Rap 2

A continuation of the Rap pick. This is Volume two, but part of it was around the same time as volume one. Again this is not me claiming these were the best rap songs of the time. Just the ones I was exposed to then and that I liked and played. Obviously Sugarhill Gang was well known at the time. Kurtis Blow had earlier stuff out but Basketball caught my fancy. Whodini and UTFO actually were getting play at our local dance club (on Thursday night - modern night along with the New Wave). Celluloid tracks like World Destruction were getting played alongside PiL. Everyone liked the Fat Boys and rap really started to get popular outside of the hard core crowd. Many still saw this as a fringe genre and wasn't going to last, bringing in Rhino records novelty "Jewish" version of Rapper's Delight (on colored blue vinyl in the shape of a star). Until Run DMC took over. I remember these young college girls we picked up in Santa Cruz who said they could scratch, but really all they did was take the boombox volume and adjusted to the volume in time to the music. Didn't really hurt the cassette of Run DMC they were playing (and it was funny, too.) And besides, they were cute. Fun side story is that I got to meet Run DMC in New York and had them do a drop in for my radio show as I was playing their album. They did it, but weren't very nice about it. Giving me shit for not being black. Right out side the Apollo theatre in Harlem. Made me miss my ride home, so I ended up taking the subway home at 3 am or so. This was before Guiliani cleaned up New York. I want to say October 1985? Real fun.

Rap 2

01 Sugarhill Gang - Rapper's Delight

02 UTFO - Roxanne, Roxanne

03 Whodini - Friends

04 Fat Boys - Jail House Rap

05 Run DMC - Hard Times

06 Kurtis Blow - Basketball

07 The Furious Five vs Sugarhill Gang - Showdown

08 Rock Master Scott & The Dynamic Three - Request Line

09 Time Zone - World Destruction [Extended 12'' Mix]

10 Run DMC - Rock Box

11 Sugarhill Gang - Troy

12 Run DMC - King of Rock

13 Gefilte Joe and the Fish - Napper's Delight