| Subject: CDNOW'S TOP 10 OLD SKOOL HIP-HOP ALBUMS |
Author:
JumpinJack AJ
| [ Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 21:24:45 07/31/02 Wed
Hey, here is a lil' feature CDnow has focused on the top 10 classic old skool Hip-Hop albums. It's missing "He's The DJ, I'm The Rapper" but i think they were aiming for late 70's/early 80's. I only own 2 of these but i've come close to getting at least 4 others on this list.
-----------------------------------
The 10 Essential Old-School Hip-Hop Albums
By Tom Pryor
CDNOW Senior Editor, Hip-Hop
Now that the hip-hop nation is a multi-generational phenomenon -- with Lil' Bow Bow and Lil' Romeo comin' up the charts, and Grandmaster Flash and DJ Red Alert plying the expanding "rap oldies" circuit -- it's a good time to look back at the music's beginnings.
For those too young to remember, rap was born in New York in the mid-'70s. Back then, a DJ named Kool Herc was renowned for rocking parties in the parks and basketball courts of the Bronx. His technique was to put two turntables together with a whole lot of speakers and only play the parts of the records that really moved the dancers -- a.k.a. the "breaks." Herc was Jamaican, and though the concept had originated with Jamaica's massive reggae soundsystems, Herc was playing for American audiences and was obliged to play the funk, soul, and disco records they demanded. The result was the birth of the hip-hop aesthetic.
Soon other pioneers, including Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, and Kurtis Blow, would take over, adding MCs and other refinements into the mix, while the Sugar Hill Gang would surprise everyone with the genre's first radio hit in 1979. Within a decade, hip-hop music and culture would be a global phenomenon and a multibillion-dollar industry. While many will tell you that careers in the rap game are short and that fans are notoriously fickle, real heads know -- and respect -- the elders who first gave the game a name back in the day.
We've said our piece, now you tell us yours. Post your own Essentials list on CDNOW Message Boards.
1. Sugar Hill Gang: The Best of Sugar Hill Gang
Though purists contend that the Sugar Hill Gang were really a bunch of bandwagon jumpers from New Jersey with no real connections to hip-hop's uptown roots, there's no denying that the group beat everyone else to the punch with 1979's "Rapper's Delight" -- the first ever rap committed to wax. Originally recorded as a novelty, the song was a runaway radio hit and the album went multi-platinum. "Rapper's Delight" is now considered a classic, and its breezy, nonsense lyrics have become a pop cultural staple, inspiring everyone from The Wedding Singer's "rappin' granny" to Kid Rock's "Bawitdaba." Sadly, the trio of Big Bang Hank, Master Gee, and Wonder Mike could never really live up to their original inspiration and fell off by the mid-'80s.
2. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five: The Best of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five: Message from Beat Street
Born and raised in the South Bronx, Grandmaster Flash (a.k.a. Joseph Saddler) was hip-hop's greatest innovator. He was the first to take DJ Kool Herc's two-turntable technique and add a microphone -- laying down the blueprint for everything that would come after. Additionally, Flash also pioneered many of the techniques -- from crossfades to backspins -- that DJs still use today. In the late '70s, he put together a group of talented MCs -- Mellie Mel, Cowboy, Kid Creole, Mr. Ness, and Raheim -- that became the Furious Five. Together they began to take rap out of the parks and into the clubs. After the surprise success of Sugar Hill's "Rapper's Delight," the crew began to record sides of their own. But Flash didn't make novelty albums. Instead, such records as 1981's Grandmaster Flash and the Wheels of Steel, 1982's The Message, and 1983's "White Lines" single were musically dense and lyrically complex -- planting the seed of social consciousness that would flower in later such acts as Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions.
3. Afrika Bambaataa: Planet Rock
The Bronx's legendary Afrika Bambaataa is one of early hip-hop's most memorable characters. Bam, a.k.a. Kevin Donovan, was a former gang-banger turned DJ whose electro-funk sound, Afrocentric "Zulu Nation" crew, and theatrical stage outfits helped define hip-hop culture in the early '80s. Bam was a formidable DJ, whose jams always attracted the best breakdancers -- his sound was tailor-made of old-school park jams -- lots of James Brown breakbeats and Parliament craziness. But his 1982 studio debut, Planet Rock, was something entirely different. Heavily influenced by German industrial prog-rockers Kraftwerk, Bam used that group's chilly 1977 release Trans Europe Express as the basis for his new "robotic" sound. The result was a groundbreaking record full of sequenced blips and bytes that spoke directly to the young hip-hoppers addicted to the video arcades of Times Square. Today Planet Rock remains one of the most seminal records of the '80s, influencing everyone from the Avalanches to Fischerspooner.
4. Wild Style: Various Artists
If any one film captured the spirit and flavor of the old school era it was this 1983 documentary -- which leaves all the other "rapsploitation" movies, from Breakin' to Beat Street -- in the dust. Produced by Blondie's Chris Stein and directed by downtown filmmaker Charlie Ahearn -- both early hip-hop enthusiasts -- the film takes a close, loving look at early hip-hop life. It captures the full spectrum of the culture, from rap music to breakdancing to graffiti art (including lots of time with the legendary Fab 5 Freddy), just as it was transitioning from uptown parks and rec centers into downtown clubs and art galleries. But for all the bombin', breakin', and buggin' out, Ahearn manages to capture some spectacular performances by such almost-forgotten artists as Busy Bee, Rammellzee & Shock Dell, the Fantastic Freaks, and the brilliant Cold Crush Brothers. No other film -- from Tougher Than Leather to Backstage has ever captured the raw mayhem of a live hip-hop performance so well.
5. Kurtis Blow: Kurtis Blow Presents the History of Rap: Vol. 2
Harlem's Kurtis Blow was one of the first MCs in the game, rapping as early as 1976 in uptown clubs and parks. His style was rudimentary, but his persona was flamboyant, cocky, and larger than life -- qualities that made him one of hip-hop's first stars. Blow was also one of the first rappers to record for a major label -- performing "Christmas Rappin'" for Mercury records in 1979 -- just a few months after "Rapper's Delight" first blew up. Though Blow's career as a rapper fizzled out by the mid-'80s, he had a successful run as a DJ, and elder statesman, lending his name and know-how to Rhino's History of Rap series. This compilation not only contains some of Blow's own greatest hits ("The Breaks," "Christmas Rappin'"), but also classics from such seminal -- if often overlooked -- early rappers as Spoonie Gee. ("Monster Jam"), Love Bug Starski ("Starski Live at the Disco Fever"), and the Treacherous Three ("Feel the Heartbeat").
6. Fat Boys: All Meat No Filler
Although the 1987 "rapsploitation" film Disorderlies might lead you to believe that the Fat Boys were an embarrassing novelty act, back in the day this Brooklyn crew was considered one of rap's finest. Consisting of Prince Markie Dee (a.k.a. Mark Morales), Cool Rockski (a.k.a. Damon Wimbley ), and Buffy (a.k.a. Daren Robinson), the heavyweight trio got their start as the Disco Three, before being discovered at a Radio City talent show. What made them stand out wasn't just their weight, but Buffy's unbelievable human beatboxing -- he took making music with one's mouth to another level. This 1997 retrospective collects material from their earliest, Kurtis Blow-produced albums (1984's Fat Boys, 1985's Fat Boys Are Back) to their best-known 1987 pop crossover, Crushin', to their late 80's and early '90s comeback attempts. All Meat No Filler also includes their hits "Jailhouse Rap," "All You Can Eat," and the bizarre 1987 Beach Boys collaboration "Wipeout." Sadly, Buffy passed away from a heart attack in 1995, making this collection the closet thing to a reunion tour you'll be likely to see.
7. DJ Red Alert: Beats, Rhymes and Battles, Vol. I
Although New York's DJ Red Alert really made his bones during hip-hop's late-'80s "golden era," the radio personality got his start as one of Afrika Bambaataa's protégés. These days, Red is something of a hip-hop historian, compiling such records as last year's Beats, Rhymes, and Battles album -- which takes another look at some of hip-hop's greatest beefs. Of all the beefs, disses, and answer records compiled here, the feud between U.T.F.O. and Roxanne Shanté is both the earliest and the most legendary. In 1983, U.T.F.O. -- three former Whodini backup dancers -- released the "Roxanne, Roxanne" single, which was an instant hit, inspiring a whole mess of imitators and answer records. The best of the bunch came from the teenage Shanté, who's Marly Marl-produced "Roxanne's Revenge" was one of the most famous dis albums ever recorded, generating lots of airplay and spawning more than 100 additional answer records.
8. Run-DMC: Run-DMC
Run-DMC (a.k.a. Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jason Mizell) may have shared stages with some of early hip-hop's biggest names, but the legendary Hollis, Queens, trio represented a quantum leap forward for the music. Their 'round-the-way look of Lee jeans, leather jackets, Kangol hats, and, of course, shell-toe Adidas gave them the appearance of having walked right off the block and up onto the stage -- effectively ending the era of wack leather jump suits and corny Jheri-curled MCs. But their sound was equally revolutionary -- rappers Run and DMC laid down hard, complex rhymes that made almost everything that came before them sound weak and simple by comparison, while their DJ, Jam Master Jay, played only the hardest breaks and the most bombastic beats. The crew's self-titled 1984 debut remains one of hip-hop's watershed albums, and such tracks as "Rock Box," "Sucker MC's," and "It's Like That" still sound fresh and aggressive today.
9. Street Jams Part 3: Hip-Hop from the Top: Various Artists
This compilation collects more than a few of the now out-of-print classics of early hip-hop in one fell swoop. The record kicks off with one of old-school rap's greatest jams ever -- Doug E. Fresh & Slick Rick's 1986 classic "The Show." Though it was a latecomer for the old-school era, it was a vocal tour-de-force, combining Fresh's off-the-hook beatboxing with Rick's masterful storytelling to set a new standard for MCs everywhere. The collection follows this up with a handful of other latter old-school masterpieces, including Whodini's 1984 hit "The Freaks Come Out at Night," which -- along with "Five Minutes of Funk" from their legendary Escape album -- helped lay the groundwork for all the hip-hop/R&B crossovers to come afterward. Rounding out this collection of B-boy classics are "Step Off" from Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and "You Ain't Fresh" by the now-forgotten Boogie Boys.
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
] |
|
Feedback: 