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Typically, Hip Hop music consists of one or more rappers speaking or chanting semi autobiographic tales, or coded information in an intensely rhythmic lyrical form, making abundant use of techniques like assonance, alliteration, and rhyme. Though rap may be performed a cappella, it is more common for the rapper(s) to be accompanied by a DJ or a live band providing an appropriate beat. The Popularity of Rap Music and the Hip Hop culture has increased immensely over the past 20 years. With its roots in the earliest forms of African influenced call and response vocalizing, Hip Hop and Rap utilizes the advanced technology of electronic sampling and sequencing and has become a leading force in the music industry.
Hip Hop and Rap music can be traced back to two sources: spoken lyrics (usually rhyming) and a Rhythm and Blues and Funk musical base. The reasons for the rise of Hip Hop are found in the changing urban culture within the United States during the 1970s. Perhaps most important was the low cost involved in getting started as the equipment was relatively inexpensive, and virtually anyone could "Rap" along with the popular beats of the day. One of the most prominent early examples of spoken word technique (in a call and response format) in a popular song is the chant "Hi-de-hi-de-hi-de-ho" from Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher" in 1931. While early Hip Hop arose through the decline of funk and disco while still employing their musicianship, there was rise of artists who employed the use of the turntable as an instrument in itself.
Hip-hop Turntablist DJs use turntable techniques such as beat mixing and matching, scratching, and beat juggling to create a base that can be rapped over. Turntablism is generally focused more on turntable technique and less on mixing. By the 1950s, early forms of Rock n' Roll and Do Wop utilized spoken word technique in sections of songs ("Little Darlin" written by Maurice Williams). Within the next few decades, popular songs such as "Alice's Restaurant" by Arlo Guthrie and "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" by The Charlie Daniels Band, not to mention countless Country songs, had lyrics primarily in spoken word format. In the 1970s, African American musicians coupled the spoken word format with the sounds of Funk to produce the earliest easily recognizable antecedents of Rap music.
Artists such as Lou Rawls, Barry White, James Brown, The Brothers Johnson, and Isaac Hayes helped define the earliest sounds of this musical style. In addition, Jamaican Djs in New York City began incorporating improvised rhymes over Reggae music and rhythms. By 1979, the style began to find a wider audience through its first recordings, most notably "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugar Hill Gang. At the close of the decade, drum machines such as the Linn Drum and slightly later the TR-808 appeared and helped create the first significant electronic grooves to accompany the Rap style. The success of MTV in the early 1980s exposed original forms of Rap to a worldwide audience through artists such as Grandmaster Flash, Blondie (with her top ten hit "Rapture," though she's not considered an essential Rap artist), and the immensely popular Run DMC.a
In late 1980s Rap culture began creating new styles of clothing, images, and dance ("Breakdancing") to accompany this rising new musical style. By the middle of the decade, the first forms of sampling appeared, a process incorporating a previously recorded piece of music into remixed form. The huge success of the collaboration between Run DMC and Aerosmith, with their revised version of "Walk This Way" in 1986, created the new path which Rap music would follow. The popularity of other sampled songs such as ""Wild Thing" by Tone Loc (borrowed from Van Halen's "Jamie's Cryin") and "Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer (borrowed from Rick James "Superfreak") produced Rap music's first superstars. Later sensations such as Public Enemy and LL Cool J helped elevate Rap to a dominant style in the music industry.
The popularity of Rap became so great that by the end of the decade MTV established a program dedicated solely to this style entitled "Yo MTV Raps." In the early years of the 1990s, as the Hip Hop culture expanded in popularity with Rap music as a primary component, the term Hip Hop began to replace the more traditional term Rap. By this time, the music had acquired a darker edge, incorporating more political, social, and angry (and sometimes misogynistic and scatological) lyrics. Ice T and NWA are among the prominent artists associated with the style of music commonly referred to as "Gangsta Rap." This tougher, more aggressive style continued to evolve through the 1990s with artists such as Snoop Doggy Dog, Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, and the successful recording label Death Row Records owned by Marion "Suge" Knight.
As live musicians began to accompany Hip Hop artists on stage and in the studio, the popularity of sampling and sequencing began to diminish. The latter part of the 1990s and the early 2000s produced drummers able to recreate the electronic rhythms and sounds of Hip Hop music on acoustic drums. Artists such as The Beastie Boys, Meshell Ndegeocello, and especially R&B singer D'Angelo often use live musicians, while drummers such as Zoro, John Blackman and most especially Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson (from The Roots) are receiving some recognition. As in other styles, it is important to play with a strong sense of time. A good suggestion is to utilize high pitched, small drums to reproduce the sound of programmed loops, samples or grooves.
As a result of the fusion between Rock and Funk grooves, the variations available in this genre are virtually endless. Consequently, there is no one standard Hip Hop and Rap rhythm or groove. However, there are common elements among all the variations. The following grooves accurately represent the more frequently played patterns in this style. Most importantly, each groove can be played with a straight or swung feel, though the swung feel has become more commonly employed. Typically, the tempo range is quarter note = sixty to one hundred and eight beats per minute for Standard Hip Hop, sixty to eighty beats per minute for slow feels, and one hundred thirty two to one hundred and seventy two for half time feels. |
