Who would have thought that the sub-cultural phenomenon of Hip Hop would have spread from it’s modest beginnings in the desperate poverty of New York’s South Bronx to infect the whole world with such an itching passion for it’s beautiful simplicity and huge scope for potential. The style involves a whole treasury of accompanying cultural motifs that expand the music into something more than just sound: Hip Hop for many people is a way of life. In it’s revolutionary detraction from other musical styles it can be seen as one of the great avant-garde leaps of the twentieth century. Hip Hop events in the UK range from chart toppers such as Dizzee Rascal, Eminem to N-Dubz to name a few.
Where does the term Hip Hop originate from? Though KRS-1’s classic
definition of “Hydrogen-Iodine-Phosphorous,
“Hydrogen-Oxygen-Phosphorous” gives a good emotional definition, Hip Hop
in reality is far more difficult to define. One good starting point is
the words of Afrika Bambaataa, the individual who gave Hip Hop it’s name
and was hugely influential in the creation of the style and the
continuing popularity it enjoys today. Bambaataa famously mapped out
four “pillars” essential to hip hop culture, namely the arts of MCing,
DJing, Breaking, and Graffiti.
MCing and DJing are of course the most important, as they relate
specifically to the music. It was these combined arts that were to give
Hip Hop it’s distinctive sounds and inherent prospects. The MC vocal
style involves a move away from tonal singing to give lyrics and rhythm
a more prominent role: this freedom opens up countless possibilities for
lyrical digression and experimentation, and Hip Hop’s excellence is
partly due to the poetic accomplishments made in this facet of the
genre. This is underscored by the art of the DJ, something which
involves not only a extreme musical skill in rhythm, but also a
consummate technical knowledge of computers and records. It requires the
performer to mix small samples from records in a rhythmic and repetitive
way: DJing is thus the true post-modern instrument, itself being only a
collection of musical history reworked through the user’s creative
skill.
Hip Hop’s rise to become the pop music of the world is in truth no real
surprise, as it marries an intellectual vocal approach with innovative
instrumentation and, most importantly, makes this end product danceable,
funky and incredibly electrifying. Most exciting of all, however, is
what it has achieved in the short time the music has been around for.
Concert tickets have never been so necessary: the story has only just
begun.