The Elements:
There's 4 Elements to Hip Hop: MC (rapping), DJ'ing, Breakin (break dancing), & Graffiti. Puerto Ricans were involved in the development of all 4 but we stood out more in the DJ and break dancing elements.
The relationship between African Americans and Hispanics in places like the Bronx (where Hip Hop was created) was a big factor in this.
WATCH BELOW
The Industry:
Nowadays, people can't picture 'Rap' without the involvement of the music industry, but it wasn't always that way.
Once the industry got involved a few major changes happened: The dancers (b-boys/b-girls) got pushed to background. The graffiti (writers) artists did too. All that got highlighted was the Rapper/MC (that's where the industry could extract the most money). I didn't forget about the DJ. It's just that the the DJ gets highlighted here and there like when they finally let them get busy on a major stations and when its time to pull up to a local club.
On this day, 22 Years ago, one of the greats passed away.
-Rest In Peace Big Pun-
The purpose of this blog post (nor the referenced documentary) is not to discredit nor minimize the role of African Americans, who were the main creators of this now world-wide culture of Hip Hop.
#hiphop #puertorican #rap #documentary #africanamerican
