Hip Hop Culture and Modern Rap

The main features of Hip Hop culture are emceeing orThe TV program 'Style Wars' from mid '80s and the
rapping, DJing, grafitti or urban inspired art, breakdancing1984 'Subway Art' book were the first ways through
also known as b-boying, beatboxing, slang and anwhich the large public was familiarized with the graffiti
eccentric bling bling fashion. This article speaks aboutart. This urban inspired form of art was very well
the most important hip hop elements which arereceived by people and it shortly became popular all
considered to be the social and political activism, hipover the world. Nowadays graffiti art is well spread all
hop lifestyle, slang and double dutching, which consist inover the globe, especially in Japan, Europe, Australia or
an urban inspired form of rope skipping.South Africa, although in the beginning most local
The hip hop culture is a nonconformist andauthorities disagreed with this artistic phenomenon.
spontaneous one. MC is short for Master ofEven now, there are many places where it is
Ceremonies. An MC plays a very important role as heforbidden to create graffiti on public property and it is
is the person who entertains the crowd by makingconsidered a criminal offense.
jokes between songs or by returning acid rhymes toBreakdancing also known as B-boying or B-girling and it
its opponents. There are some big names in the historyis a complex style of dance with dynamic and difficult
of hip hop such as MC Rakim, KRS or Big Daddyelements. Well known breakdancers at DJ Kool Herc's
Kane.parties gave birth to the B-boy term. During these
Fans agreed that these people have a great gift inparties, dancers were keeping their best moves for
using words and rhymes and an endless vocabularythe break part of the song. There are some well
spiced with spontaneity.documented films about Breakdancing and reviewers
Doug E. Fresh is considered to be the wonder kid ofand B-boy fans agree that 'The Freshest Kids'
hip hop as he managed to popularize Beatboxing.released in 2002 is by far the greatest one. Among
Beatboxing is an important hip hop element, whichthese type of movies, 'Beat Street' and 'Style Wars'
consists in vocal percussion, the art of creatinghave also had some great reviews.
rhythms and beats using only the vocal cords. TheB-boying was born is South Bronx almost
name of this hip hop technique derives from thesimultaneously with the other hip hop basic elements.
beatboxes, the first generation of drum machines.During the '80s, it was very common and popular to
In the 1980's beatboxing had an enormous successsee groups of young people with a cassette player,
and hip hoppers such as Biz Markie or Darrenperforming a B-boying show on the streets. Usually,
Robinson were very popular. By the end of the '80s,there were two or more teams in the informal
beatboxing was left behind and ten years later, in thecompetition, doing their best, trying to impress their
late '90s was informally launched all over again byaudience and win the dance combat.
Rahle of The Roots with his 'Make the Music 2000'.