50 years of hip hop that changed American music

America has been quite inventive in its cultural forms, especially popular culture, more so in music. Cultural historians trace American popular music to the jazz sung by the blacks in the early decades of the 20th century, and how it led to the birth of rock and roll of Elvis Presley in the 1950s. Then it evolved into rock, hard rock, acid rock, and then metal. But suddenly out of nowhere emerged hip hop in 1973 from Bronx, the generally doomed district of blacks in New York caught in gang wars, in drugs and with no prospects of realising the American Dream. It is traced to Clive Campbell, who was born and spent his earlier years in Jamaica. The music he organised for his younger sister in the community hall became the seed of hip hop. And as it spread first in Bronx, and then to New York and then to the rest of America and it became the new phenomenon which bowled over everyone, and soon won for itself a place on the music charts, recognised by the recording companies. Success zoomed and so did money.

But it was basically something that came out of a depressed place where black youth hung along without much hope. But hip hop became the protest anthem of these black youth. And what is indeed is its form and content? Guy “Master Gee” O’Brien sums it up succinctly: “If you couldn’t sing or you couldn’t play an instrument, you could recite poetry and speak your mind. And so it became accessible to the everyman.” So, it broke with formal music in all its myriad forms, and from lyrics of all kinds, and it just became plain speech aligned to the grooving dance steps. The break dance on the streets turned hip hop into the new rage and it soon attained cult status. It was not a closed cult as cults tend to be. It was open to everyone, and whatever changes the new entrants brought in it became a variation of hip hop. And so it grew and so it multiplied. In the beginning, it seemed a boys’ thing. But in 1984 women singers joined in and there was no stopping them. And it spread to other countries.

Hip hop was protest music from the streets of down-and-out Bronx indeed. But it did not remain at the bottom and on the margins. As it changed, motivated sports like basketball, especially the big league National Basketball Association (NBA) stars, many of them blacks, then its influence became phenomenal. And all this without hip hop losing its edginess, its rebellious intent and content. It became mainstream. It became respectable. Most of the hip hop singers have been controversial, at a personal level and also in their political views. Hip hop has retained its protest element in spite of becoming a respected musical genre.

It can be said that economically down-trodden and politically marginalised blacks have used hip hop to find their way out of despair, and in their very cultural protest found a way in life and a reassertion of hope. It is art coming from the bottom rung of society, and climbing up rapidly without losing its fieriness. Hip hop music channelised black frustrations and aspirations, and it has in many ways fulfilled the aspirations even as it expressed the frustrations. And it largely remains a black music and cultural phenomenon. Hip hop is a fine example of how an oppressed section of society can usher in a cultural revolution with a strong political message, and get accepted by the rest of society. It is not an easy thing to achieve.