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It took me awhile to decide which picture best represents jazz hip-hop but I still couldn't find an ideal one so at then end I decided to use Guru.

This article is actually a paper that I wrote for Jazz History Class. I did plenty of readings trying to better catogorize or characterize (maybe) jazz hip hop. But the paper's limitation is 5 pages so I kind of cut it short for this paper that I don't think it's deep and wide enough. But if anyone's interested in further discussion, feel free to leave a message. I'd be more than happy to post more later on (if I had time) or personally contact would also be ok. Still, this paper would be a resource for people who want to have a basic understanding. (And also, excuse my poor English) =)

So Let's cut the chase.


It’s never easy to define or describe “hip hop” in a few words since it's a multi-culture blend. It was those political aspects, social conditions, music, arts and such that gave birth to “hip hop”. And “hip hop music” is just a part of the whole scene. Like hip hop culture, hip hop music (or sometimes called rap music when using a different aspect to observe it) originated from different styles of music (though mainly funk and disco) and has a multiple look.

Just as hip hop, jazz also has a complex appearance. From the early New Orleans to bebop, the styles sometimes vary so much. About 70 years after jazz was born, this newly born child, hip hop, not only partly rooted from jazz but even also later came out with a sub-style called “jazz hip hop”. Although there’s not a lot of documentation defining this term, jazz hip hop is still being recognized by people with its own style.


For jazz music, the 70’s was a period of fusion. In the 60s many new styles of jazz like west coast jazz and hard-bop were springing up. Till the 70’s, the public was fonder of rock and R&B and jazz was decaying. Seeking a way out, jazz was then absorbing other ingredients from other genres. It was also the 70s the so-called hip hop culture was being bred in the South Bronx. In the late 70s the hip hop pioneers such as Afrika Bambaataa, Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash were using turntables to play danceable music like funk and disco in the block parties. Not so much later they developed the skills using two turntables and a mixer to loop the “danceable breaks” constantly or to “chop” certain parts of a record as sound effects. This fact is so important in the development of hip hop that later hip hop producers sample those old-time hits or the music they love to make new beats, which then became what I would call the first original hip hop tracks. In the 80s, this funk-disco-oriented hip hop started to expand to the west coast whereas the east coast producers and DJs, who were deeply affected by jazz music since childhood, started to put, or, “sample” jazz ingredients into their beats. This later created two different hip hop scenes between the west and the east (although some said the differences is due to the “weather” that the west coast is sunny so the hip hop there is more energetic, but as I’ve been doing research, I found it might only be a minor cause). The dominant jazz-oriented hip hop musicians by then were mostly from the Native Tongue Posse led by Kool Herc as a following of Afrika Bambaataa (“Native Tongues”). I will be discussing these musicians later.

Another characteristic of hip hop music is “rap”. Compares to hip hop beats which originated from funk and disco, let’s chase back to the 70s again, artists like the Last Poets and the Watts Prophets were using “spoken words” instead of singing in some jazzy tracks (“Jazz rap”). Then came the 80’s when those pioneer DJs were spinning in parties, they often would shout out to the beat to bring up the atmosphere. Some parties even had MCs (mater of ceremony) to do this job. The MCs would some later become rappers who rhyme to the beats, compose “rap lyrics” in designated tracks. Here in this research paper I would focus more on music itself rather than rap. But it’s still noticeable that rap is so important in hip hop music that sometimes it would be called rap music.

Knowing these facts now let’s sum up the jazz and hip hop scenes in the 70s. Jazz music was turning into a new era combining new elements while hip hop was just born and absorbing to become mature. In this way they could affect each other and come out with new stuffs. Not only the jazz root took part in the growing of hip hop but hip hop also helped jazz out in its decaying. This kind of relationship is somehow like what’s between heavy metal and classical music.


So how does jazz-hip hop sound like? At first let me characterize hip hop and jazz separately, then it’ll be easy to use some jazz hip hop tracks to determine which characteristics jazz hip hop has taken from both genres.

Characteristics of hip hop (History of Rock and Roll 276):

1. Funk and disco oriented beats accompanied by “spoken words” (or rap).
2. The use of sample sounds in loops.
3. DJ skills like scratching as sound effects and back spinning.
4. Shuffle, swingy beats. Accents on the backbeat (2 and 4).

Characteristics of jazz:

1. Improvisation.
2. The use of riffs.
3. Syncopation.
4. Melodic expression
5. The options of instruments like sax, cornet, trumpet and piano and contemporary use
of electric guitar, bass and so on.

What is relatively important is, as we try to categorize or characterize a certain genre of music, rules wouldn’t always strictly being followed. Nowadays, as how deep and profound music goes, genres absorb from one another, the “border” of music styles isn’t as clear as before. We could only use common and general characteristics as guidelines.

“While the rhythms of jazz-rap came entirely from hip-hop, the samples and sonic textures were drawn mainly from cool jazz, soul-jazz, and hard bop” (“Jazz-Rap”). As I mentioned earlier, hip hop producers chop existing sound tracks or sample from other songs. In addition to “create” a hip hop track featuring jazz players, using jazzy instruments, another means would be just to sample from jazz tracks. Jazz has a characteristic that players play riffs that the later hip hop producers could easily sample a short riff and then play it in loops. Or sometimes they “scratch” the riffs to make sound effects. By doing this, producers really added on a jazz feel to the funk oriented hip hop beats. Other than sampling the riffs, they do also sample the bass line, or other elements from an existing jazz track, too. This is basically it, in short, it’s only because those hip hop producers’ love for jazz that they produced jazz hip hop.

Characteristics of jazz hip hop:

1. Sample riffs from jazz tracks and play it in loops. (See Music Example 1: “Manifest”)
2. The use of “jazz instruments” or even featuring jazz players.
3. “Cooler” and more cerebral than other hip hop styles (“Jazz-Rap”).
4. Intellectual lyrics are focused on domains like history, emotions or such. Improvisation: The
amount varies from track to track. Instead of the instruments’ improvisation in jazz music,
more often hip hop has improvised rap (freestyle rap) and scratching.

Music Example 1
“Menifest” by Gang starr, 1989
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT-HLFOS7qc

This is a clear example of sampling a portion of a jazz track then playing it in loops. It contains a sample of Charlie Parker’s “A Night in Tunisia”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShLzrUM1cGs (The very beginning of it).



The Native Tongues:

The Native Tongues posse is the jazz hip hop inventor. Formed in the 80s and led by Kool Herc, the Native Tongues has many sub-groups under its name. These groups are the jazz hip hop pioneers like A Tribe Called Quest, the Jungle Brothers and De La Soul. Though as an organization, the Native Tongues never had many releases which are under its name. Each sub-group was kind of doing their own “jazz thing”. However, in 1998, the jungle brothers released “How ya want it we got it – Native Tongues remix” featuring De La Soul and Q-tip (from ATCQ).

Other Jazz Hip Hop Pioneers:

“Gang Starr was an influential East Coast hip hop group that consisted of Guru and DJ Premier. The group was known mainly for their unique style, which combines elements of New York swing jazz and hip hop” (“Gang Starr”). Unlike the members of ATCQ and De La Soul, who were born in New York, the members of Gang Starr were born in Texas (DJ Premier) and Boston (Guru). However, it’s impossible to ignore their attribution to jazz/east coast hip hop. Their first single “Manifest” (1989) contains a sample from Charlie Parker’s “A Night in Tunisia”. One of their hits “Jazz thing” also has a lot of sample sources, but what’s even more interesting is the lyrics. Guru uses his rapping skill to plot out a brief jazz history (See Music Example 2: “Jazz thing”)!

Music Example 2:
“Jazz thing” by Gang Starr, the early 90s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eh16a7n_44

Guru, the MC of Gang Starr, uses his rhyming skill to rap out a brief jazz history in this track naming the big heads and the jazz styles in a timeline fashion. This is also a featured song in Spike Lee’s movie “Mo Better Blues”.
This track also contains different sample sources. The beginning of it sampled George Lewis New Orleans Jazz Band’s “Mahogany Hall Stomp” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCdWvCblaW8 ). And also he chopped Thelonious Monk’s “Light Blue”( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_d7jbw1Ru4 ) into it. Rather than jazz, “Manifest” also has portions from the Earth Wind and Fire’s Kalimba Story.
Both on lyrics and music aspects, this could be a classical example for “jazz hip hop”.

Another remarkable jazz hip hop band is the Philly based “The Roots”. Formed in the late 80s and released their debut album in 1993, the roots is a bit younger than the other pioneers. Still, their beats have a jazzy feel, what makes them different from the others is the use of a “real band” in addition to sampling old tracks (See Music Example 3: “What They Do”). The formation of the groups I mentioned before are either all MCs or MCs along with a DJ. The roots consists of Black thought (MC), ?uest Love (Drums), Kamal Gray (electronic keyboard), F. Knuckles (percussion), Captain Kirk Douglas (electric guitar) and Owen Biddle (Bass).

Music Example 3:
“What They Do” by the Roots, 1994
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdWOoL31IJc

This piece from the roots is an original without sampling any jazz track but they did create a jazzy and bluesy feel by the use of the melody of its guitar line and the repetitive short riffs in the background.
The roots was innovate by then for their band ensemble.

Later Important Artists:

The pioneers really plotted out the image of East Coast Hip Hop that later east coast artists like Mos Def, Talib Kweli (together known as Black Starr), common, (all of the above are related to the Native Tongues), Pete Rock (rose to prominence as a producer only a little bit later than the pioneers), Nas and so were all jazz oriented. In the late 90s there also came out some jazz hip hop artists in the west like the sound providers is one of them (See Music Example 4: “Jazz at the Cove”).

Music Example 4:
“Jazz at the Cove” by the Sound Providers, 2004
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu5BiNn1QHk

The Sound Providers is what I would consider the “jazziest” hip hop crew after year 2000. Which jazz track(s) they sampled to “Jazz at the cove” is barely documented. But it has a sample from Nas’ “Halftime” (Who’s also a remarkable east coast/jazz rapper). This piece would definitely remind me of the cool style and has that swing feel added to hip hop. Other tracks of the Sound Providers have samples from even bebop or other styles of jazz.