... Americans called the Sugar Hill Gang. Their hit single "Rapper's Delight" tore through the billboard charts, becoming the first rap song to make it to number one spot. With this breakthrough, the rap industry was born. More groups of "rappers" sprouted from everywhere in the 1980's, the most famous of which being ... 2 Live Crew, Public Enemy and Ice T. In the earlier years of rap music's development, rap was mainly listened to and produced by young African-Americans; yet in the mid 1990's more people of all races and socio-economic backgrounds began ... of themselves" and that the lyric...

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... the culture thy are from. The author hints on this when she writes "The larger point is that without critical dialogue with the creators of rap music and its genre, it is difficult if not impossible for outsiders, who are in many cases non-African American and not economically disadvantage, to ... even social statuses. In fact it is most artist sense of urgency to effect change of conditions threatening urban America. The article also ties in how rap music manifested in black America as a means for artist to show the traversing lines of language, culture, and the self with in. This was im...

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... see monkey do idea comes into play and that the African American youth watch the violence in music videos and repeatedly hear they violet lyrics in rap songs and this causes them to become violent. If young people think that it is ok for rappers to act out in criminal ways they will ... culture The heavy beat, incessant scratching, aggressive delivery and lyrical story line present a message of anger and frustration from urban existence."(613) Many of these rap artist have grown up in poverty and with the fear of being shot to death. Almost five percent of black males in urban America wi...

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... it is just for a cameo. Marketing directors and advertisers know that they will get a lot of customers if they have a rapper endorsing their item. Rap has gotten so popular, that rappers aren't just rappers anymore. They are now actors, clothing designers, producers, spokespersons, and hosts of TV. Shows, you ... lines are designed by rappers, like Sean John (P.Diddy), Roca Wear (Jay-Z), Shady Limited (Eminem), and Phat Farm (Russell Simmons). In conclusion, Rap music isn't a fad that is going to go away like disco. Everybody loves the fake world that rappers portray and they love good ...

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... the World" debuted at No. 1 even as he was serving a prison sentence at the time. 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 ... 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!" Rap music, once only popular with blacks in New York City, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and other scattered eastern U.S. territories, has grown to become one...

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... creating a radical attitude and that ideology reflected in their music videos. Big baggy pants and shirts, snap backs and bandanas were covered all over rap videos and each particular item sent out a unique message to the impressionable youth. As well, the language they used in these videos gave us new ... steam in its ability to produce results when paired with existing clothing and apparel lines as well is in creating its own. A perfect example of Rap's ability to sell came in 1999 when Tommy Hilfiger reported a significant increase in annual sales after tailoring their line for "the ...

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... parks, young men and women battled through freestyle rhymes and dance moves. Whatever the time period, and whoever he MC may have been, Rap has incorporated, and included several of the "classical" musical characteristics present in most western music today. These characteristics have influenced the popularity ... to the listener's preferences. Harmony is a musical combination of tones or chords (Stewart, 1998). This style is not found in a lot of rap music; however, Bone Thugs in Harmony have mastered the art of combining harmony and spoken words. This group uses techniques of blending ...

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... messages of sex and violence into the minds of young adults leaving behind their sexist and repetitive influential messages. Music has a very powerful influence on our emotions, moods, and behavior. Rap music influences teenagers negatively by increasing violent attitudes and promoting sexual aggression against women. Very few people would argue the power of music. Mothers use it to rock their babies ... a gun that discharges in a case of self-defense, while Ice-T's song relates to the deliberate killing of cops at random. Which one advertises indiscriminate violence? When teenagers are...

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... minds and go on living life. Because the people born in this generation have experienced many of life's hardships much younger than past generations, rap and hip-hop music provide reassurance that troubles will pass. Listening to famous artists who have become successful reminisce about their struggles and difficult times ... no one cares what they do, they engage in activities which they think are fun, but are illegal, and they get themselves into trouble. Rap and hip-hop music circle around this behavior in a whirlwind, as it discusses these same problems and means of entertainment that...

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... electric drum beats combined with digitally isolated sound bites from other musical recordings."(www.rap.com) Rap music has been categorized as, "A cultural evolution of the Black oral tradition and contemporary resistance rhetoric." (Smitherman,1997,p.21) Over time rap music has developed a lot of controversy in many ways, especially amongst parental units ... on the youth today. They talk about murder, rape, and assault as though they were okay. Almost everybody and everything that has to do with rap music is associated with drugs and alcohol. The ways that rappers address woman in the...

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... and over actually cause a person to become violent? One theory is with the more accepting and open society in which we now live, rap artists are deliberately singing songs about controversial issues to draw in more listeners. Rappers are "glamorizing" violence and children are unknowingly being desensitized ... important factor in the developing identity of a child. Rappers are creating a violent alternate world with their musical lyrics. For example, song lyrics from rap artist Jay-Z, "Ya"ll nervous knowin" them guns on full service, ready to fire. One body, two body, three body, four- I...

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... Bronx located in New York. Gifted teenagers with plenty of imagination began to forge this style from poetry and everyday life. Through television shows like BET's Rap City and Yo! MTV Raps and a succession of Hollywood movies, hip-hop gained millions of new fans across America, in places far removed from the ... hop scene developed, sporting its own musical style. Down-South rappers expressed themselves more different from East Coast and West Coast rappers. Southern rap is mostly made up of hardcore rap because of gangster-like roles. For instance, in southern New Orleans, we would have ...

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... times when people hear about Hip Hop/Rap music, they fill paint a picture in their heads of black men cussing, guns, marijuana, lots of gold, and girls looking like prostitutes. Parents and teachers put an image in their kids head that Rap music is bad, and they don`t want their kids to be influenced by something that is negative. With the way ... Rap music is advertised in the US, I would have to agree with that looking at it from an average parents point ... from, and thats who they are. Their music represents their area and their people, and its no different from a farmer singing ab...

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... , teaching a lesson, commenting on society, describing a mood, or conveying any other theme the whatever the author wishes. I would tell the Academy of American Poets that rap is the poetry of today just like rock and roll was a few years ago. It is how the rapper expresses himself and the life he experiences he or she has ... . Poetry is meant to be expression. Something that others can understand and possible relate too. Even if some professors would admit that rap might possibly be poetry; most would not say it is any good. I"d tell them that it is some of the best stuff out. There are...

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... , marijuana, lots of gold, and girls looking like prostitutes. Parents and teachers put an image in their kids head that Rap music is bad, and they dont want their kids to be influenced by something that is negative. With the way Rap music is advertised in the US, I would have to agree with that looking at it from an average parents point ... from, and thats who they are. Their music represents their area and their people, and its no different from a farmer singing about his cows and chickens in Idaho. Besides, Gangster Rap isn t the only type of Hip Hop music, its actually only a small ...

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... an emphasis on money and the millions they make, on the cars they drive, and on the houses they own with all the necessities. A true male rap-recording artist is known by this stereotype because most all of them uphold it and they are "true to the game" (Snoop Dog). A male rapper would ... not be "true to the game" without his cars. He has to "get his roll on" (Big Tymers). A usual car of choice for a male rap-recording artist is a Benz, Vette, Hummer, Cadillac, or Bentley. These are all top of the line, expensive cars with an emphasis on money. They not only buy these ... , but they li...

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... way or convince them to do things that would be considered wrong in today's society. The youth in today's society have a language all of their own. Rap music has a tendency to bring new and inappropriate words or phrases to the mouths of our children, pre-teens, and even teenagers. The beats to these ... spend listening to this horrific music go to waste. We can easily say that our society would be much healthier and less violent if we didn't have rap music. With artists like Eminem singing lyrics like "But I"m not like you I didn't slit her throat, I just tied her up and put her in ......

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... the first white rapper to succeed in what was originally known as a black mans world. Eminem music style is not that of what we know as "Gangsta Rap" but that of lyrical rhymes and life stories told in a beat. Eminem did emerge as the first white rapper to make it big, but his style is ... not that of typical black rap. N.W.A. (Niggaz Wit Attitude) are one of the most well-known gangsta rap groups talking about life on the street and crime. Once gangsta rap emerged more and more people started rapping about police brutality and killing people, and with that ... we can view is that of Ic...

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... two types of music, they show many differences. Country is full of guitars, fiddles, and sometimes-even banjos. Rap is exactly the opposite. The smooth lyrics and inventive beats in rap make it pleasurable to listen to. Someone who listens to country may consider rap nothing but a bunch of jumbled up, scurrilous language meaning absolutely nothing. Others might hate country because of the ... mutate into a cartoonish, larger-than-life act, with rappers like L'il Kim and Foxy Brown bragging about living large with expensive cars, designer clothes, diamond jewelry, and champagne. Similarl...

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... for anyone to use. One didn't need to be wealthy or have expensive resources to rhyme, it was something that could be practiced anywhere and perfected. Rap also became popular because it offered unlimited challenges. There was no real set of rules to rapping other than being original and rhyming to the beat of music ... . The possibilities were endless, one could rap about an important topic such as racism or about something fun like playing a sport. People became so good at rapping that they received as much praise as ... about being poor and trying to get out of the life they had. Ho...

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... center of controversy before for many of his songs and his explicit lyrics. As one student puts it, "Eminem became the next hit in rap in 1999 with extremely violent and shocking lyrics that included descriptions of raping and killing his ex-wife and vicious slurs against homosexuals." (Taking, ... the audiences liking. The winner is voted on by the audience. Lose Yourself is based on B-Rabbit preparing for, participating in and winning a rap battle. Anyone can relate to this song since it is about an underdog succeeding at what he set out to accomplish: STUN THE WORLD! The ... opp...

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... was in 9th grade three times, basically for skipping school to go battle, and he was a little "nerdy" (celebrity storm). Battling meant he would rap against other people to show off his skills. He would constantly battle other people to show his true talent. Marshall Mathers came up with the name Eminem ... them to each other and they hit it off. They dropped school together and in 1995 had a daughter, Hailie Jade Scott. Em had begun his rap career by pursuing a life and identity in the hip-hop culture by the released of his first single with the group Soul Intent in 1995. The ... chief...

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... would constantly get robbed. Eminems uncle committed suicide after his girlfriend broke up with him. Eminems only escape from his miserable life was to turn to drugs and rap. Eminem was a youth in America going nowhere fast. At the age of 18 he began rapping, and sending in self made cassettes of his work to ... he turned was a different door being shut in his face. A man with such a disturbing childhood, with no one to reach out to deserves his opportunity to rap to the youth of the world, the life that he had to struggle through, and the message behind his lyrics and success. Eminems ...

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... old style, NY didn't like, so he tried it with popular music. Emceeing served to involve the crowd by acknowledging them. This would later become rap. Lovebug Starski (or DJ Hollywood) came up with the term "hip hop". Second para: Evolution: early-mid 80s. Afrika Bambaataa. Chief Rocker Busy ... Grandmaster Flash. Emceeing started as ways to draw the crowd's attention, to involve them in the process of DJing. It became more and more popular. Rap does not require expensive equipment, but only practice, anywhere, anytime. Its only requirement is that it rhymes with a good beat. It became...

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... mostly due to the violence that seems to follow them around. I believe the reason for this is the media's constant extreme focus on rap stars and their subsequent violent behaviors. The biggest story to date in the hip-hop world was the feud that went on between the east ... rappers. The assumed leaders were Tupac Shakur representing the west and the Notorious B.I.G. headed the east coast. During the war, the only time that rap was mentioned in the news was to tell about someone getting shot or words that had been exchanged between the two sides. All a person ... Combs was subsequently ...

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