The 1990's Hip Hop Subculture

Over the past 30 years hip hop has grown and influences many ages, genders and races. Often hip hop reflects on the outlook on their life. The hardships, violence, struggles, economic and political problems. African american music was heard at every corner in all time periods. The genre of hip hop profoundly the voice of america and influencing the nation.It all started around the same man known as DJ kool herc. Jamaican Born and raised in the bronx new york created the blueprint for hip hop music and culture. Based on the jamaican tradition of toasting, kool herc witnessed impromptu, boastful poetry and speech over music provided the base for MCing.

People understand through stories. For centuries stories have been shared as a way of
entertaining, transmitting knowledge and passing on knowledge from generation to generation. In west africa, griots have been the central figures in the rich oral tradition across the continent. A grio is many things, a storyteller,historian, a musician and the keeper of his/hers peoples traditions. Hip hop consists of poetry that is spoken rather than sung. There are four major parts of hip hop:MCing, DJing,B-boying, and graffiti. ("African American Griots." African American Griots. C.jackson, n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.)
In order to keep kids out of the streets, DJ Kool Herc began organizing dance parties in his home in the Bronx The parties became so popular they were moved to outdoor venues. City teenagers, after years of gang violence, were looking for new ways to express themselves. These outdoor parties, hosted in parks, became a means of expression for teenagers, where "instead of getting into trouble on the streets, teens now had a place to expend their pent-up energy”. And keep in mind this is based in the bronx where life was hard and full of gang violence and low income was present.
In the late 1970’s the underground hip hop movement gained media attention through music videos. Specifically, in 1982, when Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force released the electro-funk track "Planet Rock". Instead of simply rapping over disco beats, Bambaataa created an electronic sound, taking advantage of the rapidly improving drum machine Roland TB-303 synthesizer technology, which was proven as a failure but later improved. Hip Hop is very creative, innovative and original. Though it has deep roots in Africa, it is very American. Now that we are past the 70’s age of hip hop, we can move into the golden age of hip hop. In the late 80’s many hip hop artist were at their own creative peak. When america “witnesses the best recordings” from some of the biggest artist in the genres history. Hip hop was overwhelmingly welcomed in new york city. The genre was getting into sampling hard rock or soul tracks, and tough dis raps... rhymers like LL cool j basically invented the complex wordplay and lyrical kung-fu of later hip-hop. And there was controversy that sparked. Because of Hip Hop’s bold image and in addition to the music becoming more mainstream, Hip Hop became controversial.
The use of profanity as well as graphic pictures of violence and sex creates challenges when it comes to broadcasting the material. When this material was broadcasted on stations like MTV they had to blank or “beep” out the profanity or replace it with a clean lyric. This also made the line seem more unintelligible or “dumb” .
Mainstream hip hop today is very different from the hip hop in 1990’s. Hip Hop had it’s height and was and is still considered a very controversial music genre. However, it’s controversy is in a sense rooted in society.

I like to use tupac shakur as an example of the man who changed hip hop and had the biggest impact. His mother afani and father billy were active black panther members. When afani was pregnant she was in jail for bomb charges and luckily she was released a month before he was born. Born on june 16th 1971, tupac began his career as a back up dancer and mc for the alternative hip hop group called the digital underground. He eventually branched off as a solo artist. The songs tupac created mostly revolved around gang violence, general violence, political problems, racism, and the struggle of growing up in the hood. His music reached out to many young people who could relate to tupac's words. Tupac was involved in the east coast west coast hip hop rivalry, getting into conflicts with other rappers. Tupac was fatally shot on sept 7th 1996 and died 6 days later. H

So many people like the hip hop genre so hip hop is very diverse.
1990’s Hip Hop experienced a lot of diversity in terms of style, dance and rapping. In the east coast nas,jay z and biggie were popular. In the west coast,snoop dogg, tupac, and dr.dre were popular. The group that represented the south was outkast. The introduction to fast rapping was presented by twista. It’s not too noticeable now, but in the 90s, west coast generally used funk samples while east coast generally used jazz samples. Just compare artists like Dr. Dre and DJ Quik to A Tribe Called Quest and
Nas.
By the early 2000’s Hip Hop is very commercialized and popular.
A lot of hip hop artist were asked to promote food brands and sports brands and fashion. Like diddy and jay z. A lot of the lyrics were catchy and fun, the music made people dance which made the it really popular and mainstream.
Is hip hop dead now? Well starting in 2005 hip hop sales started to drop. Everything from merch from your favorite artist to album sales dropped. Why do you think? Time claimed hip hop was dead and Nas created and Album entitled “Hip Hop is Dead”
Nas said, “When I say 'hip-hop is dead', basically America is dead. There is no political voice. Music is dead ... Our way of thinking is dead, our commerce is dead. Everything in this society has been done. …..once hip-hoppers owned hip-hop ... We are our own politicians, our own government, we have something to say”. The introduction new and alternative rap of the mid to late 2000’s and 2010’s changed hip hop to what we know it today and helped to increase
sales.