Seriously, jumping from griots to Bronx in the 1970s rather overlooks the obvious roots of rap in toasting. And I've never encountered anyone trying to claim griots as a significant influences on Toasts (though the claim of griot influence on Delta Blues was a thing for a while).
Speaking of the intersection between hip-hop and politics, I recall the two of us and Lester Spence talking about this in Baltimore many moons ago. I see he's published that book on the subject and is now trying to Get Stuff Done there; I should check out the book and ask him how the praxis is going.
Well, Black Moses was already taken...
Seriously, jumping from griots to Bronx in the 1970s rather overlooks the obvious roots of rap in toasting. And I've never encountered anyone trying to claim griots as a significant influences on Toasts (though the claim of griot influence on Delta Blues was a thing for a while).
Speaking of the intersection between hip-hop and politics, I recall the two of us and Lester Spence talking about this in Baltimore many moons ago. I see he's published that book on the subject and is now trying to Get Stuff Done there; I should check out the book and ask him how the praxis is going.