Horrorcore

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Horrorcore
Stylistic origins Hardcore hip hop
Acid rap
Cultural origins Early 1990s United States
Typical instruments Rapping - Drum machine - Turntables - Sampler - Keyboard
Mainstream popularity Largly underground, with some bands and artists receiving mainstream success

Horrorcore is a subgenre of hip hop music based in horror-themed lyrical content and imagery. While the style is underground in popularity, some performers have sold well in the mainstream scene.

Contents

[edit] History

The stylistic origins of horrorcore can be traced to a number of artists in the early 1990s. The Geto Boys fourth album We Can't Be Stopped (1991), has an album cover that depicts a suicide attempt and includes the song "Chuckie", based on the character Chucky from the horror film Child's Play.[1][2] Ganksta N-I-P's debut album, The South Park Psycho (1992), includes the song "Horror Movie Rap" which samples the theme from Halloween.[1][2] The group Insane Poetry, on their debut Grim Reality (1992),[1][3] and Esham, with KKKill the Fetus (1993), both incorporated horror imagery with their lyrics.[1][4] Kool Keith claims to have "invented horrorcore".[5] While there is much debate over who first coined the term, its use did not gain prominence until 1994,[1] with the release of Flatlinerz' U.S.A. (Under Satan's Authority)[1][6] and Gravediggaz' 6 Feet Deep.[7][8] While the genre as a whole is not popular with mainstream audiences, performers such as Insane Clown Posse, Twiztid and Necro have sold well.[1] The genre has thrived in internet culture and sustains an annual "supershow" in Detroit called "Wickedstock".[9] According to the January 2004 BBC documentary Underground USA, the subgenre "has a massive following across the US" and "is spreading to Europe".[9]

[edit] Characteristics

Horrorcore defines the style of hip hop music that focuses around "horror influenced" topics that include Satanism, cannibalism, suicide, murder and rape. The lyrics are inspired by horror movies over moody, hardcore beats.[10] According to rapper Mars, "If you take Stephen King or Wes Craven and you throw them on a rap beat, that's who I am."[11] Horrorcore was described by Entertainment Weekly in 1995 as a "blend of hardcore rap and bloodthirsty metal".[12] The lyrical content of horrorcore is sometimes described as being similar to that of death metal, and some have referred to the genre as "death rap".[13] Horrorcore artists often feature dark imagery in their music videos, and base musical elements of songs upon horror film scores.[13]

[edit] Notable representatives

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Hess, Danielle (2007). "Hip Hop and Horror". in Hess, Mickey. Icons of Hip Hop. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 369. ISBN 0313339031. 
  2. ^ a b c d Hess, Mickey (2007). "The Rap Persona". Is Hip Hop Dead?. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 72-73. ISBN 0275994619. 
  3. ^ a b Cordor, Cyril. "Biography of Insane Poetry". Allmusic. http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:jpfixqq5ldke~T1. Retrieved on 12 November 2008. 
  4. ^ McLeod, Rodd (March 2, 2000). "The Wicket World of Natas". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5923056/the_wicket_world_of_natas. Retrieved on 2008-07-19. 
  5. ^ Kane; QED (July 19, 2007). "Kool Keith Interview". Original UK Hip Hop. http://www.ukhh.com/features/interviews/kool_keith/index.html. Retrieved on 2008-08-04. 
  6. ^ a b Passantino, Dom. (07 Jan 2005) Top ten Hip-Hop gimmicks of all time Stylus Magazine. Accessed November 4, 2007.
  7. ^ a b Fernando Jr., S.H. (September 18, 2007) The Pick, The Sickle & The Shovel Rolling Stone Accessed November 4, 2007.
  8. ^ Gravediggaz star loses cancer battle. NME (16 July 2001) Accessed November 4, 2007.
  9. ^ a b Underground USA BBC. Accessed November 4, 2007
  10. ^ Meyer, Frank. (2004-10-28) Frankly Speaking: Halloween Horror-core Hip Hop g4tv. Retrieved 2008-09-14.
  11. ^ Darcy, Pohland. (May 19, 2005) The dark world Of Horrorcore music WCCO-TV. Accessed November 4, 2007.
  12. ^ Browne, David. (24 Feb 1995) Fifth anniversary music Entertainment Weekly. Accessed November 4, 2007.
  13. ^ a b Strauss, Neil (September 18, 1994). "When Rap Meets The Undead". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/18/arts/pop-view-when-rap-meets-the-undead.html?sec=&spon=. Retrieved on April 25, 2009. 
  14. ^ Macias, Chris. (December 5, 2006). The king of gore, Brotha Lynch reigns over local hip-hop movement The Sacramento Bee. Accessed November 29, 2007.
  15. ^ Faraone, Chris (November 30, 2007). "Shia LaBeouf: Horror-Core MC? Transformers star hopes to play indie rapper Cage in biopic.". Spin. http://www.spin.com/articles/shia-labeouf-horror-core-mc. Retrieved on 2008-06-27. 
  16. ^ Montgomery, James (May 18, 2009). "Shia LaBeouf-Directed Video Puts Cage's Dark Hip-Hop On The Map". MTV News. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1611606/20090518/cage_rap_.jhtml. Retrieved on May 26, 2009. 
  17. ^ Reeves, Mosi (July 8, 2004). "World Famous". New Times Broward-Palm Beach. http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2004-07-08/music/world-famous/. Retrieved on 31 March 2009. 
  18. ^ Cohen, Sara (2007). Decline, Renewal and the City in Popular Music Culture: Beyond The Beatles. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. p. 52. ISBN 0754632431. "The music journalist and author Dan Sicko describes certain strains of Detroit hip-hop as 'an extreme, almost parodied' version of inner city life, which he links to the extremities of urban decline in the city: 'both the horrorcore of hip-hop outfits such as Insane Clown Posse, Esham and (to a lesser extent) the multi-platinum-selling Eminem, utilize shocking (and blatantly over the top narratives to give an over-exaggerated, almost cartoon-like version of urban deprivation in Detroit' (cited in Cohen and Strachan, 2005)." 
  19. ^ Hernandez, Pedro. "Review of N of Tha World". Rap Reviews. http://www.rapreviews.com/archive/2006_02_nofworld.html. Retrieved on 2008-08-04. 
  20. ^ Righi, Len. (9 April 2007) King Gordy keeps up lighting up the dark Pop Matters. Accessed November 4, 2007.
  21. ^ Pemberton, Roland (January 24, 2008). "Necro’s live show fails to follow tradition". Edmonton, Alberta: Vue Weekly. http://www.vueweekly.com/article.php?id=7763. Retrieved on 28 February 2009. 
  22. ^ McKinney, Devin. (2004-09-14) Real horror show The American Prospect. Retrieved 2008-10-14.
  23. ^ Three 6 Mafia at Allmusic
  24. ^ "Rappers Twiztid bring 'horrorcore' to Cotillion, in concert". The Wichita Eagle. September 30, 2005. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=WE&s_site=kansas&p_multi=WE&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=10D1DB97B4ACAE20&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved on 28 February 2009. 
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horrorcore"
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