In the history of African-Americans, this tense confrontation permeated the whole twentieth century. Langston Hughes captured this contrast between the countryside and the city. In his series of novels featuring Jesse B.Semple (Note 3), he described a southerner who came to Harlem, new york, and observed everything with naive eyes, and found that wisdom and stupidity coexist in this big city. In 195s, "The Boy form New York City", a do-wop-style cliche sung by Ad Libs Choir, represented the cool style that new york could be cited as the emblem. New york, blues and jazz musicians are imprinted in the DNA of new york City, but blues music has never been embraced. The blues is too simple, the content is too rural, the surface is too rough, in short, it is too corny.
The same binary opposition also appeared in the 197s, when new york was the center of the DISCO world, and the WBLS radio station owned by blacks strongly supported Donna Summer, Bee Gees and other musicians. However, large-scale funk bands with rough grass roots, such as Bar-Kays, Maze (with Frankie Beverly as the lead singer), Cameo, Meters and Con Funk Shun, have a large number of supporters in the inland of the United States, but it is difficult to enter new york. P-Funk(Parliament-Funkadelic) and Bpptsy Collins were so popular that new york Radio could not continue to ignore them, but the speed of new york's embrace of discovery could not be compared with the frenzy in Washington, Detroit and Los Angeles. New york just can't embrace uncut funk music like other parts of the United States. Such as all kinds, coupled with new york's sense of superiority in all aspects, formed a taste and attitude that influenced hip-hop music very early.
in the context of hip-hop music, new york people's disdain for "non-new york rappers" comes from Manhattan people's contempt for Sugar Hill Gang in New Jersey. Boogie Down Productions in Brown and MC hang in Queens argued over the songs "The Bridge" and "The Brodge is Over" for the birthplace of hip-hop music. New york looked down upon Philadelphia, and Philadelphia and new york looked down upon the rap music of "non-Northeast". This "northeast attitude"-music outside the eastern corridor is inferior-is also the general impression of the first generation of hip-hop fans.
The first batch of non-Newmoon MCs with national popularity came from Philadelphia, with violent "reformatory child D" and gentle Jazzy Jeff &; The Fresh Prince, the rude Roxanne Shante, stepped out of Philadelphia's border and won the national embrace with the promotion of some late-night radio programs (especially Lady B, the hostess of WHAT Radio, whose position in Philadelphia is like Mr.Magie of new york).
in p>1984, Fresh Fest and Run-D.M.C toured the whole country, pushing the boundaries of hip-hop music to the west. these large-scale concerts turned artists into preachers of hip-hop music and attracted audiences from all over the country to apostasy and convert. Whether in Washington, D.C., where go-go music is popular, Oakland, where culture is rich and diverse, or Los Angeles, where DISCO dancing is popular, these rap emperors from Queens have attracted many young people to visit. These audiences not only convert to rap fans, but also believe that they can become hip-hop artists.
In p>1988, I wrote an article for Village Voice magazine entitled "From South to North: American Rap Comes Back". I put forward in my article that "rap music becomes national music." It is also gradually moving towards regionalization. It sounds contradictory, but the reason is scissors. Rao's music spread from new york, attracting loyal listeners from all over the country, and now all parts of the United States are rapping back. "I listed some data." For example, Houston's Rap-A-Lot record won Getoboys; Luke Skyyawlker (later renamed Luke Records) in Miami was the birthplace of 2 Live Crew. In fact, in Dallas, Houston, Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, Miami, Los Angeles and other places, some Raoshe records sell better than new york, indicating that the regional taste is gradually forming, and various places are gradually constructing the support system of rap music. For example, there are large rap dance halls in Houston, such as Rhinestine's and Spud's；; Lynn Tolliver, a radio host in Cleveland, is also very avant-garde and ambitious in programming, mixing rap music with traditional rhythm and blues.
The most special point is the ability (or lack of it) of local rappers to express regional characteristics. As for the latter, Boston Goes Def's collection contains the works of fifteen rappers, only two of which mention Beantown (Note 5), and none of them specifically mention Boston, and the overall production style is like new york's rap music, and there is nothing special about Boston.
For example, the most famous rapper in Los Angeles is Tracy Morrow, who was born in Newark, New Jersey. He is a dreamer who is good at escorting. In 1987, Nye's debut album Rhyme Pays was released under Sire Records, which blended the prison songs of the old school rhymes, and the lyrics style made people think of the novelist "Thin Ice" who specializes in describing swindlers. With the unique story of the dark world in Los Angeles, Rhyme Pays has both gorgeous rhetoric and racial color, and sold 3, copies in one * * *. As far as the first album is concerned, this achievement is not bad, which is still far from the sales of millions of copies by new york rappers. As far as I'm concerned, the reason why this piece of work failed to penetrate the so-called "Los Angeles Rao Silly School" today is because it is too new york-like. Rhyme Pays, a good friend of ICE-T, was produced by Afrika Islam, a member of Zulu country, and the recording location was in new york. Therefore, although ICE-T is known as the "Los Angeles" hip-hop singer released by the first major record company, the credibility of regional characteristics has been compromised. His works failed to arouse the anti-new york sentiment of hip-hop fans all over the country.
Miami's 2 Live Crew set a record in 1998 when it released 2 Live Is What We Are, becoming the first non-new york group to sell more than 5, albums. It is successful because it doesn't sound like new york's Rao Silly Music at all, and it is still a "rustic flavor" with a challenging attitude. In view of this record, I once made the following observations in the magazine Village Voice, and my argument still holds water.
from what I hear, this work is very simple in all aspects; The lyrics are not witty (such as "Throw the D"), the rhymes are sloppy and the recording quality is extremely poor, but its speed is extremely fast (obviously due to Miami people's eternal love for DISCO music), the lyrics are naked and rude, and it has a local flavor, making it the hottest record in the south this spring. Perhaps this is the key point. The rap music in the South (or the Midwest and the West Bank) should not be impressed by its source-new york. Just like hip-hop music despises DISCO music and FUNK music, hip-hop music in non-Newmoon areas should have its own voice and its own thunderboy wisdom if it wants to have some meaning.
west bank! West coast!
Although new york is the birthplace of hip-hop, part of the roots of this culture obviously come from LA. In the late 196s, Watts Prophets, a Los Angeles trio, attracted many local fans with its poetic "call-and-response" style. For many poets who love poetry, the album Rappin' Black in a While, which was published in 1971 and is now hard to buy, is a classic, which can be compared with well-known East Coast rivals such as Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron. Unfortunately, the trio's only mainstream exposure was to sing a love song for Quincy Jones' 1975 album Mellow Madness.
Break dancing is exquisite, but it is deeply influenced by two dance styles: locking and poping. Both kinds of dances were developed in Los Angeles, and then gained national attention in Soul Train in 197s. Locking and poping are upright dances, in which the dancer uses his arms, legs and trunk to make various separation movements similar to robots. This requires great physical control. During the break dance craze in the early 198s, these two kinds of dances were seen in many low-budget movies made in California. At that time, the Ridao ballroom in downtown Los Angeles danced with black thunderbolt boys, and locking and poping were popular dances at that time. The DJ in the ballroom comes from the east and west coasts, including Afrika Islan in new york, the Grandmixer DST famous for its "Rockit", Evil E E (who later became the DJ of ICE-T) in Los Angeles, and Chris “the Grove”Taylor, who later published single-zone in Motown Records.
Compared with Roxy, Uncle Jam's Army is a grassroots organization. It is a joint organization of DJ and dance organizers, and often holds dance ashes in large venues, such as the Los Angeles Stadium, which can accommodate 16, people. But whether it's the dance hall of Uncle Jam's Army or Radio, new york artists are the main players. Even if the local MC performs, the lyrics are based on the performance of the East Coast. The first real sound of hip-hop in Los Angeles was "electro pop" influenced by the early works of "Bambata Africa". The works of Dr.dre and his first orchestra, World Class Wreckin' Cru, sound like "Planet Rock" by Bambata, Africa. For example, the single "Surgery" is based on electronic pop music with the sound of friction records. Even Dr.dre, DJ Yella (whose real name is Antonie Carraby) and the members' clothes are like copies of "African Bambata"-leather clothes, ankle-length coats and makeup on their faces. However, this style is also reminiscent of the West Coast bands such as Earth, Wind &; Fire。 Later, Eazy-E quarreled with Dr.dre and printed his photo on his clothes to show his ridicule.
In the 198s, the hip-hop scene in Los Angeles was actually a little better than that in new york. At that time, KSAY, an AM radio station, was eager to establish its own characteristics in crowded broadcasts, and adopted hip-hop mode under the helm of Greg Mark, the general program manager. Hip-hop music from New York and New York is of course the majority, but the remixes from Miami, Philadelphia, Seattle, Oakland and Los Angeles include Dr.dre and his partner DJ Yella. Listening to KDAY's programs and absorbing hip-hop music from all over the United States have influenced Dr.dre's production style. In his early years, he collaborated with World Class Wreckin' Cru on electronic pop music (they released the best-selling single "Turn Out the Light" in 1984), which turned into dark, complex and funk-based.
at this time, Dr.dre and DJ Yella began to associate with smart, short and very short Eazy-E (whose real name is Erci Wright). Eazy-E's mother has a house in Compton. He set up a small recording studio in the garage and set up his own music label Ruthless. There is a child Lorenzo Patterson (later stage name MC Ren) near this base who is very talented in escorting. His brother is quite familiar with Eazy-E who is eager to become a record tycoon. Eazy-E promised to mention that he recorded records. Another child is very good at changing rap best-selling songs into obscene lyrics. He once wanted to join the local band CIA, became familiar with Dr.dre, and began to write lyrics for his works. The child's real name was O'Shea Jackson, and later his stage name was Ice cube. In addition to this core group, the familiar faces who came in and out of Eazy-e base also included D.O.C (real name is Tracy Curry), a deep and hoarse lyricist from Dezhou. MC Tarin, who worked as a DJ for MC Ren (he raised money to publish Supersonic album for J.J Fad, and later played Wicked album for Ice cube). In addition, there was Sir Jin, who later became the DJ and production partner of Ice cube. And rapper and producer Arabian Prince, who later left the group and published his own solo album.
they concentrate on Eazy-E's garage. Eazy-E is an extremely charming person with ironic and distorted humor taste, and is willing to invest the money selling drugs in the new trend of rap. He thinks that new york rap often in the west bank, specially from new york city to get a group HBO, intends to record records for them in Compton. I didn't expect HBO to have a little trouble with the songs and rhymes with West Coast flavor. Finally, Dr.dre persuaded Eazy-E to play on his own.
therefore, Ruth records' 1988 venture was worthy of the name "Boyz N the Hood", with Eazy-E as the lead singer. Then two works "Dopeman" and "8 Ball" written by Ice cube and sung by Eazy-E were released. In that year, Eazy-E and Jerry Heller got online. Heller, a veteran of the record circle, is a member of the "eternal cause"
, and is related to many heavyweight artists in the 197s, such as Pink Floyd, Elton John and Journey. But the rap group he runs in Los Angeles seems to have bad luck. In 1988, Heller's luck changed.
The Beatles in the Gangland
When we established NWA, we thought that there were so many super teams in new york, which was the first in the high-level rap territory. At that time, my idea was-I don't tell lies, no matter what else.