In today's culture, Hip Hop music has become the norm. It can be heard everywhere from the suburbs to the urban ghetto. As a genre that is now considered so universal and unfortunately generic, it is easy to forget that Hip Hop has much deeper roots.
Furthermore, what is most forgotten is just how original hip hop was at its inception, a blending of American and West African beats that were often spontaneous and fluid, music for the people and of the moment.
What is Hip Hop Music?
Hip Hop is a musical style typically involving rhyming spoken-word vocals accompanied by heavy percussion and blues riffs. Often it explores issues of racism and segregation of the urban poor. It belongs to Hip Hop culture which sprang up in 1970s New York City This was primarily a response to the heavy influx of African American and Latin American immigrants who brought with them traditional West African and Caribbean music.
During a time when the block party was at the height of popularity in the Bronx, DJs began to isolate the percussion breaks of popular R&B and Funk songs. This made hip hop beats very appealing dance rhythms.
The Tradition of the Rap Emcee
The art of emceeing was derived from a variety of different musical traditions. On the American side, there was the age old African American tradition of signifyin', or blues-talking. There was also the much older West African tradition of griots, a mode of spoken word poetry dating back hundreds of years and very similar to modern rapping. Early griot-influenced artists like The Last Poets and Gil Scot Heron were very influential in New York City during the post civil rights era.
Early MCs used a simple four beat call and response chant to pump up block party crowds. These chants grew in complexity, becoming rhymes that often incorporated scatological humor and sexual innuendo for the entertainment of the crowd. The first artist to call himself a true MC was Melle Mel of The Furious Five.
Turntablism, Break Dancing and B-Boying
As the role of the MC grew in complexity, so too did the DJ's. Kool DJ Herc and Grand Master Flash pioneered the art of turntablism when they developed a method of creating reverberations on the record during the beat breaks of songs. By using the needle to 'scratch' the record, DJs were able to extend the beat's break indefinitely and thus make rhythms infinitely danceable, frenetic, and unique.
Break dancing or B-boying as it is more properly known, (break dancers are considered mercenaries, while B-boys are considered true adherents to Hip Hop culture) was practiced as early as the 19th century by Arab street performs who incorporated flips and acrobatics into their dance.
With the development of turntablism in Hip Hop music, break dancing became the perfect compliment to the genre. It added a fluid and original style to music that was already known for its originality and spontaneity. Often break dancing would be featured at block parties in the form of competition between groups of b-boys and b-girls.
Such popular and danceable music could not escape commercial success. With the release of Rapper's Delight by The Sugar Hill Gang in 1979, hip hop began its journey to the top of the charts and never looked back. By the mid 1990s what was once dance music of the Bronx had become dance music of the fraternity party and the tailgate.
Sources:
David Toop, Rap Attack 2: African Rap to Global Hip Hop. Serpent's Tail, 1991.
Johan Kugelberg. Born in the Bronx. Rizzoli International Publications Inc, 2007.
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