ABSTRACT
Since hip hop's humble yet revolutionary beginnings during the late 1960s and early 1970s in the Bronx, New York, hip hop culture has grown to become a vibrant and influential dance form for youth worldwide. Where hip hop has travelled it has captured young people's imagination, including New Zealand and the South Pacific Island nations. In the South Pacific hip hop is evolving with new identities, new roles, new dilemmas, new rules, and local cultural characteristics. hip hop morphs as it blends with local music, dance, art, crafts, needs, desires, and landscapes. Artists, parents, teachers, youth, and academics note the emergence and evolution of hip hop, some welcoming it and some less enthusiastic.
