Hip Hop : The origins

Hip Hop is associated with dances that can be traced through Africa, the Carribean, and into the United States.

The movement, "Hip Hop," began with the youth of the black working class. It is the one genre of vocal communication in whcih

performers can praise their roots as often as they deny them. For perfomers and listeners alike, hip hop meant liberation. It was an

escape from the emotionally charged music of the 1970s, and the poetic rhetoric for civil rights during the 1960s.

All the elements of black folk culture that had been denied by the elegance and pretense of the ballroom or the club

came back with a vengeance on the street. Rap music, a genre that came out of hip hop, allows for performers

to talk that talk; insert curses, blessings, and jokes into their raps. Hip hop put black musical performances back

on a collective basis, community ethos could finally be affirmed; and new or even previously ideas were giventhe opportunity to be tested.

Competition is the soul of every aspect of hip hop culture, be it graffiti, MCing, DJing, and this is especially

true for breaking.