| New-school hip-hop | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Early-to-mid 1980s,Queens,Brooklyn,New York City |
| Typical instruments | |
| Subgenres | |
| Golden age hip-hop | |
| Local scenes | |
| South Bronx,Brooklyn,Hollis, Queens,Jamaica, Queens | |
| Other topics | |
Thenew school of hip-hop was a mid-1980s movement inhip-hop music, led by artists such asRun-DMC,LL Cool J, and theBeastie Boys. Predominantly fromQueens andBrooklyn, it was characterized bydrum machine-led minimalism, often tinged with elements ofrock;rapped taunts, boasts, and socio-political commentary; and aggressive, self-assertive delivery. In song and image, its artists projected a tough, cool, streetB-boy attitude. These elements contrasted sharply withFunk andDisco,novelty hits, live bands, synthesizers, and party rhymes of artists prevalent in the early 1980s. Compared to previous artists, new-school artists crafted more cohesiveLPs and shorter songs more amenable toairplay. By 1986–87, their releases began to establish hip-hop in the mainstream. This, along with further innovations by artists likeEric B. & Rakim,Public Enemy, andBoogie Down Productions, led into thegolden age of hip-hop.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
The terms "old school" and "new school" fell into the vernacular as synonyms for "old" and "new" in hip-hop, to the confusion and occasional exasperation of writers who use the terms historically.[8][9] The phrase "Leader of the New School", coined in hip-hop by Chuck D in 1988, and given further currency by theeponymous groupLeaders of the New School (who were named by Chuck D before signing withElektra in 1989), remains popular. It has been applied to artists ranging fromJay-Z toLupe Fiasco.[10]
Elements of new school had existed in some form in the popular culture since hip-hop's birth. The firstMC's rapped overDJs swapping back and forth between two copies of the same record playing the same drum break, or playing instrumental portions or versions of a broad range of records.[11][12] This part of the culture was initiated byDJ Kool Herc in 1973[13] using breaks fromJames Brown,the Incredible Bongo Band and English rock groupBabe Ruth in his block parties.[14] Brown's music—"extensive vamps" in which his voice was "a percussive instrument with frequent rhythmic grunts", and "with rhythm-section patterns ... [resembling] West African polyrhythms"—was a keynote of hip-hop's early days.[14][15] By 1975,Grandmaster Flash andAfrika Bambaataa had taken up Kool Herc's breakbeat style of DJing, each with their own accompanyingrappers. Flash was especially associated with an important break known as "The Bells"—a cut-up of the intro toBob James'sjazz cover of Paul Simon's "Take Me To The Mardi Gras"—while Bambaataa delighted in springing occasional rock music breaks from records like "Mary, Mary", "Honky Tonk Women", "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" andGrand Funk Railroad's "Inside Looking Out" on unsuspecting b-boys.[16]
The earliest hip-hop records replaced the DJ with a live band playing funk and disco influenced tunes, or "interpolating" the tunes themselves, as in "Rapper's Delight" (Sugar Hill, 1979) and "King Tim III (Personality Jock)" (Spring, 1979). It was the soft, futuristic funk closely tied to disco that ruled hip-hop's early days on record, to the exclusion of the hard James Brown beats so beloved of the first b-boys.[17] Figures such as Flash and Bambaataa were involved in some early instances of moving the sound away from that of a live band, as in Flash's DJ track "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel" (Sugar Hill, 1981), and even innovating popular new sounds and subgenres, as in the synthesizer-ladenelectro of Bambaataa's "Planet Rock" (Tommy Boy, 1982). Often though the rawer elements present in live shows did not make it past the recording studio.
Bambaataa's first records, for instance, two versions of "Zulu Nation Throwdown" (Winley, 1980), were recorded with just drums and rhymes. When Bambaataa heard the released records, a complete live band had been added.[18] Something closer to his intentions can be heard on a portion ofDeath Mix, a low-quality bootleg of aZulu Nation night at James Monroe High School in the Bronx, released without his permission on Winley Records in 1983.[19] Likewise on the bootlegLive Convention '82 (Disco Wax, 1982),Grand Wizard Theodore cuts the first six bars ofRufus Thomas's "Do the Funky Penguin" together for five and a half minutes while an MC raps over the top.[20] Grandmaster Flash's "Superrappin'" (Enjoy, 1979) had a pumping syncopated rhythm and The Furious Five emulating his spinbacks and needle drops and chanting that "that Flash is on the beatbox going ..."[21] The beatbox itself however, a drum machine which Flash had added to his turntable set-up some time earlier, was absent on the record, the drums being produced by a live drummer.[22]
Kool Moe Dee's verbal personal attacks onBusy Bee Starski live at Harlem World in 1982 caused a popular sensation in hip hop circles. In the same way, groups like theCold Crush Brothers andThe Force MCs were known for their routines, competitive attitude, and battle rhymes. Tapes of battles like these circulated widely, even without them becoming viable recordings.[23][24] Apart from some social commentary likeMelle Mel's one verse on "Superrappin'",Kurtis Blow's ruefully comedic "The Breaks" (Mercury, 1980) and a spurt of records following the success of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message" (Sugar Hill, 1982), the old school specialized lyrically in party rhymes.[25]
One time, in probably 1983, I was in the park in Brooklyn. I was getting beat up by about eight kids, I don't even remember why. But as it was happening, this dude was walkin' by with one of thosebigboom boxes. And as he's walking by, we hear [imitates the unmistakable intro drum pattern from Run-D.M.C.'s 'Sucker MCs', loudly]. They all stopped beating me, and we all just stood there, listening to this phenomenon. I could have run, but I didn't, I was just so entranced by what I heard. Then the dude with the box passed by and the kids continued to beat me up. But it didn't matter. I felt good. I knew right then that Ihad to get into this hip hop shit.
— Pras of theFugees, 2003, as told to Brian Coleman,Check The Technique 2nd. ed., New York:Villard, 2007
David Toop writes of 1984 that "pundits were writing obituaries for hip hop, a passing fad" which "Hollywood had mutated into an all-singing, all-dancing romance" in movies likeFlashdance andBreakin'. Against this, Run-DMC, theBeastie Boys, and the label Def Jam were "consciously hardcore", "a reaction against the populist trend in hip hop at the time", and "an explosive emergence of an underground alternative".[26] ForPeter Shapiro, Run-DMC's 1983 two-song release "It's Like That"/"Sucker M.C.'s" "completely changed hip-hop" "rendering everything that preceded it distinctly old school with one fell swoop."[25][27] In a 47-point timeline of hip hop and its antecedents spanning 64 years, Shapiro lists this release as his 43rd point.[27] Reviewing Toop's book in the LA Weekly, Oliver Wang ofSoul Sides concurs, hailing Run-DMC as inaugurating the new school of rap.[28]
Run-DMC rapped over the most sparse of musical backing tracks. In the case of "Sucker M.C.'s", there was a loud,Oberheim DMXdrum machine, a few scratches and nothing else, while the rhymes harangued weak rappers and contrasted them to the group's success. "It's Like That" was an aggressively delivered message rap whose social commentary has been defined variously as "objective fatalism",[29] "frustrated and renunciatory",[30] and just plain "reportage".[31] Run-DMC wore street clothes, tracksuits, sneakers, one even wore glasses. Their only possible concession to an image extraneous to that of kids on the street was the stylistic flourish of black fedoras atop their heads. This stood in sharp contrast to the popular artists of the time, who had variously bedecked themselves with feathers, suede boots, jerri curls, and red or even pink leather suits.[32]
The group's early singles are collected on theireponymous debut (Profile, 1984), introducing rock references in "Rock Box", and recognized then and now as the best album of hip hop's early years.[29][33] The next year, they appeared atLive Aid and releasedKing of Rock (Profile, 1985), on which they asserted that they were "never ever old school".Raising Hell (Profile, 1986) was a landmark, containing quintessentially hip hop tracks like "Peter Piper", "Perfection" and "It's Tricky", and going platinum in the year of its release on the back of the huge crossover hit "Walk This Way".[34] The group had rapped over the beat from the 1975 original in their early days, without so much as knowing the name of the band. WhenRaising Hell's producerRick Rubin heard them playing around with it in the studio, he suggested using theAerosmith lyrics, and the collaboration between the two groups came about.[35] The album's last track was "Proud To Be Black", written under the influence of Chuck D of the as-yet unrecorded Public Enemy.[36] On "My Adidas" the band rapped that they "took the beat from the street and put it on TV".
Comments fromDarryl McDaniels, aka DMC of Run-DMC, make this connection to the underground explicit: "[T]hat's exactly what we did. We didn't really think it was pioneering, we just did what rappers did before us was doing on tapes. When a lot of the old guys, like Kool Moe Dee,the Treacherous Three, and Grandmaster Flash, got in the studio, they never put their greatness on records. Me andRun andJay would listen ... and we'd say, 'They didn't do that shit last night inthe Bronx!' ... So we said that we weren't going to be fake. We ain't gonna wear no costumes. We're gonna keep it real."[37]
Coming out of the fertile New York rap scene of the early 1980s, Whodini was one of the first rap groups to add aR&B twist to their music, thus laying the foundation for a new genre,new jack swing. The group made its name with good-humored songs such as "Magic's Wand" (the first rap song accompanied by a video), "The Haunted House of Rock", "Friends", "Five Minutes of Funk", and "Freaks Come Out at Night". Live performances of the group were the first rap concerts with the participation ofbreakdance dancers from the groupUTFO.Russell Simmons was the manager of the group in the 1980s.[38]
The group released six studio albums. Fourteen of the group's singles hit theBillboard charts. Four of the group's albums werecertified Platinum by theRIAA. In 1984, the group released the second albumEscape. The entire album was fully produced byLarry Smith. From the laid back groove titled "Five Minutes of Funk" to "Friends", a cynical story of betrayal sampled everywhere fromNas' "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)" to2Pac's "Troublesome '96", to harder edged singles "Freaks Come Out at Nite" and "Big Mouth".[39]
In 1986, the group released a third albumBack in Black, fully produced by Smith. A number of songs from the album received heavy local New York airplay, such as "Funky Beat" and the controversial "I'm a Ho". "Fugitive" was guitar-drivenfunk and "Last Night (I Had a Long Talk With...)" was introspective. Paul Kodish, the drummer of Pendulum, was featured on the album.
The other production credit onRaising Hell went to Run's brother,Russell Simmons; he ran Rush Artist Management, nowRush Communications, which as well as handling Run-DMC, managed the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J,Whodini and Public Enemy. Simmons also co-owned Def Jam Recordings, an important new-school label, with Rubin.[40] Simmons rose with Def Jam to become one of the biggest moguls in rap, while Rubin claimed credit for introducing radio-friendly brevity and song structure to hip hop.[41] Def Jam's first 12-inch release was the minimalist drum machine breakdown "I Need A Beat" by LL Cool J (1984). This was followed by "I Can't Live Without My Radio" (Def Jam, 1985), a loud, defiant declaration of public loyalty to his boom box which theNew York Times in 1987 called "quintessential rap in its directness, immediacy and assertion of self".[42] Both were on his debut album for Def Jam, 1985'sRadio (described as "Reduced by Rick Rubin" in its liner notes), which also contained the minimalist and rock-influenced track "Rock the Bells".[43][44]
Rubin also produced music for Beastie Boys, who sampledAC/DC on theirRock Hard EP on Def Jam in 1984 and recorded a Run-DMC outtake and a heavy metal parody on their hugely commercially successful debut albumLicensed To Ill (Def Jam, 1986). In 1987,Raising Hell surpassed three million units sold, andLicensed to Ill five million.[45] Faced with figures like these, major labels finally began buying into independent New York hip hop imprints.[46]
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By the late 1980s, the new-school movement had given way togolden age hip-hop,[47] characterized by diversity, quality, innovation and influence.[48] It was associated with artists such asPublic Enemy,KRS-One and hisBoogie Down Productions,Eric B. & Rakim,Ultramagnetic MCs,[3][4]De La Soul,A Tribe Called Quest, and theJungle Brothers,[49] known for themes ofAfrocentricity and political militancy, experimental music, and eclecticsampling.[50] This period is sometimes referred to as "Mid-school" or "middle school"; associated acts includedGang Starr,the UMC's,Main Source,Lord Finesse,EPMD,Just Ice,Stetsasonic,True Mathematics, andMantronix.[51]
The innovations of Run-DMC,MC Shan, theBeastie Boys, and LL Cool J, and New School Producers such as Larry Smith andRick Rubin ofDef Jam, were quickly surpassed byMarley Marl and hisJuice Crew MCs,[52]Boogie Down Productions,Public Enemy, andEric B. & Rakim. Hip-hop production became denser, and the rhymes and beats faster, as the drum machine was augmented withsampler technology.[53]Rakim took lyrics about the art of rapping to new heights,[54][55][56][53] while KRS-One andChuck D pushed "message rap" towards black activism.[57][58]Native Tongues artists' inclusive, sample-crowded music accompanied their positivity,Afrocentricity, and playful energy.[59][60][61] The early-mid 1990s saw the commercial dominance ofWest Coastgangsta rap, particularlyG-funk,[62] while theEast Coast scene became dominated by hardcore rappers like theWu-Tang Clan and gangsta rappers such asthe Notorious B.I.G.
