Hip Hop Music: A Brief History
To truly find the roots of modern hip hop one must first delve far into the ancient history of Africa. Hip Hop is essentially words being sung or spoken in a rhythmic fashion in syncopation with the beat of background music. It is not entirely unlike what one would have found in ancient and modern West Africa, where at almost all celebrations, and ceremonies, oral histories and tales are traditionally spoken or sung to the beat of many drums. This African tradition has influenced many genres of music, including jazz and soul, which in turn have also had an influence on modern Hip Hop.
Most would agree that the birth of modern hip hop occurred in the 1970’s in New York City. DJ’s at block parties in the Bronx began doing creative new things with music like isolating beats, and scratching records, mixing up random rhythmic tidbits of modern music to create a whole new sound. Eventually people started using this unique new sound as a background for rhyming words along with the beat and Rap music, a sub-genre of Hip Hop was born. Many of the lyrics used in rap, in the past, and today were an outlet for disenfranchised, and often poor, youth of African and Latin descent to rail at the unfairness and inequality of modern society.
From the late 1970’s to the mid 1980’s Hip Hop continued to grow and evolve. The first Hip Hop recording occurred in 1979 though fans of the genre differ in opinion on whether it can be attributed to The Sugarhill Gang with “Rapper’s Delight” or The Fatback Band with “King Tim III (Personality Jock). It hit its peak, or Golden Age, from the mid 80’s to the mid 90’s. This was a time of much innovation and growth in the genre. Most of what we hear in modern Hip Hop originated in this time period with artists like Dr. Dre, Ice T, and Salt-n-Pepa amongst many others. There were many rivalries during this time period between West Coast and East coast rappers, some that still continue today.
Hip Hop is still popular today, although it has branched off into a variety of categories. Gangster Rap is s widely popular with artists like 50 cent and Snoop Dog. Alternative Artists like Outkast, Kanye West, and The Flobots are consistently redefining the Genre. Over time even the face of Hip Hop is changing with the success of artists like Eminem, and Insane Clown Posse, as they don’t fit into the original mold of disenfranchised African American and Latino youth. Hip Hop is now a diverse and creative culture embraced by people of all walks of life.
