Hip-hop is an African folk art birthed in America. Whether one simply observes the tonal language that puffs the breath of life into the lyric prose of rap music, the poly-rhythms of the "boom-bap" rhythmic phrasings that became a fixture of New York rap music in the late 1980s, the winding syncopation from the pounding "808" drums that are a staple of many Southern rap anthems, the routine manner in which rappers incorporate antiphony in live performances, or the improvisational nature of true free-styling, hip-hop is innately an African folk art within the American context. This article explores the dynamics of hip-hop's continuation of centuries-old African and African American rhetorical forms and tropes.