HIP HOP
A (1990-2015)
CHARACTERISTICS
In the modern age of music, there’s a lot of variance within genres and trying to boil down hip hop to its basics can be problematic. Due to the invention of the internet and how fast we can share music nowadays means that the walls of most music genres have become blurry.
Hip Hop has always focused on the rapper, focusing on writing the spoken word for the piece, with an instrumental loop that would be put together by their producer. As a producer isn’t confined by what instruments they can play or what scales they know, hip hop instrumentals can be incredibly versatile – only really focusing on drums/percussion as an instrument to create the spine of the beat (which the rapper would lock in to), then using any synths, samples or sounds the producer pleases.
A hip hop instrumental normally has one or two melodic parts that would loop with the beat, the melodic part would use a synth the producer came up with or sample which could be a bassline, piano or guitar.
As technology has developed, so has the sound of hip hop, with some rappers rapping over complex electronic songs that were released by another artist, for example Gil Scott-Herron and Jamie xx’s “I’ll Take Care Of U” was repurposed by Drake and Rihanna in their single “Take Care”. Vocals, one of the more important features of hip hop are now manipulated today, from the more commercial artists like T-Pain using auto-tune creating a vocal-synth to more avant-garde like Death Grips sometimes using distortion over vocals.
1990s hip hop vocals were almost always rapped, but today rappers employ many different vocal styles to evoke different emotions within song. Some artists today rap and sing in the same song; like Drake, Childish Gambino, Andre 3000 and many more.
Hip Hops’ lyrics contained themes of police brutality, social injustice, affluence, and growing up in the ghetto – that was the old way, with groups like N.W.A, The Wu Tang Clan and Public Enemy predominantly touching on social injustice and growing up in the ghetto. However in this modern age, rappers tend to write about their personal lives and relationships.
Due to its nature of production, hip hop has never had characteristic chord progressions or rhythms. 90s Hip Hop focused more on the word, and the beats were never overly complex due to the technology of the time, and even though today’s Hip Hop are more melodic, the melting-pot nature of today’s music means there’s not many recurring progressions. Being influenced by dance music of the 80s and its contemporaries through the years, Hip Hop rhythms lean towards a more dance-music feel.
The Venues of Hip Hop, tend to be large as it is still one of the majority of genres still popular in the mainstream, making it commercially lucrative enough to be put in a big venue.
ARTISTS
Earl Sweatshirt – A rapper gaining fame and recognition 2010 with his debut mixtape, and a former member of the hip hop collective Odd Future (a modern day reincarnation of old groups like N.W.A shortened to OF) known for his odd and sometimes dark themes his work with OF and the parallels of his personality to the aged (he often describes himself as a “grumpy-ass old man”), his brand of rap dips into punky ideals and mostly original instrumentation. His works include; Chum, Oldie and Off Top
Death Grips – An experimental US Hip Hop trio consisting of rapper/vocalist MC Ride (Stefan Burnett), drummer/producer Zach Hill and co-producer Andy Morin. The group blend together hip hop, punk, industrial and noise music and are considered a landmark band in the 21st century. Their sound is highly aggressive and experimental, using live drums and abrasive electronic noise, with MC ride either rapping/screaming the vocals with at you. Lyrically they are a very dark, often cryptic band. This band relies on MC Ride’s insane stage presence and wild performances, use of live sampling, on stage improvisation and sporadic drums. Their songs include; No Love, Spread Eagle Cross the Block and You might think he loves you for your money but I know what he really loves you for...
Ice Cube – An American rapper known for being brutally honest, lyrically proficient, and used to member of the rap group N.W.A. His socio-political lyrics are often described as violent and aggressive; he is considered one of the founders of Gangsta Rap. Finding fame in the 80s with N.W.A and solo work he released true anthems of the time; It Was A Good Day, Check Yo Self, Straight Outta Compton
TECHNOLOGY
As technology progresses, so does music and hip hop is no different. As electronic music technology progressed, more sophisticated beats were used in Hip Hop. Currently computers can manipulate every aspect of a song, from vocals to sequencing.
The music industry was greatly shaken up with the birth of the internet, now people can share their music and creations far easier than before and many rappers have made a name for themselves and gained a following purely by putting up their tracks for free on various sites.
WHAT IS GREAT ABOUT THIS GENRE?
Hip Hop was and has remained predominantly dominated by black artists, and throughout the years it has allowed for self-expression and empowerment. Groups like Public Enemy, Grandmaster Flash etc. and their political mindedness along with their success, paved the way for black music of the 80’s and 90’s, which saw a trend of celebration of Afrocentric themes and echoes of that trend are still about today.
Hip Hop is far more commercial today, aside from being lucrative it hasn’t progressed changed the world much, albeit its impact can be seen all over popular culture, in films like “Straight outta Compton”, in advertisements and course in the music industry.
B (1970s-1980s)
FUNK ORIGINS
Hip Hop grew out of Funk music and has a lot to thank it for. Funk is a type of dance music that emerged in the 70s, and because of that it focuses heavily on the rhythm and groove of songs. The first beat of every bar in funk is stressed, whilst its contemporaries put emphasis on the 2nd and 4th beats. This rhythm structure put it apart from other music and really made people want to get up and dance. Funk lyrics focused on sex, dancing and love. This genre relied heavily on its instrumentation, which included guitar bass, trumpets and sometimes a horn section, last but not least drums. Funk drumming had a huge impact on early Hip Hop as most of the drum tracks were sampled directly from it.
1970s Hip Hop, known as “Old School” can be differentiated from more recent iterations of Hip Hop by the much simpler word play and rhythmical flow, and were much less hard-hitting, with similar lyrical themes to funk, but with more boasting. 1970s Hip Hop can be considered a watered down version of 80s Hip Hop, which is when the genre really came into its own.
1980s Hip Hop, the “New School” saw a genre mature. Lyrics, themes, production and just about every aspect of Hip Hop got more complex and detailed. Raps were becoming politically charged and preached of the injustices in the ghettos of America. These new, edgier lyrics were deserving of a harder beat and so it was. Production became more important and drum machines were used heavily.
Can you compare a 1970s Hip Hop artist/group with a modern Hip Hop artist/group and say what the similarities and differences are?
Which one do you prefer and why?
Spoonie Gee is the stage persona of rapper Gabriel Jackson, credited with being one of the Hip Hop pioneers and a precursor to Gangsta Rap. His style is fairly upbeat and his lyrics touched on relationships and life in New York. The production is fairly simple, there was often an echo on his vocals and the instrumentation is fairly funky, and has a slow relaxed tempo.
Childish Gambino, real name Donald Glover and a man of many talents is a rapper, actor, comedian and songwriter. Within his music he talks about his personal life and emotions unlike Spoonie Gee and the Hip Hop of the 1970s, his vocal style is also far more complex having a wide range, singing and rapping in songs with complex wordplay.
There aren’t many parallels that can be drawn between the two, other than rapping and both being fairly progressive with their music, Hip Hop has changed wildly over time and it’s difficult to even compare the two. Personally I prefer Childish Gambino over Spoonie Gee, I prefer modern Hip Hop over its older predecessor. Spoonie’s vocal style is very limited and his lyrical content doesn’t have enough emotional depth for my tastes, Childish Gambino’s sound is much more to my liking, with the occasional singing interlude and engaging wordplay with much more complex beats.
I feel as though the comparison between the two is an inaccurate/unfair one to make as it’s like comparing a child to a grown human, hip hop was still in its infantile stages around the time of Spoonie Gee and would take around the mid to late 80s to form something more substantial and complex.

















