This music video by Kanye West featuring 2 Chainz, Big Sean & Pusha T was released in 2012 of the Hip-Hop genre.
The whole video uses a panoramic camera shot in black and white with no cuts using one location. The video is very simple but done very cleverly, the editing is different as there are no cuts but there are moments when the rappers looks like they have clones as copies of them appear. Hip-Hop music videos do not show a lot in their videos and do not have much of a narrative as Hip-Hop is mainly about the lyrics being said. However, Kanye West is one of the most successful rappers of our time, he has a lot of creativity in what he does, therefore his videos tend to be very unique to him and in the Hip-Hop culture. The video consists of simply just the rappers rapping their verses at the camera whilst walking around in their black full costumes with a Lamborghini in the background as they say it in the hook of the song. The movements of the camera moving side to side move in a slow pace following the pace and tempo of the music. Also, there is a quick camera movement when the word "swerve" had been said following the movement of Kanye to show his control and his dominance as it looks like his movement is controlling the camera.
Hip-Hop music history
Here is a dictionary definition of Hip-Hop music:
"Hip hop music is a musical genre that developed as part of hip hop culture, and is defined by four key stylistic elements: rapping, DJing/scratching, sampling (or synthesis), and beatboxing. Hip hop began in the South Bronx of New York City in the 1970s."
The origins of Hip-Hop
The origins of Hip-Hop started in the 1970's, it started with the DJing form with no vocals. Hip-Hop as music and culture came around in the 1970's when block-parties were popular in New York City especially the youth of African Americans and Latinos living in the Bronx. Block parties involved DJs playing different genres of music such as funk and soul, from this DJ's started using the turntablist techniques, this involved scratching and beat mixing/matching. The most famous DJ (also known as the father of Hip-Hop), DJ Kool Herc. Rapping was referred to as MCing, speaking the lyrics in rhyme and verse to an instrumental or synthesised beat. Rapping can consist of rapping to a beat or acapella, either written down verses or freestyle. The idea of rapping came from Jamaican immigrant into New York who were familiar with 'toasting' and helped introduce it at the block-parties in New York.
The first rap recorded in 1979 was 'Rappers Delight' by Sugar Hill Gang and 'Christmas Rapping' by Kurtis "Blow" Walker.
From 1983 onwards, Hip-Hop music was changing and devloping and at this time was called 'new school hip-hop' (which we now refer to 'old skool hip-hop'). These artists made their songs shorter for radio play. Hip-hop was becoming a mainstream success with the album coming from The Beastie Boys in 1986 called "Licensed to Ill" which was the first Hip-Hop album to hit #1 on the Billboard charts. During the mid 80's, Hip-Hop had developed into 'gangsta rap' reflecting the violent lifestyles from the youth of young Black Americans. The genre was pioneered by rappers such as Schoolly D and Ice T, and continuted on by groups such as N.W.A. The first blockbuster gangsta rap album was by N.W.A 'Straight Outta Compton' in 1988, this therefore brought out the 'West Coast rap' of America and becoming popular.
N.W.A - Straight Outta Compton. As you can see by this video, the mise-en-scene are the streets of the West Coast, reflecting the lyrics, the 'gangsta' genre of Hip-Hop. Also by the use of costumes, it also reflects the genre of music with the snapback representing the Californian sports teams, hoodies and dark clothing. There are close-ups of the policemen highlighting the meaning of the lyrics, expressing their feelings on police brutality towards the Black American youth but yet showing how they rebel against the police and being troublemakers. Also showing a representation of the Black Americans living in the hood places such as Compton on the West Coast.
1990's was the biggest era of Hip-Hop, becoming more of a breakthrough and mainstream with a lot of controversy. MC Hammer hit mainstream success with his album 'Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em' including the popular #1 single 'U Can't Touch This'. Dr Dre released his album 'The Chronic' representing the West Coast rapping, trying to dominate the East Coast NY rapping.
Hip-Hop became the best selling music genre of the 1990's. After N.W.A broke up, Dr Dre with his Chronic album took West Coast hip-hop in another direction, creating his own record label 'Death Row Records' with the famous Tupac Shakur (also known as 2Pac) and Snoop Dogg. Tupac Shakur is known to best the best rapper who had ever lived (King of Hip-Hop) due to his deep lyrics and strong rhythm follow, however the controversy he had with the East Coat rapper Notorious B.I.G (also known as Biggie) signed to Bad Boy.
2pac & Snoop Dogg - 2 Of Amerikaz Most Wanted. This is another popular Hip-Hop song and video as in the video it also shows violence from the Police and how people from the 'hood' would get treated. The court scene reflects the lyrics of the song as 2pac raps about what he had recently done and what he has gone through to why he is in the court, this shows a representation of how rappers were living their lives during this period of time as it was a typical convention in the Hip-Hop genre to show videos like this.
Nowadays, Hip-Hop is one of the biggest genres in music as rap is to be described as poetry being spoken in rhythm and verse, however people feel that Hip-Hop nowadays has lost touch with its original roots as people nowadays tend to rap about the usual sex, women and drugs, therefore people connote rap and Hip-Hop to being negative and bad influence, however this is not always the case as there are still rappers nowadays who bring out the deep verses talking about political issues and relevant issues happening in the current world.
The most popular rappers nowadays are:
- Kanye West
- Jay-Z
- Drake
- Lil Wayne
- Eminem
- T.I.
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