The Art of Hip Hop Top Artists

N. W. Noah Walji 8th December 2018

Abstract

This page talks about the top artists in the music genre of HipHop,and how each artist in their specific time period, has effected the music industry as a whole as well as the genre of Hip Hop. The page will be split into

Contents

Contents i

List of Figures ii

1 Artists Emerging through 1970-1980 1 1.1 The Last Poets ...... 1 1.2 DJ Kool Herc ...... 1 1.3 Ice-T ...... 1

2 Artists through the 90’s 3 2.1 N.W.A ...... 3 2.2 Tupac Shakur ...... 3

3 21’s Century Artists 4 3.1 Eminem ...... 4 3.2 Kanye West ...... 5 3.3 The Future ...... 5

References 7

i List of Figures

1 DJ Kool Herc ...... 2 2 Ice-T ...... 2 3 N.W.A ...... 3 4 Tupac Shakur ...... 4 5 Kanye West ...... 6

ii 1 Artists Emerging through 1970-1980

1.1 The Last Poets

With Hip Hop as a genre being formed throughout the early 70’s many artists emerged with it, starting the revolutionary music known to this date. In 1970, the ”Black Arts Movement” was highly underway with many African Americans coming together to share art is a variety of forms including poetry, musicians and dramatizations. Through this movement a group by the name of ”The Last Poets” released there debut album which arguably isthe predecessor to the music genre of Hip Hop. The Last Poets began by reciting poems on the streets of Harlem with their poetry album released late 1970, over the beat of a kongo drum. This album sparked large debate and gained a lot of traction due to the artists freely speaking about African American rights and freedom.

1.2 DJ Kool Herc

Shortly following this, DJ Kool Herc emerged in the Hip Hop industry. Originally starting out in the genre of disco, the DJ used to spin old 60 songs at his popular parties with many back-up dancers he referred to as his break-boys. With these tracks and his DJ skills, he was able to add a beat to him rhyming over with his dancers in the background. Arguably, Kool Herc was one of the first artists to produce rhyming lines and slang words into his verses, known for talking to the crowd and the back-up dancers during his productions.

1.3 Ice-T

One of the biggest and most influential artist near the end of the 80’s is Ice-T. Ice-T began his rise to fame like many of the other artists of the 1980’s, by DJ’ing. After countless venues and parties, many praised his rapping skills as he would tend to rhyme over the beat of many of his songs. After receiving more and more attention, the artist signed with Saturn Records and released his first single known for its ”electro hip hop style”. These singles leadtothe rise of underground music, becoming very popular despite being played on

1 1. Artists Emerging through 1970-1980

Figure 1: A Picture of DJ Kool Herc (DJ Kool Herc, accessed December 7, 2018, https://primemind.com/the-ramones-and-rap-a-shared-histor y-6dc993fb74f )

Figure 2: A Picture of Ice-T (Ice-T, December 5, 2018, Page Version ID: 872145843, accessed December 7, 2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/ w/index.php?title=Ice-T&oldid=872145843 )

2 Figure 3: The group N.W.A (N.W.A., accessed December 7, 2018, h t t p s : / / www.hotnewhiphop.com/nwa/profile/ ) any radio stations due to its explicit content. In 1987, he released his debut album known for its party oriented sound. This lead to the record going gold status and his rise in industries such as film and television further branching out the genre of Hip Hop.

2 Artists through the 90’s 2.1 N.W.A

As Hip Hop continued to become a more recognized genre of music, many artists emerged in the 90’s that eventually labelling it “The Golden Age”. Arguably one of the most well know and influential group in the nighties was N.W.A. The group was founded in the late 80’s composed of Eazy-E, Dr.Dre and Ice Cube with their debut album “Straight Outta Compton” releasing in 1988. The group focused on the overall anger of the urban youth with manyof their songs focusing on racial profiling, police brutality and inner city youths. Figure 2 displays the groups founding members. There first album also introduced the “Parental Advisory” label which warned listeners of the course and adult language. This is continued to be used today, but at the time caused a lot of controversy with the media.

2.2 Tupac Shakur

Another one of histories most well know hip hop artists of the 90’s is Tupac Shakur. Shakur, originally going by the alias “MC New York” started his

3 3. 21’s Century Artists

Figure 4: Tupac Shakur (Tupac Shakur, December 4, 2018, Page Version ID: 872015000, accessed December 7, 2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/ index.php?title=Tupac_Shakur&oldid=872015000 )

career in the late 80’s but didn’t begin to take off till the early 90’s. In 1991, he released his debut album, “2Pacalypse Now”. Although none of the songs on the album was considered a hit at the time, after the artist’s famous death in 1996 many considered his music “better than his time”. Figure 3, shows Shakur commonly referred to as “2Pac”.

3 21’s Century Artists

3.1 Eminem

As Hip Hop artists were now well known and accepted by the mainstream market, many individuals continued to create and adapt the music genre leading into today’s day in age. One of the most notable artists of the early 2000’s was In 1999, “Eminem”. Marshall Mathers, (Eminem) was taken on by former N.W.A member Dr.Dre’s new recording label. This decision was highly criticized by many including staff working at the record label, due to Mathers being a Caucasian male. Despite the backlash, Dre continued to push for the label to sign and on and in late 1999 he released his first LP, “Slim Shady LP” which received triple platinum by the end of the year. This would lead to continuous album successes through the early 2000’s such as “The Marshall Mathers LP”, “Recovery” and most recently “Revival” all of which dive into Mathers early life struggles in drug abuse, broken families and poverty.

4 3.2. Kanye West

Figure 5: Kanye West (Kanye West, December 7, 2018, Page Version ID: 872406138, accessed December 7, 2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/ w/index.php?title=Kanye_West&oldid=872406138 )

3.2 Kanye West

One of the most controversial artists of the 21’st century is Kanye West. West began in the early 90’s producing beats for local artists and DJ’ing. After this, he spent a large amount of his early careers producing music and records for smaller and well-known artists in the industry such as Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. Despite his success he knew he wanted to pursue rapping and in 2004 released his debut album “The College Dropout”. The album was eventually voted “Album of the Year” by the Rolling Stones Magazine. This lead to many successful releases such as “Graduation”, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” and most recently “Ye” with collaborations with many well-known artists such as Drake, Eminem, Rihanna and Paul McCartney.

3.3 The Future

The foundations of these artists lead to the creation of some of the most well known hip hop artists today such as Migos, Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott and Toronto’s own Drake.

5 References

References

Caulfield, K. ‘N.W.A’s Decades-In-The-Making Chart Takeover.’ Billboard - The International Newsweekly of Music, Video and Home Entertainment; New York, N. Y. 127, no. 26 (2015): 57. Dawkins, M. A. Eminem: The Real Slim Shady. OCLC: 862797596. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Praeger, 2013. isbn: 978-0-313-39893-3 978-0-313-39894-0.

DJ Kool Herc. Accessed December 7, 2018. https://primemind.com/the- ramones-and-rap-a-shared-history-6dc993fb74f . Gilmore, M. ‘Hip-Hop 06: Tupac Redeemed.’ Rolling Stone; San Francisco, Calif., 2006, 102, 104. Hill, L. C., and T. Taylor. When the Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop. 1st ed. New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2013. isbn: 978-1-59643-540-7. Ice-T, December 5, 2018, Page Version ID: 872145843. Accessed December 7, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ice- T&oldid=872145843 . Kanye West, December 7, 2018, Page Version ID: 872406138. Accessed December 7, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php? title=Kanye_West&oldid=872406138 . Metcalf, J., and W. Turner, eds. Rapper, Writer, Pop-Cultural Player: Ice-T and the Politics of Black Cultural Production. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2014. isbn: 978-1-4724-1835-7. N.W.A. Accessed December 7, 2018. https://www.hotnewhiphop.com/nwa/profile/ . Tupac Shakur, December 4, 2018, Page Version ID: 872015000. Accessed December 7, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php? title=Tupac_Shakur&oldid=872015000 .

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