A Short History of American Hip Hop

By Gamal Hennessy

Earlier this week I posted an article about the erosion of hip hop heritage and the reasons behind it. Now I’d like to follow up with a brief history of the hip hop genre to put the art form in perspective. This history is primarily based on my own experience and memory (because I‘m pretty old) but I don‘t claim that this is definitive. I’m also not saying one era is better or worse. I just want to highlight the history and evolution of the genre to show how rich and complex it actually is.

Classic or Old School Hip Hop (1978-1983) This is the recognized beginning of the genre when Caribbean dance hall toasting merged with DJ’s spinning records at block parties and house parties to create a new form of music. Recognized artists from this period include Kurtis Blow, The Fearless Four, Salt & Pepa, the Sugarhill Gang and UTFO. This period roughly begins with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and ends with the rise of Eric B and Rakim.

Golden Age Hip Hop (1984-1995) This is the age when rap adopted a radio friendly four minute structure and production qualities of the records increased. Rap began to branch out here, with one set of artists (like the Beastie Boys and the Fresh Prince) becoming more accepted in the mainstream and another camp (Public Enemy and X-Clan) becoming more antagonistic to the social status quo. This was also the period where local rivalries bubbled over into more violent exchanges. Well known acts from the Golden Age include A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, NWA, Naughty by Nature, Tupac, and the Wu Tang Clan. This period generally begins with Eric B and ends with the death of the Notorious BIG.

Regional Hip Hop (1995-2007): At this point, hip hop was a universal genre in American music. The rap video was a staple on MTV and rap artists began to dominate the music charts. Artists from different parts of the country began to establish their own flavor of hip hop to compete with the music coming out of New York and LA. Cities like Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Miami, New Orleans, St. Louis and other urban hubs all produced successful hip hop acts and redefined the sound. Critics point to this as the period where image and packaging became more important than lyrical talent and originality, but its commercial success can’t be discounted. This period included artists like Common, Eminem, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Ludacris, Nas, Nelly, OutKast, and Snoop Dog. This era generally begins with the rise of Puff Daddy and ends with the emergence of T-Pain.

Mainstream Hip Hop (2007- ): Hip hop now goes beyond its own genre and has become an almost required element of popular music. Many pop, R&B, reggae, and rock songs feature a hip hop artist collaborations as a way to boost sales. House and techno mixes of hip hop songs are common. Far from being a passing fad in entertainment, hip hop is now a recognized spring board for an artist to branch out into acting, music production and even corporate management. Drake, Kid Cudi, Lil Wayne, Lupe Fiasco and T.I. have found success in this period which might be the most lucrative era in all of hip hop. The mainstream period starts with T-Pain and shows no sign of slowing down.

As I said earlier this week, I don’t mean to suggest that the rappers listed in each category only were only successful in one era. Many artists have had long term careers. I am suggesting that hip hop has a rich history spanning more than three decades and a cultural influence that is just as strong, if not stronger than other forms of American music. That music deserves to be studied and preserved in the same manner as the music of Bob Dylan, Miles Davis and the Beatles. Anything else is a rejection of what hip hop means to nightlife culture specifically and American culture in general.

Have fun.
Gamal

Special Thanks: Alysse Jordan, the head of the Social Work Library at Columbia University and a reader of New York Nights, informed me that contrary to my assertion earlier this week, there are historians and scholars working to preserve hip hop music. Anyone who is interested can find more information at these sites:

http://www.hiphoparchive.org/
http://dubois.fas.harvard.edu/hiphop-archive-harvard-university
http://www.stanford.edu/group/hiphoparchive/
http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/hiphop/
http://uhiphop.uchicago.edu/
http://h2c2harlem.com/

The Erosion of Hip Hop Heritage

By Gamal Hennessy

The roots of Hip hop have been in the news quite a bit recently. Fat Beats , the iconic repository of rare vinyl has closed. Angus Batey, a writer for the London Guardian recently argued that the history of the genre is fading away because early albums are not being reissued in the same way that blues, jazz and rock albums are. When you add to all this hip hop’s inherent obsession with being current and moving forward to the result a loss of years and years of great music by rap pioneers.

The history of rap music is a dramatic story of growth and influence that is not actively preserved. In thirty years, it has gone from what some critics referred to as a passing fad to the dominant genre of modern music. Hip hop established a strong cultural connection to America from the 80s to today. However, while most other genres of music have historians, musicologists, and other scholars preserving the music and the history of the musicians. Hip hop doesn’t really have that same archive.

One of the main ways music is maintained is through the practice of reissues, where older tracks are re-mastered, unreleased material is added and major box set compilations are released. This gives the original audience a chance to relive the music of their youth while at the same time introduces a new generation to the music. Artists in other genres, including blues, jazz and rock, benefit from extensive reissue collections every year.

Hip hop has several characteristics that hinder this kind of treatment. Live performances, mix tapes and demos are not available or difficult to come by for the purposes of re-mastering. Many of the original artists signed deals that took away all the rights to their albums, so they couldn’t re-release them even if they wanted to. Finally, hip hop has and inherent stigma against living in the past. The Grateful Dead toured constantly for years without releasing a new studio album. Maxwell and Sade stayed out of the industry for years and were able to return with chart topping albums that maintained their signature style. It is very difficult for a hip hop artists do live off their past glory that way. They have to be current or be ignored.

This struggle for reinvention limits the understanding of the public. The general public knows where hip hop is, but not where it came from. Flavor Flav only known for being on Flavor of Love, not as the influential hype man for one of the most popular afro centric hip hop acts in history. Run only known for being Rev Run and having a vague connection to hipster T-shirts, not as one of the foundations of old school rap. Queen Latifah, Ice-T, Will Smith, Ice Cube and LL Cool J have almost completely reinvented themselves as actors first and rappers second. Diddy is on his third name change. These new incarnations aren’t necessarily bad, but the new personas don’t have to erase the original music.

There is some support for the music and artists that established hip hop. VH1 just broadcast its annual Hop Hop Honors awards show to recognize the contributions of founding artists. The Rock the Bells concerts brings back artists to perform their classic albums every summer. As a small contribution to the preservation of hip hop heritage, I’d like to offer a timeline of the hip hop genre of music later this week. It won’t be definitive by any means, but it will be enlightening for anyone who thinks hip hop started with Eminem.

I don’t argue that the rappers listed in each category only were only successful in one era. Many artists have had long term careers. I am suggesting that hip hop has a rich history spanning more than three decades and a cultural influence that is just as strong, if not stronger than other forms of American music. That music deserves to be studied and preserved in the same manner as the music of Bob Dylan, Miles Davis and the Beatles. Anything else is a rejection of what hip hop means to nightlife culture specifically and American culture in general.

Have fun.
Gamal

Hip Hop: The Underground Fad that Conquered American Music

By Gamal Hennessy

No other form of music illustrates the potential impact of nightlife culture more than hip hop. It has gone from humble beginnings in New York housing projects to dominating the popular music charts and influencing other industries and media worldwide. While there are various types of hip hop associated with different geographic regions (West Coast, Dirty South, UK, French, Asian, etc.) the movement began in New York nightlife and flourished into a universal phenomenon.

Rap music began in the Bronx, when the records played at house parties and block parties became individual performances infused with the personality of the people playing and introducing the records, instead of the basic radio practice of simply playing one record after another. The influence of West Indian celebrations, specifically dancehall toasting (chanting or talking over a steady beat) combined with R&B, disco, funk and soul to create a distinct new sound.

In the early 1980s, early pioneers like Grandmaster Flash, Grand Wizard Theodore and the Furious Five developed the techniques of scratching, cutting and mixing at uptown venues like Disco Fever. Afrika Bambatta and the Zulu Nation brought hip hop out of the Bronx and into mainstream venues like Danceteria and the Roxy. He was followed closely by other local acts including Run DMC and Kurtis Blow.

Music critics labeled hip hop as a passing fad, but DJs began to spin records in venues all over the city. By the late 80s, artists as divergent as Eric B, LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys began to create radio ready songs and paved the way for a golden age of hip hop that gave us Public Enemy, De La Soul, a Tribe Called Quest and the Notorious BIG.

Hip hop began to spread across the US and into other countries by the mid 1990s. It was at this point that the genre was fully embraced by the mainstream. Groups like the Wu Tang Clan translated their musical success into clothing brands, video games and films. Moguls like Jay-Z and Diddy used hip hop as a springboard to own record companies, nightclubs, sports franchises, film production studios, clothing lines and real estate ventures.

Today, hip hop is the default musical genre of nightlife. It dominates the Billboard charts and the video play lists. Many mainstream pop songs have guest appearances from major hip hop acts embedded in them. Patrons looking for mainstream hip hop can go anywhere from Santos Party House to Hudson Terrace. People looking for the old school classics can run to bOb Bar or Painkiller. Anyone looking for the next big New York talent can visit the open mic events at Pyramid Club or the Nuyorican Poets Café. You can find hip hop in every borough every night. All you have to do is look.

The irony of hip hop is that instead of being a passing fad, it has grown from its humble roots in New York nightlife to a level of influence that surpasses almost every other genre of modern music. It doesn’t simply impact culture in terms of music, fashion, dance and entertainment. It has become a significant contributor to our speech patterns, language and the image of modern America throughout the world. Figures like Jay-Z and Diddy are symbols of the potential of nightlife to move from a counterculture phenomenon to mainstream dominance.

Have fun.
G