Jazz Music Tube An Archive of Of The Jazz on Video

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1. Run DMC 2. Public Enemy 3. 2 Pac 4. The Beastie Boys 5. N.W.A 6. Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five 7. Eric B. & Rakim 8. Salt-N-Pepa 9. A Tribe Called Quest 10. Notorious B.I.G. 11. Nas 12. Outkast 13. LL Cool J 14. Boogie Down Productions 15. Missy Elliott 16. Queen Latifah 17. Jay Z 18. Dr. Dre 19. Mary J. Blige 20. De La Soul 21. Eminem 22. Wu Tang Clan 23. Afrika Bambatta 24. The Fugees 25. Doug E. Fresh		26. Ice-T 27. Lauryn Hill 28. The Roots 29. Erykah Badu 30. DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince 31. Mos Def 32. KRS - One 33. Ice Cube 34. TLC 35. Kool DJ Herc 36. MC Lyte 37. Snoop Dogg 38. Grand Wizard Theodore 39. Common 40. Slick Rick 41. DMX 42. Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth 43. EPMD 44. Mantronix 45. Kurtis Blow 46. Gang Starr 47. Kool Moe Dee 48. Talib Kwelli 49. Digital Underground 50. Mase

To the untrained ear, all rap and hip-hop may sound the same, but there's a number of different levels in even the simplest rap song. At its core, hip-hop is a post-modern musical genre that deconstructs familiar sounds and songs, rebuilding them as entirely new, unpredictable songs. Early rap records, commonly called "old school," were made by DJs scratching records and playing drum loops, with MCs rapping over the resulting rhythms. As the genre progressed, hard-rock guitars and hard-hitting beats were introduced by Run-D.M.C., the first hardcore rap group, and the scratching techniques were replaced by sampling. With their dense collages of samples, beats and white noise, Public Enemy took sampling to the extreme, and they helped introduce a social and political conscience to hip-hop. That faded in the '90s, as gangsta rap -- originally introduced by NWA, who used Public Enemy's sound as a template -- became the dominant form. By the '90s, gangsta rap, which originally was in direct opposition to such pop-oriented rappers as MC Hammer, had become smoothed over and stylish, and consequently was more popular than ever, as evidenced by the success of pop-gangsta Puff Daddy.

51. Big Daddy Kane
52. Lil Kim
53. MC Hammer
54. Naughty By Nature
55. Treacherous Three
56. Cypress Hill
57. Biz Markie
58. Eve
59. Kanye West
60. Busta Rhymes
61. Puff Daddy/P. Diddy
62. Arrested Development
63. Heavy D. & The Boyz
64. The Sugar Hill Gang
65. Scarface
66. Brand Nubian
67. Geto Boys
68. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
69. Wyclef Jean
70. The Fat Boys
71. Digable Planets
72. the Pharcyde
73. Method Man
74. Mobb Deep
75. Ludacris

76. Will Smith
77. Nelly
78. Roxanne Shanté
79. The Jurassic 5
80. Eazy E
81. Whodini
82. Coolio
83. Spoonie Gee
84. Da Brat
85. Tone Loc
86. Funky 4 + 1
87. Foxy Brown
88. 3rd Bass
89. Big Punisher
90. Nappy Roots
91. The Cold Crush Brothers
92. The Jungle Brothers
93. Yo - Yo
94. Stetsasonic
95. Grandmaster Melle Mel
96. Black Eyed Peas
97. Blackalicious
98. Grand Puba
99. Fat Joe
100.Das EFX

DJ

Over a dub track, rappers (called toasters) would chant lyrics of topical concerns; the DJ form began live at sound system dances, eventually leading to recordings of toasts on disc. When hip-hop mixing emerged in New York (thanks in part to native Jamaican Kool Herc), the term was soon transferred to the instrumentalists, not the vocalists. Major innovations by Grand Wizard Theodore, Grandmaster Flash, and Afrika Bambaataa led to a '90s generation (also known as turntablists) who had inherited a mature form of artistic statement, including Mixmaster Mike, DJ Q-Bert, and Cut Chemist.

East Coast Rap

At the dawn of the hip-hop era, all rap was East Coast Rap. All of rap's most important early artists were based in the New York City area -- old-school legends like DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, the Sugarhill Gang, Kurtis Blow, and Run-D.M.C. As rap grew and became more diverse over the course of the '80s, productive scenes began to spring up in other locations around the country; nonetheless, East Coast rap dominated through most of the '80s. Although the sound of East Coast rap wasn't completely uniform, from the mid- to late '80s it tended to gravitate to more aggressive beats and sample collages, and many MCs prided themselves on their technical dexterity in crafting lyrics. In other words, with some exceptions, East Coast rap became a music intended more for intense listening than for the dancefloor, helping develop the genre into a respected art form as it grew more elaborate and complex. Typifying this golden era of the East Coast sound were artists like Eric B. & Rakim, Boogie Down Productions, and Slick Rick, all of whom boasted immense lyrical skill rooted in old-school style, as well as the harder-hitting sounds of EPMD and Public Enemy. Also based on the East Coast were the Native Tongues, a collective of positive, Afrocentric artists assembled by Afrika Bambaataa; while De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, the Jungle Brothers, and other, mostly New York-based groups had a major impact on hip-hop in the late '80s, they were more readily identified with their musical eclecticism than any specific geographic location. N.W.A.'s 1989 album Straight Outta Compton served notice that the West Coast had toughened its sound to go along with its already gritty, street-level subject matter; combined with West Coast rap's ability to retain its primary function as party music, this helped make it the dominant force in hip-hop during the '90s. The rise of Southern rap further ensured that East Coast rap could no longer dominate as it once had, but the '90s were hardly a wash for the region. In addition to Puff Daddy's hugely lucrative, pop-accessible Bad Boy label, the East Coast produced its share of varied, highly acclaimed artists, including lyrical virtuoso Nas, the eclectic Fugees and Roots, and the hugely influential hardcore unit Wu-Tang Clan.

West Coast Rap dominated the hip-hop scene for the middle section of the '90s, making gangsta rap into a popular phenomenon and establishing Dr. Dre as one of the most influential figures in rap history. Still, even if Dre's patented G-funk defined the West Coast sound and style for many, California's rap scene was a great deal more diverse. Up until the mid- to late '80s, West Coast rap mostly imitated East Coast party rap, already considered old-school in its place of origin; however, both Los Angeles and the Bay Area soon proved to be fertile pastures. The former produced the landmark proto-gangsta recordings of Ice-T, the hugely influential, Latino-tinged stoner funk of Cypress Hill, and the warped comedy of the Pharcyde; the Bay Area countered with the pimp-obsessed rhymes of Too $hort, the P-Funk-inspired, good-humored Digital Underground, and the pop breakthrough of MC Hammer. In short, West Coast rap became as eclectic and difficult to pigeonhole as East Coast rap. However, N.W.A.'s 1989 gangsta-rap landmark Straight Outta Compton set the stage for a more identifiable West Coast style -- its sound was hard-hitting and minimalistic, its lyrics alternating between violent hedonism and righteously angry social commentary. Upon leaving N.W.A., Ice Cube made solo records which maintained that lyrical tone while employing noisy, Public Enemy-style production; his bandmate Dr. Dre discovered Snoop Doggy Dogg, signed to Death Row Records, and at the end of 1992 released The Chronic, the album that defined G-funk and spawned legions of imitators. The Chronic's gangsta hedonism and production style -- whiny synthesizers, rolling P-Funk beats, and deep, slow grooves -- provided the blueprint that made Death Row the biggest hip-hop label of the early '90s, scoring hits by Snoop, Warren G., Tha Dogg Pound, and more. Controversial gangsta star 2Pac joined the label in late 1995 and became a crossover superstar with the Dre duet "California Love," and Coolio had taken a more pop-oriented version of the West Coast sound to the top of the charts earlier in the year with "Gangsta's Paradise." However, West Coast dominance soon crumbled -- 2Pac was murdered in 1996, Dre jumped ship, and Death Row CEO Suge Knight was jailed over business practices. By the end of the '90s, hip-hop's focus had turned back to the East Coast and to the emerging South.

Gangsta Rap

Gangsta Rap developed in the late '80s. Evolving out of hardcore rap, gangsta rap had an edgy, noisy sound. Lyrically, it was just as abrasive, as the rappers spun profane, gritty tales about urban crime. Sometimes the lyrics were an accurate reflection of reality; other times, they were exaggerated comic book stories. Either way, it became the most commercially successful form of hip-hop in the late '80s and early '90s. In the process, gangsta rap caused considerable controversy, as conservative organizations tried to get the albums banned. Even when the activist groups forced certain bands off major labels, the groups continued to make their music uncensored.

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