Jazz legend Herbie Hancock and Grandmaster D.St. Knowledge and understanding and respect for Hip Hop and its roots are vital.Īnother successful year for Hip Hop. Hip Hop is first and foremost a culture with five important elements: the b-boys (break dancers), Graffiti/Aerosol artists, MCs, DJs, and the beatboxers. This list targets critical Hip Hop records during the old school era (1979-roughly 1985) before the revolution of 'cut-n-paste' music and Run-D.M.C.'s seminal Hip Hop anthem 'Walk This Way' in 1986.
Later, The Sugar Hill Gang debuted in the summer with Hip Hop's most famous commercial record yet,'Rapper's Delight'.
Artists that laid the template for such aggressive spoken word set to a funky beat include James Brown, Gil Scott-Heron, The Watts Prophets, and The Last Poets.īy the spring of 1979, the first rap record surfaced with funk band The Fatback Band's 'King Tim IIII (Personality Jock)'. The first rappers (called MCs) would rap over funk, reggae, dub, soul, and disco beats and would hold spontaneous rhyming battles that were meant to verbally attack an opponent called 'freestyles' (freestyling and flowing were words used to describe the impromptu vocal delivery). Rap music has always existed as an element of Hip Hop since the culture's birth in the early 1970s.
