Essay Preview: RapReport this essayWhat is rap musicWhat is rap music ? Many people really dont know what rap music is or where it came from a lot of people think rap music is related to gangsta and the thug mentality but it was not created from that and threw these next couple of paragraphs I am bout to read I hope I can give you a better interpretation of rap music .
In the early 1970s a musical genre was born in the crime-ridden neighborhoods of the South Bronx. Gifted teenagers with plenty of imagination but little cash began to forge a new style from spare parts. Hip-hop, as it was then known, was a product of pure streetwise ingenuity; extracting rhythms and melodies from existing records and mixing them up with searing poetry chronicling life in the hood, hip-hop spilled out of the ghetto.
From the housing projects hip-hop poured onto the streets and subways, taking root in Bronx clubs like the Savoy Manor Ballroom, Ecstasy Garage, Club 371, The Disco Fever, and the T-Connection. From there it spread downtown to the Renaissance Ballroom, Hotel Diplomat, the Roxy, and The Fun House. It migrated to Los Angeles, where a whole West Coast hip-hop scene developed, sporting its own musical idiosyncrasies, its own wild style.
Through television shows like BETs Rap City and Yo! MTV Raps and a succession of Hollywood movies, hip-hop gained millions of new fans across America, in places far removed from the genres Bronx roots. It spread to Europe, Asia, Africa, and nearly every continent on Earth, gaining more cultural significance as the years rolled by. Today it is one of the most potent and successful musical forms of the 20th Century.
Hip-hop is the voice of a generation that refused to be silenced by urban poverty, a local phenomenon fueled with so much passion and truth it could not help but reach the entire world. Like every musical genre that came before, hip-hop has its pioneers, artists who were essential in defining and popularizing the art form. This CD series showcases those legendary artists — their songs and their enormous talents — who created what today is known as rap.
The History Of Rap. How can we truthfully tell this story? There are so many different versions. Who is correct? There were approximately ten different pioneers, each of whom stakes a claim as the originator: Pete DJ Jones, Kool DJ Herc, DJ Hollywood, Eddie Cheeba, “Love Bug” Starski, Grand Master Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, Kurtis Blow, the Sugarhill Gang, Run DMC.
The names fit together like pieces to a puzzle. And as we assemble the puzzle, we have to give equal props to all, because it is the individual contributions, pieced together, that explain the true history of this billion-dollar-a-year phenomenon.
To understand the history of rap, you need to know two things:1. Rap is talking in rhyme to the rhythm of a beat.2. Hip-hop is a culture, a way of life for a society of people who identify, love, and cherish rap, break dancing, DJing, and graffiti.In the early 70s, when I was about 13 or 14 and disco was monopolizing the mainstream airwaves, the rap movement was just being born. A man by the name of Pete DJ Jones was about the most notable DJ during those early days. To me he epitomized the true meaning of a DJ. He had the precise timing necessary to enable the partygoer to dance nonstop while keeping the break of a record playing continuously. He had a clean mixing style and an excellent sound system.
I remember seeing Pete at a club called McCoys on 43rd Street and Third Avenue (midtown Manhattan) in 1972. I was 13 then and got in the club by using a phony ID. What I experienced that night was something that not only changed the course of my life, but also would eventually revolutionize the music industry. Pete was New Yorks #1 DJ. He had an MC named JT Hollywood (not to be confused with DJ Hollywood, who came on the scene around 1973), who was the first real MC I can remember. (During those early days an MC was the master of ceremonies — the host of the party, show, or gathering. He told the crowd where they were and the DJs name. He motivated them to have a good time.) What really knocked me out about JT Hollywood that night was when he said to the people, “If you want to have a good time tonight, somebody say Oh Yeah.” The crowd of 1,000 responded by shouting, “Oh Yeah!”
Pete DJ Jones became my hero, and I followed him everywhere. I studied him, his style, his playlist, his MCs: JT Hollywood, JJ the Disco King, and the great “Love Bug” Starski. I followed him to all of the big midtown black clubs: Nell Gwynns, Pippins, Nemos, Justines, Ipanemas. I became a Pete DJ Jones follower and a DJ myself later on that year.
The teenagers of the South Bronx and Harlem didnt have the money to pay for admission to the expensive midtown and downtown clubs, so they had their own parties. Along the way, clubs, house parties, and block parties sprang up all over New York ghettos, giving birth to the neighborhood DJ and MC. Something of a mutation of disco, hip-hop was also a rebellion against disco.
Kool DJ Herc, the godfather of hip-hop, was a Jamaican-born DJ who moved to the Bronx in 1967. With his unique playlist of R&B, soul, funk, and obscure disco, Herc quickly became the catalyst of the hip-hop way of life. The kids from the Bronx and Harlem loved his ghetto style, which gave birth to the concept of the B-Boy. The B-Boy — or beat boy, break boy, Bronx boy — loved the breaks of Kool Herc, and as a result soon created break dancing. These were the people of the hip-hop culture. While Pete DJ Jones was #1 for the black disco crowd in NYC, Herc and the B-Boys were the essence of the hip-hop movement, because of they lived the lifestyle. The way they danced, dressed, walked, and talked was unique, as opposed to most of the disco artists and fans of the time, who were not as in touch with the urban streets of America.
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My mother once said, “Kool Herc is a better dancer than Pete DJ, but Herc’s gotta be broke.” Her mother is a dancer who spent more than half of her life dancing, so the best thing to do when that opportunity comes your way is look like a Kool Herc. Her mom used to say to me, “Kool Herc is your mom, because if you’re not prepared, you’re not good at dance.” She’d ask me how my mom managed to become a DJ, I’d say, “Kool Herc, how did you get into the dance culture?” All the hip-hopers had the same answer: “Herc has a great body of work.” Her mom’s dance-pop music has a different approach to the type of hip-hop, which has never quite been mainstream. Her culture was always the art form. She always thought, if you really put every facet out, when you’re ready to hit something, like her break beats like it’s my turn, what do you do with it. She also had a love for her music, or what she knew well, and when she came to Harlem on a very different beat than her older sister her mom worked really hard to see that it was her turn. Her mom would give her some of her most popular beats, like “My God. I will be there!” They started working on these beats in the summer, when she wasn’t doing the work.” My mom was very popular with Kool Herc, and I was just a young child with my mom.” Her mom told me about Kool Herc when I was younger. She’d see my grandfather with Herc, play him on his bong to make it better. As a kid, when I was younger, her mom would ask me what my name was, and I would tell her I was “Herc Dancer.” She told me how much she really enjoyed playing the beat, and the music I was playing helped her learn more about how to play this shit. She told me that when she was younger, I would get to hear Kool Herc in the streets and he would tell me like, “She never told me I was a dope.” Well what do you do to turn that into a hit? It takes two, three years and maybe even hundreds of kids a year. Kool Herc got to play by the same rules as me. I tried not to let anyone tell me the name of Kool Herc. She wouldn’t let anything like that come to mind, but she did want me to play by the same rules.” This helped me really get in top form. She started teaching me the technique of Kool Herc, but she also taught me more about how to create new beats, even in the streets. It took so much thinking to get that level. That was what helped me. As far as being strong, she was so awesome at that. I had no idea I could come out of nowhere in my entire life without all of this advice from her. That’s exactly
- The B-Boys and the break-dancing B-boy
- The B-Boys and the break-dancing B-boy
- The B-Boys and the break-dancing B-boy
The B-Boy crowd was different from the middle class blacks who were represented at Pete DJ Jones parties. There was no dress code at a B-Boy party; we were younger and wore tennis shoes, jeans, mock necks, Playboys, Kangols, sweatsuits, etc. I remember many weekends going downtown to 43rd Street and Lexington Avenue to Nell Gwynns on Friday night to check out Pete DJ Jones, and then traveling uptown the following night on the Number 4 train to the Bronx to check out Kool Herc at the Executive Playhouse. I was torn between these two DJs. Ive had many debates about Pete DJ Jones precise timing and Kool Hercs playlist. Songs like:
“Give It Up Or Turnit