I really like the flow of rap music! Are you a fan?
Yeah! I must admit I'm an old lady and am not too familiar with newer rap artists except for Kendrick Lamar. What can you tell me about rap and its history?
The earliest precursor to rap was thought to be a West African griot tradition. Rappers were known as "oral historians" or "praise-singers"!
That makes sense! I bet it sounded really cool
in time to an instrumental track. Rap is often associated with, and is a primary ingredient of hip-hop music, but the origins of the phenomenon predate hip-hop culture. The earliest precursor to the modern rap is the West African griot tradition, in which "oral historians", or "praise-singers", would disseminate oral traditions and genealogies, or use their formidable rhetorical techniques for gossip or to "praise or critique individuals." Griot traditions connect to rap along a lineage of Black verbal reverence
"This is my fucking moment to say if I wanted to rap all the time, really rap, I would, but I also love to make music. I'll do this for you right now. But it's for me, too. It's my story…I'm trying to get back to that kid in the basement. To say what he has to say. And I'm trying to make it last."
On February 10, 2013, the same night Drake won a Grammy for Best Rap