130 likes | 257 Views
Freestyle and the Rap Commodity. Griots. Deejay Toasting. Early MCs. 1 st known MC, 1974ish Kool Herc's Herculoids Cowboy GM Flash and 3 MCs / Furious Five First to really rhyme and rock a crowd, routines Melle Mel GM Flash and 3 MCs / Furious Five
E N D
Early MCs • 1st known MC, 1974ish • Kool Herc's Herculoids • Cowboy • GM Flash and 3 MCs / Furious Five • First to really rhyme and rock a crowd, routines • Melle Mel • GM Flash and 3 MCs / Furious Five • Writing rhymes...song writing credit/publishing
“Rapper's Delight” • 1979, Sugarhill Gang (a “boy band”) • Best-selling 12” single of all time • NOT the first record with rapping (Fatback Band “King Tim III (Personality Jock)”) • 14-minute record, played on many radio formats • Made emceeing into “rapping” • Made rap music global/glocal • Mass commodification of music • Sanitized, unauthentic, disco rap
Rap is... • Commodified form of hip hop music • Turns live performance art into a product • Hip hop comes from streets; record companies made rap • Written • Displaces the DJ • First musicians replicating DJ • Then producers • Not always culturally authentic (i.e. Sugarhill Gang) • More industrial than cultural • What we most commonly associate with hip hop
Blair (2004) • Youth subcultural expression into pop culture • Music that comes from socio-economic oppression • Using rap to sell other goods • Relates to rock and jazz; use of white appropriators to quell moral panics (i.e. Elvis) • Run-DMC • Marx's Alienation= something human is taken from us and returned as a commodity
Blair Cont'd • Hegemony=ruling class ideas rule society as “normal” • Gottdiener (1985): subcultural incorporation • 1. Objects produced for exchange • 2. User modifies object (bricolage); subcultural sign • 3. Producers capitalize and turn subcultural trends in to mass culture; sanitization • What does she say about rap in her study?
Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme (2000) • Dir. Kevin Fitzgerald • Art of improv rhyming, ephemeral • The original form of MCing • Written vs. Freestyle • Written is business end, mass produceable • Spiritual • Outlet for anger, frustration, emotion...HEALING • Battling and cypher...bboy, DJ, graff
Eminem v. Juice • 1997 Scribble Jam Battle, Juice wins • 1997 Rap Olympics, Otherwize wins • Led to Eminem getting signed • Considered to heavily influence8 Mile (2002) • Craig G wrote all the rhymes for Eminem's competitors in the film
NOTORIOUS (2009) • Infamous battle when he was 17