The New York Times crossword puzzle includes clues that incorporate hip-hop. Here is the solution:
Hip-hop started at block parties, where DJs would take long percussion breaks to encourage and entertain guests, while MCs engaged in heated verbal exchanges during this time.
Hip-hop has expanded into numerous subgenres, such as Gangsta Rap, which explores violent inner-city life. Furthermore, it has influenced multiple rock bands.
Punk
Punk music, often mixed with rap, is an aggressive rock subculture characterized by loud, aggressive rock performed by bands containing vocalists, one or two electric guitarists, and a drummer. Punk lyrics typically address social and political topics in a bold, political tone. Originating in the 1970s, punk has since evolved into a global movement with various aesthetics and subcultures around it.
Punk music typically incorporates distortion effects, while vocalists deliver shouted choruses, slogans, and football-style chants. Punk also draws from elements from reggae, ska, and metal music styles; its influence has given birth to other genres, such as pop and grunge music.
Punk originated in London and Manchester during the mid-1970s as a counterculture movement against perceived Establishment power and British imperialism, but later expanded to incorporate elements from American rock scene bands like Ramones and X-Ray Spex, producing songs that critiqued society.
Punk was known for being rebellious, and its visual expression emphasized this trait. Mohawks and spiked hairstyles became fashionable, along with bright colors. Combat boots and leather jackets became stylish wear; clothing also frequently displayed political messages or band logos.
Punk rock was an international phenomenon during its 1980s heyday, becoming immensely popular across multiple countries and cultures. Influencing aesthetics and subcultures such as gothicism, it gave birth to several bands that fused punk with other genres of music, such as ska punk or reggae punk (fusing punk with Jamaican-influenced ska).
Punk has since evolved into an international movement, yet still maintains its anti-establishment philosophy and support of individual freedom. While its political identity varies depending on which factions it associates with, many sections support gender equality, racial equality, health rights, environmental justice, and civil rights; others promote anarchism while engaging in activism through protesting, rioting eco-sabotage squatting legal graffiti, or illegal graffiti as forms of activism; while some extreme conditions such as Neo-Nazi and Hardcore punk groups advocate white nationalist fascism while many punks hold beliefs that mainstream society will eventually collapse; many punks view mainstream society as doomed to fail.
R&B
Rhythm and blues music is a genre sometimes mixed with rap music that originated among African-American communities, drawing influence from church music, gospel songs, lyrical themes that capture African-American experiences of pain and struggle, urban areas like New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia where it quickly gained prominence due to Motown Records’ popularization and other labels’ promotion; today it continues its immense success into modern times.
R&B artists began as musicians rooted in blues and African-American church music. To create melodies, they would utilize electric guitars, double basses, pianos, horn sections, and songs from pieces made by electric guitars and double basses. Over time, this style of music has evolved further while giving rise to genres like rock’n’roll, ska, funk, and disco music styles.
In the 1980s, R&B began to fuse with hip hop due to several artists such as Luther Vandross, Mariah Carey, and Whitney Houston rapping on some of their albums. Other genres have long influenced R&B music; its influence can even be found among contemporary rappers.
Contemporary R&B music today can often be identified by keyboards, synthesizers, and bass lines that provide foundational solid sounds. It entails soulful vocalists with emotive lyrics; many singers in this genre are renowned for their incredible voices, which are then supported by either a strong bass line or drum beat; in some instances, artists even combine both forms into their albums.
This genre combines elements of rap, dance, and hip-hop music into one distinctive sound that has evolved. This subgenre has grown increasingly popular with young people over time; some of its biggest hits have been written by famous songwriters, with songs often depicting problems young people are facing; these may focus on love issues while others address social matters.
Hyphy is a subgenre of rap music introduced by Keak Da Sneak and widely adopted by other artists; Mistah F.A.B, E-40, Too $hort, and X-Clan are among the artists that have contributed their renditions of this style of music to its creation.
Hip-Hop
Hip-hop emerged in African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and Latino inner-city communities torn apart by drugs and violence during the early 1970s. It drew upon longstanding African-American musical traditions like field hollers, blues, and gospel while also drawing upon elements of street culture like graffiti writing and break dancing to create its soundscape. Early performers of Hip-Hop were known as MCs (MC stands for Master of Ceremonies or DJ if using prerecorded instrumental tracks), who performed vocal styles interplayed with beats while mixing vocal styles or even rap with beats simultaneously to make its sound unique.
Hip-hop is a diverse musical and cultural genre that has had an immense impact on music, dance, fashion, literature, visual art, lifestyles, and politics – KRS One from Boogie Down Productions once said, “Hip-hop is not something you listen to, it’s something you live.” Over time, it has evolved into many subgenres such as trap, grime, gangsta rap, rap rock, crunk chill hop bounce, and mumble rap.
However, while hip-hop was trendy among youth audiences, its acceptance by all wasn’t universally approved. Critics claimed it glorified drug taking, violence, and criminal behavior, yet many artists used their platform to advocate against injustices of the time while spreading messages of unity and hope for change.
In the mid-’90s, conscious hip hop emerged alongside boom-bap, with its political focus influenced by the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Artists like A Tribe Called Quest and NWA addressed issues like police brutality, social inequality, and poverty through hip-hop songs, beginning a legacy of speaking truth to power in hip-hop.
Gangsta rap is a controversial subgenre of hip-hop music that employs hard-edged sounds and violent lyrics, which was in part inspired by popular perceptions of black urban youth depicted through popular culture as “gangstas.” Although often considered exploitative and dehumanizing of black people, its lyrics have helped raise awareness about socioeconomic conditions within urban neighborhoods where this style thrives.
Southern hip-hop is a regional style of hip-hop with roots in the Southern United States, featuring elements from both hip-hop and traditional southern styles of music, often slow tempos, heavy basslines, and an emphasis on regional pride and identity. Artists such as OutKast and UGK popularized this genre.
Rock
Rock is a genre often combined with rap that ranges from hard-driving guitar and drumbeats to ambient atmospheric soundscaping. Well-known examples of this style of music are Slade & Sweet’s brutal rocking soundscape, punk groups such as Sex Pistols & Ramones’ punk sound, and Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett’s psychedelic rockers, among many others.
Hip-hop producers frequently incorporate samples of traditional rock instruments and genres into their productions, especially during boom-bap’s gangsta rap era in the 1990s. These tracks emphasized street life’s grimier elements with intense lyrics and heavy boom-bap drums, while strings or orchestral instruments often added elegant yet formal tones that complemented harsh or gritty songs.
Over the past few years, an entire generation of rappers have been greatly influenced by emo music’s emotional style. From Kurt Cobain’s painful lyrics and melodies of artists like XXXTentacion and Juice WRLD helping normalize more sensitive aspects of modern rap to Juice WRLD’s whimsical pieces and the sad and nostalgic soundscape of his songs, modern rappers are taking note.
Hip-hop producers have begun incorporating rock instrumentation and electronic influences like UK garage and dubstep into their music, leading them to explore “grime,” an increasingly popular genre that blends the production styles of traditional hip-hop with bubbly synthesizers and other electronic music sounds. “Grime” has become particularly prevalent across Europe but particularly so in Britain, where rappers such as Lil B, A$AP Rocky, Clams Casino, and Oakland duo Main Attrakionz have popularized its existence.