West Coast hip-hop is a regional genre of hip-hop music that encompasses any artists or music that originated in the West Coast of the United States. West Coast hip-hop began to dominate from a radio play and sales standpoint during the early to-mid 1990s with the birth of G-funk and the emergence of record labels such as Suge Knight and Dr. Dre's Death Row Records, Ice Cube's Lench Mob Records, the continued success of Eazy-E's Ruthless Records, Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment, and others.
The music of South Africa exhibits a culturally varied musical heritage in conjunction with the multi-ethnic populace. Genres with the greatest international recognition being mbube, isicathamiya, mbaqanga, afrofusion, kwaito, South African pop music, afro house, South African hip hop, Shangaan electro, bacardi house, bolo house, gqom and amapiano.
Prophets of Da City (POC) is a hip hop crew from Cape Town, South Africa. They are composed of about eight members, though the exact membership fluctuates frequently; these include Ishmael Morabe (vocals), Mark Heuvel (dance), Shaheen Ariefdien, Ramone and DJ Ready D. Their style uses elements of hip hop music, reggae and traditional African rhythms. Their albums include Our World (1990), Boom Style (1992), Age of Truth (1993), Phunk Phlow (1994), Universal Souljaz (1995), and Ghetto Code (1997). They are currently signed under the independent record label Ghetto Ruff.
Zef is a South African counter-culture movement. Kyle Hans Brockmann has compared zef counter-culture to many similar anarchic sub-cultures in the northern hemisphere.
Cool & Dre are a record production and songwriting duo from North Miami, Florida, consisting of Marcello "Cool" Antonio Valenzano and Andre "Dre" Christopher Lyon. The duo were first discovered by New York rapper Fat Joe and began their careers working in tandem to produce his albums Jealous Ones Still Envy (2001) and Loyalty (2002). Two years later, they produced the hit song "New York" by Ja Rule, and "Hate It or Love It" by the Game the following year, which peaked at numbers 27 and two on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively. Cool & Dre were later credited on the Billboard 200 number-one albums Tha Carter III (2008), Tha Carter IV (2011), and Tha Carter V (2018) by Lil Wayne, as well as the collaborative album, Everything Is Love (2018) by Jay-Z and Beyoncé, which won a Grammy Award.
Hip hop production is the creation of hip hop music in a recording studio. While the term encompasses all aspects of hip hop music creation, including recording the rapping of an MC, a turntablist or DJ providing a beat, playing samples and "scratching" using record players and the creation of a rhythmic backing track, using a drum machine or sequencer, it is most commonly used to refer to recording the instrumental, non-lyrical and non-vocal aspects of hip hop.
Joseph Antonio Cartagena, better known by his stage name Fat Joe, is an American rapper. He began recording as a member of hip hop group Diggin' in the Crates Crew (D.I.T.C.) in 1992, and pursued a solo career with the release of his debut studio album, Represent (1993) the following year. Cartegena formed the hip hop group Terror Squad and its namesake record label in the late 1990s, through which he has signed fellow New York artists including Big Pun, Remy Ma, Tony Sunshine, and Cuban Link, as well as then-unknown producers DJ Khaled and Cool & Dre.
Tumi Molekane is a Tanzanian-born South African rapper and poet. He was the lead vocalist of Tumi and the Volume, that was officially disbanded in 2012. In 2016, Tumi relaunched himself as Stogie T and released an eponymous album, which featured Da L.E.S, Lastee, Emtee, Nasty C, Nadia Nakai and Yanga. He has two singles from the album. The first single "Diamond Walk" features rapper Nadia Nakai in the video. His second single from the album, "By Any Means", features a hook and verses from Emtee and Yanga.
GHETTO RUFF is an independent South African recording label specializing in kwaito, hip hop, soul, house, gospel and rhythm and blues. Having been formed around the need to have a voice against apartheid GR released Prophets of da City who had tracks banned by the government of the day.
"New York" is a song by American hip hop recording artist Ja Rule, released October 27, 2004 as the second single from his sixth studio album R.U.L.E. (2004). The track, produced by Cool & Dre, features fellow New York rappers Fat Joe and Jadakiss. The song's chorus is based on Boogie Down Productions' 1990 song, "100 Guns".
The Constructus Corporation were a South African electronic music group.
Ashley Titus, better known as Mr Fat, was a South African rapper, musician and television presenter.
Die Antwoord is a South African alternative hip hop group formed in Cape Town in 2008. The group consists of rappers Ninja and Yolandi Visser, a male/female duo, and producers HITEK5000 and Lil2Hood. Their image revolves around the South African counterculture movement known as zef and has incorporated work by other artists associated with the movement, such as photographer Roger Ballen.
Watkin Tudor Jones, better known by his stage names Ninja and Max Normal, is a South African rapper, songwriter, singer, record producer, performance artist, and director. Tudor Jones found international success as a member of Die Antwoord, with Yolandi Visser. He was formerly a member of Max Normal and The Constructus Corporation.
Leon Botha was a South African painter and disk jockey. He was known for his close association with the hip hop group Die Antwoord, as well as for being the second of the world's longest-lived persons with progeria before Sammy Basso who was one of the oldest survivors of the disease.
5 is an EP by South African hip hop group, Die Antwoord. The EP was the first official release by Die Antwoord on a major record label, Cherrytree Records. It followed up on internet circulation of the album $O$ and the viral "Enter the Ninja" music video, which featured on a number of high-traffic blog sites, most notably BoingBoing. The song incorporates elements of Smile.dk's song "Butterfly", famous for appearing in the Dance Dance Revolution series. The EP features some previously released material, as well as one new track and a remix. 'Fish Paste' was released as a promo single. Pitchfork Media made the entire EP available to stream on 12 June 2010.
Bittereinder is a South African rap/electro band from Pretoria who perform in Afrikaans. Jaco van der Merwe, Peach van Pletzen, and Louis Minnaar founded the three-man band in 2009, and have since performed at major South African festivals such as Oppikoppi, across southern Africa, and the Netherlands. They are known for their high-energy performances.
"Attention" is a song by American hip hop artists Fat Joe and Dre, in collaboration with American singer Chris Brown. It was released as a digital download on July 23, 2018 as the third stand-alone single from the duo made of Fat Joe and Dre. The song was produced by Scott Storch.
Kaaps, also known as Afrikaaps, is a West Germanic African language that evolved in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Its status as a sister language of Afrikaans or a dialect of Afrikaans is unclear. Since the early 2020s there has been a significant increase in the number of works of literature published in Kaaps. Most works in Kaaps come from authors located in the Cape Flats area of Cape Town, South Africa where it is most commonly spoken. Although Kaaps is considered a growing phenomenon, it is more specifically a colloquial dialect of Afrikaans. All other distinct colloquial variations of Afrikaans, including Kaaps, are organically connected to Standard Afrikaans as a widely spoken unitary variety and interact with it.
