Old school hip hop (1970-1986)
Old school hip hop is the very first hip hop music to come out of the block parties of New York City in the 1970s and early 1980s. It began in the early 1970s in New York with the advent of breakbeat DJing, in which DJs including Kool DJ Herc and Grandmaster Flash extended the breaks of funk records, creating a more "danceable" sound. The old school era ended and the golden age began with the popularity of Run-D.M.C.'s 1986 album, Raising Hell.Origins
In the early 1970s many Black radio stations switched to playing disco. There was a backlash against disco by many in the African-American community. Hip hop arose during the 1970s, from block parties in New York City. These popular parties were usually accompanied by music, especially funk, disco and soul. The early DJs at the parties began isolating the percussion breaks to hit songs - realizing that these were the most danceable and entertaining parts - and extending them, using an audio mixer and two records. At the time, this technique was common in Jamaica, and was known as dub music. It spread via the substantial Jamaican immigrant community in New York City, especially the godfather of hip hop, DJ Kool Herc. The use of extended percussion breaks led to the development of mixing and scratching techniques, and later to the popularization of remixes.As hip hop's popularity grew, performers began speaking ("rapping") in sync with the beats, and became known as MCs or emcees. The Herculoids, made up of Herc, Coke La Rock, and Clark Kent, were the earliest to gain major fame. But teams of emcees sprang up throughout the country. Frequently, these were collaborations between former gang members, such as Afrika Bambaataa's Universal Zulu Nation (now a large, international organization). The Herculoids and other early performers 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 emcee teams often emceed 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 (see roots of hip hop music), such as the dozens.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.Expansion and diversification
In the mid-1970s, hip hop split into two camps. One sampled disco and focused on getting the crowd dancing and excited, with simple or no rhymes; these DJs included Pete DJ Jones, Eddie Cheeba, DJ Hollywood and Love Bug Starski. On the other hand, another group were focusing on rapid-fire rhymes and a more complex rhythmic scheme. These included Afrika Bambaataa, Paul Winley, Grandmaster Flash and Bobby Robinson.The first steps towards the commercialization of hip hop came in 1979 with the release of what are usually called the first two commercially issued hip hop recordings: "King Tim III (Personality Jock)" by the Fatback Band, and "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang. Though neither the Fatback Band nor the Sugarhill Gang had significant roots in the DJ culture, "Rapper's Delight" became a Top 40 hit on the U.S. Billboard pop singles chart. After the releases of follow ups by acts such as Kurtis Blow ("The Breaks"), The Sequence ("Funk You Up"), and Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five ("Freedom", "The Message"), hip hop was pegged as a successful, yet temporary, trend in music. The feeling that hip hop was a novelty fad that would soon die out was to become a constant accusation for at least the next fifteen years. Some of the earliest rappers in fact used novelties such as the themes to Gilligan's Island and sweet doo wop-influenced harmonies in their acts.With the advent of recorded hip hop in the late 1970s, all the major elements and techniques of the genre were in place. Though not yet mainstream, hip hop was well-known among African Americans, even outside of New York City; hip hop could be found in cities as diverse as Los Angeles, Washington, Baltimore, Dallas, Kansas City, Miami, Seattle, St. Louis, New Orleans, and Houston.Philadelphia was, for many years, the only city whose contributions to hip hop were valued as greatly as New York City's by hip hop purists and critics. Hip hop was popular there at least as far back as 1976 (first record: "Rhythm Talk", by Jocko Henderson in 1979), and the New York Times dubbed Philly the "Graffiti Capital of the World" in 1971, due to the influence of such legendary graffiti artists as Cornbread. The first female solo artist to record hip hop was Lady B. ("To the Beat Y'All", 1980), a Philly-area radio DJ. Later Schoolly D helped invent what became known as gangsta rap.During the early 1980s, hip hop began to diversify and develop into a more complex form. The simple tales of 1970s emcees were replaced by highly metaphoric raps 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. 1980 also saw the release of Rapture by the new wave/punk rock group Blondie, which went number one in many countries world-wide. Rapture was the first song containing elements of rap music vocals to reach number one in the U.S. and helped introduce the then underground hip-hop genre to a larger audience.The techniques used in hip hop changed during the early 1980s as well. Most important were the DJ records such as Grandmaster Flash's "Adventures on the Wheels of Steel." This record was known for pioneering use of scratching, which was invented by Grandwizard Theodore in 1977. Also important were electronic recordings such as "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa and Run-D.M.C.'s "Sucker MC's" and "Peter Piper," the latter of which contains genuine cutting by Run-D.M.C. member Jam Master Jay. In 1982, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five released a "message rap", called "The Message"; this was one of the earliest examples of recorded hip hop with a socially aware tone. 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.Golden age hip hop (1986-1993)
The golden age of hip hop began with the popularity of Run-D.M.C.'s album Raising Hell in 1986 and ended with the popularity of G-Funk around 1993 [citation needed]. It was based in New York City, and featured rappers and groups who advanced the wordplay, delivery, and subject matter of rap. During this period, Def Jam Recordings became the first independent hip hop record label.New styles
A number of new hip hop styles and subgenres began appearing as the genre gained popularity. Hip hop was combined with rock music, reggae, techno and other musical styles during this period. 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.Rapcore
Run-D.M.C.'s collaboration with hard rock band Aerosmith on "Walk This Way" was an early example of rock and hip hop fusions. The highly popular video for the single was the first rap video ever played in heavy rotation on MTV and is regarded as a classic of the medium. The collaborative version of "Walk This Way" was also considered the first rap song to hit the top 5 in The Billboard Hot 100.In 1986, the Beastie Boys had the first hip hop album to hit number one with License to Ill, their debut album from Def Jam Records. The album combined rock and rap music, and featured sampling of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, as well as a guitar performance by Kerry King of Slayer. [1]. In 1989, the group released Paul's Boutique, which used samples in creative, interesting ways, often as split-second fills, choruses, or as humorous punchlines to sentences. The material sampled was also extremely diverse, showing the rest of the hip hop world the possibilities that sampling could be more than a break, or scratching. These innovations would influence much of the alternative rap world for years to come.De La Soul's released 3 Feet High and Rising the same year. Like Paul's Boutique, the album utilized heavy sampling, to considerable effect and success. 3 Feet High's positive messages and gentle humor predated and pioneered alternative rap and jazz rap, as well as a new (if short-lived) era of positivity in hip hop, and would set the standard for all alternative rap albums to come.Latin hip hop
Hip hop had always had a significant connection to the Latino community in New York City, and hip hop soon spread among Latinos. The first Latino DJ was DJ Disco Wiz. The Mean Machine's "Disco Dreams", with lyrics in both English and Spanish is widely considered the first Latino hip hop recording, though Los Angeles-based Kid Frost is usually thought of as the first major Latino artist. Performers like Cypress Hill ("Insane in the Brain"), Gerardo ("Rico Suave"), Big Pun and Mellow Man Ace ("Mentirosa") later popularized Latino hip hop in the United States. It has been debated whether ("Rico Suave") or even Gerardo, for that matter, can be considered hip hop instead of Pop. In Latin America, countries like Puerto Rico, Cuba, The Dominican Republic, Brazil, and Mexico created their own popular scenes. Beginning in the mid-'80s and early '90s, two of the most popular styles of Latin hip hop were reggaeton, a Puerto Rican and Panamanian mixture of ragga, reggae and hip hop, and Dominican merenrap, a fusion of merengue and hip hop.Electro
While Run DMC laid the groundwork for East Coast rap, "Planet Rock" (Afrika Bambaataa) was the 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.Politicization
In 1987, Public Enemy brought out their debut album (Yo! Bum Rush the Show), and Boogie Down Productions followed up in 1988 with By All Means Necessary. Both records pioneered a wave of hard-edged politicized performers. Meanwhile, Public Enemy's Bomb Squad production team, and those of other artists, pioneered new techniques in sampling that resulted in denser, multi-layered sonic collages on albums such as It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back and Fear of a Black Planet. That year, duo DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince (also known as Will Smith) also won rap's first Grammy Award.In 1988 and 1989, artists from the Native Tongues Posse released the first conscious hip hop albums, with jazz-based samples and diverse, quirky and often political lyrics covering a diverse range of topics (see jazz rap) and strongly influenced by the Afrocentric messages of Bambaataa's Zulu Nation. This would pioneer the way for A Tribe Called Quest's 1991 release, The Low End Theory, which has been acclaimed by critics and fans as one of the greatest jazz-rap albums ever, if not one of the best hip hop albums. Allmusic's John Bush described it as "one of the closest and most brilliant fusions of jazz atmosphere and hip hop attitude ever recorded."Gangsta rap
Ice T's seminal "6n' Da Mornin'" (1986) was one of the first nationally successful West Coast hip hop singles, and is often said to be the beginning of gangsta rap. In 1988, rap group N.W.A. released Straight Outta Compton. This album helped to popularize the style of "gangsta rap," which would become massively popular from the '90s to the present. It also influenced countless rappers of the genre, including Mobb Deep and Tupac Shakur.In the 1990s, gangsta rap became mainstream, beginning in 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 hip hop. Though G-Funk was the most popular variety of hip hop in the early 1990s, New York's hip hop scene did not disappear, and remained an integral part of the industry.Hardcore hip hop
By the 1990s, the sound of New York and the East Coast had become harder and darker, with lyrical content to match. The shift seemed sudden, but was actually accomplished over several albums in a short timespan.Artists from the late 80s like EPMD and Eric B and Rakim offered a foundation of hard drums and intricate lyricism. Public Enemy and their production team, The Bomb Squad, had also influenced a harder sound of hiphop across America. EPMD had assembled the Def Squad by the early 90s, which included New Jersey rapper Redman, as well as Das EFX. Criminal elements had also started to become prevelent, taking influence from early gangster rapper pioneers as Boogie Down Productions, Ice T, and Schoolly D. While these early acts were not considered as hard as what was to follow, they were clearly and consciously moving their sound away from successful contemporaries like MC Hammer and towards something tougher and nastier.1993 was a year of rapid transformation. Wu-Tang Clan released their first album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). This, Black Moon's Enta Da Stage, and Onyx's Bacdafucup spawned a gritty, stripped-down, dark and violent subgenre of hip hop that would influence contemporary acts such as Mobb Deep and The Notorious B.I.G., and would for a short time become the signature sound of New York City's rap scene; Wu-Tang's members dominated rap for the first half of the 1990s with acclaimed releases such as Liquid Swords and Only Built 4 Cuban Linx.By 1994, both Nas' debut Illmatic and B.I.G.'s debut Ready 2 Die were released, bringing much industry attention back to New York. Nas was hailed by many as the second coming of Rakim due to his poetic phrasing, style of flow, and his blend of street and philosophical topics; Biggie went a more "gangster" route, saying he and cohort Puff Daddy desired to bring the West Coast gangster rap sound of Ice T and Ice Cube to the East.These 1994 releases created a marked shift in the industry, with less attention focused on groups and more on solo artists. This would become the blueprint for other solo "hardcore" personnas to follow, including Jay-Z and Lil Kim in 1996, Big Pun in 1998, and the solo careers several Wu-Tang Clan members. Each lyracist would put their own spin on the themes of the subgenre, including guns, drugs, sex, and money, with the production sound becoming more glossy as it found more mainstream appeal.The reemergence of New York as a growing entity in mainstream hip hop soon spawned an inevitable confrontation between the East Coast and West Coast and their respective major labels. This sales rivalry eventually turned into a personal rivalry, provoked in part by famous West Coast rapper Tupac Shakur's shooting, which Shakur blamed on The Notorious B.I.G. and his Bad Boy Entertainment label. As artists from Death Row sent disses (most notably Tupac's "Hit 'Em Up") toward various East Coast and some Southern and Chicago acts (Jermaine Dupri's So So Def label and his sister/artist, Da Brat), the feud heated up and culminated in the still-unsolved deaths of both rappers in 1996 (Shakur) and 1997 (Wallace).When 2Pac died, most of its prominent artists left Death Row, and the West Coast fell out of the mainstream spotlight; previous icons such as Snoop Dogg and Daz signed to Southern labels (No Limit Records and So So Def, respectively) and Dr. Dre founded his own Aftermath Entertainment and began working chiefly with East Coast natives Nas and The Firm. The success of Puff Daddy signalled that the sound of hiphop's production had moved away from hard street anthems to more dancable, club-friendly party jams. This was embraced by other rappers not just for financial gain, but in a conscious effort to bring down the hardcore tone that may have provoked the deaths of two of the most influential artists in hiphop."Bling" era (1998-2001)
In the latter half of the 1990s, the South would grow more popular among hip hop fans for wildly popular acts such as OutKast, No Limit and Cash Money Records. In the 1990s and into the following decade, elements of hip hop continued to be assimilated into other genres of popular music; neo soul, for example, combined hip hop and soul music and produced some major stars in the middle of the decade.1998's emergence of Big Pun did much to revive a waning mainstream interest in skill-oriented rap; before the rapper died in 2000 of obesity, he garnered much attention as an extremely skilled MC without a "gimmick" or a marketing ploy that was becoming common by then. In that year, DMX also released his debut It's Dark and Hell's Hot, a very dark and gritty-sounding album that stood out amongst the newly-popular glamour lifestyle-oriented raps popularized by Puff Daddy and Jay-Z.In 1999, Dr. Dre released his second album 2001 to an audience that had been impatiently anticipating his next release. Powered by the chart-topping single "Forgot About Dre" featuring Eminem, the album and the Up in Smoke tour that accompanied it did much to revitalize the status of Dre's pet project, Aftermath Entertainment. Eminem released his major label debut The Slim Shady LP in 2000 and, powered by his spot on the 2001 single, controversy over his subject matter, and a mass of white suburban fans who identified with him, sold millions. This and his later albums would help to bring millions more caucasian fans and several performers into the genre.In 2001, a feud between Nas and Jay-Z (by then two of the most popular performers in the genre) came to a head; disses flew back and forth between the two rappers and their camps, resulting in huge sales of both artists' 2001 releases (Stillmatic and The Blueprint respectively). These two records were regarded as a return to form for both rappers, and gave another jump-start to their careers (Nas' especially) by putting them back in the public eye.Recent history
Eminem would further cement his status as a pop culture icon in 2002, when he won the Academy Award for Best Song for his single Lose Yourself. His movie, 8 Mile, became a box office success and its soundtrack featured his protege and signee 50 Cent's first hit single, "Wanksta." That Cent's one-time mentor, Jam Master Jay, was shot and killed that year served also to increase his popularity.In 2003, 50 Cent dropped his debut. A New York rapper with a penchant for singing his hooks, he had essentially invented a now-popular fad of flooding the mixtape market with mixtapes to try to get one's music played everywhere and all the time. 50's debut sold several million copies, giving he and his G-Unit group Eminem's audience of suburban teens and a powerful position as one of Interscope's top-selling artists.In 2004, producer Kanye West released The College Dropout, a highly-selling album that re-popularized the style of speeding up old Soul music samples to create the melody for a beat. This album's success along with the retirement of Jay-Z and a beef between Beanie Sigel and Ruff Ryders artist Jadakiss brought attention back to Roc-A-Fella Records; attention which, in turn, facilitated the "Dipset movement", a bout of mainstream popularity for (at the time) Roc-A-Fella signee Cam'ron's Harlem-based DipSet group. West also revitalized the career of fellow Chicago-native Twista, giving him a guest spot on the chart-topping single "Slow Jamz" and producing another highly popular single, "Overnight Celebrity", for the rapper's album Kamikaze.2005 brought about the mainstream popularization of Chicago rapper Common, also the work of Kanye West, and saw improved popularity for producer Danger Mouse, who had produced an illicit Jay-Z/Beatles remix album the year before. Raekwon also announced his upcoming sequel to Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, to be titled Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II, which is now highly anticipated. West coast rapper The Game also released his critically and commercially acclaimed The Documentary, which brought the L.A. and even West Coast hip hop scene back into the spotlight after years of East coast dominance.In 2006, Kanye West released his second album; Ghostface Killah his seventh; Mobb Deep their G-Unit debut, and Ice Cube and Busta Rhymes' latest records; as well as albums from acts such as Lupe Fiasco, The Roots and OutKast.
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