Origins of Hip Hop: The Element of Surprise

by Brittany Hill

When speaking on the origins of hip hop, I will admit I encountered quite a few surprises. It wasn't the movement of Blacks through the city of the Bronx or the fact that violence and gangs were greatly involved in the creation of hip hop that had me at awe. It was actually the fact that the origination of hip hop was greatly influenced by Jamaica that had me so astonished. Not being a huge hip hop indulger and far from a hip hop mogul, I had no idea that a lot of what was happening across the waters was indeed affecting our people over here. I was actually under the impression that the actual outcome would have been that in reversed. I saw it as us producing hip hop and other countries picking it up or copying it, when in actuality that was not the case. It amazes me how something from another country can have such a great impact and influence on the culture and development of another country.
In Jeff Chang’s book Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation, one learns that the cross country influence continues to be evident through and in the pioneers and originators of hip hop. In chapter four the book mentions how Clive Campbell a.k.a. DJ Kool Herc had “seen the sound systems first hand” from “growing up in Kingston, Jamaica” (Chang, 2005, p. 68). Chapter five then tells that although Afrika Bambaataa was “born in Manhattan”, his parents were “of Jamaican and Barbadian descent” (Chang, 2005, p. 91). This continues to support my new found knowledge of Jamaica having such a huge impact on hip hop in America.
Another thing that I found to be surprising when exploring module three in my rhetoric of hip hop class was how, just like graffiti, rap music can indeed hold and incorporate so many different characteristics, styles, and elements of writing and literature. Knowing that time is actually spent in producing and composing rap lyrics makes you obtain a higher level of respect for the art of hip hop. Through reading Melbourne S. Cummings and Roy Abhik’s article Manifestations of Afrocentricity in Rap Music, I found that through the production and composition of rap music one can incorporate characteristics such as “repetition”, which is used for “intensification”, “stylin’”, which “refers to the conscious or unconscious use of language and/or mannerisms on the part of the communicator to create favorable influence on the audience”, as well as “mythication” which “shows the communicator using language that suggests that his or her message is sanctioned by some suprarational force to demonstrate the righteousness of the cause” (Cummings, 2002, pgs. 66 & 70).
Although I may have been faced with several surprises through my so far short lived journey through the world of hip hop, I do know there are many more to come. Yet, I will approach them just as I have approached the ones before them, with an open mind.


Works Cited
Chang, Jeff. (2005) Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Cummings, Melbourne S. and Roy, Abhik. (2002). Manifestations of Afrocentricity in Rap Music. The Howard Journal of Communications, 13, 59-79.