Rap

Etymology

The rap is interpreted as the Rétroacronyme expressions English are rhythm and poetry or rock'n'roll against police force (due to a rebellion of young people of the Années 1980 against the police force),

What the music rap?

Topics

The rap as the remainder of the culture hip-hop cumulates a festive aspect and an aspect protestor. The topics approached vary according to the kinds and evolved/moved according to the times. As the Drunk and the Funk of which they are inspired, the texts cover subjects common to all the Western popular music i.e. the daily life, the love or the sex.

Many groups of rap also have texts with vocation protestor which bring it closer to punk and of the poetry of the Beat generation. The first song of this kind is The Message writes by Miss Mel and sung by Grandmaster Flash. These texts, sometimes very virulent against the symbols of the capacity, the police force or justice in particular stigmatized the rap for part of the population. One can quote the American group Public Enemy or the French group Assassin. Criticisms violent are in fact rather minority and the aspect protestor is generally limited to a denunciation which passes by descriptions of the social problems such as the Racisme, the Pauvreté, unemployment, exclusion. In reaction against the dramatization of certain lyric writers, of the rappeurs approach the daily life of the popular quarters from a positive point of view.

A recurring set of themes, in particular in the Gangsta rap, turns around and the symbol consumer society of the capacity, like the women, the cars or the firearms. The rappeurs exploit these phantasms and in general build characters without bond with their true personality and their real daily newspaper. Criticisms were made against these qualified texts of sexists, materialists or preaching violence, by politicians and part of the medium rep.

The Religion is also present, in particular Christianity in the American rap.

Rhythmic structure

The rate/rhythm S of the music of the rap (it is not always the case of the words) are almost always rates/rhythms 4/4 or 2/2. In its rhythmic base, the rap “swingue”. If it does not count a rate/rhythm 4/4 square (as in the pop music, the rock'n'roll, etc), the rap is based rather on a feeling of anticipation, a little similar to the emphase of the swing which one finds in the Jazz. Like this one, the rate/rhythm rap includes/understands a subtlety which makes that he is seldom written as he sounds. It is to some extent a basic rate/rhythm 4/4 to which the interpretation of the musician is added. He is often played like “late”, in a slackened and soft way.

This style was brought in a prevalent way by the musics Soul and Funk, which repeated throughout the pieces their musical rates/rhythms and their topics. In years 1960 and 70, James Brown provides the foundations on which the rap will be founded: a rythmée music (its recordings are still today an inexhaustible source of samples for the DJ), a style of jerked, sometimes spoken or shouted song and texts conveying a strong identity and social or political claims (in particular Say It Loud, I' m Black And I' m Proud which becomes a true anthem of the American black community). It was the perfect springboard to push the MC to write their rhymes. It is besides always what attracts more in the rap: the emphase put on the words and the prowess of their elocutions. The instrumental Rap is perhaps the rare exception to this rule. In this sub-genus of the rap, the DJ (or Disc jockey S ) and the producers are free to test with the creation of instrumental pieces. While they can take sound sources comprising of the voices.

Instrumentation and production

The instrumentation rap rises from the music Disco, funk and R&B, at the same time in the field of the sound equipment and the sampled albums. Whereas the purpose of the mixing carried out by the DJ disco music and of clubs was to produce a continual music with discrete transitions between the pieces, that carried out by Kool DJ Herc gave rise to him a practice aiming insulating and at extending only the Breaks by mixing them between them with two copies of the same piece. In the beginning, the station-wagons (or Breakbeat S ) were the transitions inside a piece, especially made up of percussions. It is what Afrika Bambaataa described like “the part of the disc until everyone waits… where they are let go and make the insane ones” (Toop, 1991). James Brown, Bob James and Parliament - among others - was a long time of the popular sources for the station-wagons . On this rhythmic basis, one could add instrumental parts coming from other albums (and much did it). The instrumentation of the first Sample S used is the same one as that of the music funk, disco music or Rock: voice, guitar, low, keyboard, battery and percussions.

Whereas the originality of the music rap came mainly from the station-wagons of the albums of the DJ, the arrival of the Boite at rates/rhythms (called in English happy box or drum machine ) allowed to the musicians rap to integrate original fragments into their music. The sounds of limps at rate/rhythm were played either over the music produced by the DJ, or only. The quality of the rhythmic sequences gradually became central for the musicians of rap, because these rates/rhythms were the share more dancing of their music. Consequently, limp them at rate/rhythm were quickly equipped to produce kicks (sounds of Grosse case) with low powerful and sinusoidal in background. That made it possible to emulate the solos of battery produced well of old albums of funk, drunk person and rock'n'roll dating from years 1960 and 70. Limp at rate/rhythm had moreover one limited stock of predetermined sounds including of the Cymbale S, the large cases, the clear cases and the Tom S.

The introduction of the sampler S (or sampleurs) changed the way in which the rap was produced. A sampler makes it possible to record and store numerically small sound passages coming from any apparatus having an electric exit, like a platinum-disc. The producers thus could sample the sounds of battery of the albums of their youth. More important still, they could sampler of the copper sounds, basic, of guitar and piano to be added to their rates/rhythms. And the rap had finally its orchestration with large complete.

The hard and energetic character of sonorities of the music rap, often rather far away from the more organic sound of the other musical genres, constitute an obstacle with the recognition of the kind as an artistic form with whole share. Even the groups of rap having an orchestra often use the samples and the hard and energetic sound of the machines to create their rates/rhythms in studio (at the time of concerts, they usually recreate them with an orchestra). The rap is the object of a spread mistake according to which the samples and limp them at rate/rhythm are techniques for lazy musicians or who they are only one pale compensation for “a true” orchestra (this consideration being besides current for any music making use of these techniques). In the facts, the producers of rap are often in the search of a stamp, a texture and a frequency precis for their sample and their rhythmic sequence. A beater playing on line the station-wagon of Funky Drummer of James Brown cannot replace its sample. However, one can note these last years a tendency of return towards the original instruments with musicians and producers such as Timbaland, Outkast, The Roots and The Neptunes.

The flow

The flow is the way in which the rappor sings. It is in general faster and more rate/rhythm that the other types of song. The flow can be to concentrate on the rate/rhythm, to approach the word or more rarely melody. The traditional poetic processes the such Metaphor S, Alliteration S and Assonance S are used massively. The Argot is often used.

History of the music rap

Origins and influences

The rap formally seems to approach the African culture whose the movement hip-hop is claimed. The stressed song of the MC indeed evokes the griot, poet and musician who chronic the daily life or is invited to sing at the time of the celebrations (ex: marriage). In the same way, the return to a music primarily based on the rate/rhythm more than on the melody brings back to the polyrythmies African percussions.

Most of the first DJ and MC are of Jamaican origin. The Sound system S jamaïcains thus had a role in the appearance of the rap in the Ghetto S American Noirs.

Genesis

The ancestor nearest to the rap is the “spoken Word”, appeared at the beginning of the Années 1970 with some confidential groups of which the Last Poets like Gil Scott Heron. It is at that time about the declamation of speech on rates/rhythms beaten by African drum S with the Négritude like topic of predilection.

The Hip-Hop , him, was born in 1974 with DJ Kool Herc, and the first raps were carried out by MC (Masters of ceremony) which all made simple rhymes to put environment in evening.

The first piece of rap itself, King Tim III of the group Fatback Band, is born in 1979.

In 1979, a few months after, the first tube rap leaves in 45 turns, it is Rapper' S Delight of the Sugarhill Gang. The rappeurs are accompanied there by an orchestra Funk and it is not that about a vulgar caricature of the revolution which prepares in the streets New York eases. One can also note the publication of Magnificient Seven in 1980 of the group Punk English The Clash.

In 1982, The Message of Grandmaster Flash was the announced revolution. It is about the first tube Hip hop, a Culture of street which was then made up mainly of Danse and of DJ-ing . It is curious besides that, in spite of the fact that it is the rappor Miss Mel which one hears on the recording, the title is credited with the name of Large Master Flash (the DJ - originator sound). The rappor did not have the leading role which it has today. The American rappeurs such as Run DMC criticizes the racism of the white in their songs, the majority of the listeners are then blacks. It is Puff Daddy, which copied the music rap on the soft songs very in vogue at the white in the USA in order to conquer the white market.

The Années 1980 were those of the explosion of the rap with groups Politique S like Public Enemy or entertainment like Run-DMC. In the line of the C It Yourself of the Punk S New Yorkean (the Hip hop was initially called the “black Punk”), the rappeurs grated on synthetic and brutal rates/rhythms, resulting from Boîte at rates/rhythms cheap).

It is about true a popular Musique of street which developed its own topics: on the one hand under the influence of the Universal Zulu Nation (or more commonly called Zulu Nation ) of Afrika Bambaataa which saw in the Hip hop the means of moving away the young people from the Drogue S and the gangs and of emulating their creativity, on the other hand as a testimony of a difficult life (rap " hardcore").

Initially resulting from the disadvantaged districts, the rap at its beginnings is often a discharge system with the discomfort and the claims of the young people who live them. The remarks violent one or vintages are frequent, readily provocative ( Fuck tha Police of NWA or It is clear of NTM). The rap is thus accommodated by the general public more like one social phenomenon that like an artistic form with whole share.

The golden age

The end of the Années 1980 is indicated like the golden age of rep. With New York, the war of the crews finishes. The crews joined together rappeurs (often tens) of the same district, joined together around a charismatic producer. Most famous was Juice Crew of Queensbridge, taken along by famous the Marley Marl to which one allots the invention of the sampling (samples extracted from other pieces then included in the loops). Juice Crew made many beefs (fights) with the lyricists (lyric writers) of the other districts. One remembers KRS-One especially, of the South Bronx, which dared to defy Juice Crew by interposed songs whose The Bridge is Over celebrates it that it came to sing in front of them in a room of Queensbridge.

The golden age, it is thus emergence with New York of the duets DJ-MC like Gang Starr (DJ First and Guru), Eric B & Rakim or Pete Rock & CL Smooth which continue the work of Marley Marl; and in California of a new scene Gangsta with especially the Niggaz With Attitude (NWA).

NWA was presented in the form of a claiming group and a violent one, on certain points politicized with the manner of the New-Yorkais groups like Public Enemy. The worship of the Gangsta (gangster) was born with the tube Straight Outta Compton (see the album Straight Outta Compton).

Evolution of the rap nowadays

Certain people criticize the mediatization and the marketing of the rap which would have diverted it values that he asserted still 15 years earlier. The rap became current musical very with the mode and very large quantities of money are concerned. Specialized radios appeared but privilege the artists “general public” whose promotion is ensured by the majors and end in a certain homogeneity with the detriment of the independent artists. Some point out that the rap is since the beginning a music general public which like all the kind, contains in its center of the commercial artists and others more independent and perhaps more creative.

The evolutions of the rap are numerous. One can speak for example about “hip-hop instrumental” or " Abstract hip-hop " (RJD2, Big Hobby-horse, DJ Krush), a very elaborate music which is based on rhythmic Hip-Hop. The rap is also inspired and mixed with the other kinds until scrambling the borders: Rock'n'roll and Metal with the fusion and the Rapcore, Trip-hop with the Abstract hip-hop traditional musics or electronic.

The rap in the world

The rap appeared in the United States but was spread in the world as from the years 1980.

In Europe

The French Rap is one of the first to have emerged in 1979. The pioneer is Dee Nasty followed by groups such as IAM, Suprême NTM, or Assassin.

In Germany one can quote Kool Savas Aggro Berlin, Die Fantastischen Vier, with the Denmark the pioneer is MC Einar. The Polish rap appeared with Kazik and Liroy, in the Netherlands Osdorp Posse or Frans & Baath B, in Ireland Quarashi, In Serbia Beogradski, Greece Goin' Through.

In Asia

The Korean rap is represented by groups such as OJ PD, Drunken Tiger, Psy, and Epik High.

DJ Krush is the Japanese artist most known but there is also M-flo, East End X Yuri. One can quote the Taiwanese MC Hot Dog or hongkongais them Lazy Motherfucker.

America

The Canadian rap appeared in the years 1980 with Maestro Fresh Wes.

The rap of the Filipino date of the years 1980 with Francis Magalona.

Vico C is the first rappor latino who will be at the origin of the Reggaeton. One can also quote the Mexican group Calo. The rap in South-American was marked by the success of the American group Cypress Hill.

See French Rap - Hip hop in Belgium - Québécois Rap - Groups of rap African - Rumanian Rap and hip-hop - Groups of rap Spanish.

See too

Lexicon of the hip-hop
Culture of youth
Reggaeton
List of American rappeurs
List of the musicians of the hip-hop French

Various styles of rap

Be-X-old: Рэп

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