Denton
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On the subject of early recordings in the history of rap, here's something from 1897:
Cousins and Demoss, comic songsters, performing the spiritual "Poor Mourner." They sing the chorus, they chant and shout the verses, and the banjo, used as the percussion instrument that it was originally intended to be, keeps the beat (with some complicated changes in rhythm). The performance as a whole has a brilliant anarchic energy. By far my favorite 19th-century recording.
Is it a straight shot from Cousins and Demoss to Kool Herc? Probably not. It isn't exactly a straight shot from Kool Herc to Webbie either. Music historians would probably be right to insist on the importance of Herc's use of turntables, leaving Woody Guthrie, Fats Domino, and Cousins and Demoss in a different category.
Cousins and Demoss, comic songsters, performing the spiritual "Poor Mourner." They sing the chorus, they chant and shout the verses, and the banjo, used as the percussion instrument that it was originally intended to be, keeps the beat (with some complicated changes in rhythm). The performance as a whole has a brilliant anarchic energy. By far my favorite 19th-century recording.
Is it a straight shot from Cousins and Demoss to Kool Herc? Probably not. It isn't exactly a straight shot from Kool Herc to Webbie either. Music historians would probably be right to insist on the importance of Herc's use of turntables, leaving Woody Guthrie, Fats Domino, and Cousins and Demoss in a different category.
