I have noted that there is a stigma surrounding “ownership” of rap/hip-hop music.
I enjoy listening to rap music, new and old because I grew up around that particular style of music and have come to love every era of it.
Anyone can listen to rap/hip-hop music, but it was started by people of the Black community.
Artists such as DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash all started the trend of hip-hop music in the early 1970s, which is where rap music came from.
These three innovators are known as the “Holy Trinity” of hip hop.
One of the most influential hip-hop pioneers was DJ Kool Herc, a Jamaican immigrant regarded as the founding father of hip-hop.
Kool Herc made history in 1973 when he and his sister hosted the “Back to School Jam” in the recreation room of their Bronx apartment building at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue.
This historical party is recognized for launching the hip-hop movement.
Kool Herc also introduced the “breakbeat”, which is a moment in the song where it is just extending percussion called the “break” and people dance.
With this he started a technique called, “The Merry Go Round”, this is a DJing technique that involves looping a record’s instrumental break by switching between two turntables.
The “break” this DJ curated would start the cultural phenomenon known as break dancing.
Eventually, this style of music and dance became mainstream.
Not only did Kool Herc create break dancing he also started the idea of rhythmic spoken delivery of rhymes, otherwise known as rap today.
His style of lyrical chanting and rhythmic wordplay was an early form of rapping inspired by the Jamaican tradition of toasting.
He would shout phrases like “B-Boys, B-Girls, are you ready? Keep on rock steady,” “This is the joint! Herc beat on the point,” To the beat, y’all,” and “You don’t stop!”.
Soon after Herc would hire Coke La Rock to be his MC.
Coke La Rock was rumored to deliver the first ever rap lyrics, “There’s not a man that can’t be thrown, not a horse that can’t be ridden, a bull that can’t be stopped, there’s not a disco that I Coke La Rock can’t rock.”
So with that being said, Black people started hip hop/rap music, but no one really “owns” the whole genre.
That would be like saying because Italians are famous for spaghetti so they own the entire category of pasta.
In fact, pasta is believed to have originated in China during the Shang Dynasty (1700-1100 BC), but still many people enjoy it around the world, like hip hop/rap music.
Rap music is also a way for people to express themselves or address world issues.
Since rap music was started it has always spread a message, for example, Lauryn Hill’s, “Black Rage”, produced in 2012, where expresses the struggles of being Black.
Her first lyric is, “Black rage is founded by two-thirds of a person”.
Through songs dating back to when the first rap lyrics were written the Black community expresses more than what we may know on a first listen basis.
A great example of this would be Kendrick Lamar’s recent Super Bowl LIX, Apple Music Halftime Show.
I had to go back a few times to rewatch to understand what he was trying to express.
It went over many people’s heads.
The people who said that it sucked most likely did not understand the show from a historical standpoint.
I am not here to tell you to be educated, I am here to tell you that there is so much more to rap music than we think.
Yes, some songs do not have any meaning and are stupid or humorous but the artists I have listed and mentioned deserve their recognition, not only for their voice but for the power they have in their message.
So what I am saying is that rap/hip-hop music comes from someone wanting to find a unique way to express a cultural struggle and that should be recognized.
