Hip to Hip-Hop

It was all a dream, I used to read Word-Up magazines- Biggie Smalls.

Members of the hip-hop discourse community know that this is a line from Biggie

Comment [W1]: Can you find a stronger

quote to use as an opening sentence?

Smalls song Notorious. He is one of the most well-known rappers to this day even
though he is deceased. Knowing those lyrics is one of the requirements to being in the
hip-hop community along with many others.
Without rhythm and beats, its only so far you can go as far as hip-hop is
concerned. Beats are one of the top priorities when it comes to hip-hop from making the
song all the way to dancing. A song is composed of lyrics that are catchy but its the beat

Comment [W2]: This is an awkward

transition.

Comment [W3]: Avoid 2nd person:

http://english.tjc.edu/jbru/grammar/secon
d.htm

of the song that catches the attention of listeners. Parts of hip-hop beats have been used
in other songs which is called sampling. For example, a current hip-hop artist by the
name of J.Cole has a song called Can I holla at ya. The beginning of this song has a
sample from Lauryn Hills Zion that plays her exact song for the beginning and then

Comment [W4]: Periods go inside the

quotation marks.

the instrumental of it for the rest of the song. Not all beats use samples but a lot in newer
songs are from samples. Beats also use common instruments to create sounds. A
commonly used instrument used is the 808. Kanye West has an album 808s and
Heartbreaks named after the instrument. Now moving from the beat you have rhythm,
which allows you to go along with the beat in a smooth transitional way. Rhythm within
for the currentis generation really refers to whether you can feel the beat enough to dance
to it and be on rhythm. A popular song called the Nae Nae is a dance where you move
your body back and forth along with your hand in the air. If you dont have rhythm,
you're most likely going to be off beat. This is usually frowned upon in the hip hop

Comment [W5]: Awkward

Comment [W6]: This is an instrument?

Comment [W7]: http://www.writingclasse

s.com/WritersResources/AskTheWriterDeta
il.php?ID=235
Comment [W8]: Eliminate 2nd person.
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community, but . Rrhythm is not something that everybody has so there is leniency.
Rhythm is not the most important aspect of the hip-hop community but it is so prevalent
that its almost second nature to its members.
Right along with rhythms and beats come dances like already mentioned
previously. Dances like doing the butt, tootsie roll, butterfly, hammer time,
running man eventually turned into 2 steps, jerking, dougie,catdaddy and then
the nae nae. All the dances mentioned are hip-hop dances that have in another way
brought the hip-hop community together. Dancing of course has changed over time with
hip-hop and has gotten a little more pointless and it seems like something small as using a
vacuum cleaner will eventually become a dance. Not only is the newer generation of
dances seem to be more pointless theyve also become more difficult to do versus the
self-explanatory dances that were created back in the older days of hip-hop. The diversity

Comment [W9]: Capitalize the names of

the dances.
Comment [W10]: This information would
be good in the topic sentence.
Comment [W11]: This seems off topic and
a bit insulting to your group.
Comment [W12]: This seems like
opposites.

in the moves is what sets hip-hop apart from other styles of dance and everything doesnt
seem exactly like an 8- count or a classical line dance. There are some popular dancers
out there that everyone within the hip-hop community should know and everyone outside
of it should make sure that they know. Kid-N-Play and Chris Brown would definitely be
two major hip-hop artist that have heavily influenced the dancing aspect of hip-hop and
they are extremely well-known within the community. Dancing goes so far back into hiphop and its just being remolded by the younger generation of hip-hop but as far as
someone who doesnt know hip-hop, they should know that dancing of some kind will
always be present when it comes to hip-hop.
Now even though the hip-hop community all has the same goals, different regions
and their style of hip-hop causes variation as to what they are trying to get their point

Comment [W13]: These thoughts dont

seem related enough to be joined into one
sentence.
Comment [W14]: New paragraph?

across and say within their music. Northern hip-hop is more hard core and has a street
style of music and a lot of artist such as Jay-Z, Tupac, and Biggie Smalls are well known
for representing that region. Next you have the east coast, which brings more hip-hop
music that you can dance to and its not as hard-core as up north. Artists such as Chris
Brown and J.Cole are both from this region. The east coast also has a tendency to release

Comment [W15]: awkward

Comment [W16]: Avoid using two or more

conjunctions in the same sentence. Consider
breaking it up instead.
Comment [W17]: Wordy:
http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/educatio
n/grammar/wordiness-and-idioms

mellow music and dancing music. The west coast brings two different sides, with one
being more mainstream and the other more gang-related side of hip-hop out. Majority of
the music comes from California, especially out of L.A. L.A has Hollywood which
automatically makes everything more mainstream and thats where several artist reside to
start off with, but then you also have cities like Compton where the rapper Kendrick
Lamar comes from. Compton is one of the most dangerous cities in America which affect
the musical content. Rappers usually rap about their life growing up and what they had to
go through in life. Different regions and styles of hip-hop allows for more people to relate
that are already within the community and the prospective members.
Being a part of a community may cause changes in your behavior and personality.
Members tend to behave based on what their favorite rapper is rhyming about. For
example, alcohol and drug used is talked about heavily and many teenagers are trying
them just because they heard about it first in a hip-hop song. Members of the hip-hop
community know that majority of hip-hop songs relate to that artist getting out of the
hood and changing their life for the better, especially for their mother. So rapping
usually allows for rappers to not have that primary focus on drugs and other bad habits,
but actually doing something with their talent of rapping and expressing themselves by
telling a story. Artist that are known for telling about their lifestyle that their story is

Formatted: Highlight
Comment [W18]: I highly recommend
taking this to the Writing Resource Center
for help with wordiness and organization.
You seem to have some good ideas, but its
not clear how they relate to the idea of a
discourse community.

almost second nature if you know the hip-hop community well would be J.Cole,
Kendrick Lamar, Tupac, Biggie Smalls, Meek Mills, and Drake.
The components previously mentioned would be pointless if you didnt have
legends and artist to make hip-hop music. The difference between legends and current
rappers is that legends have been around for longer and have made such a great impact
that a reference is made about them at least once by current rappers. Their name will also
live forever on in the hip-hop community. Biggie Smalls, Tupac, Eazy-E, Run-DMC, PDiddy, Doug E Fresh, and MC Lyte just to name a few. Identifying legends establishes a
foundation of knowledge in the hip hop community.
Another goal of hip-hop is to continue and make sure hip-hop stays relevant in the
public. Underground music can consist of so many unknown rappers and isnt in the
typical style of hip-hop. Underground rappers also tend to have a heavy view of a certain
topic causing them to a advocate of that topic and the music can come across very raw
and aggressive. Mainstream is what is most popular because its music that a majority of
their listeners will like enough to buy. Mainstream music is constantly being played on
the radio and everyone knows it. Artist that are considered on the come up of mainstream
but carry a underground vibe would be A$AP Rocky, Childish Gambino, Tyler the
Creator, The Weekend, and Partynextdoor.
Hip-hop has progressed exponentially with the help of its discourse community..
The common goal of the hip-hop discourse community is to be able to relate to anything
on the subject of hip-hop, and spreading hip-hop with others so they can be
knowledgeable about the current and past of hip-hop all while enjoying what hip-hop
itself has to offer.