Hip-Hop: 1990s 3
The malleable quality of hip-hop music continued to show itself in other combinations, such as with gospel music (dubbed "holy hip-hop," and featuring acts such as Chris Cooper and S.F.C., Preachas in Disguise, and Soldiers for Christ [Colbert 2008]) and with reggaeton (for example, Puerto Rican artists Calle 13 and Daddy Yankee). In addition, in the mid-1990s, the return of soul under the guise of neo-soul led to many singers performing with a hip-hop sensibility, among them Mary J. Blige (the "Queen of Hip-Hop Soul"), Erykah Badu, D'Angelo, and Angie Stone (formerly known as Angie B. of the hip-hop group, Sequence).
A further development that began in the early 1990s saw hip-hop welcoming the participation of artists rapping over live bands. The concept had first been explored in the mid-1980s by the Brooklyn-based collective Stetsasonic. However, the Roots, a hip-hop collective from Philadelphia, took the idea further. Masterminded by MC Black Thought (Tariq Trotter) and drummer Questlove (Ahmir Khalib Thompson), The Roots released their first LP, Do You Want More?!!!??! in 1994, following in 1999 with Things Fall Apart. The latter featured the songwriting craft of poet-songwriter-singer Jill Scott, who penned " You Got Me " performed by hip-hop/neo-soul vocalist Erykah Badu.
Jill Scott followed her successful debut as a songwriter for The Roots with her debut LP, Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds, Vol. 1 (2000), produced by DJ Jazzy Jeff (DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince). Here is the song from that album, " The Way."
By the mid-1990s, rap had attained a dominant position in the musical landscape. As a result, business entrepreneurs and marketing strategists began adopting the term "hip-hop" as an all-encompassing cultural signifier. The term covered all manner of products with a street sensibility expressed via dress styles, language, dance, and an "attitude." Contributing to hip-hop's growing success was the ingenuity and vision of entrepreneurs such as Russell Simmons of Rush Productions and Def Jam Records. In 1992, the latter formed Rush Communications, a media-conglomerate consisting of Phat Farm, a hip-hop clothing line, Def Jam Records, and several television programs with a hip-hop aesthetic. But in the late 1990s, hip-hop's appeal was challenged by the eruption of the West Coast/East Coast feud.
In the wake of the murder of rapper Tupac "2Pac" Shakur in September 1996 and, six months later, of Christopher "Notorious B.I.G." Wallace, a rift developed between West Coast and East Coast rappers. Afrika Bambaataa and other hip-hop veterans expressed growing concerns about the fate of hip-hop culture. As a result, Black community leaders, such as Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam and the Kwame Ture (formerly Stokely Carmichael), invited rap music artists to a one-day summit meeting in Chicago to find peaceful solutions to end the rap-on-rap feud.
