Eric Norlin (of TDCRC "fame") posits that blogging and rap share a similar history in his TDCRC newsletter today.
Much like blogging, rap depended upon a long history, but somehow — in an almost undescribable way — seemed *different*. Oddly, no one
could say why that was. No one outside of an anonymous 13 year old
black boy in the poor neighborhoods of Brooklyn, whom ABC news
captured saying, "not everyone can sing, but everyone can rap."
Certainly with weblogs we've seen that not everyone can write, but everyone can blog. I think he may be onto something with this analogy. It's the first one I've heard that actually works for me (unlike all the "they're diaries with links!" rubbish that's been tossed about.) It captures the empowerment of the voiceless and the disenfranchised, the simplicity of the format, and the ability to circumvent the traditional means of doing it (recording contracts and big labels, New York Times and major media, etc. for blogs) I hope he follows up with some more thoughts on this topic.