Soul into hip-hop

RETRO MUSIC

Soul into
hip-hop

Russell A. Potter

Course: Erweiterung der übersetzungsrelevanten Sprach- und Kulturkompetenz: Pop and Rock

INDEX

Background

Attention

Soul

Funk

Disco

Emergence

'Old school'

'Gangsta'

Influence

Thank you

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• racial tension in the US extended into music
• black people claimed rhythm and blues as 'their' music
• strict divide between rhythm and blues vs rock'n'roll
• artists had to be careful about which styles to use

Background information

Mass attention to rhythm and blues

• record labels started to mix styles
• drew attention to rhythm and blues
• white artists started to cover successful songs from black artists
• increased tensions
  

Black artists reacted in different ways:

1. Some tried to get contracts with the major labels.
2. Others turned to concerts as main source of income.
   

This resulted in a diverse rhythm and blues scene as opposed to the more homogenous rock'n'roll.

Reactions

Soul

• In the 1970s major labels started to contract black artists directly.
• White producers didn't understand what the black audience wanted.
• Quality of rhythm and blues music decreased.
• Nelson George: 'the death of rhythm and blues'

Downfall

FUNK

• James Brown
• Bootsy and Catfish Collins
• George Clinton
• Parliament-Funkadelic
• mixed soul vocals with dance beats and basslines
• rock n roll influences
• flashy outfits

DISCO

• evolved from rythm and blues and funk
• recording industry appropriated it
• movies boosted the genres popularity
• stopped being in touch with dance scene

• Harlem: new generation of street poets
• started rhyming on conga beats
• later worked with big Funk artists
• 1973: Hustlers Convention

+INFO

Emergence of hip-hop

• seemingly arid music landscape of the late seventies
• overlooked art
• hip-hop was born in a global age

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I-Roy

Big Youth

The Last Poets

+INFO

Hip - hop - more than just music?

• not only rap music but also graffiti and breakdancing

• scratch aesthetic
• urban, youth art → black art and a vernacular art

• industry’s reluctance
• hip-hop’s first home: black-owned labels, huddled survivors of the rhythm and blues era

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+INFO

• hip-hop was primarily dance music, feel-good-call-and-response lyrics, and synthesised beats and noises

• Jam Master Jay: the first to bring actual, scratched-up vinyl into a studio recording

• at the mid-eighties: hardcore rapper such as LL Cool J and Public Enemy ‘brought the noise’ back that hip-hop fully secured its spot as an independent genre

'Old school' days (1976-83)

1983: Run-DMC blew up, brought hip-hop to rock radio and chart success

Run-DMC

LL Cool J

at the mid-eighties:

Public Enemy

+INFO

Attraction to anger

• America's worst nightmare set to music
  → sonic uprising in which personal, political, and economic resentment were all merged into one frightening noise

• political momentum stirred by activist artists began to fade, eclipsed by so-called ‘gangsta’ rap

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'Gangsta' rap

• distinct elements such as slower beats, rhymes, eschewing political commentary
  → returned to the ‘hustler’ style of some off the earliest rappers, centering on money, cars and women

• many of the new ‘gangsta’ rappers were women

+INFO

• Bigga Sistas

• The Conscious Daughters

• Heather B

• The Bo$$

Hip-hop branched out

+INFO

• Jazz found its way in through the offbeat beats and vibraphone loops of ‘bohemian’ rappers → result: revitalisation of both musical forms

• regional (and aesthetic) yins and yangs in hip-hop
• eventually giving rise to higher beats-per-minute forms such as techno and rave

Influence of Hip-Hop

• rebirth of Rhythm and Blues
• UK artists mixed Hip-Hop and House
• industry tries finding next trend in black music
• old sounds are still prevalent
• hip hop dominates the charts
• female rappers getting more popular

THANK YOU!