HIP HOP AND RAP

1
HIP HOP AND RAP
2
WHAT IS HIP HOP?

• Hip hop is a musical genre that was developed
  alongside the similarly named subculture that
  sprung into popularity from the early 70s.
• It is oftentimes defined by key stylistic
  elements such as rapping or MCing, DJing,
  sampling, scratching and beatboxing.

3
WHERE DID IT ALL START?

• The roots of hip hop are found African music. The
  griots of West Africa are a group of traveling
  singers and poets who are part of an oral
  tradition dating back hundreds of years. Their
  vocal style is similar to that of rappers. The
  African-American traditions of signifyin', the
  dozens, and jazz poetry are all descended from
  the griots culture.
• Within New York City, griot-like performances of
  poetry and music by artists such as Gil Scott
  Heron and Jalal Mansur Nuriddin had a significant
  impact on the post-civil rights era culture of
  the 60s and 70s giving African-American poets and
  artists more political exposure and thus more
  creative freedom.
• The actual conception of Hip hop arose during the
  1970s when block parties became increasingly
  popular in New York, especially in the Bronx.
  Block parties incorporated DJs who played popular
  genres of music, especially funk and soul. DJs,
  realizing its positive reception, began isolating
  the percussion breaks of popular songs.
• This technique was then common in Jamaican dub
  music and had spread to New York City via the
  substantial Jamaican immigrant community, who in
  turn were descendants of Africans. This form of
  chopping and mixing music would later form the
  foundation for sampling (a very common musical
  element in Hip hop).

4
PIONEERING ARTISTS OF HIP HOP
Nas
Mobb Deep
50 Cent, Eminem and Dr. Dre
MADVILLAIN
Blu
Lupe Fiasco
5
PIONEERING ARTISTS OF HIP HOP

• Many may ask what exactly constitutes a pioneer
  of the hip hop genre.
• In hip hop rather than actually creating a
  convention/ innovation that becomes famous, a hip
  hop pioneer is someone that exerts great
  influence over listeners through their music and
  beliefs.
• With artists like Tupac, Nas and The Fugees hip
  hop became more than gangster activity and
  racism. Hip hop began to seep into politics and
  thus garner more of a sophisticated audience also
  positively educating the youth.
• This helped develop and mature the hip hop genre
  and thus rappers like these are pioneers.
• That isnt to say rappers such as Mobb Deep and
  Wu-Tang Clan who pioneered the gangster sub-genre
  by bringing it down from the mafia glorification
  to the gritty and gutter reality it really is
  shouldnt be noted.

6
WHO LISTENS TO HIP HOP?

• We often assume that the genre of hip hop and
  ultimately all urban music is aimed predominately
  at those of african-carribean descent.
• Whilst this is true in the sense that the
  majority of musicians in the urban music industry
  are black and the topics and themed covered
  concern the black community, this does not mean
  that urban music is exclusively for those of the
  black race.
• Over the years, hip hops drastic branching off,
  mainstream recognition and bleeding into many
  other industries such as fashion and film, has
  led to hip hop being more appealing to anybody of
  any culture and any age.

7
WHAT ARE THE SUBGENRES OF HIP HOP?
Freestyle
Horrocore
Gangsta Rap
G-funk
Conscious Hip Hop
Christian Hip Hop
Instrumental
HIP HOP
Chicano Rap
Alternative
Mafioso
Traditional/ Hardcore Rap
Nerdcore
Turntablism
Political
8
HOW DOES THE PUBLIC PERCEIVE HIP HOP?

• It doesnt take a genius or a keen disciple of
  hip hop to know that hip hop traditional hip hop
  is negatively perceived by the public.
• On the musical side of things, a lot of hip hop
  critics disregard hip hop as proper music and a
  form of expression.
• In addition to this the use and glorification of
  profanities, money, violence, crime racism, anger
  towards politicians and governments and
  discrimination towards females has also led to a
  negative view of hip hop.

9
WHAT RECORD LABELS DEAL WITH HIP HOP?
10
WHAT MAGAZINES COVER THE HIP HOP CULTURE?

• There are a plethora of music magazines that
  particularly cover the genre and culture of hip
  hop.
• Most of these magazines tend to have a
  circulation of about 500,000 to 1.5 million and
  tend to be released on a weekly/ monthly basis.
• In addition to this, hip hop magazines mainly
  feature interviews from notable and up and coming
  figures in the industry, coverage of the latest
  events within the urban culture and reviews of
  the latest albums.
• The generally young target audience means that
  these magazines tend to be bought off the shelf
  in most cases rather than subscribed to.

11
WHAT OTHER MEDIA TYPES COVER THE HIP HOP CULTURE?

• There are a few TV shows specifically dedicated
  to popular urban music rather than sole hip hop
  coverage. These include 106Park and T4.
• Likewise there are a huge wave of radio stations,
  internet pages, music channels and other elements
  that within the media that subtly cover hip hop
  but is not exclusive to hip hop alone.

12
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR HIP HOP?

• Well in 2006, Nas claimed that with the decline
  in traditional, meaningful and hardcore rap and
  with the increase in commercialised music that
  the genre and culture of hip hop was dead.
• Whilst not entirely dead in the sense that some
  of this music still retains, it is true that the
  charts are now dominated with more mainstream
  music.
• On the other hand, upcoming artists such as
  Mickey Factz, Blu, Cory Gunz and Charles Hamilton
  has shown that the youth within hip hop has took
  a returning turn towards more conscious rap.