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
