Without question, it's three times the age of hip-hop culture. But how far back in time can we go with this?

I don't know that anyone will ever come to an agreement on this, because people can't seem to come to any consensus about what actually qualifies as "rap." There was a similar discussion in here.

When I saw Maya Angelou a few years back, she read a poem written by a slave. She said that it could be considered early "rap" because of the rhythm, and repetion.
[Edited 1/24/07 16:43pm]