Rap Music: African Roots and Slavery

Rapping can be traced back to its African roots. Centuries before hip hop music existed, the griots of West Africa were delivering stories rhythmically, over drums and sparse instrumentation. Such connections have been acknowledged by many modern artists, modern day "griots", spoken word artists, mainstream news sources, and academics.[15][16][17][18]

Blues music, rooted in the work songs and spirituals of slavery and influenced greatly by West African musical traditions, was first played by blacks, and later by some whites, in the Mississippi Delta region of the United States around the time of the Emancipation Proclamation. Grammy-winning blues musician/historian Elijah Wald and others have argued that the blues were being rapped as early as the 1920s.[19][20] Wald went so far as to call hip hop "the living blues."[19] Jazz, which developed from the blues and other African-American and European musical traditions and originated around the beginning of the 20th century, has also influenced hip hop and has been cited as a precursor of hip hop. Not just jazz music and lyrics but also jazz poetry. According to John Sobol, the jazz musician and poet who wrote Digitopia Blues, rap "bears a striking resemblance to the evolution of jazz both stylistically and formally."[21]

One of the main influences on Hip Hop artists was James Brown. James Brown is credited for inventing funk music in the middle '60s. The characteristic funk drum beat is the most common rhythm used for rap music. Two of the earliest recordings which have a funk beat and lyrics which are rhymed in rhythm over this type of beat were released by comedian Pigmeat Markham, "Here Come the Judge" which was released in 1968 by the Chess label and in 1969 another song about running numbers called "Who Got The Number?".[citation needed]

Precursors also exist in non-African/African-American traditions, especially in vaudeville and musical theater. One such tradition is the patter song exemplified by Gilbert and Sullivan but that has origins in earlier Italian opera. "Rock Island" from Meridith Wilson's The Music Man is wholly spoken by an ensemble of travelling salesmen, as are most of the numbers for British actor Rex Harrison in the 1964 Lerner and Loewe musical My Fair Lady. Glenn Miller's "The Lady's in Love with You" and "The Little Man Who Wasn't There" (both 1939), each contain distinctly rap-like sequences set to a driving beat. In musical theater, the term "vamp" is identical to its meaning in jazz, gospel, and funk, and it fulfills the same function. Semi-spoken music has long been especially popular in British entertainment, and such examples as David Croft's theme to the 1970s' sitcom Are You Being Served? have elements indistinguishable from modern rap. In the realm of classical music, semi-spoken music was popular stylized by composer Arnold Schoenberg as Sprechstimme, and famously used in Ernst Toch's 1924 Geographical Fugue for spoken chorus and the final scene in Darius Milhaud's 1915 ballet Les Choéphores.[22] Although these probably did not have a direct influence on rap's development in the African American cultural sphere, they paved the way for acceptance of spoken word music in the media market.

More directly related to the African American community were items like schoolyard chants and taunts, clapping games,[23] jump-rope rhymes, some with unwritten folk histories going back hundreds of years across many nationalities. Sometimes these items contain racially offensive lyrics.[24] A related area that is not strictly folklore is rhythmical cheering and cheerleading for military and sports.
Proto-rap

Art forms such as spoken word jazz poetry and comedy records had an influence on the first rappers.[25] Coke La Rock, often credited as hip-hop's first MC[26] cites the Last Poets among his influences, as well as comedians such as The Wild Man Steve and Richard Pryor.[25] Gil Scott-Heron, a jazz poet/musician, has been cited as an influence on rappers such as Chuck D and KRS-One.[27]

During the mid-20th century, the musical culture of the Caribbean was constantly influenced by the concurrent changes in American music. As early as 1956,[28] deejays were toasting (an African tradition of "rapped out" tales of heroism) over dubbed Jamaican beats. It was called "rap", expanding the word's earlier meaning in the African-American community—"to discuss or debate informally."[29]

The early rapping of hip-hop developed out of announcements made over the microphone at parties, and later into more complex raps.[30] Grandmaster Caz states: "The microphone was just used for making announcements, like when the next party was gonna be, or people's moms would come to the party looking for them, and you have to announce it on the mic. Different DJs started embellishing what they were saying. I would make an announcement this way, and somebody would hear that and they add a little bit to it. I'd hear it again and take it a little step further 'til it turned from lines to sentences to paragraphs to verses to rhymes."[30]

One of the first rappers at the beginning of the hip hop period, at the end of the '70s, was also hip hop's first DJ, Kool Herc. Herc, a Jamaican immigrant, started delivering simple raps at his parties, which some claim were inspired by the Jamaican tradition of toasting.[31] However, Kool Herc himself denies this link (in the 1984 book Hip Hop), saying, "Jamaican toasting? Naw, naw. No connection there. I couldn't play reggae in the Bronx. People wouldn't accept it. The inspiration for rap is James Brown and the album Hustler's Convention.".[32] Herc also suggests he was too young while in Jamaica to get into sound system parties: "I couldn’t get in. Couldn’t get in. I was ten, eleven years old,"[33] and that while in Jamaica, he was listening to James Brown: "I was listening to American music in Jamaica and my favorite artist was James Brown. That's who inspired me. A lot of the records I played were by James Brown."[31]

By the end of the 1970s, artists such as Kurtis Blow and The Sugarhill Gang were just starting to receive radio airplay and make an impact far outside of the New York area, on a national scale. And Blondie's inclusion of a rap section in their 1981 single, "Rapture", the first song with rap in it to top the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts, certainly helped popularize the genre.
Old-school hip hop
Main article: Old-school hip hop

Old school rap (1979–1984)[34] was "easily identified by its relatively simple raps"[35] according to Allmusic, "the emphasis was not on lyrical technique, but simply on good times",[35] one notable exception being Melle Mel, who set the way for future rappers through his socio-political content and creative wordplay.[35]
The golden age
Main article: Golden age hip hop

Golden age hip hop (cited as either just the late '80s[36] or the late '80s to early '90s[37]) was the time period where hip-hop lyricism went through its most drastic transformation – writer William Jelani Cobb says "in these golden years, a critical mass of mic prodigies were literally creating themselves and their art form at the same time"[38] and Allmusic writes, "rhymers like PE's Chuck D, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One, and Rakim basically invented the complex wordplay and lyrical kung-fu of later hip-hop”.[39] The golden age is considered to have ended around '93–'94, marking the end of rap lyricism's most innovative period.[37][39]