Whether you perceive rap as a musical art form or fad you wish would just fade away, there’s no denying the impact it’s had on the American musical scene. With its explosive lyrics and supercharged rhythms, rap burst onto the musical radar in the late 1970′s and early 1980′s. As it grew, combining deejaying with emceeing and break dancing, rap evolved into an entirely new genre known as hip hop. However, at its heart, rap music was essentially the work of inner city youths addressing the troubles and concerns associated with urban life.
Rap can be traced back to West African singers/storytellers called the Griots. However, in the United Sates, the genre got its start in the Bronx, New York, when the exiting middle class immigrants and their businesses were replaced by poor black and Hispanic families. Accompanying these poor people were crime, drug addiction, and unemployment. It seemed like overnight street gangs appeared on every corner of the Bronx. At the same time, “Times were changing,” according to Henry A. Rhodes of the Yale New Haven Teachers Institute, “with the advent of the seventies people were getting into music and dancing and going to clubs.” The first person to bring rap to the clubs was Cool Herc, a Jamaican immigrant whose style of spinning records led to the development of break dancing. Other American DJ’s contributed to the rap scene. These included Theodor, who developed the technique known as “scratching,” which involved the DJ spinning a record backwards and forwards very fast while the needle was in the groove, and George Saddler, known as Grandmaster Flash, who was an expert at “punch phasing.” Another American deejay, Afrika Bambaataa, tried to replace gang rumbles and drugs with rap, dance, and the ‘Hip Hop’ style.
Today, says Rhodes: “Even though rap is proportionally more popular among blacks, its primary audience is white and lives in the suburbs.” He notes that the more rappers are packaged as violent black criminals, the bigger the white audiences become. “I do not think anyone can account for the popularity of rap to a white audience no more than one could account for the popularity of the black entertainment in the ‘speakeasies’ to the white audiences of the late 1920s and 1930s,” says Rhodes, “other than the attraction which exists for something that is taboo or forbidden by one’s social group.” According to Rhodes, Run-D.M.C. was the first black rap group to break through to a mass white audience with their albums, Run-D.M.C and King of Rock, both produced by a white, Jewish punk rocker named Rick Rubin. Some critics have argued that with the influence of whites on the rap music scene, it is only a matter of time before rap starts to lose its popularity in the black community goes out of style. Rhodes disagrees. “I believe that rap music can withstand the influence of other (ethnic/social) groups and still remain popular and flourish.” Some consider that a blessing, others a curse.
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January 24th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
What’s the difference between an urban neihbourhood, a suburban neighbourhood and a rural neighbourhood?
I’m not american but I’m always hearing about suburban kids an urban music so I wnat to know what’s the deal? what kind of people live where and what are they suppose dto be like?
January 24th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
the distance from the city center
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January 24th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
i don’t know what is different between these but one thing is common that is "neighborhood"
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January 24th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
sorry I do not know
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January 24th, 2010 at 10:01 pm
urban pertains to city or town and rural pertains to village or country and suburban has the features of both the city and village
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January 24th, 2010 at 10:03 pm
Well we say the same in England…..
Urban is "In Town"
Suburban is "outskirts of town"
Rural is "in the sticks"
That’s the neighborhood issue, totally unrelated to the music scene.
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January 24th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
Urban is in the actual city itself, suburban is outside of the city limits, but includes all the little towns around it, and rural is a small town outside the hustle and bustle of the city.
Rural is more family orientated and small business/farmer types. Suburban used to refer to stuffy rich people, but now inclusdes the middle to upperclass more often, but some lower class live there as well. The urban population is more low to middle class people, that are more in tune to their culture and background. Often art and music is popular amongst those living there.
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January 24th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
Urban neighbourhood implies the neighbourhood in a city and metropolitan areas. Most of the neighbours don’t bother to know each other even for years together, what to say they will come to the rescue of each other at the time of need.
Suburban neighbourhood is known as the neighbourhood in the outskirts of the city and metropolitan areas or in the small towns. Of course they are more or less different than the people of the city and metro areas. Almost 70% people know sufficiently about theirs neighbours. Many of them are quite cooperative to each other.
Rural neibourhood is almost different from the first two. This represents to the people in the villages. Not only neighbourhood but to the extent of about 95% of the village is considered as neighbour to each other and the problem of one person is considered as the problem of the whole village.
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January 24th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
urban is in the city, suburban is from the suburbs of the city or otherwise know as the outer parts of the city where the majority of the people live, and the rural is the farms and ares where there isnt too much of a population. the urban people are usually rude n always living their lives at a fast pace. the suburban people live regular lives and usually would be concidered the middle class. the rural people are the ones who live at their own pace, all know each other, and spend their days doing whatever they want. hope that helps
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January 24th, 2010 at 10:11 pm
sorry, i dont know !
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January 24th, 2010 at 10:13 pm
You’ve gotten some answers that are pretty close, but miss just a little. As the US was growing up, as cities were developing, people lived within the cities to be close to their jobs. Then, as streets and roads began to go in, providing easier access to and from land a bit farther out, people who’d been living in town began building homes in these outer areas, the "urban areas." The older and thus less expensive dwellings that they moved out of then went to new commers to the city. Far more recently, urban dwellers, since streets and roads were now paved, and there were cars, decided that living even farther out was attractive and began building homes more distant still from the city proper. The new residential area is the "suburbs." Their old homes were occupied by the people who’d been living down town, and down town, now badly run down, became the "inner city", and, unfortunately, went to the minorities, who couldn’t find good jobs because of descrimination, and alliens who were forced to take low paying jobs because they were unskilled. Rural areas, I don’t think you can call them neighborhoods, are where the farms and ranches are located, out in the country.
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