Hip Hop Industry History

As promised a week ago, I am fulfilling my promise to write about a hip hop industry, in which major labels and independent labels compete for the deep pockets and hungry imaginations of hip hop fans around the world.

Now, I could have written a whole book on this topic, but for the purposes of time and writing about more important topics... I will keep it brief.

As with most new genres of music, hip hop's initial commercial successes from 1979 to 1986 were with small, independent labels like Sugar Hill and Enjoy. Back in the good old days, only the small mom-and-pop labels had the understanding and the know-how to take raw hip hop from the streets and clubs... and bring it to city-wide and world-wide audiences. As soon as the majors figured out what was going on... they got in on it too. By 1985, Atlantic and Mercury got in on the act, and a whole new breed of small-majors -- Tommy Boy, Def Jam, and Profile -- emerged to bridge the gap between the lowest and the highest levels of the music industry.

The so-called Golden Era of hip hop in the mid 1980s was in large part a golden era because indpendent labels like Tommy Boy and Def Jam started racking up major hits. Taking the cue, labels like Jive, Atlantic, and Elektra began signing fledgling artists across the country. No sooner had the original underground spirit hit mainstream airwaves, when niche marketing started to take over hip hop.

When labels realized there was dope hip hop outside of New York City, niche marketing was born. Fans couldn't get enough of Ice-T, N.W.A. and Too Short... and a whole army of immitators and shoddy knock-offs emerged from coast to coast. Soon, hip hop was not just a New York thing... but simply a black thang. All those die-hard archetypes and everything in between came to the surface: from gangsters and pimps, to class clowns and paper boys, to militant muslims and dangerous derelicts.

In spite of the wide range of characters and styles in the 1980s and early 1990s, by the mid-1990s hip hop found itself separating into two distinct camps: mainstream and underground. Though the term "underground" is something of a misnomer for what is simply "not mainstream," it reflects the chasm felt between the two polarized camps.

Throughout hip hop's 25 year history, most major label artists got their start with independent labels. But by the late 1990s, the growing sophistication and financial success of indpendent labels, distributors, and retailers enabled many underground artists to bypass the majors altogether. The result of this new industry dynamic is that the former rift between the majors and independents has become a broad chasm. While rappers on the radio toast the excesses of sex, wealth, and power... underground artists primarily extol the virtues of creative integrity, fighting injustice, and keeping things in perspective.

The result of the rift between mainstream and underground rap is that we now have different standards for underground artists and mainstream artists. While style has always been the make-or-break factor for radio-based artists, underground artists can find success with sophisticated lyrics, in spite of often 2nd rate beats and a decided lack of charisma. The lower standards for underground artists has allowed the "bad beat factor" to become rampant. For many artists, an uninspired beat is simply the canvas for the real show: lyrics.

Meanwhile, on the radio we hear all the $10,000 beats and the results are, well... quite staggering. It's as if there is a conspiracy: only in the underground are you able to kick substantive lyrics and speak your mind. Yet the vast majority of mind-bending, next-level beats have a price tag only the majors can afford.

On rare occasions when the new-school beats and true-school lyrics combine -- witness Push Button Objects, Prefuse 73, or Roots Manuva -- we get a glimpse of that perfect hip hop universe. But for now, we must content ourselves with listening to the radio to satisfy our need for showmanship and rump-shakin', and listen to the undergound in order to satisfy our need for sober analysis and poetic insights.