Rapso

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rapso is a form of Trinidadian music that grew out of the social unrest of the 1970s. It has been described as "de power of de word in the riddum of de word". Though often described as a fusion of native soca with American hip hop, rapso is uniquely Trinidadian.

Black Power and unions grew in the 1970s, and rapso grew along with them. The first recording was Blow Away by Lancelot Layne in 1970. Six years later, Cheryl Byron (founder of the New York City based Something Positive Dance Company) was scorned when she sang rapso at a calypso tent; she is now called the "Mother of Rapso".

The term rapso was not invented until 1980, when the revolutionary Brother Resistance released Busting Out with the Network Riddum Band. Initially dominated by the children of the Black Power movement, changes came in the 1990s with the younger artistes adopting the artform, most significantly the bands Kindred and 3 Canal.