What exactly is hip-hop culture like? Where did it come from?

Hip hop is a popular culture, which originated from primitive tribes in Africa and gradually evolved into a global youth cultural movement. "Hip-hop" has long been a popular fashion, and even has become a customary habit. Wearing loose but expensive clothes, including brand-name headscarves or sports hats, collector's edition sneakers, and of course, mobile phones and headphones with digital photography, plus a bunch of shiny metal ornaments, is stepping on that wobbly pace.

The word HipHop comes from black Americans. Hip means ass, and Hop means jumping. The whole Hiphop culture originated in Brooklyn, Manhattan, USA in 1960s. As we all know, Brooklyn is a famous slum in America. In this living environment, people can't find jobs and don't have enough money to study. Black teenagers who have nothing to do all day like singing and dancing and playing street basketball. In this process, the unique musical talent, physical flexibility and creative inspiration of black people were brought into their song and dance culture, and gradually formed their unique song and dance forms. They can't afford good audio equipment, so they can only take old-fashioned big tape recorders to their entertainment places. They have no money to buy fashionable clothes, so they have to make do with their parents' clothes one size bigger than their bodies, thus forming a unique clothing culture.

The government found that the proportion of black young people who are obsessed with Hip-Hop involved in fighting, taking drugs and stealing is much less than that of those who are not obsessed with Hip-Hop, so it supported the development of Hip-Hop and the culture of Hip-Hop gradually developed. Nowadays, Hiphop is mainly defined as a cultural classification. Generally, it includes four elements: DJ, MC, Bboying and Graffitti. But the so-called four elements of HipHop have actually met universality. Because HipHop really originated from American black culture. This is a way of life. Even a person DJ, MC, Bboy, Graffitti and so on don't know anything. As long as his mentality, words and deeds are close to that culture, he can also be said to be very HipHop. Therefore, Hiphop is a very pure civilian culture, which has been inherited and innovated by countless people, so it is also very vital.

Because the original intention of HipHop is that poor blacks vent their dissatisfaction with social injustice and discrimination against whites with bad words, deeds and life expressions, fundamentally, the original spirit of HipHop and most of its contents are not accepted by the government or society. With the progress of society and the improvement of black status, the style of the sixties and seventies has gradually become obsolete. Moreover, in order to promote HipHop to be accepted and recognized by more people, people who promote HipHop have begun to use new ways to keep HipHop alive and developing, and gradually show its sunny, energetic and youthful side to the society. Nowadays, HipHop has become one of the signs of youthful vitality, and it is no longer the spokesman of poor black Americans. According to the current development trend, HipHop will have greater influence in society. So HipHop has changed a lot compared with the past, but there are several points that have not changed and cannot be changed, and these are the spirit of HipHop. The first is its theme level. HipHop belongs to the culture of the bottom people, so it really pays attention to the joys and sorrows experienced by the author (and ourselves). The second is its performance level. Hip-hop's expressive force is also straightforward and emotional, which is a repressed force, which is related to the contradictions, tensions and rebellions that the lower classes often experience in their lives, and of course it is unacceptable to those who advocate pampering. The third is its belief level. Hip-hop culture's pursuit of fairness and freedom, real concern for life and respect for people, especially for ordinary people who belong to life, are revolutionary and belong to the post-modern category, so people who cater to mainstream society and mainstream culture can't understand it. They think they are pursuing advanced culture, but those things are not their own culture at all, but belong to political culture, minority culture and created by a few people. Those cultures are largely irrelevant to their own lives.

Hip-hop culture is not an isolated cultural phenomenon, but a grassroots cultural movement in which American black youth inherit the essence of black cultural movement and reconstruct black culture in the face of realistic environment. "It represents the definition of self-identity of black American youth, their participation in the construction of urban education methods, and their understanding and renegotiation of the social life of urban community people."

Hiphop was introduced to Japan in 1980s, and then to South Korea, where it developed rapidly. Hong Kong is a place where people can get in touch with foreign things quickly, so HipHop culture appeared in the early 1990s and became popular in the mid-1990s, gradually becoming a trend.