Popular Culture in Rap Music

The success the N.W.A group artists consists of avoiding being taking advantage of by managers who do it because artists know less about paperwork, transactions and which type of business to do at the right point of time. O’shea Ice Cube Jackson got into a financial dispute between him and the N.W.A manager, Jerry Heller. The dispute was settled in-court in 1990. After the fact, Cube continued a successful solo career. After that the N.W.A continued working on the same path, despite of the obstacles by being criticized by politicians, Ban of sales from few retailers because it was the purest form “Gangsta Rap” full of violence, misogyny, but also a lot of humor, and pathos. Politicians spent amounts of energy to stop it from being something, it was simply wild. The politicians might take the side that says this specific type of music influence young African Americans to do crimes and do what gangs do as described in the songs yet, the beauty of it is that it’s purely honest, and making Compton visible on the world

A raw expression of urban hip hop culture, rap quickly became the sound of African-American anger, rebellion, cultural style, and experience. Anticipated by the ground-breaking work of the West Coast-based Watts Prophets and New York area Gil Scott Heron (whom I worked for at my senior experience internship at TVT Records) and the Last Poets in the early 1970s, the current configuration of rap emerged out of Sugar Hill Gang's 1979 "Rapper's Delight" and Grandmaster Flash's 1982 hit "The Message." Hip hop culture began developing its style and sound in New York party scenes in the Bronx, Brooklyn and other ghetto areas in the late 1970s. By the 1980s, a whole cycle of New York-based hip hop and rap artists emerged to public attention, including Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, Run DMC, Eric B and Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-ONE, Tone Loc, Salt 'n'

One of the most popular Hip-Hop groups is Run D.M.C, however; “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five. The 80s formed the roots of Hip-Hop occasionally having bad

This results from descendance of rappers from Griots. Griots were keepers of knowledge, including tribal history, and news of birth, death, and war. Many griots spread knowledge through spoken words just like hip hop rappers (Blanchard). Rappers create songs that spread news of their daily lives, dreams, and childhoods. They are viewed as the voice of the poor and urban African American youth who are misrepresented by the media. Rap is more than just saying words on a hip hop beat, it allows rappers to speak for their community and voice concerns. Rap was well known in African-American communities, but became prominent in 1979 with the song “Rapper’s Delight” by Sugarhill Gang. Within weeks, rap began topping the music charts which ultimately led to it gaining the name “new genre of pop music.” The first group to bring rap to a mainstream audience, MTV, was Run D.M.C. Run D.M.C was a trio of middle-class African Americans who came together in the early-1980s. They mixed rap with hard rock, shaping a new style of hip hop known as “New School Hip Hop.” New School Hip Hop was also pioneered by Def Jam which was a rising record label for rappers and DJ’s. Def Jam introduced many artist such as LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, and Public Enemy. The Beastie Boys broadened rap’s audience, becoming one of rap's first all white male band, On the other hand, Public Enemy invested rap with radical black political ideology

Beastie Boys, now seen as a forefront in the gentrification of Hip Hop, were at first an anomaly. Being an all white group in a predominantly African-American industry was not a walk in the park at first, but once they showed their ability to rap; no one seemed to doubt that they truly belonged in the Hip

Hip-Hop is not only for men but is also for women. “Women have also played a role in the shaping of rap music. Rap artists such as Queen Latifah and the group Salt-N-Pepa represent a growing number of female rappers who speak for the advancement of black women in American society. Queen Latifah has emerged as a critic of male dominance in the music industry and sexist images of women presented by some male rap artists.” (“Rap”) “Queen Latifah became the first solo female rapper to receive mainstream radio play. Salt-N-Pepa became the first female rap group to go platinum and they paved the way for female artists such as Cardi B, Nicki Minaj and group TLC.” “However, rap music did not reach a broad audience until 1980 when the Sugar Hill Gang's song "Rapper's Delight" received widespread radio play. As rap groups assembled during the decade, they began to use their art to describe the harsh realities of inner city life. Unlike early rap music, which was generally upbeat and exuberant in tone, the rap style of the 1980s displayed a strong racial and political awareness. Toward the end of the decade, rap came to express an increasing sense of racial militancy.” (“Rap”) Rap wasn’t really popular until Sugar Hill Gang became popular with their Rapper’s Delight. Rap groups such as N.W.A. started

Hip-hop culture began to develop in the south Bronx area of New York City during the 1970s. It had a significant influence in the music industry. Hip-hop music generally includes rapping, but other elements such as sampling and beatboxing also play important roles. Rapping, as a key part in the hip-hop music, takes different forms, which including signifying, dozen, toast and jazz poetry. Initially, hip-hop music was a voice of people living in low-income areas, reflecting social, economic and political phenomenon in their life [1]. As time moves on, hip-hop music reached its “golden age”, where it became a mainstream music, featuring diversity, quality, innovation and influence [2]. Gangsta rap, one of the most significant innovations in

Wu-tang Clan Forever brought a chilling and iconic rap that solidified Aubrey Graham’s perfection of blending rap and hip-hop. “What made me think about the game, girl and how I switched it up with a new thing Young nigga came through on his Wu-Tang”. The sampled used in this song was Jeremy Rose Zodiac, where they broke down the piano loop and introduced the loop as a transition in the

New York duo Run DMC also used hooks in their songs but added hard-rock guitar to create a popular style called rap rock, and their 1986 album Raising Hell became hip hop's first top-ten album. When punk rock group Beastie Boys began shouting raps instead of singing, their style also became very popular and their debut album Licensed To Ill became hip hop's first number-one

Rap and hip-hop music has grown from an underexposed form of expression into a way for people of all backgrounds to shed light on their lives through rhythm and poetry. One of the most intelligent, artistic rap groups of the 1990’s was a Tribe Called Quest. A Tribe Called Quest perfected the hip-hop alternative to hardcore and gangster rap, abandoning the old style rap music to focus on abstract message tracks. Formed in 1988 by Q-tip (Kamaal Ibn John Fareed) and Phife Dawg (Malik Izaak Taylor), A Tribe Called Quest was unraveling the road for success. The group is known for being the pioneers of alternative hip-hop music, having helped to pave the way for many innovative artists.

As previously mentioned, Black Hippy was originally the idea of ScHoolboy Q after he officially joined the label in 2009. In his words, “[Black Hippy] was actually my idea because I was slacking in my music. I figured if I could be in a group I could just write one verse and I could be good.” Because he was the last of the groups’ members to join Top Dawg Entertainment and had been rapping for the least amount of time, Q was initially very intimidated being in the studio with the rest of the group. They all see each other as their closest and most important competition, and spending countless hours together in recording studios armed with T.D.E.’s five core values (charisma, substance, lyrics, uniqueness, and work ethic) allowed them to play

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.

One of them was group member Lopes, who came up with the rap for this song. Others are members of Organized Noize. Organized Noize is an Atlanta-based preeminent production company made up of Rico Wade, Ray Murray, Sleepy Brown. They were active from 1990s to 2000s. They wrote contemporary R&B and rap, and their popular songs are like “Waterfalls”, “Can’t Let Go” and “Saturday”. Organized Noize worked primarily behind scenes, elevating other artists to success with impressive frequency (Jason). Although their output were slowing over the years, their early work were very influential in

Although the Sugarhill Gang introduced hip-hop to the mainstream with their 1979 platinum-selling hit single "Rapper's Delight", the group was just a cash in on a supposed novelty item.

Throughout history, music has been used to express the feelings of people or groups whom may have no other outlet to express themselves. The best example of this occurrence would be the lower class of America’s use of rap music. Rap music started out as a fun variation of disco with the purpose to make people dance and enjoy themselves, but it later transformed into one of the best outlets to express the struggles of poverty in the United States. The genre gained popularity when the song “Rapper 's Delight” hit the charts in the early eighties; rap evolved into a plethora of different styles from there, Gangster Rap formed with NWA in the late eighties, and rap really hit it’s zenith in the mid nineties. Modern rap began in the early starts of the twentieth century. Because of the storytelling that rappers do in the music, it gained notice in the inner city where the demographic could relate. Many young teen in the inner city environment built dream to be famous rappers just like their own favorite artists . Rap connects to me by its style, its purpose, and its political incorrectness.