The Roots of Rap: Classic Recordings from the 1920's and 30's

Performer: Various Artists
Distributor: E1 Distribution (USA)

Notes: THE ROOTS OF RAP is a compilation of blues, country, gospel and other songs from the 1920s and 1930s with spoken cadences that pre-dated, and influenced, rap music. Compilation producers: Richard Nevins, Don Kent. Recorded in the 1920s and 1930s. Includes liner notes by Don Kent. Personnel: Blind Willie Johnson (vocals, slide guitar); Prince Laval (vocals); John Dilleshaw, Blind Willie McTell (guitar); Lonnie Glosson (harmonica); Rufus G. Perryman, Speckled Red (piano). Audio Remasterer: Richard Nevins. Liner Note Author: Don Kent. Unknown Contributor Roles: Clifford Hayes; Kansas City Kitty & Georgia Tom; Frank Hutchison; Frank Stokes; Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon; Dan Sane; Henry Thomas ; Jimmie Davis; Earl McDonald; Leroy Carr; Luke Jordan; Memphis Jug Band; Memphis Minnie; Mozelle Alderson; Pinetop Smith; Scrapper Blackwell; Allen Brothers; The Beale Street Sheiks; The Dixieland Jug Blowers; Rev. Thomas A. Dorsey; Willie Walker; Butterbeans & Susie. This ambitious and thought-provoking project turns to early black-and-white, religious, and secular traditions for antecedents to modern rap styles. Drawing from the commercial recordings of the 1920s and '30s, The Roots of Rap provides a broad sampling of rural voices straddling the lines of speech and song against the rhythms of piano, banjo, and guitar. The roots of rap, this collection argues, existed in early black work songs and in the Southern pulpit; in the performances of singing street evangelists; and in black vocal traditions such as the "dozens." Early forms of rap emerged in the vaudeville routines of minstrel and medicine shows, arising also in the country humor and talking blues of many rural white performers. To illustrate its thesis, the album draws from some of the greatest performers of the period, including Blind Willie Johnson, Seven Foot Dilly, Butterbeans and Susie, and Memphis Minnie, whose extraordinarily funky "Frankie Jean" closes the set. Like the best of Yazoo's projects, this effort is carefully and intelligently constructed, as well as consistently entertaining. ~ Burgin Mathews

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