A Child's Introduction to Hip-Hop

THE ELEMENTS OF EARLY HIP-HOP CULTURE

HIP-HOP CULTURE HAS FOUR KEY ELEMENTS:

DJING OR TURNTABLING

A LOT OF the music played at block parties was by artists called DJs. You’ve probably seen a DJ before. They turn or spin dance music on records on turntables (record players). Not only did the DJs choose the music that would be played to entertain the partygoers, but they also had microphones and spoke to the crowd and got them excited!

DJ Clive “Kool Herc” Campbell was known to be one of the best DJs around because in 1973, at his sister Cindy’s back-to-school party he took DJing and turntabling to new heights.

Kool Herc found a way to make the percussion sound, which is the drum sound, of a song stand out by using two record players and a mixer. He could make the beat of a song longer by switching back and forth between the two records, playing it over and over. This created a whole new type of music and a way to keep people excited and dancing. This type of DJing was called breakbeat.

Kool Herc’s style became the foundation of the hip-hop sound. Even today, beats are essential to the way a rapper performs their rhymes and the mood and pace of the song.

MCING

MCING, ALSO KNOWN an “emceeing” or “rapping,” is another essential element of hip-hop. MC comes from the term “master of ceremonies,” which was a title given to a person who hosted parties and dance events. Originally, MCs would entertain the partygoers by making them laugh and getting the crowd excited with the latest dance craze or fast-paced music.

Over time, MCs began to turn their humor, charm, and talent for language into rhymes or “raps.” They would speak to the rhythm of the music and create clever sayings; many times their raps would be improvised, meaning they didn’t write anything down or memorize what they were going to say. This form or rapping later became known as freestyling. MCs would create raps that described the energy of the crowd and would boast and brag about how cool and talented they were.

MCs became so good at rapping about how great they were, they would compete with other rappers. They would challenge them to show the crowd who was the best rapper based on how original the rapper’s rhymes were, how well they could embarrass the rapper they were competing against, and how excited the group would get.

At the end of each rap battle, the crowd would choose who was the best rapper by cheering the loudest for their favorite rapper.

GRAFFITI ART

GRAFFITI IS THE visual art side of hip-hop. Starting in the 1970s, the youth of the Bronx and New York City began “tagging” their names inside and outside subway trains, subway stations, and on the sides of buildings. It all started after “TAKI 183” from 183rd Street in Washington Heights began writing his nickname around his neighborhood in the late 1960s. At first, no one knew who he was and the city became fascinated by this mysterious “writer” whose name seemed to be everywhere. In 1971, he finally shared that his name was Demetrios in an interview with a newspaper.

Young people realized that they too could become famous for their graffiti. Tagging and graffiti soon became a part of the hip-hop culture. They started using brightly colored spray paints to stand out.

Later in the 1970s graffiti culture became even more organized and stylized. A new competition called the “style wars” started. The pieces got bigger and young writers began to sketch their work in notebooks before painting them. Young writers would get together for “writers’ benches” and study each other’s sketches before painting them. Older writers would take young graffiti artists under their wings and teach them all that they had learned. Even though the art was competitive, it also created a tight community of artists. This community still lives on today. Graffiti is now global and lives on as new generations of artists continue to paint large-scale and small-scale tags.

Even though graffiti has traveled all over the world, it also still isn’t accepted everywhere. Many people think graffiti is a crime since graffiti artists sometimes paint buildings and subways without permission. Because of this, many artists have to hide who they really are with nicknames.

Graffiti is risky but this doesn’t mean it isn’t an important part of hip-hop culture. It helped young artists of color find their passion and express creative talent. They turned something negative and illegal into a positive community-building phenomenon that has a rightful place in hip-hop history.

BREAK DANCING

BREAK DANCING IS another important element of hip-hop. The phrase break dancing comes from DJ Kool Herc’s breakbeat type of DJing. Dancers learned to use the long drumbeats to perform a dance style that used moves from gymnastics and martial arts, pushing dancers to flip, split, and spin on their heads!

Young people also used fast footwork and humorous moves to grab the crowd and attract attention. Break-dancers became known as “B-boys” and “B-girls” and during many of Kool Herc’s parties he would set aside time for the dancers to show off their footwork by yelling “B-boys, go down!”

Like all the elements of hip-hop, there was a competitive side to the break dancing. Young people would gather around in a big circle to give the dancers plenty of room to do backflips and complicated twirls. Each dancer would show their skills.

Break dancing has a number of different dance steps. A few of these are freezes, toprocks, downrocks, and powermoves. The combination of these movements along with a dancer’s own unique twists to the style created a widespread craze across the Bronx and New York City’s Black and Latinx communities. Break dancing is still alive and well today. Dancers continue to create new moves and give partygoers and audiences amazing shows! There are also dance competitions all over the world that embrace break dancing.

The Birth of Mainstream Hip-Hop

(1979–1982)

SUGAR HILL RECORDS