You Know What This Is!

It's time for a Thursday Ten Spot!!! Yaaaay!

Now you know, (or maybe you don't if you're new here) that I loooves me some Old School hip-hop. I don't always get to talk about it or rehash my memories the way I'd like to, so Today's Ten Spot is the top 'ten' hip hop songs that take me chronologicallee down memory lane.

courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Stroll with me.

1. Rapper's Delight - Sugarhill Gang (1979). My introduction to it all - and arguablee the longest rap record ever recorded by one solitary group. I had never heard anything like it. At this point I was raised on Smokey Robinson (my mom's secret hubby) and my father's arsenal of R&B and Salsa. Out of nowhere came these dirty gritty hard knock poems over syncopated kicks and snares and bass. I died and went to heaven. I can still see the light blue label with the rainbow letters spinning at 33 1/2 rpm (dated myself big time!) on the record player at my aunt's house as we started it over again. 

well i was comin home late one dark afternoon
a reporter stopped me for a interview
she said she's heard stories and she's heard fables
that i'm vicious on the mike and the turntables
this young reporter i did adore
so i rocked a vicious rhyme like i never did before
she said damn fly guy im in love with you
the casanova legend must have been true
i said by the way baby what's your name
said i go by the name of lois lane
and you could be my boyfiend you surely can
just let me quit my boyfriend called superman
i said he's a fairy i do suppoose
flyin through the air in pantyhose
he may be very sexy or even cute
but he looks like a sucker in a blue and red suit
i said you need a man who's got finesse
and his whole name across his chest
he may be able to fly all through the night
but can he rock a party til the early light
he cant satisfy you with his little worm
but i can bust you out with my super sperm
i go do it, i go do it, i go do it, do it , do it

 Perfection.

2. The Message - Grandmaster Flash (1982). This song spawned the best hook to ever capture the mentality and frustration of the Black man trying to make his way in life.

 This was the first of the hard edged, life-ain't-sweet songs that took me out of my picket-fenced mind and put me on to what was reallee going on in the streets - all from the safety of my bedroom.

Don't push me, 'cause I'm close to the ehhhdge. I'm try-in not to lose my head. (Uh-huh-huh-huh-huh). It’s like a jungle sometimes. It makes me wonder how I keep from going under. 

3. The Show - Slick Rick and Dougie Fresh & The Showstoppers - Salt n Pepa (1985). My older cousins used to tape rap songs off the radio late at night and I would rewind and play it over and over. I'd roll thru Dana Dane and Biz Markie and one day I stumbled onto The Show. It was a full-fledged story about this guy checking for a girl who isn't feeling him. Classic. What was important about The Show was again, the storytelling, the beatbox AND it sparked the comeback record by Salt n Pepa that was from the girl's point of view of being hit on by a lame ass dude. Again, classic. LOL. Was there back story? I don't know. But my girl Sharon and I ran out and bought Hot, Cool and Vicious on vinyl the first day it came out.

4. I Need Love - LL Cool J (1985) Sitting right up on the TV, watching Video Music Box, I remember that chick in the video was gonna catch it! 

When I'm alone in my room, sometimes I stare at the wall...And in the back of my mind, I hear my conscience call. Telling me I need a girl who's as sweet as a dove. For the first time in my life, I see I need love.

 *sigh* The first rap love song that I can remember. I just knew he wrote it about me! Ladies Love Cool J. We always have. And we always will. Even though he's from Queens! LOL 

5. My Adidas - Run DMC (1986) - Now, I loved, loved, loved King of Rock and Peter Piper. But when I was in sixth grade Samuel Jones (yes, I used his government!), took the words and flipped it around to make his own version. The name of his song was....wait for it...My Big Penis. LMAO. But even better was his next line: busts through vagina walls...*blink, blink*. I don't think we ever heard the rest of his rendition because we got in trouble with Sr. Lynn for laughing. I can't ever remember the real second line to My Adidas, nor can I hear that song without thinking of that crazy boy!

6. Poetry/The Bridge is Over - Boogie Down Production (1987) - One of my all time favorites. BDP was my go-to. You wanna tell me about your favorite? Whatever. They can't touch mine. Juice Crew? Get outta here with that! I had the Criminal Minded cassette tape playing back, back, forth and forth and there wasn't a word of that entire tape that I didn't memorize. This is where I used to hear the line my mother made famous, "I hope you know your damn school work just as well!" Sadly, I also remember writing in my diary that Scott La Rock had been shot and killed. This was the biggest celebrity drama I had ever witnessed and cried over since the time MJ's hair caught fire on the set of the Pepsi commercial. Don't laugh. I was traumatized!

7. Eric B is President - Eric B & Rakim (1986). The first time I heard it, I went down to my father's stereo system (that was off limits) and sat in front of it with a blank tape that I bought at the Wiz. I trolled the radio stations dying to hear it again. I waited and I waited and I waited and finallee it came on. Except when I was done, the tape unraveled in the tape player. Shortly after I got off punishment, my father bought us (me) our (my) own radio so I could make my own pause tapes without getting into his stuff. Did I mention I'd previouslee broken the door on the tape player, too? And blamed it on my sister? LOL.

7.1.1 Yo! Bum Rush The Show! - Public Enemy (1987) Long before Flav was looking for love on cable television, he was gracing the stage with Chuck D delivering loud, unapologetic, militantly charged music that was designed to wake us up out of our daze. I'd like to say it did, but at fourteen, I can't say that once I turned it off I was any more awake than the next man. But it was good to have the information just in case I decided boys and friends and clothes were going to be put on the back burner.

8. Raw - Big Daddy Kane (1988) - Brooklyn Stand Up!

 Here I am. R-A-W. The terrorist here to bring trouble to phony emcees,  I move on and sieze I just conquer, and stomp another rapper with ease.

Bravado and Brooklyn. He was the dopest at rapid-fire emceeing (even tho he hooked up with the Juice Crew - Booo!). Anytime I was at Fulton Mall, I would venture through Albee Square Mall hoping to catch a glimpse of him. The most I ever got was a peek at Scoob (or maybe it was Scrap) rocking the razor sharp high-top fade! LOL.

8.1.1. Paper Thin - MC Lyte (the dopest emcee that I've heard thus far.) (1988)

When you say you love me, It doesn't matter. It goes through my head as just chit-chatter. You may think it's egotistical and just worry free/But what you say, I take none of it seriously.

I never miss a chance to quote that verse. Some way some how, at least once a year, I'm gonna find a way to stick that somewhere! Dude, take your weak lines and bounce. That's what Lyte hit us with way back in '88 when it was fly to be sassy and fully clothed and smart and not looking for a man to trick off. Her voice was hard and her verses were tight and she was not having it. I wanted to be just like her!

9. Ladies First - Queen Latifah (1989). Lah (if I may be so forward) brought the melody with the girl power! Me love it. I remember she had this song called the Princess of the Posse and I had my walkman, rewinding and memorizing. I don't know how we got on the subject, but this dude was outside my school talking all this junk like you don't know 'bout no hiphop. So I'm telling him he doesn't know about hiphop. I didn't want to play Ladies First, because everyone knew it, so I rewound my lil' cassette and gave it to him, like "This is me. What do you think?" So he listened to it and he smiled. He said, "That's Queen Latifah! What you know about that?" He gave me a pound. I don't remember his name or anything about him except that he was short and light skinned, but I remember feeling vindicated and hyped because my Trump Card was a dope female emcee.

10. Fuck Tha Police - NWA (1990).

I'm expressin' to my full capabilities. Now I'm living in correctional facilities.

I hated NWA! I gave that Efil4zaggin shit away because it was so harsh and I didn't really come from that. Plus they weren't from the NYC area and had a jheri curl and they talked funny! But when I heard Express Yourself on a video show I had to open my eyes. I went back to the Wiz and got another one. What they were talking about was sooo on point with what was going on with Police Brutality and Corruption and in the Black Community and they weren't afraid to say it.

Gotta love it.

If I had to give pioneer awards out it would go to each of these rappers for putting a stamp on the diversity that was hip-hop and a making a contribution to the memories I still hold dear.

Yeah, I know I cheated by making more than ten on my ten spot. Then again, I usuallee do! Besides twelve spot just doesn't sound as good. And then I have the nerve to have honorable mentions. LOL. Love me or leave me!

* Honorable Mention

Paul Revere - Beastie Boys (1986) - I was resistant because hiphop had just begun and the grownups were saying it was a fad. I was sad because I liked it so much and here were these white boys trying to infringe. I remember thinking hiphop was about to be like rock and roll and they were going to come in and do an Elvis on us.

But Rick Rubin played the drums backward or scratched it (or something) to make the beat and put down one of my favorite tracks to ever come out of Def Jam besides Meth and Red's Da Rockwilda. The Beastie Boys solidified their place in my tape collection because above all things they didn't try to be something they weren't and they had a love for the artform in much the same way that Eminem did years later and was even more successful.

I'll House You - Jungle Brothers (1988) - My grandfather used to work at a furniture store on Pitkin Avenue in Brooklyn. One day he brought home this record. He said, "They like these boys' record over there. They sound good." I'll House You put me on to rap over House music. But that wasn't it. Shortlee after, they came out with JimBrowSki introducing the Native Tongues for our eclectic Black Medallion listening pleasure. You couldn't tell me I wasn't gonna meet Afrika and have his lil' light skinned-ded babies!

Yeah, I'm a fool! LOL

What's in your memory playlist?

Happy Thursday!