Rap music originally wed two distinct traditions: the African-American tradition of toasting
or reciting long, semi-boastful poetry, often critical of a rival while celebrating the prowess (sexual and otherwise) of the toaster; and the modern technology of recordings, particularly turntables and sound systems, as operated by a DJ. Rap scholar Steven Stancell traces the artform to the late ‘
40s in Jamaica, when street DJs, traveling in sound trucks equipped with record players and speakers, would play...
