LIVING HIP HOP By: Kathryn Feicke Verplaetse A certain administration which I won’t call by name took the arts out of the schools, and that left the brothers out on the street with nothing, so they went to the turntables and started rhyming. Then they had a way to express themselves, and that’s the birth of hip-hop. -Isaac Hayes Hip-hop can be limiting and I refuse to accept limits. -LL Cool J

What is hip hop? Hip hop is expression. It’s a way of life, a way to reveal how you feel, a way to relate to others. Hip hop is a way to experience critical life lessons through other people’s eyes, ideas, and values that should be shared. It’s a vision of struggle and hardship, tool to motivate. Just ‘cause some forms of hip hop revolve around gangsters, drugs, sex, partying, and alcohol, doesn’t mean that all of hip hop is bad. Hip hop frees your soul. It lets you be you through movements. It’s more then just a style of dance. It’s a healer, a motivator, a S.O.S in a way where you save yourself from the horrors of reality and escape to a world where everyone is welcomed and where everyone can be themselves.

What can hip hop do +ly? For some people to stay out of trouble they dance. Some studios have a rule where if you’re grades aren’t good or you drink and do drugs, you can’t dance there till that problem is fixed. And that rule helps people because they want to dance. People use hip hop as a way to calm themselves. Keep ‘em grounded. Keeps ‘em out of drugs and alcohol. Hip hop gives people better opportunities in life.

How you LIVE it? Hip hop has grown from the Bronx to all around the world. There are even 6 th graders in world hip hop competitions. I’ve seen break dancing in subways and streets for money and I’ve seen people dance in the street just for the fun of it. Hip hop moves through your soul and you can’t just live it. You have to want it and you have to love it to a point where it’s something you want to do always. People who live hip hop was either born and raised in it or they let it move them.

Is hip hop GOOD or BAD? Hip hop has positive effects and can change peoples’ lives to something better. Hip hop lets you communicate your feelings through simple/complex movements. Hip hop isn’t just about gangs, drugs, sexy, partying, and alcohol, it’s fun and gives you that feeling you get when you’re favorite song comes on and you just want to dance.

What’s it like to live hip hop? To live hip hop you have to find how it speaks to you. You got to let it move you. For example the Les Twins, if you look them up on you tube, they’re dancing in the streets, doing showcases, or doing advertisement for Adidas. Hip hop can give you so many ways to make it your whole life. You have people who dance in the streets for money their whole life, and they still alive. You have people who have no where else to turn besides hip hop. Hip hop is a life style, a common routine you do every morn’. You can’t really describe what it’s like to live it, you just have to experience it yourself.

From the LIVERS themselves I interviewed two important people to me who seem like they really know what it’s about. I’ve seen these people dance and they give 150% and they dance like their life depended on it which with some people it does. I’ve asked them to answer a few questions about what they think hip hop really is and how it affected them in life.

Elijah Susong  When did you start hip hop? When I was young when I couldn’t stop coming up with my own moves. Its made me have more confidence ‘cause I can do it publicly. It means everything to me. I will die a dancer. I don’t care what people say. To express myself, to show people I’m different and how I’m actually doing something good for me.  How has it changed your life positively?  What does it mean to you?  Why do you dance hip hop?

Betsy Tinervan  When did you start hip hop? Age 10. Allows me to express my feelings through movement. Hip hop means freedom and putting your heart on the dance floor. How to express who they are!  How has it changed your life positively?  What does it mean to you?  What do you try to teach your students in hip hop?

Youtube videos: (If you have access) This is what living hip hop is…  3Y&feature=related 3Y&feature=related  QN9RI&feature=related QN9RI&feature=related  screen&v=oMjcaWnHod0&NR=1 screen&v=oMjcaWnHod0&NR=1 My videos: