poetry. Despite what cynics say, hip hop has positive influences. There are many hip hop songs that raise awareness to the poverty of the lower class, crime and sends a positive message to it listeners.

Hip hop originated in South Bronx, New York in the 1973 by Jamaican DJ, Clive Campbell who is famously known as DJ Kool Herc who took two samples of the same record and broke up the beats and rhythms and played them separately on his “Jamaican turntable techniques” (Swanson). Once Campbell's beats starting playing, his friends would voice out rhymes which started a culture in its self. In South Bronx, majority of its residents were working class African Americans and Hispanics living in poverty “who invented a new form of music that both expressed and shaped the culture of New York City youth in the 1970‘s” (Blanchard). The use of spoken word gave a new meaning to the beats that were produced by DJs giving the youth an outlet in telling their stories of their everyday struggle. It gave them a voice in a p...

... middle of paper ...

...on theme of following ones dreams and hoping for a better future for themselves and their communities.

Works Cited

Blanchard, Becky. The Social Significance of Rap & Hip Hop Culture. N.p., 26 July 1999. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. .

Chang, Jeff. Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. N.p.: Macmillan, 2005. Print.

Chang, Jeff. It's A Hip Hop World. N.p., 11 Oct. 2007. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. .

Swanson, Abbie F. The South Bronx: Where Hip-Hop Was Born. N.p., 2 Aug. 2010. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. .

Universal Zulu Nation. The Music World of Afrika Bambaataa. Universal Zulu Nation, 2012. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. .