The Song Planner

Trip Hop

tagStarted 1991Peak 1994-1999Last big hit 2010From Bristol, United Kingdom

Located in 2 routes

Hip-Hop / Rap → Producer / DJ / Beat-Centered Hip-HopHip-Hop / Rap → UK / Anglophone Rap

Bristol's narcotic downtempo hybrid of hip-hop and electronica: slowed, dusty breakbeats, deep bass, vinyl crackle and smoky film-noir atmospherics topped with sung vocals or murmured raps. Cinematic, melancholic and hazy, it swaps rap braggadocio for paranoia and seduction, built on sampling, dub weight and torch-song moodiness rather than fast bars.

History

Grew from Bristol's Wild Bunch sound-system scene; Massive Attack's Blue Lines (1990) is widely called the first trip-hop album. The term was coined in a 1994 Mixmag piece on DJ Shadow. Portishead's Mercury-winning Dummy (1994) and Tricky's Maxinquaye (1995) crowned the genre, though its key artists famously rejected the label.

Defining artists

Essential listening

← Explore Hip-Hop / Rap

Sources

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trip_hop
  • https://www.britannica.com/art/trip-hop
  • https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2012/01/31/142607358/local-groove-does-good-the-story-of-trip-hops-rise-from-bristol