Introduction
Hip Hop wouldn’t be what it is today if it wasn’t for the creations of graffiti and breakdancing. The idea of arts like breakdancing and graffiti seemed ridiculous at the time to a majority of the community, but to the followers of hip-hop culture, it was revolutionary. Breakdancing, also known as b-boying at the time, was a form of dance created by the African American and Latin American culture in the 1970’s. Breakdancing was revolutionary to the hip hop culture because at the time a majority of the followers came from poor and violent areas of the Bronx, so in turn breakdancing instead of teens forming gangs, started to form and join dance teams to compete against each other on who the best dancers were which decreased gang violence drastically. Graffiti was has also had a major impact on the hip-hop culture. Graffiti was used as a way for teens to become “known” in the community, and to create a name for themselves. So instead of getting a name for themselves and “fit in” by joining a gang, they chose a different path, and decided to create a name, similar to a brand, and expand themselves and their creations on subways, trains and other platforms across the city for all to see. Additionally, spoken in my second thought paper, is the Crack Era. The Crack Era may have just seemed like another drug epidemic to many, but to the ones educated in hip-hop would understand that this era shaped hip-hop to what it is today. Through personal use by rappers and them speaking their mind on how the drug is good/bad, to also having a lot of racial discrimination behind the jail sentencing with crack having worse jail time consequences compared to the very similar drug cocaine which was used heavily by the white community. The Crack Era also impacted the hip-hop industry because dealers would support and fund record labels helping them reach to the success they’ve had.
The goal of this blog is to give an understanding on traditional hip-hop culture and how the Crack Era, breakdancing and Graffiti have directly impacted the growth of hip-hop and how the culture is what it is today because of them. In this blog I also used to show that while many may see some outcomes of hip-hop as a negative, they actually have many positive effects on the community. The Crack Era helped support industries trying to grow and if it wasn’t for the dealers funding money, the industries may have never become successful. Additionally Graffiti was used to help encourage teens put their brain and talents to use, and to be different from others and make a name for themselves instead of joining a gang to “fit in”. Also with the evolution of breakdancing, was a major factor in decreasing gang violence and encouraged teens to express themselves using their body through dance. Through this blog, you will see many connections with b-boying, graffiti, and the Crack Era and how they helped form what hip-hop is today.
