FEATURE of their smash hit ' Rappers Delight ', which became the first rap single to become a Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 . The famous track starts with the lyrics ' I said a hip hop the hippie the hippie to the hip hip hop and you don ' t stop '. From these early days the term hip hop began to be recognised internationally .
In 1982 Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force released the electro-funk track ' Planet Rock '. Bambaataa , with producer Arthur Baker , created an electronic sound , taking advantage of the rapidly improving drum machine Roland TR-808 synthesizer technology . By fusing the two sounds they created a new branch of the hip hop tree . Many ground breaking tracks followed including : ' The Message ' by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five , Man Parrish ' s
' Hip Hop , Be Bop ( Don ' t Stop )' and Warp 9 ' s ' Light Years Away ' to name just a few ! As the 1980 ' s progressed hip hop became more mainstream and tracks like Run-DMC ' s ' It ' s like That ' and Public Enemy ' s ' Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos ' climbed the charts . The global urban community embraced hip hop and the creative freedom it promoted . In this time of growth , the creation of rhythm using the human body was discovered and the vocal percussion technique of beatboxing was born . This paved the way for MC ' s to take centre stage , with free-styling and lyrical poetry taking over ; and Doug E Fresh , Big L and Rakim leading the way .
The music video also played a big part in hip hop ' s growing popularity . This new visual representation , matching the reality reflecting lyrics , changed the game by upping
the entertainment factor . This saw a number of hip hop related movies released like ' Wild Style ' and ' Breakin '. These factors all contributed to hip hop ' s global reach and cemented the art form ' s place , not only in the music industry , but in urban culture internationally .
The hip hop scene was dominated by male voices as labels where reluctant to back female artists . If a female artist did get through , the recording industry would push their sexuality over their musical substance , but of course not all female rappers conformed . Pioneers of the female voice in hip hop include : Lil Kim , Queen Latifah , Salt ' N ' Pepper , MC Lyte , Foxy Brown , Missy Elliott and Lauryn Hill .
In 1988 N . W . A ' s album ' Straight Outta Compton ' was selling at such high numbers it became very clear to the industry that black teens were no longer hip hop ' s sole buying audience . However , Mainstream America was not so thrilled at the rise in the outspoken , raw lyrics many hip hop labels and artists were producing . It was said that these songs and performers were glorifying the thug lifestyle and misleading
the youth to a life a crime by glamorising drugs , sex and the gang lifestyle . Many artists would protest this in interviews , expressing their right to speak freely on political and social matters through their music and often condemning those naive to the reality of the times .
The late 1980 ' s saw the rise of gangsta rap and the lyrical content of hip hop ' s tracks shifted to drugs , violence and misogyny . Ice-T recorded what some consider to be the first gangster rap record , ' 6 N ' the Mornin ' and N . W . A ' s ' Niggaz4Life ' became the first gangsta rap album to enter the charts at number one .
By the 1990 ' s hip hop had grown into a worldwide culture of music , fashion and art . Unfortunately , as the spotlight grew , the darker side of hip hop came out of the shadows . Gang rivalries had always been in the background but now , these stories were leaking into the mainstream news and an East Coast / West Coast gang war was often headlined . The media often associated heavy hitters in the game to stories of murder and gang related violence due to their global fame . Notorious B . I . G
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