Rap 3

Continuing on with the Rap pick, this is volume three. Some of these tracks I think many people will not even remember, but some of these are now classic tracks. I made this some time ago based on what I was actually listening to, actually exposed to at the time. This all happened fairly quick, it went from being a joke genre (disco rap) getting played nowhere to stations all adding songs. The alternative clubs were playing The Egyptian Lover and the Roof is On Fire next to the Cure. I was still playing Grandmaster and Sugarhill gang, but you could not ignore punk band Beastie Boys changing to rap. And soon after NWA dropped Dopeman! Obviously that changed things a bit. Rap was at the time very masculine oriented with a few exceptions (see upcoming volume with all women rappers). Ice T before his TV career was protesting that women were taking his songs as misogynistic and he claimed they weren't. Lots of sexist stuff starting (remember The Alzeby Inn) We got the smooth LL Cool J and one of my favorites of the time Eric B and Rakim. I loved that they sampled Ofra Haza, which most people had no idea about, but that I loved. I didn't include the novelty rap song at the time Roaches, which had a funny video, but was basically Rumors in disguise. Run DMC also changed things by getting Aerosmith on board, which meant mainstream radio and MTV airplay for them and the Beastie Boys.

Rap 3

01 Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - Gold

02 Timex Social Club - Rumors

03 Rock Master Scott & The Dynamic Three - The Roof Is On Fire (Club DJ)

04 The Egyptian Lover - The Lover (12- Long Mix)

05 LL Cool J - Going Back To Cali

06 Fat Boys - Sex Machine

07 Boogie Boys - A Fly Girl

08 Ice-T - Sex (Club Mix)

09 Run DMC - Walk This Way

10 Sugarhill Gang - Apache (Jump On It)

11 NWA - Dopeman (Remix)

12 Beastie Boys - She's Crafty

13 Eric B And Rakim - Paid In Full (7 Minutes Of Madness Coldcut Remix)

14 UTFO - S.W.A.T. (Get Down)

15 Audio Two - Top Billin'

16 Doug E Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew - La Di Da Di

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 of the 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 outside 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

Rap 1

This is all part of a series of Rap Music. Started yesterday with the Hip Hop Jazz, but that's not where it started for me. My claim is not that these are the "best" rap songs, just my pick. And kind of in the order that I was exposed to the genre. And what I bought as I was listening to Rap. Remember pretty much none of this was available on radio or MTV at the time. You heard about a track and you went to Tower Records to try to find it mixed in with the disco records. For me its started with Birthday Party (not on this pick, but on the Birthday What's The Connection) and then Flash to The Beat. Soon after I discovered 12 inch singles of  White Lines, The Message and Hustlers Convention. Like most young men discovering this music my friends and I memorized the lyrics. At this time I had no idea how much was out there already and had been for years. Some of it I knew as you will see in future volumes of this. But as others were trying to do the lyrics of Sugarhill Gang, we concentrated on "Broken glass everywhere, People pissing on the stairs like they just don't care..." I was visiting New York several times a year around this time and I realized how NY it was. We loved it.

Rap 1

01 Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - Flash To The Beat

02 Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - Freedom

03 Grand Master Melle Mel & The Furious Five - The Truth

04 Grandmaster Melle Mel & The Furious Five - Hustlers Convention

05 Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - Scorpio

06 Grandmaster Melle Mel - White Lines

07 Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - Pump Me Up

08 Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message

09 Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - Survival (Message II)

10 Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - New York New York

11 Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - It's Nasty (Genius Of Love)

12 Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - Step Off

13 Grand Master Melle Mel & The Furious Five - World War III