The appearance of music videos changed entertainment: they often glorified urban neighborhoods.[69] The music video for "Planet Rock" showcased the subculture of hip hop musicians, graffiti artists, and b-boys/b-girls. Many hip hop-related films were released between 1982 and 1985, among them Wild Style, Beat Street, Krush Groove, Breakin, and the documentary Style Wars. These films expanded the appeal of hip hop beyond the boundaries of New York.
By 1984, youth worldwide were embracing the hip hop culture. The hip hop artwork and "slang" of U.S. urban communities quickly found its way to Europe, as the culture's global appeal took root. This was especially notable in the United Kingdom, where British hip hop grew its own voice and style from the 1980s, with rappers such as She Rockers, MC Duke, and Derek B, followed by Silver Bullet, Monie Love, Caveman, and London Posse.
Women artists have also been at the forefront of the hip hop movement since its inception in the Bronx. Nevertheless, as gangsta rap became the dominant force in hip hop music, there were many songs with misogynistic (anti-women) lyrics and many music videos depicted women in a sexualized fashion. The negation of female voice and perspective is an issue that has come to define mainstream hip hop music. The recording industry is less willing to back female artists than their male counterparts, and when it does back them, often it places emphasis on their sexuality over their musical substance and artistic abilities.[70] Since the turn of the century, female hip hop artists have struggled to get mainstream attention, with only a few, such as older artists like the female duo Salt N' Pepa to more contemporary ones like Lil' Kim and Nicki Minaj, reaching platinum status.[70]
With the commercial success of gangsta rap in the early 1990s, the emphasis in lyrics shifted to drugs, violence, and misogyny. Early proponents of gangsta rap included groups and artists such as Ice-T, who recorded what some consider to be the first gangsta rap single, "6 in the Mornin'",[71] and N.W.A whose second album Niggaz4Life became the first gangsta rap album to enter the charts at number one.[72]
Gangsta rap also played an important part in hip hop becoming a mainstream commodity. Considering albums such as N.W.A's Straight Outta Compton, Eazy-E's Eazy-Duz-It, and Ice Cube's AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted were selling in such high numbers meant that black teens were no longer hip hop's sole buying audience.[73] As a result, gangsta rap became a platform for artists who chose to use their music to spread political and social messages to parts of the country that were previously unaware of the conditions of ghettos.[71] While hip hop music now appeals to a broader demographic, media critics argue that socially and politically conscious hip hop has been largely disregarded by mainstream America.[74]
With Hip-Hop starting to grab traction, the early 2000s was a turning point for the genre that influenced the sound, lifestyle and the fashion of the decade.[75] At the time, The Beatles had the top selling album of the 2000s until Eminem surpassed them with 32.2 million in sales.[76] While sampling has always been a central part of hip hop music, Kanye West's The College Dropout offered new innovations in the genre. The album, released in 2004, sold over 4 million copies worldwide,[77] has been noted by critics for its manipulation of samples, many pulled from pop culture, where West would speed up or slow down the original beat, a trend that became popular as a result.[78] For example, West's debut single "Through the Wire" used a sped-up sample from Chaka Khan's song "Through the Fire". This tactic became known as the "chipmunk soul sound."[78]
British hip hop artist and poet Kae Tempest performs her signature piece "Let Them Eat Chaos" at the 2017 Treefort Music Fest in Boise, Idaho.
According to the U.S. Department of State, hip hop is "now the center of a mega music and fashion industry around the world" that crosses social barriers and cuts across racial lines.[79] National Geographic recognizes hip hop as "the world's favorite youth culture" in which "just about every country on the planet seems to have developed its own local rap scene."[80] Through its international travels, hip hop is now considered a "global musical epidemic".[81] According to The Village Voice, hip hop is "custom-made to combat the anomie that preys on adolescents wherever nobody knows their name."[82]
Hip hop sounds and styles differ from region to region, but there are also instances of fusion genres.[83] Hip hop culture has grown from the avoided genre to a genre that is followed by millions of fans worldwide. This was made possible by the adaptation of music in different locations, and the influence on style of behavior and dress.[84]
Not all countries have embraced hip hop, where "as can be expected in countries with strong local culture, the interloping wildstyle of hip hop is not always welcomed".[85] This is somewhat the case in Jamaica, the homeland of the culture's father, DJ Kool Herc. However, despite hip hop music produced on the island lacking widespread local and international recognition, artists such as Five Steez have defied the odds by impressing online hip hop taste-makers and even reggae critics.[86]
Hartwig Vens argues that hip hop can also be viewed as a global learning experience.[87] Author Jeff Chang argues that "the essence of hip hop is the cipher, born in the Bronx, where competition and community feed each other."[88] He also adds, "Thousands of organizers from Cape Town to Paris use hip hop in their communities to address environmental justice, policing and prisons, media justice, and education.".[89]
While hip hop music has been criticized as a music that creates a divide between western music and music from the rest of the world[by whom? – Discuss], a musical "cross pollination" has taken place, which strengthens the power of hip hop to influence different communities.[90] Hip hop's messages allow the under-privileged and the mistreated to be heard.[87] These cultural translations cross borders.[89] While the music may be from a foreign country, the message is something that many people can relate to- something not "foreign" at all.[91]
Even when hip hop is transplanted to other countries, it often retains its "vital progressive agenda that challenges the status quo."[89] In Gothenburg, Sweden, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) incorporate graffiti and dance to engage disaffected immigrant and working class youths. Hip hop has played a small but distinct role as the musical face of revolution in the Arab Spring, one example being an anonymous Libyan musician, Ibn Thabit, whose anti-government songs fueled the rebellion.[92]
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In the early-to-mid 1980s, there wasn't an established hip hop music industry, as exists in the 2020s, with record labels, record producers, managers and Artists and Repertoire staff. Politicians and businesspeople maligned and ignored the hip hop movement. Most hip hop artists performed in their local communities and recorded in underground scenes.[93]
However, in the late 1980s, music industry executives realized that they could capitalize on the success of "gangsta rap". They made a formula that created "a titillating buffet of hypermasculinity and glorified violence." This type of rap was marketed to the new fan base: white males. They ignored the depictions of a harsh reality to focus on the sex and violence involved.[93]
In an article for The Village Voice, Greg Tate argues that the commercialization of hip hop is a negative and pervasive phenomenon, writing that "what we call hiphop is now inseparable from what we call the hip hop industry, in which the nouveau riche and the super-rich employers get richer".[55] Ironically, this commercialization coincides with a decline in rap sales and pressure from critics of the genre.[94] Even other musicians, like Nas and KRS-ONE have claimed "hip hop is dead" in that it has changed so much over the years to cater to the consumer that it has lost the essence for which it was originally created.
However, in his book In Search Of Africa,[95] Manthia Diawara states that hip hop is really a voice of people who are marginalized in modern society. He argues that the "worldwide spread of hip hop as a market revolution" is actually global "expression of poor people's desire for the good life", and that this struggle aligns with "the nationalist struggle for citizenship and belonging, but also reveals the need to go beyond such struggles and celebrate the redemption of the black individual through tradition." The problem may not be that female rappers do not have the same opportunities and recognition as their male counterparts; it may be that the music industry that is so defined by gender biases. Industry executives seem to bet on the idea that men won't want to listen to female rappers, so they are given fewer opportunities.[96]
As the hip hop genre has changed since the 1980s, the African-American cultural "tradition" that Diawara describes has little place in hip hop's mainstream artists music. The push toward materialism and market success by contemporary rappers such as Rick Ross, Lil Wayne and Jay Z has irked older hip hop fans and artists. They see the genre losing its community-based feel that focused more on black empowerment than wealth. The commercialization of the genre stripped it of its earlier political nature and the politics and marketing plans of major record labels have forced rappers to craft their music and images to appeal to white, affluent and suburban audiences.
Eric BarberAfter realizing her friends were making music but not getting television exposure other than what was seen on Video Music Box, Darlene Lewis (model/lyricist), along with Darryl Washington and Dean Carroll, brought hip hop music to the First Exposure cable show on Paragon cable, and then created the On Broadway television show. There, rappers had opportunities to be interviewed and have their music videos played. This pre-dated MTV or Video Soul on BET. The commercialization has made hip hop less edgy and authentic, but it also has enabled hip hop artists to become successful.[97]
As top rappers grow wealthier and start more outside business ventures, this can indicate a stronger sense of black aspiration. As rappers such as Jay-Z and Kanye West establish themselves as artists and entrepreneurs, more young black people have hopes of achieving their goals.[98] The lens through which one views the genre's commercialization can make it seem positive or negative.[99]
White and Latino pop rappers such as Macklemore, Iggy Azalea, Machine Gun Kelly, Eminem, Miley Cyrus, G-Eazy, Pitbull, Lil Pump, and Post Malone have often been criticized for commercializing hip hop and cultural appropriation.[100] Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry, although not rappers, have been accused of cultural appropriation and commercializing hip hop. Katy Perry, a white woman, was criticized for her hip hop song "Dark Horse".[101] Taylor Swift was also accused of cultural appropriation.[102]
DJing and turntablism, MCing/rapping, breakdancing, graffiti art and beatboxing are the creative outlets that collectively make up hip hop culture and its revolutionary aesthetic. Like the blues, these arts were developed by urban communities to enable people to make a statement, whether political or emotional and participate in community activities. These practices spread globally around the 1980s as fans could "make it their own" and express themselves in new and creative ways in music, dance and other arts.[103]
DJing and turntablism are the techniques of manipulating sounds and creating music and beats using two or more phonograph turntables or other sound sources, such as tapes, CDs or digital audio files and a DJ mixer that is plugged into a PA system.[104] One of the first few hip hop DJs was Kool DJ Herc, who created hip hop in the 1970s through the isolation and extending of "breaks" – the parts of albums that focused solely on the percussive beat. In addition to developing Herc's techniques, DJs Grandmaster Flowers, Grandmaster Flash, Grand Wizzard Theodore, and Grandmaster Caz made further innovations with the introduction of "scratching", which has become one of the key sounds associated with hip hop music.
Traditionally, a DJ will use two turntables simultaneously and mix between the two. These are connected to a DJ mixer, an amplifier, speakers, and various electronic music equipment such as a microphone and effects units. The DJ mixes the two albums currently in rotation and/or does "scratching" by moving one of the record platters while manipulating the crossfader on the mixer. The result of mixing two records is a unique sound created by the seemingly combined sound of two separate songs into one song. Although there is considerable overlap between the two roles, a DJ is not the same as a record producer of a music track.[105]
The development of DJing was also influenced by new turntablism techniques, such as beatmatching, a process facilitated by the introduction of new turntable technologies such as the Technics SL-1200 MK 2, first sold in 1978, which had a precise variable pitch control and a direct drive motor. DJs were often avid record collectors, who would hunt through used record stores for obscure soul records and vintage funk recordings. DJs helped to introduce rare records and new artists to club audiences.
The development of DJing was also influenced by new turntablism techniques, such as beatmatching, a process facilitated by the introduction of new turntable technologies such as the Technics SL-1200 MK 2, first sold in 1978, which had a precise variable pitch control and a direct drive motor. DJs were often avid record collectors, who would hunt through used record stores for obscure soul records and vintage funk recordings. DJs helped to introduce rare records and new artists to club audiences.
In the early years of hip hop, the DJs were the stars, as they created new music and beats with their record players. While DJing and turntablism continue to be used in hip hop music in the 2010s, the star role has increasingly been taken by MCs since the late 1970s, due to innovative, creative MCs such as Kurtis Blow and Melle Mel of Grandmaster Flash's crew, the Furious Five, who developed strong rapping skills. However, a number of DJs have gained stardom nonetheless in recent years.
Famous DJs include Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, Mr. Magic, DJ Jazzy Jeff, DJ Charlie Chase, DJ Disco Wiz, DJ Scratch from EPMD, DJ Premier from Gang Starr, DJ Scott La Rock from Boogie Down Productions, DJ Pete Rock of Pete Rock & CL Smooth, DJ Muggs from Cypress Hill, Jam Master Jay from Run-DMC, Eric B., DJ Screw from the Screwed Up Click and the inventor of the Chopped & Screwed style of mixing music, Funkmaster Flex, Tony Touch, DJ Clue, Mix Master Mike, Touch-Chill-Out, DJ Red Alert, and DJ Q-Bert.
The underground movement of turntablism has also emerged to focus on the skills of the DJ. In the 2010s, there are turntablism competitions, where turntablists demonstrate advanced beat juggling and scratching skills.
Rapping (also known as emceeing,[106] MCing,[106] spitting (bars),[107] or just rhyming[108]) refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics with a strong rhythmic accompaniment".[109] Rapping typically features complex wordplay, rapid delivery, and a range of "street slang", some of which is unique to the hip hop subculture. While rapping is often done over beats, either done by a DJ, a beatboxer, it can also be done without accompaniment. It can be broken down into different components, such as "content", "flow" (rhythm and rhyme), and "delivery".[110]
Rapping is distinct from spoken word poetry in that it is performed in time to the beat of the music.[111][112][113] The use of the word "rap" to describe quick and slangy speech or witty repartee long predates the musical form.[114] MCing is a form of expression that is embedded within ancient African and Indigenous culture and oral tradition as throughout history verbal acrobatics or jousting involving rhymes were common within the Afro-American and Latino-American community.[115]
Graffiti is the most controversial of hip hop's elements, as a number of the most notable graffiti pioneers say that they do not consider graffiti to be an element of hip hop, including Lady Pink, Seen, Blade, Fargo, Cholly Rock, Fuzz One, and Coco 144.[116][117][118] Lady Pink says, "I don't think graffiti is hip hop. Frankly I grew up with disco music. There's a long background of graffiti as an entity unto itself,"[119][120] and Fargo says, "There is no correlation between hip hop and graffiti, one has nothing to do with the other."[116][118][121] Hip hop pioneer Grandmaster Flash has also questioned the connection between hip hop and graffiti, saying, "You know what bugs me, they put hip hop with graffiti. How do they intertwine?"[121][122][123]
In America in the late 1960s, before hip hop, graffiti was used as a form of expression by political activists. In addition, gangs such as the Savage Skulls, La Familia Michoacana, and Savage Nomads used graffiti to mark territory. Julio 204 was a Puerto Rican graffiti writer, one of the first graffiti writers in New York City. He was a member of the "Savage Skulls" gang, and started writing his nickname in his neighborhood as early as 1968.
In 1971 the New York Times published an article ("'Taki 183' Spawns Pen Pals") about another graffiti writer, TAKI 183. According to the article Julio had been writing for a couple of years when Taki began tagging his own name all around the city. Taki also states in the article that Julio "was busted and stopped." Writers following in the wake of Taki and Tracy 168 would add their street number to their nickname, "bomb" (cover) a train with their work, and let the subway take it—and their fame, if it was impressive, or simply pervasive, enough—"all city". Julio 204 never rose to Taki's fame because Julio kept his tags localized to his own neighborhood.
One of the most common forms of graffiti is tagging, or the act of stylizing your unique name or logo.[124] Tagging began in Philadelphia and New York City and has expanded worldwide. Spray painting public property or the property of others without their consent can be considered vandalism, and the "tagger" may be subject to arrest and prosecution for the criminal act. Whether legal or not, the hip hop culture considers tagging buildings, trains, bridges and other structures as visual art, and consider the tags as part of a complex symbol system with its own social codes and subculture rules. Such art is in some cases now subject to federal protection in the US, making its erasure illegal.[125]