Professor Griff & the Security of the 1st World (security/minister of information
Bomb Squad (production crew)
Fight the Power (1989)
World View
how individuals in a culture receive and interact with their philosophy of the world.
What is music?
What is art?
Black Musical Aesthetic Features
the layering of unusual sound qualities, textures, varying tonal qualities or timbres
rhythmic structures: poly-textured and polyrhythmic sounds
Vocals take on percussive style
Call-n-response (antiphony)
“Fill-up” limited musical space with a lot of sound
Embodiment. Relationship between music and dance.
The cumulative result is a poly-textured sound that satisfies the “heterogeneous sound ideal” (Olly Wilson 1983)
“Bring the Noise” by Public Enemy is a good example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvy7MWjfVPE
Black Music in the Mainstream
Pop music of the 40s: Jazz -> Swing
Pop music of the 50s: R&B ->Rock-n-Roll
Pop music of the 60s: Soul ->Funk -> Rock
Pop music of the 70s: Funk -> Disco
Pop music of the 80-90s: Rap Music
2000-present: pop music blends rap, R&B, Djing/hiphop production all together; i.e. Rap music -> “hip hop”
Scat
it means poop
vocal technique that imitates instrumental parts through use of vocables (syllables without meaning)
Cab Calloway – “Minnie the Moocher”
precursor to beatboxing
Beatboxing
Imitate the drum machine with mouth
Doug E Fresh (feat. Slick Rick) “The Show” (1985)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDkqz5C62SM
Rap (evolution of the term)
(OED 1699): trans. and intr. Verb To exchange, barter, swap.
Slang: To converse (exchange ideas)
Slang/Genre: A way of talking (style); a rhythmic chanting often in unison of usually rhymed couplets
also is influenced by rythm and blues monologues
Lou Rawls “Dead End Street” (1967)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7540y6PTV8
Isaac Hayes “By the Time I Get To Phoenix” (1969)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bbdJSW3pvM
1960s-1970s Black Nationalist Poets
Gil Scott-Heron “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” (1970/1972)
Sonia Sanchez “So this is Our Revolution” (1971)
Black Arts Movement
Late 1956-1975
Jazz musicians, poets, playwrites, comedians,…
Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones), Sonia Sanchez, Gil Scott-Heron, the last poets,…
Brooklyn Boheme
Mid 1980s-1994
Jazz musicians, directors, poets, playwrites, hip hop artists, comedians, hard rock artists,…
Branford Marsalis, Spike Lee, Rosie Perez, Kevin Powell, Chris Rock, Saul Williams, Toure, Nelson George
Grafitti in the mid 80s
Graffiti shifts into the Downtown Galleries in the early 1980s. Fad is short lived.
$42 million Anti-Graffiti Campaign
1980: >95% subways covered with graffiti, inside & out
1984: 86% of the 5,956 cars are graffiti-free
New School
1985-1989
Move away from commercialization
Further separating of the 4 aspects
popular via Music Video medium (not live performances)
Suburban Rap
De La Soul “Potholes in My Lawn” (1988)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lNS07IrYVw
DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince “Parents Just Don’t Understand” (1988)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW3PFC86UNI
type of novelty rap
Rap Ballad
Rap love songs type of novelty rap
LL Cool J “I Need Love” (1987) Known for being tough and hard
Nayobe “Please Don’t Go” (1984) is in LL Cool J’s music vid for “I can’t live without my radio”
Rock Steady Crew
“Hey You It’s the Rock Steady Crew” (1985)
Latino b-boys cut and album
Went to #1 on the U.K. Pop charts.
Fat boys
Latino crossover rappers
Mark Morales a.k.a. “Prince Markie Dee” Puerto Rican rapper whose ethnicity = non-issue
Damon Wimbley a.k.a. “Kool Rock-Ski”
Darren Robinson a.k.a. “Buff Love” a.k.a. “The Human Beat Box”
“Let’s Get Funky” (1985) ; “Jail House Rap” (1984)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMbzyJ5Bt-8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IEtpBK5dsU
Latinos cross-over Rap: West Coast bound (ca. 1984)
Caribbean Latinos: NY Spinmasters Hen G ; Evil E (Brooklyn, Honduras),Prince Whipper Whip (Bronx,P.R.)
African Americans: Afrika Islam (Bronx), Ice-T (L.A.)
Mexican Latinos: Kid Frost (L.A.)
all came to become Rhyme Syndicate (rap collective and later became a label)
Freestyle (not rap)
a Latin brand of hip hop music
This song (with debate) established the soundscape of Freestyle
Nayobe Cubana from Brooklyn/Bronx
“Please Don’t Go” (1984)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yAJa5fz2SI
an electronic dance music from NYC (then Miami…) in the mid-80s produced by Latin@ artists. Sound is electronic drum & bass heavy and lyrics revolve around teen-love/loss. 1984-1992
Cover Girls “Show Me” (1986)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eomxwZcrvlY
Sal Abbattielo
Club owner of the Disco Fever 1976-198 (Hip Hop showcase)
Produces Nayobe “Please Don’t Go” and other hits.
Established Fever Records in 1982 w/ Lewis Marintee (Miami)
Womanist Styles/Feminist themes
Dissin’ // Answer-rap// Response-rap
U.T.F.O vs Roxanne Shante, The Real Roxanne
1985: “Show” Doug E Fresh
“Show Stopper” Super Nature (a.k.a. Salt-n-Pepa)
Salt-n-Pepa “Push It” (1986)
MC Lyte “Paper Thin” (1988)
MC Lyte “10% Diss” (1988)
Queen Latifa
Both feminist themes and Afrocentric themes
“Ladies First” (1989)
Afro-centric
Sisterhood
Black Power
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLB5bUNAesc
Flashdance
1983 film introduces mainstream America to breakin’
B-boyin’ or Breakin’ becomes a formalized tradition interpreted by dance companies and videographers as BREAKDANCING
Adolfo Quinones
Chicago-rican moved to Los Angeles in the early 70s.
At 17, became Shabba-Doo in 1972.
Joined the Lockers in 1973
A forefather of hip-hop dancing
“Breakin’ and “Breakin’ 2 Electric Boogaloo” (1984)
First Music Video to use Breakers
GLADYS KNIGHT & THE PIPS “SAVE THE OVERTIME FOR ME” (1983)
NOT a Rap Song
Featuring the New York City Breakers
Genre
a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content
Rap music
a musical genre that makes use of rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular atop a beat.
Run DMC “Rock Box” (1984)
Sample drums, Voice Doubling and Echo effect, turntable cuts from a DJ
features hip hop dancing
HIP HOP DANCE
Avant garde (jazz/modern) by way of Bebop
Broadway Chorus dancers
Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” (1983)
Run DMC “Rock Box” (1984)
ROCK-RAP fusion
Run DMC
“Rock Box” (1984)
“Walk this Way” (1986)
Crossover to mainstream
Beastie Boys
“She’s On It” (1985)
“Fight for Your Right to Party” (1986)
Electro Rap
Electro-Funkier than Old School not as hard as New School
transitional
I.E. Bambaataa’s “brand” of hip hop would linger into the New School