You Have To Have Some ‘80s Hip-Hop

With Jay-Z, Drake and Kanye dominating the hip-hop landscape, more people are going back to where it all began, back to the start of the explosion, back to the ‘80s.

The late 80s and the early 90s are known as the golden age of hip-hop. The times are famous for the innovation, diversity and increasing use of sampling. At that stage, everything was new and every record seemed to offer something different to the genre.

Hip hop and rap started to gain popularity in the 1970s as street kids often of Caribbean or African descent started rhyming lyrics to a beat. However, the real explosion into the popular conscience was with the release of Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight”. Initially it was about a song on a bootleg cassette; this evolved through singles, breakbeats, drum machines and ultimately into albums.

Following hot on their footsteps, we saw the emergence of Run DMC and N.W.A and the hip-hop revolution was well and truly afoot.

While the ‘90s was characterised by increased complexity in the lyrics, the ‘80s were all about bigger beats and simple rhymes. It was about kids being creative. The genre was certainly dominated by black men, but white artists like the Beastie Boys and female groups like Salt-n-Pepa also managed to make their presence felt.

If you are looking to get a bit of ‘80s hip hop into your life, as well as the artists named above, it is recommended you check out the likes of Public Enemy, Slick Rick, LL Cool J and De La Soul,