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Musical Genres –

On August 11, 1973, an 18-year-old, Jamaican-American DJ who went by the name of Kool Herc threw a back-to-school jam () at in , New York. During his set, he decided to do something different. Instead of playing the in full, he played only their sections, or “breaks” - sections where he noticed the crowd went wild. During these “breaks” his friend hyped up the crowd with a . This was the start of hip hop which started off with DJ’s using turntables and an MC using a mic to get the crowd involved.

DJ’s used to move the vinyl (record) on the turntable to create break beats within the tracks. This was to get the audience’s attention. The instrumental sections repeat to make the track easier to dance to. A new form of dancing

DJ means

MC means

called break dancing emerged. DJ’s also used to move the records back and forth on the turntable quickly which is called . A was used underneath the vinyl to create a surface suitable for scratching.

As hip hop developed, artists began to MC over the beats and this then led to . Rapping is a spoken over a usually repetitive beat. Rapping was not the first way of speaking over music, however. In in the 1960’s, DJ’s used to speak over the music and this was known as ‘toasting’. Rapping is said to have been influenced by toasting. Rapping is about the emphasis of the rhyme and the words that are accentuated or accented. This accent helps to tell the story behind the rap. There are different types of rhyme used in :

Perfect rhyme Cat, , hat Eye rhyme Hear, pear Half rhyme Stole, hold Cross word rhyme , killer bee

One of the first mainstream hip hop records was released in 1979 and this was called ‘Rapper’s Delight’ performed by the Sugarhill Gang. It is rated number 2 on America’s best hip hop tracks of all time and influenced a rise in the hip hop genre in later years. The samples the classic ‘Good Times’ – hip hop music often sampled other songs in order to make them more popular with a wider audience. Rapper’s Delight was played in clubs across America.

Hip hop music has evolved over the years. In the 1980’s hip hop became more electronic and diverse and the samples used were often from the that was popular at the time. Popular artists of the 1980’s include , Run DMC and Afrika Bambaata.

In the 1990’s hip hop developed on the West Coast of America in Los Angeles. This started the development of ‘’ where were much harder hitting. There also emerged a rivalry between the hip hop from the West and the original hip hop from the East. Tupac. and Notorius B.I.G. are famous artists from the 1990’s.

In the 00’s hip hop became more digitalised and there was a crossover with RnB tracks. Hip hop found its way into mainstream pop and two of the most popular artists of this time were Dr Dre and . Eminem commissioned main stream pop artists to collaborate on his records for example the singer Dido sang the in the hugely popular ‘Stan’.