The History of Hip-Hop - Essay Example

A Tipping Point "Hip-Hop is the voice of the generation. Even if you don't grow up in the Bronx in the 70's, hip-hop is there for you. It has become a powerful force. Hip-hop binds all of these people, all of the nationalities, all over the world together." -DJ Kool Herc. To begin from the very beginning, the music that is known to us today as hip-hop was called disco rap in the ancient times. It was a fellow named Keith Cowboy, a rapper with the band Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five that coined the famous term "Hip-hop". The term "hip-hop" was used for the first time in print by Steven Hagar, an author in his work the Village Voice in the year 1984. But this does not imply that the Keith Cowboy was the true pioneer of hip-hop music and culture, but on the contrary, hip-hop was there even before Cowboy was born, only then it was known by a different name. (Rhodes H.A., n.d.) History of Hip-Hop To trace the history of hip-hop, one will need to go about four decades back to the 1970's, to the city of Bronx, where in the block parties an expansive stereo was thrown in and a person would start speaking out his lyrics in the tempo with the music of the loud stereo. After one person finished with his lyrics another one would start with his words trying to better the first one. In this way there would a kind of war of words or lyrics in tempo with the music produced from the loud stereo. And the result of these kinds of duel was the birth of "rap", the integral part of hip-hop music. The reasons for the birth of this kind of music and culture are rather complex. Maybe it was the dire need to express themselves that led the Black Americans to give birth to this new kind of music. Through the raps, the Black Americans were able to make their feelings felt to the world. Another reason that gave rise to hip-hop is that the cost involved in getting started was pretty low one just required a loud stereo and anyone could stand up and rap along with the beats produced from the stereo. And one must not forget the hip-hop rose from the "ghettos" the slum areas where majority of the Black Americans resided. In the early stages of hip-hop the rapper or the MC would just go on about pairing nonsensical rhyming words, making a clown of their friends and enemies with their witty words, hence taking the shape of folk music. It was later, that the rappers started incorporating serious issues into their lyrics. (History, n.d.) DJ Kool Herc the Pioneer of Hip-Hop The Jamaican born Clive Campbell who later famously came to be known as Kool Herc or DJ Kool Herc can be said to be the 'godfather 'of hip-hop music. He was born in Jamaica on April 16th 1955 and was a Jamaican DJ by profession. The credit for making hip-hop music what it is today goes to DJ Kool Herc. He was the one to experiment with the segregation of the instrumental part of a record and give more emphasis to the drumbeat or the "break". He used two turn tables, a set up used by the DJs and the same record in each of the turn tables hence elongating the break of the beat. This method of breaking the beat of the hard funk and rock records and mixing them with Latin percussion then formed and still forms the basis of hip-hop music. Later Kool Herc used dancers to dance in tune to his prolongated breaks and guess what, there were break-dancer. Kool Herc influenced many other greats of hip-hop including the Afrika Bambaataa and Joseph Saddler a.k.a. Grandmaster Flash who later started DJ-ing in Kool's fashion. It was due to Kool's impact that Bambaataa a notorious general one timer of the Black Spades gang in Bronx converted himself and his followers into the non-violent group of Zulu Nation. Of this transition period Steven Hagar writes, "For over five years the Bronx had lived in constant terror of street gangs. Suddenly, in 1975, they disappeared almost as quickly as they had arrived. This happened because something better came along to replace the gangs. That something was eventually called hip-hop." (Terp L., October 2006) A Glance of Hip-Hop through the 80's, the 90's and the new Millennia The 80's saw a dramatic change in the hip-hop scenario. The hip-hop of the 70's got more complex as it developed more. The development of hip-hop genre ran parallel to the advancement in technology, and technology was evolving by leaps and bounds. With the emergence of more sophisticated sequencers and samplers one could manipulate the beats and the breaks with greater care. One could experiment with the beats and the breaks more, hence inventing new variations and sound effects. It was during this decade that hip-hop musicians slowly began to pour into mainstream music scenario and be considered as mainstream pop performers. Kuris Blow and LL Cool J were among the few who were able to make to the mainstream. It was during the late 80's that hip-hop slowly began to make itself felt on a global scale. The 90's saw more development to hip-hop, though it was marred by the bad blood between the hip-hop artists of the West Coast and the East Coast. (McLaren, J., November 2007) The 90's was the time when "gangsta rap" became the order of the hip-hop music scene. The decade the rise and fall of two of the greatest hip-hop artist to have graced the earth, viz. Tupac Shakur (the highest selling rapper ever) of the West Coast and Notorious B.I.G. of the East Coast. Both rose to fame at the same time and both fell victims to the gang wars that was very much prevalent between the two coasts then. The end of the decade and the millennium saw success of Marshall Mathers better known as Eminem with his controversial lyrics. By the end of the decade hip-hop became one of the most popular forms of music across the whole world. The turn of the century and the coming of the new Millennium saw Eminem rise to more greater heights and another hip-hop artist called Nelly come into the big picture with his debut album "Country Grammar". It also saw the success of alternative and heavy metal hip-hop. With time the old school hip-hop had made its transition to a kind of more rhythmic and melodious rap having some elements of other music genres like reggae, classical, jazz, pop and others. It also led to the birth of new subgenres like crunk and snap music. Post 2005 the world has witnessed a drastic fall in the sales of hip-hop music not only in America but globally. Experts say that the such a fall in the sales of hip-hop music is due to the fact that, "young people are fed up with the violence, degrading imagery and lyrics. Others say the music is just as popular as it ever was, but that fans have found other means to consume the music." So at present this the scenario of hip-hop music what will follow no one knows, so it's best to sit back and let time do its thing. (Tupac Shakur, n.d.) Bibliography: Kelley N., (2005), R&B (Rhythm and Business): The Political Economy of Black Music, Published by Akashic Books, ISBN 1888451688, 9781888451689. List of References: 1. History, (No Date), The College of New Jersey, retrieved January 15, 2009, from http://www.tcnj.edu/guarino3/history.htm 2. McLaren, J., (November 2007), Research in African Literatures, retrieved January 15, 2009, from http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/research_in_african_literatures/v038/38.3mclaren.html Rhodes H.A., (No Date), The Evolution of Rap Music in the United States, Yale University, retrieved January 15, 2009, from http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1993/4/93.04.04.x.html 3. Terp L., (October 2006), George Washington of Hip Hop: A biography of DJ Kool Herc, retrieved January 15, 2009, from http://www.tc.umn.edu/rivi0001/anthropology_of_hip-hop/PIONEERESSAYS/laurenterp.djkoolherc.htm Tupac Shakur, (No Date), Northern Illinois University, retrieved January 15, 2009, from http://www3.niu.edu/newsplace/nnshakur.html Read More