What Is Hip-Hop?

Hip-hop has transcended mistaken stereotype. No longer is segregated definition acceptable for the spearhead of our civilization's highest lingual art form. Rap is poetry with or without the beat and hip-hop is more than music, indefinable in style, indelible by nature and undeniably unique. The spirit of Hip-hop is and always was. It is the expressive ink that saturates the pages of our perseverance, the sequential heartbeat, responsible for each logarithmic reach past fear and inequality. It is the grassroots muse of concrete revolution that still will not be televised. Hip-hop is more than urban art, dance and music. It’s not even poetry. These are mislabeled products of our passion but the art form in itself is not for sale. Hip-hop is technique-applied articulation. It is the practice of finding wells of peace & empowerment in the harshest of environments and then guiding them as rivers. Hip-hop is an oasis in the desert of forgotten dreams, junkies and hustles. It is positively defining oneself in a sea of tragic social circumstance until you become an island of ‘’I can” that is surrounded by “you won’t”. Hip-hop is the quest for self-mastery expressed with kinetic energy, knowledge and spirit synergy. Hip-hop to me, is inner city lucidity and serenity.

Words & Photography by Austin Alexander