Track Listing

1. If I Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down - Blind Willie Johnson
2. Cocaine Blues - Luke Jordan
3. Bow Wow Blues - Allen Brothers
4. Jive Man Blues - Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon
5. Jonah in the Wilderness - Henry Thomas
6. South Carolina Rag - Willie Walker
7. Whitewash Station - Memphis Jug Band
8. Automobile Ride Through Alabama
9. Dirty Dozen No. 2 - Speckled Red
10. Tain't None O' Your Business - Butterbeans & Susie
11. It's a Good Thing - The Beale Street Sheiks
12. She's a Hum Dum Dinger (From Dingersville) - Jimmie Davis
13. Papa's on the Housetop - Leroy Carr
14. Let That Liar Alone
15. Back in My Home Town - Frank Hutchison
16. Track Linin
17. Atlanta Strut - Blind Willie McTell
18. Arkansas Hard Luck Blues - Lonnie Glosson
19. How Can You Have the Blues? - Kansas City Kitty & Georgia Tom
20. Pickin' off Peanuts
21. Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out - Pinetop Smith
22. When I Stopped Running I Was at Home - The Dixieland Jug Blowers
23. Frankie Jean (That Trottin' Fool) - Memphis Minnie

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #325425 in Music
• Released on: 1996-04-23
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
The Roots of Rap pulls from rare 78 rpm records of the 1920s and '30s songs that fall into the rhythmic speech tradition of African-American folk and blues--a characteristic that would later manifest itself as rap music. Included are various strains of song commonly branded rap precursors, from church shouts, work hollers, and talking blues, to minstrel songs, novelty skits, and "the dozens," performed by greats like Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Willie McTell, Jimmie Davis, and Memphis Minnie. While anyone looking to find the missing link between a slave's lament and a "Rapper's Delight" on The Roots of Rap may be disappointed, with a little imagination tracks like Pine Top Smith's "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" and Speckled Red's "The Dirty Dozens No.2" come reasonably close. --Roni Sarig

Customer Reviews

A highly misleading title...
Don't get me wrong. The music on this disc is excellent, but it doesn't have anything to do with rap. The rhythms are straightup country blues for the most part, with a few recitation pieces and country styled things. I like this kind of music, and I own a lot of discs like this one, but I also like rap music, and this ain't it! If it had been advertised as The Roots of the Talking Blues, I would have given it five stars.

Hip Hop Jug Bands? Hard Core Blues? Gangsta' Hillbillies?
not quite. but this cd has a lot to offer. if youre a big fan of rap, you wont neccesarily like this cd. if you like idiosyncratic early 20th century music, you probably will like a lot of it though. theres all kinds of great stuff you will never find anywhere else. Jive Talkin' Man, Cocaine Blues, Whitewash Station, When I stopped Running, Nobody Knows You and Automobile Ride Through Arkansas alone are worth the cost but each track has something special to offer. it does feature a lot of rap like conventions like similies( that girls got more ways of lovin' than wriggleys got gum), bragging, sexual allusions, drugs, drinking, fighting, tall tales mixed in with percusive singing styles. very enjoyable.

talking blues, folk, and country
If you are looking for vintage styles and flows, you might be disappointed.