Umm..I don't know about this but like Nas said, "No Ideas Original". Throughout the history of mankind, cultures have shared, adopted and stolen from each other. It could be possible that the act of staging venomous verbal attacks between 2 or more people originated in Europe but I think that many cultures share many similarities in ritual practices with slight or major variations between them. In this article from the TELEGRAPH, Simon Johnson reports that "Professor Ferenc Szasz argued that so-called rap battles, where two or more performers trade elaborate insults, derive from the ancient Caledonian art of "flyting". According to the theory, Scottish slave owners took the tradition with them to the United States, where it was adopted and developed by slaves, emerging many years later as rap." With that in mind, it is possible that the practice was adopted and made anew by the African slaves. It is the primary root of hip hop that the culture was formed by utilizing the influences around you and creating a unique expression of those influences. Rap most certainly derived from the "dozens" which WIKIPEDIA defines as an "African American oral tradition in which two competitors, usually males, go head to head in a competition of often good-natured, ribald "trash talk". They take turns insulting—"cracking", "west coast dissin'," or "ranking" on—one another, their adversary's mother or other family member until one of them has no comeback." I am open to the practice originating elsewhere but the creators of rap music have transformed the idea into an indelible expression unique to African and Latino Americans.
Read the article HERE. Link to article originally found on HUFFINGTONPOST.COM
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