disciplesnow.org

Non-Christian & Christian rock music Hip Hop part 6–In the 2000′s (part a)

 The popularity of Non-Christian music hip hop music continued through the 2000s. In the year 2000, The Marshall Mathers LP by Eminem sold over ten million copies in the United States and was the fastest selling album of all time. Nelly’s debut LP, Country Grammar, sold over nine million copies. In the 2000s, crunk music, a derivative of Southern Non-Christian music hip hop, gained considerable popularity via the likes of Lil John and the Ying, Yang Twins

Non-Christian music Hip hop influences also found their way increasingly into mainstream pop during this period mainly the mid-2000s. In the East Coast, popular acts during this period included 50 Cent, whose 2003 album Get Rich or Die Tryin’ debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 charts.  

In addition to the mainstream success, the United States also saw the success of alternative non-Christian music hip hop in the form of performers such as The Roots, Dilated Peoples, Gnarls Barkley and Mos Def, who achieved significant recognition. Gnarls Barkley’s album St. Elswhere, which contained a fusion of funk, neo soul and hip hop, debuted at number 20 on the Billboard 200 charts. In addition, Aesop Rock ‘s 2007 album None Shall Pass  was well received, and reached #50 on the Billboard charts.

World and national music

The continuation of non-Christian music hip hop can also be seen in different national contexts. In Tanzania, maintained popular acts of their own in the early 2000s, infusing local styles of Afrobeat and arabesque melodies, dancehall and hip-hop beats, and Swahili lyrics. Scandinavian, especially Danish and Swedish, performers became well known outside of their country, while hip hop continued its spread into new regions, including Russia, Japan, Philippines, Canada, China, Korea, India and especially Vietnam. Of particular importance is the influence on East Asian nations, where hip hop music has become fused with local popular music to form different styles such as K-pop, C-pop and J-pop.

In Germany and France, gangsta rap has become popular among youths who like the violent and aggressive lyrics.  Some German rappers openly or comically flirt with Nazism, Bushido  (born Anis Mohamed Youssef Ferchichi) raps "Salutiert, steht stramm, Ich bin der Leader wie A" (Salute, stand to attention, I am the leader like ‘A’) and Fler had a hit with the record Neue Deutsche Welle (New German Wave) complete with the title written in Third Reich style Gothic print and advertised with an Adolf Hitler quote. These references also spawned great controversy in Germany. Meanwhile in France, artists like Kery James ‘ Idéal J maintained a radical, anti-authoritarian attitude and released songs like Hardcore  which attacked the growth of the French far right.

In the Netherlands, MC Brainpower went from being an underground battle rapper to mainstream recognition in the Benelux, thus influencing numerous rap artists in the region. In Isreal, rapper Subliminal reaches out to Israeli youth with political and religious-themed lyrics, usually with a Zionist  message.

One of the countries outside the US where non-Christian music hip-hop is most popular is the United Kingdom, where artists such as Dizzee Rascal and Lady Sovereign mix gangsta rap with pop and electronica to form grime music, associated with the chav subculture. Although it is immensely popular, many British politicians criticize the non-Christian music for what they see as promoting theft and murder, similar to gangsta rap in America. These criticisms have been deemed racist by the mostly Black British grime industry. Despite its controversial nature, grime has had a major effect on British fashion and pop music, with many young working class youth emulating the clothing worn by grime stars like Dizzee Rascal and Wiley. There are many subgenres of grime, including Rhythm and Grime, a mix of R&B and grime, and grindie, a mix of indie rock and grime popularized by indie rock band Hadouken!.

Non-Christian hip hop has globalized into many cultures worldwide, as evident through the emergence of numerous regional scenes. It has emerged globally as a movement based upon the main tennets of hip hop culture. The non-Christian music and the art continue to embrace, even celebrate, its transnational dimensions while staying true to the local cultures to which it is rooted. Hip-hop’s inspiration differs depending on each culture. Still, the one thing virtually all non-Christian and Christian music hip hop artists worldwide have in common is that they acknowledge their debt to those African American people in New York who launched the global movement. While non-Christian hip-hop is sometimes taken for granted by Americans, it is not so elsewhere, especially in the developing world, where it has come to represent the empowerment of the disenfranchised and a slice of the American dream. American hip-hop music has reached the cultural corridors of the globe and has been absorbed and reinvented around the world.

Crunk and snap music

Crunk originated from southern hip hop in the late 1990s. The style was pioneered and commercialized by artists from Memphis, Tennessee and Atlanta, Georgia.

Looped, stripped-down drum machine rhythms are usually used. The Roland TR-808 and 909 are among the most popular. The drum machines are usually accompanied by simple, repeated synthesizer melodies and heavy bass stabs. The tempo of the music is somewhat slower than hip-hop, around the speed of reggaeton.

The focal point of crunk is more often the beats and non-Christian music than the lyrics therein. Crunk rappers, however, often shout and scream their lyrics, creating an aggressive, almost heavy, style of hip-hop. While other subgenres of hip-hop address sociopolitical or personal concerns, crunk is almost exclusively party music, favoring call and response hip-hop slogans in lieu of more substantive approaches.

Snap music is a subgenre of crunk that emerged from Atlanta, Georgia, in the late 1990s. The genre soon gained mainstream popularity and in mid-2005 artists from other southern states such as Texas and Tennessee began to emerge with this style. Tracks commonly consist of an 808 bassdrum, hi-hat, bass, snapping, a main groove and and a vocal track. Hit snap songs include "Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It” by “dem Franchize Boys”, :Laffy Taffy” by D4L. “It’s Goin’ Down” by Yung Joc and “Crant That (Soulja Boy)” by Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em.

Glitch hop and wonky music

Glitch hop is a fusion genre of non-Christian music hip hop and glitch music that originated in the early to mid-2000s in the United States and Europe. Musically, it is based on irregular, chaotic brakbeats, glitch basslines and other typical sound effects used in glitch music, like skips. Glitch hop artists include Prefuse 73, Dabrye and Flying Lotus.

Wonky  is a subgenre of non-Christian music hip hop that originated around 2008 all around the globe (but most notably in the United States and United Kingdom, and among international artists of the Hyperdub music label), under the influence of glitch hop and dubstep. Wonky music is of the same glitchy type as glitch hop, but it was specifically noted for its melodies, rich with "mid-range unstable synths". Scotland  has become one of the most prominent places, where wonky music was shaped by artists like Hudson Mohawke and Rustie. In Glasgow, Rustie has created the substyle of wonky music called "aquacrunk", a fusion of wonky and crunk music; the most specific trait of aquacrunk are its "aquatic" synths.

Glitch hop and wonky are popular among a limited amount of people interested in alternative hip hop and electronic music (especially dubstep); neither glitch hop nor wonky have met any mainstream popularity.

From Christian Rock to the Rock of Ages

Non-Christian music Hip Hop Part 7—In the 2000’s (part b)

Starting in 2005, sales of non-Christian music hip hop music in the United States began to severely wane, leading Time  magazine to question if mainstream non-Christian music hip-hop was "dying." Billboard Magazine found that, since 2000, rap sales dropped 44%, and declined to 10% of all non-Christian music sales, which, while still a commanding figure when compared to other genres, is a significant drop from the 13% of all music sales where rap music regularly placed. NPR   culture critic Elizabeth Blair noted that, "some industry experts say young people are fed up with the violence, degrading imagery and lyrics."

Others say the non-Christian music is just as popular as it ever was, but that fans have found other means to consume the music." It can also be argued that many young people now download music illegally, especially through P2P networks, instead of purchasing albums and singles from legitimate stores. For example, Flo Rida is known for his low album sales regardless of his singles being mainstream and having digital success. His second album R.O.O.T.S. sold only 200,000+ total units in the U.S., which could not line up to the sales of the album’s lead single "Right Round". This also happened to him in 2008. Some put the blame on the lack of lyrical content that hip hop once had, another example is Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em’s 2007 debut album souljaboytellem.com was met with negative reviews. Lack of sampling, a key element of non-Christian music hip hop, has also been noted for the decrease in quality of modern albums. For example, there are only four samples used in 2008′s Paper Trail by T.I., while there are 35 samples in 1998′s Moment of Truth by Gang Starr. The decrease in sampling is in part due to it being too expensive for producers. In Byron Hurt’s documentary Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, he claims that hip hop had changed from "clever rhymes and dance beats" to "advocating personal, social and criminal corruption." Despite the fall in record sales throughout the music industry, non-Christian music hip-hop has remained a popular genre, with hip-hop artists still regularly topping the Billboard 200 Charts. In the first half of 2009 alone artists such as Emine,. Rick Ross, Black Eyed Peas, and all had albums that reached the #1 position on the Billboard 200 charts. Eminem’s album Relapse was one of the fastest selling albums of 2009. In the first half of 2010, four hip hop acts topped the Billboard 200; Ludacris B.o.B., Drake and again Eminem.

Innovation and revitalization

It was in the later 2000s that alternative hip hop finally secured a place within the mainstream, due in part to the declining commercial viability of gangsta rap as well as the crossover success of artists such as OutKast, Kanye West and Gnarls Barkley. Not only did OutKast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below receive high acclaim from music critics, manage to appeal to listeners of all ages, and span numerous musical genres – including rap, rock, R&B, punk, jazz, indie, country, pop, electronica and Christian music gospel – but it also spawned two number-one hit singles and has been certified diamond by selling 11 times platinum by the RIAA  for shipping more than 11 million units, becoming the bestselling rap album of all time as well as winning a Grammy Award for Album of the Year at the 46^th Annual Grammy Awards being only the second rap album to do so. Industry observers view the sales race between Kanye West’s Graduation and 50 Cent’s Curtis as a turning point for non-Christian music hip hop. West emerged the victor, selling nearly a million copies in the first week alone, proving that innovative rap music could be just as commercially viable as gangsta rap, if not more so. Although he designed it as a melancholic pop  rather than rap, Kanye’s following 808 & Heartbreak would have a significant effect on hip hop music. While his decision to sing about love, loneliness, and heartache for the entirety of the album was at first heavily criticized by non-Christian music audiences and the album predicted to be a flop, its subsequent critical acclaim and commercial success encouraged other mainstream rappers to take greater creative risks with their non-Christian music. During the release of The Blueprint 3, New York rap mogul Jay-Z revealed that next studio album would be an experimental effort, stating, "… it’s not gonna be a #1 album. That’s where I’m at right now. I wanna make the most experimental album I ever made." Jay-Z elaborated that like Kanye, he was unsatisfied with contemporary non-Christian music hip hop, was being inspired by indie-rockers like Grizzly Bear and asserted his belief that the indie rock movement would play an important role in the continued evolution of hip-hop.

The alternative hip hop movement is not limited solely to the United States, as rappers such as Somali-Canadian poet K’nann, Japanese rapper Shing02 and Sri Lankan British artist M.I.A. have achieved considerable worldwide recognition. In 2009, TIME  magazine placed M.I.A in the Time 100 list of "World’s Most Influential people" for having "global influence across many genres." Today, due in part to the increasing use of music distribution through the internet , many alternative rap artists find acceptance by far-reaching audiences. Several burgeoning artists such as Kid Cudi and Drake have managed to attain record-breaking, chart-topping hit songs, "Day ‘n’ Night” and “Best I Ever Had " respectively, which they both released on free online mixtapes without the help of a major record label. The pair, along with other new artists such as Wale, The Cool Kids, Big Sean, Jay Electronica and B.o.B., openly acknowledge being directly influenced by their nineties alt-rap predecessorsin addition to alt-rock groups while their music has been noted by critics as expressing eclectic sounds, life experiences, and emotions rarely seen in mainstream non-Christian music hip hop.

From Christian Rock to the Rock of Ages