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Category: Music
After a long discussion and plenty of thought, I'd like to share my public opinion of Hip Hop Music vs. Rap Music - and how I define it, considering (gulp) I was alive when hip hop was born (don't you dare as my age!)...
Hip Hop is a culture movement founded on a common interest of entertainment and style. It includes art in all forms from music and audible art, to movement, to visual art and more, even clothing expressing a form of visually artistic expression. Hip is the definition of what's in right now, trendy and current (or what was in at one point, within said culture), and Hop is the expression of the intention to get you moving along with it. (See: Lindy Hop - a dance style and movement developed in NY during the swing era.)
Hip Hop "Music" is any music that stems from the Hip Hop movement, most notably that which is created by "Hip Hop"-ers and is focused on RYTHM before MELODY, e.g. the drums or beat. From break beats to beat boxing, drum machines and so on, the point is RYTHM. Hip Hop music can be sung over, rapped over or just stand alone as instrumentation. Shoot, it can be screamed over. It is what it is. According to MY definition, only PRODUCERS, COMPOSERS, DJ's, BEAT BOXERS, DRUMMERS (or the like, or anyone acting in said role or creative fashion) create HIP HOP "Music." Rappers, Singers, Poets, Chanters, Screamers, Whining obese babies and so forth merely perform OVER said HIP HOP music.
What does Hip Hop Music sound like? It originally was born from break beats, which is taking the BREAK/BRIDGE/DROP of "OTHER" music genre's music and spinning it (via turntable) to isolate a rhythm section and later evolved into being composed similarly. So Hip Hop Music can stem from any other genre from Disco and Reggae to Funk or Rock. This is what gives us all these "Hip Hop" styles and sub-genre's like Crunk, G-Funk. Hardcore, Hip-Pop, Trip-Hop, Underground, etc. It's all about where the influence comes from in the creation of the music.
RAPPING is defined as rhythmic vocals synced with percussion -verses- singing which is melodic vocals synced with melody. A rapper is someone who "predominantly" raps, where a singer is someone who predominantly sings. A rapper may sing sometimes, just as a singer may do a rap sometimes. RAP music is any music which has predominantly RAPPING on it, (even Weird AL's rap parodies are Rap Music)... Rap Music doesn't have to use Hip Hop beats/music to be Rap.
Hip Hop purists say that the best music is RAP over Hip Hop Beats. Simple enough. But Rap is wider than Hip Hop and Hip Hop is wider than Rap. A Hip Hop song can contain all singing so long as there is a Hip Hop beat. And a Rap can be done over rock instrumentation so long as there is rapping. BOTH EMCEEING and HIP HOP style MUSIC/Instrumentation are part of the culture.
There is so much controversy over what is TRUE Hip Hop and TRUE Rap. Both Hip Hop music/(ala DJing/Beatboxing/production, etc.) and Rapping/Emceeing are elements of Hip Hop. They don't have to merge to be part of the culture. If someone breakdances over a techno beat it's still breakdancing and if someone graff writes legally it's still technically graffiti. Of course it's always very warm and fuzzy when the culture is within closer quarters than when it is not. But it's unfair to say that rapper isn't doing Hip Hop if they rap over another kind of music. They're doing Hip Hop because to rap is to do hip hop. They may not be doing Hip Hop MUSIC, but they're doing Hip Hop. It's just as unfair to say that someone singing along with a Beat Boxer isn't Hip Hop. The beat boxer makes it Hip Hop. If it contains an ELEMENT of HIP HOP, it is HIP HOP.
And I want to give a shout out to Davey D who's definition of Hip Hop stemmed the conversation that's been running between me and my team over the past few weeks. Davey D, as always, knows what the h311 he's talking about (although I slighty vary from his opinion..just sliiightly). And it's pretty crazy because, even a lot of the RAPPER veterans out there are trying to DRASTICALLY redefine what Hip Hop and Rap is, and I won't name name's but I assure you it's to QUALIFY THEMSELVES and their EXISTENCE in the game; not because they actually CARE that people understand the movement. That goes on both sides; From old skoolers saying that today's kids hip hop isn't, to the kids saying the old skool isn't hip thus not hip hop anymore. (FYI: Little Wayne is 30)
Problematic to all these different definitions is confusion when it comes to categorizing and charting music. We can see this on Billboard when a 100% techno song is called Hip Hop because a rapper made it (but is singing on it). Bullshit. It's techno. If it has no elements of Hip Hop, it's not Hip Hop (in my perspective!)... I don't care if YOU ARE HIP HOP, the song is NOT Hip Hop. By all mean YOU ARE HIP HOP, you just happen to make a techno song lol!
Which calls to mind the whole I AM HIP HOP movement, which is another topic. I agree that when someone is born or bread into the Hip Hop culture one becomes Hip Hop. It is equivalent to when someone is born or bred into a ethnic culture for instance (Hence the existence of Chinese Jamaicans) or a religious culture (Sammy Davis Jr.? *cough* Jewish?) Culture is nurtured, not natured...but even if your a chinese jewish jamaican, a taco (to my knowledge) is a mexican dish. The dish stands alone from the cook - and the music stands alone from it's creators, song for song, line for line, note for note.
Food for thought.
Up at 3:15am blogging, randomly, rantingly... If I slept, I probably would organize my thoughts better. Goodmorning fans and haters alike. My IQ is over 65 and I'm still so fresh. Oh do jock my swag. Yurp!
06:12
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