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Hip-Hop's Musical Evolution of Rap Essay

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The hip-hop culture began in the streets of New York City during the 1970’s and has gone through tremendous changes up until now. Hip-Hop consists of four elements: rap, graffiti, break-dancing, and the disc jockey. In this paper, I intend to fully explain the evolution of rap music, from its infancy to the giant industry it is today.

Hip-Hop emerged in the 1970’s upon the arrival of a one Kool DJ Herc. Kool DJ Herc migrated to the United States from Kingston, Jamaica and settled in the West Bronx of New York. Kool DJ Herc was a disc jockey that attempted to incorporate his Jamaica style of disc jockeying, which involved reciting improvised rhymes over reggae records. Unfortunately for Kool DJ Herc New York seemed …show more content…

They became known as Kool DJ Herc and the Herculoids (Brewster and Broughton, 2000).

As rap music spread throughout the urban community of New York, many people began to use it as a form of expression that offered unlimited boundaries. There were no set rules, except to be original and to rhyme to the beat of the music. One could rap about the issues pertaining to his or her life or something as simple as a day at school.

Kool DJ Herc opened the door to the world for many up and comers such as Grandmaster Flash. DJ Grandmaster Flash and his group the Furious Five were hip-hop, greatest innovators, transcending the genres’ party music origins to explore the full scope of its lyrical and sonic horizons. Grandmaster Flash, born Joseph Saddler, began spinning records as a team growing up in the Bronx. By age 19, while attending technical school courses in electronics during the day, he was also d-jaying on a local disco circuit. Over time he developed a series of groundbreaking techniques including “cutting” (moving between tracks exactly on beat), “back spinning” (manually turning records to repeat brief snippets of sound), and “phasing” (manipulating turntable speeds). In short Grandmaster Flash created the basic vocabulary, which DJ’s continue to follow even today (Brewster and Broughton, 2000).

Grandmaster Flash did not begin collaborating with rappers until around 1977, first teaming up with the legendary

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