If you ever ask someone of the younger generation about Hip Hop, they would say the current dance movement and what you see right now but little do they know about the true elements of Hip Hop these days. So, let's share that here so we can all be on the same page about what Hip Hop is and what the four elements of Hip Hop are.
As mentioned in a previous post before, Hip-Hop was born on August 11th, 1973 thanks to DJ Kool Herc and the first MC ever, Coke La Rock.
The night of August 11th, 1973 DJ Kool Herc performed the Merry go round at a party he was throwing for his sister and Coke La Rock became the first MC ever when he shouted people out during the breaks of Kool Herc. That night was the first night all the elements of hip-hop came together to become “Hip-Hop, there was Djing, MCing(to the breaks), breakdancing (to the breaks), and graffiting. There are four elements of Hip-Hop: DJing, MCing(Emceeing), Breakdancing (B-Boying/B-Girling), and Graffiting. Afrika Bambaataa and Zulu Nation were the first to reveal the four elements of Hip-Hop. Over time people have added more elements to what was considered Hip-Hop, people have claimed there are five, six, seven, even nine elements to Hip-Hop but these four were the core and OG four elements of Hip-Hop. DJing
DJing (also known as deejaying, beatmaking and/or turntablism) is an element of Hip-Hop. DJ Kool Herc was the first Hip-Hop DJ.
MCing
MCing (also known as rapping, freestyling, rhyming, ciphering or spitting) is a key element of Hip-Hop. An MC performs for the crowd, gets them hype or MCing is the biggest Hip-Hop element as rapping is the most popular. An MC is a Master of Ceremonies or a Mic Controller.
Breakdancing
Breakdancing is an element of Hip-Hop which allows. DJ Kool Herc would perform the Merry Go Round technique and b-boys and b-girls would go crazy break dancing to the breaks. Breakdancing has evolved into dancing you see nowadays in music videos and social media. Yes, twerking, dabbing, and jerking are all a part of breakdancing.
Graffitiing
Graffitiing is an element of Hip-Hop which allows artists to express themselves with art. During the era of the ’70s spraying art on walls were part of the culture. Graffiti is still very common today.
You can definitely find more information like this online everywhere about it but it's important to look back at the roots of Hip Hop and where it all started.
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