Frank Zappa was popular in the 60's
A Norwegian man
He was like rappers that came after him and other artists before him
All rap was was music where no one actually sang
All they did was talk over instrumental music
That's the first thing that comes to mind
But there were plenty of other people from different backgrounds and colors
People always just take different styles of music and tweak it and think it's something brand new... But it's really just slightly different.
Before it was called rap (in the 50's) it was called "goofin" by people. Basically a funny funky poetry slam ... Which is all that freestyling is.
(This is what old people in Philly used to tell me)