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What Is Hip-Hop According to Afrika Bombaataa, the founder of hip-hop, the word "hip-hop" is derived from Lovebug Starski, a South Bronx disc jockey. At this disc jockey's parties, he would always say, "hip hop you don't stop that makes your body rock." Therefore, Bombaataa coined the word himself and started using the word "hip-hop" to name the ghetto-culture emerging on the streets. Bambaataa's concept of hip-hop included urban street expressions and a street attitude through gestures, language, and sylized dress associated with street culture (1). Based on Bombaataa's early definition, hip-hop can be defined as a culture embracing original music and self-expression in the forms of DJ'ing, MC'ing, graffiti art, and break-dancing. Furthermore, this definition of hip-hop reveals that many of today's mainstream hip-hop acts do not fit into the actual definition of hip-hop since many of today's famous artists do not embrace a self-expressive message, instead producing music for the sole purpose of selling a commodity. |
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