Survey of Hip Hop midterm

Declared themselves as “New School” and “Hardcore”

Tougher than old school, more “street”

Agressive delivery and being “hard”

DJ is big again

Joseph Simmons (Run)

Darryl McDaniels (DMC)

Jason Mizell (Jam Master Jay)

tough

streetwise

intense

often menacing

1987ish

lyrical subject matter

the hard, driving beats

the noisy sampling and production

Hard rock inspired

Afrocentric

5% Nation

Nationalist (Conscious rap, Nation-conscious Rap)

Chuck D (rapper) also made logo

Flavor Flav (hype man)

DJ Terminator X

Professor Griff & the Security of the 1st World (security/minister of information

Bomb Squad (production crew)

Fight the Power (1989)

how individuals in a culture receive and interact with their philosophy of the world.

What is music?

What is art?

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.

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” 

it means poop

vocal technique that imitates instrumental parts through use of vocables (syllables without meaning)

Cab Calloway – “Minnie the Moocher”

precursor to beatboxing

(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

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

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

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)

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”

“Hey You It’s the Rock Steady Crew” (1985)

Latino b-boys cut and album

Went to #1 on the U.K. Pop charts.

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” 

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)

 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)

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)

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)

Both feminist themes and Afrocentric themes

“Ladies First” (1989)

Afro-centric

Sisterhood

Black Power

1983 film introduces mainstream America to breakin’

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)

GLADYS KNIGHT & THE PIPS “SAVE THE OVERTIME FOR ME” (1983)

NOT a Rap Song

Featuring the New York City Breakers

Run DMC “Rock Box” (1984)

Sample drums, Voice Doubling and Echo effect, turntable cuts from a DJ

features hip hop dancing

Avant garde (jazz/modern) by way of Bebop

Broadway Chorus dancers

Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” (1983)

Run DMC “Rock Box” (1984)

Run DMC

“Rock Box” (1984)

“Walk this Way” (1986)

Crossover to mainstream

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

Whodini “Freaks Come out at Night” (1984)

World Class Wreckin’ Cru “Surgery” (1984)