80s Genre - Hip hop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boQK_tiqjDY&feature=related

Summary

Hip hop is not only a genre of music but also a cultural movement developed by African Americans and Latinos living in the ghettos of New York in the 1970s. 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. The term rap is sometimes used synonymously with hip hop music; moreover, hip hop was in its early formation known as disco rap. Rap caught on because it offered young urban New Yorkers a chance to freely express there true selves in an unlimited style, without going to any great expense.
The word ‘hip’ was used as early as 1904 in African American Vernacular referring to the notion of the ‘informed’ or ‘current’. Hip hop pioneer and South Bronx community leader Afrika Bambaataa was the first to begin using the term in a positive light to describe all of the elements of Hip Hop. Keith Cowboy of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five also stakes a claim to the coining of the phrase as he taunted a friend who had joined the US Army, by scat singing the words “hip/hop” to mimic the rhythmic cadence of the soldiers marching.
Hip hop music was popularised as a backlash against the perceived dilution of New York’s Black radio station that had began to appeal to more affluent, whiter and older audiences. Many black youths who did not feel any connection to the soulless funk and Europeanised disco that concentrated the airwaves felt socially ostracised. At the same time, block parties began to occur playing the music an older generation had seemingly abandoned. In a short space of time rappers who would emcee over the break beats of these songs had starring roles at these events.



Influenced By

As aforementioned, hip hop came about as increasing feeling of disenfranchisement within black radio excluded the inner city youth. Likewise, the commercialisation of disco, funk and soul influenced hip hop by providing it its niche, just as it had done for House music in Chicago.
Hip hop had initially started, and was therefore influenced by the Bronx. Funk and soul music were played a lot there in block parties. The DJs at these parties began separating the percussion breaks from hit songs as it became clear that these breaks were more entertaining. This technique had become widespread in Jamaica and had spread considerably in influence in the New York community via the Jamaican immigrants. A Jamaican DJ known as Kool Herc moved from Kingston to New York’s West Bronx. Here, he attempted to incorporate improvised rhymes over the dub versions of his reggae records. Kool Herc went onto form the first emcee team known as Kool Herc and the Herculoids which massively influenced Hip hop as a genre as he inspired a generation of budding emcees. I think as a result, the direction of hip hop music was therefore influenced primarily by the individual rappers who sought to express themselves politically and socially while executing keen lyrical agility. Nevertheless, as the purveyor of break-beat deejaying, where the breaks of funk songs were isolated and repeated for the purpose of all-night dance parties, Herc is credited as the leading influence of Hip hop. Lesser influences obviously derive from the records Herc played such as James Brown, Sly and Family Stone and the Last Poets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhisX4mVoDI

Influence On

The repercussions of hip hop have not been inherently musical. Early hip hop has been accredited with reduction of urban gang violence by switching physical war with competitive battles of dance and graffiti. Hip hop now appeals to a larger demographic stretching most of the globe, despite many rappers boasting about social inequality, misogyny and arms.
In terms of influence on music hip hop has played a massive role in the formation of its sub genres. The first gangsta rap album to hit the mainstream, selling 2.5 million copies, was Straight Outta Compton by NWA in 1988. NWA placed the West Coast on the hip hop map with its illicit subject matters.
Elements of hip hop became fused with other genres to create compound styles, such as the British electronic, jazz and hip hop fusion which became known as Trip Hop and was popularised by artists like Massive Attack.

Image / Fashion



Hip hop fashion encompassed the expression and attitudes of hip hop culture. It derives different elements from the various hip hop scenes in America. In the early 80s up and coming sports brands aligned themselves with the emerging style. Artists such as Run DMC began to wear these brightly coloured tracksuits as a result. Adidas shell toed trainers also became fashionable through the same means. What was perhaps most indicative of hip hop fashion was the popularisation of heavy gold jewellery which conjured the idea of wealth and prestige. It has been suggested that this was worn as a symbol to illustrate the rise of African Americans as a people. A few hip hop insiders, such as the members of Public Enemy, have made the deliberate choice not to don expensive jewellery as a statement against materialism.

Cultural / Significance
When hip hop first arrived on the scene it was bare-bones but expressive, made by young men too broke to buy instruments. It occasionally spoke out against poverty and injustice. Tracks such as Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five's "The Message" and Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back" established hip hop as a possible route of protest. While most cling to the concept of "conscious" anthems, the writers would never have been heard if they were not delivered within a musical form so compelling that it forced the world to listen. Henceforth, hip hop was about beats and rhymes and rocking the party not trying to change the world. Hip hop began in a political context as a cultural movement. That’s not to say it wasn't political, it's to say that its aesthetics cannot be reduced to its politics. Indirectly however, hip hop served to increase the profile of African Americans who still by the 80s faced racial strife on a day to day basis. It did this by providing a platform for conscious hip hop artists who see their music as a tool for political and social change who felt it there place to speak out against these injustices. Hip hop was also had a cultural change in that it has created a distinctive slang that has been adopted by many different dialects across the US.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_Yc5tN30eo


Significant Artists / Albums

NWA – Straight Outta Compton
Straight Outta Compton was the second album by Compton based hip hop group NWA, originally released in 1988. The album is generally seen as the pioneering record of gangsta rap, with its constant profanity and violent lyrics, it helped to emerge the new sub-genre of hip hop. The album was a hip hop groundbreaker that went on to have an enormous impact on the evolution of gangsta rap. The album's most memorable track "Express Yourself" speaks of the ideas of free expression and the constraints placed on rappers by radio censorship.

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/128098/review/6211658/straightouttacompton

Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five – The Message
The Message is the 1982 debut album by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, a highly influential hip hop group. The track of the same name contained lyrics that were some of the first in the genre of rap to talk about the struggles and the frustrations of living in the ghetto. Rolling Stone ranked "The Message" #51 in its List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (the second highest placing for any song released in the 1980s, and highest ranking hip-hop song on the list).

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/128098/review/6211658/straightouttacompton

Sugarhill Gang – Sugarhill Gang
Sugarhill Gang is the self titled debut album by influential rap group, The Sugarhill Gang. The album was released in 1980. This pioneering group inaugurated the history of recorded hip-hop with their single "Rapper's Delight", a multi-platinum seller and radio hit in 1979. "Rapper's Delight" was a #36 hit on the US pop chart and a #4 hit on the R&B Chart and was certified 8x platinum. Although Rapper's Delight was the only charting single, the album also included the minor hit, "Rapper's Reprise".


http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/128098/review/6211658/straightouttacompton

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop_music
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop
http://www.hoodfever.com/
http://www.hip-hop.com/
http://www.oldschoolhiphop.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_school_hip_hop
http://www.zulunation.com/
http://www.daveyd.com/
Various Youtube Hip hop documentaries

Evaluation
I decided to use the genre of hip hop for my 80s blog as I feel a level of affinity to the old school variety. My first introduction to hip hop was the early Furious 5 record and the eponoymous Sugarhill album. I spent a good few hours trying to learn Rappers Delight and instantly fell in love with the playfulness of the track. I enjoy the way hip hop doesn't feel the same lyrical constraints as other music. This is exhibited especially in Rapper's Delight, through the scatting introduction.
Moreover, I still recall the first Run DMC video I witnessed. The shell-toed superstars lifing a foot at a time to the beat was one of the coolest things I had seen.
I also really enjoy African American comedy, and this undoubtedly affected my decision to explore Hip hop. The likes of 'Friday' starring NWA rapper Ice Cube meant that I enjoyed both the humour and the music.