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Hip-hop turns fifty: going on tour
嘻哈音乐满五十岁了：开启全球巡演
America has dominated hip-hop for decades, but the future of the genre will be decidedly less American.
几十年来，美国一直主导着嘻哈音乐，但未来这一音乐类型肯定不会那么美国化。
To understand hip-hop’s future, look no further than the lead single on the album “Utopia”, by Travis Scott.
要想了解嘻哈音乐的未来，只需看看特拉维斯·斯科特的专辑《乌托邦》的主打单曲。
Mr Scott is American, but the song’s beat is part-Brazilian, inspired by bailes funk, a cousin of hip-hop born in the favelas.
斯科特是美国人，但这首歌的节奏带有巴西特色，灵感来自里约放克音乐，里约放克诞生于巴西贫民窟，受嘻哈音乐影响而产生。
Featured on the track is the Weeknd, a Canadian sensation, and Bad Bunny, a Puerto Rican who raps in Spanish and has been the world’s most-streamed artist for three years on Spotify.
演唱这首歌的还有加拿大巨星威肯和来自波多黎各、用西班牙语说唱的坏痞兔，坏痞兔是Spotify上连续三年全球播放量最高的歌手。
The song’s title is “K-Pop”, perhaps referring to the drug ketamine (but also generating interest from fans of Korean pop).
这首歌的名字是《K-Pop》，可能指的是毒品氯胺酮(但也引起了韩国流行乐迷的兴趣)。
One critic has called it a “diabolically stupid plan to create the most popular song in the world”, by bringing stars and elements of global hip-hop into a single tune.
一位评论家称这首歌将各国的嘻哈明星和元素融入到一个曲调里，是“一个超级愚蠢的创造全世界最流行歌曲的计划”。
It worked: the song recently climbed American charts.
但这种办法奏效了：这首歌最近登上了美国各大排行榜。
Since its supposed origin at a block party in New York on August 11th 1973, hip-hop has become the most popular musical genre in America, together with R&B.
自从（据说是）1973年8月11日在纽约的一个街区派对上诞生以来，嘻哈音乐已经成为美国最受欢迎的音乐类型，同样受欢迎的还有节奏布鲁斯。
(Hip-hop is technically a larger lifestyle category but is often used interchangeably with rap.)
(从定义上讲，嘻哈指的是一种更广泛的生活方式，但使用时经常和说唱互换。)
It has shaped culture in black America’s image and has become so much a part of America’s identity that the State Department even runs a “hip-hop diplomacy” scheme, which sends rappers, DJs and breakdancers abroad.
嘻哈音乐塑造了以美国黑人为形象的文化，并成为美国身份的重要部分，美国国务院甚至实施了“嘻哈外交”计划，将说唱歌手、DJ和霹雳舞者送往国外。
Next year breakdancing, which emerged at early hip-hop parties, will officially become a new Olympic sport.
在早期嘻哈派对中出现的霹雳舞，明年将正式成为奥运会的一项新运动。
Hip-hop’s past 50 years have been heavily American, with many stars and songs emerging there.
在过去50年里，嘻哈音乐一直是美国人的天下，许多明星和歌曲都在美国涌现。
But America’s hip-hop dominance in the next half-century will not be as great.
但在接下来的半个世纪里，美国的嘻哈音乐霸主地位将不会那么强大。
That is for two reasons.
其中有两个原因。
First, the geographical centre of hip-hop is shifting: first from New York City and Los Angeles, then to southern cities like Atlanta in the 2000s, and now to everywhere.
首先，嘻哈的地理中心正在转移：首先是纽约和洛杉矶，然后在本世纪前十年转移到亚特兰大等南方城市，现在已经遍地开花。
Many of the most influential new hip-hop stars are no longer African-American.
许多最具影响力的嘻哈新星不再是非洲裔美国人。
Take the very good Bad Bunny, whose song, “Me Porto Bonito”, has been streamed 1.5bn times on Spotify since its release last year.
以很棒的坏痞兔为例，他的歌曲《我乖乖听话》自去年发布以来，在Spotify上的播放量已达15亿次。
(That is around 38% more than the Beatles’ most-streamed song, “Here Comes the Sun”, released in 1969 and added to Spotify in 2015.)
(这比披头士乐队播放量最高的歌曲《太阳来了》高出约38%，这首歌于1969年发布，并于2015年加入Spotify。)
Central Cee, one of Britain’s most popular rappers, took drill, a subgenre of rap born in Chicago, repackaged it in London and exported it back to America.
英国最受欢迎的说唱歌手之一Central Cee将诞生于芝加哥的drill音乐（说唱音乐的一个子流派）在伦敦重新包装，然后再输入回美国。
Americans learn British slang from him on TikTok and at shows: “In London I’m verified; in New York I’m valid.”
美国人在TikTok和各种节目上从他那里学到英国俚语：“我是伦敦人，也在纽约玩。”
Far from tightening the West’s grip on cool, the internet has dropped rap’s already low barriers to entry: anyone with a voice, microphone and internet connection can release a verse.
互联网非但没有加强西方对嘻哈音乐的控制，反而降低了本就不高的说唱门槛：只要能发出声音、有麦克风、有网络，就可以在网上发一段说唱。
A greater pool of talent is one reason that people in many countries increasingly listen to local rap rather than American hip-hop artists.
说唱歌手变多是许多国家的人越来越多地听本土说唱，而不是美国嘻哈歌手的原因之一。
“People want to see themselves represented,” says Aori Sauthon, a rapper and Brazilian hip-hop music executive.
“人们希望看到歌里写的是自己。”说唱歌手、巴西嘻哈音乐主理人奥里·索顿说。
