Hip Hop Culture is Comic Culture

Urbanime
Urbanime
Aug 23, 2017 · 2 min read
Jean Grae- Art by Ale Garza and Chris Walker

Quiet as it’s kept, Hip Hop has always been greatly influenced by comic books.

Hip Hop took the world by storm and continues to do so to this day. A pioneering American art form, Hip Hop’s preeminent influence has not only impacted music, it’s changed pop culture around the the globe.

This said, many of the greatest rappers and producers to ever grace the mic or bless a soundboard assumed nom de guerres inspired by classic superheroes and villains.

Bronx legend Big Pun paid homage to the vigilante hero, The Punisher. MF Doom borrows his name from the Fantastic Four’s nemesis Dr. Victor Von Doom. Then Zev Love X, MF Doom first put on his iconic face plate in ’97 and never looked back. Method Man nicknamed himself Johnny Blaze as an homage to the stuntman-turned-demon hunter Ghost Rider and Jean Grae takes her name from the Phoenix herself.

There has always been a confluence between hip hop and comic books because they are both creative mediums. Hip hop artists often understand these characters, whittling down their essences to key elements that best describe aspects of their own personas expressed in their music.

Comic books rose to prominence as a platform for inner-city youths of New York to tell their stories in the 30s and hip hop, with its roots in the 70s expression of urban youth, modernizes that tradition. Like hip hop, comic books aren’t going anywhere because ultimately they are both about expression.

For decades now, both mediums have been telling stories separately, one influencing the other. From rap aliases to hip-hop variants of Marvel, we are here to more eloquently blend these forces. Like a music sample. All that creativity. All that innovation. All that excitement. All in one project. Creative endeavors that the ardent comic book fan and staunch hip hop head can rock with.

We are Urbanime, doing for comic books and hip-hop what Run DMC and Aerosmith did for rap and rock with WALK THIS WAY.

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Urbanime

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