Since first emerging in the South Bronx, Hip-hop culture has spread around the world. When hip-hop music first began to emerge, it was based around disc jockeys who created rhythmic beats by looping breaks (small portions of songs emphasizing a percussive pattern) on two turntables, which is now more commonly referred to as sampling. This was later accompanied by "rap", identified as the rhythmic style of chanting or poetry more formally in 16 bar measures or time frames and beatboxing, a vocal technique mainly used to imitate percussive elements of the music and various technical effects of hip-hop DJ's. An original form of dancing and particular styles of dress arose among lovers of this new music. These elements experienced considerable refinement and development over the course of the history of the culture.
The relationship between graffiti and hip hop culture arises from the appearance of new and increasingly elaborate and pervasive forms of the practice in areas where other elements of hip hop were evolving as art forms, with a heavy overlap between those who wrote graffiti and those who practiced other elements of the culture.
Etymology :
The word "hip" was used as African American Vernacular English (AAVE) as early as 1898, meaning current or in the know, and "hop" refers to the hopping movement.
Keith "Cowboy" Wiggins, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five has been credited with coining the term hip hop in 1978 while teasing a friend who had just joined the US Army, by scat singing the words "hip/hop/hip/hop" in a way that mimicked the rhythmic cadence of marching soldiers. Cowboy later worked the "hip hop" cadence into a part of his stage performance.The group frequently performed with disco artists who would refer to this new type of MC/DJ-produced music by calling them "those hip-hoppers". The name was originally meant as a sign of disrespect, but soon came to identify this new music and culture.
The opening of the song "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang, in addition to the verse on Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's own "Superrappin'", were both released in 1979. Lovebug Starski, a Bronx DJ who put out a single called "The Positive Life" in 1981, and DJ Hollywood then began using the term when referring to this new disco rap music. Hip hop pioneer and South Bronx community leader Afrika Bambaataa also credits Lovebug Starski as the first to use the term "Hip Hop," as it relates to the culture. Bambaataa, former leader of the Black Spades gang also did much to further popularize the term.
Part of HIP HOP :
Turntablism refers to the extended boundaries and techniques of normal DJing innovated by hip hop. One of the few first hip hop DJ's was Kool DJ Herc, who created hip hop through the isolation of "breaks" (the parts of albums that focused solely on the beat). In addition to developing Herc's techniques, DJs Grandmaster Flowers, Grandmaster Flash, Grand Wizard Theodore, and Grandmaster Caz made further innovations with the introduction of scratching.
Rapping
Rapping (also known as emceeing,MCing, spitting (bars), or just rhyming) refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics with a strong rhythmic accompaniment". The art form can be broken down into different components, such as “content”, “flow” (rhythm and rhyme), and “delivery”.Rapping is distinct from spoken word poetry in that is it performed in time to the beat of the music. The use of the word "rap" to describe quick and slangy speech or repartee long predates the musical form.
In America around the late 1960s, graffiti was used as a form of expression by political activists, and also by gangs such as the Savage Skulls, La Familia, and Savage Nomads to mark territory. Towards the end of the 1960s, the signatures—tags—of Philadelphia graffiti writers Top Cat, Cool Earl and Cornbread started to appear. Around 1970–71, the centre of graffiti innovation moved to New York City where writers following in the wake of TAKI 183 and Tracy 168 would add their street number to their nickname, "bomb" a train with their work, and let the subway take it—and their fame, if it was impressive, or simply pervasive, enough—"all city". Bubble lettering held sway initially among writers from the Bronx, though the elaborate Brooklyn style Tracy 168 dubbed "wildstyle" would come to define the art. The early trendsetters were joined in the 70s by artists like Dondi, Futura 2000, Daze, Blade, Lee, Zephyr, Rammellzee, Crash, Kel, NOC 167 and Lady Pink.
Breaking, also called B-boying or breakdancing, is a dynamic style of dance which developed as part of the hip hop culture.In the early 1930s a man named Earl Tucker invented a type of break dance move called Snakehips. To perform Snakehips one would have to move the hips in a fashion that it would be made to look like the person had no skeleton. In an article written by Kennedy Center Earl Tucker earned the nickname “Human Boa Constrictor”. Breaking began to take form in the South Bronx alongside the other elements of hip hop. The "B" in B-boy stands for break, as in break-boy (or girl). The term "B-boy" originated from the dancers at DJ Kool Herc's parties, who saved their best dance moves for the break section of the song, getting in front of the audience to dance in a distinctive, frenetic style. A popular move is called the Headspin a move in which a person holds their entire body weight on their head. And using only the head to propel the whole body around in circles.
New school Hip Hop
The new school of hip hop was a second wave of recorded hip hop music starting 1983–84 with the early records of Run-D.M.C and LL Cool J. Like the hip hop preceding it, it came predominately from New York City. The new school was initially characterized in form by drum machine-led minimalism, sometimes tinged with elements of rock. It was notable for taunts and boasts about rapping, and socio-political commentary, both delivered in an aggressive, self-assertive style. In image as in song its artists projected a tough, cool, street b-boy attitude. These elements contrasted sharply with the funk and disco influenced outfits, novelty hits, live bands, synthesizers and party rhymes of artists prevalent in 1984, and rendered them old school. New school artists made shorter songs that could more easily gain radio play, and more cohesive LPs than their old school counterparts. By 1986 their releases began to establish the hip hop album as a fixture of the mainstream. Rap and hip hop became commercially successful, as exemplified by The Beastie Boys' 1986 album Licensed to Ill, which was the first rap album to hit #1 on the Billboard charts.
Gangsta rap is a subgenre of hip hop that reflects the violent lifestyles of inner-city American black youths. Gangsta is a non-rhotic pronunciation of the word gangster. The genre was pioneered in the mid 1980s by rappers such as Schooly D and Ice T, and was popularized in the later part of the 1980s by groups like N.W.A. Ice-T released "6 in the Mornin'", which is often regarded as the first gangsta rap song, in 1986. After the national attention that Ice-T and N.W.A created in the late 1980s and early 1990s, gangsta rap became the most commercially lucrative subgenre of hip hop.
West Coast hip hop
After N.W.A broke up, Dr. Dre (a former member) released The Chronic in 1992, which peaked at #1 on the R&B/hip hop chart,#3 on the pop chart and spawned a #2 pop single with "Nuthin' but a "G" Thang." The Chronic took West Coast rap in a new direction, influenced strongly by P funk artists, melding sleazy funk 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 Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg, whose Doggystyle included the songs "What's My Name" and "Gin and Juice," both top ten hits.Detached from this scene were more thoughtful artists such as Freestyle Fellowship, The Pharcyde as well as more underground artists such as the Solesides collective (DJ Shadow and Blackalicious amongst others) Jurassic 5, People Under the Stairs, The Alkaholiks, and earlier Souls of Mischief represented a return to hip-hops roots of sampling and well planned rhymeschemes.
East Coast hip hop
Artists such as Masta Ace (particularly for Slaughtahouse) & Brand Nubian, Public Enemy, Organized Konfusion had a more overtly militant pose, both in sound and manner. Biz Markie, the "clown prince of hip hop", was causing himself and all other hip-hop producers a problem with his appropriation of the Gilbert O'Sullivan song "Alone again, naturally".
In the mid-1990s, artists such as the Wu-Tang Clan, Nas and The Notorious B.I.G. increased New York's visibility at a time when hip hop was mostly dominated by West Coast artists. The mid to late 1990s saw a generation of rappers such as the members of D.I.T.C. such as the late Big L and Big Pun who would prove very lucrative.
Tupac Shakur - 2Pac
In addition to his status as the second top-selling rap artist, behind Eminem, he was a promising actor and a social activist. Most of Shakur's songs are about growing up amid violence and hardship in ghettos, racism, problems in the society and conflicts with other rappers. Shakur was initially a roadie and backup dancer for the alternative hip hop group Digital Underground.
He was later convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to one-and-a-half to four-and-a-half years in prison.
In September 1996, Shakur was shot in the Las Vegas metropolitan area of Nevada. He was taken to the University Medical Center, where he died of respiratory failure and cardiac arrest 6 days later
The Notorious B.I.G
Raised in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, Wallace grew up during the peak years of the 1980s United States crack epidemic and started dealing drugs at an early age. When Wallace released his debut album Ready to Die in 1994, he was a central figure in the East Coast hip hop scene and increased New York's visibility at a time when West Coast artists were more common in the mainstream.The following year, Wallace led his childhood friends to chart success through his protégé group, Junior M.A.F.I.A.. While recording his second album, Wallace was heavily involved in the East Coast–West Coast hip hop feud, dominating the scene at the time.
On March 9, 1997, Wallace was killed by an unknown assailant in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles. His double-disc set Life After Death, released 15 days later, hit #1 on the U.S. album charts and was certified Diamond in 2000 (one of only 3 hip hop albums to receive this certification). Wallace was noted for his "loose, easy flow", dark semi-autobiographical lyrics and storytelling abilities. Since his death, a further two albums have been released. MTV ranked him at #3 on their list of The Greatest MCs of All Time. He has sold 17 million albums in the United States
Popular hip hop artists during the 2000s included:
