MUSIC GENRE ∙ Folk ∙ Rock ∙ RnB Soul ∙ RAP ∙ Pop Hits ∙ World music ∙
Rap
RAP JOURNEY THROUGH 600 MCs
∙ RAP ∙ America ∙ Europe ∙ Latin America ∙ Elsewhere ∙
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RAP BEFORE THE AGE OF RAP
Rap became a mainstream musical genre in 1979 with Sugarhill Gang's hit "'Rappers delight'. However, rap had already been part of pop music since the early 40s as a subset of other musical genres, as illustrated by the following popular themes:
∙ 1941 ∙ Preacher and the bear (Jubalaires, gospel-rap, USA) ∙ Jezebel (The Golden Gate Quartet, gospel-rap, USA) Talking Unions (Almanac Singers ft Pete Seeger, regulation-rap, USA) ∙ 1942 ∙ Dear Mr President (Almanac Singers ft Pete Seeger & Woody Guthrie, regulation-rap, USA) ∙ 1947 ∙ Rythm talkin' (Louis Armstrong, jazz-rap, movie "New Orleans") ∙ 1948 ∙ Don't burn the candle at both ends (Louis Jordan, boogie-rap) ∙
∙ 1965 ∙ Ten commandments (Prince Buster, rocksteady-rap, Jamaica) ∙ 1966 ∙ They're coming to take me away, ha haaa! (Napoleon XIV, comedy-rap) ∙ 1967 ∙ Little toy soldier (David Bowie, prog . rock-rap) ∙ 1968 ∙ The gift (Velvet Underground, prog. rock-rap) ∙
∙ 1971 ∙ The revolution will not be televised (Gil Scott-Heron, human rights-rap) ∙ 1972 ∙ Cow thief skank (Lee 'Scratch' Perry, reggae dub-rap, Jamaica) ∙ Prisencolinensinainciusol (Adriano Celentano, gibberish rock rap, Italy) ∙ 1979 ∙ Sonny's lettah (Linton Kwesi Johnson, dub poetry-rap, Jamaica) ∙
