The seed from which rap music was grown comes from the late 1970`s, when Djs

began to take liberties with the dance music available, using the tools at their disposal to play with the music. As the DJs gained popularity, people started coming out to dance clubs not just to dance or hear specific music, but to hear the DJs themselves. Certain DJs recognized this opportunity and began to make up poetry that they then set to music, adding their two cents to the songs being played. The first rap song has ever been recorded was in 1979, by the american band Sugarhill Gang. The rappers used to be black people, untill 1981 when a white man, DJ Flash, became member of a rap band. By 1982 record companies who had previously ignored the musical style were scrambling to fill their rosters with rap acts, which led to the signing of pretty much anyone holding a mic who claimed they could rhyme. This led to a number of silly party records swamping the market but it also helped launch the careers of heavyweights like Run DMC and the Beastie Boys. In this period, a new type of rap appears, Gangsta Rap, which initially evolved from hardcore rhymes of the rapper Ice T, and purports to reflect urban crime and the violent lifestyles of black people from ghetto`s. A representative band for that period, N.W.A, has promoted artists that are still known today, like Ice Cube and Dr. Dre.

In 1990s rap music became a lot more popular thanks to the new albums released by 80s bands and to the new rappers like 2Pac and Snopp Doggy Dogg. But with great successes come big problems. As rap music was getting more and more popular, the numbers of crimes rised up, and justice blamed it on this genre of music, because it had violent messages. As a result, many rappers got arrested for drugs, murders, rapes and gun possession. But in despite of this, they still made songs. The end of the 90s is marked by two important events in rap industry: death of Tupac Shakur and launch of Eminem aka Slim Shady, considered to be the best white rapper ever. In the years 2000 rap has the same reputation and popularity as before, the only ones who have changed are the artists. The subjects of songs are still the same. New names appear on the scene, and artists like Outkast, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Usher or Lil Wayne are the new favorties of the people. But soon, after the year 2005 rap music changes because the singers changed the subjects of songs and the instrumentals of the songs become more important that the lyrics and the message. But still rappers like Eminem continue to rap in the true meaning of the word and tell messages through his songs.

Lee "DJ Flash" Johnson better known as DJ Flash is an American hip hop artist. In 1981 DJ Flash was the first "white rapper" ever signed to a rap label "Rappers Rapp Disco Co." Los Angeles, Ca. He attended high schools in Sacramento and Taft, California. He began his musical career at radio station KTKR 1310 AM in Taft and went on to become one of the founding members of The Rappers Rapp Group.

O'Shea Jackson (born June 15, 1969), better known by his stage name Ice Cube, is a rapper and actor. He began his career as a member of the hip-hop group C.I.A. and later joined the rap group N.W.A. After leaving N.W.A in December 1989, he built a successful solo career in music, and also as a writer, director, actor and producer in cinema. Additionally, he has served as one of the producers of the Showtime television series Barbershop and the TBS series Are We There Yet?, both of which are based upon films in which he portrayed the lead character.

Andre Romelle Young (born February 18, 1965), better known by his stage name Dr. Dre, is an American rapper, record producer, record executive, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is the founder and current CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and a former co-owner and artist of Death Row Records. He has produced albums for and overseen the careers of many rappers, including Snoop Dogg, Eminem and 50 Cent. As a producer he is credited as a key figure in the popularization of West Coast G-funk, a style of rap music characterized as synthesizer-based with slow, heavy beats. Dre began his career in music as a member of the World Class Wreckin' Cru and he later found fame with the influential gangsta rap group N.W.A with Eazy-E, Ice Cube, MC Ren, and DJ Yella which popularized the use of explicit lyrics in rap to detail the violence of street life. His 1992 solo debut, The Chronic, released under Death Row Records, led him to become one of the best-selling American performing artists of 1993 and to win a Grammy Award for the single "Let Me Ride". In 1996, he left Death Row to establish his own label, Aftermath Entertainment. Under that label, he produced a compilation album titled Dr. Dre Presents the Aftermath in 1996, and released a solo album titled 2001 in 1999, for which he won the Grammy producer's award the next year. During the 2000s, he focused his career on production for other artists, while occasionally contributing vocals to other artists' songs. Dr. Dre signed Eminem and 50 Cent to his record label in 1998 and 2003 respectively while contributing production on their albums. Rolling Stone named Dr. Dre among the highest-paid performers of 2001 and 2004. Dr. Dre has also had acting roles in movies such as Set It Off, and the 2001 films The Wash and Training Day.

Tupac Amaru Shakur (June 16, 1971 September 13, 1996), known by his stage names 2Pac (or simply Pac) and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor. Shakur has sold over 75 million albums worldwide as of 2007, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world. Rolling Stone Magazine named him the 86th Greatest Artist of All Time.

In addition to his career as a rap artist, he was also an actor. The themes of most of Tupac's songs are the violence and hardship in inner cities, racism, other social problems, and conflicts with other rappers during the East Coast West Coast hip hop rivalry. Shakur began his career as a roadie, backup dancer, and MC for the alternative hip hop group Digital Underground. Afeni Shakur and Assata Shakur, his mother and aunt respectively, were involved with the Black Panthers, and 2pac made reference to the organization in the song Changes. 2pac was involved in a West-coast East-coast rivalry after a major feud with East-coast rappers, producers and record-label members of staff. On September 7, 1996, Shakur was shot four times in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was taken to the University Medical Center, where he died six days later of respiratory failure and cardiac arrest

Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group, D12, to mainstream recognition. As well as being a member of the Detroit rap group D12, Eminem is also one half of the Detroit hip hop duo Bad Meets Evil, with Royce da 5'9". Eminem is one of the best-selling artists in the world and is the best selling artist of the 2000s. He has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest artists of all time by many magazines including the Rolling Stone magazine which has ranked him 82nd on its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The same magazine has declared him The King of Hip Hop. Including his work with D12 and Bad Meets Evil, Eminem has achieved ten number-one albums on the Billboard 200. He has sold more than 42 million tracks and 41 million albums in the United States, and 86 million albums worldwide.

Eminem quickly gained popularity in 1999 with his major-label debut album, The Slim Shady LP. That first album, The Marshall Mathers LP and his third major album, The Eminem Show, all won Grammy Awards, making Eminem the first artist to win Best Rap Album for three consecutive LPs. The Marshall Mathers LP is also considered one of Eminem's best and most successful albums. Eminem then went on hiatus after touring in 2005. He released his first album since 2004's Encore, titled Relapse, on May 15, 2009. In 2010, Eminem released his seventh studio album Recovery, which was an international success. Recovery was also named the best selling album worldwide of 2010 joining The Eminem Show, which was the best seller of 2002. Eminem won Grammy Awards for both Relapse and Recovery, giving him a total of 13 Grammys in his career. Eminem has named Masta Ace, Big Daddy Kane, Newcleus, the Beastie Boys, Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur, AZ, Nas, and Ice-T amongst others as his influences.

Eminem has opened other ventures since the beginning of his success. He founded his own record label, Shady Records with his manager Paul Rosenberg. He also has his own radio channel, Shade 45. Eminem began an acting career in 2002, when he starred in the hip hop drama film 8 Mile in which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, becoming the first rap artist ever to win the award. He is also set to star in the 2013 films Shady Talez and Have Gun, Will Travel. He has also made cameo appearances in The Wash (2001), Funny People (2009) and television series Entourage.

What's the differnce between rap and hip hop?

This is one of the questions that many peoples have tried to answer.Some maintain that rap is a kind of music, whereas hip-hop is a lifestyle , one that includes rap, break dancing,etc. I belive that the rap is something you do, but hip-hop is something you live. Others insist that hip-hop is a musical style distinct from rap for very specific reasons: mainly hip-hop has a particular beat and othres.In other words, these folks say all hip-hop is rap, but not all rap is hip-hop. Designations such as rap and hip-hop are never set in stone, but are free to flow and evolve, kind of like the songs themselves

Bibliografie: http://en.wikipedia.org http://www.google.ro/imghp?hl=ro&tab=wi