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The Beginning
Hip hop was first created in the 1970's in the slums of New York City, specifically The Bronx, NY. It was mostly rooted from African America and Latino people.These people usually didn't have jobs so they made their money by playing their musical beats at clubs and other events. Then they started rapping over the beats and that's when hip hop music was invented.
Photo Source: [http://www.hiphoppuro.net/historia_del_hip_hop.html] -
1st Major Single
Before this time, hip hop music was just usually performed live. "Rapper's Delight" was one of the first hip hop singles to become well known not just in the United States, but also worldwide. The group that created this song was called The Sugarhill Gang and they were from New Jersey.
PS: [http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6312301/sugarhill-gang-rapper-dead] -
Influenced by Disco
In 1979, disco tracks were used while rapping very often because of the funky beats that came with it. It's ironic because hip hop musicians and listeners were either for the disco music or wanted to create hip hop to go against the groovy disco tracks.
PS: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-QdTTw08v8] -
The Diversification Process
In the early 80's, hip hop started to branch out to other forms or hip hop and it was all happening in New York City. Some forms of it were hip hop infused with some electro, "slow jam", "beatbox afrofuturism", and rap rock. All other rap before this time was considered to be "old-school hip hop".
PS: [http://www.last.fm/tag/80s+hip+hop] -
Becoming Mainstream
In 1980, Kurtis Blow became the first rapper to star in a commercial and represent a popular product, like Sprite. This was a big deal because people used to look down on rappers, their music, and how they lived. This specific event showed them that they became widely known and a major company wanted a hip hop singer to represent them because they thought it would help them at their advantage.
PS: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQXypV1giq0] -
Prime Time
As rap was becoming more popular, it started to transform into different kinds of hip hop. People like Run DMC and LL Cool J started using catchy hooks in their songs that made people like them even more because they get more excited when they came in and out of the song. Rappers also started to use electric guitars in their songs to create "rap rock". They used their lyrics to make "political rap" so they could express their feelings on topics such as racism.
PS: [http://bit.ly/2arjGH8] -
Gangster Rap
Also during the mid 80's, we started seeing rappers rapping about violence, gangs, drugs, girls, etc. The world wasn't used to this profanity being broadcast-ed to others through music. Some rappers were NWA, Tupac, The Notorious B.I.G. and many more. Even though many hated what these guys would rap about, boys in their teen years couldn't get enough of it and that's what helped them become so known in the hip hop industry.
PS: [http://www.stereogum.com/tag/n-w-a/] -
Hip Hop Artists From All Over
During the 90's, most common hip hop artists were just from New York or California but this started to change after 2000. People from the South like Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, and Georgia were becoming more known. Some of these artists included B.o.B., Usher, T.I., Outkast, and Lil Wayne.
PS: [http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/outkast] -
Introducing Women
For a long time rappers were singled out to just men. Now there was more and more women coming into the business and actually succeeding. Women like Missy Elliott, Lil' Kim, Lauren Hill and Nicki Minaj became very successful in their hip hop career and still are. They gave a twist to the common male rappers and made it even more interesting. They also gave empowerment to women.
PS: [https://twitter.com/nickiminaj] -
Kanye West
Kayne West is a huge part of the history of hip hop because he is widely known as one of the most influential hip hop artists of the 21st century because of all that he achieves. He has received 21 Grammy's so far. He uses so many different types of rapping styles throughout all of his albums. He also just came out with a clothing and shoe line, Yeezy. He is redefining the basic "gangster rapper" and making it much more than that.
PS: [http://bit.ly/2a9x8n2] -
The New Rock N Roll
As of now, in 2016, we keep seeing hip hop as the most popular musical genre. So many younger people only listen to hip hop and can't get enough of it. It is was almost ever teenager is listening to. It's ironic because when it first came out most Americans were against it, like the conflicts with NWA. You see more and more pop songs incorporating hip hop artists in their songs and hip hop songs being featured in commercials, movies, and trailers.
PS: [http://bit.ly/2a9x8n2]
