Introduction to Lesson 24

As both a musical genre and a mass culture movement, hip-hop was developed in the United States by inner-city African American and Latino American youth in the Bronx borough of New York City during the 1970s. Since then, the genre has developed more complex styles and spread around the world.

As we explore the foundations of hip-hop, we can categorize hip-hop's development into three loosely organized eras:

1. The Old School Era (1979 to 1987): During this time, hip-hop remained authentic to its countercultural roots. Artists associated with this era include Afrika Bambaataa, DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Grandmaster Caz, Grand Wizard Theodore, Busy Bee, Crazy Legs, Lady Pink, The Sugarhill Gang, Lady B, Big Daddy Kane, Run-D.M.C., and Kurtis Blow, among others.
2. The Golden Age Era (1987 to 1993): Rap and rappers began to take center stage as hip-hop exploded onto the mainstream platform of American popular culture. The tremendous musical production and lyrical content of rap songs artistically eclipsed most of the other primary elements of the culture. Eventually, the recording industry saw rap music as a potential billion-dollar opportunity. Mass mediated rap music and hip-hop videos displaced the intimate, insulated urban development of the culture. Significant artists associated with this era include Run-D.M.C., Boogie Down Productions, Eric B and Rakim, Salt-N-Pepa, Queen Latifah, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest (ATCQ), Public Enemy, N.W.A., and many others.
3. The Platinum Era (From 1994 to approximately 2004): During this time, hip-hop culture has enjoyed the best and worst of what mass-mediated popularity and cultural commodification have to offer. The meteoric rise to the widespread fame of gangsta rap in the early 1990s set the stage for a marked content shift in the lyrical discourse of rap music toward increasingly violent depictions of inner-city realities. Hip-hop sold millions of magazines and records, but two of its most promising artists, Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur, were gunned down in the middle of a media-fueled frenzy between the so-called East and West Coast constituents of hip-hop culture. With the blueprint of popular success for rappers stripped bare, several exceptional artists stepped into the gaping space left in the wake of Biggie and Tupac. This influx of talent included: Nas, Jay-Z, Master_P, DMX, Big_Pun, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and Outkast.