Roots of Hip Hop

Hip-Hop History

The aspects of Hip-Hop, the roots can be found back in the 1970's block parties in the Bronx, New York. The four elements of Hip-Hop soon came to be as, Dee-Jaying, MCing, Rapping, and Breakdancing. The roots of Hip Hop music can be traced back from music systems in Jamaica in the early 80's. as for the actual term "Hip Hop", it actually came from the song "rappers delight" by the sugar hill gang. I am sure we have all heard the phrase “i said a hip hop the hippie the hippie to the hip hip hop, a you dont stop the rock it to the bang bang boogie say up jumped the boogieto the rhythm of the boogie, the beat”. The Hip Hop movement is traced back to New York in the 80s. A man from Jamaica, a DJ who went by Kool Here brought his style from Queens New York to the Bronx and tried to intertwine that with instrumental, and percussion of the day’s popular song, since the pieces were so short he could mix them together over and over making the rhythm endless. Rap became so popular because of the fact that it was so cheap to do it. You didn’t have to buy an instrument to rhyme, you didn’t have to take lessons, and it was a verbal skill that could be practiced at anytime. It also became very popular because the fact that it was so challenging. The only real requirement was to be original and with the ease and popularity of Hip Hop you would find many artists starting to emerge. Artists would challenge each other creating what was known as battles. People who would rap and DJ’s went hand and hand because the pair went flawlessly together so you would also have a lot different Dj showing their beats with rap artists. With the era came the slang that went with it the birth of the slang came form when Dj’s would acknowledge people in the audience when at a party. Artists like Kool over an instrumental break would yell 'Yo this is Kool Herc in the joint-ski saying my mellow-ski Marky D is in the house’ the style became very popular and soon became a normal thing setting the trend for the Dj’s of our age.