Music of African-American America Rap and R&B Music Music of African-American America

The Black Population The U.S. is 12% African-American. Black people in the U.S. are mostly descended from slaves from Africa.

Where Black People Live Mostly in the South and urban areas of the U.S. They live in areas that have traditionally had problems with racism.

Black Families A majority of black families have no father in the household.

Black Education Black people are generally less educated. They often go to troubled, poor schools and face high drop-out rates.

Blacks Face More Poverty Poverty is especially common in households headed by women.

More Blacks in Jail Blacks are represented in the jail population at high rates.

Black Life Expectancy Black people live several fewer years than other Americans.

Features of Rap Music Profanity Explicit talk about drugs, sex, crime Glorification of money and name brands Discussion of racism Anger Spoken, more like poetry than music—limited melodies Lots of non-standard grammar—“Black English”

Features of AAVE African-American Vernacular English Use of be without conjugation: “He be going all over the place” OR Dropping of be altogether: “Something wrong” Frequent use of ain’t and double negatives Extreme shortening: Imma=I’m going to, tryna=trying to Dropping of past participles=“I’m swoll up” Dropping of 3rd-person singular “s”= “He go every week”

Popular Rap and R&B Music Stars For ideas, go to http://www.billboard.com/charts/r-b-hip-hop-songs