RAP Is a Patchwork Quilt, Part 1
As a professor who occasionally teaches HipHop as a literature form, I am tired of useless, divisive debates about the roots of RAP. RAP is an African American artform, and like many African American artforms, it is a patchwork quilt of cultural influences. For the record, I do not own the rights to any of the music that I am about to post. I’m using them for demonstrative, educational purposes and not solely to boost any profits I may receive from this post.
I remember these quilts from my childhood. They were heavy, colorful affairs folded neatly at the foot of the bed. My mom made my quilt three years before I was born. I still have it, though it needs a new top. As my mom explained, her quilt followed this traditional pattern, but it had been tacked and not truly quilted. My mom said she hated quilting. She remembers having the mattresses taken off the bed and used as a quilting frame. She also remembers the heavy, denim quilts that her grandmother used to make.
In a traditional African American quilt, scraps of clothing from here and there are taken and pieced together to form the top. Then the batting is added and a bottom. Finally, the whole thing is sewn together. In a tacked quilt, such as the 40+ year-old affair that I have, the parts of the quilt are held together by yarn knots. I loved those yarn knots.
