RAP is an important part of American black music, the main tone of street culture and a "dark chocolate" in world pop music. This paper attempts to introduce several popular American RAP singers/groups, so that fans can understand their background information and find their favorite RAP stars. First of all, let's briefly introduce the origin and development of Rap rap rap music.
Disco, break dancing, graffiti art and rap music became popular among blacks and Spanish youths in the administrative area outside new york in the mid-197s. Teenagers in the neighborhood who can't afford to go to fashionable clubs are tired of disco music. They play heavier black punk pop music and repeat the contents of the same record back and forth [such as JAMES BROWN's "Get on the good foot"] to make their own mixed music and encourage dancers to dance more creatively. Soon this kind of dance is called dew dance.
When the host added rap to the music (at first, he recited some street impromptu poems in the popular language of the 196s), this kind of music began to become rap music. After that, the "Grand Wizard Theoder" was even more innovative. He invented the "scratch method", that is, rotating the record by hand to make the stylus move back and forth, so as to obtain a repetitive and rhythmic music effect. Flajs, another DJ "master", uses a metronome to listen to it in combination with the edited record clips. Then came a street subculture, whose members (called "beat children") wore uniform, connected the stereo to the street lamp line to get free power supply, and created music based on other people's works or their own imagination. A similar music form is called Hip Hop, and Lovberg Bugstarsky used the lyrics of "To the hiP, hop, hip hop". Rapper's Delight, released by Sugar Hill Gang, a band from the Bronx, in Sugar Hill Company in 1979, became a unique song on the list. This new underground music for black people combines pop words and melodies quickly, with a strong sense of rhythm. Its roots can be traced back to radio pop music broadcasting. In these festivals, DJ plays an important role. It is they who make urban rhythm and blues music popular through radio waves. When they introduce records or songs, they often use some rhyming slang words, which are witty and extremely fast. This language style is an ode to African blacks to show off and praise, and the style of crazy and rapid funny songs that are often sung through the traditional spoken language of African Americans. The Breaks released by Mercury in 198 is also a novel song, and there are some other new music. In 1982, Affri BAMBAATAA (AFRIKA) and his band "Soul Sonic Force" successfully carried out the most daring revolution in the history of rap music, transforming a "Trans Europe Express" by KRAFTWERK into a song called "Planet Rock". Through the cooperation of producer Arthur Baker and rap band Soul Sonic Force, Bambata recorded a record, which integrated club style, intense electronic music rhythm, European music and a new rap music called DJ Pop Music.
Flash (original name: Joseph Saddler) was the first master of editing records, and his songs added sound effects and rhythm processing (friction records). In 1982, The Furious Five released the album The Message. Later, the lead singer Melle Mel left the team, and Flajs published The Source, which was closer to the style of the block. The host, Cheese, is also a wizard who uses the turntable and mouth.
Run-D.M.C. * is a trio from Queens, new york City (both born in 1965). Their third album "Raosomg Hell" in 1986 became the first platinum rap album, with Joe Simmons and Darryl Mac in charge. Some listeners want to seek violence, but Simmons said, "Our fans know that we don't want to do this." It was predicted that this form of music would soon die out, but it didn't. People in the slums have created their own way of communication, which is widely circulated. In 1987, London Posey went to new york to record a 12-inch single "London Posey". On the A side of the tape, the accent of London's black dialect was used, and on the B side, the style of reggae was used. However, rap music is not so much music as a social phenomenon. Ironically, it has been used in advertising. Musically, it is equivalent to potato chips, but it is not the usual bread paste. People who don't like it will turn off the TV. BEASTIE BOYS is a white trio from a middle-class family (one of them was arrested in Liverpool in 1987 for allegedly hurting a female fan, and was later acquitted). Their 1987 album Licensed toⅢ sold 4 million copies, and the buyers were a group of 13-year-olds who knew nothing about it. This once again confirms the question: "Do you say rap music is for a lofty goal or just for grandstanding?"
EMINEM's biggest breakthrough is to prove that whites can also get involved in the RAP world dominated by blacks, and it has achieved great success. At the same time, his rebellion has not only been deeply loved by American teenagers for a long time, but also made him always criticized in public opinion.
EMINEM, formerly known as b. Marshall Bruce Mathers III, was born in Kansas City, Missouri on October 17th, 1973. In 1999, the white rapper swept the American charts with his powerful but equally controversial music. Eminem spent his childhood in turbulence. He lived in several different states with his mother, and finally they settled in Detroit, when he was 12 years old. Before he dropped out of school in the ninth grade, he began to engage in rap music and joined several bands, such as Basement Productions, The New Jacks and D12. Later, he changed his name to Eminem, and in 1997, he published a rough debut album under the independent brand FBT. Although the album was not well evaluated, Eminem was compared with those top rappers in Nas and AZ by some people, although the comparison was not appropriate. His popularity benefited from a column interview by Source's Unsigned Hype. Later, he won the annual Freestyle performance award of Wake Up Show, which was a powerful counterattack to his former critics, and then he won the runner-up in the annual rap Olympic competition in Los Angeles. In The Slim Shady EP album published next year, Eminem satirizes his critics mercilessly. One of the outstanding singles, Just Don't Give A Fuck, has become a hit single that is very popular in the underground music world. Then Eminem signed a contract with Aftermath Records, founded by Dr. Dre, who accepted him as an apprentice and helped him make his first full-length album. Dre's unique rhythm is very conspicuous in The Slim Shady LP album, which is full of violent incitement and distorted lyrics, and also reflects the dark side of Eminem's moral thoughts. Because in 97 Bonnie &; Songs such as Clyde (which contains the content of killing his child's mother) are full of dark content, as well as the constant verbal disputes between Clyde and his mother. Many folk religious groups accuse him of being irresponsible. Despite this, the album has achieved great commercial success, such as singles My Name Is and Guilty Concordance, which all achieved good results in the charts, and the album also climbed to the second place in the American album charts in March 1999. Then Eminem made frequent appearances in the collection Soundbombing Volume 2 of Rawkus Records and the album Da Real World of Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott. At the same time, his mother took him to court on the grounds that the rapper made inappropriate comments or even slandered herself in interviews and other events in Slim Shady LP album, which hurt her feelings, self-esteem and reputation. However, all these negative events did not adversely affect Eminem's next album sales. This album, The Marshall Mathers, was first published in March, 2, which established him as the most successful rapper since 2Pac and Snoop Doggy Dogg in the mid-199s. But at the end of this year, his poor personal life and constant accusations eclipsed his business success. Despite being criticized by gay rights organizations, Eminem won three Grammy Awards, and he also re-formed the D12 band and recorded an album called Devil.