Everything about Hip Hop Music totally explained
Hip hop music is a genre of
music typically consisting of a rhythmic style of speaking called
rap over backing beats performed on a turntable by a
DJ. Hip hop music is part of
hip hop culture, which began in
New York City in the 1970s, predominantly among
African Americans and
Latinos (two other elements are
breakdancing and
graffiti art). The term
rap is sometimes used synonymously with
hip hop music, though it originally referred only to rapping itself.
Rapping, also referred to as
MCing or emceeing, is a vocal style in which the performer speaks rhythmically and in rhyme, generally to a
beat. Beats are traditionally
sampled from portions of other songs by a DJ, though synthesizers, drum machines, and live bands are also used, especially in newer music. Rappers may perform poetry which they've written ahead of time, or
improvise rhymes on the spot. Though rap is usually an integral component of hip hop music, DJs sometimes perform and record alone, and many instrumental acts are also defined as hip hop.
Hip hop arose in New York City when DJs began isolating the
percussion break from
funk or
disco songs for audiences to dance to. The role of the MC was originally to introduce the DJ and the music, and to keep the audience excited. The MC would
speak between songs, giving exhortations to dance, greetings to audience members, jokes and anecdotes. Eventually, this practice became more stylized, and came to be known as
rapping. By 1979, hip hop had become a commercially recorded music genre, and began to enter the American mainstream. It also began its spread across the world. In the 1990s, a form called
gangsta rap became a major part of
American music, causing significant controversy over lyrics which were perceived by some as promoting violence, promiscuity, drug use and misogyny. Nevertheless, by the beginning of the 2000s, hip hop became a staple of popular music charts and is now performed in widely varying styles around the world.
1970s
Roots of hip hop
The roots of hip hop are found in
African-American and
West African music. The
griots of West Africa are a group of traveling singers and poets, whose musical style is reminiscent of hiphop. Within New York City, griot-like performances of poetry and music by artists such as
The Last Poets and
Jalal Mansur Nuriddin had a great impact on the post-civil rights era
culture of the 1960s and 1970s. Hip hop arose during the 1970s when
block parties became common in
New York City, especially the
Bronx. Block parties were usually accompanied by music, especially
funk and
soul music. The early DJs at block parties began isolating the
percussion breaks to hit songs, realizing that these were the most dance-able and entertaining parts; this technique was then common in
Jamaica and had spread via the substantial Jamaican immigrant community in New York City, especially the "godfather" of hip hop,
DJ Kool Herc.
Dub had arisen in Jamaica due to the influence of
American sailors and radio stations playing
R&B. Large
sound systems were set up to accommodate poor Jamaicans, who couldn't afford to buy records, and dub developed at the
sound systems (refers to both the system and the parties that evolved around them). Herc was one of the most popular DJs in early 70s New York, and he quickly switched from using
reggae records to funk, rock and, later, disco, since the New York audience didn't particularly like reggae. Because the percussive breaks were generally short, Herc and other DJs began extending them using an
audio mixer and two records. Mixing and scratching techniques eventually developed along with the breaks. (The same techniques contributed to the popularization of
remixes.) Such looping, sampling and remixing of another's music, usually 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 hiphop style.
Later DJs such as
Grandmaster Flash refined and developed the use of breakbeats, including cutting. As in dub, performers began speaking while the music played; these were originally called
MCs; Herc focused primarily on DJing, and began working with two MCs,
Coke La Rock and Clark Kent—this was the first MC crew, Kool Herc & the Herculoids. Originally, these early rappers focused on introducing themselves and others in the audience (the origin of the still common practice of "shouting out" on hip hop records). These early performers often MCed for hours at a time, with some improvisation and a simple four-count beat, along with a basic chorus to allow the performer to gather his thoughts (such as "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. These early raps incorporated similar rhyming lyrics from African American culture, such as
the dozens. While Kool Herc & the Herculoids were the first hip hoppers to gain major fame in New York, more MC teams quickly sprouted up. Frequently, these were collaborations between former
gang members, 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, frenetic style. The style was documented for release to a world wide audience for the first time in
Beat Street.
Although there were many early MCs that recorded solo projects of note, such as
DJ Hollywood,
Kurtis Blow, and
Spoonie Gee, real notoriety didn't appear until later with the rise of soloists with big stage presence and drama, such as
LL Cool J. Most early hip hop was dominated by groups where collaboration among the members was integral to the show.
Origin of term
Coinage of the term
hip hop is often credited to Keith Cowboy, a
rapper with
Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. Though
Lovebug Starski, Keith Cowboy, and
DJ Hollywood used the term when the music was still known as
disco rap, it's 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 copied by other artists; for example the opening of the song "
Rapper's Delight" by
The Sugarhill Gang.
Context
The reasons for the rise of hip hop are found in the changing urban culture within the United States during the 1970s. Perhaps most important was the low cost involved in getting started: the equipment was relatively inexpensive, and virtually anyone could MC along with the popular beats of the day. MCs could be creative, pairing nonsense rhymes and teasing friends and enemies alike in the style of Jamaican
toasting at blues parties or playing
the dozens in an exchange of wit. MCs would play at block parties, with no expectation of recording, in the way of
folk music. The skills necessary to create hip hop music were passed informally from musician to musician, rather than being taught in expensive music lessons.
Another reason for hip hop's rise was the decline of
disco,
funk and
rock in the mid- to late 70s. Disco arose among black and
gay male clubs in America, and quickly spread to Europe, where it grew increasingly sunny, bright and poppy. Once disco broke into the mainstream in the United States, and was thus appropriated, its original fans and many other listeners rejected it as pre-packaged and soulless. While many remember the white teens shouting "disco sucks" at every available opportunity, often in
racist and
homophobic contexts, inner-city blacks were similarly rejecting disco and disco-fied rock, soul and funk (which was virtually everything on the radio at the time).
If disco had anything redeemable for urban audiences, however, it was the strong, eminently danceable beats, and hip hop rose to take advantage of the beats while providing a musical outlet for the masses that hated disco. Disco-inflected music (though comparatively little actual disco) was one of the most popular sources of beats in the first ten or twelve years of hiphop's existence. In
Washington DC,
go go also emerged as a reaction against disco, and eventually mixed with hip hop during the early 1980s, while
electronic music did the same, developing as
house music in
Chicago and
techno music in
Detroit.
Along with the low expense and the demise of other forms of popular music, social and political events further accelerated the rise of hip hop. In 1959, the
Cross-Bronx Expressway was built through the heart of the Bronx, displacing many of the middle-class white communities and causing widespread unemployment among the remaining blacks as stores and factories fled the area. By the 1970s, poverty was rampant. When a 15,000+ apartment
Co-op City was built at the northern edge of the Bronx in 1968, the last of the middle-class fled the area and the area's black and Latino gangs began to grow in power.
Stylistic diversification
Pete DJ Jones, Eddie Cheeba,
DJ Hollywood and
Love Bug Starski were disco-flavored early hip hop DJs. Others hip hop musicians focused on rapid-fire rhymes and more complex rhythmic schemes.
Afrika Bambaataa, Paul Winley,
Grandmaster Flash and
Bobby Robinson were members of this group. During the transition into the early 1980s, many felt that hip hop was a novelty fad that would soon die out. This was to become a constant accusation for at least the next fifteen years.
The first hip hop recording was probably the
New Jersey-based
Sugar Hill Gang's
Rapper's Delight in 1979. By the 1980s, all the major elements and techniques of the genre were in place. Though not yet mainstream, hip hop was by now well known among African Americans, even outside of New York City; it could be found in cities as diverse as
Los Angeles,
Washington, DC,
Baltimore,
Dallas,
Kansas City,
Miami,
Seattle,
St. Louis,
New Orleans, and
Houston.
Despite the genre's spreading popularity,
Philadelphia was, for many years, the only city whose contributions to hip hop were valued as greatly as
New York City's by fans and critics. Hip hop music was popular there at least as far back as the late 1970s (the first Philadelphia hip hop record was "Rhythm Talk", by Jocko Henderson in 1979), and the
New York Times dubbed Philadelphia the "Graffiti Capital of the World" in 1971. A Philadelphia-area radio DJ,
Lady B, was the first female solo hip hop artist to record music ("To the Beat Y'All", 1980). Later
Schoolly D, another Philadelphia-based artist, helped invent what became known as
gangsta rap.
1980s
The 1980s saw intense diversification of hip hop, which developed into a more complex form. As technology evolved so did the practice of looping break into breakbeats; the emergence of samplers and sequencers allowed the beats to be manipulated with greater precision and granularity and recombined in more complex new ways than was possible with vinyl alone. In 1984,
Marley Marl accidentally caught a drum machine snare hit in the sampler; this innovation was vital in the development of
electro and other later types of hip hop. 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 evolved as well. The simple tales of 1970s MCs were replaced by highly metaphoric lyrics rapping over complex, multi-layered beats. Some rappers even became mainstream pop performers, including
Kurtis Blow, whose appearance in a
Sprite commercial made him the first hip hop musician to be considered mainstream enough to represent a major product, but also the first to be accused by the hip hop audience of
selling out. Another popular performer among mainstream audiences was
LL Cool J, who was a success from the release of his first LP,
Radio.
Hip hop was almost entirely unknown outside of the United States prior to the 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 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
Spanish rapper, and his recorded work was the beginning of what became known as
reggaeton.
Politicization
The first rap records (
Fatback Band's
King Tim III,
Grandmaster Flash's
Super Rappin and
The Sugarhill Gang's
Rapper's Delight) were actually recorded by live musicians in the studio, with the rappers adding their vocals later. This changed with DJ records such as
Grandmaster Flash's
Adventures on the Wheels of Steel (known for pioneering use of
scratching, which was invented by
Grandwizard Theodore in 1977) as well as electronic recordings such as
Planet Rock by
Afrika Bambaataa and
Run DMC's very basic, all electronic
Sucker MC's and
Peter Piper which contains genuine cutting by Run DMC member
Jam Master Jay. These early innovators were based out of New York City, which remained the capital of Hiphop during the 1980s. This style became known as
East Coast hip hop.
Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five released a "message rap", called
The Message, in 1982; this was one of the earliest examples of recorded hip hop with a socially aware tone.
In 1987,
Public Enemy brought out their debut album (
Yo! Bum Rush the Show) on
Def Jam, and
Boogie Down Productions followed up in 1988 with
By All Means Necessary; both records pioneered a wave of hard-edged politicized performers. The late 1980s saw a flourishing of like-minded rappers on both coasts, and Public Enemy's
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back became surprisingly successful, despite its militant and confrontational tone, appearing on both the club and rap charts, and peaking at #17 and #11, respectively. Aside from the lyrical innovations, Public Enemy's
Terminator X (along with
Eric B., of
Eric B. & Rakim) pioneered new techniques in sampling that resulted in dense, multi-layered sonic collages.
Popularization
The mid-1980s saw a flourishing of the first hip hop artists to achieve mainstream success, such as
Kurtis Blow (
Kurtis Blow),
LL Cool J (
Radio) and especially
Run-D.M.C. (
Raising Hell), as well as influences in mainstream music, such as
Blondie's
Debbie Harry rapping in the first non-black hit to feature rapping, "Rapture". LL Cool J's
Radio spawned a number of singles that entered the dance charts, peaking with "I Can Give You More" (#21). 1986 saw two hip hop acts in the Billboard Top Ten;
Run-D.M.C.'s "Walk This Way" collaboration with
Aerosmith, and the
Beastie Boys "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)". The pop success of both singles was unheard of for the time; "Walk This Way" has proved especially memorable for its early mixture of hip hop and rock (though it wasn't the first such mixture), and it peaked at an unheard of #4 on the pop charts. Also, the mid-1980s saw the rise of the first major black female group,
Salt-N-Pepa, who hit the charts with singles like "The Show Stoppa" in 1985.
Ice-T's seminal "6n' Da Mornin'" (1986) is one of the first nationally successful
West Coast hip hop singles, and is often said to be the beginning of
gangsta rap (along with
Schoolly D,
LL Cool J and
N.W.A.).
Turntablism
While early hip hop arose through the decline of
funk and
disco while still employing their musicianship, there was the rise of artists who employed the use of the turntable as an instrument in itself. Hip Hop Turntablist
DJs use turntable techniques such as beat mixing/matching, scratching, and beat juggling to create a base that can be rapped over. Turntablism is generally focused more on turntable technique and less on mixing. Each scratch of the turntable is considered unique due to the complex waveforms produced and employing digital sampling is considered an affront to a true Turntablist.
Rise of gangsta rap
The first gangsta rap album to become a mainstream pop hit, selling more than 2.5 million copies, was
N.W.A.'s
Straight Outta Compton (1988). N.W.A.'s controversial subject matter, including drugs, violence and sex, helped popularize what became known as
gangsta rap (said to have begun with
Ice-T's "6N' Da Morning"). Specifically, the song "Fuck Tha Police" earned the foursome the enmity of
law enforcement, resulting in a strongly-worded letter of discontent from the
FBI. N.W.A.'s most lasting impact, however, was placing the West Coast on the hip hop map.
Diversification
Though women, whites and Latinos had long been a part of the hip hop scene, it wasn't until the 1980s that groups other than young African American males began creating popular, innovative and distinctive styles of hip hop music.
The first rap recording by a solo female was
Philadelphia-based
Lady B.'s "To the Beat, Y'All" (1980), while
The Sequence became the first female group to record. It was, not, however, until
Salt-N-Pepa in the middle of the decade that female performers gained mainstream success.
The first groups to mix hip hop and
heavy metal included 1984's "Rock Box" (
Run-D.M.C.) and "Rock Hard" (
Beastie Boys). Later in the decade,
Ice-T and
Anthrax were among the most innovative mixers of
thrash metal and hiphop. These fusions helped move hip hop into new audiences, and introduced it to legions of new fans in the States and abroad.
In
Puerto Rico,
Vico C became the first mainstream
Spanish language rapper, and his recorded work was the beginning of what became known as
reggaeton. Hip hop had always had a significant connection to the
Latino community in
New York City including the first Latin DJ
DJ Disco Wiz, and hip hop soon spread amongst Latinos. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, most Latin rap came from the West Coast of the United States. In 1989, Cuban-American
Mellow Man Ace became the first Latino artist to have a major bilingual single. Mellow Man, referred to as the "Godfather of Latin rap", brought mainstream attention to Spanglish rhyming with his 1989 platinum single "Mentirosa". In 1990, fellow West Coast artist
Kid Frost further brought Latinos to the rap forefront with his single "La Raza."
Cypress Hill, of which Mellow Man Ace was a member before going solo, would become the first Latino rap group to reach platinum status in 1991. Ecuadorian born rapper
Gerardo received heavy rotation on video and radio for his single "Rico, Suave." As a result of the success of these artists, countries throughout Latin America such as Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Mexico created their own hip hop scenes.
While Run DMC laid the groundwork for East Coast rap, "Planet Rock" (Afrika Bambaataa) was one of the first
electro tracks. Based on a sample from German rock group
Kraftwerk (
Trans-Europe Express), "Planet Rock" inspired countless groups, based in
New Jersey,
New York City and
Detroit, among other places, to make electronic
dance music (called
electro) that strongly influenced
techno and
house music, and especially the burgeoning
electro music scene in
northern England, the
Midlands and
London.
"Planet Rock" influenced hip hop outside of New York as well, such as
Latin hip hop (also
Latin freestyle or
freestyle) such as
Expose and
The Cover Girls, as well as
Los Angeles-based
electro hop performers like the
World Class Wreckin' Cru and
Egyptian Lover.
Nationalization
By the end of the 1970s, hip hop was known in most every major city in the country, and had developed into numerous regional styles and variations. Outside of New York City, New Jersey and Philadelphia, where hip hop had long been well-established, the 1980s saw intense regional diversification.
The first Chicago hip hop record was the "Groovy Ghost Show" by Casper, released in 1980 and a distinctively Chicago sound began by 1982, with Caution and Plee Fresh. Chicago also saw the development of
house music (a form of
electronic dance music) in the early 1980s and this soon mixed with hip hop and began featuring rappers; this is called
hip house, and gained some national popularity in the late 1980s and early 90s, though similar fusions from South Africa, Belgium and elsewhere became just as well-known into the 90s.
Los Angeles hardcore rappers (
Ice-T) and
electro hop artists (
Egyptian Lover) began recording by 1983, though the first recorded
West Coast rap was Disco Daddy and
Captain Rapp's "Gigolo Rapp" in 1981. In
Miami, audiences listened to
Miami bass, a form of sultry and sexually explicit
dance music with a heavy bass sound, which arose from Los Angeles
electro; it frequently included rapping. In
Washington D.C. a hip hop-influenced form of
dance music called
go go emerged and incorporated rapping and DJing.
Internationalization
Beginning in the early 1980s, hip hop culture began its spread across the world. By the end of the 1990s, popular hip hop was sold almost everywhere, and native performers were recording in most every country with a popular music industry. Elements of hip hop became fused with numerous styles of music, including
ragga,
cumbia and
samba, for example. The Senegalese
mbalax rhythm became a component of hip hop, while the
United Kingdom and
Belgium produced a variety of
electronic music fusions of hip hop, most famously including British
trip hop.
Hip hop also spread to countries like Greece, Spain and Cuba in the 1980s, led in Cuba by the self-exiled African American activist Nehanda Abiodun and aided by
Fidel Castro's government. In Japan, graffiti art and breakdancing had been popular since the early part of the decade, but many of those active in the scene felt that the
Japanese language was unsuited for rapping; nevertheless, by the beginning of the 1990s, a wave of rappers emerged, including Ito Seiko, Chikado Haruo, Tinnie Punx and Takagi Kan. The
New Zealand hip hop scene began in earnest in the late 1980s, when
Maori performers like
Upper Hutt Posse and
Dalvanius Prime began recording, gaining notoriety for lyrics that espoused
tino rangatiratanga (Maori sovereignty).
Hip-hop has globalized into many cultures worldwide. We now find hip-hop in every corner of the globe, and like the South Bronx, each locale embodies a kind of globalism. Hip hop has emerged globally as an arts movement with the imperative to create something fresh by using technology, speech, and the body in new ways. The music and the art continue to embrace, even celebrate, its transnational dimensions while staying true to the local cultures to which it's 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 Black and Latino kids in New York who launched this global movement in the first place. As hip-hop is sometimes taken for granted by Americans, it isn't 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.
1990s
In the 1990s, gangsta rap became mainstream, beginning in about 1992, with the release of
Dr. Dre's
The Chronic. This album established a style called
G Funk, which soon came to dominate
West Coast hiphop. Later in the decade, record labels based out of Atlanta, St. Louis and New Orleans gained fame for their local scenes. By the end of the decade, especially with the success of
Eminem, hip hop was an integral part of popular music, and many American pop songs had a major hiphop component.
In the 90s and into 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 some major stars in the middle of the decade, while in the
Dominican Republic, a recording by Santi Y Sus Duendes and
Lisa M became the first single of
merenrap, a fusion of hiphop and
merengue.
New York City experienced a heavy Jamaican hip hop influence during the 90s. This influence was brought on by cultural shifts particularly due to 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 both produced albums influenced by Jamaican roots.
(External Link
)
In Europe, Africa and Asia, hip hop began to move from an underground phenomenon to reach mainstream audiences. In
South Africa,
Germany,
France,
Italy and many other countries, hiphop stars rose to prominence and gradually began to incorporate influences from their own country, resulting in fusions like
Tanzanian
Bongo Flava.
West Coast
After N.W.A. broke up,
Dr. Dre (a former member) released
The Chronic (1992), which peaked at #1 on the R&B/hip hop chart and #3 on the pop chart and spawned a #2 pop single in "Nothin' But a 'G' Thang"..
The Chronic took West Coast rap in a new direction, influenced strongly by
P funk artists, melding the psychedelic funky 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 most popularly,
Snoop Doggy Dogg, whose
Doggystyle included "What's My Name" and "Gin and Juice", both Top Ten pop hits.
Though West Coast artists eclipsed New York, some East Coast rappers achieved success. New York became dominated in terms of sales by
Puff Daddy (
No Way Out),
Mase (
Harlem World) and other
Bad Boy Records artists, in spite of often scathing criticism for a perceived over-reliance on sampling and a general watered-down sound, aimed directly for pop markets. Other New York based artists continued with a harder edged sound, achieving only limited popular success.
Nas (
Illmatic),
Busta Rhymes (
The Coming) and
The Wu-Tang Clan (
Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)), for example, received excellent reviews but generally mediocre or sporadic sales.
The sales rivalry between the East Coast and the West Coast eventually turned into a personal rivalry, aided in part by the music media. Many reporters were not aware that MC battles were an integral part of hip hop since its inception, and that, generally, little was meant by open taunts on albums and in performances. Nevertheless, the
East Coast-West Coast rivalry grew, eventually resulting in the still unsolved deaths of
Tupac Shakur and
Notorious B.I.G..
Diversification of styles
In the wake of declining sales following the deaths of both superstar artists, the sounds of hip hop were greatly diversified. Most important was the rise of
Southern rap, starting with
OutKast (
ATLiens) and
Goodie Mob (
Soul Food), based out of
Atlanta. Later,
Master P (
Ghetto D) built up an impressive roster of popular artists (the
No Limit posse) based out of
New Orleans and incorporating
G funk and
Miami bass influences, and distinctive regional sounds from
St. Louis,
Chicago,
Washington D.C.,
Detroit (
ghettotech) and others began to gain some popularity. Also in the 1990s,
rapcore (a fusion of hip hop and
heavy metal) became popular among mainstream audiences.
Rage Against the Machine,
Linkin Park and
Limp Bizkit were among the most popular rapcore bands.
Though Caucasian rappers like the
Beastie Boys (
Paul's Boutique),
Vanilla Ice (
To the Extreme) and
3rd Bass (
The Cactus Album) had had some popular success and/or critical acceptance from the hip hop community,
Detroit-native
Eminem's success, beginning in 1999 with the triple platinum
The Slim Shady LP, came as a surprise to many. Like most successful hip hop artists of the time, Eminem came to be criticized for alleged glorification of violence, misogyny, and drug abuse, as well as homophobia and albums laced with constant profanity.
In South Africa, pioneering crew
Black Noise began rapping in 1989, provoking a ban by the
apartheid-era government, which lasted until 1993. Later, the country produced its own distinctive style in the
house fusion
kwela. Elsewhere in Africa, Senegalese mbalax fusions continued to grow in popularity, while Tanzanian
Bongo Flava crews like
X-Plastaz combined hiphop with
taarab,
filmi and other styles.
In Europe, hip hop was the domain of both ethnic nationals and immigrants.
Germany, for example, produced the well-known
Die Fantastischen Vier as well as several
Turkish performers like the controversial
Cartel,
Kool Savaş, and
Eko Fresh. Similarly,
France has produced a number of native-born stars, such as
IAM and the
Breton crew
Manau, though 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 emerging from both sides of the
Palestinian (
Tamer Nafer) and
Jewish (
Subliminal) divide; though some, like Mook E., preached peace and tolerance, others expressed
nationalist and violent sentiments.
In Asia, mainstream stars rose to prominence in the
Philippines, led by
Michael V., Rap Asia, MC Lara and Lady Diane, and 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 to popularize Cuban hip hop, beginning in 1995. Hip hop grew steadily more popular in Cuba, due to official governmental support for musicians.
Alternative hiphop
Though mainstream acceptance has become fairly limited to so-called commercial acts, some
alternative rap artists, with a socially aware or positive or optimistic tone, have achieved moderate mainstream success.
De La Soul's
Three Feet High and Rising,
Gang Starr's
No More Mr. Nice Guy and the
Jungle Brothers'
Straight Out the Jungle are usually considered the first albums in this genre, with
jazz-based samples and lyrics (see
jazz rap) strongly influenced by the
Afrocentric messages of Bambaataa's
Zulu Nation collective. Later alternative artists like
A Tribe Called Quest,
Mos Def, and
The Roots, also achieved some mainstream success, though the influence of jazz had grown less pronounced (with some exceptions, such as
Guru's
Jazzmatazz project).
Jazz rap went on to influence the development of
trip hop in the
United Kingdom, which fuses hip hop, jazz and electronic music; it's said to have been started by
Massive Attack's
Blue Lines (1991).
Arrested Development also released their album
3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of... in 1992, which included the hit single, "
Tennessee." At the time, it was one of the best selling and most popular alternative rap albums. The success of
Dr. Dre's
The Chronic later that year, however, showed
gangsta rap to be a more commercially viable form of hip hop.
2000s
In the year 2000,
The Marshall Mathers LP by
Eminem sold over nine million copies in the United States, and
Nelly's debut LP,
Country Grammar, sold over six million copies. The United States also saw the rise of alternative hip hop in the form of moderately popular performers like The Roots,
Dilated Peoples and Mos Def, who achieved unheard-of success for their field.
As the decade progressed, hip hop has transformed from the more or less "old school" rhythmic rap to a more melodic hip hop that has the elements of jazz, classical, pop, reggae, and many other genres. Hip hop also gave birth to subgenres such as
snap music and
crunk. Hip hop influences also found their way into mainstream pop during this period as well.
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 lands, including
Russia,
Japan,
Philippines,
Canada and
China.
Primarily in Germany,
gangsta rap has become popular among youths who like the violent and aggressive lyrics. Some 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'm 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.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Hip Hop Music'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://hip_hop_music.totallyexplained.com">Hip hop music Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
