Hip Hop around the World [2 volumes]: An Encyclopedia 978-0313357589, 0313357587

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Hip Hop around the World

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Hip Hop around the World An Encyclopedia

VOLUMES I and II: A-Z

Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith and Anthony J. Fonseca, Editors

Copyright © 2019 by ABC-­CLIO, LLC All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other­wise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-­in-­Publication Data Names: Goldsmith, Melissa Ursula Dawn, editor. | Fonseca, Anthony J., editor. Title: Hip hop around the world : an encyclopedia / Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith and Anthony J. Fonseca, editors. Description: Santa Barbara, California : Greenwood, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018009510 (print) | LCCN 2018011517 (ebook) | ISBN 9780313357596 (ebook) | ISBN 9780313357589 (hardcover : set : acid-free paper) | ISBN 9781440849466 (hardcover : vol. 1 : acid-free paper) | ISBN 9781440849473 (hardcover : vol. 2 : acid-free paper) Subjects: LCSH: Rap (Music)—Encyclopedias. | Hip-hop—Encyclopedias. Classification: LCC ML102.R27 (ebook) | LCC ML102.R27 H56 2018 (print) | DDC 782.42164903—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018009510 ISBN: 978-0-313-35758-9 (set) 978-1-4408-4946-6 (vol. 1) 978-1-4408-4947-3 (vol. 2) 978-0-313-35759-6 (ebook) 23  22  21  20  19   1  2  3  4  5 This book is also available as an eBook. Greenwood An Imprint of ABC-­CLIO, LLC ABC-­CLIO, LLC 130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911 Santa Barbara, California 93116​-­1911 www​.­abc​-­clio​.­com This book is printed on acid-­f ree paper Manufactured in the United States of Amer­i­ca

In memory of Duane Robinson, our wonderful neighbor and friend. We w ­ ill miss your smile. The Acad­emy of M ­ usic was lucky to have had you all t­hose years.

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Contents

List of Entries  ix Guide to Related Topics  xvii Preface  xxv Acknowl­edgments  xxix Introduction xxxi Chronology xxxvii Entries  1 Appendix 1. Frequently Mentioned Hip Hop Artists  779 Appendix 2. The 100 Most Influential Global Hip Hop Rec­ord Labels  785 Appendix 3. Editor-­Recommended Top Hip Hop M ­ usic Videos Worldwide  789 Appendix 4. Hip Hop Films and Documentaries  793 Appendix 5. Countries with Severely Restricted Underground Activity  801 Glossary  803 Selected Bibliography  821 About the Editors and Contributors  827 Index  833

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List of Entries

Above the Law Aceyalone Af­ghan­i­stan Afrika Bambaataa Akon Albania Algeria Allen, Harry Angola Ant Banks Antipop Consortium Anwar, Joni Argentina Ashanthi Ashanti Asia One Australia Austria Awadi, Didier Babyface Bahamadia The Bahamas Bangladesh Banks, Azealia Barbados Battling Beastie Boys Beatboxing

Belarus Belgium Ben Sharpa Benin Bermuda Beyoncé Big D ­ addy Kane Big Pun Birdman Black Eyed Peas Black Nationalism Blige, Mary J. Bliss n’ Eso Blondie Bolivia Bolon and Bolon Player The Bomb Squad Boogie Down Productions Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bounce Brand Nubian Brazil Breakdancing Brick City Club Briggs Brotha Lynch Hung Brothablack

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Brown, James Brunei Bubba Sparxxx ­Bubbles Bulgaria Burkina Faso Busta Rhymes Cambodia Cameroon Campbell, Don Canada Cape Verde Celtic Hip Hop Chance the Rapper Chap Hop The Chemical ­Brothers Chicano Rap Chile China Chopper Christian Hip Hop Christie Z-­Pabon Chuck D Clowning C-­Murder Coldcut Colombia Common Com­pany Flow Compton’s Most Wanted Congo Coolio Costa Rica Crazy Legs C-­Real Crip Walk Croatia

List of Entries

Crunkcore Cuba Cumbia Rap Cut Chemist Cypress Hill Cyprus Czech Republic Da Brat Daara J dälek Danger Mouse Das EFX Das Racist Davenport, N’Dea Davey D Davy D Day, Wendy De La Soul Denmark Die Antwoord Dilated ­Peoples Dirty Rap Dirty South Disability Hip Hop DJ Babu DJ Bobcat DJ Jazzy Jeff DJ QBert DJ Rap DJ Shadow DJ Spinderella DJ Vadim DMX The Dominican Republic Doug E. Fresh Dr. Dre Drake



List of Entries xi

D12 Dubstep East Timor Eazy-­E Ecuador Eedris Abdulkareem Egypt EL El Salvador eLDee The Electric Boogaloos Elliott, Missy Eminem Enow, Stanley EPMD Equatorial Guinea Eric B. and Rakim Erykah Badu Estelle Estonia Ethiopia Fab Five Freddy Fashion Fatback Band 50 Cent Fiji Filmmaking (Documentaries) Filmmaking (Feature Films Made in the United States) Filmmaking (Feature Films Made outside the United States) Finland Five ­Percent Nation Flavor Flav France Franti, Michael Frosty Freeze Fugees

Gabon The Gambia Gamblerz Gang Starr Gangs (United States) Gangsta Rap Germany Geto Boys G-­Funk Ghana Glitch Hop Graffiti Art Grandmaster Flash GrandWizard Theodore Greece Grime Griot Guadeloupe Guatemala Guinea-­Bissau Haiti Hancock, Herbie Hardcore Hip Hop Heap, Imogen Hieroglyphics Hill, Lauryn Hilltop Hoods Hip Hop Dance Hip Hop Diplomacy Hip Hop Pantsula Hip House Horrorcore Hungary Hype Man Ice Cube Ice Prince Iceland

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Ice-­T Iggy Azalea India Indonesia Industrial Hip Hop Intik Invisibl Skratch Piklz Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Ivory Coast Ivy Queen J Dilla Jaa9 and OnklP Jam Master Jay Jamaica Japan Jay-­P Jay-­Z Jean Grae Jerkin’ Jesse Jagz Jinjo Crew Jones, Quincy Jordan Juice Crew Jungle ­Brothers Just D Karpe Diem Kazakhstan Keko Ken Swift Kendrick Lamar ­Kenya K’naan

List of Entries

Kool Herc Kool Moe Dee Koolism ­Korea KRS-­One Krumping Kurtis Blow Kuwait Kwaito Laos The Last Poets The Latin Kings Latvia Lebanon Les Nubians Lesotho Libya Lil’ Kim Lil Wayne Lithuania LL Cool J The LOX Ludacris Luke Lyrical Hip Hop Macedonia Macklemore and Ryan Lewis Madagascar Mafioso Rap Malawi Malaysia The Maldives Mali Malta Marley Marl Martinique Marxman



Massive Monkees Master P Mauritius MBS MC mc chris MC Frontalot MC Hammer MC Lars MC Lyte MC Opi MC Solaar Melle Mel Merenrap Mexico M.I. M.I.A. Miami Bass Mix Master Mike Moana and the Moahunters Molekane, Tumi Mongolia Montenegro Morning of Owl Morocco Mos Def Motswako Mozambique Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer Mr. Len Myanmar Naeto C Namibia Nas Nation of Islam Native Tongues Neo Soul

List of Entries xiii

Nepal Nerdcore The Netherlands New Jack Swing New York City Breakers New Zealand Nicki Minaj Niger Nigeria 9th Won­der Norway The Notorious B.I.G. N.W.A. Oman Otara Millionaires Club OutKast Pakistan Palestine Panama Panjabi Hit Squad Panjabi MC Paris City Breakers Peru Pharrell The Philippines Pitbull Poland Po­liti­cal Hip Hop Poor Righ­teous Teachers Pop’in Pete Popmaster Fabel Popping and Locking Portugal Positive Black Soul Professor Elemental Professor Jay Prophets of da City

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P-­Square PSY Public ­Enemy Puerto Rico Puff ­Daddy Quarashi Queen Latifah Queen Pen Reggae Reggaetón Rihanna Rob Base and DJ E-­Z Rock Rob Swift Robinson, Sylvia The Robot Roc Raida Rock Steady Crew Rokafella Romania The Roots Roxanne Shanté Run-­D.M.C. Russia Ruthless Rap Assassins Salt-­N-­Pepa Samoa Sarkodie Saudi Arabia Scott, Jill Scott-­Heron, Gil Senegal The Sequence Serbia Shaggy Shebang! Sierra Leone Singapore

List of Entries

­Sisters Underground Slick Rick Slovakia Slovenia Smif-­N-­Wessun Smith, ­Will Snap Snoop Dogg Somalia South Africa Spain Spoonie Gee Sri Lanka Stetsasonic Sudan The Sugarhill Gang Suge Knight Sway Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Swizz Beatz Syria Taiwan Talib Kweli Tanzania Tech N9ne Thailand Thaitanium Tijoux, Ana Timbaland T.I.P. Crew TLC Togo Trap A Tribe Called Quest Trinidad and Tobago



Trip Hop Tuks Senganga Tunisia Tupac Shakur Turkey Turntablism 1200 Techniques 2 Live Crew Uganda Ukraine The United Kingdom The United States The Universal Zulu Nation Upper Hutt Posse Uprock Urban Species

List of Entries xv

Venezuela Vietnam The Virgin Islands The Welfare Poets West, Kanye ­will.i.am Wiz Khalifa World Famous Beat Junkies Wu-­Tang Clan The X-­Ecutioners Yemen Young Paperboyz Zambia Zeus Zimbabwe

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Guide to Related Topics

ARTISTS Above the Law Aceyalone Afrika Bambaataa Akon Allen, Harry Ant Banks Antipop Consortium Anwar, Joni Ashanthi Ashanti Asia One Awadi, Didier Babyface Bahamadia Banks, Azealia Beastie Boys Ben Sharpa Beyoncé Big D ­ addy Kane Big Pun Birdman Black Eyed Peas Blige, Mary J. Bliss n’ Eso Blondie The Bomb Squad

Boogie Down Productions Brand Nubian Briggs Brotha Lynch Hung Brothablack Brown, James Bubba Sparxxx ­Bubbles Busta Rhymes Campbell, Don Chance the Rapper The Chemical ­Brothers Christie Z-­Pabon Chuck D C-­Murder Coldcut Common Com­pany Flow Compton’s Most Wanted Coolio Crazy Legs C-­Real Cut Chemist Cypress Hill Da Brat Daara J

xviii

dälek Danger Mouse Das EFX Das Racist Davenport, N’Dea Davey D Davy D Day, Wendy De La Soul Die Antwoord Dilated ­Peoples DJ Babu DJ Bobcat DJ Jazzy Jeff DJ QBert DJ Rap DJ Shadow DJ Spinderella DJ Vadim DMX Doug E. Fresh Dr. Dre Drake D12 Eazy-­E Eedris Abdulkareem EL eLDee The Electric Boogaloos Elliott, Missy Eminem Enow, Stanley EPMD Eric B. and Rakim Erykah Badu Estelle Fab Five Freddy

Guide to Related Topics

Fatback Band 50 Cent Flavor Flav Franti, Michael Frosty Freeze Fugees Gamblerz Gang Starr Geto Boys Grandmaster Flash GrandWizard Theodore Hancock, Herbie Heap, Imogen Hieroglyphics Hill, Lauryn Hilltop Hoods Hip Hop Pantsula Ice Cube Ice Prince Ice-­T Iggy Azalea Intik Invisibl Skratch Piklz Ivy Queen J Dilla Jaa9 and OnklP Jam Master Jay Jay-­P Jay-­Z Jean Grae Jesse Jagz Jinjo Crew Jones, Quincy Juice Crew Jungle ­Brothers Just D Karpe Diem



Guide to Related Topics xix

Keko Ken Swift Kendrick Lamar K’naan Kool Herc Kool Moe Dee Koolism KRS-­One Kurtis Blow The Last Poets The Latin Kings Les Nubians Lil’ Kim Lil Wayne LL Cool J The LOX Ludacris Luke Macklemore and Ryan Lewis Marley Marl Marxman Massive Monkees Master P MBS mc chris MC Frontalot MC Hammer MC Lars MC Lyte MC Opi MC Solaar Melle Mel M.I. M.I.A. Mix Master Mike Moana and the Moahunters Molekane, Tumi

Morning of Owl Mos Def Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer Mr. Len Naeto C Nas Native Tongues New York City Breakers Nicki Minaj 9th Won­der The Notorious B.I.G. N.W.A. Otara Millionaires Club OutKast Panjabi Hit Squad Panjabi MC Paris City Breakers Pharrell Pitbull Poor Righ­teous Teachers Pop’in Pete Popmaster Fabel Positive Black Soul Professor Elemental Professor Jay Prophets of da City P-­Square PSY Public ­Enemy Puff ­Daddy Quarashi Queen Latifah Queen Pen Rihanna Rob Base and DJ E-­Z Rock Rob Swift Robinson, Sylvia

xx

Guide to Related Topics

Roc Raida Rock Steady Crew Rokafella The Roots Roxanne Shanté Run-­D.M.C. Ruthless Rap Assassins Salt-­N-­Pepa Sarkodie Scott, Jill Scott-­Heron, Gil The Sequence Shaggy Shebang! ­Sisters Underground Slick Rick Smif-­N-­Wessun Smith, W ­ ill Snoop Dogg Spoonie Gee Stetsasonic The Sugarhill Gang Suge Knight Sway Swizz Beatz

Talib Kweli Tech N9ne Thaitanium Tijoux, Ana Timbaland T.I.P. Crew TLC A Tribe Called Quest Tuks Senganga Tupac Shakur 1200 Techniques 2 Live Crew The Universal Zulu Nation Upper Hutt Posse Urban Species The Welfare Poets West, Kanye ­will.i.am Wiz Khalifa World Famous Beat Junkies Wu-­Tang Clan The X-­Ecutioners Young Paperboyz Zeus

CONCEPTS Battling Beatboxing Black Nationalism Bolon and Bolon Player Disability Hip Hop Fashion Filmmaking (Documentaries) Filmmaking (Feature Films Made in the United States)

Filmmaking (Feature Films Made outside the United States) Five ­Percent Nation Gangs (United States) Griot Hip Hop Diplomacy Hype Man MC Nation of Islam Turntablism



COUNTRIES Af­ghan­i­stan Albania Algeria Angola Argentina Australia Austria The Bahamas Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Benin Bermuda Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Chile China Colombia Congo Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark The Dominican Republic

Guide to Related Topics xxi

East Timor Ec­ua­dor Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Estonia Ethiopia Fiji Finland France Gabon The Gambia Germany Ghana Greece Guadeloupe Guatemala Guinea-­Bissau Haiti Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Ivory Coast Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan ­Kenya ­Korea Kuwait

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Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Libya Lithuania Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia The Maldives Mali Malta Martinique Mauritius Mexico Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nepal The Netherlands New Zealand Niger Nigeria Norway Oman Pakistan Palestine Panama Peru The Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico

Guide to Related Topics

Romania Rus­sia Samoa Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Somalia South Africa Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tanzania Thailand Togo Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Uganda Ukraine The United Kingdom The United States Venezuela Vietnam The Virgin Islands Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe



STYLES Bounce Breakdancing Brick City Club Celtic Hip Hop Chap Hop Chicano Rap Chopper Christian Hip Hop Clowning Crip Walk Crunkcore Cumbia Rap Dirty Rap Dirty South Dubstep Gangsta Rap G-­Funk Glitch Hop Graffiti Art Grime Hardcore Hip Hop Hip Hop Dance Hip House

Guide to Related Topics xxiii

Horrorcore Industrial Hip Hop Jerkin’ Krumping Kwaito Lyrical Hip Hop Mafioso Rap Merenrap Miami Bass Motswako Neo Soul Nerdcore New Jack Swing Po­liti­cal Hip Hop Popping and Locking Reggae Reggaetón The Robot Snap Trap Trip Hop Uprock

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Preface

Hip Hop around the World is a comprehensive reference on global hip hop culture. Its main audience is high school and college/university students, but we hope that it ­will appeal to educators, researchers, scholars, journalists, aficionados, interested laypersons, and hip hop prac­ti­tion­ers themselves. Its focus is, like hip hop itself, primarily ­music; however, other aspects of hip hop culture—­art, dance, fashion, lit­er­a­t ure, education, cultural movements, marketing, and global history—­are also addressed through the source’s entries, appendices, references, and front m ­ atter. Hip Hop around the World has over 450 entries that fall ­under the umbrella topics artists, concepts, countries, and styles. Entries suggest further reading, listening, and/or viewing about specific subject ­matter. Musicians, dancers, band names, concepts, and countries for entries w ­ ere suggested by some of the scholars (see Acknowl­edgments) who contributed to ­these two volumes. We started with that list and amended it as we discovered influential and historically impor­tant p­ eople and concepts. The length of an entry is based on the size of the artist’s contribution to hip hop. For countries, we deci­ded that complete inclusion was necessary to give a full picture of the global hip hop scene; therefore, even countries where hip hop is just getting a foothold, as well as countries where it is outlawed and practiced only underground (and therefore is more difficult to document), are included. Since this is a book on a global phenomenon, many of the band, song title, and ­album title names are in other languages. We did the best we could to translate, ­either literally or roughly, taking into account idioms when pos­si­ble, all names in other languages. We also consulted native speakers. We appreciate the help of our colleagues (noted in the Acknowl­edgments) in this endeavor. HOW TO USE T ­ HESE VOLUMES Entries are arranged alphabetically. A list of entries is provided at the beginning of each volume, and dictionary-­style ­r unning heads at the top of each page assist in locating entries. For a list of entries arranged by subject, see the “Guide to Related Topics” section, located ­after the list of entries in each volume. Individual entries direct readers to related entries through “See also” listings, which appear at the end of the entries. In the index, page numbers for main entries appear in bold type for easy identification and location.

xxvi Preface

We attempted to supply inclusive birth and death dates for all ­people mentioned in ­these two volumes as well as dates when bands, dance crews, rec­ord labels, and movements began and ended. Such a practice helps to give context to the names to which dates are applied, allowing readers to infer at a glance a person’s, band’s, dance crew’s, or rec­ord label’s con­temporary events and entities, thus supplying one form of historical context. In cases where we could not discover a hip hop artist’s real name, we note that person as anonymous. Though we tried to avoid anonymous artists (­because of the prob­lem of verifying his or her facts), in some cases we could not; some artists have chosen to remain anonymous for po­liti­cal and personal reasons and have hidden their identities well. As mentioned, we attempted to include all birth and death (and start and end) dates. To do this, we consulted ­music databases such as WorldCat, MusicBrainz, Discogs, IMDB, and AllMusic as well as biographical encyclopedias. In cases where variant dates existed, we took the one most agreed on by the most recent sources. When finding a date was not pos­si­ble, we denote this with ­either an n.d. designation, which means that no date could be found, or with an asterisk (*) ­after the date, if that date had to be inferred. For example, a 2016 interview that refers to a living person as 25 years old would lead to an inference of that person’s being born around 1991, which would be represented as follows: (1991*–). In a case where an entire date range had to be inferred (both birth and death or start and end dates), the asterisk is placed outside the parentheses that enclose the entire date range, as follows: (1992–2016)*. TYPES OF ENTRIES Several kinds of entries can be found in this encyclopedia: Beyond artists, concepts, countries, and styles, medium-­sized and lengthy entries such as “Australia,” “Fashion,” “Gangsta Rap,” “India,” “Horrorcore,” “Po­liti­cal Hip Hop,” “Public ­Enemy,” “Reggae,” “Tanzania,” and “Trip Hop” have subheadings that are also indexed. “Bhangra,” ­u nder “India,” for example, is a specific kind of traditional ­music and dance from India that has led to bhangra-beat, which combines traditional Punjabi m ­ usic with hip hop. ADDITIONAL FEATURES A chronology of significant moments in global hip hop follows the Introduction in volume 1. The timeline traces hip hop not only as its development unfolded in the United States, where it started, but as it spread internationally. Among many details, it includes interactions between American and international artists, emerging subgenres and techniques, first crews, debut recordings, and accomplishments that have entered the mainstream. It also shows how several artists have appeared often during hip hop’s development. Following the entries in volume 2 are five appendices, a glossary, and a selected bibliography. Appendix 1, “Frequently Mentioned Hip Hop Artists,” lists the stage

Preface xxvii

names or nicknames, real names, birth dates, and place of births of ­these artists. With the exception of artists’ entries, names in this appendix are abbreviated to stage name and years for the purpose of conciseness and readability. Appendix 2, “The 100 Most Influential Global Hip Hop Rec­ord Labels,” lists names of labels, their years of operation, and their locations. When compiling a list of videos, the editors observed that many artists do not have financial access to quality ­music video filmmaking as experienced in most first-­world countries. Therefore, Appendix 3, “Editor-­Recommended Top Hip Hop ­Music Videos Worldwide,” rather than claiming to list the most impor­tant videos, offers ­music videos that employ appealing visual and narrative ele­ments or creative use of resources. Appendix 4, “Hip Hop Films and Documentaries,” lists full-­length motion pictures and documentaries that ­either focus on hip hop or use hip hop as a backdrop. Appendix 5, “Countries with Severely Restricted Underground Activity,” lists countries in which governments restrict underground activity so much that hip hop is greatly threatened ­there and l­ittle or no verifiable activity exists. The glossary provides vocabulary and definitions that often appear in hip hop and ­music as well as in this book. Fi­nally, the selected bibliography includes books focusing on hip hop and lists of journals and periodicals that frequently cover hip hop.

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Acknowl­edgments

Our contributors include hip hop scholars, ethnomusicologists, musicologists, comparatists, literary specialists, theatre and film scholars, communications and rhetorical studies scholars, anthropologists and sociologists, historians, and professional writers and editors as well as ­music industry, dance, and theatre prac­ti­tion­ers. This is a fitting group of scholars given hip hop’s interdisciplinary nature: it is not merely a ­music phenomenon but a series of dance, art, sociopo­liti­cal, fashion, teaching, and literary movements. Hip hop is an all-­encompassing lifestyle that goes well beyond its m ­ usic. ­Because of this, this large proj­ect required a g­ reat deal of organ­ ization, painstaking attention to detail, and ­handling what seemed at times like endless streams of real-­time information on musicians, dancers, scholarship, and even language studies. The support that we have received from ABC-­CLIO was invaluable to accomplishing and refining our vision and writing. We are grateful to acquisitions editors Rebecca Matheson and Catherine M. Lafuente. Becky was our first contact and walked us through the proj­ect’s initial steps, and Catherine answered all our questions and kept us informed (and encouraged) as we got ­toward the midpoint and end of the proj­ect. Throughout the proj­ect, we worked with development editor Patrick Hall, who made suggestions on ­every draft of the book’s manuscript and gave sage advice whenever we had writing questions—­all with thoughtfulness, efficiency, and a much-­needed sense of humor. We thank hip hop scholar and musicologist Felicia Miyakawa and hip hop aficionado Teresa Sessions Peacock, who offered suggestions on entries based on reading early (and very rough) drafts of this proj­ect’s lists of potential subjects. They asked impor­tant questions that helped us further shape the book. We appreciate early correspondence, contributor recommendations, and/or proj­ect suggestions made to us by Phil Ford, Travis L. Gosa, John Howland, Loren Kajikawa, Jennifer Roth-­Burnette, Amanda Sewell, Marie Sumner Lott, Scott Warfield, and Paige A. Willson. The world is a large place, and neither editors nor contributors could have traveled extensively everywhere hip hop has been. Without the help of contacts from around the world who have provided cultural and historical information as well as advice on translations and rendering idiosyncratic phrases in En­glish, this book would not have been nearly as comprehensive. ­Here we would like to thank Neha Chitrakar, Howard Fredrics, Xiomara Demeterio Glyndmeyer, Kheng Keow Koay,

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Acknowl­edgments

Babacar M’Baye, and Champika Ranasinghe as well as Latvian rapper and producer ansis (Ansis Kolmanis). We are especially grateful to Danielle Keyes for her thorough work as fact-­ checker. Danielle provided an extra pair of editorial eyes throughout the entries and appendices. Her patience throughout the pro­cess of continually updating names, dates, and places helped make the professionalism of this book a real­ity. The timeline included ­here would not have been pos­si­ble without her hard work and keen eye. We also appreciate Valerie Lavender and Steve Berlin, Jim and Pat Gallant, Amy Baker, and Latisha Rocke; our colleagues at the ­Music Department at Westfield State University and Elms College Alumnae Library; our students in ­music appreciation, world ­music, and freshmen year seminar; and every­one who lives in the ­little blue Victorian ­house. ­These friends graciously filled much-­needed breaks with good conversation and encouragement. Fi­nally, we wish to express our gratitude to our favorite writing haven, Northampton, Mas­sa­chu­setts’s La Fiorentina, in our ­humble opinion the best l­ ittle pastry shop in the world.

Introduction

Hip hop may have begun in the United States, but hip hop culture has global roots. During hip hop’s formative years, exchanges between artists from the United States and artists who ­were ­either in other countries or part of the American immigrant experience took place. This resulted in fusions such as jazz and slam poetry, American (rooted in West African and Eu­ro­pean) and Latin American dance, and graffiti and fine art—­all of which led to the emergence of hip hop culture’s basic ele­ments: ­music that uses rap and beatmaking; dance that includes breakdancing (b-­boying and b-­girling), popping and locking, clowning, krumping, roboting, and other moves and styles; graffiti ranging from lettering and stenciling to highly detailed spraying techniques; fashion that functions and serves as expression for ­those living within hip hop culture; lit­er­a­t ure that focuses on hip hop ele­ments and history but may also embrace writings by proponents of Black Nationalism, the Nation of Islam, or the Five ­Percent Nation; and education that emphasizes hip hop—­its arts and approaches to life—­while prioritizing ­those who have felt like second-­class citizens in the mainstream formal classroom (e.g., minorities, immigrants, and the poor). A brief exploration of hip hop’s early history shows how quickly globally related interactions within the culture took place. The Last Poets (1968–), a band from Harlem, New York, was one of hip hop ­music’s earliest influences, using rapping, emceeing, and beatboxing. Though personnel changed early on, the band’s activities ­were an exchange among African American, West African, and Puerto Rican cultures and ­music, as well as among members who ­were strongly involved in black and Puerto Rican nationalist movements. In brief, hip hop dance’s formative years show several cultural exchanges. By the early 1970s on the West Coast, a dance crew known as the Lockers had been founded by African American and Italian American choreographers Don Campbell (1951–) and Toni Basil (Antonia Christina Basilotta, 1943–), merging street dancing (such as popping and locking) and funk dance moves with more formalized jazz and modern dance. By the mid to late 1970s, breakdancing crews such as Rock Steady Crew (RSC, 1977–) had emerged in the Bronx, also revealing an exchange between African American and Puerto Rican artists. At this time, graffiti was beginning to be perceived as art rather than just vandalism, with central figures such as Fab Five Freddy (1959–), Lee Quiñones (George Lee Quiñones, 1960–), and Jean-­Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) being celebrated at New York City art gallery shows. Beyond stencil, lettering, and spray techniques, graffiti art could combine pop and expressionist art, or orishas

xxxii Introduction

and iconic images of Malcolm X or Martin Luther King Jr., among other kinds of ele­ments. Meanwhile, deejaying and turntablism developed, emerging first with DJ Kool Herc (aka Kool DJ Herc, DJ Kool Herc, Clive Campbell, 1955–), whose f­ amily immigrated from Kingston, Jamaica, to the Bronx when he was 12 years old. Inspired by the Jamaican sound systems, dancehall deejaying, and use of two turntables, Kool Herc figured out how to stretch the duration of a breakbeat, giving dancers more time with their favorite segment of funk ­music, and initiated both vocal deejaying and turntablism techniques in the United States. Hip hop’s fastest global reach was to countries where Americans could bring artifacts like sound recordings and films, disseminate ­music, or teach ele­ments of hip hop like breakdancing. Graffiti was the only exception, since it can be traced back to ancient times in many parts of the world. T ­ hese countries show that having access and an openness to street art was the most impor­tant ­factor for hip hop’s immediate popularity. Puerto Rico and countries in the Ca­rib­bean such as Jamaica are just a few examples of countries where American hip hop became popu­lar close to the same time as its emergence in the United States; however, both American Samoa and Samoa (known as Western Samoa ­until 1997) also had a very early interest in and exposure to hip hop that was fortified by New Zealand’s interest in hip hop. A second and much larger fertile ground for hip hop’s reception was a set of countries that already had a m ­ usic industry and w ­ ere active in a global exchange of ­music, especially with hits. For example, the first commercial release of a rap song, the Sugarhill Gang’s (1979–1985, 1994–) “Rapper’s Delight” (1979), not only charted at No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the first hip hop song to reach the Top 40 in the United States; between 1979 and 1980, it also charted in a Top 5 position in Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. In addition, the song reached Top 40 positions in Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand. The single ­album, which went double Platinum in the United States, attained Platinum status in Canada, Gold in Spain, and Silver in the United Kingdom. Two songs and their ­music videos released shortly ­after “Rapper’s Delight” helped solidify the international presence of rap in popu­lar ­music: Blondie’s (1974–1982, 1997–) “Rapture” (1980) from the United States and Malcolm McLaren’s (1946–2010) “Buffalo Gals” (1982) from the United Kingdom. “Rapture” was No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States and reached the Top 40 in ­every country where “Rapper’s Delight” charted in addition to Finland. “Buffalo Gals” had much less of a chart reach, never making it to the Billboard Hot 100 but charting on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Club Play at No. 33. It still found Top 40 chart positions in the United Kingdom, Australia, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, and Sweden. Though it was not as successful as “Rapper’s Delight” and “Rapture,” the video became frequently broadcast on tele­vi­sion. MTV, which began in 1981 in the United States, was aired in most of the same countries where ­these songs ­were hits. ­Music videos for “Rapture” and “Buffalo Gals” included turntablism, breakdancing, and graffiti art. ­T hese videos introduced ele­ments of hip hop to youth worldwide and showed how t­ hese ele­ments could be fused with other musical styles. At this time, both Blondie and McLaren w ­ ere new wave artists with their roots in punk rock. Hip hop and punk ­music shared an affinity for do-­it-­yourself art,

Introduction xxxiii

protesting (for example, against governments or capitalism), and consciousness raising. By at least a year, the m ­ usic videos for “Rapture” and “Buffalo Gals” predated the releases of the first American full-­length motion pictures featuring hip hop culture: Wild Style and Flashdance (both 1983) as well as Beat Street, Breakin’, and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (all 1984). ­These films offered visual and aural aesthetic stimuli of hip hop in much the same way as their ­music video precursors. The international distribution of ­these films helped American hip hop to spread further and become popu­lar in countries that had access to them. Like audiocassettes, videocassettes ­were artifacts of hip hop that could be shipped, exchanged, bootlegged, pirated, and sold. ­These motion pictures became popu­lar in countries where ­these films could easily be shown in movie theatres or on VHS players at home but also in countries that posed more challenges to their access and restrictions to freedom of expression. The popularity of t­ hese films also helped hip hop spread to more countries in Africa, East Asia, India, Southeast Asia, and South Amer­i­ca. Some countries whose own hip hop scenes ­were inspired by easily attainable copies of ­these films ­were Barbados, Brazil, Denmark, Greece, Iceland, India, Italy, Japan, and the Virgin Islands. Countries that posed re­sis­tance to gaining access to or showing ­these films yet still felt an impact from them included Argentina, China, Nigeria, Uganda, and former Yugo­slavia. Meanwhile, American hip hop ­music’s entry into South Africa, in addition to the dancing, graffiti, fashion, and other cultural aspects of ­these films, spread to countries and lands that ­were heavi­ly influenced (po­liti­cally, culturally, and musically) by South Africa. ­These countries and lands ­were also members of the Southern African Development Community (1960s–) and include present-­day Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, and Tanzania. Though other nearby countries like Angola, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe ­were also strongly influenced by South Africa, civil wars and regimes that ­were hostile to freedom of expression disrupted or prevented American hip hop from emerging ­there early on. Restrictions of freedom of expression, civil wars, po­liti­cal tensions, and economic disparity ­were not the sole ­causes of a delay in American hip hop’s reach to some countries. Sometimes dominating musical tastes ­were responsible. Ironically, in ­these countries, the popularity of rock and reggae—­both genres that musicians so readily fused with rap and beatmaking—­dominated musical preferences so much that hip hop remained an alternative ­music. Examples include places where American hip hop made an early appearance, such as Argentina, Australia, Austria, Iceland, Ireland, Jamaica, South Africa, and former Yugo­slavia, but also places where American hip hop appeared slightly ­later in the mid-1980s, countries like the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Hungary, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. In addition to being dominated by American rock, Jamaican reggae, and ­these countries’ own rock and reggae ­music, the public’s tastes ­were dictated by popu­lar ­music that developed within the country or region. For example, modernized cumbia (a dance m ­ usic that began in 1940s Colombia) dominated popu­lar ­music tastes in countries like Colombia, Costa Rica, and El Salvador. Some countries that have experienced the harshest restrictions on freedom of expression in ­music also ­favor rock. A few examples include Belarus (which also has a preference for punk), Cambodia, and Ethiopia (which has not only its own rock but also its own jazz).

xxxiv Introduction

Nonetheless, in some places, ele­ments of hip hop other than ­music had a strong initial influence. For example, breakdancing found more popularity than rap ­music in Madagascar, where American hip hop culture reached in the 1980s. Several rap musicians began as breakdancers and graffiti artists. Norway, for example, is known for having hip hop musical acts that maintain simultaneous involvement in graffiti art. MAKING HIP HOP ONE’S OWN The spread of American hip hop and cultural exchanges are just part of the story of global hip hop. Some countries’ artists responded by using American vernacular and adapting previously composed beats in their ­music as well as by learning American breakdancing footwork and moves. Examples of this activity could be found by the mid to late 1980s in countries such as Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Ghana, Greece, India, Jamaica, Pakistan, South Africa, Vietnam, and former Yugo­ slavia. As influential as early American hip hop was to artists, the need to make the m ­ usic one’s own grew at a varying pace. Many artists from around the world had to consider the reach of their own m ­ usic, facing the decision of w ­ hether to use English—­and shortly afterward, other languages popularly spoken in their countries, such as French, Spanish, and Portuguese—or even their own vernacular (street language, idioms, and regional dialects). Still, the use of American urban vernacular and En­glish was initially favored, and likewise, American lyrical content, from the inner-­city concerns of gangsta rap to themes such as partying, acquiring bling, and finding romance and sex, was initially appealing. But in countries such as Puerto Rico, France, and Portugal, the need to make hip hop local and part of an au­then­tic cultural identity tied to regional dialect was strong. Panama was the home of reggaetón, which fused reggae, dancehall, soca, and hip hop into its own sound, but Puerto Rico embraced it as its own and furthered its development and popularity, using Spanish texts. French hip hop, which employed the French language and focused more on po­liti­cal and socially conscious lyrical content than did early American rap, became more influential than American hip hop in French-­speaking countries worldwide. Another influence on French hip hop came from its African artists who made names for themselves as French immigrants, such as Senegalese-Chadian rapper MC Solaar (Claude M’Barali, 1969–). French hip hop, which emerged by 1983, became popu­lar in countries such as Belgium, Cameroon, Canada, Congo, Gabon, Guadeloupe, Lebanon, Martinique, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Senegal, and Vietnam. Though having a far smaller impact than French or American hip hop, by the late 1980s and into the early 1990s, Portuguese hip hop had had significant impact in other countries. Known as hip hop Tuga, it was popu­lar in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-­ Bissau, and Mozambique, where Portuguese is the official language or considered a common language. Part of its influence occurred ­because of diaspora activity in Lisbon, where Angolan and Mozambican and other acts first encountered hip hop before taking it back to their home countries. As with reggaetón in Panama and Puerto Rico, using a native language is not the only way countries make hip hop their own—­f using hip hop with native ­music

Introduction xxxv

or other kinds of local popu­lar ­music is also a way for artists in vari­ous countries to give hip hop a sound associated with its place of creation. For example, Ghanaian hip hop (called GH rap), which opted for En­glish with American urban vernacular, though pidgin En­glish (combining En­glish with Ghanaian dialects), Twi, and Ga are often used, incorporated American-­inspired beats and musically had a softer sound than American hip hop b­ ecause of its fusion of reggae with rap. By the early 1990s, Ghanaian hip hop acts had started to combine ele­ments of modernized Ghanaian highlife, a guitar band musical style with roots tracing back to the 1920s (it fused American swing jazz and rock with Jamaican ska and Congolese soukous, derived from Congolese rumba). The result was a new hip hop style called hiplife. Reggae’s influence on hip hop has been especially strong in the Ca­rib­ bean, Africa, parts of South Amer­i­ca, and Oceania. Beyond country identification or authenticity, the need for making hip hop local has been felt especially in communities living on the margins, particularly ­those consisting of immigrants and indigenous populations. For example, hip hop culture quickly became popu­lar among urban indigenous populations living in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. Part of the reason for hip hop’s popularity for indigenous or aboriginal urban Australians was their self-­identification with the “blackness” of the genre. Rap was also seen as a tool for disseminating a po­liti­cal message, as youth ­were able to musically criticize local living conditions and discrimination as well as confront social and economic in­equality. Since the 1980s, indigenous hip hop—­ consisting of both indigenous ­music and indigenous-­related lyrical content—­has had a strong presence in Australia and New Zealand. It is at pres­ent experiencing increased activity in other countries such as Bolivia, Canada, Colombia, Ec­ua­dor, Finland, Mexico, Mongolia, and the United States, the birthplace of rap. Many more countries have hip hop scenes influenced by indigenous musical ele­ments. Rather than focusing on an indigenous-­related message, rap acts that employ indigenous musical ele­ments often use instrumentation and traditional per­for­mance practice to give their sound an identity based on place. Just some examples include Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Costa Rica, Egypt, El Salvador, the Gambia, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Ivory Coast, Morocco, and Senegal. In immigrant communities, rap m ­ usic was appealing for numerous reasons. Sometimes it was used to teach a new language; sometimes it became a history and sociology lesson for immigrant youth, enabling them to relate to native youth in their new home countries. The m ­ usic also provided a point of entry into a larger hip hop arts scene and enabled immigrant cultures to use hip hop culture as a po­liti­ cal tool. Immigrants also found ways to make hip hop their own, as something slightly dif­fer­ent from even that of their new country. For example, Stockholm, Sweden’s immigrant communities took an early interest in recreating hip hop ­music as a unique, immigrant-­based experience. ­After an initial wave of hip hop acts in En­glish, by the early 1990s, Swedish hip hop was being recorded not only in Swedish but in Rinkeby Swedish—­a local dialect that is a pidgin language, with loanwords from American En­glish slang—as well as from Arabic, Kurdish, Italian, Persian, Spanish, and Turkish languages. Rinkeby Swedish became a youth-­based vernacular usually spoken only in ­those immigrant communities, yet early acts rapped in Rinkeby Swedish, most notably the Latin Kings (TLK, 1991–2005), which

xxxvi Introduction

had members of Chilean or Venezuelan descent. Many countries have hip hop scenes that are dominated by immigrant and diaspora acts. For example, Germany is the home to most Turkish hip hop acts (and most early German rappers ­were Turkish), Belgium is home to many Congolese hip hop acts, and Portugal is home to many Angolan hip hop acts. Hip hop m ­ usic produced by artists of nomadic descent is also popu­lar in many countries. Identifying as being on the continuum between indigenous and immigrant and sometimes embracing an otherness, ­these hip hop acts employed their own language and/or fused their vari­ous countries’ traditional musical styles with rap. For example, Romani hip hop acts can be found in Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, and Hungary, and ele­ments of Romani ­music (formally called gypsy ­music) have had a broader reach—it can be heard in hip hop from as far away from Eu­rope as Ec­ua­dor. FULL CYPHER/FULL CIRCLE In the 21st ­century, studying hip hop poses the same challenge as studying other kinds of ­music. Its global history should come as no surprise to researchers, yet global scholarship is relatively new and in constant need of real-­time updating that is both locally inclusive and constantly conscious of hip hop’s American beginnings, specifically the genre’s earliest lyrical themes. Con­temporary hip hop is informed by global exchanges, and ­today t­ hese exchanges are appreciated by ­music fans more than ever. Choice of language gives rap an identification with a place and culture, and both artists and audiences have even become interested in freestyle performed in dif­fer­ent languages and dialects, the incorporation of traditional ­music instruments in instrumentation, and the fusion of diverse world ­music styles. In addition, traditional modifications to hip hop dance or fusions of graffiti art with global art movements, as well as with folk and established styles, have experienced an increase in activity and popularity. Hip Hop around the World draws attention to global exchanges in hip hop, from its roots to present-­day practices, thus contributing to modern scholarship—by gathering information about hip hop activity in over 140 countries. Countries where hip hop is not performed or restricted are also addressed, since it is just as impor­ tant for a global history to account for t­ hose who do not or cannot participate in a culture as it is to include all active participants. This global history also gives attention to countries such as Croatia and ­Kenya that have previously had hip hop activity but are presently experiencing restrictions b­ ecause of laws imposed by new regimes. Though coverage of 140 countries is extensive, the intention is not to be exhaustive. ­There are countries that are too small in land mass and/or population where significant hip hop activity is not pres­ent, and ­these countries have not been covered ­here. Some examples are commonwealth states and realms such as Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, and Seychelles. While we realize that books that study vibrant, evolving cultures are outdated as soon as they are printed, we hope that t­hese two volumes w ­ ill help scholars by updating global hip hop studies to 2018.

Chronology

1968 In the United States, the Last Poets is formed in Harlem, New York, and the group uses rapping, MCing, and beatboxing, becoming one of hip hop ­music’s earliest influences. 1971 In the United States, hip hop dance crew the Lockers is formed in Los Angeles. 1973 In the United States, DJ Kool Herc performs turntablism for the first time as a DJ MCing at parties in housing proj­ects in the Bronx, New York, ­after developing and honing turntablism techniques to elongate musical breaks using disco, funk, soul, and rock ­albums; he promotes this sound by modifying speakers in his car, which he drives around the Bronx. 1974 In the United States, poet and singer Gil Scott-­Heron releases “The Revolution ­Will Not Be Televised,” a three-­minute spoken-­word track that is the prototype for sociopo­liti­cal rap ­music. 1977 In the United States, Rock Steady Crew is established in the Bronx, New York, and the Electric Boogaloos is formed in Fresno, California. 1979 In the United States, New Jersey–­based Sugar Hill Rec­ords is founded and releases the first recorded rap song, the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight,” which contains the words “hip hop” as the name of the ­music genre (between 1979 and 1980, “Rapper’s Delight” charts in the United States, Canada, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand); Mercury Rec­ords releases Kurtis Blow’s “Christmas Rappin’,” which sells half a million copies; the Fatback Band releases “King Tim III (Personality Jock),” a song that includes rap; and the Sequence becomes the first female group to release a rap single, “Funk You Up.” In the Philippines, Manila singer and comedian Dyords Javier rec­ords a rap song called “Na Onseng Delight,” a parody of “Rapper’s Delight.”

xxxviii Chronology

1980 In the United States, Kurtis Blow’s “The Breaks” becomes the first certified-­Gold rap rec­ord; Blow becomes the first rapper to appear on Soul Train, thereby giving rap national tele­vi­sion exposure; Lady B rec­ords “To the Best Y’all” and becomes the first recorded female rapper; and Kool Moe Dee of the Treacherous Three introduces speed rapping (a precursor to chopper style) on “The New Rap Language.” In the Philippines, Vincent Dafalong rec­ords the country’s first serious rap song. 1981 In the United States, the first song containing rap to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, New York punk and new wave band Blondie’s “Rapture,” is released and its video played on MTV; New York City–­based Tommy Boy ­Music is founded; and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five release “Wheels of Steel,” the earliest example of a rap rec­ord that employs turntablism and sampling. In France, the Paris City Breakers become the country’s first breakdancing crew. 1982 Haitian rapper Master Dji rec­ords the first Creole rap song, “Vakans” (“Vacation”), and tours Eu­rope with Afrika Bambaataa and Rock Steady Crew. 1983 In the United States, Def Jam Recordings is founded in Queens, New York; Los Angeles’s KDAY (93.5 FM) hires Greg Mack from KMJQ (102.1 FM) in Houston as ­music director, and he makes it the first hip hop ­music radio station; PBS releases the hip hop documentary Style Wars; and Flashdance is released, featuring breakdancing by American street dancers and choreographers Crazy Legs and Frosty Freeze, with Puerto Rican street dancer and choreographer Ken Swift. In France and the United Kingdom, Crazy Legs and Rock Steady Crew go on the Roxy Tour, the first international hip hop tour, with Afrika Bambaataa and Fab Five Freddy. In New Zealand, the first song that fuses con­temporary Māori folk ­music with hip hop is recorded. 1984 In the United States, the hip hop dance films Beat Street and Breakin’ are released. 1985 In the United States, the Roxanne Wars begin with Roxanne Shanté’s recording of “Roxanne, Roxanne”; Boogie Down Productions debuts; and members of the Chicago Bears, as the Chicago Bears Shufflin’ Crew, release “The Super Bowl Shuffle,” a braggadocio rap that hits the Billboard Hot 100 and gets heavy rotation on MTV. In Rus­sia, the group Chas Pik rec­ords the country’s first rap ­album. In the United Kingdom, the first DMC World DJ Championships take place as a DJ mixing ­battle (scratching would be introduced into the competition in 1986). 1986 In the United States, Salt-­N-­Pepa debut; Ruthless Rec­ords is formed in Compton, California, by Eazy-­E and Jerry Heller; Run-­D.M.C. covers Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” on its ­album Raising Hell (the song reaches No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100); and the Bridge Wars continue with Boogie Down Productions’ “South Bronx,”

Chronology xxxix

which contains lyr­ics that diss the Juice Crew. In Bulgaria, the first rap song, “This Is a Fake Love,” is released by MC Guinness. 1987 In the United States, Juice Crew member MC Shan responds in the Bridge Wars with “Kill That Noise”; Spoonie Gee releases his debut ­album, produced by Marley Marl; and the Beastie Boys’ “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)” reaches No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 (the ­album Licensed to Ill would be certified Diamond). In Barbados, DiKK becomes one of the nation’s first rapping crews. 1988 In the United States, Public ­Enemy releases its studio ­album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back on New York’s Def Jam Recordings (in 1989, Spike Lee releases the film Do the Right T ­ hing, which prominently features Public ­Enemy’s “Fight the Power”); Atlanta-­based Ruff Ryders Entertainment is founded; MC Hammer releases the a­ lbum Feel My Power, which goes Platinum; U.K. native Slick Rick releases his solo debut on Def Jam Recordings; and MC Lyte releases Lyte as a Rock, the first ­album by a solo female MC. In New Zealand, Upper Hutt Posse becomes the first entirely indigenous group to have a hip hop hit. 1989 In the United States, MTV’s Yo! MTV Raps begins, introducing rap m ­ usic videos through tele­vi­sion; Ruthless Rec­ords’ N.W.A. releases its studio ­album Straight Outta Compton, ushering in the age of gangsta rap; both Queen Latifah and Roxanne Shanté release debut ­albums; and the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks chart is established, ­later to become Hot Rap Singles and then Hot Rap Songs. In South K ­ orea and Malaysia, rap is introduced by Hong Seo-­beom and rap crew Krash Kozz, respectively. In the United Kingdom, Coldcut releases its debut a­ lbum. 1990 In the United States, A Tribe Called Quest debuts; ­Will Smith of DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince gets national exposure with the TV series The Fresh Prince of Bel-­Air, which uses a rap as its theme song; 2 Live Crew’s ­album As Nasty as They Wanna Be is outlawed by a judge in Florida; Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Baby” becomes the first rap song to top the Billboard Hot 100; No Limit Rec­ords is founded by Master P in Richmond, California (and soon moved to New Orleans); and Newsweek magazine puts rapper Tone Lōc on its cover as the face of “rap rage.” In South K ­ orea, Madagascar, and Sweden, Hyun Jin-­young (of the band Wawa), MCM Boys, and Just D, respectively, release the country’s first rap ­album. 1991 In the United States, Death Row Rec­ords is founded in Los Angeles by discontented rappers from Ruthless Rec­ords and Suge Knight, and one of t­hose discontented rappers, Dr.  Dre, joins Death Row (he ­will ­later become the genre’s preeminent producer); Swing Mob, an Imprint of Elektra, is created in Portsmouth, ­Virginia, by Jodeci member DeVante Swing, and Missy Elliott and Timbaland join Swing Mob; Doo Bop, an a­ lbum that fuses jazz with rap, by bebop, cool jazz, and jazz-­rock fusion trumpeter Miles Davis, is released posthumously; Tupac Shakur

xl Chronology

and Cypress Hill both release debut a­ lbums; New Jack City, starring Ice-­T, is released and becomes a box-­office hit; and Boyz n the Hood, which features rapper Ice Cube, is released. In India, Peru, and Yugo­slavia, Baba Sehgal, Golpeando la Calle, and MC Buffalo, respectively, introduce hip hop. 1992 In the United States, Dr. Dre releases his first solo ­album, The Chronic, on Death Row Rec­ords, introducing G-­f unk; and Wu-­Tang Clan, Mary J. Blige, TLC, and the Notorious B.I.G. debut. In Greece/Cyprus, the first rapping crew, Vaomenoi Esso, begins self-­releasing in Greek Cypriot, and Active Member releases the first hip hop ­album in Greek. In the Netherlands and Romania, Osdorp Posse and Vorbire Directa, respectively, introduce rap and hip hop. 1993 In the United States, Bad Boy Rec­ords is founded by Puff Daddy; Dr. Dre produces Snoop Dogg’s debut ­album; KRS-­One releases his solo debut; MC Lyte becomes the first solo female rapper to achieve Gold certification and a Grammy nomination; and Kirk Franklin releases Kirk Franklin and the ­Family, an a­ lbum that combines hip hop with gospel ­music. 1994 In the United States, Da Brat becomes the first solo female rap artist to have a certified-­Platinum ­album and single. In Tanzania and the United Kingdom, Hard Blasters, Tricky, and Urban Species release debut a­ lbums. 1995 In the United States, Eazy-­E dies of AIDS, and Ruthless Rec­ords begins a death spiral. In Sri Lanka, Brown Boogie Nation, likely the country’s first hip hop group, is formed. In Estonia, the Gambia, Hungary, Macedonia, and Senegal, debut rap ­albums are released by Cool D, Black Nature, R.A.C.L.A., the Most Wanted, and Positive Black Soul, respectively. 1996 In the United States, Tupac Shakur is murdered in the East Coast–­West Coast feud; Jay-­Z and Lil’ Kim release debut solo ­albums. In Croatia and Iceland, Tram 11 and Quarashi, respectively, become the first rap crews. In the Czech Republic, Chaozz’s debut rap ­album is certified Platinum. In Israel, the first hip hop radio show debuts. In South ­Korea, T.I.P. Crew becomes the first b-­boy squad. In Macedonia, the first hip hop recording label, Dolina Na Senkite, is formed. In Martinique, Nèg Lyrical releases the first Antillean Creole rap a­ lbum. 1997 In the United States, the Notorious B.I.G. is murdered in the East Coast–­West Coast feud; Erykah Badu and Missy Elliott debut; American Yemeni Hagage Abul-­Gowee Masaed releases “Yemen,” introducing Yemen to rap; and Rapper LL Cool J wears a FUBU hat in a Gap commercial and raps the phrase “For us by us on the low,” which promotes FUBU and ushers in the era of hip hop fashion companies. In Chile, Tiro de Gracia signs with EMI to release its debut ­album. In France, MC Solaar releases the first Platinum-­certified French hip hop ­album. In Iceland and Mongolia, Multifunctionals and Enkhtaivan, respectively, introduce rap and hip hop.

Chronology xli

1998 In the United States, Geto Boys debuts and pop­u­lar­izes horrorcore. In the United Kingdom, Imogen Heap releases her debut ­album. In China, Montenegro, and Peru, Cui Jian, Rambo Amadeus, and Droopy G, respectively, introduce rap and hip hop ­music. 1999 In the United States, Lauryn Hill releases her solo studio ­album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which wins four Grammy Awards and sells nearly six million copies; Hill is featured on the cover of Time magazine with the caption “Hip Hop Nation—­After 20 Years—­How It’s Changed Amer­i­ca”; Eminem, Lil Wayne, Mos Def, and 50 Cent debut; Aceyalone begins collaborating on jazz poetry in Los Angeles; and Billboard creates the Hot R&B/Hip-­Hop Singles & Tracks chart. In Canada, Shebang! becomes the first b-­girl crew. In Japan, J-­pop star Hikaru Utada releases a multi-­Platinum debut ­album, which includes hip hop songs. In Nigeria, Lakal Kaney releases the first rap Nigerien a­ lbum. In Thailand, pop idol Joni Anwar releases his solo hip hop debut. 2000 In the United States, Jill Scott and Ludacris debut; Leroy F. Moore Jr. establishes Krip Hop, a disability hip hop movement in Berkeley, California. In Burma, Myanmar, Nepal, and Slovenia, the first hip hop ­albums are released by Sai Kham, Acid, Rappaz Union, and KlemenKlemen, respectively. 2001 In the United States, J Dilla debuts. In Iceland and ­Korea, the first hip hop ­albums in each country’s native tongue are released by Sesar A and Verbal Jint, respectively. In Slovenia, the first freestyle rap championships are or­ga­nized. 2002 In the United States, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message” becomes the first hip hop recording chosen by the Library of Congress for the National Recording Registry; the Roots becomes the first hip hop band to perform at the Lincoln Center in New York City; and Eminem wins an Oscar for Best Original Song for “Lose Yourself.” In Australia, 1200 Techniques debuts. In Cuba, the Ministry of Culture establishes the Cuban Rap Agency to further develop and promote hip hop locally and internationally. In Iran, Salome MC becomes the first female hip hop artist and producer. In Sri Lanka, BnS signs with Sony BMG. 2003 In the United States, 50 Cent releases his first ­album, which debuts on the Billboard 200 at No. 1. In Nigeria, M.I. returns to pursue a rap ­career. In Saudi Arabia, the first hip hop concert is held. In Senegal, Daara J debuts. In Uganda, members of Bataka Squad help found the Uganda Hip Hop Foundation. 2004 In the United States, Kanye West and Akon debut; Massive Monkees becomes the first American b-­boy crew to win an international title. In ­Korea, Dynamic Duo releases Taxi Driver, the best-­selling Korean hip hop ­album to date. In Norway, rap duo Jaa9 and OnklP releases its debut a­ lbum.

xlii Chronology

2005 In the United States, nerdcore is introduced by MC Frontalot. In the Maldives and Mozambique, Black Prison 8 and SIMBA, respectively, introduce hip hop. In South Africa, Tumi and the Volume debut, and Tuks Senganga wins Best Rap ­Album at the South African M ­ usic Awards. In the United Kingdom, M.I.A. debuts. 2006 In the United States, Death Row Rec­ords goes bankrupt; Gnarls Barkley debuts; Three 6 Mafia wins an Oscar for its song “It’s Hard Out ­There for a Pimp,” from the film Hustle and Flow; and Queen Latifah becomes the first hip hop artist to be awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In Nigeria, Jesse Jagz debuts. 2007 In the United States, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five become the first hip hop group to be recognized and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; Trinidadian American Nicki Minaj debuts; Krip Hop Nation is established and makes efforts for disabled hip hop artists to share their m ­ usic on a global level. 2008 In the United States, Thai American rap crew Thaitanium releases the a­ lbum Flip Side, the band’s first global ­album release. In Indonesia, Batik Tribe combines hip hop with gamelan. In Nigeria, Naeto C’s debut a­ lbum sells over a million copies. 2009 In Ghana, Sarkodie and Skillions debut. In South Africa, Die Antwoord debuts. In the United Kingdom, chap hop is introduced by Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer in the parody song “Chap Hop History,” and Professor Elemental releases his debut ­album. 2010 In the United States, Nicki Minaj becomes the first female solo artist to have seven singles si­mul­ta­neously chart on the Billboard Hot 100. In Canada, Drake debuts. In Canada and Somalia, Somali Canadian K’Naan has his 2009 song “Wavin’ Flag” chosen as Coca-­Cola’s promotional anthem for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. 2011 In the United States, Kendrick Lamar debuts. In Saudi Arabia, Laisch Hip-­Hop becomes the first hip hop radio program. 2012 In the United States, a holographic image of Tupac Shakur performs with Snoop Dogg at Coachella; and Talib Kweli releases his solo debut. In Albania, the first hip hop festival is created. In Cambodia, Yab Moung Rec­ords becomes the first hip hop label. In Ghana and Saudi Arabia, C-­Real, El, and Arabian Knightz release long-­awaited debut hip hop ­albums (C-­Real and El are from Ghana). In South ­Korea, PSY releases “Gangnam Style,” the first video to reach 1 billion YouTube views. In the United Kingdom, Barbados-­based rap crew Cover Drive have a hit ­album with Bajan Style.

Chronology xliii

2013 In the United States, Mix Master Mike becomes the first turntablist to perform at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for the Kennedy Center Honors. In the Maldives and Morocco, Dizzy DROS and Magumathi, respectively, release debut ­albums. In Sri Lanka, Ashanthi becomes the first female hip hop artist to release a globally distributed a­ lbum. 2014 In Burma, Hlwan Paing releases an electrodance-­f used hip hop debut a­ lbum. 2015 In the United States, Lin-­Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton: An American Musical pop­ u­lar­izes rap ­music for the Broadway stage. In Cameroon, Stanley Enow releases his debut a­ lbum. 2016 In Ec­ua­dor and Martinique, Mateo Kingman and Kalash, respectively, release debut ­albums. 2017 In the United States, Nicki Minaj surpasses Aretha Franklin for having more songs charted on the Billboard Hot 100 than any other female artist; Kanye West’s studio ­album, The Life of Pablo (2016), becomes the first streaming-­only ­album to attain Platinum status; and Cardi B becomes the first solo female rapper since Lauryn Hill in 1998 to top the Billboard Hot 100 with her song “Bodak Yellow.” 2018 In the United States, the Kennedy Center in New York City celebrates the 35th anniversary of Wild Style with a screening and dance party featuring ­Grand Wizard Theodore and Grandmaster Caz.

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A Above the Law (aka A.T.L., 1989–­, Pomona, California) Above the Law (A.T.L.) is an American West Coast rap and G-­f unk band that was associated with Eazy-­E’s (1964–1995) Ruthless Rec­ords label (1986–) and the Tommy Boy label (1981–). The band’s members, Cold 187um (aka Big Hutch, Gregory Fernan Hutchison, 1967–), DJ Total K-­Oss (Anthony Stewart, n.d.), KMG the Illustrator (Kevin Gulley, 1969–2012), Go Mack (Arthur Goodman, n.d.), and sometime member Kokane (Jerry B. Long Jr., 1969–) produced a debut ­album, Livin’ Like Hustlers (1989), which featured guest appearances from members of the legendary rap band N.W.A. (1986–1991). The ­album also featured production from Dr. Dre (1965–) on the songs “Murder Rap” and “The Last Song.” Cold 187um and Dr. Dre worked on the tracks and influenced one another, both eventually claiming to have created G-­funk. Both worked ­toward the style si­mul­ta­neously, although Cold 187um was the first to publicly release it: Livin’ Like Hustlers featured songs that hinted ­toward G-­f unk (a mix of vintage funk, soul, and rap) and was released at a time when Dr. Dre was between labels, having left Ruthless Rec­ords for rival Death Row Rec­ords (1991–2009), which would release his solo debut The Chronic in 1992, the same year as A.T.L.’s Black Mafia Life (1992), both competing to be called the first G-­f unk ­album. Some argument can be made that A.T.L.’s song “4 the Funk of It” from the EP Vocally Pimpin’ (1991) is also a precursor to G-­f unk, and many consider its third ­album, ­Uncle Sam’s Curse (1994), a classic G-­f unk ­album. By the time Above the Law released ­Uncle Sam’s Curse, which contained the rap anthem “Black Superman,” it had achieved a reputation as one of gangsta rap’s hottest acts. The band released nine studio a­ lbums in all, four of which charted in the Top 20 of the Hot R&B/Hip-­Hop Songs chart—­Black Mafia Life reached No. 6 and was certified Platinum. Eight of its ­albums charted in the Billboard 200. In 1990, the band participated in the West Coast Rap All-­Stars collaborative song “­We’re All in the Same Gang.” Livin’ Like Hustlers spawned two minor hits, “Untouchable” and “Murder Rap”; the latter, which featured a modified sample from Quincy Jones’s (1933–) Ironside (1967–1975) theme, was licenced for video games and film. ­After Eazy-­E’s death, the band was dropped from Ruthless and moved to Tommy Boy, which released its next three a­ lbums, Time W ­ ill Reveal (1996), Legends Worldwide (1997), and Legends (1999). ­After the band had a brief stint with Death Row, where Cold 187um served as ­house producer, Cold 187um formed his own label, West World Rec­ords (1999–2014)*, to release the band’s seventh and eighth ­albums. Besides its influence on gangsta rap, A.T.L. is remembered

2 Aceyalone

for causing some controversy with its commercials for ­Uncle Sam’s Curse, which depicted images of the hate group the Klu Klux Klan with burning torches and contained a scene where ­Uncle Sam takes an African American infant from its ­mother. Rumors of a new A.T.L. ­album and of unreleased songs recorded before main lyricist KMG’s 2012 death persist as of 2018. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Gangsta Rap; G-­Funk; The United States

Further Reading

Diallo, David. 2010. “From Electro-­Rap to G-­Funk: A Social History of Rap ­Music in Los Angeles and Compton, California.” In Hip Hop in Amer­i­ca: A Regional Guide, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 1, chap. 10. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood. Westoff, Ben. 2016. Original Gangstas: The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-­E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, and the Birth of West Coast Rap. New York: Hachette Book Group.

Further Listening

Above the Law. 1994. ­Uncle Sam’s Curse. Ruthless Rec­ords.

Aceyalone (Edwin Maximilian Hayes Jr., 1970–­, Los Angeles, California) Aceyalone is an American rapper, poet, and songwriter who rec­ords alternative, experimental, and trip hop as well as jazz rap. He was impor­tant to the development of 1990s Los Angeles alternative hip hop that resisted the popu­lar West Coast gangsta rap scene. Alternative and jazz hip hop artists opted for intimate venues such as cafés, workshops, and sidewalks, recalling the beat poetry happenings that took place in the 1950s and 1960s. Aceyalone’s lyrical content focuses on aspirations, losing inhibitions, romance, and challenging the mind. At times, his lyr­ics seem akin to nerdcore, as in “The Guidelines” from A Book of H ­ uman Language or when expressing the need for one’s own space in “Five Feet” from Accepted Eclectic (2001), both of which use scientific meta­phors and metatextuality. Most of Aceyalone’s recordings have received critical acclaim. His solo ­albums Accepted Eclectic, Love and Hate (2003), and Magnificent City (2006) charted on Billboard’s In­de­pen­dent ­Albums at Nos. 36, 31, and 43, respectively. Magnificent City also peaked at No. 39 on Billboard’s Top Heatseekers chart. The single “A Beautiful Mine” was arranged and adapted as the opening-­credits theme song for the American tele­vi­sion series Mad Men (2007–2015).

EARLY GROUPS, PROJ­ECTS, AND SOLO ­ALBUMS Aceyalone grew up with ­f uture rapper and producer Myka 9 (aka Myka Nyne, Mikah 9, or Microphone Mike, Michael Troy, 1969*–). While in high school in the late 1980s, the two, with rapper Self Jupiter (Ornette Glenn, 1970–), formed the short-­lived MC Aces (1987–1988)*, a precursor to their Freestyle Fellowship



Af­ghan­i­stan 3

(1991–1993, 1998–), at open-­mic nights at the Good Life Café, a health-­food store and restaurant in South Central Los Angeles. Freestyle Fellowship added former high school friend, rapper, and musician P.E.A.C.E. (Mtulazaji Davis, n.d.). Freestyle Fellowship rapped over jazz, sometimes incorporating R&B and funk, and honed its skills at double-­time rapping—­rhyming to a slower beat to accommodate multisyllabic words and/or longer lines. The group released the studio ­albums To Whom It May Concern (1991) and Innercity Griots (1993) but went on hiatus when Self Jupiter served prison time. The group re­united afterward, recorded more a­ lbums, and continues to rec­ord as of 2018. Meanwhile, starting in 1994, Aceyalone and rapper Abstract Rude (Aaron Pointer, n.d.) began the open-­mic workshop Proj­ect Blowed (1994–) and its related hip hop collective. An alternative to gang and drug activity, the workshop hosts rap ­battle and open-­mic events, freestyle rapping, slam poetry, alternative hip hop, and spoken-­word art. Two compilation ­albums, Proj­ect Blowed (1995) and Proj­ect Blowed: 10th Anniversary (2005), resulted from t­ hese workshops. Like 1950s and 1960s California writers, Aceyalone, Myka 9, and Abstract Rude collaborated on jazz poetry between Los Angeles and San Francisco, forming Haiku D’Etat (1997–). Their eponymous debut release (1999) features San Francisco Bay Area musicians. Their second a­ lbum, Coup de theatre (2004), was less successful. Aceyalone has also had a concurrent prolific solo recording ­career with his studio ­albums. In addition to the aforementioned ­albums, he has released All Balls D ­ on’t Bounce (1995), A Book of H ­ uman Language (1998), Hip Hop and the World We Live In (2002), Lightning Strikes (2007), Aceyalone and the Lonely Ones (2009), Leanin’ on a Stick (2013), Action (2015), and Mars (2016), as well as compilation ­albums, and made many appearances. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: The United States

Further Reading

Bradley, Adam, and Andrew Dubois, eds. 2010. “Freestyle Fellowship.” ­Under “Part 3: 1993–99: Rap Goes Mainstream” in The Anthology of Rap, pp. 387–94. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Lee, Jooyoung. 2009. “Escaping Embarrassment: Face-­Work in the Rap Cipher.” Social Psy­chol­ogy Quarterly 72, no. 4: 306–24.

Further Listening

Aceyalone. 2000. Accepted Eclectic. Ground Control Rec­ords. Aceyalone. 2006. Magnificent City. Decon.

Af­ghan­i­stan Af­ghan­i­stan had no hip hop scene ­until 2002 as a result of the Taliban government’s (1996–2001) control of radio stations, its ban of the Internet, and its condemnation of ­music for entertainment. With the institution of a new government ­under President Hamid Karzai (1957–) in 2002, an Afghan popu­lar ­music scene began to emerge. By the second de­cade of the 21st ­century, hip hop had begun to reshape

4

Af­ghan­i­stan

Male Afghan teen­agers breakdance on knotted rugs during the Sound Central Festival at the French Cultural Center in Kabul. A sign of Af­ghan­i­stan’s emerging hip hop culture since the end of the Taliban government, the Sound Central Festival features live m ­ usic, as well as graffiti art and hip hop dance showcases. (MASSOUD HOSSAINI/ AFP/GettyImages)

Afghan youth culture. By 2013, hip hop was part of the global ­music curriculum at Af­ghan­i­stan’s National Institute of ­Music. The 2013 Sound Central Festival, featuring alternative arts at the French Cultural Center in Kabul, included live per­ for­mances by hip hop artists such as Ramika Khabiri and Arash Strange (n.d.) and bands such as 143Band (aka Paradise and Diverse, 2008–), Farhad and Matin (aka FM Rap Band, n.d.), and Face Off (n.d.), founded by Abdul Basir Shakeri (n.d.) and Taqi Mohammdai (n.d.), as well as graffiti artists Dark Artery (Abul Qasem Foushani, 1987–) and Shamsia Hassani (1988–). Afghan rap (or AFG rap) has grown explosively on the Internet and includes such artists as Mahmoud Rezai (n.d.), Ali Janjal (n.d.), Aref King (n.d.), Cool AFG Boys (n.d.), and Yasin Guli (n.d.). As the Afghan hip hop scene grew, ­women rappers came to the fore. Sonita Alizadeh (1997*–) raps about forced marriage (often of underage girls), vio­lence against ­women, and the Taliban’s ban on ­women’s education. Her 2014 Internet release “Brides for Sale” brought international attention and the opportunity to pursue an education in the United States. A German and Swiss documentary of her life, Sonita (2015), won two awards at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Paradise Sorouri (1989*–), considered Af­g han­is­ tan’s first female hip hop artist, began rapping while a refugee in Iran. In 2008, Sorouri formed 143Band with boyfriend and fellow rapper Diverse Marwi (1988*–). Both are featured in the Afghan documentary Hip Hop Kabul (2013) and, since its filming, are based in Berlin. Soosan Firooz (aka Susan Feroz, 1989*–), an Afghan rapper and tele­vi­sion actress, appears



Afrika Bambaataa 5

in videos wearing jeans and often no head­scarf as she delivers lines that challenge traditional views on Afghan ­women. Another musician, Aryana Saeed (1985–), is a singer from Af­ghan­i­stan’s capital, Kabul, who fuses feminist-­themed hip hop with pop. Ramona Khabiri (1995*–), hip hop artist and student at Kabul University, raps for voter turnout and ­women’s rights. She describes backlash from fellow students and threats from the Taliban over her ­music and her message. The earliest Afghan hip hop artists brought skills and sensibilities acquired while they ­were refugees in other countries. DJ Besho (aka DJ Diamond, Bezhan Zafarmal, 1988*–) fled with his ­family during the Afghan Civil War (1992–1996), immigrating to Germany, where he developed his gangsta-­style rapping skills and persona. He considers Tupac Shakur (1971–1996), Vanilla Ice (1967–), and 50 Cent (1975–) his main influences. DJ Besho raps primarily in the Dari language and is intent on shaping a new Afghan cultural identity—­encouraging Af­ghan­i­stan’s youth to see themselves first as friends and ­brothers united in rebuilding and improving their country. The anonymous Los Angeles–­based Awesome Qasim (n.d.) raps in Farsi, Pashto, and En­glish and aims to reinforce patriotic values. His 2015 Internet release “Askar Afghan” showed support for Afghan security forces. Jennifer L. Roth-­Burnette See also: Bliss n’ Eso; Davy D; Filmmaking (Documentaries); Graffiti Art

Further Reading

Nordland, Rod, and Fatima Faizi. 2017. “For Afghan Pop Star, Mullahs A ­ ren’t Showstoppers.” The New York Times, August 20, A4. Stein, Eliot. 2016. “Af­g han­i­stan’s First Female Rapper: ‘If I Stay ­Silent, Nothing ­Will Change.’ ” The Guardian, December 1.

Afrika Bambaataa (aka Afrika Bambaataa Aasim, Kevin Donovan, 1957–­, Bronx, New York) Afrika Bambaataa was a towering figure in New York hip hop and African American culture in the 1970s and 1980s. As the founder of the Universal Zulu Nation (1973–), a loose collection of African American street youths in Harlem, New York, he was highly instrumental in channeling the attention of New York’s most notorious gangs through more creative outlets, setting the foundation for what ­later became known as hip hop culture. By 1980, Afrika Bambaataa was one of the best-­ known DJs in New York, alongside such luminaries as Grandmaster Flash (1958–) and DJ Kool Herc (1955–). Since that time, hip hop culture has become a global phenomenon and the Universal Zulu Nation has spread overseas. GANG INVOLVEMENT AND THE UNIVERSAL ZULU NATION In the years before he founded the Universal Zulu Nation, Afrika Bambaataa was a member and warlord for one of South Bronx’s largest and most dangerous gangs, the Black Spades (1968–). In this position, he was central in enforcing the

6

Afrika Bambaataa

1971 ceasefire between the city’s black and Latino gangs in an era that saw escalating gang vio­lence across the United States. His success with the Universal Zulu Nation was a product of his elevated position, his interest in black liberation, and his personal belief in Islam. His ­adopted name, which has been claimed to translate as “Chief Affection,” was borrowed from a 19th-­century Zulu chief who lived in pre-­apartheid South Africa, and his Universal Zulu Nation was inspired by the code of honor demonstrated by the black participants of the En­glish and American film Zulu (1964). He was known for regularly reviewing the teachings of Elijah Muhammad (1897–1975), a leader of the Nation of Islam, who mentored such black-­ rights dignitaries as Malcolm X (1925–1965) and Muhammad Ali (Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., 1942–2016). As part of the Universal Zulu Nation’s activities, Afrika Bambaataa or­ga­nized block parties. ­These eve­ning parties ­were the meeting place for artists who practiced four of the core components of hip hop culture: DJing (turntabling), MCing (rapping), b-­boying (breakdancing), and producing graffiti art. ­These activities, over time, provided a countertide to the vio­lence of the gang era, and as a major figure in this community, Africa Bambaataa became tied not only to the artistic discoveries taking place but also to the positive social change this new creative direction inspired. By the early 1980s, he was himself highly respected as a DJ and had formed several well known DJ crews, including the Jazzy Five (1975–1981)* and Soulsonic Force (1980–). Early singles appeared in 1980 in conjunction with Soulsonic Force and Cosmic Force (n.d.). ­These included two versions of “Zulu Nation Throw Down.” His most influential track, however, came in 1982 with “Planet Rock,” a track produced in collaboration with Soulsonic Force. His “Jazzy Sensation,” with the Jazzy Five, was released in 1981. Afrika Bambaataa found inspiration in techno-­rock groups such as the German ensemble Kraftwerk (1970–) and the Japa­nese group Yellow Magic Orchestra (1977–), which can be heard in “Planet Rock.” His affinity for techno-­rock set the tone not only for “Planet Rock,” for which he sampled Kraftwerk’s “Trans-­Europe Express” (1977), but also for ­future hip hop and electro-­dance trends. “Planet Rock” used only electronic instruments (a TR 808 drum machine, a synthesizer, and a vocoder) ­under its hip hop vocals and introduced esoteric references to Kraftwerk’s “Numbers” as well as “The Mexican” by the En­glish rock group Babe Ruth (1970– 1976, 2005–), based on Italian film composer Ennio Morricone’s (1928–) melody “Per qualche dollar in più” (“For a Few Dollars More”) from the spaghetti Western film of the same title (1965). The song features brief rapped statements and preplanned lyr­ics traded between Afrika Bambaataa and the other vocalists and sung over a funky, synthesized bass paired with an aural ­laser effect. The group uses call-­and-­response passages with the audience and l­ater leads it in a ­simple singalong about the need to “rock” continuously. Several times in the song, the words “planet rock” are sung through a vocoder. Blending Jamaican dancehall bass with synthesized disco beats and techno-­rock electronica, the song introduced rap to techno, funk, and drum synthesizers. Afrika Bambaataa’s 1983 single, “Looking for the Perfect Beat,” continued this trend. This style, which he called “electro-­f unk,” was enormously influential on the development of rap and electronic dance ­music over the following de­cades, with

Akon 7

the song not only reaching the top of the U.S. soul and dance charts but also taking the hip hop creative world by storm and changing the trajectory of popu­lar m ­ usic. INFLUENCE AND LEGACY Afrika Bambaataa’s influence on hip hop culture and its ­music is monumental, and his blend of funk, electro-­pop, and obscure rock have been responsible for setting into motion some versions of hip hop as we know it ­today. Still, though he has released numerous tracks and ­albums and though he was featured in the 1984 American hip hop film Beat Street, his star fell somewhat over the de­cades, and he never again enjoyed the same level of musical acclaim he did in the early 1980s. Although his influence has been less pronounced since the 1980s, it has been nonetheless potent; his support of hip hop culture and creativity at its nascence encouraged an incredible amount of musical variety, and his nurturing of the Universal Zulu Nation was pivotal in turning gang culture into creative culture in the 1970s. Jessica Leah Getman See also: Gangs (United States); Nation of Islam; The United States; The Universal Zulu Nation

Further Reading

Chang, Jeff. 2005. “Soul Salvation: The Mystery and Faith of Afrika Bambaataa” and “Zulus on a Time Bomb: Hip Hop Meets the Rockers Downtown.” In ­Can’t Stop ­Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation, chap. 5 and 8. New York: Picador. Lamotte, Martin. 2014. “Rebels without a Pause: Hip Hop and Re­sis­tance in the City.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 38, no. 2: 686–94.

Further Listening

Afrika Bambaataa. 1986. Planet Rock: The A ­ lbum. Tommy Boy.

Akon (Aliaume Badara Thiam, 1973–­, St. Louis, Missouri) Akon is a Senegalese American hip hop and popu­lar ­music artist who lived in Senegal ­u ntil he was seven years old, when his parents, Mor Thiam (Mor Dogo Thiam, 1941–) and Kiné Thiam (n.d.), relocated to the United States. From ­humble beginnings, Akon has become one of the most successful singers and entrepreneurs in modern hip hop. His songs, ­albums, and other products have had rec­ord sales, while his philanthropic works have transformed the lives of thousands around the world. Akon’s 2006 ­album, Konvicted, was certified ­triple Platinum in the United States alone by November 2007. His 2008 ­album, Freedom, was certified Platinum and remained on the Billboard 200 for many weeks ­after its release. Akon’s popularity is not restricted to the United States; he has become a star in Africa and Eu­rope, where fans have been mesmerized by his mixture of hip hop and techno with occasional reggae. Akon’s youth was troublesome, as he was arrested several times for crimes such as receiving stolen vehicles. In 1998, at age 25, he submitted a guilty plea for felony

8 Akon

gun possession. He was sentenced to three years’ probation. Together, the arrests also led to some jail time; however, Wyclef Jean (1969–) gave Akon the opportunity to prepare and release his 2004 debut ­album Trou­ble, which went viral. Akon tapped into his jail experience in his first single, “Locked Up,” turning it into an early example of his use of a prison sentence as a theme—­prison was ­later transformed to become a central image in his ideological, musical, and commercial messages and endeavors. Akon founded KonLive Distribution (2006–) and Konvict Clothing (2007–), which have both had major successes. By 2008, however, the media and fans confronted Akon for exaggerating his past in prison for Senegalese-­American rapper Akon is best known the purpose of marketing. He for his Platinum ­albums Konvicted (2006) and nevertheless continues to use Freedom (2008), which fuse hip hop, techno, and his name as well as convict image reggae. Though questioned about exaggerating and persona to remind himself his past in prison, Akon continues to use his about his experience and to help convict image to motivate ­others serving prison motivate ­others who ­either are time to better themselves, and, through his serving or have served time in Konfidence Foundation, he has led efforts for prison. improving lives in both the United States and Akon has recorded hit songs Africa. (Carrienelson1​/­Dreamstime​.­com) with such American icons as Snoop Dogg (1971–), Michael Jackson (1958–2009), Whitney Houston (1963– 2012), Gwen Stefani (1969–), Lionel Richie (1949–), and Lady Gaga (1986–) but also with other international legends, such as Amadou & Mariam (Amadou Bagayoko, 1954–­, and Mariam Doumbia, 1958–) of Mali, Shaggy (1968–) of Jamaica, and Youssou N’dour (1959–) of Senegal. Akon’s closest collaborator is Haitian American hip hop and reggae star Jean, with whom he recorded the 2007 hit song “Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill).” From the lessons learned in his past, Akon has developed a social consciousness, a sense of cosmopolitanism, and a confidence and conviction in his personal responsibility to uplift other ­people. For this purpose, he also created the Konfidence Foundation in 2007, an organ­ization aimed at improving the lives of ­people

Albania 9

in Africa and the United States, and, in 2014 he launched Lighting Africa, a proj­ ect that seeks to provide electricity to millions of p­ eople that need it. Babacar M’Baye See also: Fashion; Gangsta Rap; Senegal; The United States

Further Reading

Boone, Mary. 2008. Akon. Hockessin, DE: Mitchell Lane. Smith, Emily. 2013. The Akon Handbook: Every­thing You Need to Know about Akon. Aspley, Australia: Emereo.

Further Listening

Akon. 2006. Konvicted. Universal Motown/Street Rec­ords.

Albania Albania is a Southeast Eu­ro­pean nation with a population of approximately three million ­people. Tirana, its largest city, has more than 800,000 inhabitants. Musicians from Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Montenegro (which all recognize Albanian as an official language), as well as rappers from countries in which Albanians now reside, such as Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, helped turn the Albanian hip hop scene into a robust one, especially ­after French hip hop artists created the first Albanian hip hop festival in 2012. Kosovo’s rap scene emerged in the 1990s with early rap groups such as W.N.C. (aka White N—­s Clan, n.d.). One of the most prominent early rappers was Getoar Selimi (aka Ghetto Gold, 1982–), who ­later cofounded the popu­lar rap group Tingulli 3nt (Sound 3nt, 1996–). Albanian hip hop culture has had a large impact on urban youth, despite the government’s onetime censorship of radio and television—­Albania went from being a Nazi German protectorate to a socialist republic ­under Enver Hoxha (Enver Halil Hoxha, 1908–1985, in office 1941–1985) to a demo­cratic republic in 1991. The government’s loosening of its hold over culture in 1991 allowed hip hop to take root. Other prominent hip hop bands have included Ritmi i Rrugës (loosely, Rhythm of the Street, 1995–2004), a rap duo from Kosovo that released three studio ­albums, including Përjetësisht (Eternally, 2004), and Etno Engjujt (aka Etnon, 1997–), a name that calls attention to the ethnic ­music incorporated in its songs. In its seven ­albums, which include The Dynasty (2002), The Best of Albarap (2003), Vitamin E (2005), and 10she (2007), Etno Engjujt combines ethnic Albanian ­music with hip hop rhythms and raps about such issues as ethnic and national pride as well as lighter themes such as partying and dancing. The duo models itself on West Coast hip hop, incorporating R&B-­style singing into its rap songs. As of 2018, the most famous Albanian rap group is Banda Butuesi (Butterfly Band, 1997–), which uses chopper rapping and bases its ­music style on the highly symphonic and dramatic U.S. East Coast sound, with almost no incorporation of traditional Albanian m ­ usic. Albanian rap groups based in other countries include O.T.R. (On Top of the Rest, 2014–). Composed of Albanians from London who

10 Algeria

migrated back to Albania in the early 2000s, O.T.R. is led by Noizy (Rigels Rajku, 1986–), an extremely popu­lar Albanian gangsta-­style rapper with seven studio ­albums to his credit. The New York City–­based Bloody Alboz (aka T.B.A., 2005–) is an Albanian rap group led by one of Albania’s first and most popu­lar rappers, Rebeli (aka Unikkatil, Viktor Palokaj, 1981–), who models his rap songs ­after the more atmospheric U.S. West Coast G-­f unk and Southern styles and uses complex instrumentation, including traditional Albanian instruments. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Gangsta Rap

Further Reading

Elezi, Gentian, and Elona Toska. 2017. “Rapping into Power: The Use of Hip Hop in Albanian Politics.” In Hip Hop at Eu­rope’s Edge: ­Music, Agency, and Social Change, edited by Milosz Miszczynski and Adriana Helbig, chap. 1. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Tochka, Nicholas. 2017. “Cosmopolitan Inscriptions? Mimicry, Rap, and Rurbanity in Post-­ Socialist Albania.” In Hip Hop at Eu­rope’s Edge: M ­ usic, Agency, and Social Change, edited by Milosz Miszczynski and Adriana Helbig, chap. 9. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Further Listening

The Bloody Alboz. 2005. Prezenton the Bloody Alboz. Conqueror Rec­ords.

Algeria Algeria, the 10th-­largest country in the world, is a sovereign North African semipresidential republic. Its capital and most populous city is Algiers, located in the country’s far north. The main style of Algerian ­music is raï, a combination of Western ­music and Bedouin (nomadic Arab ­peoples who inhabit North Africa’s desert regions) ­music concerned with social issues. Such ­music was made famous by Khaled (Khaled Hadj Ibrahim, 1960–), a native of Oran who immigrated to France in 1986 and had seven Top 10 hits (including three No. 1 songs) on the French Syndicat National de l’Édition Phonographique (SNEP) ­album charts. Other styles based on Arabo-­A ndalusian ­music—­classical Arabic, Bedouin, and Berber ­music—­exist, as do some popu­lar forms of Westernized ­music. Events leading up to the Algerian Civil War (1991–2002), as well as the war itself, disrupted hip hop in Algeria. The war broke out ­because of conflict between the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), an Islamic fundamentalist party, and the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN), an Algerian and Arab nationalist demo­cratic socialist party. During the early 1990s, supporters of the FIS evolved into several armed groups, such as the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), who between 1992 and 1998 conducted civilian massacres that also targeted journalists and tourists in Algeria as well as terror attacks that spread to France. Algerian hip hop ­music has therefore been defined mainly by native Algerian bands and diaspora musicians living in France. Algerian rap can be traced to 1988, when a military massacre of protesting citizens inspired rap crews Intik (1988–2001) and Le Micro Brise le Silence (MBS, The Microphone Breaks the Silence,

Algeria 11

1988–2011) to form. Led by ­these two pioneer bands, rap became a big underground scene. Inspired by Public ­Enemy (1982–) and French rapper Imhotep (Pascal Perez, 1960–), Intik, a rap and hip hop quartet, went on to release two ­albums in Darija (Algerian Arabic creole) and French, Intik (1999) and La victoire (2001). Its sound involves synthesized versions of traditional Algerian ­music combined with funk, hip hop, rap, and reggae, and its laid-­back raps are interspersed with Jamaican-­ style reggae interludes and Algerian melodies. Using traditional string instruments, synthesizers, and turntables against a hip hop beat, MBS rapped and sang songs critical of the Algerian government in Arabic and French and went on to produce five ­albums: Ouled al bahdja (translated as Children/Tribe of the Radiant One but also a nickname for USM Alger, an Algerian football club campaign, 1997), Hbibti aouama (My Lover Is a Good Swimmer, 1998), Le micro brise le silence (1999), Wellew (They Have Returned, 2001), and Maquis bla sleh (Marquis without Weapons, 2005). Algerian diaspora hip hop acts include Paris-­born Rim’K (Abdelkrim Brahmi-­ Benalla, 1978–), L’Algérino (aka L’Algé, Samir Djourhlel, 1981–), Médine (Médine Zaouiche, 1983–), Sinik (aka Malsain, l’Assassin, or S.I.N.I.K., Thomas Idir, 1980–), and Zaho (Zahera Darabid, 1980–). Rim’K, whose ­family is from Barbacha, Algeria, was raised in the Pa­ri­sian suburb of Vitry-­sur-­Seine. He released six solo ­albums between 2004 and 2018, five of which, L’enfant du pays (Child of the Country, 2004), Maghreb United (2009), Chef de famille (Head of the F ­ amily, 2012), Monster Tape (2016), and Fantôme (Ghost, 2017), have peaked in the SNEP Top 10. Marsielle-­born L’Algérino, whose ­family came from Khenchela, Algeria, started singing and rapping at age 11 and quickly began releasing mixtapes. His style involves African-­and reggae-­infused autotuned singing, and his debut a­ lbum, Les derniers seront les premiers (The Last ­Will Be the First, 2005), was relatively successful, but it was his next three efforts, Mentalité (2007), Effet miroir (Mirror Effect, 2010), and C’est correct (It’s Correct, 2011), that thrust him into the spotlight. Le Havre–­born Médine (Médine Zaouiche, 1983–) raps and performs spoken-­ word poetry in Kabyle, an Afroasiatic language, and is a practicing Muslim whose songs emphasize the hardships of being Muslim in the Western world. Sinik is a French-­language American-­style mobb rapper and rec­ord label owner whose ­father is Algerian; he is known for his diss ­battles and clashes with other rap artists. Canadian-­based Zaho (Zahera Darabid, 1980–) is a female Algerian pop and neo soul singer-­songwriter who immigrated to Montreal in 1999 and released her debut ­album Dima (Always in Arabic) in 2008. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: France

Further Reading

Davies, Eirlys E., and Abdelali Bentahila. 2006. “Code Switching and the Globalization of Popu­lar ­Music: The Case of North African Rai and Rap.” Multilingua 25, no. 4: 367–92. Moser, Keith. 2013. “Franco-­Maghrebi Rap and Benyoucef’s Le nom du père.” CLCWeb: Comparative Lit­er­a­ture and Culture 15, no. 4: 9.

12

Allen, Harry

Further Listening

Intik. 1999. Intik. Saint George Rec­ords. MBS. 1999. Le micro brise le silence. Universal ­Music.

Allen, Harry (1964–­, Brooklyn, New York) Harry Allen is an American journalist and activist, best known for his publicist role with Public ­Enemy (1982–), which nicknamed him their media assassin. Allen’s primary role was to deal with mainstream media. He specialized in spinning media missteps, such as in 1989 when, shortly ­after the release of It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, rapper Professor Griff (Richard Griffin, 1960–) gave an interview to the Washington Times in which he expressed both homophobic and anti-­Semitic ideas. Allen was responsible for defusing the tension created by Griff’s comments with the goal of keeping Public ­Enemy in good standing with the media. An early adopter of technology, including the fax machine and the Internet, Allen used all tools at his disposal to disseminate information. By the early 1990s, he had created a hip hop newsletter called Rap Dot Com that he disseminated via email; he also advocated the commercial distribution of m ­ usic online. Allen argued against the claim that African American ­people w ­ ere alienated from technology, suggesting that African Americans actually sought out technology and used it in surprising and unexpected ways. During the early 1980s, Allen formed friendships and professional relationships with a number of ­people who would go on to become major figures in American hip hop, including Bill Stephney (n.d.), a college radio DJ who befriended Chuck D (1960–) around the time Public ­Enemy was founded and became president of Def Jam Rec­ords (1983–); Dr. Dré (André Brown, 1963–), host of Yo! MTV Raps; and other ­future members of Public ­Enemy and the Bomb Squad (1986–), including Flavor Flav (1959–). Allen made a brief appearance in “­Don’t Believe the Hype,” a single on It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. In the track, Flavor Flav calls out Allen and asks about the band’s reputation, to which Allen responds, “­Don’t believe the hype.” He has also made spoken-­word cameos on other Public ­Enemy tracks: “More News at 11” (1991) and “Harry Allen’s Interactive Superhighway Phone Call to Chuck D” (1994). As a writer, Allen has contributed articles on hip hop to a number of respected media outlets, including Essence, Spin, Village Voice, and Wired. In 1992, he created the Rhythm Cultural Institute, a nonprofit organ­ization dedicated to promoting hip hop ­music and culture. Since 2014, he has served as an adviser to the Archives of African American ­Music and Culture (AAAMC) at Indiana University, Bloomington. Amanda Sewell See also: The Bomb Squad; Public ­Enemy; The United States

Further Reading

Chang, Jeff. 2005. ­Can’t Stop W ­ on’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation. New York: Picador.

Angola 13 Harrington, Richard. 1989. “Public ­Enemy’s Rap Rec­ord Stirs Jewish Protests.” The Washington Post, December 29, D4. Myrie, Russell. 2008. ­Don’t Rhyme for the Sake of Riddlin’: The Authorized Story of Public ­Enemy. New York: Canongate.

Angola Angola is a South African country that won its in­de­pen­dence from Portugal in 1975, putting into power a one-­party state that is Marxist-­Leninist. In­de­pen­dence sparked the Angolan Civil War (1975–2002), when the Soviet-­backed ­People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) was victorious. Since 2002, Angola has become a presidential unitary state. Hip hop in Angola, known as rap Angolano, was imported from Amer­i­ca in the late 1980s. Angolan hip hop fuses African beats with Ca­r ib­bean ­music such as Jamaican reggae and Angolan kuduru (a popu­lar ­music that developed in the 1980s in Luanda). It combines drum machine beats, sometimes sampled Trinbagonian soca and Guadeloupean zouk, and Portugese lyr­ ics. Portugese hip hop, commonly called hip hop Tuga, has also been influential on Angolan hip hop. Rappers prefer Portugese, the country’s official language, but they sometimes use American vernacular. Rap Angolano is used for social activism and is often critical of government corruption and the resulting socioeconomic disparity; therefore, many Angolan hip hop artists work ­under aliases only. Luanda, Angola’s capital city, is the main center for hip hop, and mostly black Africans (Ovimbundu and Ambundu) participate in rap ­music creation. Notable 1990s pioneering Luandan rappers include Kool Klever (Nelson Rosa, n.d.), Nelboy Dastha Burda (n.d.), Das Primeiro (The First, Rui da Silva, 1968–), and Angolan Portugese Ikonoklasta (Henrique Luaty da Silva Beirão, 1981–) as well as the group Pobres Sem Culpa (Poor without Guilt, 1990s–2000s*). ­Because of the Angolan Civil War, many musicians have established and/or continue ­careers in exile. For example, in the late 1990s, pioneering Luandan rapper Mutu Moxy (aka Intelektu, Genio Lyricista*, 1977*–) immigrated to Johannesburg and then Cape Town before settling in the 2000s in France. Intelektu raps in Portugese, fuses hip hop with jazz and soul, and uses boombap production values. Notable Angolan hip hop artists who have made their ­careers in South Africa include Tribo Sul (Tribe of Soldiers, 1992*–), a pioneering Lugandan trio who rap in Portugese and En­glish and who since 1999 have lived in exile in Cape Town, and Jamayka Poston (1976–), who was born in Malange and grew up in Luanda. Poston is now an MC for Conquering Lions (2003*–), which performs in Portugese. The duo Hemoglobina (2000–), which is based in Moscow and raps in Portugese, was in the group Wave Gang (1999*) in Luanda, which released the first Angolan mixtape, Ruas de Luanda (Streets of Luanda, 2000). Conductor (Andro Carvalho, n.d.), from Luanda, was based in Lisbon as a member of the electronic dance and techno fusion proj­ect Buraka Som Sistema (Buraca Sound System, 2006–2016) before returning home to form Conjunto Ngonguenha (2002–) with Ikonoklasta, among other MCs. Post-­Angolan Civil War rap activity has increased with such acts as MCK (aka Mc K, Katro, Katrogi Nhanga Lwamba, 1981–), Yannick Afroman

14

Ant Banks

(Yannic Manuel Ngombo, n.d.), Phay ­Grand (n.d.), Dmaster DJ (Silvestre Marcos Azevedo da Encarnação, 1991–), DJ Pastrana (Evandro Franco, n.d.), and Gaia Beat (1992–). Angolan rappers, however, are still persecuted. Ikonoklasta and MCK ­were jailed, and Angolan police have beaten their fans. Their lyrical content has focused on informing listeners about atrocities conducted by the Angolan government as well as protesting government corruption, making revolutionary calls to action to rise against the government, and articulating the need for sociopo­liti­cal change in Angola. Some of t­hese rappers have called the Angolan government “Babylon,” which suggests the same meaning that Jamaicans use in their reggae songs against the wealthy, corrupt, and greedy ­people who are often in positions of power. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Portugal

Further Reading

Moorman, Marissa J. 2014. “Anatomy of Kuduro: Articulating the Angolan Body Politic ­after the War.” African Studies Review 57, no. 3: 21–40. Sheridan, Garth. 2014. “Fruity Batidas: The Technologies and Aesthetics of Kuduro.” Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance ­Music Culture 6, no. 1: 83–96.

Further Listening

Intelektu. 2005. Verbalogia. Vocab Lab. MCK. 2012. Proibido ouvir isto (Forbidden to Hear This). Diferencial Produções/Masta K Produsons.

Ant Banks (Anthony Banks, 1966–­, Oakland, California) Ant Banks is an American rapper, beatmaker, and producer who got his start in the Oakland, California, area by creating beats for vari­ous MCs and producing their ­albums in­de­pen­dently on his short-­lived Raw Dog Rec­ords label (1988–1989)*, not to be confused with the Jacksonville, Florida–­based Raw Dog Rec­ords (n.d.). He is rumored to have sold hundreds of thousands of off-­label ­albums in the Oakland and San Francisco Bay areas out of the trunk of his car before becoming a major-­ label songwriter and performer on the New York City–­based Jive Rec­ords (1981–) label, for which he produced three a­ lbums. Ant Banks’s interest in ­music began at an early age, when he became a member of his school band and a multi-­instrumentalist. Using a Casio digital keyboard, he started to create funk beats, at first emulating George Clinton (1941–) before trying his hand at original compositions. His hip hop ­career began when he worked with Oakland lyricist and rapper M.C. Ant (Anthony Jerel Thomas, 1970–1999), producing the a­ lbum The ­Great (1988). Ant Banks has four solo ­albums, Sittin’ on Somethin’ Phat (1991), The Big Bad­ ass (1994), Do or Die (1995), and Big Thangs (1997), as well as two ­albums with his group T.W.D.Y. (aka Ant Banks Pres­ents T.W.D.Y., 1999–2000), Derty Werk (1999) and Lead the Way (2000). His funk-­influenced basslines (with lots of slap



Antipop Consortium 15

bass) are considered influential by many hip hop and electronica artists, including MC Ren (Lorenzo Jerald Patterson, 1969–) and Daft Punk (1993–). His sound is defined by heavy use of synthesizer and keyboard and singsong rap style that can best described as old-­school gangsta rap. As of 2018, Ant Banks has over 170 production credits to his name. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: The United States

Further Reading

Campbell, Kermit E. 2005. “­Can’t Knock the Hustle? The Gangsta Ethos from Stag-­O-­ Lee to Snoop D-­o-­double-­g.” In Getting’ Our Groove On: Rhe­toric, Language, and Literacy for the Hip Hop Generation, chap. 3. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press. Ciccariello-­Maher, George, and Jeff St. Andrews. 2010. “Between Macks and Panthers: Hip Hop in Oakland and San Francisco.” In Hip Hop in Amer­i­ca: A Regional Guide, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 1, chap. 11. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood.

Further Listening

Ant Banks. 1994. The Big Bad­ass. Jive.

Antipop Consortium (aka Tri-­Pinnacle, 1997–2002, 2007–­, New York City, New York) Antipop Consortium is an American alternative and experimental hip hop group that also rec­ords IDM (intelligent dance ­music). Its studio ­albums include The Isolationist (1999), Tragic Epilogue (2000), Shopping Carts Crashing (2001), Arrhythmia (2002), Antipop vs. Matthew Shipp (2003), and Fluo­rescent Black (2009), with the last receiving the strongest critical acclaim. Antipop Consortium has also released the EP The Ends against the ­Middle (2001), among several singles and remix ­albums. It collaborates with other hip hop artists, such as DJs Vadim (n.d.), Logic (Jason Kibler, 1972–), Krush (Hideaki Ishi, 1962–), and Dee Nasty (Daniel Bigeault, 1960–), as well as avant-­garde and free-­jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader Matthew Shipp (1960–), American bassist and rec­ord label owner Bill Laswell (1955–), and U.K. trip hop band Attica Blues (1995–). In 1997, rappers Beans (Robert Edward Stewart II, 1971–), High Priest (aka Hprizm, Kyle J. Austin, n.d.), and M. Sayyid (Maurice Greene, n.d.) met producer Earl Blaize (n.d.) at a poetry slam in New York City. With members developing production skills, the group released its earliest singles and two ­albums on Dan the Automator’s (Daniel M. Nakamura, 1966–) rec­ord label 75 Ark (1996–2001), which specialized in experimental hip hop, including the U.K. indie raga rock and alternative dance band Cornershop’s (1991–) When I Was Born for the 7th Time. Antipop Consortium’s approach to hip hop consisted of stream-­of-­consciousness rapping and heavy use of electronica, creating electro-­rap. In 2000, Antipop Consortium signed with Warp Rec­ords (1989–), which specialized in a variety of electronica, including IDM, ­music with a dance beat that derived from acid ­house, U.K. breakbeat, and Detroit techno ­music, yet with the ce­re­bral sense that appeals to listeners

16

Anwar, Joni

of ambient m ­ usic. Though the group had just a cult following, its sound was appealing to indie rock listeners. In 2001, Antipop Consortium performed in Eu­rope to open for Radiohead on its Amnesiac tour. By 2002, Antipop Consortium had disbanded, primarily to work on separate proj­ects but also ­because of creative differences. Beans began his solo ­career with his solo debut ­album Tomorrow Right Now (2003), also produced by Warp. High Priest collaborated with vari­ous artists, such as West Coast alternative hip hop rapper Aceyalone (1970–), and formed Airborn Audio (2002–) with M. Sayidd. But despite what­ever creative differences existed, each worked on psychedelic-­sounding hip hop, and the group re­united in 2007 and recorded its latest ­album two years ­later on Big Dada Recordings (1990–), a U.K. label owned by En­glish electronica, ­house, hip hop, and trip hop (downtempo) duo Coldcut (1986–). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: The United States

Further Reading

Freeman, Phil. 2003. “Perfect Strangers.” Jazziz 20, no. 11: 42. Kot, Greg. 2002. “The Hip Hop Underground Mixes It Up.” Chicago Tribune, April 28, 7.1.

Further Listening

Antipop Consortium. 2009. Fluo­rescent Black. Big Dada Recordings.

Anwar, Joni (aka Joni Raptor, 1981–­, Bangkok, Thailand) Joni Anwar, of Indonesian Scottish ancestry, is a Thai pop, R&B, and hip hop singer as well as songwriter and actor. Although he did not emerge on the ­music scene ­until 1994, he began his ­career in entertainment by acting in tele­vi­sion commercials for products such as Ovaltine (a milk-­flavoring product) and Bata (footwear and fashion accessories). His ­music ­career began when he (as Joni Raptor) and ­Kenyan rapper Louis Scott (1982–) formed the rap and R&B boy band duo Raptor (1994–1998) in Bangkok and signed with RS Public Com­pany Limited (RS Promotion, 1976–), a Thai entertainment com­pany that ­handles multimedia, digital, and physical distribution, copyright collection, and concert bookings. Raptor had a hit with “Kid Thung Ter,” and its second a­ lbum, WAAB Boys (1996), went Platinum. ­After becoming a teen icon and trendsetter in fashion as a member of Raptor, which disbanded in 1998, Anwar went solo, first performing on his younger ­brother Anan’s (1986–) eponymous debut ­album. As a solo singer, Joni Anwar’s most popu­ lar ­albums are Bad Boy (2000), ­Free Man (2002), and Outtaspace (2003). The song “Go Now” (2002) was named Rec­ord of the Year by 104.5 FAT Radio, as was the song “Outtaspace.” Anwar then went to New York to work on an ­album called Katsue (2004) with producer, DJ, and singer Montonn Jira (aka Jay, 1978*–). He has since been semiretired from m ­ usic. Anwar’s films include Ahingsa—­Jikko mee gam (aka Ahingsa [Karma—­Stop to Run], 2005), a teen comedy-­thriller concerned with romance and clubbing. His

Argentina 17

­ usic is a cross between smooth R&B and soul and high-­energy synth-­pop–­infused m hip hop with a strong Bollywood influence. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Thailand

Further Reading

Anon. 2007. “­Going Underground.” ­Under “Lifestyle” in Phuket Gazette (Thailand), September 8–14, 18. Sinlapalavan, Budsarakham. 2012. “Fun and Games with Raptor.” The Nation (Bangkok), April 24.

Argentina Argentina, a South American republic, is the largest Spanish-­speaking country in the world. Its m ­ usic is based on native traditional forms, such as the tango, chacarera, and chamamé, although folk, rock, pop, and classical are popu­lar. Argentine popu­lar ­music (rock nacional) has many forms: rock, pop, ska, reggae, funk, folk, blues, and hip hop. Early Argentine rock was influenced by British rock, but by the mid-1960s, localization of the ­music had begun to occur. Vox Dei (1967–1981,

In the 1980s and 1990s Afro-­Argentine reggae singer and rapper Fidel Nadal pop­u­lar­ ized hip hop with his Buenos Aires rasta-­punk band, Todos Tus Muertos (All Your Dead), which he founded in 1984. But by the time he started his prolific solo recording ­career in 2000, Nadal had focused more on reggae and other kinds of Latin ­music, including cumbia, opting for a gentler sound. (Pedro González Castillo/LatinContent/ Getty Images)

18 Argentina

1986–) became the country’s biggest rock band, recording 10 ­albums. Argentine reggae is popu­lar, with notable artists such as roots reggae band Los Cafres (“The Unfaithful” in Arabic, 1987–) and singer Fidel Nadal (1965–), who not only sings but raps in his upbeat reggae. Rap was brought to Argentina in the 1980s by American hip hop films such as Wild Style (1983), but generally speaking, very ­little hip hop is currently being produced in Argentina. Electronic ­music became popu­lar in the 1990s, and DJs such as Diego Ro-­K (Diego Roca, n.d.), Hernán Cattáneo (1983–), and Bad Boy Orange (Eduardo La Forgia, n.d.) began to flourish. The capital, Buenos Aires, is the center of Argentinian hip hop, and preferred rapping texts are in Spanish. Rap recordings are becoming more common, but as recently as 2013, rap artists had recorded only 30 ­albums in Buenos Aires, mainly to share on social networking sites. Early Argentine rap artists include Illya Kuryaki and the Vanlderramas (1991–) and Sindicato Argentino del Hip Hop (1992–). Grammy-­winning Sindicato is a hip hop trio that infuses its hip hop beats with funk; Illya Kuryaki and the Vanlderramas is a duo that synthesized hip hop–­style beats with funk. Groups such as ­these paved the way for other 1990s Argentine rap acts, such as Actitud María Marta (aka Hardcore, 1995–) and Mustafa Yoda (n.d.). Actitud María Marta is a socially conscious all-­female hip hop quintet whose beats show a Latin American and Jamaican influence; Yoda started out as a pioneer freestyle rapper and member of the group La Organización (1998–) but became a label owner. Second-­generation hip hop acts include Emanero (Federico Andres Giannoni, 1988–), Kris Alaniz (1989*–), and Koxmoz (2002–). Emanero, a rapper and actor known for clever, tongue-­t wisting verses as well as catchy choruses that have a mainstream appeal, began rapping in his teens and released his first demo in 2004. Alaniz is a female rapper who combines gangsta beats with bossa nova and soul. Koxmoz (2002–), a rap group that blends hip hop with electronica, creates raps that are known for being edgy and erudite. The younger generation of Argentinian hip hop musicians is a combination of skilled rappers who use introspective and playful rhymes and craft tongue-­twisting verses and ­those who master catchy, singsong choruses. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Chile; Germany

Further Reading

Castillo-­Garsow, Melissa, and Jason Nichols. 2016. La Verdad: An International Dialogue on Hip Hop Latinidades. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. Kane, Stephanie C. 2009. “Stencil Graffiti in Urban Waterscapes of Buenos Aires and Rosario, Argentina.” Crime, Media, Culture 5, no. 1: 9–28.

Further Listening

Actitud María Marta. 2008. Con perfume revolución (With Perfume Revolution). Conciencia Organizada Con Sexto Sentido. Emanero. 2014. Tres. S-­Music/Haciendo Bulla.

Further Viewing

Bercetche, Segundo, Diane Ghogomu, and Sebastián Muñoz, dirs. 2014. Buenos Aires Rap. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Self-­released.

Ashanthi 19

Ashanthi (Ashanthi De Alwis, 1981*–­, Colombo, Sri Lanka) Ashanthi is a Sinhalese rapper, singer-­songwriter, and sound-­recording producer from Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital city. Called by many the queen of Sri Lankan hip hop, she is the only female Sri Lankan rapper with an international recording contract, having signed in 2006 with Universal ­Music Group (1996–). Her style combines rap, pop, R&B, and traditional Sinhalese ­music. Inspired by Beyoncé (1981–), the Black Eyed Peas (1995–), and Jessie J (Jessica Ellen Cornish, 1988–), her musical style has mainstream appeal, resembling uplifting old-­school rap and favoring texts about romantic heartbreak. Ashanthi’s vocal range is soprano. Ashanthi’s ­father, Antoinette de Alwis (n.d.), is a professional pop and jazz vocalist. Ashanthi herself grew up formally studying and singing classical, jazz, and Broadway ­music as well as traditional Sinhalese songs. In 2000, she rapped as a crewmember for the most internationally successful Sinhalese hip hop duo, BnS (Bathiya and Santhush, 1998–). She then became part of the short-­lived pop and R&B duo Ashanthi ‘n’ Ranidu (2001–2002) and released ­under the Sony (1929–) label Oba Magemai (2002), an ­album of Sinhalese and En­glish songs that ­were mostly composed by Ranidu (Ranidu Lankage, 1982–). The title track peaked at No. 1 on the Sri Lanka song chart. By 2002, Ashanthi was pursuing a solo ­career, rapping in both Sinhalese and En­glish. She sang on tele­vi­sion and radio commercials for Coca-­Cola, Tang, and Marmite, among ­others, and toured worldwide. With Universal, she has since released Sandawathuren (­Water from the Moon, aka Seethala Wathuren, I’m Getting Wet, 2006), Rock the World (2013), and Daas Panawa (Both Eyes [on] Panawa, 2014). Rock the World was her first En­glish ­album. It features the single “Let’s Give Peace a Chance,” written by Ashanthi in both En­glish and Sinhala, featuring Hindi vocals by Indian playback and pop singer Benny Dayal (1984–). Since 2010, she has owned Ethno Entertainment Audio and Visual Productions and Ashanthi’s School of ­Music in Colombo. In 2013, she became the first female Sri Lankan hip hop artist to release a globally distributed ­album in En­glish. Also in 2013, Ashanthi was the subject of harsh public criticism for her homage to “Gangnam Style,” subtitled “En­glish R&B Remix.” This YouTube single sampled South Korean hip hop artist PSY’s (1977–) international viral video hit “Gangnam Style” (2012). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: PSY; Sri Lanka

Further Reading

Anon. 2012. “Grabbing the World’s Attention with Pop, Rock, and Soul.” Daily News (Colombo, Sri Lanka), September 21. Anon. 2017. “Hip Hop Phenomenon.” Daily News (Colombo, Sri Lanka), July 25. Saucier, Paul Khalil, and Kumarini Silva. 2014. “Keeping It Real in the Global South: Hip Hop Comes to Sri Lanka.” Critical Sociology 40, no. 2: 295–300.

Further Listening

Ashanthi. 2006. Sandawathuren (­Water from the Moon, aka Seethala Wathuren, I’m Getting Wet). Universal ­Music. Ashanthi. 2013. Rock the World. Universal ­Music.

20 Ashanti

Ashanti (Ashanti Shequoiya Douglas, 1980–­, Glen Cove, New York) Ashanti is an American R&B, pop, and neo soul singer-­songwriter, dancer, model, actress, and rec­ord producer. She is best known for her hit song “Foolish” (2002), which reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100, as well as for her successful collaborations with notable hip hop artists and work with Disney (1923–). Ashanti’s vocal range is lyric soprano, and most of her songs focus on love, relationships, fame, and overcoming adversity. She had a few false starts in ­music, first with Bad Boy Rec­ords (1993–), then with Jive Rec­ords (1981–) and Epic Rec­ords (1953–), but in 2001 Ashanti asked Irv Gotti (Irving Domingo Lorenzo Jr., 1979–) of Murder Inc. Rec­ords (1997–), which became the INC Rec­ords (2004–), to produce her studio demos; he asked her to compose lyrical R&B responses to several rappers’ calls and to appear on a few ­albums. Ashanti’s first Billboard Hot 100 hits ­were therefore appearances on American rapper Ja Rule’s (Jeffrey Atkins, 1976–) “Always on Time” and American rapper Fat Joe’s (Joseph Antonia Cartagena, 1970–) “What’s Luv” (both 2001). Her success continued with Ashanti (2002), which was certified t­ riple Platinum and peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 ­albums chart. Ashanti also won the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Con­temporary R&B ­Album. Soul Train (1971–2006) awarded Ashanti their Aretha Franklin Award for Entertainer of the Year. Her Chapter II (2003) also went Platinum despite an FBI investigation of Murder Inc. Rec­ords. In 2004, she released her third Platinum ­album, Concrete Rose—­its title was based on Tupac Shakur’s (1971–1996) posthumously published poetry collection The Rose That Grew from Concrete (1999)—­and in 2005 and 2008, she released Collectibles by Ashanti (a remix ­album of Concrete Rose) and The Declaration. The following year, Murder Inc. Rec­ords ended Ashanti’s contract, but in 2014, she returned to hip hop with Braveheart ­under her own production label, Written (2013–). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: The United States

Further Reading

Norment, Lynn. 2005. “Ashanti: Answers Critics and Doubters.” Ebony 60, no. 5: 154–56, 159, 161. Wiltz, Teresa. 2002. “Hip Hop’s Ashanti, Getting No R-­E-­S-­P-­E-­C-­T.” The Washington Post, August 17, C01.

Further Listening

Ashanti. 2004. Concrete Rose. INC Rec­ords.

Asia One (Anonymous, 1971–­, Denver, Colorado) Asia One, considered one of the best-­k nown b-­girls in the world, is committed to introducing hip hop dance and culture to youth worldwide. Growing up in Denver with a ­father from China and a ­mother from the United States, Asia One did not

Australia 21

believe she fully belonged to e­ ither culture. As a teenager, she turned to drugs but then discovered hip hop, and breakdancing became her creative outlet. She opened Denver’s first hip hop shop and workspace, La Casa del Fonk (1991/1992–1993). ­Here she helped build Denver’s hip hop community with fellow dancers, such as Denver-­born Fienz (Delfino Rodriguez, 1973–). In 1994, she moved to San Diego and then Los Angeles, where she danced with Bronx-­based Rock Steady Crew (RSC, 1977–) and Universal Zulu Nation’s (1973–) Mighty Zulu Kweens (n.d.). Her main b-­girl contemporaries ­were also from New York: Honey Rockwell (Ereina Valencia, n.d.) from the Bronx and Rokafella (Ana García, 1971–) from Harlem. That same year, Asia One established B-­Boy Summit, which was originally formed as a community event to enable her crew to find places to dance. In 1997, she established No Easy Props, an organ­ization and dance crew that sets hip hop dance standards as well as provides after-­school hip hop educational programs and classes in Los Angeles. At times, No Easy Props has included legendary hip hop dancers as instructors, such as Rock Steady Crew’s (1977–) Crazy Legs (1966–). Since the 2000s, No Easy Props has had a Eu­ro­pean chapter. Asia One’s hip hop activism includes engaging youth in hip hop culture and educating ­those interested in aspects of hip hop dance, especially battling (when dancers challenge each other aggressively) and a metatextual understanding of the culture (she calls it “overstanding”). Fueling her hip hop activism are instances such as the 1999 B-­Boy Summit at Venice Beach, California, in which participants ­were arrested and detained for dancing. She understands that hip hop can be used as an empowerment tool to create global change. Asia One excels at slow moves and freezes, air and side chairs, and cleanness in overall technique. Her own fascination with battling stems from believing that despite training, winning the b­ attle is also about the moment. She has danced in many videos by vari­ous bands, including the Black Eyed Peas (1995–) and A Tribe Called Quest (1985–1998, 2006–2013, 2015–). Asia One also produces hip hop dance videos. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Battling; Breakdancing; Hip Hop Dance; Rock Steady Crew; The United States; The Universal Zulu Nation

Further Reading

García, Ana “Rokafella.” 2005. Introduction to We B*Girlz by Nika Kramer and Martha Cooper. New York: powerHouse Books. Goddess, Rha, and JLove Calderón, eds. 2006. “Holding the Planet: Motherhood, ­Mother U.S.” In We Got Issues: A Young ­Woman’s Guide to a Bold, Courageous, and Empowered Life. Novato, CA: New World Library.

Further Viewing

Calderón, JLove, dir. 2013. Asia One: Expect the Unexpected. Los Angeles: JLove Calderón and Asia One.

Australia Australia, a country in Oceania, is the sixth-­largest country in the world by landmass. Hip hop emerged ­there in the early 1980s, ­after tele­vi­sion broadcasts of ­music

22 Australia

videos such as Blondie’s (1974–1982, 1997–) “Rapture” (1981) and Malcolm McLaren’s (1946–2010) “Buffalo Gals” (1982) introduced rap, turntablism (in “Rapture” as a visual image only), graffiti, and breakdancing. Hip hop was immediately taken as the culture of disadvantaged urban populations—­mostly poor immigrant and indigenous youth. The earliest hip hop scenes w ­ ere in Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth, with the earliest b-­boy crews, Bigg Noiz Krew (1980*–) and Wickid Force Breakers (1980*–), emerging in Melbourne. In 1606, Dutch explorers discovered Australia, originally naming it Nieuw-­ Holland. In 1770, ­Great Britain claimed the eastern half of Australia, and by 1788, it was sending settlers to New South Wales via penal transportation. Six self-­governed colonies federated in 1901 as states to form the Commonwealth of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Prior to Eu­ro­pean colonialism and ­Great Britain’s settlement efforts, Australia had been home to about 250 diverse indigenous Australian groups. Through Eu­ro­pean conflict, land theft, transmission of infectious diseases, utilization and destruction of resources (for example, the 1850s gold rush), and government-­sanctioned efforts to thin, relocate, and assimilate indigenous Australians, this population has dwindled to just 145 groups, with 13 nonendangered languages remaining. On February 13, 2008, a public government apology was issued to the Stolen Generations, Australian Aboriginal, and Torres Strait Islanders (culturally and ethnic Melanesians related to indigenous Papua New Guineans), who ­were forcibly removed between 1871 and 1970. Surviving indigenous Australians include the Anangu, Aranda, Koori, Murri, Ngunnawal, Nyungar, Tiwi, Wangai, Yamatji, and Yolngu ­peoples. Majority populations are mostly white, while minority populations are Indian, Chinese, and indigenous. Populations are concentrated in eastern coastal urban cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and the capital, Canberra. Perth, on the southwest coast, is the main exception. As of 2018, over one-­quarter of Australia’s population are immigrant expatriates. Most are from ­England, New Zealand, China, India, the Philippines, and Vietnam. En­glish is the official language, and Australians, including most indigenous Australians, speak British En­glish. Australian Aboriginal En­glish has also developed, borrowing phrases and grammatical structures from indigenous Australian languages. Traditional musical practices that have become well known over time include ceremonial m ­ usic that employs instruments such as the bilma (clapsticks that establish a beat) and didgeridoo (a long aerophone that requires circular breathing and makes onomatopoetic sounds and that indigenous Australians refer to by regional names—­for example, the Aranda in Alice Springs call it the Iipirra). Indigenous Australian instruments have been used often in popu­lar ­music. The Sydney alternative rock band Midnight Oil (1976–2002, 2016–2017), for example, has used a didgeridoo in live per­for­mances of its song “The Dead Heart” (1987). Other kinds of traditional ­music include Celtic-­inspired folk ­music such as bush ballads, of which Australia’s unofficial national anthem, Banjo Paterson’s (Andrew Paterson, 1864–1941) “Waltzing Matilda” (written in 1895, published in 1903), is an example.

Australia 23

EARLY HIP HOP IN AUSTRALIA With an established ­music industry, including the Australian Recording Industry Association’s (ARIA, 1983–) Charts (1988–), Australia was fertile ground for rock, pop, soul, R&B, reggae, and other kinds of popu­lar ­music. In 1987, Mighty Big Crime’s (1987–1988*) “16 Tons,” a rendition of Merle Travis’s (1917–1983) 1946 country hit about a coal miner, became Australia’s first hip hop release. A year ­later, the first Australian compilation ­album was released. Down U ­ nder by Law included tracks by Mighty Big Crime, the alternative funk rock and disco band Swoop (1991– 1999), and Sydney-­based Westside Posse (aka Sound Unlimited, 1990–1994), whose members ­were of Rus­sian as well as mixed-­Spanish and Filipino descent; Westside Posse rapped about racism, poverty, and overcoming adversity. The group’s single, “Saturday,” from its studio a­ lbum A Postcard from the Edge of the Underside (1992), featured members of the pioneering hip hop and ragga rap group Def Wish Cast (DWC, 1989–1995, 2002–), whose debut studio ­album was Knights of the Underground ­Table (1993). Other 1990s acts included Sydney’s South West Syndicate (1992–2003); Melbourne’s Bias B (Adam Stevens, n.d.), Brad Strut (Brad Itter, n.d.), and Pegz (aka MC Pegasus, Tirren Staaf, 1977–); Lismore’s Skunkhour (formerly Skunk, 1991– 2001); and Canberra’s Koolism (aka Tribe Ledda L, 1992–). London-­born MC Opi (1971–), of Australian Irish Celtic and Ghanaian descent, appeared on Australian pop and R&B artist Christine Anu’s (1970–) hit rendition of Australian rock-­acoustic singer-­songwriter Paul Kelly’s (1955–) “The Last Train” (1994). MC Opi was the first female rapper in Australia to receive national recognition through ARIA. Though Virgin Rec­ords (1972–) produced the earliest hip hop, Capital Rec­ords (1942–) soon created an offspring com­pany, Obese Rec­ords (1995–2016), headed by Pegz. Obese became Australia’s largest hip hop label, with studios and stores in Melbourne. One of its artists, Hilltop Hoods (1994–), from Adelaide, became the country’s most famous and influential hip hop act. Hilltop Hoods incorporated jazz, funk, electronica, rock, and punk into hip hop. Five of Hilltop Hoods’ seven studio ­albums ­were ARIA-­certified Platinum. ­These included The Calling (2003), The Hard Road (2006), State of the Art (2009), Drinking from the Sun (2012), and Walking ­under Stars (2014). The Hard Road won Hilltop Hoods the honor of becoming the first Australian hip hop group to have a No. 1 hit on the ARIA ­Albums Chart. Lyrical content focused on urban and suburban life, social and economic injustice, racial in­equality, American celebrity, ageism, and antiwar sentiments. Hilltop Hoods was involved with the collaborative-­turned-­collective Certified Wise Crew (2000*–), which linked its members to other Obese-­produced Adelaide hip hop acts such as Vents (aka Vents One, Vents Uno, Joseph Lardner, 1983–) and Funkoars (1999–). Meanwhile, Koolism, a duo consisting of MC and lyricist Hau Latukefu (Langomi-­ e-­Hau Latukefu, 1976–), of Tongan descent and from Queanbeyan, Australia, and producer, musician, and turntablist DJ Rampage (aka Danielsan Ichiban, Daniel Elleson, 1975–), from Auckland, New Zealand, emerged. As of 2018, Koolism is best known for its second ­album, Part Three: Random Thoughts (2004), which won an ARIA ­music award. Lyrical themes include Polynesian pride, ­family, war and terrorism, braggadocio, and survival. Though their m ­ usic includes some electronica and other instruments, Koolism’s sound often resembles American old-­school hip hop.

24 Australia

Though it developed further in New Zealand with Urban Pacifika, Pacific Island hip hop was also recorded in Sydney. Just one example is Sydney-­born rapper 6 Pound (Charles Lomu, n.d.). Fiji-­born MC Trey (Thelma Thomas, n.d.) focuses beyond Pacific Island hip hop. Much earlier New Zealand Urban Pacifika acts, such as ­Sisters Underground (1990–1995) and the Otara Millionaires Club (OMC, 1992– 2010), had hits both at home and in Australia. Melbourne’s 1200 Techniques (1997–2005) fused hardcore hip hop with funk, jazz, electronica, breakbeat, ragga, rock, soul, and drum and bass. The trio’s ­music was retro and old-­school, using gangsta raps that focused on Melbourne street life, vio­lence, and poverty. Con­temporary acts included Mexico-­born but Sydney-­based rapper, songwriter, MC, and radio personality Maya Jupiter (Melissha Martinez, 1978–); Lebanese Australian rapper, programmer, and actor Sleek the Elite (Paul Nakad, 1975–); Melbourne’s hip hop, electronica, and neo soul producer Plutonic Lab (Leigh Ryan, n.d.); and North Perth rapper Drapht (aka Paul Reid, Paul Gary James Ridge, 1982–). Sydney also produced the groups Bliss n’ Eso (BnE, Bliss n’ Esoterikizm, 2000–) and the Herd (2001–), while Melbourne produced the groups TZU (1999–) and Hyjak N Torcha (2000–); Perth produced the crew Downsyde (1996–). By the early 2000s, BnE had become internationally known through its 2004 studio ­album Flowers in the Pavement, which included “Hip Hop Blues,” a track produced by con­temporary group Hilltop Hoods’ Suffa (Matthew David Lambert, 1977–). Two of BnE’s studio ­albums ­were certified Platinum: ­Running on Air (2010) and Circus in the Sky (2013). The band focused on street life, sex, partying, and drugs—­but it also began to introduce issues such as the evils of mass consumerism, and it preached ­music as salvation. The Herd became famous for its live shows and incorporation of acoustic instruments such as piano, accordion, clarinet, guitars, and bass. One of its DJs and producers, Traksewt (Kenny Sabir, 1975*–), founded the prolific hip hop label Elefant Traks (1998–).

CURRENT HIP HOP Many pioneering acts are still active, including Drapht and Downsyde. MC Layla (Layla Rose Hanbury, 1982–), who is married to Downsyde’s Dazastah (Darren Reutens, n.d.), belongs to the Obese Rec­ords collective Syllabolix (SBX, Syllaboliks, 2000*–), which also has its own label, SBX (2000–). In 2005, the Hilltop Hoods Initiative was created in collaboration with Arts SA to financially assist new South Australian hip hop artists in manufacturing and distributing a recording on compact disc. Since 2008, Hilltop Hoods has recorded on its own Adelaide-­ based label, Golden Era Rec­ords (2008*–). Koolism’s Latukefu’s solo ­career includes the studio ­albums Let It Be Known (2014) and The No End Theory (2015), the latter fusing jazz, R&B, and new jack swing with hip hop. He collaborates with Hilltop Hoods, among ­others, on EPs and mixtapes. As Dan Elleson, Koolism’s DJ Rampage has written, produced, and collaborated on tracks recorded by Australian hip hop artists such as Mnemonic Ascent (1999–2015). More recent acts include Split Syndicate (2005–), Horrorshow (2006–), Astronomy Class (2006–), Thundamentals

Australia 25

(2008–), Dialectrix (aka D-­Trix, Ryan Leaf, n.d.), the Tongue (Xannon Shirley, 1997*–), Muph & Plutonic (2004–), Gully Platoon (2008–), M-­Phazes (Mark Landon, 1983–), Matty B (Matthew Victor Barrett, n.d.), Koi Child (2014–), and Kerser (Scott Barrow, 1987–). Five of Kerser’s seven studio ­albums peaked in the Top 10 on the ARIA ­Albums Chart. Another recent artist is Shahrooz Raoofi (1979*–), a prolific Australian hip hop, electro-­house ­music producer of Ira­nian descent who now resides in London. As of 2018, the most internationally famous Australian hip hop act is Dirty South–­ influenced rapper Iggy Azalea (1990–), from Sydney, who between 2012 and 2015 was the focus of several hip hop controversies, which included accusations of white appropriation of black ­music, hypersexualization, and lack of skills. Iggy Azalea’s studio ­album The New Classic (2014) peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip Hop ­Albums and Top Rap ­Albums. It also spawned a No. 1 hit, “Fancy,” and went Platinum.

ABORIGINAL HIP HOP Since Australian hip hop’s pioneering days, indigenous activity and identity have been essential. Wickid Force Breakers, Mnemonic Ascent, and South West Syndicate, among many other acts, included indigenous Australian members. More impor­tant, lyrical content and efforts to support indigenous Australian hip hop continue well into the 21st ­century. Brothablack (1978–) is a Sydney-­based indigenous (of the Yiman Tribe) hip hop performer, rapper, breakdancer, beatboxer, actor, and indigenous youth educator and advocate who was a founding member of South West Syndicate before having his solo ­career. Brothablack’s ­music is best described as old-­school rap with highly energized vocal deliveries accompanied by heavy guitars and turntablism. His debut solo studio ­album was More Than a Feeling (2006). In 2007, he collaborated with Hilltop Hoods to draw attention to indigenous mortality rates. The group Local Knowledge (2002–2006) and its descendants the Last Kinection (2006–) and Street Warriors (2007*–) formed a grassroots movement focusing on the poverty, unemployment, and discrimination that indigenous Australians experience. CuzCo (2006–) is a hip hop, R&B, and reggae fusion duo that heightens awareness of aboriginal rights. Briggs (1986–), an indigenous (Yorta Yorta) Australian rapper, rec­ord label owner, comedy writer, and actor from Shepparton, became known ­after Hilltop Hoods took him on its 2009 Eu­ro­pean tour. He established Bad Apples ­Music (2015–), a rec­ord label that focuses on indigenous hip hop artists and ­music. His solo ­albums include The Blacklist (2010) and Sheplife (2014). As part of the duo A.B. Original (2014–), he released the studio ­album Reclaim Australia (2016). Briggs’s musical themes include racism and economic in­equality, and he has been a prominent activist against blackface. His aggressive, fast-­paced raps often use stream-­of-­consciousness lyricism and wordplay, accompanied by such vocalizations as trills and stutters that he uses for effect. Briggs has a penchant for metal-­style guitars set against an intricate interplay of samples and beats, making his songs diverse and complex. Other indigenous Australian acts include Morganics

26 Austria

(Morgan Lewis, n.d.), from Sydney; ­Little G (Georgina Chrisanthopoulos, 1986*–), from Melbourne; and Nathan Lovett-­Murray (1982–), from Heywood. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Bliss n’ Eso; Briggs; Brothablack; Hilltop Hoods; Iggy Azalea; MC Opi; New Zealand; 1200 Techniques; The United States

Further Reading

Dunbar-­Hall, Peter, and Chris Gibson. 2004. Deadly Sounds, Deadly Places: Con­temporary Aboriginal M ­ usic in Australia. Sydney, Australia: University of New South Wales Press. Maxwell, Ian. 2003. Phat Beats, Dope Rhymes: Hip Hop Down ­Under Comin’ Upper. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. Mitchell, Tony. 2003. “Indigenizing Hip Hop: An Australian Mi­grant Youth Subculture.” In Ingenious: Emerging Youth Cultures in Urban Australia, edited by Melissa Butcher and Mandy Thomas, pp. 198–214. North Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Pluto Press. Morgan, George, and Andrew Warren. 2011. “Aboriginal Youth, Hip Hop, and the Politics of Identification.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 34, no. 6: 925–27. Warren, Andrew, and Rob Evitt. 2012. “Indigenous Hip Hop: Overcoming Marginality, Encountering Constraints.” In Creativity in Peripheral Places, edited by Chris Gibson, chap. 11. London: Routledge.

Further Listening

Hilltop Hoods. 2006. The Hard Road. Obese. Kerser. 2016. Tradition. ABK Rec­ords. Last Kinection, The. 2011. Next of Kin. Elefant Traks. Thundamentals. 2017. Every­one We Know. High Depth.

Austria Austria’s hip hop scene emerged in Vienna, its capital, in the early 1980s. The first Austrian rapper was singer-­songwriter Falco (Johann Hölzel, 1957–1998), who recorded pop and new wave. Falco had many international hits, most notably “Rock Me Amadeus” (1986), which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and “Vienna Calling” (1985), which peaked at No. 18. Falco, who never referred to himself as a rapper, preferred performing in Austrian German with some En­glish. In contrast, another pioneering act from Vienna, an electronica/hip hop group, the Moreaus (aka Creatures, 1986–1991), featured Sugar B (Martin Forster, n.d.), who rapped in En­glish. From 1867 ­u ntil 1918, the Austro-­Hungarian Empire was a major Eu­ro­pean power, collapsing at the end of World War I (1914–1918). ­After the First Austrian Republic (1919–1934) and a brief interwar period ­under Fascist leadership, Austria became part of Greater Germany (and the Greater Germanic Reich) ­until the end of World War II (1939–1945). Since 1945, the Second Republic of Austria has been a democracy, and since 1955, Austria has been in­de­pen­dent and neutral. The vast majority of its ­peoples are Austrian, followed by small minorities of former Yugo­slavians, Germans, Turks, and other ethnic groups. The country’s official

Austria 27

language is Austrian Standard German, which shares syntax, words, and phrases with the Bavarian dialect. Vienna has been an impor­tant center for Western classical ­music. Composers such as Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), Franz Schubert (1797–1828), and Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) lived and developed their ­music in the city. Musical influences include Romani ­music, such as Hungarian Csárdás (folk dance ­music). Viennese traditional ­music includes Waltzes, Ländlers (both are dance m ­ usic), and Schrammelmusik (ensemble ­music played by double-­necked guitar and accordion), which ­were influenced by immigrants from Hungary, Bavaria, Moravia, and Slovenia. Yodeling is a shared musical tradition between Austria, Bavaria, and Switzerland. By the end of the 20th ­century, popu­lar ­music preferences favored Austrian pop and rock. Though its ­music industry is small, the country has established its own Austrian singles and ­albums charts (Ö3 Austria Top 40, 1968–). EARLY AUSTRIAN HIP HOP Hip hop ­music from Vienna and other Austrian cities was recorded more often once Schönheitsfehler (Blemish, 1992–2005), the first commercially successful hip hop act, whose single “F—­You” (1993) charted in Germany, established its own recording label, Duck Squad (1993–). Schönheitsfehler helped groups such as Texta (1993–), from Linz, and Total Chaos (1993–), from Innsbruck, rec­ord their first ­albums. Texta employed humor and rap using the Upper Austrian (Linzer) dialect. Its debut studio ­album, Gediegen (Solid, 1997), was followed by SexDrugsAnd­ HipHop (2000), which peaked at No. 20 on the Austrian Longplay Charts. Lyrical content reflected a German focus on American-­inspired gangsta themes, but Austrian rap also protested against local right-­wing po­liti­cal activity, xenophobia, and racism and made comical references to Austrian culture. Fünfhaus Posse (Five-­ House Posse, 1993–), from Vienna, stood out for fusing hip hop with jazz-­influenced beats. A ­ fter the 2000s, the group opted to rap texts in Standard Austrian German to attain a larger audience. Other acts included Aphrodelics (1995–), Kaputtnicks (1995*–), Hidden Nation Crew (1995–), and Rückgrat (Backbone, 1997–2005). Meanwhile, Texta and Total Chaos formed the supergroup Kaleidoskop (2001–2002) with the Bavarian band from Freising, Blumentopf (Flowerpot, 1992–2016). Turntablism and instrumental hip hop gained popularity with the Viennese turntablist crew Waxolutionists (1997–) and the Moreaus’ DJ DSL (Stefan Biedermann, 1969–), a pioneering instrumental hip hop and trip hop producer. Another notable turntablist crew, the Phonosapiens (2005*–), from Innsbruck, rec­ords downtempo instrumental trip hop, dubstep, funk, and jungle ­music. THE 2000s AND BEYOND Hip hop musicians who began in the 2000s included Viennese acts such as the duo Penetrante Sorte (2002–) and rappers Kamp (aka Alois, Kamp MC, Florian

28 Austria

Kampelmühler, 1982–) and MadoppelT (Matthias Leitner, 1983–), as well as Linzer acts such as boombap collective Markante Handlungen (Striking Actions, 2001– 2007) and rapper Chakuza (Peter Pangerl, 1981–). By the mid-2000s, Austrian German had become the rap language for irony and humor and was used (over Standard German) for Austrian gangsta and message rap. Die Vamummtn (The Dummies, 2006–2016) was a hardcore Viennese rap crew whose 2008 amateur-­ made ­music video “Krocha Hymne” went viral on YouTube; it became the first national hip hop hit since 2003. Die Vamummtn pioneered slangsta, a portmanteau of slang and gangsta, creating a new m ­ usic scene in Vienna. Another gangsta rap act is the duo Tracks—­taz (2010–2015), whose debut and second ­albums Oldaah pumpn muas’s (It’s Gotta Pump, Dude) and Prolettn felan längaah (aka Scullies Celebrate Longerrr), both released in 2011, peaked at No. 1 on the Austrian ­Albums Chart. By the late 2000s, West Coast gangsta rap–­ influenced Brenk Sinatra (Branko Jordanović, 1979–) emerged as a prolific Viennese ­music producer, DJ, and instrumental hip hop composer. Other artists included rapper Kayo (aka Nicholas Stage, Alexander Pressl, n.d.) from Linz, who works with DJ Phekt (Alexander Härtl, 1979–), as well as rapper, DJ, producer, and radio host Trishes (Stefan Trischler, n.d.), from Innsbruck. Several pioneering acts remain active. For example, Texta is involved with Markante Handlungen and formed the instrumental hip hop and bass m ­ usic proj­ect group Restless Leg Syndrome (2017) with Viennese DJ and producer Chrisfader (Christian Fleischmann, n.d.). Texta’s rapper Skero (aka Skero One, Martin Skerwald, 1972–) collaborates with Brazilian-­born and Vienna-­based producer, DJ, and singer Joyce Muniz (1983–). As of 2018, DJ DSL is based in Hamburg, where he focuses on creating remixes. Immigrant acts have also had national success. For example, Tehran-­born and Viennese-­raised rapper and producer Nazar’s (Ardalan Afshar, 1984–) ­albums Camouflage (2014) and Irreversibel (2016) peaked at No. 1 in Austria and Nos. 2 and 7 in Germany. Nazar worked on the single “Fallen” (“Fall”) with Swiss-­born singer-­songwriter and producer RAF 3.0 (aka Raf Camora, Raf0Mic, Raphael Ragucci, 1984–), of Austrian and Italian descent. The most successful female artist in Austria is Schwetzingen, Germany–­born rapper, slam poet, and writer Mieze Medusa (Doris Mitterbacher, 1975–), who rec­ords with DJ and producer Tenderboy (Philipp Diesenreiter, n.d.). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Gangsta Rap; Germany; Hardcore Hip Hop; Horrorcore

Further Reading

Hafez, Farid. 2016. “Po­liti­cal Beats in the Alps: On Politics in the Early Stages of Austrian Hip Hop ­Music.” Journal of Black Studies 47, no. 7: 730–52. Ondrej, Daniel. 2011. “Ethnicity, Transnational Communication, and Consumerism among the Hip Hop Subcultures in Vienna.” In The Ethnically Diverse City, edited by Frank Eckardt and John Eade, pp. 509–534. Berlin: BWV.

Further Listening

Nazar. 2016. Irreversibel. Universal ­Music Group/Chapter One. Restless Leg Syndrome. 2017. Rooted. Duzz Down San Rec. Texta. 2016. Nichts dagegen, aber (Do Not Mind). Tonträger Rec­ords.



Awadi, Didier 29

Awadi, Didier (aka DJ Awadi, Didier Sourou Awadi, 1969–­, Dakar, Senegal) Didier Awadi is one of the most prominent figures of African hip hop. With Senegalese rapper Doug E-­Tee (aka Duggy Tee, Amadou Barry, 1971–), Awadi cofounded Positive Black Soul (PBS, 1989–) in Dakar, one of the first Senegalese rap groups. Both Awadi and Doug E-­Tee come from the stable middle-­class areas of Dakar’s Sicap Amitié 2 and Sicap Liberté 6 residential districts, but the new sociocultural revolution they launched reached youth throughout Africa. As a solo act, Awadi released Sunugaal (2006) and, as part of PBS, numerous successful ­albums, including Parole d’honneur—­Kaddu Gor (A Man’s Word—­ Kaddu Gor, 2001*), Un autre monde est pos­si­ble (Another World Is Pos­si­ble, 2004*), Présidents d’Afrique (African Presidents, 2007), and Ma revolution (My Revolution, 2012*), which all attest to his community-­based activism and contain uplifting messages. Awadi has earned numerous awards, including the Prix RFI Musiques du Monde (2003), the Tamani d’Or du Meilleur Rappeur Africain (2004), and the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2005, given by both France and Senegal); ­these awards recognize the original quality of his ­music beginning as early as his PBS mixtape Boul falé bou bés (­Don’t Care! Brand New, 1994), especially his combining of American rap rhythms of groups such as N.W.A. (1986– 1991) and Run-­D.M.C. (1981–2002) with Senegalese rhythms and the rhythms of superstars such as Omar Péne (1956–), Aby N’dour (n.d.), Baba Maal (1953–), Pape Niang (1988–), and Yaye Aminata Fall (1930–2002). Identifying themselves as the voice of a generation, Awadi and Doug E-­Tee aimed to do their best to represent the “boul falé,” young Senegalese disillusioned by the poverty, unemployment, despair, and corruption that confronted them during the 1990s. The duo spoke to urban youth to guide them through media falseness ­toward the real con­temporary Africa. Urban youth experienced a modern Africa destabilized by corrupt po­liti­cal leadership (of its many nations) and beholden to what they considered to be uncaring, opportunistic foreign financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. ­T hese youth felt their countries ­were being run by make-­believe leaders who cared nothing for the ­people who elected them. Consequently, most young Senegalese developed an attitude of having no bras longs (connections); therefore, they gave up on ­legal means of influencing the leadership in their country, as they saw it as a pariah rather than as a step t­ oward development. Awadi continues to spread his po­liti­cal messages—­and play a major role in the evolution of Senegalese and African hip hop. Despite the breakup of PBS, he remains close with Doug E-­Tee. The two re­united for a highly attended August 2009 concert at the Cices, Dakar, and a 2014 ­album, Positive Black Soul: 25 Years. Moreover, Awadi remains engaged in social activism, often expressed when he performs at national and international festivals. He has collaborated with many international artists, including Afropop singer and songwriter Salif Keita (1949–), of Mali, and reggae singer and songwriter Tiken Jah Fakoly (Doumbia Moussa Fakoly, 1968–), of Ivory Coast. Babacar M’Baye See also: Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Positive Black Soul; Senegal

30

Awadi, Didier

Further Reading

Lo, Sheba. 2014. “Building Our Nation: Senegalese Hip Hop Artists as Agents of Social and Po­liti­cal Change.” In Hip Hop and Social Change in Africa, edited by Msia Kibona Clark and Mickie Mwanzia Koster, chap. 2. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. Tang, Patricia. 2012. “The Rapper as Modern Griot: Reclaiming Ancient Traditions.” In Hip Hop Africa: New African ­Music in a Globalizing World, edited by Eric Charry, chap. 3. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Further Reading

Positive Black Soul. 1994. Boul falé bou bés (­Don’t Care! Brand New). No label.

B Babyface (Kenneth Brian Edmonds, 1959–­, Indianapolis, Indiana) Babyface is an American R&B and new jack swing songwriter, singer, producer, and entrepreneur/businessman. He began as a member of the groups ManChild (1974–1980) and the Deele (1981–1993, 2007–). He left the latter to work as a singer and producer with producer and fellow Deele member L.A. Reid (Antonio Marquis Reid, 1955–), who went on to ­handle R&B and hip hop benchmark acts such as Paula Abdul (1962–), Boyz II Men (1985–), Whitney Houston (1963–2012), and TLC (1990–). Babyface won 11 Grammy Awards; won BMI Songwriter of the Year in 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1995; received two double-­Platinum ­album certifications with Tender Lover (1989) and For the Cool in You (1993); and won an NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award. Babyface and Reid cofounded LaFace Rec­ords

American singer-­songwriter and rec­ord producer Babyface is a Grammy Award–­ winning artist whose musical styles include hip hop, R&B, pop, and new jack swing. In 1989 he cofounded Atlanta-­based LaFace Rec­ords with L.A. Reid, which gathered the talents of Dallas Austin, Daryl Simmons, Kayo, and Or­ga­nized Noize as in-­house producers. (Randy Miramontez​/­Dreamstime​.­com)

32 Babyface

(1989–2001). Babyface also cofounded Edmonds Entertainment (aka Babyface Entertainment, 1997–). ­Today, the Reid/Babyface team is considered one of the most prolific producer and songwriter teams in the history of popu­lar ­music. At one point, the production duo had six singles in the R&B Top 10 at one time.

FROM PRODUCTION TO SINGER/SONGWRITER Babyface learned guitar at a young age and sang in vari­ous bands u­ ntil landing a spot in the funk group ManChild, at which point he deci­ded he needed to learn keyboard to be successful at ­music. He joined Reid’s group, the Deele, and began producing with Reid—­the two ­were asked to write and produce for other bands and soon got bigger clients. Their break came writing for Bobby Brown (1969–). In 1989, the two formed the LaFace label in Atlanta, and in 1990, they ­were honored as the BMI Pop Songwriters of the Year. Despite his self-­definition as more of a writer than a musician or singer, Babyface’s second solo a­ lbum, Tender Lover, produced the hit “Whip Appeal.” In 1993, Babyface’s song “End of the Road,” performed by Boyz II Men, became one of the best-­selling singles of all time and broke long-­standing chart rec­ords, earning him a Grammy as producer (he won the Grammy for Producer of the Year from 1995 to 1997). Around this time, Babyface began to deprioritize his role in LaFace to concentrate on a solo c­ areer. His third a­ lbum, For the Cool in You, featured the hit “When Can I See You?” He teamed with Boyz II Men again in 1995 to produce the hit “I’ll Make Love to You,” again breaking into the Billboard Hot 100. Also in 1995, Babyface received five Grammy Awards, including one for Best Male R&B Vocal Per­for­ mance. His next production proj­ect, the soundtrack for the 1995 American film Waiting to Exhale, produced several hits. His fourth solo a­lbum, The Day, was well received by critics but did not enjoy the same financial success as his previous ­albums. In 1997, he cofounded Babyface Entertainment, a film production com­pany. Soul Food (1997), its first film, spawned a double-­Platinum soundtrack. In 2000, Babyface cofounded Babyface Sports Group, which provided agent repre­sen­ta­tion for professional athletes. He released more solo a­ lbums: Face 2 Face (2001), Grown and Sexy (2005), Play­list (2007), and Return of the Tender Lover (2015). In 2014, Babyface released a Grammy Award–­winning duet ­album with Toni Braxton (1967–) titled Love, Marriage and Divorce. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: New Jack Swing; The United States

Further Reading

Chaney, Cassandra. 2014. “The Tears of Black Men: Black Masculinity, Sexuality, and Sensitivity in R&B and Hip Hop.” In Hyper Sexual, Hyper Masculine? Gender, Race, and Sexuality in the Identities of Con­temporary Black Men, edited by Brittany C. Slatton and Kamesha Spates, chap. 8. New York: Routledge. Grem, Darren E. 2006. “ ‘The South Got Something to Say’: Atlanta’s Dirty South and the Southernization of Hip Hop Amer­i­ca.” Southern Cultures 12, no. 4: 55–73. Hilburn, Robert. 1997. “Cover Story: Crown Prince of Pop: At 38, Babyface Has Won Six Grammys and Is Nominated for Another Dozen, but Does He Mind His Work Being Tagged ‘Commercial’? Not One Bit.” Los Angeles Times, February 23, 5.



The Bahamas 33

Further Listening

Babyface. 1989. Tender Lover. CBS. Babyface. 1993. For the Cool in You. Epic.

Bahamadia (Antonia Reed, 1976–­, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Bahamadia is a Philadelphia-­based DJ and MC. In the 1980s, she began her ­career by working with Philadelphia’s own DJ Ran (Randy Gaskins, 1969*–) as well as MC Guru (Keith Edward Elam, 1961–2010) and the East Coast hip hop duo Gang Starr (1986–2006). Bahamadia developed her characteristically smooth, flowing rap, which she alternates with jazz-­and R&B-­influenced singing. In 1993, she recorded her first single, “Funk Vibe,” inspiring MC Guru to help her attain a rec­ord deal with Chrysalis Rec­ords (1969–). She has since released four ­albums: Kollage (1996), BB Queen (2000), Good Rap M ­ usic (2006), and ­Here (2015). In 1996, her singles “I Confess” and “Three the Hardway” (Kollage) both peaked at No. 11 on Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs and at No. 45 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs. She has remained part of the Philadelphia hip hop scene while touring internationally, achieving an international fan base with the songs “Total Wreck” (1994), “Uknowhowwedu” (1995), and “­Here” (2015). ­Because she had to wait out her contract with Chrysalis, which became a subsidiary of EMI (1931–2012), Bahamadia’s solo ­career was put on hold. She frequently appears as a guest artist, collaborating with Erykah Badu (1971–), the Herbaliser (1995–), Jedi Mind Tricks (1993–), Queen Latifah (1970–), and another Philadelphia act, the Roots (1987–), among ­others. In 2000, she began her own recording label, B-­Girl Rec­ords (2000–), in Philadelphia. She has been an advocate for ­women involved in hip hop production and management. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Gang Starr; The United States

Further Reading

Bradley, Adam, and Andrew Dubois, eds. 2010. “Bahamadia.” ­Under “Part 3: 1993–99: Rap Goes Mainstream” in The Anthology of Rap, pp. 335–37. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Hess, Mickey. 2010. “The Sound of Philadelphia: Hip Hop History in the City of Brotherly Love.” In Hip Hop in Amer­i­ca: A Regional Guide, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 1, chap. 7. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood.

Further Listening

Bahamadia. 1996. Kollage. Chrysalis.

The Bahamas The Bahamas, located north of Cuba and Hispaniola and southeast of Florida, is an archipelagic state comprising over 700 islands, cays, and islets within the Atlantic Ocean. Since 1973, the Commonwealth of the Bahamas has been an in­de­pen­ dent commonwealth ­under ­England. Bahamians ­were introduced to hip hop by the

34 Bangladesh

mid-1980s through tourists and traveling citizens. The major hip hop center is in its capital city, Nassau, which u­ ntil then aired Jamaican reggae and dancehall, American R&B and rock, and Trinbagonian calypso, soca, and rapso, as well as two kinds of Bahamian m ­ usic, junkanoo and rake ’n’ scrape. Bahamian hip hop is usually fused with reggae and junkanoo and more recently has incorporated soca; bands are more emphasized than individual rappers. One exception is Nassau rapper Avalanchee (Avalanchee Yaj, n.d.), who combines uplifting hip hop with reggae and gospel, releasing tracks through streaming ser­vices. The most famous Bahamian hip hop group is Nassau’s Baha Men (1980–), who fuse modernized junkanoo with hip hop, reggae, soca, and dance pop. The band’s studio ­albums I Like What I Like (1997), Doong Spank (1998), 2 Zero O-­O (1999), Who Let the Dogs Out? (2000), Move It Like This (2002), Holla! (2004), and Ride with Me (2015) employ hip hop, and their smash hit “Who Let the Dogs Out?” (2000) combines modernized junkanoo with hip hop ele­ments. It peaked at No. 40 on the Billboard Hot 100; however, it reached No. 2 on the U.K. Singles Chart and No. 1 in Australia and New Zealand. In 2001, it won a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording. Also from Nassau, Willis and the Illest Bahamas Reggae Band (2008–) fuses reggae, dancehall, and dubstep with hip hop. The band’s lyrical content focuses on tolerance, ac­cep­tance, and love. In 2011, Willis and the Illest released its eponymous ­album, though it is still best known for its live concerts on New Providence. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Dubstep; Reggae

Further Reading

Rommen, Timothy. 2009. “ ‘Come Back Home’: Regional Travels, Global Encounters, and Local Nostalgias in Bahamian Popu­lar ­Musics.” Latin American M ­ usic Review 30, no. 2: 159–83. Strauss, Neil. 2000. “An Island Breeze Revives a Dream: At Long Last, a Bahamain Band Has a Hit on Its Hands.” The New York Times, August 28, E1. Thompson, Krista A. 2011. “Youth Culture, Diasporic Aesthetics, and the Art of Being Seen in the Bahamas.” African Arts 44, no. 1: 26–39.

Further Listening

The Baja Men. 2000. Who Let the Dogs Out? S-­Curve Rec­ords.

Bangladesh Bangladesh, the world’s eighth most populous nation and the third-­largest Muslim-­ majority country, is a south Asian parliamentary democracy whose largest cities include its capital, Dhaka, as well as its biggest port city, Chittagong. Bangladesh’s citizenry is 98 ­percent Bengali, and its Bengali Muslims make up a large part of the population. Bangladesh has been a cosmopolitan Islamic republic and was at one point part of British India, with a war for liberation and in­de­pen­dence occurring in 1971. Bangladeshi hip hop, which emerged in 1992 with rapper Ashraf Babu (n.d.), is influenced not by En­glish but by American artists, mainly ­because hip hop did not come into its own ­until 2000, when American tele­vi­sion programs and CDs

Bangladesh 35

became available and, combined with social networking, enabled musicians to disseminate their songs. Traditional Bangladeshi m ­ usic consists of religious and secular songs, many based on ragas (melodic modes or scales in Indian classical ­music) and Hindustani classical m ­ usic, in the Bengali language. Some of its styles include baul, a sparsely accompanied solo ­music; bhandari, gazir gaan, hason raja, kirtan, and shyama sangeet, all devotional m ­ usics; bhatiali and sari, both maritime m ­ usics; dhamail, gombhira, and jhumur, based on dance; ghazal and lalon, which introduce philosophy and religious ideas; and jari and kavigan, both battling ­musics—­the latter being between two poets, a form that appears similar to rap battling. Modern songs are put ­u nder the umbrella term adhunik (short for adhunik sangeet, or modern ­music); ­these include film songs (including filmi ­music), pop, and rock ­music, the latter having been introduced in the early 1970s by bands such as Spondan (1972–) and Uccharon (1973–)*. As of 2018, rock, nicknamed Bangla or Bangla ­music, dominates popu­lar musical tastes. Queens, New York–­based Bangladeshi American rap group Stoic Bliss (2004–) was the first Bangladeshi-­oriented hip hop band to sign on a major label, with its 2006 ­album Light Years Ahead being made available in Bangladesh and selling 250,000 copies its first year. In 2006, the pioneering Bangladeshi hardcore rap group Deshi MCs (aka E.N.L. Crew—­E.N.L. for “enlightenment,” 2005–) released its first ­album Banned, followed in 2009 by Banned Version 2.0. Beginning first as a commercial enterprise, Bangladeshi hip hop has evolved to also include an urban, sociopo­liti­cal underground rap scene in cities such as Dhaka and Chittagong (especially in its Rangamati District). In addition to urban and sociopo­liti­cal themes, Bangladeshi hip hop has focused on street vio­lence and gangsta rap themes (called Bangla gangsta rap), drugs (especially marijuana), partying, and self-­esteem. As a result of diaspora, one Bangladeshi artist who has become popu­lar in the United States is hip hop, electronica, rock, and R&B singer-­composer Fuad (Fuad al Muqtadir, 1980–), who is based in New York City. Recently, hip hop has been kept alive in Bangladeshi nightclubs by acts such as Dhaka-­based DJ Rahat (Rahat Hayat, n.d.), who has also released eight ­albums that feature Bangladeshi hip hops acts. A ­couple of successful ­later acts have been Dhaka-­based Theology of Rap (T.O.R., 2007–) and the first mainstream female Bangladeshi rapper, Amzii Khan (Amani Khan, 1993–). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Gangsta Rap; India; Pakistan

Further Reading

Farzana, Kazi Fahmida. 2011. “­Music and Artistic Artefacts: Symbols of Rohingya Identity and Everyday Re­sis­tance in Borderlands.” Austrian Journal of South-­East Asian Studies 4, no. 2: 215–36. Henderson, David. 2013. “Three Minutes on ­Music from Bangladesh.” World Lit­er­a­ture ­Today 87, no. 3: 7.

Further Listening

Deshi MCs. 2006. Banned. G-­Series. Deshi MCs. 2009. Banned Version 2.0. G-­Series.

36

Banks, Azealia

Banks, Azealia (1991–­, New York City, New York) Azealia Banks is an American rapper, singer-­songwriter, and actress known for her self-­released (via social media) breakthrough hip ­house single “212” (2011), her critically acclaimed EP 1991 (2012), her mixtape Fantasea (2012), and her ­album Broke with Expensive Taste (2014), the last peaking at No. 30 on the Billboard 200. Banks followed her debut ­album with self-­released singles and her second mixtape Slay-­Z (2016). Banks is also known for criticizing Iggy Azalea (1990–) and Macklemore (Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, 1983–), white rappers who she argues appropriate black ­music to gain unwarranted recognition over more talented black rappers. Banks, who is openly bisexual, is known for a hard-­hitting rapping style, producing confrontational texts on how black ­women are objectified and sexualized, especially by white men. She uses a lot of expletives, internal rhymes, and humor, and her lyr­ics express pride in being from New York City. Her rapping and speaking voice is higher than her strong contralto singing voice, which she uses to create contrasting lyrical passages. Though she raps quickly and is youthfully stylish, Banks’s sound and style come closer to Missy Elliott (1971–) and a mature Miley Cyrus (Destiny Hope Cyrus, 1992–) than to Nicki Minaj (1982–). Banks grew up in Harlem, New York, where she developed early interests in musical theatre, singing, dancing, and acting. By age 10, she had begun winning auditions for off-­Broadway musical productions, and by 14, she was attending the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of ­Music and Art and Performing Arts. At 16, Banks dropped out of high school to focus on becoming a hip hop recording artist. ­Under the stage name Miss Bank$, she self-­produced and released several tracks, including “Seventeen” (2009), which sampled En­glish electronic band Ladytron (1999–). Though this effort led to a development deal with XL Recordings (1989–), ­after a year, Banks parted from the label over artistic differences. By 2010, Banks had dropped her stage name and released more tracks, including “L8R” (2010), through social media ­music outlets. In 2011, Banks moved to Montreal and made the video for “212,” which features her rapping and singing over DJ Lazy J’s (aka Basto, Jef Martens, 1975–) electro-­house “Float My Boat” (2009). The video for “212” went internationally viral, and the song peaked at No. 7 in Ireland, 12 in the United Kingdom, and 14 in the Netherlands. In 2012, a still unsigned Banks went back to New York to work with En­glish producer Paul Epworth (1974–). She self-­released her debut mixtape Fantasea, while “212” had an additional release on the EP 1991, on the Interscope Rec­ords label (1989–). Though 1991 was first released in the United Kingdom, the ­album peaked at No. 133 on the Billboard 200 in the United States. In 2014, a­ fter breaking off with Interscope and Polydor Rec­ords (1913–), Banks released Broke with Expensive Taste, first on iTunes, then in 2015 on the Prospect Park label (2008–). As of 2018, she plans to release a third mixtape, Fantasea II: The Second Wave, and her second studio ­album, tentatively titled Business and Plea­sure. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Iggy Azalea; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Barbados 37

Further Reading

Dawkins, Marcia Alesan. 2013. “Shady 2.0.” Coda in Eminem: The Real Slim Shady. Hip Hop in Amer­i­ca, pp. 167–72. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger. Hawkins, Stan. 2016. Queerness in Pop ­Music: Aesthetics, Gender Norms, and Temporality. New York: Routledge. McNally, James. 2016. “Azealia Banks’s ‘212’: Black Female Identity and the White Gaze in Con­temporary Hip Hop.” Journal of the Society for American ­Music 10, no. 1: 54–81.

Further Listening

Banks, Azealia. 2014/2015. Broke with Expensive Taste. Azealia Banks Rec­ords/Prospect Park.

Barbados Barbados, a British commonwealth island nation in the Ca­r ib­bean, has popu­lar, diverse ­music tastes that include American jazz and rock, Trinbagonian calypso and soca, and Jamaican reggae, ragga, and ska. In addition, Barbados originated its own popu­lar ­music, spouge, in the 1960s. This fusion of ska with calypso was influenced by American and British Isles spirituals, hymns, and sea shanties, with cowbell and bass guitar for main instrumentation—in addition to a trap set, electronic instruments, and l­ater the trumpet, trombone, and saxophone. Hip hop emerged in Barbados in the mid-1980s when traveling tourists and citizens introduced hip hop ­music and films. By the late 1980s, hip hop was being played at touristy discotheques. Ele­ments of reggae and soca are often fused with Barbadian hip hop, which has produced many internationally renowned artists. Rapping texts are in En­glish with a West Indies dialect that also includes American, British En­glish, and Bajan creole. Lyrical themes include partying, economic disparity, the frustrations of island youth, and self-­improvement (including ele­ments of gospel). Since 2004, Barbados’s capital city and hip hop center, Bridgetown, has hosted the Barbados Hip Hop Festival. DiKK (1987–1990*) from Bridgetown is one of the earliest Barbadian rapping crews. In 1988, DiKK recorded Reason with My Rhyme—­the first rap ­album in the Ca­rib­bean. Rapper, singer-­songwriter, producer, and actor Magnet Man (anonymous, n.d.), from Christ Church, fuses hip hop with R&B, soca, ragga, neo soul, and American and Latin pop. Since 2003, Magnet Man has performed worldwide with notable hip hop artists Busta Rhymes (1972–) and Shaggy (1968–), among ­others. The four-­piece fusion band Cover Drive (2010–) rec­ords hip hop, reggae, R&B, dancehall, soca, electronic dance ­music, and Caribpop. Cover Drive’s opening-­act engagement for R&B and reggae singer-­songwriter Rihanna’s (1988–) Loud Tour (2011) led to a publishing deal with Sony (1929–) and a recording deal with Polydor Rec­ords (1913–). Its debut studio ­album Bajan Style (2012) peaked at No. 14 on the U.K. A ­ lbums Chart and has produced several hits in the United Kingdom. Cover Drive’s second studio a­ lbum is Fall Forward (2017). In addition, many Barbadian-­born hip hop acts have established themselves elsewhere. Most famous are singer-­songwriters Rihanna and Shontelle (Shontelle

38 Battling

Layne, 1985–) as well as rapper, beatboxer, and producer Doug E. Fresh (1966–) and DJ, turntablist, and mixer Grandmaster Flash (1958–). Both Grandmaster Flash and Doug E. Fresh are pioneering hip hop artists in American hip hop. The 1966 in­de­pen­dence of Barbados prompted the latest Barbadian diaspora, producing several first-­generation hip hop artists, such as London-­born R&B singer-­songwriter Shaznay (Tricia Marie Lewis, 1975–) and Toronto-­born rapper, singer-­songwriter, rec­ord producer, and director Tory Lanez (Daystar Peterson, 1992–) as well as legendary American singer-­songwriter, DJ, and producer Afrika Bambaataa (1957–) and rapper, singer-­songwriter, producer, director, actor, and model A$AP Rocky (Rakim Mayers, 1988–). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Afrika Bambaataa; Doug E. Fresh; Grandmaster Flash; Reggae; Rihanna

Further Reading

Best, Curwen. 2003. “Reading Graffiti in the Ca­rib­bean Context.” Journal of Popu­lar Culture 36, no. 4: 828–52. Best, Curwen. 2012. “The Digital Nation.” In The Popu­lar M ­ usic and Entertainment Culture of Barbados: Pathways to Digital Culture, chap. 9. Lanham, MD, Toronto, and Plymouth, ­England: Scarecrow.

Further Listening

Cover Drive. 2012. Bajan Style. Polydor.

Battling Battling has existed in rap ­music, beatboxing, breakdancing, and turntablism since their formative years. ­Battles take place informally on street corners or formally on a concert or b­ attle stage. The events provide a space for artists to confront their peers through showcasing their art. Worldwide, police, who misinterpret the confrontational aspect of battling as gang-­related activity or find youth gatherings suspicious, have often disrupted hip hop b­ attles, sometimes arresting artists involved in their competitions. Rap battling, which employs a style of delivery called freestyle, is an improvisational method of rapping that can be accompanied by a basic instrumental beat, a sample, or beatboxing, or can be delivered a capella. In freestyle battling, two rappers use e­ ither prepared lyr­ics or stream-­of-­consciousness on-­the-­spot songwriting to create lyr­ics, sometimes with no par­tic­u­lar subject or structure and sometimes challenging the opposing rapper’s skills while bragging about their own skills. The goal is to diss the opposing rapper through clever lyr­ics and wordplay. ­Either the audience (sometimes called the ­battle’s cipher or cypher) or an appointed competition judge evaluates ­these rhymed lyr­ics, at which point a winner is declared. As a musical style, freestyle rap is comparable to improvisational jazz. Old-­school rapper Big ­Daddy Kane (1968–) was one of the first to attempt to define freestyle, calling it a rhyme that was ­free of style and usually full of braggadocio. He differentiated between rhymes created at the moment (improvised) and ­those the rapper prepared for the ­battle. Rapper Kool Moe Dee (1962–) followed

Battling 39

up with a new definition, arguing that old-­school freestyle was improvisational rapping based on a script, versus new-­school freestyle, rap created on the spot. Some current rappers, such as Eminem (1972–), are considered freestyle experts. To prove that a freestyle rap is being created in the moment, rappers w ­ ill often refer to places and objects in their immediate setting or ­will take suggestions on lyr­ics from the crowd, although most freestyle rappers have template rhymes at the ready to use as filler. As of 2018, freestyle ­battles are usually entered with some written lyr­ics, with improvisation incorporated, making it pos­si­ble for rappers to create intricate rhymes and insults. Freestyling can also be used as a songwriting method for a­ lbums or mixtapes. Breakdance (aka b-­boying, b-­girling, or breaking) ­battles can be solo-­or team-­ oriented and, like rap ­battles, can happen informally on street corners or formally at staged competitions, with international tournaments where teams represent their home countries. ­Because breakdancing began on urban streets with Puerto Rican and African American b-­boy crews (and ­later b-­girl crews) in New York City, it is often referred to as street dancing. B-­boy and b-­girl ­battles are a combination of prepared material and improvisation (although less improvisation is used than with rap battling due to the nature of team dancing). ­T hese ­battles are social events, where teams interact with each other and with the judges and spectators, often incorporating humor in the form of subtle jabs at opposing teams’ skills. Breakdancing is athletic and gymnastic in nature and is made up of major kinds of movement: uprock (aggressive or intimidating moves that mimic fighting), toprock (standing-­position moves that emphasize footwork), downrock (floor-­based moves that incorporate hands or head, as well as feet, for support), power moves (acrobatics), and freezes (suddenly stopping an acrobatic move and holding a frozen position for as long as pos­si­ble). Although it involves moves from funk dance styles such as popping, locking, and electric boogaloo, it differs from ­those styles in its equal emphasis on floor-­work acrobatics and non-­footwork-­related gymnastics, such as handstands, headstands, and flips onto the back, as well as ­because it does not emphasize the flow between the feet and hands the way that funk dances do (making it less smooth and better suited for solo improvisation). In team ­battles, most emphasis is on each dancer’s solo work, although some of the better teams incorporate highly synchronized multidancer moves into a soloist’s entrance and exit (the moves dancers do when they enter or leave the dancing circle). In time, breakdancing ­battles have become international, with some of the best crews hailing from the United States, France, Japan, and South K ­ orea. Though not as popu­lar as rap b­ attles or b-­boy/b-­girl competitions, beatboxing championships are held annually and are judged in the same fashion, by both audience reaction and expert judges. For turntablism, one of its most impor­t ant formal ­battles traces back to 1985 when the first DMC World DJ Championships took place in London. The London remix label DMC (Disco Mix Club, 1983–) established this competition, which soon afterward had regional and national competitions that led into the World Championships. During its first year, this competition was a DJ mixing ­battle, but in 1986, scratching was introduced. During a DMC Championship b­ attle, elimination rounds last for two minutes while final sets receive six minutes. In both, DJs perform routines that exhibit a team or individual’s scratching, mixing, and DJing techniques

40

Beastie Boys

(including selecting and switching ­albums), as well as choreographed combinations of ­these techniques, using any kind of stylus (rec­ord needle). Rules for turntablism in less formal competitions more closely resemble ­those seen in freestyle or hip hop dance ­battles. For example, ciphers (aka cyphers, a circular formation around competitors) form to allow observers and judges to watch closely and to allow competitors to take turns. Another example is sudden-­death rounds, which may be determined by the audience as much as by a ­battle competitor’s or team’s accomplishments. Anthony J. Fonseca and Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Breakdancing; Hip Hop Dance; MC; Turntablism

Further Reading

Alim, H. Samy, Jooyoung Lee, and Lauren Mason Carris. 2011. “Moving the Crowd, ‘Crowding’ the Emcee: The Coproduction and Contestation of Black Normativity in Freestyle Rap ­Battles.” Discourse & Society 22, no. 4: 422–39. Choi, Seokhun. 2017. “The Marionette: Intermedial Presence and B-­Boy Culture in South ­Korea.” Theatre Research International 42, no. 2: 132–45. Dodds, Sherril. 2016. “Hip Hop ­Battles and Facial Intertexts.” Dance Research 34, no. 1: 63–83. Katz, Mark. 2006. “Men, ­Women, and Turntable: Gender and the DJ ­Battle.” The Musical Quarterly 89, no. 4: 580–99. Katz, Mark. 2012. “Turntablism: 1989–96.” In Groove ­Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ, chap. 5. New York: Oxford University Press. Sato, Hahoko, Hiroyuki Nunome, and Yasuo Ikegami. 2016. “Key Motion Characteristics of Side-­Step Movements in Hip Hop Dance and Their Effect on the Evaluation by Judges.” Sports Biomechanics 15, no. 2: 116–27.

Further Viewing

Fitzgerald, Kevin, dir. 2005. Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme. New York: Palm Pictures.

Beastie Boys (1980–2012, New York City, New York) Beastie Boys was an American hip hop, rap, and hard rock band formed in the early 1980s in New York City. It was best known as one of the ­great crossover successes in early hip hop, bringing the genre to a wider audience. The band’s lineup was consistent throughout its tenure, with New York City drummer and vocalist Mike D (Michael Diamond, 1965–) and guitarist and vocalist Ad-­Rock (Adam Horovitz, 1966–) joining forces with Brooklyn bassist and vocalist MCA (Adam Yauch, 1964– 2012). According to Mike D, the name Beastie Boys stands for “Boys Entering Anarchistic States ­towards Internal Excellence.” The band came into prominence ­after working with disc jockey DJ Double R turned producer Rick Rubin (Frederick Jay Rubin, 1963–), cofounder of Def Jam Rec­ords (1983–). The band’s first studio ­album went multi-­Platinum, and four of its ­albums reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The ­albums Ill Communication (1994) and Hello Nasty (1998) debuted at No. 1; the former was introduced by one of the band’s most popu­lar



Beastie Boys 41

singles and ­music videos, “Sabotage.” The Beastie Boys’ rap was characterized by intentional, often kitschy humor, sophomoric lyr­ics, liberal sampling, worldly references, and a crossover technique that featured ele­ments of hard rock. This technique influenced a generation of artists, including American rapper Eminem (1972–), American alternative rock band Rage against the Machine (1991–2000, 2007–2011), and En­glish alternative rock band Blur (1988–2003, 2008–). In 2012, the Beastie Boys ­were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. EARLY MUSICAL EFFORTS The Beastie Boys began as a hardcore punk quartet with drummer Kate Schellenbach (1966–), who would ­later join the alternative all-­female rock band Lucious Jackson (1991–2000, 2011–), appearing in early per­for­mances. In 1982, the Beastie Boys released an eight-­song, 11-­minute EP, Polly Wog Stew, on the Rat Cage (1982–2003) label. In 1983, the group made inroads into hip hop with the 12-­inch Rat Cage single “Cooky Puss,” a reference to a Carvel ice cream cake. New York City is often referenced in the band’s songs, with mentions of specific companies, streets, neighborhoods, and landmarks in Brooklyn and Manhattan. “Cooky Puss” features excerpts of crank phone calls, samples, and scratching over a beat loop. ­After the Beastie Boys had gained some commercial success, the two early releases, Polly Wog Stew and Cooky Puss, ­were repackaged in 1994 as Some Old Bullshit, which included two songs recorded live on Noise the Show (1981–1982), which aired on New York University’s WNYU station. The band became popu­lar ­after collaborating with Rubin and his Def Jam label. Def Jam went on to produce LL Cool J (1968–), Public ­Enemy (1982–), and Run-­D.M.C. (1981–2002) as well as the heavy metal band Metallica (1981–) and the alternative funk-­rock fusion band Red Hot Chili Peppers (1983–). In 1985, the Beastie Boys got its big break when Madonna (1958–) asked them to open for her Virgin Tour. The trio played six songs in a 30-­minute set. On the strength of this exposure, the band’s first studio ­album, Licensed to Ill (1986), went multi-­Platinum and led to seven subsequent studio ­albums, the aforementioned Ill Communication and Hello Nasty, as well as Paul’s Boutique (1989), Check Your Head (1992), To the 5 Boroughs (2004), The Mix-­Up (2007), and Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011). Licensed to Ill, Ill Communication, Hello Nasty, and To the 5 Boroughs all went to No. 1. Licensed to Ill featured their breakout hit, “Fight for Your Right,” and introduced the band’s sampling from disparate rock sources, including Led Zeppelin (1968– 1980), AC/DC (1973–), Black Sabbath (1968–2006, 2011–), and Kool and the Gang (1964–), among ­others. In subsequent ­albums, particularly Paul’s Boutique, the use of samples expanded to include such varied source material as James Brown (1933– 2006), Public ­Enemy, the Beatles (1960–1970), Joni Mitchell (Roberta Joan Anderson, 1943–), and the Sugarhill Gang (1979–1985, 1994–). The Beastie Boys eventually severed ties with Def Jam over royalty payments and moved to Los Angeles to produce Paul’s Boutique for Capitol Rec­ords (1942–), a critical—­but not immediate—­commercial success. They subsequently started their own Capitol subsidiary label, ­Grand Royal (1992–2001), and produced a Los Angeles–­based clothing line called X-­Large (1991–2012*).

42 Beatboxing

OTHER INTERESTS AND POLITICS In the 1990s, the members of the group became increasingly active in global concerns. The highlight of the band’s activism occurred when MCA began studying Tibetan Buddhism and, on a visit to Tibet in the early 1990s, spoke with refugees who had suffered human-­rights abuses at the hands of the Chinese government. Determined to increase awareness of t­hese abuses and contribute proceeds from certain proj­ects to the cause, the Beastie Boys performed in 1994’s Tibetan Freedom Concert. By the late 1990s, all members of the Beastie Boys had returned to New York City, culminating in one of their most commercially successful ­albums, Hello Nasty. Despite another smash single, “Intergalactic” (1998), financial concerns led to the shuttering of the ­Grand Royal label in 2001. To the 5 Boroughs, a “love letter” to a New York City that had suffered in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, was the band’s most New York–­centric ­album since Licensed to Ill. It also marked a return to their roots, with a simpler style of rapping over beats, balanced against po­liti­cal concerns with the administration of George W. Bush (1946–­, in office 2001–2009), specifically criticizing U.S. foreign policy post-9/11. Soon ­after the group’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, MCA died from cancer of the parotid salivary gland. The surviving members confirmed they would not continue musical activity u­ nder the name Beastie Boys. Christine Lee Gengaro See also: Mix Master Mike; Turntablism; The United States

Further Reading

Hess, Mickey. 2007. “Beastie Boys.” In Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, M ­ usic, and Culture, edited by Mickey Hess, pp. 91–116. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Stratton, Jon. 2008. “The Beastie Boys: Jews in Whiteface.” Popu­lar ­Music 27, no. 3: 413–32.

Further Listening

Beastie Boys. 1986. Licensed to Ill. Def Jam Recordings/Columbia. Beastie Boys. 1998. Hello Nasty. ­Grand Royal. Beastie Boys. 2004. To the 5 Boroughs. Capitol Rec­ords.

Beatboxing Beatboxing is the practice of making drum and synthesizer sounds using the mouth and nose, as well as drumming with the hands on parts of the torso and neck. It is a way of creating a beat when no instrumentation is available, as with street rap battling. Skilled beatboxers can create both a beat and a melodic line si­mul­ta­neously. Now considered the best beatboxer in early rap ­music, Doug E. Fresh (Douglas E. Davis, 1966–) was a New York–­based beatboxer, rapper, dancer, and radio personality who was musically active during the 1980s. Known as the ­human beatbox, he emulated the sounds of drum machines, tap dancing, percussion instruments, and synthesizers by using only his mouth, throat, and a microphone. He appeared in the

Beatboxing 43

American film Beat Street (1984) and ­later was the founder of Doug  E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew (1985–2003), which included Slick Rick (aka MC Ricky D, Richard Martin Lloyd Walters, 1965–). American rapper and beatboxer Biz Markie (Marcel Theo Hall, 1964–) was a member of Juice Crew and worked closely with his friend Big D ­ addy Kane, who wrote lyr­ ics. In 1986, rapper DMX (Earl Simmons, 1970–) also began beatboxing. Also in the United States, Barbados native Grandmaster Flash (Joseph Saddler, 1958–) introduced the idea of the synthesized beatbox, a manually operated, custom-­rigged drum machine. Internationally, beatboxing appeared in Togo around the same time as rapping and turntablism in the 1980s. In the early to Beatboxers often refine their skills through mid-1990s, Motswana and South hours of busking or street per­for­mance. This African hip hop, known as teenage beatboxer, performing in 2016 in the city motswako, employed beatbox- center of Milan, works on his vocal techniques by ing as well as sampling, drum making beats and creating sound effects to machine beats, turntablism, and pre-­recorded ­music. (Alberto Masnovo​/​ hip hop instrumentation. In addi- ­Dreamstime​.­com) tion to concerts and emcee b­ attles, festivals may showcase beatboxing, such as Burkina Faso’s Ouago/Waga Hip Hop Festival, which hosts residencies for musicians who lead workshops on beatboxing and sampling. Since the 2000s, Ethiopian musicians have fused hip hop with traditional Amharic ­music called fukera, beatboxing to its oration. Rapper Basy Gasy (Malagasy Gun, 2012–) fuses hip hop and slam poetry with reggae, ragga, and electronica, employing beatboxing, guitars, and percussion. Singaporean hip hop m ­ usic also includes beatboxing. Beatboxing ­battles are currently held internationally (in Germany) ­every three years, the last having been in 2015, with champions being recognized for their accuracy in imitating instruments, their speed, and their creativity. Current champions as of 2018 are Mael Gayaud (n.d.) of France and Kaila Mullady (n.d.) of the United States. The current crew champion is Beatbox Collective (n.d.), out of ­England. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Doug E. Fresh; Grandmaster Flash; Juice Crew

44 Belarus

Further Reading

Kuch, Andreas, and Indra Tedjasukmana. 2016. Beatbox Complete: Sounds, Patterns, and Styles. En­glish ed. Innsbruck, Austria: Helbling Verlag. Proctor, Michael, Erik Bresch, Dani Byrd, Krishna Nayak, and Shrikanth Narayanan. 2013. “Paralinguistic Mechanisms of Production in ­Human ‘Beatboxing’: A Real-­Time Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.” Journal of the Acoustical Society of Amer­ i­ca 133, no. 2: 1043–54. Shanks, David. 2010. “Uptown, Baby! Hip Hop in Harlem and Upper Manhattan.” In Hip Hop in Amer­i­ca: A Regional Guide, edited by Mickey Hess, vol 1., chap. 2. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood.

Further Listening

Doug E. Fresh. 1995. Play. Gee Street. Vari­ous Artists. 2001. Beat Boxing, Vol. 1.0: The Mystery of Beatboxing. Jive.

Belarus Belarus is an Eastern Eu­ro­pean country, sharing its borders with Rus­sia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia. The hip hop community in Belarus is small and dislocated ­because of severe censorship imposed by the administration of President Alexander Lukashenko (1954–), who has been president since 1994. Official culture dominates the ­music industry in Belarus, with the government blacklisting po­liti­cally active bands and arresting t­ hose who stage underground protest concerts and events. Although ­there are two official languages in Belarus, Belarusian and Rus­sian, most Belarusian rap is sung in Rus­sian. In 2005, a law was passed mandating that 75 ­percent of all ­music broadcast in Belarus must be Belarusian in origin; since then, all lyr­ics are carefully checked. Despite the government’s vetting of rap, Basowiszcza, the biggest Belarusian ­music festival, held in the Polish town of Grodek (not far from the border with Belarus), is dominated by rock and punk rock and provides an outlet for Belarusian rappers. Belarusian rap groups include Nestandartnii Variant (Non-­ Standard Variant, 1998–), S.E.V.E.N. (n.d.), and Deti Indigo (“Indigo C ­ hildren,” n.d.). Meanwhile, Minsk-­based Nestanda Rec­ords (2010s–) features LSP (­Little Stupid Pig, Oleg Savchenko, 1989–) and Bezz and Ju­nior (n.d.). The dominant official musical style tends to be bubblegum pop sung in Rus­ sian, not hip hop or rap. Many Belarusian musicians, especially hip hop artists, have therefore moved to Poland or Rus­sia to continue their ­careers. For example, Minsk-­ born Bianca (Tatyana Eduardovna Lipnitskaya, 1985–) performs and releases ­albums in Rus­sia. Her collaborator Seryoga (Sergey Vasilyevich Parhomenko, 1976–) released his first ­album, Zagubili Ljalju (Lost Lyalya, 2003), in Rus­sia and Belarus, but soon ­after moved to Ukraine; in 2013, he became a Ukrainian citizen. ­Those who remain in Belarus are driven to the underground scene. The rapper Krou (n.d.) from the band Čhyrvonym Pa Bielamu (aka CPB, Red and White, 2006–2008) raps in Belarusian, with po­liti­cally charged pro-­Belarusian, anti-­Soviet, and anti-­Lukashenko lyr­ics. A ­music proj­ect called Partyzanskaya Szkola (Partisan School) also produced hip hop ­music in protest of the Lukashenko

Belgium 45

regime in 2006 (especially the Belarusian song “Ne,” meaning “No”), and as a result, many of Partyzanskaya Szkola’s members w ­ ere jailed. Terry Klefstad See also: Rus­sia

Further Reading

Lovas, Lemez, and Maya Medich. 2006. Hidden Truths: ­Music, Politics, and Censorship in Lukashenko’s Belarus. Copenhagen: Freemuse. Wines, Michael. 2001. “Street Theater and Graffiti: Belarus Dissidents Make News by Making Noise.” New York Times, August 19.

Belgium Belgium is bilingual and bicultural. The northern region, Flanders, shares linguistic and cultural roots with the Netherlands; the southern region, Wallonia, shares its roots with France. On an individual level, ­these linguistic and cultural roots have historically overshadowed Belgian national identity. As the hip hop scene incorporates artists from former Belgian protectorates and other nationalities, ­those voices are woven into a fabric that is ­either Francophonic or Flemish and/or Dutch speaking. The Netherlands’ Dutch hip hop, which came to be called Nederhop, is also an influential part of the Belgian hip hop scene. Wallonian hip hop, in the French language, is often characterized by a smooth, flowing delivery, natu­ral to the lingual centrality of vowels, nasals, and soft consonants. Flemish hip hop, in Flemish and related dialects, tends ­toward a crisper and often more punctuated sound that capitalizes on the comparatively harder and more numerous consonants. Like most hip hop cultures, Belgian hip hop emerged in urban centers, bringing together Belgians of Wallonian and Flemish backgrounds, as well as ­others who have roots in the former Belgian territories of central Africa and immigrants from the ­Middle East and South Amer­i­ca. By the second de­cade of the 21st ­century, Internet, radio, and club personalities such as DJ Emiliot (anonymous, n.d.), who podcasts the El DJ Loco Show (2006–), ­were offering lively hip hop mixtape assortments with commentary that drew a wide Belgian following. Meanwhile, releases and tours by artists such as the anonymous Krhymes (n.d.), whose raps blend Flemish and En­glish rhymes with a heady old-­school and jazz sound, have unleashed a new era of urban rap in Belgium. Belgian hip hop began in the late 1980s when the R.A.B. Posse (whose name stands for Rien à Branler, loosely translated as “We ­Don’t Give a F—”) appeared in Brussels as a crew of over 50 members who ­were focused on graffiti art and tagging. R.A.B. Posse gave rise to the band De Puta Madre (1990–), meaning “excellent” in Spanish slang, whose founding members, DJ Grazzhoppa (Wim Verbrugghe, 1972–), MC Pee Gonzalez (Pablo Gonzalez, n.d.), and Smimooz (Mathias J. Smimoez, 1973–) achieved worldwide success. DJ Grazzhoppa had won DJ ­battles in Belgium and at the Eu­ro­pean and World levels in the 1990s and in 2003 formed DJ Grazzhoppa’s DJ Bigband with 12 turntablists. MC Pee Gonzalez was already known for his street art, and Smimooz (Mathias J., 1973–) was on the road to becoming the beatmaker and producer for many regional hip hop artists. Another

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well known group, Starflam (1990–2005, 2015–), illustrates the fluid nature of many Belgian hip hop groups: its membership circulated in and out from Liège, Brussels, the Demo­cratic Republic of Congo, and France. The group’s name has changed over time from H-­Posse (early 1990s) to Malfrats Linguistik (Linguistic Gangstas, 1993–2007) to the anagram Starflam (1996). Several Belgian hip hop artists reach wider audiences. Benny B (Abdel Hamid Gharbaoui, 1968–), who was criticized for mixing ­house ­music and hip hop, released the chart-­topping single “Vous êtes fous!” (“­You’re All Crazy,” 1990), which was accompanied by a sepia-­toned video of b-­boys and a turntablist in action. The video pop­u­lar­ized breakdancing and turntablism, sparking the country’s artistic appreciation of ­these aspects of Belgian hip hop culture much in the same way that graffiti has become appreciated as urban art. Castro (Wannes van de Welde, 1977–), from Ghent, released the EP Herfst 2057/De mening is verdeeld/Eens (Autumn 2057/ The Mind Is Divided/Once, 2000) and the ­album Shockgolf (2003), both featuring rhymes in Flemish, making them accessible to Dutch-­speaking Nederhop audiences. Krewcial (Pascal Garnier, n.d.) juxtaposed keyboard-­based musical hooks against a distorted, gangsta-­ style vocal delivery, rapping in American slang. Brussels-­based Pitcho (Laurent Womba Konga, 1975–) originally from Kinshasa, Demo­cratic Republic of Congo, rhymed in French and rapped about the plight of immigrants. His 2003 hit “Ma part du ghetto” (“My Part of the Ghetto”) brings to light the hardship and imprisonment ­people feel when trapped in urban poverty. Jennifer L. Roth-­Burnette See also: Congo; France; The Netherlands

Further Reading

Mertens, Jamina, Wouter Goedertier, Idesbald Goddeeris, and Dominique De Brabanter. 2013. “A New Floor for the Silenced? Congolese Hip Hop in Belgium.” Social Transformations: Journal of the Global South 1, no. 1: 87–113. Verbeke, Martin. 2017. “Represent Your Origins: An Analy­sis of the Diatopic Determinants of Non Standard Language Use in French Rap.” International Journal of Francophone Studies 20, nos. 3–4: 209–36.

Further Listening

Castro. 2003. Shockgolf. DKR. Starflam. 2015. A l’ancienne: Classics, rares and nédits (Old Fashioned: Classics, Rarities, and Unreleased). Warner ­Music Group. t’Hof van Commerce. 2005. Ezoa en niet anders (Ezoa and No Other). Plasticine. Vari­ous Artists. 1998. 9 MM Parabellum M.Ceez. 9mm Recordz.

Ben Sharpa (Kgotso Semela, 1979–­, Johannesburg, South Africa) Ben Sharpa is a South African underground hip hop rapper and producer. He grew up in South Africa and the United States and then returned to South Africa in 1993 to establish himself as a hip hop force, at one point meeting Eminem (1972–) during Eminem’s Anger Management Tour (2000–2005). In 2006, Ben Sharpa

Benin 47

headlined the Tri-­Continental Hip Hop Festival that toured South Africa. He is known throughout Africa as a skilled lyricist and rapper. Born in the Soweto, Johannesburg, ghetto during Apartheid (1948–1991), Ben Sharpa witnessed both hardships and the revolution they caused. His ­family took voluntary exile in Chicago. As a teen, he moved back to South Africa to witness the first ­free post-­apartheid elections, bringing his love of American rap with him. In 1996, he joined with Snazz D (aka Snazz the Dictator, Julian Du Plessis, 1977–) and Krook’d tha Warmonga (Isaac Chokwe, n.d.) to create the rap crew Audio Visual (1996–), which eventually folded into the collective GroundWorks (2001–). This collective produced a self-­released untitled promotional ­album (2002) and a self-­released studio ­album, De­mo­li­tion: The MeStory (2002). His ­career began in 2002, when he won a freestyle ­battle competition, which led to a London meeting with Eminem, whose rap style he ­favors in his own songs. In 2007, he fell into a diabetic coma and was not expected to survive, but he did. In 2008, he released B. Sharpa, his debut studio ­album, containing dubstep-­infused hip hop, and did his first Eu­ro­pean tour, playing in Austria, Belgium, ­England, the Netherlands, and Switzerland (he has done 16 Eu­ro­pean tours since then). He has released a second ­album, 4DLS (Fourth Density Light Show) (2012), and one EP, The Sharpaganda Theory: Lesson 1 (2008). His lyr­ics tend to focus on social issues, such as police brutality, government corruption, and the prob­lems of teenage pregnancy, although he also writes songs about spirituality. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; South Africa; The United States

Further Reading

Anon. 2010. “Midem: Cape of Good Hope.” ­Music Week, January 30, 30. Künzler, Daniel. 2011. “South African Rap ­Music, ­Counter Discourses, Identity, and Commodification beyond the Prophets of da City.” Journal of Southern African Studies 37, no. 1: 27–43. Molebatsi, Natalia, and Raphael d’Abdon. 2007. “From Poetry to Floetry: ­Music’s Influence in the Spoken Word Art of Young South Africa.” Muziki: Journal of M ­ usic Research in Africa 4, no. 2: 171–77.

Further Listening

Ben Sharpa. 2008. B. Sharpa. Pioneer Unit. Ben Sharpa. 2012. 4DLS (Fourth Density Light Show). Jarring Effects/Pioneer Unit.

Benin Benin is a West African, mainly Roman Catholic nation whose population of roughly 11 million ­people of 42 ethnic groups lives mainly on its southern coastline in ­either Porto-­Novo or its largest city, Cotonou, which is also its capital. It is a tropical, agricultural nation whose official language is French, with some indigenous Fon and Yoruba being spoken. During the 17th ­century, its region was known as the Slave Coast ­because of the Trans-­Atlantic slave trade. In 1960, the country (at that time named Dahomey) gained full in­de­pen­dence from France. This led to

48 Bermuda

a series of coups and military governments. In 1991, the current multiparty governing structure was created. Despite its ­music industry’s setback in 1972 when the Kérékou (1972–1991, 1996–2006) government instituted curfews and inhibited musical expression, the country became impor­tant to the African ­music scene ­because of Grammy Award–­ winning Beninese Afropop superstar Angélique Kidjo (1960–), who also rec­ords reggae, jazz, gospel, and world ­music fusion. In the 1970s, funk became popu­lar in Benin, with acts such as Nel Oliver (1948*–) creating Afro-­akpala-­f unk and the Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou (1966–) releasing over 50 funk and roots ­music ­albums. Hip hop, or urban m ­ usic, was introduced into the Beninese m ­ usic in a 1992 concert by French Senegalese–­Chadian rapper MC Solaar (1969–). Hip hop acts from Benin include the trio Sakpata Boys (1995*–), known for its chants and ele­ments of Beninese vodou; Diamant Noir (Dark Diamond, n.d.), whose debut ­album Faux freres, vrais jumeaux (Fake B ­ rothers, True Twins, 2005) has been influential; and rapper and singer-­songwriter Dibi Dobo (n.d.). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: MC Solaar; France

Further Reading

Amuzu, Evershed K., and John Victor Singler. 2014. “Codeswitching in West Africa.” The International Journal of Bilingualism 18, no. 4: 329–45. Washington, Teresa N. 2014. “Rapping with the Gods: Hip Hop as a Force of Divinity and Continuity from the Continent to the Cosmos.” Journal of Pan African Studies 6, no. 9: 72–100.

Bermuda Bermuda, a British Overseas Territory, is a major destination for American tourism ­because of its proximity to the United States and Puerto Rico. Bermuda’s hip hop is largely tourist-driven, produced in countries such as Jamaica, the United States, or the United Kingdom. It is influenced by American hip hop and ­house; Jamaican reggae, dancehall, and raga; Trinbagonian soca; and Puerto Rican reggaetón, all of which—in addition to other ­music, such as American jazz, rock, and pop and Bahamanian junkanoo (parade ­music)—­overshadow it. Clubs, radio airplay, ­battle events, open-­mic sessions, popu­lar ­music festivals, and breakdancing workshops are public venues for participating in Bermudian hip hop. It was not ­until the 2000s that distinct Bermudian hip hop emerged. Since then, the center of hip hop activity has been Bermuda’s capital city, Hamilton. Nearly all the country’s rappers are black, and their texts are in Bermudian En­glish, peppered with urban British and American vernacular En­glish. ­Until 2018, the Bermudian hip hop scene had been made up almost entirely of young, new artists rather than established musicians. Rapper, singer, percussionist, and DJ Kidd Clazzic (Jahroy Richards, 1996*–), from Hamilton, has edgy rapping texts that range from light gangsta rap (e.g., comradeship and loyalty) to uplifting messages about local pride. Kidd Clazzic has been recording in the United States and tours in concerts throughout the Ca­rib­bean. In 2016, he self-­released his debut

Beyoncé 49

studio ­album Kidd vs. Every­body through SoundCloud. Female rapper Imari Wade (1987–) began rapping in 2008, won a national rap ­battle in 2013, and has performed and recorded in Kingston, Jamaica. Wade’s singles have appeared on Bermuda radio stations. The notable exception to this youth-­only movement is rapper, singer-­ songwriter, and DJ Bento (aka Bento BDA, Matthew Bento, n.d.). A ­ fter growing up in a musical ­family in Bermuda, Bento attended Berklee College of ­Music and began a recording ­career in London. He toured with American hip hop and R&B singer-­songwriter and dancer Chris Brown (1989–), American producer Dallas Austin (1970–), and En­glish hip hop collective WSTRN (2015–), among ­others. Bento has released two studio EPs, The Deep (2014) and Trapitalist (2016). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Reggae; Reggaetón

Further Reading

Pinckney, Warren R. 2000. “­Toward a History of Jazz in Bermuda.” The Musical Quarterly 84, no. 3: 333–71. Rivera, Raquel Z., Wayne Marshall, and Deborah Pacini Hernandez. 2009. Reggaetón. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Beyoncé (Beyoncé Giselle Knowles, 1981–­, Houston, Texas) Beyoncé is an American singer of R&B and pop, but she has also recorded hit hip hop songs. As of 2018, she has won 22 Grammy Awards, and all six of her solo studio ­albums have been certified Platinum or multi-­Platinum. If her R&B trio Destiny’s Child (1997–2006) and her own hits are added together, Beyoncé is one of the best-­selling and most acclaimed ­music artists in global ­music history. As the standout soprano in Destiny’s Child, Beyoncé also pursued solo proj­ects, starting in 2000 with an appearance on New York–­based female rapper and Jay-­Z (1969–) protégé Amil’s (Amil Kahala Whitehead, 1973–) “I Got That” and in 2002 with her own funk-­infused single “Work It Out” for the American film Austin Powers in Goldmember. Her solo studio ­albums featuring hip hop ele­ments include B-­Day (2005), I Am . . . ​Sasha Fierce (2008), Beyoncé (2013), and Lemonade (2016). In addition, her live-­performance recordings and EPs sometimes include hip hop numbers, ele­ments, or remixes. Beyoncé has collaborated with a long list of hip hop artists and producers, including American rapper Jay-­Z, whom she married in 2008; Timbaland (1972–); and Missy Elliott (1971–). In 2002, Beyoncé first appeared on the R&B, swing, and hip hop single “ ’03 Bonnie and Clyde” with Jay-­Z. Beyoncé’s first Billboard Hot 100 solo single, “Crazy in Love” (2003), also featured Jay-­Z and contained hip hop ele­ments. Her subsequent Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 and No. 2 hit singles that contain hip hop ­were “Check on It” (2005), “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” (2008), and “Drunk in Love” (featuring Jay-­Z, 2013). Beyoncé’s participation in hip hop songs usually entails her singing contrasting lyrical passages to the song’s rap; however, since Destiny’s Child, she has taken to

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Big D ­ addy Kane

performing rap-­singing within R&B songs. Perhaps the purest example of Beyoncé’s rapping is on the single “Diva” (2009) from her a­ lbum I Am . . . ​Sasha Fierce. Beyoncé has written, arranged, and choreographed songs in which she begins with a hip hop beat or drum loop, so hip hop has become a part of her creative pro­cess. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Jay-­Z; The United States

Further Reading

American R&B and pop singer-­songwriter Beyoncé poses at the 2014 MTV Video ­Music Awards in Los Angeles. Though she may rarely be caught rapping, Beyoncé has incorporated hip hop ele­ments in her songwriting and has collaborated with other hip hop artists, including her husband, American rapper-­songwriter and m ­ usic producer Jay-­Z . (Featureflash​/­Dreamstime​.­com)

Barrett, Clara. 2016. “ ‘Formation’ of the Female Author in the Hip Hop Visual ­Album: Beyoncé and FKA Twigs.” Soundtrack 9, nos. 1–2: 41–57. Lee, Shayne. 2010. “Sultry Divas of Pop and Soul: Janet, Beyoncé, and Jill.” In Erotic Revolutionaries: Black ­Women, Sexuality, and Popu­ lar Culture, chap. 2. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books.

Further Listening

Beyoncé. 2008. I Am . . . ​S asha Fierce. ­Music World Music/ Columbia.

Big D ­ addy Kane (Antonio Hardy, 1968–­, Brooklyn, New York) Big ­Daddy Kane is an American rapper, rec­ord producer, actor, and model who has been in the ­music industry since he was 14 years old, starting out as a member of the rap collective the Juice Crew All Stars (aka Juice Crew, 1983–1991). Through the years, he has built a reputation of being one of the most skilled MCs in hip hop. Known for his ability to syncopate (stress unexpected beats through his use of words) over fast hip hop beats, he is considered a pioneer of fast rhyming. He has appeared on tracks with R&B legends such as Patti Labelle (Patricia Louise Holt, 1944–) and Quincy Jones (1933–). In 1990, he won the Grammy for Best Rap Per­for­mance by a Duo with Jones. He collaborated with Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) and toured with Jay-­Z (1969–), whom he helped early in his ­career by bringing him



Big D ­ addy Kane 51

out to freestyle while he made wardrobe changes. His style of rap is hard-­edged and urban but with a touch of dry wit, including clever wordplay, brilliant satire, unexpected and highly literate similes, and good-­natured boasting—in many ways foreshadowing the recent British chap hop style. More than any other rapper, Big ­Daddy Kane shows the influence of James Brown’s (1933–2006) per­for­mance style, including the use of heavy funk rhythms (with liberal use of rhythm guitar), breakbeats (he dances in most of his videos), and metatextual lines such as “Take it to the bridge.” His hip hop dress style influenced a number of hip hop trends, such as high-­ top fades, velour suits, gold medallions, heavy chains, fedoras, and four-­finger rings. EARLY YEARS In 1984, Big ­Daddy Kane became friends with rapper and beatboxer Biz Markie (Marcel Theo Hall, 1964–), and he started out collaborating with Biz Markie on his lyr­ics. The two eventually became members of the Queens-­based Juice Crew, headed by producer Marley Marl (1962–). Big ­Daddy Kane went on to write for the Juice Crew, Roxanne Shanté (1969–), and Kurtis Blow (1959–). In 1987, Big ­Daddy Kane signed with Prism Rec­ords, which ­later was renamed Cold Chillin’ Rec­ords (1986–1998), the label that produced Juice Crew, and debuted the underground hit single “Raw.” He released his debut ­album Long Live the Kane (1988), which featured the hit “­Ain’t No Half Steppin.’ ” His second ­album and biggest hit was It’s a Big D ­ addy ­T hing (1989), which included soul and chill hits such as “I Get the Job Done,” “Rap Summary (Lean on Me),” and “Smooth Operator.” Long Live the Kane reached No. 5 on Billboard’s Top R&B a­ lbums and No. 116 on the Billboard 200, and It’s a Big ­Daddy ­Thing peaked at Nos. 4 and 33 on ­those charts, respectively. L ­ ater ­albums, such as Taste of Choco­late (1990), Prince of Darkness (1991), Looks Like a Job For . . . ​(1993), ­Daddy’s Home (1994), and Veteranz Day (1997), did not meet with the same commercial success, although all but the last charted in the Billboard 200. “Very Special,” off Looks Like a Job For . . . , was his only Hot 100 hit, peaking at No. 31. In 1995, Kane recorded with Tupac Shakur and MC Hammer (1962–), and in the 2000s, he collaborated with A Tribe Called Quest (1985–1998, 2006–2013, 2015–), but this did ­little to revitalize his ­career; however, he did not give up touring. ACTING Big ­Daddy Kane took the idea of the hip hop persona into both acting and modeling. His acting debut was Mario Van Peebles’s (1957–) revisionist American western, Posse (1993). That same year, he appeared in Robert Townsend’s (1957–) superhero comedy The Meteor Man. His other film credits include Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (2005), Dead Heist (2007), Love for Sale (2008), Just Another Day (2009), and Exposed (2016). He also posed for Playgirl in 1991 and for Madonna’s (1958–) Sex book in 1992; ­later, in 2014, he discussed his upbringing, childhood, influences, relationships, sexual experiences, and decision to appear in Madonna’s book on the Dr. Zoe ­Today radio show (2014–). In 2004, his ­music and name ­were

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Big Pun

used in the video game ­Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and in 2005, Big ­Daddy Kane was honored by VH1. Among his influences, Big ­Daddy Kane lists R&B singer Barry White (Barry Eugene Car­ter, 1944–2003), with whom he would collaborate on Taste of Choco­late. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: The United States

Further Reading

Bradley, Adam, and Andrew Dubois, eds. 2010. “Big D ­ addy Kane.” ­Under “Part 2: 1985– 92: The Golden Age” in The Anthology of Rap, pp. 136–44. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Rausch, Andrew J. 2011. “Big D ­ addy Kane.” In I Am Hip Hop: Conversations on the M ­ usic and Culture, chap. 3. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow.

Further Listening

Big D ­ addy Kane. 1988. Long Live the Kane. Cold Chillin’. Big D ­ addy Kane. 1989. It’s a Big D ­ addy ­Thing. Cold Chillin’.

Big Pun (aka Big Punisher, Christopher Lee Rios, 1971–2000, Bronx, New York) Big Pun was an American rapper known for his breathless delivery, as he needed only minimal pauses to breathe, resulting in longer lyrical lines and unexpected line breaks, as well as his songwriting. His lyr­ics emphasized alliteration, internal rhyming (of sometimes five or six words in a string of phrases), and the use of multisyllabic rhyme schemes—­techniques that are trademarks of skilled rappers. His solo debut ­album features his rapping against salsa beats and heavy drum, piano, and electric guitar–­based tunes, achieving a variety not often seen in 1990s rap. He died of a heart attack at age 29, having produced only two ­albums and appearing about a dozen times on other hip hop artists’ recordings. Big Pun’s biggest hit was a featured appearance on “From N.Y. to N.O.” (1999), a song by New Orleans rapper Mr. Serv­On (Corey Smith, 1969–), which reached No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 3 on the Hot Rap Tracks chart. His biggest solo hit, “Still Not a Player,” reached No. 13 on Billboard’s Hot Rap chart and No. 24 on the Hot 100; his “I’m Not a Player” had reached No. 3 on the rap chart. With his debut ­album, Grammy-­nominated Capital Punishment (1998), which reached No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart and No. 5 on the Billboard 200, Big Pun became the first Latino solo rapper to have an ­album certified multi-­Platinum. His Platinum follow-up, Yeeah Baby (2000), reached the top spot on the R&B chart and hit No. 3 on the Billboard 200. Big Pun had a turbulent childhood, became a homeless teenager, and strug­gled with depression. As a result, he developed an eating disorder, and by age 21 his weight had increased to 300 pounds. He began writing rap songs as a teen and formed an underground rap group. He then changed his stage name from Big Moon Dawg to Big Punisher and got his recording start with a guest appearance on the second ­album by the Bronx’s Fat Joe (Joseph Antonio Cartagena, 1970–), Jealous One’s Envy (1995). In 1997, Big Pun signed with New York City’s Loud Rec­ords (1991–). He also became a member of Terror Squad (1998–2009), founded by Fat Joe, but Terror Squad

Birdman 53

released only one a­ lbum. Yeeeah Baby had to be completed a­ fter his death. A posthumous compilation ­album, Endangered Species (2001), features both hits and previously unreleased material as well as remixes. It peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard 200. In 2000, Big Pun failed to make a scheduled per­for­mance on Saturday Night Live (1975–). Two days ­later, he suffered a fatal heart attack. At the time, he weighed 698 pounds. A tribute documentary film, Big Pun: The Legacy, was released in 2009*. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Puerto Rico; The United States

Further Reading

Irizarry, Jason G. 2009. “Representin’: Drawing from Hip Hop and Urban Youth Culture to Inform Education.” Education and Urban Society 41, no. 4: 489–515. Rivera, Raquel Z. 2003. “Remembering Big Pun.” In New York Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone, chap. 9. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Further Listening

Big Pun. 1998. Capital Punishment. Loud Rec­ords.

Further Viewing

Yudin, Vlad, dir. 2008. Big Pun: The Legacy. New York: Vladar Com­pany.

Birdman (aka Baby, Bryan Williams, 1969–­, New Orleans, Louisiana) American rapper Birdman is a successful recording artist and co-­owner, with his older ­brother Slim (aka Slim tha Don, Ronald Williams, 1967–), of Ca$h Money Rec­ords (1991–). Birdman also serves as com­pany president. In the 2000s, Ca$h Money was a prominent southern rap, bounce, and Miami bass recording label, and Birdman used Ca$h Money as a home label to mentor and release up-­and-­coming rappers such as Juvenile (Terius Gray, 1975–) and Lil Wayne (1982–). Along with Slim, Birdman had a short-­lived business venture that included an oil-­and-­gas exploration com­pany, Bronald Oil and Gas, LLC (2010–2011). He also owns a clothing line called Respek (2016–) but has been sued for copyright infringement in a lawsuit that claims that the name was already in use. As of 2018, this lawsuit, and ­others involving Lil Wayne, have yet to be resolved. RAGS TO RICHES Birdman and his ­brother ­were born in the late 1960s in New Orleans. By the time he was five and Slim was seven, they ­were orphaned and homeless. The ­brothers eventually lived in the Magnolia Proj­ects of the 3rd Ward, one of the most violent, crime-­ridden housing units in the city. They sold drugs, which led to their arrests as teen­agers. Birdman was sentenced, for drug possession, for three to five years at the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center, where ­after serving for almost two years he was acquitted. When he was 21, Birdman deci­ded to begin a recording label he named ­after the Cash Money B ­ rothers in the American crime drama motion picture New Jack

54 Birdman

City (1991). The Williams ­brothers signed several New Orleans–­based rappers who became highly successful in their own right, including fellow Magnolia Proj­ects inhabitant Juvenile. While offering Juvenile and Lil Wayne solo ­careers, Birdman also formed groups with them, including Hot Boy$ (1996–) and the B.G.z (1995–2001), with B.G. (aka Baby Gangsta, Christopher Dorsey, 1980–) and Lil Wayne. B.G.’s ­albums, especially Solja Rags (1997), which sold over 200,000 copies, helped Ca$h Money amass its initial revenue. Meanwhile, Birdman himself formed a duo with DJ Mannie Fresh (Byron  O. Thomas, 1969–) called Big Tymer$ (1997–2005). Their first ­album, How You Luv That (1997), featured Hot Boy$ and other Ca$h Money rappers and sold over 100,000 copies. It managed to reach No. 168 on the Billboard 200 and No. 25 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip Hop ­Albums despite no major radio or video airplay. The success of the ­album led to a 1998 distribution deal with Universal ­Music Group (then Universal Rec­ords, 1934–), a reissue of the ­album, and a subsequent release of How You Luv That, Vol. 2 (1998). In 1999, both Birdman and the Ca$h Money label saw an even greater wave of success. Lil Wayne’s solo debut ­album, Tha Block Is Hot (1999), was certified Platinum, and was followed by Lights Out (2000) and 500 Degreez (2002), which ­were certified Gold. In the meantime, the Big Tymer$’s I Got Work (2000) was also certified Platinum, followed by the duo’s most successful and critically acclaimed ­album, Hood Rich (2002). The ­album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and its hit, “Still Fly,” peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, at No. 3 on Billboard’s Hot Rap Tracks, and at No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-­Hop Songs. In 2003, “Still Fly” earned Big Tymer$ a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Per­for­mance by a Group or Duo.

CA$H MONEY AND BIRDMAN SINGLES By 2001, Lil Wayne and Big Tymer$ ­were the largest contributors to Ca$h Money’s rise to success. Birdman eventually rewarded Lil Wayne’s accomplishments by giving him his own recording imprint, Young Money Entertainment (2005–). Birdman collaborated with Lil Wayne on Like F ­ ather Like Son (2006), which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on both Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums and Top Rap ­Albums. Birdman worked on his own solo rap ­career throughout his development as a m ­ usic producer. Many years ­after his debut ­album as B-32, I Need a Bag of Dope, he released Birdman (2002), Fast Money (2005), 5*Stunna (2007), and Pricele$$ (2009). Fast Money peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard 200, and the ­others reached Nos. 24, 18, and 33. Exhibited on ­these ­albums is the same hard-­hitting bass and, at times, the use of brass to c­ ounter it (heavy bass is a staple of Big Tymer$’s a­ lbums and Birdman’s other productions). Producer Mannie Fresh (Byron  O. Thomas, 1969–) played a significant role in recording Fast Money, while Lil Wayne contributed to the full string of studio a­ lbum releases. Pricele$$ also featured Canadian rapper Drake (1986–), who in 2009 signed on Lil Wayne’s imprint, followed that year by Nicki Minaj (1982–).



Black Eyed Peas 55

FALL OF CA$H MONEY AND BUSINESS ISSUES Since the 2010s, Birdman has successfully promoted hip hop artists, though his planned Pricele$$2 ­album, l­ater retitled Bigga Than Life (to be released in 2011), never came to fruition. Instead, Birdman collaborated with Lil Wayne to release “Fire Flame” and “I Get Money” (2011) and worked with Rick Ross (William Leonard Roberts II, 1976–) on “Born Stunna” (2012). A remix of the last featured Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj. Though Nicki Minaj and other rappers on the label had huge success and developed significant ­careers in hip hop, Birdman’s studio ­albums Ms. Gladys (2016), named in honor of his ­mother, and From tha Briks (2016) have not come close to enjoying the same success as his pre-2010 ­albums. Trou­ble ensued when Lil Wayne’s release of Tha Car­ter V was delayed; his subsequent statement revealed that he felt his creativity was being stifled. Lil Wayne’s self-­released Sorry 4 the Wait 2 (2015) dissed Birdman, and he filed a $51 million lawsuit against him for the delay. Further lawsuits took place when Lil Wayne left Ca$h Money, claiming that the label failed to pay its artists and threatening that he would take Drake and Nicki Minaj with him. When Lil Wayne joined Jay-­Z’s (1969–) subscription-­based ­music streaming ser­vice TIDAL (2014–) and released his ­Free Weezy ­Album (2015), Birdman filed a $50 million lawsuit against him. Jacqueline M. DeMaio See also: Bounce; Lil Wayne; Miami Bass; The United States

Further Reading

Baxter, Vern Kenneth, and Peter Marina. 2008. “Cultural Meaning and Hip Hop Fashion in the African American Male Youth Subculture of New Orleans.” Journal of Youth Studies 11, no. 2: 93–113. Pearson, David. 2016. “Bell Patterns, Polyrhythms, Propulsive Subdivisions, and Semitones: The Musical Poetics of Late-1990s Ca$h Money Rec­ords Style.” Journal of Popu­lar ­Music Studies 28, no. 3: 356–80. Vozick-­Levinson, Simon. 2015. “Lil Wayne Goes to War.” Rolling Stone no. 1230, March 12, 11–12.

Further Listening

Birdman. 2005. Fast Money. Ca$h Money Rec­ords. Birdman. 2009. Pricele$$. Universal Motown/Ca$h Money.

Black Eyed Peas (Los Angeles, California, 1995–) The Black Eyed Peas is a hip hop and electronica rap and dance (including breakdancing) quartet formed in 1995 by members apl.de.ap (Alan Pineda Lindo, 1974–), Taboo (Jamie Gomez, 1975–), and ­will.i.am (William James Adams, 1975–), along with guest vocalist Kim Hill (1962–). Hill left the band before it became successful and was replaced by singer Fergie (Stacey Ferguson, 1975–) in 2001, completing the four-­person lineup that would make up the group to this day. Originally an alternative hip hop group that gained popularity by playing college campuses,

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the Black Eyed Peas evolved to become a hip hop, R&B, soul, funk, dance, and techno fusion band. In 2009, the group set the Billboard Hot 100 rec­ord for longest No. 1 chart run for a group when “I Gotta Feeling” (14 weeks at No. 1) assumed the Billboard No. 1 singles spot held by “Boom Boom Pow” (12 weeks at No. 1), making the group the top slot holder for a rec­ord 26 consecutive weeks. It also won vari­ous Grammy Awards, such as the 2004 award for Best Rap Per­for­mance by a Duo or Group, the 2005 awards for Favorite Pop/Rock Band and Favorite Rap/Hip Hop Band, Duo or Group, 2005, and the 2006 award for Best Pop Per­for­ mance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Overall, the band has won seven Grammy Awards, eight American M ­ usic Awards, and three World ­Music Awards. DANCERS TURNED MUSICIANS Group members ­will.i.am, who became a songwriter, rapper, and keyboardist, and apl.de.ap, who became a singer/rapper and drummer/programmer, first met as breakdancers in 1989 in East Los Angeles, where they danced with the Tribal Nation Crew (1990*). The two began creating their own beats and songs to dance to, creating the hip hop duo Atban Klann (A Tribe Beyond a Nation, 1991–1995). In 1992, the duo added three members and signed a recording contract with CEO Eazy-­E’s (1963–1995) Ruthless Rec­ords (1986–), but due to marketing prob­lems caused by the band’s eschewal of the violent gansta rap that defined Ruthless, a finished ­album (Grass Roots) was never released. Eazy-­E’s death resulted in their being dropped by the label. The duo added Taboo, a Mexican American hip hop, electronica, and dance ­music rapper, DJ, guitarist, keyboardist, and songwriter, and reformed themselves as the Black Eyed Peas; with Taboo, a tenor who created spoken and chanted emphases to mark the ends of musical phrases and added vocalizations and crowd calls between lines and verses, the trio signed a contract with Interscope Rec­ords (1989–) in 1997. Vocalist Hill joined the crew for the 16-­song debut in 1998, ­Behind the Front, which received positive reviews for its funky sound, and the four began a rigorous two-­year tour that culminated in their second ­album, Bridging the Gap (2000). The Black Eyed Peas set itself apart from other rap groups by emphasizing not the gangster life—­vio­lence and materialism—in its lyr­ics, but social ­causes, romance/sex, and enjoying a community of ­human beings.

HOUSEHOLD FAME The band’s first ­album to feature Fergie and its third overall, Elephunk (2003), on A&M Rec­ords (1962–), made the Black Eyed Peas a ­house­hold name, peaking at No.  14 on the Billboard 200, selling over 8.5 million copies worldwide, and spawning the group’s first three Billboard Hot 100 hits: “Where Is the Love?,” “Hey Mama,” and “Let’s Get It Started.” Pop legend Justin Timberlake (1981–) produced the first, and the group joined Timberlake on his tour with Christina Aguilera (1980–). Its 2005 A&M ­album, Monkey Business, performed even better, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and selling over 10 million copies worldwide. It



Black Nationalism 57

also gave the band its first Billboard Top 10 hits, “­Don’t Phunk with My Heart” and “My Humps.” The next a­ lbum, The E.N.D. (2009), followed a hiatus wherein Fergie, Taboo, and ­will.i.am pursued solo ­careers and apl.de.ap worked on an En­glish and Tagalog ­music proj­ect and video (apl.de.ap is Filipino and ­adopted by Americans). Returning to Interscope, the band debuted what was a harder, more energetic electronic sound that was influenced by w ­ ill.i.am’s trip to Australia at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The E.N.D. sold 11 million copies worldwide; it spawned three Billboard No. 1 songs, “Boom Boom Pow,” “I Gotta Feeling,” and “Imma Be.” In 2004, ­will.i.am, who had produced most of the Black Eyed Peas songs, launched his rec­ord label, the ­will.i.am ­Music Group. In 2011, the Black Eyed Peas performed at the Super Bowl XLV halftime show. The other group remains philanthropically active, and rumors of a new group a­ lbum exist as of 2018. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Hip Hop Dance; The Philippines; The United States; w ­ ill.i.am

Further Reading

Devitt, Rachel. 2008. “Lost in Translation: Filipino Diaspora(s), Postcolonial Hip Hop, and the Prob­lems of Keeping It Real for the ‘Contentless’ Black Eyed Peas.” Asian ­Music 39, no. 1: 108–34. Norris, Chris. 2010. “The Black Eyed Peas.” Rolling Stone no. 1103, April 29, 48–56.

Further Listening

Black Eyed Peas. 2003. Elephunk. AandM. Black Eyed Peas. 2005. Monkey Business. AandM. Black Eyed Peas. 2009. The E.N.D. Interscope.

Black Nationalism Black Nationalism refers to a broad range of sociopo­liti­cal perspectives that imagine the global black population as part of one coherent nation. Specifically, Black Nationalism imagines black ­people of all nations as part of the African diaspora due to migration, colonial displacement, and the Atlantic slave trade. Black Nationalists generally believe that black ­people of African descent share fundamental common interests and should view their membership in the black global nation as their primary basis for cultural identification. The legacy of Black Nationalism is central to understanding the global character of hip hop. INTELLECTUAL AND HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS Scholars often trace the origins of Black Nationalism to the African American abolitionist Martin Delany (1812–1885), whose encounters with racism convinced him that black-­skinned ­people had no ­f uture in the United States and should seek to form their own nation. Similarly, Marcus Garvey (1887–1940), a Jamaican who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1914, first in Akron, Ohio, launched the “Back to Africa” movement, claiming that black ­people

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The American group Public E­ nemy, pictured ­here in 2015, is just one of many hip hop acts to embrace and advocate for Black Nationalism. The group’s advocacy includes performing ­free concerts at parks as a way to reach out to black communities facing gang activity, street vio­lence, and poverty. (Christian Bertrand​/­Dreamstime​.­com)

of all nations should reclaim their rightful home on the African continent ­after years of colonization and racial oppression. Significantly, figures such as Delany and Garvey advocated the creation of a literal nation-­state for the purpose of reunification; however, developing versions of Black Nationalism did not think strictly in terms of geographic bound­aries—in t­ hese versions, a nation is more of an idea. Many antiracist and anticolonial activists during the latter half of the 20th ­century ­adopted this perspective. Martinican author Frantz Fanon (1925–1961) was a trained psychiatrist who was interested in the psychological toll of colonialism and racism on black ­people. His books (both originally in French) Black Skin, White Masks (1952) and The Wretched of the Earth (1961) ­were widely read by black (and other) activists across the world. He argued that anticolonial strug­gles ­were essential not only to physically purge colonizers from native lands but also to allow colonized ­peoples to develop a collective, more ethnically pure, sense of self. Fanon’s writing, the proliferation of anticolonial movements in Africa, the success of Maoism in China (1950s–1970s), and the strug­gle of the National Liberation Front (1960– 1976) in Vietnam against French and U.S. intervention all had profound impacts on antiracist activists in the United States and Eu­rope. Many key civil rights figures in the United States, such as Stokely Carmichael (1941–1998) and Malcolm X (1925–1965), explic­itly drew connections between antiracist strug­gles at home and anticolonial movements abroad—­African Americans ­were also a colonized ­people who needed to fight for self-­determination.



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Some activists have been critical of Black Nationalism. Many in the Marxist tradition see Black Nationalism as problematic ­because it encourages black workers to identify first along ethnic lines rather than on class lines. Many feminists and LGBTQ+ activists have noted that Black Nationalism tends to privilege the leadership of men. ­Others find the militant separatist rhe­toric of individuals such as Malcolm X to be antithetical to the goal of unity. Furthermore, prominent Black Nationalists such as Louis Farrakhan (1933–) of the Nation of Islam (1930–) have been accused of anti-Semitism, misogyny, and homophobia. T ­ hese activists question how and with whom black ­people should identify as they pursue social justice. BLACK NATIONALISM AND GLOBAL HIP HOP From its inception, Black Nationalism has had a strong influence on hip hop. Jamaican musical traditions such as reggae and dub followed mi­g rants such as Kingston–­born hip hop pioneer DJ Kool Herc (1955–) to the United States. Jamaica’s own po­liti­cal climate was fraught with intense vio­lence, and one of the nation’s most influential modes of cultural re­sis­tance was the Rastafari movement (1930s–), which worshipped Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I (Ras Tafari Makonnen Woldemikael, 1892–1975) as its deity. Rastafari was deeply Afrocentric and driven by the belief that Selassie would unify African nations and lead to the creation of a perfect world, or Zion. Reggae artists such as Jamaica’s Bob Marley (Robert Nesta Marley, 1945–1981) ­were especially invested in the Rastafari tradition. Another early hip hop artist, Bronx, New York–­born and—­based Afrika Bambaataa (1957–), saw hip hop as a valuable tool for unifying black inner-­city youth in ways that offered an alternative to joining street gangs. He formed the Universal Zulu Nation (1973–), now established in France, Japan, South Africa, Australia, and South K ­ orea, drawing on the legacy of anticolonial strug­gles in Africa to give form to his distinctly nationalist movement. Members of the Zulu Nation employ Afrocentric garb and other markers of pan-­African culture that reflect the nationalist politics of the movement. Con­temporary hip hop artists also invoke Black Nationalist themes. The influential and controversial rap group Public ­Enemy (1982–) emerged from the band members’ shared interest in the black intellectual tradition. Public ­Enemy’s po­liti­ cally charged ­music (and associated videos) contained many ele­ments of Black Nationalism. For example, the ­music video for their track “Fight the Power,” from their third ­album Fear of a Black Planet (1990), portrays a gathering of black ­people in New York City that is part concert and part po­liti­cal rally. The colors of the Black Nationalist flag (red, black, and green) are ubiquitous, and participants hold signs showing pictures of prominent black leaders and names of major cities across the United States. The activist rap duo dead prez’s (1996–) motto, “Revolutionary but Gangsta,” deliberately forms the acronym RBG, which can also stand for the colors of the Black Nationalist flag (its song “Read ’Bout Garvey” forms the same acronym and references the influential nationalist thinker and activist). The members of dead prez self-­identify with the nationalist Uhuru Movement (1972–) of Africa and the International P ­ eople’s Demo­cratic Uhuru Movement (1991–) of the

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United States and frequently incorporate the Black Nationalist colors into their ­album artwork and m ­ usic videos. Bryan J. McCann See also: Five ­Percent Nation; Nation of Islam; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Public Enemy; The Universal Zulu Nation

Further Reading

Fanon, Frantz. 1963. The Wretched of the Earth, translated by Constance Farrington. New York: Grove Press. Hill Collins, Patricia. 2006. From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism. Philadelphia: T ­ emple University Press.

Further Listening

dead prez. 2004. RBG: Revolutionary but Gangsta. Sony Urban Music/Columbia. Ice Cube. 1991. Death Certificate. Priority Rec­ords. Public ­Enemy. 1990. Fear of a Black Planet. Def Jam Recordings/Columbia.

Blige, Mary J. (Mary Jane Blige, 1971–­, Bronx, New York) Mary J. Blige, who has been nicknamed the Queen of Hip Hop Soul, is an American R&B, soul, and hip hop singer, songwriter, and ­music producer. She is best known for merging hip hop and neo soul in the early 1990s and for achieving commercial success in R&B. Her success and innovation earned her the honor of one of the Top 50 Most Influential R&B Artists in Essence magazine, and Rolling Stone listed her a­ lbum My Life (1994) in its Top 500 Greatest A ­ lbums of All Time. Blige has also collaborated with a who’s who of hip hop performers: R&B artists Faith Evans (1973–) and Case (Case Woodard, 1975–); rappers Method Man (Clifford Smith, 1971–), Jay-­Z (1969–), and Ghostface Killah (Dennis Coles, 1970–); and the hip hop group Wu-­Tang Clan (1992–). Blige also has acted in vari­ous tele­ vi­sion series and movies, most notably Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself (2009), Rock of Ages (2012), and the Lifetime film Betty and Coretta (2013), in which she portrays Dr. Betty Shabazz (Betty Dean Sanders, 1934–1997), wife of Malcolm X (1925–1965). Blige’s vocal range is mezzo-­soprano.

EARLY ­ALBUMS Blige’s ­father, jazz musician Thomas Blige (1951*–), left the ­family when she was four years old, but had taught her to appreciate jazz. Through her ­mother, Cora Blige (n.d.), she heard funk and soul artists such as Sam Cooke (1931–1964), Aretha Franklin (1942–), and Gladys Knight (1944–). In her formative years, Blige, her ­mother, and her ­sister sang gospel ­music at a Pentecostal church in Georgia. The ­family then moved to the Bronx, where she heard early hip hop DJs and was attracted to their vari­ous rhythms and sampling styles. Her breakthrough came in 1988 when she recorded a cover of Anita Baker’s (1958–) “Caught Up in the Rapture” (1986) at a karaoke booth in White Plains, New York. ­After receiving the tape, Andre



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Harrell (1960–), Uptown Rec­ ords’ (1986–1999) CEO, met with her in 1989 and signed her to the label, making her the label’s first female and youn­gest artist. Her debut a­lbum What’s the 411? (1992) featured the hit singles “Real Love” and “You Remind Me,” both of which topped the Hot R&B chart, with “Real Love” reaching the Billboard Top 10. Her use of vocals over a hip hop beat introduced the concept of hip hop soul, a subgenre of new jack swing (a music genre popu­ ­ lar in the 1980s and 1990s that fuses jazz, hip hop soul, electronica, rap, and R&B). The ­album sold over three million copies and helped Blige reach a broader audience; American singer-­songwriter, rec­ord producer, it reached No.  6 on the Bill- and actress Mary J. Blige’s musical style focuses board 200. In 1993, What’s the on storytelling and incorporates hip hop and 411? Remix was released, fea- other genres like R&B, neo soul, new jack swing, ­ usic. H ­ ere the Grammy Award–­ turing remixes of Blige’s songs and gospel m winning musician attends the Critics’ Choice by producers such as Puff Awards, held in 2018 in Santa Monica, California. ­Daddy (1969–), K-­Ci (Cedric (Starstock ​/­Dreamstime​.­com) Renard Hailey, 1969–), and the Notorious B.I.G. (1972–1997). Blige wrote or co­w rote most of the songs on her second ­album, the certified triple-­Platinum My Life (1994), with lyr­ics based on her experiences with drugs and alcohol, clinical depression, and abusive relationships. The songs “Be Happy,” “Mary Jane (All Night Long),” and “I’m Goin’ Down” reached the Top 40 and pushed the a­ lbum to the No. 7 position on the Billboard 200 and to No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart. Her third ­album, Share My World (1997, MCA Rec­ ords), contains more upbeat ­music, such as “Love Is All You Need” and “I Can Love You.” Share My World hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and sold over three million copies in the United States, and Blige was nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal Per­for­mance and performed “Not Gon’ Cry” at the 1997 Grammy Awards. In 1998, Blige won an American M ­ usic Award for Share My World.

­L ATER SUCCESS Blige’s ­later ­career began to adopt an adult con­temporary sound, mixed with funk and soul from the 1970s and 1980s. Her ­album Mary (1999) went double

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Platinum. In 2001, she released No More Drama, which features her best-­selling single, “­Family Affair,” which ranked No.  1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks; it reintroduced Blige’s signature hip hop soul sound from the early 1990s. The Breakthrough (2005) sold over seven million copies worldwide, reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums charts, and was nominated for eight Grammy Awards, winning three: Best R&B ­Album, Best R&B Song, and Best Female Vocal R&B Per­for­mance for “Be without You.” Celeste Roberts See also: Neo Soul; New Jack Swing; The United States

Further Reading

Alexander, Danny. 2016. Real Love, No Drama: The ­Music of Mary J. Blige. American ­Music Series. Austin: University of Texas Press. Lindsey, Treva B. 2013. “If You Look in My Life: Love, Hip Hop Soul, and Con­temporary African American Womanhood.” African American Review 46, no. 1: 87–99.

Further Listening

Blige, Mary J. 1994. My Life. Uptown Rec­ords. Blige, Mary J. 2005. The Breakthrough. Geffen Rec­ords.

Bliss n’ Eso (BnE, Bliss n’ Esoterikizm, 2000–­, Sydney, Australia) Bliss n’ Eso is an Australian hip hop trio consisting of American rapper MC Bliss (Jonathan Notley, 1979–), Australian rapper MC Eso (aka Esoterik, Max Mac­ Kinnon, 1979*–), and Australian DJ Izm (Tarik Ejjamai, n.d.). The trio is internationally known for live per­for­mances, extensive touring, collaborations, and ­albums. In 2004, Bliss n’ Eso released their debut studio ­album, Flowers in the Pavement, which included “Hip Hop Blues,” a track produced by Suffa (Matthew David Lambert, 1977–) from con­temporary hip hop group Hilltop Hoods (1994–). Bliss n’ Eso’s five studio ­albums have charted on the ARIA ­Albums Chart: Day of the Dog (2006) peaked at No. 45; Flying Colours (2008) peaked at No. 10; and ­Running on Air (2010), Circus in the Sky (2013), and Off the Grid (2017) have all reached No. 1. Flying Colours won an ARIA Award for Best Urban Release in 2008, and ­Running on Air and Circus in the Sky ­were certified Platinum in Australia. From its fourth studio ­album (­Running on Air) on, the trio has focused on uplifting messages—­a result of members’ becoming parents, touring Af­ghan­i­stan in 2013, and getting sober, as in the song “Addicted,” which is not about drugs but about being addicted to life. More positive messages exist in Off the Grid with “Moments” and “Friend Like You.” The three members formed Bliss n’ Esoterikizm while in high school. In 1999, Bliss n’ Esoterikizm issued an untitled promotional mixtape. In 2000, the trio released their first EP, The Arrival. That same year, the trio shortened its name to Bliss n’ Eso and signed with Melbourne-­based Obese Rec­ords (1995–2007). When the trio began in Sydney’s small, underground hip hop scene, its recordings included sampling, looped beats, and turntablism and its lyr­ics resembled American hip hop

Blondie 63

artists such as Public ­Enemy (1982–) and vari­ous gangsta rappers. The trio focused on street life, sex, partying, and drugs—­but it also began to introduce issues such as the evils of mass consumerism and preached m ­ usic as salvation. In 2004, the trio released its debut studio ­album Flowers in the Pavement. Meanwhile, it continued live concert shows, including a 2005 tour supporting 50 Cent’s (1975–) debut major-­label studio ­album Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (2003). Flying Colours, which featured recordings in Australia, South Africa (with the Zulu Connection Choir, 1998–), and the United States, proved that the band’s sound and story­ telling rapping had matured. It was a product of the trio’s 2006 signing on to the Illusive Sounds label (2003–), whose parent com­pany was Mushroom Group (1972–) of Melbourne, the largest in­de­pen­dent ­music and entertainment firm in Australia. As of 2018, all of Bliss n’ Eso’s a­ lbums have been recorded on this label. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Australia; Gangsta Rap; The United States

Further Reading

Hendrie, Doug. 2015. “African-­Australian Hip Hop: Closer to the Real ­Thing?” Review essay in Kill Your Darlings 21 (April): [164]–81. Maxwell, Ian. 2003. Phat Beats, Dope Rhymes: Hip Hop Down ­Under Comin’ Upper. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. O’Hanlon, Renae. 2006. “Australian Hip Hop: A Sociolinguistic Investigation.” Australian Journal of Linguistics 26, no. 2: 193–209.

Further Listening

BnE. 2004. Flowers in the Pavement. Obese Rec­ords. BnE. 2017. Off the Grid. Illusive Sounds.

Blondie (1974–1982, 1997–­, New York City, New York) Blondie is an American punk, new wave, alternative, and experimental rock group from New York City that in 1981 released “Rapture,” the first Billboard No. 1 hit featuring rap. The band had mainstream success in the late 1970s with Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits such as “Heart of Glass” (1979), “Call Me” (1980), and “The Tide Is High” (1981), among ­others, including additional No. 1 hits outside the United States, especially in the United Kingdom and Australia. Like other punk bands during their time, Blondie incorporated ele­ments of reggae in its m ­ usic, but what made it stand out was its use of disco, synth-­pop, rock, musical references to or quotations of familiar tunes (from motion pictures to childhood nursery songs), funk, and rap. “RAPTURE” At the same time “Rapture” was a hit in the United States, it peaked at No. 4 and No. 5 on the Australian and U.K. charts, respectively. Two U.S. versions of “Rapture” and another version (targeted for the U.K. market) ­were released: the

64 Blondie

seven-­inch single was included on Blondie’s Autoamerican (1981), as was a slightly longer 12-­inch version with an extra verse; another version was a special disco remix of the longer U.S. version with a dif­fer­ent introduction and percussion section as well as a lengthier instrumental break that extended “Rapture” to 10 minutes. Through rapping, using hip hop m ­ usic, and using musical references/ quotations—­the last resembles a live version of early sampling—­Blondie incorporated ele­ments that it used infrequently in its recorded output; the song nevertheless exemplifies efforts to help rap attain mainstream and worldwide attention. Rap, which is often associated with male performers and historical per­for­mance practice, is ­here performed by lead singer Debbie Harry (Deborah Ann Harry, b. Angela ­Tremble, 1945–), whose rapping voice is lower than her airy, muted soprano singing voice. “Rapture” was significant ­because it was rap’s first Top 10 hit—­and it was rapped by a ­woman. Blondie is an all-­white band, and the success of “Rapture” has been the focus of ­whether the song amounts to white appropriation of black ­music; however, “Rapture” also represents impor­tant collaboration between the early New York punk and hip hop scenes as well as between musicians such as Harry and guitarist/ percussionist/songwriter Chris Stein (1950–) with hip hop pioneers and prominent graffiti artists such as Fab Five Freddy (1959–), Lee Quiñones (George Lee Quiñones, 1960–), and Jean-­Michel Basquiat (1960–1988). The first hip hop video on MTV (1981–), “Rapture” is a one-­shot take of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, with Fab Five Freddy and Quiñones in the background spray-­painting graffiti and Basquiat ­behind the turntables, replacing Grandmaster Flash (1958–), who did not appear for the video shooting. Harry and Blondie perform in the foreground. The rap text of “Rapture” is an absurd story about the invasion of Earth by the Man from Mars, which involves his eating cars and ­people. Clean enough for radio, the text stresses end rhymes and uses the technique of namechecking—­referencing several hip hop pioneers such as Fab Five Freddy and Grandmaster Flash. In the 1980s, Harry and Stein had visited underground hip hop clubs and block parties in New York. Both met Fab Five Freddy and ­later showed him their rap text before “Rapture” was recorded. In 1981, Blondie collaborated again with him, combining pop and rap, which resulted in an untitled U.K. EP and “Yuletide Throw Down,” both issued by ­England’s pop m ­ usic magazine Flexipop! (1980–1983).

INFLUENCE “Rapture” was the very first instance of rap heard on mainstream radio. Ele­ ments of the song w ­ ere sampled and remixed right away. Blondie and Fab Five Freddy (as Blondie and Freddie) sampled multiple ele­ments of “Rapture” in “Yuletown Throw Down.” In 1981, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (1976–1982, 1987–1988) released the hip hop classic “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel,” which showcased Grandmaster Flash’s turntablism in a solo. The song sampled ele­ments of “Rapture” in addition to other songs. In ­England, the new wave and disco proj­ect band Enigma (1981) also used multiple ele­ments of “Rapture.” Examples of artists’ using “Rapture” in hip hop

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include the Jungle ­Brothers’ (1987–) “In Dayz 2 Come” (1989), KRS-­One’s (1965–) “Step into a World (‘Rapture’s’ Delight)” (1997), and Foxy Brown’s (Inga DeCarlo Fung Marchand, 1978–) “I’ll Be (Remix)” (1997), featuring Jay-­Z’s (1969–) and Destiny’s Child’s (1997–2006) “In­de­pen­dent W ­ omen Part 1” (2000). Into the 2000s, “Rapture” is still being used in hip hop tracks, and Blondie has been involved in some of ­these efforts. In 2009, for the Rhythm video game DJ Hero, “Rapture” was remixed with the Beastie Boys’ “Intergalactic” on “Intergalactic” vs. “Rapture.” In 2014, Blondie rerecorded “Rapture” for their compilation ­album Greatest Hits Deluxe Redux, which celebrated the band’s 40th anniversary. Covers also exist of the song, and as of 2018, the band still includes renditions of “Rapture” in its concert tours. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Fab Five Freddy; Graffiti Art; Turntablism; The United States

Further Reading

French, Kenneth. 2017. “Geography of American Rap: Rap Diffusion and Rap Centers.” GeoJournal 82, no. 2: 259–72. Stein, Chris. 2014. Negative: Me, Blondie, and the Advent of Punk. New York: Rizzoli. Williams, Melvin L. 2017. “White Chicks with a Gangsta’ Pitch: Gendered Whiteness in United States Rap Culture (1990–2017).” Journal of Hip Hop Studies 4, no. 1: 50–93.

Further Listening

Blondie. 1980. Autoamerican. Chrysalis.

Bolivia Bolivia is a landlocked, mountainous South American nation with a multiethnic population of 11 million and a musical history of indigenous folk cultures, native and immigrant dance ­music (such as kullawada, taquirari, carnavalito, Afro-­ Bolivian saya, and cueca), and African ­music imported with slavery; its modern ­music scene can best be described as one that fuses t­ hese disparate traditional ­music styles with modern rhythms and beats. In Bolivian hip hop, this fusion can take vari­ous forms, including a blending of Andean folk styles and new hip hop beats with lyr­ics about revolution and social change. The hub of Bolivian hip hop is a major metropolis with the highest altitude in the world—at 13,615 feet, El Alto, an Andean urban center with a population of one million (over two million counting the metropolitan area), has become the sociopo­liti­cal rap geocenter since 2003. Using radio media, specifically radio station Wayna Tambo (1995–), El Alto–­ based rappers such as Abraham Bojórquez (1981–2009), of the rap duo Ukamau y Ké (2003–2006); Grover Canaviri Huallpa (1982*–); and Dennis Quispe Issa (n.d.) rap in Aymara (an indigenous language), Spanish, En­glish, and Portuguese about unity against poverty, po­liti­cal corruption, and social ills. Their urban and con­ temporary lyr­ics are juxtaposed against Andean flutes, guitars, trumpets, tubas, bongos, and traditional drums. ­Women play a large part in Bolivian hip hop. La Paz–­based Sdenka Suxo Cadena (1979*–) protests classism, materialism, and elitism, both as a solo artist and as

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part of the female rap group Nueva Flavah (2000–); with members also from La Paz, São Paulo–­based ­sister rappers Santa Mala (2014–) rap about the condition of immigrants and Bolivian pride, sometimes juxtaposing sampling against traditional instruments and hip hop rhythms. In addition, a movement called “Wayna Rap,” which has spawned vari­ous anthology ­albums, has gained momentum in Bolivia. Wayna rap is retro 1970s and incorporates the sounds of original Bolivian m ­ usic, eschewing North American ele­ments in ­favor of Bolivian touches, such as highland wind instruments. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Brazil; Peru

Further Reading

Ballivían, Rocio Ramírez, and Linda Herrera. 2012. “Schools of the Street: Hip Hop as Youth Pedagogy in Bolivia.” International Journal of Critical Pedagogy 4, no. 1: 172–84. Tarifa, Ariana. 2012. “Hip Hop as Empowerment: Voices in El Alto, Bolivia.” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 25, no. 4: 397–415.

Bolon and Bolon Player (aka Bolonfola) The bolon is a large West African harp (chordophone instrument) with three (traditional) or four (modern) strings on a wooden bow-­shaped neck that are also strung to a goat skin–­covered gourd (also called a calabash) that amplifies the resonant sound. A resonator is usually mounted at the top of the neck as well. A male musician usually plays the instrument by holding the gourd between his legs, with the strings facing him. The strings are plucked rather than strummed. The bolon is often confused with the kora, one of few major accompanying instruments that griots use in their per­for­mance practice. The bolon has a deeper, more resonant sound than the kora; in fact, it sounds like a string bass. Bolon players can create a beat—­a form of beatmaking that serves as a rhythmic counterpoint to the melody that is si­mul­ta­neously being played on the strings. Kora players may also beat on the calabash, but they do not do this as routinely as do bolon players. Unlike the kora players and griots, bolon players can use the beat in the foreground. The bolon is used in Afropop and modern ­music; however, the kora still overshadows it in hip hop ­music. Likewise, the griot remains more popu­lar in hip hop than the bolon player. In contrast to the griot, whose role supports the notion that hip hop is a continuation of African aesthetics, less attention has been given to the bolon’s role or the player’s role as social critic, which is ironic since the most impor­tant distinguishing feature of the bolon player is that he has the power to publicly express criticism of a leader, regime, or ­people, making him a precursor to the rapper who expresses po­liti­cal and social critique. Also unlike griots, the bolon player can be a f­ ree person or from a slave group known as the jon, and hereditary restrictions play no part in who becomes a bolon player. B ­ ecause it is an instrument of the p­ eople,



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diverse West Africans play the bolon, and although the bolon is mostly associated with the Mandé or Fulani ­people, the Banbara, Senufo, Jola, and Kissi also play it. Bolon playing can be found in Mali, Guinea-­Bissau, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, the Gambia, Senegal, and Sierra Leone, among other West African countries. The bolon’s history traces to a time before the Mali Empire (1235*–1670) and is often associated with hunting or war traditions. Bolon players took on the role of the bard, like griots, accompanying themselves with singing or other verbal arts. Unlike griots, who ­were often hired by nobility and wealthy patrons to praise them or to maintain historical information, bolon players expressed praise of a hunter’s or warrior’s strength, power, conquests, and accomplishments as well as encouraged hunters and warriors by predicting success. Beyond the traditional use in hunting ceremonies, other bolon playing traditions emerged. For example, the bolon is used to accompany dance as a musical per­for­mance known as ballet tradition in Guinea-­Bissau. The Jola use the bolon to accompany men’s choruses in the Gambia and Senegal. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Burkina Faso; The Gambia; Griot; Guinea-­Bissau; Ivory Coast; Mali; Senegal; Sierra Leone

Further Reading

Charry, Eric. 2000. “Hunter’s ­Music.” In Mande ­Music: Traditional and Modern ­Music of the Maninka and Mandinka of Western Africa, chap. 2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Nomi, Dave. 2014. “The Politics of Silence: ­Music, Vio­lence, and Protest in Guinea.” Ethnomusicology 58, no. 1: 1–29. Price, Tanya Y. 2013. “Rhythms of Culture: Djembe and African Memory in African-­ American Cultural Traditions.” Black M ­ usic Research Journal 33, no. 2: 227–47.

Further Listening

Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba. 2007. Segu blue (A Mixture of Blue). With tracks 6 and 10 featuring Habib Sangare on bolon. Out ­Here Rec­ords. Oumou Sangare. 2009. Seya (Joy in Mande). World Cir­cuit.

The Bomb Squad (1986–­, Long Island, New York) The Bomb Squad is an American hip hop production group from Long Island, New York, that has been active since 1986. It is best known for its work with another Long Island–­based hip hop group, Public ­Enemy (1982–), but have also produced ­albums and singles for artists ranging from Paula Abdul (1962–) to Ziggy Marley (David Nesta Marley, 1968–). The Bomb Squad’s original members included Hank Shocklee (James Henry Boxley III, 1967–), Keith Shocklee (Keith Matthew Boxley, 1962–), Chuck D (Carlton Douglas Ridenhour, 1960–), and Eric Sadler (aka Vietnam, 1960*–). Paul Shabazz (n.d.) joined the group by 1990, and in 1991, Gary G-­Wiz (Gary Rinaldo, 1969–) came on board. The Bomb Squad’s best-­k nown productions ­were made in conjunction with Public ­Enemy, with lead rapper Chuck D

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being the common ele­ment. Public ­Enemy’s first studio ­album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show (1987), was followed by critical and commercial successes It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988) and Fear of a Black Planet (1990); ­these a­ lbums, all produced by the Bomb Squad, helped define Public E ­ nemy’s sound. Other artists sought the Bomb Squad’s production for its ­albums or singles ­after hearing its work with Public ­Enemy. The Bomb Squad produced Ice Cube’s (1969–) AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted (1990), which was his first solo a­ lbum release a­ fter he left the West Coast hip hop group N.W.A. (1986–1991). The ­Great Adventures of Slick Rick, a 1988 ­album by the English-­born American hip hop artist Slick Rick (1965–), contained several tracks produced by the Bomb Squad. The group also produced singles for New York–­based hip hop artists, including Run-­D.M.C. (1981–2002), Salt ‘n’ Pepa (1985–), Eric B and Rakim (1986–1993), and 3rd Bass (1987–2000). The Bomb Squad has also produced tracks for musicians, such as Vanessa Williams (1963–), in other musical genres. The Bomb Squad’s style of production is characterized by a dense sonic texture and often frenetic energy. Its earlier ­music contained sampled sounds from dozens of dif­fer­ent source tracks; some of the tracks that the Bomb Squad produced for Public ­Enemy in the late 1980s and early 1990s contain well over 30 dif­fer­ent sampled recordings per individual track. The members of the Bomb Squad drew samples from their enormous personal rec­ord collections that consisted of many dif­fer­ent kinds of African American popu­lar ­music, such as soul, funk, and R&B. In the early 1990s, due to ­legal issues and copyright restrictions, the Bomb Squad began sampling fewer source tracks, resulting in a notable change in its musical sound and style. Amanda Sewell See also: Chuck D; Public ­Enemy; The United States

Further Reading

Moon, Tom. 2013. “Public ­Enemy’s Bomb Squad.” In The Rock History Reader, edited by Theo Cateforis, chap. 48. New York: Routledge. Sewell, Amanda. 2014. “How Copyright Affected the Musical Style and Critical Reception of Sample-­Based Hip Hop.” Journal of Popu­lar ­Music Studies 26, nos. 2–3: 295–320.

Further Listening

Ice Cube. 1990. AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted. Priority. Public ­Enemy. 1988. It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. Def Jam. Public ­Enemy. 1990. Fear of a Black Planet. Def Jam.

Boogie Down Productions (1985–1992, Bronx, New York) Boogie Down Productions was a South Bronx, New York, hip hop band that served as a vehicle for KRS-­One (Lawrence Krisna Parker, 1965–) during the early part of his rapping ­career. Its original lineup consisted of KRS-­One, turntablist and producer DJ Scott La Rock (Scott Monroe Sterling, 1962–1987), and turntablist,



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beatboxer, and rapper D-­Nice (Derrick Jones, 1970–). With the exception of KRS-­ One, the band’s lineup changed often, with the first change occurring in 1987 ­after DJ Scott La Rock was murdered, the same year that the group’s debut ­album, Criminal Minded, was released on B-­Boy Rec­ords (1985–). The trio, along with producer Lee Smith (n.d.), is credited for pioneering a fusion of Jamaican dancehall reggae and hip hop and was an early example of urban rap—­the band’s lyr­ics contained frank and detailed descriptions of street life—­which would soon be pop­u­ lar­ized as West Coast gangsta rap. The band produced five more studio ­albums: Man and His M ­ usic (1988), By All Means Necessary (1988), Ghetto M ­ usic: The Blueprint of Hip Hop (1989), Edutainment (1990), and Sex and Vio­lence (1992). Despite four certified-­Gold ­albums, Boogie Down Productions ceased when KRS-­O ne deci­ded to pursue a solo ­career. The band was also responsible for one of the first diss rap feuds, the Bridge Wars. This began when the Queensbridge-­based Juice Crew (1983–1991) released a 1985 song, “The Bridge,” which seemingly expresses local pride in the borough as the place where rap began and attacked Queens, New York, rapper LL Cool J (1968–), for alleged plagiarism. In response, Boogie Down Productions released its debut single, “South Bronx” (1986), which argued that the South Bronx was the birthplace of hip hop and contained lyr­ics that demeaned and threatened the Juice Crew, which responded with group member MC Shan’s (Shawn Moltke, 1965–) “Kill That Noise” (1987). Boogie Down Productions, in turn, responded with the reggae-­ infused rap song “The Bridge Is Over” (1987). The feud, which has since been explained as KRS-­One’s jab at Juice Crew producer and DJ Mr. Magic (John Rivas, 1956–2009), who once dissed his ­music, expanded to other New York rappers. KRS-­One lost interest ­after the death of DJ Scott La Rock. He began to call himself Teacha and started writing socially conscious lyr­ics; he also joined with other rappers in 1987 to create the Stop the Vio­lence Movement. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: KRS-­One; LL Cool J; The United States

Further Reading

Bradley, Adam, and Andrew Dubois, eds. 2010. “Boogie Down Productions.” ­Under “Part 2: 1985–92: The Golden Age” in The Anthology of Rap, pp. 145–59. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Coleman, Brian. 2007. “Boogie Down Productions: Criminal Minded.” In Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip Hop Junkies, pp. 72–91. New York: Villard.

Further Listening

Boogie Down Productions. 1987. Criminally Minded. B-­Boy Rec­ords. Boogie Down Productions. 1990. Edutainment. Jive.

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia-­Herzegovina is a Southeastern Eu­ro­pean country that borders Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro. Hip hop’s development t­ here was constantly disrupted

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by po­liti­cal unrest, war, massacres, genocides, and ethnic cleansings through deportations. In the mid-1980s, ­there was limited access to American hip hop in Bosnia-­Herzogovina, which was part of the dissipating Socialist Federative Republic of Yugo­slavia (1945–1992). Bosnian Serbs initially took interest in breakdancing, and by the late 1980s, a pioneering rapper and anonymous graffiti artist from Bijeljina known as elvir reper (n.d.) had emerged. Tuzla became the main center for underground hip hop as rapping ­battles took place in artists’ basements. Reper began rapping in American En­glish, inspired by American hip hop groups such as Run-­D.M.C. (1981–2002) and Public ­Enemy (1982–); however, he neither recorded nor resurfaced a­ fter the Bosnian War (1992–1995). In 1990, the one-­party communist power was replaced by a three-­party national assembly representing the main populations: Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs. Prompted by Slovenia and Croatia’s 1991 in­de­pen­dence from Yugo­slavia, Bosniaks and Croats wanted in­de­pen­dence as well, but ­were opposed by most Serbs. In 1991, members of the Serb Demo­cratic Party (1990–), whose ideology included Serbian nationalism, conservatism, and anti-­Islamic sentiment (most Bosniaks are Muslims who practice Sunni Islam), formed the First Assembly of the Serb ­People of Bosnia and Herzogovina (1991–1996), departing from the national assembly. That same year, the conservative Croatian Demo­cratic Union (HDZ) established the Croatian Community of Herzeg-­Bosnia (1991–1996). In 1992, the Serb Demo­cratic Party created the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzogovina, renaming it the Republika Srpska (1992–). Boycotted by Serbs, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzogovina nevertheless was admitted by the United Nations (UN). Serbian president Slobodan Milošević (1941–2006, in office 1989–2000) officially withdrew his Yugo­slav ­People’s Army (JNA) from Bosnia-­Herzogovina; however, Bosnian Serbs belonging to JNA formed the Army of Republika Srpska and thus began the Bosnian War and the Siege of Sarajevo (1992–1996). The 1992 Bijeljina massacre resulted in the genocide of Bosniaks and dissenting Serbs, ­under the command of Milošević’s JNA. Using hip hop as a springboard for dissent, Bosniaks Edo Maajka (Edin Osmić, 1978–) and Crni Zvuk (Black Sound, 1990–2000)* rapped about the Bosnian War in Tuzla. Edo Maajka ­later fronted the successful Bosnian hip hop crew Disciplinska Komisija (DK, the Disciplinary Commission, 2000–), which fused old-­school hip hop with reggae and rock. DK stood out for recording rap ­battle songs that protested against Bosnian po­liti­cal corruption and the right-­wing politics of American president George W. Bush (1946–­, in office 2001–2009). Despite the Bosnian War’s end in 1996, musicians found no respite. The Kosovo War (1998–1999) affected hip hop by halting ­album production between 1998 and 2001. In 1999, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugo­slavia (ICTY) charged Milošević for war crimes, including genocide and crimes against humanity during the Croatian War of In­de­pen­dence (1991–1995), the Bosnian War, and the Kosovo War. Now freer, tele­vi­sion, radio, and the Internet media introduced hip hop to more Bosnian-­Herzogovinians. The first hip hop radio show that aired in Bosnia-­ Herzogovina was FM JAM (1999–), on Tuzla’s 102.7 FM. FM JAM played local and global hip hop, remixes, demos, and freestyle b­ attle recordings, providing rapper biographies. Other hip hop scenes emerged in Sarajevo and Mostar. Sarajevo Bosniak rappers include Jala Brat (Jasmin Fazlić, 1986–) and Buba Corelli (Amar

Botswana 71

Hodžić, 1989–). Although female Bosnian rappers remain extremely rare, rapper and singer Sassja (Sanela Halilović, 1988–) has enjoyed success. From Tuzla, Sassja fuses hip hop with reggae and raga. In 2015, Sassja released her debut studio ­album, Taktički praktično (Tactical Practical). The Yugo­slav Wars ­were responsible for a Bosniak diaspora that eventually produced ­f uture rappers. Rapper Frenkie (Adnana Hamidović, 1982–) of DK escaped to Nuremberg, Germany, where he first engaged in hip hop through rapping and graffiti. Frenkie’s earliest rap texts ­were in German, but ­after his return in 1998 to Tuzla, he started rapping in Bosnian, supporting Bosnian-­Herzogovinian nationalism. Other acts remain outside the country. Hardcore rapper Genocide (Jusuf Dzilic, 1984–), from Zvornik, escaped the Bosnian War to Ireland and relocated to Hastings, New Zealand, where he raps in American vernacular about his homeland’s strug­gles. Elvir Omerbegović (1979–) is a highly successful German rapper, hip hop producer, owner of the recording label Selfmade Rec­ords (2005–), and president of Rap at Universal M ­ usic Germany, part of Universal M ­ usic Group (1996–). Though Omerbegović was born and raised in Metmann, near Düsseldorf, he is of Bosnian-­Serbian descent and grew up attending a supplementary Yugo­ slavian school. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Serbia

Further Reading

Kovač, Rok. 2013. “Hip Hop A ­ in’t Dead—­It Just Emigrated: Rap M ­ usic and Nationalism in Bosnia and Herzegovina.” In Hip Hop in Eu­rope: Cultural Identities and Transnational Flows, edited by Sina A. Nitzsche and Walter Grünzweig, chap. 14. Zürich, Switzerland: LIT Verlag. Mujanović, Jasmin. 2017. “Nothing Left to Lose: Hip Hop in Bosnia-­Herzogovina.” In Hip Hop at Eu­rope’s Edge: ­Music, Agency, and Social Change, edited by Milosz Miszczynski and Adriana Helbig, chap. 2. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Further Listening

Frenkie. 2005. Odličan (Excellent). Menart/Fmjam Rec­ords. Sassja. 2015. Taktički praktično (Tactical Practical). Menart.

Botswana Botswana, a landlocked country in southern Africa, is one of the least populous African countries. Nonetheless, it has its own musical practices, which it often shares with South Africa, one of the countries that influences its popu­lar ­music scene (­others include the United States, India, and countries in Western Eu­rope). American hip hop and South African kwaito reached Botswana through cultural interchange. Another influence was Motswana MC Mr T (aka Nomadic, Tebogo Mapine, n.d.), from Francistown, Botswana, whose ­music aired in Mafikeng (aka Mahikeng), South Africa, which is close to Botswana’s border; he pioneered motswako, an influential subgenre of hip hop. Mr T belonged to P-­Side Crew (1994–1999, 2007–) from Gaborone, which is often credited as one of Botswana’s earliest hip hop crews. Botswana rapping texts vary, depending on ­whether the ­music is hip hop, motswako,

72 Botswana

or kwaito and depending on rappers’ language preferences. Some hip hop artists prefer American vernacular En­glish, whereas motswako tends to be rapped in Setswana—­a language ­adopted as Botswana’s common language—­interwoven with American vernacular. Kwaito uses South African languages that may be known in Botswana, such as Afrikaans, Zulu, and American vernacular En­glish. Rappers’ opting for American vernacular En­glish over British En­glish is a result of American hip hop’s influence on Botswana.

FROM TRADITIONAL M ­ USIC TO MOTSWAKO The Batswana comprise descendants from the country’s first inhabitants, the Tswana (Sotho tribal descendants and Basarwa Bushmen), but Botswana’s population also includes the Kalanga, Basarwa, and Kgalagadi ­people. Botswana attained its in­de­pen­dence in 1966. From 1885 ­until that time, it had been the United Kingdom’s Bechuanaland Protectorate, with strong cultural influences from En­glish and Irish colonization. Identity through ­music is impor­tant to the Batswana, and ­music is an integral part of early education and is offered as an elective throughout secondary and higher education. Dance is considered part of ­music. Traditional Tswana m ­ usic is mostly vocal and employs handclaps, stomping, whistles, and string instruments (chordophones)—­including guitars—­instead of drums. Call-­and-­response, in addition to singing in both unison and harmony, is used in a variety of traditional ­music, from borankhana to setapa. When the country was a British protectorate, per­for­mance of Tswana ­music was restricted, but since Botswana’s in­de­pen­dence, this traditional ­music is part of national identity, and its popularity remains strong. Also popu­lar are genres such as American rock, jazz, and gospel; South African kwaito and motswako; and Botswana’s own creations, kwasa-­k wasa and kwaito kwasa. From Motswana kwaito emerged kwaito kwasa, a fusion of kwaito and kwasa-­kwasa. The tempo is a compromise between fast kwaito and slow kwaso kwaso. The latter is Botswana’s version of the Demo­ cratic Republic of Congo’s kwassa kwassa, a kind of African rumba with sexually suggestive dance movements. Examples of Motswana kwaito kwasa musicians and Motswana kwaito artists are Vee (Odirile Vee Sento, 1983–) and Mapetla (Thabo Mapetla Ntirelang, n.d.), respectively. Although kwasa-­kwasa dominates Botswana’s ­music industry, some Motswana artists, such as the group Franco and Afro Musica (2001–) and rapper Jeff Matheatau (n.d.), as well as Franco (Frank Lesokwane, n.d.) as a soloist, are internationally famous. Compared to other African countries, Botswana was an early adapter to hip hop, which first gained popularity in the country in the early 1980s. Early Motswana hip hop employed sampling, drum machine beats, beatboxing, turntablism, and hip hop instrumentation. Radio hosts known as DJ Sid (Ndala Baitsile, n.d.), D-­Ski (David Molosiwa, n.d.), Draztik (Dave Balsher, 1973–), and Slim (aka Fat ­Free, Salim Mosidinyane, n.d.) initially pop­u­lar­ized hip hop in Gaborone, Botswana’s capital city. Draztik, originally from Francistown, was the scene’s American West Coast rap connection, as he lived in Sacramento, California, between 1986 and

Bounce 73

1993. The scene’s American East Coast connection was Slim, who was born and raised in New York City before his 1990s move to Gaborone. Both rap in En­glish and ­were members of the early hip hop group Cashless Society (1999–2006) and the proj­ect group Organik Interfaze (2000–2001). Botswana’s development of hip hop was influenced and interspersed with the development of kwaito and motswako. ­After the end of Apartheid (1948–1991) and when Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) came to power in South Africa in 1994, kwaito emerged t­ here, but musicians from Botswana began performing it and engaging in kwaito culture, which shares characteristics with hip hop (despite its distinctness). Motswako became extremely popu­lar in Botswana in the mid-1990s. Unlike kwaito, which has its own culture, motswako is a hip hop subgenre that may be po­liti­cally or socioconsciously charged, as opposed to kwaito’s lighter focus on gangster and street life. Two examples of Motswana motswako rappers and singer-­songwriters are Zeus (1986–) and Scar (Thato Matlhabaphiri, 1985–). Their rap lyr­ics emphasize partying, acquisition of wealth, and sex—­but also have a sociopo­liti­cal side that protests capitalism. Elaborate storytelling videos have been essential to hip hop in Botswana, from its earlier days with Cashless Society in the 2000s to rappers such as Zeus and Scar in the 2010s. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Kwaito; Motswako; South Africa; The United States; Zeus

Further Reading

Rapoo, Connie. 2013. “Urbanized Soundtracks: Youth Popu­lar Culture in the African City.” Social Dynamics: A Journal of African Studies 39, no. 2: 368–83. Rapoo, Connie. 2014. “Reconfiguring the City: Con­temporary Youth Per­for­mance and Media Entertainment in Gaborone.” Botswana Notes and Rec­ords 45: 66–76.

Further Listening

Cashless Society. 2003. African Raw Material, Vol. 1. Unreleased Rec­ords. Zeus. 2015. African Time. Universal.

Bounce Bounce is a hip hop subgenre that emerged in the early 1990s in New Orleans. Bounce uses rap but emphasizes its role as dance party and regional ­music; it also borrows ele­ments from Mardi Gras parade culture. Bounce features call-­and-­ response; Mardi Gras hollers, callouts, and chants (many of which are calls for dance party participation); brass ensembles; and hip hop beats. Some shouts, such as on the word “break” or the phrase “can I get an Amen,” may be generic and are characteristic of other kinds of hip hop and hip hop–­related global music genres, such as the shouted word “hai” used in Indian bhangra-­beat ­music (hip hop m ­ usic that accompanies dance linked to traditional bhangra’s agricultural-­influenced movements); however, in bounce, shouts also reference specific neighborhoods, housing proj­ects, and geographic areas of New Orleans. Whistling and the use of

74 Bounce

Big Freedia performs in 2011 in her home city, New Orleans. She has brought national attention to bounce ­music, which incorporates ele­ments found in hip hop like rapping, shouts, beats, and melodic hooks. Her lyr­ics celebrate being gay and include allusions to New Orleans and Southern black cultures, as well as braggadocio and insult humor. (Erika Goldring/WireImage/Getty Images)

vocalizations, including beatboxing, create beats. New Orleans LGBTQ+ communities have embraced bounce and ­favor it ­because of its flamboyant, lively, and participatory appeal, which seems reminiscent of glam rock and disco diva ­music. New Orleans is arguably the bounce capital of the world, though the subgenre was a national phenomenon by the early 2000s. Some scholars cite bounce’s earliest appearance at dance parties in New Orleans in 1991. MC T. Tucker (aka T.T. Tucker, Kevin Ventry, n.d.) and DJ Irv (Irvin Phillips, n.d.) performed raps that included Mardi Gras chants, hollers, and regional callouts, as exhibited in “Where Dey At.” Hip hop ele­ments such as rap that leads to calls and chanted refrains, melodic hooks over which chants may continue, rapid drum machine or synthesizer beats, and samples w ­ ere also pres­ent in early bounce. Beats from earlier tracks, most notably the Showboys’ (1985–2000) “Drag Rap (Trigger Man)” (1986), a narrative rap track over the beat from “Trigger Man,” became part of the rhythmic structure for many bounce tracks. Its brass instrumentation is also used often. Another track that was used was Cameron Paul’s (n.d.) “Brown Beats” (Beats and Pieces, 1987). Lyr­ics focused on sex rather than on

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politics, and less narrative was used in rap than that found in other recorded hip hop of the early to mid-1990s. BOUNCE IN HIP HOP Southern hip hop artists incorporated bounce ele­ments in their m ­ usic. By the late 1990s, a major New Orleans–­based rec­ord label, Ca$h Money Rec­ords (1991–), owned and run by ­brothers Birdman (1969–) and Slim (Ronald Williams, 1967–), had access to this underground musical activity. The label became a prominent producer of bounce ­music. One of its producers, Mannie Fresh (Byron O. Thomas, 1969–), was also a New Orleans DJ, so airplay was inevitable. Nationally known New Orleans hip hop songs that have used bounce ele­ments include Big Tymer$’s (1994–) “Get Your Roll On” (2000), Hot Boy$’s (1996–) “We on Fire” and “Tuesday and Thursday” (1999), Juvenile’s “Solja Rags (1997), and Mystikal’s (Michael Lawrence Tyler, 1970–) “­Here I Go” (1995), “The Man Right Chea” (1997), and “Shake Ya Ass” (2000). By 2000, bounce’s popularity had spread to Mississippi and Texas. An early example is Brookhaven, Mississippi, native David Banner’s (Lavell William Crump, 1974–) “Like a Pimp” (2003), which uses the beat from “Trigger Man.” Bounce remixes have also gained popularity: Juvenile’s “Nolia Clap Remix” (2004) peaked at No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 9 on Billboard’s Hot Rap Tracks and Hot R&B/Hip-­Hop Songs. New Orleans hip hop artists continued to develop the subgenre, both underground and in the mainstream. Gay musician Big Freedia (Frederick Ross, 1978–) has helped the subgenre gain national attention. ­After Hurricane Katrina (2005), Big Freedia moved to and performed in Texas with other bounce artists before being able to return to New Orleans. In 2009, she performed with New Orleans transgender rappers Katey Red (anonymous, n.d.) and Sissy Nobby (anonymous, n.d.) at Voodoo Experience, and in 2010 she self-­released the ­album Big Freedia Hitz, Vol. 1. This was the same year that the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans featured the exhibit “Where They At: New Orleans Hip Hop and Bounce in Words and Pictures.” In 2011, her ­album was nominated for a GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, 1985–) Media Award for Outstanding ­Music Artist. In 2012, Big Freedia appeared on the tele­vi­sion drama Treme (2010–2013). In 2016, Beyoncé’s (1981–) “Formation” (with accompanying ­music video shot in New Orleans) sampled Big Freedia. Beyoncé’s use of bounce in “Formation” was not her first, for she used ele­ments of bounce in 2007 in “Get Me Bodied.” Jacqueline M. DeMaio See also: Birdman; The United States

Further Reading

Cooper, Rich Paul. 2010. “Bouncin’ Straight Out the Dirty Dirty: Community and Dance in New Orleans Rap.” In Hip Hop in Amer­i­ca: A Regional Guide, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 2, chap. 20. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood. Miller, Matt. 2012. Bounce: Rap M ­ usic and Local Identity in New Orleans. Amherst: University of Mas­sa­chu­setts Press.

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Brand Nubian

Brand Nubian (1989–1995, 1997–­, New Rochelle, New York) Brand Nubian is an American hip hop group featuring ­Grand Puba (Maxwell Dixon, 1966–), Sadat X (aka Derek X, Derek Murphy, 1968–), Lord Jamar (Lorenzo Dechalus, 1968–), and DJ Alamo (K. Jones, n.d.). From its debut ­album on, the group has been known for its alternative approach to hip hop and its concentration on socially conscious and po­liti­cally charged raps associated with Islam and the Nation of Gods and Earths (the Five ­Percent Nation), an American organ­ization founded in 1964 by former member of the Nation of Islam named Clarence 13X (1928–1969), a former student of Malcolm X (1925–1965). Clarence 13X believed that 5 ­percent of the ­people on Earth knew truth and could teach or enlighten the 85 ­percent who ­were kept in ignorance by the 10 ­percent who ruled. In 1990, Elektra (1950–) released Brand Nubian’s first ­album, One for All. It followed the success of the single “Brand Nubian.” The ­album charted at No. 130 on the Billboard 200 and No. 34 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and it received positive reviews for its fusion of ­music, but caused some controversy (which improved sales, a total of 400,000 copies) ­because of its militant lyr­ics in songs such as “Drop the Bomb” and “Wake Up.” The band’s second and third ­albums,

Hailing from New Rochelle, New York, the East Coast alternative hip hop group Brand Nubian raps Afrocentric sociopo­liti­cal lyr­ics rooted in the teachings of the Nation of Gods and Earths. Pictured ­here are the group’s three MCs: ­Grand Puba (left), Lord Jamar (far left), and Sadat X (right). Its best known lineup also included DJs Alamo (center) and Sincere (not pictured). (Johnny Nunez/WireImage/Getty Images)

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In God We Trust (1993) and Every­thing Is Every­thing (1994), reached Nos. 12 and 54, respectively, on the Billboard 200, but experienced both mixed reviews and mediocre sales. Nonetheless, they both reached the Top 20 of the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and produced two Hot Rap Tracks singles, “Word Is Bond” and “Hold On.” The 1998 ­album Foundation (No. 59 on the Billboard 200, No. 12 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart) produced the group’s highest-­charting Billboard Hot 100 single at No.  54, “­Don’t Let It Go to Your Head.” ­After vari­ous solo efforts, Brand Nubian’s MCs re­united in 2004 for Fire in the Hole, released by Babygrande Rec­ords (2001–), but the ­album did not chart. Their 2007 ­album, Time’s Runnin’ Out, also did not chart. It contained no new material; rather, it was a remix of songs recorded during the Foundation sessions. All Brand Nubian members have done solo ­albums on the side. ­G rand Puba began with a group called Masters of Ceremony (1985–1988), but when it disbanded, he became the lead MC for Brand Nubian for One for All. The ­album proved that although their ­music was hip hop, the group was comfortable with every­thing from reggae to new jack swing (­Grand Puba left the group afterward, returning in 1997 in time for Foundation). Sadat X has also worked as an elementary school teacher and a firefighter in New Rochelle, where he also coaches youth basketball. Lord Jamar has done ­music production and tele­vi­sion acting and is best known for his role as Supreme Allah on the TV series Oz (1997–2003); he has attracted some ire with controversial statements about homo­sexuality and race in hip hop, both as a member of Brand Nubian and as a solo act. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Five Percent Nation; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Coleman, Brian. 2007. “Brand Nubian: One for All.” In Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip Hop Junkies, pp. 92–104. New York: Villard. Miyakawa, Felicia. 2005. Five Percenter Rap: God Hop’s ­Music, Message, and Black Muslim Mission. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Further Listening

Brand Nubian. 1990. One for All. Elektra.

Brazil Brazil saw an emergence of hip hop in the early 1980s, practiced primarily among working-­class residents of urban peripheries. The ­music genre ­rose to prominence due to the activities of public b-­boys and rappers who performed at nightclubs in the country’s major urban centers. ­These individuals drew much of their inspiration from American hip hop culture, which was disseminated in Brazil by radio stations, touring artists and dancers from the United States, and American films such as Wild Style (1983) and Beat Street (1984). The cities of São Paulo (the country’s largest city) and Brasília became especially well known as centers for hip hop, and remain so as of 2018. In São Paulo, the São Bento subway station became an early hotspot for b-­boying, while open-­air spaces such as Roo­se­velt Plaza and Galeria

78 Brazil

24 de Março acted as impor­tant public locales for prac­ti­tion­ers to meet up, exchange ideas, and perform. During the 1990s, ele­ments of hip hop culture began to work their way into the broader Brazilian popu­lar ­music sphere. Rap and DJing in par­tic­u­lar became increasingly commonplace creative practices in mainstream popu­lar musicians’ repertoires. In the country’s sixth-­largest metropolitan area, Recife, led by the pioneering artist Chico Science (Francisco de Assis França, 1966–1997), artists affiliated with the musical movement of mangue beat mixed rap and sampling practices with internationally circulated genres such as reggae and rock as well as regional northeastern Brazilian musical and per­for­mance styles such as embolada and maracatu.

EARLY HIP HOP AND THE EMERGENCE OF ACTIVISM Most early Brazilian hip hop artists did not incorporate overtly po­liti­cal criticism in their per­for­mances. Beginning in the mid-1980s and continuing into the mid-1990s, however, antiracist commentary began to take a central place in Brazilian hip hop culture. Prac­ti­tion­ers drew par­tic­u­lar inspiration from U.S. cultural figures such as James Brown (1933–2006), Public ­Enemy (1982–), and Afrika Bambaataa (1957–) as well as earlier black Brazilian funk and soul musicians affiliated with the 1970s-­era Black Soul movement, such as Rio de Janeiro’s Tim Maia (Sebastião Rodrigues Maia, 1942–1998) and Banda Black Rio (1976–). ­These musical figures also provided raw sonic material for Brazilian DJs, who regularly sampled artists such as Brown in their own mixes. Brazilian hip hop figures ­were also influenced by existing racial ideologies and movements such as negritude, the Brazilian Movimento Negro Unificado (Unified Black Movement, 1978–), launched in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, and the U.S. Civil Rights Movement (1954–1968), especially the militant stance of the 1960s–1970s Black Power Movement. Artists from São Paulo played central roles in this endeavor. By the late 1980s, the hip hop community centered in São Paulo’s Roo­se­velt Plaza had developed an increasingly oppositional stance with regard to racial discrimination. In 1988, an affiliated group of São Paulo rappers formed the Sindicato Negro (Black Union), which fostered the growth of new rap groups throughout the city while promoting messages of black liberation, Afrocentricity, and racial consciousness. Prominent hip hop artists of this period addressed ­these issues front and center. Perhaps the best-­k nown group of this era, Racionais MC’s (1988–), from São Paulo, ­rose to national prominence in the late 1980s and became famous for frankly discussing the kind of entrenched exclusion, racism, and vio­lence faced by the predominantly Afro-­descendent residents of São Paulo’s poorer outlying areas. This discourse, which was shared by contemporaries of the group, such as Posse Mente Zulu (Zulu Mind Posse, 1992–), also functioned as a criticism of broader national narratives with regard to race that constructed whiteness as ideal and downplayed the existence of racism in Brazilian society. Over time, certain Brazilian hip hop artists who achieved mainstream popularity began to depart from the genre’s initial social concerns. Rapper Gabriel O Pensador (Gabriel Contino, 1974–), who ­rose to prominence in 1993 with his

Brazil 79

controversial hit “Tô feliz (matei o presidente)” (“I’m Happy: I Killed the President”), from his self-­titled debut ­album, became especially emblematic of this transformation. O Pensador, who hailed from a white, middle-­class background in Rio de Janeiro, tended not to explic­itly contextualize his ­music as a manifestation of traditional hip hop culture, preferring instead to place his raps within a broader hybrid cultural sphere that included such diverse ­music styles as samba and rock. The mid-1990s also saw the rise of evangelical Christian–­themed gospel rap, which by the early 2000s had become a staple musical practice within hip hop communities and exerted increasing influence on mainstream hip hop discourse as a ­whole. CON­TEMPORARY HIP HOP Since the late 1990s, Brazilian hip hop has seen a shift from being a predominantly racially focused discourse to commenting on the wider set of challenges faced by residents of the urban periferia (periphery), a concept that continues to be a central point of interest in con­temporary Brazilian hip hop practice. New areas of focus include the prob­lem of geographic distance between poorer neighborhoods and wealthier city centers and the broader experience of marginality felt by poor residents, who are routinely excluded from full participation in Brazilian society. Prac­ti­tion­ers have sought to reinvent per­sis­tently negative media images of periferia residents—an endeavor that functions as part of a larger proj­ect of empowering a maligned and ignored section of the Brazilian population. Brazilian hip hop culture continues to be grounded in ­these roots as of 2018, although con­temporary prac­ti­tion­ers address a variety of pressing issues. Some discuss the kinds of vio­lence residents face on a daily basis, both from the Brazilian police, who are notorious for their indiscriminate use of force, and from gangs and drug traffickers. Many seek to highlight the day-­to-­day economic difficulties caused by endemic lack of access to professional opportunities and social ser­vices. ­Others continue to address racism and the country’s broader legacy of racial discrimination, while ­others have expanded their critique to address other inequalities, such as prejudice faced as a result of sexism and homophobia. Despite the per­sis­tence of ­these negative forces in con­temporary Brazilian society, hip hop culture continues to act as a key means and medium for marginalized citizens to build local communities and engage in constructive action for social change. James McNally See also: Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Portugal

Further Reading

Burdick, John. 2013. “We Are All One in the Periferia: Blackness, Place, and Poverty in Gospel Rap.” In The Color of Sound: Race, Religion, and ­Music in Brazil, chap. 2. New York: New York University Press. Pardue, Derek. 2011. Brazilian Hip Hoppers Speak from the Margins: We’s on Tape. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Further Listening

Gabriel O Pensador. 1993. Gabriel O Pensador. Chaos. Racionais MC’s. 1990. Holocausto urbano (Urban Holocaust). RDS Fonográfica. Rappin’ Hood. 2001. Em sujeito homem (On the Subject of Man). Trama.

80 Breakdancing

Breakdancing Breakdancing, sometimes called b-­boying, b-­girling, or break-­boying, is an umbrella term that was ­adopted to include vari­ous dancing styles (funk styles that developed separately from breaking), including locking, popping, and electric boogaloo. The dance form as it is known ­today originated with the street dancing of African American and New York–­based Puerto Rican youth, and it was originally called b-­boying or breaking, though descriptions of similar street dance movements can be found as far back as 1877. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a Bronx, New York, street gang called the Black Spades (1968–) was influenced by the teachings of Malcolm X (1925–1965) and aspects of African American culture, including 1960s dance movements. Many of the gang’s gatherings included dance, and an early form of b-­boying emerged. In general, b-­girling, which likely began in the early 1980s, is viewed as the female counterpart to b-­boying, but some performers prefer the term hip hop dance or breaking, as b-­girling implies a secondary presence. ­These female dancers view themselves as impor­tant and original contributors in both style creation and skill. THE MOVES Breakdancing consists of four kinds of movements: toprock, downrock, power moves, and freezes. Its accompanying ­music is hip hop and funk that uses breakbeats, where the ­music is paused and looped to give ­every performer a chance to solo. Changes in tempo also give performers time for power poses. B-­boying is heavi­ly influenced by choreography employed by James Brown (1933–2006) as well as martial arts moves pop­u­lar­ized in vari­ous Kung Fu films. Uprock is a blend of all of ­these movements, resulting in an aggressive dance that looks like a mimicked Kung Fu martial arts fight with imaginary weapons. Toprock includes steps performed in a standing position and introduces the audience to the role of facial expression. A lot of toprock has a bouncy nature to it; a dancer shifts weight frequently between feet, appearing to hop while moving the feet intricately. The dancer ­will then “drop” to downrock, involving floor work and footwork, where the dancer is supported by his or her hands on the floor, allowing legs and arms to move in dif­fer­ent directions. Power moves are more acrobatic, generally supported by the upper body; the legs are ­free to move. Such moves include the windmill, swipe, back spin, and head spin. Freezes are poses that the dancer strikes to emphasize certain beats in the ­music or signal the end of a solo. DJ Kool Herc (1955–) was known for taking rhythmic breakdown sections of dance rec­ords and prolonging them through looping. STYLES AND SKILLS The breakbeat provides a rhythmic basis that lets dancers display their improvisational skills within the duration of a break. This improvisation led to the first b-­boy ­battle, where turn-­based (a series of solos) dance competitions between two individuals or dance crews took place. The earliest b-­boys ­were primarily New York

Breakdancing 81

Puerto Rican Americans and African Americans; Bronx-­based dance crews such as SalSoul (1974–1978) and Rockwell Association (1976–1978) consisted almost entirely of New York–­based Puerto Ricans. Early b-­boy styles ­were individualistic and depended on the region from which a dancer hailed, but video pop­u­lar­ized and standardized moves and led to a blending of styles (through emulation). Some b-­boys refer to this drifting sense and mixing of styles as the international or YouTube style, terms coined by California breaker Kujo (Jacob Lyons, 1976–) in a 2012 issue of B-­Boy Magazine. Breaking demands rigorous training and practice as well as honing of skills that rely on balance, endurance, body control, musicality, and physical strength. T ­ hese dances are usually performed on very hard surfaces, which lends to a range of injuries over time, namely shin splints and joint deterioration. INTERNATIONALIZATION Crazy Legs (1966–), an original member of Rock Steady Crew (RSC, 1977–)—­ both from the Bronx, New York—­became the breakdancing double for Jennifer Beals’s (1963–) final dance audition in the American film Flashdance (1983). This appearance, as well as ­others in the American film Wild Style (1983) and the American documentary Style Wars (1983), brought international attention to breakdancing. He performed in Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour (1982) with musicians Afrika Bambaataa (1957–), founder of Universal Zulu Nation (1973–), and GrandMixer DXT (aka ­Grand Mixer D.ST, 1960–). By the early to mid-1980s, breakdancing was international. In Brazil, Ismael Toledo (n.d.), who in 1984 studied dance in the United States before returning to São Paulo, started to or­ga­nize crews and opened a dance school called the Hip Hop Street College. In France, the Paris City Breakers (1984–) fashioned themselves ­after the Bronx-­based New York City Breakers (NYCB, aka NYC Breakers, 1981–), who w ­ ere rivals of Rock Steady Crew. NYCB appeared on The Merv Griffin Show (1962–1986) and, soon a­ fter that, many tele­vi­sion shows and in films. Though not a breaking crew, the Electric Boogaloos (1977–) from Fresno, California, are responsible for the spread of the popping-­ and toprock-­inspired electric boogaloo, which was based on Brown’s song “Do a Boogaloo” from his a­lbum James Brown Plays New Breed (The Boo-­Ga-­Loo) (1966) and his dance choreography. This dancing style, which is related to funk, is one of many West Coast styles. It makes use of popping and accentuating a body part with the beat of the ­music. It contains fluid motions, which inform moonwalks and head spins, rather than jerking movements. Locking, another West Coast hip hop dance style, is influenced by pantomime and is related to popping. Popping and locking are often performed together in what is called pop and lock. All breakdancing and popping/locking styles have achieved worldwide popularity. Through its rise in the latter part of the 20th ­century, breakdancing, b-­boying, and b-­girling gained momentum, and into the 21st ­century, they are still developing as dif­fer­ent international cultures embrace hip hop. Paige A. Willson See also: The Electric Boogaloos; Hip Hop Dance; New York City Breakers; Popping and Locking; Rock Steady Crew; Uprock

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Further Reading

Anon. 2012. “Krazy Kujo Interview.” Interview with Jacob Lyons (Kujo). B-­Boy Magazine, February 15. Price, Emmett G. III. 2006. Hip Hop Culture. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-­CLIO. Schloss, Joseph G. 2009. Foundation: B-­Boys, B-­Girls, and Hip Hop Culture in New York. New York: Oxford University Press.

Brick City Club (aka Jersey Club) Brick City Club is a style of ­house ­music popu­lar from 1995 to 2000; it is associated with DJ Tameil (Deshawn Paynes, 1978–), Tim Dolla (anonymous, n.d.), and DJ Lilman (Kevin Brown, 1989*–), club DJs in the Newark, New Jersey area. Brick City Club tracks, like most ­house ­music, consist of breakbeat ­music made of strung-­ together, repetitive sound bites (short looped vocal excerpts similar to trap and bounce) and musical phrases where dance rhythms and high energy are emphasized over lyrical content or musical complexity. Since it is a style of breakbeat, an electronic dance ­music technique, Brick City utilizes such sampled breakbeats for its main rhythm. ­These samples can range from jazz to funk and R&B, and likewise, breakbeat is usually associated with dance ­music. Despite its niche appeal, Brick City has a large cadre of followers, as attested to by the high number of hits on the YouTube sites maintained by ­house DJs such as Tameil and Lilman. ELE­MENTS OF SOUND Although it is similar to other ­house ­music styles, Brick City has its own stable of beats, and its DJs use dif­fer­ent mixing techniques. DJ Tameil began Brick City by bringing in ­music associated with Baltimore Club, which relies heavi­ly on 4/4 (qua­dru­ple) meter, stays in the range of 130 to 140 beats per minute (bpm), and uses short, repetitive samples and syncopated kick patterns. Brick City uses a more pronounced kick in the programmed drum tracking, and samples are generally shorter; they are often referred to as chopped. Brick City also ­favors synthesizer sounds over brass, which is used more often in Baltimore Club. The concept of breakbeat ­music derives from the need in some styles to create drum loops, sometimes sampled, during a break in certain styles of ­music. Breakbeat can be traced back to the late 1970s, when hip hop turntablists such as DJ Kool Herc (1955–) began linking several irregular funk breaks in a row (in his case, on two turntables used alternatively) to form the rhythmic base for hip hop songs. Breakbeat became very popu­lar in clubs ­because the extended breakbeat provided breakers with more time to showcase their floor skills and acrobatic moves. In time, breakbeat ­music began to subdivide into styles such as jungle, drum and bass, big beat, electro-­f unk, and Miami bass. Computerized sampling and m ­ usic editing have made breakbeats easier to create and cut, paste, and loop, and audio production software allows for the addition of transformative effects such as filters, reverb, reversing, slowing/speeding of the

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tempo, and pitch shifting. More sophisticated software allows for individual instruments to be isolated, sampled, and transformed as well, leading to an endless possibility of breakbeat patterns from a limited number of samples. Brick City caught on ­because of its energy; Newark’s urban crowds liked the fast and aggressive dance ­music with a hip hop feel. The style was renamed Jersey Club when DJs outside Newark became more involved with its production and popularity. The style has made its way into hip hop with artists such as Missy Elliott (1971–), who used it on her ­album Miss E . . . ​So Addictive (2001), and it has influenced EDM (electronic dance m ­ usic) performers. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Hip House; The United States

Further Reading

Frane, Andrew V. 2017. “Swing Rhythm in Classic Drum Breaks from Hip Hop’s Breakbeat Canon.” ­Music Perception 34, no. 3: 291–302. French, Kenneth. 2017. “Geography of American Rap: Rap Diffusion and Rap Centers.” GeoJournal 82, no. 2: 259–72. Roberts, Andrea. 2010. “The Bricks and Beyond: Hip Hop in Newark and Northern New Jersey.” In Hip Hop in Amer­i­ca: A Regional Guide, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 1, chap 8. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood.

Further Listening

Vari­ous Artists. 2008. The Brick Bandits EP. Ol’ Head Rec­ords.

Briggs (Adam Briggs, 1986–­, Shepparton, Victoria, Australia) Briggs is an indigenous (of the Yorta Yorta ­people) Australian rapper, rec­ord label owner, comedy writer, and actor. He is famous both as a soloist and as founder of the hip hop duo A.B. Original (2014–). As a solo rap act, he has two a­ lbums and one EP to his credit: Homemade Bombs (EP, 2009), The Blacklist (2010), and Sheplife (2014); he also released a mixtape, Briggs and Friends, Vol. 1, in 2013. As a member of A.B. Original, he has released one ­album, Reclaim Australia (2016). In 2015, he founded the Bad Apples M ­ usic rec­ord label, which he uses to give exposure to indigenous hip hop artists. Briggs started out in ­music as a high school student, playing guitar in a punk band, but he soon found that he had a talent for rapping. He formed an early band called 912 (aka Misdemeanour, 2005–2006), but rapper Reason (Jason Shulman, n.d.) soon afterward discovered him and took him on tour as his hype man. In 2009, internationally famous Adelaide, Australia–­based hip hop band Hilltop Hoods (1994–) took Briggs on their Eu­ro­pean tour. In 2010, The Blacklist was released on the Hilltop Hoods’ Golden Era Rec­ords (2009–). His musical themes include racism and economic in­equality, and he has been a prominent activist against blackface. His raps are aggressive and fast-­paced, involving lots of stream-­ of-­consciousness lyricism and wordplay, and he uses vocalizations such as trills and stutters for effect; musically, he has a penchant for metal-­style guitars set against an intricate interplay of samples and beats, making his songs diverse and

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complex. As a writer and actor, he has worked with several series: Black Comedy (2014–), The Weekly with Charlie Pickering (2015–), and Cleverman (2016–). In addition, he is slated to write for a new Matt Groening (Matthew Abraham Groening, 1954–) cartoon series, Disenchantment, scheduled for 2018. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Australia; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop

Further Reading

Gooding, Frederick W. Jr., Matthew Brandel, Corbin Jountti, Andrew Shadwick, and Bryantee Williams-­Bailey. 2016. “Think Global, Act Local.” Alternative: An International Journal of Indigenous ­Peoples 12, no. 5: 466–79. Morgan, George, and Andrew Warren. 2011. “Aboriginal Youth, Hip Hop and the Politics of Identification.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 34, no. 6: 925–47.

Further Listening

Briggs. 2010. The Blacklist. Golden Era Rec­ords. Briggs. 2014. Sheplife. Golden Era.

Brotha Lynch Hung (Kevin Danell Mann, 1969–­, Sacramento, California) Brotha Lynch Hung is an American West Coast hip hop, gangsta rapper, and rec­ ord producer whose debut nine-­track EP, 24 Deep (1993), is considered an early version of horrorcore, a gory and gratuitously violent style of gangsta rap. The EP, on Sacramento-­based Black Market Rec­ords (1989–), reached No. 91 on the Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart. Even though he is more involved with the second wave of horrorcore artists—­ the first having occurred between 1982 and 1989 with Houston-­based Ganksta N-­I-­P’s (Lewayne Williams, 1969–) debut ­album The South Park Psycho and Detroit-­based Esham’s (Rashaam Smith, 1973–) self-­described acid rap debut ­album Boomin’ “Words from Hell 1990” (1989)—­Brotha Lynch Hung is considered an innovator of horrorcore. He has released nine studio a­ lbums and two mixtapes. His a­ lbums are Season of da Siccness: The Resurrection (1995), Loaded (1997), EBK4 (2000), The Virus (2001), Lynch by Inch: Suicide Note (2003), Snuff Tapes (2008), Dinner and a Movie (2010), Coathanga Strangla (2011), and Mannibalector (2013). His highest-­ranking ­album on the Billboard 200 was Loaded, which peaked at No. 28 and also holds the distinction of being his only ­album to reach the Top 10 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. He did not chart on the Top Rap A ­ lbums chart ­until Dinner and a Movie, but it, Coathanga Strangla, and Mannibalector, three a­ lbums in his Strange ­Music Trilogy about a murderous cannibal, all reached the Top 10 on that chart. DEBUT ­ALBUM As a teen, Brotha Lynch Hung was a member of the 24th St. Garden Blocc subset of the Crips (1969–), but ­after being shot at a party when he attempted to break



Brotha Lynch Hung 85

up a confrontation between a fellow Crip and a Bloods (1972–) member, he deci­ ded to leave the gang. He had been rapping since 1982, but his break came in 1992 when he appeared on and produced many of the tracks on X-­Raided’s (Anarae Brown, 1974–) debut ­album Psycho Active, released just before X-­Raided was arrested for murder. Psycho Active serves as an excellent chronicle of the relationship between gangsta rap and horrorcore, as its two sections are titled N—a S—t and Psycho S—­t, the latter being an excellent descriptor for horrorcore. In 1991, having previously worked with X-­Raided, Brotha Lynch Hung released the mixtape N—­z in Black (aka N—­s in Blacc).

SEASON OF THE SICCNESS AND LOADED Brotha Lynch Hung was at the center of a 1996 controversy when one of his songs, “Locc 2 da Brain” from Season of the Siccness, supposedly influenced an 18-­year-­old Colorado man to fatally shoot three acquaintances. The a­ lbum begins with a reference to the drug-­tripping culture of horrorcore when a voice is heard saying that listeners need to be high to listen to this new style of ­music (which is at odds with the following narration that the rapper needs to kill ­because his brain is “sick,” a sickness caused by living with “the devil,” the “­triple six,” in an urban neighborhood). In Loaded, Brotha Lynch Hung raps of himself as the man for whom the government needed to reopen Alcatraz ­because he grew up in vio­lence, so it is all he knows. ­After the 2000s, Brotha Lynch Hung also made some collaborative recordings, including Blocc Movement (2001) with Sacramento-­based rapper C-­Bo (Shawn Thomas, 1971–), The Plague (2002) with the North Las Vegas, Nevada, hip hop trio Doomsday Productions (1994–2004)*, Uthanizm (2003) with Sacramento-­based rapper Tall Cann G (Ramon Ross, 1977), The New Season (2006) with Compton, California–­based rapper MC Eiht (Aaron Tyler, 1967–), and The Fixx (2007) with Sacramento-­based rapper Cos (Chris Mathias, n.d.). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Gangsta Rap; Hardcore Hip Hop; Horrorcore; The United States

Further Reading

Edwards, Paul. 2013. How to Rap 2: Advanced Flow and Delivery Techniques. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. Forman, Murray. 2002. The ’Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Place in Rap and Hip Hop. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. Libman, Kristian C. 2013. “Brotha Lynch Hung ­Isn’t Recognized as a Rap Pioneer, but He Should Be.” Phoenix New Times, April 2.

Further Listening

Brotha Lynch Hung. 1995. Season of da Siccness (The Resurrection). Black Market Rec­ords. Brotha Lynch Hung. 1997. Loaded. Black Market Rec­ords.

86 Brothablack

Brothablack (Shannon Narrun Williams, 1978–­, Sydney, Australia) Brothablack of the Yiman Tribe is a Sydney-­based indigenous hip hop performer, rapper, breakdancer, beatboxer, and actor. At age 14, Brothablack became a founding member of the hip hop group South West Syndicate (1992–2003) and eventually became a solo musician with over 100 stage per­for­mances, including Urban Theatre Proj­ects’ The Longest Night (Adelaide Festival, 2002). Also an educator of and activist for indigenous youth, he appeared at the 2006 Sydney Festival and in 2007 toured Canada. He worked with the 1998 and 2000 Sydney Writers’ Festivals and served as MC for the National Indigenous 3on3 Basketball and Hip Hop Challenge. In addition, he cohosted the tele­vi­sion program Move It Mob Style with Naomi Wenitong (1982–), an indigenous singer-­songwriter based in Newcastle. His solo ­album, More Than a Feeling (2006) received positive reviews. His ­music is best described as old-­ school rap, with heavy guitars, scratching, and highly energized vocal deliveries; in his videos, he often positions himself as a teacher or mentor, lecturing via rapping. When he was a preteen, Brothablack began playing drums and singing. He began his ­music ­career in 1992 with South West Syndicate. The multinational band won a 2003 Deadly Award (Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander achievement in ­music and other entertainment areas) for Most Promising New Talent in ­Music. In 2007, he teamed up with the Australian hip hop group Hilltop Hoods (1994–) to draw attention to indigenous mortality rates through song. Brothablack has received extensive airplay on government-­f unded ­Triple J radio. He was also involved in a video for the Australian ­Human Rights Commission. As of 2018, he doubles as an Aboriginal Education Officer at James Meehan High School, Macquarie Fields, Sydney. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Australia; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop

Further Reading

Anon. “Brothablack.” 2005. Deadly Vibe 101 (July). Fernandes, Sujatha. 2011. “Blackfulla Blackfulla.” In The Edge: In Search of the Global Hip Hop Generation, chap. 3. New York: Verso. Morgan, George, and Andrew Warren. 2011. “Aboriginal Youth, Hip Hop and the Politics of Identification.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 34, no. 6: 925–47.

Further Listening

Brothablack. 2006. More Than a Feeling. Self-­released.

Brown, James (aka James Joseph Brown Jr., James Joseph Brown, 1933–2006, Barnwell, South Carolina) James Brown, often referred to as the Godfather of Soul, was an American funk, R&B, and soul singer, songwriter, rec­ord producer, and dancer who began recording in 1953 and was still active as a touring act when he died in 2006. During his



Brown, James 87

lengthy ­career, he had 44 rec­ords certified Gold and influenced many ­music styles, including hip hop. As far back as 1970, he introduced the idea of a funk-­based MC and used the call-­and-­response structure. In per­for­mance versions of the song “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine,” he uses audience calls and calls to his band, the J.B.s (1970–2006), to give him a beat. He also recorded some of the earliest funk-­based social consciousness hits, such as “Say It Loud: I’m Black and I’m Proud” (1969), throughout which he uses what would become his vocal trademark, vocalizations that bridged the gap between talking and singing, with a liberal use of grunts, squeals, and screams—­this style becoming a precursor to rapping. In addition, his 1967 funk hit with the Famous Flames (1953–1968), “Cold Sweat,” made popu­lar the idea of the extended drum break. His drum break from the second version of “Give It Up or Turnit a Loose” (1968) was the most popu­lar 1980s break used for breakdancing. Brown continued to perform and rec­ord ­until his death in 2006. He was inducted as a solo performer into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 (the Famous Flames ­were inducted in 2012) and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2000. Brown was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 34th annual Grammy Awards, and in 1997 he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2003, Brown was also a recipient of Kennedy Center Honors.

EARLY YEARS Brown grew up in extreme poverty in rural South Carolina ­until his parents moved to Augusta, Georgia when he was four or five years old. A ­ fter his m ­ other left for New York City, he raised himself on the streets through his singing and hustling, and he won a talent show at age 11. He also performed at dances to entertain troops from Camp Gordon at the start of World War II (1939–1945), learning piano, guitar, and harmonica, but at 16 Brown was convicted of armed robbery and sent to a juvenile detention center in Toccoa, Georgia. ­After being parolled in 1952, he straightened up and joined a gospel group in Toccoa, which led to the Gospel Starlighters (aka The Avons and the Five Royals, 1952–1955), an R&B vocal group led by Bobby Byrd (1934–2007). Eventually, the group would change its name to the Flames and then the Famous Flames, with Byrd as its leader and Brown as lead singer. The band’s big break came ­after Brown contacted Georgia native ­Little Richard (Richard Wayne Penniman, 1932–), who helped them find new management and get a demo recording. The band’s 1958 song “Try Me” went to No. 2 on the R&B chart and reached the Top 50 of the pop charts. Early on, Brown was known as an over-­the-­top live performer, and he quickly became the band’s main attraction. When new management wanted to change the band name to James Brown and the Famous Flames, the band broke up; Brown would ­later re­unite with Byrd for vari­ ous proj­ects. Brown saw his first real success in the 1960s. His ­album with the Famous Flames, Live at the Apollo (1963), became a hit and reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200, as did his ­albums Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag (1965, with the Famous Flames), I Got You (I Feel Good) (1966), and It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World (1966), all

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charting in the Billboard 200 and spawning titular Top 10 hit singles in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, earning him his first Grammy Award. Beginning with “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” Brown had 16 No. 1 hits on the R&B charts; however, he never managed a No. 1 song on the Hot 100, his highest-­ranking song being “I Feel Good,” which reached No. 3. By the mid-1970s, Brown was introducing world beats into his brand of funk. Some versions of “Bring It Up” make use of Cuban bongos. He also acquired a new nickname, Soul ­Brother No. 1.

BOOM AND BUST Besides recording, Brown got into the ­music business during the late 1960s, buying vari­ous radio stations in markets such as Augusta, Georgia; Baltimore, Mary­land and Knoxville, Tennessee. Brown renamed the Knoxville station as WJBE, and it began airing a rhythm-­and-­blues format in January 1968. Brown also branched out musically, recording with vari­ous musicians, including predominantly white jazz bands such as the Dee Felice Trio (1963–1969) and Louie Bellson (Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni, 1924–2009) and his orchestra. In 1971, Brown began recording for Polydor Rec­ords (1913–), which purchased his label, ­People (1971–1976), as an imprint. His domestic sales took a nose dive ­after he proclaimed support for Richard Nixon (1913–1994) in the 1972 presidential election, but his international tours remained sold out. He also ran into tax prob­lems with the IRS for back taxes. By 1973, he was working on film scores and movie soundtracks, and by 1974, his domestic boycott was having ­little effect, and he returned to the top of the R&B charts with “The Payback,” “My Thang,” and “Papa ­Don’t Take No Mess.” Brown also completed his second African tour, and in 1975, he produced, directed, and hosted the tele­vi­sion show ­Future Shock (1976–1978). Between 1975 and 1991, Brown’s sales and R&B chart success declined, resulting in lower concert attendance. His disputes with the IRS ruined his businesses. His ex–­band members moved on. Brown left Polydor in 1981 and released his final Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hit, “Living in Amer­i­ca,” which won a Grammy. In 1988, his ­album I’m Real spawned his final two Top 10 R&B hits. Brown was imprisoned again in late 1988 for aggravated assault and other felonies but served only two and a half years. Brown’s final studio ­albums, I’m Back (1998) and The Next Step (2002), did not chart; however, he continued to tour. One of Brown’s legacies was a touring show that was nothing short of extravagant, ideal for a musician who styled himself as the hardest-­working man in show business. He employed about 50 ­people for the James Brown Revue, which performed over 330 shows a year. At the time of his death, Brown’s shows included three guitarists, two bass guitar players, two drummers, three horns, and a percussionist. Brown died on Christmas Day in 2006. Public ceremonies ­were held for him at the Apollo Theater in New York City and at the James Brown Arena in Augusta, where a statue serves as his memorial. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Black Nationalism; The United States

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Further Reading

Brackett, David. 1992. “James Brown’s ‘Superbad’ and the Double-­Voiced Utterance.” Popu­lar ­Music 11, no. 3: 309–24. Bua, Justin. 2011. “James Brown.” The Legends of Hip Hop. New York: Harper Design.

Further Listening

Brown, James. 1963. James Brown: Live at the Apollo. King Rec­ords. Brown, James. 1969. James Brown: Say It Loud: I’m Black and I’m Proud. King Rec­ords. Brown, James. 1970. Sex Machine. King Rec­ords. Brown, James. 1972. ­There It Is. Polydor. Brown, James. 1973. James Brown: The Payback. Polydor.

Brunei Brunei is a sovereign Southeast Asian Sunni country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo. It is roughly the size of the state of Delaware, with approximately half a million residents living mainly in urban areas, predominantly in its largest city and capital, Bandar Seri Begawan. Most citizens are Islamic (following Sharia law), and the government is an absolute monarchy, headed by a sultan—­its legislative assembly has only consultation power. ­Because of Sharia law and the government’s control of the media, combined with a small population of youth and therefore a small buyer’s market, the hip hop scene was quiet ­u ntil recently, when businesses globalized and started hiring from other countries. ­These new workers brought their ­children, and ­these new youth introduced hip hop. The genre’s first well known hip hop artist, Jazz Hassan (Jasmin Hassan, 1987–), emerged and became known for collaborations with other ­a rtists, such as fellow Brunei award-­w inning producer and musician Udi (Udi Luqman, n.d.). A former British protectorate (­u nder Australian officers and ser­vicemen) that gained its in­de­pen­dence in 1984, Brunei is governed by its constitution and the national tradition of the Malay Islamic Monarchy, using the concept of Melayu Islam Beraja (MIB). Its official language is Malay, although British En­glish and Cantonese are also prominent. A youth movement, the Barisan Pemuda (BARIP, 1946–1948) was the country’s first po­liti­cal party. A nationalist identity movement, BARIP contributed to the composition of the country’s national anthem. As CEO of the Jazz My Way line of clothing and of FlowRockzMusic, Jazz Hassan worked with Udi and Erhyme on the song “Mind Game” (2011), which peaked at No. 1 in Malaysia. Jazz Hassan influenced R.V.Boyz (2008–), a four-­man rap crew from the Rimba suburb of Bandar Seri Begawan, introducing crunk and snap styles to Brunei’s youth. Hip hop dance has also taken a small hold, with the Brunei Darussalam (n.d.) team winning seven gold medals at the World Championship of Performing Arts in 2015. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Australia; Fashion

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Further Reading

Künzler, Daniel. 2007. “The ‘Lost Generation’: African Hip Hop Movements and the Protest of the Young (Male) Urban.” In Civil Society: Local and Regional Responses to Global Challenges, edited by Mark Herkenrath, chap. 3. Zürich, Switzerland: LIT Verlag. Perchard, Tom, Devon Powers, and Nabeel Zuberi. 2017. “Listening While Muslim.” Popu­ lar ­Music 36, no. 1: 33–42. Wright, Robin B. 2011. “Hip Hop Islam.” In Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion across the Islamic World, chap. 5. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Bubba Sparxxx (Warren Anderson Mathis, 1977–­, LaGrange, Georgia) Bubba Sparxxx is an American southern rapper and producer who is considered the best of the so-­called hick hop rappers, a term used to describe country rappers whose lyr­ics are about American country life and whose m ­ usic features country and folk instrumentation. His raps include references to growing up in the country, such as his being “baptized in gravy” and being a “bullet hole in the stop sign kind.” He came onto the hip hop scene with his song “Ugly,” from Dark Days, Bright Nights (2000), which features beats created by Timbaland (1972–) and samples from Missy Elliott’s (1971–) “Get Ur Freak On” (2000), which Bubba Sparxxx emulates rhythmically in his rap delivery. The song’s m ­ usic video concludes with a comical moment where he and Elliott have a tongue-­i n-­cheek visual exchange about violations of copyright (the line “copywritten, so ­don’t copy me” being an ­actual line in “Get Ur Freak On”); however, his breakout hit was the more mainstream hip hop “Ms. New Booty,” from The Charm (2005), which was certified Gold and got as high as No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. It was from his first ­album with Virgin Rec­ords (1972–2013), with whom he had signed in 2004. His rapping style is low-­key, mea­sured, and articulated, with emphasis on clever near-­rhymes. Bubba Sparxxx’s upbringing was a typical country one: his closest neighbor and best friend lived half a mile away from his ­family. He was nevertheless able to acquire rap mixtapes from New York City through the mail, and he became an early fan of 2 Live Crew (1982–1991, 1994–1998), whose Miami bass sound and sexualized lyr­ics influenced his songs and videos. Bubba Sparxxx became a rapper ­after moving to Athens, Georgia, in 1999. That city’s huge m ­ usic scene allowed him to meet Bobby Stamps (n.d.) of New South Entertainment (1995–), who became his man­ag­er and arranged vari­ous collaborations so that he could work on his first ­album. He signed to Interscope Rec­ords (aka Interscope Geffen, 1989–) and began working with Timbaland, who released Bubba Sparxxx’s debut ­album via his (Timbaland’s) Beatclub Rec­ ords (2001–2004) imprint. He also became a part of Big Boi’s (Atwan André Patton, 1975–) Purple Ribbon Rec­ords (aka Aquemini Rec­ords, 2001–) crew. Dark Days, Bright Nights ­rose to No. 3 on the Billboard 200. But success took its toll on the rapper, and he eventually succumbed to an opiate addiction around 2006 and had to check himself into rehab. A 2008 arrest for

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drug possession (the charges ­were ultimately dropped) marked the low point in his ­career and acted as a wake-up call—he returned to treatment and semiretired to farm life in Georgia. Three years ­later, he returned to recording, and in 2013 he released the ­album Pain Management, which he followed with Made on McCosh Mill Road (2014), both on country rap label Backroad Rec­ords (2001–). Neither ­album charted. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Timbaland; The United States

Further Reading

Dreisinger, Baz. 2008. “Contagious Beats: Passing, Autobiography, and Discourses of American ­Music.” Near Black: White-­to-­Black Passing in American Culture. Amherst: University of Mas­sa­chu­setts Press. Grem, Darren E. 2006. “ ‘The South Got Something to Say’: Atlanta’s Dirty South and the Southernization of Hip Hop Amer­i­ca.” Southern Cultures 12, no. 4: 55–73. Hendrickson, Matt. 2001. “Bubba Sparxxx: Hillbilly Hip Hop.” Rolling Stone no. 879, October 11, 45.

Further Listening

Bubba Sparxxx. 2001. Dark Days, Bright Nights. Interscope Rec­ords.

­Bubbles (aka Hanifa, Hanifa McQueen-­Hudson, 1969–­, Wolverhampton, ­England) ­ ubbles is the stage name for Hanifa McQueen-­Hudson, an En­glish breakdancer B or b-­girl who combines hip hop dance with painting. A groundbreaking artist on many levels, she was always thought to be male by her early audiences. Though she challenges gender identification even as an adult, by the early 1990s she chose to focus on her education and on raising a ­family. She also stopped using the moniker b-­girl and her stage name ­Bubbles and began calling herself a breakdancer; she changed her stage name to Hanifa, her given first name. In 2006, she began exploring painting as an art ­after noticing patterns in scuff marks on the floor that she had made with her trainers while breakdancing. Her son, who would come home with painted footprint and handprint cutouts from nursery school, also served as inspiration. She then developed her version of per­for­mance art, which she calls Artbreaker. Recorded on video, she breakdances over a canvas with vari­ous paints on her shoes, hands, and clothes. Having years of graffiti experience with painting, she finishes her artwork by adding foreground objects, such as musical instruments and abstract figures. In 1982, when she was 12, as ­Bubbles she started breakdancing and battling with her ­brothers and quickly excelled at spinning and windmills. By 14, she had joined her ­brothers’ dance troupe, the B-­Boys (n.d.), and was featured as the U.K.’s first b-­girl in an En­glish ­music video–­based documentary, Electro Rock (1985). Dressed in a red tracksuit and singled out in the documentary as being the only female, her appearance led to notoriety and offers to dance professionally on several U.K. tele­ vi­sion shows. Soon afterward, the German sports footwear and clothing com­pany

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Puma sponsored both ­Bubbles and the B-­Boys. Though she is from ­England, McQueen-­Hudson identifies with her parents’ Jamaican roots. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Breakdancing; Fashion; Filmmaking (Documentaries); Graffiti Art; The United Kingdom

Further Reading

García, Ana “Rokafella.” 2005. Introduction to We B*Girlz by Nika Kramer and Martha Cooper. New York: powerHouse Books. Lockley, Mike. 2015. “Hanifa’s Getting Big Kick Out of Her Art.” Sunday Mercury (Birmingham, E ­ ngland), September 6, 13. Schloss, Joseph G. 2009. Foundation: B-­Boys, B-­Girls, and Hip Hop Culture in New York. New York: Oxford University Press.

Bulgaria Bulgaria is a Southeastern Eu­ro­pean nation that, in 1946, became part of the Soviet-­ led Eastern Bloc. By 1989, it had evolved into a limited democracy, and a constitution was ­adopted in 1991. Its capital, Sofia, is also its largest city. Bulgarian folk ­music is known for its asymmetrical rhythms and microtonal shadings. Hip hop had to compete with a strong traditional folk and pop ­music scene, so it was slow to take hold in Bulgaria. It first reached Bulgaria in the mid-1980s, when underground rap and amateur breakdancing crews emerged. The first Bulgarian rap song was “This Is a Fake Love” (1986) by MC Guinness (Ivo Trombona, n.d.). Early hip hop acts included the band Gumeni Glavi (Rubber Heads, 1994–), whose debut ­album sold over 100,000 copies. Bulgaria’s traditional m ­ usic features instruments such as the accordion, gaida (a bagpipe), kaval (a flute), gadulka and tambora (a bowed lutelike fiddle that uses sympathetic tuning and a fretted lute), tarabuka or dumbek (a fin­ger drum), and tupan (a large drum similar to the Indian dhol and played with mallets). In 1999, Bulgarian hip hop took serious hold when Big Talk (Henry Orhan Sami Beggin, n.d.) emerged. In addition, notable pop musicians such as Lili Ivanova (Lilyana Ivanova Petrova, 1939–), Philipp Kirkorov (Philipp Bedrosovich Kirkorov, 1967–), and Mira Aroyo (1977–) of the Liverpool, ­England–­based electronica band Ladytron (1999–) began to incorporate hip hop beats into their ­music. Also, around the turn of the 21st ­century, rapper and clothing entrepreneur and label owner Big Sha (aka Misho Shamara, Mihail Stanislavov Mihaylov, 1972–) began to invest in hip hop clubs and festivals, and underground mainstay Gumeni Glavi began to produce mainstream hip hop, highly influenced by the American hip hop scene. Big Sha, from Varna, was known for prosocialist po­liti­cal messages and is ­today considered among the country’s most popu­lar mainstream rap acts, as are Varna-­born rapper 100 Kila (Yavor Yanakiev, 1985–) and Sofia-­based band Upsurt (1996–). Big Sha became the first Bulgarian rapper to be featured with an American rapper in Bulgarian pop star LiLana’s (Lilana Hristova Deyanova, 1985–) song “Dime Piece” (1999), which also featured Snoop Dogg (1971–).



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Upsurt performs both party and sociopo­liti­cal rap in Bulgarian. The most popu­ lar underground early rap act was Pleven-­born and Sofia-­based rapper and label owner Spens (Stanislav Naydenov, 1975–). Recent acts include Sofia-­based freestyle rapper, producer, and label owner Krisko (Kristian Talev, 1988–) and hip hop and R&B singer DENA (Denitza Todorova, 1984–), who performs old-­school hip hop. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Rus­sia

Further Reading

Levy, Claire. 2001. “Rap in Bulgaria: Between Fashion and Real­ity.” In Global Noise: Rap and Hip Hop outside the U.S.A., edited by Tony Mitchell, chap. 5. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. Levy, Claire. 2004. “Who Is the ‘Other’ in the Balkans? Local Ethnic ­Music as a Dif­fer­ ent Source of Identities in Bulgaria.” In ­Music, Space and Place: Popu­lar ­Music and Cultural Identity, edited by Sheila Whiteley, Andy Bennett, and Stan Hawkins, chap. 2. Aldershot, ­England: Ashgate.

Further Listening

Spens. 2001 and 2003. Prekaleno lichno (Too Personal), Parts 1 and 2. Sniper Rec­ords.

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso, a French-­speaking country in West Africa, has since the late 1990s seen hip hop become an impor­tant aspect of musical culture that focuses on percussion ensembles, balafon (a wooden xylophone or percussion idiophone) bands, and the traditional ­music of over 70 ethnic groups. The entire country has lively hip hop and urban arts scenes. Since 2001, Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, has hosted the Ouago/Waga Hip Hop Festival. The event features Burkina Faso and other African urban cultures’ ­music and art. Burkina Faso hip hop acts have included Ouagadougou-­based artists such as Awa Sissao (n.d.), Afrik’slam (n.d.), Faso Kombat (1998*–2013), OBC (2004–), Onasis (Onasis Wendker, n.d.), producer and actor Smockey (Serge Bembara, 1971–), WemTeng Clan (2000*–), and Yeleen (1998*–) in addition to Lankoué-­born traditional/ hip hop fusion musician Tim Winsey (Tim Winsé, 1973–). The programs have also included artists from other African nations: Negrissim’ (1995–) from Yaounde, Cameroon; Fredy Massamba (1971–) from Pointe-­Noire, Demo­cratic Republic of Congo; and King Ayisoba (Albert Apoozore, 1974*–), from Bongo Soe, Ghana, among ­others. In addition to concerts and emcee ­battles, the Ouago/Waga Hip Hop Festival hosts residencies for musicians who lead workshops on rap, beatboxing, and sampling. Francophonia International Organisation, Africalia (Belgium), Culture France, and the Paris arts collective Staycalm! sponsor the activities. The festival’s intention is to promote hip hop activity and engagement in the arts among Burkina Faso youth. By the mid-2000s, related mini-­festivals ­were taking place in smaller cities, such as Bobo Dioulasso, Koudougou, and Pô.

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Burkinabé hip hop is exceptionally diverse. Some is influenced by French, Belgian, and other prominent West African styles and stresses rap, jazz, R&B, and soul with Western instruments such as guitar and synthesizer, whereas other types incorporate reggae as well as local village singing styles and indigenous instruments such as the kora (a string instrument associated with the country’s griot song tradition) and lolo (similar to a mouth bow). Song texts are also diverse, ranging from Art Melody’s (1978–) rap that criticizes current civilian conditions in Burkina Faso and Onasis’s reggae-­ rap to Faso Kombat’s chanting with Quran-­ inspired texts and Winsey’s fusion with traditional instruments. Other notable hip hop activity includes busking and ­Music producer, actor, and Sankarist po­liti­cal activist Smockey holds his award for his hip hop recording in privately owned ­music work at the 8th pre­sen­ta­tion of the Kora studios. Awards in 2010 in his home city, Ouagadougou. Burkina Faso borders Benin, One of the most successful acts from Burkina Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Faso, Smockey has given back to his community and Togo. British, French, and by establishing a studio that supports and German colonization combined rec­ords Burkinabé artists in the capital city. with wars, slave trade, and dias(AHMED OUOBA/AFP/Getty Images) pora have affected Burkina Faso’s cultural interactions. Over half of its population is Voltaic Mossi. The country is secular, though the main religions are Islam, Chris­tian­ity, and Animism. Since the 1980s, Burkina Faso has experienced periods of pro­g ress and po­liti­cal unrest. In 1983, Thomas Sankara (1949– 1987) led a coup d’état that put his leftist government in power. His programs included education, vaccination, and building infrastructure within a Marxist framework, but in 1987, Sankara’s colleague Blaise Compaoré (1951–) led a coupe, murdering Sankara and then reversing all Sankarist policies. Prior to Campaoré’s reelection, his government revised the country’s constitution. Burkina Faso remains one of Africa’s least developed countries. In 2014, demonstrations used hip hop to overthrow the Compaoré government. In 2015, Compaoré resigned. Smockey, a Sankarist and prominent leader in the 2014



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uprising against Compaoré, has recorded many Burkinabé hip hop performers at his studio. Just ­after the 2015 coup d’état, General Gilbert Diendéré’s (1960*–) army, which led the military junta that temporarily seized power in Burkina Faso, bombed Smockey’s studio in Ouagadougou. Diendéré served for many years as the aide to Compaoré and likely took a major role in the coup d’état that led to Sankara’s assassination. Ultimately, Burkina Faso elected left-­center social democracy progressive Roch Marc Christian Kaboré (1957–­, in office 2015–), the first noninterim president in nearly 50 years without a military past. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: France; Ghana; Griot; Senegal

Further Reading

Amuzu, Evershed K., and John Victor Singler. 2014. “Codeswitching in West Africa.” International Journal of Bilingualism 18, no. 4: 329–45. Künzler, Daniel. 2007. “The ‘Lost Generation’: African Hip Hop Movements and the Protest of the Young (Male) Urban.” In Civil Society: Local and Regional Responses to Global Challenges, edited by Mark Herkenrath, chap. 3. Zürich, Switzerland: LIT Verlag.

Further Listening

Smockey. 1999. Tout le monde sur la steupi! (Every­one on the Steupi!). Odeon. Vari­ous Artists. 2008. Fangafrika: La voix des sans-­voix (Fangafrika: The Voice of the Voiceless). Mondomix. Winsey, Tim. 2004. Zèssa. Kaba Networks.

Busta Rhymes (aka Busta Rhymez, Trevor Smith Jr., 1972–­, Brooklyn, New York) Busta Rhymes is an American rapper, rec­ord producer, and executive, having founded the rec­ord label Conglomerate (aka Flipmode Entertainment, 1994–), featuring the production crew the Conglomerate (aka The Flipmode Squad, 1996–). As an MC, he is best known for his rhyming technique, wherein he breathlessly raps quickly while using internal rhyme and half rhyme, as well as for his outspokenness, his lavish fashion sense, and his appearance in innovative ­music videos. He has been a guest performer for acts such as A Tribe Called Quest (1985–1998, 2006–2013, 2015–), Boyz II Men (1988–), and Missy Elliott (1971–). He has appeared in minor film roles in Who’s the Man (1993) and Higher Learning (1995) and has lent his voice to animated tele­vi­sion series such as Rugrats (1991–2004) and The Boondocks (2005–2014). As a teen, he cofounded the rap group Leaders of the New School (1989–1994), which charted twice on the Billboard 200. His first five solo a­ lbums, mostly on Elektra Rec­ords (1950–), ­were The Coming (1996), When Disaster Strikes (1997), Extinction Level Event: The Final World Front (1998), Anarchy (2000), and Genesis (2001), all of which have been certified Platinum, four hitting the Top 10 of the Billboard 200; his 2006 ­album, The Big Bang, went to No. 1. He has had four No. 1 ­albums on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart. He has been nominated for 11 Grammy Awards.

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EARLY YEARS Busta Rhymes was born in a two-­parent ­family with a Jamaican American ethnic background. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, but his ­family moved to the suburbs of Long Island, New York, when he was 12 years old. This move meant that as an adolescent, Busta Rhymes had a middle-­class childhood, but he grew up idolizing Public ­Enemy (1982–) and benefiting from the strong rap scene for which the borough was known. He began to see he might have a ­f uture in ­music, and he was able to parley his Brooklyn background into re­ spect from other rappers. While in ju­nior high, he met rapper Charlie Brown (Bryan Higgins, n.d.), and their early act was received positively by Public ­Enemy’s Chuck D (1960–) East Coast rapper, singer-­songwriter, a­ nd music and the Public ­Enemy producproducer Busta Rhymes’s rapping style involves a tion team, the Bomb Squad complex and high-­speed delivery that is full of (1986–), so they deci­ded to meninternal and half rhymes. In 1994 he founded tor the young duo. Flipmode Entertainment, which became The Busta Rhymes and Charlie Conglomerate Entertainment in 2011. Brown began honing their skills Conglomerate produced his Platinum-­and on harmonies and unison rap, Gold-­certified a­ lbums, among ­others. (Sbukley​ /­Dreamstime​.­com) and they started working on choreography, ­later adding a third MC and a turntablist, respectively Dinco D (James Jackson, 1971*–) and Cut Monitor Milo (Sheldon Scott, 1970*–), to create Leaders of the New School, which was given a rec­ord contract with Elektra due to Chuck D’s contacts. The group opened for Public ­Enemy and recorded two ­albums, A ­Future without a Past (1991) and T.I.M.E.: The Inner Mind’s Eye (1993), both of which ­were considered successes, especially for the group’s introduction of unison raps and stomping. In 1992, the group appeared on A Tribe Called Quest’s EP Scenario, and reviews of this and Leaders of the New School ­albums noted that Busta Rhymes was a standout; he soon developed a reputation for being outlandish, somewhat of a budding auteur, but a highly marketable and therefore sought-­after one.



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AS A SOLO ACT Leaders of the New School took a hiatus, at which time Busta Rhymes concentrated on his home life and Muslim spirituality. It was during this three-­year period that he worked on his solo act. He enjoyed immediate success, as his first single, “Woo hah!! Got You All in Check” (1996) from The Coming, broke into the Hot 100, peaking at No. 8. The ­album’s tour was part of a rap omnibus that featured a who’s who of hip hop: Fugees (1992–1997), Cypress Hill (1987–), and A Tribe Called Quest. His sophomore a­ lbum, When Disaster Strikes, reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart. The a­ lbum spawned the hit singles “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See,” “Turn It Up/Fire It Up,” and “Dangerous,” the latter two reaching the Hot 100 Top 10. The a­ lbum featured Puff D ­ addy (1969–) and Erykah Badu (1971–). Able to experiment more as a successful soloist, on his next ­album, Extinction Level Event, he worked with heavy metal singer/songwriter Ozzy Osbourne (John Michael Osbourne, 1948–) and sampled composer Bernard Hermann’s (1911–1975) ­music from the horror film Psycho (1960). His next two ­albums underperformed on the charts (despite brisk sales), so Busta Rhymes switched labels and went with Interscope Rec­ords (1989–), resulting in his 2006 No. 1 effort, The Big Bang. His eighth studio ­album, Back on My B. S. (2009), debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200. He then spent a brief stint on Ca$h Money Rec­ords (1991–). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Nation of Islam; The United States

Further Reading

Bradley, Adam, and Andrew Dubois, eds. 2010. “Busta Rhymes.” ­Under “Part 3: 1993– 99: Rap Goes Mainstream” in The Anthology of Rap, pp. 347–49. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. McMurray, Anaya. 2008. “Hotep and Hip Hop: Can Black Muslim ­Women Be Down with Hip Hop?” Meridians 8, no. 1: 74–92. Young, Jennifer R. 2010. “Brooklyn Beats: Hip Hop’s Home to Every­one from Everywhere.” In Hip Hop in Amer­i­ca: A Regional Guide, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 1, chap. 4. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood.

Further Listening

Busta Rhymes. 1996. The Coming. Elektra. Busta Rhymes. 1997. When Disaster Strikes. Elektra. Busta Rhymes. 2009. Back on My B. S. Universal Motown.

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C Cambodia Cambodia, an Indochina Peninsula country, has a history marred by the Vietnam War–­related U.S. bombing of Cambodia (1970–1973), the Khmer Rouge Genocide (1975–1979), and the Cambodian–­Vietnamese War (1979–1991). All events stifled the country’s musical growth, and hip hop did not emerge in the country ­until the late 1990s through returning Cambodian diaspora, such as radio disc jockey and hip hop producer DJ Sope (Sophoann Sope Hul, 1965*–). He has faced an uphill ­battle as the current sociopo­liti­cal climate is grim: widespread poverty and hunger, pervasive corruption, and lack of po­liti­cal freedom—­although its economy is one of the fastest growing in Southeast Asia. Phnom Penh, its capital city, is home to almost two million citizens, who mainly speak the country’s official language, Khmer. Cambodian ­music is a hybridization of cultural traditions and Westernized popu­ lar ­music, especially slow-­paced crooner ­music and dance ­music. In the 1960s and 1970s, rock ­music influenced Cambodian musicians, who created a unique sound by mixing it with traditional melodies; however, virtually all of ­these musicians ­were killed during the Khmer Rouge Genocide, which targeted the arts. Western-­ influenced m ­ usic nevertheless returned by the late 1990s. Cambodian millennials generally have had ­little firsthand knowledge of the war, reconstruction, and instability that have made Cambodia what it is ­today; in fact, they have experienced economic pro­gress, rapid social change, and globalism—­and they have been ­eager to adopt and reinterpret trends from the United States. Cambodia’s first alternative ­music label, Yab Moung Rec­ords (2012–), specialized in death metal, Khmer blues, rock, alternative ­music, and hip hop, but Cambodian hip hop acts have yet to make their mark internationally. Currently, the most popu­lar Cambodian hip hop artist is rapper Lisha (Jessica Srin, 1981–), who raps in En­glish and Khmer and sees hip hop as the ultimate freedom of speech to address issues such as gender in­equality and gender role conformity. Among the current Cambodian hip hop diaspora are CS (Chanthy Sok, 1978–), a Long Beach, California, rapper whose songs, infused with traditional Cambodian ­music, tell of the strug­gle of Cambodians who fled the Khmer Rouge and found themselves impoverished and bullied in urban cities, then turning to crime, something he and Tee Cambo (Yung Tee, 1990*–) explore in the G-­f unk–­style song “Cambo” (2014). Bross La (Dara La Paul, 1988–) is a rapper and singer-­songwriter who lives in Minnesota and has traveled back to Cambodia to help develop an au­then­tic Cambodian hip hop sound. His single “Sork Kley” (“Short Hair,” 2016), which challenges traditional expectations of w ­ omen while combining traditional ­music with hip hop beats, has become a hit. Tony Keo (Anthony Keo, 1989–) is a Montreal-­based rapper who writes, produces, and sings hip hop ­music in En­glish,

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French, and Khmer; and Honey Cocaine (aka Honey C, Sochitta Sal, 1992–) is a Toronto-­based rapper-­songwriter who raps about being an assertive and aggressive gangsta-­style w ­ oman against synthesizer heavy beats and 808 drums. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Vietnam

Further Reading

Grossberg, Romi. 2013. “Healing through Hip Hop in the Slums of Phnom Penh Cambodia.” Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities 5, no. 2: 107–18. Schlund-­Vials, Cathy J. 2008. “A Transnational Hip Hop Nation: PraCh, Cambodia, and Memorializing the Killing Fields.” Life Writing 5 (June): 11–27.

Further Listening

Honey Cocaine. 2013. Thug Love. Self-­released.

Cameroon Cameroon is a Central African country whose history is one of occupation. It was a German colony from 1884 to 1918 and ­after World War I (1914–1918) was made into a French colony ­until the 1950s, when its citizens began a war for in­de­pen­ dence, which lasted ­until 1971. French and En­glish are the official languages of Cameroon, known for its native styles of ­music, particularly the laid-­back urban makossa and the 6/8-­rhythm bikutsi, a balafon-­and drum-­based dance m ­ usic associated with vari­ous moves that prefigure hip hop’s twerking. Bikutsi became more mainstream in the 1950s, and as guitars, drum kits, and horns became accessible, the sound became internationally famous through artists such as guitarist and singer Messi Martin (Messi Me Nkonda Martin, 1946*–) and singer Anne-­Marie Nzie (1932–2016). In the 1960s and 1970s, both makossa and bikutsi ­were modernized, creating funky dance ­music that became the most popu­lar sound in Cameroon. With their 1988 debut ­album, the band Les Têtes Brulées (1980–2000)*, led by guitarist Zanzibar (Théodore Epeme, n.d.), created an extremely popu­lar form of bikutsi that was both more Western guitar oriented and tied to traditional forms. While makossa and bikutsi are about everyday life and are generally celebratory m ­ usic styles, hip hop offered musicians opportunity to be more socially conscious, but in the 1980s, it was marginalized. It took pioneering rec­ord labels such as Mapane Rec­ords (1998–2006) and Zomloa Rec­ords (aka Zomba ­Music Group, 1975–) to make hip hop more ­viable. Early hip hop artists included rapper Krotal (Paul Edouard Etoundi Onambélé, 1975–) and rap crews Negrissim (1995–), Feu Rouge (1999–), and Ultimatum (1993–1997). Krotal opened for Senegalese group Positive Black Soul (aka PBS, 1989–) during their Cameroon and Senegal tours. Negrissim was famous for songs about the joys and strug­gles of con­temporary rural and urban life in Dakar, Senegal. ­These gave rise to the second wave of Cameroon hip hop artists, Koppo (Patrice Minko’o, 1976*–), who experimented with spoken-­word poetry and hip hop, and Lady B (Rosine Mireille Obounou, 1984*–), who came from a dance background. Current artists include rapper Stanley Enow (1986–), who had a huge hit in “Hein pére” (“Hey/All right, ­Father,” 2013) and won the MTV Africa ­Music Award for



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the best newcomer in 2014, and the most famous Cameroon rapper, Jovi (aka Le Monstre, Ndukong Godlove Nfor, 1983–), who raps in En­glish, French, local languages, and slang about everyday life in Cameroon and runs his own label, New Bell ­Music (n.d.). His 2014 hit “Et P8 Koi?” (“And Then What?”) led to a nomination for an MTV Africa M ­ usic Award. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Enow, Stanley; France; Germany; Senegal

Further Reading

Anyefru, Emmanuel. 2011. “The Refusal to Belong: Limits of the Discourse on Anglophone Nationalism in Cameroon.” Journal of Third World Studies 28, no.  2: 277–306. Künzler, Daniel. 2007. “The ‘Lost Generation’: African Hip Hop Movements and the Protest of the Young (Male) Urban.” In Civil Society: Local and Regional Responses to Global Challenges, edited by Mark Herkenrath, chap. 3. Zürich, Switzerland: LIT Verlag.

Further Listening

Jovi. 2015. Mboko God. New Bell ­Music.

Campbell, Don (aka Campbellock, 1951–­, St. Louis, Missouri) Don Campbell is an American funk and hip hop dancer and choreographer best known for creating a dance called the Campbellock, which he pop­u­lar­ized in the 1970s. His stop-­and-go style of dancing influenced ­others, who created their own moves ­until ultimately the technique of locking became a phenomenon. Originally performed to and intended for funk ­music, locking was eventually ­adopted into hip hop dance routines; hence, Campbell is credited with being the inventor of locking. He is also famous for his featured dancing on the dance variety show Soul Train (1971–2006) and his formation, along with choreographer Toni Basil (Antonia Christina Basilotta, 1943–), of the Lockers (1971–1976), originally called the Campbellock Dancers, which became a huge influence on ­f uture locking dancers, for both dance moves and clothing. In the 1960s, Campbell moved to California and studied commercial art at the Los Angeles Trade–­Technical College, where he discovered his love for dance. In 1972, he recorded, as Don “Soul Train” Campbell, “Campbell Lock” (Stanson Rec­ ords), a funk instrumental designed to background his new dance. As leader of the Lockers, he appeared on shows for the Grammys and the Oscars. Campbell is now an instructor and has taught classes in many cities in the United States as well as countries such as Japan, Canada, Portugal, ­England, the Netherlands, and Germany, and he serves as one of hip hop’s ambassadors for b-­boy summits, breakdance championships, and hip hop dance championships. He has been honored at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which displays some of his costumes. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Hip Hop Dance; Popping and Locking; The United States

102 Canada

Further Reading

Fuhrer, Margaret. 2014. “Urban and Commercial Dance.” In American Dance: The Complete Illustrated History, chap. 10. Minneapolis, MN: Voyageur Press. Guzman-­Sanchez, Thomas. 2012. “South Central Los Angeles.” In Underground Dance Masters: Final History of a Forgotten Era, chap. 5. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.

Canada Canada is a North American parliamentary democracy composed of 10 sparsely populated provinces and three territories. The world’s fourth-­largest country by landmass, Canada borders the United States and is more highly urbanized, with over 80 ­percent of its 35 million ­people living in large cities such as Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary. Canada’s population is a combination of descendants of French, En­glish, Irish, Scottish, Portuguese, and post–­American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) loyalist immigrants as well as indigenous ­peoples. Canada is officially bilingual; since 1969, French and En­glish have been its two nationally recognized languages. Canada has one of the world’s most ethnically

Maestro Fresh-­Wes performs at a 2015 concert in Toronto. Canada’s first commercially successful rapper, Maestro Fresh-­Wes’s old-school rapping approach was similar to Big ­Daddy Kane: Both employed intricate, clever rhymes, and fast-­paced rapping against steady beats, turntables, and samples. (George Pimentel/WireImage/Getty Images)

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diverse populations. Its indigenous p­ eoples include the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. Hip hop first emerged in Canada in the 1980s, but it remained an underground ­music scene for 20 years. The first Canadian rap single was by the Ottawa duo Singing Fools (1982–1990), whose 1982 En­glish sociopo­liti­cal protest song “The Bum Rap” became a minor hit; the next year, Montreal’s Lucien Francœur (1948–) released the French funk rap song “Rap-­à-­Billy.” Canada’s ­music reflects its own diverse influences as well as American influence, and its ­music industry is the sixth largest in the world, its first commercial recordings having been released in 1900 on the American E. Berliner Gramophone Com­pany (1887–1829; ­later purchased by RCA, 1919–) label that became established in 1899 in Montreal. Canada’s first in­de­pen­dent label, related to Berliner, was the Compo Com­pany (1918–1970). The country’s first radio stations emerged in the 1920s, with its first performing rights society being created in 1925 (the Canadian Performing Rights Society, aka the Composers, Authors and Publishers Association of Canada or CAPAC, 1925–). Each of its indigenous communities has introduced musical traditions into the national consciousness, including styles such as chanting or using instruments made from natu­ral materials, whereas its immigrants from France introduced the fiddle, violins, guitars, flutes, drums, fifes, and trumpets and the Irish introduced Celtic m ­ usic. Musical tastes in the 20th ­century reflected ­those in the neighboring United States, as fans listened to swing, jazz, and popu­lar standards. Big-­band leader Guy Lombardo (Gaetano Alberto Lombardo, 1902–1977) and his band the Royal Canadians (1924–1979, 1989–) became internationally famous in the 1920s, selling over 250 million rec­ords. In the jazz arena, Montreal native Oscar Peterson (1925– 2007) became known as a virtuoso jazz pianist, and in popu­lar ­music, country singer Hank Snow (Clarence Eugene Snow, 1914–1999) became a hit in Amer­i­ca. In the 1950s, rock ­music became popu­lar with the emergence of Paul Anka (1941–), whose 1958 song “Diana” reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. This continued into the 1960s with the international popularity of singer-­songwriters Neil Young (1945–), Leonard Cohen (1934–2016), and Joni Mitchell (Roberta Joan Anderson, 1943–) and bands such as Rush (1968–) as well as more recent multi-­ Platinum sellers such as Alanis Morissette (1974–), Avril Lavigne (1984–), Michael Bublé (1975–), and Céline Dion (1968–). EARLIEST HIP HOP AND THE FIRST WAVE The first commercially successful rapper was Maestro Fresh-Wes (Wesley Williams, 1968–), an old-­school rapper comparable to the American rapper Big ­Daddy Kane (1968–). Like Kane, Maestro Fresh-Wes used intricate rhymes and fast-­paced rapping against steady beats, turntables, and samples, including classical pieces. Also popu­lar among Toronto-­based hip hop acts in the early 1990s ­were the short-­lived group Main Source (1989–1994); the jazz rap duo Dream Warriors (1988–2002); rapper Dan-­e-­o (Daniel Faraldo, 1977–), an actor and singer of Jamaican and Spanish descent; rapper Devon (Devon Martin, n.d.), whose “Mr. Metro” (1990) questioned police racism; and rapper and actor Michie Mee (Michelle McCullock, 1970–), Canada’s first notable female MC.

104 Canada

Toronto-­based, Jamaican-­born radio DJ Ron Nelson (1962–) helped to pop­u­lar­ize hip hop ­music in Canada by promoting early acts such as Maestro Fresh-Wes and Michee Mee. “Northern Touch,” a collective song that served as the Canadian hip hopper mission statement, was released as a single in 1998, and this galvanized hip hop artists and brought Vancouver-­based rap group Rascalz (1989–) into the public eye; the group became even more popu­lar when it refused a 1998 Juno Award for Best Rap Recording ­because the pre­sen­ta­tion was done off-­camera, along with technical awards, and the result was that the following year, the Junos moved the Rap award to the main ceremony. Hip hop found its way into the mainstream in 2001 when radio station CFXJ (93.5) became the country’s first urban ­music station. THE SECOND WAVE A second generation of Canadian hip hop artists, including Kardinal Offishall (Jason D. Harrow, 1976–), Drake (Aubrey Drake Graham, 1986–), and Somali Canadian K’naan (Keinan Abdi Warsame, 1978–), emerged. In 2008, Kardinal Offishall reached the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 with the song “Dangerous.” In 2009, K’naan’s single “Wavin’ Flag” was named the official Coca-­Cola theme song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Drake went on to rewrite the Billboard Hot 100 rec­ord books in vari­ous categories. ­These successes paved the way for rappers such as PARTYNEXTDOOR (Jahron Anthony Brathwaite, 1985–), Nav (Navraj Singh Goraya, 1989–), the Weeknd (Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, 1990–), Tory Lanez (Daystar Peterson, 1992–), and Roy Wood$ (Denzel Spencer, 1996–) as well as rap duo Majid Jordan (2011–). Crossover artists include singer-­songwriter Nelly Kim Furtado (1978–), who sings hip hop in addition to dance-­pop, folk, R&B, and Latin ­music, and the electronic ­music and hip hop band Keys N Krates (2008–), which employs turntablism. QUEBECOISE HIP HOP Though “Rap-­à-­Billy” was the first French Canadian hip hop single, French Canadian–­language hip hop (aka Quebecoise or French Canadian hip hop) did not emerge fully ­u ntil the early 1990s in Montreal. It spread quickly to Quebec City with groups such as Dubmatique (1992–), Loco Locass (1995–), Muzion (1996–2014), Sans Pression (SP, 1997–), and Atach Tatuq (aka Traumaturges, 1998–), as well as rappers such as Anodajay (Steve Jolin, 1977–) and Haitian Canadian Yvon Krevé (Henry Green-­Dupré, n.d.). Dubmatique, the first Quebec hip hop band to have commercial success, had members from Senegal and Canada who ­were inspired by French hip hop. The band’s first ­album, La force de compendre (The Strength to Understand, 1997), had singles that topped Canadian francophone popu­lar ­music charts and was certified Platinum in Canada. Like its English-­language Canadian contemporaries, French Canadian hip hop is at times fused with R&B, funk, pop, jazz, and other kinds of m ­ usic. Acts such as Loco Locass have focused on po­liti­cal rap, focusing especially on the nationalist message of Quebec sovereignty.

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­Later Quebecoise acts included Sir Pathétik (Raphaël Bérubé (n.d.) and Ale Dee (Alexandre Duhaime, n.d.), both members of Mine de rien (Casual, aka Chosen One, 2000–2010)*; Manu Militari (aka M-­A-­N-­U, 1979–) of the group Rime Organisé (2000–); Muzion’s Imposs (Stanley Rimsky Salgado, n.d.); KNLO Craqnuques (aka KenLo, Akena Lohamba Okoko, 1984–); Souldia (Kevin Saint-­Laurent, 1985–); and the group Loud Lary Ajust (2011–2016). Some acts, such as the experimental hip hop band Dead Obies (2011–), combine En­glish and French—­k nown as Franglais—in their hip hop songs. ­Others, such as Alaclair Ensemble (2010–), rap in both French and En­glish, reflecting the Bas-­Canada my­thol­ogy it employs, in which En­glish and French coexist without any issues. Criollo (2003–), from Montreal, is a band that combines hip hop with a Latin musical style that it created, bahire, a fusion of the Dominican Republic’s bachata, reggae, reggaetón, and R&B. It stands out for rapping and singing in Spanish.

FIRST NATIONS, MÉTIS, AND CANADIAN HIP HOP Starting in the 1990s, Canadian indigenous-­themed hip hop has become popu­ lar among many First Nations descendants, who live from Canada’s Northwest Coast to its Atlantic coastal region and the St. Lawrence River Valley. In addition, hip hop has been especially popu­lar with the Métis in Canada, who can trace their heritage to Eu­ro­pean settlers and First Nations ­peoples (often Algonquin, Cree, Maliseet, Mi’kmaq, Ojibwe, Saulteaux, and Wabanaki). Early acts include Alida Kinnie Starr (1970–), a part Mohawk singer-­songwriter from Calgary who fuses hip hop with laid-­back alternative rock. Also from Alberta, War Party (1995–2004) is a Cree hip hop crew from Hobbema that fuses hip hop with chants that focus on Cree themes and stories. War Party eventually founded and was absorbed with additional musicians into Team RezOfficial (2003–), a mostly Cree group. Team RezOfficial’s “Lonely,” from its ­album The World (And Every­thing in It) (2009), became the first aboriginal No. 1 single on MuchMusic’s (aka Much, 1984–­, a Canadian En­glish language specialty channel comparable to MTV, 1981–) ­music video show RapCity (1995–). War Party was the first aboriginal group to host this show. Active since 1998 and a con­temporary of Kinnie Starr and War Party is Muskoday First Nations (Cree) rapper Eekwol (Lindsay Knight, n.d.), who is an activist and scholar and raps against ste­reo­types of native ­women. Some ­later acts include Inez (Inez Jasper, b. Inez Point, 1981–), of Métis and Ojibway heritage; Joey Stylez (Joseph Dale Marlin LaPlante, 1981–), of Métis heritage; Lil Pappie (Nicholaus Gordon, 1991–), of Dakota descent; Young Kidd (Frankie Fontaine, 1988–), of Jamaican and Sagkeeng First Nations heritage; and Samian (Samuel Tremblay, 1983–), of Abitibiwinni First Nations (Algonquian) heritage. The last is a rapper for the Quebecoise hip hop group Loco Locass, though he also raps in En­glish. Many are Native activists and have been active in politics; however, artists such as Inez balance indigenous themes such as struggling with being dif­fer­ent with lighter dance-­oriented songs. Inez also fuses hip hop with pop and R&B. Her a­ lbum Burn Me Down (2013) also includes traditional Sto:lo (aka Staulo or Stahlo—­a First Nations p­ eople from the Fraser Valley and Canyon in British Columbia) singing.

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Cape Verde

Other groups include Reddnation (2000–), from Alberta and of Cree descent; A Tribe Called Red (2007–), with members of Mohawk descent and Nipissing First Nations heritage; and Winnipeg’s Most (2010–2012), a partly aboriginal group. Both Reddnation and A Tribe Called Red fuse electronica with hip hop; the latter also fuses reggae, dubstep, and moombahton (a combination of h­ ouse ­music and Puerto Rican reggaetón) with First Nations–­i nspired heavy drumming and vocal chants. A Tribe Called Red’s sound is often called “powwow-­ step,” and the crew raps mostly in En­glish. Its name is inspired by the American East Coast alternative hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest (ATCQ, 1985–1998, 2006–2013, 2015–). Winnipeg’s Most raps in En­glish and has focused on themes such as street vio­lence, ancestral memory, facing discrimination and in­equality, and everyday urban life. In the 2010s, as acts such as Inez and Reddnation have received critical acclaim, more ­people have become interested in Canadian indigenous hip hop. In 2013, the Nativehiphop Festival was established in Vancouver. The three-­day festival focuses on all aspects of First Nations and Native American hip hop. The most famous Inuit hip hop crew, Nuuk Posse (1985–), is not Canadian but from Greenland; however, it has performed in Canada, rapping in Danish, En­glish, and Kalaallisut—­a Greenlandic language closely related to the Canadian Inuit language Inuktitut. However, more research on hip hop and Canadian Inuits is needed. Anthony J. Fonseca and Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Drake; France; K’Naan; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Jones, Christopher M. 2011. “Hip Hop Quebec: Self and Synthesis.” Popu­lar ­Music and Society 34, no. 2: 177–202. Ransom, Amy J. 2013. “ ‘Québec History X’: Re-­visioning the Past through Rap.” American Review of Canadian Studies 43, no. 1: 12–29.

Further Listening

Dead Obies. 2016. Gesamtkunstwerk (Total Art Work). Bonsound. Loco Locass. 2012. Le Québec est mort, vive le Québec! (Quebec Is Dead, Long Live Quebec!). Audiogram. A Tribe Called Red. 2016. We Are the Halluci Nation. Radicalized Rec­ords. Winnipeg’s Most. 2010. Winnipeg’s Most. Heatbag Rec­ords.

Cape Verde Cape Verde, an Atlantic archipelago island nation, has since the 1990s differentiated itself from other African countries by having an extremely stable democracy and robust economic growth—­after gaining its in­de­pen­dence from Portugal in 1975. Before and during this time, Cape Verde experienced po­liti­cal unrest in transitioning to a multiparty democracy, and this unrest resulted in a growing Cape Verdean diaspora. As of 2018, most Cape Verdean hip hop acts reside and rec­ord in other countries, notably in the United States (Providence, Rhode Island, and the Greater Boston area), the Netherlands (Rotterdam), and Portugal (Lisbon).



Cape Verde 107

It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when Cape Verdeans first had access to hip hop. By the late 1980s, tourists and travelers, especially from neighboring Senegal, brought CDs and videotapes to Cape Verde, but the rise of Cape Verdean hip hop began in the early 1990s with citizens’ access to American tele­vi­sion stations MTV (1981–) and BET (1980–). Cape Verdean musical preferences include the country’s native morna, coladeira, and ­music for batuque and funaná; its cabo love, a version of Guadeloupean zouk; Jamaican reggae and ragga; Senegalese mbalax; and American R&B and jazz—­and its hip hop is often fused with ­these genres. Rapping texts are usually in Cape Verdean Creole (aka Kabuverdianu and sometimes spelled “Kriol”), but En­glish, Dutch, and Portugese are also used. Lyr­ics usually localize gangsta rap and/or protest economic disparity and corruption. In time, rap topics expanded to include embracing change and ethnic pride as well as protesting against Cape Verde’s activities as a Banana Republic (often a third-­world country that is po­liti­cally and eco­nom­ically unstable that has limited resources for export and must rely on ­either tourism or some other kind of limited resource, such as bananas). One early popu­lar pioneering Cape Verdean rapper was Eddy Fort Moda Grog (aka Eddy (FMG), Eddy Fortes, 1950–) from Mindelo, São Vicente, Cape Verde. In the 1990s, Eddy (FMG) fused hardcore hip hop with R&B as a soloist and as part of the Dutch Cape Verdean crew Cabo Funk Alliance (1992–). Notable hip hop acts ­after the 2000s have included Praia-­based rapper Hélio Batalha (1989*–) and Batchart (Edison Silva, n.d.). What connects Cape Verdean hip hop artists active outside the islands is the fact that they rap in Cape Verdean Creole, focus on Cape Verdean–­related topics, and/or employ Cape Verdean ­music. First-­generation rapper, writer, promoter, and entertainment com­pany and recording label owner Chachi (Charles Carvalho, n.d.) fuses hip hop with jazz. Active in Providence, Chachi was the opening act for American hip hop artists such as Talib Kweli (1975–) and Wu-Tang Clan (1992–). Three notable DutchCape Verdean acts are MC Alee (Elidio Gomes, n.d.), GMB (Gery Mendes Borges, 1984–), and Nelson Freitas (Nelson De Freitas, 1975–), the last being from Rotterdam. MC Alee performs hardcore rap and electronica, whereas GMB fuses hip hop with electronica, jazz, retro hi-­NRG, funk, and traditional Cape Verdean ­music such as cabo love (based on the coladeira, which was originally moderately slow, joyful or satirical dance ­music, and the Haitian compass, also dance ­music); Freitas fuses hip hop with R&B, zouk, Angolan kizomba, and traditional Cape Verdean ­music. Boss AC (Ângelo César do Rosário Firmino, 1975–), born in Cape Verde and raised in Lisbon, was one of the pioneering rappers of Portugese hip hop, commonly called hip hop Tuga. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Portugal

Further Reading

Pardue, Derek. 2015. Cape Verde, Let’s Go: Creole Rappers and Citizenship in Portugal. Urbana-­Champaign: University of Illinois Press. Saucier, P. Khalil. 2015. Necessarily Black: Cape Verdean Youth, Hip Hop Culture, and a Critique of Identity. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.

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Celtic Hip Hop

Further Listening

Chachi Carvalho. 2013. Cape Verdean in Amer­i­ca. Chachihiphop.

Celtic Hip Hop Celtic hip hop focuses on Celtic subject m ­ atter such as the immigrant experience; folklore, culture, and folksongs; sports and historical events; and nationalist, antiwar, anticapitalist, or anarchist sentiments. Though it is mostly American or Irish American, Celtic hip hop is often Scottish, En­glish, or French, much like Celtic rock. Celtic hip hop may also be, regardless of lyrical content, a fusion of Celtic instruments and ­music (such as jigs or reels) with ele­ments of hip hop such as rap and beats. Though Irish hip hop acts such as Rob Kelly (1978–), the Rubberbandits (2000–), and GMC (Garry McCarthy, n.d.) use Irish (thus Celtic) lyrical content, American Celtic hip hop bands such as Los Angeles–­based House of Pain (1991–1996, 2017–); Vallejo, California–­based Emcee Lynx (aka Lynx T’chass, Jedediah, anonymous, 1980–); and New York City–­based Black 47 (1989–2014) have gained strong cult popularity. House of Pain focuses on hardcore rap lyr­ics about the Irish American experience. The band Beltaine’s Fire (2005–2011) backed Emcee Lynx before he began his solo ­career. In addition to Celtic subject ­matter, the band plays Irish, Scottish, and Celtic ­music as well as funk, jazz, and rock. Black 47 is a Celtic punk and alternative rock band that has employed rap. With members from the United States and Ireland, Black 47’s early ­album Fire of Freedom (1993) included rap about En­glish colonialism, the immigrant experience, and Irish identity, as in the self-­ referential “Rockin’ the Bronx.” The band also used Jamaican toasting and nationalist lyrical content in “Fire of Freedom.” Bagpipes ­were also often employed with Black 47’s hip hop beats as well as in alternative rock ballads such as “Forty Shades of Blue” (which parodies “Down by the Salley Gardens” to the traditional Irish air “The Maids of Mourne Shore”). With its prehistory in Dublin, Ireland, and Bristol, ­England, the band Marxman (1989–1996) formed in London. It fused hardcore rap, po­liti­cal hip hop, and ambient electronica with traditional Irish m ­ usic. As its name suggests, Marxman’s lyrical content focused on strong, militant, socialist messages as well as protests against ­England’s control over Ireland, economic disparity, and domestic vio­lence. The French group Manau (1998–), based in Paris, fuses French rap with Breton traditional melodies and instruments such as bagpipes, bombard, harp, and fiddle with hip hop beats. Its members are French, but all trace their roots to Brittany. Manau’s single “La tribu de Dana” (“The Tribe of Dana,” 1998) became a hit in France. The vast majority of Celtic hip hop songs are in En­glish, but they often include texts in living Celtic languages such as Irish and Scottish Gaelic. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: France; Ireland; Marxman; The United Kingdom; The United States

Further Reading

Batson, Charles R. 2009. “Panique Celtique: Manau’s Celtic Rap, Breton Cultural Expression, and Contestatory Per­for­mance in Con­temporary France.” French Politics, Culture, & Society 27, no. 2: 63–83, 155.



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Moriarty, Máiréad. 2015. “Hip Hop, LPP, and Globalization.” In Globalizing Language Policy and Planning: An Irish Language Perspective, chap. 6. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Further Listening

Black 47. 1993. Fire of Freedom. SBK Rec­ords. Kelly, Rob. 2016. Kel jefe (Celtic Boss). Soulspazm. Manau. 2015. Celtique d’aujourd’hui (Celtic ­Today). Atypik Productions.

Chance the Rapper (Chancelor Jonathan Bennett, 1993–­, Chicago, Illinois) Chance the Rapper is an American hip hop singer-­songwriter, recording artist, producer, and philanthropist. His solo output includes three self-­released mixtapes: 10 Day (2012), Acid Rap (2013), and Coloring Book (2016). All ­were distributed on the Internet through streaming ser­vices. Chance the Rapper’s global significance is that he became successful as an in­de­pen­dent artist through ­free streams of his mixtapes. 10 Day and Acid Rap received critical acclaim, and in 2017, Coloring Book was the first Grammy Award–­winning streaming-­only ­album, earning three awards—­Best Rap ­Album, Best New Artist, and Best Rap Per­for­mance. Based on number of streams alone, Coloring Book was also the first ­album to chart on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 8. Chance the Rapper is a tenor, and both his singing and rapping voices are smooth and soft. His texts are informed by intelligent meta­phors, internal rhymes, and humor. He combines hip hop, gospel, and R&B and plays piano and other instruments; he also employs samples. His themes include relationships, love, dance, and pride for his home city, Chicago. His notoriety began a­ fter Acid Rap, when he began touring with the rapper-­ production duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (2008–). Meanwhile, he was a member of Savemoney (2014–), a Chicago hip hop collective, as well as a lead vocalist for the band the Social Experiment (2014–), who in 2015 released their own critically acclaimed hip hop, R&B, and neo soul a­ lbum, Surf. Between 2013 and 2018, Chance the Rapper collaborated on singles and EPs with hip hop, electronic, R&B, soul, and dubstep singer-­songwriter-­producers such as James Blake (James Blake Litherland, 1988–) and John Legend (John Roger Stephens, 1978–) as well as MCs such as rapper Action Bronson (Arian Asllani, 1983–) and rapper-­t urntablist-­producer DJ Khaled (Khaled Mohamed Khaled, 1975–). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: The United States

Further Reading

Best, Cassidy, Katie Braile, Emily Falvey, Samantha Ross, Julia Rotunno, and David Schreiber. 2017. “A ‘Chance’ of Success: The Influence of Subcultural Capital on the Commercial Success of Chance the Rapper.” MEIEA Journal 17, no. 1: 31–58. Chance the Rapper. 2017. Foreword to A P ­ eople’s History of Chicago by Kevin Coval. Breakbeat Poets Series. Chicago: Haymarket Books.

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Further Listening

Chance the Rapper. 2012. 10 Day. Self-­released. Chance the Rapper. 2013. Acid Rap. Self-­released. Chance the Rapper. 2016. Coloring Book. Self-­released.

Chap Hop Chap hop, a subgenre of hip hop that takes the language of hip hop and pairs it with the m ­ usic, values, and aesthetics of the Chappist Movement, which emerged in the late 1990s and is epitomized in publications such as The Chap magazine. Chap hop originated in the 2000s in parts of ­England. The Chappist Movement is a tongue-­in-­cheek approach to men’s fashion and attitudes, suggesting that men return to the styles and attitudes of the British chap, such as tweed clothing, omnipresent deerstalker, bowler, and boater hats, and proper British manners. Typically, chap hop artists rap using Received Pronunciation En­glish (RP, also known as BBC En­glish), which is the Standard En­glish accent of the United Kingdom, and they employ the grammar and vocabulary of the Queen’s En­glish. The style of delivery is intended to evoke ste­reo­types of British En­glish; the topics of most chap hop tracks also emphasize En­glish cultural ste­reo­types, such as cricket players, pipe smokers, and tea drinkers. The artists themselves dress in Victorian-­ or Edwardian-­era-­style clothing and many sport highly cultivated facial hair styles, such as handlebar mustaches. In 2014, chap hop made headlines in ­England’s Daily Mail newspaper when the country’s education secretary, Michael Gove, told a reporter that chap hop artists Professor Elemental (Paul Alborough, 1975–) and Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer (Jim Burke, 1970–), who recorded on the labels Tea Sea Rec­ords (2007*–), Grot Business (n.d.), and the Chap-­Hop Business Concern (2011*–), ­were among his favorite musicians. ARTISTS Chap hop first drew widespread attention in 2010, when Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer released his “Chap Hop History” ­music video on YouTube. The track is a medley of several classic hip hop tracks, including the Sugarhill Gang’s (1979–1985, 1994–) “Rapper’s Delight” (1979), Run-­D.M.C.’s (1981–2002) “King of Rock” (1985), and LL Cool J’s (1968–) “Mama Said Knock You Out” (1990). Each stanza of the track features lyr­ics in RP rapped against samples played on a banjolele, a four-­stringed instrument with the size and tuning system of a ukulele and the tone and construction of a banjo. Mr. B has provided musical anthems for the Chap Olympiad, an annual summer event held in Bedford Square Gardens in London in which competitors sport cravats and smoke pipes and prizes are awarded for the best-­creased trousers and the most rakish hairstyles. Professor Elemental is a steampunk character who evokes the science fiction of Jules Verne (1828–1905) through his raps, as he frequently sports a pith helmet and refers to himself as a mad scientist. Professor Elemental is accompanied by an orangutan butler named Geoffrey, with whom he conducts scientific



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experiments. He first came to prominence with the track “Cup of Brown Joy” (2010), an ode to tea. Other chap hop artists include Poplock Holmes (anonymous, 1976–) and Sir Reginald Pikedevant, Esquire (anonymous, n.d.). Most of Poplock Holmes’s tracks pay homage to Sherlock Holmes stories, such as the song “The Pound of the Basskervilles.” In 2011, Sir Reginald Pikedevant, Esquire released a single called “Just Glue Some Gears on It (And Call It Steampunk),” and a­ fter the track was repeatedly misattributed to both Professor Elemental and to Mr. B, Sir Reginald recorded “A Belated Introduction,” in which he set himself apart from the two other artists. ASSOCIATIONS WITH STEAMPUNK ­Because of its close affiliation with and use of ele­ments of the Victorian era, chap hop is often associated with the steampunk movement. Steampunk is a 21st-­century pop culture fad in which the sensibilities of the Victorian age are combined with the interests of science fiction writers of the era, such as Verne and H. G. Wells (1866– 1946). Steampunk also shows a ­g reat interest in technology, especially the role of gears, cogs, and eyepieces. Professor Elemental regularly appears at steampunk events and has been the headlining act at the Steampunk World’s Fair, a convention held in the United States annually since 2010, as well as Waltz on the Wye, a steampunk festival held since 2011 in Chepstow, a town on the border of ­England and Wales. Poplock Holmes identifies as a steampunk artist more than as a chap hop artist, although he has accepted his placement within the chap hop genre. Sir Reginald Pikedevant’s “Just Glue Some Gears on It (And Call It Steampunk)” mocks ­those who misunderstand the aesthetics and values of steampunk culture and misattribute cultural phenomena to steampunk. Not all chap hop musicians consider themselves part of the steampunk movement, however. For example, Mr. B has kept his distance from such associations, preferring to remain unaffiliated with any par­tic­ u­lar artistic or cultural phenomenon. FEUD BETWEEN MR. B AND PROFESSOR ELEMENTAL Professor Elemental, who initially identified himself as a steampunk artist and not as a chap hop artist, became irritated when ­people began mistaking him for Mr. B. In 2010, Professor Elemental released the song and video “Fighting Trousers,” in which he attacked Mr. B’s signature tweed and his signature instrument, the banjolele, suggesting that Mr. B should perhaps find another profession; in the ­music video, Professor Elemental appears in a boxing ring, as if preparing for a fight. In response to Professor Elemental’s track, Mr. B released “Like a Chap,” in which he articulates all of his superior attributes—­his pipe, his facial hair, his silk-­ lined wool clothes, and his hats. The feud was all in good fun. Professor Elemental briefly appeared in the ­music video of “Like a Chap” as the two strug­gled to take a British flag away from each other. Afterward, Professor Elemental tweeted that he loved the video and was

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grateful that Mr. B let him make an appearance. They have appeared together both live and in recordings since the feud. During a 2011 per­for­mance, they engaged in a “chap-­off,” in which they had a rhyme ­battle over who was the superior RP rapper. In 2012, Mr. B was a guest artist on “The Duel,” a track on Professor Elemental’s ­album ­Father of Invention. Amanda Sewell See also: Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer; Nerdcore; Professor Elemental; The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Robinson, Frances. 2011. “In ‘Chap Hop,’ Gentleman Rappers Bust Rhymes about Tea, Cricket.” Wall Street Journal, April 4, A1, A14. Walters, Simon. 2014. “Gove’s Favorite Rapper Revealed: Minister Professes Love for ‘Chap Hop’ Star Who Calls Boris ­Simple, Cameron an ‘Airy-­Fairy Dud,’ and Osborne Tight-­Fisted.” Daily Mail, March 22.

Further Listening

Mr.  B The Gentleman Rhymer. 2013. ­Can’t Stop, Shan’t Stop. Chap Hop Business Concern. Professor Elemental. 2012. The Indifference Engine. Tea Sea Rec­ords.

The Chemical ­Brothers (1995–­, Manchester, ­England) The Chemical ­Brothers is a London-­and Manchester-­based drum and bass duo of Ed Simons (1970–) and Tom Rowlands (1971–). For over 20 years, the duo has been ranked among the world’s top electronic dance ­music groups. The Chemical Brothers has been especially popu­lar in the United Kingdom, with a half dozen No. 1 ­albums and 13 Top 20 singles, including two No. 1 singles. The duo’s characteristic loud, full, high-­energy sound has been described as dance ­music for rock fans (and vice versa), with musical ele­ments ranging from hip hop and related pop genres to the minimalist-­style composer Philip Glass (1937–). The Chemical ­Brothers are impor­tant both for establishing the sound of big beat and for making dance ­music a genre for listening, using a variety of sonic effects within the limits of a 4/4 (qua­d ru­ple) meter and exceptionally regular phrasing. Its frequent use of guest vocalists is also significant. The duo’s concerts of intricate tracks mixed live and coordinated with visual effects are an example of its exceptional musicianship in a genre that often relies on routine. EARLY INTERESTS AND FORMATIVE YEARS Simons grew up in London, where he attended public school. He had strong interests in hip hop and frequented dance clubs at age 14 before studying history at the University of Manchester. Rowlands was raised in Henley-­on-­Thames and attended school in Reading, where his chief interest was anything Scottish, including learning the bagpipes. His musical interests ­were eclectic, but he was especially drawn to Public ­Enemy (1982–), Kraftwerk (1970–), and other pioneer electronic groups.



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Rowlands enrolled at the University of Manchester, where he met Simons in the local ­music scene. In 1992, the pair began working as DJs, playing hip hop, techno, and ­house. They called themselves the Dust ­Brothers, ­after the Los Angeles–­based producing duo best known for their work on the Beastie Boys’ (1981–2012) Paul’s Boutique (1989). In need of instrumental hip hop tracks to play, Simons and Rowlands began to make their own with a basic computer, sampler, and keyboard setup. Their first effort sampled the goth-­pop collective This Mortal Coil’s (1983–1991) “Song to the Siren” (1983). Within a year they ­were ­doing their own remixes, which led to the EP ­Fourteenth ­Century Sky (1994), whose first track, “Chemical Beats,” established the duo’s sound. About that time, the Los Angeles–­based Dust ­Brothers became aware of their U.K. namesakes and sued. Simons and Rowlands then took the name the Chemical ­Brothers, ­under which they made their first international tour in 1995. ­ALBUMS AND AWARDS The duo’s first ­album, Exit Planet Dust—in obvious reference to its former name—­was released in 1995 and was certified Platinum and considered one of the best releases of the 1990s. That same year, The Chemical Brothers released their first mix ­album, Live at the Social, Vol. 1 (1996), and also received its first Grammy Award for the single “Block Rockin’ Beats.” Dig Your Own Hole (1997), the group’s second studio ­album, would be the first of six ­albums to reach No. 1 on the U.K. charts and the first to appear on the Billboard 200. The duo also toured extensively at that time and made well received appearances in the United States. With Surrender (1999), the Chemical ­Brothers expanded its work to include a growing number of guest performers, mostly vocalists. The video for “Let Forever Be,” its first collaboration with French director Michel Gondry (1963–), attracted attention for its exceptional film effects. Over the next two years the duo was quite active performing, and it also released several singles and EPs on the way to their fourth ­album, Come with Us (2002). That ­album featured another track, “Star Guitar,” with a Gondry video. Both Push the Button (2005) and its single “Galvanize” won Grammys. Further (2010) is notable for having videos for each of its eight tracks. That same year, the Chemical ­Brothers provided several tracks for the American motion picture Black Swan (2010), and a year ­later it created their first full score for the multinationally produced motion picture Hanna (2011). Additionally, its ­music has been used (often uncredited) in over 100 dif­fer­ent tele­vi­sion shows, motion pictures, and video games since 1995. Its most recent ­album, Born in the Echoes (2015), debuted at the No. 1 position on the U.K. chart, which confirms the duo’s status as the leading dance ­music composers in the United Kingdom. Scott Warfield See also: The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Reynolds, Simon. 1999. “Back to the Lab.” Spin 15, no. 7: 94–98. Zeiner-­Henriksen, Hans. 2014. “Old Instruments, New Agendas: The Chemical ­Brothers and the ARP 2600.” Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance ­Music Culture 6, no. 1: 26–40.

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Further Listening

The Chemical ­Brothers. 1995. Exit Planet Dust. Freestyle Dust/Ju­nior Boy’s Own/Virgin Rec­ords.

Chicano Rap Chicano rap is a style of hip hop that combines Latin rhythms, hip hop beats, and dance or gangsta rap lyr­ics. It is popu­lar among southwestern and midwestern Mexican Americans, who often self-­identify as Chicano (aka Chicana, Xicano, or Xicana), a term that emerged during the 1960s Chicano Civil Rights Movement (aka El Movimiento). Although the term Chicano is sometimes used interchangeably with the label Mexican American, they signal noticeable differences. In Mexican American cultures, especially in the Southwest and in Southern California, a Chicano identity is closely tied to cultural pride. Chicano ­music can be traced back to Tuscon, Arizona, native Lalo Guerrero (Eduardo Guerrero, 1916–2005), who wrote big band and swing songs in the 1930s. In the 1950s and 1960s, Chicano rock ­music emerged with musicians such as Los Angeles–­based Ritchie Valens (Richard Steven Valenzuela, 1941–1959); Autlán de Navarro, Mexico–­based Carlos Santana (1947–); and Tucson, Arizona–­based Linda Ronstadt (1946–). In the pop m ­ usic genre, Houston-­based singer Selena (Selena Quintanilla, 1971– 1995) became an icon, recording songs that mixed Mexican, Tejano, and American ele­ments, and Zack de la Rocha (Zacharias Manuel de la Rocha, 1970–) and his Los Angeles–­based rap metal band Rage against the Machine (1991–2000, 2007–2011) performed songs with socially conscious messages. All four of Rage against the Machine’s studio ­albums charted, and most went multi-­Platinum. Its recordings include its eponymous ­album (1992), Evil Empire (1996), The B ­ attle of Los Angeles (1999), and Renegades (2000). Both Evil Empire and The B ­ attle of Los Angeles peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Cuban American rapper Mellow Man Ace (Ulpiano Sergio Reyes, 1967–) had a 1990 bilingual hit with “Mentirosa,” but Chicano rap’s first popu­lar artist was Los Angeles breakdancer, electro-­hop rapper, songwriter, and rec­ord producer Kid Frost (aka Frost, Arturo Molina Jr., 1962–). In 1990, he released his debut ­album, Hispanic Causing Panic, on Virgin Rec­ords Amer­i­ca (aka Virgin Rec­ords, 1972–), and it included his Spanglish G-­f unk–­style single, “La Raza,” which peaked at No. 42 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. “La Raza” challenged Chicano ste­reo­types, called for unity and pride with references to Aztec warriors and rapped phrases such as “Chicano, and I’m brown and proud,” and made boasts about Chicano abilities to fight back if engaged. In 1991, Kid Frost and Mellow Man Ace, along with Mexican American rapper A.L.T. (Alvin Lowell Trivette, 1989–), formed the proj­ect band Latin Alliance (1991), which released one ­album. A.L.T. had a 1992 hit with “Tequila.” Mellow Man Ace’s ­brother Sen Dog (Senen Reyes, 1965–) went on to cofound rap trio Cypress Hill (1988–), which also featured Mexican American rapper B-­Real (Louis Freese, 1970–). Cypress Hill went on to have three Top 10 ­albums on the Billboard 200, four Platinum-­certified studio ­albums, and a Top 20 hit with “Insane in the Brain” (1993). A Chicano version of N.W.A. (1986–1991) named Brownside (1993–)

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was created by Eazy-­E (Eric Lynn Wright, 1964–1995). Although Brownside did not chart and was dropped from Ruthless Rec­ords (1986–) ­after Eazy-­E’s death, it did introduce gang-­based Sureño slang into rap. Around the same time, San Diego rapper Jonny Z (John Zazueta, n.d.) had a hit with “Shake Shake (Shake That Culo).” Current Chicano rap musicians include San Diego, California, rapper, producer, and actor Lil Rob (Roberto L. Flores, 1975–) and Los Angeles rapper Serio (Jonathán Pérez, n.d.). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Cypress Hill; Mexico; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

McFarland, Pancho. 2006. “Chicano Rap Roots: Black–­Brown Cultural Exchange and the Making of a Genre.” Callaloo 29, no. 3: 939–55. McFarland, Pancho. 2008. Chicano Rap: Gender and Vio­lence in the Postindustrial Barrio. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Further Listening

Brownside. 2016. Bangin Story’z. East Town Rec­ords. Kid Frost. 1990. Hispanic Causing Pain. Virgin Amer­i­ca.

Chile Chile is a relatively isolated Spanish-­speaking South American country located between the Andes mountain range and the Pacific Ocean. Despite a population of 18 million, the country has seen comparatively ­little development of a hip hop scene, and this has been pres­ent primarily in its largest urban area, Santiago. Hip hop’s slow growth may be attributed in part to societal homogeneity, as Chile lacks many social intersections that have inspired hip hop aesthetics elsewhere. The repressive censorship policies of the Augusto Pinochet (1915–2006) dictatorship (1973–1990) and its aftermath also presented significant obstacles to the oppositional rhe­toric common to hip hop discourse. Although only a few Chilean hip hop acts have achieved noteworthy success, the genre has become increasingly popu­lar in recent years. EARLY HIP HOP In the 1980s, breakdancing, impromptu rap ­battles, graffiti markings, and the clandestine exchange of foreign cassettes could be seen on street corners in Santiago. Underground hip hop m ­ usic became more popu­lar in the 1990s, spurred in part by the return of Chilean youth raised in exile ­after Pinochet’s reign of terror. Among the early pioneers, La Pozze Latina (1991–2000) incorporated drum machines and samplers to create infectious grooves that introduced rap. Notably, the band’s video for “Con el color de mi aliento” (“With the Color of My Breath”), from the ­album Pozzeidos x “La ilusión” (Possessed by “The Illusion,” a wordplay on posse and possessed), was one of the first Latin American–­produced hip hop tracks to appear on MTV en español (1998–2010). In 1993, the similarly influential group

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Panteras Negras (Black Panthers, 1989–2004, 2011–) also recorded their second ­album, Reyes de la jungle (Kings of the Jungle), on the Santiago-­based Alerce label (1976–). Chilean hip hop took a turn ­toward the mainstream in the late 1990s as the group Tiro de Gracia (Coup de grâce, 1993–2007, 2013–) signed with a Latin subsidiary of EMI (1931–2012) to release their debut ­album, Ser hümano! (­Human Being!, 1997), which offered a funk-­infused rap style that included contributions from several prominent Chilean musicians, DJs, and producers. The band’s success paved the way for other popu­lar Chilean hip hop ensembles, such as Los Tetas (The T— or The Breasts, 1994–2004, 2011–) and De Kiruza (1987–1999, 2007–). INTO THE 21st ­CENTURY Though the turn of the c­ entury saw the withdrawal of major-­label support and a lull in hip hop production, the genre has experienced rejuvenation in recent years. One of Latin Amer­i­ca’s most successful female rap artists, Ana Tijoux (Anamaria Merino Tijoux, 1977–), was raised in exile in France but returned to Chile, where she fronted Makiza (Maqui Warrior, 1997–2006). Her 2014 collaboration with Uruguayan Jorge Drexler (Jorge Abner Drexler Prada, 1964–), “Universos paralelos” (“Parallel Universes”), earned a Latin Grammy nomination for Song of the Year, and her 2014 ­album Vengo (I Come . . .) garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Latin Pop, Rock, or Urban ­Album. The newest generation of Chilean hip hop has also generated a strong undercurrent of explic­itly po­liti­cal, in­de­pen­dent acts, best demonstrated by underground rappers such as SubVerso (Vicente Durán, 1975*–) and the up-­tempo fusion of bands such as Sinergia (1994–) and Juana Fe (2004–). J. Ryan Bodiford See also: Argentina; France; Tijoux, Ana

Further Reading

Istodor, Luca. 2017. “Ana Tijoux’s Radical Crossing of Borders.” Revista: Harvard Review of Latin Amer­i­ca 16, no. 2: 65–66. Lindholm, Susan. 2017. “Hip Hop Practice as Identity and Memory Work in and in-­between Chile and Sweden.” Suomen antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 42, no. 2: 60–74.

Further Listening

Panteras Negras. 1993. Reyes de la jungle (Kings of the Jungle). Alerce. Tijoux, Ana. 2014. Vengo (I Come). Nacional Rec­ords. Tiro de Gracia. 1997. Ser hümano! (­Human Being!). EMI Latin.

China China’s hip hop scene, like its C-­pop, Cantopop, Mandopop, and Hokkien pop scenes, is relatively recent, having emerged around 1990, when U.K., Filipino, and Congolese DJs started playing hip hop m ­ usic. In addition, nightclubs such as

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Juliana’s in Beijing started playing the ­music, and American films such as Beat Street (1984) made their way into the country. Juliana’s introduced Chinese clubbers to U.S. labels such as Sugar Hill Rec­ords (1978–1998) and Tommy Boy Entertainment (aka Tommy Boy Rec­ords, 1981–), and the United Kingdom’s Streetsounds (1982–) label. By 1994, a nightly hip hop club had opened in Shanghai. The first recorded Chinese-­language rapping was performed in the song “Caged Bird” from the ­album The Power of the Powerless (1998) by Beijing psychedelic rock singer, trumpeter, and guitarist Cui Jian (1961–). Early hip hop–­influenced artists included Taiwanese rapper MC HotDog (Yáo Zhōngrén, 1978–), Hong Kong R&B ballad singers Sandy Lam (Lín Yìlián, 1966–) and Shirley Kwan (Guān Shúyí, 1966–), and Hong Kong rap bands such as the duo Softhard (1988–1995, 2006–) and the rap group LMF (aka Lazy Mutha F—­a, 1993– 2003, 2009–), the latter being the first signed by a major rec­ord label, the Warner ­Music Group (1958–). Multinational Beijing hip hop group Yin Ts’ang (2001–) was the first mainland Chinese hip hop band to release an ­album to critical acclaim. It won back-­to-­back Best Group and Most Dedicated to the Art awards at the first and second annual Chinese hip hop awards and best rap group in China at the 2009 Kappa-­YoHo Pop ­Music Awards.

POST-1989 CHINESE HIP HOP Generally, the spread of hip hop was made more difficult by the government ­after the Tian­anmen Square protests of 1989, student-­led demonstrations in Beijing that ­were part of the popu­lar national movement called the ’89 Democracy Movement. The protests w ­ ere forcibly suppressed a­ fter the government declared martial law and several hundred demonstrators ­were killed in the Tian­anmen Square Massacre. The government promoted traditional Chinese culture, but ­music and video smuggled into China had allowed for the underground interaction of Western hip hop and Chinese youth, the biggest audience for rap ­music. Many rappers chose En­glish as their lyric language, although ­there was some push to rap in one of the Chinese dialects, and some arguing over which dialect should be used. Chinese youth flocked to the messages and hardcore style of LMF, with lyr­ics that expressed discontent ­toward the po­liti­cal and economic turmoil of Hong Kong in songs such as “WTF” (2003), from Finalazy (2003), as well as songs that emphasized cultural identity, such as “1127” from Xī wū mén (Heiwumen, aka CrazyChildren, 2002). In songs that incorporated ele­ments of hip hop, bounce, metal, hardcore punk, and rock, LMF also criticized Hong Kong’s pop ­music culture as being commercial, stale, and uncreative. Recent Chinese rap artists include Hong Kong hip hop duo FAMA (Farmer, 2000–) and onetime Hong Kong resident, Chinese American rapper MC Jin (Jin Au-­Yeung, 1982–). MC Jin was born in Miami, then lived in Hong Kong and fi­nally New York City, where he performs as a rapper-­songwriter. He raps in En­glish and Cantonese and had his first two ­albums put out on the Ruff Ryders (1988–) rec­ord label. ­Because of Western influence, hip hop culture continues to grow in China as Americans such as Dana Burton (n.d.) immigrate. Burton, who arrived in China

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in 1999, started the Iron Mic annual freestyle competition in 2001 to encourage Chinese youth to find their own rap voices. The new generation of Chinese rappers use trip hop’s (downtempo) funky beats in their ­music. Of the new Chinese rappers, the Higher ­Brothers (2016–), part of the Sichuan-­based rap collective Chengdu Rap House (2012–), are the most popu­lar. The group finished a China tour in 2017 and are scheduled for a U.S. tour in 2018. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Malaysia; Taiwan

Further Reading

Khan, Katy. 2009. “Chinese Hip Hop M ­ usic: Negotiating for Cultural Freedoms in the Twenty-­First ­Century.” Muziki: Journal of ­Music Research in Africa 6, no.  2: 232–40. Liu, Jin. 2014. “Alternative Voice and Local Youth Identity in Chinese Local-­Language Rap ­Music.” Positions: Asia Critique 22, no. 1: 263–92.

Further Listening

LMF. 2003. Finalazy. Warner M ­ usic Hong Kong.

Chopper Chopper is an American Midwest style of rapping defined by the fast-­paced delivery of rap vocals. It began in the 1980s in urban areas such as Cleveland, Chicago, and Kansas City, Missouri. By the early 1990s, it had spread to Los Angeles with the Proj­ect Blowed (1994–) movement, led by Aceyalone (1970–) and Abstract Rude (Aaron Pointer, n.d.), as well as groups such as Aceyalone’s Freestyle Fellowship (1991–1993, 1998–) and Riddlore? (Henry Lee Owens, n.d.) and his group C.V.E. (n.d.). Other early prac­t i­t ion­ers included Flint, Michigan’s the Dayton ­Family (1993–) and Chicago’s Twista (aka Tung Twista, Carl Terrell Mitchell, 1973–), although Cleveland’s Bone Thugs-­n-­Harmony (1991–) ­were by far the best known of the early prac­ti­tion­ers of chopper. The style became even more popu­lar when Kansas City underground rapper/songwriter Tech N9ne (1971–) released a number of chopper-­heavy collaborative singles. Tech N9ne went on to sell over two million ­albums and has licensed his ­music in film, tele­vi­sion, and video games, in addition to achieving fame as a rec­ord producer, actor, and entrepreneur as well as cofounder of Strange ­Music (1999–). His single “Midwest Choppers 2” (2009) from Sickology 101 actually explains his goal of spreading the word on chopper rap, through what he calls “elite” and “intricate” tongues, around the world, including California, New York, Denmark, and Australia, but he goes on to note that the most accurate choppers are from the Midwest. THE SOUND Generally, like its namesake, the AK-47 semiautomatic ­rifle (Tech N9ne is named a­ fter the related TEC-9 semiautomatic pistol), chopper style places an emphasis on speed. Some rappers also liken chopper to a he­li­cop­ter (also nicknamed a chopper)



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b­ ecause of the speed of its blades and its staccato rhythm, which influenced some chopper rap; however, what makes an expert chopper is the combination of speed, enunciation, and clarity. Arguably, the first artist to use this style was Kool Moe Dee (1963–) of the Treacherous Three (1978–1984), who used speed rapping on “The New Rap Language” (1980). Jamaican and Jamaican American rappers ­Daddy Freddy (S. Frederick Small, 1965–) and Shinehead (Edmund Carl Aiken, 1962–) took up the speed rap torch in the 1980s. California-­based JJ Fad (1985–1992, 2009–) helped speed rapping go mainstream, as its single “Supersonic” (1987) led to its becoming the first female rap group to earn a Grammy nomination. “Supersonic” featured innovative, fast, double-­t ime rapping, which would ­later influence the extended block rhymes of Eminem (1972–). Chopper’s stars include some of the fastest rappers in the world, such as Krayzie Bone (Anthony Henderson, 1973–) and Bizzy Bone (Bryon Anthony McCane II, 1976–) of Bone Thugs-­n-­Harmony, as well as Busta Rhymes (1972–), Krizz Kaliko (Samuel William Christopher Watson IV, 1974–), and Snow tha Product (Claudia Alexandra Feliciano, 1987–). Tech N9ne has helped the style to spread by purposefully working with rappers from the Midwest, the South, and both the West and East Coasts as well as from Denmark and Turkey. As of 2018, the chopper style is being used by many rappers, even alternated with slow-­paced raps by artists such as Kendrick Lamar (1987–). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Busta Rhymes; Kool Moe Dee; MC; Tech N9ne; The United States

Further Reading

Cramer, Jennifer, and Jill Hallett. 2010. “From Chi-­Town to the Dirty-­Dirty: Regional Identity Markers in U.S. Hip Hop.” In The Languages of Global Hip Hop, edited by Marina Terkourafi, chap. 10. New York: Continuum. French, Kenneth. 2017. “Geography of American Rap: Rap Diffusion and Rap Centers.” GeoJournal 82, no. 2: 259–72.

Further Listening

JJ Fad. 1987. Supersonic. Dream Team Rec­ords. Tech N9ne Collabos. 2009. Sickology 101. Strange ­Music.

Christian Hip Hop (aka CHH, gospel hip hop, gospel rap, Christian rap, holy hip hop) Christian hip hop is a subgenre of hip hop ­music in which the genre’s thematic concerns and lyrical content have been modified to express Christian values and goals. Though it has global reach, it is by far more prevalent in the United States, where CHH artists and their audiences have created per­for­mance spaces as part of established Christian ministries and in in­de­pen­dent neighborhood or dance club communities. The boundary between hip hop and CHH is porous. In fact, many rappers reference Christian values and biblical verses, and many Christian rappers self-­identify simply as rappers who happen to be Christian, usually performing

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outside (or tangentially to) the con­temporary Christian ­music industry. CHH rappers and musicians thus inhabit a marginal space. CHH emerged in 1985 with Stephen Wiley’s (1956–) four-­ song EP Bible Break, released a full six years ­ after “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang (1979–1985, 1994–). Like many of his contemporaries in the early CHH scene, Wiley was an African American youth minister who used rap to teach his students. Bible Break outlined some basics of the salvation doctrine and included a verse meant to help c­ hildren memorize the books of the Bible. In 1987, Michael Peace (1969–) released his highly influential RRRock it Right, widely recognized as the first San Francisco born rapper-­songwriter, beatboxer, full-­length commercially released and actor T-­Bone started his c­ areer as a gangsta CHH a­lbum. Other early CHH rapper, but shifted his focus to combine gangsta MCs and groups include D-­Boy rap themes with Christian Hip Hop by the early Rodriguez (Danny Rodriguez, 1990s. (Paul Mounce/Corbis via Getty Images) 1967–1990), Dynamic Twins (1989–), LPG (aka Living Proof of Grace, 1984–), P.I.D. (aka Preachers in Disguise or Preachas, 1988–), and S.F.C. (aka Soldiers for Christ, 1987–). CHRISTIAN HIP HOP SINCE THE 1990s As CHH matured, it began to sound more and more like hip hop as it began to incorporate hip hop aesthetics and musical practices. Peace’s vocal per­for­mances, for instance, ­were audibly influenced by early LL Cool J (1968–); gangsta rap hit the CHH scene in the early 1990s with Christian groups such as Gospel Gangstaz (1994–). Other prominent CHH groups include the Cross Movement (1996–2008), KJ-52 (Jonah Kirsten Sorrentino, 1975–), Lecrae (Lecrae Devaughn Moore, 1979–), MA$E (Mason Durell Betha, 1977–), the New Breed (aka Israel Houghton and the New Breed, 1998–2005), and T-­Bone (Rene Francisco Sotomayor, 1973–). Though CHH, like its hip hop counterpart, is largely dominated by African American male performers, female rappers such as Elle R.O.C. (Lanette Chambers, n.d.) and ­Sister Souljah (Lisa Williamson, 1964–) emerged ­after 1992. The success of RedCloud (Henry Andrade, 1978–) ushered in the repre­sen­t a­tion of



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Native Americans and Hispanic Americans in CHH. Since the 1990s, several labels have been devoted solely to CHH, including Reach Rec­ords (2004–) and Cross Movement Rec­ords (1997–). CHH festivals and awards have also proliferated. ­Until 2014, the annual New York–­based Christian ­music festival, Rap Fest, provided the community with a central per­for­mance venue (for over 20 years). The Kingdom Choice Awards, an annual CHH and urban gospel ­music awards show, was founded in 2009, and the online CHH magazine Rapzilla has been providing news, m ­ usic reviews, and online media for the community since 2003. GLOBAL CHRISTIAN HIP HOP Though the CHH scene is centralized in the United States, Christian rappers span the globe. Double M (Maged Medhat*, n.d.), for instance, is a rapper from Egypt who found inspiration in Lecrae and KJ-52. A number of artists have come out of the African continent, including Zimbabwe’s Ill Ceey (Courtney Antipas, n.d.), Malawi’s David Kalilani (1982*–), and South Africa’s Blaque Nubon (Mlungisi Ngubane, 1988*–). Other notable CHH artists found worldwide include Indonesia’s Disciples (2006*–) and Ekaterinburg, Rus­sia’s Nastoyatel (Maxim Kurlenko, 1974*–), formerly of the hip hop band Ek Playaz (2003–2009). The “Hip Hop Church” Krosswerdz, which was formed in 2006 by an Australian national network of CHH artists, leads church ser­vices in Sydney and across the nation. In addition, Belgian-­born Chad Horton (1988–) was a cocreator of CHH e-­zine Rapzilla (2003–). Further, amateur Christian rap groups have a strong presence in places such as São Paulo and London. RECEPTION AND ONGOING DIALOGUE CHH has prompted several key conversations within the Christian community and among scholars. The primary discussion has centered on the anx­i­eties the subgenre incites within both the black church and the Christian community as a ­whole. Several key figures in the black church community, including Rev. Calvin O. Butts III (1949–) and G. Craige Lewis (George Craige Lewis, 1969–) of EX Ministries, have openly condemned CHH for drawing upon the aesthetics of a genre they consider to be fundamentally promiscuous, misogynistic, and violent. A growing segment of the Christian community, however, has embraced CHH as both a style of worship and a community ministry, capitalizing on hip hop’s ability to more deeply name and address the needs of current generations and recognizing the liberating power of this genre as an African American musical form that challenges deeply entrenched and damaging social hierarchies. Mainstream hip hop has often been considered religious in its own right, certainly in terms of its Islamic influences, but also with openly religious rappers such as Tupac Shakur (1971–1996), MC Hammer (1962–), and Kanye West (1977–), who have woven Christian symbolism and biblical verse into their songs. Rappers have been accepted as modern-­day and streetwise preachers and theologians by younger

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generations whose relationship to the Christian church has dissolved; in this role, Shakur crafted a portrait of Jesus as “Black Jesuz”—­not white but multiracial, in tune with the pain of inner-­city life, and sharing in the experiences of the poor and the oppressed. Black Jesuz both transcends current theological thought and gives access to a theology that continues to resonate strongly in CHH to the disenfranchised. Scholars usually describe CHH as a highly marginal practice, a subgenre that exists at the edges of both hip hop and Christian culture. CHH artists curate this status to avoid being pigeonholed in e­ ither community; they reject what they view as the negative values of hip hop as well as the mainstream stigma of the con­ temporary Christian ­music industry. CHH is further characterized by a preoccupation with authenticity. By emphasizing their theological mastery and their marginality, artists generate a sense of authenticity and integrity that makes their lyr­ics relevant to the lived experiences of their audiences. Jessica Leah Getman See also: MC Hammer; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop

Further Reading

Pinn, Anthony B., ed. 2003. Noise and Spirit: The Religious and Spiritual Sensibilities of Rap ­Music. New York: New York University Press. Zanfagna, Christina. 2012. “Kingdom Business: Holy Hip Hop’s Evangelical Hustle.” Journal of Popu­lar ­Music Studies 24, no. 2: 196–216.

Further Listening

Gospel Gangstas. 1994. Gang Affiliated. Holy Terra Rec­ords. Wiley, Stephen. 1985. Bible Break. Brentwood M ­ usic.

Christie Z-­Pabon (1969*–­, Pennsylvania*) Christie Z-­Pabon is a DJ ­battle promoter, publicist, and or­ga­nizer as well as a hip hop activist. In the mid-1980s, she became interested in hip hop ­music, particularly its turntablism and dance aspects. She tuned in to and taped Sly Jock (Clifford Charlton, n.d.) on WAMO (formerly WHOD, 1948–), the first radio station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to broadcast hip hop. Her early hip hop exposure included purchasing 12-­inch a­ lbums at a local rec­ord store and seeing b-­boys perform live at school functions. Her earliest experience promoting hip hop was in college in the early 1990s, when she or­ga­nized Pittsburgh’s earliest hip hop parties. Christie Z-­Pabon organizes b-­boy/b-­girl ­battle scenes, listening to artists’ issues and providing a fair environment in which their expression of art can be judged. As one of very few ­women on the DJ ­battle scene, Christie Z-­Pabon advocates for w ­ omen’s involvement. She is a strong proponent of the DJ b­ attle as a space for innovation, creation, and preservation of hip hop. Starting in the 2000s, Christie Z-­Pabon was involved in hip hop scholarship through offering historical information about DJ ­battles and the art of the ­battle, proofreading and providing



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editorial suggestions to researchers, and compiling lists of DJ ­battle champions, outcomes, and statistics. FROM ENTHUSIAST TO PROMOTER AND CEO In 1996, Christie Z-­Pabon moved from Perryopolis, Pennsylvania, to New York City and briefly worked as a ­mental health specialist in the Bronx; however, her main goal was to attend many DJ ­battles. While attending Universal Zulu Nation’s (1973–) anniversary in Harlem, she met hip hop dance pioneer and choreographer Popmaster Fabel (Jorge Pabon, 1965*–), whom she married in 1997. A year ­later, she began working in sales at DMC U.S.A., home of the New York City Regional DJ ­Battle and affiliated with the DMC World DJ Championships (1985–). DMC, or Disco Mix Club, 1983–­, is a London-­based remix label. At DMC U.S.A., Christie Z-­Pabon learned more about turntablism and creating DJ ­battle routines. By 1999, she was organ­izing DJ ­battles, including the United States’ sole hosting of the DMC World Finals. In 2000, she left DMC to or­ga­nize her own DJ ­battles nationwide. With her husband, Christie Z-­Pabon established Tools of War Park Jams in 2003, a New York City grassroots hip hop promotion organ­ization and battling event series that brings hip hop artists and culture back to New York City parks—­hip hop’s initial venue. In 2008, she became CEO of DMC U.S.A. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Battling; Breakdancing; Hip Hop Dance; MC; Turntablism; The United States

Further Reading

Katz, Mark. 2010. “The Turntable as Weapon: Understanding the Hip Hop DJ ­Battle.” In Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed M ­ usic, rev. ed, chap. 6. Berkeley: University of California Press. Katz, Mark. 2012. Groove ­Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

Chuck D (Carlton Douglas Ridenhour, 1960–­, Queens, New York) Chuck D is an American rapper and producer, best known for his role as the leader of Public ­Enemy (1982–), established in Long Island, New York, and as a part of the Long Island production team the Bomb Squad (1986–). He is widely considered one of the progenitors of socially conscious and po­liti­cal hip hop, and many critics rank him as one of the most talented rappers of all time. Along with the multilayered sound of the Bomb Squad’s production style, Chuck D’s explosive delivery and historically-­informed, socially conscious lyr­ics are among the most defining features of Public ­Enemy’s style. His lyr­ics often feature complex poetic meters that vary in style, both within individual tracks and across entire ­albums. “Fight the Power,” a single from the 1990 ­album Fear of a Black Planet, is regarded as

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one of Chuck D’s—­and, by extension, Public ­Enemy’s—­most influential tracks and is considered a hip hop classic. In its lyr­ics, Chuck D alludes to vari­ous funk and soul artists and songs, including Bobby Byrd’s (Robert Howard Byrd, 1934–2007) “I Know You Got Soul” (1971) and James Brown’s (1933–2006) “Funky Drummer” (1970). He also accuses individuals and institutions, most notably Elvis Presley (1935–1977), of being racist. The song also encourages black listeners to educate themselves and find their own heroes, even if t­ hose heroes are not necessarily recognized by the white mainstream. In the early 1980s, Chuck D was a student at Adelphi College in New York, where he met rapper Flavor Flav (1959–), journalist and critic Harry Allen (1964–), and other ­people who became key figures in Public ­Enemy’s formative years. Rick Rubin (Frederick Jay Rubin, 1963–) signed Chuck D (and the group) to the new Def Jam Rec­ords (1983–) label. In 1987, Public ­Enemy released its first ­album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show. In his dual role as rapper and producer for Public ­Enemy, Chuck D frequently samples snippets of his own rapped lyr­ics for new tracks. For instance, samples of his voice from the 1987 single “Bring the Noise” have appeared in several other Public ­Enemy tracks, such as “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos” (1988) and “Night of the Living Baseheads” (1988). In the late 1990s, he sued for defamation and copyright infringement over the unauthorized sample of his voice that can be heard in the Notorious B.I.G.’s (1972–1997) “Ten Crack Commandments” (1997). Chuck D has also recorded separately from Public ­Enemy. His solo ­albums include Autobiography of Mistachuck (1996) and The Black in Man (2014). He has collaborated with artists including Confrontation Camp (2000), hard rock and pop singer Meat Loaf (1947–), and hardcore, punk, and spoken-­word artist Henry Rollins (1961). In 2016, Chuck D and Public ­Enemy’s DJ Lord (Lord Aswod, 1975–) joined forces with three members of Rage against the Machine (1991–) and Cypress Hill’s (1988–) B-­Real (Louis Freese, 1970–) to form the rap-­rock supergroup Prophets of Rage. In 2016, Prophets of Rage released its first EP, The Party’s Over, which featured live covers of Rage against the Machine and Public ­Enemy songs. Its eponymous debut studio ­album was released in 2017. Amanda Sewell See also: Allen, Harry; The Bomb Squad; Flavor Flav; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Public ­Enemy; The United States

Further Reading

Chuck D [Carlton Ridenhour]. 2008. “Three Pieces.” In Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital M ­ usic and Culture, edited by Paul Miller (DJ Spooky), chap. 29. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Jah, Yusef, and Chuck D. 2006. Lyr­ics of a Rap Revolutionary: Times, Rhymes, and Mind of Chuck D. Beverly Hills, CA: Off da Books. Rausch, Andrew J. 2011. “Chuck D.” In I Am Hip Hop: Conversations on the M ­ usic and Culture, chap. 6. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow.

Further Listening

Prophets of Rage. 2017. Prophets of Rage. Fantasy Rec­ords. Public ­Enemy. 1988. It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. Def Jam. Public ­Enemy. 1990. Fear of a Black Planet. Def Jam.

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Clowning Clowning is a style of hip hop dance that originated in 1992 in Compton, California, with Tommy the Clown (Thomas Johnson, n.d.), a dancer and entertainer also known as a spokesperson for Governor Gray Davis (1942–). Growing up in Compton, Johnson was involved in several crimes and spent five years in jail. By 1992, he had opted to create a better life for himself through hip hop dance. Interested in motivating youth living in gang-­infested communities to use hip hop dance to stay away from crime and vio­lence, he promoted his Compton-­based dance crew, the Hip Hop Clowns (1992–), for area parties. His strategy for appealing to audiences and for getting his message across to them was to have his dancers wear clown paint and costuming (capturing the attention of ­children who ­were theoretically too young to be influenced by gangs) while their act consisted of hip hop dancing (showing preteens that ­there are more constructive options than gangs and drugs). Part of the act was to invite youth to dance with them. Clowning included early breakdancing movements such as popping and locking. Johnson also included movements from other black popu­lar and street dance styles, including the butterfly and the rode, both from Jamaican dancehall and gangsta boogie walks. In time, clowning also adapted movements such as booty popping, freaking, snaking and winding, and twerking (originally performed by female strippers, but male clown dancers perform ­these moves). By the mid-1990s, about 50 clowning crews existed in Los Angeles, and by the late 1990s, the Hip Hop Clowns ­were touring worldwide. Clowning became so popu­lar among South Central Los Angeles–­area youth that Johnson shifted his focus to teaching at his dance school, the Tommy the Clown Acad­emy. From Johnson’s Hip Hop Clowns, another dance style emerged: krumping.

CLOWNING VS. KRUMPING First-­generation krumping was more energetic, aggressive, and menacing than clowning. Dancers eschewed circus clown makeup and costuming in ­favor of street fashion, usually dark clothing, sometimes accentuated by gothic face paint that resembled African ceremonial war paint. All from Los Angeles, former Hip Hop Clowns members, Big Mijo (Jo’ Artis Ratti, 1985–) and Tight Eyez (Ceasare Willis, 1985–), followed by Los Angeles–­based krumping innovator and choreographer Lil’C (Christopher Toler, 1983–), rooted krumping in raw, pent-up emotion that was expressed in jerking movements (“the krump”). ­These usually involved spine flexing and chest pops, accentuated by quick, jerky, sometimes violent arm and hand movements that mimicked fighting. In time, erotic dance–­inspired moves ­were eliminated. Johnson’s school eventually taught both clowning and krumping. In 2004, to help resolve rivalry issues between dif­fer­ent clowning and krumping crews, Johnson began the ­Battle Zone Event at the ­Great Western Forum in Inglewood, California. During the 2000s, Johnson partnered with the Los Angeles Unified School District and taught in-­school clowning and krumping workshops. ­Because of the two dance styles’ appearances in videos by Madonna (1958–), Missy Elliott (1971–), the Chemical ­Brothers (1995–), and ­others, the popularity of krumping has

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surpassed clowning. ­Today, clowning and krumping exist separately and together, the latter in krump clowning, a dance style that combines movements from both. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Hip Hop Dance; Krumping; Popping and Locking; The United States

Further Reading

Fuhrer, Margaret. 2014. “Urban and Commercial Dance.” In American Dance: The Complete Illustrated History, chap. 10. Minneapolis, MN: Voyageur Press. Kuehn, Kathleen M. 2010. “The Commodification of Blackness in David LaChapelle’s Rize.” Journal of Information Ethics 19, no. 2: 52–66.

Further Viewing

LaChapelle, David. 2005. Rize. Lionsgate.

C- ­Murder (Corey Miller, 1971–­, New Orleans, Louisiana) C-­Murder is an American rapper and hip hop musician, songwriter, producer, rec­ ord label creator/owner, author, and actor from New Orleans. He is also the ­brother of rapper and producer Master P (Percy Robert Miller, 1970–) and rapper Silkk the Shocker (Vyshonne King Miller, 1975–) and ­uncle of rapper-­actor Lil Romeo (Percy Romeo Miller Jr., 1989–). C-­Murder founded and owns the hip hop rec­ord labels TRU and Bossalinie Rec­ords (both 2000–). He took his stage name from his childhood in New Orleans’s Calliope Proj­ects, where he witnessed vari­ous crimes. U ­ nder the name C-­Murder, he has authored the novel Death around the Corner (2007) and three self-­published books, including a collection of poetry, Red Beans and Dirty Rice for the Soul (2014). As of 2018, he continues to serve jail time for a 2009 nightclub murder. EARLY SUCCESS While in New Orleans, C-­Murder achieved musical success early with the No Limit Rec­ords (1990–2003) trio TRU (The Real Untouchables, 1992–2005). In 1998, C-­Murder went solo. His first two ­albums, Life or Death (1998) and Bossaline (1999), ­were certified Platinum and Gold and peaked at Nos. 3 and 2, respectively, on the Billboard 200. His breakthrough ­album, Trapped in Crime (2000), peaked at No. 8 but topped the Hot R&B/Hip-­Hop Songs chart and contained his biggest hit, “Down for My N’s,” which featured Snoop Dogg (1971–). His lyr­ics are informed by scenes of urban poverty and vio­lence juxtaposed against lavish production values that show a willingness to experiment with mixing, sampling, rhythm (the use of bounce techniques), and intricate vocal overlays. His a­ lbums often include humorous interludes and melodic piano intros. His fourth ­album, C​-­P​-­3​.­com (2001), reached no higher than No. 45. By the time of his fifth and sixth ­albums, The Truest S#!@ I Ever Said (2005) and The TRU Story . . . ​Continued (2006), he had been incarcerated for murder and was appealing his conviction. While in prison, he has released Screamin’ 4 Vengeance (2008), Community Ser­vice (2009), Calliope

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Click, Vol. 1 (2009), Tomorrow (2010), Ricochet (2013), and ­Ain’t No Heaven in the Pen (2015). MURDER TRIAL In August 2009, C-­Murder went to trial, accused of killing a 16-­year-­old fan ­after a fight. ­After five days, the jury came to a deadlock, but the judge instructed the jury to resolve the deadlock, which resulted that same day in a guilty verdict. Miller was convicted of second-­degree murder, but his defense argued that one of the jurors was intimidated and that judicial pressure had led to the vote change. In 2011, his conviction was upheld, and in 2013 the Supreme Court rejected his final appeal. Many activist groups have since conducted a “­Free C-­Murder” campaign. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Bounce; Gangsta Rap; Master P; The United States

Further Reading

Dreisinger, Baz. 2005. “Pop M ­ usic; Hard Rhymes; Their ­Albums Are Being Released Even If Many of the Artists Who Recorded Them A ­ ren’t: In the Subgenre of Prison Rap, ­T here’s an Under­lying Message That You ­Can’t Excape.” Los Angeles Times, April 3, E1. George, Courtney. 2016. “From Bounce to the Mainstream: Hip Hop Repre­sen­ta­tions of Post-­Katrina New Orleans in ­Music, Film and Tele­vi­sion.” Eu­ro­pean Journal of American Culture 35, no. 1: 17–32. Kubrin, Charis E. 2005. “Gangstas, Thugs, and Hustlas: Identity and the Code of the Street in Rap ­Music.” Social Prob­lems 52, no. 3: 360–78.

Further Listening

C-­Murder. 1995. True. No Limit. C-­Murder. 1999. Bossalinie. No Limit. C-­Murder. 2013. Ricochet. TRU Rec­ords.

Coldcut (1986–­, London, ­England) Coldcut is an En­glish electronic ­music duo comprised of DJs Jonathan More (Jonathan Richard More, n.d.) and Matt Black (Matthew Cohen, 1961–). Best known for its contributions to the acid h­ ouse, club, dance, and ambient genres, Coldcut became a pioneer of the mid-1980s experimental/electronic hip hop scene. In 1988, Coldcut released the single “Doctorin’ the House,” featuring En­glish dance and funk singer Yazz (Yasmin Evans, 1960–). The single reached No. 6 on the charts. In the same year, it released a cover of M ­People’s (1990–) “The Only Way Is Up” (originally composed in 1980 by George Jackson, 1945–2013, and Johnny Henderson, n.d.) ­under the name Yazz and the Plastic Population. The song climbed to No. 1 on the U.K. Singles Chart and held this position for five weeks. Coldcut reached commercial success with its debut ­album What’s That Noise? (1989), which peaked at No. 20 on the United Kingdom’s Official A ­ lbums Chart and was certified Silver.

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HEX Meeting in 1986 at Reckless Records, More and Black began working together at the pirate radio station Network 21 in London. Their first single was “Say Kids What Time Is It,” which samples the ­children’s tele­vi­sion show Howdy Doody (1947–1960) in addition to vari­ous soul, hip hop, and funk songs. It is recognized as the United Kingdom’s first rec­ord to be made entirely of samples from other artists and media. In 1987, More and Black worked together on the underground electronic ­music show Solid Steel (1988–), which allows experimental DJs to showcase their live or recorded mixes. In the same year, Coldcut formed the rec­ord label Ahead of Our Time and released the single “Beats + Pieces,” sometimes credited as the first rec­ord to showcase big beat ­music. In October 1987, Coldcut released its remix of Eric B. and Rakim’s (1986–1993) hip hop song “Paid in Full” for Island Rec­ords (1959–), which helped to usher hip hop into the United Kingdom’s mainstream culture. In 1988, More and Black formed Hex (1988–1997), a multimedia pop group that created ­music videos for electronic ­music producer Kevin Saunderson (1964–), singer Queen Latifah (1970–), and the En­glish neo-­psychedelic experimental rock band Spiritualized (1990–) while integrating the con­temporary media technology of video sampling, CD-­ROMs, and interactive computing. Using a variety of media, such as art exhibits and video games, Hex introduced media amalgams such as computer-­generated audio per­for­mances and interactive collaborative instruments. Continuing their work with Hex, More, Black, and their team released the video game Top Banana (1991) for the Commodore CDTV machine. In 1992, Hex’s first single, “Global Chaos Digital Love Opus 1,” used video clips from raves combined with techno and ambient interactive visuals. Hex also released the Global Chaos CDTV, a pre­de­ces­sor to the “CD+” concept. This disc combined ­music, graphics, and game play into one medium. National media gave Hex’s innovative creation extensive coverage. Hex began to create visuals for Coldcut’s live shows throughout the 1990s and also included m ­ usic videos and interactive playful art/music programs on the duo’s CD-­ROMs, an advanced practice that earned the group admiration for its entry into the computer age. By 1996, More and Black had reclaimed the Coldcut name and its reputation for interactive live shows and content.

NINJA TUNE In 1990, Coldcut formed its second rec­ord label, Ninja Tune, which permitted the duo (­under dif­fer­ent aliases, such as Bogus Order and DJ Food) to release ­music that reflects their creativity without the constraints of major rec­ord labels. ­Because Coldcut had previously signed with major rec­ord label Arista, the group did not release any official Coldcut singles or ­albums for three years as More and Black focused on their in­de­pen­dent label. In 1997, Coldcut’s ­album Let Us Play! was the first Ninja Tune label release. Tracks featured their iconic “cut-­and-­paste” experimental sound, including guest per­ for­ mances from Grandmaster Flash (1958–), the Herbaliser (1995–), and Daniel Pemberton (1977–). That same year,

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Black worked with Cambridge-­based developers Camart to create VJAMM, a real-­time video manipulation software that revolutionized the audiovisual field by allowing users to remix and combine sound and images, a major part of the club scene. In 1998, the American Museum of the Moving Image gave VJAMM a permanent spot in its collection. Black created DJamm with Camart; this program allowed users to split loops into as many segments as they wished. In 2010, Ninja Tune released Ninja Tune: 20 Years of Beats and Pieces, a book celebrating 20 years of successful contributions to dance, hip hop, and electronic ­music. Coldcut also released a music-­making app called Ninja Jamm for Android and iOS cellular phones. Celeste Roberts See also: The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Bogdanov, Vladimir. 2001. All ­Music Guide to Electronica: The Definitive Guide to Electronic ­Music. Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat Books. Bogdanov, Vladimir. 2003. All ­Music Guide to Hip Hop: The Definitive Guide to Rap and Hip Hop. Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat Books.

Further Listening

Coldcut. 1989. What’s That Noise? Ahead of Our Time.

Colombia Colombia, nicknamed the land of a thousand rhythms, is a South American nation with a diverse culture that contains a variety of both traditional and modern ­music as a result of the mixture of African, native indigenous, and Eu­ro­pean (especially Spanish) influences. When it comes to Colombia’s con­temporary popu­lar ­music scene, the influence of bands from the United States is extremely impor­tant. Hip hop came to Colombia in the late 1980s with the popularity of breakdancing and the ­music of American rap artists N.W.A. (1986–1991) and MC Hammer (1962–) in the major urban areas of Medellín, Cali, and Bogotá. In the 1990s, two Colombian hip hop groups, La Etnnia (Ethnicity, 1994–2014) and Bogotá-­based Gotas de Rap (Rap Beats, 1994–1995), became popu­lar, becoming the pioneers of Colombian rap, known for its extreme po­liti­cal and social views, including protests against vio­lence, corruption, in­equality, and marginalization. Le Etnnia cultivated a West Coast gangsta rap sound, with lots of emphasis on rolling basslines and drums against a synthesizer background. Gotas de Rap was a bit more eclectic in its approach, using vari­ous American styles. DEVELOPING THEMES Near the turn of the ­century, Cali-­based Asilo 38 (Asylum 38, 2000–) made hip hop more polished, adding a reggae backdrop, counterrhythms, and new instrumentation, such as rock-­based keyboards or classical and traditional strings. Thematically, Colombian hip hop is informed by cultural strug­gle, and its style is

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generally based on the urban m ­ usic of U.S. West Coast acts such as N.W.A. Colombia’s rappers include a large number of rural poor who w ­ ere forced into the cities by a civil war between the state and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC, 1964–2017) that has been devastating rural communities for de­cades. Jobless and surrounded by drug traffickers and citywide corruption, they use rap to express their anger and call for unity and self-­respect.

INFLUENCES AND POPU­L AR COLOMBIAN ACTS Much con­temporary Colombian ­music is influenced by traditional Colombian ­ usic, which includes cumbia, a social issue–­based dance ­music that owes its orim gins to Spanish, indigenous, and African ­music (brought over by slaves) and is highly dependent on percussion rhythms (a Colombian version, the cumbia cienaguera, is considered the unofficial ­music of the nation); champeta ­music, which is influenced by soukous, compas, zouk, and reggae as well as Jamaican ragamuffin; and currulao, which has its roots among Afro-­Colombians and uses a cununo (a special drum for creating a unique rhythm), percussive shakers, and marimba. As in most countries, bands are promoted through large rec­ord labels such as Medellín-­based Discos Fuentes (1934–) and in­de­pen­dent ­music studios, but the government, through the Ministry of Culture, also plays a huge role; rumors exist that at least one rapper a year is assassinated by the government, and some rappers live in exile. Hip hop and rap began as an underground economy run by do-­it-­ yourself artists and in­de­pen­dent labels, but as the ­music became popu­lar and marketable, the larger labels started to become interested. Rock ­music came to Colombia by way of Mexico in the late 1950s with the importation of ­music by Enrique Guzmán (Enrique Alejandro Guzmán Vargas, 1943–) and César Costa (César Roel Schreurs, 1941–), which quickly led to native rock ­music. By the 1990s, punk and metal bands had appeared in Bogotá, Medellín, and Cali, with bands such as Aterciopelados (Velvety or Peachy Ones, 1992–) and Kraken (1984–) giving Colombian punk a voice. Rock al Parque, the largest ­free rock festival in Latin Amer­i­ca, is an annual three-­day cele­bration hosted by Bogotá and features artists such as Colombian American the Monas (2005–) and Shakira (1977–), who are both popu­lar in the United States. Around 2000, Puerto Rican reggaetón became popu­lar, battling with and cross-­ pollenating hip hop. By 2006, an Afro-­Colombian group called ChocQuibTown (aka Choc Quib Town, 2000–) began to emerge as the most popu­lar hip hop band in the nation. ChocQuibTown uses local sounds and dance rhythms to rap about marginalization, fairness, and community, producing positive messages of self-­ realization. At about the same time, San Andres–­based Jiggy Drama (Heartan Lever Criado, 1983–) became very popu­lar despite the controversial nature of his raps. Although based in New York City, Tres Coronas (2001–2006) had become one of the best-­k nown Colombian hip hop crews. Other popu­lar hip hop acts include La Mambanegra (The Black Mamba, 2014–), Profetas (Prophets, 1997–), Nelda Piña y la BOA (Nelda Piña and the Boa Constrictor, 2014–), Pedrina y Río (2012–), and Elkin Robinson (2014–). Most of t­ hese more recent m ­ usic

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acts ­favor R&B–­flavored hip hop fused with reggae. The ability of a song to inspire dance is emphasized. In addition to ­music, hip hop culture, including baggy fashions and oversized jewelry, has become a party favorite; major radio stations are offering hip hop shows. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Cumbia Rap; Gangsta Rap; Mexico; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Venezuela

Further Reading

Dennis, Christopher. 2012. Afro-­Colombian Hip Hop: Globalization, Transcultural ­Music, and Ethnic Identities. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. Tickner, Arlene. 2008. “Aquí en el Ghetto: Hip Hop in Colombia, Cuba, and Mexico” (­Here in the Ghetto). Latin American Politics and Society 50, no. 3: 121–46.

Further Listening

Asilo 38. 2016. Anarkolombia. Self-­released on iTunes and Spotify.

Common (aka Common Sense, Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr., 1972–­, Chicago, Illinois) Common is an American rapper and actor known for his verbose and socially conscious lyricism. He is best known for his breakout hit “Take It EZ” (1992). His notable ­albums include Can I Borrow a Dollar? (1992), Resurrection (1994), One Day It’ll All Make Sense (1997), Like W ­ ater for Choco­late (2000), Electric Circus (2002), Be (2005), Finding Forever (2007), and Universal Mind Control (2008). The latter three ­were released on Kanye West’s (1977–) New York City–­based GOOD ­Music label (aka Getting Out Our Dreams, 2004–). Common’s subsequent ­albums ­were The Dreamer/The Believer (2011) on the Warner Bros. label (1958–), Nobody Smiling (2014) on Def Jam Recordings (1983–), and Black Amer­i­ca Again (2016) on producer Immenslope’s (aka No I.D., Ernest Dion Wilson, 1971–) ARTium Recordings (2011–), an imprint of Def Jam. Common’s first big break was appearing as the featured artist in The Source’s new artist column, Unsigned Hype. Following this media attention in an influential hip hop magazine, Common (as Common Sense) signed with Relativity Rec­ords and made his musical debut with the release of “Take It EZ” and his first full-­length ­album, Can I Borrow a Dollar?. The ­album, produced by Immenslope and Twilite Tone (Anthony Khan, 1971–), features jazzy, laid-­back instrumentation, which includes samples from earlier hip hop and R&B songs. ­These are accompanied by Common’s melodic, lyrical vocals. Three singles from the ­album, “Take It EZ,” “Breaker 1/9,” and “Soul by the Pound,” each charted on Billboard’s Hot Rap Singles, but the a­ lbum failed to garner much attention outside the local Chicago scene. Resurrection, also produced by No I.D., performed poorly on the Billboard charts; however, it helped garner the rapper a strong following in the alternative and underground hip hop scene and cemented his reputation as a verbose and eloquent lyricist. Many tracks on the ­album, such as “Nuthin’ to Do,” reflect the deteriorated conditions of many black neighborhoods in Chicago’s South Side. The ­album closes with “Pop’s Rap,” which features Common’s ­father, Lonnie Lynn

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(1943–2014), reciting his own spoken-­word poetry. Lynn would appear on three more Common ­albums. The breakout track from Resurrection was “I Used to Love  H.E.R.,” whose lyr­ics describe the moral decline of a ­woman—­but in this the case ­woman serves as a symbol for hip hop. Common expresses disdain at the con­temporary shift in the content and sound of hip hop away from socially conscious, Afrocentric rap and t­oward the increasingly popu­lar gangsta rap, which had emerged primarily from the West Coast. Having been released during the height of the East Coast–­West Coast hip hop rivalry (with Common, a midwestern rapper, being more closely associated with the East Coast), the song inspired many responses, including one from the West Coast group Westside Beginning as an underground rapper in Chicago Connection (1994–2005), a gangand then becoming associated with East Coast sta rap group featuring Ice Cube hip hop acts, Common’s lyrical content focused (1969–), who felt that references on socially conscious, Afrocentric themes. His disdain for gangsta rap placed him in the center to “the boys in the hood” in one of a lengthy East Coast–­West Coast hip hop feud of Common’s songs ­were a direct with Westside Connection, a group that featured attack on him personally and on Ice Cube. (Starstock ​/­Dreamstime​.­com) N.W.A.’s (1986–1991) well known 1987 single “Boyz-­n-­the-­Hood.” Westside Connection’s 1995 song, “Westside Slaughter­house,” was the band’s diss track response. The lyr­ics mention Common by name in addition to other East Coast rappers. In turn, Common released the diss track “The B— in Yoo” in 1996, in which he attacked Ice Cube and suggested that the West Coast rapper took his (Common’s) lyr­ics out of context. The feud continued for years ­until both sides ­were able to meet and resolve their differences. One Day It’ll All Make Sense featured collaborations with Lauryn Hill (1975–), De La Soul (1987–), Q-­Tip (Jonathan William Davis, 1970–), and Erykah Badu (1971–), among o­ thers. Released just before the birth of Common’s first child, the ­album features tracks addressing personal and ­family issues such as abortion, as in “Retrospect for Life,” and transitioning into parenthood, as in “G.O.D. (Gaining One’s Definition).” One Day ends with a spoken-­word piece by Lynn, “Pop’s Rap, Pt. 2/ Fatherhood.” Common then joined the neo soul/hip hop collective Soulquarians



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(1990s–2000s*). Soulquarians members D’Angelo (Michael Eugene Archer, 1974–), James Poyser (1967–), and J Dilla (James Dewitt Yancey, 1974–2006) collaborated on Common’s fourth studio ­album, Like W ­ ater for Choco­late. This was his first of two ­albums recorded for MCA Rec­ords (1934–2003). The second, Electric Circus, was hailed as an eclectic mix of musical influences including hip hop, pop, electronica, and rock but was not as commercially successful as Like W ­ ater for Choco­late. Subsequent ­albums have had a similar eclecticism and have received critical acclaim and success. Common followed with Be and Finding Forever, which combine hip hop and neo soul. Universal Mind Control, produced by Pharell (1973–), once more fuses hip hop with electronic, this time adding techno. The Dreamer/The Believer returns to alternative hip hop, featuring poet Maya Angelou (Marguerite Annie Johnson, 1928–2014) on the first track, “The Dreamer.” In contrast to the mostly positive tone of The Dreamer/The Believer, Nobody’s Smiling focuses on Chicago’s urban vio­lence and crime. Common’s most recent ­album, Black Amer­i­ca Again, has received strong critical acclaim, particularly for its sociopo­liti­cal lyrical content focused on being black in the United States in 2016 and on the country’s ­f uture potential. The ­album peaked at No. 25 on the Billboard 200. It features Stevie Won­der (1950–) on its title track. In addition to recording, Common has also maintained an acting ­career, having appeared on tele­vi­sion shows, most notably Girlfriends (2000–2008) in 2003 and The Mindy Proj­ect (2012–) in 2013, and costarring in American film dramas such as Selma (2014) and John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017). Lauron Jockwig Kehrer See also: J Dilla; Neo Soul; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Bradley, Adam, and Andrew Dubois, eds. 2010. “Common.” ­Under “Part 3: 1993–99: Rap Goes Mainstream” in The Anthology of Rap, pp. 363–72. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Cramer, Jennifer, and Jill Hallett. 2010. “From Chi-­Town to the Dirty-­Dirty: Regional Identity Markers in U.S. Hip Hop.” In The Languages of Global Hip Hop, edited by Marina Terkourafi, chap. 10. New York: Continuum. Kot, Greg. 2005. “Common Ground: How Hip Hop’s Kanye West and Common Are Recapturing Their Chicago Roots.” Chicago Tribune, April 17, 7.1.

Further Listening

Common. 1994. Resurrection. Relativity.

Com­pany Flow (1995–1999, Queens, New York) Com­pany Flow was a short-­lived but highly respected avant-­garde/experimental and iconoclastic underground American hip hop trio associated with the in­de­pen­ dent rec­ord label Rawkus Rec­ords (1995–2001). Rapper and producer El-­P (Jaime Meline, 1975–) joined with DJ and producer Mr. Len (Leonard Smythe, 1975–) to found the group in 1993 in Queens. A second rapper and grafitti artist, Bigg Jus

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(Justin Ingleton, n.d.) was added to the duo ­after El-­P met him through New York–­ based underground rapper and indie label owner ANTTEX (Darren E. Johnson, 1966–). The trio’s first EP, Funcrusher (1995), led to a deal with Rawkus Rec­ ords and the release of the band’s debut ­album, Funcrusher Plus (1997), which has become a cult classic among hip hop fans b­ ecause of the complexity of its m ­ usic, which combines trance, chillout, experimental alternative, hip hop, and rap to create a filtered sound where every­thing is placed in the background. ­Music and lyr­ics take on an ethereal, dreamscape quality, and texts are informed by not only the urban experience but also dystopian lit­er­a­ture and science fiction imagery as well as references to anime films. Com­pany Flow released only one other ­album, a series of experimental instrumentals called ­Little Johnny from the Hospitul: Breaks and Instrumentals, Vol.1 (1999). Com­pany Flow was created when El-­P met Mr. Len, who was hired to DJ his birthday party in 1993. The two formed Com­pany Flow and released a vinyl single, “Juvenile Technique” (1992), on a now defunct Long Island indie label called Libra Rec­ords (1991–1997), with which ANTTEX was involved. ANTTEX also introduced El-­P to two DJs at WKCR, broadcast from Columbia University in New York City, who ­were so impressed with El-­P’s freestyling that they began playing Com­pany Flow (now a trio) singles, which quickly built a college-­based and community fan following. ­After Bigg Jus was added to the band, it released Funcrusher as well as three singles, including the popu­lar “8 Steps to Perfection” (credited to El-­P and Big Juss, 1996), which was produced by El-­P. The trio then signed with Rawkus, the same label that would release works by Mos Def (1973–) in 1997 and Talib Kweli (1975–) in 1998. ­After the release of Funcrusher Plus, Bigg Jus wanted to start a solo ­career, so the band dissolved, although El-­P and Mr. Len worked together to release ­Little Johnny from the Hospitul. El-­P went on to create his own rec­ord label, Definitive Jux ­Music (1997–), which has released ­albums by El-­P’s most current band and cult favorite Run the Jewels (2013–), which charted at No. 27 on Billboard’s Top R&B and Hip-­Hop ­Albums, followed by Run the Jewels 2 (2014) and Run the Jewels 3 (2016), which charted on the Billboard 200 at Nos. 50 and 13, respectively. El-­P also pursued a solo ­career, releasing three ­albums that charted on the Billboard 200: Fantastic Damage (2002), I’ll Sleep When Y ­ ou’re Dead (2007), and Cancer 4 Cure (2012). Mr. Len went on to release the fan favorite Pity the Fool: Experiments in Therapy b­ ehind the Mask of M ­ usic While Handing Out Dummysmacks (2001) with Matador Rec­ords (1989–) and to create Smacks Rec­ ords (2003–). He also released Beats and ­T hings, Vol. 1 (2004) and Smacks Rec­ ords: For T ­ hose of You Just Joining Us (2005). Bigg Jus released three a­ lbums, Black Mamba Serums (2004), Poor P ­ eople’s Day (2005), and Machines That Make Civilization Fun (2012). Com­pany Flow re­u nited in 2007 and 2011 for per­ for­mances in Brooklyn and New York City; the trio performed its final show at the Coachella Valley M ­ usic and Arts Festival in 2012. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: The United States



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Further Reading

Kot, Greg. 2002. “The Hip Hop Underground Mixes It Up.” Chicago Tribune, April 28, 7.1. Kot, Greg. 2002. “Pushing the Limits: Fresh Rap from the Hip Hop Underground.” The Rec­ord (Bergen County, New Jersey), May 9, F07. Murphy, Bill. 2004. “El-­P.” Interview with El-­P. Remix 6, no. 4: 18.

Further Listening

Com­pany Flow. 1997. Funcrusher Plus. Rawkus Rec­ords.

Compton’s Most Wanted (aka C.M.W., 1987–1993, 2015–­, Compton, California) Compton’s Most Wanted (aka C.M.W.) is an American West Coast gangsta rap, hip hop, and G-­funk band whose consistent lineup has been three Compton, California–­ born MCs, Boom Bam (Gene Heisser, 1971–), MC Eiht (Aaron Tyler, 1967*–), and Tha Chill (aka Chill MC, Vernon Johnson, 1970–), as well as Inglewood, California, producer DJ Slip (Terry K. Allen, 1972–). A fourth member, known as DJ Ant Capone (anonymous, n.d.), also from Compton, was in the band originally but left in 1989 and was immediately replaced by scratcher and turntablist DJ Mike T (Michael Bryant, n.d.). The group’s third ­album, ­Music to Driveby (1992), is considered a gangsta rap classic, peaking at No. 66 on the Billboard 200 but producing “Hood Took Me ­Under,” a Top 10 Hot Rap single. Its ­music is defined by its slow pacing, with heavy doses of funk instrumentation, such as bass and rhythm guitar loops, usually pro­cessed through delay pedals. Both the rap and the vocals tend to be pensive and mea­sured, with an understated sense of frustration and anger ­behind the lyr­ics; in many cases, the songs are melancholic. C.M.W. is also known for its liberal use of samples from 1970s soul and funk rec­ords. The band’s best-­ known vocalist, MC Eiht, keeps his rap tense but mea­sured, with heavy emphasis on rhymed couplets; he often plays up the final rhyme in each couplet by vocal emphasis, pacing, or well-­timed pausing. The band began to form in the mid-1980s, when Tha Chill and Ant Capone began penning raps and creating demo tapes with MC Ren (Lorenzo Jerald Patterson, 1969–) of N.W.A. (1986–1991). MC Eiht, a corner boy who also wrote street raps as a way to escape drug addiction and street life, joined the duo. One of the group’s tapes found its way into the hands of the Unknown DJ (Andre Manuel, n.d.) of the label Techno-­Hop (1984–) in 1987, and he took it to DJ Slip, owner of ­Music ­People—­DJ4HIRE, Los Angeles County’s largest DJ rental business. Slip added the group to his Sound Control Mob (1988*–), a co­ali­tion of DJs and MCs from vari­ous groups in the Los Angeles area who would soon get a rec­ord deal with World Class Wreckin’ Cru (1984–1986) label Kru-­Cut (1984–1989). C.M.W.’s first single, “This Is Compton” (1989), on the Kru-­Cut and Techno-­ Kut (1989–1990)* labels, got it a contract with Orpheus Rec­ords (1967*–) and led to its first ­album, It’s a Compton Thang (1990), which reached No. 132 on the Billboard 200. A second a­ lbum, Straight Checkn ‘Em (1991), which featured DJ Slip and the Unknown DJ, peaked at No. 92 and produced “Growin’ Up in the Hood,” which made the soundtrack of Boyz in the Hood (1991). Following the release of

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­ usic to Driveby, the band went on hiatus due to Tha Chill’s l­egal prob­lems and M the band’s artistic issues; MC Eiht went solo. During this time, C.M.W. got into a minor feud with Bronx, New York, rapper Tim Dog (Timothy Blair, 1967–2013) over what they considered to be his selling out and produced a popu­lar parody song, “Who’s Xxxing Who?” (1992). The band’s fourth and fifth ­albums, Represent (2000) and ­Music to Gang Bang (2006), ­were not commercially successful. In 1993, MC Eiht, who gained popularity ­after acting roles in Boyz n the Hood and Menace II Society (1993), signed with DJ Mike T for three solo ­albums (the ­albums are often credited to C.M.W. but ­were in actuality solo per­for­mances with guests from the band), including his certified-­Gold debut, We Come Strapped (1994), which sold over 600,000 copies and reached the top spot on the R&B ­album chart and No. 5 on the Billboard 200. He followed ­these with Death Threatz (1995) and Last Man Standing (1996, sometimes credited as his first solo ­album), all on Epic Street Rec­ords (1993–1998), then moved on to the in­de­pen­dent Los Angeles–­ based label Hoo Bangin’ (1996–), distributed by Priority Rec­ords (1985–), to rec­ ord Section 8 (1999) and N’ My Neighborhood (2000). MC Eiht continued a solo and guest musician ­career with vari­ous labels. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Gangsta Rap; N.W.A.; The United States

Further Reading

Forman, Murray. 2002. “Boyz n Girlz in the ’Hood: From Space to Place.” In The ’Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Place in Rap and Hip Hop, chap. 6. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. Woodstra, Chris, John Bush, and Stephen Thomas Erlewine. 2008. Old School Rap and Hip Hop. New York: Backbeat Books.

Further Listening

Compton’s Most Wanted. 2001. When We Wuz Bangin’ 1989–99: The Hitz. Right Stuff.

Congo The Congo comprises two Central African countries that use the Congo River as their border: the Demo­cratic Republic of the Congo (aka DRC, Congo-­Kinshasa), which from 1971 to 1997 was known as Zaire and was a Belgian colony; and the Republic of the Congo (aka ROC, Congo-­Brazzaville), which was a French colony and is sometimes considered part of West Africa. The DRC is one of the most dangerous countries in the world and one of the poorest. It has recently been plagued by the First (1996–1997) and Second (1998–2003) Congo Wars, which followed its involvement in the neighboring Rwandan Civil War (1990–1994), leading to the Rwandan genocide (1994). In addition, corruption, further conflicts, and resulting media blackouts and protests took place in the 2000s to 2010s. Limited media delayed access to hip hop in both countries. By the late 1990s, however, Congolese hip hop activity was pres­ent in Kinshasa and Brazzaville, DRC, and the Republic of the Congo’s capital cities as well as in other urban cities. Successful Congolese hip hop acts have resulted mostly from diaspora as Congolese performers have settled and recorded outside both countries.

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Although over 250 dif­fer­ent ethnic populations reside in the Congo, the official language of both countries is French. Likewise, Congolese rapping texts ­favor French, but also Lingala, a Bantu language spoken by black Africans (including Kongo, Luba, Mongo, Sangha, Teke, and M’Bochi ­peoples), who are the majority population. Bridging languages such as Swahili and the creole language Kituba (a lingua franca in Central Africa) are less used. Generally, Congolese rappers prefer Lingala, but many w ­ ill interweave Swahili and French. Other languages used include American vernacular and Portuguese. Other popu­lar ­music in both countries consists of traditional Congolese rumba as well as soukous kwassa kwassa, Guadeloupean zouk, and American R&B and jazz. As of 2018, hip hop is also popu­lar but remains an alternative to other popu­lar tastes.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO As of 2018, concern about freedom of speech and threats of vio­lence have driven hip hop activity indoors. For example, at the Yolé!Africa youth cultural center in Goma, male teens discuss politics and work on rapping lyr­ics, often focusing on exposing corruption, facing extreme adversity during wars and conflicts (including displacement), and desiring change. Nonetheless, most DRC hip hop is performed by artists in exile. One exception to the rule is R&B, rumba, soukous, and ndombolo singer-­songwriter and guitarist Fally Ipupa (Fally Ipupa N’simba, 1977–), whose solo recording ­career fuses ­these m ­ usic genres with hip hop. He raps and sings in Lingala, French, and American vernacular. Perhaps the most famous DRC hip hop artist living in exile is Ya Kid K (Manuela Barbara Kamosi Moaso Djogi, 1972–), a Kinshasa-­born female rapper and singer-­songwriter of Congolese Belgian descent who has lived in Belgium, Chicago, and Dallas. Ya Kid K is best known for singing and writing the lyr­ics to Belgian hip hop, hip h­ ouse, tech h­ ouse, and electronica proj­ect group Technotronic’s (1988–2000) “Pump Up the Jam” (1989), a hit that took place before the emergence of Congolese hip hop. The song peaked at No. 2 on the U.K. Singles Chart and on the Billboard Hot 100. Ya Kid K’s ­sister, R&B, pop, and soul singer Leki (Karoline Kamosi, 1978–), also born in Kinshasa, was involved with Technotronic as well. ­There is a long list of successful DRC rappers living elsewhere: Frank T (Tshimini Nsombolay, 1973–), raised and residing in Madrid and a pioneer of the 1980s hip hop scene t­here, raps in Spanish and fuses hip hop with electronica; Kaysha (Edward Mokolo Jr., 1974–), born in Kinshasa and raised in France, fuses hip hop with Afropop, kizomba, zouk, and zouk R&B; and Gracias (Deogracias Masomi, 1987–), currently residing in Helsinki, raps mostly in En­glish. Though many DRC hip hop artists have taken their ­music in a dif­fer­ent direction from addressing their roots, several focus a g­ reat deal on DRC issues. Rapper and singer-­songwriter Apkass (Alain Kasanda, n.d.), born in Kinshasa but living in Paris since he was 11 years old, raps in French and fuses hip hop with jazz that emphasizes heavy bass. Apkass’s interest in hip hop emerged in 1991 when he was already in France. Since 1997, Apkass has rapped about his homeland and supporting African unity, among other topics. The rap group Lopango ya Banka (Land of the Ancestors, 1997–) consists of DRC Congolese rappers living in Germany. Its

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members first intended only to teach African diaspora youth in Germany about their heritage and preserving Lingala as a language. By 2003, the group had begun rapping, opting for Lingala. Its m ­ usic videos include subtitles in German, French, and En­glish. Rapping texts focus on social issues, unity, positive aspects of being Congolese and African, aspirations, and spirituality—­and ­these messages are addressed to Congolese at home and abroad. REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO Though conditions in Congo are considerably better than they have been, many musicians rec­ord elsewhere; hip hop artists are no dif­fer­ent. The Pa­r i­sian collective Bisso Na Bisso (1999–) consists of members who are Congolese-­ Brazzaville-­born and fuse hip hop with traditional Congolese rumba, soukous, and zouk. Members include the French hip hop duo Ärsenik (1992–), Congolese-­ Brazzaville-­born French rapper Passi (Passi Ballende, 1972–), and French rappers Calbo (Calboni M’Bani, n.d.) and Lino (Gaëlino M’Bani, n.d.). The latter’s ­family is Congolese. All rap in Lingala and French. Rapper and spoken-­word artist Abd al Malik (Régis Fayette-­Mikano, 1975–) was born in Paris, but from age two to five, he grew up in Congo-­Brassaville before relocating to Strasbourg, France. Abd al Malik has a concurrent solo rap ­career while being a member of the Strasbourg hip hop group New African Poets (NAP, 1988–). His own style fuses hip hop with jazz and slam poetry, with inspiration from Sufism as well as singer-­songwriters and chansonnier Jacques Brel (1929–1978) and Claude Nougaro (1929–2004). Both ROC and DRC hip hop acts, w ­ hether living inside t­hese countries or in exile, share a common past, so when Congolese history or other connections to Congo are the focus of the ­music, the artists themselves make virtually no cultural distinction between being from the DRC or the ROC. This practice suggests how colonialism divided the same p­ eople into two countries without considering the Congolese as ­people, creating a purely artificial yet po­liti­cal border. Musicians from the DRC, for example, do not protest against p­ eople who have more rights or material access by living in the ROC, but rather about their country’s own socioeconomic in­equality. Both Congolese hip hop and jazz musicians employ a lot of improvisation, which is perceived as a musical connection to their homeland. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Belgium; France

Further Reading

Mertens, Jamina, Wouter Goedertier, Idesbald Goddeeris, and Dominique De Brabanter. 2013. “A New Floor for the Silenced? Congolese Hip Hop in Belgium.” Social Transformations: Journal of the Global South 1, no. 1: 87–113. Stewart, Gary. 2000. Rumba on the River: A Popu­lar History of the Two Congos. London: Verso.

Further Listening

Apkass. 2008. En merchant vers le soleil (Walking ­toward the Sun). MVS Rec­ords. Bisso Na Bisso. 1999. Racines (Roots). V2 M ­ usic.

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Coolio (Artis Leon Ivey Jr., 1963–­, Compton, California) Coolio is a hip hop, gangsta rap, G-­f unk, and West Coast singer and rapper who began recording in 1987; he went on to become a rec­ord producer, actor, and professional chef. His a­ lbums It Takes a Thief (1994), Gangsta’s Paradise (1995), and My Soul (1997) helped him to become a mainstream star, as did his 1996 Grammy Award–­winning hit single “Gangsta’s Paradise,” which sold five million copies in the United States and went to No. 1 in the United States, Australia, Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. A studious child, Coolio soon found his life changed when he became a victim of bullying, his parents divorced, and his ­mother became an alcoholic. As a young adult, he was incarcerated for possession of a stolen check, and by 1985 he was a cocaine addict. It was then that he moved to San José, California, to live with his ­father and turn his life around. Coolio started out as a fixture in the South Central Los Angeles, California rap scene in the early 1980s. He turned to rapping and recorded some demo singles in 1987 that gained him a positive reputation with the Los Angeles rap scene and led to his stint with WC and the MAAD Circle (1990–1996, 2007–2014), which was produced by Ice Cube (1969–), appearing on the band’s debut ­album ­Ain’t a Damn ­Thing Changed (1991), which sold over 150,000 copies. He was then signed in 1993 as a solo act by Tommy Boy Rec­ords (1981–), for whom he worked on his debut ­album, It Takes a Thief, which was certified Platinum and produced the hit “Fantastic Voyage,” a song that went to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as other hits “County Line,” and “I Remember.” His follow-up, “Gangsta’s Paradise,” reached the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks. The follow-up ­album, Gangsta’s Paradise, was certified double Platinum and produced the Top 10 hit “1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin’ New).” My Soul also went Platinum, but he was dropped from Tommy Boy Rec­ords. Coolio differed from most gangsta rappers in that he emphasized positive messages and the ability to change one’s life, lessons he himself lived out. He is known for his raspy baritone and an overarticulated delivery as well as his unique hairstyles. ­After his first few ­albums, he began in­de­pen­dently releasing ­albums on vari­ous international labels and created a web-­based cooking show, Cookin’ with Coolio (2014–), which followed from his writing a popu­lar soul food and special diet cookbook, Cookin’ with Coolio: 5 Star Meals at a 1 Star Price (2009). Part of his purpose is to help p­ eople who grew up in poverty, as he did, to eat healthily. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Gangsta Rap; G-­Funk; The United States

Further Reading

Forman, Murray. 2002. “Boyz n Girlz in the ’Hood: From Space to Place.” In The ’Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Place in Rap and Hip Hop, chap. 6. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.

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Kemp, Mark. 1995. “Paradise Found.” Rolling Stone no. 723, December 14, 33–34. Quinn, Eithne. 2005. “Alwayz into Somethin’: Gangsta’s Emergence in 1980s Los Angeles.” In Nuthin’ but a “G” Thang: The Culture and Commerce of Gangsta Rap, chap. 3. New York: Columbia University Press.

Further Listening

Coolio. 1994. It Takes a Thief. Tommy Boy Rec­ords.

Costa Rica The Republic of Costa Rica is a Central American sovereign country (since 1847) with a population of around five million. Nearly a quarter of its ­people live in the metropolitan area of the capital and largest city, San José. It is home to cumbia—­a dance ­music that originated along Colombia’s Ca­r ib­bean coast. Many kinds of ­music are also popu­lar: pan-­Caribbean calypso and rumba; American, British, and Latin hip hop, disco, metal, rock, and pop; Puerto Rican reggaetón; Cuban salsa; Trinbagonian soca; and indigenous traditional ­music. American, British, and Latin rock and pop have been popu­lar among Costa Rican youth, especially urban youth, for de­cades, and ­these same youth became the audience for hip hop, a natu­ral progression from Afro-­Caribbean rhythmic percussion sounds that had taken hold along the country’s Ca­r ib­bean coast, where rumba, calypso, and reggae are popu­lar, with bands such as Limón-­based Mekatelyu (1998–). Starting in the mid1990s, hip hop culture has grown, beginning with artists such as Tapon (Cristian Gómez Vargas, 1979–) and songs such as “Creada a mi manera” (“Created in My Own Way,” 2007). Currently, Costa Rica boasts a double-­Platinum Afro–­Costa Rican rapper-­ songwriter, San José native and ex–­Ragga By Roots (1990–97*) rapper Huba (Huba Antonio Watson Webley, 1971*–). He began by showcasing his breakdancing skills during visits to Limón, writing his first rap at age 18. Current rappers include OchoSeis (Daniel Smith, n.d.), 3SCRIVAS (2014–), Wako Guerrilla Callejera (Daniel Chaverri, n.d.), DJP (Pietro Wolbrom Prescod, n.d.) and his ­brother Toledo (Toledo Wolbrom Prescod, 1981*–), Jahricio (Mauricio Alvarado, 1971*–), and Crypy 626 (Gerson Rodriguez, 1986*–). Their songs can be heard on Urban Radio (an FM station) and on the Internet, where they are shared for ­free. Generally, Costa Rican rap is concerned with social issues, self-­improvement and empowerment, and recently, w ­ omen’s rights. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Colombia; Cumbia Rap; Reggaetón

Further Reading

Morales, Ed. 2003. The Latin Beat: The Rhythms and Roots of Latin ­Music from Bossa Nova to Salsa and Beyond. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. Pabón, Jessica N. 2016. “Daring to Be ‘Mujeres Libres, Lindas, Locas’: An Interview with the Ladies Destroying Crew of Nicaragua and Costa Rica.” In La Verdad: An International Dialogue on Hip Hop Latinidades, edited by Melissa Castillo-­Garsow and Jason Nicholls, chap. 13. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.



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Crazy Legs (Richard Colón, 1966–­, Bronx, New York) Crazy Legs is the stage name for Richard Colón, a Puerto Rican American b-­boy and founding member of the Manhattan, New York, branch of Rock Steady Crew (RSC, 1977–); he is current president of the RSC organ­ization. His showmanship and competitiveness drew a wider, worldwide audience to the dance form. He created and pop­u­lar­ized the “W” move, in which the dancer’s legs sit ­behind him or her in a W shape, and the continuous backspin, also known as the windmill, in which the dancer repeatedly spins on his or her back with legs in a wide V shape. Both became standard downrock (floor) moves. He has toured extensively throughout the United States, Japan, Australia, South Amer­i­ca, and Eu­rope. Colón danced as Jennifer Beals’s (1963–) body double in her final breakdancing scene in the American motion picture Flashdance (1983) and performed as himself in the American films Wild Style (1983), Style Wars (1983), and Beat Street (1984). Though interest in b-­boying and b-­girling waned in the late 1980s, Colón played a significant role in preserving and reviving the art form.

THE BRONX HIP HOP DANCE CREWS Colón was involved with the original Rock Steady Crew in the Bronx as well as being a member of the Bronx Boys crew (1975–1979). He was briefly a member of the Manhattan-­based Rockwell Association before starting a Manhattan branch of the RSC in 1979. Colón battled and recruited well known b-­boys, such as Frosty Freeze (1963–2008) and Ken Swift (1966–), to the Manhattan branch of the RSC. Crazy Legs and Rock Steady Crew pop­u­lar­ized b-­boying and b-­girling outside the original audience, performing in downtown nightclubs and touring London and Paris in 1983 on the Roxy Tour, the first international hip hop tour, with other hip hop pioneers, such as Afrika Bambaataa (1957–) and Fab Five Freddy (1959–).

CHOREOGRAPHY AND DANCE APPEARANCES Colón choreographed and/or performed in multiple theatrical productions in the United States, including So! What Happens Now? (1991), Concrete Jungle (1992), and Jam on the Groove (1995). He was nominated for a 1998 MTV award for Best Choreography in a Video for Wyclef Jean Featuring Refugee Allstars’s (1997) track “We Trying to Stay Alive.” In 1999, he choreographed and performed in the American-­released ­music video for Moby’s (Richard Melville Hall, 1965–) “Bodyrock.” Colón has been featured in multiple films about hip hop and b-­boying, and coproduced and starred in the 2002 American documentary The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-­Boy. In 1994, Colón received a Hip Hop Pioneer Award from The Source magazine at their inaugural awards show. The film Bouncing Cats (2010)

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documents his work with young dancers and Breakdance Proj­ect Uganda in northern Uganda (2006–). Katy E. Leonard See also: Breakdancing; Hip Hop Dance; Frosty Freeze; Ken Swift; Puerto Rico; Rock Steady Crew; The United States

Further Reading

Fuhrer, Margaret. 2014. “Urban and Commercial Dance.” In American Dance: The Complete Illustrated History, chap. 10. Minneapolis, MN: Voyageur Press. Rajakumar, Mohanalakshmi. 2012. “The Breaks’ in Break Dancing.” In Hip Hop Dance, chap. 1. The American Dance Floor. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood.

Further Viewing

Elderkin, Nabil, dir. 2010. Bouncing Cats. Vienna, Austria: Red Bull Media House. Israel, dir. 2002. The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-­Boy. Chatsworth, CA: QD3 Entertainment. Silver, Tony, dir. 1983. Style Wars. Los Angeles, CA: Public Art Films.

C-­Real (Cyril-­Alex Gockel, 1984–­, Hohoe, Ghana) C-­Real is a Ghanaian hip hop musician and rapper, poet, entrepreneur, rec­ord producer, and creator/CEO of MixDown Studios and Pulse Communications (2011–), which specializes in radio commercials, TV voice-­overs and m ­ usic overlays, m ­ usic and beat production, mixing and mastering, and video production. He rec­ords out of Accra, the urban capital and most populous city of Ghana, and often includes other Ghanaian musicians on his proj­ects. A gradu­ate of the University of Ghana, C-­Real started writing poetry and rap verses in 2009, and that same year he won the Ghanaian edition of the Emcee Africa talent show, finishing second in the finals. Also in 2009, he released a seven-­track mixtape, Multiples of C, and in 2012, he collaborated on a second, nine-­track mixtape, Proj­ect Hip Hop. In 2012, he was featured on the song “Next Up,” from the compilation The Rising Stars of Gh Vol 1. That year, C-­Real released his debut studio ­album, Em C.E.O., containing the lead single “I Be the Swag,” accompanied by a boxing ring–­inspired MC ­battle ­music video that was nominated for Best Hip Hop Video at the 2011 4Syte M ­ usic Video Awards. The videos for the second and third singles, “Em.CEO” and “Opeimu,” ­were nominated for the same award in 2012 and 2013, respectively. In 2014, C-­Real released a 10-­track mixtape, The Reigning Season, with vocals in pidgin En­glish, Twi, Ewe, and Ga. C-­Real lists as his influences American rappers such as the Notorious B.I.G. (1972–1997), Jay-­Z (1969–), Method Man (Clifford Smith, 1971–), and Nas (1973–), to whom he pays homage in his 2014 song “One Mic.” A ­ fter his subsequent recording proj­ect, the mixtape Proj­ect Hip Hop 2, he began working on his second studio a­ lbum and a spoken-­word a­ lbum. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Ghana



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Further Reading

Collins, John. 2012. “Con­temporary Ghanaian Popu­lar ­Music Since the 1980s.” In Hip Hop Africa: New African M ­ usic in a Globalizing World, edited by Eric Charry, chap. 10. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Shipley, Jesse Weaver. 2013. “Transnational Circulation and Digital Fatigue in Ghana’s Azonto Dance Craze.” American Ethnologist 40, no. 2: 362–81.

Crip Walk (aka C-­walk) A Crip walk, a subset of what is called gangsta walk dance, is a West Coast hip hop dance move that emphasizes footwork. In its con­temporary versions, moves such as the moonwalk, foot crossovers, slides, hops, shuffles, and heel-­to-­toe rolls (where the dancer alternates between moving on just the balls of the feet with moving flat-­footed, as in dubstepping) make up a good portion of the dance’s moves. In early versions, the feet ­were moved much more simply, often to spell out words such as C-­R-­I-­P or B-­L-­O-­O-­D, the latter then being crossed out by foot movement. As the dance developed over time, leg movements such as bending at the knees and then straightening to create a pumping action or pointing the feet outward from the knees and then sliding the feet in unison also became common. Arm movements are usually ­either restricted or are deemphasized, although in gang-­ based versions, gang signs can be signaled with the hands. The Crip walk can be traced back to the early 1970s in California, when members of the Los Angeles–­based Crips (1969–), a gang associated with the South Central (Compton) area, began hip hop dancing with a style that used quick and intricate footwork. Members used it typically while at parties, ostensibly to display gang affiliation. Reports indicate that the Crip walk was also used a­ fter a gang execution, as a means of leaving the Crips’ signature, and could be used by a robbery lookout to indicate that a potential robbery location was clear. As the gang dance was ­adopted by rappers on the U.S. West Coast, it came to be called the Crip walk, although at one point ­music videos showing the dance ­were censored ­because of its alleged link to criminal activity, and some schools censored it out of fear of rival gang reprisal. Nonetheless, references to the Crip walk found their way into rap songs, such as Xzibit’s (Alvin Nathaniel Joiner, 1974–) “Get Your Walk On” (2001) and J-­kwon’s (Jerrell C. Jones, 1986–) “Hood Hop” (2004). The dance itself found its way into hip hop ­music videos, as in Snoop Dogg (1971–) and Pharrell’s (1973–) “Drop It Like It’s Hot” (2004), where Snoop Dogg can be seen clearly Crip-­walking at the beginning and end of the video, and versions of dances that incorporate crip walk moves into a more bouncy dance style can be seen in Compton-­born Kendrick Lamar’s (1987–) recent video for “I” (2014). Unfortunately, anything resembling the Crip walk can be mislabeled as such, as was the case in the 2012 Summer Olympics when internationally renowned tennis player Serena Williams (1981–) danced ­after defeating Maria Sharapova (1987–) in the gold-­medal match; a ­simple shuffling of her feet was immediately (and likely incorrectly) decried as a Crip walk moment. Non-­gang-­related variations of the Crip

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walk include the clown walk, the crown walk, and the Kilwaukee walk. The Bloods, the Crips’ rival gang, responded with its own dance version, the Blood bounce, which added more bounce to the C-­walk as well as vis­i­ble swaggering. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Gangs (United States); Gangsta Rap; Hip Hop Dance; Snoop Dogg; The United States

Further Reading

Phillips, Susan A. 2009. “Crip Walk, Villain Dance, Pueblo Stroll: The Embodiment of Writing in African American Gang Dance.” Anthropological Quarterly 82, no. 1: 69–97. Thomas, R. Murray. 2008. “Ceremonies and Per­for­mances.” In What Schools Ban and Why, chap. 14. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Croatia Croatia, a Southeast Eu­ro­pean country, shares borders with musically influential nations such as Bosnia-­Herzogovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, and Hungary as well as a maritime border with Italy, which is also musically influential. ­Music found its way in ­because for centuries, Dubrovnik, a Mediterranean Sea port city located in the south, has been a popu­lar tourist destination, though tourism decreased while the country was the Socialist Republic of Croatia (1943–1991) and ­under communist rule within the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugo­slavia (1945–1992). Croatia was one of the first countries to seek in­de­pen­dence from the Soviet Union in 1991, and in 1992 Croatia attained recognition by the United Nations (UN). Po­liti­ cal unrest, the Yugo­slav Wars (1991–2001), and dominant popu­lar musical tastes favoring rock and new wave ­were all ­factors that kept Croatian hip hop an alternative ­music into the late 1990s. Hip hop first came to Croatia in the 1980s through travelers bringing American, Italian, and other Eu­ro­pean rap recordings to coastal destinations such as Dubrovnik and Split. Though tourist-­oriented nightclubs played hip hop, Rijeka and Zagreb developed the earliest Croatian hip hop scenes. Pioneering rapper MC Buffalo (Dejan Bubalo, 1971–2012), from Rijeka, was first to rec­ord a rap audiocassette in Croatia, MC Buffalo’s 1st Cut (1991), just at the beginning of the Yugo­slav Wars. In 1992, his rap-­rock band MC Buffalo and Maderfa’N’kerz (1991–1996) recorded the ­album Rijeka (alluding to the city Rijeka, which also means “river”), which featured the song “Moja domovnica” (“My Citizenship Document”), a parody of the Croatian patriotic song “Moja domovina” (“My Homeland,” 1991). It became the first banned Croatian rap song. In 1992, the hardcore rap group Ugly Leaders (1988– 2001), also from Rijeka, released Channel Is Deep and Beech, an ­album in Croatian and American vernacular that had tracks banned for their vulgarity. Texts not only protested po­liti­cal corruption, oppression, and the Yugo­slav Wars but also emphasized the pleasures of sex, drinking, drugs, and partying. Early Croatian hip hop featured programmed beats and sometimes bass guitar, but soon musicians added synthesizers, original beats, turntablism, and other instruments. In the late 1990s and into the 2000s, groups from Zagreb and Split emerged as hip hop received more radio airplay. Songs ­after the war continued to protest

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corruption and economic disparity. Thug and gangsta rap topics ­were also covered. In 1999, the hip hop band Tram 11 (1996–2003), from Zagreb, had the first No. 1 rap hit on the Croatian singles charts with “Hrvatski velikani” (“Croatian ­Greats”). Other Croatian hip hop artists emerging between the 1990s and the 2000s included Tram 11’s General Woo (Srđan Ćuk, 1977–). ­Others include Target (Nenad Šimun, n.d.), El Bahatee (Stiv Kahlina, 1979–), Stoka (Livestock, Marin Ivanović, 1981–), and Elemental (1998–), all from Zagreb. Split bands included the rap-­rock band Beat Fleet (TBF, 1997–), Aleksandar Antić (1973–), and Dječaci (Boys, 2005–). Elemental fuses hip hop with reggae, rock, funk, and soul and is the only Croatian hip hop band fronted by a female MC, Remi (Mirela Priselac Remi, 1979–). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Bosnia and Herzegovina; Hungary; Montenegro; Serbia; Slovenia

Further Reading

Baker, Catherine. 2009. “War Memory and Musical Tradition: Commemorating Croatia’s Homeland War through Popu­lar ­Music and Rap in Eastern Slavonia.” Journal of Con­temporary Eu­ro­pean Studies 17, no. 1: 35–45. Greenwalt, Alexander. 1996. “RijeKKKa’s Most Psycho: Ugly Rappers ­after the War.” The Village Voice, September 3, p. 31.

Further Listening

Elemental. 2016. Tijelo (Body). 383. Ugly Leaders. 1993. Channel Is Deep and Beech. Channel/Damn Good Rec­ords/Super­ freak Productions.

Crunkcore Crunkcore is an American hybrid subgenre of electronica/dance-­pop, screamo, and crunk, and ­because of the last, it sometimes contains recognizable ele­ments of hip hop. At its most basic, crunkcore is “scream meets crunk,” the latter being a hybrization of electronica/dance-­pop and rap. Crunk emerged in the South in the early 1990s and by 2000 was being played on mainstream radio. Defined by its up-­tempo, danceable sound, which makes it perfect for clubbing, generally speaking crunk is informed by a consistent groove, but as electronica it incorporates multitracked synthesized melodic riffs and the use of drum machines. Like rap, it also contains pronounced bass, as well as frenetic calls and shouts to accompany vocals (sometimes using call-­and-­response). Crunkcore likely derives from the phrase crank up, as in cranking up both energy and volume in song. Critics consider the subgenre another example of white appropriation of African American m ­ usic, especially since all of the major crunkcore bands are white. SCREAMO The other major ele­ment of crunkcore, screamo, also began in the 1990s. Screamo can best be described as grindcore (power-­chord hardcore metal) meets emo (a highly emotional style of ­music featuring melodramatic and confessional lyr­ics).

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Screamo, however, is so overly aggressive that, although emotional, its vocal lines degenerate into screams and growls. Early screamo tended to be highly experimental and nonmelodic, even dissonant. Crunkcore, therefore, usually contains more synthesizer than hip hop and is oriented ­toward high-­energy, dance club–­style dancing rather than breakdancing or swaggering. Its main vocals can be screamed or sung (usually with a lot of autotuning), and, when sung, are accompanied by screamo screaming or growling in backing vocals. More metal-­based crunkcore bands eschew keyboard for heavy power-­chord guitar, loud bass, and intricate drum kit work. Like many styles of rap, crunkcore is often accused of being sexist, misogynistic, and vulgar. The crunkcore scene has more in common with the emo and punk scenes than with hip hop, as far as fashion an aesthetics are concerned. BANDS AND THEIR (UN)POPULARITY Some of the more popu­lar crunkcore bands include 3OH!3 (2004–), Millionaries (2007–), ­Family Force Five (aka ­Family Force 5 or FF5, 2004–), Blood on the Dance Floor (2007–), Breathe Carolina (2007–), and Hollywood Undead (2005–)—­these bands all owe their success to brokeNCYDE (aka Brokencyde, 2006–), the band most responsible for crunkcore’s rise, as well as most of its negative publicity. The duo 3OH!3 (2004–) is best known for “­Don’t Trust Me,” which peaked in the Hot 100 Top 10. The duo has collaborated with Katy Perry (1984–) and Ke$ha (Kesha Rose Sebert, 1987–) and is considered a pioneer in using preprogrammed beats in emo ­music. Millionaires is the most famous of the female crunkcore bands—­although it uses ­little screamo or hip hop ele­ments. Like Breathe Carolina, Millionaires is an electronica duo, but ­because of Millionaire’s electro-­pop sound and explicit lyr­ics that aggrandize sexual and illegal activity, it is usually included in any crunkcore discussion. FF5 combines the hard-­edged sound of crunkcore with Christian rock messages. Along with Blood on the Dance Floor, an electronica duo that has released eight studio ­albums, FF5, with five studio ­albums and nine EPs, is one of the most prolific crunkcore bands. Hollywood Undead, hailing from Los Angeles, is considered a rap band, and of all the crunkcore bands, it most embraces the rap ethos; all its members use pseudonyms and wear masks. Albuquerque, New Mexico’s brokeNCYDE combines crunk with both autotuned and screamed vocals. Its July 2008 MTV per­for­mance was a benchmark event for crunkcore. The band’s lyr­ics have been attacked as misogynistic and puerile, which has done ­little to dissuade its fan base. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Hardcore Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Grem, Darren E. 2006. “ ‘The South Got Something to Say’: Atlanta’s Dirty South and the Southernization of Hip Hop Amer­i­ca.” Southern Cultures 12, no. 4: 55–73. Ryan Force, William. 2009. “Consumption Styles and the Fluid Complexity of Punk Authenticity.” Symbolic Interaction 32, no. 4: 289–309.

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Further Listening

brokeNCYDE. 2007. The Broken! Seven Sound Entertainment. FF5. 2015. Time Still Stands. Word. 3OH!3. 3OH!3. 2007. Self-­released.

Cuba Cuba, the largest island of the Ca­rib­bean, has a rich and vibrant hip hop culture. Hip hop appeared in this Spanish-­speaking nation in the mid-1980s—­the makeshift radio and tele­vi­sion antennas of residents living in the northeasternmost areas of the island (about 90 miles from the southern tip of Florida) allowed Cubans to receive broadcasts from Miami. The residents of the suburbs of Cuba’s capital, Havana, ­were predominantly poor and black (often referred to as moreno, negro, or Afro-­Cuban). Along with the distinct and novel sound of the ­music, they liked the fact that hip hop came from the voices of ­people in the United States who ­were similar to them in that they w ­ ere eco­nom­ically disadvantaged and socially marginalized black youth. ­These commonalities made hip hop a ­music genre and culture that was quickly embraced and adapted. Additionally, athletes who traveled or lived abroad ­either mailed or carried in vinyl rec­ords, audiocassettes, and VHS tapes to the island, despite the fact that Cuba and the United States have not had a po­liti­cal or economic relationship since Amer­i­ca’s 1960 financial and economic embargo against the island that began ­because of opposing po­liti­cal views. The introduction and subsequent adaptation of hip hop in Cuba is an example of how Cubans cleverly circumvented the blockade between countries. By the 1990s, hip hop had a large Cuban following and a significant number of Havana-­based producers of the m ­ usic. ELE­MENTS AND IMPORTANCE TO CUBAN CULTURE Cuban hip hop, also referred to as rap Cubano, incorporates strong bass riffs, multilayered percussions, jazz piano riffs, and brass instrument melodies. The beats of congas and bongos used in Afro-­Cuban folkloric ­music such as rumba, guaguancó, and son (pronounced “sown”) are also pres­ent. The highly synthesized sounds produced from synthesizers and computers that characterize hip hop more broadly are also common components. Notable ele­ments of Cuban hip hop’s lyrical content are its focus on Cuban nationalism and pride; the living conditions of poor urban areas; local and international po­liti­cal, economic, and social realities; and racial disparities on the socialist island. In this way, Cuban hip hop maintains the genre’s tradition of being a tool to voice the concerns of disenfranchised ­people by providing a forum for social critique. Rap Cubano, however, does not generally criticize the government or its policies but rather focuses on other topics, such as re­spect and adoration of the Orishas, divine figures that are a part of a pantheon of West African–­originated divinities and ­were carried to areas such as Brazil, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Trinidad, and Cuba during the transatlantic slave trade of the 15th to

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19th centuries. T ­ hese divinities are still honored t­ oday as divine saints (or santos) and are also a distinct part of Cuban hip hop culture. All of the distinct ele­ments that compose hip hop culture are vis­i­ble in Cuba, including MCing (rapping), breakdancing (b-­boying/b-­girling), other styles of hip hop dance, graffiti art, and DJing techniques. Hip hop is so deeply rooted and widespread that it is formally recognized by the government as being an impor­tant part of Cuba’s national culture. In 2002, the country’s Ministry of Culture established the Cuban Rap Agency (Agencia de Rap Cubano, ARC) to further develop and promote hip hop locally and internationally. The ARC ran and financed the country’s first national hip hop magazine, Movimiento (Movement, 2002–) and began its own rec­ord label, Asere Rec­ords (2002–), to produce hip hop ­albums. Government support of Cuban hip hop demonstrates that the m ­ usic and its surrounding culture are being validated and valued as impor­tant artistic expression, although it also allows for potential control of or influence over the ­music’s lyrical content, which can curtail social critique or make the ­music too commercial—so much so that its rich social content could be compromised. NOTABLE ARTISTS Notable Cuban hip hop artists include the rap duo Anónimo Consejo (2002– 2011), which incorporates creative instrumentation (woodwinds, strings) into its raps and fuses rap with reggae and other genres; the band Doble Filo (Double Edge, 1995–); the band Obsesión (1996–), which incorporates R&B and boy band vocals into its melodic sound; and the group Orishas (aka Amenaza, 1999–), which uses West Coast beats and Latino rhythms, as well as keyboards played against traditional percussions and brass, to create a laid-­back and mea­sured rap sound. Sabia McCoy-­Torres See also: Graffiti Art; The United States

Further Reading

Baker, Geoffrey. 2011. Buena Vista in the Club: Rap, Reggaetón, and Revolution in Havana. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Fernandes, Sujatha. 2015. “Cuban Hip Hop.” In The Cambridge Companion to Hip Hop, edited by Justin Williams, chap. 20. Cambridge, ­England: Cambridge University Press. West-­Durán, Alan. 2004. “Rap’s Diasporic Dialogues: Cuba’s Redefinition of Blackness.” Journal of Popu­lar ­Music Studies 16, no. 1: 4–39.

Further Listening

Orishas. 1999. A lo Cubano. Universal M ­ usic Latino/Surco Rec­ords. Vari­ous Artists. 2002. Cuban Hip Hop All Stars, Vol. 1. Flavor Rec­ords.

Cumbia Rap Cumbia rap is a style of hip hop ­music that combines hip hop beats, reggae, rapping, and cumbia ­music, which stems from the traditional Colombian rhythm. Like



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The duo Crooked Stilo was formed by b­ rothers Victor and Johnny Lopez (pictured in 2008 in Los Angeles), who grew up in El Salvador and then immigrated to East Los Angeles. Crooked Stilo performs cumbia rap—­a fusion of cumbia and American hip hop with Spanish lyr­ics. (Timothy Norris/Getty Images)

many styles of hip hop, cumbia rap is dance oriented and infused with Latin rhythm and instrumentation. Cumbia traces back to African Colombians, where it began as a courtship dance in Ca­rib­bean coastal areas. Influences from indigenous populations and Eu­ro­pean (especially Spanish) colonialists led to a modification in instrumentation and styles, and as cumbia spread throughout Latin Amer­i­ca, it evolved to fit local populations. Typical traditional cumbia instrumentation includes African drums, maracas, guache (large cylindrical shakers made of bamboo and played with two hands in a method similar to that used with a rain stick), wood blocks or bells, and whistles. Cumbia was introduced in the United States during the 1980s by Colombian immigrants fleeing po­liti­cal persecution and began to thrive in cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Corpus Christi, Texas, and in more urban areas became fused with Afrobeat, punk, and brass-­based mariachi pop. Cumbia made its way into rap when Tex-­Mex and Chicana acts such as Houston-­ based, Grammy Award–­winning rap band La Mafia (1980–); Chicago-­and Corpus Christi, Texas–­based La Sombra (The Shadow, 1980–1995), which has released over 20 ­albums in Spanish and En­glish; and Selena y los Dinos (Selena and the Dinos, 1982–1995), which featured iconic singer Selena (Selena Quintanilla-­Pérez, 1971– 1995), began rapping against cumbia beats. Other pioneers of cumbia rap include Crooked Stilo (1991–) from Los Angeles, Los Kumbia Kings (1997–2006) from Corpus Christi, and Chicos de Barrio (Guys from the Neighborhood, 1995–), from

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Torreon, Mexico. Rap duo Crooked Stilo was formed by ­brothers who grew up in El Salvador but immigrated to East Los Angeles, where gang warfare, drugs, and alcohol ­were prevalent—­the fusion of cumbia and rap ­music they created was their way of addressing ­these issues. Los Kumbia Kings combines cumbia, hip hop, and R&B to create songs in Spanish and En­glish and was cofounded by A. B. Quintanilla (Abraham Isaac Quintanilla III, 1963–), the ­brother of Selena. Chicos de Barrio are a cumbia rap group that combines urban, hip hop, salsa, reggae, and vallenato (popu­lar folk ­music from Colombia’s Ca­rib­bean region that originated with farmers and has its roots in the musical practices of West African griots and Spanish minstrels). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Colombia

Further Reading

Medina, Cruz. 2014. “(Who Discovered) Amer­i­ca: Ozomatli and the Mestiz@ Rhe­toric of Hip Hop.” Alter/Nativas, Latin American Cultural Studies Journal 1, no. 2: 24. Rekedal, Jacob. 2014. “Hip Hop Mapuche on the Araucanian Frontera.” Alter/Nativas, Latin American Cultural Studies Journal 1, no. 2: 35.

Further Listening

Chicos de Barrio. 1997. En tu corazon (In Your Heart). Wea Latina. La Mafia. 1997. En tus manos (In Your Hands). Epic.

Cut Chemist (Lucas MacFadden, 1972–­, Los Angeles, California) Cut Chemist is a West Los Angeles–­based turntablist, DJ, keyboardist, and producer best known for his sample-­based turntablism and his collaborations with turntablist DJ Shadow (1972–). He is also a member of the American alternative hip hop group Jurassic 5 (aka J5, 1993–2007, 2013–) and the Latin, hip hop, funk, jazz, and rock fusion band Ozomatli (1995–). He has an eclectic range of musical styles, primarily recording alternative and instrumental hip hop and fusing it with jazz, funk, soul, ambient electronica, dance, and world m ­ usic. He grew up in a musical home in Hollywood, where both parents ­were amateur musicians. Listening to KDAY AM 1580 (1961–), the first ever 24-­hour hip hop radio station, he became especially inspired by East Coast hip hop and began DJing in 1984, and by age 18 he was recording with friends. Near the time of the Los Angeles–­based rap crew Unity Committee’s (1987–1993) formation, as Cut Chemist, he became its DJ and had his recording debut on Unity Committee’s B side of the single “Unified Rebelution,” titled “Lesson 4: The Radio” (1993). In 1995, Unity Committee members joined Los Angeles–­based rapping crew the Rebels of Rhythm (1987*–1993) to form the alternative hip hop group Jurassic 5, in which Cut Chemist worked with another turntablist, DJ Nu-­Mark (Mark Potsic, 1971–). In 1995, Cut Chemist began recording his own DJ mixes on mixtapes for the in­de­pen­dent Los Angeles label Hip Hop Vibes (1980s–1990s*). ­These included Sick Experiment (1995), Rare Equations (1995), The Diabolical (1996), and Theories Not Yet Proven (1997). He ­later recorded another DJ mix, Live at the F ­ uture



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Primitive Soundsession Version 1.1 (1998), with turntablist crew Invisibl Skratch Piklz’s (1989–) member Shortkut (Jonathan Cruz, 1975–) on the San Francisco–­ based label ­Future Primitive Sound (1998*–2006). Cut Chemist also joined the Latin and Chicano rock, hip hop, world ­music, and funk fusion band Ozomatli, appearing on its eponymous debut studio ­album (1998) and Embrace the Chaos (2001). In the meantime, he began collaborating with DJ Shadow on the mixtape Brainfreeze (1999), which fused instrumental hip hop with funk and soul. Their subsequent ­albums included Product Placement (2001), Product Placement on Tour (2004), The Litmus Test (2004), The Hard Sell (2007), and The Hard Sell (Encore) (2008). In 2004, he departed from Jurassic 5 and Ozomatli to finish his debut solo ­album, The Audience’s Listening (2006). At times appearing in a white chemistry lab coat, Cut Chemist performs at concerts and parties using turntables, a controller, and a laptop. As his name suggests, Cut Chemist’s ­music focuses on the turntablist technique of cutting—­isolating instrumental breaks—­combined with mixing. He uses mostly the right turntable deck, scratching regular style (forward hand movement) with some hamster style (backward hand movement) while cutting breaks. He takes his samples from ­albums and, as of the 2010s, layers live turntablism over his use of the digital audio workstation ProTools (1989–), on which he creates samples and adds synthesizer and other recorded sounds. In addition to releasing numerous EPs as a solo artist since his debut studio ­album, Cut Chemist self-­released The Audience’s Following in 2016. Cut Chemist has toured worldwide. An avid ­album collector (known in hip hop culture as a crate digger), he searches to expand his collection while at home and on tour. His collection of vintage ­albums, particularly hard-­to-­find classic and global hip hop as well as electronica recordings, contribute to his sound. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: DJ Shadow; Turntablism; The United States

Further Reading

Hutton, Erin. 2005. “Cut Chemist.” Interview with Cut Chemist. Remix 7, no. 5: 24. Katz, Mark. 2012. Groove M ­ usic: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. Wang, Oliver. 2010. “On the Rec­ord: Cut Chemist Mines the Depths of Africa: ‘Sound of the Police’ Mixes Up and Revels in the Continent’s ’60s and ’70s ­Music Scenes.” Los Angeles Times, August 8, E10.

Further Listening

Cut Chemist. 2006. The Audience’s Listening. Warner Bros. Rec­ords/A Stable Sound. Cut Chemist. 2016. The Audience’s Following. Self-­released. DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist. 1999. Brainfreeze. Sixty 7 Recordings.

Cypress Hill (1988–­, Los Angeles, California) Cypress Hill is an American hip hop trio from South Gate, California. The group consists of Cuban rapper Sen Dog (Senen Reyes, 1965–), American turntablist DJ

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From South Gate, California, Cypress Hill was the first Latin-­American hip hop group to release multi-­Platinum studio ­albums. Since their height of fame in the 1990s, the group, which consisted of lead rapper B-­Real, rapper Sen Dog, DJ Muggs, and percussionist Bobo, excelled at performing live. (Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Muggs (Lawrence Muggerud, 1968–), and Mexican American rapper B-­Real (Louis Freese, 1970–). Its original incarnation, DVX (Devastating Vocal Excellence, 1988), also featured Sen Dog’s ­brother, Mellow Man Ace (Ulpiano Sergio Reyes, 1967–), who left to go solo. Cypress Hill became the first certified Platinum and multi-­Platinum Latino American hip hop recording artist (the Reyes ­brothers ­were born in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, and immigrated with their families to the United States as ­children). The band has sold 18 million a­ lbums internationally and is impor­t ant for its popularization of West Coast hip hop. Cypress Hill’s lyrical content focuses on drugs, insanity, police brutality, and absurdity. Cypress Hill’s sound, which was partially created by rec­ord executive/ producer Joe Nicolo (1956–), is defined by its use of funk, hardcore rock, and metal conventions; offbeat sampling; use of childlike, playfully melodic motifs; and idiosyncratic vocals. B-­Real is known specifically for his exaggerated, high-­pitched, nasally but smooth vocal delivery, a technique he borrowed and evolved from the Beastie Boys (1981–2012) and perfected at the request of DJ Muggs and Sen Dog; it made the band’s sound unique, allowing it to stand apart from other rap and hip



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hop bands. This set up a contrast to Sen Dog’s deep, gravelly (and sometimes pro­ cessed with harmonizing) vocals, which are generally shouted at the end of phrases. The band is also unique for its bilingual approach to lyr­ics. The ­music is defined by heavy bass and unusual sound effects (digital and analog, including animal sounds), which are looped throughout each song.

FIRST RECORDING DEAL ­ fter DJ Muggs’s first band, a clean-­cut early rap band called 7A3, produced an A unsuccessful debut ­album (Coolin’ in Cali, 1988), he worked with Sen Dog and B-­Real on a thug rap–­influenced successful 1989 demo. This got the trio its first rec­ord deal, as Cypress Hill signed with Ruff­house Rec­ords, a subsidiary of Columbia Rec­ords, and its rec­ords ­were distributed internationally by Columbia. They released their first ­album, Cypress Hill (1991), which went double Platinum, peaking at No. 31 on the Billboard 200 and No. 4 on the Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart. Two singles, “The Phuncky Feel One” and “Hand on the Pump,” reached the Top 10 of Hot Rap Singles. A third single, “Latin Lingo,” introduced Spanish into rap and hip hop. The trio was so successful that it was invited to play at Lollapalooza in 1992. Its second ­album, Black Sunday (1993), debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 1993, reached the top spot on the Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart, and was certified ­triple Platinum; ­because their debut ­album was still in the Top 10, Cypress Hill became the first rap group to have two ­albums si­mul­ta­neously in the Top 10. Black Sunday’s lead single, “Insane in the Brain,” peaked at No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became their second No. 1 on the Hot Rap chart. The trio also became a hot property on the touring cir­cuit as they began their Soul Assassins tour, toured with Rage against the Machine (1991–2000, 2007–2011), played at Woodstock ’94, and headlined at Lollapalooza (1995). A new band member, percussionist Eric Bobo (Eric Correa, 1968–), was added. During this time, Rolling Stone named them the best rap group in the country. Their third ­album, III: ­Temples of Boom (1995), also went Platinum and was their first release to appear on ­every major international chart. In the late 1990s, Sen Dog deci­ded to pursue a dif­fer­ent sound, so he formed a funk, metal, and Latin fusion rap band, SX–10 (1996–), and DJ Muggs released Soul Assassins: Chapter I (1997; followed by Soul Assassins II, 2000). Cypress Hill’s fourth ­album, IV (1998), was also released, and it reached Platinum status, peaking at No. 11 on both the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart. The band continued to tour and in 1996 joined the Smokin’ Grooves tour (Cypress Hill was known as an ardent champion for marijuana culture). In 1999, the band ventured into new territory: it licensed three songs; B-­Real did voice work for the first-­person-­ shooter video game Kingpin: Life of Crime (Xatrix Entertainment, released in 1999); and the band released a greatest-­hits a­ lbum in Spanish, Los Grandes éxitos en español, also on Ruff­house Rec­ords. In 2000, SX-10 released its first ­album, Mad Dog American, on Sen Dog’s newly created Latin Thug Rec­ords (2000*–), distributed by Koch Entertainment (1987– 2005), which also distributed ­later No Limit’s recordings; Sen Dog’s forays into metal

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rap influenced the next Cypress Hill ­album, Skull and Bones, a two-­disc half rap, half metal and rock ­album released on the Columbia label. Skull and Bones peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and No. 4 on the Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart; it also reached No. 6 in the United Kingdom, becoming their best-­charting a­ lbum ­there. All of this was accomplished without a hit single. The band also released Live at the Fillmore, recorded in San Francisco in 2000. It was distributed internationally by Columbia Rec­ords (1887–) but had only moderate success. DECLINE AND FINAL A ­ LBUMS The band’s popularity began to wane around the turn of the 21st ­century, and its final three ­albums, Stoned Raiders (2001), Till Death Do Us Part (2004), and Rise Up (2010), all had disappointing sales. The band took on Snoop Dogg (1971–) as creative chairman in 2010 and moved from Columbia and Sony (1929–) to Priority Rec­ords (1985–), the distributor partially responsible for the success of the Death Row (1991–2008) and No Limit (1990–) labels and their artists. It also gave away ­f ree downloads of Rise Up’s lead single, “It ­Ain’t Nothin’.” Meanwhile, B-­Real began working on solo mixtapes and ­albums, The Gunslinger, vols. I, II, and III (2005, 2006, 2007) and Smoke n Mirrors (2009), the last with Duck Down ­Music (1995–). In 2012, Cypress Hill teamed up with En­glish dubstep artist Rusko (Christopher William Mercer, 1985–) on V2 Rec­ords (1996–) out of London to produce Cypress X Rusko, an EP of five songs that bridged electronica (dubstep) with hip hop. Over the course of its ­career, the band garnered three Grammy nominations, and it was named Billboard’s best rap artist in 1991. The band has also been the official spokesperson for NORML (the National Organ­ization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Chicano Rap; Cuba; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Turntablism; The United States

Further Reading

Coleman, Brian. 2007. “Cypress Hill: Cypress Hill.” In Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip Hop Junkies, pp. 120–31. New York: Villard. McFarland, Pancho. 2006. “Chicano Rap Roots: Black–­Brown Cultural Exchange and the Making of a Genre.” Callaloo 29, no. 3: 939–55.

Further Listening

Cypress Hill. 1988. IV. Ruff­house.

Cyprus The Republic of Cyprus, located in the Eastern Mediterranean, has a population that contains a large majority of Greek Cypriots, as well as a small minority of Turkish Cypriots. Since Cypriot in­de­pen­dence from the United Kingdom in 1960, intercommunal vio­lence has intensified. Turkish Cypriots have controlled the North since 1974. When the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was established in 1983 with only Turkey recognizing this new state, po­liti­cal unrest and Cypriot diaspora

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ensued. Nicosia, divided by a United Nations (UN) buffer, is a major hip hop center. The first use of the Greek Cypriot dialect in hip hop was in the late 1980s in London, where rapper, dub poet, and DJ Haji Mike (Mike Hajimichael) performed. Haji Mike fused hip hop with reggae, ragga, dub, dancehall, and Cypriot traditional ­music. His studio ­albums Haji Mike on the Mike (1994), Aphrodite’s Dream (1997), and Midnight Stories at 3 a.m. (2015) w ­ ere released in Cyprus; a reggae a­ lbum, Virtual Oasis (2010), was released in the United Kingdom. Haji Mike’s texts also included some En­glish, a Greek Cypriot En­glish dialect called Gringlish, and Turkish. As of 2018, he is a professor in the Department of Communications at the University of Nicosia. GREEK CYPRIOT HIP HOP By the early 1990s, American hip hop had arrived in Cyprus via tourism, which led to discotheques becoming the first hip hop venues. In addition to American hip hop, Greek hip hop influenced (and motivated) Greek Cypriot hip hop. In 1992, the first Greek Cypriot rapping crew, Vaomenoi Esso (Locked Doors, 1992–), from Nicosia, self-­released the earliest Cypriot hip hop recordings, rapping in Greek Cypriot. One of Vaomenoi Esso’s founding members, Mastermind (aka John Wu, Giannos Wu, 1976–), of Greek Cypriot–­Chinese descent, pursued a solo ­career and was the first Cypriot to own his own label, Narrow Path Entertainment (2003*–). In 1997, he started rapping only in Greek. Mastermind’s Apaghorevménes gnósis (Forbidden Knowledge, 1999) was the first Cypriot hip hop ­album released in Greece. Pioneering hip hop acts included fellow Vaomenoi Esso founder Ponokéfalos (Headache, Mike Wildcut, n.d.) and IUT (Invisible Underground Threat, 1990s*). Since the 2000s, Greek Cypriot hip hop has been mainstream popu­lar ­music in Cyprus. The Ayia Napa Youth Festival (2010–), featuring hip hop, takes place in the South. Recent Greek Cypriot hip hop artists have included Diam’s (Mélanie Georgiades, 1980–), DJ Sparky T (Thodoris Sartzetakis, n.d.), HCH (Hardcore Heads, 2001–), D.R.I.G. (2002–), POTS (Part of the Soul, 2003–), and A.M. SNiPER (Anthony Melas, 1982–), among many o­ thers. The last belonged to the hip hop, grime, and garage group So Solid Crew (1998–) in London, the current home of many rappers and producers of Greek and Turkish Cypriot descent. TURKISH CYPRIOT HIP HOP Turkish Cypriot hip hop emerged close to the same time as Greek Cypriot hip hop; however, isolation has limited its reach beyond Turkey. Analogous to Greek hip hop’s influence on the development of Greek Cypriot hip hop, Turkish hip hop has influenced the development of Turkish Cypriot hip hop. Like Greek Cypriot hip hop, Nicosia is also a major center for Turkish Cypriot hip hop. MC X-­Force (anonymous, n.d.) is a Turkish Cypriot rapper from North Nicosia who has collaborated with Greek Cypriot hip hop artists. Common themes in Greek and Turkish Cypriot hip hop include unifying Cyprus as well as protesting against vio­lence and capitalism. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Greece; Turkey; The United Kingdom

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Further Reading

Hajimichael, Mike. 2013. “Hip Hop and Cyprus: Language, Motivation, Unity, and Division.” In Hip Hop in Eu­rope: Cultural Identities and Transnational Flows, edited by Sina A. Nitzsche and Walter Grünzweig, chap. 1. Zürich, Switzerland: LIT Verlag. Stylianou, Evros. 2010. “Keeping It Native(?): The Conflicts and Contradictions of Cypriot Hip Hop.” In The Languages of Global Hip Hop, edited by Marina Terkourafi, chap. 8. New York: Continuum.

Further Listening

Vari­ous Artists. 2007. The Rise of Cyprus Hip Hop: The Beginning. Tricky Productions.

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, formerly known as Czecho­slo­va­k ia, saw its hip hop scene emerge in 1989 ­after the nonviolent Velvet Revolution against the one-­party rule of the Communist Party took place. The result was the dissolution of Czecho­slo­ va­kia and the formation of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic (both ruled by a parliamentary system with demo­cratic elections since 1990). Despite tensions between Czechs and Slovaks, both countries have peacefully coexisted since their formation. Czech hip hop artists often collaborate with Slovak hip hop artists, and songs have become hits in both countries. Since 2002, the Czech Republic has hosted the international festival Hip Hop Kemp in Hradec Králové in eastern Bohemia, home to Prague, the Czech Republic’s main hip hop center and capital city. Lyr­ics are mostly in the Czech language; however, American vernacular En­glish is often interwoven, and other languages such as Romani have been used. Early lyrical content focused on gangsta rap themes such as enjoying parties and drugs and attaining wealth and sex. But the underground scene in Prague also encouraged communal rapping as sociopo­liti­cal venting. One pioneering rap crew was Peneři Strýča Homeboye (PSH, 1992–) from Prague, formed by rapper Orion (Michal Opletal, 1976–) and backed by turntablist DJ Richard (Richard Hlaváček, 1977–). Chaozz (1995–2002), from Prague, was the first commercially and internationally successful Czech hip hop group. Its debut ­album . . . ​a nastal chaos ( . . . ​and ­There Was Chaos, 1996) was certified Platinum in the Czech Republic and Gold in Slovakia, followed by Zprdeleklika (1997), which was certified Gold in both countries. The group Prago Union (2002–) was partly formed by members of Chaozz. In 2005, it released its debut ­album HDP (Hrubý domáci produkt, Gross Domestic Product), which features collaborations with American producer Kut Masta Kurt (aka The Funky Red Neck, Kurt Matlin, n.d.) and appearances by American rappers Masta Ace (Duval Clear, 1966–) and Planet Asia (Jason Green, 1976–). Twenty-­fi rst-­century rapping topics have expanded to address more localized issues such as race. Prague was historically built to segregate minority populations such as Romani ­people. The internationally renowned Prague-­based group Gipsy. cz (2004–), with members of Czech, Romani, and Indian descent, raps in the Romani language with some Czech and En­glish. Songs deal with discrimination against the Romani p­ eople (who self-­identify with blacks) among other topics. Gipsy.cz



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stands out not only for its rapping in Romani but also for its fusion of hip hop with traditional gypsy ­music and instrumentation (violin, guitar, accordion, and double bass). From the mid-1990s into the 2000s, hip hop scenes have emerged in other major cities. Formed in Brno, Naše Vĕc (Our T ­ hing, 1997–2006) was a rapping crew that became nationally popu­lar and was a leading act at Hip Hop Kemp. Personnel changes led to the group’s split, but Naše Vĕc was known for its hardcore sound and rowdy concerts. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Slovakia

Further Reading

Oravcová, Anna. 2016. “ ‘Rap on Rap Is Sacred’: The Appropriation of Hip Hop in the Czech Republic.” In Eastern Eu­ro­pean Youth Cultures in a Global Context, edited by Matthias Schwartz and Heike Winkel, chap. 6. Basingstoke, ­England: Palgrave Macmillan. Oravcová, Anna. 2017. “The Power of the Words: Discourses of Authenticity in Czech Rap ­Music.” In Hip Hop at Eu­rope’s Edge: ­Music, Agency, and Social Change, edited by Milosz Miszczynski and Adriana Helbig, chap. 15. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Further Listening

Gypsy.cz. 2013. Upgrade. Bangatone Rec­ords. Prago Union. 2010. HDP. Strojovna/BBRekordy/Universal.

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D Da Brat (Shawntae Harris, 1974–­, Chicago, Illinois) Da Brat is an American rapper whose debut ­album, Funkdafied (1994), and single “Funkdafied” made her the first solo female rap artist to have a certified-­Platinum ­album and single by the Recording Industry Association of Amer­i­ca (RIAA). Her style blends musical aspects of real­ity rap, funk, and pop and some ele­ments of gangsta rap, giving her work a wide appeal. She has also made numerous tele­vi­ sion and movie appearances, most notably in the American films Kazaam (1996) and Glitter (2001) as well as the tele­vi­sion shows The Parent ’Hood (1997–1998), Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (2002), and Empire (2015). She has appeared on the real­ity tele­vi­sion series The Surreal Life (2005) and Celebrity Fit Club (2007). She grew up in two ­house­holds on Chicago’s West Side, where she played drums and sang in a church choir. In 1992, her hip hop ­career got its jump start when she won a local rap competition sponsored by Yo! MTV Raps (1988–1995), a tele­vi­sion program that featured videos, interviews, and per­for­mances by hip hop artists. As part of the ­grand prize for the competition, she met Kris Kross (1991–2001), whose single “Jump” (1992) from the ­album Totally Krossed Out on Ruff­house Rec­ords (1989–) had put them at the top of the charts. Kriss Kross then introduced her to Jermaine Dupri (Jermaine Dupri Mauldin, 1972–), an influential rec­ord producer and songwriter. Dupri signed her to his Atlanta label, So So Def Recordings (1993–), and produced her highly successful debut ­album, Funkdafied, which produced three hit singles. “Funkdafied” reached No. 1 on the rap singles chart and No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. The follow-up single, “Fa All Y’all,” spent 12 weeks at No. 37 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it her second Top 40 hit. The ­album’s third single, “Give It 2 You,” reached No. 26. Da Brat has subsequently released three studio a­ lbums, Anuthatantrum (1996), Unrestricted (2000), and Limelite, Luv and Niteclubz (2003), none of which achieved the same level of success or recognition as Funkdafied, although Unrestricted peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200. She is also well known for her collaborations with and appearances on ­albums of high-­profile artists, including the Notorious B.I.G. (1972–1997), Mariah Carey (1970–), Missy Elliott (1971–), Lil’ Kim (1975–), Lisa Lopes (aka Left Eye, 1971–2002), Ludacris (1977–), and the group Dru Hill (1992–). In the early years of her ­career, Da Brat positioned herself as a female version of Snoop Doggy Dogg (1971–), not only emulating the rapper’s relaxed rhyming tempo and G-­f unk musical style but also appearing in baggy clothes. Her look and per­for­mance style ­were distinct from ­those of other female rappers at the time, especially Lil’ Kim and Foxy Brown (Inga DeCarlo Fung

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Marchand, 1978–), who presented themselves as hyperfeminine, wore tight-­fitting and revealing clothing, and often emphasized explic­itly sexual lyr­ics. Lauron Jockwig Kehrer See also: Gangsta Rap; Lil’ Kim; The United States

Further Reading

Bost, Suzanne. 2001. “ ‘Be Deceived If Ya Wanna Be Foolish’: (Re)constructing Body, Genre, and Gender in Feminist Rap.” Postmodern Culture 12, no. 1: 1–31. Cheney, Warren Scott. 2010. “The Evolution of the Second City Lyric: Hip Hop in Chicago and Gary, Indiana.” In Hip Hop in Amer­i­ca: A Regional Guide, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 2, chap. 13. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood.

Further Listening

Da Brat. 1994. Funkdafied. So So Def Recordings.

Daara J (1997–­, Dakar, Senegal) Daara J is arguably Africa’s best-­k nown hip hop group of the early 21st ­century, having consistently received high praise for its international chart-­topping a­ lbums and for its sold-­out concerts in venues in major cities such as Paris, London, and New York. The band is proof that Africa is capable of producing original, complex hip hop m ­ usic with global appeal. Daara J (roughly translated as “the school”) began with ­humble roots, the group’s members hailing from the modest Allées du Centenaire quarter of the Colobane district of Dakar, which its found­ers, Faada (Faada Freddy, 1975–) and Ndongo D (anonymous, n.d.), call home. In Ndongo’s home, the duo, joined by Lord Aladji Man (aka Lord Aladjiman, El Hadj Mansour Jacques Sagna, 1975–), created many of its melodic hooks and song texts. The trio’s first two ­albums, Daara J (1998) and Xalima (1999), produced by reggae legend Mad Professor (Neil Joseph Stephen Fraser, 1955–), ­were immediate successes and paved the way for the group’s third work, a mixtape cassette titled Exodus (2000), locally produced by Dakar’s Studio 2000 (1998*–), and the debut ­album Boomerang (2003), released by the U.K. label Wrasse Rec­ords (1998–2005), which catapulted the band internationally. Daara J’s original members worked together ­until 2008, when Aladji Man split from the group. Since 2008, Faada Freddy and Ndongo have carried the mantle of the group with other successful a­ lbums such as School of Life (2010) and Foundation (as Daara J ­Family, 2016), the latter under a variant loose translation of the band’s name. Since 2010, Daara J has ranked among the world’s top hip hop rappers in the charts and locally has had a strong influence among the Senegalese youth, who draw on its social, po­liti­cal, and cultural messages, emphasizing the importance of melding tradition with modernity while denouncing greed, corruption, despotism, and vio­lence. Musically, the band draws heavi­ly on Senegalese musical traditions, including traditional Wolof bakk and tassou (two forms of praise poetry) and the use of

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vari­ous melodies taken from the tunes of griots (traditional historians, poets, and diplomats), as well as Islamic Sufi chants; ­these appeal to the band’s larger fan base, especially Senegalese immigrants living abroad, as it speaks of their cultural origin and responsibilities. It sometimes combines ­these with R&B-­style choruses and reggae beats. For example, the song “Temps Boy” contains Faada Freddy’s rap in Wolof about the importance of childhood memories: “So guissatoul noay teggui yoon / fattalikoul temps boy,” which translates to “If you do not know where you are ­going / remember the time of your childhood.” For the Senegalese, childhood memories are vital, since they lead the individual along the most righ­ teous path. In Daara J’s worldview, one must tread this path with fit (courage). As the song “Tomorrow” from School of Life (2010) remarks, one must begin to work early (as in now), knowing that the road to success takes time (expressed as “yoonu ndam dou gaaw”). Babacar M’Baye See also: Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Senegal

Further Reading

Tang, Patricia. 2012. “The Rapper as Modern Griot: Reclaiming Ancient Traditions.” In Hip Hop Africa: New African ­Music in a Globalizing World, edited by Eric Charry, chap. 5. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Veit-­Wild, Flora, and Alain Ricard, eds. 2005. Interfaces between the Oral and the Written. Amsterdam: Rodopi.

Further Listening

Daara J. 2003. Boomerang. Wrasse Rec­ords.

dälek (1997–­, Newark, New Jersey) Dälek (stylized as dälek) is an American experimental hip hop group that was ­until recently mainly composed of MC dälek (­Will Brooks, 1975–) and Oktopus (aka Deadverse, Alap Momin, 1974*–) along with off-­and-on producer and electronics expert Mike Manteca (n.d.) and, at vari­ous times, producers and turntablists DJ rEk (Rudy Chicata, n.d.), Still (His-­Chang Linaka, n.d.), DJ Motiv (anonymous, n.d.), and Joshua Booth (n.d.). Musically, dälek differs from most hip hop bands ­because it infuses its hip hop beats with industrial ­music, guitar feedback, layers of synthesized and sampled noise, and a “wall of sound” philosophy as well as aty­pi­cal spoken-­word sampling. MC dälek’s raps are usually sociopo­liti­cal and often backgrounded and filtered, sometimes becoming part of the instrumental soundscape along with chants and spoken-­word samples. The original studio lineup consisted of MC dälek, Oktopus, and Booth, with DJ rEk (1998–2002), Still (2002–2005), and Motiv (2006–2009) standing in for tours. Its sound has evolved over time but has always been cutting-­edge. Its debut five-­ track EP, Negro Necro Nekros (1998), was notable for its instrumentation and use of industrial sounds, and its debut a­ lbum, From Filthy Tongue of Gods and Griots (2002), included turntables as well as electric and acoustic guitars.

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Dälek has shared the stage with hip hop artists such as Prince Paul (Paul Edward Huston, 1967–), De La Soul (1987–), the Pharcyde (1989–), Grandmaster Flash (1958–), and KRS-­O ne (1965–). The band went on hiatus in 2009 when MC dälek completed his doctorate in 2009. Oktopus left the band in 2010 to move to Germany. The group re­united in 2015, and guitarist Mike Mare (n.d.) joined that year. It has since released the seven-­t rack EP Asphalt for Eden (2016) and a full-­length ­album, Endangered Philosophies (2017). As of 2018, dälek has released six full-­ length ­albums and a number of solo and collaborative remix EPs (usually titled “X vs. dälek,” where X stands for the other collaborative artist), mainly on indie label Ipecac Recordings (1999–). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Nerdcore; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Chuter, Jack. 2016. “Interview: dälek.” ATTN: Magazine, April 1. D’Errico, Mike. 2015. “Off the Grid: Instrumental Hip Hop and Experimentation ­after the Golden Age.” In The Cambridge Companion to Hip Hop, edited by Justin Williams, chap. 22. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Mu’id, Niamo. 2004. “Live, From Newark: The National Hip Hop Po­liti­cal Convention.” Socialism and Democracy 18, no. 2: 221–29.

Further Listening

dälek. 2002. From Filthy Tongue of Gods and Griots. Ipecac Recordings. dälek. 2007. Abandoned Language. Ipecac Recordings.

Danger Mouse (Brian Joseph Burton, 1977–­, White Plains, New York) Danger Mouse is an American ­music producer and multi-­instrumentalist who first came to prominence for The Grey ­Album (2004), a self-­released digital download in which he mixed the Beatles’ (1960–1970) ­album The Beatles (aka The White ­Album, 1968) and Jay-­Z’s (1969–) The Black A ­ lbum (2003). Since then, he has been a member of Gnarls Barkley (1999–) and released the proj­ect ­album The Mouse and the Mask (2005) as half of the proj­ect band DANGERDOOM (2005– 2006). In addition, he has produced ­albums for dozens of dif­fer­ent artists and won several Grammy Awards. THE GREY A ­ LBUM The Grey A ­ lbum is a noncommercial proj­ect in which Danger Mouse combined hundreds of samples from The White ­Album with an a cappella copy of The Black ­Album, which was released by Jay-­Z to encourage remixes. Rather than creating a mashup, in which the intact instrumentation of the Beatles’ songs is juxtaposed against Jay-­Z’s rapping, Danger Mouse sampled minute fragments from songs off The White A ­ lbum. He combined ­these with hip hop beats and Jay-­Z’s rapped



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lyr­ics. His remix of Jay-­Z’s “Encore,” for example, features fragments of the Beatles’ “Glass Onion” and “Savoy Truffle.” Danger Mouse received a cease-­ and-­desist letter from EMI (1931–2012), the copyright holder of the Beatles’ ­music. EMI’s actions sparked an online protest, leading to the Grey Tuesday protest (February 24, 2004), when dozens of participating websites made the ­album available, and estimates of 100,000 to one million copies ­were downloaded (the exact number is still debatable; as of 2018, the ­album has been made available by distributors in Eu­ro­pean countries with less restrictive copyright laws). The ­album sparked conversations about the relationship of copyright and creative expression, and a number of critics named The Grey ­Album as one of the best ­albums of the year. DANGERDOOM AND GNARLS BARKLEY Danger Mouse went on to serve as the production half of two groups with dif­ fer­ent musical styles. Along with En­glish rapper MF DOOM (Daniel Dumile, 1971–), Danger Mouse formed DANGERDOOM and recorded The Mouse and the Mask. The ­album featured audio samples from several Cartoon Network tele­vi­sion programs featured in the Adult Swim (2001–) programming block, and it was made available for ­free on Adult Swim’s website. Several tracks featured guest verses by rappers including Ghostface Killah (Dennis Coles, 1970–), Talib Kweli (1975–), and CeeLo Green (Thomas DeCarlo Callaway, 1974–). Danger Mouse paired up with Green to form Gnarls Barkley, a neo soul group. The two met in the late 1990s when Danger Mouse opened for the Atlanta hip hop quartet Goodie Mob (1991–), of which Green was a member. Gnarls Barkley’s debut ­album, St. Elsewhere (2006), featured the single “Crazy.” The ­album peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200, and the song got as high as No. 2 on the Hot 100 and won a Grammy for Song of the Year. The duo’s follow-up a­ lbum, The Odd ­Couple (2008), was not nearly as critically or commercially successful as St. Elsewhere. COLLABORATIONS SINCE 2007 En­glish hip hop, alternative rock, electronic world, and Britpop musician Damon Albarn (1968–) enlisted Danger Mouse to produce an ­album for his virtual band Gorillaz (1998–). Gorillaz’s Demon Days, released in 2005, is a hybrid of musical and stylistic genres that earned Danger Mouse his first Grammy Award nomination as producer. Danger Mouse has since produced ­albums for dozens of dif­fer­ent artists of varying styles, genres, ages, and nationalities. With the exception of A$AP Rocky’s (Rakim Mayer, 1988–) ­album At.Long.Last.A$AP (2015), most of Danger Mouse’s post-2007 collaborations have been with rock, alternative, and pop artists rather than hip hop artists. Among ­these collaborations are Beck’s (Bek David Campbell, 1970–) Guilt (2008); the Black Keys’ (2001–) ­Brothers (2010), El Camino (2011), and Turn Blue (2013); Norah Jones’s (Geetali Norah Shankar, 1979–) ­Little Broken Hearts (2012); U2’s (1976–) Songs of Innocence (2014); and Adele’s (Adele Laurie Blue Adkins, 1988–) 25 (2015). As of 2018, Danger Mouse is producing

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the latest ­album for the Red Hot Chili Peppers (1983–), its first ­album since 1989 not to be produced by Rick Rubin (Frederick J. Rubin, 1963–). In 2008, Danger Mouse cofounded the Los Angeles duo Broken Bells with James Mercer (1970–), the vocalist and guitarist of alternative indie rock band the Shins (1996–). As of 2018, Broken Bells has produced two Top 10 studio ­albums. Amanda Sewell See also: Jay-­Z; Neo Soul; The United States

Further Reading

Adams, Kyle. 2015. “What Did Danger Mouse Do? The Grey ­Album and Musical Composition in Configurable Culture.” ­Music Theory Spectrum 37, no. 1: 7–24. McLeod, Kembrew. 2005. “Confessions of an Intellectual (Property): Danger Mouse, Mickey Mouse, Sonny Bono, and My Long and Winding Path as a Copyright Activist-­Academic.” Popu­lar ­Music and Society 28, no. 1: 79–93.

Further Listening

Danger Mouse. 2004. The Grey ­Album. Self-­released. DANGERDOOM. 2005. The Mouse and the Mask. Epitaph.

Further Viewing

Cronin, Shaun, and Twila Raftu, dirs. 2006. Alternative Freedom. N.p.: Proj­ect ­Free Zarathustra. Johnson, Andreas, Ralf Christensen, and Henrik Moltke, dirs. 2007. Good Copy Bad Copy. Copenhagen, Denmark: Danish National Tele­vi­sion Broadcasting Network.

Das EFX (1988–­, Brooklyn, New York) Das EFX is a 1990s American hip hop duo whose name comes from the names of its members, Dray (aka Krazy Drayz, Andre Weston, 1970–) and Skoob (aka Books, William Hines, 1970–), which became “DAS” (for Dray and Scoob), and “EFX” (for their love of production effects). The two MCs, who ­were affiliated with EPMD (1986–1993, 2006–), are known for a stream-­of-­consciousness lyricism and intricate rhyme schemes informed by an idiosyncratic stammering pattern—­elongated syllables and nonsense sounds tacked onto the beginnings and ends of words (referred to as their “diggity” sound). The duo also pop­u­lar­ized a fast-­paced rap delivery and the use of clever satire in lyr­ics, and this was juxtaposed against a repetitive but smooth funk and R&B melody, with a jazz-­influenced, bass-­heavy rhythm section that sometimes paused unpredictably. Das EFX’s debut ­album, Dead Serious (1992), was certified Platinum, but by its second ­album, Straight Up Sewaside (1993), Das EFX had to reinvent itself b­ ecause its style was being imitated and had become common. By its third ­album, Hold It Down (1995), which produced two songs that charted on the Hot Rap Songs chart, the band had dropped its idiosyncratic stuttering and found itself caught in the ­middle of the EPMD breakup, which caused a three-­year hiatus. Two ­albums followed, Generation EFX (1998) and How We Do (2003), but the duo’s impetus had been halted. Das EFX would not chart again.



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RAPPING ­CAREER AND UNUSUAL STYLE Brooklyn, New York–­based Skoob and Teaneck, New Jersey native Dray met in 1988 En­glish courses at ­Virginia State University in Petersburg, ­Virginia, where they began rapping together. Their bouncy, quick-­paced style caught the eye of EPMD in a contest. EPMD helped get them signed to a recording contract. The duo’s debut single, “They Want EFX,” peaked at No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching the top spot on the Hot Rap Songs chart. The duo’s next three singles, “Mic Checka” (1992), “Straight out the Sewer” (1992), and “Freakit” (1993), all reached the Hot Raps Top 10. ­After the success of its first ­album, Das EFX moved out to Long Island, New York, and created a production studio. But by 1995, Das EFX was no longer seeing commercial ­album success. The duo continued to rec­ ord for two more ­albums only and afterward began touring worldwide from 2007 to 2010. Das EFX continues to tour as of 2018. Though its influence on other rap musicians was short-­lived, Das EFX is referenced still, in the form of parody, such as comedian Dave Chappelle’s (David Khari Webber Chappelle, 1973–) use of the “diggity” speech pattern in several of his skits. Nonetheless, the duo has left a legacy that is uniquely its own: recreating the En­glish language with a seamless stuttering style and creating rap ­music that eschewed gangsta rap’s harshness in tone and lyricism. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: EPMD; The United States

Further Reading

Coleman, Brian. 2007. “Das EFX: Dead Serious.” In Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip Hop Junkies, pp. 132–42. New York: Villard. Edwards, Paul. 2013. How to Rap 2: Advanced Flow and Delivery Techniques. Chicago: Chicago Review Press.

Further Listening

Das EFX. 1992. Dead Serious. Eastwest Rec­ords Amer­i­ca.

Das Racist (2008–2012, Brooklyn, New York) Das Racist, a vernacular version of the phrase “That’s racist,” was an American absurdist alternative hip hop group composed of Indian American and Afro-­Cuban rappers Heems (Himanshu Kumar Suri, 1985–) and Kool  A.D. (Victor Vazquez, 1983–), respectively, and Indian American hype man Dapwell (Ashok Kondabolu, 1985–). Despite having only one studio ­album, the group is famous for its humor, erudite allusions, and unconventional style, exemplified by its first minor hit, “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell” (2008), a guitar-­and synth-­based B-52’s (1976–) style song that begins with a chant of what sounds like a combination of “ha” or “high,” immediately establishing the song as drug humor. Other songs such as “Michael Jackson” (2011) and “Girl” (2011) showcase the band’s versatility with bhangra-­beat and Pet Shop Boys (1981–) or New Order (1980–1993, 1998–2007,

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Das Racist performs in 2012 at Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tennessee. The Brooklyn alternative hip hop act had a strong college-­based cult following for its incorporation of absurdist humor and academic subject ­matter in its lyr­ics, unconventional vocals and instruments, as well as modern and postmodern techniques like dadaism and cognitive dissonance. (FilmMagic/Getty Images)

2011–) style electronic dance ­music backgrounds (e.g., synth-­pop and new wave). The band’s lyr­ics are full of metatextuality, with phrases such as “inside jokes in all of my rhymes.” Das Racist established itself not through ­albums but through mixtapes: Shut Up, Dude (2010) and Sit Down, Man (2010) established the group’s cultural-­, racial-­, and ­music industry–­based satire and wordplay—­the latter bordering on ­f ree word association and non sequiturs but containing cleverly associated references. Its idiosyncratic rapping style can best be described as an alternation between a monotone, chantlike laid-­back rap or monotone chopper-­style speed ­f ree association (depending on the song) juxtaposed against comic pitch-­altered vocalizations. The band’s commercial ­album, Relax (2011), released on Heems’s Greedhead ­Music (2008–2015) label, charted in the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 103, and got the band onto the cover of Spin (1985–). The band broke up before it could produce a contracted second ­album with major label Sony ­Music (1929–). Heems released



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two solo mixtapes and Kool A.D. went on to release three; Dapwell, as Ashok Kondabolu, went on to perform comedy. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Chopper; India; Nerdcore; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Burton, Juston D., and Ali Colleen Neff. 2015. “Sounding Global Southerness.” Journal of Popu­lar ­Music Studies 27, no. 4: 381–86. Helaluddin, Shareeka. 2014. “Talking Race, Claiming Space: Interrogating the Po­liti­cal Practice of Desi Hip Hop.” Sydney Undergraduate Journal of Musicology 4 (December): 17–25. Mitter, Siddhartha. 2011. “Das Racist Is Not Your Typical Rap Story: Trio Left Corporate Lifestyle to Stretch Society’s Bound­aries.” The Boston Globe, September 23, G24.

Further Listening

Das Racist. 2010. Sit Down, Man. Greedhead M ­ usic.

Davenport, N’Dea (1966–­, Atlanta, Georgia) N’Dea Davenport is an American singer-­songwriter, percussionist, dancer, and producer best known as the lead singer of the Brand New Heavies (TBNH, aka The Heavies, 1985–), a retro acid jazz, funk, and soul band hailing from Ealing in West London. Davenport is a mezzo-­soprano. Her voice’s range, amplitude, drama, and flexibility sound reminiscent of early Donna Summer (LaDonna Adrian Gaines, 1948–2012) or Irene Cara (Irene Cara Escalera, 1962–). Davenport was an only child whose parents ­were a headmaster and a school counselor in Atlanta, so she entertained herself by singing and playing piano in church, acting in theatrical productions, and earning dance scholarships. A ­ fter college, she moved to Los Angeles, where she became involved in the city’s 1990s underground club and rave scenes. ­After finding work as a studio session backup singer, Davenport eventually met Fab Five Freddy (1959–), who recommended her to work for the new in­de­pen­dent label Delicious Vinyl (1987–), which wanted to expand the label beyond hip hop recordings despite successful releases by acts such as Tone Lōc (Anthony Terrell Smith, 1966–), with “Funky Cold Medina” and “Wild ­Thing” (1989). ­After Delicious Vinyl executives auditioned and introduced Davenport to the Brand New Heavies, she relocated to London from 1990 to 1998, though ultimately TBNH toured extensively worldwide. TBNH’s second lead singer, Davenport saw success not only in E ­ ngland but also worldwide: TBNH’s eponymous debut ­album (1990), which was certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), peaked at No. 17 on Billboard’s Top R&B ­Albums chart, and ­Brother and ­Sister (1994) was an international hit beyond the United Kingdom and United States and was BPI-­certified Platinum. Davenport’s own eponymous solo debut ­album (1998) combined hip hop with acid jazz, bayou funk, neo soul, and electronic ­music.

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By 1995, Davenport had left TBNH and moved to New Orleans while conducting professional business in New York City. In 1998, she began her solo ­career when she released N’Dea Davenport. By the 2000s, she was working as a New York club DJ. She re­united with TBNH on their studio ­albums Get Used to It (2006) and Forward! (2013) as well as their homecoming concert ­album Live in London (2009). Since 2016, Davenport has rejoined TBNH. Concurrently with Davenport’s fronting TBNH and her own solo ­career, she has recorded on several hip hop ­albums and collaborated with rappers and producers. Her most notable appearance was on Guru’s (Keith Edward Elam, 1961–2010) Jazzmatazz, Vol. 2 (1993), an ­album that combines hip hop and acid jazz. In 1998, she worked with J Dilla (1974–2006), who remixed and produced two tracks off her solo a­ lbum: “What­ever You Want” and “Bulls—­tin’.” The latter featured American rapper Mos Def (1973–). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: The United Kingdom; The United States

Further Reading

Dunlevy, T’cha. 1998. “­Things Got Too Heavy: N’Dea Davenport Left Acid-­Jazz Darlings to Evolve on Her Own.” Interview with N’Dea Davenport. The Gazette (Montreal). October 22, E1. Stewart, Jess. 2014. “Retaining a New Format: Jazz-­Rap, Cultural Memory, and the New Cultural Politics of Difference.” Critical Studies in Improvisation/Études critiques en improvisation 10, no. 1: 13.

Further Listening

N’Dea Davenport. 1998. N’Dea Davenport. V2.

Davey D (David Cook, n.d., n.p.) Davey D is a hip hop activist, nationally syndicated radio host and radio show producer, rapper, journalist, scholar, and educator. His interests in hip hop first unfolded in 1977, when he was an MC for two rapping crews, TDK (Total Def Krew, n.d.) and the Avengers (n.d.). In the early 1980s, he moved from the Bronx, New York, to the San Francisco Bay Area to major in journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. His se­nior thesis was on rap ­music, and he owned a mobile DJ com­pany, wrote for magazines such as BAM (Bay Area ­Music, 1976–1999) and local newspapers, including the San Francisco Bay Guardian (1966–2014, 2016–), and worked as a radio DJ for Berkeley’s KALX (1962–). He led the first rap radio DJ collective, the Oakland-­based Hip Hop Co­ali­tion (1997–), which promoted hip hop, including local hip hop groups. The co­ali­tion also demanded social justice for minorities, provided hip hop news, supported c­ auses that promised positive community change, and created hip hop diplomacy shows. From 1990 to 2001, Davey D was the community affairs man­ag­er at KMEL (1946–) in San Francisco, on which he created radio shows such as Street Knowledge (1995–) and The Local Flava Hip Hop Hour (2000*–). He also founded D’s Street Soldier Program (1992–) to help



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the Bay Area’s young ­people gain college skills, avoid vio­lence and crime, and give back to their community. On KPFA, he hosted Friday Night Vibe (FNV, 1995*–) and cofounded Hard Knock Radio (1999–). He also started several Internet blogs and proj­ects, most importantly Davey D’s HipHop Corner (1992–), one of the first and largest hip hop sites on the Internet. In 2001, KMEL fired Davey D, claiming it was ­because of bud­get cuts; however, the firing coincided with his interview with Congresswoman Barbara Lee (1946–) on opposing the U.S. war in Af­ghan­i­stan (2001–). He criticized U.S. militarism and Clear Channel Radio’s (now iHeartMediaInc, 1972–2008, 2008–) questionable business decisions. Protest rallies ensued to rehire him; though ­these efforts failed, they w ­ ere nevertheless successful in bringing shows such as Hard Knock Radio back on the air. In 2003, Davey D, Universal Zulu Nation (1973–), and rapper Chuck D (1960–), among ­others, condemned companies such as Clear Channel for removing community shows, leading to a lack of repre­sen­t a­tion of black ­music with positive messages. As of 2018, Hard Knock Radio is still ­r unning, now on KPFA, reaching one million listeners per day. Davey D’s books include How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office (Soft Skull, 2004) and BAF—­Be a ­Father to Your Child (Seven Stories Press, 2008). Among many other journalistic efforts, Davey D started HHPN (Hip Hop Po­liti­cal Newsletter, 2002–) and was managing editor of The Southern Shift News (2008–2010), which aimed to encourage new voters to flip the third-­largest county in the nation, Harris County (Texas), from Republican to Demo­crat. As of 2018, he is a lecturer at San Francisco State University, where he coteaches the course Hip Hop, Globalization, and the Politics of Identity. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Hip Hop Diplomacy; The United States

Further Reading

Blanchard, Becky. 1999. “The Social Significance of Rap and Hip Hop Culture.” Journal of Poverty and Prejudice (Spring). Klinenberg, Eric. 2007. “Clear Channel Comes to Town.” In Fighting for Air: The ­Battle to Control Amer­i­ca’s Media, chap. 3. New York: Metropolitan Books. McLeod, Kembrew. 2002. “The Politics and History of Hip Hop Journalism.” In Pop ­Music and the Press, edited by Steve Jones, chap. 9. Philadelphia: ­Temple University Press.

Davy D (aka Davy DMX, David Reeves, 1960–­, Beckley, West ­Virginia) Davy D is an American multi-­instrumentalist, DJ, songwriter, beats programmer, and ­music producer whose is best known for his collaboration with Kurtis Blow (1959–), Run-­D.M.C. (1981–2002), the Fat Boys (1982–1991, 2008–), Jam Master Jay (Jason William Mizell, 1965–2002), and Public ­Enemy (1982–). He is also known as Davy DMX, named ­after the Oberheim DMX (manufactured from 1981 into the mid-1980s), a programmable digital drum machine that he favored in his early work.

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When he was 10 years old, his ­family moved to Queens, New York, where, inspired by the Jackson 5 (1964–1989), he taught himself guitar and ­later bass, drums, and keyboards. He became a musician and DJ during hip hop’s formative years and by 1979 had become a DJ, turntablist, and backing vocalist for Kurtis Blow, who produced songs that Davy D co­wrote in the early 1980s, including the Fat Boys’ “Jail House Rap” (1984) and “Hard Core Reggae” (1985). In 1982, he played guitar in the pioneering hip hop band Orange Krush (1981–1983*) in Queens, New York. That same year, Orange Krush released the influential single “Action,” a combination of hip hop and rock ­music. “Action” has been sampled over 50 times and continues to be sampled as of 2018. In 1983, Davy D turned his attention to ­music production, though he continued as a session musician and songwriter, produced for fellow Tuff City Rec­ords (1981–) artists such as Spoonie Gee (1963–), among ­others, and worked on Run-­D.M.C.’s Tougher Than Leather (1988) for Profile Rec­ords (1980–). In 1987, he released his only solo a­ lbum, Davy’s Ride, a mostly instrumental hip hop recording, for Def Jam Recordings (1983–), and it peaked at No. 34 on Billboard’s R&B ­albums chart. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Jam Master Jay; Kurtis Blow; Public ­Enemy; Run-­D.M.C.; The United States

Further Reading

Leslie, Jimmy. 2011. “Davy DMX: Heavy Hooks with Public ­Enemy.” Bass Player 22, no. 6: 17. Mansfield, Joe, and Dave Tompkins. 2014. Beat Box: A Drum Machine Obsession. Berkeley, CA: Gingko Press.

Further Listening

Davy D. 1987. Davy’s Ride. Def Jam Recordings.

Day, Wendy (anonymous, 1962–) Wendy Day is an Atlanta-­based entrepreneur, man­ag­er, mentor, and advocate for hip hop sound recording artists. Day has negotiated sound recording deals for some of the best-­k nown rappers and hip hop artists in the United States, including David Banner (Lavell William Crump, 1974–), Eminem (1972–), and Slick Rick (1965–). She has also negotiated recording deals with large ­music industry companies for in­de­pen­dent labels such as Ca$h Money Rec­ords (1991–) and No Limit Rec­ords (1990–). Day’s advocacy began during the Golden Age of Hip Hop (1986–1994) in the early 1990s when hip hop artists, often without executive repre­sen­ta­tion, ­were signing recording contracts that prevented them from earning money or made them lose money; in some cases, artists w ­ ere billed for sound engineering or studio time. In 1992, she founded Rap Co­ali­tion, which aimed to educate hip hop artists on the ­music industry, maximize rec­ord deals to their benefit, build in­de­pen­dent labels, and break unreasonable contracts. Rap Co­ali­tion’s Board of Advisors included Banner, Chuck D (1960–), Killah Priest (Walter Reed, 1970–), Sticky Fingaz (Kirk Jones, 1973–), and Tupac Shakur (1971–1996).



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As of 2018, Wendy Day no longer manages hip hop artists; however, her eponymous website helps hip hop artists find funding for their own recording labels. She has also written an instructional book, How to Get a Rec­ord Deal (Atlanta: Finders Keepers, 2011). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Chuck D; Eminem; Hip Hop Diplomacy; Slick Rick; Tupac Shakur; The United States

Further Reading

Balaji, Murali. 2012. “The Construction of ‘Street Credibility’ in Atlanta’s Hip Hop ­Music Scene: Analyzing the Role of Cultural Gatekeepers.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 29, no. 4: 313–30. Kelley, Norman. 2004. “Wendy Day, Advocate for Rappers.” In That’s the Joint! The Hip Hop Studies Reader, edited by Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal, chap. 39. New York: Routledge.

De La Soul (1987–­, Long Island, New York) De La Soul is an American hip hop trio whose debut ­album, 3 Feet High and Rising (1989), on the Tommy Boy label (1981–), is generally regarded by critics as one of the greatest hip hop a­ lbums of the 1980s, if not of all time. Brooklyn-­based members Trugoy the Dove (aka Dave, David Jolicoeur, 1968–) and Maseo (Vincent Mason Jr., 1970–), along with Bronx-­based Posdnous (aka Pos, Kelvin Mercer, 1969–), have been the only members of the group since its founding. 3 FEET HIGH AND RISING The ­album 3 Feet High and Rising was produced by DJ and producer Prince Paul (Paul Edward Huston, 1967–) and featured the hallmarks of De La Soul’s style, including quirky lyr­ics, eclectic sampling, and skits. The ­album samples sounds from not only funk and soul but also French-­language instruction rec­ords, American blue-­eyed soul artists such as Hall and Oates (1970–), and American rock groups such as the Turtles (1965–1970, 2010–). For example, the ­album’s title is an adaptation of Johnny Cash’s (1932–2003) song “Five Feet High and Rising” (1974), and a sample of Cash’s asking the song’s repeated line “How high’s the ­water, mama?” appears in the single “The Magic Number.” The track “Cool Breeze on the Rocks” is a collage of dozens of dif­fer­ent sung and spoken samples from artists, including musicians Michael Jackson (1958–2009), Flavor Flav (1959–), MC Lyte (1970–), and actor and stand-up comedian Richard Pryor (1940–2005). Individual tracks on the ­album ­were linked with an abstract game show in which each member of the group was asked for the answer to a question that was never asked. Song lyr­ics espoused De La Soul’s concept of the D.A.I.S.Y. Age (an acronym for “da inner sound, y’all” and a catchall term for harmony and peace). With the release of 3 Feet High and Rising, De La Soul came to be associated with the New York–­based Native Tongues (1988–1996) collective. Other Native Tongues artists included the Jungle ­Brothers (1987–2008) as well as Queens-­based

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groups Black Sheep (1989–1995) and A Tribe Called Quest (1985–1998, 2006–2013, 2015–). The ­music of Native Tongues groups generally promoted Afrocentric lyr­ics and ­featured jazz-­based samples, quirky or unusual sampling, and a general sense of positivity. SUBSEQUENT ­ALBUMS The group had to change its approach to production in sampling for all of its subsequent ­albums ­after the Turtles sued De La Soul for its sampling of “You Showed Me” (1969) in the interlude track “Transmitting Live from Mars” on 3 Feet High and Rising. The case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum, but the members of De La Soul became cautious about sample clearance and choices of material to sample on its subsequent ­albums. For example, 1993’s Buhloone Mindstate featured new per­for­mances by legendary funk musicians, such as trombonist Fred Wesley (1943–) and saxophonist Maceo Parker (1943–), as opposed to samples of existing funk ­music recordings. De La Soul’s lyr­ics began to take on darker subjects as well. For example, its second ­album, De La Soul Is Dead (1991), included tracks such as “Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa” (in which a child violently confronts her abuser) and “My ­Brother’s a Basehead” (a tale of crack addiction). Buhloone Mindstate included the track “Patti Dooke,” in which the members of De La Soul railed against what they perceived as mainstream efforts to control the messages and style of black ­music. INTO THE 21st ­CENTURY De La Soul released ­albums ­every three or four years ­until 2004, ­after which it did not release another ­album u­ ntil 2012’s Plug 1 and Plug 2 Pres­ent . . . ​First Serve. De La Soul remained active in the interim, however, collaborating with groups such as Gorillaz (1998–), Yo La Tengo (1984–), and LA Symphony (1997– 2009, 2012–). The group won its first Grammy Award in 2006 for its collaboration with Gorillaz on the single “Feel Good Inc.” In 2015, the members of De La Soul launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund their ninth studio ­album, And the Anonymous Nobody (2016) released on the band’s label, AOI Rec­ords (2003–). Amanda Sewell See also: Native Tongues; Neo Soul; The United States

Further Reading

Coleman, Brian. 2007. “De La Soul: 3 Feet High and Rising.” In Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip Hop Junkies, pp. 143–58. New York: Villard. Sewell, Amanda. 2014. “How Copyright Affected the Musical Style and Critical Reception of Sample-­Based Hip Hop.” Journal of Popu­lar ­Music Studies 26, nos. 2–3: 295–320.

Further Listening

De La Soul. 1989. 3 Feet High and Rising. Tommy Boy. De La Soul. 1993. Buhloone Mindstate. Tommy Boy.

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Denmark Denmark has been the site of art events since the early 1970s, in both shanty towns such as Christiania and urban areas such as Copenhagen, its capital city, whose nearby suburbs have offered fertile ground for cultivating hip hop activity. Since the early 1980s, Danish media and ­music journals have given increased attention to the growth of underground art, dance, and ­music as well as to hip hop, especially in the form of concert appearances by American m ­ usic groups such as Fugees (1992–1997). Eventually, Danish hip hop found inspiration and motivation to develop its own par­tic­u­lar stylistic features. Danish interest in hip hop has been shared by white middle-­class Danish youth and youth who are representative of vari­ous economic classes and ethnicities. As an aspect of Danish modernism, hip hop is part of a fascinating counterculture, one that runs ­counter to the Danish government, particularly its emphasis on regal or royal culture—­sometimes rivaling the traditional placement of Hans Christian Anderson (1805–1875) and the amusement park Tivoli Gardens as the centerpieces of Danish tourism. Hip hop’s start was auspicious, however. From the 1980s into the early 2000s, Danish hip hop rarely received global attention. By the 2010s, Danish rappers—­many born in other countries, arriving from the African and ­Middle Eastern diasporas (first-­generation Danes)—­had found mainstream national success and fame abroad. T ­ oday, hip hop in Copenhagen is accepted as part of the city’s cultural life, and hip hop activity is now found in other Danish cities, though as in most cultures, the capital remains the epicenter. Conservative efforts to limit hip hop activity, as well as to criticize the m ­ usic, have failed.

ESTABLISHING HIP HOP By the early 1980s, breakdancing, graffiti, and rap existed in Denmark. Concerts by American rappers and rap groups such as Ice Cube (1969–), LL Cool J (1968–), Public ­Enemy (1982–), and Run-­D.M.C. (1981–2002) ­were early influences for Copenhagen rap acts, such as the group MC Einar (1987–1990) and the duo Rockers by Choice (1986–) as well as Clemens (Clemens Legolas Telling, 1979–), from Roskilde, Denmark, and Jonny Hefty (Jakob Ørom, 1969–) of the rap-­metal band Geronimo (1980–1996), from Aalborg, Denmark. In 1988, MC Einar released Den nye stil (The New Style), the first successful rap ­album in Danish; by the 1990s, rap in the Danish language had grown in popularity. In comparison to other Eu­ro­pean countries, Denmark’s hip hop has taken longer to emerge from the underground and into the mainstream. The sound of early Danish hip hop was influenced by American old-­school hip hop and R&B—­fusion with other genres such as heavy metal and reggae ­were soon to follow. By the mid1990s, Danish song texts from rap groups such as Østkyst Hustlers (1993–), from Roskilde/Copenhagen, and Den Gale Pose (DGP, the Mad Posse, aka Madness 4 Real, 1990*–2002, 2011–), from Hillerød, often focused on the cultural situation in Denmark, which partly explains why the initial success of Danish hip hop was insular. In the mid-1990s, groups began to explore innovative directions, such as using acoustic instruments. For example, on their a­ lbum Mod Rov (aka ­Towards

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Prey, 1996), Jokeren (Jesper Dahl, 1973–), also from Hillerød, and his group DGP use trumpets and piano. The Copenhagen rap group Malk de Koijn (1994–) in­ven­ ted the fictional Aberdeen—­a set of imaginary universes that serve as the setting for the songs from their a­ lbum Smash Hits in Aberdeen (1998), which incorporated some En­glish language, absurd humor, trumpets and saxophones, and swing-­ influenced ­music in addition to multiple synthesizers and turntables.

NEW WAVE AND COMMERCIAL SUCCESS By the 2000s, a new wave of Danish hip hop artists and groups had emerged, with a few achieving international success. ­These groups include Brøndby Strand–­ based Outlandish (1997–), which combined hip hop with folk, pop, soul, and world ­music, reflecting the group members’ ethnic backgrounds (Moroccan, Pakistani, and Cuban Honduran descent); Copenhagen’s Gypsies (2000–), an R&B and hip hop band that eschewed the use of turntables and backing tracks; and Copenhagen horrorcore group Suspekt (1997–). Je m’appelle Mads (2003–), a comedy ­music duo from Copenhagen, have also incorporated hip hop, including rap and electronic ­music, into their songs, with international commercial success. In addition, earlier Danish hip hop artists such as Jokeren became prolific producers, working on ­albums by American rappers such as Ice Cube. Since 2004, Jokeren has had several hits on the Danish Tracklisten, including “Jeg vil altid (Elske dig for evig)” (“I Want to Hide [Love You Forever],” 2011), which reached No. 1. Originally from Aarhus, Danish rapper-­songwriter L.O.C. (Liam Nygaard O’Connor, 1979–), has been involved in Danish hip hop since the 1990s. In 2003, L.O.C. released Inkarneret (Incarnate), which went Platinum, followed by the certified-­Platinum ­albums Cassiopeia (2005), Melankolia/XxxCouture (2008), and Libertiner (Libertine, 2011), as well as the Gold a­ lbum Prestige, Paranoia, Persona, Vols. 1 and 2 (2012); he is, as of 2018, the best-­selling rap recording artist from Denmark. He has collaborated with Jokeren and Suspekt, forming the group Selvmord (Suicide), whose self-­titled ­album (2009) was certified Gold. Sense of humor and metatextuality remain impor­tant ele­ments of Danish hip hop. Much of the sense of humor is based on wordplay that includes an awareness of similarities and differences between the Danish and En­glish languages. Unlike Scandinavian hip hop or other kinds of popu­lar musical genre-­related scenes, Danish hip hop has always been extremely male-­dominated. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Breakdancing; Graffiti Art; Hardcore Hip Hop; Horrorcore; Nerdcore

Further Reading

Krogh, Mads. 2011. “On Hip Hop Criticism and the Constitution of Hip Hop Culture in Denmark.” Popu­lar Musicology Online, no. 5. Preisler, Bent. 2003. “En­glish in Danish and the Danes’ En­glish.” International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2003, no. 159: 109–26. Stær, Andreas. 2017. “ ‘Ghetto Language’ in Danish Mainstream Rap.” Language and Communication 52 (January): 60–73.



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Further Listening

Gypsies. 2009. For the Feeble Hearted. Superstar Rec­ords. L.O.C. 2003. Inkarneret (Incarnate). Virgin. Malk de Koijn. 1998. Smash Hit in Aberdeen. RCA. MC Einar. 1988. Den nye stil (The New Style). CBS. Outlandish. 2002. Bread and Barrels of ­Water. RCA. Specktors. 2012. Kadavermarch (Cadaver March). EMI ­Music Denmark. Suspekt. 2014. V. Universal ­Music (Denmark).

Die Antwoord (2008–­, Cape Town, South Africa) Die Antwoord, a name that means “the answer” in Afrikaans, embodies South Africa’s counterculture of zef (an Afrikaans word used as a derogatory slang term for describing the common working class of Cape Town suburbs). The band’s members embrace the term and take owner­ship of what it means to be zef, establishing its own zef subculture. Die Antwoord’s m ­ usic is informed by a technique that combines rave and hip hop. The band’s carefully curated visual image is intentionally shocking and edgy, and its songs consist of foul-­mouthed lyr­ics rapped over catchy musical motifs and infectious beats. Rappers Ninja (Watkin Tudor Jones, 1974–), from Johannesburg, and ¥o-­landi Vi$$er (Anri du Toit, 1984–), from Port Alfred, along with DJ Hi-­Tek (aka God, Justin de Nobrega, n.d.), of Cape Town, make up the group. Previously, all three ­were part of the hip hop group Max­ Normal.TV (aka Max Normal, 2001–2002, 2005–2008). The signature Die Antwoord sound consists of Ninja’s rough, coarse rap style mixed with ¥o-­landi Vi$$er’s eerie, shrill, childlike voice, layered over DJ Hi-­Tek’s rap rave beats, with lyr­ics sung in both Afrikaans and En­glish. Their per­for­mances are frenetic and usually feature costumes and odd contact lenses (including yellow ones with dollar signs for pupils). Ninja and ¥o-­landi Vi$$er have consistently maintained public personas as wild, savage, and absurd parodies of South African zef ste­reo­types. With surreal, exaggerated, and overtly sexual portrayals of zef characters, Die Antwoord’s provocative ­music videos have earned them an extensive cult following. Their debut a­ lbum $O$ (2009) was originally an Internet-­only release that led to a rec­ord contract with the American label Interscope Rec­ords (1989–). Their first release ­under Interscope was the EP 5 (2010), soon followed by the physical release of $O$ (2010), which had a track listing slightly altered from the original. The $O$ track “Evil Boy” was produced by Mississippi-­born, Los Angeles–­based rapper, songwriter, and turntablist DJ Diplo (Thomas Wesley Pentz, 1978–). With rap lyr­ ics drawing attention to a Xhosa rite of passage, the collaboration gained notoriety (and ­later accusations of exploitation) for the song’s subject m ­ atter. ­After leaving Interscope rec­ords, Die Antwoord formed the label Zef Recordz (2011–) and released their second studio ­album, Ten$ion (2012). T ­ here ­were four videos released for the a­ lbum, and “Fatty Boom Boom” was the most controversial.

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Some of its scenes show ¥o-­landi Vi$$er covered in charcoal-­black body paint (including blackface); the song and video mock Lady Gaga (1986–) for offering to take them on tour with her. The hype for their third ­album, Donker Mag (2014), started a year before its release with the highly controversial single and video “Cookie Thumper.” Videos for Donker Mag tracks “Pitbull Terrier” and “Ugly Boy” w ­ ere l­ater released. In addition to its own proj­ects, Die Antwoord has appeared in a few films, including the two South African short films Straight from the Horse’s Piel (2010) and Umshini Wam (My Machine, named ­after a Zulu language strug­gle song, 2011). Ninja and ¥o-­landi Vi$$er also appeared in the full-­length American feature science fiction film CHAPPiE (2015). Lindsey E. Hartman See also: South Africa

Further Reading

Marx, Hannelie, and Viola Candice Milton. 2011. “Bastardized Whiteness: ‘Zef’-­Culture, Die Antwoord and the Reconfiguration of Con­temporary Afrikaans Identities.” Social Identities 17, no. 6: 723–45. Schmidt, Bryan. 2014. “ ‘Fatty Boom Boom’ and the Transnationality of Blackface in Die Antwoord’s Racial Proj­ect.” TDR: The Drama Review 58, no. 2: 132–48.

Further Listening

Die Antwoord. 2014. Donker Mag. Zef Recordz/Just ­Music.

Dilated ­Peoples (1992–­, Los Angeles, California) Dilated ­Peoples is an American alternative hip hop trio consisting of rapper and actor Rakaa (aka Rakaa Iriscience, Rakaa Taylor, n.d.), rapper and producer Evidence (Michael Taylor Perretta, 1976–), and turntablist and producer DJ Babu (aka Babu, The Turntablist or Melvin Babu, Chris Oroc, 1974–) from World Famous Beat Junkies (aka Beat Junkies, 1992–). The trio’s discography includes six studio ­albums: Imagery, Battlehymns, and Po­liti­cal Poetry (completed in 1995 but never officially released); The Platform (2000); Expansion Team (2002); Neighborhood Watch (2004); 20/20 (2006); and Directors of Photography (2014). With the exception of Dilated P ­ eoples’ first a­ lbum, all of its ­albums have charted on the Billboard 200; most notably, Expansion Team peaked at No. 36. It also peaked at No. 55 on the U.K. A ­ lbums Chart and, along with Directors of Photography, which peaked at No. 9, peaked at No. 8 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart. Dilated ­Peoples is best known for its song “This Way” (2004) and the song’s video, which featured American hip hop artists Kanye West (1977–), John Legend (1978–), and Xzibit (Alvin Nathaniel Joiner, 1974–). The trio is also well known for its combination of West Coast freestyle sound and East Coast old-­school sound and its metatextual rapping as well as its live per­for­mances and collaborations with notable artists such as West, American DJ and rec­ord producer the Alchemist (1977–),



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Gang Starr’s (1986–2003) DJ Premier (Christopher Edwin Martin, 1966–), and the hardcore West Coast trio Tha Alkaholiks (aka Tha Liks, 1992–2006, 2011–). Dilated ­Peoples began when rappers Evidence and Iriscience recruited DJ Babu. The trio worked on Imagery, Battlehymns, and Po­liti­cal Poetry as well as its first 12-­inch singles on vinyl. The singles “Third Degree,” “Confidence,” and “Global Dynamics” ­were released in 1997, and “Work the ­A ngles,” “Main Event,” and “­Triple Optics” followed in 1998 on the Oakland, California, ABB Rec­ords (Always Bigger and Better, 1997–) hip hop label. By 1998, Dilated ­Peoples had signed on with Capitol Rec­ords (1942–). Though The Platform was its first ­album that charted in both the United States and the United Kingdom, Dilated ­Peoples hit its stride with Expansion Team, a combination of jazz-­f used hip hop, electronica, trip hop, samples ranging from Hitchcock film stingers to 1970s tele­vi­sion shows, and DJ Babu’s turntablism (especially on the track “Dilated Junkies”). Dilated ­Peoples’ next best known ­album, Neighborhood Watch, gained extra exposure through having some of its tracks on popu­lar video games. Directors of Photography came ­after the slightly less well received 20/20. The ­album explores boombap production as a retro sound. Evidence released his debut solo ­album with Another Sound Mission, Vol. 1 (2005), followed by three charting ­albums—­The Weatherman LP (2007), Cats & Dogs (2011), and Lord Steppington (with the Alchemist, 2014)—­and Rakaa’s debut solo ­album was Crown of Thorns (2010). As of 2018, DJ Babu continues producing and remains an active member of World Famous Beat Junkies. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: DJ Babu; Turntablism; The United States; World Famous Beat Junkies

Further Reading

Harrington, Richard. 2002. “Up to Scratch with Dilated ­Peoples.” The Washington Post, March 15, WW08. Katz, Mark. 2012. “Turntablism: 1989–96.” In Groove ­Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ, chap. 5. New York: Oxford University Press. Palmer, Tamara. 2003. “Babu.” Interview with DJ Babu. Remix 5, no. 12: 20.

Further Listening

Dilated ­Peoples. 2001. Expansion Team. Capitol. Dilated ­Peoples. 2014. Directors of Photography. Rhymesayers Entertainment.

Dirty Rap (aka Pornocore) Dirty rap is a subgenre of hip hop that specifically involves lyr­ics that emphasize sex and explicit descriptions of sex professionals. Although most rappers and hip hop artists have released at least one song that has explicit sexual language, dirty rap stands apart for its exaggerations—­rappers, male and/or female, ­will emphasize a sexual superiority, making themselves the sexual superhero or menace, possessing, among other skills, the ability to destroy their sexual partner(s), with exploits lasting for hours and even days. This is accompanied by the demeaning of

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the partner. In cases of rape lyr­ics, the partner is described as someone who wanted the encounter, playing to the psy­chol­ogy of sexual predators, who often blame their victims. If the rapper is female, men, as objects, are equally demeaned, with implications that they are bums, are stupid, and/or possess no redeeming qualities except the ability to be used for sexual gratification. If ­there are positive messages in dirty rap, it is that the sexual objects are usually revered for their amazing physical attributes and sexual prowess. Dirty rap originated in the mid-1980s with groups such as 2 Live Crew (1982– 1998, 2010–) and N.W.A. (1986–1991), who rapped about crime and hatred of the police, about making more money than every­one ­else, and about sexual exploits. In 1988, Eazy-­E’s song “Still Talkin’ ” explic­itly describes the way he selects some ­women with whom to have intercourse; he also raps about his sexual prowess, his longevity, the number of ­women he can ­handle, and how he needs to choose between two ­women who want to please him in dif­fer­ent ways—he decides to use one for sex and save the other one for a rainy day, based on their bodies. Rap band 2 Live Crew has a song on its 1990 a­ lbum Banned in the U.S.A. called “Face Down A— Up,” in which each of the band’s rappers’ sexual exploits and what each prefers is described in explicit, rhyming detail. In 1992, in one of Ice Cube’s (1969–) songs, “It Was a Good Day,” he brags about the size of his genitalia and his ability to put ­women to sleep through ­great sex. Over the next de­cade, the content of dirty rap’s lyr­ics did not vary much, yet instrumentation and musical choices ­were adjusted to fit the mainstream rap aesthetic. Some of t­hese adjustments included more intense bass thumps, set ­under sampled portions of previous rock or funk tunes. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, producer and rapper Dr. Dre’s (1965–) signature slow, consistent beat with time-­ adjusted sampling (G-­funk) was utilized by vari­ous dirty rap acts, for example, Ludacris’s (1977–) “What’s Your Fantasy” (2000) and “Move B—” (2002) as well as Lil’ Troy’s (Troy Lane Birklett, 1966–) “Wanna Be a Baller” (1999) and “Where’s the Love” (1999). In addition, Juicy J (Jordan Michael Houston, 1975–) uses pornographic lyr­ics, integrating them into his mainstream rap and hip hop in “Bandz a Make Her Dance” (2012). Expanding on the use of sampling, mash-up artist Girl Talk (Greg Michael Gillis, 1981–) became quite famous with wholly sampled ­albums such as Night Ripper (2006) and Feed the Animals (2008). ­These ­albums consisted of not only sampled backgrounds featuring up to 15 dif­fer­ent song riffs but also the dirty rap lyr­ics and beats of other rap artists. One of Girl Talk’s most famous songs, “Play Your Part Pt.1” (2008), features the samples of bands UGK (1987–2007) and OutKast (1991–) and solo rappers Ludacris, DJ Funk (Charles Chambers, n.d.), Unk (Anthony Platt, 1982–), Shawnna (Rashawnna Guy, 1978–), Birdman (1969–), Lil Wayne (1982–), T.I. (Clifford Joseph Harris Jr., 1980–), Jay-­Z (1969–), Kelis (Kelis Rogers, 1979–), and Too $hort (Todd Anthony Shaw, 1964–). As of 2018, artists such as Foxy Brown (Inga DeCarlo Fung Marchand, 1978–), Lil’ Kim (1975–), Akinyele (Akinyele Adams, 1970–), and Nicki Minaj (1982–) are integrating pornographic lyr­ics into mainstream rap and hip hop. Minaj’s 2014 song “Anaconda” is an excellent example of a female rapper’s using dirty rap. Even comedian, actor, DJ, and rapper Childish Gambino (Donald McKinley Glover, 1983–)



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features dirty rap lyr­ics in a few of his songs, as in “The Worst Guys,” where he brags about a ménage a trois where he destroyed his female sex partner. Explicit sexual lyr­ics have been used in many genres of ­music over the past five de­cades (each generation defining what is considered too explicit). Dirty rap is no dif­fer­ent. Matthew Schlief See also: Lil’ Kim; Nicki Minaj; 2 Live Crew; The United States

Further Reading

Herd, Denise. 2015. “Conflicting Paradigms on Gender and Sexuality in Rap ­Music: A Systematic Review.” Sexuality and Culture 19, no. 3: 577–89. Westhoff, Ben. 2011. Dirty South: OutKast, Lil Wayne, Soulja Boy, and the Southern Rappers Who Reinvented Hip Hop. Chicago: Chicago Review Press.

Further Listening

Lil’ Kim. 1996. Hard Core. Big Beat. Nicki Minaj. 2014. The Pinkprint. Young Money Entertainment/Ca$h Money Rec­ords/ Republic Rec­ords.

Dirty South (aka Southern Hip Hop, South Coast, Third Coast) Dirty South emerged around 1995 in the southern United States, initially as a small-­ scale region of hip hop production (­after New York City and Los Angeles). In recent years, the American South, particularly Atlanta, has become a major hub for the genre. Dirty South rap is associated with regional slang and speech patterns, place references, danceable beats, pronounced bass influenced by the Jamaican sound system culture (using technology, sometimes DIY, to create a better sound), and lyr­ics reminiscent of signifying and toasting traditions. Major southern cities of hip hop production include Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Memphis, and Miami. Some artists, such as Luke (aka Luke Skyywalker, Luther Roderick Campbell, 1960–), who is from Miami, have argued that Dirty South refers only to Atlanta rap, but the term is more generally accepted as pertaining to the region as a ­whole. Part of local slang since the 1980s, Dirty South was pop­u­lar­ized in the Atlanta-­based Goodie Mob (1991–) song of the same name on the a­ lbum Soul Food (1995). Though it has been dismissed as raunchy, overly ­simple club or car ­music, Dirty South also addresses lyrical themes of economic and social exclusion, i­magined homeland, racism, po­liti­cal corruption, rurality, and criminality. The southern drawl appeared in rapped vocal style before the popularization of southern rap, most notably in West Coast rapper Snoop Dogg’s (1971–) inflected speech. Dirty South speech patterns continue to be distinct and identifiable, somewhat controversially mimicked by artists from outside the region, such as Australian rapper Iggy Azalea (1990–). EARLY SOUTHERN ARTISTS The Geto Boys (1986–), from Houston, ­were among the earliest southern rappers to gain mainstream attention, releasing their first ­album with local label

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Rap-­A-­Lot Rec­ords in 1988. The growing popularity of the Geto Boys and U.G.K. (1987–2007, Port Arthur, Texas), who pop­u­lar­ized the vernacular term trill (true + real) and emphasized southern enunciation and bluesy beats, marked Texas as an early home of southern rap, though the style remained thematically similar to West Coast gangsta rap. Other Dirty South precursors include the Miami bass sound, heard in dance songs such as Atlanta-­based Tag Team’s (1993–1995) “Whoomp! (­There It Is)” (1993) and 69 Boyz’s (1992–­, Jacksonville, Florida) “Tootsie Roll” (1994). The Miami group 2 Live Crew (1982–) created extreme examples of the sexual lyrical themes that came to be associated with the Dirty South. Their controversial 1989 a­ lbum As Nasty as They Wanna Be was the first a­ lbum ruled to be obscene by U.S. courts. A key figure in Miami bass, Luke Rec­ords (formerly Luke Skyywalker Rec­ords, 1985–), produced tracks for MC Shy-­D (Peter Jones, 1967*–), a Bronx-­raised, Miami bass–­influenced artist who claimed Atlanta as his home. Luke was known for his shouted call-­and-­response outbursts over tracks, predating the techniques of Atlanta-­based crunk producer Lil Jon (Jonathan Smith, 1971–). Master P (1970–) founded No Limit Rec­ords (1990–2003) in New Orleans, and, like Rap-­A-­Lot Rec­ords in Houston, he produced songs that extended the geographic range of West Coast gangsta rap, which commonly focused on drugs, crime, and sex. His ­album Ice Cream Man (1996) added southern influences to the vocal style and beats and was successful beyond the southern United States. Jermaine Dupri (1972–), a former b-­boy, founded So So Def Rec­ords (1993–) in Atlanta in 1993, promoting acts such as 13-­year-­old Kris Kross (1991–2001). Like Dupri’s So So Def, Antonio Marquis Reid (aka L.A. Reid, 1956–) and Babyface’s (1959–) Atlanta-­based LaFace Rec­ords (1989–2001, 2004–2011) focused mostly on R&B groups, but both labels w ­ ere key in situating Atlanta’s status in the ­music industry. The commercial and critical success of OutKast’s (1992–) Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik in 1994, produced by Or­ga­nized Noize (1992–) in Atlanta, and their contentious win of the Best New Rap Group award at the 1995 Source Awards predicted a shift in the geographic focus of hip hop. Though other groups, such as Afrocentric Atlanta transplants Arrested Development (1988–1996, 2000–), addressed regional themes of homeland, ­family, and country life, OutKast was one of the first mainstream groups to have a distinctly identifiable southern sound and address explic­itly local, southern themes. Rather than mimicking the sounds of the East and West Coast, OutKast’s ­albums, particularly ATLiens (1996), drew attention to and reveled in their outsider status. Other groups with less mainstream airplay, such as Memphis artists Eightball and MJG (aka 8Ball and MJG, 1991–), also demonstrated ­these themes and sounds on ­albums such as On the Outside Looking In (1994). Other Atlanta artists of the mid-1990s, particularly Ludacris (1977–) and Goodie Mob, demonstrated a clear Dirty South aesthetic.

RISE OF SOUTHERN RAP IN THE 2000s New Orleans’s Ca$h Money Rec­ords (1991–), founded by ­brothers Birdman (1969–), a rapper, and Slim (Ronald Williams 1967–), a producer, added the bounce



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sound to the Dirty South mix. Bounce-­influenced southern rap may be heard in 1999 commercially successful singles by two members of Ca$h Money’s the Hot Boys (aka the Hot Boy$ or the Hot Boyz, 1997–). Juvenile’s (Terius Gray, 1975–) “Back That Azz Up” (aka “Back That Thang Up”) and Lil Wayne’s (1982–) “Tha Block Is Hot” both charted on the Hot Rap Singles chart, with Juvenile’s song ­going to No. 1. The Dirty South sound dominated American pop and hip hop/R&B airwaves in the early 2000s. This usurpation of hip hop preeminence was bemoaned by many East and West Coast artists, many of whom characterized southern rap as merely “booty shake” ­music. The rise of southern rap opened the door for other regions around the world, proving that hip hop outside New York and California could be both meaningful and marketable. Subgenres that may fall ­under the Dirty South designation include crunk, bounce, screw, trap, buck, and snap. Katy E. Leonard See also: Birdman; Bounce; Geto Boys; Master P; Miami Bass; OutKast; The United States

Further Reading

Grem, Darren E. 2006. “ ‘The South Got Something to Say’: Atlanta’s Dirty South and the Southernization of Hip Hop Amer­i­ca.” Southern Cultures 12, no. 4: 55–73. Miller, Matt. 2004. “Rap’s Dirty South: From Subculture to Pop Culture.” Journal of Popu­ lar ­Music Studies 16, no. 2: 175–212. Sarig, Roni. 2007. Third Coast: OutKast, Timbaland, and How Hip Hop Became a Southern ­Thing. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press.

Further Listening

Geto Boys. 1991. We C ­ an’t Be Stopped. Rap-­A-­Lot Rec­ords. Goodie Mob. 1995. Soul Food. LaFace Rec­ords. Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz. 2002. Kings of Crunk. TVT Rec­ords. Lil Wayne. 2008. Tha Car­ter III. Ca$h Money Rec­ords. Ludacris. 2001. Word of Mouf. Def Jam South.

Disability Hip Hop (aka Dis Hop, Krip Hop, Dip Hop) Disability hip hop is ­music that incorporates a variety of hip hop styles with lyrical content that addresses disability and the disabled experience. The many purposes of disability hip hop include activism, consciousness raising, education, and protesting against social and po­liti­cal conditions such as lack of access, care, and socialization as well as discrimination. Disability hip hop is highly inclusive: the disability hip hop community also includes artists who have disabilities b­ ecause of diseases, disorders, syndromes, and malaises. More research is needed on disability hip hop as a global phenomenon. One or­ga­nized community of disability hip hop is Krip Hop, a movement founded in the 1990s by African American poet, writer, and activist Leroy F. Moore Jr. (1967–). The son of parents who belonged to the Black Panthers and having been diagnosed with ce­re­bral palsy, Moore became the voice of Krip Hop in Berkeley,

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California. Through his movement, hip hop was first used at gatherings for disabled artists to express themselves. By the 2000s, Moore’s Krip Hop series was appearing on the progressive radio station KPFA’s (1949–) show Pushing Limits. The show was geared ­toward Berkeley’s disabled community and provided information on news, culture, and the arts. What began as a local effort has become a global one: in 2007, Moore created Krip Hop Nation, which invites vari­ous disabled hip hop artists from around the world to share their m ­ usic and to use it for disability advocacy and awareness. Krip Hop Nation has also addressed the prob­lem of disability hip hop’s being performed mostly in first-­world countries such as the United States, Canada, E ­ ngland, and Germany. It has worked ­toward establishing the names of disabled artists through recording. Its 10th-­year anniversary studio ­album, The Best of Krip Hop Nation (2017), features vari­ous disabled artists, such as Denver-­based Kalyn Heffernan (1989–) of Wheelchair Sports Camp (1997–), who fuses at times humorous and satirical old-­school hip hop with funk and jazz, as well as the Real Toni Hickman (n.d.), DJ Ann Jewelz (Julie Ann Jewelz Haneyj, n.d.), and Seattle-­based King Khazm (anonymous, n.d.) of the jazz-­rock–­inspired hip hop group 206 Zulu (2004–). Another kind of disability hip hop is Dip Hop, which is Deaf hip hop performed by deaf artists. Dip Hop began in the early 2000s and, like Krip Hop, continues strongly ­today. Dip Hop artists have also worked with Krip Hop artists, showing mutual support for their art. One of the most famous deaf rappers is Wawa (Wawa Snipes, n.d.), who has been active since 2000. Wawa uses sign language as a way to bridge hearing audience members into the deaf world. In addition to focusing on being deaf and encountering a hearing world, Wawa’s lyrical content includes romance, humor, and positive messages. His m ­ usic fuses hip hop with pop. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Bailey, Moya. 2011. “ ‘The Illest’: Disability as Meta­phor in Hip Hop ­Music.” In Blackness and Disability: Critical Examinations and Cultural Interventions, edited by Christopher M. Bell, pp. 141–48. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press. Howe, Blake, Stephanie Jensen-­Moulton, Neil Lerner, and Joseph Straus, eds. 2016. The Oxford Handbook of ­Music and Disability Studies. New York: Oxford University Press.

Further Listening

Vari­ous Artists. 2017. The Best of Krip Hop Nation. Krip Hop Nation.

DJ Babu (aka Babu, The Turntablist or Melvin Babu, Chris Oroc, 1974–­, Washington, DC) DJ Babu is a Filipino American turntablist and producer. He is best known as a member of Dilated ­Peoples (1992–), a hip hop trio he joined in 1997, and Beat



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DJ Babu mastered playing the turntable using regular style, scratching a rec­ord ­album forward first. He is a member of the accomplished and award-­winning Long Beach and West Los Angeles turntablist crew World Famous Beat Junkies and the Los Angeles alternative hip hop trio Dilated ­Peoples. (Chelsea Lauren/WireImage/Getty Images)

Junkies (aka, World Famous Beat Junkies, 1992–), an American hip hop crew of turntablists, both from California. The latter goes beyond beat production, boasting its own rec­ord pool (to provide to members exclusive cuts and edits); clothing line; radio station, Beat Junkie Radio (2015–); and DJ school, the Beat Junkie Institute of Sound (2017–). Beat Junkies has won prestigious international DJ ­battles and competitions. DJ Babu was also part of the duo the Likwit Junkies (2003–2005). Individually, DJ Babu has won multiple competition titles and is famous for his 1997 beat juggling routine, called “Blind Alley,” which involves constant alternation between two turntables, quick stops/breaks and melodic shifts, and constant hiccups and reversals. As a recording artist, u­ nder the pseudonym the Turntablist, he is responsible for Super Duck Breaks (1996), a popu­lar DJ ­battle ­album on the Stones Throw Rec­ords (1996–) label. Also a photographer, he has chronicled turntablism through shots taken from ­behind the instrument; he has been credited as producer on over 100 recordings, and some credit him for coining the term turntablist. Though born in Washington, DC, he grew up in Southern California, near Los Angeles. In 2001, along with Beat Junkie artists J Rocc (Jason Jackson, n.d.) and Rhettmatic (Nazareth Nirza, n.d.), he went on the 45-­city Word-­of-­Mouth U.S. tour to

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showcase turntable expertise. As a member of Dilated ­Peoples, he is part of what is considered the Los Angeles underground’s most cutting-­edge act, which has been compared to legendary acts such as EPMD (1986–1993, 2006–) and Run-­D.M.C. (1981–2002). Dilated ­Peoples is known for pushing the limits of the musical genre through experimentation and crossover sampling. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Dilated ­Peoples; The Philippines; Turntablism; The United States; World Famous Beat Junkies

Further Reading

Harrison, Anthony Kwame. 2012. “Post-­colonial Consciousness, Knowledge Production, and Identity Inscription within Filipino American Hip Hop ­Music.” Perfect Beat 13, no. 1: 29–48. Katz, Mark. 2012. “Turntablism: 1989–96.” In Groove ­Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ, chap. 5. New York: Oxford University Press. Palmer, Tamara. 2003. “Babu.” Interview with DJ Babu. Remix 5, no. 12: 20.

DJ Bobcat (aka Bobcat, Bobby Ervin, 1967–­, Los Angeles, California) DJ Bobcat is an American hip hop producer, DJ, and entrepreneur best known for his work with LL Cool J (1968–) and Ice Cube (1969–). DJ Bobcat began his ­career as a DJ and turntablist in Los Angeles. He was a member of the hip hop crew ­Uncle Jamm’s Army (1977–1988), founded by ­Uncle Jamm (Rodger Clayton, 1959*–2010). Key members of ­Uncle Jamm’s Army in the 1980s included DJ Pooh (Mark Jordan, 1969–) and Ice-­T (1958–). DJ Bobcat’s rec­ord scratching is featured in the group’s single “The Roach Is on the Wall” (1985). Several members of ­Uncle Jamm’s Army, including DJ Bobcat and DJ Pooh, went on to form the L.A. Posse (1987– 1991) production team. In 1987, Russell Simmons (1957–) signed the L.A. Posse to Def Jam Recordings (1983–) to produce LL Cool J’s second studio ­album, Bigger and Deffer (BAD) (1987). DJ Bobcat was involved in the production of some of the ­album’s most iconic singles, including “I Need Love” and “Go Cut Creator Go.” The next year, DJ Bobcat released his first solo ­album, Cat Got Ya Tongue (1988). Throughout the late 1980s and into the 1990s, DJ Bobcat produced a veritable who’s who of hip hop tracks and ­albums, including LL Cool J’s Grammy Award–­winning single “Mama Said Knock You Out” (1990), MC Ren’s (Lorenzo Patterson, 1969–) EP Kizz My Black Azz (1992), three singles on Tupac Shakur’s (1971–1996) a­ lbum Strictly 4 My N.—­A.Z. (1993), two singles on Eazy-­E’s (1963–1995) final solo a­ lbum Str8 off tha Streetz of Muthaphukkin Compton (1996), and the single “Holla at Me” from Shakur’s a­ lbum All Eyez on Me (1996). Since the late 1990s, DJ Bobcat has worked with a variety of hip hop artists, continuing to produce singles and ­albums. He produced “Comin’ ­after You” (1998), a single from MC Ren’s ­album Ruthless for Life. The single was a tribute to the recently deceased Eazy-­E and featured a guest appearance by Ice Cube, marking the first time MC Ren and Ice Cube had recorded together since 1989, when Ice Cube left N.W.A. (1986–1991). DJ Bobcat continues to perform DJ sets as a solo



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and a guest artist, but he has not produced new material since the late 1990s. In the 2000s, he began focusing on the entrepreneurial dimension of hip hop. He and his wife established the Foundation Entertainment Agency, a marketing firm and DJ network dedicated to connecting DJs with proj­ects, promotions, and gigs on a global scale. Amanda Sewell See also: Ice Cube; LL Cool J; Turntablism; The United States

Further Reading

Sanchez, Tim. 2013. “Lessons from a Legend: DJ Bobcat.” Interview with DJ Bobcat. AllHipHop 17 (January 2013). Sewell, Amanda. 2014. “How Copyright Affected the Musical Style and Critical Reception of Sample-­Based Hip Hop.” Journal of Popu­lar ­Music Studies 26, nos. 2–3: 295–320.

Further Listening

DJ Bobcat. 1988. Cat Got Ya Tongue. Arista. LL Cool J. 1987. Bigger and Deffer. Def Jam. Tupac Shakur. 1993. Strictly 4 My N.—.A.Z. Interscope.

DJ Jazzy Jeff (Jeffrey Allen Townes, 1965–­, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) DJ Jazzy Jeff is an American hip hop and R&B DJ, rec­ord producer, actor, and former world DJ champion (­Battle of the Deejays, New ­Music Seminar, 1986) but is best known as the turntablist for the hip hop and rap duo DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince (1985–1994) with American actor and hip hop performer W ­ ill Smith (1968–) in Philadelphia. As part of the duo, Jazzy Jeff won two Grammy Awards, the first for “Parents Just ­Don’t Understand,” an MTV favorite that launched Smith’s acting ­career, and the second for “Summertime,” the duo’s only Top 10 hit, which peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and made it to No. 1 in the United Kingdom. Overall, the duo had five Top 40 hits as well as two certified-­Platinum and three Gold a­ lbums, the a­ lbum He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper (1988) ­going t­ riple Platinum. In his home city, Jazzy Jeff also founded A Touch of Jazz, Inc. (1990–), creating a stable of producers working on rap and R&B proj­ects. He also played the character Jazz on The Fresh Prince of Bel-­Air (1990–1996), which starred Smith. He is known for the diversity of his sampling and is cocredited with unique turntable techniques called “transformer” and “chirp” scratches. As a member of DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, he is known for producing humorous party anthems and lighthearted lyr­ics and m ­ usic. Jazzy Jeff became a block party DJ while still in high school (having DJed since the age of 10), releasing his first song, “Jazzy Jeff Scratch,” (1985, Re­nais­sance Recording) as the B side of the short-­lived Korner Boyz’s (1985–) “The Saga of Roxanne” (1985). He met Smith at a ­house party, where Smith filled in for his hype man. Along with beatboxer Ready Rock C (Clarence Holmes, 1968–), they formed a trio. As Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, the group signed with Word Rec­ords (soon

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renamed Word Up), culminating in the single “Girls ­Ain’t Nothing but Trou­ble” (1987). The band became DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince by the first ­album, Rock the House, which was released on both Word Up in 1986 and Jive/RCA in 1987. The band moved over to Jive Rec­ords (1981–), and He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper followed; “Parents Just ­Don’t Understand” won the first ever Grammy for a hip hop or rap song. By its third ­album, And in This Corner (1989), the duo’s popularity was waning. Rock C officially left the group before the release of Homebase (1991), which went Platinum, and Code Red (1993), its final ­album. As a solo act, Jazzy Jeff has released two ­albums, The Magnificent (2002) and The Return of the Magnificent (2007), as well as two a­ lbums with Ayah (Merna Bishouty, n.d.), This Way (2010) and Back for More (2011). He also collaborated with Smith on his solo ­album Willennium (1999). The Return of the Magnificent featured collaborations with Big ­Daddy Kane (1968–) and Method Man (Clifford Smith, 1970–). In 2000, he produced the critically acclaimed and Grammy-­nominated Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds, Vol. 1. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Battling; Turntablism; The United States; Smith, ­Will

Further Reading

Katz, Mark. 2012. Groove ­Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ. New York: Oxford University Press. Webber, Stephen. 2008. DJ Skills: The Essential Guide to Mixing and Scratching. Burlington, MA: Focal Press.

DJ QBert (Richard Quitevis, 1969–­, San Francisco, California) DJ QBert is a renowned Filipino American turntablist who performed regularly with San Francisco–­based childhood friends Mix Master Mike (1970–) and DJ Apollo (Apollo Novicio, n.d.) in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The trio, using the names Shadow DJs, Rock Steady DJs, Shadow of the Prophet, and Invisibl Skratch Piklz (1995–2000, 2014–), won the international Disco Mix Club World DJ Championships three years in a row before being asked to retire from competition in 1994. The trio laid the foundation for applying the band concept to turntablism, treating the turntable as a musical instrument and giving each DJ a specialized sonic role within the larger ensemble. In fact, Invisibl Skratch Piklz ­were at the forefront of turntablist-­oriented videos and websites; this made it easier for other DJs to learn scratch techniques and expand the turntablist community. DJ QBert scratches ­albums hamster style (moving backward to forward), a technique that many turntablists believe originated with him. In 2009, QBert launched the QBert Skratch University, an interactive online school and community for DJs that features a video exchange learning platform where students can submit practice videos and receive helpful tips and techniques in response. DJ QBert’s solo endeavors include a mixtape, De­mo­li­tion Pumpkin Squeeze Musik (1994), and a critically acclaimed first ­album, Wave Twisters: Episode 7



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Million: Sonic Wars within the Protons (1998). Working with animators and digital artists, QBert transformed Wave Twisters into an animated hip hop film that was released in 2001. In 2014, he released his double-­album Extraterrestria/GalaXXXian as digital media on the Thud Rumble (1996–) label. Funded by a Kickstarter campaign that raised $128,378, the ­album features a cover that can be transformed into a Bluetooth-­enabled DJ controller that functions like a tactile soundboard. By using the DJay app on an iPad or iPhone, fans can run tracks from QBert’s ­album (or any MP3) and manipulate them with the use of the built-in controller. With his Invisibl Skratch Piklz partner Yogafrog (Ritchie Desuasido, 1974–) and through Thud Rumble, DJ QBert designs and releases innovative DJ products, such as an all-­in-­one turntable and mixer combination called the QFO. In 2016, Invisibl Skratch Piklz—­now consisting of DJ QBert, Philippines-­born D-­Styles (Dave Cuasito, 1972–), and San Francisco–­born Shortkut (Jonathan Cruz, 1975–)—­released an ­album, The 13th Floor, on the Los Angeles Alpha Pup Rec­ords (2004–) label. DJ QBert has been featured in two American documentaries: Hang the DJ (1998, Aska Film Distribution) and Scratch (2001, Warner ­Brothers Distribution). He has collaborated on several video games, including Tony Hawk Underground (2003), Street Fighter 4 (2008), and DJ Hero 2 (2010). In 2000, he was knighted as a grandmixer by GrandMixer DXT (aka ­G rand Mixer D.ST, Derek Showard, 1960–). In 2010, audio products manufacturer Pioneer DJ and DJ Times magazine awarded him the title of Amer­i­ca’s Best DJ. Antonette Adiova See also: Invisibl Skratch Piklz; The Philippines; Turntablism; The United States

Further Reading

Bua, Justin. 2011. “QBert.” The Legends of Hip Hop. New York: Harper Design. Katz, Mark. 2006. “Men, ­Women, and Turntables: Gender and the DJ ­Battle.” The Musical Quarterly 89, no. 4: 580–99. Wang, Oliver. 2015. Legions of Boom: Filipino American Mobile DJ Crews in the San Francisco Bay Area. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Further Listening

DJ QBert. 1998. Wave Twisters: Episode 7 Million: Sonic Wars within the Protons. Galactic Butt Hair Rec­ords.

DJ Rap (formerly Ambience, Charissa Saverio, 1969–­, Singapore) DJ Rap is an En­glish dance DJ, composer, ­music engineer, ­music producer, turntablist, singer, and former topless model. She combines drum and bass (jungle style), ­house ­music, EDM (electronic dance ­music), and, ­later, trip hop in her work. She was born in Singapore but spent her teen and adult years in Southampton and East London. In the late 1980s, she became a dance DJ and mixer on the London rave scene, but quickly moved on to ­music production. Using the alias Ambience, in 1989 she released her underground breakbeat single “The Adored” on the London-­based label Raw Bass (1989–1992). Soon she

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was producing old-­school jungle ­music fused with electronica, as on her ­albums Intelligence with Voyager (Pete Parsons, n.d.) and Journeys through the Land of Drum ‘n’ Bass (both 1995). Meanwhile, she continued producing other recordings for proj­ect bands such as Engineers without Fears (1993–2001)* and singles such as “Spiritual Aura” (1994), which sampled rapper Big ­Daddy Kane’s (1968–) song “Raw” (1987). She also began her own in­de­pen­dent London-­based rec­ord labels, Proper Talent, Improper Talent, and Propa Talent, among ­others (1994–). In 1997, DJ Rap signed with Sony’s subsidiary Higher Ground, which released Learning Curve (1999), her most successful and critically acclaimed ­album. DJ Rap both raps and sings on her ­albums, and her singing voice resembles the thin mezzo-­ soprano of Madonna (1958–). Though it is not a drum-­and-­bass ­album, Learning Curve exemplifies DJ Rap’s musical style, combining electronica grooves with hip hop as well as focusing on lyrical content that ranges from uplifting messages, such as having to be a strong w ­ oman in this world, to light dancing and clubbing topics. In 2006, Shejay ranked DJ Rap as the No. 1 female DJ in the world. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Hip House; Singapore; The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Craig, Todd, and Carmen Kynard. 2017. “Sista Girl Rock: ­Women of Colour and Hip Hop Deejaying as Raced/Gendered Knowledge and Language.” Changing En­glish: Studies in Culture and Education 24, no. 2: 143–58. Farrugia, Rebekah. 2012. “Sex Kittens, T-­Shirt DJs and Dykes: Negotiating Identities in an Era of DJ Commodification.” In Beyond the Dance Floor: Female DJs, Technology, and Electronic Dance M ­ usic Culture, chap. 2. Chicago: Intellect. Hsieh, Christine. 2005. “DJ Rap.” Interview with DJ Rap. Remix 7, no. 7: 20. Pabón-­Colón, Jessica Nydia. 2017. “Writin’, Breakin’, Beatboxin’: Strategically Performing ‘­Women’ in Hip Hop.” Signs: Journal of ­Women in Culture and Society 43, no. 1: 175–200.

Further Listening

DJ Rap. 1999. Learning Curve. Higher Ground HIGH 7CD/Columbia. DJ Rap. 2010. Synthesis. Ministry of Sound Amer­i­ca.

DJ Shadow (Joshua Paul Davis, 1972–­, San José, California) DJ Shadow is a turntablist and producer known for his experimental instrumental style and distinctive usage of sampling. His innovative and critically acclaimed ­album, Endtroducing . . . . ​. (1996), released on the British trip hop label Mo’ Wax, helped pave the way for other experimental DJs. Consisting almost entirely of sampled content from his vast vinyl collection, Endtroducing . . . . ​. became a critically acclaimed success in the United Kingdom and United States. DJ Shadow began experimenting with sampling using a four-­track recorder while in high school. ­Later, while working at the University of California, Davis, radio station KDVS, he met and collaborated with the American duo Blackalicious (1992–) and Japa­nese rapper



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and producer Asia Born (aka Lyr­ics Born, Tsutomo Shimura, 1972–). In 1991, DJ Shadow self-­released his first mixtape, Hip Hop Reconstruction from the Ground Up. With his connections at the radio station, DJ Shadow helped form the rec­ord label Solesides (1991–1996). The label’s first release was a two-­sided EP, Send Them/ Entropy (1993), featuring his track “Entropy” and Asia Born’s “Send Them.” Divided into seven parts, “Entropy” is an 18-­minute sound collage made up of DJ Shadow’s distinctive sampling style. ­After the release of “Entropy,” Shadow was signed to the London label Mo’ Wax (1992–). His first releases ­were the singles “In/Flux” (1993) and “Lost and Found” (1994). He went on to produce the ­album Psyence Fiction (1998) for the Mo’ Wax recording group U.N.K.L.E. (1994–). The ­album featured guest musicians Thom Yorke (Thomas Edward Yorke, 1968–), Mike D. (Michael Diamond, 1965–), and Kool G. Rap (Nathaniel Thomas Wilson, 1968–). The Outsider featured a new ­music style that included ele­ments of hyphy, blues, punk rock, and pop rap, which was a striking departure from his earlier work. DJ Shadow has released four more full-­length studio ­albums: The Private Press (2002), The Outsider (2006), The Less You Know, The Better (2011), and The Mountain ­Will Fall (2016). Just before the release of The Less You Know, The Better, the song “I’m Excited,” featuring Nigerian rapper Afrikan Boy (Olushola Ajose, 1989–), was briefly released with an accompanying ­music video. ­Because he was unable to secure rights to sampled material, he had to pull the single and video, so neither made it onto The Less You Know ­album, and as of 2018, remain officially unreleased. ­After establishing the rec­ord label Liquid Amber (2014–), DJ Shadow released a three-­track EP of his own titled Liquid Amber (2014). Artists that have signed to Shadow’s label include Bleep Bloop (Aaron Triggs, 1992*–), MOPHONO (aka DJ Centipede, Benji Illgen, 1976–), and the Ruckazoid (Ricci Rucker, n.d.). ­Under the alias Nite School Klik (2015–), DJ Shadow and grime artist G Jones (Greg Jones, n.d.) have released a self-­titled EP for Liquid Amber, Nite School Klik EP (2015). Lindsey E. Hartman See also: Cut Chemist; Trip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Brewster, Bill, and Frank Broughton. 2010. “DJ Shadow: Vinyl Resurrectionist.” In The Rec­ord Players: DJ Revolutionaries, pp. 225–31. New York: Black Cat. Katz, Mark. 2012. Groove ­Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ. New York: Oxford University Press.

Further Listening

DJ Shadow. 1996. Endtroducing . . . . ​. Mo’ Wax.

DJ Spinderella (Deidra Muriel Roper, 1971–­, Brooklyn, New York) DJ Spinderella is a hip hop, dance, and rap m ­ usic turntablist, vocalist, and sometime actor known for her role as part of the 1994 Grammy Award–­winning trio Salt-­N-­Pepa (1986–2002, 2007–), from Queens, New York. The band has sold

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over 15 million rec­ords internationally and formed the short-­lived rec­ord label Red Ant. DJ Spinderella’s ­career began when she was just 16. In 1986, Salt-­N-­Pepa (Cheryl James, 1966–­; Sandy Denton, 1969–) was scheduled to perform at the Westchester ­Music Festival in New York. The duo’s original DJ/turntablist had recently married and needed to be replaced, so the duo selected Roper ­after an audition. She took her stage name DJ Spinderella from producer Hurby Azor (Herby Azor, 1965–), who formed the group and produced most of their songs. As a member of the band, Spinderella serves as DJ and MC during live per­for­mances, engages the audience with banter, plays turntables, dances, and sings backing vocals; she has produced a handful of Salt-­N-­Pepa’s songs. The band’s biggest hits ­were “Push It” (1986), “Shoop” (1993), and “None of Your Business” (1993), and the band’s biggest ­album is Very Necessary (1993), which reached quintuple Platinum. In 2003, Spinderella became a radio disc jockey at KKBT 100.3 in Los Angeles, where she cohosted The BackSpin, a nationally syndicated weekly show that sought to highlight old-­school hip hop. In 2010, she moved to Dallas to do spinning for a midday shift at KSOC–94.5 (K-­Soul). As of 2018, she continues to perform with Salt-­N-­Pepa, which re­united in 2007. She created the Spinderella DJ Acad­emy to teach turntablism to teens and ­children. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Salt-­N-­Pepa; Turntablism; The United States

Further Reading

Chappell, Kevin. 1998. “The Salt-­N-­Pepa Nobody Knows.” Ebony 53, no. 4: 176, 178, 180. Rausch, Andrew J. 2011. “Spinderella.” In I Am Hip Hop: Conversations on the ­Music and Culture, chap. 22. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow.

DJ Vadim (aka D ­ addy Vad, Andre Gurov, One Self, Vadim Alexsandrovich Peare, Leningrad, U.S.S.R., now Saint Petersburg, Rus­sia, n.d.) DJ Vadim is a Russian-­born En­glish DJ, rec­ord label owner, writer, radio host, and ­music promoter whose f­ amily moved to London when he was three years old. He is best known as a producer, remixer, and turntablist who has collaborated with a long list of internationally known artists, from Stevie Won­der (1950–) and Kraftwerk (1969–) to Public ­Enemy (1982–), the Roots (1987–), Dilated ­Peoples (1992–), and Antipop Consortium (1997–2002, 2007–). DJ Vadim has produced recordings for—­among ­others—­Canadian horrorcore hip hop group Swollen Members (1992–), the American electronic group the Glitch Mob (2006–), the French hip hop trio TTC (1998–), and Swedish-­born rapper, singer-­songwriter, and producer Yarah Bravo (n.d.), DJ Vadim’s ­f uture wife, who collaborated with him as a member of his proj­ect group One Self (2005–2006). DJ Vadim is notable for his expert turntablism, as seen in concert. Though his own ­albums have not charted, they have earned critical acclaim.



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EMERGENCE DJ Vadim was performing at clubs and concerts in London’s hip hop scene by 1994 and began the in­de­pen­dent rec­ord label Jazz Fudge (1994–2004). The Jazz Fudge recordings included alternative hip hop, trip hop (downtempo), electronica, jazz, funk, reggae, blues, and neo soul. DJ Vadim’s sound also incorporates world ­music instruments, synthesizers, bass-­heavy programmed loops, scratching, and frequent breaks. He self-­released his recordings and remixes ­under several monikers, collaborated with DJ colleagues and rappers, and recorded unsigned artists. His earliest compilation a­ lbum, Organised Sound (1996), credits him as DJ Vadim (artist) and Pierre Vadim (composer and producer) and features hip hop artists such as London-­born Barbadian producer and rapper Lewis Parker (1977–), En­glish DJ and producer Mark B (Mark Barnes, 1970–2016), En­glish rapper and radio presenter M.C.M. (Mark Layman, n.d.), and En­glish electro-­dance and techno musician, producer, and artist Trevor Jackson (aka Skull, Underdog, n.d.). All moved on to successful ­careers in hip hop and producing. NINJA TUNE AND BBE In 1995, DJ Vadim signed with the larger in­de­pen­dent label Ninja Tune (1990–), which was owned by the En­glish electronic duo Coldcut (1986–) and based in London, with offices in Los Angeles and Montreal. Ninja Tune released DJ Vadim’s ­albums U.S.S.R.: Repertoire (The Theory of Verticality) (1996), U.S.S.R.: Reconstruction (Theories Explained) (1997), U.S.S.R.: Life from the Other Side (1999), and U.S.S.R.: The Art of Listening (2002). ­These ­albums fuse alternative and instrumental hip hop with abstract electronica art ­music. In the 2000s, DJ Vadim toured worldwide by putting together live proj­ect groups. In 2007, he signed to BBE (Barely Breaking Even, 1996–) and released ­albums that demonstrated his more developed fusion of hip hop, electronica, reggae, ragga, dubstep, dancehall, and neo soul: The Soundcatcher Extras (2007); U ­Can’t Lurn Imaginashun (2009); ­Don’t Be Scared (2012); Dubcatcher (2014); and, with Ghana-­born hip hop, R&B, and reggae singer-­songwriter and rapper Sena (Veronika Dagadu, n.d.), Go Slow (2015). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Rus­sia; Turntablism; The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Curry, Ben. 2015. “Hip Hop Turntablism, Creativity and Collaboration.” Popu­lar ­Music 34, no. 1: 137–40. Harrington, Richard. 2002. “DJ Vadim’s Minimalist Approach.” The Washington Post, April 26, WW08. Snapper, Juliana. 2004. “Scratching the Surface: Spinning Time and Identity in Hip Hop Turntablism.” Eu­ro­pean Journal of Cultural Studies 7, no. 1: 9–25.

Further Listening

DJ Vadim. 2009. U C ­ an’t Lurn Imaginashun. BBE.

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DMX (Earl Simmons, 1970–­, Mount Vernon, New York) DMX, sometimes known as Dark Man X, is an American rapper, hip hop musician, and actor who, like his old-­school con­temporary Davy D (aka Davy DMX, 1960–), took his stage name from the Oberheim DMX drum machine (1981–1985*) he played early in his ­career. DMX was raised in Yonkers, New York. In 1986, he began beatboxing, and in 1991, he began recording demos. By 1992, he had released a single on Atlantic’s Ruff Ryders (1988–) label, followed by a string of singles on other labels, including Columbia-­Ruffhouse (1989–) and Def Jam Recordings (1983–). He also made guest appearances on vari­ous songs before releasing his first ­album, Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood, on Def Jam in 1998. He is best known for his Grammy–­nominated third ­album . . . ​And Then ­There Was X (1999), which included the hit single “Party Up,” which reached No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100. DMX has released eight solo studio ­albums, six g­ oing to No. 1 on the R&B chart and five reaching No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. He has had roles in 16 films, including Romeo Must Die (2000), Exit Wounds (2001), and Cradle 2 the Grave (2003), and was the star of the six-­part real­ity tele­vi­sion series DMX: Soul of a Man (BET, 2006). DMX also founded a short-­ l ived label, Bloodline Rec­ ords, and the related movie com­pany, Bloodline Films (both 2000–2007*). In 2003, he published his memoirs, E.A.R.L.: The Autobiography of DMX (HarperEntertainment). DMX has been incarcerated numerous times for vari­ ous crimes, mostly misdemeanors. He has been arrested for animal cruelty, possession of illegal Still using his “Dark Man X” persona, as weapons, drug possession (mariexemplified in 2017 at a concert in East juana and cocaine), resisting Rutherford, New Jersey, American rapper DMX arrest, violations of parole, reckfocuses on gangsta rap themes that include less driving, driving u­ nder the street vio­lence, acquiring wealth, partying, and influence, driving without a womanizing. With a gruff-­voiced delivery, DMX’s license, outstanding child suprapping style ranges from angry and port, and impersonating a federal confrontational, to motivational, to preachy. (Taylor Hill/WireImage/Getty Images) agent (in an attempt to escape a

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drug arrest at an airport). ­These negative experiences, as well as his suffering from an abusive childhood himself, ­were used to create his rapping persona as “Dark Man X,” as was his lyrical content that often focused on confrontational gangsta rap, partying, and womanizing. In 2009, DMX went into semiretirement to study the Bible and prepare to become a preacher, with plans to release a gospel ­album. In 1992, DMX first started recording on the Columbia Rec­ords, but his single, “Born Loser,” was not marketed and went unnoticed; his protest allowed him to get out of his contract. He took some time to perfect his style and appeared on rec­ords by notable rappers such as LL Cool J (1968–) and Ice Cube (1969–). In 1998, he began releasing ­albums—­t wo in the same year, in fact. Both It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot and Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100, a Billboard rec­ord. The former produced the hit song “Get at Me Dog,” which reached No. 39 on the Hot 100 and No. 6 on the Hot Rap Singles chart and was certified Gold. The ­album, which also contained the popu­lar “Ruff Ryders’ Anthem” (whose video was nominated for Best Rap Video at MTV’s 1999 Video ­Music Awards and became a popu­lar ringtone), was the first of five consecutive DMX ­albums to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. It sold five million copies; it also was the first of six ­albums to reach No. 1 on the R&B chart. Flesh of My Flesh sold 670,000 copies sold in a week—it was ultimately certified four-­times Platinum. His next two ­albums, . . . ​And Then ­There Was X and The ­Great Depression (2001), ­were certified six-­times Platinum and ­triple Platinum, respectively. His fifth ­album, ­Grand Champ (2003), made history, as DMX became the only musical artist to release five consecutive ­albums that debuted at No. 1. Two of its singles, “Where the Hood At?” and “Get It on the Floor,” reached the Hot 100 but did not make it into the Top 40. DMX announced retirement ­after its release but came back in 2006 to release Year of the Dog . . . ​Again on Columbia, Sony Urban ­Music (2004–2006), and Ruff Ryders Entertainment (1988–), spawning two singles, “Lord Give Me a Sign” and “We in ­Here,” but neither charted well. Undisputed (2012) reached only No. 19 on the Billboard 200, although it did reach the Top Three on both the R&B and rap charts; Redemption of the Beast (2015), a double ­album, did not chart. Both ­were released on his in­de­pen­dent label Seven Arts ­Music (2012–) ­after he won a 2010 copyright lawsuit against BMI (Broadcast M ­ usic, Inc., 1939–). His ­music is informed by a lyrical content that is blunt, angry, and aggressive, and his songs preach strength as a method of surviving life on the streets—­a marked difference from the emphasis on bling and glamor seen in much of the rap m ­ usic with which he was in dialogue. Musically, DMX’s songs emphasize ­simple beats, usually accompanied by a keyboard voice to create an atmospheric feel, with a typically slow-­paced, funk-­inspired rhythm juxtaposed against his gruff, gravelly delivery of rhymed quartets, which features vocal doubling to accentuate lines or choruses. Conversely, DMX is just as comfortable with fast-­paced, more synth-­ oriented angry raps, as in “Where the Hood At?” Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Gangsta Rap; The United States

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Further Reading

Belle, Crystal. 2014. “From Jay-­Z to Dead Prez: Examining Repre­sen­ta­tions of Black Masculinity in Mainstream Versus Underground Hip Hop ­Music.” Journal of Black Studies 45, no. 4: 287–300. Bradley, Adam, and Andrew Dubois, eds. 2010. “DMX.” ­Under “Part 3: 1993–99: Rap Goes Mainstream” in The Anthology of Rap, pp. 375–80. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Further Listening

DMX. 1998. Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood. Def Jam. DMX. 1999. . . . ​And Then ­There Was X. Def Jam.

The Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a sovereign state of 10 million ­people on Hispaniola, a Ca­rib­bean island (Haiti takes up the rest of the island). Santo Domingo, its capital city, is home to three million p­ eople. Despite po­liti­cal unrest, the country has recently enjoyed one of the fastest-­growing economies in the Amer­i­cas, which has had the side effect of strong international migration, especially illegal Haitian immigration—­and ­because of income in­equality, a large Dominican diaspora exists, especially in the United States. The country’s ­music is primarily influenced by West African traditions, and it is famous for its merengue and bachata ­music. Dominican rock, influenced by U.K. and American rock, emerged in the early 1980s, when Transporte Urbano (1982–2004) pioneered the sound. Hip hop spread to the Dominican Republic in the mid-1980s, soon to be followed by reggaetón in the 1990s, when young immigrants returned from the United States, Puerto Rico, Panama, and Jamaica. Merenrap (aka meren­house), a style that blends merengue, h­ ouse ­music, Ca­rib­bean ­music, and hip hop ­music, also emerged in ­those two de­cades, with Billboard-­, Emmy-­, and Grammy Award–­winning bands such as Proyecto Uno (Proj­ect One, 1989–), Ilegales (1995–), and Fulanito (1996–). Rap Dominicano is a youth-­led musical style that began around 1996 in barrios and hip hop clubs and is based on East Coast American rap. Early rappers included El Lápiz Conciente (The Concious Pencil, Avelino Figueroa Ju­nior Rodriguez, 1983–) and Vakero (Manuel Baret Martes, 1979–). Early Dominican rap was concerned with braggadocio and feuding. Since then, rap has stayed localized but has become more socially conscious as rappers protest squalor, vio­lence, and drug use in their urban neighborhoods. Current Dominican rap acts include Black Point (Jonás Joaquín Ortiz Alberto, 1989–), El Cata (Edward E. Bello Pou, n.d.), Ingco Crew (n.d.), Don Miguelo (Miguel Ángel Valerio Lebron, 1981–), and Redimi2 (Willy Cruz, 1979–), the latter being a Christian ­music rapper. La Materialista (Yameiry Infante Honoret, 1985–), who raps about sex and female empowerment, is the most famous female rapper. Dominican diaspora rappers include New York City–­based rappers Sensato del Patio (William Reyna, n.d.), who was born in San Cristóbal; Spkilla (aka SPK, Edwin Almonte, n.d.); Arcángel (Austin Agustín Santos, 1985–), who moved to Puerto Rico in 2002 to form the reggaetón duo Arcángel and De La Ghetto



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(2002–); and Mangú (Jimmy Flavor, n.d.), who was born in Santiago, Dominican Republic, and raised in the United States. American rapper Cardi B (Belcalis Almanzar, 1992–) also has Dominican roots on her f­ ather’s side. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Puerto Rico; The United States

Further Reading

McGill, Lisa D. 2005. “ ‘Diasporic Intimacy’: Merengue Hip Hop, Proyecto Uno, and Representin’ Afro-­Latino Cultures.” In Constructing Black Selves: Ca­rib­bean American Narratives and the Second Generation, chap. 5. New York: New York University Press. Sellers, Julie A. 2004. “Merengue and Transnational Identities.” In Merengue and Dominican Identity: ­Music as National Unifier, chap. 9. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

Further Listening

Proyecto Uno. 2013. Original. Dia­meter International Group.

Doug E. Fresh (Douglas E. Davis, 1966–­, Christ Church, Barbados) Doug E. Fresh was a New York–­based beatboxer, rapper, dancer, radio personality, and restaurateur who was musically active during the 1980s. Known as the ­human beatbox, he emulated the sounds of drum machines, tap dancing, percussions, and synthesizers using only his mouth, throat, and a microphone. He appeared in the American film Beat Street (1984) and l­ater was the founder of Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew (1985–2003), which included Slick Rick (aka Rick the Ruler, MC Ricky D, Richard Martin Lloyd Walters, 1965–). He also originated the Dougie, a dance craze based on his signature vogue move, a swipe of the hand past the ear on the same side to indicate nonchalance. FROM POET TO RAPPER AND BEATBOXER Doug E. Fresh started out not as a rapper or beatboxer but as a poet, styling himself ­after the jazz poems of Langston Hughes (James Mercer Langston Hughes, 1902–1967). He turned to beatboxing and ended up performing at an event with Kurtis Blow (1959–) when the rapper’s crew accidentally misplaced his (Kurtis Blow’s) turntables; Doug E. Fresh, who had already developed a reputation for his skills, was recruited to provide backing sounds. He was then signed as a solo artist to New Jersey–­based Sound Makers Rec­ords (1983–1986). His single “Just Having Fun” was used in the film Beat Street (1984). The Get Fresh Crew was signed to Real­ity Rec­ords (1983–1993), and its first single, “The Show” (1985), was a hit, achieving Gold certification, but Slick Rick left to pursue a solo ­career and was ­later incarcerated. Nonetheless, the group’s first ­album, Oh, My God! (1986), referencing a line from one of its singles, “La Di Da Di,” established Doug E. Fresh as one of the premiere beatboxers in rap, rivaled mainly by Buffy (Darren Robinson, 1967–1995) of the Fat Boys (1982–1991,

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2008–). “La Di Da Di” featured Doug E. Fresh’s beatboxing for its entire five minutes. The Get Fresh Crew’s next ­album, The World’s Greatest Entertainer (1988), led to tour dates with Tony! Toni! Toné! (1988–1997, 2003–). The ­album’s lackluster sales ended the group’s stint with Real­ity Rec­ords. Doug E. Fresh l­ater signed with MC Hammer’s (1962–) Bust It Rec­ords (1990– 1996) and released Doin’ What I Gotta Do (as Doug E. Fresh and the New Get Fresh Crew) in 1992, but it was a commercial failure. As a result, Doug E. Fresh moved to Gee Street, a subsidiary of Island Rec­ords (1959–), but his ­career faltered. The Dougie (the dance move that Doug E. Fresh originated) became popu­lar in 2007 when Dallas rapper Lil’ Wil (Wil Martin, 1987–) released “My Dougie,” and the Dougie became a ­house­hold phrase when Cali Swag District (2009–2015) released the 2010 Billboard Top 10 R&B/hip hop and hot rap charts single “Teach Me How to Dougie.” Also in 2010, Doug E. Fresh opened Doug E’s Chicken and Waffles, a Harlem restaurant. In 2013, he debuted the classic hip hop show, “The Show,” on 107.5 WBLS; it lasted ­until 2016. A believer in Scientology, he holds the distinction of being one of the few hip hop performers included on a Scientology ­music ­album, The Joy of Creating (2001). As of 2018, he is rumored to be working on a comeback ­album. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Barbados; Beatboxing; Slick Rick; The United States

Further Reading

Price, Emmett George. 2006. “Doug E. Fresh.” In Hip Hop Culture, pp. 48–49. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. Shanks, David. 2010. “Uptown, Baby! Hip Hop in Harlem and Upper Manhattan.” In Hip Hop in Amer­i­ca: A Regional Guide, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 1, chap. 2. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood.

Further Listening

Doug  E. Fresh and the New Get Fresh Crew. 1992. Doin’ What I Gotta Do. Bust It Rec­ords.

Dr. Dre (Andre Romelle Young, 1965–­, Compton, California) Dr. Dre began his ­career as a DJ and rapper but has since established himself as one of hip hop’s leading rec­ord producers and savviest executives. As both a performer and a producer, he helped define and promote the West Coast sound, and he is also responsible for launching the c­ areers of numerous other performers, in both hip hop and related genres. He has been the founder of several successful rec­ ord companies, and his business acumen has made him one of the wealthiest entertainment executives in the world. Beyond recording and producing ­music, Dr. Dre has ventured successfully into other fields, starting with motion pictures. He has appeared on screen in a handful of minor roles, and his ­music has been used in well over 100 motion pictures, tele­vi­sion shows, and video games. As a natu­ral extension of his work in the recording studio, Dr. Dre has also directed a few ­music videos and served as a producer, notably for the recent N.W.A.

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biopic Straight Outta Compton (2015). His most significant nonmusic business venture has been the development and marketing of a line of headphones, Beats by Dr. Dre, that have sold well primarily as fashion accessories. The purchase of the Beats brand by Apple in 2014 reportedly made Dr. Dre the richest hip hop individual in the world, surpassing Puff ­Daddy (1969–). Purely as a musical figure, Dr. Dre is one the most impor­tant American hip hop musicians. While his own recorded output is limited, the individuals who have worked in his studio include most of the major figures of the past two de­cades, and his style is emulated widely. EARLY YEARS Dr. Dre was born as Andre Romelle Young to teenage parents of modest means, who separated when their son was three; they divorced in 1972. He was then raised by his single ­mother. He attended the public schools in Compton but transferred several times b­ ecause of poor grades and to avoid gang activity. He attempted to enroll in an apprenticeship program in the aviation industry but was denied entry ­because of his grades. He ­later attended Chester Adult School in Compton before dropping out to focus on a c­ areer in m ­ usic. He developed his interest in m ­ usic at a popu­lar upscale dance club in Compton, Eve ­after Dark (1979–1990). Although he was underage, he was able to convince management to add him to the stable of DJs who provided nonstop m ­ usic from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. He first appeared ­under the stage name Dr. J, ­after his favorite basketball player, Julius Erving (1950–), but quickly conflated that with his own first name to become Dr. Dre. With numerous DJs on staff, the club had enough equipment for a modest recording studio in a back room, and ­there, working with DJ Yella (Antoine Carraby, 1967–), Dr. Dre recorded and produced his first song, “Surgery” (1984). That track would become a modest local hit in Compton. About that same time, he joined the R&B and hip hop group World Class Wreckin’ Cru (1983–1988), and he and DJ Yella also appeared on KDAY, a radio station serving South Central Los Angeles, all of which helped to make Dr. Dre an emerging local celebrity. FOUNDING N.W.A. In the late 1980s, Dr. Dre began to work primarily as a producer for Eazy-­E’s (1964–1995) recording label, Ruthless Rec­ords (1987–). ­There he collaborated with Ice Cube (1969–) to create much of the material that Dr. Dre, Eazy-­E, Ice Cube, and a few ­others would rec­ord as the group N.W.A. (1986–1991) on its debut ­album, Straight Outta Compton (1988). While Dr. Dre did perform one solo rap and appeared as a performer on four other tracks, most of his work was ­behind the scenes as the ­album’s producer, a duty he shared with DJ Yella. Following Ice Cube’s departure from the group in a dispute over royalties, Dr. Dre took on a larger role as a songwriter and performer on N.W.A.’s second ­album, Efil4za—­n (1991), and he again shared producing duties with DJ Yella. This second effort was noteworthy for its shift from the aggressive gangsta rap sound of Straight Outta Compton to a more relaxed and smoother sound that would be known as G-­funk (gangsta-­funk). While Dr. Dre has been credited with inventing this new

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sound, it is more likely that he picked up the ele­ments of this style while working with another Ruthless Rec­ords artist, the rapper Cold 187um (Gregory Fernan Hutchinson, 1967–). As head of production for Ruthless Rec­ords, Dr. Dre had begun to feel pressure to produce artists and hits for the label, and he also believed that he was being cheated out of royalties through questionable accounting practices. For t­ hose reasons, in 1991 he agreed to join with the D.O.C. (Tracy Lynn Curry, 1968–) and Suge Knight (Marion Hugh Knight Jr., 1965–) to form a new label, Death Row Rec­ords (1991–2009); Knight, who was notorious for his strong-­arm tactics, was able to convince Eazy-­E to release Dr. Dre and several other Ruthless artists from their contracts. In 1992, Dr. Dre, working with ­those new Death Row performers, issued his own debut solo ­album, The Chronic, which reached ­triple Platinum in sales, earned a Grammy for one of its singles, and ignited a craze for G-­funk. He was also responsible for producing Snoop Dogg’s (1971–) debut ­album, Doggystyle (1993), and several of Tupac Shakur’s (1971–1996) first tracks and ­album on the label. By 1995, however, Suge Knight had begun to run the Death Row label with increasingly thuggish be­hav­ior. What had been general insults on a few tracks aimed at rival hip hop artists had now become public verbal threats of physical vio­lence, and gun-­ carrying associates of Knight, who had run-­ins with the law, became common sights. Knight’s questionable business practices, the death of Tupac Shakur, and the rising conflict between East and West Coast hip hop sent the label into a downward spiral and led to Dr. Dre’s departure from Death Row late in 1996.

AFTERMATH AND BEYOND His new com­pany, Aftermath Entertainment (1996–), was to be a boutique label that stressed quality over quantity. Through 2015, only 22 ­albums ­were issued, of which 17 have achieved sales of Platinum or higher. All ­were produced in ­whole or part by Dr. Dre. The label’s first release was a compilation ­album, Dr. Dre Pres­ ents the Aftermath (1996), which received mixed reviews but still reached Platinum sales. Dr. Dre would disown this ­album in his 1999 single “Still D.R.E.” That same year, he released his second solo a­ lbum, 2001, which continued to develop his G-­f unk sound, but with lyr­ics that reverted to the images of vio­lence, drugs, and misogyny of his earlier tracks. Dr. Dre remarked that he had been motivated by questions about his creative abilities in the seven years since The Chronic. In reaching sextuple Platinum sales, 2001 silenced most of his critics. With the success of 2001, Dr. Dre shifted his interests to producing the ­music of other performers, especially new talent that was brought to Aftermath, where his perfectionist tendencies served every­one well. He was responsible for Eminem’s (1972–) major-­label debut, The Slim Shady LP (1999); his landmark The Marshall Mathers LP (2000), which would become the highest-­selling hip hop ­album in history; and three additional ­albums. Dr. Dre also oversaw the very successful debut and three follow-up ­albums by 50 Cent (1975–) as well Kendrick Lamar’s (1987–) debut ­album. Dr. Dre also worked with a number of young hip hop performers who never completed a­ lbums and w ­ ere ­either dropped from the Aftermath roster or left of their own accord. Elsewhere, he collaborated widely with such performers as

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Mary J. Blige (1971–), Missy Elliott (1971–), Gwen Stefani (1969–), Justin Timberlake (1981–), and Jay-­Z (1969–). He also worked on proj­ects with former colleagues Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg, and occasional reports of reunion ­albums surfaced, but nothing ever came to fruition. Dr. Dre’s own third ­album, tentatively titled Detox, occupied him for well over a de­cade. Between 20 and 40 songs ­were recorded, and at least 300 beats ­were left incomplete over the years. Despite occasional announcements that the ­album would be released, Dr. Dre officially cancelled the proj­ect in August 2015, commenting that it did not meet his standards. He announced days l­ ater the release of an entirely new, unrelated ­album, inspired by the motion picture biography of N.W.A., Straight Outta Compton. Dr. Dre’s Compton was not the motion picture’s soundtrack, despite a misleading subtitle on the ­album, but it undoubtedly benefited from its indirect association with the motion picture. Critical reception was good, and sales ­were strong, though not spectacular. Scott Warfield See also: Eminem; 50 Cent; Gangsta Rap; G-Funk; N.W.A.; Snoop Dogg; The United States

Further Reading

Borgmeyer, John, and Holly Lang. 2007. Dr. Dre: A Biography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Ro, Ronin. 2007. Dr. Dre: The Biography. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press.

Further Listening

Dr. Dre. 1992. The Chronic. Interscope/Death Row Rec­ords. Dr. Dre. 1999. 2001. Aftermath Entertainment.

Further Viewing

Robin Block, dir. 2003. Dr. Dre: The Attitude Surgeon. A Focal Point tele­vi­sion production for Chromedreams Media. New Malden, Surrey, ­England: Leftfield Media.

Drake (Aubrey Drake Graham, 1986–­, Toronto, Canada [possibly Memphis, Tennessee]) Drake is a Canadian rapper, songwriter, producer, and actor who has four No.  1, certified-­Platinum ­albums on the Canadian and Billboard 200 ­album charts; two certified-­Platinum mixtapes; 20 Top 10 singles in the Hot 100; 16 No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop/Rap Songs chart, a rec­ord; and 17 No. 1 singles on the Hot Rap chart. He also released a chart-­topping a­ lbum, More Life (2017), as a play­list. At seven weeks, Drake is tied for the second most consecutive weeks si­mul­ta­ neously topping the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 (the o­ thers being Michael Jackson and The Monkees), second to the Beatles (1960–1970) and Whitney Houston (1963–2012), who topped both charts for 12 consecutive weeks. Drake has been in the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 for 51 consecutive weeks, ranking him third ­behind Katy Perry (Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, 1984–), at 69, and the Chainsmokers (2012–), at 61. He also ranks fourth on the all-­time Billboard Top 40 list, with 56, the second highest among rappers, ­behind Lil Wayne (1982–), who has 69. Drake has the second most

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(to the Glee Cast) total Hot 100 entries at 155. In 2017, Drake had 24 entries on the Billboard Hot 100 si­mul­ta­neously, breaking his own 2016 rec­ord of 20. ­Because he split his childhood between urban and affluent Toronto neighborhoods (with his ­mother) and urban Memphis (with his ­father), his raps portray both urban (“the hood”) and middle-­class existence. The son of a drummer who once worked with Jerry Lee Lewis (1935–) and nephew of famous bassist Larry Graham  Jr. (1946–), Drake was a teen actor on the Canadian tele­vi­sion program Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001–2015), portraying a popu­lar athlete who becomes wheelchair bound and decides to become a rapper. His own interest in rap began through a friendship with his once incarcerated ­father’s cellmate, who was a rapper. He began as Drizzy Drake, with three self-­released mixtapes (2006, 2007, 2009), two on his October’s Very Own (aka OVO Sound, 2007–) label. His third mixtape, So Far Gone (2009), produced “Best I Ever Had,” a No. 2 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and Grammy nominee. Drake toured with Lil Wayne in 2008, appeared on the cover of Vibe (1993–) in 2009, and was signed by Ca$h Money Rec­ords (1991–) and its imprint, Young Money Entertainment (2005–). His debut ­album, Thank Me ­Later (2010), hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the R&B/hip hop, and the Hot Rap charts, breaking rec­ords by Kanye West (1977–) and Eminem (1972–) for rap debut first-­week sales. His second studio ­album, Take Care (2011), won a Grammy Award. Drake’s third, Nothing Was the Same (2013), was followed by two Ca$h Money mixtapes in 2015, If ­You’re Reading This It’s Too Late and What a Time to Be Alive, all certified Platinum. Drake’s fourth studio ­album, Views (2016), like his previous ­albums, reached No. 1 in the United States and Canada as well as in Australia, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. The ­album won two Grammy Awards, and one of its singles, “One Dance,” became Drake’s sole No. 1 Hot 100 song as featured artist, although it did hold the top spot for 10 weeks and topped the R&B/hip hop chart for a record-­tying 18 weeks. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Canada; The United States

Further Reading

Pope, Amara. 2016. “Musical Artists Capitalizing on Hybrid Identities: A Case Study of Drake the ‘Authentic’ ‘Black’ ‘Canadian’ ‘Rapper.’” Stream: Inspiring Critical Thought 8, no. 2: 3–22. Singh, Kris, and Dale Tracy. 2015. “Assuming Niceness: Private and Public Relationships in Drake’s Nothing Was the Same.” Popu­lar ­Music 34, no. 1: 94–112.

Further Listening

Drake. 2016. Views. Young Money Entertainment. Drake. 2017. More Life: A Play­list by October Firm. Young Money Entertainment.

D12 (aka The Dirty Dozen, 1996–­, Detroit, Michigan) D12 is an American hip hop group featuring Eminem (Marshall Bruce Mathers III, 1972–), one of the world’s top-­selling rappers, who has had six No. 1 solo studio

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a­ lbums on the Billboard 200 and five chart-­topping Billboard Hot 100 singles. Other original members in the band included Proof (DeShaun Dupree Holton, 1973–2006), Bugz (Karnail Pitts, 1978–1999), and Bizarre (Rufus Arthur Johnson, 1976–). Kuniva (Von Carlisle, 1976–), from the Detroit hip hop duo Da Brigade (2000–2006), was invited to join by Proof ­after Eminem got his first solo deal, as was producer Kon Artis (Denaun Porter (1978–). Swift (aka Swifty McVay, Ondre Moore, 1976–) joined ­after Bugz’s death by gunshot in an altercation. Achieving mainstream success ­after Eminem ­rose to international fame, D12’s studio ­albums on the Shady Rec­ords (1999–) label, Dev­il’s Night (2001) and D12 World (2004), have both reached the top spot on the Billboard 200. D12’s original recording and touring lineup consisted of the band’s six members and their alter egos, including Eminem’s Slim Shady alter ego. The other alter egos ­were Proof’s Dirty Harry, Bizarre’s Peter  S. Bizarre, Kuniva’s Hannz  G./Rondell Beene, Kon Artis’s Mr.  Porter, and Bugz’s Robert Beck. The band’s two ­albums spawned two Top 40 singles, “Purple P—” (aka “Purple Pills,” also released as the censored single “Purple Hills”) and “My Band,” the latter peaking at No. 6 on the Hot 100. The band has virtually folded since 2006, due to Eminem’s solo success and subsequent hiatus and the death of band member Proof, also by gunshot, in 2006. D12’s first release was a self-­released EP called the Underground EP, which was recorded between 1996 and 1998 but released in 2000. Its cover features the D of D12 ­shaped like the logo for the Detroit Tigers baseball team, showing the band’s affinity for its home city. D12 became a side proj­ect ­after Dr. Dre (1965–) persuaded Eminem to pursue a solo ­career around 1999. In addition, D12’s other members began establishing solo reputations. Bizarre and Bugz each released an EP, Attack of the Weirdos (1998) and ­These Streets (1999), respectively, the former ­going on to have a prolific recording ­career of seven ­albums. Bugz’s tragic death in 1999 brought Eminem back to the group (to honor his friend’s memory), and the new lineup of Proof, Bizarre, Kuniva, Kon Artis, Swift, and Eminem became the D12 known by most fans. Both D12’s Dev­il’s Night and Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP (2000) are dedicated to Bugz. Dev­il’s Night went on to sell four million copies worldwide. D12 World featured production by Proof, Eminem, Dr. Dre, and Kanye West (1977–). D12 toured without Eminem for the D12 World tour, as he was busy with a solo proj­ect. A mixtape, Return of the Dozen, Vol. 2, was released in 2011, but Eminem participated in only one song. Bizarre and Kon Artis left the group in 2012. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Eminem; The United States

Further Reading

Esling, Isabelle. 2012. “The Dirty Dozen: The Story ­behind the D12 Group.” In Eminem and the Detroit Rap Scene: White Kid in a Black ­Music World, chap. 2. Phoenix, AZ: Colossus Books. Stubbs, David. 2004. “D12-­Devil’s Night.” In Cleaning out My Closet: Eminem, The Stories b­ ehind ­Every Song, pp. 141–60. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press.

Further Listening

D12. 2004. D12 World. Shady Rec­ords.

202 Dubstep

Dubstep Dubstep is an electronic dance ­music genre that began in 1990s South London at the Big Apple Rec­ord Shop. It consists of experimental remixes that deemphasize vocals and place the breakbeat, drums, and bass in the foreground. As the 1990s progressed, more variations of the sound, played by a growing number of DJs, could be heard in nightclubs such as Plastic ­People (1994–2015), known for its stellar sound system. By 2000, dubstep could be heard on radio. The defining characteristics of ­today’s dubstep are a syncopated rhythm, 138 to 142 beats per minute (bpm), and a wobble bass, also called the wub—an extended bass note that is manipulated rhythmically by using a low-­frequency oscillator; the effect is an oscillating bass that sounds as if it is being played on a wah pedal. London-­based producers Benga (Adegbenga Adejumo, 1986–) and Skream (Oliver Dene Jones, 1986–), Digital Mystikz (n.d.), and Loefah (Peter Livingston, n.d.), started an evolution in dubstep that resulted in a darker, more clipped, and minimalist sound, and by 2005, more dubstep DJs ­were getting airplay on radio shows such as “Dubstep Warz” on BBC Radio 1. Baltimore-­based En­glish dubstep DJ Joe Nice (2002–) helped with cultivating and promoting dubstep in the United States. Nightclubs and dance clubs started dubstep nights, featuring the new imports, and DJs started infusing dubstep into their sets. Dubstep then began influencing mainstream popu­lar ­music genres, gaining further worldwide recognition, and by 2010 it had infiltrated the pop charts. By 2011, dubstep had grown in American markets with the rise of a subgenre, the brostep, with American producer Skrillex (Sonny John Moore, 1988–) at the DJ helm. Brostep is a variation of dubstep that stresses the middle register and medium ­ fields of sound, employing musical shifts that seem e­ ither automated or robotic, as well as a sense of aggression experienced in heavy metal. Dubstep dance is informed by an impulse of movement that Skrillex has become a central figure for seems to start in one body part popularizing electronic dance ­music (EDM) and and then travels throughout the dubstep. He’s earned Grammy wins, has multiple body, similar to the way electricPlatinum-­certified EPs and singles, and his live ity would flow and rebound. shows are hugely popu­lar with fans. (Featureflash​/­​ Much of the movement is tight Dreamstime​.­com)

Dubstep 203

and uses small, detailed gestures. Origins of this type of movement can be traced back to the development of modern dance, when Isadora Duncan (1877–1927) created a dance technique that moved and radiated outward from an impulse starting in the solar plexus region. The dancer looks as if a film editor, slowing movement and accelerating it at dif­fer­ent points in the ­music, is manipulating the body. When performing to dubstep, a dancer can look as fluid as ­water or like stop-­motion animation. Overall, the dance style is a derivative of breaking, freehand, and liquid (aka liquid and digits—­a gestural interpretative form that involves aspects of pantomime); it is a toprock-­based dance, with ele­ments of b-­boy poses and pauses of balance. Marquese Scott (1981–), originating from Inglewood, California, and one of dubstep’s preeminent dance performers, is known for his popping/breaking style. Tecktonik, another dance style linked to dubstep, originated in France and is predominately about arm movement and using the hips and knees to ­gently shuffle across the floor. This dubstep-­related dance style has movements reminiscent of disco but performed at a much more frantic pace. Paige A. Willson See also: France; Hip Hop Dance; The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Stirling, Christabel. 2016. “ ‘Beyond the Dance Floor?’ Gendered Publics and Creative Practices in Electronic Dance ­Music.” Con­temporary ­Music Review 35, no.  1: 130–49. ­Sullivan, Paul. 2014. Remixology: Tracing the Dub Diaspora. London: Reaktion Books.

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E East Timor East Timor is a sovereign island nation of over one million ­people in Southeast Asia, made up of the eastern half of the island of Timor and a few nearby islands whose official language is Portuguese. This predominantly Christian nation was colonized by Portugal in the 16th ­century and was known as Portuguese Timor ­until 1975, when it was invaded and occupied by Indonesia ­until 1999. Its ­music, influenced by Portugal and Indonesia, includes styles such as gamelan ­music and fado, although the most widespread form of ­music is native—­folk ­music such as the likurai postwar dance, which is also now used by ­women in courtship. Popu­lar East Timorese ­music followed its turn-­of-­the-­century in­de­pen­dence movement, with songs that encouraged ­people to register to vote or advocated in­de­pen­dence. M ­ usic and poetry ­were both used by East Timorese performers resisting the Indonesian occupation. Chants are often used in East Timorese popu­lar ­music. The most famous East Timorese popu­lar musician is diaspora singer Teo Batiste Ximenes (n.d.), who grew up in Australia but uses East Timorese folk rhythms. Recent Western influences on popu­lar ­music include genres such as rock, reggae, and hip hop. More research is needed on hip hop in East Timor, particularly on the protest songs and poetry that took place ­there as an underground activity during the Indonesian occupation. Hip hop, including rap, is new to the nation. Since 2013, the Australian government has been sending emissaries to teach East Timor youth breakdancing and hip hop culture through workshops, building makeshift ­music studios. At this time, East Timor is still suffering from ongoing terrorist attacks and third-­world development issues, such as lack of access to clean ­r unning ­water and a disengaged youth culture that has resorted to rebellion and crime. As of 2018, numerous b-­boy and b-­girl dance crews exist in East Timor’s capital city, Dili, and ele­ments of rock, country, reggae, hip hop, and rap have made their way into the country’s musical social gatherings. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Breakdancing; Indonesia; Portugal

Further Reading

Dunphy, Kim, Meredith Elton, and Alex Jordan. 2014. “Exploring Dance/Movement Therapy in Post Conflict Timor-­Leste.” American Journal of Dance Therapy 36, no. 2: 189–208. Myrttinen, Henri. 2013. “Re­sis­tance, Symbolism, and the Language of Stateness in Timor-­ Leste.” Oceania 83, no. 3: 208–20.

206

Eazy-­E

Eazy-­E (Eric Lynn Wright, 1963–1995, Compton, California) Eazy-­E was a gangsta and West Coast hip hop rapper and rec­ord producer, best known for his cofounding of Ruthless Rec­ords (1987–) with Jerry Heller (Gerald E. Heller, 1940–) in Los Angeles and his membership in the Compton, California, rap group N.W.A. (aka N— wit Attitudes, 1986–1991). A driving force ­behind the popularization of gangsta rap, Eazy-­E was a high school dropout who did a short but profitable stint as a drug dealer before becoming a rapper and producer. Along with Dr. Dre (1965–), Ice Cube (1969–), and Arabian Prince (Kim Nazel, 1965–), Eazy­E formed N.W.A. following the success of his single “Boyz-­n-­the-­Hood” (1987), written by Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, in which he raps about the vio­lence of daily life in Compton. Eventually the N.W.A. lineup included DJ Yella (Antoine Carraby, 1967–) and MC Ren (Lorenzo Jerald Patterson, 1969–), all portrayed in the American biographical film Straight Outta Compton (2015). N.W.A.’s 1988 double-­Platinum a­ lbum Straight Outta Compton is one of rap ­music’s benchmark recordings, and its followup, Efil4za—­n (aka N—­az4life, 1991), went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 without a single or video, ­going Platinum in two weeks. Eazy-­Duz-­It, Eazy-­E’s debut solo ­album, was released in 1988 and peaked at No. 41 on the Billboard 200. Produced by Dr. Dre and Yella, it sold over 2.5 million copies. Eazy-­E’s rap delivery is distinctive in that it has a breathless quality juxtaposed against his highly enunciated narrative lines that generally tell an involved story using a descending melodic contour. His starting off lines with higher notes so that each phrase ends lower than it begins, similar to the style of ­Will Smith’s (1968–) Fresh Prince, creates drama and prevents monotony, especially when he incorporates singsong-­sounding and tightly rhymed bridges and refrains. His ­music is also known for its personal attacks on other musicians. ­After Dr. Dre left N.W.A. and Ruthless ­because of contract and artistic disputes with Heller and Eazy-­E, he released The Chronic (1992), which contained a song that insulted Eazy­E. In response, the entirety of Eazy-­E’s It’s On (Dr. Dre) 187um Killa (1993), insulted Dr. Dre (as did videos from the EP). A second EP, 5150 Home for tha Sick, was released in 1993, and Eazy-­E’s final ­album, Str8 off tha Streetz of Muthaphukkin Compton (1995), was released posthumously a­ fter he died of AIDS. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Dr. Dre; Ice Cube; N.W.A.; The United States

Further Reading

Heller, Jerry, and Gil Reavill. 2006. Ruthless: A Memoir. New York: Simon Spotlight Entertainment. Leonard, David J. 2007. “Ice Cube.” In Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, ­Music, and Culture, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 2, pp. 293–316. Westport, CT: Greenwood.

Further Viewing

Gray, Gary, dir. 2012. Ruthless Memories: Preserving the Life and Legend of Eric (Eazy E) Wright. Los Angeles: New Line Cinema.



Ec­ua­dor 207

Ec­ua­dor Ec­ua­dor, a South American demo­cratic republic, has an ethnically diverse population and a diverse m ­ usic that ranges from indigenous dance styles and indigenous and Spanish sentimental styles to Andean and African Ec­ua­dor­ian styles based on flutes and marimbas, respectively. It has been a sovereign Spanish-­language state of over 15 million ­people since 1830 (although 13 Amerindian languages are recognized). Hip hop activity takes place mostly in the capital city, Quito, and the most populated city, Guayaquil. Ec­ua­dor is one of the most ecologically friendly nations in the world, as exemplified in its most popu­lar current hip hop singer, spoken-­word artist, and rapper Mateo Kingman (1991–), who debuted in 2016 with Respira. Kingman’s Spanish lyr­ics examine life and spirituality in the rain forest through raps and chants within a mix of African drums and traditional instruments from the Ec­ua­dor­ian Pacific, sometimes run through a synthesizer. Other hip hop artists include Kingman’s rap crew EVHA (aka El Viejo Hombre de los Andes, the Old Man of the Andes, 2014–), Andean electronica musician Nicola Cruz (1987–), and rapper Guanaco (aka Guanaco MC, Juan Pablo Cobo, 1980–), a 20-­year rapper and member of Sudakaya (2002–) who raps in Spanish. Guanaco has released four a­ lbums, including Blasfemia (2016), 10 songs and spoken-­ interlude tracks influenced by French-­born Spanish alternative Latin rock, reggae, and ska singer-­songwriter and musician Manu Chao (José-­Manuel Thomas Arthur Chao Ortega, 1961–) that pay tribute to musical styles such as rocera and canteen and use indigenous m ­ usic loops, all juxtaposed against turntablism and hip hop rhythms, to achieve a global sound. The band Swing Original Monks (2010–), which formed in Quito and comprises of Ec­ua­dor­ian, other South American, Eu­ro­pean, and American musicians, employs some hip hop ele­ments (e.g., rap, loops, samples, and beatboxing) in its ­music, which is an eclectic combination of alternative rock, electronic cumbia, ska, and gypsy swing jazz. Among diaspora rappers, the most famous is singer, rapper, rec­ord executive, and pastor Gerardo (Gerardo Mejía, 1965–), who is from Guayaquil but grew up in Glendale, California; Gerardo had a Top 10 hit in 1991 with “Rico Suave,” which peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Colombia; Peru; Reggae

Further Reading

Lara, Francisco, and Diana Ruggiero. 2016. “Highland Afro-­Ecuadorian Bomba and Identity along the Black Pacific at the Turn of the Twenty-­First ­Century.” Revista de Música Latinoamericana 37, no. 2: 135–64, 262–63. Wong, Ketty. 2012. Whose National ­Music? Identity, Mestizaje, and Migration in Ec­ua­ dor. Studies of Latin American and Ca­rib­bean ­Music. Philadelphia: ­Temple University Press.

Further Listening

Kingman, Mateo. 2016. Respira. AYA Rec­ords.

208

Eedris Abdulkareem

Eedris Abdulkareem (Eedris Turayo Abdulkareem Ajenifuja, 1974–­, Kano, Nigeria) Sometimes known as Mr. Remedy, Eedris Abdulkareem is a Nigerian hip hop artist who claims Kano State, Nigeria, as his state of origin. Part of his name, Abdulkareem, loosely translates to “servant of the generous God.” His m ­ usic c­ areer began in 1996 with the hip hop band the Remedies, and his first solo ­album, P.A.S.S. (Pains and Stress = Success) was released in 2002 on Kennis ­Music (1998–), a label he remained with ­until 2005. The ­album features what is arguably the first ever diss track by a Nigerian rapper, “Wackawickee MCs.” His second ­album, titled Mr. Lecturer (2002), spawned his first video hit, “Mr. Lecturer,” which is about abuses in the Nigerian educational system. As of 2018, Mr. Lecturer is his best-­selling ­album. His third ­album, Jaga Jaga (2004), was banned from radio airplay (it continued to be played in nightclubs) ­because it focused on po­liti­cal corruption in Nigeria. In 2004, he gained international attention and was subsequently blacklisted ­after a scuffle with American rapper 50 Cent (1975–): To protest how poorly local artists ­were treated when compared to foreign artists, Eedris Abdulkareem took 50 Cent’s seat on an ADC Airlines plane g­ oing from the Murtala Muhammad Airport in Lagos to Port Harcourt, Nigeria. This resulted in a fight between both rappers’ entourages. Eedris Abdulkareem publicly apologized in 2007. In 2005, he launched his own rec­ord label, La Kreem ­Music (2005–), in Lagos and released his fourth ­album, Letter to Mr. President. Since then he has released King Is Back (2007*) and Unfinished Business (2010*), and as of 2018 he is reportedly working on a new ­album. His ­music is informed by synthesized beats combined with traditional instrumentation, which is fused with Jamaican and reggae rhythms. His raps often take the form of dialogues between himself and guest rappers, as in “Mr. Lecturer,” which is structured completely as a prosaic dialogue between a female student and her professor. His vocal delivery is mea­sured and carefully articulated, and he often makes use of vocal effects such as autotuning. He is the founder of the Eedris Abdulkareem Foundation, a fundraising organ­ization dedicated to fighting the spread of HIV and AIDS in sub-­Saharan Africa. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Nigeria; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop

Further Reading

Shonekan, Stephanie. 2011. “Sharing Hip Hop Cultures: The Case of Nigerians and African Americans.” American Behavioral Scientist 55, no. 1: 9–23. Shonekan, Stephanie. 2012. “Nigerian Hip Hop: Exploring a Black World Hybrid.” In Hip Hop Africa: New African M ­ usic in a Globalizing World, edited by Eric Charry, chap. 7. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Egypt Egypt had a youth scene that was first exposed to hip hop in the 1990s. DJs began playing American rap in nightclubs in the early 2000s, and an underground Egyptian hip hop scene that blended hip hop rhymes with historic Arabic instruments

Egypt 209

such as the oud (a lute) and the Egyptian flute, as well as sampling from classical and traditional Egyptian ­music, emerged. The group Asfalt, featuring Ibrahim Farouk (n.d.), Mohamed Gad (n.d.), and Mohamed El Deeb (1984–), formed in 2005; Asfalt intentionally distanced itself from mainstream popu­lar (habibi) ­music culture, which band members considered a vapid distraction, choosing instead to raise social awareness about issues such as unemployment, poverty, drugs, sexual harassment, religious discrimination, governmental oppression, and the economy.

THEMES, CENSORSHIP, AND REVOLUTION Arabian Knightz, which formed in 2005 with members Rush (Karim Adel, 1986*–), Sphinx (Hesham Abed, 1982*–), and E-­Money (Ehab Adel, 1981*–), performed despite a dictatorship that actively sought to quash underground protest ­music and flooded public spaces with pro-­regime pop ­music. Arabian Knightz and other underground hip hop acts received frequent warnings from and ­were often censored by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, though it was able to release some ­music on the Internet. When the January 2011 revolution that led to the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak (1928–­, in office 1981–2011) erupted, Arabian Knightz released “Rebel,” an unmixed song with raw lyr­ics that went viral on the Internet. With its extensive sampling of American rapper Lauryn Hill’s (1975–) song “I Find It Hard to Say (Rebel)” (2002) and lyr­ics in both Arabic and En­glish, “Rebel” energized Egyptian revolutionaries and made their cause international. ­After the revolution, Arabian Knightz was able to release a long-­awaited debut LP (delayed since 2008 by censors), Uknighted State of Arabia (2012), a product of an extensive collaboration with musicians known as the Arab League (2000–2010)*, with the assistance of American producer Fredwreck (aka Fredwreck Nassar, Farid Karam Nassar, 1972–). Egyptian rappers have frequently rapped about hegemonic powers, both international and local. Prior to the revolution, any references to President Mubarak ­were subtle or indirect for fear of reprisals, whereas direct references to the leaders of foreign nations could be bitingly sarcastic, as in “Obama” (2009) by Ahmed Tharwat (aka Zap, n.d.), in which he derided the Egyptian ­people for welcoming President Barack Obama (1961–­, in office 2009–2017), thereby not maintaining their cultural dignity. ­After the revolution, Egyptian rappers have rapped more freely about the Egyptian government, as in Arabian Knightz’s 2013 hit “We Are the Government,” which expresses opposition to all forms of government along with the desire for the Egyptian ­people to take governmental power into their own hands. Since the 2011 revolution, Egyptian hip hop has expanded tremendously with the growing popularity of acts such as F Killa (aka Flow Killer, Al Moukatel, n.d.), MC Ahmed Amin (n.d.), MTM (1999–2004*), Y Crew F ­ amily (2005–), and Wara2a B-100 (2011–). As Egyptian hip hop edges closer to the mainstream, its artists continue to shape their messages to expose prevailing social and po­liti­cal realities and inspire their audiences to imagine new alternatives. Jennifer L. Roth-­Burnette See also: France

210 EL

Further Reading

Aidi, Hishaam. 2011. “The ­Grand (Hip Hop) Chessboard Race, Rap and Raison d’Etat.” ­Middle East Report 260: 25–39. Gana, N. 2012. “Rap and Revolt in the Arab World.” Social Text 30, no. 4 (113): 25–53. Robertson, Craig. 2015. “Whose ­Music, Whose Country? ­Music, Mobilization, and Social Change in North Africa.” African Conflict and Peacebuilding Review 5, no. 1: 66–87. Swedenburg, Ted. 2012. “Egypt’s ­Music of Protest from Sayyid Darwish to DJ Haha.” ­Middle East Report 265: 39–43. Weis, Ellen R. 2016. “Egyptian Hip Hop: Expressions from the Underground.” Cairo Papers in Social Science, Vol. 34, no. 1. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.

Further Listening

MTM. 2004. My Phone Is Ringing! Kelma Rec­ords.

EL (aka E.L., LOMI, Elom Adablah, 1986–­, Accra, Ghana) EL is a Ghanaian rapper and sound-­recording engineer, producer, and executive whose musical styles include hip hop, hiplife, azonto, and R&B. He raps in En­glish, Ga (spoken in southeastern Ghana and in the capital, Accra), Twi, Ewe, and pidgin En­glish. His debut ­album, Something Else (2012), and his second solo ­album, ELOM (Every­body Loves Original ­Music) (2016) received critical acclaim, and EL has had several hit songs, including “Obuu Mo” (“You ­Don’t Re­spect” in Ga), “Kaalu” (“Behave”), “One Ghana,” “Mame Wossop,” and “Auntie Martha,” from his debut ­album alone. EL’s voice is in the baritone range, though frequently he is autotuned. He is nevertheless known for effortlessly switching between several languages while rapping, as well as for composing memorable melodic lines. His themes range from the musical experience to romantic breakups, from praising God and ­those who support him to sexual fantasies and street life. EL grew up in Dansoman, a suburb in Accra, Ghana. He was an academically strong student who exhibited musical talent as a teen. From 2002 to 2005, EL joined Ghanaian rapper and singer Jayso’s (Paul Nuamah Donkor, 1983–) collective Skillions (Skills in a Million, aka the Skillions, 1999*–). In 2008, during his freshman year at the University of Ghana, Legon, while working on economics and po­liti­cal science degrees, EL signed to Skillions Rec­ords (2008–), Jayso’s in­de­pen­dent rec­ ord com­pany in Accra. Skillions produced the mixtape Skillionaires (2009), the first Ghanaian hip hop mixtape. EL stayed with the label ­until he graduated and pursued a solo ­career as a rapper and producer. In 2012, EL owned his first studio in Asylum Down, back in Accra, and released the hip hop single “Chale (So Fli)” (“Friend [So Fly]” in Ga); that same year, he took a risk by investing all his funds into new equipment and acquired a studio in Osu, close to Accra’s central business district and livelier nightlife. Something Else, released and globally distributed by Akwaaba ­Music (2008–) in 2013, earned EL the Ghana ­Music Awards A ­ lbum of the Year. This highly successful ­album was followed in 2014 and 2015 by B.A.R. (The Best African Rapper



El Salvador 211

­ lbum) and B.A.R. 2, which featured some of the most prominent Ghanaian rappers A of the 2010s, including Sarkodie (1985–), Edem (Denning Edem Hotor, 1986–), and Joey B (Darryl Paa Kwesi Bannerman-­Martin, 1989–). In ELOM, EL collaborated with both Ghanaian and Nigerian rappers. The latter included American-­born Banky W (Oluwabankole Wellington, 1981–) and Phyno (Chibuzor Nelson Azubuike, 1986–). In 2015, EL received the Ghana ­Music Awards Rapper of the Year, followed in 2016 by the Ahana ­Music Awards Hiplife/Hip Hop Artist of the Year and Producer of the Year. Even more notable is EL’s production ­career; in just one year (2011), he produced such works by Ghanaian hip hop and hiplife artists as Sarkodie’s “You Go Kill Me” (also featuring EL), D-­Black’s (Desmond Kwesi Blackmore, 1986–) “Get on da Dance Floor” and the “Godfather of Hiplife,” and Reggie Rockstone’s (Reginald Yaw Asante Ossei, late 1960s–) “Rockstone’s Office” (1990*). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Ghana

Further Reading

Collins, John. 2012. “Con­temporary Ghanaian Popu­lar ­Music since the 1980s.” In Hip Hop Africa: New African M ­ usic in a Globalizing World, edited by Eric Charry, chap. 10. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Shipley, Jesse Weaver. 2013. “Transnational Circulation and Digital Fatigue in Ghana’s Azonto Dance Craze.” American Ethnologist 40, no. 2: 362–81.

Further Listening

EL. 2012. Something Else. Akwaaba M ­ usic.

El Salvador El Salvador is a small but densely populated Central Amer­i­ca nation of over six million, consisting largely of indigenous and Eu­ro­pean mestizos, including the Cuzcatlecs, the Lenca, and the Maya. ­After being a Spanish and then a Mexican colony, it became sovereign in 1841, but with a history of po­liti­cal and economic instability as well as authoritarian rulers, ultimately leading to the Salvadoran Civil War (1979–1992), the result being a multiparty constitutional republic. It continues to strug­gle with poverty and crime. Salvadoran ­music is influenced by indigenous ­peoples (Lenca, Cacaopera, Pipil, and Mayans) and the Spanish, with popu­lar styles being cumbia and rock as well as traditional ­music. Hip hop was introduced ­after 1992 as a result of diaspora, immigration, and deportation from the United States. Salvadoran hip hop emerged in the late 1990s in the United States with groups such as Reyes del Bajo Mundo (aka RDBM, 1992–) and Crooked Stilo (1991–). New York City–­based Reyes del Bajo Mundo was the first Salvadoran-­born hip hop group heard on mainstream radio in El Salvador, and East Los Angeles–­based ­brother duo Crooked Stilo created a hybrid form of rap based on ­music of their Spanish heritage. ­These early rap crews inspired rappers in El Salvador, leading to groups such as Pescozada (Slap or Punch, 1998–) and Mecate (literally “rope,” not to be confused with El Mecate, 1998–). The duo Pescozada, from Chalatenango, is

212 eLDee

produced by San Francisco-­based Salvadoran Omnionn (Agustin Anaya, n.d.), who became a band member. Its members rap in Spanish about politics and the aftermath of the Salvadoran Civil War. A controversial and censored group, Mecate infuses its socially conscious rap with humor and has achieved fame with the drum-­ and-­bass rap “En Directo” (n.d.), about an underage gangsta style killer. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Cumbia Rap; Gangsta Rap; Guatemala; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Alejandro, Jacky. 2014. “Hip Hop Is Not Dead: The Emergence of Mara Salvatrucha Rap as a Form of MS-13 Expressive Culture.” Alternativas: Latin American Cultural Studies Journal 2, no. 1: 1–19. Almeida, Paul, and Ruben Urbizagastegui. 1999. “Cutumay Camones: Popu­lar ­Music in El Salvador’s National Liberation Movement.” Latin American Perspectives 26, no. 2: 13–42.

Further Listening

Pescozada. 2010. Anarquía Club Social. Istmo Urban.

eLDee (aka eLDee the Don, Lanre Dabiri, 1977–­, Kaduna, Nigeria) eLDee is a Nigerian rapper, rec­ord producer, activist, and architect (he studied architecture at the University of Lagos) known for both his solo ­career and his membership in Trybesmen (aka Da Trybe, 1998–2005), a band considered to be one of the pioneers of Nigerian hip hop, with two 1999 hit singles, “Trybal Marks” and “Shake Bodi,” and two 2002 hits, “Work It Out” and “Oya,” as well as the 2005 ­album BIG Picture. He has released five solo ­albums, Long Time Coming (2004), Return of the King (2006), Big Boy (2008), Is It Your Money (2010), and Undeniable (2012). He also founded his own in­de­pen­dent label, Trybe Rec­ords, at first to support Trybesmen, but eventually supporting new artists. His Afropop ­music is a blend of African beats, reggae, and hip hop. His songs are about a variety of issues, but all of them, including his protest songs such as “One Day” (2010), are upbeat, synthesizer-­based melodies. His vocals are mainly in En­glish and are gentle when sung and soft-­spoken when rapped, and he makes liberal use of vocal pro­cessors, especially with doubling and autotuning. Some of his hits include “Bosi Gbangba” (2010), “Category” (2012), “Champion” (2006), “Higher” (2012), and “I Go Yarn” (2006). In 2002, elDee moved to Atlanta, where he recorded his first two solo ­albums. He supports vari­ous ­causes, such as African sustainability and gay rights in Nigeria (and Africa). He views discrimination against gays as equivalent to discrimination against par­tic­u­lar races or religions. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Nigeria; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop



The Electric Boogaloos 213

Further Reading

Clark, Msia Kibona. 2013. “Representing Africa! Trends in Con­temporary African Hip Hop.” Journal of Pan African Studies 6, no. 3: 1–4. Shipley, Jesse Weaver. 2017. “Parody ­after Identity: Digital ­Music and the Politics of Uncertainty in West Africa.” American Ethnologist 44, no. 2: 249–62. Shonekan, Stephanie. 2012. “Nigerian Hip Hop: Exploring a Black World Hybrid.” In Hip Hop Africa: New African M ­ usic in a Globalizing World, edited by Eric Charry, chap. 7. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Further Listening

eLDee. 2012. Undeniable. Trybe Rec­ords.

The Electric Boogaloos (1977–­, Fresno, California) The Electric Boogaloos ­were an early West Coast funk and hip hop dance crew. Boogaloo Sam (Sam Solomon, 1959–) created the crew ­after watching late-1960s tele­vi­sion dancers who ­were using the locking technique in their moves. His idea was to combine the dime-­stopping moves of locking and the associated stiff, rigid moves of roboting (aka botting) with moves that ­were so smooth, relaxed, and flowing that they gave the impression the dancer had no bones. His new dance, which he debuted around 1975, the boogaloo (aka boog or electric boogaloo), named ­after the song called “James Brown’s Boo-­Ga-­Loo” (1966) by James Brown (1933–2006), was part of the illusory styles of dance that ­were becoming vogue at the time, such as locking, roboting, strobing, and tutting (moving the arms and hands in an angular fashion to create the illusion of Egyptian hieroglyphs). Boogaloo Sam’s new style was loose and fluid, designed to mimic cartoons and animated movies through circular rolls of the hips, knees, and head. Once he polished the moves, Boogaloo Sam deci­ded to create a dance crew, which he originally called the Electronic Boogaloo Lockers. He recruited and trained his ­brother Timothy (1961–), who then took the stage name Pop’in Pete. Along with a few other dancers, the ­brothers went to Hollywood and danced on the streets to boombox ­music they supplied themselves. The crew made ­little in tips but ­were approached by an agent who told them to audition for Jeff Kutash (1945–), a dancer and choreographer who ran a traveling Las Vegas–­t ype show. The Electric Boogaloos immediately impressed Kutash and ­were hired. The original Electric Boogaloos ­were Boogaloo Sam, Pop’in Pete, Robot Dane (Dane Parker, n.d.), Puppet Boozer (Marvin Boozer, n.d.), Creep’n Sid (Cedric Williams, 1959–), and Scarecrow Scalley (Gary Allen, n.d.). Boogaloo Sam’s cousin, Stephen Nichols (n.d.), was already a locker (a dancer who uses the locking technique) who wanted to join the crew, so he trained in popping, joined the crew, and took the stage name Skeeter Rabbit. Other dancers who joined the crew in ­later years included the Bronx-­based and ex–­Rock Steady Crew dancer Mr.  Wiggles (Steffan Clemente, n.d.) and liquid animation dance specialist Boogaloo Shrimp (Michael Chambers, 1967–).

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The Electric Boogaloos are known for their costumes and showmanship, as some members dance both in highly choreographed unison and as soloists, solos being performed while other members strike a freeze pose (typically with all dancers frozen in a geometric pattern). The solos are designed to emphasize each member’s individual skills and strengths as well as serve as a signature move, normally telegraphed by the dancer’s stage name (e.g., “Boogaloo” for a dancer who specializes in boogaloo, “Pop’in” for a popper/locker, “Robot” for a dancer who bots, and “Creep’n” for a dancer who specializes in floating or the moonwalk). The Electric Boogaloos helped pop­u­lar­ize not only the dance they called electric boogaloo but also the techniques of popping, locking, creeping (aka floating or the moonwalk), and puppeting. The techniques of the electric boogaloo, however, differ from most of ­these other dances’ techniques, which are based on flexing the muscles and using stiff, dime-­stop moves that usually emphasize upper body movements. The electric boogaloo is based on the idea of using fluid movements that emphasize the lower body, since the dance is leg oriented, with emphasis on hip rolling while the knees remain loose and bent and the feet continually slide. The head is often involved in the rotation as well. Some of its characteristic moves had names such as Crazy Legs, Neck-­o-­flex, Twist-­o-­flex, and the Walk-­out (which has become common in popping). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Hip Hop Dance; Popping and Locking; The Robot; The United States

Further Reading

Fuhrer, Margaret. 2014. “Urban and Commercial Dance.” In American Dance: The Complete Illustrated History, chap. 10. Minneapolis, MN: Voyageur Press. Guzman-­Sanchez, Thomas. 2012. Underground Dance Masters: Final History of a Forgotten Era. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.

Elliott, Missy (aka Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott, Melissa Arnette Elliott, 1971–­, Portsmouth, ­Virginia) Missy Elliott is an American hip hop rec­ord producer, recording artist, rapper, and dancer. She is best known for her collaboration with Norfolk, ­Virginia, native producer, ­music mixer, and rapper Timbaland (Timothy Zachery Mosley, 1972–). Their musical partnership netted five consecutive Platinum and multi-­Platinum ­albums, including Elliott’s debut, Supa Dupa Fly (1997), released on Goldmind (1997–), her in­de­pen­dent label in partnership with Elektra Rec­ords (1950–). Aside from her own ­albums, Elliott has produced for vari­ous musicians over three de­cades: Aaliyah (Aaliyah Dana Haughton, 1979–2001), Monica (Monica Denise Brown, 1980–), Tweet (Charlene Keys, 1972–), Blaque (1996–2005), Fantasia (Fantasia Monique Barrino, 1984–), and Jazmine S ­ ullivan (1987–), to name just a few. Elliott has had six songs reach the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and she was featured on six other Top 10 songs by vari­ous artists. Overall, she has had 17 solo singles and 25 singles where she is a featured guest rapper hit the Hot 100. Elliott is



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also known for a shyness that is uncharacteristic of hip hop and rap performers, although she possesses a ­ great camera presence and a willingness to don oddball costumes and makeup for per­for­ mances and videos.

EARLY ­MUSIC ­CAREER Elliott did not start out as a solo act. Her first band was a female R&B group called Sista (1993–1994), which produced one ­album on the Elektra label in 1994, 4 All the Sistas around da World, and one single, “Brand New.” It was on 4 All the Sistas around da World that Elliott began working with Timbaland, as well as hip hop artists and groups from Hampton, ­Virginia, such as Jodeci (1988–1996, 2014–) member and producer Missy Elliott is a Grammy Award–­winning DeVante Swing (Donald Earle American hip hop rec­ord producer, recording DeGrate  Jr., 1969–), for whom artist, rapper, and dancer, who is also known for Sista (then called Fayze) per- her appearances in ­music videos. Five of her six formed a cold a cappella audition ­albums have been certified Platinum. (Gary ­after a concert; Elliott would ­later Gershoff/Getty Images for VH1) pen lyr­ics on two Jodeci ­albums. Elliott became a member of the Swing Mob Collective (aka Da Bassment Cru, 1991–1995), a group of artists working in Norfolk, ­Virginia, with Swing, including the rap duo Timbaland and Magoo (1989–), singers Ginuwine (Elgin Baylor Lumpkin, 1970–) and Tweet, and hip hop band Playa (1990–2003, 2007–), among ­others. This collaboration allowed her to work on recordings for artists such as Aaliyah and SWV (­Sisters with Voices, 1990–1998, 2005–). By the end of 1995, Swing Mob had dispersed, but Elliott and Timbaland worked together as a songwriting and production team, cowriting and coproducing nine tracks for Aaliyah’s multi-­ Platinum One in a Million (1996), with Elliott contributing vocals and rapping to vari­ous tracks. She was also a featured vocalist for Puff ­Daddy’s (1969–) Bad Boy Rec­ords (1993–), performing on remixes and songwriting and acting as arranger, composer, executive producer, performer, mixer, and vocalist on Nicole’s (Nicole Monique Wray, 1981–) certified-­Gold ­album Make It Hot (1998), released on Elliott’s Goldmind label (1997–). Elliott fi­nally went solo in 1997 with Supa Dupa Fly, produced by Timbaland, which reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and spawned a hit

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single, “Sock It 2 Me,” which peaked at No. 12 on the Hot 100 and was her second Top 10 hit in New Zealand. The ­album was certified Platinum and was Grammy nominated for Best Rap ­Album. Timbaland produced her next three a­ lbums, Da Real World (1999), Miss E . . . ​ So Addictive (2001), and ­Under Construction (2002), which all went Platinum in the United States, with ­Under Construction being certified double Platinum. The three spawned four Top 10 singles on the Hot 100, including “Hot Boyz” (No. 5), “Get Ur Freak On” (No. 7), “Work It” (No. 2), and “Gossip Folks” (No. 8), as well as “One Minute Man” (No. 15). “Get Ur Freak On,” “Work It,” and another single, “Scream (aka Itchin’)” earned her Grammies for Best Female Rap Solo Per­for­mance (Elliott has been nominated 21 times and has won five Grammies). The latter two ­albums charted in Australia, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand/Aotearoa, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, making Elliott an international star. Elliott also became a ­music video fixture, not only in her own videos but as a featured artist in videos for other artists. Among her videos was a double ­music video directed by David Meyers (1980–) for the songs “Take Away” and “4 My ­People,” the former serving as a moving tribute to Aaliyah, with dancers and Elliott dressed in funereal white, and the latter containing post-9/11 scenes of hundreds of dancers wearing vari­ous hues of red, white, and blue dancing in front of a red-­ and-­white-­striped flag with a blue “M” in the ­middle and Elliott dressed in pastel versions of red, white, and blue. Also in 2001, she coproduced “Lady Marmalade” for Moulin Rouge! ­Music from Baz Luhrmann’s Film; the song reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. ­Under Construction became her best-­selling a­ lbum and received Grammy nominations for Best Rap ­Album and ­Album of the Year.

FIRST SELF-­PRODUCED ­ALBUM In 2004, Elliott costarred in a commercial for the clothing com­pany Gap, Inc., with Madonna (1958–) and performed with her, Britney Spears (1981–), and Christina Aguilera (1980–) at the 2003 MTV Video ­Music Awards. Her fifth ­album, This Is Not a Test! (2003), was also certified Platinum and produced the Top 40 hit “Pass That Dutch,” which peaked at No. 27. In 2005, she released the certified-­Gold ­album The Cookbook, her first solo ­album not produced by Timbaland (it spawned the hit “Lose Control,” which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100), and she tried her hand with a (short-­lived) real­ity show on the UPN Network (1995–), The Road to Stardom with Missy Elliott. The Cookbook received five Grammy nominations, and the “Lose Control” video won a Grammy. She won Best Female Hip Hop Artist at the 2005 American ­Music Awards and was nominated for Best International Female Artist at the 2006 BRIT Awards (the British Phonographic Industry’s annual pop ­music awards). Since The Cookbook, Elliott has taken a hiatus from recording solo ­albums, although in 2016 she released the single “WTF (Where They From)” with the promise of an upcoming ­album. Since 2005, she has concentrated on writing and production, with songs that have reached No. 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-­Hop Songs



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charts: “Let It Go” (2007) by Keyshia Cole (1981–), “Need You Bad” (2008) by Jazmine ­Sullivan, and “Every­thing to Me” (2010) by Monica. Since 2008, she has written and/or produced Grammy-­nominated songs for Cole, Fantasia, Jennifer Hudson (1981–), Monica, and ­Sullivan, and in 2013, she received a Grammy nomination for the collaborative song “Without Me.” In 2015, Elliott performed at the Super Bowl XLIX halftime show. Elliott’s temporary hiatus has also been explained as a result of her being diagnosed with Graves’ disease in 2008.

MUSICAL STYLES Elliott’s musical style has changed throughout her ­career. She began with more of an R&B version of hip hop, as with her hit “The Rain,” which samples “I ­Can’t Stand the Rain,” a hit for Ann Peebles (1947–) in 1973, or “Sock It 2 Me,” which features Elliott’s singing in a typical R&B style; Elliott’s rapping style at that point was laid-­back and low-­key. In Da Real World, she and Timbaland experiment with a harsher, urban sound that has more sexual energy, and the ­album and individual songs include her trademark song intros, which usually include ad-­libbed talking and erotic vocalizations. The ­album’s hits, “Hot Boyz” and “She’s a B—­,” prefigure the sound she would perfect in Miss E . . . ​So Addictive and ­Under Construction. In fact, “She’s a B—” marks one of Elliott’s earliest uses of nonsense rhymes and humorous vocalizations (sometimes called cartoons) juxtaposed against a driving beat and syncopated rhythms created between synthesizer and drum, techniques that inform many of the songs on her next a­ lbums. Her rapping style also became more breathless and included much more profanity, often for comic effect. Miss E . . . ​So Addictive begins with a humorous R&B profanity-­laden intro ballad that morphs into a club beat that borrows from funk; the remainder of the ­album is mainly funk-­infused rap songs intended for club dancing, with humorous interludes and comic lyr­ics, as in “Minute Man.” The ­album shows her experimentation with beats, as in “Get Ur Freak On,” which borrows from Eastern ­music and uses a synthesized, sped-up tumbi voice to create its beat, as well as her use of musical surprises, in this case vocalizations to fill space and create comic moments, such as an operatic voice singing profanity and the refrain of “Hello!” The tracks “4 My ­People” and “Watcha Gonna Do” feature breathing, screams, growls, and grunts, which help establish the beat early and then become part of the instrumentation. In addition, her rapping becomes faster and her voice more sultry, using deeper vocal registers in “Scream (aka Itchin)” and “Watcha Gonna Do.” Miss E . . . ​So Addictive’s lyr­ics tell of her musical dominance. Many of the same techniques, especially the use of spoken intros, appear on ­Under Construction, which begins with references to East Coast versus West Coast feuding, Aaliyah’s death, and the 9/11 tragedy. The intro morphs into a club beat with the phrase “Let the show begin,” which introduces “Go to the Floor.” In “Work It,” Elliott and Timbaland experiment with lyr­ics in reverse, and in “Gossip Folks,” with ­children’s voices. The Cookbook shows even more experimentation with beats, as in “Lose Control,” which contains synthesized video game sounds in an ascending scale,

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combined with frenetic vocal layering. The ­album also reintroduces old-­style hip hop techniques, such as scratching and the use of R&B. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Dirty Rap; Timbaland; The United States

Further Reading

Bezdecheck, Bethany. 2009. Missy Elliott. Library of Hip Hop Biographies. New York: Rosen. Lane, Nikki. 2011. “Black ­Women Queering the Mic: Missy Elliott Disturbing the Bound­ aries of Racialized Sexuality and Gender.” Journal of Homo­sexuality 58, nos. 6–7: 775–92. Witherspoon, Nia O. 2017. “ ‘Beep, Beep, Who Got the Keys to the Jeep?’: Missy’s Trick as (Un)Making Queer.” Journal of Popu­lar Culture 50, no. 4: 871–95.

Further Listening

Elliott, Missy. 2001. Missy E . . . ​So Addictive. Elektra. Elliott, Missy. 2003. This Is Not a Test! Elektra. Elliott, Missy. 2005. The Cookbook. Atlantic.

Eminem (Marshall Bruce Mathers III, 1972–­, St. Joseph, Missouri) Eminem is one of the best-­known and most successful rappers in the United States, with a transatlantic following and a consecutive series of chart-­topping and award-­ winning ­albums. Based in Detroit, he is also well known as a rec­ord producer and an actor, and as a white rapper has become a central figure in the public and academic conversation on the negotiation of race in rap as well as the conversation on homophobia, misogyny, and vio­lence. The Slim Shady LP (1999) launched a long string of successes accompanied by international fame. Since then, Eminem has earned 15 Grammy Awards, including six for Best Rap ­Album: The Slim Shady LP, The Marshall Mathers LP (2000), The Eminem Show (2002), Relapse (2009), Recovery (2010), and The Marshall Mathers LP2 (2013). He has also earned four for Best Rap Solo Per­for­mance: “My Name Is” (1999), “The Real Slim Shady” (2000), “Lose Yourself” (2002), and “Not Afraid” (2010), and “Lose Yourself  ” won Best Male Rap Solo Per­for­mance. Despite the controversies that surround his ­music, Eminem has been wildly successful as a performer and producer, and Billboard lists him as the best-­selling artist of the first de­cade of the 21st ­century. FROM DROPOUT TO SUCCESSFUL RAPPER Eminem dropped out of high school ­after he had been held back several times in ninth grade, and instead devoted his time to his rapping ­career. Though his first ­album, Infinite (1996), performed poorly, his lyrical dexterity in the 1997 Rap Olympics in Los Angeles won him the mentorship of Dr. Dre (1965–), who signed him to his rec­ord label, Aftermath Entertainment (1996–), and coproduced The Slim Shady LP. His 2010 Recovery Tour took him around the globe to Eu­rope, Australia,

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Asia, and South Africa as well as North Amer­i­ca, and his 2014 Rapture Tour traveled Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and ­England. In 1999, Eminem created his own rec­ord label, New York City–­based Shady Rec­ ords, and has since produced rec­ords for 50 Cent (1975–), Obie Trice (1974–), and his band D12 (aka the Dirty Dozen, 1996–). As an actor, he gave a critically acclaimed per­for­mance as Jimmy “B-­Rabbit” Smith in the American film 8 Mile (2002). He also won an Acad­emy Award for Best Original Song for the single he wrote for this movie (“Lose Yourself”), the first hip hop track to earn this distinction.

LYRICAL CONTENT AND PERSONAL ISSUES Eminem’s lyr­ics tend ­toward the extremely violent, misogynistic, and homophobic. In fact, when The Slim Shady LP was released, it raised concerns not only in conservative circles but also in the wider public sphere. The lyr­ics to “Guilty Conscience,” for instance, unambiguously encourage men to kill their wives if they cheat. Eminem attempted to quell ­these concerns by insisting that he was performing as his delinquent alter ego named Slim Shady, but his subsequent releases ­were informed by the same themes; he continues to illustrate intimate-­partner vio­ lence in his songs and to employ homophobic and transphobic slurs, although his friendship and artistic partnership with Elton John (Reginald Kenneth Dwight, 1947–) has silenced some of his critics in this area. Eminem’s relationship with ­these issues, however, is more complex than surface criticisms suggest, and he has demonstrated a high degree of self-­awareness. In 2000, Eminem acknowledged the negative influence his ­music could have on fans in his single “Stan,” featuring the British singer Dido (Florian Cloud de Bounevialle Armstrong, 1971–). “Stan” is the story of an obsessed fan who unravels when Eminem ­doesn’t respond to his letters, acting out some of the same vio­lence found in Eminem’s ­albums. The song ends with Eminem’s responding to Stan, but realizing too late that Stan has already killed himself and his pregnant girlfriend. “Love the Way You Lie” (2010), recorded with guest artist Rihanna (1988–), who had in 2009 weathered a very public domestic vio­lence incident, pres­ents the destructive cycle of abuse through the guise of Eminem’s relationship with his ex-­ wife, Kimberly Anne Scott (n.d.). In 2000, he released the single “Kim,” in which he vividly imagines killing her. In contrast, his “Love the Way You Lie,” which perpetuates society’s tendency to blame the victim and exonerate the abuser, is a carefully considered commentary on the escalation and negotiation of abuse. It has been embraced by some as a song that opened up a public space for addressing the complexities of intimate-­partner vio­lence. In both songs, however, Eminem refuses responsibility—in “Stan,” he tells Stan that he ­shouldn’t follow the examples found in ­music, since musicians adopt personae in songs; this places the onus squarely on Stan. Ironically, ­these very issues of misogyny, vio­lence, and homophobia may have fueled much of Eminem’s success. White rappers have historically had a difficult time breaking into the industry, often charged with appropriating and fetishizing

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black culture. Eminem has counteracted this accusation by fully engaging with rap’s quest for personal authenticity. He si­mul­ta­neously accepts that rap is black ­music, without attempting to sound or act black, and instead embraces his whiteness. His single “My Name Is” explic­itly references numerous tropes and icons from white culture: the teacher, the doctor, a disdain for parents, a love of Nine Inch Nails (1988–), and the Incredible Hulk. Further, he has forged a white identity of his own that puts him outside the mainstream, stressing his hard-­earned street credentials, his abusive and violent tendencies (he has amassed several assault charges), his crude and offensive lyr­ics, and his white trash background. ­These traits have imbued him with a level of authenticity that other white rappers have been unable to achieve, earning him an impressively large and autonomous place in the rap community. In 2017, he was greeted with both accolades and criticism when he dissed current president Donald Trump (1946–) in one of his live per­for­mances. Jessica Leah Getman See also: Dr. Dre; D12; Gangsta Rap; The United States

Further Reading

Kajikawa, Loren. 2009. “Eminem’s ‘My Name Is’: Signifying Whiteness, Rearticulating Race.” Journal of the Society for American M ­ usic 3, no. 3: 341–63. Thaller, Jonel, and Jill Theresa Messing. 2014. “(Mis)Perceptions around Intimate Partner Vio­lence in the ­Music Video and Lyr­ics for ‘Love the Way You Lie.’ ” Feminist Media Studies 14, no. 4: 623–39.

Further Listening

Eminem. 1999. The Slim Shady LP. Aftermath Entertainment/Interscope Rec­ords. Eminem. 2000. The Marshall Mathers LP. Aftermath Entertainment/Interscope Rec­ords. Eminem. 2010. Recovery. Aftermath Entertainment/Interscope/Shady Rec­ords.

Enow, Stanley (aka Bayangi Boy, Stanley Ebai Enow, 1986–­, Bamenda, Cameroon) Stanley Enow is a Cameroonian rapper, rec­ord label owner, voice actor, and radio and TV presenter. His best-­k nown hit single “Hein père” (“Hey/All Right, ­Father,” 2013) fuses hip hop, high life, EDM, and traditional ­music from Cameroon. It reached No. 1 on ReverbNation’s Cameroon list and on Trace Africa’s Top 10 Songs. Enow sings and raps in French, En­glish, and pidgin languages. Most active musically with rapping, Enow has a background in writing and earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Douala in Cameroon. He also has some dancing background, having studied breakdancing in his teens. In 2013, he won Male Artist of the Year and Urban Artist of the Year at the first Cameroon Acad­emy Awards, and in 2014 he was the first Cameroonian to win Best New Act at the MTV Africa M ­ usic Awards. Both awards w ­ ere also for “Hein père.” His second single, “TumbuBoss,” from an EP of the same title (2014), was also a hit. In 2015, he released his first ­album, Soldier Like Ma Papa, which was produced by his co-­owned rec­ord label, Motherland Empire (2013*–) in Douala, Cameroon.

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The ­album is a tribute to his ­father, who was in the Cameroon Army. The ­album combines ragamuffin ­music, R&B, and rap and features hip hop artists from Cameroon, the Dominican Republic of Congo, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa, including Sarkodie (1985–) from Ghana and Ice Prince (1986–) from Nigeria. Enow’s acclaim has been on the rise since “Hein père” and his follow-up hit single “TumbuBoss.” Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Cameroon

Further Reading

Anon. 2017. “Stanley Enow: His Eyes on Nigerian Market.” The Day (Lagos, Nigeria), July 23. Mofokeng, Lesley. 2017. “Hot Artist Making Sweet ­Music.” Sowetan (Johannesburg, South Africa), December 1.

EPMD (1986–1993, 2006–­, Brentwood, Long Island, New York) EPMD, an acronym for Erick and Parrish Making Dollars, is an American hip hop duo consisting of MC Erick Sermon (aka Green-­Eyed Bandit, 1968–) and MC PMD (aka Parrish the Microphone Doctor, Parrish Smith, 1968–). The band was originally called EEPMD, for Easy Erick and Parrish the Microphone Doctor, but the name was changed to EPMD to be more marketable and to avoid any confusion with Eazy-­E (1964–1995). Sermon and PMD have worked with vari­ous DJs (turntablists), but since 2012 they have been touring with Grammy-­nominated producer DJ Scratch (George Spivey, 1968–). The band had six certified-­Gold ­albums, and its biggest hit was the satirical “Crossover” (1992), about rappers who sold out. EPMD’s sound can be categorized by the term cool funk, in that both rappers used a laid-­back delivery; Sermon’s heavy accent, which is sometimes confused with slurring; the liberal use of samples, loops, and heavy bass or synth beats; and a slow to moderate tempo. The duo started rapping together in 1986 ­after meeting in high school and debuted in 1988 with the certified-­Gold ­album Strictly Business (“business” is used in ­every one of the duo’s ­album titles), which reached No. 80 on the Billboard 200 and included two songs that charted on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-­Hop Songs chart: “You Got’s To Chill” (No. 22) and “Strictly Business” (No. 25). The ­album sold 300,000 copies in one day and established the duo’s mastery for funk and rock sampling; on one song alone they sampled from Public ­Enemy (1982–), the Steve Miller Band (1966–), Kool and the Gang (1964–), and ZZ Top (1969–). The ­album, distributed by Priority Rec­ords (1985–), also introduced their “Jane” sequence of songs about a troublesome relationship. Having signed with Sleeping Bag Rec­ords (1981–), they ­were produced by Kurtis Mantronik (Kurtis el Khaleel, 1965–), and their touring was managed by Russell Simmons (1957–) of Def Jam Recordings (1983–) and RUSH Communications (1991–), which resulted in rave reviews and high-­profile appearances.

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Their second ­album, Unfinished Business (1989), was also on Sleeping Bag; EPMD then moved to Def Jam for Business as Usual (1990) and Business Never Personal (1992), adopting a more aggressive, gangsta rap–­influenced style. EPMD broke up briefly from 1993 to 1997 but re­united for the Gold rec­ords Back in Business (1997) and Out of Business (1999), the latter containing remixes with new vocals and new material; a second breakup and reunion led to We Mean Business (2008), which did not do as well. Both members of EPMD have released solo a­ lbums: MC Erick Sermon’s No Pressure (1993), Double or Nothing (1995), Def Squad Pres­ ents Erick Onasis (2000), ­Music (2001), React (2002), Chilltown, New York (2004), and E.S.P. (2015), and MC PMD’s Shade Business (1994), Business Is Business (1996), Underground Connection (2002), The Awakening (2003), and Welcome to the Goondox (2013), as well as MC PMD’s collaboration with Tokyo’s DJ Honda (Hōnda Katsuhiro, 1965–), Underground Connection (2002). MC Erick Sermon also created Def Squad Productions (1993–) in New York and recorded as part of the New York–­based collective Def Squad and the Hit Squad (1990–1993, 2006–). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: The United States

Further Reading

Coleman, Brian. 2007. “EPMD: Strictly Business.” In Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip Hop Junkies. New York: Villard. Siblin, Eric. 1998. “­These Rappers Mean Business: Erick and Parrish Are Back Chillin’ Together—­and EPMD Is Making Dollars Again.” The Gazette (Montreal), February 19, F5.

Further Listening

EPMD. 1999. Out of Business. Def Jam Rec­ords.

Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea’s capital city, Malabo, has hosted an International Hip Hop Festival, which celebrates African and Eu­ro­pean hip hop (using French and Spanish texts), since 2006. The festival promotes tourism, offering hip hop per­for­mances and workshops; however, Equatorial Guinea, which is isolated geo­g raph­i­cally, rarely produces popu­lar ­music, so musicians usually travel to neighboring Cameroon or to Eu­rope to rec­ord. Hip hop likely emerged in Malabo in the early 1990s, where traditional ­music is part of everyday life and foreign popu­lar ­music, including American rock, Jamaican reggae, Cameroonian makossa, Congo Basin’s soukous, and Spanish acoustic guitar m ­ usic, is popu­lar. Traditional Bubi m ­ usic is also popu­lar not only to the largest minority, the Bubi, but also to Equatorial Guinea’s majority, the Fang. The internationally known Equatoguinean duo Hijas Del Sol (­Daughters of the Sun, 1992–) sing in Bubi and Spanish. This female duo is best known for their traditional, Afropop-­, jazz-­, and Latin-­influenced recordings, and their ­album Kchaba (1999), produced in Madrid, employs turntablism. Female singer and rapper Yuma (Yolanda Ayingono, 1980–) was born in Evinayong and resides in Malabo. She raps



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primarily in the Fang language but at times weaves Spanish texts into songs about street life, sexuality, and self-­improvement. Her a­ lbum La vida es tranki (Life Is Chill, 2005) fuses hip hop with reggae, gospel, jazz, rhythm and blues, and traditional Central African ­music. RAPPERS IN EXILE IN SPAIN Several Equatoguinean rappers are born or reside in exile in Madrid. Jota Mayúscula (Jesús Bibang González, n.d.), of Equatoguinean and Spanish descent, is a turntablist, producer, and radio host. Since 1998, Mayúscula has collaborated with mostly Spanish hip hop artists in Spanish texts. In 2000, he pursued a solo ­career, with lyr­ics focusing on hardships in general and racism in par­tic­u­lar. Female rapper and singer Mefe (anonymous, n.d.) used Spanish texts, though she is originally from Malabo. She combined hip hop with reggae and traditional West African ­music. Her debut, Fuego: Street A ­ lbum (Fire, 2002), addressed social issues. The rapper El Negro Bey (Black Is Beautiful, anonymous, 1984–) was born in Bata, another hip hop center in Equatorial Guinea. His rapping texts are in Fang and criticize the atrocities of the Equatoguinean government, human-­rights violations, and crime. El Negro Bey fuses hip hop with pan-­African rhythms, such as from the Central African rumba, and uses slam poetry. His efforts include Erosión (Erosion, 2009) and Reliquia (Relic, 2011). Ironically, former Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue (1969–­, in office 2012–), the son of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo’s (1942–­, in office 1979–), is also a rapper; however, Mbasogo’s regime is notorious for banning Equatoguinean rappers for criticizing the government. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Spain

Further Reading

Rice, Xan. 2005. “President’s Playboy Son Splashes Out Pounds 1M(illion) in Luxury Car Spree.” The Times (London), July 21, 35. Seone, Nora Sala. 2011. “ ‘Welcome to the Eccentric Circus’: Youth, Rap ­Music, and the Appropriation of Power in Malabo (Equatorial Guinea).” Scientific Journal of Humanistic Studies 3, no. 5: 12–21.

Further Listening

Yuma. 2005. La vida es tranki (Life Is Chill). Rhythm and Flow.

Eric B. and Rakim (1986–1993, 2016–­, New York City, New York) Eric B. and Rakim are a legendary American hip hop duo consisting of turntablist Eric B. (Louis Eric Barrier, 1965–) and MC Rakim Rakim (aka Rakim, The God MC, Kid Wizard, Rakim Allah, William Michael Griffin, 1968–). The duo is considered integral to the early development of rap m ­ usic, especially during the latter half of the 1980s, heavi­ly influencing the next wave of hip hop artists.

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Eric B. grew up as a musician, playing trumpet, drums, and turntables while in high school in Queens, New York. He became a radio disc jockey ­under the moniker Eric B, and one of his jobs included promotions. On a promotional assignment, he inquired about available rappers and was introduced to Rakim, an 18-­year-­old jazz saxophone player and a member of the Nation of Gods and Earths (aka the Five ­Percent Nation, 1964–), who had been writing raps ­under the name Kid Wizard since he was a teenager in Wyandanch, a Long Island neighborhood. Rakim’s ­brother worked at a plant where bootleg ­albums ­were pressed, so the duo had access to the fresh, new m ­ usic it needed to DJ at parties. The two also sought a mentor, the legendary Marley Marl (1962–), whom Eric B. hired to engineer the duo’s first single, “Eric B. Is President” (1986). ­After Def Jam Recordings (1983–) founder Russell Simmons (1957–) heard the single, he signed Eric B. and Rakim to Island Rec­ords (1959–), which owned the 4th  and Broadway Rec­ords (aka 4th  and B’way Rec­ords, 1984–) imprint. ­ALBUMS AND SOUND The duo’s debut a­ lbum, Paid in Full (1987), was characterized by Eric B.’s solid beats, heavy on the tom and kick drums, his sampled funk loops, and his liberal use of reverb and hiccups (the ­album contains three instrumentals), as well as Rakim’s even, methodical vocal delivery and freestyle ­handling of rhythm; he introduced the idea of eschewing singsong, overly rhythmic rapping for raps that ­were in­de­pen­dent of musical phrasing and contained frequent use of enjambment and ­were highly intricate and articulate. The ­album was released on 4th and Broadway Rec­ords and made it into the Top 10 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart, peaking at No. 8. The duo signed with MCA Rec­ords (1934–2003), for whom they released two ­albums, in 1990. The duo’s next two ­albums, Follow the Leader (1988) and Let the Rhythm Hit ’Em (1990), showed the duo’s evolution from minimalism and was well received in the hip hop world, but it was their guest appearance on Jody Watley’s (1959–) “Friends” (1989) that gave the duo their first Hot 100 Top 10. Their a­ lbums did not do well commercially, but their talent for innovation and improvisation, as well as their encyclopedic knowledge of jazz and funk, did not go unnoticed, nor did their insistence on producing quality work over commercial work. Their next ­album, ­Don’t Sweat the Technique (1992), included two singles that ­were used in the 1991 comedy House Party 2. The personality differences that had worked well for the duo ­until that time began to work against them, which led to a breakup and both members’ solo ­careers. SEPARATE EFFORTS The duo began the pro­cess of dissolving in 1992, but Eric B. had taken precautionary ­legal steps that tied Rakim’s hands, forcing him to keep a low profile, limiting him to only one notable musical appearance for years, on the soundtrack to the 1993 American film Gunmen. Eric B. went on to produce his solo ­album Eric B.



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(1995) and vari­ous other artists, and Rakim released The 18th Letter in 1997 and The Master in 1999. Afterward, Rakim made guest appearances with hip hop legends such as Jay-­Z (1969–) and KRS-­One (1965–). Rakim had secured a deal with Universal Rec­ords for The 18th Letter in 1996, and originally he enjoyed some success, as the a­ lbum reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and was certified Gold. He then signed with Dr. Dre’s (1965–) Aftermath Entertainment (1996–) rec­ord label in 2000, but left that label in 2003. He went into semiretirement but retained the masters he had made with Dr. Dre. In 2009, he released The Seventh Seal three years a­ fter his originally planned launch date. The a­ lbum spawned two singles, “Holy Are You” and “Walk ­These Streets.” As time has passed, Rakim has become widely acknowledged as one of the best—if not the best—­rap lyricists of all time, and he is regarded as one of the most skilled MCs in all of the rap world. He is consistently ranked in the Top 5 of all MCs by media outlets such as MTV (which ranked him No. 4) and The Source (which ranked him No. 1 on its list of MC lyricists). Although the duo went on to enjoy critical success over four a­ lbums, it has yet to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, despite being announced as one of the finalists in 2011. Since 2016, rumors of a reunion have been announced on the duo’s website, but as of 2018, no details have emerged. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Five ­Percent Nation; The United States

Further Reading

Coleman, Brian. 2007. “Eric B. and Rakim: Paid in Full.” In Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip Hop Junkies, pp. 200–209. New York: Villard. Rausch, Andrew J. 2011. “Eric B.” In I Am Hip Hop: Conversations on the M ­ usic and Culture, chap. 10. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow.

Further Listening

Eric B. and Rakim. 1987. Paid in Full. 4th and Broadway. Eric B. and Rakim. 1988. Follow the Leader. MCA-­U NI Rec­ords.

Erykah Badu (Erica Abi Wright, 1971–­, Dallas, Texas) Erykah Badu debuted in 1997 with her ­album Baduizm, a neo soul offering that introduced her own par­tic­u­lar fusion of jazz, R&B, and classic soul; her trademark message of female empowerment; and her sensual, mystical Earth-­mother image. The term “Baduizm” has since come to refer to the arcane worldview expressed through her lyr­ics and videos, a mixture of Islamic, Christian, and Buddhist symbols and beliefs that her fans have embraced. She has since produced five studio ­albums and has toured worldwide, through Eu­rope, Australia, South Amer­ i­ca, and Asia. She has also appeared in American films such as Blues ­Brothers 2000 (1998) and The Cider House Rules (1999) as well as in collaborative m ­ usic videos such as “You Got Me” (1999) with the Roots (1987–) and “Q.U.E.E.N.” (2013) with Janelle Monáe (Janelle Monáe Robinson, 1985–). Her singles and

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rec­ords have regularly placed on the charts and have won awards both in the United States and internationally. BEGINNINGS, THEMES, AND SOUND Erykah Badu changed her name in high school and college, first invoking, in her first name, the sound “kah,” a reference to the Egyptian word ka, referring to a person’s spirit and her transcendent inner self, and l­ ater adopting the sound “badu,” a repre­sen­ta­tion of her musical identity, as she often used that sound in her improvised scat solos. Before g­ oing mainstream, she performed as part of a hip hop duo and spent some time in the Memphis ­music cir­cuit. Since Badiuzm (1997), she has embraced soul as a genre essential for black expression, working to revitalize it at the turn of the 21st ­century. Her ­music invokes folk ritual, intimacy, and spirituality, blending tradition and modernity to empower black ­women. Her lyr­ics are out­ spoken, promoting solidarity, sisterhood, love, and self-­sufficiency, both challenging and embracing ste­reo­types about femininity and sexuality. Draped over a laid-­back hip hop groove and jazz-­inflected harmonies, the lyr­ics for Erykah Badu’s first hit single, “On and On” (1996), exemplify the reason her voice and phrasing are often compared to Billie Holiday’s (Eleanora Fagan, 1915– 1959). The song’s lyr­ics exemplify her major themes, the cyclical nature of life, the interdependence of humanity and the Earth, and the equation of the ­human spirit with God. The word “cipher” in the chorus represents her sense of self, which is tied to the image of the rolling stone, which represents Earth. The song not only establishes her personal my­thol­ogy but also references the teachings of the Five ­Percent Nation (1964–), a sect of the Nation of Islam (1930–), as well as secular cosmology, both of ­these being concerned with promoting knowledge of and re­spect for the self. The ­music video for “On and On” emphasizes Erykah Badu’s embracing of both tradition and modern sensuality by presenting her as two primary characters from Alice Walker’s (1944–) novel The Color Purple (1982), as depicted in Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film version. By embodying the character Celie, Erykah Badu identifies as traditional, rural, common, and domestic; by embodying Shug, she identifies as a sophisticated, sensual jazz singer. In this way, she contends with the duality of the black w ­ oman’s experience. AWARDS Eminently successful in creating a public image that reflects her messages of self-­empowerment and black feminism, as well as in producing venerated musical proj­ects both live and recorded, Erykah Badu has amassed a number of awards. Baduizm (1997) made it in the Top 10 on both the U.S. and Swedish charts and won a Grammy Award in 1998 for Best R&B ­Album; the single “On and On” garnered a Grammy that same year for Best Female R&B Vocal Per­for­mance. Live, Erykah Badu’s live ­album released ­later in 1997, reached the top of the Billboard chart for R&B/Hip-Hop Albums in the United States, and her following studio ­albums, Mama’s Gun (2000), Worldwide Underground (2003), New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) (2008), and New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh) (2010), charted

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globally, all peaking at No. 3 or higher on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. She has received two further Grammy Awards for collaborations with other artists, for the Roots’ “You Got Me” and for Common’s (1972–) “Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip Hop)” (2002). In 2015, she released her mixtape But You Caint Use My Phone. Jessica Leah Getman See also: Five ­Percent Nation; Neo Soul; The United States

Further Reading

Bibi Khan, Khatija. 2012. “Erykah Badu and the Teachings of the Nation of Gods and Earths.” Muziki: Journal of M ­ usic Research in Africa 9, no. 2: 80–89. King, Jason. 1999. “When Autobiography Becomes Soul: Erykah Badu and the Cultural Politics of Black Feminism.” ­Women and Per­for­mance: A Journal of Feminist Theory 10, no. 1–2: 211–43.

Further Listening

Erykah Badu. 1997. Baduizm. Universal Rec­ords. Erykah Badu. 2010. New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh). Universal Motown.

Estelle (Estelle Fanta Swaray, 1980–­, London, E­ ngland) Estelle is a West London singer, rapper, songwriter, and producer who since 2004 has lived in Los Angeles. She is best known for her mainstream hit single “American Boy” (2008), which reached No. 1 on singles charts in the United Kingdom and landed in the Top 10 on vari­ous international charts; it also reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. Estelle co­wrote this certified-­Platinum single with w ­ ill.i.am (1975–) and John Legend (John Roger Stephens, 1978–), among ­others. ­Will.i.am produced the song, which featured Kanye West (1977–). In 2009, it won the Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. In addition, Estelle has earned critical acclaim and awards for her ­albums Shine (2008), All of Me (2012), and True Romance (2015). Her ­music combines hip hop, grime, neo soul, pop, R&B, and reggae. EARLY YEARS, INFLUENCE, AND SHINE Part Senegalese and Granadino, Estelle grew up in Hammersmith, London, in a religious ­house­hold listening to American gospel, traditional West African ­music, and reggae. Listening to Ella Fitzgerald (1917–1996) and ­later Mary J. Blige (1971–) influenced her singing and rapping. Like both, Estelle is a soprano. Estelle began her ­music ­career while working at London’s hip hop rec­ord store Deal Real. In London’s clubs, her open-­mic appearances drew attention and led to collaborations on sound recordings. Her debut was the 12-­inch single “Excuse Me” (2003). While on a trip to Los Angeles, she approached West at a restaurant and asked to be introduced to Legend, who soon ­after produced two songs on her debut ­album, The 18th Day (2004). The single “1980” reached No.  14 on the U.K. pop chart, and Estelle became the first artist to sign to Legend’s label Homeschool Rec­ ords (2007–), a joint venture with Atlantic (1947–). Her follow-up, Shine (2008),

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featured “American Boy.” Her first ­album released in the United States, Shine is also her most critically acclaimed work, having reached No.  38 on the Billboard 200, become certified Gold, and made it to the short list for the 2008 Mercury Prize. REC­ORD PRODUCTION AND L ­ ATER ­ALBUMS While recording The 18th Day, Estelle formed her own rec­ord label, Stellarents, which signed new artists from the West London scene. Her 2009 self-­standing single, “Star,” was used in Crystal Light beverage commercials in the United States. ­After Shine, she recorded All of Me on Legend’s label, and in 2010 she released the critically acclaimed single “Freak” with Canadian rapper Kardinal Offishall (Jason D. Harrow, 1976–). Pa­r i­sian EDM DJ and remixer David Guetta (Pierre David Guetta, 1967–), with whom she worked on “One Love” (2009), produced this song. Estelle also released “World Go Round” (2009) with American rapper Busta Rhymes (1972–). In 2015, she released True Romance on her new Los Angeles–­based rec­ord label, Established 1980 Rec­ords (2015–), in partnership with BMG (2008–). A guest appearance on Fox’s tele­vi­sion show Empire (2015–), in which she sang her single “Conqueror,” led to the song’s reaching No. 42 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 15 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: The United Kingdom; West, Kanye

Further Reading

Trilling, Daniel, and Harry Williams. 2008–2009. “A ­Woman of Conviction.” New Statesman 137–38, nos. 4928–30, December 22, 2008–­January 9, 2009, 72–74. Zachariah, Natasha Ann. 2011. “Live Life to Write Songs: Rapper-­Singer Estelle Is Taking Her Time between A ­ lbums to Build Up Material for Her Songs.” The Straits Times (Singapore), October 24.

Further Listening

Estelle. 2008. Shine. Atlantic/Homeschool Rec­ords. Estelle. 2015. True Romance. BMG/Established 1980 Rec­ords.

Estonia The Republic of Estonia is a Baltic state that became in­de­pen­dent in 1991 ­after the fall of the Soviet Union. Hip hop, first in En­glish and Rus­sian and then, from the mid-2000s on, primarily in Estonian, quickly became popu­lar in the years following Estonian in­de­pen­dence. The found­ers of Estonian rap are Tartu-­based Cool D (Priit Kolsar, 1976–) and Tallinn-­based G-­Enka (Henry Körvits, 1974–), DJ Paul (aka Tallinn Funk, Paul Oja, 1979–), Revo (Revo Jőgisalu, 1976–2011), Kozy (Anonymous, 1975*–), and DJ Critikal (Bert Prikenfeld, 1996*–). The first Estonian hip hop ­album was Cool D’s O’Culo (1995*). Other Estonian rappers and groups include Toe Tag (Revo, G-­Eenka, and Oja’s one-­time band, 1996–); Rakvere-­based Tommyboy (Toomas Tilk, 1976–), Chalice (Jarek Kasar,

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1983–), and Öökülm (2010–), consisting of MC Lord (Mart Rauba, n.d.) and DJ Melkker (Martin Tutt, n.d.); and Talinn-­based Suur Papa (1989–) from Tallinn, Metsakutsu (Rainer Olbri, 1987–), and DVPH (2008–), consisting of Dragan Volta (n.d.) and Pőhjamaade Hirm (Nordic Fear, Johan Kullerkup, 1985–). Other hip hop acts include Kuuluud (2008–), consisting of Hirm and producer Tatmo Savvo (n.d.); Külalised (2006*–); Tartu’s 5Loops (2010–); and Talinn’s Reket (Racket, Tom Olaf Urb, 1985–) and Abraham (Lennart Lundve, 1988–). The cities Tallinn and Tartu are the most impor­tant centers of Estonian rap, and annual Estonian hip hop festivals have taken place since 2006 in the town of Elva, near Tartu. The Estonian MC ­Battle was held annually from 2000 to 2010. ­Because Estonia is a nation with a history of centuries of dominance by foreign powers (Denmark, Germany, Sweden, the Soviet Union, and briefly Nazi Germany), personal and po­liti­cal freedom are common issues in hip hop. Cool D, who won Best Male Performer of the Year and Best Per­for­mance at the 2004 Estonian M ­ usic Awards, raps about Estonia’s uneasy relationship with Rus­sia and remarks that Estonians have been compelled to learn a foreign language and customs in “Eestlased” (Estonians). Further, the use of sexually charged lyr­ics and profanity in Estonian hip hop is part of this expression of personal freedom, as this would never have been allowed u­ nder the heavy censorship of the Soviet Union. Rapping in Estonian became widespread with the rise of Cool D, whose early work was influenced by American rappers such as Ice Cube (1969–) and Public ­Enemy (1982–). In 1998, Kozy brought Cool D, G-­Eenka, DJ Critikal, and Revo together to form the supergroup A-­Rühm (1998–), which agreed to rap exclusively in Estonian. That year, A-­Rühm cut “Popmuusik” (“Pop Musicians”), bringing hip hop to national fame. The shift to Estonian language in Estonian rap by the early 2000s brought themes of nationhood, personal freedom, and Estonian identity to the fore. In 2006, Chalice was commissioned to write the Estonian nationalist anthem “Minu inimesed” (“My ­People”), which was performed at a presidential concert that celebrated Estonian In­de­pen­dence Day and in 2007 at the Tenth Youth Song Festival (with a full symphony and a choir of 30,000). Although most Estonian rap includes beats and sustained chords in addition to using similar technology to American rap, “My ­People,” a spoken-­word poem with pizzicato strings and soft wind melodies, demonstrates Estonians’ generous definition of rap: as long as a song consists of spoken rhymes over ­music, it is considered rap. Terry Klefstad See also: Po­liti­cal Hip Hop

Further Reading

Kobin, Maarja, and Airi-­Alina Allaste. 2009. “Hip Hop in Rakvere: The Importance of the Local in Global Subculture.” In Subcultures and New Religious Movements in Rus­sia and East- ­Central Eu­rope, edited by George McKay, Christopher Williams, Michael Goddard, Neil Foxlee, and Egidija Ramanauskaitė, chap. 4. Oxford, ­England: P. Lang. Vallaste, Triin. 2017. “­Music, Technology, and Shifts in Popu­lar Culture: Making Hip Hop in e-­Estonia.” In Hip Hop at Eu­rope’s Edge: ­Music, Agency, and Social Change,

230 Ethiopia edited by Milosz Miszczynski and Adriana Helbig, chap. 7. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Further Listening

G-­Enka and Paul Oja. 2014. Genka/Paul Oja. Legendaarne Rec­ords.

Ethiopia Ethiopia, the second most populous country in Africa next to Nigeria, is located in Northeast Africa, known as the Horn of Africa. Its history is intertwined with the history of reggae and hip hop. Ethiopia has a generally pious and traditionalist atmosphere, with musical preferences favoring Ethiopian traditional ­music and popu­lar ­music such as American jazz and rock as well as Jamaican reggae—­all of which Ethiopian musicians have stylized into their own unique sound, despite a lack of recording studios and copyright royalty collection issues. Ethiopian musicians have also found it difficult to choose a rapping text, not only ­because Ethiopia is so linguistically diverse but also ­because strong cultural pride limits the audience. The emerging preferred rapping language is Amharic; Oromo, Tigrinya, and En­glish are less used. Horrible environmental conditions as well as sociopo­liti­cal corruption have also had a limiting effect on the development of Ethiopian hip hop. During the Derg Era (1974–1991), over one million ­people died due to the 1983–1985 famine and government-­imposed genocide. Diaspora rappers w ­ ere the result of mass deportations. The Eritrean-­Ethiopian War (1998–2000) eco­nom­ically drained the country further. Government censorship during the Derg Era and into the pres­ent Federal Demo­cratic Republic Era (1991–) thwarted po­liti­cal rap’s existence. Rappers also censored themselves b­ ecause some w ­ ere government sponsored; many opted for lyrical content that focused on Ethiopian historical and cultural pride, morality, everyday life, and youth strug­gles and ambitions. One source of Ethiopian historical and cultural pride is rooted especially in the 19th ­century, when Ethiopia was the only African country to resist Eu­ro­pean colonization. Another source is that in the 20th ­century, Ethiopia had a popu­lar emperor, Haile Selassie I (Ras Tafari Makonnen Woldemikael, 1892–1975, reign 1930–1974), who helped modernize the country. Selassie became famous for an international reason as well: according to Rastafarianism, his reign fulfilled Biblical prophecy. This belief strongly ties Jamaica and its ­music to Ethiopia—­Jamaican deejays, who toast mainly in En­glish or Jamaican patois, sometimes add Amharic lines as a tribute to Selassie. A small hip hop scene exists in Ethiopia’s capital city, Addis Ababa. Rappers work ­under aliases to protect themselves from threats and punishment. One pioneering rapper is Lij Michael (aka Faf, Michael Taye, n.d.), who raps in Amharic and En­glish. Like other Ethiopian musicians since the 2000s, Lij Michael disseminates his ­music through streaming ser­vices, which has led to opportunities to tour worldwide. A ­later act, DJ Same (anonymous, n.d.), fuses hip hop with traditional Amharic m ­ usic called fukera, beatboxing to its oration. DJ Same uses an Apple iPhone to play samples and loops during live concerts. Other rappers using Amharic

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are Ella Man (Elias Hussen, 1993–), Woah (anonymous, 1982–), Yoni Yoye (anonymous, 1988–), and Jukebox the Illustrious (anonymous, 1975–). Woah and Jukebox the Illustrious attended college in Texas and collaborated, but many acts outside Ethiopia focus away from the country’s issues and use languages that appeal to broader audiences. Feven (Feven Ghebremicael, 1975–), born in Massawa, Ethiopia (now Eritrea), raps in Swedish and En­glish as a member of GFX (Green­house FX, 2000*–) as well as other groups and is a notable Ethiopian/ Eritrean hip hop act with chart success in Sweden. In her videos and rap texts, Feven has addressed her status as an Ethiopian expatriate and a Muslim. Another result of diaspora, Willy William (1981–) is a Champagné, France–­born DJ of Ethiopian Guadeloupean descent who produces ­house ­music, R&B, dancehall, and zouk as well as hip hop. He belongs to the French hip hop band Collectif Métissé (2009–). ­Women rappers have yet to emerge aboveground in Ethiopia. Reasons for this lack of public participation are rooted in religious beliefs and the perception that the exercise of ­women’s rights is po­liti­cal protest. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Jamaica; Reggae

Further Reading

Mekonnen, Danny A. 2010. “Ethio-­Groove on the World Stage: ­Music, Mobility, Mediation.” Callaloo 33, no. 1: 299–313, 368. Shabby, Malka. 2003. “ ‘RaGap’: ­Music and Identity among Young Ethiopians in Israel.” Critical Arts: A South-­North Journal of Cultural and Media Studies 17, nos. 1–2: 93–105.

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F Fab Five Freddy (aka Fab 5 Freddy, Fred Brathwaite, 1959–­, Brooklyn, New York) Fab Five Freddy is an American graffiti artist, rapper, filmmaker, cinematographer, producer, painter, actor, and video jockey. He is known for having introduced ele­ ments of hip hop such as street art, dancing, and rapping to both mainstream culture and the art world. He is best known as the original host of MTV’s Yo! MTV Raps (1988–1995); however, from his Fab 5 graffiti tags and uses of Andy Warhol’s (Andrew Warhola, 1928–1987) pop art painting Campbell’s Soup Cans (1962) that appeared on the sides of subway cars in New York City to his producing the American classic breakdancing film Wild Style (1983), from his being a reference in Blondie’s No. 1 hit single “Rapture” (1981) to his own rap recording “Change the Beat,” which contains one of the most scratched samples in hip hop history, he has become more than a tele­vi­sion host—he has reached cult icon status. MUSICAL AND ARTISTIC BEGINNINGS Born as Fred Brathwaite and raised in the Bedford-­Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York, Fab Five Freddy’s earliest exposure to ­music was likely jazz, since his parents ­were avid jazz listeners and rec­ ord collectors.

Fab Five Freddy began as a graffiti artist from the Bedford-­Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. He took his name in 1979 ­after joining the graffiti crew The Fabulous 5. Before his involvement with the film Wild Style (1983) and hosting Yo! MTV Raps in 1987, he helped bridge graffiti art culture with the downtown New York art world as well as hip hop with the con­temporary punk movement. (Johnny Nunez/WireImage for Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation/Getty Images)

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His godfather was drummer, percussionist, and composer Max Roach (1924– 2007)—­one of the prominent figures of bebop and cool jazz in the 1950s and 1960s. Since high school, he and Roach have been close friends. Roach had purchased a large ­house in Brooklyn, where he would invite Brooklyn jazz musicians for jam sessions and discussions on jazz as well as entertain his jazz aficionado friend and godson. His ­father also knew jazz pianist Thelonious Monk (1917– 1982), a prominent figure of bebop, cool jazz, and hard bop and his earliest musical obsession. Though he loved ­music, he pursued art and developed an interest in graffiti with the belief that it descended from 1960s pop art. His primary medium for his own graffiti was spray enamel. While studying art and pop culture at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn in 1979, he joined the graffiti crew the Fabulous 5 (1970s*), in which he developed his tag and stage name. He also became interested in both the emerging hip hop scene in the Bronx, New York, and in the punk and new wave scene on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. BUILDING BRIDGES TO THE MAINSTREAM In 1978, Fab Five Freddy found work as a camera operator on American art, fashion, and ­music journalist Glenn O’Brien’s (1947–2017) public-­access cable show TV Party (1978–1980), on which he was also a guest. In 1980, O’Brien cast him alongside Puerto Rican–­born graffiti artist Lee Quiñones (George Lee Quiñones, 1960–) in his documentary film Downtown 81, formerly titled New York Beat, on Brooklyn graffiti and neoexpressionist artist Jean-­Michel Basquiat (1960–1988). Although the film was not released ­until 2000, this experience led to Fab Five Freddy’s cocreating, filming, and producing Wild Style (1983), director Charlie Ahearn’s (1951–) American film. Fab Five Freddy also acted in it and showcased Quiñones’s art. In the meantime, Fab Five Freddy and graffiti artist Futura 2000 (aka Futura, Leonard Hilton McGurr, 1955–) became cocurators of the art show Beyond Words at Manhattan’s Mudd Club, the first art exhibit that drew members of the Bronx hip hop scene to the downtown New York City art world. This show featured the duo’s graffiti as well as the artwork of Basquiat and Keith Haring (1958–1990), among ­others. ­After this exhibit, Fab Five Freddy appeared on hip hop photographer and videographer Henry Chalfant’s (1940–) Graffiti Rock show with Rock Steady Crew (RSC, 1977–) and ­later on shows with Afrika Bambaata (Kevin Donovan, 1957–), including the popu­lar Wheels of Steel Show. In the same year, within the hip hop scene, he met the punk and new wave band Blondie (1974–1982, 1997–), who already had Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits. The band showed him their rap text to “Rapture” (1981), which mentioned him in its namechecking. “Rapture” became both a No. 1 hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and an international hit, bringing his name to the fore of hip hop culture’s global recognition. That same year, he rapped with Blondie on two EPs that ­were released in the United Kingdom through ­England’s Flexipop! (1980–1983) magazine. In addition, in 1982 he rapped on the A side of the 12-­inch single “Change the Beat” in both En­glish and French; the B side featured female rapper BeSide (Anne Marie Boyle, n.d.), nicknamed “Fab Five Betty,”

Fashion 235

who raps the song in French. On this rendition, Fab Five Freddy added the line “Ahhhhh, this stuff is r­ eally fresh,” which became one of the most scratched samples in hip hop history. Most famously, Herbie Hancock used it in “Rockit” (1983). The same year as “Change the Beat,” Fab Five Freddy continued rapping and went on the first rap tour in Eu­rope with Afrika Bambaataa, ­Grand Mixer D.ST (aka GrandMixer DXT, Derek Showard, 1960–), Rock Steady Crew (RSC, 1977–) and Futura 2000 (Leonard Hilton McGurr, 1955–), among ­others. He then collaborated with the German punk band Die Toten Hosen (The Dead, Boring Event, 1982–) to produce “Eisgekühlter bommerlunder” (“Hip Hop Bommi Bop,” 1983), which became the first hip hop–­punk coproduction. In 1987, he was asked by MTV to become the main host of Yo! MTV Raps. Freddy was the main host from 1988 to 1989, sharing the host responsibilities with American radio personality Doctor Dré (André Brown, 1963–) and radio personality, rapper, actor, and musician Ed Lover (James Roberts, 1963–). The tele­vi­sion show introduced Americans to the ­music of the most successful hip hop recording artists of the time. He concurrently served as associate producer for Wesley Snipes’s (1962–) film New Jack City (1991), and he directed hip hop videos for Queen Latifah’s (1970–) “Ladies First” (1989), Snoop Dogg’s (1971–) “Who Am I? (What’s My Name?)” (1993), and Nas’s (1973–) “One Love” (1994), among ­others. Since the 1990s, Fab Five Freddy has returned to painting and has been creating media art. From 2009 to 2013, he created a series of paintings and video essays; among ­these are the Crystal Punch pictures and the Abstract Remix paintings—­both inspired by the remixing and sampling techniques found in hip hop m ­ usic. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Blondie; Graffiti Art; Hancock, Herbie; Hip Hop Dance; The United States

Further Reading

Chang, Jeff. 2005. ­Can’t Stop ­Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation. New York: Picador. Jenkins, Willard. 2011. “Fab 5 Freddy: A Jazz Upbringing at the Roots of Hip Hop.” Interview with Fab Five Freddy. JazzTimes, May 19.

Fashion Fashion is a big part of hip hop culture. As dancers, musicians, and DJs became popu­lar and achieved star status, the styles of clothes they wore on the streets and in clubs spread. Hip hop fashion embraces a specific culture at a specific time and is an outgrowth of the larger pop culture fashion movements of the 1960s and 1970s, when p­ eople began emulating the clothing worn by their favorite artists and musicians. Hip hop street culture created its unique variation by experimenting with color, fit, and fashion accessories. In the 1970s, dance crews such as the Lockers (aka the Campbell Lockers, 1971– 1982) from Los Angeles, founded by Toni Basil (1943–) and Don Campbell (1951–), wore costumes rather than clothing. The same can be said of the Electric Boogaloos (1977–), who ­were from Fresno, California. ­These dance crews ­were easily identified by their large, colorful beret-­style hats, colorful knickers, large suspenders, and

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striped socks as well as black hats and white gloves, clothing that resembled that worn by artists who study mime. The predominant color combination was black and white, although the groups sometimes ­ adopted matching variations of colors. Such costuming influenced a lot of the West Coast funk fashion. Tele­vi­ sion series such as Soul Train (1971–2006) and What’s Happening! (1976–1979, featuring one of the original Lockers, Fred Berry, 1951–2003) highlighted ­these Los Angeles fashions. Soul Train in par­tic­u­lar featured per­for­mances of not only R&B, soul, jazz, disco, and funk but hip hop as well, propelling not just the m ­ usic and dance moves but also its fashion into the mainstream. By contrast, the New York crews ­ were simpler in their Lesbian rapper-­songwriter Young M.A. is known fashion choices. Early New not only for her hardcore freestyle talents, but York breakers wore more athletic also for her eclectic style: bling, full neck tattoos, clothing—­tracksuits ­were popu­ and double braids. With her baggy jeans, backwards baseball hats, and hoodies, lar, along with the new name-­ Young M.A.’s fashion sense challenges gender-­ brand tennis shoes, especially normative conventions. (Michael Tullberg/Getty Nike, Adidas, and Keds. Kangol Images) hats w ­ ere also favored. The most popu­ lar color combinations (into the early 1980s) ­were red and black. Many crews wore leather jackets and incorporated punk accessories, such as zippers and chains. More stylized versions of t­hese hip hop fashions ­were made famous through pop ­music videos, such as Michael Jackson’s (1958–2009) “Bad” (1987) and “Thriller” (1983). As the 1980s drew to a close, hair and accessories became more pronounced (more voluminous and bigger) as the popularity of hip hop and rap culture grew. Popu­lar rap artists set a new trend, wearing oversized jewelry, chains especially, but also watches and rings. Gigantic hoop earrings made their way into ­women’s fashion. Shirts and jackets incorporated the large-­shoulder, small-­waist look, and pants ranged from very tight leather to a very baggy “Harem” pant (parachute pants) that was nicknamed “MC Hammer pants” due to early rapper MC Hammer’s (1962–) popularizing them in his videos. In time, a new variant emerged as a cultural shift ­toward roots pride occurred, leading to the inclusion of traditional African prints and colors and Rastafarian accessories and hairstyles, such as dreadlocks.

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FROM THE 1990s INTO THE 21st ­CENTURY The 1990s saw the rise of fashion that has become associated with hip hop as it is known ­today, with clothing emphasizing a softer and baggy look and bright colors (including neon) being popu­lar with young rappers such as the Fresh Prince (­Will Smith, 1968–), Kid n’ Play (Christopher Reid, 1964–­, and Christopher Martin, 1962–), and the all-­female group TLC (1991–). TLC set the tone for many ­women’s fashions. In addition, musicians continued to embrace designer clothing, such as Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Nautica, and FUBU (originally an acronym for Four Urban B ­ rothers United, it became For Us By Us). Designers who embraced hip hop culture employed rappers in their runway shows. Sports jerseys (sometimes described as throwback jerseys) and sport team hats, always a favorite of the hip hop culture, continued to be prominent. The emphasis on large clothing earned a nickname for the style, “Balla.” Flashy gold, diamond jewelry, and other expensive accessories, known as “bling,” also became popu­lar—­bling led to ultimate fashion excess, most notably the “grill,” capping the full front row of teeth in gold or platinum. ­Women embraced masculine fashion and wore the same clothing, but with the added touch of makeup to feminize themselves. Rappers such as Lil’ Kim (1975–) and Foxy Brown (Inga DeCarlo Fung Marchand, 1978–) pop­u­lar­ized a new, sexier look for ­women that accented the female silhouette. In addition, mainstream fashion had a hip hop undercurrent, sometimes embracing a boxy look that resembled prison wear, but worn baggy and limited to very achromatic variations of black, white, and gray (this color scheme was embraced by the hardcore or gangsta rappers that ­were emerging in the 1990s as a way to preserve the street origins of hip hop). By the turn of the c­ entury, hip hop artists, rappers, and ­music producers ­were branching into the fashion scene themselves, with labels and designs of their own. In 1998, Sean John Combs (1969–), known then as Puff ­Daddy, Puffy, or P. Diddy, began his award-­winning clothing line, Sean John, which was especially known for its tailored dress jackets. That same year, Queens, New York–­based Def Jam Recordings (1983–) cofounder Russell Simmons (1957–) created Phat Farm (1992–) and followed up a year ­later with a ­children’s hip hop clothing line, Baby Phat (1993–). In 2002, the Southern hip hop group OutKast (1992–) started their own clothing line, OutKast Clothing, but it soon folded due to a lack of sales. With less success than earlier, Simmons created new clothing lines in the 21st ­century: Argyleculture (2008) and Tantris (2012). For the most part, labels started by musicians have folded, as the trends change so quickly that it is hard for one clothing line to keep pace. Since the 2010s, Starter Clothing Line has produced vintage sporting wear and starter jackets that revamp the looks of the 1980s and 1990s; even established shoes and clothing lines such as Reebok and Adidas embrace the snapback trends ­today. Recently, hip hop fashion has merged with other trends, such as skateboarding and surfing, embracing the printed T-­shirt and more tapered pant leg, Vans shoes, knit caps, and more fitted clothing. Tattoos are also a new trend, ranging from fully sleeved to tribal work on the neck and face. Chest pieces, wherein the ­whole chest is a complete work of art, are now being seen. International hip hop fashions are

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very similar to American ones, with the added ele­ment of the indigenous culture—­ always toeing the line of what is considered an urban or street trend. Paige A. Willson See also: Campbell, Don; The Electric Boogaloos; Gangsta Rap; Hip Hop Dance; Puff ­Daddy

Further Reading

Penney, Joel. 2012. “ ‘We ­Don’t Wear Tight Clothes’: Gay Panic and Queer Style in Con­ temporary Hip Hop.” Popu­lar ­Music and Society 35, no. 3: 321–32. Romero, Elena. 2012. ­Free Stylin’: How Hip Hop Changed the Fashion Industry. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.

Fatback Band (aka Fatback, 1970–­, New York City, New York) The Fatback Band is a popu­lar American 1970s and 1980s funk, disco, and R&B band that was best known for a long string of hit singles that peaked on Billboard’s Hot R&B Songs (which ­later became Hot R&B/Hip-­Hop Songs), including “(Do the) Spanish Hustle” (1976) and “I Like Girls” (1978), which barely missed the Billboard Hot 100 by charting at 101. Hits such as “(Are You Ready) Do the Bus Stop” (1975), “(Do the) Spanish Hustle,” and the second re-­release of “I Found Lovin’ ” (1986) peaked in the Top 20 positions on the United Kingdom’s Singles Chart. Another hit song, “King Tim III (Personality Jock)” (1979), contained rapped passages by the persona King Tim, who used braggadocio as well as an invitation for listeners to clap. “King Tim III,” a B side, became more popu­lar than “­You’re My Candy,” the rec­ord’s A side. Its label, New York City–­based Spring Rec­ords (1967–1990*), in association with Polydor (1913–), released the seven-­inch single ­album in March 1979, whereas Englewood, New Jersey–­based Sugar Hill Rec­ords (1979–1985) released the 12-­i nch single ­album, the Sugarhill Gang’s (1979–1985, 1994–) “Rapper’s Delight,” in August 1979. Based on release dates, “King Tim III” is the first commercially released song with rap; however, publication dates show that “King Tim III” had its copyright registered on August 29, 1979, whereas “Rapper’s Delight” had its copyright registered on September 24, 1979, with a publication date of August 25, 1979, given in its copyright registration documents. In addition, “Rapper’s Delight” used the words “hip hop” and was a full rap single—­and more importantly, it overshadowed “King Tim III” with its success. Bill Curtis (William Curtis, 1932–), the founder of the Fatback Band, was born and raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina, served in the army, and moved to New York City in 1955, ultimately becoming a session drummer. In 1970, Curtis formed the Fatback Band to fuse the “fatback” beat of New Orleans Mardi Gras parade band ­music (derived from Dixieland’s rhythm section) and emerging 1970s funk. The initial instrumentation also shows some cool jazz and jazz-­rock fusion influences: trumpet, saxophone, and flute, as well as electric guitar, electric bass, electric piano, and drums. In the early 1970s, the band played street funk, but eventually it expanded its sound to include congas, vocals, saxophone, and electric guitar. The Fatback



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Band’s first hit, “Street Dance” (1973), peaked at No. 26 on Billboard’s Hot R&B Songs. The band adapted and changed its sound as disco, R&B, and soul became popu­lar in the 1970s and 1980s and songs ­were usually geared t­ oward dancing. Lyrical content often focused on aspects of urban life and dance, with some double meanings, wordplay, and humor. Hits had titles such as “Street Dance,” “Keep on Steppin’ ” (1974), “The Booty” (1976), “Master Booty” (1978), “Party Time” (1976), “All Nite Party” (1988), “Double Dutch” (1978), and “Gotta Get My Hands on Some (Money)” (1980). By the mid-1980s, the Fatback Band’s string of hits had stopped in the United States, but the band continued releasing hits in the United Kingdom ­until 1988, when it released “All Nite Party.” ­There ­were several personnel changes over the years, but as of 2018, drummer Curtis and the Fatback Band still perform concerts and tour. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: The Sugarhill Gang; The United States

Further Reading

Charnas, Dan. 2010. “­Album One: Number Runners.” In The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip Hop, chap. 1. New York: New American Library. George, Nelson. 1998. “Hip Hop ­Wasn’t Just Another Date.” In Hip Hop Amer­i­ca, chap. 2. New York: Viking Press.

Further Listening

Fatback Band. 1973. ­People ­Music. Spring Rec­ords. Fatback Band. 1979. Fatback XII. Spring Rec­ords.

50 Cent (Curtis James Jackson III, 1975–­, Queens, New York) Curtis James Jackson III, better known as 50 Cent, has lived a life that is almost a cliché of hip hop culture. He has been involved with drugs and has had brushes with the law—­and his professional ­career has been marked by his own shooting and frequent feuds. Throughout his ­career, 50 Cent has engaged in numerous public feuds with other rappers, including Ja Rule (Jeffrey Atkins, 1976–), the Game (Jayceon Terrell Taylor, 1979–), Eedris Abdulkareem (1974–), and Rick Ross (William Leonard Roberts II, 1976–). It is not always clear, however, how genuine such disagreements are, or if they have been staged for their publicity value. Nonetheless, his ­music has been incredibly popu­lar, and the synergy between his ­music and business enterprises has made 50 Cent one of hip hop’s wealthiest individuals.

EARLY LIFE TO SUCCESSFUL HIP HOP C ­ AREER Born to a 15-­year-­old single ­mother who worked as a cocaine dealer and was murdered when he was eight, 50 Cent was raised by his grandparents in Queens, New York. From age 12, he became involved in selling drugs and other illegal activities, which culminated in several arrests in 1994. Jackson avoided a longer

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sentence by spending six months in a boot camp, during which time he earned his GED. He also ­adopted the nickname 50 Cent from a 1980s Brooklyn thief who would steal from anyone, as a reminder that through rap m ­ usic he would support himself legally. A self-­taught rapper, 50 Cent was introduced in 1996 to Jam Master Jay (Jason William Mizell, 1965–2002), DJ of Run-­D.M.C. (1981–2002), who taught him the basics of counting mea­sures and creating songs. In par­tic­u­lar, 50 Cent learned how to write strong melodic hooks for his own raps, and he also began to appear uncredited on recordings by other rappers. Meanwhile, he worked on his own first ­album. “How to Rob” (1999) was 50 Cent’s controversial debut single; in it he named more than 40 rap and pop performers as his potential victims. Although he ­later claimed that the track was meant to be humorous and not disrespectful, response to it was mixed, even among the rappers he named. In April of the following year, 50 Cent was shot nine times in front of his grand­mother’s h­ ouse in Queens. Speculation by authorities and ­others was that the shooting was in retaliation for “How to Rob,” but this was quickly dismissed. Nonetheless, the incident marked the beginning of 50 Cent’s public image as a hip hop performer with frequent feuds and criminal connections. ­Because of the shooting, 50 Cent’s intended debut ­album on the Columbia label, Power of the Dollar (2000), was never released, but its bootlegged track “Ghetto Qur’an,” which told in ­great detail the story of ruthless Queens, New York, drug dealer Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff (1960–), became an underground sensation. Authorities ­later believed that McGriff, who laundered drug money through the hip hop label Murder Inc. Rec­ords (1999–), was involved in the murder of Jam Master Jay, who had defied an informal industry ban by continuing to work with 50 Cent. Against this background, 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (2003), his ­actual debut, became the most highly anticipated hip hop release in years, and the ­album first appeared on many Billboard charts, including on the Billboard 200, at No. 1. From Get Rich or Die Tryin’, 50 Cent’s “In da Club” became his first single to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, remaining ­there for nine weeks. The ­album’s second single, “21 Questions,” also peaked at No. 1. Get Rich or Die Tryin’ earned 50 Cent a Grammy nomination for Best Rap ­Album. His follow-up ­album, The Massacre (2005), which contained the diss track “Piggy Bank,” directed at Ja Rule, Jadakiss (1975–), and many other rappers, did even better, selling over one million copies in its first four days in release and earning five Grammy Award nominations; his subsequent ­albums have all sold nearly as well. The success of his own releases led his label Interscope (1989–) to give 50 Cent control of his own division, G-­Unit Rec­ords (2003–), which featured other rappers from his Queens neighborhood. His recent a­ lbums include Bulletproof (2006), Curtis (2007), Before I Self Destruct (2009), and Animal Ambition: An Untamed Desire to Win (2014), among ­others. In 2010, 50 Cent won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Per­for­mance by a Duo or Group for “Crack a ­Bottle” with Eminem and Dr. Dre (1965–). Quick to leverage his celebrity to sell numerous products beyond ­music, 50 Cent’s first ventures included beverages, fragrances, condoms, luxury clothing, and headphones. He has also produced films and tele­vi­sion shows, especially ­those aimed

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at black audiences, and he has developed a large-­scale philanthropic proj­ect that sends food to Africa. His latest investments involve branded precious metals and boxing promotion. His name and his companies, such as headphone com­pany SMS Audio (2011–), are partnered with many well known brands such as Disney (1923–) and Lucasfilm (1971–). In 2015, a personal judgment against him by the ex-­girlfriend of rapper Rick Ross and the resulting high ­legal fees led 50 Cent to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Scott Warfield See also: Fashion; Gangsta Rap; Jam Master Jay; The United States

Further Reading

50 Cent. 2004. From Pieces to Weight: Once upon a Time in Southside Queens. London: MTV Books. Williams, Justin. 2013. “Borrowing and Lineage in Eminem/2Pac’s Loyal to the Game and 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Trying.” In Rhymin’ and Stealin’: Musical Borrowing in Hip Hop ­Music, chap. 5. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Further Listening

50 Cent. 2003. Get Rich or Die Tryin’. Interscope Rec­ords/Shady Rec­ords/Aftermath Entertainment. 50 Cent. 2005. The Massacre. Aftermath Entertainment.

Fiji Fiji, a nation of over 330 South Pacific islands located in Melanesia, has a hip hop scene that began in the early 1990s, when American hip hop arrived via tourists and Fijians with dual citizenship. Fiji’s population is about half indigenous ­people of Polynesian or Melanesian descent (iTaukei) or from surrounding Pacific Islands and about half Fijian Indian. Although the two main populations speak Fijian or Fijian Hindi, Fiji’s official language is En­glish. Hip hop initially found fertile ground in Fiji’s capital city, Suva. Fijians have modified all aspects of hip hop, from introducing Pacific themes in graffiti art and breakdancing moves to localizing rap lyr­ics about economic hardship and unemployment. Fiji’s first rappers w ­ ere Sammy G (anonymous, n.d.) and Mr. Grin (David Lavaki, n.d.). Sammy G’s debut single, “Liquid Poison” (1999), is about alcohol abuse. His mixtape House Party (2010, but self-­released about a year earlier through SoundCloud) was circulated through Fijians residing worldwide. He ­later founded Underdawg Productions (2008–) to benefit unsigned Fijian hip hop artists and to document hip hop in Fiji. Mr. Grin recorded “Suva City” (2008) with Sammy G. Other notable Fijian hip hop acts are Mynlessme (Faga Timote, n.d.) and his group the Brown Street Boys (BSB, n.d.), Lil Leps (Lepani Raiyala, n.d.), Nemoney (Nemani Borando, n.d.), Rabbit (Kurt Ram, n.d.), and JDeuce (Sekove Qiolevu, 1983*–), who is from Kaba, in the Fijian province of Tailevu (but was raised in Los Angeles). What catapulted hip hop’s popularity in Fiji was instability: despite tourism and one of the most highly developed economies in the Pacific, Fiji has experienced

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government corruption, military coups, and ethnic conflict since its in­de­pen­dence from the United Kingdom in 1970, including five coups since 2006. Ultimately, this unrest has led some Fiji-­born rappers to find national and international success. Singer-­songwriter Fiji (George Veikoso, 1970–) was born in Tailevu but grew up in Hawaii. He fuses hip hop with reggae, jazz, ska, R&B, traditional Hawaiian, and Fijian ­music, and his lyr­ics are in En­glish and Fijian. Female rapper, singer, and hip hop activist MC Trey (aka Trey, Thelma Thomas, n.d.) is from Lami, though her hip hop ­career and residence are in Sydney. Trey was an MC for the Australian hip hop band Foreign Heights (2006–2008). Her solo studio ­albums Daily Affirmations (2000) and Tapastry Tunes (2003) incorporate hip hop, funk, and jazz. Her lyr­ics are in En­glish and focus on feminism, self-­protection, and romance. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Australia; The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Kabutaulaka, Tarcisius. 2015. “Re-­presenting Melanesia: Ignoble Savages and Melanesian Alter Natives.” Con­temporary Pacific 27, no. 1: 110–46. Lal, Brij V. 2011. “Where Has All the ­Music Gone? Reflections on the Fortieth Anniversary of Fiji’s In­de­pen­dence.” Con­temporary Pacific 23, no. 2: 412–37, 553. Webb, Michael, and Camellia Webb-­Gannon. 2016. “Musical Melanesianism: Imagining and Expressing Regional Identity and Solidarity in Popu­lar Song and Video.” Con­ temporary Pacific 28, no. 1: 59–95, 279.

Further Listening

Fiji. 1999. Grattitude. Ricochet Rec­ords. MC Trey. 2003. Tapastry Tunes. Tapastry Toons.

Filmmaking (Documentaries) A documentary film contains nonfictional subject ­matter and is made for the purpose of historical documentation, instruction, and education. Documentaries tend to have a straightforward narrative; however, many may also consist of experimental or abstract cinematography. Documentaries are usually shot on a much lower bud­get and are shorter than full-­length feature motion pictures. They are also less distributed and shown in smaller venues than motion pictures. Rarely do they reach large markets, even once they have received awards, strong critical reception, or cult status. With its cutting-­edge subject ­matter and artistic uses of cinematography (e.g., a straightforward one-­take or an uncut shot of a subject, handheld filming techniques, and extreme close-up shots to have a fragment represent the ­whole object), documentary filmmaking nevertheless influences motion picture and ­music video filmmaking. Hip hop documentaries are no dif­fer­ent from other films in ­these re­spects. As with other kinds of documentaries, ­there is a pattern of use of subject ­matter that seems constant. B ­ ecause less funding is required than for motion pictures, lower production values are acceptable. T ­ here is a much stronger global output of hip hop documentaries than hip hop feature films. As of 2018, full-­length hip hop films that have originated from the United States strongly dominate the entire hip hop motion picture output.



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Early hip hop documentaries may be credited for sparking interest in producing hip hop films. For example, Right On! Poetry on Film (1971), from the United States, features ­music by members of the Last Poets (1968–), credited as the Original Last Poets. Originating from Harlem, the Last Poets may have been the world’s first group that performed hip hop. The United States–­produced New York City gang crime thriller The Warriors (1979) is often considered a proto–­hip hop film ­because its narrative and urban themes resemble ­later hip hop dramas, though its soundtrack contains no hip hop. Just ­after hip hop m ­ usic’s earliest formative years, director Tony Silver (1935–2008) and hip hop photographer/videographer Henry Chalfant’s (1940–) created the American documentary Style Wars, which aired in 1983 on PBS and premiered in theatres in 1984. Often credited as the first hip hop documentary, Style Wars introduced audiences worldwide to hip hop culture. Its main approach was that graffiti was both a form of creative expression and an art, as opposed to being viewed as vandalism. The film included interviews and the work of some of the most prominent New York City graffiti artists, such as Dondi (Donald Joseph White, 1961–1998), Futura (aka Futura 2000, Leonard Hilton McGurr, 1955–), Iz the Wiz (Michael Martin, 1958–2009), Seen UA (Richie Mirando, 1961–), and ZEPHYR (Andrew Witten, n.d.). Style Wars also featured breakdancers Crazy Legs (1966–) and Frosty Freeze (1963–2008), as well as a soundtrack of mostly old-­school songs, such as the Sugarhill Gang’s (1979– 1985, 1994–) “8th  Won­der” (1980), Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s (1976–1982, 1987–1988) “The Message” (1982), and Treacherous Three’s (1978– 1984) “Feel the Heartbeat” (1981). Coinciding with Style Wars’ release w ­ ere the American 1983 full-­length hip hop feature films Wildstyle and Flashdance as well as 1984’s Breakin’ and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo. The American documentary Beat This: A Hip Hop History (1984) immediately followed. From the mid-1980s into the early 1990s, American hip hop documentaries and just a few non-­American documentaries ­were released. Like Style Wars, ­these films explored at least one aspect of hip hop. Just one example is Amer­i­ca’s Wreckin’ Shop from Brooklyn (1992), which focused on breakdancing. An early documentary on hip hop in ­England was Electro Rock (1985), a ­music video–­based documentary that offered some of the earliest footage of b-­girl activity outside the United States. Hip hop dancer ­Bubbles (1969–) was captured on film. Twenty years ­later she became the subject of another documentary, Redder Than Red (2005), produced in ­England, Germany, and the United States. The Dutch-­made Big Fun in the Big Town (1986) was filmed in New York City. Its first half focused on proto-­punk and rock singer Iggy Pop (James Newell Osterberg Jr., 1947–) and his band the Stooges (1967–1971, 1972–1974, 2003–2016); its second half focused on the New York hip hop scene, with interviews and some per­for­mances of pioneering American acts such as the Last Poets, Grandmaster Flash (1958–), Roxanne Shanté (1969–), Doug  E. Fresh (1966–), Run-­D.M.C. (1981–2002), LL Cool J (1968–), and Schoolly D (Jesse Bonds Weaver Jr., 1962–). Te Kupu (aka D Word, Dean Hapeta, 1966–), a founding member of the Wellington, New Zealand/Aotearoa band Upper Hutt Posse (UHP, 1985–), codirected Solidarity (1992), a documentary on UHP’s visit to the United States. Some full-­ length feature motion pictures that coincided with ­these documentaries include the

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United States’ Krush Groove (1985), Colors (1988), Tougher Than Leather (1988), Straight out of Brooklyn (1991), Boyz n the Hood (1991), Juice (1992), and New Jack City (1991), as well as Spike Lee (Shelton Jackson Lee, 1957–) films such as Do the Right ­Thing (1989). Lee’s documentary directorial filmography includes 4 ­Little Girls (1997), Bad 25 (2012), and Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to “Off the Wall” (2016). Rusty Cundieff’s (George Arthur Cundieff, 1960–) United States—­and United Kingdom–­produced Fear of a Black Hat (1993) is a mockumentary, much in the same comic vein as the American hard rock and heavy metal mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap (1984). Fear of a Black Hat parodies real hip hop artists, such as the members of Public ­Enemy (1986–) and N.W.A. (1986–1991), as well as Tamra Davis’s (1962–) American film CB4 (1993), which also parodies N.W.A. CB4 also included segments that featured ­actual hip hop artists, such as Eazy-­E (1964–1995), Ice Cube (1969–), Flavor Flav (1959–), and Ice-­T (1958–), with per­ for ­mance footage. By the mid-1990s and into the 21st ­century, documentary topics included a focus on ele­ments of hip hop, much in the same way they w ­ ere presented in Style Wars, as well as on artist biographies, behind-­the-­scenes glimpses of concerts and recordings, concert or b­ attle per­for­mances, hip hop’s influence, and outsider/insider perceptions of hip hop. By the time ­these films ­were made, old- and new-school ­were becoming history, Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) was dead, and Suge Knight (Marion Hugh Knight Jr., 1965–) was serving prison time. Just a few of ­these documentaries include the United States’ The Show (1995), Rhyme and Reason (1997), Jails, Hospitals, and Hip Hop (2000), Welcome to Death Row (2001), Tupac: Resurrection (2003), the Beef films (2003, 2004, 2005, and 2007), And You ­Don’t Stop: 30 Years of Hip Hop (2004), Jay-­Z: Fade to Black (2004), Just for Kicks (2005), and Rize (2005); Australia’s Basic Equipment (1998); the Netherlands and Tanzania’s Hali halisi (The Real Situation, 1999); and the United Kingdom’s Biggie and Tupac (2002). In 2000, the American films Downtown 81 (aka New York Beat, shot in 1980) and Stations of the Elevated (shot in 1981) w ­ ere released. Downtown 81 focused on graffiti artist Jean Basquiat (1960–1988) and featured graffiti artists Lee Quiñones (George Lee Quiñones, 1960–) and Fab Five Freddy (1959–). This film experience led to Fab Five Freddy’s cocreating, filming, and producing Wild Style, director Charlie Ahearn’s (1951–) American film, which showcased Quiñones’s art. Stations of the Elevated has no voice-­over narration and consists of a visual style reminiscent of early experimental films, such as Germany’s Berlin: Die sinfonie der großstadt (Berlin: Symphony of a G ­ reat City, 1927–) and the Soviet Union’s Chelovek s kinoapparatom (Man with a Movie Camera, 1929). Female rappers became subjects of documentaries during this time. Petra Mäussnest’s German (1967–) rap documentary ­Will einmal bis zur sonne (I Want to Go to the Sun, 2002) focuses on Brixx (Ildiko Basa, 1976–), an American-­influenced Hungarian female MC who was raised in Kassel, Germany, and is based in Cologne, Germany. It also contains footage of German rappers Cora E. (aka Zulu-­Queen, Sylvia Macco, 1968–) and Pyranja (Anja Käckenmeister, 1978–). Con­temporary documentaries, such as Israel’s Arotzim shel za’am (Channels of Rage, 2003), explore rap within the context of politics and culture. Instructional documentaries, such as



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the New York City turntablist crew the X-­Ecutioners’ (formerly X-­Men, 1989–) U.S. film Built to Scratch (2004), have helped to place hip hop artists in the role of instructor. Turntablist skills in the United States and Eu­rope are also highlighted in documentaries such as Canada’s Hang the DJ (1998) and the United States’ Scratch (2001); rap ­battles ­were the focus of the United States’ Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme (2000), and beatboxing was featured in Breath Control: The History of the ­Human Beat Box (2002). Meanwhile, the United States’ The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-­Boy (2002) featured Crazy Legs (1966–) breakdancing. From the mid-2000s into 2018, documentaries have exhibited increasing global collaboration. They also explore how hip hop has developed in countries outside the United States, as in K ­ enya’s Hip Hop Colony (2006), Uganda’s Diamonds in the Rough: A Ugandan Hip Hop Revolution (2007), Tanzania and ­Kenya’s Ni wakati! (It’s Time, 2010), Zimbabwe’s Zim Hip Hop Documentary (2013), Argentina’s Buenos Aires Rap (2014), and Germany’s Black Tape (2015). Confronting ste­reo­types and facing obstacles have been covered in documentaries such as the United States’ Bad Rap (2016) and The Hip Hop Fellow (2012), which focus, respectively, on Asian rappers and rec­ord producer, DJ, and recording executive 9th Won­der’s (1975–) year as a fellow teaching courses at Harvard University. More documentaries focus on female involvement in hip hop, such as South Africa’s Counting Headz: South Afrika Sistaz in Hip Hop (2007); Senegal’s Sarabah (2012), about Senegalese rapper and anti–­female genital mutilation activist ­Sister Fa (Fatou Diatta, 1982–); Af­ghan­i­stan’s Hip Hop Kabul (2013); Switzerland’s Sonita (2015), about the Afghani rapper Sonita Alizadeh (1997*–); and the Czech Republic’s Girl Power (2016). Humor is frequently employed, as exemplified in the United Kingdom’s The ­Great Hip Hop Hoax (2013), which focuses on a Scottish duo with made-up identities and affected Californian accents who become “the rapping Proclaimers” (1983–) and pursue a recording ­career in the United States. Other hip hop documentary-­comedies include the United States’ Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (2006), the United Kingdom’s Exit through the Gift Shop (2010), and New Zealand’s Hip Hop-­eration (2014). In addition to humor, documentaries such as Luxembourg’s Hamilius: Hip Hop Culture in Luxembourg (2010), Mongolia and Australia’s Mongolian Bling (2012), and the United States’ Shake the Dust (2014) use irony to explore hip hop found in unlikely locations. Another theme in hip hop documentaries is copyright. Examples include the United States’ Alternative Freedom (2006) and Copyright Criminals (2009) and Denmark’s Good Copy, Bad Copy (2007). Though ­these new themes have emerged in hip hop documentaries, older themes remain popu­lar. Hip hop history is constantly being updated and readdressed in documentaries such as the United States’ Planet B-­Boy (2007), I Am Hip Hop: The Chicago Hip Hop Documentary (2008), History and Concept of Hip Hop Dance (2010), and Uprising: Hip Hop and the L.A. Riots (2012) and Canada’s Hip Hop Evolution (2016). Documentaries that follow hip hop acts, providing historical or po­liti­cal context, include the United States and Palestine’s Slingshot Hip Hop (2008), Switzerland’s Moi c’est moi—­Ich bin ich (I Am I, 2011), the United States and China’s Underground Hip Hop in China (2011), and the United States’ Beats, Rhymes, and Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest (2011). Behind-­the-­scenes concert preparations and reunions continue in documentaries such as the United States’ Rock

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the Bells (2006), about Wu-­Tang Clan’s intended final concert per­for­mance, and the United States and Morocco’s I Love Hip Hop in Morocco (2007). Biographical documentaries continue, including U.S. films such as Notorious B.I.G.: Bigger Than Life (2007), 2 Turntables and a Microphone: The Life and Death of Jam Master Jay (2008), The Won­der Year (2011), and Ruthless Memories: Preserving the Life and Legend of Eric (Eazy-­E) Wright (2012). Several of ­these documentaries coincide with or precede biopics such as American films Notorious (2009), on the Notorious B.I.G. (1967–1997), and All Eyez on Me (2017), on Tupac Shakur. The documentary 2 Turntables and a Microphone, however, appeared years ­after Tougher Than Leather (1988), the American musical crime drama and blaxploitation/spaghetti western parody motion picture starring Run-­D.M.C. (1981– 2002). Related to biographical documentaries are documentaries that focus on hip hop m ­ usic studios, such as the United States and France’s Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton: This Is Stones Throw Rec­ords (2013), and ­those covering emerging movements or aesthetics, such as the United States’ Nerdcore for Life (2008) and Nerdcore Rising (2008). Documentaries that investigate hip hop and crime continue. ­T hese include U.S. films Rap Sheet: Hip Hop and the Cops (2006) and Rhyme and Punishment (2011). Other recent films continue to explore graffiti (e.g., the U.S. films Overspray 1.0 [2006], Bomb It [2007] and Bomb It 2 [2010] and the Netherland’s Kroonjuwelen: Hard Times, Good Times, Better Times [Crown Jewels, 2006]), fashion (e.g., the United States’ Fresh Dressed [2015]), beatboxing (e.g., the United States’ Beatboxing: The Fifth Ele­ment of Hip Hop [2011]), and breakdancing (e.g., the United Kingdom’s Turn It Loose! [2009] and the United States’ Bomb It, Bomb It 2, and Bouncing Cats [2010]). At times, hip hop artists have turned film proj­ects into ­labors of love. An example is the Welfare Poets’s (WP, 1997–) No ­Human Being Is Illegal: The Story and Strug­gle of the Other Hidden P ­ eople of Iceland (2013), which was inspired by the group’s work in Iceland assisting refugees. Another example is Chuck D’s (1960–) commissioned film about the Last Poets, Hustler’s Convention (2015, United Kingdom). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Battling; Breakdancing; Filmmaking (Feature Films Made in the United States); Filmmaking (Feature Films Made outside the United States); Graffiti Art; Hip Hop Dance; Turntablism

Further Reading

Donalson, Melvin Burke. 2007. Hip Hop in American Cinema. New York: Peter Lang. George, Courtney. 2016. “From Bounce to the Mainstream: Hip Hop Repre­sen­ta­tions of Post-­Katrina New Orleans in ­Music, Film and Tele­vi­sion.” Eu­ro­pean Journal of American Culture 35, no. 1: 17–32. Monteyne, Kimberley. 2013. Hip Hop on Film: Per­for­mance, Culture, Urban Space, and Genre Transformation in the 1980s. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Raimist, Rachel, Kevin Epps, and Michael Wanguhu. 2007. “Put Your Camera Where My Eyes Can See Hip Hop Video, Film, and Documentary.” In Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip Hop, edited by Jeff Chang, chap. 31. New York: Civitas Books. Watkins, S. Craig. 1998. Representing: Hip Hop Culture and the Production of Black Cinema. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.



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Filmmaking (Feature Films Made in the United States) Filmmaking, both in the United States and across the globe, has been greatly influenced by hip hop ­music and culture—­from soundtrack choices to story content, character development, and cinematic style. In a mainstream and American example, Darren Aronofsky’s (1969–) film π (aka Pi, 1998), ­adopted a form of audiovisual editing he called “hip hop montage.” This technique featured visual and sonic ruptures, fractures, and repetitions inspired by the backspinning, punch phrasing, and scratching employed in hip hop ­music. Screen productions more specific to the hip hop genre and culture range from feature films to ­music videos (though it took years for MTV [1981–] to fully embrace hip hop videos) and documentaries. Hip hop filmmaking is usually associated with the hip hop musicals of the early 1980s in the United States and the related tradition of Hollywood-­style gangsta films produced into the 1990s and beyond. EARLY EFFORTS The hip hop films of the early 1980s include such American works as Wild Style (1983), Beat Street (1984), and Krush Groove (1985). In light of African American cinematic practices that came directly before and ­after them, t­ hese films are often considered unremarkable. Some of the previous African American genres included blaxploitation films, a genre that in the 1970s produced iconic visual experiences such as Shaft (1971) and Foxy Brown (1974). In addition, New Jack Cinema, which stretched from the mid-1980s onward, produced classics such as New Jack City (1991). The early 1980s hip hop films ­were ­later dubbed hip hop musicals ­because, like traditional musicals, they feature celebrities (rappers, playing themselves) who perform on screen. Krush Groove, for instance, featured Run-­D.M.C. (1981–2002), LL Cool J (1968–), and Beastie Boys (1980–2012). ­These musicals also maintain narrative ele­ments from traditional stage and film musicals, including both ensemble per­for­mances and the entanglement of a budding but endangered heterosexual romance with on-­screen musical numbers. More impor­tant for the tradition of hip hop filmmaking, however, is that ­these musicals introduced key tropes from urban youth culture into film practice, including the centralization of rap celebrities and other markers of hip hop culture such as graffiti art, breakdancing, and hip hop fashion. In ­these films, the city (often New York, and more specifically the Bronx) becomes a primary space of meaning, a fact that has powerfully impacted hip hop filmmaking over the ensuing de­cades. PLACE AS FILM SPACE: SPIKE LEE AND NEW JACK CINEMA The focus on place is evident in the films of Spike Lee (Shelton Jackson Lee, 1957–), one of the more influential African American directors of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Financed by the Hollywood studio system but still able to retain impressive autonomy, Lee had the freedom to control his own narratives and to experiment with form, all while marketing extensively. His films, which include She’s Gotta Have It (1986), Do the Right T ­ hing (1989), Malcolm X (1992),

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Bamboozled (2000), and Inside Man (2006), are highly reflexive, interrogating the role of history and of the city—in his case Brooklyn—in shaping black culture. Film techniques borrowed from the Italian neorealists (1944–1952), the French new wave (1958–1969), and early Soviet filmmaking (1920–1930) are woven through his films, including a focus on location shooting, a preference for ordinary characters, and the use of montage and vis­i­ble editing strategies such as jump cuts. He is also known for making documentaries and for employing this documentary style in his dramatic feature films. Do the Right T ­ hing, for instance, explored racism by representing a 24-­hour period in a single block of Bed-­Stuy (Bedford-­Stuyvesant), a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, illuminating the conflicting pressures of the inner city. Lee’s use of hip hop ­music in this film demonstrated that the genre could be used to depict a wide array of associations, including location, emotional and ­mental states, historical setting, generational perspectives, and black male and female subjectivity. Films such as Do the Right ­Thing provided a power­f ul model for the burgeoning New Jack Cinema (named ­after the highly successful New Jack City and also referred to as New Black Realism). This brand of filmmaking continues the focus on young black men in the inner city of Brooklyn or Los Angeles; they are usually gangsta-­type characters who clash over drug culture on one hand and community regeneration on the other. ­These films tend to be violent and visually realistic, and they demonstrate how w ­ omen, ­children, the el­derly, the unemployed, and systems of belief are implicated in—or are victims of—­such conflicts. Films such as Boyz n the Hood (1991), Straight out of Brooklyn (1991), Menace II Society (1993), and Above the Rim (1994) portray real anx­i­eties over rising unemployment in black communities, the criminalization of young black men, and a growing sense of helplessness. Hip hop and rap continue to be prominent in ­these works as part of a network of signifiers that provide the audience with access to the cultures on screen. Such films are often criticized for their misogynistic messages and for portraying a one-­dimensional black youth culture, playing off of African American guilt regarding the tension between cultural authenticity and upward mobility. A related hip hop–­film tradition has emerged in France, where movies such as Banlieue 13 (District B13, aka B-13, 2004) demonstrate the influence of hip hop culture and New Jack Cinema and where the French banlieue (suburb) stands in place of the United States’ hood.

HOLLYWOOD IN THE 2000s Hip hop film in Hollywood has diffused over time, broadening in genre and style, and focusing less on the inner city and black cultural themes. Films such as Dead Presidents (1995) and Eve’s Bayou (1997) fall ­under historical realism; The Best Man (1999) and Love and Basketball (2000) are romances; and ­Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996) is a parody of the New Jack genre. Since the 2000s, hip hop film has taken the form of other genres, such as opera adaptations (for example, Carmen: A Hip Hopera, 2001). But older genres, such as the youth dance flick (Save the Last Dance, 2005), the coming-­of-­age and



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achieving-­your-­dreams film (Feel the Noise, 2007; Step Off, originally ­Battle, 2011), the horror movie (the Blade series, 1998–2004), and the crime drama (Ill Manors, 2012), continue to be made as well. Documentary filming techniques have been employed more than ever in several popu­lar hip hop biopics, as exemplified in Straight Outta Compton (2015), on N.W.A. (1986–1991), and All Eyez on Me (2017), on Tupac Shakur (1971–1996). Jessica Leah Getman See also: Fashion; Gangs (United States); Gangsta Rap; Graffiti Art; Hip Hop Dance; Filmmaking (Documentaries); Filmmaking (Feature Films Made outside the United States); New Jack Swing; The United States

Further Reading

Harkness, Geoff. 2015. “Thirty Years of Rapsploitation: Hip Hop Culture in American Cinema.” In The Cambridge Companion to Hip Hop, edited by Justin Williams, chap. 12. Cambridge, ­England: Cambridge University Press. Massood, Paula J. 2003. Black City Cinema: African American Urban Experiences in Film. Philadelphia: T ­ emple University Press. Monteyne, Kimberley. 2013. Hip Hop on Film: Per­for­mance, Culture, Urban Space, and Genre Transformation in the 1980s. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.

Filmmaking (Feature Films Made outside the United States) Few full-­length motion pictures on hip hop are made outside of the United States, the country that originated seminal hip hop motion pictures such as Wild Style (1983), Breakin’ and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (1984), and Beat Street (1984), as well as documentaries such as Style Wars (1983). A few Eu­ro­pean documentaries such as the United Kingdom’s Electro Rock (1985) followed, but it took some time before more full-­length hip hop motion pictures ­were made outside the United States. Two of the earliest examples of such full-­length hip hop films w ­ ere Hong Kong’s Ching fung dik sau (Mismatched ­Couples, 1985) and Sweden’s Stockholmsnatt (Stockholm Night, aka The King of Kungsan, 1987). The main character in Ching fung dik sau is Eddie, a teenage b-­boy who meets an acrobat and contortionist named Mini, a poor opera performer who works on the street as a busker and hawker. Complications begin when Eddie convinces his ­sister to allow Mini to stay with them for a while and to help at her fast food restaurant. Ching fung dik sau is a romantic comedy that was released the same year as the American film Krush Groove in the United States, but breakdancing in the film is used much more the way it was used in Flashdance (1983) in that breakdancers are featured. Though the main character can breakdance, hip hop dance is just a backdrop. Stockholmsnatt is an urban crime drama starring legendary American rec­ord producer, composer, musician, and film producer Quincy Jones (1933–), who costars as part of an ensemble named Bezerk; he also scored the film’s ­music. The film takes place in Stockholm’s park, the Kungsträdgården, which in the movie is taken over by violent teen­agers, and its protagonist is Paolo, an Italian in Sweden who develops a passion for Kung Fu films and ultimately inflicts vio­lence on innocent ­people.

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The film, with its vio­lence, urban themes, and hip hop–­inspired ­music (including beatboxing), became a cult classic in Sweden. The 1990s saw some American collaboration with other countries on films such as Fear of a Black Hat (1993), produced in both the United States and the United Kingdom, and Whiteboyz (1999), produced in France and the United States, but both films are perceived as American hip hop films with ele­ments of American, not Eu­ro­pean, hip hop. Fear of a Black Hat was the first hip hop mockumentary that parodied well known American hip hop acts such as Public ­Enemy (1986–) and N.W.A. (1986–1991), whereas Whiteboyz focuses on a protagonist named Flip, who lives in an all-­white town in Iowa and dreams of being a hip hop m ­ usic star who can hang out with Dr. Dre (1965–) and Snoop Dogg (1971–). The film features Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg as themselves, as well as beatboxer Doug E. Fresh (1966–) and rapper Slick Rick (1965–), who are credited as Parking Lot Rappers #1 and #2, and rapper Big Pun (1971–2000), who is an uncredited member of the fictional Don Flip crew. Meanwhile, India’s Kadhalan (1994) and Japan’s ’Hood (1998), both with very few hip hop dance and ­music moments, ­were released. The first Tamil motion picture that featured rap was Baba (2002), which featured rapper–­t urned–­ playback singer Blaaze singing “Baba Rap.” The 2000s involved a continuation of collaborations, with hip hop motion pictures such as the United States and France’s Brooklyn Babylon (2001) and the United States and Thailand’s Province 77 (2002). While American directors shot both films on location in the United States, they touch on the protagonist’s outsider status, as seen in Stockholmsnatt. Filmed by Marc Levin (n.d.), the son of documentary filmmaker and journalist Alan Levin (1926–2006), as part of his hip hop trilogy, which began with the American basketball film Slam (1998) and Whiteboyz, Brooklyn Babylon is a Romeo and Juliet love story between Sara, a w ­ oman betrothed to Judah in her Jewish Lubavitch community, and hip hop songwriter Sol, who is black. The film also focuses on tensions between the Lubavitch community and West Indian Rastafarians and other black neighbors. Members of the Roots (1987–) play members of the Lions; the Roots’ beatboxer, Rahzel (Rahzel Manely Brown, n.d.), is the film’s narrator. Province 77 is shot in Los Angeles and focuses on Thai town, called Thailand’s 77th Province for the expatriate Thais who ­settle ­there. The main characters are conflicted between maintaining their Thai culture and embracing an urban life that consists of hip hop, street vio­lence, and drugs. The Thai American hip hop group Thaitanium (2000–) scored the film’s soundtrack. Other films taking place during the first de­cade of the 2000s ­were France’s Banlieue 13 (District B13, aka B-13, 2004), Finland’s Tyttö sinä olet tähti (Beauty and the Bastard, 2005), and the United Kingdom’s Ali G Inda­house (2002) and a series of films known as Kidulthood and Adulthood (2006 and 2008) that ­were ­later followed by Brotherhood (2016). Ali G Inda­house showcases internationally known En­glish comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s (1971–) character Ali G (Alistair Leslie Graham) as a white En­glish rude boy who has a penchant for hip hop, reggae, and other kinds of urban ­music. Banlieue 13, as well as Kidulthood and Adulthood, in contrast, ­were dramas. Banlieue 13 resembles New Jack Cinema thrillers such as New Jack City (1991), where the French banlieue (suburb) stands in place of the United States hood.

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By the 2010s, t­ here was greater global variety in hip hop motion pictures, with films such as Ghana’s Coz ov Moni: The First Pidgin Musical Film in the World (2010) and Coz ov Moni 2 (FOKN Revenge) (2013), Vietnam’s Sài gòn yo! (Saigon Electric, 2011), Japan’s Tokyo Tribe (2014), New Zealand’s Born to Dance (2015), Israel’s Junction 48 (2016), and India’s Meesaya murukku (Twirl Your Moustache, 2017), as well as Eu­ro­pean films or American Eu­ro­pean collaborations such as the United Kingdom’s Anuvahood (2011) and Ill Manors (2012), the Netherlands’ Body Language (2011), France’s Qu’Allah bénisse la France! (May Allah Bless France, 2014), and the United States and Germany’s Morris from Amer­i­ca (2016). Hip hop ­music is in the foreground of Coz ov Moni, which takes place in Ghana. The sequel features the Ghanaian hip hop group FOKN Bois (2008–). Following the previous de­cade’s Tyttö sinä olet tähti, romance films in which the c­ ouple share a mutual talent or love for hip hop, such as Junction 48, have increased in the 2010s. Hip hop dancing also remains popu­lar, as shown in Sài gòn yo and Born to Dance. Morris from Amer­i­ca focuses again on the outsider theme, this time more lightheartedly as a fish-­out-­of-­water comedy. What remains clear in this de­cade is that global hip hop films are strongly inspired by American ones, though they are increasingly giving a stronger sense of place as identity. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Breakdancing; Filmmaking (Documentaries); Filmmaking (Feature Films Made in the United States); Hip Hop Dance

Further Reading

Bluher, Dominique. 2001. “Hip Hop Cinema in France.” Camera Obscura 16, no. 1: 77–96. Orlando, Valerie. 2003. “From Rap to Raï in the Mixing Bowl: Beur Hip Hop Culture and Banlieue Cinema in Urban France.” Journal of Popu­lar Culture 36, no. 3: 395–416. Shary, Timothy, and Alexandra Seibel. 2007. Youth Culture in Global Cinema. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Finland Finland is a Nordic Scandinavian country with a population that is majority Finnish (followed by Finland-­Swedes and other minority populations). Hip hop, called Suomiräp (Suomârâp in Sámi) or just Räp (Râp), emerged in Finland in the mid1980s; however, popu­lar ­music preferences leaned ­toward rock, pop, heavy metal, and experimental metal. Though many early Finnish rappers rapped in En­glish, ­later rappers have used mainly the Finnish language, though Helsinki slang and dialects have made their way into the ­music. Although the first recorded Finnish rap song was General Njassa’s (Jyrki Leo Jantunen, n.d.) “I’m Young, Beautiful and Natu­ral” (1983) and pioneer humorous rap group Raptori (1989–) was founded in Hyvinkää six years ­later, Finnish rap did not catch on ­until the 2000s. Raptori’s first a­ lbum, Moe!, sold over 80,000 copies. Most Finnish ­people reside in the capital, Helsinki, or other southern cities such as Tampere, Oulu, and Turku. The national languages of Finland are Finnish and Swedish, with Swedish being taught to most Finns at an early age. A much less common recognized language is Sámi, spoken not only by the Inari Sámi ­people

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in North Finland but also by the Sámi p­ eople in Norway, Sweden, and Rus­sia. Traditional Finnish ­music includes Karelian songs about Finnish heroic my­thol­ogy (for example, Runonlaulanta, a kind of chanting called poem singing), Nordic folksongs with Scandinavian influence (such as Pelimanni ­music played first on fiddle and clarinet, then on harmonium and accordion), Germanic or Swedish ballads called Rekilaulu (sleigh songs), and Sámi ­music (spiritual songs known as Jolk). Finland also has an established history of classical m ­ usic, most notably producing composers such as Jean Sibelius (Johan Julius Christian Sibelius, 1865–1957), Yrjö Kilpinen (1892–1959), and Esa-­Pekka Salonen (1958–). Nationalist tendencies favored folk and classical ­music ­until the 1930s, but by the 1940s, light popu­lar songs called Iskelmä (meaning hits) ­were being played on the radio, followed by American rock in the 1950s. The late 1990s saw the emergence of the Helsinki duo Fintelligens (1997–), the most successful hip hop band in Finland, which released three highly successful ­albums and cofounded the rec­ord label Rähinä Rec­ords (2003–). Other popu­lar rap artists included Asa (aka Avain, Matti Salo, 1980–) and Paleface (Karri Pekka Matias Miettinen, 1978–), who both wrote socially conscious lyr­ics; Ruudolf (Rudy Frans Kulmala, 1983–), known for downbeat ­music, calm delivery, freestyle skills, and self-­improvement lyr­ics; ex-­Fintelligens rapper and producer Elastinen (Kimmo Ilpo Juhani Laiho, 1981–); rapper Cheek (Jare Henrik Tiihonen, 1981–), who has released nine ­albums; Stig (Pasi Siitonen, 1978–), a crossover act between hip hop, R&B, and country ­music; and rap crew Notkea Rotta (2001–), which infuses its lyr­ics with comedy. Inari-­based Amoc, an acronym for Aanaar Master of Ceremony (Mikkâl Antti Morottaja, 1984–), raps in Sámi. As of 2018, the Finnish rap scene is divided between underground and mainstream acts, the former opting for more socially conscious rap. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith and Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Sweden

Further Reading

Leppänen, Sirpa, and Sari Pietikäinen. 2010. “Urban Rap Goes to Arctic Lapland: Breaking through and Saving the Endangered Inari Sámi Language.” In Language and the Market, edited by Helen Kelly-­Holmes and Gerlinde Mautner, chap. 12. Basingstoke, E ­ ngland: Palgrave Macmillan. Tervo, Mervi. 2014. “From Appropriation to Translation: Localizing Rap ­Music to Finland.” Popu­lar ­Music and Society 37, no. 2: 169–86.

Further Listening

Amoc. 2007. Amok-­kaččam. Tuupa Rec­ords. Fintelligens. 2008. Lisää (More). Rähinä Rec­ords.

Five ­Percent Nation (1964–­, Harlem, New York) The Five ­Percent Nation is an Islamic organ­ization that is sometimes also referred to as the Nation of Gods and Earths. It was founded by a former member of the



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Nation of Islam, Clarence 13X (Clarence Edward Smith, 1928–1969), in the early 1960s, and in its early years it comprised mostly other former Nation of Islam (1930–) members. The term Five Percenters, as prac­ti­tion­ers are called, refers to the belief that the world’s population is divided into three categories: the first and largest group (85 ­percent) are ignorant of both themselves and God; the second group (10 ­percent) are the elite who know the truth but do not share it with ­others, lying to the 85 ­percent in order to benefit themselves; the third group (5 ­percent) comprises ­those who know the truth and seek to educate and enlighten the ignorant 85 ­percent. They also refer to themselves as the Poor Righ­teous Teachers, whose spiritual responsibility is to teach o­ thers the doctrine of their faith. Five Percenter men are referred to as Gods and Five Percenter ­women as Earths, which gave rise to the more recent name for the organ­ization, Nation of Gods and Earths. Five Percenters believe that God and the universe can be understood through science and mathe­matics. Like the Nation of Islam, Five P ­ ercent Nation theology posits that the original race consisted of black-­ and brown-­skinned ­people and that all other races are descended from them. Members of the Nation of Islam and Five Percenters believe that God is a man but differ on who that man is. Nation of Islam members believe that their organ­ization’s founder, Wallace Fard Muhammad (Wallace Dodd Fard, 1877–1934*), is Allah reincarnate. Clarence 13X rejected this idea, claiming that ­because Fard was most likely Arab and not black, he could not be Allah, since it is the black man that is God personified. The Five ­Percent Nation shares most of their doctrine with the Nation of Islam, including the style of passing on doctrine through lessons that students, or initiates, learn by rote memorization through a series of questions and answers. The first two lessons that the Five Percenters use differ from ­those of the Nation of Islam and are called the “Science of Supreme Mathe­matics” and the “Supreme Alphabet.” The Five Percenter lessons end with another additional set, called “Solar Facts,” which are also unique to them. Together ­these three lessons emphasize the role of science and numerology in Five Percenter doctrine. In the Science of Supreme Mathe­matics, each number is given a symbolic meaning (for example, 1 = Knowledge, 2 = Wisdom, 0 = Cipher), as is each letter in the Supreme Alphabet (A = Allah, G = God, U = You or Universe). Five Percenters use the Science of Supreme Mathe­matics and the Supreme Alphabet to explain God and the universe and to share knowledge with the unenlightened.

ROLE IN HIP HOP Five Percenters have played an influential role in hip hop from its earliest days. During the mid-1970s, they gained a reputation for being peacekeepers at hip hop parties, keeping rival gang activity away from events and allowing performers such as DJ Kool Herc (1955–) to focus on ­music and dancing. Many artists openly claimed affiliation or membership with the group, and during the late 1980s into the 1990s, as socially conscious rap gained traction and some commercial success, artists such as Rakim (1968–), of Eric B. and Rakim (1986–1993), and Chuck D (1960–), of Public

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­ nemy (1982–), brought teachings from the Five ­Percent Nation to black AmeriE can youth through their ­music. Brand Nubian (1989–), Wu-­Tang Clan (1992–), Poor Righ­teous Teachers (1989–1996), Big D ­ addy Kane (1968–), Nas (1973–), Mos Def (1973–), Gang Starr (1986–2006), the Roots (1987–), and Erykah Badu (1971–) are all artists or groups who are ­either former or current members of the Five ­Percent Nation and/or have referenced Five Percenter ideology in their m ­ usic. Musicologist Felicia Miyakawa identifies four main tools through which hip hop artists disseminate Five Percenter theology: lyr­ics; flow, layering, and rupture; sampling and musical borrowing; and ­album packaging and organ­ization (p. 37). For example, some rappers use Supreme Mathe­matics and/or the Supreme Alphabet to embed their lyr­ics with references to Five Percenter lessons and teachings. In “Soul Controller,” for instance, Brand Nubian’s ­G rand Puba (Maxwell Dixon, 1966–) refers to Supreme Mathe­matics when he raps about terms such as “Knowledge Cipher,” “Power,” and “Wisdom” and associates each with numerology. He also refers to Five Percenter ideology earlier in the song, when he offers peace to all the Gods and Earths. Additionally, he observes the power of being black, noting that the black man comes first. Lauron Jockwig Kehrer See also: Big D ­ addy Kane; Black Nationalism; Brand Nubian; Chuck D; Eric B. and Rakim; Erykah Badu; Gang Starr; Mos Def; Nas; Nation of Islam; Poor Righ­teous Teachers; The Roots; The United States; Wu-­Tang Clan

Further Reading

Hakeem Grewal, Sara. 2013. “Intra-­and Interlingual Translation in Blackamerican Muslim Hip Hop.” African American Review 46, no. 1: 37–54. Miyakawa, Felicia. 2005. Five Percenter Rap: God Hop’s ­Music, Message, and Black Muslim Mission. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Flavor Flav (aka Flav, William Jonathan Drayton Jr., 1959–­, Long Island, New York) Flavor Flav is an American rapper, comic actor, restaurateur, and real­ity tele­vi­sion show personality who was the first and quin­tes­sen­tial hype man in early American rap, when he served in that capacity for Public ­Enemy (1982–). As a multi-­ instrumentalist, he plays piano, guitar, bass, saxophone, clarinet, drums, and percussion. He got his start with Chuck D (1960–), who cofounded and then fronted Public ­Enemy. Flavor Flav’s role was to provide comic relief and color for the band’s per­for­mances, which he would do through exaggerated, elongated yells such as his benchmark “Yeah boy!” ­After a successful run with Public ­Enemy, he had ­legal and financial trou­bles, spent time in jail, and ended up living in a small Brooklyn apartment, only to resurface not as a rapper but as a comic personality in vari­ous VH1 (1985–) real­ity series. On the advice of MC Hammer (1962–), Flavor Flav appeared in the third season of Surreal Life (aka The Surreal Life, 2003–2006), the short-­lived Strange Love (2005), and the hit Flavor of Love (2006–2008). He is best known as the hype

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man, appearing publicly in oversized, brightly colored caps turned sideways, top hats, Viking horns and crowns, oversized plastic glasses, and a wall clock dangling on a chain from his neck. He typically wore brightly colored tracksuits; large neon jackets or, conversely, dark gang jackets; or unnaturally brightly colored ties and tails. He would also jump around or dance outrageously on stage. As a five-­year-­old, he started teaching himself piano and was recognized as a musical prodigy, singing and playing piano, drums, and guitar. Unfortunately, he was also extremely mischievous, accidentally setting a ­house on fire. By his ju­nior year of high school, he had been in jail; he dropped out of school. ­After straightening out his life, he began attending Adelphi University and met Chuck D. The duo became friends and coworkers, working for Chuck D’s ­father, and collaborated on Chuck D’s hip hop college radio show, then began rapping. The two cofounded Public ­Enemy in 1982, and the group released a track, “Public ­Enemy #1,” which caught Def Jam Rec­ords’ (1983–) Rick Rubin’s (Frederick Jay Rubin, 1963–) attention and was released by Def Jam in 1987. The two, as Public ­Enemy, ­were signed to Def Jam in 1986, even though Rubin originally wanted Chuck D as a solo act. The band’s first ­album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show (1987), included “Public ­Enemy #1” (as “Public ­Enemy No. 1”) and made it clear that Flavor Flav was essential as Chuck D’s comic relief, to better sell his serious, urgent rapping style. Public ­Enemy’s next ­album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988), was certified double Platinum, and the Spike Lee–­ commissioned single “Fight the Power” (1989) made Chuck D and Flavor Flav ­house­hold names, the latter serving as the band’s public face and promotional voice. As a rapper, Flavor Flav usually rapped higher harmonies to Chuck D’s lead, but he was given a few rap leads, on songs such as “911 Is a Joke,” from the classic ­album Fear of a Black Planet (1999). In 2006, he released his only solo ­album, Flavor Flav. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Chuck D; Flavor Flav; Public ­Enemy; The United States

Further Reading

Grierson, Tim. 2015. Public E ­ nemy: Inside the Terrordome. London: Omnibus Press. Radford, Benjamin. 2016. “Bad Clowns of the Song.” In Bad Clowns, chap. 7. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

France France is a Western Eu­ro­pean presidential republic that includes overseas regions and territories such as French Guiana (South Amer­i­ca) and several ocean islands, adding up to a total population of 67 million p­ eople, many of whom live in its urban centers: Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, and Bordeaux. French hip hop had emerged by 1983, following the New York City Rap Tour that traveled to France and ­England. French rappers and DJs such as David Guetta (Pierre David Guetta, 1967–), Lionel D (Lionel Eguienta, 1959–), and French Senegalese–­Chadian MC Solaar (1969–), who had moved to France in 1970 and became the first certified-­ Platinum French hip hop artist, imported the ­music style from New York City; it soon became an underground-­scene m ­ usic.

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France’s ­music exemplifies diversity: classical, romantic, folk, popu­lar, chanson, and cabaret styles are found throughout the country. In 1857, Paris-­based Édouard-­ Léon Scott de Martinville (1817–1879) patented the earliest-­known sound-­recording device, the phonautograph. The country’s m ­ usic industry has produced many internationally renowned artists. Notated French ­music dates back to the 10th ­century with the Notre Dame School of composers and the songs of troubadours and trouvères, continuing on through Western art ­music history with the ars nova and Burgundian Schools of composers and beyond. M ­ usic ranges from concert m ­ usic during the Baroque era through the postmodern era to vari­ous region-­specific folk and popu­lar styles such as the chanson and electronica. Traditional instrumentation includes the bagpipe, the hurdy-­gurdy, the accordion, the lute, the mandolin, and vari­ous horns. Between France and Spain live the Basques, an indigenous ethnic group whose improvised poetry as bards expressed the concerns of the ­people and was critical to Basque culture. Another ethnic group, Corsicans from the Mediterranean island of Corsica (a territorial collectivity of France), developed monophonic and polyphonic songs as well, the last with intricate harmonies that led to improvised polyphonic singing. T ­ hese polyphonic songs nearly went out of practice ­until the 1970s, when they ­were revived for the purpose of stressing Corsican national identity as well as po­liti­cal protest for Corsican in­de­pen­dence. Throughout the 20th ­century, benchmark French singers included Édith Piaf (Édith Giovanna Gassion, 1915–1963), Juliette Gréco (1927–), Mireille Mathieu (1946–), Gilbert Bécaud (François Gilbert Léopold Silly, 1927–2001), and Charles Aznavour (Shahnour Vaghinag Aznavourian, 1924–). During the 1970s, new artists modernized the chanson française ­u ntil it became the nouvelle chanson, which opened the door for rock and pop ­music, including punk and electronic dance, setting the stage for French ­house ­music in the late 1990s with bands such as Paris-­based Daft Punk (1993–). Earlier, Moroccan-­born French composer, singer-­songwriter, arranger, and producer Jacques Morali (1947–1991) and French producer Henri Belolo (1936–) founded the internationally successful dance band the Village P ­ eople (1977–1985, 1987–) in the United States. Since the early 1980s, France has had one of the largest hip hop markets, including zouk, bouyon, and raï ­musics produced and purchased in Martinique, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and parts of Africa. In 1984, French rapper, DJ, and producer Dee Nasty (Daniel Bigeault, 1960–) released the rap a­ lbum Paname City Rappin’, and in 1991, MC Solaar’s Qui sème le vent récolte le tempo became a hit (the title is a pun of the French translation of the Biblical proverb from Hosea 8:7, Qui séme le vent récolte la tempête, meaning “He who sows the wind reaps the whirlwind”). Around 1983, hip hop radio shows began to be heard in Paris. Guadeloupean DJ Sidney (Patrick Duteil, 1955–) began hosting the show Rapper Dapper Snapper, and ­later in 1984, he hosted the show H.I.P. H.O.P. (1984), becoming the first black man in France to host a weekly tele­vi­sion show. Meanwhile, Dee Nasty hosted Funk à Billy, and by 1987 he was well received at the DMC World DJ Championships. Although some French hip hop is informed by a mellow, downtempo style, hardcore rap performers are also popu­lar. The group Assassin (1985–2006) is a hardcore rap

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Assuming their robot personas, Paris-­based French house-­music duo Daft Punk stand next to Beyoncé at the Tidal launch event, which took place in 2015 at Skylight at Moynihan Station in New York City. Like Beyoncé and her husband Jay-­Z , Daft Punk was identified as one of several artist co-­owners of the ­music streaming ser­vice. (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Roc Nation)

act that began in the underground scene ­doing sociopo­liti­cal rap. Suprême NTM (aka NTM, 1989–2001, 2008–), which has infused some of its songs with soul and reggae beats, performs violent, gangsta-­style antipolice, antiracist rap. Marseille-­ based IAM (1989–) performs pro-­Africa, pro-­immigrant ­music with an Egyptian flair; its 1997 ­album L’école du micro d’argent (The School of Microphone Money) received Platinum certification. Many hardcore rappers set themselves up in opposition to what they considered to be a sellout mainstream style. ­These include multi-­Platinum-­status rapper Booba (Elie Yaffa, 1976–), Africa-­and Caribbean-­born hip hop group 113 (1999–2010), Madagascar-­born rapper Rohff (aka Roh2f, Housni Mkouboi, 1977–), four-­man rap group La Rumeur (1995–), Paris-­based hip hop duo Lunatic (1994–2003), and Moroccan-­born rapper Kamelanc’ (aka Kamelancien, Kamel Jdayni Houari, 1980–). More mainstream rappers include Kery James (aka ­Daddy Kery, Alix Mathurin, 1977–), Médine (Medine Zaouiche, 1983–), Youssoupha (Youssoupha Mabiki, 1979–), and Fonky ­Family (1994–2007). Guadeloupe-­born to Haitian parents, Kery James is a rapper and singer-­songwriter as well as a hip hop dancer and rec­ord producer. He is also part of French hip hop and rap collective Mafia K-1 Fry (1995–). Kabyle (Algerian) rapper Médine is a Muslim rapper whose songs tend to the po­liti­ cal, protesting poverty, oppression, and religious persecution. Congo-­born Youssoupha is the son of musician and Congo-­Kinshasa po­liti­cal figure Tabu Ley Rochereau

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(Pascal-­Emmanuel Sinamoyi Tabu, 1937–2013). Marseille-­based group Fonky ­Family was one of the original French hip hop bands of the early 1990s. Overall, French hip hop m ­ usic has evolved from being imitative of Americans to ­music that infuses cultural and ethnic traditions. For example, African-­based French hip hop artists write songs about African poverty and use African instruments such as the kora, balafon, ngoni, djembe, gwo ka drums, and bèlè drums; French Antilles hip hop is infused with Ca­rib­bean themes and rhythms. In addition to m ­ usic, France has a vibrant b-­boy and b-­girl scene, including champions such as Lilou (Ali Ramdani, 1984–), an Algerian French member of the all-­star LEGION X (n.d.) crew, and popping expert Salah (aka Spider Salah, Salah Benlemqawanssa, 1979–), who infuses animation, boogaloo, and effects into his style. Breakdancing emerged in the early 1980s with the Paris City Breakers (1981–), and DJ Duteil made France the first country to broadcast a tele­vi­sion series with a focus on b-­boying. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Algeria; Belgium; Breakdancing; Egypt; Guadeloupe; Haiti; Martinique; MC Solaar; Paris City Breakers; Tijoux, Ana

Further Reading

Bretillon, Chong J. 2014. “ ‘Ma face vanille’: White Rappers, ‘Black ­Music,’ and Race in France.” International Journal of Francophone Studies 17, nos. 3–4: 421–43. Hammou, Karim. 2016. “Mainstreaming French Rap ­Music: Commodification and Artistic Legitimation of Othered Cultural Goods.” Poetics 59: 67–81.

Further Listening

Fonky F ­ amily. 2006. Marginale musique (Marginal ­Music). Sony BMG ­ Music Entertainment. Suprême NTM. 1998. Suprême NTM. Epic. Youssoupha. 2015. NGRTD (aka Négritude). Bomayé Musik.

Franti, Michael (1966–­, Oakland, California) Michael Franti is an American rapper, spoken-­word artist, guitarist, and singer-­ songwriter known for his sociopo­liti­cal lyr­ics and strong stance for ­Middle East peace and nonviolence in general. He leads the hip hop, funk, reggae, jazz, folk, and rock band Michael Franti and Spearhead (aka Spearhead, 1994–) and participates in other proj­ect bands such as Beatnigs (1986–1990), a San Francisco–­based industrial and punk spoken-­word band that used a dancer and percussionist, and the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy (1990–1993), a fusion band that performed hip hop rhythms with industrial ­music. With Michael Franti and Spearhead, he had four a­ lbums chart in the Billboard 200, with The Sound of Sunshine (2010) peaking at No. 17. Franti is also an environmental activist and a promoter of African education and veganism. In 2001, he was awarded the Domestic ­Human Rights Award by Global Exchange (1988–), an international NGO (nongovernmental association) based in



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San Francisco, for his work to end war. Franti’s musical style can best be described as acoustic guitar-­based indie that fuses hip hop and African or world beats. He usually sings in a laid-­back style, and his raps take the form of carefully articulated spoken-­word phrases. Franti was born to an interracial ­couple, but ­because his ­mother feared her ­family’s racism, she put him up for adoption. A Finnish American ­couple with four ­children, including an ­adopted African American son, ­adopted Franti. His ­family moved briefly to Canada, then back to San Francisco. Franti started writing poetry in high school and formed two bands, but his big break came when the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy was picked by U2 (1976–) to open for their Zoo TV Tour (1992). The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy then collaborated with American spoken-­word artist and writer William S. Burroughs (1914–1997) on the ­album Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales (1993). Franti then formed Spearhead in San Francisco. Rather than continuing with po­liti­cal rap, Franti switched to funk and soul ­music and signed with Capitol Rec­ ords (1942–) for two a­ lbums before changing the band’s name to Michael Franti and Spearhead and creating its own label, Boo Boo Wax (2000–). With the ­album Stay ­Human (2000), Franti began writing sociopo­liti­cal lyr­ics again, with an emphasis on capital punishment, mass media monopolization, the prison-­industrial complex, and corporate globalization. The band’s songs have been used in tele­vi­sion, film, and video games. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Franti, Michael. 1997. “Discovering Rasta Roots by Way of New Zealand.” In Inside the ­Music: Conversations with Con­temporary Musicians about Spirituality, Creativity, and Consciousness, edited by Dimitri Ehrlich, chap. 9. Boston: Shambhala. Franti, Michael. 2006. Food for the Masses: Lyr­ics and Portraits. San Rafael, CA: Insight Editions. Odell, Michael. 2001. “­You’re Tuned to Death Row: Hip Hop Hero Michael Franti Has Made a Concept ­Album about Capital Punishment. He Tells Micheal Odell Why.” The Guardian, April 30, 2.10.

Further Listening

Michael Franti and Spearhead. 2010. The Sound of Sunshine. Boo Boo Wax.

Frosty Freeze (aka The Freeze to Please, Mr. Freeze, Wayne Frost, 1963–2008, Bronx, New York) Frosty Freeze is a b-­boy hip hop dancer associated with Rock Steady Crew (RSC, 1977–), an American old-­school breakdancing group from his home city, the Bronx, New York. His style was comedic and acrobatic, and often incorporated extremely dangerous flips and dance moves such as his signature moves—­what he called the

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Dead Man Drop, in which he dropped directly onto his back from one leg, and the Suicide, in which he flipped in the air and landed flat on his back. Both ­were usually followed by a kip-up or a series of semi-­kip-­ups (a rising handspring ­either from a fully supine or prone or partially supine or prone position that is often prepared in the fully supine position by rolling forward to gain speed). Generally, he concentrated on rapid footwork (floor rock) and balance in his jumpstyle and shuffle repertoire, incorporating moves from the traditional Cossack dance as well. Since b-­boy dance phrases end with a freeze, Frost nicknamed himself Frosty Freeze. Frosty Freeze was featured in the American films Flashdance, Wild Style, Style Wars (all 1983), and The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-­Boy (2002), as well as hip hop ­music videos for Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force’s (1980–2003) “Planet Rock” (1982), where he breakdances against an urban background, and Malcolm McLaren’s (1946–2010) “Buffalo Gals” (1982), which featured hip hop fused with square dance. In 1981, he was also pictured on the cover of The Village Voice (the article was titled “Physical Graffiti: Breaking Is Hard to Do”)—­the first article written on b-­boying. In 2004, the RSC was honored at the VH-1 Hip Hop Honors. In 2008, Frosty Freeze died unexpectedly from an undisclosed illness. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Breakdancing; Hip Hop Dance; Rock Steady Crew; The United States

Further Reading

Banes, Sally, and Martha Cooper. 1981. “Physical Graffiti: Breaking Is Hard to Do.” Village Voice, April 22, 31–33. Fuhrer, Margaret. 2014. “Urban and Commercial Dance.” In American Dance: The Complete Illustrated History, chap. 10. Minneapolis, MN: Voyageur Press. Schloss, Joseph G. 2009. Foundation: B-­Boys, B-­Girls, and Hip Hop Culture in New York. New York: Oxford University Press.

Further Viewing

Lee, Benson, dir. 2007. Planet B-­Boy. New York: ­Mental Pictures.

Fugees (1992–1997, South Orange, New Jersey) Fugees was an American group that fused hip hop with reggae and neo soul. It was best known for the ­album The Score (1996), which hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200, was certified sextuple Platinum, and won a Grammy for Best Rap ­Album. The Score also consists of Fugees’ hip hop rendition of “Killing Me Softly (with His Song)” (1971), composed by Charles Fox (1940–) and Norman Gimbel (1927–), which was a hit in 1974 for soul singer Roberta Flack (1939–). This rendition won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Per­for­mance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Fugees included American singer-­songwriter Lauryn Hill (Lauryn Noelle Hill, 1975–), Haitian singer-­rapper Wyclef Jean (Nel Ust Wyclef Jean, 1969–), and American rapper-­songwriter-­producer Pras (Prakazrel Samuel Michél, 1972–).

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At the height of its ­career with The Score (1996), Fugees was one of the earliest hip hop acts to have success with fusing hip hop with reggae and neo soul in the United States. The Grammy Award–­winning trio consisted of rapper-­songwriter-­producer Pras, singer-­songwriter Lauryn Hill, and singer-­songwriter and rapper Wyclef Jean. (Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images)

While attending Columbia High School (1989–1993) in Maplewood, New Jersey, Hill met Pras (Prakazrel Michel, 1972–) and formed Tranzlator Crew (aka Rap Translators, 1989–1997). Pras introduced Hill to his cousin Wyclef Jean, who joined the group. In 1993, the trio recorded demos and signed on the Ruff­house Rec­ords label (1989–1999, 2012–). The trio changed its name to Fugees, inspired by the derogatory name given to Haitian Americans. In addition to its name change, the group shifted musical direction from pop and R&B to hip hop for its debut studio ­album, Blunted on Real­ity, on which it explored message rap, some po­liti­cal hip hop, jazz rap, and neo soul. Difficulties between the group and Ruff­house began to emerge. Although the ­album was recorded in 1992, it was not released ­until two years ­later. Though it received a mostly favorable reception, Blunted on Real­ity’s best-­charting position was at No. 62 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums, with its top single, “Nappy Heads,” peaking at No. 49 on the Billboard Hot 100. Despite Blunted on Real­ity’s lack of success, Ruff­house Rec­ords gave Fugees an advance that would enable it to rec­ord a second ­album in a relaxed atmosphere. The group purchased studio equipment and set up recording in Wyclef Jean’s ­uncle’s basement, which members called the “Booga Basement.” Fugees’ second and final ­album, The Score, featured the group at its best, fusing hip hop, dubstep, and reggae. In addition to “Killing Me Softly,” the ­album featured a rendition of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ (1963–1981) reggae classic “No ­Woman No Cry” (1974). Another

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rendition, the Delfonics’ (1965–) R&B and soul song “Ready or Not ­Here I Come (­Can’t Hide from Love)” (1968), appeared on the ­album with a sample from Irish new age composer Enya’s (1961–) “Boadicea” (1987). The sample was taken without Enya’s credit, so Enya threatened lawsuit; however, the dispute was quickly settled when Enya realized the group did not comprise of gangsta rappers and that she would receive songwriter credit and royalties from the use of the sample. In addition, the sample-­heavy ­album was full of memorable melodic hooks that appealed to the mainstream public.

BREAKUP AND SOLO EFFORTS Despite success, the group disbanded in 1997. Hill began to pursue her successful solo ­career and her solo ­album; The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998) made her the first female artist to win five Grammys in one night. The ­album’s lyr­ics touched on her strained relationship with Fugees and on her everyday strug­gles. This strained relationship included a turbulent romantic relationship between Hill and Wyclef Jean; creative differences between Hill, Wyclef Jean, and Pras; an initial lack of support from other members for her solo endeavor (by the time Jean offered to produce her ­album, Hill turned him down); and outside ­factors such as the stress of per­for­mance schedules and ­handling notoriety. Wyclef Jean and Pras also continued with solo endeavors. The former’s debut ­album The Carnival (1997) was certified double Platinum, and his follow-up ­album The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Book (2000) was certified Platinum. His third studio ­album, Masquerade (2002), peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200, and a string of critically and commercially successful a­ lbums followed, including Welcome to Haiti: Creole 101 (2004), a world ­music ­album in En­glish, French, Haitian Creole, and Latin, and the concept ­album From the Hut, to the Proj­ects, to the Mansion (2009). He has collaborated with many artists, including participating in the production of Latin rock band Santana’s (1966–) Grammy Award–­winning ­album Super­natural (1999) and making an appearance as a featured rapper in Latin pop singer Shakira’s (1977–) “Hips D ­ on’t Lie” (2007). He has also appeared in several films, most notably in Carmen: A Hip Hopera (2001, United States) and Black November (2012, Nigeria). Meanwhile, Wyclef Jean became po­liti­cally active, filing for candidacy in 2010 in the Haitian presidential election and getting involved in philanthropic efforts for Haiti. His latest a­ lbum is Carnival III: The Fall and Rise of a Refugee (2017), which peaked at No. 112 on the Billboard 200 and No. 8 on Billboard’s Rap A ­ lbum Sales but was critically unsuccessful. Pras’s first solo studio ­album, Ghetto Supastar (1998), peaked at No. 55 on the Billboard 200 and charted internationally. The title track, featuring Mýa (Mýa Marie Harrison, 1979–) and Wu-­Tang Clan’s (1992–) Ol’ Dirty Bastard (aka ODB, Russell Tyrone Jones, 1968–2004), peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. He released a second ­album, Win, Lose, or Draw (2005), but since 1999, Pras has pursued acting and film production. Some of his acting credits include the American films Mystery Men (1999), Go for Broke (2002), Nora’s Hair Salon (2004), and The Mutant Chronicles (2007). His film production work includes full-­length films and

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documentaries. The latter includes Paper Dreams (2009), about real-­life piracy off the coast of Africa, and Sweet Micky for President (2015), which chronicles compas (dance ­music) musician Michel Martelly’s (1961–) rise to the Haitian presidency. An attempt at a Fugees reunion took place between 2004 and 2006; however, the experience drew members further apart. Despite its small output, the Fugees’ ­albums and tours influenced other hip hop artists. Though other parts of the world have warmly received the fusion of rap and reggae, this kind of fusion had to compete with harder-­sounding East Coast and West Coast rap in the United States. To its credit, Fugees w ­ ere successful in popularizing this fusion sound. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Haiti; Hill, Lauryn; Neo Soul; Reggae; The United States

Further Reading

Hardy, Ernest. 2003. “Fugees: The Score; Wyclef Jean: The Carnival; Lauryn Hill: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” In Classical Material: The Hip Hop ­Album Guide, edited by Oliver Wang, pp. 74–77. Toronto: ECW Press. Lipsitz, George. 2006. “Breaking the Silence: The Fugees and The Score.” Journal of Haitian Studies 12, no. 1: 4–23.

Further Listening

Fugees. 1994. Blunted on Real­ity. Ruff­house Rec­ords. Fugees. 1996. The Score. Columbia Ruff­house Rec­ords.

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G Gabon Gabon is a Central African country located on the western coast (the Gulf of Guinea) and on the equator. In 1960, Gabon gained its in­de­pen­dence from France and became a dominant-­party presidential republic. Since then, politics and m ­ usic have often become intertwined. In 1986, the second wife of Gabon’s second president, Omar Bongo (1935–2009, in office 1973–2009), Josephine Bongo (1944–), divorced him and resumed her Afropop and soukous singing ­career as Patience Dabany. Dabany eventually toured in 2004 with legendary American funk singer-­songwriter, dancer, and bandleader James Brown (1933–2006) in Eu­rope. The Bongos’ son, current President Ali Bongo Ondimba (1959–­, in office 2009–), as Alain Bongo released the funk and soul ­album A Brand New Man (1977). His 2009 presidential campaign strategy included rapping onstage as Le Candidat des Jeunes (The Candidate of Youth), releasing “Paroles aux jeunes” (“Words to Young ­People”) with the En­glish title “Youth, Have Your Say.” Ondimba’s victory was also the result of m ­ usic industry and hip hop involvement: in 2005, the ­music label Eben Entertainment (2002–) motivated youth to vote with its campaign “Bouge ton vote” (“Get Your Vote Moving”). Gabonese rappers Ba’Ponga (Franck Stéphane Dibault, n.d.), Jojo (Moussirou Josias Ariel, 1995–), Tina (aka Miss Tina, Chirstine Mboumba, 1989–), Hay’oe (1990s*), and Kôbe Building (aka Black Kôba, Ndong Ronny, 1979–) supported and campaigned for Ondimba. By the late 1980s, American and French hip hop, in addition to the Cameroonian makossa and soukous (Congolese rumba), had become popu­lar in Gabon on both global and local hip hop air on Libreville radio stations such as Radio Africa No. 1 (1981–) and ­later 104.5 Urban FM (2010–). Preferred rapping texts are in French and Fang with some En­glish, reflecting Gabon’s official and common language, French, and its dominant national language, Fang. Not only does the government sponsor hip hop artists and concerts, but it also uses hip hop for po­liti­cal messages such as unity, youth encouragement, self-­improvement, and societal improvement; however, pioneering Gabonese hip hop took place not in Gabon, but in Paris. Omar Bongo’s nephew Klaus (Gervais Mpouho, n.d.) and his hip hop group V2A4 (Vis Tout et Fort, Live Out Loud, 1990s*) released African Revolution (1989), a studio ­album that criticized African dictatorships, including Klaus’s ­uncle’s regime ­because he exercised despotlike powers and ­because Gabon, though the fourth-­wealthiest country in Africa ­because of oil, suffers from tremendous economic disparity. Hip hop acts of the 1990s include the duo Movaizhaleine (1992–), the female rapper and R&B singer Naneth (Nanette Pauline Nkoghé, 1974–), Hay’oe, and

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Ba’Ponga. ­Later acts include Masta Kudi (Claude Mboumba, n.d.), Secta’a (1998–), Auréli1 (aka TIGA, Aurélien Tigalekou, 1990–), Communauté Black (1999–), Lomé, Togo-­based SIH (Son Injecté Hardcore, Sound-­Injected Hardcore, 2002*–), and Kôbe Building. Having grown up in Gabon and France, hardcore po­liti­cal rapper Kôbe Building focuses on government corruption and antidrug messages. He uses his m ­ usic for fundraising to support orphanages and prevent child prostitution and trafficking. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Cameroon; France; The United States

Further Reading

Aterianus-­Owanga, Alice. 2015. “ ‘Orality Is My Real­ity’: The Identity Stakes of the ‘Oral’ Creation in Libreville Hip Hop Practices.” Journal of African Cultural Studies 27, no. 2: 146–58. Auzanneau, Michelle. 2002. “Rap in Libreville, Gabon: An Urban Sociolinguistic Space,” translated by Ralph Schoolcraft. In Black, Blan, Beur: Rap ­Music and Hip Hop Culture in the Francophone World, edited by Alain-­Philippe Durand, chap. 9. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow.

Further Listening

Ba’Ponga. 2016. Best of Ba’Ponga. Eben Entertainment.

The Gambia The Gambia is (except for its coastline on the Atlantic Ocean) a West African country that is entirely surrounded by Senegal. In 1965, it gained its in­de­pen­dence from the United Kingdom, but has since experienced po­liti­cal unrest, government corruption, and a weakened economy. Musically, the Gambia shares interests with Senegal: popu­lar ­music includes their own mbalax as well as Dominican merengue and Jamaican reggae, ragga, and dancehall. Like Senegal, the Gambia has an eight-­century history of griot culture with storytelling praise-­singers. Senegalese hip hop inspired Gambian hip hop, and both employ storytelling or message rap, fusing hip hop with reggae, ragga, and dancehall in addition to mbalax, Hispanic American salsa, and other kinds of traditional m ­ usic. Initially, the Gambia kept its ties as a Commonwealth of Nations (1949–) member state that recognized ­Great Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II (1926–­, reign 1952–) as queen of the Gambia. In 1970, it became the Republic of The Gambia, but an unsuccessful coup attempt in 1981 resulted in the Senegambia Confederation (1982–1989) as a unification effort. Fi­nally, a 1994 Gambian coup d’état ­under Yahya Jammeh (1965–), chair of the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council, led to a 2015 name change for the country, to Islamic Republic of The Gambia. In 2017, the newly elected President Adama Barrow (1965–) returned the name to Republic of The Gambia. Gambian hip hop began around 1995, when Gambia Radio and Tele­vi­sion Ser­ vices was established and began broadcasting global hip hop from the capital city, Banjul, and the two largest cities, Serekunda and Brikama. Gambian lyrical themes include peace (antiwar), God (Allah), love, and tolerance, and rappers are critical of government corruption, which has led to poverty and prostitution. Rapping texts

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are in Wolof (also spoken in Senegal) and En­glish; Mandinka is used but rarely. Performing ragga-­rap, Black Nature (1995–) was the Gambia’s first rap group. Another early act was the Gambian-Senegalese band Pencha B (aka Pencha Bi, Penchabi, 1996*–), whose lyr­ics stood out for the use of folklore and whose sound included traditional instruments such as the kora, djembe, balafong, and xylophone. Other early acts ­were Da Fugitivz (1997–), Dancehall Masters (1998–), and Masla Bi (1998–). Originally from Banjul, Da Fugitivz moved to Stockholm, though the crew still raps in En­glish and Wolof. Also from Banjul but now based in London, the reggae group Born Africans (1998–) employed rap and had several hit songs such as “No More War” (2001) and “Praises” (2002). Recent acts have had more diverse lyrical content; subgenres such as rap-­mbalax have emerged. Two rap-­mbalax acts are Gee (Gibril Bala Gaye, 1987–) and VYPA (Amadou Secka, 1985–). VYPA’s diverse songs have romantic, apocalyptic, and gangsta themes. Female rappers include Debbie Romeo (Ibinado Deborah Romeo, 1987–), a Nigerian who grew up in the Gambia, and Nancy Nanz (Nancy Waggeh, 1986–), the “Gambian Beyoncé,” from Bajul. Nancy Nanz’s debut single, “Baby Boy” (2004), is a Wolof version of American R&B, pop, and hip hop singer Beyoncé’s (1981–) song of the same title (2003). In 2007, Nancy Nanz released her debut ­album, Xalel (­Children). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Griot; Senegal

Further Reading

Charry, Eric. 2000. Mande M ­ usic: Traditional and Modern M ­ usic of the Maninka and Mandinka of Western Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Juffermans, Kasper. 2012. “Multimodality and Audiences: Local Languaging in the Gambian Linguistic Landscape.” Sociolinguistic Studies 6, no. 2: 259–84.

Further Listening

Nancy Nanz. 2007. Xalel. Gamcel.

Gamblerz (2002–­, Seoul, South K ­ orea) Gamblerz, a b-­boy dance crew best known for winning top international breakdancing competitions, hails from Ulsan, a metropolitan suburb of Seoul. In 2004 and 2009, Gamblerz won first place at the ­Battle of the Year (BOTY) in Braunschweig, Germany, the premier annual international b-­boying competition; in 2003, ­after being together for less than a year, Gamblerz had won third place in the same competition. In 2008 and 2014, the crew won first place in R-16, a Korea-­based international breakdancing tournament and urban arts festival. In 2014, crewmember the End/KYS (Kim Yeon-­Soo, 1987–) served as a judge for the Red Bull BC One, another major international b-­boy competition. The crew’s power moves include one-­leg swipes and one-­hand chair flares. With Korean contemporaries such as T.I.P. Crew (1996–) and Jinjo Crew (2001–), both from Seoul as well, and Morning of Owl (2002–) from Suwon, South ­Korea,

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Gamblerz has represented South ­Korea as a strong competitor in b-­boy championships worldwide. In 2002, B-­Boy ­Music (Jung-­dae Kim, n.d.) established the crew as Gambler (the original name) with six members. The same year, B-­Boy Darkness (Kyung-ho Chang, n.d.), its first leader, changed the name to Gamblerz. In 2008, ­after leadership challenges and other conflicts, Darkness left to pursue other dreams (the group’s motto had been “Happy b-­boying”). With two other members, he started a new crew u­ nder the original Gambler name; the crew now dances as MoSt mOdeRn (2009–). In 2010, Gamblerz and other b-­boy crews received international notoriety ­after members ­were arrested for refusing to serve in the South Korean army. As of 2018, B-­Boy Sick (Chung Hyun-­Sik, 1981–) leads the 13-­member crew. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Battling; Breakdancing; Hip Hop Dance; K ­ orea

Further Reading

File, Curtis. 2013. Korean Dance: Pure Emotion and Energy. ­Korea Essentials No. 15. Seoul: ­Korea Foundation. Tudor, Daniel. 2014. “­Korea’s ­Music Scene.” Geek in K ­ orea: Discovering Asia’s New Kingdom of Cool, part 8. North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle.

Gang Starr (1986–2003, Boston, Mas­sa­chu­setts) Gang Starr was a college-­educated East Coast hip hop duo that became notable for pioneering New York City’s hardcore hip hop as well as its alternative hip hop ­albums and ­music videos. The duo released six studio ­albums: No More Mr. Nice Guy (1989), Step in the Arena (1991), Daily Operation (1992), Hard to Earn (1994), Moment of Truth (1998), and The Own­erz (2003). All charted on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart; starting with Gang Starr’s second ­album, Step in the Arena, five of six ­albums charted on the Billboard 200, most notably with Moment of Truth peaking at No. 6 and attaining Gold certification. Its only two songs that charted on the Billboard Hot 100 ­were “Mass Appeal” (1994), which peaked at No. 67, and “You Know My Steez” (1997), which peaked at No. 76. Gang Starr’s best-­charting success was on Billboard’s Hot Rap Singles, topping the chart once with “Take It Personal” (1992) but reaching No. 5 with “Just to Get a Rep,” (1990), “Ex Girl to the Next Girl” (1992), and “You Know My Steez.” Gang Starr also had a large cult following. Its first ­music video, “Jazz ­Thing” (1990), was directed by Spike Lee (Shelton Jackson Lee, 1957–) for his American film Mo’ Better Blues (1990). Fab Five Freddy (1959–) directed Gang Starr’s second video, “Just to Get a Rep.” In 2002, Gang Starr composed “­Battle” for the American hip hop motion picture 8 Mile, which starred Eminem (1972–) and was based on the rapper’s early life. Gang Starr originally began in Roxbury, located in Boston. At the time, it was a group consisting of rapper Guru (Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal, Keith Edward Elam, 1961–2010), at the time known as MC Keithy E; 1, 2 B-­Down (aka Mike Dee, n.d.); rapper and producer Donald D (aka Microphone King Donald-­D,



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Dondee, Donald Lamont, n.d.); DJ, producer, and turntablist the 45 King (Mark Howard James, 1961–); and several ­others. The group’s earliest recordings took place in 1986. In 1987, the group relocated to Brooklyn, New York, where it recorded 12-­i nch singles on Wild Pitch Rec­ords (1987–), such as “The Lesson” and “Believe Dat!” (both 1987) as well as “Movin’ On” (1988). This group disbanded in 1989. As the only artist to continue with the Gang Starr name, Guru contacted DJ Premier (Christopher Edward Martin, 1966–), who was then known as Waxmaster C, recording for Wild Pitch, and living in Brooklyn. ­After Waxmaster C made him a beat tape that he liked, Guru invited him to join Gang Starr. In 1989, Gang Starr released its debut studio a­ lbum, No More Mr. Nice Guy, on Bellaphon (1963–) and then signed onto the Chrysalis Rec­ords label (1968–). Gang Starr released Step in the Arena, Daily Operation, and Hard to Earn while performing and touring frequently. Guru’s lyr­ics often focused on street themes but with narrative twists, at times alluding to and incorporating Five ­Percent Nation (1964–) teachings. His lyr­ics often juxtaposed chains of polysyllabic words, which gave his rap flow a complex sound. DJ Premier was a suitable match to Guru for his depth of knowledge, in selecting jazz, funk, and soul recordings as well as in writing hip hop lyr­ics, which informed his turntablism. By 1993, both Guru and DJ Premier ­were working extensively on other proj­ects. DJ Premier became a prolific ­music producer, and Guru began recording the first of his four-­volume jazz rap proj­ects, Guru’s Jazzmatazz, which received critical acclaim. In 1999, Gang Starr’s compilation ­album Full Clip: A De­cade of Gang Starr went Gold. By this time, the two ­were working less frequently together. Despite such positive reception of Gang Starr’s ­album’s, Guru’s debut solo ­album, Baldhead Slick & da Click (2001), was poorly received. It nevertheless peaked at No.  22 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and Guru followed the ­album with the better-­received Version 7.0: The Street Scriptures (2005) and Guru 8.0: Lost and Found. Like DJ Premier, Guru collaborated with countless other hip hop artists. His solo ­albums outside the Jazzmatazz series show a continuation ­toward more intelligent alternative hip hop. In 2010, Guru died of cancer. In addition to its ­music, Gang Starr’s legacy includes the Gang Starr Foundation, a collective that began in 1993 in Boston, partly formed by American rapper, singer, and actor Big Shug (Cary Guy, n.d.). Along with producer DJ Premier, members of the collective once supported Bahamadia (1976–) and as of 2018 still include Big Shug, rapper Bumpy Knuckles (aka Freddie Foxxx, James Campbell, 1969–), Jeru the Damaja (Kendrick Jeru Davis, 1972–), and the duo M.O.P. (Mash Out Posse, 1992–). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Bahamadia; Five ­Percent Nation; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Price-­Styles, Alice. 2015. “MC Origins: Rap and Spoken Word Poetry.” In The Cambridge Companion to Hip Hop, edited by Justin Williams, chap. 1. Cambridge, ­England: Cambridge University Press. Williams, Justin. 2010. “The Construction of Jazz Rap as High Art in Hip Hop ­Music.” Journal of Musicology 27, no. 4: 435–59.

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Further Listening

Gang Starr. 1998. Moment of Truth. Noo Trybe Rec­ords.

Gangs (United States) Gangs are organ­izations that operate off the grid of any ­legal or economic system. They range from transnational crime syndicates, such as the Mafia or Yakuza, to more localized street and area gangs, such as the Bloods (1972–) and the Crips (1969–) in Los Angeles. Though they are not terrorist organ­izations nor hate groups, gangs serve many of the same purposes: protecting a subculture, uniting youth into a common cause, and striking out against perceived and real enemies. Local street gang activity has played a major role in the development of hip hop. Gang culture is one of the informing forces within the communities from which many rap artists emerged, often providing rappers with subject ­matter; gang culture also has influenced many ele­ments of hip hop style. In the United States in par­tic­u­lar, the origins of hip hop are deeply connected to urban street gangs, beginning in the 1970s and continuing to the pres­ent time. STREET GANGS ­AFTER THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT Socie­ties are defined by their organ­ization—­people in a society or­ga­nized themselves for a common good, through ­legal and economic systems. This in turn leads to the creation of organ­izations of ­those who, due to unhappiness within the ­legal system, collectively operate outside it. Gangs typically generate income through illegal means: bootlegging, drug dealing, and/or trafficking. Gangs ­settle disputes not through lawsuits but through vio­lence. One way to understand gang culture is to view gangs as for-­profit businesses, with the crucial caveat being that they do not typically work through recognized economic and ­legal means such as banks, shareholders, or courts. Hip hop’s origins in New York City during the late 1970s coincided with a significant peak in gang activity in poor and working-­class minority areas. By the late 1970s, many heavi­ly influential antiracist groups such as the African American Black Panther Party (originating from Oakland, California), the Latino Brown Berets (originating from Los Angeles), and the Puerto Rican Young Lords (from Chicago) had been weakened or entirely eliminated due to governmental intervention and internal leadership prob­lems. This left a power vacuum at a time when urban areas w ­ ere experiencing intense economic hardship due to white flight, discriminatory city planning, and diminishing employment opportunities. U ­ nder such conditions, young ­people became attracted to variant means of financial success—­ illegal activities such as drug dealing, for example. Though lucrative, drug dealing is a dangerous business, so the orga­nizational structure provided by gangs offered protection as well as an other­wise lacking sense of belonging. In many urban areas, the emergence of crack cocaine, a cheap and highly addictive drug, made gang activity very lucrative. While several street gangs, such as the Crips, emerged with the expressed purpose of combating the spread of drugs in their



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communities, ironically, even they eventually engaged in illegal drug activity, which also led to execution-­style murders.

GANGS IN HIP HOP Early on, hip hop pioneers sought to harness their work to draw young ­people of color away from gangs. Afrika Bambaataa (1957–) formed what would become the Universal Zulu Nation (1973–) with the expressed intent of providing young ­people who might be attracted to gangs an alternative; his goal was to use m ­ usic to help youth express themselves and find community. Public ­Enemy’s (1982–) po­liti­ cally charged lyr­ics and use of Black Nationalist themes also advanced ways of organ­izing p­ eople of color in­de­pen­dent of the gang scene. Gangsta rap’s relationship to the gang scene was complex. Early gangsta rappers such as Schoolly D (Jesse Bonds Weaver Jr., 1962–) and N.W.A. (1986–1991) drew heavi­ly on the gang scene for the stories they told and the public personas they crafted; however, few of ­these artists ­were directly involved with gangs. Although N.W.A.’s Eazy-­E (1964–1995) engaged in small-­time drug dealing before cofounding the group, the band’s other members ­were never directly involved in gang life. They did, however, live in communities that w ­ ere deeply affected by gang activity, making gang culture a significant influence on their lyr­ics. In 1990, amid growing public backlash against gangsta rap and increased public anxiety about gang vio­lence, several West Coast rappers, ­under the name West Coast Rap All-­ Stars, released the single “­We’re All in the Same Gang” to promote an antiviolence message. Death Row Rec­ords’ (1991–2008) connection to gangs was much more direct. Snoop Dogg (1971–), one of the label’s most successful artists, was a member of the Crips in Long Beach, California, and he faced murder charges at the time of his debut ­album’s release. Death Row’s cofounder, Suge Knight (Marion Hugh Knight Jr., 1965–), also had gang ties, and his rivalry with the Crips led (directly or indirectly, yet to be determined) to the 1996 shooting death of Tupac Shakur (1971–1996); however, the G-­funk sound that Death Row helped develop in the early 1990s was itself part of the post–­Los Angeles riots (1992) gang peace movement, with an emphasis on outdoor parties and other leisure activities widely associated with the peace movement. Many con­temporary local American hip hop scenes are directly related to gang activity. For example, several Chicago-­based artists have been injured or killed or have played a direct role in much of the city’s recent surge in vio­lence. As a result, many commentators have claimed that lyr­ics from Chicago rappers such as Chief Keef (1995–) contribute to the city’s high violent-­crime rate by promoting, rather than reflecting, vio­lence. In Baton Rouge, native rapper Boosie Badazz (Torrence Hatch, 1982–) served time in prison for a drug conviction and was charged with, but acquitted of, first-­degree murder. Furthermore, as rapper and sociopo­liti­cal activist Killer Mike (Michael Render, 1975–) and scholar Erik Nielson (1976–) noted in a 2014 editorial in USA ­Today criticizing the practice, prosecutors routinely introduce rap lyr­ics penned by (almost always poor black) defendants as evidence of

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violent be­hav­ior; thus, the relationship between rap and gang vio­lence is enshrined in public culture and certain sectors of our ­legal system. The bottom line is that gangs are complex organ­izations. While they undoubtedly engage in often-­violent criminal activities, they function as sources of deep identification and social support for historically marginalized communities, and in many cases provide the only financial opportunities for youth. It should therefore be unsurprising that overall, hip hop’s relationship to gangs has been complex. Though some artists, such as Missy Elliott (1971–), have attempted to use their work to direct young ­people away from gangs, ­others, such as Geto Boys (1986–), have drawn on the sensationalism of gang life to craft their own public personas and, more importantly, to sell rec­ords. Bryan J. McCann See also: Crip Walk; Gangsta Rap; G-­Funk; Mafioso Rap; The United States

Further Reading

Chang, Jeff. 2005. ­Can’t Stop ­Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation. New York: Picador. Davis, Mike. 2006. City of Quartz: Excavating the ­Future in Los Angeles. London: Verso. Nielson, Erik, and Michael Render. 2014. “Rap Suffers Poetic (In)justice: Supreme Court Is Fi­nally Getting Schooled in Hip Hop: ­Music Is Not a Threat to Safety.” U.S.A. ­Today, December 1. Williams, Stanley Tookie. 2004. Blue Rage, Black Redemption: A Memoir. New York: Touchstone-­Damamli.

Further Listening

N.W.A. 1988. Straight Outta Compton. Ruthless Rec­ords/Priority Rec­ords. West Coast Rap All Stars. 1990. ­We’re All in the Same Gang. Warner Bros. Rec­ords 12.

Gangsta Rap Gangsta rap is a subgenre of rap ­music that ­rose to prominence in the late 1980s. Emerging largely out of South Central Los Angeles, at the height of public anx­i­eties about crime, drugs, and street gang vio­lence, gangsta rap artists came to embody what many characterized as some of the worst ste­reo­types of African American men. The m ­ usic was aggressive and informed by a heavy bass beat, and gangsta rap lyr­ics emphasized hypermasculinity, aggressive sexual practices, vio­lence, abuse of drugs and alcohol, and unapologetic materialism (often referred to as “bling”). While gangsta rap was incredibly popu­lar with minority youth, it also appealed to white American teens. The ­music quickly became the target of intense criticism by elected officials, law enforcement, and self-­proclaimed culture warriors. ORIGINS As with many rap subgenres, ­there is no definitive or clear starting point for gangsta rap. In fact, lyrical engagement in aggressive masculinity and criminality



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in popu­lar culture predates hip hop. Following the end of chattel slavery and the collapse of Reconstruction (1863–1877), tales of badly behaved and even criminal men began proliferating in African American folklore. Figures such as the ­career criminal Stag-­O-­Lee (Lee Shelton, 1865–1912), as well as oral narrative and blaxsploitation mainstays such as Pimpin’ Sam and Dolomite, appeared with growing regularity from the late 19th ­century on. Often loosely based on real p­ eople and events, t­hese stories found expression in both oral and written traditions; this included a sharing through folksongs such as “Stack-­a-­Lee” (1890*), which emerged into the musical mainstream by the 1900s through versioning and covers. Such men ­were typically violent and sexually aggressive—­and they often met tragic ends. In other words, they w ­ ere not heroes in any traditional sense of the word. When viewed through the prism of post-­Emancipation, when racism in the Jim Crow South and industrial North was increasingly predicated on fashioning black masculinity as inherently violent and criminal, creating stories and songs allowed African American communities to take owner­ship of their ste­reo­types. As they did so, they created new meaning through identification and implication. In addition, blues musicians penned songs during the early-­ and mid-20th-­century that prefigured gangsta rap in their lyrical content, and during the early 1970s, the emergence and popularity of American blaxploitation films such as Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971) and Superfly (1972) signified another moment in black popu­lar culture, the exaltation of the black male criminal, basically a continuation of the rebel criminal, similar to white culture’s exaltation of Billy the Kid (Henry McCarty, 1859–1881) or the British reverence of the folkloric Robin Hood (1377*–). Many early rap acts, including Schoolly D (Jesse Bonds Weaver Jr., 1962–), Boogie Down Productions (1985–1992), and Ice-­T (1958–), drew on gangsta themes in their work; however, what most Americans understand as gangsta rap found its most complete expression with the release of N.W.A.’s (1986–1991) Straight Outta Compton (1988). In addition to the ­album’s title track, songs such as “F— the Police” and “Gangsta, Gangsta” had an aggressive tone and contained lyr­ics that indulged in tropes widely associated with criminality. In the opening verse of “Straight Outta Compton,” Ice Cube (1969–) brags that he is crazy and boasts that when he is disrespected, he grabs a sawed-­off shotgun (which is illegal), squeezes the trigger, and creates a trail of bodies. The song’s ­music video portrays the members of N.W.A. as a roaming band of marauders through Compton’s impoverished streets. T ­ here they are harassed, chased, and arrested by police. At the time of the a­ lbum’s release, Compton and other municipalities in South Central Los Angeles w ­ ere targets of intense police surveillance, which included drug raids, so the area developed an international reputation as a gang-­ and drug-­f ueled war zone that embodied many ­people’s worst fears about crime and vio­lence. Crime was a central ele­ment of electoral and cultural politics during the 1980s—­and it was most frequently associated with poor and working-­class urban communities of color such as Compton. Gangsta rappers such as N.W.A., Geto Boys (1986–), Compton’s Most Wanted (1987–), and Snop Dogg (as Snoop Doggy Dogg, 1971–) found commercial success and public notoriety by repackaging and celebrating this association.

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GANGSTA RAP AND THE CULTURE WARS Gangsta rap came to prominence alongside an increasingly influential cultural conservative movement. It celebrated criminality and therefore attracted unfavorable attention from law enforcement at a time when crime prevention figured prominently in politics. Many law enforcement officials and police ­unions spoke out forcefully against “F— the Police.” N.W.A. claimed the track was simply a revenge fantasy that should not be taken literally; however, in 1989, the po­liti­cally influential Fraternal Order of Police (1915–) ­adopted a resolution boycotting the concerts of any artists whose ­music they believed promoted vio­lence against police officers, and in a historically unpre­ce­dented move, the F.B.I.’s Office of Public Affairs sent a letter to Priority Rec­ords (1985–), the com­pany that distributed Straight Outta Compton, expressing its belief that the song encouraged vio­lence against police. Many concert venues therefore required the group to omit the song from their set lists, but during a 1989 concert in Detroit, N.W.A. began performing the controversial track; police chased the group offstage. Law enforcement and elected officials also spoke forcefully against rapper Ice-­T’s thrash metal band Body Count’s (1990–2006, 2009–) song “Cop Killer” (1992), which the band removed from their ­album following the backlash. In addition, in 1992, a young black man claimed he was inspired to fatally shoot a Texas state trooper by Tupac Shakur’s (1971–1996) debut ­album 2Pacalypse Now (1991). Many cultural conservatives also targeted gangsta rap, claiming its violent and hypersexual content posed a significant threat to the health of civil society. Groups such as the Parents ­Music Resource Center (1985) and the American ­Family Association (1977–), the latter labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (1971–), targeted many ­music artists who performed what they called obscene lyr­ics, including rappers and gangsta rappers. Such organ­izations penned newspaper editorials, appeared on tele­vi­sion, and testified before Congressional committees to argue that such m ­ usic was harmful to teen­agers and ­children. Activists such as Tipper Gore (1948–) and Jack Thompson (1951–) argued that rec­ord companies should be more responsive to parental concerns when distributing ­music. They ultimately created the idea of requiring the Parental Advisory sticker to be placed on controversial ­albums. ­These stickers still adorn CD covers. In addition, the activists’ efforts led to the designation of ­albums and singles with the Parental Advisory label as “Explicit.” Black cultural conservatives played an especially impor­tant role in the backlash against gangsta rap. Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (1954–1968), such as Reverend Calvin Butts (1949–) and C. Delores Tucker (1927– 2005), became prominent voices against artists such as Dr. Dre (1965–) and Snoop Dogg. They claimed that gangsta rap encouraged black youth to choose a life of crime and vio­lence out of the desire to emulate their rapper heroes. Tucker, who founded the National Po­liti­cal Congress of Black ­Women (1984–), also emphasized the degradation of w ­ omen in many gangsta rap songs and videos. During testimony before Congress, Tucker declared that gangsta rap lyr­ics and ­music videos portrayed ­women as objects of disdain. In the speech, she invoked Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968). Objecting to lyr­ics that routinely referred to ­women in derogatory terms, Tucker and her allies drew on the memory of the American civil rights ­battle



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to portray gangsta rappers as traitors to the black community and as mercenaries who made millions by promoting vio­lence and insulting African American w ­ omen. Tucker’s campaign against gangsta rap prompted her, a lifetime Demo­crat, to campaign with 1996 Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole (1923–) and conservative activist William Bennett (1943–) in an effort to encourage consumers to boycott gangsta rap and pressure recording companies to cease signing gangsta artists. Although figures such as Gore and Tucker won some victories against gangsta rap, they never managed to threaten the genre’s bottom line. Gangsta artists continued to produce best-­selling a­ lbums that made millions of dollars. DEATH ROW REC­ORDS AND GANGSTA’S TWILIGHT ­ fter leaving N.W.A. over financial disputes with group founder Eazy-­E (1964– A 1995) and ­music producer Jerry Heller (1940–2016), Dr. Dre formed Death Row Rec­ords (1991–2008) with former bodyguard Suge Knight (Marion Hugh Knight Jr., 1965–). Death Row quickly became one of the most successful rec­ord companies in the country and helped cement gangsta rap’s status as one of Amer­i­ca’s most lucrative musical genres. In addition to Dre’s solo debut The Chronic (1992), Death Row released Snoop Dogg’s hugely successful Doggystyle (1993). The latter figured significantly into the antigangsta crusades of Tucker and her allies. Largely due to Dr. Dre’s producing style, Death Row brought a more relaxed aesthetic to gangsta rap. Whereas the work of N.W.A., the Geto Boys, and other gangsta acts was often aggressive in tone, Dr. Dre heavi­ly sampled soul, R&B, and funk tracks from the 1960s and 1970s. Unlike the work of N.W.A. and Ice Cube’s solo recordings, Death Row artists’ work rarely referenced vio­lence against police and other figures of authority. Rather, tracks such as “F— wit’ Dre Day” and “Gin and Juice” focused on partying, cruising around South Central Los Angeles in lowriders, and committing vio­lence against other black men. Many Death Row artists experienced high-­profile ­legal prob­lems. Snoop Dogg, a former member of the Crips street gang, stood trial for murder during the release of Doggystyle. Dr. Dre faced assault charges ­after physically assaulting a journalist. In 1995, Tupac Shakur joined Death Row while on release awaiting the appeal of his recent rape conviction. Furthermore, Suge Knight had a reputation for gang connections and aggressive business tactics, including physical vio­lence against competitors. While Death Row artists ­were not the only rappers to encounter ­legal trou­ble, the fact that their most successful artists had been accused or convicted of violent crimes figured significantly in the label’s reputation for crossing the line between fantasy and real­ity. On November 29, 1993, the cover of Newsweek featured a photo­g raph of Snoop Dogg accompanied by the text, “When is rap 2 violent?” Death Row also played a central role in fomenting tension between East and West Coast rappers. Before the ascent of gangsta rap, New York was widely regarded as the home of hip hop. In addition to being rap’s point of origin, New York, and other East Coast cities, produced artists such as Afrika Bambaataa (1957–), Grandmaster Flash (1958–), the Sugarhill Gang (1979–1985, 1994–), LL Cool J (1968–), RunD.M.C. (1981–2002), Beastie Boys (1980–2012), and Public ­Enemy (1982–), whose

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work enjoyed commercial success and often critical acclaim. West Coast rap, in comparison, appeared amateurish; however, following the release of Straight Outta Compton, West Coast gangsta rap became the most successful subgenre of hip hop. The proprietary claims over hip hop that emerged from t­ hese shifts in coastal dominance resulted in significant bitterness between artists and fans. Suge Knight was especially aggressive in aggravating the feud, likely in hopes that the resulting notoriety would positively affect rec­ord sales. The most notable expression of this feud occurred between Death Row Rec­ords and Bad Boy Entertainment (1993–). Both labels’ producers and artists publicly antagonized each other through lyr­ics, comments to media, and occasional physical confrontations. The feud between Tupac Shakur and Bad Boy’s the Notorious B.I.G. (1972–1997) was especially volatile following the former’s claim that the Notorious  B.I.G. and Puff ­Daddy (1969–) played a role in his 1994 shooting at Quad Recording Studios (1977–) in New York City. ­After the fatal shooting of Tupac Shakur in 1996 and the Notorious  B.I.G. less than one year ­later, many rappers, ­music journalists, and fans came to believe the feud had gone too far. ­After Tupac Shakur’s death, most of Death Row’s most successful artists left the label, and Suge Knight was sentenced to prison for a parole violation the same year. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, gangsta rap was the most successful rap subgenre of hip hop. At the end of the 20th ­century and during the 21st ­century, the designation gangsta rap has become less useful, as the subgenre has enjoyed increasing crossover success in mainstream hip hop markets. Highly successful con­temporary rappers such as Lil Wayne (1982–), Kevin Gates (Kevin Jerome Gilyard, 1986–), and 50 Cent (1975–) frequently incorporate gangsta themes into their work. Furthermore, N.W.A. and Tupac Shakur ­were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016 and 2017 respectively, suggesting that the stigma that once marked gangsta rap has, at least to an extent, abated. Emerging at a time when many mainstream politicians and culture warriors emphasized law and order as a top public-­policy priority, gangsta’s cele­bration of black criminality made it one of the 20th ­century’s most controversial forms of m ­ usic. Although the term gangsta rap has lost most of its traction in recent years, its themes remain an impor­ tant ele­ment of con­temporary rap. Bryan J. McCann See also: Gangs (United States); G-­Funk; N.W.A.; Snoop Dogg; Tupac Shakur; The United States

Further Reading

Chang, Jeff. 2005. ­Can’t Stop ­Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation. New York: Picador. McCann, Bryan J. 2017. The Mark of Criminality: Rhe­toric, Race, and Gangsta Rap in the War-­on-­Crime Era. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. Quinn, Eithne. 2005. Nuthin’ but a “G” Thang: The Culture and Commerce of Gangsta Rap. New York: Columbia University Press.

Further Listening

N.W.A. 1988. Straight Outta Compton. Ruthless/Priority Rec­ords. Schoolly D. 1985. Schoolly D. Schoolly D Rec­ords.

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Germany Germany is a Eu­ro­pean parliamentary republic of 82 million inhabitants, making it the most populous member of the Eu­ro­pean Union and the second most popu­lar immigration destination in the world. Its capital, Berlin, is also its largest city, but Germany boasts many major cities, such as Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Leipzig, Bremen, Dresden, Hannover, and Nuremberg. Hip hop made its way into Germany in the early 1980s, practiced first through graffiti and breakdancing. The first rap song in German was “Rappers Deutsch,” a 1980 parody song by a three–­radio DJ proj­ect band, GLS United (1980–1981), and rap was made a popu­lar ­music format in 1991 when the German ­music label Bombastic Rec­ords (1990–2002) released the 15-­track ­album Krauts with Attitude: German Hip Hop Vol. 1. The pioneer rap crew in Germany was Advanced Chemistry (1987–), from Heidelberg. It featured members from Italy, Ghana, and Haiti. Advanced Chemistry localized American socially conscious rap, combining it with the Native Tongues movement, to create rap songs in German that challenged discrimination against immigrants. Other hip hop acts of the 1980s included Kiel-­based Cora E. (Sylvia Macco, 1968–), an early underground female rapper who wrote her own lyr­ics and had a hit in 1996 with “Schlüsselkind” (“Latchkey Kid”). One of the first mainstream pop-­influenced hip hop bands was Die Fantastischen Vier (The Fantastic Four, aka Fanta 4, 1986–), which originated in Stuttgart. It eschewed what it considered to be the cliché, American gangsta rap, and in 1996 it created its own rec­ord label in Stuttgart, Four ­Music. Frankfurt-­based rap duo Rödelheim Hartreim Projekt (Rödelheim Hard-­R hyme Proj­ect, aka RHP, 1995–), in contrast, was influenced by American gangsta rap. A con­temporary of RHP was the pop, soul, and hip hop band Söhne Mannheims (Sons of Mannheim, 1995–). One of its founding members, Kobra (Xavier Kurt Naidoo, 1971–), was a backing vocalist for RHP and had a highly successful solo ­career beginning with his debut ­album Nicht von dieser welt (Not from This World, 1998), which sold over a million copies. The Mannheim-­born artist has South African parents and is also of German, Irish, and Indian descent. Before his success in Germany, he had recorded an En­glish hip hop ­album, Seeing Is Believing (1994), in the United States. Some exchanges between Austrian and German hip hop took place during this time. Germany’s hip hop scenes provided the strongest influence for Austrian ones. One reason for this influence was their shared language: Austria’s official language, Austrian Standard German, shares syntax, words, and phrases with South German speakers. In 1993, the Viennese group Schönheitsfehler (Blemish, 1992–2005) had the first commercially successful hip hop act when its single “F—­You” charted in Germany. The Bavarian band Blumentopf (Flowerpot, 1992–2016), from Freising, was popu­lar in Austria and collaborated with other Austrian hip hop acts, such as Texta (1993–) from Linz and Total Chaos (1993–) from Innsbruck, to form the supergroup Kaleidoskop (2001–2002). Many German hip hop artists are of Turkish German descent, mainly a product of the ­later 1990s and early 2000s when immigrants ­were moving to Germany and started creating rap ­music influenced by both German and American hip hop scenes.

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With ­music infused by the Arabesque style and samples, they rapped songs about immigration, discrimination, and racism as well as the plight of the mi­grant worker. In 1991, Nuremberg-­based King Size Terror (1990–1994), a hip hop group of Turkish, Peruvian, and African American origin, produced the first Turkish-­language rap with the single “Bir yabancinin hayati” (“The Life of the Stranger”), which portrayed Turkish youth as strangers in mainstream German culture. King Size Terror led to the creation of Cartel as the first successful Turkish hip hop group. Cartel had prob­lems with vio­lence and incarceration and at one point was forbidden to perform together, and the band’s first a­ lbum, which contained both German and Turkish rapping, was banned. Berlin-­based rapper Kool Savaş (Savaş Yurderi, 1975–) cofounded the rap duo Westberlin Maskulin (1997–2000) as well as the crew Masters of Rap (1996–). Kool Savaş has collaborated with 50 Cent (1975–), among ­others. Turkish German rapper Eko Fresh (aka Elektro Eko, Ekrem Bora, 1983–) was born in Cologne, grew up in Mönchengladbachand, and began rapping when he was 14 years old. He first achieved fame through the wrestling world but eventually released the hit diss track “Die Abrechnung” (“The Settlement [of Accounts],” 2004), named ­after the first part of Hitler’s Mein Kampf (My Story, 1924). Eko Fresh continued his ­music ­career by producing 10 studio a­ lbums. Other notable acts from between the 1990s and 2000s are A.i.d.S. (Alles ist die Sekte, Every­thing Is the Sect, aka RoyalTS, 1997–), Die Sekte (The Sect, 1998–), Hungary-­born Brixx (Ildiko Basa, 1976–), Cora E. (aka Zulu-­Queen, Sylvia Macco, 1968–), and Pyranja (Anja Käckenmeister, 1978–), the last three being female rappers.

THE 2000s AND BEYOND The 21st-­century German hip hop scene still has prominent mi­g rant hip hop activity; however, more recent hip hop has had an increasingly American influence. Turkish rappers, who are generally darker than Germans, have often perceived themselves as blacks in Germany and therefore relate to the African American experience. As in the United States, issues of authenticity and appropriation have emerged in Germany, with Turkish rappers viewing themselves as more au­then­tic than whiter-­looking German rappers. Turkish interest in gangsta rap, as exemplified by Die Sekte from Berlin, has been diminishing since the 2000s. Since white German rappers have become more intrigued by gangsta rap, Turkish and other German immigrant rappers are focusing on how to use other kinds of rap. Hypermasculinity remains pres­ent in German hip hop, including Turkish hip hop from Germany. In this kind of Turkish hip hop, ­there has been increased use of traditional Arabesk ­music and Arabic scales such as makams (rules of composition) and instruments such as the bağlama (lute), zuma (horn), kanun (zither), and kemençe (bowed fiddle). In Berlin, oriental hip hop, which emerged in the early 1990s, combined ele­ments of American hip hop with Turkish and Arabic traditional ­music. It is far more popu­ lar in the 2010s. Microphone Mafia (1989–) from Cologne exemplifies this sound, rapping in German, Turkish, Spanish, and Italian. The group performs concerts and



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rec­ords with German Sephardic Jewish singer and musician Esther Béjarano (Esther Loewy, 1924–), one of the last survivors of the ­Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, who sings antifascist songs. Their ­albums include Per la vita (For Life, 2009) and La vita continua (Life Goes On, 2013). As of 2018, with the largest ­music market in Eu­rope and the fourth-­largest one in the world, just a­ fter the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom, hip hop thrives in Germany and is accepted into the mainstream with earlier innovative styles such as Neue deutsche Welle (German new wave), disco, metal, punk, electronica, techno, and indie ­music. Notable recent acts include Bushido (“The Way of the Warrior” in Japa­nese, aka Sonny Black, Anis Mohamed Youssef Ferchichi, 1978–); Die Sekte’s MOK (aka Muzik oder Knast, ­Music or Prison, Tarkan Karaalioğlu, 1976–) and Alpa Gun (Alper Sendilmen, 1980–); Fler (aka Frank White, Patrick Losensky, n.d.); and Kitty Kat (aka Kitten Ket, Katharina Löwel, 1982–). Immigrant rappers include Tony D (aka Tony Damager, Muhamed Ayad, 1983–), of Lebanese descent, and Spain-­born Farid Bang (Farid El Abdellaoui, 1986–), of Moroccan descent. Anthony J. Fonseca and Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Austria; Gangsta Rap; Turkey; The United States

Further Reading

Güney, Serhat, Cem Pekman, and Bülent Kabaş. 2014. “Diasporic ­Music in Transition: Turkish Immigrant Performers on the Stage of ‘Multikulti’ Berlin.” Popu­lar ­Music and Society 37, no. 2: 132–51. Putnam, Michael, and Juliane Schicker. 2014. “Straight Outta Marzahn: (Re)Constructing Communicative Memory in East Germany through Hip Hop.” Popu­lar ­Music and Society 37, no. 1: 85–100.

Further Listening

Kool Savaş. 2015. Rap Genius. Essah Media. Microphone Mafia. 2006. Testa nera (Black Head in Italian). Al Dente Recordz. Schönheitsfehler. 2000. SexDrugsAndHipHop. Motor M ­ usic.

Geto Boys (aka Ghetto Boys, 1986–­, Houston, Texas) Geto Boys is an American rap group which, through nine ­albums, became influential in the southern rap subgenre, sometimes nicknamed the Dirty South. Unlike most rap bands, the Geto Boys rotated its lineup throughout its history, with the stabilizing influence being Lil’ J, aka J Prince or James Prince (James A. Smith, n.d.), producer and owner of Rap-­A-­Lot Rec­ords (1986–) in Houston, who conceived of a rap group that could dramatize the prob­lems of Houston’s impoverished Fifth Ward. By the first ­album, Making Trou­ble (1988), the only original member left from the original lineup, called Ghetto Boys, was Sire Jukebox (Keith Rogers, 1972*–). For that a­ lbum, the lineup consisted of him, two members from Trenton, New Jersey—­DJ Ready Red (Collins Leysath, n.d.) and Prince Johnny C (anonymous,

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n.d.)—­and ­Little Billy, a rapper/dancer dwarf who soon became famous as Bushwick Bill (Richard Stephen Shaw, 1966–). Bill was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and raised in Brooklyn, New York. The group again broke up, this time ­because of contract disputes with J Prince, and its most successful lineup was created, consisting of DJ Ready Red, Bushwick Bill, and two members from Houston—­Scarface (Brad Terrence Jordan, 1970–) and Willie D (William James Dennis, 1966–). The new quartet broke ground with Grip It! On That Other Level (1989), but the band began to flourish with its next ­album, The Geto Boys (1990), which saw its sales expand ­after pressure from the Parents ­Music Resource Center (PMRC) and the onset of Parental Advisory labels. The a­ lbum’s violent content (misogyny, gore, psychotic experiences, and necrophilia) not only increased sales but prompted Geffen Rec­ords (1980–) to balk as distributor, forcing a switch of the ­album’s label, Def American Recordings (now American Recordings, 1988–), to Warner Bros. Rec­ords (1958–). The band’s next ­album, We ­Can’t Be Stopped (1991), marked the replacement of DJ Ready Red with DJ Domantion (Michael Poye, n.d.) and the move back to Rap-­ A-­Lot Rec­ords; the label used a highly publicized Bushwick Bill incident to boost its sales and ­those of the hit single “Mind Playing Tricks on Me,” a hip hop classic that also peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100. Bushwick Bill, while ­under the influence, tried to get his girlfriend at the time to shoot him, and a­ fter a strug­ gle, he was shot in his right eye. The ­album cover features a graphic photo­graph of his sitting on a hospital gurney, flanked by Scarface and Willie D. Bushwick Bill would also do a solo song about the incident, “Ever So Clear,” on the ­album ­Little Big Man (1992). Willie D left the group for a solo ­career, and Big Mike (Michael Barnett, 1971–) joined Scarface and Bushwick Bill for the ­album Till Death Do Us Part (1993). The ­album was certified Gold and spawned the hit “Six Feet Deep” (No. 40 on the Billboard Hot 100), but fans did not like Big Mike, so Willie D returned and replaced him to rec­ord The Resurrection (1996) and Da Good da Bad and da Ugly (1998). The Foundation and The Resurrection Screwed and Chopped A-­Lot ­were both released in 2004, ­after the band re­united following a slight hiatus. Scarface, originally known as DJ Akshen, signed with Rap-­A-­Lot Rec­ords to join Geto Boys in 1989 and ­until 2005 remained with the group while releasing a series of solo ­albums; he also created his own label (Face II Face Rec­ords, 1993*–) in Houston and was coordinator and president of Def Jam South (1999–) in New York; he was influential in signing and popularizing Ludacris (1977–). The band’s sound prioritizes raps over ­music. Songs have a consistent rhythm, which is usually in the background so that vocals stand out, which is impor­tant since all members of the band take turns rapping—­foreground vocals emphasize each rapper’s unique vocal quality and style as well as lyrical contribution. Slower songs usually sample R&B loops, typically keyboard or jazz guitar riffs, which add to the laid-­back quality of the downtempo drum loops, and ­here Geto Boys vocalists use a quiet, almost understated method of rapping, juxtaposed against ­little background singing. In angrier songs, typically songs about killers and protest songs such as “We ­Can’t Be Stopped” and “Crooked Officer,” rappers use more immediate and breathless rapping styles in a higher range, and t­ hese in l­ ater



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a­ lbums may be juxtaposed against Jamaican rhythms and/or accompanied and complemented by background singing. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Dirty South; Gangsta Rap; Hardcore Hip Hop; Horrorcore; The United States

Further Reading

Scarface and Benjamin Meadows Ingram. 2015. Diary of a Madman: The Geto Boys, Life, Death, and the Roots of Southern Rap. New York: HarperCollins. Westoff, Ben. 2011. “Geto Boys: Paranoia, Insanity, and Rap-­A-­Lot Rec­ords.” In Dirty South: OutKast, Lil Wayne, Soulja Boy, and the Southern Rappers Who Reinvented Hip Hop, chap. 2. Chicago: Chicago Review Press.

G-­Funk G-­funk is the common name for gangsta-­funk, a subgenre of rap that emerged from West Coast gangsta rap during the early 1990s. Drawing heavi­ly on samples from funk ­albums of the 1970s, G-­funk’s tone was far less aggressive than the work of gangsta rap groups such as N.W.A. (1986–1991) and Geto Boys (1986–) or that of Ice Cube (1969–). Rather, it is characterized by a laid-­back rhythm and vocal delivery; instrumentation such as synthesizer, bass, and brass; and sampling of Afrocentric funk groups such as Plainfield, New Jersey’s Parliament (1968–1970, 1974–1980) and Funkadelic (1968–) as well as Ohio Players (1959–2002) from Dayton. While G-­funk’s lyr­ics sometimes expressed the same violent fantasizing, its lyr­ics emphasized leisurely practices such as drinking, smoking marijuana, partying, cruising (in lowriders), and engaging in promiscuous sex. Although ­there is some debate over its origins, N.W.A.’s Dr. Dre (1965–) is widely regarded as G-­f unk’s chief pioneer. Dr. Dre experimented with Funkadelic samples since Funkadelic’s sound, which ­rose to prominence during the 1970s as a less vacuous alternative to disco, possessed a psychedelic, neo soul aesthetic. Like funk, live G-­f unk uses elaborate stage theatrics, featuring costumes and props. Dr. Dre’s first distinct foray into funk sampling occurred on N.W.A.’s final ­album, Efil4za—­n (1991), on the Ruthless label. ­After leaving N.W.A. and forming Death Row Rec­ords (1991–2008) with producer Suge Knight (Marion Hugh Knight Jr., 1965–), Dr. Dre began perfecting his style while working on his first solo ­album, The Chronic (1992), which was released on the Death Row label.

G-­FUNK AND THE POST–­LOS ANGELES RIOTS ERA In addition to Dr. Dre’s own artistic curiosities, the racial climate during the early 1990s in the United States figured significantly into G-­f unk’s resonance and success. Death Row released The Chronic in the same year as the Los Angeles riots, following the acquittal of four police officers in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King (1965–2012). The riots had a profound impact on the United States, as they ignited long-­standing racial tensions between police and the African American community. Following the riots, however, several of Los Angeles’s

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largest gangs entered a peace agreement in the name of community rebuilding. Although a notable reduction of local gang-­related vio­lence followed the truce, law enforcement suspected the peace agreements w ­ ere a post-­riot ploy among gangs to collectively target police officers; thus, when gangs would hold outdoor parties that came to symbolize the peace movement, police would often arrive and force the crowds to disperse. Los Angeles and other cities also passed increasingly punitive ordinances targeting loitering, listening to boomboxes, and cruising. ­These new policies disproportionately impacted black and Latino youth and gave expression to post-­riot anx­i­eties about young racial minorities occupying public space. Understanding the criminalization of black leisure following the Los Angeles riots is crucial for appreciating the context of G-­f unk’s emergence as a popu­lar rap subgenre. Iconic G-­f unk tracks such as Dr. Dre’s “Let Me Ride” (1993), Warren G (Warren Griffin III, 1968–) and Nate Dogg’s (Nathaniel Dwayne Hale, 1969–2011) “Regulate” (1994), and Snoop Doggy Dogg’s (1971–) “What’s My Name?” (1993) celebrated many of the leisure activities urban police ­were targeting. “Regulate” tells the story of Warren G and Nate Dogg as they endeavor to go on a date; however, early in the track, a group of men mug Warren G, stealing his gold rings and Rolex watch. ­After he and Nate Dogg retaliate and kill a ­couple of the muggers, Nate Dogg declares that the two w ­ ill now enjoy their eve­ning of leisure, which includes (in both the lyrical narrative and the ­music video) ­going to an East Los Angeles motel to party with ­women (characterized as “hoes”). While few G-­funk tracks directly address police, partially due to the industrywide stigma regarding antipolice lyr­ics following the backlash against N.W.A.’s “F— tha Police” (1988) and Body Count’s (1990–2006, 2009–) “Cop Killer” (1992), some ­music videos make subtle references to law enforcement. For example, in “What’s My Name?,” Snoop Dogg and his posse transform from ­human to Doberman pinschers and back again. Throughout the video, bumbling white dogcatchers chase the group to prevent them from causing havoc and arriving at a party. But by the video’s end, they arrive, and even the dogcatchers end up dancing to the beat. The narrative arc is strikingly similar to that of the video for N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton” (1988), which portrays the group eluding Los Angeles police. In ­these songs and videos, G-­funk’s investment in the leisurely practices of black youth is apparent, and G-­funk rappers portray vio­lence from fellow community members or law enforcement as a barrier to plea­sure. ­Because minority leisure was increasingly ­under police scrutiny, G-­funk possesses a distinctly po­liti­cal ele­ment, perfect for an audience ­eager to consume m ­ usic that validated their leisure practices.

GENERATIONAL DIVIDE While G-­f unk’s emergence in the post-­riot period suggests a degree of po­liti­cal content reminiscent of the 1960s and 1970s, many G-­f unk artists distanced themselves from older generations of African Americans while also drawing heavi­ly on their m ­ usic. In the popu­lar Chronic track “Let Me Ride,” Dr. Dre eschews ste­ reo­t ypical medallions (old-­school bling), dreadlocks (Rastafari culture), and the raised black fist (Black Panther Party and the Black Power Movement). Afrocentric

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medallions and dreadlocks, as well as the iconic Black Power fist w ­ ere symbols of the antiracist strug­gle between the early years of the United States’ Civil Rights Movement (1954–1968) and the 1980s. Dr. Dre’s production style, however, drew heavi­ly on the very musical acts that provided the soundtrack for this era of racial strug­gle, specifically musicians such as George Clinton (1941–), directors of blaxploitation films (1970s–1990s), and black artists widely associated with Black Power. This central tension in G-­funk helps explain why it was a source of intense anxiety for many elder voices in the black community. It was difficult for cultural figures such as Jesse Jackson Sr. (1941–) and C. Delores Tucker (1927–2005), who frequently spoke out against gangsta rap in general and G-­f unk in par­tic­u­lar, to hear lyr­ics that they believed denigrated black men and ­women accompanied by funk tracks that many of them likely held in their own rec­ord collections. Bryan J. McCann See also: Dr. Dre; Gangsta Rap; The United States

Further Reading

Chang, Jeff. 2005. ­Can’t Stop ­Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation. New York: Picador. Diallo, David. 2010. “From Electro-­Rap to G-­Funk: A Social History of Rap ­Music in Los Angeles and Compton, California.” In Hip Hop in Amer­i­ca: A Regional Guide, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 1, chap. 10. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood. Quinn, Eithne. 2005. Nuthin’ but a “G” Thang: The Culture and Commerce of Gangsta Rap. New York: Columbia University Press.

Further Listening

Dr. Dre. 1992. The Chronic. Death Row Rec­ords. Snoop Doggy Dogg. 1993. Doggystyle. Death Row/Interscope Rec­ords.

Ghana Ghana is a West African country whose south coast borders the Atlantic Ocean with the Gulf of Guinea, and it borders Burkina Faso, Togo, and the Ivory Coast. In the 1980s, Ghanaian hip hop (called GH rap) emerged in the capital city, Accra, shortly ­after the arrival of American hip hop. Most GH Rap is in En­glish with American vernacular, though pidgin En­glish (combining En­glish with Ghanaian dialects), Twi, and Ga are often used. Ghana’s first rap crew, Chief G and the Tribe (1989–1997), was started by a 10-­year-­old New York–­born rapper and singer-­songwriter of Fante and Canadian descent, Jay Ghartey (Kweku Gyasi Ghartey, 1979*–). Ghana’s main population is Akan, but significant ethnic groups include Dagbani, Mossi, Ewe, Ga-­Adangbe, Gurma, and Fulani ­peoples; minority populations include Guan/Gonja, Gurunsi, and Bissa/Mande ­peoples. En­glish remains the official language, though many national languages exist, including Akan, Asante and Akuapem Twi, Dagbani, Mòóre, Ewe, Ga, Adangme, Gourmanché, Fula, Guang, Gonja, Hausa, Sisaala, Frafra, Wasa, Nzema, and Kasem, as well as French, Portuguese, and Arabic.

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Ghana has a rich m ­ usic history. Aspects of many musical genres and styles originated in the nation, considered the home of West African drumming and improvisation: polyrhythm and systematic cross-­rhythm (found in Eu­ro­pean classical ­music and Afro-­Cuban ­music); collective improvisation (as in American Dixieland, where several members of the frontline—­clarinet, cornet, and trombone—­improvise together); bebop; and cool jazz. Traditional ­music is regionally divided between the north (connected to Sahelian ­music and performed by ­people who speak Gur and Mande) and coastal south (performed by ­people who speak Kwa languages, including Akan). Polyrhythms, defined as at least two si­mul­ta­neously played pattern of rhythms, occur in both regions’ ­music. Northern traditions include gyll ­music, played on the balafon (a kind of xylophone), and griot singing traditions, whereas southern traditions include drumming, dance ­music, and songs in Akan. Both regions use what are called “talking drums” (called dondo or odondo in Akan, Fante, Twi, and Baoule; kalangu or dan kar’bi in Hausa) in ­music and communication. The talking drum has an hourglass shape and skin drumheads on both ends that are connected through tension by leather cords that are banded in the ­middle. The drums’ talking takes the form of the sound of humming or mimicking tone patterns of speech created by changes in pitch as the drummer squeezes the cords between the arm and the body. A hooked stick is used to hit the drums. Both regions also use clapping as percussion. Ghanaian drumming includes other drums, such as the adowa and kete, as well as bells. The northern region uses string instruments (chordophones) such as the kologo (a lute) and gonjey (fiddle) as well as wind instruments (aerophones) such as flutes and horns.

HIGHLIFE Ca­r ib­bean ­music has been influential to Ghanaian popu­lar ­music, which includes Afrobeat, Afrorock, palm wine ­music (known as maringa in Sierra Leone, with roots ­going back to the 1880s and employing Trinbagonian calypso melodies and rhythms), and highlife (a guitar band musical style that fuses American swing jazz and rock with Jamaican ska and Congolese soukous, derived from Congolese rumba). Highlife emerged in the 1920s. It uses Akan rhythms and is played with multiple Western instruments, such as lead and rhythm guitar, horns, and vocals. By the 1940s, guitar band highlife and dance band highlife had developed; the latter dominated in urban areas. By the 1950s and 1960s, rock had been incorporated. With acts such as A. B. Crentsil (Alfred Benjamin Crensil, 1943–) and Nana Ampadu (1945–), and ­later with Amakye Dede (aka Iron Boy, Highlife Maestro, Abrantie, Dan Amakye Dede, 1958–) and Bisa Kdei (Ronald Kwaku Dei Appiah, 1986–), highlife’s popularity had spread to Nigeria, Gambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. George Darko (1951–), Charles Kwadwo Fosuh (1964–), and Nana Acheampong (aka Champion Lover boy, Ernest Acheamponng, n.d.) established the subgenre burger highlife in Germany.

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GH RAP AND HIPLIFE Other pioneering artists, Native Funk Lords (NFL, 1992*–1997, including members of Chief G and the Tribe), who rapped in pidgin En­glish, and Talking Drums (1990–1994)* and Nananom (meaning in Asante Kings and Queens, 1994–2001*), who rapped in Twi, began combining highlife (especially its heavy use of rhythm guitar) with American hip hop. This new hip hop style became known as hiplife. Though it emerged in the 1990s, hiplife’s roots can be traced further back to the 1970s, when Ghanaian musicians experimented with fusing rap with highlife, reggae, rock, and gospel. For example, in 1973, multi-­i nstrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and ­later rec­ord producer Gyedu Blay Ambolley (1947–) released “Simigwa-do” (a title based on his fusion of highlife and jazz), fusing Fante and En­glish rap passages with Fante-­style highlife. In 1993, Talking Drums released the first hiplife single, “Aden?” In 1994, Reggie Rockstone (Reginald Yaw Asante Ossei, 1967*–) came to Accra from New York City to perform at the Panifest, an event that celebrated both Ghana and the African diaspora. He was so impressed by Accra’s GH rap scene that he recorded with his cousin Sidney Ofori (n.d.) of Nananom. Reggie Rockstone, who was born in ­England and grew up in the United States, was already an established rapper. The former member of the London group PLZ (Parables, Linguistics, and Zlang, 1992–1993) produced successful early hiplife studio ­albums such as Makaa maka (I Said It ­Because I Said It, 1997), Me na me kae (I Was the One Who Said It, 1999), and Me ka (I W ­ ill Say, 2000), and became known as “the Godfather of Hiplife.” Shortly afterward, Buk Bak (pidgin En­glish for School Books, 1996*– 2006, 2011–2013), became the first successful hiplife rapping crew that used Ga texts. Buk Bak also rapped in Twi and pidgin En­glish. Con­temporary acts included Black Monkz (1995–), VVIP (formerly Vision in Pro­g ress, 1997–), Akyeame (1997–2016*), Lord ­Kenya (Abraham Philip Akpor Kojo, 1978–), and Jay Q (Jeff Tennyson Quaye, 1977–). The last produced Buk Bak and VIP, highlife acts such as ­Daddy Lumba and Nana Acheampong, and post-2000 hiplife acts such as Castro (Theo­philus Tagoe Castro, 1982–2014)*. Jay Q also incorporated into hiplife a 1960s urban recreational dance m ­ usic from Ga communities called kpanlogo. In 1999, Hammer (aka Tony Starks, Edward Nana Poku Osei, 1976–), as part of the production duo the Last Two (1999–), produced Obrafour’s (The Executioner, Michael Elliot Kwabena Okyere Darko, 1976–) Pae mu ka (To Proclaim the Truth in Akan), the best-­selling hiplife ­album in Ghana. Shortly afterward, the duo broke up, and Hammer became Hammer of the Last Two. At the time, the language tendency leaned ­toward Akan and pidgin En­glish (for example, by 2004, Reggie Rockstone had opted to rap in pidgin En­glish only). Meanwhile, the London-­born producer Panji Anoff (aka ­Uncle Panji, Panji Marc Owoof Anoff, n.d.) produced GH rap and hiplife in pidgin En­glish. In contrast, Hammer of the Last Two produced and promoted GH rap and hiplife acts in languages other than Akan. Such acts included Kwaw Kese (aka Abodam or Craziness, Emmanuel Botway, 1977–), Tinny (Nii Addo Quaynor, 1982–), Edem (Denning Edem Hotor, 1986–), and Sarkodie (1985–). All rap and sing in Twi and use pidgin En­glish; Tinny and Edem also use Ewe, while Kwaw Kese and Edem also use Ga. The exception, Kwaw Kese, also uses Akan.

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Since the 2000s, Sarkodie has been one of the most critically acclaimed GH rappers. He also rec­ords hiplife and azonto, the latter being a Ghanaian musical genre that employs fast-­paced dance beats to accompany a dance characterized by hand movements that pantomime everyday activities to amuse and relay coded messages to an audience. Sarkodie’s lyr­ics focus on romance, praising God, friendship, and street life. The single “Baby” from his debut a­ lbum Makye (2009) became a national hit. In 2011, Sarkodie collaborated with producer and rapper EL (1986–) and had a hit with “You Go Kill Me,” which employed azonto beats, and he released his second and most successful a­ lbum, Rapperholic (2011). EL raps in pidgin En­glish, Ga, Twi, and Ewe on his ­albums Something Else (2012) and ELOM (Every­body loves original ­music, 2016). His lyrical content is similar to Sarkodie’s. EL’s ­career began in 2002 when he joined producer, keyboardist, and pidgin En­glish rapper-­songwriter Jayso’s (Paul Nuamah Donkor, 1983–) collective Skillions (aka Skills in a Million, The Skillions, 1999*–), which included rapper and producer Ball J (aka Ball J Beat, Albert Ayeh-­Hanson, 1984–). EL signed onto Jayso’s label, Skillions Rec­ords (2008–), which produced the first GH rap mixtape, Skillionaires (2009). By 2011, EL had become Ghana’s most successful hiplife producer, working with Reggie Rockstone, Sarkodie, D-­Black (Desmond Kwesi Blackmore, 1986–), and C-­Real (1984–). Con­temporary hiplife acts often rec­ord GH Rap and fuse other genres such as R&B, dancehall, reggae, African jazz, and Afropop. ­These acts include R2Bees (2007–), Appietus (Appiah Dankwah, 1977–), KluMonsta (Jeffrey Klu, n.d.), Samini (aka Batman Samini, meaning Rain God in Dagaare or Waale, Emmanuel Andrews Samini, 1981–), Trigmatic (aka Trig Ma Dollar, Enoch Nana Yaw Oduro-­Adjei, 1984–), Guru (aka Gurunkz, Maradona Yeboah Adjei, 1987–), StoneBwoy (Livingstone Etse Satekla, 1988–), Kojo Cue (Linford Kennedy Amankwaa, 1989–), Joey B (aka Beezy, Darryl Paa Kwesi Bannerman-­Martin, 1989–), MzVee (Vera Hamenoo-­ Kpeda, 1992–) and her producer Richie (Richie Mensah, 1986–), Asumadu (Solomon Asumadu Mensah, 1993–), Pappy Kojo (aka Fante Van Damme, Realer, No, Jason Gaisie, 1989–), Ruff n Smooth (2009–), and Fancy Gadam (Mujahid Ahmed Bello, 1988–). In the 2010s, hip hop artists have shown interest in combining spoken-­word arts, as exemplified in Mutombo da Poet’s (aka Mutombo the Poet, anonymous, n.d.) debut studio a­ lbum Photosentences (2012) in pidgin En­glish, Standard En­glish, and Twi. Banku ­music, a fusion of Ghanaian highlife and bounce with Nigerian chord progressions, has also emerged and is pioneered by Nigerian singer-­songwriter Mr Eazi (Oluwatosin Oluwole Ajibade, 1991–).

DIASPORA ACTS Ghana’s diaspora acts have concentrated in Eu­rope as well as the United States. Several Ghanaian hip hop artists ­were born and live in London and focus on En­glish hip hop and grime, including D-­Black, Sway (1982–), Stormzy (aka Wicked Skengman, Michael Ebenazer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr., 1993–), Tinchy Stryder (aka The Star in the Hood, Kwasi Danquah, 1987–), and Fuse ODG (Nana Richard Abiona, 1988–). In addition, MC and producer Kobi Onyame (Kwame Barfour-­Osei, 1982–)



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is based in Glasgow, Scotland, and FOKN Bois (2008–) is based in Budapest, Hungary. Diaspora acts in the United States include M.anifest (Kwame Ametepee Tsikata, 1982–), of Minneapolis; Akwadaa Nyame (Kwame Aduse Poku, n.d.), of the Bronx, New York; Blitz the Ambassador (Samuel Bazawule, 1982–), of Brooklyn, New York; Kursa Chyld (1985–­, anonymous), of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Atlanta; N-­Dex (Dexter Owusu, 1986–), of Oklahoma City; and Coptic (Eric Matlock, n.d.), of New York City. Coptic produced ­music for notable American hip hop acts such as the Notorious B.I.G. (1972–1997), Puff ­Daddy (1969–), KRS-­One (1965–), and Jermaine Dupri (1972–). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: EL; Nigeria; Reggae; Sarkodie; The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Collins, John. 2012. “Con­temporary Ghanaian Popu­lar ­Music since the 1980s.” In Hip Hop Africa: New African M ­ usic in a Globalizing World, edited by Eric Charry, chap. 10. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Osumare, Halifu. 2012. The Hiplife in Ghana: West African Indigenization of Hip Hop. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Shipley, Jesse Weaver. 2012. “The Birth of Ghanaian Hiplife: Urban Style, Black Thought, Proverbial Speech.” In Hip Hop Africa, edited by Eric Charry, chap. 1. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Further Listening

Blitz the Ambassador. 2016. Diasporadical. Jakarta. D-­Black. Lightwork. 2016. Black Ave­nue Muzik. Fancy Gadam. 2017. All Eyes on Me. 5M ­Music. Mutombo da Poet. 2012. Photosentences. Pidgin M ­ usic. Sarkodie. Makye. 2009. Duncwills Entertainment.

Glitch Hop Glitch hop is a subgenre of both electronica and hip hop. It blends breakbeats, hip hop bass grooves, and rap samples with the sounds, techniques, and looping practices of glitch m ­ usic, which is ­music that deliberately incorporates errors or glitches, such as audio malfunctions—­skips, hums, distortion, noise, even incorrect bit rate use. Like hip hop and electronica in general, glitch hop has an ever-­shifting nature, which results in a variety of techniques and styles. It can lean more ­toward electronic dance m ­ usic than hip hop, but this is not always the case, and it may or may not include rap. Glitch hop is international, with the majority of artists representing the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. ORIGINS AND SOUNDS Glitch m ­ usic, as a parent genre to glitch hop, grew out of the practice of validating aural error. With the proliferation of digital media in the 1990s, the sounds of error changed from rec­ord scratches and garbled tape to CD skips and computer

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blips. ­These sonic disturbances—­electronic hums, clicks, distortions, and bleeps—­ came to be referred to as glitches. Some digital musicians embraced ­these sounds, just as analog musicians and sound artists in earlier de­cades had validated similar pro­cess errors in turntables and magnetic tape. Glitch ­music became popu­lar internationally (though particularly in Japan, Northern Eu­rope, and North Amer­i­ca), with composers conceptualizing their m ­ usic as a series of t­ hese incidents merged into a unified ­whole using digital pro­cessing. Sometimes it involves the concepts of “sound mangling” or “crunching,” the generation and programming of microsounds, which are sounds lasting less than one-­tenth of a second. ­T hese microsounds are then combined as coherent pulses and rhythms. Sometimes it involves the transformation of synthesized or sampled sound through techniques such as warping, frequency sweeping, timestretching, layering, pitch shifting, and bit reduction. Given this approach, it should be no surprise that glitch m ­ usic as a genre is often viewed as residing in a space somewhere between popu­lar electronic dance ­music and the intellectual avant-­garde. Given hip hop’s reliance on sampling, it is no surprise that glitch and hip hop merged in the late 1990s with the band often cited as the earliest glitch hop act, Miami-­based Push Button Objects (aka PBO, 1997–2003). PBO’s EP Cash (1997) demonstrates that the first gestures in this direction ­were more heavi­ly influenced by hip hop than are the current trends. PBO—­like most hip hop and electronica artists—­relied on a drum machine to create breakbeats, using the machine’s looping and layering functions as inspiration for the formal structure of compositions. PBO’s Edgar Farinas (n.d.) synthesized electronic sounds and keyboard pads, crunching, stretching, shifting, and warping them into the experimental timbres and iterations found in glitch ­music. He also sampled preexisting sounds and vocal passages or statements, usually transforming them digitally as well, but often d­ oing so in a way that mimicked the short repetitions and scratching effects created on turntables by analog DJs. Cash loops heavy backbeats and bass grooves, layers glitch sounds and melodies, and inserts grainy, spliced vocals. ­These traits remain influential in PBO’s subsequent releases and are especially potent in PBO’s best-­k nown single, “360°” (2000), created with Del the Funky Homosapien (Teren Delvon Jones, 1972–), Mr. Lif (Jeffrey Haynes, 1974–), and DJ Craze (Aristh Delgado, 1977–). The song goes further, however, in its repre­sen­ta­tion of the hip hop style, not only sampling and transforming short, rapped vocal passages but presenting more complete and complex raps by guest artists. This approach is also found in the first ­album by Prefuse 73, the proj­ect band of Guillermo Scott Herren (1976–), Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives (2001).

INFLUENCES OF LO-­FI AND TECHNOLOGY Glitch hop artists initially embraced a lo-fi aesthetic that connected them to their roots in hip hop and early glitch m ­ usic, but as time passed, the sound of glitch hop became more refined, incorporating modern electronica aesthetics and prioritizing



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a cleaner, more exacting sound. This can be attributed to prodigious advances in digital tools, such as the inexpensive Akai ­Music Production Controller series, and computer pro­cessing speeds. Glitch hop continues to rely on looping and layering for its form, and as is the case for most subgenres of electronica, the differences between glitch hop and its related styles are often ambiguous. Although hip hop ele­ments such as breakbeats and sampled rap vocals have remained, ­these ele­ments do not necessarily need to be pres­ent for a track to be identified as glitch hop. “Vice” (2013) by Dodge (Rob Talbot, n.d.), Fuski (Christopher Allen, n.d.), and Culprate (John Hilsop, n.d.), for instance, emphasizes hip hop–­style vocal intrusions and synthesizer melodies, while glitch hop tracks by David Tipper (1976–) tend more fully ­toward electronica. His track “­Bubble Control” (­Bubble Control, 2011), for instance, arguably references the warped sub-­bass of dubstep and the floating atmospheres of ambient ­music but retains its glitch hop label through its prominent breakbeat and its imitation turntable scratches. “­Bubble Control” exemplifies Tipper’s prioritization of experimentation in timbre and rhythm in glitch sound design as he blurs bound­aries across several areas of electronica. Additional glitch hop artists and groups include Dabrye (Tadd Mullinix, n.d.), the Glitch Mob (2006–), Autechre (1987–), Taylor Deupree (1971–), Flying Lotus (1983–), and Pretty Lights (1981–). As demonstrated by Tipper’s “­Bubble Control,” con­temporary glitch hop artists tend to conceive of their ­music as part of a constellation of subgenres, a web of stylistic relationships that engulf glitch hop but can also include IDM (intelligent dance ­music), ambient, wonky, neurohop, electrogaze, trip hop, and dubstep, among many ­others. Jessica Leah Getman See also: Industrial Hip Hop; Nerdcore

Further Reading

D’Errico, Mike. 2015. “Off the Grid: Instrumental Hip Hop and Experimentation ­after the Golden Age.” In The Cambridge Companion to Hip Hop, edited by Justin Williams, chap. 22. Cambridge, E ­ ngland: Cambridge University Press. Vanhanen, Janne. 2003. “Virtual Sound: Examining Glitch and Production.” Con­temporary ­Music Review 22, no. 4: 45–52.

Further Listening

Prefuse 73. 2001. Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives. Warp Rec­ords. Push Button Objects. 1997. Cash EP. Schematic. Tipper, David. 2011. ­Bubble Control EP. Tippermusic.

Graffiti Art Graffiti art can be found in almost any urban environment and in some rural communities, as well as in railways (on train cars) and on other public transportation. It can take the form of vandalism—of buildings, cars, and trains, as spray-­painted symbols, words, and images. This vandalism, known as graffiti, has a rich history, accented by significant cultural and po­liti­cal movements and designed to be viewed

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The use of spray paint is the most popu­lar technique used in graffiti, a major aspect of hip hop culture. Inexpensive and easily accessible, spray paint has been used in graffiti that had been considered vandalism, as with bombing (spray painting graffiti images) trains or subway cars. Recently, graffiti has been re-­classified as art, as exhibited in the works of Fab Five Freddy, and many o ­ thers. Some cities even contract graffiti artists for beautification proj­ects. (Mirko Vitali​/­Dreamstime​.­com)

openly by the public, w ­ hether desired or not by governmental entities or private businesses. Graffiti has certainly been around longer, but for at least the last five de­cades, this practice of marking public spaces has developed into a profound art form, utilizing professional-­grade techniques and expressing deep meaning for the artist and sometimes the viewer. Graffiti art has evolved to become many cities’ most beloved art form, with large neighborhoods and metropolitan areas embracing and encouraging more works, some even being commissioned by private companies and city leaders. Graffiti’s history can be traced back to ancient Egypt and Greece, cultures that encouraged public renderings of images of ships, ­battles, and religious symbols. Such images’ being considered a public art form notwithstanding, modern culture’s perception of ­these images has been less about art and more about historical context, especially since poetry was a significant part of ­these ancient art forms. It ­wasn’t ­until World War II (1939–1945) that graffiti was used as a symbol of defiance (beyond the individual acts of painting ­people’s dwellings with racial slurs or incendiary accusations of treason to intimidate them). The emergence of the rallying cry “Kilroy was ­here,” tagged on walls throughout Eu­rope to strike fear into the Germans, implying that the Allied forces could be anywhere and everywhere, made symbolic and cultural graffiti more common. This Kilroy image of the bald-­ headed man with a large nose peaking over a wall became iconic during World War II and for many years afterward. During the United States Civil Rights Movement (1954–1968), many images ­were drawn in public areas to express anger and



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frustration over the racial in­equality in Amer­i­ca. This trend continued into the 1970s, and can be seen ­today with the Black Lives ­Matter movement (2013–). As of 2018, graffiti has multiple functions, from expressing the artist’s individuality and prowess to protesting war and calling attention to significant po­liti­cal issues in Amer­i­ca and abroad. Graffiti has also kept its ties to pop culture iconography, gang symbols, and psychedelic drug hallucinations. The term graffiti art shows a cultural ac­cep­tance of graffiti as a legitimate art form, based on the artist’s intent and his or her mastery of specialized techniques. Most graffiti artists use spray paint as their primary medium, and some use stencils and markers to help in graffiti creation. Specialized nozzles created for spray paint cans make pos­si­ble dif­fer­ent spray patterns, aiding in the creation of straight edges or wide gradations and helping artists blend dif­fer­ent colors and patterns. Spray paint became the popu­lar medium b­ ecause of ease of access, as well as its ability to adhere to most surfaces and dry quickly and efficiently; spray paint manufacturers also provide a wide array of colors and textures. Other techniques include bleach or acid marking, wheatpasting and paste-­ups, letter pressing or rubbing, street poster art, sculpture, and installations. Many artists illegally paint or tag buildings and therefore need to make a quick escape from the scene of the crime, so the need for a fast-­ drying medium is paramount, especially since much gang-­ related tagging (including artist symbols—­images that artists use as their signatures) are painted on highway overpasses, train cars, public concrete walls, and government buildings and grounds. But not all graffiti is ­simple tagging. Large-­scale murals are now a significant part of graffiti art, and many artists are being commissioned by cities, neighborhoods, and businesses to create t­hese murals, helping to establish community identities in urban environments. The Denver RiNo District is one of ­these areas in the United States—­here businesses are embracing the individuality of vari­ous artists and their viewpoints. The area was the old ware­house district just off the railway lines where goods ­were h­ oused before being sent on to stores. Now the area is being converted into urban housing, bars and breweries, and restaurants, which have large areas of wall space for the creation of ­these murals. Houston’s Third Ward is another example of a ware­house district g­ oing through the same kind of conversion. Its large walls offer ideal spaces for artists to create larger-­than-­life pictorials and community pride. Internationally, graffiti art is highly respected, especially in Eu­rope and South Amer­i­ca, with large-­scale works on the sides of skyscrapers and monuments. Just a few internationally renowned graffiti artists of the hip hop era include Fab Five Freddy (1959–), who along with graffiti artists such as Jean-­Michel Basquiat (1960– 1988) and Puerto Rican–­born Lee Quiñones (George Lee Quiñones, 1960–) helped introduce and connect the New York art world to graffiti art; Banksy (anonymous, n.d.) of ­England; Blek le Rat (Xavier Prou, 1952–) and Jef Aérosol (Jean-­François Perroy, 1957–) of France; Faith47 (anonymous, 1979–) of South Africa; Rone (Tyrone Wright, 1980–) of Australia; and Anti-­Nuke (anonymous, n.d.) of Japan. The Berlin Wall contains a two-­mile stretch of graffiti artwork ­after artwork, each with its own perspective on the history of the wall itself, including German ancestral and Nazi atrocities committed against Jews, other ­people, and other countries during World War II. In Poland, Lithuania, Spain, the United Kingdom, Puerto

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Rico, and other countries, artists have been commissioned by apartment building ­owners to create works that exceed 10 stories high, giving entire neighborhoods a glimpse into the mind of the artist, whose storytelling is relevant to the community in which his or her graffiti piece is painted. In contrast, it is difficult to find graffiti in some countries that have oppressive governments (for example, Af­ghan­i­stan, Demo­cratic Republic of Congo, and North ­Korea) or maintain restrictions against it for reasons such as promoting tourism or perceptions of cleanliness (for example, Brunei, Mauritius, and Singapore). Matthew Schlief See also: Fab Five Freddy; Gangs (United States)

Further Reading

Christensen, Miyase, and Tindra Thor. 2017. “The Reciprocal City: Performing Solidarity—­ Mediating Space through Street Art and Graffiti.” International Communication Gazette 79, nos. 6–7: 584–612. Merrill, Samuel. 2015. “Keeping It Real? Subcultural Graffiti, Street Art, Heritage and Authenticity.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 21, no. 4: 369–89.

Grandmaster Flash (Joseph Saddler, 1958–­, Bridgetown, Barbados) Grandmaster Flash is best known for his association with the Furious Five (1976– 1982), a hip hop group founded in the Bronx, New York, in the mid-1970s. Born in Barbados, he emigrated as a child (with his ­family). He grew up with not only a keen interest in electronics and audio circuitry but also the experience of his ­father’s extensive rec­ord collection, consisting largely of Ca­rib­bean and African American ­music. Although the group disbanded in the 1980s, they have re­united for per­for­mances. EARLY TECHNIQUES Grandmaster Flash began DJing as a teen, modeling his sound system and style a­ fter pioneering hip hop artist DJ Kool Herc (1955–) and studying the techniques of Pete Jones (n.d.) and Grandmaster Flowers (Jonathan Cameron Flowers, d. 1992*), considered the first American mobile DJ by many scholars. Grandmaster Flash was a celebrated party DJ in the 1970s, working with Kurtis Blow (1959–) and Lovebug Starski (Kevin Smith, 1960–). Flash relied on his DJ experience, his knowledge of popu­lar ­music, and his expertise in electronics to create the technology and techniques that would allow him not only to mix, but also to make his own beats. To that end, he introduced the beatbox, a manually operated, custom-­ rigged drum machine, and custom-­built much of his equipment as he developed his innovative approach to turntablism. Flash pioneered what he called the quick-­mix method, which incorporated cutting, backspin, and double-­back, using the turntables in innovative ways, such as a counterpoint to vocals. Flash worked closely with colleague GrandWizard Theodore (1963–), who is credited with developing turntable scratching.



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GRANDMASTER FLASH AND THE FURIOUS FIVE Grandmaster Flash’s crew grew around him. By the mid-1970s, he was performing with three MCs who rapped while he DJed: The Kidd Creole (Nathaniel Glover, 1960–), Melle Mel (Melvin Glover, 1961–), and Cowboy (Keith Wiggins, 1960–). Calling themselves Grandmaster Flash and the 3 MCs, they began performing in 1976 at Disco Fever in the Bronx; the group became one of the first hip hop groups to secure a regular engagement in a well known venue. ­Later, the group added Scorpio (aka Mr. Ness, Eddie Morris, n.d.) and Rahiem (Guy Todd Williams, n.d.) to form the Furious Five. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five signed with Enjoy Rec­ords (1962–1995) and in 1979 released their first single, “Superappin,” in which the five MCs introduce themselves and their styles over Flash’s high-­energy, funk beats that sample “Seven Minutes of Funk” by the short-­lived band the Whole Darn ­Family (1976). The following year, the group signed with Sugar Hill Rec­ords (1979–) and released “Freedom,” which showcased Flash’s extraordinary mixing skills—­his sampling of Freedom’s (1977–1984) “Get Up and Dance” (1979) with the high energy of the Furious Five at the mic—­conveying all the creativity and excitement of a jam in a recording. To their emerging hip hop style, the Furious Five added rap routines, nonimprovised rhymes in which the rappers would finish one another’s lines, moving text delivery rapidly around the group. As a lead innovator of turntable technique and hip hop style, Grandmaster Flash became the first DJ to make an entire recording based on mixing other rec­ords: in 1981, Sugar Hill Rec­ords produced “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel” (referring to his dual turn­ tables). ­Here Grandmaster Flash showcased his mixing skills and demonstrated the growing possibilities of intertextuality and intermusicality in hip hop as he combined ele­ments of vari­ous iconic songs with his group’s own “Freedom” (1980). The socially conscious lyr­ics delivered by Melle Mel in “The Message” (1982) and “New York, New York” (1983) ushered in message rap, a new kind of rap that forcibly shed light on social and po­liti­cal issues. The narrative of “The Message,” delivered in Melle Mel’s gritty, power­f ul style, focused on endemic poverty, vio­ lence, a lack of positive role models, and the nearly inexorable trajectory ­toward the prison system for many African American young men. Grandmaster Flash’s beat undergirds the text with an understated, tense, midtempo, synthesized motif. This spare sound would pervade other hip hop beats of the early 1980s. Live per­for­mances of “The Message” often featured all of the Furious Five MCs taking turns on the verses. ­Because of both its skilled musicianship and its demonstration of the power of rap as a sociopo­liti­cal vehicle for expressing the realities faced by many African Americans, the song won significant honors: it reached No. 4 on Billboard’s R&B chart before ­going Platinum; the Village Voice (1955–) and Rolling Stone (1967–) named it single of the year; and it was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress in 2002 for the National Recording Registry (the first hip hop recording to receive this honor). Flash and Melle Mel continued recording message rap, releasing “White Lines (­Don’t ­Don’t Do It)” (1983), warning of the dangers of cocaine. In an ironic musical

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meta­phor, Flash’s backup singers provide vocal samples, between verses, of the harmonic bridge of the Beatles’ (1960–1970) “Twist and Shout” (1963), lines from white ­music to represent white lines. In “Beat Street Breakdown” (Sugar Hill Rec­ords, recorded for the 1984 American film Beat Street), Melle Mel delivers a message about vio­lence and poverty while imagining a brighter f­ uture for African Americans; as a DJ, Grandmaster Flash offers an exquisite example of virtuosic turntablism, with a scratching technique that takes on a rhetorical, almost verbal quality. In 2007, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five ­were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in a ceremony presided over by Jay-­Z (1969–). The 21st ­century has also seen the group honored in the Grammy Hall of Fame (2011). As of 2018, Grandmaster Flash has continued to DJ and remains a key figure in legitimizing the notion of DJ as musician and turntable as instrument. Jennifer L. Roth-­Burnette See also: GrandWizard Theodore; Melle Mel; Turntablism; The United States

Further Reading

Chang, Jeff. 2005. ­Can’t Stop, ­Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation. New York: Picador. Ewoodzie, Joseph C. Jr. 2017. Break Beats in the Bronx: Rediscovering Hip Hop’s Early Years. Chapel Hill: UNC Press Books. Forman, Murray, and Mark Anthony Neal, eds. 2004. That’s the Joint: The Hip Hop Studies Reader. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge. Reeves, Marcus. 2008. “The New Afro-­Urban Movement.” In Somebody Scream! Rap ­Music’s Rise to Prominence in the Aftershock of Black Power, chap. 2. New York: Faber and Faber. Williams, H. C. 2007. “Grandmaster Flash.” In Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, ­Music and Culture, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 1. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

GrandWizard Theodore (aka G ­ rand Wizzard Theodore, Theodore Livingston, 1963–­, Bronx, New York) GrandWizard Theodore is a pioneering American hip hop turntablist and DJ who was credited for creating scratching, moving an ­album forward and/or backward to create rhythmic sounds, ­either unaccompanied (solo) or accompanying another ­album, in 1975. Scratching ­later became the basis of all turntablist techniques. Shortly afterward, he developed and specialized in rec­ord needle drops, which ­were done without cuing up the rec­ord (marking spots on an ­album with small stickers or wax pencils).

THE STORY OF THE SCRATCH Born Theodore Livingston, GrandWizard Theodore at a young age became a Bronx ­house party DJ who formed the L ­Brothers (aka The Love ­Brothers,



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1970s–1980s*) with his two older ­brothers (the L ­Brothers would ­later become part of the Fantastic Five). In 1975, ­after returning from school, he was playing ­albums on a rec­ord player in his bedroom and practicing his DJ skills for local parties when he was told by his m ­ other that his playing was too loud. To pay attention to her, he tried to hold the ­album he was playing in place with his hand but accidentally moved it forward and backward (this technique l­ater would become known as a rub, though it became the first scratch). From that point on, he took interest in this accidental sound and began to explore its musical potential, planning to introduce rubbing (as well as scratching) as part of his DJ sets for ­house parties in the Bronx. The L ­Brothers ­were friends with and sometimes worked with pioneering turntablist Grandmaster Flash (1958–), who had already developed the backspin technique (aka quick-­mix theory) to extend the instrumental breaks of a song. GrandWizard Theodore worked with him to further develop the scratching technique. Combining mixing and scratching (using the regular, or forward, hand-­moving style) with needle drops and other techniques, GrandWizard Theodore soon used turntablism as musical accompaniment as well as solo musical per­for­mance. GRANDWIZARD THEODORE AND THE FANTASTIC FIVE In 1979, he became the leader of the American old-­school hip hop and disco group GrandWizard Theodore and the Fantastic Five (aka Fantastic Five, Fantastic Freaks, The Fantastic Romantic 5, 1979*–). In 1980, the group released the 12-­inch single “Can I Get a Soul Clap (Fresh out the Pack),” which consisted of the five MCs rapping against GrandWizard Theodore’s rhythmic scratches. GrandWizard Theodore and the Fantastic Five ­were best known for appearing in the American hip hop feature film Wild Style (1983). ­Later the group appeared with American old-­school hip hop group the Cold Crush ­Brothers (1978–) on the track “Stylewild ’94,” from Public ­Enemy’s (1986–) DJ Terminator X’s (Norman Rogers, 1966–) last solo studio ­album Super Bad (1994). The group also recorded on Harlem World 1981 (1998), a 1981 live MC ­battle tape between Cold Crush ­Brothers and the Fantastic Five that was released nearly 20 years ­later. As of 2018, stylizing his name with a second z and adding a space, ­Grand Wizzard Theodore still performs and teaches turntablism classes, most notably at Jam Master Jay’s (Jason William Mizell, 1965–2002) Scratch DJ Acad­emy (2002–). In 1998, GrandWizard Theodore was inducted into the Technics DJ Hall of Fame, and in 2014 he was among the first DJs to have his handprints immortalized in a cement square on Guitar Center’s (1959–) RockWalk in Hollywood. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Grandmaster Flash; Turntablism; The United States

Further Reading

Katz, Mark. 2010. “The Turntable as Weapon: Understanding the Hip Hop DJ ­Battle.” In Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed M ­ usic, chap. 6. Rev. ed. Berkeley: University of California Press. Katz, Mark. 2012. Groove ­Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ. New York: Oxford University Press.

296 Greece Webber, Stephen. 2008. “The Rise of the Hip Hop DJ: Featuring Original Interviews with Rob Swift and DJ Shadow.” In DJ Skills: The Essential Guide to Mixing and Scratching, chap. 4. Burlington, MA: Focal Press.

Greece Greece’s hip hop scene emerged slightly ­later than ­those of most Eu­ro­pean countries, with the earliest bands forming in the mid-1980s. This is a surprisingly slow development, considering how urban Greek culture embraced graffiti, subversive Greek popu­lar ­music (such as rebetika, entelina, or the new wave laika), and way-­ of-­life countercultures such as zamanfou (aka ochaderfismos), centered on social loafing. Preferences for Greek popu­lar and folk ­music, American rock, and Jamaican reggae, as well as a general anti-­A merican sentiment, made it difficult for American-­style rap to take hold. American hip hop first became in­ter­est­ing to Greeks through films such as Wild Style and Flashdance (both 1983) as well as Beat Street, Breakin’ and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (all 1984). Space FM 93.9 was one of the earliest Greek radio stations to play local hip hop. MC Dimitris Mentzelos (1968–), of the hip hop group Imiskoúmbria (aka Imiz or The Semi Sardines, 1996–), formerly Tar ‘n’ Feathers and Hemi­sphere, hosted the radio show Breathless on the station from 1992 to 1993. MTV (1981–) and the Greek ­music channel MAD TV (aka MAD, 1996–) also aired American hip hop. MAD TV’s show StreetBeat (1997*–) introduced Greek youth to global and local hip hop, and tourists and immigrants brought hip hop m ­ usic with them, especially to Athens, which by the 1990s had a hip hop dance club, Sussex, and a hip hop roller rink, the Roxy. Athens became the center of Greek hip hop, though hip hop activity existed in a few places such as Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-­largest city; however, by the late 1980s, hip hop had reached the Greek islands, resulting in Cypriot hip hop. Pioneering groups in Athens included Imiskoúmbria, FF.C (FortiFied Concept, 1987–2005), Terror X Crew (1992–2002), Active Member (1992–2015, 2017–), and the first commercially successful Greek act, Goin’ Through (1993–). Several early Greek hip hop musicians began their interest in hip hop as ­either graffiti artists, such as Terror X Crew’s Artémis (Artémis Fanourgiákis, n.d.), or breakdancers, such as FF.C’s Kostis Kourmentalas (n.d.), Terror X Crew’s Efthýmis Bilios (n.d.), and Goin’ Through’s Michalis Papathanasiou (n.d.). Early rap MCs favored En­glish, but by the late 1980s, Greek texts had become favored. In 1992, Active Member released the first hip hop ­album in Greek, Protest. The early hardcore hip hop group Terror X Crew continued to rap in En­glish as well (and have rapped in Ancient Greek). Some pioneering hip hop artists fused hip hop with other kinds of ­music. For example, FF.C fused po­liti­cal hip hop with rock, and Terror X Crew fused hardcore hip hop with punk. Imiskoúmbria gained an international reputation through pioneered comedy rap. Other early acts included Razastarr (1993–2010, 2016–), Frontal Attack (aka Psi, 1995–), and Stíchoima (Lyr­ics, 1999–). ­Later hip hop acts included the duo Artémis/Efthýmis (A/E, 2002–), consisting of ex–­Terror X Crew members. ­After leaving Active Member, rapper X-­ray (aka Xray, Cheap Science, Nikitas Klint, 1975–) formed the band Rodes (2002–2010),

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which fused hip hop with traditional Greek ­music, rock, dubstep, and electronica. San Diego, California–­born Greek rapper, ­music producer, and tattoo artist Táki Tsan (Panagiótis Stravaléxis, 1979–), known variously as Waze, Paidí Thávma (Whiz Kid), Tymvorýchos (Tambourine), and Tay Chan, formed and fronted Zontani Nekri (ZN, Living Dead, 1997–), Greece’s first gangsta rap group. ZN released the first Greek gangsta rap ­album, The First Volume (1998). Tay Chan ­later formed Tigré Sporákia (Tiger Snakes, 2003–) with Eisvoléas (Invader, Ilías Papanikolós, 1985–) of the hardcore hip hop group Alfa Gama (1990s*). Paremvolés (Interferences, 1990s*) released the first hardcore rap ­album, En opsi (In Consideration Of, 1999). Since the 2000s, Greek hip hop has entered mainstream popularity. Notable examples include rappers Stereo Mike (Mihalis Exarchos, 1978–), Katachthónios (Infernal, Lázaros Karakóstas, 1978–), and Sifu Versus (Nikos Domvros, 1980–). Notable bands include Warriorz (2002–), Stavento (2004–), Trendy Hooliguns (2004–), and FlyByWire (2009–). Supergroups also emerged, such as La Klikária (The Clique, 2000–2001), which consisted of Imiskoúmbria, Dr.  Dreez (Chrístos Alexandrís, 1971–), and Mamaletta (Mariletta Konstantara, n.d.) of the multinational group Endangered Speeches (2009–) and was formed at Berklee College of ­Music in Boston.

LOW BAP In the early 2000s, Skliropyrinikó (hardcore) and low bap became dominant hip hop subgenres in Athens. Low bap uses a slower tempo as well as a quieter and gentler approach to rap than hardcore, alluding to the boombap production sound—­a kick drum “boom” sound followed by a snare drum “bap” sound, looped, plus throbbing bass. Active Member transformed into a low bap collective and led the Low Bap Movement, which is committed to promoting leftist social and po­liti­cal change. Original members included X-­ray; rapper, hip hop producer, and sampler BDFoxmoor (Michalis Mitakidis, 1967–); and DJ MCD (aka a dog named Rodriguez, Dimitris Kritikos, 1973–). Its leader from 2002 to 2015, BDFoxmoor, and his wife Sadahzinia (aka Broken Code, Yolanda Tsiampokalou, 1977–), the first female Greek rapper, founded the in­de­pen­dent low bap label 8ctagon (2003–). The low bap sound was created during the making of Active Member’s third ­album, To megálo kólpo (The ­Great Gulf, 1995). A popu­lar low bap song is Active Member’s “Páme (Guantanamo),” translated as “Let’s Go (Guantanamo)” (urging the shutdown of the United States’ Guantanamo Bay detention camp), from the ­album Pérasma st’ Akróneiro (Crossing the Acropolis, 2002). Devoted hardcore and low bap fans came to dislike Imiskoúmbria for its levity. Hip hop tastes have also become divided between hardcore and low bap. Other low bap acts include Vavylóna (Babylon, 1997–), 843 (1999–), Prohja (1998), Kaká Mantáta (1986–), Michális Kouinélis (aka Michail Kouïnélis, 1979), Pýrines Lachés (Fire Spells, aka Pýrina Fengária [Fire Moons], 2003–), and Thirio (Beast, Kóstas Drakoúlas, 1980–). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Cyprus; Hardcore Hip Hop; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop

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Further Reading

Elafros, Athena. 2013. “Greek Hip Hop: Local and Translocal Authentication in the Restricted Field of Production.” Poetics 41, no. 1: 75–95. Elafros, Athena. 2013. “Mapping the Hip Hop Transnation: A Brief History of Hip Hop in Athens, Greece.” In Hip Hop in Eu­rope: Cultural Identities and Transnational Flows, edited by Sina A. Nitzsche and Walter Grünzweig, chap. 2. Zürich, Switzerland: LIT Verlag. Hess, Franklin L. 2010. “From American Form to Greek Per­for­mance: The Global Hip Hop Poetics and Politics of the Imiskoúmbria.” In The Languages of Global Hip Hop, edited by Marina Terkourafi, chap. 7. New York: Continuum.

Further Listening

Active Member. 2002. Pérasma st’ Akróneiro. Warner ­Music Greece/Freestyle Productions. Vari­ous Artists. 1999. Low Bap Sessions, Vol. 1. Warner ­Music Greece/Freestyle Productions. Vari­ous Artists. 1999. Low Bap Sessions, Vol. 2: Ta Demos. Warner ­Music Greece/Freestyle Productions.

Grime Grime is a hip hop and EDM ­music style that originated around the turn of the ­century in London on pirate radio stations such as Rinse FM (1994–), which not only played grime ­music but released vari­ous mixtapes of it. It is a hybridization of African and Ca­r ib­bean musical ele­ments and ­music styles such as electronic dance, garage, jungle, dancehall, and ragga with uptempo, syncopated breakbeats (usually around 130 or 140 beats per minute) in 4/4 (qua­dru­ple) meter and double-­ time rhythm; early grime had eight-­bar verse patterns (which became 16-­and 32-­ bar patterns in time) and low bassline frequencies. Raps tend to be about the griminess or grittiness of urban life, hence the style’s name. Grime left the underground scene and went mainstream around 2003, owing to efforts by musicians such as Dizzee Rascal (Dylan Kwabena Mills, 1984–) with the ­album Boy in da Corner (2003) and Wiley (Richard Cowie, 1979–) with the ­album Treddin’ on Thin Ice (2004), both on XL Recordings (1989–); Kano (Kane Brett Robinson, 1985–) with the ­album Home Sweet Home (2005), on 679 Recordings (aka 37 Adventures, 2001–); and Lethal Bizzle (Maxwell Owusu Ansah, 1984–) with the ­album Against All Oddz (2005), on his short-­lived J Did Entertainment label. Other early musicians included Ghetts (Justin Clarke, 1984–), Jme (Jamie Adenuga, 1985–), Skepta (Joseph Ju­nior Adenuga, 1982–), Bugzy Malone (Aaron Davis, 1990–), Akala (Kingslee James Daley, 1983–), and Stormzy (Michael Ebenazer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr., 1993–), as well as bands such as the Streets (1994– 2011, 2017–), Boy Better Know (2005–), Newham Generals (2004–), Roll Deep (aka Roll Deep Entourage, 2002–2013), and Ruff Sqwad (2001–). Grime became more popu­lar when tele­vi­sion stations such as Channel AKA (aka Channel U, 2003–), a digital satellite channel owned by All around the World Productions (1991–), began broadcasting it and other styles of hip hop such as dubstep, reggae, dancehall, and Afrobeat.

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Dizzee Rascal has had the most mainstream success of all grime rappers, with 10 Top 10 hits on the U.K. Singles Chart, including four No. 1 songs: “Dance wiv Me” (2008), “Bonkers” (2009), “Holiday” (2009), and “Dirtee Disco” (2010). Wiley and Lethal Bizzle have also charted often, the former having racked up six Top 10 U.K. singles, including one No. 1, “Heatwave” (2012), and the latter having reached the Top 10 with “Oi!” (2002) and produced three songs that peaked at No. 11: “Pow!” (“Forward,” 2004), “Rari Workout” (2014), and “Fester Skank” (2015). In 2016, the Ministry of Sound (1991–) media group released a grime compilation titled Grime Time, and Skepta’s fourth studio ­album, Konnichiwa, entered the U.K. A ­ lbums Chart at No. 2. In 2017, Stormzy’s Gang Signs & Prayer became the first grime ­album to reach No. 1 on the U.K. ­Albums Chart. The next-­largest grime scene is based in Birmingham. Although grime is basically a male-­dominated style, female rappers such as Solihull-­based Lady Leshurr (Melesha O’Garro, 1989–) and London-­based Lady Sovereign (Louise Amanda Harman, 1985–) have become popu­lar. The grime scene has stayed mainly in the United Kingdom, but the style has achieved minor popularity in the United States since 2010. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Chopper; The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Barron, Lee. 2013. “The Sound of Street Corner Society: U.K. Grime ­Music as Ethnography.” Eu­ro­pean Journal of Cultural Studies 16, no. 5: 531–47. Bramwell, Richard. 2015. U.K. Hip Hop, Grime, and the City: The Aesthetics and Ethics of London’s Rap Scenes. New York: Routledge. Stirling, Christabel. 2016. “ ‘Beyond the Dance Floor?’ Gendered Publics and Creative Practices in Electronic Dance ­Music.” Con­temporary ­Music Review 35, no.  1: 130–49.

Further Listening

Dizzee Rascal. 2003. Boy in da Corner. XL Recordings. Vari­ous Artists. 2016. Grime Time. Ministry of Sound.

Griot (aka Jali, Jeli, Djeli) A griot is a performer whose role—­serving nobility and tribal communities by orally transmitting through ­music and spoken word the histories and genealogies of a culture—­can be traced back over 800 years. Like bards, who perform by singing or speak-­singing, they often accompany themselves on an instrument, sometimes adding pantomime. Hip hop scholarship often compares the griot’s verbal arts to rap or Jamaican toasting, but a better comparison would be to the skills of rappers and bolon players, who historically have had the power to publicly criticize regimes and individual ­people (more research is needed to determine how the griot’s verbal arts served as a precursor to rap). Specifically, African rap, which more often than American rap or rap of other cultures has lyrical content that concentrates on po­liti­cal and social issues, demonstrates a closer connection to the

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griot’s verbal arts. Focusing on the griot as a precursor to the rapper supports the notion that rap and hip hop have African roots, continuing African musical aesthetics, although the contribution of other kinds of oral and storytelling traditions in Eu­rope, the ­Middle East, Asia, and the United States to rap development must be considered. Also needing further study is the fact that griots ­were victims of slave trade and diaspora, which would have affected not only their location but also their per­for­mances. Despite having lesser status ­today than during the Mali Empire (1235*–1670), griots continue performing, most notably in West Africa, communicating news and praising their patrons. ­Today’s griots are most prominently found in Mandé, followed by Dagomba, Fulbe, Hausa, Mauritanian Arab, Mossi, Songhai, Tukulóor, Serer, Songhai, and Wolof cultures; therefore, modern griots exist in West African in Maghreb countries such as Chad, Ivory Coast, the Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger, and northern Nigeria. In countries such as Mali, where over 70 ­percent of the population is illiterate as of 2018, reliance on griots is essential. The position of griot is an acquired role—­not just anyone can be a griot; in fact, historically griots could not marry outside their artistic group, and training was passed down within the ­family. In addition, griots tend to be skilled musicians who play instruments such as the kora, balafon, goje, ngoni, or xalam—­instruments that have made their way into some West African hip hop, as in Tim Winsey’s (Tim Winsé, 1973–) “Zessa” (2004), which features the kora. The role and concept of the griot is used often in hip hop. Examples include Freestyle Fellowship’s (1991– 1993, 1998–) studio ­album Innercity Griots (1993), Positive Black Soul’s (PBS, 1989–) griot-­point-­of-­view song “Return of da Djelly” (1995), and dälek’s From Filthy Tongue of Gods and Griots (2002). Influential Senegalese mbalax singer-­songwriter Youssou N’Dour’s (1959–), who fuses mbalax with hip hop and other kinds of m ­ usic, has a maternal lineage comprising griots. Though he did not grow up within that tradition, N’Dour learned enough from his siblings and surroundings to self-­identify as a modern-­day griot. Senegalese American singer-­songwriter Akon (1973–) also has a connection to griot tradition: he is the son of Dogon griot percussionist Mor Thiam (Mor Dogo Thiam, 1941–) from Dakar, Senegal. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Bolon and Bolon Player; Burkina Faso; The Gambia; Ghana; Guinea-­Bisseau; Ivory Coast; Mali; Niger; Nigeria; Senegal

Further Reading

Sajnani, Damon. 2013. “Troubling the Trope of ‘Rapper as Modern Griot.’ ” Journal of Pan African Studies 6, no. 3: 156–80. Tang, Patricia. 2012. “The Rapper as Modern Griot: Reclaiming Ancient Traditions.” In Hip Hop Africa: New African ­Music in a Globalizing World, edited by Eric Charry, chap. 5. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Further Listening

dälek. 2002. From Filthy Tongue of Gods and Griots. Ipecac Recordings. Freestyle Fellowship. 1993. Innercity Griots. 4th and Broadway.

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Guadeloupe Guadeloupe, islands in the French Antilles in the Ca­rib­bean, has a hip hop scene informed by Antillean Creole texts and popu­lar ­music. Along with Martinique, Guadeloupe is the home of zouk, a fast-­tempo ­music heard during Carnival (a Christian festive season that focuses on cele­brations such as parades, musical per­for­mances, and feasts before the liturgical season of Lent, a solemn period of prayer, penance, forgiving, and self-­denial). The word zouk means to shake incessantly and to party or be festive, but a softly played, slowed-­down subgenre of zouk, known as zouk-­love, focuses on romance. Guadeloupean hip hop adopts ele­ments of zouk and gwo ka moderne, which features traditional drums and adds conga or djembe, chimes, and electric bass guitar, and is used as jump-up ­music. Guadeloupean musicians have also modified Trinbagonian calypso, Dominica’s cadence-­lypso, Haiti’s compas/ cadence, and Jamaica’s reggae and dancehall, in addition to American hip hop and jazz. In addition, by 1984, several years ­after France developed its hip hop scene, American hip hop had reached Guadeloupe and influenced its ­music. Guadeloupean musicians also used ele­ ments of live French Antilles hip hop: limited technology, rapping over previously composed American beats, and call-­and-­response. Since the late 1990s, prominent Guadeloupean hip hop artists have fused several musical styles. ­ T hese include singer-­ songwriter, producer, and actor D. Daly (Didier Daly, 1978–); ragga artist Nuttea (aka ­Daddy Nuttea, Olivier Lara, 1968–); rapper and producer LM Star Jee (aka Starjee, n.d.); singer-­ songwriter, slam poet, and novelist TiMalo (Thierry Malo, 1974–); zouk R&B and new jack swing singer-­ songwriter and producer Jean-­Michel Rotin (1970–); and female rapper and singer-­Since the late 1990s, musicians like ragga artist Nuttea have contributed to Guadeloupean hip songwriter Swé (anonymous, hop’s sound; a fusion of many musical styles like n.d.). Guadeloupean hip hop lyr­ics ragga, reggae, dancehall, zouk R&B, and new jack focus on poverty, aspiration, and swing. Nuttea was raised by his grandparents in social injustice, at times with a Guadeloupe before moving to Paris at age six, sense of humor. though he remains musically connected to his Once established, French motherland. (Eric Fougere/VIP Images/Corbis via Antilles hip hop became popu­lar Getty Images)

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in France. Guadeloupean-­born rapper, musician, DJ, and tele­vi­sion/radio host Sidney Duteil (Patrick Duteil, 1955–) was a pioneer of Paris’s hip hop scene in the early 1980s. Duteil was the first black man in France to host a weekly tele­vi­sion show, H.I.P. H.O.P. (1984), which was broadcast in Guadeloupe. By the late 1980s, Guadeloupe had several of its own hip hop radio programs. Martinican rappers’ use of Antillean Creole inspired Guadeloupean rappers to follow suit. Rapper F—ly (aka Missié GG, Joseph Régis, 1977–) released the first commercially successful hip hop ­album, L’indiscipliné (The Unruly, 2001). Other pioneers ­were rappers Exxòs (Christophe Sophy, n.d.) from Les Abymes and Nèg Lyrical (Rodolphe Richefal, 1976–) from Martinique. Nèg Lyrical’s Kimannièoupédimwenanbagaÿkonsapé fèt?! (the title, which is based more on sound than meaning, is a compound wordplay; 1996) was the first Antillean Creole rap a­ lbum recorded in Martinique. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: France; Martinique; Reggae

Further Reading

Gadet, Steve. 2012. “The Creole Hip Hop Culture: Between Tradition and Modernity, Orality, and Scriptuality.” In Marronnage and Arts: Revolts in Bodies and Voices, edited by Stéphanie Melyon-­Reinette, chap. 9. Newcastle upon Tyne, ­England: Cambridge Scholars. Gadet, Steve. 2015. “Hip Hop Culture: Bridging Gaps between Young Ca­rib­bean Citizens.” Ca­rib­bean Quarterly 61, no. 1 (March): 75–97.

Further Listening

F—ly. 2001. L’indiscipliné. Riko Rekords.

Guatemala Guatemala, a Central American representative democracy that borders both the Pacific Ocean and the Ca­rib­bean, is the most populated state in Central Amer­i­ca with about 16 million citizens. Guatemalans have a diverse sense of musical styles, and an alternative popu­lar ­music and underground ­music movement cropped up in the 1990s, leading to a growing rap scene. Most rap is imported from the United States, although a few local hip hop artists are beginning to attract international attention. ­T hese artists include singer-­rapper Rebeca Lane (Rebeca Eunice Vargas Tamayac, 1984–) and rap groups Bacteria Sound System (2005–) and Balam Ajpu (Jaguar Warrior or Warrior of Light, 2010–). Balam Aipu raps in both Spanish and the ancient Mayan Tz’utujil language, using hip hop and reggae to teach ancestors’ stories and ways of life. The six-­man group Bacteria Sound System Crew fuses ele­ments of hip hop, reggae, and dancehall. Its lyrical content ranges from romance to social awareness, and it tends to inject humor into them. Trasciende is a hip hop acad­emy that offers art workshops as a means of drawing youth away from vio­lence and into a peaceful environment. In 2009, a group of b-­boys (breakdancers) founded the acad­emy. Trasciende creates new opportunities for youth in a country that strug­gles with high rates of poverty, crime, and



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drug trading. ­Because of ­these poor conditions, Guatemala ranks 31st out of 33 Latin American and Ca­rib­bean countries on the H ­ uman Development Index. As of 2018, Guatemala’s most popu­lar new hip hop artist is poet, sociologist, and rapper-­songwriter Rebeca Lane, who uses hip hop to promote feminism and social justice and to encourage communities to know their histories. Her song “Mujer lunar” (“Lunar ­Woman,” 2013) has become an anthem for ­women throughout Guatemala. In 2017, she released her debut studio ­album, Alma mestiza (Mestizo Soul). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: El Salvador; Mexico

Further Reading

Barrett, Rusty. 2016. “Mayan Language Revitalization, Hip Hop, and Ethnic Identity in Guatemala.” Language and Communication 47 (March): 144–53. Bell, Elizabeth R. 2017. “ ‘This ­Isn’t Underground; This Is Highlands’: Mayan-­Language Hip Hop, Cultural Resilience, and Youth Education in Guatemala.” Journal of Folklore Research 54, no. 3: 167–97.

Further Listening

Lane, Rebeca. 2017. Alma mestiza (Mestizo Soul). Flowfish Rec­ords.

Guinea- ­Bissau Guinea-­Bissau saw hip hop emerge in the 1990s and quickly spread from urban to rural areas as a tool of underground re­sis­tance, protesting the West African country’s po­liti­cal unrest and use of military force that had resulted in vio­lence, corruption, economic disparity, social injustice, and widespread drug use and h­ uman trafficking. Bissau-Guinean raperu (rappers) often live in fear and face threats, censorship, and pos­si­ble military beatings. Despite this, rapping texts are usually in Upper Guinea Creole, the common language for nearly 70 ­percent of Guinea-­ Bissau’s diverse population, though occasionally texts are in Portuguese, the official language. M ­ usic is inspired by reggae and kuduro (aka kuduru), an Angolan popu­lar ­music that developed in the late 1980s and samples Ca­rib­bean zouk and soca, adding African percussion with ­house beats and techno. As of 2018, hip hop is popu­lar, though American and Eu­ro­pean hits dominate airplay. Though hip hop has been more prominent in Bissau-Guinean culture since the 2010s, events have revealed that performing hip hop critical of the government is still unsafe. In 2013, Masta Tito (Tito Marcelino Morgado, 1983–) recorded his best-­k nown song, “No kansa golpe” (“Endless Coup,” 2013), which criticized the governing military. In the same year, he was abducted, beaten, and threatened not to rap again. As of 2018, Masta Tito nevertheless continues recording and performing in Buba, the largest city in southern Guinea-­Bissau. EMERGING FROM THE SUPPRESSED UNDERGROUND ­Because early hip hop was driven underground and mostly included live, unrecorded activities, it is extremely difficult to verify the existence of numerous

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pioneering Bissau-Guinean hip hop artists through recorded songs or a­ lbums. One of the earliest hip hop songs, Naka B’s (Ramiro Naka, n.d.) “Coli-­sensa” (“Please,” 1999), criticized the government and post-­independence hardships. An internationally known acoustic guitarist and singer, Naka B was not just a hip hop artist, having since 1981 recorded traditional Bissau-Guinean ­music as well as Latin and Ca­rib­ bean ­music and jazz. In 2001, Shivani Ahlowalia (n.d.), who fronts the American-­ Bengali-­Punjabi-­Danish live electronic ­music band Alo Wala (2013–), cofounded the Washington, DC–­based Cobiana Rec­ords and Cobiana Communications and Culture, which also has a digital radio website. ­After seeing numerous hip hop artists perform, such as the first hip hop collective, Big Up GB Hip Hop Movement (n.d.), Ahlowalia became inspired to give such acts a distribution outlet. Cobiana Rec­ords is devoted not only to hip hop artists but also to releasing recordings of iconic gumbé (aka goombay or gumbay) bands such as Super Mama Djombo (1964*–) and Cobiana Djazz (aka Cobiana Jazz, 1970–1977*). This effort is a major reason that, regardless of po­liti­cal repression, hip hop is growing in Guinea-­Bissau. Among the pioneering hip hop raperus, Masta Tito is the most famous. Masta Tito started rapping in 2002 with the song “Vampiro” (“Vampire”). He incorporates reggae and dancehall in his hip hop ­music, often autotuning his singing and rapping. Texts are often against military atrocities to civilians in Guinea-­Bissau. Another notable artist, rapper N’Pans (Pansau Natchanda, 1975–), also uses hip hop to criticize Guinea-­Bissau’s regime. N’Pans’s “Conversa di bardadi” (“True Conversation,” 2008) was released several years ­after he settled in Moscow. He is currently one of few black rappers living in Rus­sia, is now collaborating with Rus­ sian rapper Ligalize (Andrey Vladimirovich Menshikov, 1977–), and has joined the proj­ect band ­Legal Busine$$ (2000–2012*). ­After releasing four solo studio ­albums in Moscow, N’Pans started his own label, Force Rec­ords (2010–). In 2011, Hasan Salaam (1981–), the first American rapper to perform a concert in Guinea-­Bissau, worked closely with Baloberos Crew (n.d.), who ­after the release of “Seven Minutes of Truth” (2009) ­were brutally beaten, jailed, and threatened by Guinea-­Bissau’s military intelligence. Prior to the concert in Guinea-­Bissau, Salaam performed the song’s verses at an installment of the Impossible M ­ usic Sessions (2010–) in Brooklyn, New York—an event that stages banned ­music, usually performed live by collaborating musicians, and focuses on the nonappearance of the artists at risk. He sang in En­glish but kept the Portuguese refrain. In 2011, Baloberos Crew released the anti–­drug trafficking song “Bo obi mas” (“Listen Again”). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Angola; Political Hip Hop; Reggae

Further Reading

Borszik, Anne-­K ristin. 2013. “Telling the Truth and Commenting Real­ity: ‘Harsh Criticism’ in Guinea-­Bissau’s Intervention ­Music.” In The Routledge History of Social Protest in Popu­lar ­Music, edited by Jonathan Friedman, chap. 24. New York: Routledge. Lupati, Federica. 2016. “An Introduction to Hip Hop Culture in Guinea-­Bissau: The Guinean Raperu.” Journal of Lusophone Studies 1, no. 1: 139–52.

H Haiti Haiti is a country with a population of nearly 11 million that makes up the western part of the Ca­rib­bean island of Hispaniola; the Dominican Republic makes up the eastern part of the island. Haiti’s citizens are descendants of the aboriginal Taíno ­people, the Spanish who colonized it, the French who ­were deeded the colony in the early 17th ­century, and slaves brought in from Africa to work on its sugarcane plantations. A ­ fter the French Revolution (1789–1799), a successful slave revolt took place, leading to Haiti’s in­de­pen­dence in 1804. Haitian ­music is influenced by African rhythms, French and Spanish ele­ments, and Taíno traditions. Its traditional styles include ceremonial m ­ usic such as vodou and rara, dance m ­ usic such as compas (aka kompa), meringue, zouk, and mizik rasin (roots ­music), ballads in the twoubadou style, and mini-­jazz (a combination of compass, jazz, and two types of kreyòl ­music), as well as rock and hip hop. The most popu­lar Haitian song is the patriotic anthem “Haïti Chérie” (aka “Souvenir d’Haïti,” 1920), by Othello Bayard de Cayes (1885–1971), and its most popu­lar vocalist is Croix-­des-­Bouquets–­born Wyclef Jean (Nel Ust Wyclef Jean, 1969–), who performs alternative hip hop. The 1970s brought about the reggae-­influenced Sanba Movement, with musicians such as Port-­au-­Prince–­born singer Eddy François (n.d.) influencing 1990s mizik rasin through his bands Boukman Eksperyans (1978–) and Boukan Ginen (1990–), who combined reggae, rock, and funk with traditional forms. Haitian hip hop, or rap kreyòl, typically addresses social and po­liti­cal topics, though some songs extol the virtues of partying and materialism. As early as the 1980s, street rappers performed rap kreyòl, but most of ­these musicians faded into obscurity, with the exception to the originator of Haitian hip hop m ­ usic and culture, Master Dji (George Lys Herard, 1961–1994), a former radio host who rapped in En­glish, French, and Haitian Creole. He became a ­music pioneer who united rara, rasin, compas, rap, and reggae and was instrumental in getting rap ­music aired. In 1982, Master Dji penned the first Haitian Creole rap song, “Vakans.” Recent popu­lar hip hop acts include Port-­au-­Prince–­based bands Barikad Crew (2002–) and RockFam Lame-­a (aka Rockfam, 2004–) and rappers Dug G. (aka Dug G. Born, Jean-­Hubert Valcourt, n.d.), and Jimmy O (Jean Jimmy Alexandre, 1974–2010). Barikad Crew has three ­albums as of 2018; RockFam Lame-­a released four. A po­liti­cal rap act, the six-­member Barikad Crew mixes hip hop beats with traditional roots culture to encourage youth to better society. Ex—­RockFam Lame-­a member Dug G. raps to encourage youth to excel, especially in business; he has released an ­album, two mixtapes, and a compilation. Jimmy O, who rapped in Haitian Creole, was one of the rappers killed during the Haitian earthquake; he was about to release a much-­anticipated debut ­album.

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Among Haitian diaspora hip hop acts, the best known are the Brooklyn, New York–­based Kangol Kid (Shaun Shiller Fequiere, n.d.) of U.T.F.O. (Untouchable Force Organ­ization, 1984–1992); New York–­based CaRiMi (2002–2016); Montreal-­ based Muzion (1996–2014); and Muzion’s leader, Imposs (Stanley Rimsky Salgado, n.d.), who went solo in 2007. By far, the best-­k nown Haitian hip hop artists are Wyclef Jean and his cousin Pras (Prakazrel Samuel Michél, 1972–), both members of the Grammy Award–­winning band Fugees (1992–1997). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: France; Reggae; The United States

Further Reading

Jean-­Charles, Régine Michelle. 2014. “The Myth of Diaspora Exceptionalism: Wyclef Jean Performs Jaspora.” American Quarterly 66, no. 3: 835–52. Melyon-­Reinette, Stéphanie. 2016. “Homosexuals, Hemophiliacs, Heroin Addicts, and Haitians: How Hip Hop Transformed Haitian Stigmatization into a Source of Pride.” In La Verdad: An International Dialogue on Hip Hop Latinidades, edited by Melissa Castillo-­Garsow and Jason Nicholls, chap. 16. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.

Further Listening

RockFam Lame-­a. 2012. Afiche’w. RockFam Rec­ords.

Hancock, Herbie (Herbert Jeffrey Hancock, 1940–­, Chicago, Illinois) Herbie Hancock is a jazz composer, keyboardist, bandleader, and sometime actor. His most famous connection to hip hop is his hit song “Rockit” (1983), which has the distinction of being the first mainstream hit fusion between hip hop and jazz that featured turntablism (scratching). Other connections to hip hop also exist in his work, for Hancock’s ­music has served as source ­music for samples, and Hancock himself worked ­later in his ­career with hip hop artists such as Kanye West (1977–), the X-­Ecutioners (1989–), GrandMixer DXT (aka ­Grand Mixer D.ST, Derek Showard, 1960–), and Rob Swift (Robert Aguilar, 1972–). Hancock has also been responsible for creating collaborations between jazz musicians and composers, acting as a go-­between to introduce musicians who would then work together on hip hop proj­ects. EARLY JAZZ C ­ AREER At age seven, Hancock began studying classical piano. His interest in jazz and sense of complex harmonies developed during his teenage years as he listened to the vocal group the Hi-­Lo’s (1953–). He dropped out of Grinnell College (Iowa) briefly to work with notable jazz musicians Donald Byrd (1932–2013) and Coleman Hawkins (1904–1969) but eventually graduated with a bachelor’s degree in ­music and mechanical engineering. In 1962, he recorded his first ­album, Takin’ Off,



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which featured his song “Watermelon Man.” ­After hearing the ­album, eminent jazz composer-­trumpeter Miles Davis (1926–1991) was so impressed that he wanted to work with him, and in 1963, Hancock joined his quintet. Hancock’s work in Davis’s Second ­Great Quintet (1964–1969) resulted in a more prominent rhythm section that became used increasingly in post-­bop as well as in jazz-­rock fusion. Hancock was one of the first keyboardists who shifted between piano, electric pianos, and synthesizers, exploring ways to fuse jazz (from cool to avant-­garde) with funk, electronica, and ultimately hip hop. In the 1970s and 1980s, Hancock also scored films, receiving an Acad­emy Award for Best Original Score for ’Round Midnight (1986), a film in which he also had a supporting actor’s role.

“ROCKIT” CONNECTIONS TO GLOBAL HIP HOP Though Hancock’s work is primarily in jazz, jazz fusion, and electronica, his discography since the 1970s and 1980s, when he was exploring jazz-­f unk fusion, which incorporates Afro-­Caribbean and Latin percussion instruments and rhythms, shows connections between his m ­ usic and global hip hop. For his critically acclaimed Head Hunters (1973), he assembled a new band called the Headhunters, partly so that he could compose funk. At the time, Head Hunters was the best-­ selling jazz a­ lbum in history. It featured “Chameleon,” which became a jazz standard with its funk-­inspired ARP Odyssey analog synthesizer bass. Reissued in 1992 as a CD, Head Hunters became influential to subsequent funk, soul, and hip hop artists. It was followed by Thrust (1974) and then the jazz-­f unk ­album Man-­ Child (1975). In 1983, Hancock composed “Rockit,” which was was recorded, edited, and engineered at several sound-­recording studios. Hancock worked with bass guitarist Bill Laswell (1955–), drum machine and synthesizer programmer Michael Beinhorn (n.d.), and turntablist ­Grand Mixer D.ST. “Rockit” entered mainstream popularity and encouraged interest in hip hop turntablism and breakdancing; in addition, it reached No.  1 on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play, No.  6 on Hot Black Singles, and No. 64 on the U.S. Cashbox charts. Although it reached only No. 71 on the Billboard Hot 100, ­Future Shock (1983), the ­album on which the single l­ ater appeared, went Platinum. The m ­ usic video helped catapult its success and became famous in its own right. Godley and Creme (1977–1988), an En­glish and London-­based rock duo who became successful and influential ­music video directors, directed the video, which featured action shots and jump cuts of En­glish installation artist and inventor Jim Whiting’s (1951–) movable and danceable sculptures—­hybrids of broken mannequins and robots—­filmed to appear as though they are dancing within a ­house in London. Hancock appears on keyboard, on a tele­vi­sion that is smashed by the end of the video. At the first MTV Video ­Music Awards, the video won in five categories, including Best Special Effects and Best Concept Video. In 2001, Hancock, Laswell, and Rob Swift collaborated again on a remix of “Rockit” for Hancock’s ­album ­Future 2 ­Future. This time, Rob Swift and A Guy Called Gerald (Gerald

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Simpson, 1968–) programmed beats. The remix expands on the original hit’s use of electronica. Hancock ­later went on tour with Rob Swift and the X-­Ecutioners, who performed a new concert version of “Rockit.” SAMPLES Several of Hancock’s most popu­lar songs have been used as samples in hip hop ­ usic. Close to the time of its first release, “Rockit” was used numerous times by m ­Grand Mixer D.ST, as well as generously in Knights of the Turntables’s (1983–1986) “Techno Scratch” (1984) and as a hook or riff in the B-­Boys’s (1983–1985) “Cuttin’ Herbie.” Into the 1990s, it continued to be sampled by band’s such as De La Soul (1987–), in “En Focus” (1993); by cult West Coast hip hop duo Charizma (Charles Edward Hicks  Jr., 1973–1993) and Peanut Butter Wolf (Chris Manak, 1989*–), in “Pacin’ the Floor” (2003); by Janet Jackson (1966–), in her hip hop and dance single “So Excited” (2006); and by Neeraj Shridhar (n.d.) and Suzanne D’Mello (aka Suzie Q, 1976–), in the Bollywood song “Prem ki naiyya” (“The Boat of My Love”), used in the romantic comedy film Ajab Prem ki ghazab kahani (aka Unique Love Insatiable Story, 2009). In 2011, it was used as the hook in the Evolution Control Committee’s (1986–) parody-­mashup “Fock It,” and in 2012, it was employed as a sound effect in Canadian turntablist A-­Trak’s (Alain Macklovitch, 1982–) “Disco Nap (Q Bert’s Rocketcockpet Mix).” In addition, “Watermelon Man” has been sampled often in hip hop, most notably by LL Cool J (1968–), in “1-900 L.L. Cool J” (1989); by Digable Planets (1987– 1995, 2005–), in “Escapism (Getting’ ­Free)” (1993); by J Dilla (1974–2006), in “Zen Guitar” (2005); and by Massive Attack (1988–), in “Dead Editors” (2016). “Chameleon” has also been sampled, most notably by Public ­Enemy (1982–), in “­Can’t Do Nuttin’ for Ya Man (Dub Mixx)” (1990); by Tupac Shakur (1971–1996), in “Words of Wisdom” (1991); and by DJ Shadow (1972–), in “Basic Mega-­Mix” (1992). Most recently, it has been sampled by Beck (Bek David Campbell, 1970–) in his hip hop effort “Cellphone’s Dead” (2006), which employs the bass riff of “Chameleon.”

­L ATER ­CAREER Hancock’s further hip hop activities can be found on his ­albums Sound-­System (1984), a Grammy Award winner on which he is backed by the Rockit Band and ­Grand Mixer D.ST; Perfect Machine (1988), also with the Rockit Band; and Dis Is da Drum (1994), an acid-­jazz ­album that employs samples and loops. Hip hop is also used in the final track, “Hale Bopp, Hip Hop,” on his collaboration with tenor/ soprano saxophonist, composer, and fellow Buddhist musician Wayne Shorter’s (1933–) ­album 1 + 1 (1997). In 2008, Hancock helped produce “RoboCop,” the seventh track of Kanye West’s fourth studio ­album, 808s and Heartbreak. That same year, Hancock won the Grammy Award for A ­ lbum of the Year for River: The Joni Letters (2007), his tribute to folk, pop, and jazz singer-­songwriter Joni Mitchell (Roberta Joan Anderson, 1943–). This was only the second jazz ­album to have won this award. In 2010,



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Hancock released The Imagine Proj­ect, an ­album that featured many collaborations and per­for­mances with John Lennon (1940–1980), Peter Gabriel (1950–), Bob Dylan (Robert Allen Zimmerman, 1941–), and Sam Cooke (1931–1964), as well as international hip hop and R&B artists K’naan (1978–) and John Legend (John Roger Stephens, 1978–). In 2014, Hancock was featured in “Tesla” and “Moment of Hesitation,” two tracks on Flying Lotus’s (aka FlyLo, Steven Ellison, 1983–) experimental jazz, electronica, and hip hop a­ lbum ­You’re Dead! ­T hese activities in hip hop all took place while Hancock pursued collaborations with jazz musicians, released jazz recordings, toured and performed, taught, and pursued humanitarian efforts in fundraising. In 2013, Hancock taught jazz in the M ­ usic Department at the University of California, Los Angeles, and in 2014, he delivered six lectures titled “The Ethics of Jazz” as the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry chair at Harvard University. He has also won multiple awards for his ­music, including a 2013 Kennedy Center Honors Award; at the ceremony, Snoop Dogg (1971–) and the Beastie Boys’ (1981– 2012) turntablist Mix Master Mike (Michael Schwartz, 1970–) performed his ­music. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Turntablism; The United States

Further Reading

Hancock, Herbie, with Lisa Dickey. 2014. Possibilities. New York: Viking. Price, Emmett G. III. 2006. Hip Hop Culture. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-­CLIO.

Further Listening

Hancock, Herbie. 1983. ­Future Shock. Columbia. Hancock, Herbie. 1988. Perfect Machine. CBS. Hancock, Herbie. 1994. Dis Is da Drum. Mercury. Hancock, Herbie. 2001. ­Future 2 ­Future. Transparent ­Music.

Hardcore Hip Hop Hardcore is an umbrella term for hip hop that is confrontational, expresses anger, and describes inflicting vio­lence. It specifically includes not only gangsta rap but also horrorcore, crunkcore, and metal rap, styles that contain hip hop’s most aggressive lyr­ics and sound. Hardcore is most often thought of as gangsta rap, beginning with East Coast hip hop acts such as Run-­D.M.C. (1981–2002), Schooly D (Jesse Bonds Weaver Jr., 1962–), Boogie Down Productions (1985–1992), and Public ­Enemy (1986–). It eventually influenced West Coast acts such as Ice-­T (1958–), who was from Newark, New Jersey, before he moved to South Los Angeles; N.W.A. (1986–1991); Compton’s Most Wanted (1988–2007); and Cypress Hill (1988–). As it made its way South, it influenced Houston’s horrorcore mainstays, Geto Boys (1986–). Acts such as Brotha Lynch Hung (1969–) from Sacramento, California, ­were also creating horrorcore as a gory and gratuitously violent style of gangsta rap. While gangsta rap remained successful into the 1990s, Ice-­T explored hardcore hip hop further with metal-­rap, creating his heavy metal rap band Body Count

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(1990–2006, 2009–). Celtic band House of Pain (1991–1996, 2017–), from Los Angeles, is an early example of an act that focused away from gangsta rap themes and instead aggressively rapped about the Irish American experience. Another variation of hardcore hip hop was Lil’ Kim’s (1975–) sexually aggressive style, as exhibited on her debut a­ lbum, Hard Core (1996).

GLOBAL ACTIVITY Though hardcore hip hop caught on globally, it had its biggest impact in Eu­rope. In other words, Africa and Oceania, as well as South Amer­i­ca and the Ca­rib­bean, generally favored a gentler, more reggae-­influenced sound of hip hop. In Asia, hardcore hip hop has a cult status. In many countries that practice censorship, this preference has as much to do with musical taste as it does with restrictions. Hardcore hip hop in Eu­rope sometimes models itself on American hardcore, but instead of gang activity, it tends to focus on the related subject of street vio­lence. Lyr­ics tell of po­liti­cal assassination (and the desire to do so), threaten vio­lence as a revenge response to racism or social in­equality, and simply describe horror, gore, and vulgarity in loving detail. Outside the United States, some countries that have hardcore hip hop scenes include Bosnia-­Herzegovina, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Generally, t­here is no geo­graph­i­cal predictor for hardcore’s success, only limits imposed by regimes. Nevertheless, countries such as Albania, Croatia, Rus­sia, and Turkey, which have stricter restrictions imposed on hip hop activity than other Eu­ro­pean countries, still have some hardcore po­liti­cal hip hop. Just a few Eu­ro­pean hardcore acts include Croatia’s Ugly Leaders (1988–2001); Denmark’s Suspekt (1997–); France’s Assassin (1985–2006) and Suprême NTM (aka NTM, 1989–2001, 2008–); Greece’s Terror X Crew (1992–2002); Macedonia’s the Most Wanted (1991–1996); the Netherlands’ DAMN (­Don’t Accept Mass Notion, 1989–1993) and Osdorp Posse (OP, 1989–2009); and Romania’s R.A.C.L.A. (aka Rime Alese Care Lovesc Adânc, Handpicked Rhymes with a Deeper Meaning, 1993–2007, 2014–), B.U.G. Mafia (aka Black Underground, Bucharest Underground Mafia, 1993–), and La Familia (1996–). When lyr­ics are perceived as ­going too far, even countries that have been the most supportive of freedom of expression have been known to investigate hardcore hip hop groups. For example, ­after creating a website that offered a bounty on then–­ American president George W. Bush’s (1946–­, in office 2001–2009) head and releasing a video titled “Antiamerikansk Dans” (“Anti-­A merican Dance,” 2004) with Swedish rapper Promoe, also known as Mårten Edh, (Nils Mårten Ed, 1976–), Oslo hip hop group Gatas Parlament (Street Parliament, aka Kveldens-­Høydepunkt or “Highlight of the Eve­ning,” 1993–) ­were investigated briefly by the Secret Ser­vice and Norwegian police. Though the case was dropped, their website was taken down. Africa has had a few emerging hardcore acts, which include Cape Verde and the Netherlands’ Cabo Funk Alliance (1992–), Mali’s Tata Pound (1995–), ­Kenya’s MC Goreala (Eric Mukunza, 1992*–), South Africa’s Major League Djz (2008–), and Zambia’s Zone Fam (2009–). Diaspora acts have emerged, enabling hardcore



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hip hop artists such as the United States–­based hardcore hip hop collective NasJota (aka Jota, 2003*–), from Khartoum, to rap safely against Sudanese government corruption, including election rigging. NasJota consists of Sudanese and Arab rappers who perform in Arabic and En­glish, and it created a Sudanese-Arabic label called NasJota (2003–). One example of a Eu­ro­pean hardcore hip hop act that is now based in Africa is the Lomé, Togo–­based SIH (Son Injecté Hardcore, Sound-­ Injected Hardcore, 2002*–), with members from France. Asia has a few emerging hardcore hip hop scenes, most notably in Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Mongolia, and the Philippines, with acts such as Bangladesh’s Deshi MCs (aka E.N.L. [“Enlightenment”] Crew, 2005–); Hong Kong’s LMF (aka Lazy Mutha F—­a, 1993–2003, 2009–); Mongolia’s Gee (Tugsjargal Munkherdene, 1984–), Ice Top (1996–), and Quiza (Quiza Battsengel, 1981–); and the Philippines’ Death Threat (1993–2003, 2010–). Many of ­these acts are strongly influenced by American gangsta rap and come from localized gangsta rap scenes. Despite restrictions on hardcore hip hop in China, LMF is popu­lar ­there. Once perceived as remote from Western popu­lar culture, Mongolia’s hip hop scene is small, yet developing, and has included some hardcore hip hop. Hardcore hip hop has made its way to Oceania, though it is no surprise that it is most pres­ent in Australia and New Zealand. The few popu­lar acts include Australia’s internationally known 1200 Techniques (1997–2005), as well as Australian acts KidCrusher (Shawn Montague, 1986–), who is also an actor that uses a cannibal clown persona, and Kerser (Scott Barrow, 1987–); and New Zealand’s Young Sid (Sidney Diamond, 1986–). Though tastes have been directed t­ oward fusing hip hop with reggae, R&B, pop, or electronica in Oceania, politics have played more of a role in the paucity of hardcore acts in South Amer­i­ca. Still, hardcore hip hop has managed to exist even in some South American countries where it’s most restricted, as with the all-­female Argentinian quintet Actitud María Marta (aka Hardcore, 1995–). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Crunkcore; Gangsta Rap; Horrorcore

Further Reading

Chang, Jeff. 2005. ­Can’t Stop ­Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation. New York: Picador. Cramer, Jennifer, and Jill Hallett. 2010. “From Chi-­Town to the Dirty-­Dirty: Regional Identity Markers in U.S. Hip Hop.” In The Languages of Global Hip Hop, edited by Marina Terkourafi, chap. 10. New York: Continuum. Diallo, David. 2010. “From Electro-­Rap to G-­Funk: A Social History of Rap ­Music in Los Angeles and Compton, California.” In Hip Hop in Amer­i­ca: A Regional Guide, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 1, chap. 10. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood. Morgan, Marcyliena, and Dionne Bennett. 2011. “Hip Hop and the Global Imprint of a Black Cultural Form.” Daedalus 140, no. 2: 176–96.

Further Listening

KidCrusher. 2007. Cannibal Clown. Victim Gear. Gatas Parlament. 2004. Fred, Frihet, & Alt Gratis (Peace, Freedom, and Every­thing F ­ ree). Tee Productions.

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Lil’ Kim. 1996. Hard Core. Big Beat. Ugly Leaders. 1994. Prisoners of Pain. Croatia. Rec­ords/Denyken ­Music. Zone Fam. 2011. The Business (Foreign Exchange). Slam Dunk Rec­ords.

Heap, Imogen (Imogen Jennifer Heap, 1977–­, London, E­ ngland) Imogen Heap is a singer-­songwriter, composer, producer, and engineer, as well as a highly sought ­after collaborator who is known for her combination of musical styles. In addition, her ­music, which includes ele­ments of ambient, electronica, synthpop, indie rock, and hip hop, has been sampled and featured by many hip hop artists. Heap established her own rec­ord com­pany, Megaphonic Rec­ords (2003–) in London, so that she could hold creative control and production rights over her work. MUSICAL BEGINNINGS Heap began studying classical piano and cello at an early age, and at 12 she was sent to boarding school, where she began experimenting with ­music technology, teaching herself the basics of sound engineering and audio production. Heap ­later attended the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon, South London. ­After school, Heap signed her first contract at the age of 18, and in 1996, she met En­glish composer, songwriter, and producer Guy Sigsworth (1960–), who became one of the collaborators and producers for her first ­album, iMegaphone (1998). In turn, Heap provided backing vocals for his London experimental rock band proj­ect, Acacia (1994–1997). Heap continued collaborating with Sigsworth, working with him on the U.K. single “Meantime” (1999). She also also collaborated with the En­glish hip hop band Urban Species (1988–2000, 2008–). Appearing on the ­album Blanket (1998), she co­wrote and sang the title track and U.K. single “Blanket.”

FROU FROU In 2001, Heap formed Frou Frou (2002–2004) with Sigsworth, named ­after their first ­album (2001), a proj­ect recording that consisted of tracks composed by Sigsworth. The name Frou Frou was suggested by Sigsworth, who was a Francophile, and it is based on the sound of a swishing skirt, Arthur Rimbaud’s (1854–1891) poem “Ma Bohème” (“My Bohemia”), and a character’s name in Leo Tolstoy’s (1828–1910) Anna Karenina (1878). Even though Frou Frou was technically the duo’s first ­album, Details (2002) was the first one on which Sigsworth and Heap ­were equally responsible for the instrumentation, writing, and production. Although it was not a commercial success immediately ­after release, it did earn popularity in the United States two years l­ater ­after the single “Let Go” was featured in the film Garden State (2004). In 2003, Frou Frou disbanded ­after it failed to get a contract renewal for a second a­ lbum.

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Two months before the release of her second ­album, Speak for Yourself (2005), the track “Hide and Seek” was featured on the television show The O.C. (2003– 2007) and was an immediate success through digital downloads in the United States and United Kingdom. A few years l­ater, American singer Jason Derulo (Jason Joel Desrouleaux, 1989–) sampled “Hide and Seek” in his song “Whatcha Say” (2009), which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. More hip hop tracks sampling Heap’s work followed. Other Heap songs sampled from Speak for Yourself included “Just for Now,” sampled on the song “I’m God” (2009) by Lil B (aka The BasedGod, Brandon McCartney, 1989–), and the bonus track to the Japa­nese release of the ­album, “Speeding Cars,” sampled on the song “Textbook Stuff” (2011), by XV (Donavan LaMond Johnson, 1985–). Hip hop artists also sampled songs by Frou Frou, namely “Let Go” and “Psychobabble.” Since Speak for Yourself, Heap has released two more ­albums, Ellipse (2009) and Sparks (2014). Though Frou Frou amicably disbanded in 2004, Heap and Sigsworth intended to collaborate again. But in 2018, Frou Frou is scheduled to appear on Heap’s Mycelia World Tour. Mycelia is Heap’s creative concept for artists to share ­music and form contracts by using open-­source block chain–­based technology such as Ethereum (2015–). Lindsey E. Hartman See also: The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Anderman, Joan. 2006. “Imogen Heap Revels in the Glorious Solitude of Electronic Pop.” The Boston Globe, January 13, E16. Gordon, Kylee Swenson. 2012. “Imogen Heap.” In The Recording Secrets ­behind 50 ­Great ­Albums. Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat Book. Morris, Jeremy Wade. 2014. “Artists as Entrepreneurs, Fans as Workers.” Popu­lar ­Music and Society 37, no. 3: 273–90.

Further Listening

Frou Frou. 2001. Frou Frou. Universal. Imogen Heap. 1998. iMegaphone. Almo Sounds. Imogen Heap. 2005. Speak for Yourself. Megaphonic Rec­ords.

Further Viewing

Pearsall, Justine, dir. 2010. Imogen Heap: Every­thing In-­Between: The Story of Ellipse. New York: Sony Legacy.

Hieroglyphics (aka Hieroglyphics Crew, 1991–­, Oakland, California) Hieroglyphics is an American hip hop collective founded by Oakland, California, rapper and producer Del the Funky Homosapien (sometimes stylized as Del The Funkee Homosapien, Teren Delvon Jones, 1972–). Considered primarily an underground act known more for its popu­lar live concerts than its ­albums, He­iro­glyphics has marketed itself well, from forming its own label, Hiero Imperium (1997–); to

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The group Hieroglyphics performs in 2012 in San Bernardino, California. Established in Oakland, California, the hip hop collective focuses on live per­for­mance and ­music production with its own label, Hiero Imperium, and has achieved more of a cult following than a commercial one through its eclectic musical style that employs hip hop, jazz, and funk. (Akpanudosen/Getty Images)

creating iconography (a circle containing three eyes and a straight line for a mouth, the third eye representing metaphysical/spiritual understanding); to podcasting its per­for­mances as Hierocasts; to creating its own organ­ization, the Hiero Nation. Del the Funky Homosapien, whose ­father was an artist, created the third eye logo, which is based on Mayan numerology and is associated with the symbol for infinity. In addition to Hieroglyphics, Hiero Imperium has produced work by each of its members, both as solo artists and in other groups, such as Extra Prolific (1993–1998) and Souls of Mischief (1991–). Hieroglyphics sound incorporates vari­ous influences, as its members hail from the West Coast (Oakland), the South (Mississippi), and Jamaica. Its songs use ele­ ments of jazz and funk, through both original beats and samples. Hieroglyphics have released three studio ­albums: 3rd Eye Vision (1998), which references the band’s logo and aesthetic; Full Circle (2003); and The Kitchen (2013). Although the ­albums have had only modest success on the rap charts, Full Circle broke into the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 155. The band’s success at creating a cult following on limited commercial success make Hieroglyphics comparable in rock ­music circles to the Grateful Dead (1965– 1995) or Phish (1983–2004, 2009–). Hieroglyphics’s main message is best summed up in the first track on 3rd Eye Vision, which opens with a voice over saying that the band it “trying to make something better” e­ very time they take the stage.



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As of 2018, the collective is composed of Del the Funky Homosapien; rapper Casual (Jon Owens, 1973–); rapper and vocalist Pep Love (Pallo E. Peacock, 1974–); DJ, producer, and man­ag­er Domino (Damian Siguenza, 1970–); producer and songwriter DJ Toure (Toure Batiste Duncan, n.d.); and the four individual members of Souls of Mischief—­rapper and producer Phesto (aka Phesto Dee, Damani Thompson, 1974–); rapper and producer A-­Plus (Adam Car­ter, 1974–); Opio (Opio Lindsey (1974–); and rapper and producer Tajai (Tajai Massey, 1975–). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Five ­Percent Nation; Jamaica; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Bradley, Adam, and Andrew Dubois, eds. 2010. “Hieroglyphics.” ­Under “Part 3: 1993– 99: Rap Goes Mainstream” in The Anthology of Rap, pp. 404–9. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Ciccariello-­Maher, George, and Jeff St. Andrews. 2010. “Between Macks and Panthers: Hip Hop in Oakland and San Francisco.” In Hip Hop in Amer­i­ca: A Regional Guide, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 1, chap. 11. Santa Barbara, CA.

Further Listening

Hieroglyphics. 1998. 3rd Eye Vision. Hiero Imperium. Hieroglyphics. 2003. Full Circle. Hiero Imperium.

Hill, Lauryn (Lauryn Noelle Hill, 1975–­, South Orange, New Jersey) Lauryn Hill is an American singer-­songwriter whose five Grammy award winning solo ­album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998), and whose membership in the Fugees (1992–1997) has been extremely influential on hip hop. Known for blunt and honest lyr­ics that speak out against sexism, racism, and prejudice, she helped pave the way for socially conscious hip hop. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, a collection of songs that bridge the gap between hip hop, soul, and R&B, was the first hip hop ­album to win ­Album of the Year, and Hill was the first female artist to win five Grammys in one night. Hill began both singing and acting at a young age, singing for Amateur Night at the Apollo in 1988 and acting in an Off-­Broadway hip hop musical, Club XII, in 1990. She met and performed with MC Lyte (1971–) and Wyclef Jean (1969–). She had an impor­tant role in ­Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993). While attending Columbia High School (1989–1993) in Maplewood, New Jersey, Hill met Pras (Prakazrel Michel, 1972–) and formed Tranzlator Crew (aka Rap Translators, 1989– 1997). Jean joined the group soon ­after, and the new lineup changed their name to the Fugees. A ­ fter the release of a successful second a­ lbum, The Score (1996), the group disbanded; Hill began to pursue her solo c­ areer. The inspiration for the title of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill came from the book The Mis-­Education of the Negro (1933) by Car­ter G. Woodson (1875–1950). Hill’s frank lyr­ics touched on her strained relationship with the Fugees and on her everyday strug­gles. This strained relationship included a turbulent romantic

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relationship between Hill and Jean, creative differences between Hill and other members of the group, an initial lack of support from other members for her solo endeavor (by the time Jean offered to produce her ­album, Hill turned him down), and outside f­ actors such as the stress of per­for­mance schedules and h­ andling notoriety. Hill’s other source of stress was becoming pregnant (not with Jean’s child) in between 1997 and 1998 while working on her own successful c­ areer. The songs “I Used to Love Him” and “To Zion” refer to Hill’s deteriorated relationship with Wyclef Jean and to loving her first child, respectively. The first single, “Doo Wop (That ­Thing),” became a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1, while “Ex-­Factor” and “Every­thing Is Every­thing” peaked at Nos. 21 and 35, respectively. Hill then took a brief hiatus from the pressures and scrutiny that came with fame and the ­music industry. In 2001, she recorded new songs for MTV Unplugged (1989–). Her second ­album, MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 (2002), was recorded live for a small audience. Songs for the a­ lbum w ­ ere based on her experiences and strug­gles with the ­music industry and within her personal life. The Unplugged session featured all new material that followed a folk and soul style, with numerous spoken social commentaries as interludes between songs. Hill has also performed and collaborated on vari­ous proj­ects, including a 2004 to 2006 reunion with the Fugees. Other proj­ects include the Grammy nominated track “So High (Cloud 9 Remix)” (2005) with John Legend (John Stephens, 1978–), narration for the documentary Concerning Vio­lence (2014), songs for the soundtrack to What Happened, Miss Simone? (2016), and per­for­mances at the Coachella Valley ­Music and Arts Festival (2011) and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (2011 and 2016). Lindsey E. Hartman See also: Fugees; Neo Soul; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Bradley, Adam, and Andrew Dubois, eds. 2010. “Lauryn Hill.” Under “Part 3: 1993–1999: Rap Goes Mainstream” in The Anthology of Rap, pp. 410–16. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Bruce, La Marr Jurelle. 2012. “ ‘The ­People Inside My Head, Too’: Madness, Black Womanhood, and the Radical Per­for­mance of Lauryn Hill.” African American Review 45, no. 3: 371–89.

Further Listening

Hill, Lauryn. 1998. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Ruff­house Rec­ords/Columbia.

Hilltop Hoods (1994–­, Adelaide, Australia) Hilltop Hoods, one of Australia’s most internationally successful and highly acclaimed hip hop groups, incorporates jazz, funk, electronica, rock, and punk into its ­music. Five of its seven studio ­albums, The Calling (2003), The Hard Road (2006), State of the Art (2009), Drinking from the Sun (2012), and Walking ­under Stars (2014), ­were ARIA-­certified Platinum and have charted in Australia, with the last two charting in New Zealand. With The Hard Road, the Hilltop Hoods became the first Australian hip hop group to have a No. 1 on the ARIA ­Albums



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Chart, and its subsequent four studio ­albums peaked at No. 1 as well. In addition, two remix ­albums that use a symphonic orchestra, The Hard Road: Restrung (2007) and Drinking from the Sun, Walking U ­ nder Stars: Restrung (2016), have peaked on the ARIA A ­ lbums Chart at Nos. 8 and 1, respectively. The Hilltop Hoods have also released several EPs. Its hit singles include “The Nosebleed Section” (2004), “Chase that Feeling” (2009), “I Love It” (2011), “Cosby Sweater” (2014), “Higher” (2015), and “1955” (2016). Beyond recording and touring worldwide, the Hilltop Hoods have been involved in many other proj­ects, beginning in the early 2000s with the collaborative-­turned-­collective Certified Wise Crew, which links its members to other Adelaide hip hop artists and groups such as Vents (aka Vents One, Vents Uno, Joseph Lardner, 1983–) and Funkoars (1999–).

FORMATION In 1994, rappers Suffa (Matthew David Lambert, 1977–) and MC Pressure (Daniel Howe Smith, n.d.) met at Blackwood High School in Adelaide, South Australia. Shortly afterward, they recruited producer, audio engineer, and turntablist DJ Next (Ben John Hare, n.d.). Around 1995, the Hilltop Hoods made its first demo, Highlanders, on cassette. Its first EP, Back Once Again (1997), and debut studio ­album, A ­Matter of Time (1999), ­were self-­released. During this time, DJ Next departed and was replaced by DJ Debris (Barry John M. Francis, n.d.), part of the Cross Bred Mongrels (aka CBM, 1990*–2005, 2009–) duo. In 2001, the Hilltop Hoods self-­released its second a­ lbum Left Foot, Right Foot. Before its third studio a­ lbum, The Calling, the Hilltop Hoods signed onto Australian rapper Pegz’s (aka MC Pegasus, Tirren Staaf, 1977–) Melbourne, Australia–­based Obese Rec­ords label (1995–2007), whose parent com­pany was the Warner ­Music Group (aka WEA, 1958–). The Calling was recorded almost entirely on DJ Suffa’s m ­ other’s computer and had an unusual monaural sound. From that point on, the Hilltop Hoods had a string of hit ­albums and singles, as well as national awards.

LYRICAL CONTENT The band’s lyrical content is highly diverse. Members melodically rap, chant, and sing in En­glish about street life, social and economic injustice, racial in­equality, and biographical details, but, more interestingly, also about slow-­paced suburb living, concert ­going, performing ­music, poking fun at American celebrity, age differences, and antiwar sentiments. In 2005, the band created the Hilltop Hoods Initiative with Arts SA to financially assist new South Australian hip hop artists to manufacture and distribute a recording on compact disc. The group established its own label in 2008, Golden Era Rec­ords, in Adelaide. From State of the Art on, the Hilltop Hoods have produced the rest of its ­albums. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Australia; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop

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Further Reading

Mitchell, Tony. 2007. “The DIY Habitus of Australian Hip Hop.” Culture and Policy 123, no. 1: 109–22. Rodger, Dianne. 2016. “Creating the Right ‘Vibe’: Exploring the Utilization of Space at Hip Hop Concerts in Adelaide and Melbourne.” In Emotions, Senses, and Spaces: Ethnographic Engagements and Intersections, edited by Alison Dundon and Susan R. Hemer, chap. 3. Adelaide, Australia: University of Adelaide Press.

Further Listening

Hilltop Hoods. 2003. The Calling. Obese Rec­ords.

Hip Hop Dance Hip hop dance had become its own specific form, alongside ballet, modern, tap, and jazz dance by the early 1970s. As a style, however, hip hop dance can be traced back to a freeform style of street dancing that was performed as far back as 1724, with African dance gatherings in historic Congo Square in New Orleans. On Sundays, enslaved Africans held meetings in which they played ­music and dance. West African ritualistic dance styles incorporated a low center of gravity, bent knees, and percussive movement, styles of dance that have carried over into hip hop (as well as other kinds of African American dance). As blacks from the South migrated both north and west, street dance from Congo Square spread its influence. By the 1920s and 1930s, Harlem saw street dancing at rent parties, in the form of the Lindy Hop. By the 1940s and 1950s, stylized moves from street dancing ­were found in many kinds of popu­lar dancing performed in shanties and jazz clubs nationwide. The dancing of Chuck Berry (1926–) as well as white rockabilly musicians such as Elvis Presley (1935–1977) and Jerry Lee Lewis (1935–) ­were inspired by ­these street dancing moves. EARLY VERSIONS Like with all dance styles, tracing hip hop dance moves to an authoritative original source is virtually impossible. Nonetheless, most scholars agree that what is known t­oday as hip hop dance began in the early 1970s. In addition to his influence on early rapping, James Brown (1933–2006) influenced dance. Recordings of his dancing while singing the funk song “Get on the Good Foot” (1972) inspired early hip hop moves. For example, Brown’s camel walk influenced the moon walk; his boogaloo was a precursor to the electric boogaloo as well as popping. In general, funk, which originated in the 1960s and 1970s in California, became an impor­tant influence on both hip hop ­music and dance. The Lockers (1971–1982), a dance group established by dancers and choreographers Toni Basil (Antonia Christina Basilotta, 1943–) and Don Campbell (1951–) in Los Angeles, promoted street dance as an art form and w ­ ere a precursor to hip hop dance crews. The earliest hip hop dance was more upright and contained, as seen with the boogaloo, popping, and locking. Performers took turns showing their moves, which meant that ­there was a need for a repetition of drum solo interludes, requiring a breakbeat, or segments of ­music that DJs looped ­until each dancer was finished.



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In 1973, ex–­disc jockey and producer Afrika Bambaataa (1957–) formed the Zulu Nation (which ­later became the Universal Zulu Nation) in the Bronx, New York, which focused on ele­ments of hip hop culture. He was one of the early champions of hip hop, which became the umbrella term that included the new street dancing styles of the 1970s and 1980s. In the beginning, most hip hop dance was performed by buskers, but it could also be seen on tele­vi­sion shows such as Soul Train (1971– 2006) and in American films such as Flashdance and Wild Style (both 1983), as well as Breakin’ and Beat Street (both 1984). In addition, in Footloose (1984), which is set in a small, religious, predominately white town, the two main characters join a breakdancing street per­for­mance. Hip hop dance crews began forming in New York City: The first was within the Zulu Nation, but soon other early breakdancing or b-­boy crews emerged, such as Rock Steady Crew (RSC, 1977–) in New York and the Electric Boogaloos (1977–) in Fresno, California. Competitions, eventually known as ­battles, began to arise between rival crews who focused on breaking or breakdancing, which had become the foundation for all hip hop dance. Regional variants w ­ ere apparent in early hip hop dance moves, but most attention focused on the West and East Coasts. Moves became more standardized due to early 1980s media exposure. NEW-SCHOOL HIP HOP By the mid-1980s, some hip hop dance moves had entered the mainstream, such as the Roger Rabbit, the Cabbage Patch, the Worm, the Humpty dance, and the R ­ unning Man. Many of t­hese moves ­were performed to companion songs. In some cases, dance moves developed from popu­lar tele­vi­sion shows. For example, The Fresh Prince of Bel-­Air’s (1990–1996) Carlton Banks, played by Alfonso Ribeiro (1971–), comically butchered hip hop steps, and a dance called “The Carlton” became famous. The same time period saw hip hop dance morph into more floor work, feats of balance and agility that incorporated martial arts and acrobatics, especially in breakdancing. Dance moves such as freezes or breaks became standard ways to signify sudden changes, and competitions began to focus on freezing, breaking, and power moves. Other styles that derived from breaking emerged in the late 1990s. For example, styles such as the Memphis jookin, turfing, jerkin’, clowning, and krumping became popu­lar. Significant changes to freestyle form came with the addition of counts, a technique credited to Basil, a system of tracking movement to ­music that had been developed in court dances (that transitioned into ballet). Basil’s work on 1980s videos with many hip hop groups introduced the new way of structuring hip hop. MAINSTREAMING Hip hop dance instruction also underwent a major change. In 1989, Buddha Stretch at the Broadway Dance Center started hosting classes, formally bringing hip hop into the dance studio. Hip hop dance has since become an amalgamation

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of the street, party, pop and lock, breaking, and structured technique styles. Purists argue that hip hop dancing ­after the late 1980s became commercialized and watered down, that dance teachers ­were responsible for diluting hip hop dance moves. This was compounded by choreographers with backgrounds in jazz and modern dance who studied hip hop, teaching lyrical hip hop, by relating the moves to their knowledge of dance. So-­called pseudo–­hip hop incorporates jazz and modern dance moves and to some appears disconnected from hip hop culture and its street origins. In 1992, what was called New Style Hip Hop dance (hip hop dance in New York) became an influence on French and Japa­nese dancers, as shown in the American documentary films Wreckin’ Shop from Brooklyn (1992) and History and Concept of Hip Hop Dance (2010). New style, returned to the traditional West African dance’s low center of gravity, with the feet grounded and the body remaining loose. A bent and a lowered chest leave the pelvic region and legs to be the focal point, and the dancer chooses to ­either emphasize the beat or move through it. Dancers can perform freestyle as long as they remain true to foundation movements. The core of New Style Hip Hop is to remain loose and ­free and improvisational. Though not part of the breakdancing scene, twerking has also become an impor­ tant ele­ment of hip hop dance. Twerking, based on African dance, is normally performed by female dancers (although male dancers have twerked both for humor and in serious competitions), and involves dropping the body down, with knees bent, and then dancing mainly by flexing and relaxing the buttocks, with additional shakes and pseudo sexual grinding. Skilled twerkers use speed, balance, body part isolation, and control to create routines that contain freezes and the lowest pos­si­ble body positioning. Since the early 1990s, hip hop dance has increasingly become main stream ­because of American tele­vi­sion series such as The Party Machine with Nia Peeples (1991) and In Living Color (1990–1994). Organ­izations such as Hip Hop International (2002–) have created the World Hip Hop Dance Championship, a televised hip hop dance competition in which all-­male and all-­female crews ­battle and showcase their power moves. Some American hip hop dance crews who have competed in the World Hip Hop Dance Championship include Jabbawockeez (2004–) from San Diego, California, the all–­Asian American Quest Crew (2006–) from Artesia, California; Poreotics (2007–) from Westminster, California; and the all-­female Beat Freaks (2003–) from Los Angeles. Paige A. Willson See also: Battling; Breakdancing; Dubstep; The Electric Boogaloos; Lyrical Hip Hop; Popping and Locking; The Robot; Uprock

Further Reading

Guzman-­Sanchez, Thomas. 2012. Underground Dance Masters: Final History of a Forgotten Era. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger. Pabon, Jorge Popmaster Fabel. 2004. “Physical Graffiti: The History of Hip Hop Dance.” In That’s the Joint: The Hip Hop Studies Reader, edited by Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal, 2nd ed., chap. 5. New York: Routledge. Schloss, Joseph G. 2009. Foundation: B-­Boys, B-­Girls, and Hip Hop Culture in New York. New York: Oxford University Press.



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Hip Hop Diplomacy Hip Hop Diplomacy is a term that refers to the use of hip hop cultural practices to cultivate and encourage good ­will and diplomatic relationships between countries, especially between the United States and other nations. Since the mid-20th ­century, the State Department has used ­music as a diplomatic tool on the world stage, and it began to incorporate hip hop into its diplomacy programs beginning in the early 2000s. The State Department began engaging American musicians in cultural diplomacy in 1955, during the Cold War (1947–1991), when it sent jazz artists such as Louis Armstrong (1901–1971), Duke Ellington (1899–1974), and Benny Goodman (1909–1986) on tour in parts of Eastern Eu­rope and the Soviet Union. ­These tours of the so-­called “Jazz Ambassadors” ­were designed to promote a positive image of Americans and American life, and to win support for the American government. The emphasis on jazz and on African American musicians was intended to encourage the view that the American government and American culture promoted equality between all citizens, and to showcase the skills of the top musicians in one of the country’s native idioms. The tours ­were primarily one-­directional, meaning that artists came to perform for audiences in other countries, but did not necessarily engage with musicians or musical traditions of ­those places. In 1961, the United States Congress passed the Fulbright-­Hayes Act, officially known as the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act, the purpose of which is to use such a cultural exchange to increase mutual understanding the United States and other countries, with the result being friendly, sympathetic, and peaceful multinational relations. To help achieve this goal, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) was founded within the State Department during that same year. ­Today, the ECA is responsible for several programs and initiatives, including the American ­Music Abroad (2005–), Center Stage (2012–), Next Level (2014–), and One Beat (2012–), all of which send American musicians to other countries to engage in cultural diplomacy. In 2005, the State Department began sending groups of hip hop artists, including rappers, DJs, and dancers, to parts of Eu­rope, African, Asia, and the ­Middle East in an attempt to combat the radicalization of Muslim youth in ­those areas. Hip hop was identified as a musical genre with which global youth, especially Muslim youth, could identify ­because of its roots as protest ­music in marginalized communities in the United States, as well as its international popularity. The United States government has also tried to counteract the radical and potentially violent ideologies to which Muslim youth in Eu­rope and other parts of the world may be exposed by offering a more moderate view of Islam through hip hop. ­These programs endorse a view of American culture as inclusive and supportive of its Muslim citizens, a position that is designed to gain support for the government and weaken fundamentalist sects that oppose Western involvement and influence. ­These programs differ from earlier, Cold War–­era State Department efforts in that the target is now more likely to be friendly Eu­ro­pean states, or nonallied nations, not necessarily ­enemy states; however, the goal of garnering good ­will and support for the United States and promoting peaceful relationships through cultural exchange remains the same.

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POST-9/11 HIP HOP DIPLOMACY Through ­these more recent, post–­September 11, 2001, programs, the American government has emphasized the role and influence of Muslim artists in hip hop. Indeed, Islam has been an impor­tant aspect of hip hop from its beginning, especially as rappers who ­were members of the Five ­Percent Nation (1964–) and the Nation of Islam (1930–) achieved a wide level of success with ­music that incorporated phrases and ideologies of their faith. Artists such as Rakim (1968–), Public ­Enemy (1982–), Poor Righ­teous Teachers (1989–1996), and ­others incorporated aspects of Islam in their ­music, and as other Muslim-­identified rappers, such as Lupe Fiasco (Wasalu Muhammad Jaco, 1982–) and Busta Rhymes (1972–), became famous, they brought increased visibility to their faith and its role in the genre. Through hip hop, foreign youth can learn about African American history, including the role of pivotal figures such as Malcolm X (1925–1965), whose speeches are sometimes sampled into hip hop tracks. Working with the Department of ­Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in 2014 the ECA began Next Level, an arts-­based exchange using multidisciplinary hip hop collaborations in order to address conflict resolution. The program sends groups of beatmakers, DJs, dancers (b-­boys and b-­girls or ­those who specialize in other hip hop dance styles) and/or MCs to lead exchange programs that last from four to six weeks in vari­ous countries. Unlike the earliest State Department initiatives, Next Level is designed to be a collaboration that engages youth and artists from the countries with which it is involved. In addition to concerts, Next Level offers other activities, including interactive per­for­mances with local musicians, lecture demonstrations, workshops, and jam sessions. The emphasis on education and musical entrepreneurship allows for a deeper level of cultural engagement with local communities, not just one-­directional per­for­mances. Next Level 1.0 (2014–2015) or­ga­nized exchange programs in Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzogovina/Montenegro, India, Senegal, Serbia, and Zimbabwe. Next Level 2.0 (2015–2016) has or­ga­nized exchanges with El Salvador, Honduras, Tanzania, Thailand, and Uganda. Additionally, through the Global Next Level residency program, artists from participating countries are brought to the United States in a true cultural and musical exchange. In April 2016, for example, a group of Next Level participants, including a b-­girl from Kampala, Uganda, a b-­boy from Thailand, rappers from Tanzania and Honduras, and a DJ and turntablist from El Salvador, appeared together at American University. The emphasis on collaborative creative pro­cesses, education, and conflict resolution created a genuine cultural exchange where local musicians, not just American artists, are celebrated and included. Lauron Jockwig Kehrer See also: Black Nationalism; Eric B. and Rakim; Five ­Percent Nation; Nation of Islam; Poor Righ­teous Teachers; Public ­Enemy

Further Reading

Aidi, Hisham D. 2014. Rebel ­Music: Race, Empire, and the New Muslim Youth Culture. New York: Pantheon Books. Katz, Mark. 2017. “The Case for Hip Hop Diplomacy.” American ­Music Review 46, no. 2: 1–5.



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Hip Hop Pantsula (aka HHP, Jabba, Jabulani Tsambo, 1980–­, Mafikeng, now Mahikeng, South Africa) Hip Hop Pantsula, or HHP, is a South African motswako rapper and singer-­songwriter who is best known for his influence on rappers living not only in South Africa but also in other countries on the continent. Motswako is a subgenre of hip hop that emerged in the mid-1990s in Mafikeng, South Africa (now Mahikeng), a major city located near Botswana. HHP’s studio ­albums include Introduction (1999), Maf Town (2001), O Mang? (Who Are You, 2003), YBA 2 NW (2005), Ac­cep­tance Speech (2007), Dumela (Thank You, 2009), Motswafrika (2011), and Motswako High School (2014). HHP’s rapping texts are mostly in Setswana, mixed with some En­glish, which is typical for motswako, but he also raps in Zulu and Sesotho. Active since 1997, he helped pop­u­lar­ize motswako, which emerged in the mid-1990s in his hometown of Mafikeng, South Africa, close to the Botswana border. He has collaborated with many rappers, including Tuks Senganga (aka Tuks, Tumelo Kepadisa, 1981–), Tumi Molekane (1981–), and Cassper Nyovest (Refiloe Maele Phoolo, 1990–), from South Africa; M.anifest (Kwame Ametepee Tsikiata, 1982–), from Ghana; Naeto C (1982–), from the United States and Nigeria; and Nas (1973–), from the United States. HHP also has successful remix ­albums, including O Mang Reloaded (2004), Special Edition Mega Mixes (2007), and Ac­cep­tance Speech Rewritten (2008). In 2009, he won an MTV Africa ­Music Award for best video for “Mpitse” (“Miss Me”). He wrote rapping texts while in high school at St. Alban’s College in Pretoria, South Africa. As lead MC in the group Verbal Assassins (1996*–1997), he and his high school friends recorded Verbal Assassins’ debut and only studio ­album, Party (1997). ­After the group’s breakup, he started his solo ­career ­after meeting South African gospel, R&B, new jack swing, and Afrobeat singer-­songwriter and producer Isaac Mthethwa (n.d.). HHP’s debut ­album Introduction used Setswana, Zulu, and Sesotho texts, with lyrical content that focused on partying and romance. For a post-­Apartheid (1948– 1991) South Africa and Botswana, his laid-­back rap, accompanied by hip hop beats and a musically softer sound than kwaito and American hip hop, made Introduction a success. He followed with Maf Town, the frequently used nickname for his hometown, Mafikeng. His lyrical content would become much more serious in subsequent ­albums, starting with O Mang in 2003, when he gained creative control and owner­ship of his masters. In subsequent ­albums he folded in autobiographical content, described personal hardship and ambitions, and protested vio­lence, xenophobia, economic disparity, and social injustice not only in South Africa, but in other African countries as well. In fact, social activism is another aspect of HHP’s ­career. In 2013, he supported the pan-­African unity initiative Daraja Walk, a long-­distance walk from South to East Africa that was intended as a unifying and social outlet for African youth. Part of his social activism is performing live concerts in countries with still developing scenes, such as Lesotho. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Motswako; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; South Africa

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Further Reading

Anon. 2009. “The Heavy Sounds of HHP.” The Argus (Cape Town), March 29, 3. Künzler, Daniel. 2011. “South African Rap ­Music, ­Counter Discourses, Identity, and Commodification beyond the Prophets of da City.” Journal of Southern African Studies 37, no. 1: 27–43. Masemola, Michael Kgomotso, and Pinky Makoe. 2014. “Musical Space as Site of Transculturation of Memory and Transformation of Consciousness: The Re-­affirmation of Africa in the Black Atlantic Assemblage.” Muziki: Journal of M ­ usic Research in Africa 11, no. 1: 63–70. Puleng, Segalo. 2006. “The Psychological Power of Rap ­Music in the Healing of Black Communities.” Muziki: Journal of M ­ usic Research in Africa 3, no. 1: 28–35.

Further Listening

HHP. 2003. O mang? (Who Are You)? ccp Rec­ord Com­pany. HHP. 2004. Omang Reloaded. ccp Rec­ord Com­pany.

Hip House Hip ­house is a combination of h­ ouse m ­ usic, normally associated with dance-­oriented nightclubs, and hip hop. It is sometimes called rap ­house or house rap, and it became popu­lar in the late 1980s, appearing first in large urban areas such as New York and Chicago. Due to the popularity of both musical genres, it quickly caught on as a style in both the United States and the United Kingdom. One of the earliest bands to pop­u­lar­ize hip ­house was the Beatmasters (1986–), who, working with the pop crossover female rap duo Cookie Crew (1983–1992), released the hit “Rok Da House” (1987) on Rhythm King Rec­ords (1986–). Other early recordings included Tyree (Tyree Cooper, n.d.) and Afrika Bambaataa’s (1957–) cousin Kool Rock Steady (Edward Rudolph, 1968–1996), whose “Turn up the Bass” was released in 1988; the Beatmasters and rapper Merlin’s (Justin Mark Boreland, n.d.) “Who’s in the House” (1988); and Vitamin-­C’s (Clarence J. Car­ter, n.d.) 1990 club hit “The Chicago Way,” released on the Chicago-­based Jack Street (1988–1990) label; however, the two songs that made hip ­house ubiquitous with clubbing ­were by jazz and hip hop trio Jungle ­Brothers (1987–) and the duo of Rob Base and DJ E-­Z Rock (1985–). Jungle ­Brothers’ “I’ll House You,” from their debut a­ lbum Straight Out of the Jungle (1988), reached No. 22 on the U.K. Singles Chart, and Rob Base and DJ E-­Z Rock’s “It Takes Two,” from the 1988 ­album of the same name, hit No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 and went Platinum. ­These hip ­house songs w ­ ere featured in vari­ous DJ shows, such as t­hose of Manchester, England-­based DJ Chad Jackson (Mark Chadwick, n.d.), whose own “Hear the Drummer (Get Wicked)” was a 1990 U.K. Top 10 hit. Hip h­ ouse since 2000 has evolved into a sound called electro hop, which is hip ­house combined with electropop, a style of synth-­pop featuring a harder sound and which became influential on iconic pop performers such as Lady Gaga (1986–). ­These hip h­ ouse artists w ­ ere mainstream, in fact indistinguishable from dance and pop musicians. They included Los Angeles electronic dance duo LMFAO (2006– 2012); Los Angeles dance, pop, and EDM groups the Black Eyed Peas (1995–),

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Hyper Crush (2006–), and Far East Movement (2003–); San Luis Obispo, California turntablist and producer Wolfgang Gartner (Joseph Thomas Youngman, 1982–); Miami rappers Pitbull (1981–) and Flo Rida (Tramar Lacel Dillard, 1979–); Harlem, New York singer-­songwriter, rapper, and actress Azealia Banks (1991–); Tupelo, Mississippi singer-­songwriter and producer Diplo (Thomas Wesley Pentz, 1978–); Birmingham, ­England electronic ­music multi-­instrumentalist, producer, and rapper-­ songwriter Mike Skinner (Michael Geoffrey Skinner, 1978–), who rec­ords with the proj­ect band the Streets (1994–2011, 2017–); London rapper-­songwriter and producer Example (Elliot John Gleave, 1982–); Breda, Netherlands producer and turntablist Tiësto (Tijs Michiel Verwest, 1969–); Stockholm progressive and electro ­house group Swedish House Mafia (2008–2013); and Paris-­born Euro-­dance DJ and producer David Guetta (Pierre David Guetta, 1967–). Hip ­house is related to other musical styles such as U.K. garage (R&B, garage band, and hip hop) grime (garage band, hip hop, and rap), and grindie (grime, drum and bass, and alternative dance). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Brick City Club; The United States

Further Reading

Hanson, Car­ter F. 2014. “Pop Goes Utopia: An Examination of Utopianism in Recent Electronic Dance Pop.” Utopian Studies 25, no. 2: 384–413. Soojin Park, Judy. 2015. “Searching for a Cultural Home: Asian American Youth in the EDM Festival Scene.” Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance M ­ usic Culture 7, no. 1: 15–34.

Further Listening

Flo Rida. 2008. Mail on Sunday. Poe Boy Entertainment/Atlantic. Tiësto. 2009. Kaleidoscope. Ultra Rec­ords.

Horrorcore Horrorcore is an American rap subgenre or style whose defining ele­ments are exaggerated vio­lence, imagery that relates to the occult or to the super­natural, realistic portrayals of vio­lence that are described so that they are disturbing or disquieting, references to the dark side of the ­human mind, obsession with ­mental illness, and references to altered states of consciousness through drug abuse. Other themes might include the macabre, psychosis/schizo­phre­nia, Satanism, mutilation and self-­ mutilation, cannibalism, rape or sexual crime, even necrophilia; however, many horrorcore songs profess a sort of “honor among thieves,” whereby the bond between the violent narrators and their friends is sacred—­and they protect each other, as do members of Insane Clown Posse’s (aka ICP, 1989–) “Homies” (2002). Musically, horrorcore has no one defining sound, although some of its prac­ti­ tion­ers, such as the Memphis-­based Three 6 Mafia (aka ­Triple 6 Mafia, 1991–), use steady, slow-­paced beats and a gradual buildup, often set against a steady, eerie, and almost monotone syllabic setting of rap that sounds like chanting, to create a sound reminiscent of horror films. Most horrorcore bands, however, do not incorporate ele­ments of filmic horror, and not all mentions of horror make a song

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Performing in gothic or evil clownface, Insane Clown Posse (ICP) is horrorcore’s most influential and commercially successful hip hop act. At concerts and festivals, ICP’s most dedicated fans (who are primarily white), known as Juggalos, emulate the duo’s makeup and make “whoop, whoop” calls. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

horrorcore, as with, for example Jimmy Spicer’s (James Bromley Spicer, n.d.) “Adventures of Super Rhyme” (1980) an early recording on Dazz Rec­ords (1980– 1991), Dana Dane’s (Dana McLeese, 1965–) “Nightmares” (1985), and Michael Jackson’s (1958–2009) “Thriller” (1982) mention characters from horror films, but they are all comic or lighthearted in tone, and in parts are experiments in non sequitur and wordplay, rather than forays into dark psy­chol­ogy. In other words, horrorcore has to possess a threat. The most famous rapper associated with horrorcore is Eminem (1972–). Among strictly horrorcore performers, Insane Clown Posse and Twiztid (1997–) have sold well. Horrorcore utilizes gratuitously graphic images to portray vio­lence; in addition, some horrorcore is known for its aggrandizement of ultraviolent be­hav­ior, such as beating or stabbing an unsuspecting victim, and some acts write images of demons and other monsters, usually meta­phor­ically, into their lyr­ics. At its essence, horrorcore is about celebrating the status of the outsider to society, especially if that person is not just murderous, but transgressive. In many ways it is a natu­ral progression from gangsta rap, with the main difference being victimization—­gangsta rap victims of vio­lence tend to be e­ ither other gang members or police, while in horrorcore, an MC might rap about robbing and killing his elementary school teacher, a prostitute, a fast-­food man­ag­er who he finds annoying, or even an innocent bystander.

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Horrorcore is sometimes characterized as hardcore gangsta rap, although some of its prac­ti­tion­ers also owe a debt to hardcore metal. The other source of horrorcore is not associated with hip hop or metal, but with folk and country ­music. The outlaw song, such as Johnny Cash’s (1932–2003) “Folsom Prison Blues” (1955) or the traditional murder ballad, such as “Pretty Polly” (aka “The Cruel Ship’s Carpenter”), contain references to random murder for the sheer plea­sure of the experience or the premeditated killing of a pregnant ­woman, respectively. Although mainstream rock ­music generally has no version of this type of transgressive ­music, some of its more unusual acts such as Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (1983–), an Australian rock band, visit themes of serial killing, spree killing, and torture in ­albums such as Murder Ballads (1996), where songs describe t­ hese acts in loving detail. The quin­tes­sen­tial horrorcore band, Insane Clown Posse, cites as its influence an early song by the Houston-­based Geto Boys (1986–), “Assassins” (off of Making Trou­ble, 1988). Geto Boys’s “Mind Playing Tricks on Me” (off of We C ­ an’t Be Stopped, 1991) is a horrorcore classic, complete with nightmare imagery, mysterious presences, drug trips, dark psy­chol­ogy, and random ultraviolence. ­Later groups such as the short-­lived Flatlinerz (1992–1995, 2014–) and Gravediggaz (1991–2002, 2011–) pop­u­lar­ized the word “horrorcore” to describe the style of m ­ usic.

FIRST AND SECOND WAVE Some scholars argue that horrorcore gained prominence in 1994 with the release of Flatlinerz’ U.S.A. and Gravediggaz’ 6 Feet Deep (released in Eu­rope as N—­amortis), but one of the earliest, if not the earliest example of horrorcore, is solo rapper/songwriter Ganksta N-­I-­P (Lewayne Williams, 1969–). A Houston rapper who often wrote songs for Geto Boys, Gangksta N-­I-­P in 1982 released his debut ­album, The South Park Psycho, which contained keyboard riff samples from the film Halloween (1978), set against lyr­ics expressing the need to act violently, perhaps even go on a killing spree. The ­album also includes exaggerated vio­lence, such as the rapper’s threat to make an intended random victim beat himself up if he (the rapper) is too tired to do it. A second wave of horrorcore bands included New York’s guru of musical weirdness Kool Keith (Keith Matthew Thornton, 1966–) and Santa Ana, California–­ based short-­lived trio KMC (1991). Kool Keith, known for jarring images and absurdity, was arguably performing horrorcore beginning with his tenure with Ultramagnetic MCs (1984–2001, 2006–) and their ­album Critical Beatdown (1988, 1997) and continuing into his solo ­career. KMC’s 1991 ­album Three Men with the Power of Ten does not have quite the same scare ­factor as The South Park Psycho, but it does serve as an early of example of using frenetic beats and horror stingers (instances of sudden sound in horror to scare the audience) in a rap ­album; the songs are also violent, though not extremely graphic. In Sacramento, fellow California act Brotha Lynch Hung (1969–) debuted in 1992 and by 1995 had fully embraced horrorcore with the gory and graphic Season of the Siccness, which was certified Platinum. About the same time as Kool Keith,

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Detroit-­based Esham (Rashaam Smith, 1973–) made a huge local splash by exploring both horrorcore themes, funk and rap samples, and unsettling rhythms in 1989, with his teenaged debut ­album Boomin’ “Words from Hell 1990.” Esham’s style, which he called acid rap, was a huge influence on a local rap band called Inner City Posse, which ­later became Insane Clown Posse. HORRORCORE AROUND THE WORLD Though hardcore has some strong international scenes, horrorcore has far less presence outside the United States. Many international acts are especially inspired by ICP and Brotha Lynch Hung. Examples from North Amer­i­ca and Eu­rope include Swollen Members (1992–), from Canada; Die Vamummtn (The Dummies, 2006– 2016), from Austria; Suspekt (1997–), from Denmark; and Terror X Crew (1992– 2002), from Greece. Die Antwoord (“The Answer” in Afrikaans, 2008–), from South Africa, sometimes uses horrorcore ele­ments, whereas Horrorshow (2006–), from Australia, despite its name, is not a horrorcore act at all. Allen Halloween (Allen Pires Sanhá, 1980–), an alternative and horrorcore immigrant rapper, singer, and producer from Guinea, resides in Portugal and performs hip hop Tuga (Portugese hip hop). Perhaps horrorcore’s existence is most surprising in Kazakhstan, where the popularity of Post Mortem (2007–) is pos­si­ble, despite hip hop’s being restricted. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Brotha Lynch Hung; Geto Boys; Hardcore Hip Hop

Further Reading

Hess, Danielle. 2007. “Hip Hop and Horror.” ­Under “Wu-­Tang Clan” by Jessica Elliott and Mickey Hess. In Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, ­Music, and Culture, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 2, pp. 365–90. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Radford, Benjamin. 2016. “Bad Clowns of the Song.” In Bad Clowns, chap. 7. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Further Listening

Esham. 1989. Boomin’ Words from Hell 1990. Reel Life Productions. Ganksta N-­I-­P. 1992. The South Park Psycho. Rap-­A-­Lot Rec­ords. Insane Clown Posse. 1997. The ­Great Milenko. Hollywood Rec­ords. KMC. 1991. Three Men with the Power of Ten. Priority Rec­ords.

Hungary Hungary is a Central Eu­ro­pean country whose population is mostly Hungarian, with small minority populations that are German and Roma. Once part of the Austro-­Hungarian Empire (1867–1918), Hungary became the Kingdom of Hungary from 1920 to 1946. ­Until 1989, Hungary had been an Eastern Bloc country ­under communism, but near the turn of the c­ entury, Hungary experienced a fairly smooth transition to democracy. Just ­after the departure of the communist regime, underground radio stations and ­music clubs surfaced. Hungary’s capital city

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Budapest had popu­lar ­music scenes that included rock, electronic ­music, punk, metal, and hip hop, including Animal Cannibals (1989–), a pioneering rap act that employed comedy, coding, and Hungarian wordplay. Hungary possesses a rich ­music history. By the 20th ­century, its best-­k nown composers, Béla Bartók (1881–1945) and Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967), contributed si­mul­ta­neously to modern ­music and to Hungarian folk ­music’s popularity and preservation. Although Hungary’s communist regime censored popu­lar ­music, American jazz and rock became extremely popu­lar by the 1950s and 1960s, as Hungarian rock bands carefully navigated the suppression of freedom of speech. In 1995, Animal Cannibals released Fehéren fekete, Feketén fehér (White to Black, Black to White). In the meantime, the hip hop group Membran (Membrane, early 1990s–) fused dubstep, electronica, and jazz, and HIP HOP BOYZ (1993–) and Happy Gang (1993–) fused hip hop with pop. Hungarian hip hop localized typical American lyrical content, particularly that associated with gangsta rap. The most successful pioneering act was gangster rapper Ganxsta Zolee (aka Döglögy, Zana Zoltán, 1966–) and his rapping collective Ganxsta Zolee És a Kartel (1995–). Their single “BOOM A Fejbe!” (“Boom to the Head!”), from the debut ­album Egyenesen a gettóbói (Straight Out the Ghetto, 1995–) and produced by Epic Rec­ords (1953–), was a national hit. ­Later, the collective’s ­album, the Latin-­ influenced Helldorado (1999), was certified Platinum in Hungary. Other early groups ­were Rapülők (1992–1994, 2006*–), Az Árral Szemben (Against the Current, 1995–2004), and Fekete Vonat (Black Train, 1997–). Despite Ganxsta Zolee És a Kartel’s success, Hungarian hip hop failed to thrive and has had limited commercial success outside the country. Speak (Tamás Deák, 1976–) was the first Hungarian rapper to become internationally famous when the video for his antiwar song “Stop the War” (2003) went viral on the Internet, with unintentionally comical aspects, for in 2017, the video was parodied as “World Peace Rap” on the American tele­vi­sion show Saturday Night Live (1975–). Another Hungarian hip hop act that gained notoriety outside Hungary was rapper Brixx (Ildiko Basa, 1976–), a female MC who raps in En­glish. Her debut a­ lbum Every­thing Happens for a Reason (1999) was released on the Columbia Rec­ords label (1887–). The 2000s demonstrate that Hungarian hip hop is focused on musical diversity, if not diverse lyrical content: The electronica group the Balkan Fanatik (2002–) fuses folk rock with hip hop; Irie Maffia (2005–) and Eccentrics (2004–2006)* fuse hip hop with funk, rock, reggae, and dancehall; and beatmaker Mujo (aka mujo beatz, anonymous, n.d.), originally from Japan, fuses lo-fi hip hop with ambient chillout ­music. Pioneering acts continue as well. Membran included Hungarian folk ­music instruments such as the cimbalom, in addition to acoustic instruments such as the saxophone and sitar, in its debut studio ­album Closed (2007). DJ Cadik (Chef, Pál Séfel, n.d.), who led Membran, has had his own solo ­career and released the experimental hip hop and trip hop (downtempo) ­albums Basic (2008), Just (2011), and ALMA (2012), incorporating drum and bass and glitch m ­ usic. Ganxsta Zolee És a Kartel still rec­ords, and Animal Cannibals recently released 1111 (2016). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Austria; Germany

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Further Reading

Miklody, Eva. 2004. “A.R.T., Klikk, K.A.O.S., and the Rest: Hungarian Youth Rapping.” In Blackening Eu­rope: The African American Presence, edited by Heike Raphael-­ Hernandez, chap. 11. New York: Routledge. Simeziane, Sarah. 2010. “Roma Rap and the Black Train: Minority Voices in Hungarian Hip Hop.” In The Languages of Global Hip Hop, edited by Marina Terkourafi, chap. 4. New York: Continuum.

Further Listening

Animal Cannibals. 2016. 1111. Magneoton. Ganxsta Zolee És a Kartel. 1999. Helldorado. Epic. Mujo and BluntOne. 2015. Reel Street Jazz. Vinyldigital.de.

Hype Man A hype man is a kind of MC or toaster whose job involves engaging the audience or crowd through wild fashion and side commentary on a song’s main lyr­ics, with exclamations and interjections and attempts to increase the audience’s excitement with call-­and-­response chants. The hype man may also serve as a vocal harmonizer. The prototype for the hype man is Bobby Howard Byrd (1934–2007), an American R&B/soul singer songwriter who helped develop soul and funk musician James Brown (1933–2006). Byrd would interject vocalizations into Brown’s songs, giving him a counterpoint to his lead vocals. A pos­si­ble origin of the hype man is the Jamaican act of toasting, or talking/chanting over a rhythm to create comedy, boastful commentaries, and rhymed storytelling. The most famous use of a hype man in rap is Public ­Enemy’s (1982–) Flavor Flav (1959–), the American rapper, comic actor, restaurateur, and real­ity tele­vi­sion show personality who provided comic relief and color for MC Chuck D (1960–). The Hype man often improvises through interventions, while also drawing attention to the words of the rapper. In a practical sense, the hype man gives the main rapper places where he can take a breath, sometimes by just interjecting one or two words within a line. Early hype men ­were used by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (1976–1982, 1987–1988) and Kool Moe Dee (1963–). Flavor Flav established many of the conventions of the hype man, such as an outlandish sense of fashion and a vocal style that contrasted dramatically with that of the rapper. Another significant hype man was Jay-­Z (1969–), who began his ­career as a hype man for Big ­Daddy Kane (1968–). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Flavor Flav; Jamaica; Jay-­Z; MC; Public ­Enemy

Further Reading

Danielsen, Anne. 2008. “The Musicalization of ‘Real­ity’: Real­ity Rap and Rap Real­ity on Public ­Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet.” Eu­ro­pean Journal of Cultural Studies 11, no. 4: 405–21. Grierson, Tim. 2015. Public E ­ nemy: Inside the Terrordome. London: Omnibus Press.

I Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson, 1969–­, Los Angeles, California) Ice Cube is an American rapper, producer, actor, and filmmaker who was one of the central figures in the rise of gangsta rap. As a member of N.W.A. (1986–1991), he helped create the landmark Straight Outta Compton (1988). His solo debut, Ameri­ KKKa’s Most Wanted (1990), continued the controversies that had begun with his lyr­ics for N.W.A., as did Death Certificate (1991) and The Predator (1992), which ­were very well received. His popularity declined somewhat with subsequent a­ lbums, as his sound mellowed somewhat. He made his motion picture debut in John Singleton’s (1968–) critically acclaimed Boyz n the Hood (1991), and he has subsequently appeared in more than 30 other films. He has also found success as a screenwriter of American comedy films. As a hip hop writer, he is best known for lyr­ics that include explicit language and blunt references to drugs, vio­lence, misogyny, and images of the crumbling inner city; conversely, he is the creator and producer of the family-­ friendly tele­vi­sion comedy Are We ­There Yet? (2010–2013).

FOUNDING N.W.A. Ice Cube was born in the Crenshaw neighborhood of Los Angeles. His middle-­ class parents expressed strong values that included educational accomplishment, so Ice Cube studied architecture in college, completing his degree in drafting in only one year. He had developed an interest in hip hop m ­ usic while in high school, where he had written his first songs, including one he sold to Eazy-­E (1964–1995), a ­f uture member of N.W.A. With K-­Dee (aka Kid Disaster, Darrel Johnson, 1969–) and Sir Jinx (Anthony Wheaton, n.d.), he formed the group C.I.A. (Cru in Action, 1984–1987). His gift for lyr­ics attracted the attention of Dr. Dre (1965–), who hired him as a ghostwriter for several groups. By 1987, Ice Cube was working virtually full time with N.W.A., writing raps for Dr. Dre and Eazy-­E, and performing on their breakout debut ­album Straight Outta Compton. Despite the extraordinary success of that recording, Ice Cube left in a contract dispute over compensation for his lyr­ics on both that ­album and an Eazy-­E solo ­album. The animus between N.W.A. and Ice Cube would resurface in raps by both sides in years to come.

SOLO ­CAREER AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted made clear that the explicit language, misogyny, and racism that informed Ice Cube’s N.W.A. lyr­ics would be pres­ent in his solo

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proj­ects, though even critics noted that Death Certificate and The Predator w ­ ere a prescient commentary on the conditions that precipitated the 1992 Los Angeles riots. His lyr­ics remained raw and defiant throughout his solo ­albums, and his delivery retained the convincing and authoritative manner that helped to define gangsta rap. ­After his per­for­mance in Boyz n the Hood (1991), he became a hot property in film, as both an actor and screenwriter. His successful writing proj­ects include Fri­ here Yet? (2005), all three of which day (1995), Barbershop (2002), and Are We T did well at the box office and spawned lucrative sequels. Are We ­There Yet? also became the basis of a successful tele­vi­sion situation comedy (2010–2013). Scott Warfield See also: Dr. Dre; Eazy-E; Gangsta Rap; N.W.A.; The United States

Further Reading

Leonard, David J. 2007. “Ice Cube.” In Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, ­Music, and Culture, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 2, pp. 293–316. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Woldu, Gail Hilson. 2008. The Words and M ­ usic of Ice Cube. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Further Listening

Ice Cube. 1990. AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted. Priority Rec­ords.

Ice Prince (Panshak Henry Zamani, 1986–­, Minna, Nigeria) Ice Prince is a Nigerian rapper, singer-­songwriter, and actor whose rap ­career began in 2004. He is most famous for one of his early songs, “Oleku” (a song with multiple meanings, from strong to cool, 2010), which featured rapper Brymo (Olawale Ashimi or Olawale Olofo’ro, 1986–), and was also released on his debut ­album Every­body Loves Ice Prince (2011). Ice Prince is a tenor who went from rapping to singing in church choirs, l­ater returning to rap, and his songs use s­imple electronica dance beats and heavi­ly autotuned R&B vocals, in addition to rapping. He cites many American hip hop acts, including the Notorious B.I.G. (1972–1997), Rakim (1968–), Talib Kweli (1975–), and Lauryn Hill (1975–), as well as fellow Nigerian rappers M.I. (1981–) and Jesse Jagz (1984–), as his influences. When he was two years old, his Ngas (aka Angas, a tribal ­people found mainly in the state of Plateau in central Nigeria) ­family, which was very poor, moved to Jos, a mining city of about a million residents which had a burgeoning hip hop scene. At age 13, he began writing and performing rap songs as a way to raise money for new clothes, and by 15, he began recording. Within a year he formed the short-­ lived hip hop group Ecomog Squad (2002–2003). In 2004, he began singing in a church choir and joined the production crew called the Loopy Crew, which featured ­f uture solo rappers M.I. and Jesse Jagz. The three had become his roommates a­ fter his parents died in 1999 and 2000. M.I. became his mentor, and Ice Prince released his debut single “Extraordinary” and his follow-up single, the M.I.-­produced “Rewind,” both of which saw local airplay in

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Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria, and Lagos, the largest metropolitan area in Nigeria. Both also became minor hits. He then signed with Choco­late City, which released his two a­ lbums. His single “Oleku” eventually became one of Nigeria’s most remixed songs. The ­album Every­body Loves Ice Prince spawned four singles, including hits “Aboki” (“Friend”) and “More.” A remix of “Aboki” featuring Ghanian rapper Sarkodie (1985–) became a hit. Ice Prince has been featured on other hip hop artists’ singles, the most notable being “Super Sun (Remix)” (2011) by Bez (Emmanuel Bez Idakula, 1983–), a Nigerian alternative soul multi-­instrumentalist, singer-­songwriter, and composer. Over his ­career, he has won vari­ous awards, including the 2013 BET Award for Best International Act: Africa, for his second studio ­album, Fire of Zamani (2013), and the 2014 Nigeria Entertainment Award for Best Rap Act of the Year. In 2015, he began serving as vice president of the Choco­late City (2005–) recording label. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Jesse Jagz; M.I.; Nigeria

Further Reading

Gbogi, Michael Tosin. 2016. “Contesting Meanings in the Postmodern Age: The Example of Nigerian Hip Hop ­Music.” Matatu 48, no. 2: 335–62. Shonekan, Stephanie. 2013. “ ‘The Blueprint: The Gift and the Curse’ of American Hip Hop Culture for Nigeria’s Millennial Youth.” Journal of Pan African Studies 6, no. 3: 181–98.

Further Listening

Ice Prince. 2011. Every­body Loves Ice Prince. Choco­late City. Ice Prince. 2013. Fire of Zamani. Choco­late City.

Iceland Iceland is a North Atlantic Ocean island country whose population is almost entirely Icelandic, with very small Polish and other minority populations. Icelandic culture is rooted in Scandinavian culture, though current residents also descend from Germanic and Gaelic populations who settled on the island since the ­Middle Ages. Hip hop reached Iceland in the early 1980s, though at the time popu­lar m ­ usic tastes ­were focused on the new wave pop and synth-­pop, alternative rock, heavy metal, post-­punk, and folk-­infused indie rock that emerged in the capital city, Reykjavík. Iceland is notable for its lit­er­a­t ure, including medieval sagas, which are historically based narratives that w ­ ere written mostly in the 13th ­century about conflicts during the Saga Age (870–1056). Other notable lit­er­a­t ure includes Eddic poetry (medieval stories from the Scandinavian mainland) and Skaldic poetry (composed ­ ere inserted by Icelandic poets called skalds, ­these poems, sometimes satirical, w within stories that honor nobility), sacred verse, autobiographical prose, and rímur. The last is a Germanic alliterative epic poem with stanzas of two to four lines that has its earliest extant examples from the late 15th ­century. Icelandic modern lit­er­ a­t ure, which includes romantic, naturalist, expressionist, and post-­expressionist

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prose, has at times revived earlier epic poetry, particularly the rímur, which became sung a cappella despite being banned for many years by the National Church (Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland, 1540–). Rímur has also found its way into popu­lar ­music, including Icelandic hip hop.

POPU­L AR ­MUSIC AND WAVES OF HIP HOP As early as 1983 breakdancing and graffiti ­were underground activities, followed by rap; however, internationally successful bands such as the Sugarcubes (1986– 1992), followed by lead singer Björk (Björk Guðmundsdóttir, 1965–) as soloist, dominated local airwaves. By the early 1990s, graffiti as art gained popularity in Reykjavík. Prominent graffiti crews ­were CAN Crew (Can Armed Ninjas, 1997–) and Team 13 (­later Twisted Minds Crew [TMC], 1997–), the latter rapping in En­glish. Prominent b-­boy crews included Shakers Crew (1997*–) and Ele­ment Crew (aka 5th Ele­ment Crew, 1998–). Rap ­battle festivals emerged in the 1990s, including Rímnaflæðl, an onstage freestyle rapping competition in Miðberg. The earliest hip hop acts opted for the En­glish language to reach beyond the Icelandic audience. ­These early acts informed Iceland’s first wave of hip hop and included Hip Hop Ele­ments (­later Kritikal Mazz, 1997–), Bounce ­Brothers (1997*–), and Multifunctionals (1997*–). Quarashi (1996–2005, 2016–) was the first Icelandic hip hop group to experience national success; 500 copies of its EP Switchstance (1996) sold in one week. Quarashi opened for internationally known American groups such as the Fugees (1992–1997), released the Iceland-­certified Gold ­album Xeneizes (1999), and attained a recording contract with a major American label, Columbia Rec­ords (1887–). Meanwhile, the Subterraninan (Subterranean, 1997– 1999) released its successful debut, Central Magnetizm (1997). The group included female rapper, producer, and sound engineer CELL7 (Ragna Kjartansdóttir, n.d.). The Reykjavík-­based, East Coast–­influenced duo Antlew/Maximum (1997– 2005*), consisting of Icelandic producer Maximum (aka Earmax, B.L.A.K.E., Gnúsi Yones, Magnús Jónsson, n.d.) and Brooklyn, New York rapper Antlew (aka Lefty Hooks, Anthony Lewis, n.d.), was the earliest Icelandic act to fuse hip hop with R&B and neo soul. Meanwhile, Multifunctionals, a group that usually rapped in En­glish, released “Númer 1” (1997), the first single to contain rap in Icelandic. By 2000, a second wave of Icelandic hip hop had begun, characterized by success with recording in Icelandic. The earliest to do so ­were ­brothers Sesar A (Eyjólfu Eyvindarson, 1975–) and Blaz Roca (aka Johnny National, Erpur Eyvindarson, 1977–), who had been rapping since 1993, growing up in Denmark. With Trió Óla Skans (1997–1999*) and the Subterraninan, they formed the band SupahSyndikal (1999–). In 2001, Sesar A released the first full hip hop ­album in Icelandic, Stormurinn á eftir logninu (The Storm a­ fter the Calm). A year ­later, he produced the first rap compilation, Rímnamín (a portmanteau using “rhyme” and “vitamin,” 2002), recording with his ­brother as the rapping duo Sækópah (2001*–2002)—­the first duo to use Icelandic texts. He also helped produce Blaz Roca’s debut solo ­album Kópakabana (2010). Blaz Roca became the most popu­lar and prolific Icelandic rapper, fronting the band XXX Rottweiler Hundar (aka 110 Rottweiler Hundar,

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Rottweiler Dogs, 2000–). Blaz Roca also rapped on Rímur & Rapp (2002), a compilation featuring Icelandic rappers, folk singers, and traditional rímur musicians. Con­temporary acts included Forgotten Lores (2000–), who released the critically acclaimed ­albums Týndi hlekkurinnn (Lost Lick, 2003) and Frá Heimsenda (From Heimsenda, 2006), and Skytturnar (The Marksmen or The Shooters, 2001*– 2005, 2012–). Since 2002, a large number of Icelandic acts have emerged, some using American-­ inspired lyrical content such as gangsta rap and braggadocio, but most focusing on diverse topics such as po­liti­cal corruption, ­women’s rights, gender equality, fantastic or apocalyptic narratives, Icelandic lit­er­a­ture or culture, and everyday life. Some acts included Bæjarins bestu (The Best Town, 2002–), Móri (Magnús Ómarsson, n.d.), Emmsjé Gauti (Gauti Þeyr Másson, 1989–), Poetrix (Sævar Daníel Kolandavelu, n.d.), Afkvæmi Guðanna (The Offspring of the Gods, 2002–), Bent og 7Berg (Bent and 7Berg, 2002–), and Hæsta Hendin (The Highest Hand, 2003*–). Pioneering acts such as Cell7 also made successful comebacks. Maximum continued on to establish the electronica hip ­house band GusGus (1995–), which ­later recorded trip hop on the ­album This Is Normal (1999). Other trip hop (downtempo) acts include Emilíana Torrini (Emilíana Torrini Daviðsdóttir, 1977–), TMC’s Beatmakin Troopa (Pan Thorarensen, 1981–), Hermigervill (Sveinbjörn Thorarensen, 1984–), Samaris (2011–), and IntrObeatz (aka Introbeats, Ársæll Ingason, n.d.). In the 2010s Icelandic hip hop continues its diversity of topics and musical fusion, embracing trap ­music, which marks the beginning of the third wave. Successful trap, trap hop, or trap pop acts include Geisha Cartel (2012*–), $igmund (Sigmundur Páll Feysteinsson, 1997*–), Aron Can (1999–), and Los Angeles–­raised Gísli Pálmi (Gísli Pálmi Sigurðsson, 1991–). Other acts include Kött Grà Pje (aka Kött G P, Gray Cat, Atli Sigþórsson, 1983–), Lord Pusswhip (þórður Ingi Jónsson, 1993–), STNY (aka Stony, Stony Blyden, Thorsteinn Sindri Baldvinsson Blyden, 1993–), GKR (Gaukur Grétuson, 1994–), Herra Hnetusmjör (Árni Páll Árnason, n.d.), Þriðja Hæðin (The Third Floor, 2008–), Shades of Reykjavík (2011–), Úlfur Úlfur (2011–), and Reykjavíkurdætur (­Daughters of Reykjavik, 2013–). The last is an all-­female band whose feminist topics, at times through use of meta­phor or coding, include protesting rape culture and victim blaming, expressing pride in sexuality and maternity, countering the male gaze, and advocating for gender equality and ­women’s rights. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Quarashi; The United States

Further Reading

Mitchell, Tony. 2015. “Icelandic Hip Hop from ‘Selling American Fish to Icelanders’ to Reykjavíkdætur (Reykjavík ­Daughters).” Journal of World Popu­lar ­Music 2, no. 2: 240–60. Patrick, Brian Anse. 2008. “Vikings and Rappers: The Icelandic Sagas Hip Hop across 8 Mile.” Journal of Popu­lar Culture 41, no. 2 (April): 281–305.

Further Listening

Afkvæmi Guðanna. 2016. Hættu að hringja í mig (Stop Calling Me). Gemsar. Shades of Reykjavík. 2017. Rós (Fighters). Self-­released.

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Ice-­T

Ice-­T (Tracy Lauren Marrow, 1958–­, Newark, New Jersey) Ice-­T, a highly successful early 1980s hip hop performer, helped to establish West Coast rappers as equal to their New York rivals. He is also one of the found­ers of gangsta rap culture. In the last two de­cades, he has also been a popu­lar motion picture and tele­vi­sion actor, especially in roles that promote hip hop identities. In the 1980s he made occasional film appearances. Beginning with the American motion picture New Jack City (1991), in which he played an undercover narcotics detective, he appeared in over two dozen motion pictures in the next de­cade, usually as a gang member, drug dealer, or law enforcement figure. Since 2000, he has starred in the long-­r unning Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (1999–), as Odafin “Fin” Tutuola, a former undercover narcotics officer.

EARLY YEARS Born Tracy Lauren Marrow and raised in suburban middle-­class New Jersey u­ ntil the deaths of his parents left him orphaned at the age of 12, Ice-­T lived briefly with vari­ous relatives in Los Angeles. During his high school years, he acquired the nickname Ice-­T as a reflection of his interest in the novels of pimp Iceberg Slim (aka Robert Beck, Robert Lee Maupin, 1918–1992), whose works he memorized and recited to his friends. Although not a gang member himself, he did associate with members of the Crips (1969–) and engaged in some illegal activities. At 17 and living on his own, he was unable to support himself and his girlfriend on a Social Security check, and so he sold marijuana and stolen car stereos. He also became involved with ­music in a vocal group at Crenshaw High School and eventually enlisted in the U.S. Army, where he first became interested in hip hop ­music. At this time, he purchased stereo equipment, which he used to learn turntablism and MCing (rapping). Following his discharge, he ­adopted the stage name Ice-­T and began to work as a DJ, but found that he attracted more attention as a rapper. About that same time, he returned to his criminal activities, u­ ntil a serious car accident put him in a hospital as a John Doe, ­because he carried no identification while committing crimes. Shortly ­after his release, he deci­ded to become a professional rapper and give up his illegal activities.

SUCCESS AT RAPPING Beginning in the mid-1980s, Ice-­T’s recordings helped to shift hip hop’s center of gravity away from its New York origins. In 1983, he recorded his first single, “Cold Wind Madness,” and despite its lack of airplay due to its hardcore lyr­ics, the track achieved some commercial success. As Ice-­T’s reputation grew in clubs in Los Angeles, similar tracks followed. Upon hearing Schoolly D’s (Jesse Bonds Weaver Jr., 1962–) “P.S.K. What Does It Mean?” (1985), Ice-­T composed his own rap about gang life, “6 in the Mornin’ ” (1986), a track that is cited frequently as perhaps the first example of gangsta rap. On the success of this and other singles,



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he signed with Sire Rec­ords (1966–), acquired by Warner Bros. Records (1958–) in 1978, which released his first two studio ­albums, Rhyme Pays (1987) and Power (1988), both of which achieved Gold status. His fourth a­ lbum, O.G. Original Gangster (1991), earned a Grammy and is considered one of gangsta rap’s defining ­albums. The single “Body Count” is noteworthy for its introduction of Body Count (1990–2006, 2009–), his heavy metal band, metal being a musical genre that had interested him since high school. His next proj­ect was Body Count’s self-­titled debut ­album. Body Count (1992) spawned the provocative single “Cop Killer,” written by Ice-­T to convey the frustrations of individuals, chiefly minorities, who have been the victims of police brutality and therefore wanted to seek revenge; the track immediately drew nationwide protests from police, the National R ­ ifle Association (NRA, 1871–), and numerous prominent politicians. In an interview for the Los Angeles Times, Ice-­T observed that motion picture fans ­were not troubled by the numerous police killed by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (1947–) character in the American motion picture The Terminator (1984), and he contrasted that mindset with the racist attitudes that sought to censor a black man to keep him from writing about a cop killer. Following ­those controversies, Ice-­T retook control of his recordings by reactivating his own label, Rhyme $yndicate Rec­ords (1987–2011), named ­after the hip hop collective, which issued his next two ­albums so he could avoid having ­every aspect of his work monitored by rec­ord com­pany executives. During the 1990s, he made three ­albums with Body Count, but since 2000, Ice-T made only three new ­albums of any kind, as he switched to acting. Scott Warfield See also: Gangsta Rap; Hardcore; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Bradley, Adam, and Andrew Dubois, eds. 2010. “Ice-­T.” ­Under “Part 2: 1985–92: The Golden Age” in The Anthology of Rap, pp. 187–93. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Ice-­T and Douglas ­Century. 2001. Ice: A Memoir of Gangster Life and Redemption—­from South Central to Hollywood. New York: One World/Ballantine Books. Philips, Chuck. 1992. “Cover Story: ‘Arnold Schwarzenegger Blew Away Dozens of Cops as the Terminator, But I ­Don’t Hear Anybody Complaining’: A Q&A with Ice-­T about Rock, Race, and the ‘Cop Killer’ Furor.” Los Angeles Times, July 19, 7.

Further Listening

Ice-­T. 1991. O.G. Original Gangster. Sire/Warner Bros. Rec­ords.

Iggy Azalea (Amethyst Amelia Kelly, 1990–­, Sydney Australia) Iggy Azalea is an Australian rapper known for combining hip hop with electronica, trap, pop, and drum and bass m ­ usic. She uses a variety of Southern hip hop rapping styles as well, from gangsta rap to crunk. Between 2012 and 2015 she became the focus of several hip hop controversies, which included accusations of

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white appropriation of black ­music, of hyper sexualization, and of not possessing the attributes that make a good hip hop artist. She started out self-­releasing ­music, but by 2014 she had found a distributor for her ­album The New Classic, which spawned a No. 1 hit, “Fancy,” and went Platinum. FROM AUSTRALIA TO THE UNITED STATES Though raised by her nonmusical ­family in Mullumbimby, Australia, she began rapping at age 14. By age 16 she dropped out of high school and earned enough money to move to the United States, where she lived in Miami, Houston, and Atlanta. During ­these years, she studied Southern hip hop, created her stage name based on a childhood pet’s name and a home street name, and had a false start with forming her own group. In 2010, Interscope Rec­ords (1989–) managed her, and she moved to Los Angeles; however, she began her hip hop ­career with Ignorant Art (2011) and TrapGold (2012), self-­released mixtapes. “Pu$$y,” from Ignorant Art, along with its video, led to widespread international attention and collaborations with well known hip hop and pop artists, as well as concert appearances and a worldwide tour. She also self-­released videos for “My World” and “The Last Song.” DEBUT ­ALBUM In 2012, issues with Interscope developed when it prevented Southern rapper T.I. (Clifford Joseph Harris Jr., 1980–) from working with Azalea on her debut ­album The New Classic. To continue ­under his artistic direction, Azalea signed with T.I.’s in­de­pen­dent label ­Grand Hustle Rec­ords (2002–). In the meantime, her 2011 remix of Kendrick Lamar’s (1987–) “Look Out for Detox” (2010), titled “D.R.U.G.S.,” was widely criticized; she had to apologize for adapting Kendrick Lamar’s lyr­ics that referenced being a runaway slave. Azalea’s ­albums The New Classic and Reclassified ­were released in 2014 on the Virgin EMI Rec­ords label. At this point, she was internationally known: She appeared with artists on MTV, issued singles and EPs online, and toured worldwide. In 2013, she had signed with Virgin EMI (2013–) in the United Kingdom and Def Jam Recordings (1983–) in the United States, as she was working on nonalbum Billboard Hot 100 hits such as “Bounce,” “Work,” and “Change Your Life.” As of 2018, Azalea continues studying Southern hip hop in the United States in addition to her ­music c­ areer. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Australia; Banks, Azealia; Dirty Rap; Dirty South; Trap

Further Reading

Eberhardt, Maeve, and Kara Freeman. 2015. “ ‘First ­Things First, I’m the Realest’: Linguistic Appropriation, White Privilege, and the Hip Hop Persona of Iggy Azalea.” Journal of Sociolinguistics 19, no. 3: 303–27. Morrissey, Tara. 2014. “The New Real: Iggy Azalea and the Real­ity Per­for­mance.” PORTAL: Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies 11, no. 1: 1–17.

India 339 Williams, Melvin L. 2017. “White Chicks with a Gangsta’ Pitch: Gendered Whiteness in United States Rap Culture (1990–2017).” Journal of Hip Hop Studies 4, no. 1: 50–93.

Further Listening

Iggy Azalea. 2014. The New Classic. Virgin EMI Rec­ords.

India India possesses a vibrant hip hop scene that is relatively new, beginning in the 1980s, but has produced a distinctive sound which has now spread to other countries, including ­those in the Western Hemi­sphere. By some reports, ­there are ­today some 2,000 rappers in India, rapping in dif­fer­ent languages such as Bhojpuri, En­glish, Haryanvi, Hindi, Khasi, Punjabi, and Tamil, among ­others. As of 2018, producer, singer, and actor YoYo Honey Singh (aka Honey Singh, Hirdesh Singh, 1983–) is the most popu­lar hip hop artist in India. His ­music completely eschews any Indian influence and is indistinguishable from American hip hop in its style or approach; however, he prefers to sing in Hindi and his native Punjabi rather than En­glish. Singh has become widely popu­lar in Bollywood, where he ­rose to fame in late 2013. Other popu­lar current Indian hip hop artists include soloists Badshah (Aditya Prateek Singh Sisodia, n.d.) and Raftaar (Dilin Nair, 1988–), and bands Machas with Attitude (2008–2017) and Hiphop Tamizha (2005–). BEGINNINGS When hip hop reached India, it found a fertile musical ground, since many classical and popu­lar Indian musicians have had a longtime fascination with black ­music, initially modeling their solo work ­after the improvisations of jazz; in addition, extramusical racial issues strengthened their identification with black ­music. By the mid-1980s, with access to American breakdancing motion pictures such as Wild Style (1983) and Beat Street (1984), Indian youth started to create a hip hop culture that became extremely popu­lar in India’s major urban cities in both the North and the South, especially in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, and Kolkata. Though ­these cities created hip hop undergrounds that included ­house parties and vari­ous kinds of ­battles, Kolkata was striking in that it was host to many aboveground hip hop dance workshops and academies that emerged by the late 1980s. In contrast, rap was a larger focus of development in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, and Chennai. American rapping styles ­were emulated before Indian hip hop artists turned to using their own languages in the 1990s. Regardless of any Indian preference ­toward its own languages, En­glish, which is an official language of India (as well as Hindi), was often used in Indian hip hop, with a unique feature being that both American and British En­glish vernacular are used. Baba Sehgal (Harjeet Singh Sehgal, 1965*–) holds the distinction of being India’s first rapper, and its first Hindi rapper, releasing his debut and second ­albums Dilruba and Alibaba in 1991. Most of his songs are tongue-­in-­cheek raps about cultural foibles and everyday life, and most are based on Western rap ­music conventions, despite his ­music’s being quintessentially Indian in instrumentation. His videos

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show both Western and Indian influences, as he wears American style form fitting shirts—­whose colors are so unnatural that they are reminiscent of Bollywood costumes. A natu­ral in front of the camera, he tried his hand at acting, making his debut in the Bollywood romance thriller Miss 420 (1998), also appearing on the movie soundtrack, which was released earlier in 1994; however, it was the Tamil film Kadhalan (1994) which caused hip hop to catch on. It featured the electronic hip hop song “Pettai Rap,” in a scene which featured Bollywood versions of vari­ ous hip hop and gymnastic dance moves, as well as a colorful, androgynous character who references Flavor Flav (1959–) in his comic dress style and vocal choices. Meanwhile, En­glish Indian film and ­music producer Bally Sagoo (1964–), from Delhi, but raised in Birmingham, ­England, had been active in the recording industry since 1989, when as a DJ he remixed the Punjabi song “Hey Jamalo,” which became a hit. Its ­music and video foreshadows the bhangra-­beat scene which would become India’s unique contribution to hip hop. Sagoo combined hip hop with ragga and eventually bhangra-­beat ­music. In 1994, he signed with Sony Rec­ords (1929–) and became the first Indian artist to be played on national mainstream radio. He ­later toured India with Michael Jackson (1958–2009) on the HIStory Tour (1996– 1997), and launched his own U.K. label, Ishq Rec­ords (1999–). In 2003, at the U.K. Asian Awards, he won the award for Outstanding Achievement. Attesting to the popularity of Indian hip hop, London-­based the Rishi Rich Proj­ect (2003–), led by producer Rishi Rich (Rishpal Singh Rekhi, 1976–), began working with artists in the South Asian Underground scene, including ­those involved in the R&B-­bhangra fusion scene, popularizing Indian hip hop in both the U.K. Asian underground scene and in India. Chennai-­born and Zambian-­raised rapper-­t urned-­playback-­singer Blaaze (Lakshmi Narasimha Vijaya Rajagopala Sheshadri Sharma Rajesh Raman, 1975–) is a notable con­temporary of Sagoo. Once a breakdancing pioneering act in Zambia, Blaaze, who was raised ­there and educated in ­England and the United States, performed and produced Zambia’s first ­music video, “Advice 4 Livin’ ” (1991). A de­cade ­later, Blaaze relocated to Chennai and relaunched his ­career ­there as a rapper and playback singer, first singing “Baba Rap” for the Tamil fantasy action motion picture Baba (2002). The film’s composer A. R. Rahman (Allah-­Rakha Rahman, b. Dileep Shekhar, 1967–) has since worked with Blaaze numerous times. Blaaze has worked on numerous internationally made films, sometimes writing his own rap lyr­ics, including “Gangsta Blues” for Slumdog Millionaire (2008, United Kingdom).

MODERNIZATION Among the current cache of Indian rappers, Badshah stands out. He is a rapper, producer, and composer/lyricist known for his Hindi, Haryanvi, and Punjabi songs. He came onto the scene in 2006 with the group Mafia Mundeer (along with YoYo Honey Singh), and since he went solo in 2012, his songs have been featured in Bollywood soundtracks. His 2015 single, “DJ Waley Babu,” was ranked No.  1 on Indian iTunes charts within 24 hours of its release and received over 168 million

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YouTube views. Raftaar is a rapper, singer, and lyricist, as well as a dancer who since 2009 has produced ­music ­either with Mafia Mundeer, or as a solo act; he has also moved on to producing m ­ usic for Bollywood. Machas with Attitude is a hip hop trio whose songs ­were primarily in En­glish, although they feature lyr­ics in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam. The American rapper group N.W.A.’s (1986–1991) name and ­music ­were the inspiration for Machas with Attitude. Hiphop Tamizha is a duo that pioneered Tamil hip hop in India. The group started as an underground phenomenon u­ ntil the commercial success of “Club le Mabbu le” (2011). Its debut ­album Hip Hop Tamizhan was India’s first Tamil hip hop ­album. Since the early 2000s, female w ­ omen rappers have emerged, though with less success in general than their male contemporaries. Sofia Ashraf (1987–) from Chennai, India is a well known Tamil rapper whose themes include protesting against corporations who fail to clean up ­after their disasters, particularly the Dow Chemical Com­pany, an American corporation who ultimately purchased Union Carbide India Limited in 2001, about 17 years ­after the Bhopal gas tragedy; she also protest raps about the treatment of Muslims since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In 2015, she released the ­music video “Kodaikanal ­Won’t” to protest against the British Dutch com­pany Unilever (1930–) for mercury found in the Tamil Nadu city Kodaikanal. Emerging from Mumbai’s hip hop scene was MC Dee (Deepa Unnikrishnan, 1997*–), who writes her own rap texts in En­glish and Marathi and whose themes include protesting against gender in­equality and supporting ­women’s empowerment. HYBRIDIZATION: BHANGRA-­BEAT AND FUSION Coming from the Punjab region, which includes most of North India and Pakistan, bhangra-­beat ­music has been produced mainly in the last two de­cades in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, rather than in India. Bhangra-­beat is a hybrid ­music genre that has much in common with hip hop and rap, as well as the folk dance and ­music of Punjabi farmers. Rap, hip hop, and bhangra-­beat share lyrical concerns, as well as per­for­mance practices: an obsession with materialism, or an expressed desire or boasting about jewelry, wealth, and/or clothing; cultural identity politics; aggrandizement of alcohol and drugs; sexuality; and masculinity. The songs also shared hip hop’s call to dance. In addition, bhangra-­beat embraces remix culture, and it shares with hip hop the influence of reggae and trance ­music. Sometimes called urban desi, it shows a Western hybridization that incorporates older, classical Indian ­music. Bhangra-­beat is related to, but vastly dif­fer­ent from, Bollywood-­influenced dance ­music, which is more ­house ­music influenced. Although a second-­generation ­music, bhangra-­beat is more tradition-­influenced than earlier Indian hip hop, incorporating both the traditional vocals in Punjabi and the traditional drum instrumentation (particularly the dhol) of Punjabi folk ­music, juxtaposed against Western hip hop rhythms and rap. By 1997, the sound had become popu­lar in the underground dance club cir­cuit. From the late 1990s into t­oday, Bollywood films that are first released in India have also employed the sound, so bhangra-­beat ­music is well known and appreciated in India as well.

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The cross-­borrowing between bhangra-­beat and U.S., U.K., and Canadian hip hop musicians began in 2002, with Jay-­Z (1969–) and Panjabi MC’s (Rajinder Singh Rai, 1973–) megahit “Beware of the Boys” (“Mundian To Bach Ke”). In addition to Jay-­Z, M.I.A (1975–), Timbaland (1972–), and Snoop Dogg (1971–) have all used the bhangra-­beat conventions that had emerged from club scenes in London, New York City, Chicago, Seattle, Toronto, and other urban areas due to the influence of the Indian diaspora. Neither the Westernization of India-­based ­music with hip hop nor the introduction of classical Indian ­music into Western hip hop ­music was a new phenomenon in the 1990s. The most famous example of Western and Indian ­music crossover is the ­music of sitar player Ravi Shankar (Rabindra Shankar Chowdhury, 1920–2012), who influenced the Beatles (1960–1970), the Rolling Stones (1962–), the Moody Blues (1964–), and the Cyrkle (1961–1968). Fusion between Indian m ­ usic and pop m ­ usic had a resurgence in popularity in the United States, the United Kingdom, and abroad in the 1990s, with bands such as Thievery Corporation (1995–) from Washington, DC; Cornershop (1991–) from Leicester and Wolverhampton, ­England; and MIDIval Punditz (1997–) from New Delhi. By the 1990s, underground DJ remixes found their way into hip hop ­because of the heavy dhol beat, the repetitive melody of the single-­stringed tumbi, and on occasion, the sounds of the tabla, the iktar (or ektara), and the chimta. The ­music’s high energy fits well with rap and hip hop ­music conventions. In addition, cultural similarities between urban Punjabi youth and ethnic youth in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, led to a tougher urban sound. Both bhangra-­beat and fusion also gained a boost in appeal in the West in the 2000s and 2010s with Chennai’s A.  R. Rahman’s (Allah-­Rakha Rahman (1967–) award-­ winning and popu­lar score to Danny Boyle’s (1956–) award-­winning box office smash Slumdog Millionaire (2008). Eventually, by the late 1990s into the 2000s, ­women such as underground DJ Rekha (Rekha Malhotra, 1971–) in New York City and rapper Ms Scandalous (Savita Vaid, 1985–) in London began to produce rap and hip hop hits, moving beyond the role of the video vixen and featured musical guest in Bollywood hip hop songs of prominent artists and producers. Panjabi Hit Squad’s (2002–) “Hai Hai” featured Ms Scandalous and became a YouTube phenomenon. Rapper Nindy Kaur (1975–), born in Birmingham, ­England, has been involved in spreading bhangra-­beat to the United States through her bhangra-­beat band RDB’s (Rhythm, Dhol, Bass, 1997–2013) tours and the band’s collaboration with Snoop Dogg, and has influenced Indian ­music through the band’s appearances on soundtracks for Bollywood films. Kaur and her spouse, RDB lead singer and songwriter Manj Musik (Manjeet Singh Ral, 1985–), both have worked with Raftaar.

DANCE Indian dancers ­adopted some of the moves of hip hop dancers, but added to t­ hese techniques the elaborate costuming and highly choreographed gymnastic moves of Bollywood dance, as well as the choreography of traditional bhangra (which also became gymnastic b­ ecause of its martial arts influences). T ­ oday, many bhangra

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dance competitions are held in universities and colleges worldwide, especially in the United States. ­These feature a hybridization of bhangra-­beat and Punjabi folk dance moves and require intense training to produce dances that are of a stunt show quality. The competitiveness of the dancers has led to faster tempos and an increase in the number of stunts involved. Competitions involve flips, tumbles, and even pyramids. In bhangra-­beat videos, Bollywood influences can be seen: in many cases, singers are backed by a group of dancers in traditional clothing or by chorus dancers ­doing choreographed hip hop and/or jazz dance moves together, as in the ­music video for “Jaan Panjabi,” by Punjabi By Nature, from the 2007 CD Jaan Panjabi: The ­Album. The video features a hip hop and jazz dance chorus, bhangra dancers in traditional clothing, dhol players, and martial arts dancing, in addition to members of PBN, who also add hip hop hand movements. Anthony J. Fonseca and Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Canada; Filmmaking (Feature Films Made outside the United States); Pakistan; Panjabi Hit Squad; Panjabi MC; The United Kingdom; The United States

Further Reading

Diethrich, Gregory. 2000. “Desi ­Music Vibes: The Per­for­mance of Indian Youth Culture in Chicago.” Asian ­Music 31, no. 1: 35–61. Gapinath, Gayatri. 1994. “Bombay, U.K., Yuba City: Bhangra ­Music and the Engendering of Diaspora.” Diaspora 4, no. 3: 303–21. Goldsmith, Melissa, and Anthony J. Fonseca. 2013. “Bhangra-­Beat and Hip Hop: Hyphenated Musical Cultures, Hybridized ­Music.” In Crossing Traditions: American Popu­lar ­Music in Local and Global Contexts, edited by Babacar M’Baye and Alexander Charles Oliver Hall, chap. 9. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow. Maire, Sunaina. 1998. “Desis reprazent: Bhangra Remix and Hip Hop in New York City.” Postcolonial Studies 1, no. 3: 357–70. Warwick, Jacqueline. 2000. “ ‘Make Way for the Indian’: Bhangra ­Music and South Asian Presence in Toronto.” Popu­lar ­Music and Society 24, no. 2: 25–44. Zumkhawala-­Cook, Richard. 2008. “Bollywood Gets Funky: American Hip Hop, Basement Bhangra, and the Racial Politics in ­Music.” In Global Bollywood: Travels of Hindi Song and Dance, edited by Sangita Gopal and Sujata Moorti, chap. 12. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Further Listening

Bally Sagoo. 1992. Wham Bam 2 (The Second Massacre). Star Rec­ords. Panjabi Hit Squad featuring Ms Scandalous. 2003. Hai Hai. Def Jam U.K. RDB. 2003. Unstoppable. Untouchables Rec­ords. Vari­ous Artists. 2015. The Asian Collection. Sony M ­ usic.

Indonesia Indonesia arrived late on the hip hop scene, with best-­selling Indonesian rapper Iwa K (Iwa Kusuma, 1970–), from Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, performing in the late 1980s and recording in the early 1990s with ­albums Kuingin kembali (I Want Back, 1992), Topeng (Mask, 1993), and Kramotak (Brain Cramps, 1996). Iwa K won many awards, including the Indonesian ­Music Award for Best Rap Per­for­mance in

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1999. He has been listed in Rolling Stone Indonesia among both the 150 greatest Indonesian ­albums and songs. Most early Indonesian hip hop groups incorporated local culture, including tribal beats, into their ­music, even though rhymes ­were in Indonesian and En­glish. Lyr­ics often combined formal Indonesian with street slang and ­were informed by regionally nuanced pronunciations, regional idioms (usually in Javanese, Sundanese, or Betawi), and expressions of youth code. Most of the songs protested the state-­imposed Indonesian cultural identity, which was implemented by Indonesia’s second president, Hajji Suharto (1821–2008), who ruled the country from 1967 to 1998. Themes included youth frustration, love, working conditions, and cultural identity. Early Indonesian hip hop, such as recordings by Iwa K and Denada (1994–), w ­ ere often mixed with heavy metal, producing what is called hip-­metal. Since the 1990s, Indonesian hip hop has flourished. Hom­i­cide (1994–), was founded by Morgue Vanguard (aka Ucock, Heri Sutresna, n.d.), who is both a musician and an activist in Bandung; thus, Hom­i­cide’s ­music is about politics. Its ­albums include Tha Nekrophone Dayz (2006) and Illurrekshun (2008), and other recordings include the Godzilla Necronometry EP (2005), Split 12-­inch (2008), and Barisan Nisan (2015). NEO (1999–) is a five-­member hip hop group from Jakarta which has won awards including the 1999 and 2000 Anugerah Musik Indonesia. Its a­ lbums include Borju (1999), Bahagia (Happy, 2000), Tu La Lit (2002), NEO (2004), Boss (2007) and Positive (2013), and its sound includes individuated rapping, sometimes over a lyrical R&B instrumental melody and contrasting programmed beats and a turntablist. Batik Tribe (2007–) is a four-­member hip hop band from Jakarta consisting of Della MC (Havis, n.d.), Cool B (Budi, n.d.), Wizzow (Wisnu, n.d.), and DJ S’tea (Sonu, n.d.). The band performs wearing Batik, which links them with Indonesian iconography (DJ S’tea frequently covers his turntables with a batik cloth). The band’s rapping style incorporates R&B and reggae, and some singles employ the Javanese gamelan. Batik Tribe focuses on current social and cultural issues. Its first ­album, Melangkah (Stepping, 2008), especially the song “Indo Yo Ey” (“Indonesia Rap,” 2008), combines electronic hip hop beat with gamelan. Balikpapan’s Saykoji (aka Igor, Ignatius Penyami, n.d.), who has rapped with Batik Tribe, has become a popu­lar Indonesian rapper since 2006. His ­albums include Saykoji (2005), Musik hati (­Music Heart, 2006), Switch (2008), Jesus Rock Live (2013), and he has released singles such as “Online” (2009), “Apa Ku Bilang” (“What Did I Say,” 2012), “Move On” (2013), and “Gece Dong” (2014). Recent hip hop bands include Young Lex (2014–), which features Ucok Munthe (n.d.), a se­nior rapper from Medan. Young Lex’s ­albums include Aku dan Diri Ku (Me and Myself ), and its hits include “Satu Microphone” (“One Microphone,” 2014), the Missy Elliott (1971–) influenced “O Aja Ya Kan” (2015), and “Goyang Bos” (“Rocking Boss,” 2015). Other recent hip hop acts include Bondan Prakoso (1984–) and Fade to Black (2004–), Kungpow Chicken (2004*–), Ebith Beat A (2004*–), 8 Ball (Muhammed Iqbal, n.d.), Soul ID (2002–), Mizta D (anonymous, 1979–), the Law and Amank (2008–), and Mr. Ginting (Andreanus Ginting, n.d.). Kheng Keow Koay See also: Reggae



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Further Reading

Nilan, Pam. 2015. “Youth Culture in/beyond Indonesia: Hybridity or Assemblage?” In A Critical Youth Studies for the Twenty-­First C ­ entury, edited by Peter Kelly and Annelies Kamp, chap. 5. Boston: Brill. Varela, Miguel Escobar. 2014. “Wayang Hip Hop: Java’s Oldest Per­for­mance Tradition Meets Global Youth Culture.” Asian Theatre Journal 31, no. 2: 481–504.

Industrial Hip Hop Industrial hip hop is a style which fuses hip hop beats or rap vocals with industrial ­music, which is typically experimental electronic ­music that draws on harsh, discordant, metallic-­sounding beats, noise, and power chords and generally features transgressive or provocative topics. Techno, a kind of concurrent electronic dance ­music that originated in Detroit, shares many of t­hese source sounds with industrial hip hop, which emerged in the 1980s with acts such as Bristol, ­England vocalist Mark Stewart (1960–); Salem, Illinois-­born and Detroit-­ and New York City–­based bassist and producer Bill Laswell (William Laswell, 1950–); and London keyboardist and producer Adrian Sherwood (1958–). In 1985, Stewart, working with a group of musicians that included Sherwood on keyboards and musicians associated with Sugar Hill Rec­ords (1978–), released one of the most impor­tant early industrial hip hop a­ lbums, As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade, on Mute Rec­ords (1978–). The next year, Oakland, California, guitarist, rapper-­songwriter, and spoken-­word artist Michael Franti (1966–) cofounded the Beatnigs (1986–1990), a band which combined hardcore punk, industrial, jazz, and hip hop. Meanwhile, Sherwood cofounded the band TACK>>HEAD (aka Fats Comet, 1987–1991, 2004–), working with Sugar Hill musicians Doug Wimbish (Douglas Arthur Wimbish, 1956–), Keith Leblanc (n.d.), and Skip McDonald (Bernard Alexander, 1949–). The pioneering work by Stewart, Laswell, and Sherwood paved the way for early industrial hip hop bands such as Meat Beat Manifesto (1987–), Franti’s the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy (1990–1993), and Consolidated (1990–2005), as well as rapper MC 900 Ft. Jesus (Mark Griffin, 1957–). Roedermark, Germany (near Frankfurt) rec­ord label Mille Plateaux (1993–), created by Achim Szepanski (n.d.), helped pop­u­lar­ize and further develop the style with a series of five compilations called Electric Ladyland (1995–1998). Second generation industrial hip hop acts included the proj­ect band Scorn (1991–1997, 2000– 2011), fronted by grindcore mainstay Mick Harris (Michael John Harris, 1967–), who had worked with Laswell. Scorn member Justin Broadrick (1969–), who then founded the industrial hip hop and metal band Godflesh (1988–2002, 2010–). Other notable industrial hip hop acts include Steril (1990–), an Oldenburg, Germany–­based band that combines hip hop beats, turntablism, and rap with industrial ele­ments; Antipop Consortium (1997–2002, 2007–), a New York–­based alternative hip hop group notable for its stream-­of-­consciousness rapping, spoken word, and metatextuality; Death Grips (2010–), a Sacramento, California, experimental hip hop band that fuses hip hop, punk rock, and industrial; and dälek (1998–), a Newark, New Jersey, alternative hip hop band m ­ usic which creates atmospheric, complex industrial ­music.

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Industrial hip hop is related to some styles of trip hop, dubstep, digital hardcore, and breakcore, and illbient (the last is a style of ambient ­music that emerged in the 1990s that is called ill, which is American slang to describe something that is good or cool). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Germany; Glitch Hop; The United Kingdom; The United States

Further Reading

Collins, Karen. 2005. “Dead Channel Surfing: The Commonalities between Cyberpunk Lit­er­a­t ure and Industrial ­Music.” Popu­lar ­Music 24, no. 2: 165–78. Spencer, Zoe, and Molefi Kete Asante. 2011. Murda’, Misogyny, and Mayhem: Hip Hop and the Culture of Abnormality in the Urban Community. Lanham, MD: University Press of Amer­i­ca.

Further Listening

Vari­ous Artists. 1995. Electric Ladyland. Mille Plateaux.

Intik (1988–2006, Algiers, Algeria) Intik was an Algerian hip hop quartet whose members go by the DJ names Youss (Youcef Seddas, n.d.), Rhéda (Rhéda Chetoui, n.d.), Samir (Samir Djoudi, n.d.), and Nabil (Nabil Bouaiche, n.d.). The four have released two ­albums of rap songs in both Darija (Algerian Arabic creole) and French and have appeared on compilation a­ lbums. The band’s name loosely translates, ironically, as “every­thing’s g­ oing ­great” (sometimes also represented as “no prob­lem”). The irony in its translation lies in the group’s rap themes, such as the violent upbringing of Algerian youth during the 1980s and 1990s. Intik’s ­music is a combination of a synthesized version (not using traditional instruments) of traditional Algerian m ­ usic (chaâbi), funk, hip hop, rap and reggae, with a bit of raï (Creole Algerian folk ­music based on traditional rural songs by shepherds) mixed in as well. Intik’s ­music tends to be melodic and laid back, with raps that are delivered in an even tone, interspersed with Jamaican style reggae interludes. Often Algerian melodies are juxtaposed against a hip hop beat. Lyr­ics, though delivered with mea­sured vocals, tell of Algeria’s po­liti­cal unrest and its effects on the nation’s youth. The band’s musical hybridization came about ­because Youss was chiefly interested in reggae and ragga, a fusion of dancehall ­music and reggae (although he started with a rap trio called YBG), while Nabil, Samir and Reda ­were already experimenting with Arabic versions of rap. The result is that the songs are catchy and engaging, with thematic concerns that are power­ ful and moving. Youss points to a police action against protestors in October 1988 and his (and other members’) decision to leave Algiers for France due to what Intik explained was politico-­economic unrest as a result of outside and interior interests in oil, gas, and uranium—­unrest in Algeria was responsible for the nations’s lowering gasoline prices. Inspired by Public ­Enemy (1982–), which used words instead of vio­lence to



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protest, Intik began writing and performing raps and was soon discovered when one of its cassette tapes was sent to Algiers-­born Imhotep (Pascal Perez, 1960–) of the Marseille, France–­based rap group IAM (1989–) by French journalist Hélène Lee (n.d.). IAM often performed songs about Africa, with a ­great emphasis on Egypt, and slavery (IAM’s first hit was “Les tam-­tam de l’Afrique” [“The Tam-­ Tam of Africa”] in 1991). IAM invited Intik to perform at Logic Hip Hop in Marseilles. On the quality of its song “Va le dire a ta mére” (“Go Tell It to Your ­Mother”), Intik was signed to the Sony label Saint George Rec­ords (1993–), for which it produced two ­albums, Intik (1999) and La victoire (Victory, 2001), although in its own country Intik was not allowed on tele­vi­sion for some time and some songs ­were omitted from its­albums ­because they w ­ ere critical of the government. Afterward, Youss left the band to pursue other proj­ects. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Algeria; France; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop

Further Reading

Davies, Eirlys E., and Abdelali Bentahila. 2006. “Code Switching and the Globalisation of Popu­lar ­Music: The Case of North African Rai and Rap.” Multilingua 25, no. 4: 367–92. Spady, James G., H. Samy Alim, and Samir Meghelli. 2006. “Interview with Youcef aka Youss (Intik).” In Tha Global Cipha: Hip Hop Culture and Consciousness, pp. 656– 67. Philadelphia: Black History Museum Publishers.

Invisibl Skratch Piklz (1989–2000, 2014–­, San Francisco, California) Invisibl Skratch Piklz is a pioneering American turntablist crew cofounded childhood friends DJ QBert (Richard Quitevis, 1969–), Mix Master Mike (Michael Schwartz, 1970–), and DJ Apollo (Apollo Novicio, n.d.), who left the group in 1993. They originally used the names Shadow DJs, Rock Steady DJs, and Shadow of the Prophet, before deciding on Invisibl Skratch Piklz. The trio won the international Disco Mix Club (DMC) World DJ Championships three years in a row, before retiring in 1994 ­after DMC asked them to encourage other turntablist crews to enter competitions. The crew nevertheless continued scratching and ­later added other personnel, including DJ Disk (Luis Quintanilla, 1970–), Shortkut (Jon Cruz, 1975–), D-­Styles (Dave Cuasito, 1972–), DJ Flare (Sean Moran, n.d.), Yogafrog (Ritchie Desuasido, 1974–), and A-­Trak (Alain Macklovitch, 1982–). Many members are Filipino American. From the crew’s start, individual members had perfected both foundational skills and advanced turntablist techniques. DJ QBert is often credit as being the innovator of the hamster scratching technique (moving the rec­ord ­album on a turntable backward, then forward). The technique eases one’s reach for the mixer and adds speed between scratching and mixing. DJ Flare in­ven­ted the flare scratch, in which the crossfader is left open so the ­album playing is heard—­the mixer is then quickly closed and reopened, which gives the effect of the ­album’s sound being cut into

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two separate sounds. Invisibl Skratch Piklz was also the first to apply the band concept to turntablism, where each member treats his turntable as a musical instrument with a specialized sonic role that participates within the larger ensemble. ­After its competitive years, Invisibl Skratch Piklz began showcasing its newly created combinations and teaching them to o­ thers. In 1996, the crew won a showcase ­battle with former rival and legendary turntablist crew X-­Men (now the X-­Ecutioners, 1989–) of New York City. From 1995 to 2000 Invisibl Skratch Piklz assisted in designing products for DJs made by the Danish audio and turntable equipment com­pany Ortofon (1918–) and the Japa­nese turntable, audio equipment, and musical instrument com­pany Vestax (1977–2014). In addition, the crew developed a DJ tool called a “break rec­ord,” on which samples are cut up to create ready-­made breaks for live per­for­mances. Together, the crew made numerous turntablist instruction videos and websites, as well as participated in turntablist documentaries such as the American film Scratch (2001). Shortkut and D-­Styles became members of Beat Junkies (aka World Famous Beat Junkies, 1992–). In 1996, Mix Master Mike began working as an added member of the legendary American hip hop group Beastie Boys (1981–2012). Out of his many solo recording endeavors, QBert had a critically acclaimed debut ­album, Wave Twisters: Episode 7 Million: Sonic Wars within the Protons (1998), which marked the beginning of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz’s recording label, Galactic Butt Hair Rec­ords. But the crew went on a lengthy hiatus starting in 2000. In contrast to World Famous Beat Junkies, who have a prolific label, the com­ pany has since released just one other ­album, D-­Styles’ Return to Planetary Deterioration/Clifford’s Mustache (2001). In 2009, QBert launched QBert Skratch University, an interactive online school and community for DJs, which gives feedback to students learning turntablism. ­After core members Qbert, Shortkut, and D-­Styles re­united ­under the crew’s name, the Invisibl Skratch Piklz released the instrumental/cut-up studio ­album The 13th Floor (2016). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Battling; DJ QBert; Mix Master Mike; The Philippines; Turntablism; The United States

Further Reading

Katz, Mark. 2012. Groove ­Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ. New York: Oxford University Press. Wang, Oliver. 2015. Legions of Boom: Filipino American Mobile DJ Crews in the San Francisco Bay Area. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Further Listening

Invisibl Skratch Piklz. 2016. The 13th Floor. Alpha Pup Rec­ords.

Iran Iran has a hip hop scene which is defined by Rap-­e Farsi (Farsi-­language rap), which fuses Western hip hop styles with ancient Persian poetic traditions. Rap-­e Farsi is part of an underground scene that circumvents religious and governmental restrictions on ­music production and per­for­mance. Though Ira­nian youth ­were exposed

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to Western hip hop in the 1990s through audio recordings, Iran’s own form of hip hop emerged in Tehran around 2000, becoming one of the most popu­lar genres for the under-30 demographic that constitutes two-­thirds of the Ira­nian population. Though the Ira­nian government presently limits per­for­mance and production of rap ­music, a growing number of underground hip hop artists are expanding the artistic potentials of the genre. Bahram Nouraei (1988–), whose breakthrough hit in 2008 directly criticized then-­president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (1956–­, in office 2005–2013), is now known for using chronology as a storytelling device, as in his abstract track “Lady Sunshine” (2011) and in the ­album Good ­Mistake (2015), which is or­ga­nized according to a reverse chronology. Also part of the underground rap scene are Erfan Hajrasuliha (1983–), Pishro (Mohammad Reza Naseri Azad, 1986–), Ho3ein (Hossein Eblis, 1987–), Ali Sorena (1990–), Shayea (Mohammad Reza, 1982–), Sadegh Vahedi (1990–), and Ashkan Fadaei (1989–). GROWTH IN THE 2000s In the early 2000s Hichkas (aka Nobody, Soroush Lashkari, 1985–) began rapping in Tehran. He combined Western urban beats and Ira­nian instrumentation with lyr­ics that highlighted social injustice. Considered the ­father of Ira­nian hip hop, Hichkas is the lead rapper of the Persian rap supergroup 021 (1990s*), named for Tehran’s area code, and he has collaborated with American artist Kool G Rap (Nathaniel Thomas Wilson, 1968–). Authorities arrested Hichkas a­ fter the release of his first ­album, Jangle Asfalt (Asphalt Jungle, 2006), and he subsequently deci­ded to leave Iran a­ fter his release. The first rapper authorized by the Ira­nian government to perform publicly was Yas (Yaser Bakhtari, 1982–), who claims Tupac Shakur (1971– 1996) as a major influence; Yas’s lyr­ics rely heavi­ly on classical Persian poetic imagery, though his delivery style can best be describe as a ferocious torrent of words that communicate uplifting messages about Ira­nian culture and ­people. According to London-­based rapper Reveal (Mehrak Golestan, 1983–), the Internet has fostered a transnational community of hip hop artists inside and outside Iran who share ­music, collaborate, and avoid government censorship. While rappers within Iran often consciously avoid profane language, some of t­ hose outside, such as French-­based Alireza JJ (Alireza Jazayeri, 1985–) of the pioneering Ira­nian gangsta rap group Zedbazi (2002–2014), challenges cultural norms by using profanity and coarse subject ­matter. German-­based Shahin Najafi (1980–) has from his youth spoken out against the Ira­nian government and religious authorities. ­After the release of his satirical song “I Have a Beard” (2005), he was banned from returning to Iran. Najafi has released ­albums both in­de­pen­dently and as a temporary member of the collective Tapesh 2012 (1998–). He has rapped in support of ­those killed while protesting the 2009–2010 Ira­nian elections. THE 2010s AND CONNECTIONS TO PERSIAN POETRY Salome MC (1985–), Iran’s first female hip hop artist and producer, raps about Ira­nian po­liti­cal corruption and societal ills from locations in Japan and China. In

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2014, she collaborated with Australian hip hop producer and rapper Bastian Killjoy (n.d.) on “Road to Nothing,” which alternates texts written by the two with the classical Persian poetry of Omar Khayyám (1048–1131)* to create allegorical lyr­ics. The intertwining of past poetry and pres­ent rap is also seen in the ­music of Nazila (anonymous, 1987–2012), who made headlines as one of few female rappers in Iran. Her furious, hard-­driving rhymes brought attention to the poor and abused, drawing on images from the works of the Persian poet Hafez (1325–1390)*. Jennifer L. Roth-­Burnette See also: Po­liti­cal Hip Hop

Further Reading

Breyley, G. J. 2014. “Waking Up the Colors: Memory and Allegory in Ira­nian Hip Hop and Ambient ­Music.” Australian Literary Studies 29, nos. 1–2: 107–19. Shahshahani, Soheila. 2013. “The Sounds of ­Music in Tehran.” Anthropology of the M ­ iddle East 8, no. 1: 24–39.

Iraq Iraq has a hip hop scene that is relatively young, due to the suppression of anything associated with Western culture during the reign of Saddam Hussein (1937– 2006) from 1979 to 2003, a period that overlapped with the early days of hip hop elsewhere in the world. Said to have sprung from influence of U.S. troops during its occupation of Iraq that began in 2003, Iraqi hip hop culture has been a recent development. Lyr­ics in Iraqi rap explore themes of vio­lence and war, alienation and anger, ideas that are prominent in hip hop throughout the world. Iraqi rappers note that they have been drawn to the culture b­ ecause it provides a constructive outlet for their fears and frustrations. FIRST GULF WAR AND IRAQI HIP HOP Prior to the United States–­led invasion in 2003, particularly in the period following the Gulf War (1990–1991), government control and limitation of Internet and satellite ser­vices meant ­there w ­ ere few ave­nues for exposure to outside ­music, and new ­music genres ­were not welcome. Iraqi popu­lar ­music that predates 2003 is largely based in the folk and classical traditions of the country and is considered conservative compared to ­music of neighboring countries. State censorship and control set limitations on lyr­ics, further confining creative output. In stark contrast, some Western popu­lar ­music, including, hip hop artists such as Eminem (1972–), was heard on Voice of Youth, a radio station owned by Hussein’s eldest son, Uday (1965*–2003) and broadcast exclusively in En­glish. While Voice of Youth was seen as Uday’s attempt to pander to the youth, its content presented the first exposure to rap ­music for many young Iraqis. U.S. soldiers brought rap recordings (most predominantly gangsta rap), but they also brought per­for­mance; troops report gathering to let off steam through freestyle rapping, without DJs. As the conflict in Iraq escalated and U.S. forces withdrew ­behind blast walls, American ser­vicemen interacted less frequently and less directly with Iraqi citizens, and the Iraqis ­were left to their own devices to explore Iraqi hip hop culture, but due to the resurgence of satellite

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broadcast that followed the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, more Western culture became available. FURTHER DEVELOPMENT Iraqi hip hop is new enough that a canon of performers is still developing, but t­here are a few who have gained some prominence. In 2009, Danger Zone Killer (aka DZK, 2008*–), a trio of MCs made up of Mr. Passion (Hisham Sabbah, n.d.), J-­Fire (Ahmed Farouq, 1986*–), and Nine-­Z (anonymous, n.d.), performed at what was likely the first public hip hop concert at the National Theatre in Baghdad. An Arabic diaspora also includes influential rappers of Iraqi birth or descent. Timz (Tommy Hanna, 1985–) was born in El Cajon, California to parents who had fled persecution in Baghdad before his birth. His antiwar song “Iraq” (2007) garnered national attention in the United States. The Narcicyst (aka Narcy, Yassin Alsalman, 1982–) was born in Dubai to Iraqi parents; the ­family moved to Montreal when he was five. His works have been cited as providing inspiration in the Egyptian uprising during the Arab Spring (2010–2012). Susannah Cleveland See also: Kuwait

Further Reading

Arango, Tim, and Yasir Ghazi. 2011. “Baghdad Journal: An Embrace of the United States, Spun and Mixed by Iraqis.” New York Times, October 13, A13. Quail, Christine. 2008. “The Politics of Arab Hip Hop: An Interview with the Narcicyst.” Taboo 12 (Spring): 111–18.

Further Listening

The Narcicyst. 2009. The Narcicyst. Paranoid Arab Boy ­Music.

Ireland Ireland is known for its ability to keep its traditional ­music vibrant into the 21st ­century, despite globalization and influence from the United States and ­England. Pop and rock m ­ usic have been part of the Irish ­music scene since the 1960s, when local Irish bands (“showbands”) played American and En­glish hits at dancehalls and clubs across the country, and in many ways Ireland’s hip hop artists have followed in their footsteps, making their names locally—­some achieve national or international success. Early Irish hip hop acts such as the Rubberbandits (2000–), Messiah J. and the Expert (2002–), and GMC (Garry McCarthy, n.d.), ­were known for the use of absurd and dark humor in their raps. Limerick’s the Rubberbandits is a highly successful comedy funk and rap duo who perform wearing white plastic bags over their heads. The duo’s single “I Want to Fight Your ­Father” reached the Top 10 of the Irish charts and their YouTube videos routinely top a million views. Messiah J. and the Expert (2002–) is a hip hop duo out of Dublin who loop samples of strings and horns in ­music that is a fusion of hip hop, indie, reggae, and funk; the duo uses dark humor, creative rapping that includes stutters and groans, and chopper style rapping. GMC (Garry McCarthy,

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Initially using an American accent in his R&B infused raps back in 2006, Irish rapper Lethal Dialect has since proudly opted for his working class accent to make socio-­ political commentary. Hailing from Cabra, a suburb on the northside of Dublin, Lethal Dialect’s message rap focuses on Irish daily life and ­family, as well as cultural and class stereotyping. (C Brandon/Redferns via Getty Images)

n.d.) is a rapper who juxtaposes his lyr­ics against catchy electronic dance beats and pitch-­adjusted vocals, as exemplified in “Not To­night (The Bouncer Song)” (2004) and “The Whiskey ­Didn’t Help” (2009). Recent Irish hip hop acts such as Rusangano ­Family (2014–), Lethal Dialect (2016–), Rob Kelly (1978–), Rejjie Snow (Alex Anyaegbunam, 1993–), and Temper-­ Mental (aka MissElayneous, Elayne Harrington, 1988–) use rapping more for sociopo­liti­cal concerns. The last is a female rapper from the Dublin suburb Finglas who focuses on classism; Temper-­Mental is also an advocate for the homeless. With members from Zimbabwe, Togo, and Ireland, Limerick’s dance hall and grime trio Rusangano ­Family (2014–) ­were an instant hit with the debut ­album Let the Dead Bury the Dead (2016), with songs from the point of view of immigrants. Dublin-­ based rapper Lethal Dialect is known for his refusal to hide his Irish accent in his laid-­back R&B-­infused raps. Rob Kelly’s debut ­album Kel Jefe (Celtic Boss, 2014, a wordplay on Celtic and the Spanish El Jefe, which means the boss) established him as a gangsta style rapper who is fond of meta­phor and wordplay. Singer and rapper Rejjie Snow has introduced R&B and G-­f unk to the Irish scene with seven singles and one ­album, The Moon and You (2017). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Reggae; The United Kingdom

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Further Reading

Moriarty, Máiréad. 2015. “Hip Hop, LPP, and Globalization.” In Globalizing Language Policy and Planning: An Irish Language Perspective, chap. 6. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. O’Keeffe, Michelle. 2002. “Graffiti Woz ’ere: Irish Graffiti Artists—­Or Vandals, Depending on Your Perspective—­Or Work; But Then, That’s Part of the Buzz.” Irish Times, April 27, 74.

Further Listening

Rusangano ­Family. 2016. Let the Dead Bury the Dead. Self-­released.

Israel Israel, created in 1947 through a United Nations partition plan to create in­de­pen­dent Arab and Jewish states, is a ­Middle East Mediterranean and primarily Jewish country of nearly nine million that borders vari­ous Arabic countries: Lebanon; Syria; Jordan; the Palestinian territories; and Egypt. The country’s musical traditions are a hybridization of Jewish (especially Yemenite), other ­Middle Eastern, Rus­sian traditional, and German cabaret, as well as American and British classical, jazz, pop, and rock, and world ­music. Israeli hip hop began in the 1980s with rap parody and caught on as Ethiopian youth migrated to and brought their musical traditions as well as the concerns of minority diaspora. A small number of artists perform hip hop with a Zionist message, whereas most Israeli hip hop focuses on urban concerns such as poverty and social equality. ­After the Six Day War of 1967, Israel’s cultural and economic standing increased drastically, and rock ­music became internationalized and popu­lar with acts such as the Churchills (1965–1973) and Shalom Hanoch (1946–). Also in the 1960s, Mizrahi ­music, a genre that combines indigenous ele­ments, M ­ iddle Eastern instruments, Greek bouzouki, rock guitars, Western instruments, melismas, ornamentation, minor keys, and the Western 12-­tone scale (chromatic scale), became influential. In addition, the World War II (1939–1945) rise of cabarets led to ­music that was more upbeat and in a major key, which eventually gave rise to Israel’s pop ­music scene and its stars, including folk singer-­songwriters Etti Ankri (Esther Ankri, 1963–), Chava Alberstein (1947–), and Shlomo Artzi (1949–); pop singers David D’Or (David Nehaisi, 1965–), Ivri Lider (1974–), and Dana International (Sharon Cohen, 1945–); rock musicians Aviv Gefen (1973–) and Rita (Rita Yahan-­Farouz, 1962–); electronica and world ­music composer-­musician Idan Raichel (1977–); and metal and progressive acts HaYehudim (1992–), Danny Sanderson (1950–), and Arik Einstein (Arieh Lieb Einstein, 1939–2013). Israeli hip hop began in 1986 when rock keyboardist Yair Nitzani (1958–) released an old-­school hip hop parody single, “Hashem Tamid” (1986); in 1993, Nitzani produced the old-­school rap ­album Humus Metamtem, with Jamaican Jewish MC Nigel Haadmor (Yehoshua Sofer, 1958–) and bassist and producer Yossi Fine (Joseph Thomas Fine, 1964–). By the 1990s, Ethiopian youth who had migrated to Israel ­were beginning to identify with reggae and hip hop as musical modes of expression for black youth. In 1995, ­after a Beastie Boys (1981–2012) tour, rock band Shabak

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Samech (aka Shabak S, 1992–2000, 2007–) began rapping in Hebrew. In 1996, two Israeli radio DJs, Quami de la Fox (Eyal Freedman, n.d.) and Liron Teeni (n.d.), cocreated Esek Shachor (Black Business), the first hip hop radio show. ­There are many con­temporary hip hop acts in Israel: the rapper BOCA (1991–), a Soviet Israeli immigrant who released his first mixtape in 2010 and his first ­album, I.H.H.A., in 2011; rap group Hadag Nahash (1996–), which has a sound infused by roots m ­ usic, funk, jazz, and pop, and was the first Israeli mainstream rap success; rapper Subliminal (Ya’akov Kobi Shimoni, 1979*–), who is famous for popularizing Zionist hip hop, praising military ser­vice; producer and rapper SHI 360 (aka Supreme Hebrew Intelekt, Shai Haddad, n.d.), who spent his childhood in Montreal, where he began his rap ­career but returned to Israel to create sociopo­liti­cal rap songs; Jerusalem-­based MC Sagol 59 (Khen Rotem, 1968–), who went from blues, funk, and rock to hip hop and has recorded five studio ­albums to datethe duo Strong Black Coffee (aka Café Shahor Hazak, 2014–); and actor Alon De Loco (Alon Cohen, 1974–), a ­music producer and DJ as well as breakdancer who has released three a­ lbums as of 2018. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Ethiopia; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Rus­sia

Further Reading

Dorchin, Uri. 2015. “Conservative Innovators: Reviving Israeli Spirit through Black ­Music.” Journal of Popu­lar ­Music Studies 27, no. 2: 199–217. Korat, Yael. 2007. “Israeli Hip Hop as a Demo­cratic Platform: Zionism, Anti-­Zionism, and Post Zionism.” Anamesa 5, no. 1: 43–58.

Further Listening

Hadag Nahash. 2010. 6. Eighth Note.

Italy Italy is a Southern Eu­ro­pean parliamentary republic of 61 million that juts out into the Mediterranean Sea, sharing land borders with countries such as France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia. The Italian hip hop scene began between the late 1980s and early 1990s, as posse tracks (rap songs that have verses sung by vari­ous rappers) became popu­lar with youth. Italy’s pioneer hip hop acts included the American East Coast–­influenced, Milan-­based underground crew Articolo 31 (1990–2006) and singer-­songwriter and rapper Jovanotti (aka Jova, Lorenzo Cherubini, 1966–), who united rap with Italian pop. Having had such a lengthy history, Italian ­music ranges from classical and opera to traditional, sacred (Gregorian chants, used in Roman Catholic mass) to popu­lar, with traditional Italian m ­ usic being tied closely to ethnic identity, and Northern Italian ­music being Celtic-­influenced while Southern Italian is Mediterranean. Traditional Italian instrumentation includes organetto (a type of accordion), guitar, mandolin, brass instruments, vari­ous flutes, clarinet, violin, tammora (a hand drum with bells, played like a tambourine), vari­ous percussions, and sometimes bagpipes.

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Opera, as well as other Western art vocal and instrumental ­music, is historically a part of Italian identity, as are the folksy Neapolitan songs (canzone napoletana) and their associated cantautori (singer-­songwriter) traditions. Industrialization urbanized Italian culture, and immigration from Africa, Asia, and other Eu­ro­pean countries led to musical diversity. The French Café chantant was introduced in the 1890s, and American jazz and swing made its way into Italy in the 1910s as Italian musicians traveled abroad and returned with American and Latin American influences. Foreign ­music was censored during the Fascist regime, which ended ­after World War II. Protest ­music became popu­lar in the 1960s, as did En­glish rock and pop, including synthpop, rap, and techno, with Italy becoming influential in the electronic dance ­music scene, with Italo disco emerging and Acad­ emy Award winner Giorgio Moroder (Giovanni Giorgio Moroder, 1940–) coming to prominence in the late 1970s; about the same time, Italy saw the emergence of the progressive rock movement, and bands such as Goblin (1972–1982, 2005–) achieved international fame through film m ­ usic. Articolo 31 combined hip hop with funk, pop, and traditional Italian ­music, and its found­ers, rapper J-­A x (Alessandro Aleotti, 1972–) and DJ Jad (Vito Luca Perrini, n.d.), signed with BMG Ricordi (Bertelsmann ­Music Group, 1987–2008), which led to commercial success but resulted in diss tracks aimed at them by other underground rappers. Jovanotti evolved from a s­ imple rap and disco sound ­toward a much more complex sound that included funk, ska, world ­music, and symphonic arrangements, and his raps became concerned with spiritual and po­liti­ cal issues. Also in 1990, the short-­lived Italian rap band Sangue Misto (1990–1994) pop­u­ lar­ized raggamuffin and reggae ­music. Other popu­lar early Italian hip hop acts include rappers Kaos One (Marco Fiorito, 1971–), Fabri Fibra (Fabrizio Tarducci, 1976–), Clementino (Clemente Maccaro, 1982–), and Noyz Narcos (aka White Zombie, Emanuele Frasca, 1979–), and groups such as Varese-­based Otierre (OTR, short for Originale Trasmissione del Ritmo, or Original Rhythm Transmission, 1991– 1997). More recently, two young rappers reached the peak of fame: Fedez and Emis Killa. Kaos One came onto the hip hop scene in 1985 as a dancer breakdancer and writer, but soon began rapping in both En­glish and Italian and went on to release five solo a­ lbums. Senigallia-­born Fabri Fibra (1976–) recorded his demo in 1995 and formed the underground rap duo Uomini di Mare (1995–1999), ­going solo in 2000 and establishing a rec­ord label, Teste Mobili Rec­ords (Bobbing Head Rec­ords, 1996–), on which he released his debut ­album, Turbe Giovanili (2002). Avellino-­born Clementino, who like Fabri Fibra came from the group Rapstar (2011–), is known for his freestyle. Rome-­based Noyz Narcos, member of the collective TruceKlan (2008), started out in a grindcore group before becoming a rapper. More recent hip hop artists include Milan-­born Fedez (Federico Leonardo Lucia, 1989–) and Vimercate-­ born Emis Killa (Emiliano Rudolf Giambelli, 1989–). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Hip House; Industrial Hip Hop

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Further Reading

Androutsopoulos, Jannis, and Arno Scholz. 2003. “Spaghetti Funk: Appropriations of Hip Hop Culture and Rap ­Music in Eu­rope.” Popu­lar ­Music and Society 26, no. 4: 463–79. Bordin, Elisa. 2013. “Graffiti Goes to Italy: Weaving Transnational Threads of All Sizes and Colors.” In Hip Hop in Eu­rope: Cultural Identities and Transnational Flows, edited by Sina A. Nitzsche and Walter Grünzweig, chap. 15. Zürich, Switzerland: LIT Verlag. Santoro, Marco, and Marco Solaroli. 2007. “Authors and Rappers: Italian Hip Hop and the Shifting Bound­aries of Canzone d’Autore.” Popu­lar ­Music 26, no. 3: 463–88.

Further Listening

Emis Killa. 2016. Terza stagione (Third Season). Carosello Rec­ords. Fabri Fibra. 2010. Controcultura (Counterculture). Universal ­Music Group. Noyz Narcos. 2013. Monster. Propaganda Rec­ords/Quadraro Basement.

Ivory Coast The Ivory Coast is an in­de­pen­dent West African republic that was at one time colonized by France, ­until 1960, when it achieved in­de­pen­dence ­under tribal chief and French Parliament member Félix Houphouët-­Boigny (1905–1993, in power, 1960– 1993), though since his death the country has experienced one coup d’état, in 1999, and a new constitution, in 2000. The county’s ­music is influenced by a variety of ethnic communities, many of which use vocal polyphony and polyrhythmic drums, and popu­lar traditional m ­ usic styles include the satirical po­liti­cal zouglou style, West African percussion and bass-­based coupé-­décalé, folk rhythm–­based gbégbé, Caribbean-­influenced zouk, R&B, reggae, pop, and to a lesser degree (­because it is considered a foreign m ­ usic), hip hop. Since 1998, an annual ­battle event known as “Le Défi” (“The Challenge”) takes place in the country’s capital city, Abidjan. Ivorian popu­lar ­music can be traced to Daloa-­based guitarist Ernesto Djédjé (1948–1983), who used Congolese folk rhythms and the dopé style with modern instruments to create what would become a new subgenre called ziglibithy. Reggae became popu­lar with the emergence of Dimbokro-­based Alpha Blondy (Seydou Koné, 1953–) and Odienné-­based Tiken Jah Fakoly (Doumbia Moussa Fakoly, 1968–), who both helped pop­u­lar­ize Afro-­ reggae. ­Grand Bassam–­based Freddy Meiway (Frederic Desire Ehui, 1962–) pioneered a new electronic dance sound called zoblazo. Ivorian hip hop, which began around the mid-1990s at the University of Abidjan, is highly influenced by American gangsta rap, which was localized to become rap dogba; however, as of 2018, no Ivorian rappers have achieved popularity beyond the local level. Few diaspora acts have attained international celebrity. One example is rapper Dynamic Boobah Siddik (aka Mastah Boobah, Boobah Siddik, n.d.), who is from Abidjan, settled in Dakar, Senegal, and is a founding member of hardcore po­liti­cal hip hop and reggae fusion collective, Shadow Zu (1995–). Since 2003, he has had a solo ­career, switching from French to En­glish in 2004 to reach a larger audience. Also from Abidjan, Rammy (Rammy Kouyaté, n.d.) is a female rapper, songwriter,



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and poet pursuing her ­career in Washington, DC, ­after having earned her master’s in En­glish from the University of Abidjan. Rammy rec­ords hip hop and R&B in both French and En­glish, focusing on love as well as her own Mandinka heritage. Rapper, producer, and educator SΔmmus (aka Sammus, Enongo Lumumba-­ Kasongo, 1986–) was born in Ithaca, New York and is of Ivorian and Congolese descent; however her focus is on American nerdcore. Anthony J. Fonseca and Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: France; Reggae

Further Reading

Akombo, David. 2016. “The ­Music and Dance of Côte d’Ivoire.” In The Unity of ­Music and Dance in World Cultures, chap. 3. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. Reed, Daniel B. 2012. “Promises of the Chameleon: Reggae Artist Tiken Jah Fakoly’s Intertextual Contestation of Power in Côte d’Ivoire.” In Hip Hop Africa: New African ­Music in a Globalizing World, edited by Eric Charry, chap. 4. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Ivy Queen (Martha Ivelisse Pesante Rodríguez, 1972–­, Añasco, Puerto Rico) Ivy Queen, also known as the Queen of Reggaetón, is a bilingual hip hop, R&B, bachata, and reggaetón singer and rapper, as well as a songwriter, rec­ord producer, and actor. She is known for her striking image, which includes long acrylic nails (which she emphasizes in her ­music videos), her alto vocal range, comparable to Missy Elliott (1971–) and Cher (1946–), her breathless and heavi­ly syncopated vocal deliveries, and her use of unconventional instrumentation in her ­music. Her songs often incorporate a Ca­rib­bean influence, using traditional ethnic instruments such as kettledrums and accordions, as well as offbeat instruments such as harpsichords. Her lyr­ics encourage feminism, challenge the double standards of infidelity, and explore homo­sexuality and the power structures in male–­female relationships. Born in Añasco, Puerto Rico, she moved with her parents to New York City, where she studied at the New Jersey School of Performing Arts and lived ­until the age of 18. She then moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and met rec­ord producer DJ Negro (anonymous, n.d.)* and performed with the Noise (1992–2004), a rap group from San Juan that infused reggaetón with urban and gangsta rap. In 1996, she began a solo ­career; Sony distributed her debut and second ­albums En mi imperio (In My Empire, 1997) and The Original Rude Girl (1998). The label dropped her ­after sluggish sales, so she took a hiatus from ­music, and for her third ­album, Diva (2003), she signed with the short-­lived Real M ­ usic, Inc. (2003–2004), an in­de­pen­ dent label out of Miami. Follow-up studio ­albums Diva, Flashback (2005) and Sentimiento (2006) attained Gold and Platinum certification. Her seventh ­album, Drama Queen (2010) produced a Top 10 single, “La vida es así” (“Life Is So”). Musa (2012) earned a Grammy nomination. Ivy Queen’s latest a­ lbum, Vendetta (2015), was actually four separate si­mul­ ta­neously released a­ lbums (urban con­temporary, hip hop, bachata, and salsa, with eight songs devoted to each genre).

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Also known as The Queen of Reggaetón, singer-­songwriter, rapper, rec­ord producer, and actor Ivy Queen performs in both Spanish and En­glish. In 2005, the Puerto Rican musician, who also performs bachata, salsa, R&B, and hip hop, founded her own sound recording label, Filtro Musik, which is now known as Ivy Queen Musa Sound Corporation. (Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)

In 2005, Ivy Queen cofounded her own rec­ord label in San Juan, Filtro Musik (now Ivy Queen Musa Sound Corporation, 2005–), and Univision Rec­ords (2001– 2008) signed Filtro Musik to promote Flashback. Sentimiento was a departure for her as it marked her move ­toward performing solo rather than in duets with guest singers and rappers. In 2010, she signed with Machete ­Music (2005–), a San Juan–­ based subsidiary of Universal ­Music Latin Entertainment (2008–). The resulting ­album, Drama Queen, peaked at No. 163 on the Billboard 200 and No. 3 on Top Latin A ­ lbums. In 2009, Ivy Queen launched a reggaetón doll through Global Trading Partners. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Puerto Rico; Reggaetón; The United States

Further Reading

Báez, Jillian M. 2006. “En mi imperio”: Competing Discourses of Agency in Ivy Queen’s Reggaetón.” Centro Journal 18, no. 2: 62–81. Samponaro, Philip. 2009. “ ‘Oye mi canto’ [‘Listen to my song’]: The History and Politics of Reggaetón.” Popu­lar ­Music and Society 32, no. 4: 489–506.

J J Dilla (aka Jay Dee, James Dewitt Yancey, 1974–2006, Detroit, Michigan) J Dilla was an American rec­ord producer and rapper who was best known for working with benchmark artists such as A Tribe Called Quest (1985–1998, 2006–2013, 2015–), De La Soul (1987–), Busta Rhymes (1972–), Erykah Badu (1971–), the Roots (1987–), the Pharcyde (1989–), and Common (1972–). He was also part of the Ummah (1996–1999), a production collective that included Q-­Tip (Jonathan William Davis, 1970–), Ali Shaheed Muhammad (1970–), and Raphael Saadiq (1966–). He gained immediate recognition ­after producing seven songs for the Pharcyde’s rap and hip hop ­album Labcabincalifornia (1995) and programming Poe’s (Annie Decatur Danielewski, 1968–) electronic rock debut ­album Hello (1995), both ­under the name Jay Dee. He was also a member of the influential Soulquarians collective (late 1990s–2000s). J Dilla was part of the underground hip hop scene in 1990s Detroit. The child of musicians, he was considered a ­music prodigy: at two years old he collected vinyl ­albums and would entertain ­others by playing the rec­ords at a park. Funk musician Amp Fiddler (Joseph Anthony Fiddler, 1965–) discovered J Dilla and encouraged his musical talents. By high school, though reclusive and artistic, J Dilla cofounded a rap group called Slum Village (1990–) and produced its first ­album, which got the attention of the local hip hop scene. It was the band’s second effort, Fantastic, Vol. 2, which made J Dilla a star producer and MC. He debuted as a soloist with 2001’s Welcome 2 Detroit, ­under the name Jay Dee aka J Dilla. He moved to Los Angeles and cofounded the duo Jaylib in 2002, releasing Champion Sound (2003), which he produced. By this time, he was already very ill with a rare blood coagulation disease and lupus. He eventually performed in a wheelchair. J Dilla died three days ­after releasing Donuts (2006), a collection of beats created while in the hospital. His sound is experimental and atmospheric, with liberal use of sound samples and musical hiccups (reverb, reversals, and the like). Reports circulated that over 100 beats he created before his death survived. Champion Sound was reissued in June 2007, and Yancey Boys, the debut ­album by younger ­brother Illa J (John Derek Yancey, 1986–), produced entirely by J Dilla, was released in 2008. The Yancey Media Group (2013–), as well as the J Dilla Foundation (2010–), was founded by his ­mother in his honor. In 2014, J Dilla’s ­family donated a significant number of artifacts, including his custom-­made Minimoog Voyager synthesizer that he used to create beats, to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. As of 2018, the number of hip hop acts which honor J Dilla’s

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memory through verses that mention him and beats dedicated to him continues to grow. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: The United States

Further Reading

Bua, Justin. 2011. “J Dilla.” The Legends of Hip Hop. New York: Harper Design. Furguson, Jordan. 2014. J Dilla’s “Donuts.” New York: Bloomsbury. Gholz, Carleton S. 2010. “Welcome to tha D: Making and Remaking Hip Hop Culture in Post-­Motown Detroit.” In Hip Hop in Amer­i­ca: A Regional Guide, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 2, chap. 16. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood.

Jaa9 and OnklP (2003–­, Lillehammer, Norway) Jaa9 and OnklP is a Norwegian hip hop duo. Both Jaa9 (Johnny Engdal Silseth, 1982–) and OnklP (Pål Tøien, 1984–) are members of Dirty Oppland (2002–), a Lillehammer rap collective that combines ele­ments of American East Coast gangsta and Southern rap, but with Norwegian texts. The duo’s rap songs are concerned with consciousness raising in areas such as negative gangster be­hav­ior (e.g., thug life, womanizing, drugs, and ­battles or conflicts), Norwegian pride, selling out, and partying. Songs use wordplay, such as dual meaning, which makes En­glish translations of the texts extremely challenging. Jaa9 and OnklP’s first full album-­length recording was Bondegrammatikk: The Mixtape (Peasants’ Grammar: The Mixtape, 2003), which included a cover of American rapper Busta Rhymes’ (1972–) and pop singer Mariah Carey’s (1970–) hip hop and R&B hit, “I Know What You Want” (2003). As of 2018, Bondegrammatikk is Norway’s best-­selling mixtape. The duo have released five subsequent ­albums, Sjåre brymæ (Firm Breasts, 2004), Bondedramatikk: En gateplate (Peasants’ Drama: A Street Rec­ord, 2008), Sellout! (2009), Føkk ferie (Take a Holiday, 2015), and Gamle hunder, nye triks (Old Dogs, New Tricks, 2016). It has also produced the EPs Lasse (2011), Geir (2011), and Diskoteket er stengt (The Disco Is Closed, 2014). Sellout! and Lasse ­were recorded on contract for the Sony M ­ usic (1929–) labels and peaked on Norway’s official hit ­albums chart, the VG-­Lista, at Nos. 21 and 23, respectively. Sellout! was also recorded on the Columbia Rec­ords (1887–) label, as was Geir, which peaked at No. 31 on the VG-­Lista. The duo’s most successful ­album, Sjåre brymæ, a combination of mostly hip hop with a ­little pop and some humorous skits, reached No. 3 on the VG-­Lista. Following this success, the duo contacted 1970s pop singer Dag Spantell (1950–) from Oslo to make a hip hop cover of the verses from his hit Norwegian version of Ricky Nelson’s (Eric Hilliard Nelson, 1940–1985) own Top 40 country-­rock hit “Garden Party” (1972), titled “Kjendis-­party” (1973). Spantell, whose voice resembles Freddy Fender’s (Baldemar Garza Huera, 1937–2006) tenor, along with its treble, had a hit with “Kjendis-­party,” which reached No. 4 on Norsktoppen, an official list for Norway’s top singles. Jaa9 and OnklP’s version, released on Sjåre brymæ, also



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became a popu­lar hit in Norway, peaking at No. 2 on the VG-­Lista hit singles chart. It helped spark a comeback ­career for the retired Spantell, who at times performed with Jaa9 and OnklP in concert. Since 2013, Jaa9 and OnklP have recorded on the Knirckefritt (2011*–) label in Oslo, which has a distribution agreement with Universal ­ Music AS, Norway (1977*–). Jaa9 and OnklP’s second most successful ­album, Diskoteket er stengt, peaked at No.  11 on the VG-­Lista. Throughout their ­career as Jaa9 and OnklP, Engdal and Tøien have concurrently recorded with Dirty Oppland, separately. Tøien has also collaborated with pop and punk bands such as Oslo Ess (2010–). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Beastie Boys; Dirty South; Gangsta Rap; Norway

Further Reading

Brunstad, Endre, Unn Røyneland, and Toril Opsahl. 2010. “Hip Hop, Ethnicity and Linguistic Practice in Rural and Urban Norway.” In The Languages of Global Hip Hop, edited by Marina Terkourafi, chap. 9. New York: Continuum. Uberg Naerland, Torgeir. 2014. “Hip Hop and the Public Sphere: Po­liti­cal Commitment and Communicative Practices on the Norwegian Hip Hop Scene.” Javnost 21, no. 1: 37–52.

Further Listening

Jaa9 and OnklP. 2004. Sjåre brymæ (Firm Breasts). Beatser­vice Rec­ords/C+C Rec­ords.

Jam Master Jay (Jason Mizell, 1965–2002, Brooklyn, New York) Jam Master Jay is best known as the American DJ and turntablist for the legendary East Coast hip hop group Run-­D.M.C. (1981–2002) from the Hollis neighborhood of Queens, New York. Run-­D.M.C. was one of the earliest hip hop groups to cross over and have hits in the popu­lar ­music mainstream. The trio, consisting of Jam Master Jay, with rappers and vocalists D.M.C. (Darryl Mc Daniel, 1964–) and Run (born Joseph Simmons, 1964–) became the first hip hop act to attain Gold, Platinum, and multi-­Platinum ­album certifications in the United States, as well as the first Grammy nomination. Run-­D.M.C. was also the first hip hop group to have ­music videos broadcast on MTV (1981–) and its image appear on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Jam Master Jay appears on all of Run-­D.M.C.’s recording output. He also created his own label, Jam Master Jay Rec­ords (aka JMJ Rec­ords, 1989–2002), and mentored 50 Cent (1975–). Before his murder in 2002, he had founded the Scratch DJ Acad­emy in New York, where he was committed to teaching ­others the art of DJing (turntablism) and ­music production. In 2009, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of Run-­D.M.C. EARLY YEARS Born Jason Mizell, he took an early interest in ­music and began playing any musical instrument to which he had access, starting with the trumpet, at age three.

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In 1975, his ­family moved from Brooklyn to Queens, where he learned to play guitar, bass, and drums. As a multi-­instrumentalist, he was an especially talented guitarist. His other access to ­music was through church, where he performed in choirs and bands. Coincidentally, he was related to the successful Los Angeles ­music production duo, the Mizell ­Brothers (1970*–2011), consisting of Larry Mizell (1944–) and his older ­brother Fonce (Alphonso Mizell, 1943–2011). As jazz musicians who developed the sound of 1970s jazz-­f unk, the Mizell ­Brothers hit a successful stride when Motown moved to Los Angeles. This success, however, was at best a distant f­ amily story for Jason Mizell, who lived across the country. By the time he was 13, he started playing turntables at parties and became interested in DJing and mixing. While living briefly in Atlantic City, New Jersey, he took mixing lessons from DJ Def Lou Hauck (n.d.), who taught him cross-­fading skills (just one example of ­these skills includes fading out one ­album while fading another one in). By the early 1980s, he played turntables at parties, parks, and some nightclubs, making enough money to purchase his first pair of Technics 1200s, which ­were the most sought ­after turntables for DJing, mixing, and scratching. He started using the name Jazzy Jase professionally and began wearing leather jackets, fedoras, gold link chains, and large gold rings to attract attention. He took a band approach to turntablism, thinking of himself as a band member, as he practiced and improved by performing with garage bands. He employed regular scratching and mastered cross-­fading complex musical samples while playing ­albums. His style used a light touch, particularly on scratching.

RUN-­D.M.C. Meanwhile, two rappers who performed ­under the names Run and D.M.C. grew up together and had just finished high school. Run’s older ­brother was Russell Simmons (1957–), who at the time was an aspiring hip hop promoter. With limited earlier recording experience, Simmons was looking to rec­ord again. In 1982, Mizell met both Run and D.M.C. at the Two-­Fifths Park in Hollis, Queens. Run and D.M.C. rapped with him at the park and they became friends. With the encouragement of Simmons to recruit him and rename him Jam Master Jay, they joined together as a hip hop trio. Jam Master Jay had the idea for the trio’s name: Run-­D.M.C., and Simmons, who cofounded Def Jam Recordings (1983–) in New York City, began producing the trio. Run-­D.M.C.’s first single “It’s Like That (Sucker MCs)” (1983) peaked at No. 15 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-­Hop Songs chart. With the success of its first single and Simmons’s help, Run-­D.M.C. signed a major recording contract with Profile Rec­ords (1981–). Run D.M.C.’s eponymous debut label was released a year ­later with some modest success. The ­album established the trio’s style, which included Jam Master Jay’s turntablism, Run and D.M.C.’s socially conscious rapping texts, and a hard rock edge and popu­lar rock samples. The trio’s follow-­ups, King of Rock (1985) and Raising Hell (1986), brought far greater success with hit singles such as “King of Rock” and “Can You Rock It Like This.” King of Rock attained Platinum status,



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but Raising Hell eventually attained ­triple Platinum certification, peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart, and garnered strong critical acclaim. Run-­D.M.C. also appeared in films at this time, including Krush Groove (1985), a fictionalized version of Simmons’s efforts to start Def Jam. Though Tougher Than Leather (1988) was less successful than Raising Hell, the ­album attained Platinum certification. Tougher Than Leather was tied to the motion picture of the same title, directed by Rick Rubin (Frederick Jay Rubin, 1963–), which was a critical failure. The ­album was more sample-­heavy than the previous ­albums and did not employ as much rap-­rock, for which Run-­D.M.C. became known. Instead, Jam Master Jay, who used his real name on ­album credits, opted for many funk and soul samples. JAM MASTER JAY REC­ORDS In 1989, he launched Jam Master Jay Rec­ords, which attained a half dozen notable hip hop artists, starting with the gangsta rap group Onyx (1988–) from Queens and rapper Jayo Felony (Jame Savage, 1969–) from San Diego, California. Meanwhile, Run-­D.M.C. released its worst selling a­ lbum, Back from Hell (1990), which incorporated new jack swing, and took a three-­year hiatus. In 1993, Onyx had a hit single, “Slam,” which reach No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. The same year, Onyx’s debut studio ­album Bacdaf— ­up was certified Platinum and Run-­D.M.C. released Down with the King, which was a return to the trio’s earlier sound and was better received than Back from Hell. For his label, Jam Master Jay wore several hats as producer, A&R (talent searching and developing), and mentoring. In 1996, he found his most famous recruit, 50 Cent (1975–). Like Jayo Felony (n.d.), who was a member of the Crips gang, 50 Cent had experienced a life of crime and vio­lence, though had a talent as a rapper and writer. Jam Master Jay both mentored 50 Cent and gave him ­music lessons that taught him how to count mea­sures and structure his songs. He remained on the JMJ Rec­ords label for just on year (1998–1999) before moving onto huge success with his debut studio ­album Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (2003) on larger labels such as Eminem’s (1972–) Shady Rec­ords (1999–) and Dr. Dre’s (1965–) Aftermath Entertainment (1996–). ­After another hiatus, Run-­D.M.C. released Crown Royal (2001), its final ­album. Though the ­album peaked at No. 37 on the Billboard 200 and 22 on the Top R&B/ Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart, it attained mixed critical reception. Since Back from Hell, Run-­D.M.C. had difficulties shaking an outdated old-­school hip hop image, even though Run-­D.M.C. inspired many new artists. In addition, both he and Simmons, who managed Run-­D.M.C., w ­ ere contributing to the development and success of new hip hop acts. MURDER AND UNSOLVED MYSTERY In 2002, Jam Master Jay was getting ready to begin another chapter of his life. As part of Run-­D.M.C., which was responsible for giving hip hop mainstream

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recognition, he was inspiring public interest in turntablism. He had founded the Scratch DJ Acad­emy in New York, teaching turntablism and ­music production. In October 2002 an unknown assailant shot and murdered Jam Master Jay at his recording studio in Queens. Another victim and witness to the crime, Urieco Rincon (1977–), survived his gunshot wound to the ankle. The most popu­lar theory of the murder is that the shooting was a payback execution of some kind. In 2003, Supreme (Kenneth McGriff, 1960–), an American drug trafficker and friend of recording label Murder Inc.’s (1997–) cofounder Irv Gotti (Irving Domingo Lorenzo Jr., 1970–), was investigated for targeting Jam Master Jay ­because he had signed 50 Cent. In “Ghetto Qu’ran” (1999), 50 Cent had written about McGriff and his Queens gang, the Supreme Team. Another detail supporting the payback theory emerged in 2007 when federal prosecutors named rapper Tenad (Ronald Washington, n.d.) as an accomplice to the murder, claiming that he pointed his gun at the studio to cover for the murderer. Federal prosecutors also named him as a suspect in the 1995 murder of American hardcore rapper and producer Stretch (Randy Walker, 1968– 1995), a close friend and collaborator of Tupac Shakur (1971–1996). Despite being named, Tenad was never convicted, and Jam Master Jay’s murder remains unsolved. This tragedy put an end to Run-­D.M.C. and JMJ Rec­ords, though his Scratch DJ Acad­emy continues with many locations in the United States ­today. Notable turntablists such as GrandWizard Theodore (now ­Grand Wizzard Theodore, 1963–) have taught t­here. In 2009, Run-­D.M.C. became the second hip hop group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, ­after Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (1976–1982, 1987–1988). In 2012, Spin magazine named Jam Master Jay one of the greatest guitarists of all time b­ ecause of his ability to transform sampled guitar sounds. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: 50 Cent; Run-­D.M.C.; Turntablism

Further Reading

Katz, Mark. 2012. Groove ­Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ. New York: Oxford University Press. Ronin Ro. 2005. Raising Hell: The Reign, Ruin, and Redemption of Run-­D.M.C. and Jam Master Jay. New York: Harper-­Collins. Thigpen, David E. 2003. Jam Master Jay: The Heart of Hip Hop. New York: Pocket Star Books.

Further Listening

Run-­D.M.C. 1984. Run-­D.M.C. Profile Rec­ords. Run-­D.M.C. 1986. Raising Hell. Profile Rec­ords. Run-­D.M.C. 2015. Live at the Apollo. Egg Raid.

Jamaica Jamaica is a Ca­rib­bean island nation that gained its in­de­pen­dence in 1962 from the United Kingdom. B ­ ecause it is a tourist destination, American hip hop reached Jamaica in the early 1980s and grew in popularity in the 1990s, as access to

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American tele­vi­sion improved, despite the fact that the Jamaican ­music industry does not support local Jamaican hip hop; however, ­because it is home to reggae, ragga, dancehall, and dubstep, as well as toasting, Jamaica’s influence on American hip hop is rich and plentiful. For example, toasting—­improvised braggadocio poetry spoken into a mic to excite a dance crowd or a party audience—­was influential to the development of rap and the role of the American hip hop DJ. A major distinction between Jamaican dancehall/reggae deejays and hip hop DJs is that the former do not select a­ lbums. Instead, Jamaican deejays are speech-­singers who perform at parties, toasting to an instrumental accompaniment called riddim (Jamaica patois for “rhythm”). The speech-­singing is often a monotone melody or chant that uses alliteration and vocal techniques such as stuttering. If singing is used, the deejay is called a singjay. ­T hese riddims are the musical grooves found in reggae, ragga, dancehall, dubstep, soca, and other kinds of ­music, and they have classifications such as “Diwali,” “Kopa,” “Nanny Goat,” and “Real Rock”; some are named ­after recorded songs. The idea of the riddim was essential in hip hop, dubstep, reggaetón, and grime. Jamaican deejays who choose par­tic­u­lar riddims are selectors, and t­hese Jamaican deejays, such as toasters King Stitt (Winston Sparkes, 1940–2012) and U-­Roy (aka the Originator, Ewart Beckford, 1942–) began using the instrumental version side of popu­lar 45 RPM rec­ords to make their own toasts, often in En­glish or Jamaican patois, but sometimes adding Ethiopian Amharic lines as a tribute to former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie I (Ras Tafari Makonnen Woldemikael, 1892–1975), whose reign from 1930 to 1974, according to Rastafarianism, fulfilled Biblical prophecy. But it was an American immigrant from Kingston, Jamaica, DJ Kool Herc (1955–), who originated hip hop. Starting in 1972, DJ Kool Herc employed aspects of dancehall deejaying, including toasting, incorporating salsa and African percussions, and using a sound system inspired by the Jamaican sound system. Including deejays, ­music engineers, and MCs who perform reggae, dancehall, ska, and rocksteady ­music, the Jamaican sound system emerged in the 1950s in Kingston, became popu­lar in the 1970s, and would eventually be used in jungle, drum and bass, and EDM. Other Jamaican influences found in American hip hop culture include the notion of bling-­bling (originally an anticolonial sentiment), which is American slang for elaborate or excessive jewelry, accessories, gold coins, money, and grillz (gold or diamond capping over teeth). In addition, lyrical topics such as (militant) pan-­ Africanism and smoking marijuana, as well as remix culture, existed in reggae and dancehall ­music long before hip hop. Several Jamaican reggae musicians e­ ither perform or fuse reggae and dancehall with hip hop. Legendary reggae singer-­songwriter and guitarist Bob Marley’s (Robert Nesta Marley, 1945–1981) youn­gest son, Damian Marley (aka Jr. Gong, 1978–) has worked with American rapper Nas (1973–) on the collaboration studio ­album Distant Relatives (2010), which peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart. Half ­brother Ky-­Mani Marley’s (1976–) studio ­album Radio (2007) marks the beginning of his fusing reggae with hip hop. Internationally known reggae singer-­songwriter, rapper, and deejay Shaggy (1968–) has fused the two genres as well. Other Jamaican musicians who perform

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techno, ­house, and dancehall have been influenced by hip hop, including Echomatik (2016–), Redselector (Christopher Edmonds, n.d.), and Equiknoxx (aka Equiknoxx M ­ usic, 2000–). One of the most successful Jamaican hip hop artists is Five Steez (Peter Wright, 1986–), who won critical acclaim for his debut studio ­album, War for Peace (2012). Rapping in En­glish and Jamaican patois, Five Steez focuses on autobiography, Kingston daily life and pride, gorgeous ­women, attaining wealth, smoking marijuana, and protesting police brutality. He is one of the found­ers of Kingston’s main hip hop event, Pay Attention (2012–), a showcase and party. Rapper, singer-­songwriter, producer, and actor Sean Paul (Sean Paul Ryan Francis Henriques, 1973–), like Shaggy, raps and toasts in En­glish and rec­ords reggae, dancehall, ragga, and hip hop. His second studio a­ lbum, Dutty Rock (2004), won a Grammy Award for Best Reggae ­Album, peaking at No.  9 on the Billboard 200. Other Jamaican dancehall singer-­ songwriters who incorporate hip hop are Vybz Kartel (aka Worl’ Boss, Adidja Azim Palmer, 1976–) and Elephant Man (Oneal Bryan, 1975–). Together, they have collaborated with American rappers and producers Jay-­Z (1969–), Puff ­Daddy (1969–), and Swizz Beatz (1978–). DIASPORA ACTS Jamaica’s in­de­pen­dence led to a lagging economy. Between the 1960s and 1970s, many Jamaicans emigrated and settled primarily in North Amer­i­ca and the United Kingdom for employment and more diverse opportunities. Through diaspora, many Jamaican artists have contributed to hip hop well beyond its formative years—­when Jamaican rappers in Brooklyn, New York, rapped in their accents and wrote Jamaican subject ­matter. Just some Jamaican-­born American hip hop artists include Bushwick Bill (Richard Stephen Shaw, 1966–), Canibus (Germaine Williams, 1974–) of the HRSMN (1996–), Pepa (Sandra Denton, 1964/1969–), Heavy D (Dwight Errington Myers, 1969–2011), Sean Kingston (Kisean Anderson, 1990–), Kurtis Mantronik (Kurtis el Khaleel, 1965–), MC Tee (Touré Embden, 1966–), and Chubb Rock (Richard Simpson, 1968–). Both Afrika Bambaataa (1957–) and Luke (1960–) ­were born to Barbadian and Jamaican immigrant parents. Notable American artists of Jamaican descent include the Notorious B.I.G. (1972–1997), Busta Rhymes (1972–), Joey Bada$$ (Jo-­Vaughn Virginie Scott, 1995–), Pete Rock (Peter Phillips, 1970–), Elle Royal (formerly Patwa, Danielle Prendergast, 1989–), and ­will.i.am (1975–). English-­born American citizen Slick Rick (1965–) is also of Jamaican descent. Some Jamaican immigrant artists have opted to rec­ord reggae, dancehall, ska, and reggae-­infused punk, pop, and dance in Eu­rope, especially in the United Kingdom. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Dubstep; Kool Herc; Reggae; Shaggy; Slick Rick; The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Marshall, Wayne. 2005. “Hearing Hip Hop’s Jamaican Accent.” Newsletter—­Institute for Studies in American ­Music 34, no. 2: 8–9, 14–15.

Japan 367 Richardson, Elaine. 2006. “Crosscultural Vibrations: The Shared Language of Contestation of Jamaican Dancehallas and American Hiphoppas.” In Hip Hop Literacies, chap. 2. New York: Routledge.

Further Listening

Five Steez. 2012. War for Peace. Self-­released.

Japan Japan, nicknamed Land of the Rising Sun, is a sovereign East Asian island nation (an archipelago consisting 430 inhabited islands) with a population of 127 million, located off the eastern coast of the Asian mainland. Japa­nese ­people make up 98.5 ­percent of the total population, with over nine million inhabiting Tokyo, the nation’s capital. Japan ­today is one of the world’s most highly educated nations, with the third-­largest economy, making it fourth in the world in purchasing power. Musically, Japan is known for J-­pop, which has some similarities to hip hop with a focus on R&B and a sound similar to that of American boy band/girl band ­music. Since the 1980s, hip hop ­music containing rap has become more popu­lar, although it still ­faces resistence given the national preference for J-­pop. As a way of diversifying, Japa­nese rappers have introduced pop ele­ments into their songs, making their a­ lbums more marketable.

TRADITIONAL AND WESTERNIZED M ­ USIC Japan is the second-­largest ­music market in the world, including rec­ord label–­ owned karaoke venues. Traditional Japa­nese ­music includes shōmyō (Buddhist chanting), and gagaku (orchestral court ­music), as well as indigenous styles and imported musical forms such as tōgaku (court ­music introduced from China around the eighth ­century) and komagaku (dance ­music from China). In the 13th ­century, honkyoku, original solo pieces played by Buddhist priests for alms and enlightenment, emerged. Other styles include min’yō, or folk ­music, including work songs, religious songs, gathering/event songs, and ­children’s songs, and modern ensemble taiko drumming, a recent traditional form that can be traced to the 1950s. Westernized pop ­music, kayōkyoku, appeared around 1914 with the song “Kachūsha no uta” (aka “Katyusha’s Song”), from a play based on Leo Tolstoy’s (1828–1910) novel Resurrection, first published in 1899, sung by Sumako Matsui (1886–1919). By the 1990s, the term Westernized pop became known as J-­pop, which had its roots more in 1960s pop and rock ­music than in Japa­nese forms. Bands such as Yellow Magic Orchestra (1977–1984, 2007–) and Southern All Stars (1974–2008, 2013–) began to rec­ord, and power trio and punk rock bands such as Shonen Knife (1981–), rock duo B’z (1988–), and funk-­based hip hop hybrid bands such as Pizzicato Five (1979–2001) achieved commercial success in Japan and abroad.

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SOUL AND HIP HOP The success of Michael Jackson’s (1958–2009) Thriller (1984), the first ­album by a Western artist to sell over one million copies in Japan, influenced the direction of J-­pop, resulting in dance and hip hop–­based idol and boy bands. Current J-­pop stars include Hikaru Utada’s (1983–), whose debut ­album, First Love (1999), sold over seven million copies; idol group Morning Musume (1997–), which remains one of the most well known girl groups in the Japa­nese pop ­music industry; idol group Momoiro Clover Z (2008–), whose live concerts have set attendance rec­ords; and boy band SMAP (1988–2016), at one time the best-­selling band in Asia. J-­pop invariably opened the door for hip hop, a much more recent Japa­nese ­music scene, with Japa­nese rappers fi­nally seeing commercial success in the late 1980s. The earliest Japa­nese hip hop occurred in 1981 when Yellow Magic Orchestra recorded “Rap Phenomena,” a song remembered for its electronic beats and 808 drum machine. Hip hop was bolstered in the 1980s when soul, ­house, and breakdancing ­were introduced with the American tele­vi­sion show Soul Train (1971–2006) and American films Wild Style (1983), Flashdance (1983), and Beat Street (1984); in addition, Rock Steady Crew (1977–) performed in Japan, and musician and producer Hiroshi Fujiwara (1964–) returned to Japan and started playing hip hop rec­ords (­later in the de­cade). Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park became a “pedestrian’s paradise” ­every Sunday: traffic was shut down and youth would gather to break. In addition, Japa­nese youth began to identify with African American hip hop culture, its fashions, dance, and ­music—­some even ­going so far as to invest in extreme tanning to change their skin color.

EMERGENCE OF RAP The earliest Japa­nese turntablist was DJ Krush (Hideaki Ishi, 1962–), who started out at the Yoyogi Park breakdancing scene (1984–). Early rappers included Ito Seiko (Masayuki Ito, 1961–), Chikado Haruo (1951–), and Takagi Kan (1961–). Most of what they performed was old-­school hip hop. By the 1990s, Platinum hip hop hits ­were pos­si­ble, such as Kenji Ozawa (1968–) and Scha Dara Parr’s (1988–) “Kon’ya wa būgi bakku” (Boogie Back To­night, 1994). More recent Japa­nese hip hop groups, such as Rhymester (1989–), rec­ord issue-­oriented rap, rather than the old-­ school party rap of their pre­de­ces­sors. ­These first rappers used En­glish ­because it was easier than Japa­nese for scansion, but ­later rappers changed syntax and word order, and used slang, regional expressions, and En­glish to make the language fit the rhythmic line and musical conventions. For many Japa­nese, the turning point for hip hop was Thumpin’ Camp (1996), a street event attended by 4,000 hip hop fans. Japan’s most famous graffiti artist, Anti-­Nuke (anonymous, n.d.), also appeared, with slogans such as “I hate nuclear rain,” next to an image of a small girl in a raincoat. Recent hip hop stars include the aforementioned Rhymester and other pioneer artists, short-­lived rap groups King Giddra (1993–1996) and Lamp Eye (1995– 1996); long-­standing pioneers Kick the Can Crew (1996–2004) and Tha Blue Herb (1997–); rappers Dabo (Daisuke Ashida, 1975–), Hime (anonymous, 1979–), Nujabes (Jun Seba, 1974–2010), singer Toshinobu Kubota (1962–). King Giddra’s

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members had lived in the United States and felt that Japa­nese rap should be issue-­ oriented, a tool of social opposition. Lamp Eye was an underground rap group that released the classic single “Shōgen” (“Testimonial,”1996), attacking J-­pop ­music for its insipid and imitative qualities. Tha Blue Herb is notable for its trip hop beats and reflective lyr­ics that are critical of celebrity and the Japa­nese ­music industry. Dabo, who based his style on American rap, was the first Japa­nese artist to be signed to Def Jam Japan (2000–); he is a former member of Nitro Microphone Underground (1998–2012), famous for the song “Still Shinin,’ ” from the ­album Straight from the Underground (2004), one of the most popu­lar Japa­nese rap songs. Hime was a pioneer female rapper whose songs ­were about female empowerment. Kubota was a pioneer of soul m ­ usic and reggae in Japan. Seba Jun excelled in many hip hop forms, including graffiti; a national hero, often compared to J Dilla (1974– 2006), in the Japa­nese hip hop community, his death led to the production of many tribute ­albums. The most recent wave of Japa­nese rappers includes Shing02 (Shingo Annen, 1975–), EVISBEATS (Akira Yoshimura, n.d.), and Daoko (anonymous, 1997–); rap groups include Monju (2008–), Suiyōbi no Campanella (aka Wednesday Campanella, 2012–), and Eccy (2007–). Artist and MC Shing02 raps in both Japa­nese and En­glish against keyboard heavy beats and turntables. EVISBEATS is a downbeat Buddhist rapper who raps against laid back keyboard, string instruments, and snap beats. Beginning her ­career at age 17, Daoko bridges the gap between idol groups and hip hop, usually singing her lyr­ics, although she is known to rap, using a gentle

Performing in 2015 at the Lyric Theatre in Los Angeles, Shing02 is representative of the most recent wave of Japa­nese rappers who employ an eclectic sense of musical style. He raps in both Japa­nese and En­glish and fuses hip hop with reggae, jazz, and traditional Japa­nese ­music. (Gabriel Olsen/Getty Images)

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delivery. Underground group Monju is known for superior sampling work. Duo Suiyōbi no Campanella and Eccy are known for a J-­pop, new age, and house-­infused rap with idiosyncratic traditional instrumentation and beats, and both are known for chill out beats. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Turntablism; The United States

Further Reading

Condry, Ian. 2006. Hip Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Manabe, Noriko. 2013. “Representing Japan: ‘National’ Style among Japa­nese Hip Hop DJs.” Popu­lar ­Music 32, no. 1: 35–50. Manabe, Noriko. 2015. “Japa­nese Hip Hop: Alternative Stories.” In The Cambridge Companion to Hip Hop, edited by Justin Williams, chap. 18. Cambridge, ­England: Cambridge University Press.

Further Listening

EVISBEATS. 2012. Sketchbook. Amida. Nitro Microphone Underground. 2004. Straight from the Underground. Columbia M ­ usic. Suiyōbi no Campanella. 2017. Superman. Warner M ­ usic Japan.

Jay-­P (Paul Omiria Epeju, 1987–­, Kampala, Uganda) Jay-­P is a Ugandan rapper, rec­ord producer, and entrepreneur. Jay-­P’s rap style is mainly old-­school, with emphasis on end rhymes. He also incorporates quickly articulated toasts and repetitive chants and is known for experimental techniques, such as having a young child rap the chorus in his single “Hustle Ave­ nue” (2015). Coming from a large ­family, Paul Omiria Epeju was the seventh of eight ­children who grew up in a housing proj­ect. His ­mother taught him to be a diligent learner and made sure he could speak fluent En­glish. By age six, he showed an interest in ­music, and by nine, he was interested in hip hop. He performed in school, and ­later at parties and bars. At 18, he took the stage name Jay-­P and created a bedroom ­music studio, which he named RX Rec­ords (aka ­Recipe Rec­ords, 2005*–). He eventually enlarged it into a garage studio. Despite the makeshift nature of his studio, Jay-­P’s professional quality production values w ­ ere demonstrated immediately on his debut a­ lbum Credibly Evident, a diverse collection of moody and atmospheric, dramatic beats created by synthesizer, similar to the style made famous by New Orleans–­based No Limit Rec­ords (1990–2003; revived as No Limit Forever Records, 2010–), which is owned by American rapper and hip hop sound recording producer Master P (1970–). As of 2018, Jay-­P has produced six ­albums in his DIY studio: Credibly Evident (2013), The Best of Jay-­P (2014), Orbis Unum in My Lifetime (2014), Hustle Ave­ nue, Vol.2 (2015), The Hits Collection (2015), and Modus Operandi (2017). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Dirty South; Uganda



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Further Reading

Barz, Gregory F., and Gerald C. Liu. 2011. “Positive Disturbance: Tafesh, Twig, HIV/AIDS, and Hip Hop in Uganda.” In The Culture of AIDS in Africa: Hope and Healing in ­Music and the Arts, edited by Gregory F. Barz and Judah M. Cohen, chap. 30. New York: Oxford University Press. Odeke, Steven. 2014. “Jay-­P’s Rap ­Future Is Rapturous.” The New Vision (Kampala, Uganda), May 23. Slim MC. 2014. “Hip Hop and Social Change in Uganda.” In Hip Hop and Social Change in Africa: Ni Wakati, edited by Msia Kibona Clark and Mickie Mwanzia Koster, chap. 10. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Further Listening

Jay-­P. 2015. Hustle Ave­nue, Vol. 2. ­Recipe Rec­ords.

Jay-­Z (Shawn Corey Car­ter, 1969–­, Brooklyn, New York) Jay-­Z is one of the most successful hip hop artists of the pres­ent day. His skills as a rapper have generated an impressive string of critically praised ­albums that have also been commercial hits, earning him a fortune that he has used to build a financial empire that includes products ranging from fashion to entertainment to sports management. He ­rose from drug dealer to multi-­Platinum-­selling rapper and world-­ class businessman, married to one of R&B’s leading stars, Beyoncé (1981–). As of 2018, Jay-­Z is among the wealthiest hip hop artists and has translated success in the m ­ usic industry into success in other businesses. EARLY YEARS Born Shawn Corey Car­ter and raised in the notorious Marcy Proj­ects in Brooklyn, New York’s Bedford-­Stuyvesant neighborhood, Jay-­Z faced a tough childhood. When he was 11, his ­uncle was murdered, which led his ­father to drugs and then to abandon his f­ amily, leaving his m ­ other to raise him and his three siblings. He attended public schools in Brooklyn and Trenton, New Jersey, and though he was a good student in the lower grades, he did not gradu­ate from high school. ­After his ­uncle’s death, he became withdrawn and turned to dealing drugs, although he himself was not a user, and he credits ­music with giving him a way out of a difficult ­family situation. As a child, he was exposed to vari­ous kinds of ­music from a rec­ord collection that contained a wide se­lection of popu­lar styles. He enjoyed beating out rhythms on the kitchen ­table, and so he was given a boombox as a birthday pres­ent, which encouraged his interest in m ­ usic. A ­ fter watching Soul Train (1971–2006), he imitated performers such as Michael Jackson (1958–2009). He was also a strong reader and began to write down the rhymes that he heard, and then to write his own lyr­ ics and even to freestyle. When he began to perform, his neighborhood nickname, Jazzy, became Jay-­Z. He worked with another Brooklyn rapper, Big ­Daddy Kane (1968–), on tours. When Big ­Daddy Kane left the stage to change costumes, Jay-­Z and another young rapper would freestyle ­until he returned.

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EARLY RECORDINGS Jay-­Z’s first single was “In My Lifetime” (1994), which he initially sold out of his own car when no major label would sign him to a contract. For that reason, Jay-­Z cofounded the in­de­pen­dent label Roc-­A-­Fella Rec­ords (1996–2013), which sold Jay-­Z’s ­music through a distribution deal with Priority Rec­ords (1995–), a West Coast label that specialized in hip hop. The first Roc-­A-­Fella release was Jay-­Z’s debut ­album, Reasonable Doubt (1996), which ­rose to No. 23 on the Billboard 200 and eventually reached Platinum sales. Critics praised the ­album for Jay-­Z’s vocal acrobatics, his stark honesty about the life of a street hustler, and a sound that was not compromised with obvious pop insertions. Many, including Jay-­Z himself, consider Reasonable Doubt his finest work. His second solo ­album, In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 (1997), debuted at No. 3 and reached an even bigger audience, in part due to a new distribution deal with Def Jam Recordings (1983–). Some complaints ­were heard about the ­album’s slicker, more commercial sound, which was the result of using several of Puff ­Daddy’s (1969–) Bad Boy Rec­ords (1993–) label producers on this proj­ect, but most critics thought it was a strong continuation of his debut a­ lbum. Vol. 2 . . . ​Hard Knock Life (1998), Jay-­Z’s third a­ lbum, opened at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Sales eventually reached quintuple Platinum, making the a­ lbum Jay-­ Z’s biggest seller ever. Its success may owe something to a return to the less polished sound of Reasonable Doubt. The ­album also includes one of Jay-­Z’s most popu­lar singles, the title track, “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem),” which samples the tune of the same name, “Hard Knock Life,” from the Broadway musical hit Annie (1977). Most commentators point to that show’s 1977 premiere as the point of origin for that sample, but in fact, Annie had just completed a modest run in revival in 1997, only months before Jay-­Z’s single was released, a synergy that hints at his already well-­developed business sense.

SUBSEQUENT HITS Over the next several years, Jay-­Z delivered a remarkably consistent string of hit ­albums, all of which started at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and reached Platinum sales or better in short order. During that same time, he also began to expand his business ventures; for example, he opened his first restaurant, the sports bar 40/40 Club, in 2003 and assumed the role of president of Def Jam Recordings in 2004, while also continuing to guide his Roc-­A-­Fella label. A feud with the rapper Nas (1973–) added yet another issue to his busy life. What­ever the reasons, in late 2003, Jay-­Z announced that a concert at Madison Square Garden during Thanksgiving week would be his retirement and that he planned to rec­ord no additional a­ lbums; however, he continued to perform and rec­ ord as a guest artist on tracks by ­others, and in 2006, he released Kingdom Come, his ninth solo ­album. Its comeback single, “Show Me What You Got,” was leaked on the Internet before its official release, which led to an FBI investigation. Jay-­Z continued to tour and perform live events, and he released two more successful a­ lbums, even as he continued to shift his attention to other business ventures. At the beginning of 2008, he gave up his position as the head of Def Jam,



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and in 2009, he joined with a consortium that included rapper ­Will Smith (1968–) and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith (1971–) to produce Fela!, a Broadway musical about the African musician and po­liti­cal figure Fela Kuti (Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-­Kuti, 1938–1997). The show was a modest success, ­r unning for just over a year and winning a few awards. The most impor­tant personal event of t­ hose years was Jay-­Z’s marriage in 2008 to Beyoncé, an R&B singer whose musical accomplishments match her husband’s, creating an entertainment supercouple. In 2013, Jay-­Z released his 12th solo ­album, Magna Carta . . . ​Holy Grail, which again started at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Critical response to the a­ lbum was generally less enthusiastic than for his previous releases. Nevertheless, the ­album reached double Platinum status in less than two months, confirming his continuing popularity with fans. South Korean business and technology conglomerate Samsung (1938–) used Holy Grail in a novel marketing deal with Jay-­Z. The com­ pany purchased the rights to one million copies of the ­album, which could be downloaded for ­free by customers using a Samsung phone, and Jay-­Z appeared in high profile ads broadcast during the NBA (National Basketball Association) Finals just before the a­ lbum’s physical release. Jay-­Z is one of the few legitimate multimillionaire businessmen who can credit his experience as a drug dealer for his professional successes. He has spoken honestly about how the lessons he learned in the streets have helped him in the m ­ usic business, beginning with knowing with whom to associate and how to carry himself. Similarly, he compares his ability to negotiate a multi-­million-­dollar deal with bargaining between drug dealers and their suppliers. Despite his earlier unsavory activities, he has built an impressive diversified group of investments. Starting with his rec­ord companies, Jay-­Z has branched out into clothing, cosmetics and fragrances, wine and spirits, media companies, restaurants, real estate, gambling, and sports. ­These last few categories also include an ele­ment of civic pride, with investments in the Barclays Center and its chief tenant, the Brooklyn Nets of the NBA, which have helped to revitalize the borough. Jay-­Z’s interest in sports has led him into sports management, which has given him the opportunity to advise athletes, many of whom have come from impoverished backgrounds similar to his own, on how to ­handle the outsized salaries and celebrity found in professional sports. Jay-­Z’s fortune has also allowed him to engage in a variety of philanthropic activities, ranging from a scholarship fund to work for safe ­water around the world. Along with other superstar musicians, he contributed to relief efforts for the Hurricane Katrina disaster (2005), and his support of voter registration and similar po­liti­cal activities has made him a friend of President Barack Obama (1961–­, in office, 2009– 2017). One of Jay-­Z’s most recent business activities has been the 2015 acquisition of TIDAL, a subscription-­based m ­ usic streaming ser­vice that is run by a consortium of leading artists, including Jay-­Z, who all provide exclusive content. In addition to providing its users with a higher fidelity sound at a premium price, TIDAL also claims to pay higher royalties to its artists. A few performers, however, have questioned the com­pany’s financial statements used to calculate royalties, as well as the number of subscribers. Scott Warfield See also: Beyoncé; Fashion; The United States

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Further Reading

Bailey, Julius, ed. 2011. Jay-­Z: Essays on Hip Hop’s Phi­los­o­pher King. Jefferson City, NC: MacFarland. Greenburg, Zack O’Malley. 2015. Empire State of Mind: How Jay-­Z Went from Street Corner to Corner Office. Rev. ed. New York: Portfolio/Penguin Press. Jay-­Z. Decoded. 2010. New York: Spiegel and Grau.

Further Listening

Jay-­Z. 1996. Reasonable Doubt. Priority/Freeze/Roc-­A-­Fella Rec­ords. Jay-­Z. 2003. The Black A ­ lbum. Roc-­A-­Fella Rec­ords. Jay-­Z. 2006. Kingdom Come. Roc-­A-­Fella Rec­ords. Jay-­Z. 2013. Magna Carta . . . ​Holy Grail. Roc-­A-­Fella Rec­ords.

Jean Grae (Tsidi Ibrahim, 1976–­, Cape Town, South Africa) Jean Grae is a South African–­born rapper, singer, ­music producer, and ­music engineer who was raised in New York City by jazz musician parents. She is known especially for her quick and smooth rap delivery and her varied intonation. She has also gained recognition for her musical explorations as a hip hop ­music engineer, at times playful with vocal pro­cessers; she also incorporates rap into musical layers in ways that resemble experimental per­for­mance artists and electroacoustic composers such as Laurie Anderson (1947–). Jean Grae’s vocal range is coloratura soprano. NEW YORK SCENE AND GROUND ZERO Though she initially was more interested in dance, she studied vocal per­for­mance at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of ­Music and Art and the Performing Arts. Since 1995, she has been active in the New York hip hop scene. That year, she was discovered and recruited by hip hop pioneer and activist George “Rithm” Martinez (1974–) to rec­ord a five-­song demo for his Brooklyn-­based experimental hip hop group Ground Zero (1990–1998). The recording received critical acclaim, including “Unsigned Hype” honors in the March 1996 issue of the hip hop magazine The Source. Her first stage name was What? What? Since 1998, she has used the stage name Jean Grae (named a­ fter the X-­Men character Jean Grey). ­After Ground Zero, Jean Grae joined the New York–­based hip hop group Natu­ ral Resource (1996*–1999). In 1996, Natu­ral Resource released the following 12-­ inch rec­ords (represented ­here as A side / B side): “Negro League Baseball” / “They Lied” and “Bum Deal” on their own label, Makin’ Rec­ords (2000–). She created her international fan base from her Ground Zero years by collaborating on Makin’ Rec­ords recordings by Brooklyn-­based acts such as Pumpkinhead (Robert Alan Diaz, 1975–2015), the Bad Seed (Corey Pierson, 1975–), and O.  B.  S. (Original Blunted Soldiers, 1999–), among ­others. She has also collaborated with Brooklyn-­ based acts such as Brooklyn Acad­emy (1995–2008), Talib Kweli (1975–), and Mos Def (1973–), and has recorded with a large number of well known nonlocal hip hop



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artists and groups, including the Herbaliser (1995–), the Roots (1987–), Mr.  Len (1975–), Phonte (Phonte Lyshod Coleman, 1978–), and 9th Won­der (1975–). SOLO EFFORTS Jean Grae’s first solo ­album was Attack of the Attacking T ­ hings (2002), which was followed by The Bootleg of the Bootleg EP (2003), This Week (2004), and The Orchestral Files (2007). In 2004, she signed with Babygrande Rec­ords (2001–), but in 2005 she moved on to Talib Kweli’s newly formed Blacksmith Rec­ords (2005– 2012). She worked on the 9th Won­der ­album, Jeanius with 9th Won­der (2008), which was quickly followed by The Evil Jeanius (2008), a collaboration with the San Francisco–­based alternative hip hop production duo Blue Sky Black Death (2003–). In 2008, Jean Grae announced her intention to retire, but in the same year, she had also made the decision to self-­release her ­music on her website, streaming and selling it through the ser­vice Bandcamp. She also began to advertise compositional ser­vices at a pay rate of 16 mea­sures for $800. The decision to retire from the m ­ usic industry to become in­de­pen­dent was a statement against the treatment of musicians during the digital age. She eventually returned to performing live and songwriting. As a result, her solo output since 2011 has been prolific. She released a ­free mixtape, Cookies or Comas (2011), which has received critical acclaim and includes her rap as a vocal layer over R&B and hip hop beats. Tracks such as “Cakebasket” seem to reveal an experimental and humorous Jean Grae reminiscent of Anderson—­ whereas “Live Up,” featuring lyrical R&B passages by Talib Kweli, includes infectious melodic hooks and her own singing. In 2013, Jean Grae released Dust Ruffle, a 10-­track retrospective ­album of unreleased songs recorded between 2004 and 2010, and Gotham Down Deluxe, a compilation of three of her Gotham Down Cycle EPs that included some lo-fi tracks. As of 2018, she has plans for another solo ­album, Cake or Death. In the meantime, Jean Grae has released multiple EPs, including Ho x 3: A Christmas Thingy, Jeannie, #5, and That’s Not How You Do That: An Instructional ­Album for Adults (2014), as well as That’s Not How You Do That ­Either: Yet Another Instructional ­Album for Adults, iSweatergawd, and Saix (2015). She has also released singles that are in­de­ pen­dent of ­albums and EPs, ­music for CD-­ROM, a streamed audiobook titled The State of Eh (2014), and her online sitcom, Life with Jeannie (2013–), in which she both stars and directs. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: South Africa; The United States

Further Reading

Smalls, Shanté Paradigm. 2011. “ ‘The Rain Comes Down’: Jean Grae and Hip Hop Heteronormativity.” American Behavioral Scientist 55, no. 1: 86–95. Walsh, Robert. 2006. “An Interview with Jean Grae.” Callaloo 29, no. 3: 816–21.

Further Listening

Jean Grae. 2002. Attack of the Attacking ­Things . . . ​The Dirty Mixes. Third Earth M ­ usic. Jean Grae and 9th Won­der. 2008. Jeanius. Blacksmith ­Music.

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Jerkin’ (aka D ­ oing the Jerk) Jerkin’ is a Los Angeles–­based young adult and teen street dance that began gaining popularity on both the East and West Coasts around 2009, ­after a hip hop duo from Hesperia (about an hour east of Los Angeles), New Boyz (2009–2013), released the single “­You’re a Jerk.” The ­music video featured the duo and its posse ­doing street dancing, using vari­ous versions of the Jerk. That same year, another hip hop duo, Audio Push (2006–), released the single “Teach Me How to Jerk,” which uses a similar hiccupped/repeated chorus as Cali Swag District’s (2009–2015) more famous Top 40 hit “Teach Me How to Dougie,” also released in 2009. The ­music video for “Teach Me How to Jerk” shows the duo in a classroom, exhibiting to fellow students their moves as they all dance on desks, ­tables, and the floor, then move out into the hall and the gym, where the duo dance, encircled by the crowd. Other jerking hip hop crews include the Rej3ctz (2010–), whose 2011 dance single “Cat ­Daddy” made it into the Billboard Hot 100. Jerkin ­music is typically retro, heavy bass oriented, with lots of synthetic drum loops, handclaps, and heavy autotuning, and most of its prac­ti­tion­ers are young. Dancers, however, ­will argue that jerkin’ is a dance style, and that a dancer can jerk to any hip hop ­music. THE MOVES The Jerk is a bounce-­oriented, loose-­limbed dance that involves alternating between two moves, bent-­k nee hopping and a straight-­leg kick out that transitions into a half kick back with a bent knee; dancers switch the moves from one leg to another—as one leg does the kicks, the other does the bent-­k nee hopping, mostly in place, though some jerkers move slightly forward. Some dancers ­will add a drop into the bent-­k nee hop, dropping to a crouching position on one or both legs. Arm movements are usually minimalized (for balance) and improvised (for style), although the wrist and hand can be used to strike vari­ous hip hop postures and to point to other dancers. Moves such as dips and pin drops can be incorporated, as well as the dance move R ­ unning Man (basically giving the illusion of rhythmically running/walking in place). More experienced jerkers ­will incorporate acrobatics into the dance, usually in the form of backflips or splits. As time has progressed, the dance has evolved into more footwork oriented versions of itself, sometimes leaving the kick out altogether. In ­these versions, bent-­ knee hopping is accentuated with footwork moves, such as alternately crossing the feet in front of each other, ­doing a heel-­toe alternation on one foot while hopping on the other (while alternating which leg hops and which foot does the heel-­toe), and dropping down a­ fter sliding one leg u­ nder the body, giving the illusion that the dancer has collapsed. In the aforementioned song’s ­music video, other moves are incorporated, such as bending the knees inward alternately, rather than alternating the hop and kick. Dancers usually wear skinny jeans rather than baggy pants, as well as bright colors, retro T-­shirts, and retro high-­top shoes such as Chuck Taylors. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Fashion; Hip Hop Dance; The United States



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Further Reading

Guzman-­Sanchez, Thomas. 2012. Underground Dance Masters: Final History of a Forgotten Era. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger. Kercher, Sophia. 2010. “Jerkin’ Is Workin’ for ’em: Kids Are Ditching the Gangsta Look for the Skinny Jeans and Neon Colors of a Dance and ­Music Style with a Grab-­ Bag of Retro Ele­ments.” Los Angeles Times, April 11. Schloss, Joseph G. 2009. “From Rocking to B-­Boying: History and Mystery.” In Foundation: B-­Boys, B-­Girls, and Hip Hop Culture in New York, chap. 7. New York: Oxford University Press.

Jesse Jagz (aka Jago, Jesse Garba Abaga, 1984–­, Jos, Nigeria) Jesse Jagz is a Nigerian hip hop and reggae rapper, singer-­songwriter, and rec­ord producer who since 2004 has made a name for himself as the Nigerian Kanye West (1977–) through labels such as his imprint Jagz Nation (2012–) and Choco­late City (2005–), the latter being one of the most successful indigenous urban rec­ord labels in Africa and a subsidiary of Choco­late City Group, one of the biggest African entertainment conglomerates. Jagz’s parents ­were both members of the clergy, which allowed him access to ­music at an early age. By the time he was seven, he was active with the church choir and he was teaching himself on his parents’ church’s drum kit. He claims to be of the Taraba tribe and is known to be Jukun, part of a West African ethnic nation to which most of the tribes in North Central Nigeria trace their origin. He was raised in Jos (aka J-­town), Nigeria, which has a population of nearly one million and is the administrative capital of the geo­graph­i­cally centralized Plateau State, the 12th-­largest state of Nigeria. His first ­album (which went unreleased ­because the band dissolved) was one recorded around 2003 with a short-­lived group called Gospel Insanity. He then formed his own band, Eleven Thirty (2004–2006) and enjoyed local success. His solo ­career came ­after a short-­lived attempt at a rec­ord label. His debut hit was the single “Africa” (2006*), which topped local charts on northern Nigeria radio stations. Within a year, three of his singles found their way into the local Top 10. His debut ­album, Jag of All Tradez (2010*), was a critical success. Songs from the ­album, including “Wetin Dey” (2009*), “Pump It Up” (2009*), and “Nobody Test Me” (2010*) made him a national star, and since, he has been in high demand as a producer. His second and third ­albums, Jagz Nation Vol 1: Thy Nation Come (2013*) and Jagz Nation Vol. 2: Royal Niger Com­pany (2014*), allowed him to showcase his production skills. His ­music is informed by his willingness to experiment with incorporating dif­ fer­ent genres of ­music into his songs, juxtaposed against a solid hip hop beat; he uses vari­ous types of quirky instrumentation (for example, a chorus of bells, quirky keyboard voices, or full synthesized orchestra) and vari­ous degrees of autotuning and echo, and his rapping (usually in En­glish) is soft and articulated. Reggae ele­ ments play an essential role in his m ­ usic, pres­ent in virtually all his songs. His videos are highly influenced by Western hip hop, as he often dresses in leather jackets

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with dark sunglasses, T-­shirts cut off at the sleeve, or dark hoodies, and he typically wears a large gold-­linked chain around his neck. By 2013, he was starting up his in­de­pen­dent label, Jagz Nation, and that year he released the singles “Murder Dem” and “Redemption.” In 2015, he re-­signed with Choco­late City and released a new a­ lbum, The Indestructible Choc Boi Nation. He had planned to release a new ­album, Odysseus, in 2016, but postponed the release. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Ice Prince; M.I.; Nigeria; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Reggae

Further Reading

Clark, Msia Kibona. 2013. “Representing Africa! Trends in Con­temporary African Hip Hop.” Journal of Pan African Studies 6, no. 3: 1–4. Olusegun-­Joseph, Yomi. 2014. “Transethnic Alegory: The Yoruba World, Hip Hop, and the Rhe­toric of Generational Difference.” Third Text 28, no. 6: 517–28. Shipley, Jesse Weaver. 2017. “Parody ­after Identity: Digital ­Music and the Politics of Uncertainty in West Africa.” American Ethnologist 44, no. 2: 249–62.

Jinjo Crew (2001–­, Seoul, South ­Korea) Jinjo Crew (the name roughly translates into “rising fire”) is a b-­boy dance crew from Seoul that is known for its power and speed moves, as well as incorporating team-­oriented routines into dance ­battles. In 2010, Jinjo won the ­Battle of the Year against Japa­nese b-­boy crew Mortal Combat (n.d.). Its members include inter­ national champion b-­boy Hong10 (Kim Hong-­Yeol, 1984*–), Wing (Kim Heon Woo, 1987*–), Skim (Kim Heon Jun, 1985*–), and Vero (Jang Ji Kwang, 1986*–). The crew’s routines are extremely intricate, with sometimes all five members getting involved in a soloist’s entrance or exit from the center stage. B-­boy Hong10’s signature move, “the Hong10 Freeze” is a variation on a halo freeze, which involves a sudden stopping of motion with the freeze move as a headstand, supported by hands, with shoulders off the ground, and legs in the air. The crew is also known for its good-­natured ­battle challenges and gestures during breakdance b­ attles and its work ethic, as its members practice nine hours a day. Jinjo Crew’s earliest success was in 2004, when it placed second in the BeatWalk. By 2007, the crew was winning impor­tant championships, including the CYON B-­Boy Championships, the Converse ­Battle Move, the NICE Flavor Showcase ­Battle, and the WHAT Mixed ­Battle. In 2007 and 2008, Jinjo Crew won the LG Korean Nationals. In 2009, Jinjo won the National B-­Boy Championships and the B-­Boy All Star B ­ attle, as well as the aforementioned Korean titles, and in 2010, it won the Floor Wars K ­ orea Elimination and the ­Battle of the Year. As of 2018, the crew still competes and wins championships in China, France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Turkey, Taiwan, Belgium, and ­Korea, and it received a special award from the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Battling; Breakdancing; Hip Hop Dance; K ­ orea



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Further Reading

Hong, Euny. 2014. “Why Pop Culture; or, Failure Is the Breakfast of Champions.” In The Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation Is Conquering the World through Pop Culture, chap. 6. New York: Simon and Schuster. Song, Myoung-­Sun. 2014. “The S(e)oul of Hip Hop: Locating Space and Identity in Korean Rap.” In The Korean Wave: Korean Popu­lar Culture in Global Context, edited by Yasue Kuwahara, chap. 7. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Usher, Charles. 2011. “South ­Korea: World Breakdancing Capital?” The Christian Science Monitor, July 5, 8.

Jones, Quincy (aka Q, Quincy Delight Jones Jr., 1933–­, Chicago, Illinois) Quincy Jones is an American sound recording, film, and tele­vi­sion producer, as well as composer, musician, conductor, magazine founder, entertainment executive, and philanthropist. Jones began a storied ­music c­ areer during the bebop era in the 1950s—­ now with 28 Grammy Awards, he has the most Grammys by any living musician. In 1964, Jones became the vice president of Mercury Rec­ords (1945–) and therefore the first black person to attain a top-­leading administrative position within a white-­owned sound recording com­pany. ­After working for other labels, he began his own recording label, Qwest Rec­ords (1980–2000, 2010–) in partnership with Warner Bros. Rec­ords (1958–) and later with Interscope Rec­ ­ ords (1989–). Among many other artists, Jones produced Michael Jackson’s (1958–2009) most successful studio ­albums—­Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), and Bad (1987). By the 1990s, Qwest began producing hip hop recordings, though Jones focused on Since hip hop’s early years, legendary American jazz, R&B, funk, and American producer and musician Quincy Jones has been and Brazilian pop. Jones was also influential in developing its m ­ usic and culture. His the film producer of the American influence includes producing the American film gangster thriller New Jack City New Jack City (1991), as well as producing (1991) who asked Village Voice numerous ­albums for a variety of artists across writer (originator of the term several de­cades. (Feature Flash​/Dreamstime​.­com)

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“new jack”) Barry Michael Cooper (n.d.) to work on the screenplay. Jones composed the themes and developed, launched, and produced the American tele­vi­sion sitcom series The Fresh Prince of Bel-­Air (1990–1996), starring rapper-­t urned-­ actor named ­Will Smith (1968–), as well as In the House (1995–1998), starring rapper-­t urned-­actor LL Cool J (1968–). Among other hip hop acts, Jones produced a­lbums for Canadian singer-­ songwriter Tamia (Tamia Marilyn Hill née Washington, 1975–), American rapper, singer-­songwriter, producer, and actor Terrace Martin (1978–), and Australian singer-­songwriter Grace (Grace Sewell, 1997–). He has also produced singles featuring American singer-­songwriter or rappers and producers Al B. Sure! (Albert Joseph Brown III, 1968–), Babyface (1959–), T.I. (aka TIP, Clifford Joseph Harris Jr., 1980–), and B.o.B (Bobby Ray Simmons Jr., 1988–). In addition, Jones has produced studio ­albums featuring vari­ous hip hop and new jack swing artists such as Al B. Sure! and Big ­Daddy Kane (1968–), alongside legendary jazz, R&B, and pop musicians such as Sarah Vaughan (1924–1990) and Miles Davis (1926–1991) on Back on the Block (1989). Jones’s studio ­album Q: Soul Bossa Nostra (2010) features vari­ous artists recording Brazilian ­music, R&B, jazz, and hip hop. Jones has been influential on hip hop’s development as an early advocate and mentor. Hip hop artists sample him often, as with “The Streetbeater” (1973, recorded in 1972), the theme from the American tele­vi­sion comedy series Sanford and Son (1972–1977), which has been sampled in American rapper Masta Killa’s (Jamiel Irief, born Elgin Turner, 1969–) “Old Man” (2004), En­glish rapper and singer-­ songwriter M.I.A.’s (1975–) “U.R.A.Q.T.” (2005), and Jones and T.I.’s “Sanford and Son” (2010). He also had a global impact on hip hop when he invited pioneering South African group Prophets of da City (1988–2001) to perform at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland in 1992, just a year before the end of apartheid. But Jones has also been critical of rappers-­producers such as Kanye West (1977–) and Lil Wayne (1982–) when comparing them to jazz ­greats such as his mentor Ray Charles (Ray Charles Robinson, 1930–2004) or pop ­g reats such as Jackson. Jones’ hip hop work has received several ­music industry awards. In 1990, Back on the Block won the Grammy Award for A ­ lbum of the Year in addition to six other Grammys. One of ­those awards was for Best Rap Per­for­mance by a Duo or Group, which went to Jones and his collaborators who recorded on the a­ lbum: Big D ­ addy Kane, Ice-­T (1958–), Tevin Campbell (Tevin Jermod Campbell, 1976–), Kool Moe Dee (1962–), and Melle Mel (1961–). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: The United States

Further Reading

Henry, Clarence Bernard. 2013. Quincy Jones: His Life in ­Music. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Jones, Quincy. 2001. Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones. New York: Doubleday.

Further Listening

Quincy Jones. 2010. Q: Soul Bossa Nostra. Qwest/Interscope Rec­ords.



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Jordan Jordan is a Western Asian, ­Middle Eastern constitutional monarchy whose capital, Amman, is its most populous city and its cultural center. ­After being a British protectorate ­after World War I (1914–1918), it became an in­de­pen­dent state in 1946. Sunni Islam is the dominant religion, practiced by 92 ­percent of the population, so rap is not widely popu­lar. Hip hop began to gain some traction around 1998. Early Jordanian hip hop artists include DJ Shadia (Shadia Bseiso, 1986–), who showcased the genre in her radio show The 5th Ele­ment (2005–2008), and Amman-­based Ostaz Samm (1984–). The m ­ usic of Jordan consists mainly of traditional forms; however, some pop styles have been successful, with stars such as Diana Karazon (1983–), Toni Qattan (Anton George Qattan, 1985–), and Hani Mitwasi (1983–). Rock ­music has become more popu­lar in Amman in the last few de­cades, and the indie m ­ usic scene gained some traction around 2008 with bands such as El Morabba3 (2009–), Autostrad (2007–), and Akher Zapheer (2007–). Recent hip hop artists include rapper Satti (Ahmad Yaseen, n.d.) and group Torabyeh (2009–). Torabyeh gained worldwide attention ­after suing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (1949–­, in office 2009–) for using one of its songs in his Likud campaign (1973–). Satti began his ­career in 2011 by rapping in En­glish (he learned En­glish from hip hop cassettes), but now opts for Arabic. His 19-­track debut ­album was Aress el shamal (The Groom of the North, a wordplay on the city Irbid’s nickname: Bride of the North, 2017). He was drawn to rapping ­because rap ­battles are similar to the traditional Haddaya, in which two poets engage in verbal sparring. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Israel; Lebanon

Further Reading

Adely, Fida J. 2007. “Is ­Music Haram? Jordanian Girls Educating Each Other about Nation, Faith, and Gender in School.” Teachers College Rec­ord 109, no. 7: 1663–81. Hood, Kathleen, and Mohammad Al-­Oun. 2014. “Changing Per­for­mance Traditions and Bedouin Identity in the North Badiya, Jordan.” Nomadic ­Peoples 18, no. 2: 78–99. McDonald, David A. 2013. My Voice Is My Weapon: ­Music, Nationalism, and the Poetics of Palestinian Re­sis­tance. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Juice Crew (aka Juice Crew All Stars, 1983–1991, Queens, New York) Juice Crew was a hip hop collective consisting mostly of artists who ­were living in the Queensbridge Houses, a housing proj­ect in Long Island City, Queens, New York. Early members included Big ­Daddy Kane (Antonio Hardy, 1968–), Biz Markie (Marcel Theo Hall, 1964–), Masta Ace (Duval Clear, 1966–), Kool G Rap (Nathaniel Thomas Wilson, 1968–), MC Shan (Shawn Moltke, 1965–), and Roxanne Shanté (Lolita Shanté Gooden, 1969–), as well as producer and DJ Mr. Magic (John Rivas, 1956–2009). As founding producer of Cold Chillin’ Rec­ords (1986–1998), pioneering American hip hop DJ, producer, ­house ­music production expert, and label owner Marley Marl (Marlon Lu’ree Williams, 1962–) established the Juice Crew starting in

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1983 with Mr. Magic, his hip hop radio DJ colleague at New York City’s WHBI (now WXNY, 1964–). Marley Marl also grew up living in the Queensbridge Houses. Juice Crew’s main rival was Boogie Down Productions (1985–1992), a South Bronx, New York hip hop band that served as a vehicle for KRS-­One (Lawrence Krisna Parker, 1965–) during the early part of his rapping ­career. Its original lineup consisted of KRS-­One, turntablist and producer DJ Scott La Rock (Scott Monroe Sterling, 1962–1987), and turntablist, beatboxer, and rapper D-­Nice (Derrick Jones, 1970–). Boogie Down Productions was also responsible for one of the first diss rap feuds, the Bridge Wars. This began when Juice Crew released a 1985 song, “The Bridge,” which seemingly expresses local pride in the borough as the place where rap began and attacked Queens, New York rapper LL Cool J (James Todd Smith, 1968–) for alleged plagiarism. In response, Boogie Down Productions released its debut single “South Bronx” (1986), which argued it was the birthplace of hip hop and contained lyr­ics that demeaned and threatened the Juice Crew, which responded with group member’s MC Shan’s “Kill That Noise” (1987). Boogie Down Productions, in turn, responded with the reggae-­infused rap song “The Bridge Is Over” (1987). The feud, which has since been explained as KRS-­One’s jab at Mr. Magic, who once dissed his ­music, expanded to other New York rappers. KRS-­One lost interest ­after the death of DJ Scott La Rock. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Big D ­ addy Kane; Boogie Down Productions; KRS- ­One; LL Cool J; Marley Marl; Roxanne Shanté; The United States

Further Reading

Bradley, Adam, and Andrew Dubois, eds. 2010. “Big D ­ addy Kane.” ­Under “Part 2: 1985– 92: The Golden Age” in The Anthology of Rap, pp. 136–44. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Danois, Ericka Blount. 2010. “From Queens Come Kings: Run-­D.M.C. Stomps Hard out of a ‘Soft’ Borough.” In Hip Hop in Amer­i­ca: A Regional Guide, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 1, chap. 3. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood. Mshaka, Thembisa S. 2007. “Roxanne Shanté.” Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, ­Music, and Culture, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 1, pp. 51–68. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Rausch, Andrew J. 2011. “Big D ­ addy Kane.” In I Am Hip Hop: Conversations on the M ­ usic and Culture, chap. 3. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow.

Further Listening

Big D ­ addy Kane. 1988. Long Live the Kane. Cold Chillin’. Biz Markie. 1988. Goin’ Off. Cold Chillin’. MC Shan. 1987. Down by Law. Cold Chillin’. Roxanne Shanté. 1989. Bad ­Sister. Cold Chillin’/Reprise Rec­ords.

Jungle ­Brothers (1987–­, New York City, New York) Jungle ­Brothers is a highly eclectic American hip hop group that fuses mostly old-­school hip hop with jazz, funk, electronica, dance, ­house m ­ usic, R&B, and



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Afrobeat, in addition to other musical genres and world ­music. The group is best known as the founding and core members of the New York City hip hop collective Native Tongues (1988–1996) with their contemporaries: A Tribe Called Quest (1985–1998, 2006–2013, 2015–); De La Soul (1987–); and Black Sheep (1989– 1995, 2000–2002, 2006–). All contributed to the sound of alternative and experimental hip hop during the Golden Age of Hip Hop (1986–1994). Members of Jungle ­Brothers are turntablist, guitarist, rapper, and producer Afrika Baby Bam (Nathaniel Phillip Hall, 1970–), rapper Mike Gee (aka Mike G, Michael Benton Small, 1969–), and DJ Sammy B (Sammy Burwell, 1968–). Jungle B ­ rothers’ main musical influences ­were James Brown (1933–2006), Marvin Gaye (1939–1984), and Afrika Bambaataa (1957–)—­the last inspired Hall to use the stage name Afrika Baby Bam. In the mid-1980s, Afrika Baby Bam and Mike Gee w ­ ere friends in high school. DJ Sammy B was a ­family friend of Mike Gee’s and was with the group from the beginning ­until 1997. In 1988, Jungle ­Brothers released its first studio ­album Straight Out the Jungle on the Warlock Rec­ords in­de­pen­dent label (1985–2009). Some tracks featured A Tribe Called Quest’s MC and producer Q-­Tip (aka Kamaal Ibn John Fareed, b. Jonathan William Davis, 1970–). The ­album received strongly positive critical acclaim, though it was a commercial failure. But in 1989, Jungle ­Brothers signed to Warner Bros. (1958–), and the group released its second ­album, Done by the Forces of Nature, which also critically acclaimed with poor sales. Both a­ lbums, however, had tracks that charted on the U.K. Singles Chart, most notably “I’ll House You” (1988) which peaked at No. 22. In addition, “What U Waitin’ 4?” (1990) peaked at No. 13 on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart. Warner Bros. dropped Jungle Bros. shortly ­after poor sales on its third ­album, J Beez Wit the Remedy (1993), but by then Jungle ­Brothers was already active in the Native Tongues collective. On its own Jungle B ­ rothers released several subsequent studio ­albums: Raw Deluxe (1997), V.I.P. (2000), All That We Do (2002), You in My Hut Now (2003), and I Got You (2006). Jungle ­Brothers had a string of hit singles continue in the United Kingdom, most notably “Jungle ­Brother ‘98” (1998), “V.I.P.” (1999), and “Breathe ­Don’t Stop” (2004) peaking at Nos. 18, 28, and 21, respectively. The last was a version of Q-­Tip’s “Breathe and Stop” (1999). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: De La Soul; Hip House; Native Tongues; A Tribe Called Quest; The United States

Further Reading

Anon. 2015. “­Brothers Reignite Hip House Sound.” The Post (Bristol, ­England), August 28, 26. Danois, Ericka Blount. 2010. “From Queens Come Kings: Run-­D.M.C. Stomps Hard Out of a ‘Soft’ Borough.” In Hip Hop in Amer­i­ca: A Regional Guide, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 1, chap. 3. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood. Rabaka, Reiland. 2012. “Remix 3: Jazzmatazz: From Classic Jazz and Bebop to Jazz Rap and Hip Hop.” In Hip Hop’s Amnesia: From Blues and the Black ­Women’s Club Movement to Rap and the Hip Hop Movement, chap. 3. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

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Further Listening

Jungle B ­ rothers. 1988. Straight out the Jungle. Warlock Rec­ords. Jungle B ­ rothers. 1989. Done by the Forces of Nature. Warner Bros. Rec­ords. Jungle B ­ rothers. 1999. V.I.P. Gee Street/V2 Rec­ords.

Just D (1990–1995, 2015–­, Stockholm, Sweden) Just D (meaning Just That) is a pioneering hip hop trio from Sweden that consists of Gura G (aka Speedbump, Gustave Lund, 1968–), Pedda Pedd (Peder Ernerot, 1967–), and Dr. C (Wille Crafoord, 1966–). The trio’s first ­album 1 steg bak å 2 steg fram (1 Step Backward, 2 Steps Forward, 1990) was the first rap ­album fully in Swedish at a time when early Swedish hip hop groups rapped and rhymed in En­glish in order to gain international appeal. Interspersed with humorous skits, this ­album also layered Just D’s rapping and beats with samples of vari­ous Swedish sound recordings. It sampled from entertainer, singer, pianist, and novelty/vaudev­ ille songwriter Povel Ramel (1922–2007), rock and pop songwriter and ABBA (1972–1982) session guitarist Janne Schaffer (Jan Erik Tage Schaffer, 1945–), and jazz and folksinger Alice Babs (Hildur Alice Nilson, 1924–2014), among ­others. Combining a mainstream pop sound with hip hop, the trio’s appearance, use of humor, and sound resembled that of the Beastie Boys (1981–2012). Despite racial and/or socioeconomic differences between members and subsequent Swedish hip hop groups (members of Just D ­were from affluent nonimmigrant Swedish families, and Crafoord’s ­family roots ­were Swedish nobility), Just D opened the doors for the second wave of Swedish hip hop artists such as the Latin Kings (TLK, 1991– 2005), Infinite Mass (1991–), and Looptroop Rockers (aka Looptroop, 1991–). Just D had a string of No. 1 hit singles in Sweden, which include “Juligen” (“Christmas,” 1991); “Klåfin­ger and vart tog den söta lilla flickan vägen?” (“Meddler and Where Did That Sweet ­Little Girl Go?,” 1993); “87–87” (1995); “Hubbabubba” (1995); “Sköna skor” (“Beautiful Shoes,” 1995); and “Tre gringos” (“Three Gringos,” 1996). Shortly ­after its first ­album was released on the then indie Ricochet Rec­ords label (1988–), Just D began working with Tele­gram Rec­ords Stockholm (1987– 2006*), which reissued 1 steg bak å 2 steg fram. In 1991, it released its second ­album, Svenska ord (Swedish Words), which had used similar sampling techniques and skits as its first ­album, this time utilizing samples from current tele­vi­sion shows and commercials aired in Sweden. Swedish radio stations banned the penultimate track on this ­album, “Fortfarande hos J. Lindström” (“Still at J. Lindström”), ­because it consisted of a broadcast canceling signal. Their subsequent ­albums Rock n Roll (1992), Tre amigos (Three Friends, 1993), and Plast (1995) not only contributed to the height of Just D’s fame, but also to Swedish hip hop’s ac­cep­tance by a larger audience, in Sweden as well as globally. Just D broke up in 1995; however, in 2000 and 2001, Lund and Ernerot worked together in the pop proj­ect group Sverige. From the late 1990s to 2000s, Crafoord had a solo recording ­career in jazz and pop. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Beastie Boys; Sweden



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Further Reading

Berggren, Kalle. 2012. “ ‘No Homo’: Straight Insoculations and the Queering of Masculinity in Swedish Hip Hop.” NORMA 7, no. 1: 51–66. Berggren, Kalle. 2013. “Degrees of Intersectionality: Male Rap Artists in Sweden Negotiating Class, Race, and Gender.” Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research 5: 189–211. Lindholm, Susan. 2017. “From Nueva Canción to Hip Hop: An Entangled History of Hip Hop in-­between Chile and Sweden.” Scandia 83, no. 1: 68–97.

Further Listening

Just D. 1990. 1 Steg bak å 2 steg fram (1 Step Backward, 2 Steps Forward). Ricochet/ Tele­gram. Just D. 1992. Rock n Roll. Tele­gram.

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K Karpe Diem (2000–­, Oslo, Norway) Karpe Diem is a rap duo that consists of Magdi Omar Ytreeide Abdelmaguid (1984–) and Chirag Rashmikant Patel (aka Chicosepoy, 1984–). One of the best-­ known Norwegian hip hop artists, it has recorded five hip hop ­albums that have reached the Top 10 of the VG-­Lista chart: Rett fra hjertet (Straight from the Heart, 2006), Fire vegger (Four Walls, 2008), Aldri solgt en løgn (Never Sold a Lie, 2010), and Kors på halsen, ti kniver i hjertet, mor og far i døden (Cross My Throat, Ten Knives in My Heart, and My ­Mother and ­Father Die If I Lie, 2012), and Heisann Montebello (2016). Aldri sogt en løgn and Kors på halsen, ti kniver i hjertet, mor og far i døden reached No. 1. Aldri sogt en løgn was certified four-­times Platinum in Norway. From ­these ­albums, Karpe Diem has had a string of 16 hits on the VG-­Lista.

FORMATION AND WORDPLAY Abdelmaguid and Patel, while students, established Karpe Diem initially ­because they wanted to participate in the 2000 Ungdommens kulturmønstring (UKM) Young Culture Meetings, a local-­regional-­national festival that focuses on the artistic expression of young ­people between 13 and 20. While Karpe Diem’s rapping texts ­were primarily in Norwegian, the duo’s creative output included Norwegian and En­glish slang, Norwegian to En­glish code switching, Arabic phrases, and a multiethnolectal style that employed loanwords that are not only from En­glish, but also from Arabic and Hindi, as well as other languages found in prominent immigrant populations living in east Oslo. Deliberate mispronunciation of words, and the rolling of the letter “r,” also takes place in the duo’s rapping style, which is fast, smooth, and soft-­spoken despite its strong messages about discrimination, in­equality, otherness, identity, and stereotyping of immigrants in Norway. The duo also raps about ­family, upbringing, and world politics, since Abdelmaguid’s f­ather immigrated from Egypt, and his ­mother is Norwegian from Stryn, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway and Patel’s ­father is Indian and immigrated from Uganda, and his ­mother was originally from Gujarat, India.

SUCCESS AND CONTROVERSY Karpe Diem’s first EP, Glasskår (wordplay for Glass Shard/Cut, 2004), focuses on the duo’s multiethnic lives as Muslims in Oslo. It peaked at No.  9 on the

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VG-­Lista and was certified Gold in Norway. The duo won the Spellemannprisen, nicknamed the Norwegian Grammy Awards, for Fire Vegger and in the Pop ­Music category for Kors på Halsen, which is granted by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and represents the recording industry worldwide. In 2011, Karpe Diem and DJ Marius Thingvald (1983–), who tours and sometimes rec­ords with the duo, was invited to perform “Tusen Tegninger” (“A Thousand Drawings”), a song about tolerance from the ­album Aldri solgt en løgn, at the national memorial ceremony for the victims of the 2011 Norway attacks. In 2016, Karpe Diem’s song “Attitudeproblem,” from the ­album Heisann Montebello, received widespread criticism and sparked debate on how the duo used the word “Jew” in the song, which was intended to protest Israel/Occupied Palestine Territories (1967–) and attack former Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (Ariel Scheinermann, 1928–2014, in office 2001–2006). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Norway; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop

Further Reading

Nærland, Torgeir Uberg. 2015. “From Musical Expressivity to Public Po­liti­cal Discourse Proper: The Case of Karpe Diem in the Aftermath of the Utøya Massacre.” Popu­ lar Communication 13, no. 3: 216–31. Sandve, Birgitte. 2015. “Unwrapping ‘Norwegianness’: Politics of Difference in Karpe Diem.” Popu­lar ­Music 34, no. 1: 45–66.

Further Listening

Karpe Diem. 2010. Aldri solgt en løgn (Never Sold a Lie). Bonnier Amigo ­Music. Karpe Diem. 2012. Kors på halsen, ti kniver i hjertet, mor og far i døden (Cross My Throat, Ten Knives in My Heart, and My ­Mother and F ­ ather Die If I Lie). Petroleum Rec­ords.

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan is a Central Asian country that is mainly an Islamic constitutional republic. This nation of 18 million ­people was the last of the Soviet republics to declare in­de­pen­dence during the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Traditional Kazakh ­music is usually instrumental. When vocals occur, texts depend on the style of m ­ usic, w ­ hether it is epic singing, love songs, didactic songs, or musical dialogues between characters. Nontraditional ­music has therefore had a difficult time gaining popularity ­there. Modern, popu­lar Kazakh ­music is heavi­ly influenced by Rus­sia, with l­ ittle American influence—no R&B m ­ usic made it to Kazakhstan ­until very recently, although a new style called Q-­pop (Qazaq pop) has emerged based on the influence of K-­pop (Korean pop) and J-­pop (Japa­nese pop ­music). Q-­pop’s top stars are dance electronica singer-­songwriters Kairat Nurtas (Kairat Nurtasuly Aidarbekov, 1989–), Galymzhan Moldanazar (1988*–), and Aikyn Tolepbergen (1982–). The two most prolific hip hop acts are Rasiel (2009–) and Post Mortem (2007–), bands which have produced only four and two ­albums, respectively, although Post Mortem, a horrorcore band, has released many singles. Songwriter and producer

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Jah Khalib (1993–) is considered the best beatmaker, and rap crew Da Gudda Jazz (n.d.) is a fan favorite. Diaspora hip hop acts include rapper Scriptonite (Adil Oralbekovich Zhalelov, 1990–), who now lives in Rus­sia. Kazakh rap ranges in topics from romance and sex, to gangster lifestyles, to immigrant issues. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Rus­sia

Further Reading

Adam, Sherwin. 2013. “Kanye West Accepted $3M(illion) to Perform for Despotic Kazakh Leader’s ­Family.” The In­de­pen­dent, September 2, 22. Post, Jennifer C. 2014. “Performing Transition in Mongolia: Repatriation and Loss in the ­Music of Kazakh Mobile Pastoralists.” Yearbook for Traditional ­Music 46: 43–61. Tansug, Feza. 2009. “A Bibliographic Survey of Kazakh and Kyrgyz Lit­er­a­t ure on M ­ usic.” Yearbook for Traditional M ­ usic 41: 199–220.

Keko (Jocelyne Tracey Keko, 1987–­, Tororo, Uganda) Keko (aka Keko Town) is a Ugandan rapper who broke barriers when she was the first Ugandan artist to sign with a major label. Her breakthrough single, “How We Do It (Remix),” earned a 2011 Buzz Teeniez Award and 2011 Channel O ­Music Video Award, helping to launch her ­career. In 2010, Keko signed with Platinum Entertainment. The first released track she appeared on was “Fallen Heroes” (2010), released through Hip Hop Canvas proj­ ect (2005–). Keko soon began working with the recording label Supanova ­Music Group (2010–) to produce new ­music. Her first single released by Supanova was “Alwoo (Cry for Help)” (2010), a track whose lyr­ics address social issues such as domestic vio­lence. Soon ­after, the track “How We Do It (Remix),” featuring the Ugandan ­music group Goodlyfe Crew (2008–), released as a single and video. In 2011, she appeared on the ­grand finale of Big B ­ rother Africa 6 (also known as Big ­Brother Africa: Amplified). She signed an endorsement deal with Pepsi for Mountain Dew advertisements in East Africa. The song “How We Do It” was used featuring Keko rapping about Mountain Dew. In 2012, ­under Supanova, Keko collaborated with Just Jose (Joseph Mwima, 1987*–) and they released “Make You Dance,” a chart-­topping success. She was also beginning to work on her first ­album, but before completing it, Keko left Supanova for a major label, Sony ­Music Entertainment Africa, in an effort to further her ­career and reach international markets. In 2012, she recorded a series of singles and videos that w ­ ere supposed to have appeared on the track listing for Sony’s release of Kekonian, the tentative title of her debut ­album. The singles released by Sony ­were “Let Me Go” (2012), “Naughty” (2013), “See Ya” (2013), and “Fly Solo” (2014). In 2014, Keko released a mixtape titled P.A.R.A.N.O.I.D. with Sony with guest artists from the Demo­cratic Republic of Congo. In January 2015, the single “Mutima” and its accompanying video ­were released. In July  2015, Keko began filming for the third season of Coke

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Studio Africa (2013–), but was kicked off the proj­ect and replaced ­after trashing a ­hotel room during her stay in Nairobi, K ­ enya. ­After becoming frustrated with the management of her ­career, Keko announced in 2015 that she would once again be working with man­ag­er Shadrack Kuteesa (n.d.). A few weeks ­later, her video for the single “Ready” was released. Subsequently, the single “Facelift” (2015) was released, featuring Ghana hip hop duo R2Bees (2007–), ­under Sony Rec­ords. Keko’s second mixtape, Love from Venus, was released in 2016. It took several years and a title change, but Keko’s debut ­album Strides was released in 2016 on RCA Rec­ords (1901–). The ­album contains the previously released singles that ­were intended for Kekonian. In 2017, Keko used Twitter to publicly come out as a lesbian and announced that she moved to Canada. Lindsey E. Hartman See also: Uganda

Further Reading

Manishimwe, Wilson. 2016. “Keko Makes a Comeback.” The New Vision (Kampala, Uganda), September 12. Ntarangwi, Mwenda. 2009. “Hip Hop and African Identity in Con­temporary Globalization.” In East African Hip Hop: Youth Culture and Globalization, chap. 2. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Slim MC. 2014. “Hip Hop and Social Change in Uganda.” In Hip Hop and Social Change in Africa: Ni Wakati, edited by Msia Kibona Clark and Mickie Mwanzia Koster, chap. 10. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Ken Swift (Kenneth Gabbert, 1966–­, New York City, New York) Ken Swift is considered one of, if not, the most influential and talented b-­boys. He is noted not only for his distinctive dance style but also for his contributions to education and preservation of hip hop dance. Described by many as the epitome of a b-­boy, he started dancing in 1978 when he was 12, living in New York’s Upper West Side; he learned to dance from observing other dancers in the parks. ­Today, Ken Swift is a dancer known for continuous development and innovation. Historically, he is credited with the development of many moves, including air tracks/flares, downrock, head and back spins, and windmills, all of which have become part of the standard b-­boy repertoire. His unique style includes extremely precise, rapid footwork; successive kicks and landings; prolonged, tight, and precise curled-up backspins; and extremely quick and brief freezes. Ken Swift’s first crew was the Young City Boys (1978–1980s), but he soon joined the Manhattan branch of the Rock Steady Crew (RSC, 1977–). In 1981, when Crazy Legs (1966–) took over as president of RSC following a spectacular victory in a ­battle, he appointed Ken Swift as co–­vice president with Frosty Freeze (1963– 2008), a role Ken Swift maintained for years. With the RSC, Ken Swift had many opportunities to appear in film and on tele­vi­sion, and he toured extensively as well. Much of his work has been aimed at maintaining the authenticity of breakdancing while helping to legitimize it as an art form.



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An avid teacher, Ken Swift regularly judges dance competitions throughout the world. He has won many major awards, including the Universal Zulu Nation’s (1973–) Achievement Award to the National Endowment for the Arts’ American Master. In a 2011 poll, Ken Swift was named the second most influential dancer of the 20th ­century by the CNN Icon Series; he was the only b-­boy on the list other­wise populated by ballet dancers. He currently serves as president of the Breaklife Studios (2004–) in Brooklyn, New York, which ­houses the Ken Swift School of Hip Hop Fundamentals, and VII Gems, a break-­off from RSC, originally formed as a subgroup devoted to ­battles, but has become a movement dedicated to the preservation of hip hop culture in all its forms. Susannah Cleveland See also: Battling; Breakdancing; Hip Hop Dance; Rock Steady Crew; The United States

Further Reading

Light, Alan, ed. 1999. The Vibe History of Hip Hop. New York: Three Rivers Press. Schloss, Joseph G. 2009. B-­Boys, B-­Girls, and Hip Hop Culture in New York. New York: Oxford University Press.

Further Viewing

Ahearn, Charlie, dir. (1982) 2002. Wild Style. New York: Wild Style Productions. Israel, dir. 2002. The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-­Boy. Los Angeles: QD3 Entertainment. Lathan, Stan, dir. (1984) 2003. Beat Street. Santa Monica, CA: MGM Home Entertainment. Lee, Benson, dir. 2008. Planet B-­Boy. New York: Elephant Eye Films. Lyne, Adrian, dir. (1983) 2002. Flashdance. Hollywood: Paramount Pictures. Silver, Tony, dir. (1983) 2004. Style Wars. Los Angeles: Public Art Films.

Kendrick Lamar (Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, 1987–­, Compton, California) Kendrick Lamar is a socially conscious American rapper and songwriter who is both critically acclaimed and commercially successful. He frequently addresses institutionalized racism, gang culture, addiction, and depression in his lyr­ics, and demonstrates musical influences from spoken word, funk, and jazz. Outspokenly connected with West Coast rap, Kendrick Lamar’s stylistic influences include Tupac Shakur (1971–1996), the Notorious B.I.G. (1972–1997), Jay-­Z (1969–), Eminem (1972–), and Nas (1973–). In 2012, he made his major-­label debut, jointly releasing good kid, m.A.A.d City; it was certified Platinum. He released the critically acclaimed To Pimp a Butterfly ­album in 2015, winning a Grammy for Best Rap A ­ lbum. Early on, he released four mixtapes ­under the moniker K-­Dot: Youn­gest N—­a in Charge (Y.N.I.C., 2005), Training Day (2005), No Sleep Till NYC (2007), and C4 (2009). His fifth mixtape, O(verly) D(edicated) (2010), was his first ­under the name Kendrick Lamar, released ­under the Top Dawg in­de­pen­dent rec­ord label (Top Dawg Entertainment, aka TDE, 2004–), with which he had signed in 2005. With Top Dawg, he released his first full studio ­album, Section.80, in 2011. The debut

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single on the ­album, “HiiiPoWeR,” refers to a self-­empowerment movement previously referenced by Kendrick Lamar on “Cut You Off (To Grow Closer)” on the O(verly) D(edicated) mixtape. Along with Ab-­Soul (Herbert Anthony Stevens IV, 1987–), the Watts, Los Angeles–­based Jay Rock (Johnny Reed McKinzie Jr., 1985–), and Schoolboy Q (Quincy Matthew Hanley, 1986–), from Wiesbaden, Germany, he is a member of and frequent collaborator with the Top Dawg Entertainment collective Black Hippy (2009–). Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d City, with Top Dawg, which was by then distributed by Interscope Rec­ords (1989–), was a concept ­album set in the Compton neighborhood of his youth during the summer of 2004. It is a pensive narrative that touches on addiction, gangs, love, and religion. Five singles ­were released off the ­album: “The ­Recipe,” “Swimming Pools (Drank),” “B—­, ­Don’t Kill My Vibe,” “Poetic Justice,” and “Backseat Freestyle.” A frequent guest on songs by both rap and pop artists, in 2013 he received attention for verses on A$AP Rocky’s (Rakim Mayers, 1988–) “F—­kin’ Prob­lems” and Big Sean’s (Sean Michael Leonard Anderson, 1988–) “Control.” To Pimp a Butterfly (2015) delves further into po­liti­cal themes, but continues the introspection heard in Kendrick Lamar’s previous work. In it he experiments with ­free jazz, avant-­garde, soul, and funk sounds. Singles from the ­album include “i,” “The Blacker the Berry,” “King Kunta,” “Alright,” and “­These Walls.” “Alright” won 2015 Grammys for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Per­for­mance, and “­These Walls” received a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. Kendrick Lamar also added a verse to the remixed version of Taylor Swift’s (1989–) “Bad Blood,” garnering another Grammy for the ­music video. In 2016, he released untitled unmastered, a compilation ­album of unreleased demos for To Pimp a Butterfly. In 2017, he released the a­ lbum DAMN, which produced the No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hit single, “­Humble.” Just two months ­after DAMN’s release, the ­album was certified double Platinum. Katy E. Leonard See also: Gangsta Rap; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Blum, Adam. 2016. “Rhythm Nation.” Studies in Gender and Sexuality 17, no. 3: 141–49. Graham, Natalie. 2017. “What Slaves We Are: Narrative, Trauma, and Power in Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Roots.’ ” Transition 122, no. 1 (2017): 123–32.

Further Listening

Kendrick Lamar. 2012. good kid, m.A.A.d City. Aftermath Entertainment. Kendrick Lamar. 2015. To Pimp a Butterfly. Aftermath Entertainment.

­Kenya ­ enya is an East African country that neighbors Ethiopia, Somalia, Tanzania, K Uganda, and South Sudan. In 1963, ­Kenya gained its in­de­pen­dence from the United Kingdom, and in 1964, the country became the Republic of ­Kenya. By a small margin, the Kikuyu is ­Kenya’s largest population, followed by Luhya, Luo, Kalenjin,

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Kamba, Kisii, Meru, and other African populations. Hip hop arrived in K ­ enya by the mid-1980s near the beginning of the Moi Era, but ­Kenyan hip hop did not emerge ­until the early 1990s in Nairobi, the country’s capital city. Radio presenter, journalist, social activist, and underground rapper Mwafrika (now Mwa-­free-ka, aka Mwaf, Makarios Ouma, n.d.) promoted early ­Kenyan hip hop at a time when popu­lar ­music tastes included American soul, rock, and funk, Europop, Jamaican reggae, soukous (Congolese rumba), Guadeloupean zouk, Zanzibaran taarab ­music, and Swahili pop. Mwafrika ­later recorded and produced, with rapping texts mainly in Swahili and English—­both official languages of ­Kenya—­and at times in Sheng (slang) and tribal languages. Earliest ­Kenyan artists imitated American rapping styles and employed previously recorded American beats and samples. Nairobi-­based Kalamashaka (aka K-­Shaka, 1995–) was a pioneering rapping crew whose lyrical content focused on street vio­lence, drugs, politics, tribalism, and HIV/AIDS. Kalamashaka’s hit single “Tafsiri Hii” (“Interpret This” or “Read This,” 1997) sparked the popularity of sociopo­liti­cal hip hop in ­Kenya. Kalamashaka’s debut studio ­album was Ni Wakati (It’s Time, 2001). ­Kenyan rap contains a lot of po­liti­cal content, and it employs turntablism, sampling, spoken word, traditional chanting, and reggae-­infused rhythms. Early acts ­were K-­South (1995–), Ukoo Flani Maumau (1996–), Gidigidi Majimaji (1999–), and Necessary Noize (2000–). Nazizi (Nazizi Hirji, n.d.) of Necessary Noize is known as the First Lady of Rap. Some early ­Kenyan acts gained experience in the United States and then returned to Nairobi. ­These include producer Steve Ominde (n.d.) and the hardcore rapper MC Goreala (Eric Mukunza, 1992*–). Wawesh (Robert Wawero Kiboy, n.d.), an MC and producer from Nairobi, was based in Gothenburg, Sweden from 1984 to 2008 before returning. ­Others have been part of the ­Kenyan diaspora: Nairobi producer DJ Dona (Dona Ishike, n.d.), now based in Kansas City, Missouri, has collaborated with K-­Nel (Nelson Muriuki, n.d.), a DJ and MC from Nairobi who was based in Cologne, for the compilation ­album Kenyawood (2008). As of 2014, K-­Nel is based in Atlanta.

GENGE, BOOMBA ­MUSIC, KAPUKA RAP, AND RIFTSYDE FLAVA By the late 1990s, the hip hop subgenre genge (meaning a group of ­people) emerged. Genge’s lyrical content is more sexualized than early sociopo­liti­cal ­Kenyan hip hop. Since the 2010s, genge has become one of the dominant hip hop subgenres in ­Kenya. Using Sheng, Swahili, and local street dialects, genge gained popularity through Nonini (Hubert Mbuku Nakitare, 1982–), commonly known as the Godfather of Genge. He is the founding MC of the Nairobi genge crew P-­Unit (Pro-­habo Unit, 2003–15). Another rapper who pop­u­lar­ized genge, Juacali (Paul Nunda, 1979–), established Calif Rec­ords (2000–) in Nairobi, and produced acts such as Jimwat (aka Jimw@t, Jimwizzy, James Wathigo Mburu, 1985–), as well as Nonini. Pilipili (Peter Gatonye, 1982–) is also a well known genge musician. Boomba ­music emerged around the same time as genge; however, it distinguishes itself by fusing hip hop with reggae and traditional pan-­African ­music. Like genge,

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boomba uses Swahili and Sheng. Since the 2010s, it has become extremely popu­ lar in K ­ enya and Uganda. K-­South is just one act that has recorded boomba m ­ usic. Another ­Kenyan hip hop subgenre is kapuka rap, having its roots with the Nairobi production team and label Ogopa Deejays (1990s*). The Nairobi group Camp Mulla (2009–) became one of the best-­k nown kapuka rap artists with its release FuNKYToWN (2012). Kapuka rap employs dance and synthpop, in addition to some reggae. Another emerging ­Kenyan hip hop subgenre, Riftsyde flava (originating in Nakuru), has gained popularity in the 2010s. It features ostentatious rappers who use sexualized lyr­ics, accompanied by a prominent reggae bass line. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Reggae; Tanzania; Uganda; The United States

Further Reading

Kidula, Jean Ngoya. 2012. “The Local and Global in K ­ enyan Rap and Hip Hop Culture.” In Hip Hop Africa: New African M ­ usic in a Globalizing World, edited by Eric Charry, chap. 8. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Njogu, Kimani, and Maupeu, Hervé, eds. 2007. Songs and Politics in Eastern Africa. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: Nyota Publishers.

Further Listening

Camp Mulla. 2012. FuNKYToWN. Sub Sahara.

K’naan (Keinan Abdi Warsame, Keynaan Cabdi Warsame, 1978–­, Mogadishu, Somalia) K’naan is an internationally renowned Somali Canadian rapper, singer-­songwriter, poet, writer, multi-­instrumentalist, and philanthropist who fuses alternative hip hop with spoken word poetry, indie, R&B, neo soul, Ethiopian jazz, traditional Somali ­music, and Afrobeat. K’naan rec­ords in multiple musical roles: He raps, sings his own contrasting lyrical passages, and recites poetry—­sometimes all in the same song. K’naan has won many awards, including Juno Awards for Rap Recording of the Year for The Dusty Foot Phi­los­o­pher (2006), Artist of the Year (2010), and Single of the Year for “Wavin’ Flag” (2011). His four studio a­ lbums are My Life Is a Movie (2004), The Dusty Foot Phi­los­o­ pher (2005), Troubadour (2009), and Country, God, or the Girl (2012). Troubadour charted internationally, peaking at No. 32 on the Billboard 200 and No. 7 on the Canadian ­Albums Chart; Country, God, or the Girl peaked at No. 129 on the Billboard 200. K’Naan’s top-­charting hits include “Wavin’ Flag (Cele­bration Mix)” (2010)—­with its original version from 2009 peaking at No. 2 on the Canadian Hot 100 and the mix peaking at No. 82 on the Billboard Hot 100—­and “Is Anybody Out ­There?” (2012). “Wavin’ Flag (Cele­bration Mix) was ­Music Canada–­certified ­t riple Platinum and “Is Anybody Out ­T here?” was ­Music Canada–­certified Platinum—­the “Cele­bration Mix” was performed with Young Artists for Haiti (2010), and proceeds went to ­Free the ­Children (now WE Charity), War Child Canada, and World Vision Canada.

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EARLY YEARS IN SOMALIA Born Keinan Abdi Warsame, K’naan came from a musical ­family. His aunt was the singer Magool (Halima Khaliif Omar, 1948–2004), a traditional Somali singer known for patriotic songs during the Ethio-­Somali War (aka the Ogaden War, 1977– 78), love songs, and Islamic protest songs against the late 1970s Somali government. While he was growing up in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital city, Magool sang to him and was part of his earliest exposure to songs, poetry, and lyric writing—­Muslim Somali culture emphasizes poetry—in fact, Somalia is nicknamed the Nation of Bards or the Nation of Poets; however, growing re­sis­tance to the Siad-­Barre regime led to the Somali Civil War (1986–), which continues as of 2018, despite the 1990 defeat of the Siad-­Barre regime, as regional forces and clan militias compete for power still. ­Music was suppressed, and musicians such as Magool left Somalia in self-­imposed exile. His ­father left for New York City when K’naan was a boy, and he spent his early teen years in war-­torn Somalia, experiencing bloodshed firsthand when a teenager shot three of his close friends with a machine gun. By the time he was age 13, in 1991, most of his immediate ­family had moved to New York City and then settled in Toronto. MUSICAL ­CAREER His first language was Somali, so K’naan began studying En­glish both in school and by listening to American rappers such as Rakim (1968–) and Nas (1973–). Learning poetry by ear is a frequently performed Somali cultural practice; before learning En­glish, he memorized rap lyr­ics and studied patterns of internal and end rhymes. He began writing and rapping while growing up in one of Toronto’s toughest neighborhoods, focusing not only on his experiences during the Somali Civil War, but also as a Somali immigrant often exposed to his new home’s street vio­ lence. In 2000, as Keinaan, he released his debut studio ­album, What Next? Shortly afterward, he shortened his stage name to K’naan. His own first name means traveler in Somali. In 1999, K’naan did a spoken-word per­for­mance that criticized how the UN (United Nations) failed in its early 1990s missions to keep peace in Somalia. Senegalese mbalax singer-­songwriter Youssou N’Dour (1959–) was so moved that he invited K’Naan to rec­ord two of his songs, “Drain My Gray Away” and “This Is My World” on his (N’Dour’s) Building Bridges (2001), a UN-­produced studio ­album. K’naan also toured with N’Dour, performing with Canadian singer-­songwriter and hip hop artist Nelly Furtado (1978–), among ­others. K’naan continued performing and went on other UN-­affiliated tours while recording studio, compilation, and live ­albums, singles, as well as the EP More Beautiful than Silence (2012). MUSICAL TENDENCIES AND RECENT WORK K’naan’s texts ­favor En­glish, but he also raps in Somali. Though often compared to the po­liti­cal and socially conscious m ­ usic of legendary reggae singer-­songwriter and guitarist Bob Marley (Robert Nesta Marley, 1945–1981), K’naan’s texts and musical choices are strongly influenced by Nas, who also uses storytelling and

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message rap in versatile ways. For example, Nas uses gangsta rap braggadocio for an ironic twist in order to deliver a philosophical message, which is found in ­albums such as Street’s Disciple (2004). K’naan uses the same device on “If Rap Gets Jealous” on The Dusty Foot Phi­los­o­pher and Troubadour. In fact, his “Nothing to Lose” (2012) on Country, God, or the Girl featured Nas. K’naan also focuses on positive, uplifting messages, as found on “Take a Minute,” also on Troubadour. His warm singing style and use of positive message rap is comparable to that of Chance the Rapper (1993–). In 2011, K’naan visited Somalia; an opinion piece in his own words appeared in the New York Times Sunday Review. K’naan’s latest a­ lbum, the critically acclaimed Country, God, or the Girl, took on a dif­fer­ent, more commercially oriented sound that included pop. Since its 2012 release, K’naan has not recorded an ­album; however, he has remained active performing, writing, directing, and engaging in peace activist work. In 2016, HBO (Home Box Office) picked up his pi­lot for Mogadishu Minnesota, directed and written by K’naan and produced by Kathryn Bigelow (1951–), the first and only ­woman who has won the Acad­emy Award for Best Director. As of 2018, K’naan is the most famous Somali rapper and plans to return to recording. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Canada; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Somalia

Further Reading

Boutros, Alexandra. 2014. “ ‘My Real’ll Make Yours a Rental’: Hip Hop and Canadian Copyright.” In Dynamic Fair Dealing: Creating Canadian Culture Online, edited by Rosemary J. Coombe, Darren Wershler, and Martin Zeilinger, chap. 25. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. K’naan. 2011. “A Son Returns to the Agony of Somalia.” New York Times, September 25, SR5. Sobral, Ana. 2013. “The Survivor’s Odyssey: K’naan’s ‘The Dusty Foot Phi­los­o­pher’ as Modern Epic.” African American Review 46, no. 1: 21–36.

Further Listening

K’naan. 2006. The Dusty Foot Phi­los­o­pher. Sony BMG M ­ usic Entertainment Canada. K’naan. 2009. Troubadour. AandM/Octone Rec­ords. K’naan. 2012. Country, God, or the Girl. AandM/Octone Rec­ords.

Kool Herc (aka Kool DJ Herc, DJ Kool Herc, Clive Campbell, 1955–­, Kingston, Jamaica) Kool Herc is recognized as the first hip hop DJ (turntablist). He originated the technique of stringing together the percussion breaks or breakdowns (when most instruments, except the rhythm section, drop out) from two copies of the same rec­ ord by cross-­fading, midsong, between discs on two dif­fer­ent turntables. Not only did this technique create hip hop, but it extended the portion of the musical break that appealed most to dancers, which eventually led to a new term for the dancing that accompanied it, breakdancing (named a­ fter the isolated breakbeat). Often called the



Kool Herc 397

f­ather or godfather of hip hop, Kool Herc’s legacy extends beyond his invention of early DJ culture and addition to its evolution. Although ­there is still much debate about the use and origin of the term breakdancing, which was not attached to the art form by the hip hop community but rather by mainstream media, Kool Herc likely coined the earlier term b-­boy, used to describe hip hop dancers (a shortening of break-­boy, though ­there are alternative suggestions, such as Bronx-­boy or beat-­boy) and, by extension, created the act of dancing to breaks, or b-­boying. EARLY DJ GIGS Kool Herc’s ­family moved the 12-­year-­old from Jamaica to the Bronx in 1967, before reggae became a well known musical genre. His first foray into what developed into hip hop culture occurred when he drew graffiti as part of the 1970s and 1980s aerosol crew Ex-­Vandals, or Experienced Vandals. It was during this stint with the Ex-­Vandals that he got the nickname Kool Herc, a modification of a nickname he’d already garnered, Hercules, ­because of his prowess in high school sports. He soon quit graffiti out of fear of punishment from his strict ­father. His public debut as a DJ was at a 1973 back-­to-­school party that he and his ­sister hosted in the community room of their apartment building to raise money for school clothes. Kool Herc continued hosting parties ­there and frequently had to move them outside to accommodate the influx of dancers. Within a year, he was spinning rec­ ords at clubs such as the Twilight Zone and Hevalo, and he gained a loyal following, reportedly causing other DJ shows to shut down as dancers began attending only Kool Herc’s shows. HERCULOID At this time, Kool Herc saw his role as providing entertainment that was deeply dependent on the accompanying dancing and not as a commercial ­music venture— he invested his earnings in the purchase of more equipment and rec­ords and an enormous sound system called the Herculoid, which he based on systems he had seen as a child in Jamaica. The Herculoid began as a turntable, an amplifier, and two large PA (public address) columns, but he continuously upgraded it; he eventually became famous for his system’s volume and clarity, with a mix heavy in bass, aimed at getting dancers to feel the ­music. The rec­ords he spun included funk, soul, and Latin tunes, though he became so secretive about his source material that he (like many other DJs) reportedly soaked label demarcations off his discs to keep ­others from copying his set. Clubgoers respected the originality of his choices—­ all ­were in stark opposition to the disco songs that ­were on the radio at the time, and many of his se­lections, such as En­glish progressive and blues rock band Babe Ruth’s (1970–1976, 2007–) “The Mexican” (1972), James Brown’s (1933–2006) “Give It Up or Turnit a Loose” (1968), and the Jimmy Castor Bunch’s (1972–1980) “It’s Just Begun” (1972), became b-­boy anthems. Kool Herc wanted to expand the DJ’s role from just spinning rec­ords on two turntables, so he gradually introduced into his sets a tradition called toasting, something

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he had learned in Jamaica. This usually unrhymed practice involved calling out the names of guests to welcome, honor, or praise them. Eventually, as toasts became more elaborate, they called on traditions of African American poetry and traditions of call-and-response; they eventually developed into rapping, making MCs as integral to hip hop as DJs. The MC who worked most closely with Herc during this development was Coke La Rock (aka Coco La Rock, anonymous, 1955*–). Kool Herc was also joined by both male and female local MCs, as well as b-­boy dancers; he referred to his entourage as the Herculords (1973–1980s). ­L ATER INVOLVEMENT IN HIP HOP In 1977, Kool Herc was stabbed while he was playing at the Executive Play­house. The incident caused both him and Coke La Rock to abandon the hip hop scene. Other DJs began to make names for themselves, and some asserted that Kool Herc was an inventor of a ­music genre but added that he did not possess the flashiness necessary for commercial success. DJs who came ­after him, such as Afrika Bambaata (1957–) and Grandmaster Flash (1958–), emphasized style and fashion, as well as ­music. Since the early 2000s, renewed interest in the recording and preservation of hip hop culture have led to much interest in Kool Herc’s life and work, and his name has been more prominent in popu­lar culture studies. In 2007, the apartment building at 1520 Sedgwick Ave­nue, where DJ Herc and his ­sister began hosting parties, was recognized by New York state officials as the Birthplace of Hip Hop and placed on the national registers of historic places. Susannah Cleveland See also: Jamaica; Turntablism; The United States

Further Reading

Chang, Jeff. 2005. ­Can’t Stop, ­Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation. New York: Picador. Fricke, Jim, and Charlie Ahearn. 2002. The Experience ­Music Proj­ect Oral History of Hip Hop’s First De­cade: Yes Yes Y’All. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. George, Nelson. 2004. (Reprinted 2012). “Hip Hop’s Founding ­Fathers Speak the Truth.” In That’s the Joint: The Hip Hop Studies Reader, edited by Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal, 2nd ed., chap. 4. New York: Routledge. Katz, Mark. 2012. Groove ­Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ. New York: Oxford University Press.

Further Viewing

Israel, dir. 2012. The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-­Boy. Los Angeles, CA: QD3 Entertainment. Lathan, Stan, dir. (1984). 2003. Beat Street. Santa Monica, CA: MGM Home Entertainment.

Kool Moe Dee (Mohandes Dewese, 1963–­, Harlem, New York) Kool Moe Dee is an American rapper who started out his solo ­career in 1987 using an old-­school style, comparable to the singsong delivery of ­Will Smith’s the Fresh



Kool Moe Dee 399

Old-school rapper Kool Moe Dee was a member of the Harlem-­based group Treacherous Three before having his own successful solo ­career. In 1987 he released the Platinum ­album How Ya Like Me Now, and in 1989 he was the first rapper to perform at the Grammy Awards. (Josh Brasted/FilmMagic/Getty Images)

Prince (1968–) or MC Hammer (1962–), but then made the successful transition in 1989 to a more raw delivery, with extended lines and uneven rhythms, with his third ­album, Knowledge Is King, which was certified Gold. In his own words, he was one of the few early rappers who found the right vibe at the right time, at one point changing his style ­after consulting fans, choosing to incorporate more dance rhythms, funk, and soul samples. He is also known as one-­third of Harlem-­based the Treacherous Three (1978–1984), which released three ­albums on Sugar Hill Rec­ords (1978–), including the song “The New Rap Language.” The song featured Spoonie Gee (1963–), and serves as an early example in hip hop of using 16th-­note rhythms with a lot of internal rhyme, a rapid vocal style still used in rap. In 1986, ­after releasing his underground hit “Go See the Doctor,” Kool Moe Dee signed with Jive Rec­ords (1981–) and released Kool Moe Dee (1987), featuring “I’m Kool Moe Dee,” a song which introduced the rapper to the public. It was followed by his best-­selling effort, the certified-­Platinum How Ya Like Me Now (1987). Kool Moe Dee is also famous for being involved in one of the earliest rap rivalries with LL Cool J (1968–), for being the first rapper to perform at the Grammy Awards in 1989, and for appearing in minor roles in vari­ous American films, such as Panther (1995), Gang Related (1997), Storm Trooper (1998), Cypress Edge (1999), Out Kold (2001), and The New Guy (2002). Kool Moe Dee went from being a high schooler who practiced his rapping and rhyming skills at ­house parties, to forming a

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seminal rap band, to taking a hiatus in order to earn a bachelor’s degree in communications, to becoming what Rolling Stone called him one of the found­ers of rap. Known primarily as an old-­school rapper, his rhymes show a po­liti­cal consciousness, although he was just as likely to create lyr­ics of braggadocio and self-­ pride, along with a few party anthems. His songs spoke out against vio­lence, drug abuse, and mistreatment of ­women, and he was a member of the Stop the Vio­lence Movement (1987–). He claims that his influences included the verbal sparring of Muhammad Ali (Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., 1942–2016), as well as the creative wordplay of Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel, 1904–1991). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Chopper; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Bradley, Adam, and Andrew Dubois, eds. 2010. “Kool Moe Dee.” ­Under “Part 2: 1985–92: The Golden Age” in The Anthology of Rap, pp. 201–8. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Kool Moe Dee. 2003. There’s a God on the Mic: The True 50 Greatest MCs. With a Foreword by Chuck D and photographs by Ernie Paniccioli. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press.

Further Listening

Kool Moe Dee. 1989. Knowledge Is King. Jive Rec­ords.

Koolism (formerly Tribe Ledda L, 1992–­, Canberra, Australia) Koolism is a duo consisting of MC and lyricist Hau Latukefu (Langomi-­e-­Hau Latukefu, 1976–) from Queanbeyan, Australia, and producer, musician, and turntablist DJ Rampage (aka Danielsan Ichiban, Daniel Elleson, 1975–), from Auckland, New Zealand. Koolism is best known for its second ­album, Part Three: Random Thoughts (2004), which won an ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) ­Music Award for Best Urban Release. In 1995, ­after recording the mixtape ­These Front Door Keys (1993), the duo, recording ­under the name Tribe Ledda L (1992–1995), changed its name to Koolism. It recorded its first mixtape, Bedroom S—­(1996), in a home studio, using rap, singing, beats, and samples. The duo’s rudimentary studio equipment allowed for limited editing only. The mixtape was simply handed from one person to the next, and despite the odds against its success, Bedroom S—­was heard throughout the country, reaching Australian rapper, hip hop m ­ usic journalist, publisher, sound recording distributor, and producer Blaze (Jason Murphy, 1968*–) from Sound Unlimited (aka Sound Unlimited Posse, Westside Posse, 1990–1994) and Dr. Phibes (anonymous, n.d.) of Next Level (aka The Next Level, 1990–2000*) in Sydney. Both had just formed the recording label Parallax View (1998–) and offered to release Koolism’s first ­album, Lift Ya Game (1998). This ­album was followed by the EPs Blue Notes and The Season (both 2002). Both ­were intended as the first parts of a four-­part series; however, in 2004, while Koolism was on tour, materials for Butcher Shop and The Epic ­were stolen in a car burglary. Koolism’s ­album Part One (2002) consisted of some tracks previously recorded on mixtapes.

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Since 2003, Koolism has toured, gaining more mainstream attention in Australia. Part Three: Random Thoughts (counting Blue Notes and The Season as Part Two), signified a shift to Invada Rec­ords (2002–) in Sydney, and has been the duo’s best-­selling a­ lbum. Subsequent a­ lbums include New Old Ground (2006) and The ‘Umu (Underground Oven, in Tongan, 2010). The themes in the duo’s lyr­ ics include Polynesian pride, ­family, war and terrorism, and braggadocio, and Koolism’s lyrics often offer uplifting messages. Though the duo includes some electronica and other instruments, Koolism’s sound often resembles American old-­school hip hop. In 2008, Latukefu began hosting the ­Triple J Hip Hop Show, a New Zealand radio program on the government-­funded station ­Triple J (1975–). On his own, Latukefu released Let It Be Known (2014) and The No End Theory (2015), the latter fusing jazz, R&B, and new jack swing with hip hop. He has also collaborated with the Adelaide, Australian hip hop group Hilltop Hoods (1994–), among ­others, on EPs and mixtapes. As Dan Elleson, DJ Rampage has written, produced, and collaborated on tracks recorded by Australian hip hop artists such as Mnemonic Ascent (1999–2015). As of 2018, Koolism is still together, but has not released a recent a­ lbum. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Australia; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop

Further Reading

Maxwell, Ian. 2003. Phat Beats, Dope Rhymes: Hip Hop Down ­Under Comin’ Upper. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. Mitchell, Tony. 2007. “The DIY Habitus of Australian Hip Hop.” Culture and Policy 123, no. 1: 109–22.

Further Listening

Koolism. 2004. Part Three: Random Thoughts. Invada Rec­ords.

­Korea ­ orea is an East Asian peninsula that has been divided along po­liti­cal lines since K 1945. It consists of two distinct sovereign states, the Demo­cratic ­People’s Republic of ­Korea (North) and the Republic of ­Korea (South). Po­liti­cal tensions led to the Korean War (1950–1953) and the tense current po­liti­cal climate. Due to strict government controls in North ­Korea, ­there is no known hip hop scene in the country. However, South K ­ orea has a vibrant con­temporary m ­ usic scene that features electronic or hip hop m ­ usic, known as K-­pop, which emerged during the 1990s. Traditional Korean ­music includes folk, religious/ceremonial, and ritual ­music styles. In con­temporary ­Korea traditional ­music, called gugak, and Western ­music, called yangak, compete for popularity. Korean folk follows a set of rhythms and melodic modes, and their vocal styles and modes are limited (the degree being dependent on the region). Instruments include gayageum, ajaeng, and geomungo (zithers), haegum (a vertical fiddle), daegeum, danso, and vari­ous other flutes, piri (an oboe), saenghwang (a mouth organ), the hun (an ocarina), and vari­ous types of gongs, drums, and bells. As of 2018, ­there is no known hip hop scene in North ­Korea. Both Kim Jong-il (1941–2011, supreme leader 1994–2011) and his son Kim Jong-­un’s (1983*–­, supreme

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leader 2011–) totalitarian regimes employ self-­imposed isolationism and do not allow freedom of speech, threatening punishment by jail sentence, beating, or death. The military-­first regimes have the highest number of military and paramilitary personnel in the world, which polices on the street level for activities that are perceived as protesting against the government. Mass surveillance extends to monitoring all digital communications. By the 2010s, revolutionary operas are still promoted and state-­financed. Since the 1980s, North ­Korea has had limited access to pop ­music, including South Korean K-­pop—­neither contain politicized content—­and its own government-­selected pop, which includes Pyongyang, North ­Korea’s the Moranbong Band (aka Moran Hill Orchestra, 2012–), with members selected by Kim Jong-­un. Korean hip hop, or K–­hip hop, is mainly associated with South ­Korea. It emerged as a musical form in the late 1980s once military rule had ended, becoming popu­lar first in ­Korea and then internationally, as part of the Korean Wave, an increased global interest in South Korean culture that began around the 1990, with the emergence of social media and video sharing platforms. The first rapping to occur in any song was by rock singer Hong Seo-­beom (n.d.), in his song “Kim Sat-­gat” (1989), a tribute to Kim Byeong-­yeon (aka Kim Sat-­gat or Rainhat Poet, 1807–1863), and the first rapper was singer, dancer, and rapper Hyun Jin-­young (Huh Hyun-­seok, 1971–) of the band Wawa (1990–), whose solo ­album New Dance (1990) introduced hip hop to ­Korea. As of 2018, Hyun Jin-­young has released five ­albums, including one that is jazz-­influenced. Another early hip hop act was the hip hop and K-­pop trio Seo Taiji and Boys (1992–1996), whose new jack swing song “Nan Arayo” (1992) incorporated American hip hop and R&B and whose first four ­albums sold four million copies and incorporated hard rock and gangsta rap. Other early hip hop groups included the K-­pop dancer new jack swing duo Deux (1992–1995), whose members worked with Hyun Jin-­young, and hip hop trio DJ DOC (1994–), whose “Dance with DOC” (1997) and “Run To You” (2000) are considered benchmark K-­pop songs. An expanding club scene and social media allowed hip hop ­music to gain popularity in the late 1990s, and rap groups such as Drunken Tiger (1999–2013) began to emerge. Drunken Tiger wrote its own lyr­ics, which ­were often explicit and critical of the government, and ­were therefore controversial. In 2001, the band topped the Korean charts with “Good Life,” from the band’s hit ­album, The Legend of. . . . ​ In 2013, group leader Tiger JK (Seo Jung-­kwon, 1974–) formed a new hip hop trio, MFBTY (2013–), an acronym for “My Fans Are Better Than Yours.” The trio released a hit song, “Sweet Dream” (2013), and signed with Feel Ghood ­Music (2013–), Tiger JK’s new label. In 2015, MFBTY released the ­album Wondaland on the label, and it peaked at No. 8 on Billboard’s World ­Albums chart. Meanwhile, another rec­ord label, YG Entertainment (1996–), run by former Seo Taiji and Boys member Yang Hyun-­suk (1969–), produced hip hop duo Jinusean (1997–), which had a hit song with “A-­Yo” (2001). Impor­tant underground hip hop artists to emerge around the turn of the ­century included rapper-­songwriter Verbal Jint (Kim Jin-­tae, 1980–) and rap duo Garion (1998–). Verbal Jint began as an underground rapper and introduced rhyming into Korean rapping with his debut underground EP, Modern Rhymes (2001). In 2008, he formed the hip hop group Overclass and went mainstream with his solo ­album, Framed. Earlier, Garion’s 2004 self-­titled debut ­album, a compilation of the band’s underground songs from the early 2000s, was notable



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for being rapped entirely in Korean. The band’s 2005 single, “Mutu,” won a Korean ­Music Awards. Korean mainstream hip hop artists began to emerge around 2000. Dynamic Duo (2003–) achieved success with their 2004 debut ­album, Taxi Driver, which became the best-­selling Korean hip hop a­ lbum to date. Its Double Dynamite (2005) won a Korean ­Music Awards. The duo has released eight ­albums as of 2018. Epik High (2001–), known for its fusion of vari­ous hip hop ­music styles, became one of South ­Korea’s ­music exports, touring North Amer­i­ca in 2015 and playing Coachella in 2016. In addition, the success of comic rapper PSY’s (1977–) “Gangnam Style” (2012) put Korean hip hop on the international map. The popularity of Korean hip hop was heightened with the 2012 TV real­ity series, Show Me the Money (2012–2017), which pitted rappers against one another and featured Verbal Jint in Season One. The show brought female rappers to the attention of the public, with contestants such as chopper style rapper and pianist Tymee (aka E.via, Lee Ok-­joo, 1985–) becoming popu­lar. Her controversial videos and lyr­ics, which feature scantily clad females and twerking, with songs about female empowerment, have made her a fan favorite. Other current rappers include trap rapper Keith Ape (Lee Dongheon, 1993–), whose 2015 hit “It G Ma” became an international hit. In addition to ­music, hip hop fashion has become popu­lar with South Korean youth due to the influence of YG Entertainment’s clothing sponsorships and its 2012 agreement with Cheil Industries (1954–) to launch a South Korean-­based international fashion market, NONAGON. South ­Korea also has a vibrant b-­boy scene, particularly in Seoul, that began in 2001 when hip hop dance crew Visual Shock (n.d.) performed well at ­Battle of the Year. In 2007, the Korean Tourism Organ­ ization founded an international b-­boying competition called R-16 ­Korea. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Breakdancing; Morning of Owl; PSY; T.I.P. Crew

Further Reading

Song, Myoung-­Sun. 2014. “The S(e)oul of Hip Hop: Locating Space and Identity in Korean Rap.” In The Korean Wave: Korean Popu­lar Culture in Global Context, edited by Yasue Kuwahara, chap. 7. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Um, Hae-­Kyung. 2013. “The Poetics of Re­sis­tance and the Politics of Crossing Borders: Korean Hip Hop and ‘Cultural Reterritorialisation.’ ” Popu­lar ­Music 32, no. 1: 51–64.

Further Listening

MFBTY. 2013. Wondaland. Feel Ghood ­Music.

KRS-­One (aka KRS, Blastmaster KRS-­One, Teacha, Lawrence Parker, 1965–­, Bronx, New York) KRS-­One is an American hip hop musician, rapper, turntablist, rec­ord producer, and social activist who began recording in 1986 as part of the hip hop group Boogie

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Down Productions (BDP, 1985–1992), which he formed with DJ Scott La Rock (Scott Monroe Sterling, 1962–1987) and beatboxer D-­Nice (Derrick Jones, 1970–) in South Bronx, New York. Parker became KRS-­One ­after he left his parents’ home at age 16 to become an MC; while living in a homeless shelter he was given the nickname Krisna ­because of his interest in Hare Krishnas. While living in the shelter, he met Sterling, who was a counselor. Along with D-­Nice and vari­ous guest musicians, they released BDP’s debut ­album, Criminal Minded (1987) on the Bronx, New York, in­de­pen­ dent label B-­Boy Rec­ords (1986–). The ­album reached No. 73 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart and sold over 200,000 copies; however, DJ Scott La Rock was shot and killed while attempting to intervene in a fight, causing KRS-­ One to retool the group, resulting in a series of solo proj­ects ­until 1993, when he began releasing rec­ords as KRS-­One. Aside from his ­music, KRS-­One is known for his po­liti­cal activism, including his helping to found the Stop the Vio­lence Movement ­after the death of La Rock and his producing 1991 EP H.E.A.L. (­Human Education against Lies), featuring the song “Heal Yourself,” with verses featuring Big ­Daddy Kane (1968–), LL Cool J (1968–), MC Lyte (1970–), Queen Latifah (1970–), and Run-­D.M.C. (1981–), among ­others. EARLY RECORDINGS In 1985, ­under the name 12:41, KRS-­One and La Rock contributed to a single, “$ucce$$ I$ the Word,” released both by the New York in­de­pen­dent labels Sleeping Bag Rec­ords (1981–) and Fresh Rec­ords (1985–1992), and by the U.K. label Streetwave Rec­ords (1980–1988), with the latter, as the B side to Just Ice’s (Joseph Williams Jr., 1965–) “Put That Rec­ord Back On,” but it did not chart. Boogie Down Productions came into being as an offshoot of a quartet that KRS-­One and La Rock originally put together called Scott La Rock and the Celebrity Three (1986*); however, dissent among the band caused it to break up ­after it recorded its first single, “Advance” (1986). With Criminal Minded, Boogie Down Productions helped usher in the era of gangsta and diss rap, as the ­album cover depicted the band wearing ammunition and brandishing guns and featured two early diss tracks called “South Bronx” and “The Bridge Is Over,” songs considered part of the so-­called Bridge Wars, an argument over the New York birthplace of rap, between BDP and radio DJ Mr. Magic (John Rivas, 1956–2009) representing the Bronx, and rapper MC Shan (Shawn Moltke, 1965–) with DJ and producer Marley Marl (1962–) representing Queens. KRS-­One also engaged in an early live diss ­battle with MC Shan. BDP is also credited with helping to introduce rock ­music sampling and Jamaican rhythms into rap ­music, using a rhythm made famous by Yellowman (Winston Foster, 1956–) on “Remix for P is ­Free.” In 1988, without Scott La Rock, KRS-­One released the second Boogie Down Productions ­album, By All Means Necessary, working with his wife, rapper Ms. Melodie (Ramona Scott, 1969–2012) and D-­Nice, among ­others. With its next



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releases, BDP began to exhibit the didactic and po­liti­cal stances for which it would become known. ­Future ­albums such as Ghetto M ­ usic: The Blueprint of Hip Hop (1989), Edutainment (1990), Live Hardcore Worldwide (1991), and Sex and Vio­lence (1992) made it clear that BDP was mainly KRS-­One, as its ­music reflected his concerns with identity politics and social issues. Each of the four ­albums charted in the Billboard 200, at Nos. 75, 36, 32, and 42, respectively, and Ghetto ­Music and Edutainment both broke into the Hot R&B/Hip-­Hop Songs chart Top 10. Ghetto ­Music produced two Top 10 singles on the Hot Rap Singles chart, “Jack of Spades” (No. 3) and “Why Is That?” (No. 5). The first ­album released ­u nder the name KRS-­One was 1993’s Return of the Boom Bap, which peaked at No. 3 on the Hot R&B chart. His next two ­albums, KRS-­One (1995) and I Got Next (1997) both hit No. 2 on the R&B chart, with the latter breaking into the Billboard 200’s Top 10, peaking at No. 3. The former spawned his highest-­charting solo single, “Outta ­Here,” which reached No. 5 on the Hot Rap Singles chart, and the cult favorite “Sound of da Police.” KRS-­One featured Busta Rhymes (1972–) and Das EFX (1989–). Although his last seven ­albums had been with New York’s Jive Rec­ords (1981–), in 1999 KRS-­One became vice president of A&R at Reprise Rec­ords (1960–), which is now Warner Bros. Rec­ords (1958–).

2000s AND BEYOND In 2001, KRS-­One resigned and returned to recording on Koch Rec­ords (1987– 2009, now known as Entertainment One ­Music or eOne ­Music, 2009), with The Sneak Attack (2001), and Spiritual Minded (2002). He founded the ­Temple of Hip Hop, a Ministry, Archive, School, and Society (M.A.S.S.) to maintain and promote hip hop culture, and recorded Kristyles (2003). He then switched to Grit (2002– 2005)* and Antagonist Rec­ords (2002*–), respectively, for Keep Right (2003) and Life (2006). Of ­these, only Kristyles managed to break into the R&B Top 10; The Sneak Attack was the most successful on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 43. In 2007, he collaborated with Marley Marl on Hip Hop Lives and has since released 11 ­albums as a solo act and as a collaborator, with only one solo proj­ect, Adventures in Emceein (2008), breaking into the Billboard 200. He has also appeared on several songs with other artists, ultimately earning nine Gold and seven Platinum rec­ords. In 2004, KRS-­One made controversial statements about the September  11, 2001 terrorist attacks, but he ­later claimed he had been misquoted. He has also crusaded for hip hop as a religion and has re-­visioned the name KRS-­One as standing for “Knowledge Reigns Supreme over Nearly Every­body,” tying himself to the Five ­Percent Nation (1964–). He has also written four books, The Science of Rap (1996), Ruminations (2003), The Gospel of Hip Hop (2009), and Knowledge Reigns Supreme (2009), the last with novelist Priya Parmar (1974–)*, as well as a comic book, Break the Chain (1994); he has been invited to lecture at Yale and Harvard Universities. Anthony J. Fonseca

406 Krumping See also: Boogie Down Productions; Five ­Percent Nation; Marley Marl; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Turntablism; The United States

Further Reading

Bua, Justin. 2011. “KRS-­One.” The Legends of Hip Hop. New York: Harper Design. KRS-­One and Michael Lipscomb. 1992. “Can the Teacher Be Taught?” Transition, no. 57: 168–89.

Further Listening

KRS-­One. 1993. Return of the Boom Bap. Jive. KRS-­One. 1995. KRS One. Jive. KRS-­One. 2001. The Sneak Attack. Koch Rec­ords.

Krumping Krumping, a hip hop dance style that originated in 1992 with Tommy the Clown (Thomas Johnson, n.d.) in Compton, California, is the immediate descendant of clowning, a dance that took place at parks and parties as an artistic expression intended to motivate youth to stay away from drugs and gangs. Although krumping and clowning originally shared their dancers and audiences, by the early 2000s, krumping did away with the clown paint and costumes and became aggressive, energetic, and competitive—it developed its own moves and approach to hip hop dance. For a brief, transitional time, krumping used costumes and face paint, but with dark clothing and at times gothic face paint that resembled African ceremonial war paint. Pioneering krumpers ­were Compton-­ based Big Mijo (Jo’ Artis Ratti, 1985–) and Tight Eyez (Ceasare Willis, 1985–), followed by Los Angeles–­based krumping innovator and choreographer Lil’C (Christopher Toler, 1983–). Tight Krumping is an improvisational hip hop dance Eyez became the leader of one of style that uses energetic, frenetic, and acrobatic the best-­known krump crews moves. ­Here a dancer performs an unprepared that as of 2018 still dances, Street leap as one of his freestyle krumping ­battle Kingdom (2000–). moves. (Sanches1980​/Dreamstime​.­com)

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MOVES AND GLOBAL POPULARITY Krumping is improvisational, though it has some basic moves, such as chest pops, spine flexing, arm jabs and swings, stomps, and wobbles. Danced originally by teens looking for a creative outlet to express anger, aggression, agitation, or braggadocio, krumping moves are often acrobatic and extremely exaggerated, jerky, and frenetic. Like clowning, krumping employs popping, locking, pantomiming (storytelling), mocking, and ridiculing. Unlike clowning, krumping is supposed to be entirely improvisational, embracing freestyle and dancing in the moment. Krumping therefore focuses on the improvised ­battle for exhibition, unlike clowning, which focuses on staged choreography. Preferred ­music for krumping has a fast tempo with lengthy rhythmic breaks or breakbeats. ­There is also a distinct culture at krumping ­battles: For example, not only may judges determine who wins the ­battle, but at any given time if a dancer or crew inspires the audience, a “kill-­off” may ensue, meaning that the audience cheers and surrounds the dancer(s), the dancer(s) is then deemed the winner, thus killing off the opponent. Although a b­ attle dance, by the 2000s, krumping was featured on several American popu­lar ­music videos such as Christina Aguilera’s (1980–) “Dirrty” (2002), Missy Elliott’s (1971–) “I’m ­Really Hot” (2003), and Madonna’s (1958–) “Hung Up” (2005). Through ­these ­music videos, YouTube, social media, and hip hop dance workshops as global exchanges, krumping spread quickly worldwide. ­T here are over 100 krumping crews in the Los Angeles area alone, while krump championship ­battles have taken place in Australia, Japan, ­Korea, Belgium, Germany, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa. From the very beginning with the formation of Street Kingdom in Los Angeles, the word “krump” was a backronym for Kingdom Radically Uplifted Mighty Praise—­implying that krumping has roots in dancing to praise God or Jesus Christ, though not all krumpers dance for this reason. Using Chris­tian­ity as a reason for krumping has nevertheless appealed to a new generation of krumpers and may make krumping acceptable to morally strict socie­ties. Despite the global spread, krumping ­battles, like other hip hop dance ­battles, include calling out for competitors, labbing (when crews get together to create moves), and accusations of biting (plagiarizing or stealing moves watching other dancers). As krumping moves have become combined with dubstep and other kinds of popu­lar dance moves, it has also been fused with some dance styles that have traditional roots, such as Ghanaian krumping moves that have been combined with azonto, which features hand movements that pantomime daily life and uses storytelling and coded messages. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Battling; Clowning; Gangs (United States); Hip Hop Dance; The United States

Further Reading

Frazier, Robeson Taj, and Jessica Koslow. 2013. “Krumpin’ in North Hollywood: Public Moves in Private Spaces.” Boom: A Journal of California 3, no. 1: 1–16. Todd, Megan Anne. 2011. “Aesthetic Foundations and Activist Strategies of Intervention in Rickerby Hinds’ Buckworld One.” Journal of Pan African Studies 4, no. 6: 148–70.

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Further Viewing

LaChapelle, David, dir. 2005. Rize. Santa Monica, CA: Lionsgate. Nassim, Shiri, dir. 2005. The Heart of Krump. West Hollywood, CA: Ardustry Home Entertainment/Krump Kings.

Kurtis Blow (Kurt Walker, 1959–­, Harlem, New York) Kurtis Blow was instrumental in mainstreaming hip hop. As a result, he has become the hip hop artist known for breaking the most barriers. In 1979, Mercury Rec­ords (1945–) released his first major-­label rap single, “Christmas Rappin’,” which made the Billboard R&B chart in 1993, 1994, 1996, and 2000 and sold half a million copies. In 1980, he had the first certified-­Gold rap single, “The Breaks” (also on Mercury) that peaked in the Top 5 on the R&B chart, and he became the first rapper to appear on the tele­vi­sion variety and dance show, Soul Train (1971– 2006). “The Breaks,” a commentary on life and cultural types, sold over half a million copies. In 1985, he became the epitome of the hip hop artist who had achieved mainstream success: He became the first solo rapper to get an endorsement deal with Sprite. In the early 1990s, he was the first hip hop artist to collaborate on writing ­music for a soap opera, composing for One Life to Live (1968–) as an Internet soap series. EARLY YEARS Kurtis Blow first entered hip hop culture as a b-­boy in the early 1970s. Around 1977, he began MCing and performing at clubs and parties as a turntablist, ­under the name Kool DJ Kurt. This took place about the same time he met Russell Simmons (1957–), who ­later cofounded Def Jam Recordings (1983–), while Simmons was at the City College of New York (CCNY). Simmons began to manage Kurtis Blow and following his success at clubs in the late 1970s, Simmons had him rec­ ord “Christmas Rappin’.” Major labels ­were at first hesitant to release a rap track, but on the heels of the Sugarhill Gang’s (1979–1985, 1994–) chart success with “Rapper’s Delight” in 1979, the commercial potential for rap and hip hop became clearer, and Mercury signed Kurtis Blow. It is notable of his early success that though he was on a mainstream label and had crossover success in that context, his ­music was not modified to be marketed to a new audience, and thus was not considered crossover in itself. Unlike the Sugarhill Gang, who w ­ ere, essentially, a studio-­only act when they recorded “Rapper’s Delight,” Kurtis Blow’s recordings ­were by a performer who had been active in the club culture and had been honing his style in front of an audience. The success of “The Breaks,” still considered a major landmark of hip hop culture, solidified his reputation as the first solo rap superstar. His repeated success undermined earlier assumptions that rap was a novelty that would have no enduring commercial success or cultural influence.

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­CAREER FROM 1980s TO 2000s Kurtis Blow had an early prolific recording ­career, but his early productivity was followed by a recording hiatus from 1990 through 2007, though other artists continued to sample and cover his earlier recordings. He released one ­album in 2008 and has had just a few singles since, making only a ­couple of guest appearances. His lyrical delivery can be described as singsong, a style that ­didn’t maintain popularity past the early 1980s when other MCs aimed at a more aggressive style. As the 1980s progressed, he began producing and worked successfully with artists such as the Fat Boys (1982–1991, 2008–), Run-­D.M.C. (1981–2002), Lovebug Starski (Kevin Smith, 1960–), Fearless Four (1977–1994), and Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde (1980–1987), to help them develop their styles. In the 1990s, he maintained his ties to hip hop by hosting a radio show on Los Angeles’ KPWR-­FM. He followed that with hosting an old-­school rap program on Sirius Satellite Radio (1990–). He has been an activist on race issues, working with the Reverends Jesse Jackson (Jesse Louis Burns, 1941–) and Al Sharpton (1954–). In the early 2000s Kurtis Blow cofounded the nondenominational Hip Hop Church in Harlem, New York, and became an ordained minister (for a long time he has been known as a devout Christian who avoids the use of profanity in his work). The church has since expanded to many other cities in the United States and has taken his ­career into a new direction. Susannah Cleveland See also: The United States

Further Reading

Bradley, Adam, and Andrew Dubois, eds. 2010. “Kurtis Blow.” ­Under “Part 1: 1978–84: The Old School” in The Anthology of Rap, pp. 24–32. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Pedersen, Birgitte Stougaard. 2013. “Aesthetic Potentials of Rhythm in Hip Hop ­Music and Culture: Rhythmic Conventions, Skills, and Everyday Life.” Thamyris/Intersecting: Place, Sex and Race 26, no. 1: 55–70.

Further Listening

Kurtis Blow. 1980. Kurtis Blow. Mercury.

Further Viewing

Robbins, Brian, dir. 1995. The Show. Santa Monica, CA: Rysher Entertainment. Schultz, Michael, dir. 1985. Krush Groove. Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video. Spirer, Peter, dir. 1997. Rhyme and Reason. Burbank, CA: Buena Vista Home Entertainment.

Kuwait Kuwait, with over four million p­ eople, has seen its population nearly double in the last de­cade, due in part to the 1991 expulsion of Iraqi troops and the fact that Kuwait, rich in oil, has the fourth highest GDP per capita of all nations. The country is also known for its cultural richness. Before the Gulf War (1990–1991), Kuwaitis often

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explored new forms of m ­ usic and dance. Traditional Kuwaiti m ­ usic is maritime-­ based, with lots of seafaring imagery, but the appeal of Western culture has made Kuwait a pioneer of con­temporary ­music in the Gulf region. ­T hese tastes reflect changes to the population: Since the 1970s, two-­thirds of Kuwait’s population has been non-­Kuwaiti. Still, with a small youth population between ages 15 and 24, Kuwaiti hip hop activity is minimal and concentrated mainly in its capital, Kuwait City. Among pioneering hip hop efforts is Doss Al Eidani (Mohammed Al-­Eidani, n.d.), dancer-­instructor, popping expert, and hip hop activist, who emphasizes the positive qualities of hip hop to Kuwaiti youth, who w ­ ere drawn to it prior to 1990 and are now involved in helping the hip hop scene make a comeback. Hip hop dance has become so popu­lar in Kuwait that classes are offered for ­children who want to learn freestyle, rhythm, and creative movement through street dance. Graffiti is also popu­lar, with artists such as internationally known calligrapher and painter Abdulaziz Alameer (n.d.), whose innovation to painting is working in typography. ­Music acts include trip hop and trance-­electronica multimedia artist Zahed Sultan (n.d.), whose ­music has been licensed for tele­vi­sion, film, and ­music compilations. Among the top hip hop groups in Kuwait is b­ rother duo Sons of Yusuf (2012–) and singer-­rapper and producer Daffy (aka King Daff, Nawaf Fahed, n.d.). Sons of Yusuf, whose members have lived in Kuwait and California, produces ­music that blends M ­ iddle Eastern instrumentation and loops with old-­school rap, reggae, gangsta, and chopper style. Sons of Yusuf’s texts combine Arabic and En­glish and lyrical themes often challenge outsiders’ ste­reo­t ypes of Muslims and Kuwaitis. Since 2004, Daffy has been active. He fuses hip hop with R&B, reggae, soul, jazz, and at times traditional Arabic m ­ usic. Contemporaries of Daffy include the ­brother duo Ya’koob and ­Humble (Ya’koob Al-­Refaie, n.d., and Abdul’Rahman Al-­Refaie, n.d.), who grew up in Los Angeles, developed their freestyle skills ­there, and have in the 2010s returned to Kuwait to pursue a hip hop ­career ­there. The duo’s ­music embraces Islamic and Arabic culture, ideas, and philosophy, as well as confronts stereotyping of Islamic, Arabic, and Kuwaiti p­ eople. The duo, who is equally passionate about Los Angeles and Kuwait, raps in mostly En­glish with some Arabic. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Gangsta Rap; Hip Hop Dance; Reggae; The United States

Further Reading

Anon. 2013. “Ya’koob and ­Humble Abdul—­Kuwaiti ­Brothers Blend Arabic Flavor with Rap.” Kuwait Times, January 6. Urkevich, Lisa. 2015. ­Music and Traditions of the Arabian Peninsula: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar. New York: Routledge.

Kwaito Kwaito is a subgenre of ­house m ­ usic that employs a slower tempo, deep resonating and prominent bass lines, rhythmic loops (employing a four-­to-­the-­floor kick drum),

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samples of South African popu­lar ­music, melodic hooks, and melodic speaking and shouting—­with less emphasis on singing. Instruments used in kwaito include voice, sampler and drum machines, synthesizers, and percussion, sometimes including South African instruments. As with other South African popu­lar and traditional ­music, kwaito employs call-­and-­response between the vocalist or group and listeners. Texts are in Zulu, Afrikaans (often an Afrikaans creole language such as Tsotsitaals or Camtho), and American vernacular. In the late 1980s, kwaito emerged in Soweto, in Johannesburg, and fully developed into its own around 1993, ­after the end of Apartheid (1948–1991) and resulting worldwide sanctions against the country; this led to Nelson Mandela’s (1918–2013, in office 1994–1999) becoming the country’s first demo­cratically elected president. Like hip hop, kwaito refers to ­music and to culture, so it is easy to draw comparisons between the two—­and to mistakenly identify kwaito as ­either a subgenre of hip hop or a South African variety of American hip hop. As a form of expression that took place ­after South Africa’s po­liti­cal liberation, kwaito’s roots and history strongly belong to South Africa, though it has become popu­lar by the late 1990s in neighboring Botswana and Namibia. Kwaito artists have been concerned that kwaito remains au­then­tic, arguing that it should resist the influences of American hip hop, even though they share some musical and extramusical ele­ments. Famous South African kwaito artists are from Soweto, Cape Town, and Durban. They include groups such as Trompies (1995–), TKZee (TaKe It Eezy, 1996–), Bongo Maffin (1996–) and Big Nuz (2002–), as well as artists such as Pitch Black Afro (Thulani Ngcobo, 1976*–), Zola (Bonginkosi Dlamini, 1981–), and TKZee’s Bouga Luv (Kabelo Mabalane, 1976–). Sghubu, a hardcore subgenre of kwaito, emerged in the 2000s, and is performed by South African artists such as the duo Major League Djz (2008–). Botswana kwaito artists include Mapetla (Thabo Mapetla Ntirelang, n.d.) and Skazzo (Tlhotlhomiso Maruping, 1985–). Combining kwaito with kwassa kwassa beats and guitar, kwaito kwasa was developed in the mid-­to-­late-1990s in Botswana and performed by Motswana artists such as Vee (Odirile Vee Sento, 1983–) and Wizards of the Desert (1995–). Some Namibian kwaito artists include the Dogg (Martin Morocky, 1983–), Gazza (Lazarus Shiimi, 1990–), and Sunny Boy (Sunday Shipushu, 1983–). All also perform Namibian hip hop. MUSICAL INFLUENCES AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT In addition to ­house ­music, musical influences on kwaito include imibongo (traditional praise poetry), 1920s marabi and 1950s kwela rhythms, mbaqanga and maskhandi from South Africa, and reggae and dancehall from Jamaica. Kwaito began developing in Soweto in the late 1980s during the height of ­house ­music. As a post-­apartheid ghetto, ­people in Soweto and in other townships in Johannesburg created the Camtho (Iscamtho means mixed languages) vocabulary based on Afrikaans words, but with dif­fer­ent meanings. The Afrikaans word kwaai, which means strict or angry, came to mean cool, hot, or “kickin’.” When ­people heard ­house tracks at parties that they liked, they would call the tracks kwaai. “Kwaito” was a term used for the new kind of ­music that had emphasized ­house beats. Another Camtho word

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for gangster, amakwaitosi, was also used, and kwaito’s lyrical content typically focuses on having a good time, partying, or on localized street or ghetto topics. Kwaito was also influenced by con­temporary popu­lar ­music in South Africa that entered the main stream, such as disco, R&B, and funk. Soweto-­born Arthur Mafokate (Sello Arthur Mafokate, 1962–) had the first kwaito hit in South Africa in 1995 with “Kaffir,” a song that protests racism by attacking the word kaffir, a derogatory term in Afrikaans for South African black ­people that traces back to white colonialism t­ here. In “Kaffir,” Mafokate addresses his bass (boss) by telling him that he would not like it if he called him a baboon. Though the song was banned from a few radio stations, the song catapulted Mafokate’s ­career as a musician and producer and the popularity of kwaito. Mafokate ­later discovered and established the ­careers of other South African kwaito artists such as Mandoza (Mduduzi Edmund Tshabalala, 1978–2016). Kwaito’s very existence, as well as its entrance into mainstream popu­lar m ­ usic tastes in South Africa, reflected the freedom of expression experienced ­after Mandela came to power. Anti-­apartheid chants and newly written refrains ­were used in kwaito songs, which continued describing ghetto life yet for some; ­these songs ­were not nearly as po­liti­cally charged as hip hop came to be. Kwaito became so popu­lar that schools in South African townships that could not afford m ­ usic educators, instruments, or programs used kwaito instead to include ­music in the curriculum. Among ­others, early successful kwaito artists included the first kwaito group Boom Shaka (1993–2000), as well as Thebe (Thebe Mogane, 1973–), Mdu Masilela (1970–), and Brenda Fassie (aka MaBrrr, 1964–2004). Fassie, nicknamed “Madonna of the Townships,” had already established her ­career as an Afropop singer who sang anti-­apartheid Afropop just ­after Mandela came to power. A year before Mafokate’s success, Fassie’s ­album Abantu Bayakhuluma (­People Speak, 1994) included kwaito tracks in Zulu. Female kwaito artists remain rare, despite the fact that Fassie and Lebo Mathosa (1977–2006) of Boom Shaka helped pop­u­lar­ize the ­music and paved the way for Lesh (Lesego Bile, 1984–), Botswana’s first female kwaito singer. Into the 2000s kwaito has remained popu­lar and has been exported to Eu­rope and the United States. Internationally known companies Reebok (1958–) and the Kia Motor Corporation (1944–) have used kwaito in commercials. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Botswana; Namibia; South Africa

Further Reading

Boloka, Gibson. 2003. “Cultural Studies and the Transformation of the ­Music Industry: Some Reflections on Kwaito.” In Shifting Selves: Post-­Apartheid Essays on Mass Media, Culture, and Identity, edited by Herman Wasserman and Sean Jacobs, chap. 5. Cape Town, South Africa: Kwela Books. Steingo, Gavin. 2016. Kwaito’s Promise: M ­ usic and the Aesthetics of Freedom in South Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Further Listening

Bongo Maffin. 1998. The Concerto. Columbia. Fassie, Brenda. 1994. Abantu bayakhuluma (­People Speak). CCP Rec­ord Com­pany. Mafokate, Arthur. 1999. Umpostoli (The Apostle). 999 ­Music.

L Laos Laos is a communist-­ruled, landlocked country in Mainland Southeast Asia that has been slowly loosening its censorship of hip hop. The government views hip hop as an attack on traditional culture, and still polices song lyr­ics and band clothing to make sure that no cursing occurs and no revealing clothes are worn. Nonetheless, radio stations have gone from playing neighboring Thai and Western ­music to playing rap songs in cities such as Vientiane, Savannakhet, and Pakse. Laotian teen­agers, especially, have embraced the hip hop scene: grafitti art, breakdancing, fashion, and rap ­music. They wear baggy pants, long chains, use American urban slang, and some identify with the m ­ usic’s sociopo­liti­cal stance. To many Laotian teen­agers, hip hop ­music is modern, and therefore a creative outlet that gives an opportunity for Laos to prove to the rest of the world that it is culturally progressive. Vientiane-­based Laobangfai (n.d.), the country’s first hip hop and breakdancing troupe, has members who range in age from 8 to 20. Laotian rap has a strong connection to Minneapolis, which has a large, diasporic minority ethnic community and has spawned the country’s three most famous rap acts: Gumby’s (aka Pryce, anonymous, 1977*–) remix of Kai Punnipha’s (n.d.) Thai hit “Goolaap Daeng” (“9999 Roses,” 2008) made rap ­music ubiquitous among Laotian youth, getting a million downloads; Lila T. (Lila Thammavongsa, n.d.) and Lao Crimino (n.d.) are also part of the Laotian youth hip hop movement. As of 2018, Lila T. ranks among the best-­k nown female rappers in Laos, and Lao Crimino is becoming the most famous Laotian hip hop band. In addition to Laotian hip hop acts that have recorded m ­ usic in the United States, since the late 1980s, Laotian immigrant youth have often participated in other hip hop activity, including open mic events not only in Minneapolis, but also in many Laotian communities in California. The Hmong—­people who are from not only Laos, but also from Vietnam, China, and Thailand—­are a part of this immigrant population. Storytelling attributes to rap are especially appealing to the Hmong and, since the 2000s, are used to help preserve Hmong culture and language for youth living in the United States. Anthony J. Fonseca and Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Thailand

Further Reading

Poss, Nicholas. 2013. “ ‘Reharmonizing’ the Generations: Rap, Poetry, and Hmong Oral Traditional.” In Diversity in Diaspora: Hmong Americans in the Twenty-­First ­Century, edited by Mark Edward Pfeifer, Monica Chiu, and Kou Yang, chap. 10. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

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The Last Poets

Vue, Pao Lee. 2012. Assimilation and the Gendered Color Line: Hmong Case Studies of Hip Hop and Import Racing. The New Americans: Recent Immigration and American Society. El Paso, TX: LFB Scholarly. Wong, Deborah. 2004. Speak It Louder: Asian Americans Making M ­ usic. New York: Routledge.

The Last Poets (aka The Original Last Poets, 1968–­, Harlem, New York) The Last Poets is an umbrella name for groups of poets and musicians who began performing during the third period of Black Nationalism (post-1870s) and the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (1954–1968). Named ­after South African Bra Willie’s (Keorapetse Kgositsile’s, 1938–) po­liti­cal poems in Spirits Unchained (1969), which suggested that ­there would be a final era of poetry, hence last poets, the Last Poets became one of hip hop ­music’s earliest influences. The group used rapping, the MC, beatboxing, and black consciousness raising. Gylan Kain (n.d.), David Nelson (n.d.), Abiodun Oyowele (Charles Davis, 1948–), and ­later Felipe Luciano (1947–), formed the group on Malcolm X’s (1925–1965) birthday in 1968 in East Harlem, New York. FORMATION AND EARLY A ­ LBUMS The group’s origin is complicated ­because Luciano, Kain, and Nelson also recorded separately as the Original Last Poets, gaining notoriety for work on the soundtrack for Herbert Danska’s (1926) documentary Right On! Poetry on Film (1971). In addition, the trio recorded live in 1972 for the ­album Black Spirits—­ Festival of New Black Poets in Amer­i­ca. Alafia Pudim (aka Lightnin’ Rod, 1944–) replaced Luciano ­after he left to start the Puerto Rican nationalist group the Young Lords (1968*–) in New York City, and he took over the Last Poets’ leadership. One of the group’s 1969 concerts was at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and was attended by writer, poet, and spoken word artist Gil Scott-­Heron (1949–2011), who became so inspired by the group that he spoke with them and then formed his first band, Black and Blues (1969–1970)*. In 1970, the­ album The Last Poets peaked at No. 29 on Billboard’s Top LPs (which became the Billboard 200), No. 3 on Billboard’s Top Soul LPs, and No. 11 on Billboard Jazz LPs. The critically acclaimed eponymous ­album featured accompaniment by percussionist Nillaja Obabi (Raymond Hurrey, n.d.). The Last Poets’ 1971 ­album This Is Madness followed, and established the recognizable sound of the group—­a combination of jazz (bebop and cool) and funk with poetry, which the group termed “jazzoetry”—­and a strong sociopo­liti­cal message about the condition of black ­people in the United States. As a result, the Last Poets was listed ­under President Richard Nixon’s (1913–1994, in office 1969–1974) COINTELPRO (­Counter INTELligence PROgram, 1956–1971), which meant he considered them dangerous. Regardless, the Last Poets recorded several ­albums:



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Chastisment (1972), Hustlers Convention (1973), At Last (1974), and Delights of the Garden (1977). RESURGENCE Between the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Last Poets experienced a brief decline in popularity, but by the mid-1980s ­there was a resurgence of interest in the group and acknowledgement of its influence on hip hop—­particularly Hustlers Convention—­that corresponded to hip hop’s own rise in popularity. Hustlers Convention was a proj­ect ­album that fused poetry with funk, jazz, and toasting. It is the story of two hustlers, Sport and Spoon, and their violent life in the ghetto. The ­album is a precursor to gangsta rap with its braggadocio passages made by the protagonists and descriptions of their crimes and blood on the streets. ­Albums released between the 1980s and 1997 included Oh, My P ­ eople (1984), Freedom Express (1988), Retro Fit (1992), Holy Terror (1993), Scatterap/Home (1994), and Time Has Come (1997). Though the compilation ­album Jazzoetry had been released in 1976 and 1984 had seen Celluloid Rec­ord’s (1976–1989) reissue of The Last Poets and This Is Madness, ­there have been surprisingly few reissues. The most notable retrospective compilation was The Prime Time Rhyme of the Last Poets—­Best of Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (1999). Subsequent ­albums by the Last Poets include compilation ­albums: The Real Rap (1999), Poetry Is Black (2002), and On the Subway (2006).

LEGACY The Last Poets’ legacy remains strongly pres­ent in hip hop. The use of rapped poetry over beats was the precursor to alternative hip hop and jazz rap, which found prac­ti­tion­ers on both coasts of the United States, for example heard in ­music by Aceyalone (1970–) and his Proj­ect Blowed (1994–) collective and workshop on the West Coast and A Tribe Called Quest (1985–1998, 2006–2013, 2015–) on the East Coast. Tracks on Hustlers Convention have been sampled by Beastie Boys (1981– 2001), Nas (1973–), and Wu-Tang Clan (1992–), among many ­others. In addition to peaking the interests of jazz trumpeter Miles Davis (1926–1991), who eventually fused jazz with hip hop on his posthumously released ­album Doo-­Bop (1992), Hustlers Convention was a major influence on American hip hop pioneers such as Fab Five Freddy (1959–), Melle Mel (1961–), Grandmaster Flash (1958–), and Chuck D (1960–). Hip hop artists such as Common (1972–) and Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) were also inspired by the Last Poets’ strong support of the Black Panther Party (1966–1982) and Malcolm X. The Last Poets appeared on A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory (1991), Nas’s ­album Untitled (2008), and the Welfare Poets’ (1997–) Cruel and Unusual Punishment (2010). Beyond American hip hop, the Last Poets’ influence can be heard in Malik and the O.G.’s from Liverpool, ­England (2006–), who collaborated with the Last Poets and Scott-­Heron in 2004, and shortly afterward on Rhythms of

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the Diaspora, Vol. 1 and 2 (2015). In 2014, Chuck D commissioned the En­glish documentary film Hustlers Convention (2015), which features this 2014 per­for ­mance. In 2016, an En­glish translation of Christine Otten’s novel in Dutch, The Last Poets (London: World Editions, 2011), by Jonathan Reeder, was published. The novel is based on the the Last Poets’ lives and stories that Otten compiled during interviews with members and is a narrative on redemption. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Black Nationalism; Gangsta Rap; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Scott-­Heron, Gil; The United States

Further Reading

Oyewole, Abiodun, and Umar Bin Hassan, with Kim Green. 1996. The Last Poets on a Mission: Selected Poems and a History of the Last Poets. New York: H. Holt. Santoro, Gene. 1994. Dancing in Your Head. New York: Oxford University Press. Stewart, James B. 2005. “Message in the ­Music: Po­liti­cal Commentary in Black Popu­lar ­Music from Rhythm and Blues to Early Hip Hop.” Journal of African American History 90, no. 3: 196–225.

Further Listening

The Last Poets. 1971. This Is Madness. Douglas Rec­ords. The Last Poets. 1973. Hustlers Convention. Celluloid Rec­ords.

The Latin Kings (TLK, 1991–2005, Stockholm, Sweden) The Latin Kings ­were a pioneering Swedish hip hop group that emerged in Botkyrka, a southern suburbs of Stockholm that is part of the urban public housing proj­ ect Miljonprogrammet (Million Programm, 1965–1974). Along with the Swedish hip hop trio Just D (1990–1995), they are one of the first to rec­ord a hip hop ­album in Swedish. They earned international attention through sound recordings on labels such as EastWest Rec­ords Amer­i­ca (1990–2001, owned by Warner ­Music Group) and Mega Rec­ords (1983–2001). ­After believing that they ­were cheated by the recording industry, they worked with the Salazar ­Brothers (2009–) to produce TLK’s ­later ­albums on Redline Rec­ords (2000–), their own Botkyrka-­based recording label whose parent com­pany is Virgin (1972–). TLK includes rapper MC Dogge Doggelito (Douglas Léon, 1975–) of Norra Botkyrka, Sweden, and the rapping-­ production duo known as the Salazar ­brothers, Salla (Christian Salazar, n.d.) and Chepe (Hugo Salazar, n.d.). Doggelito’s ­father was from Venezuela, and the Salazar ­family roots are in Chile; this mutual connection to South Amer­i­ca inspired the trio to name themselves ­after the largest Hispanic American street gang, the Chicago-­ based Latin Kings (Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation, 1954–). The Latin Kings rap in their local Rinkeby Swedish, a pidgin language with loanwords from American En­glish slang, as well as in Arabic, Kurdish, Italian, Persian, Spanish, and Turkish. Rinkeby Swedish is a youth vernacular language that is

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usually spoken in immigrant communities. At times using social realist humor, the trio’s themes focus on Latino immigrant life in Stockholm, exposure to crime, racism, and poverty. Their sound typically combines East Coast hip hop with salsa, neo soul, and reggae. ­After placing third in a 1992 national Rap-­SM competition and being discovered by Swedish rec­ord producer Gordon Cyrus (1966*–), the trio released their first single, “Snubben Trodde Han Var Cool” (“The Guy Thought He Was Cool,” 1993), which led to a contract with Warner Rec­ords. Their first ­album, Välkommen till förorten (Welcome to the Suburb, 1994), attained Gold certification and earned two Swedish Grammy Awards. Their subsequent ­albums are I skuggan av betongen (In the Concrete Shade, 1997), Mitt kvarter (My Neighborhood, 2000), and Omerta (2003, the title based on the Southern Italian Mafia term Omertà, a code of honor requiring ­either silence or nonparticipation with authorities, as well as not interfering with the crimes of certain other ­people), in addition to a compilation ­album, Familia Royal (2005). The band broke up in 2005; however, as of 2018, Doggelito and the Salazar ­brothers are still active and successful in m ­ usic. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Gangs (United States); Sweden

Further Reading

Cora, Lacatus. 2009. “Visual Identities of the Other Per­for­mance Art and the Public Sphere in Con­temporary Sweden.” Scandinavian Studies 81, no. 4: 475–500. Gunlög, Sundberg. 2013. “Language Policy and Multilingual Identity in Sweden through the Lens of Generation Y.” Scandinavian Studies 85, no. 2: 205–32. Lindholm, Susan. 2014. “Representing the Marginalized Other: The Swedish Hip-­Hop Group Advance Patrol.” Swedish Journal of ­Music Research/Svensk tidskrift för musikforskning 96, no. 2: 105–125. Lindholm, Susan. 2017. “Hip Hop Practice as Identity and Memory Work in and in-­between Chile and Sweden.” Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 42, no. 2: 60–74.

Further Listening

TLK. 1994. Välkommen till förorten (Welcome to the Suburb). EastWest/Warner ­Music Sweden. TLK. 2003. Omerta (Omertà). Redline Rec­ords/Virgin.

Latvia Latvia is a Baltic state that shares a border with Estonia, Lithuania, Rus­sia, and Belarus. Like in other Baltic states, hip hop emerged in the early 1990s in Latvia. Early Latvian hip hop was influenced by the Eu­ro­p ean disco and techno scenes, often consisting of nonsensical lyr­ics over a dance beat. ­Today, hip hop in Latvia is primarily sung in the Latvian language but includes some En­glish and Rus­sian lyr­ics, especially from groups who desire an impact in the larger Rus­sian market.

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Latvian rap, perhaps ­because of its origins, moves a ­little slower than most, with more space between the lines and words. It has a relaxed feel and a light spirit not common in other Slavic Eu­ro­pean nations. Also like the other Baltic States, Latvia has a long history of dominance by foreign powers, including Poland, Sweden, Rus­sia, and briefly, Germany. Latvia was an in­de­pen­dent republic in the 1920s and 1930s, but for most of the 20th ­century, Latvia was ­u nder Soviet control: it became an in­de­pen­dent republic again in 1991 a­ fter the fall of the Soviet Union. Nonetheless, themes such as Latvian in­de­pen­dence and anti-­Soviet politics are not widespread in Latvian rap, but some rappers, such as Ozols (Girts Rozentals, 1979–), from Riga and Rays (Ravis Krams, 1985*–) have written songs on ­these issues. Latvian rap is a world apart from Rus­sian rap, and Latvian rappers express that they are not Rus­sian. The essential spirit of much Latvian rap is fun, laid-­back, and not too serious. The first Latvian hip hop artists include Mr. Tape (Modris Skaiskalns, 1966–), from Sigulda, Eastbam (Roberts Gobzins, 1978–) from Riga, and the band F—­Art (1991–1996). In 1991, Mr. Tape achieved internet fame by mixing on reel-­to-­reel tapes instead of turntables at Disco Mix Club World Championship. By the 2000s, commercial and underground hip hop movements in Latvia had solidified. FACT (1995–), which included Ozols, Gustavo (Gustavs Butelis, 1978–) and Ciziks (Aivars Civzelis, 1975–), from Riga, and Gonza (Janis Kalnins, n.d.), was one of the country’s most commercially successful hip hop groups. Ozols and Gustavo went solo and ­later clashed in the first recorded Latvian rap ­battle in the early 2000s. Other impor­ tant Latvian rap groups of the early 2000s include Armands (Armands Kincs, n.d.) and the band S’T’A (1998–). Gacho (aka MESA, Gatis Irbe, 1983*–), another emergent rapper in the 2000s, worked with Ozols and ­later reinvented himself in a new genre, electrohop, which made him one of the most popu­lar rapping musicians in Latvia. Kreisais Krassts (Left Shore, 2002*–), which includes Arturs Skutelis (1986*–), Edavardi (Eduards Gorbunovs, 1990–), and ansis (Ansis Kolmanis, 1987–), is a group that is popu­lar with urban youth; PKI is a group that incorporates Western influences, Latvian styles, and complicated battle-­rap rhyming. The rec­ord label Karaļūdens, launched by Dirty Deal Audio (DDA) in 2013, currently releases compilations of Latvian hip hop ­music. It is located in Latvia’s capital city, Riga. In 2017, ansis was featured in Reinis Kapone’s (n.d.) song “Gotham,” which was released on the studio ­album Katafalks (Hearse, 2017), as well as in his ­music video. In addition, ansis produced this song, along with other songs, on the ­album and served as the a­ lbum’s ­music engineer at DDA. Terry Klefstad See also: Rus­sia

Further Reading

Boiko, Martin. 2001. “The Latvian Folk ­Music Movement in the 1980s and 1990s: From ‘Authenticity’ to ‘Postfolklore’ and Onwards.” The World of M ­ usic 43, nos. 2–3: 113–18. Daugavietis, Jānos, and Ilze Lāce. 2011. “Subcultural Tastes in Latvia 2002–10: The Content of Style.” Studies of Transition States and Socie­ties 3, no. 2: 45–56.

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Further Listening

ansis and Oriole. 2013. Himnas. Dirty Deal Audio (DDA). Reinis Kapone. 2017. Katafalks. DDA. Vari­ous Artists. 2013–2016*. Compilations 01–08. Karaļūdens.

Lebanon Lebanon is home to a hip hop scene that emerged in the early 21st ­century, melding Western hip hop styles with Arabic rhymes and samples of traditional and popu­lar Arab ­music styles. Rayess Bek (Wael Koudaih, 1979–), one of the first Lebanese rappers, spent his immigrant youth near Paris, learning French hip hop. On return to Lebanon, he founded the group Aks’ser (One-­Way Street, 1996–2005*), and in 2003, he released his first solo ­career ­album, bringing social and po­liti­cal consciousness to Lebanese hip hop. Despite a lack of consistent market support, Lebanese hip hop has taken root—­particularly in urban centers—­where it is performed at clubs, weddings, private parties and festivals, and where street art and breakdancing are increasingly widespread. ARTISTS, THEMES, AND SOUNDS Lebanese Egyptian OMARZ (Amro Tome, 1981*–) sees a parallel between disaffected Arab youth and the similarly disadvantaged African American youth of

Lebanese rapper El Rass performs at a 2013 concert supporting the Khat Thaleth (Third Rail) proj­ect in Beirut, a compilation recording that features artists from Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, and Tunisia. El Rass raps in Arabic about social inequity, Islamic clerics, and Western-­Arab relations. (ANWAR AMRO/AFP/Getty Images)

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1980s U.S. hip hop culture. OMARZ worked with Syrian Lebanese Eslam Jawaad (Wissam Khodur, n.d.) in the transnational crew Desert Dragons (1998), speaking out violently against American and Israeli policies. By 2005, OMARZ was internationally known. His ­music was played on British radio, and he soon began work with Johnny Damascus (John Imad Nasr, n.d.) ­under the name Oriental Robotics, with DJ Lethal Skillz (Hussein Mao Atwi, n.d.), rapper Grandsunn (Ray Tannir, n.d.) and producer Scizzers (Sebou Pamboukian, n.d.). Oriental Robotics’ hip hop tracks, such as “God Slave the Queen,” combine audio clips as samples—­often ironic—­from famous po­liti­cal speeches, with stripped-­down beats and rhymes that criticize British and American policies ­toward Arabs. RGB (Rajab Abdel-­Rahman, 1980*–) experienced firsthand the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990), so he uses rap to express solidarity with ­those fighting tyranny across the Arab world. RGB joined in 1999 with MC Stress (anonymous, n.d.), MC Joker (anonymous, n.d.), and 6K (anonymous, n.d.) to form Kitaa Beirut (1999– 2002*), bringing furious energy to the Lebanese underground scene ­until RGB’s 2002 exile in France. ­These musicians regrouped in 2005 as Kita’youn (Boys of the Sector, 2005*–), touring Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. Twin ­brothers and graphic designers Mohamed (anonymous, n.d.) and Omar Kabbani (n.d.) formed the hip hop crew Ashekman (2001–) or “exhaust pipe”—­ symbolic both of their uncut style and their desire to expose the negatives in Lebanese society. The Kabbanis use light, varied beats as backdrops to controversial lyr­ics, and repeat their Arabic-­language rap themes in their widely recognized street art, combining urban graffiti with Arabic calligraphy. Malikah (“Queen,” Lynn Fattouh, 1986–) is a role model for Arab young ­women limited by social ste­reo­types. She raps in Arabic, French, and En­glish, delivering a message of Arab peace and unity. In 2007, she sealed her international reputation by opening for and ­later recording a track with Snoop Dogg (1971–). In 2008, 11 male and female rappers of varied po­liti­cal and religious backgrounds performed and distributed copies of their ­album Peace Beats. In a society scarred by sectarian civil war, Lebanese hip hop artists continue to make statements by collaborating despite differing faith backgrounds, including Islam (Sunni and Shia), Chris­tian­ity, Judaism, and Druze. By the second de­cade of the 21st ­century, over 250 hip hop artists and groups, including 961 Crew (n.d.) Clotaire K (n.d.), FareeQ el Atrash (2006–), RAmez (Ramzi Khoury, 1978–), and Omar Zeineddine (n.d.), ­were active on the Internet, many offering potent sociopo­liti­cal messages. El Rass (Mazen El Sayed, n.d.) brings many of ­these themes together in his criticism—of Islamic clerics, the West, Arab governments, social injustice—­delivered in a lively fusion of classical Arabic and con­temporary street language. Both in his rap and in his speech he advances the idea of a new Arab cultural identity—­a “digital bedouinism”—­that goes beyond the norms of nationality, history or nostalgia. Jennifer L. Roth-­Burnette See also: Egypt; Syria

Further Reading

Burkhalter, Thomas. 2013. Local M ­ usic Scenes and Globalization: Transnational Platforms in Beirut. Routledge Studies in Ethnomusicology. New York: Routledge.



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Nassar, Angie. 2011. “Scratch the Past—­This Is Our Soundtrack: Hip Hop in Lebanon.” In Arab Youth, edited by Samir Khalaf and Roseanne Saad Khalaf, “Part 6: Popu­ lar Culture and ­Music.” London: Saqi Books.

Les Nubians (1998–­, Paris, France) Les Nubians is a smooth jazz, soul, and R&B hip hop ­sister duo from Paris, which was, at its popularity following its debut ­album, the most successful Francophone musical group in the United States. Its debut a­ lbum, Princesses Nubiennes (Nubian Princesses, 1998), sold over 400,000 copies and was nominated for a Grammy Award; the band was also nominated for two NAACP Image Awards in 2000. Consisting of Hélène (1975–) and Célia (1979–) Faussart, Les Nubians began as an a cappella group with a jazz feel, but its sound has evolved over time. The duo’s ­music, which the two describe as “Afropean,” is defined by a blending of African diaspora and Eu­ro­pean musical styles. This includes soul-­inspired smooth jazz, which has as much in common with easy listening pop and warm R&B as it does with hip hop and dance. The ­sisters considered their sound an assimilated one, based on all the musical styles to which they had been exposed during their childhoods in Chad and France. Having traveled a lot as ­children, they embraced their African roots, as well as American jazz, funk, R&B, and the girl band Motown sound. Their songs also have a hint of British soul. The duo is best known for its single “Makeda,” which reached No. 37 on the Hot R&B Singles and Tracks chart in 1999, and for its guest appearance on the Black Eyed Peas’ (1995–) “On My Own,” from its second a­ lbum, Bridging the Gap (2000). The duo has been compared to British soul artists as Sade (Helen Folasade Adu, 1959–), Soul II Soul (1988–1997, 2007–), and Des’ree (Desirée Annette Weeks, 1968–). The Faussart s­ isters began singing as a duo in 1992, when they moved to Bordeaux, France. They began singing to combat loneliness when their ­family moved to a rural area. At first they sang a cappella ­because they had trou­ble finding musicians willing to take a chance and perform with rookie singers, but they used the opportunity to hone vocals and create poetry slams; they also became session and backup singers for vari­ous artists. Hélène and Célia Faussart also helped create Les Nouveaux Griots (n.d.)—­the term for an African storyteller and keeper of heritage—­a cultural collective, which allowed them to interact with American jazz vocalist Abbey Lincoln (Anna Marie Wooldridge, 1930–2010). Their break came in 1998 when Virgin Rec­ords, France (1970–), signed them and produced their debut ­album. Les Nubians’ discography includes three other ­albums, One Step Forward (2003) also on Virgin, for which the duo sang in En­glish, Echos: Chapter One (2006), which marked the duo’s switch to its own Paris-­based label, Nubiatik (2005–), and its African-­influenced funk and neo soul hip hop ­album Nü Revolution (New Revolution, 2011) to the Shanachie label (1976), known for producing world ­music recordings). The ­later ­albums showed the duo venturing more into high energy dance rhythms. Echos featured both m ­ usic and urban poetry. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: France; Griot

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Further Reading

Bretillon, Chong J. 2014. “ ‘Ma face vanille’: White Rappers, ‘Black ­Music,’ and Race in France.” International Journal of Francophone Studies 17, nos. 3–4: 421–43. Hammou, Karim. 2016. “Mainstreaming French Rap ­Music: Commodification and Artistic Legitimation of Othered Cultural Goods.” Poetics 59 (December): 67–81. Harris, David L. 2003. “French Connection: The ­Sisters of Les Nubians Expand Their Hip Hop/R&B Domain with a New ­Album and a Move from Paris to Philadelphia.” Boston Globe, August 15, C12.

Further Listening

Les Nubians. 1998. Princesses Nubiennes (Nubian Princesses). Virgin France S. A. Les Nubians. 2011. Nü revolution (New Revolution). Shanachie.

Lesotho Lesotho has had a struggling hip hop scene, despite the fact that by the mid-1980s American rap ­albums became available; popu­lar ­music tastes favored reggae, jazz, Afropop, and famo, the latter a kind of Lesotho m ­ usic that uses Sesotho (the country’s official language) texts. With roots dating back to the 1920s, famo features a male or female singer, accordion, oil can drum, and sometimes bass. In addition, kwaito, a separate ­music consisting of some of the same ele­ments as hip hop but using rap, slowed-­down h­ ouse m ­ usic beats, drum loops, African m ­ usic samples, and heavy bass, emerged in South Africa and found its way to popularity in Lesotho—­a landlocked country within South Africa. Even in the 1990s, hip hop remained an underground culture in Lesotho, focusing on a capella rapping, since the country lacked its own ­music industry, so ­music production technology used to create beats was difficult to access. Since 2000, the Lesotho hip hop scene has expanded in its capital, Maseru, where radio DJ Dallas T (Tello Leballo, n.d.) promoted Lesotho hip hop acts, including Kommanda Obbs (1998–)*, who released the mixtape Complex Mind Set Volume 1 (2006), on Radio Lesotho’s ­sister station Ultimate FM (2006–). Despite this En­glish title, Kommanda Obbs raps in Sesotho and has coined “T’sepe” (Sesotho for iron or steel) for his hard-­hitting rap with themes about hustling and surviving street life. Rapper Dunamis (Rets’elisitsoe Molefe, n.d.), who raps in En­glish, resides in Maseru, where he started his label K.O.L. ­Music Productions (2007–). Dunamis sold over 1,000 copies of Mastered Seed (2007), which spawned the first Lesotho hip hop ­music video; he also sold over 100 copies of his second ­album, The Glory and da Street (2011), within the first two hours of the release. As of 2018, both Obbs and Dunamis still rec­ord mixtapes and aim to release more ­albums. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Kwaito; Reggae; South Africa

Further Reading

Boloka, Gibson. 2003. “Cultural Studies and the Transformation of the ­Music Industry: Some Reflections on Kwaito.” In Shifting Selves: Post-­Apartheid Essays on Mass Media, Culture, and Identity, edited by Herman Wasserman and Sean Jacobs, chap. 5. Cape Town, South Africa: Kwela Books.

Libya 423 Thorpe, Nick. 2008. “The High Life, Lesotho-­Style.” Sunday Times (London), February 17, 10.

Libya Libya has recently gone through a sociopo­liti­cal change that has made the emergence of rap m ­ usic not only pos­si­ble, but also an indispensable feature of the current Arab m ­ usic culture. Former Libyan Prime Minister Muammar Gaddafi (1942–2011, in power 1969–2011) had been broadcasting state-­approved ­music in public spaces such as taxis, shops, and restaurants while isolating Libya from outside musical cultures. Nonetheless, Libyan hip hop was inevitable due to access to outside media beginning with the availability of satellite dishes in 1992 and the addition of public Internet access in 2000. As early as the 1990s, live per­for­mances by Libyan rappers who borrowed from mainstream Western hip hop showed the potential for songs about poverty, unemployment, corruption, autocracy, and oppression, especially since the lyrical and rhythmic qualities of hip hop, as well as its penchant for hyperbolic boasts, made the genre a good fit for Arabic poetic traditions. Hence, Libyan hip hop and rap artists have gravitated ­toward fusions of poetry, pop, traditional ­music, and rap, frequently used as a platform for po­liti­cal re­sis­tance. Libyan rap is characterized by an interweaving of new material with call-and-response chants, quotes from po­liti­cal speeches, and traditional instrumentation. Its rapid spread on the Internet solidified rap in Libya as a platform for self-­expression and also a means for youth to communicate with one another across the country. In February 2011 the Gaddafi regime fired on peaceful protestors in Benghazi and Al Bayda, galvanizing the public ­toward a government coup. During the ensuing “Day of Rage,” the Gaddafi regime countered by implementing Internet blackouts, including blocks on social media sites, followed in March by a complete disconnection of Libya from the Internet. A cadre of amateur rappers emerged in public support of Libyan revolutionary efforts, bolstering fighters’ morale and convincing ­people to join the revolution. Soon ­after the “Day of Rage,” Revolution Beat recorded “Thawra” (Revolution) while anonymous rapper (to avoid persecution) Ibn Thabit (anonymous, n.d.) collaborated with MC Swat (anonymous, n.d.) on “Victory or Death.” Thabit released his rap, with Arabic and Tamazight lyr­ics, on YouTube and on his own website. Following the liberation of Benghazi, rappers across Libya aired their work on stations such as Benghazi ­Free Radio and Libya FM, and distributed CD recordings of their ­music to Benghazi demonstrators. Khaled M (anonymous, n.d.), a Libyan American hip hop artist and son of a Gaddafi dissident, released, in collaboration with London-­based Iraqi En­glish artist Lowkey (Kareen Dennis, 1986–), the single “­Can’t Take Our Freedom.” Since the revolution, artists in Libya, such as the GAB Crew (2005–), continue to grapple with a newfound freedom of expression. The GAB Crew speaks for a growing community of Libyan rap artists—­those mentioned as well as Sheeba (anonymous, n.d.), Street Souljahz (anonymous, n.d.), Malik L (anonymous, n.d.), Guys Underground (anonymous, n.d.), B-­Way (anonymous, n.d.), and ­Music Masters (anonymous, n.d.)—­who see hip hop as an au­then­tic musical genre for a f­ ree Libya. Jennifer L. Roth-­Burnette See also: Political Hip Hop

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Further Reading

Ahmida, Ali Abdullatif. 2012. “Libya, Social Origins of Dictatorship, and the Challenge for Democracy.” Journal of the M ­ iddle East and Africa 3, no. 1: 70–81. Fedele, Valentina. 2014. “Singing the Revolution. North African Rap and the Story of the Arab Uprisings.” Eu­ro­pean Journal of Research on Social Studies 1, no. 1: 24–28.

Lil’ Kim (Kimberly Denise Jones, 1975–­, Brooklyn, New York) Lil’ Kim is an influential American rapper best known for her sexually explicit lyr­ ics and provocative styles of dress. In the early 1990s she was the only female member of Ju­nior M.A.F.I.A. (1992–1997), which was mentored and promoted by the Notorious B.I.G. (1972–1997) and which released a debut ­album, Conspiracy (1995) that was certified Gold. The ­album spawned three hit songs, “Player’s Anthem,” “I Need You To­night,” and “Get Money.” The success of ­these tracks, which all included verses by Lil’ Kim, helped launch the rapper’s solo c­ areer. Lil’ Kim established her reputation early on with her debut ­album, Hard Core (1996). The title reflected the a­ lbum’s combination of hardcore rap lyr­ics and production style, as well as Lil’ Kim’s signature lyricism, based on explic­itly sexual content. Even the ­album’s cover was tantalizing, as it features Lil’ Kim in a shear negligee, positioned on all fours on top of a bearskin rug. In other promotional materials, she appeared in a bikini with a fur-­lined cover-up and heels, positioned in a squat facing the camera. This hypersexual motif is also apparent in her lyr­ics, which are noteworthy for their raunchiness, as in her opening verse for “Big Momma Thang,” where she uses explicit slang to express that she has gotten over her fear of male genitalia and anal intercourse. Though ­these kinds of lyr­ics ­were not new for hardcore rap, they ­were unusual in the work of female rappers at the time. Hard Core was commercially and critically successful, peaking at No. 11 on the Billboard 200 and reaching double Platinum status. Singles from the ­album “No Time” and “Not To­night (Ladies Night Remix)” each made it into the Top 20, at Nos. 18 and 6, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. “No Time” reached the top spot on the Hot Rap Songs chart; “Not To­night” peaked at No. 2. Her second ­album, The Notorious K.I.M. (2000), was certified Platinum ­after just four weeks. In the following year, she was one of the vocalists on a cover of Labelle’s (1962–1976) “Lady Marmalade,” made for the film Moulin Rouge! (2001). The song stayed at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for five consecutive weeks, a rec­ord for female rappers at the time. Many hip hop fans viewed Lil’ Kim’s explicit per­for­mances as an empowered approach to and expression of female sexuality, but critics questioned ­whether her raunchiness was exploitative. Civil rights activist C. Delores Tucker (1927–2005) objected to Lil’ Kim’s lyr­ics, calling her ­music “gangsta porno rap.” Tucker criticized Warner Bros. Rec­ords for producing it. Lil’ Kim has a total of six studio a­ lbums, Hard Core, The Notorious K.I.M., La Bella Mafia (2003), The Naked Truth (2005), Ms. G.O.A.T. (2008), and Black



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Friday (2011). She also has her own label, International Rock Star Rec­ords (formerly Queen Bee Rec­ords), founded in 1999. Lauron Jockwig Kehrer See also: Dirty Rap; Gangsta Rap; Hardcore Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

McGlynn, Aine. 2007. “Lil’ Kim.” In Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, M ­ usic, and Culture, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 2, pp. 439–56. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Richardson, Elaine. 2006. “Ride or Die B, Jezebel, Lil’ Kim, or Kimberly Jones and African ­Women’s Language and Literacy Practices: The Naked Truf.” In Hip Hop Literacies, chap. 4. New York: Routledge.

Further Listening

Lil’ Kim. 1996. Hard Core. Big Beat. Lil’ Kim. 2003. La bella mafia (Beautiful Mafia W ­ oman). Atlantic/Queen Bee Rec­ords. Lil’ Kim. 2008. MS. G.O.A.T. Queen Bee Rec­ords/Money Maker Rec­ords.

Lil Wayne (Dwayne Michael Car­ter Jr., 1982–­, New Orleans, Louisiana) Lil Wayne is one of the major artists on the New Orleans–­based label, Ca$h Money Rec­ords (1991–). In addition to being the founder and former CEO of his own imprint, Young Money Entertainment (2005–), he is one of the best-­selling artists in any genre. Depending on how the Billboard Hot 100 is counted (if it is counted ­after 1958, and not retroactively adjusted to songs produced before the chart existed), he has surpassed Elvis Presley’s (1935–1977) rec­ord for male artist with the most songs on the charts, with 133, as of 2018. Post 1958, he trails only one performer, the Glee Cast (2009–2015), for overall Hot 100 hits. Lil Wayne has a distinctive rapping style; his delivery is slow, and his lyr­ics rely heavi­ly on meta­phors and similes. His lyrical content not only focuses on gangsta rap topics such as hustling, acquired wealth and material objects, re­spect, crime, and vio­lence, but also social protest (including racial in­equality and black ­peoples’ exposure to vio­lence and crime), romance (ranging from objectifying and demeaning ­women to romanticizing them), and autobiographical ele­ments (growing up in New Orleans). His musical style shows some flexibility between hook-­and almost drum-­ and-­bass-­driven hip hop, employing both fast (chopper style) as well as smooth, laid-­back rap delivery styles, and eclecticism that fuses the unusual combination of gangsta with alternative hip hop and utilizing rock and R&B ele­ments. EARLY ­CAREER Raised in the Hollygrove neighborhood of New Orleans, Lil Wayne began rapping at the age of eight, and by 1991 he was recording for Ca$h Money Rec­ords. He formed the duo the B.G.’z (1991–1996) with fellow New Orleans rapper B.G. (aka Lil Doogie, Christopher Noel Dorsey, 1980–). The duo recorded an ­album, True Story

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(1995), which featured diss tracks ­toward fellow New Orleans rapper Mystikal (Michael Lawrence Tyler, 1970–) and competing New Orleans rec­ord label Big Boy Rec­ords (1992–2000). In 1996, he and B.G. joined Ca$h Money’s band, Hot Boys (1997–2001, 2007–), which released its debut ­album, Get It How U Live! (1997). The group followed up in 1999 with a second, highly successful ­album, Guerrilla Warfare, produced by New Orleans native Mannie Fresh (Byron O. Thomas, 1969–). The group disbanded in 2001, but Ca$h Money released their third ­album, Let ’Em Burn (2003), comprising material recorded between 1998 and 2000, and members of the group continued to collaborate on each other’s proj­ects.

SOLO ­CAREER In 1999, Lil Wayne released his first solo ­album, Tha Block Is Hot. It debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 3 and was certified Platinum just two months ­after its release. The ­album features no explicit lyr­ics, reportedly ­because the rapper was a minor at the time, and his ­mother objected to his rapping extreme profanities. His second and third a­ lbums, Lights Out (2000) and 500 Degreez (2002) w ­ ere both certified Gold, but failed to reach the same level of success as Tha Block Is Hot. In 2004, he released his fourth studio ­album, Tha Car­ter. He followed with Tha Car­ ter II in 2005 and a collaborative ­album with rapper and Ca$h Money cofounder, Birdman (1969–), titled Like F ­ ather, Like Son, in 2006. Tha Car­ter III was released in 2008, followed by the rock-­influenced Rebirth in 2010 and I Am Not a ­Human Being in that same year. Lil Wayne began recording material for Tha Car­ter IV in 2008, but the proj­ect was put on hold while he served a prison sentence for possession of an illegal weapon. Upon his release, he started rerecording new material, and the ­album was released in 2011 following several delays. It was one of his most successful releases, breaking rec­ords for number of iTunes downloads, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and it was certified double Platinum ­after just two months. Tha Car­ter IV spawned several well-­performing singles, including “6 Foot 7 Foot,” “How to Love,” “She ­Will,” “It’s Good,” and “Mirror.” Featured guests on the ­album included Drake (1986–), Jadakiss (1975–), and Bruno Mars (Peter Gene Hernandez, 1985–). Lil Wayne has continued to release studio ­albums ­every one to two years, including I Am Not a ­Human Being II (2013), ­Free Weezy ­Album (2015), and a collaborative ­album titled ColleGrove (2016). None have fared as well as Tha Car­ter IV. In addition to his studio ­albums, he has released many mixtapes, including the Dedication series (five releases), Da Drought series (three releases), The Drought Is Over series (five releases), and Sorry 4 the Wait (2011) and Sorry for the Wait 2 (2015). ­These mixtapes often feature Lil Wayne’s rapping new lyr­ics over the instrumental tracks from other rappers’ songs. In 2005, the same year he founded his own imprint, Young Money Entertainment, he was named the CEO of Ca$h Money Rec­ords. Ca$h Money Rec­ords has since released a number of commercially successful ­albums, including Drake’s Thank Me L ­ ater (2010), Tyga’s (Michael Ray Stevenson, 1989–) ­Hotel California

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(2013), Nicki Minaj’s (1982–) Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (2012), and ­others. The label has also released a mixtape, Young Money: The Mixtape Vol. 1 (2005) and three compilation ­albums that feature label artists, including We Are Young Money (2009), Rich Gang (with Ca$h Money Rec­ords, 2013), and Rise of an Empire (2014). Lauron Jockwig Kehrer See also: Birdman; Drake; Gangsta Rap; Nicki Minaj; The United States

Further Reading

Graham, Natalie. 2016. “Cracks in the Concrete: Policing Lil Wayne’s Masculinity and the Feminizing Meta­phor.” Journal of Popu­lar Culture 49, no. 4: 799–817. Westoff, Ben. 2011. “Lil Wayne: Gangster Weirdo.” In Dirty South: OutKast, Lil Wayne, Soulja Boy, and the Southern Rappers Who Reinvented Hip Hop, chap. 15. Chicago: Chicago Review Press.

Further Listening

Lil Wayne. 1999. Tha Block Is Hot. Ca$h Money Rec­ords/Universal Rec­ords. Lil Wayne. 2011. Tha Car­ter IV. Ca$h Money Rec­ords.

Lithuania Lithuania is a Baltic country with a population of nearly three million. It was occupied by the Soviet Union during World War II (1939–1945), and ­after; it declared its in­de­pen­dence in 1990. Rock ­music developed ­there in the mid-1960s, first in illegal gatherings, via Radio Luxembourg (1933–1992) or smuggled vinyl ­albums, but by the 1980s, Lithuanians could openly perform in rock and hip hop bands. The most famous of ­these is Skamp (1998–), which in seven studio ­albums has combined hip hop with pop, rock, and reggae. Skamp had a hit with a cover of George Gersh­win’s (1898–1937) “Summertime” (originally written for the American opera Porgy and Bess in 1934). The song, on the band’s Koja Rec­ords (1995–2010) ­album Angata (1999), has a hip hop beat, and is sung in En­glish, with rap in French and Lithuanian. The main center for hip hop emerged in the 1990s in the capital, Vilnius. With seven studio ­albums, including three self-­releases, G&G Sindikatas (1996–), from Vilnius, is the most popu­lar rap act in the country. The five-­man band’s sound is based on American rap bands such as D12 (1996–) and Beastie Boys (1981– 2012), which infuse rock, funk, and metal into their hip hop beats. G&G Sindikatas’ songs include turntablism, heavy guitars and bass, funk drumming, brass, and synthesizer—­and rappers take turn rapping verses and rap together in choruses. Helion (Tomas Matulevicius, n.d.) is a breakbeat Lithuanian DJ and producer known for popu­lar mixes. The hip hop label Renegades of Bump (2010–) has taken on the task of producing Lithuanian rap samplers. Hip hop dancing is extremely popu­lar in Lithuania: The Low Air Urban Dance Theater (2012–) is an urban dance com­pany, located in Vilnius, that specializes in lyrical hip hop. Anthony J. Fonseca

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See also: Hip Hop Dance; Lyrical Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Bielinskiene, Asta, Zivile Casaite, and Julija Paliukenaite. 2015. “­Music Publication in Lithuania a­fter 1990: A Typological Analy­ sis.” Fontes Artis Musicae 62, no.  2: 110–17. Droba, Krzysztof. 1993. “The History and the Pres­ent Day of Lithuanian ­Music (From Čiurlionis to Landsgergis).” Revista de Musicología 16, no. 6: 3684–91.

Further Listening

G&G Sindikatas. 2001. Gatvės lyga (Street League). Bomba Rec­ords. G&G Sindikatas. 2017. Unplugged. Self-­released.

LL Cool J (James Todd Smith, 1968–­, Bay Shore, New York) LL Cool J, whose name is a shortened version of Ladies Love Cool James, is an American rapper, singer-­songwriter, actor, writer, and entrepreneur. He fuses hip hop with pop, performing pop rap. All of his a­ lbums have crossed over to the mainstream and charted on the Billboard 200, with G.O.A.T. (Greatest of All Time) (2000) peaking at No. 1 and 10 (2002) peaking at No. 2. His first eight studio ­albums, Radio (1985); Bigger and Deffer (1987); Walking with a Panther (1989); Mama Said Knock You Out (1990); 14 Shots to the Dome (1993); Mr. Smith (1995); Phenomenon (1997); and G.O.A.T, have been certified at least Platinum. His three subsequent studio ­albums, 10; The DEFinition (2004); and Todd Smith (2006), ­were certified Gold. His Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 include “Around the Way Girl” (1990), “Hey, Lover” (1995), “Doin’ It” (1996), “Loungin’ ” (1996), “Luv U Better” (2002), and “Control Myself” (2006). LL Cool J’s only Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 was as featured artist in Jennifer Lopez’s (aka J.Lo, 1969–) R&B and hip hop ballad “All I Have” (2002). He won two Grammy Awards for Best Rap Solo Per­for­mance for “Mama Said Knock You Out” and “Hey, Lover.” EARLY INTERESTS AND ­ALBUMS Born James Todd Smith, he grew up with his grandparents in Hollis, Queens, New York. His grand­father was a professional jazz saxophonist, and he lived at the center of hip hop activity during its formative years. As a child, he discovered rap and was inspired by the Sugarhill Gang’s (1979–1985, 1994–) “Rapper’s Delight” (1979) and the Treacherous Three (1978–1984). At age 11, he was given a DJ system by his grand­father so he could produce demos to send to New York City recording companies. In 1984, he dropped out of high school, began using the stage name LL Cool J, and signed to a fledgling Def Jam Recordings label (1983–). That year, he released the 12-­inch single “I Need a Beat,” which contains braggadocio and metatextuality (e.g., his expressing awareness of the ele­ments of his backing beat and calling



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for the break). Though it failed to chart, “I Need a Beat” sold over 100,000 copies. Its commercial success contributed to Def Jam’s 1985 acquisition of a distribution deal with Columbia Rec­ords (1887–). More success and critical acclaim followed with LL Cool J’s studio ­album debut, Radio, which made him one of the first rappers to achieve mainstream success. In 1986, he became the first hip hop act on the tele­vi­sion show American Bandstand (1952–1989). His second ­album, Bigger and Deffer, went ­triple Platinum.

­L ATER ­ALBUMS AND ACTING ­CAREER Though LL Cool J’s Walking with a Panther also achieved commercial success, it was not as well received as his earlier a­ lbums. Its lyrical content focused on romance, missing some of the earlier a­ lbums’ intelligent use of street themes, coding, braggadocio, and humor. Marley Marl (1962–) produced Mama Said Knock You Out, which brought back ­these devices and went double Platinum. The title track earned LL Cool J his first Grammy Award. When he released 14 Shots to the Dome in 1993, LL Cool J started to spend more time acting. Earlier, he made his acting debut as a rapper in the American hip hop film Krush Groove (1985), which was based on the early history of Def Jam. In the film, LL Cool J performed the love song “I ­Can’t Live without My Radio” from his ­album Radio. He also played a rapper in the American football comedy Wildcats (1986). His films include Toys (1992), In Too Deep (1999), S.W.A.T. (2003 remake), Last Holiday (2006), and Grudge Match (2013), but his most notable acting roles have been on American tele­vi­sion, starring in the situation comedy In the House (1995–1999) and in the crime drama NCIS: Los Angeles (2010–). His concurrent successful recording output lasted into the 2000s with Mr. Smith, Phenomenon, G.O.A.T, The DEFinition, and Todd Smith. LL Cool J’s final studio ­album with Def Jam was Exit 13 (2008), which received mixed reception. ­After five years, LL Cool J released Au­then­tic (2013) on the Santa Monica–­based in­de­ pen­dent label 429 Rec­ords (­under the Savoy Label Group, 2001–­, a division of Nippon Columbia, formerly Columbia ­Music Entertainment, 1910–). Though it had mixed critical reception, it peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard 200, No. 7 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums, and No.  4 on Billboard’s In­de­pen­dent ­Albums. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Boogie Down Productions; KRS-One; The United States

Further Reading

Lefty Banks. 2003. “LL Cool J: Radio; Mama Said Knock You Out.” In Classical Material: The Hip Hop A ­ lbum Guide, edited by Oliver Wang, pp. 108–110. Toronto: ECW Press. LL Cool J, with Karen Hunter. 1997. I Make My Own Rules. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Further Listening

LL Cool J. 1985. Radio. Columbia/Def Jam. LL Cool J. 1990. Mama Said Knock You Out. Def Jam Recordings.

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The LOX (aka The L.O.X., The Warlocks, 1994–­, Yonkers, New York) The LOX is an American hardcore hip hop trio consisting of rappers Sheek Louch (aka Donnie Def Jam, Donnie G, Sean Divine Jacobs, 1976–), Styles P (David Styles, 1974–), and Jadakiss (Jason Phillips, 1975–). The trio is known for collaborating with Puff ­Daddy (1969–) on “It’s All about the Benjamins” (1997) and a multi-­Platinum tribute single to the Notorious B.I.G. (1972–1997) titled “­We’ll Always Love Big Poppa” (1997). The LOX’s certified-­Platinum debut ­album, Money, Power, and Re­spect (1998), peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart. Both the title track and “If You Think I’m Jiggy” peaked at No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100. The LOX’s second ­album, We Are the Streets (2000), received critical despite fewer sales, peaking at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and No. 2 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart. In addition, the LOX appeared on numerous popu­lar mainstream hits, including Jennifer Lopez’s (aka J.Lo, 1969–) “Jenny from the Block” (2002). In the early 1990s a trio of high school rapper friends called the Bomb Squad cut demos and performed locally. ­After appearing on the Toronto/New York City–­ based group Main Source’s (1989–1994) track “Set It Off” (on F—­What You Think, 1994) and building a following for its urban rap texts and self-­released mixtapes, the trio became the Warlocks, eventually shortening it to the LOX. American hip hop singer-­songwriter and fellow Yonkers, New York, resident Mary  J. Blige (1971–) liked its sound and gave the trio’s demo to Puff Daddy, who owned Bad Boy Entertainment (1993–). Despite successful collaborations, hits, and huge sales on Money, Power, and Re­spect, the LOX wanted to move on from Bad Boy for a label that better represented its hardcore sound. ­Because the trio could not legally get a contract release, members of the LOX wore T-­shirts at their concerts that read, “Let The LOX Go.” Fans supported them and added pressure. The LOX then moved to the Ruff Ryders label (1988–) from 1999 to 2010, releasing We Are the Streets (2000), which was more hardcore than its debut ­album. It featured gangsta rap tracks with lyr­ics about enjoying violent nights out, committing crimes (including rape), and beating up enemies. The LOX’s videos feature textbook objectification of ­women, often featuring video vixens. ­After its second ­album, the LOX took a hiatus in which members pursued solo ­careers. In 2012, the LOX united to collaborate with Wu-­Tang Clan (1992–) on Wu Block. The trio followed this proj­ect by releasing its first EP, The Trinity, on iTunes, touring worldwide to promote the EP, which was well received by critics and peaked at 141 on the Billboard 200 and No.  17 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop A ­ lbums chart. The same year, the LOX formed their own recording label, D-­Block (2013–). In 2016, the LOX released Filthy Amer­i­ca . . . ​It’s Beautiful on both the D-­Block and Jay-­Z’s (1969–) Roc Nation (2008–) labels. It peaked at No. 42 on the Billboard 200 and No. 6 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Blige, Mary J.; Gangsta Rap; Hardcore Hip Hop; The United States

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Further Reading

Baker, Soren. 2000. “Hip Hop Report: More Grime Than Shine, the LOX Moves On.” Los Angeles Times, January 23, CAL73. Ogbar, Jeffrey. 2006. “Holla Black.” Radical Society 32, no. 3: 67–74. Quinn, Eithne. 2005. Nuthin’ but a G Thang: The Culture and Commerce of Gangsta Rap. New York: Columbia University Press.

Further Listening

The LOX. 2000. We Are the Streets. Ruff Ryders.

Ludacris (Christopher Brian Bridges, 1977–­, Champaign, Illinois) Ludacris is one of the most successful Dirty South rappers. His style, particularly as heard from 1998 to 2005, exemplifies the Dirty South sound: his lyr­ics are gleeful and humorous, and they highlight debauchery, hedonism, ­women, alcohol, drugs, and strip clubs; Ludacris lends to the sound his distinctive flowing vocals, a sense of creative wordplay, and an emphasis on exaggerated accentuation (of syllables). Ludacris spent his childhood between his ­mother’s home in the Chicago area and his ­father’s, in the Atlanta area. He began rapping at age nine, and joined with other adolescent rappers to form short-­lived groups named Tic Tac Toe and Loudmouth Hooligans. He moved to Atlanta full time at age 13, attending high school in College Park, Georgia, where he took part in rap ­battles in the lunchroom and the hallways. In the late 1990s, he briefly enrolled at Georgia State University to study ­music management. While still taking classes ­there, he joined Atlanta rap station Hot 97.5 as DJ Chris Lova Lova, working as a morning radio show intern, recording station promotions, and American rapper-­songwriter Ludacris poses at eventually cohosting a primetime the 2006 In­de­pen­dent Spirit Awards in Santa show, “­Future Flavors.” He took Monica, California. Though originally from the advantage of his placement at Midwest, Ludacris moved to Atlanta as a teen, 97.5 to promote his own ­music, where he honed his talents in rap ­battles and, by eventually changing his rap the 2000s, eventually became one of Dirty moniker from Ludachris to Lud- South’s most successful and influential musicians acris. Through his work in radio, and producers. (Carrienelson1​/­Dreamstime​.­com)

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he met producer Timbaland (1972–) and rapped on Timbaland’s track “Fat Rabbit,” on the 1998 ­album Tim’s Bio: From the Motion Picture Life from da Bassment. EARLY ­CAREER In 2000, Ludacris cofounded Disturbing tha Peace (DTP) rec­ords in Atlanta, which eventually became a subsidiary of Def Jam Recordings (1983–), and he in­de­ pen­dently produced his first ­album, Incognegro, in 2000 (it was subsequently released as Back for the First Time on Def Jam South in 2000). The success of his debut single, “What’s Your Fantasy,” featuring Shawnna (Rashawnna Guy, 1978–), led to his signing with Def Jam South (1999–), a regional division of Def Jam Recordings; the single sold over 30,000 copies and demonstrated Ludacris’s distinctive style: lewd subject ­matter (similar to that of signifying, an early influence on rap), animated delivery, and heavi­ly emphasized rhymes. Back for the First Time, a repackaging of Incognegro with three new tracks, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap ­Album. It peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and No. 2 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart and was certified ­t riple Platinum. Ludacris’s Grammy-­nominated second ­album for Def Jam, Word of Mouf (2001), included the lead single “Rollout (My Business),” as well as “Saturday (Oooh Oooh),” “Move B—­,” and “Area Codes.” The ­album featured Southern rappers Sleepy Brown (Patrick Brown, 1970–), Mystikal (Michael Lawrence Tyler, 1970–), I-20 (Bobby Sandimanie, 1974–), and Nate Dogg (Nathaniel Dwayne Hale, 1969–2011). Ludacris’s style and his choice of guests make Word of Mouf a quin­tes­sen­tial Dirty South a­ lbum. ENDORSEMENT CONTROVERSY AND ACTING ­CAREER In 2002, Ludacris recorded two Super Bowl commercial spots for Pepsi, but the ads w ­ ere never shown. Pepsi revoked their endorsement deal with Ludacris a­ fter criticism from conservative news pundit Bill O’Reilly (1949–) that Ludacris was a thug who promoted antisocial be­hav­ior, which included vio­lence, degradation of w ­ omen, and substance abuse. ­After pressure from the Hip Hop Summit Action Network, Pepsi donated several million dollars to the Ludacris Foundation (2002–), but did not renew their relationship with Ludacris. The controversy may have in fact helped Ludacris, as his next ­album, Chicken-­N-­Beer (2003) was his first to top the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts, although it sold fewer copies that Word of Mouf. The ­album boasted his first No. 1 single, produced by Kanye West (1977–) and featuring Shawnna, as well as blatantly sexualized singles “Splash Waterfalls” and “P-­Poppin.” Acknowledging his comments of the previous year, Ludacris took shots at O’Reilly in the songs “Blow It Out” and “Hoes in My Room.” In 2001, Ludacris (credited as Chris Bridges) began acting in films, playing Tej Parker in 2 Fast 2 Furious and reprising the character in subsequent films in the franchise. He performed the Grammy-­nominated “Act A Fool” for the film’s soundtrack. Among his other acting credits, Ludacris played a supporting role in two Oscar-­nominated films, Crash and Hustle and Flow (both 2005).

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In 2004, Ludacris was featured on R&B singer Usher’s (Usher Raymond IV, 1978–) internationally award-­winning single “Yeah,” produced by crunk pop­u­lar­ izer Lil Jon (Jonathan Smith, 1971–). Also in 2004, Ludacris released The Red Light District, including singles “Get Back,” “Number One Spot,” “The Potion,” and “Pimpin’ All over the World.” The ­album included a crossover remix of “Get Back,” rerecorded with Canadian rock band Sum 41 (1996–). The ­album was certified Platinum but was not critically rated as highly as his previous ­albums. Nominated for multiple awards over the years, Ludacris won his first Best ­Album Grammy for Release Therapy (2006) and was awarded Best Rap Song for the single “Money Maker.” Release Therapy marked a shift to more serious lyrical themes as demonstrated by tracks such as “Runaway Love, featuring Mary J. Blige (1971–) and “Grew Up a Screw Up,” featuring Young Jeezy (Jay Wayne Jenkins, 1977–), addressing topics such as vio­lence against w ­ omen and teen runaways. Ludacris’s ­later ­albums Theater of the Mind (2008) and ­Battle of the Sexes (2010) marked a return to the more partycentric, sexual rhymes of his earlier work, with the singles “What Them Girls Like,” “One More Drink,” “Nasty Girl,” “How Low,” “My Chick Bad,” and “Sex Room.” Guest musicians included Chris Brown (1989–), Sean Garrett (Garrett Hamler, 1979–), T-­Pain (Faheem Rashad Najm, 1985–), Nicki Minaj (1982–), and Trey Songz (Tremaine Aldon Neverson, 1984–). Ludacris’s most recent ­album, Ludaversal (2015) included more introspection in singles such as “Good Lovin’.” Katy E. Leonard See also: Dirty South; The United States

Further Reading

Cramer, Jennifer, and Jill Hallett. 2010. “From Chi-­Town to the Dirty-­Dirty: Regional Identity Markers in U.S. Hip Hop.” In The Languages of Global Hip Hop, edited by Marina Terkourafi, chap. 10. New York: Continuum. Oliver, Richard, and Tim Leffel. 2006. “East Coast–­West Coast–­Gulf Coast: But Southern Rap? Ludacris!” In Hip Hop, Inc.: Success Strategies of the Rap Moguls, chap. 10. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press. Richmond, Sanford K. 2013. “Paint the White House Black! A Critical Discourse Analy­ sis Look at Hip Hop’s Social, Cultural, and Po­liti­cal Influence on the Presidency of Barack Obama.” Western Journal of Black Studies 37, no. 4: 249–57.

Further Listening

Ludacris. 2001. Word of Mouf. Def Jam South. Ludacris. 2006. Release Therapy. Def Jam South.

Luke (aka Luke Skyywalker, Luther Roderick Campbell, 1960–­, Miami, Florida) Luke is a controversial American rec­ord label owner, producer, Southern rap and Miami bass performer, band and song promoter, and actor, best known for his stint as leader of the 2 Live Crew (1982–91; 1994–98) from Miami. He is also known as a soloist for his debut solo a­ lbum, Banned in the U.S.A. (aka The Luke LP, 1990).

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His vocal style is best characterized as hyping through not carefully choreographed rapped rhymes, but a series of crowd shouts or sometimes chants, often to produce a call-­and-­response effect, a musical technique influenced by his Jamaican and Bahamian ancestry. The 2 Live Crew was a California rap group fronted by DJ Mr.  Mixx (David Hobbs, n.d.). The group released “Revelation” in 1985, and due to the song’s popularity, was brought to Miami by concert promoter Luke, who as Luke Skyywalker became its man­ag­er and MC, getting the crew a rec­ord deal on his Miami-­based Luke Skyywalker Rec­ords label (1985–­, ­later changed to Luke Rec­ords in 1990). The new 2 Live Crew lineup released The 2 Live Crew Is What We Are (1986), a certified-­ Gold a­ lbum which got attention b­ ecause of the explicit sexual content of its lyr­ics. The band’s second and third ­albums, Move Somethin’ (1988) and As Nasty as They Wanna Be (1989), went Gold and Platinum, respectively, the latter resulting in the band’s first No. 1 Rap song and Hot 100 hit, “Me So Horny” (which peaked at No. 26). Luke’s solo debut, Banned in the USA is actually credited as Luke, Featuring the 2 Live Crew, as Luke used the band’s popularity to further sales, even though he paid the rest of the 2 Live Crew as performing musicians, giving them a flat fee, rather than royalties. Although the ­album was his highest Billboard 200, peaking at No. 21, and produced his highest-­charting Hot 100 single, “Banned in the U.S.A.” (1990), which reached No. 20, the song achieved only Gold status. “Banned in the U.S.A.” was to be Luke’s last charting single. Mr. Mixx soon left the 2 Live Crew and all members of the group drew up a lawsuit against Luke; the result was the band’s selling the 2 Live Crew name to Luke Skyywalker Rec­ords and Luke for a lump sum payment. Luke went on to do a few minor ­albums and star in the short-­lived VH1 show Luke’s Parental Advisory (2008). He was also sued unsuccessfully for copyright infringement in Campbell v. Acuff-­ Rose ­Music, Inc. (1994), which was argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court and established the right of parody songs to exist. A ­ fter retiring from rap, he became a minor sports figure via radio, inner city leagues, and involvement in a University of Miami football scandal when The Miami Herald, ­after a two-­month investigation, reported in 1994 that Campbell paid football players at the University of Miami for making big plays in football games between 1986 and 1992—­these game-­day bounties included up to $500 for a touchdown. ­There was no involvement whatsoever of the University of Miami or its Athletics Department. The investigation found that Luke acted in­de­pen­dently. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Dirty Rap; Miami Bass; 2 Live Crew; The United States

Further Reading

Campbell, Luther. 2015. The Book of Luke: My Fight for Truth, Justice, and Liberty City. New York: Amistad. French, Kenneth. 2017. “Geography of American Rap: Rap Diffusion and Rap Centers.” GeoJournal 82, no. 2: 259–72. Sanjek, David. 2006. “Ridiculing the ‘White Bread Original’: The Politics of Parody and Preservation of Greatness in Luther Campbell, aka Luke Skyywalker et al. v. Acuff-­ Rose M ­ usic, Inc.” Cultural Studies 20, nos. 2–3: 262–81.



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Lyrical Hip Hop Lyrical hip hop is a subgenre or style of hip hop dance that appropriates hip hop, but changing it so that smooth, flowing movement and storytelling through pantomime are favored over strongly distinguished, staccatolike, isolated movements and beats. Street dance moves such as moonwalking, popping and locking, and even krumping are re­imagined and choreographed into fluid movements that can be performed by dancers with a ballet, jazz, or modern dance background. Lyrical hip hop is more focused on dance technique than on the acrobatic aspects of some hip hop dance—­this emphasis on technique implies that moves are prepared rather than suddenly executed; that dance moves are often more exaggerated and take longer than they would as performed on the street or in a ­battle; that lyr­ics are interpreted far more than in street dance, using hand motions and facial expressions; and that ­these lyr­ics are the basis of roles assigned to the dancers. Slow hip hop ­music (for example, new jack swing ballads and hip hop with ele­ments of R&B) are used as accompanying ­music. Lyrical hip hop first gained national attention when it was featured on season four of the American tele­vi­sion show So You Think You Can Dance (2008). A choreographer and judge on the show, Adam Shankman (1964–), is credited for using the term “lyrical hip hop” when discussing a routine choreographed by Tabitha (Tabitha A. Cortopassi, 1973–) and Napoleon D’umo (1968–), danced to En­glish singer Leona Lewis’s (1985–) R&B and pop song “Bleeding Love” (2007). The D’umos are often credited for creating the style; however, dance schools and ware­houses worldwide have been teaching hip hop dance through using dance foundations that existed in other kinds of dance since breakdancing’s popularity in the mid-1980s. The pedagogical goal for teaching hip hop through ballet, jazz, or modern dance is so that dancers without street dance backgrounds can hone transferable skills to learn hip hop, although the idea of learning hip hop dance, in addition to modern dance movements, in leotards and in mirrored studios may appear wooden or artificial to hip hop dance purists. The D’umos continue to teach and choreograph shows that employ lyrical hip hop, including Las Vegas shows such as JabbaWockeeZ’s MÜS.I.C. (2010), the superbowl concert (2012) for Madonna (1958–), K-­pop and hip hop ­music videos such as ­those for South Korean boy group EXO (2012–). Since the 2010s, lyrical hip hop has become especially popu­lar in dance workshops in India. ­Music used has also expanded to include Bollywood ­music, bhangra-beat, and Hindi dubstep. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Breakdancing; Hip Hop Dance; The United States

Further Reading

Fuhrer, Margaret. 2014. “Urban and Commercial Dance.” In American Dance: The Complete Illustrated History, chap. 10. Minneapolis: Voyageur Press. Prickett, Stacey. 2013. “Hip Hop Dance Theatre in London: Legitimising an Art Form.” Dance Research 31, no. 2: 174–190.

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M Macedonia Macedonia, formerly the southernmost republic of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugo­slavia, gained its in­de­pen­dence in 1991. As of 2018, a quarter of Macedonia’s population is ethnically Albanian. Despite Macedonians’ having their own language, which was spoken by its majority and minority Albanian, Romanian, Serbian, and Turkish populations, ­u nder Yugo­slavian rule, Macedonia’s official language is Serbo-­Croatian. Hip hop emerged in Macedonia during the late 1980s, with the transition from the Socialist Republic of Macedonia (1944–1991) to the current Republic of Macedonia (1991–). The earliest recorded rap by Macedonian musicians was in the antiwar song “Rapovanje” (“Rapping”) by the alternative rock band Supernova (1985–1989*), released on the compilation ­album Omladina ’89— ­Subotica (Youth ’89— ­S ubotica, 1989). Ethnic and po­liti­cal tensions ­were on the rise, despite the peace maintained during Macedonia’s in­de­pen­dence and the Yugo­slav wars in the 1990s. Breakdancing and rapping became nonviolent ways to reinforce community building, venting frustrations over the po­liti­cal transition and daily life while promoting tolerance and a shared Macedonian culture. One of the earliest hip hop artists was breakdancer and rapper Vladimir Agovski-­ Ago (aka Temnata strana, The Dark Side, n.d.) from Skopje, who began rapping in 1988. In 1995, Agovski-­Ago’s hardcore rap group the Most Wanted (1991–1996) released the first Macedonian hip hop ­album, Presudniot den (Judgment Day). Agovski-­Ago pursued a solo ­career and started Macedonia’s first hip hop recording label, Dolina Na Senkite (aka DNS, Valley of the Shadows, 1996–). Other pioneering acts ­were the rap and alternative rock group Cista Okolina (Clean Environment, 1989–) and the alternative hip hop group Mosaique (1993–1999), which fused hip hop, jazz, funk, rock, and world ­music. The group SAF (aka Sakam Afro Frizura, I Want an Afro Hairstyle, 1993–) incorporated turntablism and had a hit with “Miss Stone” (1996), which had an anti–­drug abuse message. In 2001, SAF released its debut a­ lbum Safizam (literally, Sapphic) and was the supporting act for American hip hop band Das EFX (1988–) in concert. ­Later 1990s acts ­were Da Dzaka Nakot (1991–), Nulta Pozitiv (1990–2000)*, Risto Bombata (Kristijan Gabrovski, n.d.), and producer and songwriter Darko Dimitrov (1973–). Prominent, more po­liti­cally charged Macedonian hip hop acts into the 2000s include rapper Vrcak (Rade Vrcakovski, 1980–), singer-­songwriter Elena Risteska (1986–), and the groups Legijata (Legion, 2000–), Klan Istok (The East Clan, 2000– 2010)*, G-­Madda Funk (2006–), and Green OuT (2004–). A Macedonian diaspora due to po­liti­cal unrest has led to displaced Macedonian rappers, such as Skopje-­ born singer-­songwriter and producer Jay Jay (Jovan Jovanov, 1981–), who is based in Toronto (his home) and Los Angeles.

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As of 2018, a small hip hop scene can be found in the country’s capital, Skopje, and its largest municipality, Kumanovo. Rapping texts are in Macedonian, but at times rappers employ urban dialects such as Kumanovski, as well as American vernacular En­glish and Serbo-­Croatian. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Albania

Further Reading

Balandina, Alexandra. 2017. “Rap ­Music as a Cultural Mediator in Postconflict Yugo­ slavia.” In Hip Hop at Eu­rope’s Edge: ­Music, Agency, and Social Change, edited by Milosz Miszczynski and Adriana Helbig, chap. 4. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Ortakkov, Dragoslav. 1975. “Approaches to the Study of Macedonian Musical History.” International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of ­Music 6, no. 2: 307–17. Serafimovska, Velika Stojkova, Dave Wilson, and Ivona Opetceska Tatarcevska. 2016. “Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Republic of Macedonia.” Yearbook for Traditional M ­ usic 48: 1–24.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (2009–­, Seattle, Washington) Macklemore and Ryan Lewis is an American duo consisting of rapper and lyricist Macklemore (Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, 1983–) and DJ, artist, and producer Ryan Lewis (1988–). Macklemore is known for his narrative rapping that evokes the ele­ments of storytelling. His tracks tend to include events that unfold over the course of a song. Though most of his lyr­ics are about personal experiences with addiction and with the ­music industry, he has also been known to invoke social justice issues. Macklemore began rapping in high school when he was 15 years old; he eventually went on to complete a bachelor’s degree at the Evergreen State College, where he continued to perform. Among his early influences ­were East Coast hip hop artists and groups, such as Staten Island’s Wu-­Tang Clan (1992–) as well as Mobb Deep (1991–2017), Nas (1973–), Talib Kweli (1975–), and Living Legends (1996–). ­Under the name Professor Macklemore, he recorded an EP titled Open Your Eyes (2000), followed in 2005 by his first full-­length ­album, The Language of My World. Following a period of intense strug­gle with drug addiction and alcoholism and a period spent in rehab, he began collaborating with Lewis in 2008, and the duo released The VS. EP (2009). Macklemore and Lewis’s first studio ­album, The Heist (2012), self-­released and distributed by the Warner ­Music Group (1958–), debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart, sold 1.5 million copies, earned four Grammy Awards, and spawned “­Can’t Hold Us” and “Thrift Shop,” both of which went to No. 1 on the Hot 100. “Thrift Shop” also topped the charts in France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. Also known for activism, Macklemore has worked with the Gateways for Incarcerated Youth program at a juvenile detention fa­cil­i­ty in Chehalis, Washington,

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where he facilitated rap-­based writing workshops. The duo’s activism is apparent in “Same Love,” a pro-­LGBTQ+ marriage equality track that was performed at the  2014 Grammy Awards ceremony; as part of the per­for­mance, Queen Latifah (1970–) officiated the ­legal marriage of 33 same-­sex and opposite-­sex ­couples from the stage. In 2016, the duo self-­released This Unruly Mess I’ve Made. Prior to the ­album’s release, the duo released the singles “Growing Up (Sloane’s Song)” with En­glish acoustic folk-­pop singer-­songwriter Ed Sheeran (1991–) and “Downtown,” which peaked at No. 12 on the Hot 100. The track “White Privilege II” from This Unruly Mess I’ve Made is a sequel to Macklemore’s solo song, “White Privilege” from The Language of My World. “White Privilege II” discusses the importance of the Black Lives ­Matter movement (2013–) and Macklemore’s own experiences of grappling with white privilege. The song, which spans to about nine minutes in duration, charted on Twitter’s Trending 140, which ranks songs according to how often they are mentioned on Twitter. It also features Chicago-­based hip hop, R&B, and soul singer-­songwriter and poet Jamila Woods (1989*–). Lauron Jockwig Kehrer See also: Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Hiatt, Brian. 2013. “393 Million Macklemore (and Ryan Lewis) Fans ­Can’t Be Wrong.” Rolling Stone no. 1190, August 29, 41–45, 70. Pinn, Anthony B. 2012. “What Humanism Might Learn from Hip Hop.” ­Free Inquiry 32, no. 6: 31–35. Vozick-­Levinson, Simon. 2013. “Thrift Shop Hero.” Rolling Stone no. 1180, April 11, 48–51.

Further Listening

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. 2012. The Heist. Self-­released. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. 2016. This Unruly Mess I’ve Made. Self-­released.

Madagascar Madagascar is a Southeast African island country located in the Indian Ocean about 250 nautical miles away from the continent. It gained its in­de­pen­dence in 1960 from France. Since 1992, the country’s government has been a constitutional democracy. Despite isolation, American hip hop reached Madagascar in the mid-1980s, with the Malagasies’ strongest interests focusing on breakdancing and graffiti. The main hip hop center of activity is in its capital, Antananarivo. By the mid-1990s, Malagasy rap had emerged with a preference for rapping in both Malagasy and French (the country’s official languages). Nicknamed haintso haintso (or HH Gasy), this new hip hop incorporated Malagasy traditional and popu­lar ­music and instrumentation. The group MCM Boys (1990–1995) was Madagascar’s first rapping crew; it performed old-­school rap. The crew was originally a four-­member teenage b-­boy group, but its members turned ­toward po­liti­cal and socially conscious rap. Soon the crew became Da Hopp (1995–2001, 2016–). ­After a 15-­year hiatus, Da Hopp re­united,

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using old-­school hip hop as a retro sound against Malagasy rap. In 2016, Da Hopp collaborated with another pioneering rap crew, Takodah sy Ngah b (1995*–), in the boombap single “Avereno ny kajy” (“Repeat the Calculation”). An early rap crew that pioneered turntablism in Malagasy hip hop was Karnaz’ (1996–). Another early crew, 18,3 (1998–2005*), an MC duo formerly known as 18,2 (aka adala be, rap crazy, 1997–1998), fused Malagasy hip hop with humor, R&B, and soul. In 1997, the Malagasy dance com­pany Up the Rap was established, staging breakdancing and fusing it with movements from Madagascar’s extraordinarily diverse traditional dance genres, such as fampithana, joros, dihy soroka, latsitanana, and salegy (the last three are circle dances), as well as Angolan capoeira. As Malagasy hip hop entered the country’s mainstream in the 2000s, more artists have emerged. Rapper Shao Boana (aka FANJAHKKKAGNAMAKUA, Shao Masindrazana, n.d.), though recording in Paris in an effort to become international, raps in French, Malagasy, and En­glish. He fuses Malagasy hip hop with reggae and dancehall. Basy Gasy (Malagasy Gun, 2012–) fuses hip hop and slam poetry with reggae, ragga, and electronica, employing beatboxing, guitars, and percussion. Basy Gasy focuses on urban themes, yet actively avoids gangsta rap lyrical content. It embraces some island mentality and emphasizes rap as poetry, but its use of guitars, reggae fusion, and beatboxing create a generally softer sound than its Malagasy contemporaries. Rapper Name Six (Narcisse Randrianarivony, 1992–) has brought Malagasy rap to worldwide exposure with his lyrical content about everyday life in the country and the social conditions of Malagasy youth since his 2007 se­lection as the first UNICEF (United Nations ­Children’s Fund) Goodwill Ambassador for Eastern and Southern Africa. Female rapper (who calls herself a femcee) and singer-­songwriter Farah (Andriambelona Maminiaina Faratiana, 1987–) focuses on everyday ­women’s issues and feminist activism in Madagascar. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: France; Reggae; South Africa

Further Reading

Boyer-­Rossol, Klara. 2014. “From the ­Great Island to the African Continent through the Western World: Itineraries of a ‘Return to the Origins’ through Hip Hop ­Music in Madagascar (2000–11).” In Hip Hop and Social Change in Africa: Ni Wakati, edited by Msia Kibona Clark and Mickie Mwanzia Koster, chap. 12. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. Ernoff, Ron. 2002. “Phantom Nostalgia and Recollecting (from) the Colonial Past in Tamatave, Madagascar.” Ethnomusicology 46, no. 2: 265–83.

Further Listening

Karnaz’. 2004. Zao Zay. . . . ​Kary_prod.

Mafioso Rap Mafioso rap is a hardcore hip hop subgenre that may have been started in the 1990s by Kool G Rap (aka G Rap, Nathaniel Thomas Wilson, 1968–) and his ­album (as



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Kool G Rap and DJ Polo) Live and Let Die (1992). Lyr­ics of Mafioso rap, like Kool G Rap’s prototype, ­were characterized by references to the Italian American mafia, the Sicilian mafia, African American or­ga­nized crime, and Latin American drug cartels. Mafioso rap became popu­lar when East Coast rappers realized it allowed them to compete with West Coast gangsta rap and G-­f unk. Like gangsta rap, mafioso rap songs could take as their ­angle ­either the vio­lence of or­ga­nized crime (sometimes referred to as hustling), the mastery of crime bosses, the material benefits of an illegal underground economy, and/or the lavishness that illegal activity could bring in the way of w ­ omen, cars, mansions, high fashion, jewelry, and expensive eating and drinking tastes. Kool G Rap is an ex–­Juice Crew (1983–1991) member known for his multisyllabic rhyming and hardcore lyr­ics. Since Live and Let Die, he has infused his lyr­ics with references to real and fictionalized mafioso bosses and criminals such as Sam Giancana (1908–1975), Al Capone (1899–1947), and Al Pacino’s (1940–) fictional mobster Tony Montana from the American film Scarface (1983), sometimes depicting them on his a­ lbums covers. In 1995, Kool G Rap released his solo debut 4, 5, 6 and Wu-­Tang Clan (1992–) member Raekwon (Corey Todd Woods, 1970–) released his solo debut Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. . . . ​The latter contained songs such as “Incarcerated Scarfaces” and “Wu-­Gambinos,” and the ­album, which was constructed to tell a mafioso-­type story, featured almost ­every member of the Wu-­Tang Clan and used strings, piano, and samples from Kung Fu movies and mafia films. The former featured the song “It’s a Shame,” which references Frank Nitti (Francesco Raffaele Nitto, 1886–1943) and depicts the rapper/narrator as a drug kingpin. In the same year, rapper AZ (Anthony Cruz, 1972–) released Doe or Die, which told the story of a mobster’s rise and fall and featured a mob memorial on the front cover and a hand holding a cigar and a glass of champagne on the back. ­L ATER RECORDINGS ­These three ­albums influenced further mafioso titles by East Coast rappers such as Scarface (Brad Terrence Jordan, 1970–), Jay-­Z (1969–), the Notorious B.I.G. (1972–1997), and Nas (1973–), the latter creating a fictional drug dealer alter ego, Nas Escobar. The Diary (1994), by Scarface, reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and spawned two singles, “Hand of the Dead Body” (aka “­People ­Don’t Believe”) and “I Seen a Man Die.” In Reasonable Doubt (1996), Jay-­Z creates a psychological journey through the world of or­ga­nized crime set against jazz and R&B sampled beats and turntablist scratching. Like Reasonable Doubt, the Grammy-​ nominated Life ­After Death (1997), by the Notorious B.I.G.; the influential The Untouchable (1997), by Scarface; and It Was Written (1996), by Nas, w ­ ere commercially successful—­all made it to the top spot on the Billboard 200 ­albums chart. It Was Written is notable for its incorporation of G-­f unk beats and rhythms. ­These a­ lbums expressed concerns with drugs, guns, materialistic excess, thievery, mob connections, and revenge, and like many mafioso rap ­albums, referenced the pulp novels of Al C. Clark (Donald Goines, 1936–1974), a Detroit-­based crime novelist who wrote about urban or­ga­n ized crime. Also in 1997, Nas’s hip hop

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supergroup the Firm (1996–1997) released the mafioso concept ­album The ­Album, a follow-up to It Was Written. It contained songs produced mainly by Dr. Dre (1965–). In 1998, Kool G Rap and AZ released further mafioso ­albums, Roots of Evil and Pieces of a Man, respectively. DECLINE AND INFLUENCE OF MOBB RAP Mafioso rap’s popularity declined by 2000, although some notable ­albums have been released in the last two de­cades, such as Kool G Rap’s The Giancana Story (2002) and Riches, Royalty, Re­spect (2011), Ghostface Killah’s (Dennis Coles, 1970–) Fishscale (2006), Jay-­Z’s American Gangster (2007), Prodigy’s (Albert Johnson, 1974–2017) Return of the Mac (2007), Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx . . . ​Pt. II (2009), and Cold 187um’s (Gregory Fernan Hutchison, 1967–) The Only Solution (2012). ­Women rappers have delved into the mafioso subgenre less often, the most notable example being ex–­Junior M.A.F.I.A. (1992–1997, 2005– 2007) member Lil’ Kim (1975–), whose La Bella Mafia (2003) was certified Platinum. Like G-­f unk, mafioso rap influenced the West Coast subgenre mobb rap, bringing gangsta rap full circle. Mobb rap is associated with the 1990s East Bay area of Oakland, California, where rappers such as Oakland’s Ant Banks (1969–), Too $hort (Todd Anthony Shaw, 1966–), and Dru Down (Danyle Robinson, 1969–); San Francisco’s San Quinn (Quincy Brooks IV, 1977–) and Dre Dog (Andre L. Adams, 1970–); Vallejo’s E-40 (Earl Stevens, 1967–) and Celly Cel (Marcellus McCarver, 1975*–); and Hayward’s Spice 1 (Robert Green Jr., 1970–) became pioneers of their own versions of mafioso rap. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Gangsta Rap; G-Funk; Jay-­Z; Nas; The Notorious B.I.G.; The United States

Further Reading

Harkness, Geoffrey Victor. 2014. Chicago Hustle and Flow: Gangs, Gangsta Rap, and Social Class. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Lozon, Jeffrey, and Moshe Bensimon. 2017. “A Systematic Review on the Functions of Rap among Gangs.” International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 61, no. 11: 1243–61. Quinn, Eithne. 2005. Nuthin’ but a G Thang: The Culture and Commerce of Gangsta Rap. New York: Columbia University Press.

Further Listening

Lil’ Kim. 2003. La bella mafia (Beautiful Mafia W ­ oman). Atlantic. The Notorious B.I.G. 1997. Life a­ fter Death. Bad Boy Entertainment. Raekwon. 1995. Only Built for Cuban Lynx . . . . ​Loud Rec­ords.

Malawi Malawi, one of the smallest African countries, is located in Southeast Africa. It attained its in­de­pen­dence from the United Kingdom in 1964 and became a one-­party

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republic ­until 1994, when President Hastings Kamuzu Banda’s (1898–1997) dictatorship came to an end, resulting in the first demo­cratically elected president, Bakili Muluzi (1943–). During the Banda administration, diaspora took place. For this reason, the most famous Malawian musician is singer-­songwriter Lucius Banda (1970–), who moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, in the 1990s. Banda inspired Malawian reggae and hip hop artists ­because his songs ­were the first to criticize Malawian government’s corruption. By the late 1990s, privatization and expansion of radio had begun to broadcast global pop, Jamaican reggae, and American soul, R&B, and gospel m ­ usic. By 2000, major cities had access to tele­vi­sion channels that broadcast MTV (1981–). Radio and tele­vi­sion are the main sources for accessing global hip hop; as of 2018, Internet access is still limited. Malawians acquired bootlegged or pirated hip hop CDs, audiocassettes, and videos from neighboring countries. Small hip hop scenes are located in Blantyre, Malawi’s business and industry capital, followed by its capital, Lilongwe. Malawian hip hop is message rap influenced by ragga. Lyrical content may protest corruption but concentrates on everyday life, Malawian pride and identity, and unity. B ­ ecause t­ here is no m ­ usic industry in Malawi, musicians go elsewhere to rec­ord, and hip hop is usually performed live in underground clubs, in concerts, or at battling events. Since the 1990s, the preferred rapping text is Chichewa, though some American vernacular is used. The rap group Bubu Lazy (formerly Boyz Lazzy, 1990–2000)* fuses hip hop with kwaito, techno, and disco ­music. Rapper Black Mind (aka The Gifted One, Geoff Chirwa, n.d.) and his group Black Legue (1990–2000)* fused hip hop with reggae. The most famous pioneering Malawian hip hop group was Real Ele­ments (aka Real Elementz, 2000–) from Lilongwe. Since 2002, the group has been based in London. The rap duo Biriwiri (Greenness, 2003–) fuses hip hop with African rhumba and traditional Malawian ­music and rhythms, and ragga. Mid-2000s-­to-2010 Malawian acts include Revolver (Kenneth Muwamba, 1989–2016), Chavura (aka Nyambaro, Mwiza Chavura, n.d.), Krazie-­G (Phineus Moyo, 1992–), and Phyzix (aka Jack Trades, Noel Jack Chikoleka, 1986–). Some more recent Malawian rappers focus on gangsta rap, using rivalry hype and braggadocio. Rapper, producer, and label owner Pop Dogg (Ibramhim Haji, n.d.) lived in the United States and Ireland ­after the diaspora and performed gangsta rap in En­glish and Chichewa. Rapper, singer, and promoter Tay Grin (Limbani Kalilani, 1984–), from Blantyre, has helped establish hip hop events in Malawi through his com­pany Black Rhyno Entertainment (2014–). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Gangsta Rap; Reggae

Further Reading

Fenn, John. 2012. “Style, Message, and Meaning in Malawian Youth Rap and Ragga Per­ for­mances.” In Hip Hop Africa: New African ­Music in a Globalizing World, edited by Eric Charry, chap. 5. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Gilman, Lisa, and John Fenn. 2006. “Dance, Gender, and Popu­lar M ­ usic in Malawi: The Case of Rap and Ragga.” Popu­lar ­Music 25, no. 3: 369–81.

Further Listening

Biriwiri. 2015. The Green A ­ lbum. Ndefeyo.

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Malaysia Malaysia is a multiethnic and multicultural country, and each ethnic group has its own culture and heritage. Within this diversity, vari­ous groups of hip hop musicians and rappers perform in their native languages, including Malay, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Tamil, and En­glish. Performers often rap about politics, life, love, and work, but rarely make references to sex or vio­lence. Current popu­lar rap groups, mostly from Kuala Lumpur, include Kumpulan Phlowtron (Kumpulan means group; 2000*–), Too Phat (1998–), Poetic Ammo (aka Poetic Ammunition or PMO, 1996–2004), Pop Shuvit (2001–), M.O.B. (Members of Blood, 2000s*–), and Kumpulan Teh Tarik (2000*–). Malaysia did not see its first hip hop musicians ­until the late 1980s, when the genre was pop­u­lar­ized by the four-­member group Krash Kozz (1989–1994), which included Najee (anonymous, n.d.), Jakeman (Jake Abdullah, n.d.), DJ Gabriel (anonymous, n.d.), and vocalist Suresh (anonymous, n.d.). The group released mixtape ­albums such as Pump It Up (1990) and New Jack: The Street Beat (1993). Two of the most popu­lar hip hop groups began as underground bands. Pop Shuvit is known for its eclectic blend of hip hop and rock, using guitars, bass, drums, and turntables. It has become a leading act at Asian ­music festivals with tracks in En­glish, Japa­nese, Malay, Tagalog, Thai, and Spanish. Its ­albums include Take It and Shuvit (2003), ­Here and Now (2005), Amped and Dangerous (2006), Tales of the Travelling Tunes (2007), and Cherry Blossom Love Affair (2011). Kumpulan Phlowtron consists of Amaria Syakira (1986–), Saiful Amri (1982–), and Khalid Kamal (1979–). Its songs are sung mainly in Malay, and the ­music fuses hip hop with electronica. ­ Albums include Hip Pop (2003) and Warisan Senikata Malaya (Malay Lyr­ics Heritage, 2007), and songs include “Bicara Neguran” and “Oh Cinta” (“Strike Talk” and “Oh, My Love,” both 2007). Kumpulan Phlowtron has collaborated with Too Phat, a Malaysian duo consisting of Joe Flizzow (Johan A duo consisting of rappers Malique and Joe bin Ishak, 1979–) and Malique Flizzow, Too Phat poses at the 2004 MTV Asia Awards in Singapore. Hailing from Kuala Lumpur, Ibrahim (1977–). Too Phat was the first to comToo Phat was the first Malaysian hip hop act to bine hip hop with both traditional combine hip hop with both traditional Malay sounds and language. (Jun Sato/WireImage/Getty Malay sounds and language. Its single hits include “Li’l Fingaz” Images)



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(1999), “Duo Dunia” (2005), and “One Night Lover” (2012), and its ­albums include Whuttadilly (1999), Plan B (2001), Phat ­Family (2002), 360° (2002), and Rebirth into Real­ity (2005). Too Phat was nominated at the MTV Asia Awards in 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2005. Poetic Ammo (1990–) consists of Yogi B (Yogeswaran Veerasingam, 1974–), Land Slyde (Chandrakumar Balakrishnan, 1971–), Point Blanc (Nicholas Ong, 1979–), and C. Loco (Sashi Kumar Balakrishnan, 1977–), and its songs are in En­glish, Malay, Tamil, and Cantonese. Its ­albums include It’s a Nice Day to Be Alive (1998), The World Is Yours (2000), and Return of tha’ Boombox (2003), and the band has received numerous awards, including Best En­glish A ­ lbum in 1999 and the Best ­Music Video in 2000 and 2001. Too Phat’s single hits include “Ipoh Mali” (in En­glish; the song means “From Ipoh”), “KL Leng Chai” (in Cantonese; the song means “KL Handsome Guy”), and “Indian Girls” (in Tamil). Other notable Malaysian hip hop groups include M.O.B., who ­were featured in operatic lyrical soprano–­turned–­“dance diva” Syafinaz Selamat’s (n.d.) “Rindumu Rinduku” (“I Miss You,” 1999) and had a subsequent hit with the highly autotuned “­Don’t Cha Worry, Foo’ ” (2002). Kumpulan Teh Tarik Crew, which fuses En­glish with Malay in its rapping and incorporates Arabic chanting, have had hit singles that include “DooDat” and “Reminisce” (both released in 2004). By the 2010s, Malaysian hip hop still used the same ele­ments as it did a de­cade previously, and many performers have continued on in the genre. One of the most famous current acts, rapper Joe Flizzow, a former member of Too Phat, has had a solo ­career. His a­ lbums include President (2010) and Havoc (2013). Among other songs on his second ­album, “Apa Khabar” (“What’s New”) became a hit in 2015. Kheng Keow Koay See also: China

Further Reading

Bodden, Michael. 2005. “Rap in Indonesian Youth ­Music of the 1990s: ‘Globalization,’ ‘Outlaw Genres,’ and Social Protest.” Asian ­Music 36, no. 2: 1–26. Pillai, Shanthini. 2013. “Syncretic Cultural Multivocality and the Malaysian Popu­lar Musical Imagination.” Kajian Malaysia: Journal of Malaysian Studies 31, no. 1: 1–18.

Further Listening

Pop Shuvit. 2007. Freakshow Vol. 1: Tales of the Travelling Tunes. Shuvit Management.

The Maldives The Maldives is a South Asian chain of 26 atolls from the Ihavandhippolhu to the Addu Atoll, southwest of India and Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean. Its pristine beaches and beautiful marine life make it a popu­lar tourist destination; however, a strict Sunni Islamic government prosecutes prac­ti­tion­ers of other religions, positions ­women as second-­class citizens, and has been accused of ­human rights violations. The Arab Spring (2010–2012) brought international attention to the country’s po­liti­cal unrest, including the 2011–2012 Maldives peaceful protests and po­liti­cal crisis, the 2012 resignation/ousting of President Mohamed Nasheed (1967–), and his 2014 reelection. Within a tourist-­oriented setting, hip hop activity has been limited to the underground and resort clubs. Maldivian hip hop is influenced by

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American and Indian hip hop, including bhangra-beat (­music that appropriates tradition Punjabi dance ­music and fuses it, often with hip hop, dubstep, or electronic dance ­music beats). Rappers opt for using the country’s official language, Dhivehi. The most notable traditional ­music heard in the Maldives is boduberu (which means big drums), an East African groove-­based dance band ­music that involves an ensemble of 15 musicians, including a singer, backed by percussionists, who play three or four large drums made of coconut wood with goatskin membranes, a bell, and a small bamboo stick marked with horizontal grooves known as an onugandu. Used as part of its tourist scene, especially in the Northern Atolls, boduberu begins with a slow groove that speeds up to an energetic climax. Lyrical content is highly diverse. Traditional Maldivian ­music also ­favors a horizontal accordion called the bulbul tarang, which came from Calcutta in the early 19th ­century. Since the late 1980s, hip hop has taken place mainly in the densely populated capital city of Malé. Few studios are devoted to hip hop, the most notable being Symbolic Rec­ords (2013–). Many of ­these studios rely on music-­streaming ser­vices to disseminate Maldivian hip hop. The first band was Black Prison 8 (2005–2012), who self-­released the first singles in Dhivehi in 2011 in addition to posting ­music videos on YouTube. Black Prison 8 fuses dubstep with hip hop. Dhebandhihaaru’s (2010*–) Magumathi (2013), produced by Symbolic Rec­ords, was the first hip hop ­album produced in the Maldives. Dhebandhihaaru is a collective, with connections to Black Prison 8, that was formed by Symbolic Rec­ords. Early lyrical content focused on gangsta and party rap; however, other kinds of po­liti­cally conscious rap have emerged more recently that focus on social in­equality as well as concern for the country’s ecological well-­being. Like many Indian bhangra-­beat artists, many Maldivian hip hop artists perceive themselves as black. ­Human rights violations have been a concern for hip hop artists who have wanted to or are scheduled to perform in the Maldives. In 2015, internationally known R&B and hip hop artist Akon (1973–) performed a concert ­there to show that it is safe enough to perform in the country as well as to promote Maldivian hip hop. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: India

Further Reading

Bano, Mukee. 2017. “Dance Trance.” Southasia, March 31, 60–61. Sharma, Nitasha Tamar. 2010. Hip Hop Desis: South Asian Americans, Blackness, and a Global Race Consciousness. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Mali Mali is a West African country with a history of colonialism, po­liti­cal unrest, and corruption, as well as periodic droughts and famines. Despite turmoil, ­music is a positive aspect of Malian life and culture. Traditional m ­ usic ele­ments, such as griots and bolon players, still exist, and the oral tradition remains critical, ­because as of 2018, 70 ­percent of Mali’s population was illiterate. Since the late 1980s, Malians have had some access to American, French, and Senegalese (Senrap) hip hop through pirated or bootlegged audiocassettes, CDs, and videos. Malian hip hop culture

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emerged in 1991 in the capital city of Bamako with the transition to a multiparty democracy and deregulation of the media. Radio expanded, but the main source for introducing Malians to hip hop was (and is as of 2018) national tele­vi­sion ­because Malians have l­ittle Internet access. Rapping texts are usually in Bambara (spoken by the Mandé, Mali’s largest population), though sometimes in French and American vernacular En­glish. Lyr­ics protest everyday hardships such as unemployment, poverty, po­liti­cal corruption, censorship, and vio­lence. Storytelling in Malian rap is especially popu­lar if it offers moral lessons. Rapping began underground in informal after­noon private social settings called “grins,” where men conversed, drank tea, and played board games. ­Because of a lack of ­music technology, Malian hip hop began as unaccompanied rap or as rap accompanied by previously composed ­music played on boomboxes. Recording was done at home by privileged Malians who built makeshift private studios. In time, successful Malian rappers recorded in other countries. The pioneering Malian rap crew (for radio airplay) was the short-­lived crew Sofa, which formed in 1989. It consisted of Ivory Coast–­born Malian rapper, slammer, and actor Lassy King Massassy (Lassine Coulibaly, 1971*–). He is considered the ­father of Malian rap, as he helped drive out dictator Moussa Traoré (1936–) in 1991 through protest rapping and ­actual protests. The most famous Malian rap group is Tata Pound (1995–), from Bamako, which released ­albums such as Rien ne va plus (All Bets Are Off, 2000) and Ni Allah sonna ma (If God/Allah W ­ ills It, 2002). It is often compared to American rap group Public ­Enemy (1982–) for its hardcore approach and its protesting against the government’s systematic corruption. Since Tata Pound, Malian hip hop activity has increased greatly, with hip hop concerts becoming extremely popu­lar, but not without serious obstacles. For example, in 2012, a coup d’état leading to the occupation of North Mali by Islamicists resulted in the banning of all secular ­music and threats of severe punishment to Gao rappers. Rapper Amkoullel (1979–) has been critical of the situation, introducing the outside world to it through recordings and interviews, as have l­ ater acts such as rapper Iba One (Ibrahim Sissoko, 1989–) from Kayes and kora player Sidiki Diabaté (1990–) from Bamako. Notable Malian diaspora artists include rapper and Paris City Breakers (1981–) founding dancer Solo (Souleymane Dicko, 1966–) and rapper Mokobé Traore (1981–), of the French group 113 (1996–). Mokebé’s ­music video for “Mali Forever” from his debut studio ­album Mon Afrique (2007) features shots of Bamako, the Niger River, and urban jembe drumming and dancing. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: France; Griot; Senegal; The United States

Further Reading

Morgan, Andy. 2013. ­Music, Culture, and Conflict in Mali. Copenhagen: Freemuse. Schulz, Dorothea E. 2012. “Mapping Cosmopolitan Identities: Rap ­Music and Male Youth Culture in Mali.” In Hip Hop Africa: New African M ­ usic in a Globalizing World, edited by Eric Charry, chap. 6. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Further Listening

Tata Pound. 2001. Ni Allah sonna ma (If God/Allah ­Wills It). Mali K7.

448 Malta

Malta Malta is a South Eu­ro­pean island country of three islands (Malta, Comino, and Gozo) in the ­middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Maltese, the national language (En­glish is an official language), is a Latin-­script, Semitic language descended from the Sicilian-­based Siculo-­Arabic introduced between the 9th and 12th centuries to Malta. As in other Eu­ro­pean countries, hip hop culture emerged in Malta between the early and mid-1980s. Like Italy, Malta has approached its graffiti as outsider art rather than vandalism; the ­little graffiti found in Malta is neverthess intended to be murals, so a more or­ga­nized intent to create art, not vandalism, is expressed. American culture influenced youth to try rapping and breakdancing, although conservative preferences ­toward mainstream pop ­music and traditional Maltese ­music consigned hip hop ­music to the underground ­until 2000. Malta has nevertheless hosted several national rap and breakdance ­battle events. Malta’s most populous city, Birkirkara, rather than its capital city, Valletta, is the country’s center of hip hop activity. The best-­k nown Maltese pioneering rapper is Hooligan (Johnston Farrugia, 1980–), and the country’s best-­known group is No Bling Show (aka No BS, 2009*–). Inspired by Snoop Dogg (1971–), Qrendi-­based Hooligan began rapping using Maltese texts at age 13. In 1999, he moved to Zurrieq to begin his rapping ­career. His debut ­album, Originali bhali (Original Like Me, 2003), became a hit in Malta and was followed by Hooliginali (2006) and Triloġinali (2012). Triloġinali, the first Maltese hip hop ­album to have songs in En­glish, fuses hip hop with electronic dance ­music. No Bling Show raps in Maltese. The group fuses traditional Maltese poetry with folk ­music, such as the Maltese ghana (peasant m ­ usic for socializing and working), with newly composed rapping and beats, as well as sampling and sound effects. In 2013, No Bling Show released the ­album Car kristall (Crystal Clear) as a ­free download. The band tours internationally, spreading its consciousness-­raising messages of Maltese national pride, frustration with the government, and social issues. Its lyr­ ics also attack the conservative preferences of the general Maltese population. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Italy

Further Reading

Cassia, Paul Sant. 2000. “Exoticizing Discoveries and Extraordinary Experiences: ‘Traditional’ ­Music, Modernity, and Nostalgia in Malta and Other Mediterranean Socie­ ties.” Ethnomusicology 44, no. 2: 281–301. Griffiths, Michael. 2016. “Malta’s Walls, and Its Schools, Honor Graffiti as an Art.” New York Times, September 3, A3.

Marley Marl (Marlon Lu’ree Williams, 1962–­, Queens, New York) Marley Marl is a pioneering American hip hop DJ, producer, ­house ­music production expert, and label owner. As a founding producer of Cold Chillin’ Rec­ords



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(1986–1998), Marley Marl established the Juice Crew (1983–1991), a hip hop collective consisting mostly of artists who w ­ ere living in the Queensbridge Houses, a  housing proj­ect in Long Island City, Queens, New York. Early members included  Big ­Daddy Kane (Antonio Hardy, 1968–), Biz Markie (Marcel Theo Hall, 1964–), Masta Ace (Duval Clear, 1966–), Kool G Rap (Nathaniel Thomas Wilson, 1968–), MC Shan (Shawn Moltke, 1965–), and Roxanne Shanté (Lolita Shanté Gooden, 1969–). He is often credited with introducing sampling to hip hop production, as he used samples in his earliest works, and he was one of the first producers to use multilayered sampling, which was being used in electronic dance mixes as well as in electroacoustic art ­music, in hip hop. In addition, he was the first to create beats by making his own drum loops instead of using drum machines. Early in his ­career, Marley Marl explored a drum sound each week. For example, his early ­albums show his experimenting with snare sounds. In the 1980s, it was practical to create a canned sound ­because access to technology was limited, making it practical to reuse recorded reel-­to-­reel tape hip hop ele­ments. For example, the same snare drum sounds can be heard on Eric B. and Rakim’s (1986–1993, 2016–) “Eric B. Is President” (1986) as on MC Shan’s “The Bridge” (1985). Marley Marl’s earliest work utilized an E-mu Emulator sampling keyboard, on which he could import a recorded snare drum hit and use it to create a new rhythm. This technique created his sound, which was fuller, more bass resonant (he would place more sounds to the lower left monitor or speaker field, which is used for bass), and more original than keyboard sample-­and drum machine–­based old-­ school hip hop.

FROM DJ TO PRODUCER Marley Marl grew up in the Queensbridge Houses and took an early interest in ­ usic by watching DJs at ­house parties in the late 1970s and exploring turntabm lism with his ­brother’s LP players. Young Marley Marl assembled the Sureshot Crew (1977–)*, a rapping crew, and worked as an intern at Unique Recording Studios (1979–2004), a five-­room recording studio com­pany in New York City, learning from DJ and rec­ord producer Arthur Baker (1955–), who had worked with hip hop and electronic ­music artists Afrika Bambaataa (1957–), Planet Patrol (1982– 1984, 2006–), and New Order (1980–1993, 1998–2007, 2011–). ­Under Baker’s supervision, Marley Marl’s first produced ­album was “Sucker DJ’s (I ­Will Survive),” a 12-­inch single that was an answer to Run-­D.M.C.’s (1981–2002) “Sucker M.C.s (Krush Groove 1)” (1983). Marley Marl’s girlfriend, Dimples D (Crystal Smith, n.d.), recorded the track, which appeared on Partytime Rec­ords (1983–1984)* ­under Baker’s own Streetwise Rec­ords label (1983–1986)*. At this time, Marley Marl was a DJ who battled with and shared his tools, techniques, and rec­ords with other DJs. He also worked as a radio DJ. In 1983, Marley Marl formed the Juice Crew with Mr. Magic (John Rivas, 1956– 2009), his hip hop radio DJ colleague at New York City’s WHBI (now WXNY). Marley Marl’s first professional production work was mixing for Tuff City Rec­ords

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(1981–), an in­de­pen­dent label that focused on New York City hip hop. His first success was Roxanne Shanté’s “Roxanne’s Revenge” (1984), an answer to U.T.F.O.’s (Untouchable Force Organ­ization, 1984–1992) “Roxanne, Roxanne” (1984) that used the beats from their instrumental version. Shanté’s rapping crew from Queens battled with KRS-­One’s (1965–) crew—to which U.T.F.O. belonged. The latter crew was from the Bronx, New York, and its members claimed that the Bronx was the real home of hip hop. Selling over 250,000 copies in New York City alone, “Roxanne’s Revenge” became a hip hop classic and was the beginning of the Roxanne Wars (1984–1990*), one of the longest strings of answer rec­ords in hip hop history, many of which ­were produced by Marley Marl. In 1985, MC Shan (Shawn Moltke, 1965–) recorded “The Bridge,” a Queensbridge pride song that sparked the Bridge Wars (1985–1990*), and more answer ­albums produced by Marley Marl. COLD CHILLIN’ REC­ORDS, LAWSUIT, AND FURTHER SUCCESS In 1986, Marley Marl helped establish Cold Chillin’ Rec­ords, which was at first run out of his ­sister’s Queensbridge Houses apartment (nicknamed the House of Hits). Though the label was managed by Tyrone Williams (1961–) and run by its president, Kool Lenny (Len Fichtelberg, n.d.–2010), Marley Marl was responsible for most of the label’s output via Juice Crew members. In 1990, he produced LL Cool J’s (1968–) fourth studio ­album, Mama Said Knock You Out, for Def Jam Recordings (1983–). Certified double Platinum, the ­album became Marl’s first huge mainstream success and created a high demand for his ser­vices as a producer and remixer. In 1992, he produced TLC’s (1990–) debut studio ­album Ooooooohhh . . . ​on the TLC Tip, which peaked on the Billboard 200 at No. 14. In 1995, he released House of Hits, a compilation of his productions that marked his departure from Cold Chillin’ as disputes over money and creative control reached a climax. In 1998, he won his lawsuit against Cold Chillin’ Rec­ords, giving him control of his masters, which resulted in the label’s closure. Marley Marl continues to produce ­albums in the 2000s, but at a slower pace than during the Golden Age of Hip Hop (1986–1994). His output in the 2000s includes the compilation ­album Re-­entry (2001) as well as releases and anniversary a­ lbums by rappers Nas (1973–), Busta Rhymes (1972–), KRS-­One, LL Cool J, Raekwon (aka Raekwon the Chef, Corey Woods, 1970–), and M Dot (Michael Januario, 1984–). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Big D ­ addy Kane; Eric B. and Rakim; Roxanne Shanté; The United States

Further Reading

Coleman, Brian. 2007. “Marley Marle: In Control Volume 1.” In Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip Hop Junkies. New York: Villard. Danois, Ericka Blount. 2010. “From Queens Come Kings: Run-­D.M.C. Stomps Hard Out of a ‘Soft’ Borough.” In Hip Hop in Amer­i­ca: A Regional Guide, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 1, chap. 3. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood.

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Martinique Martinique, an island in the French Antilles in the Ca­rib­bean, offers nearby musicians a place to rec­ord. For example, Guadeloupean hip hop artists need a place to rec­ord, and they sometimes rec­ord in Martinique. Although Martinique embraces French culture more than its West Indies neighbors, and French is its official language, Martinican hip hop artists, like their Guatemalan counter­parts, write texts in Antillean Creole, a language natively spoken. Martinique and Guadeloupe are home to zouk, a fast-­tempo ­music used for festivals, and both countries’ hip hop artists adopt ele­ments of zouk. In Martinque, Jamaican reggae is also influential. Some of Martinique’s dance ­music styles, such as chouvel bwa, have galloping beats and, like some hip hop, contain call-­and-­response sections. Borders between French and French Antilles hip hop are permeable. Recently, Martinican rapper and singer Kalash (Kevin Valleray, 1988–) released his debut ­album Kaos (2016), which peaked at No. 4 on the French Syndicat National de l’Édition Phonographique (SNEP) ­album charts. Since 2014, Kalash has also had a string of 10 hit singles in France. Kaos has also peaked at No. 49 on Belgium’s Ultratop ­album chart. Kalash raps primarily in French and Antillean Creole. In the 2000s, Kalash fused social and po­liti­cal hip hop with reggae, and dancehall. French Antilles hip hop emerged in 1984, inspired by the French tele­vi­sion show H.I.P. H.O.P. (1984), which was broadcast in Martinique and Guadeloupe. Breakdancing took hold, though its popularity increased ­later ­because of the 1995 arrival of David Milôme (n.d.), a b-­boy and choreographer of Martinican descent from Lyon, France. In 1996, he formed his dance crew, MD Com­pany (1996–). Due to a lack of technology, Martinican rappers, like Guadeloupean hip hop musicians, would rap over previously composed American beats. Their lyr­ics focused on everyday life, romance, and aspirations. One pioneer of Martinican hip hop, Nèg Lyrical (Rodolphe Richefal, 1976–), began with his group Nèg Ki Pa Ka Fè La Fèt (1989–1991*) before pursuing his solo ­career and helping to establish the Guadeloupean hip hop scene. Nèg Lyrical’s Kimannièoupédimwenanbagaÿkonsapéfèt?! (the title, which is based more on sound than meaning, is a compound wordplay, 1996) was the first Antillean Creole rap a­ lbum recorded in Martinique. Rapper Lord Kossity (Thierry Moutoussamy, 1972–) was born in Paris, but his ­family was from Martinique, and they moved ­there when he was 11 years old. Since the 1990s, Lord Kossity has sold over four million copies. Lord Kossity returned to Paris ­after recording his debut studio ­album An tèt ou sa yé (This Is Yourself, 1997) in Martinique. He started recording ragga, dancehall, and reggae, but in his first recording he incorporated hip hop and zouk. His preferred rapping texts are in French and Antillean Creole, but he also uses some En­glish. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: France; Guadeloupe; Reggae

Further Reading

Berrian, Brenda F. 2000. Awakening Spaces: French Ca­rib­bean Popu­lar Songs, ­Music, and Culture. Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

452 Marxman Gadet, Steve. 2015. “Hip Hop Culture: Bridging Gaps between Young Ca­rib­bean Citizens.” Ca­rib­bean Quarterly 61, no. 1: 75–97.

Further Listening

Lord Kossity. 1997. An tèt ou sa yé (This Is Yourself ). Killko Rec­ords. Lord Kossity. 2005. Booming System. Universal Licensing ­Music (ULM).

Marxman (1989–1996, London, E­ ngland) Marxman was a Dublin-­and Bristol-­based Irish En­glish four-­member Marxist and Celtic hip hop band that fused hardcore rap, po­liti­cal hip hop, and ambient electronica with traditional Irish ­music. It began in Dublin with graffiti artist MC Hollis Byrne (1969–) and electronic musician Oisín Lunny (aka First Born, n.d.) who became friends through their musical ­fathers, who performed together as part of the Irish folk pop band Emmet Spiceland (1967–1973). In 1989, Lunny re­united with Byrne in London and became the third member of Byrne’s current duo with his college friend MC Phrase (aka Phrase D, Stephen Brown, n.d.). ­After adding DJ and turntablist Kay One (anonymous, n.d.), Marxman performed in both the London and Bristol hip hop scenes, helping to establish the Bristol sound in the 1990s, a combination of hip hop, soul, electronica, and trance that formed trip hop (downtempo), a ­music identified with groups such as Massive Attack (1988–) and Portishead (1991–) as well as vocalist-­producer Tricky (Adrian Nicholas Matthews Thaws, 1968–). Marxman appealed to listeners ­because of its combination of traditional Irish ­music against hardcore rap, the flexibility to perform alternative hip hop, use of turntablism, and the inclusion of po­liti­cal messages. Marxman’s lyrical content focused on strong, militant, socialist messages, as well as protests against ­England’s control over Ireland, economic disparity, and domestic vio­lence. With a strong cult following, Marxman was one of the earliest bands to sign with the London-­based Talkin’ Loud (1990–) label. Marxman was unusual for its combination of po­liti­cal hip hop and Irish folk ­music, but it was best known for its debut single, “Sad Affair” (1992), which was banned from British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) radio ­because of its lyr­ics. With some borrowing from John Gibbs’ (n.d.) traditional-­style Irish rebel song “Irish Ways and Irish Laws” (1981), “Sad Affair” was perceived to express support of the Irish Republican Army (IRA, 1917*–). Marxman’s other hit single, “All About Eve,” peaked at No. 28 on the U.K. Singles Chart. Both songs ­were from the band’s debut a­ lbum, 33 Revolutions per Minute (1993). Ultimately, the band collaborated with acts such as Irish alternative, pop, and folk rock singer Sinéad O’Connor (1966–), American hip hop duo Gang Starr’s (1986–2003) DJ Premier (aka Preem, Premo, Primo, Christopher Edward Martin, 1966–), and Celtic punk and folk band the Pogues’ (1982–1996, 2001–2014) James McNally (n.d.). The last is now the composer and producer of the electronic fusion band Afro Celt Sound System (1995–). Marxman’s second and last ­album was Time



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Capsule (1996). As of 2018, Lunny continues as a ­music producer and film composer. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Hardcore Hip Hop; Ireland; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Gardner, Elysa. 1994. “New ­Faces: Marxman.” Rolling Stone no. 690, September 8, 44. Heaney, Mick. 1999. “The Son That Also Shines Underground.” Sunday Times (London), June 13, 14. Moriarty, Máiréad. 2015. “Hip Hop, LPP, and Globalization.” In Globalizing Language Policy and Planning: An Irish Language Perspective, chap. 6. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Further Listening

Marxman. 1993. 33 Revolutions per Minute. Talkin’ Loud.

Massive Monkees (1995*–­, Seattle, Washington) Massive Monkees is a b-­boy crew that was created through the merger of Seattle’s Massive Crew (n.d.) and the Universal Style Monkees (n.d.). It began competing in 1999 and is best known for winning the four-­on-­four category in the 2004 World B-­Boy Championships in London and appearing on season four (2009) of MTV’s Amer­i­ca’s Best Dance Crew. While on Amer­i­ca’s Best Dance Crew, the crew finished third ­after episodes of dancing with hula hoops, incorporating capoeira, bhangra dance, and d­ oing the Ricky Bobby dance on a trampoline. The Ricky Bobby dance is based on the eponymous character in the American film Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), starring comedian ­Will Farrell (John William Ferrell, 1967–). The dance incorporates the character’s moves, which include pantomiming steering a race car, posing like a celebrity, and imitating the character’s sudden paralysis ­after a ner­vous breakdown, thus creating a wheelchairing motion. In 2012, Massive Monkees won the annual international b-­boy competition R-16 ­Korea, a dance and urban arts cultural festival, in a two-­day event featuring 16 b-­boy crews representing 15 countries. It became the first American crew to win in the history of the competition. The Massive Monkees have 28 active members including rapper One Be Lo/ Nahshid Sulaiman (Ralond Scruggs, 1976–) of the former Pontiac, Michigan hip hop duo Binary Star (1998–2000, 2009–2014), who performs as the MC at their shows. The crew’s style, which features humor, lots of group choreography, and acrobatics, is nonetheless traditional in its use of fundamental b-­boy skills. Aside from commercial per­for­mances, the crew performs at high schools to dissuade gang vio­lence. In 2013, Jay Park (Park Jae-­beom, 1987–) of Edmonds, Washington, who was a member of the b-­boy crew Art of Movement (2002–), released a single, “Joah,”

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which features a short dance break at the Beacon, the Massive Monkees studio in the Milwaukee ­Hotel building in Seattle. In 2007, the crew received the Seattle’s Mayor’s Arts Award. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Battling; Breakdancing; Hip Hop Dance; The United States

Further Reading

Potterf, Tina. 2003. “The Art of Massive Monkees: Breakdancing Troupe Turns Moves and Ingenuity into ‘Our Passion.’ ” Seattle Times, October 26, K1. Schloss, Joseph G. 2009. Foundation: B-­Boys, B-­Girls, and Hip Hop Culture in New York. New York: Oxford University Press.

Master P (Percy Robert Miller, 1970–­, New Orleans, Louisiana) Master P is a rap and hip hop producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter; found­er/ owner of No Limit Rec­ords (1990–2003); and found­er/CEO of P. Miller Enterprises and Better Black Tele­vi­sion (2008–) in New Orleans. He has also been a tele­vi­sion executive (Better Black Tele­vi­sion), author, philanthropist, filmmaker, and minor actor. His rec­ord com­pany, No Limit, which became New No Limit and No Limit Forever (2010–) and is affiliated with Guttar ­Music (2005–2008*), is one of the major players in rap and hip hop m ­ usic. Master P has released solo a­ lbums, as well as ­albums with the New Orleans–­based groups TRU (The Real Untouchables, 1995– 2002) and 504 Boyz (2000–2005), as well as proj­ect bands Louie V. Mob (2013), and Money Mafia (2015). Master P is the ­brother of rapper and producer C-­Murder (1971–) and rapper Silkk the Shocker (Vyshonne King Miller, 1975–) and the f­ ather of rapper-­actor Lil Romeo (Percy Romeo Miller Jr., 1989–), all from New Orleans. ORIGINS AND SUCCESS OF NO LIMIT REC­ORDS Originally from the Calliope Proj­ects in New Orleans, Miller began his rap ­career in Richmond, California, where he had moved to attend business school and open a rec­ord store called No Limit Rec­ords. Working with In-­A-­Minute Rec­ords (1991– 2000) in nearby Oakland, California, he transformed No Limit in February 1991 to a rec­ord label, releasing the solo a­ lbum Get Away Clean (featuring TRU). His follow-up solos, Mama’s Bad Boy (1992), The Ghettos Tryin to Kill Me! (1994, rereleased 1997), and 99 Ways to Die (1995) saw limited success, even though the latter was distributed by Priority Rec­ords (1985–). In 1994, he started collaborating with artists on the No Limit label, with compilation a­ lbums West Coast Bad Boyz, Vol. 1: Anotha Level of the Game and West Coast Bad Boyz: High fo Xmas. Meanwhile, he had begun recording as part of the hip hop ­music trio TRU (originally a sextet), releasing Understanding the Criminal Mind (1992) and Who’s da Killer? (1993). In 1995, the same year that Master P moved No Limit from Richmond, California to New Orleans to create a team of Southern style rappers, TRU had its



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breakthrough with True, which peaked at No.  25 on the Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart and produced the hit single “I’m Bout’ It, Bout It.” Armed with an in-­ house production team, Beats By the Pound, No Limit released Master P’s Ice Cream Man (1995), with his second hit single, “Mr. Ice Cream Man,” and TRU’s Tru 2 da Game (1997), which stands out for its collaborations with Mia X (Mia Young, 1970–), from New Orleans, and Mo  B. Dick (Raymond Poole, 1965–), from Morgan City, Louisiana. Tru 2 da Game stands out for its diversity of sound, being influenced by Ca­rib­bean and New Orleans ­music, as well as sound effects and sampling. The track “I Always Feel Like” samples both Rockwell’s (KenAmerican ­music producer, rapper, and singer-­ nedy William Gordy, 1964–) hit songwriter Master P is founder and owner of the “Somebody’s Watching Me” highly successful No Limit Rec­ords, as well as (1984) and the theme from the P. Miller Enterprises and Better Black Tele­vi­sion, American anthology tele­vi­sion both based in New Orleans. (Jeffrey Mayer/ program The Twilight Zone Wireimage/Getty Images) (1959–1964). The ­album was also noted for its humorous interludes and popularization of the phrase “No Limit Soldier For Life,” which became the label’s trademark. The ­album starts out with Master P’s talking to his son about “the game,” overcoming jealousy, being supportive of other African Americans, and achieving success and in­de­ pen­dence. A daring double CD by a little-­k nown (at the time) group, Tru 2 da Game is ­today considered a benchmark recording in gangsta rap (referred to as thug rap by No Limit) and hip hop. SOLO ­CAREER AND FURTHER PRODUCTIONS Master P’s solo success came with Ghetto D (1997), which sold 761,000 copies in its first week and eventually was awarded ­triple Platinum status. Its single, “Make ‘Em Say Uhh!” ranks as one of his most popu­lar songs, and it was nominated as MTV’s “Best Rap Video.” His next ­album, MP Da Last Don (1998), the basis for an in­de­pen­dent film (No Limit Films, 1997–2000) of the same name codirected and written by Master P, sold even better (turning qua­dru­ple Platinum) and debuted

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at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200. In the same year, he also starred in and scored the ­music for I Got the Hook Up (distributed by Miramax). His next ­albums, Only God Can Judge Me (1999) and Ghetto Postage (2000), ­were moderate successes, but the former was released in the same year as TRU’s Da Crime ­Family. In 2000, he created a new group, 504 Boyz, and No Limit released the debut ­album Goodfellas, which peaked at No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart. To address the label’s waning popularity, he retooled it, moved back to Los Angeles, and created the New No Limit (2001–), releasing the solo ­albums Game Face (2001) and Good Side, Bad Side (2004), as well as the 504 Boyz’s Ballers (2002) and Hurricane Katrina: We Gon Bounce Back (2005), and TRU’s The Truth (2005). During this time, C-­Murder’s murder conviction, sales, departing artists, and lawsuits forced the com­pany into bankruptcy. In 2005, he created the label Guttar ­Music, releasing the following ­albums and mixtapes: Living Legend: Certified D-­Boy. Master P’s ­albums since then have been Ghetto Bill (2005), Amer­i­ca’s Most Luved Bad Guy (2006), TMZ (2012), Famous Again (2013), Al Capone (2013), The Gift (2013), Empire, from the Hood to Hollywood (2015), #CP3 (2015), Ice Cream Man (three mixtapes in 2016), and Boss of All Bosses (2016). In 2010, he created No Limit Forever, also in Los Angeles. In 2015, his most recent group, Money Mafia (2015–), released its debut ­album, Rarri Boys. As of 2013, Miller was one of the wealthiest figures in American hip hop, worth over $300 million. Despite his wealth, he views himself as a ­family man and ­father who married his high school sweetheart; in interviews he states that he constantly fights the gangsta and thug rap image by remaining ever pres­ent in his ­children’s lives, making sure that they are well educated, and teaching them to take over his ­music business. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Bounce; C-­Murder; Gangsta Rap; The United States

Further Reading

Chappell, Kevin. 2002. “Master P Raps about His Rapper Son, His $500 Million Empire and Why He Cleaned up His Act.” Ebony, 57, no. 8: 57–58, 60. Oliver, Richard, and Tim Leffel. 2006. “ ‘Ghetto Bill: The Man Is the Brand.’ ” In Hip Hop, Inc.: Success Strategies of the Rap Moguls, chap. 8. New York: Thunder’s Mouth.

Further Listening

Master P. 1997. Tru 2 da Game. No Limit.

Mauritius Mauritius is a Southeast African island nation located 700 miles east of Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean. Along with islands such as Rodrigues, Ré­union, and Saint Brandon, Mauritius is part of the Mascarene Islands. In 1968, Mauritius gained its in­de­pen­dence from the United Kingdom. Mauritians are mostly of Indian descent, with a large Creole minority, followed by small Chinese and Eu­ro­pean populations. En­glish is the unofficial language (the Mauritian constitution deems no official

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language); however, French, Mauritian Creole, and Bhojpuri are national languages. Po­liti­cal unrest and numerous revolts took place in the 1970s and 1980s, but an increase in tourism led to an economic boost in the late 1980s, which helped Mauritius to become a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations (formerly the British Commonwealth, 1949–) in 1992. The emergence of American, French, and En­glish hip hop coincided with the tourism boon. Interest began in 1992 with the formation of breakdance crews such as Street ­Brothers and Boogie Side Gang, both formed to support the Otentik Street ­Brothers, a seggae group (seggae is the fusion of reggae with traditional ­music of the Mascarene Islands and Mauritian sega, a popu­lar dance m ­ usic). Mauritian hip hop ­music began in the early 1990s in capital city Port Louis and other large towns such as Beau Bassin–­Rose Hill. Pioneering acts included N.A.S. Possi (1992–) and Urban Tribal Clan (2002*–). French and Mauritian Creole are the preferred languages of Mauritian hip hop, followed by American vernacular. Other popu­lar acts included A4C (2002–), North Side Zoo (NSZ, 2004–), and Wu Team (aka Wake Up Team, 2002*–). Wu Team fuses hip hop with reggae, funk, and neo soul, and in 2006, group member Kenjee (aka KenjEe KeNnedy, 1982*–), a rapper, sound recording and film producer, and videogame sound designer, started TaffBongLab Prod (TBL, 2006–2010), a DIY home ­music studio label that produced several ­albums digitally. Its first recording was the collaborative mixtape, Kolt’Art Mix (2008) by the Mauritian rap collective Section Kolt’art (2008–), launched by Kenjee. In 2010, Kenjee’s Wake Up Entertainment and the Wake Up (Street) Sessions ­were formed, the latter a street dance ­battle event to promote self-­esteem in Mauritian youth. TBL has also produced Mafia Swagg (2012–) and the Malagasy group Majunga (2015–). Mauritian hip hop is strongly influenced by seggae and reggae. Its lyrical content partly focuses on frustrations about the government, vio­lence, and in­equality and partly on American-­and French-­inspired topics, including braggadocio and partying. The best-­k nown Mauritian hip hop diaspora acts include Paris’s Mauritian All Stars (aka MAS Team, 2010–) and London-­born electronica singer and percussionist Mo Kolours (Joseph Deenmamode, n.d.). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: France; Reggae

Further Reading

Pyndiah, Gitanjali. 2016. “Decolonizing Creole on the Mauritius Islands: Creative Practices in Mauritian Creole.” Island Studies Journal 11, no. 2: 484–504. Thannoo, Babita. 2012. “Rap M ­ usic in Mauritius.” Wasafiri 27, no. 4: 35–41.

Further Listening

WU Team. 2007. T-­East. Streetbounce Productions.

MBS (Le Micro Brise le Silence, 1988–­, Algiers, Algeria) MBS, an acronym for Le Micro Brise le Silence (The Microphone Breaks the Silence), is an Algerian rap crew of MCs that raps and sings in Algerian French and

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Algerian Arabic—­the latter being one of the two official languages of Algeria, the other being Tamazight, also known as Berber (a language that is a kind of Maghrebi Arabic, with a large number of loanwords from French, but also from Spanish and Ottoman Turkish). MBS combines rap with traditional Algerian ­music. Formed in 1988 while in the capital city of Algiers, members include their leader, Rabah Ourrad (aka Donquishoot, n.d.), along with Yacine (aka Ayad Yasine, n.d.), Red One (Cheb Redouan, n.d.), and M’Hand (aka Deymed, Touat M’hand, n.d.). MBS focuses primarily on po­liti­cal rap, emerging first in response against the Algerian Government’s hostile military takeover of the National Liberation Front (FLN) ­after the party’s own dishonest cancellation of parliament elections, which would have likely led to victory for the Islamic Salvation Front (FLS) party. ­These events and the military government’s oppression of ­these parties and its ­people led to the Algerian Civil War (1991–2002), another subject of protest found in MBS’s rap. Themes include rapping and singing against government abuses, suffering ­under Algeria’s deteriorating conditions, and youth frustrations over unemployment and failures of the Algerian education system, in addition to the horrors of witnessing massacres. The positive reception of MBS’s debut and subsequent early ­albums, Ouled El bahdja (The C ­ hildren of the Radiant, 1998), Hbibti Aouama (My Lover Is a Good Swimmer, 1998*), and Le Micro Brise Le Silence (1999), the first two produced by Totem Rec­ords (1989–1998*) and the eponymous one by Universal (1996–) in Paris, as well as the band’s touring and moving to Paris, helped to bring international attention and acclaim despite censorship in Algeria. ­After living in Paris for three years and pursuing a variety of proj­ects as solo and duo efforts, the band released Wellew (They Have Returned, 2001, self-­released) and its last ­album Maquis Bla Sleh (Marquis Without Weapons, 2005, Izem Prod). Both reconnect to MBS’s Algerian origins and are dedicated to the ­people of Hussein Dey, a suburb of Algiers. Although they are still together, as of 2018, all have worked on separate recording proj­ects rather than producing a current a­ lbum together. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Algeria; France; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop

Further Reading

Davies, Eirlys E., and Abdelali Bentahila. 2006. “Code Switching and the Globalization of Popu­lar ­Music: The Case of North African Rai and Rap.” Multilingua: Journal of Cross-­Cultural and Interlanguage Communication 25, no. 4: 367–92. El Zein, Rayya. 2016. “Call and Response, Radical Belonging, and Arabic Hip Hop in ‘the West.’ ” In American Studies Encounters the ­Middle East, edited by Alex Lubin and Marwan M. Kraidy, pp. 106–36. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Further Listening

MBS. 1999. Le micro brise le silence (The Microphone Breaks the Silence). Universal. MBS. 2005. Maquis bla sleh (Marquis without Weapons). Izem Prod

MC MC is an honorific bestowed on rappers. A term analogous to the lead singer of a rock ­music band, MC is a shortened version of the word emcee and is loosely related

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to the idea of the master of ceremonies, the official who hosts a staged event or ceremony. By the late 1970s, in rap ­music jargon MC was basically synonymous with rapper, as opposed to the term DJ, an honorific bestowed upon turntablists (and sometimes producers and samplers). Early MCs ­were private DJs who worked parties and clubs, where their jobs ­were to both keep the ­music playing and keep the crowd engaged through call-­and-­response, calls to dance, and manipulation of beats and rhythms. Successful MCs were ­ ­ those who could master both improvised rap—­what is often called freestyle—­and established, prewritten rhymed verses. Usually, the MC is the In 1979 the pioneering group Grandmaster Flash liaison to the audience and as and the Furious Five released its first single, such introduces the group’s DJ; “Superappin’.” The original lineup in this 1980 however, some hip hop bands, New York portrait featured Grandmaster Flash such as Salt-­N-­Pepa (1985–2002, as DJ (center) with five MCs (clockwise from 2007–), reverse the trend and use upper left): Scorpio, Kidd Creole, Keef Cowboy, the DJ to energize the crowd and Rahiem, and Melle Mel. (Anthony Barboza/Getty make vari­ous announcements. Images) The most impor­tant ele­ment of the MC’s job is to engage or energize the crowd through a combination of boasts about skill and/or attacks on other rappers. EARLY EXAMPLES Perhaps the earliest American rapper to use the epithet “MC” before his name was Melle Mel (1961–), a pioneering American rapper from the Bronx, who worked as the lead rapper and songwriter for Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (1976–1982, 1987–1988) before embarking on a solo ­career. As lead rapper, he often took on the role of Master of Ceremonies during per­for­mances. His best-­ known hit was the classic old-­school hip hop song “The Message,” which appeared on Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s ­album of the same title (1982). Another rapper who acquired the epithet early was MC Hammer (1962–). He chose to do so ­because he acted as Master of Ceremonies at vari­ous dance clubs while on the road with the Oakland Athletics baseball team. As early as 1988, he used the term in the opening line of his guest rap on the Jon Gibson (1964–) song “This Wall,” from Gibson’s Change of Heart ­album (1988).

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The practice itself, however, goes back further—­although the term’s Americanization changed practices significantly. The role of the rap-­associated MC may be rooted in the bolon player, a male musician who plays the bolon (a wooden bow-­ shaped harp with three or four stings from West African countries such as Mali) and has the ability to criticize leadership or in­equality in both serious and playfully insulting ways and some griot practices also found in West African countries such as Senegal, the Gambia, or Mali. It is also rooted in a combination of the Jamaican practice of toasting, which occurs when a Master of Ceremonies working also as a dance hall deejay would use rhymed introductions and announcements to engage the crowd before and a­ fter a dancer or a band performed and the African American DJ practice of talking jive. As Jamaican immigrants moved to New York City, they influenced hip hop, which was at that time a new ­music genre, by bringing to it the practice of rhythmic spoken word (rapping). The earliest American rapping MCs worked parties, often coming up with improvised party rhymes; such MCs are often referred to as old-­school, and their styles as old-­school rap or hip hop. Their rhymed improvisations ­were predictably about dancing, enjoying the m ­ usic, competing with ­others for attention from the opposite sex, and drawing attention to yourself as a superior performer; for this reason their raps w ­ ere good-­natured, humorous, and often included call-­and-­response sections so that the crowd could be involved. THEMES AND LITERARY TECHNIQUES Early rappers, such as Spoonie Gee (1963–) of the Sugar Hill Rec­ords (1986– 1995) label’s Treacherous Three (1978–1984) emphasized lyr­ics about love and sex. ­Later MCs would express lyr­ics that w ­ ere more concerned with sociopo­liti­cal issues. Hip hop artists such as KRS-­One (1965–), Public ­Enemy (1982–), Mos Def (1973–), Jay-­Z (1969–), Nas (1973–), the Notorious B.I.G. (1972–1997), and Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) rapped about discrimination, poverty, police brutality, teenage pregnancy, and racism; in some instances, their raps would be viewed as glamorizing crime, a criticism often leveled at Schoolly D (Jesse Bonds Weaver  Jr., 1962–), KRS-­One (in the early years), Ice-­T (1958–), N.W.A. (1986– 1991), and Public ­Enemy. The other major theme seen in MC raps is luxury, or the pursuit of “bling.” Since the early 1990s, rappers have created boast lyr­ics about wealth, which usually involves a good bit of product placement in videos and name-­dropping in lyr­ics. More recent trends in MCing have included the assimilation of religion into rap, as with Christian Hip Hop and the rappers who represent the Five ­Percent Nation (1964–), an Islamic religious and spirituality organ­ization founded in Harlem, New York, the latter including benchmark MCs and bands such as Rakim (1968–), the Wu–­Tang Clan (1992–), Brand Nubian (1989–), and Busta Rhymes (1972–). Like other song lyricists, MCs make extensive use of simile, meta­phor, wordplay, rhyme, alliteration, assonance, and double entendre. For the most part, MCs use street idioms and vernacular language in their raps, and most of their imagery is derived from the urban scene. They are much more likely than lyricists in other popu­lar ­music genres to use their regional dialects, since their songs are designed to tell the stories of their neighborhoods. In addition to scripted lyr­ics, rappers also



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are expected to master freestyle rap, which can be partially or entirely improvised. This further emphasizes the local, since it is easier to create on-­the-­spot lyr­ics when referencing p­ eople, places, and objects in an immediate setting. One style of freestyle is the ­battle rap, wherein two MCs act as opponents and compete to prove their authenticity and originality through insults and boasts. As far as rap styles go, they range from breathless and frenetic to laid-­back and carefully articulated, and from solo to call-­and-­response. Though the majority of rappers are male, some female rappers have made their mark on the MC world, namely MC Lyte (1970–), Missy Elliott (1971–), Queen Latifah (1970–), Da Brat (1974–), Eve (Eve Jihan Jeffers–­Cooper, 1978–), M.I.A. (1975–), and Nicki Minaj (1982–). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Chopper; Turntablism

Further Reading

Edwards, Paul. 2009. How to Rap: The Art and Science of the Hip Hop MC. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. Edwards, Paul. 2013. How to Rap 2: Advanced Flow and Delivery Techniques. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. Krims, Adam. 2001. Rap ­Music and the Poetics of Identity. Cambridge, ­England: Cambridge University Press.

mc chris (Christopher Brendan Ward IV, 1975–­, Libertyville, Illinois) MC Chris (stylized as mc chris) is an American hip hop musician and rapper who is often considered a nerdcore artist, even though he actively distanced himself from nerdcore ­until ­after 2010, when he became less resistant to the affiliation; he now self-­identifies as a rapper who raps about nerd life. One of the most defining characteristics of his musical style is his high-­pitched, androgynous voice. Other defining characteristics of his ­music include a lyrical alignment with subjects that are relevant to the nerdcore hip hop audience, such as obsessions with Star Wars (“Fett’s ’Vette,” 2001) and video games (“Luigi,” 2014), and a preoccupation with romantic and sexual difficulties (“On*,” 2008) and nerd identity (“Geek,” 2003). Unlike ­those of other nerdcore artists, mc chris’s lyr­ics are often dark, explicit, and sometimes violent or aggressive. For example, “The Tussin” (2001) is an ode to robo-­tripping, or intentionally overdosing on dextromethorphan, and “Tarantino” (2011) is an expletive-­laden track about the American film director Quentin Tarantino (1963–). In the early part of his recording ­career, mc chris worked primarily with producer John Fewell (1980*–), but his ­music since 2008 has been produced in collaboration with Andrew Futral (1982*–). Beginning his ­career as a writer and animator for several tele­vi­sion shows on Adult Swim, the late-­night animated tele­vi­sion program block that airs on the Turner Broadcasting System’s Cartoon Network, mc chris worked on programs including Space Ghost Coast to Coast (1994–2008), Sealab 2021 (2000–2005), and Aqua Teen Hunger Force (2000–2015). His breakout role came when he voice-­acted the character MC Pee Pants on Aqua Teen Hunger Force in the early 2000s.

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In 2001, he released his first full-­length studio ­album, Life’s a B—­and I’m Her Pimp, while he was still working at Adult Swim. He has released a total of nine full-­length studio ­albums, as well as several EPs, compilation ­albums, and mixtapes. His ­albums frequently mix ­music tracks with short skits about zombies, film directors he admires, and other topics of interest. As of 2018, his first ­album and all of his mixtapes are available for ­free download (he has noted how difficult it is to profit from sales of his other ­albums ­because many of his fans share and download the tracks online for ­free). In 2004, mc chris left Adult Swim permanently (approximately the time his third ­album, Eating’s Not Cheating, was released) to focus on his recording ­career. Since then, he has written and starred in several animated pi­lot proj­ects, none of which has been picked up by major networks for production or distribution. Amanda Sewell See also: Chap Hop; MC Frontalot; MC Lars; Nerdcore; The United States

Further Reading

Sewell, Amanda. 2015. “Nerdcore Hip Hop.” In The Cambridge Companion to Hip Hop, edited by Justin Williams, chap. 16. Cambridge, ­England: Cambridge University Press. Tanz, Jason. 2007. “White-­on-­W hite Rhyme: 8 Mile, Nerdcore, and Mooks.” In Other ­People’s Property: A Shadow History of Hip Hop in White Amer­i­ca, chap. 7. New York: Bloomsbury.

Further Viewing

Farsad, Negin, dir. 2008. Nerdcore Rising. Vaguely Qualified Productions. Lamoreux, Dan. dir. 2008. Nerdcore for Life. Crapbot Productions.

MC Frontalot (Damian Hess, 1973–­, San Francisco, California) MC Frontalot is an American nerdcore artist based out of Brooklyn, New York. He is credited with coining the term nerdcore hip hop in 2000 with a song of the same name and is generally regarded as the ­father of nerdcore by both musicians and critics. His moniker makes light of the fact that, as a nerdy white person, he is putting on a front by trying to be a rapper. Known for his humor, MC Frontalot has claimed to be the 579th greatest rapper in the world. Aside from their tongue-­ in-­cheek lyr­ics, MC Frontalot’s songs focus on familiar nerdcore topics, including obsessions with Star Wars (“Yellow ­Lasers,” 2005), video games (“Penny Arcade Theme,” 2002), and grammar (“Tongue-­Clucking Grammarian,” 2008); they also deal with social issues faced by nerds, such as awkwardness (“Wallflowers,” 2008) and romantic rejection (“Goth Girls,” 2005). Most of his tracks are created in collaboration with Canadian producer Baddd Spellah (David T. Cheong, 1972*–) for keyboards and drum programming, as well as American Gminor7 (Gabriel Alter, n.d.) for keyboards. Although he had been releasing his ­music online since 1999 through the online competition Song Fight!, MC Frontalot’s breakthrough came in 2002, when the web comic Penny Arcade declared him the “Official MC of Penny Arcade.” In response, he recorded



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“Penny Arcade Theme” the same year, and it has become one of his signature tracks. MC Frontalot’s first full-­length ­album, Nerdcore Rising, was not completed u­ ntil 2005, and it contained a mixture of new tracks as well as rerecorded demos and Song Fight! entries. He has released a total of six full-­length studio ­albums, as well as dozens of demos, mixtapes, and live tracks, many of which, as of 2018, are available to download for f­ ree. He frequently collaborates with other nerdcore artists, including American rapper MC Hawking (Ken Lawrence, 1970*–) and Canadian rapper Jesse Dangerously (Jesse McDonald, 1979–). He has also worked with more mainstream hip hop artists, including South African–­born American rapper Jean Grae (1976–) and Canadian DJ and Canadian turntablist Kid Koala (Eric San, 1974–). MC Frontalot is one of the most out­spoken members of the nerdcore community, having been interviewed by major news outlets such as National Public Radio and Newsweek magazine. He and his collaborators ­were the subjects of Nerdcore Rising, a 2008 documentary named for MC Frontalot’s track and ­album and which also included interviews with nerdcore-­affiliated artists such as mc chris (1975–) and MC Lars (1982–). MC Frontalot has also entered 21st-­century mainstream pop culture by appearing as a guest judge on the TBS real­ity show King of the Nerds (2013–2015) and performing the original track “Toilet Paper Factory” in the Sesame Street direct-­ to-­DVD Elmo’s Potty Time (2005). Amanda Sewell See also: Chap Hop; mc chris; MC Lars; Nerdcore; The United States

Further Reading

Braiker, Brian. 2007. “Geeksta Rap Rising.” Newsweek 149, no. 5: 58. Colgan, Jim. 2005. “Nerd Hip Hop, Flowing Like Han Solo.” Day to Day (National Public Radio), November 7. Sewell, Amanda. 2015. “Nerdcore Hip Hop.” In The Cambridge Companion to Hip Hop, edited by Justin Williams, chap. 16. Cambridge, ­England: Cambridge University Press. Tanz, Jason. 2007. “White-­on-­W hite Rhyme: 8 Mile, Nerdcore, and Mooks.” In Other ­People’s Property: A Shadow History of Hip Hop in White Amer­i­ca, chap. 7. New York: Bloomsbury.

Further Listening

MC Frontalot. 2005. Nerdcore Rising. Level Up Rec­ords and Tapes.

Further Viewing

Farsad, Negin, dir. 2008. Nerdcore Rising. Vaguely Qualified Productions. Lamoreux, Dan, dir. 2008. Nerdcore for Life. Crapbot Productions.

MC Hammer (Stanley Kirk Burrell, 1962–­, Oakland, California) MC Hammer (aka Hammer) is an American hip hop musician, old-­school rapper, and dancer best known for his top-10 hits “U ­Can’t Touch This” (1990), “Pray” (1990), and “Too Legit to Quit” (1991), as well as his catch phrase “Hammer time.”

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Some of his dance moves and flashy clothing, including his trademark parachute pants, helped him achieve icon status; his influence on the world of fashion was far-­reaching in the 1980s and early 1990s. His entertainment ­career began in 1973 as a dancer, batboy, and play-­by-­play analyst for the Major League Baseball team Oakland Athletics, but his ­music ­career began in 1985 a­ fter a three-­year stint in the military and a brief stint with a Christian rap group (The Holy Ghost Boys, n.d.). He released the ­album Feel My Power in 1987 on his in­de­pen­dent label, Bustin’ Rec­ords, selling 60,000 copies; however, ­after he signed with Capitol Rec­ords (1942–) for a reported $1.75 million advance, he released of his No. 1 ­album Please Hammer, D ­ on’t Hurt ‘Em (1990), which went ten-­times Platinum; ­because of his catchy melodic lines, liberal but clever use of sampling, and extremely popu­lar ­music videos featuring himself and his dance entourage, he achieved h­ ouse­hold fame. Overall, MC Hammer has won three Grammys, and his ­albums have sold over 50 million copies worldwide despite a limited number of hit singles. But his influence on the hip hop genre is limited ­because his legacy has been that of a commercially successful entertainer and choreographed dancer, rather than a serious musician or songwriter; despite his having once signed with Suge Knight’s (Marion Hugh Knight Jr., 1966–) Death Row Rec­ords (1991–), generally his songs have come to be considered commercial, having more in common with pop m ­ usic than with hardcore rap, even though he attempted to become more urban in his ­later ­music. ­After 2006 MC Hammer basically retired from ­music, becoming a Christian preacher from 1999–2006 on Praise the Lord (1973–) and a voice actor for the Saturday morning cartoon Hammerman (1991) and producer of a real­ity show called Hammertime (2009) on AandE Network. During the 1980s and 1990s, he was CEO  of Bust It Rec­ords (1980*–1997), producing acts such as Oaktown’s 3.5.7 (1988–1991) and Doug E. Fresh (1966–). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Christian Hip Hop; Fashion; Hip Hop Dance; The United States

Further Reading

Manero, J. K. 2009. “Hammer Dance.” Bust a Move: Six De­cades of Dance Crazes. New York: ItBooks. Small, Michael W. 1992. “Hammer.” In Break It Down: The Inside Story from the New Leaders of Rap, pp. 91–93. New York: Carol Pub.

Further Listening

MC Hammer. 1990. Please Hammer, ­Don’t Hurt ’Em. Capitol.

MC Lars (Andrew Robert Nielsen, 1982–­, Berkeley, California) MC Lars is an American hip hop artist who calls himself the originator of post-­punk laptop rap. Since he is of Scandinavian descent, he chose the ­family name, Lars, as his stage name ­because it seemed to be a humorous contrast to the African American roots of hip hop. As a producer, he often samples recordings of American and



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British punk bands, including Fugazi (1987–2002), Supergrass (1993–2010), and Brand New (2000–). MC Lars is generally associated with nerdcore b­ ecause his lyr­ics frequently refer to video games, lit­er­a­t ure and poetry, and social awkwardness. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and is the founder of Horris Rec­ords (2006–). In 2006, MC Lars released his first full-­length studio ­album, The Gradu­ate, on which he was the lyricist, performer, and producer. The ­album featured “Download This Song,” which has become one of his best-­k nown tracks. Representative of his style and m ­ usic technique, it features liberal sampling, in this case from American proto-­punk artist Iggy Pop’s (James Newell Osterberg Jr., 1947–) hit “The Passenger” (1977), which it juxtaposes against a rap that rails against rec­ord labels for not updating their sales practices to keep up with new technology. “Download this Song” also includes guest performer Jaret Reddick (1972–), the rhythm guitarist and lead singer of American rock band Bowling for Soup (1994–). Lars combines Pop’s new wave sound with Reddick’s post-­punk and his own rap, ­r unning the song’s vari­ous ele­ments as countermelodies against one another. Other tracks on the ­album use an array of voices and effects and address topics such as social conformity and identity, as in “Hot Topic is Not Punk Rock,” online and real-­life relationships, as in “The Roommate from Hell” and “Internet Relationships (Are Not Real Relationships),” and lit­er­a­t ure, as in “Ahab.” Since 2006, MC Lars has released four full-­length ­albums as well as several EPs and mixtapes. He is one of the few nerdcore hip hop artists who owns his own label. He frequently collaborates with other artists from a variety of genres and styles, including nerdcore hip hop artists such as mc chris (1975–) and MC Frontalot (1973–), mainstream hip hop artists such as KRS-­One (1965–) and Kool Keith (1963–), rock groups such as Wheatus (1995–), and rock musicians such as Roger Lima (Rogério Lima Manganelli, 1974–). MC Lars takes an active role in several education initiatives. He has given multiple TED Talks on the roles of poetic meter in lit­er­a­t ure, poetry, and hip hop lyr­ ics. In 2012, he was featured at Scholastic’s Art and Writing Awards, which was held at New York’s Car­ne­gie Hall. During this per­for­mance, he performed “Flow Like Poe,” an analy­sis of poetic meter in the works of 19th-­century American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) that is rapped over a sample of the 17th-­century Canon in D, composed by Johann Pachelbel (1653–1706). MC Lars has also served as an artist-­or scholar-­in-­residence at several universities in the United States and the United Kingdom. Amanda Sewell See also: Chap Hop; mc chris; MC Frontalot; Nerdcore; The United States

Further Reading

Anon. 2009. “5 Questions for Nerdcore Rapper MC Lars.” SFGate, March 9. Colgan, Jim. 2005. “Nerd Hip Hop, Flowing Like Han Solo.” Day to Day (National Public Radio), November 7. Sewell, Amanda. 2015. “Nerdcore Hip Hop.” In The Cambridge Companion to Hip Hop, edited by Justin Williams, chap. 16. Cambridge, ­England: Cambridge University Press.

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MC Lyte

Further Viewing

Farsad, Negin, dir. 2008. Nerdcore Rising. New York: Vaguely Qualified Productions. Lamoreux, Dan, dir. 2008. Nerdcore for Life. N.p.: Crapbot Productions.

MC Lyte (Lana Michele Moorer, 1971–­, Queens, New York) MC Lyte was one of the first ­women rappers to challenge sexism and misogyny in rap ­music during the late 1980s. She is best known for her lyricism and distinctive flow, which proved that female rappers could write and perform just as well as male MCs. Although she does not shy away from the braggadocio rap ­battle aesthetic, she has generally collaborated with and advocated for ­women rappers and other female artists. She has also worked as an actor, appearing on TV shows such as a 1995 episode of New York Undercover (1994–1998), a 1998 episode of In the House (1995–1999), a 2002 episode of The District (2000–2004), and from 2004 to 2006 as the recurring character Kai Owens on Half and Half (2002–2006), as well as in the American films Fly By Night (1992), Train Ride (2000), and Playas Ball (2003), among ­others. MC Lyte began rapping when she was 12 years old, and at the age of 17, she released her first ­album, Lyte as a Rock (1988) on the First Priority ­Music label (FPM 1987–1997, 2001–); it was the first LP released by a solo female MC. She followed up in 1989 with Eyes on This, widely considered to be her best work. It included “Cha Cha Cha,” which spent 18 weeks on the Billboard Hot Rap Singles chart, reaching No. 1. The singles “Cappucino” and “Stop, Look, Listen” peaked at the No. 8 and No. 9 positions on that chart, respectively. In 1991, she released her third a­ lbum, Act Like You Know, which was less successful but included two hit singles, “When In Love” and “Poor Georgie.” For Act Like You Know Lyte worked with producers of the new jack swing sound, which combined musical aspects of rap, R&B, and other styles. New jack swing songs often featured a hip hop beat combined with a pop melody and sung and/or rapped lyr­ics. “Poor Georgie” is considered a classic example of new jack swing. In 1993, MC Lyte released her fourth ­album, ­Ain’t No Other. “Ruffneck,” a track from this ­album, became the first single by a solo female rapper to achieve Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of American (RIAA) and earned Lyte a Grammy nomination, the first ever for a female rapper. In 1996, Lyte released her first a­ lbum a­ fter moving to EastWest Rec­ords (1955– 2004, 2015–), Bad as I Wanna B. Jermaine Dupri (Jermaine Dupri Mauldin, 1972–), R. Kelly (Robert Sylvester Kelly, 1967–), and ­others produced the ­album. It spawned two certified-­Gold singles, “Keep On, Keepin’ On” and “Cold Rock a Party,” whose single version featured Missy Elliott (1971–) and was an early success for the emerging rapper and producer. In 1998, she released a follow-up ­album, Seven and Seven on the EastWest label. In 2003, her seventh ­album, The Undaground Heat Vol. 1, was released



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in­de­pen­dently, and in 2015—­after a 12-­year hiatus—­her eighth ­album, Legend, was made available only on limited release in vinyl format. Lauron Jockwig Kehrer See also: Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Bradley, Adam, and Andrew Dubois, eds. 2010. “MC Lyte.” U ­ nder “Part 2: 1985–92: The Golden Age” in The Anthology of Rap, pp. 225–32. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Coleman, Brian. 2007. “MC Lyte: Lyte as a Rock.” In Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip Hop Junkies, pp. 256–63. New York: Villard. Young, Jennifer R. 2007. “MC Lyte.” In Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, ­Music, and Culture, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 1, pp. 117–40. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Further Listening

MC Lyte. 1989. Eyes on This. First Priority ­Music. MC Lyte. 1993. ­Ain’t No Other. First Priority ­Music.

MC Opi (Janette Oparebea Nelson, 1971–­, London, E­ ngland) MC Opi is a spoken-­word artist, multi-­instrumentalist, and MC/DJ, who has a concurrent ­career as a film, radio, tele­vi­sion, and ­music video director and producer. She is best known for being the first female rapper in Australia to receive national recognition, when she appeared on the 1994 Australian Recording Industry Association ­Music Awards (ARIA) show for the nominated hit single “The Last Train,” which made her rapping sound and style famous. She has a deep, androgynous speaking voice, and her rapping style is comparable to Shaggy’s (1968–) rapping and toasting. “The Last Train,” which appeared on the bonus disc of Australian pop and R&B artist Christine Anu’s (1970–) electronic, hip hop, folk, and dancehall fusion ­album Stylin’ Up (1995), was a dancehall/dubstep remake of Australian rock-­acoustic singer-­songwriter Paul Kelly’s (1955–) reggae-­infused “Last Train to Heaven,” from his ­album Gossip (1986). Both song and video featured Anu, Kelly, and MC Opi. “Last Train” peaked at No. 93 on the ARIA Singles Chart and No. 61 on ­Triple J’s Hottest 100 for 1993, a poll of the most popu­lar songs of the year in Australia. Stylin’ Up also went Platinum in Australia. MOVE TO AUSTRALIA AND ­MUSIC C ­ AREER Born to an indigenous Australian Irish Celtic harpist (­mother) and Australian of Ghanaian descent (­father), MC Opi watched her parents divorce in 1979; she then moved with her m ­ other to Sydney. Her interests in rapping, singing, turntablism, and bass guitar playing developed in the late 1980s to mid-1990s, as she began

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performing as MC Opi at dance parties. During her early career, she performed with the En­glish trip hop group Massive Attack (1988–), reggae musician Lucky Dube (1964–2007), and Sydney’s own electronic and dubstep duo Wicked Beat Sound System (1992–), among ­others. In 1990, she coproduced ­Women on the Rhyme, which was the first Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio documentary on female Australian and New Zealand hip hop artists. She also taught scratching masterclasses to w ­ omen in Sydney. In 1993, Australian filmmaker and photographer Tracey Moffatt (1960–) asked her to be his assistant director and to appear briefly in the ­music video for rock group INXS’s “The Messenger,” from their ­album Full Moon, Dirty Hearts. At the same time, she became one of the earliest ­music artists to work on Australia’s first dance ­music show, MC Tee Vee and Alternative Arts Show; she conducted interviews with the Beastie Boys (1981–2012), among other hip hop artists.

FURTHER ENDEAVORS The same year that “Last Train” was released, MC Opi appeared on Sex Industrie’s (1990–1994) progressive ­house EP Get Lost. From 1994 to 2000, she began working in digital entertainment, moving briefly to New York City, but then returning to Sydney, where she produced Jezebel Complex (2000), an industrial ­music proj­ect. In 2008, she completed the ­music and video proj­ect “The Black Hole Lovers.” In 2011, MC Opi earned a master’s in digital media at the University of New South Wales, and since 2014, she has been a tele­vi­sion producer in London for her Internet show DotsWaves TV, which focuses on global hip hop, among other underground arts. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Australia; Turntablism; The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Hardy, Marieke. 2013. “­Music: She Twerks Hard for the Money.” The Monthly, August, 52–53. Mitchell, Tony. 2003. “Indigenizing Hip Hop: An Australian Mi­grant Youth Subculture.” In Ingenious: Emerging Youth Cultures in Urban Australia, edited by Melissa Butcher and Mandy Thomas, pp. 198–214. North Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Pluto Press. Morgan, George, and Andrew Warren. 2011. “Aboriginal Youth, Hip Hop, and the Politics of Identification.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 34, no. 6: 925–27.

MC Solaar (Claude M’Barali, 1969–­, Dakar, Senegal) MC Solaar is a French hip hop and jazz rap rapper and philanthropist of Senegalese and Chadian origin. He has had six Top 10 ­albums, including two No. 1 ­albums, Paradisiaque (Heavenly, 1997) and Géopoétique (Geopoetic, 2017), on the French



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rec­ord chart Syndicat National de l’Édition Phonographique (SNEP, 1922–). He has also had six Top 10 SNEP singles, including two No. 1’s, “Hasta la Vista” (2001) and “Inch’ Allah” (2002), and he has been featured on the Missy Elliott (1971–) hit “All n My Grill” (1999). Stylistically, he is known for complex multiple rhymes that use wordplay and stream of consciousness, and his lyrical themes are informed by his experience as a minority immigrant; he usually raps in French. His solo ­albums have been released on the Polydor (1913–), Talkin’ Loud (1990–), Sentinel Quest (1998–2011), and Play Two (2016–) labels. Talkin’ Loud also released ­albums he was involved with while with the acid jazz hip hop crew Urban Species (1992–2000, 2008–), a London band whose ­music is influenced by reggae, blues, funk, dub, jazz, raga, and acoustic folk. MC Solaar is also known for his work with Boston rapper, producer, and actor Guru (aka Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal, Keith Edward Elam, 1961–2010) and New York–­based rap duo Gang Starr (1986–2003). His parents moved from Dakar, Senegal, to the Pa­ri­sian suburb of Saint-­Denis when he was a child, and he spent some of his teen years in Cairo with an u­ ncle; ­there he discovered the Universal Zulu Nation (1973–) and electronica rapper Afrika Bambaataa (1957–). When he returned to France, he studied languages and philosophy at Jussieu University (aka Sorbonne University Group, 1971–), and in 1990, he released his first single, “Bouge de là” (“Get out of ­There”), which peaked at No. 22 on the SNEP chart. His 1991 ­album Qui sème le vent récolte le tempo (He Who Harvests the Wind Collects the Tempo) sold over 400,000 copies in France. His 12-­nation 1992–1993 tour was very popu­lar and set the stage for the success of his 1994 ­album Prose Combat. In 1997, he became a member of Les Enfoirés (1989–), an ensemble that raises money for charity. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: France; Griot; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Senegal

Further Reading

Baker, Geoffrey. 2011. “Preachers, Gangsters, Pranksters: MC Solaar and Hip Hop as Overt and Covert Revolt.” Journal of Popu­lar Culture 44, no. 2: 233–55. Neal, Mark Anthony. 2016. “N—­s in Paris: Hip Hop in Exile.” Social Identities 22, no. 2: 150–59.

Further Listening

MC Solaar. 1994. Prose Combat. Polydor. MC Solaar. 2017. Géopoétique (Geopoetic). Play Two.

Melle Mel (aka Mele Mel, Grandmaster Melle Mel, Melvin Glover, 1961–­, Bronx, New York) Melle Mel is a pioneering American rapper from the Bronx, who worked as the lead rapper and songwriter for Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (1976–1982, 1987–1988) before embarking on a solo ­career. Melle Mel may have been the first rapper to use the epithet “MC” before his name. His best-­k nown hit was the classic old-­school hip hop song “The Message,” which appeared on Grandmaster Flash

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and the Furious Five’s ­album of the same title (1982). Unusually lengthy for a hip hop track at over seven minutes, “The Message” is often considered the first American social commentary hip hop song; it focused on inner city poverty, in­equality, a lack of role models, and vio­lence, rather than on superficial themes about parties or braggadocio. “The Message” peaked at No.  4 on Billboard’s R&B chart before ­going Platinum. As Grandmaster Melle Mel, he released Grandmaster Melle Mel and the Furious Five (1984), Stepping Off (1985), On the Strength (1988), Piano (1989), Right Now (1997), On Lock (2001), The Portal in the Park (2006), Muscles (2007), and Hip Hop AnniAmerican rapper Melle Mel became the lead versary Eu­rope Tour (2009), as rapper and songwriter for Grandmaster Flash well as several EPs and singles. and the Furious Five’s 1982 classic hit “The His style transcends East Coast Message.” Possibly the first rapper to use the old-­ school hip hop, as it also epithet “MC,” Melle Mel eventually led the includes G-­f unk, hardcore hip group as Grandmaster Melle Mel before pursuing his solo c­ areer. (David Corio/Michael hop, and electronica. Ochs Archives/Getty Images) Melle Mel was born Melvin Glover, and was raised in the Bronx. He identifies with being Native American, since his ­mother was part Cherokee; rapping by the mid-1970s, MC Melle Mel was also likely the first Native American hip hop artist. In 1976, he joined DJ Grandmaster Flash (1958–) and eventually four other rappers, the Kidd Creole (Nathaniel Glover, 1960–), Rahiem (Guy Todd Williams, n.d.), Mr. Ness/Scorpio (Eddie Morris, n.d.), and Cowboy (Keith Wiggins, 1960–), to become Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. They quickly secured an engagement at Disco Fever and ­were signed with Enjoy Rec­ords (1962–1995). ­After the Sugarhill Gang’s (1979–1985, 1994–) “Rapper’s Delight” (1979), Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five released “Superrappin’ ” (1979) and moved to Sugar Hill Rec­ords (1979–1985). But ­after a few R&B-­ charting hits such as “Freedom,” Melle Mel became interested in writing a socially conscious rap song, resulting in “The Message,” which borrowed some lines from “Superrappin’.” As the last track on The Message, the song stood out for its sparse per­for­mance forces—­Melle Mel alone, backed by an instrumental track and backing vocals by producer Duke Bootee (Ed Fletcher, n.d.). Neither Grandmaster Flash nor the Furious Five appear on the recording. The song, however, went

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Platinum and peaked at No. 62 on the Billboard Hot 100 and charted internationally. The a­ lbum peaked at No. 53 on the Billboard 200. Much ­later, the single was one of 50 recordings selected by the Library of Congress for the United States National Archive of Historic Recordings (2002) and the first hip hop recording inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame (2012). Shortly ­after the a­ lbum’s release, Grandmaster Flash departed the group, based on contract and royalty disputes with Sugar Hill Rec­ords. Melle Mel, who also argued with Grandmaster Flash, filled his shoes as leader, and the group became Grandmaster Melle Mel and the Furious Five. The Kidd Creole and Rahiem left with Grandmaster Flash as well. The new group returned to the lighter partying themes. In 1983, Melle Mel released another hip hop classic single, “White Lines (Don’t ­Don’t Do It).” The antidrug song, cowritten by Melle Mel and Sugar Hill Rec­ords owner Sylvia Robinson (1935–2011), became his second-­best-­known hit, peaking at No. 47 on Billboard’s Hot Black Singles and No. 7 on the U.K. Singles Chart. Melle Mel gained additional notoriety for his appearance in Beat Street (1984). The film’s title is based on “Beat Street Breakdown,” cowritten by Melle Mel and Reggie Griffin (n.d.) and performed by Grandmaster Melle Mel and the Furious Five. He is also known for rapping on Chaka Khan’s (Yvette Marie Stevens, 1953–) R&B hit song “I Feel for You” (1984). In 1991, he won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Per­for­mance for his appearance on the title track of Quincy Jones’s (1933–) ­album, Back on the Block (1989). In 2007, Melle Mel released his debut hardcore hip hop solo a­ lbum, Muscles, which features the track “M3—­T he New Message.” That year, Melle Mel and the Furious Five with Grandmaster Flash became the first hip hop group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Grandmaster Flash; MC; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Robinson, Sylvia; The United States

Further Reading

Bradley, Adam, and Andrew Dubois, eds. 2010. “Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.” ­Under “Part 1: 1978–84: The Old School” in The Anthology of Rap. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Fricke, Jim, and Charlie Ahearn. 2002. Yes Yes Y’All: The Experience ­Music Proj­ect Oral History of Hip-­Hop’s First De­cade. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. Stewart, James B. 2005. “Message in the ­Music: Po­liti­cal Commentary in Black Popu­lar ­Music from Rhythm and Blues to Early Hip Hop.” Journal of African American History 90, no. 3: 196–225.

Further Listening

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. 1982. The Message. Sugar Hill Rec­ords. Melle Mel. 2007. Muscles. Big Gunz Entertainment.

Merenrap (aka Meren­house) Merenrap, which is short for merengue rap, is a style of hip hop m ­ usic which blends hip hop, ­house ­music, and merengue, a Latin American and Ca­r ib­bean

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dance ­music originating in the Dominican Republic, where it was promoted by Dictator Rafael Trujillo (aka El Jefe, Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina, 1891–1961, in power 1930–1938, 1942–1952). Merenrap emerged in the United States in the 1980s as a type of Latin h­ ouse in New York City, which by 1990 had a population of nearly one million Dominicans residing mainly in barrios to create an ethnic concentration. Early Dominican American meren­house bands included Proyecto Uno (1989–), Ilegales (aka Los Ilegales, 1993–), Dark Latin Groove (DLG, 1995–2000, 2007–), and Fulanito (aka ­Little John Doe, 1996–). New York’s Proyecto Uno introduced ­music that blended meren­house with rap, techno, dancehall, and reggae, ultimately winning an Emmy Award. Grammy-­nominated trio Ilegales charted on the Billboard Tropical. New York–­based, Grammy-­nominated Dark Latin Groove mixes meren­house with salsa, reggae, and reggaetón (the last, also known as reggae en Español, originated in Panama and developed in Puerto Rico in the late 1990s and contains rapping and singing). Fulanito is a Grammy-­nominated, Manhattan-­ and Bronx-­based group that sold five million ­albums worldwide. Other acts that performed merenrap did so just briefly. For example, Brooklyn-­born Puerto Rican rapper, singer-­songwriter, and producer Vico C (Luis Armando Lozada Cruz, 1971–), who recorded merenrap in the early 1990s, continued on by focusing on reggaetón and then Christian hip hop. Lyrical content often focuses on partying, materialism, objectifying w ­ omen, and braggadocio (the last focused on authenticity and masculinity). By the late 2000s merenrap has broadened its sound by incorporating other kinds of ­music. For example, Fulanito’s merenrap-­pop a­ lbum Vacaneria! (Cool! or ­Great!, 2009) has a final track titled “Culebrita,” in Spanish, the feminine word for “Snake,” which is also slang for “Jezebel.” The song employs Arabic-­sounding m ­ usic and musical exoticism. Since the 2010s, merenrap has not been recorded as much. As of 2018, the most impor­t ant bands, such as Proyecto Uno and Fulanito, though still active as live acts, have not released studio ­albums in at least four years. DLG, who broke up in 2000 and then reinvented itself in its comeback in  2007, has shifted its focus to recording and performing salsa, reggae, and dancehall. Anthony J. Fonseca and Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: The Dominican Republic; The United States

Further Reading

McGill, Lisa D. 2005. “ ‘Diasporic Intimacy’: Merengue Hip Hop, Proyecto Uno, and Representin’ Afro-­Latino Cultures.” In Constructing Black Selves: Ca­rib­bean American Narratives and the Second Generation, chap. 5. New York: New York University Press. Sellers, Julie A. 2004. “Merengue and Transnational Identities.” In Merengue and Dominican Identity: ­Music as National Unifier, chap. 9. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

Further Listening

Fulanito. 2007. Vacaneria! Cutting Rec­ords. Vari­ous Artists. 1993. MerenRap Tropical. BMG International  U.S. Latin/Prime Rec­ords.

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Mexico Mexico has a hip hop scene that is influenced by both Latin hip hop and gangsta rap. Its ­music is a result of immigration, as well as cultural cross-­pollination of Mexican ­music and the Chicano m ­ usic of the U.S. Southwest and Midwest. Such cross-­ influence has led to a Mexican hip hop ­music that is typically performed both by Mexicans and by Mexican American rappers and musicians. Mexican hip hop incorporates ele­ments of reggae, gangsta, mobb, salsa, soca, funk, R&B, soul, and traditional dance m ­ usic, and topics include urban decay and vio­lence, social change, and social and po­liti­cal oppression, and more recently, feminism. In the United States, Chicano rap artists such as Frost (aka Kid Frost, Arturo Molina Jr., 1964–), with the ­album Hispanic Causing Panic (1990) and its predominantly bass, saxophone, and vibraphone bilingual hit single “La Raza” (“The Race”), began making Mexican American hip hop ­viable. Frost went on to cofound the supergroup Latin Alliance, whose other members ­were successful rappers: Cuban-­born Mellow Man Ace (Ulpiano Sergio Reyes, 1967–) and Mexican American A.L.T. (Alvin Lowell Trivette, 1970–). In California, Chicano rapper Jonny Z (John Zazueta, n.d.) and one-­third Chicano group Cypress Hill (1988–) found mainstream airplay. In Mexico, some hip hop artists, such as Control Machete (1996–2004) and, more recently, rappers C-­Kan (José Luis Maldonado Ramos, 1987–) and Mare Avertencia Lirika (1986–) began to see success in the American market. Monterrey’s hip hop trio Control Machete had a hit with “Sí Señor” (1999), which was used in a 2002 Levi’s Super Bowl ad. Guadalajara’s C-­Kan, who used social networking to market his songs, incorporates ele­ments of reggae, gangsta, and mobb, as well as chopper style rapping, and his videos feature urban decay and vio­lence. Oaxaca’s Lirika is the most prolific and multitalented female hip hop artist. Lirika raps and recites poetry about art, feminism, and social change. Songs such as “Bienvenidx,” from her second a­ lbum Siempre Viva (Immortal, 2016), position a hip hop beat against a distorted and sped up traditional mariachi brass loop (including tuba) to decry exploitation, vio­lence, fascism, and displacement, and the a­ lbum includes hip hop hybrids with funk, R&B, soul, and traditional dance m ­ usic. In the last few years, both C-­Kan and Lirika have toured the United States. Other notable hip hop acts include Nogales-­born but American-­raised MC Magic (Marcus Cardenas, n.d.) and Monterrey’s MC Davo (David Sierra Treviño, 1991–). MC Magic began as a DJ whose second and third ­albums, Magic City (2006) and Magic City, Part II (2008), reached the Top 10 of the Billboard’s Top Heatseekers chart, the former making it to No. 1. MC Davo became popu­lar in 2012 through social networking, getting millions of views. Monterrey’s Ricky Rick (Ricardo Ruiz Pérez, 1983–) is a rapper-­songwriter, beatboxer, guitarist, and percussionist who since 2006 has been active in the hip hop scene. He incorporates ele­ments of salsa, soca, and reggae into urban beats and electronic rhythms. ­Others include Los Angeles-­based (but from Michoacan) ­brother duo Akwid (2008–), which has won a Latin Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock/Alternative ­Album; Salt Lake City–­ based (but half Mexican) Bonnevilla (2007–), which has produced two mixtapes and an ­album full of social commentary ­music; Santa Catarina–­based Cartel de

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Santa (1996–), which has released seven critically acclaimed ­albums; and Mexico City’s Bocafloja (Aldo Villegas, 1978–), a rapper, spoken-­word artist, poet, and lecturer who has been performing hip hop that addresses racism, social and po­liti­cal oppression, and colonialism since 1995. In addition to ­music, the most notable b-­boy (breakdancer) from Mexico is RoxRite (Omar Delgado Macias, 1982–), who was born in Guadalajara. When he was 6, his ­family relocated to Windsor, California, and he began breakdancing at age 12. ­Because he first learned breakdancing in the United States, he represents the US in breakdance ­battles. Roxrite has won many international b-­boy championships, including the Red Bull BC One title in 2011. As of 2018, Roxrite is just one of three Americans to have that title. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Chicano Rap; Chopper; Gangsta Rap; The United States

Further Reading

Cru, Josep. 2017. “Bilingual Rapping in Yucatán, Mexico: Strategic Choices for Maya Language Legitimation and Revitalization.” International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 20, no. 5: 481–96. Tickner, Arlene. 2008. “Aquí en el Ghetto: Hip Hop in Colombia, Cuba, and Mexico.” Latin American Politics and Society 50, no. 3: 121–46.

Further Listening

Mare Avertencia Lirika. 2016. Siempre viva (Immortal). Thors ­Music.

M.I. (Jude Abaga, 1981–­, Jos, Nigeria) M.I. is a Nigerian hip hop recording rapper-­songwriter, musician, and rec­ord producer. He is also the ­brother of Jesse Jagz (1984–), a hip hop and reggae rapper, singer-­songwriter, and rec­ord producer. M.I.’s debut studio ­album, Talk about It (2008) was critically acclaimed, and since, he has released two more studio ­albums, M.I. 2 (2010*) and The Chairman (2014*), on the Choco­late City ­Music and Entertainment Com­pany (2005–) and Loopy Rec­ords (2014) m ­ usic labels. M.I.’s rapping style is laid-­back, with heavy use of autotuning. He often accompanies his raps with reggae singing. His beats and ­music vary, although he has a predisposition for downbeat rhythms and traditional African instrumentation. M.I. began honing his musical talents in high school, when his ­mother purchased some sheet ­music and a seven-­key mini piano; this is the instrument on which he learned to write ­music. His early influences ­were Lauryn Hill (1975–), Bob Marley (1945–1981), Jay-­Z (1969–), and DMX (1970–). It was the works of the last that he used as early samples when he deci­ded to begin rapping. Even though he attended college, where he studied poetry, business, and economics, his love was ­music, and he performed regularly at hip hop shows and concerts. In 2003, M.I. returned to Nigeria to pursue a ­music ­career, first by recording mixtapes with a friend, and then releasing his first single, “Safe” (2009), which led to a contract for Talk About It.

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The Chairman was a largely autobiographical, 17–­track collaborative ­album that took two years to rec­ord and spawned vari­ous singles: “Chairman,” “King James,” “Bad Belle,” and “Monkey.” His most recent recording was the mixtape Illegal ­Music 3: The Finale (2016*), a 10-­track finale to his mixtape trilogy. Along with other awards, M.I. won Best Hip Hop artist at the 2009 MTV Africa ­Music Awards; the next year he was nominated in the Best International Act category at the BET Awards. M.I. was appointed a UN (United Nations) Goodwill Ambassador in 2012. Known as much for his business acumen as his m ­ usic, he cofounded, along with Jesse Jagz, Ice Prince (1986–), and ­others, the short-­lived rap group the Loop Crew in 2004, a venture which ­later led to his founding his short-­lived Loopy Rec­ords label. The label soon folded, but fortunately, M.I. had already signed with Choco­ late City, a renowned Nigerian ­music label. Since 2015, M.I. has been the CEO of Choco­late City ­Music and Entertainment Com­pany. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Ice Prince; Jesse Jagz; Nigeria; Reggae

Further Reading

Anon. 2014. “M.I. vs Ruggedman: Who’s Got the Rhymes?” The Sun (Lagos, Nigeria), June 13, 4. Shonekan, Stephanie. 2012. “Nigerian Hip Hop: Exploring a Black World Hybrid.” In Hip Hop Africa: New African M ­ usic in a Globalizing World, edited by Eric Charry, chap. 7. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Further Listening

M.I. 2008. Talk about It. Choco­late City ­Music.

M.I.A. (aka Maya, Mathangi Arulpragasam, 1975–­, London, E­ ngland) M.I.A. is an En­glish rapper, hip hop artist, visual artist, and activist from Hounslow, a borough in West London. Her ­music incorporates ele­ments of dance, electronica, and world ­music, with lyr­ics that concentrate on po­liti­cal and cultural activism. As an activist, M.I.A. has spoken against the oppression and abuse of Tamils in Sri Lanka. Her parents, both of Sri Lankan Tamil descent, relocated the ­family to Jaffna, Sri Lanka when M.I.A. was six months old. During a time of po­liti­cal upheaval ­there, her ­family lived in poverty, and her ­father became a Tamil activist. At 10 years old, M.I.A. and her siblings ­were moved back to London as refugees. The experiences she had while living in Sri Lanka provide inspiration for her ­music, art, and activism. Originally a visual artist, M.I.A. got her start in the ­music business ­after designing cover art and producing videos for the London-­based band Elastica (1992– 2001). While video documenting a tour with Elastica, M.I.A. met Canadian alternative hip hop, electropunk, and dance-­punk musician Peaches (Merrill Nisker, 1968–), who encouraged her to start making ­music with a Roland MC–505, which M.I.A. used to rec­ord a demo tape. Before signing a rec­ord contract, the song

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“Galang” (Jamaican patois for “Go On,” 2003) earned her a large following online. In 2005, M.I.A. signed to a label and released her first ­album, Arular. Featuring MC-505 beats and sequences, her ­album is a mix of dance and hip hop, with inspiration taken from Tamil film and Indian m ­ usic. Kala (Black, 2007), M.I.A.’s second ­album, was supposed to have been recorded in the United States, but ended up being recorded in dif­fer­ent locations around the world ­after she was denied a visa. Its songs consist of an array of dance and folk styles from the places she recorded in (such as Trinidad, India, Liberia, and Jamaica) and also feature po­liti­cally charged lyr­ics about immigration and war. “Bird Flu” (2006) was the first single released, followed by “Boyz” (2007), “Jimmy” (2007) and “Paper Planes” (2008). The song “Paper Planes” was written as a satire on the mi­grant ste­reo­ type, and went on to be the Kala track that earned her the most commercial success. Since Kala, M.I.A. has released three more studio a­ lbums: Maya (2010), Matangi (2013), and Aim (2016). For the Maya single “Born ­Free” (2010), M.I.A. worked with director Romain Gavras (1981–) to produce a video. The explic­itly violent, controversial video about the genocide of p­ eople with red hair was a meta­phorical treatment of the plight of Tamil ­people, who ­were killed by the Sri Lankan army. M.I.A. and Gavras again collaborated on the video for the Matangi single, “Bad Girls.” Filmed in Morocco, the video featured ­women in traditional ­Middle Eastern clothing performing car tricks, spinning, and skidding across the desert. The video was M.I.A’s stand in solidarity with the Saudi ­women’s right-­to-­drive movement. In 2015, she released the song “Borders,” which is about the strug­gles and ste­ reo­types faced by mi­g rants and refugees. M.I.A. has collaborated with Diplo (Thomas Wesley Pentz, 1978–) and Timbaland (1972–), among o­ thers. Lindsey E. Hartman See also: Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Sri Lanka; The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Rollefson, J. Griffith. 2017. “M.I.A.’s ‘Terrorist Chic’: Black Atlantic ­Music and South Asian Postcolonial Politics in London.” In Flip the Script: Eu­ro­pean Hip Hop and the Politics of Postcoloniality, chap. 5. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Saucier, P. Khalil, and Kumarini Silva. 2004. “Keeping It Real in the Global South: Hip Hop Comes to Sri Lanka.” Critical Sociology 40, no. 2: 296–300. Weems, Lisa. 2014. “Refuting ‘Refugee Chic’: Transnational Girl(hood)s and the Guerilla Pedagogy of M.I.A.” Feminist Formations 26, no. 1: 115–42.

Further Listening

M.I.A. 2005. Arular. XL Recordings. M.I.A. 2007. Kala. XL Recordings. M.I.A. 2013. Matangi. N.E.E.T./Interscope Rec­ords.

Miami Bass (aka Booty Bass) Miami bass is a hip hop subgenre that emerged in the mid-1980s in Miami, Florida. Its defining characteristics are long, sustained cymbals that hiss and liberal



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use of snare and kick drums (usually generated by a 1984 Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, an early programmable transistor rhythm drum machine with a rumbling, loud low-­field bass). Like other kinds of hip hop, Miami bass employs loops, samples, scratching, call-­and-­response vocals, shouts, and a relaxed rapping style; its lyr­ics are urban and emphasize sexually explicit subject ­matter. Its use of Latin percussion (at times electronically generated), snare and closed kick drums, and handclaps link it to electro-­dance ­music (EDM) and ­house ­music. It also has a specific geo­graph­i­cal appeal that sets it apart. Miami bass’s fusion of hip hop, electro, and breakbeat with ­music from Cuba and the Dominican Republic, as well as ­music that has Afro-­Brazilian rhythms influenced several kinds of ­music, including funk carioca (baile funk or favela funk), which is dance ­music that emerged in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as well as in Baltimore, Maryland. Miami bass is prevalent in freestyle and Southern hip hop, as well as in Ghettotech. BEGINNINGS Miami dance party DJs ­were the first contributors to the formation of Miami bass. In the mid-1980s, local in­de­pen­dent rec­ord labels became interested in the sound. MC A.D.E. (Adrian Hines, n.d.) and Amos Larkins’s (n.d.) “Bass Rock Express” (1985), recorded on the Fort Lauderdale-­based 4-­Sight (1983–) label owned by A.D.E.’s f­ ather, was likely the first popu­lar Miami bass single. By the late 1980s, Pandisc ­Music Corporation (1981–) was also producing Miami bass tracks which included Maggotron Crushing Crew’s (1988–1994*) “Bass Rock the Planet” (1986) and “The Bass That Ate Miami” (1988); Trinere’s (Trinere Veronica Farrington, 1964–) “­Can’t Stop the Beat” (1989); and DJ Laz’s (Lazaro Mendez, 1971–) “Journey into Bass” (1994). Maggotron’s late 1980s singles show how early Miami bass was inspired not only by electro ­music, but also by funk, particularly Parliament-­ Funkadelic (1968–) and Earth Wind and Fire (1971–). THE 2 LIVE CREW AND GLOBAL CONTEXT Luke Skyywalker Rec­ords (1985–), which ­later became Skyywalker and then Luke Atlantic Rec­ords, owned by Luke (1960–) and David Chackler (1945–), took interest in Miami bass close to the same time as 4-­Sight and Pandisc. At the time, Luke (as Luke Skyywalker) was also the front man for the Miami-­based hip hop group 2 Live Crew (1982–1991, 1994–1998). Skyywalker produced the first Miami-­ certified-­Platinum ­album, 2 Live Crew’s As Nasty as They Wanna Be (1989), which included “Me So Horny,” a song that reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks. The band gained national attention in 1990 for having the first ­album ever to be deemed legally obscene by a U.S. district court. The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Cir­cuit, however, overturned the ruling, and 2 Live Crew also profited from a censored version of the a­lbum, As Clean as They Wanna Be. In response to the initial ruling on As Nasty as They Wanna Be, 2 Live Crew released the Miami bass influenced Banned in the U.S.A. (1990), which did better than its pre­de­ces­sor on the Billboard 200, but only reached Gold status. Both ­albums

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received Parental Advisory labels for their explicit content. 2 Live Crew had earlier been subjected to other criticism for their misogynist lyr­ics on “Throw the D.” Anquette (1986–1993)*, an all-­female Miami bass group, responded with “Throw the P” (1986). Miami bass continued into the 2000s, but never regained its popularity. Miami bass artists active into the 2000s included Miami’s own DJ Laz (Lazaro Mendez, 1971–), Pitbull (1981–), and Techmaster P.E.B. (anonymous, n.d.); as well as Fort Lauderdale band Bass 305 (1992–2011), Orlando’s DJ Magic Mike (Michael Hampton, 1967*–) and DJ Baby Anne (Marianne Breslin, 1972–), and Jacksonville bands 69 Boyz (1992–) and 95 South (1993–). Other U.S. artists included Egyptian Lover (Greg Broussard, 1963–), Kilo Ali (Andrell D. Rogers, 1973–), Diplo (Thomas Wesley Pentz, 1978–), and Sir Mix-­a-­ Lot (Anthony Ray, 1963–). Some Miami bass influenced artists outside of the United States include solo acts Bass Mekanik (aka Beat Dominator, Neil Case, n.d.) DJ Craze (Arist Delgado, 1977–), of Managua, Nicaragua; as well as rap crews and Black Chiney (1999–), of Kingston, Jamaica; the Wideboys (1996–), of Portsmouth, E ­ ngland; and Dirtyphonics (2004–), of Paris. Jacqueline M. DeMaio See also: Bounce; Luke; 2 Live Crew; The United States

Further Reading

David Font-­Navarrete. 2015. “Bass 101: Miami, Rio, and the Global ­Music South.” Journal of Popu­lar ­Music Studies 27, no. 4: 488–517. Miller, Matt. 2010. “Tropic of Bass: Culture, Commerce, and Controversy in Miami Rap.” In Hip Hop in Amer­i­ca: A Regional Guide, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 2, chap. 22. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood.

Further Listening

2 Live Crew. 1989. As Nasty As They Wanna Be. Luke Skyywalker Rec­ords. Vari­ous Artists. 1988. The Miami Bass Wars. Pandisc. Vari­ous Artists. 1991. Miami Bass Wars II: B ­ attle of the Boom. Pandisc. Vari­ous Artists. 2007. Cut It Up: Def Miami Bass Jams. Pandisc.

Mix Master Mike (Michael Schwartz, 1970–­, San Francisco, California) Mix Master Mike is a Grammy Award winning American DJ (turntablist) best known for his work with the Beastie Boys (1981–2012), working on their ­later ­albums, namely Hello Nasty (1998), To the 5 Boroughs (2004), and Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011). In 2012, along with the Beastie Boys, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He came to prominence in 1992 when he became the first West Coast DJ to win the New ­Music Seminar DJ ­Battle in New York City, and his Rock Steady DJs (1990–) collective won the DMC World DJ Championships. He repeated the DMC championship feat in the 1993 and 1994 DMC Championships, working with DJ Qbert (1969–), with whom he ­later cofounded the Filipino American collective the



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Invisibl Skratch Piklz (1989–2000). Mix Master Mike and DJ Qbert became judges for the 1995 DMC Championships. His signature sound includes a heavy dose of bass and intricate, extremely quick, and precise two-­t urntable scratch routines, including what became known as the tweak scratch, which involves suddenly stopping the turntable’s platter motor to change pitch while scratching. In his live per­for­mances, his speed and precision separate him from other turntablists, as does his showmanship—­for example, he ­will throw in a behind-­the-­back scratch into the ­middle of a routine, or pick up and bend his vinyl rec­ord while scratching, or use a wah pedal (intended for electric guitar). He has three solo ­albums, Needle Thrasher III (1997), Anti-­Theft Device (1998), and Bangzilla (2004); one of his EPs, Eye of the Cyklops (2000), is considered a classic of turntablism. Mix Master Mike is the first turntablist to perform at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for the Kennedy Center Honors; in 2013, he did a per­for­ mance of “Rockit” (2000; 2003) to honor Herbie Hancock (1940–). He has also appeared in vari­ous tele­vi­sion venues, ranging from the sublime, with performing for the Vancouver Winter Olympics (2010) to the ridicu­lous, remixing the theme song “Puffy AmiYumi” for Teen Titans Go! (2013–) and performing in 2010 on the ­children’s show Yo Gabba Gabba (2007–2015), for its “Cool Tricks” segment. As of 2018, he continues to tour and has created a virtual real­ity m ­ usic proj­ect. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Beastie Boys; DJ QBert; Invisibl Skratch Piklz; The Philippines; Turntablism; The United States

Further Reading

Katz, Mark. 2010. “The Turntable as Weapon: Understanding the Hip Hop DJ ­Battle.” In Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed M ­ usic, rev. ed., chap. 6. Berkeley: University of California Press. Katz, Mark. 2012. Groove ­Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ. New York: Oxford University Press. Shiu, Anthony Sze-­Fai. 2007. “Styl(us): Asian North Amer­i­ca, Turntablism, Relation.” CR: The New Centennial Review 7, no. 1: 81–106. Tiongson, Antonio T. Jr. 2013. Filipinos Represent: DJs, Racial Authenticity, and the Hip Hop Nation. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Moana and the Moahunters (1990–1998, Auckland, New Zealand/Aotearoa) Moana and the Moahunters was a New Zealand/Aotearoa–­based popu­lar ­music group which combined early hip hop and rap with pop and traditional New Zealand Māori ­music and instrumentation; the latter of ­these produced a hybrid ­music called taonga pūoro. Eventually becoming Moana and the Tribe, the group promoted Māori culture, traditions, history, and identity in its music. Moana and the Moahunters toured New Zealand, Eu­rope, and the United States whereas Moana and the Tribe tours worldwide. Both groups are fronted by singer-songwriter Moana Maree Maniapoto (1961–), who was born and raised in Invercargill, New Zealand/Aotearoa.

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MOANA AND THE MOAHUNTERS (1990–1998) In the 1980s Maniapoto sang popu­lar song covers in Auckland, New Zealand, nightclubs to support her law school studies. She had brief success with “Kua Makona” (­either “Full” or “Sated”), an antidrinking pop song that peaked at No. 27 on the Recording Industry of New Zealand’s (RIANZ) top-50 singles chart. In 1990, she formed Moana and the Moahunters with singers Teremoana Rapley (1973–), earlier a member of Upper Hutt Posse (UHP, 1985–), and Wai (Mina Ripia, n.d.). In 1991, the group released its first 12-­inch single, “AEIOU (Akona Te Reo),” directed at the Māori youth who no longer regularly spoke Māori. The song lyr­ics loosely translate into En­glish as “learn the language.” Refrains often feature En­glish words against background vocals in Māori. “AEIOU” urged listeners to become interested in their Māori culture and heritage, study their history and language, and preserve their traditions and identity. It peaked at No. 31 on the New Zealand Top 40 singles chart. Moana and the Moahunters’ ­albums Tahi (1993) and Rua (1998) reached Nos. 16 and 27 on the New Zealand Top 40 ­albums chart. The group’s top-­ranking songs included “Black Pearl” (1991) and “Tahi” (“One,” 1994), which peaked at Nos. 2 and 9, respectively. Both w ­ ere from Tahi, which was remixed and re-released in 1995. “Black Pearl,” a remake of Toni Wine (1947–), Irwin Levine (1938–1997), and Phil Spector’s (1939*–) 1969 hit, was recontextualized in the group’s video to offer a message to female Māori to celebrate their identity, step into the foreground, and not to simply blend in to their surroundings. Adding to this message is rap from D Word (aka Te Kupu, Dean Hapeta, n.d.) of UHP. “Tahi,” which featured rhythm and blues harmonies, along with chanting and Māori instruments, was released as dance mix and roots mix tracks. The song stresses Māori unity. Commercial radio in New Zealand and Australia initially resisted playing both songs. In response, the group accused the radio stations of racism against Māori musical groups.

MOANA AND THE TRIBE (2002–) In 2002, the group reformed as Moana and the Tribe, adding Maniapoto’s s­ ister Trina Morgan (n.d.) to its singers and collaborating with the Tribe, a band of 10 musicians. The group continues combining hip hop with traditional ­music, more recently incorporating dubstep, ska, reggae, and electro ­house. The ­album Toru (Three, 2002) represented the group’s Eu­ro­pean recording debut and entered at No. 17 on the World ­Music Charts: Eu­rope (WMCE). Subsequent ­albums include Live and Proud (2007), Wha (Four, 2008), Acoustic (2010), the compilation The Best of Moana and the Tribe (2012), and Rima (Five, 2014). With Moana and the Tribe, Maniapoto has earned several awards. She was the first non-­American winner of the ­Grand Jury Prize of the International Songwriting Competition for her song “Moko” (“Tattoo,” 2004). In 2005, she was granted the New Zealand Order of Merit (NZOM), followed in 2007 when she was made an Art Laureate by the New Zealand Arts Foundation. In 2008, the Waiata Māori ­Music Awards recognized her work in the Māori m ­ usic industry.



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PERFORMANCE, USE OF MĀORI ICONOGRAPHY, AND SOUND Both Moana and the Moahunters and Moana and the Tribe have performed concerts and festivals worldwide and are known for their per­for­mances of both hip hop and updated traditional Māori haka—­a pre-­European ritual chant and cheer most famously used as a war cry, sung in unison (heterophony) and accompanied by posture dance stomping, facial choreography, and grunts and breaths. The haka has also been used for other ritual purposes, such as praising accomplishments and welcoming guests. Although traditionally (and continued into the 20th ­century) men take on the main roles of singing and dancing the haka whereas w ­ omen, rarely participants, dance and sing in the background, in both groups’ per­for­mances, ­women are in the foreground. In addition, poi movements and rhythms—­traditionally performed by Māori ­women by singing while swinging tethered weights in geometrical patterns—­are incorporated in the groups’ per­for­mances. Rec­ord ­album covers as well as videos feature Māori art, tattoos (called tā moko) and traditional dress. Band members wearing traditional Māori warrior attire appear in the Moana and the Tribe videos alongside images of diverse p­ eople of New Zealand/Aotearoa, who have learned to sing some phrases in Māori. Concerts also feature photo­graphs of Māori ­people. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: New Zealand; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Upper Hutt Posse

Further Reading

Mitchell, Tony. 2000. “Doin’ Damage in My Native Language: The Use of ‘Re­sis­tance Vernaculars’ in Hip Hop in France, Italy, and Aotearoa/New Zealand.” Popu­lar ­Music and Society 24, no. 3: 41–54. Mitchell, Tony. 2001. “Kia Kaha! (Be Strong!): Māori and Pacific Islander Hip Hop in Aotearoa/New Zealand.” In Global Noise: Rap and Hip Hop Outside the U.S.A., edited by Tony Mitchell, pp. 280–305. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.

Further Listening

Moana and the Moahunters. 1993. Tahi. Southside Rec­ords. Moana and the Tribe. 2012. The Best of Moana and the Tribe. Black Pearl/Ode.

Molekane, Tumi (aka MC Fatboy, Tumi, Stogie T, Boitumelo Molekane, 1981–­, Tanzania) Tumi Molekane is a Tanzanian-­born South African rapper, singer, songwriter, poet, and rec­ord label owner, who is best known as lead singer of Tumi and the Volume (2002–2012), an experimental band that fuses hip hop with African and Latin jazz, Afropop, reggae, and rock. He has a tenor vocal range. Molekane’s parents relocated to Soweto in Johannesburg in 1992, a year ­after apartheid ended. Inspired by his experiences growing up, he took interest in writing poetry in En­glish. As MC Fatboy, he joined the P.E.R.M. rap collective (2001*) and recorded APT: An Artistic Repre­sen­ta­tion of Truth (2001). In 2002, Molekane

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became the frontman for Tumi and the Volume, created from band members from 340ml (2000–), who ­were originally from Maputo, Mozambique. Tumi and the Volume’s debut live ­album Live at the Bassline (2005) and debut studio ­album Tumi and the Volume (2006) attained critical acclaim that led it to become one of the best-­k nown South African bands. In worldwide tours, it performed with Somali Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, multi-­instrumentalist, and poet K’naan (1978–), American hip hop groups such as the Roots (1987–) and Blackalicious (1994–), and the En­glish trip hop Massive Attack (1988–). Molekane’s debut solo effort ­Music from My Good Eye (2006), a hip hop ­album recorded on his label Motif Rec­ords (2006–2009, 2011–) ­under the name Tumi, also received critical acclaim. Tumi and the Volume’s entire recorded output included Live at the Bassline, Tumi and the Volume, and Pick a Dream (2010). As Tumi, he released ­Music from My Good Eye (2007), Whole Worlds (2009), and Return of the King (2015). Among other proj­ects, he collaborated with the French electronic, trip hop, and dubstep group Chinese Man (2004–) on “Ta Bom” on their ­album Remix with the Sun (2012), pairing ­later on the a­ lbum The Journey (2015). ­After many m ­ usic nominations, Tumi then reinvented himself as Stogie T for the ­album Stogie T (2016), whose “By Any Means” was recently a No. 1 hit in South Africa. Stogie T is a dapper version of Tumi. In comparison to Tumi’s earlier work, Stogie T’s current hip hop ­music style incorporates more pop; however his lyr­ics remain focused on vio­lence, poverty, and in­equality in South Africa, including the abuse of ­women. Even though some of his videos nevertheless objectify ­women, it is still generally to a far lesser extent than most of Molekane’s contemporaries. Molekane is a notable exception in hip hop for supporting w ­ omen’s rights. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; South Africa; Tanzania

Further Reading

De Beer, Stephan. 2015. “Reading Psalms, and Other Urban Poems, in a Fractured City.” Verbum et Ecclesia 36, no. 1: 1–8. Higgins, Dalton. 2009. “What’s Race Got to Do with It?” In Hip Hop World, chap. 3. Groundwork Guides. Berkeley: Groundwood Books. Künzler, Daniel. 2011. “South African Rap ­Music, ­Counter Discourses, Identity, and Commodification beyond the Prophets of da City.” Journal of Southern African Studies 37, no. 1: 27–43.

Further Listening

Tumi. 2006. ­Music from My Good Eye. Motif Rec­ords. Tumi and the Volume. 2006. Tumi and the Volume. Urbnet Rec­ords.

Mongolia Mongolia, a majority Buddhist landlocked nation in Asia, is bordered by China and Rus­sia and has a population of around three million—­half of which live in Ulaanbaatar (many in shanty towns called “ger districts”), the capital and largest city. Most citizens of this once Soviet republic are of Mongolian ethnicity. ­Music is impor­tant in the nation’s cultural identity, and it often represents vari­ous ethnic

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groups: Oirats, Hotogoid, Tuvans, Darhad, Buryats, Tsaatan, Dariganga, Uzemchins, Barga, Kazakhs, and Khalha. Its modern ­music is influenced by the pop and rock genres of the West as seen on cable tele­vi­sion, as well as ­music based on indigenous folksongs. Ulaanbaatar has a thriving pop, rock, and hip hop scene that includes soul and R&B-­based boy bands such as Camerton (n.d.), Nomin Talst and Motive (n.d.), as well as R&B-­based girl bands such as SweetYmotion (n.d.), Kiwi (n.d.), and 3 ohin (n.d.). Solo soul artists include Delgermörön (n.d.) and BX (n.d.). From the early 1990s, hip hop dancing crews have been formed by Mongolian youth. The earliest Mongolian rap band was MC Boys (n.d.), who in the late 1980s rapped about social issues, philosophy, and rebellion; early rap crew Dain Ba Enkh’s (War and Peace, 1997–2002). Enkhtaivan (Enxtaivan Doljingiin, 1976–2012) became Mongolia’s first famous solo R&B singer-­rapper. Dain Ba Enkh rapped about po­liti­ cal and social issues against Western R&B and disco funk beats; it released two ­albums. Rapper Amraa (Sukhbaatar Amarmandakh, n.d.) founded the first disco and electronica dance rap band, Har Sarnai (Black Rose, 1991–), which incorporated Mongolian musical traditions (such as throat singing) into hip hop beats. Current Mongolian hip hop artists include R&B-­style rap acts Aka Odko (Odbeyer, n.d.), Lumino (1996–), and Mon-­Ta-­Rap (1995–); gangsta style and hardcore rap acts rapper Gee (Tugsjargal Munkherdene, 1984–) and rap band Ice Top (1996–); and G-­f unk style acts such as Quiza (Quiza Battsengel, 1981–). Female rappers include Gennie (1987–), who raps against the mining industry that destroys the Mongolian farmland and a government that does l­ ittle for impoverished w ­ omen and families. The rap group Vanquish (2000*–) opts for a big sound created by heavy synthesizer usage and 808 drums, with lots of bass kick and dramatic stingers; members rap chopper style, nonstop, and trade off verses liberally. Experimental rap, using the skills of Mongolian throat singing and traditional instruments, can be heard with Fish Symboled Stamp (2010–), named ­after a traditionally used h­ orse branding method. The duo was cofounded by bass vocalist Sanjjav Baatar (1987–) and rapper Battogtokh Odsaikhan (1985–), who imitate the sounds of nature against a continuous drone. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: China; Gangsta Rap; G-Funk; Hardcore Hip Hop; Rus­sia

Further Reading

Marsh, Peter K. 2010. “ ‘Our Generation Is Opening Its Eyes’: Hip Hop and Youth Identity in Con­temporary Mongolia.” Central Asian Survey 29, no. 3: 345–58. Whitener, John L. 2017. “Sharing Global ­Musics: A Multimedia View of the ­Music of Mongolia.” ­Music Educators Journal 104, no. 1: 14–21.

Further Listening

Ice Top. 2003. One Time. Hi-­Fi Media Group/Self-­released.

Montenegro Montenegro is a Southeastern Eu­ro­pean sovereign state on the Adriatic Sea. It is a neighbor of Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia. ­After being u­ nder communist rule within the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugo­slavia

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Serbo-­Croatian rapper-­songwriter and guitarist Rambo Amadeus incorporates absurd comedy and satire in a musical style that resembles Frank Zappa. His 1988 ­album O Tugo Jesenja (Oh Autumn Sorrow), which included electronica, funk, soul, rock, and hip hop, was the first Montenegrin hip hop recording. (Vyacheslav Oseledko/AFP/Getty Images)

(1945–1992) and then forming as the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro (aka Federal Republic of Yugo­slavia, 1992–2006), Montenegro won its in­de­pen­dence in 2006. The largest population is Montenegrin, followed by a large Serbian minority and smaller populations of Bosniaks, Albanians, and Croats. War and po­liti­cal unrest have challenged cultural development in Montenegro; however, the introduction of m ­ usic education and m ­ usic schools in the 20th ­century have produced classical musicians and composers from its capital, Podgorica, as well as the historic capital city Cetinje. Both traditional (national and folksongs played with the gusle, a chordophone shared with Serbia, Croatia, and Albania) and pop ­music, including dance ­music, is strongly influenced by Serbia, Croatia, Albania, and Italy. American hip hop was difficult to access in the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugo­slavia, though it made its way to Serbia and Montenegro ­after international distribution of 1984 American hip hop films such as Beat Street, Breakin’, and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo. Po­liti­cal unrest in the late 1980s and the Yugo­slav Wars (1991–2001) disrupted the development of Montenegrin hip hop, which began in the late 1980s with pioneering acts such as comedic and satirical rapper-­songwriter and guitarist Rambo Amadeus (Antonije Pušić, 1963–), who has been compared to Frank Zappa (1940– 1993), and Monten—­s (aka Brake Boys, AE:Tell me, 1989–1999), both originating from the Mediterranean coastal city, Kotor.



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Rambo Amadeus’s debut studio ­album O tugo jesenja (Oh Autumn Sorrow, 1988), which contained electronica, funk, soul, rock, and hip hop in Serbo-­Croatian, was the first Montenegrin hip hop recording. Montenegrin as a language is the Štokavian dialect of Serbo-­Croatian. It became standardized in the new country by the 2000s (since 2007, it has become in Montenegro analogous to Received Pronunciation [RP] in ­Great Britain). Monten—­s’ sound included consciousness hip hop, crunkcore, and pop rap. The band’s studio ­albums, Tajna marenda (Secret Brunch, 1996) and Allboom (1998), ­were released on the Komuna label (1985–) in Belgrade, Serbia. At the time, however, the Kosovo War (1998–1999) posed an economic drain and nearly halted all a­ lbum production. In the 2000s, Montenegrin hip hop gained popularity and included acts such as Rade Rapido (Rade Rapido Radares, 1977–) and Sivilo (Balša Krkeljić, 1988–), from Podgorica; Who See (2002–), from Kotor; Barska Stoka (2005–), from Bar; and Monten—­s rapper N—or (Igor Lazić, n.d.). Montenegrin hip hop has evolved into a ­music that fuses a variety of musical genres, including electronica and jazz, as well as production styles such as boombap. Consciousness rap, focusing on daily life, economic disparity, and humor, remain more prominent than po­liti­cal rap. By the 2010s, rap collectives emerged, including TuhhtŠ (Shooting, 2010–), from the Nikśić-­based rapper and producer collaboration known as naVAMga (2009–), as well as Radio Katakomba (2011–), from Budva. In addition, successful rappers such as Bacili (Illija Backovic, 1985–) and Psiho Mistik (Bojan Zeković, n.d.) emerged. As of 2018, the most successful Montenegrin ­battle rapper is Random (Marko Lubarda, n.d.), from Podgorica. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Albania; Serbia

Further Reading

Ceribasic, Naila. 2007. “Musical ­Faces of Croatian Multiculturality.” Yearbook for Traditional ­Music 39: 1–26. Šentevska, Irena. 2017. “La haine et les autres crimes [Hate and Other Crimes]: Ghettocentric Imagery in Serbian Hip Hop Videos.” In Hip Hop at Eu­rope’s Edge: ­Music, Agency, and Social Change, edited by Milosz Miszczynski and Adriana Helbig, chap. 14. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Further Listening

Monten—­s. 1996. Tajna marenda (Secret Brunch). Komuna. TuhhtŠ. 2015. Klasika za zvučnik (Classics for the Speaker). Bučan Pas/Lampshade Media.

Morning of Owl (2002–­, Suwon, South K ­ orea) Morning of Owl is a South Korean b-­boy crew that was formed in 2002 in Suwon. The original crew had four members, including its leader Sez (Lee Seung Ju, n.d.). Other original members ­were Issue (Kwangsuk Park, 1986–), Cho (Hyosung Joo, 1987–), and Owl’d (Park Jong Hun, n.d.). The crew gained its reputation through buskering in Suwon before winning Korean and international b-­boy competitions.

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Its style includes changing ­battle moves frequently and using impeccable footwork, multiperson freezes, and breakdance modifications. The crew is best known for their robot dance showcase. For years South K ­ orea had been the home of Seoul-­based b-­boy crews such as Gamblerz (2002–), Jinjo Crew (2001–), and T.I.P. (1996–), all of which have won international awards. This competitive atmosphere challenged Morning of Owl to become one of the world’s most acclaimed crews. Morning of Owl broadened its choreography to include Korean folk dance, Brazilian capoeira (martial arts dance), and modern dance steps. In 2006 and 2007, Morning of Owl won the ­Battle of the Year–­Korea, among other Korean competitions, but the crew hit its international winning stride in 2012 when it placed in the Top Four in the ­Battle of the Year World Finals. In 2013, the crew won the R-16 ­Korea Championship, the R-16 World B-­Boy Masters Championship, and the United Styles World Finals (Switzerland), among many other significant b-­boy competitions. As of 2018, members include Issue, Owl’d, Pocket (Gijoo Kim, 1996–), Cho, Gon (Sanggon Han, 1991–), Mori (Seunghwan Moon, 1996–), Code (Kyumin An, 1990–), and Seung Ju Lee (1985–). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Battling; Breakdancing; Hip Hop Dance; K ­ orea

Further Reading

Kim, Isaac. 2013. “Morning of Owl Tops B-­Boy World.” The ­Korea Times, July 28. Tudor, Daniel. 2014. “­Korea’s ­Music Scene.” In Geek in K ­ orea: Discovering Asia’s New Kingdom of Cool, part 8. North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle.

Morocco Morocco is a North African populous, constitutional monarchy of over 33.8 million whose geography is characterized by mountains, desert, and a lengthy coastline. Its largest cities include Casablanca, Marrakesh, and Tangier. Moroccan ­music includes classical musical settings of classic poems, Chaabi and Berber folk ­music, Gnawa and Sufi religious ­music, as well as popu­lar Westernized ­music such as American rock, pop, and rap, Jamaican reggae, and Algerian raï. Rap ­music was first introduced through traveling youth in the mid-1980s, and its first rap group was the band Darkheads (n.d.). The ­music became popu­lar in urban centers, and a localized version of sociopo­liti­cal Moroccan rap became a fan favorite. Con­temporary hip hop acts include Dub Afrika (Mehdi Hattabi, n.d.), Casablanca-­ based Dizzy DROS (aka Mr. Crazy, Omar Souhaili, n.d.), Don Bigg (aka Al khasser or Rude Boy, Taoufik Hazeb, 1983–), DJ Mouss (Mouss Mounhim, n.d.), and H-­Kayne (anonymous, 1996–). Dub Afrika is a rapper, songwriter, and producer. Dizzy DROS is a rapper, songwriter and producer whose 2011 song “Cazafonia” became a huge hit in Morocco and led to a successful debut ­album, 3azzy 3ando Stylo (aka 33S, 2013). Casablanca-­based Don Bigg and Meknes-­based H-­Kayne pop­u­lar­ized rapping in Arabic. Turntablist DJ Mouss expatriated to Paris, where he became a member of Scratch Action Hiro (2000–2001). The most popu­lar Moroccan diaspora hip hop act is French Montana (Karim Kharbouch, 1984–), a Rabat-­ born rapper now based in the Bronx, New York. His ­album Jungle Rules (2017)



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peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, with one single, “Unforgettable,” peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: France

Further Reading

Davies, Eirlys E. 2006. “Code Switching and the Globalization of Popu­lar ­Music: The Case of North African Rai and Rap.” Multilingua 25, no. 4: 367–92. Salois, Kendra. 2014. “The U.S. Department of State’s ‘Hip Hop Diplomacy’ in Morocco.” In ­Music and Diplomacy from the Early Modern Era to the Pres­ent, edited by Rebekah Ahrendt, Mark Ferraguto, and Damien Mahiet, chap. 11. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Further Listening

Dizzy Dros. 2013. 3azzy 3ando Stylo. Funky Noise Entertainment.

Mos Def (aka Yasiin Bey, Dante Terrell Smith, 1973–­, Brooklyn, New York) Mos Def is a rapper, singer-­songwriter, keyboardist, bassist, drum programmer, rec­ord producer, actor, and activist from the Bedford–­Stuyvesant neighborhood of New York City. He is primarily known as part of the duo Black Star (1997–)with Talib Kweli (1975–). His musical themes include police brutality, nationalism, and African American empowerment. His rap delivery is resonant, and his style is laidback yet multisyllabic. Overall, he has been nominated for five Grammy Awards, including Best Rap Solo Per­for­mance (2007) and Best Rap ­Album (2009). Born Dante Terrell Smith, Mos Def became a member of the Nation of Islam (NOI), following in his ­father’s footsteps. He dropped out of high school to act, both in Hollywood and on Off-­Off-­Broadway. His ­music ­career began in 1994 with the short-­lived family-­based rap group Urban Thermo Dynamics (UTD), ­until 1995. He released his first single, “The Universal Magnetic/If You Can Huh You Can Hear” (1997) on the Rawkus Rec­ords (1995–) label. While with Rawkus, he cofounded Black Star in 1997, which was mainly produced by Hi-­Tek (Tony Cottrell, 1976–). The duo released the a­ lbum Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star (1998), which reached No. 13 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop Songs chart and No. 53 on the Billboard 200. A year ­later, Mos Def released his solo debut, Black on Both Sides, which was certified Gold and reached No. 3 on the Top R&B/Hip-­ Hop ­Albums chart and No. 25 on the Billboard 200. Over his ­career, he released three other ­albums: The New Danger (2004), True Magic (2006), and The Ecstatic (2009). The New Danger and The Ecstatic both reached the Top 10 on the Billboard 200, and The New Danger went to No. 1 on the Top Rap A ­ lbums chart. The New Danger, his most commercially successful a­ lbum, also produced a Grammy nominated song in “Sex, Love and Money” (2004). The same year, he released the UTD a­ lbum Manifest Destiny, a juvenilia compilation of previously unreleased and rereleased tracks. As an actor, he is best known for his roles in American director Spike Lee’s (1957–) Bamboozled (2000) and season six of the American tele­vi­sion show

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Dexter (2006–2013). As a celebrity, he has hosted Def Poetry Jam (2002–2007). As an entrepreneur, Mos Def has designed two pairs of limited edition Converse shoes and he has created his own clothing line (both 2009). In 2011, he announced that he legally changed his name to Yasiin Bey, and in 2016, he announced his retirement from m ­ usic a­ fter making vari­ous guest appearances on ­others’ songs. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Black Nationalism; Fashion; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Talib Kweli; The United States

Further Reading

Carson, Charles D. 2012. “ ‘Melanin in the ­Music’: Black ­Music History in Sound and Image.” Current Musicology no. 93 (Spring): 95–114, 151. Hakeem Grewal, Sara. 2013. “Intra-­and Interlingual Translation in Blackamerican Muslim Hip Hop.” African American Review 46, no. 1: 37–54. Khabeer, Su’ad, Abdul. 2007. “Rep that Islam: The Rhyme and Reason of American Islamic Hip Hop.” The Muslim World 97, no. 1: 125–41.

Further Listening

Mos Def. 2004. The New Danger. Geffen.

Motswako Motswako is a subgenre of hip hop that emerged in the mid-1990s in Mafikeng (now Mahikeng), South Africa, a major city located near Botswana. Its emergence came just over a year ­after the end of Apartheid (1948–1991) and the first demo­ cratic election of a South African president (Nelson Mandela, 1918–2013, in office 1994–1999). It also came ­after the emergence of kwaito, a South African popu­lar ­music genre that shares musical and cultural aspects with hip hop. Since the late 1990s, motswako has arguably become more popu­lar in Botswana than in South Africa. In point of fact, it was a Motswana MC originally from Francistown, Botswana, Mr T (aka Nomadic, Tebogo Mapine, n.d.), who pioneered motswako with songs such as “Malalaswii” and “Watagwan” (“What’s Up?” or “What’s Good?”). Within a short time ­after Mr T’s songs aired on radio and received extremely positive reception, “motswako” was coined (the name is Setswana for “mixture,” alluding to the use of both languages and the fusion of American hip hop with the gentler Mafikeng musical sound). Motswako rappers began calling themselves “Motswakolista.” Mr T was part of the P-­Side Crew (1994–1999)* from Gaborone, Botswana. P-­Side Crew is often credited as one of Botswana’s earliest hip hop crews. Rapper Scar (Thato Matlhabaphiri, 1985–) and rapper and radio DJ Sid (Ndala Baitsile, n.d.) ­were also members of the P-­Side Crew who had successful ­careers as motswako ­artists. Other early motswako artists included Draztik (Dave Balsher, 1973–), from Francistown; 3rd Mind (1995–2000)*, from Gaborone; Hip Hop Pantsula (1980–), from Mafikeng; and the duo Baphixile (1997*–), from Soweto in Johannesburg. Originally kwaito artists, Baphixile changed their focus to motswako. In comparison to other kinds of African hip hop, motswako rappers have been some of the earliest to collaborate with internationally renowned hip hop artists.

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Early motswako used rapping texts in Setswana—­a Tswana language that is Botswana’s common language, which is also spoken by a large population in South Africa with American vernacular. The choice of American vernacular over South African En­glish reflects the influence of American hip hop in both countries. Other South African languages such as Zulu and Afrikaans have also been used. One exception is South African motswako rapper, songwriter, and comedian iFani (Mzayifani Mzondeleli Boltina, 1985–) from Mthatha, who uses the Xhosa language. By the late 1990s, however, dominant texts are in Setswana with American vernacular. Reggae is sometimes incorporated in motswako, which generally has a gentler sound than most American hip hop. Lyrical content includes localized sociopo­liti­ cal or economic protests and issues such as drug culture; however, some songs focus more on unity, localized pride, romance, objectifying ­women, partying, acquiring wealth, and aspirations. Musical characteristics of motswako usually include laid-­ back yet flowing raps, steady beat (at times four-­to-­the-­floor, reggae-­based, Afrocentric, or drum-­and-­bass beats), turntablism (or turntables as virtual instruments), and limited electronic ­music in the background to help keep rap in the foreground. Sampling is deemphasized. Unaccompanied spoken-­word poetry may also be featured on motswako ­albums or mixtapes, the two most impor­tant recording media for disseminating the subgenre in addition to streaming and posting on YouTube. Transitioning into the 21st ­century, one of the most commercially successful motswako artists was Cashless Society (1999–2006), with members from Gaborone and Johannesburg. The band is an exception for rapping more in American vernacular than in Setswana. ­After 2000, some famous South African motswako acts emerged. ­These include Tuks Senganga (aka Tuks, Tumelo Kapadisa, 1981–) and Cassper Nyovest (Refiloe Maele Phoolo, 1990–), from Mafikeng; Spoek Mathambo (Nthato Mokgata, 1985–), from Soweto, Johannesburg; as well as Kuli Chana (Khulane Morule, 1982–) and Mo’Molemi (Motiapele Morule, 1981–), from Mmabatho, South Africa (formerly Bophuthatswana). The last was a South African farmer before pursuing a solo motswako ­career in Botswana. More recent Motswana artists include Zeus (1986–) from Serowe; DJ Rade (Bob Hirschfeld, 1976–) and Dramaboi (Thuto Ramphaleng, 1993–), from Gaborone; and Apollo Diablo (Monametsi Nkhukhu, 1994–), from Francistown and Jwaneng. Stagga (aka Don Dada, Ralph Williams III, 1976–) is a London-­born rapper of Tswana and Jamaican descent, who built his motswako ­career in Gaborone. His son Leano (2001*–) is an emerging motswako rapper. As of 2018, Stagga continues his rapping ­career, based now in London. Since the 2000s, t­ here has been an increasing number of female motswako artists. Punah (Punah Gabasiane, n.d.), a former elementary school teacher from Serowe, began singing African jazz in cabarets before rapping. Punah fuses motswako with jazz and ele­ments of gospel ­music, though motswako remains a secondary focus. Fifi Cooper (Refilwe Boingotio Mooketsi, 1991–), from Mahikeng, began as an R&B singer, but has quickly become one of the most popu­lar female motswako rappers of her time. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Botswana; Namibia; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; South Africa; Tuks Senganga; Zeus

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Further Reading

Ditsele, Thabo. 2017. “The Promotion of Setswana through Hip Hop and Motswakolistas.” Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa 14, nos. 1–2: 1–14. Künzler, Daniel. 2011. “South African Rap ­Music, ­Counter Discourses, Identity, and Commodification beyond the Prophets of da City.” Journal of Southern African Studies 37, no. 1: 27–43. Masemola, Michael Kgomotso, and Pinky Makoe. 2014. “Musical Space as Site of Transculturation of Memory and Transformation of Consciousness: The Re-­affirmation of Africa in the Black Atlantic Assemblage.” Muziki: Journal of M ­ usic Research in Africa 11, no. 1: 63–70. Molebatsi, Natalia, and Raphael d’Abdon. 2007. “From Poetry to Floetry: ­Music’s Influence in the Spoken Word Art of Young South Africa.” Muziki: Journal of M ­ usic Research in Africa 4, no. 2: 171–77.

Further Listening

Baphixile. 1998. Ngoma (Dance). Sony M ­ usic Entertainment. Cassper Nyovest. 2015. Refiloe (Gift). F ­ amily Tree Rec­ords. Cooper, Fifi. 2013. 20FIFI. Ambitiouz Entertainment. Zeus. 2008. Freshly Baked. D.I.Y. Entertainment.

Mozambique Mozambique is a Southeast African country that borders South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, and Tanzania, with its coast on the Indian Ocean. Across the Mozambique Channel is Madagascar. Mozambique attained its in­de­pen­dence from Portugal in 1975, becoming the ­People’s Republic of Mozambique (1975–1990), ­under the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), a self-­ proclaimed one-­party communist regime. Just two years ­later, the Mozambican Civil War (1977–1992) began when then white-­r uled Rhodesia (aka Republic of Rhodesia, 1965–1979)—an unrecognized state in South Africa—­f unded the right-­ wing nationalist, pro-­Apartheid (1948–1991), and populist Mozambique National Re­sis­tance’s (RENAMO) movement to oppose the government. The Mozambican Civil War (1975–1990) coincided with the emergence of hip hop in Mozambique’s neighboring countries. ­W hether residing abroad or in Mozambique, hip hop artists who have incorporated Mozambican ­music and addressed Mozambican Civil War–­related issues and prob­lems with po­liti­cal unrest can be found. Popu­lar ­music such as Jamaican reggae, ragga, and dancehall, as well as modernized Portuguese fado, and Brazilian bossa nova and maxixe (aka Brazilian tango), are favored by hip hop artists, in addition to Mozambique’s own kinds of popu­lar ­music such as marrabenta (an example of Mozambican m ­ usic that derives some influence from hip hop). By the early 1990s, hip hop activity existed especially in Mozambique’s capital city, Maputo, and rap t­here is often called Maputo rap. Although the most used native languages spoken by the black African majority are Swahili, Makhuwa, and Sena, Portuguese remains Mozambique’s national language. Rapping texts also ­favor Portuguese, though some artists opt for En­glish to gain further audiences. An early rap group in Maputo who recorded hip hop was Rappers Unit (1993–).

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Shortly ­after its formation, female rapper and singer Gina Pepa (Gina Guibunda, 1976–) joined. She ­later pursued a successful solo ­career fusing hip hop with R&B.  Another early Mozambican rapper was Duas Caras (Two Face, Hermío Chissano, 1978–). In 1998, pandza, a fast-­tempo Mozambican popu­lar ­music that combines marrabenta and raga rock, was created. Ziqo (aka Ziqo Maboazuda, Zico da Silva, n.d.) is often credited as its originator, and pandza has since been made popu­lar by artists such as Mc Roger (Rogério Dinis, 1964–). As Mozambican hip hop continues into the 2000s, more artists have produced ­music with accessible software. A duo from Maputo, FandG (aka Fidalgo and Gringo, 1999–), with rapper and songwriter Fidalgo (Fábio Ferreira, n.d.) and rapper, songwriter, and producer Gringo (Edson Nhamuxando, n.d.), raps in Portuguese; it fuses hip hop with funk, jazz, and neo soul. The duo’s lyrical content focuses on romance, peace, and everyday street life. Using just FL Studio (formerly known as FruityLoops, 1997–), FandG released its debut studio ­album, Bitologista (Bitologist, 2007). The singer-­songwriter, producer, entrepreneur, visual artist, and activist SIMBA (Nelson Angelo Sitoi, 1980–), also from Maputo, released Mozambique’s first hip hop ­album in En­glish, Run and Tell Your ­Mother (2005). Nearly a de­cade afterward, with Mozambican producer and multi-­instrumentalist Milton Gulli (1978–), SIMBA released The Heroes: Tribute to a Tribe Called Quest (2013). Azagaía (Edson da Luz, 1984–) raps in Portuguese, using some Changana. His lyrical content includes poverty, vio­lence, and strong po­liti­cal criticism against the current Mozambican regime. Other notable acts are Mr. Bow (aka Bawito, Salvador Pedro Maiaze, 1982–), Laylizzy (Edson Abel Jermias Tchamo, 1988–), and Luwi Ace (Rui Mazuk, 1993–). The successful female singer-­songwriter Lizha James (Elisa Lisete James Humbane, 1982–) fuses hip hop and pandza with reggae, R&B, and marrabenta.

DIASPORA ACTS As a result of the Mozambican Civil War, a million ­people died, five million p­ eople w ­ ere displaced, and landmines, as well as other arsenal, maimed many surviving Mozambicans. The country’s first multiparty elections did not take place ­u ntil 1994, resulting in its current semipresidential republic with its legislature. Mozambican diaspora acts include several hip hop artists who grew up in Lisbon, where their first contact with hip hop was Portuguese hip hop, commonly known as Hip Hop Tuga. An example of a successful expatriate Mozambican hip hop artist is Cataclysm (Mohammed Yahya, n.d.), a rapper and spoken-­word artist from Maputo who was displaced by the war and raised in Lisbon. He ultimately settled in London. Cataclysm raps in En­glish and Portuguese, focusing on po­liti­cal hip hop that advocates for self and societal improvement. He worked on several interfaith hip hop efforts, and with London-­based rapper Anomaly MC (Daniel Silverstein, n.d.), he cofounded the first Muslim/Jewish hip hop collective in the United Kingdom. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Portugal; Reggae; South Africa

492

Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer

Further Reading

Rantala, Janne. 2016. “ ‘Hidrunisa Samora’: Invocations of a Dead Polital Leader in Maputo Rap.” Journal of Southern African Studies 42, no. 6: 1161–77. Vanspauwen, Bart  P.  2013. “Cultural Strug­gles in the Lusofonia Arena: Portuguese-­ Speaking Mi­grant Musicians in Lisbon.” Afrika Focus 26, no. 1: 67–88.

Further Listening

Azagaía. 2007. Babalaze (Hangover). Cotonete Rec­ords. FandG. 2007. Bitologista (Bitologist). FandG.

Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer (James Burke, 1970–­, London, E­ ngland) Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer is a British rapper, producer, and multi-­ instrumentalist who is credited with starting the Chap Hop genre. He delivers all of his rhymes in Received Pronunciation (aka RP, or BBC En­glish), the Standard En­glish dialect and accent of the United Kingdom. Using the grammar and vocabulary of the Queen’s En­glish, Mr. B raps about a number of British cultural staples and ste­ reo­types, such as playing cricket, smoking a pipe, and wearing tweed, three-­ piece suits, and other refined clothing. Many of his tracks parody familiar hip hop lyr­ics and concepts. For example, “Straight Out of Surrey” (2008) is a play on the American hip hop group N.W.A.’s (1986–1991) track “Straight Outta Compton,” and his track “­Can’t Stop, Shan’t Stop” (2013) is a British En­glish adaptation of “­Can’t Stop, ­Won’t Stop,” the title of a 1997 track by AmeriChap hop musician and producer Mr. B The can hip hop artist KRS-­ O ne Gentleman Rhymer raps in Received Pronunciation (1965–), a 2003 hit by American (aka RP or BBC English)—­the Queen’s English—in hip hop duo Young Gunz (1999–), 2012 at Guilfest in Guildford, ­England. One of and a 2005 hip hop history book Mr. B’s most popu­lar songs and ­music videos is written by the Hawaiian-­ born “Chap Hop History,” from 2008, in which he American journalist and critic raps sampled lines from impor­tant American rap Jeff Chang. On most of his tracks songs while playing his banjolele. (Harry Herd/ WireImage/Getty Images) Mr. B accompanies himself on

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the banjolele, a four-­stringed instrument with the size and tuning system of a ukulele and the tone and construction of a banjo. He produces virtually all of his own backing beats, and he occasionally plays piano and trombone on his backing tracks, as well. FEUD WITH PROFESSOR ELEMENTAL AND BEYOND Mr. B first gained attention with “Chap Hop History,” from his first ­album Flattery Not Included (2008), and its accompanying ­music video, which as of 2018 has been viewed well over one million times on YouTube. Each stanza of the track features Mr. B rapping sampled lines from impor­tant American rap songs and playing along on his banjolele. In 2010, fellow En­glish chap hop artist Professor Elemental (Paul Alborough, 1975–) released the song and video “Fighting Trousers,” a humorous critique of Mr. B. In response, Mr. B released “Like a Chap.” They have appeared together both live and in recordings since. Mr. B has released a total of five studio ­albums: Flattery Not Included, I Say (2010), The Tweed ­Album (2012), ­Can’t Stop Shan’t Stop (2013), and Mr. B’s Christmas ­Album. His first two ­albums ­were released on the Grot ­Music label (2004– 2010); his subsequent ­albums have been produced on his own label, the Chap Hop Business Concern (2012–). His label has produced two ­album compilations of his ­music: O. G. Original Gentleman (2011) and Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer: Acid Ragtime: Chapstep Volume One (2014). He is a popu­lar live performer and has appeared in the Glastonbury Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, among ­others. In 2015, he appeared in live per­for­ mances, often with his banjolele, in a series of videos called The Bassment Sessions that as of 2018 are available on YouTube. Mr. B also composes and produces electronica mixtapes ­under his pseudonym/alter ego, The Major, on his label. Amanda Sewell See also: Chap Hop; Nerdcore; Professor Elemental; The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Robinson, Frances. 2011. “In ‘Chap Hop,’ Gentleman Rappers Bust Rhymes about Tea, Cricket.” The Wall Street Journal, April 4, A1, A14. Walters, Simon. 2014. “Gove’s Favorite Rapper Revealed: Minister Professes Love for ‘Chap Hop’ Star Who Calls Boris ­Simple, Cameron an ‘Airy-­Fairy Dud’, and Osborne Tight-­Fisted.” The Daily Mail, March 22.

Further Listening

Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer. 2008. Flattery Not Included. Grot M ­ usic. Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer. 2012. The Tweed A ­ lbum. Chap-­Hop Business Concern.

Mr. Len (Leonard Smythe, 1975–­, Bronx, New York) Mr. Len is an American hip hop DJ, turntablist, and producer, best known for his role in the Brooklyn, New York hip hop band Com­pany Flow (1993–2001) and for

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his collaborative production work with Grammy winner Prince Paul (1967–) from Queens, New York. His solo debut was the 2001 ­album Pity the Fool (Experiments in Therapy b­ ehind the Mask of ­Music While Handing Out Dummysmacks). Along with rapper and producer El-­P (Jaime Meline, 1975–) and rapper and producer Bigg Jus (Justin Ingelton, n.d.), Mr. Len founded Com­pany Flow. The band’s their ­album Funcrusher Plus (1997) is widely regarded as one of the most impor­ tant in­de­pen­dent hip hop ­albums produced in the 1990s. Its success was due in equal parts to El-­P’s and Bigg Jus’s dense, complex lyr­ics; the ­album’s experimental production style, in which sampled sounds ­were heavi­ly altered from their source materials and beats ­were often irregular; and Mr. Len’s turntablism, exemplified on the songs “Lencoricism” and “Funcrush Scratch.” Com­pany Flow disbanded in 2001, and Mr. Len went on to produce Pity the Fool (Experiments in Therapy b­ ehind the Mask of ­Music While Handing Out Dummysmacks). The ­album featured rapper Jean Grae (1976–) on four tracks and other rappers including Chubb Rock (Richard Simpson, 1968–) and the members of the Juggaknots (1995–) on vari­ous other tracks. The a­ lbum’s key single “Taco Day,” a tale of an abused girl’s revenge, features lyr­ics by Jean Grae and originally contained samples of ­music from the 1985 film Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters by the American composer Philip Glass (1937–). Mr.  Len’s label, Matador, was unable to clear the samples with Glass’s rec­ord label, and Mr. Len had to rework the track with entirely dif­fer­ent samples to avoid a lawsuit. He has released a solo compilation ­album, Class X: A Tribute to Com­pany Flow (2003) and one digital solo ­album, The Marvels of Yestermorrow (2013), distributed via Bandcamp. He has collaborated with and appeared on tracks and ­albums of dozens of dif­fer­ent artists. Along with Prince Paul, he created a fictitious doo-­wop group called the Dix. The group’s ­album The Art of Picking up ­Women (2005) scratched and looped old doo-­wop recordings while parodying the culture of doo-­wop in singles such as “­Here Comes the Dix” and “Tears in My Eyes (Dirty Girl).” The a­ lbum notes create the fictional past for the band, as having started in 1957 as the Bangkoks, with original members Orgynius, Peter O Tool, Tro John and John Handcock, reassembling as the Dix in 1965. Mr.  Len was also featured prominently in the documentary film Copyright Criminals (2009), which detailed a number of the ­legal, ethical, and aesthetic issues related to sample-­based hip hop. Amanda Sewell See also: Com­pany Flow; Turntablism; The United States

Further Reading

Haywood, Brad. 2001. “Review: Mr. Len, Pity the Fool: Experiments in Therapy b­ ehind the Mask of M ­ usic While Handing Out Dummy Smacks.” Pitchfork, November 18. Sewell, Amanda. 2014. “How Copyright Affected the Musical Style and Critical Reception of Sample-­Based Hip Hop.” Journal of Popu­lar ­Music Studies 26, nos. 2–3: 295–320.

Further Listening

Com­pany Flow. 1997. Funcrusher Plus. Rawkus Rec­ords. The Dix. 2005. The Art of Picking Up ­Women. Smacks.

Myanmar 495 Mr. Len. 2001. Pity the Fool: Experiments in Therapy b­ ehind the Mask of ­Music While Handing Out Dummy Smacks. Matador.

Further Viewing

Franzen, Benjamin, and Kembrew McLeod, dirs. 2009. Copyright Criminals. N.p.: Changing Images.

Myanmar Myanmar, a Southeast Asian nation commonly called Burma, is an eco­nom­ically stable nation (its resources include jade, other gems and minerals, oil, and natu­ral gas) with a huge income gap among its population of 51 million. Its largest city is its former capital, Yangon (aka Rangoon). In its early history, Burmese language, traditions, and religion (Theravada Buddhism) informed the country’s culture. Hip hop emerged in the late 1990s and became the favorite musical genre of youth. Early hip hop artists included rappers Myo Kyawt Myaing (1971–), Thxa Soe (Soe Moe Aung, 1980–), Sai Sai Kham Leng (aka Sai Sai Kham Hlaing, 1979–), and Ye Lay (Ye Htun Min, 1984–), as well as rap group Acid (2000–). Myanmar’s ­music is greatly influenced by other musical traditions in the region, especially t­hose in its bordering countries: India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Laos, and China. B ­ ecause Theravada Buddhism eschews de­cadence, Myanmar’s traditional ­music is single melody, nonharmonized, regular rhythm–­oriented, with time signatures such as 4/4 (na-­yi-­se), 2/4 (wa-­let-­se), 8/16 (wa-­let-­a-­myan), combined into fixed patterns and ruled by convention, although regional m ­ usic styles create some diversity. Instrumentation consists of drums, pipes and flutes, bells, clappers, harps, xylophones, zithers and fiddles, and vocals. Western classical and pop ­music ­were introduced into the country during the 20th ­century as a by-­product of its British rule period (1824–1848). Rock and roll was introduced in the 1960s and became popu­lar in the 1980s, despite censorship by the Myanmar ­Music Asiayon (MMA) of lyr­ics dealing with po­liti­cal and social issues, poverty, the sex trade, democracy, or h­ uman rights. Myaing is a singer-­rapper of dance, synthpop, and remix m ­ usic, as well as a producer and audio engineer; he introduced rap m ­ usic to Myanmar. Thxa Soe, also an audio engineer, infused hip hop with traditional folksongs and con­temporary electronic m ­ usic. Sai Sai Kham is singer-­ songwriter, model, novelist, and actor released his debut ­album Choco­late yaung yayge einmet (Chocolate-­Colored Ice Dreams) in 2000; his sophomore effort in 2001, Thangegyin myar swar (Graduation: Friends Forever), made hip hop more popu­lar in the mainstream. Rapper Ye Lay is a singer-­songwriter, musician, actor and model. Acid released Myanmar’s first hip hop ­album, Beginning (2000); however, its po­liti­cal songs against the military led to the arrest of two members. In August 2012 state censorship on ­music was officially abolished. Since then, rock and metal have become popu­lar, with hip hop lagging a bit ­behind, although two recent rappers, Ah Boy (aka K. K. Wong, Kyaw Phyo Tun, 1985–) and Hlwan Paing (1989–), both former members of the boyband Rock$tar (n.d.), have taken the forefront in the new hip hop wave. Ah Boy is a singer-­songwriter and businessman who in 2007 released his solo a­ lbum Tayoke tan (Chinatown).

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In 2014, rapper-­singer Hlwan Paing released his electrodance-­fused hip hop debut a­ lbum Gita sar so (aka Curse); he was voted the country’s Most Popu­lar Male Vocalist of Year. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: China; India; Thailand

Further Reading

Keeler, Ward. 2009. “What’s Burmese about Burmese Rap? Why Some Expressive Forms Go Global.” American Ethnologist 36, no. 1: 2–19. Ransley, Carol, and Toe Zaw Latt. 2007. “Burma’s New Generation Po­liti­cal Activists.” Eureka Street 17, no. 20: 11–14.

N Naeto C (Naetochukwu Chikwe, 1982–­, Houston, Texas) Naeto C is a Nigerian American Afrobeat singer-­songwriter, rapper, and producer. He is the son of former Nigerian Ambassador to Ireland, Kema Chikwe (Kemafo Nonyerem Chikwe, 1947*–) and at a young age he won vari­ous poetry competitions. ­After finishing his secondary education in Lagos, Nigeria, the country’s largest city and one of the fastest growing urban areas in the world, he moved back to the United States to attend college. He got interested in hip hop and briefly formed a trio, World Famous Akademy (2004–2008), which also featured Ikechukwu Onanaku (n.d.). Naeto C graduated in 2004 from the George Washington University, intending to become a medical doctor (eventually he earned a master’s degree in Energy Studies in Scotland). The trio returned to Nigeria in 2006 to work for Storm 360 (aka Storm Productions, 1991–), and Naeto C became an in-­house producer, producing over 60 songs in his first year, including a minor hit, “I Believe” (2007), which led to the I Believe Tour (2007–2008). His debut a­ lbum You Know My “P” was released in 2008 and sold over a million copies. Two of its singles, “Sitting on Top” and “Kini Big Deal,” made it onto vari­ous Nigerian charts, the latter becoming a club favorite. His second ­album, Super C Season (2011), spawned four singles, including “Ako Mi Ti Poju” (“My Lessons Learned” in Igbo). As an Afrobeat artist, he uses a combination of West African musical styles (such as fuji ­music and highlife), combining ­those with American jazz; vocals tend to be chants, call-­and-­response, and polyrhythmic vocals, with harmonies and countermelodies. His instrumentation generally features bass guitar, drum kits, synthesizer, guitar, and percussion, as well as congas, brass, and saxophone. He has won two MTV Africa ­Music Awards, for Best New Musician (2008) and Best New Artist (2009). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Nigeria; The United States

Further Reading

Adesioye, Lola. 2009. “Keep the Home Fires Burning: Nigerian Pop Musicians Have Been Ridiculed as Poor Imitators of American Hip Hop, but a Fresh Mix of U.S. Studio Polish and African Roots Is Changing All That.” The Guardian, March 13, 7. Künzler, Daniel. 2011. “South African Rap ­Music, ­Counter Discourses, Identity, and Commodification beyond the Prophets of da City.” Journal of Southern African Studies 37, no. 1: 27–43.

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Further Listening

Naeto C. 2011. Super C Season. Storm 360/Cerious ­Music.

Namibia Namibia is a southern African country on the Atlantic Coast that shares borders with Angola, Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa. In 1990, Namibia attained in­de­ pen­dence from South Africa. Hip hop likely reached Namibia in the early 1980s, about the same time as it became popu­lar in South Africa; however, the country had no ­music industry well into the mid-1990s, when Namibian hip hop (known as “Nam hip hop”) emerged. Musicians often rec­ord in neighboring South Africa, whose hip hop and kwaito ­music became popu­lar in Namibia as well. Kwaito developed into a mainstream ­music genre in Soweto, in Johannesburg, just ­after the end of apartheid and demo­cratic election of President Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) in 1994. South Africa also applied apartheid to Namibia while governing the state; kwaito therefore also resonated with young Namibians. Namibian rapping texts are  diverse, but mainly En­glish, Afrikaans, and Oshiwambo are used. From kwaito, localized party and ghetto themes are part of the lyrical content of Nam hip hop; other themes have come to focus on romance (including mixed race romances), attaining wealth, and unity and tolerance. Namibia’s main hip hop scene is in Windhoek, the capital city, followed by Walvis Bay and the coastal city Skwakopmund. One of the pioneering groups of the mid-1990s was the Kalaharians (aka The Usual Suspects, 1996–2000), whose members ­later merged to become Dungeon ­Family (2000–2004*)—­not to be confused with OutKast’s (1991–2006, 2014–) Atlanta-­based hip hop, funk, and R&B collective the Dungeon ­Family (1993–). Members also became the popu­lar female R&B duo Gal Level (2004–). Unlike with other kinds of African hip hop, female Nam hip hop artists w ­ ere pres­ent from the start and helped pave the way for ­later female Namibian acts such as rapper Snazzy (Louisa Shilongo, 1987–), who performs in En­glish. By the late 1990s, many Nam hip hop artists also recorded kwaito and ­house ­music. One of the most critically acclaimed Namibian rappers is the Dogg (Martin Morocky, 1983–), a kwaito artist born in exile in Zambia, who also rec­ords hip hop and h­ ouse m ­ usic. Other famous Nam hip hop acts include rapper Gazza (Lazarus Shiimi, 1990–), rapper and crunk musician D-­Jay (Diogene Ochs, 1987–), gangsta and Christian/gospel rapper D-­Naff (Naftalie Shigwedha Amukwelele, 1974–), gangsta rapper Jericho (aka J-­Twizzle, Jerich Jerome Gawanab, 1980–), gangsta rapper Quido (Le-­Roy Quido Mohamed, 1989–), and producer WilliamMustBeControl’d (aka Willy G, William Shilamba, 1992–). Namibia has several historically white communities, made up of mostly Afrikaners or German. As hip hop and kwaito became popu­lar, ­there have been a few white Namibian artists, particularly from Windhoek. Ludik (aka Elvis se Seun, Stefan Ludik 1981–), once a cricketer, has performed hip hop, pop, and dance ­music since 2003, using both En­glish and Afrikaans languages. Another Windhoek rapper of Eu­ro­pean descent is Gini Grindith (Dave Coxall, 1979–),

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who is part of the Johannesburg crew Abnormal Detail (2000–2010*). The most famous white Namibian rapper is EeS (Eric Sell, 1983–), who fuses hip hop with kwaito, reggae, and Afropop. He established his ­music ­career in Cape Town, where he studied sound engineering. In 2003, EeS moved to Cologne, Germany. His rap texts combine En­glish and Afrikaans (including Camtho, which is usually used in kwaito). At times, he also uses Namlish (Namibian En­glish) and Namibian German, also known as Namibian slang (a dialect called Südwesterdeutsch or Namsläng that combines German with Afrikaans, Ovambo, and other Bantu languages). Though white rappers and kwaito artists exist, since the 2000s Nam hip hop and kwaito have become somewhat integrated. Eraze (Edwin Chibanga, n.d.) is a black Namibian MC, producer, and radio host from Windhoek. Active in hip hop since 1996, Eraze created the radio show The Cypha (2002*–), which broadcast global and local hip hop and features open mic freestyle sessions. Eraze raps in En­glish and worked on EeS’s ­album Nam Flava! (2006) and was associated with Namibian rapper Sunny Boy (Sunday Shipushu, 1983–), from Ongwediva, who rec­ords hip hop, kwaito, and hikwa (a combination of hip hop and kwaito that was created by Sunny Boy). Other Namibian hip hop acts that perform hikwa are OmPuff (Belmiro Hosi, 1980–) of Angolan-­Namibian descent, Tre VDK (aka Tre Van Die Kasie, Tre, Tretius Kauhangengo, 1981–), and Bucharest, Romanian-­born and raised Qonja (Tukonjela Haiyambo Ngodji, 1984–). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Botswana; Kwaito; South Africa

Further Reading

Fairweather, Ian. 2006. “Heritage, Identity, and Youth in Postcolonial Namibia.” Journal of Southern African Studies 32, no. 4: 719–36. van Wolputte, Steven, and Laura E. Bleckmann. 2012. “The Ironies of Pop: Local ­Music Production and Citizenship in a Small Namibian Town.” Africa 82, no. 3: 413–36.

Further Listening

EeS. 2006. Nam Flava! EeS Rec­ords.

Nas (aka Nasty Nas, Nasir Ben Olu Dara Jones, 1973–­, Brooklyn, New York) Nas is an American rapper, producer, film and tele­vi­sion actor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist who is best known for his highly successful and influential ­albums: Illmatic (1994), It Was Written (1996), I Am . . . ​(1999), Nastradamus (1999), Stillmatic (2001), God’s Son (2002), Street’s Disciple (2004), Hip Hop Is Dead (2006), Untitled (2008), and Life Is Good (2012). As of 2018, his first seven ­albums have been certified Platinum, and his last three ­albums ­were certified Gold. His ­albums also have an impressive charting rec­ord. All have peaked in ­either the No. 1 or No. 2 position on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­ Hop ­Albums chart. It Was Written, I Am . . . ​, Hip Hop Is Dead, Untitled, and Life Is Good peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200; Illmatic, God’s Son, Nastradamus,

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Street’s Disciple, and Stillmatic peaked in or near the Top 10, as high as No. 5, on the Billboard 200. Both his collaboration a­ lbums, The Firm: The A ­ lbum (1997) as part of the Firm (1996–1998), a supergroup with rappers Foxy Brown (Inga DeCarlo Fung Marchand, 1978–), AZ (Anthony Cruz, 1972–), and Nature (Jermain Baxter, 1972–), and Distant Relatives (2010) with Bob Marley’s (Robert Nesta Marley, 1945–1981) youn­ gest son, reggae singer Damian Marley (aka Jr. Gong, 1978–), also peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. BEGINNING ­CAREER AND ILLMATIC Nas’s ­father is Olu Dara Jones (Charles Jones III, 1941–), a jazz cornetist, guitarist, and singer who played a variety of styles, including bebop, cool jazz, blues, funk, reggae, and jazz-­rock fusion. Nas grew up in the Queensbridge Houses ­(1939–), the largest housing proj­ect in North Amer­i­ca and once home to pioneering American hip hop artists such as producer Marley Marl (1962–), several Juice Crew rappers (1983–1991), and ­later artists such as rapper Blaq Poet (Wilbur Bass, 1969–) and the duo Mobb Deep (1991–2017). Nas showed talent in writing; however, he dropped out of school by eighth grade, about the same year his parents divorced. At this time, his best friend in the Queensbridge Houses, Ill ­Will (Willy Graham, 1972–1992), mentored and backed him as a DJ while he rapped. Ill ­Will was l­ater murdered by a neighborhood gunman; he is referenced on Nas’s debut ­album Illmatic and on Nas’s in­de­pen­dent label, ill ­Will Rec­ords (1999–), on which Nas released Nastradamus. By the late 1980s, Nas met hip hop producer Large Professor (aka Large Pro, Extra P., William Paul Mitchell, 1973–), who produced Rakim (William Michael Griffin, 1968–). Large Professor gave Nas studio access. In 1991, Nas appeared on Canadian American hip hop group Main Source’s (1989–1994) song “Live at the Barbeque.” A year ­later, MC Serch (Michael Berrin, 1967–) of the American hip hop group 3rd Bass (1987–1992, 1998–2000) became Nas’s man­ag­er and attained a rec­ord deal with Columbia Rec­ords (1887–). That year, as Nasty Nas, his solo debut was “Halftime,” from MC Serch’s film soundtrack to American director Oliver Stone’s (William Oliver Stone, 1946–) Zebrahead (1992). In 1994, Nas released Illmatic, which featured production by Large Professor, among o­ thers, as well as an appearance by his ­father. Illmatic earned strong critical acclaim and is considered by many critics, rappers, and scholars as a classic hip hop ­album. Its hardcore lyrical content contains rich use of internal rhymes, first-­person storytelling that focused on Nas’s inner-­ city experiences in the Queensbridge Houses, and alternating images of ghetto life (e.g., poverty, drug activity, and police conversations) with gangsta rap devices (e.g., braggadocio and authenticity). SUBSEQUENT ­ALBUMS AND DISSING Despite Illmatic’s status, Columbia Rec­ords’ agenda was for Nas to work ­toward mainstream success. It Was Written featured several famous 1990s hip hop artists such as Lauryn Hill (1975–) and Dr. Dre (1965–), and it produced immediate hits and achieved chart success. I Am . . . ​followed in 1999. It was originally intended



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as a double ­album, but Nas abandoned material from the ­album that had been leaked onto the Internet. Nastradamus was released l­ ater that year to mixed critical reception. In 2000, Nas collaborated with Queensbridge hip hop legends Roxanne Shanté (1969–), MC Shan (1965–), and Marley Marl on the ­album Nas and ill ­Will Rec­ords Pres­ents QB’s Finest. About this time, Nas had a well known argument with Puff ­Daddy (1969–) and a rivalry with Jay-­Z (1969–). ­After collaborating on Nas’s “Hate Me Now” (1999) and appearing in the ­music video, which featured both rappers crucified, Puff ­Daddy wanted to be edited out of the scene. Despite his request, the unedited version of the video aired on MTV (1981–). In 2001, Jay-­Z dissed Nas on “Takeover” and Nas responded by dissing Jay-­Z on “Ether.” Jay-­Z responded with “Supa Ugly,” which contained braggadocio lines about having an affair with Nas’s girlfriend. In the meantime, Nas had a comeback with Stillmatic, and in 2002, Columbia Rec­ords released The Lost Tapes, containing Nas’s unreleased earlier songs. Nas’s ­album God’s Son followed. At this time, Nas helped his younger b­ rother, Jungle (aka Jabari Fret, Jabari Jones, n.d.), a member of the Queensbridge hip hop group Bravehearts (1998–), release the group’s debut studio ­album, Bravehearted (2003). But a year ­after the 2004 release of Nas’s Street’s Disciple, the dissing continued: Nas appeared in Jay-­Z’s 2005 “I Declare War” concert, where they dissed each other while also performing together. The concert led to Nas’s 2006 recording deal with Def Jam Recordings (1983–) while Jay-­Z was president of the label. For Def Jam, Nas recorded Hip Hop Is Dead, Untitled, and Life Is Good. Nas has toured worldwide and has collaborated with hip hop artists outside the United States, such as South African motswako rapper Hip Hop Pantsula (1980–). Nas has also helped create numerous scholarships, including establishing a fellowship at Harvard University in 2013 that encourages scholars and artists’ creativity in connection to hip hop. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Gangsta Rap; Jay-­Z; Puff ­Daddy; The United States

Further Reading

Dyson, Michael Eric, and Sohail Daulatzai, eds. 2010. Born to Use Mics: Reading Nas’s “Illmatic.” New York: Basic Civitas Books. Pollard, Tyler J. 2014. “Conflicted State of Mind: Race, Masculinity, and Nas’s Lyric Public Pedagogy.” Journal of Poetry Therapy 27, no. 1: 1–11. Preston, Graham Chia-­Hui. 2008. “ ‘My Pen Rides the Paper’: Hip Hop, the Technology of Writing, and Nas’s Illmatic.” Journal of Popu­lar ­Music Studies 20, no. 3: 261–75.

Further Listening

Nas. 1994. Illmatic. Columbia. Nas. 2004. Street’s Disciple. Columbia.

Nation of Islam The Nation of Islam (NOI) was founded in 1930 in Detroit as an Islamic Black Nationalist movement. For most of the 20th ­century, the organ­ization has been controversial in national discussions regarding race and racism. For most of its

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history, the NOI has espoused a separatist ideology that emphasizes black self-­ improvement and self-­determination, while also protesting racial in­equality. The group has also had a significant impact on the evolution of hip hop. The NOI’s distinct Black Nationalist ideology inspired the lyr­ics, production, and aesthetics of many early rap artists. Furthermore, the group’s militancy and resurgence during the final de­cades of the 20th ­century attracted many rap artists as adherents or fellow travelers, and contributed to a racially charged cultural Zeitgeist that helped shape United States–­based hip hop in general. ORIGINS AND THE U.S. CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT Wallace Fard Muhammad (Wallace D. Fard, 1877–1934*) established the Nation of Islam with the intention of using and revising the tenets of Islam to speak to the experiences of African Americans. In 1934, Muhammad dis­appeared, so Elijah Muhammad (Elijah Robert Poole, 1897–1975) became the group’s leader ­until 1975. The group believed that blacks ­were Allah’s chosen ­people and that white society was hostile to black interests; thus, the NOI argued that black ­people ­were entitled to a separate nation. Many members replaced their surnames with the letter “X,” claiming that their original last names ­were ­those of slaveholders and not reflective of their African ancestry. The NOI strug­gled to attract members during its early years, but began enjoying some success following World War II (1939–1945). The group became increasingly popu­lar and influential during the 1960s, largely due to the charisma of Malcolm X (1925–1965). While in prison, Malcolm X converted to Islam and, following his 1952 release, became a prominent and vis­i­ble minister and spokesperson. A talented public speaker, Malcolm X functioned as a more radical counterpoint to the nonviolent tradition of Civil Rights activism embodied by Martin Luther King Jr. (1929– 1968). King and Malcolm X frequently disagreed publicly, but many scholars of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (1954–1968) claim the tension between them helped propel the movement forward. Malcolm X’s incendiary rhe­toric often made King appear more reasonable to po­liti­cal leaders, while King’s po­liti­cal successes created more space for Malcolm X’s demands to be taken seriously. Largely ­because of Malcolm X’s visibility, the NOI became instrumental in laying the foundation for the Black Power Movement (1960–1979*); however, Malcolm X’s growing celebrity also brought the organ­ization unwanted attention from the federal government. In 1964, Malcolm X broke with the NOI over theological, po­liti­cal, and orga­nizational disagreements. He converted to Sunni Islam and founded an in­de­pen­dent Muslim organ­ization. Tensions between Malcolm X and the NOI culminated with his assassination during a speech in 1965. To this day, the question of w ­ hether the NOI played a direct role in his death is hotly debated. THE NATION’S ROLE IN HIP HOP Following Malcolm X’s assassination, a young Nation of Islam member named Louis Farrakhan (Louis Eugene Wolcott, 1933–) from the Bronx, New York, began



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climbing the ranks of the organ­ization. Following Elijah Muhammad’s death in 1975, the organ­ization named the longtime leader’s son, Warith Dean Muhammad (1933–2008), as his replacement. Muhammad began reforming the organ­ization by trying to reconcile it with mainstream Islam. In the pro­cess, he abandoned many of his ­father’s core teachings regarding separatism and black self-­reliance. Farrakhan eventually broke with Muhammad and began reconstituting the NOI in the traditions of Wallace Fard and Elijah Muhammad. The growth of Farrakhan’s revivalist organ­ization during the final de­cades of the 20th ­century coincided with the birth of hip hop. By the end of the 1970s, many key Civil Rights leaders ­were dead, and once influential antiracist organ­izations ­were e­ ither gone or shells of their former selves. As the U.S. po­liti­cal climate moved to the right with the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan (1911–2004, in office 1981–1989) as president, poor and working-­ class black communities often languished due to the loss of gainful employment, the growth of street gangs, the circulation of drugs such as crack cocaine, and an intense national fixation on law and order. Farrakhan emerged as a distinct and charismatic voice in troubling times. Whereas many prominent black figures struck a decidedly conservative tone about racial in­equality, claiming that institutional racism was a ­thing of the past, Farrakhan bluntly claimed that the United States was still a racist nation and that black ­people must rely on themselves for deliverance. ­Under Farrakhan’s leadership, the NOI engaged directly with black communities by holding antiviolence and antigang peace summits, visiting jails and prisons, and patrolling gang and drug-­ ravaged black neighborhoods. Although mainstream figures across the po­liti­cal and racial spectrum loathed Farrakhan, claiming he was a divisive figure who frequently engaged in anti-­Semitic rhe­toric, many young black ­people found Farrakhan’s anger and message of self-­reliance empowering. His status as a provocative and impor­tant black leader climaxed with the 1995 Million Man March in Washington, DC. Many hip hop figures found Farrakhan’s messages compelling. ­After his departure from N.W.A. (1986–1991), Ice Cube (1969–) began working with the Nation of Islam. His second solo ­album, Death Certificate (1991), contained many themes associated with the organ­ization, and the a­ lbum’s rec­ord sleeve portrayed the rapper reading a copy of the organ­ization’s newspaper, The Final Call (1979–), which is published in Chicago. Many members of Public ­Enemy (1982–) also drew inspiration from the organ­ization, which is apparent given the strong nationalist themes in their ­music and videos. Furthermore, the militant attire and be­hav­ior of members such as rapper, spoken-­word artist, and educator Professor Griff (Richard ­Griffin, 1960–) mimicked the disciplined appearance of the NOI’s paramilitary wing, the Fruit of Islam (FOI, 1933–1975). Crucially, many rappers’ affiliations with the NOI generated significant controversy. Both Ice Cube and Griff penned lyr­ics or made public statements hostile ­toward many of the same groups the organ­ization vocally criticized, and the NOI was attentive to hip hop. Farrakhan included prominent rappers and their young fans in NOI events. For example, following the violent deaths of Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) and the Notorious B.I.G. (1972–1997), he held a high-­profile peace meeting and rap concert to bring resolution to the East Coast–­West Coast feud.

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In recent years, Farrakhan continues to attract controversy, but ­little visibility. He is less po­liti­cally active due to declining health. Furthermore, individuals and organ­izations have stated that Farrakhan and NOI rhe­toric regarding Jews, LGBTQ+s, and ­others is profoundly dangerous. The Southern Poverty Law Center (1971–) identifies the NOI as a hate group, despite its significant impact on racial politics for the past several de­cades and its central role in shaping the cultural and po­liti­cal context that birthed hip hop. Farrakhan has also recently expressed fascination with the controversial Church of Scientology (1954–), and has begun incorporating some of its princi­ples into the NOI. While antiracist activism, particularly around police brutality, intensified during the second de­cade of the 21st ­century, the NOI has not figured significantly into such mobilizations at a national level. Due to the NOI’s diminishing visibility in the context of con­temporary U.S. racial politics, the group’s influence on hip hop has significantly declined. Bryan J. McCann See also: Black Nationalism; Five ­Percent Nation; Ice Cube; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Public ­Enemy; The United States

Further Reading

Chang, Jeff. 2005. ­Can’t Stop ­Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation. New York: Picador. Gardell, Mattias. 1996. In the Name of Elijah Muhammad: Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Malcolm X and Alex Haley. 1964. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Ballantine Books.

Further Listening

Ice Cube. 1991. Death Certificate. Priority Rec­ords. Public ­Enemy. 1988. It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. Def Jam Recordings/ Columbia.

Native Tongues (1988–1996, New York City, New York) Native Tongues was a hip hop collective comprised of vari­ous artists and groups that strove to promote one another’s proj­ects and ­music. Part of what was considered the Golden Age of Hip Hop (1986–1994), Native Tongues strove for positive Afrocentric messages, mixed with the real­ity of street life. The musical techniques included sampling diversity, abstract lyricism, and a texture that was a stark contrast to the mainstream hip hop of the day; the style became known as conscious hip hop, jazz rap, or alternative hip hop. Original members included A Tribe Called Quest (ATCQ, 1985–1998, 2006–2013, 2015–), De La Soul (1987–), Jungle B ­ rothers (1987–), Queen Latifah (1970–), Afrika Bambaataa (1957–), Lucien Revolucien (Lucien M’Baidem, aka Lucien M’B and Papalu, n.d.), Monie Love (Simone Gooden, 1970–), Black Sheep (1989–1995, 2000–), and Chi-­Ali (Chi-­Ali Griffith, 1976–). The members of the collective often collaborated on songs. For example, “Buddy” is a collaboration of De La Soul, Jungle B ­ rothers, ATCQ’s Q-­Tip (Jonathan William Davis, 1970–), Queen Latifah, and Monie Love.



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UNIVERSAL ZULU NATION AND EARLY EFFORTS Afrika Bambaataa’s extensive involvement in the Universal Zulu Nation (1973–), an international cultural group that promoted unity through dance and m ­ usic in hip hop that started in the Bronx, New York, helped shape Native Tongues’ ­music, especially in its Afrocentrism and concentration on individual identity. Zulu devotee and popu­lar radio disc jockey Kool DJ Red Alert (Fred Crute, 1956–) managed the Jungle ­Brothers, and ­after their debut ­album Straight Out the Jungle (1988) performed poorly commercially, Red Alert promoted the song “I’ll House You,” which helped the band achieve notoriety. This success influenced De La Soul’s groundbreaking ­album, 3 Feet High and Rising (1989), which includes “D.A.I.S.Y. Age,” an acronym for “Da Inner Sound, Y’all.” The ­album focuses on peace and harmony, while incorporating skits and sampling from vari­ous mediums such as School­house Rock! (1973–2009) and musicians such as Johnny Cash (1932–2003), Hall and Oates (1970–), Steely Dan (1972–1981, 1993–), and the Turtles (1965–1970, 2010–). Jungle ­Brothers and De La Soul influenced the sound of ATCQ, whose debut ­album ­People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (1990) failed to appeal to mainstream audiences but reached fans of alternative hip hop. The tracks “Luck of Lucien” (homage to Lucien Revolucien) and “Youthful Expression” ushered in the jazz hip hop movement. The group’s second ­album The Low End Theory (1991) includes the momentous single “Scenario,” a collaboration with Leaders of the New School that helped to solidify and validate alternative hip hop’s presence. In 1989, Queen Latifah released her debut ­album, All Hail the Queen, which addressed Apartheid (separateness in Afrikaans, 1948–1991) in South Africa and celebrated feminism, especially in the singles “Wrath of My Madness,” “Ladies First,” and “Mama Gave Birth to the Soul C ­ hildren.” “Ladies First” featured Monie Love, Queen Latifah’s protégé, one of the first hip hop artists from the United Kingdom to be signed onto a major rec­ord label (Warner Bros., 1958–). In 1990, Monie Love released her debut ­album Down to Earth. Her singles “It’s a Shame (My ­Sister)” and “Monie in the ­Middle” climbed the ­music charts. Black Sheep’s debut ­album A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing (1991) covered topics such as sex and partying, while providing catchy beats that appealed to mainstream hip hop fans and the radio, as demonstrated in the singles “The Choice is Yours” and “Flavor of the Month.” Chi-­Ali was featured on the track “Pass the 40.”

A SLOW BREAKUP In the early 1990s the artists and groups affiliated with Native Tongues began to drift apart as they gradually gained momentum individually, even though the partnership’s core message attracted new members: the Beatnuts (1989–), Brand Nubian (1989–), the Roots (1987–), Leaders of the New School (1989–1994), Mos Def (1973–), Da Bush Babees (1992–1997, 2005–), Common (1972–), the Pharcyde (1989–), Camp Lo (1995–), and Or­ga­n ized Konfusion (1987–1997, 2009–). Common’s sophomore ­album Resurrection (1994) incorporated Native Tongues’ positive messages. It addressed life growing up in the South Side of Chicago and personal growth in the track “Thisisme,” as well as the false allure

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of materialism in “I Used to love H.E.R.” Common’s work influenced the collective called Soulquarians, a 1990s version of Native Tongues, which included successful artists Erykah Badu (1971–) and Questlove (1971–). Detroit-­native producer and rapper J Dilla (1974–2006) collaborated with fellow Detroit-­based rappers Baatin (Titus Glover, 1974–2009) and T3 (R. L. Altman III, n.d.) to create the group Slum Village (1996–). ATCQ’s Q-­Tip created the Ummah (1996–2000) with J Dilla and Brooklyn-­based rapper Ali Shaheed Muhammad (1970–), with J Dilla becoming a crucial part of the sound of ATCQ’s ­later ­albums. Although the founding members seem to ignore fans’ pleas for a reunion—­likely due to the rappers’ clashing views—­their messages of social awareness, unity, and adversities in urban streets echo in many hip hop artists’ works of the late 1990s, early 2000s, and ­today. Celeste Roberts See also: Afrika Bambaataa; De La Soul; Jungle ­Brothers; Queen Latifah; A Tribe Called Quest; The United States; The Universal Zulu Nation

Further Reading

Kellerer, Katja. 2014. “Chant Down tha System ’till Babylon Falls: The Po­liti­cal Dimensions of Urban Grooves and Underground Hip Hop in Zimbabwe.” Journal of Hip Hop Studies 1, no. 2: 189–207. McGlynn, Aine. 2007. “The Native Tongues.” Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, ­Music, and Culture, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 1, pp. 265–92. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Saucier, Paul Khalil. 2011. Native Tongues: An African Hip Hop Reader. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.

Further Listening

ATCQ. 1990. ­People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm. Jive. De La Soul. 1989. 3 Feet High and Rising. Tommy Boy/Warner Bros. Jungle B ­ rothers. 1988. Straight out the Jungle. Idlers/Warlock Rec­ords.

Neo Soul Neo soul is an R&B subgenre that began in the 1980s as a revival movement and continued throughout the 1990s and beyond in the United States and the United Kingdom, with breakthrough artists such as D’Angelo (Michael Eugene Arthur, 1974–), Erykah Badu (1971–), Lauryn Hill (1975–), and Maxwell (Gerald Maxwell Rivera, 1973–). The phrase neo soul was not coined u­ ntil the 1990s, when Motown (1959–) executive Kedar Massenburg (1963–), known for discovering Erykah Badu, used it to market the hybrid ­music of soul and con­temporary R&B. Unlike alternative R&B, which neo soul producers and musicians considered too producer-­driven and digital, neo soul goes back to traditional R&B. Typically, the instruments used in neo soul include guitar, bass, electric piano, organ, drum kits, and brass, and neo soul songs tend to be singer-­songwriter-­and musician-­oriented, designed to showcase skill and translate well to live per­for­mance. The genre is also notable for two extramusical ele­ments: its eschewal of commercialism and its inclusion of ­women.



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Former Fugees singer-­songwriter Lauryn Hill released The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, one of the benchmark ­albums of neo soul, in 1998. In 2017 Hill performed at The Museum of Modern Art Film Benefit in New York City. (Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images for Museum Of Modern Art)

In a sense, neo soul, as its name implies, looks both backward and forward, as its prac­ti­tion­ers aim to revive the ele­ments of soul heard in songs by the likes of Marvin Gaye (1939–1984), Chaka Khan (Yvette Marie Stevens, 1953–), Al Green (Albert Leornes Greene, 1946–), and Stevie Won­der (Stevland Judkins Hardaway or Steveland Morris Hardaway, 1950–), while finding new ways to incorporate ­those ele­ments into ­music that is relevant to fans. MOVEMENTS FROM BEGINNING TO END One pos­si­ble source of the U.S. neo soul movement is the trio Tony! Toni! Toné! (1988–1997, 2003–) or the duo of poet and singer-­rapper Gil Scott-­Heron (1949– 2011) and composer Brian Jackson (1952–). In the United Kingdom, artists such as Me’Shell Ndegeocello (Michelle Lynn Johnson, 1968–), Sade (Helen Folasade Adu, 1959–), and the Brand New Heavies (1985–) had success with their revitalized soul sounds. Another pos­si­ble source is Me’Shell NdegéOcello’s debut ­album Plantation Lullabies (1993) which was also the beginning of U.K. neo soul. Other benchmark ­albums in the neo soul movement included D’Angelo’s Brown Sugar (1995), Maxwell’s Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite (1996), Erykah Badu’s Baduizm (1997), and Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998), the last winning five Grammy Awards out of a rec­ord 10 nominations.

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The film Love Jones (1997) helped propel neo soul into the popu­lar consciousness with its soundtrack ­album featuring Hill, Maxwell, the Brand New Heavies, and Me’Shell Ndegeocello, among ­others; however, it was D’Angelo’s second ­studio ­album, Voodoo (2000), which was produced by the hip hop collective Soulquarians (1999–2002), that marked the apex of the neo soul movement. Neo soul’s decline was a product of the conflict between its artists’ rejection of commercialism and the ­music industry’s emphasis on branding and marketing over quality; labels began to shelve their a­ lbums and cancel their contracts, and some artists responded by ­going on extended hiatus. Con­temporary neo soul artists prefer in­de­pen­dent labels over the major labels ­because of this conflict, but occasionally ­will realize large-­scale commercial success, as did John Legend (John Roger Stephens, 1978–) and Jill Scott (1972–). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Erykah Badu; Hill, Lauryn; Scott, Jill; The United Kingdom; The United States

Further Reading

Cunningham, Phillip Lamarr. 2010. “ ‘­There’s Nothing ­Really New ­under the Sun’: The Fallacy of the Neo Soul Genre.” Journal of Popu­lar ­Music Studies 22, no.  3: 240–58. David, Marlo. 2007. “Afrofuturism and Post-­Soul Possibility in Black Popu­lar ­Music.” African American Review 41, no. 4: 695–707.

Further Listening

D’Angelo. 2000. Voodoo. Virgin. Hill, Lauryn. 1998. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Ruff­house Rec­ords.

Nepal Nepal has a burgeoning hip hop scene, featuring its own style of the ­music, nicknamed “Nephop” by New York City–­based underground rapper Aroz (Aroz Kunal, n.d.). The Nephop scene includes MCing or rapping, DJing (turntablism), b-­boying (breakdancing), and the creation of graffiti art, and is centralized mainly in Kathmandu. Although in 2000 Rappaz Union (2000*–) created the first Nepalese rap ­album in En­glish, Nephop evolved in 2002 when Kathmandu rapper, songwriter, and radio disc jockey Gorkhali G. (aka Girish Pranil, Girish Khatiwada, 1982–), working with an early version of the Nepali rap group the Unity (n.d.) on the ­album Back Again, went beyond the electronic mixing of classical Nepalese songs with an urban beat to releasing songs with original, commercial beats. Considered one of the best Nephop rappers, Gorkhali G. (recording as Girish, with the Unity) released “Ma yesto chhu, Ma usto chhu” (roughly, “I’m Like This, I’m Like That”), which introduced Nepalese to a regular synth beat accompanied by chantlike, mea­sured rapped lyr­ics. Following the success of this and other songs, Gorkhali G. ­later released a well received solo ­album, Dropout (2008). “Ma Yesto Chu Ma usto chu” gained enough popularity with Nepalese that in 2003, fellow Kathmandu rapper Nurbu Sherpa was able to gain traction with his debut ­album Nurbu Sherpa Representin’ K.T.M.C., which showed obvious Western

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influences: En­glish lyr­ics, geo­graph­i­cally based calls for repre­sen­ta­tion, the use of autotuning, a danceable beat, rapid-­fire rapping, and appearances by Aroz. The Unity released its first full ­album in 2004, Girish and The Unity Pres­ents X with Girish Khatiwada, which included “She’s the Bomb,” a song which featured turntable scratching and R&B singing, along with rap; “Malai vote deu” (“Give Me the Vote”), a satirical po­liti­cal song from the same ­album, added heavy bass, reggae beats, and sound samples of gun shots. The hero of the Nepalese underground hip hop scene is Mc Flo (Anuraag Sharma, n.d.), who since 2009 has released six mixtapes to a cult following. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: India

Further Reading

Greene, Paul. 2001. “Mixed Messages: Unsettled Cosmopolitanisms in Nepali Pop.” Popu­ lar ­Music 20, no. 2: 169–87. Tingey, Carol. 1994. Auspicious ­Music in a Changing Society: The Damai Musicians of Nepal. London: University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies.

Nerdcore Nerdcore is a subgenre of American hip hop in which the artists rap about topics not typically addressed in mainstream hip hop as they are considered uncool, such as playing video games and other types of gaming, engaging in role-­playing or LARPing (live-­action role-­playing), being a fan of the Star Wars franchise (1977–), enjoying fine lit­er­a­ture, mastering computer skills, and suffering from social awkwardness or rejection. The musicians most prominently affiliated with the subgenre are Brooklyn-­based MC Frontalot (Damian Hess, 1973–), mc chris (Christopher Brendan Ward IV, 1975–), and MC Lars (Andrew Robert Nielsen, 1982–). MC Frontalot coined the term nerdcore in the song “Nerdcore Hiphop” (2000). Although nerdcore rappers are superficially connected by their topical interests, several artists acknowledge that their ­music within the genre is actually linked by sense of isolation and marginalization. For both the musicians and the listeners, many of whom are interested in topics that are far outside the mainstream or who have difficulties with social skills, nerdcore hip hop offers a chance to belong to a community. MUSICAL STYLES AND TOPICS Nerdcore is one of the earliest forms of what can be called laptop hip hop, a subgenre in which all the materials of production and recording are contained in the producer’s laptop. Although most nerdcore rappers, such as MC Lars, MC Hawking (Ken Lawrence, 1970*–), YTCracker (Bryce Case Jr., 1982–), and Sammus (Enongo Lumumba-­Kasongo, 1986–), produce their own beats, some artists do collaborate with producers. In the early part of his ­career, mc chris worked with producer John Fewell (1980*–), but since 2008, his ­music has been produced by Andrew Futral (1982*–). Most of MC Frontalot’s tracks are created in collaboration with

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Canadian producer Baddd Spellah (David T. Cheong, 1972*–) and American keyboardist Gminor7 (Gabriel Alter, n.d.). MC Router (Kristin Nicole Ritchie, 1986–) and producer T-­Byte (Tanner Brown, n.d.) ­were frequent collaborators, as are American rapper int eighty (David Martinjak, n.d.) and En­glish producer c64 (Chris Hunger, n.d.), who form the duo Dual Core (2007–). Nerdcore’s most notable songs are ­those that address a variety of intellectual, obsessive, and social skills–­related interests. MC Frontalot’s “Yellow ­Lasers” (2005) and mc chris’s “Fett’s ‘vette” (2001) are about obsession with the Star Wars films and franchise. Beefy’s (Keith A. Moore, 1985–) “Join My Guild” (2010) addresses online role-­playing games. MC Hawking’s “Entropy” (2004) and Sammus’s “Mae Jemison” (2014) are informed by science jargon and interests. “Level Up” (2009), by Zealous1 (Beau Fa’asamala, 1983–) is an ode to the massive multiplayer online role-­playing game World of Warcraft (2004–), and Dual Core’s “Natu­ral 20s” (2009) is full of references to the tabletop game Dungeons and Dragons (1974–), as well as to other nerdcore artists. Nerdcore lyr­ics occasionally take on po­liti­cal or social issues, but usually only in the context of nerd identity and interests. For example, MC Hawking’s “F—­the Creationists” (2004) admonishes ­those who deny the existence of evolution, and MC Lars’s “Download This Song” (2006) rails against rec­ord labels for not updating their sales practices to keep up with new technology. Overall, video games play an impor­tant role in the m ­ usic of many nerdcore artists. Mega Ran (aka Random, Raheem Jarbo, 1977–), whose name is a play on the 1980s Capcom video game character Mega Man, not only raps about video games but also frequently samples video game ­music for his beats. His ­album Black Materia (2011, released ­under the name Random) was based entirely on the 1997 Sony PlayStation game Final Fantasy VII in both its lyric content and its samples and production. YTCracker’s ­album NerdRap Entertainment System (2005) features sampled and remixed ­music from the original 1980s-­era 8-­bit Nintendo Entertainment System. Nerdcore lyr­ics also focus on social and romantic relationships, but tracks about relationships usually emphasize awkwardness or ineptitude. For example, MC Lars’s “Internet Relationships (Are Not Real Relationships)” (2006) cautions listeners about the pitfalls of meeting friends or romantic partners online. In “On*” (2008), mc chris pleads with the navigation program OnStar to help him find a ­woman’s clitoris. When tracks pertain to romantic relationships, nerdcore artists  (the majority of whom rap in the character of the heterosexual male) often address specific groups or types of ­women, as in mc chris’s “Nrrrd Grrrl” (2008), Beefy’s “Game Store Girl” (2010), MC Lars’s “Hipster Girl” (2009), and MC Frontalot’s “Goth Girls” (2005). In ­these and other tracks, nerdcore rappers primarily lament their inability to flirt or other­wise talk to ­women in whom they are interested. The rare tales of romantic success often include nerd-­identified ­women. For example, in “Dork Date” (2008), Beefy raps about inviting a girl to the comic book store, a Comic-­Con convention, and an mc chris show. KEY ARTISTS MC Frontalot is generally regarded as the ­father of nerdcore hip hop by both musicians and critics. Although he had been releasing his ­music online since 1999

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through the online competition Song Fight!, his breakthrough came in 2002, when the web comic Penny Arcade (1998–) declared him their official MC. In response, he recorded “Penny Arcade Theme” (2002), which has become one of his signature tracks. MC Frontalot’s first full-­length ­album, Nerdcore Rising, was not completed ­until 2005, and it contained a mixture of new tracks as well as rerecorded demos and Song Fight! entries. In 2001, mc chris released his first full-­length studio ­album, Life’s a B—­and I’m Her Pimp. Many of mc chris’s tracks are aligned with nerdcore subjects, and although he is often affiliated with the nerdcore hip hop movement, mc chris himself does not claim to be associated with any specific genre or style of hip hop. For several years, he actively distanced himself from nerdcore hip hop, but in the 2010s he became less resistant to the affiliation, acknowledging himself as a person who raps about nerd life. Unlike other artists associated with nerdcore hip hop, mc chris’s lyr­ics are often explicit and sometimes violent or aggressive. MC Lars is generally associated with the nerdcore hip hop genre b­ ecause his lyr­ics frequently refer to video games, lit­er­a­t ure and poetry, and a lack of social skills. MC Lars proclaims himself the originator of post-­punk laptop rap ­because he was one of the first hip hop artists to sample post-­punk recordings in his production. As a producer, he often samples recordings of American and British punk bands of vari­ous eras, including Fugazi (1987–2002), Supergrass (1993–2010), and Brand New (2000–). MC Hawking, an animated and sometimes Photoshopped depiction of En­glish theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking (1942–2018), is associated with lyr­ics that address ste­reo­typical rap topics such as drive-by shootings, as in “All My Shootings Be Drive-­bys” (2004), as well as more nerdcore-­oriented topics such as science, as in “What We Need More of is Science” (2004). MC Hawking’s rhymes are rendered in WillowTalk, the same computer program that Hawking has used to communicate since the 1980s when he became disabled and unable to speak as a result of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). RECEPTION AND DISSEMINATION Most nerdcore hip hop is disseminated online, e­ ither through artists’ websites or through file-­sharing programs such as BitTorrent. No nerdcore artist is signed to a major label, although MC Lars founded his own in­de­pen­dent rec­ord label, Horris Rec­ords (2006–), and YT Cracker created the label Nerdy South Rec­ords (2006). Most nerdcore artists acknowledge that they ­will not earn much money from selling their m ­ usic b­ ecause most of their listeners are technologically savvy enough to acquire it without paying. Instead, nerdcore artists earn revenue from tours and sales of merchandise. Nerdcore hip hop artists frequently collaborate with each other as well as with artists from hip hop and a variety of other genres. MC Lars has collaborated with mc chris and MC Frontalot, in addition to recording with mainstream hip hop artists such as KRS-­One (1965–) and Kool Keith (1963–), rock groups such as Wheatus (1995–), and rock musicians such as Roger Lima (1974–) and Jaret Reddick (1972–). MC Frontalot has recorded with other nerdcore artists, including MC

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Hawking and Canadian rapper Jesse Dangerously (Jesse McDonald, 1979–), in addition to more mainstream hip hop artists such as South African–­born American rapper Jean Grae (1976–) and Canadian DJ and turntablist Kid Koala (Eric San, 1974–). Further, MC Lars has opened for Nas (1973–) and Snoop Dogg (1971–). MAINSTREAM RECOGNITION AND COLLABORATIONS MC Frontalot is one of the most prominent and out­spoken members of the nerdcore hip hop community, having been interviewed by major news outlets such as National Public Radio (United States) and Newsweek magazine. MC Frontalot and his collaborators w ­ ere the subjects of Nerdcore Rising, a 2008 documentary named for MC Frontalot’s track and ­album and which also included interviews with other nerdcore artists: MC Lars, Beefy, and YT Cracker. MC Frontalot has also made a decent showing in mainstream pop culture, appearing as a guest judge in 2013 on the TBS real­ity show King of the Nerds (2013–2015) and performing the original track “Toilet Paper Factory” in the Sesame Street direct-­to-­DVD Elmo’s Potty Time (2005). Beginning his ­career as a writer and animator for several tele­vi­sion shows on Adult Swim, the late-­night animated tele­vi­sion program block that airs on the Turner Broadcasting System’s Cartoon Network, mc chris worked on programs including Space Ghost Coast to Coast (1994–2008), Sealab 2021 (2000–2005), and Aqua Teen Hunger Force (2000–2015). His breakout role came when he voice-­acted the character MC Pee Pants (and his alter ego, Sir Loin) on Aqua Teen Hunger Force in the early 2000s. He left Adult Swim permanently in 2004 (approximately the time his third ­album, Eating’s Not Cheating, was released) to focus on his recording ­career. Since then, however, he has written and starred in several animated pi­lot proj­ects. At the 2016 STARMUS Festival, which was a tribute to Stephen Hawking, MC Hawking, in collaboration with MC Lars, presented a mockumentary film about the travails of MC Hawking as well as a set of ­music, including the new single “Fear of a Black Hole,” a play on the name of the 1990 Public ­Enemy (1982–) ­album with Def Jam Recordings (1983–) Fear of a Black Planet. MC Lars is active in a variety of education initiatives. He has given multiple TED Talks on the roles of poetic meter in lit­er­a­t ure, poetry, and hip hop lyr­ics. In 2012, he was featured at Scholastic’s Art and Writing Awards, which was held at New York’s Car­ne­gie Hall. During this per­for­mance, he performed “Flow Like Poe,” an analy­sis of poetic meter in the works of 19th-­century American poet and author Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) that is rapped over a sample of the 17th-­century Canon in D composed by Johann Pachelbel (1653–1706). Amanda Sewell See also: Chap Hop; mc chris; MC Frontalot; MC Lars; The United States

Further Reading

Braiker, Brian. 2007. “Geeksta Rap Rising.” Newsweek 149, no. 5: 58. Colgan, Jim. 2005. “Nerd Hip Hop, Flowing Like Han Solo.” Day to Day (National Public Radio), November 7.



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Sewell, Amanda. 2015. “Nerdcore Hip Hop.” In The Cambridge Companion to Hip Hop, edited by Justin Williams, chap. 16. Cambridge, ­England: Cambridge University Press.

Further Listening

mc chris. 2001. Life’s a B—­and I’m Her Pimp. Self-­released. mc chris. 2008. mc chris is dead. mc chris LLC. MC Frontalot. 2005. Nerdcore Rising. Level Up Rec­ords and Tapes. MC Hawking. 2004. A Brief History of Rhyme: MC Hawking’s Greatest Hits. Brash M ­ usic. MC Lars. 2006. The Gradu­ate. Horris Rec­ords/Nettwerk Amer­i­ca. Mega Ran (also known as Random). 2011. Black Materia. Random Beats Productions. YTCracker. 2006. Nerd Life. Nerdy South Rec­ords.

Further Viewing

Farsad, Negin, dir. 2008. Nerdcore Rising. New York: Vaguely Qualified Productions. Lamoreux, Dan, dir. 2008. Nerdcore for Life. N.p.: Crapbot Productions.

The Netherlands The Netherlands’ hip hop culture has been defined by its internal strug­gle to characterize and cultivate authenticity in Dutch forms of hip hop. The earliest Dutch rap was performed in the 1980s by black youth of Afro-­Caribbean heritage who adapted American hip hop hits by translating their lyr­ics into Dutch. T ­ hese Dutch rappers and their audiences formed a subculture based on a set of values and attitudes ­shaped by their common experiences of poverty, unemployment, drugs, and in­equality. By 1982, Dutch hip hop artists ­were creating their own beats, rhymes, and breakdance routines, but ­these Dutch efforts remained a small, scattered, underground phenomenon, based largely in urban areas of the Randstad (a region that ­houses most of the population from former Dutch colonies and mi­grants), throughout much of the 1980s. At the same time as Dutch hip hop was developing underground, the commercialization of American hip hop brought an urban hip hop sound to mass audiences in the Netherlands, most notably with the Sugarhill Gang’s (1979–1985, 1994–) “Rapper’s Delight” (1979), which reached No. 1 on Dutch national charts. Dutch audiences ­were also captivated by the works of white rock artists who appropriated rap in a commercial idiom, producing hits such as Blondie’s (1974–1982, 1997–) “Rapture” (1981) and the Tom Tom Club’s (1981–) “Wordy Rappinghood” (1981). Dutch mass culture’s interest in American hip hop was reinforced by Hollywood films such as Breakin’ (aka Breakdance, 1984), Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (1984), and Colors (1988). By the mid-1990s, American rappers and groups such as Wu-­Tang Clan (1992–), Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) and Fugees (1992–1997) had found a ready market in the Netherlands. NEDERHOP AND DEVELOPMENT The developing presence of Dutch hip hop, which came to be called Nederhop, led to internal arguments regarding authenticity. A number of old-­school Dutch

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rappers of the 1980s ­were from the ghetto, and most ­were black—­from Surinam or the Antilles. They found musical role models in American hip hop and felt they shared the experiences of ghetto life, poverty and in­equality that formed the background to many American hip hop songs of that era. As a result, Dutch rap m ­ usic that did not have a ghetto feel was deemed inauthentic. As MCs w ­ ere hired to rap over ­house ­music in the late 1980s, and rappers signed deals with commercial producers, the Dutch rappers who considered themselves au­then­tic sought to distance themselves publicly from t­ hose who had, in their opinions, sold out. Hardcore hip hop artists from that period who earned a degree of commercial success include the group DAMN (­Don’t Accept Mass Notion, 1989–1993), who with their self-­titled 1989 debut offered the first full-­length ­album of Dutch hip hop; Osdorp Posse (OP, 1989–2009), whose gangsta-­style Dutch lyr­ics featured in its debut ­album, Osdorp Stil (Osdorp Style, 1992), delivered a hardcore message with direct translations of American slang; King Bee (1989–2000*), whose hits “Back by Dope Demand” and “Must Bee the ­Music” from the ­album Royal Jelly (1990) topped Dutch charts; and rap group 24K (1989*–), whose ­album No Enemies (1990) took on socially conscious issues such as poverty, drugs, racism, and vio­lence. NEDERHOP SAMPLING AND BLENDING WITH OTHER GENRES At the same time, many commercially successful Dutch hip hop rec­ords blended rap with more popu­lar genres. MC Miker G (Lucien Witteveen, n.d.) and DJ Sven (Sven van Veen, n.d.) released their rap-­pop hit “Holiday Rap” in 1986, sampling Madonna’s (1958–) “Holiday” (1983). The Urban Dance Squad (1986–2000) had gained broad popularity with their rap-­rock-­metal-­f unk hybrid sound. In 1998, the Postmen (1996–2003, 2012–) released the chart-­topping hit “Cocktail,” mixing reggae and rap to deliver an uplifting message about the value of life, while E-­Life (Elvis de Oliveira, n.d.) in the same year released “More Days to Come,” blending R&B with hip hop. Extince (Peter Kops, 1967–) blends rock and pop with a soft, flowing rap style, delivering humorous rhymes in a soft, southern Dutch dialect. His single “Spraakwater” was a tremendous hit in 1995, with its samples from the Dutch ­children’s tele­vi­sion series De fabeltjeskrant (The Fables Newspaper) and its play on the word “mouthwash” as an extended meta­phor for delivering rhymes. While ­these musical blends have expanded Nederhop’s popularity, hardcore artists have decried them as sellouts; in 1996, hardcore group OP released the hip hop single “Braakwater” (“Vomit”) as a parody of “Spraakwater,” just one example of the many diss tracks that have come out of conflicts (often ideological) between Dutch rappers. FEMALE ARTISTS, AUTHENTICITY, AND THE 21st ­CENTURY Questions of authenticity have also figured into the role of ­women in Dutch rap: hardcore Dutch rap followed the rules of masculinity to so ­g reat an extent that



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female rappers ­were not considered au­then­tic. Some female hip hop groups such as Odie3 (a homonym of Oh, ­These 3, 1998*–), Nasty (Bianc Boyd, n.d.), and B—ez and Cream (n.d.) have challenged that notion while also feeling pressured to fulfill ste­reo­t ypical images of femininity—­f rom the innocent virgin to the femme fatale—in order to have their m ­ usic taken seriously. During the 21st ­century, Dutch hip hop has slowly gained attention from the Dutch population at large, with bands such as Relax (1998–) and Spookrijders (1996–) receiving significant airplay on Dutch radio. The group Opgezwolle (Swollen, 1997–2007) released an ­album entitled Eigen Wereld (Own World, 2006) featuring collaborations with rappers Jawat! (Raoul Geerman, 1977–) and ­others, reaching No. 4 on the ­Album Top 100, the highest chart ranking of any Dutch rap ­album. In the same year, MC Jawat (Raoul Geerman, n.d.) won an award at the Grote Prijs van Nederland (the Netherlands ­Grand Prize, an annual ­music award that recognizes the talents of new Dutch musicians, both solo artists and bands). By the 2010s, the Dutch hip hop scene boasted over 100 hip hop acts, most associated with the Netherlands’ larger cities: Alkmaar, Almere, Alphen aan den Rijn, Amersfoort, Amsterdam, Breda, Delft, Den Haag, Deventer, Eindhoven, Groningen, Nijmegen, Oosterhout, Roermond, Rotterdam, ’s-­ Hertogenbosch, Utrecht, Vlissingen, Zwolle, and Zoetermeer. Many rappers, such as Brainpower (Gertjan Mulder, 1975–), OP, Yes-­R (Yesser Roushdy, 1986–), Ali B (Ali Bouali, 1981–), Lange Frans (Frans Christiaan Frederiks, 1980–), and Extince continue to enjoy commercial success and tour internationally to establish Dutch hip hop as its own genre, with ties to Dutch cultural identity. Jennifer L. Roth-­Burnette See also: Belgium; The United States

Further Reading

Krims, Adam. 2000. “Two Cases of Localized (and Globalized) Musical Poetics.” In Rap ­Music and the Poetics of Identity, chap. 5. New York: Cambridge University Press. Wermuth, Mir. 2001. “Rap in the Low Countries: Global Dichotomies on a National Scale.” In Global Noise: Rap and Hip Hop Outside the U.S.A., edited by Tony Mitchell, pp. 149–70. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.

Further Listening

Extince. 2015. X. TopNotch. MC Jawat. 2005. Ut zwarte aap (Ook Black Monkey). TopNotch. Odie 3. 1998. Odie 3. Fonos.

New Jack Swing (aka Swingbeat) New jack swing is an American popu­lar ­music genre that fuses hip hop ele­ments with R&B, sometimes including funk and gospel. It was especially popu­lar from 1987 to 1993, with unsuccessful revival efforts in 2000. R&B and hip hop singer-­songwriter, keyboardist, and producer Teddy Riley (Edward Theodore Riley, 1967–) created the sound for nightclubs in Harlem, New

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York, but producers such as Babyface (1959–), Bernard Belle (1984–), Jimmy Jam (James Samuel Harris III, 1959–), Terry Lewis (1956–), and L.A. Reid (Antonio Marquis Reid, 1956–) followed suit. Some notable early example songs are Janet Jackson’s (1966–) “Nasty” (1986), Club Nouveau’s (1986–) “Lean on Me” (1986), Keith Sweat’s (1961–) “I Want Her” (1987), and Bobby Brown’s (1969–) “­Don’t Be Cruel” (recorded in 1987, released in 1988). In 1987, writer Barry Michael Cooper (n.d.) named the ­music new jack swing in his Village Voice article, “Teddy Riley’s New Jack Swing.” American ­music producer, composer, musician, arranger, magazine founder, and actor Quincy Jones (1933–) read Cooper’s article and asked Riley to work on the screenplay for the American crime thriller film New Jack City (1991). Its soundtrack included Sweat’s “(­There You Go) Tellin’ Me No Again” (1987) and Christopher Williams’s (Troy Christopher Williams, 1967–) “I’m Dreamin’ ” (1991). In 1989, Riley produced Wreckx-­n-­Effect’s (1987–1996, 2014–) “New Jack Swing” to perpetuate the genre’s popularity. Though it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100, the single peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard’s Hot Rap Tracks. INSTRUMENTATION AND SWINGBEAT RHYTHM New jack swing tends to showcase vocoder-­aided vocals. It also employs typical instruments found in hip hop, such as drum machines (providing kick and snare drums and tambourines), synthesizers (ranging from electronic keyboard sounds to virtual symphonic orchestras), and scratch tones from turntablism. A funky bassline—­played or sampled by ­either a synthesizer or bass guitar—is also added. Typical musical hardware used to create sampled beats ­were the E-mu SP-1200 sampler and the programmable Roland TR-808 (aka Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer) drum machine. The usual synthesizer, if added, was ­either a Roland W30 or Yamaha S30. Rhythm and meter are repetitive and consistent. Using 4/4 (qua­d ru­ple meter, four beats to a mea­sure) and a tempo typically between 100 (ballad) and 112 (dance) bpm (beats per minute), new jack swing musicians created repeated or looped core beats with kick drum beats on the first (heaviest) and third beats, combined with rapid snare drum beats that fall on the and-­beats and on beats two and four. The latter results in the swing beat and syncopation. Tambourine and rapid synthesized sudden, brief orchestral sounds are used to enhance beats one and three, as well as to indicate the end of some phrases. Snare rolls also signify the end of some phrases. Sixteenth-­note triplets with their first beats accented for each eighth-­note value produce the swingbeat shuffle—­for example, “one-­and-­two-­and-­three-­and-­four-­and” would have snare or high hat hits three times on each word (representing an eighth-­note value). The rhythmic foundation and swingbeat shuffle is found in Paula Abdul’s (1962–) dance-­pop hit “Straight Up” (1988). GLOBAL PRESENCE Into the early 1990s Billboard’s Hot 100 and/or Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-­Hop Singles charts ­were topped by new jack swing songs as well as songs that contained



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new jack swing ele­ments, including Bobby Brown’s “My Perogative” (1988), New Edition’s (1978–1990, 1996–1997, 2002–) “If It ­Isn’t Love” (1988), Al B. Sure’s (Albert Joseph Brown III, 1968–) “Nite and Day” (1988), Babyface’s “It’s No Crime” (1989), Bel Biv DeVoe’s (BBD, 1989–) “Poison” (1990), New Edition’s Johnny Gill’s “Rub You the Right Way” (1990), Boyz II Men’s (1985–) “Motownphilly” (1991), and Tony! Toni! Toné’s (1988–1997, 2003–) “Feels Good” (1990) and “If I Had No Loot” (1993); however, hits ­were not limited to the United States. Global success stories included songs that charted in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Sweden. T ­ hese include Bahamian singer Johnny Kemp’s (Jonathan Kemp, 1959–2015) “Just Got Paid” (1988), Stockholm-­born and England-­raised Neneh Cherry’s (1964–) “Buffalo Stance” (1988), En­glish R&B and soul band Soul II Soul’s (1988–1997, 2007–) “Keep on Movin’ ” and “Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)” (1989), Canadian singer Jane Child’s (Jane Richman, 1967–) “­Don’t Wanna Fall in Love” (1990), and Australian singer Kylie Minogue’s (1968–) “Word Is Out” (1991). New jack swing was also not limited to En­glish texts. For example, the French group Tribal Jam (1994–1998), with members from Zaire, recorded several new jack swing songs using French texts. Efforts to explore new jack swing as a retro sound have taken place globally as well, as in South ­Korea, where BtoB’s (Born to Beat, 2012–) hit “WOW” (2012) employed new jack swing. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Babyface; Jones, Quincy; The United States

Further Reading

Frane, Andrew V. 2017. “Swing Rhythm in Classic Drum Breaks from Hip-­Hop’s Breakbeat Canon.” ­Music Perception 34, no. 3: 291–302. Kojima, Rie, Teruo Nomura, and Noriyuki Kida. 2016. “Expressing Joy through Hip Hop Dance Steps: Focus on New Jack Swing.” Journal of ­Music and Dance 6, no. 1: 1–11. Lena, Jennifer C. 2006. “Social Context and Musical Content of Rap ­Music, 1979–95.” Social Forces 85, no. 1: 479–83, 486–87, 489–95.

Further Listening

Keith Sweat. 1987. Make It Last Forever. Elektra. Tribal Jam. 1994. Tribal Jam. EMI ­Music France.

New York City Breakers (NYCB, aka NYC Breakers, 1981–­, Bronx, New York) New York City Breakers is a pioneering breakdancing (b-­boy) crew that rivaled its Bronx, New York, contemporaries, the Rock Steady Crew (RSC, 1977–). NYCB appeared on The Merv Griffin Show (1962–1986), Soul Train (1971–2006), as well as on many other tele­vi­sion shows and in seminal hip hop films such as Beat Street (1984). NYCB was the first hip hop act to perform for a current president when they danced in a 1984 Kennedy Center Honors show in front of then–­American president Ronald Reagan (1911–2004, in office 1981–1989). At the time, NYCB’s power moves included head, neck, and fist glides, in addition to head spins. The

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original members included Action (Chino Lopez, n.d.), Glide Master (Matthew Caban, n.d.), Lil Lep (Ray Ramos, n.d.), Kid Nice (Noel Mangual, n.d.), and Power­ ful Pexster (Tony Lopez, n.d.). Originally known as Floormasters Crew, led by Action, from the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx, NYCB was created ­after Action becoming inspired while attending a breakdancing ­battle between the RSC and the Dynamic Rockers (1970–1980)* from Queens that took place in front of Lincoln Center. In 1982, the crew changed its name, as well as some of its earliest members (who remain unknown), ­after it defeated the RSC in ­battle at Negril, a club in New York City. The club’s owner, Michael Holman (n.d.), a prominent hip hop impresario, ­music producer, filmmaker, writer, and musician, had already secured RSC as a regular act, but he wanted to host a b­ attle instead of always hosting just one breakdancing crew. His earlier production credits included the first staged hip hop revue (1981). As a journalist, Holman is often credited as being the first writer to have the words “hip hop” published. ­After this b­ attle, Holman became NYCB’s man­ag­er and promoter. In 1984, Holman showcased the crew in the American film Beat Street, which he co­wrote and coproduced, and on the first American hip hop tele­vi­sion show Graffiti Rock (1984), which he created, wrote, and produced. NYCB toured extensively worldwide and became the inspiration for other breakdancing crews. For example, the Paris City Breakers (PCB, 1984–) was a crew modeled on the NYCB ­after founding members attended a Gianni Ferrucci (n.d.) fashion show in Paris that featured Madonna (1958–) and the NYCB. Most of the PCB’s moves, especially head spins, ­were styled ­after the NYCB; the PCB elaborated on ­these moves and at times refined them through cleaner and more intricate footwork than the NYCB. Years ­after the height of its success, and despite personnel changes, the crew has expanded. As of 2018, NYCB is an organ­ization that still appears in breakdancing showcases and teaches hip hop dance workshops worldwide. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Battling; Breakdancing; Filmmaking (Feature Films Made in the United States); Hip Hop Dance; Paris City Breakers; The United States

Further Reading

Foster, Catherine. 1983. “ ‘New’ Dance Craze Blends Acrobatics, Mime, and Inventiveness.” The Christian Science Monitor, October 14. Fricke, Jim, and Charlie Ahearn. 2002. The Experience ­Music Proj­ect Oral History of Hip Hop’s First De­cade: Yes Yes Y’All. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. Schloss, Joseph G. 2009. Foundation: B-­Boys, B-­Girls, and Hip Hop Culture in New York. New York: Oxford University Press.

New Zealand New Zealand’s hip hop scene occurred as soon as the American gang culture film The Warriors (1979) and the Sugarhill Gang’s (1979–1985, 1994–) “Rapper’s Delight” (1979) reached the country. In 1980, “Rapper’s Delight” peaked at No. 18 on New Zealand’s hit song charts. Main centers for early hip hop activity emerged



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in Christchurch and Wellington, followed by Auckland. The country consists of the North Island and South Island (Te Ika-­a-­Maui and Te Waipounamu, meaning “The Fish of Maui” and “The Place of Greenstone” in Māori) and is located 900 nautical miles east of Australia. Mostly populated by ­people of Eu­ro­pean descent, New Zealand’s second-­largest population is the Māori ­people—­indigenous Polynesians whose culture and language became the focus of the country’s 1980s and 1990s preservation efforts. In recognition of its indigenous cultural history, another Māori word for the North Island, “Aotearoa” (“land of the long white cloud”) is now used unofficially alongside “New Zealand.” EARLY HIP HOP Old-­school hip hop and reggae especially resonated with Māori and Polynesian communities. Some of the earliest successful New Zealand hip hop songs incorporated traditional Māori texts, po­liti­cal messages about preserving and supporting Māori culture, and the old-­ school sound—­simple end rhymes, beat machine generated beats, funk and R&B ele­ments, and ­simple lyrical refrains. In 1983, Dalvinus Prime’s (Maui Dalvanius Prime, 1948–2002) “Poi E,” recorded by Prince Tui Teka (aka Tui Latui, Tumanako Teka, 1937– 1985) with the backing band Patea Māori Club (1983–1986)*, was the first song that fused con­ temporary Māori folk ­music with hip hop. The song’s video featured traditional poi dancing and breakdancing (windmills and popping). Its message, to discover one’s own culture, was geared ­toward young Māori p­ eople. “Poi E” peaked at No. 1 on New Zealand’s hit singles chart. In 1988, the reggae-­ rap fusion group Christchurch-­based rapper Scribe and Auckland-­ based DJ P-­Money collaborate during the 2005 Upper Hutt Posse (UHP, 1985–) New Zealand M ­ usic Awards ceremony held at had a hit with “E tū” (aka “Stand The Aotea Centre in Auckland. A year earlier, DJ Proud”), the first hip hop single P-­Money’s single “Stop the ­Music” (featuring performed by a group fully from Scribe), from the ­album Magic City, reached No. 1 New Zealand. Hailing from and was certified Platinum in New Zealand and Upper Hutt, a region of Welling- certified Gold in Australia. (Phil Walter/Getty ton, UHP was a po­liti­cal hip hop Images)

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group that supported Māori sovereignty. Subsequent New Zealand groups such as Moana and the Moahunters (­later Moana and the Tribe, 1990–1998, 2002–), from Auckland, eventually toured worldwide. By the mid-1990s the Urban Pasifika sound emerged. URBAN PASIFIKA Urban Pasifika is an Auckland-­based hip hop style that combines Māori and other South Pacific Island instrumentation with En­glish and other South Pacific Island languages, Pacific Island roots ­music, and African American musical genres such as hip hop, jazz, R&B, soul, Jamaican reggae, and dancehall. It may also incorporate ele­ments of Eu­ro­pean and American punk rock and electronic dance ­music, including disco and dubstep. The first Urban Pasifika ­album was Proud: An Urban Pacific Streetsoul Compilation (1994), a collection recorded and cowritten by multi-­ instrumentalist for the Auckland-­based band Otara Millionaires Club’s (OMC, 1993–2010) ­music producer Alan Jansson (Pakeha Alan Jansson, n.d.). Auckland-­ born Urban Pasifika pioneer Phillip Fuemana (1964–2005) or­ga­nized and promoted the Proud tour in New Zealand in 1994. The tour included Jansson and ­others featured on the ­album, including OMC and ­Sisters Underground (1990–1995). Though it failed financially, the tour led to national exposure and interest in Urban Pasifika; the Sydney label Volition (1984–2000) reissued the ­album and produced a 12-­inch a­ lbum by ­Sisters Underground, In the Neighbourhood (1995). As one of the founding members of OMC, Fuemana was a mentor to many Auckland musicians during the 1980s and 1990s. He and his younger ­brother Pauly (1969–2010), also of OMC), worked with Jansson, who became one of the leading ­music producers of New Zealand. In 1996, OMC sold over four million copies worldwide of How Bizarre (1996), produced on the Huh! Rec­ords label (1995–). In 1997, it peaked at No.  40 on the Billboard 200, while the title song peaked at No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Top 40/Contemporary Hit Radio chart. In 1998, Fuemana released Pioneers of a Pacifikan Frontier on his in­de­pen­dent Polynesian label, Urban Pacifika Rec­ords (1993*–), leading to global recognition of Urban Pasifika. Twenty-­first-­century Urban Pasifika consists of many of the basic ele­ments of its formative years, with increased emphasis on a laid-­back island-­inspired sound, with reggae as the main influence for bass and guitar; a concentration on Polynesian (Māori) pride and politics; and an incorporation of new-school hip hop, electronic dance ­music, and jazz. More current notable Urban Pasifika musicians include Auckland-­based artists Che Fu (Che Kuo Eruera Ness, 1974–), Dei Hamo (aka Sani, Sanerivi Sagala, 1975–), Savage (Demetrius Savelio, 1981–), Nesian Mystik (1999–) and the duo Adeaze (2003–), as well as Wellington-­based King Kapisi (Bill Urale, 1974–). Many of ­these artists have performed worldwide and with famous American hip hop artists such as Afrika Bambaataa (1957–), Shaggy (1968–), Missy Elliott (1971–), and the Black Eyed Peas (1995–). Since the turn of the ­century, many Urban Pasifika artists have recorded on internationally recognized labels such as BMG (1987–2008), Epic (1953–), and Sony (1929–).



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INTO THE 21st ­CENTURY The New Zealand hip hop scene continues to expand and includes a large number of rappers and groups that have had success at least in Australia, if not worldwide. Tastes have ultimately included instrumental hip hop, hardcore, and nerdcore. Prominent New Zealand hip hop crews and rappers often turn to En­glish texts to become internationally famous, yet they are still somewhat diverse (Eu­ro­pean, Samoan, and non–­Māori Pacific Islanders). The ­music still focuses on discrimination and in­equality, economic disparity, social action, and politics. Among ­others, notable artists and crews include Auckland-­based Homebrew (2007–2013), Mareko (Mark Saga Polutele, 1981–), Deceptikonz (1996–), Frontline (2001–), Smashproof (2009–), and P-­Money (Peter Wadams, 1978–); Christchurch-­based Scribe (aka Malo Luafutu, Jeshua Ioane Luafutu, 1979–); Palmerston North City–­based PNC (Sam Hansen, n.d.); and Wellington-­ based Tommy III (n.d.). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Australia; Moana and the Moahunters; Otara Millionaires Club; Reggae; Upper Hutt Posse

Further Reading

Hapeta, Dean. 2000. “Hip Hop in Aotearoa/New Zealand.” In Changing Sounds: New Directions and Configurations in Popu­lar ­Music, edited by Tony Mitchell and Peter Doyle, pp. 202–7. Sydney, Australia: University of Technology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Johnson, Henry. 2010. Many Voices: ­Music and National Identity in Aotearoa/New Zealand. New ­Castle upon Tyne, ­England: Cambridge Scholars. Shute, Gareth. 2004. Hip Hop ­Music in Aotearoa. Auckland, New Zealand: Reed.

Further Listening

Jansson, Alan. 1994. Proud: An Urban-­Pacific Streetsoul Compilation. Second Nature Rec­ ords/Volition. Nesian Mystik. 2002. Polysaturated. Bounce Rec­ords/Universal. Vari­ous Artists. 1998. Urban Pacifica Rec­ords: Pioneers of a Pacifikan Frontier. Urban Pacifika Rec­ords.

Nicki Minaj (Onika Tanya Maraj, 1982–­, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago) Nicki Minaj is one of hip hop’s most successful and critically acclaimed female acts. She combines smart, sometimes rapid wordplay with comedic and often risqué lyr­ics, parlaying her ­music ­career into a larger sphere with acting roles. Nicki Minaj radiates confidence in her per­for­mances, showing adeptness in both improvisational rap and in intricate prewritten rhymes. In 2009 and 2010, she was the featured guest on several songs for other artists, including Kanye West’s (1977–) hit “Monster,” and she produced a solo ­album, Pink Friday (2010), which was certified Platinum.

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Onika Tanya Maraj, better known as Nicki Minaj, was born and partially raised in St. James, a district of Port of Spain, the capital city of Trinidad and Tobago. At a young age, however, her parents moved to New York, leaving her briefly with her grand­mother. When she was five, she joined her parents in Queens, New York. An artistically gifted child, Maraj successfully auditioned for the prestigious Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of ­Music and Art and the Performing Arts, where she was an acting major. A ­ fter graduation, she had some success as an actor, but ­later turned her efforts to ­music. In 2007, she signed with Dirty Money Entertainment (2006–2009)* ­under the stage name Nicki Minaj. Her first impor­tant success was the mixtape Playtime is Over (2007). She released another mixtape less than a year ­later, Sucka ­Free (2008), and caught the attention of the Underground ­Music Awards, which awarded her 2008’s Female Artist of the Year prize. In 2009, another mixtape followed, Beam Me Up Scotty, featuring the single “I Get Crazy,” which peaked at No. 20 on Billboard’s Hot Rap Tracks and No. 37 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-­Hop Songs. She achieved greater fame ­after attracting the attention of rapper Lil Wayne (1982–), who in 2009 signed her to his label, Young Money Entertainment (2005–). Nicki Minaj gained exposure by opening for Britney Spears (1981–) during Spears’s Femme Fatale Tour in 2011. Nicki Minaj’s second studio ­album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (2012) produced the singles “Starships” and “Right by My Side.” Her third studio a­ lbum, The Pinkprint (2014), featured “Anaconda,” her breakthrough hit whose video reached nearly 20 million views in its first day. Nicki Minaj has released three singles in support of her fourth studio ­album (yet to be released as of 2018). In 2017, she co­wrote a song for rapper Jason Derulo (Jason Joel Desrouleaux, 1989–) and was featured on singles by Katy Perry (1984–) and Yo Gotti (Mario Mims, 1981–). Nicki Minaj often slips into dif­fer­ent personae—­Harajuku Barbie and Roman Zolanski to name just two—on stage and off. She is known for elaborate outfits and makeup, and has been compared to Lady Gaga (1986–). Her rapping style, like her appearance, is eclectic. She is skilled at ste­reo­typical hip hop boasts and posturing, and also displays a sharp cleverness in her complex wordplay and use of internal rhymes. Throughout her work, and especially in Pinkprint, she expresses the challenges of being a female rapper. In 2013, she appeared as a judge on American Idol (2002–2016). In 2014, Nicki Minaj earned Grammy nominations for Best Rap Song for “Anaconda” and Best Pop Duo/Group Per­for­mance for “Bang Bang,” with Jessie J (Jessica Ellen Cornish, 1988–) and Ariana Grande (Ariana Grande-­Butera, 1993–). Recently, Nicki Minaj has built her acting resume, appearing in the films The Other ­Woman (2014) and Barbershop: The Next Cut (2016). In 2016, ABC F ­ amily cut the tele­vi­sion series Nicki during its planning stage. The show would have been about Nicki Minaj’s early years in Queens. In 2017, Nicki Minaj surpassed Aretha Franklin for having more songs chart on the Billboard Hot 100 than any other female artist. She has also turned her attention to philanthropy. Through Twitter, Nicki Minaj offered to pay tuition, fees, or loans for 30 of her fans; she has also given donations for hurricane relief efforts

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a­ fter Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, and she has supported the development of small villages in India. Christine Lee Gengaro See also: Chopper; Dirty Rap; Fashion; Trinidad and Tobago; The United States

Further Reading

Jackson, Lauren Michele. 2017. “The Rapper Laughs, Herself: Nicki Minaj’s Sonic Disturbances.” Feminist Media Studies 17, no. 1: 126–29. White, Theresa Renée. 2013. “Missy ‘Misdemeanor’ Elliott and Nicki Minaj: Fashionistin’ Black Female Sexuality in Hip Hop Culture—­Girl Power or Overpowered?” Journal of Black Studies 44, no. 6: 607–26.

Further Listening

Nicki Minaj. 2010. Pink Friday. Ca$h Money Rec­ords/Universal Motown. Nicki Minaj. 2014. The Pinkprint. Young Money Entertainment.

Niger Niger, the largest West African country, borders Nigeria, a country well known for its rap scene. Niger is composed mostly of the Sahara Desert, and ­because of severe droughts and its geography, it is one of the slowest developing African countries. Niger gained its in­de­pen­dence in 1960 from France, but French remains the official language, though its populations speak Arabic, Buduma, Hausa, Fula, Zarma, and other languages. Most of the population is Hausa, followed by Zarma, Tuareg, and Fulani ­peoples. ­Until the late 1980s ­music was government-­suppressed. By the 1990s, Tuareg blues, emerging from refugee camps, became Niger’s best-­known popu­lar ­music. Rap Nigerien, the name for Nigerien hip hop, emerged in the mid1990s, with capital city Niamey on the Niger River as the center of activity. Rap Nigerien is mostly influenced by American, French, and Ivorian hip hop. Rapping texts often mix French, Hausa, and/or Zarma. Rap Nigerien’s laidback sound often fuses hip hop with reggae, jazz, and traditional Nigerien and other West African m ­ usic. Sampling is used and may include traditional musical instruments such as tinde (drums) or xalam (lutes). Topics range from sociopo­liti­cal hip hop, which protests corruption, economic equality, AIDS/HIV, and ­human trafficking and promotes peace and tolerance, to romance, marriage and f­ amily, adversity, and self-­improvement—­themes included in songs by Niger’s most famous early hip hop groups, DLM (1994–2008*) and Les Black Daps (1997–). In 1999, Lakal Kaney released the first rap Nigerien ­album, La voix du ténére (The Voice of the Dark). Cultural identifying lyrical content may also be added, as exemplified by the group WassWong (Hausa for Message of the Warriors, 2000–), a merger between two of the first rap Nigerien groups, Wassika Poussy (Hausa for Message and French for Posse, 1995–) and Wongari (Zarma for Warrior, 1996–); it was also impor­tant in ­later ­music by Berey Koy (Possessors of Knowledge, formerly Matassa and New Rap Connexion, NRC, 2000–). Other early groups ­were Lakal Kaney (“Peace of Mind” in Zarma, 1997–), Bagzam (1998–2009), Tchakey (1998–),

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Meta­phorecrew (2000–), Oneens (2003–), and Kaidan Gaskia (“To Act with the Truth” in Hausa, 1999–). Kaidan Gaskia’s Khartoum, Sudan–­born rapper, Safiat (Safiath Aminami Issoufou Oumarou, 1982–), was an early female rapper; her lyr­ics focus on Nigerien ­women’s issues. ZM (Zara Moussa, 1980*–) was the first Nigerien female rapper and the first West African female hip hop recording artist. Since the 2010s, Rap Nigerien fuses more R&B, Afropop, and trap. Some successful acts include Haské Klan (2004–), Federal Terminus Clan (aka FTC, Federal TC, 2006*–), Block S Crew (2009–), the female duo Crazy Girls (2012–), and Pro­cessus Verbal (2015*–), as well solo acts such as Alradik (aka Alradik Soldier, n.d.), Black Daps’s Rass Idris (Patrice Idriss Guy, n.d.), Bagzam’s Amiral JC (Mahamane Djadjé Amadou Touré, 1986–), and Meta­phorecrew’s Yasdi Maiwaka (aka Yas d. 1993*–). Hip hop has expanded to the city of Zinder, the origin of trap rapper Barakina (Barakina Issouf Omar, n.d.), and where hip hop acts such as rapper Kamikaz (aka Djoro G or Kadr Ali, Kaz Liman, 1980–) are being produced. From this period, a small number of diaspora acts exist. For example, Niamey-­born rapper and singer Ismo One (Ismael Moussa Garba, 1985–), who rec­ords hip hop, reggae, and dancehall, has moved to further pursue his studies and hip hop c­ areer in the United States. Since 2015 Ismo One has collaborated with the Muslim rapping group MDM Crew (Méthode De la Morale, 2013*–). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: France; Nigeria; Trap

Further Reading

Masquelier, Adeline. 2010. “God Made Me a Rapper: Young Men, Islam, and Survival in an Age of Austerity.” In Being and Becoming Hausa: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, edited by Anne Haour and Benedetta Rossi, chap. 10. Boston: Brill. Masquelier, Adeline. 2016. “The Mouthpiece of an Entire Generation: Hip Hop, Truth, and Islam in Niger.” In Muslim Youth and 9/11 Generation, edited by Adeline Masquelier and Benjamin F. Soares, chap. 9. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Nigeria Nigeria, a populous country of 186 million, is a West African demo­cratic republic whose capital, Abuja, has a population of about 800,000. Nigeria is made up of 36 states and some 500 ethnic groups. Reggae and hip hop emerged in the country in the late 1980s. By 2014, Nigeria had become Africa’s largest economy, and it has one of the largest youth populations in the world, making it fertile ground for a proliferation of hip hop m ­ usic. Nigerian ­music is a combination of traditional folk and popu­lar sounds, highly influenced by the ethnic regions in which it is produced (the largest ethnic groups are the Igbo, Hausa, and Yoruba). Traditional folksongs, like work songs, are closely tied to events and rituals, and the most common musical structures are the epic poem set to m ­ usic and the call-­and-­response song. Instrumentation tends t­oward diversity, with the most common instruments being xylophones (balafons), marimbas, bells, scrapers (similar to guiros), shakers, drums, brass instruments, and woodwinds.

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Popu­lar ­music emerged during Nigeria’s protectorate years, resulting in the emergence of jùjú styles (urban string-­based club ­music) of the 1920s, the palm-­wine ­music (originally known as maringa and from Sierra Leone and Liberia via the Kru ­people) of the 1950s, and the Cuban and American ­music as well as instruments that w ­ ere imported and integrated into juju in the 1960s, leading to styles such as the short-­lived Yo-­pop style, waka, and Afrobeat. Highlife also emerged in Nigeria and neighboring Ghana in the 1950s, although it dwindled in Nigeria during the 1960s, and apala, a traditional style, and its offshoot, fuji ­music, became popu­ lar in the 1960s. HIP HOP STARS Nigerian hip hop is named Naija hip hop, a­ fter the country’s nickname. American, followed by French hip hop reached Nigeria by the early 1980s with disco rap; however, the country was ­under a military regime and hip hop activity in the country’s largest city, Lagos, remained underground. Exceptions ­were “The Way I Feel Rap” from Ron Ekundayo’s (n.d.) ­album The Way I Feel (1981) included rap in addition to disco, boogie, and funk, and “Saturday Night Raps” from Dizzy  K.’s (Kunle Falola, 1964*–) Excuse Me, Baby (Dedicated to the DJs of the World) (1982), which included rap, electronica, funk, and soul. Sound on Sound’s (1978–1989*) From Africa from Scratch (1988) followed as an early Nigerian example of rap in addition to boogie, electronica, funk, and soul. The ­album is also an early example of Nigerian hip h­ ouse, since it fuses rap with electronica. Sound on Sound’s had an American connection to the creation of the first hip hop single, “Rappers Delight” (1979) through its founder Scratch (Ron McBean, n.d.), who worked as a DJ in New Jersey in the 1970s and advised Sugar Hill Rec­ords’s (1979–1986) owner Sylvia Robinson (1935–2011) to base the single on American band Chic’s (1976–1983, 1990–1992, 1996–) disco song “Good Times” (1979) and supervised the auditions for the Sugarhill Gang. Other acts of this same vein, combining American sounding rap in En­glish with disco, funk, and soul, lasted into the late 1980s. By the early 1990s, economic crisis created obstacles for obtaining ­music technology and software to create beats and samples. Popu­lar ­music preferences included reggae, but Nigerian youth ­were also listening to American and French hip hop, followed by emerging African hip hop. In 1991, the trio Emphasis (1990–1999)* released Big Deal, often considered the earliest Naija hip hop ­album for its use of pidgin En­glish (Nigerian vernacular). The rap duo Ju­nior & Pretty (1990–1999)* followed Emphasis by also recording in pidgin En­glish and by performing in Hausa daishikis and Igbo chieftaincy tunics. Topics became politicized, as 1990s hip hop acts criticized military rule, a collapsing economy, high unemployment, and social issues. T ­ hese 1990s acts included highlife and Afrobeat singer Fela Kuti (Fela Anikulapo Kuti, 1938–1997); Kano-­ based singer-­rapper Eedris Abdulkareem (1974–), of the Remedies (1997–2002); Lagos-­based singer-­rapper and producer eLDee (1977–), of the band Trybesmen (1998–); and Nigerian American rapper Naeto C (1982–). Kuti was a multi-­ instrumentalist, musician, composer, activist, and Afrobeat pioneer. Eedris

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Abdulkareem’s 2004 solo ­album Jaga Jaga contained songs that ­were banned by the government. The late 1990s also witnessed the rise of eLDee and his band Trybesmen. In 2002, eLDee moved to the United States, where he continued his solo ­career and gained international fame. Although he was born in Houston, Naeto C is a popu­lar Nigerian Afrobeat and Igbo musician and rec­ord producer known for his prolific recording ­career. With the improved economy came the availability of computers, recording and editing software, as well as video editing software. Hip hop continued to gain popularity, and the founding of Kennis ­Music (1998–), and eLDee’s Trybe Rec­ords (1998–), Paybacktyme Rec­ords (1999–2002*), and Dove Rec­ords (aka Dove Entertainment, 1999–) officially established the Lagos hip hop scene as well as a recording industry in capital city Abuja. The rap duo P-­Square (2000–2016), consisting of identical twin ­brothers Peter Okoye and Paul Okoye (1981–), began by mimicking American old-school rappers and breakdancers, but eventually moved onto the Naija hip hop use of pidgin En­glish and focus on some localized lyrical content. The two became prolific musicians on instruments such as keyboard, drums, bass, and rhythm guitar, and eventually ­were certified Platinum. P-­Square’s third ­album, Game Over (2007), sold over eight million copies. Eedris Abdulkareem started using multilingual raps, with lyr­ics in En­glish, pidgin En­glish, and Nigerian languages such as Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa. ­Later notable acts include Nigerian American Chris Akinyemi (aka ChrisA, Olakitan Christopher Akinyemi, n.d.), M.I. (1981–), M.I.’s ­brother Jesse Jagz ­(1984–), their good friend ex–­band mate Ice Prince (1986–), Ruggedman (Michael Ugochukwu Stephens, n.d.), Duncan Mighty (Duncan Wene Mighty Okechukwu, 1983–), Faze (Chibuzor Oji, n.d.), and Darey (Dare Art Alade, n.d.). Nikki Laoye (Oyenike Laoye-­Oturu, n.d.) is Nigeria’s most popu­lar female rapper; she uses alternative rock, R&B, hip hop, pop, soul, funk, jazz, and Gospel in her ­music. Akinyemi’s videos ­were picked up by both MTV and VH1. M.I., Jesse Jagz, and Ice Prince are all associated with the highly influential Choco­late City ­Music label (2005–), of which M.I. has been CEO since June 2015. M.I. has won vari­ous MTV Africa ­Music Awards, while Jesse Jagz pop­u­lar­ized a reggae-­infused hip hop style. Ice Prince is known as both a rapper and actor; his song “Oleku” holds the ­distinction of being one of Nigeria’s most remixed, and he has gone on to international fame, including winning a BET Award. Ruggedman pop­u­lar­ized the idea of the do-­it-­yourself musician. A sometimes Igbo rapper, he produced his own songs and has become internationally famous as a touring act, and he ­later created his own rec­ord label, Rugged Rec­ords (2012–). Duncan Mighty is a musician, singer, and ­music producer who sings and raps in his native tongue, Ikwerre. Faze, a musician and actor, became the first Nigerian artist to have three consecutive Platinum ­albums; Darey, a disc jockey turned rapper and tele­vi­sion personality, has done much to encourage rap in the 2000s, hosting vari­ous series and competitions, as well as producing anthology ­albums. Born into a musical ­family, since his ­father is Nigerian jazz pianist, singer, and entertainer Art Alade (n.d.), Darey became a multi-­Platinum ­album selling hip hop recording artist. His most successful ­albums have been unDAREYted (2009) and DoubleDare (2011). He has also received many awards and nominations for his ­music videos.



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IGBO RAP Igbo rap is a Nigerian hip hop style that emerged around 2000 in Southeastern Nigeria, where the Igbo tribe is found. It infuses traditional Igbo ­music and hip hop beats, combined with other styles such as highlife and R&B and raps in the Igbo language. Igbo highlife emerged during the 1950s as a guitar-­based ­music. Pioneers include Enugu-­based Mr Raw (aka Dat  N.—­A. Raw, Okechukwu Edwards Ukeje, n.d.), whose 2005 debut launched a solo and collaborative ­career. ­Later Igbo rappers included Naeto C, and Ruggedman, and Phyno (Chibuzor Nelson Azubuike, 1986–). Phyno, a singer-­songwriter, multi-­instrumentalist, and producer, started out at about the same time as Mr Raw, but did not see recording success ­until the 2010s, although he had worked with other well known rappers such as Ruggedman. Other Igbo rappers, including Houston-­born Fat Tony (Anthony Lawson Jude Ifeanyichukwu Obiawunaotu, 1988–), started out as underground acts. Female Igbo rappers include Muna (Munachi Gail Teresa Abii Nwankwo, n.d.), a graffiti artist, songwriter, model, and tele­vi­sion personality; and London-­based rapper Ninja (Nkechi Ka Egenamba, n.d.) of Brighton, ­England–­based indie rock band the Go! Team (2000–), who raps, chants, sings, and dances. Anthony J. Fonseca and Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Eedris Abdulkareem; eLDee; Ghana; Ice Prince; Jesse Jagz; M.I.; Naeto C; P-­Square

Further Reading

Clark, Msia Kibona. 2013. “Representing Africa! Trends in Con­temporary African Hip Hop.” Journal of Pan African Studies 6, no. 3: 1–4. Shipley, Jesse Weaver. 2017. “Parody ­after Identity: Digital M ­ usic and the Politics of Uncertainty in West Africa.” American Ethnologist 44, no. 2: 249–62. Shonekan, Stephanie. 2012. “Nigerian Hip Hop: Exploring a Black World Hybrid.” In Hip Hop Africa: New African M ­ usic in a Globalizing World, edited by Eric Charry, chap. 7. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Further Listening

Phyno. 2014. No Guts No Glory (NGNG). Sputnet Rec­ords/Penthauze ­Music. Ruggedman. 2007. Ruggedy Baba. Rugged Rec­ords.

9th Won­der (aka 9thmatic, Patrick Denard Douthit, 1975–­, Winston Salem, North Carolina) 9th Won­der is an American hip hop producer and DJ who worked with dozens of prominent hip hop artists, in addition to producing several of his own solo ­albums. His production style is characterized by employing samples of 1960s and 1970s soul ­music. The samples themselves contain vocals or vocalizations—­and ­these source materials are layered against instrumental sounds, some of which are also sampled. 9th Won­der is also well known as a hip hop scholar who has taught courses at several American universities.

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EARLY YEARS His earliest production work was as an original member (he left in 2007) of the Durham, North Carolina, hip hop group ­Little ­Brother (2001–2010), along with rappers Phonte (Phonte Lyshod Coleman, 1978–) and Big Pooh (Thomas Louis Jones III, 1980–). The three met in the late 1990s as students at North Carolina Central University and ­were also members of a North Carolina–­based alternative hip hop collective called the Justus League (1997–2006). ­Little ­Brother’s first full-­ length ­album was The Listening (2003). The group’s second full-­length ­album, The Minstrel Show (2005), contains several scathing critiques of the hip hop industry. The ­album includes skits in which vari­ous aspects of African American culture are satirized and criticized. Allegedly, the Black Entertainment Tele­vi­sion (BET) network refused to air singles from The Minstrel Show. Source magazine also suffered through infighting over the rating of The Minstrel Show, as members of the editorial staff differed (and had an irreparable falling out) over their assessment and rating of the a­ lbum. Also in 2003, 9th Won­der released his first solo effort, an online, unofficial remix of Nas’s (1973–) God’s Son (2002) called God’s Stepson. His (9th Won­der’s) production style caught the attention of Jay-­Z (1969–), who enlisted 9th Won­der to produce the single “Threat” for The Black A ­ lbum (2003). Jay-­Z also introduced his then-­girlfriend, now-­wife Beyoncé (1981–), who was then a member of the Houston group Destiny’s Child (1998–2004), to 9th Won­der’s production style. 9th Won­ der went on to produce Destiny’s Child’s “Girl,” “Is She the Reason,” and “Game Over” on Destiny Fulfilled (2004). SOLO WORK He released his first non-­remix solo ­album, Dream Merchant Vol. 1, in 2005, followed by The Dream Merchant Vol. 2 in 2007. Entirely produced by 9th Won­ der, both ­albums featured many dif­fer­ent lyricists, including Mos Def (1973–), Memphis Bleek (Malik Thuston Cox, 1978–), and Jean Grae (1976–). Phonte and Big Pooh also contributed lyr­ics to 9th Won­der’s solo ­albums, both as solo artists and together as ­Little ­Brother. 9th Won­der has released five solo ­albums and has also produced full-­length a­ lbums for vari­ous solo artists. He has produced individual tracks for dozens of hip hop soloists and groups, such as EPMD (1986–1993, 2006–), Raekwon (aka Reakwon the Chef, Corey Woods, 1970–), and Talib Kweli (1975–), as well as for both of his former ­Little ­Brother colleagues. Further, 9th Won­ der produced ­music for multiple episodes of the Cartoon Network (1992–) tele­vi­ sion series The Boondocks (2005–2008, 2010, 2014), such as “Thank You for Not Snitching” (2007). ACADEMIA In 2007, 9th Won­der was appointed an artist-­in-­residence at his alma mater, North Carolina Central University. He has also taught hip hop classes at Duke University and the University of Michigan, and in 2012, he was appointed a fellow at

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Harvard University, where he taught classes on beatmaking and hip hop history in the Hip Hop Research Institute, a part of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute. His year teaching at Harvard was chronicled in a documentary film, The Hip Hop Fellow. In 2014, 9th Won­der helped formally launch the Hip Hop Institute at North Carolina Central University. Amanda Sewell See also: The United States

Further Reading

Nishikawa, Kinohi. 2014. “The Lower Frequencies: Hip Hop Satire in the New Millennium.” In Post-­Soul Satire: Black Identity a­ fter Civil Rights, edited by Derek C. Maus and James J. Donahue, pp. 38–55. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press. Rausch, Andrew J. 2011. “9th Won­der.” In I Am Hip Hop: Conversations on the ­Music and Culture, chap. 1. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow.

Further Listening

­ ittle B L ­ rother. 2005. The Minstrel Show. Atlantic. 9th Won­der. 2007. Dream Merchant: Volume 2. 6 Hole Rec­ords. 9th Won­der. 2011. The Won­der Years. It’s a Wonderful World ­Music Group.

Further Viewing

Price, Kenneth, dir. 2011. The Won­der Year. Wilmington, NC: Pricefilms. Price, Kenneth, dir. 2014. The Hip Hop Fellow. Wilmington, NC: Pricefilms.

Norway Norway is a Northern Eu­ro­pean Scandinavian parliamentary constitutional monarchy that shares borders with Sweden, Finland, and Rus­sia. The vast majority of its population is Norwegian, but other native ethnic populations include Sámi, as well as Forrest Finn and Kven (both descended from the Finnish). Since the 2000s, municipalities, especially Norway’s capital, Oslo, have experienced population growth as a result of immigration. The largest non-­European immigrant populations are from Somalia, Iraq, Syria, the Philippines, and Pakistan. Hip hop emerged in Norway in the 1980s with the international distribution of American breakdancing films such as Wild Style (1983) and Beat Street, Breakin’, Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, and Flashdance (all 1984). As of 2018, Oslo has the largest scene, followed by a much smaller scene in Lillehammer. Norway’s folk ­music consists of instrumentals, such as dance ­music known as Slåtter, and vocal ­music, such as ballads called Kvad, improvised songs called Stev, hymns, and work songs. Traditional instruments include the Hardingfele (Hardanger fiddle), Langeleik (a box-­shaped dulcimer), Harpeleik (a chord zither), Tungehorn and Melhus (clarinets), and Bukkehorn (a goat horn). Edvard Grieg (1843–1907), Norway’s best-­k nown classical composer, employed folk ­music and nationalistic themes. Though not as pronounced as in Sweden, popu­lar ­music has had a strong market in Norway. By the 20th ­century, popu­lar ­music included folk, rock, jazz, heavy metal (including Norwegian black metal), and hip hop.

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Several early hip hop acts began in graffiti art. Musician and producer Tommy Tee (aka ­Father Blanco, The Crazy Minister, Tommy Flåten, 1971–), a 1980s graffiti artist and breakdancer, founded the prominent graffiti magazine FatCap (1989–). He ­later established his label, Tee Productions (1995–). The Oslo trio Warlocks (1992–), which rapped in En­glish, became the best-­selling hip hop act in Norway. Warlocks created a ­music video that showed the trio graffiti bombing a train car for its single “Graff Kill,” from its debut a­ lbum Lyrical Marksmen (1995). Oslo’s Gatas Parlament (Street Parliament, 1993–), also known as Kveldens-­ Høydepunkt (Highlight of the Eve­ning), was the first act to rec­ord rap in Norwegian with its debut EP Autobahn Til Union (Highway to the Union, 1994). Gatas Parlament is a left-­leaning po­liti­cal rap crew and band that protests right-­wing po­liti­ cal activity in Norway. Another early act was the hip hop–­electro dance pop duo Madcon (1992–), whose members ­were of Ethiopian, Eritrean, and South African descent. Other 1990s acts that opted for Norwegian over En­glish included the group Klovner I Kamp (Clowns In Camp, 1994–2006), Norwegian and Spanish rapper Diaz (Andres Rafael Diaz, 1976–), and the Christian–­t urned–­science advocacy group Evig Poesi (Eternal Poetry, aka MHC, 1998–). By the late 1990s into the 2000s, Oslo-­based Tee Productions became Norway’s largest hip hop label, producing Warlocks, Gatas Parlament, T.P. Allstars (1999–), Diaz, Son of Light (aka N-­Light-­N, André Martin Hadland, 1975–), and Opaque (aka Mae, Morton Aasdahl Eliassen, 1976–). Outside Tee’s Productions, one of the most successful acts was the rap duo Karpe Diem (2000–). Its second-­to-­last studio ­albums, Aldri solgt en Løgn (Never Sold a Lie, 2010) was certified four-­times Platinum (in Norway), and its last ­album, Kors på halsen, ti kniver i hjertet, mor og far i døden (Cross My Throat, Ten Knives in My Heart, and My M ­ other and ­Father Die If I Lie, 2012), reached No. 1 on Norway’s VG-­Lista (1967–) the country’s ­albums chart. As multiethnic Muslims, Karpe Diem raps in Norwegian, En­glish, Arabic, Hindi, and other languages found in prominent immigrant populations living in east Oslo. Its raps focus on discrimination, in­equality, otherness, identity, stereotyping of immigrants, ­family, upbringing, and world politics. Con­temporary acts include the collective Minoritet1 (2001–), which raps in Kebabnorsk (Kebab-­Norwegian), a dialect spoken by multiethnic teens residing in Oslo and its eastern suburbs, as well as the pop rap duo Paperboys (2002–), who prefer rapping in En­glish. In contrast to the majority of Norwegian hip hop acts that consist of artists with immigrant ties, Jaa9 & OnklP (2003–), from Lillehammer, is a duo of white rappers who have been compared to the American group Beastie Boys (1981–2012) for their appearance and humor. Concurrently members of the East Coast gangsta and Dirty South–­inspired group Dirty Oppland (2002–), Jaa9 (Johnny Engdal Silseth, 1982–) and OnklP (Pål Tøien, 1984–), rap in Norwegian about gangster themes, national pride, selling out, and partying. As with Karpe Diem, Jaa9 and OnklP employ wordplay. The duo’s first full album-­length recording, Bondegrammatikk: The Mixtape (Peasants’ Grammar: The Mixtape, 2003), remains Norway’s best-­selling mixtape as of 2017. Of Jaa9 and OnklP’s five studio ­albums, Sjåre brymæ (Firm Breasts, 2004), has been the duo’s most successful hit, having reached No. 3 on the VG-­Lista. Meanwhile, Gatas Parlament collaborated with Swedish rapper Promoe (Mårten Edh, b. Nils Mårten Ed, 1976–) on “Antiamerikansk Dans” (“Anti-­A merican



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Dance”), from its second studio ­album Fred, frihet & alt gratis! (Peace, Freedom, and Every­thing ­Free!, 2004). Since 2007, Gatas Parliament and the pop and ska band Hopalong Knut (2002–) have combined to form the band Samvirkelaget (The Workers’ Cooperative, 2007–), which raps in the Central Norway Trønder dialect, which tends to drop off vowel endings of words. Con­temporary acts from other cities also emerged, including Side Brok (2000–) from Ørsta and Erik og Kriss (Erik & Kriss, 2002–) from Bærum. Notable ­later acts include Zambia-­born Norwegian alternative hip hop and reggae-­rap artist Admiral P (Philip Boardman, 1982–) and Nairobi, Kenya-­born STL (Stella Mwangi, 1986–), a ­Kenyan immigrant female rapper who focuses on discrimination. Outside Norway, multi-­instrumentalist and producer Lido (Peder Losnegård, 1992–) lives in Los Angeles and rec­ords hip hop, trip hop, electronica, and wonky m ­ usic, a subgenre of electronica that derives from m ­ usic genres such as glitch hop, dubstep, G-­f unk, and crunk. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Gangsta Rap; Graffiti Art; Jaa9 and OnklP; Karpe Diem

Further Reading

Brunstad, Endre, Unn Røyneland, and Toril Opsahl. 2010. “Hip Hop, Ethnicity and Linguistic Practice in Rural and Urban Norway.” In The Languages of Global Hip Hop, edited by Marina Terkourafi, chap. 9. New York: Continuum. Uberg Naerland, Torgeir. 2014. “Hip Hop and the Public Sphere: Po­liti­cal Commitment and Communicative Practices on the Norwegian Hip Hop Scene.” Javnost 21, no. 1: 37–52.

Further Listening

Admiral  P.  2014. Selvtillit & tro (Self-­Confidence and Belief ). J.A.M. Promotions/ Knirckefritt. Gatas Parlament. 2008. Apocalypso. Tee Productions. Opaque. 2001. Gourmet Garbage. Tee Productions.

The Notorious B.I.G. (aka Biggie Smalls, Christopher George Latore Wallace, 1972–1997, Brooklyn, New York) The Notorious B.I.G. was one of the leading East Coast hip hop performers in the mid-1990s. Although he only lived long enough to release two a­ lbums, critics have praised the compelling narrative of his raps, as well as the technical virtuosity of his rhymes and easy delivery. Most rappers and scholars of rap consider him among the most talented rappers of all time, if not the very best. Just two weeks ­after his death, his second studio ­album, in the making since 1995, Life ­after Death (1997) was released to universal acclaim. The double a­ lbum was a mix of glamour and grit about life in the streets, with no filler and nearly ­every track worthy of interest. It established the Notorious B.I.G. as a rapper whose smooth flow and effortless rhymes marked him as an MC with few peers. Life ­after Death would become one of the few rap a­ lbums to reach Diamond status, and it would also be included,

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deservedly so, on many lists of the greatest recordings of the past few de­cades. Although he left only a small recorded output, the legacy of the Notorious B.I.G. is more than sufficient to place him, along with his chief rival, Tupac Shakur ­(1971–1996), at the pinnacle of his art. FROM HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT TO SUCCESSFUL RAPPER Christopher George Latore Wallace’s parents ­were Jamaican-­born immigrants living in Brooklyn, New York. His ­father abandoned him and his ­mother when he was two years old, and so he was raised by a single ­mother. He was a generally good student during his school years, but he began to engage in illegal activities, chiefly dealing drugs, around the age of 12. He also acquired the nickname Big ­because of his size and weight. At 17 he dropped out of high school and began to accumulate a rec­ord of arrests and jail time for charges related to drugs, guns, and probation violations. He began rapping as a street entertainer in the Bedford-­Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn while in his teens. In the early 1990s he made a tape that was heard by DJ Mister Cee (Calvin LeBrun, 1966–), who passed it along to the editors of the hip hop magazine The Source (1988–), who featured the then-­named Biggie Smalls in its “Unsigned Hype” column. Puff ­Daddy (1969–) next heard the tape and signed him to a contract with Uptown Rec­ords (1986–1999) in Harlem, New York, where he began work as a backup singer and guest artist. When Puff ­Daddy was fired, Biggie Smalls followed him to his new label, Bad Boy Rec­ords (aka Bad Boy Entertainment, 1993–), a few months ­later. He had been using the name Biggie Smalls—­after a gangster character in the 1975 motion picture Let’s Do It Again—­but found that another performer was using it, and so began using the Notorious B.I.G., a pseudonym he had used to rec­ord on a Mary J. Blige (1971–) track. By August 1992, the Notorious B.I.G. had completed his first studio ­album, and in August his first single was released, followed a month ­later by his debut ­album, Ready to Die. Critics w ­ ere impressed by both the honesty of the ­album’s content and the impressive technique in his rapping. Several described him as a natu­ral storyteller, able to convey the full range of emotions of a young black man on the streets, and not just a simplistic caricature of thug life. His ability to deliver lyr­ics in a deceptively effortless manner with easy, unforced rhymes was also praised. This is all the more remarkable ­because many of the tracks ­were done freestyle, ­either without a written text or improvised in per­for­mance. Ready to Die reached qua­dru­ple Platinum sales and helped to draw interest back to East Coast hip hop at a time when West Coast gangsta rap was in ascendance. ­ ATER ­CAREER, FRIENDSHIP WITH TUPAC SHAKUR, L AND MURDER Shortly ­after the ­album’s release, the Notorious B.I.G. became friends with Tupac Shakur, if only for a few years. In 1995, Tupac Shakur accused the Notorious B.I.G.,

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Puff ­Daddy, and other New York hip hop figures of involvement in a November 1994 robbery, which resulted in his suffering a gunshot wound and a significant loss of jewelry. It also escalated tensions between the two artists. In late February 1995, the Notorious B.I.G. released a B-­side single, “Who Shot Ya,” which was taken as a diss track aimed at Shakur, even though he claimed that the song had been written long before the robbery. Tupac Shakur responded in June of the next year with “Hit ‘Em Up,” an unquestionable diss that insults the Notorious B.I.G., his friends, and anyone associated with Bad Boy Rec­ords. Three months ­later, Tupac Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas, Nevada, with suspicions cast on the Notorious B.I.G. and his East Coast compatriots. In February 1997, the Notorious B.I.G. traveled to Los Angeles to attend vari­ ous ­music industry events and to promote the impending release of his second ­album. In March, he attended a party, ­after which he and his entourage ­were returning to his ­hotel a­fter midnight. His car was stopped at an intersection, when another vehicle pulled alongside, and a gunman in that car fired a 9 mm pistol, hitting him four times. The entourage rushed him to a hospital, where he died. Coming so soon ­after the murder of Shakur, the murder of the Notorious B.I.G. attracted intense media scrutiny. Many p­ eople thought his shooting was a continuation of the feud between East Coast and West Coast rappers, while ­others accused the police of complicity and of covering up the facts. His relatives filed wrongful death suits against the Los Angeles Police Department and the city, but both ­were dismissed. The death of the Notorious B.I.G. officially remains unsolved. Scott Warfield See also: Gangsta Rap; Puff ­Daddy; Tupac Shakur; The United States

Further Reading

Coker, Cheo Hodari. 2003. Unbelievable: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G. New York: Three Rivers Press. Lang, Holly. 2007. The Notorious B.I.G.: A Biography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Scott, Cathy. 2000. The Murder of Biggie Smalls. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Further Listening

The Notorious B.I.G. 1994. Ready to Die. Bad Boy Entertainment. The Notorious B.I.G. 1997. Life a­ fter Death. Bad Boy Entertainment.

Further Viewing

Tilghman, George Jr., dir. 2009. Notorious. Beverley Hills, CA: 20th ­Century Fox Home Entertainment.

N.W.A. (aka N—az wit Attitude or N—az wit Attitudes, 1986–1991, Compton, California) N.W.A., which stands for N—az Wit Attitude or N—az Wit Attitudes, was a hip hop group that lasted just five years and issued only two studio ­albums, yet had a profound influence on both hip hop and broader popu­lar culture. Although it was

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In between 1988 and 1989 the American hip hop group N.W.A. went on tour with Public E­ nemy. Pictured backstage while in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1989, from upper left are Dr. Dre, Laylaw, and The D.O.C.; on the sofa are Ice Cube, Eazy-­E , MC Ren, and DJ Yella. (Raymond Boyd/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

not the foundation of gangsta rap, N.W.A.’s debut ­album, Straight Outta Compton (1988), established the subgenre as an impor­tant commercial category of popu­lar ­music and helped raise awareness about urban black neighborhood social issues. The group’s forceful use of profanity and the “N-­word” changed the landscape of rap. The group was associated primarily with Compton, where five of its members ­were born, and its m ­ usic documented the decline of this city located south of Los Angeles (although Compton’s prob­lems ­were exaggerated by the media). Conversely, this typical 1980s and 1990s urban city contributed to the image of N.W.A. FORMATION AND EARLY YEARS N.W.A. began in 1986 with Eazy-­E (Eric Lynn Wright, 1964–1995), a former drug dealer, who was attempting to build, along with Cleveland-­based businessman Jerry Heller (Gerald Elliot Heller, 1940–2016), a rec­ord com­pany, Ruthless Rec­ords (1986–), without much early success. This situation changed when Dr. Dre (Andre Romelle Young, 1965–), a member of the World Class Wreckin’ Cru (1984– 1986), and Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson, 1969–), ­were brought into the com­pany to write raps. One of Ice Cube’s raps, “Boyz n the Hood” (1987), was written specifically for HBO (Home Boys Only, 1988–1990)*, but was rejected by that New York–­ based group as too hardcore for its image. Eazy-­E then joined with Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, the Arabian Prince (Kim Nazel, 1965–), the D.O.C. (Tracy Lynn Curry, 1968–), and DJ Yella (Antoine Carraby, 1967–) from World Class Wreckin’ Cru to

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rec­ord the track. Vari­ous members of this group also recorded three additional tracks, “Panic Zone,” “8-­Ball,” and “Dopeman,” and all ­were included among the  11 tracks produced by Dr.  Dre on the compilation ­album N.W.A. and the Posse (1987). Just before the a­ lbum’s release, Ice Cube moved to Arizona, where he attended the Phoenix Institute of Technology for a year, and so Eazy-­E brought MC Ren (Lorenzo Jerald Patterson, 1969–) into the Ruthless Rec­ords stable as a writer. His first proj­ect was Eazy-­E’s debut ­album, Eazy-­Duz-­It (1988), but he also contributed tracks to N.W.A. and soon became a member of the group. STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON In between 1987 and 1988, N.W.A.’s studio debut ­album, Straight Outta Compton (1988), was recorded. It was released in August 1988. Its commercial success and critical reception have distinguished this ­album as one of the most influential hip hop releases, an achievement notable b­ ecause the extreme language made radio airplay impossible. From its opening track, “Straight Outta Compton,” listeners immediately hear lyr­ics that required one of the first Parental Advisory “Explicit” labels, supported by beats that owe something to the aggressive sound of Public ­Enemy (1982–), but N.W.A. replaced the po­liti­cal and social issues of Public ­Enemy’s lyr­ics with ­those that painted a grim picture of street life for black urban youths. Raps such as “Gangsta Gangsta” and “F—­ tha Police,” positioned conspicuously as the ­album’s second track, drew almost universal disdain, even from black critics. Police departments often refused to provide security for N.W.A. concerts, and the FBI wrote a widely circulated letter that condemned the track, but the effect was to further publicize the group and its ­music, especially among audiences that had not traditionally listened to hip hop. Significantly, more than 80 ­percent of the ­album’s sales ­were in white suburban neighborhoods, whose residents had no experience with the lifestyle depicted. First charting in 1989, Straight Outta Compton eventually reached ­triple Platinum status in sales in 2015, and has been included on numerous critics’ lists of best ever pop, rock, or hip hop ­albums. ICE CUBE’S DEPARTURE, DISSING WITH DR. DRE, AND N.W.A.’S LEGACY In 1989, Ice Cube left the group in a dispute over the royalties for his extensive contributions to Straight Outta Compton, which led to a long-­lasting feud. Although Ice Cube made no mention of his former bandmates on his solo debut, AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted (1990), N.W.A. immediately dissed him in its track “Real N—az” on the EP 100 Miles and Runnin’ (1990), as well as in its video. Ice Cube then responded in “Jackin’ for Beats” and “I Gotta Say What Up!!!” on his own EP Kill at ­Will (1990). N.W.A.’s second and final studio a­ lbum, Efil4za—­n (1991), the name a reversed spelling of N—­az4life, contained multiple insults to Ice Cube, but the a­ lbum is more impor­tant for the shift in sound overseen by Dr. Dre, who produced the ­album. The overtly aggressive beats of Straight Outta Compton give way to a smoother sound,

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characterized by slightly slower tempos, a less-­accented deep bass, the use of synthesizers, and samples from earlier funk tunes, a style which would become known as G-­funk (gangsta-­f unk). Though some have credited Dr. Dre with inventing this new sound, he more likely co-­developed it while working with the rapper Cold 187um (Gregory Fernan Hutchinson, 1967–), who had just joined Ruthless Rec­ ords in 1989. Shortly ­after the release of Efil4za—­n, Dr. Dre, who may have felt overwhelmed by his duties as head of production at Ruthless Rec­ords and who also had concerns about the label’s finances, left the com­pany to cofound Death Row Rec­ords (1991– 2009). He also convinced the D.O.C. and other Ruthless artists to jump with him to the new label and thereby initiated yet another feud among former N.W.A. members. Dr. Dre struck first with insults in several early Death Row tracks, to which Eazy-­E quickly responded. Even MC Ren, who technically remained with Ruthless, broke with Eazy-­E and only reconciled shortly before the latter’s death in 1995. N.W.A.’s legacy has been kept alive over the past two de­cades with five compilation ­albums, most of which recycle old tracks with a few solo efforts by N.W.A. artists or guests with ties to the group. Despite several plans for a reunion, the four surviving members of N.W.A.—­Ice Cube, MC Ren, Dr. Dre, and DJ Yella—­did not appear together ­until April 2016 at the Coachella ­Music Festival, one week ­after the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Scott Warfield See also: Dr. Dre; Eazy-­E; Gangsta Rap; G-­Funk; Ice Cube; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Bradley, Adam, and Andrew Dubois, eds. 2010. “N.W.A.” ­Under “Part 2: 1985–92: The Golden Age” in The Anthology of Rap, pp. 232–48. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Forman, Murray. 2002. The ’Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Place in Rap and Hip Hop. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. Nelson, George. 1998. “National ­Music.” In Hip Hop Amer­i­ca, chap. 10. New York: Penguin Books.

Further Listening

N.W.A. 1988. Straight Outta Compton. Priority Rec­ords/Ruthless Rec­ords. N.W.A. 1991. N—­az4Life [aka Efil4za—­n]. Priority Rec­ords/Ruthless Rec­ords.

O Oman Oman is an Islamic absolute monarchy on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula that is considered strategically impor­tant for military and oil interests, although its economy relies heavi­ly on tourism and agricultural trade. At its peak in the 19th ­century, the Sultanate of Oman had ­great influence in the Persian Gulf, but its power declined in the 20th ­century. All Omanis, regardless of age or sex, participate in ­music. Notable Omani musicians include oud (lute) player and sawt singer Salim Rashid Suri (1911*–1979), nicknamed the Singing Sailor, pioneer of the Sawt al-­K haleej (aka Voice of the Gulf) ­music genre. Traditional ­music is favored and pop and rock are produced sparsely. A small underground metal scene with bands such as Arabia (2000–) and Belos (1997–) exists, and ­there is virtually no hip hop scene as of 2018. Some inroads have been attempted, by dancers such as Debbie Allen (1950–) and by Howard University’s World Learning Program, but their effect has been minimal thus far, with acts such as Muscat-­and Dubai-­based DJ AA (anonymous, n.d.), known for his versatility with trip hop (downtempo), hip hop, and ­house. DJ Bluey (anonymous, n.d.) is an internationally known DJ who brings energy, charisma, and personality to his per­for­mances. Nonetheless, Red Bull now sponsors an annual festival called Lord of the Streets (begun in Dubai, 2006), and American old-­school East Coast (U.S.) hip hop is beginning to have some influence on youth culture, with freestyle rap competitions and b-­boy crews such as SNK (Serve and Knock, 2001–) and the Legends Crew (n.d.). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Break dancing

Further Reading

El-­Mallah, Issam, and Kai Fikentscher. 1990. “Some Observations on the Naming of Musical Instruments and on Rhythm in Oman.” Yearbook for Traditional ­Music 22: 123–26. Garratt, Rob. 2016. “How the Hip Hop Street Dance Known as B-­Boying Stepped into the UAE.” The National, July 20.

Otara Millionaires Club (OMC, 1993–2010, Auckland, New Zealand) Otara Millionaires Club (OMC) was a hip hop, acoustic rock, and Latin ­music band from Otara, one of the poorest and most troubled suburbs of South Auckland. OMC

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was formed when two multi-­i nstrumentalists ­brothers of Niuean (Polynesian) descent, Phil (Philip Fuemana, 1964–2005) and Pauly Fuemana (Paul Lawrence Fuemana, 1969–2010), joined with producer Alan Jansson (Pakeha Alan Jansson, n.d.) to rec­ord “We R the OMC” for Jansson’s Proud: An Urban Pacific Streetsoul Compilation (1994), the first Urban Pasifika a­ lbum. OMC went on Jansson’s Proud national tour to promote the ­album and sound, a combination of hip hop with R&B, reggae, and Pacific roots ­music (for example, log drumming and Māori ukulele and guitar strumming). OMC’s lyr­ics focused on the irony of becoming wealthy ­after years of poverty and prison time, on romance, and on Auckland and Pacific pride. All of OMC’s songs ­were composed by Jansson and the Fuemanas in En­glish, and its big hit was “How Bizarre” (1995), featuring Pauly’s gangsta rap style. It peaked at No. 1 on hit singles charts in New Zealand, Australia, Austria, and Canada; No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Airplay (now Radio Songs); No. 2 on Hot R&B/Hip-­Hop Songs; and No. 1 on the Mainstream Top 40/Contemporary Hit Radio chart in the United States—­making OMC the first New Zealand band to have a No. 1 hit song in the United States. This one smash hit led to Platinum and ­triple Platinum certification for their debut and only a­ lbum How Bizarre (1996) in Australia and New Zealand, and Gold certification by Recording Industry Association of Amer­i­ca (RIAA). Other songs that charted outside New Zealand from the same ­album ­were “Right On” and “On the Run” (both 1996), though in less notable positions. In 1998, ­after a ­legal dispute over royalties, Jansson left OMC but agreed that Phil could use OMC’s name as a touring solo artist. Phil founded Urban Pacifika Rec­ords (1993–2001)* and mentored subsequent Auckland hip hop acts, influencing another in­de­pen­dent label, Dawn Raid Entertainment (1999–). In 2005, Phil died of a heart attack. Two years ­later, Pauly and Jansson re­united briefly to release “4 All of Us” (2007), a single featuring actress/guest vocalist Lucy Lawless (Lucille Frances Ryan, 1968–), but the single had poor sales. In 2010, Pauly died of an autoimmune disease, progressive demyelinating polyneuropathy, but his death sparked a resurgence of interest in OMC and its hit “How Bizarre” in New Zealand. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Gangsta Rap; New Zealand; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop

Further Reading

Grigg, Simon. 2015. “How Bizarre”: Pauly Fuemana and the Song That Stormed the World. Wellington, New Zealand: Awa Press. Shute, Gareth. 2004. Hip Hop ­Music in Aoteroa. Auckland, New Zealand: Reed.

Further Listening

OMC. 1996. How Bizarre. Huh Rec­ords.

OutKast (1991–2006, 2014–­, Atlanta, Georgia) OutKast is an American Southern hip hop duo that fuses hip hop with funk, psychedelic ­music (from P-­f unk, rock, and acid jazz to trip hop), drum and bass, electronica, techno/industrial hip hop, R&B, and gospel. Consisting of American rapper,

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The Southern and alternative hip hop duo OutKast consists of Atlanta-­based rappers Big Boi (left) and André 3000 (right). ­Here OutKast performs live at a 2001 concert in Heaton Park in Manchester, ­England. (Jon Super/Redferns/Getty Images)

singer-­songwriter, dancer, actor, and producer André 3000 (aka André, André Lauren Benjamin, 1975–) and American rapper, songwriter, actor, and producer Big Boi (Antwan André Patton, 1975), OutKast was the first hip hop act that signed to Atlanta-­based LaFace Rec­ords (1989–2001). All five of its studio ­albums ­were huge successes in re­spect to critical acclaim and sales: Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik (1994) peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200 and was certified Platinum; ATLiens (1996) and Aquemini (1998) peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and ­were certified double Platinum; Stankonia (2000) peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and was certified qua­d ru­ple Platinum; and OutKast’s double ­album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and was certified Diamond. EARLY MUSICAL INTERESTS AND FORMATION The duo met at the Lenox Square shopping mall while rapping in public. Both attended the Tri-­Cities High School for the Performing Arts, a public magnet school in the Atlanta suburb of East Point. Initially, ­there was some rivalry since both ­were rappers interested in songwriting and freestyle rhyming; however, they quickly realized they worked well together and became friends. They soon formed the duo 2 Shades Deep and continued performing in shopping malls. Eventually, a girlfriend introduced the duo to Or­ga­n ized Noize (1992–), an American hip hop and R&B production team based in Atlanta. Or­ga­n ized Noize recorded on the LaFace

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(1989–2001) label and introduced then André Benjamin and Antwan Patton to the label’s cofounder and producer, L.A. Reid (Antonio Marquis Reid, 1956–). Though Reid was unimpressed with its audition, the duo continued to hone its musical skills at Or­ga­nized Noize’s studio and ­later had a successful audition that led to a recording contract with LaFace. ­Because both ­were still minors, they had to wait ­u ntil mid-1993 to begin recording. That same year, 2 Shades Deep changed its name to OutKast while recording its first single, “Players Ball,” for the label’s compilation a­ lbum, A LaFace F ­ amily Christmas. The single was used to promote OutKast’s first studio ­album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, which was produced by Or­ga­nized Noize. “Players Ball” peaked quickly at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Rap chart. Though the song alludes to a traditional gathering event of pimps in Chicago, it is mostly about living in the South and being part of its hip hop culture—an appropriate introduction of the duo to its potential fans. OutKast’s debut ­album was released shortly afterward. Its combination of Southern hip hop and funk, as well as its energetic and colorful post-­punk aesthetic, appealed to listeners and critics; it ultimately peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200. The success of Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik was especially impor­tant at the time to the Southern hip hop scene. Although Southern hip hop had emerged in the 1990s, West Coast and East Coast rap had dominated hip hop interests and sales. The ­album also gave direction to OutKast’s eclectic, almost throw-­in-­the-­ kitchen-­sink sound, a postmodern mixture of analog and digital musical instruments, live musical instruments, old-­school and new-­school hip hop ele­ments, a variety of hip hop and hip hop related ­music (e.g., Southern rap, trip hop, neo soul, and drum and bass), and other ele­ments. André had a flowing rapping style that formed a chemistry with Big Boi’s intense voice and rapid raps. OutKast’s second and third a­ lbums, ATLiens and Aquemini, explored its eclecticism further, adding ele­ments of Afrofuturism, in the tradition of progressive jazz musician Sun Ra (aka Le Sony’r Ra, Herman Poole Blount, 1914–1993), disco funk musician George Clinton’s (1941–) Parliament-­Funkadelic (1968–), American alternative hip hop and horrorcore artist Kool Keith (Keith Matthew Thornton, 1965–), and American hip hop, neo soul, new jack swing, and R&B quartet Jodeci (1989–1996, 2001–). The ­albums placed Southern rap fans in the midst of unexpected and new soundscapes. ATLiens exhibits André’s quirky lyr­ics and flamboyant style, which began to be a favorite at concerts as well. It also featured the singles “ATLiens” and “Elevators (Me and You),” both representing André and Big Boi’s first experience as producers. Aquemini, which was equally successful, made headlines b­ ecause American civil rights activist Rosa Parks (1913–2005) sued LaFace Rec­ords in 1999 over its most successful single, which uses her name as its title. Parks objected to OutKast’s use of her name and its obscenities. The initial suit reached a summary judgment in OutKast’s ­favor, but the ­legal issues dragged the case into 2006 through failed appeals on Parks’ and her relatives’ behalf. OutKast’s fourth ­album Stankonia featured songs written and recorded just ­after André 3000’s famous breakup with American neo soul and R&B singer Erykah Badu (1971–), which had some bearing on the change of his name from André to André 3000, which was also affected by his conscious decision to avoid being

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confused with American rapper and producer Dr.  Dre (1965–). “Ms. Jackson,” which was partly inspired by Erykah Badu’s ­mother, combining rap with pop, became OutKast’s first No. 1 pop hit. From Stankonia, the m ­ usic videos for the angry anti-­American dream rap-­rock anthem “Gasoline Dreams” and the agitated drum-­and-­bass “B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad)” give examples of OutKast’s elaborate, vivid, throw-­in-­the-­kitchen-­sink visuals to match the duo’s eclectic sound. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below was a double ­album that became OutKast’s last studio recording effort. Together, the ­albums ­were the duo’s largest commercial success, attaining Diamond certification in 2004. Speakerboxxx is Big Boi’s a­ lbum, while The Love Below is André 3000’s ­album, but the two appear on and produce some of each other’s ­album. The ­albums also represent members’ personalities with Speakerboxxx as boisterous, party-­themed, Dirty South funk–­infused rappers while The Love Below portrays the duo as an even, eclectic band that blends hip hop, funk, jazz, R&B, rock, and electronic ­music. Both Big Boi’s “The Way You Move” and André 3000’s “Hey Ya!” became No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. “Hey Ya!” became an instant popu­lar standard at football games and was featured as an arrangement for plastic soprano recorders in American discount chain Target’s back-­to-­school commercial in 2013. Speakerboxx/The Love Below won the 2004 Grammy Award for A ­ lbum of the Year.

OTHER PROJ­ECTS AND SOLO ­CAREERS In 2006, OutKast released a soundtrack to the duo’s American feature film, Idlewild. Written and directed by OutKast’s m ­ usic video director Bryan Barber (1970–) and starring André 3000 (as Percival) and Big Boi (as Rooster), Idlewild is  a drama about a ­Great Depression juke joint in fictional Idlewild, Georgia, accompanied by OutKast’s self-­referential hip hop, funk, neo soul, acoustic blues soundtrack. The film and the ­album of the same title had mixed reception, though it debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, peaked at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart, and was certified Platinum. It fell afterward and did not mea­sure up to OutKast’s previous successes. Between 2007 and 2013, OutKast took a hiatus. During this period, André 3000 and Big Boi focused on solo work. The two had previously finished many separate recording proj­ects. Big Boi released Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty (2010), which features appearances by André 3000 and Raekwon (Corey Woods, 1970–), among ­others. The ­album received critical acclaim and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200. Big Boi’s next studio ­album was Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumours (2012), which peaked at No. 34 on the Billboard 200. André 3000 spent this hiatus appearing as a rapper on a prolific list of hip hop and pop recordings, including ­those for American rapper, singer, and DJ Q-­Tip (aka Kamaal Ibn John Fareed, Jonathan William Davis, 1970–), American rapper and producer Jay-­Z (1969–), American hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest (1985–1998, 2006–2013, 2015–), American R&B singer-­songwriter Beyoncé (1981–), and Erykah Badu. In 2007, he released the mixtape Whole Foods, which features many rap tracks by André 3000 in addition to appearances by R&B and neo soul singers

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Macy Gray (Natalie Renée McIntyre, 1967–) and Kelis (Kelis Rogers, 1979–), as well as Big Boi. Like Big Boi, André 3000 also acted in films and tele­vi­sion and became involved in philanthropy. In 2008, he created the “Benjamin Bixby” clothing line. André 3000 is also the creator and a voice-­over actor of Class of 3000 (2006–2008), an animated tele­vi­sion series on the Cartoon Network (1992–). In 2014, OutKast re­united by performing at numerous concert events worldwide. Big Boi has since recorded his solo studio ­album Boomiverse (2017), which received critical praise and peaked at No. 28 on the Billboard 200. André 3000 produced the final track on Aretha Franklin Sings the ­Great Diva Classics (2014), a cover of Prince’s (Prince Rogers Nelson, 1958–2016) “Nothing Compares 2 U” (1990). Both continue to collaborate as individuals and together with other artists onstage and in recordings; however, as of 2018, OutKast has yet to release a sixth studio ­album, and it is unclear ­whether or not that ­album is planned. Also as of 2018, André 3000 prefers to use his birth name, André Benjamin. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Bounce; Dirty South; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Green, Tony. 2003. “OutKast: Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik; ATLiens; Aquemint; Stankonia.” In Classical Material: The Hip Hop ­Album Guide, edited by Oliver Wang, pp. 131–34. Toronto: ECW Press. Rambsy, Howard, II. 2013. “Beyond Keeping It Real: OutKast, the Funk Connection, and Afrofuturism.” American Studies 52, no. 4: 205–16.

Further Listening

OutKast. 1994. Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik. LaFace Rec­ords. OutKast. 1996. ATLiens. LaFace Rec­ords. OutKast. 2000. Stankonia. LaFace Rec­ords. OutKast. 2003. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. LaFace Rec­ords.

P Pakistan Pakistan is a South Asian country of 201 million ­people who, through colonization and occupation, have common history with Hindus, Indo-­Greeks, Muslims, Turco-­Mongols, Afghans, and Sikhs. It is therefore an ethnically and linguistically diverse country with a history of ethnic civil war. In 1973, it ­adopted a constitution establishing an Islamic law federal government in Islamabad. Pakistani hip hop, which originated in the 1990s, was a blend of traditional Pakistani musical ele­ments with hip hop rhythms and was heavi­ly influenced by American hip hop, which was combined with Pakistani poetry to create a unique style. Pakistan’s popu­lar ­music is diverse ­because of South Asian, Central Asian, ­Middle Eastern, and Western popu­lar ­music influences, and its traditional ­music styles are based on the raag and include dhrupad, ghazal, qawwali, hamd, and khayal, the last being a common style with Af­ghan­i­stan. Instrumentation is based on sitar and tabla interaction. Pakistani folk ­music, including Punjabi and Sindhi ­music, deals with everyday life using vernacular language, is diverse, and is based on a singer’s geo­graph­i­cal region. Pop ­music can be traced back to the 1960s, when Ahmed Rushdi’s (Syed Ahmed Rushdi, 1934–1983) song “Ko Ko Korina” (1966) combined bubblegum, rock, and Pakistani film ­music to pioneer filmi-­ pop and opened the door for non-­Muslim artists to introduce American jazz or Westernized pop. Nazia Hassan (1965–2000) released the first pop ­music ­album, Disco Deewane (1981), which broke national sales rec­ords and got international attention. Fuzön (2001–2004, 2007–) introduced the Western rock band concept in the 1980s. Fakhar-­e-­Alam’s (1972–) ­album Rap Up (1994), featured Pakistan’s first rap songs. Importation of the ­music of Eminem (1972–) led to rappers such as Peshawar-­ born Party Wrecker (Mustafa Khan, n.d.) and Qzer (Qasim Naqvi, n.d.), and ­these performers typically came from a well-­educated, socioeco­nom­ically privileged group—­the ­people most likely to understand En­glish. It took a de­cade before the first Punjabi rap emerged, but not in Pakistan; it came from San Francisco, with Pakistani American, Karachi-­born rapper Bohemia (Roger David, 1979–), who rapped in Punjabi street slang. ­After this, rap in Punjabi, Sindhi, and Urdu—­the country’s refined, official language spoken by the elite—­began to emerge in Pakistan. Current Pakistani hip hop artists include Islamabad-­based rapper-­songwriter and producer Adil Omar (1991–), who raps in En­glish, and also performs with producer and singer-­songwriter Talal Qureshi (n.d.) in the duo SNKM (aka Sonic Nocturnal Kinetic Movement, 2015–). The duo was instrumental in getting the

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government to lift its YouTube ban in 2016, working with comic rapper and voice actor Ali Gul Pir (1986–). Islamabad-­based teen rapper-­songwriter Arbaz Khan (2001–) became popu­lar in 2014 with his songs “Jhootha” and “12 Saal Ka Larka” (“12-­Year Old Boy”), the former causing a controversy for its sexually explicit video. Also controversial is Lahore-­based rapper and actor Faris Shafi (1987–), known for his explicit songs. Jhelum-­based rapper Kasim Raja (n.d.), uses Punjabi and even raps about Punjabi identity, while Thatta-­based rapper Meer Janweri (Shahzad Meer, n.d.) uses Sindhi and celebrates its culture in his raps—­including Sufi poetry. Diaspora rappers include Bohemia; Tingbjerg, Denmark–­based rapper Ataf Khawaja (n.d.), Amsterdam-­based urban singer-­songwriter Imran Khan (1984–), Detroit-­based American rapper-­songwriter and physician Lazarus (Kamran Rashid Khan, n.d.), Orlando, Florida–­based American rapper, singer-­songwriter, and physician Osama Com Laude (Syed Osama Karamat Ali Shah, 1987–), and Danish rap group Outlandish (1997–2017), which contains members who are immigrants from Morocco, Pakistan, and Honduras. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: India; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop

Further Reading

Goldsmith, Melissa, and Anthony J. Fonseca. 2013. “Bhangra-­Beat and Hip Hop: Hyphenated Musical Cultures, Hybridized ­Music.” In Crossing Traditions: American Popu­lar ­Music in Local and Global Contexts, edited by Babacar M’Baye and Alexander Charles Oliver Hall, chap. 9. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow. Maira, Sunaina. 2000. “Henna and Hip Hop: The Politics of Cultural Production and the Work of Cultural Studies.” Journal of Asian Studies 3, no. 3: 329–69.

Further Listening

Bohemia. 2017. Skull and Bones: The Final Chapter. T-­Series.

Palestine Palestine is a ­Middle Eastern region along the Jordan River, made up of most of the religiously impor­tant territory claimed by Israel, known as the Holy Land, the birthplace of Judaism and Chris­tian­ity. As of 2018, the State of Palestine is recognized as a de jure sovereign state by about 136 of 193 member states of the United Nations (UN). In 2012, the State of Palestine became a nonmember observer state in the UN. Since 1967, Israel has occupied the State of Palestine. Palestinian ­music is a subgenre of Arabic ­music, and it is influenced by the many ethnic groups that reside in the region, including Arab Muslims, Arab Christians, Sephardic Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Ashkenazi Jews, Samaritans, Circassians, and Armenians. Palestinian hip hop began in the late 1990s by blending Arab and Hebrew melodies, lyr­ics, and instrumentation with Western beats. Rap trio DAM (aka Da Arabian MCs, 1998–), based in Lod, Israel, pop­u­lar­ized rap in 1999 with Arabic, Hebrew, and En­glish songs about the Israeli Palestinian conflict and living in poverty. Traditional m ­ usic began as a combination of the ­music of trade groups, such as agrarian farmers who sang work songs such as ­those in the popu­lar four-­verse

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Refugees of Rap is a Palestinian-­Syrian hip hop band formed in 2007 by ­brothers Yaser and Mohamed Jamous, who w ­ ere born at Yarmouk, a refugee camp in Damascus. Relocating to Paris, the band openly criticizes vio­lence in Syria, the actions of Syrian President Bashar al-­Assad, as well as the world’s perceptions and treatment of Palestinians. (PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

ataaba (a traditional Arabic musical form sung at weddings, festivals, and work) or dal’ona style (meaning love and longing), to accompany fishing, shepherding, harvesting, and making olive oil; the epic songs of professional storytellers and musicians; and event songs (usually accompanied by an event dance). Popu­lar ­music, which featured legends such as Sayed Darwish (1892–1923) and Umm Kulthum (Umm Kulthum Ibrahim, 1898–1975), drew from t­ hese categories. With the creation of Israel in 1948, the geographic centers for Palestinian ­music, Nazareth and Haifa, became part of Israel, and Arab Palestinian musicians found themselves in exile or refugee camps. Palestine’s current most popu­lar singers are therefore diaspora musicians such as Manchester, ­England–­based Reem Kelani (1963–), Cairo-­based Jaffa Phonix (2003–), and New Orleans–­based DJ Khaled (Khaled Mohamed Khaled, 1975–), who created songs about living ­under Israeli occupation and longing for peace and a return to Palestine. Hip hop collective Ramallah Underground (2005–), based in Ramallah, creates hip hop and trip hop (downtempo) nationalistic ­music in Arabic that Arabic youth find relatable. Some Palestinian musicians fear governmental censorship and reprisal from Islamic fundamentalists since the 2005 elections, which gave the militant Sunni Islamic Palestinian Hamas party (1987–) more po­liti­cal power. The most

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popu­lar Palestinian rapper is Saz (Sameh Zakout, 1983*–), from Ramle, Israel. Saz’s lyrical content focuses on Palestinian and Arab identity as well advocates for Arab-­ Israeli peace. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Israel; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop

Further Reading

Maira, Sunaina. 2012. “Hip Hop from ’48 Palestine.” Social Text 30, no. 112: 1–26. McDonald, David A. 2008–2009. “Carrying Words Like Weapons: Hip Hop and the Poetics of Palestinian Identities in Israel.” Min-­Ad: Israel Studies in Musicology Online 7, no. 2: 116–30.

Further Listening

DAM. 2012. Dabke on the Moon. 48 Rec­ords.

Panama Panama is a Central American country whose largest city is Panama City, home to nearly half of Panama’s four million ­people. With the backing of the United States, Panama became an in­de­pen­dent republic in 1903, and the United States gave the Panama Canal over to the country in 1999, which resulted in a revenue boon. The ­music of Panama is a combination of influences: indigenous ­peoples, Americans, Africans, and ­peoples of Jamaica and other Ca­r ib­bean islands—­with musical influences such as bolero, cumbia, calypso, jazz, mejorana, reggae, rock, and salsa. Pop and rock reached Panama by the 1960s with doo-­wop ­music; Spanish reggae, dancehall, and eventually reggaetón (aka reggae en Español in Panama) became popu­lar in the mid-1970s with pioneering act El General (Edgardo Armando Franco, 1969–), who made Spanish-­language rap famous with two 1990 dancehall hits, “Te ves buena” (“You Look Good”) and “Tu pun pun” (“You Play with Words”). El General paved the way for Nando Boom (Fernando Orlando Brown Mosley, 1977–), Renato (Leonardo Renato Aulder, 1961–), Aldo Ranks (Aldo Vargas, 1973–), Kafu Banton (Zico Alberto Garibaldi Roberts, 1979–), Eddy Lover (Eduardo Mosquera, 1985–), El Roockie (Iván Vladimir Banista, 1977*–), Joey Montana (Edgardo Antonio Miranda Beiro, 1982–), and Makano (Hernán Enrique Jiménez, 1983–). ­Women ­were also involved in the reggaetón scene, with artists such as La ­Factoría (1999–2013) and Lorna (Lorna Zarina Aponte, 1983–). Like El General, Nando Boom added rap to reggae and salsa in the 1980s. Renato became internationally famous for “La Chica de los Ojos Café” (“The Brown-­Eyed Girl,” 1990), which combines reggaetón with mariachi ­music. El Roockie is well known for his lyrical prowess and has been nicknamed “Maquina de Lirica,” which loosely translates to “Lyric Machine.” Makano began his ­music ­career at the age of 12, and has had several No. 1 hits in Panama. La ­Factoría was led by female rapper-­singer Demphra (Marlen Romero, 1977–) and had an international hit (with guest musician Eddy Lover) with the R&B-­influenced “Perdóname” (“Forgive Me,” 2006). Rapper Lorna’s electronic funk and disco-­influenced “Papi Chulo . . . ​Te Traigo El MMMM . . .” (“Papi Chulo . . . ​I Bring the MMMM . . . ,” 2003) went to



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No. 1 in France, No. 2 in Italy, Belgium, and No. 3 in the Netherlands. Among expatriate hip hop acts, the Grammy nominated Oakland duo Los Rakas (2006–) offers G-­f unk style beats and electronic dance ­music that is po­liti­cally conscious, with En­glish and Spanish rapping. Its song “Sueño Americano” (“American Dream”), from the a­ lbum El negrito Dun Dun and Ricardo (The Bold Dun Dun and Ricardo, 2014), describes how immigrants are left out of the American Dream, working for low wages ­under the ­table, or earning their money on the streets. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Puerto Rico; Reggae; Reggaetón

Further Reading

Rivera, Raquel Z., Wayne Marshall, and Deborah Pacini Hernandez. 2009. Reggaetón. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Rivera-­Rideau, Petra. 2016. “From Panama to the Bay: Los Rakas’ Expressions of Afrolatinidad.” In La Verdad: An International Dialogue on Hip Hop Latinidades, edited by Melissa Castillo-­Garsow and Jason Nicholls, chap. 4. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.

Further Listening

El General. 1994. Es mundial (Is Worldwide). BMG/U.S. Latin/RCA.

Panjabi Hit Squad (PHS, 2001–­, London, E­ ngland) Panjabi Hit Squad (PHS) is an En­glish collective of DJ/Producers that formed in 2001 in Southall, West London. Its ­music has been called urban South Asian fusion, a style that employs hip hop with bhangra-­beat, BollyHood, and Desi (a term that refers to South Asian–­related ­people, culture, art, and products) beats. The group’s members are all self-­identified British Asians who worked separately as DJs in the West London club scene in the 1990s. PHS includes core members Rav (anonymous, n.d.) and Dee (anonymous, n.d.), which are the collective’s main production duo, as well as ­others such as Markie Mark (Mark Ian Strippel, 1974–) and Amo (anonymous, n.d.). They joined together to release their first and second ­albums, Panjabi Hit Squad:  The ­Album (2001) and The Streets (2002), on London’s India Sound label (2000–2003), a short-­lived recording label that released Bollywood, classical Indian ­music, and urban Desi compilations, and Tiger Entertainment (2000*–2004), which specialized in world ­music. PHS’s Youtube hit “Hai Hai” first appeared as a garage track t­ oward the end of the band’s second ­album. In 2002, PHS collaborated on the single “Stolen (Dil),” which featured Jay-­Z (1969–). But PHS’s biggest success took place in 2003, when it rerecorded “Hai Hai” as a 12-­inch promotional single for Def Jam U.K. “Hai Hai” was the first Asian song to reach No. 1 on the MTV Base chart. It featured Ms Scandalous (Savita Vaid, 1985–), a Southall-­based bhangra-­beat singer and rap artist. “Hai Hai” also featured Punjabi singer Satwinder Bitti (1975*–), who appears on the remix of the song on the EP Desi Beats Vol 1 (2003).

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“Hai Hai” is a bilingual song that fuses bhangra-beat and hip hop, En­glish rap, Punjabi and Hindi singing, and Desi beats. PHS ­later produced Ms Scandalous’s “Aaja Soniyah” (“Come, Darling” or “Spread Love”), the second track of her ­album Ladies First (2005). Ms Scandalous’s song reached No. 4 on the MTV Base chart. Also for Def Jam, PHS remixed Ashanti’s (1980–) “Baby” (2002) in 2003, Mariah Carey’s (1970–) “Boy (I Need You)” in 2002, and Jay Sean’s (Kamaljit Singh Jhooti, 1979–) “Maybe” and “Ride It” in 2008. In 2006, Amo and Markie Mark left PHS. Markie Mark became the Head of ­Music at the BBC Asian Network, a British radio station with an English-­speaking South Asian target audience. A duo since 2006, PHS produced Ms Scandalous’s second ­album Aag (Fire, 2008), on which the title song was also a hit. This ­album also began PHS’s collaboration with the pop and Bollywood playback singer Alyssia (Alyssia Sharma, 1985–). From 2004 ­until 2009 PHS has hosted the radio show Desi Beats Show on BBC 1Xtra. Rav and Dee have remained regulars on radio, hosting the Saturday night show Panjabi Hit Squad, Hit Squad House Party on BBC’s Asian Network. In 2012, Panjabi Hit Squad released World Famous, which reached No. 1 in the United Kingdom as well as on the Apple iTunes World ­album chart. As of 2018, the current PHS is still touring, working on studio ­albums, collaborating with artists, and hosting radio shows. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: India; The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Baddhan, Raj. 2005. “­Music: It Is Ladies First for Ms Scandalous.” Eve­ning Mail (Birmingham, ­England), May 13, 66. Goldsmith, Melissa, and Anthony J. Fonseca. 2013. “Bhangra-­Beat and Hip Hop: Hyphenated Musical Cultures, Hybridized ­Music.” In Crossing Traditions: American Popu­lar ­Music in Local and Global Contexts, edited by Babacar M’Baye and Alexander Charles Oliver Hall, chap. 9. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow. Um, Hae-­Kyung. 2012. “The Politics of Per­for­mance and the Creation of South Asian ­Music in Britain: Identities, Transnational Cosmopolitanism, and the Public Sphere.” Performing Islam 1, no. 1: 57–72.

Further Listening

PHS. 2002. The Streets. Tiger Entertainment.

Panjabi MC (Rajinder Singh Rai, 1973–­, Coventry, E­ ngland) Panjabi MC is a British Indian musician (DJ) and producer best known for the bhangra-beat hits “Mundian To Bach Ke” (“Beware of the Boys,” 1998) and “Jogi” (“Yogi,” 2003). The former, from his fifth ­album Legalised, was a YouTube hit, which led to Panjabi MC’s being signed by Superstar Recordings (1994–). A remix version featuring Jay-­Z (1969–) was released in 2003 as “Beware of the Boys” and debuted at No. 5 on the U.K. charts while selling 100,000 copies in two days in ­England and Germany, and eventually one million copies worldwide. Panjabi MC



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pop­u­lar­ized the combining of Western and traditional instruments in bhangra-­beat ­music, using the traditional tumbi, dhol, dholki, and tabla, along with the standup bass, electric bass, and drum kit. He also uses both male and female singers and vocal samples in much of his ­music. Panjabi MC’s studio ­albums include Souled Out (1993), Another Sell Out (1994), 100% Proof (1995), Grass Roots (1996), Magic Desi (1996), Legalised (1998), Dhol Jageroo Da (2001), Desi (2002), Indian Breaks (2003), Mundian To Bach Ke (aka, Beware of the Boys, compilation, 2003), Steel Bangle (2005), Indian Timing (2008), and The Raj (2010). He has won awards at the MTV Eu­rope M ­ usic Awards, the U.K. Asian M ­ usic Awards, the World M ­ usic Awards, and the Panjabi M ­ usic Awards. As of 2018, he is performing internationally and has partnered with Apple Inc. to market its iTumbi, which allows musicians access to tumbi sounds via the iPhone. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: India; Jay-­Z; The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Goldsmith, Melissa, and Anthony J. Fonseca. 2013. “Bhangra-­Beat and Hip Hop: Hyphenated Musical Cultures, Hybridized ­Music.” In Crossing Traditions: American Popu­lar ­Music in Local and Global Contexts, edited by Babacar M’Baye and Alexander Charles Oliver Hall, chap. 9. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow. Hankins, Sarah. 2011. “So Contagious: Hybridity and Subcultural Exchange in Hip Hop’s Use of Indian Samples.” Black M ­ usic Research Journal 31, no. 2: 193–208. Um, Hae-­Kyung. 2012. “The Politics of Per­for­mance and the Creation of South Asian ­Music in Britain: Identities, Transnational Cosmopolitanism, and the Public Sphere.” Performing Islam 1, no. 1: 57–72. Wartofsky, Alona. 2003. “Rap’s Fresh Heir: Panjabi MC, Making Some Noise on the Hip Hop Scene with a South Asian Sound.” The Washington Post, July 13, N01.

Further Listening

Panjabi MC. 1998. Legalised. Nachural Rec­ords.

Paris City Breakers (PCB, 1984–­, Paris, France) The Paris City Breakers (PCB) was the first breakdance and b-­boy crew in France. Cofounded by choreographer, breakdancer, and DJ Frank le Breaker Fou (Franck II Louise, n.d.) and breakdancer Scalp (Pascal Grégoire, n.d.), the PCB was modeled on the New York City Breakers (NYCB, aka NYC Breakers, 1981–), a breakdance crew and a rival hip hop dance crew to the Rock Steady Crew (RSC, 1977–) of the Bronx, New York. Another member, the rapper Solo (Souleymane Dicko, 1966–), whose parents ­were from Mali, made the original PCB a trio. More members ­were added ­later. The inspiration for the Paris City Breakers first came during a Gianni Ferrucci (n.d.) fashion show in Paris that featured Madonna (1958–) and the NYCB. The PCB became regular performing guests on the nationally broadcast tele­vi­sion show H.I.P. H.O.P. (1984), France’s first tele­vi­sion show on the country’s hip hop scene that also introduced American hip hop artists. Most of the PCB’s moves ­were styled

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a­ fter the NYCB, especially head spins; the PCB elaborated on ­these moves and at times had cleaner and more intricate footwork than the NYCB. From Eu­ro­pean tours and tele­vi­sion shows in mid-1980s to touring Africa, the Paris City Breakers have often been credited as early inspiration to breakdancing crews from outside the United States. Crediting the PCB for their inspiration, French breaking crews emerged in Paris: Aktuel Force (1984–) formed the same year as the PCB, and the Vagabond Crew (2000*–) emerged ­later in Paris. Other French crews also emerged, first in the northeast Alsace and Burgundy regions and then in east-­central Auvergne-­R hône-­Alpes. Breaking crews from Brussels, Belgium followed. Soon ­after PCB’s African tour, breakdancing crews based on PCB, such as the Bamako City Breakers (from Mali) and the Abidjan City Breakers (from Ivory Coast), developed in urban cities in West and South Africa. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Breakdancing; France; Hip Hop Dance; New York City Breakers

Further Reading

Eric Charry. 2012. “A Capsule History of African Rap.” In Hip Hop Africa: New African ­Music in a Globalizing World, edited by Eric Charry, chap. 1. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Schloss, Joseph G. 2009. Foundation: B-­Boys, B-­Girls, and Hip Hop Culture in New York. New York: Oxford University Press.

Peru Peru’s hip hop scene is mainly located in its capital and largest city, Lima, and since more than 70 ­percent of Peru’s 31 million citizens—­with 76 ­percent living in urban areas—­speak Spanish, Peruvian rappers rap mainly in that language. Peruvian rap has a strong sociopo­liti­cal focus. Comité Pokofló’s (2012–) 2015 boombap ­album, El fin de los tiempos (The End of Time), exemplifies con­temporary Peruvian hip hop’s style with its po­liti­cal stance, its elaborate use of orchestral instrumentation and quirky effects (for example, using chimes), and its quick-­paced, almost frenetic rapping. However, the country’s population is multiethnic, including Amerindians, Eu­ro­pe­ans, Africans, and Asians, and this cultural mix ­causes diversity in instrumentation and styles for m ­ usic, which has Andean, Spanish, and African roots. This musical diversity has resulted in a slow buildup of hip hop popularity, as it has to compete with traditional and popu­lar ­music styles. Despite the population concentration and odds against its popularity, hip hop is growing in other areas of Peru, such as coastal northwestern Trujillo and Huancayo, in the central highlands. The first Peruvian rap group was Golpeando la Calle, formed in 1991 by musicians who ­were leaders of the country’s hip hop movement. The duo M Sony M and DJ Pedro (1998–) ­were the ­fathers of Movimiento Hip Hop Peruano, an attempt to unite the country’s rap community. In 1998, Droopy G (Isaac Shamar, n.d.), one of the pioneers of Peru’s Christian rap scene, released Peru’s first hip hop rec­ord, Cadenas Invisibles (Invisible Chains). Peruvian rappers to follow included Clan Urbano (2002–), whose big break came in 2010 when it won Festival Claro with the song “Esta es mi casa” (“This Is My House”) and Rapper School

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(2001–), whose single hit “Psicosis” (2010) created a national following, while “Pase lo que pase” (“What­ever Happens,” 2012) received over 20 million YouTube views. ­Women have also carved out a niche in Peruvian hip hop, with bands such as the duo Las Damas (n.d.), Las Hermanas del Underground (H.D.U., n.d.), and Sipas Crew (2012–). The nation is slowly embracing hip hop culture: on the last Friday of ­every month, 150 b-­boys, graffiti artists, and rappers gather in Parque Kennedy de Miraflores (downtown Lima) to show off their skills. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Bolivia; Christian Hip Hop

Further Reading

Jones, Kyle E. 2014. “ ‘Searching and Searching We Have Come to Find’: Histories and Circulations of Hip Hop in Peru.” Alter/Nativas: Latin American Cultural Studies Journal, no. 2: 1–32. Lewis, Eshe. 2012. “ ‘Más Peruano que el Macchu Picchu’ [“More Peruvian than Macchu Picchu”]: Creating Afro-­Peruvian Rap.” Latin Americanist 56, no. 1: 85–106.

Further Listening

Comité Pokofló. 2015. El fin de los tiempos (The End of Time). No label.

Pharrell (Pharrell Lanscilo Williams, 1973–­, V ­ irginia Beach, ­Virginia) Pharrell is an American ­music and motion picture producer, recording executive, singer-­songwriter, drummer, keyboardist, and rapper, who often fuses hip hop with R&B, funk, neo soul, and/or electronic ­music. He primarily sings lyrical melodies that are ­either featured or support rappers. Pharrell is a tenor, whose signature falsetto is heard as soloist in his hit “Happy” (2013) and in contrasting passages to American rapper Jay-­Z (1969–) in the hit “Frontin’ ” (2002) and to American rapper Snoop Dogg (1971–) in the hit “Beautiful” (2002). Pharrell also composed and performed songs for the American animated comedy films Despicable Me (2010) and Despicable Me 2 (2013). Since the 2000s, Pharrell and his ­music have appeared often in American films and tele­vi­sion series. In ­music camp and ju­nior high school marching band in ­Virginia Beach, ­Virginia, percussionist Pharrell befriended saxophonist Chad Hugo (Charles Edward Hugo, 1974–). In high school they formed the production-­songwriting duo the Neptunes (1992–). Teddy Riley (Edward Theodore Riley, 1967–), the American rec­ord producer and singer-­songwriter credited for creating new jack swing and hits for artists such as Michael Jackson (1958–2009) and Bobby Brown (1969–), discovered the two during a local talent competition. American rapper N.O.R.E.’s (aka Noreaga, Victor Santiago Jr., 1976–) “Superthug” (1998), which peaked at No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100, was the Neptunes’ first hit. Employing a prominent bass line, drum machine beats, samples, world ­music virtual instruments and Pharrell’s falsetto, the Neptunes have had a prolific number of hits such as Jay-­Z’s “I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)” (2000), Britney Spears’s (1981–) “I’m a Slave 4 U” (2001), and Nelly’s (Cornell Iral Haynes Jr., 1974–) “Hot in Herre” (2002).

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The Neptunes released The Neptunes Pres­ent . . . ​Clones (2003), which was certified Gold and peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2001, the Neptunes, as fans of the Star Trek original series (1966–1969), created the recording label Star Trak Entertainment (2001–), ­u nder the parent com­pany Universal ­Music Group (1996–). Star Trak coreleased Snoop Dogg’s RandG (Rhythm and Gangsta): The Masterpiece (2004), which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and was certified Platinum. Since 1999, the Neptunes have doubled as a funk-­rock band, N*E*R*D (No-­one Ever ­Really Dies, 1999–). N*E*R*D’s ­albums In Search of . . . ​(2002) and Fly or Die (2004) peaked at Nos. 56 and 6, respectively, on the Billboard 200 and went Gold. Subsequent ­albums Seeing Sounds (2008) and Nothing (2010) peaked at Nos. 7 and 20 on the Billboard 200. In 2003, Pharrell began his solo ­career. As of 2018, he continues producing, recording, performing, and collaborating with internationally known hip hop artists. His solo studio ­albums In My Mind (2006) and G. I. R. L. (2014) peaked at Nos. 3 and 2, respectively, on the Billboard 200. In My Mind was certified Silver. As of 2018, Pharrell has won 10 Grammy Awards. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: New Jack Swing; Snoop Dogg; The United States

Further Reading

Lester, Paul. 2015. In Search of Pharrell Williams. London: Omnibus Press. Williams, Pharrell, Buzz Aldrin, Ian Luna, and Lauren A. Gould. 2012. Pharrell: Places and Spaces I’ve Been. New York: Rizzoli.

Further Listening

Williams, Pharrell. 2014. G. I. R. L. I Am Other/Columbia Rec­ords.

The Philippines The Philippines is an archipelago located in Southeast Asia and was a colony of the United States from 1898 ­u ntil 1946; therefore, Amer­i­ca has had a profound impact on the country’s culture, including its hip hop scene, known as Filipino hip hop, Pinoy hip hop, or Pinoy rap. ­After the Philippines gained in­de­pen­dence, the United States maintained military bases in the country. American ser­vice members stationed t­ here helped introduce hip hop to Filipinos, and the exchange of m ­ usic between Filipino immigrants in the United States and their friends and ­family in the Philippines helped spread it faster than in other Southeast Asian countries. The origins of Pinoy rap can be traced back to the emergence of the Sugarhill Gang’s (1979–1985, 1994–) “Rapper’s Delight” (1979), which became so popu­lar in Manila that Filipino singer and comedian Dyords Javier (George Javier, n.d.) recorded a parody called “Na onseng delight” (“Led to Believe,” 1980). Along with Vincent Dafalong’s (1953*–2017) “Nunal” (“Magical Mole,” 1980), it was one of the first rap tracks recorded in the Philippines. The two most influential Pinoy hip hop artists are Francis  M. (Francis Magalona, 1964–2009), of Mandaluyong, and Andrew E. (Andrew Ford Valentino



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Espiritu, 1967–), of Parañaque. The popularity of Magalona’s nationalistic themed track, “Mga Kababayan” (“My Countrymen,” 1990) exposed Pinoy hip hop to a wider audience. Andrew E.’s first hit track, “Humanap Ka ng Panget” (“Look for Someone Ugly,” 1990), led to a starring role in a movie with the same name. A promising ­career in both ­music and cinema helped Andrew E. bring Pinoy hip hop into the mainstream. Pinoy hip hop is rapped and sung in Tagalog, En­glish, Cebuano, Ilokano, Bikolano, and other languages; however, ­there have been disputes between artists who use Filipino languages and ­those who use En­glish only, especially in the mainstream. Many rap artists believe that the Philippines’ ­music industry suffers from a colonial mentality, favoring ­those who rap in En­glish only. Although language is an ongoing issue affecting Pinoy hip hop identity, it is uniquely Filipino ­because it represents Filipino roots, experiences, and national pride. CURRENT PINOY ARTISTS Current notable Pinoy hip hop artists include Michael V. (Beethoven del Valle Bunagan, 1969–), from Manila; Denmark (Denmark Repuyan, n.d.); Bass Rhyme Posse (1990*–), from Las Piñas; and Rapasia (1990*–) and Gloc-9 (Aristotle Pollisco, 1977–), both from Binangonan. Significant female rappers, who choose to remain anonymous or give obvious pseudonyms as their birth names, include Lady Diane (anonymous, n.d.), MC Lara (aka Glenda Resureccion, anonymous, n.d.), and Chill (aka Audra Bio, anonymous, n.d.). In the early 1990s, turntablism gained exposure, especially with the debut of the group Mastaplann (1992*–). Inspired by American hip hop group N.W.A. (1986–1991), Death Threat (1993– 2003, 2010–) emerged with its hardcore and gangsta style of Pinoy rap. The band’s lyr­ics expressed frustration and anger with the social prob­lems facing Metro Manila and other areas in the Philippines, such as crime, drugs, and vio­lence, with “Gusto Kong Bumaet” (“I Want to Be Good”) becoming an instant radio hit around the country. Antonette Adiova See also: DJ Babu; Gangsta Rap; Invisibl Skratch Piklz; Mix Master Mike; The United States

Further Reading

Devitt, Rachel. 2008. “Lost in Translation: Filipino Diaspora(s), Postcolonial Hip Hop, and the Prob­lems of Keeping It Real for the ‘Contentless’ Black Eyed Peas.” Asian ­Music 39, no. 1: 108–34; 147. Perillo, J. Lorenzo. 2012. “An Empire State of Mind: Hip Hop Dance in the Philippines.” In Hip Hop(e): The Cultural Practice and Critical Pedagogy, edited by Brad J. Porfilio and Michael J. Viola, chap. 2. New York: Peter Lang.

Further Listening

Death Threat. 2005. Da Best of Death Threat. Real Deal Entertainment. Francis M. 1992. Rap Is FrancisM. PolyEast Rec­ords. Mastaplann. 1993. Mastaplann. Universal Rec­ords.

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Pitbull (Armando Christian Pérez, 1981–­, Miami, Florida) Pitbull is a Grammy Award winning American hip hop and reggaetón rapper and rec­ord producer. He has released 10 ­albums since 2004, when his debut M.I.A.M.I., which included production by Lil Jon (Jonathan Smith, 1971–) and Jim Jonsin (James Scheffer, 1970–), was released by ­under TVT Rec­ords (1985–2008). He had previously self-­released three mixtapes. M.I.A.M.I. went to No. 2 on the Top Rap ­Albums chart and reached No. 14 on the Billboard 200. Born to Cuban expatriates, Pitbull could recite, at the age of three, the poems of José Martí (José Julián Martí Pérez, 1853–1895) in Spanish. He also began to appreciate ­music, especially the Miami bass sound, as well as the salsa and merengue of Celia Cruz (Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso, 1925–2003) and Willy Chirino (1947–). He was raised by his ­mother and in a foster home; he deci­ded to become a rapper in high school. He released three mixtapes in 2002 and 2003 and first appeared on Lil Jon’s (Jonathan Smith, 1971–) ­album Kings of Crunk (2002). His song “Oye” was featured on the soundtrack to 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003). Pitbull Starring in Rebelution became Pitbull’s first No.  1 rap ­album in 2009, and also reached the Top 10 of the Billboard 200. It was the first to be released on his Mr.  305 Inc. (2008–) label. His rap ­album Global Warming (2012) also reached No.  1, and one other, Planet Pit (2011), reached the Top 10. Pitbull has released seven solo Top 10 hits on the Hot 100, including two No.  1 songs, “Give Me Every­ thing” (2011) and “Timber” (2013). He is also known for his part in the song “We Are One Active since 2001, rapper and producer Pitbull (Ole Ola),” the official theme of had his first hit in 2009 with the Eurodance single the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which “I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho),” which he sang with Jennifer Lopez reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. ­Here, he is pictured performing in 2010 in New York (aka J.Lo, 1969–) and Claudia City, just a year before he had a No. 1 hit single Leitte (Cláudia Cristina Leite with his hip ­house song “Give Me Every­thing.” Inácio Pedreira, 1980–). In 2005, (Michael Loccisano/FilmMagic for Vh1/Getty Pitbull and Puff ­Daddy (1969–) Images)

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cofounded Bad Boy Latino, a subsidiary of Bad Boy Entertainment (aka Bad Boy  Rec­ords, 1993–) label. Pitbull heads the A&R division of the label (talent searching and development), and he hosted a variety show, Pitbull’s La Esquina (2007–2009). The city of Miami granted Pitbull a Key to the City in 2009, and in 2010, he released a full-­length Spanish-­language ­album, Armando. In 2014, it was announced that Pitbull would be receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He has been used for vari­ous product endorsements, including Kodak, Dr Pepper, Voli Vodka, Budweiser, and Miami Subs Pizza and Grill. In 2015, Pitbull launched a new Sirius XM Satellite Radio (1990–) channel, Pitbull’s Globalization Radio. He has appeared in film, on tele­vi­sion, and in video games. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Cuba; Miami Bass; Puff ­Daddy; Reggaetón; The United States

Further Reading

Ginger, Andrew. 2018. “International Love? ‘Latino’ M ­ usic Videos, the Latin Brand of Universality, and Pitbull.” In Branding Latin Amer­i­ca: Strategies, Aims, Re­sis­tance, edited by Djunja Fehimović and Rebecca Ogden, chap. 7. Lanhan, MD: Lexington Books. Hoard, Christian. 2004. “Pitbull Unleashed.” Rolling Stone no. 957, September 16, 28. West-­Durán, Alan. 2004. “Rap’s Diasporic Dialogues: Cuba’s Redefinition of Blackness.” Journal of Popu­lar ­Music Studies 16, no. 1: 4–39.

Further Listening

Pitbull. 2012. Global Warming. Polo Grounds M ­ usic.

Poland Poland has a hip hop scene that began in the early 1990s. Polish hip hop is a combination of the influences of American rap and 1980s Polish punk rock, alternative rock, disco, funk, and traditional Slavic ­music. Polish rap’s earliest appearance was the cassette East On Da Mic (1995) by Liroy (as PM Cool Lee, Piotr Krzysztof Liroy-­Marzec, 1971–). Like many urban areas, Warsaw, the capital and largest city of Poland, with a population of about three million residents, became the Polish center for hip hop ­after radio station KOLOR broadcast songs by hip hop artists in 1995, the year that Liroy released Albóóm (a wordplay on Album and All Boom). Polish rappers are known for their expression of pride in Polish culture (a sentiment that has made its way into the En­glish hip hop scene as well, with Polish immigrants in the United Kingdom). Polish immigrant rappers in the United Kingdom, such as Popek (Paweł Ryszard Mikołajuw, 1978–), often rap in En­glish, to a fan base that is mostly Polish. Many of them have become grime rappers, practicing the cheaper, DIY London-­based m ­ usic genre that emerged in the early 2000s from U.K. garage, jungle, dancehall, hip hop, and raga. As such, they use rapid, syncopated breakbeats (130 to 140 bpm), an aggressive or jagged electronic sound, and lyr­ics that depict gritty depictions of urban life. Some of the other best-­selling hip hop artists in Poland are the street rap and hip hop group Slums Attack (1993–) and related rapper Peja (Ryszard Andrzejewski,

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1976–); rapper, musician, audio engineer, and rec­ord producer O.S.T.R. (Adam Ostrowski, 1980–); musician, ­music producer, and sound engineer Donatan (Witold Czamara, 1984–); early Warsaw street rap group Molesta (aka Mistic Molesta, 1994–) and related group Hemp Gru (1998–); rapper Trzyha (Warszafski Deszcz, 1994–); and rap group WWO (W Witrynach Odbicia, Sites of Reflection, 1999–). O.S.T.R., from Łódź, is a classically trained violinist from the Acad­emy of ­Music in Łódź and is famous for his freestyle rap skills and unique beats. WWO is one of the most famous polish hip hop band; it spawned the solo rapper Sokól (Wojciech Sosnowski, 1977–), who has released two Platinum ­albums and founded the Prosto (1999–) rec­ord label and clothing com­pany. Donatan, from Kraków, is known for extremely controversial rap topics and for criticizing the government, which has not affected his success. Recently, he has teamed with singer Cleo (Joanna Klepko, 1983–), who represented Poland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014—­and as a duo they are becoming internationally famous by creating a niche with songs that depict rural Polish life in hypersexualized, ste­reo­t ypical hip hop video vixen fashion. The video to the song “Brać” (“Take” or “Assume”) from the ­album Hiper Chimera (2014), depicts farm girls in Daisy Dukes and tight shirts washing tractors against a ­music that features ele­ ments of Slavic folk m ­ usic and klezmer, including punk accordion. From the same ­album, “Slavica” (“Slavik”) uses ele­ments of Western hip hop, and its video, which has had nearly 16 million views in just weeks (as of 2018), features twerking Slavic ­women wearing skin-­tight leather shorts, juxtaposed against images of farm roosters, honey harvesting, and powdered amber (believed to have medicinal properties in Polish folk medicine). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: The United States

Further Reading

Miszczynski, Milosz, and Przemyslaw Tomaszewski. 2014. “ ‘Spitting Lines-­Spitting Brands’: A Critical Analy­sis of Brand Usage in Polish Rap.” Eu­ro­pean Journal of Cultural Studies 17, no. 6: 736–52. Miszczynski, Milosz, and Przemyslaw Tomaszewski. 2017. “Wearing Nikes for a Reason: A Critical Analy­sis of Brand Usage in Polish Rap.” In Hip Hop at Eu­rope’s Edge: ­Music, Agency, and Social Change, edited by Milosz Miszczynski and Adriana Helbig, chap. 8. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Further Listening

Donatan. 2012. Równonoc. Słowiańska Dusza (Equinox: Slavic Soul). Urban Rec. Donatan and Cleo. 2014. Hiper Chimera. Urban Rec.

Po­liti­cal Hip Hop Po­liti­cal hip hop exists worldwide, as hip hop is often used to express po­liti­cal stances and to advance po­liti­cal agenda. While specific po­liti­cal issues that make their way into hip hop songs vary widely from culture to culture, common themes that can be seen internationally include cultural-­political identity, indigeneity (the



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attribute of being born or produced naturally in a given region), race, gender, ­human rights, and the need to often take an antigovernment stance (re­sis­tance).

NORTH AMER­I­CA Though hip hop began in the 1970s in the United States as party ­music, the continued oppression of African Americans in post–­Civil Rights United States (­after 1968) led to hip hop’s use as an expressive vehicle for the African American community to speak out boldly on social, po­liti­cal and economic ­matters. By the early 1980s, po­liti­cally conscious hip hop had emerged. ­Brother D (Daryl Aamaa Nubyahn, n.d.) in “How We Gonna Make the Black Nation Rise?”(1980), raps about poverty, poor housing, and vio­lence against African Americans, over an uptempo funk beat sampling Cheryl Lynn’s (Lynda Cheryl Smith, 1957–) “Got to Be Real” (1978). Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s (1976–1982, 1987–1988) “The Message” (1982) was the first widely known po­liti­cally conscious rap: its gritty narrative about poverty, vio­lence and the prison system is delivered emphatically over a bare-­bones, tense synth beat. The chorus warns that African Americans are close to the edge, a warning about the precarious state of urban African American community at large. ­T hese and similar early hip hop recordings would pave the way for Public ­Enemy (1982–) and N.W.A. (1986–1991) to deliver increasingly strident po­liti­cal messages. Public ­Enemy’s third ­album, Fear of a Black Planet (1990) sought to capture Dr. Frances Cress Welsing’s (Frances Luella Cress, 1935–2016) theories of color confrontation; Public ­Enemy’s creative vision was well established as one that confronted head-on sociopo­liti­cal issues. As gangsta rap emerged, it overlapped significantly with po­liti­cal rap: Groups such as N.W.A. and rappers such as Ice-­T (1958–) stridently and explosively delivered po­liti­cal statements over hard-­driving, swirling, forceful beats. N.W.A.’s debut ­album Straight Outta Compton (1988) dealt uninhibitedly with issues such as racism, drugs, and vio­lence, while Ice-­T and Body Count’s (1990–2006, 2009–) “Cop Killer” (1992) protested rampant police brutality against blacks. Gangsta rap criticized the inner city blight of Los Angeles, whose poverty and unemployment rates affected a ­whole generation of black youth; the power in its message hinges on the idea that social realism, drawing attention to a striking lack of opportunity for and active criminalization and oppression of the black community, is itself a po­liti­cal statement. At the same time, gangsta rap’s frequently misogynistic culture and lyr­ics fly in the face of po­liti­cally forward feminism. This misogyny, rooted in economic oppression and lack of access to other signs of heterosexual masculine power, grapples with the issue of limited personal and po­liti­cal power by displacing expressed aggression onto ­women instead of directing it ­toward perceived oppressors. Ice Cube’s AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted (1990) reflected the commonly held sense in the African American youth community that they w ­ ere ste­reo­typed, targeted, and criminalized by the criminal justice system and by a mass media that chose to dwell on expressions of sexism and misogyny instead of on positive aspects such as personal empowerment, antidrug rhe­toric, and black community building.

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In the late 1990s New Orleans emerged as a burgeoning hip hop center with labels No Limit Rec­ords (1990–2003) and Ca$h Money Rec­ords (1991–) generating large revenues while drawing attention to urban life in the city’s wards. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina’s (2005) devastation of New Orleans and particularly its ninth ward, rap artists drew attention to community impacts in the predominantly African American city while criticizing government response. Mos Def (1973–) included in his ­album True Magic (2006) the track “Katrina Klap,” which is based on the rhythm and hook of “Nolia Clap”—­a pro–­New Orleans rap by MC Juvenile (Terius Gray, 1977–) on The Beginning of the End (2004)—­ and expresses disgust with the Since the beginning of his ­career with C.I.A., U.S. government’s mismanagethen N.W.A., to his successful solo ­career and ment of the disaster, cleanup, group Westside Connection, American rapper and community revitalization. Ice Cube has written rap songs that serve as The campaign and election of sociopolitical commentary. In 2012 Ice Cube President Barack Obama (1961–) released the m ­ usic video for his non-­album single in 2008 brought on a new wave “Everythang’s Corrupt,” just a day before the of po­liti­cal activism in hip hop, U.S. presidential election. (Starstock​/​ ­Dreamstime​.­com) and a resurgence of conscious rap, reinvented around new media associated with digital, online communities. During the election year, mixtapes ­were used as a vehicle for hip hop po­liti­cal discourse. Obama-­themed digital mixtapes ­were circulated online, encouraging young voters to be po­liti­cally active, and capturing the hope and personality of the campaign, many tracks quoting directly from Obama’s speeches. ­Will.i.am (1975–) released the single “Yes We Can” on YouTube, featuring Obama’s words echoed by celebrities in a call-­and-­ response manner. Nas (1973–) centered “Black President” (2008) around Obama’s spoken words, set alongside the hook from the posthumous release of Tupac Shakur’s (1971–1996) “Changes” (1998). In this track, he expresses both hope and questions about Obama’s f­ uture accountability to the African American community. Since the 2016 election, American rappers have produced songs challenging President Donald Trump’s (1946–) policies on immigration and race.



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In Canada, the Toronto-­based Dope Poet Society (1992–) is known for their rapid-­fire deliveries of po­liti­cally charged messages, confronting throughout their ­career issues such as sexism, the neo-­Nazi movement, po­liti­cal oppression, U.S. responses to terrorism, and global inequalities. Their ­album Third World Warriors No. 1 (2008) deals with global politics as well as a response to the question of why Dope Poet Society chooses to enact po­liti­cal activism in their ­music. Palestinian-Canadian Belly (Ahmad Balshe, 1984–) released the mixtape ­Mumble Rap in 2017 both as a nod to the activism of 1990s po­liti­cally conscious rap, and to offer his version of a 21st-­century rap style, with fast-­flowing lyr­ics that have to be followed consciously, even worked out over multiple hearings, to be understood by the listener. In ­Mumble Rap Belly takes the media and conservative politicians to task for their attacks on rap ­music, and deals with issues such as immigration and ­human rights. In addition, Native American hip hop artist Shibastik (meaning Underground Flow in Cree, Chris G. Sutherland, n.d.), awarded for his work with at-­risk youth, used hip hop m ­ usic and art to promote environmental responsibility and the po­liti­cal perspectives of First Nation culture. Recordings such as “Landslide” (2015) drew attention to the white appropriation of Native American lands, tying ­those events to current-­day pollution and ecological disasters. His a­ lbums include Wild Game (2003), Moose River (2007), Wild Life (2012), and Underground Flow (2016). EUROPE French hip hop, popu­lar among the large African and Ca­r ib­bean community since the 1970s, offers urban poor a way to express discontent with French po­liti­ cal structures, racism, ghetto life, and immigrant status. The group Suprême NTM (1989–2001) was known for its confrontational material and conflicts with French authorities. In “Qu’est-ce qu’on attend” (“What Are We Waiting For,” 1995), a beat based on the Meters’ (1965–1977, 1989–) easygoing, funk instrumental “Oh, Calcutta!” (1969) is played against hard-­hitting lyr­ics that denounce the suffering of ghetto youth, an anger that has risen to an exploding point, the discomfort of the juxtaposition of lighthearted beats against strident lyr­ics highlights an intense frustration. IAM’s (1989–), in De la planète Mars (1991), takes on French colonialism and predicts the end of colonization at the expense of original inhabitants. Much British-­produced hip hop has focused on rave-­jam remixes of U.S. styles; however, British Asians have used hip hop to address cultural legitimacy and egalitarianism. Fun-­Da-­Mental (1991–), founded by Aki Nawaz (Haq Nawaz Qureshi, n.d.), incorporates Indian and Afro-­Caribbean sounds into its beats, while rapping about the discrimination faced by British Asians and Afro-­Caribbeans. The band’s third single, “Wrath of the Blackman” (1993), exemplifies its outspokenness in f­ avor of African American Islamic radicalism and the separatist policies of the Black Panther Party (1966–1982). Before the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, hip hop’s potential po­liti­cal power was sensed by East German authorities, who ­after the release of the American film Beat Street (1984), mounted a public campaign to recharacterize it as a warning about the dangers of cap­i­tal­ist competition. By the end of the 20th ­century, hip hop

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groups such as Freundeskreis (Circle of Friends, 1996–2007) had emerged as a po­liti­cally active underground, with overtly po­liti­cal texts connected deeply to their upbringings in a Black Panther ­house­hold and a Marxist collective. Freundeskreis’s Quadratur des Kreises (Squaring the Circle, 1997) called on listeners to be keenly aware of their place in po­liti­cal history. The group Advanced Chemistry (1987–), whose members are German citizens with immigrant backgrounds, tackle controversial po­liti­cal issues such as immigrant status and racism. Dutch hip hop (Nederhop) groups such as DAMN (1989–1993) and Osdorp Posse (1989–2009) used hip hop to explore sociopo­liti­cal in­equality and the postcolonial mi­g rant experience. Basque Country underground group Negu Gorriak (1990– 1996) spoke out in ­favor of Basque nationalism and indigenous language revival. The Galician hip hop collective Dios Ke Te Crew (2003–) code-­switch between majority language (Spanish) and indigenous or mi­grant dialects—­resistance vernaculars—to protest a Spanish-­centric language standard. In the Italian rap track “Fight da faida” (“Fight the Blood Feuds,” 1993), Frankie Hi-­NRG MC (Francesco De Gesù, 1969–) calls for a cessation of a blood feud between the Camorra and Mafia families, which he considers a major cause of social and po­liti­cal ill. In 1994, the Italian group 99 Posse (1991–2005, 2009–), known for its left-­wing views, staged a national Incredible Opposizione Tour to share messages about exploitation, antifascism, and po­liti­cal incompetence. Afro-­Ukrainian hip hop artists such as Tanok na Maidani Kongo (TNMK, Dance in Congo Square, 1989–), which formed in a teen educational summer camp, have used hip hop to fight cultural and po­liti­cal oppression, and to influence public opinion regarding black identity in Ukraine. Latvian hip hop artist Gustavo (Gustavs Butelis, 1978–) raps about the years ­under Soviet control, and how ­those years continue to affect the Latvian ­people. In an example of government manipulation of hip hop, in the mid-1990s Rus­sia’s NDR (Our Home) party, led by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin (1938–2010, in office 1993–1998), invited rapper MC Hammer (1962–) to perform three concerts without informing him that the concerts ­were part of a po­liti­cal campaign intended to motivate voters. THE ­MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA Hip hop was heard in much of the Arab world by the 1990s, but came onto the world stage as a po­liti­cal agent in 21st-­century Arab revolutionary movements that have protested and overthrown dictatorships in the ­Middle East and North Africa. “Rayes Lebled,” Tunisian rapper El Général’s (Hamada Ben Amor, 1989*–) direct criticism of President Ben Ali (Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, 1936–­, in office 1987– 2011), became a ­battle cry for protesters in Tunisia, and was used similarly in Egypt, Libya, Syria, and beyond. Hip hop recording artist Bahram Nouraei (1988–) likewise rapped against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Mahmoud Sabbaghian or Saborjhian, 1956–­, in office 2005–2013) in Teheran. Though U.S. and U.K. cultural diplomacy efforts have attempted to take credit for hip hop’s emergence in Lebanon, Yemen, Libya, and elsewhere, each ­Middle Eastern and North African nation has its own distinct hip hop culture, typically featuring indigenous instruments and language, and frequently speaking against



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oppressive government regimes and against western involvement. Many Arab rappers, such as Ira­nian hip hop recording artists Shahin Najafi (1980–) and Salome MC (1985–), have fled their countries of origin and continue to deliver strident po­liti­cal messages from abroad; meanwhile, diaspora rappers such as Syrian American Omar Offendum (1981–) and Libyan American Khaled M (Khaled Ahmed, 1985*–) form a transnational hip hop community, drawing worldwide attention to ­Middle Eastern po­liti­cal situations from outside. ­Middle Eastern female rappers such as Amani Yahya, (1993*–) from Yemen, Ramona Khabiri (1995*–), from Af­ghan­i­stan, and Nazila (1987–2012), from Iran, challenge traditional gender roles and limitations on w ­ omen’s po­liti­cal freedom. By the 1990s, African hip hop groups had begun to speak to their specific po­liti­ cal situations. Positive Black Soul (PBS, 1989–) was one of the first hip hop collectives in Senegal, and urged p­ eople to become active in government, to fight po­liti­cal corruption, and to combat a negative global media perspective on Africa. The Senegalese grassroots hip hop co­ali­tion Y’en a Marre (Fed Up, 2011–2012) protests in­effec­tive government and encourage the youth to register to vote. It stood against incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade (1926–­, in office 2000–2012) in his 2012 run for a third presidential term, leading to some members’ arrests. In ­Kenya, hip hop’s revolutionary energy focuses on the prob­lems of poverty and vio­lence and expresses an anticolonial view. The group Ukoo Flani Mau Mau (1994–), whose members hail from the slums of Nairobi and Mombasa, rallies around the memory of the revolutionary Mau Mau Uprising (1952–1960), fighting against British hegemony and government oppression. In Zimbabwe, hip hop underground groups such as A Peace of Ebony (POE, 1992–) actively defied state policies that encouraged young artists to rec­ord only progovernment or apo­liti­cal ­music. In their ­album From the Native Tongue (1992), POE fused hip hop beats with indigenous instruments such as the mbira, and blended Shona language with French and En­glish, to confront sexual exploitation and protest unchecked vio­ lence. In South Africa, groups such as Prophets of da City (1988–2001) and Brasse Vannie Kaap (BVK, 1996–2006) criticize apartheid and its associated po­liti­cal ideologies. The all-­female group Godessa (2000–) protests gender vio­lence and promote AIDS awareness. ASIA Asian hip hop began largely as a commercial enterprise, though several po­liti­cal examples have emerged. On one hand, in “911,” Japa­nese group King Giddra (1993– 1996), part of a right-­wing nationalist hip hop movement, reflects on the aftermath of the atomic bombings of Japan in 1945 and the terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001. On the other hand, Japa­nese group Rhymester (1989–), part of a hip hop underground, addresses social and po­liti­cal issues not openly discussed in Japa­ nese society, such as the Japa­nese government’s support of the invasion of Iraq. A 21st-­century Chinese hip hop youth underground has elevated local-­dialect rapping as a way of reinforcing cultural and po­liti­cal identities. In Mongolia, hip hop artists have resisted the control of the Mongolian ­People’s Party (1920–) over their m ­ usic’s po­liti­cal messages, particularly ­after the economic downturn that

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followed the end of Soviet subsidies. For example, the group Dain Ba Enkh (War and Peace, 1997–2010) names the government as the main obstacle preventing the Mongolian p­ eople from realizing its potential. AUSTRALIA In the early 1980s hip hop came to Australia, becoming a voice for the underprivileged. The underground group Sound Unlimited (1990–1994), with members who grew up in Australian immigrant communities, rap about poverty and racism in their a­ lbum Postcard from the Edge of the Underside (1992). Hip hop m ­ usic and art has become a way of life for Aboriginal youth in areas such as the poor housing of inner-­city Redfern-­Waterloo (in Sydney), who felt marginalized by sociopo­ liti­cal and economic forces. Through hip hop, ­these youth crystallized their cultural identity, setting Aboriginality as a primary identification. The group Local Knowledge (2002–2006), and its descendants the Last Kinection (2006–) and Street Warriors (2007*–), form part of a grassroots underground movement focusing on the poverty, unemployment, and discrimination faced by indigenous ­people. CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN Hip hop in Central and South Amer­i­ca has taken on pointed po­liti­cal topics such as poverty and lack of government ser­vices. Mare Advertencia Lirika (1986–) raps confrontationally about w ­ omen’s rights, ­women’s education, and the government’s failure to protect ­women against endemic vio­lence in Mexico. The Guatemalan group B’alam Ajpu (2010–) asserts a cultural and po­liti­cal identity as primarily Mayan, rapping in the Mayan language and challenging hegemonic assumptions about ethnic identity in Guatemala. In Brazil, the group Racíonaís MC’s (1988–) released Sobrevivendo no Inferno (Surviving in Hell, 1997), which describes the strug­gle to end slavery and military dictatorship, and blames the massacre of 111 prisoners. The Argentinian group Actitud María Marta (1995–) raps about the need to be informed about po­liti­cal leaders. Cuban diaspora group Krudas Cubensi (aka the “raw native ones from Cuba and the Ca­rib­bean representing the world,” 1999–) began in Havana, ­later moving to Austin; it raps about gender politics, black feminism, and freedom of speech. Jennifer L. Roth-­Burnette See also: Black Nationalism; Bolon and Bolon Player; Five P ­ ercent Nation; Hip Hop Diplomacy; Nation of Islam

Further Reading

Barrett, Rusty. 2016. “Mayan Language Revitalization, Hip Hop and Ethnic Identity in Guatemala.” Language and Communication 46 (March): 144–53. Beighey, Catherine, and N Prabha Unnithan. 2012. “Po­liti­cal Rap: The ­Music of Oppositional Re­sis­tance.” So­cio­log­i­cal Focus 133, no. 2: 133–43. Gueye, Marame. 2013. “Urban Guerilla Poetry: The Movement Y’en a Marre and the Socio-­ Political Influences of Hip Hop in Senegal.” Journal of Pan African Studies 6, no. 3: 22–42.



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Hammett, Daniel. 2012. “Reworking and Resisting Globalizing Influences: Cape Town Hip Hop.” Geojournal 77, no. 3: 417. Helbig, Adriana N. 2014. Hip Hop Ukraine: M ­ usic, Race, and African Migration. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Kellerer, Katja. 2013. “ ‘Chant Down the System ’Till Babylon Falls’: The Po­liti­cal Dimensions of Underground Hip Hop and Urban Groovers in Zimbabwe.” Journal of Pan African Studies 6, no. 3: 43–64. Koster, Mwanzia. 2013. “The Hip Hop Revolution in ­Kenya: Ukoo Flani Mau Mau, Youth Politics and Memory, 1990–2012.” Journal of Pan African Studies 6, no. 3: 82–105. Loureiro-­Rodríguez, Verónica. 2013. “ ‘If We Only Speak Our Language by the Fireside, It ­Won’t Survive’: The Cultural and Linguistic Indigenization of Hip Hop in Galicia.” Popu­lar ­Music and Society 36, no. 5: 659–76. Marsh, Peter K. 2010. “Our Generation Is Opening Its Eyes: Hip Hop and Youth Identity in Con­temporary Mongolia.” Central Asian Survey 29, no. 3: 345–58. Martinez, George, and Christopher Malone. 2014. The Organic Globalizer: Hip Hop, Po­liti­ cal Development, and Movement Culture. New York: Bloomsbury Academic. Mitchell, Tony. 2001. Global Noise: Rap and Hip Hop Outside the U.S.A. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press. Morgan, George, and Andrew Warren. 2011. “Aboriginal Youth, Hip Hop and the Politics of Identification.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 34, no. 6: 925–47. Rose, Tricia. 1994. Black Noise. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.

Poor Righ­teous Teachers (PRT, 1989–1996, Trenton, New Jersey) Poor Righ­teous Teachers is an American hip hop trio known for classic Golden Age of Hip Hop (1986–1994) singles such as “Rock Dis Funky Joint” (1990), “Shakiyla (JRH)” (1991), “Easy Star” (1992), and “Word Iz Life” (1996). Despite a lack of commercial success, PRT’s musical output received critical acclaim. Its lyrical content emphasized black unity, avoiding materialistic greed, eschewing street vio­ lence, and improving oneself through knowledge. In 1989, lead MC and vocalist Wise Intelligent (Timothy Grimes, 1971*–), producer and backing vocalist Culture Freedom (aka Kerry Williams, n.d.), and DJ and producer ­Father Shaheed (aka Devine, Scott Phillips, 1969–2014) founded PRT in Trenton, New Jersey. That year, the trio released its first singles, “Time to Say Peace” and “Butt Naked Booty Bless.” Both appeared on PRT’s debut studio ­album, Holy Intellect (1990). Its second ­album, Pure Poverty (1991), marks the beginning of PRT’s use of internal rhymes, triplets and qua­dru­plets based on multisyllabic words, double-­time rap, and diverse musical fusion; however, it was less commercially successful and critically acclaimed than Holy Intellect. PRT nevertheless continued recording studio ­albums into the 1990s with Black Business (1993) and The New World Order (1996). All ­were produced by Profile Rec­ords (1981–), a New York City label, and charted on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums. PRT’s first three ­albums peaked at Nos. 142, 155, and 167, respectively, on the Billboard 200.

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PRT’s lyrical content focused on Five Percenter rap messages—­pro–­Black Consciousness teachings of the Nation of Gods and Earths (aka the Five ­Percent Nation, Five Percenters, 1964–), a movement founded by Clarence 13X (Clarence Edward Smith, 1928–1969), a former member of the Nation of Islam (NOI, 1930–). PRT based its name on the Five Percenter role of being ­those who both know the truth and seek to educate the rest of the population through teaching. PRT fused hip hop with ele­ments of funk, as heard with its sampling the 1970s funk band War’s (1969–) “Slippin’ into Darkness” (1971) in the background of its “Rock Dis Funky Joint.” PRT also used reggae, as heard with the toasting in “Easy Star.” It sampled not only other m ­ usic, but also speeches that resonated within the Five ­Percent Nation and the NOI, such as Malcolm X’s (1925–1965) “Words from the Wise.” Instrumental hip hop tracks often appeared on PRT’s ­albums—­exhibiting the work of DJ and producer Tony D (Anthony Depula, 1966–2009), who produced PRT’s first three ­albums. In 2001, the trio re­united to release the underground ­album Declaration of In­de­ pen­dence, the single “I Swear ta God,” and the 12-­inch ­album “Dangerous”/“Save Me.” In 2006, Rare and Unreleased, a compilation and remix a­ lbum, was released. Since 1995, while still with the group, Wise Intellect pursued a solo ­career. He recorded seven studio a­ lbums, including The Talented Timothy Taylor (2007) and The Blue Klux Klan (2017). In 2014, ­Father Shaheed died in a motorcycle accident. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Five ­Percent Nation; Nation of Islam; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Reggae; The United States

Further Reading

Coleman, Brian. 2007. “Poor Righ­teous Teachers: Holy Intellect.” In Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip Hop Junkies, pp. 333–47. New York: Villard. Miyakawa, Felicia. 2005. “Sampling, Borrowing, and Meaning.” In Five Percenter Rap: God Hop’s M ­ usic, Message, and Black Muslim Mission, chap. 5. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Further Listening

PRT. 1991. Pure Poverty. Profile Rec­ords.

Pop’in Pete (Timothy Earl Solomon, 1961–­, Fresno, California) Pop’in Pete is an American dancer, choreographer, and one of the original poppers, dancers who developed popping moves—­quickly contracting and relaxing muscles to create individual jerking movements known as pops or hits. He began as a first-­generation member of the Electric Boogaloos (1977–). Since he began popping, Pop’in Pete has wanted to define the hip hop dance subgenre as an art form, and as a specialist in popping, he stood out among his peers with unique ­battle pauses, moves, and beatbox sounds he makes in lieu of counting beats. He has been called on to judge dancing competitions worldwide. In addition to popping, he originated moves such as the ET, spider man, and crazy legs.



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EARLY DANCE YEARS WITH THE ELECTRIC BOOGALOOS Born Timothy Solomon, Pop’in Pete and his ­brother Sam (­later Boogaloo Sam, 1959–) grew up in Fresno, California, where they absorbed funk-­inspired street dance moves from tele­vi­sion, as well as from dancers at clubs and h­ ouse parties in their neighborhood. Sam, the older of the two, started mastering popping moves first, wanting to create his own kind of dance. In 1975, ­after watching late 1960s tele­vi­sion dancers who ­were using the locking technique in their moves, Sam took the stage name Boogaloo Sam and began thinking about forming the Electric ­Boogaloo Lockers. His moves combined locking and roboting with smooth, relaxed, and flowing steps. Pop’in Pete found the Electric Boogaloo too difficult to learn, so Boogaloo Sam encouraged him to specialize in popping. In 1977, Boogaloo Sam dropped the word “Lockers” from his crew’s name, and began recruiting other dancers. In 1978, Pop’in Pete joined the Electric Boogaloos, whose original crew members included the two ­brothers, Robot Dane (Dane Parker, n.d.), Puppet Boozer (Marvin Boozer, n.d.), Creep’n Sid (Cedric Williams, 1959–), and Scarecrow Scalley (Gary Allen, n.d.). The ­brothers’ cousin, Stephen Nichols (n.d.), was already a locker (a dancer who uses the locking technique) and wanted to join the crew, so he trained in popping, joined the crew, and took the stage name Skeeter Rabbit. With just a boombox to supply their ­music, the Electric Boogaloos buskered in Hollywood and Los Angeles, u­ ntil an agent discovered them and got them an audition for dancer and choreographer Jeff Kutash (1945–) and his traveling Vegas-­t ype show. Kutash hired them. Appearances on many tele­vi­sion shows followed. ­After the crew’s 1980 Soul Train (1971–2006) appearance, it was approached by Michael Jackson (1958–2009) to choreograph his ­music videos for “Thriller” and “Beat It” (both 1983). The crew developed a partnership with Jackson, choreographing many of his subsequent ­music videos and live per­for­mances, even ­giving Jackson dance lessons. Pop’in Pet himself has worked with a long list of popu­lar ­music acts, including Janet Jackson (1966–) and the Black Eyed Peas (1995–). The 2010 ­music video for hip hop rapper, singer-­songwriter, and dancer Chris Brown’s (1989–) electro-­pop and ­house track “Yeah 3x” was a tribute to Pop’in Pete, featuring his choreography and the two dancing together. As of 2018, Pop’in Pete is still dancing and teaching numerous celebrities his signature moves. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: The Electric Boogaloos; Hip Hop Dance; Popping and Locking; The United States

Further Reading

Anon. 1995. “So. L.A. a Hoofer’s Place in History before Popping, Posing, Breaking, Hip Hop, and Even Disco, ­There Was Locking, and Don Campbell In­ven­ted It.” Los Angeles Times, July 23, 16. Guzman-­Sanchez, Thomas. 2012. Underground Dance Masters: Final History of a Forgotten Era. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger. Reeves, Marcus. 2009. “Generation Remixed: Past-­Nationalism and the Black Culture Shuffle.” In Somebody Scream: Rap M ­ usic’s Rise to Prominence in the Aftershock of Black Power, chap. 1. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

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Popmaster Fabel (Jorge Pabon, 1965*–­, Harlem, New York) Popmaster Fabel is an old-­school pop and lock style hip hop dancer most associated with the Rock Steady Crew (RSC, 1977–); he is known for his distinctive style and for bringing West Coast dance styles to the New York scene. Unlike the more robotic pop and lock dancers, he used his tall, thin frame to give the impression of long, loose, fluid movements, often keeping his legs straight to accentuate his height. His slower steps prefigure dubstep, although they are usually executed more quickly (a more rapid transitions between locks than in dubstep), something which he terms “electric boogaloo” dancing. His trademark is an emphasis on minute movements using his arms, hands, and fin­gers, with lots of sudden locking between smooth movements. Fabel was born and raised in Spanish Harlem, where he developed a dance and choreography ­career that has been showcased internationally since 1982. His connections with vari­ous dance crews amounts to a who’s who crew list: he was the president of the Hierophysics Crew (1970–1979)* of the Bronx, New York; se­nior vice president of the RSC in the Bronx; member of Magnificent Force (1970–1989)* of the Bronx; and an honorary member of the Electric Boogaloos (1997–) of Fresno, California. Fabel also broke into documentary film in The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-­Boy (2002) and the film short Musically Inclined (2008) as a featured dancer. A hip hop activist, he engages in graffiti art and is cofounder with his wife Christie Z-­Pabon (1969*–) of the Tools of War Park Jam series (2003–), a New York City grass roots hip hop promotion organ­ization and battling event that brings hip hop artists and culture back to New York City parks—­hip hop’s initial venue. He has also taught hip hop courses at New York University and Cornell University. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Battling; Dubstep; Hip Hop Dance; Rock Steady Crew; The United States

Further Reading

Guzman-­Sanchez, Thomas. 2012. Underground Dance Masters: Final History of a Forgotten Era. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger. Khabeer, Su’ad Abdul. 2016. Muslim Cool: Race, Religion, and Hip Hop in the United States. New York: New York University Press. Schloss, Joseph G. 2009. Foundation: B-­Boys, B-­Girls, and Hip Hop Culture in New York. New York: Oxford University Press.

Popping and Locking Popping and locking are American hip hop dance moves sometimes associated with a third move, called dropping. Combined, the dance moves create the illusion of the body’s motion being slowed or even reversed, as in dub step dancing. Popping consists of vari­ous techniques that cause it to differ greatly from most breakdancing techniques, as ­there is very ­little floor work, or dance moves performed while lying down, positioning oneself upside down, or sitting down, in popping. Popping best creates its illusions when the dancer is standing. Locking, ­today



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used extensively in hip hop, was originally a funk dance technique. Like popping, it is a dance technique designed to create a robotic illusion, achieved by starting with a fast, usually large-­scale movement, and then immediately freezing and locking into a statuesque position. This freeze is typically held for a while, which makes locking dif­fer­ent from popping, which is more consistently fluid. Locking is also more upper body specific, while popping generally uses the ­whole body. Mastery of both techniques relies heavi­ly on how tightly a dancer can synchronize movements with m ­ usic. ROOTS OF POPPING: THE ROBOT Popping is related to robotic dance, made famous by the Robot, a 1960s and 1970s dance that traces its origins back to 1920s miming. The Robot, which was made internationally famous in a scene from the British film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) wherein En­glish actress and dancer Sally Ann Howes (1930–) dances on a pedestal, pretending to be a life-­sized ­music box dancer, while American actor and dancer Dick Van Dyke (1925–), for contrast, dances as loosely as pos­si­ble, imitating a rag doll. In her dance Howes keeps her muscles contracted or flexed the entire time, while constantly stopping and then starting her arm motions, to create the effect of having motorized limbs that have been pieced together with hinges instead of elbows and wrists. The Robot, however, was already a minor dance craze by then, as West Coast dancers ­were already using continuous robotic moves choreographed to the rhythm of funk and R&B ­music. Popping differs from the Robot in that it uses not just the flexing of the muscles, but the relaxing of them as well (alternating between flexing and relaxing, a movement called a hit or a pop) to create not so much the illusion of robotics as the illusion of moving in e­ ither slow motion or u­ nder a strobe light. The time differential in the pops corresponds to the beat in the m ­ usic, although pops can be done double-­time or faster. Nonetheless, it is a smoother dance than the Robot, much less prone to the Robot’s jerking movements. As well, popping makes the movements more minute, sometimes concentrating on moving small digits (fin­gers) or on moving larger body parts, such as arms, just an inch or so at a time, with moves being separated by a dime stop (an immediate stop, named from the phrase “stopping on a dime”). THE POPPING ILLUSION Popping fits into the category of illusory dance techniques, such as roboting, waving, worming, strobing, and tutting (moving the arms, hands, and fin­gers in an angular fashion to suggest Egyptian hieroglyphics). Popping also differs from funks’s electric boogaloo (aka boogaloo or boog), which uses a lot of hip sway and drops to create the illusion of bonelessness, and dubstep’s floating, which uses heel to toe lifts, combined with foot twists and glides to create the effect of frictionless floor sliding. However, popping often incorporates ­those two techniques ­because they create concurrent leg moves that compliment popped arm moves. B ­ ecause of

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their visual appeal, popping techniques are used in breakdancing ­battles, where b-­boys and b-­girls, usually as parts of crews, dance competitively against one another. In b­ attles, improvisation and freestyle during solo dances in essential, so mastering techniques such as popping are absolutely necessary. Early popping dancers used 1970s funk ­music as their background, but in the 1980s synthesized ­music and electronica became favorites, as did some hip hop beats. Generally, the best ­music for popping uses a qua­dru­ple (4/4) time signature, has few starts and stops, and has at least 90 beats per minute with a pronounced backbeat. ROOTS OF LOCKING: CAMPBELLOCKING AND THE LOCKERS Like popping, locking has roots in funk ­music. Unlike popping or dubstep, where dancers dress in urban styles and tend to use drab, serious colors, lockers generally prefer very colorful costumes when performing. Clothing must be appropriate to dance moves that include acrobatics and gymnastics, such as jumps, landings, and splits. Unlike popping, locking can be traced to one dancer, and is actually named ­after him. Don Campbell (1951–) created a dance called the Campbellock in the late 1960s when he started adding dime stops to his per­for­mances. By the early 1970s, he was a regular dancer on the dance variety show Soul Train (1971– 2006). He then joined forces with his then girlfriend, choreographer Toni Basil (Antonia Christina Basilotta, 1943–), to form the Lockers (1971–1976), which included actor and dancer Fred Berry (1951–2003), who danced ­u nder the stage name Mr. Penguin and ­later became iconic as the character Rerun in the American tele­vi­sion series What’s Happening!! (1976–1979), which resulted in locking’s being given a prime time tele­vi­sion outlet, as Berry often danced on the series. The Lockers appeared on the show to dance with Berry in some episodes. The Lockers became a huge influence on ­f uture locking dancers, both for dance moves and clothing, at one point even performing on Saturday Night Live in 1975. The Lockers ­were known for their distinctive costumes, which included striped knee socks, suspenders, oversized hats, and oversized short pants. During some per­for­mances, dancers would wear costumes that w ­ ere covered with lighted bulbs. The basic moves of the Lockers included arm locks, slapping hands with a dance partner (based on the “give me five” handshake), back to front claps, points, splits, dives, and knee drops. THE LOCKING ILLUSION Since a highly respected film choreographer managed the group, the Lockers influenced ­actual dances, working ­either solo, sometimes using the Soul Train (1971–2006) Line technique, or as dance partners, interacting with handshakes and hand offs (where the dancers create the illusion that a move is passed from dancer to dancer). Usually, the essence of locking is humor or lightheartedness. The basic locking moves are bending knees and elbows, rotating forearms, hopping, and

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pointing the fin­gers. Moves range from the uplock, which is basically pretending ­there is a metal bar in one’s hands and then bringing the arms up to lock them in a muscleman flex; to the point, which is moving one arm across the chest in an exaggerated motion to then move it back to its side and point upward, while shifting the head to look at the spot pointed at; to walking, punching, or kicking in place; to flourishing the end of a move by reaching up and rotating a worn oversized cap or hat. The aforementioned exaggerated handclaps, handshakes, and handoffs are also commonly incorporated. Like popping, locking relies on improvisation, but just about ­every dancer has a set of signature moves or a favored freeze position. For example, ­later in the development of locking, one of the Lockers, Leo Williamson (n.d.), who danced ­under the stage name Flukey Luke, introduced a unique lock. He placed the outer ridge of both of his hands on his waist and locked his elbows forward. This improvisation became his signature move and was named the Leo Lock. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Campbell, Don; The Electric Boogaloos; Hip Hop Dance; Pop’in Pete; The Robot

Further Reading

Rajakumar, Mohanalakshmi. 2012. Hip Hop Dance. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood. Schloss, Joseph G. 2009. Foundation: B-­Boys, B-­Girls, and Hip Hop Culture in New York. New York: Oxford University Press. Walter, Carla Stalling. 2007. Hip Hop Dance: Meanings and Messages. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

Portugal Portugal boasts a vibrant hip hop scene that is influenced by African ­music from countries such as Mozambique, Angola, Guinea-­Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Príncipe, where combined, over 56 million Portuguese-­ speaking ­people live. The sound owes a lot to reggae, zouk (a rapid carnival beat originating from Guadeloupe and Martinique), and traditional Portuguese fado ­music. Commonly called Hip Hop Tuga, Portuguese hip hop differs from mainstream hip hop ­because of ­these musical influences. Compared to American hip hop, it is more po­liti­cal, and it ­favors the laid-­back West Coast and Dirty South sound, usually with only one rapper (with no harmony rapping). Instrumentation shows heavy funk brass, African percussion, and reggae influences, combined with a pronounced electronica aesthetic.

ORIGINS OF HIP HOP TUGA Hip Hop Tuga came into being when immigrant rapper General  D. (Sergio Matsinhe, 1971*–) came to Lisbon from Mozambique and became the first rapper to garner a major recording contract (with Valentim De Carvalho, Música Lda., part of EMI Rec­ords, 1931–) for two ­albums, Pé na tchôn, karapinha na céu (Foot in the Sky or Karapincha in the Sky, 1994) and Kanimambo (Thank You, 1997).

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Early Portuguese hip hop acts included rapper Chullage (Nuno Santos, 1977–); hip hop ­brother band Da Weasel (1993–2010), an Almada-­based group that fuses ele­ ments from hard rock, pop, rap, acid jazz, and ska; and Allen Halloween (Allen Pires Sanhá, 1980–), an alternative and horrorcore immigrant rapper, singer, and producer from Guinea. Other early hip hop artists included Dealema (1996–), an amalgamated band from Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia; Mind Da Gap (aka Da Wreckas, 1993–), a group from Porto; and Sir Scratch (Benigno António, n.d.), a rapper and producer from Angola. California native artist and poet Ithaka (Ithaka Darin Pappas, 1966–), vocalist of “So Get Up” (Underground Sound of Lisbon, 1994), lived and recorded in Lisbon and is often considered an early Hip Hop Tuga success. “So Get Up” has been in constant reissue and remix since its 1994 release. Current Hip Hop Tuga stars include Valete (Keidje Torres Lima, 1981–) and Sam the Kid (Samuel Martins Torres Santiago Mira, 1979–), both from Lisbon. Valete, the cofounder of the hip hop duo Canal 115 (1997–1999), and ­later soloist, recorded the influential Portuguese po­liti­cal hip hop ­album Serviço Público (Public Ser­vice, 2007). Sam the Kid is famous for creative sampling; his instrumental ­album, Beats Vol. 1: Amor (2002), was a fan favorite, and as of 2009, he has been a member of the rap band Orelha Negra. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Angola; Brazil

Further Reading

Pardue, Derek. 2015. “Kriolu Interruptions: Local Lisbon Rappers Provoke a Rethinking of ‘Luso’ and ‘Creole.’ ” Luso-­Brazilian Review 52, no. 2: 153–73. Simões, José Alberto, and Ricardo Campos. 2017. “Digital Media, Subcultural Activity, and Youth Participation: The Cases of Protest Rap and Graffiti in Portugal.” Journal of Youth Studies 20, no. 1: 16–31.

Further Listening

Valete. 2007. Serviço Público (Public Ser ­vice). Horizontal Rec­ords.

Positive Black Soul (1989–­, Dakar, Senegal) Positive Black Soul (aka PBS) was one of the first hip hop collectives in Senegal. Founding members Didier Awadi (aka DJ Awadi, Didier Sourou Awadi, 1969–) and Doug E-­Tee (aka Duggy Tee, Amadou Barry, 1971–), ­after performing together at a party in Dakar, created PBS as a vehicle for their po­liti­cal activism and philosophy. The acronym PBS is a play on PDS, which stands for Parti Démocratique Sénégalais, the Senegalese Demo­cratic Party. Throughout its ­career, PBS has used hip hop as a platform to urge Senegalese ­people to participate in government and vote in elections and to proj­ect a positive image of Africanness. The duo considered rap an accessible forum for issues such as corruption, politics, and the AIDS epidemic. Senegalese rappers have been referred to as “modern griot,” linking rap to West African verbal traditions and spoken-­word art such as taasu. Awadi’s technique is to go beyond the griot as journalistic reporting of social and po­liti­cal realities, to the



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griot as praise for kings or chronicle of history. The PBS single “Return of Djelly” (“Return of the Griot”), features Doug E-­Tee’s impersonation of a griot, using the Mande language term djelly, a more universal term than the Wolof term géwël. The song is completely in En­glish, sung-­rapped in a ragga style, while retaining the rapid-­ fire delivery, lyrical complexity and pervasive rhymes typical of rap. The track opens with a native Senegalese flute, followed by a synthesized melodic figure that evokes the sound of the kora (a 21-­string harp played by Mande griots). In the djelly persona, Doug E-­Tee exhorts all black ­people to look to their ancestry for a cultural identity that w ­ ill lift them out of pessimism, promoting a positive pan-­African ­future. PBS achieved fame during the 1990s, rapping in En­glish, French, and Wolof. ­After a 1992 ­music festival per­for­mance at the Dakar French Cultural Center, PBS was invited to open for internationally known French Senegalese–­Chandian rapper MC Solaar (1969–) and continued performing with him in France. PBS was then featured in the ­album Firin’ in Fouta (1994) by Baaba Maal (1953–), and soon ­after signed with Mango Rec­ords (whose parent com­pany is Island Rec­ords, 1959–) for their debut a­ lbum, Salaam (1995). PBS’s first international release, New York/Paris/Dakar (2002), initially sold in Senegal as a cassette, and was remastered in 2002 for distribution outside the country, with collaboration from American rapper KRS-­One (1965–), who shared PBS’s pan-­African philosophy, which seeks to strengthen solidarity among ­people of African descent, believing that the unity of common history can be channeled to forge a common, positive destiny. In 2002, PBS appeared in the Red Hot Organ­ ization compilation ­album Red Hot + Riot, paying tribute to Nigerian musician Fela Kuti (Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-­Kuti, 1938–1997), who died of AIDS. During the 21st ­century, PBS members began solo proj­ects, though in 2009 the collective performed in Dakar to celebrate its twentieth anniversary. Jennifer L. Roth-­Burnette See also: Awadi, Didier; Griot; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Senegal

Further Reading

Tang, Patricia. 2012. “The Rapper as Modern Griot: Reclaiming Ancient Traditions.” In Hip Hop Africa: New African ­Music in a Globalizing World, edited by Eric Charry, chap. 5. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Winders, James A. 2006. “Paris, Dakar, and Bamako: New Directions in ­Music and Migration.” In Paris African: Rhythms of the African Diaspora, chap. 6. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Further Listening

PBS. 2002. New York/Paris/Dakar. Africa Fête Diffusion.

Professor Elemental (Paul Alborough, 1975–­, Norwich, E­ ngland) Professor Elemental is an En­glish hip hop artist associated with chap hop. He is best known for his affiliation with the steampunk movement and for his 2010 feud with fellow chap hop artist Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer (1970–). His persona evokes the French science fiction of Jules Verne (1828–1905), as he frequently sports

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a pith helmet while in cargo shorts (caravan wear) and refers to himself as a mad scientist. He is accompanied by an orangutan butler named Geoffrey, with whom he conducts scientific experiments. ­Because of its close affiliation with and evocation of ele­ments of the Victorian era (1837–1901), Professor Elemental and his ­music are closely associated with the steampunk movement. He regularly appears at steampunk events and has been the headlining act at the Steeampunk World’s Fair, a convention held in the United States annually since 2010, and Waltz on the Wye, a steampunk festival held since 2011 in Chepstow, a town on the border of ­England and Wales. Visual aspects of steampunk humor appear throughout his videos. Professor Elemental first came to prominence with the track “Cup of Brown Joy” (2010), from his debut ­album Rebel without Applause (2009). The song is an ode to tea (more precisely, to black tea, not to herbal ones) and was remixed on his subsequent ­album, The Indifference Engine (2010). The ­album combines hip hop, swing jazz, ele­ments of musical exoticism, and animal sound effects. Most of his ­music is produced by Sussex-­ and Yorkshire-­based Tea Sea Rec­ords, a label that specializes primarily in hip hop and hip hop remixes. The Indifference Engine was followed up with More Tea? (2011), an a­ lbum that consists entirely of remixes of previous tracks. This time, “Cup of Brown Joy” samples Edgar Sampson’s (1907–1973) jazz standard “Stompin’ at the Savoy” (1934) in the background and places chords from a slightly out-­of-­t une spinet piano more in the foreground. Professor Elemental became irritated when ­people frequently mistook him for Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer. Like Mr. B, Professor Elemental raps in Received Pronunciation (RP), the Standard En­glish, also known as BBC En­glish, used in the  United Kingdom. In 2010, Professor Elemental released the song and video “Fighting Trousers,” in which he started a comic feud. In response to Professor Elemental’s track, Mr. B released “Like a Chap” (2012). ­After the tongue-­in-­cheek feud, the two have performed together both live and in recordings. During a 2011 per­for­mance, they engaged in a “chap-­off” in which they had a rhyme ­battle over whose “chap” was superior. In 2012, Mr. B was a guest artist on “The Duel,” a track on Professor Elemental’s ­album ­Father of Invention. Professor Elemental’s entire ­album Apequest (2016) was devoted to a galaxywide search for his orangutan companion, Geoffrey. The same year Apequest was released, he released Professor Elemental and His Amazing Friends. Though none of his ­albums or singles have charted or entered the mainstream, Professor Elemental’s cult following has grown since his famous feud with Mr. B and his 2013 appearance on the “Steampunx” episode of American tele­vi­sion show Phineas and Ferb (2007–2015). Amanda Sewell See also: Chap Hop; Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer; Nerdcore; The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Anon. 2010. “Chap Hop Turns Slightly Nasty.” The Chap, December 16. Robinson, Frances. 2011. “In ‘Chap Hop,’ Gentleman Rappers Bust Rhymes about Tea, Cricket.” The Wall Street Journal, April 4, A1, A14.



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Further Listening

Professor Elemental. 2010. The Indifference Engine. Tea Sea Rec­ords. Professor Elemental. 2016. Apequest. Tea Sea Rec­ords. Professor Elemental and Vari­ous Artists. 2011. Professor Elemental: More Tea? Tea Sea Rec­ords.

Professor Jay (formerly N—­a J, Joseph Haule, 1975–­, Songea, Tanzania) Professor Jay is a Tanzanian rapper who raps in Swahili and En­glish. In 1994, he began rapping and became the MC of Tanzania’s first rap crew, Hard Blasters (1989–). With Hard Blasters, Professor Jay (­then known as N—­a J),­ pioneered Tanzanian hip hop, known as Bongo Flava, from the capital city of Dar Es Salaam. His version of hip hop fused hip hop beats with reggae, dancehall, Afrobeat, and R&B, as well as Tanzanian traditional and popu­lar ­music such as taarab or dansi (aka musiki wa dansi, dance ­music in Swahili), Swahili jazz, and/or Tanzanian rhumba (deriving from the Congolese soukous). When Professor Jay joined Hard Blasters in 1994, the crew released its debut ­album Mambo ya mjini (City Affairs). In 2000, Hard Blasters released Funga kazi (roughly, Finish the Job, 2000) and had a hit song with “Chemsha Bongo” (“Quiz” or “Crossword”), which contrasts the life of child prostitutes to happier and wealthier ­people in the city. Professor Jay’s solo ­career began in 2001 and consists of six solo studio ­albums: Machozi jasho na damu (Tears of Sweat and Blood, 2001); Mapinduzi halisi (Real Revolution, 2003); J.O.S.E.P.H. (2006), Aluta continua (The Strug­gle Continues, 2007); Izack Mangesho (2014); and Kazi kazi (Work, Work, 2016). Since his first solo studio ­album, Professor Jay has won critical acclaim and awards in Tanzania. Hit songs, among ­others, include “Ndio mzee” (“Yes, Sir,” 2001), and “Nikusaidiaje?” (“How Can I Help You?” 2007). He also released “Zali lamentali” (2004), a Swahili phrase meaning when something from out of the blue changes one’s ­whole life for the better. Professor Jay’s po­liti­cally driven lyrical content focuses on politicians’ questionable be­hav­ior, socioeconomic disparity, HIV/AIDS in Africa, and unity, among other topics. Sometimes he creates personae and uses humor in his message rap and storytelling. For example, in “Ndio Mzee,” he plays the role of a politician who promises anything, no ­matter how absurd, to get elected. Ironically, in 2015, Professor Jay became an elected member of parliament (MP), representing the county of Mikumi, ­r unning on the Chadema party ticket. The Chadema party (1992–), a shortened name for Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Party for Democracy and Pro­gress), is a right-­of-­center po­liti­cal party that campaigns on an anticorruption platform. He started his own recording studio and label Mwanalizombe (2014–) in Dar Es Salaam, but as of 2018, he is based in Mikumi county, where he has promised to rebuild his studio to help educate youth via hip hop. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Tanzania

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Further Reading

Casco, José Arturo Saavedra. 2006. “The Language of the Young ­People: Rap, Urban Culture, and Protest in Tanzania.” Journal of Asian and African Studies 41, no.  3: 229–48. Mbuya, Mejah. 2014. “Tanzanian MCs vs. Social Discourse.” In Hip Hop and Social Change in Africa: Ni Wakati, edited by Msia Kibona Clark and Mickie Mwanzia Koster, chap. 11. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. Ntarangwi, Mwenda. 2009. “Economic Change and Po­liti­cal Deception.” In East African Hip Hop: Youth Culture and Globalization, chap. 5. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Perullo, Alex. 2005. “Hooligans and Heroes: Youth Identity in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.” Africa ­Today 51, no. 4: 74–101, 117.

Further Listening

Professor Jay. 2001. Machozi jasho na damu (Tears of Sweat and Blood). FKW.

Prophets of da City (aka POC, 1988–2001, Cape Town, South Africa) Prophets of da City (aka POC) was one of the earliest pioneering South African hip hop crews to become internationally famous. The crew from Cape Town was originally inspired by old-­school American hip hop such as the Sugarhill Gang’s (1979–1985, 1994–) “Rapper’s Delight” (1979) and the American hip hop ­music and production styles of the Bomb Squad (1986–) with Public ­Enemy (1986–) and Ice Cube (1969–). POC fuses po­liti­cally conscious hip hop (at times incorporating Black Nationalism) with reggae, electronica, and traditional West African rhythms and South African vocal ­music and raps in Cape slang (a local Afrikaans dialect) and En­glish vernacular. Its discography includes Our World (1990), Boom Style (1992), Age of Truth (1993), Phunk Phlow (1994), Universal Souljaz (1995), and Ghetto Code (1997). POC’s early development and success had been inspiring to many musicians in Africa and worldwide ­because the crew produced po­liti­cally conscious hip hop in the final years of Apartheid (meaning “separateness” in Afrikaans, 1948–1991), years before South Africa’s first demo­cratic election of President Nelson Mandela (1918–2013, in office, 1994–1999). POC began in 1988 as a studio effort led by rapper Shaheen Ariefdien (n.d.) and DJ Ready D (Deon Daniels, 1968–), who used Arefdien’s ­father’s studio equipment since he came from a musical ­family—­his ­father is jazz musician Issy Ariefdien (n.d.). The resulting demo became Our World (1990) and was South Africa’s first hip hop release. From the ­album, the song “Dallah Flét” (“Do It Thoroughly”) was the first recorded hip hop song in Cape slang. The ­album is a seminal recording of POC’s style, since it included a fusion of hip hop with South African musical instruments such as the goema (a hand drum that is used in Cape Jazz as well as in Cape Minstrel Carnivals) and South African ­music such as mbaqanga (black urban ­music with Zulu roots) on the tracks “Our World” and “Stop the Vio­lence,” as well as dub versions of “Our World” and “Stop the Vio­lence.” Scratching (turntablism) is



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also pres­ent on this early ­album. ­After several attempts with other South African production companies that ­were generally more drawn to lighter hip hop themes such as partying or sex, Ku Shu Shu Rec­ords (1990–1991) was set up as POC’s production com­pany, which found international distribution with Teal-­Trutone ­Music (1940s–1995)*. A year ­after the ­album’s success, Ku Shu Shu became the Johannesburg label, Ghetto Ruff (1991–) and continued producing POC’s ­albums. To reinforce ­album sales, POC toured extensively and was involved in an antidrug campaign that also introduced their ­music to thousands of youth. Other members have since joined POC, but personnel shifts often took place. The crew had between five to eight members on tour. Its second ­album, Boom Style (Tree Style, 1991), included the use of TR-808 drum machine kick drum sounds as a way of play on the idea of kicking—­American vernacular for cool, as well as the motion of kicking in playing a kick drum, dancing, playing, and fighting back. The track “Ons Stem” (“Our Voice”) was an ahead-­of-­ its-­time, daring attack against apartheid. The title was a response to “Die Stem” (“The Voice”), the racist apartheid national anthem. Though the video for “Kicking Non Stop” was censored ­because it features POC placing a portrait of then–­South African president P. W. Botha (1916–2006) in the refrigerator “to chill,” legendary American composer, musician, and producer Quincy Jones (1933–) and successful Los Angeles–­based South African composer and singer Caiphus Semenya (1939–) invited POC to perform at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland in 1992. At the transition between the end of apartheid and Mandela’s election, POC continued traveling extensively, but always spent some of its time educating youth through antidrug campaigns or hip hop workshops. In 1994, POC performed “Excellent, the First Black President” at Mandela’s inauguration. The per­for­mance is often understood as rap’s entrance into the mainstream of South African popu­lar ­music. Boom Style, as well as Age of Truth and Phunk Phlow, marked POC’s height in popularity. Universal Souljaz was stylistically dif­fer­ent from previous a­ lbums for its inclusion of more hip h­ ouse and contained gangsta rap. POC’s last ­album, Ghetto Code, was a return to its previous sound. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Jones, Quincy; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; South Africa

Further Reading

Ariefdien, Shaheen. 2011. “Daalah Cape Fléts: Hip Hop, Re­sis­tance, and Hope.” In Searching for South Africa, edited by Shereen Essof and Daniel Moshenberg, chap. 7. Pretoria: Unisa Press. Haupt, Adam. 2001. “Black ­Thing: Hip Hop Nationalism, ‘Race,’ and Gender in Prophets of da City and Brasse Vannie Kaap.” In Colored by History, ­Shaped by Place: New Perspectives on Colored Identities in Cape Town, edited by Zimitri Erasmus, chap. 10. Cape Town, South Africa: Kwela Books.

Further Listening

POC. 1991. Boomstyle. Trutone M ­ usic. POC. 1993. Age of Truth. Tusk ­Music.

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P-­Square (aka Peter and Paul, 2003–­, Jos, Nigeria) P-­Square is a Nigerian hip hop duo made up of identical twin ­brothers Peter Okoye and Paul Okoye (1981–). The duo, both of whom are rappers and dancers, has specialized since 2003  in R&B-­based, African-­ and reggae-­i nfluenced, highly autotuned danceable hip hop. P-­Square is associated with its own United Kingdom–­based rec­ord label Square Rec­ords (2001–), with Akon’s (1973–) Konvict Muzik label (2004–), and with Universal ­Music Group (1996–), although the duo has produced and released most of its ­albums since 2008 through Square Rec­ords.

FROM J-­TOWN, NIGERIA TO SETTLING IN THE UNITED STATES P-­Square began in a small Catholic school in Jos (aka J-­Town), an urban city of one million in the ­Middle ­Belt of Nigeria and the administrative capital of Plateau State. The b­ rothers joined the m ­ usic and drama clubs, which gave them a chance to sing, rap, dance, and learn American hip hop m ­ usic by imitating artists such as MC Hammer (1962–), Bobby Brown (1966–), and Michael Jackson (1958–2009). They formed an a cappella quartet, MMMPP (aka MMPP, 1996–99), and began to practice the dance moves of Jackson, including breakdancing; in 1997, the ­brothers formed a group named ­after Jackson’s song “Smooth Criminal” (1988). The ­brothers kept both the Smooth Criminals (1997–1999) and MMMPP ­going si­mul­ta­neously, working on choreographed dance routines—­these routines soon got the duo and its groups small gigs. The ­brothers then deci­ded to return to school to develop their musical skills, studying keyboard, drums, bass, and rhythm guitar, and to study business administration. They then formed a duo, eventually named P-Square. In 2011, the duo signed with Konvict Muzik, and in 2012, P-­Square signed a rec­ ord distribution deal with Universal ­Music South Africa. P-­Square has released six ­albums: Get Squared (2005), Game Over (2007), Get Squared: Reloaded (2008), Danger (2009), The Invasion (2011), and Double Trou­ble (2014). The duo has released one EP, Bizzy Body II (2006). Get Squared was the first of three ­albums released u­ nder Square Rec­ords, and it has sold over eight million copies in Nigeria, as have Game Over and Danger. In 2010, P-­Square was named the Artist of the Year at the Kora Awards, given annually for musical achievement in sub-­ Saharan Africa, winning one million dollars. P-Square differs from many hip hop bands in that the Okoye ­brothers ­handle most of their production and beatmaking in h­ ouse by reconstructing drum patterns, chord progressions, and sampled lyr­ics to create an electronic dance and hip hop sound that focuses on typical party themes: beauty, romance, materialism, dancing, and enjoying the moment. In 2014, the ­brothers moved to the United States and bought mansions next door to one another in Atlanta. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Nigeria; Reggae; The United States

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Further Reading

Inyabri, Idom T. 2016. “Youth and Linguistic Stylization in Naija Afro-­Hip Hop.” Sociolinguistic Studies 10, nos. 1–2: 89–108. Shipley, Jesse Weaver. 2017. “Parody ­after Identity: Digital ­Music and the Politics of Uncertainty in West Africa.” American Ethnologist 44, no. 2: 249–62. Shonekan, Stephanie. 2012. “Nigerian Hip Hop: Exploring a Black World Hybrid.” In Hip Hop Africa: New African M ­ usic in a Globalizing World, edited by Eric Charry, chap. 7. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Further Listening

P-­Square. 2009. Danger. Square Rec­ords.

PSY (Park Jae-­sang, 1977–­, Seoul, K ­ orea) PSY is a K-­pop (Korean pop) singer, rapper, songwriter, musical comedian, and producer known for “Gangnam Style” (from Psy6, Six Rules, Part 1, 2012), an international hit. The song’s video was the first ever to reach one billion YouTube views, won best video at the 2012 MTV Eu­rope ­Music Awards and a Billboard ­Music Award, and its refrain (“oppan Gangnam style”) was listed by The Yale Book of Quotations for 2012. Born in an affluent ­family in the Gangnam District, Park Jae-­sang started out studying business in the United States but switched majors and studied instead at the Berklee College of ­Music in Boston, then dropped out and returned home to become a musician. He made his first tele­vi­sion appearance in 2000 on Korean national tele­vi­sion, but by 2012 he was performing “Gangnam Style” on The ­Today Show (NBC) in New York City. His first ­album, PSY from the Psycho World!, was released in 2001 and led to his being fined by the South Korean government for inappropriate content. His second and third ­albums, Ssa 2 and 3 Mai (both 2002), brought the singer notoriety and more censorship, but led to his receiving a Seoul ­Music Award, and his fourth and fifth ­albums, Ssajib (2006) and PsyFive (2010), ­were recognized at the SBS ­Music Awards, the Mnet Asian M ­ usic Awards, and the Melon M ­ usic Awards. Overall, his ­music is techno-­based, high-­energy dance–­infused hip hop which contains chantlike, catchy refrains in both Korean and En­glish. PSY has also been at the center of controversy for lyr­ics that criticize the U.S. detention camp at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and adult-­themed lyr­ics in his songs. His seventh ­album, Chiljip Psy-­da (aka This Is Psy’s Seventh ­Album), was released in 2015. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: ­Korea; Nerdcore

Further Reading

Tan, Marcus. 2015. “K-­Contagion: Sound, Speed, and Space in ‘Gangnam Style.’ ” TDR: The Drama Review 59, no. 1: 83–96. Tudor, Daniel. 2014. “­Korea’s ­Music Scene.” In Geek in K ­ orea: Discovering Asia’s New Kingdom of Cool, Part 8. North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle.

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Public ­Enemy (1982–­, Long Island, New York) Public ­Enemy is an American hip hop group regarded as one of the progenitors of socially conscious or po­liti­cal hip hop, and scholars often rank Public ­Enemy as one of the most impor­tant hip hop groups of all time. Current members include Chuck D (Carlton Douglas Ridenhour, 1960–), Flavor Flav (William Jonathan Drayton  Jr., 1959–), Professor Griff (Richard Griffin, 1960–), DJ Lord (Lord Aswood/Aswod, 1975–), Davy D (aka Davy DMX, David Franklin Reeves Jr., 1960–), and Khari Wynn (1981–). Former members of the group include Terminator X (Norman Rogers, 1966–) and ­Sister Souljah (Lisa Williamson, 1964–). Since 1986, Public ­Enemy’s ­music has been produced by the Bomb Squad (1986–). Chuck D’s explosive delivery and socially conscious lyr­ics are among the most defining features of Public ­Enemy’s style. His lyr­ics often feature complex poetic meters that vary in style widely both within individual tracks and across entire ­albums. “Fight the Power,” a single from the 1990 ­album Fear of a Black Planet, is one of Public ­Enemy’s most influential tracks. ORIGINS In the early 1980s, Chuck D was a student at Adelphi College in New York, where he met Flavor Flav; Brooklyn, New York–­born journalist and critic Harry Allen (1964–); and other ­people who would become key figures in Public ­Enemy’s formative years. Chuck D recorded an early demo track called “Public ­Enemy Number One” (1985) in response to what he perceived as persecution in the local ­music scene. The track featured Flavor Flav but no other members of what would ­later become Public ­Enemy; on the basis of the demo, however, Rick Rubin (Frederick Jay Rubin, 1963–) signed Chuck D and his group to the new Def Jam Recordings New York–­based label (1983–). INITIAL ­ALBUMS AND STYLE Public ­Enemy’s first studio ­album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show (1987), was followed by critical and commercial successes It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988) and Fear of a Black Planet. All three of t­ hese a­ lbums w ­ ere produced by the Bomb Squad and exemplify Public ­Enemy’s sound. In ­these and all subsequent ­albums, Public ­Enemy promotes a pro-­black stance, encouraging black listeners to be aware and to educate themselves. In “Fight the Power,” Chuck D alludes to vari­ous funk and soul artists and songs, such as Bobby Byrd’s (1934–2007) “I Know You Got Soul” (1971) and James Brown’s (1933–2006) “Funky Drummer” (1970). The song also accuses individuals and institutions—­most notably Elvis Presley (1935–1977)—of being racist, and encourages black listeners to find their own heroes, even if ­those heroes are not necessarily recognized by the white American mainstream. Rapper Flavor Flav serves as the hype man and as the counterbalance to Chuck D’s more serious lyr­ics. His interjections between Chuck D’s verses and phrases,



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particularly his catch phrase “yeah, boy!” (with the diphthong extended), are as much a marker of Public ­Enemy’s style as are Chuck D’s lyr­ics. Flavor Flav did provide lead vocals on a few tracks, such as “911 Is a Joke” (1990), an admonishment of emergency crews and their slow response time when summoned to black neighborhoods. The Bomb Squad’s production style is characterized by a dense sonic texture and frenetic energy. Its m ­ usic from this period contained sampled sounds from dozens of dif­fer­ent source tracks; some of the ­albums that the Bomb Squad produced for Public ­Enemy in the late 1980s and early 1990s contain hundreds, possibly more than a thousand, sampled sounds. The members of the Bomb Squad drew samples from their enormous personal rec­ord collections that consisted of many dif­fer­ent kinds of African American popu­lar ­music, such as soul, funk, and R&B. They also drew sounds from spoken-­word sources, such as Richard Pryor’s (1940– 2005) and Robin Harris’s (1953–1990) comedy ­albums, and po­liti­cal speeches by civil rights figures such as Jesse Jackson (1941–) and Dick Gregory (1932–). The Bomb Squad also frequently sampled snippets of Chuck D’s and Flavor Flav’s voices for new tracks. For instance, samples of Chuck D’s voice from the 1987 single “Bring the Noise” have appeared in several other Public ­Enemy tracks, such as “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos” (1988) and “Night of the Living Baseheads” (1988). Moreover, The Bomb Squad sampled sounds that ­were sometimes abrasive, such as the shrill saxophone sound (which has come to be called the teakettle sample) in the introduction to “The Grunt” (1970), a track by the J.B.’s (1970–1985), Brown’s backup band. Other key members of Public ­Enemy at the time included Terminator X, the group’s DJ, and Professor Griff, sideman and the leader of the Security of the First World, or S1W, which performed live stage routines during Public ­Enemy’s concerts that ­were a combination of military drills and the African American percussive dance style known as stepping. Professor Griff also served as the group’s Minister of Information, giving interviews on behalf of the other group members. Allen’s primary role is the go-­between for Public ­Enemy and the mainstream media. In 1989, shortly ­after the release of Public ­Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Professor Griff gave an interview to the Washington Post in which he expressed both homophobic and anti-­Semitic ideas. Allen’s responsibility was to defuse the tension created by Griff’s comments and to keep Public ­Enemy in good standing with the media. INTO THE 1990s Public ­Enemy’s popularity peaked in the early 1990s, following the release of its initial three a­lbums, as well as the commissioning of its single “Fight the Power” by American director Spike Lee (Shelton Jackson Lee, 1957–) for his film Do the Right ­Thing (1989). The group saw several changes in its personnel, reception, and style during this de­cade. Public ­Enemy released four ­albums in the 1990s (not including Fear of a Black Planet, which was slated to be released in 1989 but had to be held over u­ ntil early 1990). Although none received particularly poor reviews, Public ­Enemy’s ­albums

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from this period also did not capture the same praise from critics that its m ­ usic from the late 1980s had. By the early 1990s, due to ­legal issues and copyright restrictions, the Bomb Squad began sampling fewer source tracks, resulting in a notable change in its musical sound and style. Terminator X left the group in 1999 and was replaced by DJ Lord. Following Professor Griff’s anti-­Semitic remarks to the media, ­Sister Souljah temporarily replaced him as Public ­Enemy’s Minister of Information. S ­ ister Souljah made controversial comments, published in the Washington Post, about the 1992 Los Angeles riots, calling them “payback” and suggesting that black young ­people ­were “at war.” Her comments drew national attention and ­were criticized by Bill Clinton (1946–), then a candidate for president of the United States. PUBLIC ­ENEMY IN THE 21st ­CENTURY Public ­Enemy has continued to rec­ord ­albums into the 21st ­century, although none have come close to the commercial or critical acclaim its first three ­albums achieved. For example, How Do You Sell Soul to a Soulless P ­ eople Who Sold Their Soul??? (2007) was reviewed favorably by critics, most of whom agreed that Public ­Enemy’s message had not changed in 20 years, for better or for worse. Hype man Flavor Flav experienced a surge in popularity in the mid-2000s, appearing on several real­ity tele­ vi­sion shows on the VH-1 network (1985–). He released a solo ­album, Hollywood (2006), during this period, his only solo effort to date and a proj­ect that had taken nearly seven years to complete. Two tracks from his solo ­album ­were incorporated into How Do You Sell Soul to a Soulless ­People Who Sold Their Soul??? Public ­Enemy still works closely with the Bomb Squad, but the group has also increased its use of live and acoustic instruments. Bass player Davy D has toured with Public ­Enemy since 2010. In the early 2000s guitar player Khari Wynn regularly appeared as a guest with the group. He formally became Public ­Enemy’s ­music director in 2011. The group’s use of live guitar and bass also indicate its reduced reliance on sampled sounds. In 2016, Chuck D announced that he and other members of Public ­Enemy would be teaming up with members of the Los Angeles–­based alternative rock band Rage Against the Machine (1991–2011) and the South Gate, California hip hop group Cypress Hill (1988–) to form a hip hop supergroup called Prophets of Rage. The group’s name is based on a single from Public ­Enemy’s It Takes a National of Millions to Hold Us Back. Amanda Sewell See also: Allen, Harry; The Bomb Squad; Chuck D; Five ­Percent Nation; Flavor Flav; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Danielsen, Anne. 2008. “The Musicalization of ‘Real­ity’: Real­ity Rap and Rap Real­ity on Public ­Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet.” Eu­ro­pean Journal of Cultural Studies 11, no. 4: 405–21. Katz, Mark. 2010. “­Music in 1s and 0s: The Art and Politics of Digital Sampling.” In Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed M ­ usic, rev. ed., chap. 7. Berkeley: University of California Press.



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Mills, David. 1992. “­Sister Souljah’s Call to Arms; The Rapper Says the Riots ­Were Payback.” The Washington Post, May 13, B1. Sewell, Amanda. 2014. “How Copyright Affected the Musical Style and Critical Reception of Sample-­Based Hip Hop.” Journal of Popu­lar ­Music Studies 26, nos. 2–3: 295–320.

Further Listening

Public ­Enemy. 1988. It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. Def Jam. Public ­Enemy. 1990. Fear of a Black Planet. Def Jam Recordings. Public ­Enemy. 2007. How Do You Sell Soul to a Soulless P ­ eople Who Sold Their Soul??? SlamJamz.

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico, a United States commonwealth, is a small Spanish-­speaking island in the Ca­rib­bean. The po­liti­cal status of the island grants U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans, which has historically enabled migration between the two, and has led to a large Puerto Rican community in New York City. ­Because of the steady movement of Puerto Ricans between the island and New York City, hip hop in Puerto Rico is almost as old as hip hop in the Bronx, the borough in which the majority of Puerto Ricans settled between the 1970s and 1990s, the formative years in the birth and growth of hip hop. Puerto Ricans traveling back and forth then carried hip hop to Puerto Rico via vinyl rec­ords and audiocassettes, hip hop dance, and conversation about hip hop culture. As a result, the m ­ usic formed deep roots in Puerto Rico, particularly in its impoverished urban neighborhoods. Puerto Rican hip hop is diverse in sound and content. Musically it reflects the stylistic priorities of early 1990s New York City–­based hip hop: jazz bass and piano riffs, multilayered and diverse percussions, and synthesized instrumentals. Puerto Rican hip hop also mirrors the 2000s evolution of the ­music, with deep and highly danceable bass beats, hi-­hat percussions, heavi­ly synthesized sounds, and vocal manipulation techniques such as autotuning. The parallel trends of New York and Puerto Rican hip hop reflects the continued movement of p­ eople between both locales, which helps to form shared aesthetic tastes and forms of musical production. Puerto Ricans on the island ­were drawn to the familiarity of ­music video and other media images and stories; ­these mirrored their lives in Puerto Rico’s urban communities. By the late 1980s, Puerto Rican MCs, called raperos, ­were on the rise, and breakdancing (or b-­boying/​ b-­girling) was becoming a specialized skill of many youth. Graffiti murals could also be seen adorning the walls of caseríos, or low-­income housing communities. Stylistically, con­temporary Puerto Rican hip hop maintains the integrity of old-­ school, late 1980s and early 1990s, lyrical content. Songs boast of the skill of an MC while defaming another, share stories about the living conditions of poverty and vio­lence, or make po­liti­cal observations about the world. Tego Calderón (Tegui Calderón Rosario, 1972–), for example, is an MC that is revered for exposing racial discrimination and injustice against Afro–­Puerto Ricans in his songs. Other themes that exemplify developing trends in the ­music as it becomes more commodified

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are the acquisition of wealth, extravagant spending, and the dealings and conflict of the underground drug economy. Notable Puerto Rican MCs include San Juan–­based Vico C (Luis Armando Lozada Cruz, 1971–), originally born in Brooklyn, New York; Ñengo Flow (Edwin Laureano Rosa Vazquez Ortiz, 1981–); and Arecibo-­based MC Ceja (Alberto Mendoza Nieves, 1978–). Artists such as Ivy Queen (1972–) and Calderón bridge hip hop and reggaetón. The Bronx-­born rapper Big Pun (1971–2000), who is widely considered one of the most lyrically skilled rappers of all time, was of Puerto Rican descent. Sabia McCoy-­Torres See also: Big Pun; Ivy Queen; Reggae; Reggaetón; The United States

Further Reading

Arroyo, Jossianna. 2010. “ ‘Roots’ or the Virtualities of Racial Imaginaries in Puerto Rico and the Diaspora.” Latino Studies 8, no. 2: 195–219. Flores, Juan. 2000. From Bomba to Hip Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identity. New York: Columbia University Press. Rivera, Raquel Z., Wayne Marshall, and Deborah Pacini Hernandez. 2009. Reggaetón. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Further Listening

Ivy Queen. 2010. Drama Queen. Machete ­Music. Tego Calderón. 2015. El que sabe sabe (He Who Knows, Knows). Siente M ­ usic. Vico C. 1991. Hispanic Soul. Prime Rec­ords.

Puff ­Daddy (aka P. Diddy, Love, B ­ rother Love, Sean John Combs, 1969–­, New York) Puff ­Daddy, also known professionally at vari­ous times as P. Diddy, Diddy, Puffy, Sean Combs, and most recently as Love or ­Brother Love, is a leading producer, performer, entrepreneur, and celebrity. Although his successes as both a producer and performer cover multiple styles, with his work leaning ­toward a more popu­lar, dance-­oriented sound, he epitomizes the East Coast hip hop style. His business ventures, including a successful line of men’s fashions, restaurants, a digital media channel, and other products, have made him one of the wealthiest executives in the entertainment industry. Unlike many hip hop producers, he has embraced the role of industry mogul, and he is more likely to be seen in a smartly tailored suit than in the hoodies and backward ball caps of most rappers. CHILDHOOD AND EARLY WORK IN THE RECORDING INDUSTRY Puff ­Daddy was born Sean John Combs in public housing in Harlem, New York City, where his f­ ather, Melvin Earl Combs (1938–1972), was an associate of Frank Lucas (1930–), one of the city’s most notorious drug dealers. When he was three, his ­father was killed in a botched drug deal, and his ­mother, Janice Combs



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(1940–), raised him alone. He graduated from Mount Saint Michael Acad­emy in the Bronx, and he then attended Howard University for two years before dropping out. Starting as an unpaid intern at Uptown Rec­ ords (1986–1999) in Harlem, he  was quickly promoted to the position of talent director. He worked with new acts, notably Jodeci (1988–1996, 2014–), ­Father MC (Timothy Brown, 1967*–), and Mary  J. Blige (1971–). Generally, he was quite successful in helping ­ these R&B-­oriented performers to develop grittier urban images and to achieve strong showings on their debut ­albums. Despite his many accomplishments for the label, tension developed between him and Andre Harrell (1960–), Uptown’s founder and chief executive, and in 1993, Puff ­Daddy was dismissed without notice. BAD BOY REC­ORDS

Most recently renaming himself ­Brother Love, Puff ­Daddy has been a prominent and award-­ winning American rapper, hip hop producer, and fashion designer. His label Bad Boy Rec­ords produced his own Platinum-­certified ­albums, as well as for the Notorious B.I.G., Mase, and Faith Evans, among ­others. (Feature Flash​/ Dreamstime​.­com)

Within a few weeks, he had founded his own com­pany, Bad Boy Rec­ords (1992–), and in July 1994, the label released its first recording, a hit single by Craig Mack (1971–), “Flava in Ya Ear,” which was followed in September by Mack’s debut ­album, Proj­ect: Funk da World (1994), which reached Gold status. ­T hose recordings ­were quickly surpassed; however, by the debut ­album of the Notorious B.I.G. (1972–1997), Ready to Die (1994), which had been released just a week before Mack’s ­album. The Notorious B.I.G. had signed initially with Uptown Rec­ords and was singing as a guest on recordings by other Uptown artists when he began working ­u nder Puff ­Daddy’s guidance to rec­ord his own debut ­album. But that proj­ect stalled when Puff ­Daddy left Uptown. ­After a brief hiatus, the Notorious B.I.G. moved to Bad Boy Rec­ ords, where he finished the ­album, which would reach qua­d ru­ple Platinum in sales. Ready to Die established the Bad Boy label as a major player in the m ­ usic industry and also reasserted the importance of East Coast hip hop, which had been

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eclipsed by the rise of West Coast gangsta rap. Puff ­Daddy would also produce and promote two additional ­albums by the Notorious B.I.G.—­after his murder in 1997. They achieved Diamond and double-­Platinum status. Puff ­Daddy was known for a strong eye for talent, and he has been able to attract and develop a number of new performers at Bad Boy Rec­ords. For example, he served as Executive Producer for the debut ­album Faith (1995), by R&B singer Faith Evans (1973–), as well as for the R&B trio Total’s (1994–2000, 2010–) eponymous ­album (1996). He also produced the Harlem-­based rapper Ma$e’s (Mason Durrell Betha, 1977–) ­album Harlem World (1997) and the pop teen girl group Dream’s (1998–2003) It Was All a Dream (2001), all of which reached Platinum certification. This lineup testified to the variety of styles he produced, most of which ­were aimed ­toward middle-­of-­the-­road pop audiences, as well as his association with hip hop soul, a mixture of traditional R&B with hip hop ele­ments, a sound that he helped to pioneer.

DEBUT A ­ LBUM, BUSINESS VENTURES, AND FASHION DESIGN In 1997, Puff ­Daddy released his own debut ­album, No Way Out (­under Puff ­ addy and The ­Family), which included a number of guest appearances by Bad D Boy artists. The a­ lbum earned a Grammy Award the next year and went on to sell over seven million copies. Combs’s subsequent ­albums, Forever (1999), The Saga Continues (2001), Press Play (2006), and Last Train to Paris (2010), have all sold reasonably well, but none have come close to the sales of his first a­ lbum. Criticism of his work has usually been mixed to positive, with complaints centering on his frequent use of guest performers, the repeated sampling of his earlier hits, and a general tendency to w ­ ater down hip hop into a more saleable sound. His ­music, ­whether his own or tracks that he produces for other performers, almost always has a more mainstream sound, with richly orchestrated accompaniments (adding an elegant, luxurious sound, called luxe) and backing vocals that are much closer to traditional R&B than to the raw beats of West Coast gangsta rap. His lyr­ ics are also less violent and obviously vulgar than their West Coast counter­parts, although ­there are occasional exceptions. His sense for the market is reflected in his other business ventures, notably his Sean John fashion line, which he founded in 1998 with a men’s sportswear collection. The com­pany, which earned an industry award in 2004, subsequently expanded to include numerous related lifestyle products and since 2010 has been sold exclusively at Macy’s department stores. His personal celebrity is also aimed at the broadest audiences and is widely covered by the mainstream media. His occasional run-­ins with the law, a high-­profile relationship with singer and actress Jennifer Lopez (aka J.Lo, 1969–), a leading role in a 2004 Broadway revival of the play A Raisin in the Sun (1959) and its subsequent tele­vi­sion adaptation, and a series of superficial name changes over the years have all helped to keep the name Sean Combs in the news. Puff ­Daddy nevertheless has also been notable for his frequent



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charity work with inner city youth, his honorary degree from Howard University, and his public pride in his ­children’s accomplishments. Scott Warfield See also: Fashion; Gangsta Rap; The Notorious B.I.G.; The United States

Further Reading

Jones, Jen. 2014. Sean “Diddy” Combs: A Biography of a ­Music Mogul. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers. Ro, Ronin. 2001. Bad Boy: The Influence of Sean “Puffy” Combs on the ­Music Industry. New York: Pocket Books.

Further Listening

Puff ­Daddy and The F ­ amily. 1997. No Way Out. Bad Boy Entertainment.

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Q Quarashi (1996–2005, 2016–­, Reykjavík, Iceland) Quarashi is an Icelandic hip hop group that fuses old- and new-school hip hop, funk, electronica, nu-­metal, hard garage rock, and techno. In 1996, rapper, singer, and producer Hössi Ólafsson (Höskuldur Ólafsson, 1977–) and rapper Ómar Öm Hauksson (aka Ómar Swarez, 1975–) met at a protest against a U.S. military base in Reykjavík. DJ, keyboardist, percussionist, rapper, and songwriter Sölvi Blöndal (1975–) soon joined and invited rapper Steini (aka Stoney, Steinar Orri Fjeldsted, 1976–) to establish Quarashi. The Arabic name means super­natural, but it was also Steini’s nickname as a champion ice skater, as well as a commonly seen Reykjavík graffiti tag. Originally, Steini was the lead MC, but by 2002 he had left the group and was replaced by Ólafsson. Guitarist Tarfur (Smári Jósepsson, n.d.), bassist Gaukur Úlfarsson (n.d.), and DJ Dice (anonymous, n.d.) joined Quarashi during their concerts. Early Quarashi had a boyish, high-­pitched rapping sound set against rock guitars; the band sounded like a combination of the Beastie Boys (1981–2012) and Limp Bizkit (1994–2006, 2009–); however, the band showed rapping flexibility, strong presence of turntablism and synthesized sounds, and lush instrumentals on its studio ­albums. Its lyr­ics ­were often about partying and gangster life (drugs, attaining wealth, committing crimes). Quarashi’s videos ranged from garage band, such as “Surreal Rhyme” (from Xeneizes), to black-­and-­white minidramas, such as “Baseline” (2002), which featured Quarashi rapping and playing on a naval ship. The more recent “Chicago” (2016) is also a black and white ­music video that shows a more mature, metrosexual Quarashi, with contrasting rapping styles and vocal ranges.

­ALBUMS AND SUCCESS Rapping completely in En­glish, Quarashi experienced early national success with its EP Switchstance (1996), as all 500 copies sold in one week. Between 1996 and 1998, Quarashi toured Iceland to promote the ­album, opening for internationally known American hip hop groups such as the Fugees (1992–1997) and released its eponymous debut studio ­album (aka The Egg A ­ lbum, 1997). Quarashi’s second ­album, Xeneizes (1999) topped the Icelandic ­album chart and was certified Gold in Iceland. Its third studio a­lbum, Kristnihald undir Jökli (Chris­tian­ity ­under the ­Glacier, 2001), was an instrumental soundtrack ­album to 20th-­century Icelandic novelist, poet journalist, and playwright Halldór Laxness’s (Halldór Guðjónsson,

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1902–1998) play of the same title and—­with just 500 copies made—is now a rare find. Quarashi’s fourth ­album, Jinx (2002), was the group’s only ­album released internationally and recorded on a major American label, Columbia Rec­ords (1887–), in  New York City. Ironically titled, Jinx attained mixed reception, peaking at No. 104 on the Billboard 200. But just a week ­later, the a­ lbum fell to No. 144, and Quarashi began having issues with Columbia. Jinx sold just 100,000 copies in the United States, and in 2004, the label dropped Quarashi. Returning to Reykjavík, Hössi left the band to attend the University of Iceland and was replaced by rapper Tiny (Egill Olafur Thorarensen, 1984–). Quarashi’s fifth studio ­album, Guerilla Disco (2005), was well received, though with Tiny’s influence it represented a change in Quarashi’s sound from pop-­infused rap to gangsta rap. ­After a worldwide tour in 2005, Quarashi broke up. In 2016, Quarashi, including Hössi, re­united. “Chicago” (2016) is the new lineup’s first new single. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Beastie Boys; Gangsta Rap; Iceland; Turntablism

Further Reading

Marino, Nick. 2002. “Q&A Rappers from Iceland—­How Warped Is That?” Interview with Quarashi. Florida Times Union (Jacksonville), August 2, WE13. Mitchell, Tony. 2015. “Icelandic Hip Hop from ‘Selling American Fish to Icelanders’ to Reykjavíkdætur (Reykjavík ­Daughters).” Journal of World Popu­lar ­Music 2, no. 2: 240–60.

Further Listening

Quarashi. 1997. Quarashi. Japis. Quarashi. 2004. Guerilla Disco. Dennis.

Queen Latifah (Dana Elaine Owens, 1970–­, Newark, New Jersey) Queen Latifah is known as the First Lady of Hip Hop. She has had a rich and varied ­career, from being an Afrocentric and feminist rapper to a sitcom actor, film actor, talk show host, jazz vocalist, Cover Girl model and spokesperson, and Curvation lingerie model. Her raps explore themes of African American female empowerment and stands in stark contrast to her con­temporary male rappers. The name Latifah is Arabic and means sensitive, kind, and beautiful. It is her stage name, but Owens says she ­adopted it when she was eight years old. In 1989, she added the moniker “Queen” when she released her first ­album, All Hail the Queen. Unlike some female rappers, such as Lil’ Kim (1975–) and Roxanne Shanté (1969–), Queen Latifah is famous for her refusal to package her body as a sexual object, preferring instead athletic wear, comfortable clothes, or sophisticated, dignified styles of dress. She has also insisted on maintaining artistic and financial control of her ­music. In 1995, with Shakim Compere (1967–), she founded her own label and management com­pany, Flavor Unit Entertainment (1995–), which she took over from Flavor Unit,



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a collective of MCs and DJs that was founded around 1990. Queen Latifah’s voice is in the contralto or first alto range. It is clear and strong, and her diction and intonation are impeccable, both in singing and rapping. Her lyr­ics are thus easy to hear and take the foreground in all of her ­music, ­whether in rap, jazz, or R&B. The R&B influence is heard clearly in her rap songs, whose beats often use horns and saxophone. AC ­ AREER IN RAP Queen Latifah launched her rapping ­career at the age of 18 with her single “Wrath of My Madness” (1988), released by Tommy Boy Rec­ords (now Tommy Boy Entertainment, 1981–). A year ­later, she released the ­album All Hail the Queen (1989). Her hit single from this ­album, “Ladies First,” a duet with British rapper and Native Tongues Posse (1988–1996) member Monie Love (Simone Gooden, 1970–), established her reputation as a serious rapper with a strong female message. Over beats with horns and wailing saxophone riffs, Queen Latifah ends one memorable phrase by pointing out her m ­ usic w ­ ill place “ladies first.” During the early 1990s, she was connected with two impor­tant Afrocentric rap collectives, Afrika Bambaataa’s (1957–) Universal Zulu Nation (1973–) and the Native Tongues Posse. Her second ­album was Nature of a Sista’ (1991, also with Tommy Boy), and ­after lukewarm reviews, she moved to Motown Rec­ords (1959–), where she produced Black Reign (1993). Her hit song “U.N.I.T.Y.” from Black Reign, like “Ladies First,” is a hymn to black female empowerment, and won the 1995 Grammy for Best Rap Solo Per­for­mance. The song was a call for unity in the African American community to stop putting down black ­women by calling them names such as b—­or ho. As a testament to this hit’s far-­reaching influence, Queen Latifah performed it at the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize Concert. Her subsequent ­albums, Order in the Court (rap, Flavor Unit/Motown, 1998), The Dana Owens A ­ lbum (jazz standards, Interscope, 2004), and Trav’lin’ Light (pop standards, Verve, 2007), did not achieve the hit status of All Hail the Queen or Black Reign. “Ladies First” and “U.N.I.T.Y.” remain her two most famous rap hits. FROM RAPPING TO ACTING In the early 1990s, concurrent with her rising success as a rapper, Queen Latifah established herself as a tele­vi­sion and film actor. By the 2000s, her ­career shifted away from rap and ­toward acting. She played the lead role of Khadijah James in the syndicated tele­vi­sion series Living Single (1993–1998) and appeared in single episodes of vari­ous tele­vi­sion shows including The Fresh Prince of Bel Air (1991), Spin City (2001), Eve (2004), and 30 Rock (2010), among ­others. She also plays the voice of Ellie in the American animated Ice Age films from Blue Sky Studios, a division of 20th ­Century Fox. Notable film appearances include Matron Mama Morton in Chicago (2002), for which she was nominated for an Oscar as Best Actress in a Supporting Role and won a BET award for Best Actress, Motormouth Maybelle in Hairspray (2007), and Angela in Miracles from Heaven (2016).

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In 2015, she played the Wiz in an innovative new genre, the live tele­vi­sion production of a musical, The Wiz Live! The move away from rap in the 2000s t­oward an acting ­career enabled Queen Latifah to extend her influence into mainstream American popu­lar culture. In 2006, she became the first hip hop artist to be awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As of 2018, she remains a role model for the next generation of female rap artists. Terry Klefstad See also: Fashion; Missy Elliott; Native Tongues; The United States; The Universal Zulu Nation

Further Reading

Hirji, Faiza. 2007. “Queen Latifah.” Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, ­Music, and Culture, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 1, pp. 217–42. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Roberts, Robin. 1994. “ ‘Ladies First’: Queen Latifah’s Afrocentric Feminist ­Music Video.” African American Review 28, no. 2: 245–57.

Further Listening

Queen Latifah. 1989. All Hail the Queen. Tommy Boy. Queen Latifah. 1993. Black Reign. Motown. Queen Latifah. 2009. Persona. Flavor Unit Rec­ords.

Queen Pen (Lynise Walters, 1972–­, Brooklyn, New York) Queen Pen is an American rapper and author, best known for her collaborations with BLACKstreet (1991–), from New York, and Me’Shell Ndegeocello (Michelle Lynn Johnson, 1968–), born in Berlin, as well as for recording one of the first hip hop tracks that openly portrayed the LGBT experience, “Girlfriend” (1997). Following the release of her second a­ lbum, Conversations with Queen (2001), Queen Pen has shifted her c­ areer t­oward writing, having self-­published Situations (2002), a book of short stories, and Blossoms (2006), a novel. She also works closely with the New York nonprofit ­Children of Promise, an organ­ization devoted to breaking the cycle of intergenerational involvement in the criminal justice system. Queen Pen first gained widespread recognition when she performed as a featured rapper on BLACKstreet’s 1996 multimillion-­selling single “No Diggity.” She was a protégé of producer and band member Teddy Riley (1967–), who included her on a verse of “No Diggity” and also produced all of the tracks on her first full-­ length ­album, My Melody (1997), which included “Girlfriend.” The song featured neo soul artist (and out lesbian) Me’Shell Ndegeocello’s playing bass and singing. The chorus of “Girlfriend” borrows the chorus of her single “If That’s Your Boyfriend (He ­Wasn’t Last Night)” (1993) by substituting the word “girlfriend” for “boyfriend” and thereby suggesting a same-­sex encounter. Critical of the lack of m ­ usic available for lesbians of color, Queen Pen wanted to convey the experiences of an underrepresented group in the track. In interviews (for example, in the New York Times), she has been cagey about disclosing her own sexual orientation, claiming



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that she would not discuss the topic (1998), that she was straight (2001), and that she was bisexual (2008). Although “Girlfriend” garnered praise and was widely regarded by critics as a milestone for its subject, not every­one was a fan of the track or its message. In 1998, rapper Foxy Brown (Inga DeCarlo Fung Marchand, 1978–) recorded two dif­fer­ ent diss tracks, “10% Diss” and “Talk to Me,” both of which contained a number of homophobic slurs directed at both Queen Pen and Queen Latifah (1970–). Critics suggested that Queen Pen’s single “I Got Cha” (2001) was a response to Foxy Brown, but Queen Pen denied t­ hose claims. Amanda Sewell See also: Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Jamison, Laura. 1998. “A Feisty Female Rapper Breaks a Hip Hop Taboo.” The New York Times, January 18, B34. Keyes, Cheryl. 2000. “Empowering Self, Making Choices, Creating Spaces: Black Female Identity via Rap ­Music Per­for­mance.” Journal of American Folklore 113: 255–69.

Further Listening

Queen Pen. 1997. My Melody. Interscope. Queen Pen. 2001. Conversations with Queen. Motown.

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R Reggae Reggae is a musical genre that originated in 1960s Jamaica, becoming popu­lar when Kingston bands such as Bob Marley and the Wailers (1963–1981) and Toots and the Maytals (1962–1981, 1997–) in­ven­ted a new sound that combined beats from mento, ska, rock steady, R&B, and gospel. The term reggae itself was possibly introduced in 1968 in a single by the Maytals titled “Do the Reggay,” based on the name of a dance made popu­lar by the new ­music that was replacing rocksteady ­music (and rocksteady dance) in Jamaica. The single was part of a package deal, the B side being “Motoring,” by Beverley’s Rec­ords (1961–1971) combination band, Beverley’s All Stars. The single was also picked up in 1968 by Pyramid Rec­ords (1961–1971) in the United Kingdom.

EARLY CLASSICS Despite the Maytals’ benchmark recordings in the development of reggae, it was Bob Marley (Robert Nesta Marley, 1945–1981) who internationalized the m ­ usic through his key collaborations with London producer Chris Blackwell (Christopher Percy Gordon Blackwell, 1937–). Ska and rocksteady musician and producer Prince Buster (Cecil Bustamente Campbell, 1938–) from Kingston, Jamaica, provided the financial investment needed to internationalize reggae, bringing the sound to ­Great Britain in the 1960s. By 1962, Blackwell had collected five thousand dollars from financial backers to re­create Island Rec­ords, Ltd. (1959–) into a distribution outlet for leading Jamaican rec­ords. Blackwell put his trust in Marley and his Jamaican cohorts, Bunny Livingston (aka Jah B, Neville O’Riley Livingston, 1947–) and Peter Tosh (Winston Hubert McIntosh, 1944–1987), two members of the original Wailers, and helped them release solo ­albums. During Blackwell’s sustained collaboration with Marley, Island Rec­ords released the Wailers’ Catch a Fire (1973) and Burnin’ (1973), as well as Bob Marley and the Wailer’s Natty Dread (1975), Rastaman Vibration (1976), Exodus (1977), Kaya (1978), Babylon by Bus (1978), Survival (1979), and Uprising (1980). The wide success of Bob Marley and the Wailers was also made pos­si­ble by ­those of the three female backing vocalists, known as the I-­Threes (n.d.), who played in the band. ­These three black ­women ­were Marcia Llyneth Griffiths (1949–), Rita (Alpharita Constantia Marley, 1946–), and Judy (Judith Veronica Mowatt, 1952–). ­These w ­ omen provided not only morale and emotional support for the group, but also singing skills, appeal, class, and deportment that helped propel the band to

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success and pop­u­lar­ize the classic image of the “Rastawoman” that has now influenced hairstyle, fashion, and other popu­lar cultures worldwide. The phenomenal success of Bob Marley and the Wailers inspired the contiguous rise and prominence of other reggae stars, including Burning Spear (Winston Rodney, 1945–) and Dennis Brown (Dennis Emmanuel Brown, 1957–1999). Known as “The Crown Prince of Reggae,” Brown was one of the first musicians who, like Marley, left indelible imprints on development of reggae. Unfortunately, Brown, like Marley, died young, collapsing in 1999 from illnesses ascribed to asthma and drug use. Between 1978 and 1998, Brown performed at nearly ­every Reggae Sunsplash, the largest gathering of reggae artists held in Jamaica annually, influencing all genres of Jamaican ­music, from roots reggae to dancehall and ragga. Brown’s m ­ usic has had a cultural/historical as well as musical impact on reggae, due in large part to his infusion of rock-­and-­roll rhythms and R&B vocal syncopations into reggae. His impact can be seen with con­temporary reggae musicians such as Jamaica’s Freddy McGregor (1956–) and Ju­nior Reid (Delroy Reid, 1963–), and London’s Maxi Priest (Max Alfred Elliott, 1961–) and the band Aswad (1975–), as well as other bands that pop­u­lar­ized the original forms of dancehall. OFFSHOOTS: DANCEHALL AND RAGGA MUFFIN Since the early 1990s, the term “dancehall” has been used to describe reggae that deemphasized slower tempos and spiritual concerns to create a more danceable m ­ usic so that ­people could enjoy a more vibrant and energetic reggae experience, one that catered to physical movement more than meditation. Rather than from traditionalists roots ­music, dancehall came about as a version of ragga (aka Ragga Muffin), a ­music associated with Kingston acts such as Shabba Ranks (Rexton Rawl­ston Fernando Gordon, 1966–), Buju Banton (Mark Anthony Myrie, 1973–), Sizzla (aka Sizzla Kalonji, Miguel Orlando Collins, 1976–), and Patra (Dorothy Smith, 1972–), as well as Islington, Jamaica’s Capelton (Clifton George Bailey III, 1967–) and Trelawny, Jamaica’s Anthony B (Keith Blair, 1976–). Roots and dancehall versions of reggae share a common cele­bration of Rastafarianism (1930s–) and rebelliousness against oppression. Some traditionalist roots artists and bands include ­these Kingston acts: U-­Roy (Ewart Beckford, 1942–), Yabby You (Vivian Jackson, 1946–2010), Big Youth (Manley Augustus Buchanan, 1949–), Horace Andy (1951–), Mutabaruka (Allan Hope, 1952–), Don Carlos (1952–), Gregory Isaacs (1951–2010), Jacob Miller (1952–1980), Johnny Clarke (1955–), Sugar (Lincoln Barrington Minott, 1956–2010), Michael Prophet (Michael George Haynes, 1957–2017), Eek-­A-­Mouse (Ripton Joseph Hylton, 1957–), Michael Rose (1957–), Earl Sixteen (Earl John Daley, 1958), Hugh Mundell (1962–1983), Ju­nior Reid (Delroy Reid, 1962–), Frankie Paul (Paul Blake, 1965–2017), Tenor Saw (Clive Bright, 1966–1988), and Mark Won­der (Mark Andrew Thompson, n.d.), among many ­others. In addition to t­hese legends are a number of acts from outside Kingston: Saint James Parish, Jamaica’s Jimmy Cliff (James Chambers, 1948–); Clarendon, Jamaica’s Freddie McGregor (1956–); Birmingham, ­England’s Steel Pulse (1975–); and

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Falmouth, Jamaica’s Twinkle ­Brothers (1962–). ­Others include Christiana, Jamaica’s Ijahman Levi (Trevor Sutherland, 1946–); Ann Parish, Jamaica’s Max Romeo (1947–); Annotto Bay, Jamaica’s Beres Hammond (1955–); Port Antonio, Jamaica’s Mikey Dread (Michael George Campbell, 1954–2008); and Clarendon Parish, Jamaica’s Everton Blender (Everton Blender Everton Dennis Williams, 1954–), Cocoa Tea (Calvin George Scott, 1959–), and Barrington Ainsworth Levy (1964–); as well as Manchester Parish, Jamaica’s Garnet Silk (Garnett Daymon Smith, 1966–94), Luciano (Jepther McClymont, 1974–), and many other icons. ­These other idols include bands such as the Paragons (1960s–), the Melodians (1963–), the Gladiators (1968–), Inner Circle (1968–), the Wailing Souls (1968–), the Abyssinians (1969–), the Mighty Diamonds (1969–), the Mystic Revealers (1970–), Israel Vibrations (1970s–), Black Uhuru (1972–), Third World (1973–), the Meditations (1974–), Misty in Roots (1975–), the Congos (1975–), the Revolutionaries (1975–), the Itals (1976–), Culture (1976–), Morgan Heritage (1994–), and many other groups. DUB REGGAE Dub reggae is a mostly instrumental subgenre of reggae that emerged in the 1960s. It was named ­after producers’ activity of dubbing previously recorded reggae and modifying that material—­usually in ways that emphasized the drum and bass, often removing the vocal parts. “Dub” may also refer to the resultant recording, the modified yet recognizable double of the original. Just a ­couple of pioneers of dub reggae include Lee Scratch Perry (1936–) and King Tubby (1941–1989). Transforming reggae by electronically stretching the possibilities of voice, pitch, sound, rhythms, tonality, and other musical patterns with the dexterity of highly talented live musicians, dub reggae artists and technicians have defined a genre that appeals to selected fans from around the world. Big names of dub reggae artists include Sir Coxsone (Clement Seymour Dodd, 1932–2004), Mad Professor (Neil Joseph Stephen Fraser, 1955–), the Scientist (Hopeton Overton Brown, 1960–), the Heptones (1965–), the Upsetters (1968–), Dub Syndicate (1982–), the Aggrovators (1970s–), Black Uhuru (1972–), Sly and Robbie (1976–), Roots Radics (1978–), Zion Train (1990–), John Brown’s Body (1995–), Basque Dub Foundation (1990s–), and the Black Seeds (1998–). Dub reggae would become highly influential to other genres of ­music, most notably electronica, hip hop, and trip hop. NEW JAMAICAN ROOTS REGGAE Drawing from the legacy of early conscious reggae ­music, a new generation of roots artists has evolved out of Jamaica since the 1990s. T ­ hese icons include Bob Marley’s ­children, such as Cedella Marley (1967–), Ziggy Marley (David Nesta Marley, 1968–),  Jr. Gong Marley (Damian Robert Nesta Marley, 1978–), Raggamuffin Marley (Stephen Robert Nesta Marley, 1972–), Julian Ricardo Marley (1975–), and Ky-­Many Marley (1976–). Besides the Marley ­family, Peter

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Tosh’s son and Bunny Wailer’s (aka Jah B, Neville O’Riley Livingston, 1947–) nephew, Andrew Tosh (Carlos Andrew McIntosh, 1967–); Joseph Hill’s (1949– 2006) son Kenyatta Hill (1979–); and legendary dub musician Augustus Pablo’s (Horace Swaby, 1954–1999) son Addis Pablo (1989–) have, among other offspring of legends, kept their parents’ legacies alive. Other male reggae icons include St. Croix’s legend, Vaughn Benjamin, former member of the Midnite band and now member of Akae Beka and Jamaica’s Jahmali (Ryan Thomas, 1972–), Jah Cure (Siccature Alcock, 1978–), Tarrus Riley (Omar Riley, 1979–), I Wayne (Cliffroy Taylor, 1980–), Duane Stephenson (1976–), Jesse Royal (Jesse David Grey, 1989–), Chronixx (Jamar McNaughton, 1992–), and Raging Fyah (2011–). Although men have generally dominated Jamaican reggae, w ­ omen have played a role in the m ­ usic as well. Several ­women stars preceded or followed the footsteps of their male pioneers and contemporaries, expanding reggae’s reach to the United States, Eu­rope, and the rest of the world. ­These stars include Hortense Ellis (1941–), Phyllis Dillon (1944–), Millie Dolly May Small (1946–), Dawn Penn (1952–), ­Sister Nancy (Ophlin Russell, 1952–), Diana King (1970–), and Tanya Stephens (1973–). Treading on their elders’ paths, another generation of Jamaican ­women artists have reinvigorated reggae. ­These stars include the Jamaicans, Queen Ifrica (Ventrice Morgan, 1975–), Etana (Shauna Mc­Ken­zie, 1984–), Alaine Laughton (1978–), and the mystic voice of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, Dezarie (n.d.). T ­ hese ­women are as talented as their male peers who have also strengthened reggae’s stature over the past 15 years.

INTERNATIONALIZATION Since the early 1980s, reggae’s internationalization has created a complex system of musical borrowing whereby the Jamaican ­music first had to be introduced to the rest of the world and then had to make its way back to its homeland, in new versions, from many parts of the world; thus, many artists from Africa, Eu­rope, the Amer­i­cas, the Ca­rib­bean, Asia, Australia, and Oceania have contributed to reggae’s global development. For instance, in the 1980s, Dimbokro, the Ivory Coast’s Alpha Blondy (Seydou Koné, 1953–) created a new form of reggae that draws on the musical roots and spirituality of Jamaican reggae, and mixes them with ele­ments of Afrobeat, R&B, and rock ’n’ roll. Combining reggae with rhythms from his Dioula, Muslim, and Christian backgrounds, Alpha Blondy in­ven­ted a ­music that appealed to international audiences, earning him the title of “Africa’s Bob Marley.” Jamaican reggae musicians have influenced other major African musicians, including Dakar, Senegal’s Xalam (1969–), Ndiaga Diop (n.d.), Super Diamono de Dakar (1975–), and Youssou N’dour (1959–); Ziguinchor, Senegal’s Touré Kunda (1978–); Podor, Senegal’s Baba Maal (1953–); Sierra Leone’s Sebanoh 75 (1975– 1979); Enugu, Nigeria’s Sonny Okosun (1947–2008); Ermelo, Mpumalanga (Transvaal), South Africa’s Lucky Dube (1964–2007); Morocco’s Momo Cat (Mohammed Quiat, 1990s–); and Ethiopia’s Teddy Ab (2010s–), to name just a few.

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Outside Africa and Jamaica, equally strong reggae musicians have emerged. Beside the bands Aswad and Steel Pulse, ­England has produced internationally famous reggae bands such as UB40 (1978–), from Birmingham; Black Roots (1979–), from Bristol; and Alien Dread (1986*–). From the United States, major reggae bands such as Big Mountain (1988–), from San Diego, California; SOJA (Soldiers of Jah Army, 1997–), from Arlington, ­Virginia; and Rebelution (2004–), from Isla Vista (Goleta), California have carried reggae’s burning torch. Germany, Italy, France, and other parts of Eu­rope have produced captivating roots reggae that has evolved over the past de­cades. Headliner acts such as Osnabrück, Germany’s Gentleman (Tilmann Otto, 1975–) and Lage, Germany’s Uwe Banton (Uwe Schäfer, 1966–); Sicily, Italy’s Alborosie (Alberto D’Ascola, 1977–); and Kingston, Jamaica’s T.O.K. (1996–2015) have shown that reggae knows no race, color, nationality, or creed, that it belongs to anyone who has the strong w ­ ill to spread justice, love, and equality throughout the world and carry the message of Jah Rastafari, a title based on the birth name of Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie I (Ras Tafari Makonnen Woldemikael, 1892–1975; reign, 1930– 1974), whom many Rastafarians believe is a messenger of God and his incarnation on earth.

WORLDWIDE POPULARITY AND GENRE CROSSING Reggae’s worldwide popularity has led to both the creation of related musical styles as well as fusion. For example, reggaetón, a ­music born in Puerto Rico ­after the popularity of Shabba Ranks’ song “Dem Bow” (1990), uses reggae conventions as its basis. Ska and rocksteady, precursors to reggae, have always been associated with reggae. Sounding like reggae but played at a faster tempo, ska has enjoyed an international popularity, surging in the 1980s into the 1990s; its worldwide popularity has enhanced reggae’s own popularity. Dub m ­ usic, a subgenre of reggae that began in the 1960s, is a precursor of dubstep, which has become popu­lar worldwide in the electronic dance ­music scene (beginning in the late 1990s in the United Kingdom). Since the late 1970s, reggae has also had a major influence on punk ­music, with bands such as the Clash (1976–1986), and by the 1980s it had been incorporated in new wave and hip hop. Countless hip hop artists and bands worldwide embrace reggae in their m ­ usic, some placing more emphasis on reggae than ­others. Just a few artists and bands who not only fuse reggae with hip hop, but have also made reggae a major part of their sound are Positive Black Soul (PBS, 1989–), Shaggy (1968–), Fugees (1992– 1997), Michael Franti and Spearhead (1994–), Moana and the Moahunters (aka Moana and the Tribe, 1991–1998, 2002–), Akon (1973–), Daara J (1997–), Intik (1988–2001), Ivy Queen (1972–), Don Omar (William Omar Landrón, 1978–), Vico C (Luis Armando Lozada Cruz, 1971–), Super Cat (William Anthony Maragh, 1963–), and Snow (Darrin Kenneth O’Brien, 1969–). Babacar M’Baye See also: Daara J; Franti, Michael; Fugees; Intik; Ivy Queen; Jamaica; Moana and the Moahunters; Reggaetón; Shaggy

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Further Reading

Chang, Kevin O’Brien, and Wayne Chen. 1998. Reggae Routes: The Story of Jamaican ­Music. Philadelphia: T ­ emple University Press. Thompson, Dave. 2002. Reggae and Ca­rib­bean ­Music. San Francisco: Backbeat Books. White, Timothy. 2000. Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley. New York: Henry Holt.

Further Listening

Alpha Blondy. 2007. Jah Victory. Mediacom. Bob Marley and the Wailers. 1984. Legend: The Best of Bob Marley and the Wailers. Island Rec­ords. Marley, Bob. 2007. Remixed & Unmixed. ­Music Brokers. Marley, Ziggy. 2016. Ziggy Marley. Tuff Gong Worldwide. Shabba Ranks. 1990. Rappin’ with the Ladies. Greensleeves Rec­ords. Super Cat. 1995. The Strug­gle Continues. Columbia. Touré Kunda. 1980. É’mma Africa (Ms. Africa). Celluloid. UB40. 1983. ­Labour of Love. Virgin. Yellowman & Fathead, Purpleman, and ­Sister Nancy. 1983. The Yellow, The Purple, and The Nancy. Greensleeves Rec­ords/Shanachie Rec­ords.

Reggaetón Reggaetón is a ­music genre that combines vibrant percussive beats, synthesized sounds, and the instrumental components of vari­ous genres of m ­ usic. Some of the musical aspects that reggaetón incorporates are the percussive and vocal styles of dancehall, R&B singing, salsa, merengue, rapping or MCing, and the guitar and horn riffs of bachata (dance ­music from the Dominican Republic that derives from Cuban bolero and son, and sometimes Dominican merengue). In terms of its rhythmic structure, the most notable characteristic of reggaetón is the dem bow (pronounced “dem-­boh,” which when translated from Jamaican patois means “them bow,” the rhythm that is at the core of most songs). It is a rhythm derived from legendary reggae and dancehall musician Shabba Ranks’ (Rexton Rawl­ston Fernando Gordon, 1966–) classic Jamaican dancehall hit “Dem Bow” (1991), which was notable for its “boom-­chick-­boom-­chick” beat. Just as notable as the dem bow percussive rhythm is in reggaetón, so too is the hip hop lyrical delivery of reggaetón artists. When they are not singing in the R&B style, most are rapping in Spanish. EARLY HISTORY The early history of reggaetón traces to Panama, but its evolution into the ­music genre that is known ­today occurred in Puerto Rico. In the mid-1800s, Afro-­ Caribbean ­people from the English-­speaking Ca­rib­bean islands (also referred to as the West Indies) began immigrating to Panama to work on the construction of the Panama Canal. Most remained in the country ­after its construction was complete, and ­others continued to immigrate to work on banana plantations. Afro-­ Caribbean p­ eople maintained cultural and musical traditions that originated in the West Indies. Reggae developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s.

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In the 1980s dancehall, a faster paced, urban themed subgenre, developed, Afro-­ Caribbean ­people imported both kinds of ­music to Panama by exchanging rec­ords and audiocassettes with ­family members. In order to reflect their Panamanian culture and use of Spanish, Afro-­Caribbean ­people made reggae en español (reggae in Spanish) and the roots of reggaetón ­were planted. Early reggae en español had a sound more similar to the dancehall m ­ usic of Jamaican artists such as Shabba Ranks and Buju Banton (Mark Anthony Myrie, 1973–) than the “roots reggae” ­music of Bob Marley (1945–1981). Panamanians El General (Edgardo Franco, 1959–) and 1980s musician Nando Boom (Fernando Orlando Brown Mosley) are widely acknowledged as reggaetón’s pioneers. As early reggae en español was transported throughout the Ca­rib­bean via travelers, mi­grant laborers, families relocating, and friends sharing m ­ usic, it took root in Puerto Rico, a small island in the Ca­rib­bean. Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States in which ­people have U.S. citizenship. ­Because of their citizenship status, Puerto Ricans have historically traveled frequently between the island and the U.S., particularly New York City. At a crossroads between countries, Puerto Rico’s location in the Ca­rib­bean made it a place where ­people immigrate to and from other islands (especially the Dominican Republic) to work, and its connection to the United States made it a prime location for dif­fer­ent genres of ­music to meet and be hybridized into a new genre. Hip hop, R&B, salsa, merengue, and bachata w ­ ere infused into reggae en español, transforming it into reggaetón. TEXTS AND NOTABLE ACTS The lyr­ics of reggaetón span a range of topics. Some songs focus on ele­ments of nightlife leisure, such as being with friends, dancing, courting, and seeking sexual conquests with romantic partners. ­There are also reggaetón songs that thematically are concerned with love, national identity and pride, and social critique. Tego Calderón (Tegui Calderón Rosario, 1971–), from Santurce, has protested racial in­equality in Puerto Rico in vari­ous songs, and has been a pioneer of consciousness raising reggaetón. Some other prominent reggaetón artists from Puerto Rico include Wisin y Yandel (1998–), Don Omar (William Omar Landrón, 1978–), Calle 13 (2004–), Zion Y Lennox (2004–n.d.), and Ivy Queen (1972–). Calderón, Calle 13, Don Omar, Ivy Queen, and Wisin y Yandel are also hip hop artists. Reggaetón’s reach extends to the United States and throughout the Spanish speaking Ca­rib­bean where reggaetón artists are building fame in the Dominican Republic and Cuba. It is also popu­lar throughout Mexico, as well as Central and South Amer­i­ca, where it remains among the most celebrated and enjoyed popu­lar ­music. Reggaetón’s broad Latin American appeal has converted it for many into a symbol of pan-­Latino identity and pride. Sabia McCoy-­Torres See also: Ivy Queen; Panama; Puerto Rico; Reggae

Further Reading

Baker, Geoffrey. 2011. Buena Vista in the Club: Rap, Reggaetón, and Revolution in Havana. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

600 Rihanna Rivera, Raquel Z., Wayne Marshall, and Deborah Pacini Hernandez. 2009. Reggaetón. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Rivera-­Rideau, Petra. 2016. “From Panama to the Bay: Los Rakas’ Expressions of Afrolatinidad.” In La Verdad: An International Dialogue on Hip Hop Latinidades, edited by Melissa Castillo-­Garsow and Jason Nicholls, chap. 4. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.

Further Listening

Don Omar. 2003. The Last Don. VI ­Music. Nando Boom. 1991. Reggae Español. Shelly’s Rec­ords. Shabba Ranks. 1990. Just Real­ity. VP Rec­ords.

Rihanna (Robyn Rihanna Fenty, 1988–­, Saint Michael, Barbados) Rihanna is an internationally known Barbadian singer-­songwriter, model, actress, and fashion designer who performs primarily R&B, pop, reggae, and electronic dance ­music; her ­music often employs hip hop ele­ments such as rapping, beats, and loops. Her studio ­albums that contain hip hop include Good Girl Gone Bad (2007), Rated R (2009), and Talk That Talk (2011), and many of her Billboard Hot 100 hit singles contain hip hop ele­ments: “We Ride” (2006); “Umbrella” and “­Don’t Stop the ­Music” (both 2007); “Hard,” “Wait Your Turn,” and “Rockstar 101” (all 2009); “Te Amo” and “What’s My Name?” (both 2010); “Talk that Talk” (2011); “Where Have You Been” (2012); and “Work” and “Nothing Is Promised” (both 2016). ­After moving to New York City at 16, Rihanna signed with Def Jam Recordings (1983–). She has collaborated with hip hop producers and artists, including Jay-­Z (1969–), Kanye West (1977–), Drake (1986–), Eminem (1972–), Ne-­Yo (Shaffer Chimere Smith, 1979–), Nicki Minaj (1982–), and Chris Brown (1989–). In 2009, Rihanna’s relationship with Brown made media headlines when he physically assaulted her in a domestic vio­lence incident. A mezzo-­soprano, Rihanna participates in hip hop by singing contrasting lyrical passages to featured rappers, but since Good Girl Gone Bad, Rihanna sometimes raps. Her rapping, usually autotuned, can be heard in “Wait Your Turn,” “Hard,” and 2012’s “Cockiness (Love It).” Her rap lyr­ics focus on love, money, and fashion. As of 2018, Rihanna is the youn­gest solo artist to have as many as 12 No. 1 singles on Billboard’s Hot 100. She has also won eight Grammy Awards, and all eight of her studio ­albums have been certified Platinum or multi-­Platinum. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Barbados; Reggae; The United States

Further Reading

Fleetwood, Nicole R. 2012. “The Case of Rihanna: Erotic Vio­lence and Black Female Desire.” African American Review 45, no. 3: 419–35. Jones, Esther. 2013. “On the Real: Agency, Abuse, and Sexualized Vio­lence in Rihanna’s ‘Rus­sian Roulette.’ ” African American Review 46, no. 1: 71–86. Rodier, Kristin, and Michelle Meagher. 2014. “In Her Own Time: Rihanna, Post-­Feminism, and Domestic Vio­lence.” ­Women 25, no. 2: 176–93.



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Further Listening

Rihanna. 2009. Rated R. Def Jam Recordings/SRP Rec­ords. Rihanna. 2011. Talk That Talk. Def Jam/SRP.

Rob Base and DJ E-­Z Rock (1985–2014, Harlem, New York) Rob Base (Robert Ginyard, 1967–) and DJ E-­Z Rock (aka Skip, Rodney Bryce, 1967–2014) ­were a New York–­based hip hop duo known for the old-­school ­braggadocio and party rap and dance song “It Takes Two” (1988), which reached Nos. 36 and 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, respectively. Along with the Sugarhill Gang (1979–1985, 1994–), Run–­D.M.C. (1981–2002), DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince (1985–1994), MC Hammer (1962–), and Young MC (Marvin Young, 1967–), Rob Base and DJ E-­Z Rock is considered one of the pioneers of mainstream rap ­music. “It Takes Two”, from the Platinum ­album It Takes Two (1988), also reached No. 3 on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart and was certified multi-­Platinum. The song uses multiple samples, from “Think (About It),” a 1972 funk song by Lyn Collins (Gloria Lavern Collins, 1948–2005), and from vari­ous songs by James Brown (1933–2006). The ­album spawned two more hits, the synthesizer-­and bass-­heavy “Get on the Dance Floor” and the drum-­ and bass-­heavy “Joy and Pain.” The former went to the top spot on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart and reached No. 6 on Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs chart; the latter was the duo’s third Top 10 hit on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart, peaking at No. 9, and its second Hot 100 hit—it also reached No. 5 on the rap songs chart and No. 11 on the Hot R&B/Hip-­Hop Songs chart. Unfortunately, DJ E-­Z Rock soon had to leave the duo ­because of personal issues. Rob Base recorded one studio solo ­album in 1989, The Incredible Base, but it was not a commercial success, nor was the duo’s 1994 reunion ­album, Break of Dawn. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: The United States

Further Reading

Kelly, Dennis. 1991. “Base and E-­Z Rock Rap Way from Flop to Million-­Sellers.” Interview with Rob Base and DJ E-­Z Rock. Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania), April 5, 1991, D01. Webber, Stephen. 2008. DJ Skills: The Essential Guide to Mixing and Scratching. Burlington, MA: Focal Press.

Further Listening

Rob Base and DJ E-­Z Rock. 1988. It Takes Two. Profile Rec­ords.

Rob Swift (Robert Aguilar, 1972–­, Queens, New York) Rob Swift was an American DJ, turntablist, producer, and member of the DJ collective the X-­Ecutioners (aka X-­Men, 1989–), with whom he released three studio

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­albums: X-­Pressions (1997), Built from Scratch (2002), and Revolutions (2004). Rob Swift employs regular style scratching (as opposed to hamster style—­ reverse scratching that developed ­after his early years). His strengths include improvisation and musical swing. Though some techniques demonstrated athletic showmanship such as some ambidexterity (he ­favors scratching on the left deck while using his right hand to control the fader, but easily shifts hands when using the right deck) and choreography, Rob Swift’s turntablism is focused more on sound than on show or speed. Born Robert Aguilar to immigrant parents from Colombia, he grew up in Queens, New York. His ­father was a salsa and meringue DJ with a large rec­ord collection. By age 12, he learned turntablism, including selecting ­albums, by watching his older ­brother practice DJ and by studying videos of DJs at park jams. Through his ­father’s collection, he was introduced to jazz and funk. He also learned of the work of DJs such as Grandmaster Flash (1958–) and GrandWizard Theodore (1963–). In 1990, Rob Swift worked as a DJ while attending Baruch College, where he majored in psy­chol­ogy. Around this time, Rob Swift’s second mentor was Dr. Butcher (Andrew Venable, n.d.). A year ­later, both joined the X-­Men (­later the X-­Ecutioners), a turntablist crew known for their skills at beat juggling. Built from Scratch and Revolutions charted on the Billboard 200 at Nos. 15 and 118, respectively. The crew toured worldwide and appeared on national tele­vi­sion shows. Rob Swift joined the X-­Ecutioners in 1991, the same year he won the DMC East Coast DJ Championship and just five years before his X-­Ecutioners colleague and friend Roc Raida (aka Grandmaster Roc Raida, Anthony Williams, 1972– 2009) won the DMC World Championship title. In 2004, he left the X-Ecutioners to pursue a solo ­career in which he applied turntablism to jazz, soul, funk, electronica, and classical ­music. His studio ­albums include Soulful Fruit (1997), The Ablist (1999), Sound Event (2002), ­Under the Influence and Who Sampled This? (both 2003), OuMuPo 2 (2004), War Games (2005), and The Architect (2010), and he had one compilation ­album, Airwave Invasion (2001). Although he left the collective, Rob Swift continued to collaborate with the X-­Ecutioners on the ­albums General Patton vs. The X-­Ecutioners (2005), Ill Insanity (2008–), and Ground Xero (2008). Three years ­after Roc Raida’s untimely death from cardiac arrest due to surgery following a martial arts accident, Rob Swift released a collection of songs, both previously released and unreleased, interviews, and ­battle style routines on the ­album Roc for Raida (2012). Proceeds benefited Roc Raida’s ­family. Rob Swift’s solo ­albums demonstrate his eclectic musical tastes, sometimes fusing hip hop with funk, soul, as well as Ca­rib­bean and Cuban ­music. In Wargames he paired turntablism with po­liti­cal hip hop. Rob Swift also teaches turntablism, from making videos for turntablists to study and appearing in documentaries, to workshops and classes. Since 2014, he has held the position of professor at the New School for Liberal Arts in New York City, teaching the course DJ Skills and Styles. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Battling; Roc Raida; Turntablism; The United States; The X-­Ecutioners



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Further Reading

Katz, Mark. 2012. Groove ­Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ. New York: Oxford University Press. Webber, Stephen. 2008. DJ Skills: The Essential Guide to Mixing and Scratching. Burlington, MA: Focal Press.

Further Listening

Rob Swift. 1997. Soulful Fruit. Stones Throw. Rob Swift. 2005. War Games. Coup De Grace.

Robinson, Sylvia (Sylvia Vanderpool 1936–2011, New York City, New York) Sylvia Robinson, often called the “­Mother of Hip Hop,” was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and rec­ord producer. While still in her early teens, she recorded ­under the name ­Little Sylvia and ­later learned guitar to become half of the R&B duo Mickey and Sylvia (1956–1961). She is best known as co-­owner and CEO of Sugar Hill Rec­ords (1979–1985), which was the first recording label to specialize in hip hop. The year it was founded, Sugar Hill Rec­ords released “Rapper’s Delight” (1979) by the American hip hop and disco group the Sugarhill Gang (1979–1985, 1994–). This became the single that made hip hop popu­lar in the United States and worldwide. Many other notable old-­school hip hop artists, groups, and pioneers signed to the label soon afterward. ­These included Crash Crew (1977–), Funky 4 + 1 (1977– 1983), Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (1976–1982, 1987–1988), the Sequence (1979–1985), Treacherous Three (1978–1984), and the West Street Mob (1981–1984). FROM L ­ ITTLE SYLVIA TO MICKEY AND SYLVIA As a child, Sylvia Vanderpool enjoyed singing blues and began taking an interest in R&B. When she was 14, a Columbia Rec­ords staff member discovered her. Robinson was a soprano with a breathy quality that could sound sultry. ­After singing for Columbia, she moved onto Jubilee Rec­ords (1946–1970), a label specializing in R&B, doo-­wop, and novelty songs. Her 45-­R PM singles ­were “Drive ­Daddy Drive”/“I Found Somebody to Love” (1952), “A Million Tears”/“­Don’t Blame My Heart” (1952), and “Blue Heaven”/“The Ring” (1953). In 1953, Jubilee became the first in­de­pen­dent rec­ord label to have a popu­lar song by a black vocal group, the Orioles’ (1946–1956) “Crying in the Chapel,” reach a white audience. Meanwhile, Robinson began recording for Atlantic Rec­ords’ (1947–) Cat label (1954–1957*) and studied guitar with Mickey Baker (MacHouston Baker, 1925– 2012), a jazz and R&B guitarist from Louisville, Kentucky, who was inspired by the husband-­wife duo Les Paul and Mary Ford (1950–1964). In 1954, he and Robinson formed their duo, and in 1956, they had a hit with the classic “Love Is Strange,” an R&B song written by blues guitarists and singers Bo Diddley (Ellis Otha Bates, 1928–2008) and Jody Williams (Joseph Leon Williams, 1935–). The duo bought their own nightclub and formed a publishing com­pany and rec­ord label. Mickey

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and Sylvia had lesser known hits with “­There Oughta Be a Law” (1957), “What Would I Do” (1960), and “Baby, ­You’re So Fine” (1961). In 1959, they briefly broke up when she married real estate agent Joseph Robinson (n.d.), who became her man­ag­er and soon took interest in the ­music business. From 1960 to 1961, Mickey and Sylvia re­united and became backup singers for the R&B, soul, and rock and roll duo Ike and Tina Turner (1960–1976). ­After Mickey and Sylvia split up in 1961, Robinson began her solo c­ areer. FROM “PILLOW TALK” TO SUGAR HILL REC­ORDS AND HIP HOP PIONEER In the late 1960s, the Robinsons moved to Englewood, New Jersey and began their own rec­ord label, All Platinum (1967–1979), which specialized in soul and R&B. In 1973, Sylvia Robinson had a huge hit (as Sylvia) with “Pillow Talk,” from her funk and disco ­album of the same title, which was certified Gold. But the hits and high sales ended, and her subsequent ­albums Sweet Stuff (1976), Sylvia (1976), and Lay It on Me (1977) on Vibration (1969–1978), a division of All Platinum, ­were modest successes with mixed reception. ­After the com­pany purchased the last remaining songs of the Chess Rec­ords (1950–1975) cata­log, All Platinum fell into bankruptcy in 1979. That year the Robinsons founded Sugar Hill Rec­ords in partnership with Milton Malden (n.d.) and with funding by Morris Levy (Moishe Levy, 1927–1990), who owned Roulette Rec­ ords (1956–2013), the New York mob-­connected label that bought Jubilee’s cata­ logue. From the very beginning, Sugar Hill specialized in hip hop. This decision was Sylvia Robinson’s idea, ­after hearing Harlem World nightclub MC Lovebug Starski (Kevin Smith, 1960–) rapping during the instrumental breaks. Searching for talent, Robinson heard pizzaria man­ag­er Big Bank Hank (Henry Jackson, 1958– 2014) rapping over a PA system while working; she asked him to rec­ord and then teamed him up with a high school student known as Master Gee (Guy O’Brien, 1963–) and a flower salesman known as Won­der Mike (Michael Anthony Wright, 1956–) to form the Sugarhill Gang, named a­ fter an wealthy section of Harlem. The Sugerhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” was a 12-­inch single that had a duration of 15 minutes. Robinson played bass and joined in on the instrumental backing track, a sample (technically) of “Good Times” by Chic. The single sold over eight million copies and peaked at No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 4 on Billboard’s R&B chart. Globally, it topped charts in Canada and the Netherlands, and it held Top 10 status in Austria, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom—­all of which ­later developed lucrative hip hop markets. In 1980, the Sequence’s “Funk You Up” success followed “Rapper’s Delight” as did a string of other early hip hop hits for Sugar Hill Rec­ords, such as by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message” (1982) and Melle Mel’s (1961–) “White Lines (­Don’t Don’t Do It)” (1983). Sylvia Robinson’s work at Sugar Hill Rec­ords required her to wear many hats as she was involved in A&R (talent searching and developing), promotion, sound engineering and production, backing ­music and vocals, marketing, and finances. All ­were balanced by her being a supportive and involved wife, ­mother, and grand­ mother. Financial and ­legal issues led to the end of Sugar Hill Rec­ords in 1985,



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and subsequently Sylvia divorced Joe Robinson while they ­were dealing with litigation against Won­der Mike and Master Gee (who lost their case against Sugar Hill Rec­ords and had to relinquish their band name). In addition, the Robinson’s dealt with litigation against MCA Rec­ords (1934–2003) over a distribution deal. In 1994, Rhino Rec­ords purchased Sugar Hill Rec­ords’ masters. The ­couple retained the studios in Englewood ­until a fire destroyed them. In 2011, Sylvia Robinson died at age 76 of congestive heart failure. In 2015, her autobiography and the most driven side of her personality became the basis of the tele­vi­sion character Cookie Lyon on Fox’s Empire, a show about the rise of a New York hip hop and entertainment com­pany. In 2018, a biographical miniseries on Robinson, The First ­Family of Hip Hop, aired on Bravo in the United States. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Grandmaster Flash; Melle Mel; The Sequence; Spoonie Gee; The Sugarhill Gang; The United States

Further Reading

Charnas, Dan. 2010. “­Album One: Number Runners.” In The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip Hop, chap. 1. New York: New American Library. George, Nelson. 1999. “Hip Hop ­Wasn’t Just Another Date.” In Hip Hop Amer­i­ca, chap. 2. London: Penguin Books.

Further Listening

Sylvia Robinson. 1973. Pillow Talk. Vibration.

The Robot (aka Roboting, Botting, or The Mannequin) The Robot is an illusionary dance style which has been incorporated into the moves of hip hop dancing since the 1970s, when funk and soul legend James Brown (1933– 2006) performed robotlike moves on stage while singing. The moves can be traced back into the 1960s, when it was used as part of the funk dance repertoire, as West Coast dancers w ­ ere already using robotic continuous robotic moves choreographed to the rhythm of funk and R&B ­music. Robotting can also be a per­for­mance rather than a dance, if the performer is a mime or statue imitator, imitating a robot without any m ­ usic. EARLY DEVELOPMENT The techniques it uses (roboting or botting) go back much farther, at least to the mimes of the 1920s. The technique is basically one of moving the arms, legs, neck, and head with stiff, quick, jerking motions that constantly start and stop, to mimic the movements of a robot or an automaton. The illusion created is one of the dancer’s being motorized and having stiff hinges rather than flexible joints. Though it should not be confused with popping and locking, which alternate between flexed (stiff) and relaxed movements, roboting is related and has been incorporated into popping and locking dances. In hip hop, the robotic stops do not turn into freezes. Rather they are dimestops, which are abrupt and last only a fraction of a second.

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The Robot was made internationally famous in a scene from the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) when En­glish actress and dancer Sally Ann Howes (1930–) danced on a pedestal, pretending to be a life-­size ­music box dancer. Meanwhile, American actor and dancer Dick Van Dyke (1925–) dances as loosely as pos­si­ble (marionetting), imitating a rag doll, for contrast. In her Robot, Howes keeps her muscles contracted or flexed the entire time, while constantly stopping and then starting her arm and head/neck motions, to create the illusion of a m ­ usic box dancer with motorized limbs. POPULARITY The Robot gained further popularity when Michael Jackson (1958–2009) and then two of his ­brothers used the dance’s techniques when the Jackson 5 performed  their billboard Hot 100 No.  2 hit “Dancing Machine” (1974, from the ­album Dancing Machine) live on the ­music variety show Soul Train (1971–2006). Unlike most dances, the Robot lends itself to the dancer’s using vocalizations rather than ­music. For example, a dancer could vocalize a series of beeping sounds or the sounds of a ­belt moving a mechanical limb; this is often done in solo per­for­ mances in full costume; however, the visual impact of roboting is most effective when moves (and dimestops) are timed out to coincide with the beat (or backbeat) of a song. Considered one of the best Soul Train dancers ever, Damita Jo Freeman (1953–) specialized in ­doing the Robot, at one point performing a solo on stage during a James Brown per­for­mance on the show, further popularizing roboting as a funk, soul, and hip hop technique that could be incorporated into vari­ous dance styles. As of 2018, hip hop dancers still use roboting in combination with other dance styles such as popping and locking or with fluid steps such as moonwalking in competitive per­for­mances. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: The Electric Boogaloos; Hip Hop Dance; Popping and Locking

Further Reading

Gaunt, Kyra Danielle. 2006. “Mary Mack Dressed in Black: The Earliest Formation of a Popu­lar ­Music.” In The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double-­ Dutch to Hip Hop, chap. 3. New York: New York University Press. Guzman-­Sanchez, Thomas. 2012. “The Next Evolution in Oakland.” In Underground Dance Masters: Final History of a Forgotten Era, chap. 4. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.

Roc Raida (aka Grandmaster Roc Raida, Anthony Williams, 1972–2009, New York City, New York) Roc Raida is an American DJ, turntablist, producer, and member of the DJ collective the X-­Ecutioners (aka X-­Men, 1989–). In 1995, he won the DMC World DJ



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Championship—­his routine involved constant, quick switches of rec­ords, unexpected tempo changes, posing/dancing during minutely timed silences, and efforts of showmanship such as turning his back to the turntable and reaching over himself to play rec­ords with the opposite hand. In 1999, he was inducted into the DMC Hall of Fame. With the X-­Ecutioners, Roc Raida released three studio ­albums: X-­Pressions (1997); Built from Scratch (2002); and Revolutions (2004). Roc Raida also DJed as part of a duo with underground MC MF Grimm (Percy Carey, 1970–). He released several solo ­albums, usually through his label AdiarCor Rec­ords (2000–2009); ­these used beats, including his Beats for Jugglers series, that could be used in DJ competitions. His early self-­released, solo mixtapes include The Adventures of Roc Raida . . . ​One Too Many! (1997) and The Adventures of Roc Raida: “Stuck in the Past” (1997). Once Roc Raida established himself, he released Crossfaderz: Roc Raida of the X-­Ecutioners, a Turntablists Throwdown (2000), on the Moonshine ­Music (1992–) label and Champion Sounds (2003), as Grandmaster Roc Raida, on the DMC (Disco Mix Club, 1983–) label. He also coreleased with DJ Vlad (aka Vlad the Butcher, Vladimir Lyubovny, 1973–) and Mike Shinoda (1977–) of Linkin Park (1996–) the ­album Rock Phenomenon: Hip Hop vs. Rock Mashups (2005), which blended rock songs with hip hop beats and songs. Rock Phenomenon won the Mash-­Up Mixtape of the Year at the Justo Mixtape Awards. One of his last releases, Beats, Cuts and Skits (2007), was on AdiarCor. As a producer, he has worked with the duos Ill Al Skratch (1993–1997, 2012–), Showbiz and A.G. (aka Show and A.G., 1990–), and Smif-­N-­Wessun (aka Cocoa Brovaz, 1993–), as well as bands and solo rappers such as Linkin Park (1996–), Jungle ­Brothers (1987–), Ghostface Killah (Dennis Coles, 1970–), and Big L (Lamont Coleman, 1974–1999). The biggest name with whom Roc Raida worked as a turntablist was Busta Rhymes (1972–). Roc Raida continued DJing u­ ntil his death in 2009 from an unexpected cardiac arrest due to surgery a­ fter a martial arts accident. Three years afterward, fellow X-­Ecutioner Rob Swift (Robert Aguilar, 1972–) released a collection of songs, both previously released and unreleased, interviews, and ­battle style routines, on the ­album Roc for Raida (2012). Proceeds benefitted Roc Raida’s f­ amily. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Battling; Rob Swift; Turntablism; The United States; The X-­Ecutioners

Further Reading

Katz, Mark. 2012. Groove ­Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ. New York: Oxford University Press. Webber, Stephen. 2008. DJ Skills: The Essential Guide to Mixing and Scratching. Burlington, MA: Focal Press. Williams, Damon C. 2003. “Roc at the Top: DJ Raida Hones the Art of Turntablism.” Interview with Rock Raida. Philadelphia Daily News, October 30, 29.

Further Listening

Roc Raida. 1997. The Adventures of Roc Raida . . . ​One Too Many! Self-­released. Roc Raida. 2000. Crossfaderz: Roc Raida of the X-­Ecutioners, a Turntablists Throwdown. Moonshine ­Music.

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Rock Steady Crew (RSC, 1977–­, Bronx, New York) The Rock Steady Crew (RSC), formed in 1977, by Jojo (Santiago Torres, n.d.) and Jimmy D (Jamie White, n.d.), is one of the first and most enduring b-­boy crews in the Bronx, New York. With many film appearances, ranging from feature films such as Flashdance and Wild Style to documentaries such as Style Wars (all three released in 1983), the RSC was, for many outside New York, responsible for introducing the public to hip hop dance. Their work has reached further into the mainstream than any other crew of its kind. The RSC gained wider attention in 1981 when Henry Chalfant (1940–), who also produced Style Wars, invited them to perform at the Lincoln Center Outdoors ­Program. This event became a ­battle with Dynamic Rockers (1979–) from Queens, New York and garnered much media coverage in New York as well internationally, in National Geographic. Through tele­vi­sion and film appearances and tours throughout the United States and Eu­rope, including a prominent role in the Roxy Tour (1982), the first international hip hop tour that also included the Bronx native Afrika Bambaataa (1957–), as well as Fab Five Freddy (1959–), and other artists and DJs, the crew continued to broaden their audiences. That same year, the RSC became part of the hip hop awareness group Universal Zulu Nation (1973–), underscoring a commitment to education, community, and preservation of hip hop culture. A 1983 invitation to perform for Queen Elizabeth II (1926–­, reign 1952–) confirmed their mainstream success. The RSC grew out of the Untouchable Four B-­Boys (1977), which included JoJo and Jimmy D, who deci­ded that expansion was in their best interest and formed the Rock Steady Crew. At this time, potential members had to ­battle existing members to join. According to Jojo, the name was both literal and meta­ phorical. It took into account the hardness of the floors on which dancers often performed (Rock), the desire to preserve the art of b-­boying (Steady), and the teamwork needed to support one another (Crew). The crew now has chapters throughout the world and has included such famed dancers from the Bronx as Crazy Legs (Richard Colón, 1966–), Frosty Freeze (Wayne Frost, 1963–), Popmaster Fabel (Jorge Pabon, 1965*–), and Ken Swift (Kenneth James Gabbert, 1966–). In the late 1980s creative difficulties among the members led to a brief hiatus. Responding to pressure to regroup from several quarters, Crazy Legs re­united the group in 1989. Several members contributed to a critically acclaimed Off-­Broadway musical, So! What Happens Now? (1991), considered the first piece of hip hop theatre. The crew still hosts annual anniversary parties, which serve as large-­scale community events, and is active in providing dance instruction. Susannah Cleveland See also: Crazy Legs; Filmmaking (Feature Films Made in the United States); Frosty Freeze; Ken Swift; Popmaster Fabel; The United States; The Universal Zulu Nation

Further Reading

Chang, Jeff. 2005. ­Can’t Stop, ­Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation. New York: Picador.

Rokafella 609 Mills, David. 1993. “A Leg Up for Hip Hop: Dance Masters Pass on the Art, and the History.” The Washington Post, May 25, B01. Schloss, Joseph G. 2009. Foundation: B-­Boys, B-­Girls, and Hip Hop Culture in New York. New York: Oxford University Press.

Further Viewing

Israel, dir. 2002. The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-­Boy. Chatsworth, CA: QD3 Entertainment. Lathan, Stan, dir. 1984. Beat Street. Santa Monica, CA: MGM Home Entertainment. Lee, Benson, dir. 2007. Planet B-­Boy. New York: ­Mental Pictures. Silver, Tony, dir. 1983. Style Wars. Los Angeles: Public Art Films.

Rokafella (Ana García, 1971–­, New York City, New York) Rokafella is a pioneering American b-­ girl and choreographer from Spanish Harlem in New York City. She is also a writer on hip hop dance. When she was 11  years old, she began breakdancing despite the fact that it went ­counter to her Puerto Rican ­family’s and community’s expectations for acceptable female be­hav­ior. Her earliest inspirations ­were Puerto Rican dancers such as Rita Moreno (Rosa Dolores Alverío, 1931–) and Iris Chacón (Iris Chacón Tapia, 1950–), as well as other American dancers and hip hop artists. She also idolized poet La Bruja (Caridad de la Luz, 1977–) and Afro-­Antillian/Puerto Rican rapper, hip hop artist, and activist Lah Tere (1979*–). Rokafella is known for exceptional, elaborate footwork; this specialization may also have reflected her interests in the tap, jazz, and modern dance of Gregory Hines (1946–2003) and Alvin Ailey (1931–1981). She is best known for dancing and choreography, as well as serving as a judge at

Rokafella was a pioneering female breakdancer (b-­girl) and choreographer from Spanish Harlem, New York, who danced with veteran breakdancer (and ­later husband) Kwikstep and his crew, Full Circle, as well as with GhettOriginal and other prominent New York City dance crews. Starting in the late 1990s, she also has been the lead singer of her band, RPM. (Johnny Nunez/WireImage/Getty Images)

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b-­boy competitions; however, she also participates in hip hop through singing (fronting the band RPM, 1996*–), acting, filmmaking, teaching, and writing. She has been active in hip hop preservation through making radio appearances and conducting interviews of hip hop artists. In 1991, veteran breakdancer Kwikstep (Gabriel Joseph Torres Dionisio, 1968–) began mentoring Rokafella. Kwikstep, whose own ­career began in 1981 in New York City, toured worldwide at age 19 with the New York Express (n.d.) dance crew when it appeared that hip hop ­music had already ended its commercial peak in the United States. Mentored by Kwikstep, Rokafella joined several notable dance crews, including the Breeze Team (n.d.), the Transformers (n.d.), New York City Float Committee (n.d.), and Kwikstep’s own New York City–­based crew Full Circle (1992–), as well as the dance com­pany GhettOriginal (1994–). Eventually, Rokafella and Kwikstep married, and they founded Full Circle Productions (1996–), a nonprofit hip hop dance collective that educates young ­people in the Bronx, New York. As of 2018, she continues teaching hip hop dance masterclasses that also cover hip hop’s historical and cultural aspects. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Battling; Breakdancing; Hip Hop Dance; Puerto Rico; The United States

Further Reading

Burbach, Elizabeth A. 2013. “Hittin’ the Streets with the NYC Tranzformerz.” Voices 39, nos. 1–2: 32–35. Kramer, Nika and Martha Cooper. 2005. We B*Girlz. Introduction by Ana “Rokafella” García. New York: powerHouse Books. Schloss, Joseph G. 2009. Foundation: B-­Boys, B-­Girls, and Hip Hop Culture in New York. New York: Oxford University Press.

Romania Romania, whose name goes back to 1866, is a sovereign state located in Southeastern Eu­rope. Its population of 20 million includes two million citizens of Bucharest, its largest city; Romanian citizens are mainly Eastern Orthodox Christians (consisting also of Greek Orthodox Christians) who speak Romanian. The country’s ­music is varied and multicultural and includes classical, religious, and secular folk as well as pop, metal, rock, and hip hop. Traditional instrumentation is region-­ specific and includes violins, tárogatós (woodwinds that resemble shawms or clarinets but sound like saxophones), ţilincă (flutes), cobza (lutes), and more recently double basses, accordions, hidede (a trumpet played by bowing a violin fret board), tambal (open piano–­t ype string instruments played with mallets), and drums. Romania was introduced to jazz and easy listening (called romanţe) ­after World War I, and ­after World War II, orchestral dance ­music and pop (called manele). The 1960s introduced nouveau traditional (called etno), con­temporary acoustic folk, and underground rock (which became mainstream ­after 1989 and divided into rock, metal, and punk styles), and the 1980s saw the emergence of synthesized dance ­music, h­ ouse m ­ usic, and hip hop.



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Romanian hip hop and break dancing ­were introduced in Bucharest in 1982 but stayed underground ­until the Romanian Revolution. The first Romanian hip hop group was Vorbire Directă (Direct Speech, 1992–), and the first hip hop ­album was Rap-­sodia efectului defectului (Defect Effect Rap-­sody, 1995), by Bucharest-­based hardcore sociopo­liti­cal rap crew R.A.C.L.A. (aka Rime Alese Care Lovesc Adânc, Handpicked Rhymes with a Deeper Meaning, 1993–2007, 2014–). R.A.C.L.A. was involved in a three-­way Romanian diss track war, with rival groups B.U.G. Mafia  (aka Black Underground, Bucharest Underground Mafia, 1993–) and La Familia (1996–), two rap crews that pop­u­lar­ized gangsta rap in Romania. B.U.G. Mafia started by rapping about governmental corruption, poverty, and crime in En­glish, but in 1995 transitioned to writing in Romanian. Also from Bucharest, La Familia became popu­lar in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and despite l­egal prob­ lems, continue to tour as of 2018. Another rap pioneer, rap trio Parazitii (The Parasites, 1994–), introduced atmospheric hip hop beats and dark po­liti­cal humor, as well as created the 20CM Rec­ords label in 2003. The current most popu­lar Romanian hip hop acts include rapper Guess Who (Laurenţiu Mocanu, 1986–) and rap group Şatra B.E.N.Z. (2015–). Bucharest-­born Guess Who has released four ­albums since 2005, and Şatra B.E.N.Z. introduced trap ­music in 2015 with its ­album θ.$.θ.D. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Breakdancing; Gangsta Rap; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Mafioso Rap; Rus­sia

Further Reading

Merila, Isabela, and Michaela Praisler. 2009. “Textually Constructing Identity and Otherness: Mediating the Romanian Hip Hop Message.” In Subcultures and New Religious Movements in Rus­ ­ sia and East-­ Central Eu­ rope, edited by George McKay, Christopher Williams, Michael Goddard, Neil Foxlee, and Egidija Ramanauskaitė, chap. 5. Oxford, ­England: P. Lang. Şorcaru, Daniel, and Floriana Popescu. 2009. “On Linguistic Politics: The Stylistic Testimonies of Romanian Hip Hop.” In Subcultures and New Religious Movements in Rus­sia and East-­Central Eu­rope, edited by George McKay, Michael Goddard, Neil Foxlee, and Egidija Ramanauskaitė, chap. 6. Oxford, ­England: P. Lang.

Further Listening

B.U.G. Mafia. 2011. Inapoi in viitor (Back to the F ­ uture). Casa Productions. Şatra B.E.N.Z. 2015. θ.$.θ.D. Seek M ­ usic.

The Roots (aka The Square Roots, 1987–­, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) The Roots is an American alternative and activist hip hop and rap band that incorporates ele­ments of neo soul and con­temporary jazz into its m ­ usic. The band was formed as the Square Roots by MC Black Thought (Tariq Luqmaan Trotter, 1971–) and drummer Questlove (aka ?uestlove, Ahmir Khalib Thompson, 1971–) as a jazz-­ influenced hip hop act that would feature traditional musical instruments. Soon afterward, the duo added electric bassist Rubberband (Josh Abrams, n.d.) for a brief

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time. The first stable lineup of the band consisted of Black Thought and Questlove, along with second MC Malik B. (Malik Abdul Basit, 1972–), keyboardist Scott Storch (n.d.), and bassist Hub (Leonard Nelson Hubbard, n.d.). The band’s name was changed to the Roots in 1992 to avoid confusion with a dif­fer­ent local band called the Square Roots.

FORMATION, A ­ LBUMS, AND TRACK COUNTING The band originated as a street busker act in Philadelphia, where Questlove played bucket drums while Black Thought rapped. Both ­were schoolmates from the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts. The Roots released its first ­album, Organix (1993) on an in­de­pen­dent label; the ­album lead to offers from major ­music labels, including Geffen Rec­ords (1980–), with whom the Roots signed. The band’s follow up ­album, Do You Want More?!!!??! (1994), and appearances at Lollapalooza and the Montreux Jazz Festival, bolstered its popularity, and the a­ lbum reached No. 28 on the Billboard 200. Beginning with Do You Want More?!!!??!, the Roots began an idiosyncratic continuous track listing of all its songs, calling attention to its ­music as a continuous endeavor. The third ­album, Illadelph Halflife (1996) reached No.  21, but it was the fourth ­album and the band’s first on MCA Rec­ords (1934–2003), ­Things Fall Apart (1999), which fi­nally broke the Top Ten, peaking at No. 4; it became the band’s first certified-­Platinum rec­ord and was nominated for a Grammy. The single “What They Do,” a parody of the rap scene, became the first of only two Top Forty hits for the band, peaking at No. 34 on the Hot 100. Over time, band members have departed to pursue other ­careers, with only Black Thought and Questlove remaining constant members. A membership change occurred before each of the next two a­ lbums, Phrenology (2002), which earned a Grammy nomination, and The Tipping Point (2004), which earned two more Grammy nominations, as did the next a­ lbum, Game Theory (2006), which marked the Roots’ moving to Def Jam Recordings (1983–). Game Theory honored the ­dying hip hop producer J Dilla (James Dewitt Yancey, 1974–2006). The band released four more studio ­albums, Rising Down (2008), How I Got Over (2010), Undun (2011), and  . . . ​And Then You Shoot Your Cousin (2014). A new ­album, End Game, was released in 2018. The band continues to tour extensively, including an annual pre-­Grammy jam session and an annual summer Roots Picnic. As of 2018, the Roots has released 11 studio ­albums, two mixtapes, and one live ­album, as well as a handful of collaborative a­ lbums with musicians such as John Legend (John Roger Stephens, 1978–) and Elvis Costello (Declan Patrick MacManus, 1954–). It was the ­house band on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (2009– 2014) and is the current ­house band on The To­night Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (2014–). The band has had six ­albums reach the Billboard 200 Top Ten, had 10 ­albums reach the Top Ten of the Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart, and has been nominated for 11 Grammy Awards, winning three. It has won two NAACP Image Awards and was the first hip hop band to perform at the Lincoln Center in 2002. Band members have been featured in four films, and the band has been involved



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with the Red Hot Organ­ization’s (1990–) musical proj­ects to raise money and awareness for AIDS victims. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Black Nationalism; Neo Soul; The United States

Further Reading

Marshall, Lewis Miles. 2015. “Root Theory.” Ebony 70, no. 12: 86–93. Questlove and Ben Greenman. 2013. Mo’ Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove. New York: ­Grand Central.

Further Listening

The Roots. 1999. ­Things Fall Apart. MCA Rec­ords. The Roots. 2006. Game Theory. Def Jam Recordings. The Roots and Elvis Costello. 2013. Wise Up: Ghost. Blue Note.

Roxanne Shanté (Lolita Shanté Gooden, 1969–­, Long Island, New York) Roxanne Shanté is an American rapper who grew up in the Queensbridge housing proj­ects of New York and was active primarily from 1984 to 1992. She is best known for her debut song, a diss track called “Roxanne’s Revenge.” Roxanne Shanté got her start as a rapper in 1984, when at 14 she recorded a response to “Roxanne, Roxanne,” a song by the Brooklyn, New York hip hop group U.T.F.O. (UnTouchable Force Organ­ization, 1984–1992). The original track features U.T.F.O. members describing a w ­ oman named Roxanne who dismisses their advances. Her response, “Roxanne’s Revenge,” was the first of many subsequent answer rec­ords that made up what is now referred to as the Roxanne Wars. Marley Marl (1962–) produced the song, which originally featured an instrumental taken from U.T.F.O.’s original, but a­ fter a lawsuit, it was rereleased in 1985 with a new beat track. “Roxanne’s Revenge” is a boast rap, with Roxanne Shanté claiming to be the ­woman about whom U.T.F.O. raps. Her lyr­ics proclaim that other MCs ­will take note of her rhymes. Like “Roxanne’s Revenge,” many of her other tracks ­were also boast rec­ords, where she promoted herself as a skilled MC above all ­others. “Queen of Rox (Shanté Rox On)” (1985) and “Def Fresh Crew” (1986), which features beatboxer Biz Markie (Marcel Theo Hall, 1964–), are two well known examples. Many of ­these tracks reportedly originated as freestyles, and showcase her direct, battle-­rap style, intricate lyr­ics and raps, and girlish voice. She was a member of Juice Crew (1983–1991), which Marley Marl cofounded with radio DJ Mr. Magic (John Rivas, 1956–2009). They recorded on the New York City–­based label Cold Chillin’ Rec­ords (1986–1998) and ­were involved in a number of hip hop rivalries and arguments, in addition to the Roxanne Wars, including a long-­r unning rivalry with South Bronx, New York–­based Boogie Down Productions (1985–1992). She appears on the track “Wack Itt,” from the ­album In Control, Vol. 1 (1988), which features vari­ous members of Juice Crew, including Biz Markie, Heavy D (Dwight Errington Myers, 1967–2011), and Big ­Daddy Kane (1968–). She was the crew’s only female member.

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Throughout the mid-­to late-1980s, She released numerous singles. Her collaboration with Rick James (James Ambrose Johnson Jr., 1948–2004), “Loosey’s Rap” (1986), was a No. 1 hit on the Billboard R&B chart. In 1989, She released her first full-­length ­album, Bad ­Sister, on Cold Chillin’ Rec­ords. The ­album was primarily produced by Marley Marl and included the tracks “Knockin’ Hiney” and “Feelin’ Kinda Horny.” In 1992, her second a­ lbum, The B—­Is Back, was released. Her songs have also appeared on the soundtracks for the American films Colors (1988), Lean on Me (1989), and Girls Town (1996). Roxanne Shanté largely stopped performing ­after 1992 but has used her expertise to mentor other female rappers. In 2008, she appeared in this capacity on the VH1 network’s real­ity show, Ego Trip’s Miss Rap Supreme (2008), to help contestants prepare for rap ­battles. Lauron Jockwig Kehrer See also: Juice Crew; Marley Marl; The United States

Further Reading

Bradley, Adam, and Andrew Dubois, eds. 2010. “Roxanne Shanté.” ­Under “Part 2: 1985–92: The Golden Age” in The Anthology of Rap, pp.  283–89. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Mshaka, Thembisa S. 2007. “Roxanne Shanté.” In Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, ­Music, and Culture, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 1, pp. 51–68. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Further Listening

Roxanne Shanté. 2002. The Best of Cold Chillin’: Roxanne Shanté. Landspeed Rec­ords.

Run-­D.M.C. (1981–2002, Queens, New York) Run-­D.M.C. was an extremely successful early American hip hop trio from the Hollis neighborhood of Queens, New York. Its members included vocalists D.M.C. (Darryl Mc Daniel, 1964–) and Run (born Joseph Simmons, 1964–), and turntablist Jam Master Jay (Jason Mizell, 1965–2002). The band is generally regarded as one of the most influential hip hop acts of all time, having achieved many hip hop and rap firsts: the first Gold rec­ord, the first Platinum rec­ord, the first multi-­ Platinum rec­ord, and the first Grammy nomination. The trio was also the first hip hop group to have its ­music videos played on MTV and to have its image appear on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Run-­D.M.C. is the second hip hop group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, ­after Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (1976–1982, 1987–1988). ORIGINS AND EARLY EFFORTS Run and D.M.C. grew up near each other, and Run’s older b­ rother Russell Simmons (1957–) was at the time an aspiring hip hop promoter—he ­later cofounded Def Jam Recordings (1983–) in New York City. Russell Simmons encouraged the



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two to pursue hip hop and recruited Jam Master Jay to be the group’s DJ. He also coined the group’s name. Run-­D.M.C.’s first single, “It’s Like That (Sucker MCs),” was released in 1983 and reached No. 15 on the R&B/hip hop songs chart. The group released its self-­titled debut ­album in 1984 and achieved modest success, with singles including “Rock Box” and “Jam Master Jay.” “Rock Box” was typical of the group’s style, with a hard rock edge and socially conscious lyr­ics. KINGS OF ROCK Following the success of Run-­D.M.C., the group released two ­albums back to back: King of Rock (1985) and Raising Hell (1986). Singles such as “King of Rock” and “Can You Rock It Like This” helped propel King of Rock to Platinum status, and Raising Hell reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200. Jam Master Jay’s production style included sampled and manipulated guitar riffs, and in 2012, Spin magazine named Jay one of the greatest guitarists of all time ­because of his ability to transform sampled guitar sounds. The group joined forces with producer Rick Rubin (Frederick Jay Rubin, 1963–) for Raising Hell, which would become one of the best-­selling hip hop a­ lbums of all time. The ­album included iconic singles such as “It’s Tricky,” “My Adidas” (which would land the group an endorsement deal with the athletic apparel brand), and “Peter ­Piper.” Run-­D.M.C.’s cover version of Aerosmith’s (1970–) single “Walk This Way,” which featured new per­for­mances by Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler (1948–) and Joe Perry (1950–), reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, and “You Be Illin” achieved Top 40 status. Run-­D.M.C. also appeared in films, including Krush Groove (1985), a fictionalized version of Simmons’s efforts to start Def Jam. FINAL ­ALBUMS Run-­D.M.C.’s fourth ­album, Tougher Than Leather (1988), was a departure from the group’s earlier rock-­based sound. Jam Master Jay incorporated a greater variety of sample sources, including funk and soul, and both Run and D.M.C. included more internal and polysyllabic rhymes in their lyr­ics. The pseudo crime caper film Tougher Than Leather (1988) was released as a tie-in to the ­album. Directed by Rubin and featuring guest appearances by the Beastie Boys (1980– 2014) and Slick Rick (1965–), Tougher Than Leather was nearly universally panned by critics. During the 1990s, Run-­D.M.C. strug­gled to remain relevant and to avoid sounding dated. Critics trashed its 1990 ­album Back from Hell for its preachy lyr­ics and attempts to incorporate the sounds of new jack swing. Each of the three group members battled personal, criminal, and substance abuse prob­lems during this time, and both Run and D.M.C. became religious in response. Run became an ordained minister in 1993 and has gone by Rev. Run ever since. Run-­D.M.C.’s next ­album, Down with the King (1993), returned to the earlier sounds of Tougher Than Leather, and some of the ­album’s lyr­ics subtly reflected the religious values that both Run and D.M.C. had a­ dopted.

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DEATH OF JAM MASTER JAY AND DISSOLUTION Run-­D.M.C. recorded one final studio ­album, Crown Royal (2001), the recording and release of which ­were delayed by conflicts within the group. Run and D.M.C. had completely dif­fer­ent visions for the group’s songs. T ­ hese disputes, coupled with D.M.C.’s strug­gles with depression and substance abuse, meant that he appeared on only three of the ­album’s tracks. Although Run-­D.M.C. embarked on a very successful tour with Aerosmith following the release of Crown Royal, the three band members seemed to agree that they would not rec­ord any more ­albums. Their decision was tragically cemented in 2002, when Jam Master Jay was murdered at his recording studio in Queens. As of 2018, the murder remains unsolved. Following his death, Run and D.M.C. formally disbanded the group and retired its name. LEGACY Run-­D.M.C.’s legacy cannot be overstated. Nearly ­every hip hop artist or group since the early 1980s has cited Run-­D.M.C. as having a major influence on their m ­ usic. Run-­D.M.C. nearly singlehandedly helped hip hop achieve mainstream recognition in many areas that had previously been off-­limits. Its fusion of rap and rock influenced artists ranging from the Red Hot Chili Peppers (1983–) to Rage against the Machine (1991–2000, 2007–2011) and Sublime (1988–1996). Its live onstage configuration, in which the two rappers ­were backed by the DJ and two turntables, that is, the “two turntables and a microphone” setup—­a phrase made mainstream in “Where It’s At,” a 1996 song by Beck (Bek David Campbell, 1970–)—­became the template for other hip hop groups to follow. Further, Run D.M.C.’s street-­based fashion, with fedoras, gold chains, Adidas tracksuits, and laceless sneakers, set the standard for hip hop fashion for the next three de­cades. Amanda Sewell See also: Jam Master Jay; Turntablism; The United States

Further Reading

Adler, Bill. 2002. Tougher Than Leather: The Rise of Run-­D.M.C. Los Angeles: Consafos Press. Ronin Ro. 2005. Raising Hell: The Reign, Ruin, and Redemption of Run-­D.M.C. and Jam Master Jay. New York: HarperCollins.

Further Listening

Run-­D.M.C. 1985. King of Rock. Profile Rec­ords. Run-­D.M.C. 1986. Raising Hell. Profile Rec­ords.

Further Viewing

Logan, Guy, dir. 2008. 2 Turntables and a Microphone: The Life and Death of Jam Master Jay. N.p.: Image. Rubin, Rick, dir. 1988. Tougher Than Leather. Burbank, CA: New Line Cinema.



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Rus­sia Rus­sia saw its hip hop culture emerge in the mid-1980s, the waning years of the Soviet Union. Breakdancing became popu­lar through per­for­mances by crews such as Mercury (1985*–) and Magic Circle (1985*–), as well as through shows by Arsenal (1980–1990)*, a jazz-rock fusion ensemble whose leader Alexei Kozlov (n.d.) would b-­boy during concerts. ­After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, rap artists began to gain attention. The first Rus­sian rap ­album was Rap (1984*), by the group Chas Pik (n.d.). Popu­lar Rus­sian rappers in the 1990s included Bogdan Titomir (1967–), from Sumy, Ukraine, known as half of the Moscow-­based techno-­pop duo Car-­Man (1990–), and Lika Star (Lika Pavlova, 1972–), from Vilnius, Lithuania, as well as rap groups Raketa (Rocker, n.d.) and Malchishnik (1991–1994, 2000–). ­These rappers ­were influenced by both pop rock styles and American rappers such as MC Hammer (1962–). The 1990s saw a rise of hip hop that coincided with the rise of a social oligarchy that benefitted from lucrative government contracts (and accumulated vast amounts of wealth). Concurrently, the Communist Party retained a ­g reat deal of control over media. As a response, commercially successful Rus­sian hip hop artists such as Moscow’s Timati (Timur Ildarovich Yunusov, 1983–) and

Moscow rapper, singer-­songwriter, and rec­ord producer Timati performs in concert in 2015 at the Space Moscow Nightclub. Timati’s style embraces 1990s American gangsta rap themes like acquiring wealth, partying, and womanizing, and he was one of Rus­sia’s early commercially-­successful hip hop artists. (Hurricanehank​/​ ­Dreamstime​.­com)

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Krovostock (2002–) imitated American bands, promoting an urban lifestyle and a socially defiant posture, but with no po­liti­cal implications. Timati has collaborated with Detsl (aka Le Truk, Kirill Aleksandrovich Tolmatski, 1983–), also from Moscow, and Georgian rapper L’One (Levan Gorozia, 1985–), from Yakutsk, garnering some international renown. Groups such as Moscow’s Centr (2004–), who ­were apo­liti­cal but promoted illegal drug use, gained popularity through the Internet and with live concert tours. The Rus­sian chanson, whose most famous poet was Moscow’s Vladimir Vysotsky (1938–1980), has had a strong influence on some Rus­sian rap. It confronted issues of repression, social injustice, and po­liti­cal corruption, all veiled in highly poetic lyr­ics and a folk song–­like musical style. Rus­sian hip hop artists such as Kasta (1995–), from Rostov-­on-­Don, Krestnaya Semya (2002–2005), from Stavropol, and Yu.G. (2001*), took their inspiration from this style and wrote about poverty and crime. The rise of the Internet allowed some Rus­sian musicians to build their ­careers in­de­pen­dent of official Rus­sian media, leading to the emergence of social justice rappers such as Dino MC47 (1982–), from Moscow and Noize MC (Ivan Aleksandrovich Alekseev, 1985–), from Yartsevo, whose “Mercedes S666” from the a­ lbum Latest ­Album (2010) protests the death of two young Rus­sian ­women as a result of reckless driving by a Rus­sian oil executive. Popu­lar Rus­sian rappers of the 2000s include St. Petersburg’s Kasta, Timati, Detsl, and Bad Balance (1989–). Moscow’s R&B-­influenced hip hop artists include Band’Eros (2005–). As of 2018, Rus­sian hip hop bands exemplify a variety of styles, rooted in every­thing from the 1960s Rus­sian chanson, to American rock ­music and gangsta rap. An early center of rap was the southwestern port city Rostov-­on-­Don, but by the mid-2000s an underground hip hop scene had emerged in Moscow. In 2009, Rus­sian prime minister Vladimir Putin (1952–), who is known for his conservative if not closed-­minded musical tastes, voiced approval of breakdancing, rap, and graffiti during a guest appearance on the Muz-­TV rap competition show Fight for Re­spect (2008–), remarking that rap and breakdancing, when separated from alcohol and drugs, promote a healthy lifestyle. Terry Klefstad See also: Breakdancing

Further Reading

Ivanov, Sergey. 2013. “Hip Hop in Rus­sia: How the Cultural Form Emerged in Rus­sia and Established a New Philosophy.” In Hip Hop in Eu­rope: Cultural Identities and Transnational Flows, edited by Sina A. Nitzsche and Walter Grünzweig, chap. 4. Zürich, Switzerland: LIT Verlag. Wickström, David-­Emil. 2014. Rocking St. Petersburg: Transcultural Flows and Identity Politics in the St. Petersburg Popu­lar M ­ usic Scene. Stuttgart, Germany: Ibidem-­Verlag.

Further Listening

Bad Balance. 2012. World Wide. Soyuz. Detsl. 2014. MXXXIII. Rasta Mafia. Noize MC. 2010. Greatest ­Album. Studio Monolit.



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Ruthless Rap Assassins (1987–1992, Manchester, E­ ngland) Ruthless Rap Assassins was an En­glish hip hop group formed by MC and DJ Kermit (aka Kermit La Freak, Paul Leveridge, 1966*–), Dangerous Hinds (Anderson McConley Hinds, n.d.), and Dangerous C (Carson Hinds, n.d.). Drummer Ged Lynch (Gerard Lynch, 1968–) joined the group soon ­after its creation. The band was much a product of Manchester’s (which was nicknamed Madchester) ­music scene, which included rappers such as MC Tunes (Nicholas William Dennis Hodgson, 1970–), techno and drum-­and-­bass musicians such as A Guy Called Gerald (Gerald Simpson, 1967–), and techno bands such as 808 State (1987–). Ruthless Rap Assassins quickly earned a cult following ­because the band rapped using British En­glish (rather than aping American rappers), imbued its songs with a wry sense of humor and incorporated diverse musical influences and styles, including rock and electronica dance. The band used samples from indie rock, reggae, pop, jazz, and classic rock, as well as funk and hip hop. Its lyr­ics showed a wide range of interests, from parody and metatextuality to social commentary on issues such as urbanism, the black experience, the country’s failing economy, and the racism that accompanied immigration. Like the Roots (1987–) in the United States, Ruthless Rap Assassins was known for its live per­for­mances ­because it used traditional instrumentation (drum kits, guitars, bass, and keyboards). ­ALBUMS AND SOUND A violin player, one-­time DJ, and ex-­member of the breakdance crew Broken Glass, Kermit recorded “Style of the Street” (1984) with the group Broken Glass (made up of the breakdance crew) for the compilation ­album Street Sounds Electro U.K. (1984) ­album on the Street Sounds label (1982–), and was then asked to rec­ord six more tracks for the ­album ­under vari­ous names. Kermit then met the Hinds ­brothers, who ­were performing as the Dangerous 2. With much sought ­after producer Greg Wilson (1960–) as its man­ag­er, the trio founded the Ruthless Rap Assassins. The band’s first release was the single “We ­Don’t Kare” (1987). The band’s 14-­ track debut ­album, Killer ­Album (1990), released on EMI (1931–), contained both serious po­liti­cal songs and tongue-­in-­cheek tracks, as well as old-­school, singsong rapping and more urban, angry, frenetic rapping (both accompanied by scratching, hip hop diva singing, and pitch-­adjusted samples). The ­album spawned two singles, “Just Mellow” and “And It ­Wasn’t a Dream,” and was well received by the hip hop community; however, U.K. radio stations thought the band too incendiary to give its songs airplay—­sales ­were not very good. The band’s second ­album Th!nk, It ­Ain’t Illegal Yet (1991), like its pre­de­ces­sor, did well with critics, but its sales w ­ ere not robust. The band split up in 1992, and Kermit and Lynch joined with Shaun Ryder (1962–) of Happy Mondays (1980–1993, 2004–) to form Black Grape (1993–1998, 2015–), which did have successful sales. Kermit ­later left Black Grape to form the short-­lived band Big Dog (2000–2001).

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Dangerous Hinds left the ­music industry altogether. As of 2018, rumors persist that the Ruthless Rap Assassins’s members may re­unite for an a­ lbum. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Industrial Hip Hop; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Ott, Brian, and Cameron Walter. 2000. “Intertextuality: Interpretive Practice and Textual Strategy.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 17, no. 4: 429–46. Simpson, Dave. 2001. “The Home Boys: Who Needs Eminem and P-­Diddy When We’ve Got Perfectly Good British Rappers?” Interview with Roots Manuva and the U.K. Posse. The Guardian, September 13, 2.16. Wood, Andy. 2002. “Hip Hop.” In Companion to Con­temporary Black British Culture, edited by Alison Donnell, pp. 141–42. London: Routledge.

Further Listening

Ruthless Rap Assassins. 1990. Killer ­Album. EMI.

S Salt-­N -­Pepa (1985–2002, 2007–­, Queens, New York) Salt-­N-­Pepa is an American hip hop trio notable for being one of the first all-­female hip hop groups to achieve both commercial and critical success. The group’s permanent members are Brooklyn, New York native Salt (Cheryl James, 1964–), Pepa (Sandra Denton, 1964–) from Kingston, Jamaica, and Spinderella (Deidra Muriel Roper, 1971–)­, also a Brooklyn native. Latoya Hanson (1965*–), the group’s original Spinderella, was permanently replaced by Roper in 1987. The group’s breakthrough came with a remix of the single “Push It” in 1987; it became its first Billboard Hot 100 hit. Salt-­N-­Pepa began in the mid-1980s as a duo called Super Nature and released the single “The Showstopper” (1985), a response rec­ord to “The Show” (1985) by Doug E. Fresh (1966–). The single achieved modest success, and the duo was signed to Next Plateau Rec­ords, an in­de­pen­dent label. With the addition of DJ Spinderella, the duo became a trio. Its next ­album, Hot, Cool and Vicious, was produced by Hurby Azor (Herby Azor, 1965–), who served as the group’s man­ag­er at the time. A few singles from the ­album charted modestly in the United States and the United Kingdom, but a remix of “Push It,” created by San Francisco radio DJ and Mixx It ser­vice creator Cameron Paul (1957*–), made Salt-­N-­Pepa famous nationally. The song was not originally released as part of its debut ­album Hot, Cool and Vicious (1986), but rather as a B side to “Tramp,” but the remix’s success led to its being added to subsequent pressings of the a­ lbum. As such, the song’s success helped Hot, Cool and Vicious sell over one million copies—­making it the first ­album by a female hip hop artist (solo or group) to achieve both Gold and Platinum status. The remix reached No. 19 on the Hot 100. FOLLOW- ­UP ­ALBUMS The group released four more ­albums in the 1980s and 1990s. A Salt with a Deadly Pepa (1988) was also produced by Azor. It included several modest hits, such as a cover of “Twist and Shout” as well as “Shake Your Thang.” Blacks’ Magic (1990) and Very Necessary (1993) relied less heavi­ly on Azor than the previous two ­albums, and the members of the group began writing and producing their own songs. “Shoop” (1993), from Very Necessary, was coproduced by Pepa; it reached No. 4 on the Hot 100, becoming Salt-N-Pepa’s second biggest hit next to “Whatta Man,” which reached No. 3.

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Salt-­N-­Pepa took on sex, gender, and sexuality head-on in its ­music. The single “None of Your Business,” an indictment of slut-­shaming and sexual double standards, won a Grammy award for Best Rap Per­for­mance by a Duo or Group in 1995, making Salt-­N-­Pepa the first female hip hop artists ever to win a Grammy. The trio’s single “Let’s Talk about Sex” (1991) describes both the positive and negative aspects of sexuality and encourages listeners to discuss and practice safe sex. An alternate version was ­later rerecorded as “Let’s Talk about AIDS,” with the lyr­ics tailored more directly ­toward AIDS-­related topics. In 1997, Salt-­N-­Pepa released its fifth and final ­album, Brand New. By this time, the trio had legally severed all ties with Azor, and he was not involved in the writing or the production of the ­album. Brand New had been released on Salt-NPepa’s own label, Red Ant, but Red Ant filed for bankruptcy at the same time the ­album was released. Without promotion from a label, Brand New saw far lower sales than its predecessors. Salt-­N-­Pepa formally disbanded in 2002, but the trio has continued to perform together since 2007, at live events such as the 2008 BET Hip Hop Awards, and in 2012, the trio opened for Public ­Enemy (1986–) during the Martin Luther King Jr. Concert Series. In 2016, Salt-­N-­Pepa was a headline act in the I Love the ‘90s Tour. Members also starred in one season of their own real­ity tele­vi­sion show, The Salt-­N-­Pepa Show, which aired on VH-1 from 2007 to 2008. Amanda Sewell See also: Black Nationalism; DJ Spinderella; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Turntablism; The United States

Further Reading

Elafros, Athena. 2007. “Salt-­N-­Pepa.” In Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, ­Music, and Culture, edited by Mickey Hess, vol. 1. Westport, CT: Greenwood. Phillips, Layli, Kerri Reddick-­Morgan, and Dionne Patricia Stephens. 2005. “Oppositional Consciousness within an Oppositional Realm: The Case of Feminism and Womanism in Rap and Hip Hop, 1976–2004.” Journal of African American History 90, no. 3: 257–77.

Further Listening

Salt-­N-­Pepa. 1986. Hot, Cool, and Vicious. Next Plateau. Salt-­N-­Pepa. 1993. Very Necessary. Next Plateau/London Rec­ords.

Samoa Samoa, comprised of six islands in the South Pacific, consists of two areas, American Samoa and Western Samoa. American Samoa, located in Southeast Samoa, has been an unincorporated United States territory since 1889, whereas Western Samoa (the rest of Samoa) attained in­de­pen­dence from New Zealand in 1962. The International Dateline serves as a boundary for Western and American Samoa, and Western Samoa has the largest islands and settlements, Savai’I and ‘Upolu. Since the early 1980s, Samoa has had a hip hop scene since its residents, including stationed military, traveled from the United States with hip hop cassettes, and ­albums,

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followed by videocassettes and CDs. Breakdancing found fertile ground and became popu­lar ­because dance was already an essential aspect of Samoan culture. Samoan hip hop ­favors rapping texts in En­glish, rarely using the Samoan language; however, hip hop m ­ usic is not produced t­here, and t­here are no prominent native hip hop artists. Popu­lar acts come from mainland United States or New Zealand, most having been recorded t­here, or in Australia; hence, lyrical content hardly ever focuses on Samoan life, but on West Coast gangsta rap concerns. ­There is ­little native influence on the ­music itself, although Samoan hip hop may fuse it with Pacific roots ­music, reggae, or jazz. Samoan-­based Boo Yaa T.R.I.B.E. (aka Too Rough International Boo-­Yaa Empire or the Blue City Crew, 1988–), which originated from Carson, California, fused West Coast gangsta rap, G-­f unk, rock, and heavy metal, as well as ­music from 1980s Samoan hip hop artist Kosmo (aka K.O.S.-163, Kosmo Faalogo, n.d.), who learned breakdancing while visiting Los Angeles in the mid-1980s and helped bring hip hop dance to Wellington, New Zealand. Boo Yaa T.R.I.B.E. identifies both with its members’ Samoan roots and their Los Angeles upbringing, as heard in their ­albums New Funky Nation (1990) and Angry Samoan (1998). Other Samoan-­associated acts include Drew Deezy (anonymous, n.d.), a Samoan rapper from San Jose, California who ­favors West Coast hip hop and hyphy ­music, and Savage (Demetrius Savelio, 1981–), a South Auckland, New Zealand rapper and member of the hip hop group Deceptikonz (1996–) ­until 2005. Savage’s debut solo ­album, Moonshine (2005), reached No. 2 on New Zealand’s a­ lbum chart. The title track, featuring American rapper Akon (1973–), was certified Platinum in New Zealand and Gold in Australia, peaking at Nos. 1 and 9, respectively. ­After American rappers and producers Soulja Boy (aka Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em, DeAndre Cortez Way, 1990) and Pitbull (1981–) remixed Savage’s “Swing”—­a party track calling on ­women to dance provocatively—­the single peaked at No. 45 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became certified Platinum in the United States. Scribe (aka Jeshua Ioane Luafutu, Malo Luafutu, 1979–) is a Samoan rapper from Christchurch, New Zealand whose debut ­album The Crusader (2003) was certified five-­times Platinum ­there and in Australia, peaking at Nos. 1 and 12, respectively. His ­album Rhyme Book (2007) was certified Gold in New Zealand, peaking at No. 4 ­there and No. 9 in Australia. Scribe’s cousin, Ladi6 (Karoline Tamati, 1982–) is a critically acclaimed singer who combines hip hop with neo soul, funk, R&B, and reggae. Her ­albums Time Is Not Much (2008), The Liberation of . . . ​ (2010), and Automatic (2013), focus mostly on romance. They peaked at Nos. 4, 6, and 3, respectively, on the New Zealand a­ lbum chart. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Breakdancing; Gangsta Rap; New Zealand; The United States

Further Reading

Henderson, April. 2006. “Dancing between Islands: Hip Hop and the Samoan Diaspora.” In The Vinyl A ­ in’t Final: Hip Hop and the Global of Black Popu­lar Culture, edited by Dipannita Basu and Sidney J. Lemelle, chap. 12. Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto Press. Henderson, April. 2010. “Gifted Flows: Making Space for a Brand New Beat.” The Con­ temporary Pacific 22, no. 2: 293–315.

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Further Listening

Boo Yaa T.R.I.B.E. 1997. Angry Samoans. Bullet Proof Rec­ords.

Sarkodie (Michael Owusu Addo, 1985–­, Tema, Ghana) Sarkodie is one of the most critically acclaimed Ghanaian rappers of the 2000s. His ­music incorporates hip hop, hiplife, and azonto, the latter a Ghanaian musical genre that employs fast-­paced dance beats to accompany a dance that is characterized by hand movements that pantomime everyday activities to amuse and relay coded messages to an audience. Sarkodie’s rap texts are primarily in Twi, but he also raps in En­glish. He has a tenor vocal range, and his singing voice is often autotuned. His lyr­ics focus primarily on love in the form of admiring or fixing a gaze on ­women, as well as breaking up, praising God, seeking friendship, hustling, and living the street life. EARLY RAPPING INTEREST AND RECORDING C ­ AREER Since he was a boy, Sarkodie rapped as a response to living with an abusive aunt. Fortunately, he was able to move back with his ­mother in Tema, Ghana, but his shyness led him away from public per­for­mance. Inspired by Michael Jackson (1958–2009), he became a talented dancer, and he eventually studied for a degree in graphic design at the University of Ghana, Accra. While in college, he built confidence and skill by winning rap b­ attles and appearing on radio. He met Ghanaian hip hop and hiplife producer Hammer of the Last Two (aka Hammer, Tony Starks, Edward Nana Poku Osei, 1976–) and impressed him with his flowing rap style in Twi, freestyle rhyming, and knowledge of many rapping styles. He signed a five-­year contract on Hammer’s label, the Last Two ­Music Group (1999*–). ­After appearing on Edem’s (Denning Edem Hotor, 1986–) debut ­album Volta Regime (2009), he quickly developed a fan base, and he took the stage name Sarkodie, an Ashanti surname that he believed attracted wealth and success, as well as sounded like the Twi word for ea­gle. Sarkodie returned to Duncwills Entertainment (n.d.), a label on which he previously signed, to release his debut ­album Makye (2009), which included “Baby,” a huge national hit. He followed this success in 2011 with another hit, “You Go Kill Me,” which employed azonto beats and was produced by Ghanaian rapper EL (1986–) for his second and most successful ­album, Rapperholic (2011). This album was also released in the United States and garnered multiple awards in Ghana and abroad. A 2013 remix featured Sarkodie, EL, Nigerian hip hop, Afrobeat, reggae, and dancehall singer-­songwriter Wizkid (Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, 1990–), Nigerian rapper and singer-­songwriter Ice Prince (1986–), and Ugandan rapper and producer Navio (Daniel Lubwama Kigozi, 1983–). It brought further global attention to his m ­ usic. Sarkology (2014) and Mary (2015) followed this ­album; Mary was produced on Sarkodie’s SarkCess ­Music label (2013–).



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Having his own stylish appeal, Sarkodie began his own fashion line and shop, Sark Collections by YAS, in 2012. Success from this business, his ­albums, and product endorsements have helped rank Sarkodie at No. 8 of the 2013 Forbes magazine List of Top Ten Richest/Bankable African Artists. In 2013, he began the Sarkodie Foundation, a philanthropic organ­ization that provides aid and food to underprivileged ­children in Ghana. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Christian Hip Hop; Ghana

Further Reading

Clark, Msia Kibona. 2012. “Hip Hop as Social Commentary in Accra and Dar es Salaam.” African Studies Quarterly 13, no. 3: 23–46. Collins, John. 2012. “Con­temporary Ghanaian Popu­lar ­Music Since the 1980s.” In Hip Hop Africa: New African M ­ usic in a Globalizing World, edited by Eric Charry, chap. 10. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Osumare, Halifu. 2012. The Hiplife in Ghana: West African Indigenization of Hip Hop. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Shipley, Jesse Weaver. 2013. “Transnational Circulation and Digital Fatigue in Ghana’s Azonto Dance Craze.” American Ethnologist 40, no. 2: 362–81.

Further Listening

Sarkodie. 2009. Makye. Duncwills Entertainment.

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia’s hip hop scene began to emerge in underground culture around the turn of the 21st ­century—­this underground scene flourishes ­today ­because Western images of gangsta rappers suggested cultural ste­reo­types that ­were antithetical to the conservative values of the region. The eschewal of gangsta rap also led to the emphasis by performers and hip hop advocates on some of the same core values of early American hip hop, including a focus on spirituality and self-­ improvement. T ­ hese themes, combined with the lyricism of the genre, have helped it to gain wider traction. Some artists, however, still feel the need to keep their activities secret from friends and ­family, as any kind of singing and dancing can be problematic, since many perceive rappers as being less Arab or less Muslim ­because of their interest in hip hop. This is despite the pervasiveness of Muslim themes in much of the work. Where clubs and concerts are non­ex­is­tent, making a place for a live ­music form is difficult, but performers and media are working to change this dynamic. MTV ARABIA AND NOTABLE ARTISTS The 2007 launch of MTV Arabia (2007–2015) provided a platform for exposing Arabs to a combination of programming from the United States and locally produced youth-­culture programming. The talent show, Hip Hop Na (Our Hip Hop, 2006–), hosted by Saudi rapper Qusai (aka Don Legend, Qusai Kheder, 1978–) and

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Palestinian American producer Fredwreck (Farid Karam Nassar, 1972–), sought to find new rappers in the ­Middle East, in an attempt to create a much bigger repre­ sen­ta­tion in Saudi popu­lar ­music for the hip hop scene. Qusai was one of the first professional Saudi rappers whose solid commercial reputation and ­album sales led to his appointment as the host of Hip Hop Na. As an early competitor on that program, the rap group Dark2Men (n.d.) became one of the more prominent Saudi hip hop groups. Its members rap in both En­glish and Arabic and include Muslim themes in their lyr­ics. Another rap group, Blak-­R (2003*–) starred in the first hip hop concert in Saudi Arabia. Its lyr­ics focused on issues of youth empowerment. Jeddah FAM (aka J-­FAM, 2008*–) was a bilingual Arabic and En­glish rapping group whose members are mainly from Saudi Arabia, although the lineup includes musicians from outside the country. Its lyr­ics focused on positive messages grounded in Islam. In 2011, Laisch hip hop (Why Hip Hop) became Saudi Arabia’s first hip hop radio program, exposing Arab audiences to hip hop and to non-­Western artists not heard on mainstream radio. The show marked the first time that many Arab artists received airplay. Arab hip hop culture began to be documented in the magazine Re-­Volt (2013–). Despite t­hese forays into hip hop culture, the scene has not been completely embraced by society b­ ecause of fear of censorship. This fear pervades much of Saudi hip hop and controls its themes and styles. While artists largely avoid lyr­ics related to off-­limits topics, such as sexuality, other ideas are explored, such as social prob­lems and the frustrations of the country’s youth. Nonetheless, artists are still left open to critique for issues of racism or for implied insults to the royal ­family. Still, the ­music is readily available to all, as most Saudi hip hop is available as online downloads. Susannah Cleveland See also: Political Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Kahf, Usama. 2007. “Arabic Hip Hop: Claims of Authenticity and Identity of a New Genre.” Journal of Popu­lar ­Music Studies 19, no. 4: 359–85. Urkevich, Lisa. 2015. ­Music and Traditions of the Arabian Peninsula: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar. New York: Routledge.

Further Listening

Qusai. 2012. The Inevitable Change. Platinum Rec­ords.

Scott, Jill (1972–­, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Jill Scott is an American neo soul singer-­songwriter, poet, actress, model, and philanthropist who is known for her eclectic style. Her ­music can best be described as alternative hip hop fused with neo soul, R&B, jazz, and spoken word. Scott’s flexible soprano voice has a wide range. She has the ability to hit the whistle register, producing full sound. Her thematic concerns, established as early as her debut ­album, focus on uplifting messages, romance, and metatextuality (on writing poems



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or musical inspiration), among other topics. Scott is an out­spoken critic on hip hop’s treatment of w ­ omen of color in both songs and m ­ usic videos. ­MUSIC C ­ AREER AND SOUND An only child raised in Philadelphia by her ­mother and grand­mother, Jill Scott took interest in poetry and ­music by the time she was 13 years old. She attended ­Temple University, where she studied secondary education to become a high school En­glish teacher; however, ­after her third year and brief teaching experience, she dropped out. Eventually, Scott started performing live poetry readings at open-­mic events, where in the late 1990s percussionist Questlove (aka ?uestlove, Ahmir Khalib Thompson, 1971–) of the American alternative hip hop and neo soul group the Roots (1987–) discovered her and asked Scott to collaborate with the band. Scott co­wrote “You Got Me” (1998) and recorded proto-­vocals for the refrain and bridge that ­were rerecorded by Erykah Badu (1971–). In 2000, Erykah Badu and the Roots won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Per­for­mance by a Duo or Group. Other collaborations followed for Scott, as well as a singing role in a Canadian production of the Broadway musical Rent (1996). But in 1999, ­after one year on tour, Scott deci­ded that she was better suited for working in the recording studio. Scott’s prolific recording ­career began with her debut studio ­album, Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1 (2000), which peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard 200 and No. 2 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart, also charted internationally, and was certified double Platinum. Scott’s neo soul follow-up ­albums Beautifully ­Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2 (2004), which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart, and The Real ­Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3 (2007), which peaked at Nos. 4 and 2 on ­these two charts, ­were both certified Gold. She has toured worldwide and has acted in American films and tele­vi­sion. In 2005, she published a volume of poems, The Moments, the Minutes, the Hours (St. Martin’s Press). Her ­later neo soul and R&B ­albums, The Light of the Sun (2011) and ­Woman (2015), received critical acclaim and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Neo Soul; The Roots; The United States

Further Reading

Lee, Shayne. 2010. “Sultry Divas of Pop and Soul: Janet, Beyoncé, and Jill.” In Erotic Revolutionaries: Black ­Women, Sexuality, and Popu­lar Culture, chap. 2. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books. David, Marlo. 2007. “Afrofuturism and Post-­Soul Possibility in Black Popu­lar ­Music.” African American Review 41, no. 4: 695–707. Whaley, Deborah Elizabeth. 2002. “The Neo-­Soul Vibe and the Post-­Modern Aesthetic: Black Popu­lar M ­ usic and Culture for the Soul Babies of History.” American Studies 43, no. 3: 75–82.

Further Listening

Scott, Jill. 2000. Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds, Vol. 1. Hidden Beach Recordings/ Epic.

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Scott-­Heron, Gil (Gilbert Scott-­Heron, 1949–2011, Chicago, Illinois) Gil Scott-­Heron, who has been nicknamed the “godfather of rap” and the “Black Bob Dylan,” was an influential jazz-­poet, proto-­rapper, singer-­songwriter, musician, writer, and spoken-­word recording artist. He is best known for his spoken-­ word recordings from the 1970s and 1980s, which serve as precursors of jazz rap and alternative hip hop and fused po­liti­cal and social lyrical content with percussive beats, jazz, soul, and blues. Lyrical content included autobiography, racism in Amer­i­ca, anticonsumerism, and frustrations over white Americans’ obsession with tele­vi­sion and its lack of understanding African Americans’ conditions in inner cities. He also included positive messages geared ­toward black listeners on education, creativity, community, and love.

EARLY YEARS, WRITING TALENT, AND MUSICAL INTERESTS Gil Scott-­Heron grew up in a musical ­family. His ­mother, Bobbie Scott-­Heron (n.d.), was an opera singer who once performed with the New York Oratorio Society. His ­father, Gil Heron (n.d.), was a Jamaican soccer player who became the first black man to play for the Celtic Football Club in Glasgow, Scotland. They raised him in the Bronx, New York, but ­because of his parents’ separation and professional ­careers, Scott-­Heron’s maternal grand­mother Lillie Scott (n.d.) raised him in Jackson, Tennessee when he was a teenager. As a teenager, Scott-­Heron already demonstrated exceptional talent as writer and student, and he earned a scholarship to a prestigious preparatory school. At the Fieldston School, despite academic success, he became alienated: Scott-­Heron was one of only five black students ­there and he was a “scholarship kid.” Scott-­Heron attended Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, the college of his first choice since Langston Hughes (James Mercer Langston Hughes, 1902–1967) was previously a student ­there. As an undergraduate, Scott-­Heron met Brian Jackson (1952–), who was a flutist and keyboardist. This began their lifelong musical collaboration. Scott-­Heron and Jackson ­were inspired to form their own band, Black and Blues (1969–1970)*, ­after attending a per­for­mance of the Last Poets (1968–). The band, however, was short-­lived, since Scott-­Heron intended to take a year off from his undergraduate studies to write two novels, The Vulture (1970), which earned critical acclaim, and The N—­Factory (1972). Scott-­Heron would never complete his bachelor’s degree at Lincoln; however, in 1972, he earned a creative writing master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University with his thesis Circle of Stone.

RECORDING SPOKEN WORD AND SONGS While writing his novels, Scott-­Heron began his first sound recording proj­ects with the a­ lbum Small Talk at 125th and Lenox (1970), in collaboration with Jackson and produced on the Flying Dutchman Rec­ords label (1969–1984*). The ­album



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featured 14 tracks with Scott-­Heron’s speaking in the foreground and sparse accompaniment on conga, percussion, and vocals. Scott-­Heron followed Small Talk with Pieces of Man (1971), ­Free ­Will (1972), and The Revolution ­Will Not Be Televised (1974). Autobiographical and po­liti­cally charged themes used in Small Talk, as well as Scott-­Heron’s reading of his poem, “The Revolution ­Will Not Be Televised,” ­were employed again on Scott-­Heron’s best-­known ­album, The Revolution ­Will Not Be Televised. He followed with Winter in Amer­i­ca (1974), another collaboration with Jackson, but this time on the jazz label Strata-­East Rec­ords (1971–). Scott-­Heron’s recordings featured proto-­rap, funk, and jazz, and ­these ­albums won critical acclaim, establishing Scott-­Heron’s notoriety and legacy as a jazz poet, songwriter, and musician. Scott-­Heron’s a­ lbums, particularly The Revolution W ­ ill Not Be Televised and Winter in Amer­i­ca, inspired rappers such as Public ­Enemy’s (1986–) Chuck D (1960–), KRS-­One (1965–), Wu-­Tang Clan’s (1992–) Ghostface Killah (Dennis Coles, 1970–), Snoop Dogg (1971–), Talib Kweli (1975–), and Kanye West (1977–), among other hip hop, rock, and indie m ­ usic artists. Scott-­Heron’s studio ­album The First Minute of a New Day (1975) marked his move to Arista Rec­ords (1974–2011). For Arista, he recorded From South Africa to South Carolina (1976), It’s Your World (1976), Bridges (1977), Secrets (1978), 1980 (1980), Real Eyes (1980), Reflections (1981), and Moving Target (1982), in ­addition to the live a­lbum It’s Your World (1976). Scott-­Heron released several recordings that addressed apartheid in South Africa, criticizing how the United States was lacking in its ­handling of racial issues. Examples of this kind of lyrical content are found in From South Africa to South Carolina and the single “Johannesburg” (1979). In 1985, Arista dropped Scott-­Heron, who stopped recording for nearly 10 years; however, he continued live per­for­mances, touring, collaborating, and writing songs, such as “Let Me See Your I.D.,” on Artists United Against Apartheid In 1993, Scott-­Heron recorded Spirits on TVT Rec­ords (1985–2008). On “Message to the Messengers,” he mentors rappers to become knowledgeable if they ­were ­going to teach using rap, including knowing the work and history of previous generations, in order to build communities. In the song, he also criticizes the braggadocio of gangsta rap—­how rappers brag about having guns. His comeback to recording was interrupted by drug addiction and ­legal prob­lems. In 2001, Scott-­ Heron was sentenced to two years imprisonment for possession of cocaine. In 2002, he appeared on West Coast alternative hip hop group Blackalicious’s (1994–) ­album Blazing Arrow while he was briefly out of prison. Scott-­Heron’s release and parole followed in 2003, but he faced another arrest for possession of a crack pipe and received a six-­month prison sentence. In 2006, Scott-­Heron was arrested for drug possession again. This time, he was sentenced to four years imprisonment ­after violating a plea deal and leaving a drug rehabilitation center ­because the center failed to provide him HIV medi­cation. Though he was to serve prison time u­ ntil 2009, he was released and paroled in 2007. From his release ­until his death, Scott-­Heron performed concerts and recorded. He also enjoyed notoriety for his earlier recordings and was the subject of several radio and tele­vi­sion documentaries and interviews. Returning to working with Jackson, Scott-­Heron recorded I’m New ­Here (2010) for the in­de­pen­dent label XL

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Recordings (1989–). The title track features Heron’s deeper, weathered voice, reciting and singing autobiographical words about having a second chance and turning one’s life around and starting anew. As of 2018, Scott-­Heron’s spoken-­word recordings and songs have been sampled over 300 times. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Chuck D; Filmmaking (Documentaries); The Last Poets; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; South Africa; The United States

Further Reading

Baram, Marcus. 2014. Gil Scott-­Heron: “Pieces of Man.” New York: St. Martin’s Press. Gosa, Travis L., and Erik Nielson, eds. 2015. Hip Hop and Obama Reader. Oxford, ­England: Oxford University Press. Scott-­Heron, Gil. 2012. The Last Holiday: A Memoir. New York: Grove Press. Stewart, James B. 2005. “Message in the ­Music: Po­liti­cal Commentary in Black Popu­lar ­Music from Rhythm and Blues to Early Hip Hop.” Journal of African American History 90, no. 3: 196–225.

Further Listening

Scott-­Heron, Gil. 1974. The Revolution ­Will Not Be Televised. Flying Dutchman. Scott-­Heron, Gil. 1974. Winter in Amer­i­ca. Strata-­East Rec­ords. Scott-­Heron, Gil. 2010. I’m New ­Here. XL Recordings.

Senegal Senegal can trace its rap scene to the years 1988 and 1989, when the ­music of ­Positive Black Soul (PBS, 1989–) introduced hip hop. Since then, the genre has developed to become more diverse and more egalitarian, as both female and male artists from many parts of the country have contributed—­even though the ­music remains dominated by urban male youth, especially ­those from Dakar. Still, female artists and artists from other regions have increasingly participated in what is called Rap Galsen or Hip Hop Galsen, terms that describe the blending of bold and revolutionary messages calling for social, cultural, and po­liti­cal consciousness and equality. RAP AGAINST POLITICAL CORRUPTION The radical quality of Rap Galsen is apparent in the song “Niap Sa” (“F—­ Your . . . ​, 2007), in which Canabasse (aka Abdou Basse Dia, n.d.), a rapper from Dakar who is influenced by Eminem (1972–), raps about ending corruption through musical preaching, ironically performed by rappers, who ­were at one time referred to as male whores. Despite their sexist lyr­ics, Canabasse’s songs are impor­tant since they depict corrupt politicians as the real prostitutes—­since they are the leaders who pretend to teach moral truth but rob the ­people. Another rapper who criticizes governmental corruption is Fou Malade (Malal Almamy Tall, 1974–). In 2011, along with other Senegalese rappers and journalists, he founded the Y’en a Marre Movement (Enough Is Enough or Fed Up) to protest corruption and in­effec­tive government officials, as well as to encourage young p­ eople to vote.

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In addition to subtle criticisms of corruption, Rap Galsen celebrates the virtues of notable leaders of the past. One example is the song “Yaay mbër” (“What a Fighter You Are,” 2013), in which hip hop legend Pacotille (1975*–2015) praises ordinary Senegalese ­people, who have dignity and are resourceful and resilient, as ­were many Sufi Senegalese Islamic figures such as Mame Cheikh Ibra Fall (aka Sheikh Ibrahima Fall, 1855–1930), Serigne Touba (aka Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacké or Khadimu ’r-­Rassul, Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Habiballah Ibn Al Khair, 1852*–1927), Serigne Limamoulaye (aka Seydina Mouhammadou Limamou Laye, 1843–1909), and Foutiyou Tall (aka Umar al-­Omar Futi or Seydou Tall, 1797– 1864). ­These historical heroes ­were touted as models of survival and re­sis­tance. OTHER THEMES Equally meaningful themes are discernible in the songs of ALIF, or Liberation Attack of the Feminist Infantry (Attaque Libératoire de l’Infanterie Féministe, 1997–), inspired by Positive Black Soul, Daara J (1997–), and Xuman (Pee Froiss, 1993–). ALIF became the first well known Senegalese female rap group to raise social consciousness. While decrying the rampant pickpocketing and other forms of crime in Dakar, ALIF’s “Addu Kalpin” (2004) notes that such criminal activities would decrease if the youth had a ­f uture—­but a lack of employment opportunities and food had robbed the youth of a law-­abiding and humane means of survival. A similar emphasis on societal ills is noticeable in “Mane” (“I Say,” 2016), a rap song by Toussa (aka Astou Guèye, 1991*–) in which the narrator declares her resilience in a male dominated world, one in which she has to be a jambar deugeu (real warrior) whose survival is due to the fact that she refuses to give up and steadfastly holds to her work ethic when it comes to bringing messages to the youth via rap. The image of the hip hop artist as wrestler is pervasive in Senegalese m ­ usic; it serves as a national symbol of re­sis­tance against atrocity. Babacar M’Baye See also: Awadi, Didier; Daara J; France; The Gambia; Griot; MC Solaar; Positive Black Soul

Further Reading

Appert, Catherine. 2016. “On Hybridity in African Popu­lar ­Music: The Case of Senegalese Hip Hop.” Ethnomusicology 60, no. 2: 279–99. Fredericks, Rosalind. 2014. “ ‘The Old Man Is Dead’: Hip Hop and the Arts of Citizenship of Senegalese Youth.” Antipode 46, no. 1: 130–48. Gueye, Marame. 2013. “Urban Guerilla Poetry: The Movement Y’en a marre and the Socio-­ political Influences of Hip Hop in Senegal.” Journal of Pan-­African Studies 6, no. 3: 22–42. Neff, Ali Colleen. 2015. “Roots, Routes, and Rhizomes: Sounding ­Women’s Hip Hop on the Margins of Dakar, Senegal.” Journal of Popu­lar ­Music Studies 27, no.  4: 448–77.

Further Listening

ALIF. 2006. “Addu Kalpin.” Dakamerap. Out ­Here Rec­ords. Fou Malade. 2008. “On va tout dire: Fou malade et le bat’haillons blin-­d.” Lalu Production M ­ usic single.

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Pacotille. 2013. Yaay mbër. Prince Arts. Retour vers le futur, Part 1. 2010. Ghetto fab soldats. Vol 2. Pr4productions and Malik Bledoss. Toussa. 2016. Toussa: EP Fam Musik. Senetunes.

The Sequence (1979–1985, Columbia, South Carolina) The Sequence was a hip hop, funk, and disco trio that was formed by three high school cheerleaders: Angie Brown Stone (aka Angie B., Angela Laverne Brown, 1961–), Cheryl the Pearl (Cheryl Cook, n.d.), and Blondie (Gwndolyn Chisolm, n.d.). They ­were discovered by Sugar Hill Rec­ords (1986–1995) co-­owner Sylvia Robinson (1936–2011) when they ran up to the stage at a Sugarhill Gang per­for­ mance and started to sing backing vocals for the group with Robinson. The Sequence became the first female trio and the first female group to release a rap single, “Funk You Up” (1979). Its two eponymous ­albums (1980 and 1982) and third noncharting ­album, The Sequence Party (1983), ­were recorded on the Sugar Hill Rec­ords label (1986–1995).

SOUND AND SUCCESS Similar to the Sugarhill Gang, the Sequence performed funk-­infused old-­school hip hop at the height of disco. Its sound, however, had a broader range, since the trio also sang R&B and 1970s style soul ballads. In addition, Angie Brown Stone not only sang; she also rapped. In 1979, the Sugarhill Gang released “Rapper’s Delight,” the first rap single to become a Top 40 Billboard hit, reaching No. 36. Soon afterward that year, the Sequence had a hit with “Funk You Up,” which peaked at No. 15 on Billboard’s R&B Singles chart. The Sequence continued on the Sugar Hill label in 1980 by backing Sugar Hill artist Spoonie Gee (1963–) on his early rap single, “Monster Jam” (Spoonie Gee Meets the Sequence). That year, the Sequence also released the single “And You Know That.” Both the Sequence’s first and second singles, as well as its third single release “Funky Sound (Tear the Roof Off)” appeared on the trio’s debut ­album, Sugar Hill Pres­ents the Sequence (1980). “Funky Sound (Tear the Roof Off)” was another hit, peaking at No. 39 on Billboard’s Black Singles in 1981. The song was a remake of the psychedelic funk and soul group Parliament’s (1968–1970, 1974–1980) 1976 hit “Funk You Up (Tear the Roof off the Sucker).” In 1982, the trio released its second ­album, The Sequence (1982), which reached No. 51 on Billboard’s R&B ­Albums chart and featured another hit, the ballad “I ­Don’t Need Your Love (Part One),” which reached No.  40 on Billboard’s R&B Singles chart. In 1983, the trio released its final ­album together, The Sequence Party. Although ­there ­were a few single releases from the ­album between 1983 and 1984, such as “­Here Comes the Bride” and “I Just Want to Know,” none of ­these

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singles charted. The group’s final releases ­were the remix “Funk You Up ‘85” (1984) and “Control” (1985). BREAKUP AND LEGACY When Sugar Hill folded in 1985, the Sequence broke up. Nevertheless, “Funk You Up” became frequently sampled. The hip hop group Boogie Down Productions (1985–1992) used it in “Jimmy” (1988). The song has lived on in sample culture in tracks such as De La Soul’s (1987–) “This Is a Recording 4 Living in a Fulltime Era (L.I.F.E.),” Dr. Dre’s (1965–) “Keep Their Heads Ringin’ ” (1995), and Erykah Badu’s (1971–) “Love of My Life Worldwide” (2003). Angie Brown Stone joined Vertical Hold (1988–1996), an R&B and soul trio based in New York City. In 1993, she sang lead on Vertical Hold’s Billboard Top 20 R&B hit “Seems ­You’re Much Too Busy.” She continued on with a successful solo ­career, having a 1999 hit, “­There’s No More Rain in This Cloud,” from her certified-­Gold ­album Black Diamond. Comparisons can be drawn between the sound and legacy of the Sequence and its more mainstream pop-­oriented contemporaries ­Sister Sledge (1971–). The Sequence employed rap and often allowed for more loosely or­ga­nized unison vocals; however, the recorded sound was lively and seemed appropriate for the Sequence’s lighthearted romantic and partying lyrical themes. The Sequence clearly influenced subsequent female hip hop trios such as TLC (1990–) and Salt-­N-­Pepa (1985–2002, 2007–) in the United States, but also female hip hop groups worldwide, for example, Auckland, New Zealand’s ­Sisters Underground (1990–1995) and Moana and the Moahunters (1990–1998). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Moana and the Moahunters; Robinson, Sylvia; Salt-N-Pepa; Sisters Underground; TLC; The United States

Further Reading

Bradley, Adam, and Andrew Dubois, eds. 2010. “Sequence.” ­Under “Part 1: 1978–84: The Old School” in The Anthology of Rap, pp. 85–89. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. George, Nelson. 1999. Hip Hop Amer­i­ca. London: Penguin Books.

Further Listening

The Sequence. 1980. Sugar Hill Pres­ents the Sequence. Sugar Hill Rec­ords. The Sequence. 1982. The Sequence. Sugar Hill Rec­ords.

Serbia Serbia is an Eastern Eu­ro­pean nation that was once part of the Socialist Federative  Republic of Yugo­slavia (1945–1992), ­until it attained its in­de­pen­dence and became  the Republic of Serbia (1992–). As of 2018, most Serbs live in Serbia, though Serbian minority communities exist in countries that formerly belonged to the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugo­slavia, such as Bosnia-­Herzogovina and

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Slovenia. Although during the early 1980s ­there was limited access to American hip hop ­music, Serbs took an interest in breakdancing shortly ­after the international distribution of 1984 American hip hop films such as Beat Street, Breakin’, and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo. The center for early Serbian hip hop activity was in Serbia’s capital city, Belgrade. Meanwhile, Bosnian Serbs interested in breakdancing sparked the beginnings of Serbian hip hop in Bosnia-­Herzogovina’s capital, Sarajevo. Hip hop in Serbia was less disrupted than in neighboring countries that gained in­de­pen­dence in the early 1990s and during the Yugo­slav Wars (1991–2001). Serbia nevertheless experienced po­liti­cal criticism and economic crisis. Between 1998 and 2001 the Kosovo War (1998–1999) posed an economic drain and nearly halted all a­ lbum production. FOUR WAVES OF HIP HOP Serbian hip hop is often thought of as occurring in four waves, in conjunction with Serbian conflicts and war. The earliest Serbian hip hop release was the Master Scratch Band’s (early 1980s–1996*) Dégout EP (1984), which introduced rap in Serbian and En­glish; it was released on the Jugoton label (1947–), based in Zagreb, Croatia (then part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugo­slavia). The tracks “Break War” and “Jailbreak” became national hits. Despite having no financial means of acquiring samplers at the time, the Master Scratch Band, an electro breakbeat group, produced samples by using limited recorders, mixers, vocoders, synthesizers, and drum machines. In 1986, the band moved to London, but other Serbian hip hop acts emerged, including groups such as Badvajzer (Budweiser, 1987*–1991), Who Is the Best? (1988*–), Sanšajn (Sunshine, aka Green Kool Posse, 1993–), CYA (1994–2003)*, rappers Gru (Dalibor Andonov, 1973–), Ajs Nigrutin (Vladan Aksentijević, 1977–), Juice (Ivan Ivanović, 1981–), and St. Petersburg, Rus­sia, natives Straight Jackin’ (aka Strejt džekin, 1994–). Emerging at the end of the first (late 1980s–2000) and beginning of the second waves (2001–2005), Beogradski Sindikat (1999–) became the most internationally famous Serbian hip hop act with its a­ lbum BSSST . . . ​tišinčina (Pssst . . . ​Silence, 2001) and the EP Govedina (Beef, 2002), which used imagery of coffee, cloves, and sausage, alongside the double meaning of the word “beef” in its tracks to harshly criticize the Milošević government. Govedina also focused on Serbia’s poor economic conditions and Belgrade’s antiquated attitude ­toward marijuana and homosexuals. Group member Škabo (Boško Ćirković, 1976–) had a successful concurrent solo ­career. The comedic rap group Bad Copy (1996–2008, 2012–) and one of its rappers, Struka (Ognjen Kostić, 1983–), ­were contemporaries of Beogradski Sindikat. By the turn of the 21st ­century, localized gangsta style rap as well as po­liti­ cal (including antiwar) protest rap became accepted more in the mainstream. In 2005, Serbian hip hop producer Oneya (Vanja Ulepić, 1979–) established the Belgrade label Bassivity M ­ usic and, through its rec­ord stores, improved the distribution of Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian hip hop. Bassivity produced second wave acts such as VIP (2002–), Marčelo (Marko Šelić, 1983–), Rasta (Stefan Đurić, 1989–), and Don TRIALeon (aka Trial, Don Trialeon, n.d.). Contemporaries included Skaj Vikler (aka Wikluh Sky, Ðorđe Miljenović, 1980–), Prti BeeGee (2001–), and Bvana

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(aka Bvana Herbalizer, Nikola Ćosić, 1983–). VIP’s Ikac (Ivan Jović, n.d.) and Demian (aka Rexxxona, Relja Milanković, 1982–) have also had successful solo ­careers. The end of Bassivity’s dominance and the incorporation of R&B marked the third wave (2006–2011), in which acts such as Elitni Odredi (Elite Units, 2005– 2015) emerged. This duo fused turbo-­folk and electro ­house with hip hop. Turbo-­ folk, also known as Serbwave, is a fusion genre consisting of Balkan folk ­music and dance pop—it began in Serbia in the 1980s, and its popularity has grown in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Bulgaria. Third wave artists included Cvija (Stefan Cvijović, 1989–), Marlon Brutal (Vukašin Jasnić, 1989–), and Mikri Maus (Nikola Jelić, 1981–). In 2008, the Belgrade label Ltdfm ­Music (Live to Die for My ­Music) was established and produced artists such as Juice, Prti BeeGee, and Bvana. The use of trap ­music marks the beginning of the fourth wave (2012–), which demonstrates further diversity of lyrical content. For example, Sajsi MC (Ivana Rasic, 1981–), who comes from Vracar, a wealthy neighborhood in Belgrade, raps in affected Serbian about Belgrade’s nouveau-­riche snobbery. Her alter ego, Tiffany, is named ­after the jewelry store. Other artists include Mimi Mercedez (1992*–) and the alternative hip hop band Mr. Rabbit (2013–). By the late 1990s, several Serbian diaspora acts such as Canada’s Illuminati X (aka Street Team, Balkan Beasts, 2005–), Australia’s X-­PynSyvTM (Sylvia Peric 1983–), Germany’s Toni der Assi (1978–), and two Austrian rappers, Svaba Ortak (Pavle Komatina, 1993–) and Manijak (Denis Abramović, 1991–), emerged. As of 2018, ­there are no significantly successful Serbian hip hop artists in the United States. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Bosnia and Herzegovina; Croatia; Macedonia; Montenegro; Slovenia

Further Reading

Baker, Catherine. 2009. “War Memory and Musical Tradition: Commemorating Croatia’s Homeland War through Popu­lar ­Music and Rap in Eastern Slavonia.” Journal of Con­temporary Eu­ro­pean Studies, 17, no. 1: 35–45. Šentevska, Irena. 2017. “La haine et les autres crimes [Hate and Other Crimes]: Ghettocentric Imagery in Serbian Hip Hop Videos.” In Hip Hop at Eu­rope’s Edge: ­Music, Agency, and Social Change, edited by Milosz Miszczynski and Adriana Helbig, chap. 14. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Further Listening

Beogradski Sindikat. 2001. BSSST . . . ​Tišinčina (Pssst . . . ​Silence). Tilt. Mr. Rabbit. 2016. Postmoderna Komedija (Poatmodern Comedy). Lampshade Media.

Shaggy (Orville Richard Burrell, 1968–­, Kingston, Jamaica) Shaggy is a Jamaican American rapper, singer, and DJ who had hit ­albums and singles in the 1990s and 2000s that fused reggae with alternative rock, pop, R&B, dancehall, dubstep, and hip hop. Shaggy also uses toasting in his m ­ usic. His biggest international hit singles include a dancehall cover of John Folkes’s (n.d.) 1958

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ska song “Oh Carolina” (1993), “Boombastic” (1995), “It ­Wasn’t Me” (1999), and a reggae fusion song titled “Angel” (2000) that uses the refrain melody from Chip Taylor’s (James Wesley Voight, 1940–) country pop hit “Angel of the Morning” (1968) and the bass line from Steve Miller’s (1943–) rock hit “The Joker” (1973). His collaboration ­album with Sting (Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, 1951–), 44/876, was released in 2018. EARLY C ­ AREER AND SUCCESS Nicknamed Shaggy ­because of his wild hair, Burrell began songwriting in high school. By age 19, he took singing lessons and buskered, singing reggae songs. Although he soon recorded several reggae songs with Spiderman (Lloyd Campbell, 1948–), he was poor and wanted to escape the tough Brooklyn street life; he therefore enlisted in the United States Marine Corps during the First Gulf War (1990–1991). In the meantime, he developed his melodic and strongly accentuated rapping, as well as his raspy baritone. In 1992, he resumed his ­music ­career, appearing on Dope’s (aka K-­Dope, Kenny Gonzalez, 1970–) hip hop ­album The Kenny Dope Unreleased Proj­ect (1992) and releasing his own debut a­ lbum, Pure Plea­sure (1993). A prerelease single, “Oh Carolina,” peaked at No.  59 on the Billboard Hot 100. He followed with Original Doberman (1994), without any singles released before it. His most critically acclaimed ­album, Boombastic (1995), spawned a title song that peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart. Most significantly, Boombastic was No. 1 on Billboard’s Reggae ­Album chart for a rec­ord 30 consecutive weeks. In 1996, the ­album won a Grammy Award for Best Reggae ­Album. Boombastic peaked at No. 34 on the Billboard 200 and was certified Platinum. Shaggy’s following ­album, Midnite Lover (1997), paled in comparison to Boombastic, but he followed it with his most successful ­album, Hot Shot (2000), which was RIAA certified six-­times Platinum and peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. In 2002, a remix of this a­ lbum was released, while his following a­ lbum, Lucky Day, attained Gold certification. Singer​-­songwriter Shaggy fuses his signature reggae toasting sound with rap and hip hop beats. The prolific Jamaican-­A merican’s ­combination of musical style and uplifting messages have contributed to his huge ­international following. (Neil Mockford/Alex Huckle/GC Images/Getty Images)

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­AFTER HOT SHOT Although many of Shaggy’s ­later ­albums, including Clothes Drop (2005), Intoxication (2007), Shaggy and Friends (2011), Summer in Kingston (2011), Rise (2012), and Out of Many, One M ­ usic (2013), have attained critical acclaim, they have not reached the same status as Boombastic and Hot Shot. Shaggy’s themes include romance and breaking up, admiring or objectifying ­women, thanking ­those who love and support him (despite difficulties), protesting economic unfairness, and the need for philanthropy. “Rise Again” (2010) supported the victims of the Haiti earthquake. Throughout his ­career, Shaggy has created reggae fusion renditions as well as employed ele­ments of many popu­lar hits. As of 2018, Shaggy continues recording and has maintained collaborations with prominent American and global hip hop artists in both the studio and while touring worldwide. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Jamaica; Reggae; The United States

Further Reading

Daniel, Jeff. 1995. “A True Reggae Toastmaster Shaggy Takes the ­Music Back to Its Melodic Roots.” St. Louis Post-­Dispatch, October 26, 15. Locilento, Micah. 2002. Shaggy: Dogamuffin Style. Toronto: ECW Press.

Further Listening

Shaggy. 1995. Boombastic. Virgin. Shaggy. 2000. Hot Shot. MCA.

Shebang! (1999–­, Toronto, Canada) Shebang! Is a b-­girl crew formed in 1999 by Ms. Mighty (Sara Fenton, n.d.) and Blazin’ (Peggy Lau, n.d.), who became the crew’s cochoreographers. What was originally intended as a support group for ­women of hip hop became the first Canadian b-­girl crew whose efforts included advocacy for ­women, girls, and youth. In 2003, Shebang! competed in the World B-­Boy Championship in London, finishing in seventh place. That year it also battled in the Rocksteady Anniversary in New York City and the B ­ attle of the Year–­North Amer­i­ca in Montreal. The crew became internationally famous for performing with the hip hop group Beastie Boys (1981–2012), Canadian pop and hip hop singer/songwriter Nelly Furtado (1978–), and DJ Kool Herc (1955–). In the early 2000s, Shebang! hosted Break and Enter, a b-­boy and b-­girl ­battle in Toronto. In 2003, the Canadian Floor Masters presented the Absolut Canadian B-­Boy/B-­Girl Award to Shebang, recognizing its efforts to encourage ­women to pursue breakdancing, educating youth about hip hop through classes and workshops, and preserving breakdancing in Canada. Ms. Mighty eventually moved to Los Angeles, where she teaches choreography coaching to actors and dancers. As of 2018, Shebang! continues to compete. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Battling; Breakdancing; Canada; Hip Hop Dance

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Further Reading

Caldwell, Rebecca. 2003. “The Throwdown of B-­Girling and Movers Shebang!” The Globe and Mail (Toronto), January 25, R4. García, Ana “Rokafella.” 2005. Introduction to We B*Girlz by Nika Kramer and Martha Cooper. New York: powerHouse Books. Gupta-­Carlson, Himanee. 2010. “Planet B-­Girl: Community Building and Feminism in Hip Hop.” New Po­liti­cal Science 32, no. 4: 515–29.

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone is a West African country on the Atlantic coast that borders Liberia and Guinea. Many f­ actors interfered with the development of hip hop in 1990s Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002) destroyed the country’s infrastructure, displaced over two million ­people, and set up prob­lems with h­ andling the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Before the Sierra Leone Civil War, popu­lar ­music tastes ­were extremely diverse. For example, one of the most famous funk bands, Muyei Power (aka Orchestre Muyei, 1970*–1979), combined Sierra Leonean beats with Congolese and Nigerian m ­ usic, American soul, and Jamaican reggae. But the Sierra Leone Civil War destroyed the country’s ­music industry. As of 2018, nearly all Sierra Leonean acts are from the capital city of Freetown. Singer-­songwriter, rapper, actor, radio host, sound recording producer, film producer, and director Jimmy B (Jimmy Yeani Bangura, n.d.) is a pioneering rapper who fused hip hop and R&B. Jimmy B began his successful ­music ­career in Johannesburg, South Africa, but moved to Freetown to establish Paradise Rec­ords (2000–) to promote Sierra Leonean ­music and rebuild the country’s ­music and film industry. In 2002, Jimmy B signed Freetown rapper YOK D Sniper (aka YOK Seven, anonymous, n.d.), who was a refugee in Guinea during the Sierra Leone Civil War. YOK Seven’s track “A-­Bo,” from Paradise Rec­ords Compilation, Vol. 1 (2002), calling for officials to stop the war, was the first hit rap song in Krio (an English-­based Creole language) released in Sierra Leone. Rapper and singer-­songwriter ­Daddy Saj (Joseph Gerald Adolphus Cole, 1978–), also a Freetown refugee in Guinea, had global commercial success with his Krio and En­glish ­album Corruption: “E de so” (“It Is So,” 2003), focusing on po­liti­cal corruption in his home country. At times, ­Daddy Saj’s ­music fuses hip hop with traditional Bahamian goombay ­ music. Other Freetown rappers are K-­ Man (­Mahomad Saccoh, 1984–), who fuses hip hop with reggae, ragga, and Kao Denero (aka Kao D, King Denero, Amara Denise Turay, n.d.), who fuses pop and rap. En­glish is the official language of the country, but Krio is spoken by nearly all of Sierra Leone’s highly diverse population. Sierra Leonean hip hop employs both languages. Many Sierra Leonean acts still reside outside the country. Groups include G Force (2005–), based in Gävle, Sweden and Bajah + the Dry Eye Crew (2000–), who reside in New York City. Both fuse hip hop with dancehall and reggae. Chosan (Sheku kef-­Kamara, n.d.), who was born in Sierra Leone, lived in Canada, began his rapping ­career in the United Kingdom, and is based in the United States. Chosan has supported hip hop acts in concert such as Busta Rhymes (1972–), dead prez

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(1996–), and Jadakiss (Jason Phillips, 1975–), and performed the introduction for Kanye West’s (1977–) ­music video for “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” (2005). Rapper Black Intellect (Jerry Kai Lewis, n.d.), born in Freetown, grew up in Baltimore, relocated to Johannesburg, and became a member of the hip hop band Cashless Society (1999–2006). Chief Boima (Boima Tucker, n.d.) is a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-­born Sierra Leonean-­American DJ, sound recording producer, and songwriter of hip hop, hyphy, Trinbagonian soca, Ivory Coastan zouglou, jazz, minimalist ­music, techno, and ambient electronica. Chief Boima toured with the San Francisco eclectic art ­music band Beaten by Them (2005–), produced remixes for the Brooklyn, New York–­based recording label Dutty Artz (2008–), and is currently half of the Brooklyn-­based ­house duo the Kondi Band (2007–), playing turntables with Sierra Leonean mbira (thumb piano) player Sorie Kondi (Sorie Koroma, 1968*–). In 2013, Chief Boima formed the production group Africa Latina (2013–), and in 2017, he relocated to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Reggae

Further Reading

Lahai, John Idriss. 2014. “The Musicscapes of a Country in Transition: Cultural Identity, Youth Agency, the Emergent Hip Hop Culture, and the Quest for Socio-­Political Change in Sierra Leone.” In Hip Hop and Social Change in Africa: Ni Wakati, edited by Msia Kibona Clark and Mickie Mwanzia Koster, chap. 13. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. Shepler, Susan. 2010. “Youth ­Music and Politics in Post-­War Sierra Leone.” Journal of Modern African Studies 48, no. 4: 627–42. Tucker, Boima. 2013. Musical Vio­lence: Gangsta Rap and Politics in Sierra Leone. Uppsala, Sweden: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.

Further Listening

­Daddy Saj. 2003. Corruption: “E De So.” Super Sound.

Singapore Singapore’s hip hop scene goes beyond just ­music to include graffiti arts, breakdancing, and beatboxing—­a variety of artistic expressions matched by the diversity of its creators, who are Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Eurasian. Hip hop was first brought to the country in the mid-1980s by stationed military and international business traders. Singaporean rap is primarily in En­glish (or its variant, Singlish), though Mandarin Chinese, Bahasa Melayu, and Tamil are also used. The first commercially successful rap artist was the duo Construction Sight (1990–2000)*, which mainstreamed rap ­music. Ex–­Construction Sight member Sheikh Haikel (Sheikh Haikel Bin Sheikh Salim Bajrai, 1975–) became a solo rapper and now runs a ­music school in Kuala Lumpur, where hip hop is taught. The new, young hip hop talent includes the popu­lar ShiGGa Shay (Pek Jin Shen, 1992–), rapper-­songwriter, video director, and ­music producer, and ex-­member of the hip hop collective Grizzle Grind Crew (2013–); he is the youn­gest hip hop artist to have charted in Singapore, with “LimPeh” (“Your Dad,” 2013), a song rapped in

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Hokkien. Bandmate Lineath (Lineath Rajendran, 1994–), a rapper and producer, raps in Tamil, a practice he began in 2014 on the song “Grizzle Grind Anthem.” Achieving international success, rapper and activist Kevin Lester (aka Lion City Boy, Kevin Lester Sarjit, 1984–) has signed to Black Eyed Peas (1992–) member apl.de.ap’s (Allan Pineda Lindo, 1974–) BMBX (2014–) rec­ord label. Underground hip hop success stories include Q-­Dot (Ern Quek, n.d.), a rapper and producer known for his wordplay and lyricism and who came into the scene with his 2013 free-­for-­download mixtape The Qoncrete Jungle, while diaspora hip hop acts include Masia One (Maysian Lim, 1980*–) of Toronto, a rapper and rec­ ord label owner (The Merdecka Group, aka the M1 Group, 2003–) and Akeem Jahat (1989–), who is part of the underground Malaysian hip hop scene and raps in Malay. Top Singaporean hip hop producers include Azrael (Muhammad Izaril Ismail, 1983–), a rapper and hip hop activist, and Don M (Syed Muhammad Fayk Alaydrus, 1985–), who has more than 250 songwriting credits to his name and is working ­toward an evolving and unique Singaporean hip hop sound. Though not involved in the ­music scene per se, beatboxer Dharni (Dharni Ng, 1987*–) has become famous in Singapore. He was the first person to win the G ­ rand Beatbox ­Battle Championship consecutively, in 2013 and 2014, and has placed fourth in the World BeatBox championships. Among hip hop dancers, Radikal Forze (1998–), a pioneering b-­boy crew, is perhaps the best known, especially for its spawning the acting ­career of ex–­crew member Tosh Zhang (Tosh Zhang Zhi Yang, 1989–), a dancer and hip hop singer. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Beatboxing; Breakdancing; Graffiti Art

Further Reading

Mattar, Yasser. 2003. “Virtual Communities and Hip Hop ­Music Consumers in Singapore: Interplaying Global, Local, and Subcultural Identities.” Leisure Studies 22, no. 4: 283–300. Tan, Shzr Ee. 2009. “Singapore Takes the ‘Bad’ Rap: A State-­Produced ­Music Video Goes ‘Viral.’ ” Ethnomusicology Forum 18, no. 1: 107–30.

­Sisters Underground (1990–1995, Auckland, New Zealand/Aotearoa) ­ isters Underground is a duo best known for its hit song “In the Neighbourhood” S (1994), a groundbreaking single for New Zealand/Aotearoa hip hop. Part of the subgenre Urban Pasifika, the single combines Māori and other Pacific Island roots ­music with African American ­music genres. The song’s success gave international attention to the Auckland hip hop scene and paved the path for other Urban Pasifika hits, which incorporated m ­ usic styles such as hip hop, jazz, R&B, and soul. “IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD” AND AFTERWARD Before becoming ­Sisters Underground, Brenda Makammeoafi (1976*–) and Hassanah Iroegbu (1976*–) met at Hillary College in Otara, South Auckland.

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Afterward, they performed at Auckland dance parties as an a cappella R&B and soul singing, scat, and old-­school rap act in the Voodoo Rhyme Syndicate (n.d.). That year, they ­were introduced to Alan Jansson (Pakeha Alan Jansson, n.d.), who was recording Proud: An Urban Pacific Streetsoul Compilation (1994). ­Sisters Underground’s two tracks on the ­album, “In the Neighbourhood” and “­Ain’t It True,” ­were the result of their edgy street-­themed songwriting about living in Otara, combined with Jansson’s reworking of lyr­ics and adding hip hop beats and acoustic guitar accompaniment. The songs interweave rap with a lyrical R&B style refrain and close harmonies. Topics include racism, street vio­lence, youth unemployment, city nightlife, dancing, and aiming to live a peaceful life. Greg Semu (1971–) directed the m ­ usic video of “In the Neighbourhood” in the duo’s home and in South Auckland’s streets; it became the most frequently played ­music video on New Zealand tele­vi­sion in 1994. The single peaked at No. 6 on the New Zealand singles chart and at No. 62 on Australia’s ARIA Singles Chart. In 1995, ­Sisters Underground won the award for Most Promising Group at the New Zealand ­Music Awards. A ­ fter they toured Australia, Sony ­Music Australia offered an a­ lbum deal, but Iroegbu had moved to Hawaii. The a­ lbum was never recorded. “In the Neighbourhood” enjoyed renewed popularity in the 2000s. In 2001, it was ranked No. 58 in the APRA (Australian Performing Rights Association) Top 100 New Zealand songs, and in 2002, New Zealand’s TV2 commissioned producer, songwriter, and multi-­instrumentalist Jansson, to remix the song as the station’s promotions theme. Jansson re­united the duo for the recording, and airplay of the remix inspired a resurgence of interest in the original video. In 2003, “In the Neighbourhood” was included in the six-­part New Zealand rock ’n’ roll tele­vi­sion miniseries Give It a Whirl, as well as on its 2005 soundtrack a­ lbum. Iroegbu studied jazz and pursued a solo ­career in the United States, working as a guest vocalist with De La Soul (1987–) in New York (2003), as a guest vocalist on Soane’s (anonymous, n.d.) “Runaway” track on Tonganchic (2005), and as a featured vocalist on Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy’s (anonymous, 1977–) “What You Talkin’ Bout” (2006) on The Inspiration. Since 2013, ­Sisters Underground has re­united to perform “In the Neighbourhood” several times. As of 2018, Iroegbu is active in the Miami hip hop scene, and Makammeoafi (now Brenda Pua) is pursuing a solo c­ areer in Australia. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: New Zealand

Further Reading

Hapeta, Dean. 2000. “Hip Hop in Aotearoa/New Zealand.” In Changing Sounds: New Directions and Configurations in Popu­lar ­Music, edited by Tony Mitchell and Peter Doyle, pp. 202–7. Sydney, Australia: University of Technology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Johnson, Henry. 2010. Many Voices: ­Music and National Identity in Aotearoa/New Zealand. New ­Castle upon Tyne, ­England: Cambridge Scholars. Shute, Gareth. 2004. Hip Hop ­Music in Aotearoa. Auckland, New Zealand: Reed.

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Further Listening

Jansson, Alan. 1994. Proud: An Urban-­Pacific Streetsoul Compilation. Second Nature ­Rec­ords/Volition.

Slick Rick (aka Rick the Ruler, MC Ricky D, Richard Martin Lloyd Walters, 1965–­, London, ­England) Slick Rick is an En­glish American rapper known for his storytelling raps, as well as for his use of multiple character voices, narrative structures, and quick-­wit humor. His smooth, melodic sounding rap, use of British En­glish (from Received Pronunciation to vernacular), and storytelling of adventures loosely make him an early precursor to chap hop, an En­glish style of rapping that emerged in the 2000s that contains ele­ments of British chap culture and sometimes steampunk. Slick Rick’s initial success was as MC Ricky D, in Barbadian American beatboxer, rapper, and producer Doug  E. Fresh’s (Douglas  E. Davis, 1966–) Get Fresh Crew (1985–2003). EARLY ­CAREER Richard Martin Lloyd Walters was born in London to parents of En­glish Jamaican descent. When he was 18 months old, Walters was blinded in the right eye by a flying piece of glass from a broken win­dow. Walters began wearing his trademark eye patch at an early age. Both the accident and the eye patch contributed to Walters’s shyness, so he opted to write stories by himself rather than play with ­others. He also developed talent as a visual artist. In 1976, Walters’s ­family moved to the United States and settled in the Bronx, New York. He majored in visual art at the prestigious Fiorello H. Laguardia High School of ­Music and Art and Performing Arts, where he befriended American rapper Dana Dane (Dana McLeese, 1965). The duo became the Kangol Crew (1980*–1984), which became part of the New York City hip hop scene by performing at parks, clubs, and local school rapping ­battles. The two parted ways ­after he was hired by Doug E. Fresh. He became part of the the Get Fresh Crew, and the group’s first single, “The Show” (1985) achieved Gold certification. The B side, “La Di Da Di,” featuring Slick Rick rapping over Doug  E. Fresh’s beatboxing, gained cult popularity and marked the beginning of Slick Rick as being one of the most sampled rappers in hip hop history. SOLO ­ALBUMS, INCARCERATION, AND IMMIGRATION ISSUES In 1988, Slick Rick released his solo debut studio ­album The G ­ reat Adventures of Slick Rick on Russell Simmons’ (1957–) Def Jam Recordings label (1983–). Produced by Slick Rick, Jam Master Jay (Jason William Mizell, 1965–2002), and the



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Bomb Squad (1986–), The ­Great Adventures peaked at No. 31 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart. His studio solo ­albums had varying success. The ­Great Adventures, The Ruler’s Back (1991), ­Behind Bars (1994), and The Art of Storytelling (1999) coincided with difficult times in his life. Simmons had met Slick Rick in a New York ­mental ward ­after the rapper had smoked too much PCP (phencyclidine, aka angel dust). Slick Rick had a worse prob­lem with his bodyguard and cousin Mark Plummer (n.d.). ­After Plummer made numerous extortion attempts and threats to Slick Rick’s life, the rapper purchased guns to protect himself and his ­family. In 1990, Slick Rick, feeling threatened, fired shots that hit Plummer—­ and an innocent bystander. No one suffered life-­ threatening injuries, but attempted murder, firearms, and immigration charges resulted in a five-­year prison sentence. Slick Rick recorded his second ­album, The Ruler’s Back, ­after Simmons posted his bail. The ­album peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard 200 but received mixed reception. Recorded while in jail, ­Behind Bars peaked at No. 51 on the Billboard 200 and No. 11 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart; however, sales ­were mediocre. But The Art of Storytelling was Slick Rick’s comeback a­ lbum, featuring several hip hop artists who had been inspired by him, such as Nas (1973–) and Snoop Dogg (1971–). The Art of Storytelling became Slick Rick’s most successful ­album, peaking at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 of Billboard’s Top R&B/ Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart. Further issues with immigration took place in 2001 when Slick Rick finished performing on a Ca­r ib­bean cruise and re­entered the United States. B ­ ecause of his previous felonies, he endured threats of deportation and spent over one year in prison. In 2008, New York Governor David Paterson (1954–­, in office 2008– 2010) granted him a full and unconditional ­pardon on his attempted murder charges. Slick Rick has been active in many humanitarian efforts, from teaching ­children to avoid vio­lence to donating artifacts to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. In 2016, he was granted U.S. citizenship. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Doug E. Fresh; Nas; Snoop Dogg; The United Kingdom; The United States

Further Reading

Bradley, Adam, and Andrew Dubois, eds. 2010. “Slick Rick.” ­Under “Part 2: 1985–92: The Golden Age” in The Anthology of Rap, pp. 289–96. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Coleman, Brian. 2007. “Slick Rick: The ­Great Adventures of Slick Rick.” In Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip Hop Junkies. New York: Villard. ­Inoue, Todd. 2003. “Slick Rick: The ­Great Adventures of Slick Rick.” In Classical Material: The Hip Hop A ­ lbum Guide, edited by Oliver Wang, pp. 147–48. Toronto: ECW Press.

Further Listening

Slick Rick. 1988. The ­Great Adventures of Slick Rick. Def Jam. Slick Rick. 1999. The Art of Storytelling. Def Jam Recordings.

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Slovakia Slovakia is a Central Eu­ro­pean country that borders the Czech Republic, Austria, Poland, Hungary, and the Ukraine. Slovak hip hop began in the late 1980s, just before the end of communist rule in 1989, with leading scenes in the capital city, Bratislava, and in its largest eastern city, Kosice. Rapping texts are in Slovak, the country’s official language, and lyr­ics focus on po­liti­cal upheavals; protesting communism, socialism, and capitalism; economic in­equality; and corruption. The studio ­album Rezimy (Regimes, 2011), with lyr­ics composed mostly by Michal Kovac (n.d.) of the Slovak rock group O.B.D. (Orchester Bronislava Dobrotu, 1993–), is an alternative hip hop ­album that features vari­ous artists recording storytelling raps about 30 years of Slovak regimes against a jazz background; however, most famous Slovak hip hop takes ­after West Coast gangsta rap. ­Until the 1990s Slovak hip hop was considered an alternative to the ubiquitous airplay of American rock, R&B, and jazz. One early rapping crew was the Rap Steady Crew (1993*) from Kosice, who in 1993 released the first Slovak hip hop ­album, the gangsta rap influenced Pozor! Vsade je plno rapu! (Beware! Everywhere Is Full of Rap!) with mostly Slovak language texts, mixed with some urban American vernacular En­glish. Other early crews ­were Jednotka slovenskej starostlivosti’s (Slovak Care Unit, JSS, 1997–), from Prievidza; Názov Stavby (1996*–), from Bratislava; and Trosky (formerly Crabb and Sickle Syndicate, 1992–2003), from Zlaté Moravce. ­After Trosky disbanded, DJ and rapper Vec (Branislav Kovac, 1976–) pursued a solo ­career combining rap and pop. By the 2000s, Slovak hip hop had grown in popularity. The most famous Slovak hip hop artist of this time is the group Kontrafakt (2003–), from Piest’any. Kontrafakt’s rapping texts emulate gangsta rap, including  its vulgarity. Kontrafakt released four studio ­albums and collaborated with American rapper, singer, and actor Nate Dogg (Nathaniel Dwayne Hale, 1969– 2011), American DJ Premier (aka Preem, Premo, Primo, Christopher Edward Martin, 1966–) of Gang Starr (1986–2003), and Czech producer DJ Wich (Tomas Pechlák, 1978–). In 2006, Kontrafakt’s founding member, Rytmus (Patrik Vrbovsky, 1977–), of Slovak and Romani descent and born in Kromeriz, Czecho­ slo­va­kia, began his successful solo ­career with his first studio ­album Bengoro, followed by Král (The King, 2009) and Fenomén (Phenomenon, 2011). Rytmus’s single “Technotronic Flow” peaked at No. 1 on the Slovak singles chart. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Czech Republic

Further Reading

Barrer, Peter. 2009. “ ‘My White, Blue, and Red Heart’: Constructing a Slovak Identity in Rap ­Music.” Popu­lar ­Music and Society 32, no. 1: 59–75. Barrer, Peter. 2017. “ ‘The Underground Is for Beggars’: Slovak Rap at the Center of National Popu­lar Culture.” In Hip Hop at Eu­rope’s Edge: M ­ usic, Agency, and Social Change, edited by Milosz Miszczynski and Adriana Helbig, chap. 6. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Further Listening

Kontrafakt. 2004. E.R.A. Epic.

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Slovenia Slovenia is a Southeastern Eu­ro­pean country that shares borders with Austria, Croatia, Hungary, and Italy. In 1991, as the result of protests and mass support of a parliamentary democracy, Slovenia was one of the first countries to gain its in­de­ pen­dence from the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugo­slavia. Slovenia’s earliest hip hop scenes can be traced as far back as the late 1970s and early 1980s, but it was not ­until the 1990s that the ­music became popu­lar. Olympic champion skier Jure Kosir (1972–) pop­u­lar­ized hip hop ­music with his short-­lived rap crew Pasji Kartel (1996–2000*), but its 1996 debut ­album release was preceded by two years by pioneer Ali En (aka Dalaj Eegol, Ali Dzafic, n.d.), who released the popu­lar, energetic Leva Scena (Left Scene, 1994) on the Macji Disk (1993–2001) label. Ali En’s early songs ­were rap against hip hop beats, infused with traditional ­music, American funk, rock, and metal ele­ments, with heavy use of turntables and guitars. Rap duo Dandrough (n.d.), which released Ko pride bog . . . ​(Who Comes to God) in 1996 on the Conan label (1995–2001), introduced G-­f unk beats created by heavy bass and snare-­and tom-­based drum sounds, combined with synthesizer, looped samples, vari­ous character voices, and offbeat vocalized sound effects. Solvenia’s first ­career rapper emerged in 2000, when Ljubljana (the capital and largest city of Slovenia) gruff-­voiced rapper KlemenKlemen (aka Klemen de Klemen, Klemen Dvornik*, 1977–), who has been rapping since age 13, released Trnow stajl (Trnow Style), which featured the hit “Kes Picke” (“What’s Up?”), on the Nika label (1990–), the most prolific early rec­ord label for Slovenian hip hop. He followed his successful debut with Hipnoza (2003) and continues to tour and rec­ord as of 2018. Hip hop did not have an easy start in Slovenia. Breakdancing and hip hop dancing ­were referred to derogatorily in Slovenia in the 1980s and early 1990s, but by 2001, the first Slovenian freestyle rap championships ­were being or­ga­ nized. Freestyle competitions launched the ­career of 6pack Čukur (Bostjan Cukur, 1978–), from Velenje, who released three ­albums, Ne se čudit (Do Not Be Surprised, 2001), Keramicarska lirika (Ceramic Lyr­ics, 2003), and GangstaDillaPlayaGorilla (2009). Recent hip hop acts originate in ­either Ljubljana or Maribor (the second-­largest city in Slovenia). ­These include the duo Murat and Jose (2002–), who quickly developed a reputation as clean rappers, with songs that are not about gangs, drugs, or sex; Emkej (Marko Kocjan, n.d.), a solo rapper and member of Tekochee Kru (2007–); Ledeni (aka Denile, Damijan Kovacic, n.d.), a rapper and producer who introduced trap ­music; N’toko (Miha Blazic, 1980–), a prolific underground rapper and singer known for socially critical lyr­ics and freestyle abilities in both Slovenian and En­glish, with a ­music that combines rap with dark electronic, video game, and metal; AMO (2003–), a rap, reggae, and dancehall trio; and Trkaj (Rok Terkaj, 1983–), a theology student turned rapper known for his freestyle. Emkej cofounded Wudisban Rec­ords (2012–), which is becoming the label of choice for Slovenian rappers. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: G-­Funk

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Further Reading

Kline, Barbara Majcenovič. 2013. “2pac or 6pack: Slovene Gangsta Rap from a So­cio­log­ i­cal Perspective.” In Words and ­Music, edited by Victor Kennedy and Michelle Gadpaille, chap. 10. Newcastle upon Tyne, ­England: Cambridge Scholars. Šabec, Nada. 2013. “The Influence of En­glish on Slovene Rap Lyr­ics.” In Words and M ­ usic, edited by Victor Kennedy and Michelle Gadpaille, chap. 9. Newcastle upon Tyne, ­England: Cambridge Scholars.

Further Listening

Ali En. 1994. Leva Scena (Left Scene). Mačji Disk. N’toko. 2010. Parada Ljubezni (The Parade of Love). Beton Rec­ords.

Smif- ­N -­Wessun (aka Cocoa Brovaz, 1993–­, Brooklyn, New York) Smif-­N-­Wessun is a hip hop duo consisting of rappers Tek (Tekomin B. Williams, 1973–) and Steele (Darrell A. Yates Jr., n.d.), who ­were both from Brooklyn, New York. Tek and Steele are two of the eight members in the Brooklyn-­based hip hop supergroup Boot Camp Clik (1993–). Their ­music is unique for its use of smooth jazz rhythm (horns, bass, high hats) backgrounds against which the duo rap, often with some type of foregrounded instrument more indicative of rap ­music, such as turntables. Both Tek and Steele match their rapping against the rhythm track, so that the rap becomes part of the ­music’s rhythm, and in many cases is the driving force ­behind an individual song’s rhythm (in other words, songs are differentiated more by the rap rhythms than by the rhythm section). Other qualities of their sound include a tendency to prioritize an atmospheric sound, soft dynamics, and low pitches; a combining of drug culture and gangsta rap motifs, and the occasional use of Jamaican patois. As Smif-­N-­Wessun, Tek and Steele debuted on the Brooklyn-­based hip hop group Black Moon’s (1992–2006, 2011–) 1993 ­album Enta da Stage, appearing on two tracks. They released a single, “Bucktown,” in early 1994, and it peaked at No. 93 on the Billboard Hot 100, also reaching No. 14 on the rap chart. This helped the Smif-NWessun market its debut ­album, Dah Shinin’ (1995), which peaked in the top 5 in the Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart and became an influential ­album in the hardcore New York hip hop scene. In 1996, the duo changed its name to Cocoa Brovaz when the Smith and Wesson firearms manufacturer threatened to sue them. Also, as part of the Boot Camp Clik, Tek and Steele ­were ­going to collaborate on an ­album with Death Row Rec­ords’ (1991–2008) Tupac Shakur (1971–1996), but the proj­ect fell through. In 1998, as Cocoa Brovaz, the duo released The Rude Awakening, but its sales ­were moderate. The duo appeared on a number of compilation ­albums over the next few years, and fi­nally, in 2005, Tek and Steele returned as Smif-­N-­Wessun with Smif ‘n’ Wessun: Reloaded. The duo’s fourth a­ lbum, Smif-­N-­Wessun: The ­Album, was released in 2007. Its fifth ­album, Monumental, was a collaboration with producer/ rapper Pete Rock, released in 2011 on Duck Down ­Music (1995–). In 2013, the duo returned to its earlier Jamaican sound and released a reggae-inspired EP, Born and Raised, also on the Duck Down label. As a solo artist, Steele has released two



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mixtapes, Amerikkka’s Nightmare (2004) and Hotstyle Takeover (2007), and two ­albums, W ­ elcome to Bucktown (2009) and Amerikkka’s Nightmare, Pt. 2 (2010); Tek has released no solo ­albums but has produced three mixtapes, It Is What It Is: The Street A ­ lbum (2003), I Got This (2006), and Underground Prince (2009). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Jamaica; Reggae; The United States

Further Reading

Cramer, Jennifer, and Jill Hallett. 2010. “From Chi-­Town to the Dirty-­Dirty: Regional Identity Markers in U.S. Hip Hop.” Chap. 10 in The Languages of Global Hip Hop, edited by Marina Terkourafi. New York: Continuum. French, Kenneth. 2017. “Geography of American Rap: Rap Diffusion and Rap Centers.” GeoJournal 82, no. 2: 259–72. Marshall, Wayne. 2005. “Hearing Hip Hop’s Jamaican Accent.” Newsletter—­Institute for Studies in American ­Music 34, no. 2: 8–9, 14–15. Smith, Christopher Holmes. 1997. “Method in the Madness: Exploring the Bound­aries of Identity in Hip Hop Performativity.” Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation, and Culture 3, no. 3: 345–74.

Further Listening

Smif-­N-­Wessun. 1995. Dah Shinin’. Wreck Rec­ords.

Smith, ­Will (Willard Carroll Smith Jr., 1968–­, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) ­ ill Smith is best known as one of Hollywood’s most bankable actors and producers, W but he began his ­career as a rapper and songwriter known as the Fresh Prince. His early style, which featured lighthearted storytelling of everyday life and inoffensive lyr­ics, found popularity with mainstream audiences, and this led to a successful tele­vi­sion show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-­Air (1990–1996), whose rap theme song he performed and co-­composed, and l­ater a Hollywood c­ areer. Since the mid-1990s, Smith has been one of the world’s most successful actors, having starred in some of the highest grossing films of all time. As of 2018, he continues to produce occasional hip hop recordings. SUCCESS IN HIP HOP, TELEVISION, AND FILM Smith was born into a middle-­class ­family in West Philadelphia’s Wynnefield neighborhood, where in 1985 he met DJ Jazzy Jeff (Jeffrey Allen Townes, 1965–), who was performing alone at a ­house party. Smith originally served as his hype man, and based on their strong connection, the pair soon joined with Smith’s friend, beatboxer Ready Rock C (Clarence Holmes, 1968–), to form DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince (1985–1994). The trio’s first single, “Girls ­Ain’t Nothing but Trou­ ble,” was issued by the local Word Up label (1986–1987), and the success of that recording led to a contract with Jive Rec­ords (1981–2011) and the release of their first a­ lbum, Rock the House (1987).

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Their follow-up a­ lbum, He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper (1988), was the first double-­ disc hip hop release on vinyl, and with triple-­Platinum sales, is the group’s most popu­lar work. The second single from that ­album, “Parents Just ­Don’t Understand” (1988), won the first ever Grammy Award for Best Rap Per­for­mance (1989). The group’s growing success, especially with mainstream audiences, led to the perception, beginning with And in This Corner . . . ​(1989), that they had sold out artistically, but the ­album reached Gold status. Smith neglected his finances and owed the IRS $2.8 million in back taxes, so he accepted an offer from NBC to star in a situation comedy based on his Fresh Prince persona. The Fresh Prince of Bel Air introduced hip hop to audiences in ­middle Amer­i­ca, which also grew to like the show’s theme song and Smith’s Fresh Prince character. By 1993, with his first major role in the American drama film Six Degrees of Separation, Smith had begun turning ­toward a film acting ­career. Smith broke through as a motion picture star in the blockbusters In­de­pen­dence Day (1996) and Men in Black (1997). Meanwhile, Ready Rock C left the group, so Smith recorded two additional ­albums with DJ Jazzy Jeff alone, before releasing his own debut solo ­album on the Columbia label, Big Willie Style (1997), which would be his most successful commercial effort. The a­lbum’s release was preceded by a single tied to the motion picture Men in Black, a marketing strategy used on the subsequent ­album, Willenium (1999), and the title track from the motion picture Wild Wild West (1999). His subsequent solo ­albums w ­ ere Born to Reign (2002) and Lost and Found (2005). Though both of t­ hese ­albums charted on the Billboard 200, they w ­ ere met with mixed critical reception. Some have criticized Smith’s ­later ­albums for their pop-­friendly approach to hip hop, but strong a­ lbum sales suggest that Smith is a performer beyond the reach of critics. At the same time, Smith’s acting ­career reached critical acclaim: He was nominated for Acad­emy Awards for his starring roles in Ali (2001) and The Pursuit of Happyness (2006). He has also been nominated for five Golden Globe awards. Both of Smith’s c­ hildren have emerging c­ areers in entertainment. His son, Jaden Smith (1998–), has appeared with his ­father in The Pursuit of Happyness and ­After Earth (2013). In 2010, Smith’s ­daughter, Willow Smith (2000–), signed on Jay-­Z’s (1969–) label Roc Nation (2008–), and her hip hop and pop hit “Whip My Hair” peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100. Scott Warfield See also: DJ Jazzy Jeff; Filmmaking (Feature Films Made in the United States); The United States

Further Reading

Corrigan, Jim. 2007. ­Will Smith. Philadelphia: Mason Crest Publishers. Palmer, Lorrie. 2011. “Black Man/White Machine: ­Will Smith Crosses Over.” Velvet Light Trap: A Critical Journal of Film and Tele­vi­sion 67 (Spring): 28–40.

Further Listening

DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. 1988. He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper. Jive. Smith, ­Will. 1997. Big Willie Style. Columbia.

Snap 649

Snap Snap is a hip hop musical style derived from crunk and pop­u­lar­ized in the early-­ to mid-2000s Atlanta hip hop musical style derived from crunk. Snap became mainstream and popu­lar for a short time between 2005 and 2007 but declined shortly thereafter. Popu­lar snap artists included D4L (2003–2006), whose single “Laffy Taffy” topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2006. The song appeared on D4L’s debut ­album Down for Life (2005), which reached No. 22 on the Billboard 200 and No. 4 on the Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart. “Laffy Taffy” is a sex song that has a textbook snap beat created by a melodic loop displaced by an octave—­a series of three notes/beats on a synthesizer—­with a muted bass kick accompaniment and a fin­ger snap on the third synthesizer note/ beat that reverbs to become part of the fourth beat, which is bass kick with the snap decay, while the synthesizer rests; this is repeated over and over with slight variation where the synthesizer dis­appears and the bass kick and snap carry the beat. The simplicity of the song, like the snap genre itself, was its appeal, and “Laffy Taffy” became a multi-­Platinum hit.

POPULARITY The banner year for snap ­music was 2006, with hits such as “Lean wit It, Rock wit It” by Dem Franchize Boys (2002–2012); “Do It To It,” by Cherish (2003–); and “Snap Yo Fin­gers,” by Lil Jon (Jonathan Smith, 1971–); all Atlanta-­based acts. Earlier in 2004, Dem Franchize Boyz signed to Universal ­Music Group (1996–) and released a self-­titled debut ­album with hit single “White Tee,” but the group’s biggest hit was “Lean wit It, Rock wit It” from the ­album On Top of Our Game, which reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and No. 2 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­ Hop ­Albums chart. The song was the band’s only Top 10 hit, reaching No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 2 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-­Hop Songs chart. It features the ubiquitous snap Roland TR-808 bass drum kick, snapping on the third beat (followed by a bass kick on the fourth beat), a synthesizer produced clicking percussion sound, and synthesized strings that produce the song’s dramatic atmosphere and main groove. As with “Laffy Taffy,” vocals take the form of repetitive group chants alternated with solo raps. Female snap rap group Cherish had a hit single with “Do It to It,” from the a­ lbum Unappreciated, which reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200. The song was the band’s biggest hit, reaching No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Top 10 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-­Hop Songs chart. Unlike many snap songs, it features handclaps more prominently than snaps; ­these are set against a bass kick and synthesizer groove that is mainly soft strings. Lil Jon’s “Snap Yo Fin­gers” features a catchy, uptempo rhythm. It peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Hot R&B/Hip-­Hop Songs chart. The song is slightly more complex than most snap m ­ usic, as its main groove is created by a quick, rhythmic, synthesizer progression of notes displaced by an octave that pan from left to right as they are getting higher, and against this groove the typical kick bass and fin­ger snap beat is juxtaposed, but an ostinato played on the triangle is

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added. The effect is the impression that the ­music constantly builds in intensity, which works well against Lil Jon’s gruff vocals and grunts. Lyr­ics, however, are chantlike and s­ imple, as with most snap hits. BEYOND 2006 AND SNAP’S DECLINE Other Atlanta-­based snap hits included the Grammy nominated “It’s Goin’ Down” by Yung Joc (Jasiel Amon Robinson, 1983–) and the multi-­Platinum Grammy nominated “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” by Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em (DeAndre Cortez Way, 1990–), which spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2007. “It’s Goin’ Down” is a character song that features a gangsta style synthesized loop and heavier bass, with both 808 drums and snaps; “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” is a dance song known for its steel drum loop, which is played against 808 drums, snaps, a heavy bass kick, and synthesized orchestral stingers (for dramatic effect). In 2008, V.I.C. (Victor Grimmy Owusu, 1987–) released a hit snap single called “Get Silly.” Both snap song and snap parody, it peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified Gold. The song’s groove is a series of orchestral stingers and heavy bass kick, with snaps being distorted to sound like nutshells cracking, and a melodic loop based on a minor scale, reminiscent of the opening of the Inspector Gadget theme played on a toy piano. Snap artists not from Atlanta include two hip hop groups from Texas, Arlington’s GS Boyz (2005–2012) and Dallas’s Trap Starz Clik (2007–), and two from Georgia, College Park’s Mr. Collipark (Michael Crooms, 1970–) and Decatur’s Nitti (Chadron S. Moore, n.d.). ­After 2008, snap m ­ usic lost its commercial viability. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Crunkcore; Dirty South; The United States

Further Reading

Grem, Darren E. 2006. “ ‘The South Got Something to Say’: Atlanta’s Dirty South and the Southernization of Hip Hop Amer­i­ca.” Southern Cultures 12, no. 4: 55–73. Miller, Matt. 2004. “Rap’s Dirty South: From Subculture to Pop Culture.” Journal of Popu­ lar ­Music Studies 16, no. 2: 175–212. Sanneh, Kelefa. 2006. “ ‘Laffy Taffy’: So Light, So Sugary, So Downloadable.” The New York Times, January 12, E1.

Snoop Dogg (aka Snoop Lion, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., 1971–­, Long Beach, California) Snoop Dogg is highly influential and prolific pioneering American rapper and singer-­songwriter who l­ater became a rec­ord producer, actor, and tele­vi­sion personality. Snoop Dogg’s musical sound recording output includes 15 studio ­albums that have all charted on the Billboard 200, including the Top 10 No Limit Top Dogg (1999), Paid tha Cost to Be da Boss (2002), R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece



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(2004), Tha Blue Carpet Treatment (2006), Ego Trippin’ (2008), Doggumentary (2011) and three No. 1’s, Doggystyle (1993), Tha Doggfather (1996), and Da Game Is to Be Sold (1998). Seven of his ­albums reached Platinum or multi-­Platinum status, and two Gold. Snoop Dogg’s singles have crossed over into mainstream popularity, with Billboard Hot 100 charting hits that included “What’s My Name?” and “Gin and Juice” (both 1993), “Still a G Thang” (1998), “Beautiful” (2003), “Drop It Like It’s Hot” (2004), and “Sexual Eruption” (2007). Snoop Dogg’s prolific recording output also includes 17 compilation ­albums, 20 mixtapes, one EP, 14 promotional singles, and many appearances and collaborations with internationally renown hip hop artists. His success has also enabled him to rec­ord m ­ usic in other genres. In 2012, he became Snoop Lion, converted to Rastafari, and recorded the reggae ­album Reincarnated (2013). Since 2015, he has returned to using the name Snoop Dogg.

MUSICAL SUCCESS AND MURDER TRIAL Born Calvin Broadus, he took an interest in singing and playing piano while attending church. He started songwriting and rapping by sixth grade, but he also started got involved in the from Long Beach’s Eastside Rollin’ 20 Crips gang. ­After graduating high school, he was arrested for cocaine possession and served some prison time in the early 1990s. When he was at home, he recorded and formed the trio 213 (1990–2011), named ­after the Los Angeles, California telephone area code with his cousin, rapper Nate Dogg (Nathaniel Dwayne Hale, 1969–2011), and best friend, rapper and producer Warren G (Warren Griffin III, 1970–). His freestyle rapping caught the attention of Dr. Dre (Andre Romelle Young, 1965–), a founding member of N.W.A. (1986–1991) and co-­owner and coproducer of Death Row Rec­ords (1991–). In 1992, ­after an invitation to audition from Dr.  Dre, he signed on with Death Row and took the stage name Snoop Doggy Dogg (based on Snoopy, his childhood nickname). The two began working together, and Snoop Doggy Dogg showed ­great potential in rhyming, lyr­ics, and delivery (a smooth, laid-­back style), in addition to having a low tenor voice. Dr. Dre had N.W.A. collaborator and Death Row cofounder the D.O.C. (aka Doc T, Tracy Lynn Curry, 1968–) work with Snoop Doggy Dogg on lyrical and musical structure, forming hooks and choruses, and creating theme-­ based verses. Snoop Doggy Dogg quickly became a central pioneer of West Coast G-­f unk hip hop, first working on a theme song for the feature crime film drama Deep Cover, as well as on Dr. Dre’s debut solo ­album, The Chronic (both 1992). At this time, Dr. Dre created Tha Dogg Pound (1992–2002, 2005–), a rapping duo with Kurupt (Ricardo Emmanuel Brown, 1972–) and Daz N—ga Daz (aka Daz Dillinger, Delmar Drew Arnaud, 1973–), who appeared on The Chronic as well as on Snoop Doggy Dogg’s debut studio ­album Doggystyle (1993). The latter also featured 213, who had a minor hit with “­Ain’t No Fun (If the Homies ­Can’t Have None).” Doggystyle topped Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart and a year ­later was certified qua­d ru­ple Platinum. Its strongest hit singles ­were “Gin and Juice,” which peaked at Nos. 52 and 73, respectively, on Billboard’s Hot 100 and

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R&B/Hip-­Hop Songs charts, and “What’s My Name,” which peaked at Nos. 62 and 75, respectively, on the same charts. The ­album was not only a G-­f unk classic; Snoop Doggy Dogg’s soft spoken, smooth sound, as well as contrasting lyrical content about his ­mother, added depth and dimension to G-­f unk, which was still being criticized for its foul language, misogyny, and vio­lence. ­Toward the end of recording Doggystyle, however, Snoop Doggy Dogg—­who underwent his first name change to Snoop Dogg—­was arrested in 1993 for his connection to the murder of rival gang member Philip Woldemariam (n.d.), who was shot to death by Snoop Dogg’s bodyguard McKinley Lee (n.d.). Defended by Johnnie Cochran (1937–2005), who became famous for his work on the defense and acquittal of O.J. Simpson (1947–), both Snoop Dogg and Lee ­were acquitted, though had ­legal ­battles into 1996—­the same year Snoop Dogg recorded Tha Doggfather and Death Row’s dominance of the rap charts would come to an end with the death of Tupac Shakur (1971–1996). Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg eventually left the label ­because of Death Row cofounder Suge Knight’s (Marion Hugh Knight Jr., 1965–) public feuding with hip hop artists such as Luke (1960–) and Puff ­Daddy (1969–). In 1998, Snoop Dogg signed with Master P’s (1970–) No Limit Rec­ords (1990– 2003), which ultimately enabled him to focus on launching his own label, Doggystyle Rec­ords (aka Dogg­house Rec­ords, 1995–), a business that Snoop Dogg established just before his own ­legal issues. Meanwhile, Death Row continued to release some of Snoop Dogg’s final work ­there, including the successful compilation ­album with Death Row: Snoop Doggy Dogg at His Best (2001), as well as an 18-­minute short film Murder Was the Case (based on his murder trial, 1994) starring Snoop Dogg, with a soundtrack supervised by Dr.  Dre. This practice, including releasing recordings by Tha Dogg Pound, was continued into the 2000s, long ­after Death Row went bankrupt in 2006 (the lawsuit led to a two-­million-­dollar loss for Snoop Dogg). Death Row became part of the Global ­Music Group (aka Global ­Music Entertainment, 2008–), and in 2009 it released Death Row: The Lost Sessions, Vol. 1 with Snoop Dogg’s recordings from 1993 to 1997. With No Limit, Snoop Dogg continued his success with three a­ lbums: Da Game Is to Be Sold, Not to Be Told (1998), No Limit Top Dogg (1999), and Tha Last Meal (2000). Doggystyle Rec­ords released Snoop Dogg Pres­ents Tha Eastsidaz (2000), with his trio Eastsidaz (1997–2004, 2014–), as well as Eastsidaz Duces ‘n Trayz: The Old Fashioned Way (2001), and the promo single Loosen Control (2001). Though his recording ­career remained prolific, Snoop Dogg’s venture with his label and his intent to use it to support other rappers came to fruition for just a brief time. One issue was that Eastsidaz—­consisting of Snoop Dogg, Big Tray Deee (Tracy Lamar Davis, 1966–), and Goldie Loc (Keiwan Deshawn Spillman, 1980–)—­was ­under contract with Virgin Rec­ords (1972–). In 2012, Snoop Dogg announced a name change to Snoop Lion and a new c­ areer as a reggae artist ­after a trip to Jamaica. Previously, he had been a member of the Nation of Islam (NOI). In 2013, he released Reincarnated. That same year, a documentary film with the same title was released, which focused on Snoop Dogg’s conversion to Rastafarianism. The name and ­career change was short-­lived, and three years l­ ater with Bush (2015), he announced changing his name back to Snoop Dogg; he began recording West Coast style hip hop again.



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SUPPORT OF OTHER ARTISTS, PERFORMANCE PRACTICE, AND ENDEAVORS BEYOND ­MUSIC Despite a prolific recording ­career, Snoop Dogg often tours and supports other hip hop artists beyond just lending his name and escalating sales. Snoop Dogg appeared on The Art of Storytelling, Slick Rick’s (1965–) comeback studio ­album, which became Slick Rick’s most successful ­album, peaking at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 of the Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart. He has supported and collaborated with Pharrell (1973–) numerous times, including having Pharrell’s label Star Trak Entertainment (2001–) corelease Snoop Dogg’s R & G. He also appeared dancing the Crip Walk in Pharrell’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot” (2004) ­music video. Thai American hip hop group Thaitanium’s (2000–) 2014 remix of his “Wake Up (Bangkok City)” from Tha Doggfather features Snoop Dogg in the recording and video, and he appeared on Thaitanium’s 2014 U.S. tour. His concert appearances and recordings are a combination of previously written and memorized rap and freestyle lyr­ics. The latter is Snoop Dogg’s strength—­ impressive for line length, internal rhymes, alliteration, and an unshakable laidback delivery. Though he is from Long Beach, Snoop Dogg’s rapping voice has a drawl; all ­these attributes, in addition to content, made Snoop Dogg influential to Southern rap. Known for making impromptu appearances in intimate venues, Snoop Dogg also tends to work to form a rapport with his audience through simply talking with them, improvising by incorporating their involvement in a rap per­for­mance, or through call-and-response. In 2009, Priority Rec­ords appointed Snoop Dogg as creative chairman. He appeared on film and tele­vi­sion with main roles in the American motion pictures The Wrecking Crew (1999), Bones (2001), The Wash (2001), The Tenants (2005), Mac & Devin Go to High School (2012), and Dispensary (2015). A large part of Snoop Dogg’s image involves cannabis smoking. In 2007, he was certified for medical marijuana to treat migraines. He has used this image and his advocacy to become an investor in the California-­based medical marijuana delivery business, Eaze, in 2015. That same year, he established a digital media business, Merry Jane, which pres­ents news about marijuana in addition to another business, Leafs by Snoop, which sells cannabis products. In 2016, Snoop Dogg bought the soul food chain Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles out of bankruptcy. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Crip Walk; Dirty South; Dr. Dre; Gangs (United States); Gangsta Rap; Slick Rick; The United States

Further Reading

Gosa, Travis L. 2015. “The Fifth Ele­ment: Knowledge.” In The Cambridge Companion to Hip Hop, edited by Justin Williams, chap. 5. Cambridge, ­England: Cambridge University Press. Oliver Wang. 2003. “Dr. Dre: The Chronic; Snoop Doggy Dogg: Doggystyle.” In Classical Material: The Hip Hop A ­ lbum Guide, edited by Oliver Wang, pp. 57–59. Toronto: ECW Press. Quinn, Eithne. 2005. Nuthin’ but a G Thang: The Culture and Commerce of Gangsta Rap. New York: Columbia University Press.

654 Somalia Westhoff, Ben. 2016. Original Gangstas: The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-­E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, and the Birth of West Coast Rap. New York: Hachette Books.

Further Listening

Snoop Dogg. 1993. Doggystyle. Death Row. Snoop Dogg. 2004. R & G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece. Geffen.

Somalia Somalia is a Northeastern African country that gained its in­de­pen­dence from the United Kingdom in 1960 originally as the Somali Republic (1960–1969), unifying ­people living in former British and Italian Somalilands. But hostilities flared, leading to Somali nationalism, ethnic tensions, and violent power strug­gles. In 1969, a coup d’état led to the dictatorship of general Mohamed Siad Barre (1910–1995, in office 1969–1991), who began suppressing ­music, so hip hop had no presence in the early to mid-1980s, and as of 2018, more research on 1990s Somali hip hop needs to be conducted; however, Somali culture has historically placed emphasis on ­music and poetry. In point of fact, Somalia is nicknamed the “Nation of Bards” or the “Nation of Poets.” Traditional ­music includes Somali folklore (folksongs) and dhaanto (urban dance songs), with Arabic influences. Popu­lar ­music includes protest songs, balwo (passionate love songs combined with poetry), and Somali blues, with influences from American and pan-­African jazz, Afrobeat, Jamaican reggae, and American funk. Radio and tele­vi­sion disseminated popu­lar ­music in Somali, Arabic, and En­glish with stations from Hargeisa and Somalia’s capital city, Mogadishu. By the 1970s, Somali popu­lar ­music included a fusion known as Somali funk. Though hip hop was not part of the mainstream, protest songs against the Siad Barre regime ­were recorded, and many musicians therefore departed to escape punishment. Growing re­sis­tance to the Siad-­Barre regime led to the Somali Civil War (1986–), which continues (as of 2018) despite the 1990 defeat of the Siad-­Barre regime; regional forces and clan militias compete for power still. The Somali Civil War has led to diaspora, and virtually all Somali hip hop is a diasporic musical activity. The most famous Somali rapper is K’naan (1978–), a singer-­songwriter and poet from Mogadishu, who is based in Toronto. K’naan raps in En­glish and Somali, and some of his lyrical content focuses on Somalia, the war, and refugees. K’naan’s aunt was the singer Magool (Halima Khaliif Omar, 1948–2004), a traditional Somali singer known for patriotic songs during the Ethio-­Somali War (aka the Ogaden War, 1977–1778), love songs, and Islamic protest songs against the late 1970s Somali government. She left Somalia in self-­imposed exile. The duo Malitia Malimob (Militia of Griots, 2011*–) formed in Seattle and raps about the Somali immigrant experience in the United States, including stereotyping. The hip hop collective Waayaha Cusub (New Era, 2002–) was formed by Somali expatriates in Nairobi, ­Kenya. Female singer-­rapper Falis Abdi (1989–) leads the collective. As of 2018, Waayaha Cusub is based in London and belongs to the ­music initiative “I’m with the Banned,” which protests the travel bans proposed in 2017 by United States president Donald Trump (1946–­, in office 2017–).



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Ethiopian-­born Somali En­glish singer-­songwriter, multi-­instrumentalist, producer, and actor Aar Maanta (Hassan-­Nour Sayid, n.d.) performs and rec­ords a fusion of R&B, pop, and hip hop, with traditional Somali ­music. Further examples of hip hop artists of Somali descent are message rapper and singer-­songwriter OMVR (aka Omar, Omar Mohamed Ahmed, 1988*–), from Norway, and pop, hip hop, electronica, and jazz singer-­songwriter, multi-­instrumentalist and producer Mocky (Dominic Salole, 1974–), from Canada. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: K’Naan

Further Reading

K’naan. 2011. “A Son Returns to the Agony of Somalia.” The New York Times, September 25, SR5. Sobral, Ana. 2013. “The Survivor’s Odyssey: K’naan’s ‘The Dusty Foot Phi­los­o­pher’ as Modern Epic.” African American Review 46, no. 1: 21–36.

Further Listening

K’naan. 2006. The Dusty Foot Phi­los­o­pher. Sony BMG M ­ usic Entertainment Canada.

South Africa South Africa is located at the southern tip of the continent Africa. It borders both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, as well as Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe. South Africa also surrounds Lesotho, which won its own in­de­pen­dence from the United Kingdom in 1966. Though its largest city is Johannesburg (nicknamed Jozi), South Africa has three capital cities: Pretoria (executive); Cape Town (legislative); and Bloemfontein (judicial). Its population of 55 million consists of a vast majority of black Africans and minorities of whites (who are ­either descendants of Afrikaners, Anglophones, or other Eu­ro­pe­ans), Indians and racially mixed populations still self-­identify as “coloureds.” By the early 1980s, American hip hop arrived in ­these large cities; however, for po­liti­cal, economic, and cultural reasons, it was unable to gain immediate popularity t­here. For the same reasons, South African hip hop has also had challenges with its emergence and development. Artists faced the challenge of ­either using En­glish to reach large audiences or a South African language (sometimes mixed with some American vernacular). But unlike other countries that could resolve the issue by opting for a native common language or a regional vernacular, South Africa has so many spoken languages from which to choose. For artists opting to use a South African language, the question became which language(s) to use. Languages in South African hip hop mirror the country’s language diversity: The most spoken languages are Zulu, Xhosa, and Afrikaans, followed by En­glish. Other recognized spoken languages include Khoe, Lobedu, Nama, Northern ­Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Phuthi, San, Tswana, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, Swati, Tsonga, and Venda. Fanagalo (based on Zulu and some Afrikaans) is just one ­example of several kinds of pidgin En­glish languages spoken. Not only do South Africans often speak an En­glish influenced by Afrikaans; spoken En­glish ­there

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often sounds much closer to British En­glish than American En­glish. For ­those from elsewhere, it is easy to ­mistake South African pidgin En­glish for British En­glish. Another backdrop to South African hip hop is the country’s lengthy history as a victim of Eu­ro­pean colonialism that reached its height in between the late 19th to early 20th centuries. Though first explored by the Portuguese in the 1400s, Dutch and En­glish colonization did not begin ­until the early 1600s. Anglo-­Dutch rivalries for power led to conflicts in South Africa that included the Anglo-­Zulu War (1879), which led to the end of an in­de­pen­dent Zulu nation, and the First and Second Anglo-­Boer Wars (1880–1881 and 1899–1902); both ­were mainly between ­England and Boers (descendants of Dutch-­speaking Cape settlers). In addition, German rule and colonialism took place in western South Africa (including Namibia) much ­later, starting in 1884 ­until South Africa, backed by the United Kingdom, defeated German forces at the end of World War I (1914–1918). South Africa contributed to fighting on the Allied Forces’ side during World War II (1939–1945), despite internal pressure from nationalists who w ­ ere Nazi sympathizers. By the late 20th ­century, South African government’s institutionalization and brutal enforcement of Apartheid (meaning separateness in Afrikaans, 1948–1991), a white nationalist system of laws and policies that ­violated h­ uman rights with its severe racial segregation and imposed vio­lence against blacks and its disenfranchisement of black voters, received worldwide criticism and economic sanctions. During this time, many black South Africans lived in exile in other countries while ­others faced poor living standards, crime, and police brutality in segregated township ghettos (e.g., Soweto in Johannesburg) or within the homeland system of separate states (each one was called a Bantustan or black state). Botswana and Swaziland ­were also vulnerable to South Africa’s economic and po­liti­cal pressures, though Lesotho opposed apartheid and became home to black South African refugees. In 1990, Namibia declared in­de­pen­dence from South Africa, which applied apartheid ­there as well. Global economic and po­liti­cal pressure brought the end of apartheid and the Bantustans by 1994, less than a year ­after the country’s first demo­cratic election of a South African president (Nelson Mandela, 1918–2013). Colonialism, white nationalism, and Eu­ro­pean immigration contributed to a Eu­ro­pean influence on traditional and popu­lar South African ­music. Since the 19th ­century, some American influence on ­music took place through cultural exchanges with South Africa and the West Indies. Black South Africans responding against Eu­ro­pean colonialism embraced black-­identified American ­music such as jazz, soul, funk, rock, and ultimately hip hop. Reggae from Jamaica has also been a favorite kind of South African popu­lar ­music and remains influential on the comparatively gentle sound of South American hip hop. Though American hip hop arrived by the early 1980s, South Africa’s late-20th-­ century po­liti­cal history affected how the ­music was received and how its own hip hop developed. During President  P.  W. Botha’s (1916–2006) last years in office, South Africa was on one hand facing alienation for apartheid and related ­human rights violations that ultimately included harsh globally imposed economic sanctions, while on the other hand philanthropic efforts responded to the plight of



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apartheid’s victims and South Africa’s extreme poverty. American artists also found ways to relate to victims of apartheid. For example, Chicago-­born Gil Scott-­ Heron (Gilbert Scott-­Heron, 1949–2011) released several recordings that addressed apartheid in South Africa, criticizing how the United States was lacking in its ­handling of racial issues. Examples of this kind of lyrical content are found in From South Africa to South Carolina and the single “Johannesburg” (1979). Other artists who responded include alternative hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest (ATCQ, 1985–1998, 2006–2013, 2015–), who recorded “Steve Biko (Stir It Up)” (1993), titled ­after the slain anti-apartheid and South African ­human rights activist (1946–1977). South Africa nevertheless had more ­music studios than all other African countries. Despite its own po­liti­cal turmoil, South Africa was a destination for other African recording artists. In addition, the establishment of RiSA (Recording Industry of South Africa, formerly Association of the South African ­Music Industry) in the 1970s helped create South Africa’s own promising popu­lar ­music industry. But, ­because of economic sanctions, South Africans interested in creating ­music had extremely limited access to the kind ­music technology that was being used in American hip hop. EARLY HIP HOP Pioneering hip hop was an underground activity centered in Cape Flats, the poor outskirts of Cape Town. Breakdancing and graffiti occurred first, followed by ­music. By the mid 1980s Soweto, in Johannesburg, became the other prominent scene, followed in the 1990s by Durban, Grahamstown, Port Elizabeth, and the diamond mining town, Kimberley. Two of South Africa’s earliest Cape Town acts ­were Black Noise (formerly Chill Convention, 1986*–) and Prophets of da City (aka POC, 1988–2001). Both ­were inspired by old-­school American hip hop and focused on guarded po­liti­cal conscious hip hop—­creating message rap through meta­phor, coding, and addressing serious subject ­matter through using lighthearted humor. In 1990, POC released its debut studio ­album, Our World, which became the country’s first hip hop release. POC rapped in En­glish and Cape slang (an Afrikaans dialect) on the ­album. The band also employed South African m ­ usic such as mbaqanga (black urban ­music with Zulu roots). In 1992, Black Noise, fronted and cofounded by pioneering b-­boy and rapper Emile YX? (Emile Lester Jansen, 1968–), released its debut studio ­album, Pumpin’ Loose da Juice. Despite South Africa’s alienation and po­liti­cal suppression of lyrical content, ­these early hip hop acts managed to attain international exchange and attention. POC toured extensively, was involved in an antidrug campaign geared ­toward South Africa’s youth, and, ­after its 1991 release “Ons Stem” (“Our Voice”)—an ahead-­ of-­its-­time attack on the racist apartheid national anthem “Die stem” (“The Voice”) and government censorship for its ­music video “Kicking Non Stop” (1991), POC played for the 1992 Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland as invited guests of Quincy Jones (1933–). In 1993, Emile YX? participated in Universal Zulu Nation’s (1973–) Twentieth Anniversary event in New York City in an effort to share South African hip hop with Americans. In 1994, Emile YX?, also a schoolteacher, and

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members of Black Noise supported South Africa’s democ­ratization and participated in voters’ education. EMERGENCE OF KWAITO AND MOTSWAKO Mandela’s election sparked the ac­cep­tance of hip hop into the mainstream. In 1994, POC performed “Excellent, the First Black President” at Mandela’s inauguration. Just a ­couple years prior to this per­for­mance, Ku Shu Shu Rec­ords (1990– 1991), which was formed and became the Johannesburg label, Ghetto Ruff (1991–), emerged as ­the nation’s largest in­de­pen­dent South African label that focuses on hip hop. Post-­Mandela hip hop was diverse yet splintered ­because of multiple languages and competing ­music cultures. Famous Cape Town act 5th Floor (1996–) raps in En­glish, while rap crews Kallitz (pronounced “Coloureds,” 1998–) and Brasse Vannie Kaap (BVK, 1996–2006) rap in Afrikaans. Another Cape Town crew, Maniac Squad (1998*–), featured rapper Rattex (Thabo Twetwa, 1981–), who performed in Xhosa, En­glish, and Cape Flats slang. Skwatta Kamp (1996–2009)* from Soweto rapped in En­glish and American vernacular. Skwatta Kamp, the first South African hip hop group to secure a major recording contract, would ­later have a Platinum-­certified ­album with Mkhukhu Funkshen (Mkhukhu Function, 2003, Mkhukhu is a Zulu name). Skwatta Kamp’s Slikour (Siyabonga Metane, 1981–) also had a solo ­career. As access to ­music and m ­ usic technology began to improve in the mid to late 1990s South African hip hop ­music exhibited an increasing diversity. For example, Krushed & Sorted (1997–) is a DJ and production duo from Cape Town that performs hip hop, breakbeat, drum-­and-­bass, electronica, and dubstep. Also from Cape Town was Moodphase5ive (1999–2002), a hip hop, trip hop (downtempo), dubstep, drum-­and-­bass, and jazz-­funk band with members from South Africa and Namibia. Though rival popu­lar ­music genres informed each other, they also divided attention and sales. Another urban m ­ usic, kwaito, developed when Soweto-­born Arthur Mafokate (Sello Arthur Mafokate, 1962–) had the first kwaito hit in South Africa, “Kaffir” (1995). With lyrical content that was far less po­liti­cal than hip hop, kwaito used South African languages that may be known in Botswana, such as Afrikaans, Zulu, and American vernacular En­glish. Kwaito, a subgenre of ­house ­music, consisted of some of the same ele­ments as hip hop, but used slowed-­down ­house m ­ usic beats, drum loops, African m ­ usic samples, and heavy bass. As South African hip hop began to more explic­itly address in­equality, poverty, street vio­lence, police brutality, HIV and AIDS, cultural identification, and the ravages of colonialism, kwaito focused on localized gangster topics, partying, and other lighthearted subject ­matter as a means for escape. Some youth opted for kwaito over hip hop ­because kwaito was perceived as a truly South African. ­Others opted for kwaito ­because some South African youth w ­ ere critical of the United States’ role and responsibility in poor economic conditions that exist in the world. Ghetto Ruff Rec­ords quickly expanded to become the largest kwaito label. The most famous kwaito artists are from Soweto, Cape Town, and Durban. ­T hese



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artists include Boom Shaka (1993–2000), Thebe (Thebe Mogane, 1973–), Mdu Masilela (1970–), Brenda Fassie (aka MaBrrr, 1964–2004), Mandoza (Mduduzi Edmund Tshabalala, 1978–2016), Trompies (1995–), TKZee (TaKe It Eezy, 1996–), Bongo Maffin (1996–), Baphixile (1997*–), and Big Nuz (2002–), Pitch Black Afro (Thulani Ngcobo, n.d.), Zola (Bonginkosi Dlamini, 1981–), and TKZee’s Bouga Luv (Kabelo Mabalane, 1976–). Skwatta Kamp’s Flabba (Nkululek Habedi, 1977–2015) had a concurrent hip hop and kwaito solo ­career from 2007 ­until his death. Kwaito rapper Pitch Black Afro (Thulani Ngcobo, 1976*–) had a certified-­ Platinum hit ­album with Styling Gel (2004). Kwaito also found popularity in Namibia, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe. In the 2000s, sghubu, a hardcore subgenre of kwaito, emerged and was performed by South African artists such as the duo Major League Djz (2008–). Another kind of ­music that was a rival to South African hip hop was motswako, which emerged in South Africa. Motswako is a subgenre of hip hop that emerged in the mid-1990s in Mafikeng (now Mahikeng), a South African major city located near Botswana. Since the late 1990s, motswako has arguably become more popu­lar in Botswana than in South Africa. In point of fact, it was a Motswana MC originally from Francistown, Botswana, Mr T (aka Nomadic, Tebogo Mapine, n.d.), who pioneered motswako (the name is Setswana for mixture, alluding to the use of two languages and the fusion of American hip hop with the gentler Mafikeng musical sound). Since early motswako, rapping texts ­were mainly in Setswana—­a Tswana language that is Botswana’s common language, but also spoken by a large population in South Africa. It also employed American vernacular, as well as South African languages such as Zulu, Afrikaans, and Xhosa. Lyrical content includes localized sociopo­liti­cal or economic protests and issues such as drug culture; however, some songs focus more on unity, localized pride, romance, objectifying ­women, partying, acquiring wealth, and self-­actualization. Musical characteristics of motswako usually include laid-­back yet flowing raps, steady beat (at times four-­ to-­the-­floor, reggae-­based, Afrocentric, or drum-­and-­bass beats), turntablism (or turntables as virtual instruments), and limited electronic ­music in the background  to help keep rap in the foreground. Sampling is deemphasized. An early South African motswako artist was rapper and singer-­songwriter Hip Hop Pantsula (aka HHP, Jabba, Jabulani Tsambo, 1980–). Other early motswako acts included rapper Khuli Chana (Kulane Morule, 1982–) and Baphixile. The latter started as a kwaito duo, but shifted to motswako. One of the most commercially successful motswako artists was Cashless Society (1999–2006), with members from Johannesburg and Gaborone, Botswana. Post 2000s South African acts are Tuks Senganga (aka Tuks, Tumelo Kapadisa, 1981–), Cassper Nyovest (Refiloe Maele Phoolo, 1990–), Spoek Mathambo (Nthato Mokgata, 1985–), Kuli Chana (Khulane Morule, 1982–), Mo’Molemi (Motiapele Morule, 1981–), iFani (Mzayifani Mzondeleli Boltina, 1985–), JR (Tabure Thabo Bogopa Ju­nior, 1987–), Fifi Cooper (Refilwe Boingotio Mooketsi, 1991–), and Blaklez (Cliff Lesego, n.d.). Other kinds of South African hip hop is spaza (a Cape Town hip hop subgenre that blends Xhosa and township slang) and Kasi Rap (a combination of kwaito and hip hop). Spaza acts include ­Middle Finga (aka Rhamncwa, Mangaliso Sauka, 1980–) and Manqoba (The Winner, E. Mendu, n.d.).

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INTO THE 21st ­CENTURY In 2002, Hype, a bimonthly magazine devoted to hip hop, was founded to inform and stimulate interest in South African hip hop. Recent acts continue to use many languages. They fuse hip hop with reggae, Afrobeat, R&B, pop, indie rock, jazz, electronica, and other kinds of ­music. Multiracial crews such as Etc. (2000–) from Cape Town have emerged and so have crunkcore groups such as Jozi (2006–) from Johannesburg, which ­until 2009 included DJ and producer Bongz (Bongani Fassie, 1985–), the son of singer Brenda Fassie. Twenty-­fi rst-­century acts include Snazz D (Julian Du Plessis, 1977–), Raiko (Grant Spreadbury, 1980–), Jack Parow (Zander Tyler, 1982–), Bliksemstraal (­Lightning Bolt, Charl van der Westhuizen, 1986–), Anatii (Anathi Mnyango, 1993–), Godessa (2000–), the Constructus Corporation (2002–2003), Tykoon Suit (2002–), and Writers Block (2005–), all from Cape Town; Driemanskap (2001–), Terror MC (Nazeer Abdol, 1985–), and DOOKDOOM (2013–), all from Cape Flats; Black  M.O.S.S. (Black Master of Spontaneous Sentences, Phakamisa Blessing Majola, 1986–), DJ C-­Live (Clive Tshabalala, 1991–), and Nasty C (David Ju­nior Ngcobo, 1997–), all from Durban; Simphiwe Dana (1980–), QBA (Cuba, Nondumiso “Sharon” Nkosi, 1981–), J-­Bux (Jason Fraser, 1982–), and King Daniel (n.d.– 2010), all from the Eastern Cape; Imbube (Zulu for Lion, 2000–), Spoek Mathambo (aka MC Einaar, Nthato James Monde Mokgata, 1985–), Kwesta (Senzo Mfundo Vilakazi, 1988–), DJ Speedsta (Lesego Nkaiseng, 1992–), Tweezy (Tumelo Thandokuhle Mathebula, 1992–), the Surreallist’z (2002–), Sake Of Skill (aka SOS, 2003–), WitchcrAft (2007–), Gigi Lamayne (Genesis Gabriella Tina Manney, 1994–), and Shane Ea­gle (Shane Patrick Hughes, 1996–), of Irish descent, all from Johannesburg; Proverb (Tebogo Thapelo Sidney Thekisho, 1981–), from Kimberley; the Anvils (2006*) from Pretoria; and Kwabulawayo Kraal (formerly OAU, Omnipotent Army Underground, 2000–), Spaceman (Diau Madisha, 1982–), Emtee (Mthembeni Ndevu, 1992–), Saudi Western (2005–2011*), and Robo (aka Robo the Technician, n.d.–2013), all from Soweto. Johannesburg labels such as Reck Shoppe Tunez (2007–) and CashTime Life (2010–) were formed. CashTime Life with its collective CashTime Fam (2010–) produces and rec­ords both hip hop and skhanda (a combination of kwaito and HHP-­inspired rap). ­Later skhanda acts include Teargas (2004–2012)* and K.O. (Ntokozo Mdluli, n.d.), both from Soweto. K.O. went solo ­after being a member of Teargas. Another skhanda act is rapper and producer A.K.A. (Kiernana Jordan Forbes, 1988–) from Cape Town whose ­albums Altar Ego (2011) and Levels (2014) ­were certified as Gold and Platinum, respectively, in South Africa. As of 2018, the most internationally renown South African hip hop act is the rap-­ rave group Die Antwoord (“The Answer” in Afrikaans, 2008–) from Cape Town. Formerly MaxNormal.TV (aka Max Normal, 2001–2002, 2005–2008), Die Antwoord raps in Afrikaans and En­glish, as well as a local slang associated with zef (a South African counterculture). ­After signing with the American recording label Interscope Rec­ords (1989), the band released the studio ­albums $O$ (2009), Ten$ion (2012), Donker Mag (2014), and Mount Ninji and da Nice Time Kid (2016). The band’s visual image is intentionally shocking and edgy with odd



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contact lenses (e.g., blacked-­out eyes or yellow ones with dollar signs for pupils), grills, multiple tattoos and piercings, and odd costumes, and Die Antwoord’s ­music uses foulmouthed lyr­ics rapped over catchy musical motifs and infectious beats, fusing hip hop with rave ele­ments. Lyrical content ranges from chaotic absurd parodies of South African zef ste­reo­types to honed harsh criticism of major players in the American-­dominated ­music industry, such as Lady Gaga (Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, 1986–). INFLUENCE AND DIASPORA ACTS South Africa has contributed to the nation’s influence on ­music not only in neighboring countries, but also farther-­away countries that underwent po­liti­cal strife and suppression of m ­ usic. For example, the country offered safety and a starting point for Angolan hip hop during the Angolan Civil War (1975–2002). ­These acts include Mutu Moxy (now Intelektu, aka Genio Lyricista, n.d.), Tribo Sul (Tribe of Soldiers, 1995*–), and Jamayka Poston (1976–). From Sierra Leone, singer-­ songwriter, rapper, actor, radio host, sound recording producer, and film producer and director Jimmy B (Jimmy Yeani Bangura, n.d.) began his successful ­music ­career in Johannesburg before returning to Freetown, where he established Paradise Rec­ords (2000–). In addition, the Zimbabwean-Zambian act the Innovators (2000–), was formed in Grahamstown, on the Eastern Cape. Neighboring Namibian hip hop and kwaito artists have also recorded in South Africa to introduce themselves to a much larger ­music industry. T ­ hese acts include Gini Grindith (Dave Coxall, 1979–) and EeS (Eric Sell, 1983–). ­Because of apartheid, some South African acts would first experience hip hop elsewhere before returning home. Rapper and producer Ben Sharpa (Kgotso Semela, 1979–), from Soweto, grew up and learned to rap in Chicago. But in 1994, his ­family returned to Johannesburg, where he created the rap crew Audio Visual (1996–), which eventually folded into the collective GroundWorks (2001–). He then started a solo ­career in 2002, eventually releasing his debut ­album, B. Sharpa (2008). Ben Sharpa’s lyr­ics are in En­glish and focus on social issues, such as police brutality, government corruption, and the prob­lems of teenage pregnancy. He also rec­ords songs about spirituality. Another famous example is Tanzanian-­born South African rapper, singer, songwriter, poet, and rec­ord label owner Tumi Molekane (aka MC Fatboy, Tumi, Stogie T, Boitumelo Molekane, 1981–), who is best known as lead singer of Tumi and the Volume (2002–2012), an experimental band that fuses hip hop with African and Latin jazz, afropop, reggae, and rock. Molekane’s parents relocated a year ­after the end of apartheid. By the 2000s he had a solo ­career, including reinventing himself as the debonair Stogie T. In 2012, he formed the short-­lived duo T-­Z Deluxe with Zubz (Ndabaningi Mabuye, 1976–), a Zambian-­born, Zimbabwean-­raised, South African rapper. Other examples are Young Nations (formerly K.A.S.H., Kept in Africa’s Subliminal Hold, Zosukuma Kunene, 1976–), an En­glish and Zulu rapper now based in Durban, who was born in exile in London and raised in Los Angeles; Jozi’s Da  L.E.S. (Leslie Jonathan Mapmpe  Jr., 1985–), who was born in Washington, D.C., raised in Houston, and currently resides in Johannesburg; Yung

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Swiss (Steve Dang, 1994–), a Cameroon-­born South African rapper and singer-­ songwriter, who also lives in Johannesburg; producer, composer, and DJ Nyambz (Inyambo Imenda, 1985–), who is a Lusaka, Zambia-­born South African whose ­family relocated to Pretoria in 1989; rapper Kilani Rich (n.d.–2013) from Soweto, who grew up in Detroit, Los Angeles, and Oakland, California before returning to South Africa; and Trusenz (Lungelo Nzama, 1980–), an MC from Durban, who lived in Boston’s Jamaica Plain before relocating to East London, South Africa. Some diaspora acts include Cape Town–­born and Brooklyn, New York–­raised singer-­songwriter, rapper, and comedian Jean Grae (1976–); the LOX’s (1994–) founder, Styles P (David Styles, 1974–); and rappers Earl Sweatshirt (aka Sly Tendencies, Thebe Neruda Kgositsile, 1994–) and Reason (Sizwe Moeketsi, 1987*–). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Botswana; Die Antwoord; Kwaito; Lesotho; Molekane, Tumi; Motswako; Mozambique; Namibia; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Prophets of da City

Further Reading

Battersby, Jane. 2003. “ ‘Sometimes It Feels Like I’m Not Black Enough’: Recast(e)ing Colored through South African Hip Hop as a Postcolonial Text.” In Shifting Selves: Post-­Apartheid Essays on Mass Media, Culture, and Identity, edited by Herman Wasserman and Sean Jacobs, chap 6. Cape Town, South Africa: Kwela Books. Hammett, Daniel. 2012. “Reworking and Resisting Globalizing Influences: Cape Town Hip Hop.” GeoJournal 77, no. 3: 417–28. Kunzler, Daniel. 2011. “South African Rap ­Music, ­Counter Discourses, Identity, and Commodification beyond the Prophets of da City.” Journal of Southern African Studies 37, no. 1: 27–43. Molebatsi, Natalia, and Raphael d’Abdon. 2007. “From Poetry to Floetry: ­Music’s Influence in the Spoken Word Art of Young South Africa.” Muziki: Journal of M ­ usic Research in Africa 4, no. 2: 171–77. Schoon, Alette. 2014. “Digital Hustling: ICT Practices of Hip Hop Artists in Grahamstown.” Technoetic Arts 12, nos. 2–3: 207–17. Watkins, Lee. 2012. “A Genre Coming of Age: Transformation, Difference, and Authenticity in the Rap ­Music and Hip Hop Culture of South Africa.” In Hip Hop Africa: New African M ­ usic in a Globalizing World, edited by Eric Charry, chap. 2. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Further Listening

Brasse Vannie Kaap. 2000. Yskoud (Frosty or Freezing). Ghetto Ruff. Moodphase5ive. 2000. Steady On. African Dope Rec­ords. Pitch Black Afro. 2004. Styling Gel. Ghetto Ruff. Skwatta Kamp. 2003. Mkhukhu Funkshen (Mkhukhu Function). Gallo Rec­ord Com­pany.

Spain Spain’s hip hop scene took American and U.K. hip hop and flavored it with traditional ­music styles such as flamenco and rumba, and then cross-­pollenated the sound with Latin American hip hop, incorporating genres such as reggaetón. Torrejón de Ardoz’s American military base and its radio station may have been the

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Rapper Mala Rodríguez, one of Spain’s best known hip hop artists, performs in 2014 in Santander, Spain. Rodríguez employs a smooth rapping delivery along with an articulated, slow vocal style. (Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Redferns via Getty Images)

gateway to hip hop in Spain, as soldiers would bring in American hip hop m ­ usic. One of the early acts introduced in this way was the Mean Machine (1981–), a Puerto Rican rap group on the Sugar Hill Rec­ords (1979–1986) label; it rapped and sang in En­glish and Spanish. During the 1980s, hip hop ­music and culture spread through Spain as skate culture, graffiti, breakdance, and hip hop radio in Madrid and Barcelona, and at the turn of the de­cade, the Madrid-­based group El Club de los Poetas Violentos (aka CPV, The Violent Poets Club, 1991–) made hip hop more fash­ion­able with atmospheric melodies, backgrounded samples, throaty vocals, and well-­placed scratching. Since then, the Spanish hip hop ­music industry has grown into a multinational one, with international tours and collaborations; however, like all rap cultures, it is locally focused and socially conscious, having a strong presence in working-­class neighborhoods in larger, urban areas with large populations such as Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Seville, and Málaga. Early hip hop began with loops and samples, with Spanish as the main language for lyr­ics, although En­glish, Spanglish, and American urban slang made their way into songs. Spanish public radio currently features two hip hop radio shows, La cuarta parte (The Fourth Part) and El rimadero (The Rim-­Pot, but a wordplay on rima, which means rhyme). The first Spanish hip hop rec­ord was released in 1989 on the short-­lived Troya DSCS and RCRS (1889–1990) label. Its Madrid Hip Hop was a compilation of four bands from Madrid. Hip hop slowly caught hold in the underground ­music scene,

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but during the 1990s it began to be mainstreamed. Spain’s long-­standing hip hop stars include El Club de los Poetas Violentos: 7 Notas 7 Colores (The Club of the Violent Poets: 7 Notes 7 Colors, 1993–2000, 2007–), who collaborated with the American hip hop band Com­pany Flow (1993–2001) and at one time recorded in the United States; and prolific Siempre Fuertes De Konciencia (aka SFDK, Forever Strong In Conscience, 1993–), which has expanded American Southern Rap and reggae-­influenced hip hop with ­simple rhymes, dry humor, and social criticism through its 16 ­albums, EPs, and mixtapes. Some of the newer rap stars in Spain include C. Tangana (aka Crema, Antón Álvarez Alfaro, 1990–), a soft-­spoken rapper who raps about sadness and romance and emphasizes middle-­class values in his lyr­ics and videos; Yung Beef (Fernando Gálvez, 1990*–), a trap artist who since 2013 has released hundreds of tracks as ­albums and mixtapes, both as a soloist and with vari­ous proj­ect bands; Kaydy Cain (Daniel Gómez, n.d.), who uses old-­school hip hop beats and raps about materialism and sex; and Khaled (Jalid Rodríguez, 1990*–), a Spanish Moroccan rapper with a throaty and aggressive style who sports the American hip hop gold chain look, uses autotuning, and showcases popping moves in his hand gestures. The most popu­lar female rapper is Mala Rodríguez (aka La Mala, María Rodríguez Garrido, 1979–), whose smooth delivery and articulated, slow vocal style enjoys a huge following in Latin Amer­i­ca. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Reggaetón; The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Corona, Victor, and Sophie Kelsall. 2016. “Latino Rap in Barcelona: Diaspora, Languages, and Identities.” Linguistics and Education 36: 5–15. Morgade, Marta, Alberto Verdesoto, and David Poveda. 2016. “Hip Hop Echoes in South Madrid Teen­agers’ Soundscapes.” Linguistics and Education 36: 27–34.

Further Listening

El Club de los Poetas Violentos. 2012. Siempre (Always). BOA. Rodríguez, Mala. 2013. Bruja (Witch, Sorceress, or Hex). Universal ­Music Group.

Spoonie Gee (aka The Love Rapper, Gabriel Jackson, 1963–­, Harlem, New York) Spoonie Gee is an American hip hop and funk musician and rapper best known for his association with the Treacherous Three (aka Spoonie Gee and the Treacherous Three, 1978–1984), an early old-­school rap group he cofounded. As part of the Treacherous Three, which featured Grammy Award winner Kool Moe Dee (1963–), and as a solo act, he was one of the few rap artists to release rec­ords in the 1970s. Some credit him with coining the term hip hop, a claim which cannot be proven or disproven. Nonetheless, he was one of the first rappers to introduce themes into ­music that dealt with issues such as gang vio­lence. Spoonie Gee was also one of the first rappers to use Jamaican-­influenced echo and reverb in his vocals. Marley Marl (1962–) produced Spoonie Gee’s debut ­album, The Godfather



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of Rap (1987). His output, however, ended ­there due to vari­ous arrests and imprisonments.

EARLY UPBRINGING AND SOUND RECORDING ­CAREER Nicknamed “spoonie” ­because he would eat only with that utensil as a child, he was born in Harlem, New York, but when Spoonie Gee was 12, his m ­ other died, and he moved to New York City with his ­ u ncle, Bobby Robinson (1917–2011), an in­de­ pen­ dent rec­ ord producer and songwriter who had produced the Shirelles (1957–1982) and Gladys Knight and the Pips (1952–1989), American rapper Spoonie Gee (pictured ca. and was soon to produce Grand- 1970) is one of the earliest pioneering hip hop master Flash and the Furious Five musicians. Originally from Harlem, he was active (1976–1982, 1987–1988). Robin- as a member of Treacherous Three and recorded son was associated with vari­ous on the Enjoy! and Sugar Hill Rec­ords labels labels, including Red Robin before pursuing his own solo ­career. (Michael Rec­ords (1951–1956), Fury Rec­ Ochs Archives/Getty Images) ords (1957–1976), Fire Rec­ords (1959–1962), and Enjoy Rec­ords (1962–1987). Spoonie Gee would practice his rapping in his ­uncle’s apartment, and a connection of his ­uncle’s, Peter Brown (n.d.), a producer and multiple-­label owner based in New York City, gave him his first opportunity to rec­ord a rap, “Spoonin’ Rap” (1979), on the Sound of New York, U.S.A. (1979–1983) imprint, a disco and early hip hop label. “Spoonin’ Rap” referenced ­legal prob­lems and arrests, themes that would become prominent in gangsta rap. Spoonie Gee then joined his ­uncle’s Enjoy Rec­ords label, and released two singles, “The New Rap Language” (as part of the Treacherous Three) and “Love Rap” (as a solo, 1980). “Love Rap” was an experimental low-­key rap accompanied by only a drum kit and congas. In 1981, Spoonie Gee moved over to Sugar Hill Rec­ords (1978–2015) to rec­ord the minor hit “Spoonie’s Back.” Fi­nally, he settled at the Tuff City label (1981–) for most of his releases, including the diss track “That’s My Style” (1986), which attacked Schoolly D (Jesse Bonds Weaver Jr., 1962–). The Godfather of Rap turned out to be Spoonie Gee’s one and only a­ lbum. His only other non-­single recording was the 2008 EP, The Boss Is Back. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Chopper; Kool Moe Dee; Marley Marl; The United States

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Further Reading

Bradley, Adam, and Andrew Dubois, eds. 2010. “Spoonie Gee.” ­Under “Part 1: 1978–84: The Old School” in The Anthology of Rap, pp. 89–96. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Cramer, Jennifer, and Jill Hallett. 2010. “From Chi-­Town to the Dirty-­Dirty: Regional Identity Markers in U.S. Hip Hop.” In The Languages of Global Hip Hop, edited by Marina Terkourafi, chap. 10. New York: Continuum. French, Kenneth. 2017. “Geography of American Rap: Rap Diffusion and Rap Centers.” GeoJournal 82, no. 2: 259–72. Gosa, Travis L., and Erik Nielson, eds. 2015. Hip Hop and Obama Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Further Listening

Spoonie Gee. 1987. The Godfather of Rap. Tuff City.

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, located almost 900 miles southeast of India, has a hip hop scene that is strongest in its capital city, Colombo. Though no one knows when hip hop first emerged ­there, underground culture was not new to 1980s Sri Lankans. Following the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983–2009), closed-­down schools and widespread unemployment gave teens the time to express their discontent through graffiti and songs. Meanwhile, foreign pop ­music, notably the overplayed hits of Swedish rock band ABBA (1972–1983), dominated Sri Lanka’s musical preferences. In the mid1990s, Brown Boogie Nation (1995–2002*), likely Sri Lanka’s first hip hop musical group, became the first group ­there to have a ­music video broadcast on national tele­vi­sion. Their antiwar single “Lions and Tigers” (1997) was about Sri Lanka’s strife. One of the teens who founded the band was rapper and Colombo-­based R&B singer-­songwriter Randhir (Randhir Yasendra Witana, n.d.), who left the band to work with Bathiya and Santhush (BnS, 1998–). Several American rappers inspired Randhir. ­These include Jay-­Z (1969–), Kanye West (1977–), and Tupac Shakur (1971–1996). In 2000, Randhir joined BnS, which was becoming the most commercially successful hip hop duo in Sri Lanka. BnS’s debut ­album Vasanthaye: A New Beginning (1998) was the first to combine Western musical styles such as hip hop and R&B with traditional Sri Lankan ­music. Also from Colombo, BnS consists of Bathiya Jayakody (1976–) and Santhush Weeraman (1977–), two ­music school students who studied Western classical ­music, jazz, and musical theatre. Randhir’s main work was with BnS’s fusion of folk ­music and hip hop; ­these ­were called folk-­hop remixes, and they used En­glish, Sinhala, and Tamil texts, as well as some Hindi verses. In 2002, BnS became the first Sri Lankan artists to sign a major rec­ord label with Sony BMG (2004–2008). By 2008, Randhir had begun his own solo ­career, rapping in Sinhala. Working with BnS led to other hip hop artists’ success. For example, hip hop rapper and R&B singer Ashanthi (1981*–), a crewmember in 2000, eventually became the first female Sri Lankan hip hop artist to have an international rec­ord contract when she signed with Universal ­Music Group (1996–) in 2006. Previously, she was part of the successful yet short-­lived pop and R&B duo Ashanthi ‘n’ Ranidu

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(2001–2002) with songwriter Ranidu (Ranidu Lankage, 1982–), who has also had a successful solo ­career. Sri Lankan hip hop has yet to spread globally, but in 2005, DeLon (Dilan Jayasingha, 1990–), who was born and raised in Los Angeles, became the first artist of Sri Lankan descent to have hits in the United States, charting at No. 15 on the Billboard’s Hot Singles Sales with “Calor de la Salsa” (“Heat of the Salsa”). As of 2018, several Sri Lankan hip hop artists continue to aspire to becoming internationally known. ­These include Ashanthi, whose Rock the World (2013) was her first ­album in En­glish. The best-­k nown artist, however, is London-­born M.I.A. (1975–), of Tamil descent, who started her ­music ­career in 2002. Her po­liti­cally charged work has received critical acclaim while her singles and ­albums have charted internationally. The po­liti­cal nature of M.I.A.’s raps serves as contrast to Ashanthi and other Sri Lankan artists who perform in the country; most Sri Lankan lyrical content is about romance, partying, antiwar sentiments (more currently in a global rather than local sense), and lighthearted topics. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Ashanthi; India; M.I.A.; The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Rollefson, J. Griffith. 2017. “M.I.A.’s ‘Terrorist Chic’: Black Atlantic ­Music and South Asian Postcolonial Politics in London.” In Flip the Script: Eu­ro­pean Hip Hop and the Politics of Postcoloniality, chap. 5. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Saucier, Paul Khalil, and Kumarini Silva. 2014. “Keeping It Real in the Global South: Hip Hop Comes to Sri Lanka.” Critical Sociology 40, no. 2: 295–300.

Further Listening

BnS. 2002. Tharunyaye: The 3rd ­Album. Sony M ­ usic.

Stetsasonic (1981–1992, Brooklyn, New York) Stetsasonic was one of the earliest rapping crews that used a live hip hop band. The band’s style, which combined old-­school hip hop with jazz, funk, R&B, rock, dancehall, and reggae, was a precursor to that of numerous alternative hip hop bands and groups worldwide. Stetsasonic’s lyrical content was among the earliest that focused on positive black consciousness, humor, and metatextuality. FORMATION AND EARLY USE OF HIP HOP WITH JAZZ In 1981, Stetsasonic formed in Brooklyn, New York, originally as the Stetson ­ rothers with three MCs who donned Stetson hats. The original rapping crew conB sisted of ­Daddy O and MC Delite (Marvin Shahid Wright, n.d.). In 1983, rapper, beatboxer, and producer Wise (aka the Stetsa-­Human Mix Machine, Leonardo Roman, 1965–) joined the band, and the crew changed its name to Stetsasonic the Hip Hop Band, shortened soon afterward to Stetsasonic. In 1984, ­after watching him at a DJ ­battle in Brooklyn, Daddy-­O recruited DJ and turntablist Prince Paul.

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It was at this time that rapper Frukwan (aka Sun Star, Fu Kwan, Arnold Hamilton, n.d.), DJ, keyboardist, and drummer DBC (aka The Devastating Beat Creator, Da Bad Creator, Marvin Nemley, n.d.), and drummer Stetsa-­drum (Bobby Simmons, n.d.) also joined. Stetsasonic’s first big break was a recording deal with Tommy Boy Rec­ords (aka Tommy Boy Entertainment, 1981–) ­after the DBC played a live audition of the bassline from the funk-­infused “If You ­Can’t Say It All, Just Say STET” (1985). The band’s debut a­ lbum, On Fire (1986), peaked at No. 32 on Billboard’s Top R&B ­Albums chart, but had a mixed reception ­because of the new sound, at times ­simple rhymes, and combination of light party themes with more serious Afrocentric ones. In contrast, its second ­album, the ambitious double LP In Full Gear (1988), won critical acclaim. The ­album exemplifies Stetsasonic’s mature sound, which included incorporating more R&B, sophisticated beatboxing techniques, sampling from jazz and funk, and spoken word. This ­album featured one of Stesasonic’s most memorable tracks, “Talkin’ All that Jazz,” which sampled American cool jazz, jazz fusion, soul, and funk keyboardist Lonnie Liston Smith’s (1940–) “Expansions” (1974). “Talkin’ All that Jazz,” defends hip hop by defining it as an art form, a new kind of jazz. ­After Blood, Sweat, and No Tears, Stetsasonic went on hiatus so that members could pursue solo ­careers. Prince Paul and Frukwan founded the East Coast hardcore hip hop group Gravediggaz (1990–2002, 2010–2016). Prince Paul (Paul Edward Huston, 1967–), Daddy-­O (Glenn Bolton, 1961–), and DBC became successful rec­ ord producers. While recording, Stetsasonic continued performing live, ultimately touring worldwide. The group’s sound influenced ­f uture artists and groups, such as Gang Starr (1986–2003) and the Roots (1987–), from the United States; Dream Warriors (1988–2002) and BBNG (BADBADNOTGOOD, 2010–), from Canada; Urban Species (1992–2000, 2008–) and the Herbaliser (1995–), from ­England; Tumi and the Volume (2002–2012), from South Africa; and 1200 Techniques (1997–2005), from Australia. In 1991, Stetsasonic disbanded, but as of 2018, the band still re­unites for concerts. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Reggae; The United States

Further Reading

Blatt, Wendy. 1987. “Rap Voice of Social Responsibility.” Los Angeles Times, July 19, 92. Shusterman, Richard. 1995. “Rap Remix: Pragmatism, Postmodernism, and Other Issues in the House.” Critical Inquiry 22, no. 1: 150–58.

Further Listening

Stetsasonic. 1988. In Full Gear. Tommy Boy.

Sudan Sudan is composed of North Sudan and South Sudan, two North African countries that border Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Central African Republic, Chad, Libya,

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­ enya, Uganda, and the Demo­cratic Republic of Congo. In 1956, Sudan won its K in­de­pen­dence from the United Kingdom and Egypt. The First Sudanese Civil War (1955–1972) and the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005), between the northern and southern regions, led to nearly three million dead, and displaced nearly five million p­ eople from the southern region. In 2011, South Sudan won its in­de­pen­ dence. ­Because of the civil wars and other f­ actors such as Islamic extremism and fundamentalism, l­ ittle research about hip hop’s emergence has been done, and early hip hop musicians have been persecuted. For example, Muslim Nubian singer-­ songwriter Mohammed Wardi (1932–2012) was arrested and self-­exiled to Egypt from 1989 ­until 2003. ­After the Nairobi Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, signifying the end of the Second Sudanese Civil War, limited hip hop activity and radio airplay took place in Khartoum, North Sudan’s capital city, and Juba, South Sudan’s capital city; however, most Sudanese hip hop is created by artists living elsewhere as a result of diaspora. The United States–­based hardcore hip hop collective and Sudanese Arabic label NasJota (aka Jota, 2003*–) from Khartoum, raps against Sudanese government ­corruption, including election rigging. NasJota, consisting of Sudanese and Arab rappers who perform in Arabic and En­glish, released “B Sotak” (“With Your Vote”), which was included on Sudan Votes: ­Music Hopes (2010), a sampler of R&B, Afropop, and hip hop. Compiled by German hip hop, R&B, and pop singer-­ songwriter and producer Max Herre (Maximilian Herre, 1973–), it was Sudan’s first national recording. Washington, DC–­born rapper Oddisee (Amir Mohamed el Khalifa, 1985–), of Sudanese descent, appears on this recording. NasJota also released the antidictatorship song “LA Dictatorship” (2012). Hip hop and R&B singer-­songwriter and ­music producer Nile (Moawia Ahmed Khalid, 1983–), based in the United Arab Emerates, also criticizes the Sudanese government in En­glish. Hip hop in South Sudan evolved from favoring Nuer texts and using sticks as percussive accompaniment to using diverse texts that reflect its population. Rapper Emmanuel Kembe (1969–) was an early hip hop singer; however, in 1994, he escaped imprisonment and took voluntary exile for his po­liti­cal protest song “Shen  Shen” (“A Cry for Sudan”). In 2007, Kembe returned to Khartoum, his hometown, Wau, and settled in Juba. His return reflects the postwar return of many South Sudanese. Rapper and former child soldier Emmanuel Jal (Jal Jok, 1980*–), from Tonj, raps about peace, unity, and everyday life in war-­torn South Sudan in Nuer, En­glish, Juba Arabic, Swahili, and Dinka. ­After living in ­Kenya, where he first took interest in hip hop, Jal has lived in Canada and ­England. Rapper and singer-­songwriter Bangs (aka Ur Boy Bangs, Ajak Chol, 1990–), from Juba, has also chosen a ­career outside South Sudan, in Australia, whereas rapper L.U.A.L. (Lyrically Untouchable African Legend, Lual D’Awol, 1985–), who was born in New York City and grew up in Baltimore, returned to Juba. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Po­liti­cal Hip Hop

Further Reading

Serpick, Evan. 2008. “Rapper Mines Life as Child Soldier in Sudan.” Rolling Stone no. 1052, May 15, 2008, 24.

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Wilson, Michael. 2012. “ ‘Making Space, Pushing Time’: A Sudanese Hip Hop Group and Their Wardrobe-­Recording Studio.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 15, no. 1: 47–64.

Further Listening

Jal, Emmanuel. 2011. See Me Mama. Gatwitch Rec­ords.

The Sugarhill Gang (aka The Original Sugarhill Gang, 1975–1989, 1994–­, Englewood, New Jersey) The Sugarhill Gang, also known as the Original Sugarhill Gang, is an American hip hop band consisting of Master Gee (Guy O’Brien, 1963–), Won­der Mike (Michael Anthony Wright, 1956–), and Big Bank Hank (Henry Lee Jackson, 1958–2014). The band is best known for its hit song “Rapper’s Delight,” released in 1979 on the Sugar Hill Rec­ords label (1986–1995) and produced by Sylvia Robinson (1936–2011); the rec­ord eventually sold eight million copies. Robinson had earlier achieved success in the m ­ usic industry as part of the duo Mickey and Sylvia (1955–1965*), which had a No. 1 single with “Love Is Strange” (1956). Sugar Hill Rec­ords had been founded in 1979 by Robinson and her husband, Joe (n.d.), funded by Morris Levy (Moishe Levy, 1927–90) of Roulette Rec­ ords (1957–1989) in New York, even though the Robinson’s prior label, All Platinum Rec­ords (1967–1978*), went into bankruptcy. “Rapper’s Delight” became the first rap single to become a Top 40 Billboard hit, reaching No. 36. The song also reached No. 4 on the R&B chart and topped the charts in Canada and the Netherlands, also reaching Top 10 status in Austria, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Overall, the Sugarhill Gang recorded five studio ­albums between 1979 and 1999. Its sound can best be described as a funk-­infused hip hop, featuring a heavy beat accentuated by claps and a heavy bass, with constant rapping alternated by the three MCs; singing occurs sparingly and tends to be singsong when it does, coming across as a conscious parody of itself. “RAPPER’S DELIGHT” AND THE FORMATION OF THE SUGARHILL GANG “Rapper’s Delight” is also impor­tant for its early use of sampling, as it uses the bass track from the Chic (1976–) hit “Good Times,” a 1979 No. 1 hit on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts, as well as “­Here Comes That Sound Again” by British disco group Love De-­Luxe (1979–1980*). The song caused some controversy as Chic’s Nile Rod­gers (1952–) and Bernard Edwards (1952–1996) threatened ­legal action over copyright and received a settlement and songwriter credits. It also raised eyebrows in New York, where rap ­music first emerged, as early rappers accused the Sugarhill Gang of appropriating their m ­ usic. To the surprise of many, the song, coming in at 14:36 (a seven-­minute radio-­ friendly version was also released) and recorded in a single take, became a hit at a



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time when rap songs did not find their way to commercial radio. The song was in fact ignored by radio stations ­until WESL in St. Louis, Missouri, picked it up, leading the way for other stations. It broke through the barriers of race, ethnicity, and genre; prior to its release, rap was generally relegated to nightclubs, parties, and competitions, the former being the venue where Sylvia Robinson first heard rap ­music in 1979 and realized its potential ­after witnessing the genre’s call-­and-­response appeal. “Rapper’s Delight” made the genre into a ­viable studio production and a marketable commodity by introducing it to a wider audience. The song is a breathless 14-­minute rap by all three MCs, and Robinson added some calls and responses to the song in studio, including a high pitched “say what?” during Big Bank’s Hank’s verses, one of the song’s signature moments, which marks the introduction of audience response. Generally, its lyr­ics are a boast about the trio’s ability to rap, its financial success (an early version of the concern with bling), and its ability to move ­people to dance. Generally speaking the song is clean, although it references sexuality and “super sperm.” Sylvia Robinson assembled the trio in 1979, naming them ­after the Sugarhill neighborhood in Harlem. “Rapper’s Delight” was released as a single to introduce the band’s debut a­ lbum Sugarhill Gang (1980), which reached No. 4 on the R&B chart despite not charting in the Billboard 200. The band’s second ­album, 8th Won­ der (1981), was its sole ­album to break into the Billboard 200, reaching No. 50 (as well as No. 15 on the R&B chart). The song “8th Won­der” became a minor hit and introduced a more conscious and pronounced call-and-response as well as Latin rhythms.

­AFTER “RAPPER’S DELIGHT” The next two a­ lbums, Rappin’ Down Town (1983) and Livin’ in the Fast Lane (1984), did not chart. In the 1990s, the trio re­u nited for vari­ous concerts, and in 1999, a Sugarhill Gang reunion produced a hip hop c­ hildren’s ­album, Jump on It! On the Kid Rhino label. The band’s history was also marred by a lawsuit brought by Won­der Mike and Master Gee against Sugar Hill Rec­ords, where the duo lost its case and had to relinquish the band name; however, they ­were allowed to tour as Won­der Mike and Master Gee of the Original Sugarhill Gang. Big Bank Hank died of cancer in 2014, the same year that the band was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for “Rapper’s Delight.” The song has achieved the status of ­music icon—­considered a benchmark in the history of popu­lar ­music. It was named to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2011. It is the first song referenced by Mr. B the Gentleman Rhymer (Jim Burke, 1970–) in his song “Chap Hop History,” from his ­album Flattery Not Included (2008). The song has, as of 2018, had more than 1.2 million views on YouTube. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Robinson, Sylvia; The United States

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Further Reading

George, Nelson. 1999. “Hip Hop ­Wasn’t Just Another Date.” In Hip Hop Amer­i­ca, chap. 2. London: Penguin Books. Kajikawa, Loren. 2015. “ ‘Rapper’s Delight’: From Genre-­less to New Genre.” In Sounding Race in Rap Songs, chap. 1. Oakland: University of California Press. Newman, Maria. 2002. “Fire Razes a Pioneering Rap ­Music Recording Studio.” The New York Times, October 12, B4.

Further Listening

The Sugarhill Gang. 1980. Sugarhill Gang. Sugar Hill Rec­ords.

Suge Knight (Marion Hugh Knight Jr., 1965–­, Compton, California) Suge Knight is the cofounder and main force ­behind Los Angeles–­based Death Row Rec­ords (1991–2008), the main competitor to Ruthless Rec­ords (1987–2010*), which famously produced the West Coast gangsta rap band N.W.A. (1986–1991). Suge Knight’s cofound­ers included N.W.A. members Dr.  Dre (Andre Romelle Young, 1965–) and the D.O.C. (aka Doc T, Tracy Lynn Curry, 1968–). Dre, the D.O.C., and Michel’le (Michel’le Toussaint, 1970–) left Ruthless Rec­ords to join Death Row, which then dominated the rap charts with Dre, Tupac Shakur (Lesane Parish Crooks, 1971–96), and Snoop Dogg (Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., 1971–). Death Row fell apart ­after Shakur was killed and Suge Knight was incarcerated in September 1996, ­going bankrupt by 2006 (­after a lawsuit) and being sold in 2008 to Global ­Music Group (2008–­), now Global M ­ usic Entertainment. EARLY SUCCESS AS A ­MUSIC PUBLISHER AND PRODUCER Around 1989, Suge Knight became a ­music publisher, making a considerable amount of money from Vanilla Ice’s (Robert Matthew Van Winkle, 1967–) “Ice, Ice, Baby” (1990). Around this time, he also began collaborating with the D.O.C., who was already interested in leaving N.W.A. They formed Death Row, and Knight managed a distribution deal with Interscope (1989–). The result was that Dr. Dre’s The Chronic (1992) went ­triple Platinum, and Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle (1993) went qua­dru­ple Platinum. Suge Knight also literally purchased Shakur by offering to pay his bail if he signed with the label. In 1994, Death Row released, ­under the moniker 2Pac, the promotional EP Pain, followed by the singles “California Love” and “Dear Mama” (1995). Two more singles followed in 1996, and the 2Pac ­album All Eyez on Me (his fourth and final studio ­album) was released in 1996. SUBSEQUENT PRODUCTIONS AND KNIGHT’S FALL Suge Knight, however, began feuding with East Coast rappers 2 Live Crew (1982– 1991) and Puff D ­ addy (Sean John Combs, 1969–). Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg eventually

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left the label ­because of Suge Knight’s feuding (Snoop Dogg went to No Limit), but before ­doing so, Dr. Dre had supervised the soundtracks for Above the Rim (1994) and Murder Was the Case (1994), the last an 18-­minute short film starring Snoop Dogg. In 2009, Death Row released The Chronic: Re-­lit as a reissue with seven bonus tracks and a DVD. This was the same year the label released Death Row: The Lost Sessions, Vol. 1 with Snoop Dogg’s recordings from 1993 to 1997. Snoop Dogg had a string of success with Tha Dogg Pound–­Dogg Food (1995), Tha Doggfather (1996), and a compilation ­album Death Row: Snoop Doggy Dogg at His Best (2001). Other artists who recorded on the Death Row label since Dr. Dre’s and Snoop Dogg’s departures include Kurupt (Ricardo Emmanuel Brown, 1972–) and member of the rap group Tha Dogg Pound (1992–2002, 2005–), R&B and neo soul singer Danny Boy Steard (1977–), the Los Angeles gangsta rap group O.F.T.B. (Operation from the Bottom, 1990–2013), and R&B singer Jewell (aka Ju-­L, Jewell Caples, 1968–). None came close to the success experienced in the years Dr. Dre, Shakur, and Snoop Dogg recorded for Death Row. Ultimately, in 2013, Entertainment One (aka eOne, 1970–) purchased the rights to the entire Death Row cata­log. In 2015, Suge Knight, who was in and out of prison on vari­ous charges for a de­cade, was arrested ­after a fatal hit-­and-­r un in Compton, California. As of 2018, Tupac Shakur’s All Eyez on Me has been certified Diamond. As 2Pac, Tupac Shakur produced hundreds of tracks during his time at Death Row, most of which would be released posthumously. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Dr. Dre; Gangsta Rap; N.W.A.; Snoop Dogg; Tupac Shakur; The United States

Further Reading

Diehl, Matt. 2015. “The Endless Fall of Suge Knight.” Rolling Stone no. 1239–1240, July 6, 46, 48–51, 72. Thompson, Robert. 2010. “A Dirge for Death Row.” Canadian Business 83, no. 3: 38–41.

Sway (Derek Andrew Safo, 1982–­, London, ­England) Sway is an En­glish grime and hip hop rapper, songwriter, and producer of Ghanian descent. His studio ­albums, This Is My Demo (2006), The Signature LP (2008), and Deliverance (2015) have peaked at Nos. 45, 51, and 150, respectively, on the U.K. ­Albums Chart. Born and raised in Hornsey, a district of North London, he learned ­music production at his high school, followed ­later by studying ­music engineering at City and Islington College. He began writing rap, honing on storytelling techniques, humor, and speed when he was 14 years old. At the same time, he was a member of several rap groups. His influences included American hip hop groups such as Bone Thugs-­N-­Harmony (1991–) and Wu-­Tang Clan (1992–), as well as En­glish drum and bass artist MC Skibadee (Alfonso Bondzie, n.d.). ­After receiving critical acclaim for his early self-­released recordings, touring worldwide, and eventually supporting acts such as Public ­Enemy (1982–), Dizzee

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Rascal (Dylan Kwabena Mills, 1984–), and ­others, Sway has seen his ­albums, as well as his singles, chart. All three ­albums ­were produced on Sway’s London-­based label, Dcypha Productions (2005–), ­under Island Rec­ords (1959–) whose parent com­ pany is Universal ­Music Group (1996–). Sway’s latest ­album, Preface (2017) was released on the New Reign Productions label (2014–), based in Nottingham, ­England. While still an in­de­pen­dent artist, Sway’s first hit was “Up Your Speed,” which peaked a No. 141 on the U.K. Singles Chart; in 2006, his second hit, “­Little Derek,” fared better at No.  38. Since 2005, Sway has had nine hit singles on the U.K. ­Singles Chart with “Still Speedin’ ” and “Level Up” from Deliverance, peaking at Nos. 19 and 8, respectively. Sway is also known for The Dotted Lines Mixtape (2007), which features “Black Stars,” a remix of En­glish hip hop and grime artist Bashy’s (Ashley Thomas, 1985–) song “Black Boys” (2007). Sway dedicated his version to Ghana, which was hosting the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, the main international association football competition in Africa (1957–), as well as to famous Ghanaians living worldwide as a result of diaspora. Sway’s ­music has a strong focus on synthesizer, with beats placed further in the background. He strictly raps and is notable for his speed, use of rapid triplets, and storytelling. His lyrical content has addressed how in­de­pen­dent artists strug­gle in a ­music industry-­dominated world, overcoming adversity, his own story as a musician, life on the streets, and religious tolerance, among other topics. Sway has collaborated on his hit recordings with American-­born Senegalese rapper, singer-­ songwriter, and producer Akon (1973–), English-­born Nigerian R&B and neo soul singer-­songwriter and producer Lemar (Lemar Obika, 1978), and female En­glish rapper and singer Baby Blue (Rachel Estelle Irene Prager, n.d.), among o­ thers. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Ghana; Grime; The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Billen, Andrew. 2006. “No Guns, No Drugs, No Bling.” The Times (London), January 17, 8. Mulholland, Garry. 2005. “Bling’s Not the ­Thing: A 22-­Year-­Old North Londoner Without a Rec­ord Deal Beat 50 Cent to Best Hip Hop Award at Last Night’s Mobos.” Eve­ning Standard (London), September 23, 38. Wood, Andy. 2002. “Hip Hop.” In Companion to Con­temporary Black British Culture, edited by Alison Donnell, pp. 141–42. London: Routledge.

Further Listening

Sway. 2015. Deliverance. New Reign Productions/Absolute.

Swaziland Swaziland is a South African country that attained in­de­pen­dence from the United Kingdom in 1968. Since 1986, King Mswati III (HRH Prince Makhosetive, 1968–) has ruled the country, essentially as a dictator who appoints prime ministers and approves parliamentary elections. One of the smallest countries in Africa, Swaziland is a struggling developing country with AIDS/HIV and tuberculosis health

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crises and has the world’s lowest life expectancy. Despite neighboring South Africa, in which hip hop became popu­lar in the early 1980s, Swaziland demonstrated virtually no hip hop activity u­ ntil the 1990s. Swaziland Broadcasting and Information Ser­vice (SBIS) broadcast traditional and popu­lar ­music that reflected dominant tastes: gospel, Swazi soul (African jazz and soul using Swati texts), South African kwaito, R&B, ­house, reggae, and country. By the 2000s, Swazi hip hop entered the main stream in Swaziland. Preferred rapping texts are in Swati, En­glish, and Swati street slang. Early 1990s influences came from American and South African hip hop. Small hip hop scenes are centered in the capital city, Mbabane, followed by Manzini. In the 1990s ­there still was no ­music industry in Swaziland, so many musicians moved or recorded in neighboring countries; however, in the 2000s, do-­it-­yourself labels have emerged. Streaming ser­vices also help disseminate Swazi m ­ usic. Examples of pioneering Swazi hip hop acts from the mid to late 1990s ­were the rap crew Vamoose (1998*–) and rapper T-­Maz (now Maz, Themba Maziya, n.d.) who fused old-­school hip hop with R&B, using Swati and En­glish. Active since the early 2000s, rapper and producer Slim Q (Qiniso Dlamini, 1983–), of the Swazi rap crew Stealth In­de­pen­dence (2005–), founded InQgnito (2004–), a label he uses to produce Swazi hip hop artists in Swaziland. Rapper, producer, and label owner Mozaik (Muzi Ngwenya, 1985–) is CEO of Claiming Ground Rec­ords (2006–), as well as part of the duo Siyinqaba (2004*–). Other rappers include Psycho Lution (Mzwandile Nxumalo, n.d.), 80 Script (Zolile Motsa, 1991–), Kena (Ayanda Tsela, 1991–), BustaRigo (Mbongeni Ian Manyon, 1981–), and Qibho Intalektual (Qiniso Motsa, 1996*–). Collaborations between t­ hese artists often takes place. Female rapper and singer-­songwriter Jazz P (Phephile Hlophe, n.d.) fuses hip hop with reggae and neo soul using En­glish and Swati. Originally from Simunye, Swaziland, Jazz P became frustrated with the slow-­moving Swaziland ­music industry and moved to Maputo, Mozambique, where she founded and fronts the band the Next Generation (2012*–). Her lyr­ics focus on romance, feminism, and everyday life. By the 2000s, focus on innovation in Swazi rap has taken place, and rapper, poet, and actor Diba Diba (Banele Mfundo Dlamini, 1992*–) created Ngwane hop, which combines R&B and neo soul, using street slang. The intention is to make Ngwane hop a specifically Swazi kind of ­music, much in the way motswako has become the hip hop of South Africa and Botswana. Despite its growth, Swazi hip hop ­faces obstacles. In 2011, South Africa with other countries began boycotting against King Mswati III’s dictatorship; this re­sis­ tance affected Swaziland’s recording sales and concerts. That year, American rapper Jadakiss (Jason Phillips, 1975–) withdrew from performing his concert ­there. As of 2018, the cultural boycott continues. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: ­Kenya; Kwaito; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; South Africa

Further Reading

Debly, Teresa. 2014. “Culture and Re­sis­tance in Swaziland.” Journal of Con­temporary African Studies 32, no. 3: 284–301.

676 Sweden Mhlambi, Thokozani. 2004. “ ‘Kwaitofabulous’: The Study of a South African Urban Genre.” Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa 1, no. 1: 116–27.

Further Listening

Siyinqaba. 2010. Siyinqaba: The A ­ lbum. InQgnito.

Sweden Sweden is a progressive demo­cratic socialist country with a high quality of life that includes strong education, healthcare, civil liberties, and equality. This Scandinavian country in Northern Eu­rope that neighbors Norway and Finland has a majority population that is Swedish; the minority populations include Finnish, Sámi, and ­others. Swedish is the official language, but En­glish is usually learned concurrently, often prior to school age. Other recognized languages include Finnish, Sámi, Meänkieli (a Finnish dialect with Swedish loanwords), Romani, and Yiddish. In the 1980s, ­after the international distribution of American breakdancing films such as Wild Style (1983) and Beat Street, Breakin’, Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, and Flashdance (all 1984), Swedish hip hop culture emerged, first with breakdancing and graffiti in Stockholm, Malmö, and Uppsala. In an effort to attain a broad audience, Swedish hip hop initially favored rap in En­glish. Swedish folk ­music includes ballads, Kulning (cow-­herding calls sung by ­women), fiddle tunes, and Gammaldans (Nordic dance ­music genres). Traditional instruments include the Nyckelharpa (a keyed fiddle), hurdy-­gurdy, Säckpipa (Swedish bagpipes), harmonicas, clarinets, and accordions. Notable Swedish classical ­music composers include Johan Helmich Roman (1694–1758), Joseph Martin Kraus (1756–1792), Franz Berwald (1796–1868), and Wilhelm Stenhammer (1871– 1927). Many notable singers also hail from Sweden, such as Jenny Lind (Johanna Maria Lind, 1820–1887) and recently, mezzo-­soprano Anne Sofie von Otter (1955–). Folk and classical singing in amateur or professional choirs is a popu­lar activity. Popu­lar ­music reception has always been strong in Sweden. Played on Sveriges Radio AB (1925–), Sweden’s national public radio, American jazz, rock, pop, as well as Swedish pop and folk revival ­music, ­were aired by radio DJs throughout most of the 20th ­century. Sveriges Radio–­owned Radio P3 (1964–) initiated Sweden’s national rec­ord charts, Topplistan (1975–1997) and Hitlistan (1998– 2007). ­After 2007, the chart became the Sverigetopplistan (aka the Swedish ­Albums and Swedish Singles Charts), which is based on sales data provided by the Grammofonieverantörernas förening (GLF, Swedish Recording Industry Association, 1975–). From 1969 to 1972 and ­later, since 1987, Sweden holds its equivalent to the American Grammy Awards (1959–), known as the Grammis Awards. Since the 1990s ­there has been a hip hop and soul m ­ usic category. Sweden has its own ­music industry, and popu­lar ­music by the 1980s and 1990s is diverse with pop, progressive rock, progg (aka progressive musik, meaning alternative ­music, not progressive rock), punk rock, heavy metal, electronica, soul, and reggae.

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EARLY HIP HOP Drummer and multi-­instrumentalist Per Cussion (Per Philip Tjernberg, 1957–) of the reggae and punk band Dag Vag (1978–) visited New York City, where he became inspired by hip hop hits such as Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s (1976– 1982, 1987–1988) “The Message” (1982). He brought the sound to Stockholm by collaborating with the Brooklyn, New York artist Grandmaster Funk (­later GM Funk, Michael White, n.d.). In 1983, they released “­Don’t Stop,” the first hip hop single recorded in Stockholm and the title song of Per Cussion’s jazz-­funk fusion ­album. Subsequent hip hop tracks such as “Payin’ the Price” ­were released as singles from Per Cussion’s follow-up ­album Beatwave (1984). Per Cussion’s third ­album, Every­body’s Talking (1986), focused on fusing hip hop with electronica and neo soul, with songs still inspired by “The Message.” Meanwhile, Ice Cold Rockers (IC Rockers, 1984–1991*) was Sweden’s first self-­contained hip hop collective, consisting of rappers, turntablists, dancers, and graffiti artists. Absent Minded (aka ADL, Adam Baptiste, 1973–), a Muslim rapper of Trinidadian descent born in Sweden, formed one of the country’s earliest urban funk and hip hop bands, the Stonefunkers (1987–2001, 2009–), who rapped in En­glish. Swedish language hip hop emerged about two years ­later, occurring as numerous acts continued to rhyme in En­glish to gain international appeal. The first rap song in Swedish was MC Tim’s (Janus Erik Timothy Wolde, 1975–) “Jag Är Def” (“I’m Def,” 1989), but Swedish singer Neneh Cherry’s (Neneh Mariann Karlsson, 1964–) ­album Raw Like Sushi (1989) had an international hit hip hop/dance pop single in En­glish with “Buffalo Stance.” The trio Just D (meaning Just That, 1990–1995, 2015–), from Stockholm, released the first rap a­ lbum that was fully in Swedish with its debut ­album, 1 steg bak å 2 steg fram (1 Step Backward, 2 Steps Forward, 1990). Often compared to Beastie Boys (1981–2012), Just D was an all-­white trio. Fusing hip hop and pop, the trio employed humorous skits between tracks that featured rapping and beats, with samples of vari­ous Swedish recordings. Despite racial and/or socioeconomic differences between themselves and subsequent Swedish hip hop groups (Just D’s members ­were from affluent non-­ immigrant Swedish families), Just D’s string of No. 1 hit singles and successful ­albums, Svenska Ord (Swedish Words) (1991), Rock n Roll (1992), Tres amigos (1993), and Plast (1995), opened the doors for acts such as Infinite Mass (1991–), Looptroop Rockers (aka Looptroop, 1991–), the Latin Kings (TLK, 1991–2005), Natu­ral Bond (1993–), and Frotté (1996–2006). TLK, a group from Botkyrka, a southern suburb of Stockholm that is part of the urban public housing proj­ect Miljonprogrammet (Million Programm, 1965– 1974), included rapper/MC Dogge Doggelito (Douglas Léon, 1975–), who was of Venezuelan descent; he was also a member of the rapping-­production duo of Chilean descent known as the Salazar ­brothers, Salla (Christian Salazar, n.d.) and Chepe (Hugo Salazar, n.d.). The trio is named ­after the largest Hispanic American street gang, the Chicago-­based Latin Kings (Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation, 1954–). TLK raps in its local Rinkeby Swedish, a pidgin language with loanwords from American En­glish slang, as well as in Arabic, Kurdish, Italian, Persian, Spanish, and Turkish. Rinkeby Swedish is a youth vernacular language that is usually

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spoken in immigrant communities. At times using social realist humor, TLK’s themes focus on Latino immigrant life in Stockholm, as well as exposure to crime, racism, and poverty. TLK’s sound typically combines East Coast hip hop with salsa, neo soul, and reggae. TLK’s debut studio a­ lbum, Välkommen till förorten (Welcome to the Suburb, 1994), attained Gold certification and earned two Swedish Grammis. Susbsequent a­ lbums are I skuggan av betongen (In the Concrete Shade, 1997), Mitt kvarter (My Neighborhood, 2000), and Omerta (2003), in addition to a compilation ­album, Familia Royal (2005). TLK produced Swedish rap acts such as the Stockholm bounce group Fattaru (1998–) and the group Fjärde Världen (Fourth World, 1998–) and paved the way for ­later Rinkeby artists such as Gambian-­born rapper Eboi (aka Erik Lundin, Ibrahima Erik Lundin Banda, 1982–) and Stor (Ulises Infante Azocar, 1987–). Other successful acts who rap in Swedish include Paragon (aka Simon Emanuel, Ivar Simon Emanuel Molin, 1981–), Retarderat Eleverade (Retarded Students, 1999– 2000), and Petter (Petter Alexis Askergren, 1974–). The last is a successful rapper-­ songwriter, who founded the Stockholm rec­ord labels BABA Recordings (2012–) and Bananrepubliken (1999–), named ­after Petter’s No. 1, triple-­Platinum ­album (1999) and which signified the start of the Swedish hip hop boom. Since 1998, Petter’s ­albums have charted in Sweden, with his debut ­album Mitt sjätte Sinne peaking at No. 5, with double Platinum certification in Sweden; Petter (2001) peaked at No. 16 and P peaked at No. 1, both attaining Gold certification in Sweden. Despite the success of Swedish rap, the language has not replaced En­glish as native or local languages have done in other countries. Absent Minded (1995–2006*) and Sherlock (1995–1997), from Stockholm, and Spotrunnaz (1994–), from Malmö, continued rapping in En­glish. But Sherlock’s Thomas Rusiak (Erik Thomas Sihlberg, 1976–), a rapper, singer-­songwriter, and producer, ­later had a solo ­career and, since 2004, Stockholm duo Snook (slang for Nose, 2000–2009) also shifted to more Swedish rap; however, Kashal-­Tee (Samuel Gezelius, 1978–), Headtag (1998–2004*), Loose Cannons (2000*–2002), the Narcissists (aka The Narcs, 2000–2003), and the Casual ­Brothers (2002–) rap in En­glish. Topics continue to include localized American gangsta themes, drinking or partying rap, romance, and focus on immigrant issues such as feeling out of place or discrimination. INTO THE 21st ­CENTURY Twenty-­first-­century Swedish acts ­either opt for En­glish or Swedish only, use dialects of Swedish, or combine languages. They also fuse hip hop with jazz, reggae, dancehall, electronica, neo soul, R&B, and heavy metal. Notable examples include Million Stylez (Kenshin Iryo, 1981–), a Swedish dancehall, reggae, and hip hop artist of Japa­nese and French descent from Stockholm; and American-­born, Lund-­raised Timbuktu (Jason Michael Bosak Diakité, 1975–), a hip hop and reggae rapper and tele­vi­sion ­music composer of Malian descent, who works with the funk rock, soul, and Afrobeat band Damn! (1995–). Timbuktu also belongs to Sedlighetsroteln (Vice Squad, 2000–), a collective of Swedish rappers, singers, and producers that includes members from Looptroop and Mobbade Barn Med Automatvapen (MBMA, Bullied ­Children with Automatic Weapons, 1999*–). Since 2001,

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Looptroop’s rapper Promoe’s (Mårten Edh, b. Nils Mårten Ed, 1976–) solo c­ areer has focused on ragga hip hop, with early ­albums in En­glish, but since 2009, he has recorded in Swedish. Movits! (2007–) is a swing–­hip hop fusion band from Luleå, which is located Sweden’s northern coast. In 2009, Movits! attained international notoriety when it was interviewed and performed on the American tele­vi­sion show The Colbert Report (2005–2014). Its ­album Ut ur min Skalle! (Out of My Head, 2011) peaked nationally at No. 10. Another band, Maskinen (The Machine, 2007–), fuses hip hop with electronica and funk carioca known as baile funk (a combination of Miami bass, gangsta rap, and electronica that started in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and contains samples of accordion and horns, called stabs). More 21st-­century Stockholm acts include rappers Nebay Meles (Nebay Alay Shisay Araya, 1997–); Adam Tensta (Adam Momodou Eriksson Taal, 1983–), of Finnish and Gambian descent; Linda Pira (Linda Marie Pira Giraldo, 1985–), of Colombian descent; producer Mack Beats (Marko Saez, 1984–); and the groups Close Creative Comrads (CCC, 2001*–), Highwon (2002*–), Phenomena 3 (PH3, 2010*–), and Kartellen (2008–2016). The most famous hip ­house group is Swedish House Mafia (2008–2013), who is also from Stockholm. Numerous acts from Uppsala have also emerged, including MBMA, Afasi & Filthy (2002–2009), and Labyrint (2007–). Emerging from Sundsvall is Supersci (aka Superscientifiku, 1997–), which has a female rapper and singer-­songwriter, Remedeeh (Anna Kerttu, n.d.). Lund, the origin of Timbuktu, is also home of his reggae band Helt Off (Completely or Fully Off, 2003–), as well as R&B hip hop rapper Adam Kanyama (1995–). The Malmö scene gave birth to acts such as Advance Patrol (AP, 1998–); hip hop, reggaetón, and Latin ­music crew, the group Dollar Bill (2002–); rapper-­songwriter Lazee (Mawule Kwabla Kulego, 1985–), of Ghanaian descent; and rapper, producer, and entrepreneur Rebstar (Rebin Shah, 1988–), of Persian and Kurdish descent. Rebstar’s label ­Today Is Vintage (2012–) produces, promotes, and distributes Swedish hip hop with the aim to create a “Swedish Invasion.” DIASPORA ACTS Sweden has become home to a large number of diaspora acts, who still mostly opt to rap in En­glish: Ison & Fille (1994–) has members from Sweden, the United States, and Chile; half of the duo Spotrunnaz is from Zambia; the gay hip hop pioneering group Addis Black ­Widow (1995–), whose songwriter, rapper Addis Black ­Widow (aka Pigeon, Armias Pigeon Mamo, n.d.) is from Ethiopia; feminist rapper Feven (Feven Ghebremicael, 1975–), who is from Massawa, Ethiopia (now Eritrea) and has worked with Surinam-­born rapper Blues (Raymond Peroti, 1975–); rapper Henok Achido (Henok Meharena, 1982–), of Eritrean descent; Nabila Abdul Fattah (1981–), originally from Lebanon; and Behrang Miri (Seyed Behrang Miri, 1984–) originally from Iran. Kenya-­born, Stockholm-­raised Swedish rapper Ken (aka Ken Ring, Kenta Kofot, Ken Kiprono Ring, 1979–) worked with American hip hop and horrorcore band D12’s (The Dirty Dozen, 1996–2005, 2007–2017) members on producing Smif-­N-­ Wessun’s (aka Cocoa Bravas, 1993–) eponymous ­album (2007). Ken’s output

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includes Hip Hop (2009) and Akustiken (2013), which charted nationally. Lazee, who raps in En­glish, has recorded in London. Swedish-­born rapper, singer-­ songwriter, and producer Yarah Bravo (n.d.) is married to London-­based, Russian-­ born, En­glish DJ, recording label owner, writer, radio host, and ­music promoter DJ Vadim (n.d.) and has collaborated with his proj­ect group, One Self (2005–2006). Uppsala rapper Professor P (Petter Tarland, 1985–) and Lund producer DJ Akilles (Viktor Backemar, 1985–) fuse hip hop with jazz (2005–) and have recorded in New York City. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Finland; Just D; The Latin Kings; The United States

Further Reading

Ackfeldt, Anders. 2012. “ ‘Imma March’ ­toward Ka’ba’: Islam in Swedish Hip Hop.” Con­ temporary Islam 6, no. 3: 283–96. Berggren, Kalle. 2014. “Hip Hop Feminism in Sweden: Intersectionality, Feminist Critique, and Female Masculinity.” Eu­ro­pean Journal of W ­ omen’s Studies 21, no. 3: 233–50.

Further Listening

Just D. 1990. 1 steg bak å 2 steg fram (1 Step Backward, 2 Steps Forward). Ricochet/ Tele­gram. Ken Ring. 2009. Hip Hop. Pope. Movits! 2011. Ut ur min Skalle! (Out of My Head!). Universal. Promoe. 2016. Fult folk (Ugly ­People). David Vs. Goliath/Sony M ­ usic.

Switzerland Switzerland is a central Western Eu­ro­pean country that has had access to American hip hop since the 1980s through the distribution in major cities of American motion pictures such as Wild Style (1983) and Beat Street (1984), and hip hop subsequently developed in ­these large cities. Prominent Swiss rappers and breakdancers come from the largest hip hop scenes in Zürich, Basel, Bern, and Lausanne, as well as other metropolitan areas. In the mid-1980s, pioneer rappers wrote texts in American vernacular En­glish rather than in their Swiss-­German dialect. But by the late 1980s DJs and groups such as the Geneva band Duty ­Free (1985–) rapped in their own dialects of Swiss-­French, which sparked a national preference for what was called Mundartrap (dialect rap). Basel hardcore rapping crew P27’s (1990–2000)* bilingual hit “Murder by Dialect” (1991), from the ­album Overdose Funk, marked the beginning of rappers’ using Swiss ­mother tongues such as German, French, Italian, and Romansh, with a peppering of American vernacular En­glish. P27 rapper Black Tiger (Urs Baur, n.d.) went on to a solo ­career that included ­albums such as the EP Groovemaischter (Groove Masher or a wordplay on Groove Mixer and Groove Master, 1998), which featured instrumental hip hop. Other early Swiss hip hop artists included EKR (Thomas Bollinger, 1970–), from Baden bei Zürich; Sens Unik (1987–2010), from Lausanne; and Italian-­born Jordanian Luana (aka Chéjah, Stefania Cea, n.d.), from Basel.

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Swiss rappers ­favor at times sound over meaning and like to employ ele­ments such as double entendre, humor, and localization, the latter usually used for consciousness raising. Lyrical content focuses on home city pride, nationalism, progressivism, and discrimination, and some songs take the form of protests. Discrimination remains a constant topic, since many Swiss hip hop artists are immigrant (yet Swiss-­ born) and have been derogatorily referred to as Secundo, which stresses the split between Swiss and immigrant cultures and the latter’s Otherness. By 1987, Switzerland not only had a fully formed hip hop m ­ usic scene but had also begun hosting national breakdancing competitions. HIP HOP IN THE 2000s EKR and Luana have had continued success and have worked with artists such as Ultramagnetic MCs (1984–2001, 2006–), Run-­D.M.C. (1981–2002), and Grandmaster Flash (1958–). Another pioneering act, Talinn-­born Estonian rapper Stress (aka Billy Bear, Andres Andrekson 1977–), from the Lausanne-­based rapping crew Double Pact (1994–2006), was the first rapper to top the Swiss Hit Parade. Stress fuses hip hop with pop and soul, rapping in Swiss-­French. Ex-­members of the short-­lived Zürich rapping duo Bligg N Lexx (1999–2000), Bligg (Marco Bliggensdorfer, 1976–) and Lexx (Alex Storrer, 1972–), had successful solo ­careers and used Swiss-­ German texts. Bligg has employed a hammered zither in his beats, and his ­albums 0816 (2008), Bart aber herzlich (Bearded but Friendly or Hard but Friendly, 2010), and Ser­vice Publigg (2013), reached No.  1 on the Swiss Hit Parade. Post-2000s Swiss acts continue to employ dialects and sometimes dif­fer­ent languages. Examples of rap artists who use local dialects of Swiss-­German include Basel’s Griot (aka Brewz Bana, Mory Kondé, n.d.), of Guinean descent; Bern’s Baze (aka Broccoli George or Dr. Broccoli, Basil Anliker, 1980–) and Dezmond Dez (Cyril Bucher, 1980–); Glarus’s Luut and Tüütli (Loud and Clear, 2000–); and Landquart’s Sektion Kuchikäschtli (Kitchen Cupboard, 1998–). Rap artists who use other languages include the Italian band Tempo al Tempo (1996–2000*), from Basel, who raps in Italian; Graubünden-­based Liricas Analas (1999–), who raps in a Sursilvan dialect of Romansh; and Nyon’s Chakal (Rodrigo Figuerdo, 1978–), an immigrant from Caracas, Venezuela, who raps in Spanish, French, and En­glish. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Germany

Further Reading

Larkey, Edward. 2003. “Just for Fun? Language Choice in German Popu­lar ­Music.” In Global Pop, Local Language, pp. 131–52. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Mitchell, Tony. 2003. “Doin’ Damage in My Native Language: The Use of ‘Re­sis­tance Vernaculars’ in Hip Hop in France, Italy, and Aotearoa/New Zealand.” In Global Pop, Local Language, pp. 3–18. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.

Further Listening

Griot. 2008. Strossegold (roughly, Strobe Gold). Shotta Music/Universal M ­ usic. Liricas Analas. 2012. Analium. Musikvertrieb AG. Stress. 2003. Billy Bear. Universal ­Music.

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Swizz Beatz (Kasseem Dean, 1978–­, Bronx, New York) Swizz Beatz is a Grammy winning American DJ, rapper, rec­ord producer, and songwriter. Though he has released only one ­album as a soloist, he is known as an R&B and hip hop master producer who plays keyboards, synthesizer, and drums. He has worked with rap mainstays such as Busta Rhymes (1972–), Eve (Eve Jihan Jeffers, 1978–), and Jay-­Z (1969–). He is known for eschewing samples in ­favor of original compositions that feature oddball uses of synthesized instruments, especially percussion sounds such as whistles, bells, and snares; for his use of response calls/vocalizations and yells; for his willingness to work in all musical genres; and for his prodigious output (as of 2018, he has 357 production credits). His songs have made it on 25 occasions into the Billboard R&B or Billboard rap Top 10 charts.

EARLY EXPERIENCE AND SUCCESS As a boy, Swizz Beatz moved to Atlanta to live with two of his ­uncles who established Ruff Ryders Entertainment (1988–2010), the hip hop label which produced DMX, the first artist to whom the 16-­year-­old sold a beat track, “Ruff Ryders’ Anthem” (No. 33 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles and Tracks). A year ­later, he produced 10 of the 15 songs on the compilation ­album Ryde or Die Vol. 1, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and 14 of the 18 tracks on Eve’s debut ­album, Let T ­ here Be Eve . . . ​Ruff Ryders’ First Lady (1999), which reached the top spot on both the Billboard 200 and the R&B a­ lbums chart. In 2001, Swizz Beatz created Full Surface Rec­ords (2001–2009), and ­after he discovered Philadelphia-­based rapper Cassidy, the label became so successful that by 2007 he was able to sign Eve and former Ruthless Rec­ords (1987–) mainstay Bone Thugs-­N-­Harmony (1991–). He has released only two ­albums of himself on the label, Swizz Beatz Pres­ents G.H.E.T.T.O. Stories (2002), on which he appears on half the tracks, and the aforementioned One Man Band Man, which reached No. 7 on the Billboard 200. ­Albums on which he has produced have sold over 80 million copies worldwide. Swizz Beatz is also a fashion designer, painter, and art collector (he owns Warhols, Basquiats, and Dalis). He has married two R&B singers, Mashonda (Mashonda Tifrere, 1979–) and ­later Alicia Keys (Alicia Augello Cook, 1981–). For the 2010–2011 academic year, he was named the first producer in residence at New York University. As of 2018, Swizz Beatz was serving as vice president of Reebok’s sports style marketing, design, and brand ­music development. He has also been named Global Ambassador for New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), has been accepted into the Harvard Business School’s Own­er/President Management executive program, and has been inducted into the Bronx Walk of Fame, where he received a street named in his honor. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: The United States

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Further Reading

Chapman, Dale. 2008. “ ‘Tha Ill, Tight Sound’: Telepresence and Biopolitics in Post-­ Timbaland Rap Production.” Journal of the Society for American ­Music 2, no. 2: 155–75. Micallef, Ken. 2007. “Beat Bender.” Remix 9, no. 1 (January): 26.

Further Listening

Swizz Beatz. 2002. Swizz Beatz Pres­ents G.H.E.T.T.O. Stories. DreamWorks Rec­ords. Swizz Beatz. 2007. One Man Band Man. Universal Motown.

Syria Syria has seen hip hop serve as a vehicle for its youth to express concerns as they face rapid social and po­liti­cal change. Early in his presidency, Bashar Al Assad (2000–) instituted domestic reforms, allowing new commercial radio stations. “Good Morning Syria” (Al Madina FM) played both Syrian and Western ­music, bringing American hip hop artists such as 50 Cent (1975–) to Syrian airwaves. In 2007, the Syrian government reversed its reforms, blocking social media sites, claiming they encouraged militants. In 2011, this was expanded to a complete shutdown of Syria’s Internet, which coincided with public protests that heralded the beginning of the Syrian Civil War. With the onset of war, hip hop has become increasingly impor­tant as an outlet for youth to cope with revolution, sectarianism, censorship, displacement, and exile. BEGINNINGS Syrian rap emerged in the 1990s, culminating in the old-­school stylings of rap crew Murder Eyez (1999*) from Aleppo, who ­were featured on the internationally known “Beit Il Hip Hop” (2011) mixtape by Palestinian American FredWreck (aka FredWreck Nassar, Farid Karam Nassar, 1972–). Rap group Sham MCs (n.d.) released Crossword (2009*), the first full-­length Syrian rap CD ­album. Like many Arab rappers, they began by rapping in En­glish and French but ­later rapped in local dialects, creating an authentically Syrian rap style. Three rappers from Damascus and Homs, Syria formed the group LaTlaTeh (2012*–). The trio layered slow groove style rap with traditional Syrian instruments and beats, sometimes offering a direct auditory portrayal of their subject. For example, the onomatopoeic refrain of “Boom Boom Bam” (2012*) depicts the explosion of a car bomb; this refrain frames detailed accounts of the death experiences of young men killed in that event, symbols of the violent deaths of countless Syrians. DIASPORA ARTISTS AND INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION Hip hop artists in the Syrian diaspora have inspired Syrian rappers still inside Syria, while bringing Syrian rap styles to a worldwide audience. The Mammoth Tusk (2009), the debut ­album of Lebanese Syrian Eslam Jawaad (Wissam Khodur,

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n.d.), was considered an international step forward for local Arabic hip hop b­ ecause established artists such as Cilvaringz (Tarik Azzougarh, 1979–), who is the rapper, man­ag­er, and producer of the Wu-­Tang Clan (1992–), supported it. Jawaad was the first to rec­ord tracks in the classical “Foos-­hha” Arabic language, founding a new style called Foos-­hop; however, the best-­k nown Syrian rapper is Omar Offendum (1981–), a Syrian American raised in Washington, DC. Since 2000, his output has focused on Arab youth, h­ uman rights, government oppression, and revolution, as demonstrated in his first full-­length solo ­album, SyrianamaricanA (2011). He appeared on the song “#Jan25,” which expressed solidarity with Egyptian revolutionaries and went viral in 2011. In “#Syria” Offendum pays homage to dabke musician Ibrahim Qashoush (1977–2011), who was cruelly martyred, his vocal chords cut out, ­after public per­for­mances of his song “Yalla Erhal Ya Bashar” (“Come on, Leave, Bashar,” 2011). Offendum’s sampling adds layers of meaning to the song, as he uses audio of Qashoush’s chanting his famous words, while the beat features violin and cello, lending a cinematic air. The accompanying video incorporates real footage of the protests and subsequent government retaliation. Omar Offendum produced both “#Jan25” and “#Syria” in collaboration with Iraqi Canadian rapper the Narcicyst (Yassin Alsalman, 1982–), and worked with the nonprofit Islamic Relief U.S.A. in 2015 to draw attention to the continued plight of Syrians. As life in Syria becomes increasingly perilous, surviving Syrian hip hop artists have fled to Beirut, Paris, and elsewhere. Refugee rappers include Nick Helou (1995*–), Marshall B (Basel Esa, n.d.), and Watar (aka Chord, anonymous, n.d.), formerly of LaTlaTeh. Other hip hop artists, such as ­brothers Mohamed and Yaser Jamous (n.d.), and Gilgamesh (Raed Ghoneim, n.d.) first performed and recorded in the Yarmouk Refugee Camp in Damascus, and have since left Syria. They continue to rap in support of oppressed Syrians. Jennifer L. Roth-­Burnette See also: Po­liti­cal Hip Hop

Further Reading

Aidi, Hishaam 2011. “The ­Grand (Hip Hop) Chessboard Race, Rap, and Raison d’etat.” ­Middle East Report 260 (Fall): 25–39. Gana, N. 2012. “Rap and Revolt in the Arab World.” Social Text 30, no. 4 (113): 25–53. Gosa, Travis L., and Erik Nielson, eds. 2015. Hip Hop and Obama Reader. Oxford, ­England: Oxford University Press. Taviano, Stefania. 2013. “Global Hip Hop: A Translation and Multimodal Perspective.” Textus 26, no. 3: 97–112.

Further Listening

Jawaad, Eslam. 2009. The Mammoth Tusk. Eslamophobic ­Music. Offendum, Omar. 2010. SyrianamaricanA. Self-­released.

T Taiwan Taiwan’s hip hop ­music is usually rapped in Hokkien or Mandarin, and songs are often less vulgar than with American hip hop; the subject ­matter includes working conditions, love, friendship, money, and culture. Taiwan’s first hip hop artists recorded in the early 1990s, and a few artists have established themselves since. Some of the bigger names include L.A. Boyz (1991–1997); Da Mouth (Dá zuĭbā, 2007–), from Irvine, California; Soft Lipa (Dan bao, 1982–), from Tainan, Taiwan; and Machi (Májí, 2003–), MC HotDog (Yáo Zhōngrén, 1978–), and Dog G (Peh-­ōe-­jī, aka Dwagie, Tseng Kuan-­jung, 1984–), from Taipei. Early Taiwanese hip hop was pop­u­lar­ized by L.A. Boyz, whose ­albums include Shiam! (Shine, 1992); Jump (1992), and Fantasy (1994). The title song of Jump is reminiscent of “Jump” by Kriss Kross (1991–2001), and That’s the Way (1994) includes a hip hop rendition of “That’s the Way I Like It” by KC and the Sunshine Band (1973–1985, 1993–). L.A. Boyz’s initial interest in hip hop came from dances band members learned while in Orange County and Los Angeles, and from fashion encountered in Compton and South Central Los Angeles. Its musical style combines hip hop, new jack swing, and techno dance. More recent artists include Da Mouth (Big Mouth), Machi, MC HotDog, Dog G, and Soft Lipa. Da Mouth was formed by artists from vari­ous nations: CanadianTaiwanese MC40 (Xue Shi Ling, 1983–), Korean-­Taiwanese-­American male vocalist Harry (anonymous, n.d.), Japanese-Taiwanese DJ Huang (anonymous, n.d.), and Japa­nese female vocalist Aisa Senda (1982–), from Ginowan. The group, whose ­music owes quite a bit to boy and girl band sounds, is known as the Asian version of the Black Eyed Peas (1995). A ­couple of its ­albums are Da Mouth (2007), Wáng yuán kŏu lì kŏu (Players, 2008), and One Two Three (2010). Machi, a nine-­member band, often collaborated with well known foreign hip hop artists such as Missy Elliott (1971–). Most of its hits include rap in Hokkien, and its popu­lar ­albums include 2nd Opus (2004) and Superman (2005). Hits include “Giving U What U Want,” and “Retribution” (both 2005). MC HotDog is known for his two famous hits, “Wŏ de shēng huó” and “Hán Líu lái xí” (“My Life” and “The K ­ orea Invasion,” respectively, 2005*). Some of his songs, such as “Hā Gŏu Bāng” (“The HotDog Crew,” 2005*) make use of turntables. His ­album Wake Up (2006) contains the hit song “Wŏ ài Tái mèi” (“I Love Taiwanese Girls”), which samples the R&B 1972 hit “I’ll Be Around,” by the Spinners (1954–). He ­later had another hit single, “Mr. Almost” (2008). Dog G, who started in the early 2000s and has collaborated with MC HotDog, is best known for his pro-­Taiwan nationalist hit single, “Taiwan Song” (2002). Soft Lipa has collaborated with Jabberloop (2004–), a jazz quintet from Kyoto, Japan in his aim to

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fuse rap with jazz. He is known for rapping over both jazz and hip hop beats, and notably uses a soft voice with a relaxed vocal timbre when he raps over smooth jazz. His ­albums include Moonlight (2010) and Renovate (2013), and his single hits include “I Want You” (2010) and “Last Morning (2012).” Kheng Keow Koay See also: China; The United States

Further Reading

Liew Kai, Khiun. 2006. “Xi Ha (Hip Hop) Zones within Global Noises: Mapping the Geographies and Politics of Chinese Hip Hop.” Perfect Beat 7, no. 4: 52–81. Schweig, Meredith. 2016. “Young Soldiers, One Day We ­Will Change Taiwan”: Masculinity Politics in the Taiwan Rap Scene.” Ethnomusicology 60, no. 3: 383–410.

Talib Kweli (Talib Kweli Greene, 1975–­, Brooklyn, New York) Talib Kweli is a hip hop rapper, songwriter, entrepreneur, and social activist who started out with a guest appearance on the Cincinnati, Ohio–­based rap group Mood’s (aka Three Below Zero, 1993–) ­album Doom (1997). He then joined with fellow Brooklyn rapper Mos Def (1973–) to form the duo Black Star (1997–) and rec­ord for Rawkus Rec­ords (1995–2007). Kweli went on to have a successful solo ­career, often collaborating with some of the most recognizable names in rap, including Kanye West (1977–) and Pharrell (1973–). His third ­album, Ear­drum (2007), reached No. 2 on both the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart. His vocal range is tenor or second tenor, and he has a boyish rapping voice, both rare for rap (with notable exceptions in comic rap), and his raps contain references to popu­lar culture and lit­er­a­ture, usually in the form of quickly delivered, clever wordplay, and unexpected multisyllabic rhyme and near rhyme. His m ­ usic varied during his ­career, as he evolved from hardcore rap beats to neo soul, R&B, and funk influenced beats, often using chill out rhythms, then back to hardcore urban beats. EARLY YEARS AND INFLUENCES Kweli grew up in a highly educated environment, being the son of an En­glish professor and a university administrator and having a b­ rother who went on to become a Yale gradu­ate, Supreme Court clerk, and professor of Constitutional Law. Kweli, however, was drawn to the ­music scene and experimental theatre, and he idolized Afrocentric rap acts such as De La Soul (1987–) and the Native Tongues Collective (1988–1996). COLLABORATIONS, SOLO PROJ­ECTS, AND AESTHETIC GOALS FOR RAP As cofounder of Black Star, Kweli got his friend and Cincinnati-­based collaborator Hi-­Tek (Tony Cottrell, 1976–) to produce the ­album Mos Def and Talib Kweli

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Are Black Star (1998). He collaborated with Hi-­Tek again on the 2000 ­album Train of Thought and co-­organized the anti–­police vio­lence proj­ect Hip Hop for Re­spect with Mos Def; he also created his own label, Blacksmith ­Music (2000–). In 2001 and 2002, he contributed to the Red Hot Organ­ization’s (1990–) musical proj­ects to raise money and awareness for AIDS victims. Kweli’s solo debut, Quality (2002), was a move ­toward neo soul and R&B; his The Beautiful Strug­gle (2004) was a return to some of the urban beats and concerns of his early ­career, intermixed with slow-­paced neo soul songs of romance. Quality peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard 200, while The Beautiful Strug­gle reached No. 14. In 2007, he signed Jean Grae (1976–) to Blacksmith Rec­ords and released Ear­ drum. In 2010, he collaborated with Hi-­Tek for a second ­album, Revolutions per Minute. His next solo studio ­albums, Gutter Rainbows (2011), Prisoner of Conscious (2012), Gravitas (2014), and F—­the Money (2015), ­were all released on his own label, Javotti Media (2011–), and three of the four charted on the Billboard 200. Kweli’s influence on rap culture comes from his crusade to make rap less materialistic and violent, and more eloquent and activist. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Black Nationalism; Mos Def; Native Tongues; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Spady, James G. 2006. “The Fluoroscope of Brooklyn Hip Hop: Talib Kweli in Conversation.” Interview with Talib Kweli. Callaloo 29, no. 3: 993–1011. Ware, Tony. 2012. “Idle Warship Rapper Talib Kweli and Singer Res Discuss Defying Musical Definitions, and the Ten-­Year Collaboration that Culminated in Habits of the Heart.” Electronic Musician 28, no. 7: 32–40.

Further Listening

Talib Kweli. 2007. Ear­drum. Blacksmith ­Music.

Tanzania Tanzania is an Eastern African presidential constitutional republic of 55.6 million ­people who descend from several ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups and speak over 100 dif­fer­ent languages, although Swahili is considered the national language. Its recent capitals include its current one, Dodoma, and its former one, Dar es Salaam, its largest city and place where most government offices are still located. Tanzanian hip hop, balled bongo flava, roughly translated as brain flavor, developed in the 1990s as a fusion of American hip hop, reggae, R&B, Afrobeat, dancehall, and traditional Tanzanian ­music. The country’s m ­ usic ranges from traditional African ­music associated with specific ethnic populations to the vocal-­and string-­based taarab, or sung poetry with Islamic, African (rattles and drums), ­Middle Eastern (oud, zither, and tambourine), and Eu­ro­pean (guitar) roots, and a distinctive hip hop known as bongo flava, a subset of Swah rap (rap in Swahili). Traditional instruments include tuned goblet drums (similar to the djembe), tuned cylindrical drums (similar to the Indian dhol or dholak), tin rattles, and ilimba (a large kalimba). Tanzanian m ­ usic was influenced

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by dance ­music (e.g., Cuban rumba) in the early 1930s, which introduced brass, Latin percussion, and strings, and ­later by Eu­ro­pean ele­ments in the 1960s, which eventually led to a new style called Swahili jazz, a fusion of Latin, Eu­ro­pean, and African ­music. This evolved into the 1970s laid-­back dance sound (called dansi) pop­u­lar­ized by Orchestre Safari Sound (1970*–1985), which in 1985 became the offshoot bands International Orchestra Safari Sound (1985–1989) and Orchestre Maquis Original (1985–, though technically 1970–). Meanwhile, Vijana Jazz (1971–1990) became the first band to add electronic instruments to dansi. A stripped down dansi ­music called mchiriku emerged ­later—­vocalists sing against three or four dif­fer­ent drums accompanied by a keyboard; often outdated speakers are used to produce feedback. Rock ­music did not become very popu­lar in the country, even though Queen (1970–) lead singer Freddie Mercury (Farouk Bulsara, 1946–1991) was born in Stone Town, Zanzibar (Tanzania). Reggae became popu­lar in the early 1990s. At pres­ent, Ras Nas (Nasibu Mwanukuzi, n.d.), who combines reggae, Afrobeat, and dub poetry, is considered the most popu­lar Tanzanian reggae musician. Early Tanzanian hip hop started as an underground movement in the 1980s, and mainstream rap emerged around 1991 with vari­ous rapper competitions. The first rappers rapped in En­glish, imitating American songs, although Saleh Ajabry (n.d.) began rapping in original Swahili lyr­ics in 1991. Dar es Salaam–­based Kwanza Unit (KU, First Unit, 1993–1999) was the first Tanzanian hip hop crew. It was a collective (super crew) inspired by Afrika Bambaataa (1957–) that used rapping texts initially in En­glish, but soon favored Swahili. Bongo flava’s name is credited to a Dar es Salaam radio disc jockey, Mike Mhagama (n.d.), who first used it in 1996. He derived it from the Swahili words ubongo, a nickname for Dar Es Salaam that also means brain. Bongo flava’s best-­ known producers include Master J (Joachim Kimario, n.d.), John B (John Blass, n.d.), and dancehall pioneer Dully Sykes (Abdul Sykes, 1980–). The first rap ­album was recorded by a crew called Mawingu (1992–), which had a minor hit in 1992 with “Oya Msela” (“A Drinker”). Other early Tanzanian hip hop acts included the Hard Blasters (1989–), from Dar Es Salaam, by some accounts the first crew that pioneered the bongo flava sound in Swahili; in 1994, Professor Jay (1975–) became the crew’s MC. Tanzanian hip hop was introduced to the international stage in 2004 when fledgling German rec­ord label Out ­Here Rec­ords (2004–) released a 14-­track compilation ­album called Bongo Flava: Swahili Rap from Tanzania, which showcased rap crew X Plastaz (1996–), which used trip hop (downtempo) beats against chants and raps in in Maa (Maasai language) and Swahili; the crew became one of the country’s most popu­lar rap acts over time. Other popu­lar hip hop acts include rapper Juma Nature (aka Sir Nature, Juma Kassim Ally, 1980–), rap duo Gangwe Mobb (1997–2004), and Mr.  II (aka Sugu or 2-­proud, Joseph Mbilinyi, 1972–). Juma Nature, founder of the Wanaume rap collective, raps about AIDS, poverty, class and wealth barriers, and self-­esteem. Gangwe Mobb, based in the poor Temeke neighborhood in Dar es Salaam, performs ­music that borders on grime and trap. One of its MCs, Inspector Haroun (Haroun Rashida Kahena, n.d.), went on to form other crews and had a solo c­ areer. Songea-­based Mr. II, who went on to be elected to the Tanzanian Parliament from 2010 ­until 2020, rapped about politics



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and social inequalities and became the most popu­lar Tanzanian rapper in the 1990s. Other hip hop acts include the Makala ­Brothers (1993–), GWM (aka Gangstas with Matatisu, Gangstas with Prob­lems, 1997–2000*), Deplowmatz (aka DPT, Tha De-­ Plow-­Matz, 1992–1999), Bantu Pound (aka Bantu Pound Gangsters, 1993–), Mbeya-­ based MaNgwair (Albert Kenneth Mangwea, 1982–2013), and Underground Souls (1997–), which performed jazz rap. Female rappers have had difficulty finding success in Tanzania. Anthony J. Fonseca and Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: ­Kenya

Further Reading

Clark, Msia Kibona. 2014. “Gender Repre­sen­ta­tions among Tanzanian Female Emcees.” In Hip Hop and Social Change in Africa: Ni Wakati, edited by Msia Kibona Clark and Mickie Mwanzia Koster, chap. 9. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. Mbuya, Mejah. 2014. “Tanzanian MCs vs. Social Discourse.” In Hip Hop and Social Change in Africa: Ni Wakati, edited by Msia Kibona Clark and Mickie Mwanzia Koster, chap. 11. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. Perullo, Alex. 2012. “Imitation and Innovation in the ­Music, Dress, and Camps of Tanzanian Youth.” In Hip Hop Africa: New African ­Music in a Globalizing World, edited by Eric Charry, chap. 9. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Further Listening

Vari­ous Artists. 2004. Bongo Flava: Swahili Rap from Tanzania. Out ­Here Rec­ords.

Tech N9ne (Aaron Dontez Yates, 1971–­, Kansas City, Missouri) Tech N9ne is an American rapper-­songwriter, rec­ord producer, actor, and entrepreneur. His stage is a reference to the TEC-9 semiautomatic pistol, and was given to him ­because of his quick, staccato rapping style and rhyming, which eventually came to be called the chopper style of rapping (although Tech N9ne claims it stands for his rhyming technique, with the number nine representing the number of completion in Bahá’í and Hinduism). Releasing an ­album virtually ­every year since 1999, he has sold over two million copies total, and his ­music has been used in film, tele­vi­sion, and video games. He is also known for popularizing and spreading the chopper rapping style through his collaboration ­albums with rappers from the Midwest, South, and both East and West coasts. Tech N9ne’s single “Midwest Choppers 2” (2009) from his ­album Sickology 101 actually explains his goal of spreading the word on chopper rap through what he called “elite” and “intricate” tongues around the world, including California, New York, Denmark, and Australia. Tech N9ne is revered for his rhyme schemes and chopper style rap abilities; his range of topics, from atmospheric and dark, to uplifting; his creation of rap flow patterns that have a percussive quality (created by his singsong delivery while ­r unning words together quickly); his use of varied instrumentation and dramatic gestures; and for his camera presence in m ­ usic videos.

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­ALBUMS AND SUCCESS Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Tech N9ne became a member of a short-­ lived rap trio named Black Mafia (1990*–1991), which self-­released a three-­track mixtape in 1991, and he became a member of the group Nnutthowze (1993), which disbanded before recording. He joined Yukmouth’s (Jerold Dwight Ellis III, 1974–), Oakland, California–­based collective the ReGime (1997–) in 1997. The following year, as a member of the 57th Street Rogue Dog Villians (1998–2002), Tech N9ne released three a­ lbums on Hog Style Rec­ords (1998–2012) and one 12-­inch single. In 1999, Tech N9ne, along with other guest rappers such as Eminem (1972–), KRS-­One (1965–), and Kool G. Rap (Nathaniel Thomas Wilson, 1968–), appeared on the San Francisco rap duo Sway and King Tech’s (1990–) song “The Anthem.” That year, Tech N9ne cofounded the Strange M ­ usic rec­ord label and on the MidWestSide Rec­ords (1996–2006) label released two solo ­albums, The Calm Before the Storm Part I and The Worst. He followed t­hose with Anghellic (2001) on the JCOR Entertainment label (1998–2004); it sold over 250,000 copies. His fourth studio ­album, Absolute Power (2002), was the first on his Strange ­Music label, and it topped the sales of Anghellic by almost 100,000; however, it did not do as well on the Billboard 200. Tech N9ne’s next six ­albums on the Strange label, Proj­ect: Deadman (2004), Vintage Tech (2005), Everready: The Religion (2006), Misery Loves Kompany (2007), Killer (2008), and Sickology 101, all sold over 100,000 copies. Tech N9ne’s 2009 ­album, K.O.D., marked a turn ­toward a darker atmosphere, and was his third consecutive ­album to peak at higher than No. 20 on the Billboard 200. His third Collabos ­album, The Gates Mixed Plate (2010), broke his string of ­albums to sell 100,000 copies, but it became his highest chart performer to date on the Billboard Top R&B/ Hip-Hop and Top Rap Albums charts, peaking at Nos. 5 and 4, respectively. In 2011, Tech N9ne released All 6’s and 7’s, the first to reach the Top 10 on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 4. It also was his first to reach the top spot on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop and Top Rap Albums charts. He has released six ­albums since, and two of ­those Strangeulation (2014) and Special Effects (2015), have topped the Top R&B/Hip-Hop and Top Rap charts. In 2006, he began his series of collaborative a­ lbums called Tech N9ne Collabos. As of 2018, Tech N9ne has finished seven Collabos ­albums. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Chopper; The United States

Further Reading

Amter, Charlie. 2007. “Making His Own Flow.” ­Under “Pop ­Music” in Los Angeles Times, July 12, E10. McCann, Bryan J. 2017. The Mark of Criminality: Rhe­toric, Race, and Gangsta Rap in the War-­on-­Crime Era. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. Quinn, Eithne. 2005. Nuthin’ But a “G” Thang: The Culture and Commerce of Gangsta Rap. New York: Columbia University Press.

Further Listening

Tech N9ne. 2003. Absolute Power. Strange ­Music. Tech N9ne. 2011. All 6’s and 7’s. Strange ­Music.

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Thailand Thailand is a Southeast Asian constitutional monarchy with a population of 69 million, 14 million of whom live in Bangkok, its capitol and largest city, and its surrounding metropolitan area. Thailand’s citizens have existed ­under a parliamentary democracy and military junta for de­cades, the latest coup d’état being in 2014. Thai hip hop was first made popu­lar in the 1980s by singer and producer Joey Boy (Apisit Opasaimlikit, 1975–), who collaborated with Canadian reggae singer Snow (Darren Kenneth O’Brien, 1969–) on the song “Fun, Fun, Fun” (1995), a big hit in Thailand. Five years ­later, he started his own rec­ord label, Gancore Club (2000–). Historically, Thailand went through periods of instability as Indian kingdoms and indigenous states; it also endured 19th-­century British and French feuding over colonization (which kept it in­de­pen­dent). Thai ­people lived ­under a monarchy ­until 1932, followed by 60 years of military rule prior to 2014. Thai ­music is influenced by China, India, Laos, and Iran (Persia) in its traditional instrumentation, and more recently its popu­lar ­music shows a heavy influence of the United States. Western ­music has been imported to Thailand since the early 1930s, when Western Classical ­music, as well as popu­lar ­music such as show tunes, jazz, and tango reached there. Thai composers such as Montri Tramote (1908–1995) helped pop­u­ lar­ize Western art and popu­lar ­music by adopting standard Western musical notation. Jazz is so entrenched in Thai culture that King Prajadhipok (Rama VII, 1883–1941, reigned 1925–1935) and King Bhumibol Adulyadej (1927–2016, reigned 1946–2016) both composed jazz-­influenced ­music. By the 1960s, Thai musicians ­were emulating American and En­glish rock acts in Bangkok. In the central region of Thailand, however, one kind of popu­lar ­music originated ­there, known as phleng luk thung or luk thung (meaning child of the field song) or as Thai country ­music that focused often on rural topics, pastoral themes, romance, and religious and other traditional cultures. Less explic­itly, Luk Thung would l­ ater serve as po­liti­cal or social commentary and criticism. ­These popu­lar songs ­were eventually featured in 1960s and 1970s Thai films. Joey Boy’s influence would be felt by Thai rappers such as Da Jim (aka Dajim, Suwitcha Suphawira, 1977–), who started an underground rec­ord label, N.Y.U. Club (2002–) and hosted hip hop radio shows, although his lyr­ics have led to arrests due to censorship laws. The most popu­lar Thai hip hop acts are Thaitanium (2000–) and Joni Anwar (1981–) of Raptor (n.d.). Thaitanium is a Thai American trio that produced and recorded its first two ­albums in New York City and released them ­later in Thailand. Raptor is a duo consisting of Joni Anwar (as Joni Raptor) and Louis Scott (1982–). In the 1990s Raptor began including rap in its songs. Joni Raptor and Scott formed Raptor in their teens, giving them a g­ reat appeal to youth, who ­were influenced by both their ­music and hip hop fashion, and Raptor’s debut ­album sold over a million copies. Anwar went on to a highly successful solo c­ areer. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Anwar, Joni; Laos; Thaitanium

Further Reading

Jirattikorn, Amporn. 2006. “Lukthung: Authenticity and Modernity in Thai Country ­Music.” Asian ­Music 37, no. 1: 24–50.

692 Thaitanium Poss, Nicholas. 2013. “ ‘Reharmonizing’ the Generations: Rap, Poetry, and Hmong Oral Traditional.” In Diversity in Diaspora: Hmong Americans in the Twenty-­First ­Century, edited by Mark Edward Pfeifer, Monica Chiu, and Kou Yang, chap. 10. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

Further Listening

Thaitanium. 2002. P77. Self-­released.

Thaitanium (2000–­, New York City, New York) Thaitanium is a Thai American rap group that consists of Khan (aka K.H. or King of da Hustle, Khanngoen Nuanual, 1976–), Day (aka Sunny Day, Nay Myo Thant, n.d.), and Way (aka P. Cess, Prinya Intachai, n.d.). The band’s members w ­ ere born in ­either Bangkok, Thailand, or New York City. Thaitanium raps in both Thai and American urban vernacular languages. As an opening act for 50 Cent (1975–) and the hip hop proj­ect Fort Minor (2004–2006, 2015–), a trio that appears on vari­ous hip hop tracks, and a live band that tours worldwide, Thaitanium has brought global attention to Thai hip hop. Khan and Day emigrated from Bangkok and started their ­careers Djing and MCing for h­ ouse parties in the San Francisco area. In 2000, Thaitanium formed ­after Khan and Day moved to New York City and met Way. The trio’s first two ­albums, AA (2000) and Thai Riders (2002), w ­ ere self-­released. Its third ­album was a hip hop soundtrack for the American film Province 77 (2002), which was about an expatriate Thai ­family living in Los Angeles. It tracks their identity strug­gle between their traditional homeland ties and their new life. The band’s other themes include sexual attraction, romance, braggadocio, fame, and ambition. In 2005, Thaitanium released RAS (Resisting Against Da System), the same year that Sony BMG ­Music Entertainment distributed the band’s Thailand’s Most Wanted, which was the first globally distributed Thai hip hop ­album. That year, Thaitanium began to gain international attention for appearing on tracks of numerous Thai and Japa­nese hip hop artists, including dance-­pop and electropop singer Tata Young (Amita Marie Young, 1980–), from Bangkok; the hip hop group DS455 (1989–), from Yokohama, Japan; and the hip hop group M-­Flo (1997–), from Tokyo. In 2006, Thaitanium performed at the MTV Asia Awards. Its ­album, Flip Side (2008), was released on the GMM Grammy label (1983–) and was the band’s first global a­ lbum release. In 2013, Thaitanium was the opening act for 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg (1971–) at the Together Festival in Bangkok. Thaitanium’s subsequent ­albums and compilations include Compilation 3: Still ­Here (2013), Thaitanium (2014), Still Resisting (2015), and 16 Years (2016), all self-­ released on their Bangkok-­based Thaitanium Entertainment label (2010–), which makes it the first Thai hip hop group to publish its own songs. As of 2018, Thaitanium has also focused on other ventures, including its own clothing line, modeling, publishing, and acting. One in­ter­est­ing aspect of Thaitanium’s sound is when it incorporates or implies Thai melodies as loops, as it does in “Too Much” from P77. Another in­ter­est­ing



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technique is using Thai texts to vocalize scratching (turntablism), as in “Doown” (“Cool,” 2010). In 2014, rap in En­glish and more closely resemble American gangsta rap than in the past in “Wake Up (Bangkok City),” which featured Snoop Dogg. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Snoop Dogg; Thailand; Turntablism; The United States

Further Reading

Klangboonkrong, Manta. 2013. “Snoop Dogg Pimps It Up for Bangkok.” The Nation (Bangkok, Thailand), January 22, 1. Thamkruphat, Tanya Sangpun. 2005. “As Tough as Thaitanium.” The Bangkok Post, June 23, 1.

Further Listening

Thaitanium. 2002. P77. Self-­released. Thaitanium. 2004. RAS. GMM Grammy.

Tijoux, Ana (Ana María Merino Tijoux, 1977–­, Lille, France) Ana Tijoux is a French Chilean musician born to Chilean parents living in po­liti­ cal exile in France during the reign of Augusto Pinochet (1915–2006, in power 1973–1981). Her ­mother is Chilean sociologist María Emilia Tijoux (1949–). Ana Tijoux moved back to Chile a­ fter the return of civil power in 1993, and formed the group Los Gemelos (The Twins, 1995–1997). In 1997, Tijoux was featured on Mama Funk, the debut studio ­album by Los Tetas (The Breasts, 1994–2004, 2011–), a funk band that went on to release five a­ lbums and whose La Medicina (1997) is considered one of the best Latin American funk ­albums. That year, she became MC of hip hop group Makiza (1997–2006). By 2001, she and the group’s members ­were pursuing solo ­careers, and Tijoux moved back to France from 2001 ­until 2004, when she rejoined Makiza for a tour to promote the rerelease of the group’s 1998 debut ­album, Vida Salvaje. Tijoux’s big solo break came in 2009 with her second ­album, 1977, a collection of Spanish and French autobiographical songs that explored death, friendship, creativity, and fate and which broke completely with Tijoux’s pop roots with edgy melodies and harder beats. The lead single, “1977,” became an underground hit, placed in the Top 10 in the WorldHipHopMarket​.­com chart, and was featured in Season Four of Breaking Bad (2008–2013). On the strength of 1977, Tijeaux began a 2010 North American tour. Throughout her oeuvre, Tijoux vocally alternates between a raw, aggressive higher rap register and a laid-­back, lower, breathy talk-­singing, and her songs vary from sampled rap, to funky brass-­infused R&B style hip hop, to experimental rock-­infused hip hop. Tijoux has released four solo studio ­albums, Kaos (2007), 1977, La bala (The Bullet, 2011), and Vengo (I Come, 2014), and one mixtape, Elefant (2011). Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Chile; France

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­ fter living in exile, French-­Chilean alternative hip hop rapper and singer-­songwriter A Ana Tijoux returned to Santiago, where she formed and fronted the Chilean hip hop band Makiza from 1997 ­until 2006, when she pursued a solo ­career. By the 2010s Tijoux became one of the best known and most admired female hip hop artists for her breathy talk-­singing sound, for addressing topics that range from protesting vio­lence and corruption, to the treatment of ­women, and for storytelling based on autobiographical content. (Victor Chavez/Getty Images)

Further Reading

Istodor, Luca. 2017. “Ana Tijoux’s Radical Crossing of Borders.” Revista: Harvard Review of Latin Amer­i­ca 16, no. 2: 65–66. Lindholm, Susan. 2017. “Hip Hop Practice as Identity and Memory Work in and in-­between Chile and Sweden.” Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 42, no. 2: 60–74.

Further Listening

Ana Tijoux. 2009. 1977. Oveja Negra-­Potoco Discos.

Timbaland (Timothy Zachery Mosley, 1972–­, Norfolk, ­Virginia) Timbaland is an American rec­ord producer, turntablist, rapper, and singer-­songwriter known primarily for his work with Portsmouth, ­Virginia rapper and producer Missy

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Elliott (1971–), Victoria, British Columbia, R&B and pop singer-­songwriter Nelly Furtado (1978–), and Memphis hip hop singer-­songwriter Justin Timberlake (1981–). Timbaland has also worked with Washington, DC rapper Ginuwine (Elgin Baylor Lumpkin, 1970–); Brooklyn, New York R&B and pop singer, actress, and model Aaliyah (Dana Haughton, 1979–2001); Brooklyn rapper, producer, and entrepreneur Jay-­Z (1969–); Brooklyn rapper-­songwriter and producer Nas (1973–); Champaign, Illinois rapper-­songwriter Ludacris (1977–); Lagrange, Georgia rapper Bubba Sparxxx (1977–); Bay City, Michigan pop singer-­songwriter and producer Madonna (1958–); and Toronto rapper, singer-­songwriter, producer and actor Drake (1986–). His 2007 ­album Shock Value was certified Platinum and reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200; it also reached No. 1 in Australia, Austria, and Ireland. He has won four Grammy Awards and has had a total of five songs reach the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10, with two of ­those, both featuring Furtado, reaching No. 1: “Promiscuous” (2006) and “Give It to Me” (2007); the latter also featured Timberlake. Timbaland started as a rapper in the duo Timbaland & Magoo (1989–), with schoolmate Melvin Barcliff (n.d.). ­After joining forces with Missy Elliott, he became part of DeVante Swing’s (Donald Earle DeGrate Jr., 1969–) Swing Mob rec­ord label (1991–1995), becoming part of a group of musicians known as Da Bassment Cru. Eventually, he got his own imprint label, Mosley ­Music Group (2005–), associated from 2005 to 2014 with parent label Interscope Rec­ords (1989–) and from 2014 on with Epic (1953–), the latter ­because of Timbaland’s success as executive producer of Michael Jackson’s (1958–2009) posthumous Xscape (2014). Moseley ­Music Group featured artists such as Furtado, OneRepublic (2002–), and Keri Hilson (1982–). Timbaland’s production of Furtado’s 2006 ­album Loose (2006) was a commercial success and earned him a BET (Black Entertainment Tele­vi­sion) Hip Hop Award for Producer of the Year. As a songwriter he has written or cowritten over 100 hit songs; however, he has been involved in three plagiarism lawsuits. More recent production successes have included V. Bozeman’s (Veronika Bozeman, 1988–) R&B hit “What Is Love” (2015) as well as rapper and singer-­songwriter Tink’s (Trinity Home, 1995–) “Million” (2015), which samples Aaliyah’s “One in a Million” (1996, written by Elliott and Timbaland). As of 2018, Timbaland continues producing ­music. Timbaland’s production sound incorporates self-­borrowing and an eclectic use of ­music ranging from classic soul to psychedelic or Afrofuturist funk, as well as from beatbox effects and turntablism to his trademark stuttering kickdrum, trip hop (downtempo) samples to Bollywood-­influenced grooves. By inserting passages or ele­ments from dif­fer­ent musical styles (creating unusual juxtapositions or humorous twists), Timbaland’s productions often challenge popu­lar ­music genre expectations. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Elliott, Missy; The United States

Further Reading

Chapman, Dale. 2008. “ ‘That Ill, Tight Sound’: Telepresence and Biopolitics in Post-­ Timbaland Rap Production.” Journal of the Society for American ­Music 2, no. 2: 155–75.

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Djupvik, Marita B. 2017. “Naturalizing Male Authority and the Power of the Producer.” Popu­lar ­Music and Society 40, no. 2: 181–200.

Further Listening

Elliott, Missy. 2001. Miss E . . . ​So Addictive. Elektra. Elliott, Missy. 2002. ­Under Construction. Elektra. Timbaland. 1998. Tim’s Bio: Life from da Bassment. Blackground Rec­ords.

T.I.P. Crew (1996–­, Seoul, South K ­ orea) T.I.P. Crew (Teamwork is Perfect) is the first b-­boy crew founded in ­Korea. In 1996, b-­boy Virus (Dae Kyun Hwang, n.d.) founded T.I.P. Crew in Seoul. He wanted to create a crew whose choreography would be known for its large freeze formations, use of contact dance improvisation, and sense of humor. In some street, professional, and competitive shows, the crew has included South Korean flags in its routines, or has preserved South Korean per­for­mance traditions. In one showcase-­ style routine, a member of the crew plays a piri—­a cylindrical oboe associated with Korean court and folk ­music—­before the accompanying hip hop ­music begins and the rest of the b-­boy crew appears onstage. The members, all similarly attired, dance in pairs, small groups, and as a synchronized crew, often striking multiple-­person freezes between moves. In ­battles, the crew uses teamwork in its solo entrances, where three or even four members ­will dance out together, using each other as gymnastic props, fi­nally introducing the soloist through a carefully choreographed flip or slide. T.I.P. Crew’s ­battle routines tend to focus on spins, flips, and gymnastic moves. Since 2001 T.I.P. Crew has hosted and helped or­ga­nize the international one-­on-­one b-­boy ­battle in ­Korea, B-­boy Monster Jam. In 2002, the crew was South ­Korea’s first entry into the B-­Boy Championship in London. T.I.P. Crew’s international and national accomplishments include winning the U.K. B-­Boy Championship in London and Chief Rocker Award (2007), ­Battle of the Year ­Korea and Asia (2008), the World B-­Boy Classic (2009), and the Red Bull BC One Fingerbreakin’ World Championship (2013). It has also finished in second place, as finalists, or as semifinalists in many ­Battle of the Year ­Korea competitions. In 2007, they ­were the first Korean b-­boy crew to win the Minister of Culture and Tourism Award. T.I.P. Crew has appeared internationally in tele­ vi­sion shows and films. Like its more recent rival b-­boy crew Gamblerz (2002–), who are also from Seoul, some of T.I.P. Crew’s members ­were arrested for avoiding a mandatory two-­year military ser­vice. In 2010, b-­boy Virus was the first Korean choreographer of an American film, the action-­crime comedy Dancing Ninja. Since its inception, T.I.P. Crew has consisted of full-­time, professional b-­boys, who are known for their supportive attitude ­toward breakdancing, in addition to their choreographed shows for competition. In 2014, they formed the T.I.P. Dance Acad­emy in Seoul, which emphasizes courses for all ages and dancing levels—in

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not only hip hop dance, but other kinds of dance styles, from street jazz to bellydancing. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Battling; Breakdancing; Hip Hop Dance; K ­ orea

Further Reading

File, Curtis. 2013. Korean Dance: Pure Emotion and Energy. ­Korea Essentials No. 15. Seoul: ­Korea Foundation. Song, Myoung-­Sun. 2014. “The S(e)oul of Hip Hop: Locating Space and Identity in Korean Rap.” In The Korean Wave: Korean Popu­lar Culture in Global Context, edited by Yasue Kuwahara, chap. 7. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Um, Hae-­Kyung. 2013. “The Poetics of Re­sis­tance and the Politics of Crossing Borders: Korean Hip Hop and ‘Cultural Reterritorialisation.’ ” Popu­lar ­Music 32, no. 1: 51–64.

TLC (1991–­, Atlanta, Georgia) TLC is a female R&B group originally comprised of T-­Boz (Tionne Watkins, 1970– ), Left-­Eye (Lisa Lopes, 1971–2002), and Crystal Jones (n.d.). Jones, who initiated the band in 1990, was early on replaced by Chilli (Rozonda Thomas, 1971–). Between 1992 and 2002, TLC produced four a­ lbums: Ooooooohhh . . . ​On the TLC Tip (1992), CrazySexyCool (1994), FanMail (1999), and 3D (2002). It then disbanded ­after Left-Eye died in a car accident. The group performed in the “new jill swing” style (its version of new jack swing), blending soul-­based and R&B-­style vocals with the sampling, rapping, and production techniques of hip hop. TLC had four songs top the Billboard chart, “Creep” (1994), “Waterfall” (1995), “No Scrubs” (1999), and “Unpretty” (1999).

FORMATION AND OVERVIEW OF TLC’S SUCCESS Initially formed in 1991 by Jones, TLC was mentored by Pebbles (Perri Arlette McKissack, 1965–); she managed the group as part of her production com­pany Pebbitone (1989–1996), signing them with producer L. A. Reid (Antonio Marquis Reid, 1956–), who was her husband. His rec­ord label, LaFace Rec­ords (1989–) produced the band’s first three ­albums. Ooooooohhh . . . ​On the TLC Tip put three songs on the U.S. charts: “Baby-­Baby-­Baby,” “­Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg,” and “What About Your Friends.” CrazySexyCool and FanMail both earned the group Grammy awards for Best R&B ­Album (1995 and 1999), while singles from ­these ­albums also garnered Grammys. “Creep” (CrazySexyCool) and “No Scrubs” (FanMail) both won for Best R&B Per­for­mance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The track “Waterfalls” (1995) from CrazySexyCool was nominated for Rec­ord of the Year in 1996. In 2002, Left Eye Lopes died in an automobile accident in Honduras. She had recorded raps for only four tracks of the band’s next intended ­album, 3D, so the

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remaining two members completed the a­ lbum. It, too, achieved success on the charts, making it to No. 6 on the Billboard 200. FINANCIAL AND L ­ EGAL ISSUES In the mid-1990s, despite its unpre­ce­dented success, the group faced several financial and ­legal prob­lems. In 1994, Left Eye Lopes was arrested for vandalizing the cars of her boyfriend Andre Rison (1967–), a wide receiver for the Atlanta Falcons (1965–), and burning down his mansion. She was required only to reimburse him and serve time on probation. Soon ­after, a financial dispute arose between Pebbitone and LaFace Rec­ords, and Reid claimed the group’s members owed Pebbitone over half a million dollars each. The group filed for bankruptcy in 1995 but rallied for ­future a­ lbums in 1999 and 2002, continuing its association with LaFace Rec­ords. THEMES, PERFORMANCE PRACTICE, AND SOUND The three ­women of TLC ­were remarkable for their frank portrayal of themselves as power­f ul, sexual, and in­de­pen­dent. The 1990s w ­ ere a de­cade of liberation for black, female performers, especially on issues of female sexuality and self-­reliance. Hip hop groups such as En Vogue (1989–), Salt-­N-­Pepa (1985–2002, 2007–), and SWV (aka ­Sisters with Voices, 1990–1999, 2005–) sang openly about sexual plea­sure, sexual taboos, and the importance of communication and using protection in sexual relationships. ­T hese kinds of songs ­were part of a complex negotiation of African American womanhood; although they advocated for female in­de­pen­dence and self-­determined sexuality, they also continued the practice of objectifying w ­ omen, ­whether in lyr­ics, in live per­for­mances, or in m ­ usic videos, where both men and ­women ­were treated as sexual objects. TLC was part of this trend, negotiating the power of sex both through its lyr­ics and in repre­sen­ta­tion. TLC aimed, for instance, to destigmatize condoms by attaching packets to members’ clothing, and “Conclusion,” the final track on TLC’s first ­album, was an admonition to practice safe sex. The single “­Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg,” for example, places female sexual plea­sure front and center, normalizing female desire and objectifying men—­essentially flipping the conventional hip hop narrative on its head. The song encourages w ­ omen to seek sexual satisfaction in their committed relationships, ­whether or not their partner is in the mood. Musically, it exemplifies new jack swing practices, presenting soul-­inspired group harmonies and vocal improvisations in the bridges, layered over propulsive bass and drum grooves, synthesized and looped using a drum machine. The song features a rapped, call-­and-­response chorus, as well as a rap break by Left Eye Lopes, where she uses her distinctive vocal timbre and lyrical flow to emphasize the importance of mutual satisfaction in sexual relationships, a practice the band would revisit in “Waterfalls.” By placing “­Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg” as the first song on their debut ­album, TLC set the tone for the rest of its cata­log, both in terms of style and content.

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TLC’s ­albums also included hip hop skits—­relatively short introductions and interludes, both scripted and improvised, dramatic and musical, common in mixtapes and ­albums of the 1990s. Some ­were comedic, such as “Sexy (Interlude)” from CrazySexyCool; some ­were focused messages, such as “Communicate (Interlude)” from FanMail; and some w ­ ere musical, such as “Intermission I” from Ooooooohhh . . . ​ On the TLC Tip. Most, no ­matter their style, addressed female self-­sufficiency. ­Those that featured male artists built on hip hop’s collaborative culture to give ­women authority they could not other­wise achieve (female hip hop artists at the time benefited from the sponsorship of established male rappers, through them gaining access to a male-­dominated genre). In “Can I Get a Witness (Interlude)” from CrazySexyCool, for instance, Busta Rhymes (1972–) performs a soul-­based improvisation on his impressions of TLC, his rap indicating that the ­women of the band knew how to take care of business and ­were crazy, sexy, and cool ­women. As the years passed, the number of alternative tracks on TLC’s a­ lbums diminished, while the tracks themselves became more heavi­ly produced and musically complex. By the time of 3D, only one of ­these interlude tracks, “3D Intro,” appears, and it acts as a theme song for the ­album. Jessica Leah Getman See also: New Jack Swing; The Sequence; S ­ isters Underground; The United States

Further Reading

Goodall, Nataki H. 1994. “Depend on Myself: TLC and the Evolution of Black Female Rap.” Journal of Negro History 79, no. 1 85–93. ­Peoples, Whitney A. 2007. “ ‘­Under Construction’: Identifying Foundations of Hip Hop Feminism and Exploring Bridges between Black Second-­Wave and Hip Hop Feminisms.” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism 8, no. 1: 19–52. Reed, Toya. 1995. “Black Female ­Music Artists and the New Themes in the ­Music.” Southern African Feminist Review 1, no. 1: 60.

Further Listening

TLC. 1992. Ooooooohhh . . . ​on the TLC Tip. LaFace Rec­ords/Arista. TLC. 1995. CrazySexyCool. LaFace Rec­ords/Arista. TLC. 1999. FanMail. LaFace Rec­ords/Arista.

Togo Togo is a small, mainly tropical rural and agrarian West African country of nearly eight million whose capital and largest city, Lomé, is located on the Gulf of Guinea. It was settled by some 21 ethnic tribes ­until the 16th ­century, when it became a slave trade center (part of the Slave Coast region). It was made a German protectorate in 1884, was transferred to France ­after World War I (1914–1918), and gained its in­de­pen­dence in 1960. Since 1967, the Gnassingbé ­family (via presidential elections) has governed the country. Hip hop dance appeared in Togo around the same time as rapping, turntablism, or beatboxing, making its way into Togo in the 1980s. Togo’s official language is French, but indigenous languages are spoken, and half the country follows indigenous beliefs, with the other half being Christian and

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Muslim. Togo’s ­music includes maritime folksongs, as well as percussion-­based dance ­music that uses a diverse set of rhythms and beats, although some of Togo’s mountain region tribes base ­music on stringed instruments and flutes; most traditional ­music uses the griot praise-­singing tradition. The first popu­lar Togolese musician was ballad singer Bella Bellow (Georgette Adjoavi Bellow, 1945–1973). Western styles of ­music became more mainstream in Togolese culture in the 1970s with the popularization of Western-­style ballads, reggae, ska, and funk, made popu­lar by singer King Mensah (Ayaovi Papavi Mensah, 1971–) and guitarist-­singer Peter Solo (1972*–), the latter using call-and-response in many songs. Po­liti­cal oppression of rap ­music caused early rap crews such as Djanta Kan (n.d.) to disband as members self-­exiled to France. Togolese hip hop m ­ usic started with Lomé-­based rap group Black Syndicate (n.d.), but due to lack of well-­f unded studios, the production of a­ lbums remained scarce. A 1992 concert in Lomé by French Senegalese–­Chadian rapper MC Solaar (1969–) led to furthering the local popularity of the Togolese rap crew Force One Posse (1990*–), one of the opening acts—­ but the band did not achieve broader fame. Since the 1990s, a few recording studios have surfaced, and more hip hop acts have emerged, such as Bales 2 Rimes (2002–) and ex–­Djanta Kan MC Yao Bobby (n.d.), who has toured Africa and Eu­rope with the AURA (Artists United for African Rap) collective. In 2003, the first Togo hip hop awards ceremony was held, leading to what was supposed to be the annual Togo Hip Hop Awards; however, governmental bans in 2005 stopped most po­liti­cal ­music from being produced or performed. As of 2018, Togo has made only minor contributions to African hip hop. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: France; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Reggae

Further Reading

Künzler, Daniel. 2007. “The ‘Lost Generation’: African Hip Hop Movements and the Protest of the Young (Male) Urban.” In Civil Society: Local and Regional Responses to Global Challenges, edited by Mark Herkenrath, chap. 3. Zürich, Switzerland: LIT Verlag. Sautman, Francesca Canadé. 2001. “Hip Hop/Scotch: ‘Sounding Francophone’ in French and United States Cultures.” Yale French Studies 100 (Fall): 119–44.

Trap Trap, an American subgenre of hip hop, is ­music that refers to urban areas where drug deals occur, whose inhabitants are trapped in a life of desperation. It began in the 1990s in Atlanta, Georgia, an urban metropolis ranked No.  1  in the U.S. income in­equality gap by the Brookings Institute in 2014 and 2015. Trap’s sound is related to vari­ous Southern hip hop subgenres, including crunk and hardcore, as well as West Coast’s mobb, and hardcore, and it quickly spread from Atlanta to urban areas such as Houston and Memphis. Its signature sound, which is the product of two Atlanta producers, Shawty Redd (Demetrius Lee Stewart, 1981–) and Lex Luger (Lexus Arnel Lewis, 1991–), is defined by its electronica feel, as it has

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evolved over de­cades to sound like a hybrid of hip hop, rave, and EDM (electronic dance ­music—­the term EDM trap is used to differentiate it from rap-­based trap). ­These two pioneers, and the m ­ usic’s other producers, share a predilection for uneven rhythms, with constant use of double or triple-­time hi-­hats which have a staccato attack but a lengthy, sometimes reverbed delay, juxtaposed against rhythmic snares and a heavy 808 drum kick sample and sub-­bass, usually combined at the tempo at 140 beats per minute. ­There is also a preference for bleak, throaty, and sometimes threatening vocals; the use of m ­ usic sequencers and drum samples; and a signature synthesized string, brass, percussions, and woodwind sound that is typically described as cinematic or symphonic. The resulting ­music is dark, brooding, and atmospheric, even when it contains a rave or EDM frenetic dance rhythm. Trap songs are usually about drug culture: urban street life, poverty, drug deals, and vio­lence; the songs can best be summed up as a narrative account of the harshness of the inner city and its surrounding neighborhoods. EARLY TRAP TO 2000 Early producers such as Atlanta’s Lil Jon (Jonathan Smith, 1971–), New Orleans’s Mannie Fresh (Byron Otto Thomas, 1969–), and Memphis’s DJ Paul (Paul Duane Beauregard, 1975–) worked with Atlanta groups such as Dungeon ­Family (1993–), OutKast (1991–), Goodie Mob (1991–), and Ghetto Mafia (1993–2005). Other acts, such as Port Arthur’s UGK (1987–2007) and New Orleans’s Master P (1970–), began to rap about the lifestyles of drug dealers. UGK’s single “Pocket Full of Stones” (1993) was an early trap song which caught the attention of rap fans, and by the time Master P’s “Mr. Ice Cream Man” (1996) became a hit, fans had developed a taste for what they would start to call trap rap. By the 2000s, trap ­music had gone mainstream with crossover hits by Atlanta rappers such as T.I. (Clifford Joseph Harris Jr., 1980–) and Young Jeezy (Jay Wayne Jenkins, 1977–). T.I.’s second a­ lbum, Trap Muzik (2003), which was certified Platinum and reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200, solidified the name that had informally been bandied around by fans and critics before. Two years ­later, Young Jeezy released his second solo ­album, Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and was certified Platinum. The ­music’s sound began to develop around this time as well, with the preeminent trap producer of the 2000s, Shawty Redd, whose signature sound could be viewed as a textbook for all subsequent trap artists. Other notable con­ temporary trap producers included Memphis-­based Drumma Boy (Christopher James Gholson, 1983–) and Atlanta-­ based Zaytoven (Xavier L. Dotson, 1980–). TRAP IN THE 21st ­CENTURY The 2010s saw prolific producer Lex Luger achieve huge commercial success. Other recent trap producers include Atlanta’s Southside (Joshua Howard Luellen, 1989–) and Sonny Digital (Sonny Corey Uwaezuoke, 1991–), and Chicago’s Young Chop (Tyree Pittman, 1993–). Since 2010, Chicago’s Chief Keef (Keith Cozart,

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1995–) has been credited with introducing drill, a new style of trap whose signature producer is Young Chop. In the last de­cade drugs and vio­lence have been replaced by more positive messages in trap, making it more palatable to the pop artists such as Beyoncé (1981–), Lady Gaga (1986–), and Katy Perry (1984–). Trap’s potential was realized when Philadelphia-­based Baauer’s (Harry Bauer Rodrigues, 1989–) “Harlem Shake” (2013) hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and in 2015 when New Jersey rapper Fetty Wap’s (Willie Maxwell II, 1991–) “Trap Queen” went to No. 2. In 2018, Childish Gambino’s (Donald McKinley Glover  Jr., 1983–) trap-­infused protest song, “This Is Amer­i­ca,” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as the Hot R&B/Hip-­Hop Songs, the Hot Rap Songs, and the Canadian Singles charts. Trap has also influenced dubstep, despite its slower rhythms. As of 2018, trap has gone international, making its way to South Korean K-­pop. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Crunkcore; Dirty South; Gangsta Rap; The United States

Further Reading

Balaji, Murali. 2012. “The Construction of ‘Street Credibility’ in Atlanta’s Hip Hop ­Music Scene: Analyzing the Role of Cultural Gatekeepers.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 29, no. 4: 313–30. Grem, Darren E. 2006. “ ‘The South Got Something to Say’: Atlanta’s Dirty South and the Southernization of Hip Hop Amer­i­ca.” Southern Cultures 12, no. 4: 55–73. Westhoff, Ben. 2011. Dirty South: OutKast, Lil Wayne, Soulja Boy, and the Southern Rappers Who Reinvented Hip Hop. Chicago: Chicago Review Press.

Further Listening

OutKast. 2000. Stankonia. LaFace Rec­ords. T.I. 2003. Trap Musik. Atlantic.

A Tribe Called Quest (1985–1998, 2006–2013, 2015–­, Queens, New York) A Tribe Called Quest is an American hip hop group that is generally recognized as the most commercially successful member of Native Tongues (1988–1996). Its members include rapper and producer Q-­Tip (Kamaal Ibn John Fareed, 1970–), rapper Phife Dawg (aka Phife, Malik Izaak Taylor, 1970–2016), and DJ and producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad (1970–). Jarobi White (1971–) appeared on the group’s first ­album, ­People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (1990). The group, its ­albums, and several of its singles have achieved critical acclaim. EARLY EFFORTS Founding members Q-­Tip, Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and Jarobi White ­were high school classmates in Queens, New York. In 1989, they produced five demo songs for Geffen Rec­ords (1980–) but ­were not offered a recording contract. ­Later that year, they signed with Jive Rec­ords (1981–), originally a subsidiary of the Zomba label, founded in 1975. With Jive Rec­ords, they recorded ­People’s



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Instinctive Travels (1990). This debut studio a­ lbum contained singles that the band had recorded for Geffen, including “Can I Kick It?” and “Description of a Fool,” as well as new tracks such as “Bonita Applebum.” Like other Native Tongues artists such as the Jungle ­Brothers (1987–2008), Black Sheep (1989–1995, 2000–), and De La Soul (1987–), the band’s ­music promoted Afrocentric ideas, a general sense of positivity, using jazz-­based samples against a hip hop beat. The members of the vari­ ous Native Tongues groups often collaborated and appeared on each other’s a­ lbums. THE LOW END THEORY AND MIDNIGHT MARAUDERS In 1991, ATCQ released its second a­ lbum, The Low End Theory. Unlike ­People’s Instinctive Travels, on which Q-­Tip had been the solo lyricist on most tracks, The Low End Theory featured a good bit of rapping by Phife Dawg. In tracks such as “Check the Rhime,” Phife Dawg and Q-­Tip engaged in the type of vocal interplay, which was backed by a bass-­heavy sound featuring relatively slow tempos and jazz samples, a style that would help to define A Tribe Called Quest’s sound. The ­album was a hands-on proj­ect, as the group produced most of the tracks collectively. The Low End Theory was a commercial and critical success, selling half a million copies within a year of its release and showing up on a number of critics’ “best-of” lists. The band’s third ­album, Midnight Marauders, was released in 1993, to much commercial and critical success. Fellow Native Tongues Posse member and De La Soul rapper Trugoy the Dove (aka Dave, David Jolicoeur, 1968–) appeared on the single “Award Tour,” and Busta Rhymes (1972–), who had also been a guest on The Low End Theory, made a memorable appearance in the single “Oh My God.” THE UMMAH ­After the release of Midnight Marauders, Q-­Tip and Muhammed joined forces with producer Jay Dee (aka J Dilla; James Yancey, 1974–2006) to form a production collective called the Ummah, a­ fter an Arabic word for both community and brotherhood. Q-­Tip and Muhammad, both Muslim, chose the word ­because it typically refers to the Muslim population in general. In addition to its work with A Tribe Called Quest, the Ummah would l­ater produce m ­ usic for Q-­Tip’s 1999 solo ­album Amplified and several singles by Busta Rhymes. The Ummah produced Beats, Rhymes and Life (1996) became the band’s penultimate ­album. Jay Dee handled much of the production within the collective, so the ­album featured fewer samples and possessed a dif­fer­ent, darker mood. The group claimed that its use of fewer samples was a response to the overproduced sound that had become all too common in hip hop of the time. Rapper Consequence (Dexter Raymond Mills Jr., 1977–) appeared on six of the ­album’s tracks, likely at the request of Q-­Tip, who was his cousin. Although generally well received by critics, Beats, Rhymes and Life was not considered as strong of an ­album as its pre­de­ces­sors. Prior to the release of their 1998 ­album The Love Movement, band members announced that their fifth ­album would also be their last.

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The a­ lbum was also produced by the Ummah and featured vari­ous solo guests, although Consequence did not appear on The Love Movement. BREAKUP, REUNIONS, AND DEATHS A Tribe Called Quest officially disbanded following the release of The Love Movement. Q-­Tip went on to rec­ord several solo ­albums, the first of which was produced by the Ummah. Phife Dawg recorded a single solo ­album, Ventilation: Da LP (2000). Muhammad formed a hip hop supergroup called Lucy Pearl (1999–2002) with Raphael Saadiq (Charles Ray Wiggins, 1966–) of Tony! Toni! Toné! (1988– 1997, 2003–) and Dawn Robinson (1965–) of En Vogue (1989–). He also released one solo a­ lbum, Shaheedullah and Ste­reo­t ypes (2004). The members of A Tribe Called Quest did re­unite at vari­ous points in the 2000s for live concert per­for­mances. Jay Dee left the Ummah collective in the late 1990s and went on to have an impressive solo production c­ areer ­until he died of a rare blood disorder in 2006. Having kept a low profile due to ill health, Phife Dawg passed away in 2016 of complications related to diabetes. In 2017, remaining members plus Busta Rhymes (1972–) made an appearance on Saturday Night Live (1975–) as the musical guests—in a show scheduled just ­after Donald Trump (1946–) was elected president of the United States. Their per­for­mance, as well as the show’s tone, expressed both sadness and concern over Trump’s po­liti­cal agenda. As of 2018, the remaining members of A Tribe Called Quest do not appear to have any plans for a new ­album, although they have to date recorded only five ­albums out of their six-­album contract with Jive. Amanda Sewell See also: Black Nationalism; Busta Rhymes; De La Soul; Five ­Percent Nation; Native Tongues; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Sewell, Amanda. 2014. “How Copyright Affected the Musical Style and Critical Reception of Sample-­Based Hip Hop,” Journal of Popu­lar ­Music Studies 26, no. 2–3: 295–320. Williams, Justin. 2013. Rhymin’ and Stealin’: Musical Borrowing in Hip Hop. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Further Listening

A Tribe Called Quest. 1991. The Low End Theory. Jive Rec­ords. A Tribe Called Quest. 1995. Beats, Rhymes and Life. Jive Rec­ords.

Further Viewing

Rapaport, Michael, dir. 2011. Beats, Rhymes, and Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest. Sony.

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago is a South American twin island parliamentary constitutional republic off the coast of northeastern Venezuela. It was colonized by Spain in the



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1500s, but was ceded to the United Kingdom in 1802, fi­nally gaining its in­de­pen­ dence in 1962 and becoming a republic in 1976, with its capital being Port of Spain. The official language of its one and a half million ­people is En­glish, and both Trinidadian and Tobagonian En­glish Creole are also spoken. Its ethnic makeup is 77 ­percent Indian, African, or Dougla (African Indian), and most of its citizens are ­either Christian or Hindu. ­Because of petroleum and petrochemicals, Trinidad and Tobago is the third richest country per capita in the Amer­i­cas, following the United States and Canada. Musically, the islands are known for steel drums (aka steelpan) and tamboo-­bamboo percussions, as well as musical styles such as calypso and soca, and hybridizations of ­these with other styles such as parang, chutney, cariso, extempo, kaiso, pichakaree, and rapso. Calypso became one of the Ca­rib­be­an’s top musical exports with mainstreaming, resulting in stars such as Harry Belafonte (1927–), Lord Kitchener (Aldwyn Roberts, 1922–2000), and Mighty Sparrow (Slinger Francisco, 1935–). When its popularity waned in the 1970s, calypso was hybridized to form the uptempo African-­and Indian-­influenced style called soca and combined with hip hop to create rapso. Soca evolved to incorporate ele­ments of funk, soul, zouk, and dance. Rapso became influential when Lancelot Layne (n.d.–1990) had a hit with “Blow Away” (1971), and Network Riddum Band (aka Network Rapso Riddum Band, 1979–1986), which featured ­Brother Re­sis­tance (aka Lutalo Masimba, Roy Lewis, n.d.), released its EP Busting Out (1981). Like the rock scene, Trinidad and Tobago’s hip hop scene is mainly an underground one, represented by new artists such as the duo Omari Thorpe and Vaughn Huggins (n.d.), rappers Denice Millien (1994–) and Lizz (Elizabeth Waldron, 1995–), and rap group Black Royal Dynasty (n.d.). The island nation’s most famous hip hop stars are both Trinidadian-­born American rappers, Nicki Minaj (1982–) and Trinidad Jame$ (Nicholas James Williams, 1987–). Nicki Minaj is a New York City–­based rapper, singer-­songwriter, and model whose three studio ­albums have all been certified Platinum and have reached ­either the No. 2 or top spot on the Billboard 200; in 2010, she became the first female solo artist to have seven singles si­mul­ta­neously chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Trinidad Jame$ is an Atlanta-­based rapper and actor who has collaborated with up-­ and-­coming Trindadian acts such as Millien; he has released seven solo ­albums and mixtapes combined. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Nicki Minaj; The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Gadet, Steve. 2015. “Hip Hop Culture: Bridging Gaps between Young Ca­rib­bean Citizens.” Ca­rib­bean Quarterly 61, no. 1: 75–97. Jackson, Lauren Michele. 2017. “The Rapper Laughs, Herself: Nicki Minaj’s Sonic Disturbances.” Feminist Media Studies 17, no. 1: 126–29.

Further Listening

Nicki Minaj. 2010. Pink Friday. Ca$h Money Rec­ords/Universal Motown. Trinidad Jame$. 2015. No One Is Safe. Gold Gang Rec­ords/Think It’s a Game Rec­ords.

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Trip Hop (aka Downtempo) Trip hop, a cultural adaptation of hip hop, came into prominence in the early 1990s in ­England, particularly in Bristol. The subgenre includes many of the foundations of hip hop, such as looped samples, scratches, and sequencing, but adds more melodic instrumentation and vocal content in the form of singing, with less emphasis on rap. This new subgenre proved advantageous to many of 1990s U.K. hip hop musicians, as their British accents created cognitive dissonance for fans in the American rec­ord market (and some international markets), as they ­were used to a genre sound where vocals ­were most commonly associated with street slang and the vernacular culture of the Bronx, New York. THE SOUND Trip hop has a sound that has been described as to the ­music version of film noir b­ ecause of its atmospherics and a lyrical emphasis on drama. Musically, the subgenre is characterized by laid-­back tempos and an artful multilayering of instruments, samples, and voices. It emphasizes atmosphere over text, often moving voices back in the mix and moving away from declarative story telling that pervaded hip hop at the time. It shows the strong influence of technology, and while live recording might occur, much of the recorded sound is produced in the studio or on a synthesizer and computer hookup. Samples from film and preexisting ­music are pervasive, with special emphasis put on reggae, jazz, hip hop, and soul as source material. The use of samples often involves elaborate changes to the source material, especially in relation to tempo (most often the ­music is sampled at a rate slower than the original). The resulting texture is often complex, complicated, and murky. En­glish singer-­songwriter Beth Gibbons fronts and writes lyr­ics for the pioneering Bristol trip hop band Portishead. Gibbons’s soft yet unusual coloratura contralto voice and laidback delivery has been influential to trip hop’s sound. (Yakub88​ /­Dreamstime​.­com )

BRISTOL ORIGINS AND ARTISTS Many artists labeled as trip hop strongly oppose the subgenre designation, which was first used



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in the British magazine Mixmag to describe a marketing ploy developed solely to white washing the black roots of hip hop to make it more accessible to a white audience. Some artists and scholars also describe the ­music as the “Bristol Sound.” With a Bohemian atmosphere and a diverse population, Bristol did provide an agreeable environment for the blending of the m ­ usic styles that resulted in trip hop. Three core Bristol artists pop­u­lar­ized trip hop; their influence can be seen on subsequent artists in the subgenre. The bands Massive Attack (1988–) and Portishead (1991–), as well as the singer Tricky (Adrian Nicholas Matthews Thaws, 1968–), all hailed from Bristol, and all had shared contributions to Massive Attack’s debut ­album, Blue Lines (1991). Massive Attack had its roots in a DJ collective the Wild Bunch (1983–1989), whose instrumental releases on the Mo’ Wax (1992–) label laid the groundwork for the blend of influences that became trip hop. During the Blue Lines period, Massive Attack’s core membership included ­Daddy G (Grantley Evan Marshall, 1959–), Mushroom (Andrew Lee Isaac Vowles, 1967–), rapper 3D (Robert Del Naja, 1965–), and Tricky (as the Tricky Kid), and included programming by Portishead’s Geoffrey Barrow (1971–). This downtempo release was intended for headphones, not clubs. Nevertheless, the ­album included hit singles that w ­ ere popu­lar on college radio in the United States and showed that fans ­were, indeed, interested in the laid-­back feel. With two MCs on that first release and a variety on ­later ones, Massive Attack’s sound is more dependent on rap than most other acts associated with trip hop, some of whom include no rap at all in their ­music. Unlike contemporaneous hip hop songs, the rapping in Massive’s output is often relegated to the background, often mumbled, and used as a textural ele­ment, rather than a narrative one. Additional releases extended the Massive Attacks’s sound. Protection (1994), its last release to include Tricky, as well as Mezzanine (1998), which included the addition of roots and reggae singer Horace Andy (Horace Hinds, 1951–), was one of the earliest commercial rec­ords released for ­f ree on the Internet (before the CD release a month ­later). 100th  Win­dow (2003), which did not include ­Daddy G or Mushroom due to creative differences and other personal commitments, included guest vocals by alternative rock singers Sinéad O’Connor (1966–) and Damon Albarn (1968–). Heligoland (2010) included several artists who had contributed to previous ­albums and a smorgasbord of ­others as well. In 1994, three years ­after the release of Blue Lines, Portishead, comprising DJ/ programmer Barrow, guitarist Adrian Utley (1957–), and cover-­song artist Beth Gibbons (1965–), released its debut Dummy on the Go! Beat Rec­ords label (aka Go! Discs, 1983–), distributed by London Rec­ords and ­later Polydor. Including samples from lounge and soul as well as soundtracks, this ­album resonated with the public, ­going Platinum in the United Kingdom and Gold in the United States. Gibbons’s voice evoked ­those of traditional jazz singers, complete with a deep sense of melancholy that infused the ­album with pathos. Barrow’s evocative samples contributed to the darker, filmic aspects of the lyr­ics. In the same year, Tricky left Massive Attack and then released his first solo effort, Maxinquaye (1994). To supplement Tricky’s rapping, the disc also featured vocalist Martina (Martina Gillian Topley-­Bird, 1975–) whose voice created a melodic, lyrical backdrop to Tricky’s

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declarative style. Tricky speaks of inspiration and prophets and uses his ­music to channel stories from unknown places, turning his ­music into per­for­mance art, complete with costumes and cross dressing in the media and on stage. The lyr­ics on Maxinquaye speak of romantic longing and confusion, of addiction and frustration, of the pain of life. The sound is layered and dark, with combinations of live instruments, voices, and samples, leaving the listener unsure of the source or meaning of the sounds. The a­ lbum garnered positive reviews that, reportedly, made him uncomfortable and nearly para­lyzed him artistically. In 1995, Portishead won the prestigious Mercury ­Music Prize, underscoring their approval by fellow musicians, critics, and the m ­ usic industry. The group has since released two more studio rec­ords, Portishead (1997) and Third (2008). On both ­albums, it maintains and develops the sound introduced in Dummy. Portishead continued to perform live, often adding extended ensembles of live musicians to provide an unplugged feel. Coinciding with Portishead’s activities, Tricky released his next full-­length follow-up to Maxinquaye, Pre Millennium Tension (1996). It is a sparser ­album with fewer hooks, though it contains more live instruments. Angels with Dirty F ­ aces (1998) covered similar territory, while Juxtapose (1999) took him more deliberately in the direction of hardcore hip hop. Blowback (2001) and Vulnerable (2003) ­were received with increasing frustration from fans and critics hoping to see a greater sense of development in his work. Tricky’s ­album Knowle West Boy (2008) generated a more favorable response to its wide stylistic palette, with influences of lounge, punk, and more. Mixed Race (2010), False Idols (2013), Adrian Thaws (2014), and Skilled Mechanics (2016) round out his more recent releases; ­these continue to include trip hop ele­ments while alternately disappointing and reassuring fans and critics who, inevitably, compare all subsequent Tricky releases to Maxinquaye.

NEXT GENERATION, BEYOND BRISTOL ­After the initial success of the Bristol trip hop artists, a next generation expanded on the style while adding their own ele­ments. This m ­ usic can usually be distinguished by a greater clarity of instrumental sound that often includes more acoustic instruments. It is infused with less distortion than that applied by the Bristol artists, while still depending on the technical foundations that create the distinctive sound of trip hop. Morcheeba’s (1995–) debut Who Can You Trust? (1996) added ele­ments more akin to country and western and folk-­rock than to their trip hop foundation. Fronted by vocalist Skye Edwards (Shirley Klaris Yonavieve Edwards, 1974–), Morcheeba achieves the same laid-­back cool of earlier trip hop influences, albeit with a less diverse palette than some of its peers. By the release of its second ­album, Big Calm (1998), it was moving ­toward a more pop-­oriented sound, with more straightforward mix and structure; this strategy proved effective as this release led to wider success. Sneaker Pimps (1994–2005, 2015–) had a much greater dependence on live instruments in its debut ­album, Becoming X (1996), than did the band’s peers.



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Founded by Chris Corner (1974–) and Liam Howe (1974–), the band grew when it recruited, bassist Joe Wilson (n.d.), percussionist Dave Westlake (1965–), and vocalist Kelli Dayton (aka Kelli Ali, 1974–), who did not stay with the band past the debut a­ lbum. Its subsequent releases, Splinter (1999) and Bloodsport (2002), moved progressively away from trip hop and t­ oward electronica and dance m ­ usic. The electronic duo Lamb (1996–2004, 2009–) differed from Sneaker Pimps and Morcheeba as it had an almost complete avoidance of acoustic instruments. Lamb achieved a reputation as a successful trip hop act in ­England, albeit with limited success elsewhere. Producer Andy Barlow (n.d.) and singer-­songwriter Lou Rhodes (Louise Rhodes, n.d.) set an atmospheric stage with ethereal vocals, plaintive melodies, and inventive beats. Their eponymous debut (1996) contains their best-­k nown and oft-­reused single, “Górecki,” which derives inspiration from Polish composer Henryk Górecki’s (1933–2010) pathos-­ridden Symfonia pieśni żałosnych (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs), Symphony No. 3, Op. 36 (1976). Overall, many of Lamb’s songs are a bit more uptempo, with more structural ebb and flow than that of other trip hop artists. Lamb is sometimes labeled as drum and bass, rather than trip hop. Aside from some of the major artists who are closely associated with the trip hop subgenre, ­there are a number who get occasionally swept into the category ­because their ­music includes ele­ments of trip hop, though their work might not be as consistently labeled as trip hop. Björk (Björk Guðmundsdóttir, 1965–), Air (1995–), Laika (1993–2003), Goldfrapp (1999–), Nightmares on Wax (aka DJ EASE, George Evelyn, 1988–), Thievery Corporation (1995–), and Gorillaz (1998–) all employ sounds and beats that harken back to trip hop. Instrumental trip hop, as exemplified by the works of DJ Shadow (1972–), DJ Krush (Hideaki Ishi, 1962–), and UNKLE (1994–) brings the feel of trip hop but lacks the vocals that are such impor­tant ele­ments of some of the more recognized trip hop groups. The Golden Age of Trip Hop’s heyday was in the 1990s. It has passed, but it is ­music that has as of 2018 worn well with time. Much of the sound has become so commonplace as to become invisible, indistinguishable from other similarly influence material. ­Because it is defined by sonic ele­ments more than contemporaneous styles, trip hop’s artists are able to grow and change, while still maintaining the basic feel of the sound. While some trip hop superstars have moved on, it still provides fertile ground for t­ hose who continue to explore its ethos. Susannah Cleveland See also: DJ Shadow; Dubstep; Neo Soul; The United Kingdom

Further Reading

DeRogatis, Jim. 2003. Turn on Your Mind: Four De­cades of ­Great Psychedelic Rock. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard. Light, Alan, ed. 1999. The Vibe History of Hip Hop. New York: Three Rivers Press. Reynolds, Simon. 2012. Energy Flash: A Journey through Rave ­Music and Dance Culture. Berkeley: Soft Skull Press. Wragg, Jeff. 2016. “Just ­Don’t Call It Trip Hop: Reconciling the Bristol Sound Style with the Trip Hop Genre.” Organised Sound 21, no. 1: 40–50.

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Further Listening

Goldfrapp. 2013. Tales of Us. Mute. Lamb. 1996. Lamb. Fontana. Massive Attack. 1991. Blue Lines. Wild Bunch Rec­ords. Portishead. 1994. Dummy. Go! Beat. Sneaker Pimps. 2002. Bloodsport. Tommy Boy. Thievery Corporation. 2008. Radio Retaliation. Eigh­teenth Street Lounge ­Music.

Tuks Senganga (aka Tuks, Tumelo Kapadisa, 1981–­, Mafikeng, South Africa) Tuks Senganga is a South African hip hop and motswako rapper, as well as a rec­ ord label owner. Motswako, a subgenre of hip hop that emerged in the mid-1990s in Botswana, uses primarily Setswana texts with En­glish raps, combining both with traditional South African rhythms and four-­to-­the-­floor beats; it is popu­lar in South Africa and Botswana. Tuks’ vocal range is tenor and his texts are in Setswana, with rare inclusions of En­glish.

EARLY INSPIRATIONS AND INTERESTS IN RAPPING By age 12, Tuks Senganga was writing poetry inspired by his experiences while growing up in the Bophutatswana, a “homeland” that was specifically formed as part of Apartheid (1948–1991) for black South Africans that spoke Tswana. He witnessed a series of violent coups d’état between 1988 and the 1994, when the homeland enclaves ­were reincorporated into South Africa, also a difficult transition. By high school, he was rapping and participating in the Mafikeng (now Mahikeng) underground hip hop scene. He also belonged to a ­couple of rapping crews formed with high school friends. ­After graduating from college with a bachelor’s degree in multimedia (graphic arts), he was invited to produce a ­music video, an experience that made him think about producing his own ­music. He eventually signed a recording contract with Ghetto Ruff (formerly Ku Shu Shu Rec­ords, 1991–), a label located in Johannesburg. Before dissolving, Ku Shu Shu Rec­ords (1990–1991) produced the legendary Cape Town hip hop crew Prophets of da City (POC, 1988–2001). His debut ­album, Mafoko a me (Words Have Me, 2005), received critical acclaim and won Best Rap ­Album at the South African ­Music Awards (SAMAs). Mafoko a me was a hip hop and motswako ­album based on many earlier poems Tuks had written. His popu­lar “525,600” from this ­album contains Tuks’s rapping over a sample of “Seasons of Love” from the 1996 Broadway musical Rent. His second a­ lbum, MC Prayer (2006), began his focus on incorporating praising God and gospel into his rap ­music. The ­album was certified Gold in South Africa just four months a­ fter its release, but his subsequent ­albums w ­ ere not as successful. His third ­album, Mono­poly (2008), with songs about how media, ­music, and

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religion are used to control p­ eople, was released a­ fter a two-­year hiatus and formation of Tuks’s new label, June/July Productions (2008–)­, originally in partnership with EMI (1931–2012). Tswanelo’s (2010) most popu­lar track was “Let Me Live Now,” a song from the ­album that appealed to gospel ­music listeners and was followed by Footprints (2012) and Botshe Botshe (2016). Among many o­ thers, Tuks has collaborated with fellow South African hip hop and motswako artists such as Mo’Molemi (Motlapele Morule, 1981–), Hip Hop Pantsula (1980–), Blaklez (Cliff Lesego, n.d.), and hip hip and kwaito rapper Pitch Black Afro (Thulani Ngcobo, 1976*–), as well as Australian R&B and hip hop producer M-­Phazes (Mark Landon, 1983–). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Christian Hip Hop; Motswako; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; South Africa

Further Reading

Ditsele, Thabo. 2017. “The Promotion of Setswana through Hip Hop and Motswakolistas.” Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa 14, nos. 1–2: 1–14. Sithole, Siyabonga. 2016. “Rapper Tuks Senganga Back in the Forefront.” The New Age (Johannesburg, South Africa), December 8, 1.

Further Listening

Tuks Senganga. 2005. Mafoko a me (Words Have Me). Ghetto Ruff.

Tunisia Tunisia’s hip hop scene emerged in the 1990s, when American rappers such as the Wu-­Tang Clan (1992–) gained popularity among young Tunisians. A first wave of Tunisian hip hop groups such as T Men (1997–2013)* and Gangstas Wanted (1997*–) forged a uniquely Tunisian rap style that focused on widespread social prob­lems such as poverty, unemployment, state repression, police brutality, and po­liti­cal strife. The hip hop of Tunisia stands, culturally and stylistically, as part of a broader Maghreb rap phenomenon spanning the North African nations of Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and to some extent Libya. Scholars note a parallel between Magrhebian rap and a century-­old spoken-­word poetry called rai. Both arose as urban platforms for the self-­expression of disillusioned youth, and both are text-­driven, express re­sis­ tance, and fluidly intermix Arabic, French, and other languages. POLITICAL ACTIVISM A second wave of Tunisian hip hop artists, aided by the Internet, released raps that exposed the prob­lems of a growing poor and unemployed youth population. Due to the social policies of former President Ben Ali (1936–), by 2007, Tunisian Internet users totaled around four million, or 40 ­percent of the population. Over three million Tunisians used social media between 2007 and 2011, though their use was monitored by the Ben Ali regime. In the Internet ­music climate, Tunisian hip hop groups such as Armada Bizerta (2010*–) greatly enlarged their fan base, while

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members of the diaspora, such as Delahoja (Férid El Extranjero, n.d.), a Tunisian rapper residing in Spain, added their voices to the Tunisian social cause. Tunisian rapper El Général (Hamada Ben Amor, 1990*–), who claims Tupac Shakur (1971– 1996) as a primary influence, made international headlines when he released “Rayes lebled” (“President of the Country”), criticizing Ben Ali. “Rayes lebled” became the anthem of a youth-­led protest movement that developed into a revolution in a ­matter of weeks, leading to the January 2011 fall of the government. ­After this Jasmine Revolution (2010–2011), El Général continued to release po­liti­ cally conscious rap, such as “Tounes bledna” (“Tunisia Our Country”) and “Rayes lebled 2.” El Général is known for adding to hip hop Arabic and French texts, traditional Tunisian instrumental timbres, and an intense focus on the social, po­liti­ cal and economic issues that affect young Tunisians. Psycho M (Mouhamed Jandoubi, 1986–) is known for his 2010 release of “Manipulation,” a 15–­minute rap diatribe against the Tunisian government, Western powers, and their dissimulative and manipulative strategies to impose a status quo. Post-­revolution, he performs regularly songs about the role of Islam in the face of a suffering Tunisia. He is joined by a growing community of Tunisian hip hop artists such as Balti (Mohamed Salah Balti, 1980*–), and anonymous rappers DJ Costa (n.d.), and Mastaziano (n.d.), who continue to rap for change in Tunisia. Jennifer L. Roth-­Burnette See also: Po­liti­cal Hip Hop

Further Reading

Allagui, I. 2014. “Waiting for Spring: Arab Re­sis­tance and Change.” International Journal of Communication 8: 983. Bouzouita, K. 2013. “­Music of Dissent and Revolution.” ­Middle East Critique 22, no. 3: 281. Davies, E. E., and A. Bentahila. 2006. “Code Switching and the Globalization of Popu­lar ­Music: The Case of North African Rai and Rap.” Multilingua 25, no. 4: 367. Gana, N. 2012. “Rap and Revolt in the Arab World.” Social Text 30, no. 4 113: 25–53. LeVine, M. 2012. “­Music and the Aura of Revolution.” International Journal of ­Middle East Studies 44, no. 4: 794–97. Shannahan, D. S., and Q. Hussain. 2011. “Rap on ‘l’Ave­nue’ Islam, Aesthetics, Authenticity, and Masculinities in the Tunisian Rap Scene.” Con­temporary Islam 5, no. 1: 37–58.

Tupac Shakur (aka Tupac, 2Pac, Lesane Parish Crooks, 1971–1996) Tupac Shakur was one of the most gifted and influential American hip hop artists of the early 1990s. His delivery exhibited an exceptional control of language, and his lyr­ics exemplified his strong social consciousness within the gangsta ethos. His legacy is amplified by his violent death in the conflict between East and West Coast hip hop schools. In the two de­cades since his death, his reputation as one of the greatest hip hop artists has grown, and his m ­ usic continues to sell at a rate that many living performers can only envy. While the romance of his short life and



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tragic death may contribute somewhat to the interest of hip hop devotees, it is the exceptional quality of his work, admired by rappers, critics, and fans alike, that makes his ­albums relevant a generation a­ fter they ­were recorded. He was born as Lesane Parish Crooks in New York’s East Harlem to parents who ­were members of the Black Panther Party (1966–1982). Around his third birthday, his given name was changed to honor an 18th-­century Peruvian revolutionary. His ­mother raised him, and his early years ­were spent among ­family and friends who ­were involved in social and po­liti­cal activities, including vio­lence as members of the Black Liberation Army (1970–1981). ARTISTIC TALENTS AND EARLY C ­ AREER Tupac Shakur’s artistic talents ­were first encouraged when he was 12. The 127th Street Repertory Ensemble in Harlem gave him the opportunity to further develop his talents. ­After his ­family moved in 1986 to Baltimore, he enrolled in the Baltimore School for the Arts. Two years l­ ater, his ­family moved to Marin City, California, where he attended Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, California. Throughout his education, he was a popu­lar student who was active in the arts: He appeared in plays and dances, and he wrote poetry well enough to be accepted into Leila Steinberg’s (1961–) Microphone Sessions, a weekly writing workshop for at-­ risk youths in Oakland. She would be one of his first mentors and helped to launch his ­career. His abilities as a rapper w ­ ere evident as early as his years in Baltimore and became a focus of his schoolwork in California. Steinberg introduced the 19-­year-­old Tupac Shakur to Atron Gregory (1959–), a local ­music promoter, who in turn helped the youngster to find work as a dancer and ­later as a hype man with the hip hop group Digital Underground (1987–2008). His professional debut as a rapper came on the group’s “Same Song,” which was the lead track on their second release, This Is an EP Release (1991); it was also used on the soundtrack for the motion picture Nothing but Trou­ble (1991). SUCCESSFUL RECORDINGS AND GROWING REPUTATION ­ ater that same year, he released his first solo ­album, 2Pacalypse Now (1991). L Although not an exceptionally successful ­album at that time, achieving only Gold status, its reputation has grown over the years. Its subject ­matter focused on the inner city’s social prob­lems, ranging from racism and poverty, to crime and police brutality, to teenage pregnancy—­topics not unexpected for a hip hop ­album, ­but delivered with a richer variety of lyr­ics and beats than could be expected from a 21-­year old. The ­album 2Pacalypse Now gained some notoriety in April 1992 ­after a car thief, who shot and killed a Texas State Trooper, claimed that he had been conditioned to hate police by listening to hip hop. When he was arrested, the thief was listening to “Soulja’s Story,” a track from 2Pacalypse Now. Then–­U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle (James Danforth Quayle, 1947–­, in office 1989–1993) remarked that the ­album should be withdrawn by its publisher, but nothing came of his comments.

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With his name better known, his second ­album, Strictly 4 My N.—­A.Z. (1993), debuted at No. 24 on Billboard’s Top 200, and achieved wider commercial success, reaching Platinum status, with more of the same content. His third and fourth ­albums, Me against the World (1995) and All Eyez on Me (1996), added to his reputation as both a performer and a hip hop personality. Me against the World was recorded while Tupac Shakur was involved in a series of ­legal prob­lems, including a charge of sexual assault, and the a­ lbum was released just a­ fter he entered prison. Suge Knight (Marion Hugh Knight Jr., 1965–), owner of Death Row Rec­ords (1991–2009), then paid a $1.4 million bail bond to get him released while his case was appealed. Tupac Shakur then recorded All Eyez on Me for Death Row in payment for that bond. His next proj­ect for Death Row, The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory (1996), was based on intensive reading and study that he had done while in prison. This ­album was released shortly a­ fter his death.

DEATH AND LEGACY Tupac Shakur’s death came at the hands of an unknown gunman in Las Vegas. In September 1996 he and his entourage attended a boxing match in Las Vegas. Afterward, on the way to a party, his car was stopped at a red light. While he stood up through the sunroof to speak with several ­women in a nearby vehicle, a third vehicle drew up along the other side, and a gunman fired, striking him four times. He was taken to a hospital, where he died a week ­later. Despite extensive investigation by the authorities and o­ thers, no one was ever charged with the shooting, although some have speculated that the shooter was a Crips gang member with whom he had had a run-in earlier that eve­n ing. The ongoing feud between East Coast and West Coast rappers has also fueled speculation that the Notorious B.I.G. (1972–97) was involved in Tupac Shakur’s murder, but the Notorious B.I.G. denied ­those accusations—­and his death by shooting six months ­later in Los Angeles has kept that theory alive. In 2012, at the Coachella Valley ­Music & Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Field in Indio, California, a holographic image of Tupac Shakur performed for a crowd of over 80,000. Scott Warfield See also: Gangsta Rap; The Notorious B.I.G.; The United States

Further Reading

Dyson, Michael Eric. 2003. Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur. New York: Basic Civitas Books. McQuillar, Tayannah, and Fred L. Johnson. 2010. Tupac Shakur: The Life and Times of an American Icon. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. Scott, Cathy. 2014. The Killing of Tupac Shakur, 3rd ed. Las Vegas: Huntington Press.

Further Listening

2Pac. 1991. 2Pacalypse Now. Interscope Rec­ords. 2Pac. 1996. All Eyez on Me. Interscope/Death Row Rec­ords.

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Further Viewing

Sean Long, dir. 2001. Tupac Shakur: Before I Wake. Sepia Tone Entertainment. Santa Monica, CA: Xenon Pictures.

Turkey Turkey is a Western Asian country bordered by three seas: the Aegean, the Black, and the Mediterranean. Turkey has a population of 80 million, and about 80 ­percent of this population identifies as Turks. Kurds are Turkey’s largest minority population. Ankara is its capital, while Istanbul, with 14.8 million inhabitants, is its largest city and cultural center. The country has a history of colonization and monarchy ­until 1922, when the Turkish War of In­de­pen­dence (1919–1923) resulted in Turkish victory against Greece, Armenia, and France (supported in the earlier half of the war by the United Kingdom and Italy), and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, with a presidential government and western reforms. Many years ­later, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (1954–­, in office 2014–) reversed many of the reforms, which threatens freedom of speech and the press. Turkey’s ­music is heavi­ly influenced by traditional ele­ments that date back to the 11th ­century, with some ele­ments of Western Asian, Arabic, and Greek ­music. Westernization, which began in 1926 ­after the formation of the Republic of Turkey, included the introduction of Western pop ­music, which lost ­favor for a short time from 1970 to 1990 when interest Turkey had a resurgence of sociopo­ liti­cal folk ­music and Arabesque (aka Arabesk). Despite westernization, between 1924 and 1953, national classification and archiving efforts of Turkish folk ­music took place. ­These efforts preserved over 10,000 folksongs. Traditional instrumentation includes the tanbur (aka the saz or baglama, a long-­necked plucked lute), the flute, the kemençe (a bowed fiddle), the oud (a plucked short-­necked unfretted lute), the kanun (a type of zither), the violin, and in some styles, the drum and the harp. Turkish folk ­music (Türkü) dealt with everyday subjects or was event-­oriented. Turkey’s popu­lar ­music shows the influence of the ethnic styles of Greek, Armenian, Albanian, Polish, Azeri, Romani, and Jewish ­music, along with some western influence. Popu­lar musical instruments in Romani-­ influenced dance ­music include clarinet, violin, kanun, and darbuka (a djembe-­ like drum, or goblet drum). Musical rhyming contests between traveling singers (bards or aşık) are also a staple of Turkish folk ­music, as well as religious ­music. In such contests, one bard is defeated when he cannot find a rhyme or his story falls apart. Turkish pop ­music began in the 1950s when Turkish bands began to cover rock and roll, jazz, and Argentine tango with per­for­mances by diva singers Ajda Pekkan (Ayşe Ajda Pekkan, 1946–) and Sezen Aksu (Fatma Sezen Yıldırım, 1954–), and continued into the 1960s when popu­lar U.S. and U.K. bands inspired Turkish musicians to produce what came to be called Anatolian rock. Acts such as progressive and psychedelic rocker Cem Karaca (Muhtar Cem Karaca, 1945–2004), singer-­ songwriter and actor Barış Manço (Tosun Yusuf Mehmet Barış Manço, 1943– 1999), and folk and rock band Moğollar (1967–1976, 1993–), led to popu­lar 1970s

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rock and pop artists such as singer-­songwriter and guitarist Bülent Ortaçgil (1950–) and satirical sociopo­liti­cal band MFÖ (aka Mazhar-­Fuat-­Özkan or Mazhar ve Fuat, 1971–), as well as heavy-­metal bands such as Bursa-­based Mezarkabul (aka Pentagram, 1986–) and Istanbul-­based Almora (2001–). Turkish hip hop began not in Turkey, but with the Turkish mi­grant worker community in Germany. Most early Turkish hip hop was produced by Turkish Germans, influenced by both German and American hip hop scenes. With ­music infused by the Arabesque style and samples, they rapped songs about immigration, discrimination, and racism, as well as the plight of the mi­grant worker. Prior to the emergence of Turkish hip hop, in 1991, Nuremberg-­based King Size Terror (1990–1994), a hip hop group of Turkish, Peruvian, and African American origin, produced the first Turkish language rap with the single “Bir Yabancinin Hayati” (“The Life of the Stranger”), which portrayed Turkish youth as strangers in mainstream German culture. King Size Terror led to the creation of Cartel (1995–) as the first successful Turkish hip hop group. Meanwhile, in Bursa, Turkey, trance DJ Mercan Dede (Arkın Ilıcalı, 1966–) was mixing electronic beats with traditional Turkish and religious Sufi songs. Underground Istanbul-­based producer Mert Yücel (1977*–) released the a­ lbum His (Consciousness or Feeling, released as the Mert Yücel Proj­ ect), the first h­ ouse m ­ usic a­ lbum in Turkey in 1999. Cartel had prob­lems with vio­lence and incarceration, and at one point was forbidden to perform together, and the band’s first ­album, which contained both German and Turkish rapping, was banned. Another early rap crew, Islamic Force (aka KanAK, 1980s*) wrote songs that challenged racism in En­glish and Turkish, and Berlin-­based rapper Kool Savaş (Savaş Yurderi, 1975–) cofounded the rap duo Westberlin Maskulin (1997–2000), as well as the crew Masters of Rap (1996–). Kool Savaş has collaborated with 50 Cent (1975–), among ­others. Other notable Turkish hip hop acts include Ayben (Ayben Özçalkan, 1982–), a female rapper from Üsküdar, Turkey; Aksit Ugurlu (n.d.), a recording engineer from Germany and Turkey; and rapper and DJ Sagopa Kajmer (aka DJ Mic Check, Silahsiz Kuvvet, Yunus Ozyavuz, 1978–), from Istanbul. Anthony J. Fonseca and Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Cyprus; Germany; Greece

Further Reading

Işik, Nuran Erol, and Muran Can Basaran. 2017. “Unmasking Expressions in Turkish Rap/ Hip Hop Culture: Contestation and Construction of Alternative Identities through Localization in Arabesk ­Music.” In Hip Hop at Eu­rope’s Edge: ­Music, Agency, and Social Change, edited by Milosz Miszczynski and Adriana Helbig, chap. 11. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Soloman, Thomas. 2005. “ ‘Living Underground Is Tough’: Authenticity and Locality in the Hip Hop Community in Instanbul, Turkey.” Popu­lar ­Music 24, no. 1: 1–20. Soloman, Thomas. 2009. “Berlin-­Frankfurt-­Istanbul.” Eu­ro­pean Journal of Cultural Studies 12, no. 3: 305–27. Soloman, Thomas. 2011. “Hardcore Muslims: Islamic Themes in Turkish Rap between Diaspora and Homeland.” In Muslim Rap, Halal Soaps, and Revolutionary Theater: Artistic Developments in the Muslim World, edited by Karin van Nieuwkerk, chap. 1. Austin: University of Texas Press.

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Further Listening

Islamic Force. 1997. Mesaj (Message or Purpose). De De Rec­ords. King Size Terror. 1991. The Word Is “Subversion.” Vulkan Verlag.

Turntablism Turntablism is the art of creating and modifying sounds through the use of two or more turntables (devices that play vinyl ­albums using an armed needle that can translate the grooves in a vinyl rec­ord into sound) and a mixer with a crossfader. Also called scratching, turntablism can involve composing new ­music, beats, and effects through vari­ous techniques that involve moving the armed needle back and forth on the vinyl rec­ord, or picking it up and setting it back down to play only certain parts of songs. Turntablism can also involve isolating sampled sounds (usually a musical phrase or two) from preexisting ­music, creating what is called a loop or hiccup. In early turntablism, the turntablist, commonly called a DJ, would do so by literally picking up the needle and placing it back in its original place, or by shifting it back lightly in a technique called rubbing. Early DJs could also shift quickly between two pieces of ­music by switching power from one turntable to another through a crossfader device, thereby creating a musical experience that had no breaks between ­music. Individual turntablists and crews, or teams, have created elaborate techniques and choreographed combinations for both per­for­mances and ­battles. Some of ­these have made their way onto recordings. HISTORY, INNOVATORS, AND EARLY EQUIPMENT The origin of turntablism may be traced back to the 1930s with musique concrète experiments that created and distorted previously recorded sounds. T ­ hese sounds came from nature or w ­ ere naturally occurring. Sound bites such as sirens, as heard in an urban environment, bomb droppings, or feedback created within a studio could then be incorporated into a musical composition. Just one example of the earliest turntablism is American composer John Cage’s (1912–1992) Imaginary Landscape No. 1 (1939), whose instrumentation includes two variable-­speed rec­ ord players that play previously recorded frequencies on ­albums (one using original Victor frequency ­album 84522A and the other using 84522B). ­These ­albums are plugged to amplifiers and are played against large Chinese cymbals and a piano whose strings have been muted, all played by a total of four performers. Other techniques that emerged in the 1950s bear some similar results to turntablism. For example, the practice of using a splicing knife and guided board to splice electroacoustic tape from a reel-­to-­reel player, and the use special adhesive tape to reattach the electroacoustic tape at a dif­fer­ent spot could result in the same effect as crossfading. Using this technique, a m ­ usic engineer could cut a recorded song on tape into segments and paste it back together in such a way as to create new sounds; how ­these segments are pasted together creates the new sound. The result can sound chopped up and ­either recognizable or unrecognizable; in addition, carefully cut and taped segments can result in a seamless auditory continuation from

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one part of a song to another—­much like cross-­fading, a technique that is used in ­music editing, both analog and digital. Another technique involves taking tape from a reel-­to-­reel player and stretching it around a microphone stand, so that playing it ­will create a delay (the tape takes longer to get to the reader). Such delays can be created on turntables by the DJ’s ­either selecting a slower RPM (revolutions per minute, often referred to as rec­ord speed) speed or by applying hand pressure to manually slow down the revolutions of a vinyl rec­ord. And two or more vinyl rec­ ord players can add dimension to the delay, as the DJ can be creating two separate RPMs at the same time. And just as tape can be stretched or distressed to create a variety of distorted and scratched sounds, a vinyl rec­ord player or turntable can do likewise, even more efficiently, as it offers the DJ/composer more control through scratching. By the 1950s, sound systems ­were being created in Kingston, Jamaica, so that ­music could be played at street parties called dance halls. The concept of the sound system included not only equipment, but also the ­human beings who interacted with the technology, controlling its speed and volume. Such p­ eople who w ­ ere involved in playing the m ­ usic also engaged audiences to participate. This turntablist came to be known as the deejay. Sound systems therefore included rec­ord players, speakers, a generator to power large pieces of equipment, and deejays. ­Music styles such as dancehall, ska, rocksteady, and reggae ­were played at ­these parties, and the deejay would announce songs and would perform a toast, a kind of monotone talk singing that was a precursor to rap. Between the 1950s and 1970s, deejays began to use cross-­fading and other mixing techniques to fade out one ­album and fade in another on a two phonograph turntable sound system. They would also briefly play two ­albums in sync to maintain the continuity of the m ­ usic and not cause the dancers to have to pause between songs. They began to add turntablist effects, used to further engage dancers through a sound effect. For example, a deejay could bring a song (on an ­album) to a scratching halt and replace it with a more energetic dance song (on the other ­album). ­Because many of the rec­ord players used at the time ­were belt-­drive turntables, the deejays could create brief effects, such as a quick scratch (by placing a hand on the ­album to slow it down enough that the rec­ord needle registers a scratch or a backspin—­pushing the ­album backward). However, using too many of ­these techniques resulted in broken rec­ord players, as ­either the ­belt would snap or the spin action of the b­ elt would need to be reset. In addition, when stopped manually too often, ­these belt-­drive turntables would start up slowly the next use. In 1969, the first commercially available direct-­d rive turntable, the Technics (Panasonic) SP-10, was released. Instead of a ­belt, the direct-­drive turntable used a motor that would rotate the a­ lbum and was far more durable than a belt-­drive turntable. In 1971, another direct-­drive turntable, the Technics SL-1100, was made available. It had a more power­f ul motor than its immediate pre­de­ces­sor. A young Jamaican living in New York City, Clive Campbell (1955–), noticed the Jamaican sound system setup, which included the use of two SP-10s. His ­sister threw parties, and to supply the entertainment he began to play rec­ords in the apartment, creating a Jamaican-­inspired sound system, plugging two turntables plugged into amplifiers: a Shure brand Vocal Master PA system, and two large speaker

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columns. He also took on the role as ­album selector. Using the stage name DJ Kool Herc, he spun funk ­albums such as James Brown’s (1933–2006) “Give It Up or Turnit a Loose.” By 1973, DJ Kool Herc had begun engaging in turntablism itself when he noticed that p­ eople at t­ hese parties who liked to dance enjoyed the rhythmic breaks of the songs best, so he created what became known as the break beat by playing an ­album ­until the end of the break passage, while cuing a second copy of the same ­album back to the beginning of the break. Continuing this technique gave the sense of a loop and matched the ideal amount of time that dancers would enjoy—no more than five minutes. He called this technique of ­album changing the “Merry-­Go-­Round.” Quickly, he realized that not only could he extend the same break, but he could combine two breaks together with two dif­fer­ent ­albums. As the first turntablist, DJ Kool Herc combined turntablism with early DJing. He went beyond toasting and would announce ­albums using slang words and funny expressions such as “this is the joint!” and “you ­don’t stop” (to accompany the break beat ­music). He also engaged breakdancers directly in his monologues. Eventually, Kool Herc would drive his sound system (he called it the Herculords, as if it ­were a band) through the Bronx, playing m ­ usic at full volume as a way to advertise himself as a DJ. Another way he would advertise was by setting up his sound system in parks. This made DJ Kool Herc a legend in his neighborhood. One of his observers included Afrika Bambaataa (1957–), who purchased a sound system and invited ­people, including breakdancers, to join his Universal Zulu Nation (aka Zulu Nation, 1973–). By 1975, DJ Kool Herc had made the break beat popu­ lar. He used it in the Incredible Bongo Band’s (1972–1974) funk cover of Jerry Lordan’s (1934–1995) “Apache” (1960). He also originated the idea of sequences, so that on any given night the DJ became a feature, and his per­for­mance could be dif­ fer­ent as he mixed songs, beats, and rhythm sections with dif­fer­ent combinations. Meanwhile, Afrika Bambaataa’s Zulu Nation was also contributing by offering ­outlets for youth—­options that could rival gang activity for excitement. Another observer from this time, who went by the name Grandmaster Flash (1958–), took an early interest in collecting and playing a­ lbums, as well as DJing. Grandmaster Flash came up with the quick-­mix theory, sectioning off parts of ­albums on his turntables, creating what he called backspin and the double-­back. ENTRY INTO THE MAINSTREAM A mentee of Grandmaster Flash, ­Grand Wizzard Theodore (1963–), came up with the idea of scratching, or moving the rec­ord back and forth ­under the stylus. Grandmaster Flash created a showcase for scratching through live shows and on recordings. DJ ­Grand Mixer DXT (Derek Showard, n.d.) furthered scratching by making it more rhythmic and using two turntables at dif­fer­ent velocities to alter the pitch. He made scratching known internationally by using it on Herbie Hancock’s (1940–) hit song “Rockit” (1982), a song that made the DJ the star. By the 1980s, scratching become a staple of hip hop, as DJs would provide ­music for rappers, called MCs, showcasing their skills alongside the verbal skills of the MC. Run-­D.M.C. (1981–2002) made the DJ as band member famous by emphasizing the skills of Jam Master Jay (1965–2002) in their per­for­mances and recordings; however, the

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role of the DJ was quickly downplayed in hip hop, as rappers became the focus of bands, as well as mainstream interest, and the increased use of tapes and other studio techniques and technology made the DJ’s skills less relevant as part of the rap crew. In addition, as a live art, turntablism had challenges with transferring over to recording in its own right: In other words, in sound recordings the visual dimension of the live per­for­mance is often felt as missing; despite a DJ’s skills or a turntablist’s virtuosity, recording solo turntablism or turntablism as instrumental hip hop in the 1980s seemed at best to be geared ­toward a specialized audience, which was not promising for sales. DJ ­battles, however, helped in changing this initial attitude.

THE ­BATTLE AND REINVIGORATING THE SOUND One of the most impor­t ant formal ­battles in turntablism traces back to 1985 when the first DMC World DJ Championships took place in London. The London remix label DMC (Disco Mix Club, 1983–) established this competition, which soon afterward had regional and national competitions that lead into the World Championships. During its first year, this competition was a DJ mixing ­battle, but by 1986, scratching had been introduced. During a DMC Championship ­battle, elimination rounds last for two minutes while final sets receive six minutes. In both DJs perform routines that exhibit a team or individual’s scratching, mixing, and DJing techniques (including selecting and switching ­albums), as well as choreographed combinations of ­these techniques, using any kind of stylus (rec­ord needle). Rules for turntablism in less formal competitions more closely resemble ­those seen in freestyle rap or hip hop dance ­battles. For example, ciphers (aka cyphers, a circular formation around competitors) form to allow observers and judges to watch closely and allowing for competitors to take turns. Another example is sudden-­death rounds, which may be determined by the audience as much as by a b­ attle competitor’s or team’s accomplishments. Both locally and globally, the DJ or turntablist ­battle was responsible for getting youth interested in turntablism as an expressive art, as well as showcasing this art to a broader audience. Pioneering champion crews such as the X-­Ecutioners (aka X-­Men, 1989–), Invisibl Skratch Piklz, and Beat Junkies (aka World Famous Beat Junkies, 1992–) honed turntablism techniques and brought to turntablism complex techniques such as the crab scratch, created by Invisibl Skratch Piklz’s DJ Qbert (1969–), which can involve the use of up to four fin­gers to coordinate pushing the mixer open and closed while moving the ­album forward and backward (or backward and forward). The four movements by the four fin­gers on the crossfader are done quickly and look like a crab. The impression the technique gives is one that sounds like rapid, rhythmic scratching yet faster than what one would be able to do using just the turntable. Other scratching innovations at the time included tearing, orbiting, flaring, chirping, and stabbing, as well as visual turntablism, which is incorporating and manipulating pictures, video, and computer-­generated effects into their live per­for­mances utilizing a separate video mixer.

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Turntablism techniques such as beat juggling, performed by both individuals and crews also developed through battling. Beat juggling involves a variety of scratching skills, as well as beatmatching, matching the beats of at least two playing a­ lbums as one fades in and the other fades out, and selecting ­albums or samples for per­ for­mance. The combination of t­hese techniques is aimed t­oward creating a new musical piece or composition. B ­ ecause many techniques are used and a lot of coordination is involved, crews and individuals have to practice their routines. Though turntablism certainly invites improvisation, special notation—­a set of instructions to perform the composition again as well as to remind the turntablists about the composition’s structure—­has been created by turntablists. This notation often includes consideration of mea­sures, kinds of scratches to be employed, and sections, among other musical aspects, including dynamics and who gets to perform. From battling, other innovations ­were discovered to make turntablism easier: for example, turning each player 90 degrees—in ­battle position—­places the needle out of the way for the crossfading hand. This technique is now used in noncompetitive scratching. Hamster scratching, often credited to DJ QBert, involves scratching backward first rather than regular scratching, which involves moving the ­album forward first. By hamster scratching, the scratching hand is a bit closer to the crossfader and increases speed. Many turntablists who still ­favor regular scratching have come to incorporate some hamster scratching for the ease of hand motion. Champion crews and their individual members have made ­albums that have featured turntablism. For example, Rob Swift’s studio ­albums include Soulful Fruit (1997), The Ablist (1999), Sound Event (2002), ­Under the Influence and Who Sampled This? (both 2003), OuMuPo 2 (2004), War Games (2005), and The Architect (2010), as well as one compilation ­album, Airwave Invasion (2001). In ­these recordings Rob Swift applied turntablism to jazz, soul, funk, electronica, classical ­music, and hip hop. Electronica and hip hop have been the most welcoming musical genres to solo turntablism as instrumental ­music. TURNTABLISM ­TODAY As of 2018, DJing has returned to becoming more of an art form in its own right, more often than not completely divorced from rapping. DJs continue to show off their skills, but not so much in concerts as they do in ­battles. Many turntablist concerts resemble their electroacoustic forerunners by having the same issues of what should take place visually as prerecorded ­music is playing onstage and how to coordinate a per­for­mance with a large number and variety of sound sources. Not only are t­here turntablists who select a­ lbums and samples and perform live; ­there are now hybrids of turntablists and m ­ usic engineers, laptop composers, and live musicians who create loops as they play. Many turntablists rely on turntablist software such as Serato Scratch Live (2013–), which emulates turntablism, but also simplifies aspects of it. Turntablists who opt to use Serato have the advantage of not having to coordinate large recording collections or other hardware, since Serato works with Digital Audio Workplace software such as Pro Tools (1989–), which includes access to sound filters, virtual instruments, sound effects, ­music editing tools, beatmaking tools, and mixing tools

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that can be used to enhance the turntablist’s creativity both in live per­for­mance and working in the ­music studio. Across the world, specialized turntablism and DJ schools, as well as several colleges and universities, offer classes and courses on turntablism. Many of ­these classes give students the option to work with physical turntables and mixers and/or Serato. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith and Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Battling; Cut Chemist; DJ Babu; DJ Bobcat; DJ Jazzy Jeff; DJ QBert; DJ Rap; DJ Shadow; DJ Spinderella; DJ Vadim; Grandmaster Flash; GrandWizard Theodore; Invisibl Skratch Piklz; Jam Master Jay; Kool Herc; Mix Master Mike; Rob Swift; Roc Raida; World Famous Beat Junkies; The X-­Ecutioners

Further Reading

Brewster, Bill, and Frank Broughton. 2010. The Rec­ord Players: DJ Revolutionaries. New York: Black Cat. Ewoodzie, Joseph C. Jr. 2017. Break Beats in the Bronx: Rediscovering Hip Hop’s Early Years. Chapel Hill: UNC Press Books. Falkenberg Hansen, Kjetil. 2015. “DJs and Turntablism.” In The Cambridge Companion to Hip Hop, edited by Justin Williams, chap. 4. Cambridge, ­England: Cambridge University Press. Katz, Mark. 2010. Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed ­Music. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. Katz, Mark. 2012. Groove ­Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ. New York: Oxford University Press. Miyakawa, Felicia M. 2007. “Turntablature: Notation, Legitization, and the Art of the Hip Hop DJ.” American ­Music 25, no. 1: 81–105. Schloss, Joseph G. 2004. Making Beats: The Art of Sample-­Based Hip Hop. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.

Further Listening

Cut Chemist. 2006. The Audience’s Listening. Warner Bros/A Stable Sound. Hancock, Herbie. 1983. ­Future Shock. Columbia. Invisibl Skratch Piklz. 2015. The 13th Floor. Self-­released. Kid Koala. 2000. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Ninja Tune. Rob Swift. 1999. The Ablist. Asphodel. Rob Swift. 2010. The Architect. Ipecac Recordings. The X-­Ecutioners. 1997. X-­Pressions. Asphodel. The X-­Ecutioners. 2002. Built from Scratch. Loud Rec­ords/Epic.

1200 Techniques (1997–2005, Melbourne, Australia) 1200 Techniques was an Australian hardcore hip hop trio that was exceptionally eclectic, fusing hip hop with funk, jazz, electronica, breakbeat, ragga, rock, soul, and drum and bass. Producer, turntablist, and percussionist DJ Peril (Jason Foretti, n.d.) with two ­brothers, rapper and singer Nfamas (aka N’fa, N’fa Forster-­Jones, 1979–) and rapper and singer Kabba (aka Cabba, Kabba Forster-­Jones, 1973*–), originally



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founded the band. In 1998, DJ Peril’s own ­brother, guitarist Kemstar (Simon Foretti, n.d.) joined the band, replacing Kabba ­after he departed to pursue a ­career recording electronic dance ­music and dubstep in London. The band is best known for its debut and second ­albums, Choose One (2002) and Consistency Theory (2003), which peaked on Australia’s ARIA ­Albums Chart at Nos. 20 and 38, respectively. FROM FORMATION TO SUCESS Since the early 1980s, DJ Peril has been part of Melbourne’s emerging hip hop scene as a well known aerosol graffiti artist and member of the Island Boys/Big Pacific (1989–1991)*, one of Melbourne’s pioneering rapping crews. N’fa, who was born in London to an Australian m ­ other and a Sierra Leonean f­ ather, grew up in Perth, Australia, and, since he was nine years old, wrote songs with his ­brother Kabba. The band named itself ­after DJ Peril’s turntables, the Technics SL-1200. From the beginning, 1200 Techniques sounded retro and old-­school, using funk to back N’fa’s gangsta sounding raps in En­glish. Texts focused on the Melbourne street life as a battleground of crime, vio­lence, and poverty. The band’s m ­ usic videos, ­whether on location or lavishly set (for example, using animation and puppets), showed some entertaining channeling of the Beastie Boys’ (1981–2012) approaching and rapping to a camera, as well as creating video moments reminiscent of Public ­Enemy (1982–), Geto Boys (1986–), Coolio (1963–), and Guerillaz (1998–). The band’s first recording effort, the EP Infinite Styles, took place in 2001. Immediately, 1200 Techniques had a popu­lar single with “Hard as Hell,” featuring Kemstar’s funk-­infused opening guitar riff. A year l­ater, it released its successful and critically acclaimed debut a­ lbum Choose One, which was produced on just a $5000 bud­get in Melbourne by Rubber Rec­ords (aka Rubber Chicken, 1989–), a label devoted to Australian underground ­music; Sony ­Music (1929–) distributed the ­album. The group’s biggest hits ­were “Karma (What Goes Around)” from Choose One and “Where Ur At” from Conspiracy Theory, both peaking in the Top 40 at Nos. 36 and 35, respectively. It followed its debut ­album with Consistency Theory and three hit songs from that ­album: “Eye of the Storm,” “Where Ur At,” and “Fork in the Road” (2004). But in 2005, the band went on a hiatus, which enabled some solo efforts. N’fa released his solo ­album Cause an Effect (2006). Nfa’s friend, Australian actor Heath Ledger (1979–2008), directed two ­music videos for the title track and “Seduction Is Evil (She’s Hot).” DJ Peril released King of Beats (2006). In 2014, the band released its final EP together, Time Has Come. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Australia; Turntablism

Further Reading

Frilingos, Matt. 2003. “Technical Knockout: 1200 Techniques Throw a Punch for Homegrown Hip Hop: Let’s Talk about Techs.” Interview with 1200 Techniques. The Daily Telegraph (Surry Hills, Australia), July 16, S01. Moses, Alexa. 2002. “Hip Hop’s Indefinables Also Like to Rub a ­Little Funk in Popu­lar ­Music.” Sydney Morning Herald, September 4, 16.

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Further Listening

1200 Techniques. 2002. Choose One. Rubber Rec­ords. 1200 Techniques. 2003. Consistency Theory. Rubber Rec­ords.

2 Live Crew (1982–1998, Miami, Florida) 2 Live Crew was an American hip hop group best known for its studio ­album As Nasty As They Wanna Be (1989), which drew criticism both for its explicit sexual content and its prob­lems with alleged copyright infringement. Although the band changed membership in its 16 years of existence, the best-­k nown iteration included DJ Mr. Mixx (anonymous, n.d.) and rappers Fresh Kid Ice (Chris Wong

The American hip hop group 2 Live Crew was at the height of its c­ areer in 1989 with its third studio ­album As Nasty As They Wanna Be. At the time, the band’s lineup consisted of DJ Mr. Mixx and rappers Fresh Kid Ice, ­Brother Marquis, and Luke. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)



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Won, 1964–2017), from Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago; ­Brother Marquis (Mark D. Ross, 1967*–), from Rochester, New York; and rapper/promoter Luke (aka Luke Skyywalker, Luther Campbell, 1960–), from Miami. The group’s ­music is characterized by heavy bass, synthesized melodic and drum sounds, samples of comedians such as Richard Pryor (1940–2005) and Cheech and Chong (1971–), and graphic rapped lyr­ics about ­women and sex. The band’s ­album Banned in the U.S.A. (1990), billed as Luke featuring the 2 Live Crew, was one of the first ­albums to bear a Parental Advisory sticker from the Recording Industry Association of Amer­i­ca (RIAA), a label created to caution parents of explicit lyr­ics. The group’s first two ­albums, The 2 Live Crew Is What We Are (1986) and Move Somethin’ (1988), both sold relatively well, but the third ­album, As Nasty As They Wanna Be (1989), propelled 2 Live Crew to national attention. It featured “Me So Horny” and “The F—­Shop” and was criticized by the Tupelo, Mississippi–­based American ­Family Association and other culture watchdog groups who claimed that the a­ lbum should not be sold due to its lyr­ics. The 2 Live Crew did release a censored version of the ­album called As Clean As They Wanna Be, which sold poorly and did not quiet any of objections to the original version. In 1990, a United States District Court judge ruled that As Nasty As They Wanna Be was obscene and therefore could not be sold legally; three of the group’s members ­were then arrested (the ­album was the first to be declared obscene in a court of law). In 1992, the Court of Appeals overturned the lower court’s ruling, and the United States Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal. The three members of the group w ­ ere released without incident; however, the group was also sued by Acuff-­Rose ­Music for their unauthorized parody of Roy Orbison’s (1936–1988) song “Oh, Pretty ­Woman” (1964). The case Campbell vs. Acuff-­Rose ­Music went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, which held that the group’s song was a commercial parody and therefore did not violate copyright. During the 1990s, the group’s personnel changed several times, and although they continued to release a­ lbums, none sold as well or achieved as much notoriety as As Nasty As They Wanna Be. Further, Luke was forced to change the name of his rec­ord label from Luke Skyywalker Rec­ords to simply Luke Rec­ords ­after a  copyright infringement lawsuit filed by American filmmaker George Lucas (1944–), creator of the Star Wars franchise and Luke Skywalker character. Amanda Sewell See also: Luke; The United States

Further Reading

Campbell, Luther. 2015. The Book of Luke: My Fight for Truth, Justice, and Liberty City. New York: Amistad. Sanjek, David. 2006. “Ridiculing the ‘White Bread Original.’ ” Cultural Studies 20, nos. 2–3: 262–81. Westoff, Ben. 2011. “Luke Campbell: Bass and Booty.” In Dirty South: OutKast, Lil Wayne, Soulja Boy, and the Southern Rappers Who Reinvented Hip Hop, chap. 1. Chicago: Chicago Review Press.

Further Listening

2 Live Crew. 1989. As Nasty As They Wanna Be. Luke Skyywalker Rec­ords.

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U Uganda Uganda, like the rest of Africa, has seen a rise in hip hop ­music popularity since the early 1980s. In 1985, hip hop reached Senegal with groups such as Positive Black Soul (1989–). Tanzania was introduced to MCing before 1989; South Africa saw the rise of groups such as Black Noise (1992–2001), which began as a graffiti and breakdance crew in Cape Town, as well as the rise of kwaito in Johannesburg, a variant of h­ ouse ­music featuring percussive loop samples, heavy bass, and sung, rapped, and shouted vocals. Uganda’s hip hop scene began among university students in the 1990s. Formative groups in the Ugandan hip hop scene, which was pop­u­lar­ized at clubs such as Club Pulsations in Kampala, included Bataka Squad (aka Bataka Underground, 1993–). In 2003, members of Bataka Squad helped found the Uganda Hip Hop Foundation, which hosted the first Ugandan Hip Hop Summit and concert in Kampala, and in 2005, members also formed Bavubuka All Starz to bring hip hop m ­ usic and community together to address social c­ auses. Breakdancing is popu­lar in Uganda ­because of the Breakdance Proj­ect Uganda (BPU), a youth-­empowering organ­ization formed in 2006 that holds b-­boy and b-­girl events in the country. Uganda’s best-­k nown breakdance troupe is Tabu-­Flo (2007–), which has competed internationally. Comedians King Kong MC (Alex Lamu, n.d.–2018) and Jaja Bruce (n.d.) have also pop­u­lar­ized Ugandan hip hop dance through their comedic dance-­off videos posted on YouTube. LUGAFLOW, LUO-­R AP, AND OTHER STYLES Bataka Squad is the originator of the Lugaflow style, which uses the native Luganda language and is the dominant Ugandan style of hip hop. Luga Flow Army (2011–) is a group of five MCs whose single “Competition” (2013) emphasized local dialect rapping and became a fan favorite, and GNL Zamba (Ernest Nsimbi, 1986–) has made Lugaflow style popu­lar through rapping, filmmaking, and acting. The second most dominant style of Ugandan hip hop is Luo-­rap, whose most famous practitioner was Lumix Da Don (Patrick Lumumba, 1978–2015), an underground Ugandan rapper and rec­ord producer who recorded freestyles. Other styles include Kigaflow, Lusoflow, and Lumaflow, all of which are specific to vari­ous geographic regions of the country. CURRENT ARTISTS Con­temporary Ugandan rappers include Keko (1987–), Abramz (Tekya Abraham, 1985*–), Bana Mutibwa (aka Burney MC, Walakira Richard, 1989–), and King

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LG (aka King Legend D’Grek, Mpuuga Clifford Magezi Atwooki, n.d.). Keko appeared in the rap collective song “Fallen Heroes” (2010) and followed up with an appearance on the Ugandan hip hop duo Radio and Weasel (2008–) single “How We Do It” remix (2011), an MTV Africa favorite that led to her endorsement deal with Pepsi. Abramz is a socially conscious MC and b-­boy and founder of Breakdance Proj­ect Uganda, which promotes positive social change and social responsibility. He is also part of the brother-­based hip hop duo Abramz and Sylvester (1992–). Bana Mutibwa is a rapper and activist who advocates rapping in local languages, while King LG is a rap and trap artist and producer who promotes underground rap. The ­f uture of Ugandan rap rests in the hands of ­these rappers and ­others such as Lyrical G (Jeff Kintu, 1978*–) and Navio (Daniel Kigozi, 1983*–), who have both released successful ­albums with songs that encourage self-­ improvement, especially in escaping poverty. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Breakdancing; Hip Hop Dance; Keko

Further Reading

Barz, Gregory F., and Gerald C. Liu. 2011. “Positive Disturbance: Tafesh, Twig, HIV/AIDS, and Hip Hop in Uganda.” In The Culture of AIDS in Africa: Hope and Healing in ­Music and the Arts, edited by Gregory F. Barz and Judah M. Cohen, chap. 30. New York: Oxford University Press. Ntarangwi, Mwenda. 2009. “Hip Hop and African Identity in Con­temporary Globalization.” In East African Hip Hop: Youth Culture and Globalization, chap. 2. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Slim MC. 2014. “Hip Hop and Social Change in Uganda.” In Hip Hop and Social Change in Africa: Ni Wakati, edited by Msia Kibona Clark and Mickie Mwanzia Koster, chap. 10. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Ukraine The Ukraine has a hip hop scene that is closely connected with national identity and politics and is usually found in major cities such as Kiev and Kharkov. During most of the 20th ­century, the Ukraine was a republic of the Soviet Union, but in 1991, it became an in­de­pen­dent republic. Early Ukrainian hip hop was sung in En­glish and Rus­sian, but in the late 1990s, hip hop was written and sung in Ukrainian, as the ­music became an impor­tant marker of social and po­liti­cal identity, although some Ukrainian groups, despite po­liti­cal implications, chose to use Rus­sian in order to reach larger markets in the m ­ usic industry. Ukrainian hip hop began to flourish ­after the Orange Revolution, a series of antigovernment protests following an allegedly corrupt election, which took place between November  2004 and January  2005. One song, “Razom Nas Bahato” (“Together We Are Many,” 2005), by GreenJolly (1997–2005*), became the unofficial protest anthem in late 2004; a version of the song was Ukraine’s official entry for the 2005 Eurovision song contest, where it was awarded twentieth place. GreenJolly disbanded soon afterward. The best-­k nown Ukrainian hip hop group is TNMK (1989–) from Kharkiv, Ukraine, which did not release its first ­album, Zroby Meni Hip Hop (Make Me Hip



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Hop), ­until 1998. In 1997, TNMK won the title of best dance band at Chervona Ruta (1989–), a Ukrainian international ­music festival usually held in Kiev. Significantly, Chervona Ruta festival rules required the submission of three songs, in Ukrainian. Before this, the band’s name had been in Rus­sian, Tanets na Ploshchadi Kongo (Dance in Congo Square). It was changed to the Ukrainian Tanok na Maidani Kongo (TNMK) for the contest. Ukrainian hip hop includes a lot of rap, and some Ukrainian rap is influenced by reggae; traditional Ukrainian folk ­music; alternative rock, punk, rap, and funk; and African folk ­music (due to the influence of African immigrant communities in Ukraine). Popu­lar bands include the acoustic group 5’Nizza (2000–2007, 2015–), from Kharkiv and Tartak (1994–), from Lutsk. Ukrainian hip hop is seen as a vehicle for national, social, po­liti­cal, and ethnic identity, ­whether through lyr­ics, language choice, or musical stylistic influences. Ukrainian language hip hop (Ukrahop) groups include GreenJolly, TNMK, Tartak, Boombox, and Vova ZIL’vova (Volodymyr Parfeniuk, 1983–), the last from Lviv. Rus­sian language groups from Ukraine include 5’Nizza, Tuman (2001–), and Yuzhnyi Tsentral (n.d.) from Moskva. Terry Klefstad See also: Rus­sia; Young Paperboyz

Further Reading

Helbig, Adriana. 2014. Hip Hop Ukraine: M ­ usic, Race, and African Migration. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Wanner, Catherine. 1996. “Nationalism on Stage: ­Music and Change in Soviet Ukraine.” In Retuning Culture: Musical Changes in Central and Eastern Eu­rope, edited by Mark Slobin, chap. 8. Durham, NC: Duke Univeristy Press.

Further Listening

Tanok na Maidani Kongo (TNMK). 1998. Zroby meni hip hop (Make Me Hip Hop). Lavina Digital/Nova Rec­ords. Vari­ous Artists. 2006. Ukrainskymy slovamy: Zbirka Ukrainsko-­movnoho hip hop (With Ukrainian Words: A Collection of Ukrainian-­Language Hip Hop). Age ­Music Studios.

The United Kingdom The United Kingdom is a Northern Eu­ro­pean country that consists of ­Great Britain, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, as well as many smaller islands. The vast majority of the nearly 66 million ­people live in the United Kingdom are white Eu­ro­pean. ­There are small pockets of minorities of Asians, blacks, and mixed races, and since ­the United Kingdom has had a lengthy past of colonizing other countries, it has a strong diaspora rap scene. Hip hop quickly came to ­England in the early 1980s, just ­after the Sugarhill Gang’s (1979–1985, 1994–) hit “Rapper’s Delight” (1979) hit No.  3 on the U.K. Singles Chart. Earlier, the Fatback Band (1970–), an American funk, disco, and R&B band, had U.K. Singles Chart hits with “(Are You Ready) Do the Bus Stop” (1975) and “(Do the) Spanish Hustle” (1976), which reached Nos. 18 and 10, respectively.

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The United Kingdom has a lengthy musical heritage. Geo­graph­i­cal separation from the Eu­ro­pean continent led to dif­fer­ent ­music in ­Great Britain, despite the strength of continental influences. Some musical genres, such as the carol, developed first in ­Great Britain. Still, ­England had a tendency to make established continental genres its own. For example, in the late 1500s, Italian madrigals ­were popu­lar in ­England, but the texts ­were changed to En­glish, and the subject ­matter became lighter and humorous. During the late Baroque, one of the country’s most famous composers, George Frideric Handel (1685–1759), wrote En­glish language operas based on the Italian Baroque opera; he also made the Italian oratorio En­glish. The United Kingdom is also known for diverse traditional folksongs and folk instruments. By the 20th and 21st centuries, traditional instruments of the United Kingdom included Celtic fiddles, harps, bagpipes, penny whistles, and bodhráns. Some surviving traditional m ­ usic includes dance m ­ usic such as jigs, waltzes, and reels. Early popu­lar ­music included the broadside ballad (a narrative song), ­music hall numbers, and dance m ­ usic played by bands. By the m ­ iddle of the 20th ­century, the United Kingdom had its own popu­lar ­music charts and had a leading presence in the development of popu­lar ­music. By the turn of the 21st ­century, E ­ ngland was the place of origin for numerous musical genres and styles that are related to hip hop. ­These include dubstep, drum and bass, grime, bhangra-­beat, chap hop, trip hop, and trance. ­England also has a leading presence in the development of experimental hip hop. Since the early 1970s, punk developed in ­England, and reggae-­influenced punk rock ­music was already successful and helped pave the way for hip hop ­there. Early En­glish hip hop was influenced by Jamaican toasting. Some of the earliest examples include brief moments in new wave hits such as Adam and the Ants’ (1977–1982) “Ant Rap” from the band’s ­album Prince Charming (1981). A year ­later, Malcolm McLaren’s “Buffalo Gals” (1982), from the ­album Duck Rock (1983), became the United Kingdom’s first hip hop hit. The song features New York City’s World’s Famous Supreme Team (1980–1985*). The ­music, which also became a hit, featured scratching (turntablism) as well as rap. Other tracks from McLaren’s ­album contained scratching and sampling. Meanwhile, as graffiti and breakdancing ­were becoming commonplace, and club scenes started playing hip hop m ­ usic in urban London, DJ remixers Simon Harris (1962–) and Froggy (Steve Howlett, 1949–2008) established ­Music of Life (1986–), the United Kingdom’s first in­de­ pen­dent label that was devoted to hip hop. MANCHESTER, LEICESTER, BRISTOL, AND BIRMINGHAM Manchester is home to the Chemical ­Brothers (1995–) and Ruthless Rap Assassins (1987–1992). Both ­were a product of the “Madchester,” ­music scene, which included rappers such as MC Tunes (Nicholas William Dennis Hodgson, 1970–), techno and drum-­and-­bass musician A Guy Called Gerald (Gerald Simpson, 1957–), and techno bands such as 808 State (1987–). Drum and bass duo the Chemical ­Brothers debuted with Exit Planet Dust (1995), which was certified Platinum. Ruthless Rap Assassins rapped using British En­glish and sampled indie rock, reggae,



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pop, jazz, and classic rock, as well as funk and hip hop. Like the Roots (1987–) in the United States, the band was known for its live per­for­mances ­because it used traditional instrumentation (drum kits, guitars, bass, and keyboards). The band split up in 1992, and three of its members joined with Shaun Ryder (1962–) of Happy Mondays (1980–1993, 2004–) to form Black Grape (1993–1998, 2015–). Leicester hip hop acts include DJ SS (Leroy Small, 1970–), Jehst (William G. Shields, 1979–), Goldie (Clifford Joseph Price, 1965–), and Do’reen (Doreen Waddell, 1965*– 2002). Bristol hip hop acts include Nellee Hooper (Paul Andrew Hooper or Hoop, 1963–), Krust (Kirk Thompson, 1968–), Martina (Martina Gillian Topley-­Bird, 1975–), Poetic Pilgrimage (2002*–), Roni Size (Ryan Owen Granville, 1969–), Task Force (1999–), Tinie Tempah (Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu, 1988–), Tricky (Adrian Nicholas Matthew Thaws, 1968–), Us3 (1991/1992–), and Frankie Valentine (Franklin Barcey or Fraklyn Barzey, 1962–). Birmingham acts include the Streets (1994–2011*) and Krispy 3 (1987–). LONDON London is home to the largest hip hop scene in the United Kingdom, with many of its musicians, including rappers such as Slick Rick (1965–), DJ Rap (1969–), Dizzee Rascal (Dylan Kwabena Mills, 1984*–), and Sway (1982–), as well as rap and hip hop crews such as Coldcut (1986–), the Herbaliser (1995–), Urban Species (1992–2000, 2008–), and the Brand New Heavies (1985–), enjoying international fame. Slick Rick recorded in both ­England and the United States. Known for his storytelling raps and multiple characters, he saw initial success as MC Ricky D in Barbadian American beatboxer, rapper, and producer Doug E. Fresh’s (1966–) Get Fresh Crew (1985–2003). DJ Rap is a Singapore-­born En­glish DJ, composer, ­music engineer, m ­ usic producer, turntablist, and singer who combines drum and bass (jungle style), ­house ­music, EDM (electronic dance ­music), and ­later trip hop in her work. Dizzee Rascal was known for his contribution to the grime style of rap. Sway, of Ghanian descent, has had nine hit singles on the U.K. Singles Chart. His ­music has a strong focus on synthesizer, with beats placed further in the background, and he is known for chopper style rapping, notable for his speed, use of rapid triplets, and biography-­based storytelling. Coldcut is an electronic m ­ usic duo that has fused electronica with hip hop. The Herbaliser is an alternative hip hop group from London that fuses hip hop with jazz. Urban Species fuses hip hop with funk, reggae, dancehall, dubstep, ragga, acid jazz, R&B, soul, blues, and folk ­music. Urban Species’ sound resembles the eclectic alternative groups such as Soul II Soul (1987–1997, 2007–) from ­England and Arrested Development (1988– 1996, 2000–) from the United States. Other notable London-­based hip hop acts include 4hero (1989–), Akala (Kingslee James Daley, 1983–), Dave Angel (David Anglico Nicholas Gooden, 1966–), Asher D (Ashley Walters, 1982–), Asian Dub Foundation (1993–), Kid Batchelor (Lawrence Batchelor, 1968–), Dreem Teem (1994–), Fabio (Fitzroy Heslop, 1964*–), Fun-­Da-­Mental (1991–), General Levy (Paul Levy, 1971–), Grooverider (Raymond Bingham, 1967–), Insane Macbeth (Keith Rod­gers, 1970*–2016), Jazzy B (Trevor Breseford Romeo, 1963–), Ronny Jordan (Ronald Laurence Albert Simpson,

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1962–2014), Kenzie (James MacKenzie, 1986–), Soweto Kinch (1978–), London Posse (1986–1996*), Lowkey (Kareem Dennis, 1986–), M.I.A. (1975–), Ms. Dynamite (Niomi Arleen McLean-­Daley, 1981–), N-­Dubz (2000–2011), the Nextmen (2000*), Courtney Pine (1964–), Roots Manuva (Rodney Hylton Smith, 1972–), Scratch Perverts (1996–), Adrian Sherwood (Adrian Maxwell Sherwood, 1958–), Shut Up And Dance (1988–), So Solid Crew (1998–), Sonique (Sonia Marina Clarke, 1968–), Stereo MC’s (1985–), Young Disciples (1990*–), and ZooNation Dance Com­pany (2002–). STYLES The United Kingdom was home to vari­ous hip hop movements and new styles, such as dubstep, trip hop, bhangra-­beat, and chap hop. In the 1990s, dubstep, an electronic dance ­music genre, began in South London, introducing fans to experimental remixes that deemphasized vocals and placed the breakbeat, drums, and bass in the foreground. It started as a nightclub phenomenon, but by 2000, dubstep’s syncopated rhythm, 138 to 142 beats per minute (bpm), and wobble bass could be heard on radio. London-­based producers Benga (Adegbenga Adejumo, 1986–), Skream (Oliver Dene Jones, 1986–), Digital Mystikz (anonymous, n.d.), and Loefah (Peter Livingston, n.d.) started an evolution in dubstep that resulted in a darker,  more clipped and minimalist sound, and by 2005, BBC Radio 1 had dubstep-­dedicated shows. Baltimore-­based En­glish dubstep DJ Joe Nice (2002–) helped with cultivating and promoting dubstep in the United States. Trip hop came into prominence in the early 1990s in Bristol. The genre includes many of the foundations of hip hop, such as looped samples, scratches, and sequencing, but adds more melodic instrumentation and vocal content in the form of singing, with less emphasis on rap. It is characterized by laid-­back tempos and an artful multilayering of instruments, samples, and voices and an emphasis on atmosphere over text, and samples are used to c­ ounter the source material, especially in relation to tempo. Massive Attack (1988–), Sneaker Pimps (1994–2005, 2015–), and Portishead (1991–), as well as Tricky, pop­u­lar­i zed the style while adding their own ele­ments. Bhangra-beat was pop­u­lar­ized by West London–­based Panjabi Hit Squad (PHS, 2001–) and Coventry’s Panjabi MC (1973–). PHS, a collective of DJ/­ Producers, combined hip hop rhythms and beats with Indian bhangra vocals and instrumentation, BollyHood vocals, and Desi beats. In 2002, it collaborated on the single “Stolen (Dil)” with American rapper Jay-­Z (1969–), and in 2003, had an international hit with “Hai Hai,” which featured rapper Ms Scandalous (Savita Vaid, 1985–). Panjabi MC is known for the bhangra hits “Mundian To Bach Ke” (1998) and “Jogi” (2003). A remix version of the former, “Beware of the Boys,” featured Jay-­Z. Panjabi MC pop­u­lar­ized the combining of Western and traditional instruments such as tumbi, dhol, dholki, and tabla. He also uses both male and female singers and vocal samples in much of his ­music. Chap Hop, which vocally can be traced back to Slick Rick, became popu­lar around 2010, paired the language and rhythms of hip hop with the ­music, values, and aesthetics of the Chappist Movement, which emerged in the late 1990s. Chappism, which both paid



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homage to and parodied the idea of the proper En­glish gentleman, is epitomized in publications such as The Chap magazine, originated in the 2000s in parts of ­England. Typically, chap hop artists rap using Received Pronunciation En­glish (RP, also known as BBC En­glish), which is the Standard En­glish accent of the United Kingdom, and they employ the grammar and vocabulary of the Queen’s En­glish. Most chap hop tracks address En­glish cultural ste­reo­t ypes, such as cricket playing, pipe smoking, and tea drinking, and many involve the steampunk movement. The artists themselves dress in Victorian-­ or Edwardian-­era style clothing, such as tweed suits and fine hats, and many sport highly cultivated facial-­ hair styles, such as handlebar mustaches. Impor­tant chap hoppers include London’s Mr.  B the Gentleman Rhymer (1970–), Norwich’s Professor Elemental (1975–), and Poplock Holmes (anonymous, 1976–). NORTHERN IRELAND, WALES, AND SCOTLAND Northern Ireland’s hip hop scene is considerably smaller, with hip hop dance being more popu­lar than ­music production. Most of its hip hop scenes are in ­Belfast. If ­music is produced, its lyr­ics focus less on politics and more on local life, including partying, as well as on nonlocalized topics such as romance. Belfast rappers use the storytelling style of rap, and usually rec­ord in Belfast dialects of En­glish, as for example, local rapper Bee Mark See (Brendan McCarthy, n.d.), and Belfast-­born diaspora rapper, such as Jun Tzu (Jonathan Hamilton, 1986*–). Jun Tzu’s rap is more po­liti­cal since his ­father was imprisoned in Ireland for a de­cade, which is why he moved to Manchester, ­England. Some diaspora acts from Wales and Scotland moved to ­England, where they ­were had successful ­careers as ­rappers. These include MC Eric (aka Me One, Eric Martin, 1970–), from Cardiff, Wales and Silibil N’ Brains (1998*–), from Dundee, Scotland. Although he was born in Limerick, Ireland, Aphex Twin (Richard David James, 1971–) was raised in ­England. Others include English-­born Nigerian R&B and neo soul singer-­songwriter and producer Lemar (Lemar Obika, 1978), and female En­glish rapper and singer Baby Blue (Rachel Estelle Irene Prager, n.d.). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith and Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Chap Hop; Dubstep; Grime; India; Ireland; Trip Hop

Further Reading

Bramwell, Richard. 2015. U.K. Hip Hop, Grime, and the City: The Aesthetics and Ethics of London’s Rap Scenes. New York: Routledge. Gerard, Morgan, and Jack Sidnell. 2000. “Reaching Out to the Core: On the Interactional Work of the MC in Drum & Bass Per­for­mance.” Popu­lar M ­ usic and Society 24, no. 3: 21–39. Hall, Joanna. 2013. “Rocking the Rhythm: Dancing Identities in Drum ’n’ Bass Club Culture.” In Bodies of Sound: Studies across Popu­lar ­Music and Dance, edited by Sherril Dodds and Susan C. Cook, pp. 105–16. Burlington, VT: Ashgate. Mandaville, Peter. 2009. “Hip Hop, Nasheeds, and ‘cool’ Sheikhs: Popu­lar Culture and Muslim Youth in the United Kingdom.” In In-­Between Spaces: Christian and Muslim Minorities in Transition in Eu­rope and the M ­ iddle East, edited by Christiane Timmerman et al., pp. 149–68. Brussels: P.I.E. Peter Lang.

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­ ullivan, Paul. 2014. Remixology: Tracing the Dub Diaspora. London: Reaktion Books. S Wood, Andy. 2002. “Hip Hop.” In Companion to Con­temporary Black British Culture, edited by Alison Donnell, pp. 141–42. London: Routledge.

Further Listening

Aphex Twin. 2014. Syro. Warp Rec­ords. Asian Dub Foundation. 2003. ­Enemy of the ­Enemy. Virgin Rec­ords. Dizzee Rascal. 2013. The Fifth. Dirtee Stank Recordings. The Herbaliser. 2012. ­There ­Were Seven. Department H. Portishead. 2008. Third. Island Rec­ords.

The United States The United States is where rap originated, and despite its size, the country’s hip hop and rap scene is a local phenomenon. Rap began on the East and West coasts, in several New York City boroughs and in South Central Los Angeles, and moved its way across the United States as major labels emerged in New Orleans and Atlanta, and rap scenes became popu­lar in urban areas such as Oakland, California; Newark, New Jersey; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Miami, Florida; and Houston, Texas. The main exception to this rule was Hampton, ­Virginia (population 138,000), largely ­because of Jodeci (1988–1996, 2014–) member and producer DeVante Swing (Donald Earle DeGrate Jr., 1969–), whose Hampton-­based Swing Mob Collective included locals Missy Elliott (1971–) and Timbaland (1972–), as well as Ginuwine (Elgin Baylor Lumpkin, 1970–). Elliott and Timbaland netted five consecutive Platinum ­albums, and both have produced for vari­ous musicians over three de­cades; ­Virginia has also produced the very successful hip hop musician Pharrell (1973–), who has won 10 Grammy Awards and cofounded the production-­songwriting duo the Neptunes (1992–). WEST COAST RAP Los Angeles Although Philadelphia’s Schoolly D (Jesse Bonds Weaver Jr., 1962–), the Bronx’s Boogie Down Productions (1985–1992), and Newark’s Ice-­T (1958–) drew on gangsta themes, gangsta rap found its voice with the formation of Compton, California–­ based group N.W.A. (1986–1991). Rapper Eazy-­E (1963–1995) cofounded Ruthless Rec­ords and N.W.A., and both became the driving force ­behind gangsta rap. N.W.A. included Eazy-­E, Dr. Dre (1965–), Ice Cube (1969–), and Arabian Prince (Kim Nazel, 1965–), and its Platinum ­albums included Straight Outta Compton (1988) and Efil4za—­n (1991). Five years a­ fter the launch of Ruthless, Death Row Rec­ords (1991–2008) was cofounded by Dr. Dre, the D.O.C. (Tracy Lynn Curry, 1968–), and Suge Knight (Marion Hugh Knight  Jr., 1965–). Dr.  Dre, the D.O.C., and Michel’le (Michel’le Toussaint, 1970–) left Ruthless to join Death Row, which then dominated the rap charts with Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur (1971–1996), and Snoop Dogg (1971–). Gangsta rap became the most popu­lar subgenre of rap ­music in the 1980s



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and 1990s. It also became the target of intense criticism by elected officials and law enforcement, leading to labeling and censorship. Nonetheless, gangsta rappers such as Compton’s Most Wanted (1987–1993, 2015–) found commercial success and public notoriety. Gangsta rap evolved into vari­ous styles, the most popu­lar being G-­f unk (gangsta funk), which sampled funk ­albums of the 1970s and used a less aggressive tone, informed by a laid–­back vocal delivery. Grammy winning Coolio (1963–) saw his 1996 hit single “Gangsta’s Paradise” sell 5 million and rise to No. 1 in 15 countries. Los Angeles was also home of rap poetry, electronic dance rap, Chicano rap, and experimental turntablism. Aceyalone (1970–) recorded poetry and alternative hip hop. Hip hop and electronica rap stars Black Eyed Peas launched the ­careers of ­will.i.am (1975–) and Fergie (Stacey Ferguson, 1975–). Chicano rap combined Latin rhythms, hip hop beats, and gangsta rap, and Kid Frost (aka Frost, Arturo Molina  Jr., 1962–) pop­u­lar­i zed the style in 1990s Los Angeles. Trio Cypress Hill (1988–) became the first certified-­Platinum Latino American hip hop act. West L.A.’s Cut Chemist (1972–) became known for his sample–­based turntablism. Recent rap has become more socially conscious, as with the work of Compton-­based Grammy winner Kendrick Lamar (1987–). Hip hop dance styles that emerged in the Los Angeles area included clowning, krumping, and crip walking. Clowning and krumping ­were originated in Compton in 1992 with “Tommy the Clown” (Thomas Johnson, n.d.) as a way to motivate youth living in gang–­infested communities. Pioneering krumpers ­were Compton–­ based Big Mijo (Jo’ Artis Ratti, 1985–) and Tight Eyez (Ceasare Willis, 1985–) and Los Angeles–­based Lil’C (Christopher Toler, 1983–). On a more national stage, Don Campbell (1951–), a Midwestern dancer and choreographer, moved to L.A. and created the Campbellock (the prototype of locking). He starred on Soul Train (1971–2006) as part of the Lockers (1971–1976). In addition, the Electric Boogaloo was made famous by a West Coast dance crew called the Electric Boogaloos (1977–), which also appeared on Soul Train. Boogaloo Sam (Sam Solomon, 1959–) combined the dime stopping moves of locking and the associated stiff, rigid moves of roboting with moves that ­were so smooth, relaxed, and flowing that they gave the illusion that the dancer had no bones. Asia One (1971–), one of the best-­k nown b-­girls in the world, moved to Los Angeles in the 1990s to ­battle contemporaries Honey Rockwell (Ereina Valencia, n.d.) and Rokafella (1971–). Recently, L.A. became home to jerkin’ (aka ­Doing the Jerk), a dance that gained popularity on both the East and West coasts ­after New Boyz (2009–2013) and Audio Push (2006–) released associated songs. Northern California Northern California’s contributions to rap include the Oakland–­based Hip Hop Co­ali­tion (1997–), which promoted hip hop; it was led by Davey D (David Cook, n.d.), a nationally syndicated radio host and radio show producer. Oakland produced legendary hip hop acts such as MC Hammer (1962–), Michael Franti (1966–), Ant Banks (1966–), and Del the Funky Homosapien (Teren Delvon Jones, 1972–). MC Hammer is ­today considered the quin­tes­sen­tial old-­school rapper and dancer,

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having achieved icon status, winning three Grammys and selling over 50 million ­albums; Franti became leader of the hip hop, funk, reggae, jazz, folk, and rock band Michael Franti & Spearhead (aka Spearhead, 1994–); Ant Banks’s funk–­ influenced bass lines ­were influential on West Coast rappers; and Oakland’s Del the Funky Homosapien formed hip hop collective Hieroglyphics (1991–) and the Hiero Imperium (1997–) label. In addition, Sacramento’s Brotha Lynch Hung’s (1969–) debut horrorcore EP, 24 Deep (1993) helped pop­u­lar­ize horrorcore on the West Coast. Northern California is also known for its contributions to DJing and dance. San Francisco’s DJ QBert (1969–) performed regularly with San Francisco–­based childhood friend Mix Master Mike (1970–) and cofounded Invisibl Skratch Piklz (1989–2000, 2014–). Mix Master Mike became a Grammy Award winning turntablist and worked as DJ for Beastie Boys (1981–2012). San Jose’s DJ Shadow (1972–) used sampling on his innovative ­album, Endtroducing. . . . (1996). On the dance front, Fresno is the home of both Boogaloo Sam and his ­brother Pop’in Pete (1961–). Pop’in Pete was one of the original poppers, and both ­were first-­generation members of the Electric Boogaloos. EAST COAST RAP: NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY The earliest b-­boys included dance crews such as SalSoul (1974–1978) and Rockwell Association (1976–1978), consisting almost entirely of New York–­based Puerto Ricans. Ken Swift (1966–) started dancing in 1978; his first crew was the Young City Boys (1978–1980s), but he soon joined the Rock Steady Crew (RSC, 1977–), which also featured Crazy Legs (1966–) and Bronx-­based Frosty Freeze (1963–2008). An early example of rapping in ­music came from the Fatback Band (1970–), with “King Tim III (Personality Jock)” in 1979, considered by many as the first commercially released song with rap. The first song containing rap to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 was “Rapture” (1981), by New York punk and new wave band Blondie (1974–1982, 1997–). By this time, rap was becoming more common, and early rap recordings started to emerge: Barbados–­born Doug E. Fresh (1966–) became famous for his beatboxing and rapping during the 1980s, and LL Cool J (James Todd Smith, 1968–) released his first studio ­album, Radio (1985), inspired by the rap songs of the Treacherous Three (1978–1984) and the Sugarhill Gang’s (1979–1985, 1994–) “Rapper’s Delight” (1979), on Sugar Hill Rec­ords (1979–1985), led by Sylvia Robinson (1936–2011). His second ­album, Bigger and Deffer (1987), went ­triple Platinum. Beastie Boys (1980–2012) became one of the ­great crossover successes in early hip hop, coming into prominence ­after working with Rick Rubin (Frederick Jay Rubin, 1963–), founder of Def Jam Rec­ords (1983–). The band’s first studio ­album went multi-­Platinum. Two duos emerged midde­cade: EPMD (1986–1993) and Eric B. and Rakim (1986–1993, 2016–), both considered integral to the early development of rap m ­ usic. ­Toward the end of the de­cade, New Rochelle–­based Brand Nubian (1989–1995, 1997–) became known for its association with Islam and the Five Percenters, and Yonkers-­based DMX (1970–) went from beatboxing to rapping, as his first ­album, Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood (1988), was released on Def Jam Recordings.



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Jungle ­Brothers (1987–) began fusing old-­school hip hop with jazz, funk, electronica, dance, ­house ­music, R&B, and Afrobeat and became core members of the New York City hip hop collective Native Tongues (1988–1996), which included A Tribe Called Quest (1985–1998, 2006–2013, 2015–), De La Soul (1987–), and Black Sheep (1989–1995, 2000–2002, 2006–). As turntablism became more complex, DJs such as Roc Raida (Anthony Williams, 1972–2009) and turntablist collaboratives such as the X-­Ecutioners (1989–) became popu­lar. The 1980s transitioned into the 1990s with acts such as Brooklyn-­born Mos Def (1973–) and Staten Island–­based ­Wu-­Tang Clan (1992–). Mos Def ­later formed the duo Black Star (1997–) with Talib Kweli (1975–). Wu-­Tang Clan led to the ­careers of Ol’ Dirty Bastard (Russell Tyrone Jones, 1968–2004), Ghostface Killah (Dennis Coles, 1970–), Method Man (Clifford Smith, 1971–), and Raekwon (Corey Woods, 1970–). Collectively, members of the group have sold over 40 million rec­ords. More recent New York City–­identified hip hop acts include Atlanta native Kanye West (1977–) and Barbados-­born Rihanna (1988–). The Bronx Kingston, Jamaica, native Kool Herc (1955–) moved to the Bronx in 1967 and became the first hip hop turntablist. Having moved to the United States from Barbados, Grandmaster Flash (1958–) created Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (1976–1982, 1987–1988). He introduced using the beat box drum machine and custom–­built instruments, and worked with GrandWizard Theodore (1963–), who is credited with developing turntable scratching. KRS-­One (1965–) began recording in 1986 as part of the South Bronx–­based trio Boogie Down Productions (1985– 1992). Other impor­tant early hip hop acts to come out of the Bronx included Afrika Bambaataa (1957–) and Puerto Rican American rapper Big Pun (Christopher Lee Rios, 1971–2000). London-­born Slick Rick (1965–) moved to New York, where he teamed up with Doug E. Fresh’s Get Fresh Crew (1985–2003). Among more recent hip hop acts one of the most influential is the Welfare Poets (1997–), which introduced the fusion of Afro-­Caribbean bomba y plena and rumba, reggae, blues, bebop, cool and Latin jazz, and 1970s soul. The most famous DJ to come out of the Bronx was Mr. Len (1975–), best known for his role in Brooklyn-­based Com­pany Flow (1993–2001). Among breakdancers, the biggest name was Frosty Freeze. Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island One of the boroughs which saw early rap action, Brooklyn was the home of arguably one of the most skilled MCs in hip hop, Big ­Daddy Kane (1968–), who started as a member of the rap collective the Juice Crew All Stars (1983–1991). Brooklyn also produced Busta Rhymes (1972–) and Jay-­Z (1969–). Busta Rhymes was an 11-­ time Grammy nominee and went on to found the rec­ord label Conglomerate/­ Flipmode Entertainment (1994–), and Jay-­Z cofounded the in­de­pen­dent label Roc–­A–­Fella Rec­ords (1996–2013). Smif-­N-­Wessun (1993–) introduced a unique use of smooth jazz rhythm and Jamaican Patois. Nas (1973–) produced seven

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certified-­Platinum ­albums with an impressive charting rec­ord—­all have peaked in ­either the No. 1 or No. 2 position on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart. Shaggy (1968–), who moved to Brooklyn from Kingston, Jamaica, fused reggae with alternative rock, pop, R&B, dancehall, dubstep, and hip hop. Brooklyn also introduced an early successful female rapper, Lil’ Kim (1975–), known for her hypersexual per­for­mances; she was the only female member of Ju­nior M.A.F.I.A. (1992–1997), which was mentored and promoted by the Notorious B.I.G. (1972– 1997). Fab Five Freddy (1959–), a graffiti artist, rapper, and filmmaker, also emerged from the Brooklyn scene. Long Island may have been the home of diss rap, as Roxanne Shanté (1969–) launched the Roxanne Wars. The Bomb Squad (1986–) became the premiere American hip hop production group, best known for their work with Public ­Enemy (1982–). Public ­Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988) and Fear of a Black Planet (1990) became rap classics, and cofound­ers Chuck D (1960–) and Flavor Flav (1959–) joined Def Jam. Long Island’s De La Soul (1987–) debuted with 3 Feet High and Rising (1989), generally regarded one of the greatest hip hop ­albums of the 1980s. Queens-­based A Tribe Called Quest (1985–1993, 2006–2013, 2015–), the most commercially successful member of the Native Tongues Posse, achieved critical acclaim, especially for its 1991 a­ lbum The Low End Theory. Other early Queens hip hop acts included Run-­D.M.C. (1981–2002), MC Lyte (1971–), and Salt-­N-­Pepa (1985–2002, 2007–). Run-­D.M.C. achieved rap firsts: the first multi-­Platinum rec­ord and the first Grammy nomination. MC Lyte was one of the first ­women rappers to challenge sexism and misogyny. Salt-­N-­Pepa became one of the first all-­female hip hop groups to achieve both commercial and critical success, with a debut ­album that went Platinum. Recent Queens rappers include 50 Cent (1975–) and Nicki Minaj (1982–), two of the United States’ most desired rap acts. 50 Cent became a certified-­Platinum musician, and Nicki Minaj, originally from St. James, Trinidad and Tobago, became hip hop’s most successful and critically acclaimed female act ­after she signed with Young Money Entertainment (2005–). Manhattan (Harlem) Harlem produced a few highly influential acts. The Last Poets (1968–) became one of hip hop ­music’s earliest influences, introducing rapping, the MC, and beatboxing. Spoonie Gee (1963–) was known for his association with the Treacherous Three, which featured Grammy Award winner Kool Moe Dee (1963–). Kurtis Blow (1959–) was instrumental in mainstreaming hip hop. In 1980, he had the first certified-­Gold rap single, “The Breaks,” and he became the first rapper to appear on Soul Train. Kool Moe Dee started out his solo ­career in 1987 using an old-­school style, but then made the successful transition in 1989 to a more raw delivery, with extended lines and uneven rhythms. At the turn of the de­cade, two rap icons, Puff ­Daddy (1969–) and Tupac Shakur emerged, the former becoming a leading producer, performer, entrepreneur, and celebrity, and founder of Bad Boy Rec­ords (1993–), and the latter tying social consciousness with the gangsta ethos and becoming the most notable victim of the East and West Coast hip hop wars. Harlem was also the home of an influential rap style, new jack swing, which fused hip hop



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ele­ments with R&B, sometimes including funk and gospel. The most famous Harlem breakdancer was Popmaster Fabel (1965*–), who became a member of the Rock Steady Crew and introduced West Coast dance styles to the New York scene. New Jersey Even though New Jersey native Ice-­T moved to Los Angeles and helped establish gangsta rap, New Jersey’s rap scene emerged early. South Orange native Lauryn Hill (1975–) eventually earned five Grammy awards for her solo ­album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998), a collection of songs that bridge the gap between hip hop, soul, and R&B. She became famous for her collaboration with the South Orange–­based Fugees (1992–1997), which included Haitian-­born Wyclef Jean (1969–). Queen Latifah (1970–), from Newark, is known as the First Lady of Hip Hop ­because of her varied ­career, from being an Afrocentric and feminist rapper to a sitcom actor, film actor, talk show host, and jazz vocalist. In 1995, she cofounded her own label and management com­pany, Flavor Unit Entertainment. Though less commercially successful, Poor Righ­teous Teachers (1989–1996), from Trenton, was a trio that known for Five Percenter rap. New Jersey is also known as the home of Brick City club, a ­house ­music popu­lar from 1995–2000 that consisted of breakbeat m ­ usic strung together, along with repetitive sound bites to create high-­energy dance rhythms. THE SOUTH New Orleans New Orleans’ contributions to rap are due largely in part to two rec­ord labels, No Limit Rec­ords (1990–2003), l­ater revived as No Limit Forever Rec­ords (2010–) and Ca$h Money Rec­ords (1991–). No Limit was founded in Richmond, California by Master P (1970–), a New Orleans native who, along with his ­brothers, C-­Murder (1971–) and Silkk the Shocker (Vyshonne King Miller, 1975–), created vari­ous rap crews and solo acts. In addition, Master P launched the ­career of his son, Lil Romeo (Percy Romeo Miller, 1989–). Master P went on to found P. Miller Enterprises and Better Black Tele­vi­sion (2008–). As a rapper, he has released solo a­ lbums, as well as ­albums with the groups TRU (1995–2002) and 504 Boyz (2000–2005), the latter including Mystikal (Michael Lawrence Tyler, 1970–). In 1995, he moved No Limits to New Orleans and had breakthroughs with the ­albums True (1995), Ice Cream Man (1995), and Ghetto D (1997). C–­Murder is currently incarcerated but has released vari­ous ­albums and has founded the label Bossalinie Rec­ords (2000–). Ca$h Money Rec­ords was cofounded by Birdman (1969–) and produced Juvenile (Terius Gray, 1975–), Lil Wayne (1982–), Drake (1986–), and Nicki Minaj (Onika Tanya Maraj, 1982–). Lil Wayne went on to found his own imprint, Young Money Entertainment (2005–) and became one of the best–­selling artists in any genre. New Orleans is also home to Big Boy Rec­ords (1992–2000) and the home of a ­music style called bounce, which re­creates rap as dance party and regional ­music.

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Houston and Miami Houston’s main contribution to rap is the popularization of hardcore rap and horrorcore. About the same time that Detroit–­based Esham’s (Rashaam Smith, 1973–) debut ­album Boomin’ Words from Hell 1990 (1989) introduced horrorcore lyr­ics, Houston–­based Ganksta N–­I–­P’s (Lewayne Williams, 1969–) debut ­album The South Park Psycho (1990) was preparing rap fans for Geto Boys (1987–2005), who proved to be influential on both horrorcore and Dirty South. Original members Bushwick Bill (Richard Stephen Shaw, 1966–), Scarface (Brad Terrence Jordan, 1970–), and Willie D (William James Dennis, 1966–) went on to a successful solo ­careers, and the single “Mind Playing Tricks on Me” (1991) became a genre classic. Miami’s contribution to rap ­music was a style called Miami bass, best represented by the band 2 Live Crew (1982–1998) and its rapper/promoter Luke (1960–), who created a heavy bass, synthesized melodic and drum sound. Cuban American Pitbull (1981–) has released 10 a­ lbums since 2004 and has worked with Lil Jon (Jonathan Smith, 1971–).

Atlanta Atlanta is best known for the subgenres crunkcore and trap, the former a hybrid subgenre of electronica/dance–­pop, screamo, and crunk, and the latter being an extreme version of urban rap, concerned with gritty portrayals of urban street life. Atlanta’s other contribution, the 1990s Dirty South fad, was a rap style associated with regional slang and speech patterns, danceable beats, and pronounced bass. Snap and trap are two other m ­ usic styles that came out of Atlanta. Snap is an early to mid-2000s hip hop style derived from crunk. Popu­lar snap artists included D4L (2003–2006). Trap, related to crunk, mobb, and hardcore, took as its topic urban life, including vio­lence, drug deals, and the income gap. It spread from Atlanta to urban areas such as Houston and Memphis, Tennessee. Its signature sound is the product of two Atlanta producers, Shawty Redd (Demetrius Lee Stewart, 1981–) and Lex Luger (Lexus Arnel Lewis, 1991–). Atlanta is also the home of one of hip hop’s best agents, Wendy Day (1962–). Champaign, Illinois’ Ludacris (1977–) moved to Atlanta as a teen and worked with Timbaland, guest rapping on the 1998 ­album Tim’s Bio: From the Motion Picture Life from da Bassment. He ­later cofounded Disturbing Tha Peace Rec­ ords (2000–). His second ­album for Def Jam, Word of Mouf (2001), is a benchmark Dirty South ­album. Atlanta is the home of three influential hip hop artists, Bronx-­ born Swizz Beatz (1978–), hip hop trio TLC (1991–2002, 2014–), and Dirty South duo OutKast (1991–2006, 2014–). Swizz Beatz has worked with rap mainstays such as Busta Rhymes, Eve (Eve Jihan Jeffers, 1978–), and Jay-­Z. As a boy, he moved to Atlanta to live with two of his u­ ncles who established Ruff Ryders Entertainment (1988–2010), and in 2001, he created Full Surface Rec­ords. TLC included rapper Left-­Eye Lopes (1971–2002) and produced four Hot 100 No.  1 songs. RIAA-­certified-­Diamond OutKast (1991–2006, 2014–) fuses hip hop with funk, psychedelic ­music, drum and bass, electronica, techno/industrial hip hop, R&B, and gospel. It included star rappers André 3000 (André Lauren Benjamin, 1975–) and Big Boi (Antwan André Patton, 1975–).



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THE MIDWEST Although it has produced notable hip hop ­music and rappers, the Midwest has produced few influential rap movements or rec­ord labels. While Chicago is home to jazz and funk composer Herbie Hancock (1940–), spoken-­word artist Gil Scott-­ Heron (1949–2011), female rapper Da Brat (1974–), and more recent popu­lar rappers such as Chance the Rapper (1993–) and Common (1972–), it has lagged ­behind other urban areas in its rap scene. Hancock’s most famous connection to hip hop is his hit song “Rockit” (1983), which featured early turntablism (scratching). Scott-­ Heron, an influential jazz-­poet, is in many re­spects a rapper prototype, best known for his 1971 single “The Revolution ­Will Not Be Televised.” Da Brat (1974–) became the first solo female rap artist to have a certified-­Platinum ­album and single. Common became known for his verbose and socially conscious lyricism, and Chance the Rapper broke ­music industry barriers with his multimillion selling self-­released mixtape Coloring Book (2016). Other Midwest cities that contributed to hip hop w ­ ere Indianapolis, St. Louis, Detroit, Cleveland, and Kansas City. Indianapolis-­based Babyface (1959–) is an ­11-­time Grammy winner, known for working with L.A. Reid (Antonio Marquis Reid, 1955–), ultimately cofounding Edmonds Entertainment (aka Babyface Entertainment, 1997–). Senegalese American Akon (1973–) is a St. Louis musician whose 2006 ­album, Konvicted, was certified ­triple Platinum. Detroit’s claim to fame is that it is the ­adopted home of Eminem (1972–) and his rap crew D12 (1996–). St. Louis native Eminem began with D12, but went on to become one of the world’s top-­selling solo rappers, with six No. 1 solo studio ­albums on the Billboard 200. He is also the founder of New York City–­based Shady Rec­ords (1999–). Detroit can also claim producer J Dilla (1974–2006), known for working with benchmark artists such as A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Busta Rhymes, Common, Erykah Badu (1971–), the Roots (1987–), and the Pharcyde (1989–). Arguably, however, the biggest contribution to rap from the Midwest was the chopper (rapid) style of delivery. It began in the 1980s in urban areas such as Cleveland, Chicago, and Kansas City. By the early 1990s it had spread to California with the Proj­ect Blowed (1994–) movement, led by Aceyalone and his Freestyle Fellowship (1991–2011). Early prac­ti­tion­ers included Flint, Michigan’s the Dayton ­Family (1993–) and Chicago’s Twista (Carl Terrell Mitchell, 1973–), although Cleveland’s Bone Thugs–­n–­Harmony (1991–) was by far the best–­k nown of the early prac­ti­tion­ers of chopper. The style became even more popu­lar when Kansas City underground rapper/songwriter Tech N9ne (1971–), released a number of chopper–­ heavy collaborative singles.

THE NORTHEAST: PHILADELPHIA AND BOSTON Some of the earliest rap successes came out of Philadelphia. DJ Jazzy Jeff (1965–), a world DJ champion, cofounded the rap duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince. The duo won two Grammy Awards, with the ­album He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper (1988) ­going ­triple Platinum. Smith went on to have one of the most successful film ­careers in modern history. Philadelphia is also the home of the Roots and Jill

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Scott (1972–). The Roots have released 11 studio ­albums and a handful of collaborative ­albums with musicians such as John Legend (John Roger Stephens, 1978–) and Elvis Costello (Declan Patrick MacManus, 1954–), and has been the ­house band for Jimmy Fallon’s (1974–) Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (2009–2014) and The To­night Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (2014–) since 2009. Prolific singer-­ songwriter Scott became a benchmark alternative hip hop artist, fusing her beats with neo soul, R&B, jazz, and spoken word. North Dakota native but Pittsburgh-­ based Wiz Khalifa (1987–) has had two ­albums certified Platinum. Boston has been late to the rap scene, although the city can partly claim Philadelphia’s Bahamadia (1976–), who began her ­career by working with Boston-­then-­Brooklyn-­ based Gang Starr (1986–2006). A recent rap phenomenon is Worcester-­based (50 miles from Boston) Joyner Lucas (Gary Lucas, 1988–), whose 2017 mixtape 508–507–2209 has spawned two dialogue-­based singles, “I’m Sorry” and “I’m Not Racist,” which have garnered nearly 120 million YouTube views by mid 2018. NATIVE AMERICAN AND FIRST NATIONS Since its earliest years, hip hop artists who identify with being of Native American descent or of First Nations heritage have been involved in hip hop. For example, Melle Mel (aka Grandmaster Melle Mel, Melvin Glover, 1961–) is an African American rapper of Cherokee descent, who may have been the first Native American rapper. Other artists include Wu-­Tang Clan’s (1991–) founding member Ol’ Dirty Bastard (ODB, Russell Tyrone Jones, 1968–2004), who was of Shinnecock (Algonquian) descent. Another example is the Black Eyed Peas’s (1995–) Taboo (Jaime Luis Gomez, 1975–), a rapper, singer-­songwriter, and actor who is part Shoshone. All of ­these artists nevertheless lived in urban settings and their contributions do not focus on Natives or related themes. ­After urban Native American and First Nations American populations, hip hop reached Native Americans in more rural areas, including most reservations during the early 1980s. John Trudell’s (1946–2015) spoken-­word poetry and Russell Means’s (aka Wanbli Ohitika, Brave Ea­gle in Lakota, 1939–2012) rap-­ajo ­music (rap-­ajo is a term Means coined) served as precursors to what became known as Native American hip hop. Trudell was of Mexican and Santee Dakota descent and grew up on the Santee Sioux Reservation in Nebraska. ­After military ser­vice, he moved to San Bernardino, California and began his po­liti­cal activism ­after relocating to Berkeley, California. In 1969, he became the spokesperson for the United Indians of All Tribes’ (1970–) occupation of Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay, an island that is best known as the location of a federal prison from 1934 to  1969. He began broadcasting on a show called Radio F ­ ree Alcatraz ­u ntil 1971. Trudell then joined the American Indian Movement (AIM, 1968–), based in Minneapolis. As a multi-­instrumentalist and songwriter, Trudell recorded and performed with Jesse Edwin Davis (1944–1988), a guitarist of Kiowa descent, who formed their backing ensemble, the Graffiti Band (1985–1988*). This band accompanied Trudell’s songs and spoken-­word poetry, which focused on Native American conditions, history, advocacy, anger, and other prob­lems brought on by white man (including addiction, poor health, and poverty). It recorded the mixtape



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A.K.A. Grafitti Man on cassette in the 1980s, which was reissued in 1992. Trudell’s exemplary recording was Johnny Damas & Me (1994). Means, an Oglala Lakota and libertarian activist, writer, musician, and actor, was also a member of AIM and participated in the Alcatraz occupation. Among other AIM protests, he participated in seizing the Mayflower II, a replica of the original Mayflower, in 1970, in Boston, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in Washington, DC, and Wounded Knee in South Dakota. His recordings include the ­albums Electric Warrior (1993) and The Radical (­Album) (2007). His autobiography, Where White Men Fear to Tread, cowritten with Marvin J. Wolf, includes recollections of his ­father’s alcoholism, other ­family strug­gles, and his own issues with crime, drugs, and truancy, before finding his po­liti­cal activist calling. General subject m ­ atter of his rap-­ajo ­music was similar to Trudell’s; however, Means focused much more specifically on his ­people. Early Native American hip hop had its roots in 1970s reservation rock (aka rez rock) and punk, which included some rap. Some of ­these groups include Without Reservation (1970–1980)* and XIT (Crossing of Indian Tribes, 1971*–). Like earlier rez rock, most Native American hip hop prefers American vernacular. Native American languages are generally lightly explored. An early Native American hip hop act was RedCloud (Henry Andrade, 1978–), who ushered in the repre­sen­ta­ tion of Native Americans and Hispanic Americans into Christian hip hop in the early 1990s with his combination of gospel and West Coast hip hop. RedCloud took his name ­after the Lakota Chief who forced out the U.S. Army from the Powder River Basin. He is of Huichol and Mexican descent and was involved in Chicano gang activity and freestyle gangsta rapping in Los Angeles before converting to Chris­tian­ity. Early Native American hip hop focused on message rap and employed previously composed hip hop beats and samples, but it soon incorporated both real and ste­reo­typical Native American traditional ­music and instruments. As for the ste­reo­typical, the pan–­Native American notion of the powwow and its use of frame drums, chants, and singing vocables pulse through some Native American hip hop. This is sometimes employed in choruses or used for irony. In 1989, XIT’s new leader Tom Bee (n.d.) established Sound of Amer­i­ca Rec­ ords (SOAR, 1989–), the first Native American owned recording label. SOAR rec­ ords Native American folk, country, rock, new age, electronica, traditional, and hip hop ­music. Its cata­log includes the proj­ect group Robby Bee and the Boyz from the Rez’s Reservation of Education (1993), Julian B’s (Julian  B. Watson, n.d.) Once Upon a Genocide (1994) and Urban Skins volumes (1999*–), which fuse Native American hip hop with other kinds of ­music such as reggae and electronica. In live per­for­mances, Julian B has rapped in Muskogee. A con­temporary of ­these acts is the West Coast hip hop crew Funkdoobiest (1989–). Websites and Internet streaming devoted to Native American and First Nations hip hop have helped spread information about the ­music. In 1999, the first in­de­ pen­dent website with a database, REDHIPHOP​.­COM began. In 2000, NativeHipHop​ .­net superceded it. As a network, it invites new m ­ usic submissions. Just a few other Native American hip hop acts include female singer and rapper Solé (Tonya M. Johnston, 1973–), of Choctaw descent; rapper, recording executive, and actor Litefoot (Gary Paul Davis, 1969–), of Cherokee and Chichimeca

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(Mexican indigenous) descent; and ­later Ojibwe rapper Tall Paul (Paul Wenell Jr., 1988*–); Apsáalooke rapper and powwow dancer Supaman (aka Billy Ills, Christian Parrish Takes the Gun, n.d.) and his short-­lived group Rezawrecktion (2003– 2005); Sicangu Lakota rapper Frank Waln (aka Oyate Teca Obmani, Walks with Young ­People, 1989–); and LightningCloud (2010*–). The last is a duo of RedCloud and Canadian American rapper, singer-­songwriter, electro h­ ouse DJ, and actress Crystal Lightning (1981–), of Enoch Cree descent. Supaman is notable for his powwow dances, using brightly colored headdresses, as well as for his skills as a rapper. As with previous Native American artists, Supaman is also an activist. With Taboo he recorded “Stand Up/Stand N Rock #NoDAPL” (2017) and participated in the Dakota Access Pipeline protests (aka Standing Rock, #NoDAPL, 2016–2017). Another Native American hip hop artist is hardcore rapper Anybody Killa (aka ABK, Jaymo, Native Funk, Hatchet Warrior, Sawed Off, James Lowery, 1973–), of Lumbee descent and from Detroit. ABK fuses hip hop with funk and electronica. He began rapping in 1995 as Jaymo with his short-­lived first duo, Krazy Klan. By 2000, he was pursuing a solo ­career as Native Funk and released his debut ­album Rain from the Sun. This was followed by Hatchet Warrior (2003), which peaked at No.  4 on Billboard’s Top In­de­pen­dent ­Albums chart, No.  42 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart, and No. 98 on the Billboard 200. Other successful ­albums followed, all employing Native American hip hop, though he uses hardcore styles such as gangsta rap and horrorcore, ABK thoroughly weaves storytelling based on his Native American experience and his growing up and learning about Lumbee and Cherokee folklore into his lyr­ics. His rapping delivery stands out ­because of his lisp. His other a­ lbums are Dirty History (2004), Mudface (2008), and Medicine Bag (2010). A new ­album, Shape Shifter, is scheduled for 2018. Anthony J. Fonseca and Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Breakdancing; Chicano Rap; Dirty South; Filmmaking (Feature Films Made in the United States); Gangs (United States); G-Funk; Hip Hop Dance

Further Reading

Cramer, Jennifer, and Jill Hallett. 2010. “From Chi-­Town to the Dirty-­Dirty: Regional Identity Markers in U.S. Hip Hop.” In The Languages of Global Hip Hop, edited by Marina Terkourafi, chap. 10. New York: Continuum. French, Kenneth. 2017. “Geography of American Rap: Rap Diffusion and Rap Centers.” GeoJournal 82, no. 2: 259–72. Gosa, Travis L., and Erik Nielson, eds. 2015. Hip Hop and Obama Reader. Oxford, ­England: Oxford University Press. Mays, Kyle T. 2016. “Promoting Sovereignty, Rapping Mshkiki (Medicine): A Critical (Anishinaabeg) Reading of Rapper Tall Paul’s ‘Prayers in a Song.’ ” Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation, and Culture 22, no. 2: 195–209.

Further Listening

ABK. 2003. Hatchet Warrior. Psychopathic Rec­ords. Aceyalone. 1998. A Book of H ­ uman Language. Proj­ect Blowed. ATCQ. 1990. ­People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm. Jive. Beastie Boys. 1986. Licensed to Ill. Def Jam Recordings/Columbia Rec­ords. Beastie Boys. 1989. Paul’s Boutique. Capitol Rec­ords/Beastie Boys.



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Blige, Mary J. 1994. My Life. Uptown Rec­ords/MCA Rec­ords. Chance the Rapper. 2016. Coloring Book. Self-­released. Compton’s Most Wanted. 2001. When We Wuz Bangin’ 1989–99: The Hitz. The Right Stuff. Elliott, Missy. 2001. Miss E . . . ​So Addictive. Elektra. Eminem. 1999. The Slim Shady LP. Aftermath Entertainment/Interscope Rec­ords. Fugees. 1996. The Score. Columbia/Ruff­house Rec­ords. Invisibl Skratch Piklz. 2015. The 13th Floor. Self-­released. Jay-­Z. 2017. 4:44. Roc Nation. Kendrick Lamar. 2017. DAMN. Top Dawg Entertainment/Aftermath Entertainment/Interscope Rec­ords. Lil Wayne. 2011. Tha Car­ter IV. Ca$h Money Rec­ords. Nas. 1994. Illmatic. Columbia. Nicky Minaj. 2012. Pink Friday/Roman Reloaded. Ca$h Money Rec­ords. The Notorious B.I.G. 1994. Ready to Die. Bad Boy Entertainment. The Notorious B.I.G. 2007. Greatest Hits. Bad Boy Entertainment. N.W.A. 1988. Straight Outta Compton. Ruthless Rec­ords/Priority Rec­ords. OutKast. 1994. Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik. LaFace. OutKast. 2000. Stankonia. LaFace. Public ­Enemy. 1990. Fear of a Black Planet. Def Jam Recordings. Public ­Enemy. 1988. It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. Def Jam. Queen Latifah. 1989. All Hail the Queen. Tommy Boy. Run-­D.M.C. 1985. King of Rock. Profile Rec­ords. Tupac Shakur (as 2Pac). 1996. All Eyez on Me. Death Row Rec­ords. 2 Live Crew. 1989. As Nasty As They Wanna Be. Luke Skyywalker Rec­ords. West, Kanye. 2013. Yeezus. Def Jam Recordings. Wu-­Tang Clan. 1993. Enter the Wu-­Tang (36 Chambers). Loud Rec­ords/RCA.

The Universal Zulu Nation (formerly Zulu Nation, 1973–­, Bronx, New York) The Universal Zulu Nation was founded in the South Bronx, New York by then-­ high-­schooler Afrika Bambaataa (1957–), a gang (The Black Spades, 1968–) warlord who had just returned from a trip to Africa. He founded it in response to gang vio­lence, the Vietnam War (1955–1975), and the Kent State shootings (1970), in addition to consciousness-­raising events such as Woodstock (1969), the black unity movement, and flower power. Afrika Bambaataa and many of the early members came out of local gangs, organ­izing with the goal of creating a less violent means of community. While its development came at a time when street gangs ­were arguably already losing hold on the youth of New York, its formation is often credited with curtailing much of the gang activity in the South Bronx of the 1970s through the creation of diversions in the form of hip hop activities and the infusion of a positive message targeted at youth. Since its inception, the Universal Zulu Nation has grown into an international organ­ization aimed at promoting all aspects of hip hop culture and improving communities through hip hop.

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FORMATION AND ROLE IN HIP HOP AND COMMUNITY Originally called the Bronx River Organ­i zation, then the Organ­i zation, the group eventually ­adopted the name Zulu Nation, a name derived from the En­glish film Zulu (1964) produced by Paramount Pictures that inspired Bambaataa with its images of black ­people who ­were fighting for their rights against invading colonizers. The group attracted b-­boys, DJs, MCs, and graffiti artists, and early Zulu activities included hosting parties at the Bronx River Neighborhood Community Center. Originally informed by fear of gang culture, the parties largely became gang-­f ree zones where attendees ­were encouraged to re­spect one another. The Zulu Nation became known for raising awareness of black issues in the community and raising the self-­esteem of the young members with a focus on education and empowerment. As the group expanded internationally, the word “Universal” was added to its name. It promotes the four main ele­ments of hip hop—­DJing, MCing, b-­boying, and graffiti writing—­but, importantly, also insists on a fifth ele­ment, knowledge. This ele­ment contributes to the Zulu Nation’s support of education and growth in its young members. In 2016, allegations of child molestation (assaulting underaged boys) against Afrika Bambaataa and a cover up by the Universal Zulu Nation led to turmoil and restructuring, with him and other leaders removed from power. ­T hose leaders expressed hesitation about acting on the allegations, arguing that they had not been thoroughly investigated. In response, the group has since pledged to increase support for victims of molestation and other abuse. As of 2018, its website does not list a new group of leaders. Susannah Cleveland See also: Afrika Bambaataa; Gangs (United States); The United States

Further Reading

Fricke, Jim, and Charlie Ahearn. 2002. The Experience ­Music Proj­ect Oral History of Hip Hop’s First De­cade: Yes Yes Y’All. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. Forman, Murray, and Mark Anthony Neal, eds. 2012. That’s the Joint: The Hip Hop Studies Reader. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge.

Upper Hutt Posse (UHP, 1985–­, Wellington, New Zealand/Aotearoa) Upper Hutt Posse (UHP) was originally a reggae band named ­after the Wellington, New Zealand suburb where the band formed. It became the first band in New Zealand to fuse reggae and rap in both Māori and En­glish. In 1985, the Hapeta ­brothers—­singer, rapper, lyricist, guitarist, and keyboardist Te Kupu (aka D Word, Dean Hapeta, 1966–) and bassist, singer, and rapper MC Wiya (Matthew Hapeta, n.d.)—­formed the band. Inspired by the plight of the Māori, particularly the challenges they faced with discrimination and with the preservation of their culture and language, UHP fused the sociopo­liti­cal messages of reggae and rap within a New Zealand cultural context.



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EARLY INSPIRATION AND STUDIO RECORDINGS UHP has several major influences: legendary Jamaican reggae singer, songwriter, and guitarist Bob Marley (Robert Nesta Marley, 1945–1981); American jazz poet and jazz, soul, and funk musician Gil Scott-­Heron (1949–2011); and the American hip hop group Public ­Enemy (1981–). Te Kupu’s rapping style is inspired by the haka, a traditional Māori war chant and posture dance used to overawe any opposition. In 1988, singer Teremoana Rapley (1973–), also from Upper Hutt, joined the group before becoming part of the hip hop trio Moana and the Moahunters (1991– 1998) in 1993. UHP and Moana and the Moahunters have collaborated on many recordings and at concerts worldwide. In 1988, UHP released the first rap rec­ord in New Zealand, the 12-­inch hip hop single “E tū” (aka “Stand Proud”). The song has a sociopo­liti­cal message that borrows from Jamaican reggae musicians and black American musicians and writers; it also pays homage to Māori warrior chiefs during Aotearoa’s colonial period. “E tū” appeared on their first studio ­album Against the Flow (1989) and peaked at No. 44 on the New Zealand pop chart. The band continued to tour and perform in Wellington, including supporting Public ­Enemy’s 1990 concert ­there, but it took six years before their second ­album release, Movement in Demand (1995). In the meantime, Te Kupu codirected Solidarity (1992), a documentary on UHP’s visit to the United States. That same year, UHP released the non-­album single “Ragga Girl,” which was released with the film drama Once ­Were Warriors (1994) and peaked at No. 48 on the New Zealand pop chart. UHP IN THE 21st ­CENTURY Well into the 21st ­century, UHP continued its sociopo­liti­cal messages about the plight of the Māori in New Zealand, concerned with issues such as poverty and unemployment, as well as threats of losing language and culture. The 2000 a­ lbum Mā Te Wā was a digital reggae release completely in the Māori language. It was followed by the Te reo Māori Remixes (The Language Māori Remixes, 2002), which featured UHP’s previous hits—­some tracks redone as dubstep and drum and bass—­ also completely in the Māori language. In 2003, Te reo Māori Remixes won for Best Mana Māori ­Album at the New Zealand ­Music Awards. As new members have come, gone, and returned, UHP remains a band with five to seven core members still led by Te Kupu. Their subsequent studio ­albums include Legacy (2005), the electronica-­influenced Tohe (Endurance or Insist, 2010), and the live ­album Declaration of Re­sis­tance (2011). In 2016, UHP was awarded the Taite M ­ usic Prize. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: New Zealand; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Reggae

Further Reading

Allen, Chadwick. 2007. “Rere Ke/Moving Differently: Indigenizing Methodologies for Comparative Indigenous Literary Studies.” Studies in American Indian Lit­er­a­tures 19, no. 4: 1–26, 217.

748 Uprock Hapeta, Dean. 2000. “Hip Hop in Aotearoa/New Zealand.” In Changing Sounds: New Directions and Configurations in Popu­lar ­Music, edited by Tony Mitchell and Peter Doyle, pp. 202–07. Sydney, Australia: University of Technology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Johnson, Henry. 2010. Many Voices: ­Music and National Identity in Aotearoa/New Zealand. New ­Castle upon Tyne, ­England: Cambridge Scholars. Shute, Gareth. 2004. Hip Hop ­Music in Aotearoa. Auckland, New Zealand: Reed.

Further Listening

Upper Hutt Posse. 1989. Against the Flow. Southside Rec­ords.

Uprock Uprock, a derivative of rocking, is a type of ­music and dance that has deep-seeded roots in soul, rock, and funk. Its primary art is steeped in competitive hip hop dance, called battling, which began in the boroughs of New York City in the 1970s. The gist of uprock is to serve as a preparatory dance move, which can then lead into a breakdown, or break; it utilizes what are called “burn moves,” aimed at the other performer. ­Either two dancers or two dance teams face off inside of a circle, where they perform vari­ous dance moves which can grow in intensity and skill, ­after which an audience declares a winner via cheering. Uprock is the rhythmic set up for each member or team to perform the dance. It involves a series of back and forth motions, using steps which place one foot forward on a down beat and then pull back ­behind the dancer on the subsequent down beat, alternating between each foot. The arms also play an impor­tant role in that they are crossed in front of the body during the upright and back position, and then spread out and down when the foot takes its forward downbeat step. The opening up of the arms and forward step of the foot is used to challenge, or “front” the other team or dancer, with the invitation to outperform. This repetitive motion also allows a dancer or team to prepare a more intricate series of steps, which is then performed. Dances then end in a pop or a pose, usually held for a moment, before the dancer returns to the uprock dance move and retreats so that the opposing dancer or team can use its uprock dance move to lead into its competitive dance, in what is called “taking the floor.” Most of the time the uprock dance is performed to an iconic hip hop beat, with a 4/4 (qua­dru­ple) meter; in fact, the uprock dance is specifically designed for this beat. Samples from the ­music of James Brown (1933–2006), Beastie Boys (1981– 2012), Jimmy Castor (James Walter Castor, 1940–2012), and other 1960s and 1970s R&B and funk artists serve as underscoring for this classic dance. Dancers utilize hard downbeats and soft upbeats, with loose solo riffs of guitar, saxophone, or lyr­ics. Much of the singing contains staccato sounds effects and engineered hiccups, which inherently serve as jerks and burns for the dancer. Brown’s Sex Machine (1970) is one of the most used samples for uprocking, as the dancer can pop arms or kicks to accentuate the verbalizations (the repeated “ha” and “uh” heard throughout the song). In addition, early video of uprocking and rocking show the influence of swing dancing, soft shoe, and tap. All of ­these influences make uprocking one of the fan



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favorites in competitive hip hop dancing, where the ultimate goal is to “rock” the opposing dancer or team into an accentuated back and forth motion. Matthew Schlief See also: Battling; Breakdancing; Hip Hop Dance

Further Reading

Dodds, Sherril. 2016. “Hip Hop ­Battles and Facial Intertexts.” Dance Research 34, no. 1: 63–83. Sato, Nahoko, Hiroyuki Nunome, and Yasuo Ikegami. 2016. “Key Motion Characteristics of Side-­Step Movements in Hip Hop Dance and Their Effect on the Evaluation by Judges.” Sports Biomechanics 15, no. 2: 116–27.

Urban Species (1992–2000, 2008–­, London, E­ ngland) Urban Species is an En­glish band that fuses hip hop with funk, reggae, dancehall, dubstep, ragga, acid jazz, R&B, soul, blues, and folk ­music. It is best known for its hits from 1993 to 1999 that peaked between Nos. 35 and 56 on the U.K. Singles Chart (now the Official Singles Chart), “Spiritual Love,” “­Brother,” “Listen,” and “Blanket.” All but the last appeared on their debut studio ­album, Listen (1994), which peaked at No. 43 on the U.K. ­Albums Chart. Urban Species’ second and last studio ­album was Blanket (1998). Urban Species’ sound resembles the eclectic alternative groups such as Soul II Soul (1987–1997, 2007–) from ­England and Arrested Development (1988–1996, 2000–) from the United States. Though its sound was always a combination of hip hop, live rapping, reggae, and other kinds of ­music, Blanket marked a shift to more collaborative songwriting and a greater incorporation of trip hop, acid jazz, soul, funk, and electronic ­music. Lyr­ics ­were concerned with social injustice, romance, and ­music as escape. FORMATION, PERSONNEL, COLLABORATIONS Urban Species was originally an unnamed duo founded in 1988 in Tottenham, North London. It consisted of rapper Mintos (aka MC Mint, Peter Akinrinlola, n.d.) and DJ Renegade (Winston Small, n.d.), school friends who enjoyed listening to rap, electro, reggae, dancehall, blues, and rave ­music. Renegade’s first sampling materials came from his older ­brother’s funk and jazz rec­ord collection, and demos ­were home-­produced. In 1989, Urban Species released its first white label promo, “It’s My ­Thing.” The single developed a strong cult following with both underground and mainstream airplay in the United Kingdom and New York City. The duo’s repeated success with “Got to Have It” led to a recording contract in 1991 on the Talkin’ Loud label (1990–) in London. In 1992, the duo officially became Urban Species. By this time, the band added another school friend, rapper Dr. Slim (aka Doc Slim, Rodney Green, n.d.). The three wanted to perform live, adding local musician friends to play with DAT-­ recorded samples and beats.

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Urban Species

Releasing its studio a­ lbums Listen and Blanket, in addition to its EP Religion and Politics (1997), on the Talkin’ Loud label, led to Urban Species’ collaborating with artists such as French Senegalese–­Chadian hip hop and jazz rapper MC Solaar (1969–), En­glish singer-­songwriter, multi-­instrumentalist, and ­music engineer Imogen Heap (1977–), the En­glish hip hop and electronic dance group Stereo MCs (1985–), and En­glish rapper and vocalist Blak Twang (aka Taipanic, Tony Rotten, Tony Olabode, n.d.). Touring worldwide, engaging in hip hop education (particularly in Africa), and recording took their toll on the group, and by 1995, DJ Renegade had departed. By the recording of Blanket, Dr. Slim had also been replaced, by Tukka Yoot (n.d.). Between 2000 and 2008, Urban Species went on hiatus; however, its members re­united in 2008 and returned to touring and recording, working with producer Raw Deal (Jim Robins, n.d.). As of 2018, Urban Species is working on a third a­ lbum. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Dubstep; Reggae; The United Kingdom

Further Reading

Bradley, Lloyd. 2013. “ ‘If ­You’re Not Dancing, F—­Off.’ ” In Sounds Like London, chap. 8. London: Profile Books. Wood, Andy. 2002. “Hip Hop.” In Companion to Con­temporary Black British Culture, edited by Alison Donnell, pp. 141–42. London: Routledge.

Further Listening

Urban Species. 1994. Listen. Talkin’ Loud. Urban Species. 1998. Blanket. Talkin’ Loud.

V Venezuela Venezuela’s hip hop scene, which began in the mid-1990s, is tied to the country’s polarized politics since Hugo Chavez (1954–2013), a well known hip hop fan, took office in 1999, and is controlled by government censorship of radio. For some, the rap lifestyle has become dangerous ­because of the ­music’s criticisms of the government. Rappers often depict urban vio­lence in their lyr­ics, and hint at military crackdowns on ­f ree speech, both of which the government does not officially acknowledge. Several Venezuelan hip hop artists have been the victims of vio­lence. Rapper Onechot (Juan David Chacón, 1977*–) released the ­music video for “Rotten Town” in 2010, a song that depicted Venezuela’s capital city Caracas as “embassy of hell.”  In 2012, Onechot was shot twice in the head (he survived). Rather than investigating his shooting, authorities investigated his depiction of Caracas. Arguably the best known of all Venezuelan rappers, Maracay, Venezuela–­based Canserbero (aka El Can, Tyrone José González Orama, 1988–2015), whose ­album Muerte (Dead, 2012) is considered a classic, was killed in what was called a murder-­ suicide, although the hip hop community suspects other­wise. Despite threats, the country’s hip hop scene found outlets—­free downloads on the Internet and Venezuelan hip hop artists regularly tour Latin Amer­i­ca; their live per­for­mances, rather than rec­ord sales, are their primary source of income. Other impor­tant hip hop acts include male artists El Prieto (aka Prieto Gang, Colombia, Arvei Angulo Rivas, 1982–), McKlopedia (Ramsés Meneses, 1986*–), and Master (Jorney Madriz, n.d.), and female rappers include Gabylonia (María Gabriela Vivas Sojo, 1987*–). The Hip Hop Revolucion (HHR, 2003–), a co­ali­tion of hip hop groups, unites the community through several festivals and dozens of hip hop schools through the associated EPATU (2010–) arts and urban traditions program, where breakdancing, MCing, graffiti art, turntablism, and politics are taught five days a week. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Po­liti­cal Hip Hop

Further Reading

Carruyo, Light. 2005. “La gaita Zuliana [The Zuliana Bagpipe]: ­Music and the Politics of Protest in Venezuela.” Latin American Perspectives 32, no. 3: 98–111. Marsh, Hazel. 2016. Hugo Chávez, Alí Primera, and Venezuela: The Politics of ­Music in Latin Amer­i­ca. London: Palgrave McMillan.

Further Listening

Canserbero. 2012. Muerte (Dead). VinilHRec­ords.

752 Vietnam

Vietnam Hip hop culture in Vietnam ­faces numerous government obstacles such as censorship, threat of imprisonment, and retaliation against rappers whose ­music protests the current socialist government. Due to former colonial influence, American and French hip hop made it to Vietnam in the late 1980s. Early non-­English-­speaking Viet­nam­ese artists favored and phonetically imitated American rappers before creating their own Viet Rap, which uses Viet­nam­ese texts. Without access to beatmaking technology, early Viet Rap rappers would rap over American hip hop beats and samples. Though it is illegal to post videos that criticize the government, contain violent or sexual texts, or protest negative aspects of Viet­nam­ese life such as poverty and hunger, Viet Rap artists began circumventing government censorship by using streaming ser­vices by the late 1990s. Following the overthrow of French colonial administration and the Vietnam War (1955–1975) that unified North and South Vietnam, the communist regime imposed censorship on m ­ usic and artists critical of the government. Threats and reprisals against rappers are still a major concern ­under the current government. For example, in 2012, rapper and singer-­songwriter Viet Khang (aka, Minh Tri, Vô Minh Tri, 1978–) was sentenced to four years imprisonment for criticizing the government and posting onto YouTube his songs, “Anh Là Ai” and Viet Nam Toi Dau” (“Who Are You” and “Vietnam Where I Am,” both 2011). The first Viet Rap recording took place in the United States. Viet­nam­ese American Thai Viet G’s (Thai Minh Ngo, 1983*–) song “Viet­nam­ese Gang” (1997, ­later released on Portland Love, 2001) contained both En­glish and Viet­nam­ese texts. Other artists produced Viet Rap videos soon ­after. ­These included Saigon-­based Nah’s (aka Son Nah, Son Nguyen, 1991“DMCS” (aka “Dịt Mẹ Cong San,” “F—­ Communism,” 2015), which was released while he studying at Oklahoma State University. In the 2000s, two Viet­nam­ese rappers found international success and are now considered the King and Queen of Viet­nam­ese hip hop. Wowy (Nguyen Ngoc Minh Huy, 1989*–) avoids rapping about the government or social issues, opting for nonlocalized gangsta rap themes or focusing on Buddhist spiritualism and compassion. Suboi (aka Quiet Bunny, Hang Lam Trang Anh, 1990–), who raps in En­glish and Viet­nam­ese, released a 2016 video of herself freestyle rapping and interacting with then–­U.S. President Barack Obama (1961–). It went viral. Suboi learned En­glish while rapping to recordings by Eminem (1972–) and Snoop Dogg (1971–). Her lyr­ ics emphasize romance, social pressure, ­family, and daily life in Vietnam. On her studio ­albums, Walk (2010) and Run (2014), she circumvents censorship by employing words and phrases with double meanings. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: France; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop

Further Reading

Harfenist, Ethan. 2015. “Censorship ­Doesn’t Keep Vietnam’s Rappers from Speaking Their Piece.” Los Angeles Times, July 13. Olson, Dale A. 2008. Popu­lar M ­ usic of Vietnam: The Politics of Remembering, the Economics of Forgetting. New York: Routledge.



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The Virgin Islands The Virgin Islands are located between the Ca­rib­bean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, divided as the United States (mainly Saint Croix, Saint John, and Saint Thomas), British (mainly Anegada, Jost Van Dyke, Tortola, and Virgin Gorda), and Spanish (mainly Culebra and Vieques) Virgin Islands. The last, a territory of Puerto Rico, are also known as the Puerto Rican Virgin Islands. Overall, more current research is needed on the ­music of the Virgin Islands. The major centers for early Virgin Islands hip hop ­were Tortola and Saint Thomas, and by the mid-1980s, tourists and traveling citizens had brought hip hop ­music and films to the Virgin Islands and nightclubs had begun playing it. ­Because Jamaican reggae, pan-­Caribbean calypso, and American rock and jazz ­were the dominant musical tastes, 1990s hip hop was perceived as alternative ­music. Raps that do exist are in En­glish, often localizing gangsta rap themes, protesting against local socioeconomic issues, or emphasizing romance. ­Because ­there is virtually no ­music industry ­there, most Virgin Islands hip hop artists approach rap and  breakdancing as hobbies—­ creating mixtapes with rap over previously composed beats and samples and sharing among friends. The Virgin Islands are nevertheless the origin of several successful hip hop artists, many who also rec­ord reggae and R&B or infuse hip hop with t­hese ­music genres. Singer-­songwriter, rapper, and dancer Iyaz (Keidran Jones, 1987–) rec­ords hip hop, reggae, and R&B. The title track and “Solo” from Iyaz’s debut studio ­album Replay (2009) peaked at Nos. 2 and 32, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100. Songwriting and producing duo Rock City (aka R. City, Planet VI, 2003–) fuses hip hop with reggae, calypso, R&B, and pop. In 2006, Rock City began writing songs for pop and hip hop artists such Virgin Islands’ singer-­songwriter, rapper, and as Iyaz, Sean Kingston (Kisean dancer Iyaz’s musical style includes hip hop, Anderson, 1990–), and Rihanna reggae, and R&B. Iyaz’s “Replay” and “Solo” from (1988–). Rock City released sev- his studio ­album Replay (2009) became eral mixtapes and a debut studio international hits and peaked at No. 2 and ­album, What Dreams Are Made No. 32, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100. (Jun Sato/Getty Images) of (2015).

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Singer-­songwriter and producer Verse Simmonds (Maurice Simmonds, n.d.) moved to Los Angeles. He ­later formed the production duo the Jugganauts (1996*–) and has written for Jay-­Z (1969–), R. Kelly (1967–), and Kanye West (1977–), among ­others. In 2009, Verse Simmonds began his own solo ­career in Atlanta, Georgia with “Buy You a Round (Up and Down),” which peaked at No. 55 on the Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. Rappers Dem Rude Boyz (2013–) fuse gangsta rap and alternative hip hop with reggae and dancehall. Dem Rude Boyz moved to Atlanta and released Grindin’ the Mixtape (2014) on its own label, Dem Rude Boyz Entertainment (2013–). Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Jamaica; Reggae; The United Kingdom; The United States

Further Reading

Francis, Dale. 2014. The Quelbe Commentary: Anthropology in Virgin Islands M ­ usic. Bloomington: Iuniverse. Pinckney, Warren P. 1992. “Jazz in the U.S. Virgin Islands. American ­Music 10, no. 4: 441–67.

Further Listening

Iyaz. 2010. Replay. Beluga Heights/Reprise Rec­ords.

W The Welfare Poets (WP, 1997–­, Bronx, New York) The Welfare Poets (WP) is an American hip hop group-­turned-­collective that fuses Afro-­Caribbean bomba y plena (bomba and plena are kinds of Puerto Rican dance ­music that use percussion—­plena focuses on con­temporary events, including politics and satire), as well as rumba, reggae, blues, bebop, cool and Latin jazz, and 1970s soul, which it incorporates into its rap and slam poetry recordings. The band’s  musical roots are American, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Jamaican. Its influences include the pioneering hip hop collective the Last Poets (aka the Original Last Poets, 1968–) and poet/singer-­songwriter Gil Scott-­Heron (1949–2011). The group’s lyr­ics offer social and po­liti­cal commentary on issues such as race, police brutality, the economy, gentrification, and the environment, as well as criticism and protest of the U.S. government’s relations with Puerto Rico and its treatment of Puerto Ricans—­all in support of the Puerto Rican In­de­pen­dence Movement and the Black Liberation efforts. WP’s symbol is a two-­headed axe of Changó, a weapon of justice, with the red, black, and green Lares flag, suggesting the unification of oppressed ­people from the African Diaspora and Indigenous Amer­i­cas. Its members are often engaged in community education and local-­to-­global cultural activism. BEGINNINGS AND RECORDINGS In 1990, Rayzer Sharp (Raymond Ramirez, 1970–) and Hector Rivera (1971–) met at Cornell University and began writing poetry to be accompanied by congas and percussion instruments. But the Welfare Poets was not fully established ­until Rayzer and Rivera returned to their home, the Puerto Rican section of the Bronx, New York, where activist, trumpeter, and vocalist Poppa (Dahu Ala, n.d.) of Harlem and vocalist Angel Rodriguez (1954–) of the Bronx joined them. Rodriguez became the group’s arranger and contributed lyr­ics, while Ramirez, the group’s lead MC (emcee), wrote lyr­ics, published songs, and managed the group. WP’s ­albums took several years to come to fruition, as the tracks ­were honed through per­for­mances at workshops and during tours worldwide. Its first studio ­album, the self-­released Proj­ect Blues (2000), began in 1997 as a proj­ect for the band ­after an early expansion, adding bassist and Cornell friend Djibril Toure (n.d.) and guitarist Mike Angel (n.d.). Proj­ect Blues contained Scott-­Heron–­inspired lyr­ics about the group’s inner city New York community, accompanied by blues, Latin Jazz, and Caribbean-­influenced rhythms.

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The second ­album, Rhymes for Treason (2005), showcased WP’s transition into a collective. This a­ lbum was its largest ensemble recording, and it included songs such as “Sak Pase,” “The Media,” and “Freedom,” all of which further explored Afro-­Caribbean ­music and jazz. During the ­album’s release, the group toured Latin Amer­i­ca for the first time. Rodriguez and Ala left shortly afterward. WP’s two fundraising compilations, Cruel and Unusual Punishment (2006) and The Puerto Rican Freedom Proj­ect (2009), supported anti–­death penalty campaigns and raised awareness of Puerto Rican po­liti­cal prisoners and their families. The first compilation marked the addition of MC/emcee and hip hop producer the Legendary MIC (M. Pacheco, n.d.) from Harlem, and a former student of the collective’s hip hop workshops in the Bronx. The ­album featured over 20 musicians from around the world, and it was also the final proj­ect for founding members Rivera and Toure. In 2007, WP completed its first tour to Eu­rope. Warn Them (2009) features a smaller ensemble and is the group’s first ­album that is hip hop only, combining both old- and new-school styles. The backgrounds of the 16 tracks are a combination of beats, samples, and drumming, with Rayzer’s (and at times Legendary’s) rap and vocals in the foreground. The title track is representative of the themes addressed on the ­album, which include the prob­ lem of fake MCs in general, multinational corporations, and right-­wing governments, as well as negative commentary on social contradictions, polluting the environment, capitalism, and exploitation of oppressed ­peoples. “Warn Them” also marks the group’s first major ­music video release. Other tracks such as “Feel Something,” “So Alive,” and “Last of the Po’ Ricans” represent the group’s uplifting hip hop themes, such as surviving and even succeeding despite strug­ gles against the system; “Feeling” narrates a dream of encountering revolutionary figures. Between 2012 and 2013, its members toured and taught workshops in Iceland to assist refugees (mainly from Africa and the ­Middle East) with the organ­izations No Borders Iceland and Saving Iceland. Its members shot a documentary, No ­Human Being Is Illegal: The Story and Strug­gle of the Other Hidden ­People of Iceland (2013), as well as the video for “So Alive,” a track on its ­album Warn Them (2009). As of 2018, WP is still active and continues to attract a cult following, but have released only three a­ lbums. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Iceland; The Last Poets; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; Puerto Rico; Reggae; The United States

Further Reading

Cramer, Lauren M. 2017. “Pulse of the ­People: Po­liti­cal Rap ­Music and Black Politics.” Journal of African American History 102, no. 2: 285–87. Minister of Information JR. 2011. “Twentieth Anniversary of the Welfare Poets: An Interview wit’ Founding Member Rayzer.” The San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper, March 26. Saleh-­Hanna, Viviane. 2010. “Crime, Re­sis­tance, and Song: Black Musicianship’s Black Criminology.” In Popu­lar Culture, Crime, and Social Control, edited by Mathieu Deflem, pp. 145–72. Sociology of Crime, Law, and Deviance, vol. 14. Bingley, ­England: Emerald.



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Further Listening

WP. 2000. Proj­ect Blues. Self-­released. WP. 2005. Rhymes for Treason. Self-­released. WP. 2009. Warn Them. Poor Rican Productions.

West, Kanye (Kanye Omari West, 1977–­, Atlanta, Georgia) Kanye West is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and ­music producer known for his brash personality and thoughtful lyr­ics. His sound and style are experimental and flamboyant and have influenced other artists. Raised in a middle-­class lifestyle, he was not exposed to poverty, gang vio­lence, or drugs. In fact, his f­ ather was a photographer for The Atlanta Journal-­Constitution before becoming a church counselor and his ­mother was an En­glish professor. When he was three, his parents divorced, and he moved to Chicago with his m ­ other, eventually studying at Chicago’s American Acad­emy of Art and then transferring to Chicago State University to study En­glish. He dropped out of school at the age of 20 to focus on a ­music ­career.

FROM ENGLISH MAJOR TO ­MUSIC C ­ AREER West, who by 1996 was producing for local rap artists in Chicago, moved to New York City in 2001 to work with Roc-­A-­Fella Rec­ords (1996–2013). He wrote five songs for rapper Jay-­Z’s (1969–) ­album The Blueprint (2001), which included sped-up samples of classic rock and soul songs. Over 420,000 copies of the ­album ­were sold in its first week, and it became certified double Platinum. Its success led to West’s involvement in work by other hip hop artists, including Foxy Brown (Inga DeCarlo Fung Marchand, 1978–), Ludacris (1977–), and DMX (1970–). West lacked the gangsta image and background of other rappers, so multiple rec­ ord companies, including Capitol, rejected him. Roc-­A-­Fella eventually signed him. Despite a serious 2002 car accident, he recorded the single “Through the Wire,” setting the framework for his debut ­album, The College Dropout (2004), which juxtaposed gospel choirs and string arrangements against programmed drums; it produced two critically acclaimed singles, “Jesus Walks” and “Slow Jamz.” His debut ­album peaked at the No. 2 position on the Billboard 200, became certified t­ riple Platinum, and won the Grammy for Best Rap ­Album. West’s second ­album, Late Registration (2005), enjoyed similar success and accolades: It won Best Rap ­Album, Best Rap Solo Per­for­mance for the single “Gold Digger,” and Best Rap Song for “Diamonds from Sierra Leone.” He collaborated with film composer Jon Brion (1963–) for his sophomore ­album and incorporated complex samples and a live string orchestra, drawing inspiration from En­glish trip hop group Portishead (1991–). The ­album showcased West’s storytelling abilities and featured lyr­ics about poverty, blood diamond trades, self-­ reflection, and the U.S. healthcare system.

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­Eager to continue exploring vari­ous storytelling methods and to appeal to arena anthems, West drew inspiration from electronic ­music, ­house ­music, 1980s rock, the synth-­pop, and folk ­music for the sound and lyr­ics of Graduation (2007). Most of the lyr­ics convey West’s ambivalence ­toward his newfound fame and success, oscillating between extreme self-­confidence and intense self-­doubt. Graduation ended the reign of “gangsta” rap in mainstream media. TRAGEDY AND MORE RECENT ­ALBUMS Within months, in 2007, West lost his ­mother unexpectedly and had his engagement called off. The events influenced the content of his fourth ­album, 808s and Heartbreak (2008), for which he used an autotune vocal pro­cessor for lead vocals and the Roland TR–808 Rhythm Composer (a drum machine) to create a radical change in his style. He also experimented with a minimalistic, electronic R&B sound. West’s style continued to break away from the boasting and materialistic themes prominent in mainstream hip hop and rap, and his introspective lyr­ics for this ­album influenced artists such as Drake (1986–) and Frank Ocean (Christopher Edwin Breaux, 1987–). West implemented a maximalist style for his fifth ­album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010), which touched on themes of consumerism and race. He ­adopted a more aggressive sound for Yeezus (2013), adding components of acid ­house, punk rock, industrial ­music, and Chicago drill; its themes included modern race relations. The Life of Pablo (2016) features the vocal talents of a variety of artists, including Rihanna (1988–), Kid Cudi (Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi, 1984–), Chris Brown (1989–), and Kendrick Lamar (1987–), as well as ele­ments of gospel and soul. In 2018, West created a hip hop industry controversy when he expressed his support for President Donald Trump (1946–­; in office 2016–), despite what the industry saw as racist policies. Celeste Roberts See also: Estelle; The United States

Further Reading

Cullen, Shaun. 2016. “The ‘Innocent’ and the ‘Runaway:’ Kanye West, Taylor Swift, and the Cultural Politics of Racial Melodrama.” Journal of Popu­lar ­Music Studies 28, no. 1: 33–50. Lynne, Douglas. 2013. Kanye West: Grammy-­Winning Hip Hop Artist and Producer. North Mankato, MN: ADBO.

Further Listening

West, Kanye. 2004. The College Dropout. Roc-­A-­Fella Rec­ords. West, Kanye. 2008. 808s and Heartbreak. Roc-­A-­Fella Rec­ords. West, Kanye. 2013. Yeezus. Def Jam Recordings.

­will.i.am (William James Adams, 1975–­, Los Angeles, California) ­ ill.i.am is a rapper, hip hop and R&B singer, songwriter, keyboardist, rec­ord w producer, technology entrepreneur, and sometime actor. He is best known as one

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of the two original founding members of the Grammy Award winning group from Los Angeles, the Black Eyed Peas (1995), and has remained with the band its entire recording c­ areer. He has also released four moderately successful solo ­albums while also producing songs for other notable artists. Born William Adams in East Los Angeles, he was raised in housing proj­ects in one of the few African American families in a predominantly Hispanic community. He studied fashion merchandising. His first band was the socially conscious rap group Atban Klann (aka A Tribe Beyond a Nation or Tribal Nation, 1991–1995), which was signed to Eazy-­E’s Ruthless Rec­ords (1987–2010*) in 1992, but a first album, tentatively titled Grass Of all the founding members of the American ­ hip hop group the Black Eyed Peas, ­will.i.am Roots, never came to fruition. Along with other Black Eyed (pictured in 2006) has enjoyed the most Peas members—­apl.de.ap (Allan successful concurrent solo and production Pineda Lindo, 1974–), Fergie ­career. Among ­others, he has produced hip hop acts like Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, and Usher. (Stacy Ann Ferguson, 1975–), (KMazur/WireImage/Getty Images) and Taboo (Jaime Luis Gomez, 1975–), ­will.i.am has been the the recipient of seven Grammies, eight American ­Music Awards, and three World ­Music Awards. He was one of the group’s songwriters and was its main rapper and keyboardist. The band’s hit ­albums included Elephunk (2003), which peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard 200 and sold 8.5 million copies; Monkey Business (2005), which reached No. 2 and sold 10 million copies; and The E.N.D. (2009), which reached No. 1 and sold 11 million copies. Its hit songs included “Where Is the Love,” “Hey Mama,” “Let’s Get It Started,” “­Don’t Phunk with My Heart,” and “My Humps,” as well as three No. 1 songs, “Boom, Boom, Pow,” “I Gotta Feeling,” and “Imma Be.” His solo ­albums, many released while with the Black Eyed Peas, are Lost Change (2001), Must B 21 (2003), Songs about Girls (2007), and #willpower (2013). He has worked with Cartoon Network series creator Genndy Tartakovsky (1970–) on vari­ ous series soundtracks as well, and in 2008, he produced a po­liti­cal ­album, Change is Now: Renewing Amer­i­ca’s Promise, in support of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. His “Reach for the Stars” is the first song broadcast from Mars, by the Curiosity rover.

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His solo ­music and collaborations as a producer can best be described as high energy rave ­music, heavi­ly influenced by electronica and synth-­pop, with lots of vocal modulation, autotuning, sound-­bite usage, and sampling. He has produced songs with Ke$ha (Kesha Rose Sebert, 1987–), Eazy-­E (1964–1995), Britney Spears (1981–), Miley Cyrus (Destiny Hope Cyrus, 1992–), Lady Gaga (1986–), Nicki Minaj (1982–), and Michael Jackson (1958–2009), among many ­others. He often stars in videos featuring ­music that he produces, sometimes as a singer/performer and sometimes as the video’s main character. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Black Eyed Peas; The United States

Further Reading

Boucher, Geoff. 2006. “Minding the Peas: ­Will.i.am and His Mates Have Captured the Interest of Hip Hop Fans and Corporate Amer­ i­ ca.” Los Angeles Times, March 29, E1. Devitt, Rachel. 2008. “Lost in Translation: Filipino Diaspora(s), Postcolonial Hip Hop, and the Prob­lems of Keeping It Real for the ‘Contentless’ Black Eyed Peas.” Asian ­Music 39, no. 1: 108–34. du Lac, J.  Freedom. 2006. “The Prince of the Peas: His Group Took a Rap for Being More  Pop Than Hip Hop, but ­Will.i.am Adams Is Hot.” The Washington Post, April 22, C01.

Wiz Khalifa (Cameron Jibril Thomaz, 1987–­, Minot, North Dakota) Wiz Khalifa is an American rapper, singer-­songwriter, actor, and rec­ord sub-label owner based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has had four Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, with two reaching No. 1, “Black and Yellow (2010) and “See You Again” (2015), and one chart-­topping ­album on the Billboard 200, Blacc Hollywood (2014). In addition, his ­albums Rolling Papers (2011) and O.N.I.F.C. (2012) both ­were certified Platinum and reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200, with all three ­albums topping both the Rap and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts, spawning three No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs. No overnight success story, Khalifa released his digital (.mp3) mixtape debut Prince of the City: Welcome to Pistolvania and debut a­ lbum Show and Prove in 2006, both in conjunction with Pittsburgh-­based in­de­pen­dent label Rostrum Rec­ords (2003–), founded by Benjy Grinberg (n.d.), a former Arista Rec­ords (1974–2011) developer who wanted to create a label that would develop artists over time; Wiz Khalifa would form his sub-label, Taylor Gang, in 2008. ­After a short-­lived contract with Warner (1958–) in 2008, he returned to Rostrum and ihiphop Distribution (2009–) for the ­album Deal or No Deal (2009), which was bolstered by his opening for Wu-­Tang Clan (1992–) member U-­God (Lamont Jody Hawkins, 1970–) in a 2009 ­Music Marathon in New York City and his appearance at the 2010 South by Southwest ­Music Festival, at Soundset 2010, at Rock the Bells, and on the 50-­city sold-­out Waken Baken Tour. He achieved success in 2011, when he and Rostrum signed a distribution deal with Atlantic Rec­ords (1947–). This came from lots of hard work: while he was



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developing, Rostrum and Taylor Gang released several mixtapes, including Flight School (2009) and Kush and OJ (2010) for ­free download to create a fanbase for his laid back, trip hop (downtempo) melodies and slow-­paced rapping. Also in 2011, he won Best New Artist at the BET Awards. He then went on to collaborate with Curren$y (Shante Scott Franklin, 1981–), Miley Cyrus (Destiny Hope Cyrus, 1992–), and Juicy J (Jordan Michael Houston, 1975–) for his next studio proj­ects. In 2015, Wiz Khalifa toured with Fall Out Boy (2001–2009, 2013–). In 2016, he released the ­album Khalifa on his Taylor Gang label, in conjunction with Rostrum and Atlantic, but his relationship with Grinberg reached an impasse when he sued Rostrum for $1 million in compensation. The ­album was not commercially successful, failing to achieve Gold certification. As of 2018, an ­album tentatively titled Rolling Papers 2 is scheduled for release on the same labels. Wiz Khalifa has been an activist for legalization of cannabis—­ many of his songs are about marijuana. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: The United States

Further Reading

Gibbs, Adrienne Samuels. 2011. “Baking Brownies with Wiz Khalifa.” Ebony 66, no. 6: 34. Inkster, Becky, and Akeem Sule. 2015. “Drug Term Trends in American Hip Hop Lyr­ics.” Journal of Public M ­ ental Health 14, no. 3: 169–73. Pawson, Mark, and Brian C. Kelly. 2014. “Consumption and Community: The Subcultural Contexts of Disparate Marijuana Practices in Jam Band and Hip Hop Scenes.” Deviant Be­hav­ior 35, no. 5: 347–63.

Further Listening

Wiz Khalifa. 2011. Rolling Papers. Atlantic/Rostrum Rec­ords.

World Famous Beat Junkies (aka Beat Junkies, 1992–­, Long Beach and Los Angeles, California) World Famous Beat Junkies is a DJ crew currently located in Glendale, California, the location of its own DJ School, the Beat Junkie Institute of Sound (2017–). Originally called Beat Junkies, the crew was founded in 1992 by DJ and producer J-­Rocc (aka Chief Rocca, the Funky President, Jason Jackson, n.d.). Original core members included DJ Rhettmatic (Nazareth Nizra, n.d.) and Melo-­D (David Mendoza, n.d.). The most famous core member, Filipino American turntablist and producer DJ Babu (aka Babu, The Turntablist, Melvin Babu, Chris Oroc, 1974–), joined ­later, as well as Shortkut (Jon Cruz, 1975–) and D-­Styles (Dave Cuasito, 1972–), both ex-­members of San Francisco–­based rival DJ crew Invisibl Skratch Piklz (1989–2000, 2014–). By the early 1990s, the Beat Junkies competed at DJ ­battles in Southern California. It is a multiracially diverse crew known for stimulating a resurgence of interest in turntablism by developing advanced skills, its smooth beat juggling style—­creating an original composition by manipulating two or more samples, using two or more turntables and one or more mixers, its choreographed combinations that included intelligent and entertaining pauses, its practice of group

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lip-­syncing while scratching, and its creation of hiccoughing grooves. During late 1990s ­battles, the Beat Junkies mostly used regular scratching as the foundation of its sound, but with far less stress on uniformity (in-­sync scratching) than its East Coast pre­de­ces­sors such as the X-­Ecutioners (aka X-­Men, 1989–), which makes the Beat Junkies look relaxed in competition. Among many other ­battles and championships, individual members of the Beat Junkies won the Disco Mix Club (DMC) title as West Coast Champions with Shortkut (1994 and 1998), Babu (1995), and Rhettmatic (1996). In 1997 and 1998, the Beat Junkies won the International Turntable Federation (ITF) World Team Championships. Meanwhile, starting in 1997, the crew established its own recording label, Beat Junkie Sound, which produced individual members’ mixtapes and remixes before releasing D-­Styles’s instrumental hip hop and turntablist solo debut studio ­album, Phatazmagorea (2002). The crew retired from ­battles in 1998; however, as the World Famous Beat Junkies, it has judged many DMC Chamionships and DJ b­ attles and it has been committed to in-­person instruction of turntablist skills at all levels. Members continue recording solo proj­ects and collaborating with other hip hop artists. For example, DJ Babu has produced over a hundred ­albums and has performed as a member of the duo the Likwit Junkies (2003–2005) and the alternative hip hop trio Dilated ­Peoples (1992–). D-­Styles has appeared on ­albums by X-­Ecutioners’ member Rob Swift (1972–) and Japa­nese DJ Kentaro (Kentaro Okamoto, 1982*–), among ­others, in addition to producing X-­Ecutioners’ member Roc Raida’s (1972–2009) songs “Razorblade Alcohol Slide” on Crossfaderz (2000) and “The Murder Faktory” on Champion Sounds (2003). The World Famous Beat Junkies also continues to run its own rec­ord pool (to provide to members exclusive cuts and edits), clothing line, and radio station, Beat Junkie Radio (2015–). New members have joined the crew, though its core members remain. In early 2017, American actor, comedian, director, and podcast host Michael Rapaport (1970–), who won critical acclaim directing the documentary Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest (2011), in a popu­lar video posted on YouTube interviewed and performed with the crew at the the Beat Junkie Institute of Sound. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Battling; Dilated ­Peoples; DJ Babu; Turntablism; The United States; The X-­Ecutioners

Further Reading

Katz, Mark. 2012. “Turntablism: 1989–96.” In Groove ­Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ, chap. 5. New York: Oxford University Press. Smith, Sophy. 2013. Hip Hop Turntablism, Creativity, and Collaboration. Burlington, VT: Ashgate. Werde, William. 1999. “The Real Spin Doctors: Turntables in Hand, Mixmasters Live a Sample Life.” The Washington Post, February 7, G01.

Further Listening

D-­Styles. 2002. Phantazmagorea. Beat Junkie Sound. World Famous Beat Junkies. 2013. Beat Junkie Sound Pres­ents the Beat Junkie Picture Disc Collection. Beat Junkie Sound.



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Wu-­Tang Clan (1992–­, Staten Island, New York) The Wu-­Tang Clan is a New York–­based hip hop collective of MCs who represent one of the most respected groups in hip hop. With an aesthetic drawn from Kung-­Fu films, the name derives from the Hong Kong film Shaolin and Wu Tang (1983), a drama about two battling martial arts schools. In fact, Kung-­Fu forms impor­tant aspects of the band’s identity, underscoring common hip hop themes of self-­defense, identity, and ­battle. The collective also uses ele­ments of mafia culture, usually found in its samples and sound. FORMATION AND FIRST A ­ LBUMS The Wu-Tang Clan grew out of another group, the short-­lived All In Together Now Crew (1992), which included cousins RZA (Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, 1969–), GZA (aka The Genius, Gary Grice, 1966–), and Ol’ Dirty Bastard (ODB, Russell Tyrone Jones, 1968–2004). The addition of Ghostface Killah (Dennis Coles, 1970–), Method Man (Clifford Smith, 1971–), Raekwon (Corey Woods, 1970–), U-­God (aka Universal-­God, Lamont Hawkins, 1970–), Inspectah Deck (Jason Hunter, 1970–), and Masta Killa (Jamal Irief Elgin Turner, b. Elgin Turner, 1969–) led to the formation of the Wu-­Tang Clan. Dissatisfied with prospective rec­ord deals, the members agreed to chip in $100 each to rec­ord their first single, the self-­released “Protect Ya Neck” (1993). ­After touring successfully and seeing the single played on college radio stations, they signed to Loud Rec­ords (1991–2012), a then-­small in­de­pen­dent rap label in New York City. The se­lection of Loud, despite other offers, came about ­because of the label’s willingness to offer a small advance in exchange for the group’s maintaining creative control, as well as the freedom for individual members to sign deals with other labels; this arrangement supported Wu-Tang Clan’s ambition of subverting the usual conventions of the ­music industry, ensuring the greatest likelihood for all of the members’ subsequent commercial success. Collectively, members of the group have earned six Platinum a­ lbums and sold over 40 million rec­ords. The collective’s first release on Loud (the label that distributed the first four full Wu-­Tang Clan studio ­albums), Enter the Wu-­Tang (36 Chambers) (1993) introduced the martial arts themes and meta­phors that would pervade all of its ­music. Intended, in part, as a launching pad for the solo ­careers of all of the MCs, it was followed by just such success; individual members have recorded for a variety of labels, with the RZA producing or coproducing most releases. The first solo proj­ ect, Method Man’s Tical (1994), produced by Def Jam Recordings (1984–), which was certified Platinum the next year, proved the success of the freedom strategy and has been followed by multiple releases and side proj­ects by the other members that have seen both commercial and critical success. In 1997, the larger group reconvened for their second ­album, Wu-­Tang Forever, which sold heavi­ly immediately. Additional side proj­ects filled the time between that release and the next, The W (2000). The next full ­album, Iron Flag (2001) was recorded without ODB, who was in prison on numerous charges, including escaping

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for a month. In 2004, a final, live ­album and DVD that included previously released material, Disciples of the 36 Chambers: Chapter 1, came out shortly before ODB’s death. It represented the 36th Wu-­Tang ­family release and the last group ­album ­until their 2007 release on SRC, 8 Diagrams, which received a lukewarm response. Further releases Legendary Weapons (2011), produced by Entertainment One ­Music (2009–), a compilation ­album with some new material, and A Better Tomorrow (2014), on Warner Bros. Rec­ords (1958–) round out the widely available releases. LYRIC CONTENT, SOUND, MY­THOL­OGY, AND CLOTHING BRAND Lyrically, the Wu-­Tang Clan is known for gritty, urban rhymes that do not gloss over the real­ity of daily life in the ghetto. Each MC maintains his own vocal and poetic style that gives the band’s collective output a widely diverse sound. Each MC brings in other collaborators, supplementing his style with the efforts of other creators. Band members have brought Brooklyn and Staten Island, New York–­ based other acts, such as Sunz of Men (1994–), Cappadonna (Darryl Hill, 1969–), and Killarmy (1995–), ­under their wing, granting them the brand of the Wu-­Tang and supporting their work. Much of what makes the Wu-­Tang Clan dif­fer­ent from its contemporaries are the my­thol­ogy and storytelling that surrounds the collective. The band’s culture has become so robust that the RZA penned a guidebook, The Wu-­Tang Manual: Enter the 36 Chambers, Vol. One (2004), as a method to explain its mysteries. Acting as a master or a guide in the Manual, RZA takes the reader through the foundations of the first Wu-­Tang ­album, with illumination on the themes of spirituality, kung fu, and chess that pervade the rec­ord and resultant Wu-­Tang culture. In this work, he explains much of the symbolism that transmits meaning to the group’s oeuvre, from numerology to spiritual interpretation. In addition to the careful planning around recording, the Wu-­Tang Clan have managed its brand in more tangible ways, too. The launch of Wu-­Wear Clothing in 1995 allowed its members some control over distribution of clothing with the band’s logo in a brick-­and-­mortar store on Staten Island. Members also developed a comic book line, The Nine Rings of Wu-­Tang (Image Comics, 2001–) and a Kung-­Fu video game, Wu-­Tang: Shaolin Style (Activision Success, 1999), both of which sold successfully. A CONTROVERSIAL A ­ LBUM SALE A “secret” a­ lbum, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, of which only one copy, a CD, was pressed, was auctioned off and purchased in 2015 by controversial phar­ma­ ceu­ti­cal CEO and entrepreneur Martin Shkreli (1983–) for two million dollars; upon learning who the buyer was, the Clan donated a significant amount of the proceeds to charity. The group members’ public feuding about the marketing strategy around



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this release reflects growing public discord that has pervaded much of the press surrounding Wu-Tang Clan since the early 2000s. Susannah Cleveland See also: Black Nationalism; Fashion; Po­liti­cal Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Blanco, Alvin. 2011. The Wu-­Tang Clan and RZA: A Trip through Hip Hop’s 36 Chambers. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger. Bradley, Adam, and Andrew Dubois, eds. 2010. “The Wu-­Tang Clan.” U ­ nder “Part 3: 1993– 99: Rap Goes Mainstream” in The Anthology of Rap, pp. 532–69. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. RZA. 2004. The Wu-­Tang Manual: Enter the 36 Chambers, Vol. One. New York: Riverhead. RZA and Chris Norris. 2009. The Tao of Wu. New York: Riverhead.

Further Listening

Wu-­Tang Clan. 1993. Enter the Wu-­Tang (36 Chambers). Loud Rec­ords. Wu-­Tang Clan. 2001. Iron Flag. Loud Rec­ords/Epic.

Further Viewing

Salzy (Christoffer Salzgeber), dir. 2004. Wu-­Tang Clan: Disciples of the 36 Chambers: Chapter 2. New York: Wu Tang Productions/Sanctuary Rec­ords.

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X The X-­Ecutioners (aka X-­Men, 1989–­, New York City, New York) The X-­Ecutioners is an American turntablist and DJ crew that was originally known as the X-­Men and led by DJ Roc Raida (Anthony Williams, 1972–2009). The X-­Ecutioners are best known for their award-­winning turntablist skills, seminal turntablist innovations, and ability to revitalize turntablism during the Golden Age of Hip Hop (1986–1994)—­a time when MCs and rappers dominated hip hop’s foreground. As with beatboxing, turntablism was a live per­for­mance art that faced challenges when studio recording and engineering threatened to replace it. The X-­Ecutioners’ debut studio ­album X-­Pressions (1997) was the first full-­length a­ lbum that featured turntablism as its focus. The X-­Ecutioners ­were the first turntablist crew to have mainstream success, with a­ lbums that charted on the Billboard 200. The crew’s second and third studio ­albums, Built from Scratch (2002) and Revolutions (2004), peaked at Nos. 15 and 118, respectively. Both ­albums also peaked at Nos. 13 and 50, respectively, on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-­Hop ­Albums chart, which was dominated by rappers. In workshops and in films, the X-­Ecutioners w ­ ere active in educating the public about turntablism history and its techniques, as well as discussing its beat juggling combinations and patterns. Not only did members interview for the American documentary Scratch (2001), but the X-­Ecutioners made its own DVD, Built to Scratch (2004), which serves as a turntablist and DJ tutorial. The X-­Men originally formed with the intention to win the Superman ­Battle for World Supremacy, a turntablist ­battle that featured DJ and producer Clark Kent (Rodolfo Franklin, 1967–) as MC. The X-­Men began performing in Harlem, New York, as an 11-­member crew. The crew took its name a­ fter writer Stan Lee (Stanley Martin Lieber, 1922–) and artist Jack Kirby’s (Jacob Kurtzberg, 1917–1994) Marvel Comics (1939–) fictional 1960s comic book superheroes—­mutants born with superhuman capabilities (1963–). Some original members ­were Roc Raida; Johnny Cash (anonymous, n.d.); Sean C (aka Sean Cane, Deleno Matthews, n.d.); EPMD’s (1986–1993, 1997–1999, 2006–) first DJ, Diamond J (anonymous, n.d.); Dr. Butcher (Andrew Venable, n.d.); and Steve D (aka Steve Dee, Steve Thomas, n.d.). Around 1986, Steve D created beat juggling, which at the time he called “the funk.” The X-­Men adapted and developed beat juggling—­where two or more musical excerpts or samples (for example, a break, a drumbeat groove, or vocal or instrumental phrases) are used to create a new composition by manipulating them through looping, mixing and cross-­fading, pauses (cutting), scratching, or adding sound effects—­incorporating it into its ­battle and showcasing per­for­mances. The crew’s beat juggling per­for­mances, sometimes improvised, required both musical

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and choreographed physical timing as well as a sense of musical direction and focus while mixing and composing. Steve D and other founding members left the X-­Men, but by 1991, Rob Swift (Rob Aguilar, 1972–) had joined, followed in 1993 by Mista Sinista (Joel Wright, 1970–), both mentored by Dr. Butcher. In 1996, DJ Total Eclipse (Keith Bailey, 1977–) joined ­after winning the first ITF (International Turntablist Federation, 1996–) World Championship. In the meantime, members of the X-­Men established themselves by winning major turntablist ­battles such as DMC U.S.A. (aka Disco Mix Club), affiliated with the New York City Regional DJ ­Battle and the DMC World DJ Championships (1985–). Early recognition came to Rob Swift, who won the DMC East Coast DJ Championship the same year he joined the X-­Men; Mista Sinista would earn the same title in 1996. Other early recognition came to Roc Raida, who became the DMC U.S. DJ Champion (1994/1995) and World DJ Champion (1995). The X-­Men also participated, though they were defeated, in an ITF Team ­Battle, a showcase exhibit against the San Francisco turntablist crew, Invisibl Skratch Piklz (aka Shadow of the Prophet, 1989–). This showcase was captured on film, demonstrating that all X-­Men members scratched regular style and used their left hands mostly for scratching, and their right hands mostly for mixing. In 1997, the X-­Men signed a recording deal with Asphodel (1992–), an San Francisco experimental indie label that specialized in hip hop, electronica, and spoken word. Concerned with the possibility of facing a lawsuit with Marvel Comics over their name, the X-­Men became the X-­Ecutioners. By the time their debut ­album X-­Pressions was released (1997), the X-­Ecutioners consisted of four remaining members: Roc Raida; Rob Swift; Mista Sinista; and Total Eclipse. Though the ­album did not chart, its critical acclaim led to signing with the more prominent hip hop label Loud Rec­ords (1991–) and two ­later hit ­albums, Built from Scratch and Revolutions. Both ­ albums included collaborations with other turntablists and turntablist crews such as the alternative hip hop duo Gang Starr’s (1986–2003) DJ Premier (aka Preem, Premo, or Primo, Christopher Edward Martin, 1966–); Beat Junkies (aka World Famous Beat Junkies, 1992–) rappers such as Kool G Rap (Nathaniel Thomas Wilson, 1968–); and Wu-­Tang Clan’s (1992–) Ghostface Killah (Dennis Coles, 1970–) and Inspectah Deck (Jason Hunter, 1970–); as well as hip hop groups such as Cypress Hill (1988–) and alternative or indie post-­punk groups such as Tom Tom Club (1981–). Mista Sinista left in 2003 and Rob Swift left in 2004; both, as well as Roc Raida, focused on solo ­careers that included releasing more ­albums. Meanwhile, the X-­Ecutioners continued on by recruiting top turntablists. In 2004, DJ Precision (Perrin Wright, n.d.) and DJ Boogie Blind (Dameon Tompkins, n.d.) joined. Other new members into the 2010s included Exotic E (anonymous, n.d.) and Boogie Boy (formerly Booji Boy, anonymous, n.d.). Subsequent ­albums include the collaboration ­album General Patton vs. The X-­Ecutioners (2005) and Ground Xero (2008). The last is credited to Ill Insanity (2008–), a turntablist collective consisting of Rob Swift, with the X-­Ecutioners members Total Eclipse and DJ Precision. New members have also won major



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turntablist ­battles. Released just a year before his unexpected and untimely death, Roc Raida also produced, along with DJ Qbert (1969–), a founding member of Invisible Skratch Piklz. Since 2014, Rob Swift teaches DJ Skills and Styles is a Professor at the New School for Liberal Arts in New York City. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Battling; Invisibl Skratch Piklz; Rob Swift; Roc Raida; Turntablism; The United States

Further Reading

Katz, Mark. 2012. “Turntablism: 1989–96” and “Legitimacy: 1996–2002.” In Groove ­Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ. New York: Oxford University Press. Webber, Stephen. 2008. DJ Skills: The Essential Guide to Mixing and Scratching. Burlington, MA: Focal Press.

Further Listening

The X-­Ecutioners. 2002. Built from Scratch. Loud Rec­ords.

Further Viewing

Davis, Jake, dir. 2004. Built to Scratch. New York: Koch Rec­ords.

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Y Yemen Yemen’s hip hop scene was first cultivated by American Yemeni AJ (Hagage Abul-­ Gowee Masaed, 1963*–), who released his first rap song, “Yemen,” in 1997, followed by an ­album, Nights in Arabia (1999*). His beats and hooks incorporate distinctly Yemeni melodies and pop-­style orchestral riffs, with traditional instruments such as the oud and the mizmar, paired with hard-­driving rap verses. AJ collaborates with classical Yemeni singers Hussein Muhib (n.d.), Fouad Al-­Kibsi (n.d.), Fuad Al-­Sharjabi (n.d., founder of the 2007 Yemen ­Music House), Ibrahim Al-­Taefi (n.d.), and Abdurahman Al-­A kfash (n.d.). AJ’s “No Terrorists Please” (2010)*, featuring Hussein Muhib on the refrain, reaches across generations with its blending of rap and classical Yemeni ­music as it calls on government leaders to eliminate terrorism. In 2008, the French and German Cultural Centers and the Sana’a Governorate arranged the first Yemeni rap and hip hop dance workshop and competition in Yemen’s capital city Sana’a, for which winners received training from international artist-­judges in their fields. In 2009, the first public Yemeni Rap Festival occurred. Yemeni hip hop is often po­liti­cal, with songs before and ­after the Yemeni Revolution of 2011 that protested unemployment, economic conditions and government corruption. Rapper Kawi (anonymous, n.d.) and the band Wohoush al Yemen (Yemen’s Monsters, n.d.) w ­ ere active in the protests that led to the ousting of President Ali Abdullah Saleh (1942–) in 2012.

DANCE AND ART ELE­MENTS Yemeni hip hop culture includes rap, breakdancing (highlighted in the 2014 American documentary Shake the Dust), street art, and graffiti. Mohamed Al-­ Ansi (n.d.) encourages po­liti­cal mobilization through his street art at Change Square, a revolutionary encampment near Sana’a University, which is also a common site for the per­for­mance of protest ­music. Rock City breakdancing, founded by Farj Al-­Badani (n.d.) and Hussein Al-­Habashi (n.d.), blends Western hip hop moves with taekwondo, gymnastics, and traditional Yemeni dance. When the Rock City crew won the Sea of Talents competition (2012), they used prize money to expand training for local youth. Java Jamz (n.d.), a rap crew comprised of over 30 artists, was founded by Mohammed Hijazi (n.d.) and Suhail Al-­Doa’eis (n.d.), who pooled their funds to purchase recording and editing equipment. They used their studio space to make recordings and to train o­ thers in song writing, singing, dancing, and skateboarding, while spreading awareness for freedom and peace.

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FEMALE ARTISTS Amani Yahya, (1993*–) first performed at a coffee shop near her home in Sana’a, sparking outrage in conservative Yemeni society. Newspaper coverage of her ­per­for­mances with friend and guitarist Alaa’ Haider (n.d.), describing two ­women performing without hijab or abaya, led to anonymous threats to the w ­ omen. Amani, who learned from recordings of Lil Wayne (1982–), raps in En­glish, hoping to make the world aware of ­women’s rights, child marriage, and sexual harassment in Yemen. Monika (anonymous, n.d.), another aspiring female rapper, also feels pressure not to perform rap as a Yemeni ­woman. LYR­ICS AND MUSICAL INFLUENCE Many Yemeni rappers combine En­glish and Arabic lyr­ics. This is true both for Yemen-­based bands such as Military Mind (n.d.), Sari Killer (n.d.), and Mad Marino (n.d.), and for diaspora artists such as California-­based Smokie Almo (1989–), Nadir Mohammed Haidar (n.d.), and Moscow-­based Nadeem Al-­Eryani (aka Yung Sheikh, n.d.). Traditional Yemeni Jewish m ­ usic has influenced the rap of Diwon (Erez Safar, 1979–), a Yemeni American DJ whose ­music blends hip hop, Afrobeat, and Arab sounds. The Ele­ment ­Music Band (n.d.) releases YouTube grunge-­rap ­music with traditional Yemeni instruments and vocal melodies. Aspiring rapper Faris Othrub (1997–) participates with other Yemeni rappers in web forums where new Arab rappers learn from professionals. Jennifer L. Roth-­Burnette See also: Israel; Political Hip Hop; The United States

Further Reading

Seigneurie, Ken. 2012. “Discourses of the 2011 Arab Revolutions.” Journal of Arabic Lit­ er­a­ture 43, nos. 2–3: 484–509. Schuyler, Philip D. 1997. “Qat, Conversation, and Song: A Musical View of Yemeni Social Life.” Yearbook for Traditional M ­ usic 29: 57–73.

Further Viewing

Adam Sjöberg, dir. 2014. Shake the Dust. Toluca Lake, CA: Dave Stewart Entertainment. Bond/360.

Young Paperboyz (2007–­, Nigeria; Ukraine) Young Paperboyz is a Nigerian-­and Ukrainian-­based hip hop, R&B, electronic dance, and dance pop duo. While studying in the Ukraine for gradu­ate school, Nigerian students Mayor Boss (1986–) and Della Ratta (1987–) recorded a demo tape in 2007. The single got the duo, which took its stage name from a childhood nickname, noticed by local radio DJs, and the two continued to grow their fanbase through Facebook and other social media.



Young Paperboyz 773

Young Paperboyz released its first official single in 2008. “You Know” became a local hit, propelled mainly through radio airplay. Its success inspired the duo to follow up with a 13-­track debut ­album, Moving (2009), which spawned two other singles, “Rozkachai” and “Moving.” The ­album was well received not only in the Ukraine, but also in Nigeria and Germany. In 2010, Young Paperboyz released a second single, “Livin’ on the Edge,” leading to the band’s first Ukrainian tour. In 2010, the duo released a new, freely downloadable mixtape with 21 tracks, Young Paperboyz Lavish Life, as well as the single “Live it Up.” The next mixtape, Naija Boss, was released in 2012, ­after Mayor Boss’s graduation with a master’s of science degree in pharmacy, and was freely downloadable on SoundCloud, iTunes, Amazon, iHeartRadio, Google Play, and Spotify. This mixtape produced three singles, “Pop It Up,” “5 Million Girls,” and “Shake Am.” The duo’s long-­awaited second ­album, Naija Boss Techno Reloaded, was released in 2013. The ­music videos for the singles “Make Love, Hit It” and “Party ­People” ­were released. The duo’s third studio ­album, Life of the Boys, was released in 2015. It featured the single “Scrabble.” The Young Paperboyz’s sound can best be compared to that of the Black Eyed Peas (1995–) in that it emphasizes dance rhythms over song structure or lyr­ics, is highly autotuned (both singing and rapping are autotuned), and takes as its major concerns love, romance, sex, and partying. Rarely are ­there any songs about social or po­liti­cal concerns featured on the band’s studio a­ lbums. The duo’s videos generally emphasize lavishness—­stylish clothing, limousines, and adoring, scantily clad ­women. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Nigeria; Ukraine

Further Reading

Inyabri, Idom T. 2016. “Youth and Linguistic Stylization in Naija Afro-­Hip Hop.” Sociolinguistic Studies 10, nos. 1–2: 89–108. Shipley, Jesse Weaver. 2017. “Parody ­after Identity: Digital ­Music and the Politics of Uncertainty in West Africa.” American Ethnologist 44, no. 2: 249–62. Shonekan, Stephanie. 2012. “Nigerian Hip Hop: Exploring a Black World Hybrid.” In Hip Hop Africa: New African M ­ usic in a Globalizing World, edited by Eric Charry, chap. 7. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Further Listening

Young Paperboyz. 2012. Naija Boss. Mayor Boss Promotion.

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Z Zambia Zambia is a landlocked South African country that neighbors the Demo­cratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. Though Zambia has experienced rapid economic growth since the 2010s, freedom of speech is threatened and its Christian majority possesses extreme conservative views ­toward ­women and homosexuals. By the late 1980s, hip hop nevertheless arrived in Zambia, with activity taking place mainly in its capital, Lusaka. Zambian hip hop, which emerged by the early 1990s, ­favors En­glish, the country’s official language, but it also uses Lusaka’s main local language, Nyanja (Chewa). Song themes include politics, street vio­lence, romance, and HIV/AIDS. Some rap is religious (Christian themes). Pioneering hip hop acts included Chennai-­born and Zambian-­r aised ­rapper-­t urned-­playback-­singer Blaaze (Lakshmi Narasimha Vijaya Rajagopala Sheshadri Sharma Rajesh Raman, 1975–), Chilu Lemba (1975–), Holstar (aka The Host, The Holstar, Duncan Sodala, 1982–), ­Daddy Zemus (Anthony Kafunya, 1968–2001), and the Perth, Australia–­based Zambian rapper C.R.I.$.I.$. (aka Mr. Swagger, Chisenga Katongo, n.d.). The rap duo Black Muntu (1999–2005) increased the national popularity of hip hop with its debut a­ lbum Wisakamana (1999) and second a­ lbum Kokoliko (2002). As of 2010, the most popu­lar Zambian rap group is Lusaka-­based Zone Fam (2009–). In early 2011, its hit single “Shaka Zulu on ’em,” released on the ­album The Business (Foreign Exchange), led to international airplay. Zone Fam’s hardcore rapping style is mostly in En­glish, but includes Nyanja, Bemba, Tonga, and Zulu languages. The group fuses hardcore and alternative hip hop with R&B. Zone Fam, which includes its man­ag­er Holstar, has collaborated with Zambian rappers Slapdee (Mwila Musonda, n.d.) and Macky 2 (aka MK, DJ Bugar, Flava Boy, Mulaza Kaira, 1984–). Macky 2’s younger ­brother, Chef 187 (Kondwani Kaira, n.d.) is also a successful artist who fuses hip hop with R&B and kalindula—an energetic musical style that uses the kalindula, a Zambian crafted electric bass guitar that is also called a banjo. PilAto (Fumba Chama, 1984–), who has been arrested and received death threats for his harsh po­liti­cal rap against Zambia’s former President Michael Sata (1937–2014, in office 2011–2014), also fuses ­these styles. Other acts since the 2000s include Cleo (aka Cleo Ice Queen, Clementina Mulenga, 1989–) and Kan 2 (Kantu Habanji Siachingili, 1990–) two female rappers and singers who rec­ord hip hop, Afropop, and dancehall m ­ usic, as well as Just Slim (Paul Chilupe Banda, 1989–), B’Flow (Brian Mumba Kasoka Bwembya (1986–), Petersen Zagaze (Mukubesa Mundia, 1982–), and the Harare-­based

776 Zeus

Zimbabwean-­Zambian-­Ghanaian rapping crew 25toLyf (2014–). Another Zimbabwean-Zambian act is the Innovators (2000–), a rapping duo that formed in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Po­liti­cal Hip Hop

Further Reading

Mensah, Atta Annan. 1970. “The ­Music of Zumaile Village, Zambia.” African ­Music 4, no. 4: 96–102. Ntarangwi, Mwenda. 2007. “Hip Hop, Westernization, and Gender in East Africa.” In Songs and Politics in Eastern Africa, edited by Kimani Njogu and Hervé Maupeu, chap. 12. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: Nyota.

Further Listening

Zone Fam. 2011. The Business (Foreign Exchange). Slam Dunk Rec­ords.

Zeus (Game Goabaone Bantsi, 1986–­, Serowe, Botswana) Zeus is a Motswana motswako rapper, singer-­songwriter, creative writer, recording label owner, and philanthropist. In the early 2000s, while still in his teens, Zeus created his stage name based on his interest in Greek gods and the power­f ul all-­ father of Greek gods, as well as his desire to be a serious and respected MC. Typical of motswako artists, Zeus primarily interweaves rapping texts in Setswana—­a Tswana language that is Botswana’s lingua franca, which is also spoken by a large population in South Africa—­with American vernacular. He sometimes fuses motswako with reggae. Zeus has released three critically acclaimed studio ­albums: Freshly Baked (2009); The Flipside (2009), and African Time (2013). His debut and second ­album ­were released on his own label, D.I.Y. Entertainment (2007–) whereas his third ­album was released on the Universal ­Music Group (1996–) label. The label change signifies Zeus’s shift from recording in Gaborone, Botswana to Johannesburg, a move that is common among many Motswana musicians simply b­ ecause the m ­ usic industry is much larger in South Africa. His mixtape, Honey, I’m Home (2012), also features Zeus in the role of MC. His lyrical content focuses on unity, national pride, sociopo­liti­cal and economic commentary about South Africa, rapper braggadocio, and hate, among other topics. African Time has more serious content than the first two ­albums, with songs criticizing South Africa’s economic disparity (as one of richest nations for its resources) as well as offering uplifting messages about changing for the better. Zeus is a tenor, though he rarely sings but rather chants rapping texts with featured collaborators. Zeus’ ­music videos for national hits such as “Gijima” (2008), “Imagination” (2008), and “Champagne ­Music” (2010), and South African hit “#Datswasup” (2012) have also attained critical acclaim. His videos at times show parties, sexualized dancing, ­women being objectified, as well as scenes that address his lyrical content.

Zimbabwe 777

Zeus has collaborated with many notable South African musicians: motswako artist Hip Hop Pantsula (1980–), Tanzanian-­born rapper Tumi Molekane (1981–), and R&B, neo soul, and acid jazz singer-­songwriter and producer RJ Benjamin (Roy J. Benjamin, n.d.). South African motswako rapper Nomadic (formerly Mr T, Tebogo Mapine, n.d.), of Motswana descent, also a graphic artist, designed the ­album cover of Zeus’s African Time. Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith See also: Botswana; Motswako; South Africa

Further Reading

Ditsele, Thabo. 2017. “The Promotion of Setswana through Hip Hop and Motswakolistas.” Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa 14, nos. 1–2: 1–14. Rapoo, Connie. 2013. “Urbanized Soundtracks: Youth Popu­lar Culture in the African City.” Social Dynamics: A Journal of African Studies 39, no. 2: 368–83. Rapoo, Connie. 2014. “Reconfiguring the City: Con­temporary Youth Per­for­mance and Media Entertainment in Gaborone.” Botswana Notes and Rec­ords 45: 66–76.

Further Listening

Zeus. 2008. Freshly Baked. D.I.Y. Entertainment. Zeus. 2010. The Flipside. D.I.Y. Entertainment. Zeus. 2015. African Time. Universal ­Music Group.

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe is a South African country of 16 million who speak 16 official languages, including En­glish. Its capital and largest city is Harare. With a history of states and kingdoms, and brief colonization, it became a self-­governing annexed British colony in 1923 known as Southern Rhodesia (1923–1953). Briefly the United Kingdom consolidated Southern and Northern Rhodesia as the Central African Federation (aka Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (1953–1963), which was ultimately split Northern Rhodesia into Zambia and Nyasland into Malawi. In 1965, Southern Rhodesia gained in­de­pen­dence from the United Kingdom and became Rhodesia, followed by 15 years of a racially based civil war from 1964 to 1979 known as the Zimbabwe War of Liberation (aka Rhodesian Bush War, Second Chimurenga), which resulted in the end of white minority rule (Zimbabwe’s vast majority is Shona, followed by Ndebele, and tiny minority populations of white Africans of Eu­ro­pean descent and Africans of Indian descent). In 1980, a peace agreement established universal enfranchisement and the country’s official name—­ Zimbabwe, which was recognized by the UN. ­Under Prime Minister Robert Mugabe (1924–­, in office 1987–2017), Zimbabwe has become authoritarian, rife with ­human rights violations—­this has made it difficult for rappers to become mainstream, despite the fact that folk and popu­lar ­music dominate the Zimbabwean ­music scene. Traditional or folk ­music is essential to the country’s culture, used in ceremonies, work songs, and songs of protest. The main instrument is the mbira, which is a kalimba (thumb piano) set inside of a gourd or other material that acts as a resonator. Having made a comeback as an instrument,

778 Zimbabwe

the mbira has been recently incorporated into pop m ­ usic in Zimbabwe and around the world, as in the m ­ usic of Seattle-­based hip hop duo Shabazz P ­ alaces (2009–). Other impor­tant kinds of ­music include guitar styles such as jit (aka tuku ­music), sungura, and bulawayo, as well as flute-­based African jazz, chimurenga (modernized, sociopo­liti­cal mbira ­music), and gospel. Congolese rumba (souk) is also popu­ lar in Zimbabwe. A new style of ­music called urban grooves emerged in the late 1990s, fusing hip hop with American R&B and neo soul, and world ­music, including Zimbabwean popu­lar ­music. Early urban grooves acts include Maskiri (Alishias Musimbe, 1980–), Stunner (Desmond Chideme, 1980–), and Neville Sigauke (n.d.). Hip hop never became as popu­lar as Zimbabwean museve, Jamaican reggae, or South African kwaito. Some of the more popu­lar rap artists in Zimbabwe include pioneers Herbert Schwamborn (Herbert Qwela Schwamborn, 1973–) and Laygwan Sharkie (n.d.), who ­were both members of Harare-­based rap crew A Peace of Ebony (n.d.). Current popu­lar rappers include Harare-­based 25toLyf (2000–), which has members from Zimbabwe, Ghana, and Zambia and rap in En­glish; Comrade Fatso (Samm Farai Monro, n.d.); and duo Divided Kingdom Republic (2005–), who now rec­ord in Shona and En­glish from their home in London. Among breakdancers, the crew Crazy BOYZ Dance (2001–) became popu­lar in Harare. Among diaspora rappers, American Mizchif (Hechichamunorwa Mount Zion Kwenda, 1976–2014) became internationally famous. With Mugabe being deposed in a coup d’état by the Zimbabwe National Army in 2017, the fate of hip hop as of early 2018 is uncertain, as no one knows if the new regime ­under Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa (1942–­, in office 2017–) ­will be more lenient or possibly more authoritarian. Anthony J. Fonseca See also: Breakdancing

Further Reading

Chari, Tendai. 2009. “Continuity and Change: Impact of Global Popu­lar Culture on Urban Grooves ­Music in Zimbabwe.” Muziki: Journal of M ­ usic Research in Africa 6, no. 2: 170–91. Veit-­Wild, Flora. 2009. “ ‘Zimbolicious’: The Creative Potential of Linguistic Innovation: The Case of Shona-­English in Zimbabwe.” Journal of Southern African Studies 35, no. 3: 683–97.

Appendix 1: Frequently Mentioned Hip Hop Artists

Arranged in alphabetical order by stage name, this list contains internationally known hip hop artists and includes alternative stage names or nicknames as well as year and place of birth. ­These artists are mentioned frequently in this book. An asterisk by a date, place, or name indicates that the information was unverifiable. Aceyalone (Edwin Maximilian Hayes Jr., 1970–­, Los Angeles, California) Afrika Bambaataa (aka Afrika Bambaataa Aasim, Kevin Donovan, 1957–­, Bronx, New York) Akon (Aliaume Badara Thiam, 1973–­, St. Louis, Missouri) Allen, Harry (1964–­, Brooklyn, New York) Ant Banks (Anthony Banks, 1966–­, Oakland, California) Anwar, Joni (aka Joni Raptor, 1981–­, Bangkok, Thailand) Ashanthi (Ashanthi De Alwis, 1981*–­, Colombo, Sri Lanka) Ashanti (Ashanti Shequoiya Douglas, 1980–­, Glen Cove, New York) Asia One (Anonymous, 1971–­, Denver, Colorado) Awadi, Didier (aka DJ Awadi, Didier Sourou Awadi, 1969–­, Dakar, Senegal) Babyface (Kenneth Brian Edmonds, 1959–­, Indianapolis, Indiana) Bahamadia (Antonia Reed, 1976–­, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Banks, Azealia (1991–­, New York City, New York) Ben Sharpa (Kgotso Semela, 1979–­, Johannesburg, South Africa) Beyoncé (Beyoncé Giselle Knowles, 1981–­, Houston, Texas) Big D ­ addy Kane (Antonio Hardy, 1968–­, Brooklyn, New York) Big Pun (Christopher Lee Rios, 1971–2000, Bronx, New York) Birdman (aka Baby, Bryan Williams, 1969–­, New Orleans, Louisiana) Blige, Mary J. (Mary Jane Blige, 1971–­, Bronx, New York) Briggs (Adam Briggs, 1986–­, Shepparton, Victoria, Australia)

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Appendix 1

Brotha Lynch Hung (Kevin Danell Mann, 1969–­, Sacramento, California) Brothablack (Shannon Narrun Williams, 1978–­, Sydney, Australia) Bubba Sparxxx (Warren Anderson Mathis, 1977–­, LaGrange, Georgia) ­Bubbles (aka Hanifa, Hanifa McQueen-­Hudson, 1969–­, Wolverhampton, ­England) Busta Rhymes (aka Busta Rhymez, Trevor Smith Jr., 1972–­, Brooklyn, New York) Campbell, Don (aka Campbellock, 1951–­, St. Louis, Missouri) Chance the Rapper (Chancelor Jonathan Bennett, 1993–­, Chicago, Illinois) Christie Z-­Pabon (1969*–­, Pennsylvania*) Chuck D (Carlton Douglas Ridenhour, 1960–­, Queens, New York) C-­Murder (Corey Miller, 1971–­, New Orleans, Louisiana) Common (aka Common Sense, Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr., 1972–­, Chicago, Illinois) Coolio (Artis Leon Ivey Jr., 1963–­, Compton, California) Crazy Legs (Richard Colón, 1966–­, Bronx, New York) C-­Real (Cyril-­Alex Gockel, 1984–­, Hohoe, Ghana) Cut Chemist (Lucas MacFadden, 1972–­, Los Angeles, California) Da Brat (Shawntae Harris, 1974–­, Chicago, Illinois) Danger Mouse (Brian Joseph Burton, 1977–­, White Plains, New York) Davenport, N’Dea (1966–­, Atlanta, Georgia) Davey D (David Cook, n.d., n.p.) Davy D (aka Davy DMX, David Reeves, 1960–­, Beckley, West ­Virginia) Day, Wendy (anonymous, 1962–) DJ Babu (aka Babu, The Turntablist, Melvin Babu, Chris Oroc, 1974–­, Washington, DC) DJ Bobcat (aka Bobcat, Bobby Ervin, 1967–­, Los Angeles, California) DJ Jazzy Jeff (Jeffrey Allen Townes, 1965–­, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) DJ QBert (Richard Quitevis, 1969–­, San Francisco, California) DJ Rap (formerly Ambience, Charissa Saverio, 1969–­, Singapore) DJ Shadow (Joshua Paul Davis, 1972–­, San Jose, California) DJ Spinderella (Deidra Muriel Roper, 1971–­, Brooklyn, New York) DJ Vadim (aka ­Daddy Vad, Andre Gurov, One Self, Vadim Alexsandrovich Peare, Leningrad, U.S.S.R., now Saint Petersburg, Rus­sia, n.d.) DMX (Earl Simmons, 1970–­, Mount Vernon, New York) Doug E. Fresh (Douglas E. Davis, 1966–­, Christ Church, Barbados) Dr. Dre (Andre Romelle Young, 1965–­, Compton, California) Drake (Aubrey Drake Graham, 1986–­, Toronto, Canada* [possibly Memphis, Tennessee]) Eazy-­E (Eric Lynn Wright, 1963–1995, Compton, California) Eedris Abdulkareem (Eedris Turayo Abdulkareem Ajenifuja, 1974–­, Kano, Nigeria)



Appendix 1 781

EL (aka E.L., LOMI, Elom Adablah, 1986–­, Accra, Ghana) ELDee (aka eLDee the Don, Lanre Dabiri, 1977–­, Kaduna, Nigeria) Elliott, Missy (aka Misdemeanor, Melissa Arnette Elliott, 1971–­, Portsmouth, ­Virginia) Eminem (Marshall Bruce Mathers III, 1972–­, St. Joseph, Missouri) Enow, Stanley (aka Bayangi Boy, 1986–­, Bamenda, Cameroon) Erykah Badu (Erica Abi Wright, 1971–­, Dallas, Texas) Estelle (Estelle Fanta Swaray, 1980–­, London, ­England) Fab Five Freddy (aka Fab 5 Freddy, Fred Brathwaite, 1959–­, Brooklyn, New York) 50 Cent (Curtis James Jackson III, 1975–­, Queens, New York) Flavor Flav (aka Flav, William Jonathan Drayton Jr., 1959–­, Long Island, New York) Franti, Michael (1966–­, Oakland, California) Frosty Freeze (aka The Freeze to Please, Mr. Freeze, Wayne Frost, 1963–2008, Bronx, New York) Grandmaster Flash (Joseph Saddler, 1958–­, Bridgetown, Barbados) GrandWizard Theodore (aka ­G rand Wizzard Theodore, Theodore Livingston, 1963–­, Bronx, New York) Hancock, Herbie (Herbert Jeffrey Hancock, 1940–­, Chicago, Illinois) Heap, Imogen (Imogen Jennifer Heap, 1977–­, London, ­England) Hill, Lauryn (Lauryn Noelle Hill, 1975–­, South Orange, New Jersey) Hip Hop Pantsula (aka HHP, Jabba, Jabulani Tsambo, 1980–­, Mafikeng, now Mahikeng, South Africa) Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson, 1969–­, Los Angeles, California) Ice Prince (Panshak Henry Zamani, 1986–­, Minna, Nigeria) Ice-­T (Tracy Lauren Marrow, 1958–­, Newark, New Jersey) Iggy Azalea (Amethyst Amelia Kelly, 1990–­, Sydney Australia) Ivy Queen (Martha Ivelisse Pesante Rodríguez, 1972–­, Añasco, Puerto Rico) J Dilla (aka Jay Dee, James Dewitt Yancey, 1974–2006, Detroit, Michigan) Jam Master Jay (Jason Mizell, 1965–2002, Brooklyn, New York) Jay-­P (Paul Omiria Epeju, 1987–­, Kampala, Uganda) Jay-­Z (Shawn Corey Car­ter, 1969–­, Brooklyn, New York) Jean Grae (Tsidi Ibrahim, 1976–­, Cape Town, South Africa) Jesse Jagz (aka Jago, Jesse Garba Abaga, 1984–­, Jos, Nigeria) Jones, Quincy (aka Q, Quincy Delight Jones Jr., 1933–­, Chicago, Illinois) Keko (Jocelyne Tracey Keko, 1987–­, Tororo, Uganda) Ken Swift (Kenneth Gabbert, 1966–­, New York City, New York) Kendrick Lamar (Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, 1987–­, Compton, California)

782

Appendix 1

K’Naan (Keinan Abdi Warsame, Keynaan Cabdi Warsame, 1978–­, Mogadishu, Somalia) Kool Herc (aka Kool DJ Herc, DJ Kool Herc, Clive Campbell, 1955–­, Kingston, Jamaica) Kool Moe Dee (Mohandes Dewese, 1963–­, Harlem, New York) KRS-­One (aka KRS, Blastmaster KRS-­One, Teacha, Lawrence Parker, 1965–­, Bronx, New York) Kurtis Blow (Kurt Walker, 1959–­, Harlem, New York) Lil’ Kim (Kimberly Denise Jones, 1975–­, Brooklyn, New York) Lil Wayne (Dwayne Michael Car­ter Jr., 1982–­, New Orleans, Louisiana) LL Cool J (James Todd Smith, 1968–­, Bay Shore, New York) Ludacris (Christopher Brian Bridges, 1977–­, Champaign, Illinois) Luke (aka Luke Skyywalker, Luther Roderick Campbell, 1960–­, Miami, Florida) Marley Marl (Marlon Lu’ree Williams, 1962–­, Queens, New York) Master P (Percy Robert Miller, 1970–­, New Orleans, Louisiana) mc chris (Christopher Brendan Ward IV, 1975–­, Libertyville, Illinois) MC Frontalot (Damian Hess, 1973–­, San Francisco, California) MC Hammer (Stanley Kirk Burrell, 1962–­, Oakland, California) MC Lars (Andrew Robert Nielsen, 1982–­, Berkeley, California) MC Lyte (Lana Michele Moorer, 1971–­, Queens, New York) MC Opi (Janette Oparebea Nelson, 1971–­, London, ­England) MC Solaar (Claude M’Barali, 1969–­, Dakar, Senegal) Melle Mel (aka Mele Mel, Grandmaster Melle Mel, Melvin Glover, 1961–­, Bronx, New York) M.I. (Jude Abaga, 1981–­, Jos, Nigeria) M.I.A. (aka Maya, Mathangi Arulpragasam, 1975–­, London, ­England) Mix Master Mike (Michael Schwartz, 1970–­, San Francisco, California) Molekame, Tumi (aka MC Fatboy, Tumi, Stogie T, Boitumelo Molekane, 1981–­, Tanzania) Mos Def (aka Yasiin Bey, Dante Terrell Smith, 1973–­, Brooklyn, New York) Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer (James Burke, 1970–­, London, ­England) Mr. Len (Leonard Smythe, 1975–­, Bronx, New York) Naeto C (Naetochukwu Chikwe, 1982–­, Houston, Texas) Nas (aka Nasty Nas, Nasir Ben Olu Dara Jones, 1973–­, Brooklyn, New York) Nicki Minaj (Onika Tanya Maraj, 1982–­, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago) 9th Won­der (aka 9thmatic, Patrick Denard Douthit, 1975–­, Winston Salem, North Carolina)



Appendix 1 783

The Notorious B.I.G. (aka Biggie Smalls, Christopher George Latore Wallace, 1972–1997) Panjabi MC (Rajinder Singh Rai, 1973–­, Coventry, ­England) Pharrell (Pharrell Lanscilo Williams, 1973–­, ­Virginia Beach, ­Virginia) Pitbull (Armando Christian Pérez, 1981–­, Miami, Florida) Pop’in Pete (Timothy Earl Solomon, 1961–­, Fresno, California) Popmaster Fabel (Jorge Pabon, 1965*–­, Harlem, New York) Professor Elemental (Paul Alborough, 1975–­, Norwich, E ­ ngland) Professor Jay (formerly N—­a J, Joseph Haule, 1975–­, Songea, Tanzania) PSY (Park Jae-­sang, 1977–­, Seoul, K ­ orea) Puff ­Daddy (aka P. Diddy, Love, ­Brother Love, Sean John Combs, 1969–­, New York City, New York) Queen Latifah (Dana Elaine Owens, 1970–­, Newark, New Jersey) Queen Pen (Lynise Walters, 1972–­, Brooklyn, New York) Rihanna (Robyn Rihanna Fenty, 1988–­, Saint Michael, Barbados) Rob Swift (Robert Aguilar, 1972–­, Queens, New York) Robinson, Sylvia (Sylvia Vanderpool, 1936–2011, New York City, New York) Roc Raida (aka Grandmaster Roc Raida, Anthony Williams, 1972–2009, New York City, New York) Rokafella (Ana García, 1971–­, New York City, New York) Roxanne Shanté (Lolita Shanté Gooden, 1969–­, Long Island, New York) Sarkodie (Michael Owusu Addo, 1985–­, Tema, Ghana) Scott, Jill (1972–­, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Scott-­Heron, Gil (Gilbert Scott-­Heron, 1949–2011, Chicago, Illinois) Shaggy (Orville Richard Burrell, 1968–­, Kingston, Jamaica) Slick Rick (aka Rick the Ruler, MC Ricky D, Richard Martin Lloyd Walters, 1965–­, London, ­England) Smith, W ­ ill (Willard Carroll Smith Jr., 1968–­, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Snoop Dogg (aka Snoop Lion, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., 1971–­, Long Beach, California) Spoonie Gee (aka The Love Rapper, Gabriel Jackson, 1963–­, Harlem, New York) Suge Knight (Marion Hugh Knight Jr., 1965–­, Compton, California) Sway (Derek Andrew Safo, 1982–­, London, ­England) Swizz Beatz (Kasseem Dean, 1978–­, Bronx, New York) Talib Kweli (Talib Kweli Greene, 1975–­, Brooklyn, New York) Tech N9ne (Aaron Dontez Yates, 1971–­, Kansas City, Missouri) Tijoux, Ana (Ana María Merino Tijoux, 1977–­, Lille, France)

784

Appendix 1

Timbaland (Timothy Zachery Mosley, 1972–­, Norfolk, ­Virginia) Tuks Senganga (aka Tuks, Tumelo Kapadisa, 1981–­, Mafikeng, South Africa) Tupac Shakur (aka Tupac, 2Pac, Lesane Parish Crooks, 1971–1996) West, Kanye (Kanye Omari West, 1977–­, Atlanta, Georgia) ­will.i.am (William James Adams, 1975–­, Los Angeles, California) Wiz Khalifa (Cameron Jibril Thomaz, 1987–­, Minot, North Dakota) Zeus (Game Goabaone Bantsi, 1986–­, Serowe, Botswana)

Appendix 2: The 100 Most Influential Global Hip Hop Rec­ord Labels

This is a selective list of recording labels that specialize in hip hop, produce a large number of hip hop ­albums, and/or lead the initiative for producing hip hop in a country (giving the label a historical significance). This list includes year(s) of operation and location(s). Aftermath Entertainment (1996–­, Santa Monica, California) Akwaaba M ­ usic (2008–­, Accra, Ghana) Alerce (1976–­, Santiago, Chile) American Recordings (1988–­, Los Angeles, California) Asere Rec­ords (2002–­, Havana, Cuba) Asphodel (1992–­, San Francisco, California) Asylum Down (2012–­, Accra, Ghana) Babygrande Rec­ords (2001–­, New York City, New York) Bad Boy Entertainment (1993–­, New York City, New York) Bassivity ­Music (2005–­, Belgrade, Serbia) B-­Boy Rec­ords (1986–­, Bronx, New York) Blacksmith Rec­ords (2005–2012, New York City, New York) Boogie Down Productions (BDP, 1985–1992, South Bronx, New York) Bossalinie Rec­ords (2000–­, New Orleans, Louisiana) Calif Rec­ords (2000–­, Nairobi, K ­ enya) Capitol Rec­ords (1942–­, Los Angeles, California; see Redline Rec­ords) Ca$h Money Rec­ords (1991–­, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Miami, Florida) CashTime Life (2010–­, Johannesburg, South Africa) The Chap-­Hop Business Concern (2012–­, London*, E ­ ngland) Choco­late City (2005–­, Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria)

786

Appendix 2

Chrysalis Rec­ords (1969–­, London, ­England) Cobiana Rec­ords (2001–­, Washington, DC) Cold Chillin’ Rec­ords (aka Prism Rec­ords, 1986–1998, New York City, New York) The Conglomerate (aka Flipmode Entertainment, 1994–2011, 2011–­, Brooklyn, New York) Death Row Rec­ords (1991–2008, Los Angeles, California) Def Jam Recordings (1983–­, Queens, New York) Def Jam South (1999–­, New York City, New York) Definitive Jux M ­ usic (1997–­, New York City, New York) Delicious Vinyl (1987–­, Los Angeles, California) Disturbing tha Peace (DTP, 2000–­, Atlanta, Georgia) Duck Down M ­ usic (1995–­, New York City, New York) Elefant Traks (1998–­, Sydney, Australia) Face II Face Rec­ords (1993*–­, Houston, Texas) Ghetto Ruff (aka Ku Shu Rec­ords, 1991–­, Johannesburg, South Africa) Golden Era Rec­ords (2008*–­, Stirling, Australia) The Goldmind, Inc. (1997–­, New York City, New York) ­Grand Hustle Rec­ords (aka ­Grand Hustle Entertainment, 2002–­, Atlanta, Georgia) G-­Unit Rec­ords (2003–­, Santa Monica, California; see Interscope Rec­ords) Huh! Rec­ords (1995–­, Auckland, New Zealand) The Inc. Rec­ords (aka Murder Inc. Rec­ords, 1999–2012, New York City, New York) Interscope Rec­ords (aka Interscope Geffen, 1989–­, Santa Monica, California; see G-­Unit Rec­ords) Island Rec­ords (1959–­, Kingston, Jamaica; now headquartered in London, ­England) Jive Rec­ords (1981–­, New York City, New York) Jugoton (1947–­, Zagreb, Croatia) Karaļūdens (2013–­, Riga, Latvia) Kennis ­Music (1998–­, Lagos, Nigeria) Knirckefritt (2011*–­, Oslo, Norway) Koch Rec­ords (aka Entertainment One ­Music, 1987–2009, Port Washington, New York) Komuna (1985–­, Belgrade, Serbia) LaFace Rec­ords (1989–2001, Atlanta, Georgia) Loud Rec­ords (1991–2012, New York City, New York) Luke Rec­ords (1990–­, Miami, Florida) Machete M ­ usic (2005–­, San Juan, Puerto Rico; see Universal M ­ usic Group) Mapane Rec­ords (1998–2006, Yaoundé, Cameroon) Matador (1989–­, New York City, New York)



Appendix 2 787

Menart Rec­ords (1994–­, Ljubljana, Slovenia) Mo’ Wax (1992–­, London, ­England) Motherland Empire (2013*–­, Douala, Cameroon) New No Limit (2001–­, Los Angeles, California; see No Limit Forever and No Limit Rec­ords) Nika (1990–­, Ljubljana, Slovenia) Ninja Tune (1990–­, London, ­England) No Limit Forever (2010–­, Los Angeles, California; see New No Limit and No Limit Rec­ords) No Limit Rec­ords (1990–2003­, New Orleans, Louisiana; was headquartered in Richmond, California; see New No Limit and No Limit Forever) Obese Rec­ords (1995–2007, Melbourne, Australia) Pandisc ­Music Corporation (1981–­, Miami, Florida) Paradise Rec­ords (2000–­, Freetown, Sierra Leone) Priority Rec­ords (1985–­, Los Angeles, California) Profile Rec­ords (1980–­, New York City, New York) Rähinä Rec­ords (2003–­, Helsinki, Finland) Rap-­A-­Lot Rec­ords (1986–­, Houston, Texas) Rawkus Rec­ords (1995–2001, New York City, New York) Redline Rec­ords (2000–­, Stockholm, Sweden; see Capitol Rec­ords and Virgin EMI Rec­ords) Renegades of Bump (2010–­, Vilnius, Lithuania) Roc-­A-­Fella Rec­ords (1996–2013, New York City, New York) Ruff Ryders Entertainment (1988–2010, Yonkers, New York; see Ruff Ryders Indy) Ruff Ryders Indy (2010–­New York City, New York; see Ruff Ryders Entertainment) Ruthless Rec­ords (1987–2010*, Compton, California) Selfmade Rec­ords (2005–­, Düsseldorf, Germany) Shady Rec­ords (1999–­, New York City, New York) Shanachie (1976–­, Newton, New Jersey) Skillions Rec­ords (2008–­, Accra, Ghana) So Def Recordings (1993–­, Atlanta, Georgia) Spring Rec­ords (1967–1990*, New York City, New York) Sugarhill Rec­ords (1979–1985, Englewood, New Jersey) Talkin’ Loud (1990–­, London, ­England) Tee Productions (1995–­, Oslo, Norway) Tele­gram Rec­ords Stockholm (1987–2006, Stockholm, Sweden; see Warner Bros. Rec­ords) ­Today Is Vintage (2012–­, Malmö, Sweden)

788

Appendix 2

Tommy Boy Entertainment (aka Tommy Boy Rec­ords, 1981–­, New York City, New York) Universal ­Music Group (aka UMG, 1996–­, London, ­England; now headquartered in Santa Monica, California; see Machete M ­ usic, Universal Music Records, and Virgin EMI Rec­ords) Universal Music Records (1934–1996, Santa Monica, California; see Universal Music Group) Univision Rec­ords (2001–2008, Woodland Hills, California) Uptown Rec­ords (1986–1999, Harlem, New York) Urban Pacifika Rec­ords (1993–­, Auckland, New Zealand) Virgin EMI Rec­ords (aka EMI, 1931–­, London, ­England; see Universal ­Music Group) Volition (1984–2000s*, Sydney, Australia) Warner Bros. Rec­ords (aka WEA and Warner ­Music Group, 1958–­, New York City; was also headquartered in Hollywood, California; now headquartered in Burbank, California; see Tele­gram Rec­ords Stockholm) Wrasse Rec­ords (1998–2005, London, E ­ ngland) XL Recordings (1989–­, London, ­England) Young Money Entertainment (2005–­, New Orleans, Louisiana) Zomloa Rec­ords (aka Zomba M ­ usic Group, 1975–­, Yaoundé, Cameroon)

Appendix 3: Editor-­Recommended Top Hip Hop M ­ usic Videos Worldwide

Arranged by country of production and sometimes by artist’s origin, this list uses a global focus on hip hop videos produced. Also included are the names of the artists, the songs, and the ­albums on which the songs ­were released and each ­album’s release year. Algeria: Intik, “Soldat” (“Soldier”), released as a single (2009) Australia: Hilltop Hoods, featuring Montaigne and Tom Thum, “1955,” Drinking from the Sun, Walking u­ nder Stars Restrung (2016); 1200 Techniques, “Karma,” Choose One (2002) Australia and United States: Bliss n’ Eso, featuring Nas, “I Am Somebody,” Circus in the Sky (2013) Austria: Texta, “Die dramaturgie der ereigniße” (“The Dramaturgy of the Events”), Grotesk (2011) Belgium: Benny B, “Vous êtes fous!” (“­You’re All Crazy”), L’­Album (1990) Botswana and South Africa: Cashless Society, “Hottentot Hop (Bantu 1, 2),” African Raw Material, Vol. 1 (2003) Brazil: Racionais MC’s, “Diário de um detento” (“Diary of a Detainee”), Sobrevivendo no inferno (Surviving in Hell, 1997) Burkina Faso: Smockey, “Insoumission” (“Disobedience”), Pre’volution: Le président, ma moto et moi (Pre’volution: The President, My Motorcycle, and Me, 2015); Tim Winsey, “Zèssa,” Zèssa (2004) Cameroon: Stanley Enow, “Hein pére” (“Hey/All right, ­Father”), Soldier Like Ma Papa (2015) Canada: Drake, “Marvin’s Room,” Take Care (2011); K’Naan, “Take a Minute,” Troubadour (2009) Canada and Cambodia: Honey Cocaine, “Hella Illy,” Like a Drug (2014) Canada and United Kingdom: DJ A.P.S., “Tabba,” Bobby Friction & Nihal ­Pres­ent . . . ​(2004)

790

Appendix 3

China and United States: MC Jin, “Learn Chinese,” The Rest Is History (2003) Czech Republic: Gipsy.cz, “Žigulik,” Upgrade (2013) Denmark: Malk de Koijn, “Braget” (“Crash”), Toback to the Fromtime (2011); Outlandish, “Warrior // Worrier,” Warrior // Worrier (2012) Dominican Republic: La Materialista, “La chapa que vibran” (loosely, “The A—­ That Shakes”), Trayectoria (Trajectory, 2015) Ec­ua­dor: Mateo Kingman, “Sendero del monte” (“Mountain Trial”) and “Lluvia” (“Rain”), Respira (Breathe, 2016) France: Ana Tijoux, “1977,” 1977 (2009), and, featuring Shadia Mansour, “Somos Sur” (“We Are the South”), Vengo (I Come, 2014) France and South Africa: Chinese Man, featuring Tumi Molekane, “Once upon a Time,” The Groove Sessions, Vol. 3 (2014) Germany: Peter Fox, featuring the Cold Steel Drumline, “Alles neu” (“Every­thing Is New”), Stadtaffe (City Monkey, 2008); XAVAS, “Schau nicht mehr zurück” (“­I Don’t Look Back Anymore”), Gespaltene persönlichkeit (Split Personality, 2012) Greece: Imiskoúmbria (aka Imiz or The Semi Sardines), “To Voukolikó” (“The Duchess”), Ta imiskoúmbria (The Hemi­sphere, 1996) Guatemala: Kool Savas, “Aura,” Aura (2011); Rebeca Lane, “Reina del caos” (“Queen of Chaos”), released as a single (2017) Iceland: Quarashi, “Bassline,” Jinx (2001), and “Chicago,” released as a single (2016); Reykjavíkurdætur (­Daughters of Reykjavik), “Ógeđsleg” (“Disgusting”), RVK DTR (2016); Úlfur Úlfur, featuring Kött Grá Pje (Gray Cat), “Brennum allt” (“Burn Every­thing”), Tvær plánetur (Two Planets, 2015) India: Sofia Ashraf, “Kodaikanal W ­ on’t,” released as a single (2015) Indonesia: Batik Tribe, “Indo Yo . . . ​Ey,” Melangkah (Stepping, 2008) Iran: Salome MC, “Drunk Shah, Drunk Elder,” I Officially Exist (2013) Ireland: The Rubberbandits, “I Want to Fight Your ­Father,” released as a single (2011), and as “Ba mhaith liom bruîon le d’athair” (“I Want to Fight Your ­Father”), released as a single (2015); Rusangano ­Family, “Soul Food,” Let the Dead Bury the Dead (2016) Italy: Emis Killa, “Cult,” Terza stagione (Third Season, 2016) Latvia: Reinis Kapone, featuring ansis, “Gotham,” Katafalks (Hearse, 2017) Lithuania: G&G Sindikatas, “Tiems, kas raso” (“For T ­ hose Who Are Deaf”), Išvien (United, 2008) Mali: Mokobé Traore, “Mali Forever,” Mon Afrique (2007) Mexico: Control Machete, “Si Señor,” Artilleria pesada, presenta . . . ​(Heavy Artillery, Pres­ents . . . ​, 1999); Mare Advertencia Lirika, “Bienvenidx,” Siempre viva (Immortal, 2016) New Zealand: Moana and the Tribe, “Whole World’s Watching,” Rima (2014); Otara Millionaires Club, “How Bizarre,” How Bizarre (1995); ­Sisters Underground, “In the Neighbourhood,” Proud: An Urban-­Pacific Streetsoul Compilation (1994)



Appendix 3 791

Nigeria: Ice Prince, “Aboki” (“Friend”), Fire of Zamani (Fire of the Past, 2013); Iyanya, “Kukere” (“­Don’t Worry”), Desire (2013); Jesse Jagz, “Redemption,” Jagz Nation, Vol. 1: Thy Nation Come (2013), and “Murder Dem,” released as a single (2013) Poland: Donatan and Cleo, “Brać” (“Take” or “Assume,” among other pos­si­ble translations), Hiper Chimera (2014) Puerto Rico: Ivy Queen, “Vendetta,” Vendetta: The Proj­ect (2015) Senegal: Didier Awadi, “Ma révolution,” Ma révolution (My Revolution, 2011); Daara J F ­ amily, “Tomorrow,” School of Life (2010) South Africa: Die Antwoord, “Fatty Boom Boom” and “I Fink U Freeky,” Ten$ion (2012); Hip Hop Pantsula, “Mpitse” (“Miss Me”), Dumela (Believe, 2009); Tuks Senganga, featuring Thembisile, “Ticket to Jozi,” MC Prayer (2006) South ­Korea: PSY, “Gangnam Style,” Psy 6 (Six Rules) (2012); Tymee, “Cinderella,” released as a single (2016) Tanzania: Professor Jay, “Ndio mzee” (“Yes, Sir”), Machozi jasho na damu (Tears of Sweat and Blood, 2001) Turkey and Germany: Eko Fresh, “Köln Kalk ehrenmord” (“Cologne Kalk Honor Killing”), Ekrem (2011) Uganda: Keko, featuring Madtraxx, “Make You Dance,” released as a single (2012) Ukraine: Tanok na Maidani Kongo (TNMK, “Dance in Congo Square”), “Fidel,” Dzerkalo (The Mirror, 2014) United Kingdom: Dizzee Rascal, “I ­Don’t Need a Reason,” The Fifth (2013), and “Space,” Raskit (2017); M.I.A., “Paper Planes,” Kala (2007); Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer, “Chap Hop History,” Flattery Not Included (2008); Panjabi Hit Squad, featuring Ms Scandalous, “Hai Hai,” The Streets (2002); Professor Elemental, “Fighting Trousers,” The Indifference Engine (2010) United Kingdom and United States: Panjabi MC, featuring Jay-­Z, “Mundian to bach ke” (“Beware of the Boy,” Jay-­Z remix), Beware (2003) United States: Azealia Banks, “212,” 1991 (2012) and Broke with Expensive Taste (2014); Beastie Boys, “Sabotage,” Ill Communication (1994); Chance the Rapper, “Same Drugs,” Coloring Book (2016); Childish Gambino, “This Is Amer­ i­ca,” released as a single (2018); C-­Murder, “Down 4 My Ns,” Trapped in Crime (2000); Cypress Hill, “Insane in the Brain,” Black Sunday (1993); D12, “My Band,” D12 World (2004), and “Purple Hills” (“Purple Pills”), Dev­il’s Night (2001); Missy Elliott, “Work It,” ­Under Construction (2002), and, featuring Pharrell, “WTF (Where They From),” released as a single (2015); Geto Boys, “My Mind Playing Tricks on Me,” We ­ Can’t Be Stopped (1991); Herbie ­Hancock, “Rockit,” ­Future Shock (1983); Talib Kweli, “Violations,” Gravitas (2014), and “Listen!!!,” Ear­drum (2007); Joyner Lucas, “I’m Sorry,” 508– 507–2209 (2017), and “I’m Not Racist,” released as a single (2017); N.W.A., “F—­ tha Police,” Straight Outta Compton (1988); OutKast, “B.O.B.” (“Bombs over Baghdad”), Stankonia (2000); Poor Righ­teous Teachers, “Easy Star,” Pure Poverty (1991); Public ­Enemy, “Fight the Power,” Fear of a Black Planet

792

Appendix 3

(1990); Gil Scott-­Heron, “The Revolution ­Will Not Be Televised,” The Revolution ­Will Not Be Televised (1974); Tupac Shakur (as 2Pac), “So Many Tears,” Me against the World (1995); The Welfare Poets, “Warn Them,” Warn Them (2009); Kanye West, featuring Chosan, “Diamonds from Sierra Leone,” Late Registration (2005) United States and Barbados: Nicki Minaj, “Pound the Alarm,” Roman Reloaded (2012) Zambia: Zone Fam, “Contola” (“Take Control” in Nyanja), released as a single (2012)

Appendix 4: Hip Hop Films and Documentaries

This appendix lists feature and documentary films that focus on hip hop as main subject ­matter or as backdrop as well as films that ­were impor­tant to the development or perception of hip hop. Feature films are narrative films such as dramas, comedies, thrillers, biopics, and musicals that are over 45 minutes in length. Excluded are film shorts and precursors such as Foxy Brown (1974, United States) and Scarface (1983, United States). ­Because they contain fictional narratives, mockumentaries are listed ­under “Feature Films.” Documentaries have a nonfictional narrative. Though intended to list film titles beyond the scope of the entries, this appendix is by no means exhaustive; many made-­for-­television and DVD films, including sequels, have been excluded. FEATURE FILMS Above the Rim (1994, United States) Ali G Inda­house (2002, United Kingdom) All Eyez on Me (2017, United States) Anuvahood (2011, United Kingdom) Baller Blockin’ (2000, United States) Bamboozled (2000, United States) Banlieue 13 (District B13, aka B-13, 2004, France) Beat Street (1984, United States) Bodied (2017, United States) Body Language (2011, Netherlands) Bomb the System (2002, United States) Born to Dance (2015, New Zealand) Boyz n the Hood (1991, United States) Breakin’ and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (1984, United States) Brooklyn Babylon (2001, United States and France)

794

Appendix 4

The Bros. (2007, United States) Brown Sugar (2002, United States) Carmen: A Hip Hopera (2001, United States) CB4 (1993, United States) Ching fung dik sau (Mismatched ­Couples, 1985, Hong Kong) Colors (1988, United States) Cool as Ice (1991, United States) Coz ov Moni: The First Pidgin Musical Film in the World and Coz ov Moni 2 (FOKN Revenge) (2010 and 2013, Ghana) Da Hip Hop Witch (2000, United States) Dance Flick (2009, United States) Dead Presidents (1995, United States) Death of a Dynasty (2003, United States) Do the Right T ­ hing (1989, United States) ­Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996, United States) 8 Mile (2002, United States) Fear of a Black Hat (1993, United States and United Kingdom) Feel the Noise (2007, United States) Flashdance (1983, United States) Fly by Night (1992, United States) G (2002, United States) Gang Related (1997, United States) Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (2005, United States) Girls Town (1996, United States) Honey (2003, United States) ’Hood (1998, Japan) The Horrible Dr. Bones (2000, United States) House Party (1990, United States) Hustle and Flow (2005, United States) Identity Crisis (1989, United States) Idlewild (2006, United States) Ill Manors (2012, United Kingdom) Juice (1992, United States) Junction 48 (2016, Israel) Kadhalan (1994, India) Kidulthood, Adulthood, and Brotherhood (2006, 2008, and 2016, United Kingdom) Knights of the City (originally Cry of the City, 1986, United States)



Appendix 4 795

Krush Groove (1985, United States) Lean on Me (1989, United States) Malibu’s Most Wanted (2003, United States) Marci X (2003, United States) Meesaya murukku (Twirl Your Moustache, 2017, India) Menace II Society (1993, United States) Morris from Amer­i­ca (2016, United States and Germany) New Jack City (1991, United States) Notorious (2009, United States) 1 More Hit (2007, United States) Out Kold (2001, United States) Paper Soldiers (2002, United States) Patti Cake$ (2017, United States) Phat Beach (1996, United States) π (aka Pi, 1998, United States) Province 77 (2002, United States and Thailand) Qu’Allah bénisse la France! (May Allah Bless France!, 2014, France) Rappin’ (1985, United States) Rome and Jewel (2006, United States) Sài gòn yo! (Saigon Electric!, 2011, Vietnam) Save the Last Dance (2005, United States) Shockumentary (1997, United States) Slam (1998, United States) Snipes (2002, United States) Step Off (originally ­Battle, 2011, United States) Stockholmsnatt (Stockholm Night, aka The King of Kungsan, 1987, Sweden) Stomp the Yard (2007, United States) Straight out of Brooklyn (1991, United States) Straight Outta Compton (2015, United States) Tales from the Hood (1995, United States) Thicker Than ­Water (1999, United States) Tokyo Tribe (2014, Japan) Tougher Than Leather (1988, United States) Tyttö sinä olet tähti (Beauty and the Bastard, 2005, Finland) The Warriors (1979, United States) Wave Twisters (2001, United States) Whiteboyz (1999, France and United States)

796

Appendix 4

Wild Style (1983, United States) You Got Served and You Got Served: Beat the World (2004 and 2011, United States) Zebrahead (1992, United States) Zeiten ändern dich (Times Change You, 2010, Germany)

DOCUMENTARIES African Underground: Democracy in Dakar (2007, United States and Senegal) Alternative Freedom (2006, United States) And You ­Don’t Stop: 30 Years of Hip Hop (2004, United States) Arotzim shel za’am (Channels of Rage, 2003, Israel) Asia One: Expect the Unexpected (2013, United States) Backstage (2000, United States) Bad Rap (2016, United States) Basic Equipment (1998, Australia) Beat This: A Hip Hop History (1984, United States) Beatboxing: The Fifth Ele­ment of Hip Hop (2011, United States) Beats, Rhymes, and Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest (2011, United States) Beef, Beef II, Beef III, and Beef IV (2003, 2004, 2005, and 2007, United States) Big Fun in the Big Town (1986, Netherlands) Big Pun: Still Not a Player (2002, United States) Biggie and Tupac (2002, United Kingdom) Biggie Smalls: Rap Phenomenon (2009, United Kingdom) Black Tape (2015, Germany) Bomb It and Bomb It 2 (2007 and 2010, United States) Bouncing Cats (2010, United States) Breath Control: The History of the H ­ uman Beat Box (2002, United States) Buenos Aires Rap (2014, Argentina) Built to Scratch (2004, United States) The Car­ter (2009, United States) Copyright Criminals (2009, United States) Counting Headz: South Afrika Sistaz in Hip Hop (2007, South Africa) Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (2006, United States) Diamonds in the Rough: A Ugandan Hip Hop Revolution (2007, Uganda) Downtown 81 (formerly New York Beat, filmed in 1980, released in 2000, United States) Electro Rock (1985, United Kingdom) Exit through the Gift Shop (2010, United Kingdom)



Appendix 4 797

A ­Family Underground (2009, United States) Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme (2000, United States) Fresh Dressed (2015, United States) The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-­Boy (2002, United States) Girl Power (2016, Czech Republic) Good Copy, Bad Copy (2007, Denmark) The ­Great Hip Hop Hoax (2013, United Kingdom) Hali halisi (The Real Situation, 1999, Netherlands and Tanzania) Hamilius: Hip Hop Culture in Luxembourg (2010, Luxembourg) Hang the DJ (1998, Canada) The Heart of Krump (2005, United States) Hip Hop Colony (2006, K ­ enya) Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes (2006, United States) Hip Hop Evolution (2016, Canada) The Hip Hop Fellow (2012, United States) Hip Hop Kabul (2013, Af­ghan­i­stan) The Hip Hop Proj­ect (2006, United States) Hip Hop Revolution (2007, South Africa) Hip Hop-­eration (2014, New Zealand) History and Concept of Hip Hop Dance (2010, United States) Hustler’s Convention (2015, United States) I Am Hip Hop: The Chicago Hip Hop Documentary (2008, United States) I Love Hip Hop in Morocco (2007, United States and Morocco) Infamy (2005, United States) Jails, Hospitals, and Hip Hop (2000, United States) Jay-­Z: Fade to Black (2004, United States) Just for Kicks (2005, United States) Kroonjuwelen: Hard Times, Good Times, Better Times (Crown Jewels, 2006, Netherlands) Letter to the President (2005, United States) Living the Hiplife (2007, Ghana) Moi c’est moi—­Ich bin ich (I Am I, 2011, Switzerland) Money, Power, Re­spect: Hip Hop Billion Dollar Industry (2012, United States) Mongolian Bling (2012, Mongolia and Australia) Mr. Devious: My Life (2007, South Africa) Nas: Time Is “Illmatic” (2014, United States) Nerdcore for Life (2008, United States)

798

Appendix 4

Nerdcore Rising (2008, United States) Ni Wakati! (It’s Time!, 2010, Tanzania and K ­ enya) Notorious B.I.G.: Bigger Than Life (2007, United States) Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton: This Is Stones Throw Rec­ords (2013, United States and France) Overspray 1.0 (2006, United States) Planet B-­Boy (2007, United States) Public E ­ nemy: It Takes a Nation: The First London Invasion Tour 1987 (2005, United States) Rap Sheet: Hip Hop and the Cops (2006, United States) Redder Than Red (2005, E ­ ngland, Germany, and United States) Rhyme and Punishment (2011, United States) Rhyme and Reason (1997, United States) Right On! Poetry on Film (1971, United States) Rize (2005, United States) Rock the Bells (2006, United States) Ruthless Memories: Preserving the Life and Legend of Eric (Eazy-­E) Wright (2012, United States) Sample This (2012, United States) Sarabah (2012, Senegal) Scratch (2001, United States) Shake the Dust (2014, United States) The Show (1995, United States) Slingshot Hip Hop (2008, United States and Palestine) Solidarity (1992, New Zealand) Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap (2012, United Kingdom) Sonita (2015, Switzerland) Stations of the Elevated (1981, released in 2000, United States) Style Wars and Style Wars 2 (1983 and 2013, United States) This Is the Life (2008, United States) Tupac: Resurrection (2003, United States) Tupac Shakur: Before I Wake (2001, United States) Tupac Shakur: Thug Angel (2002, United States) Turn It Loose! (2009, United Kingdom) 2 Turntables and a Microphone: The Life and Death of Jam Master Jay (2008, United States) Underground Hip Hop in China (2011, China and United States)



Appendix 4 799

United States of Africa: Beyond Hip Hop (2011, Burkina Faso, Senegal, South Africa, and United States) Uprising: Hip Hop and the L.A. Riots (2012, United States) Welcome to Death Row (2001, United States) What Ever Happened to Hip Hop? (2009, United States) ­Will einmal bis zur sonne (I Want to Go to the Sun, 2002, Germany) The Won­der Year (2011, United States) Wreckin’ Shop from Brooklyn (1992, United States) Wu: The Story of the Wu-­Tang Clan (2007, United States) Wu-­Tang Clan: Disciples of the 36 Chambers, Chapter 2 (2004, United States) Zim Hip Hop Documentary (2013, Zimbabwe)

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Appendix 5: Countries with Severely Restricted Underground Activity

This list includes countries that as of 2018 have governments that severely restrict hip hop activity to the extent that underground per­for­mance is forbidden, censored, and/or punished. Hostility from the government leads to banning or censorship and may be accompanied by rappers’ being threatened with lawsuits, detention, imprisonment, torture, exile or banishment, and/or death. Nearly all of ­these countries rank worst in the world for freedom of expression in addition to other ­human rights violations, according to the 2017 ­Human Rights Watch (1978–) World Report, the Committee to Protect Journalists (1981–), and the 2017 World Press Freedom Index. Some countries had earlier hip hop activity ­until new governments came into power. Boldfaced countries are not covered as entries in this book, mainly b­ ecause they have too l­ ittle verifiable hip hop activity. Af­ghan­i­stan Albania Algeria Angola Argentina Armenia Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Belarus Brunei Burundi Cambodia Central African Republic Chad

Chile China Comoros Croatia Cuba Demo­cratic Republic of the Congo (see entry for Congo) Djibouti East Timor Ec­ua­dor Egypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Ethiopia The Gambia

802

Georgia Guatemala Guinea Guinea-­Bissau Honduras Indonesia Iran Iraq Ivory Coast Jordan Kazakhstan ­Kenya Kyrgyzstan Laos Lebanon Liberia Libya Malaysia The Maldives Mali Morocco Mozambique Myanmar North ­Korea (see entry for K ­ orea) Oman Pakistan Palestine Papua New Guinea Paraguay

Appendix 5

Peru Qatar Republic of Congo (see entry for Congo) Rus­sia Rwanda Saudi Arabia Singapore Somalia South Sudan (see entry for Sudan) Sudan Swaziland Syria Tajikistan Thailand Tibet Togo Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Venezuela Vietnam Yemen Zimbabwe

Glossary

This glossary provides brief definitions for terms and concepts that are frequently mentioned throughout the book, including terminology associated with hip hop, ethnomusicology/anthropology, musical rudiments, musical production and recording, and dance. When a term is also an entry in the book, this is indicated. This glossary also draws connections between related terms and concepts. Aborigines A word most often used to describe indigenous Australians. In a larger sense, aborigine describes populations that are native to a par­tic­u­lar land. Accent An emphasis or stress on certain beats in ­music or on certain words or syllables. It is sometimes called a stress. Acoustic Instruments Nonelectric musical instruments that do not require electronic amplification. Acoustic instruments often need to be recorded by using microphones rather than by plugging cables directly into a recording device. Aerophones Musical instruments that need air to create sound. Examples are woodwinds (flutes, oboes, and clarinets), brass instruments (trumpets, trombones, tubas, and horns), and bellow-­blown instruments (accordions) as well as didgeridoos, bagpipes, and whistles. ­ lbum A Originally pressed on vinyl, a collection of recorded tracks (usually songs) that may be, but are not necessarily, unified by a concept or narrative. An ­album contains more tracks than an EP, or single. For the purposes of this book, the word ­album is synonymous with CD or digital ­album, terms that differ based simply on format, including physical versus virtual. See also: LP; EP ­ lbum or Singles Certification A See ­Music Recording Sales Certification. Alliteration The repetition of the same consonant sound in poems, raps, or songs, usually at the beginnings of words.

804 Glossary

Alto (Contralto) Usually the lowest vocal range assigned to a female singer. Amplifier 1. An electronic device similar to a speaker or monitor into which electric instruments can be plugged to be heard. Most amplifiers allow for the regulation of high-­and low-­end frequencies as well as volume control. 2. Any device attached to an acoustic instrument to make it louder—­for example, a gourd placed around a kalimba or mbira so that the instrument can be better heard. Analog Synthesizer A synthesizer, with origins in the 1900s, that creates or modifies sounds by using analog cir­cuits and signals. Though analog synthesizers appeared in the earliest hip hop ­music with the Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer, Roland TR-808 programmable drum machine, Oberheim polyphonic synthesizers, and a variety of vocoders, by the mid-1980s they had been replaced by more affordable digital synthesizers and samplers. See also: Digital Synthesizer And Beat (Off Beat) A weak beat in between strong beats in ­music. For example, in qua­d ru­ple meter (four beats per mea­sure), the and beat falls between the numbered beats:​ | 1-­and-2-­and-3-­and-4-­and | 1-­and-2-­and-3-­and-4-­and |. Assonance Repetition of the same vowel sound in poems, raps, or songs. Autotune Automated vocal pro­cessing used to correct pitch. The pro­cess usually corrects off-­pitch notes by a semitone, using ­either an audio pro­cessor (originally called Auto-­Tune, ­after a device manufactured by Antares Audio Technologies), or autotuning software, as found in a vocal performer box. Baritone Usually the ­middle vocal range assigned to a male singer. The baritone is the most common male vocal range. Bass 1. Usually the lowest vocal range assigned to a male singer. 2. The lowest musical part in ­music (as with the double bass or electric bass). It establishes a song’s harmonic rhythm as well as its groove (the part of a song that indicates how it should be danced to) and generally complements the drum rhythm. A melody composed for the bass is sometimes called a bassline. ­ attle B In hip hop, a competitive tradition between two or more individuals or groups to determine who is best at their art. Hip hop b­ attles are also used to showcase talent. They take place in hip hop dance (e.g., breakdancing), MCing (rapping), and DJing (turntablism or scratching). See also the entry for Battling.

Glossary 805

B-­Boy Derived from beat-­boy, an urban nickname from the early 1980s to describe a male hip hop dancer who expresses himself through breakdancing moves that accompany a breakbeat. Beat The regular pulse of a musical piece that divides it into equal segments of time. Beatboxing The practice of making drum and synthesizer sounds using mostly the mouth and nose. Beatboxing is a way to create a beat when no instrumentation is available, as found in rap street battling. Skilled beatboxers can create both a beat and a melodic line si­mul­ta­neously. See also the entry for Beatboxing. Beatmaking The pro­cess of creating or composing a beat for a song using e­ ither an acoustic or analog instrument (such as a drum kit) or a digital instrument (such as a synthesizer). Beatmapping A ­music engineer’s technique for taking a song’s rhythmic information and remixing it, creating a mash-up with another song, or composing a new song. Professional Digital Audio Workstation software such as Pro Tools or Digital Performer can be used, but less expensive software like Sony’s Acid Pro can also perform beatmapping through automation. See also: Digital Audio Workstation Beatmatching During a DJ or turntablist’s per­for­mance, the practice of synchronizing an ­album’s upcoming track with a currently playing track. This synchronization involves shifting the pitch (changing the pitch—­higher or lower—­without playing the new track faster or slower) or timestretching (changing the duration of the track without altering the new track’s pitch). ­These techniques may be used in ­music engineering, especially mixing. Beats per Minute (bpm) The mea­sure­ment of a tempo based on the number of beats played in one minute. The term bpm allows for a description of the ­music to both musically trained and musically untrained ­people—­the higher the bpm, the faster the m ­ usic. B-­Girl Derived from b-­boy, an urban nickname from the mid-1980s for a female hip hop dancer who expresses herself through breakdancing moves that accompany a breakbeat. Many female hip hop dancers do not use this term to describe themselves, opting instead for breakdancer or hip hop dancer. Bling Wealth, in the form of jewelry, cars, lavish homes, and wads of cash, that is pursued for ostentatious display. In hip hop culture, the display of bling may be proportionate to musical skill.

806 Glossary

Breakbeat The part of a hip hop song where all ­music except the beat stops. Breakbeats tend to be repetitive (which involves looping a musical phrase) and predictable, for the benefit of the b-­boy and b-­girl crews that dance to them. The most popu­lar breakbeats are samples, often from funk. Breakdancing An acrobatic form of dance performed to hip hop m ­ usic by b-­boy and b-­girl crews. Breakdancing, originally called breaking, involves both floor work (footwork) and gymnastics-­style acrobatics, such as flips and headstands (which usually go into a head spin). It also involves controlled freezes and can be a team or individual event. See also the entry for Breakdancing. Bridge A brief instrumental or vocal passage that leads to the main sections of a musical piece. Bridges often offer contrast to ­these sections as well. They often take place just before the final refrain (chorus) ­toward the end of a song. See also: Form Cadence Melodic, harmonic, and/or rhythmic musical gestures that give a sense of strong or weak resolution, internal pause, or final pause. In ­simple terms, cadences are pauses that occur at the end of a piece or within a piece. Cadences differ from rests in that they are full pauses. Call-and-Response A follow-­the-­leader song pattern in which a lead voice or instrument performs a phrase (the call) with the expectation that another voice (or voices) or instrument ­will answer the phrase (the response). The most common hip hop call-­and-­response follows the pattern “Every­body say . . . ,” which is followed by the word(s) the audience is prompted to say. This is done to engage dancers and concertgoers. Censorship The censoring (silencing) of a song (or more specifically, its lyr­ics) ­either by making it illegal or by labeling it so that only certain p­ eople can legally buy it. In the United States, censorship usually occurs b­ ecause of sexual or violent imagery; in other countries, it can also occur ­because of po­liti­cal messages (usually against the regime in power). Chopping Selecting an excerpt or aspect of a song (for example, the bassline, drum break, hook, or sound bite) that is sampled, thus “chopping” out part(s) of the song. This is not to be confused with chopper, which is a style of rapping. See also the entry for Chopper. Chord Three or more si­mul­ta­neously played pitches or notes. Musicians can do what is called a “cheat” and play two or more simultaneous pitches to outline or suggest a chord, which may have a harmonic, nonharmonic, or passing function.

Glossary 807

Chordophones Musical instruments played by manipulating one or more strings. ­T hese include harps, lutes, lyres, and zithers. Examples include violins and cellos (classified as strings in a symphonic orchestra), acoustic and electric guitars, and acoustic and electric bass guitars, as well as koras and cimbaloms. Though pianos have strings, they are classified as keyboard or percussion instruments as well as chordophones ­because they are played by striking keys, which in turn ­causes the striking of strings, not by fin­gers or picks but by hammers. Chorus See: Refrain Copyright See: Musical Copyright Countermelody A melody that is played as e­ ither accompaniment or counterpoint to the main melody. The countermelody may be placed in the foreground or background. The most famous pop ­music example is Simon and Garfunkel’s 1966 hit “Scarborough Fair/Canticle,” in which Art Garfunkel sings the main melody, based on a traditional song, and Paul Simon sings a countermelody about soldiers in war. A countermelody usually harmonizes with the main melody. See also: Harmony Cover A per­for­mance of a previously performed song. A cover is often called a rendition or version and can be interpreted the same way as a previous per­for­mance or in a new way by changing one or more aspects of a song, such as its tempo or meter. Hip hop renditions of non–­hip hop songs often apply hip hop beats and dif­fer­ent instruments. A cover employs most of a song, if not all, unlike sampling, which uses just an excerpt. See also: Meter; Sampling; Tempo Crew A team or group of members that focus on one or more aspects of hip hop (for example, a beatboxing crew, a dancing crew, a graffiti crew, a rap crew, or a DJ crew). All crewmembers may be from the same geographic place, though many crews consist of members from dif­fer­ent locations. In b­ attles in which a crew competes, the crew represents its home or community as much as itself. Crossfader The part of a DJ mixer—­often controlled by a horizontal lever between two turntables—­that enables the DJ to fade out one ­album’s track while fading in another ­album’s track. Set in the ­middle, the crossfader allows for two playing ­albums to be heard at the same audio level; the crossfader can therefore also be used for balancing. The crossfader is impor­tant to beatmatching in turntablism. See also: Beatmatching; Mixer; Turntablism Cross-­fading In ­music engineering, cross-­fading is a technique used to create a single track out of the best results from multiple takes so that the recording sounds like a single

808 Glossary

per­for­mance. Cross-­fading may also be used for sound editing, mostly to eliminate or fade out unwanted sound, as well as for mixing, such as fading an instrument in or out. All can be done using digital audio workplace software. See also: Digital Audio Workstation Cypher A circle that is typically formed in breakdancing and rapping ­battles as well as in poetry slam challenges. The cypher usually includes the participants, but it may at times also include audience members who judge events. The main competitors step inside the cypher to showcase their moves or rapping talents. Dancehall See Dub. Deejay Not to be confused with a DJ (who can be a turntablist or a radio disc jockey), a deejay selects riddims (Jamaican patois for rhythm), instrumental accompaniments to a song found in reggae, dancehall, soca, calypso, or reggaetón ­music. The deejay adds a vocal part to the riddim through toasting (talk-­singing with a monotone melody) to engage audiences during a live per­for­mance. Deejaying usually takes place at parties or informal musical events that involve dancing. Delivery A rapper or singer’s style. Delivery can involve speed, emphasis, tone, loudness, flow, and attitude, ranging from laid-­back and relaxed to angry and in-­ your-­face confrontational. Digital–­Audio Interface A box-­shaped hardware device that connects an instrument or a controller to a computer serving as a digital audio workstation so that it can provide the best audio input. This leads to accurate outputs through headsets or monitors (as opposed to what is delivered by a computer’s sound card, which is distorted to vari­ous degrees). Input devices range from electric musical instruments to controllers and synthesizers. See also: Monitor or Stereo Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) A device and software combination that is used for producing and recording ­music, spoken word, podcasts, and radio. It is also used for sound designing and scoring live concerts and per­for­mances, motion pictures, videos, tele­vi­sion shows, and multimedia events. State-­of-­the-­art DAWs are self-­contained and integrated, often including mixing consoles (or software that creates an on-­ screen console), manual or automated equalizing/balancing options, surface controllers, keyboard and guitar synthesis ability, multitrack and sequencing functionality, audio conversion (software plug-­ins that produce effects), and data storage. As of 2018, examples of professional-­g rade software DAWs include Pro Tools, Digital Performer, REAPER, and Ableton Live—­all can be purchased for home use. DAWs have made it pos­si­ble to create one’s own beats at home, sometimes even on a laptop, instead of relying on a commercial recording studio.

Glossary 809

Digital Synthesizer A synthesizer with origins in late 1979 with the Casio VL-1, the first commercial digital synthesizer. Digital synthesizers produce digital signal pro­cessing (DSP), used to create or modify sounds. The digital synthesizer can be thought of as a computer with a keyboard interface (such as the Kurzweil). By the mid1980s, digital synthesizers had replaced more expensive and limited analog synthesizers, though virtual analog synthesizers have been made since the 1990s for musicians who prefer analog modeling or a sound closer to an analog synthesizer. Synthesis techniques and faster ways to program digital synthesizers in comparison to analog synthesizers have also led to the disuse of analog synthesizers. An earlier popu­lar digital synthesizer in hip hop was the Yamaha DX7. Diss (Diss Track) A disrespectful song or recording of a song intended to embarrass and ridicule other artists, celebrities, or types of ­people in general (e.g., doubters, haters, exes) for personal gratification and to create commercially marketable feuds. DJ ­Either a turntablist (also called a beatmaker or producer) or a radio disc jockey. Several radio DJs have gone on to become beatmakers and producers. Downbeat The first beat of any mea­sure of ­music. It is expected to get the heaviest stress in that mea­sure. Drum Kit A traditional analog instrument that is actually a series of drum types (such as bass kick, tom, and snare), cymbals (such as hi-­hats and risers), and percussion instruments (such as bells, wood blocks, and toothed vibrating instruments such as the vibraslap). The term drum kit can also refer to a type of limited synthesizer played by striking fixed areas with drumsticks. The synthetic drum kit is meant to replace the analog drum kit, but preference for the analog continues in live ­music. The synthetic kit is preferred for its portability, as its sounds can be set to any number of drum types or percussion instruments. Drum Machine An electronic musical instrument that imitates the sound of drums, other kinds of percussion instruments, and basslines. Having origins in the 1930s, drum machines in hip hop began as analog instruments that used sound synthesis but ­were replaced by more affordable digital drum machines that used sampling. The most popu­lar drum machine in early hip hop was the Roland TR-808, followed ­later by Oberheim’s DMX. Digital synthesizers also have drum machine sounds and virtual instruments that can be controlled by keyboard and manipulated by using digital audio workplace (DAW) software. In hip hop, drum machines are often used instead of live drummers with drum kits ­because of a low bud­get, concerns for time in the studio, and other reasons. See also: Digital Audio Workstation; Digital Synthesizer

810 Glossary

Dub or Dancehall ­Music stressing a previously recorded bass and rhythm that is used by a deejay or DJ, who can talk, toast, rap, or sing over the ­music with a microphone. Dynamics The loudness or softness of ­music. Electrophones Musical instruments that require electricity. Examples are synthesizers, drum machines, electric guitars and basses, vibraphones, and turntables. End Rhyme A rhyme that occurs at the end of a line of poetry, rap, or sung lyr­ics. End rhymes can be couplets (two consecutive lines that rhyme) or a variation (for example, even numbered lines rhyming). Lyr­ics that contain a too-­fixed rhythm and nothing but end rhymes are called singsong, as they are reminiscent of ­children’s songs and taunts. EP Known as an extended-­play rec­ord, an EP is a collection of songs and/or vignettes (originally pressed on vinyl), but with fewer tracks than are found on an a­ lbum or LP. Most EPs range from four to seven songs. Flow The rhythmic quality of the vocal delivery of a rapper. Words that describe a rapper’s flow would be gentle, smooth, disjointed, and like terms. Form The under­lying structure of a musical piece, text, and/or per­for­mance. For example, a hip hop song can have the same m ­ usic to accompany each verse of rap text. This form is known as strophic. It can also have a refrain (also called a chorus) inserted between verses. Dif­fer­ent ­music used throughout a rap song is known as through-­composed. The form of a musical piece, ­whether it is a rap or dance song (vocal or instrumental), therefore depends on repetition. Hip hop songs may have, for example, a rounded binary form, giving a sense of an A section (with or without a chorus), a B section, and then the A section again. But most of the time, a hip hop song is thought of as containing this general form, which can be modified: intro, hook, verse, hook, bridge, second verse, hook, and outro. See also: Bridge; Hook; Intro or Introduction; Outro; Verse Four-­to-­the-­Floor See Meter. Freestyle A type of rapping that is supposed to be ­either prewritten as a template that can be improvised on or a rap that is made up on the spot. In rap ­music, an argument persists over which of ­these two methods of composing is the proper way to freestyle. Graffiti Art Detailed urban art done with spray paint and signed by the artist using an iconic image that represents his or her work. Originally, graffiti was guerrilla art,

Glossary 811

meaning that it was done in secret and was technically illegal (it was sometimes called bombing, as in the phrase bombing the suburbs). Some early graffiti was gang-­related, used to demarcate a gang’s territory. Since the early 2000s, graffiti has become more mainstream and has been commissioned by city councils and private companies, which now view it as a kind of mural painting. Illegal graffiti can still be seen on bridges, public edifices, and trains. See also the entry for Graffiti Art. Griot A French term that applies to a wandering minstrel who praises a person or a historical event in song or sings about heritage. Griots ­either are accompanied by or accompany themselves with musical instruments. One type of griot is the West African jali. See also the entry for Griot. Groove The rhythmic feel of a piece of ­music, created often as an accompanying repeated pattern and melody played by the bass, drums, keyboards, and/or guitars (known as the rhythm section). It is usually associated with jazz, funk, rock, and soul, but it is also found in hip hop. The groove is usually established at the beginning of a song, typically in an introduction. Its basis can be a vamp or a riff. See also: Intro or Introduction; Riff; Vamp Harmony The progression of chords composed to accompany a main vocal or instrumental melody. A countermelody or accompanying melody may be part of a musical piece’s harmony. In rap, most rappers are not accompanied by harmonizing backup singers; however, harmonies may be created and suggested between the rapping or singing voice and the accompanying musical instruments. See also: Chord Hook A memorable short musical idea, melody, excerpt, phrase, or riff in a musical piece. The hook of a song is usually the catchiest part and becomes most famous. Hype Man A type of MC or toaster whose job involves engaging the audience or crowd through wild fashion and side commentary on a song’s main lyr­ics. The hype man may also serve as a vocal harmonizer. The most famous use of a hype man in rap was Public ­Enemy’s Flavor Fav, who serves as a comic sidekick to MC Chuck D. See also the entry for hype man. Idiophones Musical instruments that are struck to vibrate to create sound. Examples are bells, rattles, and rhythm sticks. Many idiophones are percussion instruments. Improvisation The act of composing while performing. Improvisation is normally associated with jazz bands and rock jam bands but can be used in rap when the MC is skilled at freestyle.

812 Glossary

Internal Rhyme Rhyme that occurs not at the ends of lines but within a line itself. In rap, the ability to create interior rhyme as well as exterior rhyme is considered a sign of superior skill. Intro or Introduction The beginning section of a musical piece that precedes the main melody, first verse, or hook. Not all musical pieces have introductions, and sometimes introductions may return ­later in a song. Introductions may also contain vamps and can establish a song’s groove. See also: Form, Groove, Vamp Key An arrangement of pitches and chords that give a sense of musical coherence ­because of their fixed relationship to a home pitch or home chord. Key is normally associated with Western ­music. See also: Chord; Harmony Lamellophones Idiophones that create sound through vibrating tongues (sometimes called lamellas) or strips, which are usually metal. Examples of lamellophones are the kalimba, mbira, jaw harp, and comb. See also: Idiophones Loop A repeated musical phrase, usually created by using m ­ usic software or a turntable-­ mixer setup. A loop can be an original composition or a sample. See also: Looping; Sample Looping The pro­cess of creating a loop. See also: Loop LP A shortened version of long-­playing rec­ord. LPs ­were originally pressed on vinyl. LPs ­were used by DJs (turntablists) to manually create scratches, loops, and breakbeats. The term LP can be used synonymously with ­album, as both are based on the idea of a group of songs released together as a collection. See also: ­Album MC A shortened version of emcee. MC is synonymous with rapper, and rap bands can have many MCs. MCs and DJs are the most common rap band members. DJs typically do not rap; rather, they play turntables, serve as hype men (or ­women), and/or produce via a soundboard. See also the entry for MC. See also: DJ; Hype Man Mea­sure A grouping of beats, indicated in visual musical notation by bar lines. Related to meter and time signature, a mea­sure is a segment of ­music containing a set number of beats of a specific length. Melody A succession of pitches, notes, or chords that are or­ga­nized into a recognizable and predictable pattern to create a tune or musical phrase.

Glossary 813

Membranophones Musical instruments that have a stretched membrane that vibrates when struck, scratched, strummed, or blown to create sounds. Examples of membranophones are kick drums, snare drums, bass drums, bodhrans, cuicas, and tambourines as well as kazoos, mirlitons, and swazzles. ­Because they are struck, many membranophones are also idiophones. See also: Idiophones Message Rap Rap ­music that is lyrically about politics, society, and/or community and can be ­either critical or positive in tone. Message rap stands in contrast to party rap, which is about sex, drugs, dancing, and bling, or braggadocio, which involves bragging on one’s musical skills or songwriting. Five percenter rap and some gangsta rap are kinds of message rap. Meta­phor A comparison that differs from a simile in that it does not use the word like or as. A simile equates two items with like or as, as in the M.I.A. example “I fly like paper, get high like planes” (“Paper Planes”), while meta­phor simply equates two items, as in the Nas example “I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death” (“N.Y. State of Mind”). See also: Simile Meter A regular grouping of beats in m ­ usic. The most common meter in hip hop is qua­ dru­ple or 4/4 meter (pronounced “four-­four”), which groups four quarter beats (not to be confused with notes) per mea­sure, creating a | 1-2-3-4 | 1-2-3-4 | count, also known as four to the floor. See also: Beat Mixtape A usually ­free (via social media or download) collection of songs intended to ­either introduce a new musician to the public or create hype for a new ­album release. Mixtapes w ­ ere originally burned onto audiocassettes but are now released virtually as downloaded files. Monitor or Stereo A speakerlike device used in ­music studios, sometimes called a studio monitor. A set of right and left monitors is used to gauge or monitor the precise sounds of a recording (as opposed to what is delivered by a computer’s sound card, which is distorted to vari­ous degrees). See also: Digital–­Audio Interface; Speakers Motive A brief musical (instrumental or vocal) idea that is repeated throughout a song. ­ usic Recording Sales Certification M A system of certifying that a m ­ usic recording has shipped or sold a previously defined number of copies. Although the number of copies is universal, the term used to certify the recording varies per country. In addition, the threshold quantity needed to achieve a status varies by type of recording (­album, single). Almost all countries follow some variation of the Recording Industry Association of Amer­i­ca (RIAA) certification categories, which are named ­after precious materials: Silver,

814 Glossary

Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. The number required for ­these certifications depends on the population of the territory where the recording is released, although original Gold and Silver rec­ord awards w ­ ere presented to artists by their own rec­ord companies to publicize their sales achievements. In 1958, the RIAA introduced its Gold rec­ord award program for rec­ords of any kind, ­albums or singles, that achieved one million dollars in retail sales. The Platinum certification was introduced in 1976 for the sale of one million units (mea­sur­able by ­albums, audiocassettes, or compact discs), ­album or single, with the Gold certification redefined to mean sales of 500,000 units, ­album or single. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) was founded in 1996 and currently grants the award for ­album sales over one million within Eu­rope and the ­Middle East. The In­de­pen­dent ­Music Companies Association (IMPALA) was founded in 2000 and launched in 2005 to recognize sales on a pan-­European basis. The IFPI operates in 66 countries and ser­vices affiliated industry associations in 45 countries. Musical Copyright The specific set of copyright licenses for ­music. The most impor­tant musical copyright license is known as mechanical rights, which are the rec­ord of instructions for recreating a musical piece. For songwriters, mechanical rights are responsible for most of the royalties, the revenue they earn from a musical piece. Many p­ eople who do not understand ­music copyright confuse mechanical rights with royalties. Musicians wishing to cover or sample songs, no ­matter the size of the sample or manipulation, need to pay a mechanical rights fee to the original copyright owner to legally use the ­music (including the words). If copyrightable material is added (for example, new lyr­ics or an inserted original melody), then a notification of intent should be sent to the copyright owner. Other impor­tant musical copyright licenses are recording and per­for­mance rights; however, ­there are intricacies (for example, ­there is a separate copyright license for streaming ­music). The recording copyright license covers the recorded per­for­mance and its use by o­ thers, whereas per­for­mance rights cover performing the piece in public and other aspects of per­for­mance. Hip hop has posed many challenges with musical copyright. For example, artists have argued that sampling falls u­ nder fair use, an exception loophole that allows use of material without permission, ­because the m ­ usic samples or excerpts are brief and considered an insignificant portion of an entire musical piece. The same has been argued about beatmapping. Worldwide, however, despite the need to get permission from the copyright owner, samples, musical excerpts, grooves, basslines, melodies, and other parts of musical pieces continue to be used without permission. This frequent practice has led to another challenge for copyright o­ wners: many p­ eople violate copyright laws. Even though the copyright owner may win a lawsuit easily, most do not have the effort, time, or money to challenge ­every musician who uses m ­ usic without permission. See also: Beatmapping; Sampling Off Beat See And Beat. Ostinato A melodic or rhythmic pattern that repeats throughout a musical piece.

Glossary 815

Outro ­Music composed and engineered to serve as a memorable end melody of a song. In hip hop, the outro could be ­music heard for the first time or reused ­music from an earlier part of a song. An example of an outro is Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise,” which allows its vamp to enter the foreground at the end, adds a group of choir singers, and reaches a climax before the song begins its final fade-­out. See also: Form Phrase In ­music, a brief passage in the melody that is made meaningful by a brief or lengthy pause (cadence) and/or harmonic progression. In vocal ­music, the lyr­ics are often sung in the melody and the phrases correspond to language; commas, ends of lines, or periods can be helpful in identifying phrases. One musical phrase is “Twinkle, twinkle, ­little star.” Another is “Now, this is a story all about how” (from ­Will Smith’s theme song to the American tele­vi­sion show The Fresh Prince of Bel-­Air). Both phrases are meaningful units that begin songs; the end of the first is indicated by a brief pause as well as a comma and a line break, whereas the end of the second is indicated only by a line break. The next line, which in each case completes both the thought and the sentence, is another musical phrase. In m ­ usic, as in poetry, complete ideas are often created by two back-­to-­back phrases, where the second phrase provides meaningful and (in a song) musical completion. See also: Cadence; Harmony; Melody Producer A preproduction individual who finances a ­music proj­ect, such as a single, an EP, or an ­album, by paying for recording time, postproduction editing, and possibly touring expenses. Some producers are also postproduction producers, that is, ­music engineers who may or may not be musicians. ­These engineers edit the raw recorded tracks that make up a song (usually each instrument, including a vocalist, is recorded on a dif­fer­ent track) with the intention of making the song sound more professional. A postproduction producer ­will edit (via a pro­cess called cutting, copying, and cross-­fading), add effects to, mix (i.e., determine which sounds are placed in the foreground or background and where they are heard), and master (i.e., make sure sound levels are correct) a song. Promoter The person who promotes a band (not to be confused with a hype man). A promoter may also manage a band’s tour or a per­for­mance venue. Rapping A type of ­music vocal, usually performed by an MC, that is similar to talk-­singing except that it is more oriented ­toward rock and funk conventions, whereas talk-­ singing is oriented more ­toward the conventions of theatrical musicals. Both rap and talk-­singing differ from spoken word ­because they require a musical beat; they differ from singing ­because the performer does not break into song. See also: MC; Spoken Word; Talk-­Singing Refrain Repeated lyr­ics that occur in a song. A refrain is usually set to the same, repeated melody, making up the catchiest part of the song. It is commonly called a chorus, and it usually occurs at the end of each verse or stanza. See also: Verse

816 Glossary

Register The total pitch range (the highest and lowest musical sound or note) of any musical instrument. An instrument’s register is often divided between its upper and lower pitches. Rest A pause or silence of distinct length in ­music. Some rests are used for emphasis or to introduce a dramatic shift. Rhythm 1. The duration or length of musical sounds. 2. The organ­ization of stressed and unstressed beats into a distinct and predictable pattern that can be followed by singers, rappers, and dancers. Riff A short and repeated melodic and rhythmic musical phrase that is often memorable. It is usually played with rhythm-­section instruments such as basses or guitars (usually with drums). A riff can serve as accompaniment in the background but can also occur in the foreground (for example, when it becomes part of a refrain or chorus). A groove may be based on a riff. See also: Groove; Refrain Sample A recording or an excerpt from a previously recorded musical piece that is incorporated and mixed into a new recording. In hip hop m ­ usic, some kinds of samples are spoken or sung musical excerpts, whereas ­others include melodic hooks, basslines, brass parts, and/or percussive effects. Sampling is the use and manipulation of samples. See also: Sampler; Sampling Sampler 1. A hardware device, which may be a musical instrument such as a synthesizer, that provides and/or manipulates ­music samples (e.g., by pitch, by duration, or through applying effects). 2. A sound recording of tracks recorded by vari­ous artists that serves as a collection that is representative of a ­music studio’s work. See also: Sample; Sampling Sampling Taking a sample or musical excerpt from a previously recorded piece and adding it to a newly composed song. Sampling can be the use of samples as they are, but more likely the samples ­will be manipulated in a variety of ways and ­will add meaning to the new song. Manipulations include altering the duration or pitch (samples can be assigned to dif­fer­ent pitches or notes on a digital synthesizer, or pitch can be altered using digital audio workstation or ­music editing software), looping, and reversing. An example of sampling in hip hop is M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes,” which samples the Clash’s song “Straight to Hell.” In the original recording of “Straight to Hell,” the song is sung from the point of view of a xenophobic, anti-­immigration individual. “Paper Planes,” however, is an ironicized song sung from the point of view of an immigrant who is criminal and greedy, preying on ­every xenophobic fear. See also: Sample; Sampler

Glossary 817

Scat Singing Singing by vocal improvisation that usually uses not recognizable words but rather vocables, nonsense syllables, vocal sound effects, and/or nonsense words and phrases (jazz icon Jon Hendricks was able to use scat techniques to sing pre-­ written lyr­ics). Often associated with vocal jazz, scat singing requires treating the voice as if it ­were an instrument in the band, and most scat singing is improvised. See also: Improvisation; Vocable Scratching 1. Another word for turntablism. 2. A turntablism technique that involves the DJ’s creating a scratching sound with a vinyl rec­ord ­album by manually moving the ­album forward, backward, or both ­under the rec­ord player’s needle. See also: DJ; Turntables; Turntablism Simile A comparison using like or as. See Meta­phor for examples. Single A song that is released in­de­pen­dently of its parent ­album. Originally recorded on one side of a 45-­R PM vinyl rec­ord, singles ­were usually accompanied by ­either a dif­fer­ent version of the same song or another single on the rec­ord’s other side (called its B side). See also: ­Album; EP Slam Poetry Spoken poetry that is usually improvised or based on a template, similar to freestyle rap or jazz improvisation. Slam poetry tends to have an aggressive tone. It owes its origins to the West Coast beat poetry per­for­mance happenings of the 1960s, where a poet would improvise or freestyle to the accompaniment of ­music, usually created by bongos, piano, and a bass instrument (such as a stand-up bass). Slam poetry also differs from beat poetry and rap in that it does not always adhere to a musical beat. The overall sound of words is less prioritized in slam poetry than in beat poetry and some rap. See also: Freestyle; Improvisation; Spoken Word Slang See Vernacular. Soprano Usually the highest vocal range assigned to a female singer. Sound Bite A sampled spoken-­word phrase or sentence from a speech, monologue, or dialogue (as from a film, news clip, or tele­vi­sion show), used ­either to help create a mood for a song or to ironicize its lyr­ics. Rap ­music also uses domestic sound bites, such as a ­father talking to his son as in TRU’s 1997 ­album Tru 2 da Game. See also: Sample; Sampling Speakers See Monitor or Stereo.

818 Glossary

Spoken Word A kind of sound recording that features ­either unaccompanied spoken-­word arts (such as poetry, prose reading, or closet drama) or such spoken-­word arts set against background ­music, as in Gil Scott-­Heron’s 2010 ­album I’m New ­Here. Spoken word differs from rap in that it is not usually spoken to the musical beat. Stanza See Verse. Stress See Accent. Syncopation Accenting or stressing an unexpected beat, such as a weak beat. For example, in qua­dru­ple or 4/4 meter (four beats per mea­sure), the expected stresses are on beats 1 (the downbeat) and 3. In syncopation, the stress gets shifted to unexpected beats 2 and 4: | 1-­2-3-­4 |. In a more complex example, syncopation can also take place on  a weak beat such as an “and beat” (off beat), happening between beats:​ |  1-­and-2-­and-3-­and-4-­and |. See also: Beat; Meter Synthesizer See Analog Synthesizer and Digital Synthesizer. Talk-­Singing A type of ­music vocal where the vocalist talks rhythmically, approaching song but never breaking into it. The most famous talk-­singing occurs in stage musicals, the most recognized being Meredith Willson’s The M ­ usic Man with songs such as “Rock Island” and “(Ya Got) Trou­ble.” Talk-­singing differs from rapping ­because it uses stage musical conventions rather than rock or funk conventions. Talk-­singing also has its roots in cabaret singing and is related to Sprechstimme (speech-­song employed and notated by composers such as Arnold Schoenberg in Western art ­music). See also: Rapping Tempo The speed of ­music. Words that are used describe or indicate tempo include fast and slow in rock and rap and allegro (meaning fast) and adagio (meaning slow) in classical ­music. Tenor Usually the highest vocal range assigned to a male singer. Text Another word for song lyr­ics or spoken word. Toasting The art of engaging with the audience via rhymed spoken word. Toasting differs from rapping b­ ecause it is more monotonous in its delivery and addresses the audience directly. A toaster differs from a hype man b­ ecause he or she does not have to be part of the rap crew and ­because he or she does not serve as comic relief. In some re­spects, the toaster plays the role of the deejay as it was strictly conceived, as akin to a master of ceremonies. See also: Deejay

Glossary 819

Track 1. A distinct section or musical piece, often numbered, on a sound recording. 2. In hip hop and its lit­er­a­t ure, a track is synonymous with the word song. 3. In ­music production, a file created when recording a single voice or instrument; songs are created by recording vari­ous tracks and playing them si­mul­ta­neously using m ­ usic production software. Turntables The instrument used by a turntablist or DJ. Most turntables include two direct-­ drive rec­ord players, on which vinyl a­ lbums can be spun, and a control panel between the two that allows for switching back and forth between turntables via use of a crossfader, a mixer, and controls for speed. See also: Turntablism Turntablism The art of creating and modifying sounds through the use of two or more turntables and a mixer with a crossfader. Also called scratching, turntablism can involve composing new ­music, beats, and effects by scratching, rubbing, speeding up, or slowing down previously recorded ­albums. The turntablist is commonly called a DJ. Individuals and DJ crews have created elaborate techniques and combinations in per­for­mances and ­battles as well as on recordings. The origins of turntablism may be traced back to the 1930s, with musique concrète experiments that created and distorted previously recorded sounds. See also the entry for turntablism. See also: Turntables Upbeat 1. The last beat in a musical mea­sure that anticipates the downbeat. To the ear, the upbeat is less stressed than the downbeat. The upbeat is sometimes called the pickup or anacrusis, which means “pushing up.” 2. A word to describe a fast or energetic musical piece. See also: Downbeat; Mea­sure Vamp A repeated musical passage or section that is harmonically sparse. The vamp has roots in blues, jazz, soul, gospel ­music, and other kinds of popu­lar ­music (e.g., funk, reggae, R&B, and hip hop) and is used as ­either an accompaniment or introduction. As an introduction, vamps are often played as a performer gets ready to start a song. Vamps can also be used this way for dancers getting ready to begin their routine. An example of a vamp in hip hop is played by the synthesizer in Missy Elliott’s “Work It” from her studio ­album ­Under Construction (2002). Another example is found in Booker  T. & the M.G.’s funky instrumental song “Green Onions” (1962), where the Hammond M3 organ vamp is introduced. It is ­later exchanged with the bass guitar. See also: Intro or Introduction Vernacular Another word for slang. Vernacular is the style of language used in a localized area. It is related to a dialect in that it contains words and expressions from that dialect; however, vernacular can also contain expressions that represent a community, such as a neighborhood or municipality. It plays a large role in rapping ­because rappers use the language of the urban streets, in a localized fashion, since street language differs per community and geographic location.

820 Glossary

Verse The sections of a song that change and are not usually repeated, as opposed to the refrain (chorus), which contains the song’s hook and is repeated, usually between each verse. While refrains articulate the overall theme of a song and are therefore standard, verses can be narrative and chronological in nature, telling a story from beginning to end, or can serve as dif­fer­ent examples of the same overall idea. See also: Hook; Refrain Vixen Also called a video vixen, a young w ­ oman who stars in a male soloist’s or male group’s rap video, generally scantily clad and performing sexually suggestive dances or moves. Some vixens have gone on to become rappers in their own right. Vocable A vocal sound that is not a recognized word. Popu­lar songs often include vocables, which are usually used as part of the refrain or hook. Generally, rap ­music uses fewer vocables than other pop genres, as vocables lend themselves to singing rather than rapping. See also: Hook; Refrain Vocal Pro­cessing The act of inserting a voice pro­cessor or autotuning device, during production, between the microphone used by a singer, rapper, or spoken-­word artist and ­either a recording device (in the studio) or output device (when live). Vocal pro­cessing can also occur postproduction using vari­ous kinds of mixing and mastering software (vocal effects can be layered and combined). Virtually all vocals are pro­cessed, to some degree, in popu­lar ­music, usually to adjust pitch, reverb, balance, and wetness/dryness. Vocals that are overpro­cessed sound robotic and/or distorted and are generally described as autotuned. See also: Autotune

Selected Bibliography

The study of hip hop around the world is interdisciplinary, which is reflected in the following selected list of English-­language resources on hip hop. The first section lists books whose subject ­matter is solely hip hop. For biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, polemics, and books with chapters or sections on hip hop, see the “Further Reading” sections in the entries. The last two sections of this bibliography list peer-­reviewed journals and periodicals that offer numerous articles on hip hop. Excluded are periodicals that rarely cover hip hop or contain mostly reviews. BOOKS Bailey, Julius, ed. Jay-­Z: Essays on Hip Hop’s Phi­los­o­pher King. Jefferson City, NC: MacFarland, 2011. Basu, Dipannita, and Sidney J. Lemelle, eds. The Vinyl A ­ in’t Final: Hip Hop and the Global of Black Popu­lar Culture. Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto Press, 2006. Bradley, Adam, and Andrew Dubois, eds. The Anthology of Rap. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010. Brewster, Bill, and Frank Broughton. The Rec­ord Players: DJ Revolutionaries. New York: Black Cat, 2010. Chang, Jeff. ­Can’t Stop ­Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation. New York: Picador, 2005. Charnas, Dan. The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip Hop. New York: New American Library, 2010. Charry, Eric, ed. Hip Hop Africa: New African ­Music in a Globalizing World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012. Clark, Msia Kibona, and Mickie Mwanzia Koster, eds. Hip Hop and Social Change in Africa: Ni Wakati. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2014. Coleman, Brian. Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip Hop Junkies. New York: Villard, 2007. Condry, Ian. Hip Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006. Dennis, Christopher. Afro-­Colombian Hip Hop: Globalization, Transcultural ­Music, and Ethnic Identities. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2012. Durand, Alain-­Philippe, ed. Black, Blan, Beur: Rap ­Music and Hip Hop Culture in the Francophone World. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2002.

822

Selected Bibliography

Dyson, Michael Eric. Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2003. Dyson, Michael Eric, and Sohail Daulatzai, eds. Born to Use Mics: Reading Nas’s “Illmatic.” New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2010. Edwards, Paul. How to Rap: The Art and Science of the Hip Hop MC. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2009. Edwards, Paul. How to Rap 2: Advanced Flow and Delivery Techniques. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2013. Fernandes, Sujatha. The Edge: In Search of the Global Hip Hop Generation. New York: Verso, 2011. Forman, Murray. The ’Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Place in Rap and Hip Hop. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2002. Forman, Murray, and Mark Anthony Neal, eds. That’s the Joint: The Hip Hop Studies Reader. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2004. Fricke, Jim, and Charlie Ahearn. The Experience ­Music Proj­ect Oral History of Hip Hop’s First De­cade: Yes Yes Y’all. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2002. Garcia, Ana “Rokafella.” Introduction to We B*Girlz by Nika Kramer and Martha Cooper. New York: powerHouse Books, 2005. George, Nelson. Hip Hop Amer­i­ca. New York: Viking Press, 1998. Gosa, Travis L., and Erik Nielson, eds. Hip Hop and Obama Reader. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2015. Helbig, Adriana. Hip Hop Ukraine: ­Music, Race, and African Migration. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2014. Hess, Mickey, ed. Hip Hop in Amer­i­ca: A Regional Guide. 2 vols. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2010. Hess, Mickey, ed. Icons of Hip Hop: An Encyclopedia of the Movement, ­Music, and Culture. 2 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007. Kajikawa, Loren. Sounding Race in Rap Songs. Oakland: University of California Press, 2015. Katz, Mark. Groove ­Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Krims, Adam. Rap ­Music and the Poetics of Identity. Cambridge, E ­ ngland: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Light, Alan, ed. The Vibe History of Hip Hop. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1999. Martinez, George, and Christopher Malone. The Organic Globalizer: Hip Hop, Po­liti­cal Development, and Movement Culture. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014. Miller, Matt. Bounce: Rap ­Music and Local Identity in New Orleans. Amherst: University of Mas­sa­chu­setts Press, 2012. Miller, Paul (DJ Spooky), ed. Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital M ­ usic and Culture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008. Miszczynski, Milosz, and Adriana Helbig, eds. Hip Hop at Eu­rope’s Edge: ­Music, Agency, and Social Change. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2017. Mitchell, Tony, ed. Global Noise: Rap and Hip Hop outside the U.S.A. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2001.



Selected Bibliography 823

Miyakawa, Felicia. Five Percenter Rap: God Hop’s ­Music, Message, and Black Muslim Mission. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005. Monteyne, Kimberley. Hip Hop on Film: Per­for­mance, Culture, Urban Space, and Genre Transformation in the 1980s. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2013. Nitzsche, Sina  A., and Walter Grünzweig, eds. Hip Hop in Eu­rope: Cultural Identities and Transnational Flows. Zü­r ich, Switzerland: LIT Verlag, 2013. Ntarangwi, Mwenda. East African Hip Hop: Youth Culture and Globalization. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2009. Oliver, Richard, and Tim Leffel. Hip Hop, Inc.: Success Strategies of the Rap Moguls. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2006. Pardue, Derek. Brazilian Hip Hoppers Speak from the Margins: We’s on Tape. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Pardue, Derek. Cape Verde, Let’s Go: Creole Rappers and Citizenship in Portugal. Urbana-­Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2015. Pinn, Anthony B., ed. Noise and Spirit: The Religious and Spiritual Sensibilities of Rap M ­ usic. New York: New York University Press, 2003. Price, Emmett G. III. Hip Hop Culture. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-­CLIO, 2006. Quinn, Eithne. Nuthin’ but a “G” Thang: The Culture and Commerce of Gangsta Rap. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. Rajakumar, Mohanalakshmi. Hip Hop Dance. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2012. Rausch, Andrew J. I Am Hip Hop: Conversations on the ­Music and Culture. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2011. Reeves, Marcus. Somebody Scream! Rap M ­ usic’s Rise to Prominence in the Aftershock of Black Power. New York: Faber and Faber, 2008. Richardson, Elaine. Hip Hop Literacies. New York: Routledge, 2006. Rivera, Raquel Z. New York Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. Romero, Elena. ­Free Stylin’: How Hip Hop Changed the Fashion Industry. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2012. Rose, Tricia. Black Noise: Rap M ­ usic and Black Culture in Con­temporary Amer­ i­ca. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1994. Sarig, Roni. Third Coast: OutKast, Timbaland, and How Hip Hop Became a Southern ­Thing. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2007. Saucier, P. Khalil. Necessarily Black: Cape Verdean Youth, Hip Hop Culture, and a Critique of Identity. Michigan State University Press, 2015. Schloss, Joseph G. Foundation: B-­Boys, B-­Girls, and Hip Hop Culture in New York. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Shute, Gareth. Hip Hop ­Music in Aotearoa. Auckland, New Zealand: Reed, 2004. Spady, James G., H. Samy Alim, and Samir Meghelli. Tha Global Cipha: Hip Hop Culture and Consciousness. Philadelphia: Black History Museum Publishers, 2006. Tanz, Jason. Other ­People’s Property: A Shadow History of Hip Hop in White Amer­ i­ca. New York: Bloomsbury, 2007.

824

Selected Bibliography

Terkourafi, Marina, ed. The Languages of Global Hip Hop. New York: Continuum, 2010. Tucker, Boima. Musical Vio­lence: Gangsta Rap and Politics in Sierra Leone. Uppsala, Sweden: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2013. Walter, Carla Stalling. Hip Hop Dance: Meanings and Messages. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2007. Wang, Oliver, ed. Classical Material: The Hip Hop ­Album Guide. Toronto: ECW Press, 2003. Wang, Oliver. Legions of Boom: Filipino American Mobile DJ Crews in the San Francisco Bay Area. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015. Webber, Stephen. DJ Skills: The Essential Guide to Mixing and Scratching. Burlington, MA: Focal Press, 2008. Weis, Ellen R. Egyptian Hip Hop: Expressions from the Underground. Cairo Papers in Social Science, vol. 34, no. 1. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2016. Westoff, Ben. Dirty South: OutKast, Lil Wayne, Soulja Boy, and the Southern Rappers Who Reinvented Hip Hop. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2011. Williams, Justin, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Hip Hop. Cambridge, ­England: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Williams, Justin. Rhymin’ and Stealin’: Musical Borrowing in Hip Hop M ­ usic. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2013. Woodstra, Chris, John Bush, and Stephen Thomas Erlewine. Old School Rap and Hip Hop. New York: Backbeat Books, 2008. JOURNALS Journals with the most articles on hip hop are boldfaced. African American Review (1967–) African Conflict and Peacebuilding (2011–) Alter/Nativas: Latin American Cultural Studies Journal (2013–) American Ethnologist (1972–) American Quarterly (1949–) Anthropological Quarterly (2001–) Asian M ­ usic (1969–) Callaloo (1976–) Centro Journal (1987–) CLCWeb: Comparative Lit­er­a­ture and Culture (1999–) Con­temporary Islam (2001–) Con­temporary M ­ usic Review (1984–) CR: The New Centennial Review (2001–­, formerly The Centennial Review, 1961–1999) Critical Sociology (1969–) Critical Studies in Media Communication (2000–­, formerly Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 1984–1999) Cultural Studies (1987–)



Selected Bibliography 825

Dance Research (1982–) Diaspora (1991–) Ethnic and Racial Studies (1978–) Ethnomusicology (1953–) Ethnomusicology Forum (2004–) Feminist Media Studies (2001–) Geojournal (1977–) International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (1998–) International Journal of Communication (2007–) International Journal of Critical Pedagogy (2008–) International Journal of Heritage Studies (1994–) International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (1988–) International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (1977–) Journal of African Cultural Studies (1998–­, formerly African Languages and Cultures, 1988–1997) Journal of Black Studies (1970–) Journal of Hip Hop Studies (2012–) Journal of M ­ usic and Dance (2011–) Journal of Negro History (1916–) Journal of Pan African Studies (1987–) Journal of Poetry Therapy (1987–) Journal of Popu­lar Culture (1967–) Journal of Popu­lar ­Music Studies (1988–) Journal of Sociolinguistics (1997–) Journal of Southern African Studies (1975–) Journal of the Society for American M ­ usic (2007–) Journal of World Popu­lar ­Music (2014–) Journal of Youth Studies (1998–) Language and Communication (1981–) Linguistics and Education (1989–) Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism (2001–) ­Middle East Critique (1992–) Multilingua: Journal of Cross-­ Cultural and Interlanguage Communication (1982–) Muziki: Journal of ­Music Research in Africa (1969–) Organised Sound (1996–) Perfect Beat (1992–) Poetics (1971–) Popu­lar Communication (2003–) Popu­lar ­Music (1981–) Popu­lar ­Music and Society (1995–) Postmodern Culture (1990–) Social Dynamics: A Journal of African Studies (1975–) Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation, and Culture (1995–) Southern Cultures (1994–) TDR: The Drama Review (1955–)

826

Selected Bibliography

Transition (1961–) ­Women and Per­for­mance: A Journal of Feminist Theory (1983–) MAGAZINES, NEWSLETTERS, AND NEWSPAPERS American M ­ usic Review (1971–) Ebony (1945–) Eureka Street (1991–) The Guardian (1821–) JazzTimes (1970–) Los Angeles Times (1881–) ­Middle East Report (1973–) The New York Times (1851–) Newsletter-­Institute for Studies in American M ­ usic (1971–) Newsweek (1933–) Remix (1999–2009) Rolling Stone (1967–) The San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper (1976–) Spin (1985–) Time (1923–) The Washington Post (1877–)

About the Editors and Contributors

EDITORS MELISSA URSULA DAWN GOLDSMITH is a musicologist who studies popu­ lar ­music, film ­music, and 20th-­century ­music aesthetics. Her proj­ects focus on jazz poetry sound recordings, William S. Burrough’s musicality, and ­music criticism of the Doors. She is currently a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of ­Music and Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Gradu­ate and Continuing Education at Westfield State University in Mas­sa­chu­setts. Her PhD in musicology is from ­Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Among other publications, she has coauthored The Encyclopedia of Musicians and Bands on Film (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016) with Paige A. Willson and Anthony J. Fonseca. She is also composer, sound engineer, and co-­owner of Dapper Kitty ­Music—­MLMC Media—in Northampton, Mas­sa­chu­setts. Melissa first heard hip hop while growing up in Santa Monica, California, when a friend challenged her to a pillow fight to Frankie Smith’s funky rap song “Double Dutch Bus” (1981). She first encountered global hip hop at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, in which Māori dancers and rappers from Napier, New Zealand, performed onstage. ANTHONY J. FONSECA is the Library Director/Associate Professor of Alumnae Library at Elms College in Chicopee, Mas­sa­chu­setts. His PhD in lit­er­a­t ure is from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. Among other publications, Tony has coauthored four books with Libraries Unlimited’s Genreflecting series (Hooked on Horror) and three books on horror topics (Encyclopedia of the Zombie: The Walking Dead in Popu­lar Culture and Myth, Richard Matheson’s Monsters: Gender in the Stories, Scripts, Novels, and Twilight Zone Episodes, and Ghosts in Popu­lar Culture and Legend). He has written many articles and book chapters on vari­ous ­topics, including international ­music cultures, high school–­to–­college transitions, vampire themed music, Ramsey Campbell, and Robert Aickman. He is also a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, sound engineer, and co-­owner of Dapper Kitty M ­ usic and an in­de­pen­dent publisher and owner of Gothic and Main Publishing in Northampton, Mas­sa­chu­setts. He prefers intelligent lyrics and complex rap vocals, beats, and instrumentation to lazy canned beats and nonsense vocalizations or senseless scatting (he is a fan of Jon Hendricks, who proves lyr­ics can be scatted).

828

About the Editors and Contributors

CONTRIBUTORS ANTONETTE ADIOVA is an in­de­pen­dent scholar specializing in Filipino and Filipino American ­music. Her PhD in musicology is from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Antonette’s academic interests include ­music and dance in Filipino festivals, folklorization, applied ethnomusicology, and popu­lar ­music. She first became interested in hip hop ­after watching ­music videos on MTV ­every day ­after school. Tupac Shakur’s “California Love” (1996), featuring Dr. Dre, is one of her favorite hip hop songs. J. RYAN BODIFORD recently earned his PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, School of ­Music, Theatre, and Dance. His dissertation is titled “Sharing Sounds: Musical Innovation, Collaboration, and Ideological Expression in the Chilean Netlabel Movement.” Ryan’s research focused on electro-­ pop, electronica, and electroacoustic composers and musicians in Chile and their use of technology to create and share m ­ usic both individually and in collectives. SUSANNAH CLEVELAND is currently the Head Librarian of the ­Music Library and Bill Schurk Sound Archives at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Her previous publications include works focusing on ­music librarianship, use of research ­music materials, and collection and use of popu­lar m ­ usic in academia. Her first exposure to hip hop was incredibly square: as a fourth-­g rader, she encountered K-­Tel’s 1983 release Get Dancin’: Hot Hits to Get You Movin’, which included Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message.” JACQUELINE M. DeMAIO was born in South Florida and raised with hip hop pulsing through her veins. By age six, she was enrolled in hip hop dance classes, which deepened her fondness for the entire genre. Jaqui earned a bachelor of arts in En­glish from Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana. Her southern roots form the basis of her appreciation for the passionate and rapidly growing hip hop scenes in the southern United States. Miami bass and bounce ­music remain her favorite musical styles. CHRISTINE LEE GENGARO is an educator, writer, and musician. A tenured Associate Professor in the ­Music Department at Los Angeles City College, Christine teaches ­music theory, voice, and ­music history. Her PhD in musicology is from the University of Southern California. Her articles on film ­music and classical ­music in media appear in numerous journals and books, and she has been program annotator for the Los Angeles Chamber orchestra since 2007. She is the author of Listening to Stanley Kubrick: The ­Music in His Films and Experiencing Chopin (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013 and 2017, respectively). The first hip hop song she remembers hearing is Melle Mel’s classic “White Lines (Don’t ­Don’t Do It)” (1983). JESSICA LEAH GETMAN earned her PhD in musicology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, School of M ­ usic, Theatre, and Dance, where she serves as the inaugural Managing Editor of the George and Ira Gersh­win Critical Edition. In



About the Editors and Contributors 829

addition to critical editing, Jessica specializes in film and tele­vi­sion ­music, popu­lar ­music in science fiction media, and amateur ­music making that is produced by fandom. Jessica is also conducting research on glitch hop ­music. Her article on the ­music used in the original Star Trek series (1966–1969) appeared in the Journal of the Society for American M ­ usic. LINDSEY E. HARTMAN is a doctoral student in Experimental ­Music & Digital Media at the Louisiana State University (LSU), College of ­Music and Dramatic Arts in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. At LSU, Lindsey has been a member of Laptop Orchestra of Louisiana, has created ­music installment pieces for pre­sen­ta­tions, and has worked as a gradu­ate assistant at ­Music Resources at LSU Libraries. Her interests include ­music technology, composition, and musicology. LAURON JOCKWIG KEHRER is an Assistant Professor of ­Music in the ­Music Department at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, V ­ irginia, where she teaches courses on American popu­lar ­music, hip hop, and Western art ­music. Her PhD in musicology is from the Eastman School of ­Music, University of Rochester, where she also completed a master of arts in ethnomusicology and a gradu­ate certificate from the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and ­Women’s Studies. Lauron’s research focuses on the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality in American popu­lar ­music, especially hip hop. TERRY KLEFSTAD is an Associate Professor of ­Music at the School of ­Music at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. Her PhD in musicology is from the University of Texas at Austin. Terry’s first encounter with hip hop was as a teenager when her ­little ­brother began listening to Run-­D.M.C. and Beastie Boys. She is drawn to rap ­music with a strong social justice message, and her articles on Slavic hip hop build on her work in ­music and politics (including composer Dmitri Shostakovich). Terry’s most recent publication is a biography of Nashville musician William Pursell (University Press of Mississippi, 2018). KHENG KEOW KOAY is an Associate Professor at the Department of ­Music at National Sun Yat-­Sen University in Taiwan. A native of Penang, Malaysia, and a pianist, Kheng Keow earned her PhD in musicology at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her areas of specialization include 20th-­ and 21st-­century Western art ­music and aesthetics as well as m ­ usic analy­sis and theory. In addition, she has strong secondary interests in popu­lar ­music, such as hip hop, and film ­music. Kheng Keow has authored The Kaleidoscope of ­Women’s Sounds in ­Music of the Late Twentieth and Early Twenty-­First Centuries (Cambridge Scholars, 2015), and her articles have appeared in Theoria and Tempo, among other ­music journals. KATY E. LEONARD teaches in the ­Music Department at Harvard University, where she is also the Resident Dean of Eliot House and Assistant Dean of Harvard College. Her PhD in ethnomusicology is from Brown University. Katy has studied and performed Irish/classical flute, Ghanaian drumming and dance, and Javanese gamelan. Her research and teaching interests include roots ­music, hip hop culture,

830

About the Editors and Contributors

rock history, virtual and physical community, ­music and po­liti­cal movements, and the arts in civic community engagement. BABACAR M’BAYE is an Associate Professor in the Department of En­glish and Pan-­African studies at Kent State University in Ohio. His PhD in American Culture Studies is from Bowling Green State University. Babacar’s research interests are diverse: postcolonial studies; black Atlantic theories and methods; the relationships between intellectuals of Africa and the black diaspora; African influences in African American, African Ca­rib­bean, African British, and African Canadian lit­er­a­tures; black travel writings; and the repre­sen­ta­tions of immigration, race, class, gender, sexuality, and hybrid identities in black lit­er­a­tures, ­music, films, and cultures. Among many article publications, Babacar is the author of Black Cosmopolitanism and Anticolonialism: Pivotal Moments (Routledge, 2017) and The Trickster Comes West: Pan-­African Influence in Early Black Diasporan Narratives (University Press of Mississippi, 2009). He is also the co-­editor of Crossing Traditions: American Popu­ lar ­Music in Local and Global Contexts (Scarecrow, 2013). BRYAN J. McCANN is an Assistant Professor of Rhetorical Studies in the Department of Communication Studies at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He earned his PhD from the Communication Studies Department ­(Rhe­toric and Language) at the University of Texas at Austin. Bryan’s interest in hip hop grew from his experiences as a scholar, teacher, and activist interested in mass incarceration. His recent book The Mark of Criminality: Rhe­toric, Race, and Gangsta Rap in the War-­on-­Crime Era (University of Alabama Press, 2017) describes the intersection of gangsta rap and tough-­on-­crime politics during the 1980s and 1990s. SABIA McCOY-­TORRES is an Assistant Professor at the Roger Thayer Stone Center for Latin American Studies at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her PhD in anthropology is from Cornell University. Sabia’s research and teaching specializations include Afro-­diasporic circum-­Caribbean studies as well as race and gender/sexuality studies and popu­lar per­for­mance (especially in reggae). Since 2016, Sabia has been a contributing editor to Transforming Anthropology. JAMES McNALLY is an ethnomusicologist whose research investigates popu­lar ­music in Brazil and the United States, with theoretical focuses on questions of race and ethnicity, media studies, experimental m ­ usic, and the African diaspora. His dissertation, “São Paulo Underground: Musical Innovation and In­de­pen­dent Cultural Production in Brazilian Experimental ­Music Practice” (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) examines ­these issues in the context of a multistylistic in­de­pen­dent experimental ­music scene in Brazil. As a musician, he performs with the University of Michigan Vencedores Samba Bateria and Javanese Gamelan Ensemble. James enjoys making hardware-­hacked instruments in his spare time. CELESTE ROBERTS was born and raised in South Louisiana, where storytelling assumes several forms: Cajun folklore; oil and gas rhe­toric; blended languages; and food versus ­music. All have rooted within her a love for communication and its



About the Editors and Contributors 831

ability to unite ­people of vari­ous cultures and lifestyles. Celeste earned her bachelor of arts in En­glish from Nicholls State University, located across the street from the bayou in Thibodaux, Louisiana. Growing up in the 1990s, she first heard hip hop dance ­music on Top 40 radio stations and loved the catchy beats. As she grew up, she discovered earlier hip hop m ­ usic and began to appreciate the messages, talent, and fusion that the genre exemplifies. JENNIFER L. ROTH-­BURNETTE holds a PhD in ­music from New York University and heads the Innovation Team at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, where she works with faculty from across the university to incorporate emerging technologies for teaching. Jennifer teaches courses in m ­ usic and po­liti­cal movements, ­music history, and world ­music, while working on metadata applications for research on medieval melodic design, global hip hop, and perception of learning. MATTHEW SCHLIEF is an Assistant Professor of Scenic Design and Production Coordinator at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. He is also a Resident Designer for Outpost Theatre Com­pany in Lubbock, Classical Theatre Co. in Houston, and Creede Repertory Theatre in Colorado. Matt’s awards include the Houston Press Theatre for Best Design for Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (2012), the Broadway World Best of Houston Award for lighting design for Sweeney Todd (2013), and several Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Awards for Meritorious Achievement in Design (2014–2017). AMANDA SEWELL is a freelance academic editor and in­de­pen­dent scholar in Traverse City, Michigan. Her PhD in musicology is from Indiana University Jacobs School of ­Music in Bloomington. She specializes in hip hop, including nerdcore, ­music copyright, and the art of m ­ usic sampling. Amanda’s articles have appeared in the Journal of Popu­lar M ­ usic Studies and the Journal of the Society for American ­Music, and she has also written a book chapter for The Cambridge Companion to Hip Hop (2015). SCOTT WARFIELD is an Associate Professor of ­Music History at the School of ­Music at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, where he teaches in all areas of ­music history and lit­er­a­ture through the gradu­ate level. Scott’s most recent publications include a dozen entries on musical theatre topics in the second edition of The Grove Dictionary of American ­Music (Oxford University Press, 2013), essays on Richard Strauss and the business of ­music in The Cambridge Companion to Richard Strauss (Cambridge University Press, 2010) and the Strauss-­Hugo von Hofmannsthal collaboration in the journal Ars Lyrica (2014–2015), and a revised chapter on the rock musical in the third edition of The Cambridge Companion to the Musical (2017). PAIGE A. WILLSON is an Instructional Associate Professor of Costume Design and Technology in the School of Theatre and Dance at the University of Houston in Texas as well as a costume and mask designer for theatre, dance, and per­for­mance art. Paige’s master of fine arts in costume, lighting, and scenic design is from the

832

About the Editors and Contributors

University of Houston Theatre School. From 2004 to 2009, she was crafts master/ milliner at the Tony Award–­winning Alley Theatre. Paige’s dye and millinery work have been shown nationwide. Her masks have been in curated exhibitions at Art on Broad Street in Augusta, Georgia, as well as at Rice University and the Catalina Coffee in Houston. She was also the costume designer for many Houston productions, including the Houston Shakespeare Festival, Generations: A Theatre Com­pany, and Mildred’s Umbrella. She is co-­author of The Encyclopedia of Musicians and Bands on Film (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016) and has written on the use of ­music and costuming in two female vampire films, Dracula’s ­Daughter (1936) and Nadja (1994).

Index

Page numbers in bold indicate the location of main entries. A. B. Quintanilla, 150 Aaliyah, 214, 215, 216 Aar Maanta, 655 A.B. Original, 25, 83 Abaga, Jesse Garba. See Jesse Jagz Abaga, Jude. See M.I. Abd al Malik, 138 Abdelmaguid, Magdi Omar Ytreeide, 387–388 Abdel-Rahman, Rajab. See RGB Aboriginal hip hop, 25–26, 83–84, 86, 562 Aboriginals (Australia), 22 Above the Law, 1–2 Abrams, Josh. See Rubberband Abramz, 727, 728 Absent Minded, 677, 678 Abstract Rude, 3, 118 Absurdist humor, 165–166 Accessories, 236 Aceyalone, 2–3, 16, 118, 735 Acid, 495 Acid Rap (Chance the Rapper), 109 Act Like You Know (MC Lyte), 466 Action, 518 Actitud Maria Marta, 18, 562 Active Member, 296, 297 Adablah, Elom. See EL Adams, Akinyele. See Akinyele Adams, William James. See will.i.am Addo, Michael Owusu. See Sarkodie “Addu Kalpin” (ALIF), 631 Adhunik, 35 ADL. See Absent Minded Ad-Rock, 40 Adult Swim, 461–462, 512 Advanced Chemistry, 277, 560

“AEIOU (Akona Te Reo)” (Moana and the Moahunters), 480 Aerosmith, 615, 616 AE:Tell me. See Monten—s Afghanistan, 3–5, 561 “Africa” (Jesse Jagz), 377 African Revolution (V2A4), 265 African Time (Zeus), 776 Afrika Baby Bam, 383 Afrika Bambaataa, 5–7 Black Nationalism of, 59 and breakdancers, 719 on gangs, 271 Native Tongues and, 505, 589 The Universal Zulu Nation founded by, 5, 6, 319, 745–746 Afrikan Boy, 189 Afrocentrism, 504, 505, 588, 589, 703 Afrofuturism, 540 Afropean music, 421 Afropop, 66, 212 Afshar, Ardalan. See Nazar Aftermath Entertainment, 198, 218, 225 Against the Flow (UHP), 747 Agencia de Rap Cubano, 148 Agovski-Ago, Vladimir, 437 Aguilar, Robert. See Rob Swift Ah Boy, 495 Ahmed, Khaled. See Khaled M “Ain’t It True” (Sisters Underground), 641 “Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg” (TLC), 698 Air tracks, 390 AJ, 771 Ajenifuja, Eedris Turayo Abdulkareem. See Eedris Abdulkareem Ajose, Olushola. See Afrikan Boy Akinrinlola, Peter. See Mintos

834 Index Akinyele, 178 Akon, 7–9, 300, 446, 674, 741 Aks’ser, 419 Akwid, 473 Alade, Dare Art. See Darey Alameer, Abdulaziz, 410 Alaniz, Kris, 18 Albania, 9–10 Alborough, Paul. See Professor Elemental The Album (Firm), 442 Album collectors, 151 Alfaro, Antón Álvarez. See C. Tangana Algeria, 10–12, 346–347, 457–458 Ali En, 645 Ali G Indahouse (film), 250 ALIF, 631 Alireza JJ, 349 Alizadeh, Sonita, 4 All Eyez on Me (Tupac Shakur), 672, 714 All Hail the Queen (Queen Latifah), 505, 588, 589 All In Together Now Crew, 763 “All My Shootings Be Drive-Bys” (MC Hawking), 511 “All n My Grill” (Elliott), 469 All Platinum, 604 Allen, Debbie, 537 Allen, Gary. See Scarecrow Scalley Allen, Harry, 12–13, 124, 578, 579 Allen, Terry K. See DJ Slip Allen Halloween, 328 Alliteration, 52 Ally, Juma Kassim. See Juma Nature Alpha Blondy, 596 Alsalman, Yassin. See The Narcicyst A.L.T., 114 Alter, Gabriel. See Gminor7 Amani Yahya, 561, 772 Amarmandakh, Sukhbaatar. See Amraa Ambience. See DJ Rap “American Boy” (Estelle), 227, 228 American Samoa, 622–623 America’s Best Dance Crew (TV series), 453 AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted (Ice Cube), 331–332, 535, 557 Amkoullel, 447 Amo, 547, 548 Amraa, 483 “Anaconda” (Nicki Minaj), 522

 . . . ​And Then There Was X (DMX), 192, 193 Andrade, Henry. See RedCloud André 3000, 539–542 Andrekson, Andres. See Stress Andrew E., 552–553 Angelou, Maya, 133 Angie Brown Stone, 632, 633 Angola, 13–14, 661 Angolano, 13 Animal Cannibals, 329 Annen, Shingo. See Shing02 Anónimo Consejo, 148 Ansah, Maxwell Owusu. See Lethal Bizzle Al-Ansi, Mohamed, 771 ansis, 418 Ant Banks, 14–15, 735, 736 “The Anthem” (Sway and King Tech), 690 “Antiamerikansk Dans” (Gatas Parlament and Promoe), 310 Anti-Nuke, 368 Antipop Consortium, 15–16, 345 Anwar, Joni, 16–17, 691 Anybody Killa, 744 Apaghorevménes gnósis (Mastermind), 155 Apala, 525 Apartheid (South Africa) ATCQ on, 657 Ben Sharpa witnessing, 47 Brasse Vannie Kaap on, 561 history of, 656–657 and kwaito, 73, 411, 412 in Namibia, 498 POC on, 561, 574, 575, 657 Queen Latifah on, 505 Scott-Heron (Gil) on, 629, 657 Tuks Senganga witnessing, 710 Apequest (Professor Elemental), 572 Apkass, 137 apl.de.ap, 55, 56, 57, 759 Aponte, Lorna Zarina. See Lorna Aquemini (OutKast), 539, 540 Arabian Knightz, 209 Arabian Prince, 206, 534 Argentina, 17–18, 311, 562 Ariefdien, Shaheen, 574 Arm jabs, 407 Armada Bizerta, 711–712 Arrested Development, 180, 749 Art Melody, 94

Index 835 Art of Movement, 453 The Art of Picking up Women (Dix), 494 The Art of Storytelling (Slick Rick), 643, 653 Artbreaker, 91 Articolo 31, 355 A-Rühm, 229 Arulpragasam, Mathangi. See M.I.A. As Clean as They Wanna Be (2 Live Crew), 477, 725 As Nasty As They Wanna Be (2 Live Crew), 180, 477, 724, 725 Asfalt, 209 Ashanthi, 19, 666–667 Ashanti, 20 Ashekman, 420 Ashida, Daisuke. See Dabo Ashraf, Sofia, 341 Asia One, 20–21, 735 Asilo 38, 129 Askergren, Petter Alexis. See Petter Asphodel, 768 Assassin, 256–257 Aswod, Lord. See DJ Lord Atban Klann, 759 ATCQ. See A Tribe Called Quest Atkins, Jeffrey. See Ja Rule A.T.L. See Above the Law Atlanta, 179, 180, 431, 649–650, 740 ATLiens (OutKast), 180, 539, 540 “Attitudeproblem” (Karpe Diem), 388 Atwooki, Mpuuga Clifford Magezi. See King LG Audience. See Cipher Audio Push, 376 Audio Visual, 47 Aulder, Leonardo Renato. See Renato Austin, Kyle J. See High Priest Australia, 21–26 Aboriginal hip hop in, 25–26, 83–84, 86, 562 Aboriginals in, 22 Bliss n’ Eso, 24, 62–63 Briggs, 25, 83–84 Brothablack, 25, 86 Christian hip hop in, 121 current hip hop in, 24–25 discovery of, 22 early hip hop in, 23–24 and East Timor, 205 graffiti in, 291, 723 hardcore hip hop in, 311, 722–723

Hilltop Hoods, 23, 24, 25, 62, 83, 86, 316–318 horrorcore in, 328 Iggy Azalea, 25, 36, 337–339 instruments in, 22 Koolism, 23, 24, 400–401 MC Opi, 23, 467–468 new jack swing in, 517 political hip hop in, 25, 83, 86, 317, 562 1200 Techniques, 24, 722–724 Austria, 26–28, 277, 328 Awadi, Didier, 29–30, 570 Awesome Qasim, 5 Ayia Napa Youth Festival, 155 Ayingono, Yolanda. See Yuma “A-Yo” (Jinusean), 402 AZ, 441, 442 Azonto, 624 Azubuike, Chibuzor Nelson. See Phyno Azzougarh, Tarik. See Cilvaringz “B Sotak” (NasJota), 669 Baba Sehgal, 339–340 Babe Ruth (UK band), 6 Babu. See DJ Babu Baby. See Birdman “Baby” (Sarkodie), 286, 624 Baby Gangsta. See B.G. Babyface, 31–33, 180, 741 Bachata, 357 Back for the First Time (Ludacris), 432 Back from Hell (Run-D.M.C.), 363 Back spin, 390 “Back to Africa” movement, 57–58 The BackSpin (radio show), 190 Bacteria Sound System, 302 Bad Apples Music, 25, 83 Bad Boy Entertainment, 276, 532, 533, 555, 583–584 Bad Boy Latino, 555 “Bad Girls” (M.I.A.), 476 Al-Badani, Farj, 771 Baddd Spellah, 462 Badshah, 340–341 Baduizm (Erykah Badu), 225, 226 Baggy clothes, 236, 237 Bagpipes, 108 Baha Men, 34 Bahamadia, 33 The Bahamas, 33–34 Bahire, 105 Bahram, 349, 560

836 Index Baile funk, 679 Bailey, Keith. See DJ Total Eclipse Baitsile, Ndala. See DJ Sid Bajan Style (Cover Drive), 37 Baker, Arthur, 449 Baker, Mickey, 603–604 Bakhtari, Yaser. See Yas Balafon, 93, 284, 300 Balam Ajpu, 302, 562 Balkan Fanatik, 329 “Balla” style, 237 Bally Sagoo, 340 Baloberos Crew, 304 Balshe, Ahmad. See Belly Baltimore Club, 82 Balwo, 654 Banda, Lucius, 443 Banda Butuesi, 9 Bandcamp, 375 Bangladesh, 34–35, 311, 322 Bangura, Jimmy Yeani. See Jimmy B Banista, Iván Vladimir. See El Roockie Banjolele, 110, 493 Banks, Anthony. See Ant Banks Banks, Azealia, 36–37 Banksy, 291 Banlieue 13 (film), 250 Banned in the U.S.A. (Luke featuring The 2 Live Crew), 433, 434, 477–478, 725 Bantsi, Game Goabaone. See Zeus Baphixile, 488 Baptiste, Adam. See Absent Minded Barbados, 37–38, 195–196, 292–294, 600 Barely Breaking Even. See BBE Barikad Crew, 305 Barisan Pemuda, 89 Barlow, Andy, 709 Barrier, Louis Eric. See Eric B. Barrow, Geoffrey, 707 Barry, Amadou. See Doug E-Tee Basa, Ildiko. See Brixx Basil, Toni, 318, 319, 568 Basit, Malik Abdul. See MC Malik B. Basque culture, 256, 560 Basquiat, Jean, 244, 291 “Bass Rock Express” (MC A.D.E.), 477 Bassivity Music, 634–635 Basy Gasy, 43, 440 Bataka Squad, 727 Bathiya and Santhush, 666 Batik Tribe, 344 “Battle” (Gang Starr), 268

Battle of the Year (BOTY), 267, 378, 403, 486, 637, 696 Battle Zone Event, 125 Battling, 38–40 beatboxing, 43 dance (see Dance battling) rap, 38–39, 47, 461 rhyme, 112, 572 turntablism (see DJ battling) Baur, Urs. See Black Tiger Bayangi Boy. See Enow, Stanley BBE, 191 B-Boy Magazine, 81 B-Boy Monster Jam, 696 B-Boy Summit, 21 B-boying. See Breakdancing B-boys Crazy Legs, 81, 141–142, 390, 608, 736 Frosty Freeze, 141, 259–260, 390, 608, 736 Gamblerz, 267–268, 696 Jinjo Crew, 378 Ken Swift, 390–391, 608, 736 Massive Monkees, 453–454 Morning of Owl, 485–486 New York City Breakers, 81, 517–518, 549–550 Paris City Breakers, 81, 258, 518, 549–550 term coined by Kool Herc, 397 T.I.P. Crew, 696–697 See also Rock Steady Crew BDP. See Boogie Down Productions Beans, 15, 16 Beastie Boys, 40–42 Cypress Hill and, 152 at Def Jam Records, 40, 41, 736 in DJ Hero (video game), 65 in Krush Groove, 247 Mix Master Mike and, 348, 478 Shebang! and, 637 Beat juggling, 721, 767–768 Beat Junkie Institute of Sound, 761, 762 Beat Junkies. See World Famous Beat Junkies Beat Street (film), 247, 319 Afrika Bambaataa in, 7 in China, 117 Crazy Legs in, 141 Doug E. Fresh in, 43, 195 in East Germany, 559 Grandmaster Flash in, 294

Index 837 in India, 339 in Japan, 368 Melle Mel in, 294, 471 New York City Breakers in, 517, 518 in Sweden, 676 in Switzerland, 680 “Beat Street Breakdown” (Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five), 294, 471 Beatboxing, 42–44 battling, 43 in bounce, 74 Doug E. Fresh and, 42–43, 195–196 in Ethiopia, 43, 230 Grandmaster Flash and, 43, 737 in Madagascar, 440 origins of, 43 in Singapore, 43, 639, 640 Beatles, 162, 163 Beatmasters, 324 Beatmatching, 721 Beatnigs, 345 Beats (headphones), 197 Beats, Rhymes and Life (A Tribe Called Quest), 703 “Beats + Pieces” (Coldcut), 128 Beauregard, Paul Duane. See DJ Paul “Beautiful” (Snoop Dogg and Pharrell), 551 “A Beautiful Mine” (Aceyalone), 2 The Beautiful Struggle (Talib Kweli), 687 Beckford, Ewart. See U-Roy Becoming X (Sneaker Pimps), 708–709 Bedroom S— (Koolism), 400 Bee, Tom, 743 Bee Mark See, 733 Beefy, 510 Beginning (Acid), 495 Behind the Front (Black Eyed Peas), 56 Belarus, 44–45 Belgium, 45–46 La Bella Mafia (Lil’ Kim), 442 Belly, 559 Beltaine’s Fire, 108 Belt-drive turntables, 718 Ben Amor, Hamada. See El Général (Hamada Ben Amor) Ben Sharpa, 46–47, 661 Benin, 47–48 Benjamin, André Lauren. See André 3000 Benlemqawanssa, Salah. See Salah Bennett, Chancelor Jonathan. See Chance the Rapper

Benny B, 46 Bento, Matthew. See DJ Bento Bento BDA. See DJ Bento Beogradski Sindikat, 634 Berlin Wall, 291 Bermuda, 48–49 Berry, Fred. See Mr. Penguin Better Black Television, 454, 739 “Beware of the Boys” (Panjabi MC), 342, 548, 732 Bey, Yasiin. See Mos Def Beyoncé, 49–50, 75, 257, 371, 373, 528 B.G., 54, 425–426 B-girling. See Breakdancing B-girls, 80 Asia One, 20–21, 735 Bubbles, 91–92 Rokafella, 609–610, 735 Shebang!, 637 Bhangra dance, 342–343 Bhangra-beat, 340, 341–342, 446, 547, 548, 549, 732 Bianca, 44 Bible Break (Wiley), 120 “Bienvenidx” (Lirika), 473 Big Bank Hank, 670, 671 Big beat, 112 Big Boi, 539–542 Big Calm (Morcheeba), 708 Big Daddy Kane, 38, 43, 50–52, 330, 371, 737 Big Deal (Emphasis), 525 Big Freedia, 74, 75 Big Fun in the Big Town (documentary), 243 Big Hutch. See Cold 187um “Big Momma Thang” (Lil’ Kim), 424 Big Pooh, 528 Big Pun, 52–53, 582 Big Sha, 92 Big Tymer$, 54, 75 Bigeault, Daniel. See Dee Nasty Bigg Jus, 133–134, 494 Biggie Smalls. See The Notorious B.I.G. Bikutsi, 100 Billy Bear. See Stress Bilma, 22 “The B— in Yoo” (Common), 132 Binary Star, 453 Biographical documentaries, 246 “Bir Yabancinin Hayati” (King Size Terror), 716

838 Index Birdman, 53–55, 75, 180–181, 426, 739 Birklett, Troy Lane. See Lil’ Troy Bisso Na Bisso, 138 Biting (plagiarizing), 407 BitTorrent, 511 Biz Markie, 43, 51 Bizarre, 201 Björk, 334, 709 Blaaze, 340 Black, Matt, 127–129 The Black Album (Jay-Z), 162, 528 Black America Again (Common), 133 Black and Blues, 628 “Black Bob Dylan.” See Scott-Heron, Gil Black Eyed Peas, 55–57, 421, 735, 759 Black 47, 108 Black Intellect, 639 “Black Jesuz” (Tupac Shakur), 121 Black Lives Matter movement, 291 Black Mafia, 690 Black Mafia Life (Above the Law), 1 Black Materia (Mega Ran), 510 Black Nationalism, 57–60 critics of, 59 and hip hop, 58, 59–60, 271 intellectual and historical foundations of, 57–59, 501 Black Noise, 657–658 Black on Both Sides (Mos Def), 487 “Black Pearl” (Moana and the Moahunters), 480 Black Power, 283, 502 “Black President” (Nas), 558 Black Prison 8, 446 Black Sheep, 383, 505 Black Skin, White Masks (Fanon), 58 Black Spades (gang), 5–6, 80 Black Star, 487, 686–687, 737 “Black Stars” (Sway), 674 Black Swan (film), 113 Black Syndicate, 700 Black Tiger, 680 The Blacklist (Briggs), 83 Blacksmith Music, 687 BLACKstreet, 590 Blackwell, Chris, 593 Blair, Timothy. See Tim Dog Blak Twang, 750 B.L.A.K.E. See Maximum Blak-R, 626 Blanket (Urban Species), 749 Blastmaster KRS-One. See KRS-One

Blaxploitation films, 246, 247, 273, 283 Blaz Roca, 334–335 Blazin’, 637 Blige, Mary J., 60–62, 583 “Blind Alley” (DJ Babu), 183 Bling, 236, 237, 365, 460 Bliss n’ Eso, 24, 62–63 Tha Block Is Hot (Lil Wayne), 54, 426 Block parties, 6, 64, 185 Blöndal, Sölvi, 587 Blondie (band), 22, 63–65, 233, 234, 736 Blondie (Gwndolyn Chisolm), 632 Blood bounce, 144 Blood on the Dance Floor, 146 Bloods (gang), 85, 144 Bloody Alboz, 10 Blue Lines (Massive Attack), 707 The Blueprint (Jay-Z), 757 Blunted on Reality (Fugees), 261 BnE. See Bliss n’ Eso BnS. See Bathiya and Santhush “Boadicea” (Enya), 262 Boast rap, 613 Bobcat. See DJ Bobcat Bobo, Eric, 153 BOCA, 354 Bocafloja, 474 Boduberu, 446 Body Count, 274, 337, 557 Bohemia, 543 Bolivia, 65–66 Bollywood, 340, 341, 342, 547 Bolon and bolon player, 66–67, 446, 460 Boltina, Mzayifani Mzondeleli. See iFani Bolton, Glenn. See Daddy-O The Bomb Squad, 67–68 Busta Rhymes and, 96 Chuck D in, 123, 579 and The LOX, 430 Public Enemy and, 67–68, 578, 579, 580, 738 Slick Rick and, 68, 643 style of, 68, 579 Bomba y plena, 755 Bondegrammatikk (Jaa9 and OnkIP), 360 Bongo, Alain, 265 Bongo, Omar, 265 Bongo flava, 687, 688 Bonnevilla, 473 Boo Yaa T.R.I.B.E., 623 Boogaloo. See Electric boogaloo Boogaloo Sam, 213, 565, 735

Index 839 Boogie Boy, 768 Boogie Down Productions, 68–69, 273, 382, 403–404, 613 Boogie Side Gang, 457 Books. See Skoob “BOOM A Fejbe!” (Ganxsta Zolee), 329 Boom Bam, 134 “Boom Boom Bam” (LaTlaTeh), 683 Boom Style (POC), 575 Boomba music, 393–394 Boombastic (Shaggy), 636 Boosie Badazz, 271 Boot Camp Clik, 646 Booth, Joshua, 161 Booty Bass. See Miami Bass Booty popping, 125 “Booty shake” music, 181 Boozer, Marvin. See Puppet Boozer Bora, Ekrem. See Eko Fresh “Borders” (M.I.A.), 476 “Born Free” (M.I.A.), 476 Born in the Echoes (The Chemical Brothers), 113 Born to Beat. See BtoB Bosnia and Herzegovina, 69–71, 322, 634 Bosnian War, 70 Botswana, 71–73, 488, 656, 776–777 Botting. See The Robot BOTY. See Battle of the Year Bouaiche, Nabil. See Nabil “Boul falé,” 29 Bounce, 73–75, 180–181 Bouncing Cats (film), 141–142 Boyz in the Hood (film), 135, 331, 332 Boyz II Men, 31, 32 “Boyz-n-the-Hood” (N.W.A.), 132, 206, 534 BPU. See Breakdance Project Uganda Bra Willie, 414 “Braakwater” (Osdorp Posse), 514 “Brać” (Donatan and Cleo), 556 Braggadocio by Big Daddy Kane, 38 by Big Freedia, 74 criticism of, 629 in the Dominican Republic, 194 by Fatback Band, 238 in Iceland, 335 in Jamaica, 365 by Kool Moe Dee, 400 by Koolism, 23, 401

in krumping, 407 by The Last Poets, 415 by LL Cool J, 428, 429 in Malawi, 443 in Mauritius, 457 by MC Lyte, 466 by Melle Mel, 470 in merenrap, 472 by Nas, 396, 500, 501 by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock, 601 by Thaitanium, 692 by Zeus, 772 Brahmi-Benalla, Abdelkrim. See Rim’K Brake Boys. See Monten—s The Brand New Heavies, 167 Brand Nubian, 76–77, 254, 736 Brasse Vannie Kaap, 561 Brathwaite, Fred. See Fab Five Freddy Brazil, 77–79, 562 Breakdance Project Uganda, 727, 728 Breakdancing, 80–82 in Afghanistan, 4 in Belgium, 46 in Brazil, 77, 81 in Bulgaria, 92 in clowning, 125 in East Timor, 205 films about, 249 in France, 81, 258, 549–550 in Iceland, 334 in India, 340 internationalization of, 81 in Japan, 368 in Korea, 403 in Laos, 413 in Macedonia, 437 in Madagascar, 439, 440 in Malta, 448 in Martinique, 451 in Mauritius, 457 in Mexico, 474 moves in, 80 in Nepal, 508 in Nigeria, 576 in Norway, 530 origins of, 80 in Peru, 551 in Puerto Rico, 581 Putin (Vladimir) on, 618 in Samoa, 623 in Serbia, 634 in Singapore, 639, 640

840 Index Breakdancing (cont.) in Slovenia, 645 in South Africa, 657 in South Korea, 378, 485–486, 696–697 styles and skills in, 80–81 in Sweden, 676 in Switzerland, 680 in Uganda, 727, 728 in the United Kingdom, 730 in Virgin Islands, 753 in Yemen, 771 in Zimbabwe, 778 See also B-boys; B-girls; Dance battling; Hip Hop dance Breakin’ (film), 319, 676 Breaklife Studios, 391 “The Breaks” (Kurtis Blow), 408, 738 The Breakthrough (Blige), 62 B-Real, 114, 124, 152–154 Breathe Carolina, 146 Brenk Sinatra, 28 Brick City Club, 82–83, 739 “The Bridge” (Juice Crew), 69, 382, 450 “The Bridge Is Over” (Boogie Down Productions), 69, 382, 404 Bridge Wars, 69, 382, 404, 450 Bridges, Christopher Brian. See Ludacris Bridging the Gap (Black Eyed Peas), 56, 421 Briggs, 25, 83–84 “Bring the Noise” (Public Enemy), 124, 579 Brion, Jon, 757 Bristol Sound, 707 Brixx, 244, 329 Broadside ballad, 730 Broadus, Calvin Cordozar, Jr. See Snoop Dogg Broke with Expensive Taste (Banks), 36 brokeNCYDE, 146 The Bronx, 69, 80–81, 141, 382, 608, 737 Bronx Boys, 141 Bronx River Organization, 746 Brooklyn, 41, 233–234, 248, 737–738 Brooklyn Babylon (film), 250 Brooks, Will. See MC dälek Bross La, 99 Brostep, 202 Brotha Lynch Hung, 84–85, 327 Brothablack, 25, 86 Brother and Sister (The Brand New Heavies), 167

Brother D, 557 Brother Love. See Puff Daddy Brother Marquis, 724, 725 Brown, Anarae. See X-Raided Brown, Angela Laverne. See Angie Brown Stone Brown, Chris, 565 Brown, Dennis, 594 Brown, James, 86–89 and Big Daddy Kane, 51 Brazilian hip hop influenced by, 78 breakdancing influenced by, 80, 81 and The Electric Boogaloos, 213 hip hop dance influenced by, 318, 748 hype man of, 330 and Kool Herc, 719 Brown, Kevin. See DJ Lilman Brown, Rahzel Manely. See Rahzel Brown, Stephen. See MC Phrase “Brown Beats” (Paul), 74 Brown Boogie Nation, 666 Brownside, 114–115 Brunei, 89–90 Bryant, Michael. See DJ Mike T Bryce, Rodney. See DJ E-Z Rock Bseiso, Shadia. See DJ Shadia BtoB, 517 Bubalo, Dejan. See MC Buffalo Bubba Sparxxx, 90–91 “Bubble Control” (Tipper), 289 Bubbles, 91–92, 243 “Bucktown” (Smif-N-Wessun), 646 B.U.G. Mafia, 611 Bugz, 201 Buhloone Mindstate (De La Soul), 172 Built from Scratch (The X-Ecutioners), 602, 767, 768 Built to Scratch (documentary), 245 Buk Bak, 285 Bulawayo, 778 Bulbul tarang, 446 Bulgaria, 92–93 “The Bum Rap” (Singing Fools), 103 Buraka Som Sistema, 13 Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, 321–322 Burke, James. See Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer Burkina Faso, 43, 67, 93–95, 300 Burma. See Myanmar Burn moves, 748 Burney MC. See Mutibwa, Bana

Index 841 Burning Spear, 594 Burrell, Orville Richard. See Shaggy Burrell, Stanley Kirk. See MC Hammer Burton, Brian Joseph. See Danger Mouse Burton, Dana, 117–118 Burwell, Sammy. See DJ Sammy B Bush, George W., 70, 310 Bushwick Bill. See Little Billy Busta Rhymes, 95–97, 405, 699, 703, 704, 737 Butelis, Gustavs. See Gustavo Butterfly (dance move), 125 Butts, Calvin O., III, 121 BVK. See Brasse Vannie Kaap “By Any Means” (Stogie T), 482 Byrd, Bobby Howard, 330 Byrne, Hollis. See MC Hollis C. Tangana, 664 Caban, Matthew. See Glide Master Cadena, Sdenka Suxo, 65–66 “Caged Bird” (Cui Jian), 117 “Cakebasket” (Jean Grae), 375 Calabash, 66 Calderón, Tego, 581, 599 Cali Swag District, 376 Call-and-response, 72, 73, 398, 459, 460, 524, 698 Callaway, Thomas DeCarlo. See Green, CeeLo The Calling (Hilltop Hoods), 317 Callouts, 73, 74 Calypso, 37, 705 Cambodia, 99–100 Cameroon, 100–101, 220–221 Camp Mulla, 394 Campbell, Cecil Bustamente. See Prince Buster Campbell, Clive. See Kool Herc Campbell, Don, 101–102, 318, 568, 735 Campbell, Lloyd. See Spiderman Campbell, Luther Roderick. See Luke Campbell Lockers. See Lockers Campbellock (dance), 101, 568, 735 Can I Borrow a Dollar? (Common), 131 “Can I Get a Witness” (TLC), 699 Canabasse, 630 Canada, 102–106 Drake, 55, 104, 199–200 early hip hop in, 103–104 horrorcore in, 328 immigrants in, 102

indigenous-themed hip hop in, 105–106 K’naan, 104, 394–396, 654 new jack swing in, 517 political hip hop in, 103, 105, 559 Quebecoise hip hop in, 104–105 second wave of hip hop in, 104 Shebang!, 637–638 Canserbero, 751 “Can’t Stop, Shan’t Stop” (Mr. B), 492 “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop” (KRS-One), 492 Cape Verde, 106–108, 310 Capitol Records, 41 Car kristall (No BS), 448 Cardenas, Marcus. See MC Magic Carlisle, Von. See Kuniva The Carlton (dance move), 319 Carmichael, Stokely, 58 Carraby, Antoine. See DJ Yella Cartagena, Joseph Antonio. See Fat Joe Cartel, 278, 716 Cartel de Santa, 473–474 Carter, Dwayne Michael, Jr. See Lil Wayne Carter, Shawn Corey. See Jay-Z Tha Carter V (Lil Wayne), 55, 426 Carvalho, Andro. See Conductor Carvalho, Charles. See Chachi La Casa del Fonk, 21 Cash (PBO), 288 Cash, Johnny, 171 Cash Money Records, 53–55, 75, 180–181, 425–427, 558, 739 Cashless Society, 489, 639, 659 CashTime Life, 660 Cassidy, 682 Castro, 46 “Cat Daddy” (Rej3ctz), 376 CB4 (film), 244 Cell7, 334, 335 Celtic hip hop, 108–109, 452 Certified Wise Crew, 317 “Cha Cha Cha” (MC Lyte), 466 Chachi, 107 Chackler, David, 477 Chacón, Juan David. See Onechot The Chairman (M.I.), 475 Chalfant, Henry, 608 Chalice, 228, 229 Chama, Fumba. See PilAto “Chameleon” (Hancock), 307, 308 Champeta, 130 Champion Sound (J Dilla), 359

842 Index Chance the Rapper, 109–110, 741 “Change the Beat” (Fab Five Freddy), 233, 234–235 “Changes” (Tupac Shakur), 558 Channel Is Deep and Beech (Ugly Leaders), 144 Chanson, 256 Chants, 73 Chaozz, 156 Chap hop, 51, 110–112, 492–493, 571–572, 642 Chap Olympiad, 110 Chappist movement, 110 Charlie Brown, 96 Cheap Science. See X-ray “Check the Rhime” (A Tribe Called Quest), 703 Chef 187, 775 “Chemical Beats” (The Chemical Brothers), 113 The Chemical Brothers, 112–114, 730 Cheong, David T. See Baddd Spellah Chepe, 416, 677 Cherish, 649 Cheryl the Pearl, 632 Chest pops, 125, 407 Chetoui, Rhéda. See Rhéda CHH. See Christian hip hop Chi-Ali, 504, 505 Chibanga, Edwin. See Eraze “Chicago” (Quarashi), 587, 588 Chicano rap, 114–115, 473, 735 Chicata, Rudy. See DJ rEk Chicken-N-Beer (Ludacris), 432 Chico Science, 78 Chicos de Barrio, 150 Chicosepoy. See Patel, Chirag Rashmikant Chief Boima, 639 Chief Keef, 271, 701–702 Chikwe, Naetochukwu. See Naeto C Childish Gambino, 178–179 Chile, 115–116, 693 Chill MC. See Tha Chill Chilli, 697 Chimta, 342 Chimurenga, 778 China, 116–118, 311, 561 Ching fung dik sau (film), 249 Chisolm, Gwndolyn. See Blondie (Gwndolyn Chisolm) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (film), 567, 606 Chocolate City, 377, 378

ChocQuibTown, 130 Choose One (1200 Techniques), 723 Chopper, 118–119, 689, 741 Chosan, 638–639 Chouvel bwa, 451 Christian hip hop, 79, 119–122, 460, 464, 550, 710 Christie Z-Pabon, 122–123, 566 “Christmas Rappin’ ” (Kurtis Blow), 408 The Chronic (Dr. Dre), 1, 198, 275, 281, 282, 672 Chuck D, 123–124 in The Bomb Squad, 67–68, 123 Davey D and, 169 Flavor Flav and, 254, 255 lyrics of, 578–579 in Public Enemy, 578–580 Cilvaringz, 684 Cipher, 38, 40, 720 Civil rights movement gangs after, 270–271 graffiti in, 290–291 and Nation of Islam, 502 political hip hop after, 557–558 veterans of, against gangsta rap, 274–275, 283 C-Kan, 473 Clarence 13X, 76, 253, 564 Clayton, Rodger. See Uncle Jamm Clear, Duval. See Masta Ace Clear Channel Radio, 169 Clementino, 355 Cleo, 556 Clinton, Bill, 580 Clothing. See Fashion Clowning, 125–126, 319, 406, 735 C-Murder, 126–127, 739 C.M.W. See Compton’s Most Wanted Cobiana Records, 304 Cobo, Juan Pablo. See Guanaco “Cocktail” (Postmen), 514 Cocoa Brovaz. See Smif-N-Wessun Cohen, Matthew. See Black, Matt Cohen, Sacha Baron, 250 Coke La Rock, 398 Cold Chillin’ Records, 448–449, 450 Cold 187um, 1, 198, 536 Cold War, 321 “Cold Wind Madness” (Ice-T), 336 Coldcut, 127–129, 191, 731 Cole, Joseph Gerald Adolphus. See Daddy Saj

Index 843 Coleman, Phonte Lyshod. See Phonte Coles, Dennis. See Ghostface Killah “Coli-sensa” (Naka B), 304 The College Dropout (West), 757 Colombia, 129–131, 148–149 Colón, Richard. See Crazy Legs Coloring Book (Chance the Rapper), 109 Columbia Records, 153, 154, 500, 501, 588, 603 Combs, Sean John. See Puff Daddy “Comin’ after You” (MC Ren), 184 Common, 131–133, 505–506, 741 Company Flow, 133–135, 493, 494, 664 Compaoré, Blaise, 94, 95 Compton’s Most Wanted, 135–136 “Con el color de mi aliento” (La Pozze Latina), 115 Conductor, 13 Conglomerate, 95 Congo, 136–138 Congo Square, 318 Conscious hip hop. See Political hip hop Consequence, 703 Conservative movement, on gangsta rap, 274–275 Conspiracy (Junior M.A.F.I.A.), 424 Conspiracy Theory (1200 Techniques), 723 Construction Sight, 639 Contino, Gabriel. See Gabriel O Pensador Control Machete, 473 Convict image, 8 Cook, Cheryl. See Cheryl the Pearl Cook, David. See Davey D The Cookbook (Elliott), 216, 217–218 Cookie Crew, 324 Cookies or Comas (Jean Grae), 375 “Cooky Puss” (Beastie Boys), 41 Cool D, 228, 229 Cool funk, 221 Coolio, 139–140, 734 “Cop Killer” (Body Count), 274, 337, 557 Copyright Criminals (documentary), 245, 494 Copyright issues of Birdman, 53 of The Bomb Squad, 68, 580 Danger Mouse on, 163 Elliott (Missy) on, 90 films about, 245, 494 of Luke, 434 of The Notorious B.I.G., 124

of The Sugarhill Gang, 670 of Timbaland, 695 of 2 Live Crew, 724, 725 Corner, Chris, 709 Corsica, 256 Cortopassi, Tabitha A. See Tabitha Costa Rica, 140 Costumes, 214, 235–236, 568 Cottrell, Tony. See Hi-Tek Coulibaly, Lassine. See Lassy King Massassy Country, God, or the Girl (K’naan), 394, 396 Country rap, 90 Cover Drive, 37 Cowboy, 293, 459, 471 Cowie, Richard. See Wiley Coxall, Dave. See Gini Grindith Cozart, Keith. See Chief Keef Crafoord, Wille. See Dr. C “Crank That” (Soulja Boy), 650 Crate diggers, 151 “Crazy” (Gnarls Barkley), 163 “Crazy in Love” (Beyoncé), 49 Crazy Legs, 81, 141–142, 390, 608, 736 The Crazy Minister. See Tommy Tee CrazySexyCool (TLC), 697, 699 C-Real, 142–143 Creeping, 214 Creep’n Sid, 213, 565 Crema. See C. Tangana Creole rap, 305 Criado, Heartan Lever. See Jiggy Drama Criminal Minded (Boogie Down Productions), 404 Crip walk, 143–144, 653, 735 Crips (gang), 84–85, 143, 271, 336, 651, 714 Crni Zvuk, 70 Croatia, 144–145, 310 Crooked Stilo, 149–150, 211 Crooks, Lesane Parish. See Tupac Shakur Cross-fading, 718 Crossing of Indian Tribes. See XIT “Crossover” (EPMD), 221 Crown Royal (Run-D.M.C.), 363, 616 Cruel and Unusual Punishment (The Welfare Poets), 756 “Crunching,” 288 Crunkcore, 145–147, 309, 649, 740 Crute, Fred. See Kool DJ Red Alert Cruz, Anthony. See AZ

844 Index Cruz, Jonathan. See Shortkut Cruz, Luis Armando Lozada. See Vico C Crystal Lightning, 744 CS, 99 Cuasito, Dave. See D-Styles Cuba, 147–148, 562 Cui Jian, 117 Cultural conservative movement, on gangsta rap, 274–275 Cultural diplomacy, 321–322 Culture Freedom, 563 Cumbia, 130, 140, 148–149 Cumbia rap, 148–150 Cununo, 130 “Cup of Brown Joy” (Professor Elemental), 111, 572 Currulao, 130 Curry, Tracy Lynn. See D.O.C. Curtis, Bill, 238 Cut Chemist, 150–151, 735 Cut Monitor Milo, 96 CuzCo, 25 C-walk. See Crip walk Cypher. See Cipher Cypress Hill, 124, 151–154, 580, 735, 768 Cypress X Rusko (Cypress Hill and Rusko), 154 Cyprus, 154–156 Czamara, Witold. See Donatan Czech Republic, 156–157 Czechoslovakia, 156 D Word. See Te Kupu D4L, 649 Da Arabian MCs. See DAM Da Bassment Cru, 215, 695 Da Brat, 159–160, 741 Da Brigade, 201 Da Fugitivz, 267 Da Hopp, 439–440 Da Jim, 691 Da Mouth, 685 Da Real World (Elliott), 216, 217 Da Trybe. See Trybesmen Daara J, 160–161 Dabany, Patience, 265 Dabiri, Lanre. See eLDee Dabo, 368, 369 Daddy G, 707 Daddy Kery. See Kery James Daddy Nuttea. See Nuttea Daddy Saj, 638

Daddy Vad. See DJ Vadim Daddy-O, 667, 668 Dae Kyun Hwang. See Virus Daffy, 410 Daft Punk, 257 Dah Shinin’ (Smif-N-Wessun), 646 Dain Ba Enkh, 483, 562 dälek, 161–162, 345 “Dallah Flét” (POC), 574 DAM, 544 DAMN, 514, 560 Dan the Automator, 15 Dana Dane, 642 Dance battling Asia One in, 21 Christie Z-Pabon organizing, 122, 566 Gamblerz in, 267 Jinjo Crew in, 378 krumping in, 407 in Mauritius, 457 New York City Breakers in, 518 origins of, 80, 319 popping in, 568 Rock Steady Crew in, 608 solo, 39 team, 39 T.I.P. Crew in, 696 uprock in, 748–749 Dancehall, 594, 599, 718 Dandrough, 645 D’Angelo, 507, 508 Danger Mouse, 162–164 Danger Zone Killer, 351 DANGERDOOM, 163 Dangerous C, 619 Dangerous Hinds, 619 Daniels, Deon. See DJ Ready D Dansi, 573, 688 Daoko, 369–370 Dapwell, 165 Darabid, Zahera. See Zaho Darbuka, 715 Darey, 526 Dark Days, Bright Nights (Bubba Sparxxx), 90 Dark Latin Groove, 472 Dark Man X. See DMX The Dark Side. See Agovski-Ago, Vladimir Dark2Men, 626 Das EFX, 164–165, 405, 437 Das Racist, 165–167

Index 845 Dat N—A. Raw. See Mr Raw Dave. See Trugoy the Dove Davenport, N’Dea, 167–168 Davey D, 168–169, 735 David, Roger. See Bohemia Davis, Charles. See Oyowele, Abiodun Davis, Douglas E. See Doug E. Fresh Davis, Jesse Edwin, 742 Davis, Jonathan William. See Q-Tip Davis, Joshua Paul. See DJ Shadow Davis, Miles, 307, 415 Davy D, 169–170, 578, 580 Day, 692 Day, Wendy, 170–171, 740 Dayton, Kelli, 709 DBC, 668 DDA. See Dirty Deal Audio De Alwis, Ashanti. See Ashanthi De Gesú, Francesco. See Frankie Hi-NRG MC De la planète Mars (IAM), 559 De La Soul, 171–172, 383, 504, 505, 738 de Nobrega, Justin. See DJ Hi-Tek Dead Man Drop (dance move), 260 dead prez, 59 Deadverse. See Oktopus Deaf hip hop, 182 Deák, Tamás. See Speak Dean, Kasseem. See Swizz Beatz Death Certificate (Ice Cube), 503 Death Grips, 345 Death Row Records Dr. Dre and, 198, 275, 536, 672, 734 feud with Bad Boy Entertainment, 276 and gangsta rap, 271, 275–276, 734 Snoop Dogg and, 651, 652 Suge Knight and, 198, 275, 652, 672, 714, 734 Death Threat, 553 Dee, 547 Dee Nasty, 256 Deele, 31, 32 Def Jam Records Beastie Boys and, 40, 41 Jay-Z and, 372 LL Cool J and, 428, 429 Ludacris and, 432 Public Enemy and, 255, 578 Rihanna and, 600 Run-D.M.C. and, 362, 614

Dégout (Master Scratch Band), 634 Del Naja, Robert. See 3D Del the Funky Homosapien, 313, 314, 315, 735, 736 Delany, Martin, 57, 58 Delay (in turntablism), 718 Delicious Vinyl, 167 DeLon, 667 “Dem Bow” (Shabba Ranks), 598 Dem Franchize Boys, 649 Dem Rude Boyz, 754 Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, 401–402 Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), 136, 137–138 Demon Days (Gorillaz), 163 Denmark, 173–175, 310, 328 Dennis, William James. See Willie D Denton, Sandra. See Pepa Derek X. See Sadat X Desert Dragons, 420 Deshi MCs, 35 Desi, 341, 547, 548, 732 Destiny’s Child, 49, 528 Desuasido, Ritchie. See Yogafrog Details (Frou Frou), 312 Detox (Dr. Dre), 199 Deux, 402 The Devastating Beat Creator. See DBC Devastating Vocal Excellence. See DVX Devil’s Night (D12), 201 Devine. See Father Shaheed Dewese, Mohandes. See Kool Moe Dee Deyanova, Lilana Hristova. See LiLana Deymed. See M’Hand Dhaanto, 654 Dharni, 640 Dhol beat, 342, 687, 732 Dholki, 732 Diakité, Jason Michael Bosak. See Timbuktu Diamant Noir, 48 Diamond, Michael. See Mike D Diamond J, 767 The Diary (Scarface), 441 Diba Diba, 675 Dicko, Souleymane. See Solo Didgeridoo, 22 Dido, 219 Die Antwoord, 175–176, 660–661 Diendéré, Gilbert, 95

846 Index Dig Your Own Hole (The Chemical Brothers), 113 “Diggity” sound, 164, 165 Diggs, Robert Fitzgerald. See RZA Digital Underground, 713 DiKK, 37 Dilated Peoples, 176–177, 182, 184, 762 “Dime Piece” (LiLana), 92 Dime stop, 213, 567, 605, 735 Dimples D, 449 Dinco D, 96 Dionisio, Gabriel Joseph Torres. See Kwikstep Dios Ke Te Crew, 560 Dip hop. See Disability hip hop Diplomacy. See Hip hop diplomacy Direct-drive turntables, 718 Directors of Photography (Dilated Peoples), 176, 177 Dirty Deal Audio, 418 The Dirty Dozen. See D12 Dirty Money Entertainment, 522 Dirty Oppland, 360, 361 Dirty rap, 177–179, 424 Dirty South, 179–181, 279, 431, 540, 541, 740 Disability hip hop, 181–182 Disciplinska Komisija, 70 Discos Fuentes, 130 Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, 258, 259 Diss rap feuds, 69, 132 Distant Relatives (Nas and Marley), 365 “Diva” (Beyoncé), 50 Diwon, 772 Dix, 494 Dixon, Maxwell. See Grand Puba Dizzee Rascal, 298, 299, 731 Dizzy DROS, 486 Dizzy K, 525 DJ meaning of term, 459, 717, 718 role of, 719–720 DJ AA, 537 DJ Alamo, 76 DJ Ant Capone, 135 DJ Apollo, 186, 347 DJ Awadi. See Awadi, Didier DJ Babu, 176–177, 182–184, 761, 762 DJ battling, 39–40, 720–721 Beat Junkies in, 720, 761–762

Christie Z-Pabon organizing, 122, 123, 566 Invisibl Skratch Piklz in, 348, 720, 768 Mix Master Mike in, 478–479 The X-Ecutioners in, 348, 720, 767, 768 DJ Bento, 49 DJ Besho, 5 DJ Bluey, 537 DJ Bobcat, 184–185 DJ Boogie Blind, 768 DJ Cadik, 329 DJ Chris Lova Lova. See Ludacris DJ Dallas T, 422 DJ Debris, 317 DJ Def Lou Hauck, 362 DJ Emiliot, 45 DJ E-Z Rock, 324, 601 DJ Flare, 347–348 DJ Frank le Breaker Fou, 549 DJ Grazzhoppa, 45 DJ Haji Mike, 155 DJ Hero (video game), 65 DJ Hi-Tek, 175 DJ Irv, 74 DJ Izm, 62 DJ Jazzy Jeff, 185–186, 647, 648, 741 DJ Joe Nice, 732 DJ Kentaro, 762 DJ Kidd, 48–49 DJ King Tech, 690 DJ Kool Herc. See Kool Herc DJ Lilman, 82 DJ Lord, 124, 578, 580 DJ Marius Thingvald, 388 DJ Mercan Dede, 716 DJ Mike T, 135, 136 DJ Motiv, 161 DJ Mouss, 486 DJ Mr. Magic, 69, 382, 404, 449–450 DJ Mr. Mixx, 434, 724 DJ Muggs, 152–153 DJ Next, 317 DJ Nu-Mark, 150 DJ Paul, 701 DJ Peril, 722, 723 DJ P-Money, 519 DJ Pooh, 184 DJ Precision, 768 DJ Premier, 269, 768 DJ Qbert, 186–187 in Invisibl Skratch Piklz, 186–187, 347–348, 720, 736

Index 847 Mix Master Mike and, 186, 478–479, 736 Roc Raida and, 768 techniques developed by, 186, 720, 721 DJ Rahat, 35 DJ Rampage, 23, 24, 400, 401 DJ Rap, 187–188, 731 DJ Ready D, 574 DJ rEk, 161 DJ Renegade, 749, 750 DJ Rhettmatic, 761, 762 DJ Ron Nelson, 104 DJ Same, 230 DJ Sammy B, 383 DJ Scott La Rock, 68, 69, 404 DJ Shadia, 381 DJ Shadow, 150, 151, 188–189, 709, 736 DJ Sid, 488 DJ Sidney, 256, 302 DJ Slip, 135 DJ Sope, 99 DJ Spinderella, 189–190, 621 DJ Sven, 514 DJ Tameil, 82 DJ Total Eclipse, 768 DJ Total K-Oss, 1 DJ Vadim, 190–191, 680 DJ Yella, 206, 534, 536 Djanta Kan, 700 Djeli. See Griot Djembe, 687 Djogi, Manuela Barbara Kamosi Moaso. See Ya Kid K Djoudi, Samir. See Samir DJourhlel, Samir. See L’Algérino Dlamini, Banele Mfundo. See Diba Diba D.M.C., 361, 362, 614–616 DMC World DJ Championships, 39–40, 720 Beat Junkies at, 762 Christie Z-Pabon working with, 123 Dee Nasty at, 256 Invisibl Skratch Piklz at, 347, 768 Mix Master Mike at, 478 Rob Swift at, 602 Roc Raida at, 602, 606–607, 768 The X-Ecutioners at, 602, 606–607, 768 DMX, 43, 192–194, 736 D-Nice, 69, 404 “Do a Boogaloo” (Brown), 81 “Do It to It” (Cherish), 649

“Do the Reggay” (Toots and the Maytals), 593 Do the Right Thing (film), 248, 579 Al-Doa’eis, Suhail, 771 Doble Filo, 148 D.O.C., 534, 536, 651, 672, 734 Doc Slim. See Dr. Slim “Doctorin’ the House” (Coldcut), 127 Documentaries. See Filmmaking (documentaries) Doe or Die (AZ), 441 Dog G, 685 Dogg (Martin Morocky), 498 Tha Doggfather (Snoop Dogg), 652, 653 Doggystyle (Snoop Dogg), 275, 651–652, 672 Doggystyle Records, 652 Doing the Jerk. See Jerkin’ The Dominican Republic, 194–195, 472 Don Bigg, 486 Donatan, 556 Donker Mag (Die Antwoord), 176 Donnie Def Jam. See Sheek Louch Donquishoot. See Ourrad, Rabah Don’t Accept Mass Nation. See DAMN “Don’t Stop” (Per Cussion), 677 Don’t Sweat the Technique (Eric B. and Rakim), 224 “Don’t Trust Me” (3OH!3), 146 Donuts (J Dilla), 359 Dope Poet Society, 559 Dorsey, Christopher. See B.G. Doss Al Eidani, 410 Double M, 121 Doug E. Fresh, 38, 195–196, 736 as beatboxer, 42–43, 195–196 Slick Rick and, 642 in Whiteboyz (film), 250 Doug E-Tee, 29, 570, 571 The Dougie (dance move), 196 Douglas, Ashanti Shequoiya, 20 Douthit, Patrick Denard. See 9th Wonder “Down for My N’s” (C-Murder), 126 Down to Earth (Monie Love), 505 Down with the King (Run-D.M.C.), 363 “Download This Song” (MC Lars), 465, 510 Downrock, 39, 80, 141, 390 Downtempo. See Trip hop Downtown 81 (documentary), 244 Dr. Butcher, 767, 768 Dr. C, 384

848 Index Dr. Dre, 196–199 D12 and, 201 and Death Row Records, 198, 275, 536, 672, 734 dirty rap by, 178 Eminem and, 218 and G-funk, 1, 281, 282–283 legal problems of, 275 in N.W.A., 196, 197–198, 206, 534–536 Rakim and, 225 Snoop Dogg and, 651, 652 Suge Knight and, 672, 673 in Whiteboyz (film), 250 Dr. Slim, 749, 750 “Drag Rap” (Showboys), 74 Drake, 55, 104, 199–200 Dray, 164–165 Drayton, William Jonathan, Jr. See Flavor Flav DRC. See Democratic Republic of Congo The Dreamer/The Believer (Common), 133 Drexler, Jorge, 116 “Drop It Like It’s Hot” (Snoop Dogg and Pharrell), 143, 653 Dropout (Gorkhali G.), 508 Dropping, 566 Drugs Birdman selling, 53 Blige (Mary J.) on, 61 Cypress Hill on, 152 Dr. Dre on, 198 50 Cent selling, 239 gangs selling, 270–271 gangsta rap on, 272, 557 Ice Cube on, 331 Jay-Z selling, 371 Ludacris on, 431 mafioso rap on, 441 The Notorious B.I.G. selling, 532 trap songs on, 700–701, 702 Drunken Tiger, 402 D-Styles, 761, 762 D12, 200–201, 679 du Toit, Anri. See ¥o-landi-Vi$$er Dub Afrika, 486 Dub reggae, 595, 597 Dubmatique, 104 Dubstep, 202–203, 566, 567, 597, 702, 732 Dubstep dance, 202–203 Duckworth, Kendrick Lamar. See Kendrick Lamar Dumile, Daniel. See MF DOOM

Dummy (Portishead), 707, 708 D’umo, Napoleon, 435 Dunamis, 422 Duncan, Isadora, 203 Duncan Mighty, 526 Dungeon Family (Atlanta, Georgia), 498 Dungeon Family (Namibia), 498 Dupri, Jermaine, 159, 180 Dust Brothers, 113 Dust Ruffle (Jean Grae), 375 The Dusty Foot Philosopher (K’naan), 394, 396 Duteil, Patrick. See DJ Sidney Dvornik, Klemen. See KlemenKlemen DVX, 152 Dynamic Boobah Siddik, 356 Dynamic Duo, 403 Dynamic Rockers, 608 Dzafic, Ali. See Ali En Dzilic, Jusuf. See Genocide DZK. See Danger Zone Killer Eardrum (Talib Kweli), 686, 687 Earmax. See Maximum East Coast rap, 736–739 East Coast–West Coast feud, 132, 275–276, 503, 672–673, 714 East Timor, 205 “Easy Star” (PRT), 563, 564 Eazy-Duz-It (Eazy-E), 206, 535 Eazy-E, 206 in Brownside, 115 as drug dealer, 271 in N.W.A., 197, 206, 534–536 tribute to, 184 Eccentrics, 329 Ecuador, 207 Ed, Nils Mårten. See Promoe Eddic poetry, 333 Eddy Fort Moda Grog, 107 EDM. See Electronic dance music Edo Maajka, 70 Educational and Cultural Affairs, Bureau of (ECA), 321, 322 Edwards, Shirley Klaris Yonavieve. See Skye Edwards Eedris Abdulkareem, 208, 239 EeS, 499 Efil4za—n (N.W.A.), 535 Egypt, 121, 208–210 Al-Eidani, Mohammed. See Doss Al Eidani

Index 849 Eigen Wereld (Opgezwolle), 515 8 Mile (film), 268 8th Wonder (The Sugarhill Gang), 671 808 State, 619, 730 808s and Heartbreak (West), 758 Ejjamai, Tarik. See DJ Izm Eko Fresh, 278 Ekundayo, Ron, 525 EL, 210–211, 286, 624 El General (Edgardo Armando Franco), 546 El Général (Hamada Ben Amor), 560, 712 El Roockie, 546 El Salvador, 211–212, 322 Elam, Keith Edward. See Guru Elastica, 475 eLDee, 212–213, 525, 526 Electric boogaloo, 39, 81, 213, 318, 566, 567 The Electric Boogaloos, 213–214, 319 Boogaloo Sam in, 213, 565, 735 costumes worn by, 214, 235–236 dance style developed by, 81, 213 Pop’in Pete in, 213, 564, 565 Popmaster Fabel in, 566 Electric Circus (Common), 133 Electro hop, 324 Electro Rock (documentary), 91, 243 Electroacoustic art music, 449 “Electro-funk,” 6–7 Electronic dance music (EDM), 202–203, 298, 477, 701 Electropop, 324 Electro-rap, 15–16 Elektra, 76 Elektra Records, 214, 215 Elektro Eko. See Eko Fresh Element Music Band, 772 Elephunk (Black Eyed Peas), 56, 759 Elijah Muhammad, 6, 502, 503 Elleson, Daniel. See DJ Rampage Elliott, Missy, 214–218 Brick City Club style and, 83 Bubba Sparxxx and, 90 directing young people away from gangs, 272 early music career of, 215–216 first self-produced album of, 216–217 MC Solaar and, 469 musical styles of, 217–218 Timbaland and, 214, 215–216, 217, 694–695

El-P, 133–134, 494 Elvis se Seun. See Ludik Em C.E.O. (C-Real), 142 Emanero, 18 Emcee Lynx, 108 EMI, 163 Emile YX?, 657–658 Eminem, 218–220, 741 Ben Sharpa and, 46, 47 D12 and, 200–201 early career of, 218–219 as freestyle expert, 39 Gang Starr and, 268 lyrical content of, 219–220 Emkej, 645 Emmet Spiceland, 452 Emphasis, 525 E-mu Emulator, 449 En Vogue, 698 The E.N.D. (Black Eyed Peas), 57, 759 Endtroducing. . . . ​. (DJ Shadow), 188, 736 E.N.L. Crew. See Deshi MCs Enow, Stanley, 100–101, 220–221 Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (Wu-Tang Clan), 763, 764 “Entropy” (DJ Shadow), 189 Enya, 262 Epeju, Paul Omiria. See Jay-P Epik High, 403 EPMD, 164, 165, 221–222 Equatorial Guinea, 222–223 Eraze, 499 Eric B., 223–225 Eric B. and Rakim, 223–225 Erick and Parrish Making Dollars. See EPMD Ern Quek. See Q-Dot Ernerot, Peder. See Pedda Pedd Ervin, Bobby. See DJ Bobcat Erykah Badu, 132, 225–227, 507, 540, 627 Esham, 328 Eslam Jawaad, 420, 683–684 Espiritu, Andrew Ford Valentino. See Andrew E. Estelle, 227–228 Estonia, 228–230 “Ether” (Nas), 501 Ethiopia, 43, 230–231, 353, 596 La Etnnia, 129 Etno Engjujt, 9 Evans, Yasmin. See Yazz Eve, 682

850 Index Everybody Loves Ice Prince (Ice Prince), 332, 333 “Everythang’s Corrupt” (Ice Cube), 558 Evidence, 176–177 “Evil Boy” (Die Antwoord), 175 EVISBEATS, 369 Ex Ministries, 121 Exit Planet Dust (The Chemical Brothers), 113, 730 Exotic E, 768 Expansion Team (Dilated Peoples), 176, 177 Extince, 514 Extra P. See Large Professor Eyes on This (MC Lyte), 466 Eyvindarson, Erpur. See Blaz Roca Eyvindarson, Eyjólfu. See Sesar A “The F— Shop” (2 Live Crew), 725 “F— the Creationists” (MC Hawking), 510 Faada, 160, 161 Faalogo, Kosmo. See Kosmo Fab Five Freddy, 64, 167, 233–235, 244, 291 Fabri Fibra, 355 Fabulous 5, 234 “Face Down A— Up” (2 Live Crew), 178 FACT, 418 La Factoría, 546 Fado, 569 Faf. See Lij Michael Fahed, Nawaf. See Daffy Falco, 26 Fall Out Boy, 761 Fally Ipupa, 137 Falola, Kunle. See Dizzy K La Familia, 611 “Family Affair” (Blige), 62 Famo, 422 Famous Flames, 87 FandG, 491 FanMail (TLC), 697, 699 Fanon, Frantz, 58 Fantasea (Banks), 36 Fantastic Five, 295 Die Fantastischen Vier, 277 Farah, 440 Faratiana, Andriambelona Maminiaina. See Farah Farinas, Edgar, 288 Farrakhan, Louis, 59, 502–504 Farrugia, Johnston. See Hooligan

Farsi rap, 348–350 Fashion, 235–238 Big Daddy Kane and, 51 bling in, 236, 237, 365, 460 in Colombia, 131 Dr. Dre and, 196–197 for female rappers, 159–160, 237 Flavor Flav and, 255 Jamaican influence on, 365 Jay-Z and, 373 jerkin’ and, 376 Jesse Jagz and, 377–378 in Korea, 403 in Laos, 413 MC Hammer and, 236, 464 Mos Def and, 488 Nicki Minaj and, 522 Puff Daddy and, 237, 584 Run-D.M.C. and, 616 Sarkodie and, 625 Swiss Beatz and, 682 Wu-Tang Clan and, 764 Fassie, Brenda, 412 Fast Money (Birdman), 54 Fat Joe, 52, 53 “Fat Rabbit” (Timbaland), 432 Fat Tony, 527 Fatback Band, 238–239, 736 Father Blanco. See Tommy Tee Father Shaheed, 563, 564 Fats Comet. See TACK>>HEAD Fattouh, Lynn. See Malikah “Fatty Boom Boom” (Die Antwoord), 175–176 Faussart, Célia, 421 Faussart, Hélène, 421 Fayette-Mikano, Régis. See Abd al Malik Faze, 526 Fear of a Black Hat (mockumentary), 244, 250 “Fear of a Black Hole” (mockumentary), 512 Fear of a Black Planet (Public Enemy), 59, 68, 123–124, 557, 578, 579 Feature films. See Filmmaking (feature films made in the United States); Filmmaking (feature films made outside the United States) “Feel Good Inc” (Gorillaz), 172 Feel My Power (MC Hammer), 464 Fela Kuti, 525, 571 Female rappers. See Women rappers

Index 851 Feminists, on Black Nationalism, 59 Fenton, Sara. See Ms. Mighty Fenty, Robyn Rihanna. See Rihanna Fergie, 55, 56, 57, 759 Ferguson, Stacey. See Fergie Ferreira, Fábio. See Fidalgo “Fett’s ‘vette” (mc chris), 510 Feuds Bridge Wars, 69, 382, 404, 450 between C.M.W. and Tim Dog, 136 between Death Row Records and Bad Boy Entertainment, 276 East Coast–West Coast, 132, 275–276, 503, 672–673, 714 50 Cent in, 208, 239 between Foxy Brown and Queen Pen, 591 between Ice Cube and N.W.A., 331, 535 between Jay-Z and Nas, 501 between Mr. B and Professor Elemental, 111–112, 493, 571, 572 in the Netherlands, 514 in Romania, 611 Roxanne Wars, 450, 613, 738 between Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., 276, 532–533 Feven, 231 FF5, 146 Fichtelberg, Len. See Kool Lenny Fidalgo, 491 Fifi Cooper, 489 50 Cent, 239–241, 738 Bliss n’ Eso and, 63 in feuds, 208, 239 mentor of, 361, 363, 364 Thaitanium and, 692 “Fight for Your Right” (Beastie Boys), 41 “Fight the Power” (Public Enemy), 59, 123–124, 578, 579 “Fighting Trousers” (Professor Elemental), 111, 493, 572 Fiji, 241–242 Fiji (singer), 242 Filipino hip hop, 552–553 Filmmaking (documentaries), 242–246 Filmmaking (feature films made in the United States), 247–249 Filmmaking (feature films made outside the United States), 249–251 Filtro Musik, 358 The Final Call (newspaper), 503 Finland, 251–252, 676

Fintelligens, 252 Fiorito, Marco. See Kaos One Fire of Freedom (Black 47), 108 Firm, 442 Firooz, Soosan, 4–5 First Lady of Hip Hop. See Queen Latifah First Nations, 105–106 Fish Symboled Stamp, 483 Five Percent Nation, 252–254 foundation of, 252–253 in hip hop diplomacy, 322 role in hip hop, 76, 226, 253–254, 269, 460, 564 teachings of, 253 Five Steez, 366 504 Boyz, 456 Fjeldsted, Steinar Orri. See Steini Flanders, 45 Flare scratch, 347–348 Flares (dance moves), 390 Flashdance (film), 81, 141, 249, 319, 368, 608, 676 Flåten, Tommy. See Tommy Tee Flatlinerz, 327 Flattery Not Included (Mr. B), 493 “Flava in Ya Ear” (Mack), 583 Flavor Flav, 12, 124, 254–255, 330, 578–579, 580 Flavor Unit Entertainment, 588–589 Flips, 39 Floor rock, 260 Floormasters Crew, 518 “Flow Like Poe” (MC Lars), 465, 512 Flukey Luke, 569 Flying Colours (Bliss n’ Eso), 62, 63 Flying Lotus, 309 FM JAM (radio show), 70 FOI. See Fruit of Islam Folk-hop remix, 666 Follow the Leader (Eric B. and Rakim), 224 “Foolish” (Ashanti), 20 Foos-hop, 684 Footloose (film), 319 Force One Posse, 700 Foretti, Jason. See DJ Peril Foretti, Simon. See Kemstar “Formation” (Beyoncé), 75 Forster-Jones, Kabba. See Kabba Forster-Jones, N’fa. See Nfamas Fortes, Eddy. See Eddy Fort Moda Grog Fou Malade, 630

852 Index Foxy Brown, 178, 237, 591 França, Francisco de Assis. See Chico Science France, 255–258 graffiti in, 291 hardcore hip hop in, 310 MC Solaar, 48, 255, 256, 468–469, 571, 700, 750 new jack swing in, 517 Paris City Breakers, 81, 258, 518, 549–550 political hip hop in, 257, 559 reggae in, 597 Tijoux (Ana), 116, 693–694 Francis, Barry John M. See DJ Debris Francis M., 552, 553 Franco, Edgardo Armando. See El General (Edgardo Armando Franco) Francœur, Lucien, 103, 104 Frank T, 137 Frankie Hi-NRG MC, 560 Franti, Michael, 258–259, 345, 735, 736 Fraser, Neil Joseph Stephen. See Mad Professor Freaking, 125 Freedom (Akon), 7 Freeman, Damita Jo, 606 Freese, Louis. See B-Real Freestyle battling, 38–39, 47, 461 Freestyle Fellowship, 2–3, 118 Freestyle rap, 459, 461 Freeze (dance move) in breakdancing, 39, 80, 319 by The Electric Boogaloos, 214 by Frosty Freeze, 260 Hong10 Freeze, 378 in locking, 567, 569 by T.I.P. Crew, 696 Freitas, 107 French Montana, 486–487 Frenkie, 71 Fresh Kid Ice, 724–725 Fresh Prince. See Smith, Will The Fresh Prince of Bel Air (TV series), 185, 319, 380, 589, 647, 648 The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-Boys (documentary), 141, 566 Freundeskreis, 560 From Africa from Scratch (Sound on Sound), 525 “From N.Y. to N.O.” (Mr. Serv-On), 52

From South Africa to South Carolina (Scott-Heron), 629, 657 From the Native Tongue (POE), 561 “Frontin’ ” (Jay-Z and Pharrell), 551 Frost. See Kid Frost Frost, Wayne. See Frosty Freeze Frosty Freeze, 141, 259–260, 390, 608, 736 Frou Frou, 312, 313 Fruit of Islam, 503 Frukwan, 668 “F— the Police” (N.W.A.), 273, 274, 535 Fuemana, Pauly, 538 Fuemana, Phillip, 520, 538 Fugees, 260–263, 315, 316, 739 Fuji music, 525 Fujiwara, Hiroshi, 368 Fukera, 43, 230 Fulanito, 472 Fulbright-Hayes Act (1961), 321 Full Surface Records, 682 “Fun, Fun, Fun” (Joey Boy and Snow). See Snow Funcrusher (Company Flow), 134 Fun-Da-Mental, 559 Fünfhaus Posse, 27 Funk carioca, 679 “Funk You Up” (The Sequence), 632, 633 Funkadelic, 281 “Funkdafied” (De Brat), 159 “Funky Sound (Tear the Roof Off)” (The Sequence), 632 Furious Five. See Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five Furtado, Nelly, 695 Further (The Chemical Brothers), 113 Futura 2000, 234 G Rap. See Kool G Rap GAB Crew, 423 Gabasiane, Punah. See Punah Gabbert, Kenneth. See Ken Swift Gabon, 265–266 Gabriel O Pensador, 78–79 Gacho, 418 Gaddafi regime (Libya), 423 “Galang” (M.I.A.), 476 Gálvez, Fernando. See Yung Beef The Gambia, 67, 266–267, 300 Gamblerz, 267–268, 696 The Game, 239 Game Theory (The Roots), 612 Gammaldans, 676

Index 853 Gang Starr, 268–270, 469, 742 “Gangham Style” (PSY), 19, 403, 577 Gangs (United States), 270–272 after civil rights movement, 270–271 in hip hop, 271–272 illegal activities of, 270 purposes of, 270 and tagging, 291 The Universal Zulu Nation as alternative to, 5–6, 59, 271, 745, 746 “Gangsta Gangsta” (N.W.A.), 535 Gangsta rap, 271, 272–276 in Albania, 10 in Argentina, 18 in Australia, 24, 27 in Austria, 28 in Bangladesh, 35 in Colombia, 129, 130 Common against, 132 in Croatia, 145 and culture wars, 274–275 Death Row Records and, 271, 275–276, 734 in Germany, 278 and hardcore hip hop, 309–312 vs. horrorcore, 326 in Hungary, 329 in Iceland, 335, 588 and mafioso rap, 441 in Malawi, 443 in the Maldives, 446 in Mongolia, 483 in Namibia, 498 in the Netherlands, 514 in Norway, 360–361, 530 origins of, 272–273, 734–735 in the Philippines, 553 political messages in, 557 in Russia, 617, 618 in Samoa, 623 in Saudi Arabia, 625 Scott-Heron (Gil) on, 629 in Serbia, 634 in Slovakia, 644 in Virgin Islands, 753 See also specific artists Gangsta-funk. See G-funk “Gangsta’s Paradise” (Coolio), 139, 734 Gangwe Mobb, 688 Ganksta N-I-P, 327, 740 Ganxsta Zolee, 329 García, Ana. See Rokafella

Garion, 402–403 Garnier, Pascal. See Krewcial Garvey, Marcus, 57–58 Gatas Parlament, 310, 530–531 Gatonye, Peter. See Pilipili Gavras, Romain, 476 General D., 569 Genge, 393 The Genius. See GZA Gennie, 483 Genocide, 71 Germany, 277–279 graffiti in, 291 political hip hop in, 278, 559–560 refugees/immigrants in, 4, 5, 277–278, 560, 716 reggae in, 597 “Get at Me Dog” (DMX), 193 Get Fresh Crew, 43, 195, 642 “Get on the Dance Floor” (Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock), 601 “Get on the Good Foot” (Brown), 318 Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (50 Cent), 63, 240, 363 “Get Silly” (V.I.C.), 650 “Get Ur Freak On” (Elliot), 90, 216, 217 Geto Boys, 179–180, 272, 279–281, 327, 740 G-funk, 281–283 origins of, 1, 197–198, 281, 536, 734 on police, 282 Snoop Dogg and, 651, 652 GH rap, 283, 285–286 Ghana, 283–287 C-Real, 142–143 EL, 210–211, 286, 624 griot in, 300 krumping in, 407 Sarkodie, 285–286, 333, 624–625 Sway dedicating song to, 674 Ghana (Maltese peasant music), 448 Gharbaoui, Abdel Hamid. See Benny B Ghebremicael, Feven. See Feven Ghetto Boys. See Geto Boys Ghetto D (Master P), 455 “Ghetto Qur’an” (50 Cent), 240, 364 Ghetto Ruff Records, 658–659 Ghostface Killah, 763, 768 Giannoni, Federico Andres. See Emanero Gibbons, Beth, 706, 707 Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal. See Guru

854 Index Gillis, Greg Michael. See Girl Talk “Gin and Juice” (Snoop Dogg), 651–652 Gina Pepa, 491 Gini Grindith, 498–499 Ginyard, Robert. See Rob Base Girl Talk, 178 “Girlfriend” (Queen Pen), 590–591 “Give It Up or Turnit a Loose” (Brown), 719 Glass, Philip, 112 Glasskår (Karpe Diem), 387–388 Glenn, Ornette. See Self Jupiter Glide Master, 518 Glitch hop, 287–289 “Global Chaos Digital Love Opus I” (Hex), 128 Glover, Donald McKinley. See Childish Gambino Glover, Melvin. See Melle Mel Glover, Nathaniel. See The Kidd Creole GMC, 351–352 Gminor7, 462 Gnarls Barkley, 163 Go Mack, 1 Gockel, Cyril-Alex. See C-Real God. See DJ Hi-Tek The God MC. See MC Rakim Rakim “God Save the Queen” (Oriental Robotics), 420 Godessa, 561 Godfather of Rap. See Scott-Heron, Gil The Godfather of Rap (Spoonie Gee), 664–665 Godfather of Soul. See Brown, James God’s Son (Nas), 499, 501 Goema, 574 Goje, 300 Golden Age of Hip Hop, 170, 383, 504, 563, 767 Golestan, Mehrak. See Reveal Gomes, Elidio. See MC Alee Gómez, Daniel. See Kaydy Cain Gomez, James. See Taboo Gondry, Michel, 113 González, Jesús Bibang. See Jota Mayúscula Gonzalez, Pablo. See MC Pee Gonzalez good kid, m.A.A.d. City (Kendrick Lamar), 392 “Good Life” (Drunken Tiger), 402 Gooden, Lolita Shanté. See Roxanne Shanté

Gooden, Simone. See Monie Love Goodman, Arthur. See Go Mack Gordon, Rexton Rawlston Fernando. See Shabba Ranks “Górecki” (Lamb), 709 Gorillaz, 163, 172, 709 Gorkhali G., 508 Gospel Gangstaz, 120 Gospel hip hop. See Christian hip hop “Got to Have It” (Urban Species), 749 Gotas de Rap, 129 Gove, Michael, 110 Govedina (Beogradski Sindikat), 634 Gracias, 137 The Graduate (MC Lars), 465 Graduation (West), 758 Graffiti art, 289–292 as art, 290, 291–292 in Australia, 291, 723 documentaries about, 234, 243, 244 Fab Five Freddy and, 233, 234, 291 in Greece, 296 history of, 290–291 in Iceland, 334 in Japan, 368 in Kuwait, 410 in Laos, 413 in Madagascar, 439 in Malta, 448 in Nepal, 508 in Norway, 530 in Peru, 551 political messages in, 290–291 Popmaster Fabel, 566 in Puerto Rico, 581 Putin (Vladimir) on, 618 in Singapore, 639 in South Africa, 291, 657 in Sri Lanka, 666 in Sweden, 676 techniques of, 290, 291 in the United Kingdom, 291, 730 as vandalism, 289–290 in Yemen, 771 Graffiti Band, 742 Graham, Aubrey Drake. See Drake Graham, Willy. See Ill Will Grand Champ (DMX), 193 Grand Mixer D.ST, 307, 308 Grand Puba, 76, 77, 254 Grandmaster Flash, 38, 292–294 and beatboxing, 43, 737

Index 855 namecheck of, 64 quick-mix method of, 292, 295, 719 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five hype man used by, 330 legacy of, 294 Melle Mel in, 293, 459, 469–471 message rap by, 293–294, 557 origins of, 292, 293, 737 Swedish hip hop influenced by, 677 Grandmaster Melle Mel. See Melle Mel Grandmaster Roc Raida. See Roc Raida GrandMixer DXT, 187, 719 GrandWizard Theodore, 292, 294–296, 719, 737 Gravediggaz, 327 Gray, Terius. See Juvenile The Great Adventures of Slick Rick (Slick Rick), 642–643 The Great Hip Hop Hoax (documentary), 245 Greece, 296–298, 310 Greek Cypriots, 154–155 Green, CeeLo, 163 Green, Jason. See Planet Asia Green, Rodney. See Dr. Slim Greene, Maurice. See M. Sayyid Greene, Talib Kweli. See Talib Kweli Green-Eyed Bandit. See MC Erick Sermon GreenJolly, 728 Grégoire, Pascal. See Scalp The Grey Album (Danger Mouse), 162–163 Grice, Gary. See GZA Griffin, Richard. See Professor Griff Griffin, William Michael. See MC Rakim Rakim Griffith, Chi-Ali. See Chi-Ali Grill, 237 Grime, 298–299 Grimes, Timothy. See Wise Intelligent Grinberg, Benjy, 760 Grindcore, 145 Gringo, 491 “Grins,” 447 Griot, 66, 266, 299–300, 446, 460, 570–571 Ground Zero, 374 GroundWorks, 47 Guache, 149 Guadeloupe, 301–302, 451 Guanaco, 207 Guatemala, 302–303, 562 Guðmundsdóttir, Björk. See Björk

Guèye, Astou. See Toussa Guibunda, Gina. See Gina Pepa “Guilty Conscience” (Eminem), 219 Guinea-Bissau, 67, 300, 303–304 Gulf War (1990–1991), 350–351 Gulley, Kevin. See KMG the Illustrator Gumbé, 304 Gura G, 384 Gurov, Andre. See DJ Vadim Guru, 268, 269, 469 Gustavo, 560 Guy, Rashawnna. See Shawnna A Guy Called Gerald, 619, 730 Gyll music, 284 Gypsies, 174 Gypsy.cz, 156–157 GZA, 763 Al-Habashi, Hussein, 771 Habibi music, 209 Hadag Nahash, 354 Haddad, Shai. See SHI 360 Haggerty, Benjamin Hammond. See Macklemore “Hai Hai” (PHS), 547–548, 732 Haiku D’Etat, 3 Haintso haintso, 439 Hair style, 236 Haiti, 261, 262, 305–306 Haji, Ibramhim. See Pop Dogg Hajimichael, Mike. See DJ Haji Mike Haka, 481, 747 Hale, Nathaniel Dwayne. See Nate Dogg Halilović, Sanela. See Sassja Hall, Marcel Theo. See Biz Markie Hall, Nathaniel Phillip. See Afrika Baby Bam Halo freeze, 378 Hamidović, Adnana. See Frenkie Hamilton, Arnold. See Frukwan Hamilton, Jonathan. See Jun Tzu Hammer (Edward Nana Poku Osei), 285, 624 Hammer, MC. See MC Hammer Hamster style (scratching), 186, 347, 721 Hancock, Herbie, 306–309, 719, 741 Handstands, 39 Hang Lam Trang Anh. See Suboi Hanifa. See Bubbles Hanna (film), 113 Hanna, Tommy. See Timz Hanson, Latoya, 621

856 Index Hapeta, Dean. See Te Kupu Hapeta, Matthew. See MC Wiya “Happy” (Pharrell), 551 Har Sarnai, 483 “Hard as Hell” (1200 Techniques), 723 Hard Blasters, 573 Hard Core (Lil’ Kim), 424 “Hard Knock Life” (Jay-Z), 372 Hard Knock Radio (radio show), 169 The Hard Road (Hilltop Hoods), 316–317 Hardcore hip hop, 309–312 in Australia, 311, 722–723 crunkcore in, 145–147, 309, 740 horrorcore in, 309, 325–328 mafioso rap in, 440–442 metal rap in, 153–154, 309 in the Netherlands, 514 in the Philippines, 553 in Zambia, 775 See also Gangsta rap Hardy, Antonio. See Big Daddy Kane Hare, Ben John. See DJ Next “Harem” pants, 236, 464 Harlem, 318, 414, 604, 738–739 Harrell, Andre, 60–61, 583 Harris, Clifford Harris, Jr. See T.I. Harris, Mick, 345 Harris, Shawntae. See Da Brat Harrow, Jason D. See Kardinal Offishall Harry, Debbie, 64 “Hashem Tamid” (Nitzani), 353 Hassan, Jasmin. See Jazz Hassan Hatch, Torrence. See Boosie Badazz “Hate Me Now” (Nas), 501 Hattabi, Mehdi. See Dub Afrika Hau Latukefu, 23, 24, 400, 401 Haughton, Aaliyah Dana. See Aaliyah Haule, Joseph. See Professor Jay Hawkins, Lamont Jody. See U-God Hayat, Rahat. See DJ Rahat Hayes, Edwin Maximilian, Jr. See Aceyalone Hazeb, Taoufik. See Don Bigg Head Hunters (Hancock), 307 Head spin, 390 Headphones, 196 Headstands, 39 Heap, Imogen, 312–313, 750 The Heavies. See The Brand New Heavies Heems, 165–167 “Hein père” (Enow), 100–101, 220, 221 Heisser, Gene. See Boom Bam

The Heist (Macklemore and Ryan Lewis), 438 Hello Nasty (Beastie Boys), 40–41, 42 Hemoglobina, 13 Henriques, Sean Paul Ryan Francis. See Sean Paul Herard, George Lys. See Master Dji The Herbaliser, 731 Herculoid, 397–398 The Herd, 24 Hess, Damian. See MC Frontalot Hex, 128 “Hey Jamalo” (Bally Sagoo), 340 “Hey Ya!” (OutKast), 541 HHP. See Hip Hop Pantsula HHR. See Hip Hop Revolucion Hichkas, 349 “Hide and Seek” (Heap), 313 Hiero Imperium, 313–314 Hieroglyphics, 313–315 Hierophysics Crew, 566 Higgins, Bryan. See Charlie Brown High Priest, 15, 16 Highlife, 284, 285, 286, 525, 527 Hijas Del Sol, 222 Hijazi, Mohammed, 771 Hikwa, 499 Hill, Kim, 55, 56 Hill, Lauryn, 132, 260–262, 315–316, 507, 508, 739 Hilltop Hoods, 23, 24, 25, 62, 83, 86, 316–318 Hime, 369 Hinds, Anderson McConley. See Dangerous Hinds Hinds, Carson. See Dangerous C Hinds, Horace. See Horace Andy Hines, Adrian. See MC A.D.E. Hines, William. See Skoob Hip hop activism, 21, 29, 122, 323, 438–439, 744 Hip Hop Church, 121, 409 Hip Hop Clowns, 125 Hip Hop Coalition, 168, 735 Hip hop dance, 80, 318–320 Asia One, 21 Black Eyed Peas, 56 in Brunei, 89 Campbell (Don), 101, 735 clowning in, 125–126, 319, 406, 735 Crip walk in, 143–144, 735 dubstep, 202–203

Index 857 early versions of, 318–319 electric boogaloo in, 39, 81, 213, 318, 566, 567 and fashion, 235–236 films about, 319 in India, 342–343 instruction of, 319–320 jerkin’ in, 319, 376, 735 krumping in, 125–126, 319, 406–408, 735 in Kuwait, 410 in Lithuania, 427 lyrical hip hop and, 435 in Madagascar, 440 in Martinique, 451 in Mongolia, 483 new school of, 319 origins of, 318 Pop’in Pete, 213, 564–565, 736 the Robot in, 213, 486, 565, 567, 605–606 in Slovenia, 645 in Uganda, 727 in the United States, 735 uprock in, 39, 80, 748–749 See also Breakdancing; Dance battling; Locking; Popping Hip hop diplomacy, 321–322 The Hip Hop Fellow (documentary), 245, 529 Hip Hop Galsen, 630–631 Hip Hop Kemp, 156 Hip hop montage, 247 Hip hop musicals, 247 Hip Hop Na (TV show), 625–626 Hip Hop Pantsula, 323–324, 659, 777 Hip Hop Revolucion, 751 Hip hop soul, 61 Hip Hop Vibes, 150 Hip house, 324–325 Hiphop Tamizha, 341 Hiplife, 285 Hip-metal, 344 “Hit ‘Em Up” (Tupac Shakur), 533 Hi-Tek, 686, 687 H-Kayne, 486 Hlophe, Phephile. See Jazz P Hlwan Paing, 495, 496 Hmong people, 413 Hobbs, David. See DJ Mr. Mixx Hodgson, Nicholas William Dennis. See MC Tunes

“Holiday Rap” (MC Miker G and DJ Sven), 514 Hollywood (Flavor Flav), 580 Hollywood Undead, 146 Holman, Michael, 518 Holmes, Clarence. See Ready Rock C Holton, DeShaun Dupree. See Proof Holy hip hop. See Christian hip hop Hölzel, Johann. See Falco Homicide, 344 “Homies” (ICP), 325 Homophobia in Black Nationalism, 59 in Brazil, 79 of Eminem, 218, 219 of Foxy Brown, 591 of Professor Griff, 12, 579 Honduras, 322 Honey, I’m Home (Zeus), 776 Honey Cocaine, 100 Honey Rockwell, 735 Honey Singh. See YoYo Honey Singh Hong Kong, 249, 311 Hong10, 378 Hong-Yeol, Kim. See Hong10 Honoret, Yameiry Infante. See La Materialista “Hood Took Me Under” (Compton’s Most Wanted), 135 Hooligan, 448 Horace Andy, 707 Horovitz, Adam. See Ad-Rock Horrorcore, 84, 85, 309, 325–328 Horton, Chad, 121 Hössi Ólafsson, 587, 588 Hot, Cool and Vicious (Salt-N-Pepa), 621 Hot Boy$, 54, 75, 181 Hot 97.5 (radio station), 431 Hot Shot (Shaggy), 636, 637 House of Pain, 108 House rap. See Hip house Houston, 179, 279, 740 Houston, Jordan Michael. See Juicy J How Bizarre (OMC), 520, 538 How Do You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul??? (Public Enemy), 580 “How to Rob” (50 Cent), 240 “How We Do It” (Keko), 389 “How We Gonna Make the Black Nation Rise?” (Brother D), 557

858 Index How Ya Like Me Now (Kool Moe Dee), 399 How You Luv That (Big Tymer$), 54 Howe, Liam, 709 Howes, Sally Ann, 567, 606 Hub, 612 Huba, 140 Hubbard, Leonard Nelson. See Hub Hugo, Chad, 551 Huh Hyun-seok. See Hyun Jin-young Hul, Sophoann Sope. See DJ Sope Humor absurdist, 165–166 in documentaries, 245 of MC Frontalot, 462 in mockumentaries, 244, 250 of Ruthless Rap Assassins, 619 of Slick Rick, 642 in steampunk, 572 in Swiss rap, 681 of TLK, 678 Hungary, 328–330 Hunter, Jason. See Inspectah Deck Hurrey, Raymond. See Obabi, Nillaja Hurricane Katrina, 558 Hussein, Saddam, 350, 351 “Hustle Avenue” (Jay-P), 370 Hustlers Convention (The Last Poets), 415 Huston, Paul Edward. See Prince Paul Hutchison, Gregory Fernan. See Cold 187um Hype (magazine), 660 Hype man, 330 Flavor Flav as, 254–255, 330, 578–579, 580 Jay-Z as, 330 Smith (Will) as, 647 Hyun Jin-young, 402 “I” (Lamar), 143 “I Always Feel Like” (TRU), 455 I Am . . . ​( Nas), 499, 500–501 “I Be the Swag” (C-Real), 142 “I Get Crazy” (Nicki Minaj), 522 “I Got Cha” (Queen Pen), 591 I Got Work (Big Tymer$), 54 “I Gotta Feeling” (Black Eyed Peas), 56 “I Have a Beard” (Najafi), 349 “I Need a Beat” (LL Cool J), 428–429 “I Used to Love H.E.R.” (Common), 132, 506

“I Want to Fight Your Father” (Rubberbandits), 351 IAM, 257, 347, 559 Ibrahim, Khaled Hadj. See Khaled (Khaled Hadj Ibrahim) Ibrahim, Tsidi. See Jean Grae “Ice, Ice, Baby” (Vanilla Ice), 672 Ice Cold Rockers, 677 Ice Cream Man (Master P), 180, 455 Ice Cube, 331–332 as actor and screenwriter, 331, 332 Common and, 132 Coolio and, 139 dirty rap by, 178 DJ Bobcat and, 184 in feud with N.W.A., 331, 535 and Nation of Islam, 503 in N.W.A., 197, 206, 273, 331, 534 political hip hop by, 557, 558 solo career of, 331–332 Ice Prince, 332–333, 475, 526, 624 Iceland, 333–335, 587–588, 756 Ice-T, 273, 274, 336–337, 460, 557, 739 ICP. See Insane Clown Posse Idir, Thomas. See Sinik Idlewild (film), 541 IDM, 15 iFani, 489 Igbo rap, 527 Iggy Azalea, 25, 36, 337–339 Iggy Pop, 465 Igor. See Saykoji Ikonoklasta, 13, 14 Iktar, 342 Ilegales, 472 Ilimba, 687 “I’ll House You” (Jungle Brothers), 324, 505 Ill Will, 500 Illa J, 359 Illbient, 346 Illegal Music 3: The Finale (M.I.), 475 Illmatic (Nas), 499, 500 Illya Kuryaki and the Vanlderramas, 18 “I’m Bout’ It, Bout It” (TRU), 455 “I’m Excited” (DJ Shadow), 189 “I’m Kool Moe Dee” (Kool Moe Dee), 399 I’m New Here (Scott-Heron), 629–630 I’m Real (Brown), 88 The Imagine Project (Hancock), 309 Imhotep, 11, 347 Imibongo, 411

Index 859 Immigrants in Australia, 22, 562 in Austria, 28 in Belgium, 45, 46 in Canada, 102 and Celtic hip hop, 108 from Colombia, 149 in Denmark, 173, 544 from Ethiopia, 231 in France, 559 in Germany, 277–278, 560, 716 from Ghana, 286–287 from Haiti, 306 from Iran, 349 in Ireland, 352 in Israel, 353 in Italy, 355 from Jamaica, 366, 460 from Laos, 413 Los Rakas on, 547 from Malawi, 443 from Mauritius, 457 from Mexico, 473 from Morocco, 486–487 in the Netherlands, 513, 560 from Nigeria, 526, 527 in Norway, 387, 529, 530, 531 from Pakistan, 543, 544 from Poland, 555 from Puerto Rico, 581, 755 from Senegal, 469 from Somalia, 395 from South Africa, 661–662 in Sweden, 231, 676, 677–678, 679–680 in Switzerland, 681 from Taiwan, 685 from Thailand, 691, 692 from Tunisia, 712 from Turkey, 277–278, 716 in the United Kingdom, 555, 729 from Zimbabwe, 778 See also Refugees In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 (Jay-Z), 372 “In My Lifetime” (Jay-Z), 372 In the Neighbourhood (Sisters Underground), 520 “In the Neighbourhood” (Sisters Underground), 640–641 “Incarcerated Scarfaces” (Raekwon), 441 India, 322, 339–343 The Indifference Engine (Professor Elemental), 572

Indonesia, 343–345 Industrial hip hop, 345–346 Inez, 105, 106 Ingleton, Justin. See Bigg Jus Insane Clown Posse, 325, 326, 327, 328 “Insane in the Brain” (Cypress Hill), 114, 153 Inspectah Deck, 763, 768 Instructional documentaries, 244–245 Intelligent dance music. See IDM “Intergalactic” (Beastie Boys), 42, 65 Internal rhyming, 52 International Hip Hop Festival, 222 International People’s Uhuru Movement, 59–60 International Turntable Federation (ITF) World Team Championships, 762, 768 “Internet Relationships” (MC Lars), 510 Interscope Records, 56, 57 Intik, 10–11, 346–347 Introduction (Hip Hop Pantsula), 323 Invisibl Skratch Piklz, 347–348 in battling, 348, 720, 768 Beat Junkies and, 348, 761 Cut Chemist and, 151 DJ QBert in, 186, 187, 347, 348, 720, 736 innovations by, 347–348, 720 INXS, 468 Iran, 348–350, 560, 561 Iraq, 350–351 Irbe, Gatis. See Gacho Ireland, 351–353, 452 Irie Maffia, 329 Iroegbu, Hassanah, 640–641 Iryo, Kenshin. See Million Islam in cultural diplomacy, 322 See also Five Percent Nation; Nation of Islam Islamic Force, 716 Israel, 353–354, 544 It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (Public Enemy), 12, 68, 255, 578, 579 “It Takes Two” (Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock), 324, 601 “It Was a Good Day” (Ice Cube), 178 It Was Written (Nas), 441, 499, 500 Italy, 354–356, 355, 560, 597 Ithaka, 570 I-Threes, 593–594

860 Index “It’s All About the Benjamins” (The LOX), 430 “It’s Goin’ Down” (Yung Joc), 650 “It’s Like That (Sucker MCs)” (Run-D.M.C.), 615 “It’s My Thing” (Urban Species), 749 Ivey, Artis Leon, Jr. See Coolio Ivory Coast, 67, 300, 356–357, 596 Ivy Queen, 357–358 Iwa K, 343–344 Iyaz, 753 J Dilla, 359–360, 741 death of, 359–360, 704 Nujabes and, 369 The Roots and, 612 in The Ummah, 506, 703, 704 J Prince. See Lil’ J Ja Rule, 239 “Jaan Panjabi” (Punjabi By Nature), 343 Jaa9, 360–361 Jaa9 and OnklP, 360–361, 530 Jackson, Brian, 628, 629 Jackson, Curtis James, III. See 50 Cent Jackson, Gabriel. See Spoonie Gee Jackson, Henry Lee. See Big Bank Hank Jackson, James. See Dinco D Jackson, Jesse, Sr., 283 Jackson, Michael, 368, 379, 565, 606, 624, 695 Jackson, O’Shea. See Ice Cube Jacobs, Sean Divine. See Sheek Louch Jadakiss, 430 Jago. See Jesse Jagz Jaguar Warrior. See Balam Ajpu Jagz Nation, 377, 378 Jail. See Griot Jal, Emmanuel, 669 Jam Master Jay, 240, 361–364, 614–616, 642–643, 719 Jam Master Jay Records, 361, 363 Jamaica, 364–367 Kool Herc from, 397 and MCs, 460 reggae in, 365–366, 593–596, 635, 636 Shaggy, 365, 635–637 James, Cheryl. See Salt “James Brown’s Boo-Ga-Loo” (Brown), 213 “#Jan25” (Offendum), 684 Jandoubi, Mouhamed. See Psycho M Jangle Asfalt (Hichkas), 349

Jansen, Emile Lester. See Emile YX? Jansson, Alan, 520, 538, 641 Japan, 291, 367–370, 561 Jarbo, Raheem. See Mega Ran Jari, 35 Jasper, Inez. See Inez Java Jamz, 771 Jay Dee. See J Dilla Jayakody, Bathiya, 666 Jayasingha, Dilan. See DeLon Jay-P, 370–371 Jay-Z, 371–374 Beyoncé and, 49, 371, 373 bhangra-beat used by, 342, 548 business ventures of, 372, 373 childhood of, 371 Danger Mouse and, 162–163 as hype man, 330 mafioso rap by, 441 Nas and, 501 9th Wonder and, 528 Panjabi Hit Squad and, 547, 732 Panjabi MC and, 342, 548, 732 Pharrell and, 551 recordings of, 372, 373 TIDAL by, 55, 257, 373 West (Kanye) and, 757 Jazayeri, Alireza. See Alireza JJ Jazz, 306–307, 321 Jazz Ambassadors, 321 Jazz Fudge, 191 Jazz fusion, 307 Jazz Hassan, 89 Jazz hip hop, 505 Jazz P, 675 “Jazzoetry,” 414 Je m’appelle Mads, 174 Jean, Wyclef, 8, 260–262, 305, 306, 315, 316 Jean Grae, 374–375, 494, 687 Jeddah FAM, 626 Jeffers, Eve Jihan. See Eve Jeli. See Griot Jenkins, Jay Wayne. See Young Jeezy Jerkin’, 319, 376–377, 735 Jersey Club. See Brick City Club Jesse Jagz, 332, 377–378, 474, 475, 526 Jewelry, 236, 237, 365, 460 Jf5. See Jurassic 5 Jiggy Drama, 130 Jiménez, Hernán Enrique. See Makano Jimmy B, 638, 661

Index 861 Jimmy D, 608 Jin Au-Yeung. See MC Jin Jinjo Crew, 378–379 Jinusean, 402 Jinx (Quarashi), 588 Jive Records, 702 JJ Fad, 119 JMJ Records. See Jam Master Jay Records “Joah” (Park), 453–454 Jodeci, 215 Joe Flizzow, 444, 445 Joey Boy, 691 “Jogi” (Panjabi MC), 732 Johnny Cash, 767 Johnny National. See Blaz Roca Johnson, Michelle Lynn. See Me’Shell NdegéOcello Johnson, Rufus Arthur. See Bizarre Johnson, Thomas. See Tommy the Clown Johnson, Vernon. See Tha Chill Johnston, Tonya M. See Solé Jojo, 608 Jokeren, 174 Jolicoeur, David. See Trugoy the Dove Jon, 66 Jones, Crystal, 697 Jones, Derrick. See D-Nice Jones, K. See DJ Alamo Jones, Keidran. See Iyaz Jones, Kimberly Denise. See Lil’ Kim Jones, Nasir Ben Olu Dara. See Nas Jones, Peter. See MC Shy-D Jones, Quincy, 249, 379–380, 516, 575 Jones, Russell Tyrone. See Ol’ Dirty Bastard Jones, Teren Delvon. See Del the Funky Homosapien Jones, Thomas Louis, III. See Big Pooh Jones, Watkin Tudor. See Ninja Jonsin, Jim, 554 Jónsson, Magnús. See Maximum Jordan, 381 Jordan, Brad Terence. See Scarface Jordan, Mark. See DJ Pooh Jordanović, Branko. See Brenk Sinatra Jota Mayúscula, 223 Jovanotti, 355 Jovi, 101 “Joy and Pain” (Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock), 601 J-pop, 367–368, 370 Juacali, 393

Juggalos, 326 Juice Crew, 381–382 Big Daddy Kane in, 50, 51 Biz Markie in, 43, 51 in Bridge Wars, 69, 382 Marley Marl and, 381–382, 449, 500 Roxanne Shanté in, 613 Juicy J, 178 Jùjú, 525 Jukebox the Illustrious, 231 Julian B, 743 Juma Nature, 688 Jun Tzu, 733 Jungle Brothers, 324, 382–384, 504, 505, 737 Jungle Rules (French Montana), 486–487 Junior M.A.F.I.A., 424, 738 Junkanoo, 48 Jurassic 5, 150 Just D, 384–385, 677 “Just Glue Some Gears on It (And Call It Steampunk)” (Sir Reginald Pikedevant), 111 Juvenile, 53, 54, 181 “Juvenile Technique” (Company Flow), 134 Kabba, 722, 723 Kadhalan (film), 340 “Kaffir” (Mafokate), 412 Kain, Gylan, 414 Kaira, Kondwani. See Chef 187 Kala (M.I.A.), 476 Kalamashaka, 393 Kalash, 451 Kaleidoskop, 27 Kalilani, Limbani. See Tay Grin Kalimba, 687, 777 Kalindula, 775 Kamara, Sheku Kef. See Chosan Kamosi, Karoline. See Leki KanAK. See Islamic Force Kangol Crew, 642 Kanun, 715 Kanye West. See West, Kanye Kaos (Kalash), 451 Kaos One, 355 Kapadisa, Tumelo. See Tuks Senganga Kapuka rap, 394 Karaoke, 367 Kardinal Offishall, 104 Karpe Diem, 387–388, 530

862 Index Kasanda, Alain. See Apkass Kasar, Jarek. See Chalice K.A.S.H. See Young Nations “Katrina Klap” (Mos Def), 558 Kaur, Nindy, 342 Kavigan, 35 Kawi, 771 Kay One, 452 Kaydy Cain, 664 Kaysha, 137 Kazakhstan, 328, 388–389 Keko, 389–390, 727, 728 Kekonian (Keko), 389, 390 Kel Jefe (Kelly), 352 Kelly, Amethyst Amelia. See Iggy Azalea Kelly, Rob, 352 Kembe, Emmanuel, 669 Kemençe, 715 Kemstar, 723 Ken, 679–680 Ken Swift, 390–391, 608, 736 Kendrick Lamar, 143, 338, 391–392 Kenjee, 457 Kenta Kofot. See Ken Kenya, 310, 392–394, 561 Keo, Anthony. See Tony Keo Kermit. See MC Kermit Kery James, 257 Kgositsile, Keorapetse, 414 K.H. See Khan Khabiri, Ramona, 5, 561 Khaled (Jalid Rodríguez), 664 Khaled (Khaled Hadj Ibrahim), 10 Khaled M, 561 Khan, 692 Kharbouch, Karim. See French Montana Khatiwada, Girish. See Gorkhali G. K–hip hop, 402 Khodur, Wissam. See Eslam Jawaad Kick drum, 477, 575 “Kicking Non Stop” (POC), 575, 657 Kid Frost, 114, 473, 735 Kid Nice, 518 Kid Wizard. See MC Rakim Rakim The Kidd Creole, 293, 459, 470, 471 “Kill That Noise” (MC Shan), 69, 382 Killer Mike, 271–272 “Killing Me Softly” (Fugees), 260, 261 “Kill-off” (in krumping battles), 407 Kilroy image, 290 “Kim” (Eminem), 219 Kim Jin-tae. See Verbal Jint

King, Martin Luther, Jr., 502 King, Rodney, 281 King Bee, 514 King Daff. See Daffy King Giddra, 561 King LG, 727–728 King of da Hustle. See Khan King of Rock (Run-D.M.C.), 362–363, 615 King Size Terror, 278, 716 King Stitt, 365 “King Tim III” (Fatback Band), 238, 736 Kingdom Come (Jay-Z), 372 Kingman, Mateo, 207 Kings of Crunk (Lil Jon), 554 Kip-up, 260 Kitaa Beirut, 420 Kjartansdóttir, Ragna. See Cell7 “Kjendisparty” (Jaa9 and OnkIP), 360–361 Klaus, 265 KlemenKlemen, 645 Klepko, Joanna. See Cleo Klezmer, 556 Klint, Nikitas. See X-ray KMC, 327 KMEL (radio station), 168–169 KMG the Illustrator, 1 K’naan, 104, 394–396, 654 Knight, Marion Hugh, Jr. See Suge Knight Knowledge Is King (Kool Moe Dee), 399 Knowles, Beyoncé Giselle. See Beyoncé Kôbe Building, 266 Kobra, 277 Kocjan, Marko. See Emkej Kokane, 1 Kolmanis, Ansis. See ansis Kolsar, Priit. See Cool D Kommanda Obbs, 422 Kon Artis, 201 Kondabolu, Ashok. See Dapwell Kondi Band, 639 Koné, Seydou. See Alpha Blondy Konfidence Foundation, 8–9 Konga, Laurent Womba. See Pitcho Kontrafakt, 644 Konvicted (Akon), 7 Kool A.D., 165 Kool DJ Kurt. See Kurtis Blow Kool DJ Red Alert, 505 Kool G Rap, 440–441, 442, 768 Kool Herc, 59, 80, 82, 365, 396–398, 718–719

Index 863 Kool Keith, 327 Kool Lenny, 450 Kool Moe Dee, 38–39, 119, 330, 398–400, 664, 738 Koolism, 23, 24, 400–401 Kops, Peter. See Extince Kora, 66, 94, 300, 571 Korea, 401–403, 517 Kosmo, 623 Kosovo War, 70, 634 Koudaih, Wael. See Rayess Bek Kouyaté, Rammy. See Rammy Kovac, Michal, 644 Koxmoz, 18 KPFA (radio station), 169, 182 K-pop, 401, 402, 577 Kraftwerk, 6 Krazy Drayz. See Dray Krewcial, 46 Krhymes, 45 Krip hop. See Disability hip hop Krip Hop Nation, 182 Kris Kross, 159 Krosswerdz, 121 Krou, 44 Krovostock, 618 KRS-One, 403–406 Boogie Down Productions and, 68–69, 382, 403–404 criticism of, 460 Mr. B and, 492 Positive Black Soul and, 571 Roxanne Shanté and, 450 Krudas Cubensi, 562 Krumping, 125–126, 319, 406–408, 735 Krush Groove (film), 247, 249, 363, 429, 615 Kubota, Toshinobu, 368, 369 Kuduro, 303 Kujo, 81 Kulning, 676 Los Kumbia Kings, 150 Kumpulan Phlowtron, 444 Kumpulan Teh Tarik Crew, 445 Kunene, Zosukuma. See Young Nations Kuniva, 201 Kurtis Blow, 170, 195, 408–409, 738 Kusuma, Iwa. See Iwa K Kut Masta Kurt, 156 Kutash, Jeff, 565 Kuti, Fela Anikulapo. See Fela Kuti Kuwait, 409–410

Kwaito, 410–412 in Botswana, 71, 72 in Lesotho, 422 and motswako, 488 in Namibia, 498–499 in South Africa, 410–412, 658–659 in Swaziland, 675 Kwassa kwassa, 72, 411 Kwela, 411 Kwenda, Hechichamunorwa Mount Zion. See Mizchif Kwikstep, 610 L Brothers, 294–295 L.A. Boyz, 685 “La Di Da Di” (Get Fresh Crew), 195, 642 “LA Dictatorship” (NasJota), 669 L.A. Reid, 31, 697 Labbing, 407 Labelle, 424 Ladi6, 623 “Ladies First” (Queen Latifah and Monie Love), 505, 589 Lady Gaga, 176, 522 “Lady Marmalade” (Labelle), 424 “Lady Sunshine” (Bahram), 349 LaFace Records, 31–32, 539, 697, 698 “Laffy Taffy” (D4L), 649 Laisch hip hop (radio program), 626 L’Algérino, 11 Lamb, 709 Lambert, Matthew David. See Suffa Lamp Eye, 369 “Landslide” (Shibastik), 559 The Language of My World (Macklemore), 438, 439 Lankage, Ranidu. See Ranidu Laobangfai, 413 Laos, 413–414 Laoye-Oturu, Oyenike. See Nikki Laoye Laptop hip hop, 464, 509, 511 Lara, Olivier. See Nuttea Large Professor, 500Larkins, Amos, 477 Lashkari, Soroush. See Hichkas Lassy King Massassy, 447 The Last Poets, 243, 414–416, 738, 755 “The Last Train” (MC Opi), 467, 468 Last Two, 285 Laswell, Bill, 345 Late Registration (West), 757 Latin Alliance, 114, 473 Latin hip hop, 473

864 Index Latin house, 472 The Latin Kings, 416–417, 677–678 “Latin Lingo” (Cypress Hill), 153 Latin rap. See Chicano rap LaTlaTeh, 683 Latukefu, Langomie-Hau. See Hau Latukefu Latvia, 417–419, 560 Lau, Peggy. See Blazin’ Lavaki, David. See Mr. Grin Lazy Mutha F—a. See LMF Leaders of the New School, 95, 96, 97 “Lean with It, Rock with It” (Dem Franchize Boys), 649 Learning Curve (DJ Rap), 188 Leballo, Tello. See DJ Dallas T Lebanon, 419–421, 560 Lee, Barbara, 169 Lee, Spike, 247–248, 579 Lee Seung Ju. See Sez Left-Eye, 697–698 Legend, John, 227 Legendary MIC, 756 LEGION X, 258 Leki, 137 Leo Lock (dance move), 569 Léon, Douglas. See MC Dogge Doggelito Les Nubians, 421–422 Lesotho, 422–423, 656 Lester, Kevin, 640 “Let Forever Be” (The Chemical Brothers), 113 “Let Go” (Frou Frou), 312, 313 “Let Me Ride” (Dr. Dre), 282–283 Let the Rhythm Hit ‘Em (Eric B. and Rakim), 224 Let Us Play! (Coldcut), 128 Lethal Bizzle, 298, 299 Lethal Dialect, 352 Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101 (Young Jeezy), 701 “Let’s Talk about Sex” (Salt-N-Pepa), 622 Leveridge, Paul. See MC Kermit Levin, Marc, 250 Lewis, G. Craige, 121 Lewis, Jerry Kai. See Black Intellect Lewis, Lexus Arnel. See Lex Luger Lewis, Ryan, 438–439 Lex Luger, 700, 701, 740 LGBTQ+ communities on Black Nationalism, 59 bounce embraced by, 74, 75

marriage equality for, 439 in Nigeria, 212 Queen Pen on, 590–591 Libya, 423–424, 560, 561 Licensed to Ill (Beastie Boys), 41 Lido, 531 Life after Death (Notorious B.I.G.), 441, 531–532 Life’s a B—and I’m Her Pimp (mc chris), 511 Ligalize, 304 Lighting Africa, 9 Lightnin’ Rod. See Pudim, Alafia LightningCloud, 744 Lij Michael, 230 “Like a Chap” (Mr. B), 111–112, 493, 572 Like Father Like Son (Birdman and Lil Wayne), 54, 426 Like Water for Chocolate (Common), 133 Likwit Junkies, 762 Lil Doogie. See B.G. Lil’ J, 279, 280 Lil Jon, 554, 649–650, 701 Lil’ Kim, 178, 237, 424–425, 442, 738 Lil Lep, 518 Lil Romeo, 126 Lil’ Troy, 178 Lil Wayne, 53, 54, 55, 181, 425–427, 739 Lil’ Wil, 196 Lila T., 413 LiLana, 92 Lil’C, 125 Lima, Keidje Torres. See Valete “LimPeh” (ShiGGa Shay), 639–640 Linaka, His-Chang. See Still Lindo, Alan Pineda. See apl.de.ap “Lions and Tigers” (Brown Boogie Nation), 666 Lipnitskaya, Tatyana Eduardovna. See Bianca Lirika, Mare Avertencia, 473, 562 Lisha, 99 Listen (Urban Species), 749, 750 Lithuania, 427–428 Little Billy, 280 Little Brother, 528 “Little Derek” (Sway), 674 Little Sylvia, 603 Live and Let Die (Kool G Rap and DJ Polo), 441 Live at the Bassline (Tumi and the Volume), 482

Index 865 “Live Up” (Jean Grae), 375 Livin’ Like Hustlers (Above the Law), 1 Livingston, Theodore. See GrandWizard Theodore LL Cool J, 428–429 as actor, 380, 429 albums of, 428–429 DJ Bobcat and, 184 feud with Juice Crew, 69, 382 feud with Kool Moe Dee, 399 inspirations of, 428, 736 in Krush Groove (film), 247 Marley Marl and, 450 Peace (Michael) and, 120 LMF, 117 Loaded (Brotha Lynch Hung), 84, 85 L.O.C., 174 Local Knowledge, 25, 562 “Locked Up” (Akon), 8 Lockers, 235–236, 318, 568 Locking in battling, 39 in clowning, 125 The Electric Boogaloos and, 213, 214 illusion created by, 566–567, 568–569 inventor of, 101, 568, 735 in krumping, 407 Leo Lock, 569 moves in, 568–569 Pop’in Pete and, 565 Popmaster Fabel and, 566 roots of, 568 Lolo, 94 LOMI. See EL “Lonely” (Team RezOfficial), 105 Long, Jerry B., Jr. See Kokane Long Island, 738 Long Live the Kane (Big Daddy Kane), 51 “Look Out for Detox” (Kendrick Lamar), 338 Loop Crew, 475 Looptroop, 678–679 Lopango ya Banka, 137–138 Lopes, Lisa. See Left-Eye Lopez, Chino. See Action Lopez, Tony. See Powerful Pexster Lopez, Victor and Johnny, 149 Lord Aladji Man, 160 Lord Kossity, 451 Lorna, 546–547 Los Angeles, 114, 125, 143, 248, 270, 734–735

Los Angeles riots (1992), 281–282 Los Rakas, 547 “Lose Control” (Elliott), 216, 217–218 Losnegård, Peder. See Lido Loud Records, 763 Louise, Frank II. See DJ Frank le Breaker Fou Love. See Puff Daddy The Love Brothers, 294–295 Love Jones (film), 508 The Love Movement (A Tribe Called Quest), 703–704 “Love Rap” (Spoonie Gee), 665 The Love Rapper. See Spoonie Gee “Love the Way You Lie” (Eminem), 219 Low bap, 297 The Low End Theory (A Tribe Called Quest), 505, 703 Lowery, James. See Anybody Killa The LOX, 430–431 Luafutu, Malo. See Scribe Luciano, Felipe, 414 Lucien Revolucien, 504, 505 Ludacris, 178, 431–433, 740 Ludik, 498 Lugaflow, 727 Luk thung, 691 Luke, 179, 433–434, 477, 724, 725, 740 Luke Skyywalker Records, 434, 477, 725 Lumix Da Don, 727 Lumumba, Patrick. See Lumix Da Don Lund, Gustave. See Gura G Lunny, Oisín, 452, 453 Luo-rap, 727 Luqman, Udi. See Udi Lwamba, Katrogi Nhanga. See MCK Lynch, Ged, 619 Lynn, Lonnie Rashid, Jr. See Common Lyons, Jacob. See Kujo Lyrical hip hop, 435 Lyte as a Rock (MC Lyte), 466 M. Sayyid, 15, 16 MaBrrr. See Fassie, Brenda Macedonia, 310, 437–438 MacFadden, Lucas. See Cut Chemist Machas with Attitude, 341 Machi, 685 Macias, Omar Delgado. See RoxRite Mack, Craig, 583 MacKinnon, Max. See MC Eso Macklemore, 36, 438–439

866 Index Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, 109, 438–439 Mad Professor, 160 MAD TV, 296 Madagascar, 439–440 Maderfa’N’kerz, 144 Madonna, 41, 51 Maestro Fresh-Wes, 102, 103, 104 Mafia K-1 Fry, 257 Mafia Mundeer, 340, 341 Mafioso rap, 440–442 Mafokate, Arthur, 412, 658 Mafoko a me (Tuks Senganga), 710 Magalona, Francis. See Francis M. Maged Madhat. See Double M Maggotron Crushing Crew, 477 MagnaCarta . . . ​Holy Grail (Jay-Z), 373 Magnet Man, 37 Magnificent Force, 566 Magool, 395, 654 Makammeoafi, Brenda, 640–641 Makano, 546 “Makeda” (Les Nubians), 421 Makiza, 693 Makossa, 100 Mala Rodríguez, 663, 664 Malabo International Hip Hop Festival, 222 Malagasy Gun. See Basy Gasy Malagasy rap, 439–440 Malawi, 442–443 Malaysia, 444–445 Malcolm X, 58, 76, 80, 322, 414, 502, 564 The Maldives, 445–446 Mali, 67, 300, 310, 446–447 Malikah, 420 Malique, 444 Malitia Malimob, 654 Malk de Koijn, 174 Malta, 448 Mama Said Knock You Out (LL Cool J), 429, 450 Manau, 108 ManChild, 31, 32 Mandela, Nelson, 411, 575, 658 “Mane” (Toussa), 631 Mangual, Noel. See Kid Nice Mangue, 78 Mangue, Teodoro Nguema Obiang, 223 Maniapoto, Moana Maree, 479, 480 “Manipulation” (Psycho M), 712

Mann, Kevin Danell. See Brotha Lynch Hung The Mannequin. See The Robot Mannie Fresh, 701 Manteca, Mike, 161 Manu Chao, 207 Manuel, Andre. See Unknown DJ Māori music, 479–481, 519, 520, 640, 746, 747 Mapine, Tebogo. See Mr. T Maputo rap, 490 Marabi, 411 Maraj, Onika Tanya. See Nicki Minaj Marchand, Inga DeCarlo Fung. See Foxy Brown Mardi Gras hollers, 73, 74 Mare, Mike, 162 Mariachi, 473 Marijuana, 281, 336, 365, 366, 634, 653, 761 Markie Mark (Mark Ian Strippel), 547, 548 Marley, Bob, 59, 365, 593–594, 747 Marley, Damian, 365 Marley, Ky-Mani, 365 Marley family, 595–596 Marley Marl, 448–450 and Juice Crew, 381–382, 449, 500 and KRS-One, 404, 405, 450 and LL Cool J, 429, 450 and Roxanne Shanté, 450, 613, 614 Marrow, Tracy Lauren. See Ice-T Marshall, Grantley Evan. See Daddy G Martin, Christopher Edward. See DJ Premier Martin, Wil. See Lil’ Wil Martina, 707–708 Martinique, 451–452 The Marvels of Yestermorrow (Mr. Len), 494 Marxist hip hop, 452 Marxman, 108, 452–453 Mary (Blige), 61–62 Masaed, Hagage Abul-Gowee. See AJ Masco, 171 Masindrazana, Shao. See Shao Boana Maskhandi, 411 Maskinen, 679 Masomi, Deogracias. See Gracias Mason, Vincent, Jr. See Masco The Massacre (50 Cent), 240 Massenburg, Kedar, 506 Massive Attack, 707

Index 867 Massive Monkees, 453–454 Masta Ace, 156 Masta Killa, 763 Masta Tito, 304 Mastah Boobah. See Dynamic Boobah Siddik Master Dji, 305 Master Gee, 670, 671 Master of ceremonies. See MC Master P, 126, 180, 454–456, 652, 701, 739 Master Scratch Band, 634 Mastered Seed (Dunamis), 422 Mastermind, 155 La Materialista, 194 Mathis, Warren Anderson. See Bubba Sparxxx Mathurin, Alix. See Kery James Matlhabaphiri, Thato. See Scar Matlin, Kurt. See Kut Masta Kurt Matsinhe, Sergio. See General D. Matthews, Deleno. See Sean C Mauritius, 456–457 Maximum, 334 Maxinquaye (Tricky), 707–708 Maxwell, 507, 508 Maya. See M.I.A. M’Baidem, Lucien. See Lucien Revolucien Mbalax, 266, 267, 300 Mbaqanga, 411, 574, 657 M’Barali, Claude. See MC Solaar Mbilinyi, Joseph. See Mr. II Mbira, 777–778 MBS, 10–11, 457–458 MC, 458–461 criticism of, 460 early examples of, 459–460 functions of, 459, 460 origin of, 458–459, 460, 719 themes and literary techniques of, 460–461 MC A.D.E., 477 MC Alee, 107 MC Black Thought, 611–612 MC Bliss, 62 MC Boys, 483 MC Buffalo, 144 mc chris, 461–462, 509, 511, 512 MC dälek, 161 MC Davo, 473 MC Delite, 667 MC Dimitris Mentzelos, 296 MC Dogge Doggelito, 416, 677

MC Eiht, 135, 136 MC Einar, 173 MC Erick Sermon, 221–222 MC Eso, 62 MC Fatboy. See Molekane, Tumi MC Frontalot, 462–463, 509, 510–511, 512 MC Hammer, 121, 236, 459, 463–464, 560, 735–736 “MC Hammer pants,” 236, 464 MC Hawking, 510, 511, 512 MC Hollis, 452 MC HotDog, 685 MC Jin, 117 MC Juvenile. See Juvenile MC Kermit, 619 MC Lars, 464–466, 509, 510, 511, 512 MC Lyte, 315, 466–467, 738 MC Magic, 473 MC Malik B., 612 MC Miker G, 514 MC Mint. See Mintos MC Opi, 23, 467–468 MC Pee Gonzalez, 45 MC Pegasus. See Pegz MC Phrase, 452 MC PMD, 221–222 MC Prayer (Tuks Senganga), 710 MC Pressure, 317 MC Rakim Rakim, 223–225, 395 MC Ren, 15, 135, 184, 534, 535–536 MC Ricky D. See Slick Rick MC Sagol 59, 354 MC Shan, 69, 382, 404, 450 MC Shy-D, 180 MC Solaar, 48, 255, 256, 468–469, 571, 700, 750 MC Swat, 423 MC T Tucker, 74 MC Trey, 242 MC Tunes, 619, 730 MC Wiya, 746 MCA, 40, 42 McBean, Ron. See Scratch McCarthy, Brendan. See Bee Mark See McCarthy, Garry. See GMC McCullock, Michelle. See Michie Mee McDaniels, Darryl. See D.M.C. McGriff, Kenneth “Supreme,” 240, 364 McGurr, Leonard Hilton. See Futura 2000 Mchiriku, 688 MCK, 13, 14 McKissack, Perri Arlette. See Pebbles

868 Index McLeese, Dana. See Dana Dane MCM Boys, 439 McQueen-Hudson, Hanifa. See Bubbles MD Company, 451 Me against the World (Tupac Shakur), 714 “Me So Horny” (2 Live Crew), 434, 477, 725 Means, Russell, 742, 743 Mecate, 211, 212 La Medicina (Tijoux), 693 Médine, 11, 257 Mefe, 223 Mega Ran, 510 Meline, Jaime. See El-P Melle Mel, 293–294, 459, 469–471, 742 Mellow Man Ace, 114, 152 Melo-D, 761 Membran, 329 Memphis jookin, 319 Mendoza, David. See Melo-D Menshikov, Andrey Vladimirovich. See Ligalize “Mercedes S666” (Noize MC), 618 Mercer, Christopher William. See Rusko Mercer, Kelvin. See Posdnous Mercury Records, 379 Merengue rap. See Merenrap Merenhouse. See Merenrap Merenrap, 194, 471–472 Merry-Go-Round (in turntablism), 719 MESA. See Gacho Me’Shell NdegéOcello, 507, 508, 590 “The Message” (Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five), 293, 459, 469–471, 557, 677 Message rap, 293–294, 557 “Message to the Messengers” (ScottHeron), 629 “The Messenger” (INXS), 468 Messiah J. and the Expert, 351 Metal rap, 153–154, 309 Metatextuality, 626–627 Method Man, 763 “The Mexican” (Babe Ruth), 6 Mexican Americans, Chicano rap by, 114–115 Mexico, 473–474, 562 Mezzanine (Massive Attack), 707 MF DOOM, 163 MFBTY, 402 Mhagama, Mike, 688 M’Hand, 458

M.I., 332, 474–475, 526 M.I.A., 342, 475–476, 667 Mia X, 455 Miami, 179, 434, 476, 555, 740 M.I.A.M.I. (Pitbull), 554 Miami bass, 90, 180, 476–478, 554 Michael Franti and the Spearhead, 258, 259, 736 Michél, Prakazrel Samuel. See Pras Michie Mee, 103, 104 Mickey and Sylvia, 603–604 Le Micro Brise le Silence. See MBS Microphone Mafia, 278–279 Microsounds, 288 Midnight Marauders (A Tribe Called Quest), 703 “Midwest Choppers 2” (Tech N9ne), 118, 689 Mieze Medusa, 28 Mighty Big Crime, 23 Mihaylov, Mihail Stanislavov. See Big Sha Mike D, 40 Mike Gee, 383 Mikołajuw, Paweł Ryszard. See Popek Miller, Corey. See C-Murder Miller, Percy Robert. See Master P Miller, Percy Romeo, Jr. See Lil Romeo Miller, Vyshonne King. See Silkk the Shocker Million, 678 Millionaires, 146 Mills, Dexter Raymond, Jr. See Consequence Mills, Dylan Kwabena. See Dizzee Rascal Milôme, David, 451 Mina Ripia. See Wai The Minstrel Show (Little Brother), 528 Mintos, 749 “Minu inimesed” (Chalice), 229 The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (Hill), 262, 315–316, 739 Miss E . . . ​So Addictive (Elliot), 83, 216, 217 “Miss Stone” (SAF), 437 Mista Sinista, 768 Mitchell, Joni, 308 Mitchell, William Paul. See Large Professor Mitterbacher, Doris. See Mieze Medusa Mix Master Mike, 186, 347, 348, 478–479, 736 Mixmag (magazine), 707

Index 869 Miyakawa, Felicia, 254 Mizchif, 778 Mizell, Jason. See Jam Master Jay Mizell Brothers, 362 Mizmar, 771 Mizrahi music, 353 MMMPP, 576 Mo B. Dick, 455 Moana and the Moahunters, 479–481, 520, 747 Moana and the Tribe, 479, 480, 481, 520 M.O.B., 445 Mobb rap. See Mafioso rap Mocking, in krumping, 407 Mockumentaries, 244, 250, 512 Moffatt, Tracy, 468 “Moja domovnica” (Maderfa’N’kerz), 144 Mokobé Traore, 447 Mokolo, Edward, Jr. See Kaysha Molefe, Rets’elisitsoe. See Dunamis Molekane, Boitumelo. See Molekane, Tumi Molekane, Tumi, 481–482, 661, 777 Molina, Arturo, Jr. See Kid Frost Moltke, Shawn. See MC Shan Momin, Alap. See Oktopus Money, Power, and Respect (The LOX), 430 Mongolia, 311, 482–483, 561–562 Monie Love, 504, 505, 589 Monika, 772 Monkey Business (Black Eyed Peas), 56–57, 759 Monopoly (Tuks Senganga), 710–711 “Monster” (West), 521 Montenegro, 322, 483–485 Monten—s, 484, 485 Mooketsi, Refilwe Boingotio. See Fifi Cooper Moombahton, 106 Moore, Keith A. See Beefy Moore, Leroy F., Jr., 181–182 Moore, Ondre. See Swift Moore, Sonny John. See Skrillex Moorer, Lana Michele. See MC Lyte Moran, Sean. See DJ Flare Morcheeba, 708 More, Jonathan, 127–128 More Than a Feeling (Brothablack), 86 Morgue Vanguard, 344 Morning of Owl, 485–486 Morocco, 486–487, 596

Morocky, Martin. See Dogg (Martin Morocky) Morris, Eddie. See Scorpio Mortal Combat, 378 Mos Def, 374–375, 487–488, 558, 686–687, 737 Moscow’s Centr, 618 Mosley, Fernando Orlando Brown. See Nando Boom Mosley, Timothy Zachery. See Timbaland Mosley Music Group, 695 Most Wanted, 437 Mother of Hip Hop. See Robinson, Sylvia Motswako, 488–490 and beatboxing, 43 in Botswana, 71, 73, 488, 776 in South Africa, 323, 488–489, 659, 710 Motswana motswako, 776 Mounhim, Mouss. See DJ Mouss The Mouse and the Mask (Danger Mouse and MF DOOM), 163 Moutoussamy, Thierry. See Lord Kossity Movimento Negro Unificado, 78 Movimiento (magazine), 148 Movits!, 679 Mozambique, 490–492 MP Da Last Don (Master P), 455–456 Mpouho, Gervais. See Klaus Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer, 110–112, 492–493, 571, 572, 733 Mr. Crazy. See Dizzy DROS Mr. Freeze. See Frosty Freeze Mr. Grin, 241 “Mr. Ice Cream Man” (Master P), 701 Mr. II, 688–689 Mr. Lecturer (Eedris Abdulkareem), 208 Mr. Len, 133–134, 493–495, 737 Mr. Magic. See DJ Mr. Magic Mr. Ness. See Scorpio Mr. Penguin, 568 Mr Raw, 527 Mr. Remedy. See Eedris Abdulkareem Mr. Serv-On, 52 Mr. T, 71, 488, 777 Mr. Tape, 418 “Ms. Jackson” (OutKast), 541 Ms. Mighty, 637 Ms. Scandalous, 342, 547, 548, 732 MTV Arabia, 625–626 Muerte (Canserbero), 751 Muggerud, Lawrence. See DJ Muggs

870 Index Muhammad, Ali Shaheed, 506, 702, 703, 704 Muhammad, Warith Dean, 503 Multisyllabic rhyme schemes, 52 Mumble (Belly), 559 Mundartrap, 680 “Mundian To Bach Ke” (Panjabi MC). See “Beware of the Boys” (Panjabi MC) “Murder by Dialect” (P27), 680 Murder Eyez, 683 Murphy, Derek. See Sadat X Mushroom, 707 Music from My Good Eye (Tumi and the Volume), 482 Music to Driveby (Compton’s Most Wanted), 135, 136 Musicals, 247 Mutibwa, Bana, 727, 728 Mutu Moxy, 13 Mwafrika, 393 Mwangi, Stella. See STL Mwanukuzi, Nasibu. See Ras Nas My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (West), 758 My Life (Blige), 60, 61 “My Name Is” (Eminem), 220 Myaing, 495 Myanmar, 495–496 Myka 9, 2–3 Mystikal, 426 N—a J. See Professor Jay Nabil, 346 Nadal, Fidel, 17, 18 Naeto C, 497–498, 525, 526, 527 Nahshid Sulaiman. See One Be Lo Naidoo, Xavier Kurt. See Kobra Naija hip hop, 525–526 Najafi, Shahin, 349, 561 Naka B, 304 Nakamura, Daniel M. See Dan the Automator Nakitare, Huber Mbuku. See Nonini Namechecking, 64, 234 Namibia, 498–499, 656, 661 Nando Boom, 546 NAP. See New African Poets The Narcicyst, 351, 684 Narcy. See The Narcicyst Narrow Path Entertainment, 155 Nas, 499–501 albums of, 499–501, 737–738

early career of, 500 K’naan and, 395–396 mafioso rap by, 441 Marley (Damian) and, 365 on Obama (Barack), 558 Naše Vĕc, 157 NasJota, 311, 669 Nastradamus (Nas), 499, 500, 501 Nasty Nas. See Nas Natchanda, Pansau. See N’Pans Nate Dogg, 282, 651 Nation of Gods and Earths, 76, 252, 564 Nation of Islam, 501–504 beliefs of, 502 and Black Nationalism, 59, 501 and Five Percent Nation, 253 foundation of, 502 as hate group, 504 in hip hop, 502–504 in hip hop diplomacy, 322 Mos Def in, 487 popularity and influence of, 502 Native American hip hop, 742–744 Native Tongues, 504–506, 737 Advanced Chemistry and, 277 breakup of, 505–506 De La Soul in, 171–172, 504, 505 Jungle Brothers in, 383, 504, 505 Queen Latifah in, 504, 505, 589 A Tribe Called Quest in, 383, 504, 505, 506, 702, 703, 738 Universal Zulu Nation and, 505 Nature of a Sista (Queen Latifah), 589 N—az wit Attitude. See N.W.A. Nazar, 28 Nazel, Kim. See Arabian Prince Nazila, 561 “Ndio Mzee” (Professor Jay), 573 Ndongo D, 160 N’Dour, Youssou, 300, 395 Nederhop, 45, 513–514, 560 Nèg Lyrical, 451 El Negro Bey, 223 Negu Gorriak, 560 Nelson, David, 414 Nelson, Janette Oparebea. See MC Opi Nemley, Marvin. See DBC NEO, 344 Neo soul, 132–133, 163, 506–508, 626, 675 Nepal, 508–509 Neptunes, 551–552 Nerdcore, 461, 462, 465, 509–513

Index 871 “Nerdcore Hiphop” (MC Frontalot), 509 Nerdcore Rising (documentary), 463, 512 Nerdcore Rising (MC Frontalot), 463, 511 N*E*R*D*, 552 The Netherlands, 45, 310, 513–515, 560 New African Poets (NAP), 138 New Black Realism, 248 New Boyz, 376 The New Danger (Mos Def), 487 New Jack Cinema, 247, 248 New Jack City (film), 379–380, 516 New jack swing, 61, 466, 515–517 New Jersey, 739 New jill swing, 697 New Orleans, 53–54, 73–75, 179, 454–455, 739 “The New Rap Language” (Spoonie Gee), 399, 665 New Style Hip Hop dance, 320 New York Beat (documentary), 244 New York City Breakers, 81, 517–518, 549–550 New York Express, 610 New York/Paris/Dakar (PBS), 571 New Zealand, 518–521 hardcore hip hop in, 311 Māori music in, 479–481, 519, 520, 640, 746, 747 Moana and the Moahunters, 479–481, 520, 747 new jack swing in, 517 Otara Millionaires Club, 520, 537–538 political hip hop in, 519–520, 641, 747 refugees/immigrants in, 71 reggae in, 519, 746, 747 Scribe, 519, 623 Sisters Underground, 520, 640–642 Upper Hutt Posse, 243–244, 519–520, 746–748 Urban Pacifika in, 24, 520, 538, 640 Next Level (arts-based exchange), 322 Next Plateau Records, 621 Nfamas, 722, 723 Nfor, Ndukong Godlove. See Jovi Ngoni, 300 Nguyen Ngoc Minh Huy. See Wowy Ngwane hop, 675 Nhamuxando, Edson. See Gringo “Niap Sa” (Canabasse), 630 Nichols, Stephen. See Skeeter Rabbit Nicki Minaj, 54, 55, 178, 521–523, 705, 738

Nicolo, Joe, 152 Nielsen, Andrew Robert. See MC Lars Nielson, Erik, 271–272 Niger, 300, 523–524 Nigeria, 524–527 Eedris Abdulkareem, 208, 239 eLDee, 212–213, 525, 526 folksongs in, 524 Ice Prince, 332–333, 475, 526 Igbo rap in, 527 instruments in, 524 Jesse Jagz, 332, 377–378, 474, 475, 526 M.I., 332, 474–475, 526 Naeto C, 497–498 P-Square, 526, 576–577 reggae in, 377, 474, 524, 596 Young Paperboyz, 772–773 Nikki Laoye, 526 Nindy Kaur, 342 9th Wonder, 245, 527–529 9thmatic. See 9th Wonder 1991 (Banks), 36 1977 (Tijoux), 693 99 Posse, 560 Ninja, 175 Ninja Jamm, 129 Ninja Tune, 128–129, 191 Nisker, Merrill. See Peaches Nitzani, Yair, 353 Nizra, Nazareth. See DJ Rhettmatic No Bling Show, 448 No BS. See No Bling Show “No Diggity” (BLACKstreet), 590 No Easy Props, 21 No Limit Records, 456, 558, 652, 739 “No Terrorists Please” (AJ), 771 “No Time” (Lil’ Kim), 424 No Way Out (Puff Daddy), 584 Nobody. See Hichkas NOI. See Nation of Islam Noize MC, 618 “Nolia Clap” (Juvenile), 558 Nomadic. See Mr. T Nonini, 393 No-one Ever Really Dies. See N*E*R*D* N.O.R.E., 551 North Korea, 401–402 Northern Ireland, 733 “Northern Touch” (Rascalz), 104 Norway, 360–361, 387–388, 529–531 “Not Tonight” (Lil’ Kim), 424 Notley, Jonathan. See MC Bliss

872 Index The Notorious B.I.G., 531–533 career of, 532–533 copyright lawsuit against, 124 feud with Tupac Shakur, 276, 532–533, 714 mafioso rap by, 441 Puff Daddy and, 532, 533, 583–584 tribute to, 430 The Notorious K.I.M. (Lil’ Kim), 424 Nouraei, Bahram. See Bahram Nouvelle chanson, 256 Novicio, Apollo. See DJ Apollo N’Pans, 304 N’simba, Fally Ipupa, 137 Nsombolay, Tshimini. See Frank T Nubyahn, Daryl Aamaa. See Brother D Nueva Flavah, 66 Nujabes, 368, 369 Nunda, Paul. See Juacali Nurbu Sherpa, 508–509 “Nuthin’ to Do” (Common), 131 Nuttea, 301 Nuuk Posse, 106 N.W.A., 533–536 Common and, 132 criticism of, 460 dirty rap by, 178 Dr. Dre in, 196, 197–198, 206, 534–536 Eazy-E in, 197, 206, 534–535 formation of, 534–535 and gangsta rap, 271, 273, 274, 276, 534, 535, 734 Ice Cube in, 197, 206, 273, 331, 534 legacy of, 536 Mr. B and, 492 parody of, 244, 250 on police, 273, 274, 282, 535 political hip hop by, 534, 535, 557 Suge Knights and, 672 NYCB. See New York City Breakers Nyckelharpa, 676 O(verly) D(edicated) (Kendrick Lamar), 391, 392 O tugo jesenja (Rambo Amadeus), 484, 485 Obabi, Nillaja, 414 Obama, Barack, 209, 373, 558, 752, 759 “Obama” (Tharwat), 209 O.B.D., 644 Oberheim DMX, 169, 192 Obese Records, 23, 24, 62, 317

Obiawunaotu, Anthony Lawson Jude Ifeanyichukwu. See Fat Tony O’Brien, Darren Kenneth. See Snow O’Brien, Guy. See Master Gee Obsesión, 148 O’Connor, Liam Nygaard. See L.O.C. ODB. See Ol’ Dirty Bastard Offendum, Omar, 561, 684 Oh, My God! (Get Fresh Crew), 195 “Oh, Pretty Woman” (Orbison), 725 Ohitika, Wanbli. See Means, Russell Oji, Chibuzor. See Faze Okamoto, Kentaro. See DJ Kentaro Okechukwu, Duncan Wene Mighty. See Duncan Mighty Okoye, Paul, 526, 576 Okoye, Peter, 526, 576 Oktopus, 161, 162 Ol’ Dirty Bastard, 742, 763, 764 Olabode, Tony. See Blak Twang Ólafsson, Höskuldur. See Hössi Ólafsson ¥o-landi-Vi$$er, 175, 176 “Oleku” (Ice Prince), 332, 333, 526 Oman, 537 Omar, Adil, 543 Omar, Halima Khaliif. See Magool Ómar Öm Hauksson, 587 OMARZ, 419–420 OMC. See Otara Millionaires Club Omerbegović, Elvir, 71 Omerta (The Latin Kings), 417 OMZ. See Otara Millionaires Club “On*” (mc chris), 510 “On and On” (Erykah Badu), 226 On Top of the Rest, 9–10 Once Upon a Time in Shaolin (Method Man), 764–765 Ondimba, Ali Bongo. See Bongo, Alain One Be Lo, 453 “One Dance” (Drake), 200 One Day It’ll All Make Sense (Common), 132 One for All (Brand Nubian), 76, 77 One Self. See DJ Vadim 1 steg bak å 2 steg fram (Just D), 384, 677 Onechot, 751 Oneya, 634 OnkIP, 360–361, 530 Only Built 4 Cuban Linx (Raekwon), 441 “Ons Stem” (POC), 575, 657 Onugandu, 446 Onyx, 363

Index 873 Ooooooohhh . . . ​on the TLC Tip (TLC), 450, 697, 699 OP. See Osdorp Posse Opasaimlikit, Apisit. See Joey Boy Opgezwolle, 515 Orama, Tyrone José González. See Canserbero Orange Krush, 170 Orbison, Roy, 725 Organetto, 354 Organised Sound (DJ Vadim), 191 Organized Noize, 539–540 Oriental hip hop, 278 Oriental Robotics, 420 The Original Last Poets. See The Last Poets Originator. See U-Roy Orishas (divine figures), 147–148 Orishas (group), 148 Oroc, Chris. See DJ Babu Ortega, José-Manuel Thomas Arthur Chao. See Manu Chao Osdorp Posse, 514, 560 Osei, Edward Nana Poku. See Hammer (Edward Nana Poku Osei) Osmić, Edin. See Edo Maajka Ossei, Reginald Yaw Asante. See Reggie Rockstone Osterberg, James Newell, Jr. See Iggy Pop O.S.T.R., 556 Ostrowski, Adam. See O.S.T.R. Otara Millionaires Club, 520, 537–538 Otentik Street Brothers, 457 O.T.R., 9–10 Otten, Christine, 416 Ouago/Waga Hip Hop Festival, 43, 93 Oud, 715, 771 Ouma, Makarios. See Mwafrika Our World (POC), 574, 657 Ourrad, Rabah, 458 Out Here Records, 688 OutKast, 180, 237, 538–542, 740 Outlandish, 174 Owens, Dana Elaine. See Queen Latifah Owusu, Victor Grimmy. See V.I.C. Oyowele, Abiodun, 414 Ozols, 418 Ozomatli, 150, 151 P. Cess. See Way P. Diddy. See Puff Daddy P. Miller Enterprises, 454, 739

Pabon, Jorge. See Popmaster Fabel Pacheco, M. See Legendary MIC Pacotille, 631 Paid in Full (Eric B. and Rakim), 224 Pain (Tupac Shakur), 672 Painting, hip hop dance with, 91 Pakistan, 543–544 Palestine, 544–546 Palm-wine music, 525 Palokaj, Viktor. See Rebeli Panama, 546–547, 598–599 Pandza, 491 Panjabi Hit Squad, 547–548, 732 Panjabi MC, 342, 548–549, 732 Panteras Negras, 116 Pantomiming, 407 “Paper Planes” (M.I.A.), 476 Pappas, Ithaka Darin. See Ithaka Parachute pants, 236, 464 Paradise Sorouri, 4 Parazitii, 611 Parental Advisory labels, 274, 280, 478, 535, 725 Parhomenko, Sergey Vasilyevich. See Seryoga Paris City Breakers, 81, 258, 518, 549–550 Park, Jay, 453–454 Parker, Dane. See Robot Dane Parker, Lawrence. See KRS-One Parks, Rosa, 540 Parrish the Microphone Doctor. See MC PMD Part Three: Random Thoughts (Koolism), 400, 401 “Party Up” (DMX), 192 The Party’s Over (Prophets of Rage), 124 Partyzanskaya Szkola, 44–45 “The Passenger” (Iggy Pop), 465 Patel, Chirag Rashmikant, 387–388 Patterson, Lorenzo Jerald. See MC Ren Patton, Antwan André. See Big Boi Paul, Cameron, 74 Paul’s Boutique (Beastie Boys), 41 Pay Attention, 366 Paynes, Deshawn. See DJ Tameil PBO. See Push Button Objects PBS. See Positive Black Soul PCB. See Paris City Breakers Peace, Michael, 120 Peace of Ebony, 561 Peaches, 475

874 Index Peare, Vadim Alexsandrovich. See DJ Vadim Pebbitone, 697, 698 Pebbles, 697 Pedda Pedd, 384 Pegz, 23, 317 Pek Jin Shen. See ShiGGa Shay Penny Arcade, 462–463, 511 Penyami, Ignatius. See Saykoji People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (A Tribe Called Quest), 505, 702–703 Pepa, 621 Per Cussion, 677 Pérez, Armando Christian. See Pitbull Pérez, Ricardo Ruiz. See Ricky Rick Perretta, Michael Taylor. See Evidence Peru, 550–551 Pescozada, 211–212 Peter and Paul. See P-Square “Pettai Rap” (in Kadhalan), 340 Petter, 678 Pharrell, 143, 551–552, 653 Phat Farm, 237 Phife Dawg, 702, 703, 704 Philanthropy, 8–9, 373 The Philippines, 311, 552–553 Phillips, Irvin. See DJ Irv Phillips, Jason. See Jadakiss Phillips, Scott. See Father Shaheed Phleng luk thung, 691 Phonte, 528 Phrase D. See MC Phrase PHS. See Panjabi Hit Squad Phyno, 527 π (film), 247 “Piggy Bank” (50 Cent), 240 PilAto, 775 Pilipili, 393 “Pillow Talk” (Sylvia), 604 Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (Nicki Minaj), 522 Pinoy hip hop, 552–553 Pioneers of a Pacifikan Frontier (Fuemana), 520 Piri, 696 Pitbull, 554–555, 740 Pitcho, 46 Pitts, Karnai. See Bugz Pity the Fool (Mr. Len), 494 Planet Asia, 156 “Planet Rock” (Afrika Bambaataa), 6

“Players Ball” (OutKast), 540 Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt ‘Em (MC Hammer), 464 Plummer, Mark, 643 POC. See Prophets of da City “Pocket Full of Stones” (UGK), 701 POE. See Peace of Ebony Poe, Edgar Allan, 465, 512 Poetic meter, 465, 512 “Poi E” (Prince Tui Teka), 519 Pointer, Aaron. See Abstract Rude Pokofló, Comité, 550 Poland, 44, 555–556 Police Body Count on, 274, 337, 557 G-funk on, 282 N.W.A. on, 273, 274, 282, 535 Tupac Shakur on, 713 Political hip hop, 556–563 in Algeria, 346, 347, 458 in Australia, 25, 83, 86, 317, 562 by Banks (Azealia), 36 by Beastie Boys, 42 in Belarus, 44–45 by Ben Sharpa, 47 Black Nationalism and, 59–60 in Bolivia, 65–66 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 70 in Brazil, 78–79, 562 in Bulgaria, 92, 93 in Burkina Faso, 94–95 in Canada, 103, 105, 559 in Chicano rap, 114 in China, 117, 561 in Colombia, 129, 130 by Common, 131–133 in Congo, 137, 138 in Costa Rica, 140 in Cuba, 147, 562 in Czech Republic, 156 disability hip hop as, 181–182 in Egypt, 209 in Estonia, 229 in France, 257, 559 by Franti (Michael), 258–259 in Gabon, 265–266 in Gambia, 266–267 in Germany, 278, 559–560 in Greece, 296 in Guadeloupe, 301 in Guinea-Bissau, 304 in Haiti, 305

Index 875 in hardcore hip hop, 310–311 by Hill (Lauryn), 315–316 in Iceland, 335 in India, 341 in Indonesia, 344 in Iran, 349, 560, 561 in Iraq, 350 in Ireland, 352 in Israel, 354 by Kendrick Lamar, 391, 392 in Kenya, 393, 561 by K’naan, 395–396 by Kool Moe Dee, 400 by KRS-One, 404, 405 by The Last Poets, 414, 415 in Latvia, 418, 560 in Lebanon, 419, 420, 560 by Lil Wayne, 425 in Macedonia, 437 by Macklemore, 438 in Malawi, 443 in the Maldives, 446 in Mali, 447 by Marxman, 108, 452 by MCs, 460 by Melle Mel, 470 message rap as, 293–294 in Mexico, 473, 474, 562 by M.I.A., 475–476 in Mongolia, 483, 561–562 in motswako, 489 in Mozambique, 490, 491 in Myanmar, 495 in Nepal, 509 in nerdcore, 510 in the Netherlands, 514, 560 in New Zealand, 519–520, 641, 747 in Niger, 523 in Nigeria, 208, 212, 525 in Norway, 387, 530, 531 by N.W.A., 534, 535, 557 in Palestine, 545–546 in Peru, 550 in Portugal, 569 by Positive Black Soul, 570–571 by Professor Jay, 573 by Public Enemy, 123, 557, 578 by Queen Latifah, 589 in Romania, 611 in Russia, 618 by Ruthless Rap Assassins, 619 by Scott-Heron (Gil), 629

in Senegal, 29, 160, 561, 630–631 in Serbia, 634 in Sierra Leone, 638 in Slovakia, 644 in South Africa, 323, 412, 482, 561, 574, 575, 657, 658, 661 in Spain, 560 in Sri Lanka, 667 in Sudan, 669 in Syria, 561, 684 by Talib Kweli, 687 in Tanzania, 688–689 in Tunisia, 560, 712 by Tupac Shakur, 558, 713 in Ukraine, 560, 728, 729 in the United Kingdom, 559, 619 in Venezuela, 751 in Vietnam, 752 by The Welfare Poets, 755, 756 in Yemen, 560, 561, 771 by Zeus, 776 in Zimbabwe, 561 Polly Wog Stew (Beastie Boys), 41 Polyphonic songs, 256 Polyrhythms, 284 Poole, Elijah Robert. See Elijah Muhammad Poole, Raymond. See Mo B. Dick “Poor Georgie” (MC Lyte), 466 Poor Righteous Teachers, 253, 563–564, 739 Pop Dogg, 443 Pop rap, 428 Pop Shuvit, 444 Popek, 555 Pop’in Pete, 213, 564–565, 736 Poplock Holmes, 111 Popmaster Fabel, 123, 566, 608 Popping in battling, 39 in clowning, 125 The Electric Boogaloos and, 214 illusion created by, 566, 567–568 in krumping, 407 Pop’in Pete and, 564–565 Popmaster Fabel and, 566 the Robot and, 567, 605 roots of, 567 techniques of, 566, 567–568 Popping and locking, 80, 81, 318, 566–569 “Pop’s Rap” (Common), 131–132 Pornocore. See Dirty rap

876 Index Porter, Denaun. See Kon Artis Portishead, 706, 707, 708, 757 Portugal, 13, 205, 328, 569–570 Posdnous, 171 Positive Black Soul, 29, 561, 570–571, 630 Posse Mente Zulu, 78 Post Mortem, 328, 388 Postcard from the Edge of the Underside (Sound Unlimited), 562 Postmen, 514 Poston, Jamayka, 13 Post-punk laptop rap, 464, 511 Potsic, Mark. See DJ Nu-Mark Power moves, 39, 80, 319 Powerful Pexster, 518 Powwow dance, 744 La Pozze Latina, 115 Prago Union, 156 Pras, 260–263, 306 Prince Buster, 593 Prince Paul, 494, 667, 668 Prince Tui Teka, 519 Princesses Nubiennes (Les Nubians), 421 Professor Elemental, 110–112, 493, 571–573, 733 Professor Griff, 12, 503, 578, 579, 580 Professor Jay, 573–574 Project Blowed, 3, 118 Project Blues (The Welfare Poets), 755 Promoe, 310 Proof, 201 Prophets of da City, 380, 561, 574–575, 657, 710 Prophets of Rage, 124, 580 “Protect Ya Neck” (Wu-Tang Clan), 763 ProTools, 151 Proud: An Urban Pacific Streetsoul Compilation (collection), 520 Province 77 (film), 250, 692 Proyecto Uno, 472 PRT. See Poor Righteous Teachers P-Side Crew, 71, 488 P-Square, 526, 576–577 PSY, 19, 403, 577 Psycho Active (X-Raided), 85 Psycho M, 712 P27, 680 Public Enemy, 578–581, 738 Black Nationalism of, 58, 59, 271 The Bomb Squad and, 67–68, 578, 579, 580, 738 criticism of, 460, 579–580

current members of, 578 former members of, 578 hype man of, 254, 255, 330, 578–579, 580 initial albums of, 578 leader of (see Chuck D) Minister of Information of, 579, 580 and Nation of Islam, 503 origins of, 578 parody of, 244, 250 political hip hop by, 557, 578 publicist of, 12, 579 style of, 579 Upper Hutt Posse and, 747 Pudim, Alafia, 414 The Puerto Rican Freedom Project (The Welfare Poets), 756 Puerto Rico, 357–358, 581–582, 598–599, 755 Puff Daddy, 582–585 albums of, 584 childhood of, 582–583 criticism of, 584 early career of, 583 Elliott (Missy) and, 215 fashion line of, 237, 584 The LOX and, 430 Nas and, 501 Notorious B.I.G. and, 532, 533, 583–584 Pitbull and, 554–555 “Pump Up the Jam” (Technotronic), 137 Punah, 489 Punjabi By Nature, 343 Punjabi folk music, 342, 343, 543 Punjabi rap, 342, 543, 544 Puppet Boozer, 213, 565 Puppeting, 214 Push Button Objects, 288 “Push It” (Salt-N-Pepa), 621 “Pu$$y” (Iggy Azalea), 338 Putin, Vladimir, 618 Qashoush, Ibrahim, 684 QBert Skratch University, 186 Q-Dot, 640 Q-pop (Qazaq pop), 388 Q-Tip, 132, 383, 506, 702, 703, 704 Quality (Talib Kweli), 687 Quarashi, 334, 587–588 Quebecoise hip hop, 104–105 Queen Latifah, 128, 439, 504, 505, 588–590, 739

Index 877 Queen of Hip Hop Soul. See Blige, Mary J. Queen of Reggaetón. See Ivy Queen Queen Pen, 590–591 Queens, New York, 69, 239–240, 381–382, 738 Queensbridge Houses, 69, 381–382, 449–450, 500–501, 613 “Qu’est-ce qu’on attend” (Suprême NTM), 559 Questlove, 611–612, 627 Qui sème le vent récolte le tempo (MC Solaar), 256, 469 Quick-mix method, 292, 295, 719 Quiet Bunny. See Suboi Quiñones, Lee, 244, 291 Quintanilla, Abraham Isaac, III. See A. B. Quintanilla Quitevis, Richard. See DJ Qbert Qwest Records, 379 R.A.B. Posse, 45 Racionais MC’s, 78, 562 Racism in Australia, 25, 83 and “Back to Africa” movement, 57–58 film about, 248 Nation of Islam on, 502, 503, 504 political hip hop about, 557–558 psychological toll of, 58 R.A.C.L.A., 611 Radikal Forze, 640 Radio (LL Cool J), 428, 429, 736 Radio (Marley), 365 Raekwon, 441, 763 Ragas, 35 Rage against the Machine, 114, 124, 153, 580 Ragga, 443, 571, 594–595 Ragga Muffin. See Ragga Rahiem, 293, 459, 470, 471 Rahzel, 250 Raï, 10, 346, 711 Rai, Rajinder Singh. See Panjabi MC Raising Hell (Run-D.M.C.), 362, 363, 615 Rakaa, 176–177 Rakim. See MC Rakim Rakim Ramallah Underground, 545 Rambo Amadeus, 484–485 Ramirez, Raymond. See Rayzer Sharp Rammy, 356–357 Ramos, José Luis Maldonado. See C-Kan Ramos, Ray. See Lil Lep

Randhir, 666 Random. See Mega Ran Ranidu, 19, 667 Rap battling, 38–39, 47, 461 Rap Coalition, 170 Rap dogba, 356 Rap Dot Com (newsletter), 12 Rap Galsen, 630–631 Rap house. See Hip house Rap kreyól, 305 Rap Nigerien, 523 Rap Olympics (1997), 218 Rap Steady Crew, 644 “Rap-à-Billy” (Francœur), 103, 104 Rap-ajo, 742 Rap-e Farsi, 348–350 Rape lyrics, 178 Raperos, 581 “Rapovanje” (Supernova), 437 Rapperholic (EL), 286, 624 “Rapper’s Delight” (Sugarhill Gang), 670–671 “The Breaks” (Kurtis Blow) compared to, 408 LL Cool J inspired by, 428 in the Netherlands, 513 in New Zealand, 518 Nigerian hip hop and, 525 in the Philippines, 552 POC inspired by, 574 release of, 238, 603, 604 in the United Kingdom, 729 Rapso, 705 Raptor, 16, 691 Raptor, Joni. See Anwar, Joni Raptori, 251 “Rapture” (Blondie), 22, 63–65, 233, 234, 513, 736 Rapzilla (magazine), 121 RAS (Resisting Against Da System) (Thaitanium), 692 Ras Nas, 688 Rascalz, 104 Rasic, Ivana. See Sajsi MC Rasiel, 388 El Rass, 419, 420 Rastafari movement, 59, 230, 594, 597 Rav, 547 Raw Dog Records (Jacksonville, Florida), 14 Raw Dog Records (Oakland, California), 14

878 Index Rayess Bek, 419 Rayzer Sharp, 755, 756 “La Raza” (Kid Frost), 114, 473 “Razom Nas Bahato” (GreenJolly), 728 RDB, 342 RDBM. See Reyes de Bajo Mundo Ready Rock C, 185, 647, 648 Ready to Die (Notorious B.I.G.), 532, 583 Reagan, Ronald, 503, 517 “Real Love” (Blige), 61 “Real N—az” (N.W.A.), 535 The Real Untouchables. See TRU Reasonable Doubt (Jay-Z), 372, 441 Rebeca Lane, 302, 303 “Rebel” (Arabian Knightz), 209 Rebeli, 10 Rebels of Rhythm, 150 Record needle drops, 294 Red Alert. See Kool DJ Red Alert Red Hot Organization, 571, 687 The Red Light District (Ludacris), 433 Red One, 458 RedCloud, 120–121, 743, 744 Reddick, Jaret, 465 Redouan, Cheb. See Red One Reed, Antonia. See Bahamadia Reeves, David. See Davy D Al-Refaie, Abdul’ Rahman, 410 Al-Refaie, Ya’koob, 410 Refugees from Afghanistan, 4, 5 in Iceland, 756 from Iraq, 351 from Mozambique, 491 from Palestine, 545 from Sierra Leone, 638 from Somalia, 654 from Sri Lanka, 475, 476 from Syria, 683–684 See also Immigrants Refugees of Rap, 545 Reggae, 593–598 in Argentina, 18 in the Bahamas, 34 in Barbados, 37 in Bermuda, 48 in Burkina Faso, 94 dancehall versions of, 594, 599 dub reggae, 595, 597 early classics in, 593–594 in Guinea-Bissau, 303 in Haiti, 305

internationalization of, 596–597 in Italy, 355, 597 in Ivory Coast, 356, 596 in Jamaica, 365–366, 593–596, 635, 636 in Malawi, 443 in Martinique, 451 in Mauritius, 457 in Mexico, 473 in motswako, 489 in New Zealand, 519, 746, 747 in Nigeria, 377, 474, 524, 596 origin of term, 593 in Panama, 546 in Portugal, 569 related musical styles of, 597 roots reggae, 595–596 in Senegal, 596 in Sierra Leone, 596, 638 in Somalia, 654 in South Africa, 574, 596 in Swaziland, 675 in Sweden, 678, 679 in Tanzania, 688 in Ukraine, 729 in the United Kingdom, 597, 730 women in, 593–594, 596 Reggae en español, 599 Reggaetón, 598–600 in Bermuda, 48 in Colombia, 130 in the Dominican Republic, 194 early history of, 598–599 in Panama, 546, 598–599 in Puerto Rico, 357–358, 598–599 Reggie Rockstone, 285 “Regulate” (Warren G and Nate Dogg), 282 Reid, Antonio Marquis. See L.A. Reid The Reigning Season (C-Real), 142 Rej3ctz, 376 Relax (Das Racist), 166 Release Therapy (Ludacris), 433 Religion in cultural diplomacy, 322 in hip hop, 121–122, 322, 405, 409, 460 and krumping, 407 See also Christian hip hop; Five Percent Nation; Nation of Islam Renato, 546 Render, Michael. See Killer Mike Reper, Elvir, 70 Replay (Iyaz), 753

Index 879 Republic of Congo (ROC), 136, 138 Republic of Korea. See South Korea Reservation rock, 743 Resisting Against Da System (Thaitanium), 692 Restless Leg Syndrome, 28 Resurrection (Common), 131–132, 505–506 “Return of Djelly” (PBS), 571 Reveal, 349 “Revelation” (2 Live Crew), 434 The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (Scott-Heron), 629 “Revolutionary but Gangsta” (dead prez), 59 Revolutions (The X-Ecutioners), 602, 767, 768 Reyes, Senen. See Sen Dog Reyes, Ulpiano Sergio. See Mellow Man Ace Reyes de Bajo Mundo, 211 Rezimy (Kovac), 644 RGB, 420 Rhéda, 346 Rhodes, Lou, 709 RHP. See Rödelheim Hartreim Projekt Rhyme battle, 112, 572 Rhymes for Treason (The Welfare Poets), 756 Rhymester, 368, 561 Rhythm, Dhol, Bass. See RDB Rhythm Cultural Institute, 12 Ribeiro, Alfonso, 319 Richards, Jahroy. See DJ Kidd Richefal, Rodolphe. See Nèg Lyrical Rick Ross, 239 Rick the Ruler. See Slick Rick Ricky Bobby dance, 453 Ricky Rick, 473 Riddim, 365 Ridenhour, Carlton Douglas. See Chuck D Ridiculing, in krumping, 407 Riftsyde flava, 394 “Right by My Side” (Nicki Minaj), 522 Right On! Poetry on Film (documentary), 243 Rihanna, 37, 219, 600–601, 753 Riley, Teddy, 515–516, 551, 590 Rim’K, 11 Rímur, 333 Ring, Ken Kiprono. See Ken Rinse FM, 298

Rios, Christopher Lee. See Big Pun Rishi Rich Project, 340 Ritmi i Rrugës, 9 Rivas, John. See DJ Mr. Magic River: The Joni Letters (Hancock), 308 Rivera, Hector, 755, 756 Roach, Max, 234 “Road to Nothing” (Salome MC), 350 Rob Base, 601 Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock, 324, 601 Rob Swift, 601–603, 607, 721, 762, 768 Roberts, William Leonard, II. See Rick Ross Robinson, Bobby, 665 Robinson, Jasiel Amon. See Yung Joc Robinson, Sylvia, 525, 603–605, 632, 670, 671 “RoboCop” (West), 308 The Robot, 213, 486, 565, 567, 605–606 Robot Dane, 213, 565 ROC. See Republic of Congo Roc for Raida (Rob Swift), 602, 607 Roc Raida, 602, 606–607, 737 Roc-A-Fella Records, 372, 757 Rock al Parque, 130 Rock City, 753, 771 “Rock Dis Funky Joint” (PRT), 563, 564 Rock Steady Crew, 319, 608–609 Asia One and, 21 Crazy Legs in, 81, 141, 608, 736 Frosty Freeze in, 259, 260, 608, 736 in Japan, 368 Ken Swift in, 390, 608, 736 and New York City Breakers, 517 Popmaster Fabel in, 566, 608 Rock the World (Ashanthi), 667 “Rockin’ the Bronx” (Black 47), 108 “Rockit” (Hancock), 306, 307–308, 719, 741 Rocksteady, 597 Rockwell Association, 141 Rode (dance move), 125 Rödelheim Hartreim Projekt (RHP), 277 Rodney, Winston. See Burning Spear Rodriguez, Angel, 755, 756 Rodríguez, Jalid. See Khaled (Jalid Rodríguez) Rodríguez, Mala, 663, 664 Rodriguez, Martha Ivelisse Pesante. See Ivy Queen Rogers, Norman. See Terminator X “Rok Da House” (Beatmasters), 324

880 Index Rokafella, 609–610, 735 Rolling Stone (magazine), 153, 361, 400 Roman, Leonardo. See Wise Romani people, 156–157 Romania, 310, 610–611 The Roots, 250, 611–613, 627, 742 Roots reggae, 595–596 Roper, Deidra Muriel. See DJ Spinderella Ross, Frederick. See Big Freedia Ross, Mark D. See Brother Marquis Rostrum Records, 760–761 Rotem, Khen. See MC Sagol 59 “Rotten Town” (Onechot), 751 Rowlands, Tom, 112–113 “Roxanne, Roxanne” (U.T.F.O.), 450, 613 Roxanne Shanté, 450, 613–614, 738 Roxanne Wars, 450, 613, 738 “Roxanne’s Revenge” (Roxanne Shanté), 450, 613 RoxRite, 474 Rozentals, Girts. See Ozols RRRock it Right (Peace), 120 RSC. See Rock Steady Crew Rua (Moana and the Moahunters), 480 Rub, 295 Rubberband, 611 Rubberbandits, 351 Rubin, Rick, 124, 255, 363, 615 Ruffhouse Records, 261 “Ruffneck” (MC Lyte), 466 Ruggedman, 526, 527 Run, 361, 362, 614–616 Run the Jewels, 134 Run-D.M.C., 614–616, 738 albums of, 615, 616 Davy D and, 170 Dimples D and, 449 Jam Master Jay in, 361–364, 614–616, 719 in Krush Groove (film), 247, 363, 615 legacy of, 616 origins of, 614–615 in Tougher Than Leather (film), 246, 363, 615 Running Man (dance move), 376 Running on Air (Bliss n’ Eso), 62 Rusangano Family, 352 Rusko, 154 Russia, 617–618 Belarus and, 44 DJ Vadim, 190–191, 680 gangsta rap in, 617, 618

and Latvia, 418 N’Pans in, 304 political hip hop in, 618 Russian chanson, 618 Ruthless Rap Assassins, 619–620, 730–731 Ruthless Records, 56, 197, 198, 206, 534, 536, 734 Rwandan genocide, 136 RZA, 763, 764 “Sabotage” (Beastie Boys), 41 Säckpipa, 676 “Sad Affair” (Marxman), 452 Sadat X, 76, 77 Saddler, Joseph. See Grandmaster Flash Saeed, Aryana, 5 SAF, 437 Safar, Erez. See Diwon Safo, Derek Andrew. See Sway Sagas, 333 Sagna, El Hadj Mansour Jacques. See Lord Aladji Man Sai Sai Kham, 495 Sajsi MC, 635 Sakam Afro Frizura, 437 Sakpata Boys, 48 Sal, Sochitta. See Honey Cocaine Salaam, Hasan, 304 Salah, 258 Salazar, Christian. See Salla Salazar, Hugo. See Chepe Salla, 416, 677 Salome MC, 349–350, 561 Salt, 621 Salt-N-Pepa, 189–190, 459, 621–622, 698, 738 “Same Love” (Macklemore and Ryan Lewis), 439 Sámi people, 251–252, 529, 676 Samir, 346 Sammy G, 241 Samoa, 622–624 Sanba Movement, 305 Sanhá, Allen Pires. See Allen Halloween Sankara, Thomas, 94 Santa Mala, 66 Santiago, Victor, Jr. See N.O.R.E. Sarjit, Kevin Lester. See Lester, Kevin Sarkodie, 285–286, 333, 624–625 Sassja, 71 Satti, 381

Index 881 “Saturday Night Raps” (Dizzy K), 525 Saudi Arabia, 625–626 Saunderson, Kevin, 128 Savage, 623 Savelio, Demetrius. See Savage Saverio, Charissa. See DJ Rap “Say It Loud: I’m Black and I’m Proud” (Brown), 87 Sayid, Hassan-Nour. See Aar Maanta Saykoji, 344 Saz, 546 Scalp, 549 Scar, 488 Scarecrow Scalley, 213, 565 Scarface, 280, 441 Scenario (A Tribe Called Quest), 96 Scheffer, James. See Jonsin, Jim Schellenbach, Kate, 41 Schönheitsfehler, 27, 277 Schoolly D, 271, 273, 460 Schwartz, Michael. See Mix Master Mike Science of Supreme Mathematics, 253, 254 Scientology, 196, 504 The Score (Fugees), 260, 261, 315 Scorn, 345 Scorpio, 293, 459, 470 Scotland, 733 Scott, Jill, 626–627, 742 Scott, Louis, 16, 691 Scott, Marquese, 203 Scott, Sheldon. See Cut Monitor Milo Scott-Heron, Gil, 414, 415, 628–630, 657, 741, 747, 755 Scratch, 525 Scratch (film), 348, 767 Scratch Action Hiro, 486 Scratch DJ Academy, 361, 364 Scratching in battling, 39 DJ Bobcat and, 184 DJ Flare and, 347–348 Grandmaster Flash and, 292, 719, 737 GrandWizard Theodore and, 294–295, 719, 737 hamster style, 186, 347, 721 innovations in, 720 Prophets of da City and, 574–575 regular style, 602 See also Turntablism Screamo, 145–146 Scribe, 519, 623 Scruggs, Ralond. See One Be Lo

Sean C, 767 Sean Paul, 366 Season of the Siccness (Brotha Lynch Hung), 85, 327 Seba, Jun. See Nujabes Seddas, Youcef. See Youss Séfel, Pál. See DJ Cadik Seggae, 457 Sehgal, Harjeet Singh. See Baba Sehgal Selena y los Dinos, 149 Self Jupiter, 2–3 Selimi, Getoar, 9 Sell, Eric. See EeS Semela, Kgotso. See Ben Sharpa Sen Dog, 114, 151–153 Senegal, 630–632 arts-based exchange programs in, 322 Awadi, Didier, 29–30, 570 bolon in, 67 Daara J, 160–161 and Gambia, 266 griot in, 300 and Ivorian hip hop, 356 MC Solaar from, 468, 469 political hip hop in, 29, 160, 561, 630–631 Positive Black Soul, 29, 561, 570–571, 630 reggae in, 596 women rappers in, 630, 631 Seo Tajii and Boys, 402 The Sequence, 632–633 Ser hümano! (Tiro de Garcia), 116 Serato Scratch Live, 721–722 Serbia, 322, 633–635 Serbwave, 635 Seryoga, 44 Sesar A, 334 “Seven Minutes of Truth” (Baloberos Crew), 304 The Seventh Seal (Rakim), 225 75 Ark, 15 Sex, in hip hop, 177–179, 424 Sex and Violence (Boogie Down Productions), 405 Sez, 485 Sghubu, 411, 659 Shabba Ranks, 598 Shady Records, 219 Shaggy, 365, 635–637 Sham MCs, 683 Shankman, Adam, 435

882 Index Shao Boana, 440 Share My World (Blige), 61 Shaw, Richard Stephen. See Little Billy Shawnna, 432 Shawty Redd, 700, 701, 740 Shebang!, 637–638 Sheek Louch, 430 “Shen Shen” (Kembe), 669 Sherlock, 678 Sherwood, Adrian, 345 “She’s a B—” (Elliott), 217 SHI 360, 354 Shibastik, 559 ShiGGa Shay, 639–640 Shimoni, Ya’akov Kobi. See Subliminal Shine (Estelle), 227–228 Shing02, 369 Shock Value (Timbaland), 695 “Shōgen” (Lamp Eye), 369 Shortkut, 151, 761, 762 “The Show” (Get Fresh Crew), 195 Show Me the Money (TV series), 403 Showard, Derek. See GrandMixer DXT Showboys. See DJ Irv “Sí Señor” (Control Machete), 473 Sickology 101 (Tech N9ne), 118, 689, 690 Siddik, Boobah. See Dynamic Boobah Siddik Sierra Leone, 67, 596, 638–639, 661 Sigsworth, Guy, 312, 313 Silkk the Shocker, 126, 739 Silseth, Johnny Engdal. See Jaa9 SIMBA, 491 Simmonds, Verse, 754 Simmons, Bobby. See Stetsa-drum Simmons, Earl. See DMX Simmons, Joseph. See Run Simmons, Russell, 237, 362, 408, 614–615, 642, 643 Simons, Ed, 112–113 Simpson, Gerald. See A Guy Called Gerald Sindhi music, 543 Sindicato Argentino del Hip Hop, 18 Sindicato Negro, 78 Singapore, 43, 187–188, 639–640 Singh, Hirdesh. See YoYo Honey Singh Singing Fools, 103 Singjay, 365 Sinik, 11 Sir Nature. See Juma Nature Sir Reginald Pikedevant, Esquire, 111

Sister Sledge, 633 Sister Souljah, 120, 578, 580 Sisters Underground, 520, 640–642 Sisters with Voices. See SWV Sitoi, Nelson Angelo. See SIMBA “6 in the Mornin’ ” (Ice-T), 336 “16 Tons” (Mighty Big Crime), 23 Sjåre brymæ (Jaa9 and OnkIP), 360–361 Ska, 37, 597 Skaiskalns, Modris. See Mr. Tape Skaldic poetry, 333 Skamp, 427 Skeeter Rabbit, 213, 565 Skhanda, 660 Skillions, 210 Skip. See DJ E-Z Rock Skliropyrinikó (hardcore), 297 Skoob, 164–165 Skrillex, 202 Skull and Bones (Cypress Hill), 154 Skwatta Kamp, 658 Skye Edwards, 708 Slangsta, 28 Slick Rick, 68, 195, 250, 642–643, 653, 731 Slim, 53, 75, 180–181 Slim Shady. See Eminem The Slim Shady LP (Eminem), 218, 219 Slovakia, 156, 644 Slovenia, 645–646 Small, Michael Benton. See Mike Gee Small, Winston. See DJ Renegade Small Talk (Scott-Heron), 629 Smash Hits in Aberdeen (Malk de Koijn), 174 Smif-N-Wessun, 646–647, 737 Smimooz, 45 Smith, Clarence Edward. See Clarence 13X Smith, Clifford. See Method Man Smith, Corey. See Mr. Serv-On Smith, Crystal. See Dimples D Smith, Daniel Howe. See MC Pressure Smith, Dante Terrell. See Mos Def Smith, James A. See Lil’ J Smith, James Todd. See LL Cool J Smith, Jonathan. See Lil Jon Smith, Lee, 69 Smith, Parrish. See MC PMD Smith, Rashaam. See Esham Smith, Trevor, Jr. See Busta Rhymes

Index 883 Smith, Will, 185–186, 380, 647–648, 741 Smockey, 94–95 Smooth Criminals, 576 Smythe, Leonard. See Mr. Len Snaking, 125 Snap, 649–650, 740 “Snap Yo Fingers” (Lil Jon), 649–650 Snare drum, 449, 477 Sneaker Pimps, 708–709 Snipes, Wawa. See Wawa SNKM, 543–544 Snoop Dogg, 650–654 albums of, 650–651, 652, 672 bhangra-beat used by, 342 C-Murder and, 126 Crip walking by, 143, 653 Cypress Hill and, 154 female version of, 159 as gang member, 271, 651 and gangsta rap, 275 legal problems of, 275, 651, 652 LiLana and, 92 Malikah and, 420 and marijuana, 653 performance practice of, 653 Pharrell and, 551, 552, 653 and reggae, 652 Slick Rick and, 653 Thaitanium and, 653, 692 “What’s My Name?” video of, 282 in Whiteboyz (film), 250 Snoop Lion. See Snoop Dogg Snow, 691 “So Get Up” (Ithaka), 570 So You Think You Can Dance (TV show), 435 SOAR. See Sound of American Records Sobrevivendo no Inferno (Racionais MC’s), 562 Soca, 705 Sofa, 447 Sok, Chanthy. See CS Sokól, 556 Solé, 743 Solid Steel (Coldcut), 128 Solidarity (documentary), 243–244 Solo, 447, 549 “Solo” (Iyaz), 753 Solomon, Sam. See Boogaloo Sam Solomon, Timothy Earl. See Pop’in Pete Somalia, 394–396, 654–655 La Sombra, 149

Something Else (EL), 210 Sonic Nocturnal Kinetic Movement. See SNKM Sons of Yusuf, 410 “Sork Kley” (Bross La), 99 Sorry 4 the Wait 2 (Lil Wayne), 55 $O$ (Die Antwoord), 175 Sosnowski, Wojciech. See Sokól Souhaili, Omar. See Dizzy DROS Souk, 778 “Soul Controller” (Brand Nubian), 254 Soul II Soul, 749 Soul Train (dance show) Campbell (Don) on, 101, 568, 735 early performers on, 319 The Electric Boogaloos on, 565, 735 and fashion, 236 Jackson (Michael) on, 606 in Japan, 368 and Jay-Z, 371 Kurtis Blow on, 408 New York City Breakers on, 517 Soulja Boy, 623, 650 “Soulja’s Story” (Tupac Shakur), 713 Soulquarians, 132–133, 506, 508 Sound Control Mob, 135 “Sound mangling,” 288 Sound of American Records, 743 Sound on Sound, 525 Sound Unlimited, 562 The Source (Jean Grae), 374 The Source (magazine), 141, 528, 532 South Africa, 655–662 Ben Sharpa, 46–47, 661 Botswana and, 71, 73, 656, 776–777 diaspora acts from, 661–662 Die Antwoord, 175–176, 660–661 early hip hop in, 657–658 graffiti in, 291, 657 hardcore hip hop in, 310 Hip Hop Pantsula, 323–324, 659, 777 history of, 656–657 horrorcore in, 328 Jean Grae, 374–375, 494 kwaito in, 410–412, 658–659 languages in, 655–656 Lesotho and, 422, 656 Molekane (Tumi), 481–482, 661, 777 motswako in, 323, 488–489, 659, 710 Mozambique and, 490 musical influence of, 661 Namibia and, 498, 656, 661

884 Index South Africa (cont.) political hip hop in, 323, 412, 482, 561, 574, 575, 657, 658, 661 Prophets of da City, 380, 561, 574–575, 657 recent hip hop in, 660–661 reggae in, 574, 596 Swaziland and, 656, 674–675 Tuks Senganga, 710–711 Zimbabwe and, 661, 778 See also Apartheid “South Bronx” (Boogie Down Productions), 69, 382, 404 South Korea, 401, 402–403 Gamblerz, 267–268, 696 Jinjo Crew, 378–379 Morning of Owl, 485–486 new jack swing in, 517 PSY, 19, 403, 577 T.I.P. Crew, 696–697 South West Syndicate, 86 Southern hip hop. See Dirty South Southern Poverty Law Center, 504 Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik (OutKast), 180, 539, 540 Spain, 560, 662–664 Spantell, Dag, 360 Sparkes, Winston. See King Stitt Spaza, 659 Speak, 329 Speak for Yourself (Heap), 313 Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (OutKast), 539, 541 Spearhead. See Michael Franti and the Spearhead Speed rapping, 119 Speedbump. See Gura G Spider Salah. See Salah Spiderman, 636 Spin (magazine), 364, 615 Spine flexing, 125, 407 Spirits Unchained (Bra Willie), 414 Spiritualized, 128 Spoonie Gee, 399, 664–666, 738 “Spoonin’ Rap” (Spoonie Gee), 665 Sports jerseys, 237 Spouge, 37 “Spraakwater” (Extince), 514 Spray paint, 290, 291 The Square Roots. See The Roots Sri Lanka, 19, 475–476, 666–667 Srin, Jessica. See Lisha

St. Elsewhere (Gnarls Barkley), 163 Staaf, Tirren. See Pegz “Stan” (Eminem), 219 Stankonia (OutKast), 539, 540–541 “Star” (Estelle), 228 Star Trak Entertainment, 552 Starflam, 46 “Starships” (Nicki Minaj), 522 Starter Clothing Line, 237 State Department, 321, 322 Stations of the Elevated (documentary), 244 Stay Human (Franti), 259 Steampunk, 111, 571, 572, 642 Steele, 646–647 Stein, Chris, 64 Steini, 587 Stephens, John Roger. See Legend, John Stephens, Michael Ugochukwu. See Ruggedman Steril, 345 Sterling, Scott Monroe. See DJ Scott La Rock Stetsa-drum, 668 Stetsa-Human Mix Machine. See Wise Stetsasonic, 667–668 Steve D, 767 Stewart, Anthony. See DJ Total K-Oss Stewart, Demetrius Lee. See Shawty Redd Stewart, Mark, 345 Stewart, Robert Edward, II. See Beans Still, 161 “Still Fly” (Big Tymer$), 54 “Still Not a Player” (Big Pun), 52 “Still Shinin’ ” (Dabo), 369 “Still Talkin’ ” (Easy-E), 178 Stillmatic (Nas), 499, 501 STL, 531 Stockholmsnatt (film), 249–250 Stogie T. See Molekane, Tumi Stoic Bliss, 35 “Stolen (Dil)” (PHS), 547, 732 Stomps, 407 Stoney. See Steini “Stop the Music” (DJ P-Money), 519 Stop the Violence Movement, 69, 400, 404 “Stop the War” (Speak), 329 Storch, Scott, 612 Storm 360, 497 Straight Checkn ‘Em (Compton’s Most Wanted), 135 “Straight Out of Surrey” (Mr. B), 492

Index 885 Straight Out the Jungle (Jungle Brothers), 383 Straight outta Compton (N.W.A.) Dr. Dre as producer of, 196, 197 as foundation of gangsta rap, 273, 274, 276, 534, 557 Ice Cube and, 331, 535 success of, 206, 535 “Straight outta Compton” (N.W.A.), 273, 282, 492, 535 Stream-of-consciousness rapping, 15, 38, 164 Street Brothers, 457 Street dancing, 39, 318–319, 376, 457 Street Kingdom, 406, 407 Street’s Disciple (Nas), 499, 501 Stress, 681 Stretch, 364 Strictly 4 My N.—A.Z. (Tupac Shakur), 714 Strictly Business (EPMD), 221 Strippel, Mark Ian. See Markie Mark Stuttering style, 164, 165 Style Wars (documentary), 81, 141, 243 Styles P, 430 Subliminal, 354 Suboi, 752 Subterraninan, 334 “$ucce$$ I$ the Word” (12:41), 404 “Sucker DJ’s (I Will Survive)” (Dimples D), 449 “Sucker M.C.s” (Run-D.M.C.), 449 Sudan, 311, 668–670 Sudden-death rounds, 40, 720 Suffa, 317 Sugar Hill Records Melle Mel at, 470, 471 Robinson (Sylvia) as co-owner of, 525, 603, 604–605, 632, 670, 671 The Sequence at, 632 Spoonie Gee at, 665 Stewart (Mark) at, 345 The Sugarhill Gang at, 525, 670, 671 The Sugarhill Gang, 670–672 formation of, 670–671 members of, 670 See also “Rapper’s Delight” (Sugarhill Gang) Suge Knight, 672–673 aggressive behavior of, 198, 275 and Death Row Records, 198, 275, 652, 672, 714, 734 early career of, 672

in East Coast–West Coast feud, 276, 672–673 gang ties of, 271 Sugu. See Mr. II Suicide (dance move), 260 “Summertime” (DJ Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince), 185 Sun Star. See Frukwan Sungura, 778 Sunny Day. See Day Suomiräp, 251 Supa Dupa Fly (Elliott), 214, 215–216 “Supa Ugly” (Jay-Z), 501 SupahSyndikal, 334 Supaman, 744 “Superappin” (Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five), 293, 459, 470 Superman Battle for World Supremacy, 767 Supernova (Macedonia), 437 Supernova (Uganda), 389 “Supersonic” (JJ Fad), 119 “Superthug” (N.O.R.E.), 551 Suphrawira, Suwitcha. See Da Jim Supreme. See McGriff, Kenneth “Supreme” Supreme Alphabet, 253, 254 Supreme Hebrew Intellect. See SHI 360 Suprême NTM, 257, 559 Sureshot Crew, 449 Suri, Himanshu Kumar. See Heems Surrender (The Chemical Brothers), 113 Sutherland, Chris G. See Shibastik Sutresna, Heri. See Morgue Vanguard Svenska ord (Just D), 384 Swah rap, 687 Swahili jazz, 688 Swaray, Estelle Fanta. See Estelle Swarez, Ómar. See Ómar Öm Hauksson Sway, 673–674, 690 Swaziland, 656, 674–676 Sweden, 676–680 early hip hop in, 677 film made in, 249–250 and Finland, 251–252, 676 immigrants in, 231, 676, 677–678, 679–680 Just D, 384, 677 The Latin Kings, 416–417, 677–678 new jack swing in, 517 recent hip hop in, 678–679 Swift, 201

886 Index Swift, Ken, 141 “Swing” (Savage), 623 Swing Mob Collective, 215, 695 Swing Original Monks, 207 Swingbeat. See New jack swing Swings, 407 Switchstance (Quarashi), 587 Switzerland, 680–681 Swizz Beatz, 682–683, 740 SWV, 698 SX-10, 153 Symbolic Records, 446 Syncopation, 50 Syria, 561, 683–684 “#Syria” (Offendum), 684 Szepanski, Achim, 345 Taarab, 573, 687 Tabitha, 435 Tabla, 342, 732 Taboo, 55, 56, 57, 742, 759 Tabu-Flo, 727 TACK>>HEAD, 345 “Taco Day” (Mr. Len), 494 TaffBongLab Prod, 457 “Tafsiri Hii” (Kalamashaka), 393 Tag Team, 180 Tagging, 291 Tahi (Moana and the Moahunters), 480 Taipanic. See Blak Twang Taiwan, 685–686 “Take It EZ” (Common), 131 “Takeover” (Jay-Z), 501 Talal Qureshi, 543 Talib Kweli, 374, 375, 487, 686–687, 737 Taliban, 3, 4, 5 “Talk to Me” (Foxy Brown), 591 “Talkin’ All that Jazz” (Stetsasonic), 668 “Talking drums,” 284 Tall, Malal Almamy. See Fou Malade Tall Paul, 744 Tamati, Karoline. See Ladi6 Tamayac, Rebeca Eunice Vargas. See Rebeca Lane Tamil hip hop, 341 Tammora, 354 Tanbur, 715 Tanok na Maidani Kongo, 560, 728–729 Tanzania, 322, 481–482, 573, 687–689 Taonga pūoro, 479 “Tarantino” (mc chris), 461 Tata Pound, 447

Tattoos, 236, 237, 481 Tay Grin, 443 Taye, Michael. See Lij Michael Taylor, Jayceon Terrell. See The Game Taylor, Malik Izaak. See Phife Dawg Taylor, Rakaa. See Rakaa Taylor Gang, 760, 761 TBL. See TaffBongLab Prod TBNH. See The Brand New Heavies T-Bone, 120 T-Boz, 697 Te Kupu, 243, 746, 747 “Teach Me How to Dougie” (Cali Swag District), 376 “Teach Me How to Jerk” (Audio Push), 376 Teacha. See KRS-One Team battles, 39 Team RezOfficial, 105 Tech N9ne, 118, 119, 689–690, 741 Techno, 345 Technotronic, 137 Tecktonik, 203 TED Talks, 465, 512 Tee Cambo, 99 Tek, 646–647 Teka, Tumanako. See Prince Tui Teka Temnata strana. See Agovski-Ago, Vladimir Temper-Mental, 352 “Temps Boy” (Daara J), 161 “10% Diss” (Foxy Brown), 591 10 Day (Chance the Rapper), 109 Tenad, 364 TenSion (Die Antwoord), 175–176 Teremoana Rapley, 480, 747 Terminator X, 578, 579, 580 Terror Squad, 53 Terror X Crew, 296 Los Tetas, 693 Texta, 27, 28 Tha Blue Herb, 369 Tha Chill, 135, 136 Thai Minh Ngo. See Viet G Thailand, 16–17, 322, 691–692 Thaitanium, 250, 653, 691, 692–693 Thammavongsas, Lila. See Lila T. Tharwat, Ahmed, 209 Thaws, Adrian Nicholas Matthews. See Tricky Thiam, Aliaume Badara. See Akon Things Fall Apart (The Roots), 612

Index 887 Third Coast. See Dirty South 3rd Eye Vision (Hieroglyphics), 314 Third World Warriors No. 1 (Dope Poet Society), 559 “This Is Compton” (Compton’s Most Wanted), 135 This Is Madness (The Last Poets), 414 This Unruly Mess I’ve Made (Macklemore and Ryan Lewis), 439 “This Way” (Dilated Peoples), 176 “Thisisme” (Common), 505–506 Thomas, Byron Otto. See Mannie Fresh Thomas, Rozonda. See Chilli Thomas, Steve. See Steve D Thomas, Thelma. See MC Trey Thomaz, Cameron Jibril. See Wiz Khalifa Thompson, Ahmir Khalib. See Questlove Thorarensen, Egill Olafur. See Tiny Thornton, Keith Matthew. See Kool Keith “Threat” (Jay-Z), 528 3 Feet High and Rising (De La Soul), 171–172, 505 Three 6 Mafia, 325 3D, 707 3D (TLC), 697–698, 699 3OH!3, 146 “360°” (PBO), 288 Thriller (Jackson), 368 Throat singing, 483 Thug rap, 153 Thumpin’ Camp, 368 Thxa Soe, 495 T.I., 338, 701 Tiananmen Square protests, 117 Tibetan Buddhism, 42 Tical (Method Man), 763 TIDAL, 55, 257, 373 Tight Eyez, 406 Tijoux, Ana, 116, 693–694 Tim Dog, 136 Timati, 617–618 Timbaland, 694–696, 740 bhangra-beat used by, 342 Bubba Sparxxx and, 90 Elliot (Missy) and, 214, 215–216, 217, 694–695 Ludacris and, 432 Timberlake, Justin, 56 Timbuktu, 678 Timz, 351 Tiny, 588 T.I.P. Crew, 696–697

Tipper, David, 289 Tiro de Gracia, 116 Tjernberg, Per Philip. See Per Cussion TLC, 450, 697–699, 740 TLK. See The Latin Kings TNMK. See Tanok na Maidani Kongo To Pimp a Butterfly (Kendrick Lamar), 392 To the 5 Boroughs (Beastie Boys), 42 Toasting, 365, 397–398, 460, 635, 636, 718, 730 Todos Tus Muertos, 17 Togo, 43, 699–700 Tøien, Pål. See OnkIP Toledo, Ismael, 81 Toler, Christopher. See Lil’C Tom Tom Club, 513, 768 Tome, Amro. See OMARZ Tommy Boy Records, 589, 668 Tommy Tee, 530 Tommy the Clown, 125, 406, 735 Tompkins, Dameon. See DJ Boogie Blind Tony Keo, 99–100 Too Phat, 444–445 Tools of War Park Jam, 123, 566 Toots and the Maytals, 593 Top Banana (video game), 128 Top Dawg, 391, 392 Topley-Bird, Martina Gillian. See Martina Toprock, 39, 80 Torabyeh, 381 Torres, Santiago. See Jojo Tougher Than Leather (film), 246, 363, 615 Toure, Djibril, 755, 756 Toussa, 631 Townes, Jeffrey Allen. See DJ Jazzy Jeff TR-808, 575 Tracks—taz, 28 Tram 11, 145 Trap, 335, 524, 635, 700–702, 740 Trap Muzik (T.I.), 701 Trapped in Crime (C-Murder), 126 Trasciende, 302–303 Treacherous Three, 399, 664 Tres Coronas, 130 Treviño, David Sierra. See MC Davo Trey. See MC Trey Tribal Jam, 517 Tribal Nation Crew, 56 A Tribe Beyond a Nation. See Atban Klann

888 Index A Tribe Called Quest, 702–704, 738 on Apartheid, 657 breakup of, 704 Busta Rhymes and, 96, 97, 703, 704 early years of, 702–703 members of, 702 in Native Tongues, 383, 504, 505, 506, 702, 703, 738 A Tribe Called Red and, 106 the Ummah and, 703–704 A Tribe Called Red, 106 Tribe Ledda L. See Koolism Tribo Sul, 13 “La tribu de Dana” (Manau), 108 Tricky, 707, 708 Trill, 180 Triloġinali (Hooligan), 448 Trinidad and Tobago, 521–523, 704–705 Trinidad Jame$, 705 Trip hop, 118, 706–710, 732, 735 Tri-Pinnacle. See Antipop Consortium Triple 6 Mafia. See Three 6 Mafia Trivette, Alvin Lowell. See A.L.T. Trotter, Tariq Luqmaan. See MC Black Thought Troubadour (K’naan), 394, 396 Troy, Michael. See Myka 9 TRU, 454–455 Tru 2 da Game (TRU), 455 Trudell, John, 742–743 True Magic (Mos Def), 558 Trugoy the Dove, 171 Trump, Donald, 558, 654, 704, 758 “Try Me” (Brown and Famous Flames), 87 Trybesmen, 212 Tsambo, Jabulani. See Hip Hop Pantsula Tucker, Boima. See Chief Boima Tucker, C. Delores, 274–275, 283, 424 Tuga, 13, 107, 491, 569–570 Tuks Senganga, 710–711 Tumbi, 342, 549, 732 Tumi. See Molekane, Tumi Tumi and the Volume, 481, 482, 661 Tunisia, 560, 711–712 Tupac Shakur, 121, 712–715 albums of, 713–714 death of, 271, 712–713, 714 early career of, 713 feud with Notorious B.I.G., 276, 532–533, 714 legacy of, 714 legal problems of, 275, 714

political hip hop by, 558, 713 as religious rapper, 121 Turbo-folk, 635 Turfing, 319 Turkey, 715–717 immigrants from, 277–278, 716 women rappers in, 716 Turkish Cypriots, 154–155 Türkü, 715 Turner, Elgin. See Masta Killa Turntablism, 717–722 band concept of, 186, 720, 761 battling (see DJ battling) beat juggling in, 721, 767–768 in Belgium, 46 definition of, 717 DJ Flare and, 347–348 DJ QBert and, 186, 720, 721 films about, 245, 348, 767 Grandmaster Flash and, 292, 719, 737 GrandWizard Theodore and, 294–295, 719, 737 history and early equipment of, 717–719 innovations in, 720–721 Kool Herc and, 396, 718–719, 737 in Macedonia, 437 in Nepal, 508 origin of term, 183 Rob Swift and, 602, 721 school/instruction, 186, 348, 361, 364, 761, 762 software in, 721–722 techniques of, 717, 721, 767–768 in the United Kingdom, 730 See also Scratching The Turntablist. See DJ Babu “Tusen Tegninger” (Karpe Diem), 388 “The Tussin” (mc chris), 461 Tutting, 567 Tweak scratch, 479 12:41, 404 1200 Techniques, 24, 722–724 24 Deep (Brotha Lynch Hung), 84 24K, 514 Twerking, 125, 320 “212” (Banks), 36 2 Live Crew, 178, 180, 433, 434, 477–478, 724–725, 740 2001 (Dr. Dre), 198 2Pac. See Tupac Shakur 2Pacalypse Now (Tupac Shakur), 713 2-proud. See Mr. II

Index 889 Tyler, Aaron. See MC Eiht Tyler, Michael Lawrence. See Mystikal “U Can’t Touch This” (MC Hammer), 463 Ucock. See Morgue Vanguard Udi, 89 Uganda, 142, 322, 370, 389–390, 727–728 UGK, 701 “Ugly” (Bubba Sparxxx), 90 Ugly Leaders, 144 U-God, 760, 763 UHP. See Upper Hutt Posse Uhuru Movement, 59–60 Ukeje, Okechukwu Edwards. See Mr Raw Uknighted State of Arabia (Arabian Knightz), 209 Ukoo Flani Mau Mau, 561 Ukraine, 560, 728–729, 772–773 Ulepić, Vanja. See Oneya The Ummah, 506, 703–704 Uncle Jamm, 184 Uncle Jamm’s Army, 184 Uncle Sam’s Curse (Above the Law), 1, 2 Under Construction (Elliott), 216, 217 UNIA. See Universal Negro Improvement Association The United Kingdom, 729–734 Bubbles, 91–92, 243 chap hop in, 110–112, 732–733 The Chemical Brothers, 112–114, 730 Coldcut, 127–129, 191, 731 Estelle, 227–228 films made in, 244, 250, 251 graffiti in, 291, 730 Heap, Imogen, 312–313, 750 hip hop styles in, 732–733 immigrants in, 555, 729 Marxman, 108, 452–453 MC Opi, 467–468 M.I.A., 342, 475–476, 667 Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer, 110–112, 492–493, 571, 572, 733 musical heritage of, 730 new jack swing in, 517 Panjabi Hit Squad, 547–548, 732 Panjabi MC, 342, 548–549, 732 political hip hop in, 559, 619 Professor Elemental, 110–112, 493, 571–573, 733 reggae in, 597, 730 Ruthless Rap Assassins, 619–620, 730–731

Slick Rick, 195, 250, 642–643, 653, 731 Sway, 673–674, 690 trip hop in, 706–709, 732 Urban Species, 312, 469, 731, 749–750 The United States, 734–745 beatboxing in, 42–43, 736 breakdancing in, 80–81, 735, 736, 737 Chicano rap in, 114–115, 473, 735 chopper in, 118–119, 741 crunkcore in, 145–146, 740 East Coast rap in, 736–739 gangsta rap in, 272–276, 734–735 G-funk in, 281–283, 735 graffiti in, 290–291 hardcore hip hop in, 309–310, 740 hip hop dance in, 318–320, 735, 736 hip hop diplomacy used by, 321–322 horrorcore in, 325–328, 740 Midwestern hip hop in, 741 Native American hip hop in, 742–744 Northeastern hip hop in, 741–742 political hip hop in, 557–558 snap in, 649–650, 740 Southern hip hop in, 739–740 trap in, 700–702, 740 turntablism in, 717–721, 737 West Coast rap in, 734–736 See also specific artists The Unity, 508, 509 “U.N.I.T.Y” (Queen Latifah), 589 Unity Committee, 150 Universal Mind Control (Common), 133 Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), 57 The Universal Zulu Nation, 745–746 Afrika Bambaataa as founder of, 5, 6, 319, 745–746 Afrocentrism of, 59 as alternative to gangs, 5–6, 59, 271, 745, 746 Christie Z-Pabon and, 123 MC Solaar and, 469 and Native Tongues, 505 Queen Latifah and, 589 Rock Steady Crew in, 608 and turntablism, 719 “Universos paralelos” (Tijoux and Drexler), 116 Unknown DJ, 135 The Untouchable (Scarface), 441 Untouchable Force Organization. See U.T.F.O.

890 Index Untouchable Four B-Boys, 608 Up the Rap, 440 “Up Your Speed” (Sway), 674 Uplock, 569 Upper Hutt Posse, 243–244, 519–520, 746–748 Uprock, 39, 80, 748–749 Upsurt, 92, 93 Uptown Records, 61, 532, 583 Urban Dance Squad, 514 Urban desi, 341 Urban grooves, 778 Urban Pacifika, 24, 520, 538, 640 Urban Radio, 140 Urban rap, 69 Urban Species, 312, 469, 731, 749–750 U-Roy, 365 U.T.F.O., 450, 613 Utley, Adrian, 707 V2A4, 265 “Va le dire a ta mére” (Intik), 347 Vaid, Savita. See Ms. Scandalous Valencia, Ereina. See Honey Rockwell Valete, 570 Vallenato, 150 Valleray, Kevin. See Kalash Die Vamummtn, 28 van de Welde, Wannes. See Castro Van Dyke, Dick, 567, 606 van Veen, Sven. See DJ Sven Van Winkle, Robert Matthew. See Vanilla Ice Vandalism, graffiti as, 289–290 Vanderpool, Sylvia. See Robinson, Sylvia Vanilla Ice, 672 Vanquish, 483 Vaomenoi Esso, 155 Vazquez, Victor. See Kool A.D. Veikoso, George. See Fiji (singer) Venable, Andrew. See Dr. Butcher Venezuela, 751 Ventry, Kevin. See MC T Tucker Verbal Assassins, 323 Verbal Jint, 402, 403 Verbrugghe, Wim. See DJ Grazzhoppa Vertical Hold, 633 V.I.C., 650 Vico C, 472 Victorian England, 110, 111, 572, 733 “Victory of Death” (MC Swat), 423 Video games, 65, 510

Viet G, 752 Viet Khang, 752 Viet Rap, 752 Vietnam, 752 Views (Drake), 200 Villegas, Aldo. See Bocafloja Violence in gangsta rap, 272–275 in hardcore hip hop, 310 in horrorcore, 325 in mafioso rap, 441 in mc chris’s lyrics, 461 Melle Mel on, 470 in Mexican hip hop, 473 Stogie T on, 482 in trap, 701, 702 The Virgin Islands, 753–754 Virus, 696 Visual Shock, 403 VJAMM (software), 129 Vô Minh Tri. See Viet Khang Voice of Youth (radio station), 350 Vol. 2 . . . ​Hard Knock Life (Jay-Z), 372 “Vous êtes fous!” (Benny B), 46 Vowles, Andrew Lee Isaac. See Mushroom “W” move, 141 Waayaha Cusub, 654 Wade, Imari, 49 Wai, 480 Waiting to Exhale (film), 32 Waka, 525 “Wake Up (Bangkok City)” (Thaitanium), 653 Wake Up Team. See Wu Team Wales, 733 “Walk This Way” (Aerosmith and RunD.M.C.), 615 Walker, Kurt. See Kurtis Blow Walker, Randy. See Stretch Walking with a Panther (LL Cool J), 429 Wallace, Christopher George Latore. See The Notorious B.I.G. Wallonian hip hop, 45 Walters, Lynise. See Queen Pen Walters, Richard Martin Lloyd. See Slick Rick War for Peace (Five Steez), 366 Ward, Christopher Brendan, IV. See mc chris Warlocks (Norway), 530

Index 891 The Warlocks (New York City). See The LOX Warn Them (The Welfare Poets), 756 Warp Records, 15–16 Warren G, 282 Warrior of Light. See Balam Ajpu The Warriors (film), 243, 518 Warsame, Keinan Abdi. See K’naan Washington, Ronald. See Tenad “Watcha Gonna Do” (Elliot), 217 “Waterfalls” (TLC), 697, 698 “Watermelon Man” (Hancock), 307, 308 Watkins, Tionne. See T-Boz Watson, Julian B. See Julian B “Wavin’ Flag” (K’naan), 104, 394 Wawa, 182 Waxmaster C. See DJ Premier Way, 692 Way, DeAndre Cortez. See Soulja Boy “The Way I Feel Rap” (Ekundayo), 525 Wayna rap, 66 “We Are the Government” (Arabian Knightz), 209 We Are the Streets (The LOX), 430 We Come Strapped (MC Eiht), 136 Weaver, Jesse Bonds, Jr. See Schoolly D Webley, Huba Antonio Watson. See Huba Weeraman, Santhush, 666 The Welfare Poets, 737, 755–757 “We’ll Always Love Big Poppa” (The LOX), 430 Wenell, Paul, Jr., 744 West, Kanye, 757–758 albums of, 757–758 childhood of, 757 Hancock (Herbie) and, 308 Nicki Minaj and, 521 as religious rapper, 121 West Coast rap, 734–736 West Coast Rap All-Stars, 271 West Coast–East Coast feud. See East Coast–West Coast feud Western Samoa, 622–623 Weston, Andre. See Dray Westside Connection, 132 “Westside Slaughterhouse” (Westside Connection), 132 “What They Do” (The Roots), 612 “What We Need More of Is Science” (MC Hawking), 511 “What’s My Name?” (Snoop Dogg), 282 What’s That Noise? (Coldcut), 127

What’s the 411? (Blige), 61 “What’s Your Fantasy” (Ludacris), 432 Whistling, 73 White, Jamie. See Jimmy D White, Jarobi, 702 The White Album (Beatles), 162, 163 “White Lines (Don’t Do It)” (Melle Mel), 471 Whiteboyz (film), 250 Who Can You Trust? (Morcheeba), 708 “Who Shot Ya” (Notorious B.I.G.), 533 Whole Foods (André 3000), 541–542 Wiggins, Keith. See Cowboy Wild Style (film) in Argentina, 18 Crazy Legs in, 141 GrandWizard Theodore in, 295 in India, 339 in Japan, 368 and popularity of breakdancing, 81, 319 producer of, 233, 234, 244 Rock Steady Crew in, 608 in Sweden, 676 in Switzerland, 680 Wiley, 298, 299 Wiley, Stephen, 120 will.i.am, 55, 56, 57, 227, 558, 758–760 William, Willy, 231 Williams, Anthony. See Roc Raida Williams, Bryan. See Birdman Williams, Cedric. See Creep’n Sid Williams, Guy Todd. See Rahiem Williams, Kerry. See Culture Freedom Williams, Lewayne. See Ganksta N-I-P Williams, Marlon Lu’ree. See Marley Marl Williams, Nicholas James. See Trinidad Jame$ Williams, Pharrell Lanscilo. See Pharrell Williams, Ronald. See Slim Williams, Serena, 143 Williams, Tekomin B. See Tek Williams, Tyrone, 450 Williams, Wesley. See Maestro Fresh-Wes Williamson, Leo. See Flukey Luke Williamson, Lisa. See Sister Souljah Willie D, 280 Willis, Ceasare. See Tight Eyez Willis and the Illest Bahamas Reggae Band, 34 Wilson, Joe, 709 Wilson, Nathaniel Thomas. See Kool G Rap

892 Index Winding, 125 Windmill (dance move), 141, 390 Winter in America (Scott-Heron), 629 Wise, 667 Wise Intelligent, 563, 564 Witana, Randhir Yasendra. See Randhir Without Reservation, 743 Witteveen, Lucien. See MC Miker G Wiz Khalifa, 742, 760–761 Woah, 231 Wobble bass, 202 Wobbles (dance move), 407 Wolcott, Louis Eugene. See Farrakhan, Louis Woldemariam, Philip, 652 Wolf, Marvin J., 743 A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing (Black Sheep), 505 Women dancers twerking, 320 See also B-girls Women on the Rhyme (radio documentary), 468 Women rappers advocates for, 33, 170, 466 in Afghanistan, 4–5, 561 in Algeria, 11 in Argentina, 18 in Australia, 23, 467–468 in Austria, 28 in Bangladesh, 35 in Belarus, 44 in Bermuda, 49 in Bolivia, 65–66 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 71 in Bulgaria, 92 in Cambodia, 99, 100 in Cameroon, 100 in Canada, 103, 104, 105, 106 in Chile, 116, 693 chopper used by, 119 Christian hip hop by, 120 in Congo, 137 dirty rap by, 177, 178 documentaries about, 244, 245 in the Dominican Republic, 194 in Equatorial Guinea, 222–223 in Ethiopia, 231 fashion for, 159–160, 237 in Fiji, 242 films about, 245 in Gambia, 267

in Germany, 277 in Greece, 297 in grime scene, 299 in Guadeloupe, 301 in Guatemala, 302, 303 in Hungary, 329 in Iceland, 334, 335 in India, 341, 342 in Iran, 349–350, 561 in Ireland, 352 in Ivory Coast, 356–357 in Japan, 369–370 in Korea, 403 in Laos, 413 in Lebanon, 420 in Madagascar, 440 in mafioso rap, 442 as MCs, 461 in Mexico, 473, 562 in Mongolia, 483 motswako by, 489 in Mozambique, 491 in Namibia, 498 Native American, 743 in the Netherlands, 514–515 in New Zealand, 640–641 in Niger, 524 in Nigeria, 526, 527 in Norway, 531 in Panama, 546–547 in Peru, 551 in the Philippines, 553 in Poland, 556 in Puerto Rico, 357–358 in “Rapture” (Blondie), 64 in Samoa, 623 in Senegal, 630, 631 in Serbia, 635 in Singapore, 187–188 in snap, 649 in Somalia, 654 in South Africa, 412, 561 in Spain, 663, 664 in Sri Lanka, 666–667 in Swaziland, 675 in Sweden, 679 in Taiwan, 685 in Trinidad and Tobago, 521–522 in Turkey, 716 in Uganda, 389–390 in the United Kingdom, 227–228, 475–476, 733

Index 893 in Venezuela, 751 in Vietnam, 752 in Yemen, 561, 772 in Zambia, 775 See also specific artists Wondaland (MFBTY), 402 Wonder Mike, 670, 671 Wong Won, Christopher. See Fresh Kid Ice “Woo hah!! Got You All in Check” (Busta Rhymes), 97 Woods, Corey Todd. See Raekwon Word of Mouf (Ludacris), 432 “Wordy Rappinghood” (Tom Tom Club), 513 “Work It” (Elliott), 216, 217 World B-Boy Championship (London), 453, 637, 696 World Famous Beat Junkies, 176, 182–183, 348, 720, 761–762 World Hip Hop Dance Championship, 320 “The Worst Guys” (Childish Gambino), 179 “WOW” (BtoB), 517 Wowy, 752 WP. See The Welfare Poets “Wrath of my Madness” (Queen Latifah), 505, 589 “Wrath of the Blackman” (Fun-DaMental), 559 The Wretched of the Earth (Fanon), 58 Wright, Eric Lynn. See Eazy-E Wright, Erica Abi. See Erykah Badu Wright, Joel. See Mista Sinista Wright, Marvin Shahid. See MC Delite Wright, Michael Anthony. See Wonder Mike Wright, Perrin. See DJ Precision Wright, Peter. See Five Steez Wu, Giannos. See Mastermind Wu Team, 457 Wub, 202 “Wu-Gambinos” (Raekwon), 441 Wu-Tang Clan, 441, 737, 760, 763–765 Wu-Wear Clothing, 764 WWO, 556 Wynn, Khari, 578, 580 Xalam, 300 The X-Ecutioners, 720, 736, 767–769 Beat Junkies and, 762 instructional documentary by, 245, 767

Invisibl Skratch Piklz and, 348, 768 Rob Swift in, 601–602, 768 Roc Raida in, 606–607, 767, 768, 769 techniques developed by, 767–768 Xicano rap. See Chicano rap XIT, 743 The X-Men. See The X-Ecutioners X-Pressions (The X-Ecutioners), 767, 768 X-Raided, 85 X-ray, 296, 297 Ya Kid K, 137 “Yaay mbër” (Pacotille), 631 Yab Moung Records, 99 Yacine, 458 Ya’koob and Humble, 410 Yancey, James Dewitt. See J Dilla Yancey, John Derek. See Illa J Yancey Boys (J Dilla), 359 Yas, 349 Yaseen, Ahmad. See Satti Yates, Aaron Dontez. See Tech N9ne Yates, Darrell A., Jr. See Steele Yauch, Adam. See MCA Yazz, 127 “Yeah 3x” (Brown), 565 Yeezus (West), 758 “Yellow Lasers” (MC Frontalot), 510 Yemen, 560, 561, 771–772 Y’en a Marre, 561 “Yes We Can” (will.i.am), 558 Yin Ts’ang, 117 Yo! Bum Rush the Show (Public Enemy), 68, 124, 578 Yo! MTV Raps, 159, 233, 235 Yoda, Mustafa, 18 Yogafrog, 187 Yolé! Africa, 137 Yoshimura, Akira. See EVISBEATS You Know My “P” (Naeto C), 497 Young, Andre Romelle. See Dr. Dre Young, Mia. See Mia X Young City Boys, 390, 736 Young Jeezy, 701 Young M.A., 236 Young Money Entertainment, 54, 425, 426 Young Nations, 661 Young Paperboyz, 772–773 “You’re a Jerk” (New Boyz), 376 Youss, 346 YoYo Honey Singh, 339 Yücel, Mert, 716

894 Index Yugoslav Wars, 144, 484, 634 “Yuletown Throw Down” (Blondie), 64 Yuma, 222–223 Yung Beef, 664 Yung Joc, 650 Yunusov, Timur Ildarovich. See Timati Zafarmal, Bezhan, 5 Zaho, 11 Zakout, Sameh. See Saz Zamani, Panshak Henry. See Ice Prince Zambia, 310, 775–776 Zana, Zoltán. See Ganxsta Zolee

Zaouiche, Médine. See Médine Zap. See Tharwat, Ahmed Zef subculture, 175, 660, 661 021, 349 Zeus, 776–777 Ziglibithy, 356 Zimbabwe, 322, 561, 661, 777–778 Ziqo, 491 Zoblazo, 356 Zone Fam, 775 Zouk, 301, 303, 451, 569 Zulu Nation. See The Universal Zulu Nation

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