How To Choose The Right Hip Hop Gear

If you need Hip Hop gear, you have plenty of accessories from which to choose. The style is as unique as the lingo. However, you will have to present it when you go out clubbing. Choices for Hip Hop gear in the Hip Hop culture will definitely make you look cool when you Hip Hop dance, or just chill with your friends. So let us look at some of the different types of gear that you can buy. However, make sure that you keep updated on your Hip Hop gear, as it will change as fast as the music.

If you are a newbie to the Hip Hop scene then you will need some great gear to go along with your passion. Hip Hop culture is represented by common items such as belt buckles, watches, rings, earrings and the famous pendant. Of course, there are other items that you can buy like dog tags and faux rhinestone cross necklaces. In the Hip Hop world these items are not your common military dog tag styled id tags, and the rhinestone cross necklaces are not common either. They can be both fancy and dramatic. Dog tags are made with designs on front and back with specially engraved info such as group name, or special cut designs on the outer edge. Optional stones look dramatic too. Cross necklaces are usually overly large with variations of different colors, from white to yellow, and can be bought in silver or gold. Some stones have special engravings on them. There is a lot of bling bling yet to discover with Hip Hop gear.

A relatively new fad in Hip Hop gear is the spinners. In Hip Hop, dancing there is a lot of movement so you can be in style with a watch and shoe spinners. Shoe spinners can be attached to any shoe with laces. Most are worn predominantly on tennis type shoes. Optional jewelry metal color is gold or silver, but some can be purchased as two toned. Inside the metal circle, a wheel spins with movement. A word of caution, if you decide to wear two on one shoe it might not work – all of the dancing will make the metal disks bang together, and could damage the spinner. It is not recommended.

The watch spinners are very cool. You do not want to forget to buy one, or have someone get it for you for a Hip Hop birthday celebration, or any other holiday. Almost all Hip Hop watches have faux rhinestones encircling the spinners. You will need to buy the watch because there are no spinners with clips that you can attach to the watch you have now. All you have got to do for this Hip Hop watch to tell the time is just to flip the spinner back and reposition to a snap closed position – and start dancing again!

There are a lot of other bling bling Hip Hop gear accessories that you might want to get, like rhinestone cups to drink from at your party, or even gold studded earrings. The choice is yours – so go and check out all of the neat Hip Hop gear. You will find something you want with bling.

Hip Hop Potency

The success of rap music as the main expression of hip hop has elevated it beyond a cultural movement but to the status of financial powerhouse.  Started in the 70’s by innovative DJ’s, rap has become a world wide phenomenon. The organic growth of the music has established the identity of rap music as a political tool for the underprivileged. It has been the voice of the oppressed and underrepresented. Today’s rap, however, has changed. The forces behind hip hop are no longer focused on the art and message. Instead rap has become a commercial boom to be used for profit. The hyper commercialization of rap music has led directly to the degrading of its potency as a form of pure art.

    The rap industry posted revenues in excess of 1.5 billion dollars in 2005. It’s a far cry from the roots of rap, perfected in east coast ghettos some 25 years ago. Today, the industry of hip hop is run with the efficiency of major corporations. Potential rap stars are plucked from obscurity with the public psychology in mind. Businesses pour millions of dollars of advertising revenue into artists such as Nelly and Eminem to shill for their clothes and shoes. Music industry corporations have fully accepted and promoted gangsta rappers like 50 cent, leaving violence and sexism in their wake.

    The over commercialization of rap has spawned a litany of pretenders hoping to strike gold. The use of controversy to garner attention is widespread. Involvement with a shooting, being associated with a gang or getting arrested for weapons charges can add “street credibility” to your image. It follows that in order to gain millions of dollars many artists may stage a shooting or purposefully get arrested. This misuse of violence is matched with a high degree of sexual exploitation of women. Females are valued for their physical attributes only. Video after video show us herds of women dressed in porous outfits dancing aimlessly. Rap lyrics reveal a general perception of woman as whores and liars. Sexist and violent mainstream rap no longer holds the position as the enlightened voice of a struggling generation coming to grips with the harsh realities of an unfair world.

    The quality of the music itself has been diluted. Rappers who do make it tend not to produce great albums like we saw with the likes of Run DMC. Instead they focus on producing “hits” hoping to experience a windfall from the impulse buying public. Never mind about elevating the art craft, let’s get paid, now. The market is flooded with one hit wonders and fools pandering to target audiences. Meanwhile, the public is left with the bad taste of weak albums hurriedly slapped together in anticipation of advertising deadlines. The revolution that was rap is now a business model for hustlers.

   Rap is not dead, yet. There are some bright stars. Artists like Kanye West and the more obscure Jurassic 5 have had success in the face of the emergence of commercialized rap. They represent a side of rap that can still be cutting edge but more responsible and socially aware of the consequences of their actions. They are conscious rappers who are concerned by more than their bottom line. Africa Bambaata was the first to identify hip hop as a cultural movement. Rappers like Common have carried that torch by not selling themselves through controversy or promoting violence. They use words to stimulate thought, discussion and hopefully change. The commercialized rapper will answer these charges by pointing out that violence and sexism is reality and he is just testifying. There is truth to these comments. But where is the responsibility to your community? Why not uplift the people with your music? The answer is not up to him but rather to us to reverse our bad habits with buying gangsta rap and establishing a commitment to our communities with our music choices.