Poetry by Langston Hughes - The Weary Blues

Even earlier roots of Hip Hop lie in the 1920s. Langston Hughes, Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, E. E. Cummings and many others were responsible for the creation of Jazz Poetry or poetry that "demonstrates jazz-like rhythm or the feel of improvisation". It eventually developed into a style of reading or improvising poetry over jazz and simple, rhythmic beats as early as the 1920s. The significance of the simultaneous evolution of poetry and jazz in the 1920s cannot be understated when talking about the modern emcee, slam poetry, Hip Hop or the history of American music in general.