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- 1520 Sedgwick Avenue
- 2 Live Crew
- 50 Cent
- 6 in the Mornin’
- 9th Wonder
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- Nile Rodgers
- Oakland, California
- October (journal)
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- PBS
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- The Breaks
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- The Coup
- The Economist
- The Roots
- The Sugarhill Gang
- Third World
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- Tip Drill (song)
- Togolese hip hop
- Tony Touch
- Tracy 168
- Tuks Senganga
- Tumi Molekane
- Turkish hip hop
- Turntablism
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- Ukrainian hip hop
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- University of Miami
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- US Army
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- Vitamin Water
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- Weblog
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- Wikipedia Link rot
- Wild Style
- Wildstyle
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- World Trade Center
- WP RS
- WP SYN
- Xlibris Corporation
- XV
- XXL (magazine)
- Yo! MTV Raps
- Zimbabwean hip hop
- Zulu Nation
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1520 Sedgwick Avenue
1520 Sedgwick Avenue is a 102-unitapartment building in the Morris Heights neighborhood in The Bronx borough of New York City, New York, United States of America. Recognized as a long-time "haven for working class families," in 2010 the New York Times reported that it is the "accepted birthplace of hip hop." After a long period of neglect and shady dealings in the 1990s and 2000s the building has been "highlighted by elected officials and tenant advocates as an emblem of New York’s affordable housing crisis." Senator Charles E. Schumer called the building "the birthplace of predatory equity," and Representative José E. Serrano, speaking of the building's recent purchase, called it, "such a visible building."
On July 5, 2007, 1520 Sedgwick Avenue was recognized by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation as the "Birthplace of Hip-Hop."
The creation of the Cross Bronx Expressway uprooted thousands in the Bronx during the early 1970s, displacing communities, and fostering to white flight. Receiving its first mortgage in 1967, 1520 Sedgwick Avenue is located on the Expressway.
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Brooklyn
Coordinates: 40°41′34″N 73°59′25″W / 40.69278°N 73.99028°W / 40.69278; -73.99028
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with approximately 2.5 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, after New York County (Manhattan). It is also the westernmost county on Long Island.
Brooklyn was an independent city until it was annexed by New York City in 1898. It continues to maintain a distinct culture. Many Brooklyn neighborhoods are ethnic enclaves where particular ethnic groups and cultures predominate.
Brooklyn's official motto is Eendraght Maeckt Maght. Written in the (early modern spelling of the) Dutch language, it is inspired by the motto of the United Dutch Provinces and translated "Unity makes strength". The motto is displayed on the borough seal and flag, which also feature a young robed woman bearing fasces, a traditional emblem of republicanism. Brooklyn's official colors are blue and gold.
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Harvard University
Harvard University is an American private Ivy League research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation (officially The President and Fellows of Harvard College) chartered in the country. Harvard's history, influence, and wealth have made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
Harvard was named after its first benefactor, John Harvard. Although never formally affiliated with a church, the college primarily trained Congregationalist and Unitarian clergy. Harvard's curriculum and students became secular throughout the 18th century and by the 19th century had emerged as the central cultural establishment among Boston elites. Following the American Civil War, President Charles W. Eliot's forty year tenure (1869–1909) transformed the college and affiliated professional schools into a centralized research university, and Harvard became a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900.James Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate college became coeducational after its 1977 merger with Radcliffe College. Drew Gilpin Faust was elected the 28th president in 2007 and is the first woman to lead the university. Harvard has the largest financial endowment of any academic institution in the world, standing at $32 billion as of September 2011.
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Jamaica
Coordinates: 18°10′57″N 77°19′18″W / 18.1823878°N 77.3217773°W / 18.1823878; -77.3217773
Jamaica (
i/dʒəˈmeɪkə/), officially the Commonwealth of Jamaica, is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, 234 kilometres (145 mi) in length, up to 80 kilometres (50 mi) in width, and 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 sq mi) in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about 145 kilometres (90 mi) south of Cuba, and 191 kilometres (119 mi) west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The indigenous Arawakan-speaking Taíno name for the island was Xaymaca, meaning the "Land of Wood and Water" or the "Land of Springs".
Once a Spanish possession known as Santiago, it became an English colony in 1655 under the name "Jamaica". It achieved full independence from Britain on August 6, 1962. With 2.8 million people, it is the third most populous anglophone country in the Americas, after the United States and Canada. It remains a Commonwealth realm in concert with the Monarchy of Jamaica holding ultimate executive power, where Queen Elizabeth II is the current head of state and Queen of Jamaica.Kingston is the country's largest city and the capital.
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Libya
Libya (Arabic: ليبيا Lībyā), Berber: ⵍⵉⴱⵢⴰ) is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west.
With an area of almost 1.8 million square kilometres (700,000 sq mi), Libya is the third largest country in Africa by area, and the 17th largest in the world. The largest city, Tripoli, is home to 1.7 million of Libya's 6.4 million people. The three traditional parts of the country are Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica.
In 2009 Libya had the highest HDI in Africa and the fourth highest GDP (PPP) per capita in Africa, behind Seychelles, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Libya has the 10th-largest proven oil reserves of any country in the world and the 17th-highest petroleum production.
As a result of the Libyan civil war, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, which had at that time been in existence for 34 years, collapsed and Libya entered a period of governance by a transitional administration called the National Transitional Council. The NTC has stated its intention to oversee the first phase of a transition to constitutional democracy, after which it claims it will dissolve in favor of a representative legislature.
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Ljubljana
Ljubljana (locally: [lʲubˈlʲana] (
listen); German: Laibach, Italian: Lubiana, Latin: Labacum or Aemona) is the capital of Slovenia and its only centre of international importance. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. With approximately 272,000 inhabitants, it classifies as the only Slovenian large town. Throughout its history, it has been influenced by its geographic position at the crossroads of the Slavic world with the Germanic and Latin cultures.
For centuries, Ljubljana was the capital of the historical region of Carniola. Now it is the cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative centre of Slovenia, independent since 1991. Its transport connections, concentration of industry, scientific and research institutions and cultural tradition are contributing factors to its leading position.
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New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. The city is referred to as New York City or The City of New York to distinguish it from the State of New York, of which it is a part. As a global power city, New York exerts a significant impact upon commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment. The home of the United Nations Headquarters, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has been described as the cultural capital of the world.
Located on one of the world's largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, each of which comprises a state county. The five boroughs—The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island—were consolidated into a single city in 1898. With a Census-estimated 2011 population of 8,244,910 distributed over a land area of just 305 square miles (790 km2), New York is the most densely populated major city in the United States. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. The New York City Metropolitan Area's population is the United States' largest, with 18.9 million people distributed over 6,720 square miles (17,400 km2), and is also part of the most populous combined statistical area in the United States, containing 22.1 million people as of the 2010 Census.
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Philadelphia
Philadelphia (
/ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə/) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States, with a population of 1,526,006 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. Philadelphia is also the commercial, cultural, and educational center of the Delaware Valley, home to 6 million people and the country's fifth-largest metropolitan area. The Philadelphia metropolitan division consists of five counties in Pennsylvania and has a population of 4,008,994. Popular nicknames for Philadelphia are Philly and The City of Brotherly Love, the latter of which comes from the literal meaning of the city's name in Greek (Greek: Φιλαδέλφεια ([pʰilaˈdelpʰeːa], Modern Greek: [filaˈðelfia]) "brotherly love", compounded from philos (φίλος) "loving", and adelphos (ἀδελφός) "brother").
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South Bronx
The South Bronx is an area of the New York City borough of The Bronx. The neighborhoods of Tremont, University Heights, Highbridge, Morrisania, Soundview, Hunts Point, and Castle Hill are sometimes considered part of the South Bronx.
The South Bronx is part of New York's 16th Congressional District, one of the poorest Congressional districts in the United States. The South Bronx is served by the NYPD's 40th, 41st, 42nd, 44th, and 48th Precincts.
The South Bronx was originally called the Manor of Morrisania, and later Morrisania. It was the private domain of the powerful and aristocratic Morris family, which includes Lewis Morris, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Gouverneur Morris, penman of the United States Constitution. The Morris memorial is at St. Ann's Church of Morrisania. Morris' descendants own land in the South Bronx to this day.
As the Morrises developed their landholdings, an influx of German and Irish immigrants populated the area. Later, the Bronx was considered the "Jewish Borough," and at its peak in 1930 was 49% Jewish. Jews in the South Bronx numbered 364,000 or 57.1% of the total population in the area. The term was first coined in the 1940s by a group of social workers who identified the Bronx's first pocket of poverty, in the Port Morris section, the southernmost section of the Bronx.
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The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated. Located north of Manhattan and Queens, and south of Westchester County, the Bronx is the only borough that is located primarily on the mainland (a very small portion of Manhattan, the Marble Hill neighborhood, is physically located on the mainland, due to the rerouting of the Harlem River in 1897). The Bronx's population is 1,400,761 according to the 2010 United States Census. The borough has a land area of 42 square miles (109 km2), making it the fourth-largest in land area of the five boroughs, the fourth most populated, and the third-highest in density of population.
The Bronx is divided by the Bronx River into a hillier section in the west, closer to Manhattan, and the flatter East Bronx, closer to Long Island. The West Bronx was annexed to New York City (then largely confined to Manhattan) in 1874, and the areas east of the Bronx River in 1895. The Bronx first assumed a distinct legal identity when it became a borough of Greater New York in 1898. Bronx County, with the same boundaries as the borough, was separated from New York County (afterwards coextensive with the Borough of Manhattan) as of January 1, 1914. Although the Bronx is the third-most-densely-populated county in the U.S., about a quarter of its area is open space, including Woodlawn Cemetery, Van Cortlandt Park, Pelham Bay Park, the New York Botanical Garden and the Bronx Zoo in the borough's north and center, on land deliberately reserved in the late 19th century as urban development progressed northwards and eastwards from Manhattan with the building of roads, bridges and railways.
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University of Miami
The University of Miami (informally referred to as UM, U of M, U Miami, Miami, or The U) is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key.
As of 2009[update], the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12 separate colleges, including a medical school, law school, and a school focused on the study of oceanography and atmospheric sciences. These colleges offer approximately 115 undergraduate, 114 master’s, 51 doctoral, and two professional areas of study. Over the years, the University's students have represented all 50 states and close to 150 foreign countries. With more than 13,000 full and part-time faculty and staff, UM is the sixth largest employer in Miami-Dade County.
Research is a component of each academic division, with UM attracting $326 million per year in sponsored research grants. UM also offers a large library system with over 3.1 million volumes and exceptional holdings in Cuban heritage and music. UM also offers a wide range of student activities, including fraternities and sororities, a student newspaper and radio station. UM's intercollegiate athletic teams compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and its football team has won five national championships.
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World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 in the September 11 attacks. The site is being rebuilt with five new skyscrapers and a memorial to the casualties of the attacks. As of November 2011[update], only one skyscraper has been completed; the other four are expected to be completed before 2020. One World Trade Center will be the lead building for the new complex, reaching more than 100 stories at its completion. It became the tallest building in New York City on April 30, 2012, and is expected to be finished by 2013. A sixth tower is awaiting confirmation.
At the time of their completion, the original 1 World Trade Center (the North Tower) and 2 World Trade Center (the South Tower), known collectively as the Twin Towers, were the tallest buildings in the world. The other buildings included 3 WTC (the Marriott World Trade Center), 4 WTC, 5 WTC, 6 WTC (which housed United States Customs), and 7 WTC. All of these buildings were built between 1975 and 1985.
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50 Cent
Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), better known by his stage name 50 Cent, is an American rapper, entrepreneur, investor, record producer, and actor. He rose to fame with the release of his albums Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2003) and The Massacre (2005). His album Get Rich or Die Tryin' has been certified eight times platinum by the RIAA.
Born in the South Jamaica of Queens, New York City, Jackson began drug dealing at the age of twelve during the 1980s crack epidemic. After leaving drug dealing to pursue a rap career, he was shot at and struck by nine bullets during an incident in 2000. After releasing his album Guess Who's Back? in 2002, Jackson was discovered by rapper Eminem and signed to Interscope Records. With the help of Eminem and Dr. Dre, who produced his first major commercial successes, Jackson became one of the world's highest selling rappers. In 2003, he founded the record label G-Unit Records, which signed several successful rappers such as Young Buck, Lloyd Banks, and Tony Yayo.
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9th Wonder
Patrick Douthit (born January 15, 1975 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina), better known as 9th Wonder is a hip hop record producer, record executive, DJ, lecturer, and lyricist from Durham, North Carolina, U.S. He began his career as the main producer for the group Little Brother, and has also worked with Mary J. Blige, Jean Grae, Wale, Jay-Z, Murs, Drake, Buckshot, Chris Brown, Destiny's Child, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Erykah Badu, Ludacris, Mac Miller, and David Banner. As of 2010, 9th Wonder raps under the name of 9thmatic.
9th Wonder has a smooth and soulful production style that relies on samples from artists such as Al Green and Curtis Mayfield. He attributes the bass lines that he uses in production to DJ Premier, Pete Rock and J Dilla, while he claims to have learned "Aahs" from RZA.[clarification needed]
9th Wonder's first significant career breakthrough came in 2003 when, as an up-and-coming producer, he released an unofficial remix album of Nas' 2002 album God's Son entitled God's Stepson. Released through internet outlets, the album garnered significant attention and acclaim. The producer has said that he was not thinking in terms of using it to generate a buzz or promote his skills and that at that point: "I never thought any of this of me as a producer was going to happen." The album has since been credited as starting the now regular trend for unofficial 'home-made' remixes of whole albums.
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Afrika Bambaataa
Afrika Bambaataa (born April 19, 1957) is an American DJ from the South Bronx, New York who was instrumental in the early development of hip hop throughout the 1980s. Afrika Bambaataa is one of the three originators of break-beat deejaying, and is respectfully known as the "Grandfather" and the Amen Ra of Universal Hip Hop Culture as well as the Father of The Electro Funk Sound. Through his co-opting of the street gang the Black Spades into the music and culture-oriented Universal Zulu Nation, he is responsible for spreading hip hop culture throughout the world. On September 27, 2007, he was nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Afrika Bambaataa grew up in The Bronx River Projects, with an activist mother and uncle. As a child, he was exposed to the black liberation movement, and witnessed debates between his mother and uncle regarding the conflicting ideologies in the movement. He was exposed to his mother's extensive and eclectic record collection. Gangs in the area became the law in the absence of law, clearing their turf of drug dealers, assisting with community health programs and both fighting and partying to keep members and turf. Bambaataa was a founding member of The Bronx River Projects-area street gang The Savage Seven. Due to the explosive growth of the gang, it later became known as the Black Spades, and Bambaataa quickly rose to the position of warlord. As warlord, it was his job to build ranks and expand the turf of the Black Spades. Bambaataa was not afraid to cross turfs to forge relationships with other gang members, and with other gangs. As a result, the Spades became the biggest gang in the city in terms of both membership and turf.
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Ben Sharpa
Kgotso Semela aka Ben Sharpa aka Oh Kaptin My Kaptin (born March 25, 1977 in Soweto, South Africa) is a veteran underground rapper and music producer. Considered by many as one of South Africa's most accomplished lyricists, Ben Sharpa is a founding member of cult crews GroundWorks and Audio Visual.
Ben Sharpa has shared the stage with artists such as Immortal Technique (June 2005), Jonzi-D (June 2003), Black Thought (August 2001), Mr. Len and Jean Grae (May 2001). In June 2006, Sharpa headlined alongside Wordsworth and Jonzi-D as part of the Tri-Continental Hip Hop Festival - a historical 3-city Hip hop tour that was held to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Youth Month in South Africa. He is also a founding member of the performance crew for the annual Hip-Hop Connected lyrical theatre event held at Artscape Theatre in Cape Town every September (Heritage Month). In 2007 He was discovered by accomplished BB1 Radio DJ Mary-Anne Hobbs, and soon after performed at the annual Glastonbury Festival (June 2007) on the BBC Introduces Stage.
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Ben Sisario
Ben Sisario is an American academic, author and journalist.
He is a staff reporter for The New York Times, covering music and culture. Sisario is also the author of Doolittle (2006) a non-fiction book in the 33⅓ series about the studio album Doolittle (1989) by the Pixies, an alternative-rock band.
Additionally, Sisario is a contributor to Blender, New York, Rolling Stone, Spin, New York City public-radio station WFUV and The Village Voice's annual Paz & Jop music critics' poll.
He is a member of the teaching faculty at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, instructing courses on Rock Music in Historical Context and Writing for Popular Music.
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Biz Markie
Marcel Theo Hall (born April 8, 1964,Harlem, New York) better known by his stage name, Biz Markie, is an American rapper, beatboxer, DJ, comedian, singer, reality television personality, and commercial spokesperson. He is best known for his single "Just a Friend", an American Top 10 hit in 1989. In 2008, "Just a Friend" made #100 on VH1's list of the 100 greatest hip hop songs of all time.
Markie has been called "the Clown Prince of Hip Hop."
Biz Markie's career began on Long Island, New York in the early 1980s, where he established his reputation for beat-boxing and rapping. MC Shan and Roxanne Shante were part of Marley Marl's Cold Chillin' Records, and Biz beatboxed on Shante's underground hit "Def Fresh Crew" (1986). This lent credibility to his recording career and put Cold Chillin' on the map. In the same year, Biz Markie's debut single, "Make the Music With Your Mouth, Biz", was released on Prism Records. He released his debut album, Goin' Off, which attracted a fair amount of attention, largely due to the lead single, "Make the Music With Your Mouth, Biz". The album also featured the underground hit singles "Nobody Beats The Biz", "The Vapors" and "Pickin' Boogers".
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Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (
/ˈdɪlən/), born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, is an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist. He has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly reluctant figurehead of social unrest. A number of Dylan's early songs, such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'", became anthems for the US civil rights and anti-war movements. Leaving his initial base in the culture of folk music behind, Dylan's six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" has been described as radically altering the parameters of popular music in 1965. However, his recordings employing electric instruments attracted denunciation and criticism from others in the folk movement.
Dylan's lyrics incorporated a variety of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed hugely to the then burgeoning counterculture. Initially inspired by the songs of Woody Guthrie,Robert Johnson, and Hank Williams, as well as the music and performance styles of Buddy Holly and Little Richard, Dylan has both amplified and personalized musical genres. His recording career, spanning fifty years, has explored numerous distinct traditions in American song—from folk, blues and country to gospel, rock and roll, and rockabilly to English, Scottish, and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and swing.
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Busta Rhymes
Trevor Tahiem Smith, Jr., (born May 20, 1972), better known by his stage name Busta Rhymes, is an American rapper, producer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the alias Busta Rhymes after NFL wide receiver George "Buster" Rhymes. Early in his career, he was known for his wild style and fashion, and today is best known for his intricate rapping technique, which involves rapping at a fast rate with lots of internal rhyme and half rhyme, and to date has received eleven Grammy nominations for his musical work. About.com included him on its list of the 50 Greatest MCs of Our Time (1987–2007), while Steve Huey of Allmusic called him one of the best and most prolific rappers of the '90s.
Busta was born in Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn, to Jamaican parents Geraldine Green and Trevor Smith, Sr. in 1972. Smith attended George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School, alongside Jay-Z, DMX and The Notorious B.I.G. He went to Uniondale High School on Long Island, graduating in 1990.
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Category Hip hop DJs
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Courvoisier
Courvoisier (French pronunciation: [kuʁvwɑzje]) is a brand of cognac owned by Beam Inc. The production is now based in the town of Jarnac in the Charente department of France. Although no evidence exists that Courvoisier cognac was the favorite drink of Napoleon Bonaparte, who died in 1821, before Courvoisier was officially established by Felix Courvoisier in 1835, the company website claims the following:
In 1964 Courvoisier was acquired by the Canadian spirits group Hiram Walker, which helped to increase international sales. Hiram Walker was then acquired by Allied Lyons in 1986; when Pernod Ricard acquired Allied Domecq, Courvoisier was divested to the holding company Fortune Brands, which spun off various product lines in 2011 to form the spirits company Beam Inc.
Media related to Courvoisier at Wikimedia Commons
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Cypress Hill
Cypress Hill is an American hip hop group from South Gate, California. Cypress Hill was the first Cuban-American/Latino hip hop group to have platinum and multi-platinum albums, selling over 18 million albums worldwide. It is one of the most well-known groups in West Coast rap and was critically acclaimed for their first two groundbreaking albums.
Senen Reyes (also known as Sen Dog) and Ulpiano Sergio Reyes (also known as Mellow Man Ace) are brothers who initially lived in South Gate, California. In 1971, their family had immigrated to the United States, settling in the Los Angeles neighborhood of South Gate. In 1988, the two brothers teamed up with Lawrence Muggerud (also known as DJ Muggs) and Louis Freese (also known as B-Real) to form a hip-hop group named DVX (Devastating Vocal Excellence). The band soon lost Mellow Man Ace to a solo career, and changed their name to Cypress Hill, after a street in South Gate.
After recording a demo in 1989, Cypress Hill signed a record deal with the major label, Columbia Records. Their self-titled first album was released in August 1991. The lead single was the double A-side "The Phuncky Feel One"/"How I Could Just Kill a Man" which received heavy airplay on urban and college radio. The other two singles released from the album were "Hand on the Pump" and "Latin Lingo", the latter of which combined English and Spanish lyrics. The success of these singles led to the album selling two million copies in the US alone. The group made their first appearance at Lollapalooza on the side stage in 1992.
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David Toop
David Toop (born 5 May 1949) is an English musician and author, and as of 2001 was visiting Research Fellow in the Media School at London College of Communication. He was notably a member of The Flying Lizards. He was a prominent contributor to the British magazine The Face. He is a regular contributor to The Wire, the U.K. based music magazine.
Soon after his birth, his parents moved to Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, where he grew up. He was educated at Broxbourne Grammar School, which he left in 1967 to study at Hornsey College of Art.
Toop published his pioneering book on hip hop, Rap Attack, in 1984. Eleven years later, Ocean of Sound appeared, described as Toop's "poetic survey of contemporary musical life from Debussy through Ambient, Techno, and drum 'n' bass." Since the 1970s, Toop has also been a significant presence on the British experimental and improvised music scene, collaborating with Max Eastley, Brian Eno, Scanner, and others. In 2001, Toop curated the sound art exhibition Sonic Boom, and the following year, he curated a 2-CD collection entitled Not Necessarily Enough English Music: A Collection of Experimental Music from Great Britain, 1960-1977.
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Debbie Harry
Deborah Ann "Debbie" Harry (born July 1, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter and actress, best known for being the lead singer of the punk rock and new wave band Blondie. She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she performed and recorded as part of The Jazz Passengers. Her acting career spans over thirty film roles and numerous television appearances.
Harry was born in Miami, Florida, and adopted by Catherine Harry and Richard Smith, gift shop proprietors in Hawthorne, New Jersey. She attended Hawthorne High School, where she graduated in 1963. She graduated from Centenary College in Hackettstown, New Jersey, with an Associate of Arts degree in 1965.[citation needed] Before starting her singing career she moved to New York City in the late 1960s and worked as a secretary at BBC Radio's office there for one year. Later, she was a waitress at Max's Kansas City, a go-go dancer in Union City, New Jersey, discothèque,[citation needed] and a Playboy Bunny.
Deborah Harry began her musical career in the late '60s with the folk rock group The Wind in the Willows, that recorded one album for Capitol Records. Harry then joined The Stilettos, with Elda Gentile and Amanda Jones, in 1974. The Stilettos included her eventual boyfriend and Blondie guitarist Chris Stein. When Harry and Stein left the Stilettos, they formed Angel and the Snake, with Tish and Snooky Bellomo. Shortly thereafter, Harry and Stein formed Blondie, naming it for the term of address men often yelled at Harry when she bleached her hair. Blondie quickly became regulars at Max's Kansas City and CBGB in New York City. After a debut album in 1976, commercial success followed in the late 1970s to the early 1980s, first in Australia and Europe, then in the United States.
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DJ Clue
Ernesto Shaw (born January 8, 1975) better known as DJ Clue?, is a mixtape DJ.
Shaw began his interest in music as an aspiring rapper by the name of MC Drama. During one recording session in 1989, an anxious Shaw decided to pass time by using a DJ's turntable set. After that session, he developed a greater interest in DJing.
Now known as DJ Clue, he broke ground by releasing his first tape in 1990, "Clue #24", which was given that name in order for him to appear more experienced than he actually had been at the time. Through the years, Clue built a following in the mixtape game (which at the time was dominated by the likes of DJ Kid Capri and others). As the mid-1990s approached, Clue became known for not only the quality of his tapes, but for having exclusive songs not found on tapes by other DJ's. One mixtape in the summer of 1994, featured two unreleased songs by The Notorious B.I.G. from his forthcoming album, Ready To Die, which drew the ire of not only B.I.G., but CEO of Bad Boy Entertainment, Sean "Puffy" Combs. This move, however, turned out to prove beneficial to Clue's rise. Upon meeting Combs, Clue began establishing a relationship with Bad Boy Records, resulting in what would be his most popular mixtape to date (at the time), "Bad Boy Mixtape Vol. 1", hosted by Combs.
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DJ Hollywood
DJ Hollywood (born December 10, 1954) is an American old school hip hop DJ and rapper. According to Kurtis Blow, Hollywood was the first rapper in the hip-hop style. His rhymes are from the top of the dome, he has never written anything down.[clarification needed] Some of his creations other rappers have been using for the last 30 years such as "throw ya hands in the air and wave 'em like you just don't care."
DJ Hollywood first came to prominence just as disco was becoming popular, and he soon became one of the most in-demand performers of the nascent hip hop culture. Most of his body of musical work was live, not recorded, although he did release a single "Shock Shock The House" in 1980 on CBS Records.
Until the mid-1980s, Hollywood was one of the top DJs; he then retired and fought drug addiction. He has since returned to performing in the New York City area, appearing with Tha Veteranz which reunited him with his former partner Lovebug Starski.
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DJ Jazzy Jeff
Jeffrey Allen Townes (born January 22, 1965, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), also known as DJ Jazzy Jeff or simply Jazz, is an American hip hop, R&B record producer, turntablist and actor. He is best known for his early career with Will Smith as DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. DJ Jazzy Jeff attended John Bartram High School in Philadelphia, where he is enshrined in the school's "Wall of Fame."[citation needed]
Once he grew up, he developed a reputation and a following as a school and block party DJ. Jazzy Jeff was the feature of the duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. He also won the world DJ championship in the 1986 New Music Seminar DJ Battle.
When Smith branched out into television with the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Jazzy Jeff played a recurring character named Jazz, Smith's best friend on the show. In the early season the two characters always greeted each other with their signature handshake (swinging mid-five, point-back/snap with both characters saying "Pssh!"). His trademarks included being physically ejected from the house by Uncle Phil (James Avery).
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DJ Kool Herc
Clive Campbell (born April 16, 1955), also known as Kool Herc, DJ Kool Herc and Kool DJ Herc, is a Jamaican-born DJ who is credited with originating hip hop music, in The Bronx, New York City. His playing of hard funk records of the sort typified by James Brown was an alternative both to the violent gang culture of the Bronx and to the nascent popularity of disco in the 1970s. In response to the reactions of his dancers, Campbell began to isolate the instrumental portion of the record which emphasized the drum beat—the "break"—and switch from one break to another to yet another.
Using the same two turntable set-up of disco DJs, Campbell's style led to the use of two copies of the same record to elongate the break. This breakbeat DJing, using hard funk, rock, and records with Latin percussion, formed the basis of hip hop music. Campbell's announcements and exhortations to dancers helped lead to the syncopated, rhymed spoken accompaniment now known as rapping. He called his dancers "break-boys" and "break-girls", or simply b-boys and b-girls. Campbell's DJ style was quickly taken up by figures such as Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash. Unlike them, he never made the move into commercially recorded hip hop in its earliest years.
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DJ Muggs
Lawrence Muggerud (born January 28, 1968), better known by his stage name DJ Muggs, is Cypress Hill's DJ and producer. He also produced tracks for Funkdoobiest, House of Pain, Dizzie Rascal, U2, Depeche Mode and more. He is the leader of LA art collective Soul Assassins.
Muggs was born in Queens, New York of Italian and Norwegian descent. Muggs moved to Los Angeles at Twenty. He briefly DJ'd the group 7a3, putting out one album before disbanding. After linking up with B-Real and Sen Dog to form the group Cypress Hill, he went on to produce seven studio albums with the group, from 1991 to 2004. Of the seven, four reached platinum status, and three gold. Meanwhile, he scored hits on the side with Ice Cube's "Check Yo Self" and House of Pain's "Jump Around." During Cypress Hill's early years, DJ Muggs met The Alchemist and his Dilated Peoples brethren on tour, deciding to take the young producer under his wing, providing a jump-start for his career.
In 1997, Muggs released an album under the name Soul Assassins. The album, Soul Assassins I, reached #86 on the Billboard 200 and earned critical praise. Produced by DJ Muggs, it featured a variety of rappers including Dr. Dre, B-Real, LA The Darkman, Mobb Deep, RZA, GZA, Goodie Mob, KRS One and Wyclef Jean. In 2000 he returned to the Soul Assassins with Soul Assassins II, which reached only #178 on the charts but garnered similarly positive reviews. He also put out the record Dust, an atmosphere-heavy trip-hop affair with Greg Dulli, Amy Trujillo and Everlast on vocals. After the 2004 album Til Death Do Us Part, which didn't reach gold but landed #23 on the Billboard 200, Cypress Hill went on a hiatus from recording, enabling its members to focus more on their side projects.
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DJ Premier
Christopher Edward Martin (born March 21, 1966), better known by his stage name DJ Premier (also known as Preem, Premo, or Primo for short), is an American record producer and DJ, and was the instrumental half of the hip hop duo Gang Starr, together with emcee Guru. Born in Houston and raised in Prairie View, Texas, he has lived in Brooklyn, New York, for much of his professional career. Rolling Stone identified Premier as arguably Hip-Hop's greatest producer of all time.
The Source named DJ Premier one of the five greatest producers in hip-hop history, while the editors of About.com ranked him #1 on their Top 50 Hip-Hop Producers list. He also made the "Finals" in the search for The Greatest Hip-Hop Producer of All Time by Vibe. He attended Prairie View A&M University.
Premier is known for producing all of Gang Starr's songs as well as many of the Gang Starr Foundation's songs. His work also includes production for heavyweight rappers such as (alphabetic order) Apathy, Big L, Bun B, Canibus, D.I.T.C., Fat Joe, Game, Jay-Z, Kanye West, KRS-One, Lord Finesse, M.O.P., Mos Def, Nas, Rakim, Royce Da 5'9", The LOX, The Notorious B.I.G., Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, rock band Limp Bizkit, Big L, Big Daddy Kane, Ill Bill, Joell Ortiz, and pop/R&B singer Christina Aguilera, among many others.
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DJ Scratch
DJ Scratch (born George Spivey) is an American hip hop DJ and producer.
DJ Scratch is the 1988 New Music Seminar Battle For World Supremacy DJ Champion, Grammy nominated, Multi Platinum Producer & The 2010 Master Of The Mix World Champion.
For over two decades, DJ Scratch has been everyone’s favorite DJ's favorite DJ. Acknowledged as one of the greatest DJs of all time and honored in The Source Magazine as a Hip Hop Icon. On July 2, 2010 DJ Scratch was crowned the title "Jam Master" by DMC of RUN DMC.
Scratch is the man who provided the flamboyance to EPMD, Jay Z & P Diddy's stage shows. Throughout the years, Scratch drove audiences into frenzies with visual and technical routines far beyond mortal DJs. One of his most famous routines is cutting Big Daddy Kane's "Friday the 13th Imma Play Jason" line as he emerges from beneath the turntable set wearing a hockey mask. Various DJ routines & turntable tricks created by Scratch over the past 20 years are still being done in honor of DJ Scratch by some of the biggest DJs today like Kid Capri & Funkmaster Flex.
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DJ Screw
Robert Earl "DJ Screw" Davis, Jr. (July 20, 1971 – November 16, 2000) was a Houston, Texas-based DJ. He was known as a central figure in the Houston hip-hop community and was the creator of the now-famous Chopped and Screwed DJ technique. This creation led to his nickname of "The Originator." Davis was recognized for his various mixtapes and albums mostly on a regional level, until after his death. His legacy was discovered by a wider audience when Houston hip-hop began reaching a national audience in 2005.
DJ Screw was born in Bastrop, Texas, not far from Smithville, Texas. His father, Robert Earl Davis, Sr., was a long-haul truck driver based in Houston. His mother Ida May Davis (who had a young daughter from a previous marriage), came to the area to be with her mother when her son was born in 1971. She returned to Houston, but the marriage was floundering; soon it would be over, and she and her kids moved to Los Angeles for a couple of years, then back to Houston, and returned to Smithville in 1980 at the age of nine.
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DJ Skee
Scott Keeney (born November 15, 1983), better known by his stage name DJ Skee, is an American DJ, radio personality, television host, video producer, and entrepreneur operating out of Los Angeles. Skee manages his own new media music, marketing, and production company, Skee.TV. Skee performs worldwide, has headlined tours from Asia through South America, hosts his own radio shows on Los Angeles' KIIS-FM and Sirius XM Satellite Radio (with worldwide syndication), and remixes music from various artists such as Jay-Z. His business portfolio includes a creative marketing and branding company, record label, management company, and production arm.
Skee was born November 15, 1983 in New York City. After moving between Texas and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Skee was raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Skee started creating mixtapes when he was 15 and soon became regionally known. Starting on air at the age of 16 at a local station in Minneapolis, MN, Skee split time as a teen between Minnesota and New York City where he began his work in the music business. After graduating a year early from Central High School (Saint Paul, Minnesota) in 2001, Skee moved to Los Angeles under the guidance of Steve Rifkind to work directly for him at Loud Records and SRC Marketing.
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DJ Whoo Kid
DJ Whoo Kid (born Yves Mondesir in Brooklyn, New York) is a hip hop DJ and of Haitian descent raised in Queens Village, New York but with strong roots to Cap-Haïtien, Haiti. He used to be signed to G-Unit Records and its subsidiary label, Shady Ville Entertainment. He is the host of Hollywood Saturdays on Sirius/XM Radio, and in March 2009 he launched the video website RadioPlanet.tv. His productions often uses a sound clip of shouting his DJ name, with an echo effecct.
G-Unit Radio
This is 50
G-Unit Radio West
2011 : TBA
2011: Shady's The Team ( Hosted by D12 )
2011: Community Payback
2011 : Take Your Hats Off
2011: Creating A Buzz Volume 1 (Hosted by Ashley Cole)
2011: Momentum
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Duke Bootee
Duke Bootee was an early hip hop and rap producer, who produced some of the most early and important rap records[citation needed]
His perhaps most well-known single was "The Message". Produced for Sugar Hill Records, this record featured legendary rapper Melle Mel and Duke Bootee. The label on the record marketed the song as Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, although the actual performers were Melle Mel and Duke Bootee. Later, he collaborated again with Melle Mel on the singles "Message II (Survival)", and "New York New York", in which the latter was credited to Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.
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Fab Five Freddy
Fred Brathwaite (born 1959), more popularly known as Fab 5 Freddy, is an American Hip hop historian, Hip hop pioneer and former graffiti artist. He was active in New York City in the 1970s and early 1980s, and later hosted the first hip-hop music video show on TV, Yo! MTV Raps.
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Funkmaster Flex
Aston George Taylor, Jr. (born August 5, 1968) better known as Funkmaster Flex is an American hip hop DJ, rapper, musician and producer on New York City's Hot 97 radio station and host of the hit MTV show Funk Flex Full Throttle.
Funkmaster Flex (Aston George Taylor Jr.) was born in the Bronx borough of New York City with music flowing through his veins thanks to his father Aston George Taylor Sr., a sound system DJ for local clubs throughout the city. By 16, Flex began DJing at local nightclubs a perfecting his mixing and turntable talents. At 19, he got his first job as a record boy for fellow Bronx native, Chuck Chillout for WRKS 98.7 Kiss-FM in New York. One evening, Chillout was late for his show and Funkmaster Flex got his big break and was allowed to stand in, thus beginning his career in radio.
He later left KISS for a brief stay at 107.5 WBLS-FM, meanwhile Flex kept up his club appearances at many of Vito Bruno's operated nightclubs including The Tunnel, Home Bass and Mecca. Bruno helped convince Joel Salkowitz, a regional vice president of Hot 97, to begin airing live broadcasts from clubs where Flex was performing like The Tunnel. He called the hours of Saturday evening programming the "Saturday Night House Party". When they realized the resurgence of Hip Hop was coming fast from its fallout in the eighties they increase the hours and days of these style of shows.
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Futura 2000
Futura 2000 is an American graffiti artist. He started to paint illegally on New York's subway in the early seventies, working with other artists such as ALI. In the early eighties he showed with Patti Astor at the Fun Gallery, along with Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Richard Hambleton and Kenny Scharf. Futura began painting "legally" as the live on-stage backdrop painter for British punk rock band The Clash's 1981 European tour. More recently, he is a successful graphic designer and gallery artist. One of the most distinctive features of Futura's work is his abstract approach to graffiti art. While the primary focus, during the 1980s, of the majority of graffiti artists was lettering, Futura pioneered abstract street art, which has since become more popular. Conversely, his aerosol strokes are regarded as different from those of his peers, as they are as thin as the fine lines achieved only through the use of an airbrush.
While he is primarily known as a graffiti artist, much of his work is as an illustrator and graphic designer of record sleeves, first becoming involved with The Clash; producing a sleeve for their "This Is Radio Clash" 7" single and handwriting the sleeve notes and lyrics sheet for their album Combat Rock. He also toured extensively with The Clash during the Combat Rock tours, "performing" with them on stage by spray painting backdrops whilst the band performed.
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Grandmaster Caz
Curtis Fisher (b. April 17, 1961), better known by his stage name Grandmaster Caz or Cassanova Fly is an American "Old Skool" rapper, MC, and DJ. He currently works as a celebrity tour guide for Hush Hip Hop Tours, a hip-hop cultural sightseeing tour company in New York City and is a Board member of The Universal Federation for the Preservation of Hip Hop Culture.
Grandmaster Caz was born in The Bronx, New York.
Caz first encountered rap in 1974 at a Kool Herc block party. Shortly after, he teamed with DJ Disco Wiz under the name Casanova Fly to form one of the first DJ Crews, Mighty Force. Caz was also the first rapper to perform both DJ (Record) and MC (Vocal) duties.
In the late 1970s, he joined The Cold Crush Brothers.
In 2008, he was one of the participants at the Cornell University Library conference on Hip Hop.
Artists who cite Grandmaster Caz as an influence include Big Daddy Kane,Cory Gunz
A 2009 book claims that the lyrics for The Sugar Hill Gang's seminal Rapper's Delight were plagiarized from the then-unpublished Caz's lyrics. In 2000, he set his account of the controversy in the song MC Delight. He claims in the song that he wrote the lyrics of Big Bank Hank, who had been the manager of his band, but never received any royalties or thanks for it.
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Grandmaster Flash
Joseph Saddler (born January 1, 1958 in Bridgetown, Barbados), better known as King Grandmaster Flash, is an American hip hop musician and DJ—one of the pioneers of hip-hop DJing, cutting, and mixing.
He has been credited with the invention of the first crossfade by sourcing parts from a junkyard in the Bronx. It was initially an On/Off toggle switch from an old microphone that he transformed into a left/right switch which allowed him to switch from one turntable to another; switch from record one to record two.
Before this time DJs, like the first of them all, DJ Kool Herc, and then Afrika Bambaataa, would have to break up the party to pick up the needle and re-drop it on the record, or a new record; until Flash invented a new way to link one record to the other with the cross-fader. After this invention he went from being called Flash to Grandmaster Flash, having made a huge impact on the culture, he was repaid with this honorific name.
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, becoming the first hip hop/rap artists to be so honored.
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Greg Tate
Greg Tate is an African-American writer, musician, and producer. The focus of his writing has been African-American music and culture. He is a founding member of the Black Rock Coalition and the leader of Burnt Sugar.
Tate was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio. When he was 13 years old, his family moved to Washington, D.C. He credits Amiri Baraka's Black Music and Rolling Stone, which he first read when he was 14, with stimulating his interest in collecting and writing about music. As a teenager, Tate taught himself how to play guitar. He attended Howard University, where he studied journalism and film.
In 1982, Tate moved to New York City, where he developed friendships with other musicians, including James "Blood" Ulmer and Vernon Reid. In 1985 he co-founded the Black Rock Coalition with some of the African-American musicians he knew who shared a common interest in playing rock music.
Tate became a staff writer for The Village Voice in 1987, a position he held until 2005. His work has also been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Artforum, Down Beat, Essence, JazzTimes, Rolling Stone, and VIBE.The Source described Tate as one of "the Godfathers of hip-hop journalism".
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Hip Hop Pantsula
Hip Hop Pantsula, born Jabulani Tsambo, is a popular South African Motswako hip-hop MC who frequently performs in ethnic languages, though mostly in Setswana.
Pantsula attended high school at St. Alban's College in Pretoria. Raised in Mmabatho, Pantsula's break came in 1997 when he and his school friends met with producer Chicco Twala who produced their debut, "Party". However, the band split soon after the release of "Party". Pantsula had his next album, Introduction, produced by singer and producer Isaac Mthethwa The album was recorded in different South African ethnic tongues such as Setswana, isiZulu and Sesotho.
Pantsula appeared on the third one-off TV special of quiz show Test The Nation, titled "National Parenting Test", as the Team Captain. In 2007, he won the third season of the reality dance show Strictly Come Dancing along with his professional dance partner Hayley Bennet. His hits include the single from his O Mang Reloaded album, "Tswaka", "Jabba" and "Tshwara" (the latter both from YBA 2 NW).
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Ice Cube
O'Shea Jackson (born June 15, 1969), better known by his stage name Ice Cube, is an American rapper, record producer, actor, screenwriter, film producer, and director. He began his career as a member of the C.I.A. and later joined the rap group N.W.A. After leaving N.W.A in December 1989, he built a successful solo career in music, and also as a writer, director, actor and producer in cinema. Additionally, he has served as one of the producers of the Showtime television series Barbershop and the TBS series Are We There Yet?, both of which are based upon films in which he portrayed the lead character.
He was ranked #8 on MTV's list of the 10 Greatest MCs of All Time, while Snoop Dogg himself ranked Ice Cube as the greatest MC of all time.About.com ranked him #11 on its list of the "Top 50 Greatest MCs of Our Time."Allmusic has called him one of hip-hop's best and most controversial artists, as well as "one of rap's greatest storytellers."
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Jam Master Jay
Jason William Mizell (January 21, 1965 – October 30, 2002), better known by his stage name Jam Master Jay, was an African-American musician and rapper. He was the DJ of the influential hip hop group Run–D.M.C. During the 1980s, Run-D.M.C. became the biggest hip-hop group and are credited with breaking hip-hop into mainstream music. He was ranked #10 on Spin's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.
Mizell was born in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of 3 years he started playing trumpet and played bass, guitar, and drums in various bands prior to discovering turntables. He moved to Hollis, Queens in 1975 with his family where he soon discovered the turntables and started DJing at the age of 13. He caught on quickly because of his musical experience and after a year of DJing he felt that he was good enough to play in front of people. He first started playing at parks and later played at bars. He also began throwing small parties around the area. Once he got a pair of Technics 1200s he improved rapidly since he was able to practice at night with headphones on when he was supposed to be sleeping.
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James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of funk music and is a major figure of 20th century popular music and dance.
In a career that spanned decades, Brown profoundly influenced the development of many different musical genres. Brown moved on a continuum of blues and gospel-based forms and styles to a profoundly "Africanized" approach to music making. Brown performed in concerts, first making his rounds across the Chitlin' Circuit, and then across the country and later around the world, along with appearing in shows on television and in movies. Although he contributed much to the music world through his hitmaking, Brown holds the record as the artist who charted the most singles on the Billboard Hot 100 without ever hitting number one on that chart.
For many years, Brown's touring show was one of the most extravagant productions in American popular music. At the time of Brown's death, his band included three guitarists, two bass guitar players, two drummers, three horns and a percussionist. The bands that he maintained during the late 1960s and 1970s were of comparable size, and the bands also included a three-piece amplified string section that played during ballads. Brown employed between 40 and 50 people for the James Brown Revue, and members of the revue traveled with him in a bus to cities and towns all over the country, performing upwards of 330 shows a year with almost all of the shows as one-nighters. In 1986, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 1990 into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
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Jay Electronica
Timothy Elpadaro Thedford (born September 19, 1976), better known by his stage name Jay Electronica, is an American hip hop recording artist and record producer, currently based in London, United Kingdom. Jay Electronica first gained significant attention after the release of the musical composition Act I: Eternal Sunshine (the pledge), made available on a MySpace page in 2007. It is fifteen continuous minutes of music, without drums, built from Jon Brion's soundtrack to the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. In late 2009 he released two songs, both produced by Just Blaze, "Exhibit A (Transformations)" and "Exhibit C" the latter of which won a Sucker Free Summit Award for Instant Classic. On November 12, 2010, it was announced Jay Electronica had become an official member of Jay-Z's Roc Nation record label.
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Jazzy Jay
Jazzy Jay, born in Beaufort, South Carolina, United States, November 18, 1961), also known as The Original Jazzy Jay or DJ Jazzy Jay, is an American hip hop DJ and producer. He has collected roughly 400,000 records.
Jazzy Jay was born into a Gullah family in coastal South Carolina. He moved with his family to New York City at a young age and took up the drums, his first instrument. He began his career in hip hop in the 1970s in The Bronx, New York, the epicenter of hip hop culture during the first decade of its development, at the age of 13. An early member of Afrika Bambaataa's Universal Zulu Nation, he was a protege of Bambaataa as well as his older cousin, Kool DJ Red Alert. Beginning as a Zulu King dancer in the early 1970s, Jay later became a Universal Zulu Nation DJ and was a member of the Zulu group Jazzy Five, with which he recorded the single "Jazzy Sensation."
Although Jazzy Jay began performing primarily at street parties, in the 1980s he began DJing in New York clubs such as Negril, the Roxy, the Ritz, and Danceteria. He also hosted a hip hop radio program on KISS FM and in 1984 he played himself as The Roxy's DJ in the influential hip hop film Beat Street.
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Jody Rosen
Jody Rosen (born 1969 in New York City) is an American journalist and author. He is the music critic for the online magazine Slate, and the author of White Christmas: The Story of an American Song.
In 2006, Rosen compiled Jewface, a controversial anthology of early 20th-century novelty songs about Jewish characters.
On March 27, 2008 Rosen’s front page New York Times article reported the discovery by American audio historians of French inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville’s 1860 phonautograph recording, the earliest known recording of the human voice to be played back.
In August 2008, Rosen’s Slate article “Dude, You Stole My Article” exposed a plagiarism scandal at the The Bulletin, a free alternative weekly newspaper in Montgomery County, Texas.The Bulletin folded shortly after the publication of Rosen’s exposé.
In May 2011, Rosen was among the first who reviewed Lady Gaga's second full-length album Born This Way after the contents were leaked online a few days before its released.
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Joe Budden
Joe Budden (born August 31, 1980) is an American rapper from Jersey City, New Jersey.
In the year 2003, Budden released his debut solo studio album, Joe Budden. It included Budden's 2003 Grammy-nominated summer hit "Pump It Up", and was also featured in the soundtrack for the movie 2 Fast 2 Furious and the video games Def Jam Vendetta, Def Jam Fight for NY, and Madden NFL 2004. The song "Focus" was also featured in the game and Joe Budden was also a character. Its second single was "Fire" featuring Busta Rhymes, which was in the movie Mean Girls. The song "Drop Drop" was featured on the soundtrack for the movie Cradle 2 the Grave. Joe has hinted in many songs that he was a recovering drug addict and has reaffirmed his position several times through multiple outlets.
After his debut album, Budden's sophomore release titled ‘The Growth’ was hampered due to the label's problems with Joe and his Def Jam seniors not happy with the direction of his music. The production of the album appeared to end up in a development hell and was ultimately not released. Continued disagreements between Budden and Def Jam forced the two sides to part ways. However, Budden managed to release the first and second installments of his Mood Muzik mixtape series while on Def Jam, and the series has been met with critical acclaim.
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John Matos
Crash (b. John Matos, Bronx, New York, Oct. 11, 1961) is a graffiti artist. As early as 13, John Matos was spray painting New York City trains, the full image art as opposed to simpler tagging soon transferred to silk screened canvas. He was first noticed through his murals on subway cars and dilapidated buildings, he is now regarded as a pioneer of the Graffiti art movement. His work is said to convey a "visual link between street life and established society". In 1980, Crash curated the now iconic exhibition:"Graffiti Art Success for America" at Fashion MODA, launching the graffiti movement that has remained very active through today. By the 1980s Matos had exhibits across the United States and abroad. Galerie Yaki Kornblit was the first instrumental gallery in Amsterdam that help launch his career in Europe. In 1981 Crash, along with 10 other artists were chosen by The Public Art Fund to design animated imagery for The Spectacolor Billboard in Times Square. He was given his first gallery showing by Sidney Janis at the Sidney Janis Gallery in 1983. Chase Manhattan, N.A., as well as CITIBANK, N.A., and other collections came calling. In 1984, Crash along with Keith Haring painted mural installations for the 5/5 Figuration Libre France/USA at the Musee d'art Moderne de la Villa de Paris. In 1988 he sprayed Notes in the Wind measuring 178 x 178 centimetres to be exhibited and eventually to be owned by the Peter Stuyvesant Foundation in Zevenaar, Netherlands. In 1995, Crash was commissioned by British American Tabacco to create a commission for Lucky Strike brand cigarette, joining fellow artist Keith Haring, to create a special work for this company and their collection.
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Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of the New York Times. He played jazz flute and piano, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in music. In the 1970s he was an associate editor of Crawdaddy!, and in the 1980s an associate editor at Rolling Stone and the music editor at The Village Voice. He started contributing to the Times in 1982. He currently reviews popular music in the arts section of the New York Times.
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Kembrew McLeod
Kembrew McLeod is an American journalist, artist, activist, and professor of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa.
He is best known as a performance artist or "media prankster" who filed an application in 1997 to register the phrase "Freedom of Expression" as a trademark in the United States. This phrase was the name of his zine/artist book series, and on January 6, 1998 McLeod was granted registration no. 2127381 in Class 16 (for "booklets in the field of creative writing").
McLeod received his PhD from University of Massachusetts-Amherst, an MA from the University of Virginia, and a BS from James Madison University.
McLeod sought registration of the phrase as a reflection on the use of intellectual property law to restrict cultural expression in U.S. society. In 2003, McLeod sent AT&T a cease and desist letter in response to an AT&T advertising campaign in college newspapers promoting a new long distance plan which used the phrase "freedom of expression". McLeod claimed that the use by AT&T of his registered trademark could lead some consumers to infer a connection between his publication and AT&T. The New York Times later interviewed McLeod, and reported that his aim was "to object to corporate power over words, speech and even ideas. 'I do want to register my genuine protest that a big company that really doesn't represent freedom of expression is trying to appropriate this phrase,' he said".
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Kendrick Lamar
Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (born June 17, 1987), simply known as Kendrick Lamar, is an American rapper and songwriter from Compton, California currently signed to Top Dawg, Aftermath and Interscope. He first gained major attention after the release of his 2010 mixtape Overly Dedicated. In 2011, his album Section.80, released exclusively through iTunes, instantly ranked as one of the top digital hip hop releases of the year. Lamar has amassed a large internet following, is a member of hip hop collective Black Hippy, along with Jay Rock, Schoolboy Q and Ab-Soul, and has worked with Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Wiz Khalifa, Game, Drake, Busta Rhymes and Tech N9ne among other popular artists.
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Kurtis Blow
Kurt Walker (born August 9, 1959), professionally known by his stage name Kurtis Blow, is an American rapper and record producer. He is the first commercially successful rapper and the first to sign with a major record label. "The Breaks", a single from his 1980 debut album, is the first certified gold record rap song.
In 1979, aged twenty, Kurtis Blow became the first rapper to be signed by a major label, Mercury, which released "Christmas Rappin'". It sold over 400,000 copies. Its follow-up, "The Breaks", sold over half a million copies. He was also the first rapper to perform overseas. He released ten albums over the next eleven years. His first album was Kurtis Blow, while his second was the Top 50 pop album Deuce. Party Time featured a fusion of rap and go-go. Ego Trip included the hits: "8 Million Stories," "AJ Scratch," and "Basketball". His 1985 album, America, garnered praise for its title track's music video. From this album, the song "If I Ruled the World" became a Top 5 hit on Billboard's R&B chart. In 1996, fellow rapper Nas debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with a cover version of the song.
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Lady Pink
Lady Pink (born Sandra Fabara, Ambato, Ecuador, 1964) is a graffiti artist. She was raised in Queens, New York, and started her graffiti writing career in 1979 following the loss of a boyfriend who had been sent to live in Puerto Rico after he had been arrested. She exorcised her grief by tagging her boyfriend's name across the city. Soon after she started tagging the name Lady Pink, derived from her love of historical romances, England, the Victorian period, and the aristocracy. Lady Pink studied at the High School of Art & Design in Manhattan. While a student there she was introduced to graffiti and began writing at age fifteen. Within a few years LADY PINK began running with TC5 (The Cool 5) and TPA (The Public Animals) crews and was soon well known as the only female capable of competing with the boys in the graffiti subculture. Lady Pink painted subway trains from the years 1979-1985. In 1980, she was included in the landmark New York show “GAS: Graffiti Art Success” at Fashion Moda, which traveled in a modified form downtown to The New Museum of Contemporary Art. Young, approachable, quick-witted, and one of the only female graffiti writers, Lady Pink became among the most photographed and interviewed graffiti artist of her time.
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Lewis Gordon
Lewis Ricardo Gordon (born 1962) is an American philosopher who works in the areas of Africana philosophy, philosophy of human and life sciences, phenomenology, philosophy of existence, social and political theory, postcolonial thought, theories of race and racism, philosophies of liberation, aesthetics, philosophy of education, and philosophy of religion. He has written particularly extensively on race and racism, postcolonial phenomenology, Africana and black existentialism, and on the works and thought of W. E. B. Du Bois and Frantz Fanon.
Gordon graduated in 1984 from Lehman College, CUNY, through the Lehman Scholars Program, with a B.A., magna cum laude and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He completed his MA and M. Phil. in philosophy in 1991 at Yale University, and received his Ph.D. with distinction from the same university in 1993. Following the completion of his doctoral studies, Gordon taught at Brown University, Yale, and Purdue University. He is currently the Laura H. Carnell Professor of Philosophy at Temple University in the Department of Philosophy with affiliations in Religious and Judaic Studies, and an Ongoing Visiting Professor of Philosophy and Government at the University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica.
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Lil Kim
Kimberly Denise Jones (born July 11, 1975), better known by her stage name Lil' Kim, is an American rapper and actress who was a member of the group Junior M.A.F.I.A..
Jones was born and raised in Brooklyn, living much of her adolescent life on the streets after being expelled from home. As a teenager, Kim would rap for fun, being heavily influenced by other female MCs like MC Lyte and Lady of Rage. When word got to The Notorious B.I.G. that she could rhyme, he made Jones perform a freestyle for him on the spot. Impressed with her, he took her in and she began her music career in 1995 with the group Junior M.A.F.I.A., whose debut album Conspiracy generated three hit singles. In late 1996, her solo debut album Hard Core was released. Hard Core was certified double platinum and spawned three consecutive #1 rap hits that included: "No Time" "Not Tonight (Ladies Night remix)" and "Crush on You", a record for a female rapper. Her following albums, The Notorious K.I.M. (2000) and La Bella Mafia (2003), both were certified platinum by the RIAA, making Kim the only female rapper besides Missy Elliott to have at least 3 platinum albums so far. Kim solidified her star power in 2001, when "Lady Marmalade", a song Kim was featured on, went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. That made her the second female rapper to earn a #1 on that chart.
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Lovebug Starski
Lovebug Starski (born Kevin Smith, May 16, 1960, The Bronx, New York) is an American MC, musician and record producer. He began his career as a record boy in 1971 as hip-hop first appeared in the Bronx, and he eventually became a DJ at the Disco Fever club in 1978.
Starski recorded his first single, "Positive Life," on the Tayster record label in 1981. Later, he recorded the soundtrack to the 1986 film, Rappin', on Atlantic Records, before recording his first album, House Rocker, on Epic/CBS Records. This featured his most successful chart single, "Amityville (The House on the Hill)", a parody song named in reference to the film The Amityville Horror (itself based on alleged supernatural activities surrounding the DeFeo murder case) was a #12 hit in the UK Singles Chart, and hit the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. in 1986.
Lovebug Starski and World Famous Brucie B also worked together at the Rooftop Roller rink in Harlem during the 1980s. In the 1990s Starski began DJing again with his friend, DJ Hollywood.
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Lupe Fiasco
Wasalu Muhammad Jaco (born February 16, 1982), better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco ( /ˈluːpeɪ/ LOO-pay), is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. He rose to fame in 2006 following the success of his debut album, Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor. He also performs as the frontman of rock band Japanese Cartoon under his real name. As an entrepreneur, Fiasco is the chief executive officer of 1st and 15th Entertainment.
Raised in Chicago, Fiasco developed an interest in hip hop after initially disliking the genre for its use of vulgarity. After adopting the name Lupe Fiasco and recording songs in his father's basement, 19-year-old Fiasco joined a group called Da Pak. The group disbanded shortly after its inception, and Fiasco soon met rapper Jay-Z who helped him sign a record deal with Atlantic Records. In 2006, Fiasco released his debut album Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor on the label, which received three Grammy nominations. He released his second album, Lupe Fiasco's The Cool, in December 2007. The lead single "Superstar" peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. He released Lasers on March 8, 2011 after a two-year delay. The album's lead single "The Show Goes On" peaked at number 9 on the chart, thus becoming his most successful single since "Superstar".
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Luther Campbell
Luther R. Campbell (born December 22, 1960), also known as Luke Skyywalker, Uncle Luke or Luke, is a record label owner, rap performer (taking the non-rapping role of promoter), and actor. He is perhaps best known as a one-time member and leader of 2 Live Crew, and star of his own show, Luke's Parental Advisory. As a result of one of the group's songs, which used a parody of Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman" Campbell was party to Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. which was argued in front of the US Supreme Court.
Campbell's work as a performer can be characterised as Southern Rap; most of it is part of the Miami Bass sub-genre. The sexual content of his group's lyrics caused controversy and led to legal cases. Usually, Campbell does not rap but rather shouts or chants—very often in a call and response manner, with him calling and the crowd responding. He was not an original member of the 2 Live Crew, only joining them after their first steps as a California rap crew. Only through Campbell did they become "Southern" rappers.
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Manthia Diawara
Manthia Diawara is a Malian writer, filmmaker, cultural theorist, scholar, and art historian. Diawara holds the title of University Professor at New York University, where he is Director of the Institute of Afro-American Affairs.
Diawara was born in Bamako, Mali and received his early education in France. He later received a Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1985. Prior to teaching at NYU, Diawara taught at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Much of his research has been in the field of black cultural studies, though his work has differed from the traditional approach to such study formulated in Britain in the early 1980s. Along with other notable recent scholars, Diawara has sought to incorporate consideration of the material conditions of African-Americans to provide a broader context for the study of African diasopric culture. An aspect of this formulation has been the privileging of "Blackness" in all its possible forms rather than as relevant to a single, perhaps monolithic definition of black culture.
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Melle Mel
Melle Mel ( /ˈmɛli ˈmɛl/; born Melvin Glover, May 15, 1961), also known as Grandmaster Melle Mel, is an American hip-hop musician — one of the pioneers of old school hip hop as lead rapper and main songwriter for Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.
Melvin Glover was the first rapper to call himself "MC" (Master of Ceremony). Other Furious Five members included his brother The Kidd Creole (Nathaniel Glover), Scorpio (Eddie Morris), Rahiem (Guy Todd Williams) & Cowboy (Keith Wiggins). While a member of the group, Cowboy created the term "hip-hop" while teasing a friend who had just joined the US Army, by scat singing the words "hip/hop/hip/hop" in a way that mimicked the rhythmic cadence of marching soldiers.
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Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Often referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records. His contribution to music, dance, and fashion, along with a much-publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1964, and began his solo career in 1971.
In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music. The music videos for his songs, including those of "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and "Thriller", were credited with transforming the medium into an art form and a promotional tool, and the popularity of these videos helped to bring the relatively new television channel MTV to fame. Videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" made him a staple on MTV in the 1990s. Through stage performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive musical sound and vocal style influenced numerous hip hop, post-disco, contemporary R&B, pop and rock artists.
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Mos Def
Dante Terrell Smith (born December 11, 1973) is an American actor and MC, known by the stage names Mos Def ( /ˌmoʊsˈdɛf/) and Yasiin Bey. He started his hip hop career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. With Talib Kweli, he formed the duo Black Star, which released the album Black Star in 1998. He was a major force in late 1990s underground hip hop while with Rawkus Records. As a solo artist he has released the albums Black on Both Sides in 1999, The New Danger in 2004, True Magic in 2006, and The Ecstatic in 2009.
Although he was initially recognized for his musical output, since the early 2000s, Mos Def's screen work has established him as one of only a handful of rappers who has garnered critical acclaim for his acting work. He is well known for his portrayal of Brother Sam in the American drama series Dexter. Mos Def has also been active in several social and political causes.
He was born Dante Terrell Smith in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Sheron Smith and Abdul Rahman. He was raised by his mother in Brooklyn; his father lived in New Jersey. While his father was initially a member of the Nation of Islam and later an active member in the community of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, who merged into mainstream Islam from the Nation, Mos Def was not exposed to Islam until the age of 13. At 19, he took his shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith. He is friends with Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest.
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Nas
Nasir Bin Olu Dara Jones ( /nɑːˈsɪər/; born September 14, 1973), better known by his stage name Nas ( /ˈnɑːz/), is an American rapper and actor. He is also the son of jazz musician Olu Dara. Nas has released eight consecutive platinum and multi-platinum albums since 1994, four of which topped the Billboard charts upon release and has sold over thirteen-million records in the United States alone. Nas was also part of the hip hop supergroup The Firm, which released one album under Dr. Dre's record label Aftermath. Aside from rapping, Nas is also an occasional actor and has appeared in feature films such as Hype Williams' directorial debut Belly, Ticker and In Too Deep and the television show Hawaii Five-0.
His rise to fame began in 1991 with his feature on hip hop group Main Source's debut album on the track "Live at the Barbeque". In the years that followed, Nas garnered attention from music industry A & R's and record labels with more impressive features and a solo single "Halftime". His debut album Illmatic, released in 1994 by Columbia Records, received universal acclaim from both critics and the hip hop community and would go on to be widely hailed as a musical landmark and a classic in the genre and is consistently ranked as one of the greatest LP's of all time. His follow up album It Was Written debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Charts, stayed on top for four consecutive weeks and went platinum twice in only two months, propelling Nas to worldwide notoriety.
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Nile Rodgers
Nile Gregory Rodgers (born September 19, 1952, New York City) is an American musician, producer, composer, arranger, and guitarist.
Rodgers began his career as a session guitarist in New York, touring with the Sesame Street band in his teens, and then working in the house band at Harlem's world famous Apollo Theater, playing behind Screaming Jay Hawkins, Maxine Brown, Aretha Franklin, Ben E. King, Betty Wright, Earl Lewis and the Channels, Parliament Funkadelic, and many other legendary R&B artists.
Nile met bassist Bernard Edwards in 1970. Together they formed The Big Apple Band that backed R&B act New York City ("I’m Doing Fine Now"). The band’s one hit allowed them to tour extensively, even opening for The Jackson 5 on the American leg of their first world tour in 1973. The band dissolved after their second album failed to yield a hit, but Nile and Bernard joined forces with drummer Tony Thompson, and worked and recorded as a Funk Rock band called The Boys, which played numerous gigs up and down the East Coast. Despite major label interest in their demos, they could not get a record deal when the record companies discovered they were black, as they thought that black rock artists would be too hard to promote. The band continued playing mostly local bars.
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Orlando Patterson
Orlando Patterson (born 5 June 1940) is a Jamaican-born American historical and cultural sociologist known for his work regarding issues of race in the United States, as well as the sociology of development. His book Freedom, Volume One, or Freedom in the Making of Western Culture (1991), won the U.S. National Book Award for Nonfiction.
Horace Orlando Patterson was born in Westmoreland, Jamaica, and grew up in Clarendon Parish in the small town of Maypen. He had his primary school there, then moved to Kingston to attend Kingston College. He went on to earn a BSc in Economics from the University of the West Indies at Mona in 1962, and his Ph.D. in Sociology at the London School of Economics in 1965.
Earlier in his career, Patterson was concerned with the economic and political development of his home country, Jamaica. He served as special advisor to Michael Manley, Prime Minister of Jamaica, from 1972 to 1979.
Patterson has appeared on PBS and has been a guest columnist in The New York Times.
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Pete Rock
Peter Phillips (born June 21, 1970), better known by his stage name Pete Rock, is an American record producer, DJ and rapper. He rose to prominence in the early 1990s as one half of the critically acclaimed group Pete Rock & CL Smooth. After the duo went their separate ways, Rock continued with a solo career that has garnered him worldwide respect, though little in the way of mainstream success. Along with groups such as Stetsasonic, A Tribe Called Quest, The Roots and Gang Starr, Rock played a major role in the merging of elements from jazz into hip hop music (also known as jazz rap). He is widely recognized as one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time, and is often mentioned alongside DJ Premier, the RZA, and J Dilla as one of the mainstays of 1990s East Coast hip hop production. Pete Rock is also the older brother and younger cousin, respectively, of rappers Grap Luva and the late Heavy D.
Pete Rock was born in The Bronx, New York, the sixth of seven children of Jamaican immigrant parents. His family moved to Mount Vernon, New York when he was seven years old. During high school, he met his future recording partner CL Smooth. According to Rock, his father was also a part-time DJ who had an impressive record collection. Rock would often accompany his father to a cricket club called Wembley in The Bronx and watch as he spun records for the guests. His first job was as a paperboy, in his neighborhood.
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Rahzel
Rahzel M. Brown, also known as simply Rahzel, is an American musician and beatboxer, formerly a member of The Roots.
Nicknamed the "Godfather of Noyze," Rahzel is known for an ability to sing or rap while simultaneously beatboxing, as evidenced in his performances of "Iron Man" and his signature song "If Your Mother Only Knew", a hidden track on Make the Music 2000. His talents are showcased in various solo projects as well as on Ben Harper's 2000 single, "Steal My Kisses." He also provided his own voice on video games SSX and SSX Tricky.
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Rammellzee
Rammellzee (or RAMMΣLLZΣΣ, pronounced "Ram: Ell: Zee"; late 1960 – June 27, 2010) was a visual artist, graffiti writer, performance artist, hip hop musician, art theoretician, and sculptor from New York City.
Rammellzee's graffiti and art work are based on his theory of Gothic Futurism, which describes the battle between letters and their symbolic warfare against any standardizations enforced by the rules of the alphabet. His treatise, Iconic Panzerisms, details an anarchic plan by which to revise the role and deployment of language in society.
He has stated that his name is derived from RAM plus M for Magnitude, Sigma (Σ) the first summation operator, first L - longitude, second L - latitude, Z - z-bar, Σ, Σ - summation.
Rammellzee performed in self-designed masks and costumes of different characters which represented the "mathematical equation" that is Rammellzee. On the basis of his Gothic Futurism approach, he described his artistic work as the logical extension into a new phase which he calls Ikonoklast Panzerism. This artistic work has been shown in art galleries throughout the US and Europe. His Letter Racers, and other Noise includes artistic works by individuals mostly identified with their musical contributions.
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Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert ( /ˈiːbərt/; born June 18, 1942) is an American journalist, film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
Ebert is known for his film review column (appearing in the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967, and later online) and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The Movies, all of which he co-hosted for a combined 23 years with Gene Siskel. After Siskel's death in 1999, Ebert teamed with Richard Roeper for the television series Ebert & Roeper & the Movies, which began airing in 2000. Although his name remained in the title, Ebert did not appear on the show after mid-2006 after he suffered post-surgical complications related to thyroid cancer, leaving him unable to speak. Ebert ended his association with the show in July 2008, but in February 2009 he stated that he and Roeper would continue their work on a new show. Ebert's current show, Ebert Presents: At the Movies, premiered on January 21, 2011, with Ebert contributing a review voiced by someone else in a brief segment called "Roger's Office".
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Rory Carroll
Rory Carroll is an Irish journalist working for The Guardian who has reported from Iraq and Latin America.
Born in Dublin, Carroll is a graduate of Blackrock College, Trinity College and Dublin City University. He reported for the paper from Rome (1999–2002) and Johannesburg (2002–2005), before volunteering to work in Baghdad from January 2005.
Carroll's article about Hamilton Naki that appeared in The Guardian in 2003, which was cited by the New York Times as the original source of their erroneous reporting in 2005 about the role Hamilton Naki played when the first heart transplant was performed at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa in 1967.
On October 19, 2005 he was abducted in Baghdad after carrying out an interview with a victim of Saddam Hussein's regime. The interview had been arranged with the assistance of the Baghdad office of Moqtada al-Sadr. Carroll was released unharmed by his captors a day later.
In April 2006 he was appointed The Guardian's Latin America correspondent, based in the newspaper's Caracas bureau. His reporting from Caracas was criticised by Red Pepper in 2008 for what was judged to be a trend of misrepresentation of the Venezuelan reality and its leader, Hugo Chávez. Carroll also said that he is "not a champion of impartiality", but he says he is open-minded: "I see a government that is doing some good things and some bad things ".
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Russell Simmons
Russell Wendell Simmons (born October 4, 1957) is an American business magnate. He and Rick Rubin founded the pioneering hip-hop label Def Jam. He also created the clothing fashion lines Phat Farm, Argyleculture, and American Classics.
Russell Simmons is the third richest figure in hip hop, having a net-worth estimate of $340 million as of April 2011.
Simmons was raised in Queens, New York. He is the son of Daniel Simmons, Sr., a public school administrator, and Evelyn Simmons, a New York City park administrator. His older brother is abstract expressionist painter Daniel Simmons, Jr., and his younger brother is Rev. Joseph Simmons ("Run" of Run-DMC).
Def Jam became just one piece in Simmons' corporation, Rush Communications, Inc., which included a management company, a clothing company called Phat Farm, a movie production house, television shows such as Def Comedy Jam, a magazine and an advertising agency. His nephew Jamal "Redrum" Simmons and his group Flatlinerz released the highly controversial album U.S.A. in 1994 on Def Jam but was dropped from the label soon after. Rick Rubin sold his share of the record company for $100 million to Universal Music Group in 1996. Simmons produced Def Poetry, begun as a television series on HBO, which also branched into a Broadway live stage production in 2002. In 2000, he co-founded the Internet start-up 360 Hip Hop which he later sold to BET.
wn.com/Russell_Simmons -
Scott La Rock
Scott "La Rock" Sterling (March 2, 1962 – August 27, 1987) was the original DJ of the hip hop group Boogie Down Productions.
Sterling, a social worker, met rapper KRS-One in 1986 at the Franklin Men's Shelter in the Bronx where KRS lived. The pair, together with DJ D-Nice, formed Boogie Down Productions. The group's 1987 debut album, Criminal Minded, is considered a classic of hip-hop.
Born March 2, 1962, in South Ozone Park, Queens, Scott Monroe Sterling was raised far from the grimy scene that he would later help to mold. His parents split when he was four, and he lived with his mother, Carolyn Morant, a career municipal employee. When Scott was young, they moved from Queens to the Morisania section of the Bronx, and then to Morris Heights. Scott excelled in both academics and sports at Our Savior Lutheran High School, graduating in 1980 and heading off to Vermont’s Castleton State College. He earned a varsity letter in basketball there, but as it became clear that his talent would never take him to the NBA, Scott switched his extracurricular focus from hoops to music.
wn.com/Scott_La_Rock -
Sean Combs
Sean John Combs (born November 4, 1969), also known by his stage names Diddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He was originally known as Puff Daddy and then as P. Diddy (Puff and Puffy have been used as nicknames, but never as recording names). In August 2005, he changed his stage name to simply "Diddy", but continues to use the name P. Diddy in the UK as the result of a lawsuit. He has won three Grammy Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards, and his clothing line earned a Council of Fashion Designers of America award. He formed and recorded with the group Diddy – Dirty Money.
Combs was born in Harlem and grew up in Mount Vernon, New York. He worked as a talent director at Uptown Records and then founded Bad Boy Records in 1993. His business interests—under the umbrella of Bad Boy Entertainment Worldwide—include Bad Boy Records, the clothing lines Sean John and "Sean by Sean Combs", a movie production company, and two restaurants. He has taken the roles of recording executive, performer, producer of MTV's Making the Band, writer, arranger, clothing designer, and Broadway actor. In 2011, Forbes estimated his net worth at $500 million, making him the richest figure in hip hop.
wn.com/Sean_Combs -
Shing02
Shingo Annen (born 1975), better known by his stage name Shing02, is a Japanese rap artist and producer. Due in part to growing up in Western cities, Shing02 stands as one of the few multilingual rappers from Japan able to compose songs entirely in either Japanese or English. His rhyming style makes use of lyrics which are largely conceptual in nature and his hip-hop sound is known for blending various influences, ranging from reggae to traditional Japanese music to jazz. The style of music has made him a significant presence within the underground rap community, and he has achieved recognition beyond the scene for rapping "Battlecry", the theme song of the hip-hop-influenced chanbara anime Samurai Champloo, produced by Japanese jazz rap DJ Nujabes.
Shingo Annen was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1975 and grew up in various cities of Tanzania,England, and Japan. At the age of fifteen, Shing02 moved to the San Francisco Bay Area of California just following the Quake of '89, where he became involved in various creative arts programs. He then moved to Berkeley for schooling and studied art.
wn.com/Shing02 -
Slick Rick
Richard Walters (born January 14, 1965), better known by his stage name Slick Rick, is a Grammy-nominated British American rapper. He has also been known as MC Ricky D and Rick the Ruler. He began his career in late 1983, in the hip hop genre, where he recorded a series of acclaimed recordings such as "La Di Da Di" and "Children's Story". Walters is best known for his storytelling innovations in this genre. His music has been frequently sampled and interpolated by other artists such as TLC, Black Star, The Notorious B.I.G. and Snoop Dogg, with many of these songs later becoming hit singles. Slick Rick rose to stardom in an era known to fans as the Golden age of hip hop.
Born and brought up in the south-west London suburb of Wimbledon, Walters later moved with his British Jamaican family to The Bronx in 1977 where he met Dana Dane with whom he later formed a hip hop duo known as the Kangol Crew. Walters received his characteristic eye patch after being blinded in the right eye by broken glass as an infant. Once he gained a degree of wealth, Walters earned a reputation for wearing the eye patch over his right eye, and a significant amount of gold and diamond jewelry.
wn.com/Slick_Rick -
Snoop Dogg
Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. (born October 20, 1971), better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg (formerly known as Snoop Doggy Dogg), is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as a rapper in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of Dr. Dre's most notable protégés. Snoop Dogg was a Crip gang member while in high school. Shortly after graduation, he was arrested for cocaine possession and spent six months in Wayside County Jail. His music career began in 1992 after his release when he was discovered by Dr. Dre. He collaborated on several tracks on Dre's solo debut, The Chronic and on the titular theme song to the film Deep Cover.
Snoop's debut album Doggystyle, was released in 1993 under Death Row Records making a debut at No.1 on both the Billboard 200 and R&B charts. Selling almost a million copies in the first week of its release, Doggystyle quickly became certified 4× platinum in 1994 and spawned several hit singles, including "What's My Name" and "Gin & Juice". In 1994, Snoop released a soundtrack on Death Row Records for the short film Murder Was The Case, starring himself. In early 1996, Snoop Dogg was cleared of charges over his bodyguard's 1993 murder of Philip Woldemariam. His second album, late 1996's Tha Doggfather, also debuted at No.1 on both charts with "Snoop's Upside Ya Head" as the lead single. The album sold only half as well, being certified double platinum in 1997.
wn.com/Snoop_Dogg -
TAKI 183
TAKI 183 was one of the most influential graffiti writers in its history. His "tag" was short for Demetaki, a Greek alternative for his birth-name Demetrius, and the number 183 came from his address on 183rd Street in Washington Heights. He worked as a foot messenger in New York City and would write his nickname around the streets of New York City that he frequented during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
On July 21, 1971, The New York Times ran an article about him on the front page of its inside section, titled "Taki 183" Spawns Pen Pals. TAKI 183 spurred competitive vandalism in NYC as his tag was mimicked by hundreds of youth across the five boroughs. The kids who got their names up the most and who developed signature tags, became known in their communities. Graffiti became a way for many young kids to try to get attention and the attention TAKI 183 received spurred this on.
Although TAKI 183 was the first to be showcased in a publication it is said that Julio 204 began writing his tag in NYC first. However Julio did not write outside his own neighborhood and this is arguably the reason why he never received the media-attention TAKI did.[citation needed]
wn.com/TAKI_183 -
Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli Greene (October 3, 1975), better known as Talib Kweli, is an American rapper. Kweli hails from Brooklyn, New York. His first name in Arabic means "student" or "seeker" (طالب); his middle name in Swahili means "true". Kweli first gained recognition through Black Star, a collaboration with fellow MC Mos Def.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Kweli grew up in a highly educated household in Park Slope. His mother, Brenda Greene, is an English professor at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York and his father an administrator at Adelphi University. His younger brother, Jamal Greene, is a professor of Constitutional Law at Columbia Law School, and former clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court. As a youth, he was drawn to Afrocentric rappers, such as De La Soul and other members of the Native Tongues Posse whom he had met in high school. Talib Kweli was a student at Cheshire Academy, a boarding school in Connecticut. He was also a student at Brooklyn Technical High School, before being academically dismissed. He later studied experimental theater at New York University.
wn.com/Talib_Kweli -
The Sugarhill Gang
The Sugarhill Gang is an American hip hop group, known mostly for its 1979 hit "Rapper's Delight," the first hip hop single to become a Top 40 hit. The song uses an interpolation of the instrumental track from the classic hit "Good Times" by Chic as its foundation.
The members, all from Englewood, New Jersey, called themselves Wonder Mike, Big Bank Hank, and Master Gee. The three were assembled into a group by producer Sylvia Robinson, who also founded Sugar Hill Records along with her husband, the record mogul Joe Robinson. "Rapper's Delight" used a track cut from a Sugar Hill house band called Positive Force with Chip Shearin on bass and Brian Morgan on guitar. The track interpolated "Good Times" by Chic. Big Bank Hank's verses were written by Grandmaster Caz. However, despite the record's success, Caz did not receive any royalties for his contribution. Chic's Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement over "Rapper's Delight," the first of many such legal battles for hip hop. It was settled out of court, leaving Rodgers with a large cut of all future royalties.
wn.com/The_Sugarhill_Gang -
Tony Touch
Tony Touch (born Joseph Anthony Hernandez; July 2) is an American hip hop break dancer, rapper, DJ, producer and actor of Puerto Rican descent.
Tony Touch began as a B-boy during the rap music renaissance era of the early 1980s. Heavily influenced by pioneers like Crazy Legs and the Rock Steady Crew, Grandmaster Flash, Red Alert, Little Louie Vega and Jam Master Jay, he quickly shifted his interests towards the turntables. Toca is known for legendary mixtapes like the 50 Mcs parts 1, 2 and 3. Included in this series are some of the hottest artist in the game such as KRS One, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Wyclef, M.O.P, Big L, Mos Def and many more all coming together for one collective piece. This along with the countless other mixtapes, Tony became recognized in the streets and by the industry as the real ‘Mixtape King.’
wn.com/Tony_Touch -
Tracy 168
TRACY 168 (born Michael Tracy in 1958 at New York Hospital on E.68 St.). He is a well known 'Oldschool writer' from New York. He is known as one of the kings of graffiti and started the 'Wildstyle' style of graffiti. In July 2006, an art piece by Tracy 168 in 1984 utilized a real subway car door and showcased his piece on it. The piece was shown at the Brooklyn Museum of Art during their month long exhibit, "Graffiti." Tracy 168 is famous for his tags of a drawing called Purple Haze which relates and serves as a tribute to Jimi Hendrix. The artwork was part of the Experience Music Project.
wn.com/Tracy_168 -
Tuks Senganga
Tuks is a popular South African Motswako rapper whose real name is Tumelo Kepadisa, who frequently performs in ethnic languages, though mostly Setswana. Tuks Senganga was born Tumelo Kepadisa on 2 May 1981 in Mafikeng in the former homeland of Bophuthatswana. He started writing in 1993, drawing inspiration from everyday issues in his immediate environment. This rising star's career took off in 2005 with his debut album "Mafoko a me". This was the album that earned Tuks the Best Hip Hop Album Award at the 12th Annual MTN South African Music Awards (SAMA).
A fellow Motswako artist once said "poetry is both lyric and content; one without the other can never be on point". These words encapsulate what Tuks is about, paying homage to one of the most critical aspects of the five elements of hip hop for an MC. Rhythm and Poetry. The art of story-telling in Setswana and English started a movement that was later dubbed Motswako and has had head-honchos like Tuks at its fore-front for years!
Born Tumelo Kepadisa back in 1981 in Mafikeng, Tuks Senganga (as he is known by fans in all corners of the globe) started writing poetry at the age of 12 having drawn his inspiration from his daily experiences of having grown up in the Bophutatswana homeland during the apartheid regime. However, it was in high school that he started harnessing his hip hop skills and became a member of two short-lived hip hop groups and he went on to pursue a solo career to which he says: "I was more in love with my music, while the other members hallucinated about fame and fortune". He went to add: "I don't really mind, I've always been a bit of a loner".
wn.com/Tuks_Senganga -
Tumi Molekane
Tumi Molekane, born in 1981 in Tanzania, is a popular musician from South Africa. A poet, musician and MC, he is famous as the lead singer/rapper of Tumi and the Volume.
Boitumelo (Tumi) Molekane was born in Tanzania and lived in exile with his parents until 1992 when he arrived in Soweto.
While also a noted poet, Molekane has made his fame with the Hip Hop band Tumi and the Volume, backed by the musical component of Mozambiquean band 340ml.
Molekane's poetry has been published in a variety of countries. His project, The Tao of Tumi was completed in 2001. In 2006, he was published in the American literary journal, Subterranean Quarterly.
In 2005, he recorded the song 'Trade Winds' with Cincinnati-based rapper Main Flow. 2006 saw the release of his debut album Music from my Good Eye, through his own label, Motif Records.
Tumi and the Volume's lyrics have been the subject of academic study in a book called Stealing Empire: P2P, Intellectual Property and Hip-Hop Subversion, which analysed "76" off their debut album to argue that contemporary hip-hop offers critical insights into the inheritance of violence in post-apartheid South Africa. The book contends that, despite commercial and often sexist imperatives in mainstream hip-hop, South Africa has produced a number of socially conscious hip-hop artists, who are reluctant to compromise on their art and politics.
wn.com/Tumi_Molekane
- Hip Hop - 50 Cent
- Hip Hop - Royce Da 5'9''
- Hip Hop - L.L. Cool J
- Hip Hop - Mos Def
- Hip Hop - Chris Webby
- Hip Hop - DJ Khaled
- Hip Hop - Trip Lee
- Hip Hop - N-dubz
- Hip Hop - Joell Ortiz
- Hip Hop - Dead Prez
- Hip Hop - Bizarre
- Hip Hop - GP Wu
- Hip Hop - Krumbsnatcha
- Hip Hop - Jelleestone
- Hip Hop - Jigmastas
[Intro:]
Why haven't you learned anything?
[50 cent:]
Uh uh uh 1212 uh uh uh uh
[Hook:]
Nigga I run hip hop hip hop hip hop hip hop
Nigga G-Unit is hip hop hip hop hip hop hip hop
[Verse:]
One thing bout my music it hits you feel the pain nigga I take control of your brain listen nigga now im not playin are you ready for that? Soldier soldier grab the gat ill show you who to aim it at bang bang bang run toss the gat no no no no lookin back nigga leave the watch we aint come for that bitch quit playing with a paper hat shit I roll a ace im shootin back every body no how my paper stack 20 inch chrome on the Cadillac automatic shot gun can you handle that? All the bullshit nigga that's a fact ride through your motherfuckin hood strapped put work in nigga thats that d's get the bust and youll blast back got a little money wanna flash that till the wolves come out and blast gats ? for your ass end up in a casgat I said in a casgat. Who shot biggie smalls if we don't get them they gonna kill us all man puffy no who hit that nigga man that nigga soft hes scared them boys from the west side will brake him off jump on his ass so he run ?
[Hook x2]
Nigga I run hip hop hip hop hip hop hip hop
Nigga G-Unit is hip hop hip hop hip hop hip hop
Nigga I run hip hop hip hop hip hop hip hop
Nigga G-Unit is hip hop hip hop hip hop hip hop
Oh I guess this means I wont be invited to the white parties in the hamptons I don't give a fuck I don't wanna hang out with your punk ass no way got me motherfuckin runnin around this nigga mase now you wanna play games? You wanna make the deal nigga? Man ill fuck your shit up nigga is you crazy nigga? Matter fact you no what I dont wanna do a deal no more fuck the deal nigga you wanna play games? You wanna waste my motherfuckin time nigga? Time is money nigga you wastin the motherfuckin money nigga aite I see what you tryin to do but I dont no why you doin what your tryin to do what do you wanna make me tell everybody what mase told me huh now you go on and send me 50 thousand dollars for this nigga travel fees you no airfair hotel space for that last tour nigga before I really service your ass nigga hahaha
Woo! haha, uh
I know my streets, I know my sounds
Y'all know my beats, how I get down
I take my steps, and leaps and bounds
Nigga it's - HIP HOP!
Yeah, yeah, we started from nothin a couple MC's
Beat-boxin, the crowd in the lunch room (yeah)
Me and Prem', both names go together
Like they ain't supposed to be seperate, like "D" in the D
I said it before, I rep in records beats
At the headquarters, rest in peace
Nigga I'ma hold shotty, and knock you out
And I ain't gotta know Karate like Afu-ra
It's - HIP HOP!, strong or not
This is rap basketball, stats all you got
Long as you hot, and your flow could hold up
To knowin all of your short goals is long shots!
Ninety percent of you niggaz ain't hard
Here +Just to Get a Rep+, you not +Gangstarrs+
The finest flow will amaze, rap without me
Minus The Source, minus the Quotable page
HIP HOP! is everything around you
- "No competition"
Back to the voice, of today
- "It's real in the field"
What's realer than - HIP HOP! (yeah)
I know my streets, I know my sounds
Y'all know my beats, how I get down
I take my steps, and leaps and bounds
Nigga it's - HIP HOP!
Rythmic, league c'mon wit it, I'm long winded
I will diss you, from long distances
You will not get the chance, like Choppa
Ness and Dylan, to dis-respect, who you don't listen to
Egg in the skillet brain, nigga, diss is you
Smarten up, every person in the earth, be harden up
But the only target is us
It's - HIP HOP! cars and trucks
I be dreamin about shit, like havin a hard time swingin
On a nigga, or squeezin a trigger or fallin
If I land, I won't wake up (yeah)
My six shot model, ya crew
I'm leavin ya mommy faces blue, just like a Hypnotic bottle
They feel you the realer, you spit
This killer shit is hearin us
Healin you if you ill or you sick mentally
It's - HIP HOP! is everything around you
- "Gotta be something for me to write this"
Back to the voice, of today
- "No talent rappers"
What's realer than - HIP HOP!
I know my streets, I know my sounds
Y'all know my beats, how I get down
I take my steps, and leaps and bounds
Nigga it's - HIP HOP!
More venom, 5'9 is like a G5
Illest lyrics is stored in him
Chorus is killin, any warrior feelin
That I ain't God - Lord willin
Trust me, after I crush ya buildin
You will just hush, you won't restore the village
We look toward wit killin, real
Though this album is mor-bidly feelin to steel
HIP HOP! - FUCK your feelin's
More rappers dying, much more killin
It's no feelin, realer than gamblin ya life
Everyday, and wakin up to more dealin's
Fourteen killin's, compared to offshore millions
Equals, I got a lot more villians
You know that you easily lose, you be on MTV News
For the first time, because you died over
HIP HOP! is everything around you
- "Come alive y'all"
Back to the voice, of today
- "It's all in the game"
What's realer than - HIP HOP!
I know my streets, I know my sounds
Y'all know my beats, how I get down
I take my steps, and leaps and bounds
Word up! Y'knowhutI'msayin?
I gotta globe in the world in the mail today
NahI'msayin? Heh, word up!
Uhh, kid told me "Yo, the world is yours kid, put it in ya pocket"
Nahmean?
Make a brother feel good, word up!
Brother feel energised
I wanna dedicate this one to the game that put me on the map
Y'nahI'msayin?
I know you love it, the game is so irresistable to touch
You should see me when fienin for microphones that I can clutch
Droppin bombs, combinin the club attracts
like the Ol' Sugarhill Gang, King Tim and Fatback
There's no question the suggestion was made
The foundation was laid when the Furious played
Grandmaster Flash slayed the competition that was wishin
they could serve the technician with the number one position
Uhh, the real deal, Fearless Four scored
Bambataa was hotter, Spoony was givin em nutta
An' I was all up in my headzone, melody and all
Cosign and The Movement sayin "Yes, yes y'all"
It's just the love affair that never ended
I recommended that I take microphones and blow em up, ain't that splendid
This one goes out to all the hip-hop do-or-diers
A song is dedicated to the music I admire
Whenever and ever
We want you, I need you (I need hip-hop)
Whenever and ever
We want you, do you feel the same way too? (I need hip-hop)
Kane's era was terror, he warmed it up
Parrish and Erick cat lyrics that'll make ya turn it up
And I was in the cut, chillin in my drop-top Benz
with friends, loungin with my mens, laughin 'bout all the ends
that I spends, making snaps, pumping Kool G Rap and Biz
Dapper Don, Dookie wrotes I'm about to show what time it is
At the rooftop, I was with Doug E.Fresh and Slick Rick
'La Di Da Di, Who likes to party?' was the fat shit
I mean I saw this hip-hop thing on every level
Chuck D, PE, yes the rhythm and the rebel
I can reminisce the black fist, Uzi, Terminators
Terror doom techniques that terrorise the lighter shade
It's all about the game that we play everyday
Eric B & Rakim flow to such a diff'rent way
I'm lovin hip-hop cos it help brothers escape
Let's celebrate our music people before it's too late
Survival Of The Fittest-Mobb Deep, and Lost Boyz
Lickin shots got the game hot
They even flipped on 2PAC
Snoop Doggy Dogg put the West Coast in gear
Dr Dre, NWA, Eazy E's in here
I wanna tell the world they just don't understand
My man Nas Escobar, Wu-Tang Clan
Keith Murray to the Redman, down south Da Brat
My people are you with me where you at?...ya peep that?
I'm on a mission to rejuvenate the funk
Bring the game back and give the do-or-diers what they want
When you hear Craig Mack, Notorious B.I.G.
Latifah, Heavy D, you should reminisce of me
Some say it's Naughty By Nature-'hip-hop in all its glory'
A fleet of battleships floatin in diff'rent categories
My love affair with hip-hop'll never fade away
Sincerely yours, LL Cool J
Yeah, ain't no doubt about it kid, knowI'msayin?
Hip-hop's the game, helped a lot of brothers escape
Take it to another level, knowI'msayin?
It's our music, we own this music, knowhutI'msayin?
Word life! I wanna give a couple of shoutouts here, knowhutI'msayin?
First of all, I wanna thank my man Baby Chris, y'nahmean?
Helped me put this Mr. Smith...Mr.Smith album together
make it hot, knowI'msayin?
Thank the Trackmasters-?Pope Tone?, Steve Stout
we definitely turning this joint out, y'nahmean
Word bond! Hip-hop for life, kid!
You say one for the trebble, two for the time
Come on y'all let's rock this!
You say one for the trebble, two for the time
Come on!
Speech is my hammer, bang the world into shape
Now let it fall... (Hungh!!)
My restlessness is my nemesis
It's hard to really chill and sit still
Committed to page, I write rhymes
Sometimes won't finish for days
Scrutinize my literature, from the large to the miniature
I mathematically add-minister
Subtract the wack
Selector, wheel it back, I'm feeling that
(Ha ha ha) From the core to the perimeter black,
You know the motto
Stay fluid even in staccato
(Mos Def) Full blooded, full throttle
Breathe deep inside the trunk hollow
There's the hum, young man where you from
Brooklyn number one
Native son, speaking in the native tongue
I got my eyes on tomorrow (there it is)
While you still try to follow where it is
I'm on the Ave where it lives and dies
Violently, silently
Shine so vibrantly that eyes squint to catch a glimpse
Embrace the bass with my dark ink fingertips
Used to speak the king's English
But caught a rash on my lips
So now my chat just like dis
Long range from the base-line (switch)
Move like an apparition
Float to the ground with ammuntion (chi-chi-chi-POW)
Move from the gate, voice cued on your tape
Putting food on your plate
Many crews can relate
Who choosing your fate (yo)
We went from picking cotton
To chain gang line chopping
To Be-Bopping
To Hip-Hopping
Blues people got the blue chip stock option
Invisible man, got the whole world watching
(where ya at) I'm high, low, east, west,
All over your map
I'm getting big props, with this thing called hip hop
Where you can either get paid or get shot
When your product in stock
The fair-weather friends flock
When your chart position drop
Then the phone calls....
Chill for a minute
Let's see whoelse tops
Snatch your shelf spot
Don't gas yourself ock
The industry just a better built cell block
A long way from the shell tops
And the bells that L rocked (rock, rock, rock, rock...)
Hip Hop is prosecution evidence
The out of court settlement
Ad space for liquor
Sick without benefits (hungh!)
Luxury tenements choking the skyline
It's low life getting tree-top high
Here there's a back water remedy
Bitter intent to memory
A class E felony
Facing the death penalty (hungh!)
Stimulant and sedative, original repetitive
Violently competitive, a school unacredited
The break beats you get broken with
on time and inappropriate
Hip Hop went from selling crack to smoking it
Medicine for loneliness
Remind me of Thelonius and Dizzy
Propers to B-Boys getting busy
The war-time snap shot
The working man's jack-pot
A two dollar snack box
Sold beneath the crack spot
Olympic spnosor of the black glock
Gold medalist in the back shot
From the sovereign state of the have-nots
Where farmers have trouble with cash crops (woooo)
It's all city like phase two
Hip Hop will simply amaze you
Craze you, pay you
Do whatever you say do
[Verse One: Bekay]
Bekay Y
Check it out, check it out yo
The music shit used to be makin' my day
Yeah your dream is ya dream till they take it away
Fuck makin' mistakes, I'm makin' a fan
Makin' a fuckin' army while you makin' a band
And you could try to desecrate but I'm takin' a stand
On top of Ground Zero with a shank in my hand
And my peeps screamin' out "Fuck this crap! "
I been gave everything I had to this, please give me somethin' back
All your whips and ice, who the hell knows
I'm more happy with some rope chains and some shell toes
I paint pictures, sculptures
A&R;'s is a bunch of fuckin' vultures, you ruinin' my culture
So while you make your check, pumpin' bullshit
I spit that real shit that could break ya neck
I'm real hip hop to the death of me
I mean for you this shit is a hobby, but for us it's a destiny
[Chorus: Chris Webby]
This is hip hop
I live it I breathe it I walk it I talk it I crave it I need it
Jot lyrics nonstop every day and night
I'd sell my soul for it, name the price
Stay focused, I know that my aim is right
For that one fuckin' shot I would trade my life
Getting' closer to the edge with every page I write
For that one opportunity to blaze the mic
[Verse 2: Chris Webby]
Rap is my life, always stayin' strapped with a mic
Representin' for all the cats that are actually nice
Which is few, trust son, most of them are fake
Rockin' so many chains they're getting' scoliosis from the weight
Doin' shows and gettin' paid and it's a fact that they suck
Could get tutored by Nas? Still wouldn't be nasty as us
But these the same muthafuckas who be stackin' the bucks
While stuck here in CT like fuck, crack a dutch and it's such
These whack ass rappers think they're tough
With preschool vocab and a whole lotta luck
I'm determined that I can't lose
Take a lead pipe to Soulja Boy's legs, fuck your dance moves
We've been told we got the talent, the devotion and charisma
We just need an opportunity to prove we can deliver
This hip hop and I'm dying to live it (I live this)
And will do every fuckin' thing in my power to get it
[Chorus]
[Verse 3: Chris Webby]
Hip hop, live it breathe it walk it talk it crave it need it
Never lose focus, or get defeated
Keep talkin' that shit, go and get me heated
But I'm rappin', writin', scrappin', fightin', spittin', rippin'
Mic ignitin', hold my spot down, stand tall like a titan
[Intro: DJ Khaled]
This shit's special
DJ Khaled!
[Verse 1: Scarface]
And if I cry two tears for her
That will be the most that I would give to her
She left me stranded in my nightmares
Taking pictures of my memories she right there
Twisting on the blade in my heart, deep
Always on my mind so I can't sleep
She used to tell me she was all mine
Now the only way I see the broad is online
I'm doing drugs trying to feel you
I'm killing me trying to kill you
I built my whole life around ya
I thought I found it all when I found her
Shopping sprees on whatever coast
How'd you really feel, I may never know
And as I ride through these streets
With my hand on my heat, eyes red from the weed, ah
Rewind, some things never change
Once in love and it's gone you don't look at it the same, nigga
(Fuck her) Cause she don't live here
I'm soaked in blood but I'm still here
Hip Hop heartbreaks, straight-laced, deep bass, 808s plus the mixtapes
Got a nigga feeling like I up and left ya
Get away now you all in the lectures
Being studied by the college's professors
Now I regret the day I met ya
I'll be the first one to say it
She ain't the one you want to play with
I fucked Hip Hop
[Verse 2: Nas]
And if I cry two tears for her
That would be the most that I can give to her
I am Joseph, Darryl, Jason, Dr Dre, O'Shea
And a host of those who passed away
Today I'm Drake, I'm Wayne, 2 Chainz
You say you want to rap, to this bitch you must commit
Then you're a slave to your grave, you won't get out, you cannot quit
She menstruates weekly, her vibe covers keep you warm
But the source to her heart is love, word up, right on
You know how girls are, she love when you licking on her world star
Kissing on her belly, trick on her and onyx
Confused fans think that she illuminates demonic
But she's the object of my affections, God's essence, God bless her
She bought me Bentleys, Breitlings, made some friends resent me
For writing about my life, they thought I should have stayed quiet
She took me to places I would have never saw without her
And she took me from my girl powder
I doubt I'll ever be the same, hallowed be thy name
Give me strength so I don't do this dame like Orenthal James
Brad warned me while driving this auburn Ferrari
Never follow in her games, I fuck around and I'll be sorry
But I tried her, used to ride her, for dollars not the fame
She slowed me down and had me guzzling on cups of lean
She's a middle-aged cougar, showing young'uns the dream
Notice she wasn't breathing for a second then I screamed
"She's dead!", and everybody took it out on Nasty
I was just looking out for my music family
Wasn't trying to claim her to myself, she's yours
You can have her she's a motherfucking whore
For me its about more than spitting silly gritty rhymes
Hitting blocks, or getting shot fifty times
God's about His glory, so I can't be about getting mines
By saying I committed crimes, just lying to get my shine
What a tragedy, that that's become the blueprint
Spitting bout they renegades, getting weight and move bricks
All trying to make dollars and new cents, what a nuisance
They call them true, but I'm call them flu- 'cause these dudes sick
And they contagious, each time that they throwing up
Flows that's more than overstuffed with motives of them blowing up
Hoping to get dough, hoping the right doors will open up
They focused on it so, they mouths run like motors bruh
But get a load of us, we flow with focus up
On Jehovah, we soldiers, hoping that folks will notice us
But with intentions of pointing them to great Lord
That's the reason why we make noise, and represent with great joy
Hook:
Yeah we came to spit, not for chains and chicks
But for the King of Kings we praise His name with this
And it's just one of many ways, nah we ain't slaves to this
Verse 2:
Turn on the radio, man I heard it a million times
They live it up, and fill they cup they feeling fine
They fond of killing, and be chilling with a million dimes
It's crazy can't see, but they think they vision's fine
And if they ain't blind then I'm crazy and dumb
And they must just got they shades on, 'cause they can't see the Son
But He gave us sight, made us light, the change has begun
From a life that's fast we got to dash like Stacy we done
With spitting bout the norm, homie yeah we had to switch it up
The old- We had to give it up to Christ, and started giving up
A life that messed our witness up, the mic- Only for lifting up
Christ who let them pin Him up, light of the world this is us
Now me and Phish, we be in this and use the music
His beats is sick, and me I spit, we use these tunes to
Give you truth, I spit in booths, I hope you tuned in
Cause this is truth, we living proof, of Jesus moving
Hook
Verse 3:
As you listen, I hope that you don't think this mission's mine
This joints for Him, I just point to Him and get behind
I hope it's so hot, your jaw drops and you hit rewind
But the message is reason I'd be grieved if you missed a line
Yeah we love hip hop, and we part of the culture
But we ain't just trying to give props, or get it lots of exposure
All things only exist so they give props to Jehovah
Even this, don't be behind the times like big clocks that slowed up
Hold up, homie I ain't just trying to make the crowd move
I found truth, and now I'm trying to pass it to the sound dudes
Around me, around you, and to try to make it sound cool
I keep my ear to the streets like my face was on the ground too
We keep it loud too, cause even these music forms
Are only for His name man, hey that's why we use it for Him
And some cats will hate though they can't deny the beat is hot
i swear, i swear i miss the times when you would tie me
to a chair
and tease me from the back of my neck right up to my
she would have me to herself she didnt want nobody else
but i... see that was at the time (until)
i see her kissing some other guy underneath the bridge
i neva thought she would have done a thing like this
so im sorry make ur way towards the door and never show
ur face again (biatch).
so what do you think i am
who do you think you are
what the f**ks this
whats he doing here
these are my parts
tell him duck home,
i swear i get him stripped down to his boxers
chilling in c time
got no libary in oxford
tell me what do you see in a dude like this
he cant even look me in the eyes
i can see straight through him hes just a bitch
Do you feel him cause hes rich
but u leave me cos im broke
you was only wiv me yesterday still bustin my coke
You know how im a sicko
sicko like my local pubs owner what was stanley suck
and ball
screwdriver straight camden artist soldier im a thug
yeah i thought that you loved me,
i mean these days u see me and you dont even hug me
now you and i, yeah we share something special are you
out of your mind
boy im sorry give me one more try
cause everything you do got me going and i just cant
lose it
yeah i swear,i swear i miss the times when yould would
tie me to a chair
tease me from the back of my neck up to my ear
she would have me to herself she didnt want nobody else
but i... see that was at the time (until)
i see her kissing some other guy underneath the bridge
i never thought she would have done a thing like this
so im sorry make ur way towards the door n never show
ur face again biatch.
ye i swear i know i lied to you (youuuu)
i should of told the truth (truuuth)
i couldnt hurt your feelings so i lied when i told you
that
i was chillin with my girls
when reeally i was somewhere else
maybe if you gave me all i ever needed
then this wouldnt of happend
have you forgotten..
the days when..
where you did the same thing to me
and i forgave you baby.
now you and i
yer we shared somthing special
are you out of your mind
boy im rele sorry give me one more try
cos everything you do got me going and i just cant lose
i swear, i swear i miss the times when you would tie me
to a chair
and tease me from the back of my neck right up to my
she would have me to herself she didnt want nobody else
but i... see that was at the time
i see her kissing some other guy underneath the bridge
i neva thought she would have done a thing like this
so im sorry make ur way towards the door and never show
ur face again (biatch).
yer its early morning
coming home at 5.34
the final show was canceld
im back early from tour
soon as i open the door
i see a pair of shoes on the floor
i know they aint mine im 100 % sure
now there's wild thoughts distortin through my head im
thinkin of war
pacing up the stairs as quick as i can to the top floor
half way there pick up a tool thats laying on the floor
boards
sayin lord dont tell me this girls turned to a whore
who the hells shoes are theese
i thought they were your new nikes
dont take me for a fool i dont wear shoes like these so
dont lie to me
what do you mean
wheres he hiding i know you got a man in ere so why the
f**k you liein (uhh)
you and i
yer we shared somthing special
are you out of your mind
boy im rele sorry give me one more try
cos everything you do got me goin and i just cant lose
i swear, i swear i miss the times when you would tie me
to a chair
and tease me from the back of my neck right up to my
she would have me to herself she didnt want nobody else
but i... see that was at the time (until)
i see her kissing some other guy underneath the bridge
i neva thought she would have done a thing like this
so im sorry make ur way towards the door and never show
ur face again (biatch).
i swear i miss the times when you would tie me to a
chair
and tease me from the back of my neck right up to my
she would have me to herself she didnt want nobody else
but i... see that was at the time
i see her kissing some other guy underneath the bridge
i neva thought she would have done a thing like this
so im sorry make ur way towards the door and never show
ur face again (biatch).
Its N-dubz N-dubz what, ye its N-dubz N-dubz 2 thousand
and sexy Tulisa, Dappy and Faze haha
[Intro:]
Aight now ya'll, attention please, summer vacation is officially over,
(That's right)
I hope ya'll did all ya swimmin',
(Ah huh)
Went to the pools, went to the beaches,
(Ah huh)
Played dominos, and fucked with the bitches,
(Word)
Muthafuckin went to the amusement park,
and got on all the high rides,
(Yea)
Got ya thrill on, cause ah,
(What?)
School is back in session,
(Yaowww)
[Verse 1:]
I ain't tryin' to bring New York back,
I'm just a breath of fresh air,
That good ole' New York rap,
Slick talk to the track,
C'mon who brought that,
To the game,
Graffiti all on the train,
Get up your name,
I don't feel how I used to feel,
I'm in my 20's,
So a new Nas joint used to give me the chills,
In the barbershop tryin to cop a new hot tape,
The Rob Lowe's is crazy,
The duhops greatest, Hip Hop(Hip Hop)
And yes I'm a fan first,
If you from the south and you snap til' your hands hurt,
If you from the west W's in the air,
If you from the east coast act like you from here
The good ole' 2 step,
The classic head nod,
The thirsty ice grills
Who wants to get robbed?(robbed)
That was the energy in the club,
On the real, that was the energy that I loved,
[Chorus:]
Aww, man, this is,(Hip Hop)
Hands up if you forever a fan of(Hip Hop)
I wake up(Hip Hop)
Go to sleep(Hip Hop)
Dream bout(Hip Hop)
Cause I am(Hip Hop)
Aww, man, this is,(Hip Hop)
Hands up if you forever a fan of(Hip Hop)
I wake up(Hip Hop)
Go to sleep(Hip Hop)
Dream bout(Hip Hop)
Cause I am(Hip Hop)
[Verse 2:]
I ain't tryin make you dance I just rip beats,
But the soul in my voice give you quick feet,
I don't know what it's like to not dig deep,
When I'm holdin' this mic,
I don't just beat pip squeeks,
The tides come in and the earth shakes,
200 mph wind I'm your worst fate,
Birthdate,
July 6,1980,
How can your age even matter when you rhyme this crazy,
Awww, man, I gotta think the lord,
Cause with this pen in my hand,
I don't think that hard,
It just happens,
Wrist action classic in the making,
I kick back, and just laugh I'm happy that I'm amazing,
Look at me, gaze into my eyes, see the poverty,
Now understand why me and this music gotta be,
It's something that's inside of me,
And I can't shake it,
So I embrace it,
Fake, Fake Records
Uh, uh, uh, 1, 2, 1, 2
Uh, uh, 1, 2, 1, 2, uh, uh
All my dogs
It's bigger than hip hop, hip hop, hip hop, hip
It's bigger than hip hop, hip hop, hip hop, hip hop
Uh, one thing 'bout music when it hit you feel no pain
White folks says it controls your brain I know better than that
That's game and we ready for that two soldiers head of the pack
Matter of fact who got the gat? And where my army at?
Rather attack than not react back the beats it don't reflect
On how many records get sold on sex, drugs, and rock and roll
Whether your project's put on hold in the real world
These just people with ideas they just like me and you
When the smoke and camera disappear again the real world
(World)
It's bigger than all these fake ass records
When poor folks got the millions and my woman's disrespected
If you check 1, 2 my word of advice to you is just relax
Just do what you got to do if that don't work then kick the facts
If you a fighter, rider, lighter, flame igniter, crowd exciter
Or you wanna just get high then just say it
But then if you a liar-liar, pants on fire
Wolf-cry agent with a wire I'm gon' know it when I play it
It's bigger than hip hop, hip hop, hip hop, hip
It's bigger than hip hop, hip hop, hip hop, hip hop
Uh, who shot Biggie Smalls if we don't get them
They gonna get us all I'm down for runnin' up on them
Crackers in they city hall we ride for y'all
All my dogs stay real nigga don't think these record deals
Gonna feed your seeds and pay your bills because they not
MCs get a little bit of love and think they hot
Talkin' 'bout how much money they got
Nigga all y'all records sound the same
I sick of that fake thug, R & B
Rap scenario all day on the radio
Same scenes in the video
Monotonous material y'all don't here me though
These record labels slang our tapes like dope
You can be next in line, and signed
And still be writing rhymes and broke
You would rather have a Lexus or justice
A dream or some substance, a Beamer, a necklace or freedom
Still a nigga like me don't playa' hate I just stay awake
This real hip-hop, and it don't stop
'Til we get the po-po off the block, they call it
Hip hop, hip hop, hip hop, hip
It's bigger than hip hop, hip hop, hip hop, hip
It's bigger than hip hop, hip hop, hip hop, hip
It's bigger than hip hop, hip hop, hip hop
DP's got that crazy shit we keep it crunk up
John Blaze'd and shit what
Uh, DP's got that crazy shit we keep it crunk up
John Blaze'd and shit
Uh, DP's got that crazy shit we keep it crunk up
John Blaze'd and shit
1, 2, 1, 2
Uh, DP's got that crazy shit we keep it crunk up
John Blaze'd and shit
Uh, DP's got that crazy shit we keep it crunk up
They call it
[Intro: Bizarre]
Yeah...huh...(hip hop, hip hop, hip hop)
Turn my mic up a little bit (hip hop)
Hit some of this Cali guido(hip hop)
Listen to some muthafuckin'... (hip hop)
Everybody got a little story they gotta tell
Niggaz ain't heard my shit...hahaha
The life of Bizarre...what!
[Verse 1: Bizarre]
Hip hop, that's the way of life (Word?)
If you think you're nice, then go grab the mic (Grab it!)
Let me tell you my story, 'cause everybody got one
Grab a pen and pad and start to jot some
Always told myself that I would never be losin'
Man I ain't had no hood, my mother was always movin' (Damn!)
From Detroit to Texas, Texas to Detroit (C'mon!)
God damn, Mama, what's the point? (the fuck?)
So I would go in my room and pack my little bags (Aughh!)
Jump in the truck with my step-dad
When I was ten years old, I started to feel the hunger
Got a little older, man, the force got stronger (Yeah!)
And me and my rap partner wasn't seein' eye to eye
So he picked up and started a group with some other guys (Haha)
This is hip hop...man, I won't stop
Yo Big Boi (What up?) Gimme a beatbox
[beatbox]
[Chorus]
Hip hop, hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop
[Verse 2: Bizarre]
From the hip hop shop to Maurice Malone (Uh-huh)
Ten years later, I'm still in the zone (Word?)
7 Mile and ??? where a star was born (Yeah!)
United we stand, divided we swore (D-12!)
And hell yeah, I lived in my car (Yeah!)
Bitch, I was homeless, I would have slept in a jar (Hahahaha)
And Dirty Management, I wish all the best
But me and my niggas, we had to do what's best (That's right)
It was a mess, all them taxes and accounts (What?)
Checks started to bounce, niggas couldn't buy an ounce (Hell yeah)
And now that we platinum, they diss our name (What?)
Like we won't go to the car and get them thangs
And beef, sometimes you don't have a choice
To the fight with Whitey Ford to the beef with Royce (What?!)
To the Ja Rules, Benzinos, and niggas in the club
To the e-dubs and niggas you ain't heard of
And man, I don't know how to use a gun (Naw)
But I'll learn quick if the fuckin' beef come!
[Chorus]
[Verse 3: Eminem]
Man, I thought this was supposed to be hip hop, hip hop
I'd rather be fishin' in flip flops, flip flops
Or cross over to country like Kid Rock, did, I
Can't see no country singers beefin' over some guitar
Riff that Willie Nelson lifted from Bob Seger
When I was younger I was so eager
To have a gun I would do the same
Couldn't wait to get to the shootin' range
Me and my man Goofy Gary just tryin' to let loose some steam
Muthafuckas laughin' 'cause I couldn't aim
So I'd pull the fuckin' target closer and just shoot the thang
I used to have this theory: keep three bullets in the gun
It was a mandatory year up here in Michigan
For each bullet if you got no CCW license
I tried to apply for one, they said it'd take 5-6 months
What the fuck am I supposed to do mean time when rivals come?
Hide that sumbitch in the glovebox or inside the trunk
Now, back to what my three-bullet theory was
I'm triple platinum, I ain't tryin' to catch no murder one
Figured I'd shoot to wound, probably miss with at least one
But them other two gon' fuck his shoulder and his kneecap up
Then I'ma say it's self defense, how come I had the gun
Was because I was at the range, on my way back from
This dude approached me on some bullshit
I'd get a year for each bullet at the most
As opposed to havin' a full clip in that
That was my idiotic logic, it was basically for safety
But it gave me power, and it made me crazy
And psychotic, I just got retarded once I got it
Thank God it was empty the night that I got caught with it
What the fuck, man I thought that it was supposed to be...
One two, one two, one shot, one two, last shot
Make the sound rock [hip hop, hip hip hop]
It's all about, it's all about [hip hop, hip hip hop]
Yo, who that fake pro, tryna fuck wit my hoe? peep
I'm killing for them hips continuously
My rap is g-a-m-e
Vocals'll get u stymied
Got locals running wit me
Freeloaders tryna get me
But that's my shorty
I got her running through this planet, just like a bandit
But I don't trust her, 'cause she a hustla
She living for that loot like me, that's why she mine
[hip hop, hip hip hop]
She screwing anybody worth a high dollar sign
But what I like about her is she flips it,
[hip hop] that's why I keeps it
On my own thought, she peeps it, keeps them a secret
Until I manifest them through her, allowing her to give it to ya
'cause when I screw her, she holla
I take her to the finest places
[hip hop, hip hip hop]
Just so I can meet some other pretty faces, my g leave no traces
Niggas be talking bout my chicks around the globe
Natural nouns in the eyes, diamond verbs in the lows [hip hop]
Many stories told, a lot is made up
I know my shorty tricking, been wit her ten years,
I know she laid up
Wit, them nondescript, brothas who know they shit
[hip hop, hip hip hop]
Even a few females came to her with the clit [hip hop]
They got her open but it's niggas like me that keep her focused
She'll fuck em, but never fall for jokers
Now peep the science, my hip hop is defiant? never!
I kick out this lab [hip hop] in any weather [hip hop]
For real
[you get the fuck out
You fucking bitch ass muthafucka
No you get the fuck out
Nigga get the fuck out
Fuck you fucking bitch ass nigga]
[don't stop, don't stop]
[hip hop, hip hip hop]
Yo my name I hip hop
I be that nigga y'all tryna stop
But before I go, I'm letting all y'all know
This ain't even how it was supposed to be
I put myself on this map so we can enjoy that
What the deal niggas? it seems like rap is out to get me
[hip hop, hip hip hop]
He used to be my man until he started acting shifty
Occasionally, he showed love, it was bug
'cause one day he went from being a nice guy to superthug
He caught the fever, felonies to misdemeanors
On top of that a date rape charge in argentina [hip hop]
The meaner he got, the more records he sold
Started disrespecting everybody, and went gold
[hip hop, hip hip hop]
To platinum, I seen him, said "yo son, what's happening? "
"nothing going on but gun clappin,"
He replied. as I'm looking at him dead in his eyes
I seen the devil himself in physical disguise
I had to get him out my cipher, my only chance was my nine
Wont be gone before that ass is mine
He thought the same thoughts that I thought
Before I started reaching
He pulled out the tech and started screeching
[hip hop, hip hip hop]
Oh shit, son, that nigga hip hop just got hit up
[hip hop]
Word is bond, that nigga just hit the floor cold
[hip hop, hip hip hop]
Aw, look at that shit [hip hop]
Hip hop was dying, I had to give him mouth to mouth resuscitation
They left him for dead, only played him on one station
I drug him to my lab, grabbed the pen and the pad
Wasn't sure he would make it, these mcs fucked him up bad
Fed him guns and drugs, laced him up in gear worn by so-called thugs
Had him hanging out in fucked up clubs
He lost his glow, only 17 addicted to blow
[hip hop hip hip hop hip]
Hip hop started a riot at every major show
Every time he lost his head another partygoer end up dead
He tried to blame it on what mcs said
They held him responsible, charged him as an adult
[hip hop, hip hip hop]
The billboard battlers, they beat his ass to a pulp
His man rap started fucking with r&b;
Left a nigga low, he talking bout "i'm strictly in it for the money"
He couldn't beat him, he joined him
Started the east coast-west coast conflict
Record sales boom, that's where he made his profit
As he lay on my floor to the next one, and thinking
[hip hop, hip hip hop]
Will what he helped to create help destroy him?
He wondered if he reaches his 21st without getting banned
In year 2000 [hip hop] he'll be a man, old enough to make a stand
[to the old school and the new school:
It's time we get this hip hop shit to the next horizon.
Ya nahmean? because them other cats got a new kind of game plan
For us so we must over overwhelm that shit that shit.
And bring it and bring it full-fledged full-fledged
To the next millenium. you know? and and and gp gp for the 90's
And beyond we here to bring y'all that shit man.
We here to bring y'all that shit that's gonna keep y'all rocking
And rocking throughout throughout pump us loud baby. word up]
[repeat in background of intro]
[scratching] "Alright.. it's OK"
[Krumb Snatcha]
Hip hop.. hip hop [x4]
This one here's dedicated to a special part of my life that's missing
If she's listenin, this one's dedicated to you
Come on, uhh
[Verse 1]
I remeber '89 when I ride the train
Did the knowledge to the bombers that was taggin up the name
Ghetto fame, was the only destiny
Some will be remembered, while the other rest will be..
Forgotten, hip hoppin on the old project roofs
Now it's bulletproofs, gettin wild, Cristal, eighty booth,
or get the bubblegoose, pass the O.E. boo
And let me reminisce of Hip-Hop and the things we used to do
I used to put 'em in positions, on top of a cardboard
Poppin and breakin and get it open like a condor
She been on rap tours for months
Liqour and blunts, doin raps, holdin gats, and rockin gold fronts
Before that rap in the Vicki Secret and Martinis
We was givin ourselves, nicknames in graffiti
Now it's Tahiti, hotels, suites, chanels
Italian shoes, now your rockin silk pastels
I can tell if our ending's, near or far
Now you drive expensive cars, hang with A and Nas
Left me and Kingo, to rap about your bankroll
Your fo', night after night after you do a pack rat show
I don't know, why you don't come around, how it sound
You hang with cowboys and Nino Brown
I miss you, but now you hold a pistol
Put it down c'mere, cuz Snatcha wanna kiss you
[Chorus x2]
I miss Hip-Hop (Hip-Hop)
Yo where can she be?
Can't she see and hop along right here with me
[Verse 2]
Night after night I cry to sleep fearin the end
I called the Zulu Nation to help look for this lost friend
I went all around and asked everyone,
There's rumors she's seein some guy named KRS-One
I'm lost son, I hope Hip-Hop can hear
Without her there's no need for me to be here
We used to rock the radio, shack tables, the Realistics
I was simplistic but now your materialistic
Got to have the Technics, the minute, you sample her
Threw the beatmachine and keyboards inside the hamper
Havin temper-tantrums all on stage, just to get paid
Your gettin arrested, put on the front page
Never in my life I thought you'd act like this
The feelings I have for this longtime mis-tress
I reminisce in the basement with her for hours
And after verbal intercourse, I take a long shower (shower)
But all of a sudden, you don't wanna see me
Unsatisfied with 12" and got a CD
Can it be, her goddess listenin to this?
Cuz all I want Hip-Hop back with me for Christmas
I miss this, special part of my life
And when I see her again I'll make it sure she's my wife
[Chorus x4]
I miss Hip-Hop (Hip-Hop)
Yo where can she be?
Can't she see and hop along right here with me
[repeat in background of outro]
[scratching] "Alright.. it's OK"
Ya move it to the left and the right y'all
Everybody represent this here right y'all
All the breakers gotta hit the dancefloor now
Graffiti artists, raise hands in the air y'all
We in the hood again(Hip Hop, Hip Hop) [x2]
[Chorus]
It goes good times, good friends we in the hood again
Up rock, pop lock, ghetto mardi gras
Hip Hop, don't stop, whatchu do to me
Gold rush, cold crush in the community
DJ's, MC's, graffiti artists
Break dancers, black gangstas we be the hardest
Towns make the hotties hot, we keep the shotty cocked
Fool felt that what he knocked, we make the body rock
[Verse 1]
Now its the dark-skinned nigga with the slim build, and brim tilt
Used to break dance, backspin and windmill
Smoke la till I choke la under my hip hop roots, a culture
Used to ran ourselves from here to the Bronx
It's all your fault Ja
B-boys, B-girls, up in the free world
Givin props to the man who let the planet rock like Afika Bam
Hip hop its a tactical plan, police try to shackle my hand
Cuz they fear this, we raisin' [?] to bring back to the fam
Dubs out the back of the van, so we dont get jammed in traffic
We traffic the jam!
[Chorus]
[Verse 2]
Aiyyo, dub made hip hop, before we knew what hip hop was
Word up!.....I'm hip hop cuz
It's the way I walk, the way I talk
It's the way I flex, the way I dress
The way I lean to the side when I'm pimpin my ride
Or your hat to the back as you bop to the vibe
This is cool hurt, Grand Master Flash
This a phenomenon they neva thought could last
But look at us now
Everybody and they mama wanna hook wit us now
They all act like they ain't [?] now
They gimme good money so I took it and smiled
[Chorus]
Hip Hop, we in the hood again
Hip Hop, we in the hood again
Hip Hop, we in the hood again
Hip Hop, we in the hood again
[Verse 3]
Im for the battling booths and fat gold chains
For the troop suits and crack cocaine
Hip hop's the lifestyle that bore the rap game
We like to act wild and talk with that slang
It's that thang, its truly our own
They come down hard cuz we dont rule it [?]
But the life dumb hard, so it bleed thru the flo'
Im only speakin my heart, like what you want me to do
[Chorus]
[Kriminul]
For real hip hop niggaz..
J.I.G. Mastas..
For days on I hear the same song sayin' nothin new
I'm in the cunt gettin' my blaze on tryin' to stay to I face you
We at the next level you tryin' to find that each and every day
It's gettin hard for you to grasp my speech
The class I teach
Make you cram to understand lyrics so dope
They oughta cut me up in grams touchin' my hand
Before me and my man rushes to jam, crushing y'clan
No time for you to execute your plan next to shoot a man
Or so you say forget the drama causin' rap
You still got news to pay bitches and [???]
Around the way in army fatigues
The way you mislead the public
Frontin' like you rough and rugged, hold up
I ask myself, 'is that mad nice?'
I like the way he grip the mic device, is he worth the price?
Most times I can't see his skills, it's microscopic
Y'all niggaz ain't makin music son, ya need to stop it
The J.I.G.'s be droppin' real (Hip-hop!)
Let you know that we only flow to real (Hip-hop!)
It's the norm that we perform rugged (Hip-hop!)
G-thumpin, (Hip-hop!) party jumpin' (Hip-hop!)
I see treasures, beyond the material
Cause the luxuries don't measure up to me
Maybe enough to me
The way I feel this salvation truly divine
When I intertwine like vine
My lyrics to these basslines
Know that, I quest to live big willy
Fuck the phillies, roll up the fonta [?]
And vocally I haunt ya, Kriminul I stick you up
For your mental in a minute while I'm in it
Fill it with lyrics, till it reach the limit
No gimmicks, causes wrath, man it's real and I feel
I'm like Medusa, take one look at me and niggaz stand still
the blast still switches be all out for riches and bitches and flies
Witches on broomsticks whenever my toolkits
Consume kid, all walks of life, talks of trife
[???] schemes, we'll put you in the land of permanent dreams
The J.I.G.'s be droppin' real (Hip-hop!)
Let you know that we only flow to real (Hip-hop!)
It's the norm that we perform rugged (Hip-hop!)
G-thumpin, (Hip-hop!) party jumpin' (Hip-hop!)
I do this for niggaz true to this
Before haters would use their fists, fuck the foolishness
With blasts that expand just like a uterus
Your hollow team'll get yolked up like Halloween
J.I.G's drop tombs[?] on tracks to make the other seem mediocre
Misrepresent the culture? Never
Sever the heads of competition, sport it like a treasure
Y'all better recognize like familiar family members
What's that? You'se frontin hard but in your heart you know you tender
Slender, the chance of you slidin' by fakin' jacks
East, west, north south son, no matter where you at
Here to strap, it's bound to rock knots like Bon Jovi
Beyond keepin' it real, so motherfuck the foley
Run up on me, get hit with rhymes deep like grave diggers
In rap, we like the EMS: We come and save niggaz
The J.I.G.'s be droppin' real (Hip-hop!)
Let you know that we only flow to real (Hip-hop!)
It's the norm that we perform rugged (Hip-hop!)
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic subculture that originated in African-American and Hispanic-American communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically within the Bronx.[1][2][3] The term often refers to hip hop music, which consists of poetry that is spoken - rather than sung - over either original or sampled instrumental recordings mixed with new original sounds from drum machines, and/or other instruments. However, the culture has expanded far beyond its original roots, and now is considered a worldwide subculture comprising rapping, DJing, hip hop dance, and graffiti art - known collectively as "Four Pillars of Hip Hop".
The block parties of DJ Kool Herc at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, where Herc would mix samples of existing records with his own shouts to the crowd and dancers, are generally considered the birthplace of hip hop. Kool Herc is credited as the 'father' of the art form. DJ Afrika Bambaataa of the hip-hop collective Zulu Nation outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, B-boying and graffiti writing.[4][5][6][7][8] Since its emergence in the South Bronx, hip hop culture has spread to both urban and suburban communities throughout the world.[9] Hip hop music first emerged with Kool Herc and contemporary disc jockeys and imitators creating rhythmic beats by looping breaks (small portions of songs emphasizing a percussive pattern) on two turntables, more commonly referred to as sampling. This was later accompanied by "rap", a rhythmic style of chanting or poetry presented in 16 bar measures or time frames, and beatboxing, a vocal technique mainly used to imitate percussive elements of the music and various technical effects of hip hop DJ's. An original form of dancing and particular styles of dress arose among fans of this new music. These elements experienced considerable refinement and development over the course of the history of the culture.
Hip hop is simultaneously a new and old phenomenon; the importance of sampling to the art form means that much of the culture has revolved around the idea of updating classic recordings, attitudes, and experiences for modern audiences - called "flipping" within the culture. It follows in the footsteps of previous American musical genres blues, jazz, and rock and roll in having become one of the most practiced genres of music in existence worldwide, and also takes additional inspiration regularly from soul music, funk, and rhythm and blues. At its best, hip hop has given a voice to the voiceless and poverty-stricken worldwide, particularly in inner cities and neighborhoods suffering from urban blight, and showcased their artistic ingenuity and talent on a global scale. At its worst hip hop has mirrored the worst aspects of the mainstream culture that it once challenged: materialism, sexism, homophobia, an internalized racism and an apathy towards intellectualism (the most crucial element in the culture according to the pioneering Afrika Bambataa[citation needed]).
Contents |
Etymology[link]
Hip hop is the combination of two separate slang terms—"hip", used in African American Vernacular English (AAVE) as early as 1898, meaning current or in the now, and "hop", for the hopping movement.
Keith "Cowboy" Wiggins, a member of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, has been credited with coining the term in 1978 while teasing a friend who had just joined the US Army, by scat singing the words "hip/hop/hip/hop" in a way that mimicked the rhythmic cadence of marching soldiers.[10] Cowboy later worked the "hip hop" cadence into his stage performance.[11] The group frequently performed with disco artists who would refer to this new type of music by calling them "hip hoppers". The name was originally meant as a sign of disrespect, but soon came to identify this new music and culture.
The song "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang, released in 1979, begins with the scat phrase, "I said a hip, hop the hippie the hippie to the hip hip hop, a you don't stop." Lovebug Starski, a Bronx DJ who put out a single called "The Positive Life" in 1981, and DJ Hollywood then began using the term when referring to this new disco rap music. Hip hop pioneer and South Bronx community leader Afrika Bambaataa also credits Lovebug Starski as the first to use the term "Hip Hop", as it relates to the culture. Bambaataa, former leader of the Black Spades gang, also did much to further popularize the term.[11][12][13]
History[link]
In the late 1970s an underground urban movement known as "hip hop" began to develop in the South Bronx area of New York City focusing on emceeing (or MCing), breakbeats, and house parties - starting at the home of DJ Kool Herc at the high-rise apartments at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue and later spreading across the entire borough. Emceeing is the rhythmic spoken delivery of rhymes and wordplay, delivered over a beat or without accompaniment - taking inspiration from the the Rapping derived from the griots (folk poets) of West Africa, and Jamaican-style toasting. Rap developed both inside and outside of hip hop culture, and began in America in earnest with the street parties thrown in the Bronx neighborhood of New York in the 1970s by Kool Herc and others - Jamaican born DJ Clive "Kool Herc" Campbell is credited as being highly influential in the pioneering stage of hip hop music,[14] Herc created the blueprint for hip hop music and culture by building upon the Jamaican tradition of impromptu toasting, boastful poetry and speech over music.[15] Melle Mel, a rapper/lyricist with The Furious Five, is often credited with being the first rap lyricist to call himself an "MC".[16]
Herc also developed upon break-beat deejaying,[17] where the breaks of funk songs—the part most suited to dance, usually percussion-based—were isolated and repeated for the purpose of all-night dance parties. This form of music playback, using hard funk, rock, formed the basis of hip hop music. Campbell's announcements and exhortations to dancers would lead to the syncopated, rhymed spoken accompaniment now known as rapping. He dubbed his dancers break-boys and break-girls, or simply b-boys and b-girls. According to Herc, "breaking" was also street slang for "getting excited" and "acting energetically".[18]
DJs such as Grand Wizard Theodore, Grandmaster Flash and Jazzy Jay refined and developed the use of breakbeats, including cutting and scratching. [19] The approach used by Herc was soon widely copied, and by the late 1970s DJs were releasing 12" records where they would rap to the beat. Popular tunes included Kurtis Blow's "The Breaks" and The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight".[20]. Herc and other DJs would connect their equipment to power lines and perform at venues such as public basketball courts and at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, Bronx, New York, now officially a historic building[21]. The equipment was composed of numerous speakers, turntables, and one or more microphones.[22] By using this technique DJs could create a variety of music, but according to Rap Attack by David Toop “At its worst the technique could turn the night into one endless and inevitably boring song” .[23] Nevertheless, the popularity of rap steadily increased.
Street gangs were prevalent in the poverty of the South Bronx, and much of the graffiti, rapping, and b-boying at these parties were all artistic variations on the competition and one-upmanship of street gangs. Sensing that gang members' often violent urges could be turned into creative ones, Afrika Bambaataa founded the Zulu Nation, a loose confederation of street-dance crews, graffiti artists, and rap musicians. By the late 1970s, the culture had gained media attention, with Billboard magazine printing an article titled "B Beats Bombarding Bronx", commenting on the local phenomenon and mentioning influential figures such as Kool Herc.[24]
In late 1979, Debbie Harry of Blondie took Nile Rodgers of Chic to such an event, as the main backing track used was the break from Chic's "Good Times".[20]. The new style influenced Harry, and Blondie's later hit single from 1981 "Rapture" became the first major single containing hip hop elements by a white group or artist to hit number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 - the song itself is usually considered new wave and fuses heavy pop music elements, but there is an extended rap by Harry near the end.
Hip hop as a culture was further defined in 1982, when Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force released the seminal electro-funk track "Planet Rock". Instead of simply rapping over disco beats, Bambaataa created an electronic sound, taking advantage of the rapidly improving drum machine Roland TB-303 synthesizer technology, as well as sampling from Kraftwerk.[25]
Encompassing graffiti art, mc'ing/rapping, dj'ing and b-boying, hip hop became the dominant cultural movement of the minority populated urban communities in the 1980s.[26] The 1980s also saw many artists make social statements through hip hop. In 1982, Melle Mel and Duke Bootee recorded "The Message" (officially credited to Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five),[27] a song that foreshadowed the socially conscious statements of Run-DMC's "It's like That" and Public Enemy's "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos".[28] During the 1980s, hip hop also embraced the creation of rhythm by using the human body, via the vocal percussion technique of beatboxing. Pioneers such as Doug E. Fresh,[29] Biz Markie and Buffy from the Fat Boys made beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using their mouth, lips, tongue, voice, and other body parts. "Human Beatbox" artists would also sing or imitate turntablism scratching or other instrument sounds.
The appearance of music videos changed entertainment: they often glorified urban neighborhoods.[30] 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 1985, youth worldwide were embracing the hip hop culture. The hip hop artwork and "slang" of US urban communities quickly found its way to Europe, as the culture's global appeal took root.
American society[link]
DJ Kool Herc's dance parties in his home in the Bronx, which started hip hop, became so popular that they were moved to outdoor venues to accommodate more people. City teenagers, after years of gang violence, were looking for new ways to express themselves.[31] These outdoor parties, hosted in parks, became a means of expression and an outlet for teenagers, where "instead of getting into trouble on the streets, teens now had a place to expend their pent-up energy."[32]
Tony Tone, a member of the pioneering rap group the Cold Crush Brothers, noted that "hip hop saved a lot of lives".[32] Hip hop culture became a way of dealing with the hardships of life as minorities within America, and an outlet to deal with violence and gang culture. MC Kid Lucky mentions that "people used to break-dance against each other instead of fighting".[33][broken citation] Inspired by DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa created a street organization called Universal Zulu Nation, centered around hip hop, as a means to draw teenagers out of gang life and violence.[32]
The lyrical content of many early rap groups concentrated on social issues, most notably in the seminal track "The Message", which discussed the realities of life in the housing projects.[34] "Young black Americans coming out of the civil rights movement have used hip hop culture in the 1980s and 1990s to show the limitations of the movement."[35] Hip hop gave young African Americans a voice to let their issues be heard; "Like rock-and-roll, hip hop is vigorously opposed by conservatives because it romanticises violence, law-breaking, and gangs".[35] It also gave young blacks a chance for financial gain by "reducing the rest of the world to consumers of its social concerns."[35]
With the commercial success of gangsta rap in the early 1990s, however, emphasis shifted from social issues 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 gangster rap record, 6 in the Mornin’,[36] and N.W.A. whose second album Efil4zaggin became the first gangsta rap album to enter the charts at number one.[37] Gangsta rap also played an important part in hip hop becoming a mainstream commodity. The fact that 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.[38] As a result, gangsta rap became a platform for artists who chose to use their music to spread politic and social messages to parts of the country that were previously unaware of what went on in the ghettos of place like Los Angeles and New York.[36] 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.[39]
Global innovations[link]
Though created in the United States, hip hop culture and music is now global in scope. Asia, The Middle East, Africa, Australia, and the Caribbean have long-established hip hop followings. 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.[40] 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."[41] Through its international travels, hip hop is now considered a “global musical epidemic,”[42] and has diverged from its ethnic roots by way of globalization and localization.
Although some non-American rappers may still relate with young urban Americans, hip hop now transcends its original culture, and is appealing because it is “custom-made to combat the anomie that preys on adolescents wherever nobody knows their name.”[43] Hip hop is attractive in its ability to give a voice to disenfranchised youth in any country, and as music with a message, it is available to all societies worldwide.
From its early spread to Europe to an almost worldwide acceptance through Asia and South American countries such as Brazil, the musical influence has been global. Hip hop sounds and styles differ from region to region, but there is also a lot of crossbreeding. Unlike the old genres, which popularized throughout the nation via radio, hip hop tends to hold on to its regional identity.[44] Regardless of where it is found, the music often targets local disaffected youth.[45]
Hip hop has given people a voice to express themselves, from the "Bronx to Beirut, Kazakhstan to Cali, Hokkaido to Harare, Hip Hop is the new sound of a disaffected global youth culture."[45] Though on the global scale there is a heavy influence from US culture, different cultures worldwide have transformed hip hop with their own traditions and beliefs. "Global Hip Hop succeeds best when it showcases ... cultures that reside outside the main arteries of the African Diaspora."[45] 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".[46]
As hip hop becomes globally available, it is not a one-sided process that eradicates local cultures. Instead, global hip hop styles are often synthesized with local styles. Hartwig Vens argues that hip hop can also be viewed as a global learning experience.[47] Hip hop from countries outside the United States is often labeled "world music" for the American consumer. Author Jeff Chang argues that "the essence of hip hop is the cipher, born in the Bronx, where competition and community feed each other."[48]
Hip hop has impacted many different countries culturally and socially in positive ways. "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."[49]
While hip hop music has been criticized as a music which creates a divide between western music and music from the rest of the world, a musical "cross pollination" has taken place, which strengthens the power of hip hop to influence different communities.[50] Hip hop's impact as a "world music" is also due to its translatability among different cultures in the world. Hip hop's messages allow the under-privileged and the mistreated to be heard.[47] These cultural translations cross borders.[49] While the music may be from a foreign country, the message is something that many people can relate to- something not "foreign" at all.[51]
Even when hip hop is transplanted to other countries, it often retains its "vital progressive agenda that challenges the status quo."[49] Global hip hop is the meeting ground for progressive local activism, as many organizers use hip hop in their communities to address environmental injustice, policing and prisons, media justice, and education. In Gothenburg, Sweden, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) incorporate graffiti and dance to engage disaffected immigrant and working class youths. Indigenous youths in countries such as Bolivia use hip hop and rap to advance new forms of identity.[52]
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 fuels the rebellion.[53]
Commercialization[link]
 |
This article or section may contain previously unpublished synthesis of published material that conveys ideas not attributable to the original sources. See the talk page for details. (March 2009) |
Even in the face of growing global popularity, or perhaps because of it, hip hop has come under fire for being too commercial, too commodified. While this of course stirs up controversy, a documentary called The Commodification of Hip Hop directed by Brooke Daniel interviews students at Satellite Academy in New York City. One girl talks about the epidemic of crime that she sees in urban minority communities, relating it directly to the hip hop industry saying “When they can’t afford these kind of things, these things that celebrities have like jewelry and clothes and all that, they’ll go and sell drugs, some people will steal it...”[54] Many students see this as a negative side effect of the hip hop industry, and indeed, hip hop has been widely criticized for inciting notions of crime, violence, and American ideals of consumerism although much of the hip hop dancing community still chooses to refer back to more "oldschool" types of hip hop music that does not preach violence and drugs.
In an article for 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".[35] Ironically, this commercialization coincides with a decline in rap sales and pressure from critics of the genre.[55] 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, Manthia Diawara explains that hip hop is really a voice of people who are down and out 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."
This connection to "tradition" however, is something that may be lacking according to one Satellite Academy staff member who says that in all of the focus on materialism, the hip hop community is “not leaving anything for the next generation, we’re not building. As the hip hop genre turns 30, a deeper analysis of the music’s impact is taking place. It has been viewed as a cultural sensation which changed the music industry around the world, but some believe commercialization and mass production have given it a darker side. Tate has described its recent manifestations as a marriage of “New World African ingenuity and that trick of the devil known as global-hypercapitalism”,[56] arguing it has joined the “mainstream that had once excluded its originators.”[56] While hip hop's values may have changed over time, the music continues to offer its followers and originators a shared identity which is instantly recognizable and much imitated around the world.
Cultural pillars[link]
DJing[link]
Turntablism refers to the extended boundaries and techniques of normal DJing innovated by hip hop. One of the few first hip hop DJ's was Kool DJ Herc, who created hip hop through the isolation of "breaks" (the parts of albums that focused solely on the beat). In addition to developing Herc's techniques, DJs Grandmaster Flowers, Grandmaster Flash, Grand Wizard Theodore, and Grandmaster Caz made further innovations with the introduction of scratching.
Traditionally, a DJ will use two turntables simultaneously. These are connected to a DJ mixer, an amplifier, speakers, and various other pieces of electronic music equipment. The DJ will then perform various tricks between the two albums currently in rotation using the above listed methods. The result 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 producer of a music track.[57]
In the early years of hip hop, the DJs were the stars, but that has been taken by MCs since 1978, thanks largely to Melle Mel of Grandmaster Flash's crew, the Furious Five. 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 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, and DJ Q-Bert. The underground movement of turntablism has also emerged to focus on the skills of the DJ.
Mixtape DJs have also emerged creating mixtapes with different artists and getting exclusive songs and putting them on one disc, such as DJ White Owl, DJ Skee, DJ Drama, DJ Ill Will and DJ Whoo Kid, DJ Scholar.
MCing[link]
Rapping (also known as emceeing,[58] MCing,[58] spitting (bars),[59] or just rhyming[60]) refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics with a strong rhythmic accompaniment".[61] It can be broken down into different components, such as “content”, “flow” (rhythm and rhyme), and “delivery”.[62] Rapping is distinct from spoken word poetry in that is it performed in time to the beat of the music.[63][64][65] The use of the word "rap" to describe quick and slangy speech or repartee long predates the musical form.[66] MCing a form of expression that is embedded within ancient African culture and oral tradition. Throughout history there has always been some form of verbal acrobatics or jousting involving rhymes within the Afro-American community.[67]
Graffiti[link]
In America around the late 1960s, graffiti was used as a form of expression by political activists, and also by gangs such as the Savage Skulls, La Familia, and Savage Nomads to mark territory. Towards the end of the 1960s, the signatures—tags—of Philadelphia graffiti writers Top Cat,[68] Cool Earl and Cornbread started to appear.[69] Around 1970–71, the center of graffiti innovation moved to New York City where writers following in the wake of TAKI 183 and Tracy 168 would add their street number to their nickname, "bomb" a train with their work, and let the subway take it—and their fame, if it was impressive, or simply pervasive, enough—"all city". Bubble lettering held sway initially among writers from the Bronx, though the elaborate Brooklyn style Tracy 168 dubbed "wildstyle" would come to define the art.[68][70] The early trendsetters were joined in the 70s by artists like Dondi, Futura 2000, Daze, Blade, Lee, Fab Five Freddy, Zephyr, Rammellzee, Crash, Kel, NOC 167 and Lady Pink.[68]
The relationship between graffiti and hip hop culture arises both from early graffiti artists practicing other aspects of hip hop,[71] and its being practiced in areas where other elements of hip hop were evolving as art forms. Graffiti is recognized as a visual expression of rap music, just as breaking is viewed as a physical expression. The movie "Wild Style" is widely regarded as the first hip hop motion picture, featured prominent figures from lates 70's and early 1980s hip hop culture engaging in activities such as graffiti, MCing, turntablism and bboying: the four pillars of hip hop culture. The book Subway Art (New York: Henry Holt & Co, 1984) and the TV program Style Wars (first shown on the PBS channel in 1984) were also among the first ways the mainstream public were introduced to hip hop graffiti.
The relationship between graffiti and hip hop culture arises from the appearance of new and increasingly elaborate and pervasive forms of the practice in areas where other elements of hip hop were evolving as art forms, with a heavy overlap between those who wrote graffiti and those who practiced other elements of the culture. Today, graffiti remains part of hip hop, while crossing into the mainstream art world with renowned exhibits in galleries throughout the world.
Breaking[link]
In 1925, Earl Tucker (aka Snake Hips), a performer at the Cotton Club created a dance style which would later inspire an element of hip hop culture known as bboying.[72] Breaking, also called B-boying or breakdancing, is a dynamic style of dance which developed as part of the hip hop culture. Breaking is one of the major elements of hip hop culture. Like many aspects of hip hop culture, breakdance borrows heavily from many cultures, including 1930s-era street dancing,[73][74] Afro-Brazilian and Asian Martial arts, Russian folk dance,[75] and the dance moves of James Brown, Michael Jackson, and California Funk styles. Breaking took form in the South Bronx alongside the other elements of hip hop.
According to the documentary film The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-Boy, DJ Kool Herc describes the "B" in B-boy as short for breaking which at the time was slang for "going off", also one of the original names for the dance. However, early on the dance was known as the "boing" (the sound a spring makes). Dancers at DJ Kool Herc's parties, who saved their best dance moves for the break section of the song, getting in front of the audience to dance in a distinctive, frenetic style. The "B" in B-boy also stands simply for break, as in break-boy (or girl). Breaking was documented in Style Wars, and was later given more focus in fictional films such as Wild Style and Beat Street. Early acts include the Rock Steady Crew and New York City Breakers.
Beatbox[link]
Beatbox, popularized by Doug E. Fresh,[76] is the vocal percussion of hip hop culture. It is primarily concerned with the art of creating beats, rhythms, and melodies using the human mouth.[77] The term beatboxing is derived from the mimicry of the first generation of drum machines, then known as beatboxes. As it is a way of creating hip hop music, it can be categorized under the production element of hip hop, though it does sometimes include a type of rapping intersected with the human-created beat. It is generally considered to be part of the same "Pillar" of hip hop as DJ'ing - in other words, providing a musical backdrop or foundation for MC's to rhyme over.
The art was quite popular in the 1980s with artists like the Darren "Buffy, the Human Beat Box" Robinson of the Fat Boys and Biz Markie displaying their skills in beatboxing. It declined in popularity along with b-boying in the late '80s, but has undergone a resurgence since the late '90s, marked by the release of "Make the Music 2000." by Rahzel of The Roots.
Social impact[link]
Effects[link]
Hip hop has made a considerable social impact since its inception in the 1970s. Orlando Patterson, a sociology professor at Harvard University helps describe the phenomenon of how hip hop spread rapidly around the world. Professor Patterson argues that mass communication is controlled by the wealthy, government, and businesses in Third World nations and countries around the world.[78] He also credits mass communication with creating a global cultural hip hop scene. As a result, the youth absorb and are influenced by the American hip hop scene and start their own form of hip hop. Patterson believes that revitalization of hip hop music will occur around the world as traditional values are mixed with American hip hop musical forms,[78] and ultimately a global exchange process will develop that brings youth around the world to listen to a common musical form known as hip hop. It has also been argued that rap music formed as a "cultural response to historic oppression and racism, a system for communication among black communities throughout the United States".[79] This is due to the fact that the culture reflected the social, economic and political realities of the disenfranchised youth.[80] In the current Arab Spring hip hop is playing a significant role in providing a channel for the youth to express their ideas.[81]
Language[link]
The development of hip hop linguistics is complex. Source material include the spirituals of slaves arriving in the new world, Jamaican dub music, the laments of jazz and blues singers, patterned cockney slang and radio deejays hyping their audience in rhyme.[82]
Hip hop has a distinctive associated slang.[83] It is also known by alternate names, such as "Black English", or "Ebonics". Academics suggest its development stems from a rejection of the racial hierarchy of language, which held "White English" as the superior form of educated speech.[84] Due to hip hop's commercial success in the late nineties and early 21st century, many of these words have been assimilated into the cultural discourse of several different dialects across America and the world and even to non-hip hop fans. The word dis for example is particularly prolific. There are also a number of words which predate hip hop, but are often associated with the culture, with homie being a notable example.
Sometimes, terms like what the dilly, yo are popularized by a single song (in this case, "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See" by Busta Rhymes) and are only used briefly. One particular example is the rule-based slang of Snoop Dogg and E-40, who add -izzle or -izz to the end or middle of words.
Hip hop lyricism has gained a measure of legitimacy in academic and literary circles. Studies of Hip hop linguistics are now offered at institutions such as the University of Toronto, where poet and author George Eliot Clarke has (in the past) taught the potential power of hip hop music to promote social change.[82] Greg Thomas of the University of Miami offers courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level studying the feminist and assertive nature of Li'l Kim's lyrics.[85]
Some academics, including Ernest Morrell and Jeffery Duncan Andrade compare hip hop to the satirical works of great “canon” poets of the modern era, who use imagery and mood to directly criticize society. As quoted in their seminal work, "Promoting Academic Literacy with Urban Youth Through Engaging Hip Hop Culture":
| “ | Hip hop texts are rich in imagery and metaphor and can be used to teach irony, tone, diction, and point of view. Hip hop texts can be analyzed for theme, motif, plot, and character development. Both Grand Master Flash and T.S. Eliot gazed out into their rapidly deteriorating societies and saw a "wasteland." Both poets were essentially apocalyptic in nature as they witnessed death, disease, and decay.[86] | ” |
Censorship[link]
Hip hop has been met with significant problems in regards to censorship due to the explicit nature of certain genres, and some songs have been criticized for allegedly anti-establishment sentiment. For example, Public Enemy's "Gotta Give the Peeps What They Need" was censored on MTV, removing the words "free Mumia".[87]
After the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, Oakland, California group The Coup was under fire for the cover art on their Party Music, which featured the group's two members holding a detonator as the Twin Towers exploded behind them. Ironically, this art was created months before the actual event. The group, having politically radical and Marxist lyrical content, said the cover meant to symbolize the destruction of capitalism. Their record label pulled the album until a new cover could be designed.
The use of profanity as well as graphic depictions of violence and sex creates challenges in the broadcast of such material both on television stations such as MTV, in music video form, and on radio. As a result, many hip hop recordings are broadcast in censored form, with offending language "bleeped" or blanked out of the soundtrack, or replaced with "clean" lyrics. The result – which sometimes renders the remaining lyrics unintelligible or contradictory to the original recording – has become almost as widely identified with the genre as any other aspect of the music, and has been parodied in films such as Austin Powers in Goldmember, in which Mike Myers' character Dr. Evil – performing in a parody of a hip hop music video ("Hard Knock Life" by Jay-Z) – performs an entire verse that is blanked out. In 1995, Roger Ebert wrote:[88]
| “ | Rap has a bad reputation in white circles, where many people believe it consists of obscene and violent anti-white and anti-female guttural. Some of it does. Most does not. Most white listeners don't care; they hear black voices in a litany of discontent, and tune out. Yet rap plays the same role today as Bob Dylan did in 1960, giving voice to the hopes and angers of a generation, and a lot of rap is powerful writing. | ” |
In 1990, Luther Campbell and his group 2 Live Crew filed a lawsuit against Broward County Sheriff Nick Navarro, because Navarro wanted to prosecute stores that sold the group's album As Nasty As They Wanna Be because of its obscene and vulgar lyrics. In June 1990, U.S. district court judge labeled the album obscene and illegal to sell. However, in 1992, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit overturned the obscenity ruling.
Until its discontinuation on July 8, 2006, BET ran a late-night segment titled BET: Uncut to air nearly-uncensored videos. The show was exemplified by music videos such as "Tip Drill" by Nelly which was criticized for what many viewed as an exploitative depiction of women, particularly images of a man swiping a credit card between a stripper's buttocks.
Product placement[link]
Critics such as Businessweek's David Kiley argue that the discussion of many products within hip hop music and culture may actually be the result of undisclosed product placement deals.[89] Such critics allege that shilling or product placement takes place in commercial rap music, and that lyrical references to products are actually paid endorsements.[89] In 2005, a proposed plan by McDonalds, which would have paid rappers to advertise McDonalds food in their music, was leaked to the press.[89] After Russell Simmons made a deal with Courvoisier to promote the brand among hip hop fans, Busta Rhymes recorded the song "Pass the Courvoisier".[89] Simmons insists that no money changed hands in the deal.[89]
The symbiotic relationship has also stretched to include car manufacturers, clothing designers and sneaker companies,[90] and many other companies have used the hip hop community to make their name or to give them credibility. One such beneficiary was Jacob the Jeweler, a diamond merchant from New York, Jacob Arabo's clientele included Sean Combs, Lil Kim and Nas. He created jewelry pieces from precious metals that were heavily loaded with diamond and gemstones. As his name was mentioned in the song lyrics of his hip hop customers, his profile quickly rose. Arabo expanded his brand to include gem-encrusted watches that retail for hundreds of thousands of dollars, gaining so much attention that Cartier filed a trademark-infringement lawsuit against him for putting diamonds on the faces of their watches and reselling them without permission.[91] Arabo's profile increased steadily until his June, 2006 arrest by the FBI on money laundering charges.[92]
While some brands welcome the support of the hip hop community, one brand that did not was Cristal champagne maker Louis Roederer. A 2006 article from The Economist magazine featured remarks from managing director Frederic Rouzaud about whether the brand's identification with rap stars could affect their company negatively. His answer was dismissive in tone: "That's a good question, but what can we do? We can't forbid people from buying it. I'm sure Dom Pérignon or Krug would be delighted to have their business." In retaliation, many hip hop icons such as Jay-Z and Sean Combs, who previously included references to "Cris", ceased all mentions and purchases of the champagne. 50 Cent's merge with Vitamin Water, Dr. Dre's promotion of his Beats by Dr. Dre headphone line and Dr. Pepper, and Drake's commercial with Sprite all act to effectively illustrate successful mergers.
Media[link]
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Hip hop culture has had extensive coverage in the media, especially in relation to television; there have been a number of television shows devoted to or about hip hop. For many years, BET was the only television channel likely to play hip hop, but in recent years the mainstream channels VH1 and MTV have added a significant amount of hip hop to their play list. Run DMC became the first African-American group to appear on MTV.[93][94] With the emergence of the Internet a number of online sites began to offer hip hop related video content.
There have also been a number of hip hop films, movies which focused on hip hop as a subject. Some of these films include: Boyz n the Hood, Juice, Menace II Society, Notorious, and Get Rich Or Die Tryin'.
Hip hop magazines have detailed hip hop lifestyle and history, including the first known published hip hop publication The Hip Hop Hit List, which also contained the very first rap music record chart. Published in the early 80s by two brothers from Newark, New Jersey, Vincent and Charles Carroll, it was the first form of media to introduce hip hop as a culture, and it was instrumental in the early commercial success of rap music. The periodical began as as a DJ record chart and tip sheet that was distributed through record stores throughout the New York City Tri-State area. Charles Carroll noted, "Back then, all DJ's came into New York City to buy their records but most of them did not know what was hot enough to spend money on, so we charted it." Later other publications spawned up including: Hip Hop Connection, XXL, Scratch, The Source and Vibe.[95] Many individual cities have also produced their own local hip hop newsletters, while hip hop magazines with national distribution are found in a few other countries. The 21st century also ushered in the rise of online media, and hip hop fan sites now offer comprehensive hip hop coverage on a daily basis.
Diversification[link]
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Hip hop has spawned dozens of sub-genres which incorporate a domineering style of music production or rapping. After the Black Americans started hip hop, other ethnic groups began to contribute to the development of the cultural movement.
Hip hop has now expanded and gone on a global scale, with millions of rap albums sold in foreign countries, some of which are not English-speaking. Hip hop has influenced natives of foreign countries to pursue rap careers and do what is being done in the United States, including following the trends, in their country. This is a product of globalization and it explains how popular culture can be interwoven with the everyday life of individuals that follow it, and how it can affect them in many ways.
There are many varying social influences that affect hip hop's message in different nations. It is frequently used as a musical response to perceived political and/or social injustices. In South Africa the largest form of hip hop is called Kwaito, which has had a growth similar to American hip hop. Kwaito is a direct reflection of a post apartheid South Africa and is a voice for the voiceless; a term that U.S. hip hop is often referred to. Kwaito is even perceived as a lifestyle, encompassing many aspects of life, including language and fashion.[96]
Kwaito is a political and party-driven genre, as performers use the music to express their political views, and also to express their desire to have a good time. Kwaito is a music that came from a once hated and oppressed people, but it is now sweeping the nation. The main consumers of Kwaito are adolescents and half of the South African population is under 21. Some of the large Kwaito artists have sold over 100,000 albums, and in an industry where 25,000 albums sold is considered a gold record, those are impressive numbers.[97] Kwaito allows the participation and creative engagement of otherwise socially excluded peoples in the generation of popular media.[98] South African hip hop is more diverse lately and there are hip hop acts in South Africa that have made an impact and continue making impact worldwide. These include Tumi, Ben Sharpa, HipHop Pantsula, Tuks Senganga.[99]
In Jamaica, the sounds of hip hop are derived from American and Jamaican influences. Jamaican hip hop is defined both through dancehall and reggae music. Jamaican Kool Herc brought the sound systems, technology, and techniques of reggae music to New York during the 1970s. Jamaican hip hop artists often rap in both Brooklyn and Jamaican accents. Jamaican hip hop subject matter is often influenced by outside and internal forces. Outside forces such as the bling-bling era of today's modern hip hop and internal influences coming from the use of anti-colonialism and marijuana or "ganja" references which Rastafarians believe bring them closer to God.[100][101][102]
Author Wayne Marshall argues that "Hip hop, as with any number of African-American cultural forms before it, offers a range of compelling and contradictory significations to Jamaican artist and audiences. From "modern blackness" to "foreign mind", transnational cosmopolitanism to militant pan-Africanism, radical remixology to outright mimicry, hip hop in Jamaica embodies the myriad ways that Jamaicans embrace, reject, and incorporate foreign yet familiar forms."[103]
In the developing world hip hop has made a considerable impact in the social context. Despite the lack of resources, hip hop has made considerable inroads.[46] Due to limited funds, hip hop artists are forced to use very basic tools, and even graffiti, an important aspect of the hip hop culture, is constrained due to its unavailability to the average person. Many hip hop artists that make it out of the developing world come to places like the United States in hopes of improving their situations. Maya Arulpragasm is a Sri Lankan born hip hop artist in this situation. She claims, "I'm just trying to build some sort of bridge, I'm trying to create a third place, somewhere in between the developed world and the developing world."[104]
Education[link]
Many organizations and facilities are providing spaces and programs for communities to explore making and learning about hip hop. A noteworthy example is the IMP Labs in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Many dance studios and colleges now offer lessons in Hip Hop alongside Tap and Ballet. As well as KRS-ONE teaching hip hop lectures at Harvard University.
Hip hop producer 9th Wonder and former rapper/actor Christopher "Play" Martin from the hip hop group Kid-n-Play have both taught hip hop history classes at North Carolina Central University[105] and 9th Wonder has also taught a "Hip Hop Sampling Soul" class at Duke University.[106]
Legacy[link]
Having its roots in reggae, disco and funk, hip hop has since exponentially expanded into a widely accepted form of representation world wide. It expansion includes events like Afrika Bambaataa releasing "Planet Rock" in 1982, which tried to establish a more global harmony in hip hop. In the 1980s, the British Slick Rick became the first international hit hip hop artist not native to America. From the 80s onward, television became the major source of widespread outsourcing of hip hop to the global world. From Yo! MTV Raps (a television show that was shown in many countries) to Public Enemy's world tour, hip hop spread further to Latin America and became highly mainstream. Ranging from countries like France, Spain, England, the US and many other countries world wide, voices want to be heard, and hip hop allows them to do so. As such, hip hop has been cut mixed and changed to the areas that adapt to it.[45][107][unreliable source?]
Early hip hop has often been credited with helping to reduce inner-city gang violence by replacing physical violence with hip hop battles of dance and artwork. However, with the emergence of commercial and crime-related rap during the early 1990s, an emphasis on violence was incorporated, with many rappers boasting about drugs, weapons, misogyny, and violence. While hip hop music now appeals to a broader demographic, media critics argue that socially and politically conscious hip hop has long been disregarded by mainstream America in favor of its media-baiting sibling, gangsta rap.[108]
Many artists are now considered to be alternative/underground hip hop when they attempt to reflect what they believe to be the original elements of the culture. Artists/groups such as Lupe Fiasco, J. Cole, The Roots, Shing02, Jay Electronica, Nas, Common, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Dilated Peoples, Dead Prez, Blackalicious, Joe Budden, Jurassic 5, Kendrick Lamar, Gangstarr, KRS-One, XV and hundreds more emphasize messages of verbal skill, internal/external conflicts, life lessons, unity, social issues, or activism.
Authenticity[link]
Authenticity is often a serious debate within hip hop culture. Dating back to its origins in the 1970s in the Bronx, hip hop revolved around a culture of protest and freedom of expression in the wake of oppression suffered by African-Americans. As hip hop has become less of an underground culture, it is subject to debate whether or not the spirit of hip hop is embodied in protest, or whether it can evolve to exist in a marketable integrated version.[109] In "Authenticity Within Hip Hop and Other Cultures Threatened with Assimilation", Commentator Kembrew McLeod argues that hip hop culture is actually threatened with assimilation by a larger, mainstream culture.[110] Believing that hip hop should be utilized as a voice for social justice, Tate points out that in the marketable version of hip hop, there isn't a role for this evolved genre in context of the original theme hip hop originated from (freedom from oppression). The problem with Black progressive political organizing isn't hip hop, but that the No. 1 issue on the table needs to be poverty, and nobody knows how to make poverty sexy.[111]
Tate discusses how the dynamic of progressive Black politics cannot apply to the genre of hip hop in the current state today due to the genre's heavy involvement in the market. In his article he discusses hip hop's 30th birthday and how its evolution has become more of a devolution due to its capitalistic endeavors. Both Tate and McLeod argue that hip hop has lost its authenticity due to its losing sight of the revolutionary theme and humble "folksy" beginnings the music originated from. "This is the first time artists from around the world will be performing in an international context. The ones that are coming are considered to be the key members of the contemporary underground hip hop movement." This is how the music landscape has broadened around the world over the last ten years. The maturation of hip hop has gotten older with the genres age, but the initial reasoning of why hip hop has started will always be intact.
See also[link]
References[link]
Notes[link]
- ^ Chang, Jeff; DJ Kool Herc (2005). Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-30143-X.
- ^ Castillo-Garstow, Melissa (1). "Latinos in Hip Hop to Reggaeton". Latin Beat Magazine 15 (2): 24(4).
- ^ Rojas, Sal (2007). "Estados Unidos Latin Lingo". Zona de Obras (Zaragoza, Spain) (47): 68.
- ^ Kugelberg, Johan (2007). Born in the Bronx. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-7893-1540-3.
- ^ Brown, Lauren (February 18, 2009). "Hip to the Game – Dance World vs. Music Industry, The Battle for Hip Hop’s Legacy". Movmnt Magazine. http://www.movmnt.com/monsters-of-hip-hop-2_003332.html. Retrieved 2009-07-30.
- ^ Chang, Jeff (2005). Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 90. ISBN 0-312-30143-X.
- ^ Walker, Jason (January 31, 2005). "Crazy Legs – The Revolutionary". SixShot.com (Web Media Entertainment Gmbh). http://www.sixshot.com/articles/4884. Retrieved 2009-08-27. [dead link]
- ^ THE HISTORY OF HIP HOP Retrieved on August 27, 2011
- ^ Rosen, Jody (2006-02-12). "A Rolling Shout-Out to Hip-Hop History". The New York Times: p. 32. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/arts/music/12rose.html?pagewanted=3. Retrieved 2009-03-10.
- ^ '’JET, April 2007”, Johnson Publishing Company pp.36–37
- ^ a b "Keith Cowboy – The Real Mc Coy". Web.archive.org. 2006-03-17. Archived from the original on 2006-03-17. http://web.archive.org/web/20060317071002/http://www.furious5.net/cowboy.htm. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
- ^ "Zulu Nation: History of Hip-Hop". 72.14.209.104. http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:nmWYaxJvswsJ:www.zulunation.com/hip_hop_history_2.htm+%22keith+cowboy%22+%22hip+hop%22+military&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=3. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ^ http://www.zulunation.com/hip_hop_history2.htm (cached)
- ^ Hermes, Will (October 29, 2006). "All Rise for the National Anthem of Hip-Hop". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/arts/music/29herm.html?_r=1. Retrieved 29 March 2012.
- ^ Campbell & Chang 2005, p. ??.
- ^ Article about MelleMel (Melle Mel) at AllHipHop.com[dead link]
- ^ Browne, P “The guide to United States popular culture” Popular Press, 2001. p.386
- ^ Kool Herc, in Israel (director), The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-Boy, QD3, 2002.
- ^ History of Hip Hop – Written by Davey D
- ^ a b "The Story of Rapper's Delight by Nile Rodgers". RapProject.tv. http://www.ilovepwnage.com/video.php?v=MjM2MDc=. Retrieved 2008-10-12.
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- ^ Kenner, Rob. "Dancehall," In The Vibe History of Hip-hop, ed. Alan Light, 350-7. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1999.
- ^ Toop, David. The Rap Attack: African Jive to New York Hip Hop. Boston: South End P. 1984 Print.
- ^ Forman M; Neal M “That’s the joint! The hip-hop studies reader”, Routledge, 2004. p.2
- ^ SamplesDB – Afrika Bambaataa's Track
- ^ Reese, Renford. "From the fringe: The Hip hop culture and ethnic relations". popular culture review. http://www.csupomona.edu/~rrreese/HIPHOP.HTML. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
- ^ Grandmaster Flash. "Grandmaster Flash: Interview". Prefixmag.com. http://www.prefixmag.com/features/grandmaster-flash/interview/26354/. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ^ Rose 1994, pp. 53–55.
- ^ "Hip Hop Pioneer Doug E. Fresh & Soca Sensation Machel Montano To Host 26th Int’l Reggae & World Music Awards (IRAWMA)". Jamaicans.com. 2007-04-09. http://www.jamaicans.com/news/announcements/IRAWMAdougefresh.shtml. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ^ Rose 1994, p. 192.
- ^ Chang 2007, p. 61.
- ^ a b c Chang 2007, p. 62.
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ Pareles, Jon (2007-03-13). "The Message From Last Night: Hip-Hop is Rock 'n' Roll, and the Hall of Fame Likes It". The New York Times: p. 3. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/arts/music/13hall.html. Retrieved 2009-03-10.
- ^ a b c d Diawara 1998, pp. 237–76
- ^ a b Strode, Tim, and Tim Wood. "The Hip Hop Reader". New York: Pearson Education Inc., 2008. Print
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- ^ Media coverage of the Hip-Hop Culture – By Brendan Butler, Ethics In Journalism, Miami University Department of English[dead link]
- ^ "Hip-Hop Culture Crosses Social Barriers"[dead link]
- ^ "Hip Hop: National Geographic World Music". Worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com. 2002-10-17. http://worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com/worldmusic/view/page.basic/genre/content.genre/hip_hop_730. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ^ "CNN.com – WorldBeat – Hip-hop music goes global – January 15, 2001". CNN. 2001-01-15. http://archives.cnn.com/2001/SHOWBIZ/Music/01/15/wb.hiphop/index.html. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ^ Comments (0) By Robert Christgau Tuesday, May 7, 2002 (2002-05-07). "> music > Rock&Roll&: Planet Rock by Robert Christgau". village voice. http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0219,christgau,34334,22.html. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ^ Christgau, Robert. "The World's Most Local Pop Music Goes International", The Village Voice, May 7, 2002. Retrieved on Apr 16, 2008.
- ^ a b c d Bond, Ebenezer (2004). "Review: Global Hip Hop: Beats and Rhymes-The Nu World Cult". Afropop Worldwide. World Music Productions. http://www.afropop.org/explore/album_review/ID/2450/Global+Hip+Hop:+Beats+and+Rhymes-The+Nu+World+Cult. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
- ^ a b Schwartz, Mark. "Planet Rock: Hip Hop Supa National" in Light 1999, pp. 361–72.
- ^ a b Hartwig Vens. “Hip-hop speaks to the reality of Israel”. WorldPress. November 20, 2003. March 24, 2008.
- ^ Chang 2007, p. 65.
- ^ a b c Chang 2007, p. 60.
- ^ Michael Wanguhu. Hip-Hop Colony (documentary film).
- ^ Wayne Marshall, "Nu Whirl Music, Blogged in Translation?"
- ^ Carroll, Rory; Schipani, Andres (2009-04-26). "Bolivia's 'little Indians' find voice". The Observer (London): p. 30. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/26/bolivia-indigenous-groups-music. Retrieved 2009-04-28.
- ^ Lane, Nadia (March 30, 2011). "Libyan Rap Fuels Rebellion". CNN iReport. Cable News Network. Retrieved August 16, 2011.
- ^ "The Commodification of Hip Hop, Brooke Daniel and Kellon Innocent". Ilovepwnage.com. http://www.ilovepwnage.com/video.php?v=MjM2MDY=.
- ^ "Rap Criticism Grows Within Own Community, Debate Rages Over It's (sic) Effect On Society As It Struggles With Alarming Sales Decline – The ShowBuzz". Showbuzz.cbsnews.com. 2010-02-17. http://www.showbuzz.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/05/music/main2537326.shtml. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ^ a b Tate, Greg. “Hip-hop Turns 30: Whatcha Celebratin’ For?” Village Voice. January 4, 2005.
- ^ "Music and Human Evolution". Mca.org.au. http://www.mca.org.au/web/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=234&Itemid=1. Retrieved September 19, 2011.
- ^ a b Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p. xii.
- ^ Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p. 3.
- ^ Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p. 81.
- ^ "Rapping". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. 2009. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Rapping.
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- ^ Attridge, Derek, 2002, Poetic Rhythm: An Introduction, Cambridge University Press, p. 90
- ^ Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p. 63.
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary
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- ^ a b c Shapiro 2007.
- ^ "A History of Graffiti in Its Own Words". New York Magazine. unknown. http://nymag.com/guides/summer/17406/.
- ^ David Toop, Rap Attack, 3rd ed., London: Serpent's Tail, 2000.
- ^ "history of Graffiti". Scribd.com. 2009-12-19. http://www.scribd.com/doc/24298544/history-of-Graffiti. Retrieved September 19, 2011.
- ^ Adaso, Henry. "Hip-Hop Timeline:1925 to Present". About.com. http://rap.about.com/od/hiphop101/a/hiphoptimeline.htm. Retrieved 30 April 2012.
- ^ “Earl ‘Snakehips’ Tucker”. Drop Me off in Harlem. Kennedy Center. 2003. Web. Jan 31, 2010.
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- ^ O'Connor, Ryan (December 2010). "Breaking Down Limits Through Hip Hop". nthWORD Magazine (nthWORD LLC) (8): 3–6. http://www.nthword.com/issue8/nthWORD_Interview_with_Michael_Holman.php.
- ^ Hess, M. (2007). Icons of hip hop: an encyclopedia of the movement, music, and culture, Volume 1, Greenwood Publishing Group
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- ^ Alridge D, Steward J. “Introduction: Hip Hop in History: Past, Present, and Future”, Journal of African American History 2005. pp.190
- ^ "s hip hop driving the Arab Spring?". BBC News. 2011-07-24. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14146243.
- ^ a b Motion live entertainment. Stylo, Saada. "The Northside research Project: Profiling Hip Hop artistry in Canada". Page 10. 2006.
- ^ "Dr. Renford R. Reese's Homepage". Csupomona.edu. http://www.csupomona.edu/~rrreese/HIPHOP.HTML. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ^ Alim, Samy. "Roc the Mic Right: The Language of Hip Hop Culture. Taylor & Francis, 2006. September 27, 2010". http://0-lib.myilibrary.com.mercury.concordia.ca?ID=56695.
- ^ Thomas, G. "Hip-Hop Revolution In The Flesh. xi. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. September 27, 2010". http://lib.myilibrary.com?ID=244646.
- ^ Morrell, Ernest. Andrade, Jeffery Duncan. "Promoting Academic Literacy with Urban Youth Through Engaging Hip Hop Culture". Pg. 10. 2003.
- ^ Evan Serpick (July 9, 2006). "MTV: Play It Again". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/commentary/0,6115,386104_3%7C16756%7C%7C0_0_,00.html.
- ^ Roger Ebert (August 11, 1995). "Reviews: Dangerous Minds". Chicago Sun-Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19950811/REVIEWS/508110301/1023.
- ^ a b c d e Kiley, David. Hip Hop Two-Step Over Product Placement BusinessWeek Online, April 6, 2005. Retrieved January 5, 2007.
- ^ Ben Johnson. "Cover Story: Frock Band". SILive.com. http://www.silive.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2008/09/cover_story_frock_band.html. Retrieved September 19, 2011.
- ^ Williams, Corey (2006-11-01). "'Jacob the Jeweler' pleads guilty". Associated Press. Archived from the original on November 3, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071103060123/http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071101/ap_en_ot/people_jacob_jeweler. Retrieved 2007-11-01.
- ^ Sales, Nancy Jo (2007-10-31). "Is Hip-Hop's Jeweler on the Rocks?". Vanity Fair (magazine). http://www.vanityfair.com/fame/features/2006/11/jacob200611?currentPage=1. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
- ^ “Hip-hop” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2010. Web. Jan 31, 2010.
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica. "hip-hop (cultural movement) – Britannica Online Encyclopedia". Britannica.com. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/266545/hip-hop. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ^ Kitwana 2005, pp. 28–29.
- ^ Robinson, Simon (2004-04-11). "TIMEeurope Magazine | Viewpoint". Time. http://www.time.com/time/europe/html/040419/kwaito.html. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ^ "Kwaito: much more than music –". Southafrica.info. 2003-01-07. http://www.southafrica.info/what_happening/news/features/kwaitomental.htm. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ^ Steingo 2005.
- ^ "african hip hop". south african hip hop. http://www.africanhiphop.com/tag/south-africa/. Retrieved July 11, 2011.
- ^ Bling-bling for Rastafari: How Jamaicans deal with hip hop by Wayne Marshall
- ^ https://moodle.brandeis.edu/file.php/3404/pdfs/marshall-bling-bling.pdf/
- ^ "Reggae Music 101 – Learn More About Reggae Music – History of Reggae". Worldmusic.about.com. 2009-11-04. http://worldmusic.about.com/od/genres/p/Reggae.htm. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ^ Marshall, Wayne Bling-Bling ForRastafari: How Jamaicans Deal With Hip-HopSocial and Economic Studies 55:1&2 (2006):49–74
- ^ Sisario, Ben (2007-08-19). "An Itinerant Refugee in a Hip-Hop World". The New York Times: p. 20. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/arts/music/19sisa.html. Retrieved 2009-01-07.
- ^ North Carolina Central University. Christopher Martin biography. Accessed September 30, 2010.
- ^ Duke University. Patrick Douthit aka 9th Wonder, Cover to Cover. Accessed September 30, 2010.
- ^ Watkins, S. Craig. "Why Hip-Hop Is Like No Other" in Chang 2007, p. 63.
- ^ [2][dead link]
- ^ See for instance Rose 1994, pp. 39–40.
- ^ McLeod 1999.
- ^ Tate, Greg. "Hip-hop Turns 30: Whatcha Celebratin’ For?" Village Voice. January 4, 2005.
- Huntington, Carla Stalling. Hip Hop Dance; Meanings and Messages. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company Publishers, Inc.
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External links[link]
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Look up hip-hop in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
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- Hip hop at the Open Directory Project
- Back in the Days — Vibe
- HiphopDNA — Directory of backstories for every hiphop song
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