With the concept of fatherhood looming in the not-so-distant future, getting closer and closer each day, my thoughts as of late have been drifting back and forth. Mainly, I have been thinking on my childhood and what I enjoyed as a boy growing up and wondering if I should expose my future son to some of those things I enjoyed.
Among items of potential sharing is my particular taste in music. I look forward to the time when I can play for my son all the music that I enjoy. It’s what prompted the purchase of the particular piece of (essential) baby apparel shown to the left…the first article of clothing I bought directly for my soon-to-be son Donovan. What can I say? I’m into the golden age of rap.
And….that is exactly what we are going to talk about today. The Old School versus the New School. Which one is which? Where is the deviation? When does old school becomes new school, or better yet, when new school becomes old? I’ll throw my take out there for the interwebs to peruse, as well as a selection of songs that I plan on playing for my child as examples of how (and how not) to rock a rhyme that’s right on time.
First, just in case, let’s establish the timeline here, so that we get a sense of what I mean by “old school”.
Old school hip-hop refers to the time from around 1973 or so to 1984. This period of time saw the birth of hip-hop in the form of block parties in New York City. These parties would be large and thrown by owners of loud, expensive stereo equipment as a way to share with the community. During these parties, DJs would isolate and extend percussion beats, making the songs longer to allow more dancing. Rap music came about as MCs started speaking over these beats. The ultra-competitive nature of these block party DJs led to experimentation of rapping to the beat, culminating to the release of Rapper’s Delight by the Sugarhill Gang, the first song recorded and released by a hip-hop crew, in 1979.
Names like Treacherous Three (with Kool Moe Dee), Kurtis Blow, Fab Five Freddy, Doug E. Fresh, The Fat Boys, The Cold Crush Brothers and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were in the old school scene. The old school hip hop sound was characterized by simpler rapping techniques and a focus on partying and having a good time. However, all that would change with the arrival of a hip-hop group from Hollis, releasing their first single It’s Like That/Sucker MCs in late 1983.
What was this group that almost single-handedly changed the face of hip-hop and ushered in the era of the New School?
Run-D.M.C, of course.
With the release of their first single, followed with the release of their first album, Run-D.M.C changed the way that hip-hop music was portrayed. Up to that point, the old school artists were dressed in the flashy outfits associated with the disco and rock acts of the time and rapping about partying. Run-D.M.C, with their fashion of fedoras, leather jackets and unlaced Adidas shoes, showed a more street sense about them. And, the fusion of hard rock and rap of such singles like Rock Box was a shock from the usual funk and disco-influenced offerings of the past. People sat up and took notice.
Soon, artists like LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, and Public Enemy were following the path blazed by Run-D.M.C. It was truly a golden age for hip-hop. From the 80′s through the 90′s, the diversity of hip-hop help to drive innovation, making artists strive to create quality music in order to stand out in the crowd. This is the time for artists like Queen Latifah, Salt-N-Pepa, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Cypress Hill, Dr. Dre, Eazy E, Ice Cube and Ice T. This was also the time that I remember best. I remember the cassette tape I had of He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper from DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince. I remember screaming at the top of my lungs the hook for Fight For Your Right to Party, among other favorites, from the Beastie Boys album Licensed to Ill. It was, in a word, awesome.
Of course, there are the hits…and there are the misses. The following ten musical selections are a bit of both. Some of these are excellent. Some of these might send shivers down your spine (and not in a good way, either). Nevertheless, all of the following are from the same time period, from 1979 through to the mid 1990′s. In no particular order, let’s get this party started.
10. Rapper’s Delight – Sugarhill Gang
Of course, we start off the list with the grand daddy of rap, Rapper’s Delight. Whether you’re like me and heard this back in the day, or if you heard it for the first time covered in the Adam Sandler movie The Wedding Singer, there is no mistaking that this song is a classic. It is essentially a freestyle rap, with each MC proclaiming his prowess on the mic, tying together two completely disparate stories. If there is ever a perfect example of what old school hip-hop is, this is it.
Rapture, released in 1981, was the first hip-hop music video to be played on MTV. This song is not considered a straight up rap, since Debbie Harry actually did sing on the track, but it is considered one of the first hip-hop songs to receive national airplay. Some of rap’s forefathers are mentioned directly, namely Fab Five Freddy and Grandmaster Flash. However, the rhymes in Debbie’s rap make little to no sense in relationship to the rest of the song. With men from Mars eating cars, bars and guitars, I fail to see the point on how it relates to the concept of rapture at all. The rhymes are simple and the beats rather unimaginative. It did do its part to get hip-hop out in the public’s eye, allowing the chance for better offerings to see the light of day.
8. The Message – Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
Released in 1982, The Message was written and performed by Sugar Hill session musician Ed “Duke Bootee” Fletcher and Furious Five MC Melle Mel. Grandmaster Flash and the rest of the Furious Five were not interested in the song and had no part in the finished record. However, The Message has went on to be one of the most sampled rap songs ever, with everything from the synthesizer riff to the chorus to the lyrics. The song was so influential that it was chosen to be archived in the National Recording Registry in 2002, the first year of archival, by the Library of Congress, making it the first hip hop recording ever to receive this honor.
7. Sucker MCs – Run-D.M.C.
With this single, Run-D.M.C. announced that school is in session. New school, that is. The hard rock beats and aggressive rhymes were a break from the normal light funk sound that previous rappers were using. The success of the single fueled the creation of the eponymous debut album and helped to set up Run-D.M.C. as masters of their domain.
6. Just a Friend – Biz Markie
Biz Markie – Just A Friend
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For some reason, Just a Friend by Biz Markie was a hit. I am not sure why exactly this particular one-hit wonder, released in 1989, was the one song that America latched onto by the rapper, reaching to number 9 on the Billboard charts. The chorus is horribly sung and the rhyming, while good, is certainly not on the same level as other hip-hop artists at the time. I personally feel that it was the train-wreck quality of the chorus line that caught people’s attention. That, and the visual of seeing Biz Markie in a powdered wig singing that hook badly was enough to produce the radio rubberneck affect that must have accounted for the song placing on the Billboard list in the first place.
5. No Sleep Till Brooklyn – Beastie Boys
Released in 1987 on the debut studio album Licensed to Ill, the Beastie Boys took T.N.T. by AC/DC, threw in some guitar riffs and solos played by Slayer guitarist Kerry King and produced one of best known hip-hop anthems ever. It was this track as well as others like Girls, Brass Monkey and the ever-popular (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!) that made the Licensed to Ill album one of the most entertaining albums of my youth.
Yes, I went there. Ice Ice Baby was released in 1989 and written by Vanilla Ice, aka Robert Van Winkle, when he was 16 years old. The song samples the bassline for Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie rather obviously, though at first they did not receive credit or royalties for the sample until later. The song was the first hip hop single to top the Billboard charts. However, it was also the single that caused the public to start seeing Vanilla Ice as a novelty pop act rather than a legitimate hip-hop artist, causing his popularity to decline with the mainstream audience. The song was voted 5th in the 50 worst songs ever by Blender magazine and the video was ‘retired’ on the MTV special 25 Lame, as one of the lamest videos ever. Take a look at the video linked above, and you can get an idea as to why it was retired.
3. Parents Just Don’t Understand – DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince
This is the song that made Will Smith famous. How so? Well, released in 1989, this single was the first song to win the Grammy for Best Rap Performance. The success from the single, and the album He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper, helped to get Will Smith his own show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, where the song is referenced in four separate episodes. This was one of my favorite songs on the album, appealing to the teenager I was at the time.
2. U Can’t Touch This – MC Hammer
In 1990, you could not go anywhere and not hear MC Hammer’s U Can’t Touch This on the radio. It was mainly this single that cause Hammer’s album Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt Em to sell over ten million copies, one of which was to me in the form of a cassette tape. It received the Grammy for Best R&B Song and Best Rap Solo Performance in 1991, the first song to win in the new Rap Solo Performance category. And…it was this video that is to blame for the parachute pant craze of the early 90′s. Still, despite the video, or because of it, the song has gone on to become a hip-hop staple, with homages to it performed by Weird Al Yankovic and the television shows Glee and Family Guy.
1. Walk This Way – Run-D.M.C. & Aerosmith
Not only did Run-D.M.C., with their cover of Walk This Way in 1986, helped to break rap into mainstream popular music, but it also revitalized Aerosmith’s career by bringing them back into mainstream pop culture after recovering from several years of drug and alcohol addiction. The collaboration was the first rap song to break the top 5 of the Billboard’s Top 100 list by reaching the 4th spot, charting higher than the original version. It sent Run-D.M.C. into mainstream stardom, started the trend of rap/sung collaboration and introduced a fusion of hip-hop and rock that would later become known as rap rock, all in one fell swoop. It also prompted pop acts to start using hip-hop elements in their sound, changing the landscape of music going forward.
The list above demonstrates only a small sample of the evolution of hip-hop. From the basic block-party rapping of the Sugarhill Gang to the innovation of Run-D.M.C., the music artists of today would not be nearly as entertaining without the music created during the golden age of hip-hop.
I am a student of both schools. The old and the new.
I have a feeling my son will be, too.
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