J. Cole 2014 FOREST HILLS DRIVE GETS DOUBLE PLATINUM
LIL YACHTY FUTURE OF RAP?
HISTORY OF RAP
February 24th, 2017
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TJUVJAKT WHO ARE THEY?
Editorial
Welcome to Worldstar Hop Hip, this is a magazine for everyone who is interested in rap and hip-hop, who want a sight into the lives of the biggest rappers out there. In this weeks magazine, we will talk about: History of rap written by Lucas Lindberg J. Cole earns double platinum written by Viktor Lindquist Who are Tjuvjakt written by Rasmus Nilsson Lil’ Yachty, future of rap? written by Oscar Andersson Swedish street rap written by Joel Magnusson
History of rap The history of rap is very interesting, come with us as we explore its roots and where it came from. Rap is a very old word, the term actually popped up in Britain back in the 15th and 16th century. Back in those days, rap used to mean to ‘hit’ or to ‘strike’, but a few centuries later a variation of this word appeared which meant to ‘speak’ or ‘talk’. This variation started to pop up in the African American community in the 1960s, and was used as slang for when someone was talking or having a conversation. Long before rap exploded, West African musicians were known to tell stories rhythmically with the help of drums as a beat in the background. This was thousands of years ago, and is called griots. This was also happening in the Caribbean where they were telling stories with rhyme. These musicians laid the foundation for today’s rap and hip-hop artists. The griot tradition was carried over when Africans were captured against their will and shipped over to America and forced into slavery. It was used as a thing for them to cope with the tremendous amount of pain and heartbreak they experienced. While working in the fields they would often sing using “Call to leader”. One leader would call out the first line of a song, and the other slaves would follow up with the next line. In modern times, this is known as emceeing or crowd participation. Basically what rap is, is speaking or chanting of rhyming lyrics often to a beat but also possible without. Many rappers rhyme about very provocative issues too, like sex, money, violence and drugs. The rhyming created by rappers is considered to be some of the most sophisticated poetry to some people. Rap in the US first gained popularity in the 1970’s among teens as a kind of street art. Though rapping really exploded in 1979, when Sugarhill Gang, comprised of Englewood, New Jersey natives Michael Wright, Henry Jackson and Guy O’Brien, released their first song ‘Rappers Delight’, which was over 14 minutes long. The popularity of this song made producers take notice of the US rap scene, and once they did, some huge names started to pop up, like Run-DMC and N.W.A, which made rap’s audience swell. But it wasn’t just male African Americans who were getting in on the act, by the 1980s several white and female rap bands started popping up, like Beastie Boys and Salt-n-Peppa, which reached the top of the charts. In the 1990s, rap started to evolve from the old-school style that had been used previously and was much more simple, into a more sophisticated style which was louder and had much more complex lyrics. This is when rappers like The Notorious B.I.G, Tupac, Snoop Dogg and Eminem ruled the charts, which are considered to be some of the biggest and best rappers of all time. And the rest is history. What record labels first thought was just a fad, has now become one of the biggest music genres of this decade. Since its first versions, it has evolved a lot, but the essence of the genres heart and soul still remain.
J. Cole earns double platinum
J. Cole is both a single-handed producer and singer, one of America’s most talented rappers. With only him producing his own music he gained a lot of attention, not only by the people but by the bigger song producers. Jermaine Lamarr Cole, J. Cole was born in Frankfurt West Germany grew up where?. His father was a former soldier in the U.S. Army while his mother was German, working for the US Postal Service. Cole’s father abandoned the family during his youth. Cole began what? at the age of twelve, and soon he saw an ideal profession in 2000 at age?. His mother soon gave him an ASR-X music sampler as a gift at Christmas – relevance?. As mentioned, he was really good at rapping, and singing for that matter. After he was inspired by Tupac and Eminem, Cole and his cousin started developing basic understandings of rhyming and wordplay. In the mean time they quickly learned how to write lyrics based on their life story. That itself brings an emotional feeling to the listener. Two great examples would be “Wet Dreamz” and “Neighbors”. These are two songs based on a true story tell us more about this true story. The spectacular thing about these two songs is that he tells a story as he sings, and with a rhythm that makes the listener really listen to the lyrics. Even though the songs are filled with explicit content it’s still fun to listen too it also brings life to the songs. It makes the song more “believable”. It makes the song sound like it actually was him that wrote it, sound like reality. J. Cole is very thankful to the people that have helped him grow, as well as produced his music even though he has done the most the producing himself. “Note To Self ” is a song he has written, that song is all about the people that have helped him on the way. It’s really fascinating to listen to when he thanks a person that helped him during the way, while he does that he brings up very very short stories, memories of the person. I think that makes every listener happy, as well as me. 2009 Cole released his second mixtape, The Warm Up. Cole appeared on Jay Z’s album The Blueprint 3 on the track A Star Is Born. Now J. Cole is one of the biggest rappers we have today. In 2012 Cole was nominated to “New Artist of the Year” as well as “Best Rap/Hip Hop Album”. In 2015 he also was nominated to “Best Rap/ Hip Hop Album”. 2014 and 2016 he was nominated to “Best Male Hip Hop Artist”. Cole is going to grow big, with his potential he has to. As mentioned, J.Cole is a single handed producer and songwriter. J. Cole just achieved his first double platinum. Platinum on his both albums. If he continues as he does now, he will soon be all over media. We here at Worldstar Hop Hip wish you the best of luck Cole.
Tjuvjakt, who are they?
The Swedish hip hop group called Tjuvjakt is one of the famous groups around here in Sweden. They are known for their own interpretation of hip hop. With their charm, fantasy and enjoyment of life have they have blown the Swedish hip hop scene with storm. The meaning of their text is living life and how a teenage life could be. With over 50 million streams on Spotify and with over 50 gigs in 2016 around Sweden makes them to one of the biggest Swedish hip hop group. The group members are Olle Grafström, Kid Eriksson, Fredrik Woodz, Arvid Lundquist and Jesper Swärd. The Swedish boys from Stockholm, Lidingö created the group for about 5 years ago and named it “Tjuvjakt”. Back then they only played on Swedish home parties and all enjoyed it. Now 5 years later have they reached all around in Sweden. Tjuvjakt have always been interested in music and that is why they write and produce their own music. After two successful years without a record contract, they finally got one. The group became famous very fast and produced many songs within short time. They came through with their famous single “Tandtråd”. With over 16 million streams on spotify and around 1 million views on youtube making the song to their most famous one, and this song is the big reason why they got a record contract.
I had the opportunity to get an interview with the group so I asked them some questions.
You guys often mix your language in your text, why? Yes we do, and the results are amazing. We do know that some people like it and some don’t. Byut the haters should get used to it, because it will come more of it. The only thing that we think of is that the text overall changes. Swedish mixed with English is like our concept andit will no change in a while. You are from Lidingö, how do people react to that?
You are from Lidingö, how do people react to that? Some people see that as a good thing and some not, but there are always people who don’t like everything. Some people come and says to us that we are a threat to the hip hop scene, that we cannot agree with. Like, we know that we are from a town were hip hop is unusual, but everyone could do an own interpretation just like us. The comments on youtube is hard to hide from, there is always about 40% of our comments on
The members of the group swedish hip-hop group Tjuvjakt; Fredrik Woodz (Top-left), Arvid Lundquist (Top-right), Jesper Swärd(Bottom-left), Olle Grafström (Bottom-right).
Tjuvjakt write their own interpretation of hip hop and that’s why they have become so famous. They often mix languages in their songs and everyone in the group always participate. Not everyone likes their mix of languages in the songs but they just take it like critical acclaim. If you ask me I would say that their concept is very good and i think that their mixes and song texts have made them bigger. A lot of Swedish critics them for their hometown and why they making hip hop music. Lidingö in Sweden is often considered as rich man town and it is unusual that guys in that town make rap music. The criticism says that hip hop should come from the suburbs and nothing else, they see the hip hop from Lidingö and from Tjuvjakt like a threat. Tjuvjakt often respond to similar questions like this and are very tired of it. They think that hip hop could come from any town and have their own interpretation of it also, just like them. I see Tjuvjakt as role models and think that every people should do that. You don’t need to like their music but they could stand up for their music and texts. That is impressive.
The new generation of rap music? Lil’ Yachty also known as Lil’ Boat is a rap artist from the state of Georgia. Lil Yachty’s birth name is Miles Parks McCollum and was born in 1997, Miles is 19 years old. He started his music career when he moved from Atlanta to NYC where he started creating his fame using social media. He mostly used instagram to spread his name and released his music using Soundcloud. Lil Yachty was a self produced rapper when he released his first and biggest hit by the name “One night”. After blowing up with “One night” he released a mixtape called “lil boat”, this mixtape was released in march of 2016. In april och 2016 he collaborated with another artist called D.R.A.M. and together they made the song called “Broccoli” which was a hit and today has 187 million views on youtube. This song was the cause of a few problems that Lil Yachty had late during 2016 when another rapper by the name of Soulja Boy accused Yachty and D.R.A.M. for allegedly “stealing his slang”, this was because Soulja Boy believed that the slang word “broccoli” was something that was his invention and that by using the word they according to Soulja Boy “stole” his work. In the song when the word “broccoli” is mentioned the rappers intend to use a synonym for the type of drug known as “weed”. Soulja Boy also claimed that the text of the song doesn’t go together since Lil Yachty does not support the use of illegal substances as “weed” or even alcohol. This struggle was never taken to court and most likely solved privately. Beside the hiccup that was just mentioned Lil Yachty’s career has been skyrocketing ever since he released his mixtape and hit song “one night”. Lil Yachty is a very young rapper and is recognized as one of the rappers of the “new generation” and as a lot of newer rappers he tries to make something new and be the only one to do the things he does. This is something that he succeeded with very well and I believe that it is one of bigger reasons for his success. He raps in what would be categorized as “bubblegum trap”, this is a style where you don’t change the tone to much and sing with a very calm voice. It can be described as a soft trap beat with slow rap on top. This is a very new type of rapping and at the moment he is one of the most recognized musicians using the style. Lil Yachty was what we would call a “no-namer” last year and this year he spent 20 thousand dollars on a new grill just for the grammys, in less than a year he has gained over 2 million followers on instagram and his hit song “one night” now almost has 80 million plays on spotify. As mentioned when he started he had no record deals with any music studio but is today signed by Quality Control, Lil Yachty even has deals with clothing stores like Nautica and Urban Outfitters. He is one of the fastest growing rappers today. For the future Lil Yachty has confirmed that he will release a album by the name “Teenage emotions” and he will release it this year, he has not yet released any “sneak peaks” which makes it impossible for anyone to judge the newly produced music but as he mentioned when releasing mixtapes and albums before “you don’t have to like me or what I do”. Now when he has a record dela and hopefully better resources than before that he will release good album and follow it up with a tour of some sort.
Rap music from the streets of Sweden Near the end of the 80´s, hip hop became big in Sweden. When the Swedish rapper Neneh Cherry became big international the media began to take the subject serious. The next ten years was big for the genre. Petter was one of the first Swedish rappers who rapped on the swedish language, his first album was “Mitt sjätte sinne” under a short time he became one of the biggest musicians in sweden. Nowadays Swedish rap is about misery and the corrupt government, the people in the ghetto feel that they are unfairly treated and that everyone looks down on them and treat them like the bad guys all the time. In sweden we have different ghettos, like south of Stockholm it´s called “Söderort” and the ghettos located here is Alby, Fittja, Norsborg and Rågsved some famous rappers around these ghettos are N, BLB and Patryk. Probably the biggest ghetto scene in Sweden is “Västerort” and the ghettos located here is Rinkeby, Tensta and Husby some rappers located i Västerort is Abidaz and Jaffar byn who are very successful in these parts of Stockholm. Swedish rap these days is very involved in criminal activities like robbery or murder. Many Swedish rappers are very young and also quit at a very young age. One example is Sebastian Stakset, that were very bullied in his youth and started to do drugs, then a man called “kinesen” that were looked up in Finland, he had a smuggled phone in the prison so he rang to his friends and asked them if they wanted to start with a rap community, so they contacted Sebastian and another guy called “Kaka” who also were a criminal, but they wanted to show that everyone could have a good life so they started to rap about a better life. A negative aspect of the swedish rap is the hate, in every song they talk about their hate towards the police, so the teenagers also thinks like their idols, people who live in the ghettos feel that they aren’t appreciated in the Swedish community, so they have so much hate towards the swedish community. Music is to express your feelings so that is why rap is so big on expressing hate, many people can relate to their texts and they think of new perspectives in the community. I believe that rap is a good thing but we need to start excluding criminality. When you hear about a rapper that is big, it is 99 percent that he or she is from the usa, every Swedish rapper atleast have one song on Swedish because the international scene is very hard competition. As i said we need to start excluding criminality in the rap because it just makes more gaps in the Swedish community, the rap says to the Swedish teenagers to stop go to school and start living a criminal life with illegal money, of course they can talk about what they want i’m just saying that keep our future away from criminality.
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Worldstar Hop-Hip™ est. 2017