Rap

Rap is a musical genre consisting of a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. Since its birth in the 1970’s, rap has become one of the most popular musical genres in the United States and worldwide. It has grown a lot since it originated in the Bronx area of New York; it has changed a lot and in many ways, including its content, style, who performs it and who listens to it. Although a lot has changed, two things have not. One of them is that women aren’t accepted as rappers as easily as men are. The other thing is that it has mostly stayed an African American thing; the only rap superstar who is not African American is Eminem, all others are. In a very short time, rap has evolved and gone through a lot of things.

Rap was born in New York’s West Bronx Kool Herc, a Jamaican DJ came to New York, and he attempted to incorporate his Jamaican style of DJ which involved reciting improvised rhymes over the dub versions of his reggae records. New Yorkers didn’t like reggae so he started chanting over the instrumental or percussion sections of the day's popular songs. Those days, party goers initially recited popular phrases and used the slang of the day. As this phenomenon evolved, the party shouts became more elaborate as DJ in an effort to be different, began to incorporate little rhymes. Rap was all about feeling good, dancing, and having a party spirit. Soon rap caught on. It offered young urban New Yorkers a chance to freely express themselves. This way they were able to rap about the difficulty of living in their neighborhoods. They didn’t need to have money or expensive resources to rap nor did they have to have a good voice. Anyone could rap, as long as they practiced, they would be able to do it. Rap became popular among young people because it offered unlimited challenges. There were no real set rules, except to be original and to rhyme on time to the beat of the music. They put their personality into their raps. Laid-back people rapped at a slow pace and hyper people rapped at a fast pace. Self expression allowed rap to become popular. Soon, former gang members came together and formed dance crews and challenged each other. More and more former gang members started rapping. During raps early years, groups like Afrika Bambaataa, Chief Rocker Busy Bee, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Four, Grand Wizard Theodore ad the Fantastic Romantic Five, Funky Four Plus One More, Crash Crew, and Master Don Committee had become well known for what they did. By the time they were moving on from the 'two turntables and a microphone stage', the first rap records were put out. The first records were Fat Back Band's ‘King Tem III' and Sugar Hill Gang's 'Rapper Delight'; they paved the way for countless rappers and rap songs. This was the beginning of rap music making its way into mainstream American music.

Rap music started off as a party music and it was all about dancing and having a good time. Eventually when young black boys started rapping in order to express themselves, the content changed from partying into what their lives were like. Most of these boys grew up in poor, all-black neighborhoods in the Bronx. They had experienced many terrible things growing up. Many of these boys grew up without their fathers, with single mothers, and no money. The “hoods” were dangerous and they were filled with gangs and violence. The content in the songs reflected the living conditions. Some people rapped about trying to get out of the conditions and helping others, while others were rapping about what had happened to them and how it led them to bad things. When former gangsters started rapping about their experiences in the gangs, the content began getting filled with even more violence. Drugs became very common in rap songs; many songs talked about weed and other drugs and drug dealing, which went hand in hand with being a gangster. Another major theme in rap songs is viewing women as objects to have; most rap songs and music videos show much sexualized women who are only worth to be used. Along with having women, is having wealth and luxuries; rappers either rap about having money, jewelry, cars, and mansions or they’re seen in music videos dressed in expensive clothes with their bling hung all over them, as they drive around in their Ferraris and Lamborghinis. They can also be seen “makin it rain” on girls (throwing money). This is much more recent but it has been seen throughout the history of rap. The content in rap songs has changed a lot since the birth of rap, but for the most part rap has been there for the rappers and it has reflected how their lives have been and how they are.

Throughout the 80’s and the 90’s rap was about the rappers’ lifestyle, whether it was growing up in a bad neighborhood or being a gangster. Artists like Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. talked about their experiences. Tupac raps about how he grew up without a father and how his mother did everything so that he can grow up good even in the conditions they were in. His song “Keep Your Head up” is talks about how men should treat women with respect and not to leave them; it also talks about the fact that the government has money for wars but no money to feed the poor. “Changes” talks about how the black community sees no changes and how everything is really bad in the neighborhood. Most of Tupac’s songs talked about social inequality, injustice, and poverty. Biggie also rapped about his life before success, like in “Juicy”, where he raps about the “one room shack” he grew up in and how he had to sell drugs, so that he can feed his daughter. Eminem is another example of a rapper who raps about his life experiences. He always raps about growing up without a father (and how that affected him), how he grew up with his “crazy” mother, how he didn’t fit in as a kid, and how he married Kim, his wife, and he always mentions his daughter Hailey. A lot of his music also talks about his drug use and his problems with fame and the music industry. Examples of these songs would be: “Sing for the Moment”, “When I’m Gone”, and “Mockingbird”. The content in rap music has changed in the last decade and so has the identity of rap music.

Years ago rapping was a form of expressing yourself and talking about what your life was like in the “ghetto”. That’s why songs were all about poverty and violence. It seems like rapping is now about escaping that and all about gaining fame and wealth. Rappers today only talk about getting money and girls; the perfect example of this is Drake’s song “Successful”, who’s chorus says “I want the money, money and the cars, cars and the clothes, the hos I suppose”. Jay-Z and Kanye West’s album, “Watch the Throne” is filled with 12 songs, which are all about fame, materialism, power, and the burdens of success. It used to be about the burdens of poverty, now it’s about the burdens of success. If it’s not about the money, it’s about sex; an example of that is Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop”, which talks about sex for 5 minutes. This shows how much rap has changed in only 30 years; it’s gone from talking about harsh life and the hope of getting better to bragging about wealth and how many girls you can get.

Not only has the content in rap changed but the performers and the audience has as well. As I stated earlier, the original rappers were young black boys from bad neighborhoods in New York. As the years went by, rap got more popular and it migrated from New York to other parts of the United States. It became very popular in the West Coast and gangsters started rapping. By the 2000’s, rappers were longer from “the hood” or gangsters, they were regular people who wanted to rap, get famous, and be rich. You can see this change by comparing Tupac and Drake. Tupac was born to Afeni Shakur and Billy Garland, who were active members of the Black Panther Party, a group of African Americans who fought for social change. He was born a month after his mother's acquittal on more than 150 charges of "Conspiracy against the United States government and New York landmarks" in the New York Panther 21 court case. His stepfather, Mutulu, spent four years at large on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list and his godfather, Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, a high ranking Black Panther, was convicted of murdering a school teacher during a 1968 robbery. As you can see, Tupac had a hard life growing up. Drake, on the other hand, grew up in Toronto, Canada, in the wealthy Forest Hill neighborhood. In his early teens, he started his acting career, when he started appearing on Degrassi: The Next Generation. These two examples show exactly how much the performers have changed in the last ten years. Just like the performers, the audience has changed a lot too. Originally, African-Americans were the only people who listened to rap. As rap got more popular and was heard more and more on mainstream radio, white people started listening to it. Rich white kids like listening to rap and a lot of them even act like the rappers they listen to. It has a lot of influence on them. Although, it is believed that white people listen to it most, almost everyone listens to rap now; it’s not only African Americans anymore. Age is a different story though. There is still a generation gap between those who listen to rap and those who don’t. Kids like rap, while their parents are against it. Rap is always changing; while its content is becoming less relevant in the “ghetto”, it is becoming more popular elsewhere. For that reason, the performers are changing and so is the audience.

Two things remain the same in rap music. Female rappers aren’t as successful, nor are white rappers. We have seen a few female rappers achieve fame, but they haven’t had the staying power or the level of success that male rappers experience. Lauryn Hill, Missy Elliott, Lil Kim, and now Nicki Minaj have become famous and have had a number of hits but it isn’t the same as it is for the men. Lauryn Hill’s debut album debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200 Chart, with sales of over 400,000 copies and she won 5 Grammys for the album, including Best New Artist and Album of the Year; they are both huge accomplishments but we haven’t heard a new album from her since then and haven’t heard about her in a long time. Missy Elliott and Lil Kim were also successful, but they too have been no where lately and you don’t hear about them. It had been years since a female rapper had become famous and had an immense amount of success, until Nicki Minaj hit the scene in 2010. Her album “Pink Friday” hit number one, she has had a number of hits on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, and she got nominated at the Grammys, but the problem with her is that her music is more pop oriented. Lately, she has totally ditched rap and has gone way more into the pop direction. Who knows how long her success will last, though; either she’ll become a pop star or be forgotten. Although rap is no longer about growing up in a bad neighborhood and about being a gangster, in a way, that attitude has stayed. That is why females aren’t accepted into the rap world easily, aren’t respected easily, and don’t have that staying power that male rappers have. Jay-Z, for example, released his debut album in 1995 and has stayed relevant until now; during this time he’s had 11 number 1 albums and he’s won 14 Grammys. You don’t see female artists doing that. Since rap has been about tough black men, it has also been really hard for white rappers to become successful and to gain superstardom. The only white rapper to gain that level of fame and success is Eminem. With the help of veteran rapper Dr. Dre, who produced Eminem’s first major studio album, The Slim Shady LP, Eminem was able to become popular. He became the bestselling artist of the 2000’s decade and has been compared to Tupac. Although, Eminem was able to go past the racial barriers in the rap world, no other non-African American rappers have been able to do that. People still expect tough black men to be rappers. There are many jokes about the fact that Eminem’s the only white rapper, like that he’s a wannabe black guy and there are jokes that white people can’t rap. A lot has and is changing, but gender and race is a different story in rap music.

                Rap music is a very popular in today’s culture. It started in the Bronx neighborhood in New York and it has made its way to other parts of the United States and other areas throughout the world. It started off as party jams, became music for young boys in the “hood”, and eventually became music for anyone who wants to make it big in the music industry. As it expanded into other areas, rap also started to evolve and change. The content in its lyrics changed, the performers changed, and the audience changed. The lyrics became less meaningful and more materialistic. The performers became people who hadn’t had it bad growing up. The audience became much more white and less African American. Although these changes happened, there still is a gender and racial barriers, that won’t allow females and non-African Americans to easily get into the rap world. Some females have succeeded, but their success hasn’t lasted and Eminem has had success and is currently the only white rap superstar. Rap music’s identity has changed a lot during the last 30 years. It has gone through many stages. It started in the party scene as party music. Then it became the song for young people who grew up poor and for former gangsters who have had violent experiences. Currently, it has become all about having money and girls. The experiences of the performers and the audience, the events and social change during the past 3 decades, and the values of each generation have truly influenced and constructed rap music’s identity.