Rap Act THE CORE ELEMENTS OF HIP HOP

Hip hop was born in the late 1970s in the streets of New York. Deeply rooted in African-American and ultimately African music, hip hop is both a genre of music and an expression of art. two words, hip- meaning "in the know" and hop-to describe the hopping kind of dance, are what gave birth to the phrase hip-hop. The combination of these two words to describe the genre of music is credited to DJ Hollywood and Lovebug Starski, both Bronx DJs. A former leader of the Black Spades gang, Afrika Bambaataa, is said to have done much to further promote the term.

DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlines the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing , DJing , breaking and graffiti writing . There are many people who are of the opinion that the list is incomplete without beat boxing. MCing refers to rapping, that distinctive style of singing unique to hip hop. it refers to the speaking or chanting of rhyming lyrics within a strong rhythmic accompaniment. DJing is the second cultural pillar of hip hop. Kool DJ Herc, one of the pioneer DJs of hip hop, is credited with creating the hip hop beat by isolating breaks in two or more albums then fusing them together to create one continuous rhythm. In extending the boundaries and techniques of the usual DJing created by hip hop, turntablism was born. Further innovations such as the scratching technique soon followed, created by other DJs like DJ Grandmaster Caz.

The colourful words and pictures spray painted either on the walls of buildings or on the sided of cars and trains are all fruits of the graffiti writing technique. Although in modern times graffiti writing is viewed as a preserve of rowdy youth and social misfits, its artistic nature greatly appeals to the hip hop community. The relationship between graffiti and hip hop culture arises both from early graffiti artists practicing other aspects of hip hop and its being practiced in areas where other elements of hip hop were evolving as art forms. Breaking is also known as Break dancing, a dynamic form of dancing that developed as part of the hip hop revolution, and is the last but not the least of the acknowledged core elements of hip hop. Russia, especially in the 19th and 20th century, is credited as the home of break dancing. From there, it hit the streets of New York in the 1960s and 70s Breaking was usually incorporated into any hip hop show in such a way that as the DJ worked the crowd, break-boys and break-girls, also known as b-boys and b-girls, would jump in front of the crowd and dance in a distinctive frenetic style.

These four pillars are what distinguishes hip hop from any other genre of music. They are what makes hip hop a unique form of musical expression and without them, hip hop would not exist.