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Originally Posted by jackhammer
I mentioned something similar to this on the forums a year or two back but the consensus seemed to be that it didn't influence Hip Hop which I find incredulous considering 'toasting' over beats was in force in Jamaica many years before Hip Hop came to the fore and the correlation between the use of words and experimental beats was very similar even though Hip Hop used European Electronica and Funk/Soul cuts to provide the backbone but the processes involved were very similar.
Gil Scott Heron is (quite rightly) heralded as an early pioneer of Hip Hop but other similar artists are not given their due. Linton Kwesi Johnson was another phenomenal artist who deserves far more recognition and not just because of the template he used regarding words and music. His spoken poetry over beats regarding social and political issues put him far ahead of his time.
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Very perceptive comments. There was a very large contingent of Jamaican deejays doing dancehalls in the Bronx and Brooklyn prior to the rise of the first wave of hip hop. By the time Grandmaster Flash came along, local toasters like Shinehead and Sister Carol were sharing the same dancehall venues with Flash, Run DMC and Curtis Blow. Jamaican deejays like U-Roy, I-Roy and Big Youth were very influential and well known among Bronx and Brooklyn rappers. This current generation of rappers adore the early dub poets like Oku Onuora, Linton Kwesi and Mutabaruka.
Both rap music and reggae toasting go back to the ancient dance rituals, drum riddims and tribal chanting of the African homeland. (As does jazz and blues music for that matter). Any music historian knows that nearly all black music in North America and the West Indies share a common African root. The development of rap music and Jamaican dancehall are very closely linked.
Gil Scott Heron was a great pioneer but not the first poetic rapper. I've met Gil and he usually will tell anyone listening that The Last Poets were his biggest influence and his musical role models. A few years before Gil began performing, The Last Poets emerged from the New York avant garde jazz scene. The song below,
Before the White Man Came, parallels the African influenced Nyahbingi drumming and chanting that Ras Michael and the Sons of Negrus were doing in Jamaica at almost the same exact time. The Lost Poet's Pan-African mindset is also very close to the emerging Rastafarian consciouness in Jamaica.