Unit 11 Entertainment ACADEMIC SKILLS PLUS

Cultural studies/Music: Hip-hop and rap

Reading skills: Understanding main points;
Understanding similarities and differences
Writing skills: Expanding notes into a paragraph;
1 SPEAKING Drafting

a Look at the different kinds of music in the box. Do

you know what they all are?

Which do you ... ?

• often listen to   • never listen to   • like most b You are going to read an article about hip-hop and
rap in 2c. Do you think these two kinds of music are ... ?
Compare with other students.
1 exactly the same
pop  classical  rock  world music  jazz  rap 2 similar but a bit different
reggae  heavy metal  techno  hip-hop  folk 3 completely different
Tell your partner what you know about what’s the same
and what’s different.
2 READING
c Read the article on page 28. What’s the answer to b?
a Check the meaning of these words in a dictionary. Does the article include the ideas you talked about?
Complete the gaps in the sentences below.

fashion  rhythm  poetry  visual  rhyme d Read the article again. What does the article say about
the topics below? Make brief notes (just a few words)
1 Paintings and films are examples of ____ art, because you on each topic.
look at them. 1 KRS-One
2 African music is good for dancing because it has a 2 the four ‘elements’ of hip-hop
strong _____. 3 three important things about rap music
3 The words ‘true’ and ‘blue’ _____ . They have the same 4 the beginnings of rap music
sound. 5 rap music now
4 Shakespeare, Dante and Pushkin all wrote _____.
5 She loves clothes and she always knows what clothes e Compare your answers with other students. Did you
are in _____. note down the same points?

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 Unit 11

f 
CRITICAL THINKING 3 LANGUAGE FOCUS Similarities and
EXPANDING YOUR OWN KNOWLEDGE
differences
When you read, you can use information in the text
to think about new ideas. You can use what you know a Cover the article. Complete the sentences with the
about the world to help you do this. In groups, discuss words from the box.
these questions.
1 What topics do you think hip-hop singers sing about? difference (x2)  different (x2)  like  
2 What do DJs do? same (x2)     similar
3 How do you think hip-hop ‘combines dance, technology
and speech’? 1 People talk about ‘rap music’ and ‘hip-hop music’; they often
mean the _____ thing.
2 So, is rap the _____ as hip-hop, and if it isn’t, how is it _____?
3 You can call music by, for example, Jay Z or Kanye West,
either ‘rap’ or ‘hip-hop’, so clearly the two terms are _____.
MUSIC BLOG 4 The main _____ is that the word ‘rap’ describes a kind of
music, but ‘hip-hop’ is more than that.
5 KRS-One described the _____ between them like this: ‘Rap
is something you do. Hip-hop is something you are’.
6 Rap, on the other hand, is _____ from this – it just means a
particular kind of singing.
7 Rap music has more words in one song than any other kind of
music, so in some ways it is more _____ poetry than singing.

b Uncover the article and check your answers. Then

answer the questions below.
1 ‘Different’ is an adjective. What is the noun form?
2 Which adjective means ‘nearly the same’?
3 What words follow: (a) the same ___ (b) different ___
(c) the difference ___
When people talk about ‘rap music’ and ‘hip-hop music’, they often 4 What word means ‘similar to’?
mean the same thing. So is rap the same as hip-hop, and if it isn’t,
how is it different? c Look at the sentences about other kinds of music. Add
one word in each gap to complete them.
People call music by, for example, Jay Z or Kanye West, both ‘rap’ or
1 Heavy metal is _____ rock music, but it’s usually louder.
‘hip-hop’, so clearly the two terms are similar. The main difference is
2 How is blues _____ from jazz?
that the word ‘rap’ describes a kind of music, but ‘hip-hop’ is more than
3 House music and disco are _____ in many ways, but they’re
that: it’s a complete culture which includes music but also fashion, art,
not exactly the _____.
dance and lifestyle. The well-known New York hip-hop artist KRS-One
4 What’s the _____ between country music and folk music?
described the difference between them like this: ‘Rap is something you
5 New wave music is the _____ as post-punk. There’s no
do. Hip-hop is something you are.’
_____ between them.
In fact, people say that hip-hop includes four ‘elements’: the first
is a style of dancing (break-dancing), the second is a kind of visual 4 WRITING
art (street art and graffiti), the third is a way of making music by
sampling and mixing tracks (in other words, what DJs do), and the a Choose one of the topics below (they should be things
fourth is mixing together dance, technology and speech to make a you already know something about):
particular kind of music.
• two kinds of music • two languages
Rap, on the other hand, is different from this – it just means a particular • two dishes • two cities
kind of singing (called ‘rapping’) which is used in hip-hop. It consists • two countries • two things from your own area of study
of two parts: a particular rhythm (called a ‘breakbeat’) and rhyming
Think about how the two items are similar and how
words, which often tell a story. The rapper speaks the words of the
they are different. Make some brief notes under two
song instead of singing them, but with a strong beat. Rap music has
headings: Differences and Similarities.
more words in one song than any other kind of music, so in some ways
it is more like poetry than singing.
b Show your notes to another student. Tell him/her
Rap music comes from hip-hop culture in cities in the USA, but it what you want to write about, and get some more ideas.
has now become international. You can hear rap in commercial Add them to your notes.
pop music and there are rap artists in many parts of the world, for
example, France, Germany, Turkey, South Africa and South Korea.

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STUDY SKILLS: HELPING WITH WRITING IDEAS 5 EXTENDED READING

Even if other students are writing alone, it’s useful
to help them with finding ideas for writing. Here are
a You are going to read an article about how hip-hop
began in the 1970s. What do you already know about
some tips:
this from the article in 2c? Note down any ideas.
• listen carefully
• be positive about your partner’s ideas b Read the article. Here are some important events that
• don’t push your own opinion – let your partner decide happened in the hip-hop scene. Which happened at the
what to do beginning (in the 1970s) and which happened later (in
• don’t talk too much – let your partner speak! the 1980s and 90s)?
• give clear, practical suggestions 1 You could listen to women hip-hop artists.
Think about how you gave ideas in 4b just now. How well did 2 You could watch teenagers breakdancing in public places.
you do the things in the tips? Did you get some useful ideas 3 DJs started playing at parties.
from your partner? 4 Hip-hop artists played a mixture of rap and rock music.
5 Graffiti appeared in New York City.
6 Rap music became popular in New York City.

c Write a paragraph, using your notes. Try to use c Read the article again. What does it tell us about the
expressions from 3.
topics below? Make brief notes.
1 Taki
d Work in groups of four. Read all the paragraphs from 2 New York subway
your group. Choose the most interesting one and tell
3 breakdancing and money
the class about it.
4 Kool Herc
5 where rapping came from
6 ‘Rapper’s Delight’
7 Queen Latifah
8 Snoop Dogg

THE ORIGINS OF HIP-HOP

Hip-hop became popular in the 1980s and 90s, together with rap music, the beginning of rapping, but in fact rapping is probably much older
but it started in poor African-American areas of New York City in the late than that and came from West Africa. The first rap song to become
1970s. Hip-hop began with music, but also with painting graffiti and popular was in 1979, when the Sugarhill Gang made a song called
with breakdancing. People say that the graffiti movement started when ‘Rapper’s Delight’. After a few weeks it reached Number 1 and it gave
a Greek American teenager wrote ‘Taki 183’ (his name and street, 183rd its name to a new kind of pop music.
Street) on walls in the New York subway. During the 1970s, teenagers
In the 1980s, a new wave of rappers appeared, including Run-D.M.C,
in New York started painting their names and pictures on the sides of
a group of three singers who mixed rap with rock music. This made
subway trains. At around the same time, kids started playing hip-hop
rap music popular with a wider number of people. During this period,
music and breakdancing on the pavement, often collecting money from
there were also (for the first time) a few female rappers, such as
people.
Queen Latifah. In the 1970s and 80s, the centre of hip-hop was New
Two other important elements of hip-hop were DJ-ing and rapping. York City, but in the 1990s, a lot of new rap music came from Los
The first well-known hip-hop DJ was a Jamaican called Kool Herc, Angeles, with artists such as Snoop Dogg, who helped to make hip-
who played Jamaican music at large parties in New York City. He used hop popular with a much wider audience. Since then, hip-hop and
two turntables and mixed bits of older music with popular dance rap music have become more and more widely known and it is now
songs. He also spoke over the music, and some people say this was popular with people all over the world.

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