#johnleland

In chapter 1 on "Hip: The History", Leland starts of by stating that hip originally came from the mix cultures of African Americans and European Americans that migrated to United states as slaves to work in plantations. The black and white foreigners where teaching and taking something from each other without them noticing; which created not just Hip but as well as the American Culture. In today's society, we have been introduced and accepted other countries culture to form in the American Culture. Leland then explains how music, language, religion, etc. played a major role to this change of hip. For example in the reading he explains how African slave owners were so captivated by the way their slaves spoke that they would get beaten down if they spoke proper English. Another example he shows was that African slaves would use  "slang words" or "codes" to talk about their slave owners without them noticing, it was their own form of education. Just like in today's youth, we use "that's wavy" or "she/he is bad" to refer to something good to what it actually sounds. He also talks about how music came from neither African nor European, they all mixed the different rhythm and beat in which they created a different genre of music known as the blues. As well to religion, African Americans took parts of the European religion, creating what is known today as Christianity.  In this chapter, it is basically explains how different groups combined their knowing into one and that creates something new and fresh. I completely agree with Leland when he stated that " Hip is a culture of the young because they have the least investment in the status quo" young people won't care about your race, sex, religion, etc we have learned to go past that , we have combine our inspirations into one making our own hip. We have made a new and modernize form of hip in which everyone can participate.