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DAILY NEBRASKAN
Spoken rhymes become
voice of a generation
Blunt: marijuana
rolled in a cigar
wrapping
Bogart or Bogarde:
to push someone
around or hold onto
something too long
when others want it
Bonin’: sex
Boogie Down
Bronx: Bronx, New
York, the birthplace
of hip-hop rap music
Book: To leave a
situation or place
Boomin’ system:
loud, powerful car
stereo
Boostin’: shoplifting
Booty: butt
Bozack: male sex
organ
Break beat: an
instrumental drum
dominated section of
a song
Buck Wild: to act
rambunctious and
aggressive
Buggin': Com
pletely irrational
behavior
Bust: to do some
thing
Bust a cap: to shoot
a gun
Caddy: Cadillac
Cali: California
Cappin*: to shoot a
gun
Cheeba: marijuana
- By Greg Schick
he Sisco Kid remembers the
_ teen parties given at the old
Hevalo nightclub in the Bronx in
1975. '
The thing that I remember most was
how loud the music was. The sound
overtook you. The place was packed —
a real sweatbox," he said. "Everybody was
lined up around the block."
They had all come to see DJ Kool
Here, an innovative disc jockey from
Kingston, Jamaica, and his posse, the
Hurculords, a dancing crew. Here
became popular for playing party music
and imitating Jamaican toasting, a form
of rhyming and chanting over music.
Kool Here is widely acknowledged as
the first rap DJ.
“I scan the place/I see a very familiar
face/of my mellow: Wallace Dee in the
house/Wallace Dee, freak one for me!"
he said at one of his parties.
Thus started a tradition of speaking
rhymes over a background song.
Other DJs tried to copy Here’s style,
but Herb was fiercely competitive.
Sometimes Grand Master Flash, a
rival rap DJ, would come to the party.
According to Flash, Here would yell
"Grand Master Flash in the house!" over
his mike, and then he'd cut off his treble
and bass and just play the mid-range.
"‘Flash, in order to be a qualified DJ,
there is one thing you must have...
highs!" Here would say.
'Then, Here would crank up his highs
and the high hat would be sizzling," Flash
recalled. “And most of all, Flash,’ he’d
say, ‘you must have... bass!’
Td get so embarrassed that I’d have
to leave. My system couldn’t compare,’
Flash said.
But Grand Master Flash didn’t quit.
Bom in Barbados, Flash worked as a DJ
at parties, and this led to his forming the
Furious Five in 1976. Five rappers —
Cowboy, Melle Mel, Kidd Creole, Rahiem
and Mr. Ness — rapped over Flash’s
backgrounds.
Flash is credited with
inventing the basic
techniques of
cutting and
scratching hip-hop
records.
Another party DJ, Afrika Bambaataa,
was bom and reared in the Bronx. As a
gang member, Bambaataa formed the
Zulu Nation, a gang with a dedication to
music and not mischief, in 1976.
The second half of the 1970s
brought the birth of rap and the advent of
the party DJ. But it wasn’t until the end
of the decade that rappers
began making records.
In the summer of
1979,
Stepper's
Delight" by
the
Sugarhill
Gang was
released. At the
time, many
deemed the disco
backed song a
novelty record, and few
foresaw the future rap
would have.
Kurtis Blowjapped
1979 with his release of
"Christmas Rappin.’" Molded by
pioneer producer Russell
Simmons, Blow became known
as the king of rap and landed the
first major record-label deal ever cut for a
rapper. Blow reigned for the first half of
the ’80s, making party records such as
The Breaks," "8 Million Stories’ and •
"Basketball*
Soon, Brooklyn made its move into
rap. In 1983, the Fat Boys emerged from
Brooklyn to win a rap contest at Radio
' City Music Hall and a music contract to
launch the band's career.
In songs like let's Get Funky," the Fat
Boys dropped other more popular
rappers' names to gain attention.
They'd say, There are many other
crews that rock the show/like Grand
Master Flash and Kurtis Blow/Whodini .
and the Force MDs/Grand Master Melle
Mel and Run-DMC/But it's time to show
you that we also rock/You'H feel the funky
Iliyuilli dll dlUUIHI II 1C UIUUVOU jUbl bldll
to rock and everybody guess
what/homeboys and
girls, we’re gonna
pump it up."
Stetsasonic,
formed in 1981
from the Bedford
Stuyvesantareaof;
Brooklyn, started
recording in 1985
and reached the
height of its
popularity in
1987-88. A third
Brooklyn crew,
Whodini, injected
funk and a
European flavor
to rap in 1983.
East
Flatbush created
Untouchable
Force Organiza
tion, produced by
the soul group Full Force, and the song
“Roxanne, Roxanne" was the crew's tour
de force. Havelock Nelson, author of
“Bring the Noise: A Guide to Rap Music
and Hip Hop Culture," tallied the records
made to respond to “Roxanne, Roxanne"
and their answer records at 102.
The predominant answer song was by
Lolita Gooden, who called herself
Roxanne Shante. The song
“Roxanne’s Revenge"
established Marley Marl as a
producer as well
as turning
Shante into the
queen of fly-girl
badness.
Not to be outdone,
Full Force produced its
own Roxanne, The
Real Roxanne,
supposedly the one who
inspired the original
song. None of the
Roxannes has since
won greater
' popuianiy.
However,
’ the earty ‘80s rap
scene truly was ruled
by Blow and Simmons. As well
as succeeding as a solo act, Blow
produced a group named The Fearless
Four,* which had two rap hits, "Rockin' IT
and ‘Problems of the World Today."
Meanwhile, Simmons was producing Dr.
Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde and Run-DMC.
Run-DMC eventually dethroned Blow.
Originally billed as the "son of Kurtis
Blow," Run was Joseph Simmons,
Russell Simmons' little brother. He
seemed to be the best choice for the
new king.
Bringing rock 'n' roll backgrounds to
its music, Run-DMC released its first
album in 1984. It finally annointed itself
as royalty in the 1985 release "King of
Rock."
I he group s biggest breakthrough
was in 1986 with its album "Raising Hell."
With help from Russell Simmons’ friend
Rick Rubin, the group got Aerosmith to
collaborate with it on a remake of Walk
This Way" and ended up crossing all
kinds of barriers.
The group’s follow-ups of "It’s Tricky"
and "You Be lllin” weren’t as successful
as the Aerosmith team-up, but Run-DMC
had proved that rap was rock and that
everyone could enjoy it. L .
Rick Rubin brought even more juice
to Russell Simmons. The couple called
itself RUSH and its label Def Jam, after
pulling in groups the likes of LL Cool J in
1984, the Beastie Boys in 1986 and
Public Enemy in 1987.
RUSH pulled LL Cool J from Queens,
the same area that spawned Run-DMC.
Bom James Todd Smith, and dubbing
himself Ladies Love Cool James, LL
recorded 1 Need a Bear in 1984 with
the guidance of Rubin. LL went on to
produce hits such as 1 Need Love." And
under the tutelage of producer Marley
Marl, he released his third platinum
album, which included "Mama Said
Knock You Out," “Around the Way Girl"
and "Boomin' System."
Rubin found the Beasties in Money
Makin’ Manhattan. The trio was coming
out of the post-punk scene in New York,
and Rubin helped it find its sound. Not
viewed as real rappers at first, the Beastie
Boys came off with a mocking B-boy
style.
The Beastie Boys screamed out “Fight
for Your Right to Party" in 1987, putting
their debut “Licensed to Ilf over qua
druple platinum and gaining credibility.
After relocating to Los Angeles with
Rubin and his new label Def American,
the group produced a well-built but less
than-acclaimed album "Paul's Boutique."
The band came back strong in 1992
with its live instrument album “Check Your
Head."
In 1987, Rubin found Chuck D and
Flavor Flav working as DJs at Adelphi
University in Hempstead, Long Island,
which up to that time was another
undiscovered area.
Public Enemy, the first radical rap
group, then was formed with Terminator
X as the DJ.
The group rapped about the bad
treatment of African-Americans in the
United States, relations between blacks
and whites and corruption in the
government.
This rap with a message also started
appealing to a wider audience — old
and young, black and white.
Chuck D became the outspoken voice
of the black community and produced
hits such as Tight the Power,' stirring a
new controversy every year with the
government or with Jews who said Public
Enemy was antisemitic. •
Although it seemed Def Jam had a
monopoly on rap, quite the opposite was
true.
In 1986, Doug E Fresh and Slick Rick
put out the hitsingle, The Show,' with the
smash B side, la Di Da Di.’ The two
stopped recording together and moved
on to less smashing solo careers.
Their work has been kept alive by the
sampling of those two songs by
countless groups including Run-DMC,
Color Me Badd, De La Soul, DAS EFX,
LL Cool J and dozens of others who
quote the famous intro ’and it goes a little
somethin’ like this — hit it.'
To challenge LL Cool J’s claim as “the
baddest rapper in the history of rap itself
was Kooi Moe Dee. Originally part of The
Treacherous Three, Moe Dee turned solo
and took LL’s comment personally. Thus
started the continuing battle that
encompassed everything from interviews
to a dis song on almost every album the
two have recorded since.
From the “Boogie Down' Bronx came
Kris Parker (KRS-One) and his crew,
Boogie Down Productions. With pro
Bronx/anti-Queens songs like The Bridge
is Over" and “South Bronx,' BDP became
the first gangsta rappers with their 1986
release of “Cripnal Minded.'
When the crew’s DJ, Scott La Rock,
died, Parker strongly established himself
as “the teacher,' one of the most
