People often argue about who was the 1st rapper or 1st rap song. Most people will acknowledge the Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" as the song that put rap music, which would eventually evolve into what we today call "hip-hop" on the map. Of course, other arguments can be made, and some even go back to guys like Lou Reed, who's "Walk On the Wild Side" is essentially a rap before it's time. Other's have done rythmic "spoken word" songs, but the Sugar Hill Gang and other pioneers like Grandmaster Flash, Dougie Fresh and the group that brought rap into the spotlight, Run DMC are the ones that are much more directly responsible for hip hop being such a major force in music today.
Run DMC really brought rap into the spotlight when they made a great artistic and business decision. They decided to record a hip hop version of the Aerosmith classic, "Walk This Way." But furthermore, they invited the 70's icons, now coming out of long personal struggles with various vices to re-record the song with them. This got the song on MTV, which up until then, barely acknowledged rap music's existence. Walk This Way was a huge hit, despite the grumblings of rock purists who had recently celebrated the death of disco and thought the world safe from rhythmic dance music that didn't feature guitar solos or skinny long haired singers that could hit notes only previously reserved for women and castoration victims.
Run DMC's success on MTV got the network to re-examine it's playlists and policies, written and unwritten. Over the next decade, MTV gave hip-hop music increasing airply and eventually it's own show, "Yo, MTV Raps." That show, while a little silly, introduced hip hop artists to a whole new audience of suburban kids. Groups like the Beastie Boys and others rapped about fighting for one's right to party while busting a move and drinking a funky cold medina. the hits out of rap flowed out in force. Hip Hop artists were now charting where it was once thought impossible for the genre born out in the ghetto.
Still, many "old school" musicians and fans didn't like the airwaves being increasingly dominated by these guys who couldn't play any instrument, didn't sing anything and just talked over some real artists music. Today, hip-hop dominates the majority of music on T.V. and radio. Hip hop artists are amongst the best selling artists on the planet. But indeed, the subject of sampling, which is really at the core of hip hop, was, is and probably will be controversial for some time to come.
What is sampling?
Sampling is a process where an audio engineer or producer takes a small piece, or "sample" of a song. The sample is then repeated and often manipulated to fit over a catchy "beat", which is often digitally generated. this serves as the musical "platform" in which the rapper can then deliver their message.
Is sampling good or bad inherently?
In my opinion, neither. But it is abused. When sampling began, it was pretty clever. It was, essentially, a modern adaptation of "music concrete" (pronounced konkret) which goes back to the 50's and early reel to reel tape machines. Today, with computers, sampling is easy. Maybe too easy. With a computer recording program, some of which can be had for free, anyone can sample. Actually, one's knowledge of computers is more useful than one's knowledge of music in this application. I can, and have, created good hooks in a few minutes using programs like fruity loops and garageband, the former being available online as a free download. With the latter, buy the cheapest MAC and you get a free full blown version of the garageband software which is used by professionals on a daily basis.
Where I thik that "music purists" have been hyperbolic and overreaching when they claim rap is not "real music." Rap and hip hop are "real music" by definition. It has melodies, rhythms and harmonies. It is organized sound. But they do have a point with their distain at the excess and lack of creativity in the style.
Fact is, most sampling is not that clever. The programs like garageband are so sophisticated that they will not allow the user to screw up. A novice can create a professional sounding sample and beat in minutes. From there, most hip hop artists just spew out some cliches, again, controlled by the computer to make everything fit and work. There are some artists that use more creativity in their samples and rapping, but unfortunately, those artists are getting fewer and fewer by the year. Since hip hop is a relatively inexpensive genre of music to create professionally, I believe the record companies do encourage a "quantity over quality " posture and encourage the watering down and dilution of the style. Like most things, money talks. It is a better business move to throw out as much as possible and see what sticks rather than really let a select group of really talented producers and artists create and develop. But hip-hop is hardly the only style that has that going on.
My other beef with hip hop is the implication that all these songs that someone created and often had a hit with, are somehow "improved" by taking a hook and repeating it. The genre inherently implies that these songs really aren't good enough and needed to be enhanced and modified and have a guy or gal rant about how great or hot they are rather than the orig. lyric. I can see how musicians resent this, and some of that resentment is appropriate.
Of course, before the 20th century, the practice of "borrowing" another's work and improving it was common. Artists like Mozart often used other's works as springboards for their pieces. It was considered a compliment if someone took your melody and such and used it to create a new piece. Folk songs were often an evolutionary result of songs being passed along, changed and modified. Plagarism wasn't an issue until royalties came into the picture with the publishing industry.
So if Mozart could steal another composer's work and make it his own, why can't Snoop Dog?
Well, he can. Today, he must pay a license fee and/or pay a royalty to commercially release a song, but they certainly can. But i'll leave it to history to compare who did it better. Personally, I like some of the sampling done, and think it is highly creative and artistic. Most of it is just lame these days. Rappers used to put some correlation between the song being sampled and the rap. today, you hear samples that have nothing to do with the subject of the rap. And like I said before, merely lifting a sample and putting it over a beat, all of which is controlled by a computer, is easy. Maybe you can't put a multitude of monkeys in a room with typewriters and randomly eventually get the equivelent of Shakespere's works, but I am convinced you could take a bunch of computer savvy non-musicians with zero musical talent and eventually get a bunch of hip hop hit contenders in a very short time with a mini MAC.
As many genres have proven, if you don't evolve, you die, at least temporarily till someone "revives" the genre 20 years later. Ansd that will eventually happen with hip hop. Not only has the genre gotten uncreative in it's approach to the framework of the tunes, the raps themselves have become 2 dimensional and over -repetitive. It seems that in the last 10 years, everyone who is a hip hop star is a self described bad ass, ex crack dealer, who made a fortune slingin rock. They can kick the crap out of anyone and furthermore, enjoy shooting people. They promote a lifestyle that doesn't exist and like any ponzi scheme, eventually the fraud comes to light. Fact is, most hip-hop badasses are just pimp wannabees and clever marketers of the bogus lifestyle. There are exceptions, and drug gangs have produced several stars over the years like Ice T, a real gang banger with the wounds to prove it.
Hip Hop did evolve nicely from the Sugar Hill Gang thru the late 90's when Dre, Chuck D and others moved hip hop from a simple "2 turntables and a microphone" genre to a more complex genre that incorpoated more form and structure. Computers and their capabilities were quickly able to mimic what they had done on their own to where anyone can put together professionally sounding tunes. Today, hip hop needs a new innovator if it is to survive or at leat thrive. Don't let today's popularity confuse you into thinking that Hip Hop can't die or fade in popularity. Disco was huge in 78, it was dead early in the 80's. Metal evolved from the late 60's to the monster it was in the 80's, only to have it go back underground by the 90's due to lack of creativity and a glut of frizzy haired pretty boys with cliche songs and not much new to offer their audience.
What will happen in the future? Who knows. But I do contend that hip hop needs a serious kick in the ass and something new on the horizon if it is to continue it's domination of the charts and airwaves.