Hip to Hip-Hop

It was all a dream, I used to read Word-Up magazines- Biggie Smalls.

Members of the hip-hop discourse community know that this is a line from Biggie
Smalls song Notorious. He is one of the most known rappers to this day even though he
is deceased. Knowing those lyrics is one of the requirements to being in the hip-hop
community along with many others.
Without rhythm and beats, its only so far you can go as far as hip-hop is
concerned. Beats are one of the top priorities when it comes to hip-hop from making the
song all the way to dancing. A song is composed of lyrics that are catchy but its the beat
of the song catches the attention of listeners. Parts of hip-hop beats have been used in
other songs which is called sampling. For example, a current hip-hop artist by the name
of J.Cole has a song called Can I holla at ya. The beginning of this song has a sample
from Lauryn Hills Zion that plays her exact song for the beginning and then the
instrumental of it for the rest of the song. Not all beats use samples but a lot in newer
songs are from samples. Beats also use common instrument to create sounds. A
commonly used instrument used is the 808. Kanye West has an album 808s and
Heartbreaks named after the instrument. Now moving from the beat you have rhythm,
which allows you to go along with the beat in a smooth transitional way. Rhythm within
this generation really refers to whether you can feel the beat enough to dance to it and be
on rhythm. A popular song called the Nae Nae is a dance where you move your body
back and forth along with your hand in the air. If you dont have rhythm, you're most
likely going to be off beat. This is usually frowned upon in the hip hop community.

Rhythm is not something that everybody has so there is leniency. Rhythm is not the most
important aspect of the hip-hop community but it is so prevalent that its almost second
nature to its members.
Right along with rhythms and beats come dances like already mentioned
previously. Dances like doing the butt, tootsie roll, butterfly, hammer time,
running man eventually turned into 2 steps, jerking, dougie,catdaddy and then
the nae nae. All the dances mentioned are hip-hop dances that have in another way
brought the hip-hop community together. Dancing of course has changed over time with
hip-hop and has gotten a little more pointless and it seems like something small as using a
vacuum cleaner will eventually become a dance. Not only is the newer generation of
dances seem to be more pointless theyve also become more difficult to do versus the
self-explanatory dances that were created back in the older days of hip-hop. The diversity
in the moves is what sets hip-hop apart from other styles of dance and everything doesnt
seem exactly like an 8- count or a classical line dance. There are some popular dancers
out there that everyone within the hip-hop community should know and everyone outside
of it should make sure that they know. Kid-N-Play and Chris Brown would definitely be
two major hip-hop artist that have heavily influenced the dancing aspect of hip-hop and
they are extremely well-known within the community. Dancing goes so far back into hiphop and its just being remolded by the younger generation of hip-hop but as far as
someone who doesnt know hip-hop, they should know that dancing of some kind will
always be present when it comes to hip-hop.
The hip-hop community all has the same goal different regions and their style of
hip-hop causes variation as to what they are trying to get their point across and say within

their music. Northern hip-hop is more hard core and street style of music and a lot of
artist such as Jay-Z, Tupac, and Biggie Smalls are well known for representing that
region. Next you have the east coast, which brings more hip-hop music that you can
dance to and its not as hard-core as up north. Artist such as Chris Brown and J.Cole are
both from this region. The east coast also has a tendency to release mellow music and
dancing music. The west coast brings two different sides, with one being more
mainstream and the other more gang-related side of hip-hop out. Majority of the music
comes from California, especially out of L.A. L.A has Hollywood which automatically
makes everything more mainstream and thats where several artist reside to start off with,
but then you also have cities like Compton where the rapper Kendrick Lamar comes
from. Compton is one of the most dangerous cities in America which affect the musical
content. Rappers usually rap about their life growing up and what they had to go through
in life. Different regions and styles of hip-hop allows for more people to relate that are
already within the community and the prospective members.
Being apart of a community may cause changes in your behavior and personality.
Members tend to behave based on what favorite rapper is rhyming about. For example,
alcohol and drug used is talked about heavily and many teenagers are trying them just
because they heard about it first in a hip-hop song. Members of the hip-hop community
know that majority of hip-hop songs relate to that artist getting out of the hood and
changing their life for the better, especially for their mother. So rapping usually allows
for rappers to not have that primary focus on drugs and other bad habits, but actually
doing something with their talent of rapping and expressing themselves by telling a story.
Artist that are known for telling about their lifestyle that their story is almost second

nature if you know the hip-hop community well would be J.Cole, Kendrick Lamar,
Tupac, Biggie Smalls, Meek Mills, and Drake.
The components previously mentioned would be pointless if you didnt have
legends and artist to make hip-hop music. The difference between legends and current
rappers is that legends have been around for longer and have made such a great impact
that a reference is made about them at least once by current rappers. Their name will also
live forever on in the hip-hop community. Biggie Smalls, Tupac, Eazy-E, Run-DMC, PDiddy, Doug E Fresh, and MC Lyte just to name a few. Identifying legends establishes a
foundation of knowledge in the hip hop community.
Another goal of hip-hop is to continue and make sure hip-hop stays relevant in the
public. Underground music can consist of so many unknown rappers and isnt in the
typical style of hip-hop. Underground rappers also tend to have a heavy view of a certain
topic causing them to a advocate of that topic and the music can come across very raw
and aggressive. Mainstream is what is most popular because its music that a majority of
their listeners will like enough to buy. Mainstream music is constantly being played on
the radio and everyone knows it. Artist that are considered on the come up of mainstream
but carry a underground vibe would be A$AP Rocky, Childish Gambino, Tyler the
Creator, The Weekend, and Partynextdoor.
Hip-hop has progressed exponentially with the help of its discourse community..
The common goal of the hip-hop discourse community is to be able to relate to anything
on the subject of hip-hop, and spreading hip-hop with others so they can be
knowledgeable about the current and past.