The History of Hip

New York Times cultural critic John Leland has written the by far best analysis of hip yet. He divides the history of hip in six basic chapters: Africans in early America, 19th century intellectuals and bohemians, the Lost Generation, the Beats, Rock, Punk and Hip Hop.

When asked what's next, he said: "I kind of hope it’s coming from outside of the usual suspects, that it’s not going to come from the musicians or the record companies, or filmmakers. But it’s going to come from someplace wholly new. The things that I’ve been impressed with culturally in the last year or two are sort of the two-minute or one-minute or three-minute films that I get as spam e-mail, that might be political in nature. But those to me seem to be the closest thing to the graffiti of 20, 25 years ago."

Case in point:

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Watch plus Cruz's video for W+K Tokyo Lab

Read John Leland's "Hip: The History"