The roots of Hip Hop date to the 1970’s and around found in African, Jamaican, Latino and African-American music.  Hop Hop arose during the 1970’s when block parties became popular in New York City. Block parties incorporated DJs who played popular genres of music, especially funk and soul music. DJs, realizing its positive reception, began isolating the percussion breaks of popular songs. Turntablist techniques, such as beat mixing/matching, scratching and beat juggling eventually developed along with the breaks, creating a base that could be rapped over.

Corresponding dance elements developed from the Latino influence of Puerto Ricans in the Bronx. During the early 1970s break dancing arose during block parties, as b-boys and b-girls got in front of the audience to dance in a distinctive and frenetic style.

Jamaican immigrants provided an influence on the vocal style of rapping by delivering simple raps at their parties, inspired by the Jamaican tradition of toasting DJs and MCs would often add call and response chants, often comprising of a basic chorus, to allow the performer to gather his thoughts (e.g. “one, two, three, y’all, to the beat”).

Later, the MCs grew more varied in their vocal and rhythmic approach, incorporating brief rhymes in an effort at differentiating themselves and entertaining the audience. Hip hop music was an outlet and a “voice” for disenfranchised youth as the culture reflected the social, economic and political realities of their lives.

During the 80’s and 90’s, Hip Hop and Hip Hop culture became very popular and spread from New York to the West Coast and then worldwide.  Hip Hop found commercial success and appeared in mainstream platforms such as cinema and commercials.

Gangsta rap is a subgenre of hip hop that reflects the violent lifestyles of inner-city American black youths.  In the early 1990s, gangsta rap became the most commercially lucrative subgenre of hip hop. The subject matter inherent in gangsta rap has caused a great deal of controversy. Gangsta rappers often defend themselves by saying that they are describing the reality of inner-city life.

Conscious hip hop or socially conscious hip-hop is a subgenre of hip hop that focuses on social issues.  It is not necessarily overtly political, but it discusses social issues and conflicts.  Themes of conscious hip hop include religion, aversion to violence, African American culture, the economy or depictions of the life of ordinary people.  Elementz encourages and performs conscious hip hop.  Our public showcases in particular are appropriate for the community and for families.

Elementz provides instruction in core “elements” of Hip Hop that are MC’ing and Recording Engineering, DJ’ing, Graffiti Arts and Dance.  We also support variations on these core elements that would include developing beats, mixing, graphic design, poetry, and performance.