This exercise asks you to compare two sets of resources. First, The African American Sheet Music collection at the Library of Congress's American Memory site. Second, the rap lyrics, memorabilia and other material collected on the web by rap fans.

Here are some comparisons of the 1890s with the 1990s you might begin with.

The music of both eras emphasized dialect and slang. Minstrel show lyrics inevitably use odd abbreviations, truncated spellings, and apostrophes to try to convey a sense of "authentic" African American speech. Both styles of music used the word "nigger" frequently. Minstrel show performers prospered in direct relation to how "real" they seemed; "real" in the 1890s meant conforming to stereotypes of laziness and violence. "Real" in the 1990s also meant conforming to stereotypes of thuggish and criminality. In both eras, "real" meant "outside of respectable society."

Sean "Puffy" Coombs, the most successful rap artist and producer of the 1990s, effects a pose of urban thuggishness and "real" authenticity. But Coombs attended private schools in suburban New York, and in high school and college played on the football team and showed a strong interest in entrepreneurship.

In other words, though he goes to great lengths to depict himself as a dangerous character on the edges of respectable society, and writes lyrics about crime, sudden wealth, magical attractiveness to women, and threats of violence, his upbringing and career also conforms to middle class notions of success and self making.

Similarly, Will Marion Cook was one of the most successful African American composers and musical entrepreneurs of the late 19th century. Classically trained, with aspirations towards respectability, he made most of his money writing minstrel show tunes like Darktown is Out Tonight, which included lyrics about "tough coons who want to fight" and ended with "bring out your blazahs/fetch out your razahs/Darktown is out tonight!." Like Coombs, Cook was both an extremely talented musician and an extremely successful producer. Like Coombs, he traded in depictions of African Americans as violence prone, money obsessed, and thuggish.

These themes formed a staple in minstrel show depictions of African Americans, as the example below suggests. White people delighted in seeing African Americans as razor and gun-toting criminals who loved to drink and spend money in showy ways.

The lyrics to this song describe the figure on the left as he "drawed a razor from down his back; I aimed that gun an he gin' to squawk. Another example, from I Don't Allow No Coon to Hurt My Feelings:

I'm going to knock that coon's teeth out and stop him from his talk;
i'll shoot him in the feet and I guess that'll hold his walk
I've cleaned my revolver, honed my razor for the fight
I intend to give some nearbye undertaker work tonight

Now how you gon' act wit my nigga? Just remember there's a gun to your dome And I will lick shots and run through your home Or better yet I put your son to the chrome Turn the music up and unplug the phone I will kill him, read my lips You too, motherfucker if I don't see no bricks. (http://www.ohhla.com/anonymous/puff_dad/forever/niggas.dad.txt)

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