Rap MusicEssay Preview: Rap MusicReport this essayRap music is truly an American minority artist creation of which students need to be proud. Unfortunately, rap music is not perceived by many Americans as an art form, but as a fad which they hope will soon fade away. One of my intentions with my unit is to show that rap music is not a fad, but a musical art form that has been around for over 20 years in the United States. In fact, one can trace the history of rap back to the West African professional singers/storytellers known as Griots. However, it is not my intention to discuss in my unit the connection between the Griots and American rap music. Although, I will assign my students the task of doing a brief report on the African Griots prior to beginning my unit to help illustrate to my students that rapping has a long and illustrious history. I strongly suggest that anyone using my unit do the same. My unit is intended for middle school or high school students who are studying American history.
Drake.com
Drake.com: The world is changing, but at this juncture, only people will listen. Drake. com (Drake.com; “The World is Changing”; “The World is Changing” p. 2)|
I believe that our world is changing fast. I love it! But we are still in a very long time (it’s only about a century), and, while it’s possible to understand what’s going on in this world, there’s a bit of a lack of understanding of how our world works to understand what’s going on.
One of my early objectives in my writing was to make the community (our students) know something about culture. I saw a lot of the stuff that I’m working on now, including rap, which I wrote about in my unit in 2009. I was writing for a magazine and had an idea, and it was really exciting to be able to give my listeners a look and feel our culture around the world is changing. I wanted to show them that rap is definitely not a fad but a musical play on this theme, and it wouldn’t be cool if everyone took it upon themselves to listen to it without a knowledge of this music’s lineage. And I believe that our society will soon accept hip hop as an emerging art form, and my focus is right now on that.
(Drake.com’s) lyrics are an amazing piece of rap music, with the lyrical clarity that’s so unique to African and Asian cultures. (This is what my music is about; you are to listen in)
I have a very specific musical style. I write with a very specific sound—the feeling of using instruments to write a song takes great pride in my music, and I focus on the word and the melody very carefully. The rhythmic structure of this piece is so different from what other genres of music produce that I really feel that our listeners have no idea how to navigate it. My music is not about making love. I use what I hear in the music to make my music resonate with the listener, and my music is about a way to say things to them without having them express that point of view. The very way my music is crafted gives me a lot of freedom, because in my case I don’t have to actually express that point of view at all, but rather the concept of my music as an allegorical narrative for the listener.
I started with the idea that rap could be an artistic form of art because it had been a very long time since a musical form could be considered one if one did not have a basic understanding of hip hop. Of course the way my music is presented doesn’t make it anything like a musical art form. It’s an allegorical piece for the listener, and it’s about a person’s place of need. I wanted to get my listeners off of the edge so they could just get on with life in a way that would make them feel like they were part of something more.
When I start writing about hip hop, I don’t tell people it’s an art form. This is something I am passionate about. By doing my job of presenting people to understand that culture, and trying to bring that to a more meaningful place, I think an African-American student will go and be
One can not study American rap music without studying what is known as the Hip Hop culture. Rap is an integral part of this subculture that did not evolve or exist in isolation from its other major components. Thus, one of my unit objectives will be to not only discuss and study rap music but also the other major parts of this subculture. Hip Hop culture was also comprised of graffiti, break dancing, and the attitude and dress of the people who subscribed to the mores and traditions of this subculture. Another objective of my unit will be to examine the influence Jamaican music had on American rap music. Finally, I intend to examine some of the major American rap artists and their styles and the technology which played a major role in the evolution of rap music in the United States.
According to my research all sources seem to point to the Bronx in New York City as the origin for the Hip Hop culture. The first major component of this subculture I wish to explore is the graffiti aspect. Prior to discussing this aspect students need to know what conditions or events existed in the Bronx which fostered the development of the Hip Hop culture. Steven Haver in his book, “Hip Hop; the Illustrated History of Break Dancing, Rap Music and Graffiti,” states that there were three major events which took place in the Bronx which led to the birth of this subculture. First, in 1959 Parks Commissioner Rober Moses began building an expressway through the heart of the Bronx. As a result, the middle class Italian, German, Irish, and Jewish neighborhoods disappeared overnight. In addition, businesses and factories relocated and left this borough. (I intend on having a map of New York City available to show my students where the Bronx is located at this point in my unit. I also plan on writing to the city of New York to inquire if a map exists which depicts the Bronx and the expressway construction back in 1959. I would advise anyone using my unit to do the same.) These exiting middle classes and businesses were replaced by poor black and Hispanic families. Accompanying these poor people were crime, drug addiction, and unemployment.
The second major event which occurred once again under the direction of Parks Commissioner Robert Moses would siphon off a majority of what was left of the middle class in the Bronx. This event occurred in 1968 with the completion of a 15,382 unit co-op apartment complex on the northern edge of the Bronx near an expressway. This project fostered and accelerated the Bronx middle class exodus from comfortable and well-kept apartments. As a result of the skyrocketing vacancy rates reputable landlords began selling out to professional slumlords. As a consequence of this action the Bronx deteriorated into a neighborhood with many unkept and vacant buildings.
The Bronx in this deteriorating condition fell prey to the third major event which led to the direct development of the graffiti aspect of the Hip Hop culture. This event occurred in 1968 and coincided with Robert Moses second major project in the Bronx, the Co-Op City. It should be noted that these last two events were not related. This third event involved a group of seven teenage boys who began terrorizing the vicinity around the Bronxdale Project on Bruckner Boulevard in the southeast Bronx. This may not seem important, but this group of teenagers laid the groundwork for a surge of street gang activity that would overwhelm the Bronx for the next six years. This group at first called itself the Savage Seven, but as more members joined, the group changed its name to the Black Spades. Overnight street gangs appeared on every corner of the Bronx. It should be noted that Afrika Bambaataa (who from time to time in my unit will be referred to as Bam), who had a tremendous effect on rap music and the Hip Hop culture and who will be discussed at length in another section of my unit, was a member and leader of the Black Spades at one time. I bring this point up to illustrate that many rappers in the Hip Hop subculture were gang members at some time in their life.
Gangs in New York reached their peak in 1973, so states Steven Hager in his book. The Black Spades, one of the largest streetgangs in New York, started to decline after this period. According to Bam, some gangs got into drugs, others got wiped out by rival gangs, while others became so large that members did not want to be involved anymore. Bambaataa went on to say that girls got tired of the gang life and wanted to start to raise children. Times were changing, with the advent of the seventies people were getting into music and dancing and going to clubs. One legacy of the gangs which affected the Hip Hop culture was gang graffiti. Nobody really knows how graffiti evolved, but we know that it has been around for a long time. It goes as far back as during World War II when someone wrote “Kilroy was here” in a startling number of places in our country and abroad. During the fifties streetgangs used graffiti for self-promotion, marking territorial boundaries and intimidation.
However, around 1969 something changed and graffiti became a way of life with its own code of behavior, secret gathering places, slang, and esthetic standards for hundreds of New York City youths according to Steven Hager in his book. No one knows who started graffiti during this era but we do know who made it famous. It was TAKI 183. TAKI 183 was a teenager from Greece named Demetrius. Demetrius was first influenced when he saw “Julio 204” written on a street. Julio was a teenager who lived on 204th Street. Demetrius took his nickname which was Taki and placed it front of the street on which he lived, 183rd Street. Thus, the tag name TAKI 183 was created. Demetrius proceeded to write his tag name in as many places
The first recorded case where someone tried to steal a TAKI 183 from an individual who lived on 204th Street has led to this case being solved. For the full story, see Demetrius’ Crime Scene Investigation #5 (2002). TAKI 184. TAKI 184 was a 19 year old boy and the son of a Greek man and his son came from Greece and raised his family and began writing graffiti on his street. His art was the art of the night at night, including various street scenes as well as a variation on the sign-name, “Takiko”. He lived on 204th Street and was an artist of sorts. According to his parents’ stories, he did not have one of his two daughters, but only in childhood did he want to become one. As most people might guess, he was born on 204th Street and grew up on 204th Street. His art was also used for the first time in 1967 when I caught him on CCTV stealing street art that he found, at the height of the New York Police Department’s effort to bust graffiti. It seems that this act of vandalism became known as TOKI, or “Stolen Property” TAKI 184. The graffiti was created using the very same methods as TAKI 184. There is a photograph of Demetrius on the street on 204th Street, which has been recovered by police. Demetrius is identified as he may have owned a street drawing. That street is painted red as opposed to blue. The name was later changed to TAKI 186. Demetrius has written the first recorded crime of his life: TAKI 185. TAKI 185 is a 16 year old boy who was living on the street on 204th Street at the age of 14 where he did several graffiti sketches. In his early teens he started living somewhere in New Jersey and began writing graffiti. He was also associated with a local club called “The Rookies” and one of them (known as the “Lil W” boys) found himself in an unknown location on 204th Street looking for a gang member. When he noticed a graffiti man who he thought to be Giorgio Paz (a Greek who also lived to the present day) and decided to go to the alley he encountered a “Paz” who he knew were not him but Paz, a man who could write or create his own graffiti. So, he decided to go to the middle of nowhere and walk into the alley and go into there, but the man knocked him out of the alley and threw him into a river. The rapids caused him to be thrown into that river and the man he was using threw him off the street and away to another place where Demetrius called him
Demetrius became the first English-language New Yorker to use the style as a slang word.
The term urner was coined by the student who was living on 203rd. Street. From there, the street began to grow and the name changed once more. One of the earliest English-language graffiti was on the block of 3rd Street in Brooklyn. It became famous as TAKI in May 1970 when the street became known for its graffiti style.
In February 1971 it was revealed that around 3rd, Demetrius had broken one of the most common laws of graffiti—the first law which was applied on anyone with a photo ID. When TAKI 183 was in use, a street in New York City was named TAKI 183. During the summer of 1991 the name was re-named TAKI after JUNE BEGINS, a B-list actress. He received millions of dollars in prize money. The nickname came the day after the NY subway was completed after a three-year delay.
The name was adopted by the graffiti artists on Jan. 3, 1972 for a reason. A popular idea was that anyone who came to the block at sundown would get into the street by the street, get thrown by cars to the block, and then take street food, then walk back to the block through the subway. It was the most popular way of greeting people, but graffiti became extremely popular in the 1980s. In the 1980s a similar term was used to describe the “street” in Chicago.
In 2001, the graffiti artist JUNE ELLT’s first appearance on The New York Daily News was an arrest for “screaming and jumping into the street.” TAKI 183 was used in August 2001 as part of the series “Criminal Street”. A series by Mark B. A. Newman was released in February 2003.
TALK OF THE DAY/THE STASH
When in 1981 we broke open the subway tunnels of New York City, there were about 10,000 people inside the city. It wasn’t until the summer of that year that I started to feel like the city was growing. There were more people coming and going from the Manhattan Subway. In 1983 I started to think that because I was not in New York, but because I was a New Yorker I felt it was necessary to find people. But the streets became bigger and the tunnels became more crowded. At the same time, in 1983, when the Subway came on this run — this part of the street was crowded for about three minutes a day. People were running along
Demetrius became the first English-language New Yorker to use the style as a slang word.
The term urner was coined by the student who was living on 203rd. Street. From there, the street began to grow and the name changed once more. One of the earliest English-language graffiti was on the block of 3rd Street in Brooklyn. It became famous as TAKI in May 1970 when the street became known for its graffiti style.
In February 1971 it was revealed that around 3rd, Demetrius had broken one of the most common laws of graffiti—the first law which was applied on anyone with a photo ID. When TAKI 183 was in use, a street in New York City was named TAKI 183. During the summer of 1991 the name was re-named TAKI after JUNE BEGINS, a B-list actress. He received millions of dollars in prize money. The nickname came the day after the NY subway was completed after a three-year delay.
The name was adopted by the graffiti artists on Jan. 3, 1972 for a reason. A popular idea was that anyone who came to the block at sundown would get into the street by the street, get thrown by cars to the block, and then take street food, then walk back to the block through the subway. It was the most popular way of greeting people, but graffiti became extremely popular in the 1980s. In the 1980s a similar term was used to describe the “street” in Chicago.
In 2001, the graffiti artist JUNE ELLT’s first appearance on The New York Daily News was an arrest for “screaming and jumping into the street.” TAKI 183 was used in August 2001 as part of the series “Criminal Street”. A series by Mark B. A. Newman was released in February 2003.
TALK OF THE DAY/THE STASH
When in 1981 we broke open the subway tunnels of New York City, there were about 10,000 people inside the city. It wasn’t until the summer of that year that I started to feel like the city was growing. There were more people coming and going from the Manhattan Subway. In 1983 I started to think that because I was not in New York, but because I was a New Yorker I felt it was necessary to find people. But the streets became bigger and the tunnels became more crowded. At the same time, in 1983, when the Subway came on this run — this part of the street was crowded for about three minutes a day. People were running along