Blog #5: All the elements of hip-hop.

Some of you may define hip-hop as a genre of music, but some of you may also know that hip-hop consists of different things than music. Hip-hop not only consists of music, but of rapping, DJ/scratching, beat boxing and break dancing. These four elements make up the base of what we know hip-hop is today. If you had the chance to learn more about the history of hip-hop, you'd understand that hip-hop contains elements from more than one culture and actually appreciates diversity.

Rapping is something I've touched on in an earlier blog, so I'm not going to get into it too much, but rapping is also known as MCing and it was usually performed at block parties. Also, people would get into rap battles with another person beat boxing. Beat boxing is the making of a beat only using one's mouth. I've attempted to beat box before and trust me, it takes genuine talent to make it sound good. Did you know that DJing and scratching actually started because of a mistake? DJ Grandmaster Flash was one of the earliest DJs to use scratching, but it became quite popular in the mid 70's to 80's. Break dancing, also referred to as B-Boying, developed in the streets of New York by young African-Americans and Latinos. Break dancing was influenced by both of these cultures. African, giving it more of a floor dance, and Latino, giving it more of a top heavy flow like samba.

Personally, I think that people think they know hip-hop but don't really because they don't know the history of it. For you to understand hip-hop you need to know where it came from and what it used to be. So why not explore a bit?

Extra information:

Someone's opinion on hip-hop.