The Four Elements Of Hip Hop Music

Hip-Hop is more than meets the eye. It’s more than a genre of music. It is a lifestyle & culture that helped pave way for generations of youth to express themselves. Hip-Hop originated back in the 1970’s in the Bronx, New York. It has spread worldwide which was unimaginable almost 50 years ago. It has gone through many shifts throughout those years, but one thing that has remained constant & somewhat forgotten are the four elements of Hip-Hop(five to some) which are: Graffiti, emceeing, djing & b-boying a.k.a. breakdancing(the 5th being knowledge). For my Senior Project I took two of those elements; emceeing and partially djing(producing) to create a variety of hip-hop songs for an EP. The reason I wanted to do this is because ever since 9th grade, I have been in love with music, more specifically, rap. I was going through some tough times and it kept getting worse and worse. My friend who was 3 years older than me and who also struggled with his own problems told me to listen to 2Pac because his music helped him out a lot. I listened to him, and his music hit me instantly, more specifically the song “Nothing to Lose.” The things he would say and the way he would say it hit me hard. An example from that song is when he says “Where did I go astray? I'm hanging in the back streets Running with G's and dope
I was a lot less stressed out and was writing some of my best work too. I wanted to emulate the styles of 2Pac & J.Cole; being straight forward and to the point while not dumbing it down. The way Rakim & Kendrick write is too complicated for me. For my flow I wanted to perfect Method Man’s. He is in my top 5 and is crazy when it comes to rhyming. He says he considers himself a flower not a rapper. I also wanted to sound like Problem. His flow is standard but different at the same time. He sounds like he belongs on every beat he raps