{"id":616,"date":"2021-11-30T21:33:30","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T01:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/music-of-texas-fall-2021\/?p=616"},"modified":"2021-12-25T17:13:23","modified_gmt":"2021-12-25T21:13:23","slug":"houston-hip-hop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/music-of-texas-fall-2021\/2021\/11\/30\/houston-hip-hop\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Hip\/Hop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>For my creative project, I&nbsp;decided&nbsp;to focus on Houston Hip-Hop, and make a beat that resembled the common themes and aesthetics of Houston&#8217;s rap style. I began to conduct research on what made Houston&#8217;s style different from the east and west coasts, and if there was a difference.&nbsp;From my research for the Geto Boys, I had found that chopped and screwed rap music had become popular in Houston, and the sub-genre of \u201cgangsta&nbsp;rap\u201d had&nbsp;piqued&nbsp;my interest.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Geto Boys - Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta (Official Video) [Explicit]\" width=\"1345\" height=\"757\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6IJCFc_qkHw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption>Houston Rap: &#8220;Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta&#8221; &#8211; Geto Boys<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As I became more educated in the sound and meaning of&nbsp;gangsta&nbsp;rap, I discovered that a lot of its differentiations came from the&nbsp;explicit lyrical meaning of the songs. There&nbsp;are&nbsp;still differences in the production of regional hip-hop. Although I do not have a talent&nbsp;for&nbsp;rapping or songwriting, I believe the beat that I made&nbsp;resembles the Houston hip-hop aesthetic.&nbsp;My major point of research was to decipher the differences in&nbsp;regional hip-hop, what they were producing in both NYC and LA were different. The main difference that I have concluded is the drug culture of the regions. In Houston, it is no secret that hip-hop was heavily influenced by lean, which is&nbsp;codeine and&nbsp;sprite, essentially.&nbsp;This Houston-made creation created a common theme for artists to replicate&nbsp;the feeling of the high that lean creates. This euphoric&nbsp;feeling translates into music, which often also has references in lyrical content. As I stated earlier,&nbsp;gangsta&nbsp;rap often is&nbsp;recognized&nbsp;by its explicitness in the lyrics, often discussing topics&nbsp;such&nbsp;as drugs, sex,&nbsp;racism&nbsp;and&nbsp;oppression. These topics may be&nbsp;deemed&nbsp;as controversial, but it creates an outlet for messages that&nbsp;aren&#8217;t&nbsp;being discussed in other music,&nbsp;at least&nbsp;not as&nbsp;brutally honest.&nbsp;This was also portrayed in West Coast hip-hop including the&nbsp;well-known hit \u201cFuck Tha Police\u201d by N.W.A. Although the explicit and&nbsp;profane&nbsp;lyrical components were similar in the two&nbsp;regions, their sounds were distinctive.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Fuck Tha Police\" width=\"1333\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xB2DY1Q74oQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption>West Coast Rap: &#8220;Fuck Tha Police&#8221; &#8211; N.W.A <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In both listening and research, I found that East Coast hip-hop, specifically NYC, has a much more up-beat feel to it. NYC&nbsp;created a foundation for hip-hop\/rap that cannot be argued. The fast tempo,&nbsp;uplifting, and experiential&nbsp;sound to East Coast rap allowed&nbsp;improvisation and many sub-genres of rap. Although not&nbsp;all&nbsp;East Coast rap sounded the same, the&nbsp;common&nbsp;technique was often the use&nbsp;samples. Sampling and up-beat tempos are&nbsp;rather easily&nbsp;detected to decipher the regional differences in rap.&nbsp;One of the most famous early hip-hop songs from the east coast is \u201cRapper\u2019s Delight\u201d by The Sugar Hill Gang. This upbeat tempo and&nbsp;melodic beat truly created a rap song that will never be forgotten. NYC and Houston rap have&nbsp;noticeable&nbsp;differences&nbsp;at this time.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Sugar Hill Gang - Rapper&#039;s Delight ( HQ, Full Version )\" width=\"1345\" height=\"757\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rKTUAESacQM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption>East Coast Rap: &#8220;Rapper&#8217;s Delight&#8221; &#8211; The Sugar Hill Gang<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lyrics aside, the biggest distinction for Houston rap is the tempo. This screwed styled production has a slower tempo, and a lower pitched sound.\u00a0My first course of action was to lower the pitch that was automatically set to\u00a0B minor to A minor. This pitch\u00a0change\u00a0created a Houston feel. It\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0a complete start until I could change the tempo from 75bpm to 65bpm. These\u00a0two adjustments set me up to begin the creation of a\u00a0gangsta\u00a0rap beat.\u00a0My intention for this beat was to create a euphoric,\u00a0drug-infused\u00a0feeling.\u00a0The synthesizers I used in the making had a hypnotic emotive to it, and the creation of a high-pitched buzz was in\u00a0almost every\u00a0Houston rap song I could find.\u00a0I added a few different synths to mimic this feeling and sound. A lot of the\u00a0gangsta\u00a0rap production heavily relied on snare rolls,\u00a0kicks, and horns. As you listen to this beat,\u00a0all of\u00a0these components are strategically weaving in and out of the song. With hours of listening to original Houston rap, I had also noticed that slow piano\u00a0rhythmics\u00a0had\u00a0a strong influence in the production. I started off my project with a piano riff and an arrangement of horns to create the Houston hip hop aesthetic. As\u00a0I listened and constructed this beat, I wanted to make it both hypnotic and euphoric, which contributed to\u00a0the diverse inclusions throughout the length of the beat. Although it\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0super long, any additions I made took away from the aesthetic that I had created, and so I kept it short to keep it attributable to the Houston sound.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/music-of-texas-fall-2021\/files\/2021\/12\/music-of-texas-gangsta-rap-113021-8.30-PM.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Works Cited<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Adaso, Henry. \u201cA Brief History of Gangsta Rap.\u201d <em>LiveAbout<\/em>, LiveAbout, 30 Mar. 2019, https:\/\/www.liveabout.com\/what-is-gangsta-rap-2857307.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bein, Kat. \u201cA Beginner&#8217;s Guide to Celebrating Houston Rap: Discogs.\u201d <em>Discogs Blog<\/em>, Discogs, 19 Mar. 2021, https:\/\/blog.discogs.com\/en\/beginners-guide-to-houston-rap-essential-albums\/.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Caldwell, Brandon. \u201c20 Years Later: Why 1996 Was Such a Crucial Year in Houston&#8217;s Hip-Hop History.\u201d <em>VIBE.com<\/em>, 15 Mar. 2016, https:\/\/www.vibe.com\/features\/editorial\/houston-rap-20-year-anniversary-scarface-ugk-dj-screw-410924\/.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lavoie , Alex. \u201c22 Rap Genres That Define the Evolution of Rhyme and Beat.\u201d <em>LANDR Blog<\/em>, 18 Dec. 2020, https:\/\/blog.landr.com\/rap-styles\/.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Orbock, Joeseph A. \u201cRap and Hip-Hop.\u201d <em>TSHA<\/em>, https:\/\/www.tshaonline.org\/handbook\/entries\/rap-and-hip-hop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For my creative project, I&nbsp;decided&nbsp;to focus on Houston Hip-Hop, and make a beat that resembled the common themes and aesthetics of Houston&#8217;s rap style. I began to conduct research on what made Houston&#8217;s style different from the east and west &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":253,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[256],"tags":[221,224,175,178,15,222,225],"class_list":["post-616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-texas-creativity","tag-dirty-south","tag-east-coast","tag-geto-boys","tag-hip-hop","tag-houston","tag-rap","tag-west-coast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/music-of-texas-fall-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/music-of-texas-fall-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/music-of-texas-fall-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/music-of-texas-fall-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/253"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/music-of-texas-fall-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/music-of-texas-fall-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":698,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/music-of-texas-fall-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions\/698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/music-of-texas-fall-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/music-of-texas-fall-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/music-of-texas-fall-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}