The focal concept of this essay is authenticity as it is given meaning in the hip-hop sub-culture. To analyse this genre of culture it seems best to consider how it has been represented and how it represents itself in society. A sub-culture can be thought of as a cultural group or class within a large culture, one having beliefs, interests and customs that are different to those of the greater population.

Hip hop music (rap) can be viewed as just one aspect of the subcultural movement of hip hop which also includes, graffiti, breakdancing, distinctive clothes and slang. When determing which people participate in hip hop subculture we look for signifiers that represent or are attached to members of the subculture. " We should not underestimate the signifying power of the spectacular subculture not only as a metaphor for potential anarchy 'out there' but as a actual mechanism for semantic disorder" (Hebdige, 1979:90 cited in Cultural Studies Theory and Practice, Barker,2000, pg 327,). Structural and semiotic theorist Hebdige analysed 'Punk' culture and concen

The media is a powerful tool in portraying subcultures and therefore constructing the popular image of them. In the case of hip-hop, news, reports, reviews and advertisements heavily influenced the image of the artists associated with the subculture. There are many media portrayals of hip-hop which are sensationalist and fear based. The hip-hop subculture developed a moral panic surrounding the tactics it uses to shock,as it is a very crude genre, but a desire to shock is central to hip-hop's authenticity. Rap is used as a tool to boost the subcultures image of power, both economically and politically. The rapper's intent is to transform the apparent commodification into a message revealing aspects of it's culture. The lyrics and images of rap stars like Ice-T and Ice Cube anticipated the L.A uprisings, which henceforth became a significant part of the iconography of rap. Rap engages a specific political era and space, showing what is going on in the urban underclass and it's rage with situations.

Hip hop evolved from young men living in some of the most degraded neighbourhoods of America, and created it for young people who rarely have the opportunity or desire to visit these places. A ghetto is an area rejected by the rest of the city, or the rest of the country, and it is unsurprising that the ghetto replies with a culture shunning the aspirations of the society that rejected it. Hip hop's intention was to reject liberal middle class morality, providing deliberately offensive messages. Hip hop subsidised the underclass's culture of exclusion through music speaking of tales of the black man as criminal, as sexual predator, and as an outsider.

In the postmodern global cultural scene hip-hop has become a dominant cultural form in many parts of the world. It is hybridising and localising, and producing new cultural matrices. Rap articulates the hip-hop ethos and gives voice to the subcultures that are producing and circulating it. It is a new cultural phenomenon suited exactly to the capitalist world , with rap opening doors to new cultural players, with corporate sharks ready to pounce on and exploit all new alternative cultures. Circulating ideas, images, sounds and styles, it is becoming central to the new multimedia global culture and is an expression of a multicultural world with no boundaries and no limits.

Some topics in this essay:
Ice Cube, Modernism Postmodernism2003, Focus Taylor, Theory Practice, Modernism Postmodernism, Nelson George1998, Sociology Perspective1997, Bronx Compton, Practice Barker2000, Nelson George, hip hop, hip-hop culture, believed separation subject, subject society society, culture period, studies theory, theory practice, hip hop's, cited sociology, culture language, cultural studies theory, studies theory practice, rap artists, 'style' elements, separation subject society,