The Basics of Hip-Hop

• Hip-hop music: a multicultural exchange that started between African American and Latino American youth from the United States, and young immigrants and children of immigrants from countries in the Caribbean.

• It developed as a musical genre and a culture during the 1970s when block parties became increasingly popular.

• Blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, disco, funk, Jamaican sound system and bass culture can be seen as influences in the development of hip-hop music.

• Rap: poetry recited rhythmically over musical accompaniment; is a part of hip-hop culture, which emerged in the mid-1970s.

• Major elements of hip-hop culture: graffiti art, break-dance, MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching, beatboxing, sampling, and producing.

• Merry-Go-Round technique: at block parties DJs played percussive breaks of popular songs using two turntables (sometimes more) and a DJ mixer to be able to play breaks from two copies of the same record, alternating from one to the other and extending the “break” to make it repeat continuously, creating the “breakbeat.” It became the basic musical structure over which the MC spoke or rapped.

• Mixing: “blending” different records together.

• Scratching: manually moving the record back and forth on the turntable to create rhythmic patterns with scratchy timbres.

Beats and Production

• TR-808 Rhythm Composer: one of the earliest programmable drum machines, with which musicians could create their own rhythms rather than having to use preset patterns.

• This is an important step in the development of music production.

• The 80s see a transition to more abrasive and minimal drum machine beats contrasting with earlier sounds as well as a transition to more politically oriented theme with more complex rhymes and phrasing.

• Golden age: Complex production with eclectic samples and musical experiments.

  • Faster rhymes and beats, advancement in rapping technique.

  • Many ground breaking albums coming out at the same time as well as mainstream success.

  • Characterized by lyrics with strong themes focusing on Afrocentrism, political militancy and feminism.

  • Strong jazz influence in the music.

  • The artists and teams most often associated with this phase are Public Enemy (Chuck D, DJ Lord), Mc Lyte, K.M.D, Eric B. & Rakim, De La Soul, Queen Latifah, A Tribe Called Quest and many others.

The Wu-Tang Clan

• The Wu-Tang Clan is a Hip Hop group and collective from Staten Island, New York City.

• Formed in 1992, the group became an underground phenomenon.

• The name was chosen after the movie “Shaolin and Wu Tang.”

• Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) is their debut studio album on Loud Records, released in 1993. The record was produced by leader of the group RZA.

• The techniques of production used by RZA include sound collages, very eclectic samples including material from martial arts movies and classic soul tracks.

• This is an influential album during the East Coast Renaissance and in modern hip-hop production.

• The group includes 9 members. To decide who would be featured on each track, the producer RZA asked each rapper to do a battle.

• The general themes usually focus on martial arts movies, comic books, pop culture, urban life. All members have very distinctive styles and techniques that complement each other.

Straight Outta Compton

• N.W.A was formed in 1987.

• “Straight Outta Compton” is their debut solo album released in 1988.

• They describe their music as “reality rap.”

• They released “F*** tha Police" (from the album “Straight Outta Compton”), a song which protests police brutality and racial profiling.

  • It earned a letter from FBI Assistant Director strongly expressing law enforcement’s resentment of the song.

  • It was ranked number 425 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

• “Straight Outta Compton” establishes West Coast hip hop as a vital genre, and Los Angeles as a legitimate “rival” to hip hop's long-time capital New York.

Censorship

• Luke Skyywalker and the 2 live crew third album “As Nasty As They Wanna Be” (1989) became the group's largest seller, certified double platinum.

• In 1990, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida declared the album legally obscene; and tried to forbid the album to be sold and performed.

  • It later was overturned by the Eleventh Circuit.

• It is the first album in history to be deemed legally obscene.

• Their 1990 album Banned in the U.S.A. was also the first release to bear the RIAA standard Parental Advisory warning sticker. It peaked at number 20 on the Hot 100.

J Dilla

• J Dilla is a record producer and rapper who emerged in the mid-1990s underground hip hop scene in Detroit, Michigan (one of my favorite producer).

• He was part of the acclaimed music group Slum Village.

• He worked with notable acts including A Tribe Called Quest,The Roots, De La Soul, Busta Rhymes, Erykah Badu, Madlib and Common.

• He revolutionized beat production, making the beats less machine like, more organic and human.

• Many drummers eventually tried to imitate his beat style on the drums.