Hip-hop
Music culture from the Bronx of the 1970s with rap, DJing, and samples.
What it means
Hip-hop is a music and youth culture that arose in the 1970s in the Bronx in New York. Its four classic elements are rapping or MCing, DJing, breakdance, and graffiti. Musically, hip-hop rests on rhythmic spoken singing over a beat that is often built from samples and drum machines.
Musical use
A party in 1973 at which DJ Kool Herc joined records so that he extended drum passages, the breaks, is regarded as its birth. Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa developed the techniques further. The beat of the record became the basis for rap. With the sampler, excerpts from funk, soul, and jazz could later be combined into new pieces. From the 1980s hip-hop became a worldwide phenomenon and influenced pop music, fashion, and language.
Hip-hop as a culture should be distinguished from rap as the form of singing and speaking, which is only one element of it, and from funk and soul, from which it drew much material. It differs from classical pop music through speaking over beats and the central role of the DJ and of sampling.
Performance practice
First listen to hip-hop for the beat: recognise kick, snare, and hi-hat and the groove that forms the foundation. If you rap or produce yourself, aim for precise timing, clear pronunciation, and text and beat that interlock.