Born and Raised in New York City:
Hip-Hop's Musical Evolution of Rap
Bey Alexander
Dr. Beal
Hist 394
The hip-hop culture began in the
streets of New York City over twenty-five years ago and has gone through
tremendous changes up until now.
Hip-Hop consists of four elements:
rap, graffiti, break-dancing, and the disc jockey. In this paper, I intend to fully explain the
evolution of rap music, from its infancy to the giant industry it is today.
Hip-Hop emerged in the 1970’s upon the
arrival of a one Kool DJ Herc. Kool
DJ Herc migrated to the United States from Kingston, Jamaica and settled in
the West Bronx of New York. Kool DJ Herc was a disc jockey that
attempted to incorporate his Jamaica style of disc jockeying, which involved
reciting improvised rhymes over reggae records. Unfortunately for Kool DJ
Herc New York seemed uninterested in reggae at that time. This forced Kool DJ Herc to find another appealing sound in order to please his
audiences, which he did. Kool DJ Herc adapted a new style, which
involved him by chanting over the instrumental or percussion sections of the
popular music of the day. He learned
that by taking two identical records using an audio mixer, that he could play
any segment over and over, there fore extending one segment for entire song
(Light, 1999).
In the early
1970’s and with the emergence of disc jockeys such as Kool DJ Herc, hip-hop began to spread through urban areas of New
York like “wild fire.” Kool DJ Herc, who actually coined the term “hip hop,” began to realize that
this was the beginning of a new genre (Light, 1999).
As this phenomena evolved the party shouts
became more elaborate, d jays began to incorporate little rhymes such as “throw
your hands in the air and raise ‘em like you just don’t care.” With regards to Kool DJ Herc, as he progressed eventually turned his attention to
the complexities of d-jaying and let two friends Coke La Rock and Clark Kent
handle the microphone duties. They
became known as Kool DJ Herc and the
Herculoids (Brewster and Broughton, 2000).
As rap music spread throughout the urban
community of New York, many people began to use it as a form of expression that
offered unlimited boundaries. There
were no set rules, except to be original and to rhyme to the beat of the
music. One could rap about the issues
pertaining to his or her life or something as simple as a day at school.
Kool
DJ Herc opened the door to the world for many up and comers such as Grandmaster Flash. DJ Grandmaster Flash and his group the
Furious Five were hip-hop, greatest innovators, transcending the genres’ party
music origins to explore the full scope of its lyrical and sonic horizons. Grandmaster
Flash, born Joseph Saddler, began spinning records as a team growing up in
the Bronx. By age 19, while attending
technical school courses in electronics during the day, he was also d-jaying on
a local disco circuit. Over time he
developed a series of groundbreaking techniques including “cutting” (moving
between tracks exactly on beat), “back spinning” (manually turning records to
repeat brief snippets of sound), and “phasing” (manipulating turntable
speeds). In short Grandmaster Flash created
the basic vocabulary, which DJ’s continue to follow even today (Brewster and
Broughton, 2000).
Grandmaster
Flash did not begin collaborating with rappers until around 1977, first
teaming up with the legendary Kurtis Blow. He then began working with the Furious Five, rappers Melle Mel (Melvin Glover), Cowboy (Keith Wiggins), Kid Creole (Nathaniel Glover), Mr. Ness (Eddie Morris), and Rahiem, (Guy Williams). The group quickly became legendary
throughout New York City, attracting notice not only for Grandmaster Flash’s unrivalled as a DJ, but also for the Five’s
masterful rapping, most notable for their signature trading and blending lyrics
(Light, 1999).
At the peak of Grandmaster Flash’s underground success, another group by the name
of Sugar Hill Gang emerged somewhat
out of nowhere and snuck into the bottom of the dance charts. Even to this day many people still think
that Sugar Hill Gang was the first
rap group established and set up the foundation for what we see today in the
world of Hip Hop, this is untrue. The Sugar Hill Gang happen to make as radio friendly tune which today would be
described as a “one hit wonder” (Light, 1999).
Despite local popularity, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, did not record until after
the Sugar Hill Gangs hit, “Rappers Delight” proved the existence of a market for
hip hop releases. Flash and the Furious
Five’s debut “Supperrappin” followed on the Enjoy record label in 1979, and one
year later they signed with the famed Sugar Hill Records.
Grandmaster
Flash and the Furious Five, Sugar Hill Records debut, 1980’s “Freedom,”
reached the Top 20 on the national R & B charts on its way to selling over
50,000 copies. Its follow up, “Birthday
Party” was also a solo hit, 1981 “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the
wheels of Steel” was the groups first truly landmark recording, introducing Grandmaster Flash’s “cutting” techniques
to create a stunning sound college from snippets of songs by Chic, Blondies and Queen. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s next effort, 1982s
“The Message” was even revelatory. For
the first time, hip hop became a vehicle not merely for bragging and boasting
but for trenchant social commentary, with Melle
Mel delivering a blistering rap detailing the grime realities of life in
the ghetto. The record was a major
critical hit and it was an enormous step in solidifying rap as an important and
everyday form of musical expression (Brewster and Broughton, 2000).
With the foundation set by Kool DJ Herc and with the commercial
success of the Sugar Hill Gang and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, many people began to recognize the
potential of this growing industry in the early 1980’s and no one took more
advantage of this situation than Run DMC.
New York rappers Run (Joe Simmons), DMC
(Darryl McDaniels), and DJ James Master
Jay (Jason Mizell) originally came together as Orange Crush in the early 80’s, becoming Run DMC in 1982 after graduating from St. Pascal’s Catholic
School. They had known each other as children
in Hollis, New York, Mizell and McDaniels even attending the same kindergarten.
After circulating demo tapes around the music industry, the trio signed to
Profile Records. Immediately they
scored an underground hit called “It’s like that.” However it was the singles b-side, “Sucker MC’s,” which created
the “buzz” on the streets. It single
handedly gave birth to one of raps most prevalent terms, and almost became a
genre in its own right. Many critics’
sign post the single as the birth of modern hip-hop, with its stripped down
sound (no instruments a part from the dream machine and scratching from
turntable, plus the fashion image of a B-boy:
street clothing, chiefly sports wear, and street language)(Ogg and
Upshal, 1999).
In the wake of the singles success their
debut album went gold in 1984, the first time the honor had been bestowed upon
a rap act. This cemented their position
as hip-hop’s men of the moment with furious touring, and appearances on Krush
Grove movie, a fictional account of the life of Russell Simmons (Joe Simmons’s
brother). They also took a hand at the
prestigious King Holiday (a Martin Luther King tribute) and San City (Artists
Against Apartheid) events. They broke
further into the mainstream on both sides of the Atlantic in 1986 when they
released the heavy metal/rap collaboration “Walk This Way” (featuring Steve
Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith). Its distinctive video caught the imagination
of audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.
The partnership had been predicted by earlier singles, “Rock Box” and
“King of Rock,” both which fused rap with rock (Ogg and Upshal, 1999).
By 1987 “Raising Hell”, had sold three
million copies in the United States, becoming the first rap album to hit the R
& B number one slot, the first to enter the U.S. Top 10, and the first to
go platinum. In addition, Run DMC also became the first rap group
to have a video screened by MTV, the first to feature on the cover of Rolling
Stone, and the first non-athletes to endorse Adidas products (a sponsorship
deal which followed the Run DMC track entitled “My Adidas”). Run
DMC is essence, took Hip-Hop and put it in mainstream flow of society. This let the world know that rap and hip-hop
were here to stay (Light, 1999).
By the later part of the 1980’s, the Hip
Hop movement was unstoppable. MTV
(Music Television) brought rap music into suburban homes around the
country. What started in the Bronx as a
party starter had spread as for as Los Angeles, California. KDAY, a radio station is Los Angeles, became
the country’s first rap-only radio station, and hip-hop tours began to attract
many fans. “The Fresh Fest” concert
tour, featuring Run DMC, Kurtis Blow,
Whodini, the Fat Boys, and Newcleus,
become hip-hop’s first big money making tour (3.5 million on 27 dates)(Brewster
and Broughton, 2000).
As the 1980’s came close to an end, rap
music began to make some changes in the content of their material. Rap music shifted from party times to social
messages. The first rap group to gain
fame through social messages was Public Enemy.
Public
Enemy rewrote the rule of hip-hop, becoming the most influential and
controversial rap group of the late 1980’s and for many, the definitive rap
group of all time. Building from Run DMC’s street oriented beats and the
rise in “gangster rhyming,” Public Enemy
pioneered a variation on hardcore rap that was musically and politically
revolutionary. With his powerful,
authoritative baritone, lead rapper Chuck
D. rhymed about all many different social problems, particularly those
playing the Black community, often condoning revolutionary tactics and social
activism. In the process, he directed
hip-hop towards and explicitly self-aware, pro-Black consciousness that became
the cultures signature throughout the next decade. Musically, Public Enemy
was just as revolutionary, as their production team, the Bomb Squad. The Bomb Squad created dense soundscapes
that relied on avant-garde cut-and-paste techniques, unrecognizable samples,
Piercing sirens, relentless beats and deep funk. It was chaotic and invigorating music, made all the more
intoxicating by Chuck D’s forceful vocals and the arborist
raps of his comical counterpart Flavor
Flav. With his comic sunglasses and
oversized clock hanging from his neck, Flavor
Flav became the groups visual focal point, be he never obscured the
music. While rap and rock critics
embraced the groups late 80’s and early 90’s, records, Public Enemy frequently ran into controversy with their militant
stance and lyrics, especially after their 1988 album “It takes a Nation of
Million to Hold Us Back” made them into celebrities. After all the controversy settled in the early 1990’s, once the
group entered hiatus, it became clear that Public
Enemy was one of the most influential and radical bands of the time (Ogg
and Upshal, 1999).
By the early 1990’s rap music had spread
from coast to coast. When hip-hop
reached Los Angeles, the rap music industry changed entirely, entering the
“gangster rap” age. This new form of
rap would shake up the world and was led by a group named N.W.A.
N.W.A. stands for Niggers With Attitude,
which was the perfect embodiment of this Los Angeles group’s outlook. They comprised Dr. Dre (Andre Young), DJ
Yella (Antoine Larraby), MC Ren
(Lorrenzo Patterson), Eazy E (Eric
Wright), and founder member Ice Cube
(Oshea Patterson). These
unapologetically, violent, and sexist pioneers of “gangster rap,” are in many
ways the most notorious group in the history of rap.
Emerging in the
late 80’s, when Public Enemy had
rewritten the rules of hardcore rap by proving it could be intelligent,
revolutionary and socially ace and ware.
N.W.A. capitalized on Public Enemies sonic breakthroughs while
ignoring the message. Instead, the
five-piece crew celebrated the violence hedonism of the criminal life,
capturing it all in blunt, harsh language.
Initially, the group’s relentless attack appeared to be serious, vital
commentary. Though “N.W.A. And The
Posse” was their debut album, they only performed four of the raps on it, and
to all intents and purposes, “Straight Outta Compton” counts as their first
major release. For those attracted to
the gangster rappers first round, this was more of the same, only sharper and
more succinct. A landmark release, in
its aftermath rap because polarized into two distinct factions, traditional
liberal (reflecting the ideas of Martin Luther King) and a black militancy
redolent of Malcolm X, albeit much less focused and reasoned (Ogg and Upshal,
1999).
In 1989 the Federal Bureau of Investigation
investigated “Straight Outta Compton’s” infamous single entitled “Fuck The
Police.” It set a precedent for
numerous actions against N.W.A.,
including the first time anyone in the music industry had ever received a
threatening letter from the FBI. N.W.A.’s next release “Efil4zaggin” (Niggaz4life spelled backwards) which
made U.S. number 1 on the charts also surpassed the outrage factor of its
predecessor by addressing gang rape and pedophilia, in addition to the
established agenda of oral sex, cop killing and prostitution. Nevertheless, clashing egos prevented the
band from recording a third album, and they fell apart once producer Dr. Dre left for a solo career in
1992. Although the group was no longer
active, their influence, from their funky, bass driven beats to their
exaggerated lyrics, was evident throughout the 1990’s(Rose, 1994).
Rap music, which was an industry born and
raised in New York City, began to be dominated by the mellow, laid back, bass
beats of California. In essence, the
West Coast group’s tales of inner city life in the Golden State solely
controlled the rap industry from 1989 to the mid 90’s. Dr.
Dre, N.W.A.’s producer, introduced the world to a young Calvin Broadas,
also known as Snoop Dogg, who would
shock the world (Perkins, 1995).
As the embodiment of the 1990’s “gangster
rap,” Snoop Doggy Dog blurred the lines between reality and fiction. Introduced to the world through Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, Snoop Dogg
quickly became the most famous star in rap, partially because of his drawled,
laconic rhyming partially because of the violence that his lyrics implied
seemed real, especially after he was arrested on murder accomplice charges (he
was later acquitted). The arrest
certainly strengthened his myth, and it helped his debut album, 1993’s “Doggystyle”,
become the first rapper to enter the music charts at number 1 (Light, 1999).
Another rapper who was also from the West
Coast and extremely popular at the time was that of Tupac Skakur. Tupac Skakur became the unlikely martyr of
“gangster rap”, and a tragic symbol of the toll its lifestyle exacted on the
urban Black American. At the outset of
his career, it did not appear that he would emerge as one of the definitive
rappers of the 90’s. He started out as
a second-string rapper and dancer for Digital Underground. But in 1992, he delivered an acclaimed debut
album, “2pacalypse Now”, which quickly followed with a star-making performance
in the urban drama juice. Over the
course of one year, his profile rose substantially, based as much on his
run-ins with the law as his music. By
1994, Tupac rivaled Snoop Doggy Dogg
as the most controversial figure in rap at the time, spending as much time in
prison as he did in the recording studio.
His burgeoning outlaw mythology helped his 1995 album “Me Against the
World” enter the charts at number one, and it also opened him up to charges of
exploration. Yet, as the single “Dear
Mamma” (a tribute to single mothers) illustrated he was capable of sensitivity
as well as violence (Scott, 1997).
Tensions began to build between East and
West Coast rappers. Tupac Shakur and
his record label, representing the West and Notorious
B.I.G. and his record label representing the East, headed the feud.
The Brooklyn, New York born rapper Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace)
first gained attention for his work with Mary J. Blige’s “What’s the 411?” When he delivered his debut album, “Ready to
Die”, in 1994, it became one of the most popular hip-hop albums of the year. In June of 1995, his single “One More
Chance” debuted at number five in the pop singles chart, tying Michael
Jackson’s “Scream/Childhood” as the highest-debuting single of all time, “Ready
to Die” continued to gain popularity throughout 1995, eventually selling two
million copies. With its success, Notorious B.I.G. became the most visible
figure in East Coast hip-hop. He also
became a target in a heated feud between the two coasts, Notorious B.I.G., and Tupac Shakur, former allies, became vicious
rivals. Each rapper expressed their
feelings by writing distasteful songs of one another’s affairs and it seemed as
if it was going to stay that way, when tragedy struck (Scott, 2000).
On September 13, 1996, while Notorious B.I.G. was preparing for his
second album, Tupac Shakur was shot and killed in Las Vegas. Many in the media speculated that Notorious B.I.G. and his associates were
responsible for the shooting, accusations that he and his producer, Sean
“Puffy” Comb, vehemently deceased.
However the wheels
had
been set in motion for another tragedy.
Early in the morning of March 9, 1997, Notorious B.I.G. was returning to his hotel in Los Angeles after a
Soul Train Award party when another car pulled up along side his car and opened
fire, killing him instantly. Shakur had
been killed just six months earlier (Scott, 1997).
Notorious
B.I.G.’s second album, the double-disc ironically, titled Life “After
Death”, was released three weeks later, debuting and number one on the
charts. His legend along with Tupac’s
continued to grow in the years to follow thanks to subsequent posthumous
releases including Notorious B.I.G.
1999 Born Again as well as Tupac’s 2001 “Until the End of Time”.
With the death of
both Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., rap music began to shift toward a more
radio friendly lyrics with party time undertones, without completely losing the
“gangster” image. By this point even
females began to enter the rap music industry.
Lauren Hill emerged with her multi-platinum album, The “Miseducation of
Lauren Hill”. Even though the rap music
industry until this point was male dominated, people of all races and walks of
life accepted Lauren Hill with open arms (Light, 1999).
The reigning hip-hop King of the world
today is none other than that of Jay-Z. It is hard to imagine a more perfect success
stars than Jay-Z’s. He has had a
remarkable ascendance to the top of the rap industry after a challenging
childhood in a Brooklyn neighborhood, where he worked on the streets as a drug
dealer. The rapper other wise known as
Shawn Carter followed his confident instincts, starting his own record label at
a time when this practice simply was not done on such an ambitious scale. His debut album, “Reasonable Doubt,” became
a critical favorite among audiences.
But it was not until his third album, “Volume 2: Hard Knock Life,” that Jay-Z transcended critically acclaimed status to widespread
mainstream success thanks to a string of massive hits. Yet never one to be content, Jay-Z then embarked on a large-scale
arena tour, elevating his popularity to even more astonishing heights. The tour sold an impressive 600,000
tickets. By the end of the 1990’s, Jay-Z was arguably the most successful
rapper, or at least the most recognized (Light, 1999).
By the end of the
1990’s rap music had invaded the world.
During the infant stage of rap music, a top performer would put on a
show for as little as $50.00 and toward the mid to ending 1990’s, the average
price demanded by a top performer was $30,000 to $50,000 dollars. The economic reality of rap made itself very
clear in this decade. In the year 2000,
the top three rap moguls each grossed over $50 million and were listed in the
Forbes top 40 wealthiest entertainers.
Rap music has evolved from a New York inner city past time to one of the
biggest business in the world today. In
the beginning rap music was considered a fad and many thought that it would
fade out, we now know that that was a huge misconception.
The hip-hop culture began in the
streets of New York City over twenty-five years ago and has gone through
tremendous changes up until now.
Hip-Hop consists of four elements:
rap, graffiti, break-dancing, and the disc jockey. In this paper, I intend to fully explain the
evolution of rap music, from its infancy to the giant industry it is today.
Hip-Hop emerged in the 1970’s upon the
arrival of a one Kool DJ Herc. Kool
DJ Herc migrated to the United States from Kingston, Jamaica and settled in
the West Bronx of New York. Kool DJ Herc was a disc jockey that
attempted to incorporate his Jamaica style of disc jockeying, which involved
reciting improvised rhymes over reggae records. Unfortunately for Kool DJ
Herc New York seemed uninterested in reggae at that time. This forced Kool DJ Herc to find another appealing sound in order to please his
audiences, which he did. Kool DJ Herc adapted a new style, which
involved him by chanting over the instrumental or percussion sections of the
popular music of the day. He learned
that by taking two identical records using an audio mixer, that he could play
any segment over and over, there fore extending one segment for entire song
(Light, 1999).
In the early
1970’s and with the emergence of disc jockeys such as Kool DJ Herc, hip-hop began to spread through urban areas of New
York like “wild fire.” Kool DJ Herc, who actually coined the term “hip hop,” began to realize that
this was the beginning of a new genre (Light, 1999).
As this phenomena evolved the party shouts
became more elaborate, d jays began to incorporate little rhymes such as “throw
your hands in the air and raise ‘em like you just don’t care.” With regards to Kool DJ Herc, as he progressed eventually turned his attention to
the complexities of d-jaying and let two friends Coke La Rock and Clark Kent
handle the microphone duties. They
became known as Kool DJ Herc and the
Herculoids (Brewster and Broughton, 2000).
As rap music spread throughout the urban
community of New York, many people began to use it as a form of expression that
offered unlimited boundaries. There
were no set rules, except to be original and to rhyme to the beat of the
music. One could rap about the issues
pertaining to his or her life or something as simple as a day at school.
Kool
DJ Herc opened the door to the world for many up and comers such as Grandmaster Flash. DJ Grandmaster Flash and his group the
Furious Five were hip-hop, greatest innovators, transcending the genres’ party
music origins to explore the full scope of its lyrical and sonic horizons. Grandmaster
Flash, born Joseph Saddler, began spinning records as a team growing up in
the Bronx. By age 19, while attending
technical school courses in electronics during the day, he was also d-jaying on
a local disco circuit. Over time he
developed a series of groundbreaking techniques including “cutting” (moving
between tracks exactly on beat), “back spinning” (manually turning records to
repeat brief snippets of sound), and “phasing” (manipulating turntable
speeds). In short Grandmaster Flash created
the basic vocabulary, which DJ’s continue to follow even today (Brewster and
Broughton, 2000).
Grandmaster
Flash did not begin collaborating with rappers until around 1977, first
teaming up with the legendary Kurtis Blow. He then began working with the Furious Five, rappers Melle Mel (Melvin Glover), Cowboy (Keith Wiggins), Kid Creole (Nathaniel Glover), Mr. Ness (Eddie Morris), and Rahiem, (Guy Williams). The group quickly became legendary
throughout New York City, attracting notice not only for Grandmaster Flash’s unrivalled as a DJ, but also for the Five’s
masterful rapping, most notable for their signature trading and blending lyrics
(Light, 1999).
At the peak of Grandmaster Flash’s underground success, another group by the name
of Sugar Hill Gang emerged somewhat
out of nowhere and snuck into the bottom of the dance charts. Even to this day many people still think
that Sugar Hill Gang was the first
rap group established and set up the foundation for what we see today in the
world of Hip Hop, this is untrue. The Sugar Hill Gang happen to make as radio friendly tune which today would be
described as a “one hit wonder” (Light, 1999).
Despite local popularity, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, did not record until after
the Sugar Hill Gangs hit, “Rappers Delight” proved the existence of a market for
hip hop releases. Flash and the Furious
Five’s debut “Supperrappin” followed on the Enjoy record label in 1979, and one
year later they signed with the famed Sugar Hill Records.
Grandmaster
Flash and the Furious Five, Sugar Hill Records debut, 1980’s “Freedom,”
reached the Top 20 on the national R & B charts on its way to selling over
50,000 copies. Its follow up, “Birthday
Party” was also a solo hit, 1981 “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the
wheels of Steel” was the groups first truly landmark recording, introducing Grandmaster Flash’s “cutting” techniques
to create a stunning sound college from snippets of songs by Chic, Blondies and Queen. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s next effort, 1982s
“The Message” was even revelatory. For
the first time, hip hop became a vehicle not merely for bragging and boasting
but for trenchant social commentary, with Melle
Mel delivering a blistering rap detailing the grime realities of life in
the ghetto. The record was a major
critical hit and it was an enormous step in solidifying rap as an important and
everyday form of musical expression (Brewster and Broughton, 2000).
With the foundation set by Kool DJ Herc and with the commercial
success of the Sugar Hill Gang and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, many people began to recognize the
potential of this growing industry in the early 1980’s and no one took more
advantage of this situation than Run DMC.
New York rappers Run (Joe Simmons), DMC
(Darryl McDaniels), and DJ James Master
Jay (Jason Mizell) originally came together as Orange Crush in the early 80’s, becoming Run DMC in 1982 after graduating from St. Pascal’s Catholic
School. They had known each other as children
in Hollis, New York, Mizell and McDaniels even attending the same kindergarten.
After circulating demo tapes around the music industry, the trio signed to
Profile Records. Immediately they
scored an underground hit called “It’s like that.” However it was the singles b-side, “Sucker MC’s,” which created
the “buzz” on the streets. It single
handedly gave birth to one of raps most prevalent terms, and almost became a
genre in its own right. Many critics’
sign post the single as the birth of modern hip-hop, with its stripped down
sound (no instruments a part from the dream machine and scratching from
turntable, plus the fashion image of a B-boy:
street clothing, chiefly sports wear, and street language)(Ogg and
Upshal, 1999).
In the wake of the singles success their
debut album went gold in 1984, the first time the honor had been bestowed upon
a rap act. This cemented their position
as hip-hop’s men of the moment with furious touring, and appearances on Krush
Grove movie, a fictional account of the life of Russell Simmons (Joe Simmons’s
brother). They also took a hand at the
prestigious King Holiday (a Martin Luther King tribute) and San City (Artists
Against Apartheid) events. They broke
further into the mainstream on both sides of the Atlantic in 1986 when they
released the heavy metal/rap collaboration “Walk This Way” (featuring Steve
Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith). Its distinctive video caught the imagination
of audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.
The partnership had been predicted by earlier singles, “Rock Box” and
“King of Rock,” both which fused rap with rock (Ogg and Upshal, 1999).
By 1987 “Raising Hell”, had sold three
million copies in the United States, becoming the first rap album to hit the R
& B number one slot, the first to enter the U.S. Top 10, and the first to
go platinum. In addition, Run DMC also became the first rap group
to have a video screened by MTV, the first to feature on the cover of Rolling
Stone, and the first non-athletes to endorse Adidas products (a sponsorship
deal which followed the Run DMC track entitled “My Adidas”). Run
DMC is essence, took Hip-Hop and put it in mainstream flow of society. This let the world know that rap and hip-hop
were here to stay (Light, 1999).
By the later part of the 1980’s, the Hip
Hop movement was unstoppable. MTV
(Music Television) brought rap music into suburban homes around the
country. What started in the Bronx as a
party starter had spread as for as Los Angeles, California. KDAY, a radio station is Los Angeles, became
the country’s first rap-only radio station, and hip-hop tours began to attract
many fans. “The Fresh Fest” concert
tour, featuring Run DMC, Kurtis Blow,
Whodini, the Fat Boys, and Newcleus,
become hip-hop’s first big money making tour (3.5 million on 27 dates)(Brewster
and Broughton, 2000).
As the 1980’s came close to an end, rap
music began to make some changes in the content of their material. Rap music shifted from party times to social
messages. The first rap group to gain
fame through social messages was Public Enemy.
Public
Enemy rewrote the rule of hip-hop, becoming the most influential and
controversial rap group of the late 1980’s and for many, the definitive rap
group of all time. Building from Run DMC’s street oriented beats and the
rise in “gangster rhyming,” Public Enemy
pioneered a variation on hardcore rap that was musically and politically
revolutionary. With his powerful,
authoritative baritone, lead rapper Chuck
D. rhymed about all many different social problems, particularly those
playing the Black community, often condoning revolutionary tactics and social
activism. In the process, he directed
hip-hop towards and explicitly self-aware, pro-Black consciousness that became
the cultures signature throughout the next decade. Musically, Public Enemy
was just as revolutionary, as their production team, the Bomb Squad. The Bomb Squad created dense soundscapes
that relied on avant-garde cut-and-paste techniques, unrecognizable samples,
Piercing sirens, relentless beats and deep funk. It was chaotic and invigorating music, made all the more
intoxicating by Chuck D’s forceful vocals and the arborist
raps of his comical counterpart Flavor
Flav. With his comic sunglasses and
oversized clock hanging from his neck, Flavor
Flav became the groups visual focal point, be he never obscured the
music. While rap and rock critics
embraced the groups late 80’s and early 90’s, records, Public Enemy frequently ran into controversy with their militant
stance and lyrics, especially after their 1988 album “It takes a Nation of
Million to Hold Us Back” made them into celebrities. After all the controversy settled in the early 1990’s, once the
group entered hiatus, it became clear that Public
Enemy was one of the most influential and radical bands of the time (Ogg
and Upshal, 1999).
By the early 1990’s rap music had spread
from coast to coast. When hip-hop
reached Los Angeles, the rap music industry changed entirely, entering the
“gangster rap” age. This new form of
rap would shake up the world and was led by a group named N.W.A.
N.W.A. stands for Niggers With Attitude,
which was the perfect embodiment of this Los Angeles group’s outlook. They comprised Dr. Dre (Andre Young), DJ
Yella (Antoine Larraby), MC Ren
(Lorrenzo Patterson), Eazy E (Eric
Wright), and founder member Ice Cube
(Oshea Patterson). These
unapologetically, violent, and sexist pioneers of “gangster rap,” are in many
ways the most notorious group in the history of rap.
Emerging in the
late 80’s, when Public Enemy had
rewritten the rules of hardcore rap by proving it could be intelligent,
revolutionary and socially ace and ware.
N.W.A. capitalized on Public Enemies sonic breakthroughs while
ignoring the message. Instead, the
five-piece crew celebrated the violence hedonism of the criminal life,
capturing it all in blunt, harsh language.
Initially, the group’s relentless attack appeared to be serious, vital
commentary. Though “N.W.A. And The
Posse” was their debut album, they only performed four of the raps on it, and
to all intents and purposes, “Straight Outta Compton” counts as their first
major release. For those attracted to
the gangster rappers first round, this was more of the same, only sharper and
more succinct. A landmark release, in
its aftermath rap because polarized into two distinct factions, traditional
liberal (reflecting the ideas of Martin Luther King) and a black militancy
redolent of Malcolm X, albeit much less focused and reasoned (Ogg and Upshal,
1999).
In 1989 the Federal Bureau of Investigation
investigated “Straight Outta Compton’s” infamous single entitled “Fuck The
Police.” It set a precedent for
numerous actions against N.W.A.,
including the first time anyone in the music industry had ever received a
threatening letter from the FBI. N.W.A.’s next release “Efil4zaggin” (Niggaz4life spelled backwards) which
made U.S. number 1 on the charts also surpassed the outrage factor of its
predecessor by addressing gang rape and pedophilia, in addition to the
established agenda of oral sex, cop killing and prostitution. Nevertheless, clashing egos prevented the
band from recording a third album, and they fell apart once producer Dr. Dre left for a solo career in
1992. Although the group was no longer
active, their influence, from their funky, bass driven beats to their
exaggerated lyrics, was evident throughout the 1990’s(Rose, 1994).
Rap music, which was an industry born and
raised in New York City, began to be dominated by the mellow, laid back, bass
beats of California. In essence, the
West Coast group’s tales of inner city life in the Golden State solely
controlled the rap industry from 1989 to the mid 90’s. Dr.
Dre, N.W.A.’s producer, introduced the world to a young Calvin Broadas,
also known as Snoop Dogg, who would
shock the world (Perkins, 1995).
As the embodiment of the 1990’s “gangster
rap,” Snoop Doggy Dog blurred the lines between reality and fiction. Introduced to the world through Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, Snoop Dogg
quickly became the most famous star in rap, partially because of his drawled,
laconic rhyming partially because of the violence that his lyrics implied
seemed real, especially after he was arrested on murder accomplice charges (he
was later acquitted). The arrest
certainly strengthened his myth, and it helped his debut album, 1993’s “Doggystyle”,
become the first rapper to enter the music charts at number 1 (Light, 1999).
Another rapper who was also from the West
Coast and extremely popular at the time was that of Tupac Skakur. Tupac Skakur became the unlikely martyr of
“gangster rap”, and a tragic symbol of the toll its lifestyle exacted on the
urban Black American. At the outset of
his career, it did not appear that he would emerge as one of the definitive
rappers of the 90’s. He started out as
a second-string rapper and dancer for Digital Underground. But in 1992, he delivered an acclaimed debut
album, “2pacalypse Now”, which quickly followed with a star-making performance
in the urban drama juice. Over the
course of one year, his profile rose substantially, based as much on his
run-ins with the law as his music. By
1994, Tupac rivaled Snoop Doggy Dogg
as the most controversial figure in rap at the time, spending as much time in
prison as he did in the recording studio.
His burgeoning outlaw mythology helped his 1995 album “Me Against the
World” enter the charts at number one, and it also opened him up to charges of
exploration. Yet, as the single “Dear
Mamma” (a tribute to single mothers) illustrated he was capable of sensitivity
as well as violence (Scott, 1997).
Tensions began to build between East and
West Coast rappers. Tupac Shakur and
his record label, representing the West and Notorious
B.I.G. and his record label representing the East, headed the feud.
The Brooklyn, New York born rapper Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace)
first gained attention for his work with Mary J. Blige’s “What’s the 411?” When he delivered his debut album, “Ready to
Die”, in 1994, it became one of the most popular hip-hop albums of the year. In June of 1995, his single “One More
Chance” debuted at number five in the pop singles chart, tying Michael
Jackson’s “Scream/Childhood” as the highest-debuting single of all time, “Ready
to Die” continued to gain popularity throughout 1995, eventually selling two
million copies. With its success, Notorious B.I.G. became the most visible
figure in East Coast hip-hop. He also
became a target in a heated feud between the two coasts, Notorious B.I.G., and Tupac Shakur, former allies, became vicious
rivals. Each rapper expressed their
feelings by writing distasteful songs of one another’s affairs and it seemed as
if it was going to stay that way, when tragedy struck (Scott, 2000).
On September 13, 1996, while Notorious B.I.G. was preparing for his
second album, Tupac Shakur was shot and killed in Las Vegas. Many in the media speculated that Notorious B.I.G. and his associates were
responsible for the shooting, accusations that he and his producer, Sean
“Puffy” Comb, vehemently deceased.
However the wheels
had
been set in motion for another tragedy.
Early in the morning of March 9, 1997, Notorious B.I.G. was returning to his hotel in Los Angeles after a
Soul Train Award party when another car pulled up along side his car and opened
fire, killing him instantly. Shakur had
been killed just six months earlier (Scott, 1997).
Notorious
B.I.G.’s second album, the double-disc ironically, titled Life “After
Death”, was released three weeks later, debuting and number one on the
charts. His legend along with Tupac’s
continued to grow in the years to follow thanks to subsequent posthumous
releases including Notorious B.I.G.
1999 Born Again as well as Tupac’s 2001 “Until the End of Time”.
With the death of
both Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., rap music began to shift toward a more
radio friendly lyrics with party time undertones, without completely losing the
“gangster” image. By this point even
females began to enter the rap music industry.
Lauren Hill emerged with her multi-platinum album, The “Miseducation of
Lauren Hill”. Even though the rap music
industry until this point was male dominated, people of all races and walks of
life accepted Lauren Hill with open arms (Light, 1999).
The reigning hip-hop King of the world
today is none other than that of Jay-Z. It is hard to imagine a more perfect success
stars than Jay-Z’s. He has had a
remarkable ascendance to the top of the rap industry after a challenging
childhood in a Brooklyn neighborhood, where he worked on the streets as a drug
dealer. The rapper other wise known as
Shawn Carter followed his confident instincts, starting his own record label at
a time when this practice simply was not done on such an ambitious scale. His debut album, “Reasonable Doubt,” became
a critical favorite among audiences.
But it was not until his third album, “Volume 2: Hard Knock Life,” that Jay-Z transcended critically acclaimed status to widespread
mainstream success thanks to a string of massive hits. Yet never one to be content, Jay-Z then embarked on a large-scale
arena tour, elevating his popularity to even more astonishing heights. The tour sold an impressive 600,000
tickets. By the end of the 1990’s, Jay-Z was arguably the most successful
rapper, or at least the most recognized (Light, 1999).
By the end of the
1990’s rap music had invaded the world.
During the infant stage of rap music, a top performer would put on a
show for as little as $50.00 and toward the mid to ending 1990’s, the average
price demanded by a top performer was $30,000 to $50,000 dollars. The economic reality of rap made itself very
clear in this decade. In the year 2000,
the top three rap moguls each grossed over $50 million and were listed in the
Forbes top 40 wealthiest entertainers.
Rap music has evolved from a New York inner city past time to one of the
biggest business in the world today. In
the beginning rap music was considered a fad and many thought that it would
fade out, we now know that that was a huge misconception.
Light, Alan. Vibe
History of Hip Hop. Book & CD ed. New York: Three Rivers Press, October
1999.
Scott, Cathy.
The Murder of Biggie Smalls. 1 ed. St. Martins Press (Trade), October
2000
Ogg, Alex.,
David Upshal., and Alexander Ogg. The Hip Hop Years: The History of Hip Hop.
Book & CD ed. Trans Atlantic Publications, Inc. September 1999.
Scott, Cathy.
The Killing of Tupac Shakur. 1 ed. Huntington Press; September 1997
Rose, Tricia.
Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (Music
and Culture). 1ed. Wesleyan University Press; May 1994
Brewster,
Bill and Frank Broughton. Last Night a Dj Saved My Life: The History of the
Disc Jockey; Grove Press; August 2000
Perkins,
William Eric. Droppin’ Science: Critical Essay on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture
(Critical Perspectives of the Past). Temple University Press, October 1,
1995