A2 MEdia StuDiES MusicHip HOP

Hip Hop originated in the 1970’s from African American music. It was created by combining various historical traditions. Actually came from Hip Hop culture, which started in the Bronx New York. Came from the influence of African Americans and later with the influence of Jamaicans and Latino immigrants. The area in which rap music was invented as a synonymous part of Hip Hop music and culture. Hip Hop music consisted of 4 features of African mythology:

The Creation of Hip Hop MUSIC

1. Signifyin’ 4. The Dozens

3. Blues talk

2. Jazz poetry

oral tradition in which two competitors, usually males, go head-to-head in a competition of often good-natured, trash talk. They take turns insulting each other, or “dissin'“. In the end one with the best insults is awarded the winner.

Talking blues is a form of blues and country music. Refers to a strict rhythm but versatile melody.

Signifyin is a practice in African American culture, involving a verbal strategy of indirection that exploits the gap between the denotative and figurative meanings of words.

Jazz poetry is the poetry that "demonstrates jazz-like rhythm or the feel of improvisation.

Rudy Ray Moore

Blowfly

Seen as the forefathers of rap/hip hop

Hip Hop Music in the 70’s

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious FiveKeith Cowboy who was part of the furious five was the first artist to refer to this type of music as Hip Hop as it was still being called Disco Rap.

DJ’ing was a huge part of Hip Hop music at the time. Moves such as beat scratching, beat juggling and mix/matching were used which were invented by DJ Grand Wizard Theodore

According to the words of artist Kurtis Blow : During the early days of Hip Hop, it was characterised by dividing fans and detractors of Disco music. Then a new genre of music called Go-go emerged as a reaction against disco music. This then eventually mixed with Hip Hop.

HIP HOP IN THE 80’SThis was the decade that made Hip Hop more of a diverse and complex genre.

The biggest artists during the early 80’s were Grand Master Flash, T La Flash and Russell Simmons. These three artists were the first to bring a new sound to hip hop and their tracks have been replicated by various other artists.

New SchoolThis was made from tracks by Run DMC and LL Cool J which included elements of Rock and drum machine led minimalism. Also seen as the moment that the music started to become more aggressive.

Also the new school consisted of shorter songs and aimed to gain easier radio play. This was the time that Hip Hop had become commercially successful.

As a result, The Beastie Boys made an album called License to ill which became the first rap album in history to become no 1 in the billboard charts.

80’sThe Golden Age also emerged in the 80’s which consisted from diversity, quality, innovation and influence. This involved a strong Jazz influence. Public Enemy created the album “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back which is widely acknowledged as Hip Hops Greatest moment.

The GOLDEN age

Eric B. & Rakim De la SoulA Tribe called Quest

Public Enemy

West Coast Gangsta RapMusic used to reflects the violent lifestyles of some inner-city youthsThis type of Hip Hop changed the main centre of Hip Hop from New York to Los Angeles. This was called the Golden Age because it is said that many of the greatest rappers of all time emerged in this era. Also most of the rappers of the 21st century describe their influences as being from this time in Hip Hop. Arguably along with the 90’s the best era of hip Hop.

Hip Hop in the 90’sWu Tang Clan included all time greats such as Method man, Ghostface Killah and Ol’ Dirty Bastard. The 90’s arguably produced the best hip hop artists of all time such as Notorious B.I.G, 2Pac, NaS, and Snoop Dogg. These and more artists from the 90’s are seen as the all time greats and that revolutionised the genre. However this was also a time when Hip Hop was becoming more violent and drug related. It started to gain criticism for being too much of a bad influence for youths living in America.

Dr Dre’s album The chronic included many lyrics about drugs, killing etc. Which was released in 1992.A war that was continuously ongoing between West Coast and East Coast Rappers lead to the death of Hip Hop legends Tupac and Notorious BIG.Wars have been publicised continuously through the years between rappers and ego’s clashing. For example Nas feuding with Jay Z, 50 Cent with Ja Rule. It seems to be a pattern that the most successful rappers usually get targeted for “Beef” as it is called.

21st CENTURY HIP HOpHip Hop sales have declined in the recent years however many artists are attempting to salvage hip hop and bring it back to life. How ever Rick Ross, Eminem and Fabolous are artists that are still going strong in the industry today.

Artists such as Soulja Boy Tell ‘em have created a new sound to hip hop. However various “OLD SCHOOL” artists such as Ice T and Styles P have accused Soulja Boy of single handily killing Hip Hop with his songs that do not follow the same fundamentals as traditional Rap. During the 21st century rap and hip hop music and the sound that comes with it has very much transformed and has now become mixed more with R&B and Dance music. Rappers such as Pitbull and Black eyed Peas have very much changed the sound of hip hop music.

T.I.’s latest album Paper Trail has recieved negative feedback for being not as good as albums from the 90’s such as Moment of Truth by Gang Starr.

Hip Hop music used to possess a story of deprivation, life and death situations where as tracks these days are more about dancing, sex, and money. Artists such as Akon, Justin Timberlake, and Keri Hilson have helped with the merging and combining of Hip Hop and R&B music. These days various tracks released for example from T.I. Gain a place in the Hip Hop charts and also in the R&B charts. This is proof that Hip Hop music has changed so much over the last 10 years.

In The 21st century many rappers have emerged on the stage and have made a very big impact on not only Hip Hop but many other parts of the music industry. Various Hip Hop artists have found the need to explore the horizon and spread their influence and success to different genres of music. Lil Wayne’s latest album “the Re-Birth” released in 2009 includes strictly rock music without any Hip Hop music involved. Also Jay Z created a collaboration with Rock n Roll icons Linkin Park which was a mixture of hip hop music and Rock music.During the latest ten years there have been many rappers that have tried to take the crown as being this generations King of Hip Hop. For example Lil Wayne who refers to himself as “the best rapper alive” which is in some cases difficult to deny when looking at the impact he has made. Also Jay Z who refers to himself as “the One and Only” and the “Godfather of Hip Hop” believes he has been such an influential figure in Hip Hop for so many years. Kanye West is another egocentric star that thinks he is “the Greatest” of all time. He does have some what of a point seeing as he is one of the best lyrical rappers that Hip Hop has ever seen.

Collaborations

ThE dArKeR sIdE oF hIp HoPMany Artists of today have been thought to have being involved in Freemasonry and evil spiritual worship in Occults. Some people choose to believe this philosophy and some choose not to. But it is all over the internet. Artists believed to be involved are Jay Z, Kanye West, NaS, Rihanna, Beyonce, Lil Wayne The “evidence” is in their lyrics, antics and gesturing.This dark side doesn’t exist just in Hip Hop but in the whole music industry. This so called belief has spread to various different areas of music including Pop artists such as Britney Spears, Madonna and Christina Aguilera. Of course this isn’t necessarily true and may just be a wild conspiracy.

Of course this does sound insane when first thought about, however there are hundreds of videos on YouTube that expose these conspiracies in depth and discuss the issues raised in this topic.

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