Rap originated in Africa and has evolved significantly over time. The document outlines the major eras and styles of rap, including old school rap in the 1970s-80s, the golden age of the late 80s-early 90s, and major developments in the 1990s-2000s such as the rise of Eminem. Current rap is represented as very focused on money, drugs, sex, and materialism. Major artists like Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, and French Montana are discussed as embodying these conventions through their lyrics and public personas. The document considers how these conventions would influence the production of a rap music video.

1. Genre Research
Gianluca Kulczycki

2. Word cloud for Rap

3. Genre Development:
Rap (Fast Read)
• Where did this genre originate? Rap can be traced back to African roots,
the griots of west Africa sang stories rhythmically, usually over drums and sparse
instrumentation.
• How has the genre evolved over time?
• Old School Rap: This period was based in 1979-1984, this was the production of
simple rap, the emphasis was not on lyrical technique but on the good times of the
era. Melle Mel, set the future of rappers by his creative wordplay.
• The Golden Age: This was the era of the late 80s through to the early 90s, this time
period was were lyricism went through a dramatic transformation. Various artists
such as Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One and Rakim were the founders of complex
wordplay and lyrical kung-fu of the later hip-hop. It was thought that it ended
around 1993-94.
• 1995-2001 The likes of The Notorious B.I.G and Tupac's both had similarities as
such that they had trouble with the law, however Tupac was striving to perform in
performing arts and for B.I.G he started rapping as a joke, these two both had their
own separate record labels, B.I.G with Bad Boy Records and Tupac with Death Row
Records- these two were in competition throughout the 90's and their deaths saw
the end of the rivalry that dominated the 90s.

4. Part II
• 21st Century: Rap was considered as an entertainment juggernaut, it was raw, fast, complex and
had style. The founding of Mashall Bruce Mathers III, know as Eminem showed that any one could
participate. Towards the start of the 21st Century, white rappers were seen as "hobo-clowns", they
were rare, mostly unknown and being regarded as weird. Eminem was one of the first white
rappers. His first album The Slim Shady LP saw a representation of different life occurrences, these
became very popular, as his Eminem Show Album reached 8x Platinum. What Eminem's career
proved was that all races could gain acceptance as rappers.
• Late 2000s: Rap until now has died down with competition, Eminem had been taken into rehab and
now music was being produced. Alternative rap came in the late 2000s blending unique sounds and
different music styles was now the mainstream. Gnarles Barkley, Kanye West and Outcast were
some of the most popular artists producing at the time. Lyrics consisted of how the rise to fame
was hard etc...
• 2010-13: the evolution of rap cam around this time as many labels were created and became rivals,
these record labels are, Shady Records (Eminem), Young Money(Lil Wayne) and G.O.O.D Music
(Kanye) West). All three of these record labels have signed various artists such as Shady
record: Yelawolf, 50 Cent, Slaughterhouse. Young money: Drake, Tyga, Nicki Minaj. G.O.O.D Music:
John Legend, Common, Big Sean. All of the artists have brought out debut albums and even the
founders have too, quite recently Kanye West released Yeezus features some G.O.O.D Music
rappers. This shows the evolution as its become more of lyrically rapping and the beats top who
you have in your record label, and who can sell the most amount of money, featuring within the
lyrics are drugs, money and sex without concern to how the artist made it.

5. How are the artists in the genre
represented?
• The artist's are represented as being very money, drug and sex
obsessed featured in countless rap songs will you find a verse full of
these main three subjects, this portrays the artist as being very
powerful and in some ways untouchable.
• What are the main ideologies represented in current music videos
of this genre?
• The main ideologies within the Rap genre is that if you attain
wealth you have "made it", the focus is more about money more
than fame. With the money comes the women, women who will
willing to engage with these artists because of their fame, these
women are seen as objects and a misogynistic attitude toward
them is normal. Lyrically and visually, drug taking is show as the
norm when concerned with rap, it is seen as an accessory to fame.
the bragging of wealth that is shown through the fashionable
clothing these Rap artists are wearing gold chains and driving flash
cars showing their materialistic attitude.

6. Examples of Conventional Artists:
Lil Wayne
•
Lil Wayne is seen to rap about sexually engaging with women in the
majority of his tracks, he regularly takes drugs and abuses alcohol. In an
interview he was asked "What drug will you never do again?" and his reply
was "I don’t do too many; I just smoke weed and drink sip. But I’ll never
f**k with no more coke. It’s not about a bad high, it’s just about the acne:
Cocaine makes your face break out, and I’m a pretty boy." This shows that
he doesn't take the drug in fear he loses his looks, showing his obsession
with himself and with his looks get the attention of women.

7. Snoop Dogg/Lion
• Snoop Dogg regularly smokes marijuana, featured throughout his songs
and videos he references "weed", "Snoop's Master Kush" and being
"Spliff-ed". He has no shame in letting the hip-hop world know that he
smokes it either, featured on his Snoop Lion Reincarnated album art is him
smoking a joint, this fits in with the fact that these are the main ideologies
within rap. On his Doggumentary Album a song named "The
Weed iz Mine" shows his belief in smoking the green leaf.

8. French Montana
• French Montana, focuses on getting as many females as he can possible
handle, featured on his "Excuse my French" album a tracked named
"Marble Floor" explains how he can steal any mans girl and have them tip-
toeing on his marble floor, inferring this we can tell that he is wealthy by
the marble and that these women must be quiet about his and hers affair.
In an interview he was asked "What did you get up to last night?" he
replied with "Blowing coke with my thick h*e" we can see that he has no
respect for women as he has addressed them as a slang for prostitute.

9. What I need to consider when making my music video based on
Rap and the conventions that I've discovered, which ones in
particular am I going to use?
• When making my music video I will need to consider that
the majority of music videos of Rap contain drugs, money
and sex, these can sometimes be mild and sometimes
explicit. The use of real drugs cannot be used however
replicas can be used to represent the conventional Rap
genre of the present. It would be unrealistic to not have
some sort of bling and jazz featured at some point, also the
use of money can be used within my video. In particular I
will be using money and the use of drugs, I have decided to
chose these two as these are the main drive in the youth of
today, as many youths engage in drug taking and aim to get
as much money as possible, the music video will have
narrative to the audience and enable them to relate.