Overview of the history of hip hop
Overview of the History of Hip-Hop
The word hip-hop is credited to rapper Space Cowboy in the 1970’s. To consider hip-hop's birth, something people would agree happened in the streets of the South Bronx neighbourhood of New York, you first have to look at the paths of several musical styles and genres.
Hip-hop's roots can be found in a variety of African-influenced musical styles. (African-American gospel, folk, blues, jazz and R&B, together with Afro-Caribbean styles. calypso, salsa, soca, ska and reggae).
The story of why hip hop was born in the South Bronx neighbourhood of New York is quite a complicated one. However this is a very brief history goes something like this…
Slaves transported from West African Countries to North America brought with them various oral and musical traditions. West African religious drumming and storytelling (griotism) through poetry and music began to go beyond the church and into music. These traditions became integral to the use of music as a form of resistance and rebellion. This music became the jazz, blues and folk music of the southern United States. Bebop and, eventually, doo-wop music hit the airways. American jazz, blues and R&B all made their way to the Caribbean during World War 2, when American soldiers were stationed in Jamaica.
In Jamaica traditional reggae music began to undergo changes. Versioning (similar to sampling in hip-hop) is when an artist takes a sample from someone else's song and inserting parts of it into their own new song. Disc jockeys (DJs) with large, portable sound systems would set up temporary discos in rented buildings or out in the streets. The market for these roaming dance clubs was fiercely competitive. DJs started devising ways to one-up their rivals; one common practice was toasting. Toasting is either improvised or scripted talking when a song is playing. The commentary often involved insulting rival DJs.
This practice eventually led to two new types of reggae music: talk over and dub. Talk-over tracks were recordings of DJs toasting a particular tune. Dubs were even more modified songs which included talk-over and sound effects. Dubs were usually mostly instrumental with some song lyrics and talk-over commentary.
So how does all of this lead to hip-hop? The answer is in the history of a young Jamaican emigrant named Clive Campbell. In 1967, 13-year-old Campbell moved from Jamaica to the West Bronx neighbourhood of New York. He brought with him knowledge of the mobile discos, toasting DJs, and talk-over and dub records of his birthplace. That knowledge combined with a powerful sound system helped Campbell - a.k.a. Kool Herc - lay the foundation of the hip-hop movement.
In 1973 DJ Kool Herc DJed his first party in the South Bronx. The South Bronx was a poor neighbourhood of New York. The construction of the Cross Bronx Expressway isolated the neighbourhood and created a bleak and deteriorating environment. The black youth who lived in the Bronx began to make their surroundings more positive and beautiful. They spray-painted and danced on cardboard they laid on the ground. As Hip-hop parties became more popular they became a positive alternative to gang violence.
Kool Herc, who became known as the father of hip-hop, formed the basis of hip-hop music by experimenting with instrumental breaks of funk, soul, and R&B songs. Later hip-hop pioneers such as Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, and Grandmaster Caz started DJing at parties across the Bronx.
Hip-hop pioneers Afrika Bambaataa and Kool Herc
Afrika Bambaataa was a reformed gang member who changed his name after a life-changing trip to Africa. His efforts to transform the South Bronx community—shows how the emergence of hip-hop is connected to identity, race, and place. Bambaataa also formed the Universal Zulu Nation, a hip-hop awareness group that organized cultural events for youth. The group was an alternative to gang activity for many young people. Over time, the Zulu Nation spread internationally as a hip-hop awareness movement guided by certain spiritual principles. Bambaataa defined the four elements of the hip-hop culture:
DJing – The art of spinning records (touching and moving records with your hands) at a dance party. Cutting (using volume control to drop in a section of music from different turntables) and scratching (moving the record under the needle in time with the music) are popular DJing techniques.
Breakdancing – A style of dancing that includes gymnastic moves, head spins, and backspins. Young people who were into this style of dancing called themselves B-boys and B-girls, and their style of dancing came to be known as breakdancing.
Graffiti – Visual art, an expression of youth culture and rebellion in public spaces. The first forms of subway graffiti were tags, or signatures of someone’s nickname or crew (group of artists that work together). It has evolved into elaborate scripts, colour effects, and shading.
MCing – MC’s (master of ceremonies) originally hosted parties and introduced tracks to the dancing audience. Eventually the term was used to describe rappers. Rapping is the art of saying rhymes to the beat of music. It comes out of the African-American oral tradition of using rhyming language to make fun of your friends or enemies in a clever way. Rapping also has roots in Jamaica. In the early 1970s, this developed into street jive, a type of half-spoken, half-sung urban street talk.
Later Bambaataa (who is now known as The Godfather of Hip-Hop) added the fifth element which he considered to be the most important - hip hop activism “knowledge of self and community”.
In 1979 The Sugar Hill Gang recorded the first popular commercial rap recording - Rapper’s Delight. This song was many Americans’ first brush with hip-hop.
By the 1980s the hip-hop scene had expanded and become more main stream in America. Two important songs were released in 1982 Bambaata single “Planet Rock” which explored unity across cultures similar to the unity he had created across gangs and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's ‘The Message’ which dealt with the daily struggle of life in the ghettos.
Cable and satellite television played an important role in spreading hip-hop music. Kurtis Blow, Grandmaster Flash, Public Enemy, and NWA released albums. The films Wild Style and Style Wars were released. Def Jam Recordings was established. Run-DMC’s release of its version of Aerosmith’s - Walk This Way and the group’s nomination for a Grammy helped to make hip- hop more mainstream. MTV and the radio started to have rap-specific programming. Hip-hop began to gain popularity outside of the US especially in Japan.
By the 1980’s women also had a place in the hip-hop world. The most popular artists were Wendy Clark and Queen Latifah.
At the end of 1980s hip-hop started getting some negative press. Politicians and media personalities painted a picture of commercial hip-hop as music that taught immoral values.
During the 1990s gangsta rap, a type of rap that describes life in inner-city neighbourhoods became commercially popular in America.
Gangsta rap caused a great deal of controversy, with accusations of spreading homophobia, violence, profanity, promiscuity, misogyny, racism, and materialism.
Gangsta rappers usually claimed that they are describing the reality of inner-city life and that they were like an actor playing a role that may not necessarily reflect a life that they promote. Gone were the party anthems that promoted dance battles. Even though many people criticized it, young people could identify with its themes of anger, rebellion against authority, and apathy. Gangsta rap ushered in a raw perspective on what was happening on America’s streets. Spike Lee, in his satirical film Bamboozled, criticized the gangsta rap and compared it to black minstrel shows, in which performers – both black and white – were made up to look African American and acted in a stereotypically uncultured and ignorant manner for the entertainment of white audiences. Since then, former gangsta rap artists like Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and Snoop Dog have promoted peace on the streets and have moved toward a more pop-friendly mainstream sound.
Rap became increasingly commercialised as companies linked up their products with popular rap music and made big profits. Corporate hip-hop dominated the airwaves and was aimed at the young white consumers.
Just as rock, pop and soul evolved, hip-hop continued to reflect the changing lives and audiences it spoke to through the 90s. While hip hop still talked of the griminess of the streets, those lyrics are countered by a manifesto of ‘the good life.’ For many of today’s rappers, gone were the days of public housing and public assistance.
They now pop champagne, wear iced out jewellery, drive fully-loaded SUV’s, and spend evenings with multiple Victoria Secret models that would never have given them the time of day before they got rich and famous. While hip-hop music now appeals to a wider range of people, media critics argue that socially and politically conscious hip-hop had long been ignored by mainstream America in favour of more commercialized gangsta rap and bling bling culture.
Some hip-hop fans saw the commercialisation as selling out and compromising hip-hop’s original message. This led to the development of underground hip hop movements; the internet became important in its spread and popularity. Many artists who attempt to reflect what they believe to be the original elements of the culture were considered to be underground hip-hop artists. Their lyrics try to emphasize messages of unity and activism instead of violence, material wealth, and misogyny.
The decade saw the rise of local hip-hop across the globe and a move away from American hip-hop.
By 2000 hip-hop had become a global phenomenon in both mass culture and underground culture. Hip- hop of the new millennium, post 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2011 has reshaped the nature of race, politics and global war. The divide between American and non-American rappers became unimportant.
The events of 2011 particularly the Arab Spring have shown how powerful a voice hip-hop has globally and its contribution to radical change and reform.
‘If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music’
Jimi Hendrix
Hip-hop became and has continued to be part of youth culture. It is a powerful example of human creativity that a group of deprived kids managed to create an entire culture and art-form with the limited resources they had.
