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The history of hip hop is one that has been born upon the back of a group of silenced youth. Inner city youth felt that not only were they not getting a fair shake at a quality life but that they weren’t even being heard. Our history shows that when expression is suppressed something bad, oftentimes aggressive is about to follow. In the case of hip hop thankfully the aggression was not expressed in the form of violence but rather in a movement that would change not only the urban areas close to its birth but our society as a whole!

In the beginning, hip hop was not even regarded as hip hop. In the mid to late 70s young black and Latino youths from the Bronx were looking for a way to express themselves and started to have open microphones at house gatherings which they would use to perform a type of poetry over any song that has been currently playing. This has been the creation of rap music. Although rapping could seem easy to a novice the fact of the matter has been not everybody had the talent to express themselves in this manner. So another form of self expression associated with rap has been born in the form of break dancing. individuals could be found not only at gatherings but on street corners with virtually nothing more then a boom box and a piece of cardboard, dancing for self expression and even for resources in some cases. The final form of expression is the the majority controversial one! Some youth could not rap nor could they dance but they had to find an outlet or a way in which they could additionally be a part of this movement. What they did have has been the ability to draw. This art form which to the majority is considered graffiti has been now renamed “tagging” in the hip hop community. Whether you agree with the way in which they went about showing off their talent, no one could take away the fact that they truly were talent ed. Tagging has been when the artist of one clique or crew would establish a symbol or phrase that has been now his group’s logo and spray paint this on subway trains. Why subway trains and not just walls? Well, the fact that the subway system ran throughout the city has been advertisement of his crew to the other respective crews. It became a game in the sense that if you could place your tag over top another groups tag you would have essentially performed the hip hop version of a check mate!

So what is hip hop? Hip hop is the mixture of all three of the above mentioned aspects. Rapping, break dancing and graffiti art are all equal forms of the hip hop movement. Some might argue the message that some hip hop sends but the fact that these men and women are performers is not even debatable. Hip hop was a feeling much before it ever became a means of expression and it will stay a way of life long following all of the forms expression is gone!

It wasn’t too long ago that hip hop was created in the Bronx in the mid seventies. At its inception hip hop was virtually nothing more then a positive way to express your emotions on a platform that would be heard throughout the country and in some cases the entire world. Hip hop despite having an aggressive stigma was not feared as it was mostly viewed as a bunch of adolescents having fun and expressing themselves. If it weren’t for the music and the movement known as hip hop, an entire generations feeling and beliefs would have passed by in the absence of being heard. While hip hop for the most part was positive, enlightening and self empowering on the east coast there were a bunch of youths on the west coast who furthermore felt their struggles and views necessitated to be expressed.

Although the message that they were relaying on the west coast has been not one that has been positive at all it still fit the mold of hip hop in the sense that it has been still a form of self expression. The two pioneers of hip hop in the west coast were a rapper by the name of Ice-T and a group by the name of NWA! Their version of hip hop has been highly abrasive and vulgar yet they showed no remorse for it. The point they tried to prove has been that hip hop much prefer all other forms of art is ofttimes a reflection of the environment that the performer lives in. They claimed that if your father was not a part of your life and your mother has been hooked on drugs that your reality would undoubtedly be divergent then that of a person who came from a better environment.

What was once known as a peaceful movement had now became quite threatening to those in power. Politicians and police departments began to fight to have the music pulled off shelves and the performances of these controversial artist canceled. At this point in time in America, gang violence and police brutality were a major media concern. Hip hop artist began to establish violent music calling for the killing of cops and talked about shooting other’s who we’re not a part of their particular gang. Hip hop as all of us knew it had taken a drastic differ and to make matters worse the music that was so controversial on the west coast had now become the the majority popular form of hip hop. It would be titled “Gangsta Rap” due to the fact that those who performed it were either in a gang, affiliated with gangs or rapped about gangs.

Although a lot of of us aren’t fans of this aspect of hip hop it does not differ the fact that this music is here to stay. all of us have to face the fact that not only has been hip hop created to allow everyone to voice their opinions (no matter how crude or violent they may be ) but USA furthermore created freedom of speech for this exact reason. Whether you view gangster rap as detrimental or supplemental to the hip hop movement the fact is the record sales say it all.