Ol’skool or new school hip hop fan?. You are right because each and every person has his/her own taste and flavour. The first hip hop record was released in 1979 by The Sugarhill Gang‘s “Rapper’s Delight“. This is the birth of hip hop music to the world.

At that time, hip-hop was somehow, underground and it was not meant for commercial purposes. The focus of the music was on partying. Some of the famous names in the game at that time include the likes of Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Mambaataa, Jazzy Jay, Fab Five Freddy and The Sequence. At that time, the world was in a period of social turmoil and that is why hip hop is sometimes respected because it helps to raise people’s self-esteem at that time.

One song is How we gonna make Black Nation Rise by Brother D’s. Another song that touched on social relevancy is Kurtis Blow’s Hard Time. Real Old School hip hop is believed to have ended in 1984 due to changes in rap techniques and accompanying music and rhythms. You might get worried because Old School artists include Jay Z, Snoop Dogg, DMX, 50 Cent and the likes of those, but look, there are more than just those names.

Mid-school hip hop era came in in 1984-85. It came predominantly from New York City and at that time it was characterised by a drum machine and tinged elements of rock. The artists at that era were characterised by their taunts and boast. Unlike the Old School, the music became shorter, mainly for the songs to easily gain radio play. This is the era of “Golden hip hop age”, which is the establishment of hip hop albums as a fixture of the mainstream in the early 1980s.

The golden hip hop age was brought as a result of diversity, quality, innovation, and influence.of the hip-hop music. Artists like Public Enemy,  Boogie Down Productions, Eric B. & Rakim, Ultramagnetic MCs, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest and Jungle Brothers were in the front row at the period. Main themes were Afrocentricity, which helped to promote the emphasis on Black People’s culture and political militancy. At this mid era, music became denser, rhymes and beats became faster and the drum machine was augmented with sampler technique. Rakim became king of lyrics while KRS-One & Chunk D brought “message rap” towards black activism. Mid school artists are also called the transition makers because they are the source of change from old school to new school.

They are game changers.

New school hip hop or rather the current state of hip hop has applied the old and mid school hip hop cultures to bring the current hip hop culture. The number of artists has grown tremendously and it has reached a moment where there are thousand of new artists every month and hundreds of thousands of new hip hop music every week.

This is a great achievement in the hip hop industry and this means that there is a revolution in the music industry. But despite all these achievements, Snoop Dogg, an “Old School” guy warned the new school guys. Last year in his show GNN, Snoop said that people are trying to copy other peoples rap techniques.

And this is true as new artists lack creativity and diversity. This might be a fear of the future of hip hop industry because the two, creativity and diversity are the main drivers in the old and mid hip hop industries.

I believe there are greater hip hop producers in the game right now and if we could be able to mix these great production skills with lots of rapping creativity and innovation, then we could have been on another level as far as hip hop industry is concerned.

 

 

0 Comments

  • Posted August 4, 2017 4:25 pm 0Likes
    Melkizedek Owuor

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  • Posted August 6, 2017 9:56 pm 0Likes
    Lizabeth

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