357 lines
21 KiB
Plaintext
357 lines
21 KiB
Plaintext
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| | c o m m u n i c a t i o n s | |
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| |________________________________________________________________| |
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|____________________________________________________________________|
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...presents... Hip-Hop Primer
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by Larry Birnbaum
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and Bill Adler
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>>> a cDc publication.......1991 <<<
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-cDc- CULT OF THE DEAD COW -cDc-
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______________________________________________________________________________
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"Hip-Hop-a Schoolboy's Primer" by Larry Birnbaum
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"I knew what it was because I was going to the technical school for
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electronics. I knew that inside the unit was a single-pole,
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double-throw switch, meaning that when it's in the center it's off.
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When it's to the left you're listening to the left turntable and when
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it's to the right you're listening to the right turntable. I had to
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go to the raw parts shop downtown to find me a single-pole double-
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double-throw switch, some crazy glue to glue this part to my mixer,
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an external amplifier and a headphone. What I did when I had all
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this soldered together, I jumped for joy-I've got it, I've got it,
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I've got it!"
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-Grandmaster Flash, quoted from THE RAP ATTACK by David Toop (South End Press,
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Boston, 1984)
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______________________________________________________________________________
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Before hip-hop there was disco, and disco was the product of technology.
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Disco was the steam hammer that drove John Henry down: it never missed a
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note or dropped a beat, never showed up late, never drank too much, and-once
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the equipment was paid for-worked dirt cheap. It was a club owner's dream, a
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musician's nightmare.
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Rhythm-and-blues players were hardest hit. It was their music, after all,
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that had been discofied, but now only a relative handful were required for
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studio sessions, and even these few had become mere adjuncts to the recording
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process, laying their tracks down separately, one at a time, so that only the
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producer knew the configuration of the final product.
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But disco was not exclusively a producers' medium. Clubs could compete on
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the basis of which had the plushest decor, the gaudiest light show, the most
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powerful speakers, but they all had access to the same records. In the long
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run, the hard-core dance crowd would follow whoever played the strongest cuts
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in the tightest sequence with the smoothest transitions. The disc jockey
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became an artist.
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DJs learned to control the dance floor by manipulating their twin
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turntables. As far back as the early '70s, when disco was still largely an
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underground phenomenon, a Jamaican-born Bronx street spinner named Kool DJ Herc
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discovered that he could extend the instrumental breaks on disco records-
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usually Latin-flavored percussion jams-by alternating between two copies of the
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same disc. One of Herc's listeners, the budding Grandmaster Flash, was
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particularly impressed, but he noticed that Herc's segues were awkward, since
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he cued the records visually, dropping the needle into a likely looking groove
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and hoping it would pick up where the last groove left off. That's when the
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Grandmaster had his flash: with a simple toggle switch and a pair of headphones
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-the kind professional DJs already used-he could break as no one had broken
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before.
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Black club and radio DJs had often talked over the records they played (in
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Jamaica the practice was called "toasting"), but break DJs were just too busy.
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Not only did they transform 20-second breaks into 20-minute cadenzas, but they
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learned to intercut between different records, manually sampling a fanfare,
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glissando, or shouted phrase for use as a percussive riff. The master of
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ceremonies, who at first simply introduced the DJ, became more and more
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prominent-chanting the DJ's praises, putting down his rivals, exhorting the
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dancers to greater exertions. Soon these rhyming, jiving routines evolved into
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full-fledged raps, and MCs began chanting their own praises.
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Pioneering South Bronx DJs like Afrika Bambaata broadened hip-hop's
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horizons by spinning everything from Bob James to Kraftwerk to the Monkees-
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anything with a good break. MCs began to rap continuously, forming "crews"
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of three or four to spell one another. The performances were often taped, and
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the resulting cassettes sold on the street. In order to safeguard their
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sources, DJs soaked off or taped over the labels of their records; sometimes
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they didn't know what they were playing themselves.
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The disco boom was fading fast by the time rap finally hit wax in 1979.
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The first rap record was "King Tim III (Personality Jock)" by the Fatback
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Band, but it was "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang that put rap over
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the top. Although it created an international sensation, "Rapper's Delight"
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was not real hip-hop. Sugarhill Records proprietor Sylvia Robinson, a
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veteran R&B performer and producer, had been turned on to rap by her children;
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she recruited the Sugarhill Gang from among their friends, then used her
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regular studio band-including bassist Doug Wimbish and drummer Keith
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LeBlanc [now in Tackhead]-to copy the instrumental backing of Chic's disco hit
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"Good Times." The Gang's rhymes were mostly borrowed from established Bronx
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crews, and the rhythm track was pure, unadulterated Chic-no breaks, no cuts, no
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mixes.
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Bobby Robinson (no relation to Sylvia), whose career as a Harlem R&B
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producer dated back to doo wop days, quickly jumped on the bandwagon with 12"
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discs by the Treacherous Three and the Funky Four Plus One on his Enjoy label.
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These followed the "Rapper's Delight" formula, with extended raps over a
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Chic-style beat laid down by a studio band-in this case, Pumpkin and Friends.
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The MCs boasted of their verbal prowess, but the sexual rodomontade that made
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"Rapper's Delight" so controversial was kept to a minimum. Enjoy also signed
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Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, but Flash bolted to Sugarhill, where he
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recorded "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel,"
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capturing the collaging techniques of hip-hop on vinyl at last. Flash also
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demonstrated the latest turntable trick-scratching, in which the DJ produced
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sharp rhythmic accents by manually jerking a record back and forth with the
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needle in the groove.
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Meanwhile new rap groups, and independent labels to record them, were
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springing up like weeds. The emphasis was now on rapping rather than breaking,
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and many of the raps were virtually interchangeable, combining sexual
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braggadocio and empty bombast in roughly equal proportions. Kurtis Blow's
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nonchalant humor made "The Breaks" an exception, and his manager Russel
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Simmons' marketing savvy helped make it a hit, but despite its title it was yet
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another example of ersatz hip-hop, with Blow rapping over a studio band track.
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Authentic South Bronx hip-hop finally broke through in a big way in 1982
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with Tommy Boy Records' release of "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaata and the
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Soul Sonic Force. "Bam" was the most eclectic and progressive of the
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first-generation DJs, and his borrowings from European techno-pop caught the
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ear of the white downtown set; together with graffiti and break dancing,
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hip-hop was suddenly chic. Bambaata also led the way in the use of
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electronics, employing a drum synthesizer, or beat box, as well as sequencers
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and samplers. A host of imitators followed in his wake, and the hip-hop scene
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took on the ambiance of a giant video arcade.
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On the heels of Bambaata's "Planet Rock," Grandmaster Flash and the
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Furious Five recorded their masterpiece, "The Message," in a very different
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style. On "Planet Rock" the emphasis was on interlocking, overlapping
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rhythms, with the human voice featured essentially as just another percussion
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instrument; on "The Message," as its name implied, the word was all. Previous
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rappers had improvised or at least pretended to, but MC Melle Mel's eerie,
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streetwise poetry-"Don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge"-was obviously
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written and polished to a high gloss. The haunting, electronically enhanced
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background remained just that-background; Grandmaster Flash himself had little
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to do with the production and soon left the group.
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Although hip-hop chic evaporated almost overnight, the music kept right on
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coming. But its epicenter shifted from the Bronx to Queens as new rappers like
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Run-DMC, the Fat Boys, and LL Cool J came to the fore. Run-DMC added heavy
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metal to hip-hop's arsenal of backing riffs and scored a Top 10 hit with a
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remake of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way," while the Fat Boys' Darren Robinson
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became the Human Beat box, reproducing electronic effects with his mouth. When
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LL Cool J, the first artist signed to Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin's Def Jam
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Records, confirmed the commercial viability of hip-hop with his chart-topping
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album, RADIO, major labels sat up and took notice.
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As the hip-hop sound proliferated, both rhymes and beats became more
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diverse and creative. From putting each other down, rappers graduated to
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putting down women and, ultimately, themselves. But the rampant misogyny of
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hip-hop-a reflection of the ghetto culture that spawned it-did not go
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unchallenged. UTFO's "Roxanne, Roxanne," in which the rapper disses, or
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disparages, a girl who spurned his advances, provoked more than a dozen women's
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answer raps. Similarly Doug E. Fresh's "The Show" drew a tart rejoinder from a
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female duo known as Super Nature, who later resurfaced as Salt-N-Pepa.
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Helped along by such films as WILDSTYLE, BEAT STREET, and KRUSH GROOVE, and by
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the international success of the Beastie Boys, an obnoxious trio of white
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imitators, hip-hop spread across the country and overseas, with performers like
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Philadelphia's menacing Schooly D, Los Angeles' suave Ice-T, and England's
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cheeky Derek B each contributing a distinctive regional twist. Rap was taken
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up by comedians, football players, and Madison Avenue ad-men who used it to
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sell everything from hamburgers to running shoes. Hip-hop's collaging concept
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was adapted by such new music figures as Christian Marclay and Nicolas Collins,
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who brought a touch of artistic respectability to what had been an outlaw
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genre.
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Despite resistance from radio stations and record companies, hip-hop has
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established a firm foothold on the black music market. Today the hip-hop
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scene is more vibrant than ever: rap themes run the gamut from Dana Dane's
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self-deprecating humor to Public Enemy's militant black nationalism, while
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digitally sampled rhythm tracks out-break the fastest turntable mixes. With
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the release of such multi-volume series as Paul Winley's SUPER DISCO BREAKS
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and Lenny Roberts' ULTIMATE BREAKS AND BEATS, the mixmaster's original source
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material is no longer secret; anybody with a pair of turntables, a cassette
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recorder, and a big mouth can now produce his or her own demo tapes.
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Thanks to digital pioneers Erik B. and Rakim, the hottest sound in
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contemporary hip-hop is James Brown, whose records are being appropriated
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almost whole, but Philadelphia groups like the Commodores and O'Jays are
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also back in fashion, and anything from Thin Lizzy to Irving Berlin to
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Gustav Holst is grist fro the sampler. Women rappers have achieved
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unprecedented popularity, with tough, clever raps by Salt-N-Pepa, Roxanne
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Shante (the original "Roxanne" respondent), and MC Lyte riding high on the
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charts. This may be hip-hop's golden age, though according to Def Jam's
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Faith Newman, "People are still unwilling to view this as a viable art
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form." But art form it is, and at least for the time being, it's here to stay.
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As Newman puts it: "Until now everybody was always saying it was gonna die out,
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but it's managed to just grow and change and innovate. And considering the
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current state of pop and R&B music, it's the only innovative popular music out
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there right now."
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______________________________________________________________________________
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"The History" by Bill Adler from _Def Jam Classics Vol. 1_
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The history of rock 'n' roll is as much the history of the great
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independent record labels as it is of the great rockers themselves. Think of
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Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Fasts Domino, James Brown, Little Richard, Stevie
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Wonder, Otis Redding, the Clovers, the Drifters, Run-D.M.C. and dozens of other
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geniuses: the world might never have been exposed to their music if it hadn't
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been for the crapshoot proprietors of Sun, Chess, Imperial, King, Specialty,
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Motown, Stax, Atlantic and Profile.
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Likewise, the chances are very slim indeed that the talents of such
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remarkable figures as L.L. Cool J, the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy and Oran
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"Juice" Jones would ever have seen the light of day if it hadn't been for the
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daring and commitment of Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin as embodied in their
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brainchild, Def Jam Recordings. Indeed, it can be safely argued that Def Jam
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-in league with Columbia Records since the fall of 1985-has changed the face of
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rock 'n' roll in the eighties.
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Russ and Rick met for the first time in the spring of 1984 at a
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trend-setting nightclub in lower Manhattan called Danceteria, one of the few
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places in the city where uptown b-boys and downtown rockers mingled
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comfortably. At the time, Russell was the co-producer (with Larry Smith) of
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Run-D.M.C., and the manager (as the founder and president of Rush Productions)
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of Run-D.M.C., Whodini, Kurtis Blow, Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde, Jimmy Spicer,
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Spyder D and Sparky D. A native of Hollis, Queens, Russ had been involved with
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these rappers as a concert promoter, record promoter and manager since 1977,
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when he was a sophomore sociology major at the City College of New York... a
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full two years before the first rap records even came into existence.
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Rick had grown up in the racially-mixed community of Long Beach, Long
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Island as a fan of hardcore (Black Flag and X), heavy metal and rap. "If the
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white kids had liked hardcore, I would never have gotten involved in rap
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music," he has recalled. "But the fact that new music is stifled, instead of
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embraced, by white teens, is what forced me to like rap. The white kids in
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my school liked the Stones, Sabbath, The Who or Zeppelin-groups that were
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either dead or might as well have been. The black kids in my school were
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always waiting for the new rap record to come out. There was a scene building
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up in rap, but not in hardcore."
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It was his affection and admiration for the records of Run-D.M.C. that
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inspired Rick to produce "It's Yours" by T. LaRock and Jazzy Jay. He was a
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21-year-old student of film and video at New York University at the time, with
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no experience at all as a producer. But he went ahead anyway, reasoning,
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"There is no real way to learn how to produce; you just have to do it. Jazzy
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Jay and T. LaRock didn't come to me; I went to them. I knew they had never
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made a record before and wanted to. I thought I knew how to do it, and did."
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Russell agreed. "I couldn't believe it," he remembers of their first
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meeting. "Rick liked all the same records I did-and they weren't all selling
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either. He understood the music better than most of the people making it."
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It turned out the two shared a love for the same basic sound, the sound
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of a loud rhyme against a hard beat. Or, as Rick has put it: "Russell liked
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beat-oriented material derived from R&B, like Al Green and James Brown, and I
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liked beat-oriented material based in rock, like AC/DC and Aerosmith. In both
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cases, it was dance music that was a reaction against boring disco."
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Rick and Russ got together at the Rush Productions office at 26th Street
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and Broadway in Manhattan and immediately started conspiring. "I never got
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paid on the T. LaRock record, and Russ told me a lot of hard stories about all
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the records that he never got paid for. So I knew that if both of us were to
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continue to make records, then we'd have to do it ourselves," Rick recalled.
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"That way we could promote our groups the way we wanted to, and use the money
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we made to make them bigger-which labels that are only interested in fast money
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won't do."
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It was almost no sooner said than done. Russ and Rick each contributed
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$4000. They then hooked up a manufacturing and distribution system, and by
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November of 1984 they were rolling. A defiant Russell put the music industry
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on notice in a BILLBOARD interview around that time: "The purpose of this
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company is to educate people as to the value of real street music by putting
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out records that nobody in the business would distribute but us."
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Russell knew what the majors didn't: that there was already a large
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audience for this music. A kid like L.L. Cool J, for example, had not only
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grown up with rap, he could scarcely remember a time when it didn't exist.
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He'd been rapping since he was nine years old, and making tapes in the basement
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of his grandmother's house in St. Albans, Queens, from the time he was twelve.
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One of those tapes reached Rick Rubin, who immediately recognized the potential
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in the 16-year-old. The record they made together, "I Need a Beat," was Def
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Jam's first. Released in November of 1984, it had cost $700 to produce and
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went on to sell over 100,000 copies.
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A month later Def Jam released "Rock Hard/The Party's Getting Rough/
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Beastie Groove," by the Beastie Boys. Three young white kids, the Beasties had
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started out in hardcore bands as junior highschoolers in 1979. They released
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several records in that style, but found themselves-as native New Yorkers-
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turning increasingly to rap. Their first experiment with it, released in
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August of 1983 on Rat Cage Records, was called "Cookie Puss." Formally, it is
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a jokey kind of rap record in which a young b-boy makes prank phone calls to a
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real-life ice cream parlor in an attempt to talk to Cookie Puss, which he
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pretends to think is a person and not an ice cream cake. The Beasties
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discovered that they couldn't easily reproduce "Cookie Puss" in concert, so in
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October of 1983 they added Rick "DJ Double R" Rubin to the lineup to scratch up
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the record onstage. By the summer of 1984 the Beasties' show consisted of
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nothing but rap.
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Def Jam went on to release of total of seven singles in slightly less
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than a year. In September of 1985 the company aligned itself with Columbia
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Records, the largest record company in the world. Russell was 27. Rick was
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22.
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In the three years since, Def Jam has seen L.L.'s first album, RADIO,
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"go platinum" (for sales of over one million copies in the U.S.), and his
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second, BIGGER AND DEFFER, go double platinum. The Beasties' LICENSED TO
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ILL, released in November of 1986, quickly established itself as the
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fastest-selling debut album in the history of Columbia Records, and has gone
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on to sell nearly four million copies. Oran "Juice" Jones, a former teen
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jewel thief from Harlem, scored a Top-10 hit on both sides of the Atlantic
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with a sweetly menacing tale of infidelity and revenge entitled "The Rain."
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Public Enemy, who began by styling themselves as "the Black Panthers of rap,"
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released YO, BUM RUSH THE SHOW! early in 1987... and ten months later found
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it chosen the No. 1 Album Of The Year by England's NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS.
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Their second album 1988's IT TAKES A NATION OF MILLIONS TO HOLD US BACK
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earned them a popular following to equal the critical respect they commanded,
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as it quickly leapt in to the No. 1 spot on BILLBOARD's Top Black Albums
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chart.
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What distinguishes Def Jam as it enters its fifth year of life-what
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keeps it on the cutting edge-is the operating philosophy of the label's
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founders. "The difference between our record company and everybody else's is
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that we do what we like," says Russell. "We're not trying ot push anything
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on anybody: 'It's got a feeling. It's good. I like it. It's probably gonna
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sell.'
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"And that's how we make all our records."
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_ _ ____________________________________________________________________
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/((___))\|Demon Roach Undrgrnd.806/794-4362|NIHILISM..............517/546-0585|
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[ x x ] |Paisley Pasture......916/673-8412|Ripco II..............312/528-5020|
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\ / |Tequila Willy's GSC..209/526-3194|The Works.............617/861-8976|
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(' ') |Lunatic Labs.........213/655-0691|Condemned Reality.....618/397-7702|
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(U) |====================================================================|
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.ooM |1991 cDc communications by Birnbaum and Adler 07/20/91-#179|
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\_______/|All Rights Pissed Away. FIVE YEARS of cDc|
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