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Sugarhill Gang album cover
Photo courtesy Consumer Guide Products
The Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight was the offset hip-hop song to go aureate.

"I said a hip hop
the hippie the hippie
to the hip hip hop, you don't stop the stone it
to the bang bang boogie, say up jumped the boogie
to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat out"

It's possible you're at a crossroads right at present between finishing the lyrics to this song and reading this article. Go ahead; sing a little more than if you tin can -- we're right at that place with you …

"Now what yous hear is not a test -- I'm rappin' to the trounce
and me, the groove, and my friends are gonna try to move your feet
see I am Wonder Mike and I'd like to say hello
to the black, to the white, the cherry, and the dark-brown, the royal and yellow"

Finished nonetheless? No?

"But first I gotta bang bang the boogie to the boogie
say up spring the boogie to the bang bang boogie
allow's stone, you don't stop
rock the riddle that will make your body rock …"

If you made information technology to this verse and still have more than lyrics in you, then you lot probably know these are from i of the first hip-hop, or rap, songs e'er recorded -- "Rapper'due south Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang. You might remember the vocal from when it first striking the airways sprinting toward golden, or maybe you're flashing to a little quondam lady in the Adam Sandler movie, "The Wedding Vocalist." While it'southward truthful that in October 1979 this was the starting time hip-hop song to garner gilded, information technology by no means represents the beginning of hip-hop.

Global Graffiti

With the assist of the Net, graffiti has gone global. Spider web sites like Art Crimes, @149st, Aero, Éiresol Mode and many others unite taggers from around the world. Most sites include vast athenaeum of photos, and you'll also find blogs, videos, manufactures, newsletters and interviews.

Another thing to clear upward is this: If you call up hip-hop and rap are synonymous, yous're a niggling off the marking. While information technology's accurate to say that rap is hip-hop, information technology'due south not entirely accurate to say that hip-hop is rap. Hip-hop is a cultural motion akin to Art Deco and the Harlem Renaissance, and, much like these movements, it incorporates several elements. Most hip-hop historians speak of iv elements of hip-hop: tagging (graffiti), b-boying (break dancing), emceeing (MCing) and rapping. One of the visual elements -- graffiti -- technically came commencement, but at that fourth dimension information technology wasn't part of hip-hop civilisation because hip-hop didn't exist. DJing and MCing (and somewhen rapping) started the hip-hop movement, with trip the light fantastic toe and mode following closely thereafter.

If y'all look at the movement from its beginnings upward to today, y'all'll run across that these elements accept expanded into broader terms:

Visual art, which includes graffiti as well as other graphic arts and flick
The written and spoken give-and-take, which includes MCing, rapping and performance poetry
Concrete movement, which includes a variety of hip-hop trip the light fantastic toe styles
Style, which includes clothing and other objects of way

Lyrics aren't the just words of the hip-hop move. Poesy has also found a home in hip-hop, by way of spoken discussion -- the process of reciting original poetry or the work of another in front of a group or audition. It should be noted that operation verse isn't confined to the realm of hip-hop, but information technology has steadily been gaining footing within the movement for many years. If you've seen an episode of Russell Simmons' HBO Boob tube serial, Def Poetry Jam, which premiered in 2002, then you know what information technology is. A number of noted poets and celebrities have appeared on the show, including Amiri Baraka, Ani DiFranco, DMX, George Clinton, Erykah Badu, Kanye West, KRS-One, Lou Reed, Nikki Giovanni, Smokey Robinson, Sonia Sanchez and Wyclef Jean.

In this commodity, nosotros'll take a closer look at each of the elements of hip hop. Simply first, let's get dorsum -- fashion back -- and explore the beginnings of this 30-year-old movement.

History of Hip-hop

Afrika Bambaataa and Kool Herc
Scott Gries/Getty Images
Hip hop pioneers Afrika Bambaataa (L) and Kool Herc pose for a photo during a press conference to denote the launch of The Smithsonian's Hip-Hop Won Stop: The Trounce, The Rhymes, The Life in 2006

To consider hip-hop'southward nativity, something near folks would hold happened in the streets of New York, you first have to look at the paths of several musical styles and genres -- sort of like a musical family tree. Hip-hop's roots can exist constitute in a variety of African-influenced musical styles. African-American gospel, folk, blues, jazz and R&B music each take a limb on the tree, equally do calypso, salsa, soca, ska, reggae and other Afro-Caribbean area styles.

The path that leads to the birth of hip-hop isn't linear -- instead, it zigzags back and along, here and at that place, ultimately ending upwards in the Southward Bronx neighborhood of New York. A rough outline of events goes something similar this: Slaves transported from Due west African countries to North and Due south America brought with them various oral and musical traditions. These traditions became integral to the use of music as a form of resistance and rebellion. West African religious drumming met with storytelling and griotism (an oral tradition of maintaining and passing along important familial and local histories through poetry and music) to create spirituals and ballads. Call and response between congregation and minister moved beyond the church and into music. In time, jazz, blues and folk music permeated the southern U.s.. Bebop and, eventually, doo-wop music hitting the airways. They, American jazz, dejection and R&B all made their mode to the Caribbean during World War II, when American soldiers were stationed in Jamaica.

Versioning

Versioning in reggae music is similar to sampling in hip-hop. In versioning, someone creates and records a song. The vocal becomes pop -- and so much so that other recording artists make dozens, if not hundreds, of other versions (in the United states of america, they're known as covers). Ane example is the Wayne Smith song, "Under Mi Sleng Teng." More than 230 versions of this vocal were recorded inside the first year of Smith'south original release [source: Hebdige]. In sampling, an creative person takes a sample from someone else'due south song and inserts some part of it into his or her own new song.

Meanwhile, in Jamaica and many other Caribbean regions, disc jockeys (DJs) with large, portable sound systems would gear up temporary discos in rented buildings or out in the streets. The market for these roaming dance clubs was fiercely competitive. DJs started devising ways to one-upwards their rivals; i common practice was toasting. Toasting involved either improvised or scripted talking while a song was playing. Sometimes the commentary included barbs or jabs at rival DJs.

This practice eventually led to 2 new types of reggae music: talk over and dub [source: Hebdige]. Talk-over tracks were recordings of DJs toasting a particular tune. Dubs were even more than doctored renditions of songs. They included both talk-over and sound effects, such as echo effects, reverb and intensified bass and treble. Many artists started placing a dub version on the b-side of their 45s. These dub versions were ordinarily mostly instrumental with some song lyrics and talk-over commentary.

And so how does all of this lead to hip-hop? The answer is in the history of a young Jamaican émigré named Clive Campbell. In 1967, 13-twelvemonth-old Campbell moved from Jamaica to the West Bronx neighborhood of New York [source: Gross]. He brought with him knowledge of the mobile discos, toasting DJs, and talk-over and dub records of his birthplace. That noesis combined with a powerful sound organisation helped Campbell -- a.one thousand.a. Kool Herc -- lay the foundation of the hip-hop motion.

But earlier we talk about Herc's turn at the turntables, let's accept a expect at something else that he spent time doing subsequently moving to New York -- tagging.

Hip-hop and Graffiti

Note: Gang members utilise graffiti to communicate within and outside their crews. All the same, graffiti is also created by people not affiliated with gangs. The graffiti discussed here refers to the non-gang-related practice.

Mat Szwajkos/Getty Images
A graffiti artist begins to paint his mural on a lifelike subway car facade at Marc Ecko's Getting Up cake political party on August 24, 2005, in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City.

The Price of Graffiti

Cleanup crews operate solely to combat graffiti in cities and counties throughout the United States. Reportedly, about 60 million square feet of graffiti had to be removed in Los Angeles County solitary in 2006. The canton paid $32 million to get the job done [source: Abdollah].

In a proactive mensurate, the urban center of Montebello, Calif., is installing 25 cameras equipped with tagger trap engineering science. These cameras utilize a sensor to detect the sound of an droplets can from as far away equally 80 anxiety, and then they alert the police. The system will cost most $i million, but since city officials study a yearly expenditure of $700,000 to remove graffiti, it should pay for itself in a couple of years [source: Abdollah].

Graffiti -- also known as writing, tagging and aerosol art -- is a message or drawing created, most often illegally, on a public surface. Some scholars compare it to ancient art forms like hieroglyphics and cave paintings. In fact, 1 scientist takes the argument a step further. In "The Nature of Paleolithic Art," paleobiologist Dale Guthrie contends that amidst the finer works of Paleolithic cave art, yous will notice graffiti -- and lots of information technology.

The graffiti associated with hip-hop most probable got started sometime in the mid-to-late 1960s. The exact ancestry can't be pinned downward, but most discussions bespeak to 1 article that brought graffiti into the spotlight -- "'Taki 183' Spawns Pen Pals," published in the New York Times on July 21, 1971. The article describes Demetrius, a Greek-American teenager known as Taki, who used magic markers to go out his tag, TAKI 183, wherever he went. Clive Campbell was a big fan of tagger TAKI 183. Like several other teens, he emulated TAKI by tagging, besides.

Through the next 40 years, graffiti evolved from simple magic marking tags to colorful, whole-railroad train and edifice murals. And while some people view these elaborate pieces as vandalism, others encounter them as art. After possessor Patti Astor met Fab 5 Freddy, the Fun Gallery, which was located in Manhattan'due south East Village, became one of the first galleries to showcase graffiti [source: Ehrlich]. Since then, graffiti has appeared in galleries in Milan, London and Paris.Graffiti found praise among fine art dealers and gallery goers in the early 1980s, and information technology caught the eye of film and record producers. Graffiti graced album covers and provided a colorful backdrop in music videos. For example, HAZE, a well-known graffiti creative person, created anthology covers for some of the Beastie Boys' primeval works. He besides worked with Tommy Male child records and rapper Chuck D from Public Enemy [source: Austin]. Several hip-hop scholars and graffiti artists hold that this is when the graffiti movement melded with the hip-hop movement. In the words of hip-hop scholar Jeff Chang, "There is withal a raging fence, specially among older graffiti writers, as to whether hip-hop and graffiti are linked. Only once hip-hop was presented with graffiti in movies such as Wild Manner and Fashion Wars, History took a different turn." Chang goes on to point out that today, hip-hop art is intrinsically tied to graffiti, in everything from graphic pattern to way to sculpture [source: Ehrlich].

Now that we've covered the fine art of hip-hop, let'southward investigate the sound of hip-hop -- starting with how Kool Herc became the founding father of a cultural motility.

Hip-hop Music

Run-DMC
Fotos International/Getty Images
Run-D.M.C. at the American Music Awards, 1980s. Left to right, Joe Simmons (Run), Jason Mizell (Jam Master Jay, 1965-2002) and Darryl McDaniels (DMC).

Kool Herc (Clive Campbell), became the founding father of hip-hop when he segued from tagging to turn-tabling. One of his starting time memorable gigs was a dorsum-to-school party hosted by his sis. Flyers for the political party listed Herc as the DJ. His proper noun was adequately well known considering of his tagging exploits, so the party had a large turnout -- people showed up to get a glimpse of Kool Herc [source: Gross].

Partygoers apace found out that Herc wasn't like other DJs. He didn't but ensure a steady stream of tunes. By watching the crowds, Herc realized there were portions of songs that were better for dancing. People waited to dance until these instrumental breaks or beats would play. To solve this problem, Herc used ii turntables and two copies of a tape. He would switch dorsum and forth, playing the aforementioned portion of the vocal repeatedly. This became known every bit breakbeats. Herc's toasting besides increased the enthusiasm of the oversupply -- with shout-outs similar "Rock on my mellow," Herc encouraged partygoers to keep moving [source: Hebdige].

Over fourth dimension, DJing became more difficult and required more attention -- so much so that Herc had picayune time for toasting. Emcees (MCs) Coke La Rock and Clark Kent came to Herc'due south assist (they would later exist called The Herculoids). Coke La Rock expanded his toasting to full-fledged poems, and rapping was born. Coke La Rock and Clark Kent -- and sometimes even Herc -- also added dancing to the show. Free-way dancing was popular, and during the extended breaks, some dancers would go specially wild. These were the outset b-boys -- a moniker Herc coined. We'll talk more than about dance in the section on hip-hop motion.

Shortly, the DJ scene started to explode with talent. Afrika Bambaataa (Kevin Donovan) and Grandmaster Flash (Joseph Saddler) are seen as the godfathers of hip-hop. Bambaataa, a former fellow member of the Black Spades street gang, witnessed immediate what gang life was doing to people in his community. Through the cosmos of the Zulu Nation, Bambaataa planned to rid communities of violence and drugs and replace them with the positive elements of hip-hop. Today, Bambaataa remains an administrator of hip-hop civilisation.

Inspired by his male parent'due south collection of music, Grandmaster Flash took his knowledge of electronics and put it to history-making utilize as a DJ, helping make several contributions to hip-hop:

Dial phrasing is a piffling like a breakbeat but can use two completely different records. Dick Hebidge writes in "Cut'northward'Mix," "the dj hits a particular break on one deck while the record on the other turntable is even so playing. The punch works in hop hop like a punctuation mark in a sentence … [and] can be used to accentuate the shell and the rhythm for the dancing crowd."
Scratching is the procedure of moving a record back and forth while information technology's playing -- the needle is in a groove, so information technology doesn't really scratch the tape.
Beat box is different from beatboxing or human crush box, the vocal percussion popularized past the Fatty Boys, Doug E. Fresh and Biz Markie. Flash created the crush box by wiring a drum machine to his setup, "then y'all couldn't tell where the music stopped and I started" [source: George].

These and other pioneers carried hip-hop through business firm and street parties until the 1980s. And then, with the starting time recordings of hip-hop music, the scene started to move to larger venues and people's homes. The get-go hip-hop radio evidence, Mr. Magic's "Rap Attack," premiered on WBLS-FM in New York City in 1983. MCs became more prominent figures, sometimes replacing the DJ as the forepart man. The intent of the music also started to shift -- nosotros'll wait at how in the next section.

Modernistic Hip-hop

Mathew Imaging/FilmMagic
Kanye West and Queen Latifah at the 59th Primetime EMMY awards

While Grandmaster Flash and The Furious V, Afrika Bambaataa and some of the other hip-hop pioneers were hitting the recording studios in the 1980s, a new guard of hip-hop artists started to appear. Hip-hop was crossing boundaries, making appearances in new wave and punk music. Both Blondie's "Rapture" and The Clash's "The Magnificent Seven" incorporated hip-hop stylings. Run-D.One thousand.C. melded rap with difficult rock. Artists like LL Cool J, Whodini, and The Beastie Boys created a diversity of hip-hop music.

The industry changed along with the sounds. Sugar Hill Records, the premier label of hip-hop, died, but Def Jam Records and other hip-hop labels moved in. Female rappers like Common salt-N-Pepa, Queen Latifah and MC Lyte broke the gender line, making it easier for female artists to come up like Mary J. Blige and Lauryn Hill. Black Nationalism took middle stage in Public Enemy's lyrics. The soundscape of hip-hop expanded from New York and the northern E Coast to the West Declension. In 1988, hip-hop made Boob tube -- MTV that is -- with the new show, "Yo! MTV Raps." About a year later, rap videos could exist seen throughout the day on MTV.

Artists like Schoolly D, Water ice T, N.W.A. and Snoop Doggy Dog (at present just Snoop Dog) brought gangsta rap to the scene. Equally gangsta rap gained widespread popularity, the original promise of hip-hop'southward bulletin got lost in the mix. Gangsta rap glorified gang violence, poverty and the insidious drug trade rather than denouncing them. Misogyny reigned supreme equally women were objectified and depicted as "bitches and hos." For example, according to Northward.W.A.'s gangsta rap hit "Gangsta, Gangsta," "life ain't nothing but bitches and money."

Alongside the gansta-themed stylings were artists more interested in socio-political statements and black pride, while others nonetheless were merely about entertaining rhymes and adept trip the light fantastic music. Some of the pop hip-hop artists during this fourth dimension were: Wu Tang Clan (and its subsequent soloists Ghostface Killah, Masta Killa, Method Man, Ol' Muddied Bastard and RZA), Tupac Shakur (2Pac), North.W.A. (and its subsequent soloists Eazy-E, Ice Cube and Dr. Dre), Warren G, Sir Mix-a-Lot, KRS-Ane, Cypress Loma, and Mos Def.

Music Sales 2006

Although hip-hop is incomparably popular throughout the U.s., according to the 2006 Consumer Profile released by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), rock and country crush hip-hop -- at least by official sales records. Hither'south the overall breakdown:

Rock	34 percentage
Country	13 per centum
Rap/Hip-hop	11.4 percent
R&B/Urban	11 per centum
Other	7.3 pct
Popular	7.1 percent
Religious	5.5 percent
Children'south	2.9 pct
Jazz	two.0 percent
Classical	i.9 percent
Oldies	1.1 per centum
Soundtracks	0.viii percentage
New Age	0.3 percent

[source: RIAA]

Meanwhile, other sub-genres like progressive rap, Miami bass, New Orleans bounciness, snap music, rap-metal (or rapcore) and crunk made the scene. Many of these came non from the northern Due east Coast or the West Declension, only from the southern United states. Perchance i of the first groups from the south to proceeds mainstream acclamation is 2 Live Crew (think of the striking single "Me So Horny"). Another southern artists include: the Geto Boys, Arrested Evolution, OutKast, David Banner, Ludacris, Mystikal, TLC, Timbaland, Lil John and the E Side Boyz, and Missy Elliot.

Today, hip-hop music is notwithstanding going strong. Several artists who found their footing in the 80s and 90s are still prolific, selling CDs and singles alongside artists who appeared in this century, such as Eminem, 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes, Juelz Santana, Akon and Nelly.

And the bulletin of the music just might be changing again -- or at least expanding to include more than materialism, violence and the objectification of women. Darryl McDaniels (formerly of Run-D.M.C.) said this in a TIME interview:

This by decade information technology seems like hip-hop has generally been about parties and guns and women. That's fine if yous're in a social club, but from 9:00 a.grand. till I went to bed at nighttime, the music had nothing to say to me. So I listened to classic rock.

Kanye West brought him back from his rock reverie with the song "Jesus Walks." On hearing the song for the first time, McDaniels said, "I idea, "This song is about everything! This feels alive!" [source: Tyrangiel].

Next, we'll look at how hip-hop has inspired movement.

Hip-hop Dance

break dancer
Jemal Countess/WireImage
Mr. Freeze of the Rock Steady Coiffure onstage at the Wild Style 25th anniversary celebration at Rumsey Field in Key Park on July 29, 2007 in New York City

Depending on how old you are, when someone says "hip-hop dance," you could picture the boogaloo, locking, popping, freestyle, uprocking, floor- or downrocking, grinding, the running man, gangsta walking, krumping, the Harlem shake or chicken noodle soup. And, of course, you lot could call back about breaking, also chosen breakdancing.

Some of breakdancing'south more than memorable moves include headspins, handspins, backspins, the windmill (the breaker spins around on his upper body with his legs whirling around above him like the blades of a windmill), the worm, and the suicide (a standing dorsum flip that ends with the dancer flat on his dorsum or lesser). While arguably not the offset hip-hop trip the light fantastic toe form, it got lots of media attention at the start of the hip-hop movement.

B-boys and B-girls

According to Kool Herc, a b-male child isn't only a dancer -- he tin exist anyone with that "Yo, I'thousand prepare to break on somebody" attitude. Today, the terms b-boys and b-girls refer to skilled hip-hop dancers.

To understand how breaking came to exist, yous take to exercise a little legwork. As with the music that inspired the dancing, breaking'southward history begins with the slave trade. Slaves carried a mix of traditions from many Due west African countries to North and South America. Several key elements of African-American dance appear in popular dance today, including all-over torso movement, earth-oriented movement, improvisation and pantomime [source: Kansas Urban center Lindy Hop Gild].

A number of pop African-American dance styles emerged through the mid-to-tardily 1800s and the early 1900s. Several migrated from the African-American community to the Caucasian community, including:

The Cakewalk, competitive line dance
The Charleston, which would later on atomic number 82 to an entire era of swing dancing
The Black Bottom, a precursor to tap, jazz and swing dancing

Next came the Lindy Hop, followed past the Jitterbug, Savoy Swing and a number of other swing styles. Eventually, funk and disco were all the rage.

All of these styles have influenced modern hip-hop dancing, including breaking. Just in that location were other influences every bit well. Afro-Caribbean area dance was an inspiration, as was the Brazilian martial art form Capoeira. Other martial arts had a big impact, besides. Kung fu films were a huge striking in the United States in the 1970s, so it's not a surprise that the movements of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan were emulated and integrated into some of the earliest breaking moves.

In an interview for The Source, Afrika Bambaataa suggests that breakdancing started among street gangs with a dance called "Get on the Good Pes" past James Brown. In the interview, Bambaataa, Kool Herc and Grandmaster Wink as well hash out how dancers started placing bets with each other on skill. And, although the manner of dance waxed and waned through the 1970s, several crews -- such as the Rock Steady Coiffure and the New York City Breakers -- kept breaking going and even took information technology to its side by side level, incorporating many of the highly acrobatic movements that would take center phase in the 1980s [source: George].

Breakdancing in the 80s

krump dancers and a clown
Matthew Simmons/Getty Images
Krump dancers from the documentary "Rize" pose with Tommy the Clown backstage at the launch political party for the "Rock This Way" tour on June 29, 2005 in Hollywood, Calif.

By the mid 1980s, breaking was everywhere. The films "Wild Style," "Style Wars," "Breakin'," "Beat Street" and "Flashdance" all included breaking. During the 1984 Summer Olympics, breaking punctuated Lionel Richie's functioning. Michael Jackson brought moonwalking (known as recidivism among the dancers who invented it) to the masses. Advertisers also took advantage of the trip the light fantastic craze -- everything from fast food restaurants to wearable lines used breaking as an advertizement backdrop.

Rock Steady Crew

Established in the Bronx in 1977 by Jimmy D and Jojo, the Rock Steady Crew has a 30-twelvemonth history within the b-boy scene. During the 1980s, the crew performed in a variety of venues in the U.s.a. and away. Noted members Crazy Legs, Frosty Freeze and Ken Swift were instrumental in promoting the Stone Steady Crew to international acclaim.

Soon, information technology became more than a dance craze; it was a commodity. While some dancers were making money, they weren't the ones getting rich. Business-minded folks jumped into the fray with hip-hop habiliment lines, guidebooks, video games, kneepads, special dance mats and other breaking-related items. According to a 1984 Fourth dimension mag article, Wrangler was set to launch a collection called "Wrapid Transit," and Van Doren Rubber was putting out a special version of its Vans wrestling shoe designed especially for breaking [source: Koepp].

The breaking frenzy started to dice down in the tardily 1980s. While it had disappeared from mainstream America, it wasn't entirely gone. Other hip-hop dances came to the fore and receded once again. And so, in the mid to late 1990s, there was a resurgence in the popularity of breaking in the United States, and information technology has stayed within sight always since. However, information technology's now role of a larger mix of hip-hop dancing. While some practitioners stay true to the old-school mode, many contain other styles from the past and present, including popping, locking, funk, firm, freestyle and more.

Ane of the newer hip-hop dances is krumping. Mentioned more than than a few times on flavour three of the hit Idiot box evidence "Then You Think You Tin Dance," krumping combines breaking, clowning, modern dance and fifty-fifty tap. If you lot'd similar to see the moves firsthand, you tin check out "Rize," David LaChapelle's "musical documentary."

In the aforementioned way hip-hop music inspired hip-hop dance, hip-hop dance styles accept had an impact on some other element -- hip-hop fashion. Read on to find out why suspenders weren't just for Robin Williams in the 1970s and who was sporting Kangols before Samuel L. Jackson.

Hip-hop Way

Baby Phat model with grill
Karl Prouse/Catwalking/Getty Images
A model sporting a grill walks the runway at a Baby Phat fashion show in New York City.

Style is fickle -- styles come up, go and come back again in the glimmer of an eye. Hip-hop fashion is no exception. In the beginning, DJs were the leaders of hip-hop style. Many took mode cues from the disco styles surrounding them, while others developed styles of their own. Every bit graffiti and breaking united with music to create the beginnings of a cultural move, optics started to focus on the MCs and breakers.

At first, most breakers dressed for comfort and practicality. Loose-fitting pants (sometimes with suspenders), comfortable sneakers (with the laces left mostly undone) and colorful t-shirts (to go with other members of a dancer'south crew) were standard on the East coast. Meanwhile, military-inspired outfits with baggy pants (again, sometimes with suspenders) and lace-upward boots were pop with some dancers on the Due west coast.

When Run-D.M.C. hitting the scene, so did a look that would, at least in function, be emulated for years: black leather jackets and pants, black fedoras or Kangol hats, large, mesomorphic chains and, of course, Adidas. Eventually, these leather "suits" made style for nylon and cotton tracksuits, all the same adorned with heavy jewelry. The ensemble was often topped with a Kangol or baseball game cap and bottomed with a pair of designer athletic shoes (Adidas made way for Nike). African-inspired article of clothing also enjoyed a surge of popularity. Kente cloth from Republic of ghana appeared in nigh every type of dress, and red, xanthous, black and light-green were the colors du jour. Hats, and even entire outfits, were worn astern (remember the Kriss Kross video "Spring"?). Basketball jerseys were worn over t-shirts with jeans so baggy that they pooled in a puddle of material stopped just past the open up, unlaced tiptop of a Timberland or Lugz boot.

Love (and Life) is Strange

In a genre primarily run, produced, written and sung past men, it'southward surprising to discover that a woman was behind the first hit rap recording. Sylvia Robinson was co-founder and co-owner of Sugar Hill Records. Robinson had her own hitting at the age of 14. In 1957, Mickey & Sylvia'due south "Love is Strange" garnered No. 1 on the R&B charts and made information technology to No. eleven on the pop charts. If y'all're having trouble conjuring up this tune, a little "Dirty Dancing" might help. Recall the scene where Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze mime the lyrics to the vocal playing in the background? That's the Mickey & Sylvia striking.

As the 1990s came to a close, oversized was all the same the size of selection, be it denim or cargo pants. The gangsta style of wearing pants so low that underwear shows persists today. Reportedly, the exercise comes from prisons, where belts aren't immune due to potentially lethal uses [source: CNN]. Kangol hats remain, as do baseball caps. Joining them is the practice-rag, reportedly another prison house-wear influence.

Gangsta-inspired wear wasn't the simply 90s hip-hop staple. Designer labels, such as Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren, filled closets from the East to the Due west Declension. The label-heavy trend remains today. Some of the more than prominent brands on the shopping list include: Babe Phat, Carhartt, Antipodal, Dickies, Ecko and Ecko Ruddy, Fubu, G-unit, Lacoste, Phat Farm, Reebok, Rocawear, Sean John, and Von Dutch.

Some of these didn't originate in the fashion manufacture -- they started inside the hip-hop manufacture. Probably the oldest label is Russell Simmons' Phat Subcontract. The original hip-hop mogul'due south holdings are reportedly worth close to $325 meg [source: Katel]. Jay-Z sold Rocawear for $204 1000000 and purchased another clothing line, Artful Dodger, for $15 1000000 [source: Brown].

Vesture isn't the only big business associated with hip-hop. Accessories -- particularly jewelry -- bring in the Benjamins, too. Long before the word "bling-bling" ("bling" for short) was coined, Kurtis Blow gave gold a good name by donning several chains, some with medallions, at once. Run-D.M.C. and others took it a pace farther and beefed upward the estimate of the gold, wearing incredibly thick chains that resembled actual rope. Equally fourth dimension went on, jewelry became more elaborate, and gilt gave manner to platinum -- of the iced-out diversity, encrusted with diamonds.

For those and so inclined (not all hip-hoppers adorn themselves), in that location's jewelry for almost every torso role. Multiple-finger rings can double as a set up of super-expensive, not-and then-brass knuckles. Abdomen chains tin complement a omphalos ring. Even teeth can go gilt or platinum. While some early hip-hop artists went in for simple gilded caps, today'due south stars tin can take extra sparkle and smoothen with a grill.

From graffiti to grills, hip-hop is one of the most influential cultural movements ever to transpire in the The states -- and its bear on isn't confined to 1 continent. Next, we'll accept a look at how hip-hop has spread.

Globalization of Hip-hop

Chinese graffiti artist
China Photos/Getty Images
A Chinese girl drinks water subsequently finishing graffiti on a wall during the Chengdu Hip Hop Culture Festival.

A little international travel will chop-chop evidence you that hip-hop has gone global. From Brazil to England to France to Japan to India to Due south Africa, young (and some old) people are finding a voice, a sense of way and even a sense of cocky in hip-hop. While it might announced as though people have shallowly appropriated the style and sounds and aren't truly feeling the motility, this isn't necessarily and then. Sure, there are those -- what some Americans would call imitators or wannabees -- who are only moving through the elements of hip-hop on their way to the next Western pop culture import, but others are integrating the movement into their own local state of affairs.

In an article titled "Japanese Hip-Hop and the Globalization of Pop Culture," Ian Condry mentions how strange it can exist to fly from New York to Tokyo and observe teens decked out in the same hip-hop style as those he merely saw in the Us. But he points out that, while everything seems the same, it'southward not. The borrowed hip-hop civilization is imbued with local cultural dynamics. The local b-boys and b-girls take added their regional flavor to the mix [source: Condry].

In Italian republic, where hip-hop culture and rap music have had a strong and growing post-obit for more two decades, rappers rhyme in their local dialects. According to a New York Times commodity, "Well-nigh 50 percent of all Italians still speak in dialect, at least within the family, and the musicality of virtually dialects adapted well to the rhyme and cadence of rap." The bailiwick of Italian rap music, while more recently is concerned mostly with love and other conventional topics, has included everything from the Mafia to regime abuse to homelessness to drug addiction -- in Italy, not New York [source: Povoledo].

Musical movements have made their way across geographical divides before, but hip-hop is more simply music -- information technology'south a way of life that encompasses physical movement and personal expression. Equally Due south. Craig Watkins writes, "Yes, hip-hop has been an astonishing moneymaker, merely it has been an equally astonishing source of youth expression and empowerment" [source: Watkins].

Hip-hop'south wide achieve is also tied to the commercialization of the movement. Watkins points out that record companies, mode labels, sports franchises, and fifty-fifty nutrient and potable companies are all selling their products by advertising the hip-hop lifestyle, and how their shoes, soda or sandwiches fit into it.

Another key chemical element that'south helping spread the hip-hop word is the Internet. At no other point in history accept people living in such disparate circumstances and in separate points of the world been able to come up together to communicate like they can today. Ane Web site, Global Grind, aims to be the "ultimate online destination for the hip-hop community" [source: Global Grind]. Navarrow Wright's infant is backed by some heavy hitters, one from hip-hop and ane from the online community: Russell Simmons' Island Def Jam Music Group and Facebook investor Accel Ventures [source: Holahan].

Global Grind isn't the merely hip-hop hotspot on the data state highway. Other hip-hop-minded social networking sites include BlockSavvy and DanceJam. BlockSavvy is like MySpace. DanceJam, which is co-founded by MC Hammer, goes a step beyond social networking and includes slow-motion dance tutorials. The site plans to launch regional features, which could take a huge impact on dance styles around the globe. Reportedly, the site'due south founders hope that eventually its users will "be able to look up whatever major city on DanceJam and learn the hottest moves in the area earlier booking a trip" [source: Van Buskirk]. Visiting the site could give a completely new significant to the old catchphrase, "Information technology's Hammer time!"

For more on hip-hop, music and related topics, meet the links on the adjacent page.

Men Fashion Long Sleeve Hip Hop Extended T Shirt Longline Streetwear Mens on Amazon

History of Hip-hop

Hip-hop and Graffiti

Hip-hop Music

Modernistic Hip-hop

Hip-hop Dance

Breakdancing in the 80s

Hip-hop Way

Globalization of Hip-hop

Lots More Information

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