Rapping

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(disambiguation).

"MCing" redirects here. For the hosting of events in general,
see Master of
Ceremonies.

This article is about rapping as a technique or activity. For
more information on the music genre, see hip hop music.

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(December 2009)

Rapping (also known as emceeing,[1]
MCing,[1]
spitting (bars),[2]
or just rhyming),[3]
refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics".[4]
The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is
separated into “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 a primary ingredient in hip hop music & reggae, but the phenomenon
predates hip hop culture by centuries. Rapping can be delivered over a beat or without
accompaniment. Stylistically, rap occupies a gray area among speech, prose,
poetry, and song. The use of the word to describe quick speech or repartee long
predates the musical form,[8]
meaning originally "to hit".[9]
The word had been used in British English since
the 16th century, and specifically meaning "to say" since the 18th. 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.

Contents

1 History

1.1 Etymology

1.2 Roots

1.3 Old school
rap

1.4 The golden
age

2 Flow

2.1 History of
flow

2.2 Styles

2.3 Rhyme

3 Delivery/performance

4 Subject matter

4.1 Literary
technique

4.2 Diction and
dialect

5 Freestyle and
battle

6 Social impact

6.1 Race and
class

6.2 Derivatives and
influence

7 References

8 Further
reading

History

See also: African American
music, Music of the
United States, History of poetry, Jamaican music, Roots of hip hop, Old school hip
hop, and Talking
blues

The Memphis Jug Band, an
early blues group, whose lyrical content and rhythmic singing predated
rapping.

The
roots of rapping

Deep Down
in My Heart

A spiritual
performed by W. M. Givens in Darien, Georgia in 1926.

Dollar
Mamie

A Southern work song performed by
Judge "Bootmouth" Tucker and Alexander "Neighborhood" Williams in
1939.

Small
Talk at 125th and Lennox

Gil Scott Heron's
spoken word poetry has had a significant influence on hip hop through its
political and socially conscious lyrics.

Problems listening to these files? See media
help.

Etymology

Rap etymologically means "fast read" or "spoke fast". It may be from a
shortening of repartee.[11]

Roots

Rapping can be traced back to its African roots. Centuries before hip hop music existed, the
griots of West Africa were delivering
stories rhythmically, over drums and sparse instrumentation.
Such connections have been acknowledged by many modern artists, modern day
"griots", spoken word
artists, mainstream news sources, and academics.[12][13][14][15]

Blues music, rooted in the work songs and spirituals of slavery and
influenced greatly by West African musical traditions, was first played by
blacks (and some whites) in the Mississippi Delta
region of the United States around the time of the Emancipation
Proclamation. Grammy-winning blues musician/historian Elijah Wald and others have
argued that the blues were being rapped as early as the 1920s.[16][17]
Wald went so far as to call hip hop "the living blues."[16]
Jazz, which developed from the
blues and other African-American and European musical traditions and originated
around the beginning of the 20th century, has also influenced hip hop and has
been cited as a precursor of hip hop. Not just jazz music and lyrics but also Jazz poetry. According to
John Sobol, the jazz musician and poet who wrote Digitopia Blues, rap
"bears a striking resemblance to the evolution of jazz both stylistically and
formally."[18]
One of the main influences on Hip Hop artists was James Brown. James Brown is
credited for inventing funk music in the middle '60s. The characteristic funk
drum beat is the most common rhythm used for rap music. Two of the earliest
recordings which have a funk beat and lyrics which are rhymed in rhythm over
this type of beat were released by comedian Pigmeat Markham, "Here
Come the Judge" which was released in 1968 by the Chess label and in 1969
another song about running numbers called "Who Got The Number?". "Here Comes the
Judge" peaked at number 19 on the Billboard charts. While
it was primarily a comical song about a Judge and his courtroom it is also
notable for the political lyrics "I'm goin' to Paris to stop this war" and "I
had a chat with Ho Chi Min" both social commentary references about wanting to
go to the Paris Peace Accord negotiations to stop the war in Vietnam.

The spoken word jazz
poetry of the United States was also a predecessor for beat
poetry, as well as the rapping in hip hop music. Gil Scott-Heron, a jazz
poet/musician who wrote and released such seminal songs as "The
Revolution Will Not Be Televised", "H2OGate Blues Part 2: We Beg Your Pardon
America," and "Johannesberg," has been cited as an influence on many rappers.
His collaborations with musician Brian Jackson
(Pieces of a
Man, Winter
in America) have been cited as major influences on hip hop, in terms of
sound and lyrical style. Similar in style, the Last Poets
who formed in 1969 recited political poetry over drum beats and other
instrumentation, and were another predecessor for rap music. They released their
debut album in 1970 reaching the top ten on the Billboard charts.

During the mid-20th century, the musical culture of the Caribbean was
constantly influenced by the concurrent changes in American music. As early
as 1956,[19]
deejays were toasting (an
African tradition of "rapped out" tales of heroism) over dubbed Jamaican beats.
It was called "rap", expanding the word's earlier meaning in the
African-American community—"to discuss or debate informally."[20]

One of the first rappers in the beginning of the hip hop period, in the end
of '70s, was also hip hop's first DJ, Kool Herc.
Herc, a Jamaican immigrant, started delivering simple raps at his parties,
inspired by the Jamaican tradition of toasting.[21]

Old school rap

Old school rap
(1979–1984)[22]
was "easily identified by its relatively simple raps"[23]
according to Allmusic, "the
emphasis was not on lyrical technique, but simply on good times",[23]
one notable exception being Melle Mel, who set the way for
future rappers through his socio-political content and creative wordplay.[23]

The golden age

Golden age hip
hop (cited as either just the late '80s[24]
or the late 80s to early 90s[25])
was the time period where hip-hop lyricism went through its most drastic
transformation – writer William Jelani Cobb says "in these golden years, a
critical mass of mic prodigies were literally creating themselves and their art
form at the same time"[26]
and Allmusic writes,
"rhymers like PE's Chuck D, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One, and Rakim basically invented the
complex wordplay and lyrical kung-fu of later hip-hop”.[27]
The golden age is
considered to have ended around '93–'94, marking the end of rap lyricism's most
innovative period.[25][27]

Flow

Rapping

Planet
Rock

Hip hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa
mixed electro with old
school rapping and beats in what is sometimes called "electro hop".
Bambaataa, the DJ, is also the rapper in this song; after all, the first
rapping in hip hop was done from behind the turntables.

Niggas
Bleed

Notorious B.I.G.
tells vivid stories about his everyday life as a criminal in Brooklyn. Note the
constant changing up of the lyrical flow and cadence characteristic of new school hip
hop.

Problems listening to these files? See media
help.

'Flow' is defined as "the rhythms and rhymes"[7][28][29]
of a hip-hop song's lyrics and how they interact – the book How to Rap breaks flow
down into rhyme, rhyme
schemes, and rhythm (also
known as cadence).[30]
'Flow' is also sometimes used to refer to elements of the delivery (pitch, timbre, volume) as well,[31]
though often a distinction is made between the flow and the delivery.[28][32]

Staying on the beat is central to rap's flow[33]
– many MCs note the importance of staying
on-beat in How to
Rap including Sean
Price, Mighty Casey,
Zion I, Vinnie Paz, Fredro Starr, Del The Funky
Homosapien, Tech N9ne,
People Under The
Stairs, Twista, B-Real, Mr Lif, 2Mex,
and Cage.[33]

MCs
stay on-beat by stressing syllables in time to the four beats of the musical
backdrop.[6][34]
Poetry scholar Derek
Attridge describes how this works in his book Poetic Rhythm – “rap
lyrics are written to be performed to an accompaniment that emphasizes the
metrical structure of the verse”.[6]
He says rap lyrics are made up of, “lines with four stressed beats, separated by
other syllables that may vary in number and may include other stressed
syllables. The strong beat of the accompaniment coincides with the stressed
beats of the verse, and the rapper organizes the rhythms of the intervening
syllables to provide variety and surprise”.[6]

The same technique is also noted in the book How to Rap, where
diagrams are used to show how the lyrics line up with the beat – "stressing a
syllable on each of the four beats gives the lyrics the same underlying rhythmic
pulse as the music and keeps them in rhythm... other syllables in the song may
still be stressed, but the ones that fall in time with the four beats of a bar
are the only ones that need to be emphasized in order to keep the lyrics in time
with the music".[35]

History of flow

Old School flows were
relatively basic and used only few syllables per bar, simple rhythmic patterns,
and basic rhyming techniques and rhyme schemes.[31][36]
Melle Mel is cited as an Old School MC who
epitomizes the Old School flow – Kool Moe Dee says, “from
1970 to 1978 we rhymed one way [then] Melle Mel, in 1978, gave us the new
cadence we would use from 1978 to 1986[37]…
he’s the first emcee to explode in a new rhyme cadence, and change the way every
emcee rhymed forever. Rakim, Biggie, and Eminem have flipped the flow, but
Melle Mel’s downbeat on the
two, four, kick to snare cadence is still the rhyme foundation all emcees are
building on".[38]

Artists and critics often credit Rakim with creating the overall
shift from the more simplistic Old School flows to
more complex flows near the beginning of Hip Hop’s new school[39]
– Kool Moe Dee says,
“any emcee that came after 1986 had to study Rakim just to know what to be able
to do[40]…
Rakim, in 1986, gave us flow
and that was the rhyme style from 1986 to 1994[37]…
from that point on, anybody emceeing was forced to focus on their flow”.[41]
Kool Moe Dee explains
that before Rakim, the term
‘flow’ wasn’t widely used – “Rakim is basically the inventor of
flow. We were not even using the word flow until Rakim came along. It was called
rhyming, it was called cadence, but it wasn’t called flow. Rakim created flow!”[42]
He adds that while Rakim
upgraded and popularized the focus on flow, “he didn’t invent the word”.[40]

Kool Moe Dee states
that Biggie introduced a newer flow
which “dominated from 1994 to 2002”,[37]
and also says that Method
Man was “one of the emcees from the early to mid-’90s that ushered in the
era of flow… Rakim invented it,
Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One, and Kool G Rap expanded it, but
Biggie and Method Man made flow the
single most important aspect of an emcee’s game”.[43]
He also cites Craig Mack
as an artist who contributed to developing flow in the ‘90s.[44]

Music scholar Adam Krims says, “the flow of MCs is one of the profoundest
changes that separates out new-sounding from older-sounding music… it is widely
recognized and remarked that rhythmic styles of many commercially successful MCs
since roughly the beginning of the 1990s have progressively become faster and
more ‘complex’”.[31]
He cites “members of the Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, AZ, Big Pun, and Ras Kass, just to name a
few”[45]
as artists who exemplify this progression.

Kool Moe Dee adds,
“in 2002 Eminem created the
song that got the first Oscar in Hip-Hop history… and I would have to say that
his flow is the most dominant right now (2003)”.[37]

Styles

There are many different styles of flow, with different terminology used by
different people – stic.man
of Dead Prez uses the
following terms –

“The Chant”, which he says is used by Lil Jon and Project Pat[46]

“The Syncopated Bounce”, used by Twista and Bone Thugs N
Harmony[46]

“Straight Forward”, used by Scarface, 2Pac, Melle Mel, KRS-One circa Boogie Down
Productions era, Too
Short, Jay-Z, Ice Cube, and Snoop Dogg[47]

“The Rubik’s Cube”, used by Nas, Black Thought of The Roots, Common, Kurupt, and Lauryn Hill[48]

Alternatively, music scholar Adam Krims uses the following terms –

“sung rhythmic style”, used by Too Short, Grandmaster
Flash and The Furious Five, and the Beastie Boys[49]

“percussion-effusive style”, used by B-Real of Cypress Hill[50]

“speech-effusive style”, used by Big Pun[50]

Rhyme

MCs use many different rhyming techniques, including complex rhyme
schemes, as Adam Krims points out – “the complexity… involves multiple
rhymes in the same rhyme complex (i.e. section with consistently rhyming words),
internal rhymes, [and]
offbeat rhymes”.[45]
There is also widespread use of multisyllabic
rhymes, by artists such as Kool G Rap,[51]
Big Daddy Kane, and Eminem.

It has been noted that rap’s use of rhyme is some of the most advanced in all
forms of poetry – music scholar Adam Bradley notes, “rap rhymes so much and with
such variety that it is now the largest and richest contemporary archive of
rhymed words. It has done more than any other art form in recent history to
expand rhyme’s formal range and expressive possibilities”.[52]

In the book How to
Rap, Masta Ace
explains how Rakim and Big Daddy Kane caused a
shift in the way MCs rhymed: “Up until Rakim, everybody who you heard
rhyme, the last word in the sentence was the rhyming [word], the connection
word. Then Rakim showed us that
you could put rhymes within a rhyme… now here comes Big Daddy Kane — instead
of going three words, he’s going multiple”.[53]
How to Rap explains
that "rhyme is often thought to be the most important factor in rap writing...
rhyme is what gives rap lyrics their musicality.[3]

Delivery/performance

To successfully deliver a rap, a rapper must also develop vocal presence, enunciation, and breath control. Vocal
presence is the distinctiveness of a rapper's voice on record. Enunciation is
essential to a flowing rap; some rappers choose also to exaggerate it for comic
and artistic effect. Breath control, taking in air without interrupting one's
delivery, is an important skill for a rapper to master, and a must for any MC.
An MC with poor breath control cannot deliver difficult verses without making
unintentional pauses.

Raps are sometimes delivered with melody. West Coast rapper Egyptian Lover was the
first notable MC to deliver "sing-raps."[54]
Popular rappers such as 50
Cent and Ja Rule add a
slight melody to their otherwise purely percussive raps whereas some rappers
such as Cee-Lo Green are able to harmonize their
raps with the beat. The Midwestern group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony was one of the
first groups to achieve nationwide recognition for using the fast-paced, melodic
and harmonic raps that are also practiced by Do or Die, another Midwestern
group. Another rapper to harmonize his rhymes is Nate Dogg, a rapper part of
the group 213. Rakim
experimented not only with following the beat, but also with complementing the
song's melody with his own voice, making his flow sound like that of an
instrument (a saxophone in particular).[55]

The ability to rap quickly and clearly is sometimes regarded as an important
sign of skill. In certain hip hop
subgenres such as chopped and screwed,
slow-paced rapping is often considered optimal. The current record for fastest
rapper is held by Spanish rapper Domingo Edjang Moreno, known by his alias
Chojin, who rapped 921 syllables in one minute on December 23, 2008.[56]

Subject matter

"Party rhymes", meant to pump up the crowd at a party, were nearly the
exclusive focus of old school hip hop, and they remain a staple of hip hop music
to this day. In addition to party raps, rappers also tend to make references to
love and sex. Love raps were first popularized by Spoonie Gee of the Treacherous Three, and
later, in the golden age of hip hop, Big Daddy Kane, Heavy D, and LL Cool J would continue this
tradition. East Coast hip hop artists such as KRS One, Public Enemy, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Jay-Z, Nas, The Notorious
B.I.G., and dead prez are known for their
sociopolitical subject matter. Their West Coast counterparts include Emcee Lynx, The Coup, Paris, and Michael Franti. Tupac Shakur was also known
for rapping about social issues such as police brutality, teenage pregnancy and
racism

Other rappers take a less critical approach to urbanity, sometimes even
embracing such aspects as crime. Schoolly D was the first
notable MC to rap about crime.[54]
Early on KRS-One was accused
of celebrating crime and a hedonistic lifestyle, but after the death of his DJ,
Scott La Rock, KRS-One
went on to speak out against violence in hip hop and has spent the majority of
his career condemning violence and writing on issues of race and class. Several
years later, he would go on to influence Ice T, who had more overtly
"gangsta" lyrics. Gangsta
rap, made popular largely because of N.W.A, brought rapping about crime
and the gangster lifestyle into the musical mainstream.

Materialism has also been a popular topic in hip-hop since at least the early
1990s, with rappers boasting about their own wealth and possessions, and
name-dropping specific brands: liquor brands Cristal and Rémy Martin, car
manufacturers Bentley and Mercedes-Benz and clothing
brands Gucci and Versace have all been popular
subjects for rappers.

Various politicians, journalists, and religious leaders have accused rappers
of fostering a culture of violence and hedonism among hip hop listeners through
their lyrics.[57][58][59]
However, there are also rappers whose messages may not be in conflict with these
views, for example Christian hip hop.
Others have praised the "political critique, innuendo and sarcasm" of hip hop
music.[60]

In contrast to the more hedonistic approach of gangsta rappers, some rappers
have a spiritual or religious focus. Christian rap is currently the most
commercially successful form of religious rap. Aside from Christianity, the Five Percent
Nation, an Islamic esotericist
religious/spiritual group, has been represented more than any religious group in
popular hip hop. Artists such as Rakim, the members of the Wu-Tang Clan, Brand Nubian, X-Clan, Busta Rhymes, and Nas, have
had success in spreading the theology of the Five
Percenters.

Literary technique

Rappers use the literary techniques
of double entendres, alliteration, and other
forms of wordplay that are also found in classical poetry. Similes and metaphors are used extensively
in rap lyrics; rappers such as Fabolous and Lloyd Banks have written
entire songs in which every line contains similes, whereas MCs like Rakim, GZA, and Jay-Z are known for the
metaphorical content of their raps. Rappers such as Lupe Fiasco are known for
the complexity of their songs that contain metaphors within extended
metaphors.

Diction and
dialect

Many hip hop listeners believe that a rapper's lyrics are enhanced by a
complex vocabulary. Kool Moe
Dee claims that he appealed to older audiences by using a complex vocabulary
in his raps.[39]
Rap is famous, however, for having its own vocabulary—from international hip hop
slang to regional slang. Some artists, like the Wu-Tang Clan, develop an entire
lexicon among their clique. African American Vernacular English has always had a
significant effect on hip hop slang and vice versa. Certain regions have
introduced their unique regional slang to hip hop culture, such as the Bay Area (Mac Dre, E-40), Houston (Chamillionaire, Paul Wall), Atlanta (Ludacris, Lil Jon, T.I.), and Kentucky (Nappy Roots). The Nation of
Gods and Earths, aka The Five Percenters, has influenced mainstream hip hop
slang with the introduction of phrases such as "word is bond" that have since
lost much of their original spiritual meaning. Preference toward one or the
other has much to do with the individual; GZA, for example, prides himself on
being very visual and metaphorical but also succinct, whereas underground rapper
MF DOOM is known for
heaping similes upon similes. In still another variation, 2Pac was known for
saying exactly what he meant, literally and clearly.

Freestyle and
battle

There are two kinds of freestyle rap: one is
scripted (recitation), but having no particular overriding subject matter, the
second typically referred to as "freestyling" or "spitting", is the
improvisation of rapped lyrics. When freestyling, some rappers inadvertently
reuse old lines, or even "cheat" by preparing segments or entire verses in
advance. Therefore, freestyles with proven spontaneity are valued above generic,
always usable lines.[61]
Rappers will often reference places or objects in their immediate setting, or
specific (usually demeaning) characteristics of opponents, to prove their
authenticity and originality.

Battle
rapping, which can be freestyled, is the competition between two or more
rappers in front of an audience. The tradition of insulting one's friends or
acquaintances in rhyme goes back to the dozens, and was portrayed
famously by Muhammad Ali
in his boxing matches. The winner of a battle is decided by the crowd and/or
preselected judges. According to Kool Moe Dee, a successful
battle rap focuses on an opponent's weaknesses, rather than one's own strengths.
Television shows such as BET's
106 and Park and MTV's DFX host weekly
freestyle battles live on the air. Battle rapping gained widespread public
recognition outside of the African-American community with rapper Eminem's movie, 8
Mile.

The strongest battle rappers will generally perform their rap fully
freestyled. This is the most effective form in a battle as the rapper can
comment on the other person, whether it be what they look like, or how they
talk, or what they wear. It also allows the rapper to reverse a line used to
"diss" him or her if they are the second rapper to battle. This is known as a
'flip'.

Social impact

Race and class

See also: Race in hip hop

Derivatives and
influence

Throughout hip hop's history, new musical styles and genres have developed
that contain rapping. Entire genres, such as rap rock and its derivatives rapcore and rap metal (rock/metal/punk with
rapped vocals), or hip
house have resulted from the fusion of rap and other styles. Many popular
music genres with a focus on percussion have contained rapping at some point; be
it disco (DJ Hollywood), jazz (Gang Starr), new
wave (Blondie), funk (Fatback Band), contemporary R&B
(Mary J. Blige), Reggaeton (Daddy Yankee), or even
Japanese dance music (Soul'd
Out). UK garage music
has begun to focus increasingly on rappers in a new subgenre called grime, pioneered and
popularized by the MC Dizzee Rascal. Increased
popularity with the music has shown more UK rappers going to America as well as
tour there, such as Sway
DaSafo possibly signing with Akon's label Konvict. Hyphy is
the latest of these spin-offs. The style originated in Oakland California and gained
national attention in 2006, beginning with E-40's album My Ghetto Report
Card.[citation
needed] It is typified by slowed-down atonal vocals with
instrumentals that borrow heavily from the hip hop scene and lyrics
centered on illegal street racing and car culture. Another Oakland, California
group, Beltaine's Fire, has recently gained attention for their Celtic fusion sound which
blends hip hop beats with Celtic melodies. Unlike the majority of hip hop
artists, all their music is performed live without samples, synths, or drum
machines, drawing comparisons to The Roots and Rage Against the
Machine.

Bhangra, a widely popular
style of music from Punjab (India) has been
mixed numerous times with reggae and hip hop music. The most popular song in
this genre in the United States was "Mundian to Bach Ke" or
"Beware the Boys" by Panjabi MC and Jay-Z.
Although "Mundian To Bach Ke" had been released previously, the mixing with
Jay-Z popularized the genre further.

The lists in
this article may contain items that are not notable, not
encyclopedic, or
not helpful. Please help out by removing such elements and incorporating
appropriate items into the main body of the article. (March
2009)

Though the majority of rappers are male, there have been a number of female
rap stars, including Nicki
Minaj, Lauryn Hill,
MC Lyte, Lil' Kim, Missy Elliott, Queen Latifah, Da Brat, Eve,
Trina, Khia, Foxy Brown, and Lisa Lopes from TLC. As
these all are hearing rap artists, there is also deaf rap artist Signmark.

References

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Edwards, Paul, 2009, How
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^ Edwards,
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^ a
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^ "Rapping"
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^ Edwards,
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^ a
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c
d
Attridge, Derek, 2002, Poetic Rhythm: An Introduction, Cambridge University
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^ a
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^ Oxford
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^ "Dictionary.com". http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=rap. Retrieved February 2, 2008.

^ Safire, William.
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^
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^
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^ Howard
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^ The
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^ a
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^ Cobb, Jelani
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^ a
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^ a
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^ Krims, Adam,
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^ Edwards,
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63-130.

^ a
b
c
Krims, Adam, 2001, Rap Music And The Poetics Of Identity, Cambridge
University Press, p. 44.

^ Edwards,
Paul, 2009, How to
Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review
Press.

^ a
b
Edwards, Paul, 2009, How
to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press,
p. 63–79.

^ Edwards,
Paul, 2009, How to
Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p.
71–72.

^ Edwards,
Paul, 2009, How to
Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p.
72.

^ "Allmusic". http://www.allmusic.com/explore/genre/d1. Retrieved December 22, 2005.

^ a
b
c
d
Kool Moe Dee, 2003, There's A God On The Mic: The True 50 Greatest MCs,
Thunder's Mouth Press, p. 325.

^ Kool Moe
Dee, 2003, There's A God On The Mic: The True 50 Greatest MCs,
Thunder's Mouth Press, p. 334.

^ a
b
Kool Moe Dee; Chuck D.
(November 2003). There's a God on the Mic. Ernie Paniccioli
(Photographer). Thunder's Mouth Press. pp. 224. ISBN 1-56025-533-1.

^ a
b
Kool Moe Dee, 2003, There's A God On The Mic: The True 50 Greatest MCs,
Thunder's Mouth Press, p. 324.

^ Kool Moe
Dee, 2003, There's A God On The Mic: The True 50 Greatest MCs,
Thunder's Mouth Press, p. 326.

^ Kool Moe
Dee, 2003, There's A God On The Mic: The True 50 Greatest MCs,
Thunder's Mouth Press, p. 328.

^ Kool Moe
Dee, 2003, There's A God On The Mic: The True 50 Greatest MCs,
Thunder's Mouth Press, p. 206.

^ Kool Moe
Dee, 2003, There's A God On The Mic: The True 50 Greatest MCs,
Thunder's Mouth Press, p. 39.

^ a
b
Krims, Adam, 2001, Rap Music And The Poetics Of Identity, Cambridge
University Press, p. 49.

^ a
b
stic.man, 2005, The Art Of Emceeing, Boss Up Inc., p. 63.

^ stic.man,
2005, The Art Of Emceeing, Boss Up Inc., p. 63–64.

^ stic.man,
2005, The Art Of Emceeing, Boss Up Inc., p. 64.

^ Krims, Adam,
2001, Rap Music And The Poetics Of Identity, Cambridge University
Press, p. 50.

^ a
b
Krims, Adam, 2001, Rap Music And The Poetics Of Identity, Cambridge
University Press, p. 51.

^ Shapiro,
Peter, 2005, The Rough Guide To Hip-Hop, 2nd Edition, Penguin, p.
213

^ Bradley,
Adam, 2009, Book of
Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip-Hop, Basic Civitas Books, p. 51–52.

^ Edwards,
Paul, 2009, How to
Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p.
105.

^ a
b
Blow, Kurtis. "Kurtis Blow Presents: The History of Rap, Vol. 1: The Genesis
(liner notes)". Kurtis Blow Presents: The History Of Rap, Vol. 1: The
Genesis. http://rhino.com/Features/liners/72851lin.html. Retrieved May 14, 2006.

^ Rakim Allah Interview – YoungAmerica, from Friday, July 7,
2006

^ "Guinness World Records". http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records/arts_and_media/music_feats_and_facts/fastest_rap_mc.aspx. Retrieved August 27, 2010.

^
Kirby, Jill (2006-07-16). "The hoodie needs a daddy, not a hug". The Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2088-2272091,00.html. Retrieved July 22, 2006.

^
O'Reilly, Bill (2002-08-28). "Challenging Pepsi". Fox News. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,61546,00.html. Retrieved July 22, 2006.

^
Lynskey, Dorian (2006-07-21). "'We need heroes'". The Guardian. http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,1824848,00.html. Retrieved July 22, 2006.

^
Demers, Joanna. “Sampling the 1970s in Hip-Hop”, Cambridge University Press,
2003, pp. 41–42.

^ Freestyle:
The Art of Rhyme (2000)

Further reading

Hip hop
portal

Paul Edwards; Kool G Rap (foreword)
(December 2009). How to
Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC. Chicago Review Press.
pp. 340. ISBN 1-55652-816-7.

Alan Light; et al. (October 1999). The Vibe
History of Hip Hop. Three Rivers Press. pp. 432. ISBN 0-609-80503-7.

Jeff Chang; D.J. Kool Herc (December 2005).
Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. Picador.
pp. 560. ISBN 0-312-42579-1.

Sacha Jenkins; et al. (December 1999). Ego
Trip's Book of Rap Lists. St. Martin's Griffin. pp. 352. ISBN 0-312-24298-0.

Kool Moe Dee; et al.
(November 2003). There's A God
On The Mic: The True 50 Greatest MCs. Thunder's Mouth Press.
pp. 224. ISBN 1-56025-533-1.

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