When
people think of hip-hop they tend to think of rap music and its related
activities. For most people hip-hop is a popular music genre, and this
is how most people approach hip-hop. Regardless as to how the original
founders of Hip Hop depict and interpret THEIR culture, most professors
and activists alike approach hip-hop in the way that mainstream
corporations approach it—as a product to be bought and sold. Because of
this, those who practice the artistic elements of Hip Hop as well as
those who may teach some aspect of hip-hop limit themselves to a
corporate point of view where hip-hop is approached as an object to be
sold, and not as a subject to be learned
Such
a limited view of Hip Hop is then perpetuated in the academic arena
where objectivity sets the foundation for how anyone approaches
anything. As a result, when it comes to the actual teaching of real Hip
Hop, many professors fall short because they don’t actually LIVE Hiphop;
they are still objective with it, they are still observing it as
opposed to being it; they are still reading about it as opposed to
actually doing it. They may teach a history of hip-hop, or they may have
even been a Hip Hop pioneer themselves, but when it comes to actually
being Hiphop and then imparting useful Hip Hop knowledge and techniques
designed to enhance and empower the actual lives of real people, many
hip-hop courses remain wholly inadequate .
This
short introduction to Hip Hop is designed to get you prepared for the
deeper lessons on Hiphop that must be experienced in order to be known.
These lessons are for those who are serious about the teaching of Hip
Hop and its needed preservation. Before we begin, let us first go over
the basics.
AN INTRODUCTION TO HIP HOP—LESSON ONE
Hiphop
= our unique Spirit, our unique collective consciousness; the creative,
causative force behind Hip Hop’s elements. Hiphop is the name of our
lifestyle and collective consciousness. It is a perceptual ability that
causes one to self-create and raises one’s self-worth. (represented by
Kool DJ Herc)
Hip
Hop = the creation and development of Breakin, Emceein, Graffiti Art,
Deejayin, Beat Boxin, Street Fashion, Street Language, Street Knowledge,
and Street Entrepreneurialism. It is what we call ourselves and our
activity in the World. Hip Hop is the name of our culture. (represented
by Afrika Bambaataa)
-
Hip-hop= Rap music product and those things and events associated with Rap music entertainment—hip-hop is a music genre. ( by Grand Master Flash)
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Hiphoppa = the manifestation of Hiphop. Those that live the principles of our culture are called Hiphoppas and not Hip Hoppers because to live Hip Hop is to think Hiphop. A Hiphoppa is Hiphop and performs or presents Hip Hop which is then sold as hip-hop
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Hiphop Kulture = or, Hip Hop’s culture, is the name of our unique community; it is the name of our tribe. Hiphop Kulture is the manifested character, patterns, beliefs, sciences and arts of OUR collective consciousness; it is our reality and mental landscape. Hiphop Kulture is an international community of specialized urban people .
Traditionally,
Hip Hop is first approached as an art form that consists of four core
elements; B-Boyin (break dancing), MC-ing (rap), Aerosol Art (graffiti
writing) and DJ-ing (the cutting, mixing and scratching of recorded
materials). These are called the “core four” elements of Hip Hop.
However, Hip Hop’s “core four” elements also encompass specific and
unique urban clothing styles, language styles, business and trade
techniques as well as a collective body of knowledge derived from its
internal experiences with itself and the world. Therefore, from our
initial “core four” elements we get our nine cultural elements; Breakin,
Emceein, Graffiti Art, Deejayin, Beat Boxin, Street Fashion, Street
Language, Street Knowledge and Street Entrepreneurialism.
These
cultural activities have created uniquely rich Hip Hop stories, Hip Hop
tragedies and triumphs, Hip Hop legends and myths, original Hip Hop
arts, popular Hip Hop music and thought provoking Hip Hop poetry that
critiques and interprets the world in which the Hip Hop community
exists. The music and dances of Hip Hop come from our collective urban
view of the world which inspires such music and dance to occur. It is
Hip Hop’s cultural worldview that inspires (or rather causes) its music,
arts and dances to occur .
We are
uniquely Hip Hop because the repetition of such a unique being and
seeing has created our specific Hip Hop way of life. And the Hip Hop way
of life is what we call Hip Hop’s culture or Hiphop Kulture. As
culture, Hip Hop is the specific behaviors, traits, expressions,
patterns and institutions of OUR unique collective consciousness. It
(Hip Hop) is OUR intellectual and artistic activity as well as the works
produced by it .
According
to the Hip Hoptionary: The Dictionary Of Hip Hop Terminology by Alonso
Westbrook, Hip Hop is defined as the artistic response to oppression. A
way of expression in dance, music, word/song. A culture that thrives on
creativity and nostalgia. As a musical art form it is the stories of
inner-city life, often with a message, spoken over beats of music. The
culture includes Rap and any other venture spawned from the Hip Hop
style and culture.
The
Encyclopedia of Rap and Hip Hop Cultureby Yvonne Bynoe confirms that
Afrika Bambaataa credits DJ Love Bug Starski with first using the term
Hip Hop to describe the new music and subculture. The American Heritage
Dictionary, 4th edition records hip hop as a popular urban youth
culture, closely associated with rap music and with the style and
fashions of African-American inner-city residents. The Modern Oxford
English Dictionary displays a bit more cultural literacy in its record
of hip hop: a style of popular music of U.S. black and Hispanic origin,
featuring rap with an electronic backing. The sub-culture associated
with this, including graffiti art, break-dancing, etc.
The
Oxford American Dictionary & Thesaurus actually confirms hip-hop-per
as a derivative of hip-hop and states that the origin of the word Hip
Hop probably comes from hip meaning ‘very fashionable’. However, the
first phrase recorded in the English language regarding hip hop was in
1672 by the second Duke of Buckingham (George Villiers 1628-1687). As he
was being dismissed from the ministry of Charles II for misconduct, he
is said to have stated; To go off hip hop, hip hop, upon this occasion
is a thousand times better than any conclusion in the world, I gad. The
last part I gad means here to go from one place to another, to wander
about without any serious object, stopping here and there.
Hip Hop
itself is not a person, a place or a physical thing; it is an awareness.
You cannot actually go to Hip Hop, or wear Hip Hop, or eat Hip Hop. Hip
Hop exists as a shared idea; it never enters physical reality, it is a
way to be. You cannot drink a can of Hip Hop and suddenly know how to
rap. You cannot put Hip Hop on as clothing, or read a book in order to
understand Hip Hop. Hip Hop begins as an awareness; as an alternative
behavior that causes one to rap, or break (dance), or write graffiti, or
deejay. Hip Hop, in its true essence, is a shared urban idea—a unified
feel. Rapping, breakin, graffiti writing, beat-boxin and deejayin are
all expressions OF this collective urban idea commonly called Hip Hop.
We
(Hiphop) are a very real People with a very real and specific cultural
identity. When you say “Hip Hop” in the world today every urbanized
person knows what you are talking about and can describe our cultural
characteristics instantly. In light of this, Hip Hop becomes a proper
noun and should be treated as such grammatically. It is a common
linguistic rule of the English language that the titles or names of all
cultures, nations, civilizations, ethnicities, etc., be spelled
beginning with a capital (upper case) letter. Hip Hop is our culture,
therefore it must always be spelled with the same grammatical respect
one would give any other culture in the English language. Unless the
term Hip Hop is being displayed in an art presentation or if translated
into another language or culture where the grammatical rules of the
English language do not apply, it (Hip Hop) should be spelled beginning
with a capital H as Hip Hop or Hiphop .
Those who
show little respect for Hip Hop still spell Hip Hop as hip-hop, even
though Hip Hop is a proper noun. True Hiphoppas are advised to spell
Hiphop with a capital H as it is the name of our collective
consciousness; it is the force that animates our way of life, our
culture, our tribe, our nation. When Hip Hop is spelled as hip-hop it
refers to rap music product and its related activities. Even our dance
moves come from our collective cultural worldview; our dances explain
something very deep about our divinity as well as our natural
experiences in our present time and space.
Those who
approach Hip Hop like it is exclusively a trendy dance (or
entertainment) are usually those who repeatedly speak and spell the term
incorrectly and care little for Hiphop as a community of real people.
To spell Hip Hop or Hiphop incorrectly as hip-hop is to deny our right
to exist as a People. The use of the term hip-hop to describe real
people reduces those people to products .
Those
using the English language to describe Hip Hop while misspelling Hiphop
and/or Hip Hop as hip-hop are not only grammatically incorrect; they
also undermine the importance of what Hiphop really is to Hiphoppas.
They participate in Hip Hop’s enslavement by reducing our culture and
way of life to a music genre and product to be bought and sold. Again,
Hiphop is not a product to be bought and sold; it is the inalienable
right of all Hiphoppas. Hip Hop is OUR name.!!
Pronounced
with alternated vowels—drip drop, tick tock, tip top, flip flop, etc.,
Hip Hop as Hiphop is a form of intelligence; a knowing. The word hip has
several definitions to it, but the definition that most Hip Hop
scholars are concerned with regarding Hip Hop is hip meaning to have
knowledge of, and to be informed or to be up to date, even in style and
fashionable. Hip, in a social sense, can mean keenly aware of what is
new and in style. Here, the word hip is applied to Hip Hop as a form of
knowing; a kind of intelligence, being keenly aware. Such knowing is not
necessarily an educated style of knowing, but more of an intuit
knowing. It is the ability to know without being taught, it is your
genetic memory; it is the consciousness of your innate cultural
identity.
The word
hop also has a variety of definitions as well, but the main definition
we are concerned with here regarding hop is as a form of movement. Hop
is an act or the action of hopping; a short springing or leaping
especially upon one foot. Hop has also been associated with dancing as
well as a dance like an informal, nonceremonial party. But, generally as
it pertains to Hip Hop, Hop means to move by leaps with both feet or by
one foot as opposed to walking or running .
Together,
hip (informed/in style) as a form of intelligence, and hop
(leaping/dancing) as a form of movement when associated with Hip Hop
literally means intelligent movement, even in formed dancing aswellas an
informed dance or party/gathering. Applying the simplest definitions of
hip and hop to the term Hip Hop we find Hip Hop to literally mean
intelligence moving, conscious movement or a movement aware of itself—“I
am hip to my hop”, I know why I move. Here, we can see Hip Hop emerging
as a form of self-awareness, and this is exactly how it is practiced in
real life. Rap is something that is done, while Hip Hop is something
that is lived.
Looking
at the possible English etymology of Hiphoppa we come to the Old
Icelandic term hoppa (meaning: to spring upward). The way in which we
describe and spell Hiphoppa in the English language is influenced by the
two terms hip and hoppa. The term hip meaning; keenly aware of what is
new and in style, and hoppa meaning to spring upward or to hop reveals
the hip-hoppa (Hiphoppa) as the actual intelligence that is springing
forward. The hip-hoppa can be said to be a conscious mover,or one who
moves with cultural awareness.
Such an
awareness can never be known objectively. We are not just doing Hip Hop;
we are Hiphop! And because we ARE what we are learning and ultimately
teaching, our perspective on Hip Hop begins subjectively as opposed to
being exclusively academic and/or objective in nature. Living Hiphop
requires that you know it intimately, that you meditate daily upon its
existence and practice its elements to the peak of perfection; that you
actually care for the existence of Hiphop as yourself and seek to
further its development with your actual being.
The true
Hip Hop scholar/apprentice is studying to become Hiphop; not to just
observe Hip Hop. How can anyone claim any authentic scholarship on
something that they themselves are not and equally cannot actually
produce? Where then is your authority to teach? Our perspective on Hip
Hop and its culture is not an objective one; we seek to perfect our
knowledge of Hip Hop because WE ARE HIP HOP! This is a true Hip Hop
scholar—an attuned Hiphoppa, a cultural family member.
AN INTRODUCTION TO HIP HOP—LESSON TWO
You
cannot actually know Hip Hop objectively; to truly comprehend Hip Hop
you have to become it; you have to become Hiphop. This, of course, is
true of any living culture. Here, the true practice of Hiphop begins
with an anthropological approach to Hip Hop’s culture;
apprentices/students are urged to live the culture for a while in order
to truly understand it. Approaching Hip Hop first as a cultural
anthropologist gives the apprentice a firsthand experience as to the
very real and empowering nature of Hip Hop.
When Hip
Hop is real to you, when it is fixed and immovable from your being; YOU
ARE PRACTICING REAL HIP HOP. When something is real it is considered to
be genuine and/or authentic; it is what it proposes to be, it is not
imaginary it is actually existing and occurring to your physical senses.
The term real Hip Hop relates to the fixed conditions and genuine
nature of Hip Hop as it appears to our physical senses today. Breakin,
Emceein, Graffiti Art, Deejayin, Beat Boxin, Street Fashion, Street
Language, Street Knowledge and Street Entrepreneurialism are all fixed
conditions of Hip Hop. These elements are permanent and immoveable from
the existence of real Hip Hop. These elements are real Hip Hop, and
those who promote and preserve these elements promote and preserve real
Hip Hop. If one or more of these elements are not present in one’s
self-expression one is not doing or being real Hip Hop.
Hiphop is
a new global urban understanding that communicates an alternative
reality through art. Again, Hiphop is a perceptual ability that
transforms intellectual subjects and physical objects in an effort to
express the character of one’s inner-being in Nature. Most people don’t
and/or can’t approach Hip Hop like this because most people are still
using hip-hop to escape poverty as opposed to being Hiphop to gain its
cultural awareness. Of course, those who only use hip-hop to escape
poverty can never call themselves real “scholars” of the Hip Hop arts
and sciences, and this is why such knowledge is simply out of their
intellectual reach. However, for Hip Hop’s true scholars, Hip Hop is far
more than a popular mode of entertainment.
Hip Hop
appears to us today as rap music entertainment because of how American
Black and Latino youths were discriminated against in the early 1960s
and 1970s. The only way to be heard or even survive in the American
society at that time was to either join the military, play sports, or
entertain in some way or another. Even if you had any aspirations to be a
doctor, a lawyer, an architect, an engineer, etc., you were either
discouraged from pursuing such professions, or even if you managed to
secure a degree in these professions, you were still not hired or even
trusted. No matter what your academic credentials were in a racist and
discriminatory society, you were still deemed a second or third class
citizen; a nigger.!
As a
result, many young minds with great capacities for careers in the
medical, engineering and law professions put their talents to simply
surviving in the very violent and lawless streets of New York. Many did
not survive; others repurposed themselves into b-boys and b-girls,
graffiti writers, deejays and emcees; and still, many were even
discouraged from pursuing these arts. Hip Hop has never been taken
seriously because organic Black urban intelligence has never been taken
seriously in the United States. This is simply the painful truth, and
this is why the correct teaching of Hip Hop is so important.
The
teaching of Hip Hop begins with two simple questions; why is it
important to teach Hip Hop, and why is Hip Hop important to know? The
quick answer to the first question is simply because no one else is
going to correctly do this for us. The preservation of Hip Hop is
connected to the teaching of Hip Hop. If you care at all for the culture
you claim, the teaching of Hip Hop becomes simply a matter of
self-respect and self-preservation. Why would you not want to preserve,
teach and improve your own craft and culture? This is the short answer
to the first question—care. Only those who care about the existence and
preservation of Hip Hop can correctly teach it.
But now
the second question; why is Hip Hop important to know? Most people feel
that if they do not rap, or break, or do aerosol art that they have no
need to understand Hip Hop. And they are partially correct until they
are reminded that Hip Hop is one of last of the human skills. It doesn’t
matter what you may think of rap music or rappers; rapping itself is
still a human skill. In fact, rapping is one of the last things modern
humans can still do today without technological dependency. Plus, rap
(rhythmic speech) and its brother breakin (rhythmic dance) are both
physically healthy and mentally stimulating. Breakin is physical
exercise and emceein is mental exercise. It doesn’t matter what these
activities are in the music and theatre industries, breakin and emceein
as human exercises for both mind and body are simply healthy.
The dance
styles of modern Breakin are used in aerobics and other exercises that
refine the body and relieve stress. Dance appears at the genesis of
human awareness and remains at the center of good health. Breakin gets
our hearts pumping at about 120 beats per minute, and if we can break or
dance at least three times a week for only 20 minutes we would have
enhanced our physical health and prolonged our very lives by years.
Emceein
is the mastery of the spoken word. It is in the mastering of emceein
that we also express our inherit understanding of rhythm, linguistics,
physics, mathematics, memory, logical reasoning and high communication
skills. Emceein expresses a total integration of right and left brain
co-ordination. It doesn’t matter what we may think of certain b-boys,
b-girls and/or rappers, breakin and emceein are simply healthy human
skills.
In a
world that is becoming more and more technologically dependant, it is
healthy to practice the elements of Hip Hop as human skills, not just as
artistic performances. Breakin’, rappin’, drawing, writin’, and beat
boxin’ are all human skills; they can be produced with no technological
assistance at all. Respect is also a human skill, and the more we show
respect to one another the more humane we actually are. Communication
with one’s perceived higher source is a human skill; weaving and sowing
are human skills; swimming, running, fighting, speaking, imagination and
sexual intercourse are all human skills.
This is
important because in a world of text messaging and emailing, people seem
to be losing their ability to communicate face-to-face as well as
correctly apply their own human skills. The skills that it once took to
think and then convey one’s thoughts to another person in person are
fading fast. People are forgetting how to actually write with their
hands, or express their emotions, or even feel the same of others.
Privacy is becoming a thing of the past, while people actually laugh
less writing LOL as oppose to actually laughing out loud. Imagine that,
some have allowed technology to interpret their very laughter—originally
a human thing to do. The teaching of Hip Hop restores all of this.
Hip Hop
reminds us of our humanity. Everything about Hip Hop is human. Besides
the commercial or even aesthetic value of Hip Hop’s core elements, Hip
Hop is simply a useful and safe way for humans to spend their time.
Simple and plain; Hip Hop enhances human life. This is real! And this is
why it is not only important to know Hip Hop, but to also teach it
correctly. Hip Hop is a human skill that raises one’s self-worth.
But
another thought on this question, why is it important to teach Hip Hop,
brings us to the fact that in this day and age in any modern urban
American community to not know what Hip Hop is, is to be illiterate of
American society. Hip Hop is everywhere and enjoyed on several levels by
everyone. How can anyone remain ignorant of Hip Hop, yet claim to be
informed on American society and culture? 10 or 20 years ago you might
have been able to get away with such ignorance, but today in 2013 to
live in any urban environment on the Earth and not be familiar with Hip
Hop is simply UNACCEPTABLE.
Here, we
can see that Breakin, Emceein, Graffiti art and Deejayin are far more
than entertainment pastimes. These artistic elements when seen as human
abilities points us toward our ancient human origins. Breakin is dance,
emceein is speech, graffiti art is writing, and deejayin is the
manipulation and repurposing of the objects in one’s environment.
Cutting, mixing and scratching is deejayin; not turntables, microphones
and computers. Looking at deejayin more closely we can see that deejayin
is not about the technology used to produce music; it is more about
what humans do with that technology to produce their ideas which may
include music. Music is vibrational communication; it is the display of
organized sounds.
None of
this would mean anything if Hip Hop’s artistic elements were simply new
versions of modern art. Like our unique dance styles were simply updated
versions of the Waltz, or even the Hustle. Or, if our graphic art was
done in the tradition of Michelangelo or in some other classical
European style. Or, if our style of poetry was similar to others, and
our modes of music production was done exclusively with a live band. If
our artistic self-expressions were even similar to modern art none of
this would matter. But the fact that Breakin, Emceein, Graffiti Art and
Deejayin individually and combined can be traced back to the
self-expressions of early humans demands some investigation as to where
our self-expressions come from and why.
Graffiti
Art alone is more ancient and more human than any other graphic art in
human history, and an investigation into OUR Graffiti Art is sure to
reveal the truth about our being and character as Hip Hop human beings;
Hiphopians. Six times older than the Pyramids in Egypt and eight times
older than Stone Hedge in Europe, stenciled human hands were found in
1905 in Toulouse France dating back some 30,000 ys ago.
Graffiti
art is the earliest form of human writing in human history. Some of the
most ancient forms of art and art as a means of learning, communication
and identity can be found at stone-age cave sites and on ancient rock
art. Scientists still call these writings graffiti.
Emceein,
or utterance, is also has its origin at the birth of human expression
and awareness. Not so much the ability to speak through organized
language but in fact, the ability to make sounds with one’s mouth or
body; we call this particular self-expression beat boxin. All creatures
beat box as a form of emceein. All creatures make some kind of
communicative utterance that carries the intent of that being.
Vibrational tones (singing) not speaking, but vibrating to express
intent is also at the genesis of human awareness and self-expression.
Breakin,
or dance, or rather moving one’s body in rhythmic/vibrational motion is
one of the most common characteristics of being Human and one of the
very first things Humans did to communicate and express their ideas to
one another. Before language and before writing there were other
descriptive ways of communicating ideas; sign language leading to dance
was one such idea. Many ancient cultures danced or moved descriptively
according to the wind, the water, the swaying of trees; even the
movements and characteristics of certain animals and insects.
The idea
of moving rhythmically like the creatures and objects in your natural
environment appears at the origins of human self-expression. This is
important to us because our main dance style (breakin) is not like other
modern dances of our time; neither is our graffiti art and emceein.
Breakin imitates early rhythmic movements as well as the way in which
these movements came about—through subjective observation; we became
what we saw. Like early humans, we too expressed our rhythmic dances by
imitating our natural environments as well as the events such
environments produced. Like most of our artistic expressions, we learned
them by being them.
Approaching
breakin, emceein, graffiti writing, deejayin, beat boxin, street
fashion, street language, street knowledge and street entrepreneurialism
as stages in human development we can begin to see the evolution of the
Hiphoppa.
Breakin—dance/synchronization with Nature’s rhythm.
Emceein—utterance of existence/communication with Nature.
Graffiti Art—art, writing, and the symbolization of Nature.
Deejayin—manipulation of Nature/tool making.
Beat Boxin—imitation of Nature and Nature’s sounds. Street Fashion—tribal clothing, body art, hairstyling.
Street Language—tribal communication.
Street Knowledge—tribal wisdom/survival skills.
Street Entrepreneurialism—tribal trade.
A
scientific academic understanding of “hip-hop” is good for classrooms
objectively reviewing rap music and its impact upon mainstream
society—this is a good thing for first-time students of Hip Hop. But for
those seeking to actually create rap music, or create breakin, or
graffiti writing, or deejayin, etc., and then have successful careers
performing these arts in real life, knowing and being the cultural
essence of Hip Hop outside of whatever commercial gain can be achieved
through the performance of Hip Hop’s artistic elements is the key to a
successfully lived Hip Hop life. For the Hiphoppa, it is Hip Hop’s
culture that produces Hip Hop’s arts.
Approaching
Hip Hop in this way, as a living culture, expands ones perception and
thus one’s abilities in Nature. Here, it is first one’s cultural
understanding that empowers one’s artistic, and even academic,
understanding. Without cultural literacy which includes spiritual
literacy Hip Hop can only be intellectually known; it cannot be lived.
Teaching Hip Hop void of its cultural principles and the miraculous
events that actually occurred for Hip Hop to exist, denies the
apprentice the real power and protection that accompanies one’s
overstanding of Hip Hop. Remember, we are not teaching the techniques of
rapping or deejayin only, we are teaching Hiphop; the cause of rapping
and deejayin.
Here, the
teaching of Hip Hop is all about the teaching of our cultural
perception. Hip Hop is a perceptual ability that helps the apprentice
see more opportunities in his/her world than those ‘seeing’ through the
paradigm of a basic education. Hip Hop introduces a new way to function
in urban environments, and teaches the apprentice how to create
opportunities where there appears to be none. Again, the teaching of
real Hip Hop is not only about the teaching of rap music, graffiti art,
and break dancing, it’s more about teaching the perception that caused
these artistic activities to exist. Here, we remind the apprentice that
Hip Hop was first an original way to think and act before it became
commercially successful, and if you can perfect and present Hip Hop in
its original form you can actually raise your self-worth and
self-awareness as an attuned Hiphoppa.
