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I．The Origins of Rap Music
A. Origins . Rap, a word in black slang, is equivalent to “talking”, which originates from poverty black community in New York. With the background of mechanical rhythm, it fleetly performs a succession of rhyming verses. One origin of this form was a fast and rhyme jargon used by the radio hosts in the past when they introduced the discs. The lyrics of Rap are humorous, interesting, and often ironic; in 1980s of 20th century, Rap was extraordinarily welcomed by the black. Sometimes, Rap is also called Hip-Hop. As a matter of fact, the meaning of Hip-Hop is wider, which refers to the various components of New York street culture at that time; Rap is an important part in the American black music, as it is a primary mood in street culture and a “black chocolate” in worldwide pop music. The earliest formation time of Rap is approximately in 1970s to 1980s; however, its creation is said to be the auxiliary product of Rhythm and Blues, DJ added his own sound and some gastriloquy in order to avoid the stage wait in the process of alternation when he changed the music, which became the rudiment of Rap in the early age. At the end of 1970s, some singers wrote their own Rap songs, and volunteered to great music companies, but nobody wanted to accept and issue the songs of new music which regarded as “black inferior music”; so some street Rap artists recorded the songs at home or in the garage by themselves, and drove to sell them all over the country. Since they had not registered their works and paid the tax, the music companies and taxpayers considered them as “Pretty Criminals” and “Convicted tax felons”. In 1981, Aaron Fuchs in New York established the first Rap independent record company ——Tuff City Record, and produced albums for Rap singers so that the company made the above-mentioned undercover activities legal. After the establishment of Tuff City Record, some Rap undercover producers also promoted their own independent brands, such as: Tommy Boy (once it was appraised as “Best Undercover Music Brand” by the Rolling stone Magazine), Select, Profile, Def Jam, etc. At the beginning, the big companies paid little attention to the prospect of this undercover street music, so the way of the development of Rap in the early stage was not smooth. With no sales outlets to large companies and radio broadcast around the country, Rap was only confined to the black community broadcasting station in New York; therefore, the promotion of Rap was quite difficult. American big record companies, with sharp sight and excellent brightness, discovered after market research that this music was extremely popular in the area of black residence while the Rap bands came into existence, which were just like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. Owing to the profit impulse, many big companies invested huge amount of capital in this prosperous and brand-new market after 1980s. Under the support of great sales points from big companies and frequent radio broadcast, Rap music ran out of the black residential areas and produced comparatively abundant branches, for example: West Coast Rap, Southern Rap, Pop Rap, Old School, Midwest Rap, Latin Rap, Hardcore Rap, Gangsta Rap, Foreign Rap, East Coast Rap, Crossover Rap, Comedy Rap, Christian Rap, Alternative Rap, etc, and these branches gradually popularized to various areas all over America.
B. Representative Rapper .
Eminem is one of the most important rappers not to be ignored, he is