Rap I INTRODUCTION Jay-Z Rapper Jay-Z rose to popularity with such albums as Vol. 2...Hard Knock Life (1998), The Blueprint (2001), and The Black Album (2003). He won two Grammy Awards in 2004 for the song "Crazy in Love," recorded with soul singer Beyoncé Knowles. Gregorio Binuya/Getty Images Rap or Rap Music, genre of rhythm-and-blues music (R&B) that consists of rhythmic vocals declaimed over musical accompaniment. The accompaniment generally consists of electronic drum beats combined with samples (digitally isolated sound bites) from other musical recordings. The first rap recording was made in 1979 and the genre rose to prominence in the United States in the mid-1980s. Although the term rap is often used interchangeably with hip-hop, the latter term encompasses the subculture that rap music is simply one part of. The term hip-hop derives from one of the earliest phrases used in rap, and can be found on the seminal recording "Rapper's Delight" (1979) by the Sugarhill Gang. In addition to rap music, the hip-hop subculture also comprises other forms of expression, including break dancing and graffiti art as well as a unique slang vocabulary and fashion sense. Missy Elliott Rapper Missy Elliott got her start writing songs for other artists before releasing her debut album, Supa Dupa Fly, in 1997. Elliott continued to build a following with the albums Da Real World (1999), Under Construction (2002), and This Is Not a Test (2003). Scott Gries /Getty Images Rap originated in the mid-1970s in the South Bronx area of New York City. The rise of rap in many ways parallels the birth of rock and roll in the 1950s (see Rock Music: Rock and Roll): Both originated within the African American community and both were initially recorded by small, independent record labels and marketed almost exclusively to a black audience. In both cases, the new style gradually attracted white musicians, a few of whom began performing it. For rock and roll it was a white singer from Mississippi, Elvis Presley, who broke into the Billboard magazine popular music charts. For rap it was a white group from New York, the Beastie Boys, and the hit song "Walk This Way" (1986), a collaboration of the black rap group Run-DMC and the white hard-rock band Aerosmith. Soon after 1986, the use of samples and declaimed vocal styles became widespread in the popular music of both black and white performers, significantly altering previous notions of what constitutes a legitimate song, composition, or musical instrument. II MUSICAL ELEMENTS Run-DMC Typically in rap music, vocalists recite rhyming lyrics in time to a beat that may be sampled from prerecorded music by other groups. Black youths developed rap music on the streets of inner cities in the United States during the 1970s, but the style has expanded to include a wider variety of performers and audiences. The rap group Run-DMC, shown here, was a powerful early influence in the genre. The group helped bring rap music into the mainstream when it released "Walk This Way" (1986), a song first recorded by the well-known heavy-metal band Aerosmith. The Everett Collection, Inc. A rap group typically consists of at least one rapper and a disc jockey (DJ); two or more rappers are common. In groups with two, the rappers generally serve as foils for one another, alternating or completing lines and verses in a seamless pattern. The rap often uses a call-and-response format typical of much African American music. The wordplay in a rap is rooted in African and African American verbal games, known as the dozens and signifying. Precursors of rap who drew upon the same wordplay traditions include the Jamaican toasters (DJs, also known as dub artists, who talk over recorded music) of the late 1960s and 1970s, African American radio DJs from the 1940s through the 1970s, and black American poets of the 1960s including the Last Poets and the Watts Prophets. Rap vocals typically emphasize lyrics and wordplay over melody and harmony, achieving interest through rhythmic complexity and variations in the timing of the lyrics. Lyric themes can be broadly categorized under three headings: those that concern human relationships, those that chronicle and often embrace the so-called gangsta lifestyle of the inner cities, and those that address contemporary political issues or aspects of black history. Underpinning the rapper's vocals is the separately recorded musical accompaniment, known as a backing track. In general, backing tracks for rap recordings emphasize rhythmic accompaniment and timbre (quality of tone) rather than harmony. Furthermore, many rap songs lack chord changes altogether, influenced in part by the highly rhythmic style of R&B music called funk. Originally a DJ created backing tracks by playing two records, switching back and forth between them in a technique known as cutting and mixing. Occasionally the DJ mixed one recording over another so that both were heard simultaneously. Other techniques used in early recordings were scratching (rotating a vinyl record backward and forward by hand to create rhythmic sound effects) and quick mixing (combining short sound bites to create a sound collage). In 1982 computer-generated sound from synthesizers, including programmable drum machines, began to be used along with snippets from preexisting recordings. With the arrival of digital technology in 1983, sampling began to replace the turntable style of cutting and mixing. With sampling, DJs were able to access precise digital sound bites and reconstruct them into new sound patterns or collages. Sampling eventually facilitated the layering of found sound (sound that exists prior to and independently from its use by the rap artist), enabling rappers such as Public Enemy to place seven or eight samples on top of each other. In conjunction with sampling and programmed beats, a number of rap artists, including Run-DMC and Gang Starr, sometimes used live musicians in creating backing tracks. III HISTORY A The Roots of Rap 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. In so doing, Herc effectively deconstructed and reconstructed so-called found sound, using the turntable as a musical instrument. While he was cutting with two turntables, Herc would also perform with the microphone in Jamaican toasting style--joking, boasting, and using myriad in-group references. Herc's musical parties eventually gained notoriety and were often documented on cassette tapes that were recorded with the relatively new boombox, or blaster, technology. Taped duplicates of these parties rapidly made their way through the Bronx, Brooklyn, and uptown Manhattan, spawning a number of similar DJ acts. Among the new breed of DJs was Afrika Bambaataa, the first important Black Muslim in rap. (The Muslim presence would become very influential in the late 1980s.) Bambaataa often engaged in sound-system battles with Herc, similar to the so-called cutting contests in jazz a generation earlier. The sound system competitions were held at city parks, where hot-wired street lamps supplied electricity, or at local clubs. Bambaataa sometimes mixed sounds from rock-music recordings and television shows into the standard funk and disco fare that Herc and most of his followers relied upon. By using rock records, Bambaataa extended rap beyond the immediate reference points of contemporary black youth culture. By the 1990s any sound source was considered fair game and rap artists borrowed sounds from such disparate sources as Israeli folk music, bebop jazz records, and television news broadcasts. In 1976 Grandmaster Flash introduced the technique of quick mixing, in which sound bites as short as one or two seconds are combined for a collage effect. Quick mixing paralleled the rapid-editing style of television advertising used at the time. Shortly after Flash introduced quick mixing, his partner Grandmaster Melle Mel composed the first extended stories in rhymed rap. Up to this point, most of the words heard over the work of disc jockeys such as Herc, Bambaataa, and Flash had been improvised phrases and expressions. In 1978 DJ Grand Wizard Theodore introduced the technique of scratching to produce rhythmic patterns. B Rap Music In 1979 the first two rap records appeared: "King Tim III (Personality Jock)," recorded by the Fatback Band, and "Rapper's Delight," by the Sugarhill Gang. A series of verses recited by the three members of the Sugarhill Gang, "Rapper's Delight" became a national hit, reaching number 36 on the Billboard magazine popular music charts. The spoken content, mostly braggadocio spiced with fantasy, was derived largely from a pool of material used by most of the earlier rappers. The backing track for "Rapper's Delight" was supplied by hired studio musicians, who replicated the basic groove of the hit song "Good Times" (1979) by the American disco group Chic. Perceived as novel by many white Americans, "Rapper's Delight" quickly inspired "Rapture" (1980) by the new-wave band Blondie, as well as a number of other popular records. In 1982 Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock" became the first rap record to use synthesizers and an electronic drum machine. With this recording, rap artists began to create their own backing tracks rather than simply offering the work of others in a new context. A year later Bambaataa introduced the sampling capabilities of the emulator synthesizer on "Looking for the Perfect Beat" (1983). Sampling brought into question the ownership of sound. Some artists claimed that by sampling recordings of a prominent black artist, such as funk musician James Brown, they were challenging white corporate America and the recording industry's right to own black cultural expression. More problematic was the fact that rap artists were also challenging Brown's and other musicians' right to own, control, and be compensated for the use of their intellectual creations. By the early 1990s a system had come about whereby most artists requested permission and negotiated some form of compensation for the use of samples. Some commonly sampled performers, such as funk musician George Clinton, released compact discs (CDs) containing dozens of sound bites specifically to facilitate sampling. One effect of sampling was a newfound sense of musical history among black youth. Earlier artists such as Brown and Clinton were celebrated as cultural heroes and their older recordings were reissued and repopularized. By the late 1990s, however, licensing samples had become so costly that many rappers began to create backing tracks and sounds from scratch instead. C Politically Conscious Rap and Gangsta Rap Public Enemy American rap group Public Enemy, formed in 1987, became known for its controversial lyrics and creative backing tracks. Focusing on political and social commentary, the members of Public Enemy attempted to avoid the commercialism into which they claimed other rap groups had fallen. Pictured in the bottom row, from left, are Flavor Flav, Chuck D, and Professor Griff. DJ Terminator X is in the center of the top row. Ray/Retna, Ltd During the mid-1980s, rap moved from the fringes to the mainstream of the American music industry as white musicians began to embrace the new style. In 1986 rap reached the top ten on the Billboard pop charts with "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)" by the Beastie Boys and "Walk This Way" by Run-DMC and Aerosmith. Known for incorporating rock music into its raps, Run-DMC became one of the first rap groups to be featured regularly on MTV (Music Television). Also during the mid-1980s, the first female rap group of consequence, Salt-N-Pepa, released the singles "The Show Stoppa" (1985) and "Push It" (1987); "Push It" reached the top 20 on Billboard's pop charts. Dr. Dre American rap musician and producer Dr. Dre is one of several artists who pioneered the style known as gangsta rap. Gangsta rap is characterized by forceful, sometimes profane lyrics and controversial, often violent political views. Dr. Dre performed with the group Niggaz with Attitude (N.W.A) in the late 1980s and early 1990s before launching a solo career. Neal Preston/Retna, Ltd In the late 1980s a large segment of rap became highly politicized, resulting in the most overt social agenda in popular music since the urban folk movement of the 1960s. The groups Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions epitomized this political style of rap. Public Enemy came to prominence with their second album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988), and the theme song "Fight the Power" from the motion picture Do the Right Thing (1989), by African American filmmaker Spike Lee. Proclaiming the importance of rap in black American culture, Public Enemy's lead rapper, Chuck D, referred to it as the "black CNN" (Cable News Network). Alongside the rise of political rap came the introduction of gangsta rap, which attempts to depict an outlaw lifestyle of sex, drugs, and gang violence in inner-city America. In 1988 Straight Outta Compton, the first major album of gangsta rap, was released by the Southern California rap group Niggaz with Attitude (N.W.A). Songs from the album generated an extraordinary amount of controversy for their violent images and inspired protests from a number of organizations, including the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation). However, attempts to censor gangsta rap only served to publicize the music and make it more attractive to both black and white youths. N.W.A became a platform for launching the solo careers of some of the most influential rappers and rap producers in the gangsta style, including Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and Eazy-E. IV CURRENT TRENDS Sean "Puffy" Combs Rap artist and music executive Sean Combs began his career in the early 1990s as an intern at Uptown Records. He left Uptown in 1993 to launch Bad Boy Entertainment, where he produced albums for top artists such as the Notorious B.I.G. and Jodeci. Combs, who found success as an artist with his debut album No Way Out (1997), has gone by various names during his career, including Puffy, Puff Daddy, and P. Diddy. Frank Micelotta/ImageDirect/Getty Images In the 1990s rap became increasingly eclectic, demonstrating a seemingly limitless capacity to draw samples from any and all musical forms. A number of rap artists have borrowed from jazz, using samples as well as live music. Some of the most influential jazz-rap recordings include Jazzamatazz (1993), an album by Boston rapper Guru, and "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" (1993), a single by the British group US3. In the United Kingdom, jazz-rap evolved into a genre known as trip-hop, the most prominent artists and groups being Tricky and Massive Attack. As rap became increasingly part of the American mainstream in the 1990s, political rap became less prominent while gangsta rap, as epitomized by the Geto Boys, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Biggie Smalls (The Notorious B.I.G.), Tupac Shakur, and Puff Daddy (P. Diddy) grew in popularity. In the late 1990s some rappers--such as Master P in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Puff Daddy in New York City--became entrepreneurs as well, starting highly successful record labels as well as myriad spin-off companies. Popular rappers as the 21st century began included Jay-Z, Ja Rule, Eve, Eminem, Outkast, and Mystikal. V SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE 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 selfimprovement, 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 also 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. The style's popularity with middle-class whites has been attacked as vicarious thrill-seeking of the most insidious sort. Critics note that violence has been more than just a popular subject for rap lyrics; Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls were both gunned down in separate gang-style killings in 1996 and 1997. Defenders of gangsta rap argue that the music is a legitimate form of artistic expression and accurately portrays life in inner-city America. Whatever one's stance on these issues, rap music inarguably has carved out a space for the expression of inner-city black culture that is unprecedented in American history. Contributed By: Rob Bowman Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
