Researchers Say Rap Music Originated in Scotland
Monday December 29, 2008
Books, films, and countless songs have consistently linked hip-hop's origins to early African slaves, but some researchers beg to differ. According to Professor Ferenc Szasz who deals with American and Scottish culture at the University of New Mexico, rap music as we know it originated in Scottish bars in the form of "flyting."
Says Professor Szasz: "The Scots have a lengthy tradition of flyting - intense verbal jousting, often laced with vulgarity, that is similar to the dozens that one finds among contemporary inner-city African-American youth. "Both cultures accord high marks to satire. The skilled use of satire takes this verbal jousting to its ultimate level - one step short of a fist fight."I hate to break it to Professor Szasz, but hip-hop was not originally built on the basis of trading insults. In fact, the earliest form of emceeing came in the form of street poetry among African slaves as a way to inspire and uplift spirits. Then there was "toasting," whereby early Jamaican DJs incorporated scatting and rhythmic rhyming. In fact, Battle Rap came much later and eventually grew in popularity. It's possible that what those medieval Scottish invented was the art of trading Yo Mama insults.
Comments
Just another person trying to patronize the Hip Hop concept. pitiful. :/
Good post Henry, Glad to see you know more about the origins of rap than Professor Szasz. Once upon a time it was just “a fad”, now everyone wants to lay claim to it.
Comments like the one from Professor Szasz is precisely why true guardians of the art of hip-hop need to stand up. Not just African-Americans, but everyone who truly understands the genre and its origins. If we don’t preserve the truth, who will? I respect the Scottish art of flyting, but to suggest that it is the origin of African-American hip-hop is rather absurd.
thiese kind of stories come up all the time, i just ignore em, one guy thought rap originated from Texas cowboys or sumthin last time i heard…(sigh)
Henry, way to lay it down. now white people are trying to take hip hop…pathetic…
Henry, you hit the nail on the head.
Battle rap? Maybe.
Yo Mama jokes? Could be.
Hip Hop as a whole? Hell to the no!
Rhyming is actually 1000’s of year old. Older than Stonehedge. So Professor Szasz can keep on professing to be telling the truth till he runs out of lies to say. The truth is that Rhyming started in times even before Ancient Egypt and was brought to the Caribbean by the same Afrikans that took the trade winds from West Africa to the Caribbean Islands 1000’s of years before Columbus was shown how to use the same trade winds to reach the America’s. That’s right Afikans have been in the America’s for eons and brought with them the art of history telling through rhythmatic language as the Griot’s in Afrika due to this day.
So to make a long story short the Art of Rhyming came to the America’s shortly after the Atlantic Ocean was created then came to the Caribbean and finally to the East Cost of the U.S. in the mid 1950’s. By the 1970’s came around this form of inspiration & history telling became known as Hip-Hop when Electronic Music, by artist such as Africa Bambaataa, Visual Arts such break dancing, with dance artist such as Crazy Legs, and Graffiti Painting were added to the Poetry.
So what is Hip-Hop? In general, True Hip-Hop is a culture that uses Body, Visual and Music Arts to help people become aware of what’s happening with past & current events and to move that information in a positive direction. Hence the Poetry and Graffiti side of Hip-Hop represent being aware and knowledgeable while Break Dancing represents moving of information.
arey me khud bhi rap songs banata hoo.mere bahut sare rap compose kiye hue hai.lekin mujhe unko release karne ka tarika nahi mil raha.if enybody can help me than plzzzzzzzzzzz help yaar.
Actually for years now the argument has been that all modern music derives from Black American music to the exclusion of all music prior. This is despite American Blues being derived from western pentatonics, all lyrics being sung in English and very little hint of the Polyrhythms associated with African music. We do know that the dancing and religious aspects came from influences of the land owner. Now no one is taking away from Black American culture but to say that it was completely uninfluenced is ironically seeing the World as very “black and white” when we know better. What we have here is a chicken and the egg scenario where two cultures collided and due to social interactions a new music was spawned. It is one of the key points at which black culture was recognised by white culture. We’re beyond saying that all music until that point had no contribution and this gentleman is clearly an academic and would have been questioned over his own bias. The person writing this article is black and is heavily involved with Hip-Hop and so has a vested interest in the subject and a biased opinion. The man responsible for this report is not out to raise Scottish interests in World culture but if anything is helping to break down this absurd oversights in hopes of getting away from this, as I say, very black and white view of the World.
Its a bold claim, he would know that and so I should imagine he would have to work very hard to support his claims. If his conclusion is that Scottish music had a large impact then I doubt there is much room for argument. As for toasting, if that requires a DJ then that is post Scottish influence and Jamaica was a slave community as well, no doubt that would have had Scottish plantation owners.
The comments in this article are based on research up until this point which would have been taken into consideration when doing this research.
Look at what is in front of you, this review is unquestionably biased. Also, if it is true, which by all accounts it appears to be, then it suggests that black and white culture are not so seperate. It contributes towards equality and helps us take a step back from the mild form of affirmative action that seems to stream through modern society.
Read the man’s credentials, what would he have to gain by lying, why risk his career. This white people black people thing is so fundamentally racist and its blinding you from valid research
Ferenc Szasz offers students a variety of classes in the areas of social, intellectual, and religious history of the United States and the American West. Szasz also teaches both U.S. history survey courses, the history of World War II, and a number of undergraduate and graduate seminars. During the 1985-86 academic year, Szasz was the Fulbright Professor of American Studies at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, where, in addition to his university duties, he lectured extensively throughout Scotland, England, and Wales. An enthusiastic writer, Szasz has authored six books, edited or co-edited four others, and published nearly ninety scholarly and popular articles. He also serves as a manuscript reviewer for a number of academic journals and presses, as well as being a member of the editorial board for Journal of the West. Currently, Szasz is finishing up a study on the impact of Robert Burns on the life and legend of Abraham Lincoln.
There is another comment that states rhyming came from Ancient Egypt. :/ listen to yourselves.
16th century English folk music rhymes and they would have had no clue of black or ancient Egyptian culture, its the lyrical equivalent of resolving to the root note.
AAH! SO FRUSTRATING! You people don’t want equality, you want each culture to be recognised individually. You want seperatism on your terms. That’s not equality that’s the core of racism. In fact racism at its core is ignorance and to stand there and discount research, purely on the basis that it questions current knowledge and your own interests, is to play into that same mindset.
The Scottish could well have contributed to rap. No one is saying that is the sole reason rap came about, but to ask that there was a contribution is not nearly as absurd as these comments make out.