Happy 45th Birthday to Hip Hop Culture!
"Rap is something you do, Hip Hop is something you live."
Rapper and Hip Hop Guru KRS-One would frequently talk about how Hip Hop is currently the most potent culture on the planet. He is not necessarily wrong with his brazen statement. The musical quality, aesthetics, language, and other longstanding parts of Hip Hop have roots inherent in all parts of the African Diaspora, the Latin-Hispanic Diaspora, and global culture.
For those who do not know, August 11th, 1973 is christened as the birthday of Hip Hop with DJ Kool Herc hosting a party in the recreation center of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in South Bronx, New York. The party included Herc spinning vinyl records with his booming Jamaican sound system, dance battles between B-Boys and B-Girls, and rap cyphers/toasting. Hip Hop existed long before then, but this event was the spark to many more movements that created a culture with four sacred elements-MC-ing, DJ-ing, Breaking, Graffiti-and more cultural elements such as street entrepreneurship, street fashion, beboxing, and more that have dynamically impacted every sociological institution that we know today in the 21st century.
KRS-One’s famous saying is:
“Rap is something you do, Hip Hop is something that you live!”
In the same way that Catholicism should not be taken as the sole representative of all of Christianity and the same way that ISIS should not be taken as the sole representative of all of Islam, rap should not be solely representative of all that is Hip Hop. As long as individuals in the ethnically amorphous and inclusive culture of Hip Hop are following Afrika Baambaata’s principles of “Peace, Love, Unity, and Having Fun” while indulging in the elements, then they should be supported. Hip Hop, like the Marvel or DC universe, or manga/anime universes, sports its eclectic cast of old and new unforgettable characters, figureheads, juggernauts, and Looney Tunes that make it the best esoteric story that is never-ending in its legendary evolution from era to era.
So, on the 45th birthday of the culture which has some place in all of our lives, indulge yourself by listening to your favorite Hip Hop Artists, or doing something in your life that gives respect to the legacy of great energy the culture has delivered to the world in just 40 years.
