What we know as rap music today began in the 1970's with obvious African American and Latino musical influences as well as an influence from Jamaican folk tales where stories are related in rhyme. It owes its origins also to hip hop when New York City DJs emphasized rhythmic drum breaks in popular funk and disco music in the ever growing trendier club scene. These clubs became recognized and powerful with the big name DJs' ability to draw large numbers of the in-crowd. This rise of the DJ closely parallels the rise of rap music then and now.
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Rap music's escalation brought forth a broader function of the activities of the Master of Ceremonies or MC. Truly, the most talented of the MCs with their charismatic presence contributed substantially to the growth of hip hop music and to the rap artists as well. The premier MCs were successful in entertaining audiences before, during and after the rap artists performed their gigs. Rap music was often referred to as “MCing†because the rappers spoke in poetic verse.
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Break dancers, rap artists and graffiti artists all spread the rap message throughout New York City in the early years of 1970. By the late 70's, rap music started to exhibit its potent commercial attractiveness and began its soaring ride to become a legitimate alternative popular music style in America and then around the globe. Rap music is performed both a cappella and backed by instrumentals or synthesizers. Some rap lyrics are written out and memorized by the artist prior to a performance and some are improvised on the fly during a performance.
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The commercial success of rap began with “Rapper Delight†by the Sugar Hill Gang in 1979. This group caught the attention of the major record labels, which swelled the audience for rap music considerably.
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By the 1990's, a sub-class of rap called gangsta rap sprang up and flourished in the United States. It consisted of controversial lyrics with a focus on street violence, sex and drugs, which of course added significantly to rap music's appeal to American youth and rapidly spread to all levels of socio-economic groups.
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Rap widened it's appeal and fame (or notoriety) and gained a larger share of the audience for popular music with groups like Public Enemy, NWA and Ice-T. After more than two decades, present day rap music and its artists continue to enjoy a massive following across a field of varying demographics.
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Probably due to its controversial lyrics and new ways of dealing with musicality as a whole, rap continued its astronomic expansion into the new century. It is today the fastest growing and most popular segment of the music industry in America as well as the rest of the world.
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Currently, rap and its close cousin hip hop are in the very midst of their greatest popularity due to the mainstream acceptance largely brought on by such artists as Kid Rock and Eminem who may have served to reach a “whiter†rap audience, not to mention women of rap like Salt N' Pepa, Li'l Kim and the most versatile of all, Queen Latifah who bring more females into rap's folds.
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The term “rap†made it's debut in The Village Voice and was coined by Steven Hagar who later wrote a book on the history of rap and hip hop entitled The Illustrated History of Break Dancing, Rap Music and Graffiti. Don't go searching Amazon.com for this book, however, as it is now out of print, sorry to report.
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