When we hear “hip-hop” or “rap” (we hardly hear just one of those term separately, because of their common origins), we talk about a musical and cultural phenomenon that covers at least five decades, now consolidated as a real music trend: Kanye West, Jay-Z and before them Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, 2-Pac, Notorious B.I.G… Today hip-hop is fashionable, but its origins, now forgotten, come from the ghetto, where it was the real counterculture.
Counterculture to what? To that disco music that dominated the 60s and the 70s: Champagne, Rolls Royce, elegant outfits. This was the New York style showcased by these festivals, of course with a hidden face behind it. Hip hop was born in New York’s Bronx, in the period of highest social and political crisis: the South Bronx was devastated by fires, murders, robberies, and the unemployment was at its highest. [READ MORE]