Defining "Hip Hop"

To define a subject as broad and varied as “hip hop” within three words without making enormous generalisations and yet doing the entire culture or genre justice is practically impossible. So naturally, here we go. Hip hop is raucous. It is a specific style of dance and it is a community spirit. Hip hop is raucous because the vast majority of ‘hip hop music’ is made to be loud – it’s not background music but rather what you blast through your car’s stereo with the windows rolled down for everyone to hear. It is raucous because hip hop music causes adrenaline to rush when people hear it (especially live) and seems to some sort of wild behaviour in its audience. Finally, it’s raucous because it has become the genre most associated with protests and riots around the world. Hip hop is a specific style of dance because that percussive, staccato way of moving is associated almost exclusively with hip hop music. You will only rarely – if ever – see a ballerina perform to hip hop music or a breaker dance to jazz or classical. The genres simply clash. Lastly, hip hop is a community spirit because it was born of a culture that values togetherness, it is developed in groups and with supporters, and it is consumed by many.

One of the locations on the UF campus that interacts with my definition of hip hop is the Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. During football games and pep rallies it is full of students, alumni etc. from all kinds of backgrounds that come together for a common reason and then proceed to get very loud very quickly. At practically every event hip hop music is played, whether through the loudspeakers or by the marching band, and the spectators in the stands join in the music by singing along. A sense of community is built up in many ways; through shared high fives after touchdowns by our team and groans after touchdowns by our competition, through chants and singing the fight song, through linking up to sing “We Are the Boys” after the third quarter, etc. The sense of community continues at the stadium throughout the week with many dance crews and organisations holding their practices there. On any given evening from Monday through Friday, you can see groups practising their moves under the stands with hip hop music blaring from laptop speakers. Students critique each other and help each other improve but, mostly, they share their love of hip hop music and hip hop dance.