"Necessity is the Mother of All Invention"

The emergence of Hip Hop Culture was the combined result of a number of social factors that came to bear in the mid 1970's in New York burroughs, particularly in the South Bronx. The destabilization of the economy, a collapse of municipal services, the rise of drug culture, rampant arsons, and street gangs eventually created an atmosphere of distrust and territorial riffs that disseminated many of the social gains made during the civil rights movement.

Robert Moses, a constructionist, was a key player in structuring an urban renewal plan that created the barrage of issues in the South Bronx. The leave behind were neighborhoods filled with empty tenements, cracked sidewalks, burned out building, abandoned store fronts, and public school buildings and playgrounds with no children.  Yet, inspite of the social decay, there was a spirit amongst the young people that shined, shined through dance, art, music, technology, and MC'ing, better known as rapping.

You would think that young people would have been dismayed by the destruction of the opportunity to pursue and live the American Dream, the prize that dangled at the end of the promissory of note of strong education, social responsibility, and unyielding work ethic. Yet, they weren't!

Instead, they got creative and developed new cultural activities to replace the old ones established by the Johnson Administration during the War on Poverty. The new activities occurred in the parks, on forgotten playgrounds, in the streets. and abandon buildings. The main activity that formed the others into one consistent culture was the art of Djing and the technology behind it. Djing was more than playing a record in the Burroughs.  New York City, particularly the Burrough of Manhattan was the center of big dance floors, booming sound systems, and cool Dj's.  To many, Uptown represented the good life, but unfortunately, most would not make it out of the South Bronx, so they got creative and created something, something out of necessity, the necessity to survive their way, a youthful way to communicate and share information by establishing norms and practices that spawned a culture we now know as Hip Hop.

Questions for Discussion

Do you think Hip Hop could have been created without the social despair caused by the urban renewal actions of Robert Moses?  Could it have been created without rethinking how to use existing technology in a new and creative way? And finally, what role did engineering, informatics, art, and technology manipullation play in the creative process?