II.

Musical Elements

A rap group typically consists of at least one rapper and a disc jockey (DJ); two or more rappers are common. In groups with two, the rappers generally serve as foils for one another, alternating or completing lines and verses in a seamless pattern. The rap often uses a call-and-response format typical of much African American music. The wordplay in a rap is rooted in African and African American verbal games, known as the dozens and signifying. Precursors of rap who drew upon the same wordplay traditions include the Jamaican toasters (DJs, also known as dub artists, who talk over recorded music) of the late 1960s and 1970s, African American radio DJs from the 1940s through the 1970s, and black American poets of the 1960s including the Last Poets and the Watts Prophets. Rap vocals typically emphasize lyrics and wordplay over melody and harmony, achieving interest through rhythmic complexity and variations in the timing of the lyrics. Lyric themes can be broadly categorized under three headings: those that concern human relationships, those that chronicle and often embrace the so-called gangsta lifestyle of the inner cities, and those that address contemporary political issues or aspects of black history.

Underpinning the rapper’s vocals is the separately recorded musical accompaniment, known as a backing track. In general, backing tracks for rap recordings emphasize rhythmic accompaniment and timbre (quality of tone) rather than harmony. Furthermore, many rap songs lack chord changes altogether, influenced in part by the highly rhythmic style of R&B music called funk. Originally a DJ created backing tracks by playing two records, switching back and forth between them in a technique known as cutting and mixing. Occasionally the DJ mixed one recording over another so that both were heard simultaneously. Other techniques used in early recordings were scratching (rotating a vinyl record backward and forward by hand to create rhythmic sound effects) and quick mixing (combining short sound bites to create a sound collage).

In 1982 computer-generated sound from synthesizers, including programmable drum machines, began to be used along with snippets from preexisting recordings. With the arrival of digital technology in 1983, sampling began to replace the turntable style of cutting and mixing. With sampling, DJs were able to access precise digital sound bites and reconstruct them into new sound patterns or collages. Sampling eventually facilitated the layering of found sound (sound that exists prior to and independently from its use by the rap artist), enabling rappers such as Public Enemy to place seven or eight samples on top of each other. In conjunction with sampling and programmed beats, a number of rap artists, including Run-DMC and Gang Starr, sometimes used live musicians in creating backing tracks.