Old-school hip hop is the earliest commercially recorded hip hop music and original style of the genre. It typically refers to the music created around 1979 to 1983, as well as any hip hop that does not adhere to contemporary styles.
Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that tends to use drum breaks sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as hip hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat hardcore, and UK garage styles.
Mantronix was an influential 1980s hip hop and electro funk music group from New York City. The band was formed by DJ Kurtis Mantronik and rapper MC Tee. The group is primarily remembered for its pioneering blend of old school hip hop, electronic, and club music. They underwent several genre and line-up changes during its seven-year existence between 1984 and 1991, and released five albums beginning with their 1985 debut Mantronix: The Album.
Electro is a genre of electronic music and early hip hop directly influenced by the use of the Roland TR-808 drum machines, and funk. Records in the genre typically feature drum machines and heavy electronic sounds, usually without vocals, although if vocals are present they are delivered in a deadpan manner, often through electronic distortion such as vocoding and talkboxing. This is the main distinction between electro and previously prominent genres such as disco, in which the electronic sound was only part of the instrumentation. It also palpably deviates from its predecessor boogie for being less vocal-oriented and more focused on electronic beats produced by drum machines.
Kurtis el Khaleel, known by the stage name Kurtis Mantronik, is a Jamaican-born hip hop and electronic-music artist, DJ, remixer, and producer. He was the leader, DJ, and keyboardist of the influential 1980s hip hop and electro-funk group Mantronix. He currently lives in South Africa where he has produced and remixed house and techno music tracks by artists such as India, Junior Senior, Kylie Minogue, Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, Michael Gray, Victoria Beckham, Liberty X, and Mim. Mantronik was influential in the development of hip hop music: notably, he laid the foundations for Southern hip hop genres such as Miami bass and trap music, and helped popularize the Amen break.
Brenda Joy Kaplan, known by her stage name Brenda K. Starr, is an American singer and songwriter. She is well known originally in R&B, dance and pop but now mostly in salsa-based music. She is also well known for her 1980s work with freestyle music.
A drop or beat drop in music, made popular by electronic dance music (EDM) styles, is a point in a music track where a sudden change of rhythm or bass line occurs, which is preceded by a build-up section and break.
Manuel "Man" Parrish is an American songwriter, vocalist and producer. He, along with artists such as Yellow Magic Orchestra, Kraftwerk, Art of Noise, Arthur Baker, Afrika Bambaataa, John Robie, Jellybean Benitez, Lotti Golden, Richard Scher and Aldo Marin, helped create and define electro in the early 1980s.
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.
I Want Your Love is Brenda K. Starr's debut album. This was a small label release on Mirage Records in 1985, distributed by Atlantic Records. It features her Freestyle music hit, "Pickin' Up Pieces," which peaked at #9 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 1986, as well as the popular ballad, "Love Me Like the First Time," which Stacy Lattisaw recorded a year later on her album Take Me All The Way.
A Word of Science is the debut studio album by British electronic producers Nightmares on Wax. Released by Warp Records in September 1991, it is the act's only album as a group before it became a solo vehicle for George Evelyn. Evelyn nonetheless recorded and produced the album alone, incorporating samples and elements from demo tapes he made in the late 1980s. Although Nightmares on Wax debuted with two well-received techno singles in 1989-1990, A Word of Science is eclectic and largely moves the act towards a more mellow style influenced by funk, soul and hip hop, while still incorporating techno and house styles.
DJ-Kicks: Chicken Lips is a DJ mix album, mixed by Chicken Lips. It was released on 3 November 2003 on the Studio !K7 independent record label as part of the DJ-Kicks series.
"I.O.U." is a song from 1983 by British musical group Freeez, their most successful hit. The song was written and produced by Arthur Baker and remixed by Jellybean Benitez and Arthur Baker.
Hip hop music or hip-hop music, also known as rap music and formerly known as disco rap, is a genre of popular music that originated in New York City in the 1970s. It consists of stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, break dancing, and graffiti writing. Other elements include sampling beats or bass lines from records, and rhythmic beatboxing. While often used to refer solely to rapping, "hip hop" more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture. The term hip hop music is sometimes used synonymously with the term rap music, though rapping is not a required component of hip hop music; the genre may also incorporate other elements of hip hop culture, including DJing, turntablism, scratching, beatboxing, and instrumental tracks.
Lotti Golden is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, poet and artist. Golden is best known for her 1969 debut album Motor-Cycle, on Atlantic Records.
"Nunk" (also known as "Nunk (New Wave Funk)") the first single by the group Warp 9, released on Prism Records in 1982, was written and produced by Lotti Golden and Richard Scher. The song appeared as a vocal and instrumental version on the group's 1983 debut album It's a Beat Wave on Prism Records and 4th & Broadway records in the UK.
"Light Years Away" is the second single by the hip hop group, Warp 9, released in 1983. Written by Lotti Golden and Richard Scher and produced by Lotti Golden, Richard Scher, and John "Jellybean" Benitez, the song appears on the group's debut album It's a Beat Wave charting on the Billboard R&B and dance charts.
"Dirty Looks" is a song from the 1987 album Red Hot Rhythm & Blues by Diana Ross. It was written by Lotti Golden and Richard Scher, and produced by Tom Dowd. It was also released as the album's lead single on April 29, 1987, by RCA and EMI. The song, which peaked at #12 on Billboard's Hot R&B Singles, originally appeared on Warp 9's second LP on Motown, Fade in, Fade Out. The European releases of Red Hot Rhythm & Blues features the short version of the song.
It's a Beat Wave is the debut album by American electro group Warp 9. Released in 1983, the album's producers, Lotti Golden and Richard Scher, "worked real emotion and intelligence into the world of experimental hip-hop and electro." Warp 9 was the moniker under which Golden and Scher created their brand of electro-futurism. The group's first single, "Nunk,"(1982), secured Warp 9's album deal with New York independent label Prism Records. The LP was released in 1983 in conjunction with the group's 3rd single, "Beat Wave." Warp 9's large following in the New York metropolitan area came to the attention of Island Records chief Chris Blackwell who signed Warp 9 to a world wide deal on Island Records.
