![]() ![]() There are a few different ways that these things manifest. All rap is the byproduct of regional culture and community, which is why we've chosen to chronicle its 50 year rise at area level. Even Freddie Gibbs, from the rap wasteland of Gary, Ind., only recorded his first mixtape (a tape an Interscope intern heard trolling regional rap blogs) because of the local producer Finger Roll. But all rap is local, if not literally, then philosophically. Even as hip-hop has spread far beyond American city centers, it is still born of grassroots movements.ĭo some rappers exist outside traditional scenes? There are always outliers. Look at NBA YoungBoy, or Ice Spice, or Toosii, or Rod Wave. ![]() Something at its core has remained linked to transmission in closer spaces: over the air, hand to hand, connected to the character of a place. It might seem that instantaneous direct-to-consumer dissemination portends a new world or meaning for hip-hop, or that the fundamental nature of the genre has changed, but no. Now playlists dictate what is heard - powered not just by algorithms, but by major labels - seemingly limiting grassroots development in favor of corporate enterprise. First, DatPiff and iTunes collapsed the distance between the stars on national radio and the up-and-comers on hometown promo flyers, then the blog era let a more scattered assortment of tastemakers churn out recommendations by the download, and finally recording technology made creation and distribution a simple matter of clicking buttons. ![]() You can plot the course along a timeline of technological breakthroughs rap's steady growth coincided directly with that of high-speed internet. Today there are attempts to take humans out of the equation entirely.Īlongside this gradual evolution from decks to plug-ins and RPMs to streams, two things have happened: Rap has become the dominant cultural export in America, and it is now seen primarily as a virtual phenomenon - one that plays out primarily within the social media ecosystem, where digital footprint supersedes regional identity. The most hardware you need is a phone or tablet. It is mostly created utilizing software, production and performance programs with massive libraries of instruments and samples. But the music itself has become a digital medium too. Music that once played off of something (vinyl, 8-track tape, cassette, disc) through speakers, headphones or a boombox now streams directly into our pockets, making the internet the primary place where people discover and listen to new music. Today, nearly anyone can make a song in 15 minutes, upload it a few minutes later, and have someone in another hemisphere hear it that same day.įew forms represent our world's shift from 20th century to 21st century, from analog to digital, more effectively than hip-hop culture. "While doing those takes I was like, 'Man, I gotta make something out of this mess.' " It's a glimpse of rap's humble beginnings but also its early hurdles: the need not just for equipment and technical prowess, but for a connection, for finding someone with clout to whom you could hand that tape. As he told Red Bull Music Academy later, he would take "some janky-ass stereo system" with dual cassette recorders and make pause tapes out of his dad's jazz collection, taking hours at a time to loop small sections of songs into crude beats. Like most Black kids then, he didn't have a track machine, so learning the craft required a workaround. But circumstances forced the young Q-Tip, the rapper-producer who would soon found A Tribe Called Quest, to get creative with his equipment. Once upon a time, not long ago, to paraphrase a great rap storyteller, an 11-year-old in Queens became obsessed with the nascent rap movement. Here's a story about one measure of the distance hip-hop has traveled in its 50 years. ![]()
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