Rap Metal - History

History

Rap metal originated from rap rock, a genre fusing vocal and instrumental elements of hip hop with rock. The genre's roots are based both in hip hop acts who sampled heavy metal songs, such as Beastie Boys, Cypress Hill, Esham and Run–D.M.C., as well as rock bands who fused heavy metal and hip hop influences, such as 24-7 Spyz and Faith No More.

In 1987, New York thrash metal band Anthrax fused hip hop with heavy metal for their extended play I'm the Man, and then were teamed up with Public Enemy for a remake of the latter's "Bring the Noise" that fused hip hop with thrash metal. The next year rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot teamed up with Metal Church for his 1988 single "Iron Man", loosely based upon the Black Sabbath song of the same name. In 1990, rapper Ice-T formed a heavy metal band called Body Count, and while performing at the 1991 Lollapalooza tour performed a set that was half rap songs and half metal songs. Stuck Mojo, a metal band whose vocalist rapped, is considered to be another pioneer of the genre.

A Florida hip hop and rap metal-influenced nu metal band, Limp Bizkit's 1999 album Significant Other climbed to No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 643,874 copies in its first week of release. In its second week of release, the album sold an additional 335,000 copies. The band's followup album, Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water, set a record for highest week-one sales of a rock album with over one million copies sold in the U.S. in its first week of release, with 400,000 of those sales coming on its first day, making it the fastest-selling rock album ever, breaking the record held for 7 years by Pearl Jam's Vs.

Cypress Hill incorporated direct heavy metal influences into their 2000 album Skull & Bones, which featured six tracks in which rappers B-Real and Sen Dog were backed by a band including Fear Factory members Christian Olde Wolbers and Dino Cazares and Rage Against the Machine drummer Brad Wilk. B-Real also formed a rap metal group, Kush, with Wolbers, Fear Factory drummer Raymond Herrera and Deftones guitarist Stephen Carpenter. According to B-Real, Kush is more aggressive than other bands in the genre. SX-10, formed in 1996 by Sen Dog, also performs rap rock and rap metal.