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History of Rap Rap music as a musical form began among the youth of South
Bronx, New York in the mid 1970’s. Individuals such Kool Herc and Grandmaster
Flash were some of the early pioneers of this art form. Through their
performances at clubs and promotion of the music, rap consistently gained in
popularity throughout the rest of the 1970’s. The first commercial success of
the rap song “Rapper's Delight” by the Sugar Hill Gang in 1979 helped bring rap
music into the national spotlight. The 1980’s saw the continued success of rap
music with many artists such as Run DMC (who had the first rap album to go gold
in 1984), L.L. Cool J, Fat Boys, and west coast rappers Ice-T and N.W.A becoming
popular. Today, in the late 1990’s rap music continues to be a prominent and
important aspect of African- American culture. Rap music was a way for youths in
black inner city neighborhoods to express what they were feeling, seeing, and
living and it became a form of entertainment. Hanging out with friends and
rapping or listening to others rap kept black youths out of trouble in the
dangerous neighborhoods in which they lived.
The dominant culture did not have a type of music that filled the needs of
these youth, so they created their own. So, rap music originally emerged as a
way for [black] inner city youth to express their everyday life and struggles (Shaomari,
1995, 17). Rap is now seen as a subculture that, includes a large number of
middle to upper white class youths, has grown to support and appreciate rap
music. Many youth in America today are considered part of the rap subculture
because they share a common love for a type of music that combines catchy beats
with rhythmic music and thoughtful lyrics to create songs with a distinct
political stance. Rap lyrics are about the problems rappers have seen, such as
poverty, crime, violence, racism, poor living conditions, drugs, alcoholism,
corruption, and prostitution. These are serious problems that many within the
rap subculture believe are being ignored by mainstream America.
Those within the rap subculture recognize and acknowledge that these problems
exist. Those within this subculture consider the other group to be those people
who do not understand rap music and the message rap artists are trying to send.
The suppresser, or opposition, is the dominant culture, because it ignores these
problems and perhaps even acts as a catalyst for some of them. “The beats of rap
music has people bopping and the words have them thinking, from the
tenement-lined streets of Harlem, New York, to the mansion parties of Beverly
Hills, California” (Shomari, 1995, 45). Rap music, once only popular with blacks
in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, has grown to become
America's freshest form of music, giving off energy found nowhere else.
While the vocalist(s) tell a story, the sic jockey provides the rhythm,
operating the drum machine and scratching. Scratching is defined as “rapidly
moving the record back and forth under the needle to create rap's famous
swishing sound” (Small, 1992, 12). The beat can be traditional funk or heavy
metal, anything goes. The most important part of rap is rapping, fans want to
hear the lyrics. During every generation, some old-fashioned, ill-humored people
have become frightened by the sight of kids having a good time and have attacked
the source of their pleasure. In the 1950s, the target was rock 'n' roll. Some
claimed that the new type of music encouraged wild behavior and evil thoughts.
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