The Hip Hop Culture

2098 Words5 Pages

You’re standing in a crowd amongst thousands of fans at an Eminem concert, people from all over, shoulder to shoulder in a massive stadium, singing along every word of their favorite song for hours. People from all over are connected to each other through the power of music. When it comes to music, the life experiences, inspiration, and current events play a tremendously significant role. Hip hop is a form of art which can be expressed through rap songs, break-dancing, and graffiti art. The culture has become so popular that it has entered today’s fashion and modern language. Hip hop music is an extremely large part of today’s generation and a global genre, which influences the generation all over the world. The culture has entered everywhere from TV commercials to toys, video games, and also fashion industry. “Hip hop has been America’s most wanted music, both with sales and as the target of censorship. With its simultaneous focus on invention and tradition, hip hop has survived sampling lawsuits, FBI boycotts, Supreme Court obscenity hearings, mix tape raids, parody of the culture, pop crossovers, and the threat of white rappers taking over the music” (Hess 4). The lifestyle, that people thought would be a passing fade, it has grown to become a permanent part of world culture. Some hip hop artists like Russell Simmons have become some of today hero’s. Many other artists such as 50 cent, Jay Z, Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg are now recognized as successful hip-hop moguls. The hip hop culture started among the African Americans, Latinos of Bronx, and New York in the mid 1970s. It started in streets of New York as an underground movement, as young people sponsored parties on their blocks and clubs, to make money as disk jockeys and clu... ... middle of paper ... ...h | Black Issues in Higher Education | Find Articles at BNET." 22 Apr. 2004. Web. 17 July 2011. . Sahota, Mandy. Personal Interview. 15 July 2011. "The History Of Hip Hop pg 2." Insert Name of Site in Italics. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 July 2011 "Things Just Ain't the Same": Hip-Hop's Reconstruction of the Gangster Rap Identity." Hip-Hop Linguistics - Underground Hip-Hop | News, Reviews, Videos, FREE Hip-Hop. 30 Jan. 2005. Web. 13 July 2011. . Watkins, S. Craig. Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture, and the Struggle for the Soul of a Movement. Boston: Beacon, 2005. Print. Willams, Joey. Personal interview. 16 July 2011

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