Hip-hop and rap go back to the 1970s. Hip-hop culture involved the graffiti, break-dancing and attitude of people who lived in the Bronx in New York during the early 1970s, according to the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. Hip-hop quickly spread across the United States to urban centers that had a large population of black people. Graffiti took on a style and was an aspect of the hip-hop culture. In 1973, an article in the “Village Voice” by Richard Goldstein linked graffiti with rap, since they both originated from the same cultural conditions.
Jamaican music influenced American rap music in the 1970s. Rapping started with the Jamaican custom of “toasting,” the practice of disc jockeys saying slogans over music, such as “Work it, work it” or “Move it up.” The toasting would eventually become longer, and the toaster would speak his lines in rhythm with the music.
To get a good dance beat in the clubs, DJs would play the best 30-second “break” section of the record, which emphasized the drums, bass and rhythm guitar. DJs would play this break section repeatedly. Dancers who danced to the break music became known as break-dancers. Break-dancing is a dangerous dance style that stretches the body to its limits, according to the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. Dancers use moves such as the “Head Spin,” spinning around on their heads; the “Windmill,” which uses the shoulders as a pivot and the “Floor Lock,” where dancers support themselves on one hand while spinning their bodies around and kicking out their legs. Dancers also dive in the air and land on their hands.
The technique of scratching, spinning a record backward and forward very fast, turned the record into an instrument. DJ Grandmaster Flash also used a beat box to produce an electronic beat. Some rappers became human beat boxes, producing similar sounds with their mouth, lips and throat.
Hip-hop style clothing is distinctive, with its sneakers and loose-fitting pants and shirts. Hip-hop style is to wear pants so loosely that they hang down to the hips. This style, while adopted by the hip-hop culture, comes from the prison community. Inmates do not wear belts, so their pants hang down. When an inmate would return to the neighborhood, he would keep this particular style.
By 1991, although proportionally more black people were listening to rap, the primary rap audience was white, according to an article in “The New Republic.” The first rap record to become a hit was “Rapper’s Delight,” by the Sugar Hill Gang. The first rap group to break through to a white audience was Run-D.M.C. This group did not come from the streets but from middle-class families, according to the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute.
Rap music tended to portray women in a negative light, and rap music producers were reluctant to sign any female artists. That changed with Salt ‘N’ Pepa. Women and men wanted to hear rap from a woman’s point of view. Queen Latifah came on the scene about the same time.