VOA文化艺术2023--Hip-hop Culture Carries the Spirit of Protest

The signs of hip¹-hop²'s influence are everywhere. American rapper and music producer Pharrell Williams recently became a creative director for the French fashion company Louis Vuitton. Other hip hop stars, including Dr. Dre, Diddy and Jay-Z, started billion-dollar fashion, lifestyle and music companies.

But it did not start out that way.

Hip-hop started 50 years ago as an escape from the poverty and violence in the Bronx area of New York City. The music and style appealed to Black and Latino teenagers. As hip-hop spread throughout New York, so did the culture.

People often mix up hip-hop with rap³. Rap is a musical style that combines quick recitation of rhymes with musical beats. But hip-hop is more than just music. It is a culture, and rap music is one part of it. Hip-hop also includes other activities, like breakdancing, disc-jockeying and graffiti art.

In his 1993 song Hip Hop vs. Rap, KRS-One said: "Rap is something you do. Hip hop is something you live."

In the early days of hip-hop, playing music on the streets or turning a basketball court into a dance floor may have seemed like a simple invitation to have fun and party. But it actually was an answer to social and economic injustice⁴ in poor neighborhoods. It was a way to show joy and imagination even without resources and wealth.

As hip-hop and rap music grew into a force in American culture, entertainers used it to speak to their personal realities. In 1982, in the song The Message, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious⁵ Five denounced⁶ poverty and a lack of investment in Black communities. Several years later, Tupac Shakur railed against police violence in the song Changes.

Today, hip-hop's influence on music and other industries is so widespread that experts say it becomes difficult to measure. Writer Zack O'Malley Greenburg estimates that hip-hop's five wealthiest artists were collectively worth nearly $4 billion in 2022.

There is also hip-hop's influence on protest, resistance and political dissent⁷ around the world. From the Arab Spring and the Palestinian freedom fight to feminism and class struggles, rap music is a popular expression for calls to action. Music videos produced by artists in Africa, Europe, Asia and South America often include breakdancers, graffiti and other elements of hip-hop.

In 2016, former U.S. President Barack Obama answered questions about human rights and free expression during a visit to Vietnam. One question came from Suboi, a female rapper known as Vietnam's "Queen of Hip-Hop." She said she struggled against the Vietnamese stereotype⁸ that rap and hip-hop music are not a good form of expression for Asian women.

"Let's be honest, sometimes art is dangerous and that's why governments sometimes get nervous about art," Obama said. "But one of the things that I truly believe is that if you try to suppress⁹ the arts, then I think you're suppressing¹⁰ the deepest dreams and aspirations¹¹ of a people."

American civil rights leader Rev¹². Al Sharpton was 18 years old when hip-hop took off in his native New York. He said rap music fueled the movement that has shaped much of his public life. Now 68 years old, Sharpton said he believes hip-hop culture was part of what made it possible for the United States to elect its first Black president in 2008.

"Hip-hop took the chains off us and said, ‘No, we're gonna say it our way, " Sharpton said, "It was that freedom. It was that raw, non-watered down kind of expression."

Words in This Story

fashion - n. the business of creating and selling new styles of clothes

teenager - n. someone between 13 and 19 years old

recitation - n. the act of describing or listing many things in a series

rhyme - n. words or phrases that end in the same sound

disc jockey - n. a person who plays recorded music on radio, at a party or a night club

graffiti - n. pictures or words drawn¹³ on a wall

chain - n. metal links or rings usually used to attach to a prisoner

1 hip   

n.臀部，髋；屋脊

参考例句：

• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line.新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。

2 hop   

n.单脚跳，跳跃；vi.单脚跳，跳跃；着手做某事；vt.跳跃，跃过

参考例句：

• The children had a competition to see who could hop the fastest.孩子们举行比赛，看谁单足跳跃最快。
• How long can you hop on your right foot?你用右脚能跳多远？

3 rap   

n.轻敲，拍击，责骂，厉声说出，说唱音乐，谈话，最少量；vi.轻敲，敲门，表演说唱音乐，畅谈；vt.抓，抢，拍击

参考例句：

• I heard a rap on the door.我听到有轻轻的敲门声。
• Today we are going to rap about relationships.今天我们要聊聊关系的问题。

4 injustice   

n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利

参考例句：

• They complained of injustice in the way they had been treated.他们抱怨受到不公平的对待。
• All his life he has been struggling against injustice.他一生都在与不公正现象作斗争。

5 furious   

adj.狂怒的，暴怒的，强烈的，激烈的

参考例句：

• I was furious at his making such an accusation.我对他的这种责备非常气愤。
• His wife was furious with him.他妻子对他大发雷霆。

6 denounced   

公开指责( denounce的过去式和过去分词 )； 揭发； 告发； 通知废止

参考例句：

• She publicly denounced the government's handling of the crisis. 她公开谴责政府处理这场危机的方式。
• He was denounced as a foreign spy. 有人告发他是外国间谍。

7 dissent   

n./v.不同意，持异议

参考例句：

• It is too late now to make any dissent.现在提出异议太晚了。
• He felt her shoulders gave a wriggle of dissent.他感到她的肩膀因为不同意而动了一下。

8 stereotype   

n.固定的形象，陈规，老套，旧框框

参考例句：

• He's my stereotype of a schoolteacher.他是我心目中的典型教师。
• There's always been a stereotype about successful businessmen.人们对于成功商人一直都有一种固定印象。

9 suppress   

vt.压制，镇压，查禁，抑制，阻止

参考例句：

• He continued to suppress the people and serve the imperialists.他继续镇压人民，为帝国主义效劳。
• She was struggling to suppress her sobs.她拼命不让自己哭出来。

10 suppressing   

抑制（感情等）( suppress的现在分词 )； 压制； 禁止发表； 阻止…的生长（或发展）

参考例句：

• They had already posed the obviousquestions he was suppressing. 他们早就提出了他避而不谈的那些明显的问题。
• The guilty president was suppressing the catastrophic news. 应该承担罪责的总统扣压着这个灾难性消息。

11 aspirations   

强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音

参考例句：

• I didn't realize you had political aspirations. 我没有意识到你有政治上的抱负。
• The new treaty embodies the aspirations of most nonaligned countries. 新条约体现了大多数不结盟国家的愿望。

12 rev   

v.发动机旋转，加快速度

参考例句：

• It's his job to rev up the audience before the show starts.他要负责在表演开始前鼓动观众的热情。
• Don't rev the engine so hard.别让发动机转得太快。

13 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。