The Four Elements of Hip-Hop
Hip-hop is a phenomenally successful youth-oriented culture that has now reached every corner of the globe, just as rock'n'roll did a generation earlier. Also like rock'n'roll, hip-hop emerged in the exuberant decade following a prolonged military conflict, in this case the Vietnam war.
Hip-hop encompasses music, dancing, art, poetry, language and fashion. Its originators were from the inner-city immigrant strata of society: frustrated young people who felt disenfranchised by the system, excluded from mainstream culture, and desperate to express themselves.
So the hip-hoppers utilized what was around them. They spray painted the walls, they danced on street corners, they hooked-up to lamp-posts to power their sound systems.
They took what already existed and turned it into something new, exciting and different. Popular songs were transformed by 'deejaying' techniques. Martial arts were incorporated into dance styles. 'Emcees' manipulated the language into a new nomenclature.
Much of what these cultural entrepreneurs did was illegal, condemned, or otherwise disapproved of. But hip-hop is now a global multi-billion dollar industry, and those same entrepreneurs who contributed to its success are now engaged in a desperate attempt to maintain the roots of hip-hop and, in the now-familiar phrase, 'Keep it real'.
As with any maturing culture, hip-hop has spawned its own theory. This theory is based around the four elements of hip-hop:
Deejaying | Emceeing | Breaking | Graffiti Art
Featured above: Ken Swift (b-boy & breakdancer)
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