124-475: RAPS or Raps may refer to: Rapping , spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics Ram Air Progression System , a parachuting training method Remote-area power supply , an off-the-grid electricity system "Raps", a colloquial nickname for the Toronto Raptors Reducing and alkalinity producing system used for wastewater treatment Topics referred to by
248-631: A 3-weekend a cappella festival held each February since 1975, where over a hundred collegiate groups have appeared, as well as International Quartet Champions The Boston Common and the contemporary commercial a cappella group Rockapella . Co-ed groups have produced many up-and-coming and major artists, including John Legend , an alumnus of the Counterparts at the University of Pennsylvania , Sara Bareilles , an alumna of Awaken A Cappella at University of California, Los Angeles , Mindy Kaling , an alumna of
372-542: A Jamaican immigrant, started delivering simple raps at his parties, which some claim were inspired by the Jamaican tradition of toasting . However, Kool Herc himself denies this link (in the 1984 book Hip Hop ), saying, "Jamaican toasting? Naw, naw. No connection there. I couldn't play reggae in the Bronx. People wouldn't accept it. The inspiration for rap is James Brown and the album Hustler's Convention ". Herc also suggests he
496-460: A cappella , meaning without accompaniment of any sort. When a rap or hip-hop artist is creating a song, "track", or record, done primarily in a production studio, most frequently a producer provides the beat(s) for the MC to flow over. Stylistically, rap occupies a gray area between speech, prose, poetry, and singing . The word, which predates the musical form, originally meant "to lightly strike", and
620-636: A cappella arrangements through the use of a subway beat boxer character. Beat boxer and actor Chesney Snow performed this role for the 2010 Primary Stages production. According to the show's website, it is scheduled to reopen for an open-ended commercial run in the Fall of 2011. In 2011, the production received four Lucille Lortel Award nominations including Outstanding Musical, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League nominations, as well as five Drama Desk nominations including Outstanding Musical and won for Outstanding Ensemble Performance. In December 2016, In Transit became
744-511: A cappella choral development not only in Sweden but around the world, and finally there are a large number of very popular primary and secondary schools ('music schools') with high admission standards based on auditions that combine a rigid academic regimen with high level choral singing on every school day, a system that started with Adolf Fredrik's Music School in Stockholm in 1939 but has spread over
868-401: A cappella ensembles typically include one voice singing the lead melody, one singing a rhythmic bass line, and the remaining voices contributing chordal or polyphonic accompaniment. A cappella can also describe the isolated vocal track(s) from a multitrack recording that originally included instrumentation. These vocal tracks may be remixed or put onto vinyl records for DJs, or released to
992-502: A cappella groups can be found in high schools and colleges. There are amateur Barbershop Harmony Society and professional groups that sing a cappella exclusively. Although a cappella is technically defined as singing without instrumental accompaniment, some groups use their voices to emulate instruments; others are more traditional and focus on harmonizing. A cappella styles range from gospel music to contemporary to barbershop quartets and choruses. The Contemporary A Cappella Society (CASA)
1116-629: A cappella includes many vocal groups and bands who add vocal percussion or beatboxing to create a pop/rock/gospel sound, in some cases very similar to bands with instruments. Examples of such professional groups include Straight No Chaser , Pentatonix , The House Jacks , Rockapella , Mosaic , Home Free and M-pact . There also remains a strong a cappella presence within Christian music, as some denominations purposefully do not use instruments during worship. Examples of such groups are Take 6 , Glad and Acappella . Arrangements of popular music for small
1240-539: A cappella music began to develop in Europe around the 9th century AD with the practice of organum , reaching its height between the 14th and 16th centuries with compositions by composers in the Franco-Flemish school (such as Guillaume Du Fay , Johannes Ockeghem , and Josquin des Prez ). The early a cappella polyphonies were sometimes doubled with other instruments, which were often wind or string instruments, or organs. By
1364-505: A cappella musical to appear Off-Broadway, In Transit , premiered October 5, 2010, and was produced by Primary Stages with book, music, and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, James-Allen Ford, Russ Kaplan, and Sara Wordsworth . Set primarily in the New York City subway system its score features an eclectic mix of musical genres (including jazz, hip hop, Latin, rock, and country). In Transit incorporates vocal beat boxing into its contemporary
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#17328773127901488-448: A cappella tradition is especially strong in the countries around the Baltic and perhaps most so in Sweden as described by Richard Sparks in his doctoral thesis The Swedish Choral Miracle in 2000. Swedish a cappella choirs have over the last 25 years won around 25% of the annual prestigious European Grand Prix for Choral Singing (EGP) that despite its name is open to choirs from all over
1612-613: A cappella. In 1983, an a cappella group known as The Flying Pickets had a Christmas 'number one' in the UK with a cover of Yazoo 's (known in the US as Yaz ) " Only You ". A cappella music attained renewed prominence from the late 1980s onward, spurred by the success of Top 40 recordings by artists such as The Manhattan Transfer , Bobby McFerrin , Huey Lewis and the News , All-4-One , The Nylons , Backstreet Boys , Boyz II Men , and *NSYNC . Contemporary
1736-424: A command". The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary gives a date of 1541 for the first recorded use of the word with the meaning "to utter (esp. an oath) sharply, vigorously, or suddenly". Wentworth and Flexner 's Dictionary of American Slang gives the meaning "to speak to, recognize, or acknowledge acquaintance with someone", dated 1932, and a later meaning of "to converse, esp. in an open and frank manner". It
1860-480: A few weeks before the Sugarhill Gang in 1979. In another interview Curtis said: "There was rapping in the Bronx and the cats there had been doing it for a while...Fatback certainly didn't invent rap or anything. I was just interested in it and I guess years later we were the first to record it. At the time you could already see cats rapping everywhere in the streets and doing stuff." With the decline of disco in
1984-496: A few" as artists who exemplify this progression. Kool Moe Dee adds, "in 2002 Eminem created the song that got the first Oscar in Hip-Hop history [Lose Yourself] ... and I would have to say that his flow is the most dominant right now (2003)". There are many different styles of flow, with different terminology used by different people – stic.man of Dead Prez uses the following terms – Alternatively, music scholar Adam Krims uses
2108-591: A jazz poet/musician, has been cited as an influence on rappers such as Chuck D and KRS-One . Scott-Heron himself was influenced by Melvin Van Peebles , whose first album was 1968's Brer Soul . Van Peebles describes his vocal style as "the old Southern style", which was influenced by singers he had heard growing up in South Chicago . Van Peebles also said that he was influenced by older forms of African-American music : "... people like Blind Lemon Jefferson and
2232-511: A large choral setting. Movements in modern a cappella over the past century include barbershop and doo wop . The Barbershop Harmony Society , Sweet Adelines International , and Harmony Inc. host educational events including Harmony University, Directors University, and the International Educational Symposium, and international contests and conventions, recognizing international champion choruses and quartets . Many
2356-471: A musical style for another decade. Rap was used to describe talking on records as early as 1970 on Isaac Hayes ' album ...To Be Continued with the track name "Monologue: Ike's Rap I". Hayes' "husky-voiced sexy spoken 'raps' became key components in his signature sound". Del the Funky Homosapien similarly states that rap was used to refer to talking in a stylistic manner in the early 1970s: "I
2480-518: A pause or emphasis on words in certain places.", and Aesop Rock says, "I have a system of maybe 10 little symbols that I use on paper that tell me to do something when I'm recording." Hip-hop scholars also make use of the same flow diagrams: the books How to Rap and How to Rap 2 use the diagrams to explain rap's triplets, flams, rests, rhyme schemes, runs of rhyme, and breaking rhyme patterns, among other techniques. Similar systems are used by PhD musicologists Adam Krims in his book Rap Music and
2604-465: A rapper to master, and a must for any MC. An MC with poor breath control cannot deliver difficult verses without making unintentional pauses. Raps are sometimes delivered with melody. West Coast rapper Egyptian Lover was the first notable MC to deliver "sing-raps". Popular rappers such as 50 Cent and Ja Rule add a slight melody to their otherwise purely percussive raps whereas some rappers such as Cee-Lo Green are able to harmonize their raps with
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#17328773127902728-412: A shift in the way MCs rhymed: "Up until Rakim, everybody who you heard rhyme, the last word in the sentence was the rhyming [word], the connection word. Then Rakim showed us that you could put rhymes within a rhyme ... now here comes Big Daddy Kane — instead of going three words, he's going multiple". How to Rap explains that "rhyme is often thought to be the most important factor in rap writing ... rhyme
2852-414: A significant role in expressing social and political issues, addressing topics such as racism, poverty, and political oppression. By the 21st century, rap had become a global phenomenon, influencing music, fashion, and culture worldwide. The English verb rap has various meanings; these include "to strike, especially with a quick, smart, or light blow", as well "to utter sharply or vigorously: to rap out
2976-401: A striking resemblance to the evolution of jazz both stylistically and formally". Boxer Muhammad Ali anticipated elements of rap, often using rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry, both for when he was trash talking in boxing and as political poetry for his activism outside of boxing, paving the way for The Last Poets in 1968, Gil Scott-Heron in 1970, and the emergence of rap music in
3100-688: A successful out-of-town run at the Stoneham Theatre, in Stoneham, Massachusetts. Perfect Harmony features the hit music of The Jackson 5 , Pat Benatar , Billy Idol , Marvin Gaye , Scandal , Tiffany , The Romantics , The Pretenders , The Temptations , The Contours , The Commodores , Tommy James & the Shondells and The Partridge Family , and has been compared to a cross between Altar Boyz and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee . The fourth
3224-618: A time) with instrumental accompaniment, it is not surprising that Protestant reformers who opposed the instruments (such as Calvin and Zwingli) also opposed the polyphony. While Zwingli was destroying organs in Switzerland ;– Luther called him a fanatic – the Church of England was burning books of polyphony. Some Holiness Churches such as the Free Methodist Church opposed the use of musical instruments in church worship until
3348-517: A type of folk music , is an a cappella style of religious singing with shape notes , usually sung at singing conventions. Opponents of musical instruments in the Christian worship believe that such opposition is supported by the Christian scriptures and Church history. The scriptures typically referenced are Matthew 26:30; Acts 16:25; Romans 15:9; 1 Corinthians 14:15; Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16; Hebrews 2:12, 13:15 and James 5:13, which show examples and exhortations for Christians to sing. There
3472-465: Is a membership option for former students, whose funds support hosted competitions and events. A cappella music was popularized between the late 2000s and the early to mid-2010s with media hits such as the 2009–2014 TV show The Sing-Off and the musical comedy film series Pitch Perfect . In July 1943 , as a result of the American Federation of Musicians boycott of US recording studios,
3596-506: Is a primary ingredient of hip-hop music , and so commonly associated with the genre that it is sometimes called "rap music". Precursors to modern rap music include the West African griot tradition, certain vocal styles of blues and jazz , an African-American insult game called playing the dozens (see Battle rap and Diss ), and 1960s African-American poetry. Stemming from the hip-hop cultural movement , rap music originated in
3720-409: Is being said, e.g., lyrics ), "flow" ( rhythm , rhyme ), and "delivery" ( cadence , tone ). Rap differs from spoken-word poetry in that it is usually performed off-time to musical accompaniment. It also differs from singing , which varies in pitch and does not always include words . Because they do not rely on pitch inflection, some rap artists may play with timbre or other vocal qualities. Rap
3844-666: Is commonly referred to as the "Migos Flow" (a term that is contentious within the hip-hop community). Mitchell Ohriner in "Flow: The Rhythmic Voice in Rap Music" describes seven "groove classes" consisting of archetypal sixteen-step accent patterns generated by grouping notes in clusters of two and/or three. These groove classes are further distinguished from one another as "duple" and "nonduple". Groove classes without internal repetition can occur in any of sixteen rhythmic rotations, whereas groove classes with internal repetition have fewer meaningful rotations. The standard form of rap notation
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3968-467: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Rapping Rapping (also rhyming , flowing , spitting , emceeing , or MCing ) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates " rhyme , rhythmic speech, and [commonly] street vernacular ". It is usually performed over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The components of rap include "content" (what
4092-621: Is no reference to instrumental music in early church worship in the New Testament, or in the worship of churches for the first six centuries. Several reasons have been posited throughout church history for the absence of instrumental music in church worship. Christians who believe in a cappella music today believe that in the Israelite worship assembly during Temple worship only the Priests of Levi sang, played, and offered animal sacrifices, whereas in
4216-519: Is now used to describe quick speech or repartee. The word has been used in the English language since the 16th century. In the 1960s the word became a slang term meaning "to converse" in African American vernacular , and very soon after that came to denote the musical style. The word "rap" is so closely associated with hip-hop music that many writers use the terms interchangeably. Rap music has played
4340-468: Is still the rhyme foundation all emcees are building on". Artists and critics often credit Rakim with creating the overall shift from the more simplistic old school flows to more complex flows near the beginning of hip hop's new school – Kool Moe Dee says, "any emcee that came after 1986 had to study Rakim just to know what to be able to do. Rakim, in 1986, gave us flow and that was the rhyme style from 1986 to 1994. From that point on, anybody emceeing
4464-459: Is the flow diagram, where rappers line-up their lyrics underneath "beat numbers". Different rappers have slightly different forms of flow diagram that they use: Del the Funky Homosapien says, "I'm just writing out the rhythm of the flow, basically. Even if it's just slashes to represent the beats, that's enough to give me a visual path.", Vinnie Paz states, "I've created my own sort of writing technique, like little marks and asterisks to show like
4588-416: Is these meanings from which the musical form of rapping derives, and this definition may be from a shortening of repartee . A rapper refers to a performer who "raps". By the late 1960s, when Hubert G. Brown changed his name to H. Rap Brown , rap was a slang term referring to an oration or speech, such as was common among the "hip" crowd in the protest movements, but it did not come to be associated with
4712-478: Is thought to have originated from times as early as 2000 BC, while the earliest that has survived in its entirety is from the first century AD: a piece from Greece called the Seikilos epitaph . A cappella music was originally used in religious music, especially church music as well as anasheed and zemirot . Gregorian chant is an example of a cappella singing, as is the majority of secular vocal music from
4836-534: Is what gives rap lyrics their musicality. Many of the rhythmic techniques used in rapping come from percussive techniques and many rappers compare themselves to percussionists . How to Rap 2 identifies all the rhythmic techniques used in rapping such as triplets , flams , 16th notes , 32nd notes , syncopation , extensive use of rests , and rhythmic techniques unique to rapping such as West Coast "lazy tails", coined by Shock G . Rapping has also been done in various time signatures , such as 3/4 time . Since
4960-600: The 2000s , rapping has evolved into a style of rap that spills over the boundaries of the beat, closely resembling spoken English. Rappers like MF Doom and Eminem have exhibited this style, and since then, rapping has been difficult to notate. The American hip-hop group Crime Mob exhibited a new rap flow in songs such as " Knuck If You Buck ", heavily dependent on triplets. Rappers including Drake , Kanye West , Rick Ross , Young Jeezy and more have included this influence in their music. In 2014, an American hip-hop collective from Atlanta , Migos , popularized this flow, and
5084-577: The Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS). Today the BHS has about 22,000 members in approximately 800 chapters across the United States and Canada, and the barbershop style has spread around the world with organizations in many other countries. The Barbershop Harmony Society provides a highly organized competition structure for a cappella quartets and choruses singing in the barbershop style. In 1945,
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5208-670: The Coptic Orthodox Church ), many Anabaptist communities (including Old Order Anabaptist groups —such as the Amish , Old German Baptist Brethren , Old Order Mennonites , as well as Conservative Anabaptist groups—such as the Dunkard Brethren Church and Conservative Mennonites ), some Presbyterian churches devoted to the regulative principle of worship , Old Regular Baptists , Primitive Baptists , Plymouth Brethren , Churches of Christ , Church of God (Guthrie, Oklahoma),
5332-585: The Eastern Catholic Churches , the music performed in the liturgies is exclusively sung without instrumental accompaniment. Bishop Kallistos Ware says, "The service is sung, even though there may be no choir... In the Orthodox Church today, as in the early Church, singing is unaccompanied and instrumental music is not found." This a cappella behavior arises from strict interpretation of Psalm 150, which states, Let every thing that hath breath praise
5456-647: The Northwestern University School of Music , helped popularize a cappella music in the United States by founding the Northwestern A Cappella Choir in 1906. The A Cappella Choir was "the first permanent organization of its kind in America." An a cappella tradition was begun in 1911 by F. Melius Christiansen , a music faculty member at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota . The St. Olaf College Choir
5580-657: The Reformed Free Methodists , Doukhobors , and the Byzantine Rite of Eastern Christianity. Certain high church services and other musical events in liturgical churches (such as the Roman Catholic Mass and the Lutheran Divine Service ) may be a cappella, a practice remaining from apostolic times. Many Mennonites also conduct some or all of their services without instruments. Sacred Harp ,
5704-563: The Renaissance . The madrigal , up until its development in the early Baroque into an instrumentally accompanied form, is also usually in a cappella form. The Psalms note that some early songs were accompanied by string instruments, though Jewish and Early Christian music was largely a cappella; the use of instruments has subsequently increased within both of these religions as well as in Islam. The polyphony of Christian (predominantly Catholic)
5828-776: The University of Maine Maine Steiners (1958), the Columbia University Kingsmen (1949), the Jabberwocks of Brown University (1949), and the University of Rochester YellowJackets (1956). All-women a cappella groups followed shortly, frequently as a parody of the men's groups: the Smiffenpoofs of Smith College (1936), the Night Owls of Vassar College (1942), The Shwiffs of Connecticut College (The She-Whiffenpoofs, 1944), and The Chattertocks of Brown University (1951). A cappella groups exploded in popularity beginning in
5952-551: The acronym 's expansion may be considered evidence for its ubiquity: the full term "Master of Ceremonies" is very rarely used in the hip-hop scene. This confusion prompted the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest to include this statement in the liner notes to their 1993 album Midnight Marauders : A cappella Music performed a cappella ( / ˌ ɑː k ə ˈ p ɛ l ə / AH kə- PEL -ə , UK also / ˌ æ k ə ˈ p ɛ l ə / AK ə- PEL -ə , Italian: [a kkapˈpɛlla] ; lit. ' in
6076-470: The griots of West Africans were delivering stories rhythmically , over drums and sparse instrumentation. Such resemblances have been noted by many modern artists, modern day "griots", spoken word artists, mainstream news sources, and academics. Rap lyrics and music are part of the "Black rhetorical continuum", continuing past traditions of expanding upon them through "creative use of language and rhetorical styles and strategies". Blues , rooted in
6200-578: The work songs and spirituals of slavery , was first played by black Americans around the time of the Emancipation Proclamation . This way of preaching, unique to African-Americans, called the Black sermonic tradition influenced singers and musicians such as 1940s African-American gospel group The Jubalaires . The Jubalaire's songs "The Preacher and the Bear" (1941) and "Noah" (1946) are precursors to
6324-494: The '90s. Music scholar Adam Krims says, "the flow of MCs is one of the profoundest changes that separates out new-sounding from older-sounding music ... it is widely recognized and remarked that rhythmic styles of many commercially successful MCs since roughly the beginning of the 1990s have progressively become faster and more 'complex'". He cites "members of the Wu-Tang Clan , Nas , AZ , Big Pun , and Ras Kass , just to name
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#17328773127906448-522: The 16th century, a cappella polyphony had further developed, but gradually, the cantata began to take the place of a cappella forms. Sixteenth-century a cappella polyphony, nonetheless, continued to influence church composers throughout this period and to the present day. Recent evidence has shown that some of the early pieces by Palestrina, such as those written for the Sistine Chapel, were intended to be accompanied by an organ "doubling" some or all of
6572-493: The 18th century, and were opposed vigorously in worship by a number of Protestant Reformers , including Martin Luther (1483–1546), Ulrich Zwingli , John Calvin (1509–1564) and John Wesley (1703–1791). Alexander Campbell referred to the use of an instrument in worship as "a cow bell in a concert". In Sir Walter Scott 's The Heart of Midlothian , the heroine, Jeanie Deans , a Scottish Presbyterian, writes to her father about
6696-507: The 1970s. An editor of the newspaper, The Fayetteville Observer interviewed Bill Curtis of the disco-funk music group the Fatback Band in 2020. Curtis noted that when he moved to the Bronx in the 1970s he heard people rapping over scratched records throughout the neighborhoods and radio DJs were rapping before the genre was released on retail recordings. The Fatback Band released the first rap recording, " King Tim III (Personality Jock) ",
6820-600: The 1990s, fueled in part by a change in style popularized by the Tufts University Beelzebubs and the Boston University Dear Abbeys. The new style used voices to emulate modern rock instruments, including vocal percussion /" beatboxing ". Some larger universities now have multiple groups. Groups often join one another in on-campus concerts, such as the Georgetown Chimes' Cherry Tree Massacre,
6944-522: The 2010s as "rap", the source came from Manhattan. Pete DJ Jones said the first person he heard rap was DJ Hollywood , a Harlem (not Bronx) native who was the house DJ at the Apollo Theater . Kurtis Blow also said the first person he heard rhyme was DJ Hollywood. In a 2014 interview, Hollywood said: "I used to like the way Frankie Crocker would ride a track, but he wasn't syncopated to the track though. I liked [WWRL DJ] Hank Spann too, but he wasn't on
7068-510: The African-American community were items like schoolyard chants and taunts, clapping games , jump-rope rhymes , some with unwritten folk histories going back hundreds of years across many nationalities. Sometimes these items contain racially offensive lyrics. In his narration between the tracks on George Russell 's 1958 jazz album New York, N.Y. , the singer Jon Hendricks recorded something close to modern rap, since it all rhymed and
7192-444: The African-American community—"to discuss or debate informally." The early rapping of hip-hop developed out of DJ and master of ceremonies ' announcements made over the microphone at parties, and later into more complex raps. Grandmaster Caz stated: "The microphone was just used for making announcements, like when the next party was gonna be, or people's moms would come to the party looking for them, and you have to announce it on
7316-421: The Bronx , New York City , in the early 1970s and became part of popular music later that decade. Rapping developed from the announcements made over the microphone at parties by DJs and MCs , evolving into more complex lyrical performances. Rap is usually delivered over a beat , typically provided by a DJ , turntablist , or beatboxer when performing live. Much less commonly a rapper can decide to perform
7440-485: The Bronx hip hop set that until then was composed of DJing and b-boying (or beatboxing ), with traditional "shout out" style rapping. The style that Hollywood created and his partner introduced to the hip hop set quickly became the standard. Before that time, most MC rhymes, based on radio DJs, consisted of short patters that were disconnected thematically; they were separate unto themselves. But by using song lyrics, Hollywood gave his rhyme an inherent flow and theme. This
7564-408: The Christian scriptures never counter instrumental language with any negative judgment on instruments, opposition to instruments instead comes from an interpretation of history. There is no written opposition to musical instruments in any setting in the first century and a half of Christian churches (33–180 AD). The use of instruments for Christian worship during this period is also undocumented. Toward
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#17328773127907688-448: The Funky Homosapien , Tech N9ne , People Under the Stairs , Twista , B-Real , Mr Lif , 2Mex , and Cage . MCs stay on beat by stressing syllables in time to the four beats of the musical backdrop. Poetry scholar Derek Attridge describes how this works in his book Poetic Rhythm – "rap lyrics are written to be performed to an accompaniment that emphasizes the metrical structure of
7812-488: The Jewish chant may be found in the writings of the Jewish philosopher Philo , born 20 BC. Weaving together Jewish and Greek thought, Philo promoted praise without instruments, and taught that "silent singing" (without even vocal chords) was better still. This view parted with the Jewish scriptures, where Israel offered praise with instruments by God's own command The shofar is the only temple instrument still being used today in
7936-606: The Kinsey Sicks at New York's Studio 54 . That production received a nomination for a Lucille Lortel award as Best Musical and a Drama Desk nomination for Best Lyrics. It was directed by Glenn Casale with original music and lyrics by Ben Schatz. The a cappella musical Perfect Harmony , a comedy about two high school a cappella groups vying to win the national championship, made its Off Broadway debut at Theatre Row 's Acorn Theatre on 42nd Street in New York City in October 2010 after
8060-746: The Lord. Praise ye the Lord. In keeping with this philosophy, early Russian musika which started appearing in the late 17th century, in what was known as khorovïye kontsertï (choral concertos) made a cappella adaptations of Venetian-styled pieces, such as the treatise, Grammatika musikiyskaya (1675), by Nikolai Diletsky . Divine Liturgies and Western Rite Masses composed by famous composers such as Peter Tchaikovsky , Sergei Rachmaninoff , Alexander Arkhangelsky , and Mykola Leontovych are fine examples of this. Present-day Christian religious bodies known for conducting their worship services without musical accompaniment include many Oriental Orthodox Churches (such as
8184-576: The Poetics of Identity and Kyle Adams in his academic work on flow. Because rap revolves around a strong 4/4 beat, with certain syllables said in time to the beat, all the notational systems have a similar structure: they all have the same 4 beat numbers at the top of the diagram, so that syllables can be written in-line with the beat numbers. This allows devices such as rests, "lazy tails", flams, and other rhythmic techniques to be shown, as well as illustrating where different rhyming words fall in relation to
8308-647: The RPI Glee Club), established in 1873 is perhaps the oldest known collegiate a cappella group. The longest continuously singing group is probably The Whiffenpoofs of Yale University , which was formed in 1909 and once included Cole Porter as a member. Collegiate a cappella groups grew throughout the 20th century. Some notable historical groups formed along the way include Colgate University 's The Colgate 13 (1942), Dartmouth College 's Aires (1946), Harvard University 's Krokodiloes (1946), Cornell University 's Cayuga's Waiters (1949) and The Hangovers (1968),
8432-488: The Sabbath out of concern that players would be tempted to repair (or tune) their instruments, which is forbidden on those days. (This prohibition has been relaxed in many Reform and some Conservative congregations.) Similarly, when Jewish families and larger groups sing traditional Sabbath songs known as zemirot outside the context of formal religious services, they usually do so a cappella, and Bar and Bat Mitzvah celebrations on
8556-490: The Sabbath sometimes feature entertainment by a cappella ensembles. During the Three Weeks musical instruments are prohibited. Many Jews consider a portion of the 49-day period of the counting of the omer between Passover and Shavuot to be a time of semi-mourning and instrumental music is not allowed during that time. This has led to a tradition of a cappella singing sometimes known as sefirah music. The popularization of
8680-565: The Taliban of music as un-Islamic. However, the de facto national anthem of Afghanistan is an a cappella nasheed , as musical instruments are virtually banned as corrupting and un-Islamic. The first a cappella group in Iran is the Damour Vocal Band , which was able to perform on national television despite a ban on women singing. The musical show Strepsils Stereo is credited for introducing
8804-632: The United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the organization encompasses more than 1,200 registered quartets and 600 choruses. In 1959, a second women's barbershop organization started as a break off from Sweet Adelines due to ideological differences. Based on democratic principles which continue to this day, Harmony, Inc. is smaller than its counterpart, but has an atmosphere of friendship and competition. With about 2,500 members in
8928-522: The United States and Canada, Harmony, Inc. uses the same rules in contest that the Barbershop Harmony Society uses. Harmony, Inc. is registered in Providence, Rhode Island. The popularity of a cappella among high schools and amateurs was revived by television shows and movies such as Glee and Pitch Perfect . High school groups may have conductors or student leaders who keep the tempo for
9052-577: The a cappella vocal group The Song Spinners had a best-seller with "Comin' In on a Wing and a Prayer". In the 1950s, several recording groups, notably The Hi-Los and the Four Freshmen , introduced complex jazz harmonies to a cappella performances. The King's Singers are credited with promoting interest in small-group a cappella performances in the 1960s. Frank Zappa loved doo wop and a cappella, so Zappa released The Persuasions ' first album from his label in 1970. Judy Collins recorded " Amazing Grace "
9176-584: The art of a cappella in Pakistan . Composer Dinesh Subasinghe became the first Sri Lankan to write a cappella pieces for SATB choirs. He wrote "The Princes of the Lost Tribe" and "Ancient Queen of Somawathee" for Menaka De Sahabandu and Bridget Helpe's choirs, respectively, based on historical incidents in ancient Sri Lanka. Voice Print is also a professional a cappella music group in Sri Lanka . The European
9300-405: The beat. The Midwestern group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony was one of the first groups to achieve nationwide recognition for using the fast-paced, melodic and harmonic raps that are also practiced by Do or Die , another Midwestern group. Another rapper that harmonized his rhymes was Nate Dogg , a rapper part of the group 213. Rakim experimented not only with following the beat, but also with complementing
9424-531: The book How to Rap breaks flow down into rhyme, rhyme schemes , and rhythm (also known as cadence ). 'Flow' is also sometimes used to refer to elements of the delivery ( pitch , timbre , volume ) as well, though often a distinction is made between the flow and the delivery. Staying on the beat is central to rap's flow – many MCs note the importance of staying on-beat in How to Rap including Sean Price , Mighty Casey, Zion I , Vinnie Paz , Fredro Starr , Del
9548-408: The book How to Rap , where diagrams are used to show how the lyrics line up with the beat – "stressing a syllable on each of the four beats gives the lyrics the same underlying rhythmic pulse as the music and keeps them in rhythm ... other syllables in the song may still be stressed, but the ones that fall in time with the four beats of a bar are the only ones that need to be emphasized in order to keep
9672-453: The church era, all Christians are commanded to sing praises to God. They believe that if God wanted instrumental music in New Testament worship, He would have commanded not just singing, but singing and playing like he did in the Hebrew scriptures. Instruments have divided Christendom since their introduction into worship. They were considered a Roman Catholic innovation, not widely practiced until
9796-469: The church situation she has found in England (bold added): Those who do not adhere to the regulative principle of interpreting Christian scripture, believe that limiting praise to the unaccompanied chant of the early church is not commanded in scripture, and that churches in any age are free to offer their songs with or without musical instruments. Those who subscribe to this interpretation believe that since
9920-433: The country. A cappella has gained attention in the UK in recent years, with many groups forming at British universities by students seeking an alternative singing pursuit to traditional choral and chapel singing. This movement has been bolstered by organisations such as The Voice Festival UK . It is not clear exactly where collegiate a cappella began. The Rensselyrics of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (formerly known as
10044-476: The crowd'. Some use this word interchangeably with the term rapper , while for others the term denotes a superior level of skill and connection to the wider culture. MC can often be used as a term of distinction; referring to an artist with good performance skills. As Kool G Rap notes, "masters of ceremony, where the word 'M.C.' comes from, means just keeping the party alive" [sic] . Many people in hip hop including DJ Premier and KRS-One feel that James Brown
10168-435: The early 1980s rap became a new form of expression. Rap arose from musical experimentation with rhyming, rhythmic speech. Rap was a departure from disco. Sherley Anne Williams refers to the development of rap as "anti-Disco" in style and means of reproduction. The early productions of Rap after Disco sought a more simplified manner of producing the tracks they were to sing over. Williams explains how Rap composers and DJ's opposed
10292-415: The end of the 2nd century, Christians began condemning the instruments themselves. Those who oppose instruments today believe these Church Fathers had a better understanding of God's desire for the church, but there are significant differences between the teachings of these Church Fathers and Christian opposition to instruments today. Since "a cappella" singing brought a new polyphony (more than one note at
10416-404: The fact that vocal parts were often doubled by instrumentalists, led to the term coming to mean unaccompanied vocal music. The term is also used, rarely, as a synonym for alla breve . A cappella could be as old as humanity itself; research suggests that singing and vocables may have been what early humans used to communicate before the invention of language. The earliest piece of sheet music
10540-555: The field hollers. I was also influenced by spoken word song styles from Germany that I encountered when I lived in France." During the mid-20th century, the musical culture of the Caribbean was constantly influenced by the concurrent changes in American music . As early as 1956, deejays were toasting over dubbed Jamaican beats. It was called "rap", expanding the word's earlier meaning in
10664-620: The first a cappella musical on Broadway. Barbershop music is one of several uniquely American art forms. The earliest reports of this style of a cappella music involved African Americans. The earliest documented quartets all began in barber shops. In 1938, the first formal men's barbershop organization was formed, known as the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America (S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A), and in 2004 rebranded itself and officially changed its public name to
10788-534: The first formal women's barbershop organization, Sweet Adelines, was formed. In 1953, Sweet Adelines became an international organization, although it did not change its name to Sweet Adelines International until 1991. The membership of nearly 25,000 women, all singing in English, includes choruses in most of the fifty United States as well as in Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden,
10912-400: The following terms – MCs use many different rhyming techniques, including complex rhyme schemes, as Adam Krims points out – "the complexity ... involves multiple rhymes in the same rhyme complex (i.e. section with consistently rhyming words), internal rhymes , [and] offbeat rhymes". There is also widespread use of multisyllabic rhymes . It has been noted that rap's use of rhyme is some of
11036-423: The genre of rap music. The Jubalaires and other African-American singing groups during the blues, jazz, and gospel era are examples of the origins and development of rap music. Grammy-winning blues musician/historian Elijah Wald and others have argued that the blues were being rapped as early as the 1920s. Wald went so far as to call hip hop "the living blues". A notable recorded example of rapping in blues
11160-613: The group, or beatboxers/vocal percussionists. Since 2013, summer training programs have appeared, such as A Cappella Academy in Los Angeles, California (founded by Ben Bram, Rob Dietz, and Avi Kaplan ) and Camp A Cappella in Dayton, Ohio (founded by Deke Sharon and Brody McDonald). These programs teach about different aspects of a cappella music, including vocal performance, arranging, and beatboxing/vocal percussion. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has no official anthem because of views by
11284-440: The heavily orchestrated and ritzy multi-tracks of Disco for "break beats" which were created from compiling different records from numerous genres and did not require the equipment from professional recording studios . Professional studios were not necessary therefore opening the production of rap to the youth who as Williams explains felt "locked out" because of the capital needed to produce Disco records. More directly related to
11408-556: The late 1970s, the term emcee, MC or M.C., derived from " master of ceremonies ", became an alternative title for a rapper, and for their role within hip-hop music and culture. An MC uses rhyming verses, pre-written or ad lib (' freestyled '), to introduce the DJ with whom they work, to keep the crowd entertained or to glorify themselves. As hip hop progressed, the title MC acquired backronyms such as 'mike chanter' 'microphone controller', 'microphone checker', 'music commentator', and one who 'moves
11532-540: The latter three, which dealt with the passion from three different viewpoints, those of Matthew , Luke and John , were all done a cappella style. This was a near requirement for this type of piece, and the parts of the crowd were sung while the solo parts which were the quoted parts from either Christ or the authors were performed in a plainchant . In the Byzantine Rite of the Eastern Orthodox Church and
11656-423: The lyrics in time with the music". In rap terminology, 16-bars is the amount of time that rappers are generally given to perform a guest verse on another artist's song; one bar is typically equal to four beats of music. Old school flows were relatively basic and used only few syllables per bar, simple rhythmic patterns, and basic rhyming techniques and rhyme schemes. Melle Mel is cited as an MC who epitomizes
11780-440: The mic. Different DJs started embellishing what they were saying. I would make an announcement this way, and somebody would hear that and they add a little bit to it. I'd hear it again and take it a little step further 'til it turned from lines to sentences to paragraphs to verses to rhymes." One of the first rappers at the beginning of the hip hop period, at the end of the 1970s, was also hip hop's first DJ , DJ Kool Herc . Herc,
11904-475: The mid-20th century. The Free Methodist Church allowed for local church decision on the use of either an organ or piano in the 1943 Conference before lifting the ban entirely in 1955. The Reformed Free Methodist Church and Evangelical Wesleyan Church were formed as a result of a schism with the Free Methodist Church, with the former retaining a cappella worship and the latter retaining the rule limiting
12028-494: The military ( United States Navy ). It was within the lyrics of a rap song called " This Wall " that Hammer first identified himself as M.C. Hammer and later marketed it on his debut album Feel My Power . The term MC has also been used in the genre of grime music to refer to a rapid style of rapping. Grime artist JME released an album titled Grime MC in 2019 which peaked at 29 on the UK Albums Chart . Uncertainty over
12152-402: The most advanced in all forms of poetry – music scholar Adam Bradley notes, "rap rhymes so much and with such variety that it is now the largest and richest contemporary archive of rhymed words. It has done more than any other art form in recent history to expand rhyme's formal range and expressive possibilities". In the book How to Rap , Masta Ace explains how Rakim and Big Daddy Kane caused
12276-402: The music. To successfully deliver a rap, a rapper must also develop vocal presence, enunciation , and breath control . Vocal presence is the distinctiveness of a rapper's voice on record. Enunciation is essential to a flowing rap; some rappers choose also to exaggerate it for comic and artistic effect. Breath control, taking in air without interrupting one's delivery, is an important skill for
12400-636: The name Smooth McGroove rose to prominence with his style of a cappella music. He is best known for his a cappella covers of video game music tracks on YouTube . in 2015, an a cappella version of Jerusalem by multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier was selected for Beats by Dre "The Game Starts Here" for the England Rugby World Cup campaign. A cappella has been used as the sole orchestration for original works of musical theatre that have had commercial runs Off-Broadway (theatres in New York City with 99 to 500 seats) only four times. The first
12524-603: The number of instruments in the church to the piano and organ. While worship in the Temple in Jerusalem included musical instruments, traditional Jewish religious services in the Synagogue, both before and after the last destruction of the Temple, did not include musical instruments given the practice of scriptural cantillation . The use of musical instruments is traditionally forbidden on
12648-399: The old school flow – Kool Moe Dee says, "from 1970 to 1978 we rhymed one way [then] Melle Mel, in 1978, gave us the new cadence we would use from 1978 to 1986". He's the first emcee to explode in a new rhyme cadence, and change the way every emcee rhymed forever. Rakim, The Notorious B.I.G. , and Eminem have flipped the flow, but Melle Mel's downbeat on the two, four, kick to snare cadence
12772-578: The one. Guys back then weren't concerned with being musical. I wanted to flow with the record". And in 1975, he ushered in what became known as the "hip hop" style by rhyming syncopated to the beat of an existing record uninterruptedly for nearly a minute. He adapted the lyrics of Isaac Hayes ' "Good Love 6-9969" and rhymed it to the breakdown part of "Love Is the Message". His partner Kevin Smith, better known as Lovebug Starski , took this new style and introduced it to
12896-498: The public so that fans can remix them. One such example is the a cappella release of Jay-Z 's Black Album , which Danger Mouse mixed with the Beatles ' White Album to create The Grey Album . On their 1966 album titled Album , Peter, Paul and Mary included the song "Norman Normal". All the sounds on that song, both vocals and instruments, were created by Paul's voice, with no actual instruments used. In 2013, an artist by
13020-405: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title RAPS . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=RAPS&oldid=1140464804 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
13144-410: The same time" and Allmusic writes, "rhymers like PE 's Chuck D , Big Daddy Kane , KRS-One , and Rakim basically invented the complex wordplay and lyrical kung-fu of later hip-hop". The golden age is considered to have ended around 1993–94, marking the end of rap lyricism's most innovative period. "Flow" is defined as "the rhythms and rhymes" of a hip-hop song's lyrics and how they interact –
13268-501: The song's melody with his own voice, making his flow sound like that of an instrument (a saxophone in particular). The ability to rap quickly and clearly is sometimes regarded as an important sign of skill. In certain hip-hop subgenres such as chopped and screwed , slow-paced rapping is often considered optimal. The current record for fastest rapper is held by Spanish rapper Domingo Edjang Moreno, known by his alias Chojin, who rapped 921 syllables in one minute on December 23, 2008. In
13392-455: The style of the chapel ' ), less commonly spelled a capella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment . The term a cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato musical styles. In the 19th century, a renewed interest in Renaissance polyphony, coupled with an ignorance of
13516-544: The synagogue, and it is only used from Rosh Chodesh Elul through the end of Yom Kippur . The shofar is used by itself, without any vocal accompaniment, and is limited to a very strictly defined set of sounds and specific places in the synagogue service. However, silver trumpets , as described in Numbers 10:1-18, have been made in recent years and used in prayer services at the Western Wall . Peter Christian Lutkin, dean of
13640-399: The verse". He says rap lyrics are made up of, "lines with four stressed beats, separated by other syllables that may vary in number and may include other stressed syllables. The strong beat of the accompaniment coincides with the stressed beats of the verse, and the rapper organizes the rhythms of the intervening syllables to provide variety and surprise". The same technique is also noted in
13764-516: The voices. Such is seen in the life of Palestrina becoming a major influence on Bach , most notably in the Mass in B Minor . Other composers that utilized the a cappella style, if only for the occasional piece, were Claudio Monteverdi and his masterpiece, Lagrime d'amante al sepolcro dell'amata (A lover's tears at his beloved's grave), which was composed in 1610, and Andrea Gabrieli when upon his death many choral pieces were discovered, one of which
13888-468: The word". Kool Moe Dee states that Biggie introduced a newer flow which "dominated from 1994 to 2002", and also says that Method Man was "one of the emcees from the early to mid-'90s that ushered in the era of flow ... Rakim invented it, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One, and Kool G Rap expanded it, but Biggie and Method Man made flow the single most important aspect of an emcee's game". He also cites Craig Mack as an artist who contributed to developing flow in
14012-547: The world (see list of laureates in the Misplaced Pages article on the EGP competition). The reasons for the strong Swedish dominance are as explained by Richard Sparks manifold; suffice to say here that there is a long-standing tradition, an unusually large proportion of the populations (5% is often cited) regularly sing in choirs, the Swedish choral director Eric Ericson had an enormous impact on
14136-425: Was Avenue X which opened on 28 January 1994, and ran for 77 performances. It was produced by Playwrights Horizons with book by John Jiler, music and lyrics by Ray Leslee. The musical style of the show's score was primarily doo-wop as the plot revolved around doo-wop group singers of the 1960s. In 2001, The Kinsey Sicks , produced and starred in the critically acclaimed off-Broadway hit, DRAGAPELLA! Starring
14260-453: Was born in '72 ... back then what rapping meant, basically, was you trying to convey something—you're trying to convince somebody. That's what rapping is, it's in the way you talk." Rap is sometimes said to be an acronym for ' R hythm A nd P oetry', though this is not the origin of the word and so may be a backronym . Similarities to rapping can be observed in West African chanting folk traditions. Centuries before hip-hop music existed,
14384-702: Was delivered in a hip, rhythm-conscious manner. Art forms such as spoken word jazz poetry and comedy records had an influence on the first rappers. Coke La Rock , often credited as hip-hop's first MC cites the Last Poets among his influences, as well as comedians such as Wild Man Steve and Richard Pryor . Comedian Rudy Ray Moore released under the counter albums in the 1960s and 1970s such as This Pussy Belongs to Me (1970), which contained "raunchy, sexually explicit rhymes that often had to do with pimps, prostitutes, players, and hustlers", and which later led to him being called "The Godfather of Rap". Gil Scott-Heron ,
14508-808: Was established as an outgrowth of the local St. John's Lutheran Church , where Christiansen was organist and the choir was composed, at least partially, of students from the nearby St. Olaf campus. The success of the ensemble was emulated by other regional conductors, and a tradition of a cappella choral music was born in the region at colleges like Concordia College (Moorhead, Minnesota), Augustana College (Rock Island, Illinois), Waldorf University (Forest City, Iowa), Luther College (Decorah, Iowa), Gustavus Adolphus College (St. Peter, Minnesota), Augustana College (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), and Augsburg University (Minneapolis, Minnesota). The choirs typically range from 40 to 80 singers and are recognized for their efforts to perfect blend, intonation, phrasing and pitch in
14632-400: Was forced to focus on their flow". Kool Moe Dee explains that before Rakim, the term 'flow' was not widely used – "Rakim is basically the inventor of flow. We were not even using the word flow until Rakim came along. It was called rhyming, it was called cadence, but it wasn't called flow. Rakim created flow!" He adds that while Rakim upgraded and popularized the focus on flow, "he didn't invent
14756-525: Was in the unaccompanied style. Learning from the preceding two composers, Heinrich Schütz utilized the a cappella style in numerous pieces, chief among these were the pieces in the oratorio style, which were traditionally performed during the Easter week and dealt with the religious subject matter of that week, such as Christ's suffering and the Passion . Five of Schutz's Historien were Easter pieces, and of these
14880-481: Was not on lyrical technique, but simply on good times", one notable exception being Melle Mel , who set the way for future rappers through his socio-political content and creative wordplay. Golden age hip hop (the mid-1980s to early '90s) was the time period where hip-hop lyricism went through its most drastic transformation – writer William Jelani Cobb says "in these golden years, a critical mass of mic prodigies were literally creating themselves and their art form at
15004-534: Was quickly noticed, and the style spread. By the end of the 1970s, artists such as Kurtis Blow and the Sugarhill Gang were starting to receive radio airplay and make an impact far outside of New York City, on a national scale. Blondie 's 1981 single, " Rapture ", was one of the first songs featuring rap to top the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Old school rap (1979–84) was "easily identified by its relatively simple raps" according to AllMusic , "the emphasis
15128-436: Was the 1950 song "Gotta Let You Go" by Joe Hill Louis . Jazz , which developed from the blues and other African-American and European musical traditions and originated around the beginning of the 20th century, has also influenced hip hop and has been cited as a precursor of hip hop. Not just jazz music and lyrics but also jazz poetry . According to John Sobol, the jazz musician and poet who wrote Digitopia Blues , rap "bears
15252-475: Was the first MC. James Brown had the lyrics, moves, and soul that greatly influenced a lot of rappers in hip hop, and arguably even started the first MC rhyme. For some rappers, there was a distinction to the term, such as for MC Hammer who acquired the nickname "MC" for being a "Master of Ceremonies" which he used when he began performing at various clubs while on the road with the Oakland As and eventually in
15376-451: Was too young while in Jamaica to get into sound system parties: "I couldn't get in. Couldn't get in. I was ten, eleven years old," and that while in Jamaica, he was listening to James Brown: "I was listening to American music in Jamaica and my favorite artist was James Brown. That's who inspired me. A lot of the records I played were by James Brown." However, in terms of what was identified in
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