Rap Music:
From a “Home-Made” Original Flavor
to a “Sugar Coated” Generic Brand
Serena Aquino
UNST 121-123G
Forbidden Knowledge
Professor Bianco
African Griot and Modern Rapper



Story teller
African griot and post modern
rapper
Drummer and disk jockey
Early Years of Rap
1970s and
1980s
 Bronx, New
York
 Disk jockey
and lyricist
 DJ Kool Herc
 Grand Master
Flash

Social and Political Element of Rap
1982
 Chuck D.
 Public Enemy
 Black
Community
 Social
problems

Controversy
Early 1990s
 NWA (Niggas
With
Attitudes)
 Gangster rap
 Sex, crime
and violence
 FBI

Battle Rap
Verbal skills
 Tupac and The
Notorious
B.I.G.
 Nas and Jay-Z

Christian Rap
Mid 1980s
 Stephen Wiley
 God
 Ministry

Southern Rap
Mainstream
 Southern
Cities
 Sound and
slang
 Lifestyle

Quantitative Literacy Element
Billboard Top
20
 Products
mentioned
 Mercedes
 50 Cent

Number of Times
Mentioned
Top 10 Products Mentioned in the Billboard Top
20 in 2003
120
Mercedes
100
Lexus
Gucci
80
Cadillac
60
Burberry
40
Prada
20
Cristal
0
Hennessy
1
Product
Lamborghini
Chevrolet
Women in Rap Music Videos




VH1 “Hip-Hop Video-Sexploitations”
Sexual objects
Video vixens
Karrine Steffans
Conclusion





Changed in thirty years
Materialistic
Sexual objects
The mainstream
Flamboyant attitudes