Chapter 1 : THE HISTORY
Sunday, January 9, 2011
, Posted by the InCrediBLe at 3:04 AM
Rapping is is a vocal style of music where the performer speaks in
rhythm using rhyming phrases and verses. This is sometimes done
acappella or to instrumental music. Rapping is an element of a culture
called Hip Hop. The four elements of this culture is Rap, DJing, Break
Dancing and Graffiti. The Hip Hop culture originated in the South Bronx of
New York City during the 1970's.
The word Hip Hop was said to be first said by a member of the group
Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five named Cowboy. He chanted the
words to mimic the rhythm of marching soldiers while teasing a friend who
had just joined the army. Cowboy later started using the chant in his shows
and the term quickly caught on as other groups started using the term
themselves. The group would normally perform with disco artists and as a
sign of disrespect they would refer to them as “Hip-Hoppers”. But the term
as it is being used today is said to be originated by artist Lovebug Starski
which led to the Godfather of Hip Hop, Afrika Bambaataa of the Zulu
Nation, officially naming the culture Hip Hop.
The Hip Hop culture is defined as a movement. Bambaataa said “When we
made Hip Hop, we made it hoping it would be about peace, love, unity and
having fun so that people could get away from the negativity that was
plaguing our streets ( gang violence, drug abuse, self hate, violence
among those of African and Latino descent). And the elements of Hip Hop
are the many artistic mediums that are used to express the movement.
Hip Hop Music was the catalyst for the creation of the Hip Hop culture. A
Jamaican born DJ who goes by the name DJ Kool Herc is considered the
father of Hip Hop music. DJ Kool Herc created after school parties in the
recreation room of his apartment building in the Bronx neighborhood in
New York City. His goal was to throw parties like the ones he saw while
growing up in Kingston, Jamaica that were called Dancehalls and the DJ's
of those parties would talk and chant over the music which was called
Toasting. A Jamaican DJ by the name of Count Machuki developed this
style in Jamaica after listening to the Disc Jockeys on American radio
stations jive talk over the R&B music that they were playing on the air.
Count Machuki would toast over songs without the vocals that was created
by a recording engineer named King Tubby who would create this music
on One Off Vinyl records known as Dub Plates.
DJ Kool Herc would later develop this format that created Hip Hop music at
these parties. He would create short instrumentals from the songs he was
playing by using two copies of the same record. He would play these two
copies by using two different turntables. Whenever a part in the song
would play where there were no vocals present (known as the Break in a
song) DJ Kool Herc would play the Break in the song on one record while
back spinning the other record and continuing this process back and forth
long enough for the Break Dancers to perform and the MC's to Toast and
chant phrases or instructions. Kool Herc called this process the Merry-Go-
Round and he would use records like James Brown's “Give It Up or Turn It
Loose”.
As the DJ Kool Herc and his parties became more and more popular,
other DJ's in the neighborhood begin DJing parties like Kool Herc in the
streets and school yards. DJ's like Afrika Bambaataa would use his parties
to attract new members to his Zulu Nation Movement. The popularity of
these parties created a street subculture which became the Hip Hop
Culture.
In 1979, an American singer named Sylvia Robinson who started a record
label named Sugar Hill Records created a group she called The Sugarhill
Gang. The Sugarhill Gang is credited with commercially releasing the first
Hip Hop single in the music industry called “Rapper's Delight” which
happened to also go multi-platinum. However, it has been argued that the
Fatback band's song King Tim III was the actual beginning. King Tim III
was released about 2 months before Rapper's Delight but Fatback Band
was categorized as being under the funk genre. Mainly because the song
was released as the B-Side of the 7-inch single “You're My Candy Sweet”
which is a Disco song.
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