Rap Music: A Look Back At Its Origin

Hip-Hop has been evolving as the years passed. But not everybody knows how it started. I want to explain the evolution of Hip-Hop music. Hip-Hop began 45 years ago by two men named DJ Kool Herc and Coke La Rock. Their song named ‘Kim Tim III (Personality Jock) happened to be the first commercially released hip-hop music. At first, rapping was something done at parties to hype the crowd up. Usually someone would spit a brief freestyle to get everyone going. Gradually, it started to catch on and people started bringing it out into the mainstream.

In the 80s was when rap really started to blossom. People like Kurtis Blow, Run DMC, Grandmaster flash, and LL Cool J brought rap music into the light of the music community. Rap at the time was positive and clean and was very interesting. At the end of the eighties, rap started to get a little vulgar, mainly due to the musical activities of the 2 Live Crew. Based in Miami Florida, the 2 Live Crew were the first ones to be vulgar in rap music. Their music was so controversial that they even went to court for it. Stores were then at risk of being prosecuted for selling their music. Overall, it paved the way for the 90’s, often referred to as the ‘Golden Age’ of hip-hop music.

Rappers like Tupac Shakur, Biggie Smalls, Nas, Jay-Z, the Wu-Tang Clan, Snoop Dog, Ice Cube and Mobb Deep where the poster boys of this era. They were constantly praised for their enhanced lyricism, word-play and epic punchlines along with great musical production. Sadly, the 90s suffered the unfortunate deaths of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls. Although they were so young, but they left a mark on the rap community that made it possible to recognize them as legends.

The Early 2000’s was different especially because of the introduction of singing in rap songs, and there was not as many ‘boom bap’ beats as there used to be. Hip-Hop was making a huge change. The style was quite different. Even the way they dressed was different. This was probably the funkiest time in rap. People like Ludacris, Kanye West, 50 Cent, Andre 3000, Lil Wayne T.I and Rick Ross ruled this era. Rap started to become more melodic in this era as well. The 2010 and above become dominated by the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Drake, J. Cole, Big Sean, etc. Drake is the most notable out of the bunch. He has broken so records and won many awards.