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What
Nowadays when people talk about rap or hip-hop, they often focus on controversial figures like Eminem, "bling" and booty videos. But rap covers a diverse array of sounds and themes and is often unfairly stereotyped. Rap music is essentially comprised of intricate, rhyming spoken word provided by a Master or Mistress of Ceremonies (MC), samples and rhythmic tracks that are combined by a producer or DJ. Rap and hip-hop has roots in African call-and-response rhythms and began as party music in New York. When DJs at block parties started isolating the percussive parts of their favorite records and included an MC to introduce the DJ/entertain the crowd, hip-hop and rap were born. (This birth of a culture was captured in a movie called Beat Street that includes performances by Grandmaster Melle Mel and the Furious Five). It developed a political edge during the conservative Reagan years, when rappers began to talk about the everyday problems of urban African-Americans.
When
1973: Immigrant Clive Campbell combines Jamaican "toasting" with the Bronx practice of making live instrumental collages of funk and R&B songs. 1979: The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" breaks the Top 40. 1981: Grandmaster Flash's "The Message" begins the advent of political rap. 1984: Run DMC become the first rap superstars.
Who
Rap comes in many different flavors, many of which overlap. There's the Notorious BIG, Lil Kim, Common, Kanye West, Outkast, Ludacris, Mos Def, Eve, The Pharcyde, etc. There's also underground rap (Dr. Octagon, Bahamadia, Princess Superstar), Latin rap (Angie Martinez), pop/party rap (Will Smith), ragga (Beenie Man, Shaggy), hardcore rap (Queen Pen, Snoop)--which includes the infamous gangsta rap--and much more. There are also the old school heroes like Grandmaster Flash and Roxanne Shante. And of course the kings of political rap, Public Enemy.
