Hip hop is a
musical
genre which developed alongside
hip hop
culture, and is commonly based on concepts of
looping,
rapping,
freestyling,
DJing,
scratching,
sampling and
beatboxing. The music is used to express concerns
of political, social, and personal issues.
Hip hop began in
the
Bronx
in New York
City
in the 1970s, primarily among African Americans, with some Jamaican
immigrant
influence. The term
rap is often used synonymously
with
hip hop, however, the latter denotes the practices of
an entire subculture.
Rapping, also referred to as
MCing or
emceeing, is a vocal style in which the artist speaks lyrically, in
rhyme and verse, generally to an instrumental or synthesized beat.
Beats, almost always in 4/4 time signature, can be created by
looping portions of other songs, usually by a
DJ,
or
sampled from portions of other songs by a
producer. Modern beats incorporate synthesizers, drum machines, and
live bands. Rappers may write, memorize, or
improvise their lyrics and perform their works a
cappella or to a beat.
Origin of the term
Creation of the term
hip hop is often credited to Keith
Cowboy, a
rapper with
Grandmaster Flash and The
Furious Five. Though
Lovebug
Starski, Keith Cowboy, and
DJ
Hollywood used the term when the music was still known as
disco rap. It is believed that Cowboy
created the term while teasing a friend who had just joined the
U.S. Army, by
scat singing the words
"hip/hop/hip/hop" in a way that mimicked the
rhythmic cadence of marching soldiers. Cowboy later
worked the "hip hop" cadence into a part of his stage performance,
which was quickly used by other artists such as
The Sugarhill Gang in "
Rapper's Delight".
Former
Black Spades gang member
Afrika Bambaataa is credited with
first using the term to describe the
subculture in which the music belonged; although
it is also suggested that it was a derogatory term to describe the
type of music. The first use of the term in print was in the
Village Voice, by Steven Hager, later author of a 1984 history of
hip hop.
1970s
Roots of hip hop

1520 Sedwick Avenue, the Bronx, a
venue used by Kool Herc which is often considered the birthplace of
hip hop
The roots of hip hop are found in
African American music. The
griots of West Africa are a group of traveling
singers and poets who are part of an oral tradition dating back
hundreds of years. Their vocal style is similar to that of rappers.
The African-American traditions of
signifyin',
the dozens,
and
jazz poetry are all descended from
the griots. In addition, musical 'comedy' acts such as
Rudy Ray Moore and
Blowfly, are considered by some to be the
forefathers of rap.
Within New York City, griot-like performances of poetry and music
by artists such as
The Last Poets,
Gil Scott Heron and
Jalal Mansur Nuriddin had a
significant impact on the post-civil rights era
culture of the 1960s and 1970s.
Hip hop
arose during the 1970s when block
parties became increasingly popular in New York City
, especially in the Bronx
.
Block parties incorporated DJs who played popular genres of music,
especially
funk and
soul
music. DJs, realizing its positive reception, began isolating
the
percussion breaks of popular songs.
This technique was then common in Jamaican
dub
music and had spread to New York City via the substantial
Jamaican immigrant community. A major proponent of the technique
was the "godfather" of hip hop, the Jamaican-born
DJ Kool Herc.
Dub music had become popular in Jamaica due to the
influence of American
sailors and
Rhythm & Blues. Large
sound systems were set up to
accommodate poor Jamaicans who couldn't afford to buy records and
dub developed at the
sound systems. DJ Kool Herc was one
of the most popular DJs in the early 70’s. Due to the fact that the
New York audience did not particularly like dub or
reggae, Herc quickly switched to using funk, soul and
disco records. Because the percussive breaks were generally short,
Herc and other DJs began extending them using an
audio mixer and two records.
Turntables techniques, such as beat mixing/matching, scratching
(seemingly invented by
Grand
Wizard Theodore) and beat juggling eventually developed along
with the breaks, creating a base that could be rapped over. This
same techniques contributed to the popularization of remixes. Such
looping, sampling and remixing of another's music, sometimes
without the original artist's knowledge or consent, can be seen as
an evolution of Jamaican dub music,
and would become a hallmark of the hip hop style.
Jamaican immigrants also provided an influence on the vocal style
of rapping by delivering simple raps at their parties, inspired by
the Jamaican tradition of
toasting. DJs and
MCs would often add call and response chants,
often comprising of a basic chorus, to allow the performer to
gather his thoughts (e.g. "one, two, three, y'all, to the beat,
y'all").
Later, the MCs grew more varied in their vocal and rhythmic
approach, incorporating brief rhymes, often with a sexual or
scatological theme, in an effort at differentiating themselves and
entertaining the audience. Hip hop music was an outlet and a
"voice" for disenfranchised youth as the culture reflected the
social, economic and political realities of their lives. These
early raps incorporated the dozens, a product of African American
culture. Kool Herc & the Herculoids were the first hip hoppers
to gain major fame in New York, however the number of MC teams
increased over time. Frequently, these were collaborations between
former
gangs, such as
Afrikaa Bambaataa's
Universal Zulu Nation - now a large,
international organization.
Melle Mel, a
rapper/lyricist with The
Furious Five
is often credited with being the first rap lyricist to call himself
an "MC." During the early 1970s,
breakdancing arose during block parties, as
b-boys and b-girls got in front of the
audience to dance in a distinctive and frenetic style. The style
was documented for release to a world wide audience for the first
time in documentaries and movies such as
Style Wars,
Wild
Style, and
Beat
Street.
Although there were many early MCs that recorded solo projects of
note, such as
DJ Hollywood,
Kurtis Blow and
Spoonie
Gee, the frequency of solo artists didn't increase until later
with the rise of soloists with really big stage presence and drama,
such as
LL Cool J. Most early hip hop was
dominated by groups where collaboration between the members was
integral to the show.
Influence of disco
Hip-hop music was both heavily influenced by
disco and a backlash against it. According to
Kurtis Blow, the early days of hip-hop were
characterized by divisions between fans and detractors of disco
music.
Hip hop had largely emerged as "a direct response to the watered
down, Europeanised, disco music that permeated the airwaves", and
the earliest hip hop was mainly based on hard funk loops. However,
by 1979,
disco instrumental loops/tracks had
become the basis of much hip hop music. This genre got the name of
"disco rap". Ironically, hip hop music was also a proponent in the
eventual decline in disco popularity.
DJ Pete Jones, Eddie Cheeba,
DJ
Hollywood, and
Love Bug Starski
were disco-influenced hip hop DJs. Their styles differed from other
hip hop musicians who focused on rapid-fire rhymes and more complex
rhythmic schemes.
Afrika Bambaataa,
Paul Winley,
Grandmaster Flash,
and
Bobby Robinson were all members
of this latter group.
In
Washington,
D.C.
go-go emerged as a reaction
against disco and eventually incorporated characteristics of hip
hop during the early 1980s. The genre of electronic music behaved similarly,
eventually evolving into what is known as house music in Chicago
and techno music in Detroit
.
Transition to recording
The first hip hop recording is widely regarded to be
Sugar Hill Gang's
Rapper's Delight, from 1979. Much
controversy surrounds this allegation because some point out that
King Tim III by
The Fatback Band was released a few
weeks before
Rapper's Delight. There are various other
claimants for the title of first hip hop record.
By the 1980’s, all the major elements and techniques of the hip hop
genre were in place.
Though not yet mainstream, hip hop had
permeated outside of New York City; it could be found in cities as
diverse as Los
Angeles
, Washington,
DC
, Baltimore
, Dallas
, Kansas City, San Antonio, TX
, Miami
, Seattle
, St. Louis
, New
Orleans
, Houston
, and
Toronto
.
Despite
the genre's growing popularity, Philadelphia
was, for many years, the only city whose
contributions could be compared to New York City
's. Hip hop music started in Philadelphia in
1979 with a record titled "Rhythm Talk", by Jocko Henderson.
The
New York Times had
dubbed Philadelphia the "Graffiti Capital of the World" in 1971.
Philadelphia native DJ
Lady B recorded "To
the Beat Y'All" in 1979, and became the first female solo hip hop
artist to record music. Later,
Schoolly
D, another Philadelphia artist, helped invent what became known
as
gangsta rap.
1980s

Russell Simmons
The 1980s marked an intense diversification of hip hop as the genre
developed more complex styles. Some early examples of such styles
are represented in the following tracks:
- Bruce Haack & Russell Simmons - "Party Machine" (1982).
Now considered the 'blueprint' of electro.
The track includes a 'shout-out'; it is arguably the first song to
do so.
- Rammellzee & K-Rob - "Beat Bop" (1983). This song was a 'slow jam'
which had a dub influence with its use of
reverb and echo as
texture and playful sound effects.
- T La Rock - "It's Yours" (1984). This
record is not only famed for its quick-fire editing but also for
his 'scientific' approach to rhyme construction.
Heavy usage of the new generation of
drum
machines such as the
Oberheim DMX
and
Roland 808 models was a
characteristic of many 1980 songs. To this day the 808 kickdrum is
traditionally used by hip hop producers. Over time
sampling technology became more advanced; however
earlier producers such as
Marley Marl
used drum machines to construct their beats from small excerpts of
other beats in
synchronisation.
Later,
samplers such as the
E-mu SP-1200 allowed not only more memory but
more flexibility for creative production. This allowed the
filtration and layering different hits, and with a possibility of
re-sequencing them into a single piece.
With the emergence of a new generation of samplers such as the
AKAI S900 in the late 1980s, producers did
not require the aid of tape loops.
Public
Enemy's first two albums were created with the help of large
tape loops. The process of looping break into a breakbeat now
became more common with a sampler, now doing the job which so far
had been done manually by the DJ. In 1989,
DJ Mark James under the moniker "45 King",
released "The 900 Number", a breakbeat track created by
synchronizing samplers and vinyl.
The content of hip hop evolved as well. The early styles presented
in the 1970s soon were replaced with metaphorical lyrics over
complex, multi-layered instrumentals. Artists such as
Melle Mel,
Rakim,
Chuck D, and
KRS-One
revolutionized hip hop by transforming it into a more mature art
form.
The Message (1982)
by
Grandmaster
Flash and the Furious Five is widely considered the birth of
"serious" rap.
During the early 1980s, electro music was formed within the hip hop
movement, largely led by artists such as
Cybotron,
Hashim,
Planet Patrol and
Newcleus. The most notable proponent was
Afrika Bambaataa who produced a single
called "
Planet Rock".
Some rappers eventually became mainstream pop performers.
Kurtis Blow's appearance in a
Sprite commercial marked the first hip hop
musician to represent a major product.
Nationalization and internationalization
Hip hop was almost entirely unknown outside of the United States
prior to the early 1980s. During that decade, it began its spread
to every inhabited continent and became a part of the music scene
in dozens of countries.
In the early part of the decade, breakdancing became the first aspect of hip hop
culture to reach Germany
, Japan
, Australia and South
Africa, where the crew Black Noise
established the practice before beginning to rap later in the
decade. Meanwhile, recorded hip hop was released in
France
(Dee Nasty's 1984
Paname City Rappin') and the Philippines
(Dyords Javier's "Na Onseng Delight" and Vincent
Dafalong's "Nunal"). In
Puerto
Rico,
Vico C became the first Latino
rapper, and his recorded work was the beginning of what became
known as
reggaeton.
Japanese hip hop is said to have begun when Hiroshi Fujiwara
returned to Japan and started playing Hip-Hop records in the early
1980s. Japanese hip hop generally tends to be most directly
influenced by old school hip hop, taking from the era's catchy
beats, dance culture, and overall fun and carefree nature and
incorporating it into their music. As a result, hip hop stands as
one of the most commercially viable mainstream music genres in
Japan, and the line between it and pop music is frequently
blurred.
Hip hop has globalized into many cultures worldwide, as evident
through the emergence of numerous regional scenes. It has emerged
globally as a movement based upon the main tennets of hip hop
culture. The music and the art continue to embrace, even celebrate,
its transnational dimensions while staying true to the local
cultures to which it is rooted. Hip-hop's inspiration differs
depending on each culture. Still, the one thing virtually all hip
hop artists worldwide have in common is that they acknowledge their
debt to those
African American
people in New York who launched the global movement. While hip-hop
is sometimes taken for granted by Americans, it is not so
elsewhere, especially in the developing world, where it has come to
represent the empowerment of the disenfranchised and a slice of the
American dream. American hip-hop music has reached the cultural
corridors of the globe and has been absorbed and reinvented around
the world.
New school hip hop
The new school of hip hop was a second wave of hip hop music
starting from 1983–84 with the early records of
Run-D.M.C. and
LL Cool
J. Like the hip hop preceding it, it came predominately from
New York City. The new school was initially characterized in form
by drum machine led minimalism, often tinged with elements of rock.
It was notable for taunts and boasts about rapping, and
socio-political commentary, both delivered in an aggressive,
self-assertive style. In image as in song its artists projected a
tough, cool, street b-boy attitude. These elements contrasted
sharply with the funk and disco influenced outfits, novelty hits,
live bands, synthesizers and party rhymes of artists prevalent in
1984, and rendered them old school. New school artists made shorter
songs that could more easily gain radio play, and more cohesive LPs
than their old school counterparts. By 1986 their releases began to
establish hip hop as a fixture of the mainstream. Rap and hip hop
became commercially successful, as exemplified by
The Beastie Boys' 1986 album
Licensed to Ill, which was the first
rap album to hit #1 on the Billboard charts.
Golden age hip hop

Public Enemy
Hip hop's "golden age" is a name given to a period in hip hop -
usually from the late 1980s to early 90s - said to be characterized
by its diversity, quality, innovation and influence. There were
strong themes of Afrocentricity and political militancy, while the
music was experimental and the sampling was eclectic. There was
often a strong
jazz influence. The artists
most often associated with the phase include
Public Enemy (whose 1988 album
It
Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back is widely
regarded as hip hop's greatest moment),
KRS-One and his
Boogie Down Productions,
Stetsasonic,
Eric
B. & Rakim,
De La Soul,
A
Tribe Called Quest,
Brand Nubian
and the
Jungle Brothers.
Gangsta rap and West Coast hip hop
Gangsta rap is a genre of hip hop that reflects the violent
lifestyles of some inner-city youths. It was pioneered by the mid
80s work of musicians such as
Schoolly D
and
Ice T. In 1988,
N.W.A. released
Straight Outta Compton, which
formalised the style, as well as cementing Los Angeles as its main
centre. Thus, N.W.A. helped to establish West Coast hip hop as a
genre equal in importance to
East
Coast hip hop.
1990s
In 1992,
Dr. Dre released
The Chronic. As well as helping to
establish West Coast gangsta rap as more commercially viable than
East Coast hip hop, this album founded a style called
G Funk, which soon came to dominate West Coast hip
hop. The style was further developed and popularized by
Snoop Dogg's 1993 album
Doggystyle.
The
Wu-Tang Clan shot to fame around
the same time. Being from New York's Staten Island, the Wu-Tang
Clan brought the East Coast back into the mainstream at a time when
the West Coast mainly dominated rap. Other major artists in the
so-called East Coast hip hop renaissance included
The Notorious B.I.G. and
Nas. (See the article on the
East Coast-West Coast hip
hop rivalry.)
Record
labels based out of Atlanta
, St.
Louis
, and New
Orleans
also gained fame for their local scenes. The
midwest rap scene is also notable, with
the fast vocal styles from artists such as
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and
Twista. By the end of the decade, hip hop was an
integral part of popular music, and many American pop songs had hip
hop components.
World hip hop
In the 1990s and the following decade, elements of hip hop
continued to be assimilated into other genres of popular music.
Nu soul, for example, combined hip hop and
soul music and produced major stars such
as
Gnarls Barkley.
In the Dominican
Republic
, a recording by Santi Y Sus Duendes and Lisa M became the first single of merenrap, a fusion of hip hop and merengue.
New York City experienced a heavy Jamaican hip hop influence during
the 90s. This influence was brought on by cultural shifts
particularly because of the heightened immigration of Jamaicans to
New York City and the American-born Jamaican youth who were coming
of age during the 90s. Hip hop artists such as
De La Soul and
Black
Star have produced albums influenced by Jamaican roots.
[701972]
In Europe, Africa, and Asia, hip hop began to move from the
underground to mainstream audiences. In Europe, hip hop was the
domain of both ethnic nationals and immigrants.
British hip hop, for example, became a genre
of its own, and Germany
produced the well-known Die Fantastischen Vier as well as
several Turkish performers like the
controversial Cartel, Kool Savaş, and Azad.
Similarly, France
has produced
a number of native-born stars, such as IAM and
Suprême NTM, but the most famous
French rapper is probably the Senegalese-born MC Solaar. The Netherlands
' most famous rappers are The Osdorp Posse, an all-white crew from Amsterdam,
and The Postmen from Cape Verde
and Suriname
. Italy
found its
own rappers, including Jovanotti and
Articolo 31, grow nationally renowned,
while the Polish scene began in earnest early in the decade with
the rise of PM Cool Lee.
In
Romania
, B.U.G.
Mafia came out of Bucharest
's Pantelimon
neighborhood, and their brand of gangsta rap underlines the
parallels between life in Romania's Communist-era apartment blocks
and in the housing projects of America's ghettos.
Israel
's hip hop
grew greatly in popularity at the end of the decade, with several
stars Palestinian (Tamer Nafer) and Israeli
(Subliminal) . Mook E., preached peace and tolerance.
In Asia,
mainstream stars rose to prominence in the Philippines
, led by Francis
Magalona, Rap Asia, MC Lara and Lady Diane. In Japan,
where underground rappers had previously found a limited audience,
and popular
teen idols brought a style
called J-rap to the top of the charts in the middle of the
'90s.
Latinos had played an integral role in the early development of hip
hop, and the style had spread to parts of Latin America, such as
Cuba, early in its history.
In Mexico
, popular hip
hop began with the success of Calo in the early
'90s. Later in the decade, with Latin rap groups like
Cypress Hill on the American charts,
Mexican rap rock groups, such as
Control
Machete, rose to prominence in their native land.
An annual Cuban hip
hop concert held at Alamar in Havana
helped
popularize Cuban hip hop, beginning in 1995. Hip hop grew
steadily more popular in Cuba, because of official governmental
support for musicians.
Brazilian hip hop scene is
considered to be the second biggest in the world, just behind
American hip hop.
Brazilian hip hop is heavily associated
with racial and economic issues in the country, where a lot of
Black People live in a bad situation
in the violent slums, known in Brazil
as favelas. São Paulo
city is where Hip Hop began
in the country, but it spread all over Brazil soon, and today,
almost every big Brazilian city, like Rio de Janeiro
, Salvador, Curitiba
, Porto
Alegre
, Belo
Horizonte
, Recife
and
Brasilia
have a big Hip Hop scene
going on. Racionais MC's,
MV Bill,
Marcelo
D2, Rappin Hood, Thaíde and Dj Hum, GOG, RZO are considered the
most powerful names in
Brazilian hip
hop.
West Coast hip hop
After
N.W.A broke up,
Dr.
Dre (a former member) released
The
Chronic in 1992, which peaked at #1 on the R&B/hip hop
chart, #3 on the pop chart and spawned a #2 pop single with
"
Nuthin' but a "G" Thang."
The
Chronic took West Coast rap in a new direction, influenced
strongly by
P funk artists, melding sleazy
funk beats with slowly drawled lyrics. This came to be known as
G-funk and dominated mainstream hip hop for
several years through a roster of artists on
Death Row Records including
Snoop Dogg, whose
Doggystyle included the songs "What's My
Name" and "Gin and Juice," both top ten hits.
Detached from this scene were more thoughtful artists such as
The Pharcyde as well as more
underground artists such as the
Solesides
collective (
DJ Shadow and
Blackalicious amongst others)
Jurassic 5,
People Under the Stairs,
The Alkaholiks, and earlier
Souls of Mischief represented a return to
hip-hops roots of sampling and well planned rhymeschemes.
Other
rappers include Too Short and MC Hammer from Oakland
.
East Coast hip hop
In the early 1990s east coast hip hop was dominated by the
Native Tongues posse which was loosely
composed of
De La Soul with producer
Prince Paul,
A Tribe Called Quest,
The Jungle Brothers, as well as their
loose affiliates
3rd Bass,
Main Source, and the less successful
Black Sheep &
KMD. Although originally a "daisy age" conception
stressing the positive aspects of life, darker material (such as De
La Soul's thought provoking "Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa") soon
crept in.
Artists such as
Masta Ace (particularly
for
Slaughtahouse) &
Brand Nubian,
Public Enemy,
Organized Konfusion followed a more
overtly militant poise, both in sound and manner.
Biz Markie, the 'clown prince of hip hop' was
causing himself, and all other hip-hop producers a problem with his
appropriation of the
Gilbert
O'Sullivan song 'Alone again, naturally'.
In the mid 1990s, artists such as the
Wu-Tang Clan,
Nas and
The Notorious B.I.G. increased
New York's visibility at a time when hip hop was mostly dominated
by West Coast artists. The mid to late 1990s saw a generation of
rappers such as
Big L and
Big Pun who would prove very lucrative.
The productions of
RZA, particularly for
Wu-Tang Clan, became very influential,
with artists such as
Mobb Deep being
highly influenced by their combination of somewhat detached
instrumental loops, highly compressed and processed drums and
gangsta lyrical content. Wu-Tang affiliate
albums such as
Raekwon the Chef's
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx and
GZA's
Liquid Swords
are now viewed as classics along with Wu-Tang 'core'
material.
Producers such as
DJ Premier (primarily
for
Gangstarr but also for other
affiliated artists such as
Jeru the
Damaja),
Pete Rock (With
CL Smooth and supplying beats for many others),
Buckwild,
Large
Professor,
Diamond D and
The 45 King supplying beats for numerous MC's
regardless of location.
Albums such as
Nas's
Illmatic,
Jay-Z's
Reasonable Doubt and
OC's
Word...Life are made up of beats from
this pool of producers.
Later in the decade the business acumen of the
Bad Boy records tested itself against
Jay-Z and his
Roc-A-Fella Records and on the west
coast
Death Row Records.
The rivalry between the East Coast and the West Coast rappers
eventually turned into a personal rivalry, aided in part by the
music media .
Although the 'big business' end of the market domininated matters
commercially the late 90s to early 2000 era saw a number of
relatively successful east coast indie labels such as
Rawkus Records (with whom
Mos Def gained great success) and later,
Def Jux, the history of the two labels is
intertwined, the latter having been started by
EL-P of
Company Flow in
reaction to the former, it offered an outlet for more underground
artists such as
Mike Ladd,
Aesop Rock,
Mr Lif,
RJD2,
Cage and
Cannibal Ox. Other acts such as the Hispanic
Arsonists and
slam poet turned MC
Saul
Williams met with differing degrees of success.
Diversification of styles
In the late 90s, the styles of hip hop diversified.
Southern rap became popular in the early '90's,
with the releases of
Arrested Development's
3
Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of... in 1992,
Goodie Mob's
Soul Food in 1995 and
OutKast's
ATLiens in 1996.
All three groups were
from Atlanta,
Georgia
. Later, Master P
(Ghetto D) built up a roster of
artists (the No Limit posse) based
out of New
Orleans
. Master P incorporated G
funk and Miami bass influences; and
distinctive regional sounds from St. Louis
, Chicago
, Washington
D.C.
, Detroit
and others
began to gain popularity. Also in the 1990s,
rapcore, a fusion of hip hop and
hardcore punk, became popular among mainstream
audiences.
Rage Against the
Machine,
Linkin Park and
Limp Bizkit were among the most well known
rapcore bands.
Though white rappers like the
Beastie
Boys and
3rd Bass had had some popular
success or critical acceptance from the hip hop community,
Eminem's success, beginning in 1999 with the platinum
The Slim Shady LP
surprised many. However, Eminem was criticized for glorification of
violence, misogyny and drug abuse as well as homophobia and albums
laced with constant profanity.
2000s
In the year 2000,
The
Marshall Mathers LP by
Eminem sold
over ten million copies in the United States and was the fastest
selling album of all time
Nelly's debut LP,
Country Grammar, sold over
nine million copies. The United States also saw the success of
alternative hip hop in the form
of moderately popular performers like
The
Roots,
Dilated Peoples,
Gnarls Barkley and
Mos
Def, who achieved unheard-of success for their field.
Southern hip hop in the 2000s gave birth to
crunk music. Hip hop influences also found their
way increasingly into mainstream pop during this period.
Popular (mainstream and underground) hip hop artists during the
2000s included:
West Coast:
B-Real,
Blu,
The Coup,
Crooked
I,
Del tha Funkee
Homosapien,
DJ Quik,
Guerilla Black,
The Game,
Hieroglyphics,
Ice Cube,
Jurassic
5,
Kurupt,
Kottonmouth Kings,
Madlib,
MURS,
Westside Connection,
Xzibit,
Zion I,
Dilated Peoples,
Snoop
Dogg,
People Under The
Stairs,
Common Market,
Ugly Ducking,
The Grouch,
Jake
One,
Lilo,
Kay,
Kush
Dirty South:
Bobby Ray,
Chamillionaire,
Three 6 Mafia (
DJ Paul,
Lord Infamous,
Juicy J),
Hurricane Chris,
UGK (
Pimp C,
Bun
B),
Paul Wall,
Young Buck,
Pitbull,
Trick
Daddy,
Rick Ross,
Big Tymers (
Birdman,
Mannie
Fresh),
Hot Boys,
Lil Wayne,
Juvenile,
Lil
Boosie,
Webbie,
David Banner,
Young
Jeezy,
Gucci Mane,
Ludacris,
T.I.,
Lil Jon,
Ying Yang
Twins,
Pastor Troy,
Jermaine Dupri,
Soulja Boy Tell 'Em,
Scarface,
8Ball
& MJG,
South Park
Mexican,
Big Moe,
Z-Ro,
Lil' Flip,
Mike Jones,
Lil
Scrappy,
Unk,
DJ
Khaled,
Gorilla Zoe,
Yung Joc
Midwest:
Atmosphere Common,
Black
Milk,
Insane Clown Posse,
Esham,
Slum
Village,
Eminem,
Proof,
Kon
Artis,
Royce da 5'9",
Kanye West,
Twista,
Lupe Fiasco,
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony,
Tech N9ne,
Brother Ali,
Chingy,
Nelly,
Jibbs,
Huey,
J Dilla,
Trick-Trick,
Guilty Simpson,
Kid Cudi,
Yung Berg,
Slug,
P.O.S.,
Chip Tha Ripper
East Coast:
Charles Hamilton,
Talib Kweli,
MF Doom,
Immortal Technique,
Memphis Bleek,
Cassidy,
Swizz
Beatz,
Cam'ron,
Jadakiss,
Wu-Tang Clan
(
RZA,
GZA,
Method Man,
Raekwon,
Ghostface Killah,
Inspectah Deck,
U-God,
Masta Killa,
Cappadonna,
Ol'
Dirty Bastard,
Redman),
DMX,
Nas,
Lloyd Banks,
50 Cent,
Jim Jones,
Styles P,
Big Pun,
Fat Joe,
Busta Rhymes,
Mims,
Mobb
Deep,
Mos Def,
The
Roots,
Ja Rule,
Jay-Z,
Aesop Rock,
Kool Keith,
Edo G,
Sha Stimuli,
MF Grimm,
El-P,
KRS-One,
De La Soul,
Gang Starr,
Buckshot,
Wiz Khalifa
World and national music
Some countries, like
Tanzania, maintained
popular acts of their own in the early 2000s, though many others
produced few homegrown stars, instead following American trends.
Scandinavian, especially Danish and
Swedish, performers became well known outside of their country,
while hip hop continued its spread into new regions, including
Russia, Japan, Philippines, Canada, China, Korea, India and
especially Vietnam.
In Germany and France,
gangsta rap has
become popular among youths who like the violent and aggressive
lyrics. Some German rappers openly or comically flirt with Nazism,
Bushido (born Anis Mohamed Youssef
Ferchichi) raps "Salutiert, steht stramm, Ich bin der Leader wie A"
(Salute, stand to attention, I am the leader like 'A') and
Fler had a hit with the record
Neue Deutsche
Welle (New German Wave) complete with the title written in
Third Reich style Gothic print and advertised with an
Adolf Hitler quote. These references also
spawned great controversy in Germany.
The album "Babel (33 guests in 33 languages)" is one of the most
comprehensive products in world hip-hop in the recent years. Over
30 rappers appear on the material using his own mother
tongue.
Crunk and snap music
Crunk originated from
southern hip
hop in the late 1990s.
The style was pioneered and commercialized
by artists from Memphis
, Tennessee
and Atlanta
, Georgia
.
Looped, stripped-down
drum machine
rhythms are usually used. The
Roland
TR-808 and
909 are among the most
popular. The drum machines are usually accompanied by simple,
repeated synthesizer melodies and heavy bass stabs. The tempo of
the music is somewhat slower than hip-hop, around the speed of
reggaeton.
The focal point of crunk is more often the beats and music than the
lyrics therein. Crunk rappers, however, often shout and scream
their lyrics, creating an aggressive, almost heavy, style of
hip-hop. While other subgenres of hip-hop address sociopolitical or
personal concerns, crunk is almost exclusively party music,
favoring call and response hip-hop slogans in lieu of more
substantive approaches.
Snap
music is an subgenre of crunk that emerged from Atlanta
, Georgia
, in the late 1990s.
The genre
soon became popular and in mid-2005 artists
from other southern states such as Texas
and
Tennessee
began to emerge with this style. Tracks
commonly consist of an
808 bassdrum,
hi-hat,
bass,
snapping, a main
groove and a vocal track. Hit snap songs
include "
Lean Wit It, Rock Wit
It" by "
Dem Franchize Boys",
"
Laffy Taffy" by
D4L, "
It's Goin' Down" by
Yung Joc and "
Crank That " by
Soulja Boy Tell 'Em.
Glitch hop and wonky music
Glitch hop is a fusion genre of hip hop and glitch music that
originated in the early to mid 2000s in the United States and
Europe. Musically, it is based on irregular, chaotic
breakbeats, glitchy
basslines and other typical sound effects used in
glitch music, like skips. Glitch hop artists include
Prefuse 73,
Dabrye,
Flying Lotus. some of artists, that
were noted for creating wonky music are Joker,
Hudson Mohawke,
Flying Lotus.
Wonky is a subgenre of hip hop that
originated around
2008 all around the globe
(but most notably in the United States and United Kingdom, and
among international artists of the
Hyperdub
music label), under the influence of glitch hop and
dubstep. Wonky music is of the same glitchy type as
glitch hop, but it was specifically noted for its melodies, rich
with "mid-range unstable synths".
Scotland
has become one of the most prominent places, where
wonky music was shaped by artists like Hudson Mohawke and Rustie. In Glasgow
, Rustie has created the substyle of wonky music
called "aquacrunk", a fusion of wonky and crunk music; the most
specific trait of aquacrunk are its "aquatic" synths.
Glitch hop and wonky are popular among limited amount of people,
interested in alternative hip hop,
electronic music (especially, dubstep);
neither glitch hop nor wonky have met any mainstream
popularity.
Decline in sales
Starting
in 2005, sales of hip-hop music in the United States
began to severely wane, leading Time magazine to
question if mainstream hip-hop was "dying." Billboard
Magazine found that, since 2000, rap sales dropped 44%,and declined
to 10% of all music sales, which, while still a commanding figure
when compared to other genres, is a significant drop from the 13%
of all music sales where rap music regularly placed.
NPR culture critic Elizabeth Blair noted that, "some
industry experts say young people are fed up with the violence,
degrading imagery and lyrics. Others say the music is just as
popular as it ever was, but that fans have found other means to
consume the music." It can also be argued that many young people
now download music illegally, especially through P2P networks,
instead of purchasing albums and singles from legitimate stores.
Some put the blame on the lack of lyrical content that hip hop once
had, for example
Soulja Boy Tell
'Em's 2007 debut album
souljaboytellem.com was met with
negative reviews. Lack of sampling, a key element of hip hop, has
also been noted for the decrease in quality of modern albums. For
example, there are only four samples used in 2008's
Paper Trail by
T.I.,
while there are 35 samples in 1998's
Moment of Truth by
Gang Starr. The decrease in sampling is
in part due to it being too expensive for producers. In
Byron Hurt's documentary
Hip Hop: Beyond
Beats and Rhymes, he claims that hip hop had changed from
"clever rhymes and dance beats" to "advocating personal, social and
criminal corruption."
Despite the fall in record sales throughout the music industry,
hip-hop has remained a popular genre, with hip-hop artists still
regularly topping the
Billboard 200
Charts. In the first half of 2009 alone artists such as
Eminem,
Rick Ross,
Black Eyed Peas, and
Fabolous all had albums that reached the #1
position on the
Billboard 200 charts.
Eminem's album
Relapse is
the fastest selling album of the year so far.
Innovation & revitalization
It was in the later 2000s that alternative hip hop finally secured
a place within the mainstream, due in part to the declining
commercial viability of gangsta rap as well as the crossover
success of artists such as
OutKast,
Kanye West, and
Gnarls
Barkley. Not only did OutKast's
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
receive universal acclaim from music critics and manage to appeal
listeners of all ages spanning numerous musical genres–including
rap, rock, R&B, punk, jazz, indie, country, pop, electronica
and gospel–but also spawned two number-one hit singles and has been
certified diamond by selling 11
times
platinum
by the
RIAA for shipping
more than 11 million units, becoming the best selling rap album of
all time. Industry observers view the
sales race between
Kanye West's
Graduation
and
50 Cent's
Curtis as a turning point for
hip hop. West emerged the victor, selling nearly a million copies
in the first week alone, proving that innovative rap music could be
just as commercially viable as gangsta rap, if not more so.
Although he designed it as a melancholic
pop rather than rap, Kanye's following
808s & Heartbreak
would have a significant effect on hip hop music. While his
decision to sing about love, loneliness, and heartache for the
entirety of the album was at first heavily criticized by music
audiences and the album predicted to be a flop, its subsequent
critical acclaim and commercial success encouraged other mainstream
rappers to take greater creative risks with their music.
During
the release of The Blueprint
3, New
York
rap mogul Jay-Z revealed that
next studio album would be a an experimental effort, stating, "...
it's not gonna be a #1 album. That's where I'm at right now.
I wanna make the most experimental album I ever made." Jay-Z
elaborated that like Kanye, he was unsatisfied with contemporary
hip hop, was being inspired by indie-rockers like
Grizzly Bear and asserted his belief
that the indie rock movement would play an important role in the
continued evolution of hip-hop.
The alternative hip hop movement is not
limited solely to the United States, as genre-defying rappers such
as Somalian poet
K'naan, Japanese
rapper Shing02, and
especially Sri
Lankan
artist M.I.A. have
achieved considerable worldwide recognition. In 2009,
TIME magazine placed M.I.A in the
Time 100 list of "World's Most Influential people"
for having "global influence across many genres." Today, due in
part to the increasing use of music distribution through the
internet, many alternative rap artists are
able to find acceptance by far-reaching audiences. Several
burgeoning artists such as
Kid Cudi and
Drake have managed to attain
record-breaking, chart-topping hit songs, "
Day 'n' Night" and "
Successful" respectively, which they
both released on free online
mixtapes
without the help of a major record label. The pair, along with
other new artists such as
Wale,
Asher Roth,
The
Cool Kids, and
B.o.B, openly acknowledge
being directly influenced by their '90s alt-rap predecessors in
addition to alt-rock groups while their music has been noted by
critics as expressing eclectic sounds, life experiences and
emotions rarely seen in mainstream hip hop.
References
Sources
- David Toop (1984/1991). Rap
Attack II: African Rap To Global Hip Hop. New York. New York:
Serpent's Tail. ISBN 1852422432.
- McLeod, Kembrew. Interview with Chuck D
and Hank Shocklee. 2002. Stay Free
Magazine.
- Corvino, Daniel and Livernoche, Shawn (2000). A Brief
History of Rhyme and Bass: Growing Up With Hip Hop. Tinicum,
PA: Xlibris Corporation/The Lightning Source, Inc. ISBN
1-4010-2851-9
- Chang, Jeff. "Can't Stop Won't
Stop".
- Rose, Tricia (1994). "Black Noise". Middletown, Connecticut:
Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0-8195-6275-0
- Potter, Russell (1995) Spectacular Vernaculars: Hip-Hop and
the Politics of Postmodernism. Albany: SUNY Press. ISBN
0791426262
- Light, Alan (ed). (1999). The VIBE History of Hip-Hop.
New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 0-609-80503-7
- George, Nelson (2000, rev. 2005). Hip-Hop America. New
York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-028022-7
- Fricke, Jim and Ahearn, Charlie (eds). (2002). Yes Yes Y'All:
The Experience
Music Project
Oral History of Hip Hop's First Decade.
New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-81184-7
- Kitwana, Bakar (2004). The State of Hip-Hop Generation: how
hip-hop's culture movement is evolving into political power.
Retrieved December 4, 2006. From Ohio Link Database
External links