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THE EVOLUTION OF HIP HOP
In the late 1970s, marginalized black and Latino youth in the Bronx birthed hip hop music and culture. With limited access to resources for entertainment or distraction from gang life, they redefined the world in their own terms, creating a new form of music on turntables, their makeshift instrument of choice.
Hip hop was born as public art, with deejays plugging sound equipment directly into street power sources, b-boys and b-girls showcasing new forms of dance on pieces of cardboard, and graffiti artists illuminating neighborhoods with murals crafted out of nothing but their imaginations and spray cans, often adapted from discarded aerosol deodorant or insecticide caps.
At its roots, hip hop was born from an inherent need to resist the manifestations of racism and socioeconomic inequality deeply attached to the lives of New York's young people, to give voice and expression to societal ills and create new possibilities.
Hip hop was and is inherently political, its music and culture driven by young people looking for social empowerment, if not within mainstream society, certainly amongst themselves.
More than 30 years after its birth in the Bronx, hip hop has gained credibility not just with American youth, but among youth worldwide. With the introduction of media like MTV and online music sites, hip hop has spread across the globe. From Japan to Germany to Uganda, young people worldwide are embracing -- and uniting -- through hip hop.
At the same time, the hip hop movement today struggles to balance its commercialization -- too often dependent on the sexism and consumerism to which popular culture so readily responds and often demands -- with its roots of resistance and empowerment.
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