Hip hop is a cultural movement that emerged in the 1970s in New York, originating and developing in areas associated with many social evils and gangs.
Hiphop culture includes many areas: music (hiphop music, Rap, DJ), dancing (Breaking dance), painting (Graffity), fashion,…. If you are passionate about hiphop or a part of its diverse culture, learn more about some hiphop concepts and words that are often used in this community.
Slang in the music industry
- Dizz/Diss: An action that refers to using music and lyrics to attack an opponent. (curse directly, kick, put down,…).
- Beef/Rap Battle: A competition between singers using music.
- Rep/Reply: Respond to an opponent’s diss song.
- Feat./Featuring/ft: Collaborating on a song/rap.
- Underground/Street hip hop: A community of street rappers who are not famous, not on television or have heavy market/commercial elements. Underground rappers often follow very unique, individual styles, and are picky about listeners. They rap about all kinds of genres such as: Ganz/Diss, love, life, society, politics,….
- Overground/Mainstream: A community of rappers who participate in showbiz and are famous. They mostly rap/sing music about love or advertising.
- Southside: refers to the underground community in the South.
- Northside: refers to the underground community in the North.
- Midside: refers to the underground community in the Central region.
- Eastside: refers to the underground community in the East region.
- Wastside: refers to the underground community in the West region.
Street Art Genres
Rap
Rap is understood as the reading or speaking of words with melody and rhyme. A main ingredient in Hip Hop culture, Rap can be performed with or without music, considered as a cross between speaking and singing.
The concept of Vietnamese Rap was born in 1997, when two rappers Khanh Nho and Thai Viet G introduced the song “Vietnamese Gang” and received much love from friends around the world. After many years of development, Rap has become increasingly popular and loved by Vietnamese audiences.
R&B
R&B (also written as RnB) is an abbreviation for Rhythm and Blues, a music genre that debuted in the 1940s, focusing on the African American community.
At different times, people used R&B to refer to a certain genre of music: the early 1950s for Blues, the mid-1950s for music using electric Blues, Gospel and Soul music, the 1970s for Soul and Funk.
In the 1980s, a new genre called Contemporary R&B emerged, combining R&B, Soul, Funk, Pop, Hip Hop and Dance. Some of the world’s most famous R&B stars include Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, etc.
Dubstep
Dubstep was born in the 1990s in England, a branch of Electronic Dance Music (EDM). But unlike Trance, House,… Dubstep makes listeners extremely “excited” thanks to the very “heavy” bass and drum parts. A Dubstep song is usually divided into four parts (Intro – Bass drop – mid-section – outro), in which the most prominent and characteristic point lies in the Bass drop part.
This is a suitable music genre for people with strong personalities. Introduced to Vietnam for a while thanks to the Underground world, however, Dupstep became widely known to Vietnamese people thanks to a “Bass drop” in the song “Black and White” by My Tam. Although this music segment was later involved in a plagiarism scandal, it still partly made the audience learn more and pay more attention to this new genre.
Currently, Dubstep is no longer strange in Vpop, many Vietnamese songs mixed with Dubstep, or with a strong Dubstep style, are extremely loved by the audience.
Hip Hop
Hip Hop was born in the 1970s among young African Americans who moved to the Bronx, New York. It is a genre of music that is often associated with Rap. When people talk about Hip Hop, they often talk about Hip Hop culture more than music.
Hip Hop music is one of the four main elements of Hip Hop culture, along with Rap, DJ, Breakdance and Graffiti. In Vietnam, Hip Hop was introduced in the early 90s through Breakdance. After many years of development, Hip Hop has now become a popular and favorite cultural feature of many Vietnamese people.
Trap
Trap is a music genre that originated in the early 1990s in the Southern United States. In 2012, a wave of electronic music producers and DJs began incorporating Trap elements into their productions, introducing the genre to music fans around the world.
True to its name “Trap”, this is a music genre that “traps” listeners with many extremely “catchy” sound effects. The characteristic of Trap compared to other music genres is that the 808 Roland electronic drum is used a lot to attract listeners.
To learn vibrant Hiphop dances and learn more about Hiphop culture, register now at SaigonDance.