Classic Hip-Hop Elements

I believe one of the most important things about current rap or hip-hop is preserving the things that hip-hop revolve around. I feel as though if people begin to forget what makes hip-hop so great, it won't leave the mark in history that it deserves. I really like when current hip-hop artists incorporate classic components into songs, it shows how much of an appreciation they have for hip-hop. 

I find songs with that quality, recorded in a low-budget studio, crackly, vintage-y sound somehow beautiful. Lo-fi, which is another word for low-fidelity, which is basically that grainy sounding, low quality music, but it's done on purpose. It gives the song a more classic hip-hop sound, many people would say it depreciates the song, however, I conceive it to make the song even better. It gives off a nostalgic vibe, almost as if the song were from the 90's/80's. 

Another element that can be used to give songs a classical feel is the scratching. Scratching is a technique used by turntablists, which is taking the sound on a record, and moving the record back and forth to create a scratching noise. Most people don't know how many different techniques are used by turntablists. Turntablism is a lot more complicated than playing records on a turntable, which can take quite a long time to fully master. Originally the main role of a DJ was to play songs on turntables, which are what records are played on, and mix tracks in between songs to make them flow together. Many famous DJs developed a technique to find precise points in a song by dropping the needle on a record, these are called turntablists. They are called turntablist because they are able to use a turntable in a different and unique way. As defined by "turntablism defined" a  turntablist is someone who uses the turntables to manipulate sounds and beats on a record, and create their own music or sounds to it (Turntablism Defined). 



True hip-hop lovers want to keep these elements alive because there are lot of people who aren't familiar with where these sounds originated. I hope one day old school hip-hop elements will make their way back into modern day songs and make an even bigger impact on music than it did before. 

An example of current rappers involving classic hip-hop elements in their songs: 

"JUICE DJ BATTLE." YouTube. YouTube, 24 June 2006. Web. 13 Feb. 2013.

"Kid Abstrakt - Let My Tape Rock." YouTube. YouTube, 12 June 2012. Web. 20 Feb. 2013.

"Turntablism Defined." Turntablism Defined. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2013.