What Instruments Are Used in Hip Hop?

Once considered a fad like disco or new wave, hip-hop music has endured the test of time and become a staple in mainstream pop radio. For up-and-coming music producers, hip-hop is the easiest to create in terms of instrumentation; the basics are composed of only three or four pieces of equipment. History Understanding hip-hop music instrumentation means that you first must understand its beginnings. Hip-hop is generally accepted to have originated in the Bronx though DJ Kool Herc (Clive Campbell), the first hip hop DJ was from Jamaica. Known more as a culture than a form of music, it's often used interchangeably to mean both the culture and its music which is rap. The person unofficially credited with coining the phrase "hip-hop" was Afrika Bambaata, one of its early pioneers also known as the Godfather of Hip-Hop. From its birth, hip-hop music has always had a rustic, street sound focusing heavily on the beat and groove borrowed from several different genres of music. Though it has ...  more