Hip Hop - Legacy

Legacy

Having its roots in reggae, disco and funk, hip hop has since exponentially expanded into a widely accepted form of representation world wide. It expansion includes events like Afrika Bambaataa releasing "Planet Rock" in 1982, which tried to establish a more global harmony in hip hop. In the 1980s, the British Slick Rick became the first international hit hip hop artist not native to America. From the 1980s onward, television became the major source of widespread outsourcing of hip hop to the global world. From Yo! MTV Raps to Public Enemy's world tour, hip hop spread further to Latin America and became a mainstream culture within the given context. As follows, hip hop has been cut mixed and changed to the areas that adapt to it.

Early hip hop has often been credited with helping to reduce inner-city gang violence by replacing physical violence with hip hop battles of dance and artwork. However, with the emergence of commercial and crime-related rap during the early 1990s, an emphasis on violence was incorporated, with many rappers boasting about drugs, weapons, misogyny, and violence. While hip hop music now appeals to a broader demographic, media critics argue that socially and politically conscious hip hop has long been disregarded by mainstream America in favor of its media-baiting sibling, gangsta rap.

Many artists are now considered to be alternative/underground hip hop when they attempt to reflect what they believe to be the original elements of the culture. Artists/groups such as Lupe Fiasco, The Roots, Shing02, Jay Electronica, Nas, Common, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Dilated Peoples, Dead Prez, Blackalicious, Jurassic 5, Kendrick Lamar, Gangstarr, KRS-One, Living Legends and hundreds more emphasize messages of verbal skill, internal/external conflicts, life lessons, unity, social issues, or activism.