Hip Hop: For The People, By The People

Like most things being taken over by mainstream media, the original message of hip hop culture is in jeopardy of being lost. However, younger generations of the scene persevere to save its message.

Hip hop culture was founded in the Bronx, New York in the 1970s.

Steezy.co described the Bronx at this time as a “rough, dangerous place to grow up.” Minority groups were largely neglected and were desperate for an escape from the drugs, crime and poverty that surrounded them. Hip hop became that escape. Energy that previously would’ve been negatively focused was “redirected to values like originality, creativity, identity, respect and community,” Steezy.co wrote.

Professional dance training was not required to participate in hip hop movement, this form of art was “for the people and not for the academy,” Benna Crawford wrote in her article the History of Hip Hop. “Moves were inspired by complex rhythms and the down-to-earth movement style of African dancing.”

Hip hop brought about a means of expression to groups whose voices may have otherwise been lost.

Hannah Bernard, former member of Arizona State University’s Hip Hop Coalition stated that hip hop allows her to communicate “what I might not have the words to say.” She was first introduced to hip hop at the age of seven while taking an introductory dance class.

Maggie Waller, 21, received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in dance and agreed that hip hop gave her “a vocabulary to express each and every feeling, experience, and thought in a way that can be deeply personal and also deeply connected to others.”

Gang violence reached its peak levels in the Bronx during the 1970s. According to Bloomberg.com, “In December 1971, the gangs at the Hoe Avenue peace meeting decided that instead of fighting each other, they would compete through dance.” Crime rates began to significantly drop.

“Freedom of expression [...] plays a vital role in the healthy development process of any society,” indexoncensorship.org stated.

Southern New Hampshire University described social change as “having a profound impact on society.” Human interactions and relationships have the power to transform social and cultural organizations or groups; whether that be positively or negatively.

Black and Latino youth used hip hop to create art that reflected their lives. “They did it without praise, without acknowledgement, and oftentimes without compensation,” Waller said. She acknowledges it as a movement that helped move this country forward, that brought social change.

However, as hip hop increases in popularity and becomes more commercialized, consequences to its culture and origin have erupted.

“Society as a whole is consuming Black and Brown culture while not understanding where it comes from [...] when we lose the culture, which is the ‘why,’ we lose context. We lose purpose,” Waller said. “Then, it all becomes disconnected and there is no reason that we are doing it anymore.”

If hip hop has taught Waller one thing it is that, “the knowledge of the past, acknowledgment of the present, and a vision of the future are all equally important.”

Not focusing on the history nor the background of hip hop will “lead to ignorance among multiple generations of dancers,” Bernard said.

The feeling of hip hop, the connections it brings and the authenticity of its founding’s will forever be the ‘soul’ of this medium.