1.
Hip hop music
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It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements, MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, break dancing, and graffiti writing. Other elements include sampling beats or bass lines from records, while often used to refer solely to rapping, hip hop more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture. Hip hops early evolution occurred as sampling technology and drum machines became available and affordable. Turntablist techniques such as scratching and beatmatching developed along with the breaks and Jamaican toasting, rapping developed as a vocal style in which the artist speaks or chants along rhythmically with an instrumental or synthesized beat. The Sugarhill Gangs 1979 song Rappers Delight is widely regarded to be the first hip hop record to gain popularity in the mainstream. The 1980s marked the diversification of hip hop as the genre developed more complex styles, prior to the 1980s, hip hop music was largely confined within the United States. However, during the 1980s, it began to spread to scenes in dozens of countries. New school hip hop was the wave of hip hop music, originating in 1983–84 with the early records of Run-D. M. C. The Golden age hip hop period was a period between the mid-1980s and the early 1990s. Notable artists from this era include the Juice Crew, Public Enemy, & Rakim, Boogie Down Productions and KRS-One, EPMD, Slick Rick, Beastie Boys, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Ultramagnetic MCs, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest. Gangsta rap is a subgenre of hip hop that often focuses on the violent lifestyles, in the West Coast hip hop style, G-funk dominated mainstream hip hop for several years during the 1990s. I. G. In the 1990s, hip hop began to diversify with other regional styles emerging, such as Southern rap, at the same time, hip hop continued to be assimilated into other genres of popular music, examples being Neo soul and nu metal. Hip hop became a pop music genre in the mid-1990s. The popularity of hip hop music continued through the 2000s, with hip hop influences also increasingly finding their way into mainstream pop, the United States also saw the success of regional styles such as crunk, a Southern genre that emphasized the beats and music more than the lyrics. Starting in 2005, sales of hip hop music in the United States began to severely wane, during the mid-2000s, alternative hip hop secured a place in the mainstream, due in part to the crossover success of artists such as OutKast and Kanye West. Creation of the hip hop is often credited to Keith Cowboy, rapper with Grandmaster Flash. However, Lovebug Starski, Keith Cowboy, and DJ Hollywood used the term when the music was known as disco rap. Cowboy later worked the hip hop cadence into a part of his stage performance, the first use of the term in print was in The Village Voice, by Steven Hager, later author of a 1984 history of hip hop
2.
Contemporary R&B
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Contemporary R&B, also known as simply R&B, is a music genre that combines elements of rhythm and blues, soul, funk, pop, hip hop and dance. The genre features a record production style, drum machine-backed rhythms, an occasional saxophone-laced beat to give a jazz feel. Electronic influences are becoming a trend and the use of hip hop or dance-inspired beats are typical, although the roughness. Contemporary R&B vocalists are often known for their use of melisma, popularized by such as Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Craig David, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston. That same year, Teddy Riley began producing R&B recordings that included hip hop influences and this combination of R&B style and hip hop rhythms was termed new jack swing and was applied to artists such as Bobby Brown, Keith Sweat, Al B. Guy, Jodeci and Bell Biv DeVoe, the style became less popular by the end of the 1990s, but later experienced a resurgence. In 1990 Mariah Carey released Vision of Love as her debut single and it was immensely popular peaking at number 1 in many worldwide charts including the Billboard Hot 100, and it propelled Mariahs carrier. The song is said to have popularized the use of melisma. During the mid-1990s, Whitney Houstons The Bodyguard, Original Soundtrack Album sold over 40 million copies becoming the best-selling soundtrack of all time. Janet Jacksons self-titled fifth studio album janet. which came after her historic multimillion-dollar contract with Virgin Records, sold over twenty million copies worldwide. Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey recorded several Billboard Hot 100 No.1 hits, including One Sweet Day, Carey also released a remix of her 1995 single Fantasy, with Ol Dirty Bastard as a feature, a collaboration format that was unheard of at this point. Carey, Boyz II Men and TLC released albums in 1994 and 1995—Daydream, II and CrazySexyCool. In the late 1990s, neo soul, which added 1970s soul influences to the hip hop soul blend, arose, led by such as DAngelo, Erykah Badu. Hill and Missy Elliott further blurred the line between R&B and hip hop by recording both styles, beginning in 1995, the Grammy Awards enacted the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, with II by Boyz II Men becoming the first recipient. The award was received by TLC for CrazySexyCool in 1996, Tony Rich for Words in 1997, Erykah Badu for Baduizm in 1998. At the end of 1999, Billboard magazine ranked Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson as the first, simultaneously, in the second half of the 1990s, The Neptunes and Timbaland set influential precedence on contemporary R&B and hip hop music. R&B acts such as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Usher, in 2001, Alicia Keys released Fallin as her debut single. It peaking at one on the Billboard Hot 100, Mainstream Top 40
3.
Questlove
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Ahmir Khalib Thompson, known professionally as Questlove, is an American percussionist, multi-instrumentalist, DJ, music journalist, record producer, and occasional actor. He is best known as the drummer and joint frontman for the Grammy Award-winning band The Roots and he is also one of the producers of the Broadway musical Hamilton. He is the cofounder of Okayplayer and Okayafrica, additionally, he is an adjunct instructor at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University. He has produced recordings for artists including Elvis Costello, Common, DAngelo, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Bilal, Jay-Z, Nikka Costa, and more recently, Al Green, Amy Winehouse, and John Legend. He is a member of the teams the Soulquarians, The Randy Watson Experience, The Soultronics, The Beat Biters. Ahmir Khalib Thompson was born in Philadelphia on January 20,1971 and his father was Lee Andrews of Lee Andrews & the Hearts, a 50s doo-wop group. His mother, Jacquelin Thompson, together with his father, was part of the Philadelphia-based soul group Congress Alley. His parents did not want to leave him with babysitters, so took him on tour with them. He grew up in backstages of doo-wop shows, by the age of seven, Thompson began drumming on stage at shows, and by 13, had become a musical director. Questloves parents then enrolled him at the Philadelphia High School for the Creative, by the time he graduated, he had founded a band called The Square Roots with his friend Tariq Trotter. He attended senior prom with Larrieux, after graduating from high school, he took jazz and composition classes at Settlement Music School. Thompson began performing on South Street in Philadelphia using drums, while Tariq rhymed over his beats, Thompson and Jay Lonick, a childhood friend, were known for improvisational call and response percussion battles with plastic buckets, crates, and shopping carts. This style translated into Thompsons usual drumset arrangement, with most drums and cymbals positioned at waist level, the Roots lineup was soon completed, with Questlove on percussion, Tariq Trotter and Malik B on vocals, Josh Abrams on bass, and Scott Storch on keyboards. While the group was performing a show in Germany, they recorded an album entitled Organix, the group continued recording, releasing two critically acclaimed records in 1995 and 1996, Do You Want More. and Illadelph Halflife, respectively. In 1999, The Roots had mainstream success with You Got Me, the song helped fuel the success of their Things Fall Apart album, which has since been hailed as a classic, eventually selling platinum. He also served as producer for DAngelos 2000 album Voodoo, Slum Villages album Fantastic, Vol.2 and Commons albums Like Water for Chocolate. He played drums on Christina Aguileras song Loving Me 4 Me for her 2002 album Stripped, in 2002, he and The Roots released the critically acclaimed Phrenology, which went gold. In 2003, he played drums on John Mayers song Clarity from his second album Heavier Things and he also arranged and drummed on Joss Stones cover of the White Stripes Fell in Love with a Girl
4.
Pharrell Williams
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Pharrell Lanscilo Williams is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, and film producer. Williams and Chad Hugo make up the production duo The Neptunes, producing soul, hip hop. He is the lead vocalist and drummer of the rock-funk-hip hop band N*E*R*D and he released his first single, Frontin, in 2003 and followed up with his debut solo album, In My Mind in 2006. His second album, Girl, was released on March 3,2014 and this album was preceded by the commercially successful single, Happy. As part of the Neptunes, Williams has produced hit singles for various recording artists. Williams has earned ten Grammy Awards including two with the Neptunes and he is also a two-time Academy Award nominee, receiving a 2014 Best Original Song nomination from Happy and a 2017 Best Picture nomination as one of the producers of Hidden Figures. Williams was born on April 5,1973, in Virginia Beach, Virginia and his roots extend for generations in Virginia and North Carolina, and one of his ancestors journeyed to West Africa in 1831, prompting other relatives to emigrate from America to Liberia in 1832. He met Chad Hugo in a summer band camp where Williams played the keyboards and drums. They were also members of a marching band, Williams played the snare drum while Hugo was drum major. Williams and Hugo attended Princess Anne High School where he played in the school band, in the MTV show When I Was 17, Pharrell stated that he was a nerd and often did things that made him stand out from most of his peers. In the early 1990s, Hugo and Williams formed a four-piece R&B-type group and they later entered a high school talent show where they were discovered by Teddy Riley, whose studio was next to Princess Anne High School. After graduating from school, the group signed with Riley. Through working with Riley, Williams went on to write a verse and that same year, he also performed a small rap solo on SWVs second hit, Right Here. Williams and Hugo met rap duo Clipse in Virginia Beach in 1993, in 1994, Hugo and Williams had established themselves as a production duo under their old name The Neptunes, and assistant-produced Tonights The Night from Blackstreets self-titled album. Over the next three years continued to produce occasionally, and some of the results had little resemblance to the Neptunes sound later. In 1999, a friend introduced Williams to Kelis. At this point the Neptunes were gaining a fanbase and audience. In 2000, they produced the song I Just Wanna Love U for Jay Zs album The Dynasty, Roc La Familia, the songs sound and success sparked the interest of maturing pop artist Britney Spears
5.
Of Montreal
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Of Montreal is an American experimental band from Athens, Georgia. It was founded by frontman Kevin Barnes in 1996, named after a romance between Barnes and a woman of Montreal. The band is identified as part of the Elephant 6 collective, throughout its existence, of Montreals musical style has evolved considerably and drawn inspiration from numerous 1960s psychedelic pop acts. Kevin Barnes founded of Montreal, allegedly naming it for a romance with a woman from Montreal. Barnes was the member of the group prior to his relocation to Athens. There, he met Derek Almstead and Bryan Poole, who performs as The Late B. P. Together, they recorded their album, Cherry Peel, and subsequent releases The Bird Who Ate the Rabbits Flower and The Bedside Drama. After production on The Gay Parade, the third album, began in 1998. Barnes then recruited James Husband and Dottie Alexander, who had been performing together as Lightning Bug vs. Firefly, Derek moved from drums to bass, and Marshmallow Coasts Andy Gonzales joined soon after. Prior to the release of The Gay Parade in 1999, of Montreal released a number of singles and a re-release of The Bird Who Continues to Eat the Rabbits Flower. Following the release of The Gay Parade, the signed with Kindercore Records, and in 2001. Kindercore Records would fold shortly after the release of Aldhils Arboretum, Barnes took to writing and performing their 2004 album Satanic Panic in the Attic mostly by himself. Released by Polyvinyl Records, it one of their more successful efforts until that point. During the tour for Satanic, the Late B. P, in 2003, Kevin was married to Nina Grøttland, who would also play some bass for the tour. The album marked a shift to a bass, with drum machines. This style would continue to evolve into 2005s The Sunlandic Twins, recorded in Athens, with the exception of one track recorded in Norway, it was a much more pronounced electronic album. The album became a success, mostly due to the singles So Begins Our Alabee, the band released several collections of singles in early 2006. Kevin Barnes recorded most of the bands 2007 release, Hissing Fauna, by himself while living in Norway and Athens, Georgia
6.
Mary J. Blige
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Mary Jane Blige is an American singer, songwriter, model, record producer and actress. My Life, in particular, is considered among the greatest albums ever recorded according to Rolling Stone, Time, for her part in combining hip hop and soul in the early 1990s and its subsequent commercial success, Blige received the Legends Award at the World Music Awards. Blige made Time magazines Time 100 list of individuals around the world in 2007. As of 2013, Blige has sold more than 50 million albums and 25 million singles worldwide, Billboard ranked Blige as the most successful female R&B artist of the past 25 years. The magazine also lists her 2006 song Be Without You as the top R&B song of the 2000s, in 2011, VH1 ranked Blige as the 80th greatest artist of all time. Moreover, she is ranked number 100 on the list of 100 greatest singers of all time by Rolling Stone magazine, in 2012, VH1 ranked Blige at number 9 in The 100 Greatest Women in Music. Blige also earned high remarks for her work in film and she starred in the 2009 Tyler Perry box-office hit I Can Do Bad All By Myself and played a role in the film Rock of Ages. She received a Golden Globe Award nomination for her contribution to the film The Help. In partnership with the Home Shopping Network and Carols Daughter, Blige released her My Life perfume, the perfume broke HSN records by selling 65,000 bottles during its premiere. The scent went on to win two FiFi Awards, including the Fragrance Sales Breakthrough award, in 2017, she stars in the period drama film Mudbound directed by Dee Rees. Blige spent her years in Richmond Hill, Georgia, where she sang in a Pentecostal church. Blige later moved to Schlobohm Houses in Yonkers, New York, immediately north of New York City, Blige dropped out of high school in her junior year. Pursuing a musical career, Blige spent a period of time in a Yonkers band named Pride with band drummer Eddie DAprile. In early 1988, she recorded a cover of Anita Bakers Caught Up in the Rapture at a recording booth in the Galleria Mall in White Plains. Her mothers boyfriend at the later played the cassette for Jeff Redd. Redd sent it to the president and CEO of the label, Harrell met with Blige and in 1989 she was signed to the label, becoming the companys youngest and first female artist. After being signed to Uptown Records, Blige began working with record producer Puff Daddy and he became the executive producer and produced a majority of the album. Derived from Bliges past occupation as a 4-1-1 operator, it was also an indication by Blige of being the real deal, the music was described as revelatory on a frequent basis
7.
Makes Me Wonder
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Makes Me Wonder is the first single released from Maroon 5s second album, It Wont Be Soon Before Long. It premiered on the Las Vegas radio station KMXB, and became an instant hit worldwide, upon release, the song set a record for the biggest jump to number-one in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, rising from number 64 to number-one. However, the record was broken by Kelly Clarksons 2009 single. Makes Me Wonder also became the bands first number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the song won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the 50th Grammy Awards, their second song to win the award. The song was among the most successful of 2007, and was their biggest hit until the release of Moves like Jagger by the band in 2011, despite the songs commercial success, critical reception was mixed. It was ranked No.49 on Rolling Stones list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007, Maroon 5 performed the song in May 2007 on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. This song was used in Rock Band games as DLC. Levine began writing parts of Makes Me Wonder years before its release in 2007, Maroon 5 recorded a demo of it, which was one of their firsts while on the road. The band however put the track aside, and years later revisited it for Wont Be Soon Before Long, Levine recalled that the song kept coming up because the label loved it. There, they rethought a couple of songs and we went back, reworking the song for their new album, Maroon 5 struggled to finish Makes Me Wonder. The band could not formulate a chorus that would match with the rest of Makes Me Wonders music, at one point, it had the band deciding to venture into a songwriting trip to somewhere without distractions. While working on another song when they went to a Las Vegas studio, Levine recalls, It was actually great because we were distracted just enough that we didnt think about it too much, and then we wrote this part that wound up being the chorus. Prior to Makes Me Wonder, producer Mark Endert had contributed to the debut album, Songs About Jane, in which he provided additional production to. Having worked on a song called Wake Up Call for the new album, Maroon 5, having re-examined the song, asked Endert to assist them on a track which they did not like. To Endert, the band did not feel like they had realized its potential, however, They were open to new ideas, so I had the freedom to go and look for a new approach. Working on the new material, Endert produced a mockup for the tracks arrangement, using his Logic system at Scream Studios, he programmed the keyboards, bass, guitars on an old 80s Roland. When done, Endert flew to Los Angeles to present to the band the track, Endert and the band went to the Sunset Sound studio where they added track and replaced any parts in Logic that were considered band instruments, resulting to it sounding like Maroon 5s. According to producer Mark Endert, the idea was to make the music contemporary. Meanwhile, they wanted to render it classic by making references to 70s and its music changed from a more rock n roll feel to a 70s funk vibe
8.
Rihanna
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Robyn Rihanna Fenty is a Barbadian singer, songwriter, and actress. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, she first entered the industry by recording demo tapes under the direction of record producer Evan Rogers in 2003. She ultimately signed a contract with Def Jam Recordings after auditioning for its then-president. She assumed creative control for her studio album Good Girl Gone Bad. Its successful lead single Umbrella became a breakthrough in her career. After releasing four consecutive platinum albums, including the Grammy Award winner Unapologetic. Her eighth studio album Anti and its lead single Work reached number-one on the Billboard 200, with sales exceeding 230 million records worldwide, Rihanna is one of the best-selling artists of all time. Widely recognized for reinventing her style, she received the Fashion Icon lifetime achievement award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2014. Forbes ranked Rihanna the fourth most powerful celebrity of 2012, and was named one of Times 100 Most Influential People in the World later that year, Robyn Rihanna Fenty was born on February 20,1988, in Saint Michael, Barbados. Her mother, Monica, is an accountant of African American background. Rihanna has two brothers, Rorrey and Rajad Fenty, and two half-sisters and a half-brother from her fathers side, each born to different mothers from his previous relationships. She grew up in a bungalow in Bridgetown and sold clothes with her father in a stall on the street. Rihannas childhood was affected by her fathers addiction to crack cocaine. As a child, she went through a lot of CT scans for the excruciating headaches she suffered, even thought it was a tumor, by the time she was fourteen, Rihanna’s parents had divorced and her health began to improve. Rihanna grew up listening to music and began singing at around the age of seven. She attended Charles F. Broome Memorial Primary School and Combermere High School, Rihanna was an army cadet in a sub-military programme, the singer-songwriter Shontelle was her drill sergeant. Although she initially wanted to graduate high school, she chose to pursue a musical career instead. In 2003, Rihanna formed a trio with two of her classmates
9.
Record producer
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A record producer or music producer oversees and manages the sound recording and production of a band or performers music, which may range from recording one song to recording a lengthy concept album. A producer has many roles during the recording process, the roles of a producer vary. The producer may perform these roles himself, or help select the engineer, the producer may also pay session musicians and engineers and ensure that the entire project is completed within the record companies budget. A record producer or music producer has a broad role in overseeing and managing the recording. Producers also often take on an entrepreneurial role, with responsibility for the budget, schedules, contracts. In the 2010s, the industry has two kinds of producers with different roles, executive producer and music producer. Executive producers oversee project finances while music producers oversee the process of recording songs or albums. In most cases the producer is also a competent arranger, composer. The producer will also liaise with the engineer who concentrates on the technical aspects of recording. Noted producer Phil Ek described his role as the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, indeed, in Bollywood music, the designation actually is music director. The music producers job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music, at the beginning of record industry, producer role was technically limited to record, in one shot, artists performing live. The role of producers changed progressively over the 1950s and 1960s due to technological developments, the development of multitrack recording caused a major change in the recording process. Before multitracking, all the elements of a song had to be performed simultaneously, all of these singers and musicians had to be assembled in a large studio and the performance had to be recorded. As well, for a song that used 20 instruments, it was no longer necessary to get all the players in the studio at the same time. Examples include the rock sound effects of the 1960s, e. g. playing back the sound of recorded instruments backwards or clanging the tape to produce unique sound effects. These new instruments were electric or electronic, and thus they used instrument amplifiers, new technologies like multitracking changed the goal of recording, A producer could blend together multiple takes and edit together different sections to create the desired sound. For example, in jazz fusion Bandleader-composer Miles Davis album Bitches Brew, producers like Phil Spector and George Martin were soon creating recordings that were, in practical terms, almost impossible to realise in live performance. Producers became creative figures in the studio, other examples of such engineers includes Joe Meek, Teo Macero, Brian Wilson, and Biddu
