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![Text Box: Hip hop music, also known as rap music, is a style of music which came into existence in the United States during the mid-1970s, and became a large part of modern pop culture during the 1980s. It consists of two main components: rapping (MCing) and DJing (production and scratching). Along with hip hop dance (notably breakdancing) and urban inspired art, or notably graffiti, these compose the four elements of hip hop, a cultural movement that was initiated by inner-city youth, mostly African Americans[1] in New York City, in the early 1970s.
Typically, hip hop music consists of rhythmic lyrics making use of techniques like assonance, alliteration, and rhyme. The rapper is accompanied by an instrumental track, usually referred to as a "beat," performed by a DJ, created by a producer, or one or more instrumentalists. Historically, this beat has often been created using a sample of the percussion break of another song: usually funk and soul recordings have been utilized. However, in recent years, it has become more common for the beat to be built up from individual drum samples. In addition to the beat, other sounds are often sampled, synthesized, or performed. Sometimes a track can be instrumental, as a showcase of the skills of the DJ or producer.
Hip hop began in The Bronx, a borough in New York City, when DJs began isolating the percussion break from funk and disco songs. The early role of the MC was to introduce the DJ and the music and to keep the audience excited. MCs began by speaking between songs, giving exhortations to dance, greetings to audience members, jokes and anecdotes. Eventually this practice became more stylized and became known as rapping. By 1979, hip hop had become a commercially popular music genre and began to enter the American mainstream. In the 1990s, a form of hip hop called gangsta rap became a major part of American music, causing significant controversy over lyrics which were perceived as promoting violence, promiscuity, drug use and misogyny. Nevertheless, by the beginning of the 2000s, hip hop was a staple of popular music charts and was being performed in many styles across the world.
History of hip hop music
The main historical eras of hip hop are the old school hip hop era (1970 to 1985), which spanned from the beginning of hip hop until its emergence into the mainstream, and the golden age hip hop era (1985 to 1993), which consolidated the sounds of the East Coast and the West Coast and transitioned into the modern era with the rise of gangsta rap and G-funk, created by the West Coast. The years after 1993 contain the hardcore hip hop, bling, and underground genres, which largely define the modern era.
Hip hop arose during the 1970s at block parties in New York City, at which the DJs began isolating the percussion breaks to hit funk, soul, R&B and disco songs. The roots of this type of songs stem back to the mid-1950s when soul/funk rock artist James Brown credit Little Richard's band as having been the first to put the funk in the rock beat. These songs were based on – "breakbeat" DJing. As hip hop became popular, performers began speaking while the music played, and became known as MCs or emcees. In 1979, the first commercially issued hip hop recordings were released: "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang which became a Top 40 hit on the U.S. Billboard pop singles chart. 'Rapper' in reference to music was actually coined by this song. Some historians cite King Tim III (Personality Jock) by the Fatback Band to be the first commercially released hip hop recording but they were a funk and disco group.
During the 1980s, hip hop began to diversify and develop into a more complex form. At the same time, more sophisticated techniques were developed, including scratching, and electronic recording. In the late 1980s, a number of new hip hop styles and subgenres began appearing as the genre gained popularity. Hip hop musicians collaborated with rock bands and spread out into the genres of conscious hip hop, jazz-rap and gangsta rap.
In the 1990s, a prolonged confrontation between West Coast gangsta rappers and the resurging East Coast began. It centered around Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. and led to both of their deaths, in 1996 and 1997 respectively. In 1996, Cleveland-based rap group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony tied The Beatles' 32-year-old record for fastest-rising single with "Tha Crossroads," and in 2000, Scottish-American White rapper Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP sold over nine million copies and won a Grammy Award.
Social impact
Hip hop music is a part of hip hop, a cultural movement that includes the activities of breakdancing and graffiti art, as well as associated slang, fashion and other elements. The popularity of music has helped to popularize hip hop culture, both in the United States and to a lesser degree abroad.
Lifestyle
The late 1990s saw the rise in popularity of the "bling-bling" lifestyle in rap music, focusing on symbols of wealth and status like money, jewelry, cars, and clothing. Although references to wealth have existed since the birth of hip hop, the new, intensified "bling-bling" culture has its immediate roots in the enormously commercially successful late-to-mid nineties work (specifically, music videos) of Puff Daddy and Bad Boy Records as well as Master P's No Limit Records. However, the term was coined in 1999 (see 1999 in music) by Cash Money Records artist Lil' Wayne on B.G.'s hit single "Bling-Bling", and the Cash Money roster were perhaps the epitome of the "bling-bling" lifestyle and attitude. Though many rappers, mostly gangsta rappers, unapologetically pursue and celebrate bling-bling, others, mostly artists outside of the hip hop mainstream, have expressly criticized the idealized pursuit of bling-bling as being materialistic.
Influence on youth
The widespread success of hip hop ― specifically gangsta rap; Highly advertised & commercialized by grand companies, who are able to reach & get a hold of the masses; making billions of dollars from the ignorant material ― has also had a significant social impact on the demeanor of modern youth. The sometimes egotistic attitudes often portrayed in the lyrics and videos of certain hip hop artists have repeatedly shown negative effects on some of their idolizing fans. While the attitudes of specific artists certainly do not represent the rest of the hip hop community, and the effect of lyrical content on youths who are part of the hip hop culture is debatable, very often such youths adopt the much glamorized "gangsta" persona while not being members of any gang. Often these personas incite anti-social behavior such as peer harassment, neglect towards education, rejection of authority, and petty crimes such as vandalism. An evident pseudo-gangsta sub-culture has risen amongst North American youth.
Product Placement, Advertising and Shilling
For many years rap music has included product placement for cars, alcoholic drinks, clothing and other products. Rappers will discuss at length the cars they drive and the drinks they consume and glorify the excess, decadence and luxury.
Homophobia
Because hip hop music almost always puts an emphasis on hyper-masculinity, its lyrics have been said to reflect a homophobic mindset. It is often suspected that there are a great number of gay or lesbian hip hop musicians who do not come out of the closet, for fear of the decline of their career. Rumors of such have involved hip hop artists such as Queen Latifah, Da Brat, and several others. In 2001, the first annual PeaceOUT World Homo Hop Festival, which features performers by openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered rappers was held in Oakland, California, and the festival, curated by artist/activist Juba Kalamka, has continued on an annual basis since then. In 2003 the openly gay hip hop and rap artist Caushun, was rumored to have signed to the Baby Phat imprint (a project of Kimora Lee Simmons,at the time married to hip hop mogul Russell Simmons); however, his record was apparently never released. In September 2005, the documentary Pick Up the Mic premiered at the 30th Annual Toronto International Film Festival, focusing on LGBT hip hop performers, such as Kalamka's group Deep Dickollective, JenRO, Tori Fixx and the duo God-Des and She. Jai-Fo are also a lesbian rap group.
Language
Method Man working on his 2006 Def Jam release 4:21...The Day AfterHip hop has a distinctive slang, that includes words like yo, flow and phat. Due to hip hop's extraordinary commercial success in the late nineties and early 21st century, many of these words have been assimilated into many different dialects across America and the world and even to non-hip hop fans (the word dis for example is remarkably prolific). There are also words like homie which predate hip hop but are often associated with it. Sometimes, terms like what the dilly, yo are popularized by a single song (in this case, "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See" by Busta Rhymes) and are only used briefly. Of special importance is the rule-based slang of Snoop Dogg and E-40, who add -izz to the middle of words so that shit becomes shizznit (the addition of the n occurs occasionally as well). This practice, with origins in Frankie Smith's non-sensical language from his 1980 single "Double Dutch Bus," has spread to even non-hip hop fans, who may be unaware of its derivation.
Censorship issues
Hip hop has probably encountered more problems with censorship than any other form of popular music in recent years, due to the use of expletives. It also receives flak for being anti-establishment, and many of its songs depict wars and coup d' etats that in the end overthrows the government. For example, Public Enemy's "Gotta Give the Peeps What They Need" song was edited without their permission, removing the words "free Mumia". The pervasive use of profanity in many songs has created challenges in the broadcast of such material both on television stations such as MTV, in music video form, and on radio. As a result, many hip hop recordings are broadcast in censored form, with offending language blanked out of the soundtrack (though usually leaving the backing music intact), or even replaced with completely different lyrics. The result – which quite often renders the remaining lyrics unintelligible or contradictory to the original recording – has become almost as widely identified with the genre as any other aspect of the music, and has been parodied in films such as Austin Powers in Goldmember, in which a character – performing in a parody of a hip hop music video – performs an entire verse that is blanked out.
In 1995 Roger Ebert wrote:
"Rap has a bad reputation in white circles, where many people believe it consists of obscene and violent anti-white and anti-female guttural. Some of it does. Most does not. Most white listeners don't care; they hear black voices in a litany of discontent, and tune out. Yet rap plays the same role today as Bob Dylan did in 1960, giving voice to the hopes and angers of a generation, and a lot of rap is powerful writing."
World hip hop
Although hip hop music originated in the United States, it has spread throughout the world. Hip hop was almost entirely unknown outside of the United States prior to the 1980s. During that decade, it began its spread to every continent and became a part of the music scene in dozens of countries. The spread of the music was intertwined with that of hip hop culture - as elements such as breakdancing gained popularity, so did rappers and hip hop groups. Today Eminem & 2 Pac are among the best selling artists and also best selling ever with close to 80 million albums sold each.
Media
Hip hop has major American magazines devoted to it, including The Source, XXL and Vibe. For a long time, BET was the only television channel likely to play much hip hop, but in recent years the mainstream channels VH1 and MTV have played hip hop more than any other genre. Many individual cities have produced their own local hip hop newsletters, while hip hop magazines with national distribution are found in a few other countries. The 21st century also ushered in the rise of online media, and hip hop fan sites now offer comprehensive hip hop coverage on a daily basis.
References
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
Toop, David (1984, rev. 1991). Rap Attack II: African Rap To Global Hip Hop. New York. New York: Serpent's Tail. ISBN 1-85242-243-2 .
McLeod, Kembrew. Interview with Chuck D and Hank Shocklee. 2002. Stay Free Magazine, issue 20. Retrieved from http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/20/public_enemy.html on July 9, 2006.
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
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
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
Hip hop/Rap
Artists (Beatboxers - Rappers - DJs and Producers - Groups) - Beatboxing - Breakdance - Collaborations - Culture - DJing (Turntablism) - Fashion - Feuds - Graffiti - History (Roots - Old school - Golden age) - Production - Rapping
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World hip hop
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