Hip hop has been around for almost 40 years.
Think about that for a second: the music genre that gave us the inability to lie about the appreciation of large asses has been around longer than most of the people who will probably read this sentence. Since the ’70s, emcees and DJs have created beats and rhythms, sampled and remixed other genres, and created an art form of rapping, creating lyrical poetry to a beat.
Of course, throughout the four decades of hip hop, artists who lay claim to the genre have switched up their lyrical approaches to rapping in many ways. It may not seem like a big deal to most, but these changes have allowed hip hop and rapping to evolve with new tools and techniques for new rhyme smiths to absorb and apply.
The website Vox, dedicated to analyzing and breaking down different aspects and phenomena from our modern world, have created a video to exploring rapping over the years within hip hop, noting artists who have made significant contributions to lyrical approach. It’s a fascinating video, worth a view for even the most casual hip hop fan to experience.
[Vox]
About Andres Domenech