Analysis Of The Evolution Of Rap Music

Rapping is a form of music that incorporates rhyme and street vernacular over a backing beat or musical instruments. Rap is a very old word but undeniably one of the most popular genres to date. Initially, especially in the 15th and 16th century in Britain, the word meant to strike or hit but over the centuries a slight variation of the word appeared which meant to speak or talk. In America, in the ’60s, rap began becoming popular in the black community and was being used as a slang word that meant someone talking or having a conversation.

Thousands of years ago in Africa, village storytellers, poets and musicians otherwise known as griots, used to play basic handmade instruments while telling stories of their families and local current events. The style of talking while music is playing on the background is what was/is the root form of rap. After being captured and transported to America for slavery, they could sing their hearts out while working in the fields about their pain and suffering. One person, the leader would begin a song and the rest would follow. Today, that is called emceeing.

Rap as a genre and culture was formed in the 1970s when block parties and started getting popular in New York especially the Bronx. Due to poverty, the music was never officially recorded until 1979. Lack of acceptance outside the ghetto neighbourhoods was another reason as to why the music was not recorded officially.

One cannot mention Rap music without mentioning Clive Campbell better known as DJ Kool Herc. In 1973, he and his sister back to school parties in their building. Clive is said to have helped originate Hip Hop music. Clive as a DJ used to play hard funk records, which had a characteristic of James Brown music. The use of turntables, his announcements and encouragement to dancers together with the rhythms helped lead to the formation of rapping. As Clive continued to do more parties, he came to realize that speaking on the microphone is just as important so he hired one of his friends to be the first dedicated mc.

In the 1980s, rap began to diversify as people started becoming innovative. Notable artists such as de la soul and LL cool J emerged. Their music mainly focused on violent lifestyles and impoverished conditions in the inner cities happening to the African American youth. Artists such Dr Dre and Ice cube, who are well known till today, started mixing political and social evaluations which sparked a lot of rage in the government. There type of music, called gangster rap, which is a subgenre of hip-hop, was openly controversial than those established previous rap groups.

Rap gave birth to the formation of other genres of music such as neo-soul, which is the combination of rap and soul music. Mainstream audiences, especially in the 1990s and late 1980s enjoyed and loved this type of music. There were also fusions of rock and rap and hardcore punk with artists such as Limp Bizkit coming into the light. White rappers such as Eminem became famous as from 1999 which was a surprise to many as rap was mainly associated with African American.

Politically, rap has been associated with a lot of controversies especially with the fact it exposes police brutality and racism. It started as simple music but with time, graduated to talk about things that affected/ affect African Americans. Unfortunately, these rap groups have been violent amongst each other as well as the rappers become personal. For instance the feud between East coast Hip-Hop, which was led by Notorious B. I. G and West Coast Hip-Hop led by Tupac Shakur. When we say East coast feud versus West coast we mean both the artists and fans. A lot of people in the ghetto died during these times because of the support they gave the two artists.

In the early 2000s, alternative rap/hip-hop resurged. It was introduced in the early 1980s but was not very popular. Artists such as outcast and Kanye West helped in retaining alternative rap in the mainstream due to their success. Alternative hip-hop has expanded beyond America such as Knaan from Somalia and MIA from Britain. Artists such as Mos Def and The Roots have received significant recognition.

Other types of rap music such as crunk music later emerged in the mid-2000s. It emerged from Tennessee and one of the pioneers was Lil John who believes that it is a mixture of rap, electro and electronic dance music. The difference with the crunk and other hip hop genres is crunk musician tend to scream their lyrics while the other hip-hop genres address social-political or personal problems. This music has received both criticism and support as most old hip-hop artists claim it to be a lot of young artists wanting to have fame but do not really know what rap represents.

Summarily, rap began in simple, humble beginnings. It mainly focused on bringing families together in times of slavery so that they could forget the pain and heartache they were going through. Much has changed over the years and has been absorbed and reinvented around the world. It has been embraced and celebrated maintaining its local cultural roots.