Jul 06 2008
Hip Hop Culture - The Other Two, Maybe Three Elements
Around last week, I did a short entry on three of my favorite b-boys and I mentioned briefly that breakdancing is one of the four elements of hip hop. Since I’ve already covered that, and since the majority of the blog is devoted to rapping, I figured I might as well devote this entry to the final two elements. Or three, depending on who you ask.
The first of the remaining two or three (screw it. two and a half) elements is the one that causes the most controversy: street art, otherwise known as graffiti. Some call it vandalism, other’s call it an expression of the self, I say whatever it is, it remains an integral part of the hip hop culture. Here’s a video of a sick graffiti animation done by this cat named Blu.
Damn, if that’s not legit art, I don’t know what is. Anyways, the second of the remaining elements is one that the mainstream hears of all the time, but probably has no real idea of what it is: the art of DJ-ing. I say most people have no idea what it is because let’s face it. When most people hear the word DJ, they’ll think of one of two things. Either they’ll think of that lame ass mixtape DJ who just gets a bunch of hot tracks, puts them together, and shouts his or her name on it a million times or they’ll think of the dude in the club that spins the new garbage. And that’s the sad truth. I now present to you, what a DJ should be like. It’s a clip of the one and only DJ freaking Qbert.
Fuck, that’s some fast ass hands. And now, we’re at our final, sometimes disputed part of the hip hop culture. I honestly think that it’s a legit part of the culture, but people just like the nice square number of four, and don’t wanna ruin that. Anyways, the fifth element is one that everyone should be familiar with, beatboxing. And to tell you the truth, when I hear beatboxing, I only think of two names: Doug E. Fresh and Rahzel. And since I think that most of my readers will find Rahzel’s technique to be of more interest, without further ado, voila.
Hope ya’ll had a spectacular Independence Day weekend.
