A Bloggers Guide to Horrorcore
Horrorcore emerged in the late 1980s, perhaps as a reaction to the hippy hop of De La Soul or an evolution of NWA and the Geto Boys’ brutal gangsta rap.
Despite the aesthetic dichotomy between heavy metal and hip-hop the genres have shared many similarities, especially at the extreme end of rap. A morbid fascination with murder and violence was a preoccupation for Kool G Rap, KRS-One and Anthrax alike during the late 1980s.
Throw in tropes of drugs, misogyny, and violence over a horror film ambiance and you have all the key ingredients of horrorcore. Musically there are no real consistencies, it is neither hip-hop nor heavy metal (yet much closer to the former), encompassing elements of trip-hop, industrial drum machines, trashy guitars, digital snaps and Hammond organ edits are all part of this Frankenstein-style genres musical makeup.
There is uncertainty over the originator for the term ‘horrorcore’. Russel Simmons laid claim to it in the early 90s; attributing the term to his cousins group, the short-lived Flatlinerz. But in truth there were artists doing horror-rap (or horrocore) back in the 80s, one of the first and most noteworthy was Esham The Unholy. The Detroit native released his first album Words From Hellin 1989, aged just 13, for one so young he had a unique creative vision blending violent reality raps with tales of drugs, alcohol abuse and murder over beats sampling anything from heavy metal to Japanese flutes.
In 1993 Esham incited outrage, receiving death threats from anti-abortionist groups after the release of his KKKill The Foetus LP (unlikely to be found in the ‘urban’ section at your local HMV). The popularity of Esham’s twisted rap may have been underground but it didn’t fail to capture the imagination of other young rappers in his area, including Proof and a certain Eminem. Over in New York at around the same time of Esham‘s debut release a group of new school pioneers were busy altering the boundaries of hip-hop, yet again.
Ultramagnetic MC’s were among the first to use chopped samples whilst incorporating elements of the nascent horrorcore sound. A widely reported, former Bellevue mental asylum patient Kool Keith led the group. As a solo artist Kool Keith became even more experimental with his music, as well as going through a variety of different personas, and it was his Dr Octagon alias that proved most popular and the Dr. Octagonecologyst release on Mo Wax that exposed horrorcore to a whole new audience.
But it was the Gravediggaz, who recorded the seminal horrorcore album with their 1994 release, Niggamortis (a title that was changed to 6 Feet Deepin America). Gravediggaz were a concept group consisting of some key figures in hip-hop from the period; De La Soul and Stetsasonic producer Prince Paul (or The Undertaker, to use his group name) along with the MCs Frukwan (The Gatekeeper), Too Poetic (The Grym Reaper) from the Brothers Grym and RZA (The Rzarector), who only a year earlier released Enter The 36 Chambers as the production brains behind the era-defining first album by Wu Tang Clan. Unlike many other horrorcore acts the Gravediggaz employed black humor and cartoonish violence to great success and it seemed that horrorcore had finally embraced the mainstream.
Mindful of this popular new subgenre, Jam Master Jay signed The Flatlinerz to Def Jam, the group consisted of; Jamal ‘Redrum’ Simmons (nephew to Russell Simmons) and two other rappers called Gravedigger and Tempest. Russell Simmons had turned down his cousins group less than a year previous, but after Gravediggaz success he jumped on the proverbial bandwagon and predicted big things for the group. Although this didn’t go according to plan, their album U.S.A (Under Satan’s Authority)lacked the playfulness of 6 Feet Deep and their videos featured blasphemous imagery.
This didn’t fit in with ethics of the mainstream music industry in the US, a direction Def Jam were certainly heading towards. To top it all sales were disappointing and the group was dropped after just one album. So the Gravediggaz were left untroubled as the flag bearers of horrorcore, but the original lineup only released one more album together, The Pick, the Sickle and the Shovel(1997). Prince Paul played a smaller role in the subtler sound of the album (production responsibilities were mainly taken care of by RZA along with Wu-Tang affiliates True Master and 4th Disciple) and the subject matter was darker with a harder political edge. By this point horrorcore’s flirtation with the mainstream had seemingly ended.
Acts like Tech N9ne and, the quite awful, Insane Clown Posse carried the torch performing at smaller venues around the States but violent outbursts often occurred at shows, resulting in a blanket ban on all horrorcore acts. Congruously, horrorcore was pushed back underground.
But in 1998 along came a white, Jewish, rapper from Brooklyn that made mainstream raps Caucasian bad boy, Eminem, look like the lead singer from Snow Patrol. Necro released his full debut album I Need Drugs in 2000.
I Need Drugs pushed the boundaries of bad taste even further, with an almost tireless pursuit of sex and violence. As a teenager Necro played guitar with a number of underground hardcore metal bands in New York as well as winning a rap demo contest on the highly influential Stretch and Bobbito Radio Show back in 1991. Five album releases later and he has cemented a vehement following that has allowed him to go on a world tour, whether you like him or not this is an admirable achievement considering Necro releases his music in complete independence. Having witnessed his first European performance, a sell out show at the Scala, London, in 2006 (a show the local newspaper, Camden Gazette unsuccessfully, lobbied to cancel) I can testify first hand to the messianic-like following he possesses.
What’s interesting about horrorcore is the way many of the artists who are responsible for its very existence; Esham, Necro and Kool Keith have tried to distance themselves from the tag. Esham termed his music ‘Acid Rap’, essentially to distinguish himself from other hardcore and horrorcore rappers. Yet this term is surely more appropriate to the trippy rap of Kool Keith, and I asked him about horrorcore during our interview, the response was typically hubristic; “I invented Hororrcore. But I don’t listen to groups who try to sound like me, it bores me”.
While Necro informed me over email (in all capitals) that he “created the term ‘death rap’” to separate myself from any genre title that I don’t agree with…the term horrorcore supposedly was created by Russell Simmons to describe his nephew’s group that he put out. It doesn’t describe my shit.”
Yet there are equally many well-known artists who have used this esoteric genre for it’s dark credibility. Eminem’s early career was largely influenced by horrorcore (listen to a young Slim Shady’s cameo on Biggies Dead Wrong) before someone must have told him that the rap equivalent of snuff movies was never going to earn him millions of dollars or a Hollywood biopic.
Even Oscar winners Three 6 Mafia were known for their gruesome beats and eerie lyrics in the early part of their careers, as well as our very own potty-mouthed rapper turned soul crooner, Plan B. Check the song Kidz, a story of a 14-year-old who kills, rapes and robs his victims for gruesome horrorcore influence.
What of horrorcore in 2011? For a (sub)genre of music that has always been so reliant on word of mouth it’s not surprising that it has found a welcome home online. But with it has come a general dilution of creativity, with very few new artists of any note claiming to be ‘horrorcore’. At time of writing one horrorcore rapper who appears to be in the news (or the Oakland Tribune, at least ) is Mars (real name Mario Delgado) whose music has reportedly been cited as an influence behind a quadruple murder charge. These sort of accusations are nothing new in music and rap in particular, sadly, and Mars appears to be milking the attention for all its worth. Although further listening (is difficult) reveals him to be yet another corny, angry white rapper biting the ideas of those that have preceded him.
Horrorcore is probably best served as a sampling pot to contemporary music.
A good example being King Cannibal, who cites the genre and Gravediggaz in particular as a major early influence. His haunting and aggressive strain of electronic music has been described as ‘breakcore’ among bloggers yet his choice of vocal samples — shivers, screams and lines like “I want to slice your face” from the Aragami Style track on his acclaimed 2009 debut LP, Let The Night Roar released on Ninja Tune — and choice of drum patterns are a less than subtle nod to the dark metal/rap hybrid.
Perhaps Necro himself put it best “in the end, it doesn’t matter what you label something, because if its dope its dope, regardless of genre”.
This story was first published in Bonafide magazine in 2011, save for the odd glaring typo I’ve kept the article faithful to the original text.
