Tuesday, August 4, 2015

hip-hop

Although it had been around for some time, it was around 1983 I first heard about hip-hop, an African-American invention of song that is all beat and spoken poetry, rhythm and lyrics without melody. Its origins may be from the tradition of rapping that reaches centuries back in the continent of Africa as a form of chant with drum-beat.

Hip-hop or rap, became wildly popular for awhile in some age and social groups. Cars were driven with windows open and the chant and the beat pouring out and aloft. Some used rough language, passionately expressing impoverished conditions. As rap became more popular, and financially successful, some of the replicators of the sound threw in rough language trying to imitate the form, without personal knowledge of the conditions from which the language had emerged. Though that was frowned upon by some as vulgarity, both the original and the subsequent productions of rhythmic beat poetry still touched a lot of folks and has quite a following.

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