Rapping At 40!

Music genre pass a milestone.

Hip-Hop celebrates a milestone. It's turning 40 years old today.

Man we're getting old when your favorite acts are in their forties and fifties. Of course all the new acts are too mainstream and the music is lost to the controversy of being too pop friendly or the ire of conservative assholes like Bill-O (Bill O'Reilly).

Hip-Hop music made it possible for Barack Obama to become the President of The United States. Without the endorsements of Jay-Z, Young Jeezy, Ludacris and Russell Simmons, Obama would not of been in the White House right now.

All you need was the four elements.

A rapper, a scratch (beat), break dancing, and graffiti.

While it's not confirmed on where it's origins came from, all I know about the music is the fact it's a product of The Bronx, New York.

Wikipedia offers a definition. Hip hop music, also called hip-hop or rap music  is a music genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted.

It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching, break dancing, and graffiti writing.

Other elements include sampling (or synthesis), and beatboxing.

While often used to refer to rapping, "hip hop" more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture.

The term hip hop music is sometimes used synonymously with the term rap music, though rapping is not a required component of hip hop music; the genre may also incorporate other elements of hip hop culture, including DJing and scratching, beatboxing, and instrumental tracks.

Creation of the term hip hop is often credited to Keith Cowboy, rapper with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

However, Lovebug Starski, Keith Cowboy, and DJ Hollywood used the term when the music was still known as disco rap. It is believed that Cowboy created the term while teasing a friend who had just joined the U.S. Army, by scat singing the words "hip/hop/hip/hop" in a way that mimicked the rhythmic cadence of soldiers marching.

Cowboy later worked the "hip hop" cadence into a part of his stage performance, which was quickly used by other artists such as The Sugarhill Gang in "Rapper's Delight".

Hip hop as music and culture formed during the 1970s when block parties became increasingly popular in New York City, particularly among African American youth residing in the Bronx.

DJ Kool Herc is considered the father of hip-hop.

Block parties incorporated DJs who played popular genres of music, especially funk and soul music. Due to the positive reception, DJs began isolating the percussive breaks of popular songs. This technique was then common in Jamaican dub music, and was largely introduced into New York by immigrants from Jamaica and elsewhere in the Caribbean, including DJ Kool Herc, who is generally considered the father of hip hop.

Because the percussive breaks in funk, soul and disco records were generally short, Herc and other DJs began using two turntables to extend the breaks.

1520 Sedgwick Avenue has been called "an otherwise unremarkable high-rise just north of the Cross Bronx Expressway and hard along the Major Deegan Expressway." As hip hop grew from throughout the Bronx, 1520 was a starting point where Clive Campbell, later known as DJ Kool Herc, presided over parties in the community room at a pivotal point in the genre's history.

DJ Kool Herc is credited with helping to start hip hop and rap music at a house concert at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue on August 11, 1973.

At the concert he was DJing and emceeing in the recreation room of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue.

Sources have noted that while 1520 Sedgwick Avenue was not the actual birthplace of hip hop – the genre developed slowly in several places in the 1970s – it was verified to be the place where one of the pivotal and formative events occurred that spurred hip hop culture forward.

During a rally to save the building, DJ Kool Herc said, "1520 Sedgwick is the Bethlehem of Hip-Hop culture."

The roots of rapping are found in African-American music and ultimately African music, particularly that of the griots of West African culture. The African-American traditions of signifyin', the dozens, and jazz poetry all influence hip hop music, as well as the call and response patterns of African and African-American religious ceremonies. Soul singer James Brown, and musical 'comedy' acts such as Rudy Ray Moore and Blowfly are often considered "godfathers" of hip hop music.

Hip-Hop is the roots of Black culture. For over 40 years, the music has created legends.

Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Lil' Wayne, LL Cool J, Run DMC, N.W.A., Public Enemy, The Beastie Boys, Ice Cube, Nas, Bone Thugs 'N Harmony, Ice-T, Kanye West, E-40, DMX, Big Punisher, Fat Joe, UGK, Busta Rhymes, Outkast are enshrined in the memories of hip-hop.

These entertainers have maintained place in the history of hip-hop.

And today, as it struggles in the digital age, many entertainers in the hip-hop community have now resorted to releasing promotional mixtapes to get their music out there. They understand that the music sales are declining and in order to at least achieve a successful album, they have to release mixtapes and generate a mainstream buzz.

Well happy birthday, Hip-Hop. May there be many more years ahead of you!

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