The Rap Movement in The Bronx

Home of the Rap Movement

Works Cited:

AllMusic." AllMusic. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2013. <http://www.allmusic.com/artist/kool-dj-herc-mn0001254243/biography>.

Cepeda, Raquel. And It Don't Stop: The Best American Hip-hop Journalism of the Last 25 Years. New York: Faber and Faber, 2004.

"Civic Forumz - Honda Civic Forum." Civic Forumz Honda Civic Forum RSS. Web. 21 Oct. 2013.

"Fat Joe." MTV Artists. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2013.

Hess, Mickey. Hip Hop in America: A Regional Guide. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2010.

"Rollingstone Homepage - Music News, Reviews and Culture." Rolling Stone. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2013.

"What Can I Do on Discogs?" Discogs. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2013. <http://www.discogs.com/>.

The Bronx is home to rap music and brought about many rap musicians since early years of the hip-hop movement. While representing the BX, also celebrate a community of local ghettos and illustrate their extreme locals with their lyrics. Inter-ghettoes deep-rootedness is yet unchallenged by rivalry between areas within the borough. Also, rap music was a response to street gang culture, as Afrika Bambaataa's Zulu Nation depicts, and was used as an alternate to violence. The origins of rap sprung from the energy of the Bronx, and still thrives today, as it will for generations to come.

Rap Critiqued

• Many people critique rap music, especially women like Dr. C Delores Tuckers, who appeared in Kierna Mayo's interview in "Caught up in the (Gangsta) Rapture," June 1994
• Tuckers claims that women are "tired of being disrespected and insulted."
• Tuckers plans to liberate everyone for good from the "hell of gangsta rap."
• She went on to create the National Political Congress of Black Women

The History of Rap

Rap is Gettin' Unreal

• Journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates assert that "the streets that gangsta rappers claim as their source are no longer as angry as they are now sad." In Keepin It Unreal, his point is that gangsta rap should've been dead by now.
• Gangsta rappers stretch the truth so that it still lingers
• " Gansta rap today is about as reflective of reality as a reality show" (Coates, Keepin It Unreal, 2003)

• The rap movement sprung from the hip hop movement, and its origins are traced back to the "Boogie Down" Bronx in the early 1970s.
• In the early 70s, people gave The Bronx several nasty names, including "America's worst slum", "the city of despair", and "the stain."
• Rap music emerged in The Bronx for many reasons, including the social disengagement policies established by the Nixon administration, which lead to harsh living conditions and "hyperghettoes."

Successful Rap Artists in the Bronx

• KRS-One: Lawrence Krisna Parker, The Teacher, The Blastmaster, moved to the South Bronx in his early teens from Jaimaica after droppng out of high school
• met DJ Scott La Rock and formed Boogie Down Productions
• One of the first MCs, along with Ice T and Rakim, to switch up rap lyrical content into first person narratives of black youngsters stuck in the ghetto.
• Fat Joe, introduced himself to the hip hop world as "Anotha Wild Nigga From The Bronx"
• He devoted a lot of his music to his home uptown
• "Da Fat Gangsta" or "Anotha Wild Nigga From The Bronx: shout out to a crime-ridden Bronx. He recognizes the addiction, drug abuse, and violent behaviors as the primary facts shaping daily lives on the streets.
• Teamed up with Big Pun, another Bronx rapper, to form Terror Squad in 1998

Territorial Distribution

The Rap Attack in The Bronx

• Rap music in the Bronx was territorially distributed : Kool Herc represented the West Side, Afrika Bambaataa: the Bronx River, and Grandmaster Flash: South Bronx
• Region and place are of great importance to rap artists, largely in part because of street gangs.
• The violence associated with street gangs caused Afrika Bambaataa to leave the Black Spades.

The Boogie Down Bronx

• "The Boogie Down Bronx" got its name from the enthusiastic and lively music and inevitable block partiesof the early 70s.
• The Pioneers of rap music conducted parties in public parks and street corners.
• DJ Kool Herc from Jamaica, father of hip-hop, got his rep from his block parties.
• Afrika Bambaataa , known for founding the Zulu Nation, an organization for reformed gang members to stay away from violence.
• Grandmaster Flash, very creative and innovative. He mastered in DJing, and managing turntables, came up with the beat-box machine.
• Disco Fever: club and headquarters of rap music in the 1980s. Bill Adler described the Fever as the "rap capital of the solar system," and "YMCA" of the Bronx.