Prometheus 6   

Is Hip Hop A Culture?
by Bakari Akil II

While attending a symposium entitled, The Business of Show, which explored cultural images of Blacks in media, a simple but profound question was asked. Tim Reid and his wife Daphne Maxwell Reid, hosts of the symposium, owners of News Millennium Studios and stars of such shows Sister, Sister and the Fresh Prince of Bel Air respectively, asked the audience: What is hip-hop and is it a culture?

… There were responses that skirted the issue and stated what hip-hop was not, but no direct meaningful answers. One young man stated, "I know what hip-hop is, but can't put it into words." Reid in turn responded, "Well, if you can't define it, then how can hip-hop be a culture." He stated he has posed this question to young Black audiences many times, but no one has ever provided a definition.

To see a huge body of predominately young people who enjoy and grew up on hip-hop unable to define it and explain its cultural aspects was a shock to me.

… Hip-hop in its most rudimentary form consists of four major activities. KRS One defined it best when he listed those activities as "MCing", "Djing", break dancing and artistic expression through graffiti. These four activities are the major identifiers of someone being involved in hip hop culture. Now, is it its own separate culture? In my opinion, hip-hop is an extension of Black culture and has created its own subculture that is shared by many.