Rap music has become one of the most popular and pervasive powerhouses in music populations today. All throughout the past couple decades, rap music artists have hit the top of just about every music chart. So how did rap music come to be and how does it influence our society? Perhaps it’s not just one or two factors, but several, that contribute to rap’s revolutionary style.
The evolution and progress of rap music as an art form is an integral part of hip hop. Its music genre is a direct product of the post-hip-hop generation and takes a lot of its fundamentals from that of the same genre. Infact, at the beginning the genre was likely to be targeted to be awarded as folk music if anything
Jay-Z’s latest Diary of Jay-Z, an artwork manifesto of a rapper turned CEO, explicitly discloses the reason behind this statement. He defines rap as a thought-filled pause and compares it to his own body as an art. (Diary, 7) Jay-Z remarkably and self-admittedly capitalized on this recent growth. Therefore, rap might no longer qualify for these awards.
It is only over the past twenty years or so that rap has become a worldwide phenomenon. But this did not mean that rap was never known, rap had virally been known even in its recent humble years. Awards for the genre will increase worldwide stand ards for rap music are executed. And at length, with their help, rap performers will receive fair compensation for their art.
The journey of rap to the mastery of the Billboard charts begins where most things do: on a sidewalk in the South Bronx. In the early ’70s, hip-hop was a cultural anthill — the site of endless local activity, a makeshift laboratory with all the right chemicals for an explosion.
Rap music was born and soon became a vital element of the culture. It did powerful things. It seemed to contain in it everything that rap wanted to say “sincerely or angrily or pompously,” George 2.0 wrote about rap in 1989, after a half-decade of sustained forward motion on his part.
Rap is a barometer of societal attitude, an F.M. radio of personal biography, a silver prong of imaginative metrical structure. But most of all, it is a voice box.
The heart of rap retains a certain aspect of the society it derives from. Originality means a lot to rap, as the artist feeds off of their real-life situations including the struggles they go through. Even though it is not a conventional genre to listen to for senior citizens, rap has a way of attracting listeners of all kinds, age, and ethnicity. Fans are attracted to the artist who keeps it real and does not try to change his identity or style for anything. When an artist is being him or her self, fans, their stories, whatever struggles they go through, it’s all understood through a rap flow.
Collaborations that Defy Boundaries
The impact of rap goes far beyond the genre rap of hip-hop. It infiltrates and reinvents virtually any musical style Rap collaborations with musicians from highly disparate genres have become increasingly prevalent, and these relations across styles bring rap to new listenerships and extend its appeal.
Examine the groundbreaking genre crossing hit “Radioactive” by Rap Superstar Kendrick Lamar and Alternative Rock band Imagine Dragons. The incorporation of signature rock riffs and mainstream rapping in a Top 40 chart topper shows the collaboration of both genres not only contributing influence from one genre, to that of another; but also the fusion between of the two genres. The mixture of different sounds is what allows rap to not only continue to generate different kinds of rap but, as well making it more appealing to rap listeners to expand their musical understandings.
In the social media age, rap is a viral virtuoso. Artists and fans weaponize TikTok, Twitter and Instagram in particular to get their song snippets, viral challenges and even anticipation for future songs in red-hot states of circulation. Then they land at the top of the charts
Take the case of Lil Nas X, the best illustration of the power of virality. His runaway hit, “Old Town Road,” became a full-blown cultural obsession — thanks to a viral meme on TikTok, the video app increasingly rewriting the economics of music. It’s a classic example of how the music that seems to be everywhere is now mostly coming from two places: headphones and social media.
The influence of African-Americans on the nation’s music is immense, but even more significant is the degree to which slavery shaped the culture, emotional state and politics of the country as a whole: the teachings of the Founding Fathers, who composed against a philharmonic drone.
Slavery’s ramifications are so far-reaching that scholars have difficulty demonstrating definitively even such obvious consequence as “the country’s high poverty rates, low education levels and shortage of health care that can leave blacks disproportionately unemployed and uninsured.”
Early in the study of American culture, W.E.B. Du Bois authorities cited music as the key to knowing slavery’s psychic toll, describing as it does “the melodies that surged up from the slave fields and their hidden meaning.”Rap is a broad-reaching genre with a long history in the music industry. Hip-hop is a culture which originated in the housing districts of New York City, specifically the Bronx. Going on to dominate the charts for decades, hip-hop has been a leading force in popular music since its inception. The style is unmistakable with its aggressive lyrical content and hard hitting beats. Due to its popularity, rap music has gradually become a very influential culture.
In the end there’s nothing to do but admire rap’s total and unassailable chart-topping dominance. Its 18-week run at No. 1 in 2018 set the template for how long it might stick around this summer, but its continued unbeatable and seemingly unending rule has still managed to be a surprise. Last week, country star Luke Combs, whose career has been on a steady upward trajectory for a few years, told The Times that he didn’t feel quite like he’d “made it” when a song of his went No. 1 in country because he knew that it would top out somewhere in the 20s on the Hot 100. “Rodney Atkins went No. 1 with ‘Cleaning This Gun’ when I was a junior in high school, and that was the only time you would ever even see a country song in the top 10,” Combs said. “So that’s what you grew up on. There was no chance, you know?”
Rap music has refused to let go of the top of the charts as it continues to reinvent itself in genres and in accompaniment to pop culture in general. In a musical world as temporary as an on and off light switch, rap’s continued grasp of our tops breaks are evidence of its real cultural power and legitimacy.
