Hip house  

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Hip-house, also known as house rap, is a musical genre that mixes elements of house music and hip-hop. The style rose to prominence during the 1980s in New York and Chicago. However, the first officially credited hip house track was 1988's Rok Da House by UK producers the Beatmasters featuring British female emcees the Cookie Crew.

Minor controversy ensued when a U.S. record called "Get Busy" by Tyree featuring Kool Rock Steady claimed it was the "first hip house record on vinyl." The Beatmasters disputed this fact, claiming that "Rok da House" had originally been written and pressed to vinyl in 1986 . The outfit responded by releasing "Who’s in the House?" featuring British emcee Merlin, containing the diss "Watch Out, Tyree—we come faster, this is the sound of the true Beatmasters." More claims to the hip-house crown were subsequently laid down in tracks by Fast Eddie, Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock, and Tony Scott.

Hip house chart and club successes in the UK

After successful releases by the Beatmasters, Deskee, Tyree, Doug Lazy, and Mr. Lee, hip-house became popular in nightclubs and garnered substantial chart success. The style complimented sample-based records of the period, produced by artists such as S-Express, Bomb the Bass, and M/A/R/R/S.

Hip house's major crossover success would eventuate in the form of two ground breaking records: "I'll House You" by the Jungle Brothers and "It Takes Two" by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock. "I'll House You" is generally seen as a collaboration between New York house-music producer Todd Terry and the Jungle Brothers (an Afrocentric hip-hop group from New York). "It Takes Two" was described by Hip Hop Connection magazine as "...the first palatable form of hip-house for hardcore hip hop fans,".

There were several further successful releases, most notably Technotronic's "Pump up the Jam," which reached number 2 on the U.K. charts and the Top 10 on the U.S. Pop chart. The genre achieved massive popularity during the period 19881991 and was catalyst for the fusion of hip-hop vocals in dance music. By 1991, the KLF achieved success with "What Time is Love," which built on hip-house's foundation by featuring emcee Ricardo da Force performing hip-hop vocals over an electronic backing track. There was also a short period in the late 1980s and early 1990s when traditional emcees featured a single hip-house track on their albums, which usually often placed second-to-last in the track listing.

Hip-house tracks featured on popular dance compilations including Telstar's compilation series and was championed by disc jockeys such as To Kool Chris and Chad Jackson.

List of notable hip house tracks

List of notable artists




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Hip house" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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