Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2019 January 21

= January 21 =

Synthesizer on "Soulfly XI"?
Soulfly released their 11th studio album titled Ritual and one of the songs is called "Soulfly XI". It's an instrumental track containing flamenco guitar, sitar, programmed beats, and saxophone. I heard there's also a synthesizer in it that I never seen listed in the credits anywhere. Although I read a lot of reviews about the album and lot of them mention that song, none said about synthesizer, although a couple of reviews say there's piano in it. I don't think it's piano because piano only produce a familiar piano tone, that's not the one that I'm hearing. What I'm hearing is a keyboard instrument that produces a smooth, ethereal, and ambient sound. I'm thinking it's a synthesizer. Since I don't see it in the credits anywhere, I don't know who plays it. Skip over to 1:37 in the song and let me know if you agree if it's a synthesizer or perhaps other keyboard instrument. Planet Star  02:30, 21 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Sounds like background vocals to me, FWIW. Thanks for alerting me to the band, though. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.217.251.247 (talk) 09:15, 22 January 2019 (UTC)
 * I don't think it sounds even like a choir, it sounds like an instrument. BTW, a majority of Soulfly songs are heavy metal often with growling vocals. Planet  Star  20:29, 22 January 2019 (UTC)

the first rap song
what was the first rap song?--87.27.156.88 (talk) 10:03, 21 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Hip hop music is relevant, especially the 1970s section. Short answer, there is no common agreement on this, but "Rapper's Delight" is a contender. --Viennese Waltz 10:39, 21 January 2019 (UTC)
 * It depends on your definitions, but see also Rapping.  Ghmyrtle (talk) 10:47, 21 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Possibly King Tim III (Personality Jock). déhanchements (talk) 20:05, 21 January 2019 (UTC)


 * As with all of these sort of questions, there is no clear answer. Rap evolved from a combining of earlier traditions, it was not (as many music documentaries imply) created out of nothing by the Sugar Hill Gang in 1979.  The already noted "Rapper's Delight" was the first hit single of what would be unquestionably hip-hop, cracking the top-40 in the U.S. (#36 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles list).  Rap in many ways grew out of Toasting in Jamaican music, which had been going on since the 1950s, by the 1970s, rapping was happening all over New York City, Coke La Rock and DJ Kool Herc were doing their thing as early as 1973, but they didn't invent it either.  Early rapping, like toasting, was improvised over an instrumental track played by the DJ, as such it didn't necessarily have a fixed form that was recorded until after it developed; other than live recordings, it didn't exist in fixed form.  -- Jayron 32 17:54, 22 January 2019 (UTC)

The Time Warp has a 'rap' section?185.47.104.164 (talk) 08:00, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Where? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 09:20, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Over at the Frankenstein place. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.217.251.247 (talk) 00:35, 24 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Well, that certainly clears things up. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 00:39, 24 January 2019 (UTC)
 * I don't have the details on it but there is a jazz-song from the 30's that was released on 78rpm that had a rhythmicly (is that a word?) spoken piece in it that could be the first rap to ever be recorded. Oxygene7-13 (talk) 09:23, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Yeah, but songs existed before recording. If we're just defining rap as "non-melodic rhythmic speech set to music", Sprechstimme has been a musical tradition since the 1890s.  The Talking blues has existed since the 1920s.  It's good to lay out the antecedants of rap, even if they probably had little influence on it, because it highlights the fact that it isn't possible to answer a question like "What was the first rap song" definitively.  However, it's an interesting starting question, if only because our inability to provide a definitive answer allows a more nuanced approach in understanding the evolution of a musical genre like hip hop.  Sometimes not having an answer is more interesting than having one. -- Jayron 32 00:44, 24 January 2019 (UTC)