Topic: Hip Hop
Hip hop emerged in the Bronx section of New York City in the early 1970s when a Jamaican immigrant Americanized his taste to fit that of his audience. Clive Campbell was raised in Kingston’s Trenchtown where he heard music being played in dance halls and on the streets over PA systems. His mother was the first to migrate to attend nursing school. Clive came in 1967, and the rest of the family followed. [1]
He quickly learned the necessity of blending into the neighborhood to avoid the discrimination and violence directed toward immigrants. He listened to radio and sang along with records to change his accent. [2] When critics later commented on the Jamaican roots of hip hop, he responded:
"Jamaican toasting? Naw, naw. No connection there. I couldn’t play reggae in the Bronx. People wouldn’t accept it. The inspiration for rap is James Brown and the album Hustler’s Convention." [3]
Wayne Marshall suggested the migration sharpened Campbell’s already keen interest in music. When his father bought a sound system for a local R&B group, Clive figured out how to connect the components to produce the sounds he’d heard in Jamaica. [4] By then his friends were calling him Herc, short for Hercules, for his prowess on the basketball court. [5]
When he went to dances he noticed which parts of records he and other dancers enjoyed, and also observed the things they disliked about the men playing the music. Dancers preferred the instrumental sections of funk records which had strong beats. DJ Kook Herc’s key innovation was finding a way to extend the intense dance time by changing from one turntable to another when the break ended on one song to the start of the break on another. To cover the short lapse in music, he shouted out to the dancers. [6]
Others, especially Grandmaster Flash, mentioned in the post for 26 March 2018, and Afrika Bambaataa, [7] improved his techniques and replaced his simple calls with extended texts that used rap styles. From there it evolved from dance music into hip hop.
Rappers and others needed repetitive beat patterns for their performances. Men with computer expertise were able to provide them by isolating elements in existing instrumental breaks, reordering them, and repeating them in digital loops. [8] Beginning in 2005, [9] Lugo began releasing albums of Hip Hop Instrumentals that others could licence for sound tracks.
His version of "Kumbaya" opened with conga drums that alternated between two tones. They stopped and a shaker began. When the congas rejoined, they were heard on the four beats of each measure and the shakers consistently played between.
Lugo labeled his version "Jungle." That may been because many associated both "Kumbaya" and hand-played drums with Africa, but it also may have been a reference to jungle music that emerged in London clubs in 1992. [10]
Simon Reynolds said jungle music "upturns Western music’s hierarchy of melody/harmony over rhythm/timbre. In jungle, the rhythm is the melody." [11] Further, it disrupted the steady four loud beats of disco by skipping beats. Thus, Lugo’s congas were able to maintain the rhythm without in fact playing every beat. About half way through the performance, the conga player added a second motif between the main four. Occasionally, a steel-style drum was struck three times on the third beat of the measure.
Lugo’s "Kumbaya" lacked one of the defining traits of jungle music. The tempo was moderate, while the drums in jungle often played 150 beats-per-minute. [12] Reynolds said, the bass line, meantime, was slowed to 70 bpm, [13] and that dancers switched between rhythms. If Lugo included an electric bass, it used a frequency so low, it could not be detected by my computer’s standard built-in speakers. [14]
The other way "Kumbaya" differed from jungle music was it was essentially acoustic. It had a few random sounds that were produced electronically, but it was not electronic music. Wikipedia indicated that when the jungle was introduced into this country, the term often was used as a "synonym for drum and bass," rather than for its English model. [15] That was probably all Lugo wanted to suggest.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: none
Rhythm Accompaniment: congas, shaker, steel-type drum
Credits
(C) 2006 Edwin Lugo
Notes on Lyrics
There were none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: his own
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: strophic
Notes on Performance
Lugo may have created the recording without assistance from others. He claimed to be a "Computer and Audio tec. Geek" who could play congas, bongos, drums, and guitar. He also advised potential casting directors he was a "Hip Hop, Latin and Club Dancer," [16] which implied he would have had a dancer’s understanding of what was required from music.
Notes on Performers
Edwin Lugo’s parents were from Puerto Rico, and his mother was related to Roberto Clemente. His father was a Pentecostal minister, who had him singing in a Bronx church when he was three-years-old. [17] He attended New York’s High School for the Performing Arts in the 1980s, and had his first major professional work in a Paul Simon musical [18] that opened in 1998. [19] He told fans his influences included "prince, Michael jackson, marvin gaye, luther vandross, sam cook, tito puente, quincy jones." [20]
Availability
CD: Hip Hop Instrumentals Vol. 11. 7 November 2005.
YouTube: uploaded by CDBaby on 19 April 2015. [21]
End Notes
1. Wayne Marshall. "Kool Herc." 1-26 in Icons of Hip Hop. Edited by Mickey Hess. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood, 2007. Reproduced on his website, Wayne and Wax.
2. Marshall.
3. Steven Hager. Hip Hop. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984. 45. Quoted by Wikipedia. "DJ Kool Herc." Hustler’s Convention was recorded in 1973 by Lightnin’ Rod (Jalal Mansur Nuriddin) for United Artists Records UA-LA-156-F. (Discogs entry for album).
4. Marshall.
5. Wikipedia, DJ Kool Herc.
6. Marshall.
7. Afrika Bambaataa (Lance Taylor) was noted for using hip hop as a way of diverting gang violence into dance with his Zulu Nation. (Wikipedia. "Afrika Bambaataa.")
8. Simon Reynolds. Energy Flash. New York: Soft Skull Press, 2012 edition. 241.
9. Amazon indicated Lugo’s first volume, titled simply Hip Hop Instrumentals, was released 10 October 2005. Amazon’s release dates must be treated with caution since they often were the most recent reissue dates, not the original ones. Discogs had no entry on Lugo to use for confirmation.
10. Wikipedia. "Jungle music."
11. Reynolds. 242.
12. Benjamin Noys. "Into the Jungle." Popular Music. 14:321-332:1995. 321.
13. Reynolds. 242
14. Reynolds said "sub-bass frequencies operate almost below the threshold of hearing" and were felt rather than heard. 243.
15. Wikipedia, Jungle.
16. "Edwin Lugo." Actors Access website.
17. "Edwin Lugo." Model Mayhem website.
18. "LUGO." Facebook.
19. Wikipedia. "The Capeman."
20. Facebook.
21. CDBaby uploaded another song under this title from volume 6 of his Hip Hop Instrumentals; it was different and did not appear on listings of that volume from its website.
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