History of hip hop
Aydid Mohamed Ahmed
PATHFit 1 Tuesday 3-5 pm
Hip-hop began as a DJing form. The genre consisted of electronic music with no vocals. The
roots of spoken hip-hop music are African-American music styles such as jazz poetry and
spirituals.
Hip-hop formed into a musical genre and subculture in the Bronx borough of New York
City. DJs played popular music, typically funk and soul music, at block parties. The DJs began
to isolate the percussive breaks in the songs they were playing. Percussion breaks in funk, soul,
and disco music are relatively short, so DJs started using two turntables to isolate the
breaks. This technique allowed them to extend the breaks in the songs.
DJs' experimentation with scratching, beat mixing, and beat juggling soon began to accompany
the breaks, which created a bass line over which lyrics could be rapped. Rapping is a vocal style
in which an artist speaks lyrically and rhythmically along with an instrumental beat. Lyrics can
be written, memorized, or improvised.
Rap began in 1971, in the Bronx, with Kool Herc, who was from Jamaica. At block parties, Kool
Herc would play two turntables by hand and manipulate the sound to create an entirely new
sound, while he rapped the lyrics from the song he was playing. The "break", or instrumental
part of the record was played repeatedly and this became his background music. Since he did not
think that Americans would get reggae, he used the break from American funk music,
like James Brown. He also employed dancers, who became known as break dancers or b-boys.
samples. Just as importantly, or perhaps even more importantly, they introduced social and
political elements from the black community into their music.