« Home | Who invented the cell phone? » | Why does your skin wrinkle up when you've been in ... » | Was "Uncle Sam" a real person? » | Do fish drink water? » | Who invented Velcro? » | Who invented Sudoku? » | Are there still pirates in the world? » | What's the estimated land value of Central Park in... » | When and why did women start shaving their legs? » | When were credit cards invented and first used? » 

Friday, November 02, 2007 Bookmark Now! | Email to a friend  

Who was the first rapper?

While most folks consider DJ Kool Herc to be the "father of hip-hop," other sites credit Afrika Bambaataa as the first rapper.

OldSchoolHipHop features an interesting biography of DJ Kool Herc. Born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1955, Kool Herc was particularly interested in the song's "break section" -- the part of the song without vocals. Extending the song's break was Herc's trademark and "would be a very important one for hip hop."

Does that qualify Herc as the first rapper? Maybe, maybe not. An article on VH-1's official site lists Afrika Bambaataa as "one of rap's founding fathers." User-edited site Wikipedia writes that Bambaataa is often credited "as being the first rapper ever."

Rap is a fusion of different musical genres. No one person can or should be given credit for "inventing" it, but we did find an article on the origin of rap by Kwaku Person-Lynn, Ph.D. Person-Lynn quotes Bambaataa as saying, "A lot of people always think it (rap) started in the South Bronx, but officially it came from the West Bronx, 'cause Kool Herc (credited with being the first rapper), was from that area."

If Bambaataa believes Herc came first, that's good enough for us. Peace.

Source: ask.yahoo.com

Add to: Oneview Add to: Folkd Add to: Yigg Add to: Linkarena Add to: Digg Add to: Del.icio.us Add to: Reddit Add to: Simpy Add to: StumbleUpon Add to: Slashdot Add to: Netscape Add to: Furl Add to: Yahoo Add to: Spurl Add to: Google Add to: Blinklist Add to: Blogmarks Add to: Technorati Add to: Newsvine Add to: Blinkbits Add to: Ma.Gnolia



Share on Facebook Read the whole Blog

Receive post updates by Email

Bookmarks