Call-and-Response in Rap Music

Abstract

This opening chapter explores call-and-response as a rhetorical device and aims to re-contextualize it in the academic discourse and in rap studies. It reflects on call-and-response as a longstanding rhetorical and musical practice that is unquestionably prominent in the sociocultural practices of some black communities in the US, but not, as many scholars contend, a uniquely ‘black’ feature. It first revisits the prevalent discourse on the African roots of call-and-response, examining how it came to epitomize ‘black’ music. It then examines the chief functions of call-and-response.