Music subgenre
Jazz rap
|
---|
Other names
| Jazz hip hop, jazz hop
|
---|
Stylistic origins
| |
---|
Cultural origins
| Late 1980s, United States, Canada and United Kingdom
|
---|
Derivative forms
| |
---|
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]
Overview
[
edit
]
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
[
edit
]
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
[
edit
]
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
[
edit
]
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
[
edit
]
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
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
"Jazz-Rap Music Genre Overview"
.
AllMusic
. Retrieved
4 June
2018
.
- ^
"Gil Scott-Heron, Spoken-Word Musician, Dies at 62"
.
The New York Times
. 28 May 2011
. Retrieved
16 January
2012
.
- ^
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
.
- ^
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
.
- ^
Eric B & Rakim Don't Sweat the Technique
allmusic Retrieved 14 March 2024
- ^
"The Victoria Advocate - Google News Archive Search"
.
news.google.com
.
- ^
US Hot 100
Billboard Retrieved 14 May 2024
- ^
"Durst, Albert Lavada", Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
- ^
Hilmes, M. (1997). Radio Voices: American Broadcasting, 1922-1952. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, p. 272-3.
- ^
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
- ^
"Exhibition Traces Development of Hip hop"
.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at news.google.com
. 19 December 2000. p. 26
. Retrieved
4 June
2018
.
- ^
"The 10 Best Jazz Rap Albums To Own On Vinyl ? Vinyl Me, Please"
. Vinylmeplease.com. 2016-11-04
. Retrieved
2018-09-15
.
- ^
Hunt, Dennis (June 29, 1993). "Liberating Rap With Jazz Sound : Freestyle Fellowship Adds Riffs to Rhymes". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
- ^
Aldrich, Steve.
"Doo-Bop"
.
AllMusic
. Retrieved
13 March
2024
.
- ^
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
.
- ^
"Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1 > Overview". allmusic.com. Retrieved April 24, 2010.
- ^
"Madlib: Shades of Blue"
.
pitchfork.com
. Retrieved
2017-01-03
.
- ^
Winnig, Brolin (March 31, 2006).
"Kero One Windmills Of The Soul"
.
XLR8R
. Retrieved
February 1,
2006
.
- ^
Woodman-Nance, Emily (March 19, 2010).
"KUCI"
. Retrieved
March 19,
2010
.
- ^
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.
- ^
"Kojaque | Plec Picks 2019 ? GoldenPlec"
.
|
---|
General topics
| |
---|
Genres
| |
---|
Musicians
| |
---|
Musicians by genre
| |
---|
Standards
| |
---|
Discographies
| |
---|
Festivals
| |
---|
Culture
| |
---|
Regional scenes
| African
| |
---|
Asian
| |
---|
European
| |
---|
North American
|
|
---|
Oceanian
| |
---|
South American
| |
---|
Worldwide
| |
---|
|
---|
History
| |
---|
Related
| |
---|
Media
| |
---|
|