Hip Hop - Anywhere Artist

Current Featured Artists (Updated Regularly):
stic.man of Dead Prez, Mitchy Slick, Klass Money, aka Subliminal, Batabazi, Dumi Right, Farrah Burns, JtheSarge, Myka 9, RicandThadeus, Unity, and Winstrong

What is Hip Hop?

Three decades after its birth, hip-hop, which began as an artistic expression for black, urban youth, has come to be accepted and created by people all over the world.

Hip-hop emerged out of the social upheaval of the 1970s in New York's Bronx borough. Following the civil rights movement, blacks and Latinos in New York, particularly the South Bronx, battled with government neglect, high unemployment rates and slum-like housing.

Hip-hop became a way to express dissatisfaction with society and call for change. DJ Kool Herc, known for creating the breakbeat, the basis for hip-hop, is credited as a pioneer of the genre.

Hip-hop spread in New York and beyond with the likes of Grandmaster Flash, Public Enemy and Wu-Tang Clan. As hip-hop evolved, cities across America joined the movement. California became a hip-hop hot spot with some of its most famous artists including Snoop Dogg and New York-born California resident Tupac Shakur, whose poetic lyrics addressed issues such as racism and parental abandonment.

And as hip-hop music spread in America, it spread across art forms, races and nations. Graphic art, or graffiti, became part of hip-hop, along with spoken word poetry and hip-hop dance, which includes break dancing, popping and locking.

"On a purely aesthetic level, [hip hop is] danceable beats mixed with catchy hooks and lyrical, poetic rhymes are cross-culturally appealing,"

"On a sociocultural level, hip-hop is a music rooted in the real, while that 'real' is often exaggerated for effect (as in the glorification of violence or bravado, etc.), it is still a music rooted in the everyday experience of artists who have something to say about inequality or imbalances of power. And that is a sentiment that has no cultural barriers."

Reminiscent of its social roots, hip-hop is a tool for activism, a way to reach out to many fans of hip-hop -- the youth.

If you like this app, please be sure to give it a 5 star rating and help promote Hip-Hop to millions of iOS users. You can also share links to your favorite music and the app with friends on Facebook and Twitter.

You'll like this music if you like: Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Talib Kweli, Xzibit, 50 Cent, Lil' Wayne, etc.

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