| Electro hop | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | Hip hop, electro, electronic dance music |
| Cultural origins | 1980s, US West Coast |
| Typical instruments | Synthesizer, Drum machine, Vocoder, Sampler |
| Mainstream popularity | 1980s, very large with a recent revival in the late first decade of the 21st century and 2010's especially in the United States. |
| Derivative forms | Freestyle rap |
Electro hop (sometimes called electronic hip hop, electro rap, electronic rap or robot hip hop) is the fusion of electro, electroclash, electropop, electronica, or electronic dance music with hip hop. The music usually has dancing in mind, however some forms of the music are electronica. The electro hop movement came about after the underground electro movement on the East Coast gained popularity with artists such as Mantronix, Man Parrish, Jonzun Crew, Newcleus, Planet Patrol etc. The electro sound was pioneered by Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1980,[1][2][3] and further developed by Kraftwerk and Universal Zulu Nation leader and hip hop godfather Afrika Bambaataa. This style of hip hop began with an underground fanbase based primarily in Southern California; however, today electro hop artists can be found across the United States.
Electro hop music typically features harsher synthesizer sounds than other styles of hip hop, often utilizing heavily distorted lead and bass sounds, as well as "bleep"-ing square leads and abrasive digital brass effects. Drum sequencing is typically more minimal than other genres, and frequently has characteristic segments where the kick drum stops or is shortened and a march-style snare pattern prevails for 2 or more bars before returning to a typical kick drum-dominated hip hop beat.
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The electro hop movement began and remained prominent during the 1980s. It slowly faded from mainstream throughout the 1990s. Alonzo Williams was one of the early DJs on the West Coast and many consider him the godfather of West Coast hip hop. He helped usher in the electro hop scene. His Eve After Dark nightclub was important to the future of west coast hip hop and was pivotal in creating the careers of Dr. Dre and DJ Yella along with a lot of other west coast hip hop talent getting noticed. The nightclub is also famous for being the place where Eazy-E met experienced rock manager Jerry Heller who was interested in the underground electro hop movement who in that period managed World Class Wreckin Cru, Egyptian Lover and a few others. The meeting of Jerry Heller and Eazy-E which led to their partnership and the formation of Ruthless Records and the rise of gangsta rap.
The acts who represented electro hop were artists such as Egyptian Lover, LA Dream Team, World Class Wreckin Cru, The Unknown DJ and even some of Ice-T’s early records before he fully glorified gangsta rap the hip hop genre that would become the main trademark of West Coast rap. Other artists who represented the electro hop scene included Chris "The Glove" Taylor, Uncle Jamm's Army and Ice Cube, when he was in the group C.I.A..
All artists typically blended a fusion of electronic music popularised by electronic pioneers Kraftwerk as well as using elements of the electro scene that was dominated by their East Coast counterparts using some elements of old school hip hop typically party-jam based lyrics along with some love-ballad influenced sounds with more emphasis on a heavy bass sound than their East Coast and Southern counterparts particularly used by the more popular electro hop acts of that 1984-1986 period World Class Wreckin Cru.
The World Class Wreckin Cru’s most well-known and best selling song Turn Off The Lights was a slow-moving electro ballad that would do reasonably well on the mainstream charts and helped electro hop gain some moderate, if brief, mainstream success. This was produced by Dre and Yella before they left the World Class Wreckin Cru over money disputes.
By the late 1980s the electro hop movement went into decline as a controversial new hip hop genre was developing on the West Coast: gangsta rap. This was pioneered by Ice-T and popularized by controversial and influential group N.W.A. Although artists such as Arabian Prince who at one time was a founding member of the N.W.A and Alonzo Williams the founder of the World Class Wreckin Cru released a solo album Phases In Life after Dr. Dre and DJ Yella left the World Class Wreckin Cru to join NWA were still bringing out electro hop music. The Unknown DJ like Dr Dre and Yella would embrace the gangsta rap genre producing for gangsta rap artists such as Compton's Most Wanted, The D.O.C, J.J. Fad, Above The Law and would reinvent hip hop and change the landscape of hip hop forever.
However, the sound/music production of some early N.W.A material particularly for their first album N.W.A And The Posse were very the roots of the World Class Wreckin Cru with the electro hop/dance/club based sound. The early N.W.A had less of the stripped down, raw sound that the group were known for. Their landmark album Straight Outta Compton is where they rejected the electro hop sound with the exception of the song Something 2 Dance 2 on the Straight Outta Compton album. Arabian Prince an early member of N.W.A who performed on N.W.A and The Posse and Straight Outta Compton would leave the group and continue his electro hop roots on solo albums with limited success.
Even though the electro hop sound went into decline, the sound became influential in the development of G-Funk and various other hip hop genres. It is also influential to many hip hop producers including The Neptunes. Artists such as Egyptian Lover still perform music today and continue their cult legacy.
Originally, hip hop evolved as a more advanced version of disco music (just as disco was a more 'technologically' advanced version of jazz and funk), incorporating spoken rhymes as the main vocals (otherwise known as MCing). After the collapse of disco, hip hop slowly progressed as more of a vocal form of music, very popular amongst R&B and jazz listeners. This led on to hip hop music adopting R&B vocals and vice versa, within the same track of music, hence a new style of (relatively 'underground') music formed called 'Contemporary R&B'. As soon as the new style of R&B incorporated the more beat-based, almost 'robotic' vocal style of 'rap', R&B listeners saw this as more of a clubby, seemingly futuristic edge to the older style.
R&B and post-disco club DJs and (eventually) artists saw this reportedly 'robotic' and 'futuristic' style, blending synthpop, disco, psychedelic and space rock elements with contemporary R&B, paving the way (later) for more newer styles, such as eurodance, drawing in on the earlier space disco and italo disco sound. These fusions of R&B with disco-rock started to occur around about the same time Kraftwerk started to use breakbeat emulation in their music, their style was known as electrofunk. Hip hop artists (such as Afrika Bambaataa) started to blend instrumental hip hop instrumentation and rap vocals with electrofunk. That style is what became known as 'electro hop'.
Contemporary R&B was later incorporated into a fusion of electrofunk, pop and synthpop. This style became known as electropop, and recently has adopted electronic-styled rap (in other words, 'electro hop') vocals.[4] Electronic dance music in general has been noted for its use of robotic rap and soulful vocals. As this is so, both hip hop and contemporary R&B music have been the biggest influence, vocally, on EDM, and vice versa (hence the electronica and EDM sounds introduced into 'electro hop'. Therefore, it can easily be said that electro hop is the genre that connects modern hip hop to EDM.
Contemporary R&B and the house genre UK garage often crossover with electro hop, both being influenced by hip house and many kinds of rave music. Later adopting the sounds of synthpunk and gangsta rap, to generate its subgenre, grime music. Similarly, dubstep and drum n bass has adopted rap and contemporary R&B vocals and musical conventions, mimicking the development and sounds of electro hop, hip house, bassline, psychedelic rock, breakbeat hardcore and acid house.
"Eve After Dark" was a nightclub formed in 1979 which gave electro hop exposure[5]. However probably the most important thing to give the west coast hip hop exposure not just for electro hop but beyond would be K-Day the first hip hop radio station to play total non-stop hip hop 24/7 ran by influential DJ Greg Mack. K-Day not only gave electro hop exposure it also helped to get exposure for a lot of early gangsta-rap records and was influential in getting gangsta-rap off the ground as no other radio station would touch gangsta rap due to its lyrical content and seemingly violent nature. K-Day and Greg Mack helped to launch Eazy-E's career as Boyz N The Hood suddenly rose from an underground hit in Compton to increase of record sales due to the consistent record playing of the single on K-Day which help reach to a wider audience. Films such as Breakin' and Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo also helped to give the genre greater exposure to the mainstream audience.