Sunday, March 8, 2009
Hip-hop is the youngest of all major music genres, with techno as the likely sole exception. Yet to most of those in our generation, hip-hop has been around since before we can remember. MTV began playing Dre and Biggie videos in 1992 and 1994, respectively, which to many of us is around the same time our first memories occurred. The result is that many in our age group today identify hip-hop only with what they have seen and heard in the last decade or so, as opposed to taking into consideration what values the music and culture were originally rooted in, as well as how and why those values have changed since helping the culture to flourish in its earlier days.
Born on the south side of the Bronx in New York, hip-hop made its debut in the late 1970s and early 1980s at block parties and on street corners. Using tattered amplifiers and the most primitive turntables (by today’s standards), pioneers such as Afrikaa Bambataa and Kool DJ Herc led the way with feel-good break beats that inspired simple rhyming by local performers. This new, invigorating brand of music was all about having a good time, and by the mid-to-late ‘80s, much of the nation’s youth were listening to such groundbreakers as Run DMC, LL Cool J and Big Daddy Kane, among others.
This “golden age” of hip-hop, as it is often referred to, lasted for approximately a decade. It was at this time that the hip-hop mainstream seemed to become more and more popular on a national scale. American suburbia and its youth became immediately enamored with hip-hop’s arrogant and rebellious image and began snatching up as many 2Pac and Wu-Tang albums as they could find. As expected, this vast amount of consumer spending did not go unnoticed by corporate America.
The appeal of hip-hop to America’s youth was undeniable, and companies across the nation quickly recognized its great financial potential. You can picture the cartoon dollar signs lighting up in the eyes of the suits at the board meetings. Hip-hop became the ideal way for brands to reach a sought-after audience consisting of ferociously independent youth.
In the hip-hop world, everything revolves around and is meant to reflect authenticity and reality. Consequently, the hip-hop artists who were generally perceived as having the “realest” reputation were approached by international corporations with enormous endorsement deals, and hip-hop began to sell out for millions in highly successful campaigns.
Though it originally surfaced as an esoteric subculture grown out of music, graffiti and fashion, hip-hop evolved into a highly exposed and highly influential movement with its own subcultures that continue to thrive to this day. Hip-hop’s influence on the world as a whole will continue to expand exponentially. But in order to maintain its popularity, it must stay true to its own authenticity and the reflection of reality that has made it perennially successful. In short, the publicized and designated diplomats of hip-hop must embrace their global influence without selling out hip-hop’s values to such a degree that the culture no longer reflects what made it so socially revolutionary in the first place. Peace.
— Coldham is a Chicago senior in journalism and English.
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