true origins of hip hop

MEET THE GODFATHERS, FOREFATHERS, FATHERS, MOTHERS, KINGS, QUEENS, CREATORS, INSTIGATORS AND TRUE CHILDREN OF HIP HOP.

“HIP HOP is something you live, rap is something you do” _ KRS-One

Contrary to what many would have you believe, hip hop did not start out with gang shootings, sex, politics, bootylicious videos, name-brands or anything closely related to that nature. Hip Hop has it’s truest roots firmly embedded in the griots of West Africa. That’s where it really began, before Gil Scot Heron, Afrika Bambaataa, De La Soul and The Last Poets. The griots were a traveling group of singers and poets from West Africa, who have been in existence for hundreds of years.

Skip to the great 1900s and you come across the Godfather of North American Hip Hop.

Jamaican DJ extraordinaire;
Kool Herc, who introduced the Jamaican Dub to the Bronx in New York in the 70s during his block parties which spread towards Brooklyn fairly quickly. The Jamaican dub was introduced to cater for Jamaicans who could not afford their own records.

Kool Herc may have introduced the first hip hop to the streets, but others deserve mention as much as him. More especially Kool Herc and The Herculoids (Coke La Rock & Clark Kent) who were most arguably the first hip hop crew in New York, Afrika Bambaataa’s Universal Zulu Nation were also around at that time.

A lot of factors can be attributed to the rise of hip hop, but first one should draw the line as to difference between hip hop and rap.

To clear matters up, if rapping is the art of self expression, then hip hop is the culture that fathers it. One could argue that hip hop is conscious rap, which would beg the question of viability in terms of today’s genre of hip hop. So, calling it a culture is more fitting as it also incorporates the lifestyle, emceeing, deejaying, b-boying and graffiti. There are numerous other aspects of the culture, but these are the most important.

"if rapping is the art of self expression, then hip hop is the culture that fathers it"

As rapping was becoming increasingly popular among New Yorkers at the time of Kool Herc’s     block parties, it was imperative for crews and individuals to hone their skills as to be better than the next act.

This fresh and untapped art form came with a number of challenges and also offered unlimited avenues to venture into.