Hip Hop is not Rap!
Hip Hop is the culture. Rap is the music.
Hip Hop music is not the softer variant of Rap music!
There is nothing like Hip Hop music. You may call it R’n’B or Pop.
Rap is not equal to MCing!
MCing is the creative expression with lyrics. It’s entertaining and moving up the crowd. It’s about skillful and creative lyrics. Not every song that has Rap parts in it is an result of the Hip Hop culture. Don’t believe the hype! Hit Pop is not Hip Hop!
It’s not about cloths, it’s about skills!
The industry made this “dress code” to make money.
In the early days of the Hip Hop culture cloths had their relevancy and utility. Sneakers and track suits for dancers (Adidas and Puma were the cheapest brands), hooded sweaters for writers (that they weren’t that flashy in the darkness), … Also it was about being creative with the cloths and about having style.
Hip Hop lifestyle is not hanging around, smoking blunts, being passive and just consume!
Living Hip Hop is about being active and improving his skills in one or more elements daily to inspire others to keep the culture alive and to bring it to the next level.
Hip Hop is not violent, bad or negative!
Hip Hop was made to fight against the violence (gangs): war with creativity, not with weapons. Turn the negativity into positivity!
Hip Hop is not only lived in the ghettos of the USA!
Although it originated in NYC, Hip Hop is lived all over the world nowadays!
It’s not where you’re from, it’s where you’re at!
Hip Hop is not about living a gangster life in a ghetto. (But Hip Hop can take you out of such a situation because it gives you many possibilities and new aims for your life.)
Hip Hop is about learning about the culture, about helping to develop it and thus about giving something back to the culture by inspiring others or/and by spreading the (true and right!) word.
There are different conditions in every country but the situation is mostly the same: People wanna be seen and heard, wanna break out of the everyday life and wanna belong to a community.
Thus it doesn’t astonish that mainly people who belong to minorities in the respective countries are addicted to the Hip Hop culture. But not only them!
Hip Hop doesn’t have any borders, neither linguistical, nor geographical, nor religiously, nor socially! That’s what makes this culture so unique!