Instrumentation:
- Vocals (Predominantly male) Rapping
- Record decks (Turntables)
- Samplers
- Synthesizers
- Drum Machine
- Sometimes live instruments like guitar, keyboards, drums, percussion, bass, saxophone and other horns
Technology and Production:
- Later styles also use samplers to create loops
- DJ scratching creates unique sounds including reversing, pitch-shifting and filtering
- Special effects from synthesizers / non-pitched sound effects
- Drum machines used instead of or alongside loops
- Original hip-hop artists used two or more record decks to play instrumental grooves – often drum and bass breaks – while mixing in other patterns or short hits from other records
- Music often has a lo-fi quality
- Deep bass frequencies – often from kick-drum sounds
Performance and Arrangement:
- Melodic elements are normally short motifs
- Use of riffs, often repetitive
- Based mainly on repeating rhythmic patterns – loops
- Sometimes no bass line
- Unique timbres created by DJ scratching techniques
- Harmonic elements often have little importance, no large scale chord patterns or complex harmony
- Rappers perform over the beats of a DJ
- Frequent use of call and response chants
- Use of beat boxing
- Songs typically have a verse -chorus structure with the chorus based on a refrain with catchy hook, often delivered by several rappers
Influences:
- Funk
- Disco
- Soul
- R&B
- Reggae – toasters on sound systems, dub
- Scat singing
Key Terms and Facts:
- Djing – Scratching, Record Decks, Turntables, Crossfading
- Sampling – Loops, samples, Drum machines