Rap - Poetry Set To Music
People enjoy listening to music everyday around the globe and writers enjoy writing the music they listen to. Rap, however, is a new style of music that has become a world phenomenon even though it’s only been around for a little over 30 years and took half of those years to actually be recognized as a separate category of music for award recognition. But where did rap come from?
The History of Rap
Grand Master Flash
Hip hop music is a genre of music typically consisting of a rhythmic style of speaking called rap over backing beats. The term rap is sometimes used synonymously with hip hop music, though it originally referred only to rapping itself. Coinage of the term hip hop is often credited to Keith Cowboy, a rapper with Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. DJ Hollywood used the term when the music was still known as disco rap, it is believed that Cowboy created the term while teasing a friend who had just joined the U.S. Army, by scat singing the words “hip/hop/hip/hop” in a way that mimicked the rhythmic cadence of marching soldiers. Cowboy later worked the “hip hop” cadence into a part of his stage performance, which was quickly copied by other artists; for example the opening of the song “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang.
Rapping, also referred to as MCing or emceeing, is a vocal style in which the performer speaks rhythmically and in rhyme, generally to a beat. Beats are traditionally sampled from portions of other songs by a DJ, though synthesizers, drum machines, and live bands are also used, especially in newer music. Rappers may perform poetry which they have written ahead of time, or improvise rhymes on the spot.
Hip hop arose in New York City when DJs began isolating the percussion break from funk or disco songs for audiences to dance to. The role of the MC was originally to introduce the DJ and the music, and to keep the audience excited. The MC would speak between songs, giving exhortations to dance, greetings to audience members, jokes and anecdotes. Eventually, this practice became more stylized, and came to be known as rapping.
By 1979, hip hop had become a commercially recorded music genre, and began to enter the American mainstream. It also began its spread across the world. In the 1990s, a form called gangsta rap became a major part of American music, causing significant controversy over lyrics which were perceived by some as promoting violence, promiscuity, drug use and misogyny. Nevertheless, by the beginning of the 2000s, hip hop became a staple of popular music charts and is now performed in widely varying styles around the world.
Getting The Message
Rappers such as Tupac Shakur, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Public Enemy and Eminem have taken this form of music by storm; from poetic rhymes to their ‘bad boy’ styles, these rappers have dominated this category and marked their territory as some of the most influential rappers of all time. Their image have been glorified by connections to crime and their music is loved or hated by millions all over the globe, even reaching the U.S. Supreme Court. Yet, is all rap music offensive?
People talk about things that interest them and it’s no different with music. Rappers are lyricists with various points of views that rap about what’s important to them. Rap songs contain music about an amusing event, monumental life experiences, a broken heart, a birth of a child, tragedy, self-denial, love, hate, joy, a cry for help, anguish, pain, and redemption.
Some lyrics are serious and others silly. Some words are straight forward and others metaphoric. To a writer or in this case, rapper; everything and/or nothing at all can move them to pen words that’s later set to music and become known to the world as a “Rap Song”.
The ‘Cleaner’ Side of Rap
Some rappers choose to use profanity, promiscuity and the degradation of women in their songs while others choose not too. Although ‘parental advisory’ and labels such as ‘explicit’ are stamped on the front of the majority of rap Cd’s, some rappers have made it a point not to fall into that category. Will Smith is one of those rappers.
Willard Christopher “Will” Smith, Jr. was born and raised in West Philadelphia and Germantown in Northwest Philadelphia on September 25, 1968. Smith’s charming and sly demeanor in school resulted in the nickname “Prince”, which eventually turned into the “Fresh Prince”. While still in his teens, Smith began rapping and eventually began collaborating with Jeff Townes (a.k.a. D.J. Jazzy Jeff), whom he met at a party. He attended Overbrook High School in West Philadelphia. D.J. Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince was born with Smith handling the rhymes and Townes overseeing the mastery of mixing and scratching – the combination was a pop and hip-hop hit during the 1980s and early 1990s.
Smith started as the MC of the hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, with his childhood friend Jeffrey “DJ Jazzy Jeff” Townes as turntablist and producer as well as Ready Rock C (Clarence Holmes) as the human beat box. The trio was known for performing humorous, radio-friendly songs, most notably “Parents Just Don’t Understand” and “Summertime.” They gained critical acclaim for winning the first ever Grammy in the Rap category (1988)
Smith also released a string of hit singles, often associated with his most recent film, throughout the late 1990s. The most notable of these were his #1 hit theme song “Men in Black”, the #1 hit “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” (which made jiggy a catchphrase for a while in 1998), and a cover of “Just the Two of Us”, an affectionate message to his young son.
Rap with Personal Sentiments
There are also rap songs that are written to out of loss of a loved one or to reach the heart of its listeners from the pain that they themselves have experienced through personal predjudices or poverty. Songs such as ‘I’ll be missing you‘ by P Diddy, ‘Keep Your Head Up‘, ‘Changes‘, and ‘Dear Mama’ by Tupac are of personal hardships experienced by people throughout the world.
Thanks to music sites like ‘iTunes’ you can now download individual songs without purchasing entire Cd’s. This helps the consumer to choose which songs are suitable for their own ears. The word ‘explicit’ is even labeled for songs that contain graphic or explicit lyrics and you can preview part of the song before you purchase.
In the words of the late Ray Charles, “music is music”. Make sure what you choose to listen to is your choice and not someone else’s opinion of what you should like. There are ‘questionable’ lyrics in all genres of music if you listen for it. In the end, it all boils down to a matter of choice.