Hip Hop is a genre of popular music developed in the United States by inner-city African Americans, Latino Americans and Caribbean Americans in the Bronx borough of New York City in the 1970s. It consists of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, break dancing, and graffiti writing. Other elements include sampling beats or bass lines from records (or synthesized beats and sounds), and rhythmic beatboxing. While often used to refer solely to rapping, "hip hop" more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture. The term hip hop music is sometimes used synonymously with the term rap music, though rapping is not a required component of hip hop music; the genre may also incorporate other elements of hip hop culture, including DJing, turntablism, scratching, beatboxing, and instrumental tracks.
Hip hop as both a musical genre and a culture was formed during the 1970s when block parties became increasingly popular in New York City, particularly among African American youth residing in the Bronx. At block parties DJs played percussive breaks of popular songs using two turntables and a DJ mixer to be able to play breaks from two copies of the same record, alternating from one to the other and extending the "break". Hip hop's early evolution occurred as sampling technology and drum machines became widely available and affordable. Turntablist techniques such as scratching and beatmatching developed along with the breaks and Jamaican toasting, a chanting vocal style, was used over the beats. Rapping developed as a vocal style in which the artist speaks or chants along rhythmically with an instrumental or synthesized beat.
Subgenres[]
Hardcore Hip Hop[]
A subgenre of hip hop music that developed through the East Coast hip hop scene in the 1980s and is generally characterized by anger, aggression and confrontation.
Industrial Hip Hop[]
A subgenre of Hip Hop music that combines the beat of Hip Hop music with the sound design of Industrial music. It is also commonly associated with Hardcore Punk.
Instrumental Hip Hop[]
A subgenre of Hip Hop music without any vocals, giving the producer the flexibility to create more complex, richly detailed and varied instrumentals.
Trap Rap[]
Not to be confused with Trap music, Trap Rap is a style of hip hop music that originated in the Southern United States and is known for having lyrical content based around topics such as street life, acquiring wealth, violence, American vehicles, and life experiences that artists have faced in their southern American surroundings. The sound design is characterized by the use of monophonic drones with sometimes a melodic accompaniment expressed with synthesizers and keyboard instruments to create an energetic, hard-hitting, deep, and variant atmosphere.
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