Art and Culture- Graffiti as an Original Element of Hip-hop By ...
Source: classweb.gmu.edu
Topic: Graffiti
Sort Desciption: gallery of graffiti art from around the world, calls: ... possible that some graffiti can be art while other graffiti ...
Content Inside: Art and Culture- Graffiti as an Original Element of Hip-hop By Emily S. Hanson The beginnings of the Hip-hop cultural movement were built on a foundation of the principle elements of the culture. These elements are emceeing, dj-ing , b-boying (break dancing), bombing (graffiti), and knowledge of self and culture 1 . Each of these elements plays a considerable role in establishing legitimacy to the Hip-hop culture and encouraging scholars to investigate the movement as a cultural phenomenon. The first argument one faces in a study of Hip-hop is, what delineates this set of behaviors and beliefs as a separate and unique discipline of cultural study? In other words, what makes Hip-hop a culture and what quality of this culture makes it a valuable area of study? Molefi Asante, author, professor, and the founding and preeminent theorist of Afrocentricity, provides an answer. He argues that there are four hallmarks of culture: history, myth, ethos (character, values, customs), and motif (slang, clothes, art). If these criteria are fulfilled, Asante states that this way of life is a distinctive culture. 1 To investigate this idea on a more specific level, it is helpful to look at one element of Hip-hop, bombing, or graffiti, as an indicator of culture and a key player in the foundation of Hip-hop. When using the word graffiti in this context, it describes what ‘‘Art Crimes,’’ and online gallery of graffiti art from around the world, calls: Hanson 2 [the] term applied to an arrangement of institutionally illicit marks in which there has been an attempt to establish some sort of coherent composition: such marks are made by an individual or individuals (not generally professional artists) upon a wall or other surface that is usually visually accessible to the public. 2 Within the context of Hip-hop culture, graffiti specifically describes the practice of marking public locations with letters, numbers, and images symbolizing a person’s persona using spray ...
graffiti art as an element to hip hop culture,
term applied to an arrangement of institutionally illicit marks