Jazz Rap was an attempt to fuse African-American music of the past with a newly dominant form of the present, paying tribute to and reinvigorating the former while expanding the horizons of the latter. While the rhythms of Jazz Rap came entirely from Hip Hop, the samples and sonic textures were drawn mainly from Jazz. It was cooler and more cerebral than other styles of Hip Hop, and many of its artists displayed an Afrocentric political consciousness, complementing the style's historical awareness. Given its more intellectual bent, it's not surprising that Jazz Rap never really caught on as a street favourite. Jazz Rap styled itself as a more positive alternative to the Gangsta Rap movement taking over Hip Hop's mainstream at the dawn of the 90s and concerned itself with spreading Hip Hop to listeners unable to embrace or identify with the music's increasing inner-city aggression. As such, Jazz Rap found its main audiences in places like college campuses and was also embraced by many critics and white Indie fans. The sound eventually crossed over into R&B giving us the sound known as Neo Soul.