By Edward Frimpong

HISTORY OF HIP-HOP/RAP

KEY ARTISTS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GENRE / AT THE MOMENT (WHO HAS THE BIGGEST PROFILE?)• Key Artists involve:

• Drake, Lil Kim, B.o.B, Eminem, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Wiz Khalifa, Ludacris, Keri Hilson, Sean Kingston, Flo Rider.

Kanye West & Jay-z

Kanye Omari West was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 8, 1977. He left college to pursue a musical career, producing tracks for Jay-Z while polishing his demo. He released "The College Dropout" in 2002. It sold 2.6 million copies and won Best Rap Album. His follow-up releases have been equally successful and West has become a celebrity famous for his outrageous and entertaining statements

Jay-Z grew up in Brooklyn's drug-infested Marcy Projects. He used rap as an escape, and appeared on Yo! MTV Raps in 1989. After selling millions of records with his own Roc-A-Fella label, Jay-Z then created his own clothing line.

AUDIENCE / FANS – WHO ARE THEY? DEMOGRAPHIC?

• “Everything is immaculate about the R&B fan, the girls are just the sexiest girls on the planet they would say. The hair, the nails, their sleek you would see high heels whether or not its comfortable enough to dance in them, you’ll see tight dresses. The men are smooth you’ll see big chests and white vest on boys, you’ll see pencil thin moustaches, for women it’s almost having an unobtainable sassy attitude, it’s having an heir of ‘you can look but don’t you even think of touching’ and for men it’s about being smooth and slick and its about being very manly. I think everyone at some point irrespective of how you look has listened to R&B and soul music, you don’t have to be a typical R&B fan to understand and relate to it, it’s about someone else singing a song and it has you as it’s subject, not someone else” The Expert at BBC Music Directory

The demographic of an R&B fan is usually from teens to early middle ages, they are usually from a African origin , from a working class background and mostly live in America but R&B is a genre well known around the world.

SUB GENRES OF THE GENRES.• Horrorcore• Hyphy• Industrial hip hop• Instrumental hip hop• Jazz rap• Lyrical hip hop• Mafioso rap• Nerdcore hip hop• New jack swing

• Political hip hop• Pop-rap**• Ragga

• Reggaeton• Rap opera• Rap rock

PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF HIP HOP & RNB• R&B has a mainstream appeal. Rhythm and Blues in 1948 was a term used in the United States, used

to replace the term “race music”, which originally came from within the black community but was deemed offensive. Robert Palmer defined rhythm & blues as "a catchall term referring to any music that was made by and for black Americans“. Lawrence Cohn, author of Nothing but the Blues, writes that rhythm and blues was an umbrella term invented for industry convenience. According to him, the term embraced all black music except classical music and religious music, unless a gospel song sold enough to break into the charts.

• “Hip Hop is about saving the streets, telling the truth, educating and challenging our people, moving people forward for a change or revolution, and expressing joy and pain in a diverse and artistic manner.

Rapping is about making money by any means necessary. Rapping is accepting the neo-minstrel identity and defining it as the 'hood. Rapping is degrading women and encouraging unequal gender roles. It is uplifting the pimp, ho, and the thug, and demeaning the educated person of color, because they're not 'hood enough. Rapping sends a strong message that we don't want. Rapping is supporting labels that does not support our communities and rapping only support the individual, but helps no one.”

RECORD LABELS / KEY INDUSTRY FIGURES?

• Aftermath Entertainment• Dr. Dre's hip-hop empire is home to The Game, 50 Cent, Stat Quo, Eminem, Busta Rhymes, Eve, etc.• Bad Boy Records• Sean "Puffy" Combs has some heavyweight artists on his Bad Boy roster. The website has resources

and info on Black Rob, The Notorious B.I.G., Boyz' N' Tha Hood, Big Gee, Aasim, etc.• DPG Records• California-based DPG Records was initiated by Daz Dillinger. The label also features the recently

reunited DPGC.• Duck Down• Duck Down is the recording home of Sean Price, Smif'n'Wessun, and the legendary Boot Camp Click

among others.• Interscope Records• Interscope is a Universal Music parent company overseeing artists like Dr. Dre, Eminem, 50 Cent,

and others. The label is headed by Jimmy Iovine.• Roc-A-Fella Records• Established in 1996, Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella is home to artists like Kanye West, Memphis Bleek, and

Young Gunz.• Shady Records• Eminem founded Shady Records as a rap podium for Detroit artists like D-12 and Obie Trice.• Stones Throw• This groundbreaking label features artists like MED, Madlib, Dudley Perkins, and the late Jay Dee.

COMPETITION

• Vibe comes out every month it is based on urban culture, influencing global music, life and style for more then 8 million readers around the world. It includes fashion, politics and culture features for a multicultural audience.

• Rap-Up comes out 4 times a year, it features some of R&B’s biggest stars 50 Cent, Beyoncé, T.I., Ciara, Rihanna, Eve, Nelly, Pharrell, Mary J. Blige, The Game, and Nicole Scherzinger

• Blues and Soul comes out every fortnight, it covers all the latest UK and US urban music information including news, charts, reviews, events and clubs, interviews and editorials on influential artists in the past and present

CROSS MEDIA

• MTV is a digital television channel which began in the United Kingdom, it plays all genre of music appealing to the youth audience rap, hip-hop, R&B, Rock, Alternative, Afrobeat, Kwaito, Reggae and many other genres from the African continent, USA and other urban hotspots.

• Kiss 100 is a radio station that specializes in Hip-hop, R&B , urban and dance music. It began as a pirate station in October 1985, it attracted a huge following before getting its licence in 1990. It was said to have 500,000 listeners as a pirate radio station

FUTURE OF HIPHOP&RNB MUSIC

• For years and years critics of R&B have been predicting the death of R&B, saying that the form of music is slowly fading. In the last year an R&B singer Kev Samples released a mixtape called ‘The Death of R&B’ where he dissed R&B singers Neyo, Jamie Foxx, T-pain and Ray J. But despite these predictions R&B is still loved by many audiences. For the many artists that are criticised for being ‘weak R&B singers’ there is also an inoovative and creative one, and these artists will survive long after the weak ones. Artists such as Jennifer Hudson and J.Holiday are defining the future of R&B.