Hip Hop Fashion History

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Hip Hop finds its ethnic origins in Jamaican music and DJs in the seventies who used two

turntables to create longer drum breaks in records for dance parties giving rise to "break dancing"

and "break dancers" now known as b­boys and b­girls. DJs and MCs popularized the technique of

speaking over beats and the culture expanded to include street dance and graffiti art. Embraced by

working class urban and young African­Americans, the music stems from African American forms

of music including jazz, soul, gospel, and reggae.

Background

“Afrika Bambaataa basically is The One”, says Jeff Chang, hip­hop historian and author of the

book Can’t Stop Won’t Stop. Bambaataa’s role was carrying the gospel of hip hop.

He came of

age in the smoldering South Bronx during the 1970s and used his charisma to rise to the rank of

warlord in a local gang called Black Spades. After traveling to Africa during that time period, he

decided to borrow a motto from an earlier decade: wage love, not war. He decided to use his

influence to turn the Black Spades into a peaceful organization called the Zulu Nation. “Bambaataa

had this vision of hip­hop as a force for social change,” says Chang. “He had the history and street

credibility to make this narrative acceptable to even the hardest of hard heads... He was the guy

who articulated that hip­hop could be a cultural movement.” In 1977, Bambaataa started throwing

block parties where he would ’d preach the four elements of the newly coined hip­hop movement-
deejaying, painting graffiti, rapping, and break dancing­ and soon added a fifth : knowledge.

The origin of the hip hop culture stems from the block parties of the Ghetto Brother, when they

plugged the amps for their instruments and speakers into the lampposts on 163rd Street and

Prospect Avenue. Dj Afrika Bambaataa of the hip hop collective Zulu Nation outlined the pillars

of hip hop culture, to which he coined the terms Mcing or DJing, B­boying and graffiti writing.

Hip hop as music and culture formed during the 1970s when block parties became increasingly

popular in New York City, particularly among African American youth residing in the Bronx. At

block parties DJs played percussive breaks of popular songs using two turntables to extend the

breaks. Hip hop's early evolution occurred as sampling technology and drum­machines became

widely available and affordable. Turntablist techniques developed along with the breaks and the

Jamaican toasting vocal style was used. Rapping developed as a vocal style in which the artist

speaks along with an instrumental or synthesized beat. The 1980s marked the diversification of hip

hop as the genre developed more complex styles. Prior to the 1980s, hip hop music was largely

confined within the United States; however, during the 1980s, it began its spread and became a

part of the music scene in dozens of countries. In the 1990s, hip hop began to diversify with other

regional styles emerging on the national scene, such as Southern rap and Atlanta hip hop. At the

same time, hip hop continued to be assimilated into other genres of popular music, an example

being Neo soul. Hip hop became a best­selling music genre in the mid­1990s and the top selling

music genre by 1999. The popularity of hip hop music continued through the 2000s, with hip hop

influences also increasingly finding their way into mainstream pop. The United States also saw the

success of styles such as crunk, a music that emphasized the beats and music more than the lyrics.

How did it change throughout time?

Hip Hop fashion is a distinctive style of dress originating from African American youth on the

scencescene of New York City, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, Philadelphia and more.

Each city

contributed various elements to hip hop fashion’s its overall style visibleseen worldwide today.

Hip hop fashion has changed significantly during its history, and today, it is an important part of

popular fashion as a whole across the world and for all ethnicities. Popular accessories included

large sunglasses, bucket hats, name belts, and multiple rings. Heavy gold jewelry was also popular

in the 1980s. The heavy jewelry was suggestive of prestige and wealth, and some have connected

the style of Africanism. Hip hop fashion in this period also influenced high fashion designs.

Hip hop also changed society throughout time. Hip hop has had and overwhelming influence on

the black community in America, as well as society as a whole. Hip Hop is more than music, Hip

Hop is a culture. Over the past three decades, Hip Hop has influenced and uplifted America,

speaking up for generations and providing a voice to a group of people trying to deliver a message.

Opponents of Hip Hop culture argue that the music is aggressive in nature and promotes

social

rebellion. Hip Hop had provided platform for Mcs and rappers to express their opinions about

society, the government and the treatment of African Americans in America for decades. This

outlet is crucial for the uplifting of the black community and would benefit society entirely if

people opposed to Hip Hop tried to embrace the culture rather than attack the culture. It is also an

educational tool when explored and listened to in that context. It is part of black history and should

be studied within that framework and included in educational programs. It i’s a way for black folk

nearly always silenced, rudely interrupted or vocally overrun by those privileged only by the paler

color of their skin to finally and emphatically be heard.

Issues within Hip Hop

Indie rappers and hip hop artists are local independent artists who uphold the tradition of hip hop

as a movement and call for social reform. The elements that sprang fromform a disenfranchised

culture building community through its common concerns, are preserved in the local hip hop

culture that spans the globe and millions of followers. Local artists try to “keep it real” by keeping

out the commercial qualities that might overtake the social value of a community coming together

in the quest to end disenfranchisement and push forward justice and social change.

Rap and Hip Hop has been criticized because of the sexismist, violence, and homophobia that are

present in many lyrics. Not all hip hop fits that category. In fact, the commercial rappers and hip

hop artists contribute less than 1% of the genre. Hip hop that began as party music back in the

black culture in South Bronx, New York around 1973 has been co­opted by corporate music

producers, kept dumbed down and offensive because it sells to the lowest common denominator.

The new trend in hip hop is a different kind of artistry that invites another look at a culture trying

to highlight and hopefully reverse the persuasion that has been wrongly viewed for so long.

Violence in rap is not a call to arms or to violence but an outcry from what is an already

exsitingexisting world view with little hope and the negativity that arises from long time deep

inequities divided mostly along racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines. It comes from subjugation

and socially produced irrational hate that is projected , hate projected toward people of color

blacks and self­hatred by people of color who have been blacks themselves taught to them

by

through a genre and culture that denigrates their humanity. a culture that always reduced them to

less than fully delegate humans.