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Kiera M.
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October 18, 2022
How has Hip Hop Influenced Minority Groups?
Hip hop was established as a culture and art movement in The Bronx, New York in 1970. During the 1950s and 1960s, several white, middle-class populations began to relocate from urban areas to the suburbs, creating a prominent demographic shift. Urban areas started to consist predominantly of black and Latin American populations, and these groups faced several economic challenges as budgets were slashed and resources were diverted to the wealthier, whiter communities. Many marginalized teenagers viewed hip hop as a powerful medium to protest and spread awareness on the unfair treatment of minorities at the time. Hip Hop culture was comprised of four key elements: deejaying, rapping, graffiti painting, and “B-boying”.
Clive Campbell, better known by his stage name, DJ Kool Herc, is a Jamaican-American DJ that is widely considered to be the founding father of hip hop. Kool Herc was known for mixing percussive beats with popular dance songs and developing the sounds that became synonymous with hip hop, such as drum beats and record scratches. Kool Herc influenced other hip hop deejays to develop new turntable techniques, like needle dropping and scratching. Kool Herc also popularized rapping, which drew upon the traditions of West African griots, talking blues songs, and black power poetry. Kool Herc transcended the era of old school hip hop, which typically dates from the origination of the movement in the early 1970s up until the mid-1980s (Milliman, 2021).
In 1979, hip hop began to gain national recognition. The Sugarhill Gang’s song, “Rapper’s Delight”, was released in 1979 and climbed up the national music charts. The song's release reeled in a new wave of musicians, artists, and performers, while also introducing large populations to this new type of music.
Rock group Blondie also played a strong role in the popularization of hip hop: their 1980 single "Rapture," which combined new wave, disco, hip-hop and rap, was the first ever rap video to broadcast on MTV, gaining the attention of a mass audience.
By the mid-1980s, hip hop entered its new school era. The popular artists of hip hop’s new school era include: Run-D.M.C, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, and Public Enemy. Run-D.M.C introduced hip hop to a larger audience through MTV performances, and The Beastie Boys pushed deejaying further with their digital sampling. LL Cool J and Public Enemy pushed rap in new directions: LL Cool J by bringing romantic themes into hip hop and Public Enemy by using rap to push forward political ideology (Milliman, 2021).
Beastie Boys
Run-DMC
Public Enemy
As hip hop grew in popularity, it expanded across the United States; in the late 80s, N.W.A, one of hip hop’s most infamous groups, emerged from Compton, California. NWA’s album “Straight Outta Compton” became the most prominent hip hop album to emerge from somewhere besides New York City. California would later on become a Hip Hop staple. In the 90s, hip hop music became increasingly politically charged, often exploring topics like racial injustice and police brutality.
Although hip hop had seen a great transcension at this point in time, hip hop's national expansion to the West Coast of the United States triggered a feud between artists and fans of the East Coast and West Coast hip hop scenes. The focal point of this feud was East Coast–based rapper The Notorious B.I.G. with Puff Daddy and their New York City–based label, Bad Boy Records, and West Coast–based rapper Tupac Shakur with Suge Knight and their Los Angeles-based label, Death Row Records. This divide evolved into a full-fledged rivalry between the two groups, which ended with the unsolved murders of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. in the late 1990s.
After the rivalry, the late 1990s saw artists like the Wu-Tang Clan, the Fugees, and Diddy reach new levels of popularity. Hip hop had also became a worldwide phenomenon at this point, and by the turn of the century, hip hop was the best-selling music genre in the United States.
Tupac Shakur
The Notorious B.I.G.
Cardi B
Drake
Throughout the 2000s, hip hop became much more pop-oriented and less political.
In the modern day, hip hop has arguably become one of the most popular music genres among the youth. Women have become far more popular in the male dominated music genre, and several types of subgenres and variations of rap now exist.
Lil Uzi Vert
Kendrick Lamar
Playboi Carti
Eminem
Although hip hop has evolved and changed throughout this timeline, one thing has always remained the same; it continuously resonates with minority groups, specifically black and latin american youth.
For decades, hip hop continuously challenged the status-quo and motivated the fight for racial equality. Hip hop explores and spreads awareness on political and social topics that minority groups can relate to.
In recent years, hip hop has become less politically charged. However, hip hop will always remain as an outlet for marginalized indiviualds to be heard and seen.
The History of Hip-hop in the 1970s. ATL Vibes. (2019, August 19). Retrieved October 19, 2022, from https://atlvibes.com/2019/08/19/the-history-of-hip-hop-in-the-1970s/
History of Hip Hop Music. English Club. (n.d.). Retrieved October 19, 2022, from https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/music-hip-hop.htm#:~:text=Hip%20Hop's%20Golden%20Age,hop's%20first%20top%2Dten%20album.
Milliman, H. (2021, February 13). The Complete History of Hip Hop. Retrieved October 19, 2022, from https://blog.prepscholar.com/hip-hop-history-timeline