The Roots of Hip Hop and Rap

Hip-hop started out in the Bronx in New York City with DJ Clive “Cool Herc” Campbell. A man of Jamaica, he essentially birthed the new genre of music by carrying over the Jamaican tradition of Toasting, which “is boastful poetry or over a melody provided by a deejay.” (ROOTS ‘n’ RAP, rice.edu) Its creation can be accredited to the record spinning DJ’s of the clubs of the 1970s. From this, the Master of Ceremonies (MC) was created. He would come up with creative rhymed phrases that could be delivered over a beat or acapella at dance clubs. They consisted of boasts, insults, “uptown throw downs”, and political commentary. From there, hip-hop only grew more and more popular. Being that it was created in a dominantly African American neighborhood, it became a tool for blacks to express their problems with society and be heard by the rest of the country. Though it was a microphone for African Americans to express themselves to the rest of the country, there were some other things that happened within the black community through hip-hop as well. One of these things was a diss track.

A diss track is a song created with the intent of offending or insulting another artist. Though diss tracks have been around for a number of years, they didn’t really pick up momentum until the birth of hip hop in the 1970s. An example of a diss track is RUN DMC’s song, Sucker MCs. In this song, he says,

You five dollar boy and I'm a million dollar man/ Youse a sucker MC, and you're my fan/ You try to bite lines, but rhymes are mine/ Youse a sucker MC in a pair of Calvin Klein/ Comin from the wackest, part of town/ Tryin to rap up but you can't get down

Diss tracks from the ‘70s and ‘80s were almost always directed at another artist/group, however th...

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...ributing a record and making money off of a record that says its okay to kill cops. I find that outrageous. The lyrics are outrageous, lyrics like ‘die, die, die, pig, die’ and here you have a corporation that fends putting out this record because it’s constitutional ()

After their deaths, Wallace and Shakur’s music can be found in many different cinematic works (examples). With the connecting over a common enemy, hip-hop has become an accepted idea that both whites and blacks enjoy today. In fact, shortly after Wallace’s death, a fresh face came into the game—Marshall “Eminem” Mathers. He went on to become one of the most significant and influential rappers of all time. Mathers is white, and would not have been able to become a part of the hip-hop scene without the conflict between the east coast and the west coast and everyone coming together because of it.