Hip-hop is a culture, and rap flourishes from a far-ranging lineage. There will always be hot debate about the first rap record – 1979 gave rise to both the legendary Rapper's Delight by The Sugarhill Gang, and (the slightly earlier release) King Tim III by funk outfit The Fatback Band – but generations of poets, polemicists, multi-genre artists and entertainers resonate through rap's expressions. And while this art form was certainly sparked and shaped in African-American communities, the broader heritage of that diaspora – and within hip-hop's NYC birthplace – significantly played a part as well.

Rap music arguably traces its roots through centuries of oral tradition – including West Africa's griot storytellers and South African kwaito music – as well as street competition and recorded song. It is a vivid patchwork of conscious lyrics and subconscious influences: big band leaders; loquacious radio DJs; sporting legends (Muhammad Ali proclaiming his GOAT status with knockout rhymes and moves), even nursery rhymes. As Run DMC declared in their anthem Peter Piper: "Now Dr Seuss and Mother Goose both did their thing/ But Jam Master's getting loose and DMC's the king". Rap's enduring power might also derive from its very human impulse – to tell a tale, raise a laugh, assert identity, make a lasting point before the ultimate mic drop. Here are eight vocalists and lyricists who were arguably channelling the spirit of rap decades before 1973.