Now what you hear is not a test, I'm rapping to the beat

song: The sugar hill Gang - Rapper's delight

You can' t deny the fact that you're goofily singing and dancing along this track every time you here it.
Even I can't.. and i'm part of the new generation that likes electro and deep house, but there just is something about this one that will never fade away.

If you're born after the late 70's ( don't worry, I am too ), there's a big chance that you don't remember the beginning of hip hop. Today hearing rap is not something unusual. I'd even say that hearing a song without rap would be called unusual today . but it hasn't always been like that ..

rewind to the 1970's - the Bronx :
people start mixing earlier American musical genres such as jazz, blues and rock and roll, with additional inspiration like soul, funk, rhythm and blues and accompanied by rhythmic chanting or poetry in a new style '' rapping ''  at block parties , but ignored the commercial potential of the music.
and this is how hip hop started giving a voice to the voiceless.

This is not a history class so I won't go into details too much.. let's go back to rapper's delight, and it'll quickly make sense why I chose to post this song for my first post.


but first, two things I'm going to mention ( just to keep making sense )
1- Television/radio are of the most influential mass communications ever , they help determine status quo.
2- Minority groups had no say in whatsoever in those years


Ok, now back to the song;

1979: Rapper's delight is the first hop hip song to become a Top 40 hit in America.
it definitely isn't the first hip hop song, but it is the first one to have popularized it in the states.
This means that a group that belongs to the minority of that period ( African Americans ) had a song with their own lyrics ( counter hegemonic of course )  on national, and later international televisions and radios.

We are talking about cultural change here . It showed the public something that was incomparable to anything they had ever seen before.                        New style + New lyrics 


And believe it or not ( but you should because you re surrounded by it every day ) ;
The public loved it