It’s been almost three decades since the emergence of hip-hop, yet the seeds were planted long before then – through jazz, roots, blues and rap music. It’s a culture that has the stamp of Afro- American society of the 20th century – all night block parties, illegal sound systems, pirate radio stations, mix tapes, old-school free-styling and rocking the microphone. But hip-hop has come a long way in this time, surviving the sell-out and the MTV pop explosion, to remain an intrinsic and progressive component of contemporary music and part of modern culture.
Hip-hop music is undoubtedly one of the most exciting forms of expression ever to emerge from
New York City and its famous five boroughs of
Queens, Brooklyn, The Bronx, Manhattan and Richmond. The pioneers – Grand Master Flash, Rich Rubin, Def Jam Records, Sugar Hill Records, Herbie Hancock, Run DMC and Motown – and their contemporaries have all laid the foundation for today’s hippest street-oriented culture. The associated practices of graffiti art,
MCing, break-dancing and DJing have made hip-hop music a lifestyle and a socially significant part of the contemporary landscape.
From London to Berlin to Tokyo to Auckland, hip-hop has spread like wildfire and indoctrinated a whole new generation of hip-hop headz, producers, MCs, free-stylers, scratchologists and enthusiasts. It has become
a global phenomenon that is indicative of the supremacy of American cultural dominance in the 21st century through globalization. The world has become saturated with hip-hop music and culture, though some countries have been able to create their own hybrid forms. Hip-hop’s success has brought this once underground culture to the mainstream, with musicians such as
Eminem, Mos Def, Ice Cube, Qtip, Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, Sean Coombes and Snoop Dogg making it as movie stars and role models. The music video realm has also been revolutionized by the likes of
Hype Williams, Spike Jonze and more recently, the UK’s Adam Smith and the Colonel Blimp production house.
Even the
fashion world has been colonized by hip-hop styles, with the likes of
Russell Simmon’s Phat Farm, The First Lady of Hip Hop Kimora Lee Simon’s Baby Phat label and P Diddy’s Sean-John clothing line. Sneaker companies endorse hip hop stars. And premium-brand companies such as Rolex, Lexus and Gucci have used the genre to help them reach the kind of consumer that would normally be immune to their blandishments.
Though the US is the home of hip-hop, the sound has managed to develop strong followings across the Western world, even trans-morphing with electronic, drum & bass, jazz, tribal tongue, Latin and a plethora of fresh experimental sounds, with poetry and the spoken word thrown in for good measure.
Hip hop music-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 have 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.
Origin of termCoinage 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 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 copied by other artists; for example the opening of the song "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang. Former Black Spades gang member Afrika Bambaataa is credited with first using the term to describe the subculture that hip hop music belongs to, although it is also suggested that the term was originally derisively used against the new type of music.
InternationalizationBeginning 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.
New School hip-hopIn 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 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.
