Rap's origins stretch far back to African oral tradition; it has a more immediate predecessor in the spoken-word expressionism of 60s activists like the Last Poets, or LeRoi Jones (later known as Amiri Baraka), who performed activist poetry over the New York Art Ensemble's free jazz. But it was in the early 70s, in New York's inner-city neighborhoods in the Bronx and Brooklyn, that mcs began rapping spoken rhymes about street life to the beat of dj-manipulated drum machines and turntables. Break dancers and graffiti artists provided a dramatic and colorful visual style to accompany the beats and narratives, and a subculture was born. In 1979, rap had its first hit single in Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight," and rappers haven't left the charts since. The recordings of rap's original superstars-Grandmaster Flash, Kurtis Blow, all the original innovators we now call old school-sound minimalist and raw compared to today's high-tech productions. Def Jam label artists Run DMC and the Beastie Boys often mixed the usual funk and disco samples with heavy metal guitars for aggressive impact-a strategy that helped the latter's Licensed to Ill, in 1986, to become the first rap album to reach a number one chart position. Want to know more about the styles that are a part of this genre? Check out any of the following Loxx styles to see descriptions, key recordings, and Loxx.com channels where you can listen.

Alternative Rap
Bass Rap
Crossover Rap
East Coast Rap
G Funk
Gangsta Rap
Hardcore Rap
Jazz Rap
Old School Rap
Underground Rap
West Coast Rap

Hip-hop was off and running. From the late 80s and into the early 90s, NYC was in da house: Public Enemy, Eric B and Rakim, De La Soul and Tribe Called Quest, Salt'n'Pepa, Queen Latifah, Big Daddy Kane, and LL Cool J were just the tip of the city's hip-hop iceberg. In the summer of 1988, no New York street-and no nightclub from Illinois to Ibiza-escaped the strains of Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rocks' "It Takes Two," with its unmistakable, infectious Lynn Collins chorus and James Brown sample (the "godfather of soul" could as easily be called the "godfather of hip-hop," he's laid the foundation for so many tracks). Rap and hip-hop's quotations evolved into ever more highly coded communications as more and more layers piled on-they were a means of giving props, part of a dialogue or argument (think LL Cool J versus Kool Moe Dee), or simply the funky breaks-sometimes all three at once. The rapping of this era was often edgy and political: In particular, the raucous Public Enemy and the cerebral Boogie Down Productions took a didactic Afrocentrism to the streets and to the suburbs. Los Angeles weighed in as well, most notably with NWA's energetic 1989 album, Straight Outta Compton. In 1991, A Tribe Called Quest's groundbreaking sophomore effort, The Low End Theory, signaled hip-hop's expansion into jazz and other musics. The early 90's enjoyed a brief spate of creative, artistic hip-hop; acts such as the Jungle Brothers and Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy also represent the sound of the period. New York's reign ended abruptly in 1992 when NWA member Dr. Dre founded the Death Row label and released his seminal solo outing, The Chronic. Dre, with his colleague Snoop Doggy Dogg, blanketed the nation with gangsta attitude and G-Funk production (phat beats and booming bass, with a drawn-out George Clinton/Bootsy Collins-influenced, deranged, synth squiggle on top). So began the West Coast/East Coast dispute that, however inflated for publicity purposes, would come to symbolize-and tragically enact-a particularly violent era in rap's history. Tupac Shakur, with his tales of "Thug Life" and street crime, and the Notorius B.I.G., with his bittersweet, dead-eye narratives of sex, drugs, and violence, were this period's most emblematic performers-and its most tragic losses. The late 90s have seen the gangsta stance mutate into a cartoonish, larger-than-life act, with rappers like L'il Kim and Foxy Brown bragging about living large with cars, designer clothes, diamond jewelry, and champagne. Though a significant number of rap acts traffic in keeping it real, with positive messages and music that blend old school with innovation, from the Roots to Mos Def & Kweli, much mainstream rap has blown up as huge and glitzy as showbiz itself, riding a second (or third) wave of wacked-out creativity with the dizzy, cryptic narratives of the Wu-Tang Clan and its members, the trickster Busta Rhymes, and the elaborate jamz of Jay-Z. And it's not just East Coast versus West Coast any more, as diverse offerings from Atlanta's Outkast, New Orleans' Master P, and Detroit's Eminem prove. At more than 20 years of age, hip-hop is still da bomb.

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