Hip-hop wasn’t based on violent gang culture.
That lifestyle was never portrayed in the music. That violent gang shit was kept separate from the main culture of hip-hop.
The rhyming, the DJ’ing, the dancing and the graffiti was the main focus…. NOT whether you were really ”puttin in work” out there on the streets.
Nobody got murdered for dissing their “opps”.
C’mon, man.
You really think the street organizations in NYC the 70s that were behind the makings of Hip Hop and the culture wasn't putting in work?
Only difference between Hip Hop in the 70s and now is that rappers today are more honest about where they came from, where their allegiances lie and what's going on behind the scenes.
The gang shit was always there.
B-boying, graffiti, DJing, battling, all of this was established by gang members. Hip Hop was created in the Bronx, the poorest most destitute borough of NYC. It was gangland in the 70s.
The first gangsta rap record was Schoolly D's PSK, shoouting his gang in 1985. Boogie Down Production's Criminal Minded drops in 1987.
Lol, so in 10 years, Hip Hop went from hanging out in the park, listening to some breakbeats, doing a little bit of graffiti, going to a b-boy battle then accelerating into some violent gang shit.
Or the gangs, drugs and violence was always part of Hip Hop and rappers didn't talk about it because Hip Hop was seen as an offshoot of Disco and Techno in the 70s and early 80s until after the the death of Disco and dance music, you start seeing a shift towards rapping being essential to the artform instead of DJs and the beat. You start seeing rappers rap about where they come from and who they hang with it and who they are affiliated with.
