A hip hop skit is a form of
sketch comedy
Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and ...
that appears on a
hip hop album or mixtape, and is usually written and performed by the artists themselves. Skits can appear on albums or mixtapes as individual tracks, or at the beginning or end of a song. Some skits are part of
concept album
A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Some ...
s and contribute to an album's concept. Skits also occasionally appear on albums of other genres.
The hip-hop skit was more or less pioneered by
De La Soul
De La Soul () is an American hip hop trio formed in 1988 in the Amityville area of Long Island, New York. They are best known for their eclectic sampling, quirky lyrics, and their contributions to the evolution of the jazz rap and alternati ...
and their producer
Prince Paul who incorporated many skits on their 1989 debut album ''
3 Feet High and Rising
''3 Feet High and Rising'' is the debut studio album by American hip hop group De La Soul, released on March 3, 1989 by Tommy Boy Records. It is the first of three collaborations with producer Prince Paul, which would become the critical and c ...
'',
[ however an even earlier example may be found at the end of the ]Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were an American hip hop group formed in the South Bronx of New York City in 1978. The group's members were Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, Kidd Creole (not to be confused with Kid Creole), Keef Cowboy, S ...
hit, '' The Message''.
The Hip Hop Skit, although dominant throughout the 90s and the early 2000s, began to be phased out in the latter half of the 2000s and the early 2010s.MP3
MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...
.[
Writing for The AV Club, Evan Rytlewski opined that skits may have originally been in vogue because an expanded track listing would look more appealing to would be buyers, although he noted that their first inclusion on a De La Soul record was most likely just them being "eccentric".][
Some skits by certain artists have the same theme throughout. For example, ]Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing Hip hop music, hip hop in Middle America (United Sta ...
regularly has conversations with his manager Paul Rosenberg or plays the character Ken Kaniff. Royce da 5'9 Markus Bennett is an American hip-hop recording artist.
People
Surname
* Ed Royce (born 1951), American politician
* Elwyn E. Royce (1868–1960), American politician
* Henry Royce (1863–1933), cofounder of the Rolls-Royce automobile company
* H ...
uses skits to give background and context to his storytelling raps, like on ''Book of Ryan
''Book of Ryan'' is the seventh studio album by American rapper Royce da 5'9". It was released on May 4, 2018 by Royce's own label Heaven Studios and eOne Music. The album features guest appearances from artists Eminem, J. Cole, Pusha T, Jadakiss, ...
''. La Toya Jackson
La Toya Yvonne Jackson (born May 29, 1956) is an American singer and television personality. The fifth child and middle daughter of the Jackson family, Jackson first gained recognition on the family's variety television series, ''The Jacksons'', ...
uses skits to show her fancy lifestyle in her EP '' Starting Over''. Hip hop and trip hop
Trip hop (sometimes used synonymously with " downtempo") is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as a psychedelic fusion of hip hop and electronica with slow tem ...
French producer Wax Tailor also uses skits on each album, mixing beats with 50's movies cuts.
References
{{Reflist
External links
Wefunkradio.com
- Show 217 : 2 hours of hip-hop skits, interludes, intros, and bonus beats.
History of hip hop
Sketch comedy