Rap Music More Than Just a Fad

The earliest known origins of Rap music began amongst the youth of South Bronx, New York in the mid 1970’s. Rap pioneers such as Grandmaster Flash and Kool Herc became increasingly popular throughout the rest of the decade, single-handedly clearing the way for later acts such as The Sugarhill Gang, whose song, “Rapper’s Delight” is considered to be the very first commercial success with a Rap song. The presence of Hip-Hop’s popularity continued only to gain momentum well into the 1980’s, with the birth of such acts as, RUN-DMC, De La Soul, The Beastie Boys, Ice-T, and LL Cool J.

RUN-DMC was among the first rap groups to climb the pop charts in a major way, they also were among the first to make incur

Although mainly hardcore and uncut, there do exist Rap artists that strive to set positive examples for their followers. Kurtis Blow rapped in a video for the March of Dimes' fundraising drive to battle birth defects and he has campaigned against teenage drinking as a spokesperson for the National Council on Alcoholism. On the television show "Reading Rainbow," RUN-DMC told viewers how books enabled them to become "kings of rock." On another occasion, group member Darryl "DMC" McDaniels said, "Little kids like to follow me around the neighborhood. I tell them to stay in school. Then I give them money to get something in the deli." RUN-DMC is one of the several rap groups advising kids to keep off drugs (and most recently, to drink Dr. Pepper). Grandmaster Flash and Doug E. Fresh have each made records telling of the horrors of cocaine. On Grandmaster Flash's hit "White Lines," he details how the drug can ruin a life, and shouts, "Don't do it!"

Lack of originality is becoming an all too common occurrence within the mainstream Rap music industry, this in turn begs to ask the question, “What does the future have in store for Hip-Hop as an art form, and as a cultural influence? If history has taught us anything, it’s that nothing lasts forever. Music is constantly changing itself as is life. Without change, we as human beings would be doomed to repeat our failures, and all creativity would cease to exist. Although the original spirit of Rap music seems to be diminishing, there will always exist persecution and depression within our society, it is in our nature. As long th

Some topics in this essay:
DC Philadelphia, Middle-Class America, , Slick Rick, Love Hate, Joe Perry, Sugarhill Gang, McDaniels Little, Rap Metal, Cool RUN-DMC, rap music, form music, subject matter, run-dmc rap, beastie boys, music industry, grandmaster flash,