Illy Rap Hip Hop Culture

DJ'ing:

While hip-hop did not invent DJ'ing, it has extended its boundaries and techniques. The first
hip-hop DJ was Kool DJ Herc, who created hip-hop through the isolation of breaks (the parts of
albums that focused solely on the beat). In addition to developing Herc's techniques, DJ's
Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Theodore, and Grandmaster Caz made further innovations
with the introduction of scratching.

In the early years of hip-hop, the DJ's were the stars, but their limelight has been taken by MC's
since 1978, thanks largely to Melle Mel of Grandmaster Flash's crew, the Furious Five. However,
some DJ's such as Funkmaster Flex and DJ Clue have gained stardom nonetheless in recent
years. The underground movement of Turntablism has also emerged to focus on the skills of
the DJ.

Beatboxing:

Beatboxing, invented by Doug E. Fresh, considered by many to be the fifth element of hip hop,
is the vocal percussion of hip hop culture. It is primarily concerned with the art of creating beats,
rhythms, and melodies using the human mouth. The term 'beatboxing' is derived from the
mimicry of the first generation of drum machines, then known as beatboxes.

The art form enjoyed a strong presence in the '80s with artists like the Fat Boys and Biz Markie
showing their beatboxing skills. Beatboxing declined in popularity along with break dancing in
the late 80s, and almost slipped even deeper than the underground. Beatboxing has been
enjoying a resurgence since the late '90s, marked by the release of Make the Music 2000. by
Rahzel of The Roots (known for even singing while beatboxing) The Internet has greatly aided
the rebirth of modern beatboxing—on a global level never seen before—with thousands of
beatboxers from over a dozen countries interacting on the UK's Humanbeatbox.com.

Beatboxing has also recently branched beyond its traditional scope (mimicry of beat boxes to
create hip-hop beats) to several new stand alone forms. It is now widely practiced as a form of
human Drum & Bass, a style of heavy electronic music. The range of sounds that can be
reproduced by the human vocal chords are staggering to many unfamiliar with this musical
practice.