Rap before hip-hop

For the hip-hop unit in the Song Factory class at the New School, I want to start things off by clarifying the difference between hip-hop and rap. People use these terms interchangeably, but they really describe two different things: hip-hop is a culture, and rap is a musical expression of that culture. But rapping is also a musical technique, one that long predates hip-hop. Rap appears in every style of popular music descending from the African diaspora. I list examples from several of those styles below. You might debate me on whether some of these examples count as “rap” or not. Is it rap when you sing rhythmically on one pitch, or on a narrow range of pitches? Rap more often uses wider pitch contours. Are we counting any spoken word with musical accompaniment, or does the speaking have to be rhythmically structured in a specific way? Does it have to rhyme? We will be discussing all that in class.

Blues

John Lee Hooker – “Boogie Chillen” (1948)

Hooker raps a couple of short verses amid a mostly sung tune, and they are haunting. He is not exactly following the rhythm of the guitar part, but he’s also not using natural speech rhythm; it’s somewhere in between.

Babs Gonzales – “House Rent Party” (1956)

This is much more literal rap, with end rhymes and everything. I am not used to hearing rap over the blues but it was probably common in the first half of the 20th century.

John Lee Hooker – “I’m Bad Like Jesse James” (1966)

This sounds to me like a clear precursor to gangsta rap.

Country

Chris Bouchillion – “Talking Blues” (1926)

Woody Guthrie made talking blues famous, and we will get to him, but it was a well established style before he got to it.

Hank Williams – “Men With Broken Hearts” (1957)

This album was a departure from Hank’s usual sound, and his producer was skeptical. Hank ultimately released it under the semi-pseudonym Luke The Drifter. Wikipedia compares this to earlier country records that set narration to music, but this goes beyond narration: Hank is talking in the rhythm of the song with sing-songy pitch.

Charley Ryan – “Hot Rod Lincoln” (1957)

You might consider this to be rockabilly, but I didn’t want to make a whole new category.

Lorne Greene – “Ringo” (1964)

There’s something delightfully silly about the deep bass lead vocal against the baritone male chorus.

Lester Flatt – “Drink That Mash And Talk That Trash” (1970)

You definitely do not typically associate rap with bluegrass.

Charlie Daniels – The Devil Went Down To Georgia (1979)

See also his “Uneasy Rider“. Who knew there was so much country rap?

Gospel

The Jubilaires – “Noah” (1946)

This is almost entirely sung, but the delivery is speech-y enough to feel like rap to me.

Bill Landford and The Landfordaires – “Run On For A Long Time” (1949)

I hear it as entirely sung, but the rhythms are very rap-like, and the pitch contours lean in a speech-like direction.

Rock and Pop

Bo Diddley – “Say Man” (1959)

This is an edge case, because the vocals are not lined up with the beat. I mostly include it because it’s fun.

The Shangri-Las – “Past, Present and Future” (1966)

The spoken bridge to “Leader of the Pack” is more famous, but nothing can top the weirdness of spoken word over Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”.

War – “Spill The Wine” (1970)

Eric Burdon defies categorization.

Lou Reed – “Walk on the Wild Side” (1972)

Is this very loosely tuned singing or rhythmic speaking? I hear both. This song is an important part of hip-hop history for a different reason: it’s a basis for one the best songs by A Tribe Called Quest.

Talking Heads – “Crosseyed and Painless” (1980)

Not only does this have a rap verse, but the video is also full of breakdancing.

R&B/funk/soul

Pigmeat Markham – “Here Comes the Judge” (1968)

The funk rhythms under this make it sound just like early hip-hop in the Sugar Hill Gang vein.

Gary Byrd – “Every Brother Ain’t A Brother” (1970)

Speaking of early hip-hop, this sounds remarkably like Kurtis Blow.

Gil Scott-Heron – “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” (1970)

This reminds me of Public Enemy.

The Last Poets – White Man’s Got a God Complex (1971)

The Last Poets are the link between beat poetry and hip-hop.

Parliament – “Dr Funkenstein” (1976)

Check out the exaggeratedly pitched spoken gang vocals in the chorus.

Stevie Wonder – “Do I Do” (1982)

This is not technically pre-hip-hop because it came out in 1982, but Stevie’s rap style in the last minute of the song sounds more like older R&B.

Jazz

Whiteys Lindy Hoppers – “Hellzapoppin'” (1941)

The manically happy expressions on people’s faces are disconcerting, but the music and dancing are excellent.

Louis Jordan – “You Gotta Have a Beat” (1940s)

Louis Jordan is not tightly locked into the beat, but he is speaking in a heightened and melodic way that reminds me of rap.

Cannonball Adderley – “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” (1966)

This is narration more than rap, but it has that heightened delivery with more deliberate pacing and wider pitch contours than Cannonball’s regular speech.

Folk

Woody Guthrie – “Talkin’ Blues” (1947)

As mentioned above, Woody did not invent this form, but he certainly made it his own.

Joan Baez – “Time Rag” (1977)

An acapella performance that alternates rapped verses with sung choruses.

Miscellaneous

Muhammad Ali – “I Am The Greatest” (1963)

There’s no beat, but the pitch contours and the attitude of rap are there.

Frankie Crocker rap (1967)

It’s right there in the title!

Leroi Jones’ Young Spirit House Movers and Players (1968)

Militant rap by a children’s chorus!

There are many more examples in this amazing YouTube playlist, though many of those are songs sung on one-note melodies. If you have more good examples, please add them in the comments.