Posted on 02/09/2020 6:48:14 AM PST by Cecily
It was 1979. Hip-hop was happening, in dance halls, at high school gyms and on street corners in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx.
Rappers such as Melle Mel and Fab Five Freddy were spitting rhymes over scratching turntables; breakdancers performed with them, throwing down acrobatic moves, stylishly posing.
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
It was easy on the eyes when an mtv rap video was about stepping in dog s—t.
Bullsh@t.
Pigmeat Markham rapped at Chess Records a decade earlier and appeared as a celebrity on Laugh In.
The Judge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRS62nccwmw
And Pigmeat didn’t invent rap.
Neither did Johnny Otis (who was a mover at the beginning of rock and roll, “discovering” Etta James, Big Mama Thornton, and Little Richard). here’s Johnny rapping in the 60
(NSFW)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNDwvncWRyQ
and Art Carney didn’t invent rap either but here he is in the 1950s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hz1EIpfvLY
Rapture,,,
Some have also noted that Muhammad Ali was sort of profo rap.
As with any cultural phenomenon origins are complex ....
I would think Homer reciting the Iliad would’ve been earlier. Not sure about his dance moves. Maybe he had the Stevie Wonder / Ray Charles sway thing going on.
It has a good beat but sad they could not make it to the end of the song without talking about penises and sperm. Rap has always been a gutter genre which arises from a broken culture.
The 2 60s songs I cite have drum and bass with the rapper spitting on rhythm. That is rap. Not origins.
Undeniable if you listen to them.
I agree entirely. My only point being if someone wants to talk about origins you have to dig pretty deep.
I also agree with the post about the Iliad and have taught that same point often in the past. I also almost mentioned Rapture. Ah blondie. Legendary.
Beowulf too
I’ve seen a movie from the mid 30’s where white boys in NYC were break dancing and spinning on their backs. Nothing is new.
“Rap” is specifically an electronic age folk form. While many people before the late 70s talked over a rhythm track, it was kids, on street corners, plugging into a streetlamp for power and rhyming on the fly over the thump and scratch of vinyl. A folk form like “Doo Wop” a generation before.
My favorite ‘Rapper?’ Blondie! (Deborah Harry)
‘Rapture’ 1980
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHCdS7O248g
Of course Bob Dylan has his rap too...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGxjIBEZvx0
Ken burns documentary on jazz tells a good story of that complex art. Includes fascinating histories of New Orleans Chicago and New York.
As you say nothing is new.
But sometimes old things come together with other old things and create something which is sort of new. This is how civilization survives.
Needs a little more base and a few more expletives and viola you have a rap song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38aDWDUjlOY
Hated the song at the time, and even more now at what became afterwards.
I thought it was Starland Vocal Band.....
Blondie knew Fab 5 Freddy and had run in those circles for years. She even waitressed at Velvet Underground shows.
Rap and hip hop destroyed MTV. They were accused of being racist because most of the videos were rock (which is what the viewers wanted) and therefore mostly white artists. They capitulated of course so we ended up with the cesspool we have today.
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