Hip Hop history...

Sipho Ramaru

Boom Box, Kangol hats and big chains were the ish back in the day

Lil’ History of Hip-Hop Culture

Hip Hop is a subculture that originated from the combination of African American & Latino American communities during the 1970s in New York City. Hip Hop grew from the block parties of DJ Kool Herc where he would mix samples of existing songs with his own shouts to the crowd and dancers. Kool Herc is credited as the ‘Father’ of the art form.

DJ Afrika Bambaataa of the hip-hop collective Zulu Nation outlined the four elements of hip hop culture: Mcing, Dee-jaying, B-boying and Griffiti. Hip Hop grew and spread from urban to suburban neighborhoods throughout the globe.  The importance of sampling old records and modernizing them with the inspiration of Soul music, Funk and Rhythm and blues is what gave birth to Hip Hop.

DJ Kool Herc on the decks in the streets of New York City doing his thing

DJs such as Grand Wizard Theodore, Grandmaster Flash Jazzy Jay refined and developed the use of break beats, including cutting and scratching and emcees would rap on the beats. The first people to join and spread the culture would be people like DJ Afrika Bambaataa, DJ Kool Herc, Kurtis Blow and Sugerhill Gangs. According to the U.S. Department of State, hip hop is "now the center of a mega music and fashion industry around the world," that crosses social barriers and cuts across racial lines.

Hip Hop has grown amazingly as a form of a culture that educated people and spoke for the voiceless. It represented the struggles that people went through in their everyday life from poverty, victims of senseless violence to victims of drugs. Even when hip hop is transplanted to other countries, it often retains its "vital progressive agenda that challenges the status quo.

But now times has changed and the Hip Hop culture is slowly taking a different route from being a voice to the voiceless to being more about making millions and flashing and flossing.