Viernes 22 Feb 2008, 21:12

The description and playlist below are from the weekly radio show (A Brief History Of…) that my friend and I host on WSUM 91.7fm Madison (the University of Wisconsin's radio station). We selected songs we felt were either historically important or just representative of each specific topic. Please comment if you feel we missed something or just to give your opinion. Remember, however, that we do this show in an hour (about 50 minutes of music), so no show will ever be comprehensive. Track length is a major factor in our decisions (shorter is usually better). Thanks!

A Brief History of…Hip-Hop traces the rise of Hip-Hop from the very first Hip-Hop recording to the artist that brought the music to a national audience. Along the way, the show emphasizes that Hip-Hop was at first party music and nothing more. The show also explains the origin of race conflict in Hip-Hop and shows just how fast true DJ-ing was bypassed in favor of remixes.

Here's the playlist from this show (this playlist should be relatively non-controvercial). Just get out of your seat and start dancing!:

Origins in American Beat Poetry and Jamaican Culture:
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised by Gil Scott-Heron (1970). Many people cite American Beat Poetry like Gil Scott-Heron to show that Hip-Hop didn't just come out of nowhere. In my opinion, this music had much less to do with the rise of Hip-Hop than Jamaican culture. DJ Kool Herc was born in Jamaica and transplanted to the Bronx with his family. He brought Jamaican cultural products and ideas like the sound system and "toasting" (talking about how great you are as a DJ). Herc was DJing in the Bronx as early as 1973. Once Afrikaa Bambaataa got a sound system, he and DJ Kool Herc would compete for party-goers in the South Bronx. All of this innovation was tied up with a gang peace (set up by Bambaataa among others) and other social issues that I'm certainly glossing over. By early 1979, bootleg cassettes of Herc and Bambaataa had made it outside the Bronx. Also in mid 1979, record producer Sylvia Robinson found a no-name group of rappers (who weren't really that good) and had them record a song called "Rapper's Delight." But before this new commercial form of Hip-Hop made it to the streets, another rap song, this one from a non-rap group, made the first chart success for a Hip-Hop song:

Hip-Hop was Party Music!!!:
King Tim III (Personality Jock) by Fatback Band (1979). Fatback Band was a Funk band who had been around since the early 70s, but this recording, the first successful rap song, beat "Rapper's Delight" onto the streets by about three weeks.
The Breaks by Kurtis Blow (1980). Disco died for good in 1979 (it continued on, but the sound was a lot more stripped down after 1979 - think "Celebration" by Kool & the Gang). Disco grooves, however, were used as the basis for many early Hip-Hop records. The Disco groove in "The Breaks" gives the song most of its energy, a necessity for party music.
8th Wonder by The Sugarhill Gang (1980). We couldn't play "Rapper's Delight" because it's just too long for the show, but we couldn't neglect the impact of The Sugarhill Gang on popular music. We chose this party anthem and its classic horn hook instead.

The Beginning of the Race Conflict:
Rapture by Blondie (1980). The Clash's "Magnificant Seven" actually beat this song as the first rap recorded by white artists, but Blondie represents much better the real beginning of the race and authenticity debate in Hip-Hop. Blondie came from the affluent art community in New York City (mostly the left-over Punk artists who were still at the forefront of music) and liked the new sound coming from the Bronx. Debbie Harry's attempt at rap was somewhat feeble, but it represented the art community trying to get more exposure for Hip-Hop. Most Black Hip-Hop artists didn't know what to think. On one hand, the music had greater commercial possibility (=$$$$), but it removed the music from its original context and took the music from the community in which it developed. The sense of ownership was strong. Ultimately, Blondie's foray into Hip-Hop had mixed results and left people with mixed feelings. Until Eminem, not much had changed in this regard. Even now in a post-Eminem world, Hip-Hop remains one of the most closed musical forms.

The Beginning of Hip-Hop’s Obsession with Sampling / The Peak of Real DJing:
The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five (1981). Grandmaster Flash got in on the DJ battles by the late 70s and he is generally regarded as the best Hip-Hop DJ ever on live turntables. "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel" was recorded using a triple-deck turntable set-up and mixed eight different records. His ability to match the grooves and tempos without missing a beat was phenomenal. The Wheels of Steel was a club night ocassionally set up at various locations in New York City by Kool Lady Blue, but the term slowly became attached to the DJ equipment used at the shows.
Planet Rock by Afrika Bambaataa & the SoulSonic Force (1982). Afrika Bambaataa mixed a number of songs, including two by Kraftwerk and one by British Progressive Rock band Babe Ruth. Bambaataa was inspired by Kraftwerk and Gary Numan and by adding those influences to a Funk groove, he kicked off the Electro-Funk fad. (We're trying to be fairly comprehensive in general, even if some subgenres get split accross shows. In this case, Man Parrish's "Hip Hop Be-Bop" was included at the end of our Funk show. In this way we managed to get two Electro songs in - which is about the number we feel it deserves relative to the whole expanse of this show - you might disagree. Don't get me wrong, I would love to play more!)
Lesson 1 (The Payoff Mix) by Double Dee & Steinski (1983). Although not the first remix, "Lesson 1 (The Payoff Mix)" is by far the most important. The song mixes snippets of 24 songs, including other Hip-Hop songs. Live DJing could only mix a few tracks at a time (as we already saw, Grandmaster Flash - the very best DJ - mixed eight songs together), but Double Dee & Steinski mixed everything from Little Richard to random speech segments. All producers and DJs afterward had to be able to compete by making remixes of their own and other material. This also evidences the trend that had been with Hip-Hop from the beginning away from its purely live origin toward a purely recorded and produced form. This song marked the end of the classic live DJ (although they never disappeared and Hip-Hop always has had some good ones like Eric B.).

Social Commentary Becomes Common / the Second Wave/Golden Age begins:
It's Like That by Run-D.M.C. (1984). This song marks a transition. The Electro sound of Afrika Bambaataa is still obvious, but the theme is something different. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message" stood out as an anomaly in early Hip-Hop and it was the song that Run-D.M.C. were responding to with "It's Like That." Within a year of this song, Run-D.M.C. had taken Hip-Hop to national success with their version of "Walk This Way." I would argue their lasting impact was in consistently bringing more personal and sometimes socially aware lyrics to Hip-Hop. Unlike "The Message," social commentary stayed with Hip-Hop after "It's Like That." Run-D.M.C. kick off the Golden Age of Rap that lasts until about 1991.