Did Muhammad Ali invent rap?

Bob Dylan created rap with Subterranean Homesick Blues. (Mostly, but not completely in jest).

i made rap

"Bob Dylan created rap with Subterranean Homesick Blues. (Mostly, but not completely in jest)."

No way. Bob Dylan is mainly unintelligble mumbling gibberish on top of music while rap is ...

Oh, nevermind.

I would venture to argue whether Muhammad Ali did "invent" rap. Ali was a hero of the struggle, a face of the downtrodden, someone who was sticking to The Man in a way former minority champions, ex Jack Johnson, had never done. So through that impowerment Ali struck a cord with many of those in minority America who felt they too had to fight to get and/or keep what they had. In the sense of conflict then, Ali has as much to do with the urban hero as the Kung Fu hero popular in urban areas in the late 1970s. The Kung Fu hero, like Ali, stood up to The Man and fought for justice and morality despite it being counter to the stronger forces of oppression. Every Kung Fu victory against the Boss, like every Ali win, instilled confidence in the downtrodden. For more on the Kung Fu hero and his connect to hip-hop check out here: http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-11142005-144636/
As for Ali's braggadocio, I would argue short staccato statements of power have always been trademark in American black culture. Gospel, blues, and field hollars all carried that call and response, back and forth style of talk, where a large message was proclaimed without much being said. Ali brought that braggadocio to the mainstream where his message was understood by the masses and deemed a threat to the establishment (remember Ali was close with the Nation of Islam).
So did Ali invent rap? No. But he did use similar techniques to broadcast his message. And in the age of soundbytes and 30 second attention spans, lengthy discourse usually doesn't move the masses.
I'll definitely be writing more about this soon on my blog www.theserioustip.blogspot.com. Thanks.

- Jordi

When I was in college I had a few ethnomusicology courses and I remember watching a video about black music in America. In the video they showed an 80+ year old man sitting on his front porch rapping. According to the research presented there is a form of rap in the south that dates back to the early 1900's. Obviously it didn't sound exactly like modern day rap, much more simplistic but it seemed pretty clear that it was indeed rap. I believe Lomax recorded some of it during his days in the delta. It has a name but I can't remember what it's called.

rap=rhythm agressive poetry fyi

Rap was created long before Cassius Clay
and if you were around to see that day
I say No fuckin way!
cuz it is mere poetry and the cadence you say.
Add a beat and you might hear it.
give it to me and the world will fear it.
We miss you Mr. Clay.