proto-rap

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Performance art forms that served as precursors to rap, especially those that feature…

   Performance art forms that served as precursors to rap, especially those that feature rhythmic spoken and/or half-sung lyrics.

   • They make much ado over Bob Dylan as a proto-rap pioneer, and taunt Public Enemy for being "unable to locate even one pure black source" (begging Chuck D's own question in "Fear of a Black Planet": "Who is Pure? What is pure?").
   • It opens with a W.H. Auden poem that is read with the urgency and the rhythm of the piston on a steam engine. It sounds like proto-rap.
   • Some of this soul and funk music that fed into Blaxploitation films conveyed a serious political message, which was evident in some of the films' music, while there was also a connection to proto-rap culture.
2. 2

   A specific piece or performance delivered in such an art form.

   • Another source of rap, this one closer to home, was George Clinton's funk; we heard a proto-rap at the beginning of “Tear the Roof Off the Sucker (Give Up the Funk).
   • During the presidential forum, instead of our candidate delivering a speech, the collective performed a song, a proto-rap actually, written by the fiery New York ghetto trio the Last Poets.

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