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Hip-hop
From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium
Hip-hop (or hiphop or hip hop) is a musical and cultural artform, with elements of poetry, rhythm, dance, and dress, which first emerged in the Bronx and South Bronx neighborhoods of New York City in the mid-to-late 1970's. Hip-hop is primarily an African-American cultural form, though from its earliest days it was influenced by Latino, Afro-Caribbean, and other cultures, and it has since grown, like blues and jazz before it, to be a global music phenomenon which embraces, influences, and has been influenced by an enormous variety of musical forms and audiences.
Early history
Among the earliest practitioners of hip-hop were DJ's such as Kool DJ Herc and Grandmaster Flash. Following on the Jamaican tradition of the "sound system men", these DJ's played highly amplified tracks from existing phonograph records, using multiple turntables to keep the music playing without interruption. Grandmaster Flash was the first to be credited with synchronizing two turntables, then using a two-channel fader to keep a single beat going indefinitely, known as cutting, while Grand Wizard Theodore developed the technique of scratching, or moving the record back and forth under the needle to produce percussive and rhythmic sounds. At the same time, an announcer of MC would exhort the crowd, calling out dance steps, names, and simple call-and-response rhymes such as "Clap ya hands to tha beat," and "Ho-tel, mo-tel, Holiday Inn." Over time, these shout-outs grew more and more elaborate, and the most skilled MC's, such as Cowboy and Melle Mel, gained followings almost as fervent as those of the DJ's. Many of these performances were outdoors in the summer, and were known as "parties in the park", while others, such as DJ Afrika Bambaataa's events at the Bronx River Community Center, were indoors.
First recordings
The earliest hip-hop performances were strictly live, and no one in the recording industry at the time had any idea of recording them. Grandmaster Flash used to sell cassette tapes to his fans, priced according to length, but this was strictly a sideline. It wasn't until the late 1970s that record magnate (and former R&B songstress) Sylvia Robinson decided to test the market, but instead of approaching established artists she put together a pre-fab group featuring "Big Bank Hank," a young man she'd overheard rapping at a local pizza shop. Hank, invited into the studio with "Wonder Mike" and "Master Gee," turned to his friend Grandmaster Caz for some rhymes, borrowing Caz's spiral notebook of material. Much of the resulting record, Rapper's Delight, was based on Caz's material, even including a namecheck ("Caz" was short for "c-a-s-a-n-o-v-a f-l-y) for the absent rapper. The recording, "Rapper's Delight," was released on Sylvia's Sugarhill label, and proved an overnight success. There is some dispute, however, as to whether it qualifies as the very first Hip-hop recording; only a week earlier, the Fatback Band had released a B-side, "King Tim III (Personality Jock)", which featured an extended rap. The initial perception, which lingered over the first few years of Hip-hop, was that these successes were, at best, "novelty records," and that the fad would soon peter out.
From old school to middle school
The phrase "old school" has different meanings for different fans of hip-hop. In its classical sense, it refers to the original group of artists in and around New York, including Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, and early groups or "crews" such as the Zulu Nation or the Juice Crew. It's also common to include on this list the first generation of hip-hop artists who made it onto the charts, among them Kurtis Blow, Whodini, the Fat Boys, Doug E Fresh, and the Cold Crush Brothers. The mid-1980's marked a turning point, with Run-DMC emerging as the first hip-hop supergroup (Run of of Run-DMC originally toured as "Son of Kurtis Blow"), and younger artists such as LL Cool J and KRS-One breaking away from the older, heavily-produced tracks of the past with a leaner, meaner sound. Sparse, sharp rhythms, like the cowbells in LL Cool J's "Rock the Bells," and spare, minimalist piano riffs (such as the one that KRS-One's "Nine millimeter" is based around) took the place of the disco backbeats. At the same time, the style of rapping changed, becoming rhythmically more flexible and syncopated, unlike the sing-song 4/4 rhymes of the earliest artists.
