What Is Hip Hop?

Hip-hop music or rap music is a popular style or genre of music in the USA. This popular music genre is made up of two components, rapping and record scratching. Rapping is also known as MCing and DJing, which is comprised of audio mixing. These two main components along with graffiti and break dancing form the four main elements of hip-hop.

Hip-hop was initiated as a cultural movement by inner-city youth, mostly Latinos and African Americans in New York City in the early seventies. This kind of music consists of a single rapper or a group of rappers who tell semi-autobiographic tales in a deeply rhythmic lyrical form making bountiful use of techniques such as assonance, rhyme, and alliteration. These rappers often relate to a fictionalized counterpart. The DJ performs instrumental tracks that are generally referred to as a "beat." The producer or one or more instrumentalists create this beat, which accompanies the rapper. The beats for hip-hop music are normally created using a sample or percussion break of another song. They may be funk, rock, or jazz recordings. There are other sounds as well that are often synthesized, performed or sampled. At times, to showcase the skills of a producer or a DJ, the track could be instrumental.

This genre of music originated in New York when DJs began separating the percussion break from disco and funk songs. The role of the MC was to introduce the DJ and the music in order to keep the audience keyed up and eager. MCs started out by speaking (rapping) between songs, greeting the audience with funny quotes, and moved to articulating anecdotes and giving exhortations to dances. This practice eventually became very stylish and came to be known as rapping. In the late seventies, it had become commercially popular and started to enter the mainstream of American music. In the beginning of the 21st century, hip-hop had become a staple of popular music charts and it was performed in different styles around the world.

Artists like Usher, Marshall Matthers (popularly known as Eminem), 50 cent, and Missy Elliot are very well known around the world. Hip-hop music is sold all around the world and enjoyed by many people. Hip-hop music can also be bought or heard online.

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