Hip Hop / Rap

Although Hip-Hop originally descended from many African-American music styles including gospel, blues, jazz, soul, and funk, it first manifested itself through rap music, break dancing, and graffiti writing. And the modern Hip-Hop era actually began with records and turntables. A DJ from the West Bronx New York called Herc (short for Hercules) is credited as being the orginator of "break beat" music. He6 used two turntables and two copies of a record containing a funky drum break to play the drum break on one record and, before it ended, switched to the drum break on the second record, thus mixing the beat back and forth into a continuous groove. That was in 1974 and other DJs, like Afrika Bambataa (considered the "Godfather" of Hip Hop Culture) and Grand Master Flash, soon followed the trend.

Although, by the late 1970s, Hip-Hop was widely known throughout New Yorks boroughs, it did not explode on the national scene until 1979 with a small African-Amercan label from New Jersey called Sugar Hill Records.

Hip-Hop music owes much to the live drummers whose breaks were "borrowed" from their original albums, but it is also a product of new technologies like drum machines, sampling methods, and the "Beat Box" (drum sounds emulated by mouth).

As a music form, Rap and Hip-Hop is definitely here to stay, and I suggest that every DrumHead make a concentrated effort to understand it and add it to their stylistic bag of tricks.

Female Hip-Hop Network
This site includes MP3s, an online networking club, newsletter, and more.

Grafitti History
Hip-Hop and Rap music have a definite connection to grafitti. Check it out in this two-part history of grafitti.

Hip-Hop.com
If you want to try out your talents in competition, this is the place to go. The site itself hasn't been updated in a while but you can check out their Forum for info on the latest competitive events.

Hip-Hop Directory
Here's a comprehensive Hip-Hop links directory and search engine.

History of Dances Associated with Hip-Hop
To better understand the overall Hip-Hop movement, it helps to know where its dances moves originated from.

Breakin
Here's how Breakdancing originated.

Capoeira
Check out this Brazilian martial art if you want to know where Breakdancing originated from.

Electric Boogaloo
Here's a brief history, for those interested in the beginnings of dance moves like the Robot and the Moonwalk.

Uprock
A brief history of Uprock, an extremely fast form of hip-hop dance.

Live365.com
If you're looking for jungle, reggae, or hip-hop tracks (or any other music genre), you'll find it here on the world's largest network of independently-produced audio content. Just download the free Player365 software and you're set to go.

Original Hip-Hop Lyrics Archive
Trying to get your Rap together? Check out this huge collection of lyrics, including some soundtracks and compilations.

SOHH.com
News, audio/video clips, artist list, forums, links, and lots more about Hip-Hop.