How do you create the rap genre? You first have to create the hip-hop movement. And how do you create the Hip-Hop movement? Poverty, drugs, and the Afro-Caribbean community. Now you have Hip-Hop. End of the article, see you in the next VOICES edition.
I’m joking. Let’s be more serious. It was the desire to leave poverty and the world of drugs that pushed them to promote their culture and propagate it, which allowed them to capitalize on it. Everything started in the Bronx, where the Afro-Caribbean community lives. When I’m saying Afro-Caribbean community, I mean Puerto Ricans, Jamaicans, Dominicans, Trinidadians, Barbadians… For example, Cardi B is from the South Bronx, and her mother is from Trinidad, while her father is Dominican. I think it will make more sense for you now.
Creation of Hip-Hop
So, the expression of Hip-Hop started here, but what is Hip-Hop? That’s a cultural movement born during the 1970s, with five pillars. Breakdancing, MCing, DJing, Graffiting, and Beatboxing. Around this world, you also have the mode, and the Caribbean cultural and values influence, which will become another culture afterwards.
And ALL this Caribbean melting pot, created the PLACE TO BE for music culture in the Bronx, with the Salsa, Funk, Merengue, Bachata, Reggae, Dancehall… Literally, worldwide music is a bombshell. And now this is the moment when Clive Campbell, aka Kool Herc, will appear.
Kool Herc is from Jamaica, and music had a very big place in his life. Basically, he brought the Jamaican Sound System to the Bronx and started to call them Block Parties. Where the whole community can forget their situations, with breakdance and graffiti. And the party is everywhere. Kool Herc just needed a car, 2 big speakers, and his DJ Deck to mix music in the street.
BUT, every nationality wants to be exposed, so MCs started speaking in rhymes, during breaks (the solo drum at the end of the music), with their own influences, accents, etc., and that’s where we witness the birth of the first rappers. They spread this all over New York, and that’s how rap was born. However, at this time, people were not rapping; they were “toasting”. That’s how they used to call it in Jamaica.
Now you know how rap was born, but you still don’t know how rap became a real genre. Of course, you can guess, just toasting during breaks is not enough. Hence, they started to add scratching, create the real DJ desk (the one without cuts during music), and the last touch, the sampler. To add pieces of riddims in a composition. No break needed anymore.
It took one decade to create the musical genre “RAP”; we are now leaving the 70s to the 80s. We had the MCs, now we will get the rap music.
“Rapper’s Delight”, from Sugarhill Gang. You don’t know? I think you know, it’s the first worldwide rap hit. They put all the best punchlines in one song to promote rap across the world. And that’s how they also created the first label, Sugarhill Records.
At the same time, an emerging rapper, who was also one of the pioneers of hip-hop culture, decided to add value to rap, which was to add a little philosophy and peace. His name is Afrika Bambaataa. His best friend died in a shooting; therefore, he decided to use words rather than weapons to attack, creating the Zulu Gang Nation to promote peace. We are now witnessing the creation of the rap battle, one of the most important elements of rap culture.
The Golden Age
Grandmaster Flash wrote “The Message” which was the first Conscious rap, and GMF gave birth to a lot of sons, the first lyricists in the rap. Egotrip is not over, but now conscious rap has more influence. Welcome to Public Enemy, KRS-One, or Big Daddy Kane. They will start to denounce White Supremacy, Self Defense, Police Brutality, for example, to advocate for the security and protection of Afro-Caribbean and, more broadly, Afro-American communities. But when you are opening your mouth too much, you will start to have problems…
There will be a lot of copyright lawsuits, politicians will start saying that black people advocate violence, and it’s also the creation of the “parental advisory explicit content” logo and the record company sharks will come and tell them, if you want money, you have to make easy listening, so mainstream music that doesn’t shock the “population” (that is to say, white people in the USA).
It’s going to annoy the new rappers who are overflowing with creativity, who are going to invent the new school. Rappers very attached to the roots of rap, who prefer to play with their flow rather than writing. Welcome Snoop Dogg, NAS, Wu Tang Clan, Eminem, 50 Cent Tupac, Notorious B.I.G., and also, welcome to the fight between West Coast Rap vs. East Coast Rap.
From the 90s to the 2000s, rap didn’t evolve that much; new labels like Young Money or ROC Nation, former rappers again gave birth to new rappers like Tyga, Drake, Chris Brown, Mac Miller, Nicki Minaj, Kanye West, Big Sean, etc. We are nowadays, and the rap culture is the most dominant in the world, in the cinema, on the internet, in the way we dress, everywhere. And we have now different types of Rap: Trap, Drill, Cloud… All of this is influenced by your own culture, and everybody can find their favorite genre. Even you, who doesn’t listen to rap, influence probably hit you in some way. Long live Hip-Hop and the Caribbean culture, which still influences everything around you.
Terry Ruart
Sources :
Every Rap Era Explained In 31 Minutes
The History of Rap (in less than 5 minutes)
L’HISTOIRE DU RAP – Seb la Frite
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