Microgenre
Psychedelic rap
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Other names
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- Psychedelic hip hop
[1]
- psych-rap
[2]
- acid rap
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Stylistic origins
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Cultural origins
| 1980s, New York
[2]
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Psychedelic rap
is a
microgenre
that fuses
hip hop music
with
psychedelia
.
[2]
The genre's otherworldy sound was influenced by
psychedelic rock
and
soul
,
funk
and
jazz
, utilizing
breaks
and
samples
that create a hallucinogenic effect.
Psychedelic drugs
may also play a part in shaping the genre's sound.
Characteristics
[
edit
]
Psychedelic rap is defined by "deep musicality, anchored by dusty
drum breaks
and
samples
often lifted from
jazz
records", resulting in music that is "both comforting and otherworldly ? both retro and
Afrofuturistic
".
[2]
Some psychedelic rap artists, such as
Flatbush Zombies
, are influenced by
psychedelic drugs
.
[4]
The genre has its roots in the
psychedelic rock
of
Jimi Hendrix
, whose "hypnotic, laidback vocal style" on songs like "
Crosstown Traffic
" would "[foreshadow] the stoned swagger of a
West Coast hip-hop
MC", according to
Tidal
magazine.
[2]
Psychedelic soul
, such as
Sly Stone
, and
funk
, were also key influences on psychedelic rap.
[2]
Parliament-Funkadelic
are among hip hop's most sampled artists.
[2]
Betty Davis
was cited as another precursor to psychedelic rap, as her recordings "wove singularly freaky funkiness with proto-rap aggression", particularly on "Shut Off the Light," in which Davis has been described as "barking, screeching and howling in a spoken-sung style over a barbed-wire slap-bass riff".
[2]
Her ex-husband, jazz musician
Miles Davis
, "chased head-trip sounds through tape-splicing
studio experimentation
and electric chaos", which predated sampling.
[2]
History
[
edit
]
In the late 1980s,
new school hip hop
, as exemplified by
L.L. Cool J
and
Run-DMC
, led to the "philosophical introspection and radical, brainy beat-making" of
Beastie Boys
' 1989 album
Paul's Boutique
, which was a landmark
sampledelia
album, sampling sources which ranged from
Curtis Mayfield
's psychedelic soul song "
Superfly
" to
Pink Floyd
's
progressive rock
song "
One of These Days
".
[2]
Beastie Boys were inspired to create a "psychedelic rap manifesto" in "B-Boy Bouillabaisse" by listening to
the Beatles
'
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
,
the Beach Boys
'
Pet Sounds
and Hendrix.
[5]
New York's
Native Tongues
collective, headlined by
De La Soul
,
Jungle Brothers
and
A Tribe Called Quest
, pioneered psych-rap, particularly on A Tribe Called Quest's "8 Million Stories".
[2]
Although De La Soul were categorized as a psychedelic rap outfit,
[6]
the group denied either being a psychedelic group or hippies.
[7]
Shock G
of
Digital Underground
, who translated P-Funk's musical language to hip hop, was another pioneer of psychedelic rap.
[8]
Cypress Hill
and
Redman
, in addition to psychedelic hip hop, can also be classified as "
weed rap
";
[9]
the latter's 1992 release
Whut? Thee Album
was categorized as a psychedelic rap album,
[10]
and
Black Moon
's psychedelic hip hop defined the sound of 1990s hip hop,
[11]
while
Poland
's
Kaliber 44
were labeled "psycho-rap" for their psychedelic rap music.
[12]
The psychedelic
rap rock
band
Pop Will Eat Itself
charted in 1988 and 1991,
[13]
while psychedelic rap group
P.M. Dawn
were signed to
Gee Street Records
in the early 1990s,
[14]
and the psychedelic rap band
New Kingdom
released two influential albums in the late '90s.
[15]
In 1996,
Kool Keith
released the psychedelic hip hop
concept album
Dr. Octagonecologyst
, about "a deadly, libidinous and doped-up doctor".
[16]
Some experimental hip hop artists, like
Quasimoto
, are also be considered to be psychedelic.
[17]
Though the "trip" in
trip hop
was more linked to
dub music
than psychedelia,
[17]
the genre combined psychedelic rock with hip hop.
[18]
Although psych-rap would be predominantly underground in the early 2000s, many mainstream artists would be influenced by psychedelia in their lyrics, production and artwork, such as on
D12
's 2001 single "
Purple Pills
", noted for
Eminem
's hallucinogenic production.
[2]
Flatbush Zombies, formed in 2010, would "reinvigorate psychedelic rap as a concept", according to
Clash Music
.
[19]
In 2013,
Chance the Rapper
released
Acid Rap
, an album that displayed "nonsensical and exuberant lyrics alongside poignant social commentary and personal confessions", and experimental production which drew from jazz,
blues
,
soul
and
rock and roll
;
Clash Music
described the album's unclassifiable sound as "its own genre of music".
[19]
THEESatisfaction
were labeled as both "psychedelic space-rap/jazz" and "hippie hop".
[20]
Kid Cudi
would breakthrough with "noir-trippy storytelling and tracks of mind-expanding atmosphere", while
Danny Brown
and
Odd Future
's
Earl Sweatshirt
would emerge as "psych-tinged" MCs.
[2]
In a profile on the genre by
Tidal
magazine, it was noted that many of the most important works in contemporary hip hop would be psychedelic, such as
Travis Scott
's 2018 album,
ASTROWORLD
, which "peerlessly filters contemporary hip-hop production through magic-mushroom sonics".
[2]
Scott's
Days Before Rodeo
"pushed psychedelic trap into the mainstream".
[21]
Artists like
Thundercat
and
Flying Lotus
revived interest in P-Funk and jazz-influenced hip hop.
[2]
In a review of
Ski Mask the Slump God
's 2018 release
Beware the Book of Eli
, the reviewer named
E-40
's
The Element of Surprise
, Quasimoto's
The Unseen
and
Young Thug
's
Jeffery
as examples of psychedelic rap.
[22]
In 2023, rapper
Lil Yachty
shifted his sound from "
bubblegum
trap
" to psychedelic rock with
Let's Start Here
, a "maximalist and multi-genre undertaking" which
GQ
deemed "a spectacular statement from hip-hop's prevailing weirdo" and the rapper's "first great album".
[23]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
David Foster, Wallace and Costello, Mark (July 23, 2013).
Signifying Rappers
. Little, Brown. p. 60.
ISBN
978-0-316-40111-1
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
r
s
t
Reed, Ryan (November 10, 2022).
"Psych-Rap: A Trippy History: Inside hip-hop's legacy of mind expansion, from acid-rock to A$AP Rocky"
.
Tidal
. Retrieved
August 16,
2023
.
- ^
Ripp, Gabriele, ed. (July 24, 2015).
Handbook of Intermediality: Literature ? Image ? Sound ? Music
. De Gruyter. p. 867.
ISBN
978-3-11-039378-1
.
- ^
Newman, Jason (May 19, 2016).
"Flatbush Zombies on Their Psychedelic Hip-Hop 'Odyssey'
"
.
Rolling Stone
. Retrieved
August 17,
2023
.
- ^
Beastie Boys
(October 30, 2018).
Beastie Boys Book
. Random House Publishing Group. p. 276.
ISBN
978-0-8129-9554-1
.
- ^
O'Brien, Lucy (2002).
She Bop II: The Definitive History of Women in Rock, Pop and Soul
. Continuum. p. 329.
ISBN
978-0-8264-7208-3
.
- ^
Clover, Joshua (October 7, 2009).
1989: Bob Dylan Didn't Have This to Sing About
. University of California Press. p. 52.
ISBN
978-0-520-94464-0
.
- ^
Weiss, Jeff (April 24, 2021).
"Shock G of Digital Underground was a psychedelic rap pioneer who helped hip-hop crossover"
.
Washington Post
. Retrieved
August 17,
2023
.
- ^
Reeves, Mosi.
"B-Boys on Acid: A Brief History of Psychedelic Hip-Hop"
.
The Dowsers
. Retrieved
August 17,
2023
.
- ^
"Whut? Thee Album"
.
Vibe
. Vol. 15, no. 1?6. Time Publishing Ventures/University of Virginia. January 14, 2010
. Retrieved
August 17,
2023
.
- ^
Kulkarni, Neil (October 2015).
The Periodic Table of HIP HOP
. Ebury Publishing. p. 104.
ISBN
978-1-4735-2840-6
.
- ^
Shepherd, John, ed. (October 5, 2017).
Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume 11
. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 388.
ISBN
9781501326103
.
- ^
Whitburn, Joel (August 31, 2023).
Rock Tracks 1981?2008
. Record Research. p. 198.
ISBN
978-0-89820-174-1
.
- ^
Patrin, Nate (June 9, 2020).
Bring That Beat Back: How Sampling Built Hip-Hop
. University of Minnesota Press. p. 146.
ISBN
978-1-4529-6380-8
.
- ^
"New Kingdom: Tripping Towards Paradise"
.
Red Bull Music Academy
. Retrieved
August 16,
2023
.
The psychedelic NYC duo of Nosaj and Sebastian Laws on taking hip hop on a trip via two mind-expanding LPs in the'90s
- ^
Moayeri, Lily (July 23, 2002).
"
Kool Keith Revives Dr. Octagon
"
.
Rolling Stone
. Archived from
the original
on February 22, 2008
. Retrieved
January 25,
2009
.
- ^
a
b
Echard, William (May 22, 2017).
Psychedelic Popular Music: A History through Musical Topic Theory
. Indiana University Press. p. 257.
ISBN
978-0-253-02659-0
.
- ^
Fonseca, Anthony J. (2019).
Listen to Rap!: Exploring a Musical Genre
. Greenwood. p. 68.
ISBN
9798216112006
.
- ^
a
b
Staff (August 15, 2023).
"10 Of The Best: Rap's Most Psychedelic Albums: Hip-hop's extra-sensory documents..."
Clash Music
. Retrieved
August 16,
2023
.
- ^
Shlomit Sofer, Danielle (July 5, 2022).
Sex Sounds: Vectors of Difference in Electronic Music
. MIT Press. p. 257.
ISBN
978-0-262-36205-4
.
- ^
"How Travis Scott's Days Before Rodeo Pushed Psychedelic Trap into the Mainstream"
.
The Culture Crypt
. July 29, 2023
. Retrieved
August 17,
2023
.
- ^
Bromfield, Daniel (June 6, 2018).
"Ski Mask the Slump God: Beware the Book of Eli"
.
Spectrum Culture
. Retrieved
August 17,
2023
.
- ^
Brickner-Wood, Brady (January 31, 2023).
"How Lil Yachty Ended Up at His Excellent New Psychedelic Album Let's Start Here"
.
GQ
. Retrieved
August 16,
2023
.
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