FREE ESSAY ON MUSICMAKESMEHIGH

MUSICMAKESMEHIGH

Often times when people hear about Hip Hop/Rap music, they?fll paint a picture in their
heads of black men cussing, guns, marijuana, lots of gold,
and girls looking like prostitutes. Parents and teachers put an image in their kid?fs
head that Rap music is ?gbad?h, and they don?ft want their kids
to be influenced by something that is negative. With the way Rap music is advertised in
the US, I would have to agree with that looking at it from an average parent?fs point of
view. But what people don?ft know is that Hip Hop isn?ft just a type of music, it?fs a
culture. It?fs a culture full of original elements, and it?fs also a place where people
can show others what they?fve got and who they are. Within this original society called
Hip Hop, there are basically four main elements of MC, Break, Tag, and DJ. And each
is represented by millions of people all over the globe. When the four come together, it
makes Hip Hop music, and people live the music instead of listening to it. MC-ing is what
people know as rapping. The main point of an MC is to make your crowd enjoy your music,
and to send a message out to them. Unlike most
of the lyrics out on the market today, Hip Hop contains meaning and it sends a message to
the listeners. Although those messages might have bad words,and show images of things
that are socially wrong, that?fs actually what?fs going on where they are from, and
that?fs who they are. Their music
represents their area and their people, and it?fs no different from a farmer singing
about his cows and chickens in Idaho. Besides, ?gGangster Rap?h isn
?ft the only type of Hip Hop music, it?fs actually only a small sect of it all. Many
rappers put out lyrics about what they believe in, their own philosophies, entertaining
others, and although it may seem unlikely, many lyricists seem like Einstein to me. Just
like all of the other geniuses like Newton, Galileo, and musically Jimi, there are MCs
that are geniuses too. What makes those guys remarkable compared to others are their
strength and choice of words, and their flow, or the melody, of their rhymes. I
personally can?ft relate to the ghetto, guns, and all of that ?ggangster?h stuff, so I
don?ft listen to that genre all that much, but there are many elements people can pick up
from the Hip Hop music. There is a whole Japanese Hip Hop scene that is growing bigger
and bigger, and that?fs what I personally live. The next element is Breaking. Breaking is
a term used for dancing, and most people know it as Break Dancing. Although Breaking has
become a small part of the whole dance scene in Hip Hop today, it?fs the first form of
Hip Hop dances. People spin on their heads, do handstands, slide with just their hands on
the ground, spin on the floor with their legs spread out, and all
kinds of astonishing moves. This is probably the most popular form of Hip Hop in Japan
today because its so easy to begin and watch. DJs have one simple task: make people
dance. Or that?fs what it used to be.
Before, their main goal was to have the knowledge of the music so they can make people
dance according to the mood and time. Also scratching records were their performance.
Now, DJs have lots more jobs and probably the toughest element of all. Most DJs team up
with MCs so they can act as the rhythm section of the Hip Hop performance, and to do that
and be original,they must create sounds of their own. They basically make the beats and
the MCs lay the words on it. The steps to be able to make beats and tracks takes lots of
time, money, and mind, so most DJs don?ft/can?ft take a step further into the scene.
Today, more and more artists are creating their own tracks, for the money, and they tend
to realize that they can?ft be rapping at age
40 while its perfectly normal for a 40 year old to be playing the guitar. It ?fs not
wrong to say that DJs are the backbones to the Hip Hop music. The final element is
Tagging, and its graffiti. This is actually a controversial issue because many people
believe its wrong. But it?fs a form of art to the culture, and it shows character of each
artist. Its definitely not just about claiming area by the gangs, and its not just about
vandalizing other people?fs property. People need to admit that New York City would not
have its flavor that it has today without all of those artwork, and there are many
artists that put up their pieces just so they can show others what they got. It?fs a way
of communication in the form of Hip Hop.
Many other types of music can be a culture too, and each person feels if it is a culture
to them or not. If music means culture to that person, then they probably feel that
uneasy sensation of going to bed without music, going on the train without your Walkman,
and have that anger towards vacuum cleaners. Music also is a form of communication when
there is the kind of society where people understand one another through it. Which
creates influences on others, and makes music grow.