Introduction – The Origin of Hip Hop
In the late 1970s an underground urban development known as hip-hop began was created in the South Bronx area of New York City. Incorporating graffiti art, break dancing, rap music, and fashion, hip-hop became the predominant cultural movement of the African American and Hispanic communities in the 1980s. There were a multitude of artistic variations such as tagging, rapping, and break dancing on the male competition and one-upmanship of street gangs. Afrika Bambaataa founded the Zulu Nation, as they believed that gang members often violent actions could be controlled and expressed in a different way. A more creative way. A loose confederation of street-dance crews, graffiti artists, and rap musicians. The notoriety of hip-hop spread rapidly to mainstream white consumers through movies, music videos, radio play, and media coverage. The subsequent flood of popularity from wealthy investors, art dealers, movie and video producers, and trend-conscious consumers made hip-hop a new avenue for black and Hispanic ghetto youth members to succeed. Rap music in particular gained a huge interracial audience. Mid 19890’s, when the for graffiti art and break dancing began to wind down, rap music continued to gain follower after follower, emerging as a standout amongst the most unique music types of the decade.
Rap Music
Rap began in the early 1970s in the South Bronx, where DJs played riffs from their most loved records at parties, forming new sounds by scratching or drum synthesizers. The MC, who is the DJ’s partner, would add a rhyming, vocal (a rap) over the mix. These MC’s would produce clever plays on words that would not only entice the crowd, but entertain. The majority of rap songs were braggadocio, equivalent to gangs' strut and swagger. A way in which they could portray their characteristics such as prowess or individuality, rappers were very competitive with their rivals and would often use this attitude, which was to outperform each other, as an inspiration for creativity. Some early rap hits advanced global and interracial harmony. Some of these examples include The Sugar Hill Gang's Rapper's Delight (1980) and Afrika Bambaataa's Planet Rock (1982). These became a crossover hit on the charts and proceeded to sell more than six hundred thousand copies. Other artists portrayed serious political and social messages to listeners, addressing issues such as racism, poverty, and crime on the African American community. One example of these artists were the infamous Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, formed in the Bronx in 1978 by Joseph Saddler. Flash’s first real sense of fame came from the song Freedom,which was released on the rap label Sugar Hill in 1980. Their 1981 collection was among the first to include sampling. Not only this but in 1982 their seven-minute recording ‘The Message-about black ghetto life-became an underground hit’. Grandmaster Flash went solo, however a different Furious Five member commenced his career as a DJ to replace Flash, Grandmaster Melle Mel. A year later, the new group released an antidrug anthem named ‘White Lines (Don't Do It)’ in 1983.
Mixing and Sampling
Beat Street included numerous urban-music fashions of the 1980s, including mixing, sampling, and scratching. Mixing, made famous by club DJs such as Jellybean, required the process of blending a variety of different records that had similar beats into a single, dance record. Upon the recording and replaying of DJ’s best creations, major record labels took notice, releasing longer dance mixes of big chart hits. By 1984 33% of the standard Top 20 pop singles were accessible as twelve-inch remixes. Jellybean did a remix for Michael Jackson, while Arthur Baker, the music coordinator for Beat Street, was enlisted to remix dance versions of songs for Cyndi Lauper and Bruce Springsteen. Mixing was further progressed by DJs who utilised methods such as scratching. This requires one to place the needle in a record groove and by hand, turn the disc back and forth in a small period of time to achieve a staccato effect and thereby segue into another song. Sampling was akin to the appropriation utilised by numerous contemporary artists at the time: samplers took certain parts of existing records and implemented them into more modern numbers, normally by scratching the tracks to cover the transition from one sample to another. This is evident in one track, Strictly Business (1988), where EPMD used a recognisable riff from Eric Clapton's version of I Shot the Sheriff. Two or more turntables were used to scratch and sample, DJs ensured dance floors remained bustling with sound differentiations that appealed to all. All these methods mentioned were recycled by many different DJ’s.
Crossover
Rap failed to reach major popularity and still remained an underground urban style until the 1980s, when it propelled into the mainstream fashion, all due to the unexpected popularity of Run D.M.C. The group began their musical careers in 1982 and the trio released their first record the following year. This was the first rap-music gold album ever. Their 1985 LP King of Rock was an even bigger hit, it climbed to number fifty-three on the Billboard album chart. Run-D.M.C.'s heavy metal sampling expanded its fan base as it attracted, and appealed to young white males, particularly the post-1986 release of Walk This Way, a varied version of an Aero-Smith song with a video featuring Joe Perry and Steven Tyler. This song was the crossover combination breakthrough for the rap genre. The album, Raising Hell, which had it included sold more than 3 million copies. Became the first platinum rap album. Motivated by the accomplishments of Run-D.M.C, MTV launched an MTV Raps program.
Controversy
Rap songs came in a variety of styles. Run-D.M.C.'s My Adidas praised hip footwear. Rap music began to portray a more political message however as the decade advanced. Sensing nothing but alienation from the Reagan administration and white America, to the heightening issues of crime, underdevelopment of communities, drugs, and unemployment, several rappers took it upon themselves to release rage against the police, government, corporations, and other ‘centres’ of white male power. In response to this, critics attacked the rap genre in the late 1980s for the abundance of overt violence of its lyrics. In 1986 Tipper Gore of the Parents' Music Resource Center faulted the lyrics and music Run-D.M.C. creates for the ludicrous amount of violence caused on their summer tour.
Important Contributors to Hip Hop.
Sub-genres
In addition to gangsta rap, hip hop has splintered into many other sub genres. Crunk is a southern style of hip-hop, with lyrics that are primarily concerned with partying and having a good time. Crunk rappers often shout their lyrics over a somewhat slower beat. There are also Christian hip hop groups, grime groups that primarily can be found in the UK, and rap-rockers like Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park and Rage Against the Machine.
Hip hop music or also known as rap, is a kind of music genres which consists of rap backing beats. The rise of hip hop is because of the change in united states urban culture especially in 1970s. Most important is the low cost involved in getting started, living cost was quite cheap, and the chances for anyone to MC with popular hip hoper.
There is a difference between Rap and MC, Rap means talk to girl or speak to someone, it was used by Rappers Delight, Sugar Hill Gang, and become the title for hip hop recording, while MC, is a word to describe a hip hoper hosting a jam and rhyming on the mic or master of ceremony.