There is an interconnective relationship between African-American music of the past and contemporary rap. The past and present along with their accompanying music genres are linked through an important practice called cultural memory. Author and musician, Samuel Floyd, defines cultural memory as being the ability to access and transmit previous communal information with or without the benefit of formal training. This information which is “privileged” to associates of a specific culture serves to connect its members through common and subjective knowledge and practices that are knowingly and unknowingly bequeathed to generations. Eventually these knowledge and practices become more objective and inherent as they are incorporated into normative cultural practices.
Cultural memory is a catalyst for cultural retention and recollection of the past and may involve and/or manifest itself in rap music in two ways: theoretically and culturally. Theoretically, music of the past is continued through intertextuality. Older music is altered and integrated with this contemporary music genre to form more innovative versions. Culturally, a conflicting discourse revolving around the creation, performance, and influence of earlier music of African-Americans has played an important role in the life and music of African-American culture throughout the history of black Americans. The influence of these music genres on the general public were also subjected to much scrutiny.
Rap music has followed the tradition of its former African-American-created music ancestors. It, too, has become a catalyst for preserving the musical bonds within the African Diaspora through cultural memory. Through intertextuality, signifyin(g), and through the incitement of divergent points of view, rap not only embodies memories that extend across the generations, it also reconnects contemporary black-America with African-Americans of the past.
