Jazz rap

Last updated

Jazz rap (also jazz hop or jazz hip hop) is a fusion of jazz and hip hop music, as well as an alternative hip hop subgenre, [1] that developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. AllMusic writes that the genre "was an attempt to fuse African-American music of the past with a newly dominant form of the present, paying tribute to and reinvigorating the former while expanding the horizons of the latter." The rhythm was rooted in hip hop [1] over which were placed repetitive phrases of jazz instrumentation: trumpet, double bass, etc. Groups involved in the formation of jazz rap included A Tribe Called Quest, Digable Planets, De La Soul, Gang Starr, The Roots, Jungle Brothers, and Dream Warriors. [1]

Contents

Overview

During the 1970s, The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron placed spoken word and rhymed poetry over jazzy backing tracks. [2] There are also parallels between jazz and the improvised phrasings of freestyle rap. Despite these disparate threads, jazz rap did not coalesce as a genre until the late 1980s.

At this time, the jazz community saw a stark divide, with some retaining interest in traditional styles while others embraced newer forms like smooth jazz. This period also marked a significant shift in jazz's cultural positioning, elevating it to a status akin to "serious art music." Influential figures like Wynton Marsalis played a pivotal role in this transformation, advocating for a return to traditional jazz values. [3]

Jazz rap's emergence can be seen as an attempt to elevate rap music's status by associating it with jazz's cultural capital, and was seen as an alternative to more dominant subgenres like gangsta and pop rap. This association not only enriched the musical texture of hip-hop but also provided a platform for social and political commentary, aligning with jazz's historical role as a voice for African American experiences and struggles. [4]

History

In 1989, Gang Starr released the debut single "Words I Manifest", sampling Dizzy Gillespie's 1952 "Night in Tunisia", and Stetsasonic released "Talkin' All That Jazz", sampling Lonnie Liston Smith. Gang Starr's debut LP, No More Mr. Nice Guy (Wild Pitch, 1989), and their track "Jazz Thing" (CBS, 1990) for the soundtrack of Mo' Better Blues , further popularized the jazz rap style. In 1992 Eric B & Rakim used wood bass on "Don't Sweat the Technique". [5]

Digable Planets' 1993 release Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space) was a hit jazz rap record sampling the likes of Don Cherry, Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey, Herbie Mann, Herbie Hancock, Grant Green, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. It spawned the hit single "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)". [6]

Also in 1993, Us3 released Hand on the Torch on Blue Note Records. All samples were from the Blue Note catalogue. The single "Cantaloop" was Blue Note's first gold record. [7]

Post WWII swing and modern jazz had fused with the introduction of Black appeal radio which attracted a younger audience through its reliance on jive idioms, rhyming, and cadence laden rap verses. Dizzy Gillespie had pointed to The jives of Dr. Hepcat and rhyming D.J. Daddy-O Daylie as key to popularizing modern jazz. [8] The rise of Top-40 radio on the strength of the rapping DJs in this period of radio's rebirth among black youth led to the wider use of language and syntax popularizing rap. Muhammad Ali's phrasing to the press in the early part of his career was born of listening to black radio of the 1950s, which was often white radio announcers speaking slang "jive" and imitating black announcers while withholding the fact on air of their backgrounds. [9] Pioneering DJs Al Benson, Nat D., and Jack the Rapper all used rhyming, [10] the dozens and jive talk to pepper their broadcasts and were widely copied by white DJs like John Richbourg, Gene Nobles, and Bill Allen during the 1950s, and whose influence on James Brown and other godfathers of rap was formative, bebop was the backing track that modern jazz credits with being the foundation black appeal radio is based on. [11]

Native Tongues

Groups making up the collective known as the Native Tongues tended toward jazzy releases: these include the Jungle Brothers' debut Straight Out the Jungle (Warlock, 1988) and A Tribe Called Quest's People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (Jive, 1990).[ citation needed ] Album The Low End Theory has become one of hip hop's most acclaimed albums, [12] and also earned praise from jazz bassist Ron Carter, who played double bass on one track. De La Soul's Buhloone Mindstate (Tommy Boy, 1993) featured contributions from Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley, and Pee Wee Ellis, and samples from Eddie Harris, Lou Donaldson, Duke Pearson and Milt Jackson. Queen Latifah and Monie Love were members of Native Tongues also.

Also of this period was Toronto-based Dream Warriors' 1991 release And Now the Legacy Begins (Island). It produced the hit singles "My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style" and "Wash Your Face in My Sink". The first of these was based on a loop taken from Quincy Jones' "Soul Bossa Nova", while the second sampled Count Basie's 1967 rendition of "Hang On Sloopy". Meanwhile, Los Angeles hip hop group Freestyle Fellowship pursued a different route of jazz influence in recordings with unusual time signatures and scat-influenced vocals. [13]

Jazz artists come to hip hop

Though jazz rap had achieved little mainstream success, jazz legend Miles Davis' final album (released posthumously in 1992), Doo-Bop , featured hip hop beats and collaborations with producer Easy Mo Bee. [14] Jazz musician Branford Marsalis collaborated with Gang Starr's DJ Premier on his Buckshot LeFonque project that same year. Between 1993 and 2000 fellow Gang Starr member Guru released Jazzmatazz, which featured guest appearances from jazz artists such as Lonnie Liston Smith, Freddie Hubbard and Donald Byrd, amongst others.

Since 1994

Musical jazz references became less obvious and less sustained, and lyrical references to jazz certainly more rare. [15] However, jazz had been added to the palette of hip hop producers, and its influence continued throughout the 1990s whether behind the gritty street-tales of Nas ( Illmatic , Columbia, 1994), or backing the more bohemian sensibilities of acts such as The Roots, The Nonce, and Common. Since 2000 it can be detected in the work of producers such as J. Rawls, Nujabes, Fat Jon, Madlib, Kero One, and the English duo The Herbaliser. A project somewhat similar to Buckshot Le Fonque was Brooklyn Funk Essentials, a New York–based collective who also released their first LP in 1994. Prince himself contributed to the genre on some songs from 1991 to 1992, as well as with his New Power Generation album Gold Nigga , which mixed jazz, funk and hip-hop and was released very confidentially.

One hip hop project which continued to maintain a direct connection to jazz was Guru's Jazzmatazz series, which used live jazz musicians in the studio. [16] Spanning from 1993 to 2007, its four volumes assembled jazz luminaries like Freddie Hubbard, Donald Byrd, Courtney Pine, Herbie Hancock, Kenny Garrett and Lonnie Liston Smith, and hip hop performers such as Kool Keith, MC Solaar, Common, and Guru's Gang Starr colleague DJ Premier.

Madlib's 2003 release Shades of Blue paid homage to his Blue Note Records roots, where he samples from Blue Note's archives. The album also contains interpretations of Blue Note classics performed by Yesterdays New Quintet. [17]

In 2006, Bay Area producer/rapper Kero One independently released a jazz and funk influenced hiphop album named Windmills of the Soul , which stood out for infusing live saxophone, jazz guitar, electric piano, and other instruments with dusty samples and compelling lyrics, eventually selling over 30,000 copies worldwide and playing heavy rotation on college radio stations worldwide. [18] [19]

In September 2014, Statik Selektah released his album What Goes Around with a notable jazz rap influence, unique among the actual rap atmosphere. Another recent jazz rap talent producer is Beats by the Pound (also known as The Medicine Men). In February 2015, Canadian jazz band Badbadnotgood released 'Sour Soul' with Wu-Tang Clan rapper Ghostface Killah. A month later, Kendrick Lamar released To Pimp a Butterfly , which incorporates jazz, funk, and spoken word. [20] In 2015, Irish rapper Kojaque released a series of jazz rap instrumentals on SoundCloud. [21]

See also

Related Research Articles

The new school of hip hop was a movement in hip hop music, beginning in 1983–84 with the early records of Run–D.M.C., Whodini, and LL Cool J. Predominantly from Queens and Brooklyn, it was characterized by drum machine-led minimalism, often tinged with elements of rock; rapped taunts, boasts, and socio-political commentary; and aggressive, self-assertive delivery. In song and image, its artists projected a tough, cool, street b-boy attitude. These elements contrasted sharply with funk and disco, novelty hits, live bands, synthesizers, and party rhymes of artists prevalent in the early 1980s. Compared to their older hip hop counterparts, new school artists crafted more cohesive LPs and shorter songs more amenable to airplay. By 1986, their releases began to establish hip hop in the mainstream.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guru (rapper)</span> American rapper (1961–2010)

Keith Edward Elam, better known by his stage name Guru, was an American rapper, record producer and actor. He was a member of the hip hop duo Gang Starr, along with DJ Premier. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts.

<i>Gurus Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1</i> 1993 studio album by Guru

Jazzmatazz, Volume 1: An Experimental Fusion of Hip-Hop and Jazz, is the debut solo studio album by American hip hop recording artist Guru. It was released on May 18, 1993, by Chrysalis Records. Recording sessions took place at D&D Studios in New York. Production was handled by Guru himself, who also served as executive producer together with Duff Marlowe and Patrick Moxey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acid jazz</span> Music genre

Acid jazz is a music genre that combines elements of funk, soul, and hip hop, as well as jazz and disco. Acid jazz originated in clubs in London during the 1980s with the rare groove movement and spread to the United States, Western Europe, Latin America and Japan. Acts included The Brand New Heavies, Incognito, James Taylor Quartet, Us3, and Jamiroquai from the UK, and Guru, Buckshot LeFonque and Digable Planets from the U.S. The rise of electronic club music in the middle to late 1990s led to a decline in interest, and in the twenty-first century, acid jazz became indistinct as a genre. Many acts that might have been defined as acid jazz are seen as jazz-funk, or nu jazz.

<i>Midnight Marauders</i> 1993 studio album by A Tribe Called Quest

Midnight Marauders is the third studio album by American hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest, released on November 9, 1993, by Jive Records. Recording sessions for the album occurred at Battery Studios, Platinum Island Studios and Scorcerer Sound in New York City. Its production was mainly handled by Q-Tip, with contributions from Skeff Anselm, Large Professor and the group's DJ, Ali Shaheed Muhammad. A culmination of the group's two previous albums, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm and The Low End Theory, it features an eclectic, gritty sound based on jazz, funk, soul and R&B samples, in addition to socially conscious, positively-minded, and humorous lyrics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DJ Premier</span> American DJ and record producer (born 1966)

Christopher Edward Martin, known professionally as DJ Premier, is an American DJ and record producer. He is considered one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time. He was half of the hip hop duo Gang Starr—alongside the rapper Guru—and presently forms half of the hip hop duo PRhyme, together with Royce da 5'9".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Q-Tip (musician)</span> American rapper, singer and producer

Kamaal Ibn John Fareed, better known by his stage name Q-Tip, is an American rapper, record producer, singer, and DJ. Nicknamed the Abstract, he is noted for his innovative jazz-influenced style of hip hop production and his philosophical, esoteric and introspective lyrical themes. He embarked on his music career in the late 1980s, as an MC and main producer of the influential alternative hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest. In the mid-1990s, he co-founded the production team The Ummah, followed by the release of his gold-certified solo debut Amplified in 1999. In the following decade, he released the Grammy Award-nominated album The Renaissance (2008) and the experimental album Kamaal the Abstract (2009).

Rare groove is music that is very hard to source or relatively obscure. Rare groove is primarily associated with funk, R&B and jazz funk, but is also connected to subgenres including jazz rock, reggae, Latin jazz, soul, rock music, northern soul, and disco. Vinyl records that fall into this category generally have high re-sale prices. Rare groove records have been sought by not only collectors and lovers of this type of music, but also by hip hop artists and producers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pete Rock</span> American hip hop producer

Peter O. Phillips, better known by his stage name Pete Rock, is an American music producer, DJ and rapper. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time, and is often mentioned alongside DJ Premier, RZA, and Q-Tip as one of the mainstays of 1990s East Coast hip hop production. He rose to prominence in the early 1990s as one half of the critically acclaimed group Pete Rock & CL Smooth. Early on in his career, he was also famed for his remix work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madlib</span> American record producer (born 1973)

Otis Jackson Jr., known professionally as Madlib, is an American DJ, music producer, multi-instrumentalist, and rapper. He is widely known for his collaborations with MF DOOM, J Dilla, and Freddie Gibbs. Madlib has described himself as a "DJ first, producer second, and MC last." His stage name is an acronym for "Mind Altering Demented Lessons In Beats".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whodini</span> American hip hop group

Whodini is an American hip hop group that was formed in 1982. The Brooklyn, New York–based trio consisted of vocalist and main lyricist Jalil Hutchins; co-vocalist John Fletcher, a.k.a. Ecstasy ; and turntable artist DJ Drew Carter, a.k.a. Grandmaster Dee.

Jazzmatazz is a series of hip hop and jazz recordings from American rapper Guru.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hip hop production</span> Creation of hip hop music in a recording studio

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden age hip hop</span> Hip hop music from around 1985–1995

Golden age hip hop refers to mainstream hip hop music created from the mid or mid-late 1980s to the early or early-mid 1990s, particularly by artists and musicians originating from the New York metropolitan area. A successor to the new-school hip hop movement, it is characterized by its diversity, quality, innovation and influence on overall hip hop after the genre's emergence and establishment in the old-school era, and is associated with the development and eventual mainstream success of hip hop. There were various types of subject matter, while the music was experimental and the sampling from old records was eclectic.

<i>Gurus Jazzmatazz, Vol. 3: Streetsoul</i> 2000 studio album by Guru

Guru's Jazzmatazz: Streetsoul is the third solo studio album by American hip hop musician Guru. It was released on October 3, 2000, via Virgin Records as the third installment of Guru's Jazzmatazz album series. Production was handled by Gang Starr, The Neptunes, Agallah, DJ Scratch, Erykah Badu, J Dilla, The Roots and Victor Flowers.

<i>Hip Hop Connection</i> British magazine

Hip Hop Connection (HHC) was the longest running monthly periodical devoted entirely to hip hop culture. It was described by rapper Chuck D as "the most important magazine in the world".

daKAH or daKAH hip hop orchestra is an orchestra co-founded by Los Angeles composer and the orchestra's conductor Geoff Gallegos with a diverse group of 23 musicians in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lonnie Liston Smith</span> American jazz, soul, and funk musician (born 1940)

Lonnie Liston Smith Jr. is an American jazz, soul, and funk musician who played with such jazz artists as Pharoah Sanders and Miles Davis before forming Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes, recording a number of albums widely regarded as classics in the fusion, smooth jazz and acid jazz genres.

Hip-hop or hip hop music, also known as rap, and formerly as disco rap, is a genre of popular music that originated in the early 1970s by African Americans and Afro-Caribbean immigrants in the Bronx, a borough of New York City. Hip-hop music originated as an anti-drug and anti-violence genre consisting of stylized rhythmic music that often accompanies rapping, a rhythmic delivery of poetic speech. In the early 1990s, a professor of African American studies at Temple University said, "hip hop is something that blacks can unequivocally claim as their own." By the 21st century, the field of rappers had diversified by both race and gender. The music developed as part of the broader hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, breakdancing, and graffiti art. While often used to refer solely to rapping and rap music, "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 the culture, including DJing, turntablism, scratching, beatboxing, and instrumental tracks.

Alternative hip hop is a subgenre of hip hop music that encompasses a wide range of styles that are not typically identified as mainstream. AllMusic defines it as comprising "hip hop groups that refuse to conform to any of the traditional stereotypes of rap, such as gangsta, bass, hardcore, and party rap. Instead, they blur genres drawing equally from funk and pop/rock, as well as jazz, soul, reggae, and even folk."

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Jazz-Rap Music Genre Overview". AllMusic. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  2. ↑ "Gil Scott-Heron, Spoken-Word Musician, Dies at 62". The New York Times. 28 May 2011. Retrieved 16 January 2012.
  3. ↑ Starks, George L.; Giddins, Gary; Rusch, Robert D.; Gridley, Mark C. (1986). "Rhythm-A-Ning: Jazz Tradition and Innovation in the 80's". The Black Perspective in Music. 14 (2): 187. doi:10.2307/1214987. ISSN   0090-7790. JSTOR   1214987.
  4. ↑ Williams, Justin A. (2010-10-01). "The Construction of Jazz Rap as High Art in Hip-Hop Music". Journal of Musicology. 27 (4): 435–459. doi:10.1525/jm.2010.27.4.435. hdl: 1983/6b6784b2-5f18-421a-9669-2aedabe9cc2d . ISSN   0277-9269.
  5. ↑ Eric B & Rakim Don't Sweat the Technique allmusic Retrieved 14 March 2024
  6. ↑ "The Victoria Advocate - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com.
  7. ↑ US Hot 100 Billboard Retrieved 14 May 2024
  8. ↑ "Durst, Albert Lavada", Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  9. ↑ Hilmes, M. (1997). Radio Voices: American Broadcasting, 1922-1952. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, p. 272-3.
  10. ↑ Marsha Washington George (28 March 2002). Black Radio ... Winner Takes All: America's 1St Black Djs. Xlibris Corporation. pp. 90–. ISBN   978-1-4628-1993-5
  11. ↑ "Exhibition Traces Development of Hip hop". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at news.google.com. 19 December 2000. p. 26. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  12. ↑ "The 10 Best Jazz Rap Albums To Own On Vinyl — Vinyl Me, Please". Vinylmeplease.com. 2016-11-04. Retrieved 2018-09-15.
  13. ↑ Hunt, Dennis (June 29, 1993). "Liberating Rap With Jazz Sound : Freestyle Fellowship Adds Riffs to Rhymes". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
  14. ↑ Aldrich, Steve. "Doo-Bop". AllMusic. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  15. ↑ Cunningham, Phillip Lamarr (9 September 2010). ""There's Nothing Really New under the Sun": The Fallacy of the Neo-Soul Genre". Journal of Popular Music Studies. 22 (3): 240–258. doi:10.1111/j.1533-1598.2010.01240.x.
  16. ↑ "Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1 > Overview". allmusic.com. Retrieved April 24, 2010.
  17. ↑ "Madlib: Shades of Blue". pitchfork.com. Retrieved 2017-01-03.
  18. ↑ Winnig, Brolin (March 31, 2006). "Kero One Windmills Of The Soul". XLR8R . Retrieved February 1, 2006.
  19. ↑ Woodman-Nance, Emily (March 19, 2010). "KUCI" . Retrieved March 19, 2010.
  20. ↑ Weiss, Dan (March 20, 2015). "Review: Kendrick Lamar Returns With the Great American Hip-Hop Album, 'To Pimp a Butterfly'". Spin. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  21. ↑ "Kojaque | Plec Picks 2019 • GoldenPlec".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.