Deja Bryant

CAS 137H
Spielvogel
11/15/2015
The Evolution of Hip-Hop
A lot of people cannot distinguish hip-hop from rap, and are often confused by the two. In
actuality rap is a feature of hip-hop. Hip-hop is the overall genre but the name is not commonly
used anymore to describe the music and that is for good reason. The late 80s and early 90's were
known as the Golden Age of hip-hop.
To understand how hip-hop has changed one needs to understand the history. Hip-Hop
originated in 1973. Hip-Hop was created by a man named Clive Campbell in the Bronx. HipHop combines of various types of music including, jazz, gospel, reggae, and soul. Hip-hop
consist of rapping, break dancing, and graffiti. It was established by the African American
working class to express the African American youth culture. The hip-hop industry is said to be
full of what is called "hood politics" today. Everything that it once stood for when it was first
developed is now gone.
In the past hip-hop was based on group identity and unity. The number of groups
outweighed the number of individual artists significantly. Everyone was more concerned about
getting their messages and stories across than just making money. The groups were very diverse.
There was not one age group, gender, or geographical area that dominated the genre.

There were female groups such as, TLC and Salt n Pepper. The women groups
did not have to be sex icons to become famous, they had just as much talent as the male groups.
They were also just as powerful as the male groups and typically came from similar areas. These
groups of women still have strong ties to the African American community today and are very
highly respected by all. The women did not typically dress what would have considered
provocative at the time and wanted to be treated the same as male artist. They also had kid
groups such as Another Bad Creation. They would range in age from about nine to twelve. These
children groups would often tell about falling in love on the playground and having their first
dates at home while eating cereal and watching cartoons on the couch. The kid rappers were just
as popular as the adult and teen groups. Then finally there were the male groups like, Bel Biv
Devoe, NWA, and Kid n Play. Each and every group was very well respected and the African
American community viewed them as knowledgeable people. They were seen as people who
spoke for the African American community.
Another thing that is drastically different is the lyrics. The rappers were seen as
modern day Griots. A Griot was a keeper of knowledge and history. Griots would spread their
knowledge to other tribal villages through spoken-word. Back then the rappers would tell stories
through their raps. They would tell about their daily lives, aspirations that they have,
discontentment, and problems facing all African Americans. They also often told stories about
their struggles and going from rags to riches. At the time hip-hop was at its peak, about 1988 to
1993, there was also a crack epidemic going on among the poor black so that was something that
they often talked about. The crack epidemic was so popular in music because of the artist friends
and/or family members would be addicted. Also discrimination against African Americans was
very high and that led to a sense of the need to establish black empowerment. Lyrics were what

everything was all about, it was not about the people on the track. Due to that fact there was
barely ever any features, they were pretty much nonexistent. The lack of features was because
the things that people were saying was their own groups viewpoints and stories. Stories may
have been similar but they were never the same. Every song was developed for a reason to other
than to make money.
The music videos from the Golden Age were very different than those that we see
now. The videos that would appear back then would be shot in neighborhoods that the rappers
grew up in or ones very similar to that. Also the group/artist would be surrounded by people that
they actually knew. The videos were simple and the group was the main focus. People often did
not dress overly fancy, have expensive cars, or throw money in their videos. They would
typically have on spray-painted t-shirts, with blue jeans or overalls, and Timberlands or Jordans.
You would not see anyone flashing their guns, throwing around drugs, or provocative women or
men.
The shift began in 1996. It started with the two rappers Notorious BIG and Tupac. They
were once very close friends but then industry gangs got involved and they were consumed by
east coast verse west coast beef. Tupac once rapped about his mother and hardships that he went
through and that the black community is currently going through. Before the tensions grew
Biggie would rap about how the life he was living was once a dream and how hard it was to
make it. Once the industry got involved Tupac and Biggie turned on each other and started
rapping about violence and hate towards the other one. It ended with both of them being killed
by the rival industry/coast. They had such an influence on hip-hop so when they shifted all
rappers started to change what they were rapping about. They started the decline in hip-hop
culture.

Although the shift originally in 1996, it did not completely happen until 2010. At
this point songs became more about sex, money, violence, and how catchy they were. Everything
about hip-hop began to be commercialized.
There were no more rap groups, everyone became an individual artist. If someone
did try to coordinate a group they would have only about fifteen seconds of fame from one
catchy song. Because of the lack of groups and lack of stories to tell it led to more and more
features on tracks. It was more about what A-list celebrity could you get to be in your song,
because that way to get more people to listen to it. This led to rappers like Lil Wayne, Nicki
Minaj, and Chief Keef. Lil Wayne and Chief Keef commonly rap about drugs, women, money,
and they represent gangs openly in their songs. The males now dominate the industry with Nicki
Minaj being the only powerful female. The way Nicki made her way into the industry was by
becoming a sex icon first. She changed her appearance to be what would be considered more
appealing to males today and made very promiscuous songs to establish a fan base. Hip-hop is
also no longer considered an African American community outlet. There are artists like
Macklemore, Iggy, and Eminem who have been considered modern day hip-hop artist. The
purpose for the songs have changed significantly, it is more focused on money instead of the
message. The music videos are also not the same. Videos started to promote violence, had halfnaked people parading around and dancing, they rent out costly foreign cars and/or houses to
shoot the video at. Artists now wear very expensive clothes and jewelry in their videos. Many of
the rappers are now known as thugs, drug dealers, and sluts instead of people of intelligence.
You no longer need to have talent to become famous, as long as your song is easy to remember
and you wear/have flashy things you can get famous.

The real question is why did this change occur? Various factors contributed to the
shift. One being the media. The media has a huge influence on what is relevant to us and what
we find important. The media set the agenda for the nation. Shows like TMZ tell what is going
on the celebrities lives and if something shocking or bad happens they are the first to cover it and
put it on television. Also there are television stations like MTV and BET that plays the most
popular music videos today. So whatever MTV and BET finds to be popular we will typically
agree because we will see that video all the time. Those stations are commonly watched by
teenagers and young adults so it helps the artist establish a fan-base, which is what their ultimate
goal is. This leads to rappers having intricate videos and songs that can be easily remembered so
that they can make it on those stations and/or to the award shows that those stations have. In
2011 MTV had its highest rating of people watching the Video Music Awards since 1993, it hit
12.4 million viewers. At that time 21% of Americas population were between the ages 12-17. So
about 23% of all teens were watching the awards that year. That shows that teens found the show
to have some relevance to their lives if they took time out of their days to watch it. Television
was not the only mass media that had an influence on the shift. The radio also made a big impact.
Back in the 1990s African American radio stations were used to promote black local artists.
They also were used to discuss social issues of their listeners, typically a middle-class African
American. As the years went by corporations bought out the stations. These corporations were
typically owned by white upper-class individuals who took away the power of the DJ so that they
can advertise different things.
Another reason factor that helped the shift was the advance in technology. Social media
such as Myspace and YouTube became very popular. When Myspace was first started it was used
as a way to connect to artists and find out more about who they actually are. In 2008 Myspace

reached its peak and had about 75.9 million visitors per month and 60,000 videos were uploaded
to MyspaceTv every day. One in every four people were on Myspace. Also Myspace connected
people all over the globe, so it helped artists gain more recognition and fans. YouTube has a very
important role in what happens in music. Artists, such as Justin Bieber, were discovered through
YouTube. YouTube is the most popular video site and it have 4 billion videos added per month.
YouTube was established in 2005 and has been growing ever since. Aspiring artist attempt to
please to the viewers so that they can have to same outcome as Bieber, so they do what they
think the majority find interesting/good. Because of these sites rappers have the need to establish
fan bases online since that is the easiest way to reach the most amount of people as possible.
The final significant factor would be the sub-culture of African American. Everyone
wants to keep it real, and to do that they need to make themselves seem as tough as possible.
Violence and drugs are used as ways to get respect and become popular. Gang activity rose up in
the African American community 40 percent from 2009 to 2010. Also drug use/possession rose
up 46 percent higher than it was in 1990. Also the mentality that I do not need anyone became
very strong. Everyone wanted to be more of an individual. Poor youth in disadvantaged areas
started using street crime and disobedience as a well to deal with discontentment more and more.
The artist who still try to preserve the original hip-hop mentality and talents such as, J.
Cole and Kendrick Lamar are known as B-list celebrities and they know it. J. Cole has not had
one feature in any of his albums and he takes pride in that. In an interview he stated that he
wanted to be like the artist from when he was growing up, he wanted to use his music to tell his
story and help the black community realize what is going on around them.
This resulted in a couple of things, one being that hip-hop is no longer used to display
feelings and a way to cope with oppression. Today the music is very aggressive and harsh, it is

referred to as trap music. This phrase is used to describe the music that is full of weapons,
drugs, murders, and the objectifying of women. This is a new form of music that mixes up
fantasy with reality. The rappers start telling stories of things that they have never experienced.
Rappers are discussing lives that they do not live themselves. Because of that the African
American youth become confused, they think that their idols are doing certain things and since
they look up to that person they want to follow in their footsteps, not knowing that the events the
rappers are rapping about never happened to them. You have rappers such as Eminem who said
in an interview that he would never let his daughters listen to his music. Also rappers such as
Future, who when asked admitted that the stuff in one of his most popular songs has never
happened to him but it sounds nice. The artists today are living double lives, who they actually
are and who they think will get them the most fans.

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