Why Did New School Become So Popular

Do you know why “New School” become so popular in the late 1980s? Hip-hop starts at the 1970s, the beginning of hip-hop is starting by DJ Kool Herc. All of the early artists of hip-hop, deejays or MCs, were named 'Old School'. 'New School' was a given name to separate the different style of hip-hop depends on when does it born and what was added. New school rap came out and became popular because the new technology of drum machine came out, the new generation of musicians, and a new type of image for the hip-hop artist.
Before getting into New School, that's talk about hip-hop and Old School. Hip-hop is created by four primary elements, DJing, MCing, graffiti art, and breaking. (Andrew Leach) As mentioned in the first paragraph, hip-hop starts
at the 1970s and is started by DJ Kool Herc in a home party using “two turntables to create a continuous flow of music that combined music fragments of older records and popular dance songs.”(Greg Tate & Alan Light, 2017) The continuous of flow of music, which called breakbeat, was isolated and extend by some pioneer DJs; such as, Grand Wizard Theodore, Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, and DJ Kool Herc, they also do raps. The breakbeat improved the improv dancing and developed breakdancing. Turntables are just one of the techniques in the earlier hip-hop history. Another technique is needle dropping. Needle dropping created a sound called "scratching" when moving the record back and forth under the stylus, also said needle. It was developed by Grand Wizard Theodore and Grandmaster Flash. Rap comes first from Sugarhill Gang's song "Rapper's Delight" which was released in 1979. Those early DJs (DJ Kool Herc), and MCs or rappers (Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Kurtis Blow, and the Cold Crush Brothers, and Grandmaster Caz) are all considered as old school. During the mid-1980s, Run D.M.C., a rap group, who rapped with rock music and was put on MTV, brought a new style of hip-hop. Some other examples are "LL Cool J, raps first romantic superstar; the Beastie Boys, aa white trio who broadened rap’s audience and popularized digital sampling (composting with music and sounds electronically extracted from other recordings); and Public Enemy, who invested rap with radical black political ideology, building on the social consciousness of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message” (1982)"(Greg Tate & Alan Light, 2017). Also, a new style of Gangsta Rap, which was risen by Ice-T, Snoop Dogg, and Schoolly D. The new idea of New School comes from the main technique, digital drumming.
First of all, New School is more popular than Old School because there is new technology or technique was added to hip-hop.
The drum machine, Roland TR-808 was made by Ikutaro Kakehashi in 1980 and was used in hip-hop and pop music frequently at first. It was a kind of keyboard with rhythm composer. The invention of TR-808 produce the music bass and drum sounds which also makes the music more complicated. (Tjora, Aksel H., 2009) TR-808 gets both good and bad feedbacks. Some people think that 808 was a tragedy, but according to the article How the Roland TR-808 revolutionized music by Zainab Hasnain, it said that “The 808 became a fixture in hip-hop culture, not only as a tool for producers but as a defining sound of the genre."(Zainab Hasnain, 2017) The Roland TR-808 is important to hip-hop because it creates another type of hip-hop music which is the trap, by putting drum or bass sounds that made the music more complex. And 808 did bring a big hit to hip-hop, but in early 1984 it was stopped producing. Roland TR-808 was used by Run-DMC, Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Kanye West……etc.
The second reason that New School Rap become popular is because of a new style of gangsta rap. Gangsta rap is shaped by themes of violence, sexism and misogyny, police brutality, and other long-standing political critiques of urban society. (Prier, Darius D, 2012) The gangsta rap was started by the late 1980s and became popular. The pioneers are Schoolly D and Ice-T. Each theme has a different
meaning.
Violence, it is not real violence, in the battle or competition rappers use the rhetorical metaphor, simile, and tropes express the performance.
Microphone, symbolic as a gun, that destroy rap artists. For example, "phrases such as "murder all sucka' emcee's".(Prier, Darius D, 2012)
Sexism and misogyny are basically symbolic black women either in lyrics or music videos as a subject like trophies for players, not just in hip-hop music. These style of lyrics shows that "black women's bodies as sexually desirable, available, and appropriative, mitigate (if they do not fully erase) the neglect, exploitation, and disfiguration".(Lewis, Nghana, 2006) For example, in the song "Dopeman" by N.W.A. in 1988 written that "U need a nigga with money / so you got a dope man to juice as much as u can" ("The Dopeman").
Police brutality, an attitude that urban youth shows to police officers. Blacks or browns usually get lots of problem with police just because of their skin color. Lots of rap songs show the unfairness and the systemic problem that happens on blacks or browns. For example, "F__k the police"(1989) by N.W.A. This song shows that how the policy justice the urban youth.
The gangsta rap is important in hip-hop history. It is an attitudes expression from the blacks or browns to show how the social justice them, how unfairness about them, and their thoughts or
ideas. The third reason that New School Rap become popular is that there is a new generation of artists.
Snoop Dogg born in 1972, an American rap artist. He was well-known of the popularizing of gangsta rap. He started his rap career in early 1990's. He released Doggystyle as his solo debut with the name of Snoop Doggy Dog. This album is more like gangsta rap which because of his growth environment.
Eric B. & Rakim debut in 1986 with first single "Eric B. Is President". Eric B. is a DJ and Rakim is an MC. They worked together until 1993. After it, they separated and worked in solo. In 2016, they announced to have a tour. Their music contains hard to beat and some instrument. These influenced future hip hop.
Public Enemy, known by a hard intense, hip-hop sound music. The lead rapper was Chuck D. The Public Enemy No.1 was created by Chuck D, Bomb Squad, and Def Jam. After the first release, Rubin, a co-founder, came up with plans that "Shocklee as the producer, Stephney as the marketer, and DJ Norman Rogers on the turntables. He recruited his Nation of Islam cohort Richard Griffin too, as Professor Griff, coordinate the group's backup dancers, the Security of the First World (S1W), whose members carried fake Uzis and did stiff, martial-arts moves as a parody of Motown-era dancers."(Rolling Stone) This is the group of Public Enemy, they released the debut album Yo!, Bum Rush the Show, in 1987.
There is more artist that did make the New School Rap popular, the three I wrote is the pioneered to have a new style, methods, and combination. To take the long story short, New School Rap came out and became so popular that keeps on updating is because the technology keeps on renewing, the style of DJ or MC keep on introduced, and there are lots of new generation of artists.