Your job is to warm the audience and prepare them for the speaker(s). Your part is extremely important to the overall flow of the meeting, but you must remember that you are not the “show.” You should not tell a joke or give a mini-presentation. It is your goal to make the speaker(s) look good.

Smooth introductions that are succinct work in everyone’s favor. Many professional speakers will bring you and/or send you a written introduction. Take time to read it over and check with the speaker on the pronunciation of any of the words that are unfamiliar to you — making notes on the pronunciation. If the speaker(s) you will be introducing hasn’t handed you an introduction, conduct a mini-interview and write down what you plan to say. Just “winging it” or going on and on about how long you’ve known old Joe and what a good guy he is, will give him a disadvantage.

Smooth transitions are a necessity. A proficient emcee realizes the importance of transitions and handles them with ease. When there are two or more speakers and/or other parts included in the program, the emcee must work to keep the mood on an even keel. For example, if the first speaker ended his or her presentation on an emotional note, the emcee needs to bring the audience back to a neutral frame of mind, otherwise the next speaker will start with a disadvantage. Transitions should not be lengthy. They can consist of a positive comment, a quote (have many ready), a short story that relates, or a chance for everyone to stand up and stretch.

It is the emcee’s job to keep the program moving on time. Even though the speaker(s) have been given a time schedule, not every presenter stays within the limit. It will be your responsibility as the emcee to keep everyone on time. Before you start, tell them that you will give them a signal when they have five, three and one minutes left, and stress that the time schedule is important for the success of the program. If they are going way past their time, you might have to gracefully take to the stage. As emcee, keep your comments as short as possible.

Tags : Emceeing, Joke, Proficient Emcee

Hip-hop music or rap music is an admired and famous style or genre of music in the USA. This well-known music genre is made up of two components, rapping and record scratching. Rapping is also known as MCing and DJing, which comprises of audio mixing. These two main components combined with graffiti and break dancing form the four core elements of hip-hop.

The origin of hip-hop can be traced back as far as the ancient tribes in Africa. Rap has been compared with the chants, drumbeats and foot-stomping African tribes performed before wars, the births of babies, and the deaths of kings and elders. Historians have reached further back than the accepted origins of hip-hop. It was born as we know it today in the Bronx, cradled and nurtured by the youth in the low-income areas of New York City.

Fast-forward from the tribes of Africa to the ghettos of Kingston, Jamaica in the late sixties. The impoverished of Kingston gathered together in groups to form DJ conglomerates. They spun roots and culture records and communicated with the audience over the music. At the time, the DJ’s comments weren’t as important as the quality of the sound system and its ability to get the crowd moving. Kool Herc grew up in this community before he moved to the Bronx.

During the late sixties, reggae wasn’t popular with New Yorkers. As a DJ, Kool Herc spun rhythm and blues records to please his party crowd. But, he had to add his personal touch. During the breaks, Herc began to speak to his audience as he had learned to do in Jamaica. He called out, the audience responded, and then he pumped the volume back up on the record. This call and response technique was nothing new to this community who’d been reared in Baptist and Methodist churches where call and response was a technique used by the speakers to get the congregation involved. Historians compare it to the call and response performed by Jazz musicians and was very much a part of the culture of Jazz music during the renaissance in Harlem.

Others copied Herc’s style. Soon a friendly battle ensued between New York DJs. They all learned the technique of using break beats. Herc stepped up the game by giving shout-outs to people who were in attendance at the parties and coming up with his signature call and response. Other DJs responded by rhyming with their words when they spoke to the audience. More and more DJs used two and four line rhymes and anecdotes to get their audiences involved and hyped at these parties.

One day, Herc passed the microphone over to two of his friends. He took care of the turn table and allowed his buddies to keep the crowd hyped with chants, rhymes and anecdotes while he extended the breaks of different songs indefinitely. This was the birth of rap as we know it. Hip-hop has evolved from the days of the basement showdowns to big business in the music industry. In the seventies and eighties, the pioneers and innovators of the rap record was the DJ. He was the guy who used his turntable to create fresh sounds with old records. Then, he became the guy who mixed these familiar breaks with synthesizers to produce completely new beats. Not much has changed in that aspect of hip-hop.

Tags : Hip Hop Music, History, Rap