 | East Coast hip hop: Encyclopedia II - East Coast hip hop - Old school hip hop 1970–1986
East Coast hip hop - Old school hip hop 1970–1986
East Coast hip hop - 1970s
For more details on this topic, see Roots of hip hop.
Hip hop music emerged from block parties thrown by owners of loud and expensive stereo equipment, which they could share with the community or use to compete among ultra-competitive West Indian DJs who began isolating the percussion break from funk or disco songs. Block Parties were famously referenced in the song South Bronx by KRS-One with the line: Power from a street light made the place dark. But yo, they didn't care, they turned it out. In the late 1970s, visionary DJs residing in New York City (specifically the Bronx), such as Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, and Afrika Bambataa molded this new sound into a definable genre of music, which soon evolved into a urban sub-culture, which included rapping, beatboxing, scratching, graffiti, and breakdancing. Therefore, because New York City is considered to be the birthplace of hip-hop, many look to the East Coast (New York City in particular) as the prestigious capitol, or Mecca, of Hip hop culture. Originally, early hip hop performers focused on introducing themselves and others in the audience (the origin of the still common practice of "shouting out" on hip hop records). These early performers often emceed for hours at a time, with some improvisation and a simple four-count beat, along with a basic chorus to allow the performer to gather his thoughts (such as "one, two, three, y'all, to the beat, y'all"). Later, the MCs grew more varied in their vocal and rhythmic approach, incorporating brief rhymes, often with a sexual or scatological theme, in an effort at differentiating themselves and entertaining the audience.
East Coast hip hop - 1980s
The techniques used in hip hop changed during the 1980s as well. Most important was the DJ records such as Grandmaster Flash's "Adventures on the Wheels of Steel" (known for pioneering use of scratching, which was invented by Grandwizard Theodore in 1977) as well as electronic recordings such as "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa and Run DMC's very basic, all electronic "Sucker MC's" and "Peter Piper" which contains genuine cutting by Run DMC member Jam Master Jay. Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five released a "message rap", called "The Message", in 1982; this was one of the earliest examples of recorded hip hop with a socially aware tone. In 1984, Marley Marl accidentally caught a drum machine snare hit in the sampler; this innovation was vital in the development of electro and other later types of hip hop.
With the advent of recorded hip hop in the late 1970s, all the major elements and techniques of the genre were in place. The public at large was first introduced to hip hop by the releases of the first two commercially issued hip hop recordings, "King Tim III" by The Fatback Band and "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang. Neither act had significant roots in the culture; the Fatback Band was primarily a funk act, while the Sugarhill Gang was the studio creation of Sugar Hill co-founder Sylvia Robinson. Nevertheless, "Rapper's Delight" became a Top 40 hit on the U.S. Billboard pop singles chart, and after the releases of follow ups by acts such as Kurtis Blow ("The Breaks"), The Sequence ("Funk You Up"), and Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five ("Freedom"), hip hop was pegged as a successful, yet temporary, trend in music.
Though not yet mainstream, it was well-known among African Americans, even outside of New York City; hip hop could be found in cities as diverse as Los Angeles, Washington, Baltimore, Dallas, Kansas City, Miami, Seattle, St. Louis, New Orleans, and Houston. In particular, Philadelphia was, for many years, the only city whose contributions to hip hop were valued as greatly as New York City's by hip hop purists and critics. Hip hop was popular there at least as far back as 1976 (first record: "Rhythm Talk", by Jocko Henderson in 1979), and the New York Times dubbed Philly the "Graffiti Capital of the World" in 1971, due to the influence of such legendary graffiti artists as Cornbread. The first female solo artist to record hip hop was Lady B. ("To the Beat Y'All", 1980), a Philly-area radio DJ. Later Schoolly D helped invent what became known as gangsta rap.
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 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Old school hip hop 1970–1986", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
