| Rap music originated as a cross-cultural product. Most | | | | George Clinton, released compact discs (CDs) |
| of its important early practitioners-including Kool Herc, | | | | containing dozens of sound bites specifically to |
| D.J. Hollywood, and Afrika Bambaataa-were either | | | | facilitate sampling. One effect of sampling was a |
| first- or second-generation Americans of Caribbean | | | | newfound sense of musical history among black youth. |
| ancestry. Herc and Hollywood are both credited with | | | | Earlier artists such as Brown and Clinton were |
| introducing the Jamaican style of cutting and mixing into | | | | celebrated as cultural heroes and their older recordings |
| the musical culture of the South Bronx. By most | | | | were reissued and repopularized.During the mid-1980s, |
| accounts Herc was the first DJ to buy two copies of | | | | rap moved from the fringes of hip-hop culture to the |
| the same record for just a 15-second break (rhythmic | | | | mainstream of the American music industry as white |
| instrumental segment) in the middle. By mixing back | | | | musicians began to embrace the new style. In 1986 rap |
| and forth between the two copies he was able to | | | | reached the top ten on the Billboard pop charts with |
| double, triple, or indefinitely extend the break. In so | | | | "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)" by the |
| doing, Herc effectively deconstructed and | | | | Beastie Boys and "Walk This Way" by Run-DMC and |
| reconstructed so-called found sound, using the | | | | Aerosmith. Known for incorporating rock music into its |
| turntable as a musical instrument.While he was cutting | | | | raps, Run-DMC became one of the first rap groups to |
| with two turntables, Herc would also perform with the | | | | be featured regularly on MTV (Music Television). Also |
| microphone in Jamaican toasting style-joking, boasting, | | | | during the mid-1980s, the first female rap group of |
| and using myriad in-group references. Herc's musical | | | | consequence, Salt-N-Pepa, released the singles "The |
| parties eventually gained notoriety and were often | | | | Show Stoppa" (1985) and "Push It" (1987); "Push It" |
| documented on cassette tapes that were recorded | | | | reached the top 20 on Billboard's pop charts. In the late |
| with the relatively new boombox, or blaster, | | | | 1980s a large segment of rap became highly politicized, |
| technology. Taped duplicates of these parties rapidly | | | | resulting in the most overt social agenda in popular |
| made their way through the Bronx, Brooklyn, and | | | | music since the urban folk movement of the 1960s. |
| uptown Manhattan, spawning a number of similar DJ | | | | The groups Public Enemy and Boogie Down |
| acts. Among the new breed of DJs was Afrika | | | | Productions epitomized this political style of rap. Public |
| Bambaataa, the first important Black Muslim in rap. | | | | Enemy came to prominence with their second album, It |
| (The Muslim presence would become very influential in | | | | Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988), and |
| the late 1980s.) Bambaataa often engaged in | | | | the theme song "Fight the Power" from the motion |
| sound-system battles with Herc, similar to the so-called | | | | picture Do the Right Thing (1989),by American |
| cutting contests in jazz a generation earlier. The sound | | | | filmmaker Spike Lee. Proclaiming the importance of rap |
| system competitions were held at city parks, where | | | | in black American culture, Public Enemy's lead singer, |
| hot-wired street lamps supplied electricity, or at local | | | | Chuck D., referred to it as the African American CNN |
| clubs. Bambaataa sometimes mixed sounds from | | | | (Cable News Network).Alongside the rise of political |
| rock-music recordings and television shows into the | | | | rap came the introduction of gangsta rap, which |
| standard funk and disco fare that Herc and most of | | | | attempts to depict an outlaw lifestyle of sex, drugs, |
| his followers relied upon. By using rock records, | | | | and violence in inner-city America. In 1988 the first |
| Bambaataa extended rap beyond the immediate | | | | major album of gangsta rap was released: Straight |
| reference points of contemporary black youth culture. | | | | Outta Compton by the rap group NWA (Niggaz With |
| By the 1990s any sound source was considered fair | | | | Attitude). Songs from the album generated an |
| game and rap artists borrowed sounds from such | | | | extraordinary amount of controversy for their violent |
| disparate sources as Israeli folk music, bebop jazz | | | | attitudes and inspired protests from a number of |
| records, and television news broadcasts.In 1976 | | | | organizations, including the FBI (Federal Bureau of |
| Grandmaster Flash introduced the technique In 1979 | | | | Investigation). However, attempts to censor gangsta |
| the first two rap records appeared: "King Tim III | | | | rap only served to publicize the music and make it |
| (Personality Jock)," recorded by the Fatback Band, and | | | | more attractive to both black and white youths. NWA |
| "Rapper's Delight," by Sugarhill Gang. A series of | | | | became a platform for launching the solo careers of |
| verses recited by the three members of Sugarhill | | | | some of the most influential rappers and rap producers |
| Gang, "Rapper's Delight" became a national hit, | | | | in the gangsta style, including Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and |
| reaching number 36 on the Billboard magazine popular | | | | Eazy-E.In the 1990s rap became increasingly eclectic, |
| music charts. The spoken content, mostly braggadocio | | | | demonstrating a seemingly limitless capacity to draw |
| spiced with fantasy, was derived largely from a pool | | | | samples from any and all musical forms. A number of |
| of material used by most of the earlier rappers. The | | | | rap artists have borrowed from jazz, using samples as |
| backing track for "Rapper's Delight" was supplied by | | | | well as live music. Some of the most influential jazz-rap |
| hired studio musicians, who replicated the basic groove | | | | recordings include Jazzamatazz CD (1993), an album |
| of the hit song "Good Times" (1979) by the American | | | | by Boston rapper Guru, and "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" |
| disco group Chic. Perceived as novel by many white | | | | (1993), a single by the British group US3. In the United |
| Americans, "Rapper's Delight" quickly inspired "Rapture" | | | | Kingdom, jazz-rap evolved into a genre known as |
| (1980) by the new-wave band Blondie, as well as a | | | | trip-hop, the most prominent artists and groups being |
| number of other popular records. In 1982 Afrika | | | | Tricky and Massive Attack. As rap became |
| Bambaataa's "Planet Rock" became the first rap | | | | increasingly part of the American mainstream in the |
| record to use synthesizers and an electronic drum | | | | 1990s, political rap became less prominent while |
| machine. With this recording, rap artists began to | | | | gangsta rap, as epitomized by the Geto Boys, Snoop |
| create their own backing tracks rather than simply | | | | Doggy Dogg, and Tupac Shakur, grew in |
| offering the work of others in a new context. A year | | | | popularity.Since the mid-1980s rap music has greatly |
| later Bambaataa introduced the sampling capabilities of | | | | influenced both black and white culture in North |
| synthesizers on "Looking for the Perfect Beat" | | | | America. Much of the slang of hip-hop culture, including |
| (1983).of quick mixing, in which sound bites as short as | | | | such terms as dis, fly, def, chill, and wack, have |
| one or two seconds are combined for a collage | | | | become standard parts of the vocabulary of a |
| effect. Quick mixing paralleled the rapid-editing style of | | | | significant number of young people of various ethnic |
| television advertising used at the time. Shortly after | | | | origins. Many rap enthusiasts assert that rap functions |
| Flash introduced quick mixing, his partner Grandmaster | | | | as a voice for a community without access to the |
| Melle Mel composed the first extended stories in | | | | mainstream media. According to advocates, rap |
| rhymed rap. Up to this point, most of the words heard | | | | serves to engender self-pride, self-help, and |
| over the work of disc jockeys such as Herc, | | | | self-improvement, communicating a positive and fulfilling |
| Bambaataa, and Flash had been improvised phrases | | | | sense of black history that is largely absent from other |
| and expressions. In 1978 DJ Grand Wizard Theodore | | | | American institutions. Political rap artists have spurred |
| introduced the technique of scratching to produce | | | | interest in the Black Muslim movement as articulated |
| rhythmic patterns.Sampling brought into question the | | | | by minister Louis Farrakhan, generating much criticism |
| ownership of sound. Some artists claimed that by | | | | from those who view Farrakhan as a racist. Gangsta |
| sampling recordings of a prominent black artist, such as | | | | rap has also been severely criticised for lyrics that |
| funk musician James Brown, they were challenging | | | | many people interpret as glorifying the most violent |
| white corporate America and the recording industry's | | | | and misogynistic (woman-hating) imagery in the history |
| right to own black cultural expression. More | | | | of popular music. The style's popularity with |
| problematic was the fact that rap artists were also | | | | middle-class whites has been attacked as vicarious |
| challenging Brown's and other musicians' right to own, | | | | thrill-seeking of the most insidious sort. Defenders of |
| control, and be compensated for the use of their | | | | gangsta rap argue that no matter who is listening to |
| intellectual creations. By the early 1990s a system had | | | | the music, the raps are justified because they |
| come about whereby most artists requested | | | | accurately portray life in inner-city is the #1 Hip Hop |
| permission and negotiated some form of | | | | Jewelry retailer on the net. We have all the Bling Bling |
| compensation for the use of samples. Some | | | | that you are looking for. |
| commonly sampled performers, such as funk musician | | | | |