Rapping .

The most popular and influential form of African-American pop music of the 1980s and 1990s, rap is also one of the most contreversial styles of the rock era. Black, white, rock, and soul audiences continue to fiercely debate the musical and social merits of rap, whose most radical innovations subverted many of the musical and cultural tenets upon which rock was built.

New York City, particularly Brooklyn and the Bronx, was home to a large Jamaican community. There, Jamaican DJs mixed sounds from several turntables (Technics), a device which would become one of rap's trademarks.

Although mixing from large sound systems began to be employed at NY house parties in the 1980s, it didn't really emerge as a recorded sound until the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" in 1979. Next up was Grandmaster Flash's 1982 single, "The Message," which really stands as rap's watershed mark. "The Message" was a straight-up social comment, reporting from the front lines of the ghetto.

From its inception, rap was labeled as too harsh, monotonous, and lacking any traditional melodic values. It has also been embroiled in controversy from the beginning. From claims that rap lyrics incite violence to disgust over vulgar and mysogonystic themes, rap has been through as much of a fight as rock-n-roll went through in the '50s.

But rap is the poetry of the streets, directly reflecting and addressing the day-to-day reality of ghetto life.

The music of rap says a lot. So give it a chance. So here are some of the bands I consider to have had the most influence on rap: Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Flash, Run-D.M.C,L.L. Cool J, the Beastie Boys, N.W.A, Public Enemy, Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur, the Wu-Tang Clan, and Notorious B.I.G.