Rap Music By: Chai Jackson
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Rap music By: chai jackson Table of Contents Table of Contents page 2 Introduction page 3 Chapter I: History of Rap page 4 Chapter II: Different Types of Rap Music page 7 Chapter III: Progression of Rap in the United States page 10 Chapter IV: Famous Rappers page 13 Chapter V: Raps Impact on Society page 17 Conclusion page 21 Bibliography page 22 Image Credits page 23 1 Introduction I have always been interested in music, especially the genre of rap. My dad is a musician and a producer, so I have some experience with the music industry. Music's impact on the world is what made me want to explore further. My biggest questions are, what is the future of rap, how has rap music impacted churches, and what can be done to stop the negative stereotypes of rap? Now that I am an expert in rap music, I would say that rap music has grown tremendously from the time that it started in West Africa to it becoming mainstream and now all over social media. Today, The Recording Academy even gives many rappers awards and Grammys for their creations. Rap music is something that the whole world enjoys and it continues to play a major role in our society and in our culture. My interest in rap music and its impact is why I chose to become an expert. 2 Chapter I: History of Rap Music Rap music began, or originated, in West Africa. In Africa, rapping was essential to the culture. The two main elements people used in West Africa were the griot and the drum. A griot was a storyteller and the drum symbolized the heartbeat. “In Africa, the drum was a vital tool of communication for centuries,” said Sherry Ayazi-Hashjin in the book Rap and hip hop, the voice of a generation. When rapping, the drum always kept the beat, better known as the rhythm. When rap music started in West Africa, the people there lived in kingdoms. The griots would go from region to region to carry news about wars, births, deaths, and many other things. The Africans who were familiar with this form of communication brought rap with them to America by way of the North Atlantic slave trade. During slavery, the slaves adopted the religion of their masters, while the slave preachers became the griots of the new land. During their services, the preacher's delivery included call and response such as, “Can I get a witness?”, “Say Amen, somebody!”, “Tell it like it is!” The origin of rap had a big impact on what hip-hop is today, including the call and response that began in slave churches. For a long time in North America rap was not recognized as music because it was thought of as “kid stuff”. Rap music was thought to be a fad. However, in the 1970’s, things started to change. In New York City in the 1970’s, rap was an 3 underground sound. During this time, DJs started to recreate drum sounds on electric turntables. It is important to understand that DJs are a big part of rap. DJs are professional turntablists. In 1974, a very popular figure in the hip hop genre, DJ Kool Herc, even made his own sound called, “the Herculords.” DJs would often battle, in competitions, with their turntables. In the battles, they would call out scratching or breaking. Those DJs were a major influence in rap because they were able to introduce rap and hip-hop to large crowds at parties. In fact, rap was considered to only be party music during this time by many Americans. The sounds that DJs created also replaced the drums, like the griots from Africa, and served as the soundtracks of rap. In the late 1970’s, Sylvia Robinson, a soul singer, started the first rap group called the Sugar Hill Gang. September 27, 1980, was the first time a rapper performed on national tv. In Los Angeles, in 1984, rap was allowed to be on the radio. The founding fathers of new age rap in the U.S. were DJ Hollywood and DJ Kool Herc. In the 1980’s, beatboxing was introduced to the world of rap. Beatboxing is when a person makes different noises and beats from their mouth to replace the music that the drum made in West Africa, similar to the music that the DJs created. People who beatbox have deep throats. People would beatbox anywhere! They would beatbox in the streets, along cars, and in the subway. Some people would even beatbox for money. Beatboxing was very popular. During this time, rappers wore gold chains and hats that look like a big bucket with a rim all the way around, called Kangol hats. Beatboxxers’ influence on global hip-hop was huge. Hip-Hop has had an impact globally. Rap and hip-hop have influenced music, art, politics, culture, and fashion. It has become widely loved around the 4 globe. Hip-Hop is a form of art and an educational resource. Though hip-hop began as an underground sound now it is mainstream. Hip-Hop culture incorporates other activities in addition to rap. It includes break dancing, graffiti art, and as said before, DeeJaying. Breaking is a solo dance done to rap music. Graffiti is art done with spray paint on public property. And again, DJs are professional turntablists. Hip-Hop culture is not just rap. In 2006, the Smithsonian national museum agreed to put hip-hop artifacts in the museum. Rap is being more recognized now than it has ever been as rappers continue to rap about current events, comedy, and history. 5 Chapter II: Different Types of Rap Music Throughout the history of rap music, there have been many different types. These types have impacted the world in various ways in terms of both popularity and acceptance. The types of rap studied for this project were freestyling, lessons, and conscious. Freestyling is rapping the first thing that comes to mind when the beat is played. It is almost like creating a poem the moment that background music is heard. In the beginning phases of rap and hip hop in the U.S., freestyling was one of the only types of rap. Rappers loved freestyling so much that it became a popular pastime. In order to earn respect from an audience, rappers had to continue to practice to help perfect their skill. Once, a rapper named T-Love said, “It is scary to freestyle, to risk making a mistake in front of others.” The “others” that T-Love referred to were other rappers present when rappers competed against each other. Freestyling competitions took place in parks and other community spaces. These competitions started gaining popularity in the United States in the mid-1970’s. In the 1980s, the raps were full of fun boasts and disses which are essentially fun teases. Like sports, freestyling is competitive and it helps bring people together. Rappers go back and forth, battling against one another. While freestyling is a hard skill to perfect, it has done something good for many rappers and MCs and had them gain popularity. In fact, previously, when 6 rappers won freestyle competitions they could get record deals. Freestyling led to the next form of raps, lessons. Lessons is a type of rap music that relates to an audience. This style of rap was criticized because of the use of bad words and because the subjects of the raps were sometimes controversial. Rappers beagan to use harsh words and talked about their harsh living conditions as urban children. Lessons were responsible for exposing police corruption, verbally confronting institutional racism, and the legacy of slavery in the United States. Some audiences viewed lessons as negative and bad, but the rappers were simply telling their life story as they perceived it. This included the graphic depiction of violence which was too much for some audiences, but it was a survival tactic for the rappers. In other words, it was a way that they coped with their challenges and struggles. As time has passed and culture has changed, lessons now include more positivity which leads us to conscious rap. Conscious rappers are positive rappers and rap about clean things. A lot of conscious rappers use boom bap music for their beats which is created with bass drums and snare drums. Most conscious rappers are very spiritual and very aware of political things that are around them. Some things that conscious rappers rap about are politics, community activism, social equality, and spirituality. Conscious rappers provide a healthy alternative to lyrics that previously had more negativity. Freestyling, lessons and conscious rap are all still alive today. 7 Chapter III: Progression of rap in the United States Rap is inspiring. People, like myself, have been touched by the message of rap songs knowing that they come from the heart. Rap started to become more accepted as different people started to crave a new sound. When disco music started to be rejected in the 1970’s, that was the beginning of the acceptance of rap in the U.S. When rap first started in America it was rooted in the Black American experience. This was in the 1970’s. Then, in the 1980’s the rap group Run DMC started performing their rap hits which further paved the way for this genre. During this time, many black rappers talked about their life experiences and had a strong response to politics. As rap progressed, a group called “The Punk Rockers” were the first non-black hip hop group that was not part of the urban community to acknowledge rap music.