History of Hip-Hop and R&B Music

Growing up in an African American home, and going to predominantly black schools and churches, I've been exposed to many different environments, people, and things. Beginning in the 4th grade I played an instrument every year all the way through junior year in high school. I used to sing in the church choir while I was growing up, but I found a new church and never really got involved with them, but my senior year in high school I sang in the choir at school. One thing that I realized about myself is that I love music, especially hip-hop and r&b music.

Hip-hop began more than 30 years ago and has evolved into much more than just music. Hip-hop is a culture and there are many people that live by this culture, not just in the US, but throughout the world. New York is the area where hip-hop was originated and the man that created the hip-hop culture was Clive Campbell aka DJ Kool Herc from Jamaica.

Rhythm and blues music evolved from jazz and blues music in the 1940's. The lyrics of r&b music were about things that happened in every day life. Paul Williams and His Hucklebuckers were the first prominent r&b group to make a hit. In the 1950's Little Richard made many hits that were in the r&b genre, but his music was under the sub-genre of rock and roll music. Over the years there were many sub-genres that are under the genre of rhythm and blues music; soul music, disco music, funk, and pop were some of the sub-genres of rhythm and blues that were created spanning from the late 1940's to the present day.

Works Cited:

1. "History of Hip-hop Style." History of Hip-hop. Voyage, 2008. Web. 04 Apr. 2014.
2. "History of R&B." History of R&B. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2014.