Griot

Rap and hip hop have surfaced everywhere in the United States since the early 1980’s and have not stopped since then. Rap was known as griots a thousand years ago when village story tellers in Africa played instruments while they told stories of their families and other events that happened. The griot tradition was brought over to America when Africans were captured against their will and forced into slavery. A way to cope with heartbreak and pain, Africans sang while working in the fields to…

sometime the British took control over the island. With this vast impact, Trinidad was able to develop Calypso in a unique style. For example, many calypsos were sung in a French-Creole dialect called patois, in which the songs were typically led by a griot to unite the slaves. Calypso singing competitions, held annually at Carnival time, grew in popularity…

commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic, and rhyming speech that is chanted. Rap/Hip-Hop music as we know it today, actually began thousands of years ago in Africa with the “griots”. Griots were village story tellers who played a simple handmade instrument while they told stories of family, village, and hunting events. The griot still is a major form of communication in parts of Africa. This talking while music is playing is rap music in its most very beginning forms. Although rap music has…

Griots are still well appreciated now as they were then because of their great knowledge and wisdom the gained through their ancestors (Drum Africa). Storytellers and healers find the djembe’s bright and creative voice to be the perfect match to their art…

Religion’s gods as well. It is unclear whether Sundiata believed in polytheism or in the one true god Allah. However, we must keep in mind that Sundiata is an an oral tale and the Almighty Allah praises could have been added by the griot, the narrator. I believe that the griot definitely believed in Allah because he references him so much but exactly what Sundiata believes is a mystery. Even though Sundiata’s actions and clothes occasionally reflected muslim tradition, it does not mean he…

In the medieval African societies, they were proud of their beautiful modernized cities. They used art to make their cities aesthetically pleasing, and literature to express their thoughts and feelings. They prioritized family immensely, and had many traditions. Family was very important because in this time period families did everything together. Religion was a main factor in the spiritual beliefs of the cities. In this time period, not everything was understood scientifically, so religion was…

a Muslim nation that prohibits them from discussing from explicit topics like sex and drugs, popular themes included within American hip hop (Appert, 2015, pg. 761). Unlike indigenous and commercial, mbalax, a genre which included praisesinging by griots, this particular new form of rap music, performed mostly by local artists, “defined hip hop not only through an emphasis on political consciousness and a disadvantaged economic status but equally through the absence of singing” and goes beyond…

1. The music culture I chose is rap. More than a century before rap gained its popularity in America, West African musicians also known as griots, were telling stories rhythmically with just the beat of a drum. When slaves were brought over to America, this style of storytelling continued and evolved to eventually be known as the rap we know today. Rapping essentially involves the speaking or chanting of rhyming lyrics, often set to a beat. These rhymes often address provocative subjects such…

is a stress reliever and a way to teach lessons through their stories. Music generations before now has changed and been advanced because of certain technology methods created. If we look back during the early sixties there was a tribe known as the Griot which would tell stories through music and have been doing it for the past hundreds of years (Ayazi-Hashjin,18). Music to them was more than just a recreational activity, it would…

but now …. we got rappers like Young Thug, and Lil Wayne. And they produce some pretty dry stuff. And guess what. I HATE IT !!!!! But now I'm going to tell you how rap first started and it is kind of interesting. So thousands of years ago, Africa "griots" played music while they told stories and this was actually considered rap at first. But then when they were slaves in America they would all sing together in cotton fields while they worked. They would sing using "call to answer". One leader…