Experimental hip hop

Experimental hip hop, also known as abstract hip hop, is a genre of hip hop[1] that employs structural elements typically considered unconventional in traditional hip hop music.[2] Some notable experimental hip hop record labels include Definitive Jux, Anticon, Big Dada and Ninja Tune. While most experimental hip hop incorporates turntablism and is produced electronically,[3] some artists have introduced acoustic elements to the music to facilitate it being performed live.

Experimental hip hop is typically believed to have originated during hip hop's "golden age",[4] usually thought of as occurring from the mid 1980s and the mid 1990s, a time that many fans and critics believe that hip hop was at the peak of its diversity, quality, innovation, and influence.[5] As a relatively young musical style, hip hop during this period was about new ideas and experimentation. Fueled by themes of Afrocentricity and political militancy, coupled with experimental music and sampling techniques, led to great of number of stylistic innovations.[6]

Production

Experimental hip-hop production is highly eclectic, drawing influences from a vast array musical genres. Along with elements of electronic music and dub, artists drew from other styles including rock, soul, reggae, classical, and jazz. In general, experimental hip-hop production builds and expands on the sounds of early 1990s hip hop artists such as Wu-Tang Clan, A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul, as well as others.

J Dilla's Donuts Album Cover

One influential pioneer of experimental hip-hop production is J Dilla or Jay Dee. J Dilla's approach included an innovative use of sampling as well as non-quantized drum rhythms. While sampling is the basis of much traditional hip hop production, J Dilla's approach to sampling was unique and innovative, employing what other producers would consider insignificant elements from his source recordings and using small musical phrases to build major musical themes. J Dilla also rejected the hip hop convention of Quantization—or the mathematical gridding of precise rhythms via electronic means. --of rhythms. J Dilla was also a pioneer for eschewing quantization.[7] and instead performed rhythms by hand on the pads of an Akai Music Production Center (MPC). This technique gives his music more of a non-mechanical natural groove or swing, as a human behind a real drum kit might play. Some producers influenced by J Dilla's approach include Madlib, Flying Lotus, Karriem Riggins, and Hudson Mohawke. While some experimental hip-hop follows the traditional use quantized rhythms, the vast majority of it does not. Other producers often cited as influences on experimental hip hop include DJ Premier, 9th Wonder, Hi-Tek, Pete Rock, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad of A Tribe Called Quest.

Subgenres

Avanthop

Avanthop, also called avant-garde hip hop, is a style of hip hop with roots not only in hip hop, but also in rock, jazz, folk, and electronic music. This subgenre of hip hop emerged in the late 1990s and early 2000, as a reaction to the perceived complacency of mainstream hip hop. De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising, sometimes called hip hop's first experimental release, is often cited as an early example of Avanthop because of its innovative use of unusual samples and sounds. Today, however, backpackers view the Anticon collective's Music for the Advancement of Hip Hop album as the first truly avant-garde or experimental hip hop LP.

Left-field hip hop

Left-field hip hop is a union of rap and electronica in which the emphasis is placed more on the producer than the rapper or emcee.[8] Though rapping is often included in left-field albums, rhyming is treated as just another rhythmic element in the production, and the spotlight is not on the virtuosity of the rapper rhyming technique, something that is standard in most other hop subgenres. Left-field hip hop typically employs complex computerized equipment as well as incorporating live vocals and samples.[9] Notable left-field albums include Kid Cudi's Man on the Moon.

Cloud rap

Cloud rap is a subgenre of experimental hip hop distinguished by ethereal, dreamlike beats, and abstract, sometimes deliberately absurd lyrics.[10] Cloud rap producers often use unconventional samples that draw from ambient, indie, and experimental music. Rapper ASAP Rocky's music is an example of this subgenre, using a handful of like-minded producers - Clams Casino, DJ Burn One, Beautiful Lou, and crew member A$AP Ty Beats are some to craft celestial, "stoned-out" instrumentals.[11]

Psychedelic hip hop

Rap duo, The Underachievers, performing

Psychedelic hip hop is characterized by complex sample-based beats, often obscure material, and witty, abstract lyrics filled with unconventional "far-out" references. Early examples of this style are some of the more sample-heavy late 1980s hip hop releases such as De la Soul's 3 Feet High And Rising (1989) and Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique (1989). Another key figure in the development of this subgenre [12] is Kool Keith of The Ultramagnetic MC's, and his many releases under the aliases "Black Elvis", "Dr. Octagon", and "Dr. Dooom", all employ an almost cartoonish, "bugged out" lyrical style resembling that of MF Doom. Madlib is perhaps the most important contributor to this subgenre. His approach can be heard in his releases under the alias Quasimoto (also known as Lord Quas), including The Unseen (2000) and The Further Adventures of Lord Quas (2005), as well as his work with MF Doom under the Madvillain moniker, under which they released the collaborative effort Madvillainy (2004). Kid Cudi's self-produced third solo album Indicud (2013) was singled out for its approach, drawing heavily from psychedelia, alternative music, as well as many other rock elements. Mac Miller's second studio album Watching Movies with the Sound Off is another example of the subgenre.

Notable performers

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ishkur (2005). "Ishkur's guide to Electronic Music". Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  2. ↑ "Experimental Hip Hop".
  3. ↑ Ishkur (2005). "Ishkur's guide to Electronic Music". Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  4. ↑ The Story Of The Beginning and End Of The First Hip Hop Female MC...Luminary Icon Sha-Rockn
  5. ↑ Campbell, K.E. (2005). Gettin' our groove on: rhetoric, language, and literacy for the hip hop generation, Wayne State University Press
  6. ↑ "Rap & Hiphop Music".
  7. ↑ "The Evolution of J Dilla".
  8. ↑ "Rap » Alternative Rap » Left-Field Hip-Hop". Retrieved November 10, 2014. Straddling that line between rap and electronica, left-field hip-hop is a producer's art rather than an MC's, with the emphasis placed more on the perfect beat than the perfect rhyme.
  9. ↑ Staff (December 16, 2009). "Albums of the Year: Honorable Mention". Pitchfork.
  10. ↑ "Cloud Rap".
  11. ↑ Caballero, Martin (January 28, 2012). "A$AP Rocky leads the ‘cloud rap’ storm". Boston Globe.
  12. ↑ Bogdanov, Vladimir. All Music Guide to Hip-hop: The Definitive Guide to Rap & Hip-hop.
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