First, things first, let it not be said Hip Hop music is not versatile. Since its inception in the early 70s the upstart music genre has always managed to reinvent itself by merging with other music forms to create a new sound, style and even genre. Thus far Hip Hop has emerged with Punk Rock and New Wave in the late 70s and early 80s to create what some called Punk Rock Rap. Some of you OGs may recall Hip Hop pioneers like the Cold Crush Brothers doing songs like Punk Rock Rap. Others may recall the early years of the Beasty Boys who started off as a punk band? Other may recall early new wave/punk icons like Malcolm McClaren hooking up with Hip Hoppers like the World Famous Dream team to give us classic songs like 'Buffalo Girls', which if I recall correctly was the name of a popular clothing line. Still others will recall punk rockers like Johnny Rotten teaming up with Afrika Bambaataa to give us classic tunes like 'World Destruction'.

In the mid 80s Hip Hop began to experiment with jazz to create Jazz-Hop. The most noted collaboration was with Hip Hop pioneer Grandmixer DST and jazz legend Herbie Hancock who gave us the classic Grammy Award winning song 'Rockit'. However, for those who were around, they may recall there was a slew of jazzy flavored Hip Hop songs that came out around that time. Groups like Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince gave us classics like 'A Touch of Jazz'. Others like Guru of Gang Starr and Tribe Called Quest took the ball and ran with it. Jazz musicians like Brandford Marsalis, Roy Ayers and many others have since recorded with jazz artists. Jazz and Hip Hop have been building ever since.

This jazz/Hip Hop fusion [Jazz-Hop] over the years evolved to create what was initially called Acid Jazz and Rare Groove. Nowadays many will argue that those genres are at the root of what we now call Neo-Soul i.e. Erykah Badu, D'Angelo, Bilal, Jill Scott etc. One thing is definitely certain many of those popular neo-soul artists got their start by coming through the doors of Hip Hop. How many of you folks recall first hearing to play Erykah Badu's first song 'On and On' being played on Hip Hop shows while by many so called R&B stations refused to touch her with a ten foot poll? How many of you guys recall hearing your first D'Angelo record being spun by your favorite Hip Hop DJ in the mix? Lets not forget all this.

In the mid and late 80s Hip Hop fused with House to create what we called Hip House. It was during this time House producers like Todd Terry ruled the land as he provided beats for Hip Hop legends like the Jungle Brothers who delivered the classic song 'I'll House You'. Popular Hip Hop artists at that time like Twin Hype and King Sun dropped Hip-House songs as did popular Chicago based House music artists like Tyree, Fast Eddie and many others. Heck, if you ask me, Chicago's early Hip Hop scene seemed to emerge out of its early House / Hip House scene. What we once called Hip house eventually evolved to become what we now call Trip Hop and Drum & Bass.

There is no denying the direct influence of reggae on Hip Hop. However, in the late 80s we say Hip Hoppers actively experimenting with that 'island sound' to create what we called Raggamuffin. If folks recall in the late 80s, there were entire Raggamuffin albums that were put out by groups like Asher D and Daddy Freddy with their classic 'Raggamuffin'. Since then everyone from Jamalski to Mad Lion to KRS-One have followed up with Raggamuffin tunes of their own. At the same time, Reggae artists like Shinehead entered the arena and gave us classics like 'Who The Cap Fits?' Other reggae artists like Shelly Thunder, Barrington Levy, Buju Banton, and Yellowman to name a few saw their music being embraced by the Hip Hop community. I recall a time when all sorts of labels like Pow Wow, Profile and Sleeping Bag had all sorts of raggamuffin/ reggae artists on their rosters.

Hip Hop over the years has merged with guitar based rock. Who could forget the landmark collaboration between Run DMC and Aerosmith to give us the song 'Walk This Way'. Since then Hip Hop and rock have merged to give us a popular music form that is best exemplified by artist like Kid Rock, Limp Bizkit and the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against The Machine who proceeded them. Now Hip Hop is evolving and merging again. This time it's with country music to create a new genre that some are calling Hillbilly Hip Hop or Hick-Hop.

There was a recent article that I read by AP writer Roger Alford that focused on the efforts of a Whitesburg Kentucky radio DJ named Nick Szuberla of WMMT who has been bringing Hip Hop and country Bluegrass folks together to do live performances. His radio show is called "From the Holler to the Hood" and his primary listening audience are the nearby prison inmates. His initial inspiration was to reach big city and rural prison inmates from the Appalachians and provide a forum so they would not clash. He pointed out in a recent interview that over the past 10 years prisons have been popping up all over rural communities and as a result there's been a lot more mixing of cats from the inner city hoods and cats from the rural countryside. The article describes how Szuberla has hooked up Banjo and Fiddler players like Dirk Powell with Hip Hop artists like Danja Mowf to do songs.

If you really think about it, the two genres coming together should not seem all that far fetched. The Hillbilly music of the Appalachians has a rich tradition that in many respects was born out of the impoverished social and economic conditions of that region. We all know that Hip Hop was born out of social and economic hardships of the inner city. One can argue that hillbilly Bluegrass and mountain music is the rural/country white kid's version of rap or Hip Hop is the Inner city kid's version of Bluegrass. It's surprising that the two haven't met earlier. Although I must admit to hearing a number of Hip Hop artists sampling banjo licks and putting them in songs back in the days when cats weren't being taxed so hard for sampling music. Who could forget the valiant efforts of Seattle's Sir Mix-A-Lot who humorously made that country connection years ago with classic songs like 'Square Dance Rap' and 'Buttermilk Biscuits'? Nowadays we have white country cats like Bubba Sparxxx hooking up with Hip Hop producers like Timberland to do a Hip Hop album. The next step is to seamlessly mix the genres which seems to be happening in Kentucky with DJ Nick Szuberla and his 'From The Hollar to the Hood' show.

For now there are no immediate plans for anyone to do a big album or anything like that, but in the world of Hip Hop that's only a matter of time before all that changes. We'll keep you posted.