80s rap artist listings

Etymology

The use of the word to describe quick speech or repartee long predates the musical form, meaning originally "to hit". The word had been used in British English since the 16th century, and specifically meaning "to say" since the 18th. It was part of the African American dialect of English in the 1960s meaning "to converse", and very soon after that in its present usage as a term denoting the musical style.

Rapping

Rapping can be delivered over a beat or without accompaniment. Stylistically, rap occupies a gray area among speech, prose, poetry, and song.

Rapping developed both inside and outside of hip hop culture, and began with the street parties thrown in the Bronx neighborhood of New York in the 70s by Jamaican expatriate Kool Herc and others. The parties introduced dancehall and the practice of having a "Master of Ceremonies," or MC, get up on stage with the DJ and shout encouragements to the crowd in a practice known as 'toasting'. Over time, those shouts of encouragement became longer and more complex and cross-pollinated with the spoken-word poetry scene to evolve into rap. It's believed that the first rapper to actually call himself an MC was Melle Mel from Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five. He is also credited as being the first Hip Hop MC to rap in a traditional verse/chorus format. From the beginning hip hop culture has been syncretic, incorporating sounds and elements from radically divergent sources. While Funk breaks formed the backbone of early hip hop, Kraftwerk and other early techno artists were widely sampled as well.

History

Roots

Rapping hip hop music can be traced back in many ways to its African roots. Centuries before the United States existed, the griots of West Africa were delivering stories rhythmically, over drums and sparse instrumentation. Because of the time that has passed since the griots of old, the connections between rap and the African griots are widely established, but not clear-cut. However, such connections have been acknowledged by rappers, modern day "griots", spoken word artists, mainstream news sources, and academics.

Blues music, rooted in the work songs and spirituals of slavery and influenced greatly by West African musical traditions, was first played by blacks (and some whites) in the Mississippi Delta region of the United States around the time of the Emancipation Proclamation. Grammy-winning blues musician/historian Elijah Wald and others have argued that the blues were being rapped as early as the 1920s. Wald went so far as to call hip hop "the living blues."

Jazz, which developed from the blues and other African-American and European musical traditions and originated around the beginning of the 20th century, has also influenced Hip hop and has been cited as a precursor of Hip hop. Not just jazz music and lyrics but also Jazz poetry. According to John Sobol, the jazz musician and poet who wrote Digitopia Blues, rap "bears a striking resemblance to the evolution of jazz both stylistically and formally."

During the mid-20th century, the musical culture of the Caribbean was constantly influenced by the concurrent changes in American music. From the 1950s through the 1970s, the descendants of Caribbean slaves in Jamaica were mixing their traditional folk music styles of mento music with the jazz, soul, rock and blues of America. In Jamaica, this influenced the creation of reggae music (and later dancehall). As early as 1956, deejays were toasting (an African tradition of "rapped out" tales of heroism) over dubbed Jamaican beats. It was called "rap", expanding the word's earlier meaning in the African-American community—"to discuss or debate informally."

1970s

The dubbed dancehall toasts of Jamaica, as well as the disco-rapping and jazz-based spoken word beat poetry of the United States was a predecessor for the rapping in hip hop music. Gil Scott-Heron, a jazz poet/musician who wrote and released such seminal songs as The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, H2OGate Blues Part 2: We Beg Your Pardon America and Johannesberg, has been cited as an influence on many rappers. His collaborational work with musician Brian Jackson (Pieces of a Man, Winter in America) have been cited as major influences on hip hop, in terms of sound and lyrical style. Similar in style, the Last Poets who formed in 1969 recited political poetry over drum beats and other instrumentation were another predecessor for rap music. They released their debut album in 1970 reaching the top ten on the Billboard charts. One of the first rappers in the beginning of the Hip Hop period, in the end of '70s, was also hip hop's first DJ; Kool Herc. Herc, a Jamaican immigrant, started delivering simple raps at his parties. As Herc would explain in a 1989 interview,

Rhyme styles

Aside from "flow" (the voice and tone of a particular MC), and rhythmic delivery, another central element of rapping is rhyme. In classical poetry, rhymes that span many syllables are often considered whimsical, but in hip hop the ability to construct raps with large sets of rhyming syllables is valued. Rap can contain any and all forms of rhyme found in classical poetry such as consonance, assonance, half rhyme, or internal rhyme.

In the early years of hip-hop, now known as "old-school hip-hop" rap was characterized by simple rhyme schemes and standard refrains. The 1979 song "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang, the first recorded rap song, was typical of the style, with Big Bank Hank rapping:

The rapper Rakim, still often regarded as one of the greatest MCs ever, is widely credited with introducing internal rhymes and a more mature sensibility to rapping. The 1986 debut single of Eric B. & Rakim, "Eric B. is President", begins:

By the 1990s, many rappers had adopted more sophisticated rhyme styles. A well-known example of the use of internal rhyme from that time period is found in Big Pun's 1998 song "Twinz", in which he raps:

Modern rappers have different styles of rhyming. Juelz Santana often avoids full rhymes in favor of assonance, consonance, half rhymes, and internal rhymes. Eminem, on the other hand, often focuses on complex and lengthy multisyllabic rhyme schemes, while "flowas" like Rakim use metaphorical, emotional rhyming, and story telling to communicate a message.

Literary technique

Rappers use double entendres, alliteration, and other forms of wordplay that are also found in classical poetry. Similes and metaphors are used extensively in rap lyrics; rappers such as Fabolous and Lloyd Banks have written entire songs in which every line contains similes, whereas MCs like Rakim, GZA, and Jay-Z are known for the metaphorical content of their raps. Lil Wayne is also known for his frequent use of smilies and metaphors.

Hip hop lyrics often make passing references to popular culture and other topics. An example is the song "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthin' Ta Fuck Wit" by the Wu-Tang Clan, in which RZA rhymes,

I be tossin', enforcin', my style is awesome
I'm causin more Family Feuds than Richard Dawson
And the survey said - you're dead
Fatal flying guillotine chops off your fuckin' head

Such allusions serve to illustrate or exaggerate a statement, or are simply used for humor. Some of these references are overtly political, while others simply acknowledge, credit, or show dismay about aspects of the rapper's culture and life.

Diction and dialect

Many hip hop listeners believe that a rapper's lyrics are enhanced by a complex vocabulary. Kool Moe Dee claims that he appealed to older audiences by using a complex vocabulary in his raps. Rap is famous, however, for having its own vocabulary—from international hip hop slang to regional slang. Some artists, like the Wu-Tang Clan, develop an entire lexicon among their clique. African American Vernacular English has always had a significant effect on hip hop slang and vice versa. Certain regions have introduced their unique regional slang to hip hop culture, such as the Bay Area (Mac Dre, E-40), Houston (Chamillionaire, Paul Wall), Atlanta (Ludacris, Lil Jon, T.I.), and Kentucky (Nappy Roots). The Nation of Gods and Earths, a religious/spiritual group spun off from the Nation of Islam, has influenced mainstream hip hop slang with the introduction of phrases such as "word is bond" that have since lost much of their original spiritual meaning.

Preference toward one or the other has much to do with the individual; GZA, for example, prides himself on being very visual and metaphorical but also succinct, whereas underground rapper MF DOOM is known for heaping similes upon similes. In still another variation, 2Pac was known for saying exactly what he meant, literally and clearly.

Subject matter

"Party rhymes", meant to pump up the crowd at a party, were nearly the exclusive focus of old school hip hop, and they remain a staple of hip hop music to this day. In addition to party raps, rappers also tend to make references to love and sex. Love raps were first popularized by Spoonie Gee of the Treacherous Three, and later,

80s rap artist

... samples and misogyny that would color rap music for many years to come. > Top 25 Rap Albums from the 80s. Site Reader Submitted List of 80s Rap Artists ...

1980s Rap Music on Like Totally 80's

... streams, check out photos, watch videos, write a review, discover similar artists ... as though G Rap was bound to suffer old-school status like most of his '80s peers. As G Rap's ...

Kool G Rap MP3 Downloads - Kool G Rap Music Downloads - Kool G Rap ...

... management company Rush Productions in the early '80s; by ... May 31, 1964) to form a rap duo. ... rappers like Public Enemy, not crossover artists like Run-D.M.C

Hip-Hop: Now and Then - 80s-90s artists

Rap.org is your source for the latest rap music from album reviews to music videos and hip ... Exit 13 Album After paving the way for an emerging hip-hop scene in the late 80s, LL Cool ...

Rap Music Songs, Artists and Videos | Rap.org

... ways the most notorious group in the history of rap. Emerging in the late '80s ... rap empire, by building a roster of successful rap artists.

Hip-Hop: Now and Then - 80s-90s artists

HipHop / Rap artist, Rosco Trying to find an artist that we do not have? Please post the artist here and we'll try to add them if we can.

Official Slacker Forums • HipHop / Rap artist, Rosco

80s Rap. 80s Music t-shirts. Artist Interviews. New Kids on the Block discuss reuniting after a 15-year hiatus . 80s Capsules. Relive the greatest decade ever including all the ...

1980s Music on Like Totally 80s

This is the list of best selling music artists in the United States only as of November ... 74: Jay-Z: U.S. 80s-00s: Rap: 26: 75: Enya: Ireland: 80s-00s: New Age (Celtic) 26: 76: Frank Sinatra: U.S. 30s-90s: Pop ...

List of best-selling music artists in the United States - Wikipedia ...

Kool G. Rap Artist Main ... Kool G Rap never rose to superstar status during his late-'80s reign as a leading member of Marley Marl's ...

Kool G. Rap on Yahoo! Music

... under radar of mainstream, rappers were able to experiment and innovate in the '80s. ... Rap. “Artists were allowed to pick and choose the style they wanted to express,” said ...

« 80s r b artist

80s song and artist »

Analysis: Bush's personality shapes his legacy (AP)

AP - President George W. Bush will be judged on what he did. He will also be remembered for what he's like: a fast-moving, phrase-mangling Texan who stays upbeat even though his country is not.