Historical Background of Rap
Origins of Hip Hop Culture
Very Early Origins
• “In fact, one can trace the history of rap
back to the West African professional
singers/storytellers known as Griots.”
• The Evolution of Rap Music in the
United States
• by
Henry A. Rhodes-Yale New Haven
Teachers’ Institute
Early “Rappers”
• Rap is rhythmic recitation of speech over a
steady beat.
• Traditional African-American Church
culture contains rhythmic speech in
sermons, call and response.
• Boxer Mohammed Ali “Float like a
butterfly, sting like a bee”…rhythmic
boasts- “rap like”
Early Names/Early Songs
3 DJ’s originating the break-beat
• Jamaican born- Kool Herc (Clive
Campbell)- Moved to NY in 1967
• In order to distinguish himself, he
concentrated on the instrumental part of
the recordings, instead of the vocal,
• Manipulated turntables- creating sounds
and music
• Break dancing evolved around this sound
Two other DJ’s
• Afrika Bambaataa
Founder of NY based Zulu Nation, a
community service and arts organization
combating drug culture, via the arts, music
and dance
• Grandmaster Flash
• Website boasts “First to make the
turntable an instrument”- Scratching etc..
Early influences
continued
• Other Jamaican influence- sounds
produced by street musicians tapping into
light poles to power their sound systems
• Proto-type hip hop music primarily a
combination of
• Funk
• Soul
• R&B
Hip Hop is a Culture
• Hip Hop is music, but much more.
• Fashion statements grew up around the
music, in an effort to “reclaim” it from
celebrities, and bring it back to the
common folk.
• Expensive sport shoes and wear, some
claim was an attempt to mock affluent
surburbanite originally.
Elements of Hip Hop Culture
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Graffiti (writing)
Clothing
Dance
Music
Rapping
Djing
More Historical Sources Regarding
Rap
• Web link to paper on Historical Sources of
Rap
• Rappers can be viewed as “oral historians”
and “educators”
• In the words of Chuck D. of Public Enemy,
• “rap is like the underground Cable News
Network of the African-American
community”
Toasts, Dozens, Signifying
make up part of Rap’s History
• Toasts- rhythmic speech to a beat
links on this site are excellent background
• Dozens- Insulting each other-Arsenio
scene…”Your Mama is so…”
• Signifying…insulting as a term of
endearment or to bond?
Run DMC
• Analysis of King of Rock
• Importance of Walk this Way ?
OG to OI
• Although there are different styles of rap music, this paper focuses
on the media-driven central figure in hard core rap music videos, the
"original gangsta" (OG) rappers. This image is rooted in the curious
juxtaposition of the African American oral tradition of hero outlaws as
described by LeRoi Jones (now Amiri Baraka) in Blues People
(Jones, 1963). The communities that created outlaws and OGs are
important as sources for understanding the evolution from outlaw to
OG (Washington, 1996) to organic intellectual (OI). Original gangsta
rappers and blues singers are engaged in a dynamic activity that
seeks a common ground with the audience through a shared
attitude about the topics that affect rappers, singers and audience
(Hamlet, 1998) The emerging patterns of behavior and topics within
the discourse constitute the sites of conflict in rap music: economics,
violence, family, social alienation, polarization of societal units, and
cultural and social deprivation (Washington & Shaver, 1997).
Question for Discussion
• Describe Gangsta Rappers in terms of
being “hero outlaws”.
• Compare to “Cowboy” motif
• Use the ideas of there being spokespeople
within African and African American
Culture to comment about social injustice,
family, politics, pain, money
etc…alienation, polarization.
Eminem: Poet or bigot?
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/115839
1.stm
• Read and Respond
• What is the popularity of Eminem?
• What is the appeal to Rap to a larger audience
these days, as opposed its original urban African
American public?
• Is it about “honesty”, no matter what the cost?
• Do some lyrics nourish toxic anger or celebrate
it?
Rap’s Images of Women
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Terminology
Subject matter
Focus
Sexist?
Demeaning?