History Of Rapping Music

Rapping is the rhythmic spoken delivery of rhymes and wordplay, one of the elements of hip hop music and culture. Even though the word rap has sometimes been claimed to be a backronym of the phrase "Rhythmic African Poetry", "Rhythm and Poetry", "Rhythmically Applied Poetry", "Rapping About Poetry," "Racing Always Pacing," or "Rhythmically Associated Poetry", use of the word to describe quick speech or repartee long predates the musical form, meaning initially "to hit". The word had been used in British English since the 16th century, and particularly meaning "to say" since the 18^th century. It was part of the African American language of English in the 1960s meaning "to converse", and very soon after that in its present usage as a term denoting the musical style.

Rapping can be delivered over a beat or without supplement. Stylistically, rap occupies a gray area among speech, prose, poetry, and song. Rap is derived from the griots (folk poets) of West Africa, and Caribbean-style toasting. It also has precedents in traditional Celtic music. Modern rap battles, for occasion, bear a striking resemblance to the Limerick Game, a traditional Gaelic drinking game in which people compete for notoriety by making up abusive limericks about each other the loser having to buy the next round of drinks. Likewise, puirt a beul, a form of Scottish mouth music was incorporated into Appalachian music and is an early ancestor of modern mouth percussion, or beatboxing. The influence of Scottish and Irish music on hip hop is not direct, since virtually all of the originators of hip hop culture were African American, but were transferred indirectly by way of American roots music. Roots music was created out of the mixture of African and Celtic music in the American South and is typified by the combination of African rhythms, Gaelic melodies, and vocal improvisation. It forms the basis of virtually all American musical styles from bluegrass to the blues, jazz, rock, funk, and country. Hip hop grew out of this same tradition; stripping down the melody, emphasizing the rhythm, and incorporating mouth music, battling, and vocal improvisation.