The Pros and Cons of the Hip-Hop Culture_Nayantara

THE PROS AND CONS OF THE HIP HOP CULTURE

What is hip hop really?

If you think that hip hop is just a dance style, then you’re wrong. Hip hop is a sub-cultural movement with four different elements – rap music, turntablism, b-boing and graffiti art. These are very popular in suburban parts of big cities, such as New York.

In this sub-culture, I think that there are many pros and cons, and that they are different in every element.

Every culture has oral, aural, physical and visual elements, and hip hop is no different. Although hip hop may seem like an alien culture to some of you, it actually has many things in common with almost every other culture. If you don’t believe me, then try it out yourself. Take any culture of your choice – what element is oral? What is aural? What is physical? And what is visual?

In hip hop, rap music is oral, turntablism is aural, b-boing is physical and graffiti art is visual. But although hip hop has a lot of similarities, there is something different. And that is the fact that much of what hip hoppers did was illegal, harmful or disapproved of. But the many people who are ‘from’ hip hop want to maintain the culture and not give it up. By ‘from’ I mean that they lived, breathed and loved hip hop. It was their life. They are the ones who contributed to its success and want to maintain the culture without it collapsing. And they have done a great job… but for better or worse? Because – is it Art or Graffiti? Is it Music or Noise? Is the dance actually good for you? And is the world view of hip hop accurate?

Art or Graffiti?

Although many people think that hip hop is all about the music and dance, it is also about the art. So graffiti is a form of hip hop, and a very important one, too. This was one of the ways the blacks expressed themselves. So graffiti is as much a part of hip hop as music and dance.

This form of art was started by a black Greek-American. The blacks were suppressed so much, that they wanted to express themselves. This particular boy had been thrown out of his school because of his colour. His anger just let loose. He found a spray paint can on the sidewalk. He wanted people to know who he was, to know what he can do. So he tagged his name on all of the walls he passed in New York. And this was the origin of graffiti art.

Graffiti has caused some terrible, terrible things. One of these things is barb wire, which is completely horrid. This was needed so that people did not spoil walls or trespass private properties and paint there.

Another thing is acid baths. It is almost impossible to remove graffiti spray paint, but an easy solution is acid. So ginormous acid baths take place, harming both people and the environment.

But that’s not all about the environment. There is something else, something that happens all the time – littering. When there is graffiti on the walls, people nearby assume that the law enforcement is not very strong there and that people don’t really care much about the environment there. So, because of that, if the area is not that clean, it tempts people to litter there themselves, or trespass, just like others.

This often leads to certain areas changing (in a bad way). So then people will move from there, causing the nice parts of town to be overpopulated with all sorts of people.

Music or Noise?

When you think of music, you’ll probably think of the soft, sweet Mozart – not the mean, insulting heavy metal which hip hop can be. Generally, people do not really approve of hip hop music, which generally consists of rapping, beatboxing, and Emceeing or MCing. It is loud, insulting and disturbing – and a lot of people think – is it actually a form of music?

There are many types of hip hop rapping which can be really very rude: Dirty South, East Coast Rap, West Coast/ Latin Rap, ‘Gangsta’ or Gangster Rap and ‘Old Skool’ or Old School Rap.

East and West Coast raps are usually insulting the opposite culture. For eg – an East Coast rapper would be insulting a West Coast rapper. It was because of a personal rivalry that now, in the hip hop world, the entire East Coasts and West Coasts are against each other. [This rivalry was between two of the world’s most famous rappers – Tupac Shakur (“2Pac”) and Christopher Wallace (“The Notorious B.I.G.”).] However, this sort of thing is happening  all around the hip hop world.

“Gangsta” raps are any raps with ‘thug life’ based lyrics. In other words, the lyrics are all based on the life of someone who is a bully and/ or gangster. This is the most lucrative sub-genre of hip hop music. Most artistes also openly boast about their connections/ associations with street gangs.

Although “Old Skool” rapping is the oldest type of rapping, it is still performed often to maintain the roots of hip hop music.

At parties these genres are played very often, or performed for entertainment. And with all these types, what you end up with is noise. And trust me, I tell you from experience.

You probably never thought of how insulting music can be. But trust me, it is. One of the worst types of insulting is called The Dozens. It is plain spoken words exchanged between participants who insult each other until one gives up. Most of the insults are about family. One of the most popular ones is about mothers. Have you ever heard a “Yo’ mama…” joke? Well, this was the origin. It’s horrible.

It is customary for The Dozens to be played in front of an audience. This is so that they can encourage the players to reply with shockingly bad insults to increase attention and make it a much more interesting battle to watch.

This is probably the worst ever downside of the hip hop culture in general, and I hope that it will somehow get taken care of.

 Dance – is it good for you?

If you’re learning hip hop dance for its physical benefits, then you’re definitely on the right track. Focus, strength, flexibility – it’s all part of the package. But many don’t approve of the attitude much, and it’s a risk to try out some of the moves. But although it might be a little bit risky, life’s all about risks, right? Anyway, these are the pros and cons of hip hop dance.

The attitude and moves of hip hop dance are very unpopular with many people. The attitude is a “swag” sort of attitude. This means that it is a very “cool” and popular sort of attitude. It is common among many people. It could also be defined as a virile body language, meaning that it is a masculine, tough, thug sort of language, and people don’t want them or their children to get influenced by it. Similarly, they do not want their children to get influenced by the amazing gravity-defying airborne headspins and backspins. However, it is good to be inspired. People probably just don’t want their children to get hurt, which is understandable. But to get inspired and to work towards something is more important and if you fall, then get back up! So many people see this as a con, but I see it as a pro, especially seeing as to do these things they will have to learn a lot of hip hop dance and get some of the amazing benefits from it.

Hip hop dance is great for both aerobic and anaerobic fitness. One of the absolute main things which is part of hip hop is the cardio exercise portion. It really gets your heart pumping and blood flowing all over your body. Another thing is breathing. Seeing as while dancing you are moving your body so much, your breathing rate increases and it helps your lungs to expand, hence taking bigger breaths and allowing more oxygen into your bloodstream. There are many muscles which it helps to strengthen too – your thighs, your glutes and your calves. It even helps tone them plus it gives your joints flexibility and elasticity. Apart from that it also helps burn fat, lower blood pressure and reduce stress!

To sum it up, I think that hip hop dance is very good for you and a must to learn.

The World View of Hip Hop

When you think about it, there are so many people in this world who aren’t aware of multiple things – such as the good and bad things in hip hop culture. Some people do know and are accurate in what they say, whereas some people just don’t know at all. This is what people have said:

1.      Carolyn West (Professor –study on prevention of violence, University of Washington) à “Rap and hip hop music is promoting unhealthy lifestyles. It is about the happiness of beating someone up or hurting them in a certain way. It’s also full of racist comments  - black girls are not seeing positive images of who they can be.”

2.      Sanjana (student at Indus School, Bangalore, 7^th grade) à “Hip hop consists of more than dance? I don’t believe you. And the only thing I see in it is fun. Is there much else?”

3.      Yeshwanti Balagopal (my mother) à “In general, it’s good as it reflects a popular culture. But sometimes I do not like the music or art because it uses a lot of bad language.”

4.      Pragya Bhatt (my grade-mate) à “All that I see in the dance is that it is nice to watch and hard to do. And because it’s hard, I don’t do it.”

So, like I said, there are very mixed reactions to this. People often don’t realise the good, bad and worse things that are part of anything and I think that people should really understand and think about what they are doing. I hope now that you have read my article, you will understand more about hip hop, and that next time you see graffiti or hear hip hop music, you will think about it differently.