How Did West African Music Influence Rap Music

Extended Essay Draft 2 (Influence of West African Music on rhythm behind Rap)

Since the beginning of time, music has always played an incredibly important role in our day-to-day lives as humans, but it has also played a very important role in history and society. Music is able to reflect and mimic feelings and emotions, events and ideas, and has become a medium for communication. It is it’s own voice, speaking for those unheard. As a matter of fact, music has had an enormous impact in the 20th century because so many people used it to take a stance and to tell the world what was happening around them. A great example of this is the hip-hop culture. Before going any further into the description of this movement, it is important to note the
The rhythms are passed down from generation to generation and shared within the communities and between villages and tribes. There is no clear notation for these rhythms or simplistic way of putting them down on paper. The Wolof people, for example, did not use the help of the metronome to keep the beat. Novick tells us that they would refer to the English phrase “a real tall tree” in order to keep the beat. The downbeat would always fall on the word tree and the drummer would be helped by the clapping of the dancers to keep the beat. It would be a collaborative work that brought the members of the community closer (http://www.drummagazine.com/hand-drum/post/sabar-drumming-puzzling-rhythms-from-senegal/P3/). The specialty of these rhythms is that, although they are not written down, the way they are played is unique. Western music has always been document using the traditional western notation for music and, as long as it is written down, anyone with a background in music theory could play it; however, if these rhythms were to be written down according to western notation, the same would not apply. African music must be played by African musicians because otherwise the same flavor and groove is not delivered. There a certain amount of training that is required in order to play the rhythms
Nevertheless, the slaves – amongst them griots – learned how to keep the beat and their spirits alive by adapting and developing new ways of expressing how they felt (Finn, pg. 87). This was done through slave song, which acted as the basis for any other form of African-American music. The slaves cleverly used vernacular terms and slang to chant their poetry so that their slave owners, unfamiliar with the black culture, would have a very difficult time understanding what was actually being said (Fernando, pg.