Hip Hop: Genre Background

Hip hop is a musical genre which developed alongside hip hop culture, and is commonly based on concepts of looping, rapping, free styling, scratching, sampling and beat boxing. The music is used to express concerns of political, social, and personal issues. Hip hop began in the Bronx in New York City in the 1970s, primarily among African Americans, with some Jamaican immigrant influence. The term rap is often used synonymously with hip hop, however, the latter denotes the practices of an entire subculture.

Rapping, also referred to as MC- ing' or emceeing, is a vocal style in which the artist speaks lyrically, in rhyme and verse, generally to an instrumental or synthesized beat. Beats, almost always in 4/4 time signature, can be created by looping portions of other songs, usually by a DJ, or sampled from portions of other songs by a producer.

The roots of hip hop are found in African American music. The griots of West Africa are a group of traveling singers and poets who are part of an oral tradition dating back hundreds of years. Their vocal style is similar to that of rappers. The African-American traditions of signifying', the dozens, and jazz poetry are all descended from the griots.

Hip hop arose during the 1970s when block parties became increasingly popular in New York City, especially in the Bronx. Block parties incorporated DJ's who played popular genres of music, especially funk and soul music. DJ's, realizing its positive reception, began isolating the percussion breaks of popular songs. This technique was then common in Jamaican dub music and had spread to New York City via the substantial Jamaican immigrant community. A major proponent of the technique was the 'godfather' of hip hop, the Jamaican-born DJ Kool Herc.


The new school of hip hop was a second wave of hip hop music starting from 1983–84 with the early records of Run-D.M.C. and LL Cool J. Like the hip hop preceding it, it came predominately from New York City. The new school was initially characterized in form by drum machine led minimalism, often tinged with elements of rock. It was notable for taunts and boasts about rapping, and socio-political commentary, both delivered in an aggressive, self-assertive style. In image as in song its artists projected a tough, cool, street b-boy attitude. These elements contrasted sharply with the funk and disco influenced outfits, novelty hits, live bands, synthesizers and party rhymes of artists prevalent in 1984, and rendered them old school. New school artists made shorter songs that could more easily gain radio play, and more cohesive LPs than their old school counterparts. By 1986 their releases began to establish hip hop as a fixture of the mainstream.