Djing, Mcing, Beatbox, Graffiti, Breakin'
Hip Hop culture milestones were first outlined by Afrika Bambaataa. He is believe to be one of the first artists to use the terms hip hop to describe the kind of music that he was making. Bambaataa defined the pillars of Hip hop culture as Mcing, Djing, Graffiti, Breakin', Beatbox.
One the most important pillars of hip hop Mcing and it is also know as mceeing or spitting. It refers to rhyming lyrics presented with a musical accompaniment. Mcing are the words or lyrics to the song and it can be broken down into flow, content and delivery. Mcing is commonly know as rap.
Beatboxing is another form of vocal expression and our second Hip Hop culture milestone. Beatbox is vocal percussion as it creates rhythms and sounds with the mouth. It is called beatbox because it was first mend to mimic the sound of the drumming machines know as beatboxes at the time. Among the legends producing human created beats we can mention Biz Markie, Buffy and Doug E Fresh.
A graffiti is writing or drawing on public surface often made illegally and is the next pillar of Hip hop . Graffiti is believe to be the visual expression of hip hop music. But this association started back in the 1960 when graffiti appear in New York city and many of the graffiti artist started practicing other aspects (one or many of the other pillars) of Hip Hop music.
Breakin', as many other elements that shaped this culture into what we know today was born in South Bronx and it is considered the physical representation of Hip Hop. It borrows movements from many different cultures. Breakin' is often referred to as breakdancin or b-boying.
Last but not least we have Djing or turntablism. Djing is the art of creating sounds using turntables. The person in charge of selecting the music and later play or scratch it for an audience is called DJ, disc jockey or scratch artist.
As you can this is a really tridimensional culture, because there are several ways to be a part of it, experience and express it, thanks to the many aspects that have come together to conform it. We can listen to it's music or see it's meaning represented in a graffiti, you can even breakdance to it. After several years of growing together the pillars and many other elements have build what we know today as hip hop culture.