Music Without Lyrics: Hip Hop

Music without lyrics can be just as powerful as any other genre. In this blog post, we’ll explore the top 10 hip hop tracks that don’t need any words to make you feel something.

Introduction

Hip hop is a genre of music that is often characterized by its use of rhyming lyrics, often delivered over a backing track of sampled beats. Hip hop music first emerged in the United States in the 1970s, and it has since become a global phenomenon, with hip hop artists finding success in many different parts of the world.

Hip hop music is often criticized for its violent and misogynistic lyrics, but it can also be praised for its positive messages and its ability to bring people together. There are many different subgenres of hip hop, each with its own unique style and sound.

Whether you love it or hate it, there’s no denying that hip hop is one of the most popular genres of music in the world today. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the best songs in the genre that don’t feature any lyrics.

The History of Hip Hop

Hip hop is a music genre that emerged in the 1970s from the African-American inner-city communities in the United States. It consists of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. Hip hop music has been a massive part of American culture for over four decades now.

Origins in the Bronx

Hip hop music originated in the Bronx, New York City, in the 1970s. It was created by African American and Latino youths who were influenced by the Jamaican style of music. They used rhyming lyrics and spoke about their everyday lives. Hip hop music became popular in the 1980s with rap music, which is a type of hip hop that uses rhyming lyrics that are spoken instead of sung.

The Golden Age

The Golden Age of Hip Hop is often considered to be from 1986-1993. This was the time when rap music became more mainstream and started to gain popularity outside of African American communities. The music was characterized by its use of samples from older songs, especially Funk and Soul tracks. The lyrics were often about personal experiences, social issues, or having fun. Hip Hop became a way for people to express themselves and their feelings about the world around them. Some of the most popular artists during this time period include Run DMC, Public Enemy, and NWA.

The Decline and Resurgence

The late 1980s and early 1990s were marked by the decline of hip hop. Gangsta rap became the dominant form of hip hop, taking over the charts and the airwaves. The positive messages of early hip hop were replaced by tales of violence, drug use, and sexual promiscuity. Hip hop became increasingly commercialized, as record labels began to see its potential as a profitable genre.

In the mid-1990s, however, a new wave of hip hop artists emerged, led by rappers like Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls. These artists brought back the positive messages and social consciousness that had characterized early hip hop. They also expanded the genre’s musical palette, incorporating elements from jazz, rock, and R&B into their songs. Hip hop once again became a force for social change, with artists using their music to comment on issues like poverty, racism, and police brutality.

The Sound of Hip Hop

Hip hop is a genre of music that includes elements of rap, jazz, funk, and soul. It is characterized by a heavy use of drums and bass, and often has samples of other music or speeches. Hip hop began in the 1970s in the Bronx, New York, and has since spread to other parts of the world.

Sampling

In hip hop, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a sound recording in a different song or piece. Sampling was originally done with hardware samplers, before software samplers such as drum machines and turntables became more common. Recordings that are commonly sampled include drum breaks, which are percussion passages that are slowed down and used to provide a rhythmic foundation for a new song. Other recordings that are frequently sampled are bass lines, melodies, and vocals.

The Role of the DJ

Hip hop is a genre of music that emerged in the early 1970s in the Bronx borough of New York City. It is characterized by four key elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching, break dancing, and graffiti writing. Hip hop music is sometimes referred to as rap music or simply rap.

While all four elements are important to the genre, DJs play a particularly critical role. DJs are the glue that hold hip hop together, providing the beats and scratches that rappers flow over and break dancers use as the foundation for their routines. In many ways, DJs are the unsung heroes of hip hop; without them, the genre would not be nearly as dynamic or exciting.

The Importance of the Beat

Most people associate Hip Hop with the MCs who rap over the beats, but the music would not be the same without the beats. The beats are what give Hip Hop its distinctive sound and they are often what make a particular song memorable. Without the beat, Hip Hop would just be another genre of music.

The Lyrics of Hip Hop

Music without lyrics can be just as powerful as music with lyrics. This is especially true for hip hop. The beats and the bass line are what drive the song and the lyrics are just icing on the cake. That’s not to say that the lyrics are not important, but they are not the most important part of the song.

Themes

Hip hop lyrics are often just as important as the beats they are rapped over. Many hip hop songs are story-telling, often based on the artist’s personal experiences. Other hip hop songs are more concerned with social issues and can be political in nature. Some hip hop artists also use their platform to spread positive messages and promote social change. No matter what the theme of a hip hop song is, the lyrics are always accompanied by high energy beats that make them impossible to resist dancing to.

Wordplay

Hip hop is known for its use of wordplay, especially rhyming lyrics. Rappers often use a technique called “rhyming schemes”, which involve rhymes at the end of each line. There are many different types of rhyming schemes, but the most common is AABB. In AABB, the first and third lines rhyme with each other, and the second and fourth lines rhyme with each other.

Rhyming schemes can get very complex, and some rappers are known for their intricate rhyme patterns. For example, Busta Rhymes often uses a scheme called “internal rhymes”, where words in the middle of the line rhyme with each other.

Hip hop lyrics often focus on topics such as violence, drugs, sex, and crime. Some critics have accused hip hop music of glamorizing these topics, but many rappers argue that they are simply reflecting the reality of their lives.

Metaphors and Similes

In hip hop, it’s not just what you say, but how you say it. Rappers often use metaphors and similes to make their lyrics more interesting and to paint a clearer picture for the listener.

A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two things that are not actually alike. For example, if someone says “my heart is a volcano,” they’re using a metaphor to describe their feelings of anger or passion.

A simile is similar to a metaphor, except that it uses the words “like” or “as” to make the comparison. So, if someone says “my heart is like a volcano,” they’re still comparing their heart to a volcano, but in a less direct way.

Rappers often use metaphors and similes to describe their skills on the microphone or to talk about women, money, and drugs. In the world of hip hop, metaphors and similes are used all the time – sometimes in very creative ways.

Conclusion

Most people believe that hip hop is a genre of music that is solely comprised of rap. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Hip hop is a genre that includes a wide variety of sub-genres, all of which are characterized by their own unique sound. While rap is certainly a prominent facet of hip hop, it is not the only type of music that falls under this umbrella genre.

Music without lyrics, or instrumental hip hop, is one of these sub-genres. As its name suggests, instrumental hip hop is a type of music that does not feature any vocals. This can be accomplished in a number of ways; some tracks may simply lack any lyrics whatsoever, while others may feature snippets of speech or vocals that have been heavily processed and/or looped to the point where they are no longer intelligible.

Instrumental hip hop began to gain traction in the early 1990s, around the same time that the genre as a whole was beginning to blow up in popularity. Producers and DJs began to experiment with new sounds and styles, leading to the creation of several new sub-genres within hip hop. Instrumental hip hop would go on to become one of the most popular and influential sub-genres within the genre, giving birth to countless iconic tracks and artists over the course of its history.

If you’re a fan of hip hop but have never ventured into the world of instrumental tracks, then now is the perfect time to start exploring. You might be surprised at how much you enjoy this type of music!