Most hip hop fans understand the four elements of hip hop music as the cornerstones of its culture. From breakdancing moves to graffiti art and everything in between, these four musical components of hip hop culture are evident everywhere you look in hip hop music genre.
Rhythm
Hip hop music’s rhythmic foundation lies within its production: producers create beats or rhythmic backing tracks that MCs rap to. Producers may take inspiration from old funk, soul and disco records they isolate and turn into loops; or create their own beats with a drum machine. At first MCs would rap over other popular songs’ beats before evolving the genre further and building their own beats themselves.
Tempo of the beat determines the speed at which MCs speak and is also the basis of songs; its rhythm can influence listener emotions. Producers use various techniques such as filtering, EQing and compression to craft rhythmic beats that give music its rhythmic heartbeat.
“Sound design” refers to when producers manipulate the beat in order to induce specific emotions within listeners – such as tension, anticipation, energy or calmness – through manipulation of beat. Sound design has become an essential component of hip hop production and serves to heighten overall feel of tracks by adding tension, anticipation, energy or calmness into them.
Hip hop began its rise during the 1970s in New York’s Bronx borough as a response to several socioeconomic issues. Hip hop eventually transformed into an influential cultural movement with global impact across music styles, fashion trends, technology, art, education, language learning and dance styles. Hip hop continues to evolve today as new artists create unique styles while using its culture as an arena for political commentary.
Hip hop relies heavily on knowledge as its fifth element. This knowledge may include both practical tools for performing such as rapping, DJing and breaking dance as well as more abstract concepts that define its culture. Some scholars even contend that hip hop serves as a form of social activism with knowledge as one of its key tools for effecting positive social change.
Hip hop music has found itself from street to mainstream popularity over time. Artists such as Run-DMC and Public Enemy have brought its sounds from city streets into global audiences’ consciousness by telling urban life tales through song. Their style has inspired young people worldwide to embrace creativity in culture and art.
Lyrics
Hip hop lyrics are just as integral to their songs’ sounds and rhythms, if not more so. Rappers employ rhyme and slang to craft clever, entertaining, and often shocking lines about urban life; using crime and poverty imagery along with criticism directed towards both established and personal issues – this has made hip hop an influential subculture and art movement that has had profound influences across music styles, clothing fashion technology dance language education political debate – it even influences global politics and culture!
Hip hop music lyrically covers topics ranging from party rhymes and love/sex to the economic and social struggles faced by inner city black youth. Hip hop has often been controversial due to its explicit and often violent lyrics; many songs have been banned on radio/TV due to this content while rappers have even been threatened with violence or prison time for what could become contentious lyrics.
Rappers create rhythm in their songs using both physical and vocal percussion techniques. A famous example is Doug E. Fresh, who pioneered “human beatboxing.” In this style, singers make rhythm and musical sounds using mouth, lips, tongue, voice and other body parts; additionally they can mimic turntablism scratching sounds as well as instruments.
Hip hop emerged during the early 1970s from a DJ tradition established by Jamaican immigrant Kool Herc. Using turntables, Kool Herc extended breaks between singing and drumming tracks that used conventional soul, funk or disco records as a base to extend vocal breaks or disco tracks into drum-beat territory.
Herc and his friend Coke La Rock worked together to compose the inaugural MC rhymes in hip hop’s new form of music – party raps that could excite audiences at parties – that would remain part of its repertoire to this day.
Over time, as hip hop’s popularity increased, MCs and rappers created unique personas of themselves. From tough characters such as Gangsta Grease or Super Smooth to their “swagger” or “cool factor.” Artists such as KRS-One, LL Cool J, and Public Enemy brought hip hop’s politics into focus with their public personas.
Percussion
Rappers may spit rapid-fire lyrics into a handheld microphone or dance with gravity-defying steps, but it is the drums that give hip hop its pulse. Drums play an integral part in song creation and sound design – you may have even witnessed producers laying down beats before adding vocals or instruments! Drums are integral components of hip hop music that can be used creatively to produce unique sounds and styles.
In the early ’80s, hip hop music underwent a significant revolution. DJs noticed how dance floors responded positively during certain instrumental sections – known as breaks – known as Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight”, which pioneered this element and brought rap music mainstream.
At the same time, MCs and rappers were emerging as cultural icons. Instead of simply singing over records, they evolved into storytellers with distinct personas and images such as Big Daddy Kane, Run DMC and Public Enemy who took their craft further by creating characters who could range from ultra-smooth to hardened street rappers; using their personalities and swagger to inspire youth while their music touched upon issues they were facing daily.
Rappers also began incorporating elements from other musical genres and cultures into their work, borrowing rhythms from hip hop into rhythm and blues songs by artists like Kurtis Blow and Blondie, while groups such as RUN DMC fused rapping with hard rock to reach more listeners. This trend still persists today with new genres incorporating rapping as part of their repertoire alongside elements such as disco, jazz and contemporary R&B music.
Hip hop culture transcends music and dance–it is a lifestyle, movement and worldview. It embraces various artistic elements such as graffiti writing, beatboxing and breaking; yet takes these to new levels. You can witness its influence everywhere from streets to movies: where rappers and DJs tell stories to live beats while dancers leap across screens with unbridled color-outside-the-lines improvisation.
Visuals
Hip hop culture transcends music and impacts many facets of society; art and visual culture being no exception. Scholars have explored its relationship to art through cultural appropriation and postmodernism theories.
Hip hop fashion is an integral component of its identity, reflecting the style and fashion sense of urban youth. Early hip hop artists embraced baggy jeans and loose clothing, basketball jerseys, bandanas and sports shoes as fashion statements to show their passion for urban culture, history and current events.
Hip hop fashion today has evolved, with artists preferring tailored suits and ties over baggy clothing. Fashion still plays an integral role in hip hop culture; rappers frequently incorporate their personal styles into their music.
Hip hop music relies heavily on its distinctive rapping style, including rhyme schemes, vocal inflections and delivery, wordplay and word play. All these components contribute to creating its unique sound which distinguishes it from other genres.
Hip hop emerged out of urban street culture, which also gave birth to graffiti, break dancing and other forms of visual expression such as graffiti art and breakdancing. Since its debut, it has also become an effective medium for social commentary and expression of personal beliefs; often used to address issues like poverty, racism, drug abuse and sexual violence.
Sampling is an integral component of hip hop music, enabling artists to draw elements from various musical genres and styles into new compositions while paying homage to other artists by using their works in new compositions. This technique has had a lasting impact on international music scene as it fosters new talent generation after generation of musicians.
Gangsta rap is a subgenre of hip hop that depicts the violent culture prevalent among inner-city American black youth. Popularized during the late 1980s by Schoolly D and Ice-T, and later popularized by groups such as N.W.A, it often contains profanity as well as depicting scenes of sexual assault or violence; consequently making broadcasting of its songs difficult; many songs even being banned due to being too explicit for radio or TV broadcast.