The evolution of Rap

Hello Charlie, today, for my first post on the blog, I’m going to talk about Rap.

I believe that most people that don’t listen to rap have a lot of prejudices and see rap as the stereotypical rapper, in the 90s an Afro-American from a ghetto with baggy clothes and chains, today a young man with a lot of tattoos and diamond grills on his teeth.

However, Rap has evolved over the last 20 years, from not even being considered as an art, to becoming one of the most popular musical genres ever to exist, and an enormous part of American culture.

 First of all, rap descends from the hip-hop cultural and musical movement. Rap distinguishes itself from other musical genres by its very rhythmic diction and rhyme, hence one of the etymologies of the word rap: R.A.P for Rhythm And Poetry.

 The first rappers were Kool Herc and Sugarhill gang, who made the first ever rap hit, “Rappers delight – Sugarhill gang” which I recommend to anyone who enjoys a nice jazzy song.

 Back then, the first rappers rhymed some words on jazzy, funky instrumentals, as it was the very beginning of rap; the instrumentals were very different from those rappers use today.

 This began a movement that shook the United States of America, more and more rappers appeared, but rap still was a very minor part of music, still overshadowed by pop, funk, R&B, and most of all, Rock.

What we call Rap Battles started to take place, mostly between East coast (for example The Notorious B.I.G with New York based Bad Boy records), and West coast rappers (for example Tupac with Los Angeles based Death Row records).

And the ability to make words rhyme (either acapella with beatbox or with a musical instrumental) with a very rhythmical diction became very popular. You can see in the movie 8 Mile (a movie that tells the story of one of the most popular rappers of all time, Eminem), which happens in Detroit, that people organize by themselves rap battles in which they have to try and mock their opponent using rap during a limited time on a musical instrumental.

Meanwhile, the popular Californian rap group N.W.A toured through all the United States with their debut album “Straight Outta Compton” that marked the beginning of the new gangsta rap era as their lyrics were revolutionary within the genre. They split up in 1991 because of money problems within the group. One of the five members of the group (Eazy-E) died, but two of them (Ice Cube and D.Dre) started solo careers and became even more popular.

From 2000 to 2012, the great rapper Eminem released 5 albums, he was at the climax of his career, with his most well-known songs : Lose Yourself – Not Afraid – Rap God – Without Me. He even broke the fastest rapping world record with his song “Rap God” rapping 4.3 words per second. He came back this year with a surprise album and got a lot of success, although he is no way near as popular as 5-10 years ago.

The rap culture extended out to Europe, and today rap is very popular in England, with Stormzy, Skepta and my personal favorite : Ocean Wisdom (who beat Eminem’s record of the fastest rapping), and in France, with Damso, Niska, Nekfeu, or PNL.

I believe today rap is a big part of our culture, in music, or even fashion. More and more female rappers are becoming popular (Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Foxy Brown…). And although I don’t like the new generation of rappers (Migos, Future, Lil pump) which some call “mumble rappers”, I still love a lot of old and recent rappers and I listen to a lot of rap in general.

I hope you’ll have learnt something from this post and I hope I’ve interested you in some of the artists I have mentioned.

In case any of you are interested in old Rap, I will give you my top 10 favorite U.S rap songs :

1. J. Cole – No Role Modelz

2. Mobb Deep – Shook Ones, Pt. II

3. Eminem – Lose Yourself 

4. Ice Cube – It was a good day

5. Wiz Khalifa – Young, Wild and Free

6. D. Dre – What’s the Difference
7. Lil Wayne - A Milli

8. 50 Cent - P.I.M.P

9. 2pac – All Eyez On Me

10.A$AP Rocky – Everyday

 

And, in a slightly different genre, my favorite UK grime/rap songs :

1. Dave – Black

2. Ocean Wisdom – Tom & Jerry

3. Kano – P's and Q's 

4. Kaniva – Mummy Says 

5. Jaykae – Toothache

6. Krept & Konan – Don't Waste My Time 

7. Stormzy – Blinded By Your Grace

8. J Hus – No Denying 

9. Skepta – Track 5 

10. NSG – P.U.T.B