At some point in life, you realise that things change, either for the better or the worse. Unfortunately, hiphop that we so dearly love is one of those changing for the worse in my humble opinion. Street credibility has been thrown out the window, a culture that was born on the streets has decided to forget the street elements that gave birth to it. I grew up around hiphop, I mean original hiphop, but it has since changed so much that both the sound and feel of that originality has been compromised. Back in the day, hiphop sound was all about the percussion but ever since the BIG BROTHER HOLLYWOOD has stepped into the scenario, it has lost its essence. Since 1984,when the movie Breakin' was made, misconceptions became the order of the day. That movie singlehandedly convinced the whole world that all styles of hiphop dancing is Breakdance. I must say it is my favourite dance movie up till date but wrong information was what it passed. Actually, the movie was about street dancing with more emphasy on popping and locking styles which are not breakdancing. People all over the world believed that all hiphop dance styles like Waving, Robotting, Tutting, bopping, locking, popping and so many others breakdance styles. Breakdancing is really quite different from these styles.
Even in its history, breakdancing evolved from the east coast while other some other styles like popping and locking came from the west coast and they are known as FUNKSTYLES. Both styles came together under the umbrella of hiphop but should be noted that they aren't the same at all. Breakdance is more about ground game and power moves while funktyles is more about upstand and grace. Don't get me wrong, they both have the flips (ground game for funkstyle and upstand moves for breakdance). Ever since that movie Breakin', people did not and could not differentiate between the two. This is left for the true disciples of hiphop, like me, to educate people on the differences. Here is a video of breakdancing
And here is a video of funkstyle
Over these few years, true hiphop continues to loose its essence with the advent of shows like Got To Dance, America's Best Dance Crew (ABDC), So You Think You Can Dance and even movies like Step up and the likes. You Got Served did a good job at the choreography aspect of hiphop. More original hiphop movies like Beat Street represented hiphop well. But in my opinion Breakin' is still the best of them all. Although it did a good job at representing the beauty of hiphop, it caused the most misconceptions.
Here's what one of the hiphop pioneers and legends have to say about hiphop changes
When I hear some of the songs being given awards and categorized as hiphop, I wonder where it all fell apart. Just the other day, Kanye West got an award for best male hiphop. Now, I know he is well respected amongst all commercial hiphop fans, but I think he sings HIPPOP not HIPHOP.
Artists have desserted the true hiphop, like Snoop Dogg singing SWEAT. I thought to myself, wasn't this negro rolling with 2pac and the likes? What the hell happened?
I am by no means advocating thuggery, or violence in hiphop but c'mon, you cant go from there to here just because you have bills to pay? I think artistes should be more financially literate, then they wouldn't have to be sellouts and they'd represent what they stood for. Not jumping from here to there like goal less politicians do. Its embarrasing.
