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Crunk is a genre of hip-hop music. Unlike the East Coast style of hip hop, crunk has a high-energy and club-oriented feel. While other hip hop styles might involve a more conversational vocal delivery, crunk usually involves hoarse chants and repetitive, simple refrains. Lyrics are based on a rhythmic bounce, which is very effective in a club environment.

Looped drum machine rhythms are usually in the forefront of the mix, with the Roland TR-808 being especially popular. A typical crunk song uses four bars of music generated by electronic drums and synthesizers that repeat throughout the song, but sometimes includes a break towards the end of the song. Many of the drum machines and rhythms they produce were previously well known in specialty genres of dance music. Crunk also employs non-melodic sound effects such as whistles and synth blips. As with many intense music genres, Crunk expresses angry and excited language that has been put into an art form for the dance enthusiast.

Overview

The crunk genre originated in the early 1990s^{[citation needed]}, but did not become mainstream until the early 2000s. The first notable crunk single is commonly believed to be "Tear Da Club Up '97" by Three 6 Mafia^{[citation needed]} which appeared in 1997 and reached #29 on the US Rap charts. We Ready: I Declare War is the debut album from Atlanta, Georgia rapper Pastor Troy is most known for his vicious crunk dis track against rival Master P, "No Mo Play In G.A.", which received huge success in 1999^{[citation needed]}. In the year 2003, the crunk genre had surprise hit singles with "Never Scared" (Bone Crusher, featuring Killer Mike and T.I.), "Salt Shaker" (Ying Yang Twins, featuring Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz), "Damn!" (YoungBloodZ featuring Lil Jon, and produced by Lil Jon), and most notably "Get Low" (Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz, featuring the Ying Yang Twins), which reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. By 2004, crunk was in such high demand that superstar R&B singer Usher enlisted Lil Jon to produce his single "Yeah!" which went on to be the biggest hit of 2004, according to Billboard magazine. Lil Jon produced another number-one hit in 2004 with "Goodies" by R&B singer Ciara, featuring Petey Pablo. The release of Hustle and Flow and its Oscar for best original song, "It's Hard out Here for a Pimp", helped crunk reach mainstream American culture.

There have been so many crunk tracks that have topped the billboards that TVT records has released a second edition of Crunk Hits on August 22, 2006. The 19 track collection includes well known crunk artists such as: Lil Jon, Three 6 Mafia, Pitbull, Ying Yang Twins, Lil Wayne, Paul Wall, Mike Jones and many other artists. "After years of churning out chart topping singles and smash club jams, Crunk has expanded to West Coast (Ice Cube) and even Puerto Rico (Daddy Yankee). Crunk is here to stay and has grown beyond what anyone thought was possible".^[1]

Lil Jon and the Eastside Boyz have several albums with crunk in the title, such as "Kings of Crunk", "Crunk Juice", "Get Crunk", "We Still Crunk", and "Crunk Rock". Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz often claim to be the "Kings of Crunk" with Rasheeda as the "Queen of Crunk", while Lil' Scrappy is referred to as the "Prince of Crunk"^{[citation needed]}. Ciara is often referred to as the "Princess of Crunk" or the "First Lady of Crunk & B", and Petey Pablo is referred to as the "Godfather of Crunk".^[2]^[3]

Criticism

In the hip hop world, crunk rappers have been criticized for lacking lyrical content, creativity, and using essentially the same beats and style. Nerdcore Rapper MC Lars satirized the genre in his song "Generic Crunk Rap", in which he commented on its decided unoriginality and consumeristic undertones. While agreeing that the subject of the lyrics are all more or less identical, others say that the music is specifically designed for the rowdy clubs in which this style thrives.

The word "crunk"

Traditionally, crunk meant a hoarse, harsh cry.^[4] The term is often used as slang to mean intoxicated. Folk etymology suggests the modern usage of crunk originated as a portmanteau of the words "crazy" and "drunk" or having been "cranked up" to a level of excitability at which one becomes "crunk". Rapper Lil Jon defined crunk as a "state of heightened excitement".

The first popular figures to use the word were Atlanta rappers Outkast, who in their 1993 song and accompanying video "Player's Ball" said, "I gots in crunk if it ain't real ain't right". Outkast also mentions "crunk" in the song "Hootie Hoo" (which was released in 1994 on the same album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik).

Webster's Dictionary has an entry for "crunk":

"crunk Pronunciation: \ˈkrəŋk\ Function: noun Etymology: crunk, word of fluctuating meaning used during the 1990s in lyrics of the rap groups OutKast and Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz Date: 2000

a style of Southern rap music featuring repetitive chants and rapid dance rhythms"

In 1993, Conan O'Brien used the term "krunk" (an apparently invented nonsense word) as a multipurpose expletive on his television program Late Night with Conan O'Brien, but "crunk" is not an expletive.^{[citation needed]}

Notable crunk performers

References

^ [1]
^ Ciara, Princess of Crunk
^ VH1: Ciara: Biography
^ Oxford English Dictionary

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