Hip hop music is a style of
popular music. It is usually composed of two elements:
rapping (also known as
emceeing) and
DJing. When combined with
breakdancing and
graffiti art, these are the four components of
hip hop, a cultural movement which began in
New York City in the 1970s, predominantly by
African Americans and
Latinos.
The reasons for the rise of hip hop are found is the changing urban culture within the United States during the 1970's. Perhaps most important was the low cost involved in getting started: the equipment was relatively inexpensive, and virtually anyone could MC along with the popular beats of the day. MCs could be creative, pairing nonsense rhymes and teasing friends and enemies alike in the style of Jamaican
toasting at
blues parties or playing
the dozens in an exchange of wit. MCs would play at block parties, with no expectation of recording, in the way of
folk music. The skills necessary to create hip hop music were passed informally from musician to musician, rather than being taught in expensive music lessons.
Another reason for hip hop's rise was the decline of
disco,
funk and
rock in the mid- to late 70s. Disco arose among black and
gay male clubs in America, and quickly spread to Europe, where it grew increasingly sunny, bright and pop. Once disco broke into the mainstream in the United States, and was thus appropriated, its original fans and many other listeners rejected it as pre-packaged and soul-less. While many remember the white teens shouting "disco sucks" at every available opportunity, often in
racist and
homophobic contexts, inner-city blacks were similarly rejecting disco and disco-fied rock, soul and funk (which was virtually everything on the radio at the time). If disco had anything redeemable for urban audiences, however, it was the strong, eminently danceable beats, and hip hop rose to take advantage of the beats while providing a musical outlet for the masses that hated disco. Disco-inflected music (though comparatively little actual disco) was one of the most popular sources of beats in the first ten or twelve years of hip hop's existence. In
Washington DC,
go go also emerged as a reaction against disco, and eventually mixed with hip hop during the early
1980s, while
electronic music did the same, developing as
house music in
Chicago and
techno music in
Detroit.
Along with the low expense and the demise of other forms of popular music, social and political events further accelerated the rise of hip hop. In
1959, the
Cross-Bronx Expressway was built through the heart of the Bronx, displacing many of the middle-class white communities and causing widespread unemployment among the remaining blacks as stores and factories fled the area. By the 1970s, poverty was rampant. When a 15,000+ apartment
Co-op City was built at the northern edge of the Bronx in
1968, the last of the middle-class fled the area and the area's black and Latino gangs began to grow in power.
In the mid-1970s, hip hop split into two factions. One sampled disco and focused on getting the crowd dancing and excited, with simple or no rhymes; these DJs included
Pete DJ Jones,
Eddie Cheeba,
DJ Hollywood and
Love Bug Starski. On the other hand, another group were focusing on rapid-fire rhymes and a more complex rhythmic scheme. These included
Afrika Bambaataa,
Paul Winley,
Grandmaster Flash and
Bobby Robinson.
As the 70s became the 1980s, many felt that hip hop was a novelty fad that would soon die out. This was to become a constant accusation for at least the next fifteen years. Some of the earliest rappers were novelty acts, using the themes to
Gilligan's Island and using sweet
doo wop-influenced
harmonies.
With the advent of recorded hip hop in the late 1970s, all the major elements and techniques of the genre were in place. Though not yet mainstream, it was well-known among African Americans, even outside of New York City; hip hop could be found in cities as diverse as
Los Angeles,
Washington, DC,
Baltimore,
Dallas,
Kansas City,
Miami,
Seattle,
St. Louis,
New Orleans, and
Houston.
Philadelphia was, for many years, the only city whose contributions to hip hop were valued as greatly as
New York City's by hip hop purists and critics. Hip hop was popular there at least as far back as
1976 (first record: "Rhythm Talk", by
Jocko Henderson in
1979), and the
New York Times dubbed Philly the "Graffiti Capital of the World" in
1971, due to the influence of such legendary graffiti artists as
Cornbread. The first female solo artist to record hip hop was
Lady B. ("To the Beat Y'All",
1980), a Philly-area
radio DJ. Later
Schoolly D helped invent what became known as
gangsta rap.
The 1980s saw intense diversification in hip hop, which developed into a more complex form. The simple tales of 1970s emcees were replaced by highly metaphoric lyrics rapping over complex, multi-layered beats. Some rappers even became mainstream pop performers, including
Kurtis Blow, whose appearance in a
Sprite commercial made him the first hip hop musician to be considered mainstream enough to represent a major product, but also the first to be accused by the hip-hop audience of
selling out. Another popular performer among mainstream audiences was
LL Cool J, who was a success from the release of his first LP,
Radio.
Hip hop was almost entirely unknown outside of the United States prior to the 1980s. During that decade, it began its spread to every inhabited continent and became a part of the music scene in dozens of countries. In the early part of the decade,
breakdancing became the first aspect of hip hop culture to reach
Germany,
Japan and
South Africa, where the crew
Black Noise established the practice before beginning to rap later in the decade. Meanwhile, recorded hip hop was released in
France (
Dee Nasty's
1984 Paname City Rappin') and the
Philippines (
Dyords Javier's "Na Onseng Delight" and
Vincent Dafalong's "Nunal"). In
Puerto Rico,
Vico C became the first
Spanish language rapper, and his recorded work was the beginning of what became known as
reggaeton.
The first rap records (
Fatback Band's
King Tim III,
Grandmaster Flash's "Super Rappin'" and
The Sugarhill Gang's
Rapper's Delight) were actually recorded by live musicians in the studio, with the rappers adding their vocals later. This changed with DJ records such as
Grandmaster Flash's "Adventures on the Wheels of Steel" (known for pioneering use of
scratching, which was invented by
Grandwizard Theodore in
1977) as well as electronic recordings such as "Planet Rock" by
Afrika Bambaataa and
Run DMC's very basic, all electronic "Sucker MC's" and "Peter Piper" which contains genuine cutting by Run DMC member
Jam Master Jay. These early innovators were based out of New York City, which remained the capital of hip hop during the 1980s. This style became known as
East Coast hip hop.
Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five released a "message rap", called "The Message", in
1982; this was one of the earliest examples of recorded hip hop with a socially aware tone. In
1984,
Marley Marl accidentally caught a drum machine snare hit in the sampler; this innovation was vital in the development of
electro and other later types of hip hop.
The mid-1980s saw a flourishing of the first hip hop artists to achieve mainstream success, such as
Kurtis Blow (
Kurtis Blow),
LL Cool J (
Radio) and especially
Run-D.M.C. (
Raising Hell), as well as influences in mainstream music, such as
Blondie's
Debbie Harry rapping in the first non-black hit to feature rapping, "Rapture". LL Cool J's
Radio spawned a number of singles that entered the dance charts, peaking with "I Can Give You More" (#21).
1986 saw two hip hop acts in the Billboard Top Ten;
Run-D.M.C.'s "Walk This Way" collaboration with
Aerosmith, and the
Beastie Boys "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)". The pop success of both singles was unheard of for the time; "Walk This Way" has proved especially memorable for its early mixture of hip hop and rock (though it was not the first such mixture), and it peaked at an unheard of #4 on the pop charts. Also, the mid-1980s saw the rise of the first major black female group,
Salt-N-Pepa, who hit the charts with singles like "The Show Stoppa" in
1985.
Ice-T's seminal "6n' Da Mornin'" (
1986) is one of the first nationally successful
West Coast hip hop singles, and is often said to be the beginning of
gangsta hip hop (along with
Schoolly D,
LL Cool J and
N.W.A.).
In
1987,
Public Enemy brought out their debut album (
Yo! Bum Rush the Show) on
Def Jam - one of hip hop's oldest and most important labels, and
Boogie Down Productions followed up in
1988 with
By All Means Necessary; both records pioneered wave of hard-edged politicized performers. The late 1980s saw a flourishing of like-minded rappers on both coasts, and Public Enemy's
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back became surprisingly successful, despite its militant and confrontational tone, appearing on both the club and rap charts, and peaking at #17 and #11, respectively. Aside from the lyrical innovations, Public Enemy's
Terminator X (along with
Eric B., of
Eric B. & Rakim) pioneered new techniques in sampling that resulted in dense, multi-layered sonic collages.
Main article: Gangsta rap The first gangsta rap album to become a mainstream pop hit, selling more than 2.5 million copies, was
N.W.A.'s
Straight Outta Compton (
1988). N.W.A.'s controversial subject matter, including drugs, violence and sex, helped popularize what became known as
gangsta rap (said to have begun with
Ice-T's "6N' Da Morning"). Specifically, the song "Fuck Tha Police" earned the foursome the enmity of
law enforcement, resulting in a strongly-worded letter of discontent from the
FBI. N.W.A.'s most lasting impact, however, was placing the West Coast on the hip hop map.
Though women, whites and Latinos had long been a part of the hip hop scene, it was not until the 1980s that groups other than young African American males began creating popular, innovative and distinctive styles of hip hop music.
The first rap recording by a solo female was
Philadelphia-based
Lady B.'s "To the Beat, Y'All" (
1980), while
The Sequence became the first female group to record. It was, not, however, until
Salt-N-Pepa in the middle of the decade that female performers gained mainstream success.
The first groups to mix hip hop and
heavy metal included
1984's "Rock Box" (
Run-D.M.C.) and "Rock Hard" (
Beastie Boys). Later in the decade,
Ice-T and
Anthrax were among the most innovative mixers of
thrash metal and hip hop. These fusions helped move hip hop into new audiences, and introduced it to legions of new fans in the States and abroad.
Main article: Latin hip hop Hip hop had always had a significant connection to the
Latino community in
New York City, and hip hop soon spread among Latinos. The first Latino DJ was
DJ Disco Wiz.
The Mean Machine's "Disco Dreams", with lyrics in both
English and
Spanish is widely considered the first Latino hip hop recording, though Los Angeles-based
Kid Frost is usually thought of as the first major Latino artist. Performers like
Cypress Hill ("Insane in the Membrane"),
Gerardo ("
Rico Suave") and
Mellow Man Ace ("Mentirosa") later popularized Latino hip hop in the United States. In Latin America, countries like Puerto Rico, Cuba, Brazil and Mexico created their own popular scenes. Beginning in the mid-80s and early 90s, two of the most popular styles of Latin hip hop were
reggaeton, a Puerto Rican and Panamanian mixture of
ragga,
reggae and hip hop, and Dominican
merenrap, a fusion of
merengue and hip hop.
Main article: Electro While Run DMC laid the groundwork for East Coast rap, "Planet Rock" (Afrika Bambaataa) was one of the first
electro tracks. Based on a sample from German rock group
Kraftwerk (
Trans-Europe Express), "Planet Rock" inspired countless groups, based in
New Jersey,
New York City and
Detroit, among other places, to make electronic
dance music (called
electro) that strongly influenced
techno and
house music, and especially the burgeoning
electro music scene in
northern England, the
Midlands and
London.
"Planet Rock" influenced hip hop outside of New York as well, such as
Latin hip hop (also
Latin freestyle or
freestyle) such as
Expose and
The Cover Girls, as well as
Los Angeles-based
electro hop performers like the
World Class Wreckin' Cru and
Egyptian Lover.
By the end of the 1970s, hip hop was known in most every major city in the country, and had developed into numerous regional styles and variations. Outside of New York City, New Jersey and Philadelphia, where hip hop had long been well-established, the 1980s saw intense regional diversification.
The first Chicago hip hop record was the "Groovy Ghost Show" by Casper, released in
1980 and a distinctively Chicago sound began by
1982, with
Caution and
Plee Fresh. Chicago also saw the development of
house music (a form of
electronic dance music) in the early 1980s and this soon mixed with hip hop and began featuring rappers; this is called
hip house, and gained some national popularity in the late 1980s and early 90s, though similar fusions from South Africa, Belgium and elsewhere became just as well-known into the 90s.
Los Angeles hardcore rappers (
Ice-T) and
electro hop artists (
Egyptian Lover) began recording by
1983, though the first recorded
West Coast rap was
Disco Daddy and
Captain Rapp's "Gigolo Rapp" in
1981. In
Miami, audiences listened to
Miami bass, a form of sultry and sexually explicit
dance music which arose from Los Angeles
electro; it frequently included rapping. In
Washington D.C. a hip hop-influenced form of
dance music called
go go emerged and incorporated rapping and DJing.
Beginning in the early 1980s, hip hop culture began its spread across the world. By the end of the 1990s, popular hip hop was sold almost everywhere, and native performers were recording in most every country with a popular music industry. Elements of hip hop became fused with numerous styles of music, including
ragga,
cumbia and
samba, for example. The Senegalese
mbalax rhythm became a component of hip hop, while the
United Kingdom and
Belgium produced a variety of
electronic music fusions of hip hop, most famously including British
trip hop. Hip hop also spread to countries like Greece, Spain and Cuba in the 1980s, led in Cuba by the self-exiled African American activist
Nehanda Abiodun and aided by
Fidel Castro's government. In Japan, graffiti art and breakdancing had been popular since the early part of the decade, but many of those active in the scene felt that the
Japanese language was unsuited for rapping; nevertheless, by the beginning of the
1990s, a wave of rappers emerged, including
Ito Seiko,
Chikado Haruo,
Tinnie Punx and
Takagi Kan. The
New Zealand hip hop scene began in earnest in the late 1980s, when
Maori performers like
Upper Hutt Posse and
Dalvanius Prime began recording, gaining notoriety for lyrics that espoused
tino rangatiratanga (Maori sovereignty).
In the 90s, gangsta rap became mainstream, beginning in about
1992, with the release of
Dr. Dre's
The Chronic. This album established a style called
G Funk, which soon came to dominate
West Coast hip hop. Later in the decade, record labels based out of Atlanta, St. Louis and New Orleans gained fame for their local scenes. By the end of the decade, especially with the success of
Eminem, hip hop was an integral part of popular music, and nearly all American pop songs had a major hip hop component.
In the 90s and into the following decade, elements of hip hop continued to be assimilated into other genres of popular music;
nu soul, for example, combined hip hop and
soul music and produced some major stars in the middle of the decade, while in the
Dominican Republic, a recording by
Santi Y Sus Duendes and
Lisa M became the first single of
merenrap, a fusion of hip hop and
merengue.
In Europe, Africa and Asia, hip hop began to move from an underground phenomenon to reach mainstream audiences. In
South Africa,
Germany,
France,
Italy and many other countries, hip hop stars rose to prominence and gradually began to incorporate influences from their own country, resulting in fusions like
Tanzanian Bongo Flava.
Main article: West Coast hip hop After N.W.A. broke up,
Dr. Dre (a former member) released
The Chronic (
1992), which peaked at #1 on the R&B/hip hop chart and #3 on the pop chart and spawned a #2 pop single in "Nothin' But a 'G' Thang"..
The Chronic took West Coast rap in a new direction, influenced strongly by
P funk artists, melding the psychedelic funky beats with slowly drawled lyrics—this came to be known as
G funk, and dominated mainstream hip hop for several years through a roster of artists on
Death Row Records, including most popularly,
Snoop Doggy Dogg, whose
Doggystyle included "What's My Name" and "Gin and Juice", both Top Ten pop hits.
Though West Coast artists eclipsed New York, some East Coast rappers achieved success. New York became dominated in terms of sales by
Puff Daddy (
No Way Out),
Mase (
Harlem World) and other
Bad Boy Records artists, in spite of often scathing criticism for a perceived over-reliance on sampling and a general watered-down sound, aimed directly for pop markets. Other New York based artists continued with a harder edged sound, achieving only limited popular success.
Nas (
Illmatic),
Busta Rhymes (
The Coming) and
The Wu-Tang Clan (
Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)), for example, received excellent reviews but generally mediocre or sporadic sales.
The sales rivalry between the East Coast and the West Coast eventually turned into a personal rivalry, aided in part by the music media. Many reporters were not aware that MC battles were an integral part of hip hop since its inception, and that, generally, little was meant by open taunts on albums and in performances. Nevertheless, the
East Coast-West Coast rivalry grew, eventually resulting in the still unsolved deaths of
Tupac Shakur and
Notorious B.I.G..
In the wake of declining sales following the deaths of both superstar artists, the sounds of hip hop were greatly diversified. Most important was the rise of
Southern rap, starting with
OutKast (
ATLiens) and
Goodie Mob (
Soul Food), based out of
Atlanta. Later,
Master P (
Ghetto D) built up an impressive roster of popular artists (the
No Limit posse) based out of
New Orleans and incorporating
G funk and
Miami bass influences, and distinctive regional sounds from
St. Louis,
Chicago,
Washington D.C.,
Detroit (
ghettotech) and others began to gain some popularity. Also in the 1990s,
rapcore (a fusion of hip hop and
heavy metal) became popular among mainstream audiences.
Rage Against the Machine,
Linkin Park and
Limp Bizkit were among the most popular rapcore bands.
Though Caucasian rappers like the
Beastie Boys (
Paul's Boutique),
Vanilla Ice (
To the Extreme) and
3rd Bass (
The Cactus Album) had had some popular success and/or critical acceptance from the hip hop community,
Detroit-native
Eminem's success, beginning in
1999 with the triple platinum
The Slim Shady LP, came as a surprise to many. Like most successful hip hop artists of the time, Eminem came to be criticized for alleged glorification of violence, misogyny, and drug abuse, as well as homophobia and albums laced with constant profanity.
In South Africa, pioneering crew
Black Noise began rapping in
1989, provoking a ban by the
apartheid-era government, which lasted until
1993. Later, the country produced its own distinctive style in the
house fusion
kwela. Elsewhere in Africa, Senegalese mbalax fusions continued to grow in popularity, while Tanzanian
Bongo Flava crews like
X-Plastaz combined hip hop with
taarab,
filmi and other styles.
In Europe, hip hop was the domain of both ethnic nationals and immigrants.
Germany, for example, produced the well-known
Die Fantastischen Vier as well as several
Turkish performers like the controversial
Cartel. Similarly,
France has produced a number of native-born stars, such as
IAM and the
Breton crew
Manau, though the most famous French rapper is probably the Senegalese-born
MC Solaar. The
Netherlands' most famous rappers are The
Osdorp Posse, an all-white crew from Amsterdam, and
The Postmen, from
Cape Verde and
Suriname.
Italy found its own rappers, including
Jovanotti and
Articolo 31, grow nationally renowned, while the Polish scene began in earnest early in the decade with the rise of
PM Cool Lee. In
Romania,
B.U.G. Mafia came out of
Bucharest's
Pantelimon neighborhood, and their brand of gangsta rap underlines the parallels between life in Romania's Communist-era apartment blocks and in the housing projects of America's ghettos.
Israel's hip hop grew greatly in popularity at the end of the decade, with several stars emerging from both sides of the
Palestinian (
Tamer Nafer) and
Jewish (
Subliminal) divide; though some, like
Mook E., preached peace and tolerance, others expressed
nationalist and violent sentiments.
In Asia, mainstream stars rose to prominence in the
Philippines, led by
Michael V.,
Rap Asia,
MC Lara and
Lady Diane, and in Japan, where underground rappers had previously found a limited audience, and popular
teen idols brought a style called
J-rap to the top of the charts in the middle of the 90s.
Latinos had played an integral role in the early development of hip hop, and the style had spread to parts of Latin America, such as Cuba, early in its history. In
Mexico, popular hip hop began with the success of
Calo in the early 90s. Later in the decade, with Latin rap groups like
Cypress Hill on the American charts, Mexican rap rock groups, such as
Control Machete, rose to prominence in their native land. An annual Cuban hip hop concert held at
Alamar in
Havana helped to popularize Cuban hip hop, beginning in
1995. Hip hop grew steadily more popular in Cuba, due to official governmental support for musicians.
Main article: Alternative hip hop Though mainstream acceptance has been almost entirely limited to gangsta rap, isolated
alternative rap artists, with a socially aware and positive or optimistic tone, have achieved some success. In
1988 and
1989, albums like
De La Soul's
Three Feet High and Rising,
Gang Starr's
No More Mr. Nice Guy and the
Jungle Brothers'
Straight Out the Jungle are usually considered the first albums in this genre, with
jazz-based samples and intelligent lyrics (see
jazz rap) strongly influenced by the
Afrocentric messages of Bambaataa's
Zulu Nation collective. Later alternative artists, many of whom were members of the
Native Tongues Posse, including
Tribe Called Quest (
The Low End Theory),
Mos Def (
Black on Both Sides) and
The Roots (
Things Fall Apart), also achieved some mainstream success, though the influence of jazz grew less pronounced (with some exceptions, most notably
Guru's
Jazzmatazz project). Jazz rap went on to influence the development of
trip hop in the
United Kingdom, which fused hip hop, jazz and electronic music; it is said to have been started by
Massive Attack's
Blue Lines (
1991).
In the year
2000,
The Marshall Mathers LP by
Eminem sold over nine million copies in the United States, and
Nelly's debut LP,
Country Grammar, sold over six million copies. In the next several years, a wave of increasingly pop-oriented R&B crossover acts, like
Ja Rule and
Destiny's Child, dominated American popular music. It was not until the sudden breakthrough success of the hard-edged
50 Cent that hardcore hip hop returned to the pop charts. The United States also saw the rise of alternative hip hop in the form of moderately popular performers like
The Roots,
Dilated Peoples and
Mos Def, who achieved unheard-of success for their field.
Some countries, like Tanzania, maintained popular acts of their own in the early 2000s, though many others produced few homegrown stars, instead following American trends.
Scandinavian, especially Danish and Swedish, performers became well known outside of their country, while hip hop continued its spread into new lands, including
Russia,
Egypt and
China.
Hip hop music is a part of
hip hop, a cultural movement that includes the activities of breakdancing and graffiti art, as well as associated
slang,
fashion and other elements. The popularity of music has helped to popularize hip hop culture, both in the United States and, to a lesser degree, abroad.
Hip hop fashion includes the wearing of baggy jeans, slung low around the waist, gold or platinum chains and boots; these elements are more typical of men than women. In addition, there are and have been more transitory fads associated with hip hop, such as rolling up one leg of one's pants, jogging suits and sweatshirts. Though hip hop fashion was associated almost exclusively with African Americans in urban areas in the 1970s and 80s, it has since spread to mainstream listeners throughout the world.
Especially since the turn of the century, many hip hop songs have focused on the "
bling bling" cliche, which is a focus on expensive jewelry, cars and clothing. Though some rappers, mostly or entirely gangsta rappers, unapologetically pursue and celebrate bling bling, others, many in the field of
alternative hip hop, have expressly criticized the idealized pursuit of bling bling as
materialistic.
Hip hop slang includes words like
yo,
flow and
phat. There are also words like
homie which predate hip hop but are often associated with it because of the close connection between recorded hip hop and the dialect used by many performers,
African American Vernacular English. Sometimes, terms like
what the dilly, yo are popularized by a single song (in this case, "What the Dilly, Yo" by
Busta Rhymes) and are only used briefly. Of special importance is the rule-based slang of
Snoop Dogg, who adds
-izz to the middle of words so that
shit becomes
shizznit (the addition of the
n occurs occasionally as well). This practice, with origins in
Frankie Smith's non-sensical language from his
1982 single "Double Dutch Bus," has spread to even non-hip hop fans, who may be unaware of its derivation.
Aside from hip hop's great popularity, the genre has had an impact on most varieties of
popular music. There are performers that combine either hip hop beats or rapping with
rock and roll,
heavy metal,
punk rock,
merengue,
salsa,
cumbia,
funk,
jazz,
house,
taarab,
reggae,
highlife,
mbalax and
soul.
Teen pop singers and
boy bands like the
Backstreet Boys,
NSYNC,
Christina Aguilera and
Britney Spears utilize hip hop beats in many of their most popular singles.
Hip hop has had an especially close relationship with soul music since the early 1990s. Indeed, today there is little recorded soul that does not feature some element of hip hop. This fusion, called
nu soul, can be traced back to the late 1980s
New Jack Swing groups, though it did not reach its modern form until the rise of performers like
Mary J. Blige. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the hip hop influence grew more prominent in singers like
D'Angelo,
Lauryn Hill,
Jill Scott and
Alicia Keys.
Various fusions with rock and derivatives (i.e. heavy metal and punk) have been growing in popularity since the early 80s. At the time, popular acts like
Run-D.M.C. used both
hard rock and hip hop, especially in their genre-crossing, unprecedented smash hit "
Walk This Way", performed with
Aerosmith. Other performers, like
Ice-T and his band
Body Count used hip hop, punk rock and metal, though the first bands to combine metal with hip hop are said to be
Anthrax and
Pantera. By the end of the 90s, metal/hip hop grew both more popular and more derided by fans of both genres, with the rise of bands like
Linkin Park and
Limp Bizkit, who were called
nu metal.
In Latin America, rapping was already known in the 1980s, in the form of
toasting, a part of Jamaican
ragga music. Rapped lyrics were already a part of
soca music, for example. The growth of hip hop in the area, however, led to more pronounced fusions like
reggaeton and
timba. Similarly, in Africa, rapping-like vocals (such as Senegalese
tassou) were already a part of popular music, and hip hop was easily adapted to popular styles like
taarab and
mbalax.
Hip hop has probably encountered more problems with censorship than any other form of popular music in recent years, due to the use of sexually and violently explicit lyrics. The pervasive use of
curse words in many songs has created challenges in the broadcast of such material both on television stations such as
MTV, in
music video form, and on radio. As a result, many hip hop recordings are broadcast in censored form, with offending language blanked out of the soundtrack (though usually leaving the backing music intact). The result – which quite often renders the remaining lyrics unintelligible – has become almost as widely identified with the genre as any other aspect of the music, and has been parodied in films such as
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, in which a character – performing in a parody of a rap music video – performs an entire verse that is blanked out.
Hip hop has hundreds of major international magazines devoted to it, most famously including
The Source and
Vibe. In its early years,
BET was almost the only television channel likely to play any hip hop music; now, several mainstream channels such as
VH1 and
MTV may play more hip hop music than any other style. Many individual cities have produced their own local hip hop newsletters, while hip hop magazines with national distribution are found in a few other countries.
Culture:
Breakdance -
Graffiti -
Fashion -
Dance People:
Rappers -
DJs and Producers -
Groups -
Beatboxers History:
Roots -
Old School -
Golden Age -
New School -
2007 in hip hop Genres:
Abstract -
Alternative -
Bounce -
Chopped & Screwed -
Christian -
Conscious -
Country -
Crunk -
Dirty -
Dirty South -
Electro -
Emo -
Freestyle -
Gangsta -
G-funk -
Ghettotech -
Glitch hop -
Hardcore -
Hip hop soul -
Hip house -
Horrorcore -
Hyphy -
Instrumental -
Jazz -
Latin -
Mafioso -
Merenrap -
Miami bass -
Mobb -
Neo soul -
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New jack swing -
Political -
Pop -
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Reggaetón -
Snap -
Urban Pasifika World hip hop:
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Asian -
European -
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American -
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Australian -
Azerbaijani -
Bahraini -
Belgian -
Bosnian and Herzegovinan -
Botswana -
Brazilian -
British -
Bulgarian -
Canadian -
Cape Verdean -
Chinese (
Hong Kong) -
Congolese -
Cuban -
Czech -
Danish -
Dominican -
Dutch -
Egyptian -
Filipino -
Finnish -
French -
Gambian -
German -
Ghanaian -
Greek -
Greenlandic -
Guinean -
Hungarian -
Icelandic -
Indian -
Indonesian -
Iranian -
Irish -
Israeli -
Italian -
Ivoirian -
Japanese -
Kenyan -
Korean -
Macedonian -
Malagasy -
Malaysian -
Malian -
Mexican -
Moroccan -
Native American -
Nepalese -
New Zealand -
Nigerian -
Norwegian -
Polish -
Portuguese -
Romanian -
Russian -
Rwandan -
Salvadoran -
Senegalese -
Serbian -
Slovak -
Slovenian -
South African -
Spanish -
Swedish -
Swiss -
Taiwanese -
Tanzanian -
Togolese -
Turkish -
Ugandan -
Ukrainian -
Zimbabwean The Vibe History of Hip Hop. 1999.
Vibe magazine.
ISBN 0609805037 Hip Hop America. Nelson, George. Penguin Book. 2000.
ISBN 0140280227 David Toop (1984/1991).
Rap Attack II: African Rap To Global Hip Hop. New York. New York: Serpent's Tail.
ISBN 1852422432.
McLeod, Kembrew. Interview with
Chuck D and
Hank Shocklee. 2002.
Stay Free Magazine.
Yes Yes Y'All: Oral History of Hip Hop's First Decade. Fricke, Jim and Charlie Ahearn (eds).
Experience Music Project. Perseus Books Group.
ISBN 0306811847 Corvino, Daniel and Shawn Livernoche.
A Brief History of Rhyme and Bass: Growing Up With Hip Hop. Lightning Source Inc.
ISBN 1401028519 Chang, Jeff. "
Can't Stop, Won't Stop".
Rose, Tricia (1994). "Black Noise". Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press.
ISBN 0-8195-6275-0 Light, Alan (ed). (1999).
The VIBE History of Hip-Hop. New York: Three Rivers Press.
ISBN 0-609-80503-7 George, Nelson (2000, rev. 2005).
Hip-Hop America. New York: Penguin Books.
ISBN 0-14-028022-7 Toop, David (1984, rev. 1991).
Rap Attack II: African Rap To Global Hip Hop. New York. New York: Serpent's Tail.
ISBN 1-85242-243-2 .
Fricke, Jim and Ahearn, Charlie (eds). (2002).
Yes Yes Y'All: The Experience Music Project Oral History of Hip Hop's First Decade. New York: Da Capo Press.
ISBN 0-306-81184-7 Corvino, Daniel and Livernoche, Shawn (2000).
A Brief History of Rhyme and Bass: Growing Up With Hip Hop. Tinicum, PA: Xlibris Corporation/The Lightning Source, Inc.
ISBN 1-4010-2851-9 Kitwana, Bakar (2004). The State of Hip-Hop Generation: how hip-hop's culture movement is evolving into political power. Retrieved
December 4,
2006. From Ohio Link Database
"In the Heart of Freedom, In Chains": 2007 City Journal article on Hip Hop and Black America Olivo, W. (March 2001). "Phat Lines: Spelling Conventions in Rap Music". Written Language & Literacy 4 (1): 67–85. McLeod, Kembrew. Interview with
Chuck D and
Hank Shocklee. 2002.
Stay Free Magazine, issue 20. Retrieved from
http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/20/public_enemy.html on
July 9,
2006.
Footnotes
Transitional ministry
Continuing scandal
accurate to nearly six decimal places.
Plimpton 322