Hip-Hop is supposed to uplift and create, to educate people on a larger level and to make a change.

—Doug E. Fresh, rapper, record producer, and beat boxer

1

In the past thirty years, hip-hop culture has spread throughout the globe. It can be found in television commercials, on the radio, in movies, and even in sports. What many people do not know, however, is where the roots of hip-hop lie. Where did it come from? Who started it? How did it come about? With hip-hop’s permeating presence, it is essential to understand its roots to see its expansion. Like most cultures, hip-hop has evolved over time but has maintained several constants, known as its four pillars, or elements. These pillars can be traced back to the origins of hip-hop and show how it was created. The four elements of hip-hop are the Disc Jockey (DJ), the Master of Ceremonies (MC, also known as emcee), dance, and graffiti (Kugelberg 17).

2

Hip-hop was born during the 1970s in the South Bronx area of New York City (Newman). According to a History Detectives show on PBS, while DJing one of his dance parties at his place on Sedgewick Avenue, DJ Kool Herc “extended an instrumental beat (breaking or scratching) to let people dance longer and began MCing during the extended breakdancing” (“Birthplace”). Kool Herc chose parts of songs that the crowd reacted best to and extended them. He even linked the break to songs with similar breaks (Newman). This led to the creation of breakbeat DJing and rapping over such beats. The parties that Kool Herc threw brought a positive, fun atmosphere to inner-city New York, taking the focus away from gangs and violence. Later on, as hip-hop grew within popular music, it became a symbol of independence and an outlet for people to voice their opinions.

3

Being the father of this music genre and culture, the DJ is the most important person in hip-hop. The DJ chooses what music to play, how to play it, and often which rapper to promote. Kool Herc created the model for a DJ, and other legendary DJs like Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, and The Grand Wizard Theodore built on it. Grand Wizard Theodore created what is now called scratching: rubbing the vinyl record back and forth on the turntable to create scratching noises (“The Birth of Rap”). This led to DJs having not only breaks to sample music, but also the power to create their own sounds and beats. Grandmaster Flash further developed DJing by inventing the crossfader, which allowed DJs to smoothly transition from one turntable to the other or mix both sources together seamlessly (Hansen). The technique of scratching and the invention of the crossfader gave DJs even more tools to create and mix music, and they are still staples of DJing today.

4

The DJ is also the predecessor of the MC. Between songs, the DJ would talk over a beat to interact with the crowd (“The Birth of Rap”). This technique was later divided into two distinct roles: the DJ spun the music and the MC spoke over the beat between songs. Eventually, the MC began to rap—to create rhyming statements in the rhythm of the beat (“The Birth of Rap”). The pairing of the rapper and the DJ seems integral to hip-hop, as evident from popular groups throughout its history—Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five of the ’70s, Run DMC of the ’80s, and A Tribe Called Quest of the ’90s.

5

Rapping has evolved from simply talking over a beat to become a distinctive form of spoken language. The first major rap group, The Last Poets, created the mold for rappers (Powell 246). The Harlem rappers Omar Ben Hassen, Alafia Pudim, Abiodun Oyewole, and Nilaja formed the group, which rapped about social issues relevant to the black community (Powell 246). This was the first major instance of using rap as a tool for speaking out on social issues, but it is most definitely not the last. In the last thirty years, rap has been a prominent outlet for this purpose. Examples range from Kanye West rapping about materialism, to Ice Cube discussing police violence, to Jay-Z questioning the relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina. People in the inner cities of America have found a new weapon and craft: their voices.

6

The style of rapping has changed with the times. The basic repertoire of rhyming couplets has expanded to include many other literary techniques like alliteration, assonance, wordplay, metaphors and similes, and varieties of meter. For example, the 1979 song “Rapper’s Delight” featured lines such as, “Because they say that miracles never cease / I’ve created a devastating masterpiece” (Sugarhill Gang). This line features rhyming couplets in “cease” and “masterpiece,” and the line follows the meter of the beat. In the 2008 song “Time,” the rapper Gemini (whose real name is Demarco Castle) raps as if he is talking to time: “I’ll never kill you again, put my faith in your hands / I only race with you because being late is not in the plans / And if I wasted you, I had too much on my hands / Is it true they say you wait for no man?” These particular four bars use metaphors and personification to compare time to a person. The complex bars of the 2008 verse show how rap has grown into a style of complex poetry with music.

7

If rap is poetry over music, then hip-hop dance is poetry in motion. Beginning at the dance parties of Kool Herc, people danced to the breaks created by the DJ (“Birthplace”). Break-dancing, also known as breaking or b-boying, has grown from a dance party staple to full routines and battles. B-boying is now not only a way to dance at a party, but also a visual art. In his review of Joseph Schloss’s book FOUNDATION: B-Boys, B-Girls, and Hip-Hop Culture in New York, Adam Mansbach describes, with the help of Schloss’s own words, a standard b-boy routine: “rhythmic, upright ‘toprock’ introduces a dancer, who then executes a ‘drop’ to the floor and performs ‘footwork’—‘disciplined, flowing moves that display rhythm, finesse, and creativity’—followed by strength-based ‘power moves’ and acrobatic ‘air moves,’ and concluding with a ‘freeze,’ ‘a concluding pose that summarizes his or her statement.’” This foundation for a b-boy routine allows a dancer to improvise with different moves, creating variety.

8

The fourth pillar of hip-hop, graffiti, is much different from the other three pillars, as it is the only element not based on music. Tagging, marking one’s territory with graffiti (Bowen 24), is a way that graffiti has manifested hip-hop culture. Writers, or graffiti artists, go through the community, tagging their signature on various places (Bowen 24). Although viewed by most of the general public as vandalism, graffiti is a means of self-promotion, marking territory, art, or addressing social issues. Tagging grew from signatures on subways, lamp posts, and mailboxes to large pieces on sides of buildings (Bowen 24). Stemming from the inner cities and practiced by those who participate in hip-hop, graffiti is linked to hip-hop culture. It has become an art form, adding color to neighborhoods. In her article about graffiti art in Toronto, Tracey Bowen says that graffiti “enlivens the city’s derelict areas,” and “borders on a form of public mural making” (22–24). Just like hip-hop, graffiti has “crossed the boundaries of street culture, youth culture, and the art community” (Bowen 22). Because hip-hop and graffiti reach a similar audience and have similar origins, the two will forever be connected.

9

As many pastimes or hobbies contain an element of competition, the four pillars of hip-hop have also found ways to create a contest: battling. Dance battles have been the most prominent form of hip-hop dance in mainstream media. Dance battles first entered the mainstream in 1981, when the Rock Steady Crew battled the Dynamic Rockers at Lincoln Center in New York City (“Hip-Hop Dance History”). Even today, movies like You Got Served and Stomp the Yard have focused on the battle aspect of hip-hop dance. Large-scale rap battles like The Iron Mic, DJ competitions like the DMC World DJ Championships, and the ongoing territorial battles of graffiti artists have also cemented to the competition aspect of hip-hop.

10

Hip-hop is not only a music genre; it is a culture. The four pillars—the DJ, the MC, dance, and graffiti—come together to create a lifestyle that has successfully adapted to generations of youth. These pillars have been used as a means of preventing violence in the inner cities of America, all while creating a fun and positive atmosphere. Whether via a rap or dance battle or expressing emotions through a visual art like graffiti, hip-hop has been a way for people to channel their negative energy into something positive, or nonviolent. As hip-hop grows and changes, the four elements will remain constant in the culture.

Works Cited

“The Birth of Rap: A Look Back.” World Cafe. WXPN, Philadelphia, 22 Feb. 2007. Radio.

“Birthplace of Hip-Hop.” Narr. Tukufu Zuberi. History Detectives. PBS, 23 Feb. 2008. Television.

Bowen, Tracey. “Graffiti Art: A Contemporary Study of Toronto Artists.” Studies in Art Education 41.1 (1999): 22–39. JSTOR. Web. 2 Nov. 2009.

Castle, Demarco. “Time.” The Testimony of Gemstones. 1st and 15th, 2008. CD.

Hansen, Kjetil. Turntable Music. The Music Group at the Department of Speech, Music and Hearing, KTH. 2000. Web. 9 Nov. 2009.

“Hip-Hop Dance History.” dance here. 7 July 2008. Web. 9 Nov. 2009.

Kugelberg, Johan. Born in the Bronx. New York: Oxford UP, 2007. Print.

Mansbach, Adam. “The Ascent of Hip-Hop: A Historical, Cultural, and Aesthetic Study of B-boying.” Boston Globe 24 May 2009, Books: 2. Web. 2 Nov. 2009.

Newman, Mark. “History of Turntablism.” pedestrian. 3 Jan. 2003. Web. 9 Nov. 2009.

Powell, Catherine. “Rap Music: An Education with a Beat from the Street.” The Journal of Negro Education 60.3 (1991): 245–259. JSTOR. Web. 2 Nov. 2009.

Sugarhill Gang. “Rapper’s Delight.” Sugarhill Gang. Sugar Hill Studios, 1979. CD.