Artist	Song
James Brown	King Heroin
from JB40 (40th Anniversary Collection) (1996)
Memphis Jug Band	Cocaine Habit Blues
from The Best of the Memphis Jug Band (2005)
Malcolm X	Race War In America
from The Best of the Speeches (2007)
The Last Poets	This Is Madness Chant/ This Is Madness
from This Is Madness (2005)
U-Roy	Wear You to the Ball
from Original DJ (2003)
Oscar Brown Jr.	Bid 'Em In
from Sin & Soul... and Then Some (1996)
Richard Pryor	Niggas
from Wattstax - The Living Word (2007)
Blowfly	Blowfly's Rap
from The Worst of Blowfly (2007)
Pigmeat Markham	Your Wife Is Dirty
from The Crap-Shootin' Rev (2006)
Otis Redding	Tramp
from The Very Best of Otis Redding (2007)
Blind Willie Johnson	If I Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down
from The Complete Blind Willie Johnson (1984)
Memphis Minnie	Frankie Jean
from The Roots of Rap: Classic Recordings from the 1920s & 30s (2006)
The Jimmy Castor Bunch	Say Leroy (The Creature from the Black Lagoon Is Your Father)
from 16 Slabs of Funk (2002)
Joe Tex	I Gotcha
from Greatest Hits (2006)
Sly & the Family Stone	You Can Make It If You Try
from Greatest Hits (2007)
Baby Huey	Listen to Me
from The Baby Huey Story - The Living Legend (2006)
Curtis Mayfield	(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below We're All Going to Go
from Curtis (2004)
Isaac Hayes	Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic
from Hot Buttered Soul - EP (2006)
Joe Bataan	Rap-O Clap-O (7" Version)
from Anthology (2006)
Chic	Good Times
from Dance, Dance, Dance: The Best of Chic, Vol. 2 (2008)
Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers	Bustin' Loose
from The Best of Chuck Brown (2005)
Headhunters	God Made Me Funky
from Evolution Revolution (2003)

Comment:

Hip-hop's roots stretch from Southern juke joints to sweat-drenched '60s soul, from Malcolm X's prophetic speeches to reggae's spoken word. We're untangling those roots, shedding light on how this global phenomenon came to be. With his gold-plated-shrapnel voice, Jamaican legend U-Roy detonates the sleek soul singing on the Paragons' "Wear You to the Ball," speaking — not singing — over their groove, stripping it to its marrow and planting the seed of "rapping." The Last Poets' "This is Madness" flings blood of social protest from a slandered man's throat, their war-drum outlining of America's ills drafting the blueprint for everything from "The Message" to "Fight the Power." On "Good Times," the tango between Nile Rodgers' shimmering guitar and Bernard Edwards' thumb-thumped bass acknowledges life's brutality [i]and[/i] the need to sometimes get away, bequeathing to hip-hop the yin/yang of reality and fantasy. The musical core of hip-hop is composed of dancehall, blues, spoken word, funk, and disco — and we've got all the staples right here.

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