Hip hop is a genre of popular music that originated in the Bronx borough of New York City in the early 1970s by African Americans. It is a cultural movement that has influenced everything from fashion to politics. Hip hop music consists of stylized rhythmic music, usually built around drum beats, that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. Hip hop culture is defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, break dancing, and graffiti art. Other elements include sampling beats or bass lines from records (or synthesized beats and sounds), and rhythmic beatboxing. Hip hop originated as an anti-drug and anti-violence genre. According to the professor Asante of African American studies at Temple University, "hip hop is something that blacks can unequivocally claim as their own".
Hip hop is more than just music; it is a cultural movement that incorporates different elements of art. The original four main pillars of hip hop include DJing/turntablism, MCing/rapping, B-boying/breaking, and visual/graffiti art. These forms of expression have also developed into further subcultures with lasting legacies. The intersection of these four elements generated a cultural revolution that rapidly spread across the globe. The global influence of hip hop culture has shaped music styles, fashion, technology, art, entertainment, language, dance, education, politics, media, and more. To this day, hip hop continues to be a global phenomenon.
