Rap Music History

1. Keyes points out that rap music derives from what she refers to as the “West African bardic tradition.” What is this tradition? What is the role of the griot in this tradition? What parallels do you see between the groit and a hip hop MC (the rapper, often the main writer of lyrics for a group)?

The genre created in very poor districts, like the Bronx, in New York by African-American and Latino teenagers. They learned how to use turntables by working as DJs at discos. DJs and MCs would play at free block parties. An MC is an abbreviation for Master of Ceremony his/her job is to focus on skills, lyrical ability, and subject. So, during block parties, the DJ would play music and the MC encouraged guest to have fun. Parties went on MCs slowly started to rhyme while they were performing. Hip-Hop was only played live at first until Sugar Hill Gang released Rappers Delight in 1979. Rappers Delight was a huge success for hip-hop. Personally, I consider the Sugar Hill Gang the founding fathers of Hip-Hop.

This chapter is about the birth of hip-hop in the south Bronx and how African and African American culture greatly influenced rap/hip-hop. The evolution of rap evolved from spoken word, which sprung from African American tradition. However, many fail to realize Afro-Caribbean culture’s emergence on the evolution of hip-hop. Younger generations admire their favorite rappers and artist because they embody the same struggles they face in their life. Tiongson later goes on to stress the enormous impact hip hop had on an African American culture that poets and artist do not realize. Although artist may not see it, their work has become a positive light for young kids in the black community.

Rap evolved and gained in popularity in the 1960's when a few revolutionary "DJ's," including Kool DJ Herc, DJ Lovebug Starski, and DJ Hollywood, began to work block parties in the Bronx. They would bring in large speakers, hook them up to a turntable and play two of the same record at the same time, repeating the same section of the vinyl over and over by scratching it. Other performers would chant and yell

Rap music is derived from Hip Hop culture which is deeply rooted in the African American community. The word, rap, has a Middle English origin. Originally, rap means to beat or strike. Beginning in the 1960s, African Americans gave the word another definition. In the black community, rap meant that someone was conversing about everyday life. However, Africans who were captured against their own will would tell stories while playing instruments way before the idea of rap was conceptualized as it is today. The origin of

Hip-Hop as well as many other artistic cultural forms we practice today can be related back to African culture and various traditions. Author of The Roots and Stylistic Foundations of the Rap Music and Tradition, Cheryl Keyes, discuss’ the spirit, style, tradition, emotions, culture and the delivery of music. Keyes says that many of these practices can be traced back to the West Afrikan Bardic Tradition in particular. When asking many old-school, and culturally involved hip-hop artists about the roots and origins of rap/hip-hop music many of them will refer to Africa.

Hip hop music originated in the Bronx of New York City over 45 years ago in the 70's. It was brought over by immigrants from Jamaica. Shortly after, it was adopted by African Americans living in the Bronx and quickly spread to other African American urban communities around the country. At first, it was a low key thing. People would host block parties and freestyle battles among themselves, it became labeled as "hip-hop". "Hip-Hop Culture", it states "By the 1980's, the music begun to receive some airplay on commercial radio stations in the U.S, largely due to catchy songs such as "Rapper's Delight" by Sugarhill Gang."(p.2) Most of these stations were broadcast in urban radio stations were targeted towards African American audiences, but it

Hip-Hop music and the sub genre, Gangster Rap, has deep roots dating back from as early as the 15th and 16th century but since the mid 1980’s and early 1990’s this sub culture has taken over mainstream and has had a negative effect on both Hip-Hop as a culture and the american society. The word rap was first used in Brittain and meant to hit or to strike. As the word evolved over the centuries the definition of the word changed to mean to speak or to talk. The word rap also has many ties to the African griots dating back thousands of years ago. These griots where the village storytellers that would pass down the history of their family through story and song as well as communicate current local events to the people of the village. These African

The controversy of Hip-Hop and Rap being that it is “only about violence” or “uninfluential” is one that has been around since the eighties. But is it really all about violence, sex, drugs, or protest? Yes, there are rap groups that only rap about violence, sex, drugs, or protest, but that is a genre called “trap” music. When mentioning of the original artists in the trap music genre, rappers such as Waka Flocka Flame, Gucci Mane, Young Jeezy, and Lil’ Wayne come to mind which rap about sex, drugs, and violence. There are other genres that rap about enlightenment, good morals, and inspiration called “conscious rap.” Conscious hip hop or socially conscious hip-hop is a subgenre of hip hop that consists of political, religious, third-eye enlightenment, or philosophical relations. Most people only think there is one genre of rap and that is “trap” and that is the genre most people don’t realize even exist. With the rise of popularity of conscious rap hopefully people will have a second and better opinion of the upcoming genre.

In the late 1960s, a genre of music by the name of Funk arose from a mixture of Jazz, Soul, Rhythm and Blues. Funk provided thousands of nightclubbers with funky chords and electric rhythms to dance to. Over the span of its popularity, Funk evolved and developed various subgenres, such as Funk rock, Boogie, Electro funk, Funk metal and the notorious, Gangsta-Funk. Gangsta-Funk or G-Funk for short, is a subgenre of Hip Hop invented in the early 90s on the mean streets of Los Angeles, California. The central pioneers of G-Funk can be argued, but to keep it short, Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg deserve more than half of the credit for helping to develop this fable style of music. A product of the streets of Long Beach, California, Snoop Dogg was taken under Dr.Dre's wing and with his guidance dropped

Hip hop or hip-hop is a subculture and art movement developed in South Bronx in New York City during the late 1970s.[1][2][3][4][5] While people unfamiliar with Hip Hop culture often use the expression "hip hop" to refer exclusively to hip hop music (also called "rap"),[6] Hip Hop is characterized by nine distinct elements or expressive realms, of which Hip Hop music is only four elements (rapping, djaying, beatboxing and breaking). Afrika Bambaataa of the Hip Hop collective Zulu Nation outlined the pillars of Hip Hip culture, coining the terms: "rapping" (also called MCing or emceeing), a rhythmic vocal rhyming style (orality); DJing (and turntablism), which is making music with record players and DJ mixers (aural/sound and music creation);

As I said earlier, according to Colemizestudios, you can find the term “Rap” as early as in the 15th and 16th century and was used by the slaves from Africa. But rap was used way earlier, thousands of years ago for an example by the greeks. Village people in Africa used to tell stories in sync with a handmade instrument, often some kind of a drum. This kind of tradition carried over to America when the african villagers were taken as slaves by the americans. These singing poets from Africa really lay the foundation of the rap we know today.

Since its start in the music industry around nineteen eighty-eight rap music has always been under a lot of scrutiny for its lyrics and messages that it portrays. Rap music has a long history starting back to the days of slavery and has come a long way since then bridging gaps between all genres of music including jazz, blues, and basic drum beats. When hip hop first came about its message was simple. It was groups of black men who described the life they were living in the ghettos all over the world. They felt helpless and viewed the government in a very strong negative way based on the lack of help African American's were given in the contexts of housing, education, and living. As rap music developed and more artists started

Rap is actually a very old term dating back to 15th century Europe. The term rap originally meant to strike or hit something. (“Cole Mize Studios”) However, centuries later the word began to adapt a new meaning. By the 60s, rap began to be used in the black community as a slang word

Hip hop finds its ethnic origins in Jamaican music and DJs in the seventies who used two turntables to create longer drum breaks in records for dance parties giving rise to “break dancing” and “break dancers” now known as b-boys and b-girls (A Closer Look At a New Hip Hop Movement). DJs and MCs popularized the technique of speaking over beats and the culture expanded to include street dance and graffiti art. Embraced by working class urban and young African-Americans, the music stems from African American forms of music including jazz, soul, gospel, and reggae.