Rap Music Research Paper
Nebi Desta
Linda Daugs
COM 100
30 October 2015
Evolution of Rap Music Rap is defined as a popular type of music with black origins, where words are recited quickly over a beat. This genre of music has its roots in West Africa where Griots, village story tellers, would tell stories rhythmically to drum beats. Also, there is references saying that slaves would speak over beats, confessing all the hardships that the slave owners have forced on them. It also showed up in the jazz period. Jazz musicians would speak during their performances. Even gospel music had properties of rap style rhyming throughout the years. Rap music did not rise to popularity quickly, and was kept in impoverished neighborhoods. Due to this, for a long time rap was seen …show more content…
Although no single individual can claim credit for the founding of rap music or the hip hop culture, New York DJ (disc-jockey) Kool Herc is generally considered the most important figure in the early years of the genre. As a DJ Kool Herc would sample the danceable parts of jazz and funk records, typically the parts featuring drums and a consistent rhythm. These parts were inspired by and helped inspire a new kind of dancing called break-dancing. Kool Herc named the people who would break dance to his music "B-Boys," which was short for break-boys. Kool Herc also spoke and rhymed over the songs he played, which was one of the earliest versions of rapping in the hip-hop style. The first rap hit, Rapper's Delight, by the Sugarhill Gang which was also released in 1979, introduced a nationwide audience to this new genre. Rap music proved its commercial ability with the release of The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight," and then again in 1980 with Kurtis Blow's "The Breaks," a Top 5 hit that eventually went gold. Despite the success of Rapper's Delight, rap music did not consistently do well commercially until Run D.M.C. released its debut …show more content…
It was more about music back then. Now you can't just be a musician, you have to be gangster too. So now great musician's that are not gangster will act gangster. This illusion that you have to be gangster to rap has made the genre narrow and less fertile to new abstract original ideas. There is no stage for grandmaster flash these days. There is no audience for the rapper that wants to say things positive. Well, there is obviously, it's just underground and hardcore hip hop heads that know where to find it. On the radio a rap station would only play the mainstream that is accepted so it differed from how the past rap stations used to play that original respected
Linda Daugs
COM 100
30 October 2015
Evolution of Rap Music Rap is defined as a popular type of music with black origins, where words are recited quickly over a beat. This genre of music has its roots in West Africa where Griots, village story tellers, would tell stories rhythmically to drum beats. Also, there is references saying that slaves would speak over beats, confessing all the hardships that the slave owners have forced on them. It also showed up in the jazz period. Jazz musicians would speak during their performances. Even gospel music had properties of rap style rhyming throughout the years. Rap music did not rise to popularity quickly, and was kept in impoverished neighborhoods. Due to this, for a long time rap was seen …show more content…
Although no single individual can claim credit for the founding of rap music or the hip hop culture, New York DJ (disc-jockey) Kool Herc is generally considered the most important figure in the early years of the genre. As a DJ Kool Herc would sample the danceable parts of jazz and funk records, typically the parts featuring drums and a consistent rhythm. These parts were inspired by and helped inspire a new kind of dancing called break-dancing. Kool Herc named the people who would break dance to his music "B-Boys," which was short for break-boys. Kool Herc also spoke and rhymed over the songs he played, which was one of the earliest versions of rapping in the hip-hop style. The first rap hit, Rapper's Delight, by the Sugarhill Gang which was also released in 1979, introduced a nationwide audience to this new genre. Rap music proved its commercial ability with the release of The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight," and then again in 1980 with Kurtis Blow's "The Breaks," a Top 5 hit that eventually went gold. Despite the success of Rapper's Delight, rap music did not consistently do well commercially until Run D.M.C. released its debut …show more content…
It was more about music back then. Now you can't just be a musician, you have to be gangster too. So now great musician's that are not gangster will act gangster. This illusion that you have to be gangster to rap has made the genre narrow and less fertile to new abstract original ideas. There is no stage for grandmaster flash these days. There is no audience for the rapper that wants to say things positive. Well, there is obviously, it's just underground and hardcore hip hop heads that know where to find it. On the radio a rap station would only play the mainstream that is accepted so it differed from how the past rap stations used to play that original respected