What you see here is an overview of visual material made for the dutch radioshow 'Rappers Delight'. A show about the history of hip hop: from it's most early block parties in the 'Boogie Down Bronx' to the cultural behemoth it is today.
Every week we broadoast one hour of music from a specific year or in a specific theme. These broadcasts are collected on our mixcloud page: www.mixcloud.com/rjmx
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The first seeds of this project were planted a few years back when I made an infographic about the history of Hip Hop, somewhere in 2017. The illustration, also on Behance, focuses on landmark songs, genres, eras and import artist.
The next seed was planted when, during a radio-a-thon Radio Burmania gave me the chance to fill two hours with a megamix of this history. I made a 90-minute-mix during jet-lag hours, visiting LA in 2018. It aired in 2019.
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Though a nice project, it left me a little unsatisfied because you can't parse a complete history of a(ny) musical genre in 2 hours. So when Covid hit in 2020 and my social life was decimated I made 1-hour-mixes of every year Hip Hop exists - on wax. (And then these mixes just sat there on my HD).
And then finally in 2021 there was a slot at local station Leo Middelsé! "you can do anything you like with it..."
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For promotion we started a Instagram account @RappersDelight058 (058 being the net number of the city Leeuwarden), picked a name for the show and made the logo you see on the top of this page.
This being a radioshow, we also made jingles, sweaps, made a home studio, edited all the mixes back to the exact length needed etc. Things you can't really show here. Below you can hear the first jingle we made. The animation was made in Photoshop.
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The first 4 episodes featured the era called the Old School. The period between the first rap record on wax ('King Tim the 3rd' by the Fatback Band) and the release of Run DMC's debut record in 1983.
Above you see the social media posts we dropped at the start of each week. Below the flyers we made as a reminder for the show. Based on real party flyers from that era.
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The tapes we use on mixcloud for old episodes
Episode 6 to 11 featured the era called the New School. Starting with the formentioned Run DMC record and ending with the first classic record from Eric B & Rakim.
We also did a Biz Markie Memorial (he passed that summer) and a special about the New Jack Swing - a precursor to modern R&B .
The next series of flyers we're also based on old flyers of that time period. This time a made a Photoshop mock-up based on the old design - including dust, scratches and wear & tear. Every week I updated the colour and the artists. All the artist I pulled from the original infographic at the start of this page.
Episode 12-16 featured the Golden Age - the most fertile period in all of the History of Rap. Starting in 1987 and ending at the dawn of the 90s.
By this time the formula was established: the social post featured records or other rarities from our own collections. The Flyers we're templates we made on old artwork from that time and every epsiode was posted to mixcloud after broadcasting with a little photoshopped cassette.
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The next episodes (17-22) we're about an era sometimes called the Renaissance. It's an extension othe Golden Era because of all the classic records released in these years.
It ends in 1995 when the stream of classic records dries up (Or so it seemed around that time).
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The flyer template was altered a little again to keep things fresh - but also cheap looking - just like real flyers.
By the time I made this post we we're still in the era we call 'the Jiggy Era'. The time when Hip Hop culture became dominant in pop music and the money seemed to rain from the ceiling. Hip Hop hits we're dominating the charts and the radio and all pop music, especially alternative genres, became heavily Hip Hop infused (Triphop, New Metal, Breakbeat)
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For the next series of posters I made a new template. Thunder!
This is we're the overview stops... Next year we will continue with the last years of the 90s, then the 00s, the 10s etc. At the end of 2022 this series will reach the here & now.
Maybe then we will do another radio show bases on another music infographic I made.
Maybe then we will do another radio show bases on another music infographic I made.
