Students will follow patterns of Caribbean immigration and the musical practices that came to New York City as a result of those patterns, finally considering the ways in which Hip Hop reflects them. Then, students experience the technology first hand using the Soundbreaking Sampler TechTool. In this lesson students explore the creative concepts and technological practices on which Hip Hop music was constructed, investigating what it means to “sample” from another style, who has used sampling and how. For instance, in Soundbreaking Episode 6 Public Enemy’s Chuck D recalls that before the Sugar Hill Gang’s breakthrough release, “we couldn’t even imagine a rap record.” However, as radical as it sounded to the average American listener in 1980, Hip Hop had deep connections to African-American and Afro-Caribbean music traditions in its performance style and in its use of turntables and prerecorded material as the primary “instrument” in the band. Many of the early rappers who performed at the block parties that spawned the genre had not themselves conceived of Hip Hop as something one could record and sell. To many listeners, the first commercial rap releases were surprising, something that seemed new, even unexpected. Indeed, the origin story of Hip Hop is one of opening doors that seemed tightly shut. The pioneers of Hip Hop, young people of color living in struggling communities and limited in their opportunities, embraced modern music technologies (first turntables, then drum machines and later samplers) but used them creatively, often in ways their manufacturers never intended. It was first created in the Bronx, NY, a borough of New York City that at the time was economically depressed, dangerous and mostly forsaken by the local government. In many ways Hip Hop is quintessentially American music.
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