“Hip- hop started out in the heart.” -Lauryn Hill

Lauryn Hill is one of the most influential female lyricists of this era, in the realm of hip- hop. She accurately summed up the root for all hip- hop when she said that, “Hip- hop started out in the heart.” The original hip- hop artists had their roots in Jamaica, when they used spoken word over elements of reggae music. One of the earliest known “rappers” is Kool Herc. He moved to the Bronx from Kingston, Jamaica in the early 70’s and attempted to speak over reggae music. At this time, many Americans had not even heard of reggae music s

“A sign of the times, behind every fortune, there’s a crime.”- Method Man

1. DJing. To be a DJ, to create music is one of the main elements of hip- hop. Without the music, there is no hip- hop. Without hip- hop there is no music.

4. Graffiti. It is extremely prevalent in the inner cities, as well as extremely beautiful. The artists often paint murals, depicting things that only hip- hop people can understand.

“The white man came to Africa with Bibles and rifles.”- Dead Prez.

Another way that this could be interpreted is in the rap game, once the lyricist gains everything that they have been striving for, they loose sight of where they came from and perhaps more importantly, where they are going. This is an extremely Confucian school of though that we should use all of our skills to achieve what we need without loosing direction. In fact, Rikki Stein of the Pan- African Arts Movement said, “Heaven help any musician who strays from his given task. Fury would descend upon him until, in mortal terror, he finds his way back to the groove.” This is another, more eloquently way to state the exact same thing that Method Man said.

Some topics in this essay:
Black Americans, Bullshit Isn’t, Breakdancing Breakdancing, Lauryn Hill, Eventually Herc, Snoop Dre, Bubba Sparks, hip- hop, African- Americans, Arts Movement, AIDS Tupac, “hip- hop, hop music, hip- hop music, type music, “hip- hop started, started heart”, hop hip-, reggae music, rap game, hop started, hip- hop revolution, music hip- hop, hop started heart”, music hip-,