Sugar Hill Gang

This successful woman released the first song with rap in it, which topped the charts in both The United Staes and The United Kingdom. Although the lyrics do not contain any depth, this is still considered a very significant accomplishment because a caucasian woman participating in an activity that is mainly dominated by Black and Latino men takes a lot of courage . Despite all odds, she was able to take on this new music genre and make something out of

A raw expression of urban hip hop culture, rap quickly became the sound of African-American anger, rebellion, cultural style, and experience. Anticipated by the ground-breaking work of the West Coast-based Watts Prophets and New York area Gil Scott Heron (whom I worked for at my senior experience internship at TVT Records) and the Last Poets in the early 1970s, the current configuration of rap emerged out of Sugar Hill Gang's 1979 "Rapper's Delight" and Grandmaster Flash's 1982 hit "The Message." Hip hop culture began developing its style and sound in New York party scenes in the Bronx, Brooklyn and other ghetto areas in the late 1970s. By the 1980s, a whole cycle of New York-based hip hop and rap artists emerged to public attention, including Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, Run DMC, Eric B and Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-ONE, Tone Loc, Salt 'n'

Rap music was creating a negative influence throughout the music industry for awhile, it’s agreeable that modern day rap today mostly involves drugs, gangs, violence, money, etc. Although, a lot of it also gives inspiration or at least has that goal being set when creating the music. Most

In the early 70's, a Jamaican, DJ known as Kool Herc attempted to combine his Jamaican style of disk jockey, that involved reciting improvised rhymes over the dub versions of his reggae records (Davey 1). He also invented turntables, which kept the music going, with the occasional voice on the top of records, which started the roots of rap music. Over time, the culture broke into mainstream, spread around the world, and young people who did not have much to do, created not only multi-million industry, but have also created a way we can speak to each other all around the world. Hip hop is linked to other music such as rap which is embraced by urban black population. It is raw self-expression, sometimes features expletive lyrics, and violence. “Hip hop artists spoke to despair and pain of urban youth and the poor who were often without a voice. The rappers themselves were, the product of that reality, and it was conveyed through their lyrics” (Muhammad 1).

For many years, the youth have been known for singing along to their favorite song and taking that song as whole and using it as their motto for life. It may seem that sometimes these kids do not know what is being said in the music but this shows that they do know what the lyrics are saying. According to Franklin B. Krohn and Frances L. Suazo in their article “Contemporary Urban Music: Controversial Messages in Hip-Hop and Rap Lyrics,” many teenagers and minority groups view rappers as their spokesmen because of their ability to speak in street language and bluntly express their frustration (Krohn, 1995). Unfortunately, hip hop lyrics usually tend to talk about drugs, sex and violence leading kids to think that everything they hear is okay and that is how they have to live their life. Yet, there are artists out there who take their lyricist skills to give positive lyrics and messages in their music, but these songs are not often played in the mainstream.

The impact music has on the life of people is very powerful. It can easily revamp the way people act and take control of people’s emotions. Rap music is a very common and popular type of music within the world today. Rap music has existed since the mid 1970s, nowadays it is practically everywhere. It is easily a central focus of many young people’s lives. Rap music was essentially intended to create a voicing of one’s frustrations and disappointment with society, it has recently taken a turn and is creating a negative impact on the youth. It is the root that influences and encourages degrading women, violence, and is filled with sexual content.

In the 1980s, hip hop spread to the rest of the world, not just urban cities in the United States. Recording studios became more widely available to artists. In 1979, “Rapper’s Delight” from The Sugarhill Gang was released, and is considered to be the first hip hop song to be recorded and released to the public. New York City’s radio station WKTU began playing hip hop songs in commercials in an attempt to promote artists. After WKTU’s promotion, hip hop songs were played on the radio in other cities like Philidelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Baltimore, Miami, Houston, and Los Angeles.

This rap contained lyrics that state “I’m close to the edge, I’m trying not to lose my head” and “You grow up in the ghetto, living second rate and your eyes will sing a song of deep hate.” These lyrics show the harsh reality of growing up under circumstances beyond one’s control. They also show the mental effect of living under unfavorable circumstances (). For example, eyes that sing “a song of deep hate” is a side effect of living in a place where one’s future seems to be predetermined. This rap was beneficial for the African American community’s image because it showed a need for change.

The rap genre originated from some of the most underprivileged areas of New York in the 1970’s. What was once DJ’s talking over a beat they were playing to encourage more activity on the dance floor, turned in to a new genre of music called rap. The majority of earlier rap songs were fun inducing tracks, but in the 1980’s, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five introduced social consciousness to the genre. They sparked a long lasting impact on rap as it started to evolve rapidly as time went on. The 90’s was home to “gangsta rap,” followed by a softer side of song writing pioneered by the likes of Outkast and Kanye West in the 2000’s. Today, rap music is very diverse and more accepting of different styles than it was before. However, throughout the entire history of rap music, the one thing that has stayed

Many hip hop songs may talk about materialism, but there are just as many talk about following your dreams, taking chances, and doing the right thing. For example, in Jonathan Cruz’s essay he mentions “Underground Hip Hop” a type of hip hop that is usually overshadowed, but it focuses on being inspirational, telling the listeners that nothing is impossible if they try. This proves that hip hop has positive messages, you just have to find the right songs. Another reason its message is positive is that is isn’t afraid to talk about more mature topics in an entertaining way. It talks about real world topic such as politics and makes it easy and enjoyable to understand.

From it's inception, rap indured a lot of hostility from listeners--many, but not all, White--who found the music too harsh, monotonous, and lacking in traditional melodic values. However, millions of others--often, though not always, young African-Americans from underprivileged inner city backgrounds--found and immediate connection with the style. Here was poetry of the

Back in the past, rap music was first started in African Tribal communities. They used music as a way to relate the tribe's history in the form of a story and added a beat and a rhythm to it (Howard). Today, rap is used for the same reason, which is to tell stories. Beneath all the profanity, there is a hidden true meaning. If back then people used music to tell stories about things and express his or her self, then people do the same today.

Rap originated within the early Nineteen Seventies within the South borough, where DJs riffs from their favorite dance records at house parties, making new sounds by scratching over them or adding drum synthesizers. A partner, the MC, would add an assonant, spoken vocal (a rap) over the combination, typically victimization clever plays on words. Most rap songs were boasting, the aural equivalent of street gangs' strut and swagger. Self-praise regarding their physical superior skill and coolness, rappers used fight with rival males because the motivation for power. Some early rap songs promoted world and interracial harmony, as well as The Sugar Hill Gang's Rapper's Delight (1980) and Afrika Bambaataa's Planet Rock (1982), that became a crossover

It covers a broad range of ideas, styling and techniques that are unique to specific demographic areas, geographic regions and territories and locales. The following comprises some of the hallmarks of early rap music: * Simple yet dominant percussive patterns * Limited reliance on traditional musical systems of chord, verse, chorus and other formal and/or traditional methods of Western musical structure * Non-traditional utilisation of musical instruments including

Throughout history, music has been used to express the feelings of people or groups whom may have no other outlet to express themselves. The best example of this occurrence would be the lower class of America’s use of rap music. Rap music started out as a fun variation of disco with the purpose to make people dance and enjoy themselves, but it later transformed into one of the best outlets to express the struggles of poverty in the United States. The genre gained popularity when the song “Rapper 's Delight” hit the charts in the early eighties; rap evolved into a plethora of different styles from there, Gangster Rap formed with NWA in the late eighties, and rap really hit it’s zenith in the mid nineties. Modern rap began in the early starts of the twentieth century. Because of the storytelling that rappers do in the music, it gained notice in the inner city where the demographic could relate. Many young teen in the inner city environment built dream to be famous rappers just like their own favorite artists . Rap connects to me by its style, its purpose, and its political incorrectness.