Rapso

Rapso
Stylistic origins	Soca, calypso, hip hop
Cultural origins	1970s, Trinidad and Tobago
Typical instruments	Bass, Drums, Guitar, Vocals
Other topics
Music of Trinidad and Tobago

Music of Trinidad and Tobago
General topics
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Genres
Calypso Cariso Chut-kai-pang Chutney Chutney Soca Extempo Groovy soca Kaiso Parang Parang soca Pichakaree Rapso Soca Steelpan Steelband soca
Media and performance
Music media	Music television Synergy TV Tempo TV
Nationalistic and patriotic songs
National anthem	Forged from the Love of Liberty
Regional music
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Music television

Rapso is a form of Trinidadian music that grew out of the social unrest of the 1970s. Black Power and unions grew in the 1970s, and rapso grew along with them. The first recording was Blow Away by Lancelot Layne in 1970. Six years later, Cheryl Byron (founder of the New York City based Something Positive Dance Company) was scorned when she sang rapso at a calypso tent; she is now called the "Mother of Rapso".

It has been described as "de power of de word in the riddim of de word". Though often described as a fusion of native soca and calypso with American hip hop, rapso is uniquely Trinidadian.

Rapso music is itself an evolution of the chantwell or griot tradition of African music in the diaspora. It is called "the poetry of Calypso" and "the Power of the Word in the rhythm of the Word". Rapso is the poetic "rap" form of Trinbagonian music -- the next evolutionary step of Calypso and Soca music. It also has origins in the oral tradition elements of the performances of traditional masquerade characters in Trinidad Carnival.

Traditional masquerade characters, such as the Midnight Robber, Pierrot Grenade, and the Wild Indians, each have particular forms of poetic and musical speeches that echoed ancient African masking and poetic traditions. Rapso borrowed many of the rhythmic and performance elements of these forms.

The first wave of Rapso music occurred in the late 1960s with the invention of Rapso by its pioneer Lancelot Kebu Layne. The second wave occurred in the late 1970s with Cheryl Byron who was the first woman to perform this brand of music in calypso tents, and mushroomed in the early '80s with the work of Brother Resistance and the Network Rhythm Band, alongside other artists such as Brother Cetewayo and Brother Book. This wave mainstreamed Rapso music in Trinidad and Tobago and World Music.

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