Rap Music
Often times when people hear about Hip Hop/Rap
music, they fill paint a picture
in their heads of black men cussing, guns,
marijuana, lots of gold, and girls
looking like prostitutes. Parents and
teachers put an image in their kids head
that Rap music is bad, and they
don`t want their kids to be influenced by
something that is negative. With
the way Rap music is advertised in the US, I
would have to agree with that
looking at it from an average parents point of
view. But what people don`t
know is that Hip Hop isn`t just a type of music, it`s
a culture. It`s a
culture full of original elements, and it`s also a place where
people can
show others what they five got and who they are. Within this original
society
called Hip Hop, there are basically four main elements of MC, Break,
Tag,
and DJ. And each is represented by millions of people all over the
globe.
When the four come together, it makes Hip Hop music, and people
live the music
instead of listening to it. MC-ing is what people know as
rapping. The main
point of an MC is to make your crowd enjoy your music, and
to send a message out
to them. Unlike most of the lyrics out on the market
today, Hip Hop contains
meaning and it sends a message to the listeners.
Although those messages might
have bad words, and show images of things that
are socially wrong, thatfs
actually whatfs going on where they are from,
and thatfs who they are. Their
music represents their area and their people,
and itfs no different from a
farmer singing about his cows and chickens in
Idaho. Besides, gGangster Raph
isn ft the only type of Hip Hop music,
itfs actually only a small sect of it
all. Many rappers put out lyrics about
what they believe in, their own
philosophies, entertaining others, and
although it may seem unlikely, many
lyricists seem like Einstein to me. Just
like all of the other geniuses like
Newton, Galileo, and musically Jimi,
there are MCs that are geniuses too. What
makes those guys remarkable
compared to others are their strength and choice of
words, and their flow, or
the melody, of their rhymes. I personally canft
relate to the ghetto, guns,
and all of that ggangsterh stuff, so I donft
listen to that genre all that
much, but there are many elements people can pick
up from the Hip Hop music.
There is a whole Japanese Hip Hop scene that is
growing bigger and bigger,
and thatfs what I personally live. The next element
is Breaking. Breaking is
a term used for dancing, and most people know it as
Break Dancing.
Although Breaking has become a small part of the whole dance
scene in Hip Hop
today, itfs the first form of Hip Hop dances. People spin on
their heads, do
handstands, slide with just their hands on the ground, spin on
the floor with
their legs spread out, and all kinds of astonishing moves. This
is probably
the most popular form of Hip Hop in Japan today because its so easy
to begin
and watch. DJs have one simple task: make people dance. Or thatfs
what it
used to be. Before, their main goal was to have the knowledge of the
music so
they can make people dance according to the mood and time. Also
scratching
records were their performance. Now, DJs have lots more jobs and
probably the
toughest element of all. Most DJs team up with MCs so they can act
as the
rhythm section of the Hip Hop performance, and to do that and be
original,
they must create sounds of their own. They basically make the beats
and the
MCs lay the words on it. The steps to be able to make beats and tracks
takes
lots of time, money, and mind, so most DJs donft/canft take a step
further
into the scene. Today, more and more artists are creating their own
tracks,
for the money, and they tend to realize that they canft be rapping at
age 40
while its perfectly normal for a 40 year old to be playing the guitar. It
fs
not wrong to say that DJs are the backbones to the Hip Hop music. The
final
element is Tagging, and its graffiti. This is actually a controversial
issue
because many people believe its wrong. But itfs a form of art to the
culture,
and it shows character of each artist. Its definitely not just about
claiming
area by the gangs, and its not just about vandalizing other
peoplefs property.
People need to admit that New York City would not
have its flavor that it has
today without all of those artwork, and there are
many artists that put up their
pieces just so they can show others what they
got. Itfs a way of communication
in the form of Hip Hop. Many other types of
music can be a culture too, and each
person feels if it is a culture to them
or not. If music means culture to that
person, then they probably feel that
uneasy sensation of going to bed without
music, going on the train without
your Walkman, and have that anger towards
vacuum cleaners. Music also is a
form of communication when there is the kind of
society where people
understand one another through it. Which creates influences
on others, and
makes music grow.