The document discusses the origins and history of hip hop culture from the late 1970s through the 1990s. It describes how hip hop originated in the South Bronx among African Americans and comprised four main elements: deejaying, rapping, graffiti art, and breakdancing. The 1980s and 90s represented the "Golden Age of Hip Hop" where hip hop music matured and addressed social and political issues facing urban communities. Popular artists from this era helped establish different regional hip hop styles and tensions between regions boosted sales. Fashion, lyrics, and the prevalence of crack cocaine in African American communities were also defining aspects of hip hop in this period.

1. By: Eugenie MacDonald

2. The Hip-hop, cultural
movement attained
widespread popularity
in the 1980s and ’90s;
also, the backing music
for rap, the musical
style incorporating
rhythmic and/or
rhyming speech that
became the
movement’s most
lasting and influential
art form.
Although widely considered a synonym
for rap music, the term hip-hop refers to a
complex culture comprising four
elements: deejaying, or “turntabling”;
rapping, also known as “MCing” or
“rhyming”; graffiti painting, also known as “graf”
or “writing”; and “B-boying,” which encompasses
hip-hop dance, style, and attitude, along with the
sort of virile body language that philosopher Cornel
West described as “postural semantics.” Hip-hop
originated in the predominantly African
American economically depressed
South Bronx section of New York Cityin the late
1970s. As the hip-hop movement began at society’s
margins, its origins are shrouded in
myth, enigma, and obfuscation.

3. The Golden Age of Hip Hop refers to roughly the mid eighties
up to the late nineties when Hip Hop, in this sense the
rapping and beatmaking aspect of it, was known and
appreciated for its Lyrical content (MCing or Emceeing) its
musical depth and its stark differentiation from other
musical genres of the day. Influenced by earlier forms of
music such as R and B, Jazz and The Blues; Hip Hop during
this time matured and touched upon many political and
social issues affecting urban America which
overwhelmingly focused on the African American
experience of ghettos, gang life, drugs, black
identity, poverty and racism. This era is known for the
flourishing of different regional styles and a freeing up of
the manner in which rap music was written, composed and
performed these regional styles contributed to much
tension and rivalry as well. This friction was exploited by
record companies to boost interest and sales. It is this
rivalry along with other factors that led to a decline and
eventual end of the Golden Age.

4. Fashion was represented as
bright colours, big jewellery
and baggy clothes.
 Hip Hop music in the 80’s was
about partying, sex, drugs and
about being better than
others. Hip Hop was played
throughout clubs in America.
 The 80’s was the time of the
crack cocaine epidemic , and
was widely associated with
black people, selling and
taking drugs. This was also
often the topic of lyrics.


5. 
Some of the Most popular artists
who helped define the era
include: Run DMC, LL Cool J, Kool
Moe Dee, Big Daddy Kane, Kool G
Rap, A Tribe Called Quest, Eric B
& Rakim, Public Enemy, MC
Lyte, KRS-ONE, NWA, Cypress
Hill, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Tupac
Shakur, Notorious B.I.G, Geto
Boys, Big Punisher.

6. Hip hop music and culture was associated with crime, drug
dealing, robbery and murder. This meant that the youth in the
80’s, particularly poor, black males. The US government tried to
ban Hip Hop.

8. Hip Hop to many fans is still very much about
the quality of its content which developed
during the Golden Age. As shown through the
use of such vocal and lyrical devices such as
using:
metaphors, similes, storytelling, clever
cadences, changes in tempo and word play.
Modern artists talented in the application of
the aforementioned vocal and lyrical devices
are still very popular but have moved away
from what is considered the mainstream
which receives the most TV and radio
airtime.