wikipedia is never gospel...

i would't try to claim hip hop isn't a North American conception, but to reinforce the facts that JH has been dropping, listen to the foundations of the second wave - De La, KRS One, Tribe - they all drop frequent references to ragga music, Jamaican culture and especially Rastafarianism, many are of Afro-Carribean descent. And as you know hardly any of them are patriotic, bible-bashing Uncle Sam types and weren't proud of their American roots.
It was a big mixture, although I'll acknowledge that the earliest hip-hop was born out of the NY club scene/ the dozens etc stylistically, I have no idea what they were listening to. I mean you can't get any more NYC than 'the Message'...

Hip-hop is an American art form but the US was built on alien cultures, especially West Indians in the urban ghettos. That just deserves credence I think

A smattering of funk and soul? I would say it evolved pretty much directly out out of funk and soul, that's hardly a smattering.

And let me just say for the record, my wife comes from a Jamaican family. Many of her aunts and uncles were born in Jamaica but were raised in NYC in the earliest years of hip-hop and they all talk about the original hip-hop shows they went to see back in the day and the people they were into. Not a single one of the people they talk about are from the West Indies, they are all from the New York area. And these relatives are people born in Jamaica with lots of roots still to this day in Jamaica but when they talk about early hip-hop they are talking about NYC.

Likewise I think the influence of European electronic music on hip-hop is often overstated. It's true that Afrika Bambaataa sampled Kraftwerk but there's not too much beyond that. If anything, the electronic music coming out of Detroit and Chicago was a much bigger influence.

Juan Atkins and Derrick May (inventors of techno) nicked their half their concepts off Kraftwerk and other European musicians, and I read that in a book :p:


edit: i hope these poll results stick, I am happy with it (allow Europe, Asia, Africa, South America etc all being condemned to 'other')

Being flattering has never been my goal.

My favorite bands are from America.
My favorite bands are also from the UK.

I had to pick US though sorry.

Lol, are you serious?

The UK of course.

So the Americans who made music that was a partial influence on the Americans who created hip-hop were partially influenced by one German group. Wow, big European influence on the birth of hip-hop there. :laughing:

LOL. I know, right. I'm not even touching that one.

:o: yeah... but it was way more than just a partial influence on the people that influenced the music that influenced hip hop, i think i thought you were on about techno. influence.

influence.

but to be honest i don't see where you got the house/techno thing from. Unless you're talking about hip house which was really short lived... but dayum!