Rap Music a Soundtrack of Revolution

Rap Music - a Soundtrack of Revolution

Soundtrack of Revolution for the Generations of Rap Artists Since 1980s

Hip hop is a culture that encompasses a vast corporation of artistic forms, which originated from marginalized subcultures within the South Bronx in New York City during the 1970s. This culture encloses four distinct elements, representing diverse manifestations of its founding reasons: the rap music (oral), disc jockey (turntablism), graffiti art (visual), and break-dancing (physical). Regardless of their controversial forms of execution, these artists find a general unity within their association's manifestations of poverty, violence, and racism underlying the historical context of their cultural origin. This association served to provide reactionary outlets from the urbanization hardships which it underwent.

The cultural origin of hip hop stems from a chunk of parties of the Ghetto Brothers who would plug amps for their musical instruments and speakers into lampposts at Prospect Avenue and 163rd Street. Similarly, DJ Kool Herc performed the same at Sedgwick Avenue. These artists would mix several samples of existing musical records accompanied by their own musical shouts to the crowd and/or a group of dancers. Another tremendous force in the premature rap movement was Afrika Bambaataa with his group of the Zulu Nation. He could spin records and incorporate an element of cultural awareness in his spinning, and this was newly interesting his party crowds. History thereby coins these artists as the founding fathers of rap. Rap music has become the cornerstone of the hip hop culture. Since its inception, hip hop cultures spread like a bush-fire into both urban and sub-cultural communities throughout the world. Today, rap music that is a sub-element of hip hop culture has been the fastest evolving music genre within the U.S. And the rest of the world. This paper thereby intends to discuss endless efforts of rap artists to create a soundtrack of revolution for their generations, and to explain the evolution of rap music from its inception to the colossal industry it is today.

Background of the Hip Hop Culture and Rap Music

The origin of hip hop culture traces its roots back from 1970s within the South Bronx and streets of New York City. This culture is deeply rooted into the pain and experiences of Black-Americans during the era of slavery

. While in the working fields, slaves could often sing the songs of "call and answer." Moreover, when the slaves attended their religious services, this trendy singing culture could continue regularly. This culture thereby prevailed in the Black-American churches even after the end of slavery. During 1970s, the duration within which the American music did not appear to be undergoing evolution, in the New York City, two deejays emerged: DJ Kool Herc and DJ Hollywood. These deejays had sufficient experience with the aging disco scenes that they got musical inspirations. They could pull records from their parents' homes, and later begun to spin short sections on turntables at local parties after which they begun to use two turntables simultaneously. Thereafter, the cultures underwent tremendous changes following the efforts of rap artists and incorporations of other sub-elements. Afrika Bambaataa with his Zulu Nation group was another tremendous force during the early rap movements. Afrika was a deejay who could spin records at parties and parks. In his spinning, he incorporated some elements of cultural awareness hence creating a new and interesting sound to his crowd.

Notwithstanding its establishment by black youths from the streets, the influence of hip hop culture and rap music has become worldwide

. Research statistics reveals that approximately 70% of the rap audience are non-blacks.Hip hop encloses four elements: graffiti, break-dancing, disc jockey, and rap.

However, this paper will major on the rap music.

One is capable to differentiate a Filipino or Chinese rapper using similar slang, as well as the original Black American rapper. This it because the foundation of the hip hop language took place along the streets where street language was transmitted into the hip hop culture via the rap music

.For instance, the hip hop rappers may use adjectives such as da bomb, legit, hittin, dope, to describe any excellent activity or scenario regardless of the ethnic origin of the rapper. One of the most commonly used and popular word within hip hop culture and rap music is the term "nigga." Therefore, the street language has become the dialect language of all sorts. Despite having a different first language, rap music artist can still understand the hip hop slang. As a result, it is possible to hear an Asian, white, or Latino rap artist saying "TJ is my nigga," meaning "TJ is my good friend." Vocabularies of this culture thereby transforms constantly with time. Today, whatever a person can term as a "cool statement" can turn out to be a rap lyric tomorrow, but become out of date just in a year or less.

Despite its controversial methods of execution, the hip hop culture finds its common ground of association to racial discrimination, poverty, violence, and oppression. All these underlie a historical context of its cultural foundation, which provides for a reactionary input from the above hardships. This was through a form of self-expression that could act to proclaim alternatives to life situations reflect upon the pros and cons of life, and challenge or evoke the circumstantial moods within an environment. One of the diversely positive effects of the hip hop culture is on its efforts of encouraging corporation among individuals.

DJ Hollywood, DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and Busy Starski Bee are the widely popular artists credited for further devising the term "hip hop." One can trace the commercial history of the rap music back in 1980 when the Sugar Hill Gang performed a successful song titled, Rapper's Delight. As the message in rap music grew more cohesive and relevant, so did its interest from the people. Collective and continuous messages from the rap music told unspoken stories of the urban streets; violence, crime, and drug abuse. Regardless of how debauched the message was, the black urban youths established a platform for outward expression of their rage towards the entire American society.

DJ Kool Herc was a disc jockey who endeavored to incorporate the Jamaican style of disc jockeying via recitation of improvised reggae records. Inopportunely, the New York City's interest was greater towards reggae music than the rap music during this period. In response, DJ Kool adapted a new rap style with an appealing sound that could please his audience. He thereby involved himself into the rap music by chanting over persecution or instrumental sections of any prevalent music of the day. With the emergence of disc jockeys, hip hop culture and rap music begun to spread through urban areas and streets of New York.

This marked the commencement of a new music genre by early 1980s. Following the evolution of this phenomena, party shouts became more intricate, and deejays begun to incorporate several rhymes into their rap music. As the rap music got its way through the urban communities of the New York City, lots of people begun using it as a mode of self-expression with unlimited boundaries. It had no set of formal rules, except being original and rhyming with the musical beats. Anybody could rap about an issue pertaining to his/her personal life, life at school or anything relating to American life.

A perfect example illustrating how the rap music and hip hop culture cuts across all ethnic boundaries is evident within the Asian communities. After the inception and successful development of hip hop culture, its influence extends further and beyond the limits of the New York City. In North Africa and the Middle East, rap has been a well-established and accessible platform for artistic expression and political protests. It is quite sensible to say that hip hop culture would take trace a root and flourish within the Arabian music scenes

. With its rhyme-based loud politics and lyrical styles, the genre can perfectly fit into the legacy of protest, political, and poetic consciousness that exists across North Africa and the Middle East. As a matter of fact, Nouri Gana wrote in a revolt and raps within the Arabian world "it is never farfetched to envisage that rap music originated from Arabic culture."

Rap music emerged as one of the most controversial and distinctive music genres over the past few decades. A fundamental element of hip hop culture outlines the conditions and experiences of African-Americans who lived in the spectrum of marginalized circumstances, such as the racial stereotyping and stigmatization in order to struggle for survival within the violent conditions of Ghetto. In this context, the rap provided a kind of protest to the oppressed, a voice to the voiceless, and alternatives to cultural styles and identities for the marginalized communities. Thus, rap is not only music to dance or party to, but also a potent mode of cultural identity. It has been a powerful engine for cultural and socio-political expression, providing an informational platform and medium that describes the rage of Black-Americans facing oppression, minimal advancement opportunities, the changing street moods, as well as the everyday life of sheer survival. As a result, rap has been like a cultural virus, spreading its sounds, attitude, and images throughout all cultures (social and political bodies).

DJ Kool paved a leeway for hip hop culture across the entire world, for the new rap artists such as "Grandmaster Flash." DJ Grandmaster Flash together with his group of the "Furious Five" were great innovators of hip hop, surpassing the rap genres of the party music origins in order to explore a wide scope of rap lyrics and sonic horizons. DJ Grandmaster Flash began to spinning musical records in his youth age in a team within the Bronx. While attending his technical school courses in electronics, Grandmaster was a deejay within some local disco trails

. With time, he developed a set of groundbreaking artistic techniques including phasing (manipulation of turntable speeds), back-spinning (repetition of brief sound snippets by manually turning the records), and cutting (movement between tracks at exact rates of sound beats). DJ Grandmaster Flash thereby created the fundamental music vocabularies that deejays continuously follow to date.

DJ Grandmaster Flash did not readily collaborate with other rappers till 1978 when he first teamed up with the fabulous Kurtis Blow. Afterwards, he begun to work with the Furious Five rappers Cowboy (Keith Wiggins), Melle Mel (Melvin Glover), Kid Creole (Nathaniel Glover), Rahiem (Guy Williams), and Mr. Ness (Eddie Morris). This group quickly grew to become a music legend group within the New York City and across its borders, attracting public attention to know Grandmaster Flash not only as a deejay, but also for his efforts towards the success of the Furious Five group in masterful rapping. This was an exceptional group known for both rap signatures trading and blending of lyrics.

During the events of DJ Grandmaster's groundbreaking success, another rap music ground emerged out of the blues and snitched the buttons of the rapper's dance chart. This group was known as the "Sugar Hill Gang." Until recently, many people thought that this group (the Sugar Hill Gang) was the first rap group that raised up the foundation of what we have today as the world's hip hop. This is not the fact about the foundation or establishment of rap music or the hip hop culture. The Sugar Hill Gang merely served to create a platform for radio friendly tunes, which the contemporary hip-hop terms as a "one hit wonder"

. Notwithstanding the popularity of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, the group did not record music until the "Rappers Delight" hit by the Sugar Hill Gangs, which confirmed the existence of high interest and market for the hip hop music releases. A year later, Grandmaster Flash and his group (the Furious Five) introduced "Supperrappin" lyrics followed by the Enjoy record brands.

In 1980, Grandmaster Flash, the Furious Five group, and the Sugar Hill Gang joined hands to produce and record a rap song titled "Freedom." This hit achieved the rankof being in the top twenty among the national R & B. charts, selling up to over fifty thousand copies. Following this hit was the "Birthday Party" produced in 1981. As a matter of fact, the first and true landmark recording by the Furious Five group and Grandmaster Flash was "The Adventure of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel," recorded in 1981. This introduced Flash's techniques in "cutting" to fashion a stunning sound collage out of snippets of songs by Queen, Chic, and Blondies

. The subsequent effort by Grandmaster Flash and Furious Five group in 1982 was even more revelatory than before when the group recorded and produced "The Message." This marked the first time for hip hop to become a vehicle not merely used for boasting and bragging, but for sharp social observation, with Melle Mel conveying a blistering rap providing details on the life realities within the ghetto areas. This record was a critical hit and enormous step towards solidification of the rap music as an essential and daily mode of musical expression.

During early 1980s a good number of people had begun to realize the potential of the developing hip-hop industry

. This rise was due to the concrete and stable foundation set by DJ Kool Herc in compliance with the viable and commercial success of the Furious Five group, DJ Grandmaster Flash, and the Sugar Hill Gang. Nobody realized this growing opportunity and took more advantage over this situation than the Run and DMC. The New York rappers DMC (Darryl McDaniels), DJ James Master Jay (Jason Mizell), and Run (Joe Simons) formally joined hands to form the "Orange Crush" during early 1980s, leading to the rise of Run DMC in 1982 upon their graduation from college. At childhood, McDaniels and Mizell had known each other in Hollis, New York where they attended the same kindergarten. Upon circulating demo tapes within the music industry, the three youths signed to Records of their Profiles, after which they produced an underground hit entitled "It's like That." Nevertheless, it was the single b-side; "Sucker MC's" that fashioned the "buzz"

along the streets. This gave birth to most of prevalent terms within the hip hop culture and barely became a genre on its own. Statistics reveal that the "single" gave birth to the contemporary hip hop language and sounds (dream machine as the only instrument, fashioned image of a B-boy, plus scratching from turntable).

During the rise and success of the singles, their debut album received the highest sales in 1984, marking the first time of honorable bestowment on a rap act. Moreover, they gave an upper hand during the prestigious King Holiday (a tribute paid to Martin Luther King as a socio-political hero)

and the San City events (Artists Against Apartheid). They further broke into the mainstream two sides of the Atlantic in 1986 by releasing a heavy hit of rap collaboration "Walk This Way" (introducing Joe Perry and Steve Tyler of Aerosmith). This distinctive video captured the audience imaginations from both sides of the Atlantic. Evidently, "King of Rock" and "Rock Box" of earlier singles predicted this partnership, fusing both rap and rock.

By 1987, "Raising Hell" became the first rap album to knockout the R & B's number one slot, the first to go platinum, and the first to sneak into the U.S. top ten rap music. This was after its massive and successful sales of approximately three million copies within the United States. Additionally, the "Run DMC" also became the first rap music group to video screening through MTV, the first to non-athletes to ratify Adidas products (a deal of sponsorship that followed the "Run DMC" track titled "My Adidas"), and the first to appear on the Rolling Stone cover

. In essence, the "Run DMC" put Hip Hop into a mainstream flow of the American society. This confirmed to the entire world that the Hip Hop and rap are here to stay.

During late 1980s, the Hip Hop movements were overwhelmingly progressing. The Music Television (MTV) led the rap music further and deep into sub-urban areas within the entire country. What begun merely in the Bronx, New York City as sparks and party starters was now spreading into other states such as the California and Los Angeles. The concert tour of "The Fresh Fest," featuring Kurtis Blow, Run DMC, Newcleus, Whodini, and the Fat Boys, emerged to be the first big money making a tour for the Hip Hop. Towards the end of 1980s, the rap artists had begun to make various changes within the context of their Hip-Hop culture and materials. They shifted the rap music from the party-type view into social messages

. Consequently, the first rap music group to earn social fame via the social message oriented raps was the "Public Enemy."

The Public Enemy served to re-frame the image of Hip Hop culture and rap music. After rewriting the rules of hip hop, the group became the most influential, but controversial rap group of the late years of 1980s as viewed by a number of people. The Public Enemy group established a deviation on hardcore rap that was majorly political and musical revolutionary by building from the Run DMC's rise in "gangster rhyming" and the street oriented beats

. With his authoritative and powerful baritone, the leading rapper "Chuck D" commonly rhymed about diverse social problems, predominantly those that relate to the Black communities, often condoning the social activism and revolutionary tactics. Chuck D. always directed the hip hop explicitly towards the pro-Black consciousness and self-awareness that extendedly became the hip hop cultural signature rap music revolution throughout the proceeding decade.

The Public Enemy group was musically revolutionary just as their team of production, the Bomb Squad, which created comprehensive soundscapes relying on the avant-garde techniques of cut-and-paste, piercing sirens, deep funk, relentless beats, and the unrecognizable samples. This created an invigorating and chaotic rap music styles, making Chuck D's forceful vocals intoxicating alongside the arborist raps by his hilarious counterpart; Flavor Flev. Flavor thereby became the group's visual and focal point despite his obscurity within the music, due to his oversized clock that hanged from his neck and the comic sunglasses. When the rock and rap critics embraced the group during records of late 1980s and early 1990s, the Public Enemy often ran into controversies with its lyric and militant stance. This was particularly after the production of its 1988 album of "It takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back," which drove the group into celebrity. During early 1990s, all the controversies settled down when the group entered hiatus, and it was now clear that the Public Enemy group was one of the American's most radical and influential bands of the period.

By early 1990s, the rap music was already spreading from coast to coast and from urban to Suburban areas

. When the hip hop culture and artistic rap music works knocked the doors of Los Angeles

, the industry entirely transformed, entering the age of "gangster rap." This new system had shaken up the entire globe, led by a group of artists named N.W.A. (Niggers With Attitude). The N.WA was an exceptional embodiment of the Los Angeles group and its outlook. This group comprised DJ Yella (Antoine Larraby), Dr. Dre (Andre Young), Eazy E (Eric Wright), MC Ren (Lorenzo Patterson), andIce Cube (Oshea Patterson) who was a founder member. These pioneers of "gangster rap" were violent, sexy, and unapologetic. This group broke the records as the most notorious since the conception of rap music. After rewriting of the hardcore rap rules by the Public Enemy, affirming that rap music could be revolutionary, intelligent, and socially ace and aware, N.W.A. emerged in late 1980s, capitalizing on the Public Enemy's sonic innovations while disregarding the message. As their preferable alternative, N.W.A. celebrated the violence decadence of criminal life, capturing every aspect of it in blunt but harsh language. Formerly, N.W.A's relentless spasm seemed to be a serious and vital commentary. "N.W.A. And The Posse" was the group's first album, though they performed only four of the raps. "Straight Outta Compton" thereby counted as their first chief release.

Upon investigations of the "Straight Outta Compton's" ill-reputed single entitled "Fuck The Police" in 1989 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Bureau set numerous actions against the N.W.A. In the American history of the music industry, this action marked the group as the first music artists to receive a threatening letter from the FBI. The next release from the group was "Efil4zaggin" (Niggaz4life spelled from left to right), which made America as the number one on the charts, also exceeded the factor of its predecessor's outrage

. It reached this level through addressing the gang pedophilia and rape, alongside the conventional agenda of oral sex, prostitution, and cop killing. Nonetheless, conflicting egos bared the band from recording their third album. The producer Dr., Dre quit the group for a formal career in 1992. Even though the group was never active again, their impact, from their bass driven and funky beats, and the exaggerated lyrics prevailed throughout the 1990s

Rap music, which predominantly originated from the streets of New York City, underwent dominations by the laid back, mellow, and bass beats of the California. Really, from 1989 to mid-1990s, tales on the inner city life from the West Coast group within the Golden State uniquely controlled the rap industry

. The producer of N.W.A. (Dr. Dre) introduced Calvin Broadas (Snoop Dogg) to the world or hip hop. To embody the 1990s' "gangster rap," Snoop Dogg had to explore the lines between fiction and reality. Upon his introduction into the rap music culture by Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg swiftly became a famous rap star following his laconic rhyming lyrics, which appeared to be realistic, especially after his arrest for murder accomplice charges. This arrest certainly fortified his myth, supporting his debut album of 1993's "Doggystyle," which made him the first rapper to go into the music charts at number one.

During Snoop Dogg's time, another rapper from the West Coast who was extremely popular was Tupac Skakur. He became the improbable martyr of the "gangster rap." At the onset of his rap career, it was not clear if he could emerge as one of the famous and definitive rappers of 1990s. He began as a second-string dancer and rapper for "Digital Underground"

, but later in 1992 he released a much-admired debut album "2pacalypse Now" that he quickly followed by a concert in the urban drama juice. On the course of the subsequent year, Tupac's profile substantially rose, basing on his run-ins with the rule as his music.

At the peak of 1994, Tupac matched Snoop Dogg to be the most controversial figure within the rap industry at the moment, spending as much of his time in the recording studio as he did in the prison. His outraging mythology assisted him produce his album of 1995 "Me Against the World," which entered the rap charts at number 1, and also opened him up for facing exploration charges. As illustrated by the "Dear Mamma" (tribute paid to single mothers), Tupac was capable of violence as well as sensitivity

. Tension had been building up between the West and East rappers. As a result, Tupac Shakur and his label records represented the West while the Notorious B.I.G. And his label records represented the East, both heading for a musical feud.