What is Rap and its origin?

Rap is music that consists of topical rhyme verses recited over a recorded or live instrumental background. Developed by urban American blacks, its format originally consisted of a disk jockey (D.J.) alternating and mixing small excerpts of recorded music and adding rhythmical scratching sounds, while a “rapper” sings or recites rhymed lyrics, that were often similar to poems. Rap first appeared in the mid-1970s. Rap musicians sample a wide range of street sounds, historical music, and spoken-word recordings in a very powerful, musical format. The first rap came into existence in the Bronx, a ghetto of NYC.

African-American poets had started using drum beats and instrumental music as a background for their lyrics. Later, a guy named J. Saddler developed a more accurate way of mixing music from two turntables and also had the idea of adding scratching to the three components of rap. The rap music we know today was born. Rap music soon became a subject of criticism and controversy because of sexually explicit lyrics and texts that glorified violence or promoted controversial political views. The music was also used to express feelings and criticize the government, life standards and society. Gangs in the ghettos of big American cities stopped fighting with weapons and started fighting with rhymes.
History: Rap evolved from African people in general and black people born in the U.S. in particular. Its origins can be traced to West Africa where tribesmen worshipped "men of words". Later when slaves were brought to America, they mixed American music with the beats they remembered from Africa. Another origin of rap is a form of Jamaican folk stories called "toasts." These are narrative poems that tell stories in rhyme. Over a hundred years later, rapping was a street art. Rap began in inner-city schoolyards and street corners in the 1970's. Early raps were put-downs directed at other rappers. This became known as the "battle style". Rap was slowly growing in popularity among black teens in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.