A brief history on hip hop and its beginnings.. Some information has been taken out for privacy purposes and not for students to copy and paste from this paper without putting the effort in their own assignments.. The list in reference and bibliography should be sufficient for further knowledge and reading..
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Music Production Analysis
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The emergence of hip hop came about in the early 1970's after the post civil rights
movement which aimed at gaining full citizenship rights for Blacks, and to end segregation
led by Malcolm X and Dr Martin Luther King (Price 2006). Price (2006) states in Hip Hop
Culture 'Hip Hop is a product of African diaspora and combines music, dance, graphic,
art, oration, and fashion with a growing aesthetic leaning heavily on material objects and
media'. Todd Boyd wrote in his controversial book 2003, The New H.N.I.C (Head Nigga In
Charge): The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop, he argued that hip hop music
and culture has served as a powerful corrective. "In the same way that civil right leaders
spoke to the conditions back in the day, hip hop artists now speak to a populace often
disillusioned by those considered overtly political in a traditional sense" (Boyd 2003,
Dimitriadis 2009). As written by Davies in Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora: Origins,
Experiences and Culture hip hop's cultural origins are shared by five places of origin
consisting of descendants from the Africa region like Barbados, Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto
Rico, and including USA (Davies 2008). Love, Peace, Unity and having fun are the
fundamental characteristics that defined Hip Hop as said by Afrika Bambaata in 1974
stated in the video KRSONE: Hip Hop Beyond Entertainment Part 1 of 2 (2011). This is
also mentioned in Encyclopedia of African American Volume III by Price (2011) in the hit
song "Planet Rock" expresses a world that transcends racial, ethnic, economic, gender
and political problems envisioned by Afrika Bambaata. The four elements of hip hop are
bboying, graffiti art, MCing and DJing as stated in African Americans and Popular
Culture Vol 1,2,3 written by Boyd (2008). This is further supported by Covach and Flory
(2012) in What's That Sound? An Introduction to Rock and Its History Third Edition 'As a
musical form, rap was one element of a larger hiphop culture, alongside graffiti art, street
dance styles such as breaking and popping, and trends in fashion surrounding this
movement. As stated by Nicole Persley in Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the
Movement, Music, and Culture, Volume 1 When many fans and artists talk about hip hop,
they explain that it is a culture that expands beyond music to include four central elements:
graffiti art, bboying, DJing, and MCing (Persley, Hess 2007).
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In his lyrics to "9 Elements," KRS expanded from the four central elements of hip hop to
include five more elements: beatboxing, fashion, street knowledge, and entrepreneurialism.
He goes on to further state in his lyrics to make the distinction that to rap is merely an
action that anyone can take, but "Hip hop is something you live". To distinguish between
the two forms, the term hip hop music is often used to designate a song that holds true to
hip hop's original aesthetic rather than appealing to a pop audience, and the term MC, as
opposed to rapper, is often used to designate a hip hop vocalist who holds true to this
same aesthetic. In an exclusive interview for Icons of Hip Hop, Roxanne Shante explained
the difference between the MCs and rappers: "Rappers need videos, MCs don't." (Persley,
Hess 2007). 'In 1970 Kool Herc's block parties, the DJ was the focal point of the
performance, and the MC, or rapper was to hype up and grab the crowd's attention to the
DJ and to attract people onto the dance floor' (Hess 2007).
One of the first pioneers who innovated the hip hop genre was DJ Kool Herc. Scratch
(HipHop Documentary) (2012) Grand Mixer DXT put it nicely when describing the role of
a DJ, "DJ was the source of the energy because it was his responsibility to find the type of
rhythm or music that the audience would feel". DJ Kool Herc also known as Clive Campbell
emigrated from Jamaica and move to the States in 1967 as stated by Forman and Neal
(2004) in That's the Joint!: The HipHop Studies Reader it also quotes that Kool Herc
knew the Jamaican sound system scene, and had heard the early talkovers of the new
DJs like U Roy and Big Youth who were grandfathers of the genre Dance Hall as
mentioned in Droppin' Science: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture
(Perkins 1996). In Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the HipHop Generation as stated
by Chang, Kool Herc had seen the sound systems firsthand which the local sound was
called Somerset Lane, and the selector's name was King George. Feeling inspiration from
the scene loving the vibrations on the zinc top, and watching dancers prepare during the
day for events that happened at night, Clive became a DJ making his name known on
1520 Sedgwick Avenue where he and his family lived, as mentioned in Can't Stop Won't
Stop: A History of the HipHop Generation by Chang (2007, p. 68). Clive's father Keith
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Campbell invested in a brand new Shure P.A system for a rhythm and blues band which
later would be experimented on by Clive.
He was curious to find out how his neighbors who had the same system were able to gain
more volume but wouldn't show him what they did so through experimenting on his own,
Clive figured it out.
‘What I did was I took the speaker wire, put a jack onto it and jacked it into one of the
channels, and I had extra power and reserve power. Now I could control it from the preamp.
I got two Bogart amps, two Girard turntables, and then i just used the channel knobs as my
mixer. No headphones. The system could take eight mics. I had an echo chamber in one,
and a regular mic to another. So i could talk plain and, at the same time, I could wait
halfway for the echo to come out’ (Chang 2007).
This made Herc's parties more popular having a sound system that was the best in the
neighborhood, and made the loudest sound produced. DJ Kool Herc created a turntable
technique called "the MerryGoRound," where he would take two copies of the same
record, having one record backcueing to the beginning of the break as the other record
finishes its play on the break which helped extend a five second breakdown into a five
minute loop (Chang 2007). A playlist of songs that became DJ Kool Herc's signature tunes
often AfroLatinized backbeat made up of:
The Incredible Bongo Band "Apache" and "Bongo Rock"
James Brown's 'live' version of "Give It Up Turn It Loose" from the Sex Machine Album
Johnny Pate's theme to Shaft in Africa
Dennis Coffey "Scorpio"
In August of 1973 Clive and his friends brought the equipment down from their apartment,
and set up in the room adjacent to the rec room for their parties. At the start, the party didn't
go so well when Clive played some dancehall tunes but the people wanted the breaks. He
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gave the crowd what they wanted and dropped some soul and funk tracks which packed up
the place, and DJ Kool Herc took the mic to rock the crowd. The attraction of many
following help Kool Herc to assemble his clique who were known as the Herculords. They
comprised of DJs, dancers, and rappers who were Coke La Rock, DJ Timmy Tim with
Little Tiny Feet, DJ Clark Kent the Rock Machine, the Imperial JC, Blackjack, LeBrew,
Pebblee Poo, Sweet and Sour Prince, and Whiz Kid (Chang 2007).
When Zulu Nation was formed in 1973 by Afrika Bambaataa, his vision for the Zulu Nation
is to be used as a platform to promote 'freedom, justice, equality, knowledge, wisdom, and
understanding' as quoted by Webber in DJ Skills: The Essential Guide to Mixing and
Scratching (2008). Afrika Bambaataa devoted to building a fraternity for hiphop artists
and deemphasising the role of fighting and crime which later inspired the start of MC
battles, and Bboy battles (Covach, Flory 2012).
As mentioned by Crisell, White and Principe in On the Record: The Scratch DJ Academy
Guide in the year of 1975, a thirteen year old named DJ Theodore Livingston, who later
became known as Grand Wizard Theodore, was practicing with his brother's turntables
when his mother shouted, "Turn that music down," accidentally moved the vinyl back and
forth slightly against the needle, making a scratching sound as he attempted to stop the
record. This led to the technical invention of scratching and the needle drop (2009).
Sugar Hill Gang released "Rapper's Delight" in 1979 which aimed for the song to be
tailormade for travel to be accessible for people who had never heard of hip hop, rap or
the Bronx, would be the first hip hop record to reach mainstream radio worldwide, the
rapper became the face of commercial rap music. "Rapper's Dellight" introduced
mainstream listeners to the terms rap and hip hop. The song begins with the words, "I said
a hip hop…" as mentioned by Chang in Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the HipHop
Generation (Chang 2007). This led to rap becoming a focal point which took the public eye
and interests away from bboys, and DJs. As written by Crisell, White and Principe (2009)
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in On the Record: The Scratch DJ Academy Guide Joseph Sadler was also known as
Grandmaster Flash got into technical courses at a vocation high school that gave him the
knowledge to create a new kind of mixer. 'This device allows the DJ to combine, filter, and
alter input from audio equipment such as turntables and microphones that were outfitted to
speakers.’ Grandmaster Flash designed his own cue system, built it with parts from Radio
Shack, then glued it to the top of his mixer, and called it his "peekaboo system." He
developed a new level of DJ skills by combining the seamless flow of Pete Jones who he
learned from with Herc's practice of breakbeats and climaxes. (Webber 2008).
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five released, "Superappin' " where the verse in the
song comes up, the Furious Five raps in unison, "And it won't be long 'till everyone is
knowing that Flash is on the beatbox going, that Flash is on the beatbox
going…and…and…aha na na' (Chang 2007).
As mentioned by Covach and Flory in What's That Sound? An Introduction to Rock and
Its History Third Edition Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin, two college students studying at
New York University formed an early hiphop label called Def Jam Records in 1980s. Def
Jam Records released some of the best rappers in the decade who included LL Cool J,
the Beastie Boys, and Public Enemy. Rush Entertainment was Russell Simmon's
management company who also handled some of rap's top acts, RunDMC, Kurtis Blow,
and DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. Def Jam artists defined a new style of mainstream
hip hop in the mid1980s using generated beats by an electronic drum machine,
highlighted scratching, and occasional sample or punch phrase (Covach & Flory 2012).
When 1990 came about, it gave birth to commercial hip hop where major labels started
buying up independent labels producing mixes of party, political and "street"aggressive
views. As quoted by Rose in The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk about when We Talk
about HipHop And Why It Matters 'A major label conducted a study that shocked the
industry: The most "active" consumers of Hip Hop, they discovered, were "tweens," the
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demographic slice between the ages of 11 and 13.' The reason as explained from the
study showed that tweens loved profanity, and males tended to act out mocking and being
hostile at the opposite sex. This brought major labels to package their hip hop products
into a sub genre called Commercial Gangsta Rap. As quoted by Rose in The Hip Hop
Wars: What We Talk about when We Talk about HipHop And Why It Matters 'a
subgenre that would lock a generation in perpetual arrested social development. It goes
on to state that in 1993, Bill Stephney known for his work with political rap group Public
Enemy, noticed that older teens were targeted as well (Rose). 'It's a function of the culture,'
Stephney
Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap (2012), Salt from SaltNPepa says that as a
woman coming from the hip hop community when she was behind the mic and going
through real experiences, figuring out what their voice would sound as what hip hop is
today was not easy to figure out back in the day and had to develop who they were as
artists to put in their inflictions, flow, how the sound was gonna be like, how they were
gonna differientiate from average women.
Ciara feat. Missy Elliott 1,2 Step (2009) showcase the creative wordplay that Female MC
Ciara uses to describe the beat of the music created by the DJ which is also hypnotic to
the listener that results in dancing and movement.
This Beat Is
Automatic, Supersonic, Hypnotic, Funky Fresh
Work my body so melodic, this beat rolls right through my chest
Everybody, ma and papi, came to party
Grab somebody, work ya body, work ya body
Let me see you 1, 2 step
…
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This Beat is Outrageous, so contagious, make you crave it
Jazze made it
So retarded, top charted, ever since the day i started
In KRSONE: Hip Hop Beyond Entertainment (Part 1 of 2) 2011 he explained how in the
early 1970s about the crack cocaine epidemic which brought about Gangster Rap during
the 1980s, this inspired artists to write and reflect on both their own experiences and
experiences of others, what was believed to be the first gangster rap song was “Cop Killer”
which inspired EazyE. Looking on the development of hip hop from 1970’s to the current
era, It is believed that the prison industry and the media moguls had working partnerships
to create profitability for the private prison industry as well as the media industry which
used Gangster Rap as a medium to reinforce criminal ideologies to plague the black
community as compared to the unifying ideologies of the forefathers of hip hop such as DJ
Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa. Though the innovators of hip hop
have inspired many generations to see the hypocrisy against mainstream media and
corporations, it is still believed that mainstream media has disillusioned listeners through
exploitation of hip hop, this genre with its positive and negative messages have influenced
the culture worldwide in all of its four elements that is bboying, MCing, DJing and graffiti
art.
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References
Bogdanov, V 2003 All Music Guide to HipHop: The Definitive Guide to Rap & HipHop,
Backbeat Books, San Francisco, USA
Boyd, T 2003 The New H. N. I. C.: The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop,
New York Press, New York, USA
Boyd, T 2008 African Americans and Popular Culture Vol 1,2,3, Praeger Publishers, CT,
USA
Cobb, W 2007 To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic, New York
University Press, New York, USA
Chang, J 2007 Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the HipHop Generation, Ebury Press,
UK