HIP HOP AND RAP

1. HIP HOP AND RAP

2. WHAT IS HIP HOP? • Hip hop is a musical genre that was developed alongside the similarly named subculture that sprung into popularity from the early 70s. • It is oftentimes defined by key stylistic elements such as rapping or MCing, DJing, sampling, scratching and beatboxing.

3. WHERE DID IT ALL START? • The roots of hip hop are found African music. The griots of West Africa are a group of traveling singers and poets who are part of an oral tradition dating back hundreds of years. Their vocal style is similar to that of rappers. The African-American traditions of signifyin', the dozens, and jazz poetry are all descended from the griots culture. • Within New York City, griot-like performances of poetry and music by artists such as Gil Scott Heron and Jalal Mansur Nuriddin had a significant impact on the post-civil rights era culture of the 60s and 70s giving African-American poets and artists more political exposure and thus more creative freedom. • The actual conception of Hip hop arose during the 1970s when block parties became increasingly popular in New York, especially in the Bronx. Block parties incorporated DJs who played popular genres of music, especially funk and soul. DJs, realizing its positive reception, began isolating the percussion breaks of popular songs. • This technique was then common in Jamaican dub musicand had spread to New York City via the substantial Jamaican immigrant community, who in turn were descendants of Africans. This form of chopping and mixing music would later form the foundation for sampling (a very common musical element in Hip hop).

4. PIONEERING ARTISTS OF HIP HOP Nas Mobb Deep 50 Cent, Eminem and Dr. Dre MADVILLAIN Blu Lupe Fiasco

5. PIONEERING ARTISTS OF HIP HOP • Many may ask what exactly constitutes a pioneer of the hip hop genre. • In hip hop rather than actually creating a convention/ innovation that becomes famous, a hip hop pioneer is someone that exerts great influence over listeners through their music and beliefs. • With artists like Tupac, Nas and The Fugees hip hop became more than gangster activity and racism. Hip hop began to seep into politics and thus garner more of a sophisticated audience also positively educating the youth. • This helped develop and mature the hip hop genre and thus rappers like these are pioneers. • That isn’t to say rappers such as Mobb Deep and Wu-Tang Clan who pioneered the gangster sub-genre by bringing it down from the mafia glorification to the gritty and gutter reality it really is shouldn’t be noted.

6. WHO LISTENS TO HIP HOP? • We often assume that the genre of hip hop and ultimately all urban music is aimed predominately at those of african-carribean descent. • Whilst this is true in the sense that the majority of musicians in the urban music industry are black and the topics and themed covered concern the black community, this does not mean that urban music is exclusively for those of the black race. • Over the years, hip hop’s drastic branching off, mainstream recognition and bleeding into many other industries such as fashion and film, has led to hip hop being more appealing to anybody of any culture and any age.

7. WHAT ARE THE SUBGENRES OF HIP HOP? Freestyle Horrocore Gangsta Rap G-funk Conscious Hip Hop Christian Hip Hop Instrumental HIP HOP Chicano Rap Alternative Mafioso Traditional/ Hardcore Rap Nerdcore Turntablism Political

8. HOW DOES THE PUBLIC PERCEIVE HIP HOP? • It doesn’t take a genius or a keen disciple of hip hop to know that hip hop traditional hip hop is negatively perceived by the public. • On the musical side of things, a lot of hip hop critics disregard hip hop as proper music and a form of expression. • In addition to this the use and glorification of: profanities, money, violence, crime racism, anger towards politicians and governments and discrimination towards females has also led to a negative view of hip hop.

9. WHAT RECORD LABELS DEAL WITH HIP HOP?

10. WHAT MAGAZINES COVER THE HIP HOP CULTURE? • There are a plethora of music magazines that particularly cover the genre and culture of hip hop. • Most of these magazines tend to have a circulation of about 500,000 to 1.5 million and tend to be released on a weekly/ monthly basis. • In addition to this, hip hop magazines mainly feature interviews from notable and up and coming figures in the industry, coverage of the latest events within the urban culture and reviews of the latest albums. • The generally young target audience means that these magazines tend to be bought off the shelf in most cases rather than subscribed to.

11. WHAT OTHER MEDIA TYPES COVER THE HIP HOP CULTURE? • There are a few TV shows specifically dedicated to popular urban music rather than sole hip hop coverage. These include 106&Park and T4. • Likewise there are a huge wave of radio stations, internet pages, music channels and other elements that within the media that subtly cover hip hop but is not exclusive to hip hop alone.

12. WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR HIP HOP? • Well in 2006, Nas claimed that with the decline in traditional, meaningful and hardcore rap and with the increase in commercialised music that the genre and culture of hip hop was dead. • Whilst not entirely dead in the sense that some of this music still retains, it is true that the charts are now dominated with more mainstream music. • On the other hand, upcoming artists such as Mickey Factz, Blu, Cory Gunz and Charles Hamilton has shown that the youth within hip hop has took a returning turn towards more conscious rap.