The rebirth of soul, jazz and education through hip hop

Topic chosen: How hip hop’s social narration in its music led to the rebirth of soul, jazz and

education, teaching the young and poor African American community through culture.

Main argument and relationship to crisis and change: The official birth of hip-hop dates

back to August 11th 1973, when DJ Kool Herc was acting as a disc jockey at his sister’s

birthday party.1 He would usually play funk records, however, he noticed that the crowd

“would be waiting for particular parts of the record” to dance to, so he invented the “merry go

round” technique, consisting on looping the percussion-based instrumental breaks of records.

Nevertheless, towards the 1990s, hip hop became more involved with politics, as many of

these Caribbeans and African Americans began to voice racial struggles towards those in

power, especially those of Caucasian descent. Through provocative yet conscientious lyrics

such as Eric B. and Rakim on “Paid in Full” (1987), “Search for a 9 to 5, if I strive, then

maybe I’ll stay alive”.3 The notion and desire for a social uprising from the lower classes is

what brought jazz into the spotlight for hip hop artists, changing the genre’s direction, led by

the group ‘A tribe called Quest’. The group’s lead vocalist, ‘Q-tip’, explained hip hop’s

progression to jazz by stating that jazz and hip hop are both “creatures of culture and

1
Powell, Kevin, and Clive Campbell. “Conversation with DJ Kool Herc: The Founder of Hip Hop.”
Schomburg Centre, New York Public Library, 2 Apr. 2014.

2
Upshal, David, “The Hip Hop Years”, Channel 4, 1999
3
Eric B. & Rakim, “Paid in Full”, Island Records, “Paid in Full”, New York, United States of America, 1987

3
politics”.4 “It’s a commentary about who we are as people, the way we see the world, the way

we see others, how we should be.”5 Jazz was, of course, a genre much developed by African

Americans, but yet were “ripped off financially” and “did not get full recognition and

compensation for being the inventors of jazz”.6

This same social exploitation was occurring to rap artists towards the 1990s, as music labels

seemed to take ownership over their work, which together with race related issues, such as

police brutality, disempowered African Americans. However, this notion of disempowerment

was not the only catalyst that led hip hop towards jazz. Throughout the 1980s, “freestyle rap”,

a form of hip hop where artists would improvise their lyrics and rhymes while performing,

was gaining momentum. Studies examining the brains of jazz pianists and freestyle hip hop

artists found out that both activities “activate the dorsolateral and prefrontal cortex” of the

brain.78 Combining this new “jazz-rap” subgenre with messages painting a history of social

injustice, would make young African Americans reminisce on the narration of their own

culture, whether through their conscientious lyrics or its retrospective music.

However, throughout the 2000s, a second revolution stormed the hip-hop world. “Chipmunk

soul” had become a short trend in reggae music and rock, a phenomenon which consisted on

4 4
Adaso, Henry. “How Jazz Influenced Hip-Hop.” LiveAbout, 2019. https://www.liveabout.com/how-
jazz-influenced-hip-hop-2857332.

5
Golianopoulos, Thomas, and Kamaal Ibn John Fareed. The SPIN Interview: Q-Tip. Other. Spin, August
1, 2008. https://www.spin.com/2008/08/spin-interview-q-tip/.

6
Phillip, Zola. Rep. The Social Effects of Jazz. Jamaica, NY: York College, n.d.

7
Limb CJ, Braun AR (2008) Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Musical Performance: An fMRI Study of Jazz
Improvisation. PLoS ONE 3(2): e1679. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001679

8
Liu, S., Chow, H., Xu, Y. et al. Neural Correlates of Lyrical Improvisation: An fMRI Study of Freestyle
Rap. Sci Rep 2, 834 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep00834
looping, speeding and pitching up soul samples, nevertheless, this temporary bluff caught the

eye of hip-hop producers ‘Kanye West’ and ‘J Dilla’. Chopping up jazz samples had created

a very minimalistic sound, reducing the pieces to simple motifs, therefore, in an attempt to

give hip-hop a stronger punch, to match the aggression in the lyrics, producers turned to soul.

This is because, by speeding up samples and their frequencies, artists managed to make the

listeners feel “anger, fear, and happiness”, feelings activated by “high frequency energy”,

which was thought to coincide better with the present struggles the African American

community was going through.9

Key authors

The primary sources used are mainly interviews and songs. Some of the songs include “F*ck

the police” by ‘NWA’ and “Paid in Full” by Eric B. & Rakim, portrayed as examples of the

social narrative hip-hop displayed throughout the 1990s. Meanwhile there are two interviews

made to the alleged creator of hip hop, ‘DJ Kool Herc’, about the importance of looping funk

samples in hip-hop’s creation, and an interview to rapper ‘Q-tip’ on his views on how ‘jazz-

rap’ emerged.

However, the secondary sources include a report by Zola Phillip on how the exploitation of

jazz musicians can be compared to rappers in the 1980s, leading to the creation of ‘jazz-rap’,

and two studies led by Allen Braun compare the brains of jazz musicians to hip-hop artists,

serving as evidence that the unification of jazz with rap, was caused by exploitations to artists

9
Cespedes-Guevara, Julian, and Tuomas Eerola. Rep. Music Communicates Affects, Not Basic Emotions
– A Constructionist Account of Attribution of Emotional Meanings to Music 9. Vol. 9. Frontiers in
Psychology , 2018.
similar to the ones experienced by jazz musicians throughout the 20th century. Other sources

include articles about how these soul and jazz subgenres were derived and their

characteristics, together with a report by Cepedes-Guevara and an article of Spin, explaining

how ‘chipmunk soul’ became popular because of the effects high frequencies have on the

human brain.

Word count: 758 words

Bibliography:

1. NWA, “F*ck the Police”, Universal Music Group, “Straight Outta Compton”, Torrance, California,
United States of America, 1988

2. Cespedes-Guevara, Julian, and Tuomas Eerola. Rep. Music Communicates Affects, Not Basic Emotions
– A Constructionist Account of Attribution of Emotional Meanings to Music 9. Vol. 9. Frontiers in
Psychology , 2018.

3. Adaso, Henry. “How Jazz Influenced Hip-Hop.” LiveAbout, 2019. https://www.liveabout.com/how-

4. Golianopoulos, Thomas, and Kamaal Ibn John Fareed. The SPIN Interview: Q-Tip. Other. Spin,
August 1, 2008. https://www.spin.com/2008/08/spin-interview-q-tip/.

5. Phillip, Zola. Rep. The Social Effects of Jazz. Jamaica, NY: York College, n.d.

6. Limb CJ, Braun AR (2008) Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Musical Performance: An fMRI Study of
Jazz Improvisation. PLoS ONE 3(2): e1679. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001679

7. Liu, S., Chow, H., Xu, Y. et al. Neural Correlates of Lyrical Improvisation: An fMRI Study of
Freestyle Rap. Sci Rep 2, 834 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep00834

8. Powell, Kevin, and Clive Campbell. “Conversation with DJ Kool Herc: The Founder of Hip Hop.”
Schomburg Centre, New York Public Library, 2 Apr. 2014.

9. Upshal, David, “The Hip Hop Years”, Channel 4, 1999

10. Eric B. & Rakim, “Paid in Full”, Island Records, “Paid in Full”, New York, United States of America,
1987