| Chapter 2: | What is Hip Hop? |
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hip hop, and why is it so difficult to define? The answer is actually quite simple: Hip hop is intentionally open to interpretation. This is how DJ Kool Herc, one of hip hop’s founders, described it:
Hip hop says “come as you are.” We are family. It ain’t about security. It ain’t about bling-bling. It ain’t about how much your gun can shoot. It ain’t about $200 sneakers. It is not about me being better than you or you being better than me. It is about you and me, connecting one to one. That’s why it [hip hop] has universal appeal. It has given young people a way to understand their world, whether they are from the suburbs or the city or wherever. (Chang, 2005, p. xi)
Other founders, such as Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa, agree with DJ Kool Herc and are equally vague in defining hip hop. They, too, believe that hip hop is unrestricted, accessible, and flexible enough to be defined and redefined as time passes.
Herc’s statement is quite revealing. He very clearly articulated what hip hop is not: It is not about materialism, violence, status seeking, or competition. It is not about exclusionary membership. He was adamant that everyone should be accepted as they are, with no preconditions or litmus tests for membership. Any follower is part of a family that respects individuality. KRS-One, another founder, has said that hip hop never loses sight of the individual, never judges another, never puts others down. Hip hop focuses on giving and receiving unconditional respect.1 Notice that none of these founders mentioned music or rap in any statement about hip hop. In effect, they see hip hop as a way of life that extends beyond rap music.
If hip hop were taken seriously as a formal social philosophy, much of what passes for hip hop today would be excluded from that world. In fact, a great deal of the music would be viewed as contradictory to hip hop’s principles. Although hip hop is defined by its founders as open and inclusive, it does have conceptual boundaries and values. As DJ Kool Herc asserted, everything is not hip hop. And in fact, some things generally