Hip hop music

Hip hop music is a style of popular music. It is composed of two main components: rapping (MC'ing) and DJing (mixing and scratching); along with breakdancing and graffiti (tagging), these are the four elements of hip hop, a cultural movement which began among African Americans and Puerto Ricans in New York City in the early 1970s. The terms rap and rap music are often used to describe hip hop music; the terms rap music and hip hop music are generally synonymous, although rap music is usually not used to describe hip hop songs without vocals.

Social impact

Hip hop music is a part of hip hop, a cultural movement that includes the activities of breakdancing and graffiti art, as well as associated slang, fashion and other elements. The popularity of music has helped to popularize hip hop culture, both in the United States and, to a lesser degree, abroad.

Related Topics:
Hip hop - Slang - Fashion

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Contemporary hip hop fashion includes the wearing of baggy jeans slung low around the waist, gold or platinum chains and boots or a fresh pair of kicks, and bandanas or doo rags tied around the head often worn with a baseball cap on top) ; these elements are more typical of men than women. In addition, there are and have been more transitory fads associated with hip hop, such as rolling up one leg of one's pants, jogging suits and sweatshirts. Other hip hop fashions that have long since died out include the late-1980s trend for African-influenced clothing styles in accordance with the Afrocentric stylings of much hip hop music of the time (from bands such as X-Clan), and the "high top fade" hairstyle popularized by Will Smith (The Fresh Prince) and Christopher "Kid" Reid of Kid 'n Play, among others. Though hip hop fashion was associated almost exclusively with African Americans in urban areas in the 1970s and 80s, it has since spread to mainstream listeners throughout the world.

Related Topics:
Hip hop fashion - Afrocentric - X-Clan - Will Smith - Christopher "Kid" Reid - Kid 'n Play

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Since the late nineties and especially since the turn of the century, many hip hop songs - and indeed probably the majority of mainstream hip hop songs - have focused on the "bling bling" lifestyle, which is a focus on expensive jewelry, cars and clothing that symbolize wealth and status. "Bling bling" has its roots in the enormously commercially successful late-to-mid nineties work (specifically, music videos) of Puff Daddy and Bad Boy Records as well as Master P's No Limit Records. However, the term was coined in 1999 (see 1999 in music) by Cash Money Records artist B.G. on his single Bling Bling, and the Cash Money roster were perhaps the epitome of the "bling bling" lifestyle and attitude. Though many rappers, mostly gangsta rappers, unapologetically pursue and celebrate bling bling, others, mostly artists outside of the hip hop mainstream, have expressly criticized the idealized pursuit of bling bling as being materialistic.

Related Topics:
Bling bling - Puff Daddy - Bad Boy Records - Master P - No Limit Records - 1999 - 1999 in music - Cash Money Records - Materialistic

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The widespread success of hip hop - specifically gangsta rap - has also had a significant social impact on the demeanor of modern youth. The sometimes egotistic and degenerate attitudes often portrayed in the lyrics and videos of certain hip hop artists have shown negative effects on some of their idolizing fans. While the attitudes of specific artists certainly do not represent the rest of the hip hop community, and the effects of lyrical content on youths are debatable, very often are youths adopting the much glamourized "gangsta" persona while not being members of any gang. Often these personas incite anti-social behavior such as peer harassment, neglect towards education, rejection of authority, and petty crimes such as vandalism. While the majority of listeners are able to distinguish entertainment from lessons in social conduct, an evident pseudo-gangsta sub-culture has risen amongst North American youth.

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Because hip hop music almost always puts an emphasis on hyper-masculinity, its lyrics often reflect a homophobic mindset. There has been little to no room in hip hop music for openly gay or lesbian artists. It is often suspected that there are a great number of gay or lesbian hip hop musicians who do not come out of the closet for fear of the decline of their career. Rumours of such have involved hip hop artists such as Queen Latifah, Da Brat, and several others. In 2003 the first openly gay hip hop and rap artist, Caushun, was signed to a major label; his record and career were not successful.

Related Topics:
Queen Latifah - Da Brat - Caushun

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As with most insular musical-cultural movements such as jazz and the hippie counterculture of the 60s, hip hop has a distinctive slang, that includes words like yo, flow and phat. Due to hip hop's extraordinary commercial success in the late nineties and early 21st century, many of these words have been assimilated into many different dialects across America and the world and even to non-hip hop fans (the word dis for example is remarkably prolific). There are also words like homie which predate hip hop but are often associated with it because of the close connection between recorded hip hop and the dialect used by many performers, African American Vernacular English. Sometimes, terms like what the dilly, yo are popularized by a single song (in this case, "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See" by Busta Rhymes) and are only used briefly. Of special importance is the rule-based slang of Snoop Dogg, who adds -izz to the middle of words so that shit becomes shizznit (the addition of the n occurs occasionally as well). This practice, with origins in Frankie Smith's non-sensical language from his 1982 single "Double Dutch Bus," has spread to even non-hip hop fans, who may be unaware of its derivation.

Related Topics:
Jazz - Hippie - Counterculture - Slang - African American Vernacular English - Busta Rhymes - Snoop Dogg - Frankie Smith - 1982

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Musical impact

Aside from hip hop's great popularity, the genre has had an impact on most varieties of popular music. There are performers that combine either hip hop beats or rapping with rock and roll, heavy metal, punk rock, merengue, salsa, cumbia, funk, jazz, house, taarab, reggae, highlife, mbalax and soul. Teen pop singers and boy bands like the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey and Britney Spears utilize hip hop beats in many of their most popular singles.

Related Topics:
Popular music - Rock and roll - Heavy metal - Punk rock - Merengue - Salsa - Cumbia - Funk - Jazz - House - Taarab - Reggae - Highlife - Mbalax - Soul - Teen pop - Boy band - Backstreet Boys - *NSYNC - Christina Aguilera - Mariah Carey - Britney Spears

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Hip hop has had an especially close relationship with soul music since the early 1990s. Indeed, today there is little recorded soul that does not feature some element of hip hop. This fusion, called nu soul, can be traced back to the late 1980s New Jack Swing groups, though it did not reach its modern form until the rise of performers like Mary J. Blige. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the hip hop influence grew more prominent in singers like D'Angelo, Lauryn Hill, Jill Scott and Alicia Keys.

Related Topics:
New Jack Swing - Mary J. Blige - D'Angelo - Lauryn Hill - Jill Scott - Alicia Keys

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During the 80's, popular acts like Run-D.M.C. used both hard rock and hip hop, especially in their genre-crossing, unprecedented smash hit "Walk This Way", performed with Aerosmith. Other performers, like Ice-T and his band Body Count used hip hop, punk rock and metal, though the first bands to combine metal with rap vocal techniques are said to be Anthrax and Pantera (others early adopters include Faith No More, Rage Against The Machine and Red Hot Chili Peppers). By the end of the 90s, rap-metal grew both more popular and more derided by fans of both genres, with the rise of bands like Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit and Ko?n, who were called nu metal.

Related Topics:
Run-D.M.C. - Hard rock - Walk This Way - Aerosmith - Ice-T - Body Count - Anthrax - Pantera - Faith No More - Rage Against The Machine - Red Hot Chili Peppers - Linkin Park - Limp Bizkit - Ko?n - Nu metal

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In Latin America, rapping was already known in the 1980s, in the form of toasting, a part of Jamaican ragga music. Rapped lyrics were already a part of soca music, for example. The growth of hip hop in the area, however, led to more pronounced fusions like reggaeton and timba. Similarly, in Africa, rapping-like vocals (such as Senegalese tassou) were already a part of popular music, and hip hop was easily adapted to popular styles like taarab and mbalax.

Related Topics:
Toasting - Ragga - Soca music - Reggaeton - Timba - Tassou - Taarab - Mbalax

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Also, one cannot underestimate the influence the genre had over the numerous styles of Electronic Music, mostly in the UK. Hip-Hop's influence is well noticed in genres such as Jungle, UK Garage, Grime and more.

Related Topics:
Electronic Music - UK - Jungle - UK Garage - Grime

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Censorship issues

Hip hop has probably encountered more problems with censorship than any other form of popular music in recent years, due to the use of sexually and violently explicit lyrics. The pervasive use of curse words in many songs has created challenges in the broadcast of such material both on television stations such as MTV, in music video form, and on radio. As a result, many hip hop recordings are broadcast in censored form, with offending language blanked out of the soundtrack (though usually leaving the backing music intact). The result – which quite often renders the remaining lyrics unintelligible – has become almost as widely identified with the genre as any other aspect of the music, and has been parodied in films such as Austin Powers in Goldmember, in which a character – performing in a parody of a hip-hop music video – performs an entire verse that is blanked out.

Related Topics:
Curse words - MTV - Music video - Austin Powers in Goldmember

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Media

Hip hop has some major American magazines devoted to it, most famously including The Source, XXL and Vibe. For a long time, BET was the only television channel likely to play much hip hop, but in recent years, the mainstream channels VH1 and MTV have played hip hop more than any other style. Many individual cities have produced their own local hip hop newsletters, while hip hop magazines with national distribution are found in a few other countries.

Related Topics:
The Source - XXL - Vibe - BET - VH1 - MTV

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