It was a transformative moment for hip-hop. The opening scene from 1983’s “Flashdance” is largely responsible for the spread of breaking - and all associated stereotypes - around the country,and eventually the world.ĭancing to the Jimmy Castor Bunch’s “Just Begun,” Rocksteady Crew famously performed breaking and locking on a cardboard box in front of a small crowded walkway. It’s only in recent years that rap has moved past the gangsta rap sound. Highlighting and sometimes glamorizing the ugliest parts of urban life, the West’s ascension took the lyrical content of “The Message” to a whole other level.īy the mid-’90s gangsta rap was the primary form of rap.

However, the momentum of the West and gangsta rap was largely responsible for rap’s first lyrical renaissance. This single effect may be counted as one of the worst things to happen to the genre. The controversy and popularity surrounding the music coming from the West during this period would prove strong enough to solidify rap’s position as the dominant mainstream expression of hip-hop as a whole, forever pushing breaking, graffiti and even DJing toward the fringes. debuted “Straight Outta Compton” rap would never be the same. Inspired in large part by the work of Ice T, the West Coast gangsta rap movement changed the landscape of rap music forever. Thus, “Rapper’s Delight” is also one of the most insidious examples of biting in hip-hop.įab Five Freddie Collabs With Blondie Hank literally spells out Casanova Fly’s name in the verse. Big Bank Hank, one of three Sugar Hill emcees, was a former music manager, and would go on to gain instant fame off the success of “Rapper’s Delight,” but he did so without ever crediting Casanova Fly, of the Cold Crush Brothers, from who he took his lyrics for the second verse of the song. First off, in the eyes of the early hip-hop community the Sugar Hill Gang was lacking in credibility, they were a group quickly put together by Sylvia Robinson, the owner of Sugar Hill Records, and not part of any respected crews that were dancing or rapping at the time. Prior to the song’s 1979 release, only a handful of music featuring the rap style were making rounds on the airwaves.ĭespite the song’s success, it had somewhat dubious beginnings. ”Rapper’s Delight” was the one hit that took rap out of New York and around the world. There are few, if any, rap records more popular than Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper's Delight.” Together with Kool Herc, Bambaataa and the Zulu movement are the progenitors of everything we love about hip-hop today. The angst and conflict of gang brawls and shootings was channeled into the creative elements of hip-hop.īambaataa himself would go on to enjoy a several years of commercial success as one of the first emcees to utilizes the newest element at the time, rap.

Though largely lost on most hip-hop heads in the U.S., Zulu’s legacy is a unified community with an aversion to physical violence. Zulu would go on to streamline the idea of hip-hop’s five elements and become the largest crew around. He co-opted his own gang and several others into the Universal Zulu Nation, a massive collective of street kids and (now ex) gangbangers. The trip was transformative, and Bambaataa, a prominent figure in New York’s gang culture, returned determined to change the trend of death and vice in his community. Shortly after Kool Herc began throwing the legendary block parties that would birth hip-hop culture, Kevin Donovan, better know as Afrika Bambaataa, was returning from a pilgrimage of sorts in Africa.

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