In the past, hip-hop was a place for people to sing about______.

Hip-hop music started in the South Bronx area of New York City in the early 1970s among young African Americans and Latino Americans. People would gather in the streets singing and dancing to hip-hop. (18)It was a place for people to sing about social injustices as well as what was happening on the streets. Some of the world’s greatest hip-hop singers started this way. Now, hip-hop is popular worldwide. It is often used to express social and political issues. Some people call these musicians socially conscious hip-hop artists. Today we will tell about how performers in several countries use rapping to spread messages. (19) Rapping could be described as speaking or singing words at a fast speed over music with quick beats. Some reports say rapping came from the West African tradition of Griots. These storytellers would quickly tell a story while someone played music. Hip-hop beats were made when a DJ used two records to create a special measured sound. Sometimes the DJ would move one record while holding the other one down. Other times he would move both records at the same time producing a quick measured beat. This is called scratching. DJs do this using a turntable. (20)Today the turntable may be replaced by music that is produced on computers.