Re: USCHO Music Thread: We All Have A Crush On Shirley Manson
The Three Kings used those forms of music to do what they did, which was just playing breaks and such. But rapping/MCing itself didn't come from disco, that came from rap.
There were also 2 distinctive crowds: the street rap, and the disco rap. The disco rap didn't really mesh with the street rap.
Netflix has an outstanding series "The Evolution Of Hip-Hop" that covers everything from the origins to (as of now) the Biggie/Tupac/ATL (Dirty South) era.
Yes, that series is great.
Even simpler, there is "party rap" and then there is "knuckles rap." Party rap evolved directly from block parties which go all the way back to the '20s in the black community, as in all ethnic communities. These are raucous, welcoming, and fun at least until the drinks flow. They are usually OK if the cops don't come. Even when I lived in podunk Boston, as late as the godawful de-rationated 90s, the local Portuguese still had block parties on the weekends at which all Portuguese music was played and absolutely no English was spoken; however as a party crowd everyone was welcome.
On the other hand there was knuckles rap, at which if you showed your white face you best have had some sort of cred or passport or the evening would not end well for you. Slumming was not encouraged. This was (and I assume is) the atmosphere in the projects and in neighborhoods which completely understand they've been f-cked over in perpetuity by the blue-eyed devil and that includes me and you. These are places where you
want the cops to come.
The former is the stuff that made the radio, and Sugarhill is the pinnacle. The latter are 80% guys who left their guts in the streets or in back rooms of police stations with no recognition. That's Schooly D and hundreds of other artists who would very happily slit a white throat and, in all honesty, have a point. I went to HS with those guys and was both terrified and respectful of them. Though of course, following the Universal Rule, 90% of them were crap too, just like the well-scrubbed suburban whites in the honors classes.
It's true that the rest of the country follows NY: first CA, then the other big cities, and then on down the line, for better or worse. Getting to feel this, even at a huge distance, as it was happening, was thrilling even as we all knew we were not welcome. I had no comprehension or appreciation at all -- I was scared and everybody I knew, white or black or brown, was too. But in a lot of ways to be 14 in 1977 and within a few miles of where this stuff happened was amazing. I got maybe 2% of the feeling and it still made a lifelong impression. What is was like for the people who lived it I can't begin to imagine.
