African American folklore has influenced Hip Hop music the same way it has with other forms of black expression in the United States. Although Hip Hop is often decried as a minor musical art form by many critics of high art, they fail to see the artistry and musicality of a well-crafted Hip Hop song. Like African American art forms of the past century, Hip Hop music is influenced by African culture and slavery narratives.

One of the influences of African American folklore on Hip Hop music is clearly demonstrated when examining it in its infancy. In the late 1970s and 1980s, many rappers used what is referred to as “call and response” when constructing their lyrics. This form of communication is rooted in African and slave folklore, employed in public meetings and spiritual gatherings. Call and response occurs when the rapper and the audience interact with one another by spontaneous interactions. Songs like “Rapper’s Delight” employ this method in its lyrics.

Closely related to call and response is the “dozens.” Unlike call and response, the dozens is the interaction between the rappers. In African American oral tradition, two competitors, usually male, traded insults with one another, and the one who was superior won. The dozens was akin to trash talking or the “yo mama” game kids played in school yards. In rap and Hip Hop, it manifests itself in battles and dissing.

At one time, batting was a way for rap artists to pit their skills against the skill of a rival rapper. These battles usually occurred in clubs that catered to what was then an underground, nonmainstream form of music. These raw competitions were ways that many rappers honed their rhyming skills. Even artists like Queen Latifah engaged in this sometimes friendly competition.

The dozens morphed into the answer song and became more technical and profitable for Hip Hop artists. Instead of competing with one another on stage in a dark club, they wrote songs that put other musicians down. In the 1980s, teen rapper Roxanne Shante wrote an answer to the UTFO Hip Hop hit “Roxanne, Roxanne.” In the 1990s, the dissing hit a new high when West Coast and East Coast rappers wrote songs criticizing the two factions. Unfortunately, the feud came to a head with the deaths of Tupac Shakur and Notorious BIG. Currently, Kanye West has made a lot of money by dissing fellow musicians.

The final and probably most important way that African American folklore has influenced Hip Hop is the creation of music to convey a message. Before the end of slavery, African Americans would communicate with one another with song, sometimes even sending secret messages of escape. Often, these songs highlighted their horrible conditions. Many Hip Hop artists have followed suit by writing songs that talk about social conditions and inequalities in inner-city neighborhood, thus sending an encoded message to the world.

The influence of African American folklore on Hip Hop music will continue as long as people with creative visions exist. The use of techniques employed in bygone years attests to the fact that folklore will remain a part of artistic expression, even in an altered form. Hip Hop artists’ creativity should, therefore, not be discounted. It should be embraced as a legitimate art form.