The Evolution Of Rap Music

9 Pages 2220 Words

der of the middle class were forced out of their comfortable apartments. Slumlords began replacing landlords as the owners of most Bronx apartment buildings. The third and probably most important event that occurred was the graffiti aspect of the Hip Hop culture. A group of seven teenage boys began to vandalize the vicinities around the southeastern part of the Bronx. Slowly but surely more kids began to join what they called the “Black Spades”.
According to Hager, gangs in New York reached their peak in1973. At this time many people began to get into music and dancing as well as attending clubs. Gang graffiti was becoming very wide spread in the Bronx as well. At the same time, the number of gangs was fluctuating, because many were getting wiped out from other gangs and drugs were becoming very popular among these individuals. As graffiti started to develop, graffiti writing groups started to form. Two groups that were popularly known were the Ex-Vandals and the Independent Writers.
Now that we have a slightly better understanding of what was going on in the Bronx at this time, we can start to explore where Rap music came from. One genre of music that had a large affect on Rap music was Jamaican music. More specifically, the style of Jamaican music we will examine is known as ‘toasting’. In his book, “Cut ‘N’ Mix” Dick Hebdige described ‘toasting’ as when the Jamaican disc jockies talked over the music they played. This type of music was often played at dances in Jamaica known as “blues dances”. At these dances black American sailors stationed on the island introduced R&B records to the Jamaicans. Among some of the favorite R&B artists were Fats Domino, Amos Melburn, Louis Jordan, and Roy Brown. Because there was no local Jamaican bands who could play...