While the verses were rather simple in the beginning (response chants “one, two, three, y’all, to the beat” or similar), those vocals began to develop, to grow more complex and incorporate brief rhymes in order to differentiate themselves and entertain the audience. It was DJ Kool Herc (alongside Coke La Rock, often credited as being the first MC in the history of hip hop) who influenced the vocal style of rapping by delivering simple poetry verses over the music breaks. Rapping basically is a vocal style in which the artist speaks lyrically, in rhyme and verse, to a beat (almost always in 4/4 time signature) being created by a producer incorporating synthesizers, drum machines or live bands. Those breaks, extended by scratching, beat mixing/matching and juggling, eventually created a base to later be rapped on. One of the pioneers of this technique was the legendary DJ Kool Herc. DJs began isolating percussion breaks of popular songs and since they were generally short in funk, soul and disco records, extending them by using two turntables. It were block parties in NYC (particularly among African American and Latino youth living in the Bronx) that popularized hip hop as music and culture during the 1970s where DJs played popular genres of music (especially funk and soul). Gospel and soul singers like James Brown are often considered “godfathers” of hip hop music especially in New York City though performances of spoken-word poetry and music by The Last Poets or Gil Scott-Heron influenced the post-civil rights era culture of the 1960s and 1970s and thus the social environment from which hip hop music evolved. While the origins of hip hop music, as commonly known, lie in the 1970s in form of improvisations made to existing music by party DJs (without vocals and purely of electronic nature) the roots of spoken hip hop music (spoken-word or rapping) are found ultimately in African music (griots in West African culture).Īfrican-American traditions like signifyin’, dozens, jazz poetry or call and response patterns all influence the history of hip hop music. On the other hand rapping is not a required component of “hip hop music”, it may also include other elements of “hip hop culture” such as DJing, scratching, beatboxing etc. The term “hip hop” more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture instead of “only” rapping. Hip hop as a musical genre developed as part of “hip hop culture”, a subculture defined by four key elements: rapping, DJing, dancing and graffiti writing.

Passing through the so called “golden era” to the 2000s and its belonging further diversification, increasing popularity worldwide and finally the most influential developments and artists nowadays.

While I can only cover a little part of all its facets, its influences and its sprays (further research should not be too complicated via the internet) I hope stating a general overview of the historical development beginning round about 1970 in the Bronx, New York to the diversification of the genre in the 1980s. Analyzing the poetry and the meaning of rap lyrics one always has to take into consideration (or at least be familiar) with the origins, the history and the development of hip hop as a culture, an art form and a music genre.

Today hip hop history