Diversification of hip hop music

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Though women, whites and Latinos had long been a part of the hip hop scene, it was not until the 1980s that groups other than young African American males began creating popular, innovative and distinctive styles of hip hop music.

The first rap recording by a solo female was Philadelphia-based Lady B.'s "To the Beat, Y'All" (1980), while The Sequence were the first female group to record. It was, not, however, until Salt-N-Pepa in the middle of the decade that female performers gained mainstream success.

The first groups to mix hip hop and heavy metal included 1984's "Rock Box" (Run-D.M.C.) and "Rock Hard" (Beastie Boys). Later in the decade, Ice-T and Anthrax were among the most innovative mixers of thrash metal and hip hop. These fusions helped move hip hop into new audiences, and introduced it to legions of new fans in the States and abroad.

[edit] Further spread within the US

By the end of the 1970s, hip hop was known in almost every major city in the country, and had developed into numerous regional styles and variations. Outside of New York City, New Jersey and Philadelphia, where hip hop had long been well-established, the 1980s saw intense regional diversification.

Miami may've been the first region outside of NYC to give Hip-Hop a shot. Xanadu & Sweet Lady recorded a female cover version of Rapper's Delight in late 1979 on the Opa Locka based Joe Gibbs Music label, and Xanadu followed this up in early 1980 with an original Hip-Hop track "Sure Shot". Joe Gibbs later began an offshoot label entitled Dubwise Records which released Electro records produced by Michael Sterling and Eugene Cooper in 1984. However, a year prior, Pretty Tony Butler and his moniker Freestyle released "Summer Delight", marking the first major movement of Electro not to come from the New York area. Miami's Electro scene morphed into the Miami bass Hip-Hop sub-genre by late 1985, a form of sultry and sexually explicit dance music.

The first Chicago hip hop record was the "Groovy Ghost Show" by Casper, released in 1980 and a distinctively Chicago sound began by 1982, with Caution and Plee Fresh. Chicago also saw the development of house music (a form of electronic dance music) in the early 1980s and this soon mixed with hip hop and began featuring rappers—this is called hip house—and gained some national popularity in the late 1980s and early '90s, though similar fusions from South Africa, Belgium and elsewhere became just as well-known into the '90s.

Los Angeles hardcore rappers (Ice-T) and electro hop artists (Egyptian Lover) began recording by 1983, though the first recorded West Coast rap was Disco Daddy and Captain Rapp's "Gigolo Rapp" in 1981. In Washington D.C. a hip hop-influenced form of dance music called go go emerged and incorporated rapping and DJing.

[edit] Diversification of styles

OutKast - Aquemini

In the wake of declining sales following the deaths of both superstar artists, the sounds of hip hop were greatly diversified. Most important was the rise of Southern rap, starting with OutKast (Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik) and Goodie Mob (Soul Food), based out of Atlanta. The sound, highly influenced by Miami bass and G-Funk, is heavily marked by a "bouncing" rhythm known as the Southern bounce. Platinum selling artist Master P built up an impressive roster of popular artists (the No Limit posse) based out of New Orleans incorporating G funk and Miami bass influences. The Cash Money crew, also out of the Big Easy popularized a uniquely Louisianian melodic style of M.C.ing to the mainstream. Regional sounds from St. Louis, Chicago, Washington D.C., Detroit (ghettotech) and others began to gain some popularity. Also developing in the South was the genre known as crunk, which achieved success in the hands of artists like Lil' Jon & the East Side Boyz & Three 6 Mafia. Also in the 1990s, rapcore (a fusion of hip hop and heavy metal) became popular among mainstream audiences. Rage Against the Machine, Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit were among the most popular rapcore bands.

In 2000, Nelly (Country Grammar) of the St. Lunatics out of St. Louis led a revolution of Midwestern acknowledgement in hip hop, though the region has yet to have yielded a unified sound or trend in any way. Cities such as Chicago and Detroit tend to draw more influence from the East Coast, while St. Louis and Cincinnati appear, and sound more Southern.

Though white rappers like the Beastie Boys (Paul's Boutique), Vanilla Ice (To the Extreme) and 3rd Bass (The Cactus Album) had had some popular success and/or critical acceptance from the hip hop community, the success of Dr. Dre's new protégé, a Caucasian rapper from Detroit named Eminem, was a surprise to many; his 1999 The Slim Shady LP went triple platinum. Like most successful hip hop artists of the time, Eminem came to be criticized for alleged glorification of violence, misogyny, and drug abuse, as well as homophobia and albums laced with constant profanity. However, he continued to sell and break records with his release of The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show. He became the biggest rapper in the world, selling 1.7 million copies of his second CD in only one week and launched the careers of his group D12 and his protege 50 Cent, who essentially brought back gangsta rap into the mainstream.

The United Kingdom has also pioneered a new style of Hiphop music called grime. It has much more rapid rhythms and faster beats, being a much more underground and low budget style of music. It originates from the East End of London, Europe's most deprived community.

Hip hop/Rap