Name: J 1 of 12 AUD Music Production Analysis Name: J L Name: J 2 of 12 The emergence of hip hop came about in the early 1970's after the post civil rights movement which aimed at gaining full citizenship rights for Blacks, and to end segregation led by Malcolm X and Dr Martin Luther King (Price 2006). Price (2006) states in Hip Hop Culture 'Hip Hop is a product of African diaspora and combines music, dance, graphic, art, oration, and fashion with a growing aesthetic leaning heavily on material objects and media'. Todd Boyd wrote in his controversial book 2003, The New H.N.I.C (Head Nigga In Charge): The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop, he argued that hip hop music and culture has served as a powerful corrective. "In the same way that civil right leaders spoke to the conditions back in the day, hip hop artists now speak to a populace often disillusioned by those considered overtly political in a traditional sense" (Boyd 2003, Dimitriadis 2009). As written by Davies in Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora: Origins, Experiences and Culture hip hop's cultural origins are shared by five places of origin consisting of descendants from the Africa region like Barbados, Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and including USA (Davies 2008). Love, Peace, Unity and having fun are the fundamental characteristics that defined Hip Hop as said by Afrika Bambaata in 1974 stated in the video KRSONE: Hip Hop Beyond Entertainment Part 1 of 2 (2011). This is also mentioned in Encyclopedia of African American Volume III by Price (2011) in the hit song "Planet Rock" expresses a world that transcends racial, ethnic, economic, gender and political problems envisioned by Afrika Bambaata. The four elements of hip hop are bboying, graffiti art, MCing and DJing as stated in African Americans and Popular Culture Vol 1,2,3 written by Boyd (2008). This is further supported by Covach and Flory (2012) in What's That Sound? An Introduction to Rock and Its History Third Edition 'As a musical form, rap was one element of a larger hiphop culture, alongside graffiti art, street dance styles such as breaking and popping, and trends in fashion surrounding this movement. As stated by Nicole Persley in Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture, Volume 1 When many fans and artists talk about hip hop, they explain that it is a culture that expands beyond music to include four central elements: graffiti art, bboying, DJing, and MCing (Persley, Hess 2007). Name: J 3 of 12 In his lyrics to "9 Elements," KRS expanded from the four central elements of hip hop to include five more elements: beatboxing, fashion, street knowledge, and entrepreneurialism. He goes on to further state in his lyrics to make the distinction that to rap is merely an action that anyone can take, but "Hip hop is something you live". To distinguish between the two forms, the term hip hop music is often used to designate a song that holds true to hip hop's original aesthetic rather than appealing to a pop audience, and the term MC, as opposed to rapper, is often used to designate a hip hop vocalist who holds true to this same aesthetic. In an exclusive interview for Icons of Hip Hop, Roxanne Shante explained the difference between the MCs and rappers: "Rappers need videos, MCs don't." (Persley, Hess 2007). 'In 1970 Kool Herc's block parties, the DJ was the focal point of the performance, and the MC, or rapper was to hype up and grab the crowd's attention to the DJ and to attract people onto the dance floor' (Hess 2007). One of the first pioneers who innovated the hip hop genre was DJ Kool Herc. Scratch (HipHop Documentary) (2012) Grand Mixer DXT put it nicely when describing the role of a DJ, "DJ was the source of the energy because it was his responsibility to find the type of rhythm or music that the audience would feel". DJ Kool Herc also known as Clive Campbell emigrated from Jamaica and move to the States in 1967 as stated by Forman and Neal (2004) in That's the Joint!: The HipHop Studies Reader it also quotes that Kool Herc knew the Jamaican sound system scene, and had heard the early talkovers of the new DJs like U Roy and Big Youth who were grandfathers of the genre Dance Hall as mentioned in Droppin' Science: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture (Perkins 1996). In Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the HipHop Generation as stated by Chang, Kool Herc had seen the sound systems firsthand which the local sound was called Somerset Lane, and the selector's name was King George. Feeling inspiration from the scene loving the vibrations on the zinc top, and watching dancers prepare during the day for events that happened at night, Clive became a DJ making his name known on 1520 Sedgwick Avenue where he and his family lived, as mentioned in Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the HipHop Generation by Chang (2007, p. 68). Clive's father Keith Name: J 4 of 12 Campbell invested in a brand new Shure P.A system for a rhythm and blues band which later would be experimented on by Clive. He was curious to find out how his neighbors who had the same system were able to gain more volume but wouldn't show him what they did so through experimenting on his own, Clive figured it out. ‘What I did was I took the speaker wire, put a jack onto it and jacked it into one of the channels, and I had extra power and reserve power. Now I could control it from the preamp. I got two Bogart amps, two Girard turntables, and then i just used the channel knobs as my mixer. No headphones. The system could take eight mics. I had an echo chamber in one, and a regular mic to another. So i could talk plain and, at the same time, I could wait halfway for the echo to come out’ (Chang 2007). This made Herc's parties more popular having a sound system that was the best in the neighborhood, and made the loudest sound produced. DJ Kool Herc created a turntable technique called "the MerryGoRound," where he would take two copies of the same record, having one record backcueing to the beginning of the break as the other record finishes its play on the break which helped extend a five second breakdown into a five minute loop (Chang 2007). A playlist of songs that became DJ Kool Herc's signature tunes often AfroLatinized backbeat made up of: The Incredible Bongo Band "Apache" and "Bongo Rock" James Brown's 'live' version of "Give It Up Turn It Loose" from the Sex Machine Album Johnny Pate's theme to Shaft in Africa Dennis Coffey "Scorpio" In August of 1973 Clive and his friends brought the equipment down from their apartment, and set up in the room adjacent to the rec room for their parties. At the start, the party didn't go so well when Clive played some dancehall tunes but the people wanted the breaks. He Name: J 5 of 12 gave the crowd what they wanted and dropped some soul and funk tracks which packed up the place, and DJ Kool Herc took the mic to rock the crowd. The attraction of many following help Kool Herc to assemble his clique who were known as the Herculords. They comprised of DJs, dancers, and rappers who were Coke La Rock, DJ Timmy Tim with Little Tiny Feet, DJ Clark Kent the Rock Machine, the Imperial JC, Blackjack, LeBrew, Pebblee Poo, Sweet and Sour Prince, and Whiz Kid (Chang 2007). When Zulu Nation was formed in 1973 by Afrika Bambaataa, his vision for the Zulu Nation is to be used as a platform to promote 'freedom, justice, equality, knowledge, wisdom, and understanding' as quoted by Webber in DJ Skills: The Essential Guide to Mixing and Scratching (2008). Afrika Bambaataa devoted to building a fraternity for hiphop artists and deemphasising the role of fighting and crime which later inspired the start of MC battles, and Bboy battles (Covach, Flory 2012). As mentioned by Crisell, White and Principe in On the Record: The Scratch DJ Academy Guide in the year of 1975, a thirteen year old named DJ Theodore Livingston, who later became known as Grand Wizard Theodore, was practicing with his brother's turntables when his mother shouted, "Turn that music down," accidentally moved the vinyl back and forth slightly against the needle, making a scratching sound as he attempted to stop the record. This led to the technical invention of scratching and the needle drop (2009). Sugar Hill Gang released "Rapper's Delight" in 1979 which aimed for the song to be tailormade for travel to be accessible for people who had never heard of hip hop, rap or the Bronx, would be the first hip hop record to reach mainstream radio worldwide, the rapper became the face of commercial rap music. "Rapper's Dellight" introduced mainstream listeners to the terms rap and hip hop. The song begins with the words, "I said a hip hop…" as mentioned by Chang in Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the HipHop Generation (Chang 2007). This led to rap becoming a focal point which took the public eye and interests away from bboys, and DJs. As written by Crisell, White and Principe (2009) Name: J 6 of 12 in On the Record: The Scratch DJ Academy Guide Joseph Sadler was also known as Grandmaster Flash got into technical courses at a vocation high school that gave him the knowledge to create a new kind of mixer. 'This device allows the DJ to combine, filter, and alter input from audio equipment such as turntables and microphones that were outfitted to speakers.’ Grandmaster Flash designed his own cue system, built it with parts from Radio Shack, then glued it to the top of his mixer, and called it his "peekaboo system." He developed a new level of DJ skills by combining the seamless flow of Pete Jones who he learned from with Herc's practice of breakbeats and climaxes. (Webber 2008). Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five released, "Superappin' " where the verse in the song comes up, the Furious Five raps in unison, "And it won't be long 'till everyone is knowing that Flash is on the beatbox going, that Flash is on the beatbox going…and…and…aha na na' (Chang 2007). As mentioned by Covach and Flory in What's That Sound? An Introduction to Rock and Its History Third Edition Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin, two college students studying at New York University formed an early hiphop label called Def Jam Records in 1980s. Def Jam Records released some of the best rappers in the decade who included LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, and Public Enemy. Rush Entertainment was Russell Simmon's management company who also handled some of rap's top acts, RunDMC, Kurtis Blow, and DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. Def Jam artists defined a new style of mainstream hip hop in the mid1980s using generated beats by an electronic drum machine, highlighted scratching, and occasional sample or punch phrase (Covach & Flory 2012). When 1990 came about, it gave birth to commercial hip hop where major labels started buying up independent labels producing mixes of party, political and "street"aggressive views. As quoted by Rose in The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk about when We Talk about HipHop And Why It Matters 'A major label conducted a study that shocked the industry: The most "active" consumers of Hip Hop, they discovered, were "tweens," the Name: J 7 of 12 demographic slice between the ages of 11 and 13.' The reason as explained from the study showed that tweens loved profanity, and males tended to act out mocking and being hostile at the opposite sex. This brought major labels to package their hip hop products into a sub genre called Commercial Gangsta Rap. As quoted by Rose in The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk about when We Talk about HipHop And Why It Matters 'a subgenre that would lock a generation in perpetual arrested social development. It goes on to state that in 1993, Bill Stephney known for his work with political rap group Public Enemy, noticed that older teens were targeted as well (Rose). 'It's a function of the culture,' Stephney Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap (2012), Salt from SaltNPepa says that as a woman coming from the hip hop community when she was behind the mic and going through real experiences, figuring out what their voice would sound as what hip hop is today was not easy to figure out back in the day and had to develop who they were as artists to put in their inflictions, flow, how the sound was gonna be like, how they were gonna differientiate from average women. Ciara feat. Missy Elliott 1,2 Step (2009) showcase the creative wordplay that Female MC Ciara uses to describe the beat of the music created by the DJ which is also hypnotic to the listener that results in dancing and movement. This Beat Is Automatic, Supersonic, Hypnotic, Funky Fresh Work my body so melodic, this beat rolls right through my chest Everybody, ma and papi, came to party Grab somebody, work ya body, work ya body Let me see you 1, 2 step … Name: J 8 of 12 This Beat is Outrageous, so contagious, make you crave it Jazze made it So retarded, top charted, ever since the day i started In KRSONE: Hip Hop Beyond Entertainment (Part 1 of 2) 2011 he explained how in the early 1970s about the crack cocaine epidemic which brought about Gangster Rap during the 1980s, this inspired artists to write and reflect on both their own experiences and experiences of others, what was believed to be the first gangster rap song was “Cop Killer” which inspired EazyE. Looking on the development of hip hop from 1970’s to the current era, It is believed that the prison industry and the media moguls had working partnerships to create profitability for the private prison industry as well as the media industry which used Gangster Rap as a medium to reinforce criminal ideologies to plague the black community as compared to the unifying ideologies of the forefathers of hip hop such as DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa. Though the innovators of hip hop have inspired many generations to see the hypocrisy against mainstream media and corporations, it is still believed that mainstream media has disillusioned listeners through exploitation of hip hop, this genre with its positive and negative messages have influenced the culture worldwide in all of its four elements that is bboying, MCing, DJing and graffiti art. Name: J 9 of 12 References Bogdanov, V 2003 All Music Guide to HipHop: The Definitive Guide to Rap & HipHop, Backbeat Books, San Francisco, USA Boyd, T 2003 The New H. N. I. C.: The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop, New York Press, New York, USA Boyd, T 2008 African Americans and Popular Culture Vol 1,2,3, Praeger Publishers, CT, USA Cobb, W 2007 To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic, New York University Press, New York, USA Chang, J 2007 Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the HipHop Generation, Ebury Press, UK Ciara feat. Missy Elliott 1,2 Step 2009, Youtube, viewed 29 Dec 2013 <http://youtu.be/iBHNgV6_znU> Covach, J & Flory, A 2012 What's That Sound? An Introduction to Rock and Its History Third Edition, New York, USA Crisell L, White P& Principe R, 2009 On the Record: The Scratch DJ Academy Guide, New York, USA Dimitriadis, G 2009 Performing Identity/performing Culture: Hip Hop as Text,Pedagogy and Lived Practice, Peter Lang Publishing, New York, USA Forman M & Neal M 2004 That's the Joint!: The HipHop Studies Reader, Taylor & Francis Books, New York, USA Hess, M 2007 Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopaedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture, Volume 1, Greenwood Publishing, CT, USA Hess, M 2007 Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopaedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture, Volume 2, Greenwood Publishing, CT, USA KRSONE: Hip Hop Beyond Entertainment (Part 1 of 2) 2011, Youtube, viewed 29 Dec Name: J 10 of 12 2013 <http://youtu.be/ybufC_3KJwk> Mitchell, T 2001 Global Noise: Rap and Hip Hop Outside the USA, Wesleyan University Press, Middleton, USA Price, E 2006 Hip Hop Culture, ABCCLIO, Santa Barbara, USA Rausch, A 2011 I Am HipHop: Conversations on the Music and Culture, Scarecrow Press, Plymouth, UK Rose, T 2008 The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk about when We Talk about HipHop And Why It Matters, Basic Books, New York, USA Schloss, J 2004 Making Beats: The Art of SampleBasedHipHop, Wesleyan University Press, CT, USA Schloss, J 2009 Foundation: Bboys, Bgirls and HipHop Culture in New York, Oxford University Press, New York, USA Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap, 2012, DVD, Jollygood Films, Directed by IceT Webber, S 2008 DJ Skills: The Essential Guide to Mixing and Scratching, Focal Press, UK Name: J 11 of 12 Bibliography Bogdanov, V 2003 All Music Guide to HipHop: The Definitive Guide to Rap & HipHop, Backbeat Books, San Francisco, USA Boyd, T 2003 The New H. N. I. C.: The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop, New York Press, New York, USA Boyd, T 2008 African Americans and Popular Culture Vol 1,2,3, Praeger Publishers, CT, USA Cobb, W 2007 To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic, New York University Press, New York, USA Chang, J 2007 Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the HipHop Generation, Ebury Press, UK Ciara feat. Missy Elliott 1,2 Step 2009, Youtube, viewed 29 Dec 2013 <http://youtu.be/iBHNgV6_znU> Covach, J & Flory, A 2012 What's That Sound? An Introduction to Rock and Its History Dimitriadis, G 2009 Performing Identity/performing Culture: Hip Hop as Text,Pedagogy and Lived Practice, Peter Lang Publishing, New York, USA Forman M & Neal M 2004 That's the Joint!: The HipHop Studies Reader, Taylor & Francis Books, New York, USA Hess, M 2007 Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopaedia of the Movement, Music, and Culture, Volume 1, Greenwood Publishing, CT, USA KRSONE: Hip Hop Beyond Entertainment (Part 1 of 2) 2011, Youtube, viewed 29 Dec 2013 <http://youtu.be/ybufC_3KJwk> Mitchell, T 2001 Global Noise: Rap and Hip Hop Outside the USA, Wesleyan University Press, Middleton, USA Price, E 2006 Hip Hop Culture, ABCCLIO, Santa Barbara, USA Name: J 12 of 12 Rabaka, R 2011 Hip Hop's Inheritance: From the Harlem Renaissance to the Hip Hop Feminist Movement, Lexington Books, Maryland UK Rausch, A 2011 I Am HipHop: Conversations on the Music and Culture, Scarecrow Press, Plymouth, UK Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap, 2012, DVD, Jollygood Films, Directed by IceT Schloss, J 2009 Foundation: Bboys, Bgirls and HipHop Culture in New York, Oxford University Press, New York, USA Sharma N 2010 Hip Hop Desis: South Asian Americans, Blackness, and a Global Race Consciousness, Duke University Press, USA