So I start recanting the "Wreck of the Hesperus", give it a little back beat, it has a rhyming structure, I could read it or recite it fast put some anger into it, then all I need is a back up band & I got a folk song?? Add a little dance to my moves make a vwith my fingers, I'm on the road to "Folkdom" glory hell-a-lu,lu.
Give me a break!!
For all that I could sing "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" is that all it takes to make a folk song??
Again, give me a break!!
The Blacksmith's fair daughter gets a poem for dying at midnight but it's doesn't get "folk song status" even when it's backed up by a single acoustic gitar & gets her head blown off by a shotgun??
And these rapper guys do??
Go ahead now argue weither or not that's a folk song!!
So is BeBop/DoWop gonna be the next folk style?????
Some sing that at gatherings.

"Rap" Brown was a rapper, he practically brought on the genre. He was no singer, he was no musician, he was a political activist & civil rights advocate & a rapper. He got his nickname from rapping not as a folk singer.

To bad, "Rap" could've been showcased at Mystic along with Stan Hugill,
or at Newport when they presented the ex-cons doing prison work songs during the 'Vanguard' era. Seems a bit far from folk when you stand them along side other genres.

Take the instruments away from a folk song & it's still a song, take the instruments away from Rap & it's poetry, it's no longer a song!!!!


Barry