What’s All the Rap About?
Rap music is one of the most popular genres in America today that we all have heard in some form or another. It has been sampled or used in other genres of music and has played a big part in bridging the gap between generations of music lovers.
The origin of rap can be traced back to the griots of West Africa centuries ago who were historians that told rhythmic stories of the past to their villages over a drumbeat. Caribbean folk artists also told stories in rhymes.
It is essentially poetry, rhyme, rhythm, and language spoken over a heavy beat with instrumentation. The well-oiled machine that creates this urban music has two important components of the hip-hop culture: the MC who provides the spoken word and the DJ who provides the beats.
Rap has distinct elements:
Content – what’s being said
Flow – how it rhymes and the rhythm
Delivery – tone and speed which it’s spoken
The official starting date of rap music is debatable, but we can ascertain the genre started when New York DJs would sample percussive elements from disco, soul, and funk to create a repetitive beat. DJ Kool Herc is credited for kicking off this new form of music with his back-to-school parties in the 1970s. He would use two record turntables to create loops, playing the same beat over again and extending the instrumental portion of a song. He realized this kept the hype at high levels at parties, so he invited his friend Coke La Rock to help host events and rap over the loop was born from these experiences. This Bronx sensation became known as hip-hop.
In 1979 Kurtis Blow was the first rapper signed to Mercury Records. The Fatback Band and The Sugar Hill Gang released mainstream records that charted in the Billboard Top 40. During this time recording was not necessarily a big interest because the most famous DJs were gaining more notoriety through their parties and MC-driven records.
In the 1980s DJ Grand Wizard Theodore accidentally invented the act of scratching and the “needle drop.” This innovation took rap and the DJ to another level.
In 1982 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five released a more socially conscious MC-driven rap song called “The Message.” This song release initiated the ending of party-oriented DJs ruling hip-hop.
The year 1984 was the birth of “the Golden Era” in rap. Sound and techniques had progressed and been mastered by MCs. In New York new rap releases had begun to move in a new direction. The beat productions were denser, raps were faster, and sampling technology was used more. The lyrics became more vocal and were used as a form of protest against social injustices. Melle Mel and Duke Bootee were the main originators of this movement.
The late 1980s saw the prominence of rap spread to the West Coast and produce famous rappers such as Too Short, N.W.A., and Ice-T. They expressed and reflected personal experiences from urban life in the economically depressed and crime-ridden areas of Los Angeles and Oakland. Their music exuded more controversial content and rhymes which included pimping and liquor. Urban life was portrayed in their lyrics with no-holds-barred. One of N.W.A.’s most popular songs, "Fuck Tha Police," was a response to police brutality. Unfortunately, this placed N.W.A. on the FBI’s radar and labeled hip-hop and gangsta rap in particular as America’s real public enemy number one. This era also birthed the division between West Coast and East Coast rap.
The 1990s was the explosion of coastal rap rivalries as a result of stylistic and content decisions from geographic divides in rap and hip-hop. There were also personal differences that caused a national rift. The most famous one of all time between Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. ultimately led to their deaths. The deaths of these icons were not in vain—they helped pave the way and ease tensions between proteges and contemporaries. Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg became popular on both coasts, and it helped rap refute stereotypes of violent inner-city neighborhoods.
During the 1990s an explosion of women MCs took place. We saw Salt-N-Pepa, MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, and Yo Yo shifting the tone of rap music and being trailblazers for other women in this genre of music that had been male dominated. Da Brat and Lauryn Hill were some of the first to be officially recognized by mainstream with platinum records and Grammys.
The future of rap is constantly evolving as we see new artists engaging and collaborating with established artists/producers to be creative and innovative. More sampling from other music, even old school music, is being merged with new music technology to keep the sounds fresh but classic. Rap is just the modern version of today’s blues and social ills expressed by the younger generation in their own way. Rap is still relevant and a powerful medium of expression. Expression is the truest form of yourself and it makes us individual and unique. Music allows you to be free, creative, and progressive. We must continue to fight for the humanities to exist and to be funded through our legislators. (Sources: Jukey.com; Billboard.com)
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