transcription, транскрипция: [ ̈ɪræp ]
noun and verb (Music) (Youth Culture) noun: A style of popular music (also known more fully as rap music) in which (usually improvised) words are spoken rhythmically, often in rhyming sentences, over an instrumental backing. Also, a song or piece of music which incorporates this technique; an individual 'poem' or refrain in this style. intransitive verb: To perform rap music; to talk or sing in the style of rap. Also as an action noun rapping; agent noun rapper. Etymology: A specialized development of the US slang sense of the noun and verb rap '(to) talk', which itself dates from the turn of the century. This had already been taken up by US Blacks in the sixties as a name for the special style of verbal repartee which developed as an important part of their street culture and peer-group behaviour (see diss); the transformation of rapping of this kind into a type of performance poetry which could be associated with a particular style of popular music completed the process of specialization. History and Usage: Rap, an important element of the youth subculture known as hip hop, developed among Black youngsters on the streets of New York during the seventies, but did not become a recognizable genre of popular music known by this name until the early eighties. Rap has links with other more formal styles of Black (especially West Indian) performance poetry known as dub and toasting, which began to reach a wide audience in the seventies as a result of the popularization of West Indian culture through reggae and ska. At first the New York raps themselves were improvised live over the rhythmic backing of music from a boom box or ghetto blaster; in the early eighties the style was taken up by disc jockeys in New York's clubs, and a number of rap groups recorded the music and enjoyed great commercial success with it, popularizing rap within White youth culture as well as Black and establishing it as one of the most important styles of the eighties. The influence of rapping is evident in a number of areas outside Black culture, such as the language and creative writing of young Whites in the UK (words such as bad, def, diss, fresh, and rare might never have spread beyond a quite limited population of young people but for their use in rap); another sign of rap's influence is the fact that distinct styles (such as rude rap and on-and-on rap) are recognized among groups of youngsters far removed from rap's New York origins. Many raps still brag about the rapper's financial success and superior cool but others talk about such topics as friends and basketball. Wall Street Journal 4 Dec. 1984, p. 16 But when he realised that black classmates were listening to a different rap group each week he decided that rap was much more progressive than rock 'n' roll. New Musical Express 9 May 1987, p. 30 Cartel distributors, Revolver, have great hopes for the...hip-hop EP...consisting of 'Anyone', 'The Dark' and 2 raps. Tower Records' Top Feb. 1988, p. 7 D.J.'s Matt Dike,...and Mike Ross,...got Los Angeles rapping. Interview Mar. 1990, p. 52