A Rhythmic History of Hip-Hop Essay

Hip Hop music had been around for about twenty years in the United Sates, but it was usually heard at block parties and discos where DJs would loop breakbeats and MCs would add live vocals.

Hip Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes is a documentary created and produced by Bryon Hurt. The documentary challenges the dominant discourses of hyper masculinity and the misogynist treatment of women in commercialized rap. Of the many mainstream phenomenons that are discussed by Bryon in the documentary, the issue of hyper masculinity in Hip Hop is questioned greatly. Throughout the film, the producer was able to show the wide acceptance of hyper masculinity not only in Hip Hop but also American culture as well. He defined America as a hyper masculine and hyper violent nation for the reason that using a gun to defend one’s family became a metaphor for masculinity and a tool for widespread violence. The issue of issue of hyper masculinity can be

As rap music spread throughout the urban community of New York, many people began to use it as a form of expression that offered unlimited boundaries. There were no set rules, except to be original and to rhyme to the beat of the music. One could rap about the issues pertaining to his or her life or something as simple as a day at school.

Rap is a genre in music that consists of rhyming or being poetic over a certain unique beat. The origin of rap is significantly different from any other form of music. The flow, change, subject of the music, and the instrumentals behind the rapping has all changed with time. Most people would underestimate the complexity of the music and the evolution it has undergone. The real roots of rap music began in the late 1980’s with the “Golden Age.” It was innovative and mostly based around the party scene. Gangsta Rap followed the Golden age and was very impactful on the young culture. After the Gangsta Rap era came the time in rap referred to as Crunk Rap which combined the country sound with the party lifestyle. Conscious

Hip Hop was birthed in the neighborhood, where young people gathered in parks, on playgrounds, and neighborhood street corners, to verbalize poetry over spontaneous sounds and adopted melodies. Hip Hop was not just the music; it was also a way for the young to show their skills in break dancing, gymnastic dance style that was valued, and athleticism over choreographed fluidity. Hip hop was also fashion such as: hats, jackets, gold chains, and name-brand sneakers. Hip Hop was a form of graffiti, to a new way of expression that engaged spray paint on the subway walls as the canvas. In addition, today’s hip hop have changed as where the DJ was once is now the producer as the key music maker, and the park is now a studio.

It covers a broad range of ideas, styling and techniques that are unique to specific demographic areas, geographic regions and territories and locales. The following comprises some of the hallmarks of early rap music: * Simple yet dominant percussive patterns * Limited reliance on traditional musical systems of chord, verse, chorus and other formal and/or traditional methods of Western musical structure * Non-traditional utilisation of musical instruments including

Hip-Hop is a complex cultural movement formed during the early 1970s by African Americans in the slums of South Bronx, New York (Dyson 6), it propagated outside of the African American community in late 1980s, and by the opening of the 21th century it became the most spread culture in the world. Hip-Hop consists of four elements: Deejay, Break-Dancing, Rapping, and Graffiti. (Kenon 112)

In order to understand hip-hop dance, it is important to recognize hip-hop music and where it came from. Many scholars of rap music relate the founding of rap to African and African American oral and musical traditions, specifically African griots and storytellers. They link the rhythm of rap to the use of drums in Africa and to African American music in the United States, from slave songs and spirituals to jazz and R&B. Scholars have found very interesting connections between rap music and Black nationalist traditions (traditions historically practiced by black people that serve as part of their racial identity). Rap is similar to the “call and response of the black church, the joy and pain of the blues, the jive talk and slang of the hipsters and jazz musicians, the boasting of street talk, the sidesplitting humor of comedians, and the articulateness of black activists.” All of these African American oral traditions, including rap, can be traced back to West African oral traditions. In traditional African societies, the spoken word and oral culture included poetry, storytelling, and speaking to drumbeats. The links between rap music and African American oral and musical traditions demonstrate that hip-hop music represents more than just sound. It represents history. This aspect of it, in my opinion, makes this type of music very unique and makes it carry more value.

Hip-Hop is a cultural movement that emerged from the dilapidated South Bronx, New York in the early 1970’s. The area’s mostly African American and Puerto Rican residents originated this uniquely American musical genre and culture that over the past four decades has developed into a global sensation impacting the formation of youth culture around the world. The South Bronx was a whirlpool of political, social, and economic upheaval in the years leading up to the inception of Hip-Hop. The early part of the 1970’s found many African American and Hispanic communities desperately seeking relief from the poverty, drug, and crime epidemics engulfing the gang dominated neighborhoods. Hip-Hop proved to be successful as both a creative outlet for

Jamaican DJ's (DJ Kool Herc has been credited as the first) mixed sounds from several turntables, devices that would become a rap trademark. Although mixing from large sounds systems began to be employed at New York house parties in the 1970s, it didn't really emerge as a recorded sound until the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" in 1979. While many critics and listeners shrugged the song aside as a fluke novelty hit, the early rap sound--usually composed of slangy, boastful spoken rhymes over basic bass and percussion grooves--continued to spread in the early '80s, due in large part to the efforts of the Sugarhill label itself. Grandmaster Flash's hard-hitting 1982 single, "The Message," really stands as rap's watershed mark, with a massive impact belied by its relatively modest peak on the pop charts. No longer could rap be ignored as a frivolous microgenre; here was straight up social commentary, reporting from the front lines of the ghetto with more immediacy than almost any newspaper or television broadcast.

Hip Hop music has always been tied to the music and sounds of the past. Sampling might be one of the most apparent nods to past legacies. Andrew Bartlett explored the concept of sampling in his “Airshafts, Loudspeakers and the Hip Hop Sample” article (Forman, 393). In his project, he highlighted authors that referred to sampling as “holding music at gunpoint” and a “mixing of colors” (393). Sampling is all of the above and a keystone in hip-hop. As an avid listener of the genre, many cadences and beats sound the same, and there is a reason why. Beside the stock sounds available to a majority of producers, particular sounds tend to be sampled more than others. One, if not the most, sampled sound in hip-hop is by a drummer on James Brown’s 1986

In the beginning, hip-hop music started off by a DJ sampling on a turntable. Sampling is isolating a beat from any type of song and reusing it in another song. Whether they were beats from old funk, soul, or R&B records the DJs were able to create a repeated sample of a drumbeat. They became known as break-beats. Guys

You’re standing in a crowd amongst thousands of fans at an Eminem concert, people from all over, shoulder to shoulder in a massive stadium, singing along every word of their favorite song for hours. People from all over are connected to each other through the power of music. When it comes to music, the life experiences, inspiration, and current events play a tremendously significant role. Hip hop is a form of art which can be expressed through rap songs, break-dancing, and graffiti art. The culture has become so popular that it has entered today’s fashion and modern language. Hip hop music is an extremely large part of today’s generation and a global genre, which influences the generation all over the world.

The chorus is very forte and it has quick volume increases by a synthesizer sounding instrument that accents the downbeats in the chorus. The use of the softness of the piano harmony complements this hardness perfectly in his three verses as you can hear it lingering in the back. The use of his fading in and out with the symbolic piano sound uses dynamics very effectively – especially his opening, which starts by only a unique piano melody creating that feeling of mystery, nostalgia, and adrenaline. Timbre plays a vital role in the layering of this track. The three main instruments come in at different times and add its own unique place in the song contributing to the overall mood of the song. First, it’s the light high pitched piano, which is unusual in a rap song. Then the dark low pitched guitar comes in when he starts asking the question and it’s soon followed by the heavy sounding drums as he starts to rap. The interesting use of timbre gives an acoustic and classical feel versus the drums and synthesizer of hip hop giving the song its diversity and originality.

Hip hop music developed from party DJ's mixing and remixing popular music that was already out. This music was usually from the funk, soul and disco genre. It began during the 1970's in the Bronx in New York City and very popular among African Americans. Spoken hip hop music is