hip hop final study guide

Race Records

78-rpm phonograph records marketed to African Americans from the 1920s through the early 1940s.[1] They primarily contained race music, comprising various African-American musical genres, including blues, jazz, and gospel music, and also comedy. These records were, at the time, the majority of commercial recordings of African-American artists in the US. Few African-American artists were marketed to white audiences

Afrika Baby Bam

American hip hop artist, born in Brooklyn, New York, and was part of the hip-hop group the Jungle Brothers.[1] He was named in honor of Afrika Bambaataa. He is also known as Afrika, Baby Bam, and most recently B.A.M. He now travels the world as a nomad. Bam also helped form the hip-hop super group Native Tongues whose members included Queen Latifah and Q-Tip

OutKast

American hip hop duo formed in 1991, in East Point, Atlanta, Georgia, composed of Atlanta-based rappers André "André 3000" Benjamin (formerly known as André) and Antwan "Big Boi" Patton.[1] Achieving both critical acclaim and commercial success in the mid-late 1990s and early 2000s, the duo helped popularize Southern hip hop styles while developing distinctive personas and an idiosyncratic sound that incorporated genres such as funk, psychedelia, techno, and gospel.

Dr. Dre

American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and current CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics. Dre was previously the co-owner of, and an artist on, Death Row Records. He has produced albums for and overseen the careers of many rappers, including 2Pac, The D.O.C., Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Xzibit, Knoc-turn'al, 50 Cent, The Game and Kendrick Lamar. He is credited as a key figure in the popularization of West Coast G-funk, a style of rap music characterized as synthesizer-based with slow, heavy beats

Swing

Big band jazz style developed in the 1930s that emphasized horn riffs ad a rhythmic drive derived from the boogie-woogie bass line

Russel Simmons

Chairman and CEO of Rush Communications, he cofounded the hip-hop music label Def Jam Recordings[3] and created the clothing fashion lines Phat Farm, Argyleculture, and Tantris.

Public enemy

Formed on Long Island, New York in 1982, they are known for their politically charged music and criticism of the American media, with an active interest in the frustrations and concerns of the African American community. They remain one of the most critically acclaimed bands in history. Their first four albums during the late 1980s and early 1990s were all certified either gold or platinum and were, according to music critic Robert Hilburn in 1998, "the most acclaimed body of work ever by a hip hop act".

Aretha Franklin

Franklin began her career singing gospel at her father, minister C. L. Franklin's church as a child. In 1960, at the age of 18, Franklin embarked on a secular career, recording for Columbia Records but only achieving modest success. Following her signing to Atlantic Records in 1967, Franklin achieved commercial acclaim and success with songs such as "Respect", "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" and "Think". These hits and more helped her to gain the title The Queen of Soul by the end of the 1960s decade.

Ray Charles

He pioneered the genre of soul music during the 1950s by combining blues, rhythm and blues, and gospel styles into the music he recorded for Atlantic Records.[4][5][6] He also contributed to the integration of country and rhythm and blues and pop music during the 1960s with his crossover success on ABC Records

Vanilla Ice

Ice's 1990 single "Ice Ice Baby" was the first hip hop single to top the Billboard charts.

Salt n Pepa

Pioneering female rap group that helped break down barriers Spoke out against misogyny Also embraced their sexuality and became sex symbols in their own right

Censorship

Rap/hip hop used to be heavily censored due to its explicit content. 2 Live Crew eventually took things to the Supreme Court lifting much of the censorship off of rap music

Tupac Shakur

Shakur began his career as a roadie, backup dancer, and MC for the alternative hip hop group Digital Underground, eventually branching off as a solo artist.[7][8][9] The themes of most of Shakur's songs revolved around the violence and hardship in inner cities, racism, and other social problems. Both of his parents and several other people in his family were members of the Black Panther Party, whose ideals were reflected in his songs. During the latter part of his career, Shakur was a vocal participant during the East Coast-West Coast hip hop rivalry, becoming involved in conflicts with other rappers, producers, and record-label staff members, most notably The Notorious B.I.G. and the label Bad Boy Records.[10] On September 7, 1996, Shakur was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in Las Vegas, Nevada.[11] He was taken to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, where he died six days later

Queen Latifah

She has long been considered one of hip-hop's pioneer feminists. Perhaps best of hip hop's pioneer feminists Pioneered sounds of afro-centric music Focused on the struggles of black women First women to transition from rap to film

The dozens

The Dozens is a game of spoken words between two contestants, common in Black communities of the United States, where participants insult each other until one gives up. It is customary for the Dozens to be played in front of an audience of bystanders, who encourage the participants to reply with more egregious insults to heighten the tension and, consequently, to be more interesting to watch.

James Brown

The founding father of funk music and a major figure of 20th century popular music and dance, he is often referred to as the "Godfather of Soul".[2] In a career that spanned six decades, he influenced the development of several music genres.

NWA

They were among the earliest and most significant popularizers and controversial figures of the gangsta rap subgenre, and are widely considered one of the greatest and most influential groups in the history of hip hop music.[4] Active from 1986 to 1991, the rap group endured controversy owing to their music's explicit lyrics, which many viewed as being disrespectful to women, as well as to its glorification of drugs and crime.[5] The group was subsequently banned from many mainstream American radio stations. In spite of this, the group has sold over 10 million units in the United States alone. The group was also known for their deep hatred of the police system, which sparked much controversy over the years.

Biggie Smalls

When he released his debut album Ready to Die in 1994, he became a central figure in the East Coast hip hop scene and increased New York's visibility in the genre at a time when West Coast hip hop was dominant in the mainstream

Clive Campbell/DJ Kool Herc

a Jamaican-American DJ who is credited with originating hip hop music in the early 1970s 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. Campbell began to isolate the instrumental portion of the record, which emphasized the drum beat—the "break"—and switch from one break to another. Using the same two turntable set-up of disco DJs, Campbell used two copies of the same record to elongate the break. This breakbeat DJing, using hard funk 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.

Vocoder

a category of voice codec that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption, voice transformation, etc.

signifyin

a form of wordplay. It is a practice in African-American culture involving a verbal strategy of indirection that exploits the gap between the denotative and figurative meanings of words. A simple example would be insulting someone to show affection

Hook lines

a musical idea, often a short riff, passage, or phrase, that is used in popular music to make a song appealing and to "catch the ear of the listener" the hook is often found in, or consists of, the chorus. A hook can be either melodic or rhythmic, and often incorporates the main motif for a piece of music

Rap

a musical style usually featuring an MC who recites rhymed verses over an accompianment created by a DJ

MFSB

a pool of more than thirty studio musicians based at Philadelphia's famed Sigma Sound Studios.[1] They worked closely with the production team of Gamble and Huff and producer/arranger Thom Bell, and backed up such groups as Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, the O'Jays, the Stylistics, the Spinners, Wilson Pickett, and Billy Paul. In 1972, MFSB began recording as a named act for the Philadelphia International label. "TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)" also known as the Soul Train theme was their first and most successful single. Released in March 1974, it peaked at number one on the US Billboard pop and R&B charts. "TSOP" was influential in establishing the disco sound.

Soul Music

a popular music genre that originated in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It combines elements of African-American gospel music, rhythm and blues and jazz. Soul music became popular for dancing and listening in the United States; where record labels such as Motown, Atlantic and Stax were influential in the civil rights era. Soul also became popular around the world, directly influencing rock music and the music of Africa. soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of funky, secular testifying"

loop

a repeating section of sound material.

Freestyle

a style of improvisation with or without instrumental beats, in which lyrics are recited with no particular subject or structure It is similar to other improvisational music, such as jazz where there is a lead instrumentalist acting as the improviser and the rest of the band providing the beat. Improv/freestyles are improvised in this way.

MIDI

a technical standard that describes a protocol, digital interface and connectors and allows a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers and other related devices to connect and communicate with one another

Beastie Boys

a white American hip hop group from New York City, formed in 1980. Paved the way for other white artists

PMRC

an American committee formed in 1985 with the stated goal of increasing parental control over the access of children to music deemed to have violent, drug-related or sexual themes via labeling albums with Parental Advisory stickers

Africa Bambaata

an American disc jockey from the South Bronx, New York. He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenced the development of hip hop culture. Afrika Bambaataa is one of the originators of breakbeat DJing and is respectfully known as "The Godfather" and "Amen Ra of Hip Hop Kulture", as well as the father of electro funk

Sugarhill Gang

an American hip hop group, known mostly for its 1979 hit "Rapper's Delight," the first rap single to become a Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100

Ludacris

an American hip hop recording artist and actor from Atlanta, Georgia. Alongside his manager, Chaka Zulu, Ludacris is the co-founder of Disturbing tha Peace, an imprint distributed by Def Jam Recordings. Along with fellow Atlanta-based rappers Big Boi and André 3000 of OutKast, Ludacris was one of the first and most influential "Dirty South" rappers to achieve mainstream success during the early 2000s.

Fred Wesley

an American jazz and funk trombonist, best known for his work with James Brown in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as Parliament-Funkadelic in the second half of the 1970s

Count Basie

an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. His mother taught him to play the piano and he started performing in his teens. In 1935, Basie formed his own jazz orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two "split" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, and others.

Nikki Giovani

an American poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. One of the world's most well-known African-American poets,[2] her work includes poetry anthologies, poetry recordings, and nonfiction essays, and covers topics ranging from race and social issues to children's literature. Giovanni gained initial fame in the late 1960s as one of the foremost authors of the Black Arts Movement. Influenced by the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement of the period, her early work provides a strong, militant African-American perspective, leading one writer to dub her the "Poet of the Black Revolution."

Snoop Dogg

an American rapper and actor from Long Beach, California. His music career began in 1992 when he was discovered by Dr. Dre of N.W.A, and as a result was prominently featured throughout Dr. Dre's solo debut album, The Chronic (1992). He has since sold over twenty-three million albums in the United States and thirty-five million albums worldwide

Trick Daddy

an American rapper, actor, and producer from Miami's Liberty City, and something to do with 2 Live Crew

Common

an American rapper, actor, film producer and poet from Chicago, Illinois. Common debuted in 1992 with the album Can I Borrow a Dollar? and maintained a significant underground following into the late 1990s, after which he gained notable mainstream success through his work with the Soulquarians.[1] In 2011, Common launched Think Common Entertainment, his own record label imprint, and, in the past, has released music under various other labels such as Relativity, Geffen and GOOD Music, among others

Kanye West

an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, fashion designer, and entrepreneur. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West first became known as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the early 2000s, producing hit singles for artists such as Jay Z and Alicia Keys. Intent on pursuing a solo career as a rapper, West released his debut album The College Dropout in 2004 to widespread critical and commercial success. He went on to pursue a variety of different styles on subsequent albums Late Registration (2005), Graduation (2007), and the polarizing 808s & Heartbreak (2008).

Al Bell

an American record producer, songwriter, and record executive. He is best known as having been an executive and co-owner of Stax Records, based in Memphis, Tennessee, during the latter half of the label's 19-year existence.

Jay Z

an American recording artist, businessman, and investor. Formerly known as Jay-Z,[4][5][6] he is one of the best-selling musicians of all time, Jay Z co-owns the New York 40/40 Club sports bar, and is the co-creator of the clothing line Rocawear.[16] He is the former president of Def Jam Recordings, co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records, and the founder of the entertainment company Roc Nation. He also founded the sports agency Roc Nation Sports and is a certified NBA and MLB sports agent.[17] As an artist, he holds the record for most number one albums by a solo artist on the Billboard 200 with 13

Gamble and Huff

an American songwriting and record production team who have written and produced 15 gold singles and 22 gold albums. They were pioneers of Philadelphia soul and the in-house creative team for the Philadelphia International Records label. On March 10, 2008, the team was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the non-performer category.

Gil Scott Heron

an American soul and jazz poet,[2][3] musician, and author, known primarily for his work as a spoken-word performer in the 1970s and 1980s. lyrical content concerning social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles

Blaxploitation

an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film, emerging in the United States during the early 1970s. Blaxploitation films were the first to regularly feature soundtracks of funk and soul music and primarily black casts.

Ice Cube

began his career as a member of the hip-hop group C.I.A. and later joined the seminal rap group N.W.A (*****z Wit Attitudes). After leaving N.W.A in December 1989,[1] he built a successful solo career in music and films, and considered one of the founding artists in gangsta rap

Luther Campbell/Luke Skyywalker

best known as a one-time member and leader of rap group 2 Live Crew

Sean Combs

born in Harlem and was raised in Mount Vernon, New York. He worked as a talent director at Uptown Records before founding his label Bad Boy Entertainment in 1993. His debut album No Way Out (1997) has been certified seven times platinum and was followed by successful albums such as Forever (1999), The Saga Continues... (2001), and Press Play (2006). In 2009 Combs formed the musical group Diddy - Dirty Money and released the critically well-reviewed and commercially successful album Last Train to Paris (2010).

2 Live Crew

caused controversy due to sexual content in lyrics, fought for first amendment rights

Earth, Wind, and Fire

changed the sound of black pop, Earth, Wind & Fire is known for the dynamic sound of their horn section, their energetic and elaborate stage shows, and the interplay between the contrasting vocals of Philip Bailey's falsetto and Maurice White's tenor.[1] The kalimba (African thumb piano) is played on all of the band's albums

Bebop

combo jazz improvised style that evolved from big band swing in the 1940's, characterized by exceedingly fast tempos, with improvisational lines based on the harmonic structure rather than on the melody

Grandmaster Flash

considered to be one of the pioneers of hip-hop DJing, cutting, and mixing. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, becoming the first hip hop act to be honored. Joseph Saddler's family migrated to the United States from Barbados, in the Caribbean, and he grew up in The Bronx in New York City.

Gangsta Rap

form popularized on the West Coast beginning in the late 1980s, w/street oriented lyrics and presentation style associated with gang culture

Rock n Roll

genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s,[1][2] from African-American musical styles such as gospel, jazz, boogie woogie, and rhythm and blues,[3] with country.[4] While elements of rock and roll can be heard in blues records from the 1920s[5] and in country records of the 1930s,[4] the genre did not acquire its name until the 1950s.

Toasts

has been used in various African traditions, such as griots chanting over a drum beat, as well as in the United States and Jamaican music forms, such as ska, reggae, dancehall, and dub; it also exists in Grime and Hip Hop coming out of the United Kingdom, which typically has a lot of Caribbean influence.

First Amendment Rights

much controversy over first amendment rights and hip hop, 2 Live Crew were the biggest in regards to this

D'Angelo

n American, Grammy Award winning R&B and Neo soul singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. Born in Richmond, Virginia, the son of a Pentecostal minister, he began teaching himself piano as a very young child, and at age 18 he won the amateur talent competition at Harlem's Apollo Theater three weeks in a row. After briefly being a member of a hip-hop group called I.D.U., his first major success came in 1994 as the co-writer and co-producer of "U Will Know".

Atlantic Records

one of the most important American recording labels, specializing in jazz, R&B and soul recordings by African-American musicians including Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave, Ruth Brown and Otis Redding, a position greatly enhanced by its distribution deal with Stax Records.

Curtis Mayfield

one of the most influential musicians behind soul and politically conscious African-American music.[1][2] He first achieved success and recognition with The Impressions during the Civil Rights Movement of the late 1950s and 1960s, and later worked as a solo artist.

Funk

originated in the mid- to late 1960s when African American musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of soul music, jazz, and rhythm and blues (R&B). Funk de-emphasizes melody and chord progressions used in other related genres and brings a strong rhythmic groove of a bass line played by an electric bassist and a drum part played by a drummer to the foreground. Funk songs are often based on an extended vamp on a single chord, distinguishing them from R&B and soul songs, which are built on complex chord progressions. Funk uses the same richly-colored extended chords found in bebop jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths, or dominant seventh chords with altered ninths.

DJ

short for disc jockey, a person who plays records in a dance club or on a radio station. In hip hop a person who provides accompiement for rapper and break dancers

MC

solo rapper or group of rappers who recite rhymes over DJ accompaniment

prosifunkstication

something to do with the funk group "Parliament"

Scratching

sometimes referred to as scrubbing, is a DJ and turntablist technique used to produce distinctive percussive or rhythmic sounds and sound effects by moving a vinyl record back and forth on a turntable while optionally manipulating the crossfader on a DJ mixer

sampling

the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a sound recording in a different song or piece.

Turntabling

the art of manipulating sounds and creating music using turntables and a DJ mixer

Eminem

the best-selling artist of the 2000s in the United States, defining white artist in hip hop

The Last Poets

the name for several groups of poets and musicians who arose from the late 1960s African-American civil rights movement's black nationalist movement. The name is taken from a poem by the South African revolutionary poet Keorapetse Kgositsile, who believed he was in the last era of poetry before guns would take over. The original users of that name were the trio of Felipe Luciano, Gylan Kain, and David Nelson. However, it is the versions of the group led by Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin and/or Umar Bin Hassan that have penetrated mass culture to a legendary degree. The Last Poets have been cited as one of the earliest influences on hip-hop music.

E-mu Emulator

the name given to a series of digital sampling keyboards using floppy disk storage, manufactured by E-mu Systems from 1981 until 1990s. Though not the first commercial sampler, the Emulator was among the first to find wide use among ordinary musicians, due to its relatively low price and its size, which allowed for its use in live performance. It was also innovative in its integration of computer technology with electronic keyboards. The samplers were discontinued in 2002.

Sequence

the restatement of a motif or longer melodic (or harmonic) passage at a higher or lower pitch in the same voice

George Clinton

was the principal architect of P-Funk, the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and launched a solo career in 1981. He has been cited as one of the foremost innovators of funk music, along with James Brown and Sly Stone.