"First, on behalf of the entire international Hiphop community I would like to publicly thank RIME and its staff for engaging such an important question. Such inquiries truly help to develop and strengthen the growth of Hiphop Kulture. Thanks.
"According to the American Heritage College Dictionary Third Edition, Hip Hop is defined as "...the popular culture of big city and especially inner-city youth, characterized by graffiti art, break dancing and rap music-of or relating to this culture". The Oxford English Dictionary defines Hip Hop as a "...sub-culture, characterized by graffiti art, break dancing and rap music-of black and Hispanic origin". Zulu Nation defines Hip Hop as "MCing, DJing, Writing (or Graffiti art), B-Boying, knowledge and overstanding". The Temple of Hiphop defines Hip Hop as; "Breakin, Emceein, Graffiti Art, Deejayin, Beatboxin, Street Fashion, Street Language, Street Knowledge and Street Entrepreneurialism".
"In all of these definitions, Hip Hop is referred to as a culture. Hip Hop is even referred to commonly as a specific group of people. Whenever someone outside of our culture refers to us, they do and say specific things to describe us. Many refer to us as 'the Hip Hop Nation', 'the Hip Hop generation', 'the Hip Hop community', or just 'Hiphoppas'. With this in mind, Hip Hop can be said to be a proper noun or a specific thing. This would mean that the correcting spelling of Hip Hop is to begin with a capital H. Hip Hop spelled as "hip-hop" is simply gramatically incorrect because Hip Hop is tenchincally a proper noun; it is a specific thing. Plus, to spell the name of any culture beginning with a lower case letter is simply disrespectfiul.
"Actually, from a political point of view, then more unusual Hip Hop can be spelled, the better. If people can be taught to recognize the spelling of 'psychology' and not pronounce it as 'sycology' or 'sicology', or 'wrestling' as opposed to 'resling', Hip Hop can be taught and pronounced as 'Hiphop', as opposed to 'hiffop'. It's all about your love for Hiphop as a cultural lifestyle and not just a music genre that shall determine the way you will spell it. As stated in the Hiphop Declaration Of Peace, principle eleven, presented before the United Nations on May 16th 2001: "The Hiphop community exists as an international culture of conciousness that provides all races, tribes, religions, and styles of people a foundation for the communication of their best ideas and works. Hiphop Kulture is united as one multi-skilled, multi-cultural, multi-faith, multi-racial people commited to the establishment and the development of peace".
"If you agree with this interpretation of Hip Hop as a cultural movement that extends beyond entertainment, then you will train yourself to spell and recognize Hip Hop as Hiphop. As The Gospel of Hiphop states: "Hiphop, when mis-spelled as 'hip-hop' means (hip) trendy, (hop) jump or dance. However, we are not just a trendy dance. However, 'Hip' (spelled here with a capital H) means to know or to be aware. It is a form of intelligence; a knowing. On the other hand, 'Hop' (spelled here with a capital H) is a form of movement. Together, 'Hip' and 'Hop' when spelled correctly, means 'moving or jumping intelligence'. "Hip Hop'- moving intelligence or active intelligence! Hip Hop, spelled here with two capitals is called the "phonetic" spelling of Hiphop."
"As I have stated for several years now; we are not just doing Hiphop, we are Hiphop! Therefore, we cannot spell our lifestyle in lower case letters. We are referred to as Hiphoppas and we have the right as well as the responsibility to define ourselves. I suggest we spell the name of our culture, our community, our nation, and even ourselves as either Hiphop or as Hip Hop, but never as hip-hop. As an international culture worth billions of dollars with strong influences upon every major social institution known to humankind, I submit that the official spelling of Hip Hop is Hiphop. Such a spelling not only separates the serious Hiphop community from those who simply want a record deal; but such a spelling invites others to recognize our cultural distinctiveness and it opens a new path toward peace and prosperity for all who declare Hiphop their lifestyle, Thank you for the question, and peace to all true Hiphoppas!"