History Of Classic Rap

Classic Rap

The first ‘commercially successful rap song’ (Genius) was Rapper’s Delight by the Sugarhill Gang in 1979. Although Afrika Bambataa and other rappers featured rap in their songs first, Sugarhill Gang was known for composing a song which popularized rap. In 2011, their song was preserved into the National Recording Registry for being ‘culturally, historically, [and] aesthetically significant’. (The National Recording Preservation Board). The song features a simple bassline and hi-hats resulting in a funky beat combined with simple and straightforward lyrics with no vulgarity or derogatory terms. It is important to note this as language used in rap gradually changed to become more explicit from classic to today’s rap.

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It’s composed of the new generation of rappers who have gained inspiration and skills from the pioneers of hip-hop and rap as well as creating new techniques in music. While classic rap focused on experimenting with themes and language, modern rap focuses on the rapper’s lavish lifestyle and boasting their wealth, fame and sexual prowess. The transition of rap is somewhat big as it shows how it went from inclusivity and community based themes into self-centeredness and looking down on others. Majority of the rappers have stopped rapping about equality and rather they are degrading women and even groups of people. The world and the lavish lifestyle of celebrities are slowly starting to take over the minds of the youth. Rappers have slowly stopped focusing on matters with social significance and instead focus on themselves. The language has drastically changed as well as the use of explicit words and derogatory terms mostly towards women are being widely used across the whole movement. Another method rappers use to gain attention is to indirectly diss other rappers to ignite some sort of altercation which fans of today like

Combined with the funky beat and simple bassline the song is easy to follow and catches the attention of people easily. What Snoop is trying to show is that he is a pimp ‘a person, especially a man, who solicits customers for a prostitute’ (Dictionary.com) and he owns a lot of women hence the slang ‘ma’ which is short for momma. He’s basically trying to say that when he enters the room, all the ladies should drop their pants quickly for him. This just shows how far rap has gone and how it has ended up degrading women rather than asking for equality. Another use of slang is the word ‘pig’ wherein he refers to cops. Racial profiling is still evident in the society so rappers of the modern era still throw indirect insults at cops through songs. On the last line he pertains to parking a car which is ‘hot’ which is slang for stolen. From his language we can see that he tries to hype up himself for the people to see the lavish lifestyle he has. The constant boasting ends up in people wanting to be like him and end up actually stealing cars and buying prostitutes which is frowned upon in the