Hip Hop Subculture

Occasionally, one is faced with compositions of music that blur the lines of genre and classification. Whether this is due to an artist who was previously categorized within one genre and branched out, or if the music bears similarities to the prototype of multiple musical genres, there can be confusion and hesitation regarding classifying certain pieces of music. Runnin’, also known as The Pharcyde Song, by Pharcyde is one of these confusing pieces when the rapping is parsed apart from the instrumental music.
To begin this particular discussion, it is imperative that a firm definition of hip-hop be set. Merriam Webster defines hip-hop as “a subculture especially of inner-city youths who are typically devotees of rap music”, while Urban Dictionary takes a different approach stating, “Hip Hop is a social-political movement created in the late 70's. Hip Hop is a culture to give people who grew up in the ghetto a voice, songs in hip hop are spoken from personal
In Ortiz Walton’s writing entitled “Music - Black, White, and Blue: A Sociological Survey of the Use and Misuse of Afro-American Music”, he details, in more depth, the specific characteristics of the West African tradition including collective participation, tonal language, african instruments and their particular stylings, scales, improvisation, and antiphony. Similarly, Robert Farris Thompson and Jeff Chang, in their separate pieces, describe the impact of Jamaican, Puerto Rican, Barbadian, and Cuban musical influence. With this being said, Runnin’, makes use of the West African instrument foundations mentioned in Walton’s article. He discusses the early conceptions of the drums, piano, and string instruments and their roots in West African tradition. In addition, the use of antiphony, echoing or repeating a short phrase or word as a musical response within the piece, is interspersed in this