Best known for the "shave-and-a-haircut" beat that bears his name, Bo Diddley helped build the rhythmic foundations of rock and roll with a string of hits during the mid-1950s. Diddley came out of the Chicago blues scene, but also brought the African American traditions of child game songs, tall-tale telling, and ritualized rounds

of bragging and insults into popular music, making him an early practitioner of rap. Diddley's chunky riffs and early use of distortion and tremolo effects on his unique square guitar were later used in 1960s funk and 1970s heavy metal.

The history of Diddley's beat has been traced to African Yoruba and Kongo cultures in Nigeria, and from there to Cuba, where the clave pattern was the basis for nineteenth century dance hall music. Early New Orleans jazz composer Jelly Roll Morton employed it in "Black Bottom Stomp...