Contrary to popular belief, rapping did not start around 1970. When I was a youngster, the black kids did what they called jiveing. It was nothing but rapping. One of my black friends did the following a lot. " My name is Willie D, the girls all wild for me, when I goes to town, de all come around, just wanting to be, with the 1 and only Willie D. and he could go on forever with it. They would have friendly competitions to see who could come up with the funniest or the best. This was in the mid 50's and from what I understood from them it wasn't new then.