The late 1980's were also regarded by many as Hip Hop's golden age. Notable artists of the time included Rakim from the hip hop duo Eric B. & Rakim. Rakim is highly regarded as Hip Hop's greatest emcee with his fast lyrical flow.
Big Daddy Kane was also highly regarded by many later rappers, he was also part of the indomitable Juice Crew which featured many of the not-yet discovered Hip Hop talent brought together by Marley Marl. The Juice Crew also featured rappers Kool G Rap, Masta Ace, Biz Markie and Roxanne Shante among others. The forming of the Juice Crew lead to Big Daddy Kane's stardom with his high acclaimed debut Long Live The Kane At the time the Juice Crew were not the only group that featured several rappers who had banded together to make music.
There was also Boogie Down Productions, which featured the legendary KRS-ONE, D Nice as well as the late DJ Scott La Rock. Descriptions of their violent, hedonistic lifestyle which would later pave the way for Gangsta Rap. In the later years of Boogie Down Productions, they would turn to more socially consciousness and political lyrics. In spite of all that, many believed they were still under the shadow of Public Enemy. Led by lyricists Chuck D and Flava Flav and producer Terminator X their debut album "Yo! Bum Rush The Show" turned heads with its socially aware lyrics. In addition to a sensational debut, their sophomore release "It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back" turned even more heads and raised eyebrows with its thought provoking and at times controversial lyrics.
While Public Enemy raised awareness from a more socially proactive point of view, West Coast hip hop group N.W.A shocked nations with its explicit lyrics describing the violent lives of the members based in Compton, California. Members of the group Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren and DJ Yella would later go on to become platinum-selling artists. At the time Run-D.M.C. the Hip Hop trio consisting of Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons, the late Jason "Jam-Master Jay" Mizell and Darryl "D.M.C" McDaniels. With their no nonsense style and trendy Adidas sneakers, they dominated not only Hip Hop but also pop and rock among other genres. American emcees were not the only emcees getting it on during the Golden Age, English emcee Slick Rick also burst upon the scene with his debut The Great Adventures of Slick Rick. Slick Rick's music, mainly appealed to the younger kids on the street, with songs like "Hey Young World", "Teenage Love" and "Children's Story", that encompassed vivid storytelling infused with messages of hope and civic responsibility directed towards the younger generation. Other experts regard the early 1990's, around 1992-1994, as the later part of the Golden Age.
The first rap records (Fatback Band's King Tim
III, Grandmaster Flash's Super Rappin and The Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's
Delight) were actually recorded by live musicians in the studio, with the
rappers adding their vocals later. This changed with DJ records such as
Grandmaster Flash's Adventures on the Wheels of Steel (known for pioneering use
of scratching, which was invented by Grandwizard Theodore in 1977) as well as
electronic recordings such as Planet Rock by Afrika Bambaataa and Run DMC's
very basic, all electronic Sucker MC's and Peter Piper which contains genuine
cutting by Run DMC member Jam Master Jay. These early innovators were based out
of New York City, which remained the capital of hip hop during the 1980s. This
style became known as East Coast hip hop.
Grandmaster
Flash & the Furious Five released a "message rap", called The
Message, in 1982; this was one of the earliest examples of recorded hip hop
with a socially aware tone.
In 1987, Public Enemy brought out their debut
album (Yo! Bum Rush the Show) on Def Jam, and Boogie Down Productions followed
up in 1988 with By All Means Necessary; both records pioneered a wave of
hard-edged politicized performers. The late 1980s saw a flourishing of
like-minded rappers on both coasts, and Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of
Millions to Hold Us Back became surprisingly successful, despite its militant
and confrontational tone, appearing on both the club and rap charts, and
peaking at #17 and #11,
respectively. Aside from the lyrical innovations, Public Enemy's Terminator X
(along with Eric B., of Eric B. & Rakim) pioneered new techniques in
sampling that resulted in dense, multi-layered sonic collages.
1986 saw two hip hop acts in the Billboard Top Ten; Run-D.M.C.'s "Walk This Way" collaboration with Aerosmith, and the Beastie Boys' "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)". The pop success of both singles was unheard of for the time; "Walk This Way" has proved especially memorable for its early mixture of hip hop and rock (though it was not the first such mixture), and it peaked at an unheard of #4 on the pop charts. Also, the mid-1980s saw the rise of the first major black female group, Salt-N-Pepa, who hit the charts with singles like "The Show Stoppa" in 1985. Ice-T's seminal "6n' Da Mornin'" (1986) is one of the first nationally successful West Coast hip hop singles, and is often said to be the beginning of gangsta rap (along with Schoolly D, LL Cool J and N.W.A.).
While early hip hop arose through the decline of funk and disco while still employing their musicianship, there was the rise of artists who employed the use of the turntable as an instrument in itself. Hip hop turntablist DJs use turntable techniques such as beat mixing/matching, scratching, and beat juggling to create a base that can be rapped over. Turntablism is generally focused more on turntable technique and less on mixing. Each scratch of the turntable is considered unique due to the complex waveforms produced and employing digital sampling is considered an affront to a true Turntablist. Prominent artists included the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, X-men, and the Beat Junkies.
Specifically, the song "Fuck tha Police" earned the foursome the enmity of law enforcement, resulting in a strongly-worded letter of discontent from the FBI. N.W.A.'s most lasting impact, however, was placing the West Coast on the hip hop map.
Though women, whites and Latinos had long
been a part of the hip hop scene, it was not until the 1980s that groups other
than young African American males began creating popular, innovative and
distinctive styles of hip hop music.
The first rap recording by a solo female was
Philadelphia-based Lady B.'s "To the Beat, Y'All" (1980), while The
Sequence became the first female group to record. It was, not, however, until
Salt-N-Pepa in the middle of the decade that female performers gained
mainstream success.
The first groups to mix hip hop and heavy
metal included 1984's "Rock Box" (Run-D.M.C.) and "Rock
Hard" (Beastie Boys). Later in the decade, Ice-T and Anthrax were among
the most innovative mixers of thrash metal and hip hop. These fusions helped
move hip hop into new audiences, and introduced it to legions of new fans in
the States and abroad.
Cypress Hill, of which Mellow Man Ace was a member before going solo, would become the first Latino rap group to reach platinum status in 1991. Ecuadorian born rapper Gerardo received heavy rotation on video and radio for his single "Rico, Suave." As a result of the success of these artists, countries throughout Latin America such as Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Mexico created their own hip hop scenes.
While Run DMC laid the groundwork for East
Coast rap, "Planet Rock" (Afrika Bambaataa) was one of the first
electro tracks. Based on a sample from German rock group Kraftwerk
(Trans-Europe Express), "Planet Rock" inspired countless groups,
based in New Jersey, New York City and Detroit, among other places, to make
electronic dance music (called electro) that strongly influenced techno and
house music, and especially the burgeoning electro music scene in northern
England, the Midlands and London.
"Planet
Rock" influenced hip hop outside of New York as well, such as Latin hip
hop (also Latin freestyle or freestyle) such as Expose and The Cover Girls, as
well as Los Angeles-based electro hop performers like the World Class Wreckin'
Cru and Egyptian Lover.
By the end of the 1980s, hip hop was known in
almost every major city in the US, and had developed into numerous regional
styles and variations. Outside of New York City, New Jersey and Philadelphia,
where hip hop had long been well-established, the 1980s saw intense regional
diversification.
Chicago also saw the development of house music (a form of electronic dance music) in the early 1980s and this soon mixed with hip hop and began featuring rappers; this is called hip house, and gained some national popularity in the late 1980s and early 90s, though similar fusions from South Africa, Belgium and elsewhere became just as well-known into the 90s.
Los Angeles hardcore rappers (Ice-T) and
electro hop artists (Egyptian Lover) began recording by 1983, though the first
recorded West Coast rap is possibly Disco Daddy and Captain Rapp's "Gigolo
Rapp" in 1981. In Miami, audiences listened to Miami bass, a form of
sultry and sexually explicit dance music with a heavy bass sound, which arose
from Los Angeles electro; it frequently included rapping. In Washington D.C. a
hip hop-influenced form of dance music called go go emerged and incorporated
rapping and DJ-ing.
Beginning in the early 1980s, hip hop culture
began its spread across the world. By the end of the 1990s, popular hip hop was
sold almost everywhere, and native performers were recording in most every
country with a popular music industry. Elements of hip hop became fused with
numerous styles of music, including ragga, cumbia and samba, for example. The
Senegalese mbalax rhythm became a component of hip hop, while the United
Kingdom and Belgium produced a variety of electronic music fusions of hip hop,
most famously including British trip hop.
Hip hop also spread to countries like Greece,
Spain and Cuba in the 1980s, led in Cuba by the self-exiled African American
activist Nehanda Abiodun and aided by Fidel Castro's government. In Japan,
graffiti art and break dancing had been popular since the early part of the
decade, but many of those active in the scene felt that the Japanese language
was unsuited for rapping; nevertheless, by the beginning of the 1990s, a wave of
rappers emerged, including Ito Seiko, Chikado Haruo, Tinnie Punx and Takagi
Kan. The New Zealand hip hop scene began in earnest in the late 1980s, when
Maori performers like Upper Hutt Posse and Dalvanius Prime began recording,
gaining notoriety for lyrics that espoused tino rangatiratanga (Maori
sovereignty).
Hip-hop has globalized into many cultures
worldwide. We now find hip-hop in every corner of the globe, and like the South
Bronx, each locale embodies a kind of globalism. Hip hop has emerged globally
as an arts movement with the imperative to create something fresh by using
technology, speech, and the body in new ways. The music and the art continue to
embrace, even celebrate, its transnational dimensions while staying true to the
local cultures to which it is rooted. Hip-hop's inspiration differs depending
on each culture. Still, the one thing virtually all hip hop artists worldwide
have in common is that they acknowledge their debt to those Black and Latino
kids in New York who launched this global movement in the first place. As
hip-hop is sometimes taken for granted by Americans, it is not so elsewhere,
especially in the developing world, where it has come to represent the
empowerment of the dis-enfranchised and a slice of the American dream. American
hip-hop music has reached the cultural corridors of the globe and has been
absorbed and reinvented around the world.
Also The Notorious B.I.G. would rise to fame around the same time. Being from New York, Biggie brought the East Coast back into the mainstream at a time when the West Coast mainly dominated rap. He also played a major role in the East Coast-West Coast feud during the 90s and had beefs with Death Row Records artists. Record labels based out of Atlanta, St. Louis, and New Orleans also gained fame for their local scenes. By the end of the decade, especially with the success of Eminem, known for his controversial lyrics beginning in 1999 with his second studio album The Slim Shady LP, hip hop was an integral part of popular music, and many American pop songs had a major hip hop component. The midwest rap scene also had good achievements with unique fast rapping styles from artists such as Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and Twista.
In the 90s and into the following decade,
elements of hip hop continued to be assimilated into other genres of popular
music; nu soul, for example, combined hip hop and soul music and produced some
major stars in the middle of the decade, while in the Dominican Republic, a
recording by Santi Y Sus Duendes and Lisa M became the first single of
merenrap, a fusion of hip hop and merengue.
New York City experienced a heavy Jamaican
hip hop influence during the 90s. This influence was brought on by cultural
shifts particularly due to the heightened immigration of Jamaicans to New York
City, and the American-born Jamaican youth who were coming of age during the
90s. Hip hop artists such as De La Soul and Black Star have both produced
albums influenced by Jamaican roots.
In Europe, Africa and Asia, hip hop began to
move from an underground phenomenon to reach mainstream audiences. In South
Africa, Poland, Germany, France, Italy and many other countries, hip hop stars
rose to prominence and gradually began to incorporate influences from their own
country, resulting in fusions like Tanzanian Bongo Flava and Kenyan Genge.
By the end of the 90s Hip Hop was one of the most popular types of music in the world.
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