Rap 2

Soon known as "rappin'" to African Americans, a communication style that was nurtured in the context of the Black Nationalist movement via its artistic by-product known as the Black Arts Movement (BAM). Following the assassination of Black Nationalist leader Malcolm X in 1965, Amiri Baraka (formerly known as Leroi Jones) summoned Black artists to address the issues that most concerned the African American community, thus making their art community-based and functional. BAM reinforced the ideology of Black Nationalism, emphasizing self-pride and self-definition. It also encouraged affiliation with African heritage and tradition, as seen in Kwanzaa (the annual seven-day celebration of the African American inheritance), natural hairdos, African dashikis, and Ki-Swahili names to replace anglicized ones. BAM poets exploited a rappin' style that used metaphor, word alliteration, repetition, breath cadences, heightened speech, intoned speech with occasional employment of expletives, and Black vernacular street speech-all set to the accompaniment of African percussion or repetitive grooves. This new breed of poets honed their craft at local/neighborhood meeting places or writers' workshops such as the Watts Writers Workshop of Watts in Los Angeles or the Umbra Writers of Greenwich Village in New York City.