Many schools of history begin the story of rap music as a mutation of southern soap-box blues. Using the basics of the blues style of music, rap is all about emotions and the personal interpretation of reality by the author of the song. Rap, then, should be considered as a definition essay of sort. What is rap? Rap music is an American minority artist creation. Unfortunately, rap music is not perceived by many Americans as an art form, but as a fad which they hope will soon fade away, one can trace the history of rap back to the West African professional singers / storytellers known as G riots. Rap is spoken word, rap is slang from the street corners of your brain.
Rap is smoking herb, rappers recite truthful social bombs, preachers even rap it just comes out in a religious form. Rap is the heart and soul of citizens in the tall cold walls of property. Rap is the story of the time when people lost all control. Rap is regional, descriptive, and ethnic.
Rap is regional, much like dialects. Different parts of the nation live in different manners. Every regional has its own story to tell, so in rap a song should tell the story of its region. Whenever a group of people is locked within the margins of American social discourse, that community may find it necessary to scream or chant or rap to be heard. It should come as no surprise, then, that alienation serves to be the medium for counter-cultural movements. Discontentment is only the beginning.
Each region should have its on flare, its on personality. Genuine rap informs its listeners about the current social climate. For example, if the mayor of a city has recently been convicted for misusing public funds, it would surely be in a rap song. If a guy went into a courtroom and shot the judge, bailiff, and the court reporter it would most likely be in a rap song. Unlike most of the lyrics out on the market today, genuine rap contains meaning and it sends a message to the listeners. Although those messages might have bad words, and show images of things that are socially wrong, that’s actually what is going on where they are from.
Their music represents their area and their people, and it is no different from a farmer singing about his cows and chickens out in farmland. Besides, Gangster Rap is not the only type of rap music; it is actually only part of it all. What makes rappers remarkable compared to other artists are their strength and choice of words, and their flow, or the melody, of their rhymes to flow on beat. Finally, rap music should communicate to the masses. Often times when people hear about rap music, they will paint a picture in their heads of black men cussing, guns, marijuana, lots of jewelry, and girls in the videos dressed like Victoria Secret models. Parents and teachers put an image in their kid’s head that Rap music is bad, and they do not want their kids to be influenced by something that is negative.
With the way rap music is advertised in the United States, parents can not be to blame the for thinking this way. But what people do not know is that rap is not just a type of music, it is a culture. It is a culture full of original elements, and it is also a place where people can show others what they know and who they are. Having come to the conclusion that there can be no conclusion to the evolution of rap music in the United States because rap music is still in a state of evolution. There are areas that have not even been explored that rap music has begun to influence. For example, gospel music is one musical area in which they are beginning to produce their own rappers.
In addition, rap music can not affect these other types of American music without somehow being itself affected by these different types of American music. It very ironic that even though rap music is a billion dollar a year business that both black and white local radio stations are still reluctant to play it for fear of loosing advertisers. These stations fail to take into account that rap music when it began was basically distributed through cassette recordings and has now grown to such a point that there are record companies that cater almost exclusively to rap music. Yet, when national advertisers wish to reach the 18-24 year old age group they will employ a rap artist. Rap music is truly an American minority creation which deserves more credit and recognition as an art form rather than as a fad which should just fade away with time..