New-school hip hop

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  • old-school hip hop
    • Cultural originsEarly 1980s, Queens, Brooklyn, New York CityTypical instruments
    SubgenresGolden age hip hopLocal scenesSouth Bronx, Brooklyn, Hollis, Queens, Jamaica, Queens

    The new school of hip hop was a movement in

    novelty hits, live bands, synthesizers, and party rhymes of artists prevalent in the early 1980s. Compared to their older hip hop counterparts, new school artists crafted more cohesive LPs and shorter songs more amenable to airplay
    . By 1986, their releases began to establish hip hop in the mainstream.

    The somewhat broader era of

    Just Ice, Stetsasonic, True Mathematics, and Mantronix.[7]

    The innovations of Run-D.M.C.,

    Public Enemy, and Eric B. & Rakim. Hip-hop production became denser, rhymes and beats faster, as the drum machine was augmented with sampler technology. Rakim took lyrics about the art of rapping to new heights, while KRS-One and Chuck D pushed "message rap" towards black activism. Native Tongues artists' inclusive, sample-crowded music accompanied their positivity, Afrocentricity, and playful energy. The new school/golden age ended with the eventual commercial dominance of West Coast gangsta rap, particularly the emergence of the relaxed sounds of G-funk by the early nineties, while the East Coast scene became dominated by hardcore rappers such as the Wu-Tang Clan and gangsta rappers such as Nas and The Notorious B.I.G.

    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.

    eponymous group Leaders of the New School (who were named by Chuck D before signing with Elektra in 1989), remains popular. It has been applied to artists ranging from Jay-Z to Lupe Fiasco.[8]

    Prehistory

    Elements of new school had existed in some form in the popular culture since hip-hop's birth. The first

    The Incredible Bongo Band and English rock group Babe Ruth in his block parties.[12] 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.[12][13] By 1975, Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa had taken up Kool Herc's breakbeat style of DJing, each with their own accompanying rappers. Flash was especially associated with an important break known as "The Bells"—a cut-up of the intro to Bob James's jazz 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" and Grand Funk Railroad's "Inside Looking Out" on unsuspecting b-boys.[14]

    The earliest hip-hop records replaced the DJ with a live band playing funk and disco influenced tunes, or "

    electro 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" (

    Grand Wizard Theodore cuts the first six bars of Rufus Thomas's "Do the Funky Penguin" together for five and a half minutes while an MC raps over the top.[18] 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 ..."[19] 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.[20]

    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.[23]

    Advent

    "I Can't Live Without My Radio"
    LL Cool J's second single for the Def Jam label, features heavy beats and boasting raps, reflective of new school and
    ghetto-blaster
    culture.
    Problems playing this file? See media help.

    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 those big

    Check The Technique 2nd. ed., New York: Villard
    , 2007

    It's like That"/"Sucker MCs" "completely changed hip-hop" "rendering everything that preceded it distinctly old school with one fell swoop."[23][25] In a 47-point timeline of hip hop and its antecedents spanning 64 years, Shapiro lists this release as his 43rd point.[25] Reviewing Toop's book in the LA Weekly, Oliver Wang of Soul Sides concurs, hailing Run-D.M.C. as inaugurating the new school of rap.[26]

    Run-D.M.C.

    Three men wearing tracksuits, bowler hats, and gold chains looking into the camera. The Eiffel Tower is in the background.
    Run-D.M.C. on tour in 1986

    Run-D.M.C. rapped over the most sparse of musical backing tracks. In the case of "Sucker MCs", there was a loud, Oberheim DMX drum 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",[27] "frustrated and renunciatory",[28] and just plain "reportage".[29] Run-D.M.C. 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.[30]

    The group's early singles are collected on their

    eponymous debut (Profile, 1984), introducing rock references in "Rock Box", and recognized then and now as the best album of hip hop's early years.[27][31] The next year, they appeared at Live Aid and released King 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".[32] 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. When Raising Hell's producer Rick Rubin heard them playing around with it in the studio, he suggested using the Aerosmith lyrics, and the collaboration between the two groups came about.[33] The album's last track was "Proud To Be Black", written under the influence of Chuck D of the as-yet unrecorded Public Enemy.[34]
    On "My Adidas" the band rapped that they "took the beat from the street and put it on TV".

    Comments from

    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."[35]

    Whodini

    Coming out of the fertile New York rap scene of the early 1980s, Whodini was one of the first rap groups to add a

    breakdance dancers from the group UTFO. Russell Simmons was the manager of the group in the 1980s.[36]

    The group released six studio albums. Fourteen of the group's singles hit the

    RIAA
    .

    In 1984, the group released the second album

    2Pac's "Troublesome '96", to harder edged singles "Freaks Come Out at Nite" and "Big Mouth".[37]

    In 1986, the group released a third album Back 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-driven funk and "Last Night (I Had a Long Talk With...)" was introspective. Paul Kodish, the drummer of Pendulum, was featured on the album.

    Def Jam

    The other production credit on Raising Hell went to Run's brother,

    Licensed To Ill (Def Jam, 1986). In 1987, Raising Hell surpassed three million units sold, and Licensed to Ill five million.[43] Faced with figures like these, major labels finally began buying into independent New York hip hop imprints.[44]

    Further development

    See also: Golden age hip hop

    The Juice Crew

    One of hip hop's most important producers and innovators,

    crossover commercial success for hip hop music.[45]

    Marley Marl's first production was an "answer record" to "Sucker MCs" in 1983 entitled "Sucker DJs" by Dimples D. Soon after came 14-year-old Roxanne Shanté's answer to UTFO's "Roxanne Roxanne", "Roxanne's Revenge" (1985), sparking off the huge wave of answer records known as the Roxanne Wars.[45] More disses (insults intended to show disrespect) from Shanté followed: "Bite This" (1985), "Queen of Rox" (1985), introducing Biz Markie on "Def Fresh Crew" (1986), "Payback" (1987), and perhaps her greatest record, "Have a Nice Day" (1987).[46]

    Boogie Down Productions

    Boogie Down Productions' KRS-One exemplified new school's hardcore and political aesthetics.

    Shante's "Have a Nice Day" had aimed some barbs at the principal two members of a new group from the Bronx called Boogie Down Productions (BDP): "Now KRS-ONE you should go on vacation with that name soundin' like a wack radio station, and as for Scott La Rock, you should be ashamed, when T La Rock said "It's Yours", he didn't mean his name". Boogie Down Productions had manufactured a disagreement with the Juice Crew's MC Shan, releasing "South Bronx" and "The Bridge is Over" in reply to his "The Bridge" and "Kill That Noise" respectively.[47] KRS-One considered Run-D.M.C. the epitome of rap music in 1984 and had begun to rap following their lead.[48] But he has also said that BDP's approach reflected a feeling that the early innovators like Run-D.M.C. and LL Cool J were by 1986 tainted by commercial success and out of touch with the streets.[49]

    Boogie Down's first album

    Stop the Violence Movement at this time. Boogie Down Productions, along with Run-D.M.C. and Public Enemy, associated the new school as rap music with a strong message.[51]

    Eric B. & Rakim

    Eric B. & Rakim appeared with the Marley Marl-produced "Eric B. Is President" and "My Melody" on Zakia Records in 1986. Both tracks appeared on

    Don't Sweat The Technique
    (MCA, 1992).

    Rakim is generally regarded as the most cutting-edge of the MCs of the new school era.[52] Jess Harvell in Pitchfork in 2005 wrote that "Rakim's innovation was applying a patina of intellectual detachment to rap's most sacred cause: talking shit about how you're a better rapper than everyone else."[53] Christgau in the Village Voice in 1990 wrote of Rakim's style as "calm, confident, clear. On their third album, as on their phase-shifting 1986 debut," he continues, "Eric B.'s samples truly are beats, designed to accentuate the natural music of an idealized black man's voice."[54] Looking back at the late eighties in Rolling Stone in 1997, Moralez describes Rakim as "the new-school MC of the moment, using a smooth baritone to become the jazz soloist of mystic Afrocentric rap."[55]

    Public Enemy

    Three men on stage, one of whom is holding a guitar.
    Public Enemy performing in 2011

    Public Enemy, having been reluctantly convinced to sign to a record label, released Yo! Bum Rush the Show on Def Jam in 1987.[56] It debuted the Public Enemy logo, which depicted a hatted b-boy in a sniper's crosshairs, and was replete with battle rhymes ("Miuzi Weighs a Ton", "Public Enemy #1"), social-political fare ("Rightstarter (Message to a Black Man)" and anti-crack messages ("Megablast").[56]

    The album was a critical and commercial success, particularly in Europe, unusually so for a hip hop album at that time.[57] Yo! Bum Rush the Show had been recorded on the heels of Run-D.M.C.'s Raising Hell, but was held back by Def Jam in order for them to concentrate on releasing and promoting the Beastie Boys' License to Ill.[56] Chuck D of Public Enemy felt that by the time their first record was released, BDP and Rakim had already changed the landscape for how an MC could rap.[56] Public Enemy were already recording their second album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (Def Jam, 1988) when Yo! Bum Rush the Show hit stores.[56]

    Gangsta rap

    Main article: Gangsta rap

    The underground sound centered on urban violence that was to become gangsta rap existed on the East Coast from soon after Run–D.M.C. had inaugurated the new school of hip hop. Philadelphia's Schoolly D self-released "Gangsta Boogie" in 1984, and "P.S.K. What Does It Mean?"/"Gucci Time" in 1985, leading to Saturday Night (Schoolly D, 1986, Jive, 1987).[58] The West Coast, which became the home of gangsta rap, had Toddy Tee's influential Batteram mixtape in 1985,[59] and Ice-T's "Six in the Morning" in 1986[60] before N.W.A's first records, leading to the hugely successful Straight Outta Compton in 1988.[61]

    Native Tongues

    Developments in the New York new school continuum in this climate were represented by the

    Brand Nubian.[62][63][64] They moved away from aggressive, macho posturing, towards ambiguity, fun and Afrocentricity. Their music was sample-crowded, more open and accessible than their new school predecessors. De La Soul's debut sampled everyone from The Turtles to Steely Dan, while A Tribe Called Quest matched tough beats to mellow jazz samples and playful, thoughtful raps.[64]

    Notes

    a.

    Tribe Called Quest or something.' After gently picking my jaw from off the floor, I turned back to my crates and wondered to myself, 'If Tribe is old-school, what does that make Kurtis Blow
    ? In utero?'"—Oliver Wang, "Book report", San Francisco Bay Guardian, April 6, 2003.

    b. ^ "I always get frustrated when I see a link to this site on some hipster's blog with a tagline like 'taking it back to the old school', when I very rarely post anything recorded before 1989. I mean, I guess a lot of what I post here is old, but that don't make it old school, yaoming? Like how you gonna call Leaders of the New School old school?"—Noz, "Lady Don't Tek No Beat", Cocaine Blunts and Hip Hop Tapes, January 10, 2005.

    Endnotes

    1. ^ *Caramanica, Jon. "Hip-Hop's Raiders of the Lost Archives", New York Times, June 26, 2005. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.
    2. ^ *Coyle, Jake. "Spin magazine picks Radiohead CD as best", Associated Press, published in USA Today, June 19, 2005.
    3. ^ Wilson, Denis. "Kool Keith Preps New Album, Ponders Retirement". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
    4. ^ Swihart, Stanton. "Critical Beatdown – Ultramagnetic MC's". AllMusic. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
    5. ^ Per Coker, Hodgkinson, Drever, Thill, O'Neal, Parker and Sariq. Additionally:
    6. ^ *Sariq, Roni. "Crazy Wisdom Masters" Archived 2008-11-23 at the Wayback Machine, City Pages, April 16, 1997.
    7. ^ *Scholtes, Peter S. "True MCs" Archived 2012-07-11 at archive.today, City Pages, January 7, 1998. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.
    8. ^ *Dinco D, in conversation with Derek Phifer, "Leader of The New School: Dinco D." Archived 2008-02-22 at the Wayback Machine, HHNLive, October 15, 2007. Retrieved on July 4, 2008.
    9. ^ Toop, p. 14
    10. ^ Toop, p. 17
    11. ^ Hermes, Will. "All Rise for the National Anthem of Hip-Hop", New York Times, October 29, 2006. Retrieved on September 9, 2008.
    12. ^ a b Upshall, David (writer, director, producer). The Hip Hop Years, Part 1, Channel 4, 1999.
    13. ^ Collins, Willie. "James Brown", St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, January 29, 2002. Retrieved on July 17, 2008.
    14. ^ Toop, p. 66
    15. Ross, Andrew. "Old master flash.", Artforum
      , March 1, 1995.
    16. ^ Hager, Steven. "Afrika Bambaataa's Hip-Hop", Village Voice, September 21, 1982. Reprinted in Cepeda, p. 23
    17. ^ Shapiro, p. 4
    18. ^ Toop, p. 67–69
    19. ^ Toop, p. 90
    20. ^ Toop, p. 126
    21. The Source
      , November 1993.
    22. ^ Woodson, AJ. "Whatever Happened to Battles???", On The Go, 1997.
    23. ^ a b Shapiro, p.327
    24. ^ Toop, p. xi
    25. ^ a b Shapiro, p. 401
    26. ^ Wang, Oliver. "Between the Lines", LA Weekly, March 8, 2000. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.
    27. ^ a b Christgau, Robert. Consumer Guide, Village Voice, 1984. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.
    28. ^ Rose, Tricia. "'Fear of a Black Planet': Rap Music and Black Cultural Politics in the 1990s", The Journal of Negro Education, Summer 1991.
    29. ^ Breihan, Tom. "Run-DMC / King of Rock / Raising Hell / Tougher Than Leather" Archived 2008-02-28 at the Wayback Machine, Pitchfork, September 23, 2005. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.
    30. ^ Dennis, Reginald C. "Born Again", The Source, February 1993.
    31. ^ Shapiro, p. 327
    32. ^ Shapiro, p. 327. Shapiro has Raising Hell as the first platinum hip hop album, while Dennis and Coleman ascribe that distinction to King of Rock. RIAA's certification dates [1] [2] (retrieved on July 4, 2008) bear out Shapiro's statement. Though King of Rock may be the earliest release to receive platinum status, it did so after Raising Hell did.
    33. ^ Coleman, p. 401
    34. ^ Coleman, p. 404
    35. ^ Coleman, p. 395.
    36. ^ "Def Jam at 30: The Declarations of an Independent – 1984–1985". rmc.library.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2023-03-26.
    37. ^ "The Best Rap Albums of the '80s". Complex. Retrieved 2023-03-26.
    38. ^ "Def Jam Music Group 10th Anniversary Box Set", Spin magazine, December 1995. Quoted by tower.com.
    39. ^ Hirschberg, Lynn. "The Music Man", New York Times Magazine, September 2, 2007. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.
    40. ^ Holden, Stephen. "From Rock To Rap", New York Times, April 26, 1987. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.
    41. ^ Shapiro, p. 228
    42. ^ Bull, Debby. "Radio", Rolling Stone, April 10, 1986. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.
    43. ^ Holden, Stephen. "Bon Jovi and Bonbons", Pop Life, New York Times, December 30, 1987. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.
    44. ^ Holden, Stephen. "Rap is on a Roll", The Pop Life, New York Times, April 20, 1988. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.
    45. ^
      Rovi Corporation
      . Retrieved 2012-05-01.
    46. ^ Shapiro, p. 196
    47. ^ Coleman, p. 84–85.
    48. ^ Coleman, p. 76
    49. ^ Coleman, p. 86.
    50. ^ Coleman, p. 88
    51. ^ Jackson, Derrick Z. "Welcome To The School Of Rap Music It's in Session Now, And There Are Some Positive Lessons", Boston Globe, August 13, 1989.
    52. ^ Neal, Mark Anthony. "...And Bless the Mic for the Gods: Rakim Allah", PopMatters, November 19, 2003. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.
    53. ^ Harvell, Jess. "Paid in Full/Follow the Leader" Archived 2008-12-10 at the Wayback Machine, Pitchfork, June 2, 2005. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.
    54. ^ Christgau, Robert. Consumer Guide, Village Voice, 1990. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.
    55. ^ Morales, Ed. "Rakim: The 18th Letter/The Book of Life", Rolling Stone, November 10, 1997. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.
    56. ^ a b c d e Coleman, p. 351
    57. ^ Coleman, p. 354
    58. ^ Coleman, p. 406–407
    59. ^ Cross, p. 26–28
    60. ^ Cross, p. 24–5
    61. ^ Cross, p. 33–36
    62. ^ Wang, Oliver. "Howl", LA Weekly, June 28, 2000. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.
    63. ^ Gloden, Gabe. "Brand Nubian Fire in the Hole" Archived 2010-01-28 at the Wayback Machine, Stylus, September 9, 2004. Retrieved on July 2, 2008.
    64. ^ a b Shapiro, p. 210

    References

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