Essay on Rap Music
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In the early 70's a musical genre was born in the crime ridden neighborhoods of the South Bronx. Gifted teenagers with plenty of talent and imagination but little cash began to forge a new style from spare parts. Hip-hop, as it was known was a product of pure streetwise ingenuity; Taking rhythms and melodies from existing records and mixing them up with poetry chronicling life in the streets.
To truly understand the culture, influence and all around movement that Rap music is, one must first fully understand the deep street roots of the rap culture itself. Rap music originated in the slums of the Bronx in the early to mid 70s. Originating at block parties, at first it was a very simple music consisting of DJs (Disc Jockeys) continuously playing a break beat of a particular record and a rapper or mc (master of ceremonies) repeating simple but catchy call and response phrases that usually rhymed, over the repeated synthesized drum rhythm provided by the DJs turn table set. This type of music while not very advanced or commercial was fully embraced by the African American and minority youth and teenagers of the Bronx. Developing a huge cult following, the rap fever of the Bronx soon spread to other cities and sections of New York and soon to communities around the whole country. Large record labels could no longer continue to ignore this huge cult following witch they had at first labeled and dismissed as a fad. With help of pioneering rap groups such as Sugar Hill Gang, The Juice Crew, Run DMC and artists such as Rakim, Big Daddy Kane and LL Cool J, rap soon blossomed into a multi million dollar industry that not only consists of music but also of popular music videos, clothing lines, its own dialect and lingo, books, over the top TV and movie personalities...