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Freestyle and the Rap Commodity

This exploration delves into the rich history of rap music, tracing its roots from the earliest MCs like Kool Herc and Cowboy in the 1970s to the commercial success of the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight." It evaluates how live performances evolved into a commodified art form, notably shaping hip hop's global presence. The discussion also highlights the contrasting authenticity of freestyle rap versus written verses, the influence of cultural appropriation, and the socio-economic forces that have shaped the genre, making it a significant part of pop culture.

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Freestyle and the Rap Commodity

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  1. Freestyle and the Rap Commodity

  2. Griots

  3. Deejay Toasting

  4. Early MCs • 1st known MC, 1974ish • Kool Herc's Herculoids • Cowboy • GM Flash and 3 MCs / Furious Five • First to really rhyme and rock a crowd, routines • Melle Mel • GM Flash and 3 MCs / Furious Five • Writing rhymes...song writing credit/publishing

  5. “Rapper's Delight” • 1979, Sugarhill Gang (a “boy band”) • Best-selling 12” single of all time • NOT the first record with rapping (Fatback Band “King Tim III (Personality Jock)”) • 14-minute record, played on many radio formats • Made emceeing into “rapping” • Made rap music global/glocal • Mass commodification of music • Sanitized, unauthentic, disco rap

  6. Rap is... • Commodified form of hip hop music • Turns live performance art into a product • Hip hop comes from streets; record companies made rap • Written • Displaces the DJ • First musicians replicating DJ • Then producers • Not always culturally authentic (i.e. Sugarhill Gang) • More industrial than cultural • What we most commonly associate with hip hop

  7. Blair (2004) • Youth subcultural expression into pop culture • Music that comes from socio-economic oppression • Using rap to sell other goods • Relates to rock and jazz; use of white appropriators to quell moral panics (i.e. Elvis) • Run-DMC • Marx's Alienation= something human is taken from us and returned as a commodity

  8. Blair Cont'd • Hegemony=ruling class ideas rule society as “normal” • Gottdiener (1985): subcultural incorporation • 1. Objects produced for exchange • 2. User modifies object (bricolage); subcultural sign • 3. Producers capitalize and turn subcultural trends in to mass culture; sanitization • What does she say about rap in her study?

  9. Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme (2000) • Dir. Kevin Fitzgerald • Art of improv rhyming, ephemeral • The original form of MCing • Written vs. Freestyle • Written is business end, mass produceable • Spiritual • Outlet for anger, frustration, emotion...HEALING • Battling and cypher...bboy, DJ, graff

  10. Eminem v. Juice • 1997 Scribble Jam Battle, Juice wins • 1997 Rap Olympics, Otherwize wins • Led to Eminem getting signed • Considered to heavily influence8 Mile (2002) • Craig G wrote all the rhymes for Eminem's competitors in the film

  11. NOTORIOUS (2009) • Infamous battle when he was 17

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