rap

THE HISTORY OF RAP by Samantha Hathaway
(This is a paper I turned in for class, but I've changed it into a kick-ass web project.)�
The setting:

In 1973 people knew nothing about rap.� The word actually used to mean talk, like "get out cracker boy, I am rapping with the bros about bread."

If you stopped someone on the street and said, "what do you think about Dr. Dre and 2-Pak?", they wouldn't even know what you were talking about.� Yet from these modest beginnings grew a huge money maker for people as diverse as Ice-T and Ice Cube.�

Originally, rap started out as a way for African-Americans to speak in code so the white people (or crackers) could not understand them.� This was helpful because the white man was in those times the oppressor and would often make the black man wear ugly pants and shirts with large collars.

One of the first true rap artists was Stevie Wonder. He wrote such classics as "Gangsta's Paradise" and "Amish Paradise." After Stevie came a group of Phillie (from Philadelphia, in the Eastern United States) brothers called Run-DMC.� Actually they might have been from New York, but data from that time period is poor.�

Run-DMC combined rapping with old Aerosmith songs, a trick that would make them famous over most of the world.� This was the beginning of rap (although some sources say it started earlier.)� Aerosmith, however, was not a rap group. They were old men with women's hair styles.� (Most rap artists wore Adidas athletic clothes.)� Later on rap artists would wear similar clothes but leave on the tags, so as to prove they had just stolen them.� Also at this time the Fat Boys wrote a song about the twist, and mostly rapped about themselves (a tactic later rap stars would wisely copy.)

The next major rap star was either Ice-T, NWA, or LL Cool J.� Again records are not very clear. NWA was a group of brothers from Compton, near the Spanish capital city of Los Angeles (Lost Angels.)� At this time black people were still forced by the white man to listen to R&B, so NWA was a breath of fresh air.� They called themselves niggaz because Compton has a poor school system and they couldn't spell.� But their talent was incredible, and later Ice Cube would leave the group and get shot in a movie about the Gulf War.

Soon after rap took a new turn with Vanilla Ice.� Undoubtedly one of the most talented performers of his generation ("shit, a white boy that can dance like that?"-Chuck D) Vanilla Ice's short but brilliant career was ended because no one liked him anymore.� About this time LL Cool J released "Momma Said Knock You Out", a song white children would often quote at length in public school systems.

About this time (1980s) came out a bunch of famous rappers: 2Pac Shakur, Dr. Dre, Chuck D, Flava Flav, Digital Underground, and others.� Perhaps the most talented was Dr. Dre, who wrote a stunning album about smoking the marajuana plant.� This happended while Ice-T's career went downward because Charlton Heston said his lyrics to "Cop Killa" implied killing cops was a good idea.� Soon 2Pac Shakur was dead and Snoop Doggy Dog was famous. There were others like the fat rappers (Sir Mix-a-Lot, Heavy Z or D etc.), but fat rappers have always had short careers like fat actors (Chris Farley etc.)

The stage was set for Enimem, a white person using the black people's style and a lot of funny jokes to sell millions of records.� Enimem became the highest selling artist of all time and still is.� His main hit was "Hi My Name Is" a song that only has five words because the rest have been cut out for fear of hurting Charlton Heston's feelings. Enimem took rap to a new level in marketing and made all the people who wore backwards visors cool.

So that's the short history of rap, a story with many exciting twists and no end in sight.� Where will Enimem, Dr. Dre, and other artists lead us in the future?� Only time will tell.� Maybe there is an answer in Dr. Dre's own lyrics, "buck buck, lights out, cause when I get my sawed off, niggaz get hauled off."