Hip hop facts for kids

Two hip hop DJs creating new music by mixing tracks from multiple record players. Pictured are DJ Hypnotize (left) and Baby Cee (right).

A graffiti artist uses his artwork to make a satirical social statement on censorship: "Don't blame yourself... blame hip hop"

Hip hop is a type of culture/art style that started in the 1970s. It began in Jamaican-American, African-American, and Latino-American urban areas in some of the larger cities of the United States. Hip hop uses a style of singing called rapping. The singer or group chants or says words with a rhythm that rhymes. The lyrics of hip hop songs are often about the life of urban people in the big cities. Hip hop music also uses musical styles from pop music such as disco and reggae. Rap and hip hop music have become successful music genres.

Hip hop as a culture involves the music as well as a style of dressing called "urban" clothes (baggy pants, Timberland leather work boots, and oversize shirts); a dancing style called breakdancing or "B-Boying"; and graffiti, a street art in which people paint pictures or words on walls. In the 2000s, hip hop music and hip hop culture are very popular in the United States and Canada. Hip hop musicians usually use nicknames. Many of the popular hip hop musicians from the 2000s use nicknames, such as Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, Eminem, Lil' Wayne, and 50-Cent.

Rapping

Rapper, entrepreneur and executive Jay-Z emphasizes his wealth.

Rapping is a form of singing. It is a mix between singing and talking. The words are spoken with rhythm and in the text there are rhymes. African-Americans made rhyming games based on rap. The beat in the background is a simple loop that is sometimes made by the rapper themself or sometimes copied from a sample CD. The simple loop carries out through the entire song usually, except for the chorus. It developed in the ethnic minority urban (city) areas, as an American form of Jamaican "toasting" (chanting and rhyming with a microphone).

Run DMC and The Sugarhill Gang were early popular hip hop groups in the 1980s. When rappers began to use violent language and gestures, the music was then liked by gangsters. This kind of music was called "gangsta rap". Gangsta rap often has lyrics which are about guns, drug dealing and life as a thug on the street. This genre also began in the 1980s and is still produced.

Some well known early rappers include: Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg, The Notorious B.I.G., Eminem, and Sean "P-Diddy" Combs. In the 1990s there was a rivalry between the two big record labels "Death Row Records" and "Bad Boy Records". The rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. were murdered. Later, the two record labels stopped the rivalry. Because most of the rappers who rapped for "Death Row Records" were from the West Coast of the US and most of the rappers who rapped for "Bad Boy Records" were from the East Coast, this rivalry was called "the West Coast – East Coast beef".

More modern rappers include 50-Cent, Eminem, Jay-Z, Nas, and Kanye West. Rap is now produced in almost every nation of the world.

The fastest rapper according to Guinness World Records is Ricky Brown from the United States. On January 15, 2005, he rapped 723 syllables in 51.27 seconds from his track.

Images for kids

A breakdancer or "b-girl" doing hip hop dance.
MC Hero performing rhythmic rhyming known as "rapping" in Huntsville, Alabama.
DJ Jazzy Jeff, who is also a record producer, manipulating a record turntable in England in 2005.
Afrika Bambaataa with DJ Yutaka of Universal Zulu Nation in 2004
Grandmaster Melle Mel.
Ice-T
British hip hop artist and poet Kate Tempest performs her signature piece "Let Them Eat Chaos" at the 2017 Treefort Music Fest in Boise, Idaho.
DJ Q-bert manipulating a record turntable at a turntablism competition in France in 2006.
DJ Pete Rock mixing with two turntables.
Rapper Busta Rhymes performs in Las Vegas for a BET party
An aerosol paint can, a common tool used in modern graffiti
Phase 2 is an influential graffiti artist who began painting in the 1970s.
B Boy executing a freeze
Breaking, an early form of hip hop dance, often involves dance battles, showing off technical skills, trying to out-do a rival dancer, and displaying tongue-in-cheek bravado.
Biz Markie is noted for his beatboxing skills. He is holding the mic close to his mouth, a technique beatboxers use to imitate deep basslines and bass drums, by exploiting the proximity effect.
A typical rap drum beat, written in drum notation.
Hip hop producer Chilly Chill behind a large audio console in a recording studio.
Sam Bos Rap with computer gear in the studio.
While hip hop music makes a significant use of sampling old records, using turntables and drum machines to create beats, producers use electric and acoustic instruments on some songs. Pictured is an electric bass player at a hip hop show.
A b-boy performing in San Francisco
Potato chip packages featuring hip hop-design images (showing Lil Romeo and based on the film Honey)
LL Cool J in front of a Coca-Cola billboard at a festival sponsored by the soda pop company.
Rapper Dr Dre has endorsed a line of expensive, high-quality headphones and other audio gear called "beats", which bear his name.
Rapper Snoop Dogg at a 2009 show.
Breaking in Ljubljana, Slovenia
South Sudanese musician Emmanuel Jal uses hip hop to heal war-torn African youth. Jal pictured at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York
Arabic hip hop artist Klash Loon.
Hip hop artist Lauryn Hill has been successful as a solo performer and as a member of the Fugees. This photo shows her performing at the Ottawa Bluesfest in 2012.
Mary Blige performing.