Evoloution of Hip Hop

Evolution of Hip-Hop
Hip-hop is known as the poetry of the streets, giving voices to the previously silenced poverty-stricken community and creating an anti establishment movement and way of life. The roots of hip-hop can be traced back to poor West African and Jamaican immigrants who filled the Bronx. From these roots a new genre of music emerged from the melting pot that was 1970’s New York, reflecting the harsh realities of the lower class African-American. A large part of 1970’s New York and one that greatly shaped Hip-Hop was gang culture.   The four pillars that comprised the Hip-Hop lifestyle were DJing, Breakdancing, Graffiti art, and Emceeing. On the basis of these tradional notions Hip-Hop peaked towards the end of the 90’s with the deaths of The Notorious B.I.G and Tupac.
Roots
In the beginning there was Africa, and it is from Africa that all today’s black American music, be it Jazz, R'n'B, Soul or Electro, is either directly or indirectly descended. The ancient African tribal rhythms and musical traditions survived the shock of the transportation of milllions of Africans as slaves to the Americas, and after 300 years of slavery in the so called Land of the Free the sounds of Old Africa became the new sounds of black America. Rapping, the rhythmic use of spoken or semi-sung lyrics grew from its roots in the tribal chants and the plantation work songs to become, an integral part of black resistance to an oppresive white society. From these immigrants one could never hope to believe that it would become one of the most successful and profitable genres of today outselling both Pop and Rock.
Kool Herc/Block party’s/Anti disco
Hip Hop is an urban culture and an expressive art form of the ghetto, giving a creative outlet and something to relate too for the gangs and hoods of New York, who felt so far removed from the high class disco fever of the 1970s.   It was during this time that the hip-hop we know and love started to develop with block parties...