The History of Rap Music :: Rap Music Jamaican Culture Essays

The History of Rap MusicRap music originated as a cross-cultural product. nearly of its important early practitioners-including KoolHerc, D.J. Hollywood, and Afrika Bambaataa-were either first- or second-generation Americans ofCaribbean ancestry. Herc and Hollywood are both credited with introducing the Jamaican style of cuttingand fuse into the musical culture of the southeast Bronx. By most accounts Herc was the first DJ to buy twocopies of the same record for just a 15-second break (rhythmic instrumental segment) in the middle. Bymixing back and forth between the two copies he was able to double, triple, or indefinitely extend thebreak. In so doing, Herc effectively deconstructed and reconstructed so-called rear sound, using theturntable as a musical instrument. While he was cutting with two turntables, Herc would also perform with the microphone in Jamaican crisp style-joking, boasting, and using myriad in-group references. Hercs musical parties eventuallygained notoriety and were often documented on cassette tapes that were recorded with the relatively newboombox, or blaster, technology. Taped duplicates of these parties rapidly make their way through theBronx, Brooklyn, and uptown Manhattan, spawning a number of similar DJ acts. Among the new breed ofDJs was Afrika Bambaataa, the first important Black Muslim in rap. (The Muslim presence would becomevery influential in the late 1980s.) Bambaataa often engaged in sound-system battles with Herc, similar tothe so-called cutting contests in jazz a generation earlier. The sound system competitions were held atcity parks, where hot-wired street lamps supplied electricity, or at local clubs. Bambaataa sometimesmixed sounds from rock-music recordings and video shows into the standard funk and discotheque fare thatHerc and most of his followers relied upon. By using rock records, Bambaataa extended rap beyond theimmediate reference points of contemporary black youth culture. By the 1990s any sound source wasc onsidered 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 In 1979 the first two rap records appeared KingTim III (Personality Jock), recorded by the Fatback Band, and Rappers Delight, by Sugarhill Gang. Aserial publication of verses recited by the three members of Sugarhill Gang, Rappers Delight became a nationalhit, reaching number 36 on the Billboard magazine popular music charts. The spoken content, by and largebraggadocio spiced with fantasy, was derived largely from a pool of material used by most of the earlierrappers. The backing track for Rappers Delight was supplied by hired studio apartment musicians, who replicated