1. Freestyle and the Rap Commodity

2. Griots

3. Deejay Toasting

5. MC/Emcee Master of Ceremonies Microphone Controller Early MCs just kept the party moving By late 1970s, MCs brought in a lot of bragging and boasting and party lyrics By early 1980s we see “message” rap

6. Early MCs 1 st known MC, 1974ish, Coke La Rock – 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

7. “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 Hank stole Caz's raps; copyright infringement

8. Rap is... Commodified form of hip hop music – Turns live performance art into a sellable product Hip hop comes from streets; record companies made rap Written...rapper is an “author” Displaces the DJ...started with “Rapper's Delight” – 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

9. 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 “Walk This Way” Marx's Alienation= something human is taken from us and returned as a commodity

10. 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 Once incorporated, the subculture ceases to exist What does she say about rap in her study? – Sanitization of the subculture

11. Eminem v. Juice 1997 Scribble Jam Battle, Juice wins 1997 Rap Olympics, Otherwize wins – Led to Eminem getting signed Considered to heavily influence 8 Mile (2002) Considered to heavily influence – Craig G wrote all the rhymes for Eminem's competitors in the film

12. NOTORIOUSNOTORIOUS (2009) Infamous battle when he was 17

13. 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