Grizzly Bear Music

Boom bap is a foundational East Coast hip hop style defined by hard, punchy drums—“boom” for the kick and “bap” for the snare—laid under sample-based loops from jazz, soul, and funk records. It typically runs around 85–96 BPM, favors gritty, minimally processed textures (often associated with SP‑1200 and early Akai MPC samplers), and foregrounds lyrical skill: multisyllabic rhyme schemes, internal rhymes, storytelling, street reportage, and battle bars. DJ techniques such as scratching and cut‑choruses are common, and arrangements emphasize head‑nod grooves, sparse basslines, and tight bar structures that give MCs room to “sit in the pocket.”

Underground hip hop is a loosely defined movement within hip hop culture that prioritizes artistic integrity, lyrical depth, and experimental or non-commercial production over mainstream trends. It is often associated with independent labels, DIY distribution, and regional scenes that cultivate distinctive aesthetics and voices. Musically, underground hip hop favors sample-rich, boom-bap or off-kilter drum programming, gritty textures, and unconventional song structures. Lyrically, it emphasizes complex wordplay, social commentary, personal storytelling, and abstract or avant-garde imagery. Culturally, it values community, crate-digging, and innovation, maintaining a skeptical stance toward commercial pressures.

Native American hip hop refers to hip hop created by Indigenous peoples of the United States and Canada (including First Nations, Inuit, and Métis artists). It is not a single stylistic subgenre so much as a cultural and thematic current within hip hop, spanning boom‑bap, trap, alternative, and underground styles. Artists often braid traditional sounds—powwow drums, vocables, hand drums, cedar flutes, and round‑dance rhythms—into contemporary beats, while lyrics foreground sovereignty, language revitalization, land and water protection, life on and off the rez, historical trauma and survivance, and community pride. Because Native people have participated in all four elements of hip hop since its early years, the music’s sound palette and flows are as diverse as hip hop itself, even as the themes remain distinctly Indigenous. Historically, Native contributions were sometimes obscured under broad ethnic labels (e.g., being grouped as “Latino/Hispanic” in certain contexts), but the 1990s onward saw a visible wave of Native MCs and later a digitally native generation that uses hip hop as both art and activism.