title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: "Fantasia" grossed over $300,000 in the first sixteen weeks in New York; over $20,000 in the opening five weeks in San Francisco; and almost the same amount in the first ten weeks both in Los Angeles and Boston. The first eleven roadshows earned a total of $1.3 million by April 1941, but the $85,000 in production and installation costs of a single Fantasound setup,< along with theatres having to be leased, forced Disney to exceed their loan limits. The onset of the Second World War prevented plans for a potential release in Europe, normally the source of as much as forty-five per cent of the studio's income. Up to eighty-eight engagements were outlined across five years, but wartime demands for material limited the number of Fantasound prints to sixteen. All but one of the Fantasound setups were dismantled and given to the war effort. Upon acquiring the film's distribution rights in April 1941, RKO initially continued the roadshow booking policy but presented the film in mono, which was easier to exhibit. The combined average receipts from each roadshow was around $325,000, which placed "Fantasia" at an even greater loss than "Pinocchio".


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: Disney allowed RKO to handle the general release of "Fantasia", but fought their decision to have the film cut. He gave in as the studio needed as much income as possible to remedy its finances, but refused to cut it himself, "You can get anybody you want to edit it ... I can't do it." With no input from Disney, musical director Ed Plumb and Ben Sharpsteen reduced "Fantasia" to one hour and forty minutes at first, then to one hour and twenty minutes by removing most of Taylor's commentary and the "Toccata and Fugue". "Fantasia" was re-released in January 1942 at more popular prices with a mono soundtrack, and was placed on the lower half of double bills with the Western film "Valley of the Sun".


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: RKO reissued "Fantasia" once more on September 1, 1946, with the animated sequences complete and the scenes of Taylor, Stokowski, and the orchestra restored but shortened. Its running time was restored to one hour and fifty-five minutes. This edit would be the standard form for subsequent re-releases, and was the basis for the 1990 restoration.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: By 1955, the original sound negatives began to deteriorate, though a four-track copy had survived in good condition. Using the remaining Fantasound system at the studio, a three-track stereo copy was transferred across noise-free telephone wires onto magnetic film at an RCA facility in Hollywood. This copy was used when "Fantasia" was reissued in stereo by Buena Vista Distribution in SuperScope, a derivative of the anamorphic widescreen CinemaScope format, on February 7, 1956. The projector featured an automatic control mechanism designed by Disney engineers that was coupled to a variable anamorphic lens, which allowed the picture to switch between its Academy standard aspect ratio of 1.33:1 to the wide ratio of 2.35:1 in twenty seconds without a break in the film. This was achieved by placing the cues that controlled the mechanism on a separate track in addition to the three audio channels. Only selected parts of the animation were stretched, while all live action scenes remained unchanged. This reissue garnered some criticism from viewers, as the widescreen format led to the cropping and reframing of the images.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: On February 20, 1963, "Fantasia" was re-released in both standard and SuperScope versions with stereo sound, though existing records are unclear. Its running time was fifty-six seconds longer than the previous issue which is unexplained. This was the final release that occurred before Disney's (and Taylor's) death in 1966.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: "Fantasia" began to make a profit from its $2.28 million budget after its return to theaters on December 17, 1969. The film was promoted with a psychedelic-styled advertising campaign, and it became popular among teenagers and college students who reportedly appreciated it as a psychedelic experience. Animator Ollie Johnston recalled that young people "thought we were on a trip when we made it ... every time we'd go to talk to a school or something, they'd ask us what we were on." The release is also noted for the removal of four scenes from "The Pastoral Symphony" over racial stereotyping. "Fantasia" was issued on a regular basis, typically for exhibition in art houses in college towns, until the mid-1970s.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: The film was reissued nationwide once more on April 15, 1977 (the same year as Stokowski's death), this time with simulated stereo sound. This edit featured the RKO distribution logo being replaced with that of Buena Vista Distribution, since RKO had not been part of a release since 1946. It had not been removed earlier as the credit sequence would have required to be re-shot. A two-and-a-half-minute reduction in the film's running time in this version remains unclear in existing records.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: In 1980, the studio shipped a damaged segment of "The Nutcracker Suite" to various film restoration companies; each advised that the sound recording could not be upgraded to a quality suitable for theatre screenings. By early 1982, Disney decided to replace the Stokowski soundtrack with a new, digital recording in Dolby Stereo with conductor Irwin Kostal. Disney executive Ron W. Miller said that the original had degraded and "no longer matched the extraordinary visuals." Kostal directed a 121-piece orchestra and 50-voice choir for the recording that took place over 18 sessions at CBS Studio Center in Los Angeles and cost $1 million to produce. Kostal had the task of pacing his conducting to match Stokowski's, but chose Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestration of "Night on Bald Mountain" instead of Stokowski's own arrangement that was used in the original. The new recording also corrected a two-frame lag in projection caused by the recording techniques used at the time the film was made. The Kostal soundtrack was prepared for the film's reissue from April 2, 1982, which had Taylor's scenes replaced with briefer voiceover narration from Hugh Douglas as the studio felt audiences by now had become "more sophisticated and knowledgeable about music."


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: The 1982 version was reissued from February 1985, which kicked off with a run at the Plitt Century Plaza Theatre in Los Angeles that was fitted with the HPS-4000 digital speaker system. This allowed the digital stereo recording of the Kostal soundtrack to be presented for the first time, and made "Fantasia" the first theatrical feature film presented in digital stereo sound. The standard recording was used for the film's wide release to around 400 theaters. This time, actor Tim Matheson provided the narration.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: For its fiftieth anniversary reissue, "Fantasia" underwent a two-year restoration process that began with a six-month search to locate the original negatives, which had been in storage since 1946, and piece them together. This was the first time since then that a print of the film had been prepared using the original negative and not a copy. A new print was formed that was identical to the 1946 version with Taylor's introductions restored but with a new end credits sequence added. As the original opening shots of "Rite of Spring" could not be found, footage from the Disney educational film "A World is Born", which used footage from the segment, was used instead. This was also the case for a sequence in "The Pastoral Symphony", so a duplicate was used. Each of the 535,680 frames were restored by hand with an untouched print from 1951 used for guidance on the correct colors and tone. Theaters that agreed to screen the film were required to install specific stereo sound equipment and present it in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The 1990 reissue also had the Stokowski soundtrack restored, which underwent digital remastering by Terry Porter who worked with the 1955 magnetic soundtrack. He estimated 3,000 pops and hisses were removed from the recording. Released on October 5, 1990, the reissue grossed $25 million domestically.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: Disney considered releasing the film's soundtrack around the time of the film's roadshow release, but this idea was not realized. The soundtrack was first released as a mono three LP set in sixteen countries by Disneyland and Buena Vista Records in 1957, containing the musical pieces without the narration. A stereo edition LP was issued by Buena Vista Records in 1961. Disney was required to obtain permission from Stokowski, who initially rejected its sale unless the Philadelphia Orchestra Association received a share of the royalties.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: The Kostal recording was released on two CDs, two LPs and two audio cassettes by Buena Vista Records, in 1982.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: In September 1990, the remastered Stokowski soundtrack was released on CD and audio cassette by Buena Vista Records., and was later re-released in 2006. In the United States, it debuted the "Billboard" 200 chart at number 190, its peak position, for the week of November 17, 1990. Two months after its release, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for 500,000 copies sold in the United States. In January 1993, it was certified platinum for sales in excess of one million copies.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: For the film's 75th anniversary in 2015, the Stokowski and Kostal recordings were released by Walt Disney Records on a four-disc album as of "". The set includes Stokowski's recording of the deleted "Clair de Lune" segment, and a recording of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and "Peter and the Wolf" (from "Make Mine Music") with added narration by Sterling Holloway.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: "Fantasia" has received four home video releases. The first, featuring the 1990 restored theatrical version, was released on VHS, Betamax and LaserDisc on November 1, 1991, as part of the Walt Disney Classics line. The release was limited to just 50 days, prompting 9.25 million advance orders for cassettes and a record 200,000 for discs, doubling the figure of the previous record. The "Deluxe Edition" package included the film, a "making of" feature, a commemorative lithograph, a 16-page booklet, a two-disc soundtrack of the Stokowski score, and a certificate of authenticity signed by Roy E. Disney, the nephew of Walt. In 1992, "Fantasia" became the biggest-selling sell-through cassette of all time in the US with 14.2 million copies being purchased. The record was surpassed later that year by "Beauty and the Beast". By October 1994, 21.7 million copies of the video had been sold worldwide. This version was also released outside of the U.S. as a DVD in 2000, again under the "Walt Disney Classics" banner.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: In November 2000, "Fantasia" was released on video for the second time, this time along with "Fantasia 2000", on DVD with 5.1 surround sound. The films were issued both separately and in a three-disc set called "The Fantasia Anthology". A variety of bonus features were included in the bonus disc, "The Fantasia Legacy". This edition attempted to follow as closely as possible the runtime and format of the original roadshow version, and included additional restored live action footage of Taylor and the orchestra, including the bookends to the film's intermission. Since the 2000 release, Taylor's voice was re-recorded throughout by Corey Burton because most of the audio tracks to Taylor's restored scenes had deteriorated to the point that they could no longer be used.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: Both films were reissued again by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment in November 2010 separately, as a two-disc DVD/Blu-ray set and a combined DVD and Blu-ray four-disc set (named the "Fantasia 2 Movie Collection") that featured 1080p high-definition video and 7.1 surround sound. The 2010 version of "Fantasia" featured a new restoration by Reliance MediaWorks and a new sound restoration, but was editorially identical to the 2000 version. This also marked the first time the roadshow version was released in Europe. "Fantasia" was withdrawn from release and returned to the "Disney Vault" moratorium on April 30, 2011.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: In 2021, both films, along with the 2018 compilation "Celebrating Mickey", a collection of 13 Mickey Mouse shorts, were reissued on DVD, Blu-ray, and digitally as part of the U.S. Disney Movie Club exclusive "The Best of Mickey Collection". They were also released for the first time on multiple U.S. purchased streaming platforms, including Movies Anywhere and its retailers.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: "Fantasia" garnered significant critical acclaim at the time of release and was seen by some critics as a masterpiece. The West Coast premiere at the Carthay Circle Theatre was a grand affair, attracting some 5000 people, including Shirley Temple, Cecil B. DeMille, Forrest Tucker, James Cagney, Robert Montgomery, James Murphy, Edgar Bergen, and many other notables in the film industry. Among those at the film's premiere was film critic Edwin Schallert of the "Los Angeles Times" who considered the film to be a magnificent achievement in film which would go down in cinematic history as a landmark film, noting the rapturous applause the film received by the audience during the various interludes. He stated that "Fantasia" was "caviar to the general, ambrosia and nectar for the intelligentsia" and considered the film to be "courageous beyond belief". Music critic of the newspaper, Isabel Morse Jones, was highly praising of the soundtrack to the film, believing it to be a "dream of a symphony concert", an "enormously varied concert of pictorial ideas, of abstract music by acknowledged composers, of performers Leopold Stokowski and orchestra players of Hollywood and Philadelphia, and, for the vast majority, new and wonderful sound effects". Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times", also at the premiere, noted that "motion-picture history was made last night ... "Fantasia" dumps conventional formulas overboard and reveals the scope of films for imaginative excursion ... "Fantasia" ... is simply terrific." Peyton Boswell, an editor at "Art Digest", called it "an aesthetic experience never to be forgotten". "Time" magazine described the premiere as "stranger and more wonderful than any of Hollywood's" and the experience of Fantasound "as if the hearer were in the midst of the music. As the music sweeps to a climax, it froths over the proscenium arch, boils into the rear of the theatre, all but prances up and down the aisles." "Dance Magazine" devoted its lead story to the film, saying that "the most extraordinary thing about "Fantasia" is, to a dancer or balletomane, not the miraculous musical recording, the range of color, or the fountainous integrity of the Disney collaborators, but quite simply the perfection of its dancing". "Variety" also hailed "Fantasia", calling it "a successful experiment to lift the relationship from the plane of popular, mass entertainment to the higher strata of appeal to lovers of classical music". The "Chicago Tribune" assigned three writers to cover the film's Chicago premiere: society columnist Harriet Pribble; film critic Mae Tinee; and music critic Edward Barry. Pribble left amazed at the "brilliantly-attired audience", while Tinee felt the film was "beautiful ... but it is also bewildering. It is stupendous. It is colossal. It is an overwhelmingly ambitious orgy of color, sound, and imagination." Barry was pleased with the "program of good music well performed ... and beautifully recorded" and felt "pleasantly distracted" from the music to what was shown on the screen. In a breakdown of reviews from both film and music critics, Disney author Paul Anderson found 33% to be "very positive", 22% both "positive" and "positive and negative", and 11% negative.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: Those who adopted a more negative view at the time of the film's release came mostly from the classical music community. Many found fault with Stokowski's rearrangements and abridgements of the music. Igor Stravinsky, the only living composer whose music was featured in the film, expressed displeasure at how in Stokowski's arrangement of "The Rite of Spring", "the order of the pieces had been shuffled, and the most difficult of them eliminated", and criticized the orchestra's performance, observing that the simplification of the score "did not save the musical performance, which was execrable". Other composers and music critics leveled criticism at the premise of the film itself, arguing that presenting classical music with visual images would rob the musical pieces of their integrity. Composer and music critic Virgil Thomson praised Fantasound which he thought offered "good transmission of music", but disliked the "musical taste" of Stokowski, with exception to "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and "The Rite of Spring". Olin Downes of "The New York Times" too hailed the quality of sound that Fantasound presented, but said, "much of "Fantasia" distracted from or directly injured the scores". Film critic Pauline Kael dismissed parts of "Fantasia" as "grotesquely kitschy". Some parents resisted paying the higher roadshow prices for their children, and several complained that the "Night on Bald Mountain" segment had frightened them. There were also a few negative reactions that were more political in nature, especially since the film's release happened at a time when Nazi Germany reigned supreme in Europe. One review of the film in this manner, written by Dorothy Thompson for "The New York Herald Tribune" on November 25, 1940, was especially harsh. Thompson claimed that she "left the theater in a condition bordering on nervous breakdown", because the film was a "remarkable nightmare". Thompson went on to compare the film to rampant Nazism, which she described as "the abuse of power" and "the perverted betrayal of the best instincts". Thompson also claimed that the film depicted nature as being "titanic" while man was only "a moving lichen on the stone of time". She concluded that the film was "cruel", "brutal and brutalizing", and a negative "caricature of the Decline of the West". In fact, Thompson claimed that she was so distraught by the film that she even walked out of it before she saw the two last segments, "Night on Bald Mountain" and "Ave Maria", because she did not want to be subject to any more of the film's "brutalization".


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: "TV Guide" awarded the film four stars, calling it "the most ambitious animated feature ever to come out of the Disney studios", noting how the film "integrates famous works of classical music with wildly uneven but extraordinarily imaginative visuals that run the gamut from dancing hippos to the purely abstract". Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" rated the film four stars out of four, and noted that throughout "Fantasia", "Disney pushes the edges of the envelope". However, "Empire" magazine only rated it 2 stars out of 5 (poor), concluding "this is a very patchy affair - while some of the animated pieces work, others come across as downright insane". Remarks have also been made about "Fantasia" not being a children's film. Religion writer Mark I. Pinsky considers "Fantasia" to be one of the more problematic of Disney's animated features in that it was intended as much as for adults as children and not what people had come to expect.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: "Fantasia" was ranked fifth at the 1940 National Board of Review Awards in the category. Disney and Stokowski won a Special Award for the film at the 1940 New York Film Critics Circle Awards. "Fantasia" was the subject of two Academy Honorary Awards on February 26, 1942—one for Disney, William Garity, John N. A. Hawkins, and the RCA Manufacturing Company for their "outstanding contribution to the advancement of the use of sound in motion pictures through the production of "Fantasia"", and the other to Stokowski "and his associates for their unique achievement in the creation of a new form of visualized music in Walt Disney's production "Fantasia", thereby widening the scope of the motion picture as entertainment and as an art form".


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: In 1990, "Fantasia" was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". On the 100th anniversary of cinema in 1995, the Vatican included "Fantasia" in its list of 45 "great films" made under the Art category; the others being Religion and Values. "Fantasia" is featured in three lists that rank the greatest American films as determined by the American Film Institute. The film ranked number 58 in 100 Years... 100 Movies in 1998, before it was dropped from its ranking in the 10th Anniversary revision in 2007, though it was nominated for inclusion. The 10 Top 10 list formed in 2008 placed "Fantasia" fifth under Animation.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: In April 1942, the Irish Film Censor insisted the film cut Taylor's scientific introduction to "The Rite of Spring" due to its "materialistic portrayal of the origins of life".


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: In the late 1960s, four shots from "The Pastoral Symphony" were removed that depicted two characters in a racially stereotyped manner. A black centaurette called Sunflower was depicted polishing the hooves of a white centaurette, and a second named Otika appeared briefly during the procession scenes with Bacchus and his followers. According to Disney archivist David Smith, the sequence was aired uncut on television in 1963 before the edits were made for the film's 1969 theatrical reissue. John Carnochan, the editor responsible for the change in the 1991 video release, said: "It's sort of appalling to me that these stereotypes were ever put in". Film critic Roger Ebert commented on the edit: "While the original film should, of course, be preserved for historical purposes, there is no need for the general release version to perpetrate racist stereotypes in a film designed primarily for children." The edits have been in place in all subsequent theatrical and home video reissues.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: In May 1992, the Philadelphia Orchestra Association filed a lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company and Buena Vista Home Video. The orchestra maintained that as a co-creator of "Fantasia", the group was entitled to half of the estimated $120 million in profits from video and laser disc sales. The orchestra dropped its case in 1994 when the two parties reached an undisclosed settlement out of court. British music publisher Boosey & Hawkes filed a further lawsuit in 1993, contending that Disney did not have the rights to distribute "The Rite of Spring" in the 1991 video releases because the permission granted to Disney by Stravinsky in 1940 was only in the context of a film to be shown in theaters. A federal district court backed Boosey & Hawkes's case in 1996, but the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the ruling in 1998, stating that Disney's original "license for motion picture rights extends to video format distribution".


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: Disney had wanted "Fantasia" to be an ongoing project, with a new edition being released every few years. His plan was to replace one of the original segments with a new one as it was completed, so audiences would always see a new version of the film. From January to August 1941, story material was developed based on additional musical works, including "Ride of the Valkyries" by Richard Wagner, "The Swan of Tuonela" by Jean Sibelius, "Invitation to the Dance" by Carl Maria von Weber, the Polka and Fugue from "Schwanda the Bagpiper" by Jaromír Weinberger, a "baby ballet" set to "Berceuse" by Frédéric Chopin and a "bug ballet" set to "Flight of the Bumblebee" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, which was later adapted into the "Bumble Boogie" segment in "Melody Time" (1948). The film's disappointing initial box office performance and the USA's entry into World War II brought an end to these plans. Deems Taylor prepared introductions for "The Firebird" by Stravinsky, "La Mer" by Claude Debussy, "Adventures in a Perambulator" by John Alden Carpenter, "Don Quixote" by Richard Strauss, and "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Mussorgsky "to have them for the future in case we decided to make any one of them".


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: Another segment, Debussy's "Clair de lune", was developed as part of the film's original program. After being completely animated, it was cut out of the final film to shorten its lengthy running time. The animation depicted two Great white herons flying through the Florida Everglades on a moonlit night, with more focus towards the segment's background art than story and animation. The sequence was later edited and re-scored for the "Blue Bayou" segment in "Make Mine Music" (1946). In 1992, a workprint of the original was discovered and "Clair de Lune" was restored, complete with the original soundtrack of Stokowski with the Philadelphia Orchestra. It was included as a bonus feature in "The Fantasia Anthology" DVD in 2000.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: "Destino", a collaboration between Walt Disney and surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, was also considered for inclusion as a future "Fantasia" segment, but was shelved until it was re-discovered during production of "Fantasia 2000".


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: In 1980, the "Los Angeles Times" reported that Wolfgang Reitherman and Mel Shaw had begun work on "Musicana", "an ambitious concept mixing jazz, classical music, myths, modern art and more, following the old "Fantasia" format". Animation historian Charles Solomon wrote that development took place between 1982 and 1983, which combined "ethnic tales from around the world with the music of the various countries". Proposed segments for the film included a battle between an ice god and a sun goddess set to "Finlandia" by Sibelius, one set in the Andes to the songs of Yma Sumac, another featuring caricatures of Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald and an adaptation of The Emperor's Nightingale which would have featured Mickey as the nightingale's owner, similar to his role in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". The project was shelved in favor of "Mickey's Christmas Carol", though the artwork made for The Emperor's Nightingale would later be used for a book adaptation by Teddy Slater in 1992.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: Roy E. Disney, the nephew of Walt, co-produced "Fantasia 2000" which entered production in 1990 and features seven new segments performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with conductor James Levine. "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" is the only segment retained from the original film. "Fantasia 2000" premiered at Carnegie Hall on December 17, 1999 as part of a five-city live concert tour, followed by a four-month engagement in IMAX cinemas and a wide release in regular theatres, in 2000.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: Early development for a third film began in 2002, with a working title of "Fantasia 2006". The proposed segments included "The Little Matchgirl" by Roger Allers, "One by One" by Pixote Hunt, "Lorenzo" by Mike Gabriel, and "Destino" by Dominique Monféry. The project was shelved in 2004, with the proposed segments released as individual short films.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: On October 25, 2019, it was announced that Disney is developing a project based on "Fantasia" for its streaming service, Disney+.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: "Fantasia" is parodied in "A Corny Concerto", a Warner Bros. cartoon from 1943 of the "Merrie Melodies" series directed by Bob Clampett. The short features Elmer Fudd in the role of Taylor, wearing his styled glasses, who introduces two segments set to pieces by Johann Strauss ("Tales from the Vienna Woods" and the "Blue Danube Waltz", the former featuring Porky and Bugs and the latter featuring Daffy). In 1976, Italian animator Bruno Bozzetto produced "Allegro Non Troppo", a feature-length parody of "Fantasia".


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: The animated television series "The Simpsons" references "Fantasia" in a few episodes. Matt Groening, the creator of the series, expressed a wish to make a parody film named "Simpstasia"; it was never produced, partly because it would have been too difficult to write a feature-length script. In "Treehouse of Horror IV", director David Silverman had admired the animation in "Night on Bald Mountain", and made the first appearance of Devil Flanders resemble Chernabog. The episode "Itchy & Scratchy Land" references "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" in a snippet titled "Scratchtasia", which features the music and several shots parodying it exactly.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: In 2014, BBC Music created a music education scheme similar to "Fantasia" called "Ten Pieces", intended to introduce children to classical music. Spanning two films (in 2014 and 2015), several pieces featured in the "Fantasia" films are also included.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: The 2018 film "Teen Titans Go! To the Movies" references "Fantasia" during the musical sequence "My Superhero Movie".


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: From 2001 to 2015, the Sorcerer's Hat was the icon of Disney's Hollywood Studios, one of the four theme parks located at Walt Disney World Resort. The structure was of the magic hat from "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". Also located at the resort is Fantasia Gardens, a miniature golf course that integrates characters and objects from the film in each hole. The fireworks and water show "Fantasmic!" features scenes from "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and other "Fantasia" segments on water projection screens, and involves the plot of Mickey as the apprentice doing magic whilst also battling the Disney Villains.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: For the 20th anniversary of Disneyland Paris, Mickey was depicted in a special version of his Sorcerer's Apprentice outfit with his friends wearing similar outfits. The "Night on Bald Mountain" segment is featured in the Storybook Land Canal Boats attraction at Disneyland Park in Paris.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: In 1983, Atari released a game called "Sorcerer's Apprentice" for the Atari 2600, based on that segment of "Fantasia". The player, as Mickey Mouse, must collect falling stars and comets which will prevent the marching brooms from flooding Yen Sid's cavern.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: In 1991, a side-scrolling "Fantasia" video game developed by Infogrames was released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis system. The player controls Mickey Mouse, who must find missing musical notes scattered across four elemental worlds based upon the film's segments.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: There are several film reel levels based on some of the movie's segments such as "Sorcerer's Apprentice" and "Night on Bald Mountain" that appear in the "Epic Mickey" games. Yen Sid and Chernabog also make cameo appearances in the games (Yen Sid the sorcerer from "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" narrates the openings and endings of the two games and served as the creator of the Wasteland. Chernabog the demon from the "Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria" segment appears as a painting in the first game and appears in the Night on Bald Mountain film reel levels in the second).


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: The Disney/Square Enix crossover game series "Kingdom Hearts" features Chernabog as a boss in the first installment. The "Night on Bald Mountain" piece is played during the fight. Yen Sid appears frequently in the series beginning with "Kingdom Hearts II", voiced in English by Corey Burton. Symphony of Sorcery, a world based on the movie, appears in "". Like the Timeless River world in "Kingdom Hearts II", it is featured as a period of Mickey Mouse's past.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: "", a music game, was developed by Harmonix in association with Disney Interactive for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles. The game utilizes the Kinect device to put players in control of music in a manner similar to Harmonix' previous rhythm games, affecting the virtual environment and interactive objects within it. The game features licensed contemporary rock music such as Queen and Bruno Mars.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: A live concert presentation of the film named "Disney Fantasia: Live in Concert", showcases various segments from both "Fantasia" and "Fantasia 2000". The concert version features a live symphony orchestra and piano soloist accompanying projected high definition video segments. The "Fantasia" concert was still touring throughout the world as late as 2022.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: Several elements from the film appear in television series "Once Upon a Time". The hat from "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" appears in the fourth season episode "A Tale of Two Sisters". As the series progressed, the hat was shown to have the ability to absorb others, and those it absorbed would appear as a star on the hat. The Sorcerer's Apprentice himself makes an appearance, where he is an old man who guards the hat in the Enchanted Forest.


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: Chernabog from "Night On Bald Mountain" also makes an appearance in the episode "Darkness on the Edge of Town".


title: Fantasia (1940 film)

text: Musical score conducted by Leopold Stokowski. Performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, except as noted.


title: Kapil Dev

text: Kapil Dev Ramlal Nikhanj (Pronunciation: ]; born 6 January 1959) is an Indian former cricketer. He was a fast-medium bowler and a hard-hitting middle-order batsman, and was named by "Wisden" as the Indian Cricketer of the Century in 2002.


title: Kapil Dev

text: Dev captained the Indian cricket team that won the 1983 Cricket World Cup, and in the process became the first Indian captain to win the Cricket World Cup, and is still the youngest captain (at the age of 24) to win the World Cup for any team. He retired in 1994, at the times of holding the world record for the highest number of wickets taken in Test cricket, a record subsequently broken by Courtney Walsh in 2000. At the time, he was also India's highest wicket-taker in both major forms of cricket, Tests and ODIs. He is the first player to take 200 ODI wickets. He is the only player in the history of cricket to have taken more than 400 wickets (434 wickets) and scored more than 5,000 runs in Tests, making him one of the greatest all-rounders in the history of cricket. Dev's all-round performance has been praised by cricketers including Sunil Gavaskar who regards him as one of the greatest all-rounders to play the game. He was the coach of the Indian national team between September 1999 and September 2000. On 11 March 2010, Dev was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. In 1982 awarded with the Padma Shri and in 1991 the Padma Bhushan.


title: Kapil Dev

text: Kapildev Ramlal Nikhanj was born to Ram Lal Nikhanj, a teak merchant and his wife, Rajkumari in Chandigarh on 6 January 1959. His family moved to Fazilka after the Partition before eventually moving to Chandigarh. His paternal family is from Montgomery (now known as Sahiwal) and his mother was born in Pakpattan, Okara. Dev was a student at D.A.V. School.


title: Kapil Dev

text: Kapil Dev made an impressive debut for Haryana in November 1975 against Punjab with a 6-wicket haul, restricting Punjab to just 63 runs and helping Haryana to victory. He finished the season with 121 wickets in 30 matches.


title: Kapil Dev

text: In the 1976–77 season opener against Jammu & Kashmir, he had a match haul of 8/36 in the win. While his contribution for the rest of that season was ordinary, Haryana qualified for the pre-quarterfinals. Dev achieved his then best innings haul of 8/20 in just 9 overs in the second innings to skittle Bengal for 58 runs in under 19 overs. Haryana lost to Bombay in the quarter-finals.


title: Kapil Dev

text: He began his 1977–78 season claiming 8/38 in the first innings against Services. With 3 wickets in the second innings, he took his maiden 10-wicket haul in first-class cricket, a feat he would later achieve twice in Test cricket. With 23 wickets in 4 matches, he was selected for the Irani Trophy, Duleep Trophy and Wills Trophy matches.


title: Kapil Dev

text: In the 1978–79 season, Haryana had a repeat encounter with Bengal in the pre-quarterfinal match after a lackluster season from Dev (12 wickets from 4 matches). He scored 2 half-centuries in the group stage matches. In the pre-quarterfinal match, he took a 5-wicket haul in the first innings. Poor batting by Haryana in the second innings let Bengal avenge their loss from 2 seasons back by scoring the required 161 runs for the loss of just 4 wickets. Dev stood out in the Irani Trophy match, scoring 62 runs and coming in at number 8. He took 5 catches in the game where Karnataka was defeated by the Rest of India XI. Dev arrived in the national spotlight with a standout performance in the finals of the Duleep Trophy, taking a first-innings haul of 7/65 in 24 overs. He was included in the North Zone squad for Deodhar Trophy and Wills Trophy for the first time. He played his first Test match in the season against Pakistan.


title: Kapil Dev

text: In the 1979–80 season, Dev showed his batting talent with a maiden century against Delhi when he scored his career-best 193. In the pre-quarterfinal match, where he captained Haryana for the first time against Uttar Pradesh, he took a five-wicket haul in the second innings to advance to quarterfinals, where they lost to Karnataka. With Dev cementing his place in the Indian national squad, his appearances in domestic matches dwindled.


title: Kapil Dev

text: In the 1990–91 Ranji season, Haryana rode into the semi-finals on the back of the bowling performance of Chetan Sharma and the batting performance of Amarjit Kaypee. Dev took center stage in the semi-final against Bengal, where he led his team to a Mammoth score of 605 runs by scoring 141 as well as taking 5 wickets.


title: Kapil Dev

text: The finals of the 1991 season will be remembered for the number of international cricketers who participated, including Kapil Dev, Chetan Sharma, Ajay Jadeja and Vijay Yadav turning up for Haryana and Bombay cricket team represented by Sanjay Manjrekar, Vinod Kambli, Sachin Tendulkar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Chandrakant Pandit, Salil Ankola and Abey Kuruvilla. Deepak Sharma (199), Ajay Jadeja (94), and Chetan Sharma (98) helped Haryana to a score of 522 while Yogendra Bhandari (5 wickets) and Dev (3 wickets) restricted Bombay to 410 runs in the first innings. A crucial 41 from Dev and top scorer Banerjee (60) took Haryana to 242 runs, setting Bombay a target of 355 runs. After the initial wickets, Vengsarkar (139) and Tendulkar (96) fought back for the Bombay team. After Tendulkar's dismissal, Haryana took the final 6 wickets for 102 runs and Vengsarkar and Bombay were stranded 3 runs short of the target. Dev won his maiden and only Ranji Trophy championship.


title: Kapil Dev

text: Kapil Dev played county cricket in England Northamptonshire between 1981 and 1983 and for Worcestershire during the 1984 and 1985 seasons. He played a total of 40 first-class matches in his county stint, and made 2,312 runs across 64 innings with four centuries and 14 half-centuries. Out of his 835 overall first-class wickets, 103 of those wickets came in county cricket.


title: Kapil Dev

text: Dev made his Test cricket debut in Faisalabad, Pakistan on 16 October 1978. Although his match figures were unimpressive, the numbers did not convey any measure of his contribution. He startled the Pakistani batsmen with his pace and bouncers that struck their helmets on more than one occasion. Dev captured his maiden wicket of Sadiq Mohammad with his trademark outswinger. He showcased his all-rounder talent when he scored India's fastest Test half-century off 33 balls and 2 sixes in each of the innings during the 3rd Test match at National Stadium, Karachi, although India lost the match and the series 2–0. In the ensuing series against a visiting West Indies team, he scored his maiden Test century (126) at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi in just 124 balls and had a steady bowling performance (17 wickets at 33.00). Ominous signs of Dev's liking for England showed up in the ensuring series, his first outside the sub-continent. He picked up his first 5-wicket haul and all of England's wickets, although it came at a huge cost (48 overs and 146 runs conceded) as England scored a mammoth 633 and won the match comfortably. Dev finished the series with 16 wickets though his batting haul of 45 runs (Average: 7.5) was unimpressive. His debut in ODI Cricket happened in the earlier tour of Pakistan where his individual performance was ordinary and it stayed the same as both Dev and India had a poor campaign at the 1979 Cricket World Cup.


title: Kapil Dev

text: Dev established himself as India's premier fast bowler when he took two 5-wicket hauls and ended the home series against Australia with 28 wickets (Average: 22.32) and also 212 runs that included a half-century. He gained fame in the 6-Test home series against Pakistan in the 1979–80 season when he led India to 2 victories against the visitors – once with the bat (69) at Wankhede Stadium, Bombay and the second time with bat and ball (10-wicket haul in match – 4/90 in the first innings and 7/56 in the second innings, 84 in 98 balls with his bat) at Chepauk, Madras (Now Chennai). Dev rates his all-round performance in this match as his career best and his second innings figure of 7/56 was his best to-date. During the series, he also became the youngest Test player to achieve the all-round double of 100 Wickets and 1000 Runs and in 25 matches (although Ian Botham took just 21 matches to achieve the same feat) and finished the series with 32 wickets (Ave: 17.68) and 278 runs that included 2 fifties.


title: Kapil Dev

text: India's tour of Australia in 1980–81 had the looks of the familiar Indian series as India were 1–0 down and were defending a meagre 143 runs and Dev virtually ruled out with a groin injury. When Australia finished the fourth day at 18/3, Dev willed himself to play the final day with pain-killing injections and removed the dangerous Australia middle order. Dev won the match for India with the innings bowling performance of 16.4–4–28–5, a bowling performance that figures in his five best bowling performance. During the Australian tour, he scored his first fifty in ODIs against New Zealand at Brisbane. Somehow India's Test cricket sensation was unable to adjust to ODI cricket and had a career start of 278 runs (Average: 17.38) and 17 wickets after 16 ODI matches.


title: Kapil Dev

text: A dismal New Zealand tour later, Dev was ready for the 1981–82 home series against England where his five-wicket haul won the first test at Wankhede Stadium, Bombay. He scored 318 runs (Average: 53, 1 century, 1 fifty) and took 22 wickets (2 5-wicket hauls) and walked away with the Man of the Series honours. England saw more of Dev in the ensuing series at home against the Indian cricket team in the 1982 season when he opened with a 5-wicket haul and 130 runs in a losing cause at Lord's. He finished the 3-match series with 292 runs (Ave: 73, 3 fifties) and 10 Wickets and bagged the Man of the Series again.


title: Kapil Dev

text: Facing Sri Lanka for the first time, Dev helped himself to a five-wicket haul to kick start the 1982–83 season. In the following tour to Pakistan, Dev and Mohinder Amarnath were the only bright spots in a series dominated by rival all-rounder Imran Khan (40 wickets and 1 century). Dev took a 5/102 haul in the second Test at National Stadium, Karachi, 7/220 in the third Test at Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad and 8/85 at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore while he received little support from other team members. After this disastrous tour, Dev was made the captain of the Indian cricket team in place of Sunil Gavaskar.


title: Kapil Dev

text: Dev debuted as India's captain in the 1982–83 season against Sri Lanka (before the Pakistan tour) when Gavaskar was rested. His first assignment as regular captain was the tour of West Indies, where the biggest accomplishment was a lone ODI victory. Dev (72) and Gavaskar (90) led India to a huge score – 282/5 in 47 overs and Dev's 2 wickets aided India to restrict West Indies for 255 and a victory that Indian cricketers claim gave them the confidence to face the West Indies team in 1983 Cricket World Cup. Overall, Dev had a good series in West Indies as he scored a century to save the second test match as well as picking up 17 wickets (Average: 24.94).


title: Kapil Dev

text: Dev entered the World Cup with an ordinary individual record – 32 Matches, 608 Runs (Average: 21), 34 wickets. India's solitary victory in the previous two World Cups was against East Africa in 1975. Riding on Yashpal Sharma (89 Runs), Roger Binny and Ravi Shastri (3 wickets each), India inflicted the West Indies' first-ever defeat in the World Cup. Following a victory against Zimbabwe, India lost the next two matches – Australia (despite Dev's best career figures of 5/43) and West Indies. India now needed victories against Australia and Zimbabwe to advance to the semifinals.


title: Kapil Dev

text: India faced Zimbabwe at Nevill Ground, Royal Tunbridge Wells on 18 June 1983. After falling behind, Dev, batting with the lower order batsmen, stabilised the side with help from Roger Binny (22 runs) and Madan Lal. Dev scored his century off 72 balls. Together with Kirmani (24 runs), Dev put on an unbeaten 126 runs for the 9th wicket – a world record that stood unbroken for 27 years (10,000 days), and finished not out with 175 runs off 138 balls, an innings that included 16 boundaries and 6 sixes. The innings figures in the Top 10 ODI Batting Performances at No. 4. India won the match by 31 runs.


title: Kapil Dev

text: India faced the English cricket team in the semifinals. Dev helped curtail the lower order after England lost regular wickets to Binny and Amarnath. He took 3 wickets as India limited England to 213 and the middle order of Amarnath (46 runs), Yashpal Sharma (61) and Sandeep Patil (51*) ensured victory and entry into the finals to take on the West Indies cricket team who were looking for a hat-trick of World Cup titles. West Indies restricted India for 183 runs, with only Krishnamachari Srikkanth (38 runs) providing some scoring relief. Despite losing Gordon Greenidge, West Indies steadied their innings to 57/2 on the back of quick scoring by Viv Richards. Richards played one too many aggressive shots when he skied a pull shot from Madan Lal that Dev caught at deep square leg after running backward for over 20 yards. The catch is attributed as the turning point in the 1983 WC Final and is regarded as one of the finest in ODI Cricket. West Indies collapsed from 50/1 to 76/6 and finally were bowled out for 140 with Dev picking up the wicket of Andy Roberts and Mohinder Amarnath picking up the final wicket of Michael Holding. The win was India's maiden World Cup and he led with 303 runs (Average: 60.6), 12 wickets (Average: 20.41) and 7 catches in 8 matches.


title: Kapil Dev

text: After the World Cup, India hosted the West Indies cricket team and lost the Test series 3–0 and the ODI Series 5–0. Dev achieved his best test bowling performance in a loss at Motera Stadium, Ahmedabad with a return of 9/83. His bowling performance in the test and ODI series was let down by his poor batting performance. The selectors ended Dev's reign by reappointing Gavaskar as captain in early 1984.


title: Kapil Dev

text: Dev was reappointed captain in March 1985 and guided India on a Test series win over England in 1986. This period saw one of his most famous matches, the second Tied Test, in which he was named joint-man of the match with Australian batsman Dean Jones.


title: Kapil Dev

text: He was retained as captain for the 1987 Cricket World Cup. In their first match, Australia scored 268 against India. However, after the close of innings, Dev agreed with the umpires that the score should be increased to 270 as one boundary during the innings had been mistakenly signalled as a four and not a six. In their reply, India scored 269 falling short of Australia's score by one run. In the Wisden Cricketer's Almanack, it was reported that ""Kapil Dev's sportsmanship proved the deciding factor in a close-run match"". India went on to reach the semi-final of the 1987 World Cup, where they lost to England. Dev faced the blame for India's defeat as he holed out to deep mid-wicket triggering a collapse that led to the unexpected loss. He did not captain India again, although he was the Vice-captain for India's tour to Pakistan in 1989.


title: Kapil Dev

text: The captaincy period was on the whole a difficult one for him as it was mired with reports of differences with Gavaskar, as well as his own inconsistent form as a bowler. However, both men later insisted that these reports were exaggerated. Dev's performance as Captain was better than as a player.


title: Kapil Dev

text: Dev was a right-arm pace bowler noted for his graceful action and potent outswinger, and was India's main strike bowler for most of his career. He developed a fine inswinging yorker during the 1980s, which he used very effectively against tail-enders. As a batsman, he was a natural striker of the ball who could hook and drive effectively. A naturally aggressive player, he often helped India in difficult situations by taking the attack to the opposition. Nicknamed "The Haryana Hurricane", he represented the Haryana cricket team in domestic cricket.


title: Kapil Dev

text: Dev was a fast bowler. However, a fluent run-up and a gather that was perfectly side-on at the time of delivery meant that the outswinger came naturally to him. Usually bowled at a length and direction that always troubled right-handers, his delivery was the bane of most of his victims as he sought to beat the bat on the outside edge, either caught on the off-side cordon or indeed LBW and bowled in case the ball missed the edge. The side-on action meant that, for the first few years, this was the only delivery he could bowl. The deliveries that held their lines or came into the right-hander came through natural variations off the pitch. However, as he gained maturity, the action became less side-on and he developed an inswinger too. He noted in the mid-1980s that the only delivery he could not bowl at will was the leg-cutter.


title: Kapil Dev

text: By the end of 1983, Dev already had about 250 Test wickets in just five years and looked well on his way to becoming one of the most prolific wicket-takers ever. However, his bowling declined following knee surgery in 1984, as he lost some of his jump at the crease. Despite this setback, he never missed playing a single test or one-day game on fitness grounds. Though he lost some of his bite, he remained an effective bowler for another ten years and became the second bowler ever to take 400 wickets in Test cricket in 1991–92 when he took Mark Taylor's wicket in a series versus Australia in Australia. In that Australian tour he took 25 wickets.


title: Kapil Dev

text: Dev continued as India's lead pace bowler under a succession of captains in the early 1990s. He was involved in a notable incident during the Lord's Test Match of 1990, when he hit off-spinner Eddie Hemmings for four sixes in succession to take India past the follow-on target. This match featured the highest test score by an Englishman against India, 333 by Graham Gooch. Dev was cited by umpire Dickie Bird as being one of the greatest all-rounders of all-time.


title: Kapil Dev

text: He became a valuable batsman in the ODI version of the game, as a pinch-hitter used to accelerate the run-scoring rate, usually in the final ten overs, and was relied upon to stabilize the innings in the event of a collapse. He played in the 1992 Cricket World Cup, his last, under the captaincy of Mohammad Azharuddin and topped the batting strike rate with 125.80 runs per 100 balls. He led the bowling attack with younger talents like Javagal Srinath and Manoj Prabhakar, who would eventually succeed him as India's leading pace bowlers. He retired in 1994, after breaking Richard Hadlee's then standing record for the most Test wickets taken.


title: Kapil Dev

text: Kapil Dev was appointed coach of the Indian national cricket team in 1999, succeeding Anshuman Gaekwad. In his term, India won just one test match (at home against New Zealand) and had two major series losses in Australia (3–0) and at home against South Africa (2–0) and in general his term was considered a disappointment. At the height of the match fixing allegation by Manoj Prabhakar, a charge that was dismissed later, Dev resigned from his position as national coach. Stung by the betting controversy, he announced his farewell stating that "I bid adieu to the game that gave me so much and then took a great deal of it away on the mere hearsay of a third party". After a brief interval, he was succeeded as coach by former New Zealand batsman John Wright, who became India's first foreign coach.


title: Kapil Dev

text: After a period of silence away from the public eye, Dev returned to cricket when "Wisden" announced him as one of the sixteen finalists for the "Wisden" Indian Cricketer of the Century award in July 2002. Dev pipped longtime teammate Gavaskar and crowd favourite Tendulkar to win the award and claimed the moment as "my finest hour".


title: Kapil Dev

text: Dev slowly returned to cricket as a bowling consultant and was the bowling coach in the preparatory camp prior to India's tour of Pakistan in March 2004. In October 2006, he was nominated as the chairman of National Cricket Academy for a two-year period.


title: Kapil Dev

text: In 2005, he acted in a brief role in the cult film "Iqbal" written by Vipul K. Rawal where he played himself. Initially the director was not keen on approaching him; however, writer Rawal insisted as the role was written with him in mind.


title: Kapil Dev

text: In May 2007, Dev joined the upstart Indian Cricket League (ICL) floated by Zee TV as the chairman of executive board, defending his decision as complimenting BCCI's structure rather than opposing it – "We are not looking to create a rival team but helping the Indian board to find more talent". In June 2007, BCCI responded by revoking the pension for all players who had joined ICL, including Dev. On 21 August 2007, Dev was removed from the chairmanship of the National Cricket Academy, a day after he addressed a formal press conference of the new Indian Cricket League.


title: Kapil Dev

text: On 25 July 2012 Dev resigned from ICL and continued to support BCCI, thereby paving way to get back into the BCCI fold.


title: Kapil Dev

text: On 24 September 2008, Dev joined the Indian Territorial Army and was commissioned as a Lieutenant Colonel by General Deepak Kapoor, Chief of the Army Staff. He joined as an honorary officer.


title: Kapil Dev

text: He was appointed as first chancellor of the Sports University of Haryana in 2019. The university is situated in India's Haryana state which he represented in domestic cricket.


title: Kapil Dev

text: In 1993, Dev took up golf. Dev was the only Asian founding member of Laureus Foundation in 2000. Ian Botham and Viv Richards were the other two cricketers on the founding member council of 40. Steve Waugh was added to the Academy members in 2006 when it was expanded from 40 to 42. He pledged his organs during an event organised by Delhi Urological Society on 31 January 2014 at the Airport Authority of India, Officers Club, New Delhi.


title: Kapil Dev

text: On 23 October 2020, Dev suffered a heart attack and was hospitalised. He underwent an emergency coronary angioplasty at a hospital in Delhi.


title: Kapil Dev

text: He has written four books – three autobiographical and one book on Sikhism. Autobiographical works include — "By God's Decree" which came out in 1985, "Cricket My Style" in 1987, and "Straight from the Heart" in 2004. His latest book titled "We, The Sikhs" was released in 2019.


title: Kapil Dev

text: Dev made cameo appearances in the films "Dillagi... Yeh Dillagi", "Iqbal", "Chain Khuli ki Main Khuli" and "Mujhse Shaadi Karogi" among others. He has also released a song "One India My India" with Shailendra Singh.


title: Kapil Dev

text: The 2016 Indian film "Azhar", directed by Tony D'Souza, revolves around Match fixing scandals in late 90s and 2000. In the film Dev's character was played by Varun Badola. Indian filmmaker Kabir Khan directed a biopic film, titled "83", about India's first world cup win in 1983. The film features Ranveer Singh as Dev and is produced by Anurag Kashyap and Kapil Dev has a cameo as a spectator.


title: Rapping

text: Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The components of rap include "content" (what is being said), "flow" (rhythm, rhyme), and "delivery" (cadence, tone). Rap differs from spoken-word poetry in that it is usually performed off-time to musical accompaniment. Rap is a primary ingredient of hip hop music commonly associated with that genre; however, the origins of rap predate hip-hop culture by many years.


title: Rapping

text: Precursors to modern rap include the West African griot tradition, Cockney rhyming slang, certain vocal styles of blues, jazz, 1960s African-American poetry and "Sprechgesang". The use of rap in popular music originated in the Bronx, New York City in the 1970s, alongside the hip hop genre and cultural movement. Rapping developed from the role of master of ceremonies (MC) at parties within the scene, who would encourage and entertain guests between DJ sets, which evolved into longer performances.


title: Rapping

text: Rap is usually delivered over a beat, typically provided by a DJ, turntablist, beatboxer, or performed a cappella without accompaniment. Stylistically, rap occupies a gray area between speech, prose, poetry, and singing. The word, which predates the musical form, originally meant "to lightly strike", and is now used to describe quick speech or repartee. The word had been used in British English since the 16th century. It was part of the African American dialect of English in the 1960s meaning "to converse", and very soon after that came to denote the musical style. The word "rap" is so closely associated with hip-hop music that many writers use the terms interchangeably.


title: Rapping

text: The English verb "rap" has various meanings; these include "to strike, especially with a quick, smart, or light blow", as well "to utter sharply or vigorously: to rap out a command". The "Shorter Oxford English Dictionary" gives a date of 1541 for the first recorded use of the word with the meaning "to utter (esp. an oath) sharply, vigorously, or suddenly". Wentworth and Flexner's "Dictionary of American Slang" gives the meaning "to speak to, recognize, or acknowledge acquaintance with someone", dated 1932, and a later meaning of "to converse, esp. in an open and frank manner". It is these meanings from which the musical form of "rapping" derives, and this definition may be from a shortening of repartee. A "rapper" refers to a performer who "raps". By the late 1960s, when Hubert G. Brown changed his name to H. Rap Brown, "rap" was a slang term referring to an oration or speech, such as was common among the "hip" crowd in the protest movements, but it did not come to be associated with a musical style for another decade.


title: Rapping

text: "Rap" was used to describe talking on records as early as 1970 on Isaac Hayes' album "...To Be Continued" with the track name "Monologue: Ike's Rap I". Hayes' "husky-voiced sexy spoken 'raps' became key components in his signature sound". Del the Funky Homosapien similarly states that "rap" was used to refer to talking in a stylistic manner in the early 1970s: "I was born in '72 ... back then what rapping meant, basically, was you trying to convey something—you're trying to convince somebody. That's what rapping is, it's in the way you talk."


title: Rapping

text: Similarities to rapping can be observed in West African folk traditions. Centuries before hip-hop music existed, the griots of West Africa were delivering stories rhythmically, over drums and sparse instrumentation. Such resemblances have been noted by many modern artists, modern day "griots", spoken word artists, mainstream news sources, and academics. Rap lyrics and music are part of the "Black rhetorical continuum", continuing past traditions of expanding upon them through "creative use of language and rhetorical styles and strategies".


title: Rapping

text: Blues, rooted in the work songs and spirituals of slavery, was first played by black Americans around the time of the Emancipation Proclamation. Grammy-winning blues musician/historian Elijah Wald and others have argued that the blues were being rapped as early as the 1920s. Wald went so far as to call hip hop "the living blues". A notable recorded example of rapping in blues was the 1950 song "Gotta Let You Go" by Joe Hill Louis. An African-American 1940s gospel musical group The Jubalaire's songs "The Preacher and the Bear" 1941 and "Noah" 1946 are precursors to the genre of rap music. The Jubalaires singing grouped formed in 1936 and their rhyming during their singing sounds similar to rapping. The Jubalaires and other African-American singing groups during the blues, jazz, and gospel era are examples of the origins and development of rap music.


title: Rapping

text: Jazz, which developed from the blues and other African-American and European musical traditions and originated around the beginning of the 20th century, has also influenced hip hop and has been cited as a precursor of hip hop. Not just jazz music and lyrics but also jazz poetry. According to John Sobol, the jazz musician and poet who wrote "Digitopia Blues", rap "bears a striking resemblance to the evolution of jazz both stylistically and formally". Boxer Muhammad Ali anticipated elements of rap, often using rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry, both for when he was trash talking in boxing and as political poetry for his activism outside of boxing, paving the way for The Last Poets in 1968, Gil Scott-Heron in 1970, and the emergence of rap music in the 1970s. An editor of the newspaper, The Fayetteville Observer interviewed Bill Curtis of the disco-funk music group the Fatback Band in 2020. Bill Curtis said when he moved to Bronx, New York in the 1970s he heard people rapping over scratched records throughout Bronx neighborhoods and disc jockeys on radios were rapping before the genre was released to the public on sales records. Fatback band released the first rap music "King Tim III (Personality Jock)" a few weeks before the Sugarhill Gang in 1979. "Preceding Sugarhill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight by a mere few weeks, King Tim III was essentially a disco/funk tune with vocal cadences that resembled sonic aesthetics and deliveries heard in later rap songs. It was actually a B-side to Fatback’s You’re My Candy Sweet." In another interview with Bill Curtis, Curtis said: “There was rapping in the Bronx and the cats there had been doing it for a while,” he says. “Fatback certainly didn’t invent rap or anything. I was just interested in it and I guess years later we were the first to record it. At the time you could already see cats rapping everywhere in the streets and doing stuff.”


title: Rapping

text: Precursors also exist in non-African/African-American traditions, especially vaudeville and musical theater. The 1956 novelty song "Transfusion" by Nervous Norvus contains rapping over sparse instrumentation and sound effects. The song eventually reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 "Rock Island" from Meridith Wilson's "The Music Man" is wholly spoken by an ensemble of travelling salesmen, as are most of the numbers for British actor Rex Harrison in the 1964 Lerner and Loewe musical "My Fair Lady". Glenn Miller's "The Lady's in Love with You" and "The Little Man Who Wasn't There" (both 1939), each contain distinctly rap-like sequences set to a driving beat as does the 1937 song "Doin' the Jive". In musical theater, the term "vamp" is identical to its meaning in jazz, gospel, and funk, and it fulfills the same function. Semi-spoken music has long been especially popular in British entertainment, and such examples as David Croft's theme to the 1970s sitcom "Are You Being Served?" have elements indistinguishable from modern rap.


title: Rapping

text: Cockney rhyming slang is a form of slang word construction in the English language. It is especially prevalent among Cockneys in England, and was first used in the early 19th century in the East End of London; hence its alternative name, Cockney rhyming slang. In the US, especially the criminal underworld of the West Coast between 1880 and 1920, rhyming slang has sometimes been known as Australian slang. Rhyming slang is believed to have originated in the mid-19th century in the East End of London, with several sources suggesting some time in the 1840s. It remains a matter of speculation exactly how rhyming slang originated, for example, as a linguistic game among friends or as a cryptolect developed intentionally to confuse non-locals. If deliberate, it may also have been used to maintain a sense of community, or to allow traders to talk amongst themselves in marketplaces to facilitate collusion, without customers knowing what they were saying, or by criminals to confuse the police.


title: Rapping

text: In classical music, semi-spoken music was made popular by composer Arnold Schoenberg as Sprechstimme, which he used in such pieces as Gurre-Lieder and Pierrot lunaire. In the French chanson field, irrigated by a strong poetry tradition, such singer-songwriters as Léo Ferré or Serge Gainsbourg made their own use of spoken word over rock or symphonic music from the very beginning of the 1970s. Although these probably did not have a direct influence on rap's development in the African-American cultural sphere, they paved the way for acceptance of spoken word music in the media market, as well as providing a broader backdrop, in a range of cultural contexts distinct from that of the African American experience, upon which rapping could later be grafted.


title: Rapping

text: With the decline of disco in the early 1980s rap became a new form of expression. Rap arose from musical experimentation with rhyming, rhythmic speech. Rap was a departure from disco. Sherley Anne Williams refers to the development of rap as "anti-Disco" in style and means of reproduction. The early productions of Rap after Disco sought a more simplified manner of producing the tracks they were to sing over. Williams explains how Rap composers and DJ's opposed the heavily orchestrated and ritzy multi-tracks of Disco for "break beats" which were created from compiling different records from numerous genres and did not require the equipment from professional recording studios. Professional studios were not necessary therefore opening the production of rap to the youth who as Williams explains felt "locked out" because of the capital needed to produce Disco records.


title: Rapping

text: More directly related to the African-American community were items like schoolyard chants and taunts, clapping games, jump-rope rhymes, some with unwritten folk histories going back hundreds of years across many nationalities. Sometimes these items contain racially offensive lyrics. A related area that is not strictly folklore is rhythmical cheering and cheerleading for military and sports.


title: Rapping

text: In his narration between the tracks on George Russell's 1958 jazz album "New York, N.Y.", the singer Jon Hendricks recorded something close to modern rap, since it all rhymed and was delivered in a hip, rhythm-conscious manner. Art forms such as spoken word jazz poetry and comedy records had an influence on the first rappers. Coke La Rock, often credited as hip-hop's first MC cites the Last Poets among his influences, as well as comedians such as Wild Man Steve and Richard Pryor. Comedian Rudy Ray Moore released under the counter albums in the 1960s and 1970s such as "This Pussy Belongs To Me" (1970), which contained "raunchy, sexually explicit rhymes that often had to do with pimps, prostitutes, players, and hustlers", and which later led to him being called "The Godfather of Rap".


title: Rapping

text: Gil Scott-Heron, a jazz poet/musician, has been cited as an influence on rappers such as Chuck D and KRS-One. Scott-Heron himself was influenced by Melvin Van Peebles, whose first album was 1968's "Brer Soul". Van Peebles describes his vocal style as "the old Southern style", which was influenced by singers he had heard growing up in South Chicago. Van Peebles also said that he was influenced by older forms of African-American music: "... people like Blind Lemon Jefferson and the field hollers. I was also influenced by spoken word song styles from Germany that I encountered when I lived in France."


title: Rapping

text: During the mid-20th century, the musical culture of the Caribbean was constantly influenced by the concurrent changes in American music. As early as 1956, deejays were toasting (an African tradition of "rapped out" tales of heroism) over dubbed Jamaican beats. It was called "rap", expanding the word's earlier meaning in the African-American community—"to discuss or debate informally."


title: Rapping

text: The early rapping of hip-hop developed out of DJ and Master of Ceremonies' announcements made over the microphone at parties, and later into more complex raps. Grandmaster Caz states: "The microphone was just used for making announcements, like when the next party was gonna be, or people's moms would come to the party looking for them, and you have to announce it on the mic. Different DJs started embellishing what they were saying. I would make an announcement this way, and somebody would hear that and they add a little bit to it. I'd hear it again and take it a little step further 'til it turned from lines to sentences to paragraphs to verses to rhymes."


title: Rapping

text: One of the first rappers at the beginning of the hip hop period, at the end of the 1970s, was also hip hop's first DJ, DJ Kool Herc. Herc, a Jamaican immigrant, started delivering simple raps at his parties, which some claim were inspired by the Jamaican tradition of toasting. However, Kool Herc himself denies this link (in the 1984 book "Hip Hop"), saying, "Jamaican toasting? Naw, naw. No connection there. I couldn't play reggae in the Bronx. People wouldn't accept it. The inspiration for rap is James Brown and the album "Hustler's Convention"". Herc also suggests he was too young while in Jamaica to get into sound system parties: "I couldn't get in. Couldn't get in. I was ten, eleven years old," and that while in Jamaica, he was listening to James Brown: "I was listening to American music in Jamaica and my favorite artist was James Brown. That's who inspired me. A lot of the records I played were by James Brown."


title: Rapping

text: However, in terms of what was identified in the 2010s as "rap" the source came from Manhattan. Pete DJ Jones said the first person he heard rap was DJ Hollywood, a Harlem (not Bronx) native who was the house DJ at the Apollo Theater. Kurtis Blow also says the first person he heard rhyme was DJ Hollywood. In a 2014 interview, Hollywood said: "I used to like the way Frankie Crocker would ride a track, but he wasn't syncopated to the track though. I liked [WWRL DJ] Hank Spann too, but he wasn't on the one. Guys back then weren't concerned with being musical. I wanted to flow with the record". And in 1975, he ushered in what became known as the Hip Hop style by rhyming syncopated to the beat of an existing record uninterruptedly for nearly a minute. He adapted the lyrics of Isaac Hayes "Good Love 6-9969" and rhymed it to the breakdown part of "Love is the Message". His partner Kevin Smith, better known as Lovebug Starski, took this new style and introduced it to the Bronx Hip Hop set that until then was composed of DJing and B-boying (or beatboxing), with traditional "shout out" style rapping.


title: Rapping

text: The style that Hollywood created and his partner introduced to the Hip Hop set quickly became the standard. Before that time most MC rhymes, based on radio DJs, consisted of short patters that were disconnected thematically; they were separate unto themselves. But by using song lyrics, Hollywood gave his rhyme an inherent flow and theme. This was quickly noticed, and the style spread. By the end of the 1970s, artists such as Kurtis Blow and The Sugarhill Gang were starting to receive radio airplay and make an impact far outside of New York City, on a national scale. Blondie's 1981 single, "Rapture", was one of the first songs featuring rap to top the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100 chart.


title: Rapping

text: Old school rap (1979–84) was "easily identified by its relatively simple raps" according to AllMusic, "the emphasis was not on lyrical technique, but simply on good times", one notable exception being Melle Mel, who set the way for future rappers through his socio-political content and creative wordplay.


title: Rapping

text: Golden age hip hop (the mid-1980s to early '90s) was the time period where hip-hop lyricism went through its most drastic transformation – writer William Jelani Cobb says "in these golden years, a critical mass of mic prodigies were literally creating themselves and their art form at the same time" and Allmusic writes, "rhymers like PE's Chuck D, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One, and Rakim basically invented the complex wordplay and lyrical kung-fu of later hip-hop". The golden age is considered to have ended around 1993–94, marking the end of rap lyricism's most innovative period.


title: Rapping

text: "Flow" is defined as "the rhythms and rhymes" of a hip-hop song's lyrics and how they interact – the book "How to Rap" breaks flow down into rhyme, rhyme schemes, and rhythm (also known as cadence). 'Flow' is also sometimes used to refer to elements of the delivery (pitch, timbre, volume) as well, though often a distinction is made between the flow and the delivery.


title: Rapping

text: Staying on the beat is central to rap's flow – many MCs note the importance of staying on-beat in "How to Rap" including Sean Price, Mighty Casey, Zion I, Vinnie Paz, Fredro Starr, Del The Funky Homosapien, Tech N9ne, People Under The Stairs, Twista, B-Real, Mr Lif, 2Mex, and Cage.


title: Rapping

text: MCs stay on beat by stressing syllables in time to the four beats of the musical backdrop. Poetry scholar Derek Attridge describes how this works in his book "Poetic Rhythm" – "rap lyrics are written to be performed to an accompaniment that emphasizes the metrical structure of the verse". He says rap lyrics are made up of, "lines with four stressed beats, separated by other syllables that may vary in number and may include other stressed syllables. The strong beat of the accompaniment coincides with the stressed beats of the verse, and the rapper organizes the rhythms of the intervening syllables to provide variety and surprise".


title: Rapping

text: The same technique is also noted in the book "How to Rap", where diagrams are used to show how the lyrics line up with the beat – "stressing a syllable on each of the four beats gives the lyrics the same underlying rhythmic pulse as the music and keeps them in rhythm ... other syllables in the song may still be stressed, but the ones that fall in time with the four beats of a bar are the only ones that need to be emphasized in order to keep the lyrics in time with the music".


title: Rapping

text: In rap terminology, 16-bars is the amount of time that rappers are generally given to perform a guest verse on another artist's song; one bar is typically equal to four beats of music.


title: Rapping

text: Old school flows were relatively basic and used only few syllables per bar, simple rhythmic patterns, and basic rhyming techniques and rhyme schemes.


title: Rapping

text: Melle Mel is cited as an MC who epitomizes the old school flow – Kool Moe Dee says, "from 1970 to 1978 we rhymed one way [then] Melle Mel, in 1978, gave us the new cadence we would use from 1978 to 1986". He's the first emcee to explode in a new rhyme cadence, and change the way every emcee rhymed forever. Rakim, The Notorious B.I.G., and Eminem have flipped the flow, but Melle Mel's downbeat on the two, four, kick to snare cadence is still the rhyme foundation all emcees are building on".


title: Rapping

text: Artists and critics often credit Rakim with creating the overall shift from the more simplistic old school flows to more complex flows near the beginning of hip hop's new school – Kool Moe Dee says, "any emcee that came after 1986 had to study Rakim just to know what to be able to do. Rakim, in 1986, gave us flow and that was the rhyme style from 1986 to 1994. From that point on, anybody emceeing was forced to focus on their flow". Kool Moe Dee explains that before Rakim, the term 'flow' wasn't widely used – "Rakim is basically the inventor of flow. We were not even using the word flow until Rakim came along. It was called rhyming, it was called cadence, but it wasn't called flow. Rakim created flow!" He adds that while Rakim upgraded and popularized the focus on flow, "he didn't invent the word".


title: Rapping

text: Kool Moe Dee states that Biggie introduced a newer flow which "dominated from 1994 to 2002", and also says that Method Man was "one of the emcees from the early to mid-'90s that ushered in the era of flow ... Rakim invented it, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One, and Kool G Rap expanded it, but Biggie and Method Man made flow the single most important aspect of an emcee's game". He also cites Craig Mack as an artist who contributed to developing flow in the '90s.


title: Rapping

text: Music scholar Adam Krims says, "the flow of MCs is one of the profoundest changes that separates out new-sounding from older-sounding music ... it is widely recognized and remarked that rhythmic styles of many commercially successful MCs since roughly the beginning of the 1990s have progressively become faster and more 'complex'". He cites "members of the Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, AZ, Big Pun, and Ras Kass, just to name a few" as artists who exemplify this progression.


title: Rapping

text: Kool Moe Dee adds, "in 2002 Eminem created the song that got the first Oscar in Hip-Hop history [Lose Yourself] ... and I would have to say that his flow is the most dominant right now (2003)".


title: Rapping

text: There are many different styles of flow, with different terminology used by different people – stic.man of Dead Prez uses the following terms –


title: Rapping

text: MCs use many different rhyming techniques, including complex rhyme schemes, as Adam Krims points out – "the complexity ... involves multiple rhymes in the same rhyme complex (i.e. section with consistently rhyming words), internal rhymes, [and] offbeat rhymes". There is also widespread use of multisyllabic rhymes, by artists such as Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, Big L, Nas, and Eminem.


title: Rapping

text: It has been noted that rap's use of rhyme is some of the most advanced in all forms of poetry – music scholar Adam Bradley notes, "rap rhymes so much and with such variety that it is now the largest and richest contemporary archive of rhymed words. It has done more than any other art form in recent history to expand rhyme's formal range and expressive possibilities".


title: Rapping

text: In the book "How to Rap", Masta Ace explains how Rakim and Big Daddy Kane caused a shift in the way MCs rhymed: "Up until Rakim, everybody who you heard rhyme, the last word in the sentence was the rhyming [word], the connection word. Then Rakim showed us that you could put rhymes within a rhyme ... now here comes Big Daddy Kane — instead of going three words, he's going multiple". "How to Rap" explains that "rhyme is often thought to be the most important factor in rap writing ... rhyme is what gives rap lyrics their musicality.


title: Rapping

text: Many of the rhythmic techniques used in rapping come from percussive techniques and many rappers compare themselves to percussionists. "How to Rap 2" identifies all the rhythmic techniques used in rapping such as triplets, flams, 16th notes, 32nd notes, syncopation, extensive use of rests, and rhythmic techniques unique to rapping such as West Coast "lazy tails", coined by Shock G. Rapping has also been done in various time signatures, such as 3/4 time.


title: Rapping

text: Since the 2000s, rapping has evolved into a style of rap that spills over the boundaries of the beat, closely resembling spoken English. Rappers like MF Doom and Eminem have exhibited this style, and since then, rapping has been difficult to notate. The American hip-hop group Crime Mob exhibited a new rap flow in songs such as "Knuck If You Buck", heavily dependent on triplets. Rappers including Drake, Kanye West, Rick Ross, Young Jeezy and more have included this influence in their music. In 2014, an American hip-hop collective from Atlanta, Migos, popularized this flow, and is commonly referred to as the "Migos Flow" (a term that is contentious within the hip-hop community).


title: Rapping

text: The standard form of rap notation is the flow diagram, where rappers line-up their lyrics underneath "beat numbers". Different rappers have slightly different forms of flow diagram that they use: Del the Funky Homosapien says, "I'm just writing out the rhythm of the flow, basically. Even if it's just slashes to represent the beats, that's enough to give me a visual path.", Vinnie Paz states, "I've created my own sort of writing technique, like little marks and asterisks to show like a pause or emphasis on words in certain places.", and Aesop Rock says, "I have a system of maybe 10 little symbols that I use on paper that tell me to do something when I'm recording."


title: Rapping

text: Hip-hop scholars also make use of the same flow diagrams: the books "How to Rap" and "How to Rap 2" use the diagrams to explain rap's triplets, flams, rests, rhyme schemes, runs of rhyme, and breaking rhyme patterns, among other techniques. Similar systems are used by PhD musicologists Adam Krims in his book "Rap Music and the Poetics of Identity" and Kyle Adams in his academic work on flow.


title: Rapping

text: Because rap revolves around a strong 4/4 beat, with certain syllables said in time to the beat, all the notational systems have a similar structure: they all have the same 4 beat numbers at the top of the diagram, so that syllables can be written in-line with the beat numbers. This allows devices such as rests, "lazy tails", flams, and other rhythmic techniques to be shown, as well as illustrating where different rhyming words fall in relation to the music.


title: Rapping

text: To successfully deliver a rap, a rapper must also develop vocal presence, enunciation, and breath control. Vocal presence is the distinctiveness of a rapper's voice on record. Enunciation is essential to a flowing rap; some rappers choose also to exaggerate it for comic and artistic effect. Breath control, taking in air without interrupting one's delivery, is an important skill for a rapper to master, and a must for any MC. An MC with poor breath control cannot deliver difficult verses without making unintentional pauses.


title: Rapping

text: Raps are sometimes delivered with melody. West Coast rapper Egyptian Lover was the first notable MC to deliver "sing-raps". Popular rappers such as 50 Cent and Ja Rule add a slight melody to their otherwise purely percussive raps whereas some rappers such as Cee-Lo Green are able to harmonize their raps with the beat. The Midwestern group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony was one of the first groups to achieve nationwide recognition for using the fast-paced, melodic and harmonic raps that are also practiced by Do or Die, another Midwestern group. Another rapper that harmonized his rhymes was Nate Dogg, a rapper part of the group 213. Rakim experimented not only with following the beat, but also with complementing the song's melody with his own voice, making his flow sound like that of an instrument (a saxophone in particular).


title: Rapping

text: The ability to rap quickly and clearly is sometimes regarded as an important sign of skill. In certain hip-hop subgenres such as chopped and screwed, slow-paced rapping is often considered optimal. The current record for fastest rapper is held by Spanish rapper Domingo Edjang Moreno, known by his alias Chojin, who rapped 921 syllables in one minute on December 23, 2008.


title: Rapping

text: In the late 1970s, the term emcee, MC or M.C., derived from "master of ceremonies", became an alternative title for a rapper, and for their role within hip-hop music and culture. An MC uses rhyming verses, pre-written or ad lib ('freestyled'), to introduce the DJ with whom they work, to keep the crowd entertained or to glorify themselves. As hip hop progressed, the title MC acquired backronyms such as 'mike chanter' 'microphone controller', 'microphone checker', 'music commentator', and one who 'moves the crowd'. Some use this word interchangeably with the term "rapper", while for others the term denotes a superior level of skill and connection to the wider culture.


title: Rapping

text: MC can often be used as a term of distinction; referring to an artist with good performance skills. As Kool G Rap notes, "masters of ceremony, where the word 'M.C.' comes from, means just keeping the party alive" "[sic]". Many people in hip hop including DJ Premier and KRS-One feel that James Brown was the first MC. James Brown had the lyrics, moves, and soul that greatly influenced a lot of rappers in hip hop, and arguably even started the first MC rhyme.


title: Rapping

text: For some rappers, there was a distinction to the term, such as for MC Hammer who acquired the nickname "MC" for being a "Master of Ceremonies" which he used when he began performing at various clubs while on the road with the Oakland As and eventually in the military (United States Navy). It was within the lyrics of a rap song called "This Wall" that Hammer first identified himself as M.C. Hammer and later marketed it on his debut album "Feel My Power". The term MC has also been used in the genre of grime music to refer to a rapid style of rapping. Grime artist JME released an album titled "Grime MC" in 2019 which peaked at 29 on the UK Albums Chart.


title: Rapping

text: Uncertainty over the acronym's expansion may be considered evidence for its ubiquity: the full term "Master of Ceremonies" is very rarely used in the hip-hop scene. This confusion prompted the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest to include this statement in the liner notes to their 1993 album "Midnight Marauders:


title: Rapping

text: The use of the term MC when referring to a rhyming wordsmith originates from the dance halls of Jamaica. At each event, there would be a master of ceremonies who would introduce the different musical acts and would say a toast in style of a rhyme, directed at the audience and to the performers. He would also make announcements such as the schedule of other events or advertisements from local sponsors. The term MC continued to be used by the children of women who moved to New York City to work as maids in the 1970s. These MCs eventually created a new style of music called hip-hop based on the rhyming they used to do in Jamaica and the breakbeats used in records. MC has also recently been accepted to refer to all who engineer music.


title: Rapping

text: "Party rhymes", meant to pump up the crowd at a party, were nearly the exclusive focus of old school hip hop, and they remain a staple of hip-hop music to this day. In addition to party raps, rappers also tend to make references to love and sex. Love raps were first popularized by Spoonie Gee of the Treacherous Three, and later, in the golden age of hip hop, Big Daddy Kane, Heavy D, and LL Cool J would continue this tradition.


title: Rapping

text: Hip-hop artists such as KRS-One, Hopsin, Public Enemy, Lupe Fiasco, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Jay-Z, Nas, The Notorious B.I.G. (Biggie), and dead prez are known for their sociopolitical subject matter. Their West Coast counterparts include The Coup, Paris, and Michael Franti. Tupac Shakur was also known for rapping about social issues such as police brutality, teenage pregnancy, and racism.


title: Rapping

text: Other rappers take a less critical approach to urbanity, sometimes even embracing such aspects as crime. Schoolly D was the first notable MC to rap about crime. Early on KRS-One was accused of celebrating crime and a hedonistic lifestyle, but after the death of his DJ, Scott La Rock, KRS-One went on to speak out against violence in hip hop and has spent the majority of his career condemning violence and writing on issues of race and class. Ice-T was one of the first rappers to call himself a "playa" and discuss guns on record, but his theme tune to the 1988 film "Colors" contained warnings against joining gangs. Gangsta rap, made popular largely because of N.W.A, brought rapping about crime and the gangster lifestyle into the musical mainstream.


title: Rapping

text: Materialism has also been a popular topic in hip-hop since at least the early 1990s, with rappers boasting about their own wealth and possessions, and name-dropping specific brands: liquor brands Cristal and Rémy Martin, car manufacturers Bentley and Mercedes-Benz and clothing brands Gucci and Versace have all been popular subjects for rappers.


title: Rapping

text: Various politicians, journalists, and religious leaders have accused rappers of fostering a culture of violence and hedonism among hip-hop listeners through their lyrics. However, there are also rappers whose messages may not be in conflict with these views, for example Christian hip hop. Others have praised the "political critique, innuendo and sarcasm" of hip-hop music.


title: Rapping

text: In contrast to the more hedonistic approach of gangsta rappers, some rappers have a spiritual or religious focus. Christian rap is currently the most commercially successful form of religious rap. With Christian rappers like Lecrae, Thi'sl and Hostyle Gospel winning national awards and making regular appearances on television, Christian hip hop seem to have found its way in the hip-hop family. Aside from Christianity, the Five Percent Nation, an Islamic esotericist religious/spiritual group, has been represented more than any religious group in popular hip hop. Artists such as Rakim, the members of the Wu-Tang Clan, Brand Nubian, X-Clan and Busta Rhymes have had success in spreading the theology of the Five Percenters.


title: Rapping

text: Rappers use the literary techniques of double entendres, alliteration, and forms of wordplay that are found in classical poetry. Similes and metaphors are used extensively in rap lyrics; rappers such as Fabolous and Lloyd Banks have written entire songs in which every line contains similes, whereas MCs like Rakim, GZA, and Jay-Z are known for the metaphorical content of their raps. Rappers such as Lupe Fiasco are known for the complexity of their songs that contain metaphors within extended metaphors.


title: Rapping

text: Many hip-hop listeners believe that a rapper's lyrics are enhanced by a complex vocabulary. Kool Moe Dee claims that he appealed to older audiences by using a complex vocabulary in his raps. Rap is famous, however, for having its own vocabulary—from international hip-hop slang to regional slang. Some artists, like the Wu-Tang Clan, develop an entire lexicon among their clique. African-American English has always had a significant effect on hip-hop slang and vice versa. Certain regions have introduced their unique regional slang to hip-hop culture, such as the Bay Area (Mac Dre, E-40), Houston (Chamillionaire, Paul Wall), Atlanta (Ludacris, Lil Jon, T.I.), and Kentucky (Cunninlynguists, Nappy Roots). The Nation of Gods and Earths, aka The Five Percenters, has influenced mainstream hip-hop slang with the introduction of phrases such as "word is bond" that have since lost much of their original spiritual meaning. Preference toward one or the other has much to do with the individual; GZA, for example, prides himself on being very visual and metaphorical but also succinct, whereas underground rapper MF DOOM is known for heaping similes upon similes. In still another variation, 2Pac was known for saying exactly what he meant, literally and clearly.


title: Rapping

text: Rap music's development into popular culture in the 1990s can be accredited to the album "Niggaz4life" by artists Niggaz With Attitude, the first rap group to ever take the top spot of the Billboard's Top 200 in 1991, in the United States. With this victory, came the beginning of an era of popular culture guided by the musical influences of hip-hop and rap itself, moving away from the influences of rock music. As rap continued to develop and further disseminate, it went on to influence clothing brands, movies, sports, and dancing through popular culture. As rap has developed to become more of a presence in popular culture, it has focused itself on a particular demographic, adolescent and young adults. As such, it has had a significant impact on the modern vernacular of this portion of the population, which has diffused throughout society.


title: Rapping

text: The effects of rap music on modern vernacular can be explored through the study of semiotics. Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols, or the study of language as a system. French literary theorist Roland Barthes furthers this study with this own theory of myth. He maintains that the first order of signification is language and that the second is "myth", arguing that a word has both its literal meaning, and its mythical meaning, which is heavily dependent on socio-cultural context. To illustrate, Barthes uses the example of a rat: it has a literal meaning (a physical, objective description) and it has a greater socio-cultural understanding. This contextual meaning is subjective and is dynamic within society.


title: Rapping

text: Through Barthes' semiotic theory of language and myth, it can be shown that rap music has culturally influenced the language of its listeners, as they influence the connotative message to words that already exist. As more people listen to rap, the words that are used in the lyrics become culturally bound to the song, and then are disseminated through the conversations that people have using these words.


title: Rapping

text: Most often, the terms that rappers use are pre-established words that have been prescribed new meaning through their music, that are eventually disseminated through social spheres. This newly contextualized word is called a neosemanticism. Neosemanticisms are forgotten words that are often brought forward from subcultures that attract the attention of members of the reigning culture of their time, then they are brought forward by the influential voices in society – in this case, these figures are rappers. To illustrate, the acronym YOLO was popularized by rapper, actor and RNB singer Drake in 2012 when he featured it in his own song, "The Motto". That year the term YOLO was so popular that it was printed on t-shirts, became a trending hashtag on Twitter, and was even considered as the inspiration for several tattoos. However, although the rapper may have come up with the acronym, the motto itself was in no way first established by Drake. Similar messages can be seen in many well-known sayings, or as early as 1896, in the English translation of "La Comédie Humaine", by Honoré de Balzac where one of his free-spirited characters tells another, "You Only Live Once!". Another example of a neosemanticism is the word "broccoli". Rapper E-40 initially uses the word "broccoli" to refer to marijuana, on his hit track "Broccoli" in 1993. In contemporary society, artists D.R.A.M. and Lil Yachty are often accredited for this slang on for "their" hit song, also titled "Broccoli".


title: Rapping

text: With the rise in technology and mass media, the dissemination of subcultural terms has only become easier. Dick Hebdige, author of "", merits that subcultures often use music to vocalize the struggles of their experiences. As rap is also the culmination of a prevalent sub-culture in African-American social spheres, often their own personal cultures are disseminated through rap lyrics.


title: Rapping

text: It is here that lyrics can be categorized as either historically influenced or (more commonly) considered as slang. Vernon Andrews, the professor of the course "American Studies 111: Hip-Hop Culture", suggests that many words, such as "hood", "homie", and "dope", are historically influenced. Most importantly, this also brings forward the anarchistic culture of rap music. Common themes from rap are anti-establishment and instead, promote black excellence and diversity. It is here that rap can be seen to reclaim words, namely, "nigga", a historical term used to subjugate and oppress Black people in America. This word has been reclaimed by Black Americans and is heavily used in rap music. Niggaz With Attitude embodies this notion by using it as the first word of their influential rap group name.


title: Rapping

text: There are two kinds of freestyle rap: one is scripted (recitation), but having no particular overriding subject matter, the second typically referred to as "freestyling" or "spitting", is the improvisation of rapped lyrics. When freestyling, some rappers inadvertently reuse old lines, or even "cheat" by preparing segments or entire verses in advance. Therefore, freestyles with proven spontaneity are valued above generic, always usable lines. Rappers will often reference places or objects in their immediate setting, or specific (usually demeaning) characteristics of opponents, to prove their authenticity and originality.


title: Rapping

text: Battle rapping, which can be freestyled, is the competition between two or more rappers in front of an audience. The tradition of insulting one's friends or acquaintances in rhyme goes back to the dozens, and was employed famously by Muhammad Ali in his boxing matches. The winner of a battle is decided by the crowd and/or preselected judges. According to Kool Moe Dee, a successful battle rap focuses on an opponent's weaknesses, rather than one's own strengths. Television shows such as MTV's "DFX" and BET's "106 and Park" host weekly freestyle battles live on the air. Battle rapping gained widespread public recognition outside of the African-American community with rapper Eminem's movie "8 Mile".