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The Birth of Rap

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In a way, rap has existed for hundreds of years. The fundamentals and elementals have been a part of African American culture ever since the time of slavery. They once acted as a means of expression and a way of coping with the hardships and toils the slaves endured. Cheryl Keyes, a professor of ethnomusicology, also verifies that components of rap “can be traced from African bardic traditions to rural southern-based expressions of African Americans—toast, tales, sermons, blues, game songs, and allied forms—all of which are recited in a chanted rhyme or poetic fashion” (40).
Furthermore, it comes as no surprise that rap music resurged and developed as its own genre during a time of great hardship. Throughout the 70s, the Bronx was home to “de-industrialization, skyrocketing unemployment, increased crime, governmental neglect, and white flight,” which lead to the materialization of rap (Toop and Cheney). The hip hop movement, which gave way to rap, provided an outlet and means of creative expression. Rather than succumbing to gang culture and the assumptions of society, African American youth turned to the forms of hip hop. A prominent form was DJing, which paved the way for rap.
Moreover, Clive Campbell, better known as Kool Herc, played a major role in the cultivation of rap as a young DJ in the Bronx. He experimented with various genres of music, but was acclaimed for “[playing] the percussion or break sections of funk records at street parties and local dances” (Toop and Cheney). Herc was also noted for his addition and utilization of MCs, particularly Coke La Rock. DJs mainly added MCs to assist in exciting the audience, however, “La Rock, often described as the first rapper... rhymed and improvised over the music” (Toop and Cheney). The pairing of La Rock’s rhymes and Herc’s instrumentals exposed the hip hop community to a whole new realm of possibilities. It ignited minds and souls of young MCs, and thus began the cultivation of rap. As a result, rappers and the genre of rap were born.

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