A Rhythmic History of Hip-Hop
By Peter Voakes
December 5, 2001  

Hip-hop, which originally began more than 20 years ago, has undergone many changes during its lifetime. The music has always remained centered in urban landscapes, with most performers of the music rising up from the inner-city neighborhoods. Throughout its history, hip-hop has centered on the rhythm of the beat rather than the melody, which shows the connection between modern hip-hop and traditional African tribal music, often featuring complex polyrhythms and little to no melody. Hip-hop has also featured heavy bass sounds through out its history, with the rhythms hitting the second and fourth beat of each measure hard with either a heavy bass drum or a bass guitar. Hip-hop beats have evolved in many different ways throughout their twenty-year history, yet they are all centered around rhythm and feature heavy, syncopated bass.

For my field report, I chose to compose a number of different hip-hop beats, each one emulating a different style of beat from the history of hip-hop. I composed five different beats. The first is an emulation of a beat from the mid-eighties, the second is based on a gangster rap beat from the west coast during the early nineties, the third is based on a beat from New York City during the early nineties, the fourth based on a beat from the south during the late nineties, and the fifth is based on a beat from New York City during the late nineties. For two of the beats I used samples, which is a common practice in the construction of hip-hop beats. The other beats are all originals, yet they are not as long in length as those that contain samples.

The first beat is one that is based on the song . South Bronx. by Boogie Down Productions, which was released in 1986. Boogie Down Productions was a duo originally consisting of KRS-ONE, the MC, and DJ Scott La Rock. The beat is sparse, with the high hat keeping the steady beat throughout the entire song, and the melody consisting of brass hits during the verses, and a repeated guitar line during the bridge. The beat is both rhythmically and melodically repetitive, as it stays the same during the verse and only changes up when it hits the chorus. The brass hits are always the same rhythmically, and only occasionally during the song do they change pitch. For my beat, I decided to utilize the sound of handclaps instead of a snare drum, which, although not featured in the song "South Bronx," was something that was utilized often in "old-school" hip-hop songs. I also used brass hits to accent different beats, yet mine were more randomly spaced than those found in . South Bronx.. The old school beats were simple, sparse, and repetitive, yet they served as an ample background for the MC to rhyme over.

In 1992, Dr. Dre released an album called The Chronic, which was a gangster-rap album coming from Compton, California that set the standard for all hard-core gangster-rap beats to follow. The beats were more full than any other before, with heavy, driving beats and loud bass. Many beats made by Dr. Dre also featured high-pitched synthesizers serving as the counter-melody to the MC's rapping. For my beat, I tried to create a driving, heavy beat that one would find in a sample Dr. Dre song. I also tried to use the high-pitched synthesizers, yet I feel that my synthesizers were too busy and annoying.

While Dr. Dre was creating harder beats on the west coast during the early nineties, a different movement in beats was happening on the east coast, specifically in New York City. A collective of rap groups, calling themselves the Native Tongues, had risen in popularity during the early nineties. One group in the Native Tongues was called De La Soul, whose beat I tried to emulate for my third beat. De La Soul, and their Native Tongue compatriots A Tribe Called Quest, featured beats that weren. t as hard as those made by Dr. Dre, and which often featured samples from old soul songs from the sixties and seventies. For example, the song that I chose to emulate, called "Pease Porridge," features samples from the songs "Pease Porridge" and "Finger Fun" by the group Rhythm and Rhyme, and the song "Black Eyed Susan Brown," by the group Brother Bones. For my song, I attempted to integrate samples into my beat. The two songs that I sampled were "Living for the City" by Stevie Wonder, and "Knock On Wood" by Eddie Floyd. The beat on the song is also not as hard or heavy as the beat on the Dr. Dre song, with the atmosphere of the entire song much lighter and more positive.

As hip-hop progressed, a new area arose in the late nineties as a fertile ground from which many gangster rap acts came: the Southern Untied States. While Dr. Dre influenced these acts, the beats that they created did not sound like those that Dr. Dre had created. Juvenile, the artist whose beat I chose to emulate, belongs to a record company, located in the south, called Cash Money Records. Cash Money beats often feature a very fast high hat sound with heavy hits on the bass drum and bass guitar, and countermelodies by strings and piano. While southern beats are unlike Dr. Dre's beats, in that they are simpler and more focused on the high hat and string sound, they are also similar to Dr. Dre's beats in that they are repetitive and feature heavy bass hits.

The final beat that I composed was based upon the modern beat that takes a different tone than any beat that has been composed before. Some modern MC. s decide to do songs that are more reflective and sensitive than the usual party jam that is stereotypically associated with hip-hop. To accommodate the tone of the lyrics, the beat must have a sad tone to it. The song that I chose to emulate, "All That I Got Is You" by Ghostface Killa, features, surprisingly, very little drums. The bulk of the beat is a string sample from the song . Maybe Tomorrow. by the Jackson Five, with the drums only accenting certain beats. While my beat is not necessarily sparse with the drums, it does feature a sample as the main part of the beat, and it does have a sad and reflective tone to it. My song features a sample from the song "Ballad of the Thin Man" by Bob Dylan. The beat is still repetitive, which has proven to be the one constant between all the beats that I chose to emulate.

Most of my beats succeeded in trying to capture the feeling of a different time and a different area in music. As is evident by the difference in the beats that came out of New York, Los Angeles, and the South, whatever area the beat comes from has an influence on how those beats will sound. The time from which a beat came also has an influence on how it sounds, with the old school beats sounding quite different from the modern beats. While hip-hop beats have progressed and changed over time, there have also been constants, such as repetition and rhythmic complexity, that remain as similarities between all the beats.