Origin of Hip Hop
Hip Hop was a way for artist to creatively express them selves and tell of the struggles they faced in life. Hip Hop emerged from the Bronx and spread to others in the 1970s. Hip Hop was not just performed by the African Americans, but for those all across the African Diaspora. Hip – Hop culture is vast and includes various art forms such as art, dance , fashion and the well known verbal format called Rap.
Old School Hip Hop
Origins
Kool Herc, an 18-year-old Jamaican-American DJ, was playing a set at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, New York, and decided to do something a little different.Using two turntables, he extended the instrumental breaks, allowing people to dance longer, a style that became known as break dancing. He noticed the crowd went wild whenever he played an instrumental section, instead of the whole song.Next came the MC, or the Master of Ceremony, who added the rhymes over the beat to get the party going and flowing. In the Bronx, his friend Coke La Rock hyped up the crowd with a microphone. And with that, hip hop was born.
It is important to note that Hip Hop is not referring to the music, but to the art and culture that was created by African American and Afro-Latinx people living in the Brox
Classic Rap
The Golden Age of Hip Hop arrived in the 1980s. Old School Hip Hop is known fro having relatively simple rapping techniques compared to the later rap music. Most of the lyrics were fun and designed fro people to listen and have a good time. There were no deep meanings and lyrics. Battle Rapping was a large part of old school Hip Hip. Classic Rap sampled from funk and disco tracks.
HardCore Rap
Hardcore rap birthed much of the modern rap music we have today. Gangster rap , a popular type of rap, stems from hardcore rap. Popular hard core rappers include well known names such as N.W.A, Tupac, The Notorious B.I.G , 50 Cent and many others. These rap songs contained a message and discussed actual issues in the Black community. This section of Hip-Hop music also helped create the stereotype of rap being sexist and violent. Around this time women were also beginning to be be taken seriously as rappers. Their sexual lyrics caused much controversy , but also made way for the female MCs of today to be able to express themselves and their sexuality. They also had to make their appearance and lyrics more “hard” in order for their music to be taken seriously. This genre of rap helped promote gang violence and coastal rivalry .
G-Funk
G-Funk was gangster rap with funk elements.The bouncing, upbeat records of funk icons such as Parliament and Zapp, which had played in Los Angeles roller-rinks in decades past, were sampled by producers like Dr. Dre, DJ Quik, Warren G, and Battlecat and backed by a booming bass. G-funk became the most popular genre of hip-hop in the early ’90s thanks to the works of Dr. Dre.
New School Hip Hop
Trap Music
Trap Music is a subgenre that stems from Gangster rap.The term itself comes directly from the streets. The “trap” typically refers to a drug house, where narcotics are cooked up and sold. As such, trap rappers usually rap about drugs and slinging dope.You’ll know a trap track by the signature beat style—stuttering kick drums, hi-hats, 808s, and oodles of synthesizers.Trap has maintained a strong presence in hip-hop since it exploded onto the mainstream in 2009. Today, the likes of Future, Young Thug and more recently Gunna , 2 Chainz and DaBaby
Conclusory Opinion
Hip- Hop is more than just a genre , it’s a culture. It has evolved and developed into many different subgenre throughout the years and has continued to increase in popularity. Rap songs have influenced many people and have been the catalyst for many movements. Rap Music is one of the most prolific genre to date. To close i’ll leave you with a quote from Ice Cube, “I think rap music is brought up, gangster rap in particular, as well as video games, every other thing they try to hang the ills of society on as a scapegoat”.
