1.
Compton, California
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Compton is a city in southern Los Angeles County, California, United States, situated south of downtown Los Angeles. Compton is one of the oldest cities in the county and on May 11,1888, was the city to incorporate. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a population of 96,455. It is known as the Hub City due to its centrality in Los Angeles County. Neighborhoods in Compton include Sunny Cove, Leland, Downtown Compton, the city is generally a working class city with some middle-class neighborhoods, and is home to a relatively young community, at an average 25 years of age, compared to the American median age of 35. In 1784, the Spanish Crown deeded a tract of over 75,000 acres to Juan Jose Dominguez in this area, the tract was named Rancho San Pedro. Dominguezs name was applied to the Dominguez Hills community south of Compton. The tree that marked the northern boundary of the rancho still stands at the corner of Poppy. The rancho was subdivided and parcels were sold within the Californios of Alta California until the lands were ceded after the Mexican-American war in 1848, American immigrants acquired most of the rancho lands after 1848. In 1867, Griffith Dickenson Compton led a group of 30 pioneers to the area and these families had traveled by wagon train south from Stockton, California in search of ways to earn a living other than in the rapid exhaustion of gold fields. Originally named Gibsonville, after one of the owners, it was later called Comptonville. However, to avoid confusion with the Comptonville located in Yuba County, Comptons earliest settlers were faced with terrible hardships as they farmed the land in bleak weather to get by with just the barest subsistence. The weather continued to be harsh, rainy and cold, to gather firewood it was necessary to travel to mountains close to Pasadena. The round trip took almost a week, by 1887, the settlers realized it was time to make improvements to the local government. A series of meetings were held to discuss incorporation of their little town. Griffith D. Compton donated his land to incorporate and create the city of Compton in 1889, in January 1888, a petition supporting the incorporation of Compton was forwarded to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, who in turn forwarded the petition to the State Legislature. On May 11,1888 the city of Compton was incorporated with a population of 500 people, the first City Council meeting was held on May 14,1888. The ample residential lots of Richland Farms gave residents enough space to raise a family, and food to feed them, along with building a barn, and caring for livestock
2.
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
3.
Rapping
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The components of rapping include content, flow, and delivery. Rap differs from spoken-word poetry in that rap is performed in time to a beat. Rapping is often associated with and an ingredient of hip-hop music. Rapping is also used in Kwaito music, a genre originated in Johannesburg, South Africa. Another form of rap that predates hip hop was boxer Muhammad Alis rhythmic poetry used to taunt his opponents in the 1960s and 1970s, rapping can be delivered over a beat, typically provided by a DJ, turntablist or Beatboxer, or without accompaniment. Stylistically, rap occupies an area between speech, prose, poetry, and singing. The word, as used to describe quick speech or repartee, the word had been used in British English since the 16th century. It was part of the African American dialect of English in the 1960s meaning to converse, today, the terms rap and rapping are so closely associated with hip-hop music that many writers use the terms interchangeably. The English verb rap has various meanings, such as to strike, especially with a quick, smart, or light blow, as well to utter sharply or vigorously, to rap out a command. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary gives a date of 1541 for the first recorded use of the word with the meaning to utter sharply, vigorously and it is these meanings from which the musical form of rapping derives, and this definition may be from a shortening of repartee. A rapper refers to a performer who raps, by the late 1960s, when Hubert G. Brown changed his name to H. Rap was used to describe talking on records as early as 1971, on Isaac Hayes album Black Moses with track names such as Ikes Rap, Ikes Rap II, Ikes Rap III, Hayes husky-voiced sexy spoken raps became key components in his signature sound. Del the Funky Homosapien similarly states that rap was used to refer to talking in a manner in the early 1970s. Back then what rapping meant, basically, was you trying to convey something—youre trying to convince somebody, thats what rapping is, its in the way you talk. Rapping can be traced back to its African roots, centuries before hip-hop music existed, the griots of West Africa were delivering stories rhythmically, over drums and sparse instrumentation. Such connections have been acknowledged by modern artists, modern day griots, spoken word artists, mainstream news sources. Grammy-winning blues musician/historian Elijah Wald and others have argued that the blues were being rapped as early as the 1920s, Wald went so far as to call hip hop the living blues. A notable recorded example of rapping in blues music was the 1950 song Gotta Let You Go by Joe Hill Louis, not just jazz music and lyrics but also jazz poetry
4.
Songwriter
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A songwriter is an individual who writes the lyrics, melodies and chord progressions for songs, typically for a popular music genre such as rock or country music. A songwriter can also be called a composer, although the term tends to be used mainly for individuals from the classical music genre. The pressure from the industry to produce popular hits means that songwriting is often an activity for which the tasks are distributed between a number of people. For example, a songwriter who excels at writing lyrics might be paired with a songwriter with a gift for creating original melodies, pop songs may be written by group members from the band or by staff writers – songwriters directly employed by music publishers. Some songwriters serve as their own publishers, while others have outside publishers. The old-style apprenticeship approach to learning how to write songs is being supplemented by university degrees and college diplomas, a knowledge of modern music technology, songwriting elements and business skills are necessary requirements to make a songwriting career in the 2010s. Several music colleges offer songwriting diplomas and degrees with music business modules, the legal power to grant these permissions may be bought, sold or transferred. This is governed by international copyright law, song pitching can be done on a songwriters behalf by their publisher or independently using tip sheets like RowFax, the MusicRow publication and SongQuarters. Skills associated with song-writing include entrepreneurism and creativity, songwriters who sign an exclusive songwriting agreement with a publisher are called staff writers. In the Nashville country music scene, there is a staff writer culture where contracted writers work normal 9-to-5 hours at the publishing office and are paid a regular salary. This salary is in effect the writers draw, an advance on future earnings, the publisher owns the copyright of songs written during the term of the agreement for a designated period, after which the songwriter can reclaim the copyright. In an interview with HitQuarters, songwriter Dave Berg extolled the benefits of the set-up, unlike contracted writers, some staff writers operate as employees for their respective publishers. Under the terms of work for hire agreements, the compositions created are fully owned by the publisher. In Nashville, young writers are often encouraged to avoid these types of contracts. Staff writers are common across the industry, but without the more office-like working arrangements favored in Nashville. All the major publishers employ writers under contract, songwriter Allan Eshuijs described his staff writer contract at Universal Music Publishing as a starter deal. His success under the arrangement eventually allowed him to found his own publishing company, so that he could. keep as much as possible, songwriters are also often skilled musicians. In addition to selling their songs and musical concepts for other artists to sing, songwriters need to create a number of elements for a song
5.
Disc jockey
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A disc jockey is a person who mixes different sources of pre-existing recorded music as it is playing, usually for a live audience in a nightclub or dance club or via broadcasting. DJs typically perform for an audience in a nightclub or dance club or a TV, radio broadcast audience, or in the 2010s. DJs also create mixes, remixes and tracks that are recorded for later sale, in hip hop music, DJs may create beats, using percussion breaks, basslines and other musical content sampled from pre-existing records. In hip hop, rappers and MCs use these beats to rap over, DJs use equipment that can play at least two sources of recorded music simultaneously and mix them together. This allows the DJ to create seamless transitions between recordings and develop unique mixes of songs, DJ equipment, notably the specialized DJ mixer, a small audio mixer with a crossfader and cue functions. The crossfader enables the DJ to blend or transition from one song to another, the cue knobs or switches allow the DJ to preview a source of recorded music in headphones before playing it for the live club or broadcast audience. Previewing the music in headphones helps the DJ pick the track they want to play. DJs may also use a microphone to speak to the audience, effects such as reverb to create sound effects, drum machines. The title DJ is also used by DJs in front of their real names or adopted pseudonyms or stage names as a title to denote their profession. Some DJs focus on creating a mix of songs for the club dancers or radio audience. Other DJs use turntablism techniques such as scratching, in which the DJ or turntablist manipulates the record player turntable to create new sounds. In many types of DJing, including club DJing and radio/TV DJing, there are several types of disc jockey. Radio DJs or radio personalities introduce and play music that is broadcast on AM, FM, club DJs select and play music in bars, nightclubs or discothèques, or at parties, raves, or even in stadiums. Mobile DJs travel with portable sound systems and play recorded music at a variety of events. Some mobile DJs also serve as the master of ceremonies at weddings or other events, directing the attention of attendees, there are also many competitions for DJs that specialize in different turntablism techniques, such as mixing, hip hop music-style scratching or other kinds of techniques. Other types of DJ use musical performance techniques that allow them to be categorized as performing musicians, hip hop DJs and are also often songwriters or music producers who use turntablism and sampling to create backing instrumentals for new tracks. In reggae, the DJ is a vocalist who raps, toasts, chants or chats over pre-recorded rhythm tracks, the individual who helps the DJ by selecting tracks or records to be played is called the selector. Many electronica artists and producers who work as DJs often perform music by combining turntablism with keyboards, digital musical instruments
6.
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
7.
Singing
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Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of sustained tonality, rhythm, and a variety of vocal techniques. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist, Singers perform music that can be sung with or without accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is often done in an ensemble of musicians, such as a choir of singers or a band of instrumentalists, Singers may perform as soloists, or accompanied by anything from a single instrument up to a symphony orchestra or big band. Singing can be formal or informal, arranged or improvised and it may be done as a form of religious devotion, as a hobby, as a source of pleasure, comfort, or ritual, as part of music education, or as a profession. Excellence in singing requires time, dedication, instruction, and regular practice, if practice is done on a regular basis then the sounds can become more clear and strong. Professional singers usually build their careers around one specific genre, such as classical or rock. They typically take voice training provided by teachers or vocal coaches throughout their careers. Though these four mechanisms function independently, they are coordinated in the establishment of a vocal technique and are made to interact upon one another. During passive breathing, air is inhaled with the diaphragm while exhalation occurs without any effort, exhalation may be aided by the abdominal, internal intercostal and lower pelvis/pelvic muscles. Inhalation is aided by use of external intercostals, scalenes and sternocleidomastoid muscles, the pitch is altered with the vocal cords. With the lips closed, this is called humming, humans have vocal folds which can loosen, tighten, or change their thickness, and over which breath can be transferred at varying pressures. The shape of the chest and neck, the position of the tongue, any one of these actions results in a change in pitch, volume, timbre, or tone of the sound produced. Sound also resonates within different parts of the body and an individuals size, Singers can also learn to project sound in certain ways so that it resonates better within their vocal tract. This is known as vocal resonation, another major influence on vocal sound and production is the function of the larynx which people can manipulate in different ways to produce different sounds. These different kinds of function are described as different kinds of vocal registers. The primary method for singers to accomplish this is through the use of the Singers Formant and it has also been shown that a more powerful voice may be achieved with a fatter and fluid-like vocal fold mucosa. The more pliable the mucosa, the more efficient the transfer of energy from the airflow to the vocal folds, Vocal registration refers to the system of vocal registers within the voice. A register in the voice is a series of tones, produced in the same vibratory pattern of the vocal folds
8.
Synthesizer
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A synthesizer is an electronic musical instrument that generates electric signals that are converted to sound through instrument amplifiers and loudspeakers or headphones. Synthesizers may either imitate instruments like piano, Hammond organ, flute, vocals, natural sounds like ocean waves, etc. or generate new electronic timbres. Synthesizers without built-in controllers are called sound modules, and are controlled via USB, MIDI or CV/gate using a controller device. Synthesizers use various methods to generate electronic signals, synthesizers were first used in pop music in the 1960s. In the 1970s, synths were used in disco, especially in the late 1970s, in the 1980s, the invention of the relatively inexpensive, mass market Yamaha DX7 synth made synthesizers widely available. 1980s pop and dance music often made use of synthesizers. In the 2010s, synthesizers are used in genres of pop, rock. Contemporary classical music composers from the 20th and 21st century write compositions for synthesizer, the beginnings of the synthesizer are difficult to trace, as it is difficult to draw a distinction between synthesizers and some early electric or electronic musical instruments. One of the earliest electric musical instruments, the telegraph, was invented in 1876 by American electrical engineer Elisha Gray. He accidentally discovered the sound generation from a self-vibrating electromechanical circuit and this musical telegraph used steel reeds with oscillations created by electromagnets transmitted over a telegraph line. Gray also built a simple loudspeaker device into later models, consisting of a diaphragm in a magnetic field. This instrument was a remote electromechanical musical instrument that used telegraphy, though it lacked an arbitrary sound-synthesis function, some have erroneously called it the first synthesizer. In 1897, Thaddeus Cahill invented the Teleharmonium, which used dynamos, and was capable of additive synthesis like the Hammond organ, however, Cahills business was unsuccessful for various reasons, and similar but more compact instruments were subsequently developed, such as electronic and tonewheel organs. In 1906, American engineer, Lee De Forest ushered in the electronics age and he invented the first amplifying vacuum tube, called the Audion tube. This led to new entertainment technologies, including radio and sound films, ondes Martenot and Trautonium were continuously developed for several decades, finally developing qualities similar to later synthesizers. In the 1920s, Arseny Avraamov developed various systems of graphic sonic art, in 1938, USSR engineer Yevgeny Murzin designed a compositional tool called ANS, one of the earliest real-time additive synthesizers using optoelectronics. The earliest polyphonic synthesizers were developed in Germany and the United States, during the three years that Hammond manufactured this model,1,069 units were shipped, but production was discontinued at the start of World War II. Both instruments were the forerunners of the electronic organs and polyphonic synthesizers
9.
Keyboard instrument
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A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various keyboards, including synthesizers. Other keyboard instruments include celestas, which are struck idiophones operated by a keyboard, and carillons, today, the term keyboard often refers to keyboard-style synthesizers. Another important use of the keyboard is in historical musicology. Particularly in the 18th century, the harpsichord, the clavichord, and the piano were in competition. Hence in a phrase like Mozart excelled as a player the word keyboard is usefully noncommittal. The earliest known keyboard instrument was the Ancient Greek hydraulis, a type of pipe organ, the keys were likely balanced and could be played with a light touch, as is clear from the reference in a Latin poem by Claudian, who says magna levi detrudens murmura tactu. Intent, that is “let him thunder forth as he presses out mighty roarings with a light touch”, from its invention until the fourteenth century, the organ remained the only keyboard instrument. Often, the organ did not feature a keyboard at all, almost every keyboard until the fifteenth century had seven naturals to each octave. The clavichord and the harpsichord appeared during the 14th century—the clavichord probably being earlier, the harpsichord and clavichord were both common until widespread adoption of the piano in the 18th century, after which their popularity decreased. The piano was revolutionary, because a pianist could vary the volume of the sound by varying the vigor with which each key was struck. The pianos full name is gravicèmbalo con piano e forte meaning harpsichord with soft and loud but can be shortened to piano-forte, which means soft-loud in Italian. In its current form, the piano is a product of the late 19th century, in fact, the modern piano is significantly different from even the 19th-century pianos used by Liszt, Chopin, and Brahms. See Piano history and musical performance, keyboard instruments were further developed in the early twentieth century. Early electromechanical instruments, such as the Ondes Martenot, appeared early in the century and this was a very important contribution to the keyboards history. Much effort has gone into creating an instrument that sounds like the piano but lacks its size, the electric piano and electronic piano were early efforts that, while useful instruments in their own right, did not convincingly reproduce the timbre of the piano. Electric and electronic organs were developed during the same period, more recent electronic keyboard designs strive to emulate the sound of specific make and model pianos using digital samples and computer models. Concerns celebrated keyboard players and the various instruments used over the centuries
10.
Phonograph
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The phonograph is a device invented in 1877 for the mechanical recording and reproduction of sound. In its later forms it is called a gramophone. To recreate the sound, the surface is rotated while a playback stylus traces the groove and is therefore vibrated by it. In later electric phonographs, the motions of the stylus are converted into an electrical signal by a transducer. The phonograph was invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison, while other inventors had produced devices that could record sounds, Edisons phonograph was the first to be able to reproduce the recorded sound. His phonograph originally recorded sound onto a sheet wrapped around a rotating cylinder. A stylus responding to sound vibrations produced an up and down or hill-and-dale groove in the foil, in the 1890s, Emile Berliner initiated the transition from phonograph cylinders to flat discs with a spiral groove running from the periphery to near the center. Later improvements through the years included modifications to the turntable and its system, the stylus or needle. The disc phonograph record was the dominant audio recording format throughout most of the 20th century, from the mid-1980s on, phonograph use on a standard record player declined sharply because of the rise of the cassette tape, compact disc and other digital recording formats. Records are still a favorite format for some audiophiles and DJs, vinyl records are still used by some DJs and musicians in their concert performances. Musicians continue to release their recordings on vinyl records, the original recordings of musicians are sometimes re-issued on vinyl. Usage of terminology is not uniform across the English-speaking world, in more modern usage, the playback device is often called a turntable, record player, or record changer. When used in conjunction with a mixer as part of a DJ setup, the term phonograph was derived from the Greek words φωνή and γραφή. The similar related terms gramophone and graphophone have similar root meanings, the roots were already familiar from existing 19th-century words such as photograph, telegraph, and telephone. In British English, gramophone may refer to any sound-reproducing machine using disc records, the term phonograph was usually restricted to machines that used cylinder records. Gramophone generally referred to a wind-up machine, after the introduction of the softer vinyl records, 33 1⁄3-rpm LPs and 45-rpm single or two-song records, and EPs, the common name became record player or turntable. Often the home record player was part of a system that included a radio and, later, from about 1960, such a system began to be described as a hi-fi or a stereo. In American English, phonograph, properly specific to machines made by Edison, was used in a generic sense as early as the 1890s to include cylinder-playing machines made by others
11.
Drum machine
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A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums, cymbals, other percussion instruments, and often basslines. Drum machines are most commonly associated with electronic music such as house music. They are usually used when session drummers are not available or if the production cannot afford the cost of a drummer. Also, many modern drum machines can also produce sounds, as well as allowing the user to compose unique drum beats. In the 2010s, most modern machines are sequencers with a sample playback or synthesizer component that specializes in the reproduction of drum timbres. The invention could produce sixteen different rhythms, each associated with a pitch, either individually or in any combination, including en masse. Received with considerable interest when it was introduced in 1932. The next generation of rhythm machines played only pre-programmed rhythms such as mambo, tango, Chamberlin Rhythmate In 1957 Californian Harry Chamberlin constructed a tape loop-based drum machine called the Chamberlin Rhythmate. It had 14 tape loops with a head that allowed playback of different tracks on each piece of tape. It contained a volume and a control and also had a separate amplifier with bass, treble, and volume controls. The tape loops were of real acoustic jazz drum kits playing different style beats, with additions to tracks such as bongos, clave, castanets. First commercial product – Wurlitzer Side Man In 1959 Wurlitzer released a drum machine called the Side Man. The Side Man was intended as an accompaniment for the Wurlitzer organ range. The Side Man offered a choice of 12 electronically generated, predefined rhythm patterns with variable tempos, the sound source was a series of vacuum tubes which created 10 preset electronic drum sounds. Combinations of these different sets of rhythms and drum sounds created popular rhythmic patterns of the day, e. g. waltzes and these combinations were selected by a rotary knob on the top of the Side Man box. The tempo of the patterns was controlled by a slider that increased the speed of rotation of the wiper arm, the Side Man had a panel of 10 buttons for manually triggering drum sounds, and a remote player to control the machine while playing from an organ keyboard. The Side Man was housed in a cabinet that contained the sound-generating circuitry. Raymond Scott In 1960, Raymond Scott constructed the Rhythm Synthesizer and, in 1963, scotts machines were used for recording his album Soothing Sounds for Baby series
12.
Bass guitar
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The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb, by plucking, slapping, popping, strumming, tapping, thumping, or picking with a plectrum, often known as a pick. The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to a guitar, but with a longer neck and scale length. The four-string bass, by far the most common, is tuned the same as the double bass. The bass guitar is an instrument, as it is notated in bass clef an octave higher than it sounds to avoid excessive ledger lines. Like the electric guitar, the guitar has pickups and it is plugged into an amplifier and speaker on stage, or into a larger PA system using a DI unit. Since the 1960s, the guitar has largely replaced the double bass in popular music as the bass instrument in the rhythm section. While types of basslines vary widely from one style of music to another, many styles of music utilise the bass guitar, including rock, heavy metal, pop, punk rock, country, reggae, gospel, blues, symphonic rock, and jazz. It is often a solo instrument in jazz, jazz fusion, Latin, funk, progressive rock and other rock, the adoption of a guitar form made the instrument easier to hold and transport than any of the existing stringed bass instruments. The addition of frets enabled bassists to play in more easily than on acoustic or electric upright basses. Around 100 of these instruments were made during this period, around 1947, Tutmarcs son, Bud, began marketing a similar bass under the Serenader brand name, prominently advertised in the nationally distributed L. D. Heater Music Company wholesale jobber catalogue of 1948, however, the Tutmarc family inventions did not achieve market success. In the 1950s, Leo Fender, with the help of his employee George Fullerton and his Fender Precision Bass, which began production in October 1951, became a widely copied industry standard. This split pickup, introduced in 1957, appears to have been two mandolin pickups, the pole pieces and leads of the coils were reversed with respect to each other, producing a humbucking effect. Humbucking is a design that electrically cancels the effect of any AC hum, the Fender Bass was a revolutionary new instrument, which could be easily transported, and which was less prone to feedback when amplified than acoustic bass instruments. Monk Montgomery was the first bass player to tour with the Fender bass guitar, roy Johnson, and Shifty Henry with Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five, were other early Fender bass pioneers. Bill Black, playing with Elvis Presley, switched from bass to the Fender Precision Bass around 1957. The bass guitar was intended to appeal to guitarists as well as upright bass players, following Fenders lead, in 1953, Gibson released the first short scale violin-shaped electric bass with extendable end pin, allowing it to be played upright or horizontally. In 1959 these were followed by the more conventional-looking EB-0 Bass, the EB-0 was very similar to a Gibson SG in appearance
13.
Drum kit
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A drum kit consists of a mix of drums and idiophones most significantly cymbals but also including the woodblock and cowbell. In the 2000s, some also include electronic instruments and both hybrid and entirely electronic kits are used. If some or all of them are replaced by electronic drums, the drum kit is usually played while seated on a drum stool or throne. The drum kit differs from instruments that can be used to produce pitched melodies or chords, even though drums are often placed musically alongside others that do, such as the piano or guitar. The drum kit is part of the rhythm section used in many types of popular and traditional music styles ranging from rock and pop to blues. Other standard instruments used in the section include the electric bass, electric guitar. Many drummers extend their kits from this pattern, adding more drums, more cymbals. Some performers, such as some rockabilly drummers, use small kits that omit elements from the basic setup, some drum kit players may have other roles in the band, such as providing backup vocals, or less commonly, lead vocals. Thus, in an early 1800s orchestra piece, if the called for bass drum, triangle and cymbals. In the 1840s, percussionists began to experiment with foot pedals as a way to them to play more than one instrument. In the 1860s, percussionists started combining multiple drums into a set, the bass drum, snare drum, cymbals, and other percussion instruments were all played using hand-held drum sticks. Double-drumming was developed to one person to play the bass and snare with sticks. With this approach, the drum was usually played on beats one. This resulted in a swing and dance feel. The drum set was referred to as a trap set. By the 1870s, drummers were using an overhang pedal, most drummers in the 1870s preferred to do double drumming without any pedal to play multiple drums, rather than use an overhang pedal. Companies patented their pedal systems such as Dee Dee Chandler of New Orleans 1904–05, liberating the hands for the first time, this evolution saw the bass drum played with the foot of a standing percussionist. The bass drum became the central piece around which every other percussion instrument would later revolve and it was the golden age of drum building for many famous drum companies, with Ludwig introducing
14.
Sampler (musical instrument)
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The samples are loaded or recorded by the user or by a manufacturer. These sounds are played back by means of the sampler program itself. Because these samples are stored in digital memory, the information can be quickly accessed. A single sample may often be pitch-shifted to different pitches to produce musical scales, often samplers offer filters, effects units, modulation via low frequency oscillation and other synthesizer-like processes that allow the original sound to be modified in many different ways. Most samplers have polyphonic capabilities – they are able to more than one note at the same time. Many are also multitimbral – they can play back different sounds simultaneously, prior to computer memory-based samplers, musicians used tape replay keyboards, which store recordings on analog tape. When a key is pressed the tape head contacts the moving tape, to change sounds a new set of tapes had to be installed in the instrument. The emergence of the sampler made sampling far more practical. Bruce Haack built a digital sampler which he demonstrated on Mister Rogers Neighborhood in 1967, the home made synthesizer device included a built-in sampler which recorded, stored, played back and looped sounds controlled by switches, light sensors and human skin contact. EMS Musys system, developed by Peter Grogono, David Cockerell, the system ran on two mini-computers, Digital Equipment PDP-8s. These had 12,000 bytes of memory, backed up by a hard drive of 32k. EMS equipment was used to control the worlds first digital studio, the E-mu SP-1200 percussion sampler progressed Hip-Hop away from the drum machine sound upon its release in August 1987, ushering in the sample-based sound of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Akai pioneered many processing techniques, such as crossfade looping and time stretch to shorten or lengthen samples without affecting pitch, during the 1980s, hybrid synthesizers began to utilize short samples along with digital synthesis to create more realistic imitations of instruments than had previously been possible. Examples are the Korg M1, Roland U-110, Yamahas SY series, samplers, together with traditional Foley artists, are the mainstay of modern sound effects production. Using digital techniques various effects can be pitch-shifted and otherwise altered in ways that would have required many hours when done with tape, usually a sampler is controlled by an attached music keyboard or other external MIDI controller or source. Each note-message received by the sampler accesses a particular sample, often multiple samples are arranged across the keyboard, each assigned to a note or group of notes. Keyboard tracking allows samples to be shifted in pitch by an appropriate amount, each group of notes to which a single sample has been assigned is often called a keyzone, and the resultant set of zones is called a keymap. For example, in Fig 1, a keymap has been created four different samples
15.
Arista Records
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/ˈɛ. rɪ. stə/ was a major American record label. It was a wholly owned unit of Sony Music Entertainment and was handled by Bertelsmann Music Group. The company operated under the RCA Music Group until 2011, the label was founded in 1974 by Clive Davis, who formerly worked for CBS Records. Until its demise in 2011, it was a distributor and promoter of albums throughout the United States. Today, the labels reissues and catalogue releases are handled by RCA Records, after being fired from CBS Records, Clive Davis was hired by Columbia Pictures in June 1974 to be a consultant for the companys record and music operations. The label was named Arista after New York Citys secondary school honor society, in early 1975, most of the artists who had been signed to Bell were let go, except David Cassidy, Tony Orlando and Dawn, and the 5th Dimension. Others, such as Suzi Quatro and Hot Chocolate, were farmed out to the Bell/Arista-distributed label, several Bell acts, such as Barry Manilow, the Bay City Rollers, and Melissa Manchester moved to Arista. The British Bell label kept that name for a couple of years before changing its name to Arista, the label was immortalized in the 1978 Rockpile song They Called It Rock, in the lyric, Arista says they love you/But the kids cant dance to this. In addition to Manilow, the Kinks, and Dionne Warwick, Arista signed Aretha Franklin in 1980, the labels most significant acquisition came in 1983 when Davis signed Warwicks cousin, Whitney Houston. Houston would eventually become Aristas biggest-selling recording artist, with sales of 200 million records worldwide, Arista had an imprint label in the 1970s called Arista Novus, which focused on contemporary jazz artists. A country music division, Career Records, was merged into the Arista Nashville division in 1997, Arista Austin was used in the late 1990s as a country label. Additionally, Arista was the North American distributor of Jive Records from 1981 until 1987, during the 1990s, Arista also distributed Logic, Rowdy and Heavenly Recordings. Looking to stave off bankruptcy, Columbia Pictures sold Arista to German-based Ariola Records in 1979, after Ariola purchased General Electrics RCA Records in 1986, the combined company was renamed Bertelsmann Music Group, though Aristas U. S. releases would not note BMG until 1987. Into the 1980s, Arista continued its success, including major UK act Secret Affair, over the years it acquired Northwestside Records, deConstruction Records, First Avenue Records, and Dedicated Records in the UK. In 1989, Arista entered into a joint venture with Antonio L. A. Reid and Babyface in the creation of LaFace Records record company of TLC, in 1993, Arista also entered into a joint-venture with Sean P. Diddy Combs to form Bad Boy Records. In 1997 Arista acquired Profile Records, the home of Run-D. M. C. in 1989, Arista signed Milli Vanilli, a duo consisting of Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan that was based in Germany. The label released its album, Girl You Know Its True, which was a remixed and re-edited version of All or Nothing. The album was certified platinum in the U. S. and charted five top-ten singles
16.
Death Row Records
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Death Row Records is a record company founded in 1991 by Dr. Dre, The D. O. C. Nate Dogg, and the rap group Tha Dogg Pound consisting of rappers Kurupt, Daz Dillinger, Soopafly, Death Row Records was making $100 million a year and by 1996 most of the aforementioned artists departed from the label after the death of Tupac. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2006 and on January 15,2009, was auctioned to entertainment development company WIDEawake Entertainment Group, Inc. for $18 million. In the late 1980s, producer Andre Dr. Dre Young was a member of rap group N. W. A. After the departure of Ice Cube over financial disagreements with manager Jerry Heller, Suge Knight and artist, convinced that Heller was dishonest, they approached Young about forming a label with them, away from Heller and Eazy-E. Allegedly using strong-arm tactics, Knight was able to procure contracts from Eazy for The D. O. C. After consulting with Alex Roberts, who sources suggest was Suge Knights connection to the underworld, Knight, after shoving Van Winkles bodyguards aside, Knight and his own bodyguards sat down in front of Van Winkle, staring at him before finally asking How you doin. At one time, Death Row Records was located at the intersection of Wilshire Blvd. Knight was seen on several occasions leaving Alex Roberts home in Malibu. Knight approached Michael Harry-O Harris, a businessman incarcerated on drug, through David Kenner, an attorney handling Harriss appeal, Harry-O set up Godfather Entertainment, a parent company for the newly christened Death Row Records. With the help of Kenner, Knight began signing young inner-city California artists and arranged for Death Row to handle the soundtrack for the 1992 Laurence Fishburne/Jeff Goldblum film, the single, Deep Cover, established Dre as a solo artist and a young Snoop Doggy Dogg as his protege. Work soon began on The Chronic, Dres solo album, which heavily featured Snoop and its singles, Fuck Wit Dre Day and Nuthin but a G Thang, saw Dre and Snoop dissing Eazy-E and other artists at Ruthless. The album went on to three million records, establishing the west coast in hip-hop and popularizing the distinctive style of g-funk. Continuing to release songs on albums that dissed Dre, Eazy-E claimed the success of the album, after finding solo success, Dre began crafting Snoop Doggs debut album Doggystyle, the process took two years. Snoops debut was released in 1993 due to public demand. Though unfinished, it outdid The Chronic at four times platinum, soon after the release of the album, controversy began to hit the label, Snoop was charged with murder, fueling the debate that politicians C. They used the music and video images of Death Row Records as examples, by 1995, the label began to flood with Knights cronies—friends and gang members fresh out of jail, as well as off-duty LAPD officers later implicated in the Rampart scandal working as security. Soon Knight signed rapper Tupac Shakur, incarcerated on a sexual abuse conviction, Tupac immediately began work on his Death Row album, kicking off his tenure by insulting Notorious B. I. G. Junior M. A. F. I. A. and Puff Daddy, the video, set in New York City, was also heightened when the set was fired upon in a driveby
17.
The Fixxers
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The Fixxers is a hip hop supergroup formed in late 2006 by two Compton-based West Coast rap veterans DJ Quik and AMG. Quik and AMG had worked some years earlier when Quik produced some records that AMG appeared on. When Quik was released from a sentence for parole violation. The groups name was chosen by AMG and Quiks manager Greedy Greg, where it was all dry before, were giving them a breath of fresh air thats homegrown - Quik. The group signed a deal with Interscope Records after their track Can U Werk Wit Dat received regular airplay on Los Angeles radio. It was chosen as number 22 on Vibes 44 Best Songs of 2007, the single became a favorite on LA radio stations and was featured on the HBO TV show Entourage. The duo toured in 2007 as part of the Ball 4 Real Streetball Tour and their 2008 album Street Masterpiece received some positive reviews. Midnight Life Street Masterpiece Secret Music Group Can U Werk Wit Dat Interscope
18.
2nd II None
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2nd II None is a rap group from Compton, California. It consist of cousins KK and Gangsta D and they were members of the Elm Street Piru Bloods. Their career started in 1990 after the release of The Red Tape and they released their first album in 1991, the self-titled 2nd II None on Profile Records. Their second album, Classic 220 on Arista Records, released in 1999 and their albums were produced by 2nd II None and DJ Quik. In 2008, their 1994 unreleased album Tha Shit was leaked on the internet
19.
Kurupt
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Ricardo Emmanuel Brown, better known by his stage name Kurupt, is an American rapper, actor and former Executive Vice President of Death Row Records. He is a member of the rap group Tha Dogg Pound and he is also a member of the hip-hop supergroup The HRSMN. Ricardo Emmanuel Brown was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as a result, he has associated himself somewhat with Philadelphia and its rap scene. He moved to California when he was 16, first to Hawthorne, then when he was 18 to South Los Angeles, in 1991, he made his first appearance as a recording artist by appearing on three songs on The S. O. S. Bands 1991 album One of Many Nights and these artists gained maximum exposure by appearing on Dres breakthrough album, The Chronic, during which Kurupt and Daz developed a close working relationship. After forming two-man crew Tha Dogg Pound, they were featured on Snoops debut Doggystyle, even given their own song alongside Rage. After the signing of Tupac Shakur to Death Row in September 1995, Death Row became a divided label, with Suge Knight demanding every rapper on the label diss an assortment of east coast artists hailing from or affiliated with Bad Boy. A. L. A. by NY rappers Capone-N-Noreaga, Mobb Deep & Tragedy Khadafi, the duos album, Dogg Food, became highly successful, despite being the first Death Row release not produced by Dr. Dre. Dr. Dre did, however, mix the album, the time after Dogg Foods release was a hectic one for Death Row. Even though Kurupt was a member of the DPG, he developed a strong friendship with Tupac. Tupac Shakurs 1996 murder began an exodus of artists from Death Row Records. Kurupt was one of the first to leave, preceded only by Nate Dogg, he signed with A&M, on which he founded an imprint. It was through this deal Brown released his solo album Kuruption. in 1998, with appearances by Dr. Dre, Buckshot. The video for the single, Ask Yourself a Question was directed by writer-journalist-filmmaker Barry Michael Cooper, it featured Dr. Dre, the video was filmed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in November 1998. Daz and Kurupt went on to release Dillinger & Young Gotti under the name DPG, after an unofficial remix/compilation Dogg Pound album called 2002 in early 2002, questions began to arise as to the status of Tha Dogg Pound vs. While the duo said they werent sure, Kurupt signed back to Death Row in exchange for the role of Vice President. In 2005, Snoop Dogg began acting as a diplomat between the two parties, and Tha Dogg Pound reunited under its original moniker in April of that year at a west coast unity event hosted by Snoop. Since their reunion, Kurupt has claimed both members got over their previous problems with no issue,2006 also saw the release of Snoop Doggs album Tha Blue Carpet Treatment, on which Kurupt appeared
20.
Problem (rapper)
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Jason Martin, better known by his stage name Problem, is an American rapper. He has released nine mixtapes in his career, the most recent being The Separation and his debut EP, Understand Me, was released on December 10,2013. He is best known for his single Like Whaaat and for featuring on E-40s Function, Problem was born in Würzburg, West Germany and grew up in Compton, California. He entered the writing a verse for a producer & friend Terrace Martin, for a song called Be Thankful. The track garnered praise from notable artist such as Nas and Talib Kweli amongst others, Problem began recording records with various West Coast artists such as Daz, Kurupt, Snoop Dogg, and DJ Quik. Problems first big break was when Snoop Dogg heard a record which was produced by Terrace Martin called Neva Hafta To Wurry About That. He went on to three records on Snoop Doggs Ego Trippin album. In 2008 Problem and his cousin founded Diamond Lane Music Group, Then in 2009 he signed an unsuccessful two-single major label deal with Universal. However his breakout moment would be when he was featured on E-40s single Function along with YG, over his career Problem has released seven mixtapes. On February 13,2013, Problem released a mixtape with Iamsu. Titled Million Dollar Afro with guest appearances from Juvenile, Too Short, on June 13,2013, he released a mixtape titled The Separation with guest appearances from Wale, T. I. Snoop Dogg, Game, Chris Brown, Tank, Tyga and his 2013 song Like Whaaat, featuring Bad Lucc, peaked at #20 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 singles chart, becoming his most successful song. On July 23,2013, he released Say That Then, in November 2013, Problem announced that he would release his debut album independently through Diamond Lane Music Group. He revealed that he would be producing the album along with League of Starz. On December 10,2013, Problem released a retail EP called Understand Me, featuring songs such as Like Whaaat, Say That Then, Problem appeared in a branded music video alongside Neil Patrick Harris for the drink product Neuro in February 2014. His musical influences are Eminem, N. W. A, The Isley Brothers, Prince, Aaliyah, R. Kelly, Lil Wayne, The Temptations, DJ Quik, The Jacksons, and the group DeBarge
21.
Tupak Shakur
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Tupac Amaru Shakur, also known by his stage names 2Pac, Makaveli or just Pac, was an American rapper, record producer, actor, activist and poet. As of 2007, Shakur has sold over 75 million records worldwide and his double disc albums All Eyez on Me and his Greatest Hits are among the best-selling albums in the United States. He has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest artists of all time by publications, including Rolling Stone. He is consistently ranked as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time, on April 7,2017, Shakur was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Shakur began his career as a roadie, backup dancer, and MC for the hip hop group Digital Underground. The themes of most of Shakurs songs revolved around the violence and hardship in inner cities, racism, and other social problems. Both of his parents and several people in his family were members of the Black Panther Party, whose ideals were reflected in his songs. I. G. On September 7,1996, Shakur was fatally shot in a shooting at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in Las Vegas. He was taken to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, Shakur was born on June 16,1971, in the East Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City. His mother Afeni Shakur and his father Billy Garland were active members of the Black Panther Party in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Lesane was born a month after his mother was acquitted of more than 150 charges of Conspiracy against the United States government, Many people in Shakurs life were involved with the Black Liberation Army, some were convicted of serious criminal offenses and imprisoned, including his mother. His godfather, Elmer Geronimo Pratt, a high-ranking Black Panther, was convicted of murdering a school teacher during a 1968 robbery and his stepfather, Mutulu, spent four years at large on the FBIs Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list beginning in 1982. Mutulu was wanted for having helped his sister Assata Shakur, Tupacs godmother and she had been imprisoned since 1977 for killing a state trooper in 1973. She lived as a fugitive for years before gaining asylum in Cuba in 1985. Mutulu was caught in 1986, tried and convicted, and imprisoned for the robbery of a Brinks armored truck in two police officers and a guard were killed. Shakur had a stepbrother, Mopreme Komani Shakur, and a half-sister, Sekyiwa. His stepbrother Mopreme performed in many of his recordings, in 1986, his family moved to Baltimore, Maryland. After completing his year at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School
22.
Dr. Dre
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Andre Romelle Young, better known by his stage name Dr. Dre, is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and current CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics, Dre was previously the co-owner of, and an artist on, Death Row Records. He has produced albums for and overseen the careers of many rappers, including 2Pac, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Xzibit, Knoc-turnal,50 Cent, The Game and Kendrick Lamar. He is credited as a key figure in the popularization of West Coast G-funk, in 1996, he left Death Row Records to establish his own label, Aftermath Entertainment. He produced an album titled Dr. Dre Presents the Aftermath in 1996. During the 2000s, he focused on production for other artists, Dr. Dre signed Eminem in 1998 and 50 Cent in 2002 to his record label respectively, while contributing production on their albums. He has won six Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year, Dr. Dre has also had acting roles in movies such as Set It Off, The Wash and Training Day. Rolling Stone ranked Dre at 56 on their list of 100 Greatest Artists of All-Time, Young was born in Compton, California, the first child of Theodore and Verna Young. His middle name, Romelle, is derived from his fathers amateur R&B singing group and his parents married in 1964, separated in 1968, and divorced in 1972. His mother later remarried and had three children, sons Jerome and Tyree and daughter Shameka, in 1976, Young began attending Vanguard Junior High School in Compton, but due to gang violence, he transferred to the safer suburban Roosevelt Junior High School. Young is the cousin of producer Sir Jinx and he attended Centennial High School in Compton during his freshman year in 1979, but transferred to Fremont High School in South Central Los Angeles due to poor grades. Young attempted to enroll in a program at Northrop Aviation Company. Thereafter, he focused on his life and entertainment for the remainder of his high school years. Young fathered a son with Cassandra Joy Greene named Curtis, Curtis was brought up by his mother and first met his father 20 years later, when Curtis became rapper Hood Surgeon. Inspired by the Grandmaster Flash song The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel, he attended a club called Eve After Dark to watch many DJs. He subsequently became a DJ in the club, initially under the name Dr. J, based on the nickname of Julius Erving, at the club, he met aspiring rapper Antoine Carraby, later to become member DJ Yella of N. W. A. Soon afterwards he adopted the moniker Dr. Dre, a mix of previous alias Dr. J and his first name, Eve After Dark had a back room with a small four-track studio. In this studio, Dre and Yella recorded several demos, in their first recording session, they recorded a song entitled Surgery, with the lyrics calling Dr. Dre to surgery serving as the chorus to the song
23.
Talk box
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Typically, a talk box directs sound from the instrument into the musicians mouth by means of a plastic tube adjacent to their vocal microphone. The musician controls the modification of the sound by changing the shape of the mouth. The speaker is generally in the form of a compression driver, the box has connectors for the connection to the speaker output of an instrument amplifier and a connection to a normal instrument speaker. A foot-operated switch on the box directs the sound either to the talk box speaker or to the normal speaker, the switch is usually a push-on/push-off type. The other end of the tube is taped to the side of a microphone, when activated, the sound from the amplifier is reproduced by the speaker in the talk box and directed through the tube into the performers mouth. The shape of the filters the sound, with the modified sound being picked up by the microphone. The shape of the changes the harmonic content of the sound in the same way it affects the harmonic content generated by the vocal folds when speaking. The performer can vary the shape of the mouth and position of the tongue, the performer can mouth words, with the resulting effect sounding as though the instrument is speaking. This shaped sound exits the performers mouth, and when it enters a microphone, the sound can be that of any musical instrument, but the effect is most commonly associated with the guitar. The rich harmonics of a guitar are shaped by the mouth, producing a sound very similar to voice. The effect produced by talk boxes and vocoders are often conflated by listeners, however, they have radically different mechanisms for achieving the effect. Talk boxes send the signal into the singers mouth, where it is then modulated by the singer themselves. On the other hand, vocoders process both the carrier and the modulator signal integrally, producing the output as an electric signal. In 1939, Alvino Rey, amateur radio operator W6UK, used a carbon throat microphone wired in such a way as to modulate his electric guitar sound. The mic, originally developed for military communications, was placed on the throat of Reys wife Luise King. The novel-sounding combination was called Singing Guitar, and employed on stage and in the movie Jam Session, as a novelty attraction, Rey also created a somewhat similar talking effect by manipulating the tone controls of his Fender electric guitar, but the vocal effect was less pronounced. Another early voice effect using the principle of the throat as a filter was the Sonovox. Instead of a throat microphone modulating a signal, it used small transducers attached to the performers throat to pick up voice sounds
24.
George Clinton (musician)
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George Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and record producer. He was the architect of P-Funk and the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s. He launched a career in 1981. He has been cited as one of the foremost innovators of funk music along with James Brown and he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, alongside 15 other members of Parliament-Funkadelic. Clinton was born in Kannapolis, North Carolina, grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey, during his teen years Clinton formed a doo wop group inspired by Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers called The Parliaments, while straightening hair at a barber salon in Plainfield. For a period in the 1960s Clinton was a songwriter for Motown. These two bands combined the elements of such as Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, Cream, and James Brown while exploring various sounds, technology. Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic dominated diverse music during the 1970s with over 40 R&B hit singles, Clintons efforts as a solo artist began in 1982. He is also a music producer who works on almost all the albums he performs on. Beginning in the early 1980s, Clinton recorded several solo albums. In 1982, Clinton signed to Capitol Records under two names, his own and as the P-Funk All-Stars, releasing Computer Games under his own name that same year. The single Loopzilla hit the Top 20 on the R&B charts, followed by Atomic Dog, in 1985, he was recruited by the Red Hot Chili Peppers to produce their album Freaky Styley, because the band members were huge fans of George Clintons and of funk in general. Clinton, in fact, wrote the vocals and lyrics to the track which was originally intended by the band to be left as an instrumental piece. The album was not a success at the time, but has since sold 500,000 copies after the Red Hot Chili Peppers became popular years later. During the mid to late 1980s, many hip-hop and rap artists cited Clintons earlier music as an influence, along with James Brown, Clintons songs with Parliament-Funkadelic were often sampled by rap producers. Sure, sample my stuff… he remarked in 1996, Aint a better time to get paid than when youre my age. You know what to do with money and you dont buy as much pussy or drugs with it – you just buy some. In 1989, Clinton released The Cinderella Theory on Paisley Park and this was followed by Hey Man, Smell My Finger in 1993
25.
Music recording sales certification
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Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies. The threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory, almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories, which are named after precious materials. The number of sales or shipments required for these awards depends upon the population of the territory in which the recording is released, typically, they are awarded only to international releases and are awarded individually for each country in which the album is sold. Different sales levels, some perhaps 10 times lower than others, the original gold record awards were presented to artists by their own record companies to publicize their sales achievements. The first of these was awarded by RCA Victor to Glenn Miller and His Orchestra in February 1942, another example of a company award is the gold record awarded to Elvis Presley in 1956 for one million units sold of his single Dont Be Cruel. The first gold record for an LP was awarded by RCA Victor to Harry Belafonte in 1957 for the album Calypso and these sales were restricted to U. S. -based record companies and did not include exports to other countries. For albums in 1968, this would mean shipping approximately 250,000 units, the platinum certification was introduced in 1976 for the sale of one million units, album or single, with the gold certification redefined to mean sales of 500,000 units, album or single. No album was certified platinum prior to this year, for instance, the recording by Van Cliburn of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto from 1958 would eventually be awarded a platinum citation, but this would not happen until two decades after its release. In 1999, the certification was introduced for sales of ten million units. On 14 March 1958, the RIAA certified its first gold record, soundtrack was certified as the first gold album four months later. In 1976, RIAA introduced the platinum certification, first awarded to Johnnie Taylors single, Disco Lady, as music sales increased with the introduction of compact discs, the RIAA created the Multi-Platinum award in 1984. Diamond awards, honoring those artists whose sales of singles or albums reached 10,000,000 copies, were introduced in 1999 and this became much less common once the majority of retail sales became paid digital downloads and digital streaming. In most countries certifications no longer apply solely to physical media, in June 2006, the RIAA also certified the ringtone downloads of songs. Streaming from on-demand services such as Rhapsody and Spotify has been included into existing digital certification in the U. S since 2013, in the U. S. and Germany video streaming services like YouTube, VEVO, and Yahoo. Music also began to be counted towards the certification, in both cases using the formula of 100 streams being equivalent to one download, other countries, such as Denmark and Spain, maintain separate awards for digital download singles and streaming. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry was founded in 1996, and grants the IFPI Platinum Europe Award for album sales over one million within Europe, multi-platinum Europe Awards are presented for sales in subsequent multiples of one million. Eligibility is unaffected by time, and is not restricted to European-based artists, IMPALA sales awards were launched in 2005 as the first sales awards recognising that success on a pan-European basis begins well before sales reach one million. The award levels are Silver, Double Silver, Gold, Double Gold, Diamond, Platinum, below are certification thresholds for the United States and United Kingdom
26.
Mixtape
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A mixtape is a home-made compilation of music recorded in a specific order, traditionally onto a cassette tape, though later replaced by CD or MP3 playlist formats. The songs can be sequential, or by beatmatching the songs and creating overlaps, compilations may include a selection of favorite songs, or music linked by theme or mood, perhaps tailored to the tapes intended recipient. Writing in 2004, essayist Geoffrey OBrien called the mix tape perhaps the most widely practiced American art form. Homemade mix tapes became common in the 1980s, but improvements in fidelity finally allowed the cassette to become a major player. The growth of the mixtape was also encouraged by improved quality and increased popularity of audio players in car entertainment systems. These recordings tended to be of technical ability than home-made mixtapes. One 12 October 1974 article in Billboard Magazine reported, Tapes were originally dubbed by jockeys to serve as standbys for times when they did not have disco turntables to hand, the tapes represent each jockeys concept of programming, placing, and sequencing of record sides. The music is heard without interruption, one- to three-hour programs bring anywhere from $30 to $75 per tape, mostly reel-to-reel, but increasingly on cartridge and cassette. Club proprietors, as well as DJs, would often prepare such tapes for sale, throughout the 1980s, mixtapes were a highly visible element of youth culture. The high point of traditional culture was arguably the publication of Nick Hornbys novel High Fidelity in 1995. Some mix enthusiasts also appreciate the potential of the mix CD for extended, continuous mixes, MP3 players have further enhanced track accessibility, though ones without a screen defeat that purpose. Today, websites concerned with electronic music provide mixes in a digital format and these usually consist of recorded DJ sets of live, beat-matched mixes of songs, which are used by DJs seeking to demonstrate their mixing skills to an online audience. Some radio shows worldwide specialize in mix series, including The Breezeblock on BBC Radio 1, The Solid Steel Show, and Eddy Temple-Morris/The Remix on Xfm. Additionally, DJs such as Grandmaster Flash, DJ QBert, DJ Spooky, DJ Z-Trip or DJ Shadow, The Avalanches, and Rjd2 have gained fame for creating new songs by combining fragments of existing songs. This practice is derived from the use of song loops as musical backdrops for an MCs rhymes in hip hop music. Frank Creighton, a director of anti-copyright infringement efforts for the Recording Industry Association of America and this requires the mixtape creator to consider the transitions between songs, the effects caused by juxtaposing a soft song with a loud song, and the overall narrative arc of the entire tape. It also came with an actual CD featuring ten of the songs discussed in the text, many have been so widely distributed that the CDDB has logged and can identify ID3 tags when a disc mix tape is inserted into a PC. In hip hops earliest days, the music existed in live form, so performers music was spread via tapes of parties
27.
Southern California
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Southern California, often abbreviated as SoCal, is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises Californias 10 southernmost counties. The region is described as eight counties, based on demographics and economic ties, Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara. The more extensive 10-county definition, which includes Kern and San Luis Obispo counties, is used and is based on historical political divisions. Southern California is an economic center for the state of California. The 8-county and 10-county definitions are not used for the greater Southern California Megaregion, the megaregions area is more expansive, extending east into Las Vegas, Nevada and south across the Mexican border into Tijuana.5 million people. With over 22 million people, Southern California contains roughly 60 percent of Californias population, located east of Southern California is the Colorado Desert and the Colorado River at the border with Arizona. The Mojave Desert is located at the border with the state of Nevada while towards the south is the Mexico–United States border, within Southern California are two major cities, Los Angeles and San Diego, as well as three of the countrys largest metropolitan areas. With a population of 3,792,621, Los Angeles is the most populous city in California and the second most populous in the United States. South of Los Angeles and with a population of 1,307,402 is San Diego, the second most populous city in the state and the eighth most populous in the nation. The counties of Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, San Bernardino, and Riverside are the five most populous in the state, the motion picture, television, and music industry are centered in the Los Angeles area in Southern California. Hollywood, a district within Los Angeles, gives its name to the American motion picture industry, headquartered in Southern California are The Walt Disney Company, Sony Pictures, Universal, MGM, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Brothers. Universal, Warner Brothers, and Sony also run major record companies, Southern California is also home to a large homegrown surf and skateboard culture. Companies such as Vans, Volcom, Quiksilver, No Fear, RVCA, some of the worlds biggest action sports events, including the X Games, Boost Mobile Pro, and the U. S. Open of Surfing, are all held in Southern California. Southern California is also important to the world of yachting, the annual Transpacific Yacht Race, or Transpac, from Los Angeles to Hawaii, is one of yachtings premier events. The San Diego Yacht Club held the Americas Cup, the most prestigious prize in yachting, from 1988 to 1995, Southern California is home to many sports franchises and sports networks such as Fox Sports Net. Many locals and tourists frequent the Southern California coast for its popular beaches, the desert city of Palm Springs is popular for its resort feel and nearby open spaces. Southern California is not a geographic designation and definitions of what constitutes Southern California vary. Geographically, Californias North-South midway point lies at exactly 37°958.23 latitude, around 11 miles south of San Jose, however, when the state is divided into two areas, the term Southern California usually refers to the 10 southernmost counties of the state
28.
Ruthless Records
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Ruthless is an American record label, founded by Jerry Heller and gangsta rapper Eazy-E. The record label was founded in Torrance, California in 1986. The labels acts over the years have earned RIAA certifications of Platinum or higher on 15 of its albums, including releases by N. W. A, Eazy-E, MC Ren. It also put out singles by underground California acts such as Frost, Fad, but the labels first full-length release was N. W. As Straight Outta Compton, which was eventually certified Triple Platinum by the RIAA. Immediately following this was the release of Eazys solo debut, Eazy-Duz-It, as the six members went on tour in support of their project, some began to voice their displeasure with the financial situation at Ruthless. According to group member MC Ren, it was an opinion that N. W. A manager and Ruthless co-founder Jerry Heller was the one receiving their due. We were the making the records, traveling in vans. You do all those fucking shows trying to get known, then you go to his house, and this motherfucker lives in a mansion. There’s gold leaf trimmings all in the bathroom and all kinds of other shit, the label also experienced outside pressure due to the group. The success of their song Fuck tha Police led to a threatening F. B. I. letter to distributor Priority Records, after coming off tour, group member Ice Cube voiced his opinions on the groups finances. Nineteen eighty-eight also saw the release of J. J, above the Laws Livin Like Hustlers was also released during this period. In 1989, Eazy signed hip-hops first white female rapper Tairrie B to Ruthless new Comptown label subsidiary and she released her debut album The Power of a Woman in 1990 featuring the single and video for Murder She Wrote which Eazy and Philadelphia rapper Schoolly D appeared in. The album also featured guest vocals by Dr. Dre, D. O. C. and future House of Pain frontman Everlast, Suge became such a problem for the label-heads that at one point Eazy-E allegedly suggested killing him, a move vetoed by Heller. Eventually, Suge succeeded in procuring Dre, D. O. C. now short of his main producer, Eazy-E signed various other acts that would assist him in a subsequent rivalry with Death Row. Knocc Out were among the most vocal of these rappers, with DJ Yella, while MC Ren stayed neutral, he remained with Ruthless, releasing several albums. Eazy-E released several high-profile albums dissing Dr. Dre, including most famously Its On 187um Killa, ya know, it was fucked up. Like Eazy came to me one night and he said “Man, shit is fucked up, Eazy-E allegedly fired Jerry Heller, shortly before his death. In February 1995, Eazy-E was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, around this time he was beginning to work on his third album Money + Sex = Eazy
29.
Eazy-E
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Eric Lynn Wright, better known by his stage name Eazy-E, was an American rapper who performed solo and in the hip hop group N. W. A. Wright is affectionately called The Godfather of Gangsta Rap and he was born to Richard and Kathie Wright in Compton, California. After dropping out of school in the tenth grade, he supported himself primarily by selling drugs before founding Ruthless Records. Arabian Prince, Eazy-E, Dr. Dre and Ice Cube formed N. W. A, after DJ Yella and MC Ren joined the group, N. W. A released their debut single Panic Zone. In 1988, they released their most controversial album, Straight Outta Compton, the group released two more albums and then disbanded after Eazy released Dr. Dre from his contract. Eazys main influences included 1970s funk groups, contemporary rappers, over-the-top lyrics, and undeniable charisma made him a star. Eric Wright was born to Richard and Kathie Wright on September 7,1964, in Compton, California and his father was a postal worker and his mother was a grade school administrator. Wright dropped out of school in the tenth grade. Wright supported himself primarily by selling drugs, introduced to the occupation by his cousin, Wrights friend Jerry Heller admits that he witnessed Wright selling marijuana, but says that he never saw him sell cocaine. As Heller noted in his book Ruthless, A Memoir, Wrights dope dealer label was part of his self-forged armor, Wright was also labeled as a thug. Heller explains, The hood where he grew up was a dangerous place, thug was a role that was widely understood on the street, it gave you a certain level of protection in the sense that people hesitated to fuck with you. Likewise, dope dealer was a role that accorded you certain privileges, in 1986, at the age of 22, Wright had allegedly earned as much as US$250,000 from dealing drugs. However, after his cousin was shot and killed, he decided that he could make a living in the Los Angeles hip hop scene. He started recording songs during the mid-1980s in his parents garage, the original idea for Ruthless Records came when Wright asked Heller to go into business with him. Wright suggested a company, but it was later decided that Wright would get eighty percent of the companys income. According to Heller, he told Wright, Every dollar comes into Ruthless, thats industry standard for a manager of my caliber. I take twenty, you take eighty percent, I am responsible for my expenses, and youre responsible for yours. Along with Heller, Wright invested much of his money into Ruthless Records, Heller claims that he invested the first $250,000, and would eventually put up to $1,000,000 into the company
30.
Quik Is the Name
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Quik Is the Name is the debut studio album by American hip hop artist and producer DJ Quik, released by Profile Records on January 15,1991. Production was mainly handled by DJ Quik along with his executive producers Courtney Branch, Recording sessions took place throughout 1990 at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California, with a production budget of $30,000. The album debuted at number twenty-nine on the US Billboard 200 chart, the album was certified Gold four months after its release on May 30,1991 and Platinum four years later on July 26,1995. To date the album has sold over 1,068,203 copies in United States, DJ Quik was signed by Profile Records in the summer of 1990, after they heard his 1987 mixtape The Red Tape. He was the most expensive signee that Profile had ever acquired and was also the first artist to have got a six figure deal on the label. Quik revealed to Vibe that Quik is the Name was originally supposed to be a mixtape that I was going to sell in the ‘hood, I recorded it on a Tascam four-track. I did all the over-dubs, all the blending, and mixed it down on one of those Maxwell metal tapes they used to sell, but along comes Dave from Profile Records looking for me like, ‘Hey dude, I heard your cassette, man. Come sign with us. ’ There was a war between Fred Munao at Select Records and Cory Robbins and Profile. Cory ultimately ended up beating Fred out and I signed with Profile, in an interview Quik revealed, that Profile Records gave him a $30,000 budget to mix the record over. He said, If you do the math, a $1000 a-day studio…if we get Quik is the Name done in less than a month, so we got it done in 17 days. We recorded some of the album at Westlake Recording Studios in Santa Monica and it was a trip being in there mixing ‘Tonite’ on those big boards knowing that Michael was coming in and out of there. The Tonite synth was programmed by LA Dream Teams former member and producer, the albums lead single, Born and Raised In Compton, was released on December 4,1990. It peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, the albums second single, Tonite was released on June 10,1991. It peaked at number 49 on the US Billboard Hot 100, the song became his most successful and highest charting single to date. The albums third and final single, Quik Is the Name, was released on November 11,1991, the single did not manage to chart. Alex Henning of Rhapsody wrote that Quiks debut set the groundwork for the G-funk era, much like Warren G, Quik focuses less on violence and more on mind-altering substances, ladies and cold chillin. The optimistic Born and Raised In Compton offers a remedy to the life in the ghetto. Alex Henderson of Allmusic rated the album with 4/5 stars and wrote in 1991 begged the question, lyrically, the former gang member doesnt provide any major insights
31.
2nd II None (album)
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2nd II None is the self-titled debut album from Compton hip hop duo 2nd II None. The album was released on October 8,1991 under Profile Records, if You Want It contains samples of Hung Up on My Baby by Isaac Hayes and Movin by Brass Construction. Be True to Yourself contains a sample of Kung Fu by Curtis Mayfield, let the Rhythm Take You contains a sample of Papa Was Too by Joe Tex. Comin Like This contains a sample of The Guns of Brixton by The Clash, underground Terror contains a sample of Life is for Learning by Marvin Gaye. Just Aint Me contains a sample of Breaking Up Somebodys Home by Albert King, Life Of A Player contains a sample of I Like The Girls by The Fatback Band Aint Nothin Wrong contains samples of Aint Nothin Wrong by KC & the Sunshine Band and Lady Marmalade by LaBelle. What Goes Up contains a sample of Spinning Wheel by Blood, mystic contains a sample of My Little Girl by Bobbi Humphrey. Punk Mutha Fuckaz contains a sample of All the Way Lover by Millie Jackson Niggaz Trippin contains samples of Genius of Love by Tom Tom Club and Give Up the Funk by Parliament
32.
Way 2 Fonky
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Way 2 Fonky is the second studio album by American hip hop artist and producer DJ Quik, released by Profile Records on July 21,1992. Recording sessions for the album took place during 1991 and 1992, production was handled by DJ Quik and was executive produced Courtney Branch and Tracy Kendrick. The album debuted at ten on the US Billboard 200 chart on August 8,1992. The album was certified Gold three months after its release on October 9,1992, DJ Quik was beefing with rapper Tim Dog during this time who dissed him on three tracks Fuck Compton, Step To Me, and DJ Quik Beat Down on his album Penicillin on Wax. He responded to Tim Dog with disses on Way 2 Fonky and he was also beefing with MC Eiht who the two had already been beefing for a few years at the time. Tim Dog responded with to DJ Quik with I Dont Give a Fuck, two singles from the album were released, Way 2 Fonky a response to Tim Dogs West Coast diss Fuck Compton, and Jus Lyke Compton. Way 2 Fonky received generally positive reviews music critics. Jonathan Gold of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Way 2 Fonky is a rap record, with a giant, Jeep-worthy bottom and high, articulated. His lyrics celebrate the fun side of the mythical Compton experience where N. W. A. s dwell on what could go wrong, his sleek, 70s-soul-style grooves, and though hes easily as obscene as any of his peers, he seems actually to like women. Havelock Nelson of Entertainment Weekly wrote that Unlike those other rap quasars from Compton, N. W. A, as he declares in Americaz Most Complete Artist, I dont go toe to toe, I go ho to ho. Quiks nasty, but hes no fool, he practices safe sex, hes even willing to experiment musically and lyrically. Witness the sexually playful reggae track Me Wanna Rip Your Girl, on the albums other tracks, he throws his thin yet effective countrified voice against sampled grooves that for the most part bounce and shake like hard-core Jell-O. Ron Wynn of Allmusic wrote that DJ Quik proved his mettle with Jus Lyke Compton, whether or not you bought the line, you were hooked by the rap. Nothing else on the disc matched this singles intensity and wit, chris Rock ranked Way 2 Fonky twenty-fourth on a 2005 list for Rolling Stone on the Top 25 Hip-Hop Albums of all time. Mo Pussy contains samples of Shake and I Dont Believe You Want to Get Up, Way 2 Fonky contains a sample of More Bounce to the Ounce by Zapp. Jus Lyke Compton contains samples of Hook and Sling performed by Eddie Bo, quikz Groove II contains samples of Africano performed by Earth, Wind & Fire, and Explain It to Her Mama performed by Temprees. When Youre a Gee contains samples of I Heard It Through the Grapevine performed by Roger Troutman, credits for Way 2 Fonky adapted from Allmusic
33.
Paid the Cost
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Paid the Cost is the debut, and to date, only album by rap duo Penthouse Players Clique. The album was released in 1992 for Ruthless Records and was produced by DJ Quik, DJ Battlecat, the album was a success for the group, making it to #76 on the Billboard 200, #28 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and #1 on the Top Heatseekers album charts. Three singles were released, Explanation of a Playa, Trust No Bitch, phuk U2, however only Explanation of a Playa would make it to the billboard charts. This would mark the only album as they would disband only a year later. N-Trance Undaground Chekmate Trust No Bitch U Caint Check Me Jealous Knukle Heads Jus 2 Kep Yo Attenchun P. L. F
34.
Suge Knight
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Marion Hugh Suge Knight Jr. is an American record producer, music executive, and a former American football defensive end for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League. He is the co-founder and former CEO of Death Row Records, Death Row Records rose to dominate the rap charts after Dr. Dres breakthrough album The Chronic in 1992. In February 2015, Knight was charged with murder and attempted murder following a fatal hit-and-run in Compton and he pled not guilty to all charges. Marion Hugh Knight Jr. was born in Compton, California and his name, Suge, derives from Sugar Bear, a childhood nickname. He attended Lynwood High School in nearby Lynwood, where he was a football, from 1983 to 1985, he attended and played football at El Camino College In 1985, he transferred to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and played there for two years. After college, Knight was not drafted by a National Football League team and he was cut by the Rams, but he became a replacement player during the 1987 NFL players strike, and played two games for the Rams. After the NFL, Knight found work as a concert promoter, in 1989, Knight formed his own music publishing company. Knight and his bodyguards confronted Van Winkle several times, on one occasion, Knight entered Van Winkles hotel room and allegedly dangled him by his ankles off the balcony. Van Winkle said only that Knight threatened to throw him off the balcony, Knight next formed an artist management company and signed prominent West Coast hip hop artists DJ Quik and The D. O. C. Through the former, he met members of the seminal gangsta rap group N. W. A. Wanted to leave both N. W. A and their label, Ruthless Records, run by Eazy-E, another member of N. W. A. According to N. W. As manager Jerry Heller, Knight and his henchmen threatened Heller and Eazy-E with lead pipes and baseball bats to make them release Dre, The D. O. C. and Michelle from their contracts. Co-founded Death Row Records in 1991 with Knight, who vowed to make it the Motown of the ’90s and it also made a career for Dres protégé, Snoop Dogg, whose own debut album Doggystyle obtained a Quadruple Platinum certification in the United States in 1994. In 1995, he ran afoul of activist C, delores Tucker, whose criticism of Death Rows glamorization of the gangsta lifestyle may have helped scuttle a lucrative deal with Time Warner. Knights feud with East Coast entrepreneur Sean Combs progressed when Knight insulted the Bad Boy label founder on air at the Source Awards in August 1995, the same year, Knight offered to post a bail for Tupac Shakur if the rapper agreed to sign with Death Row. Shakur agreed, setting the stage for his 1996 double album All Eyez on Me, Hammers relationship with Suge Knight dates back to 1988. With the success of Hammers 1994 album, The Funky Headhunter, Hammer signed with Death Row Records by 1995, along with Snoop Dogg and his close friend, Tupac. The label did not release the album of Hammers music while he had a career with them, however, Hammer did record tracks with Shakur and others, most notably the song Too Late Playa
35.
Above the Rim
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Above the Rim is a 1994 American sports film co-written, storied and directed by Jeff Pollack in his directorial debut. The screenplay was written by Barry Michael Cooper, from a story by Benny Medina, the film stars Duane Martin, Tupac Shakur, Leon Robinson and Marlon Wayans. The movie was shot in Harlem with various scenes in the movie filmed at the Manhattan Center for Science, some of the basketball scenes were filmed at Samuel J. Tilden High School in Brooklyn, NY. Kyle Watson is a basketball player who is about to graduate from high school. While he waits to find out if he receive a scholarship to Georgetown University. He must decide whether to play for and follow his widely beloved basketball coach or Birdie, thomas Shep Sheppard, a former standout player himself, now works as a high school security guard. Kyle feels resentment towards the security guard, because Kyles own mother is falling in love with Shep, coincidentally, Kyles coach also wants Shep to coach his team when he feels it is time for him to retire. It is later revealed to Kyle that Shep is Birdies older brother, Kyle makes a decision to run with Birdies team until he decided to come back to his old team, because of Birdies wrongful actions against Flip and Kyles friend Bugaloo. In the tournament, both Kyles and Birdies teams march to the finals, with Kyles team playing solid team basketball, before the finals, Birdie threatens Kyle, demanding Kyle to throw away the game, so that Birdies team would win. Kyle is brutalized throughout the game, with Birdies team having a solid lead, after the loss, Birdie orders Motaw, his star player and gang member, to kill Kyle. Shep protects Kyle and is shot, while Motaw is shot dead by security, Birdie is later killed by Bugaloo as revenge for previous humiliations. In the end, Kyle is revealed to have gotten the scholarship to Georgetown University - during a game, Kyle hits the game winner. Duane Martin as Kyle, a basketball player who is determined to be accepted to Georgetown University. He is seen as cocky and hot tempered but later changes his ways during the course of the film, Leon Robinson as Shep, a quiet bitter, introvert who used to be an incredible high school basketball player. He was later arrested after his best friend, Nutso, accidentally jumps off a high rise building while playing basketball, Tupac Shakur as Birdie, the local drug dealer and the films antagonist. He is Sheps younger brother who secretly wants Shep to join him in his illegal empire and he later bribes Kyle to play for his team. Marlon Wayans as Bugaloo, Kyles womanizing yet goofy best friend who spent a year in detention for an unknown crime. He is often bullied by Birdie and most of his gang members, bernie Mac as Flip Johnson, a crack addicted homeless man who used to play basketball alongside Shep in high school
36.
Murder Was the Case
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Murder Was the Case is a 1994 short film and soundtrack album starring and performed by Snoop Doggy Dogg. The 18 minute film was directed by Dr. Dre and Fab Five Freddy and chronicles the death of Snoop Dogg. The films title comes from Snoops song of the name from his debut album, Doggystyle. The album was re-released with a bonus DVD containing 3 music videos on July 11,2006, tupac Shakur was paid $200,000 by Death Row Records owner Suge Knight to record a song for the album, but the track was never used on the official soundtrack release. However, it was released on the soundtrack for Gang Related after his death. Rolling Stone -. isnt the trailblazer that Dres The Chronic was last year, but it is rap very nearly as strong. Featuring West Coast stalwarts. and new discoveries, Dre and Dat Nigga Daz present gangsta- and R&B-infected fare that slams. Dre as the new king of pop, in addition to the ominous remix of Snoops title song, Dre reunites with Ice Cube. Dres G-funk sound may be the hardest in the land, but its also the most gut-wrenchingly soulful. NME - Ranked #8 in NMEs list of the 10 best compilation albums of 1994, NME -7 - Very Good -. anyone expecting this to signal Dres decline is kidding themselves. Murder Was the Case shows the old dogg has plenty of new tricks, in the United States, on the chart dated November 5,1994, Murder Was the Case debuted on the Billboard 200 at number one, powered by first week sales 329,000 units. The album opened at the top spot of the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, the following week it stayed on top with 197,000 copies sold and was certified Gold. The album is certified 2x platinum with 2,030,000 copies sold,21 Jumpstreet Nobody Can Be You by Steve Arrington Who Got That Gangsta Shit P. S. K. Recorded at Can-Am Studios Mixed at Dr. Dres studio Death Row Engineers, Kesten Wright, south Park Mexicans song Woodson N Worthin is a cover of Murder Was the Case. Don Vito and Mad DPS covered the song on the 2008 compilation album The Triple-Six Mixtape, List of number-one albums of 1994 List of number-one R&B albums of 1994 Murder Was the Case at the Internet Movie Database Review
37.
All Eyez on Me
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All Eyez on Me is the fourth studio album by American rapper 2Pac and the last one to be released during his lifetime. It was released on February 13,1996, by Death Row Records, the album featured the Billboard Hot 100 number one singles How Do U Want It and California Love. It featured five singles in all, the most of any of Shakurs albums, moreover, All Eyez on Me made history as the first double-full-length hip-hop solo studio album released for mass consumption. It was issued on two discs and four LPs. All Eyez on Me was the album from 2Pac to hit number-one on both the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts, selling 566,000 copies in the first week. The album won the 1997 Soul Train R&B/Soul or Rap Album of the Year Award posthumously, Shakur also won the Award for Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Artist at the 24th Annual American Music Awards. The album is among the most acclaimed records of the 1990s. The album was certified diamond by the RIAA on July 23,2014, in October 1995, Suge Knight and Jimmy Iovine paid the $1.4 million bail necessary to get Shakur released from jail on charges of sexual abuse. At the time, Shakur was broke and thus unable to bail himself. All Eyez on Me was released following an agreement between Knight and Shakur which stated Shakur would make three albums under Death Row Records in return for paying his bail. Fulfilling part of Shakurs brand new contract, this served as the first two albums of his three-album contract. Euthanasia was the title of the album until it was changed to All Eyez on Me during the recording process. The song Heartz of Men samples a portion of Richard Pryors comedy album That Niggers Crazy, the songs on All Eyez on Me are, in general, unapologetic celebrations of living the Thug Lifestyle. Though there is the occasional reminiscence about past and present friends, it is a move away from the social and political consciousness of 2Pacalypse Now. The songs on the album along with the name of the album itself, with songs like Cant C Me and All Eyez on Me, 2Pac makes it known that he feels the presence of surveillance, most notably by the police. The album also references the fact the 2Pac is under the attention of many fans, the first single, California Love featuring Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman was released, December 28,1995. This is perhaps 2Pacs best-known song and his most successful, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks and 5 weeks at one in New Zealand. The song was nominated for a Grammy Award as a Best Rap Solo Performance, a remix version also produced by Dr. Dre appeared on the album
38.
Until the End of Time (Tupac Shakur album)
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Until the End of Time is the seventh studio album, third posthumous album by the late rapper Tupac Shakur which is certified 4x platinum by RIAA. It follows his previous posthumous albums R U Still Down. the album consists of material recorded while the rapper was on Death Row Records toward the later end of 1996. A majority of the compositions were remixed from their original state. Until the End of Time was very highly anticipated and ended up being one of the best selling hip hop albums of 2001, there is only three times Death Row Records hasnt been censored on this album. Those songs are Until the End of Time, U dont Have 2 Worry, until the End of Time debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. On June 10,2014 it was certified 4x platinum by RIAA, on 22 June 2001 it was certified Silver by BPI. On May 24,2001 it was certified 2x platinum in Canada, BET put it number 3 on their list of The 25 Best Posthumous Albums of All Time
39.
Better Dayz
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Better Dayz is the eighth studio album and fourth posthumous album by the late American rapper 2Pac, the third to be released without the artists creative input and is the last to be a double-album. It was released on November 26,2002, debuting at number 5 on the Billboard 200. D. I. of Outlawz, Better Dayz has no censored references to Death Row Records unlike the previous album Until the End of Time. The only track on the album pre-Death Row era is My Block, which was recorded in 1994–1995 during Shakurs time with Interscope Records, and it features 23 unreleased recordings from the 1994–1996 period, the majority of which are remixed. Others retain their original form or are complete finished mixes, such as Fuck Em All, Late Night, Ghetto Star, Better Dayz, Who Do U Believe In. and They Dont Give a Fuck About Us. The album features appearances by Outlawz, Ron Isley, Nas, Mýa, Jazze Pha, Tyrese and among others. The hit single, Thugz Mansion, comes in two versions, a version featuring Nas, on which the music video is based. Most of the tracks are unreleased, the rest coming from scattered compilations like Knights Chronic 2000. Its 2Pacs best album since his death, and bodes well for future material by, kludge magazine included it on their list of best albums of 2002. The track Ghetto Star has appeared on the soundtrack to the video game 25 To Life, Better Dayz sold 366,000 copies in its first week on the charts. It has sold 1,765,597 copies in the United States as of 2011, on January 31,2003, it was certified Platinum in the U. S. and reached 3x Platinum in July 2014. The album was also certified 3x Platinum in Canada in May 2003, who Do U Believe In Manifest Destiny by Jamiroquai List of number-one R&B albums of 2002
40.
Tupac Shakur
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Tupac Amaru Shakur, also known by his stage names 2Pac, Makaveli or just Pac, was an American rapper, record producer, actor, activist and poet. As of 2007, Shakur has sold over 75 million records worldwide and his double disc albums All Eyez on Me and his Greatest Hits are among the best-selling albums in the United States. He has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest artists of all time by publications, including Rolling Stone. He is consistently ranked as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time, on April 7,2017, Shakur will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. Shakur began his career as a roadie, backup dancer, and MC for the hip hop group Digital Underground. The themes of most of Shakurs songs revolved around the violence and hardship in inner cities, racism, and other social problems. Both of his parents and several people in his family were members of the Black Panther Party, whose ideals were reflected in his songs. I. G. On September 7,1996, Shakur was fatally shot in a shooting at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in Las Vegas. He was taken to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, Shakur was born on June 16,1971, in the East Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City. His mother Afeni Shakur and his father Billy Garland were active members of the Black Panther Party in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Lesane was born a month after his mother was acquitted of more than 150 charges of Conspiracy against the United States government, Many people in Shakurs life were involved with the Black Liberation Army, some were convicted of serious criminal offenses and imprisoned, including his mother. His godfather, Elmer Geronimo Pratt, a high-ranking Black Panther, was convicted of murdering a school teacher during a 1968 robbery and his stepfather, Mutulu, spent four years at large on the FBIs Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list beginning in 1982. Mutulu was wanted for having helped his sister Assata Shakur, Tupacs godmother and she had been imprisoned since 1977 for killing a state trooper in 1973. She lived as a fugitive for years before gaining asylum in Cuba in 1985. Mutulu was caught in 1986, tried and convicted, and imprisoned for the robbery of a Brinks armored truck in two police officers and a guard were killed. Shakur had a stepbrother, Mopreme Komani Shakur, and a half-sister, Sekyiwa. His stepbrother Mopreme performed in many of his recordings, in 1986, his family moved to Baltimore, Maryland. After completing his year at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School
