Well, for one, it is that annoying music you hear on the radio. Don’t let discerning backpack hip hop aficionados tell you any differently either. Like it or not, that stuff is indeed hip hop. Unfortunately, this is the side of hip hop that most people in most places hear. However, there is another side of hip hop taking place in every city in every country around the world.

You see that colorful, abstract artwork on the subway wall there? Yes, graffiti is hip hop. You know those kids in the club that don’t dance like everybody else, instead spinning on their backs and performing sharp, staccato movements and body rock? Yes, breakdancing is hip hop. How about the guys behind the DJ booth who play your favorite music every weekend? Yep, hip hopped again!

So, you see, hip hop isn’t just an annoying radio song you hear on your way to work, jarring your conscience with its synthesizers and hand claps while a guy spits lyrics about girls and cars. Believe it or not, hip hop is a society, and it’s not on its way out any time soon. Did you also know that you are probably more influenced by hip hop than you care to know? That’s right, despite the fact that you have already made up your mind about what hip hop is, you too are already hip hop in some way, shape or form.

For instance, modern studio techniques involve taking musical phrases recorded in a recording booth and looping them, or recycling that sound and playing it over and over to the beat. This style of production has steadily infiltrated music of every form from R&B to rock’n’roll and even heavy metal. Well, while producers experimented with this novelty in the early days of recording (Beatles, anyone?), hip hop capitalized on the idea probably without ever even knowing it. You see, the process of looping the break in classic funk songs provided emcees with a beat and bassline over which to rap, or rhyme about things going on in the neighborhood, street themes, violence and other issues which influenced inner city youth. And your favorite rock band stole this concept from hip hop? Let me ask you a question: was Elvis really the king of rock’n’roll? Furthermore, was Jesus a white guy with long, brown hair?

Anyway, back to that annoying guy on the radio. He is usually going on and on about cars and women, diamonds, gold, his favorite alcoholic drink, maybe even something you’re not even sure about until it gradually becomes a part of your vocabulary. This is called rapping. Rapping began as a way to spread news by word of mouth at parties and underground gatherings in the city. Hell, it was even fun to listen to a guy go on and on with rhyming words and entertaining concepts while you danced to the music.

At the same time, breakdancing became a form of expression which was contemporary and heavily influenced by the emerging wild style of DJs looping the break (by playing it with two records back and forth) and MCs (or master of ceremonies) rapping to the beat. The dance mimics tribal dance forms from the earliest days of African life and other civilizations which would dance to celebrate many different occasions.

This wildstyle would influence graffiti art in the most graphic terms, young spray can artists weaving symbols and letters together to form huge colorful pieces on city walls across the globe. Did you know that graffiti was actually developed centuries ago by the most ancient civilizations? Yep, pharaoh had his own graffiti removal group back in the day. So did the Greek and Roman civilizations.

A lot of today’s advertising borrows heavily and often from hip hop culture. Its icons are used to advertise everything from cars to drinks to sneakers, and you didn’t think hip hop was much more than a passing fad. Chances are, if you have them, your kids are using words from a virtual lexicon of hip hop inspired vocabulary - words like word or ill or even dope; which are all, by the way, means of describing something which is good. The clothes you wear and the logos which adorn them are inspired by hip hop culture, its graffiti and active lifestyle.

By the way, this may be a suitable time to tell you that hip hop borrows from the things you love. That’s right, next week that eighties song you loved so much may be the hit of tomorrow! Sample clearance is a huge issue right now, artists using tracks that have already been recorded and then looping them to create something not entirely new without giving credit for it seems to offend not only the artist who recorded the sampled hit originally, but the recording label who signed him or her. Well, hip hop has always been a rebel culture, using public areas as its galleries, street corners as its dancefloors, boomboxes as its preferred method of sound dispersal and lifted music as its anthem.

And so, hip hop has a question for you.

How much of today’s culture do you borrow on a daily basis? Furthermore, do you have the honesty to admit to it? If so, how much of this culture is taken directly from hip hop?

No matter what your answer, hip hop hopes that you will consider how many guitarists in the world are playing the same recycled rock and blues riffs without giving due credit to the blues masters who played them to begin with. Just admit it, you’re hip hop whether you like it or not. And in that regard, you can choose to love it or hate it. But hip hop isn’t going to make it easy on you either way. A culture which glorifies a violent past and paying your dues as the only way to gain respect can be, by nature, a rough one. But you know what? There are plenty of rock’n’roll bands glorifying the same violence and misogyny.

In every culture, there are activities, rites and other social interactions both positive and negative. It is an individual’s decision and responsibility to choose in what he or she actively or quiescently will take part. Regardless of other peoples active involvement, either deemed good or bad; it is their right to choose. In the same way, it is your choice to participate quiescently as audience in these others choice of expression in regard to these things deemed either good or bad.

And for you backpack kids out there; you don’t have to like radio hip hop, but at least you can take pride in the fact that your favorite culture is still talking as loud as it used to, just saying nothing (which by its very definition and placement in today’s world actually says a lot). For you with open minds, there will always be an underground for every culture and as long as you like hip hop, there will be places you can go to enjoy your favorite variety of such.

Hopefully, you don’t have to travel too far to enjoy it.