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