Boom bap

Boom bap is a genre and music production style that was prominent in the East Coast during the golden age of hip hop from the late 1980s to the early 1990s.
The term "boom bap" is an onomatopoeia that represents the sounds used for the bass (kick) drum and snare drum, respectively. The style is usually recognized by a main drum loop that uses a hard-hitting, acoustic bass drum sample on the downbeats, a snappy acoustic snare drum sample on the upbeats, and an "in your face" audio mix emphasizing the drum loop, and the kick-snare combination in particular.
Prominent hip hop artists that incorporated "boom bap" in their music include Run-DMC, Nas, LL Cool J, Gang Starr, KRS-One, Mobb Deep, R.A. The Rugged Man, Boot Camp Clik, Griselda, Wu-Tang Clan, Jay-Z, Common, A Tribe Called Quest and The Notorious B.I.G..
Key producers include DJ Premier, Large Professor, Pete Rock, Marley Marl, J Dilla, Statik Selektah, RZA, The Alchemist, Black Milk, Apollo Brown, 9th Wonder, Havoc, Da Beatminerz, Buckwild, Lord Finesse, Diamond D, and Showbiz.
History.
The term boom bap originated in 1984 when it was used by T La Rock to describe the beat of the kick drum and the snare in the song "It’s Yours". T La Rock spoke in an off-script fashion, using the words ‘boom bap’ to mimic the sound of the rhythm. This was the first recorded onomatopoeic expression of the beat. The term later became a universal name for the subgenre of Hip Hop as a whole. DJ Premier suggested that boom bap existed before the production of "It’s Yours". He states the term was used by the wider hip-hop community as a term to describe all hip hop and the beat that is produced for it. The subgenre became increasingly better known when KRS-One released an album under the title "Return of the Boom Bap". The success of the album popularised the term boom bap.
Development of the Style.
The original songs produced within the subgenre used the actual sounds of kick drums and hard-hitting snare drums or samples from vinyl records. The focus originally was on the simplicity of the beat whereas in later developments of the subgenre electronic samplers and beatmakers were used to generate the iconic beat. Over time more percussion instruments were added to add to the complexity of the beat. Some examples of percussion instruments included were shakers, tambourines, bongos, and cowbells. Musical programmers used digital sampling synthesizers to create more complex layers of sampled sounds and multi-layered drumbeats. The original artist recognised by the hip hop industry as the first to experiment with these samples in boom bap was DJ Marley Marl.  The main purpose in using electronic instruments for the production of the music was to take the tedious repetition of the beat out of the creative process. This allowed artists to focus more on their lyrics and the meaning they were trying to convey.
Notable Artists.
DJ Premier and Pete Rock gained notable fame as producers for their work within the boom bap industry. These artists believe that the subgenre demonstrates ‘strength and power’ through its harsh-sounding beat and roughness. Boom bap was known for its popularity on the East Coast of the USA and in particular its roots in New York. Where the west coast music scene displayed elements of smoothness, the east coast and boom bap focused on hard edges and strong beats. These artists in particular pioneered the subgenre by focusing on the rough elements of a stripped back beat and a strong focus on the lyrics.
The Beat.
KRS-One when describing the beat common to the subgenre states “The vibe of boom bap is to use the least amount of instruments to create the most amount of rhythmic sound.” 
The typical boom bap beat will be a loop of quarter notes. The first and the third being the kick drum and the second and forth the snare. The beat has become synonymous with the golden age of hip hop. More modern hip-hop songs are influenced by boom bap and the underlying tone that is common to all songs in the subgenre.
The beat is designed to ‘exist solely as a basis for the artist to rap over’. It intends to be ‘visceral and rousing, it is hip hop at its brawniest’.
Sampling.
Sampling is used in boom bap music to enhance the backing music for the rapper. Since the foundations of the beat are designed to be minimalistic, samples are used to add to the rhythm of the song and to create some more diversity in the sounds. Two of the most common electronic samplers used in this style are the Akai MPC and the SP1200. Composers in this style use ‘short excerpts of the audio from a previous recording, recontextualized into a new composition’. This form of sampling generates the drum break. This can be heard in L. L. Cool J’s "Around The Way Girl", A song and artist that utilizes boom bap features to create the hip hop beat.
Swing quantization is used to create a more complex sound. It allows the producer to offset the off beats by a small margin and thus influence the rhythmic flow of the piece. The swing ratio can be adjusted on samplers such as the Akai MPC series.
Lyrics.
Boom bap music is known not just for its low technology sounds and intense beat, but also for what its intense lyrics. Boom bap music is often accompanied by rap, but not melodic singing, and melodies found in more mainstream types of music are replaced with the hard beat and percussion instruments. The lyrics are a conversation with the audience, they are often introspective and reflective of current affairs and society. Boom bap songs rarely demonstrate a sense of progression within the song and don’t come to a chorus or climax.
The rapping itself followed contemporary conventions of lyrics in hip hop. Lyrics have a very important part of the song in this style. Since the beat and instrumentals are often repetitive and provide the backing for the rapper. The rapper themselves is what makes the song unique from others. Lyrics often involve multi-syllable rhyming, rap battling, insulting, sociological observations, puns, and other forms of word play. Word play would often encompass poetic devices like extended metaphors and alliteration. The lyrics associated with boom bap have been described by music scholars as ‘raw’ and ‘direct’. A focus on the rhythm and flow of the words allows it to complement the beat. Along with the distinct beat, boom bap is also differentiated from other subgenres by the attitude in the vocals. In songs such as Run DMC’s Sucker M.C’s the rapper does not attempt to ‘sound catchy or commercial’.
The Decline of Boom Bap.
Due to much tighter copyright laws in the United States and around the world in recent years. The accessibility for sampling and regenerating sounds based on other’s work has become increasingly difficult. Some modern artists who are working for large record labels, enjoy production budgets that permit them to access others' work via purchase. However, this limits home-grown music production and thus leads hip hop enthusiasts to other more accessible forms of hip hop. Artists gravitated away from sampling due to financial and career risks.  One’s creative ability can also be impacted when choosing to sample within a song. Hence, an overall drive for new content has emerged in the music industry.
The red bull music academy states that in the modern world ‘the notion of tagging something as boom bap has become more of a backhanded compliment. The phrase is frequently applied to East Coast hip hop to suggest that its architects are dated and trading on former glories’.
Modern Usage.
Although not commercially popular, in the recent years Boom-Bap has seen a micro-resurgence. The Bristol-based rapper Wish Master [Liam Wish Kole], in 2019, released an album called 'Boom Bap to the Future,' where he utilized the rhythmical quality as the foundation of the album's instrumental scoring, as well an allegory for retaining artistic self-control. However, critics were not entirely happy with the album, referring to its weak textual life, although commendable attempts at reviving the forgotten style. Another regeneration of the Boom Bap style is being constructed through the London-based music collective called "'Songs of Boom Bap"' [S.O.B], whose mission is to reignite interest and social status to the old-school aesthetics of rapping, which include Beep Bop and other foundational stylistic attributes.