This site is all about music, music that we love and hate as long as it stirs some emotion it is worth listening to and talking about.
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This site is all about music, music that we love and hate as long as it stirs some emotion it is worth listening to and talking about.
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Rap and Hip-hop Student NotesNotes in this document have largely been taken from “The Dance Music Manual” by Rick Snoman, “The All Music Guide to Rap & Hip-hop” and various other internet sources. “Rap is like the polio vaccine. At first no one believed in it. Then, once they knew it worked, everyone wanted it.” Grandmaster Flash Introduction to Rap and Hip-hop Over recent years hip-hop has become a global phenomenon, so much so that what was once frowned upon for seemingly glorifying drugs, guns and general delinquency has now emerged as a multi-billion pound industry. However, it should be noted that despite the record industry’s stance of pigeonholing absolutely everything that features a rapper as hip-hop, this isn’t the case. Hip-hop is a culture, not a form of music, and although it does encompass rap it also embraces dancing, language and fashion. Consequently, if you want to produce rap music it has very little to do with programming some MIDI patterns and rapping over the top. To better understand why this is, it’s vital to know a little about the history and culture behind it all. History & Culture of Rap and Hip-hop Hip-hop, as a culture, can be defined as consisting of four distinct elements: DJ’ing, breaking, graffiti and MC’ing (emceeing). The roots of the DJ’ing element can be traced back to 1950s Jamaica, where the “DJs” began to experiment with groove elements of records, resulting in the creation of reggae, ska and the rock steady beat. In 1968 this became even more experimental when King Tubby created the first ever “dub” record by dropping out all the vocals from the acetate discs he was to press (often called “dub” plates). He then overdubbed sound effects and snippets of other music to create a musical pastiche that became known as Dub. Dub is a musical style that is still produced, notably by the Producer and DJ Lee “Scratch” Perry. Listen to: Track 1 – “The Poor Barber” by Dirty Harry & The Aggrovators 1975 Track 2 – “Inspector Gadget” by Lee “Scratch” Perry 1990 Track 3 – “Put it On” by The Wailers (featuring Bob Marley) 1965
King Tubby pictured with an acetate press Lee “Scratch” Perry in the Ark studio The Wailers first release in 1965 At this same time many Jamaicans were emigrating to the USA, taking these new ideas with them to the ghettos of New York. One particular immigrant, Kool Herc, began to DJ at parties throughout the ghettos and used to chant rhymes over the top of the instrumental breaks of the records he played (The venue at 1520 Sedgwick Ave. South Bronx, New York is attributed as being the birthplace of Hip-hop). As many of these breaks were only short, in 1974 he decided to play two copies of the same record on two decks and then use a mixer to switch between them, in effect creating a longer break beat to rhyme over. Almost simultaneously, in a neighbouring ghetto, Afrika Bambaataa founded the collective Zulu Nation, consisting of a group of DJs, break dancers, MCs and graffiti artists, and offered an alternative to the current street gang culture to express themselves in various ways.
Kool Herc Afrika Bambaataa Grandmaster Flash Inspired by these new DJ’ing tactics and culture, DJ Grandmaster Flash adopted the style and contorted it into a continuous stream of break beats. This allowed MCs to rhyme over the top of the beats to warm up the crowds, permitting the DJ to concentrate on developing new techniques such as “beat juggling”, “scratching”, “cutting” and “breakdown”. It is unknown who invented all these new techniques, but it was Grandmaster Flash who introduced this new complex form of DJ’ing to the mass market with the release of “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel” in 1981. Listen to: Track 4 – “Zulu Nation Throwdown” by Afrika Bambaataa 1981 Track 5 – “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five 1981 These continual break beats also gave rise to a new dance style known as breaking (a.k.a. B-boying), which consisted of a combination of fancy, complex footwork, spins and balancing on hands, head or shoulders. This form of dancing was all encompassed and renamed by the media as “break dancing”. Alongside this new music grew another part of hip-hop culture, graffiti. To many, the explosion of graffiti is accredited to TAKI 183 and the publicity he received in The New York Times after “tagging” numerous trains in the subway. The last element of Hip-hop is derived from MC’ing. Although the media considers rap to be the same as MC’ing, rap is only one element of it. Indeed MC’ing encapsulates everything from simply talking over the beats, rapping, or using your voice as an instrument (Human Beat Box). As touched upon, originally MC’ing was used to entertain the crowds by accompanying the break beats rather than taking the focus away from them. Although it would be easy to say that rap developed from this basic form of MC’ing, to many it actually existed long before Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash began to rhyme over the breaks. Indeed, it’s believed to have originated in Jamaica, where stories were told in rhymes, otherwise known as “toasts”. In 1974 these were developed into the very first forms of rapping, where the youth would put together boastful rhymes to sit over the top of break beats in an effort to upstage the previous rapper. The first commercial pressing of rap music was by the Fatback Band in 1979 with the title “King Tim III”, but it took the Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight”, released later that year before rapping came to the attention of larger record labels as a viable and acceptable (in other words lucrative) form of music. Listen to: Track 6 – “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugar Hill Gang 1979 Over the following years, rap acts such as NWA, Ice T and Public Enemy brought rap to the forefront of music and demanded a bigger audience through their often hotly debated rhymes that were seen as glamorising violence, prostitution and guns. A Brief Guide to the sub-genres of Hip-hop and Rap and their influences Like many attempts to define genres, the goalposts of Hip-hop and Rap keep moving. Here is an attempt at pinning down some of the genres and sub-genres! Acid Jazz Music played by musicians influenced by jazz as well as funk and hip-hop. Acid Jazz used elements of all three; its existence as a percussion-heavy, primarily live music placed it closer to Afro-Cuban than any other dance music. The term first appeared in 1988 and artists that emerged include: Stereo MCs, James Taylor Quartet, Brand New Heavies, Groove Collective and Jamiroquai. Listen to: Track 7 – “Runaway” by Jamiroquai Track 8 – “Midnight at the Oasis” by the Brand New Heavies Track 9 – “Starsky & Hutch” by the James Taylor Quartet Alternative Rap Alternative rap refers to hip-hop groups that refuse to conform to any of the traditional stereotypes of rap, such as gangsta, funk, bass, hardcore and party rap. Instead they blur genres, drawing equally from funk and pop/rock, as well as jazz, soul, reggae and even folk. Listen to: Track 10 – “Killing me Softly” by the Fugees Bass Music From the Dance scenes in Miami and Detroit during the mid-1980s, Bass Music brought the funky breaks idea of the 1970s into the digital age with drum machine frequencies capable of blowing the majority of speakers. Early Miami pioneers like 2 Live Crew and DJ Magic Mike pushed the style into its distinctive “booty” obsession, and Detroit figures like DJ Assault and DJ Bone melded it with techno to create an increasingly fast paced music. Listen to: Track 11 – “Drop The Bass” by the DJ Magic Mike British Rap Rarely heard outside the UK, British Rap has its own traditions and is a style of its own. Many British rappers grew up within the Caribbean reggae tradition and introduced Jamaican patois into hip-hop styles. British rap began in the late 1980s with bands like Public Enemy. Other UK rappers added acid house flourishes to the music and the result was a much darker sound than in the USA. The best British hip-hop falls into three camps. Groups like the Prodigy fused hip-hop with rave. Groups like Leftfield went for a dance club style of hip-hop. Massive Attack slowed down hip-hop beats and added Acid Jazz textures, resulting in Trip-hop. New UK rap artists include Herbaliser, Roots Manuva and New Flesh. Listen to: Track 12 – “Firestarter” by The Prodigy Track 13 – “Phat Planet” by Leftfield Track 14 – “Unfinished Sympathy” by Massive Attack Christian Rap Christian Rap is hip-hop with religious and inspirational themes. Most Christian Rap doesn’t show the sonic innovation of other hip-hop and is never as cutting edge. Notable artists include Gospel Gangstaz and Kirk Franklin. Listen to: Track 15 – “Conscious” by the Gospel Gangstaz Comedy Rap Comedy Rap is Hip-hop that is designed to amuse. The best exponent of this genre is Biz Markie who combines real hip-hop with street humour. Contemporary R&B This developed after years of urban R&B, it is slickly produced and it is intended to bring the grit and spirit of classic soul (Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder etc.) to R&B. Artists include Terence Trent D’Arby, Maxwell and D’Angelo. Listen to: Track 16 – “Wishing Well” by Terence Trent D’Arby Dirty Rap Dirty Rap is hip-hop that is focused solely on sex. It rarely has much in the way of musical or lyrical depth and 2 Live Crew specialise in this genre. Dirty South Dirty South is a stoned, violent, sex-obsessed and profane brand of modern hip-hop. Artists include the Goodie Mob and Outkast. East Coast Rap At the beginning, all hip-hop was East Coast Rap with artists such as Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, the Sugarhill Gang, Kurtis Blow and Run-DMC. East Coast Rap was the dominant force but faded during the 1990s. More recently there has been a resurgence of East Coast artists as Puff Daddy set up his Bad Boy label in New York. Modern artists include The Fugees, Nas, Roots and the Wu-Tang Clan. Listen to: Track 17 – “Gravel Pit” by Wu-Tang Clan Track 18 – “Walk This Way” by Run-DMC and Aerosmith
The Fugees Outkast Run-DMC Electro Electro was a short-lived genre that was the blending of 1970s funk with hip-hop and synthesiser technology. It was a testing ground for many innovators (notably Dr.Dre) who subsequently moved in other directions. There was an Electro revival in the mid 1990s in the UK. Foreign Rap Foreign Rap is hip-hop based around a language that is not English or Spanish. It is European in origin and sounds a lot like techno with rap over it. Freestyle Freestyle relies on the angular synthesised beats similar to Electro and early House, often combined with the romantic themes of classic R&B and Disco. It served as a crossover from dance music and pop in the mid 1980s. Early artists include Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, Shannon and Stevie B. More recently artists include Lil Suzy and George Lamond. Listen to: Track 19 – “I Wonder If I Take You Home” by Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam G-Funk G-Funk is a laid back style of Gangsta Rap inspired by the funky grooves of 1970s bands Parliament and Funkadelic. The style was developed by Dr.Dre in the early 1990s. It is distinguished by its whiny, cheap synthesisers, slow grooves, deep bass and occasionally faceless female vocals. Dr.Dre’s 1992 album “The Chronic” defined the genre and it went on to be one of the most recognisable genres of the early 1990s. Listen to: Track 20 – “One Nation Under A Groove” by Funkadelic Gangsta Rap Gangsta Rap developed in the late 1980s. Evolving out of Hardcore Rap, Gangsta Rap had an edgy, noisy sound. Lyrically, it was just as abrasive, as the rappers spun profane, gritty tales about urban crime. It became the most commercially successful form of hip-hop in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In the process, Gangsta Rap caused considerable controversy, as conservative organisations tried to get the albums banned. Even when the activist groups forced certain bands off major labels, the groups continued to make their music uncensored. Artists include Ice-T, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent and 2Pac.
50 Cent Dr.Dre Ice-T Snoop Dogg Go-Go Go-go was a bass heavy, funky variation of hip-hop that was designed for parties. Golden Age Hip-hop’s Golden Age is taken to start with the commercial breakthrough of Run-DMC in 1986 and end with the explosion of Gangsta Rap with “The Chronic” by Dr.Dre in 1993. These six years witnessed the best recordings from some of the biggest rappers- LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Eric B and Rakim etc. – and Def Jam Records became a big independent label. Hardcore Rap Hardcore Rap is marked by confrontation and aggression, whether in the lyrical subject matter, the hard driving beats, the noisy sampling and production or any combination thereof. Hardcore Rap is tough, streetwise, intense and often menacing. Gangsta rap is associated with Hardcore Rap, but not all hardcore themes centre on Gangsta themes. Artists include Ice-T, Public Enemy, Notorious BIG, Jay-Z and DMX. Listen to: Track 21 – “New Jack Hustler” by Ice-T (Explicit) Jazz-Rap Jazz-Rap was an attempt to fuse Afro-American music of the past with the newly dominant music of the present. While the rhythms of Jazz-Rap came entirely from hip-hop, the samples and sonic textures were drawn mainly from cool jazz, soul-jazz and Be-bop. Afrika Bambaataa’s Native Tongues posse was the most important force in Jazz-Rap. Other artists include: Digable Planets, Gang Starr, Guru, the Roots and De La Soul. Listen to: Track 22 – “Rebirth of Slick” by Digable Planets Latin Rap Latin Rap refers to hip-hop and rap performed by Latino performers. Either in Spanish or English, the music has the influence of Latin-American Rhythms. Old School Rap Old School Rap is the modern term for the original hip-hop of the early artists as detailed in the first section. Party Rap Party Rap is bass driven, block-rockin’ hip-hop that is solely concerned with keeping the groove going. Political Rap A select few hip-hop groups merged rhymes with political philosophy to create a new style of rap in the late 1980s. Inspired by 1970s political preachers such as Gil Scott-Heron, Public Enemy’s front man Chuck D merged political sentiments with their beats in tracks such as “Black Steel in The Hour of Chaos” (taking the government to task) and “Rebel Without a Pause” (the culture of white America). In the 1990s record labels became more hesitant about releasing tracks with anti-establishment messages and the genre faded. Listen to: Track 23 – “Rebel Without a Pause” by Public Enemy
De La Soul Gil Scott-Heron Digable Planets Pop-Rap Pop-Rap is a marriage of hip-hop beats and rap with strong melodic hooks, which are usually featured as part of the chorus section in a standard pop song. Pop-Rap got its start in the late 80s when artists like Run-DMC, LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys began to cross over into the mainstream. In the 1990s the Pop-Rap of MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice was often derided (and the subject of litigation) for its willingness to borrow mainstream samples without much effort. Listen to: Track 24 – “Addams Groove” by MC Hammer Track 25 – “ Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice
Coldcut Kid Rock MC Hammer Vanilla Ice Rap-Rock Rap-Rock is a hybrid of hip-hop and heavy metal, effectively where the vocalist rapped rather than sang. There were often some elements of hip-hop in the rhythms as well as funk elements. Listen to: Track 26 – “Heaven” by Kid Rock Southern Rap Southern Rap emerged in the 1990s in Miami, New Orleans and Atlanta. It is a general genre which encompasses Dirty South and Dirty Rap (see above) as well as Southern Rap versions of other genres. Trip-Hop Trip-Hop is a British genre coined by the British music press in attempt to pigeon-hole a new style of down tempo, jazz, funk and soul influenced experimental break beat music which began to emerge in about 1993. The term quickly caught on to describe everything from Portishead and Tricky, to DJ Shadow and U.N.K.L.E, to Coldcut and Depth Charge, much to the annoyance of many of these artists who considered their music to be largely as an extension of hip-hop proper, not a gimmicky offshoot. Listen to: Track 27 – “True Skool” by Coldcut Turntablism Even though DJs like Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa were the leading figures during the 1970s, by the time rap hit the mainstream in the mid-1980s, the MC had begun to be the focus. The reason for this was the need for a vocal focus to encourage radio airplay and the mixers responsible for the first hip-hop street jams were inevitably pushed to the back. In the mid 1990s this led to the emergence of Turntablism as a separate style. The stars here were the DJs and instead of the tight rhymes and smooth flow in their repertoire, they had scratching, spin backs, phasing and two-turntable acrobatics (or beat-juggling). Turntablism became a studio genre as artists like DJ Shadow, constructed their mixes with literally thousands of samples from extremely obscure records. Listen to: Track 28 – “Dope On Plastic” by Rob Swift Underground Rap Underground Rap falls into two categories. It is either hardcore hip-hop that pushes musical boundaries and has lyrics that are more inventive than Gangsta clichés or it is hardcore Gangsta rap that wallows in all of the clichés of the genre. West Coast Rap West Coast Rap dominated the hip-hop scene for the middle of the 1990s, making gangsta rap into a popular phenomenon and establishing Dr.Dre as one of the most influential figures in rap history. The California rap scene was, however, more diverse than just one artist. Artists across many genres thrived on the west coast including Snoop Dogg and Coolio. Listen to: Track 29 – “Still D.R.E” by Dr.Dre & Snoop Dogg Musical Analysis Although technology has moved on since the early pioneers began to produce breaks from various DJ techniques, the fundamental creation of rap still heavily relies on the sound quality generated using these techniques. To many the turntable techniques have been replaced with more recent developments such as samplers, DAWs and wave editors, but the feel of the early techniques is still of paramount importance when producing rap. As a result the beats are not programmed through MIDI but are sampled from obscure records, and then contorted and manipulated in sample slicing programs such as Re-Cycle, Wavelab and Sound Forge to create new beats. This sampling is fundamental in keeping the vinyl feel of the original hip-hop. Alternatively the instrumental riffs and motifs, which were sampled from early records, can be recreated in MIDI as long as the correct instruments are used. For the purposes of AS Music Technology, samples cannot be used in task 1A but drum samples are permissible in task 1C. Generally rap can be described as using a slow laid-back beat that can vary from 80 bpm through to 110 bpm. The break beats must be carefully constructed to form the right vibe, while any further instrumentation takes a back seat to the rapper. Consequently these instruments play very simple melodies so as not to detract too much from the rap. This means that the drum rhythm is laid down first, followed by the rap vocals and then any further melodic instruments are added to sit around the rap. Hip-hop Rhythms Rap rhythms are generally kept quite simple and often consist of nothing more than a kick drum, snare, closed and open hi-hats along with an occasional cymbal crash employed every four or eight bars to mark the beginning of a new musical segment. The rhythm can be either straight or swung depending on the style and should not be exact (to create the feel of a real drummer, very few play exactly to the beat!) and sometimes it can be more effective to record the pattern by playing it on a keyboard rather than strictly sequencing the pattern. The patterns rarely follow the typical kick/snare/kick/snare configurations used by most genres of dance music and often rely on a more rhythmic interplay between a few kicks followed by a snare, which is then followed by a few more kicks and a snare. On top of this, a closed hi-hat pattern plays a standard 16th pattern ticking away in the background to keep some rhythmic drive and syncopation to the loop.
In the next example the snare adds a semiquaver into the kick/kick/snare formation to add some anticipation.
In the next example, more emphasis has been given to the rhythmic interaction between the snare and the kick. An open hi-hat has been added to the sixth semiquaver to give some variation.
Rap tends to be based around the repetition of two bars of music, so it is important to create an interesting two bar phrase. In most varieties of hip-hop there are no variations in the rhythm as this detracts from the most important element of the track, but velocity plays an important part. By varying the velocities of the kick through the track (strong/weak/strong/weak) the impression of a real player will be given. This can also be done with the snare and high-hat too with the first and final notes of each bar being stronger than those in the middle. With a little time and patience a convincing pattern can be created. If you have played and recorded the pattern then you will probably find that the velocity vary anyway and that some notes may need to be quantised a little so that the groove locks in with other parts. The individual drum sounds will need to be edited too to give a more aggressive and possibly clipped tone. Listen to as many hip-hop tracks as you can to get ideas about rhythm patterns, feel and groove. Rap Vocals With the drums laid down and presenting a groove, it is usual to record the rapper next, since any other instrumentation will sit around their rhymes. Anyone can rap, but very few can rap well enough to be convincing to a hip-hop expert! There is a cultural gulf between British independent school pupils and American hip-hop rappers that would be difficult to bridge! However, the technique of placing the rap onto the track is worth studying. It is essential that the rapper as something to say that can be associated with hip-hop culture as a whole; simply rapping about how your car broke down last week will rarely work well (unless you are Eminem) and so it is vital that the rapper is involved in the whole culture. Customarily, the lyrics are drawn from the lyricist rhyming about his skill, the skill of the crew they’re associated with or simply “dissing” their rivals. This is a form of battle similar to breaking and is essentially a way of competing with the other rappers on the same circuit for prominence and respect. Rapping has become an incredibly complex lyrical delivery that bases itself around sophisticated rhythms that syncopate with the drums. Although many rappers can improvise on the spot, a recording will often have taken many weeks of tweaking to get right. The most typical microphone to use is the Shure SM58 as this produces the nasal tone typical of the genre. This should be hand held to allow the rapper to move around and should be held between 10 and 20 centimetres away from the mouth depending on the performer to capture a clean and clear sound. Compression should be used to limit the chance of clipping, but too much compression will limit the dynamics of the performance. Start with a threshold of -12dB with a 3:1 ratio, a fast attack and a moderately fast release and then adjust the ratio so that only the loudest parts of the performance are being compressed. Once recorded the vocals are very rarely treated to any other form of processing or effects as it is important to keep the raw sound rather than the professional polish of most recorded music. Many tracks will make use of double tracking the vocals to emphasise particular words or phrases. As the original will be recorded in mono and panned to the centre of the mix, the double tracking can be placed to the left or right of the mix to create a great effect. Sometimes a double tracked section can be offset by a few milliseconds or de-tuned by a few semitones to give the impression of two rappers and to create a thickening effect. Bass Rhythm Although most early hip-hop tracks consisted of nothing but a break beat and a rapper, today’s producers often drop in bass lines to add some bottom-end weight and help the track groove along. In the majority of cases these are real bass guitars that have been sourced from another record and are not normally cut up or edited in any way. It is prudent, however, to write your own though, so there is no chance of being caught for copyright infringement and it’s much easier to write a bass line around the rap than have the rapper rhyme to the bass. On the whole, most basses are kept relatively simple, as they merely act as the underpinning of the track and do not form a major melodic element in themselves. This is to prevent the movements and groove of the bass drawing attention away from the rap. Generally a traditional bass guitar is preferred to synthetic basses. Chords and motifs Similar to the bass, old skool rap did not employ any chords or leads, but nonetheless most tracks today employ some sort of lead sound to sit behind the rap. Usually these are sampled from other records but can be successfully recreated in MIDI. There are no rules as to which instruments should be used but there is a leaning towards real instruments such as Rhodes pianos, bells, orchestral strings and orchestral hits and pizzicatos. Typically a question and answer format is used with a single motif as the question then transposed a few semitones to form an answer. Arrangement The arrangement of rap differs from other genres in that it has no verse and chorus structure. Instead, the music generally repeats the same bars through the track and relies on the rappers to provide the movement and interest. If you strip away the rap from many hip-hop tracks, the backing will quickly become tedious to listen to, since there are so few variations to listen to. A feature that can be employed towards the end of a phrase is to drop out the backing after the first beat of a bar and leave the rap to perform a solo break. The backing track will return invigorated when it returns at the start of the next phrase.
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