Natural speed please
When hip hop music first developed in the late 1970s, not many people knew about it. It was created in the poorest districts* of New York City by African American and Latino teenagers. Many of these young people were unemployed*, but some found work as DJs in discos where they learned deejaying techniques* like how to use two turntables* and a DJ mixer to play records* non-stop. Sometimes they'd also deejay at free block parties in their neighbourhoods where they'd play funk and disco tracks non-stop and ask a friend to act as their MC*. The MC would introduce the DJ and encourage everyone to dance and have a good time. Some MCs tried to be more entertaining* by talking in time to the beat* of the music and using rhymes, and by doing this they invented rapping.
Most of these songs were about having fun, but in 1982 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five released The Message, an early example of socially-conscious hip-hop. The raps were about social issues like poverty, crime and the stress of living in a dangerous city.
Adapted from www.englishclub.com
