"What is Hip-Hop?" is a very open ended question. In the first class we discussed the personal meaning and everyone seemed to have the same idea of it's a musical entity/art and it also is a huge business. Although I believe that theses are both true statements I think that there is more to Hip-Hop than this. Along with being a Art form and a business; Hip-Hop is history, it is revolution, it is a father, and it is a culture.
The way Hip-hop came to be what we see today is through a path of changing identity and the revolutionary use and creation of technology. Hip-Hop came from a form of RnB called Doo-Wop. From RnB/Doo-Wop came what we know as Rock n' Roll. Rock n Roll was made so that African-American music can be played on radio. After a while DJ's started to speak over tracks (Grandmaster Flash, DJ Hollywood, Herc, etc) and then one day the Mother of modern rap came to the front. Her name was Tanya Winley, and she rhymed under the name MC Sweet T. She rhymed over a instrumental beat and sold them to people. This sparked arguably the greatest rap track of all time to be born...Rappers delight by The Sugar Hill Gang. With history comes Revolution.
Revolution is defined as: A dramatic and wide-reaching change in the way something works or is organized. When I started reading "The Big Payback" It discussed the roots of Hip-Hop and how it came to be what we know it as today. In the text it talked about what DJ's help do in terms of bringing youth together. In the early stages of DJ'ing (which was the predecessor to Hip-Hop) youth regardless of skin color or culture would gather from all around the city to dance to the music that DJ's put out. It is said that this type of music helped spark the desegregation of the white and black youth in the United States. On top of helping with the desegregation of America, Hip-hop and DJ'ing helped reduce crime within cities like New York. The culture that Hip-Hop perpetuated helped the youth put down the "gats" and "heaters" trying to represent your gang, and to turn to the artful creative ways of repping your crew with dance and graffiti.
Hip-Hop is also a hustle and a business. Originally it was based on people hustling what was called numbers. Running numbers was like the lottery before the lottery. With the invention of Hip-Hop kids went form hustling numbers to hustling their crafts. They would go head to head with other groups to see who was the best, they would hustle to get the best DJ spot in the city, or to sell a track. Most famous of these situations is that of Dr. Dre. He went from selling drugs in Compton to DJ'ing and making his money in that manner and proving he was the best. Now he is the first Hip-Hop billionaire.
On top of all of these reasons, Hip-hop is memory for me. It brings back moments of happiness, struggle, anger, fight, and motivation. It reminds me of BBQ's with my friends in the summer, it reminds me of cruising down the street with my brothers, and it reminds me of competing in High School. Hip-Hop gets a bad rap because of the negative events that have occurred in recent years (most recently with the Drill movement out of Chicago). As a final statement, I am a product of Hip-Hop music, my ideas, my thoughts, my vocabulary has been shaped by Hip-Hop and I wouldn't take it back for anything.
Peace x Love x Growth
As a vessel for and enactor of the culture, there is something joyful about remembering when and how we were affected by the music, language, or fashion. I appreciate your candidness there, (partially) because Hip-Hop is about genuineness and authenticity, especially when framed in a conversation about entrepreneurship. In certain ventures, the goal is to create something new. You have to show your product differentiation and bring something fresh to your consumer. That deliverable has to be original in it’s form and/or function, otherwise, it’ll be rejected. Hip-Hop is entrepreneurial for many reasons, and one of them is due to its vindication of authenticity. In short, you have to “keep it real”. Your comment at the end definitely reminded me of that.
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