While I was a sophomore at the Universityof Kansas, we danced to this song at every opportunity and I owned my own vinyl copy.
The first rap song to go mainstream was “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugar Hill Gang, which was released in September 1979 and remained on the Billboard chart for 12 weeks, although it never climbed into the top 10. “None of these original DJs expected anything from the music but local fame, respect in the neighborhood, and the modest fees from the parties given at uptown clubs or the odd midtown ballroom.” It’s interesting to note that among these revered founders of hip-hop, “money was not a goal,” according to Nelson George’s book, Hip-Hop America. Typically, when you speak of the origin of rap music, three men are mentioned: Jamaican-born Kool DJ Herc who is considered the “godfather of hip-hop,” Afrika Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash. Superfly is one example, about a drug dealer named Priest who was determined to earn enough money so he wouldn’t have to work for the white man the rest of his life. However, many believe rap music had it predecessors in the early ‘60s and ‘70s in African American music such as the Last Poets, Gil Scott-Heron and Millie Jackson, “as well as in the speeches of Malcolm X, the Black Panthers and blaxploitation films.” Blaxploitation, or black exploitation, films featured black actors in gangsta fiction and in “pimp narratives ” narratives that explored the ins and outs of the ghetto red light district. Rap was birthed in the early 1970s in the South Bronx, N.Y. Among other things it uses cloaked speech and disguised cultural codes to comment on and challenge aspects of current power inequalities … rap music is a contemporary stage for the theater of the powerless” (pp. In her book, Black Noise, Tricia Rose offers this definition: “Rap music is … a hidden transcript. Rap also serves as a forum, according to Rapper Bubba Sparxxx, “to tell people about our lives and what we’ve seen.” Rap artists rap about the good, bad and the ugly from the perspective of their life’s experiences. How might we define rap? First, rap is talking in rhyme to the rhythm of a beat, or spoken poetry over other existing music genres. Either we can condemn this hip-hop culture and in effect “throw the baby out with the bath water,” or we can creatively seek ways to use rap music’s popularity to advance the kingdom. God’s people-those who confess with confidence that God is sovereign-have at least two responses. Private school students, public school students and home schoolers listen to it.
Young people of all races, ethnicities and social-economic levels listen to hip-hop, whether they are urban, rural or living in the suburbs. Rap music is everywhere and the postmodern generation that has been weaned on hip-hop will not let us ignore it. Pick up a copy at your local grocery store and, while you’re there, quench your thirst by sipping on the energy drink, PIMP Juice. I have seen two magazines devoted to the hip-hop culture: The Source and XXL. Film soundtracks feature rap songs, and rappers like Eminem are starring in movies. When Cadillac executives wanted feedback on the future model of the Escalade, they invited rappers and athletes to meet with them. Rap artists are key spokespeople in commercials for tennis shoes. In the musical field, rap is blending with other musical genres like jazz and metal. There is a lot of evidence that Walt is right. Since then, hip-hop has continued to be a dominant force in not only popular music but as CPYU President Walt Mueller has said, “hip-hop is driving mainstream culture.” Hip-hop is not a passing fad. As Joan Anderman reported in the Rochester Post-Bulletin, “For the first time in the 50-year history of the Billboard charts, all Top 10 songs in the country last week were by black artists-signaling the culmination of hip-hop’s ascent as the dominant force in popular music and culture.” Something historic happened in October 2003. ©2005, The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding
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