Hip-Hop is for Everybody: Examining the Roots and Growth of Hip-Hop
Starting from humble roots, hip-hop has grown from the creative outlet of underrepresented black teenagers living in the South Bronx in the late 1970s to a highly successful commercialized business that in 2000 grossed over $1.8 billion in sales in the United States. (Kun, 581) Hip-hop is not only successful in the United States, but also, its influence has permeated the entire planet, becoming a global creative and economic force. Historically the genre has been considered representative of the voice of the black community, but some critics argue that the commercialization and globalization of hip-hop music dilutes its message so that the genre no longer truly represents the voice of the black community.
In his 1999 manifesto “Fear Not of Man,” the highly acclaimed rapper Mos Def proclaims, “We are hip-hop.” (Mos Def, 1999) Who is the “we” Mos Def is referring to? Who exactly constitutes hip-hop? Traditionally this “we” would be interpreted as America’s black community, but, as we have seen, the consumers and producers of hip-hop have expanded far beyond the black community. Mos Def recognizes the ever expanding base of hip-hop and later in “Fear Not of Man” states that, “Me, you, everybody – we are hip-hop,” suggesting that hip-hop music no longer solely represents solely the voice of the black community, instead, hip-hop now represents all those who partake in or promote hip-hop culture whether male or female, rich or poor, black or white, American or foreign, and so on. (Mos Def, 1999)
In today’s commercial world, hip-hop has even gone so far as to represent various companies and products. After an analysis of the roots of hip-hop and the growing commercialization and globalization of the genre, it becomes evident that Mos Def’s assessment is correct and hip-hop currently represents far more than the black community.
The roots of hip-hop date back to the South Bronx in the 1970s, when the construction of the Cross-Bronx expressway displaced many black and Hispanic families while many whites fled the area. Renewal projects also caused massive relocations of economically delicate blacks and Hispanics into the South Bronx. (Rose, 30) These displaced citizens were left with “few city resources, fragmented leadership, and limited political power” and the South Bronx started to become depicted as “drained of life, energy, and vitality.” (Rose, 33)
The youngest generation of these relocated families began frantically searching for outlets to channel their creativity and aggression, and soon hip-hop emerged, providing black youths with an identity and cultural support groups through deejaying, rapping, break dancing, and graffiti production. (Rose, 33-34) Author Tricia Rose suggests in her seminal masterpiece, Black Noise, that rap is deeply rooted in “premodern oral traditions” while hip-hop itself follows in the footsteps of previous black musical styles such as jazz, blues, and southern soul music. (Rose, 21, 185) These genres of music all have historic roots in black culture and society and were later commercialized and expanded to wider audiences, both globally and ethnically: something that is currently happening to hip-hop.
Early rappers voiced their frustrations of a society in which urban blacks were oppressed, powerless, vulnerable, and underrepresented. The first rappers criticized institutions such as the police, the government, and media, as well as the discrimination faced by blacks; the themes in these songs clearly representative of the plight of blacks. (Rose, 106) Boogie Down Productions’ 1989 song “Who Protects Us From You?” is a prime example of themes used in early rap songs, commenting on the ills of police brutality and racism. (Rose, 106)
These early rap artists such as Grandmaster Flash and the Sugarhill Gang were signed to small independent labels and those not a fan of the genre assumed rap and hip-hop would be a passing fad. (Rose, 6) However, doubts of hip-hop’s ability to become a viable commercial force were quelled in 1979 whe