clearly influenced by graffiti in the 1980’s, Jean-
Michel Basquiat is perhaps the best known.
Hip-Hop Film The emergence of gangsta rap was
reinforced by director Brian De Palma’s remake
and release ofScarface(1983). This blood-splattered
melodrama meshed well with the sector of rap music
that reveled in violence. The film became such a
widespread favorite of real and would-be gangsters
that it showed up in comedy skits and in several black
gangster films of the following decade, including
New Jack City(1991).
By contrast, hip-hop films of the early 1980’s—
such asKrush Groove(1985),Wild Style(1983),Style
Wars(1983), andBeat Street(1984)—were relatively
simple, rags-to-riches celebrations of hip-hop cul-
ture. More important, these films tended to be re-
gional or “black-only” hits. By the end of the decade,
however, things had changed. The national com-
mercial success of Spike Lee’sDo the Right Thing
(1989) and, two years later, John Singleton’sBoyz n
the Hood(1991), had been foreshadowed by the
sleeper hitColors(1988). All three films offered a
blunt, unflinching assessment of African American
life delivered over hard-core gangsta rap sound
tracks.
It was significant that the East Coast/West Coast
divisions seemed to play out in the endings ofDo the
Right ThingandBoyz n the Hood: Lee’s Brooklyn-
based film focused on racial/ethnic clashes, while
Singleton’s South Central L.A.-based film dealt with
intraracial rivalries. For Lee, the most dangerous
threat to African Americans was black-white conflict;
for Singleton, it was black-on-black violence. The dif-
ferences between the two directors seemed to echo
the East Coast’s emphasis on political consciousness
understood as African American cultural national-
ism and the West Coast’s emphasis on “getting over”
by whatever means (with drug-dealing, gun violence,
or education understood as equally viable, conse-
quences notwithstanding).
Hip-Hop Fashion The baggy pants, sweatshirts, and
jackets so prevalent in hip-hop communities have at
least two origins. On the East Coast, these clothes
were worn by the first break dancers because they fa-
cilitated complex gyrations, turns, and spins. On the
West Coast, the same clothes referred to prison uni-
forms, especially the trend of wearing pants below
the hip lines since prisoners were not permitted to
wear belts. For both East and West Coasters, the
clothes signaled a defiant rejection of the attire of
popular music in general and disco glitter in particu-
lar, although the showcasing of gold teeth, largely
from Southern and Midwestern rappers, seemed to
undermine the antimaterialism posture.
Performers such as Public Enemy, Kid ‘n’ Play,
and others also wore bright, neon-colored clothes as
mocking commentaries on high fashion. Combat fa-
tigues and military boots were popular among the
more socially conscious members of the hip-hop
community, suggesting that they were literally at war
with the “system.” On the West Coast, white T-shirts
and gym shoes were the norm, along with hooded
sweatshirts (to hide one’s face from the police), as
features of the growing drug-and-gang wars.
All these clothing styles would themselves eventu-
ally become demographic markets for the fashion
industry as new lines (Timberland, Fubu, Pelle Pelle)
competed with old standbys (Converse, Adidas) for
hip-hop patronage.Impact Hip-hop culture changed not only the mu-
sic world of the 1980’s but also the worlds of film and
fashion. It drove mainstream rock music and most
pop music to the bottom ends of the radio dial; its
only serious rival was (and continues to be) “new”
country music. Run-D.M.C.’s collaboration with
Aerosmith on a remake of the song “Walk This
Way” revived the rock band’s lagging career and
made stars out of the rappers. Rap music sampling—
present even in “Rapper’s Delight”—led to a num-
ber of copyright violation lawsuits as performers and
songwriters worked through the complicated con-
cepts of authorship.
Just as important, hip-hop and rap offered an ave-
nue to money and material success for those without
any noteworthy athletic or musical instrument skills,
a development that only exacerbated the apparent
irrelevance of formal education to both the working
poor and the middle classes. Like the punk rock
movement of the previous decade, hip-hop and rap
elevated immediate success, personality, and flair
over the delayed gratification ethos of education in
general and musical literacy in particular. Like the
punk movement, hip-hop culture shocked the mid-
dlebrow members of respectable society, unleashing
an ongoing debate within mainstream popular mu-
sic communities about whether rap should even be
considered music. Within African American com-
munities, the debate focused on the extent to whichThe Eighties in America Hip-hop and rap 467