In the 1970's, a subculture emerged from the Bronx in New York City (Rose 1994; George 1998). At the heart of this subculture were artists that expressed themselves through four different mediums; emcees, djs, breakdancers, and graffiti writers (George 1998). At parties, the MCs would sing over the records that the DJs played. As the subculture gained in popularity, the MCs began to record and release albums to the public. In 1979 the first major hip hop record, "Rapper's Delight", was released by the Sugar Hill Gang (Rose 1994; George 1998). The music genre came to be known as rap and the emcees came to be known as rappers.

In the early years of rap music, the songs consisted of party rap, and politically conscious rap (George 1998; Robinson 1999). Party rap songs contained fun, lighthearted lyrics and were made to invoke people to dance. The politically conscious rap songs were more serious and contained lyrics...