Hip hop music is an American musical genre that developed as part of hip hop culture, which is defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching, breaking/dancing and graffiti writing.Other elements include sampling (or synthesis), and beatboxing. The term rap music is often used synonymously with the term hip hop music, but rap vocals are not required for music to be considered "hip hop."
The Bronx in this deteriorating condition fell prey to the third major event which led to the direct development of the graffiti aspect of the hip hop culture. This event occurred in 1968 and coincided with Robert Moses' second major project in the Bronx, the Co-Op City. It should be noted that these last two events were not related. This third event involved a group of seven teenager boys who began terrorizing the vicinity around the Bronxdale Project on Bruckner Boulevard in the southeast Bronx. This may not seem important but this group of teenagers laid the groundwork for a surge of street gang activity that would overwhelm the Bronx for the next six years. This group at first called itself the Savage Seven, but as more members joined, the group changed its name to the Black Spades. Overnight street gangs appeared on every corner of the Bronx. It should be noted that Afrika Bambaataa was a member and leader of the Black Spades at one time.
Afrika Bambaataa and the hip hop movement in the South Bronx created a cultural alternative to gangs, The Universal Zulu Movement, or the Zulu Nation. While in Chicago and Los Angeles, gangs would be institutionalizating in the ghettoes and barrios, in New York, gangs would come and go but hip hop lives on.
While hip hop often gets confused with street culture, it is a powerful alternative to the nihilism of the streets.
Hip Hop Elements
1. DJing
2. MCing
3. Graffiti
4. Breaking or BBoying
5. Beatbox
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