10- -- DAILY NEBRASKAN I Gat: gun, especially pistol Gear: clothes Get Busy: to start doing something Get stupid: to act silly Good to go: every thing is fine and ready Got your back: looking out for someone’s interest, physical or otherwise Hard: mean and ruthless or a positive appraisal Hip-hop: Style and state of mind as established by the originators of rap music and culture Hip-house: rap lyrics laid down over house music Homeboy, homegirl: a male or female from one’s hometown or place of origin Homes or homey: an acquaintance from one’s home town or a way of addressing someone whose name is unknown Honeys: attractive young girls Hood: neighborhood or gangster . Hooptie: a beat-up car that still runs Hottie: a sexy young girl ‘ —v: v wm ■ CLOCKWISE FROM ■■ ABOVE: !■ Blues guitarist Studebakcr John BH| rips out some tunes where? Some rap specialists think blues BBF influenced the development of BBS rap music. ^^B Rock vocalist Mike Keeling of IBBB Rosebud sings at Duffy’s |H Tavern in Lincoln. MB John Primer of Magic Slim and fl^H the Teardrops plays blues at the H Zoo Bar in Lincoln. HH Preston Love, a jazz saxophone E^B player, doesn’t like rap music. BBB Love said he saw no connection between rap and jazz aside from I their common creators — blacks. j _ By Tom Mainelli rom Hammer's radio _friendly rhythms to Ice Cube's hard-core tracks, rap _ encompasses a broad spectrum of music and messages. From top 40 to "Gangsta” rap, each has its own style, yet it all shares com mon roots. Uncovering those roots is a compli cated task. Experts say rap music originated in the sounds of reggae, funk, blues, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll and African storytelling traditions. Which source had the most influence depends on who you talk to. Craig Werner, a professor of Afro American studies at the University of Madison at Wisconsin, points to Jamaica as rap's place of origin. Werner, who is writing a book about rap, said Jamaican dub musicians were rap’s earliest predecessors. The dub musicians performed at Jamaican house nartioc The musicians, lively and outgoing, pumped the party atmosphere. They talked over the instrumental side of their albums, revving the crowd, extolling their abilities and plugging their next gig. As these musicians developed their art, they looked for new avenues of expression. They began to “scratch" — skimming the stereo's needle back and forth over a vinyl LP. It gave them a new, : unique sound. Many of the musicians came to the United States, and found the technology to take the art form further. Dual turntables allowed them to enhance their performance. They could change albums while another played, and they could scratch two records at a time. Eventually, dub musicians stole the scene, becoming more than mere DJs, but actual performers. Rap was bom. Dub musicians might be the ancestors of rappers, but rap's essence lies in blues and the "blues impulse," Wemeriaid. The "blues impulse" lives in most Afro American art forms: It is the will to face j great problems and laugh instead of cry. ■ "African-Americans have had to come to terms with a brutal experience," he said. The blues helps a person to deal with it, to say what they feel inside . instead of bottling it up or striking out physically." The blues essentially talks about what it is to be African-American, Werner said. Rap follows a similar path. “Rappers are saying, 'Here's what it’s like to be black in America," Werner said. When rappers look at violence, they use the blues principle of speaking out instead of physically lashing out, he said. "Rappers shoot cops in song instead I of in reality," he said. Werner said violence in rap should be expected, considering the situation many blacks are in. The black ghettos, places like South Sound from raditions Central Los Angeles, experience a horrific level of violence," he said. These people are simply trying to deal with it. "At their best, blues and rap generate spokesmen who can best articulate the position of a people." Another tradition, passed from African culture to blues and on to rap, is the musical battle. In ancient African culture, many tribes would settle disputes without bloodshed, through battles between “aesthetic warriors." These warriors tried to upstage one another musically. The blues form of this combat is the long-standing cutting contest, Werner said. In the cutting contest, two blues guitarists face off on stage. They alternate, each playing a few licks of his or her best stuff. In the end, the audience decides who is the best. Early rappers borrowed this competi tion in the form of verbal attacks or “disses" on one another's work. A classic battle occurred between L.L. Cool J and Cool Moe D. Each rapper tried to best the other, deriding his rival’s ability to rap, among other things. One of Moe D’s^^ album covers had a photo of his jeep parked on L.L.’s trademark kango. The better rap artists have moved away from this phase of rap, Werner said. Most dissing now takes place in Jamaican dance halls by young rap newcomers. “It's a fall-back position for those who don’t have anything to say,’’ Werner said. While Werner said there were many strong connections between blues and rap, his viewpoint wasn’t the only one out there. Noting rap and blues’ similarities is one thing, but to say rap was heavily influenced by blues is another story, said Lewis Black, editor of the Austin Chronicle, an alternative weekly publica tion. To compare rap and blues is too spacious," Black said. Blues is hard to categorize; each region of the country has its own style, its own sound, Black said. Blues tradition is spread out and has a long, rich, fine history. But blues never has had the cultural movement that rap has, and comparisons can be misleading, Black said. Black has watched rap’s evolution, and sees a different origin. Black said rap came from toasting, an African-American tradition of oral KWj=rJ-— DAILY NEBRASKAN storytelling. A toast often was told by an elder family member, who gathered his * multi-generational family around him and began his story. The toast was a long, elaborate tale, told with much vigor and excitement. The narrator boasted of his greatness, telling tales of his life, exaggerated with stories of gangsters and shoot-outs. The toasts were performed without music. Toasting thrived in the urban landscape, in places like Harlem and Los Angeles. It was family tradition, Black said. Rap evolved when toasting was mixed with music, he said. While Black and Werner might not agree on the extent of blues' influence on rap, both said jazz had played a role in rap’s development. "Rap embodies oral traditions mixed with the improvisation of jazz and the sensibility of rock ‘n’ roll," Black said. Werner said rap borrowed jazz’s ability to draw from other types of music and incorporate them into the mix. Rap does this primarily through the use of samples. And like jazz, rap looks to the future, "envisioning new realities and possibilities." Werner said theories about rap were divided in the jazz community. "Many jazz artists are into rap and enjoy working with it, exploring. Others will always say it’s nothing but shit," he said. Preston Love, a jazz saxophone player, would agree with the latter theory. Love, a native of Omaha, has played with many jazz greats — Count Basie Please see traditions on page IS House: to attack someone violently Hype: to overly build or exaggerate, or something really good IUin’: acting wild and crazy I’m straight: satis fied Jacked: being robbed or assaulted Jam: a record, a party, or in trouble Jammy: a firearm Jet: to leave Jimbrowski: male sex organ Jimmy: male sex organ Jimmy hat: condom Joint: a place, jail or a marijuana cigarette Juice: clout