Hip-hop began in the 1970s in New York City’s South Bronx neighborhood as a street-born cultural movement based on four pillars: DJ-ing,
MC-ing (later known as rap), breakdancing, and graffiti art. By the 1980s,
hip-hop was the primary cultural movement of the African American and
Hispanic communities. Mainstream white consumers quickly accepted
hip-hop through movies, music videos, radio play, and media coverage.
Rap, in particular, found a wide multicultural audience and emerged as
one of the most original forms of music in the late twentieth century. Early rap and hip-hop musicians such as LL Cool J (1968–) and the
group Run-DMC spread the sound from New York to California. RunDMC formed in 1982 and watched its first record become the first rapmusic gold album in 1983. MC Hammer (1962–) and Vanilla Ice
(1967–) gave rap music a home on the pop charts, and by the 1990s rap
had left the inner city and branched into many different divisions.
Popular cable television station MTV aided the phenomenon by airing
music videos and gaving artists another means of spreading their music
and image. Tone Loc (1966–), LL Cool J, Queen Latifah (1970–), and
Salt-N-Pepa appeared on the Top 40 charts.
West Coast Gangsta rap emerged in the early 1990s. Gangsta rappers wanted to return the music to its roots: the streets. Dr. Dre (1965–),
N.W.A., and Ice Cube (1969–) sang of the violence of living in the
ghetto (impoverished inner-city areas). Unlike early hard-core rap,
gangsta rap had crossover appeal. Snoop Doggy Dogg (1971–) was one
example of a rapper who could establish a following without concern for
cultural and racial differences. His debut album in 1993 entered the pop
charts in the number-one slot. Gangsta rap became the main genre of the
early 1990s, and the more it sang of guns and drugs, the more popular
it was among white teen audiences in the suburbs. Parents and special interest groups lobbied for stronger restrictions as gangsta rap’s explicit
lyrics filled suburban homes across the nation.
The East Coast was home to a different hip-hop sound. Afrocentric
groups like Jungle Brothers and De La Soul brought a jazzy, intellectual
quality to rap music as they focused their lyrics on black history and
thought. Unlike the West Coast sound, the East Coast sound remained
largely underground and never had the commercial impact of its cousin.
The last half of the 1990s found musicians concerned with holding
on to the roots of hip-hop culture. Recording stars like the Black Eyed
Peas brought back the original sounds of hip-hop that had made it so
popular in the 1970s. True hip-hop musicians criticized hard rap performers like Sean “Puffy” Combs (1969–) for selling out and preferring
commercial success to cultural commitment. The feud between East and
West Coast styles escalated to violence. Both Tupac Shakur (1971–1996)
and The Notorious B.I.G. (also known as Biggie Smalls) (1972–1997)—
two of the decade’s most popular rap artists—were murdered.
Some earlier rappers like Run-DMC wanted to be role models for
African American youth and decried gang involvement while actively participating in social causes. Queen Latifah and others spoke out
against drugs. Others, like Shakur and Smalls, chose to sing about the
ugly reality of poverty, drugs, violence, and life on the streets.
The first decade of the twenty-first century focused the spotlight on
artists who successfully combined the earlier hip-hop sound with the
more hard-core rap. Marshall Mathers (1972–), better known as
Eminem and Slim Shady, was one of the highest-selling musicians of that
decade. In fact, he was one of the highest-selling rap musicians in history. His albums sold over seventy million copies worldwide by 2007,
and he won several Grammy Awards. Although critics have praised
Eminem for his energy, as well as for sparking public interest in poetry, he has also been denounced for his lyrics, which some say promote violence and homophobia (fear of homosexuals) as well as misogyny (hatred
of women). Eminem defies labels, as his music has been categorized as a combination of hip-hop, Gangsta rap, and even pop.