Short History of Hip-Hop

Kool Herc
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Since the early days of human existence, Hip Hop became one of the first human cultures to appear on earth. Hip Hop consists of: Emceein, Breakin, Graffiti Art, Deejayin. These are the four crucial elements that make up the new civilization called Hip Hop. The early breakdown of Breakin’ is dancing, movement of the body with rhythm, how you move according to nature and the essence of what is surrounding you. It was one of the first forms of communication for the early human such as Neanderthals or Australopithecus africanus.

Grandmaster Flash
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Emceein is another early form of communication, which is the utterance and sound of the early human. Beatboxin falls under Emceein that is music with your body and soul, the rhythm and movement. Hand movements and body language all have meaning; sign language was the first language for the early human which then falls under Beatboxin and Emceein. Then there is Graffiti Art, which is another early form of communication and the oldest form of art. The Lascaux Cave paintings are Graffiti Art, it captures what is absent, and it is a type of representation. These early art paintings have paved the way for deliberate mark making. The art was considered pictographic and ideographic. Pictographic was literal and denotative, what you see is what you get and ideographic was connotative and capturing ideas, abstraction and letting the mind enter a world of thought.

Then Deejayin that consists of cuttin, mixin, and sctrachin, and is what the human does to the technology. The early stonemasons began the cutting motion that is what the modern man is doing today. Mixin is the blending of objects that are not supposed to merge together. The cuttin motion is applied to the motion of Deejayin, and when the early human scratched and cut the two objects that together ultimately created a fire. The modern man scratches the record to create a noise.

Emceein, Deejayin, Breakin, the reason why these words

Afrika Bambaataa

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are spelled this way is because they are the expressions of Hip Hop’s elements and they are spelled the same as chemical elements. The “g” on the end of three out of the four elements is purposely dropped. Hip Hop is a prehistoric way to behave and be. The term Hip Hop breaks down into two words and meanings. Hip, is to know and to be aware and Hop is movement and action. To be Hip Hop is to know what you are doing, you are aware of your movement, why you are doing the things you do.

Hip Hop began to form as we all know it in the South Bronx during 1973. DJ Kool Herc (Clive Campbell) was the originator, as he became the first individual to become an Emcee, Graffiti artist, Breaker and Deejay all at the same time. He began to single out the instrumental section of the record and from there stood the drum beat where B-Boyin formed as they danced to the breaks.

KRS-One
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A man named Afrika Bambaataa (Kevin Donovan), born in the Bronx rose to the surface and formed an organization called Zulu Nation after his trip to Africa. From there he initiated an establishment for socially and politically conscious Emcees, Graffiti artists, Breakers and Deejays. He is credited for giving Hip Hop a foundation and supporting ground, claiming it to be a worldwide culture and the way of life. Lastly, Grandmaster Flash (Joseph Saddler) who is the innovator of cuttin, mixin and scratchin. He took a switch from the Deejayin table and rewired the off and on to go right and left. He brought back the motion of scratchin and mixin of objects.

-Noah-

Works Cited

KRS-One Gives Detailed Breakdown of Hip Hop's Prehistoric Roots. Dir. Johnathan Gasana. Perf. KRS-One. YouTube. DJvlad, 22 Jan. 2015. Web. 28 Apr. 2015.


40 Years of Hip Hop by KRS-One. Dir. Karim Khamis. Perf. KRS-One. YouTube. N.p., 6 Sept. 2013. Web. 28 Apr. 2015.