Hip hop skit
A hip hop skit is a form of sketch comedy that appears on a hip hop album or mixtape, and is usually written and performed by the artists themselves. Skits can appear on albums or mixtapes as individual tracks, or at the beginning or end of a song. Some skits are part of concept albums and contribute to an album's concept. Skits also occasionally appear on albums of other genres.
The hip-hop skit was more or less pioneered by De La Soul and their producer Prince Paul who incorporated many skits on their 1989 debut album 3 Feet High and Rising.
The Hip Hop Skit although dominant throughout the 90s and the early 2000s began to be phased out in the later half of the 2000s and the early 2010s. Reasons for this include the popularity of MP3 as well as the invention of the iPod Shuffle, which could only play tracks in a random order.
Writing for The AV Club, Evan Rytlewski opined that skits may have originally been in vogue because an expanded tracklisting would look more appealing to would be buyers, although he noted that their first inclusion on a De La Soul record was most likely just them being "eccentric".
Azra
Azra was a rock band from Zagreb (Croatia) that was popular across Yugoslavia in the 1980s. Azra was formed in 1977 by its frontman Branimir "Johnny" Štulić. The other two members of the original line-up were Mišo Hrnjak (bass) and Boris Leiner (drums). The band is named after a verse from "Der Asra" by Heinrich Heine. They are considered to be one of the most influential bands from the former Yugoslav new wave rock era and the Yugoslav Rock scene in general.
They released their first single in 1979 with songs "Balkan" and "A šta da radim". The first album named Azra was published in 1980 and achieved commercial success and popularized Azra in former Yugoslavia. Second album Azra released in 1981. Azra recorded its last studio album Između krajnosti (Between the Extremes) in 1987. In 1988 the band recorded 4LP live album under the name Zadovoljština (Satisfaction), after which Štulić disbanded the band. Štulić recorded three more solo albums since moving to Netherlands, where he currently lives in seclusion. A 2003 rock documentary, Sretno dijete depicts Azra as the locus of the rock scene in the former Yugoslavia during the 1980s, along with Bijelo dugme. Even today, Azra remains very popular among youth in the countries of former Yugoslavia.
Azra (name)
Azra is a given name. Notable people with the name include:
Azra (album)
Azra is the debut album of the Yugoslav/Croatian rock band Azra, released through Jugoton in 1980.
Track listing
All music and lyrics written by Branimir Štulić.
Personnel
References
Podcasts:
