According to Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming service, hip-hop is the world’s most popular genre of music. This is an amazing feat from a genre created less than fifty years ago in New York City. Modern day hip-hop deviates from its original purpose of providing a voice for underrepresented groups as hip-hop spread throughout the country and became overly commercialized.
Clive Campbell, better known as DJ Kool Herc, created hip-hop at a Halloween party in the Bronx of New York City in 1973. After noticing positive reactions from the crowd, DJ Kool Herc used a groundbreaking turntable technique to elongate the drum breaks in songs (Blanchard). The success of extended drum breaks caused many DJ’s around New York to use DJ Kool Herc’s technique. The technique led the birth of hip-hop music. During hip-hop songs, party hosts, better known as MC’s, told personal stories and expressed viewpoints
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For widespread appeal, hip-hop needed to get rid of progressive artists that spoke about controversial topics. Large record labels commercialized hip-hop by signing hip-hop artists to contracts, thus giving record labels control over hip-hop music. Record labels only signed artists who were willing to write lyrics that would appeal to everyone. The focus in hip-hop shifted from resistance to fame and money. Once again, the underrepresented lacked representation because commercialization erased hip-hop origins from the genre. The genre split into mainstream and underground hip-hop. Mainstream hip-hop was the music of artists signed to large record labels. Mainstream hip-hop artists experienced large paychecks and fame because of commercialization. Underground hip-hop was the music of artists who refused to get rid of hip-hop’s origins. Underground hip-hop artists experienced smaller paychecks and fan bases. As hip-hop became overly commercialized, nearly all traces of its original purpose