Rap and Hip Hop Music

In today's world Rap and Hip Hop music is known around the world. How has Rap and Hip Hop become this big? Hip Hop has been made out to be a bad influence to the people that listen to it but is it really? Rap and Hip Hop isn't just the music, the real definition of Rap and Hip Hop is a delivery style that includes rhyme, rhythm, and spoken language, usually delivered over a beat. It's a part of the wider hip-hop culture, which includes the spoken word (the MC), the beats (the DJ), breakdancing, and graffiti art.

Many people are still clueless on where Rap and Hip Hop actually started. Some people claim that it started in Africa by tribes that would create beats over drums and sing stories by rhyming them. According to Elena Orfield, DJ Kool Herc is widely credited with kicking off the genre. His back-to-school parties in the 1970s were the incubator of his burgeoning idea, where he used his two record turntables to create loops, playing the same beat over again, and extending the instrumental portion of a song. This new form of music was upbeat and a good dancing music, so it spread across the states quickly. Some of the greatest rappers could be Tupac, NWA, 50 Cent, and also The Notorious B.I.G.

Rap and Hip Hop music is the most influential music that has affected most people's lives. For example, the life of 50 Cent can be seen in the movie Get Rich or Die Tryin, in the movie it shows how he was brought up in a bad hood. Being brought up in the hood gave him a motivation to get him and his family out of the bad situation. One of the only ways out was music, Rap and Hip Hop music. This story of 50 Cent's life gives people hope, it gives hope in that they will one day be able to make it out of the hood too. In the article How Hip-Hop Music Has Influenced American Culture and Society, the author, Kathleen Odenthal Romano, explains not only the influence of hip hop in society, but also how hip hop is more redefined as a culture.

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