What Does Hip Hop Mean To You?

I was on Youtube yesterday watching a bunch of performances and interviews with hip hop artists. I came across a videos where the artists were ask by the interviewer “What does hip hop mean to you?” The question is simple yet profound.

The artists who were answering the question kept saying “Wow…ummm…wow that’s a deep question.” So it got me thinking, how would I of answered that question. Where do you start by answering such a profound question?

Well, in this article I answer what hip hop means to me, and the major impact it has had on my life since I was 10 years old. Enjoy the read and don’t forget to leave feedback.

I fell in love with hip hop when I was ten years old. What attracted me to hip hop was the message in the music. Back then hip hop artists did have violent and misogynistic rhymes, but they also had many songs with a message. A lot of songs talked about politics, social and economic issues, racism, lack of jobs, and the living conditions of the poor communities that we lived in.

Hip hop was my way of understanding the world, and since most rappers told stories which I could relate to, growing up in the same conditions they grew up in, I felt like they were my voice. They brought our conditions and issues to the world and spoke on our behalf.

If not for certain rappers who spoke about our conditions, no one would of pay attention to our plight. But because certain rappers aggressively spoke out about the many issues that affected our communities, people started to notice and started to come up with solutions to help solve some of these issues.

As I grew older I started to pay more attention to the lyrics of a song. I enjoyed listening to Nas, Wu-tang, EPMD, Rakim, Biggie Smalls, and other mc’s that laced their rhymes with wordplay, similes, and metaphors. Rappers who displayed a high level of rhyming skills motivated me to read more, and study the dictionary for new words that I could add to my vocabulary.

This eventually led me to writing rhymes and rapping them out at school, or whenever I was in a “cypher” with friends and other rappers from the neighborhood.

Today I understand that hip hop is not only a form of music, but it’s also a life style and culture. The hip hop culture includes the music, the way that we dance, the slang that we speak, the clothes that we wear, and our demeanor.

It is a culture that started off in a poor black community, but today is widely accepted by all communities of all economic statuses, and all races. Hip hop is everything to me; it’s my life, and really my reason for being!

Hip hop allowed me to use it as a means to make money to feed my family and also enjoy the finer things in life. It has allowed me to travel all over the world and meet some amazing people that are of like mind and love the culture as much as I do. If it wasn’t’ for hip hop I would be broke, have no ambition or sense of the world, and I wouldn’t know who I am. Hip hop defined me, gave me self worth. It speaks to me in so many different ways; I can always find a hip hop song that resonates with the mood that I’m in.

I’m thankful for the invention of hip hop, and I show my gratitude by contributing to keeping the culture alive. I do this through my company Hip Hop Push Media, LLC, We showcase the best in hip hop culture! Hip Hop is my air…shit sounds deep but its true! My question is what does hip hop mean to you?