Hip Hop Sub Culture - Coursework Example

Hip Hop Sub Culture The hip hop subculture has radically transformed mainstream America. Through the unique style of dress, music and artistry, hip hop has left a definable imprint on global youth culture. From Atlanta, Georgia to Athens, Greece and beyond hip hop has changed the ways in which teenagers and young adults, dress, dance and relate to the world. Originating in the housing projects of New York City in the late 1970s, hip hop has become a global movement. The following will trace the important hip hop subculture and the legacy that it has had on the world today. The controversial and bloody East Coast-West Coast Feud will then be analyzed with an eye to its two protagonists, the Notorious B.I.G aka Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur. Following this we will conclude with thorough overview of the importance of the hip hop subculture in the 21st century today (Kitwana 14-25). Hip hop is often defined by music but rap and MCeeing are just some of the components of this subculture. Other components of this subculture include graffiti writing, also known as “tagging”, break dancing and DJing. A unique style of dress is also associated with the hip hop movement and this style is characterized by baggy jeans, over-sized shirts, baseball caps, “hoodies”, sometimes bandanas and anything else that it loosely fitting. As a culture movement which began first in the urban, black neighborhoods of New York, the hip hop subculture began on the streets of NYC with men rapping poetically over DJ beats. Early artists grew up poor in Brooklyn, Harlem, the Bronx and the mean streets of Oakland, California, and sought an outlet to express their grievances. The microphone and the beat became the means through which social protest was expressed and it was expressed poetically and over a beat. Early rappers rapped about life in poor social conditions and a life in which drug use, violence and poverty were endemic. Many early rappers were born into impoverished circumstances and they rapped about what they knew. While Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash arguably started the movement, Public Enemy and NWA brought hip hop to a whole new level. They rapped about controversial and uncomfortable things like violence, drug, racism and poverty. During the 1980s rap and hip hop were very still very much underground musical movements with little-to-no radio air play; today they can be found on top 40 stations as well as on MTV every night (see George, 1998). Artists such as Tupac Shakur emerged in the early 1990s and effectively transformed the movement. Tupac’s music was aggressive, violent and intensely poetic. He swore when he wanted to, called women “bitches” and “hoes” and used the “n” word with as much frequency. Early songs like “Brendas Got a Baby” and “Young Black Male” eloquently described his life in the ghetto. His second album, Me Against the World, had punctured hits including the title track, “Dear Mama” and ‘Fuck the World”. Joining the Death Row record label in Compton, California, Tupac gained mainstream airplay with hits like “I Aint Mad at Cha”, “Picture Me Rollin” and “California Love” with Dr Dre. He epitomized the phrase “Thug Life”, which he had emblazoned across his chest. Thug Life glorified gangsterism, sex, violence and life in the ghetto. This was the life that Tupac knew and so eloquently described in rhyme. As we shall see, Tupac’s life followed his art culminating in the largest feud in hip hop history (George 1998; Iwamato 2003). East Coast-West Coast Feud The East Coast-West Coast feud was a battle between hip hop groups in New York and California, fighting for supremacy over the global hip hop world. New York hip hop was personified by Puff Daddy’s Bad Boy crew out of Brooklyn, headlined by the Notorious B.I.G, also known as Biggie Smalls, Craig Mack, 112, ‘Lil Kim, Junior Mafia and a stable of other artists. West Coast hip hop, dominant since the early days of rap with groups like NWA and 2LiveCrew, was represented at the time by Marion "Suge" Knight’s Death Row Records, hosting Tupac, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Dr. Dre and an entire stable of West Coast gangsters. Promoting gangster rap, g-funk and a unique West coast sound, Tupac Shakur exemplified the best of Death Row (Iwamato 2003). Tupac Shakur brought the feud home with “Hit ‘Em Up”, a track which targeted the Bad Boy family and in which he famously rapped about sleeping with Biggie Small’s wife, Faith Evans. Violence between East and West nearly erupted at the 1994 Source Awards in New York when the heads of both factions, Suge and Puff Daddy, instigated one another other in front of the live studio audience. Unfortunately for both factions both Tupac Shakur on the West and Notorious B.I.G. on the East were killed at the height of the feud between East and West (Iwamato 44-49; George 133). On a humid September evening, Tupac Shakur was shot and killed during a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada following a Mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand. Tupac died from both respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest after being shot by four bullets as he drove with the head of Death Row Records, Suge Knight after the fight (“Tupac Shakur Dead” 1996). Tupac’s untimely death was a shock to the hip hop community, young society and to the American public in general. The night that he was shot, Tupac and his Death Row crew had been involved in a fist fight at the MGM Grand and there has always been speculation that they men he fought were the ones who carried out his execution later that night. Others believe that his killing was orchestrated by Puff Daddy and the Bad Boy crew as part of the costal hip hop feud. Still others, including his stepfather Muluku Shakur believe that the Central Intelligence Agency and the US government were behind the ‘assassination’ of Tupac Shakur the evening of September 7 1996. When asked about how he expected his life to finally end, Tupac told Details magazine, "All good niggers, all the niggers who change the world, die in violence. They dont die in regular ways" (“Tupac Shakur Dead” 1996). Tupac amazingly foretold his future and prophetically anticipated his violent demise. To this date, almost twelve years after the killing of Tupac, no arrests have been made and his killers remain at large. In a strange and ironic twist, Notorious BIG, aka Biggie Smalls, was gunned down in Los Angeles a mere six months later in March 1997 (Iwamato 44-49; “Tupac Shakur Dead” 1996). The much hyped East Coast-West Coast feud has fizzled to a whimper and harmony on both coasts is hip hop’s modus operandi in the wake of the deaths of Tupac and Biggie. Despite this traumatic event for the hip hop community in the mid to late 1990s, hip hop today is more mainstream than ever. Early rappers like LL Cool J have maintained their “coolness” and 50cent, Lil Wayne, Eminem and a whole stable of new rappers have expanded the scope of hip hop throughout the world. Hip hop remains a collective sub-culture composed largely of young people and teenagers brought together by poetic expression through rap music. Concluding Remarks The hip hop subculture has transformed young America as we as global youth culture. Hip hop is more than rap music, it is characterized by a unique style of dress, music and poetic artistry and has inspired millions of teenagers and young adults around the world. Although hip hop remains controversial due to its misogynist elements, it remains the chosen form of expression for countless young people. Although it originated in the in the housing projects of New York City in the late 1970s, hip hop truly has become a global movement with adherents throughout the world. We explored the defining East Coast-West Coast feud of the 1990s which culminated in the death of this subculture’s two brightest stars. Following this, the essay discussed the life and times of rap icon Tupac Shakur and his legacy on the hip hop community is indisputable. The Guinness Book of World Records continues to list Tupac Amaru Shakur as the highest-selling hip hop artist of all time, with over 75 million albums sold worldwide, including more than 50 million in the United States alone. A towering and monumental figure in hip hop as well as in the wider culture community of US African American culture of the late twentieth century, Tupac effectively contributed to the mainstream character of the music which has been a defining feature of this subculture for more than forty years. As time progresses, the hip hop culture continues to move on and transform itself in light of social changes. Works Cited Iwamato, David. “Tupac Shakur: Understanding the identity formation of hyper-masculinity of a popular hip-hop artist.” The Black Scholar 33: 2 (Summer 2003): 44-49. George, N. Hip Hop America. New York: Viking, 1998 Kitwana, B. The Hip Hop Generation. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2003. “Tupac Shakur dead at 25” (1996). CNN. Retrieved October 20 2009 from Read More