By, Mizzstyles (the positive voice)

The Birth of Hip Hop

Today's era of hip hop music consist of emcee's like Lil' Wayne, Jay-Z, Young Jeezy, Common, and Kayne West to name a few. These hip hop artists were welcomed to the music scene because of their unique style of hip hop music that consist of lyrics, rhymes, and telling a story at the same time. However, these popular hip hop artists today are not the ones who created hip hop music, not even close. They created their own style of hip hop music, but not the birth of hip hop.

The birth of hip hop goes back to the 70's. Hip hop music is a style of popular music, typically consisting of a rhythmic, rhyming vocal style called rapping (also known as emceeing) over backing beats and scratching performed on a turntable by a DJ. A cultural movement that began in the 1970s, predominantly among African Americans and Latinos. (hip hop music,Wikipedia 2007)

Hip hop was born in the Bronx. It was created, recognized, developed and evolved through the Bronx. From the graffiti on the subways, the break dancing, the boom box, the block parties, the straight legged jeans, the Adidas suits and sneakers, all this and more was what kept hip hop alive and reborn year after year. DJ's were the reason hip hop music evolved. Without DJ's playing the beats they played at block parties, hip hop music would have never existed today. People getting up to groove to the music DJ's (at block parties) were playing back then is the reason hip hop music was tagged as street music. The birth of hip hop comes from the streets. People rapped on the streets and danced on the streets, that's what real hip hop was all about. It wasn't about the expensive clothes and the expensive jewelry. It was about the rhymes, the stories behind the music, the love for the music, the fact that you had a good time when you heard emcee's battle it out on wax.  
 
The idea of rapping came from Jamaican immigrants who talked in rhyme over beats. As this became popular DJ's then took the opportunity to promote the beats and the rhymes they heard so people can become familiar with the new sound.   With this being created, newer creators and innovators came into part in the music world and created different types of hip hop music. However, going back to defining the birth of hip hop; the birth of hip hop was the street sound that made people rock anywhere and everywhere. The flow of beats and rhymes that made people dance at home, at night clubs, in the streets, even in front of grocery stores. It was a positive influence of poetry over beats.
 
When everyone thinks about hip hop and the creators of hip hop, automatically the names RUN-DMC, Kurtis Blow, and Bambaata, come up. Yet what some people forget is that back in the 70's the birth of hip hop started with "Kool Herc", the one that created hip hop music with two turntables out of break-beats. (the beat of the song that dancers find the most intriguing).   Another young individual (Grand Wizard") who resided in the Bronx was part of the birth of hip hop. Grand Wizard accidentally discovered the "Scratching" sound of a turntable.  From break-beats, to scratching tunes, to rhymes, to break dancing, to graffiti, to block parties, that was what started the hip hop era. That was the Birth of Hip Hop.

In the late 70’s hip hop became more recognizable to the American community which resulted in being part of the American main stream. More and more people (young-ins specifically) believed they had the talent to rap as well and different types of hip hop music was created. In the 90’s gangsta rap evolved and this time is wasn’t the beat that was popular, it was the racy lyrics that made the headlines. N.W.A made a big impact with their lyrics, and Ice-T was no stranger to the music scene and to the political community as his freedom of speech theory was very free.

From there on new and fresh talent became part of the hip hop world. Every year the music industry began recruiting young talent that they believed brought something different to hip hop music. In the 90’s and 2000 we got introduced to NAS, BIGGIE, JAY-Z, and 2PAC to name a few. These men spoke about their hustle, women and haters. This type of hip hop music resulted in a tragedy as Biggie and 2PAC were gunned down within 6 months apart. Since then hip hop music has had its share of a bad name and a bad influenced to the younger generation. It’s sad to see this because the Birth of Hip Hop brought many people together. The youth enjoyed this music when it was born. It was about creating beats, lyrics, story telling, dances, and partying. Today the new era of hip hop music is about who has the best type of hip hop dance. Lyrics don’t’ mean much anymore. Story telling is out of the question, and Jewelry and designer clothes is a must have.