Edwards - The concise guide to hip-hop music : a fresh look at the art of hip-hop, from old-school beats to freestyle rap

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Thanks to my parents, friends, family, agent, and to all the people at St. Martins Press for making this book a reality.

Thanks to Adam Eightzero Wroblewski for all the help, information, input, and discussion. Thanks to all the MCs, beatmakers, and everyone else involved in hip-hop who has contributed to the art form.

Also, thanks to the writers, scholars, journalists, filmmakers, and everyone who has added to hip-hop research, knowledge, and preservation.

The term hip-hop made its first appearance at parties. Keith Cowboy, of the group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, started using the term around 1975, and it was then adopted by other popular rappers of the time.

Kid Creole, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five

On that term Hip Hop. A friend of ours named Billy was about to go to the Army, I think this was 75. We had a party. This was Billys last weekend before shipping out, and Cowboy was on the mic playin around doing that Army cadence: Hip/Hop/Hip/Hop. But he was doin it to music and people was diggin on it. Cowboy was the first one I heard do that to music, as part of his crowd response.

Grandmaster Caz, Cold Crush Brothers

Hip-hop was a word that was first coined by Keith Cowboy and made popular by Lovebug Starski. It was like a bridge between what you were saying, like youre saying a rhyme, and then you get to the end of it and youre going, to the hip, the hop, the hip hip, the hop, it dont stop.

The term was then picked up by the media covering the music at the time. Afrika Bambaataa applied the term to the entire scene, presenting the scene to members of the press as a fully formed movement.

Afrika Bambaataa

[The term hip-hop ] was really from my brothers Love Bug Starski and Keith Cowboy, who were using it in their rhymes. So when [the media] came to ask us what to call the whole thing, I couldve said the go-off, the jim-jam or whatever. But I remembered the rhymes they were doing, so I said, We call this whole culture hip-hop. Because it was hip and you got to hop to the beat.

Steven Hager

Fab 5 Freddy introduced me to Afrika Bambaataa, and Afrika Bambaataa told me that the name of the culture was hip-hop . Thats the first time I ever heard the word hip-hop in my life. The first time it appears in print, as far as I know, is when I write my first article for the Village Voice on Afrika Bambaataa [in 1982].

Hip-Hop Music

Hip-hop generally signifies the musical genre, and the term has spread around the world due to the proliferation of hip-hop albums and singles. Some of the worlds most popular and acclaimed music stars are hip-hop artists. When people express opinions on the state of hip-hop and where hip-hop is going, they are usually referring to hip-hop as a musical genre.

Lord Jamar, Brand Nubian

Hip-hop is one of the most influential musics in the world. Theres so many different genres of hip-hop now. Theres hip-hop that you hear on the radio, and theres the hip-hop that you dont get to hear, [where] the flows are dope and theyre moving hip-hop forward in a different kind of way. And theres hip-hop that you get to hear all the time thats not doing that, thats dumbing it down, thats making it more simple, and theyre not doing what I would like to see done.

Buckshot, Black Moon

Hip-hop is surviving, longer than a lot of music has. Its surviving longer than disco, longer than [other genres]. Hip-hop has changed, but hip-hop is great, man, hip-hop to me is a beautiful, beautiful thing and in a beautiful place because every time theres a new young generation theres a new form to give them, thats still hip-hop.

The two main elements that make up hip-hop music are rapping and beatmaking. These are sometimes referred to as simply beats and rhymes , where rhymes refers to rapping, while beats are the instrumental tracks that are rapped over.

Artists and fans often use the term beats and rhymes when theyre talking about the essence of the music. If a song is stripped back to just hard beats and rhymes, it could be considered more authentic than songs with elaborate choruses and melodies, which take the focus off the two central ingredients.

DJ Premier

His new album is strictly hard beats and rhymes.

J-Ro, Tha Alkaholiks

The album basically, its a lot of hard beats and rhymes

Inspectah Deck, Wu-Tang Clan

The classic Hip Hop beats and rhymes of the 90s and before

The term beats and rhymes is used often throughout the music, as in the title of A Tribe Called Quests album Beats, Rhymes, & Life , and in the lyrics of many other notable artists songs, such as Gang Starrs Stay Tuned, De La Souls Verbal Clap, Queen Latifahs Ladies First, LL Cool Js Cant Think, and Dilated Peoples 20/20.

Rapping

Rapping, also known as MCing, refers to performing lyrics rhythmically to a beat as a type of vocal percussion, often with a heavy emphasis on rhyming and rhyme schemes.

Tech N9ne

Having the rhythm to being able to stay on beat, it made me sort of like a percussionist. I always wanted to play drums, so if you listen to my flow its like Im beating on bongos or something.

Rah Digga

I like all the phrases, the whole line, to rhyme if I can help it. Instead of just the last two syllables in the line and two lines that rhyme, I like to rhyme four, five, six, seven syllables, like the whole line if I could, for as long as I can.

This is done by a rapper or MC (master of ceremonies)these two terms are usually used interchangeably with no difference in meaning, although some artists make distinctions. MC is sometimes used to imply a greater degree of live performance skill.

Buckshot, Black Moon

A rapper is somebody who can rap on the mic and sound good and flow good and do it onto a beat and everything. An MC can grab that mic and control a party [like] Doug E. Fresh hes a master of the ceremony, hes an MC.

One Be Lo, Binary Star

Okay, Im gonna be real picky about this. To me its the difference between a rapper and an MC. Some people make amazing albums which makes them great, [where you say,] Hes a great recording artist, but he aint a great MC, he cant rock the crowd. Most artists in general, I just think cats dont know how to rock the mic [at a live event]. Even people thats making amazing music, they still dont know how to perform. A lot of these cats, regardless of their level of talent and skill or whatever, they just dont know how to rock the crowds, so thats some MC shit to me. MCing is something totally different to me and only very few people can do that.

Another use of the terms is to suggest that rappers are more commercially focused and less skillful, while MCs are more genuine, authentic, and proficient.

KRS-One

An MC is a representative of hip-hop culture. A rapper is representative of corporate interests. An MC can be a rapper, but a rapper will never be an MC. What we have today, are rappers.

MC Lyte

When youre an MC, you completely know the difference, you know whats real. You know whats generated from the heart when you hear it. When I listen to [artists like] Nas, Jay-Z, those are MCs. But then you have rappers theyre kinda skating along, theyre not risk takers.