History of Rap – The True Origins of Rap Music

Thank you, I actually used your discussion for a discussion about how music has changed.

You got me an A on my project.

Hey, thank so much! This really helped me. I was doing a project on how rap first started and I got a lot of facts and I thank you.

Very inaccurate! Completely wrong information. Telling a story over a beat still happens in many areas over the world…But that does not mean that it’s rap music. Be careful what you mean when you say rap music. Rap music originated in America …and full credit to the black Americans. All instrumental music involves a beat and singing talking etc over the beat. But that does not mean that all music is rap music. All modern music (involving instruments) can be traced back to a beat and poetry.So why do u pick out rap music as the only music that originates from the ancient beat and story telling.

I remember being in Jamaica in the early eighties and hearing,rap before I heard it in the United States. It was essentially a very political kind of rap with an anti-government theme. Anybody remember that?

Cole,

I really appreciate the historical details of your article. What impressed me the most when viewing your page was the way you responded to each and every comment. The positive and encouraging tone in your responses have me wanting to start rapping! … For the safety of friends and family I will refrain however.

I lived through the birth of modern rap and started listening in the mid 1970s. I remember how excited I was when I heard Rapper’s Delight played on a POP music radio station. Kurtis Blow, Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel and the Furious Five as well as groups like The Fat Boys, Whodini, Run DMC and of course DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince helped me express my feelings as I navigated my teenage and young adult years.

I would very much like to post a link your article on my website. I am very cautious however, in my old age, and need to understand the source of any material I share. Though your article has a ring of truth to it, I would appreciate further explanation of your sources for this information

Finally, I would like to say I am proud to see what you have accomplished. I spent years mentoring teenagers and young adults. The world today is insidious in it’s harsh treatment of those trying to self produce or publish. While the tools to make it are readily available, figuring out how to stand out is a little more of a challenge. Keep up the great work. I have been around for almost five decades and I can attest to the fact that “You gotta live to see”.

Hey Cole what’s going on man? Quick question you know some really good inspirational rap songs, nothing really gospel like or too spiritual but songs that when you hear them, you don’t sing along, you just have to sit and really let the lyrics and wordplay soak in along with a pretty good melody in the background. I’m trying to get inspired to keep up the music side of myself and push my lp (More Than An Obsession) mixtape.. if you could check out one song of mine on soundcloud.. https://soundcloud.com/elidakid/frank-sinatra-remake-at-bells
one of my songs I’m workin on remaking. let me know what you think and if you have some songs that fit what I’m looking for. Thanks a ton brother!

Cole, thank you I appreciate the information it is really going to help towards a project and assignment in class.

Hey cole.
Thank you so much for this website. I am in 5th grade but have been listening to rap music since I was a toddler. I was inspired my brother and really recommend his music. Go to SoundCloud and search kingmoofasa and click on the first one. Please do listen, and again thanks an bunch!

yeah yo! thanks for the information bro! I rap as well and I love old school rap. yeah I might be hopefully getting in the studio Friday.

Hi, Cole!

First of all, let me congratulate you because of such good article. It is so useful to know more about rap true origins!

I’m student from a major on Literature and Orality in Mexico, and I’m working with freestyle rap, and I need to prove (the must I can) that freestyle or improvised rap was the origin of actual rap. I have some questions and I think you could answer them as they need to be ansewered (because of this article, I think you can help me a lot with my research):

-Because of the game that you exposed, which was played by black slave people in the camps, was the very first sign of rap (“call to answer”), do you think that those “proto”-bars were improvised? I mean, spontaneous answers?
-As the first bar spit by Coke La Rock was firstly said in a party, do you think it was an improvised bar?
-Do you think that rap had its origin in improvised bars or improvised/freestyled raps? I mean, we can say that improvised rap was the very first origin of rap?

Congratulations for your work, Cole! Blessings!

Juan Juárez.

you should add information about the evolution of the content and context of rap at that time of 1973 and how the main purpose was to speak of social issues going on in the communities of that time such as: poverty, drugs, and most importantly the ongoing race issues. Hip hop now serves as a multi purpose safe zone to promote awareness, great music, and love.

Hey! I’m doing a speech at my school and am using some facts off of your website. I’m very thankful for this information! I’m 15 and just started listening to rap more frequently… So I talked to my teacher about it for my speech and she didn’t like it but approved anyway. So I’m hoping to change her mind on rap, So Thank You for this info!!

Thanks for the information and history. I teach struggling readers in the 9th grade, and we have a unit on music. I’ve been able to educate myself and my students a little more on the history of rap music. I remember well ‘Rapper’s Delight’ and I was under the impression that was the beginning of rap music. Your article offered great insight, and I was able to pass that along to my students. Thanks again! Great resource!!

Also do you have any thoughts on English Grime music?? would be interested to know your thoughts on it

Too funny!! I was researching some information and I ran across your website. My brother and I grew up in the S. Bronx in the mid ’70’s – late ’80’s. We clearly remember walking to White Castle and hearing music coming from somewhere when we decided to follow the sound. We came up on a block party where 7′ speakers were stacked on top of each other on both ends of the block and old ladies were selling BBQ plates for $3.00 ea. complete with potato salad, beans etc. I only remember listening to the Cold Crush Brothers but can’t remember any other artists over the years because back then, it was just for fun or money to bail someone out of jail. Echo Park was a frequent place for these gatherings and I often wondered how we were able to seal off a city block or an entire park without the authorities interfering. These outdoor parties stopped when almost 2 yrs. before, “Rapper’s Delight” came out, there began shootings at these events. We all knew it would happen. It was just a matter of time. I had many friends who taught me how to ‘scratch’ and knew a lot of people who were learning to perfect the craft. I later became a foster child in the NY system and joined the Zulu Nation. I’d (by then) become very troubled when due to extreme neglect and abject poverty, as my brother and I had to be separated. He in the juvenile prison system and me in foster care. As I progressed in the Zulu Nation, I learned many things and hung out with many of the early rappers. I reconciled with my brother and entering college, I maintained contact with my friends that were diligent in giving me, a young black scholar all the advice and tools needed to survive on the streets (especially when I declared I had a large inheritance and was tired of the responsibilities of trying to raise my brother. I’d already lived in 30 foster homes). I said I wanted to kill myself (like mom did) but 1st raise my brother. Then when he was settled and near college graduation, I would have gone thru the money (using cocaine) so nobody else could spend it after I was gone. I just wanted to be with my mom. I met many heavy hitters and while in college (only to be an example to my brother), I majored in TV Production and Film. I worked across the street from the ABC studios. Time, Newsweek and Penthouse were around the corner and I’d often do my homework in the dressing rooms while waiting for my shift to begin. I was a hostess in a pub where media moguls and stars frequented. In the ’80’s, many people were doing freebase and I can’t say on this site what went on. Because of my street sense, money and intelligence, I was asked to procure and partake. Studio 54 was a must, Nell’s, Limelight (when it 1st opened), the Roxy (which hosted the world’s 1st rap ‘convention’). I was there. I knew everyone. At the ‘convention’, some guy with lots of feathers on and fur stepped on my foot. He apologized but looked me up and down and said, “Damn bitch youse fine!” I corrected him loudly and said that if it’s a bitch he wanted then that’s all he could expect to get but if he wanted a real woman of substance, then he’d better learn how to respect one!” Turns out it was Grand Master Flash. So what, I still remembered the $3.00. BBQ plates that maybe his own mother cooked and I’m sure that type of behavior would be frowned upon (me being self-righteous). Anyway, we all watched stories of how Richard Pryor burned himself up doing freebase and ether became a controlled substance banned from common street use. Hello crack! I can’t say that I was blessed to see this phenomena take place in the heart of my S. Bronx neighborhood, but the explosion of unimaginable degradation that ensued shocked even the suppliers! Women rented out their small children or outright sold them for the stuff, families lived in empty apartments as even picture frames were sold off for this new cheap, more available and addictive high. Bronx property taxes were raised up to 5 times what they were and the chaos and destruction prompted property owners to simply burn their buildings and collect the insurance rather than make costly repairs or raising rent from delinquent tenants (who were stripping the copper pipes to support their habit). Thus coined the phrase, “The Bronx is burning”. I walked the streets at night to score while witnessing the shootings, explosions, fires, rapes and raids by police on 5 story buildings turned into crack ‘compounds’. The cops would line everyone up outside the building (after shooting some) and the perps would have their hands on the wall, legs spread, dogs, ambulances, paddy wagons and SWAT, all around and SO MANY police patting them down. The last perp on the end of the line was allowed to be uncuffed and still sell crack to whoever wanted it without repercussions for either him or the buyer. This became a common scene in my ‘hood’ and after buying right in front of the cops, many would backtrack and spit on the cops and keep walking. I befriended a ‘compound’ leader near my home during the influx of Cuban refugees at the time. I was honest, trusted and low drama with cash (for those stars I knew downtown). I was dating a well-known commercial artist and was introduced to Mario Van Peebles and still have photo slides of buildings he wanted before choosing a location for, “New Jack City”. I am in some music videos like, “What People Do For Money” and my college final exam 30 sec. music video was shown on MTV, VH1 and BET. I left NY in ’88 to join the military. I couldn’t see any other way out of the NY madness. I somehow passed the entrance exams in the top 10% in the U.S. and was offered intelligence. I never trained at the Presidio (now DLI) as a combat Spanish linguist. If not for one word I got wrong, I would have been the only one in U.S. history (Spanish or otherwise) to pass the combat Spanish warfare intelligence joint Army/Air Force linguist test with 100%. I learned my combat Spanish from the streets of NY while dealing with what I had to during the emergence of rap. I got to see the ‘sagging’ of the pants and asked so many what was up with that. I missed how we girls would admire our black male physiques and giggle. Even the least of our men is usually physically admirable and with the ‘sagging’ it diminished our admiration. Finally, my dad told me that since so many black men were trying hard to make a living but arrested and humiliated, taken to jail and having their shoelaces and belts taken and when released, had to walk home with no shoelaces or belts and hold up their pants during the most humiliating time of their lives, they simply began to sag and hold up their pants as a norm. As a public display of their status. A message of the ‘drums’ that told our stories of old. It is a form of rebellion and a visual by product of what is produced in our community. I got to see how this message has been perverted and misinterpreted even within our own communities as the elders once again fail to educate the youth. I spent 10 yrs. in prison following my military career. I know for a fact that ‘sagging’ has dire consequences in male prisons (to include new charges, a longer sentence and solitary confinement). The rumors that ‘sagging’ is an advertisement for gay relations is absurd and misguided. Most that ‘sag’ are not gay at all. The rap community adopted this thing as a natural progression of the social climate and street fashion while the evolution of rap began to include the bragging rights to pimping and drug dealing that brings money into our decimated ghettos. Most societies have profited from the misfortune of the weaker and since blacks are the weaker in the U.S. with drugs infiltrating our communities (we don’t typically have major shipping or international connections to infiltrate our own communities with drugs) we display our victimization and self-exploitation as a mirror of the nations that produce the same historically. It is the secret ‘drum’ that still beats within us. And like as slaves, the secret ‘beat’ is only to be heard by the few that can. Not our oppressors. We should be proud and vocalize our message, as rap is an amazing impression on the world born of the least of us who only needed 2 turn tables and a microphone.

thank you, you helped me allot

thanx for the information
but why the people say that BOHEMIA is start the rap……he is the rap star
why…???

Hey thanks for the info, how do i cite this source?

Hey man, absolutely loved your article, some great, great info here! I’m a Christian so I’m not really in the rap scene, but I do listen to plenty of Christian rap, and your article was very enlightening. I totally recommend NF (he’s like Eminem) and Andy Mineo, I think Andy Mineo will impress you very much he’s so talented, if you do check him out, look for his song, “The Saints.” God bless you, and keep up your great work!

I am a christian. Can I listen to Sugarhill Gang?

Dope article!

it’s is very good

and sorry for bothering you so much.

Great article. Many thanks for that. And tons of interesting conversation and comments too ( although I haven’t read all of them) and ditto the lady who commended your friendly and polite disposition. One thing I’ve always been curious about is other people’s opinions on a doors track called ‘Texas radio and the big beat’ which for all intents and purposes is a rap although I assume it has it’s roots in poetry/spoken word. Happiness to all.

I aspire to be a rapper one day and I’m only 16, I believe that I can start a movement and lead a new generation of freedom fighting and truth seeking rappers. I’m hoping to bring rap back to its core and olden days, classic rap that make people feel a wave of nostalgia, all while giving people hope and inspiring many more to pick up the mic.

Colemize, I truley love your truth in the origins of RAP. But I feel you may have left a very important root of truth out of your documentary on RAP origins. On How RAP was put on the map. How in 1984 Run DMC with the help of Steven Tyler and Joe Perry… By the mid-80s, Aerosmith were a shadow of their former self. … [ 1984’s Run-DMC and 1985’s King Of Rock] helped put rap on the map….

January 1965 Dylan released Subterranean Homesick Blues the first true rap song.