People Don’t Ask, “What’s The Difference?”

What I am about to speak on is the art of emceeing. My simple definition of rapping is when one recites a form of poetry in rhythm as in the sound of urban music. However this art like most things, has basic rules that one must go by at all times. Here are those basic rules; one must have articulation, pronunciation, originality, style, delivery, flow, and voice. Which by the way brings me to my first question. In the rap music world that surrounds us today, is the art of emceeing lost or forgotten?

You see, in my opinion, the art form presents three types of emcees. First, are those that I call “rappers”. Now these individuals with their rhymes simply have the talent to fill into the music to support the song. Examples of these vocalists are Freedom of C & C Music Factory’s (Everybody Dance Now), Turbo B of Snap (Power), and whomever an R & B singer hires to fill the break of their songs.

Second, are those that I call “rap artists”� or rap lyricists. These types of emcees I must say are my personal favorites because they display the creative talent of poetic depth and lyricism. These rap lyricists are fully armed by styling rhymes with vocabulary and syllable use, cliche’s, metaphors, etc, in neo-traditional ways. An example of these rap artists are the likes of Rakim (Eric B Is President), Treach of Naughty By Nature (Hip-Hop Hooray) and KRS One (Hell, you can pick any one of his songs for an example).

The third and final types are those that I call the MC’s (the originals rappers). These individuals basically display their talent to capture and hold hostage the mood of a hip-hop audience. My favorite example of these MCs would be Doug E. Fresh (The Show), Grandmaster Caz of The Cold Crush Brothers (Yvette) and MC Busy Bee (Convention 82).

Now I said all of that just to ask you this one question, “In the rap music world of today, is it me or are there a whole group of rappers mumbling their way through the illusion of what they call a music career?”�

Here’s a message to the up and coming rhyme writers. Once you’ve establish a style of writing rhymes, you then develop a character, after that, you then decide which type of emcee you care to be, a “rapper”, a “rap artist” or an original MC. However, more importantly, before you do any of the above, you must first study the history of the art of emceeing.

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