hip hop

Hip Hop is a culture centered around bettering yourself and being positive. There are 4 original elements. Dance: Breaking is the ONLY dance realated to hip hop despite what the media tells you. The only 2 adopted elements to the dance is popping and locking. If your not breaking, popping, or locking then your not dancing hip hop. Music: DJ: The hip hop art form of playing the music using records and involving scratching and extending beats. The most important element of hip hop, because with the beat there can be no emceeing or dancing. Emcee: The art of rhyming and rapping. Make sure you understand the difference between "HIP HOP" and "GANGSTER RAP". While gangster rap is still in the catagory of hip hop because of the emcee and dj, it is not part of the hip hop culture because hip hop isn't about being a gangster. Graffiti: The visual art form of hip hop often using letters and characters. From tagging to murals using anything from markers to spray cans. The meaning of hip hop has been lost over time. Its not about dressing a certain way, where your from, what nationality you are, or how much money you have. Its about being yourself, not being a mindless follower, and expressing your own creativity. Hip hop came from the ghetto, and the purpose of it was for people to better themselves. Rather than going out and shooting each other they could dance, or rap, or express themselves through art. Hip hop has been underestimated by a lot of people who don't understand it, and it has literaly saved the lives of a lot of people. Hip hop is just a word, it has been around since the beginning of time even if nobody knew what it was. A person who has never heard of the word hip hop in their life who lives positively and works hard at everything they do is living hip hop more than a person who TRYS to be hip hop, dances, paints, dj's, and emcee's, but doesn't know what it means.