Playin' the Dozens During the Baroque Era

From the New York Times:

Arts, Briefly
From Scottish Pubs to Streets of the Hood
Compiled by DAVE ITZKOFF
Published: December 29, 2008

Scotland has already given the world Robert Burns, Walter Scott and Donovan, and now an American professor says it is also the birthplace of rap battles. Ferenc Szasz, a professor of history at the University of New Mexico who specializes in American and Scottish culture, says in a new study that the lyrical tradition of battle rap derives from an ancient Caledonian practice called flyting, The Telegraph reported. Examples of flyting, a kind of verbal dueling in which opponents would trade rhyming (and often obscene) insults with each other, date at least as far back as the 16th century; Mr. Szasz said Scottish slaveowners brought the practice to America, where it later evolved into hip-hop. Comparing practitioners of flyting and hip-hop performers, Mr. Szasz said: “Both cultures accord high marks to satire. The skilled use of satire takes this verbal jousting to its ultimate level — one step short of a fistfight.”

So "Scottish slaveowners brought the practice to America, where it later evolved into hip-hop"? Um, we're maybe missing a few steps in the causal chain there, I think...