Hip-Hop and R&B Music, News, & Videos

He was the first DJ to manipulate records in a backward, forward or counterclockwise motion. He also invented distinct DJing techniques such as the backspin, cutting, punch phrasing, and scratching. However, the most notable pioneers are DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash. These three innovators are known as the “Holy Trinity” of hip hop.
Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry, although not rappers, have been accused of cultural appropriation and commercializing hip hop. Katy Perry, a white woman, was criticized for her hip hop song "Dark Horse". As top rappers grow wealthier and start more outside business ventures, this can indicate a stronger sense of black aspiration. As rappers such as Jay-Z and Kanye West establish themselves as artists and entrepreneurs, more young black people have hopes of achieving their goals. The lens through which one views the genre's commercialization can make it seem positive or negative. Ironically, this commercialization coincides with a decline in rap sales and pressure from critics of the genre.

In a globalized era, cases like these are useful for researching the concept of identity. The African Diaspora consists of various African communities who have found themselves away from the homeland as a result of the Atlantic Slave trade, which transported African people, mostly from western Africa, away from the continent against their will. They were brought to the United States, or, in many cases, to the Caribbean or areas of Central- and South America. Hence why we hear Nokia proudly declaring her Afro-Latina background by claiming her Puerto Rican and Cuban heritage. Lastly, she identifies with her Arawak heritage; the Arawak people are the pre-Colombian inhabitants of the Caribbean and part of South America. This would be the third track the singer has released in a month.
Be cautious of the music you listen to, the messages they embody and giving the ‘pass’ to your favorite artists. Although lyrics embody an artist’s intended message, many rappers design that message to cater to their listeners, and the larger music-loving community as a whole must hold artists accountable for what they choose to say. But some hip-hop artists decide to fully embrace their rock influences by creating full-length albums experimenting with the rock sound.

Critics have stated that 2010s hip hop artists are contributing to cultural stereotyping of African-American culture and are poseur gangsters. Critics have also stated that hip hop music promotes drug use and violence. Scholars argue that hip hop can have an empowering effect on youth. While there is misogyny, violence, and drug use in rap music videos and lyrics, hip hop also displays many positive themes of self-reliance, resilience, and self-esteem.
Although she announced her retirement from rap in 2014, Jacki-O's edgy, no-holds-barred persona made her an undeniable hitmaker in the 2000s. In Tanzania in the early 2000s, local hip hop artists became popular by infusing local styles of Afrobeat and arabesque melodies, dancehall and hip-hop beats with Swahili lyrics. Master Dji and his songs "Vakans" and "Politik Pa m" are mostly credited with the rise of Haitian hip hop. What later became known as "Rap Kreyòl" grew in popularity in the late 1990s with King Posse and Original Rap Stuff.

Her brash lyrics and distinct voice embraced the same style as bass music, but her versatility made her a timeless mainstay in the rap game. Trina's debut more than 20 years ago informed the lineage of women currently dominating rap, including Latto, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, and Opa-locka and Liberty City's City Girls. Luscious' last release was her 1997 rendition of Freak Nasty's "Da' Dip." The group released three studio albums before disbanding in 1996 after Dennis was arrested for the murders of University of Miami Hurricanes linebacker Marlin Barnes and Barnes' friend Timwanika Lumpkins, the mother of one of Dennis' children. The Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" became the first rap song to become a Top 40 hit, in 1979.
Hip-hop has grown to become an expansive culture of music, dance, fashion, art, language and identity that has been exported around the world and is now studied by scholars for political expression and gender construct. What eventually brews in Houston and Atlanta, Miami, New Orleans and Memphis, in Virginia and California, deepens hip-hop, takes it into freaky, funky, bouncy, hilarious, mischievously brewed realms, dark, dreamy, unstable  landscapes. Frailty, paranoia, trippiness, Afrocentrism and minimalism emerge. It’s music mining the past but potently about the present, often about itself.

Some of the most used DAWs are FL Studio, Ableton Live, and Pro Tools. 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 fueled the rebellion. Hip hop sounds and styles differ from region to region, but there are also instances of fusion genres. Hip hop culture has grown from the avoided genre to a genre that is followed by millions of fans worldwide. This was made possible by the adaptation of music in different locations, and the influence on style of behavior and dress.
Before he became a chart-topping phenom, Drake was So Far Gone. The 2009 EP followed Drake as he was on the pursuit of love and riches, with lead single “Best I Ever Had” being a textbook example of his lovestruck mentality. With chopped-up production from Boi-1da, “Best I Ever Had” took over summer of 2009, and was Drake’s first top 10 single on the Billboard Hot 100. Method Man was known for being a part of gritty Shaolin rap collective Wu-Tang Clan, but on “I’ll Be There For You/You’re All I Need to Get By” he tapped into a softer side. With the incomparable Mary J. Blige, the song interpolates the Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell 1968 classic “You’re All I Need to Get By” into ’90s hip-hop heaven.

Chopping it up with Complex, Chuck D speaks on Can You Dig It? On Dec. 8, 1971, just under two years before that famed gathering, a respected peacekeeper by the name of Cornell "Black Benjie" Benjamin was killed while trying to end a violent conflict between his crew, Ghetto Brothers gang, and an area rival. While his death remains a tragic loss, it’s said to have ignited a period of peace and cooperation that eventually led to the sort of parties Kool Herc threw on that day 50 years  ago. He'd started speaking over the beat, reminiscent of the “toasting” style heard in Jamaica.
Reggaeton, a Puerto Rican style of music, has a lot of similarities with U.S.-based hip hop. Both were influenced by Jamaican music, and both incorporate rapping and call and response. Dancehall music and hip from the United States are both popular music in Puerto  Rico, and reggaeton is the cumulation of different musical traditions founded by Afro-descended people in the PuppetMaster 2 Caribbean and the United States. Some of reggaeton's most popular artists include Don Omar, Tego Calderón, and Daddy Yankee. Rapper Scarface from the southern U.S. group Geto BoysIn the 1990s, hip hop began to diversify with other regional styles emerging on the national scene. The first Southern rappers to gain national attention were the Geto Boys out of Houston, Texas.

Before the rise of sampling, DJs used turntables to loop breaks from records, which MCs would rap over. Compilation albums such as Ultimate Breaks and Beats compiled tracks with drum breaks and solos intended for sampling, aimed at DJs and hip hop producers. In 1986, the tracks "South Bronx", "Eric B. is President" and "It's a Demo" sampled the funk and soul tracks of James Brown, particularly a drum break from "Funky Drummer" , helping popularize the technique. Cole or Kendrick Lamar being the face of rap on the east and west coast, Megan Thee Stallion or Saweetie following in Roxane Shante’s footsteps as women in the rap industry, or Lil Nas X bringing back the enjoyment within music videos.