Ever-expanding techniques and genres…

In a previous module, we took a look at some of the early artists in the field of hip-hop and rap. This included an aesthetic analysis of the music and the technology that made it happen. Now we have the opportunity to look at what’s happening with artists today, and how that may directly relate to or divert from trends or techniques of the past. This kind of analysis is especially interesting in the 21st century due to the increased accessibility of new technologies that allow more people to engage with creative tools, as well as the diversification of these broader genres into more niche sub-genres. Let’s start by looking at some of the artists earlier in this century, as well as the technological developments of today.

A new millennium

When we left off last time, we only covered a smattering of music examples and artists from the 1970s to the 1990s. However, there is still a bridge to build between the hip-hop of today from the last two decades. At this point in time, hip-hop is reaching new peaks of commodification by all kinds of listeners. The genre has evolved and continues to redefine mainstream American culture by being the most popular form of music to listen to. On the other side of this commercialization, however, is the abuse of influence record labels have in shaping the future of hip-hop. We’ll look at both sides of this coin as we look through some of the most notable hip-hop artists from the last 20 or so years.

Right at the turn of the century, OutKast releases their fourth and one of their most commercially successful albums, Stankonia. The duo featured André 3000 and Big Boi of Atlanta, Georgia, and they were perhaps most well known for their transition away from the gangsta rap that was prominent in the 80s and 90s and into the mainstream. The duo was known laying down relatively melodic rap flows over fast tempos and beat schemes, as opposed to the slower backbeat and spoken lyricism of most other hip-hop of the time. After enjoying solo careers in their own right, André 3000 and Big Boi are now working together again on new music and have recently reissued the Stankonia album.¹

At this same time, an upcoming, unlikely legend of hip-hop and rap had released his third studio album, The Marshal Mathers LP. Out of all of the white and frat rappers of the 80s and 90s (see the Bestie Boys), Detroit-based Eminem would likely be considered the first white artist to truly be adopted into the hip-hop scene. His compositional technique at the time included a blend of electronic beats, pop choruses, and rap verses that featured fast lyrcisim. This same lyricism would often lead to some well-earned controversy from innocuous public insults cast at celebrities to the far more harmful use of homophobic slurs. Especially in his earlier discography, Eminem’s lyrics would also feature misogynistic and violent acts against women, often dispensed using his alter ego. Despite all of this, he still enjoys being the top-selling hip-hop artist of all time as of 2021.²

By the mid-2000s, hip-hop became a commercial powerhouse: a money-maker that would certainly be completely consumed by corporate record labels. One particular artist would see prominent labels pushed into the corporate structure, while simultaneously jumpstarting the careers of several superstars. Enter Jay-Z, a celebrated artist in his own right, but perhaps most notable for his business career. Along with Dame Dash and Kareem Burke, the three artists founded Roc-A-Fella, a now-defunct label that served as a launching pad for artists such as Kanye West and Rihanna. The three artists eventually sold a majority shares of the company to Def Jam Recordings, which is a part of the mega-corporation Universal Music Group. After accepting a position as president at Def Jam, Jay-Z would oust Dash and Burke from Roc-A-Fella with the later two creating the Dame Dash Music Group.³

Aside from business dealings, the industry was now creating some of the artists which go on to define modern hip-hop and its sub-genres. Outside of the U.S., M.I.A. was an up-and-coming English electronic artist who released their first critically acclaimed album, Kala, in 2006. The album features numerous electronic processing techniques and a fusion of world folk music that, I think, embodies the direction of contemporary electronic music. As a child of Sri Lankan immigrants, she often incorporates commentary of immigration and minority oppression into her music. The artist would become the victim of immigration issues herself, and insinuated that her U.S. visa bans were due to her stances on these social issues.⁴ Today, M.I.A. is still pushing boundaries and expectations within the worlds of hip-hop and pop and is set to release her sixth studio album, MATA.⁵

As the decade rolled over, the world of hip-hop and rap started to grapple with modern sensibilities and the age of social media. The years of unchecked homophobia and sexism were catching up to artists and forcing accountability, subsequently creating a space where intersectionality can flourish. Additionally, the rap label dynasties of the 2000s were officially dying, splitting into smaller, independent labels or consumed into the aforementioned mega-corporations. And as we’ve entered the modern era of hip-hop, we also find ourselves within the height of popularity for the genre and the celebrity status it affords to its players.

Nicki Minaj is just one artist that intersects with all three of these points. Her songs embrace a fusion of pop and hip-hop fusion, and her rap delivery is fast through a series of dialects that are characteristic with her style. In the 2010s, however, Minaj was just seeing breakthrough success with her first full studio album, Pink Friday. Over the next several years, she would continue with successful album releases within the Universal music group, Grammy performances, and collaborations with other superstars such as Madonna and Kanye. Today, Minaj is often contended as the “greatest of all time” of rap, but is often dismissed due to the influence of mainstream pop on her works and the impersonal, unserious nature of her lyrics.⁶ Like many of her contemporaries, Minaj is not without controversy either, with a very vocal questioning of vaccines related to COVID-19. While not directly impacting her music, the discourse of vaccine hesitancy with a platform of millions of followers encourages us to consider the ethics of celebrity across all media.

Speaking of controversy, I suppose it’s time to address the most controversial yet most pivotal person of hip-hop in the modern era: Kanye West. As of 2021, West had formally changed his name to Ye, which I will use to refer to the artist from here on out. Throughout his career, Ye is probably most known for the production and artistry of his music, taking wildly different approaches to compositional technique across all of his albums. The media and music critics often tout him as the most influential artist of this century, with many current artists citing him as such.⁷ Ye also shares his experiences with mental health both publically and in his music, most notably his living with bipolar disorder and addiction. While his willingness to share his mental health experiences with commendable, he has been known to forgo treatment and medication for the sake of his artistry - a relatively unhealthy perception to have about the creation of art and an extension of the tortured genius trope.⁸ Today, he is still producing music regularly with the recent release of Donda, while also falling further into controversy with political affiliations, public relationships with friends and family, and a potential 2024 presidential campaign.

Again, these are just some of the few greats that helped to get us to where we are today - most of which are still working. We’re going to take a look at even more artists and their music, soon. But first, let’s do a quick vocab run that will cover the technological items of the last couple of decades.

Technologies

As I mentioned before, a new era of technology has completely changed the way artists create music, as well as how we interact with it. The advent of cheaper (sometimes free) music production software means that nearly everyone with modern computers and phones can theoretically create music in their bedroom. The era of social media and internet media exchange means that these bedroom musicians can share their creations effortlessly with the world. Let’s go through some common technologies, most of which we take for granted, that made this current reality possible.

Signal is the term we used to describe the mechanical waveforms produced by music or sound.

Analog refers to the recording and presentation methods of a signal that is captured or played with mechanical devices. Microphones are examples of analog recording devices, while vinyl turntables and speakers are analog devices that read and play analog signals.

Digital refers to the digitized stream of data that is sampled from analog signals. This digitization allows for greater control and processing of sounds, and is the only way to work with signals in modern computers.

Analog to Digital Conversion (ADC) is, as you could guess, the process in which analog signals are converted into digital signals. Digital to Analog Conversion (DAC) is the opposite of this process. Most modern music production contains both of these processes somewhere along the chain. Audio interfaces are modern equipment that can handle both ends of this conversion process and seamlessly interact with computers. You can see a common audio workflow below.

PCM, or pulse-code modulation, is the method we use to sample analog samples and convert them to digital signals. This method was first developed in Japan in the 1960s, but is still being used today. Common file extensions of the PCM technology are .wav (Waveform Audio File Format) by Microsoft or .aif (Audio Interchange File Format) by Apple.

MP3s, or M-PEG’s were one of the first developments in digital audio media since PCM. Technically, MP3s are another coding format that allows the storage of compressed audio from multiple channels. However, we know them as simply the most ubiquitous file format to this day. The compression afforded by the MP3 format ushered in an era of internet file-sharing in the early day of the web.

Digital Instruments are fully electronic instruments that can be found in DAW’s. They are used to both mimic real, acoustic instruments, and have also been utilized to create unique timbres of their own. Again, the piano sounds you’ve heard in this course are from a digital instrument. Drum machines and beatmakers, such as 808s are also examples of digital instruments. Sometimes digital instruments use samples from their real-world counterparts or are synthesized completely electronically.

DAWs, or Digital Audio Workstations, are computer software that provides a user interface to the whole workflow seen above. In addition to audio processing, most modern DAW’s include synthesized sounds as well - electronic instruments that are replicated digitally. The piano rolls we have been using are from the DAW I use, Logic Pro. Other common DAW’s include Ableton, FL Studio, and the free version of Logic found on Macs, Garage Band.

MIDI, or Musical Instrument Digital Interface, is a hardware device that was used for electronic music production and recording in the past. Nowadays, MIDI has been utilized mostly as a protocol for electronic instruments, since modern computers and DAWs handle the interface portion of the hardware. A common way we see MIDI used is through keyboards, where the MIDI protocol captures pitch, velocity (how hard the key is pressed), duration, and other variables played on the keyboard and inputs them directly into the DAW or notation program.

Beat Pads, are a type of MIDI controller that is designed for performance. A performer can program certain triggers, instruments, or beat groves to play in each pad. Similar to the turntable performances before, a little planning and a single controller is enough to perform an entire concert on your own.

Mainstream hip-hop and rap

When using the term mainstream, there is going to be a reasonable amount of disagreement about what would be considered mainstream. 30 years ago, it was unheard of to have an artist independently produce their own music without help from a record label, and be sold to mass audiences. It’s even further unheard of if that person we’re to be a woman working as an independent artist. My point is that times, opinions, and circumstances change over time - so the best metric we have to consider music mainstream is by raw popularity. Today, popularity is easily measured with streaming metrics - with Spotify being a decent starting point. Though, it is important to not conflate popularity with quality. As you will see in the next section of this module, some really great music can be created by some small players.

All of that to say; I don’t find much enjoyment or use in applying technical analysis across pop songs in order to “find out” why they’re popular. Modern listening has become so diverse in technique that such analysis would likely be ineffective. What we can do, however, is look at these songs through a cultural or social lens, as well as compare it to songs of a similar aesthetic. Now that’s out of the way, let’s listen to some Doja Cat and SZA.

Doja Cat is a hip-hop/pop-rap artist that has burst into the scene over the past few years with hit after hit. Meanwhile, SZA is an established R&B performer and songwriter who has earned several accolades in the soul scene for over a decade now. As far as the song is concerned, it’s pretty straightforward. It’s just a bop. Aside from a heavy grove that keeps the song moving forward, we have very light instrumentation that lends to the upbeat, dance party tempo and song-like rap delivery from both of our performers. It is a true blend of pop and hip-hop, and it just works

In less than a year, this video has garnered over 300 million views. On Spotify, the uncut version of the song has 1 billion streams. To provide some perspective, the best-selling artists of all time so far, The Beatles, have a measly 750 million streams of their top song on Spotify, Here Comes the Sun. If we wanted to try to provide some kind of social-cultural analysis as to why this song is so popular, I have a few ideas. My first guess would be due to its virality on social media, specifically being used as a sound on Tik Tok. Another guess comes from its time of release, April of 2021. At the time, it seemed like we were at the end of the pandemic with record low cases and deaths and the start of widespread vaccination. That in combination with the start of summer making more people comfortably socializing, and the aforementioned virality, may have created the perfect storm for what is one of the top songs of 2021.

Moving on to another Drake piece, Wants and Needs, we find ourselves with a track that is ostensibly hip-hop. The track features a heavy 808 style beat and the classic chorus/verse scheme that we are familiar with. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this piece is its relatively genuine introspection. Drake and many other hip-hop artists today often engage in a sort of roleplaying that is reminiscent of the 90s and early 2000s gangsta rap - both in style and content. In this piece, however, Drake and Lil Baby acknowledge their removal from relatable world experiences and instead provide commentary on balancing wealth and fame with interpersonal relationships and family.

Now don’t get me wrong, the piece is ultimately ineffective at being relatable to most of us. However, it does provide an interesting inflection point in the genre as far lyricism goes. However, there’s no clear explanation (at least for me) as to why this song has made rounds aside from being another Drake track. There is plenty more to say about Drake and the trajectory of his music in the mainstream. If that interest you, be sure to check out the learning extension at the end of this module.

For our last example, let’s look at an artist who’s quite a bit smaller than the previous few, but just as successful overseas. Little Simz is a British rapper whose past 2 albums positioned her near the top of UK music charts. Her song, Woman, features a relatively unique blend of funk and early R&B heard in the instrumentation and the cyclical chord progression. This instrumental is of course supported by Little Simz’ rhythmic flow, which often emphasizes the last syllables of words by elongating ending consonants - not a common technique that I’m familiar with that may be due to the English dialect. The lyrical content of the piece is also relatively unique. While many hip-hop songs feature a perspective centered around black or female identity, she uses the piece to call out women of color across the globe in homage to their culture and inspiration.

By now, the point should be illustrated that the mainstream appeal of contemporary hip-hop isn’t due to some specific songwriting formula or lyrical content, as these 3 songs are as diverse as you’re going to get. That being said, and as I alluded to earlier, I’m not so sure there is an explanation for such appeal, nor do I think it matters. The very least we can do is analyze these pieces of art in their own contexts, and do our best to appreciate them in some way. Some songs may take a little more work on the listener’s end in order to appreciate them, however, which brings us to the last portion of this module.

Electronica and the avant-garde

Let’s loosely define these genres. Electronica is a form of dance music that heavily features digital instruments. It came out of the United Kingdom in the 1990s to describe its own style of electronic dance music. In the U.S., the term has been ambiguated into any music with digital instruments and processing, including hip-hop and pop. Avant-Garde was a definitive movement in music and art across the world in the 1900s, Throughout the rest of the century and today, the term has been used to describe non-conforming art that is new or cutting-edge. Both of these genres or descriptors intersect brilliantly in some of today’s hip-hop to create, in my opinion, some of the best musical experiences.

Check out Say the Name from clipping., a three man group fronted by Daveed Diggs and producers Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson. As you’re listening, consider why I and others consider this some form of experimental music making. What might this song feature or lack when compared to the mainstream hip-hop we’ve covered?

The 2020 track Say the Name seems to be a retelling of the 1985 short story The Forbidden, and subsequently the 1992 film Candyman. These horror media pieces we’re largely considered to depict racist stereotypes centered on interracial relationships and tropes of black violence. The group commits to selling the horror genre through music, while also providing the story through an anti-racist lens. As an extension to this ongoing narrative, a 2021 sequel film also titled Candyman was released. The film was directed by Nia DaCosta and produced by Jordan Peele.

As for music, there are many things we can identify as through and through hip-hop. The production is familiar, with a solid grove and beat patterns that facilitate the lyrical flow. The lyrics alone feature several references to other artists and interpolation of other hip-hop tunes, including the Geto Boys lyric that encompasses the chorus (Candlesticks in the dark, visions of bodies being burned). At the same time, there are several qualities that mark a departure from the mainstream, the most obvious being the horrorcore aesthetic that is the main feature throughout the album. The instrumentation, though familiar, is incredibly sparse, only building at the end of the piece into cacophony. While not present in this song specifically, clipping. often practices incredibly unique processing techniques throughout their pieces, with the next track in the album being a perfect example of such techniques. We’ll be able to explore these processing techniques in a later module, and as clipping. is one of my personal favorites, you will be sure to hear them again.

Next up we have Syrup by Tkay Maidza, a Zimbabwean singer and producer based out of Australia. While the lyrical content of the song isn’t novel or out-there, the accompanying instrumentation and composition provide an unsettling context. There is virtually no harmony or melody, or familiar chord progression, just a heavily processed bass line that moves us through the piece. Additionally, seemingly random, bell-like sounds pepper the verses creating even more instability. On a scale from familiar to novelty, the piece tends towards the novel, with few elements if any that remind us of the mainstream hip-hop we listened to earlier. But wait, it gets weirder!

Death Grips is another U.S.-based group featuring singer/rapper Stefan Burnet and producers Zach Hill and Andy Morin. The piece nearly completely abandons traditional hip-hop tropes, featuring incredibly complex rhythmic ideas, non-traditional pitch/harmonic patterns, and heavily processed digital instruments. In fact, there are some of you who may be wondering how this is really considered music. If you’re one of those people, try listening to the piece again while dispensing any biases or predispositions you have about what music is. You will be able to hear some kind of form, rhythm, and pitch - just not in the way you’re used to hearing.

By far the hardest part of being a music listener is being able to appreciate the broader musical elements we find in music, or at least understanding how another listener finds these elements desirable. This is of course the case with far-out, avant-garde music, but also extends to even the most popular music genres. Keeping your mind open to these concepts is one of the quickest ways to become a better listener - and you may even find some new music you like!