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There are many historical sources for rap. In the late 1960s and early 70s militant black poetry collectives such as the Last Poets in Harlem, New York, and the Watts Prophets in Watts, Los Angeles combined their poems with jazz or African-style percussion as a way of reaching a broader audience. Gil Scott-Heron matched radical polemical poetry with soulful jazz backings. The humour of black comedians like Pigmeat Markham and Moke and Poke, the fluid patter of radio disc jockeys such as Dr Hep Cat, Dr Daddy-O and Douglas 'Jocko' Henderson, and the spoken soul raps of Isaac Hayes, Dr. Horse, Millie Jackson and Barry White, are all sources of rap.
Being linguistically clever is important in black American society, and this resulted in many vernacular traditions. These included competitive verbal games such as the 'dozens', which traded humorous and sometimes surreal insults back and forth until one contestant conceded defeat, or the spoken narratives known as 'toasts', often stories about folk heroes and historical events. Although the verbal fluency of African-American culture could be traced back to griot, or praise singing, traditions and other lyric forms of West Africa, the style of rapping that developed out of New York Hip Hop was distinctly different for its integration of words and music.
Hip hop began in the mid-1970s. A Jamaican born DJ named Kool Herc began playing the percussion or 'break' sections of funk records at Bronx parties in New York. As a reaction against the upmarket, exclusive appeal of disco, his choice of music made an immediate impact on young blacks in the Bronx. Other aspiring DJs realized that they owned similar records: Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash became figureheads for hip hop culture, Bambaataa for his leadership qualities and inventive selections of music, and Flash for his technical inventions and scratching.
MCs, or rappers as they became known, had been added by DJs in order to present a more exciting and professional show to volatile audiences. Inevitably, as they developed their art, the rappers became a focal point of events held in school gymnasiums, clubs and parks. Although DJs, dancers and graffiti artists were considered as equal participants within hip hop culture, the release of the first rap records in 1979 shifted the balance in favour of vocalists. Few of the earliest hip hop stylists, including
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