“In the early 1970s a musical genre was born in the crime-ridden neighborhoods of the South Bronx. Gifted teenagers with plenty of imagination but little cash began to forge a new style from spare parts. Hip-hop, as it was then known, was a product of pure streetwise ingenuity; extracting rhythms and melodies from existing records and mixing them up with searing poetry chronicling life in the ‘hood, hip hop spilled out of the ghetto.”

Kurtis Blow

“Mike is the son of a close friend of mine and I have watched him grow up since he was six years old … At around 13, he began to identify quite strongly with hip-hop culture. He wore baggy jeans, a reverse baseball cap, designer sneakers and developed a taste for rap music – a ‘wigga’ or ‘white nigga’ … At around the same time he began to change the way he spoke. During a phone call with his best friend, Mike (said): I gotta ask, I mean aks my mom.”

Cecilia A. Cutler

These two quotes come from different sources. The first is taken from the liner notes to Kurtis Blow’s introduction to hip hop while the second is taken from a sociolinguistic study of a white upper middle class NYC teenager. What these quotes have in common is an understanding of hip hop as a cultural phenomenon, a way of aligning with a particular social identity, a way of talking, walking and being.

Hip hop is a fairly recent cultural practice that originated in inner-city New York during the 1970s. Bronx-based MCs began rhyming about streetlife to the beat of dj-manipulated turntables and drum machines. Breakdancing and graffiti  completed these rhythmic narratives, and the culture of hip hop was born. A lot of things have changed since those early days. For instance, with the global spread and commercial success of the genre, is it still useful to think of hip hop as an underground phenomenon?

A more productive way of thinking about hip hop is in terms of struggle and conflict. Struggle with authenticity, representation, commercialism, race and gender. Struggle with itself, really. That is what hip hop represents first and foremost I would argue. Hip hop is and always has been propelled by a state of flux. As Samuel Craig Watkins writes in Hip Hop Matters:

“Over the course of its career hip hop has developed a notorious and even self-perpetuating reputation as a spectacular cultural movement committed to defying the cultural and political mainstream. But as the borders of the hip-hop nation continue to expand, its biggest and most important battle is shaping up to be the one it is having with itself. Behind the explosive record sales, trendsetting cachet, and burgeoning economy is an intense struggle for the soul of the hip-hop movement. There has never been a consensus within hip hop about its purpose, identity, or destiny. In fact, the most robust debates about hip hop have always taken place within the movement. Hip hop has and continues to be its most potent critic and courageous champion.”

In these blog posts, I will touch on some of these ‘robust debates’, starting with hip hop’s cultural misrepresentations next week.  Providing the visuals for the Excursions in hip hop theory series, is none other than Stijn Coppens, record collector turned hip hop photographer extraordinaire.

Recommended reading:
- John E. Richardson (2002) Towards a theory of hip hop. Vanguard Online (.doc).
- Samuel Craig Watkins (2005) Hip hop matters. Beacon Press (informative review on hiphoplinguistics.com)