rap music - where were you when it started?

[whiskeytown]

the compton thread made me think about Rap.

It was 1986 - Rap was starting to make an impression with Run D.M.C. and "Walk this Way" - I'm hearing snippets of it from far away cities/states like Canada - in Montana you couldn't hear Walk This Way unless you wanted to hear the Aerosmith version, which got a LOT of airplay -

so I hear Rumors by the Timex Social Club, and Friends by Whoduni, and find both on a tape called "Rap's Greatest Hits, Vol II" - a compilation put out by Priority records and sold at the local Woolworth's in MT

I was just listening to a lot of hippie music, but somehow some of the tunes on that album were more melodic and more interesting - Old School Rap is like Johnny Cash - you respect the pioneers and it wasn't nearly as Gangsta back then. I remember the Fat Boys - Run DMC had "King of Rock" on there which is a kickass song -

And somewhere in white bread Montana I said to myself "gee, it might be cool to play in a rap band someday"

A rap band - I could not be more redneck if I tried -

wish I still had the tape tho. Introduced me to a world I would little care about but it's stars (like Wyclef Jean) still stay in rotation once in a while on the mp3 player.

bought the Kayne West albums - maybe I'll listen to them someday too.

woolworths - man - a rap cassette in woolworths. That is where the magic begins

RB

[quinn]

Nowadays rap artists coming half-hearted
Commercial like pop, or underground like black markets
[so more importantly]
Where were you the day hip-hop died?

I didn't exist when hip hop started and I didn't appreciate it until it was already dead.

(edited for factuality)

[whiskeytown]

if it died, the zombies are out in full force -

I would argue that no genre is inheriantly dead - they go in and out and purists bring them back -

RB

[Frank TJ Mackey]

Nowhere in your post did you mention where you were when "rap started." Location plz.

[whiskeytown]

apparently Woolworths in NW Montana.

RB

[posnera]

Rap music started for me in fifth grade. My elementary school was involven in a program which taught dance to kids. The head of the program was a well known dancer/choreographer, Jacques D'Amboise. Of course, he spent all of his time with the inner city kids who really were the focus of the program and he shipped his assistant out to deal with the white kids in the suburbs. Anyway, one of the songs we used was Rapper's Delight. This was in 1982.

Location - elementary school gym, Searingtown, NY (Long Island)

[bbones31]

'Is it too early to mourn? Is it too late to ride?'

For myself, it was in elementary school in northern Minnesota listening to my MC Hammer, Kris Kross, and Arrested Development tapes. I really got into it around 8th grade with Bone Thugs n Harmony's 'Crossroads.'(The first rap cd I ever bought, though I almost took it back because there was so much cussing, I guess I didn't want it warping my fragile little mind, lol)

[Dids]

Sleepover in the gym to end 5th grade. A kid had a tape of RUN DMC's Raising Hell. I thought it was amazing. Hooked since then.

In college I wavered a bit, as all my friends were in punk bands my freshman year. Then I met a kid in my dorm, super nice guy, a black/japanese kid who dealt acid. He got me hooked on Wu-Tang and whatever love for hip-hip I had came rushing back.

[Gunny Highway]

I remember the first time I became aware of rap. There was a new black kid in my elementary school. I saw him walking down the hall "beat boxing" and asked the kid next to me why he was spitting in his hand.

[miajag]

The first rap artist/act I remember is the Fat Boys when I was probably 7 or 8 ('88 or '89). Then there was the big NWA/2 Live Crew controversy so that's the first time I really had exposure to it. I think I heard a 2 Live Crew song on the radio over at a friend's house and I was SHOCKED AND APPALLED.