Ray Charles - "Rap is not music"

@northman “Of course Lou Reed was the original wrapper ….”
Not sure if you’re joking.

1926: “Talking Blues” - Chris Bouchillon
1926: “Can’t You Wait Till You Get Home” - Frankie Jaxon
1929: “Atlanta Strut” - Blind Willie McTell (still one of the great ‘rap’ lines, ‘she look-a like a lump of laaaaawd-have-mercy’)
1929: “Automobile Ride Through Alabama” - Red Henderson
1931: “Frankie Jean” Memphis Minnie
To name a few from the ‘20s and ‘30s.

Of course there are a ton of rap-y songs by blues, gospel, and country artists in the ‘30s and ‘40s, there’s the majority of Woody Guthrie’s oeuvre, there’s “Who Do You Love” by Bo Diddley in ‘55, and a bunch of early-‘60s Bob Dylan songs, right up until ‘65’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues.”
 

@tylermunns, I'm not joking about Lou Reed at all, but he probably was. He did a song called "The Original Wrapper" (sic) on his 1986 album Mistrial. I love Lou but that album wasn't his finest hour.

@northman Gotcha. Don’t know that LP.  
But, yeah, no, he’s nowhere near the first rapper.

@tylermunns, I hear you and love your list! That's some history you're putting out there....

Rap is officially a 50 year old genre of music. There is bad rap and amazing rap. There is bad rock and amazing rock. This is dumb.