Northwestern hip-hop

Northwest hip-hop is hip-hop that originates from the Pacific Northwest of North America, encompassing major cities such as Portland, Seattle, and other towns. Northwest hip-hop music mixes elements from various genres of music to form a sound different from its southern neighbor, West Coast hip-hop. For many years the scene existed mainly as an underground genre, but Northwest hip-hop has seen increased mainstream acceptance in the 21st century, with artists such as Lil Mosey gaining nationwide attention. Additionally, Alaska has its own regional variation of hip-hop, with scenes existing in Anchorage and Fairbanks, and to a lesser extent Juneau.

Overview

During the late 1970s, high school kids from the Rainier Beach, Rainier Valley, and Central District areas started to perfect early hip-hop forms of dancing in the northwest defined as bopping. Many of the local underage clubs and high schools in South Seattle held formal contests called bop-offs where dancers would compete against one another. There were also informal bop offs that occurred at house parties and school yards where urban kids "called out" one another to compete. Some of the more prominent dancers (or boppers) during this period were James "PJ" Daniels, John "Sir John III" Arnold, James "Captain Crunch" Croone, Pojo, Snake, among others in the south Seattle area. Bopping, also known as poppin', was seen as the precursor for many popular forms of urban style dancing today. These bop-offs were a segue to some of the first rap competitions in the northwest.