greetings!
gonna try out a new thing here, give ya FIVE FOR FRIDAY- don't know if that's a thing already, but let's try it out!
im a pretty big music geek, been buying records and DJing for 20 years now, and have done college radio for 15+, so im gonna try to share some of that experience with all you hivers!
I'm gonna give a list of 5 ESSENTIAL tracks, with links to the song, or video....
this installment, i choose the topic of:
EARLY 80S OLD SCHOOL HIP HOP
now, I'm not here to give you "rappers delight," you can check out vh1 or something for that one...im gonna focus on stuff a little more under the radar here, from 1980 to 1982...
no ranking, just 5 amazing tracks to share the 🎵💚
Brother D and the Collective Effort
"how we gonna make the black nation rise"
1980
this song is so good, it gives me chills. listen to the words, it sounds like it could have been written this summer. this song actually predates "the message" by The Furious Five, which is basically known as the first gritty real tale of the reality of the new york streets, prior to that, hip hop was primarily for party jams.
also noteworthy, is this was a time before samplers was a thing ( hard to imagine right? ) but they did use that old disco song "got to be real" as a main musical theme.
Grandmaster Flash, "the adventures of grandmaster flash on the wheels of steel"
1981
GMF was basically the Michael Jordan, or Nikola Tesla of DJs. he pioneered, or advanced many techniques, even building his own frankenstein DJ sound systems and modifying his mixer for headphone cue outputs.
alas, his story is rather tragic, as he got the serious shaft from his record label, sugarhill- the first to realize that rappers are more marketable than dj's(also music rights concerns since MCs just rapped over existing records. how could a label sell other peoples music)
he actually got cut out of his own band and couldnt use his own name for several years, had to sue for it back. he had some serious drug problems but emerged from all that. i highly recommend his autobiography to anyone that would be interested.
The Fearless Four
"rockin it"
1982
i actually don't know too much about the fearless four, as they only had a handful of singles, and an album from the 90s (i guess) but this is definitely a stand out track from a crew that was around since 1977. unfortunately, almost none of the very early hip hop pioneers have many recordings, but there are some tapes of random house parties and street jams out there. thanks to the internet, you can track down some of the old battles and parties out there - hardly a mountain of evidence, but worth the journey digging. to be there in those early years must have been truly witnessing some magic.
Wuf ticket
"Ya Mama"
1982
this is a playful battle song (or at least battle parody) where the two rappers go back and forth, trying to make fun of each other...and their mamas. it never gets very serious, just a funky and fun cut. this is another group i don't know much about, they only put out one or two other singles after this one, which was a moderate hit.
Funky 4 + 1
"that's the joint"
1980
one of, if not the first groups with a female MC, they showcase excellent vocal interplay, keeping the energy very high. they are known the first hip hop group to appear on television, Debbie Harry brought them on to play Saturday Night Live when she hosted it. SNL was a little more adventurous back then ( heck even sun ra played on snl in the 70s, imagine a free jazz band on there now??)
like most of these groups, they seemed to just disappear after the early 80s....hip hop changed so fast in that first decade, a trend that continues to this day.
just for fun and a plus one, here's a clip of the group performing live from 1980
the early years of hip hop were definitely the purest, before the major labels came in to make money, manufacture and sell a product.
they truly don't make music like they used to!
thanks for checking this out, i hope you learned something, or at least checked out some great music! i hope to do this again in the future.
feel free to follow me, i have been posting some eclectic mixes...and some weird music and video art that i make myself.