Modern day rap is an evolved form of music and storytelling that began thousands of years ago in Africa with the “griots”, who were village story tellers who played a simple handmade instrument while they told stories about family, village events, and nature. As they would play their instrument, they would also talk and the two things would mix together, the words flowing with the beat and rhythm of the instrument playing. Alongside the griot tradition, rap also has roots in the days of slavery, when the African American slaves would sing in the fields. It was the new sounds and catchy rhymes that captured audiences across America, and began to shape a new culture entwined with rap and hip hop culture. Some of the major influences to this new cultural phenomenon were Tupac Shakur, Notorious BIG, and The Fab 5 basketball team. "As was made most tragically evident by the 1996 and 1997 slayings of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious BIG, two of gangsta rap 's brightest lights"(20). Also, " The baggy shorts, the black socks, the swagger, the way they played the game -- a young, soon-to-be prodigy soaked it
Cited: Green, Jared. Rap and Hip. Farmington Hills: Greenhaven, 2003. Print.