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Youth subculture: rappers
Informal public associations are a rather new phenomenon, they appeared in the 20th century and became a reflection of the social problems of youth, an attempt to self-determination and to declare themselves.
Ways of expressing one's own perception of the world in each group are different - free love and anarchy in hippies, the assertion of nationalistic ideas among skinheads or the propaganda of mysticism from Goths, but music of different genres has become one of the most mass interests of the youth. Particularly colorful and common is hip-hop and one of its manifestations - rap.
History
In 1970, residents of the "black neighborhoods" of the United States often arranged discos, where rhythmic dance music with text elements played. It is believed that this manner of performance brought with them immigrants from Jamaica. Style gradually improved, acquired its own traditions and "fishechkami", the performers began to produce discs, and well-known record companies drew attention to the commercial success of the new genre.
Calling the image of rappers quickly found a response among young people, teenagers tried to imitate them in clothing and behavior, the genre became popular in many countries of the world.
Ideology
Ordinary listening to favorite songs could no longer satisfy the generation of rebels and individualists, they needed a special model of worship and imitation, which makes them feel like they are not like everyone else. In many ways, this has affected the ideology that rappers hold. Subculture is brief - this is a special form of leisure, a way to find satisfaction from life, a kind of escape from everyday life.
Throughout the world, there are several million people who are fond of hip-hop, and specifically rap. They share similar musical passions, a special view of the world, which is reflected in the texts of the performers of this genre. Rap has several features that make it possible to immediately distinguish them among other subcultures:
- It promotes youth freedom and independence from government-inspired opinions and assessments;
- Protest against globalization in all directions of public and political life, this characteristic is applicable to Russian rap;
- Special rapper clothes: wide hanging pants, jeans, baseball caps, sports t-shirts, voluminous and bright decorations - chains, earrings;
- Among rappers, it is customary to cover your body with tattoos and inscriptions;
- A rich and pathos lifestyle: expensive cars, beautiful girls and gold trinkets, along with light and heavy drugs.
But the main distinguishing feature is a special performance of their songs, when a rhythmic recitative is read to music with a heavy beat.
Features of the direction
Rapper music has long been not considered a kind of hip-hop only, elements of recitative are used in other styles. This is an independent direction, which has its own traditions and characteristics. Initially rhymed speech was born on the street and was a direct improvisation of performers, competitions among rivals were conducted - battles, later such clashes began to occur on the stage with a large crowd of people.
Rapper language is an expression of the life of a metropolis, it is diverse and has a wide morphology. Can glorify shabby shacks, beautiful life or infidelity of a friend, hard performance alternates with simple and easy melodies. In general, contrast is one of the favorite techniques of rappers, it concerns both music and lifestyle. Lovers and connoisseurs usually distinguish three varieties of performance:
- Fast, occurs in the form of a conversation between two opponents to the music that DJ puts;
- "Street" or "life" - contains obscene language and glorifies the ideas and principles of the ghetto;
- Commercial, aimed at attracting fans and good earnings, we usually listen to this hip-hop.
The number of participants in this group includes DJ, composing mixes, the singer himself, reading the text, and the break dancer.
clothing
The image of rappers is very recognizable and unlike the others. In Russia, this style came in the early 90's and still remains the leader among young people. All those elements of which the rapper's clothing consists, are designed to distinguish a person among the crowd, to designate his personality and personal social protest.
Some elements later even became the property of the world fashion. For example, wide pants, hanging from the hips. In occasion of their occurrence even there is a legend, that the first black rappers living in heavy conditions of a ghetto, were compelled to wear clothes of the senior brothers which did not approach them in the size.
True, in recent years, the rapper manner of dressing has undergone some changes, out of the usual wide things there is only a T-shirt, but the rest of the wardrobe known performers prefer to buy from fashion designers. Very popular in this environment is the idea of "combining incongruous" when strict jackets and trousers are dressed with massive or bright sneakers.
Additional Items
Another detail on which you can easily determine the person's belonging to this group - rapper baseball caps. Bright colors, non-standard forms with shiny rhinestones, they complement and decorate the image of a typical representative of this current.
Of great importance are accessories of very different persuasions, this tradition comes from the first Negro rappers from the ghetto. There, the status of a person was determined by the ornaments available to him and their value. In the musicians' environment this custom has received a new development, many performers and their fans hang on themselves a lot of expensive chains, a medallion, an equally important detail is the diamond earring. Rapper sunglasses are an excellent addition to a unique image, they have no practical significance, and therefore, can be made of the most unusual shapes, sizes, colors and from different materials.
Features of style
The desire to share common views, share the hobby with people who are close in spirit are the main factors that make it possible to unite into youth subcultures. Rappers use lyrics to convey their opinions to others and to approve a personal manifesto.
Initially, this culture evolved as an opposition to the main power, and therefore the meaning of phrases is often of a slogan, agitational nature. Unlike other directions, where music and words are equivalent, in rap it is necessary to search for a successful combination of test and rhythm. To achieve melody is not so easy, it takes a lot of experiments and training to become a master of recitative.
It is equally difficult to know and understand the rapper language, the lyrics have specific words, phrases and allegories, understandable only in this environment. The ability to recognize a special code is a special pass to a special group, a proof of belonging to a subculture.
With the spread of rap around the world, each country is gradually developing its special forms of communication in youth groups. If in the US rapper slang absorbed the elements of the language and culture of African Americans, for example, in France it is closely connected with the folkloric past of this people, and in Russia it is more imitative, moreover it contains a lot of borrowings from the English language, sometimes Pronounced in Russian mode.
The first performers
Many prestigious musical ratings are difficult to imagine without the rappers on the first lines of the tabloids present. Subculture, the description of which can take many days, was shaped by the strong and charismatic leaders of this trend. The real legend was Tupac Shakur who was shot on the threshold of his house or "50 cent", survived several armed attacks.
Even when this direction was not finalized and officially recognized, the main role in hip-hop belonged to DJs. In the 70s, DJ Kul Herk practiced alternating rhythmic tracks and the performance of break dancers, and Gradmaster Flash recreated the idea of dual players of vinyl records, thus, it became possible to combine different tracks.
In subsequent years, there were many bands and performers, each of which made a certain contribution to the development of hip-hop culture, formed a style of performance, a special rapper slang. The first white singers of this direction became the very popular band "Beastie Boys", and Run DMC not only withdrew the clip, but also entered into an advertising contract with Adidas.
Movement development
Leading media companies soon realized how profitable this direction is becoming, and therefore began to invest great efforts and money in the promotion of new performers. Lyrics and lifestyle of musicians thanks to the media were constantly on hearing, and young people actively accepted the values that this subculture reflected. Rappers are increasingly performing aggressive, hard-hitting social themes, this style will be called gangsta rap.
As the singers themselves stated, with the help of their texts they wanted to convey to the listeners the truth about what is happening in the streets, what kind of struggle there is for life. One of the first such style was promoted by the NWA team, it was there that Tupac Shakur, Dr.Dre and Eazy E started their careers. The topic of violence, weapons and drugs became the main one in their tracks, which caused discontent of the authorities and popularity among ordinary people.
For the second decade, Dr.Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z remain the most recognized and revered rappers, famous for their millions of revenues.
The development of the movement in Russia
In our country this musical style appeared in the late 80's and early 90's, when such associations were no longer viewed as a manifestation of the capitalist system and many youth movements emerged from the underground. What special significance did this subculture have in Russian society? The rappers appeared together with breakdance and graffiti, those few citizens who had the right to go abroad, brought records and videos with the records of American performers. For many, this music has become a breath of fresh air, part of such a desired freedom.
One of the first experiments in this area is a concert of the DJ of Alexander Astrov and the rock band Chas Peak, where a program called "Rap" was recorded. Although the first performers of many recognize Bogdan Titomir and the group "Bachelor Party". From the very beginning, Russian rappers adopted the Western model of this subculture, tried to imitate the ideology of blacks and ghetto problems. Against the backdrop of the real social composition of the country, such copying was sometimes very comical and implausible.
Features of hip-hop in our country
From the very beginning, Russian rappers were only a commercial project, the ideology of hip-hop was embodied only on the stage, and not in real life. But such music can not exist without struggle and confrontation, so gradually the performers found new ideas of conflict situations. A lot of rap took from Russian rock, which has a much longer history in our country.
In Russia, rap and its elements are taken directly from the American environment, many motifs, ideas and lyrics are copied directly from the works of Western performers.
Russian rappers
The pioneers of hip-hop are the bands Bad Balance, Chef and Mikhey, which became popular in the 90's, just then fan clubs and fans of this style appear in all regions. Already by 2000, the hip-hop market was finally formed in our country, this direction became extremely popular and profitable, which led to the emergence of a new wave of performers: "Casta", "Dots", "Legal Business", etc.
In recent years, there has been a trend in Russia for the emergence of its own rapper ideology and worldview. Adherents of the idea of creating a national genre are not as popular as media singers, but they have made a great contribution to the development of the hip-hop industry in our country: Oxxxymiron, Dolphin, ST and some others.
Value
Perhaps, from all existing associations of musical fans, by originality and entertainment, this subculture is the leader. The rappers appeared as part of the party and dance world, but gradually the fun disco life began to recede into the background and the motives of social problems, struggle with the government, propaganda of freedom and equality appeared in the texts.
This direction combines vocal experiments, dance art, as well as an active play of the body and facial expressions in the performance process. Hip-hop has had a great influence on the formation of cultural values among young people of several generations. Like any social phenomenon - rap gradually changes and adapts to new world conditions and laws, but at its core there is still a spirit of protest and rebellion.
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