Randy Remote wrote: >Rap's dirty little secret is that it was invented by white people. >The first rap song was the train sequence from "The Music Man" >circa 1962. The whole cadence and everything is there, the train >wheels taking the place of the drum machine.
The Music Man premiered on Broadway in December 1957, after six years of work and 40 drafts. "Rock Island" is the train song, and that was in the show at the premiere. Given that the musical is Willson's reminiscences of being 10 years old in 1912, chances are even the "rap" song is based on earlier models. So rap is probably at least as old as rock'n'roll?! Gil
