Rapping (or emceeing,[1] MCing,[1] spitting bars,[2] or rhyming)[3] is "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics".[4] The components of rapping include "content", "flow" (rhythm and rhyme), and "delivery".[5] Rapping is distinct from spoken-word poetry in that it is performed in time to a beat.[6][7] Rapping is often associated with and a primary ingredient of hip-hop music, but the origins of the phenomenon can be said to predate hip-hop culture by centuries. It can also be found in alternative rock such as that of Cake and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Rapping is also used in Kwaito music, a genre that originated in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is composed of hip-hop elements.
Rapping can be delivered over a beat or without accompaniment. Stylistically, rap occupies a gray area between speech, prose, poetry, and singing. The word (meaning originally "to hit")[8] as used to describe quick speech or repartee predates the musical form.[9] The word had been used in British English since the 16th century. It was part of the African-American dialect of English in the 1960s meaning "to converse", and very soon after that in its present usage as a term denoting the musical style.[10] Today, the terms "rap" and "rapping" are so closely associated with hip-hop music that many use the terms interchangeably.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Edwards 2009, p. xii.
- ↑ Edwards 2009, p. 3.
- ↑ Edwards 2009, p. 81.
- ↑ "Rapping | Define Rapping at Dictionary.com". Dictionary.reference.com. Retrieved August 25, 2014.
- ↑ Edwards 2009, p. x.
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedAttridge, Derek 2002, p. 90 - ↑ Edwards 2009, p. 63.
- ↑ "Dictionary.com". Retrieved February 2, 2008.
- ↑ Oxford English Dictionary
- ↑ Safire, William (1992), "On language; The rap on hip-hop", The New York Times Magazine.