LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Rap Music: African American
built 264 days ago
Rap music originated as a cross-cultural product. Most of its important early practitioners—including Kool Herc, D.J. Hollywood, and Afrika Bambaataa—were either immigrants or first-generation Americans of Caribbean ancestry. Herc and Hollywood are both credited with introducing the Jamaican style of cutting and mixing into the musical culture of the South Bronx. By most accounts Herc was the first DJ to buy two copies of the same record for just a 15-second break (rhythmic instrumental segment) in the middle. By mixing back and forth between the two copies he was able to double, triple, or indefinitely extend the break.
Source:
Rap/Hip-Hop music is the type of sound that comprising the hip hop genre. It basically consists of repetitive rhyming with a catch beat. It is derived from the folk poets of West Africa, Caribbean-style toasting and American Blues and Jazz sounds. It is now widely accepted in the mainstream music world, with many rap artists being household names these days.
Source:
Since the mid-1980s rap music has greatly influenced both black and white culture in North America. Much of the slang of hip-hop culture, including such terms as dis, fly, def, chill, and wack, have become standard parts of the vocabulary of a significant number of young people of various ethnic origins. Many rap enthusiasts assert that rap functions as a voice for a community without access to the mainstream media. According to advocates, rap serves to engender self-pride, self-help, and self-improvement, communicating a positive and fulfilling sense of black history that is largely absent from other American institutions. Political rap artists have spurred interest in the Black Muslim movement as articulated by minister Louis Farrakhan, generating much criticism from those who view Farrakhan as a racist. Gangsta rap has ... been severely criticized for lyrics that many people interpret as glorifying the most violent and misogynistic (woman-hating) imagery in the history of popular music.
Source:
Analysis of rap music videos reveals the inclusion of the @outlaw@ previously found in many examples of African American traditional literature and music, and in blues. The primary sites of conflict in the rap videos are revealed to be: economics, violence, family, social alienation, polarization of societal units, and cultural and social deprivation. These same topics are found in the blues, representing a continuation of the African American oral tradition. However, negative societal responses toward rap from Black women, mainstream Black communities, politicians, and media demonization of Black urban young males have muted the voices of some organic intellectuals and stilled the voices of others. The violent deaths of rappers have had a seemingly paradoxical effect. Rather than see the violence as illustrating the truisms of rap's denunciation of society's intolerance of the Black experience, critics see the events as an opportunity to get rid of the demon known as rap music.
Source:
Rapping hip hop music can be traced back in many ways to its African roots. Centuries before the United States existed, the griots of West Africa were delivering stories rhythmically, over drums and sparse instrumentation. Because of the time that has passed since the griots of old, the connections between rap and the African griots are widely established, but not clear-cut. However, such connections have been acknowledged by rappers, modern day "griots", spoken word artists, mainstream news sources, and academics.[4][5][6][7]
Source:
Rap music and hip-hop culture’s on-going and bewildering love/hate relationship with the American society requires a fresh evaluation of the role Black culture plays in the continuing evolution of American popular culture. Rap music has been subjected to lawsuits and criticism before courts, a topic of harsh sermons by preachers, and even as political stands for presidents and presidential candidates. Rap has transformed America not only with its message, but with dress, language, and all the culture that comes with it. While rap is said to be the voice of today’s Black youth, it has ... help fuel the African American cinema resurgence in Hollywood, while also providing opportunities of leading roles in film(Will Smith in "Men In Black") and television series(LL Cool J’s "In The House"). Even still, rap music’s hyped commercialization can’t dampen its tough, raw, hard-core street essence. Rap music’s most powerful tool in remaining this way has been its ability to "keep it real," in the words of one of Tupac Shakur’s most important rhymes.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
African American