Hip hop is the composition of all three of the above mentioned aspects. Some might refute the message that some hip hop bestows but the fact that these women and men are artists is not even arguable. Hip hop was a feeling way before it ever became a way to express oneself and it will last as a way of life long after all the other types of expression are gone!

Breakdance

A varying form of self expression connected to rap was born in the form of breakdancing. People could be seen not only at get-togethers on street corners with nothing more then a piece of cardboard and a boom box or radio, dancing for self expression, competitions and even for cash in some cases.

Some youth weren’t capable of rapping nor could they dance but they had to discover an outlet or a way in which they can also be included in this movement. What they did have was the artistic ability. This art form which to most is called graffiti was now renamed “tagging” in the hip hop culture. Whether you concur with the way in which they went about showcasing their talent, no one can otherwise claim that they truly were talented. Tagging happened when the artist of one crew or gang would create an icon or slogan that was to be his group’s logo and spray paint this all over subway trains.

Why trains and not walls?

It’s because the subway system ran through the city, and was advertisement of his posse to the other respective crews. It became a game in the regard that if you could get your tag over the top of another squad’s tag you would have pretty much performed the hip hop kind of a check mate!

Hip Hop was created by a group of inner city american youth who were not getting a fair chance at a quality life. History shows that when expression is inhibited something bad, usually aggression often will follow. In the case of hip hop though the aggression wasn’t voiced in the form of violence but rather in an evolution that would change not only the metropolitan areas close to its birth but our fellowship as a whole!

In the middle to late seventies young Black and Latino youths from the Bronx, NY, were searching for a way to communicate for themselves and began to have open microphones at get-togethers which they  would utilize to perform a method of poetry over any song that was being played. This was the beginnings of rap music. Although rapping might seem effortless to a novice the facts are that not everyone had the versatility to express themselves in this manner.

Hip hop

Hip Hop started among African Americans in the Bronx back in the 70s but has been very much accepted by the youth worldwide crossing social and cultural barriers.

The four main elements comprising the hip hop culture include:

• Breakdancing,
• Beatboxing,
• Rapping,
• Graffiti art.

Fashion is also an important aspect of hip hop and has a very distinct look favored even by those who do not engage in other hip hop related activities.

See also

• Breakdancing
• Breakdance Competitions

Breakdancing is one of the four elements of hip hop that is executed in time with hip hop or funk music.

Breakdancing, as the term implies, includes dance moves that look so difficult yet so graceful and different that it looks like the dancers can break their bones doing the moves. Breakdancing is unlike most dances in that it is very unstructured and the dancer is given great freedom to improvise. What this means is that though there are basic dance steps the combination of steps to be used is up to the dancer so that watching a group of dancers more often than not you will see each one doing his own routine at the same time.

Battles are simply dancing competitions where in breakdancers show off their moves and are judged either by the audience or by a group of judges.

Battles can have any number of participants from just two people to a large group of people divided into teams.

Participants of battles are not given time to dance an entire song alone on stage but dances almost alongside their competition since it is turn-based with turns taking placing very quickly.

Battles are more like debates with participants taking turns.