In 1973, Hip Hop was born after it was first performed spontaneously at a birthday party in the Bronx. Today, Elgin Community College celebrates Hip Hop’s 50th birthday with the help of ECC’s Black Student Achievers club (BSA). 

“Hip Hop is very influential,” said second-year ECC student and Secretary of BSA Diamond Cole. “It has come such a long way. If you get into where it started, how it was founded, you’ll find that a lot of other genres are based [on] Hip Hop as well. It’s very important and relevant to history and the way we live life today.”

To celebrate the impact of Hip Hop on our culture, ECC’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Department has worked with BSA to host several events celebrating 50 years of Hip Hop which started on December 5 and will end on December 12. 

These events cover the 4 main elements of Hip Hop: emceeing, deejaying, break dancing, and graffiti. On Wednesday, December 6, BSA held the “All About Graf” event in the Jobe Lounge to celebrate the graffiti element of Hip Hop.

“Graffiti is the visual element of Hip Hop,” said third-year ECC student and Membership and Promotion Coordinator of BSA Destiny Guevara. “The ‘All About Graf’ event is really getting into the idea of artistic freestyle and what it takes to be an artist in the world of Hip Hop.”

At the event, students watched a slideshow about street artists from across the world and were given the opportunity to create their own graffiti on coloring sheets provided by BSA.

“When you ask someone what graffiti is, everyone will have a different answer because it is so unique to the artist who is doing it,” Guevara said. “We’re hoping to bring this out at the ‘All About Graf’ event.”

In preparation for the “All About Graf” event, Guevara expresses the struggle with getting the approval to talk about graffiti. This is due to the associations between graffiti and vandalism.

“We’re not looking for people to come here and be like, ‘Oh, it’s vandalism, it’s illegal’ because true street art, true graffiti is not that,” Guevara said. “When you think about the tags that are associated with graffiti, they [function] the same way like when an artist like Jason Derulo says his name in every song, or how artists will sign their paintings in the corner. Why would a street artist not do the same thing?”

To address the misconceptions around graffiti as an act of vandalism, BSA created a presentation that played during the “All About Graf” event. 

“A lot of people think graffiti and they think vandalism, but really graffiti is street art,” Cole said. “I know how it can appear that way because realistically if it’s illegal, people will think it’s bad. But, around the world, it’s celebrated as street art, not vandalism.”

BSA will finish their celebration of 50 years of Hip Hop on December 12 where they will attend a performance by ECC’s Hip Hop Ensemble. Guevara reflects on the importance of celebrating Hip Hop as a genre of art, especially the visual element of it.

“It takes to culture, to community,” Guevara said. “I hope that people learn that graffiti is more than just tagging, or just the negative things that they think it is. It is an expression of life and community. The claim that ‘This is us, we are here.’ That’s truly what [graffiti is] meant to do.”