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No Stupid Questions @lemmy.world
FizzlePopBerryTwist @lemmy.world

Do some people think rapping is a permutation of raping, subtly adding to the edge factor of this music genre and making it less likely older people will take to it than younger people who don't know

This is not a joke question. I am being 100% sincere when I suggest the similarity between the words might be seen as intentional by some very conservative minds.

15 comments

  • So, in the future, when you're wondering "where a word comes from," there's a good word to know: Etymology. Etymology is the study of words histories.

    From the Wikipedia article on "Rapping", there is a section on etymology and usage:

    The English verb rap has various meanings; these include "to strike, especially with a quick, smart, or light blow",[17] as well "to utter sharply or vigorously: to rap out a command".[17] 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".[18] Wentworth and Flexner's Dictionary of American Slang gives the meaning "to speak to, recognize, or acknowledge acquaintance with someone", dated 1932,[19] and a later meaning of "to converse, esp. in an open and frank manner".[20] It is these meanings from which the musical form of rapping derives, and this definition may be from a shortening of repartee.[21] 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 a musical style for another decade.[22]

    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".[23] Hayes' "husky-voiced sexy spoken 'raps' became key components in his signature sound".[24] Del the Funky Homosapien similarly states that rap was used to refer to talking in a stylistic manner in the early 1970s: "I 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."[25]

    Sometimes said to be an acronym for 'rhythm and poetry', this is not the origin of the word.[26]

  • Well, I know and have known some of the dumbest, worst educated people in existence (seriously, just in my family I have two relatives that were drop outs. In the sixth grade. And they're dumber than homemade dammit on top of that) and I've never heard anyone make this kind of statement.

    So, while it isn't impossible someone has, I doubt it's in the double digits

  • @FizzlePopBerryTwist, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever read. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this thread is now dumber for having read it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

15 comments