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Hip - Hop 

 & 


Rap

Hip-Hop with its Rap overlay,

proved to be the Rock-‘n’-Roll

of the 90s, ' many music 

observers have said. 

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The most innovative, distinctive sound of the late 1980s and 1990s in the US and 

ultimately the rest of the Western world was Hip-Hop music, making it a major 

ingredient in the melting pot of Western Popular Music. Hip Hop music in its infancy

was an outlet and a "voice" for the disenfranchised Afro-American youth of low-

economic areas, initially in New York, as the culture reflected the social, economic and

political realities of their lives.

MC Hammer - U Can't Touch This

Hip Hop (HH)


HH music emerged from young African-Americans in the US. It is a form of music

from the ghettoes and  is considered both a response to and chronicling of their social

and economic plight as a downtrodden racial underclass in the US. Despite the Civil 

Rights movement, African Americans suffered enormously in terms of unemployment, 

economic and housing conditions, health care and in almost every other dimension

compared to their white US counterparts in the latter half of the 20th century and 

continuing. This needs to be little stated – it is common knowledge throughout the 

world.

As a consequence many turned to gangs

for support and protection, and to drugs

and hard core weapons to defend 

themselves, ultimately against other 

gangs. As a result, street violence, and 

murders and crime in general soars in the

US. Cocaine became the currency of a

street culture in the US of drugs, violence 

and crime. As such, the violent,

economically bleak conditions facing 

inner-city African American youths

created a sense of despair. ‘We are not 

living no American Dream,’ rapper Kam 

once commented, “We in a nightmare.

Like I said, this is hell for us. Anything

else would be an improvement, you know

what I am saying, we can’t get no lower, 

we can’t get no farther back.” Hip-Hop 

and Rap is the music combination which

expresses this reality and this generation's

desire to break out of it.

The Music Defined


Hip Hop/Rap music consists of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies

Rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. It developed as part of Hip 

Hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/Rapping, 

DJing/scratching, break dancing, and graffiti writing. Other elements include sampling

and beatboxing. While often used to refer to Rapping, 'Hip Hop' more properly denotes

the practice of the entire subculture, and does not always have to include Rapping. 

History


Hip Hop music and culture formed during the 1970s when 'block parties' became

increasingly popular in New York City, particularly among the African American youth

block parties incorporated DJs who played popular genres of music, especially Funk 

and Soul music. Due to its positive reception, DJs began isolating the percussive breaks 

of popular songs. This technique was then common in Jamaican Dub music,and was 

largely introduced into New York by immigrants from the Caribbean, including DJ

Kool Herc, considered by many to be the father of hip hop. Because the percussive

breaks in Funk, Soul and Disco records were generally short, Herc and other DJs

began using two turntables to extend the breaks.

Hip Hop's early evolution into a form

distinct from R&B occurred around the 

time sampling technology and drum-

machines became widely available to the

general public at a cost affordable to the

average consumer - not just professional

studios. Drum-machines and samplers 

were combined in machines that came to

be known as MPC's or 'Music Production

Centers'. Turntablist techniques – such as

scratching (attributed to Grand Wizzard 

Theodore), beat mixing and or matching,

and beat juggling – eventually developed 

along with the breaks, creating a base that

could be Rapped over, in a manner similar

to signifying, as well as the art of toasting,

another influence found in the emergence 

of the style.

Kool DJ Herc Live

Grand Wizard Theodore

Hip-Hop/Rap has its music roots in many genres, but mainly it is street poetry set to a 

Hip-Hop beat. Its stylistic origins can be found in Funk, Disco, Rhythm and Blues,

Reggae, performance poetry, spoken word, and many others. Its geographical origins 

are the ghettos and slums of New York, and/or the hard-arsed streets of the Big 

Apple circa 1970. The typical instruments used are turntables, synthesizers, DAW, 

rapping (of course), drum machines, samplers, drums, guitars, pianos, beatboxing and 

vocals.

Electronic Rap With Snap - I Got The Power

Rap


Rap or Rapping, also referred to as 'MCing'

or 'Emceeing', is a vocal style in which the

artist or Rapper speaks lyrically like a poet

'on steriods' in rhyme and verse, generally

to an instrumental or synthesized beat. 

Rappers can use sampling from other 

songs or sequenced portions of other songs

and can also incorporate synthesizers, 

drum machines, and live bands. 

Top Ten Rappers and Hip Hop Artists

Hip Hop music predates Rapping merging into Hip Hop culture, and Rap vocals are 

absent from many Hip Hop tracks, for example "Hip Hop, Be Bop (Don’t Stop)" by

Man Parrish. Nevertheless, the majority of the genre has been accompanied by Rap

vocals, including female Rappers. Bronx artist MC Sha Rock, member of the Funky

Four Plus One is credited with performing the first female Hip-Hop Rap. The roots of 

Rapping are found in African-American music and ultimately African music, 

particularly some segments of West African culture. The original creation or origin of 

the term Hip Hop is often credited to Keith Cowboy, Rapper with Grandmaster Flash

and the Furious Five. Universal Zulu Nation founder Afrika Bambaataa is credited with

first using the term to describe the subculture in which the music belonged; although it

is also suggested it was a derogatory term to describe the type of music in the 1970s.

Man Parrish - Hip Hop Be Bop

Sha-Rock & Inf - Sherriffs Rap

Disco Influence


Hip Hop music was both influenced by Disco and a backlash against it. According to

Kurtis Blow, Hip Hop's early days were characterized by divisions between fans and

detractors of Disco. Hip Hop largely emerged as "a direct response to the watered

down, Europeanised, Disco music that permeated the airwaves"'  The earliest Hip Hop

was mainly based on 'hard funk loops'. However, by 1979, Disco instrumental loops or

tracks emerged as the basis of much Hip Hop. This genre got the name of 'Disco Rap'. 

Ironically, it is claimed Hip Hop was also a factor in the eventual decline in Disco's

popularity.


Some 'Players'


DJ Pete Jones, Eddie Cheeba, DJ Hollywood, and Love Bug Starski were Disco-

influenced Hip Hop DJs. Their styles differed from other Hip Hop musicians who

focused on 'rapid-fire rhymes' and more complex rhythmic schemes. Afrika

Bambaataa, Paul Winley, Grandmaster Flash, and Bobby Robinson were all members

of this latter group. (sources)

Afrika Bambaata - Looking For The Perfect Beat

The MCs


DJ Kool Herc and Coke La Rock

influenced the vocal style of Rapping by 

delivering simple poetry verses over Funk

music breaks, after party-goers showed 

little interest in their previous attempts to 

integrate Reggae-infused toasting into 

musical sets. DJs and MCs often added 

call and response chants consisting of a

basic chorus, allowing the performer to

gather his thoughts (e.g. "one, two, three,

y'all, to the beat"). Later, the MCs grew

more varied in their vocal and rhythmic

delivery, incorporating brief rhymes, 

often with a sexual theme, to differentiate

themselves and entertain audiences. Often

these were collaborations between former

gangs, such as Afrikaa Bambaataa's 

Universal Zulu Nation. Melle Mel, a 

Rapper with The Furious Five is often 

credited with being the first rap lyricist to

call himself an 'MC'. Although many early

MCs recorded solo projects of note, such

as DJ Hollywood, Kurtis Blow and 

Spoonie Gee, the number of solo artists

increased only later when soloists with 

stage presence and drama, such as LL 

Cool J. emerged.

Bomfunk MC - Freestyler

Best Hip Hop Ladies

Grandmaster Melle Mel & The Furious Five

Early Hip Hop was dominated by groups where collaboration between the members

was integral to the show, for example the group Funky Four Plus One, who performed 

in such a manner on Saturday Night Live in 1981.

Funky 4 + 1 - That's the Joint

B-Boying


During the early 1970s B-boying arose 

during block parties, as b-boys and b-girls

got in front of the audience to dance both 

distinctively and frenetically. The style

was documented for release to a world 

wide audience for the first time in 

documentaries and movies such as Style 

Wars, Wild Style, and Beat Street. The

term "B-boy" was coined by DJ Kool 

Herc to describe the people who would

wait for the break section of the song, 

getting in front of the audience to dance.

B-Boy Dance Competition

Recordings


Prior to 1979, recorded hip hop music consisted mainly of PA system recordings of 

parties and early hip hop mixtapes by DJs. The first hip hop record is widely regarded

as The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight", from 1979.However, some regard "King 

Tim III (Personality Jock)" by The Fatback Band, released a few weeks before

"Rapper's Delight", as a rap record. By the early 1980s, all the major elements of 

Hip Hop and the genre had spread across the US, although New York and Philadelphia 

remained its major centers.

The Sequence - Funk You Up

Subgenres of


Hip Hop/Rap


Many sub-genres of Hip Hop/Rap have

 developed over time - each one having

 origins in the, and self described by their,

names, such as Disco Rap, Gangsta Rap,

Freestyle Rap and many, many others.

Top 30 Best Rap/Hip Hop Song

Rap Mix 2010

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