Rapping About Rap

Rap music is on its way to becoming one of the most popular forms of music on the market today. Although rap has only been popular for the last 15 years, it can be traced back to the days of slavery and even further to the tribes of Africa. Rap is used now as it was used for the past few centuries, as a form of communication. This music has been a way for the young African-American's to speak out about their lives and the struggles they go through. Like rock-n-roll and other forms of music that achieve national attention, rap is being blamed for corrupting our youth. There is a new type of rap music out called "Gangster Rap". This form of rap music is not the same and should not be compared with rap durived from the hip hop era. There has been many attempts by people in the rap business to bring positive attention to their music. They are spending a lot of time promoting the "Stop the violance" campaign

and others that promote education and drug awareness.

The history of rap varies, but the most common belief

is that it comes from Africa. This can be proven by looking at the different techniqus used in making rap music and the techniques used in African music. Rap music consists of many sounds and techniques that come from different sources. As noted in Grolier Electronic Publishing, under the subject African musical styles, "One of the most common types of music-making is call-and-response singing, in which a chorus repeats a fixed refrain in alternation with a lead singer who has more freedom to improvise". This is an important part of rap music. Cheryl Keyes explains, "Audience response helps to prolong performance and helps the rapper to spontaneously execute rap formulas. The more verbal and kinesic the response from the audience, the longer the rapper raps"(146). Another technique used in rap music is the talking over pre recorded tracks. This is defined by Grolier also in the definition of rap music, "a combination of rhymed lyrics spoken over rhythm tracks and pieces of recorded music and sounds called samples, taken from other records". This has also been traced back to Africa as noted by Relin in his article, "Musical historians say the roots of rap (chanting over a rhythmic beat) reach back into African tradition of oral history"(8). One of the final influences to raps style was toasting. This consisted of quick vocal deliveries more like speech than singing (Berman 140). Another link from African music to Rap is in the sounds that are used. It is said that "Grand Wizard" invented "scratching" while practicing at home (Greenberg 15), however Andrei Strobert, a Brooklyn-based scholar, musician and artist was quoted in an article by Harry Allen about the roots of rap music, "The scratch that you hear in hip-hop is similar to the African sekere". She goes on to explain, "A sekere is a big gourd with beads around it". She also noted that many of the sounds rappers use in her studio are from the Imo tribe of Nigeria (80).

There are many comparisons between rap and African music but one comparison you don't hear about too often is the influence by Puerto Ricans living in New York at the time rap started popping up. Juan Flores brings up this comparison in his article,

"Recital of decimals and aguinaldos in the Puerto Rican folk tradition involved methods of improvisation and alternation much like those typical of rap performances, while the tongue-twisting (trabalengua) style of some plena singing is an even more direct antecedent. More important, perhaps, just as with doo-wop and rhumba, there is a fascinating "fit" between Puerto Rican "clave" and characteristic rap rhythms"(583).

Puerto Rican's also played a big part in the influence of break dancing, a big part of rap culture, as noted by Flores,

"The speedy footwork, elaborate upper-body movement and the daring dips in up-rock rested in a formative background in rumba and guaguanco, and was to some extent anticipated by the Latin hustle. It is indicative that the Rock Steady Crew, the most accomplished of the many breakdancing groups, is composed almost entirely of Puerto Ricans" (583).

Rap music as a form of communication can't help but to be influanced by the surrounding

cultures, just as language is continually changing so will the forms of music.

Although rap has outside influences it is mainly from African tradition, where tribesman hold "men of words" in high regard (Greenberg 11). Music is an important part of African social life. As cited in Grolier Electronic