Label: Yazoo Records.
Release Date: April 23, 1996.
Recording Time: 69 minutes.
Release Info: Studio Recording.
Styles: Country Blues, Delta Blues, Old-Timey, Regional Blues, Acoustic Blues, Acoustic Memphis Blues, Blues Gospel, Jug Band, Piano Blues, Piedmont Blues, Pre-War Blues, Pre-War Country Blues, Pre-War Gospel Blues, Traditional Country, Vaudeville Blues.
This ambitious and thought-provoking project turns to early black-and-white, religious, and secular traditions for antecedents to modern rap styles. Drawing from the commercial recordings of the 1920s and '30s, The Roots of Rap provides a broad sampling of rural voices straddling the lines of speech and song against the rhythms of piano, banjo, and guitar. The roots of rap, this collection argues, existed in early black work songs and in the Southern pulpit; in the performances of singing street evangelists; and in black vocal traditions such as the "dozens." Early forms of rap emerged in the vaudeville routines of minstrel and medicine shows, arising also in the country humor and talking blues of many rural white performers. To illustrate its thesis, the album draws from some of the greatest performers of the period, including Blind Willie Johnson, Seven Foot Dilly, Butterbeans and Susie, and Memphis Minnie, whose extraordinarily funky "Frankie Jean" closes the set. Like the best of Yazoo's projects, this effort is carefully and intelligently constructed, as well as consistently entertaining. ~ Burgin Mathews
Credits: Allen Brothers - performer, primary artist; Gary Atkinson - composer; The Beale Street Sheiks - performer, primary artist; Butterbeans & Susie - performer, primary artist; Leroy Carr - composer, performer, primary artist; Rev. Edward Clayborn - primary artist; James Cox - composer; Jimmie Cox - composer; Jimmie Davis - composer, performer, primary artist; John Dilleshaw - guitar; The Dixieland Jug Blowers - performer, primary artist; Tom Dorsey - composer; Lonnie Glosson - harmonica, performer, primary artist; Red Henderson - primary artist; Frank Hutchison - performer, primary artist; Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon - primary artist; Blind Willie Johnson - composer, performer, primary artist, slide guitar, vocals; Luke Jordan - composer, performer, primary artist; Kansas City Kitty & Georgia Tom - performer, primary artist; Don Kent - liner notes, producer; Prince Laval - vocals; Blind Willie McTell - composer, guitar, performer, primary artist; Memphis Jug Band - performer, primary artist; Memphis Minnie - composer, performer, primary artist; Richard Nevins - producer, remastering; Joan Pelosi - art direction; Rufus G. Perryman - composer, piano; Seven Foot Dilly & His Dill Pickles - primary artist; Pinetop Smith - primary artist; Speckled Red - performer, piano, primary artist; T.C.I. Section Crew - primary artist; Henry Thomas - performer, primary artist; Traditional - composer; Robert Vosgien - digital mastering; Willie Walker - composer, performer, primary artist.
Tracks: 1) If I Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down - Blind Willie Johnson; 2) Cocaine Blues - Luke Jordan; 3) Bow Wow Blues - Allen Brothers; 4) Jive Man Blues - Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon; 5) Jonah in the Wilderness - Henry Thomas; 6) South Carolina Rag - Willie Walker; 7) Whitewash Station - Memphis Jug Band; 8) Automobile Ride Through Alabama - Red Henderson; 9) The Dirty Dozen No. 2 - Speckled Red; 10) Tain't None O' Your Business - Butterbeans & Susie; 11) It's a Good Thing - The Beale Street Sheiks; 12) She's a Hum Dum Dinger (From Dingersville) - Jimmie Davis; 13) Papa's on the Housetop - Leroy Carr; 14) Let That Liar Alone - Rev. Edward Clayborn; 15) Back in My Home Town - Frank Hutchison; 16) Track Linin - T.C.I. Section Crew; 17) Atlanta Strut - Blind Willie McTell; 18) Arkansas Hard Luck Blues - Lonnie Glosson; 19) How Can You Have the Blues? - Kansas City Kitty & Georgia Tom; 20) Pickin' off Peanuts - Seven Foot Dilly & His Dill Pickles; 21) Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out - Pinetop Smith; 22) When I Stopped Running I Was at Home - The Dixieland Jug Blowers; 23) Frankie Jean (That Trottin' Fool) - Memphis Minnie.