The 4 Pillars of Hip-Hop and Cinema
Hip-hop spans both decades and cultures. The genre can be heard from all walks of life, and four key elements are known and established when looking at hip-hop within cinema.
The early 1970s is when hip-hop first commonly appears. Many might find it surprising, but the first mainstream appearance occurred in a Blondie song titled 'Rapture' and slowly entered the mainstream airwaves in the 1980s and 1990s. This is a rough introduction, but for those unfamiliar with the genre, read on, and for those familiar, let's look at what four elements lift the hip-hop movement.
For those unaware, hip-hop is more than a musical genre and goes beyond the gangster rap that older generations might associate the genre too. Hip-hop is an art and lifestyle surrounding expression. For movie lovers, we can see elements of hip-hop appear within cinema dating back to the early 1980s, but first, let's look at the core of hip-hop.
The four elements are turntabling or deejaying, rhyming or MCing, break dancing or dance, and graffitiing. Now other elements exist within hip-hop, and arguments could be made to establish different aspects, but these are the four pillars of the genre. This article will focus less on the culture surrounding hip-hop and will pinpoint these essential elements.
