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Entertainment would not be the same if hip-hop were not as dominant in American culture as it is today. Hip-hop, with its headline-grabbing drama; its beats and straightforward lyrics that make people nod their heads from NYC to LA; its political incorrectness and irony that make us see the government and its policies under a critical lens, is such a big part of American society—hell, it is American society, with its shocking reality—that our lives would have been quite insignificant without it. For many, hip-hop is an obsession that goes way beyond mere entertainment; it is truly a way of life. People commonly believe that hip-hop is a world of violence and poverty; or that it is only a group of Blacks sitting around in a studio trying to come up with different ways of damaging society, but they are misconceptions. Hip hop goes far beyond this and it reaches limits that are set by no other type of music, raising the bar of entertainment higher and higher.
Hip hop reaches into the hearts and minds of many young people by celebrating and combining many different styles from different racial cultures into a single genre, creating a whole new form of cultural and artistic expression. Kevin Powell said it best, almost rhythmically in his “Notes of a Hip Hop Head”:
Think [of] the New York City fiscal crisis in the mid 1970’s…of a slash art, music, dance and other inner-city recreational programs due to that fiscal crisis—homies had to make due with what they had, for real. ... [Throw in the] drums, conga, pots and pans, being beat, beat, beaten, here, there, everywhere and it all equals Hip Hop. (Powell 1)
As we can see, hip hop is a movement that envelopes much more than just music, dancing or scratching; it reaches farther than just the turntables at a concert or the microphone in the MC’s hand. ... Hip hop is a mirror that reminds Americans of its ugliness—representing all the positives and negatives of that reality; giving it an opportunity to look back at the people it has neglected and left behind, making itself an energy felt by many. This energy ghetto angels called hip-hop back in the day is the dominant cultural expression of America today because it reaches and represents young people of all natures, as it did 40-some years ago.
Since its beginnings, hip hop has been a culture that has gone against all odds because it was born, in the late 1960’s, in the streets of New York City where hunger and poverty reigned and prosperity was enjoyed by very few.
Approximate Word count = 2164
Approximate Pages = 8.7
(250 words per page double spaced)
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