Hip Hop History

Hip Hop is both a cultural movement and genre of music started in New York City in the 1970s by African Americans and Latinos. Hip Hop first started in the Bronx and Harlem, and now has spread all over the world. Hip Hop involves breakdancing, graffiti, rapping, beat boxing, and hip hop fashion. When hip hop first started it was based around DJs who created rhythmic beats by scratching with record players, and rapping.In the early 1970s, Clive Campbell, a Jamaican born DJ who went by the name "Kool Herc," arrived in New York City. In Jamaica, Herc was known for his dancehall beats, a key component to the movement of music in NYC and the Bronx. This idea of dancehall had nothing to do with where the music was played, but more of a feeling of getting the people of Kingston, Jamaica to get on their feet and dance. This music, known as reggae, became a staple in the new music made in the Bronx. The Bronx building "where hip hop was born" is 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, where Kool Herc started spinning records and is now eligible to be listed on the national and state register of historic sites. The approach used by Herc was soon widely copied, and by the late 1970s DJs were releasing 12" records where they would rap to the beat. In the 1970s, rapping developed, as MCs would talk over the music to promote their DJ, promote other dance parties, or take light-hearted jabs at other lyricists. This soon developed into the rapping that appears on earlier basic hip-hop singles, with MCs talking about problems in their areas and issues facing the community as a whole. Early hip hop has often been credited with helping to reduce inner-city gang violence by replacing physical violence with hip hop battles of dance and artwork. Though, with the appearance of commercial and crime-related rap during the early 1990s, an stress on violence was included, with many rappers talking about drugs, weapons, misogyny, and violence. Though created in the United States by African Americans and Latinos, hip hop culture and music is now global.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop_culture