The Last Poets, Gil Scott-Heron, and others spoke about African American and urban life with a percussion backdrop in the early 1970s. New York City, particularly Brooklyn and the Bronx, was home to a large Jamaican community. Jamaican DJs (DJ Kool Herc has been credited as the first) mixed sounds from several turntables. This became a rap trademark. The Sugarhill Gang popularized this technique with Rapper's Delight in 1979. Grandmaster Flashs 1982 single, ‘The Message’ is considered by many to be one of the first rap songs. The Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash helped to get rap from the streets onto the radio. Blondie sang ‘Rapture’ in 1989, pointing the way toward rap. Later, Run-D.M.C. collaborated with Aerosmith and brought rap to a wider (and whiter) audience. Then came the Beastie Boys, Russell Simmons, Def Jam records, Run-DMC, Eminem, and so many others who helped popularize the form.
Hip hop is said to be a reaction to the emptiness of disco, which came after blues, soul and funk. Of course, the beat (the drum) is an essential element in rap, and that beat comes from ancient and modern African traditions. There is no clear history of rap music, but rap may be said to have some of its roots in and connections to a number of oral traditions and poetic and musical movements. For instance, many cultures throughout history (such as Japanese battling haiku; French Bouts Rims; and German spontaneous poetry competitions; British and American poetry slams) have used poetry in competitions, as do today’s battle rappers. In a battle rap, opponents use rap-style rhymes to insult each other.
Rap music has been compared with the oral tales told by African griots. As Senegalese musician and singer Baba Maal put it, a griot "listens and talks to the people and tells what is going on in the society, both the good and the bad." This is how a group of people can know their history. Rhythms, rhymes, and messages in rap can be successfully compared with the speeches of African American preachers and political activists, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Jesse Jackson, and Mohammed Ali. The Beat movement may also have been an influence in the development of rap, as both have a tendency toward autobiography and the confessional mode, filled with feeling and commentary about socio-political affairs that affected the poet’s generation.
Rap has some of its linguistic roots in street jive and in the words of the street poets of Brooklyn. The energy and some subject matter of blues and early rock and roll can also be detected in today’s rap songs. Some people credit The Last Poets as the first rappers, because they put their political messages into poetic form and set them to the sounds of congas and other percussive instruments. Rappers use a lot of word play and made-up words, as do poets. You can find the use of ‘ebonics’ throughout rap (see The Rap Dictionary at to learn more). In terms of language, rappers often use signifying to communicate multileveled meanings in their work. Signifying has historically referred to the way in which subjected cultures develop a way of using the masters language in order to gain independence, or a voice of their own. Signifying is a way people in a weak position play with language to trick more powerful people who will not understand the hidden meanings.
Freestyling (as improvisational rapping is called) can be compared with French theatrical tirades and tirades found in Shakespeare. You can find exaggerated, boastful rhetoric in Act 3; Scene 1 of Henry IV Part One, which can be compared with some of today’s rap lyrics. In addition, technological advancements have helped the form to grow quickly. For example, the advent of drum machines has made it relatively simple for rappers to add a rhythmic beat to their raps, and sampling equipment has allowed rappers to appropriate the work of others.
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