HipHopFavourites

Quora Answer : If you grew up in the late 80s/early 90s, what was the first rap song you heard as a kid that had an impact on you?

Jun 25, 2020

I liked electronic music in the early 80s, which was hard to find except on some pirate radio stations in the UK. So I found early hip-hop (or "electro" as we called it) through looking for stuff with drum machines and obviously electronic synth sounds.

I can't say the very first of these tracks I heard, but some of the earliest that made an impression on me and that I could (later) identify were

Newcleus - Jam On It

UTFO - Leader of the Pack

Herbie Hancock - Rockit

I think it was only when I was an adult in the 90s that I actually definitively heard things like Rappers Delight, Planet Rock etc. and knew what they were. Somehow I recognised the music to Grandmaster Flash's "The Message" but I don't remember hearing the actual rap until well into the 90s.

Although I liked this stuff when it came on the radio, I wasn't part of any group of fans. It was still something kind of alien and unknown. With my friends at school we were more into the harder side of electropop, the emerging "European Body Music" (bands like Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb ... basically stuff around Mute Records)

The first hip-hop tunes that really made me feel "I want to go out and buy this and start listening to this music" was, on one hand, De La Soul. Three Feet High And Rising was the first hip-hop album I bought.

And on the other, listening to John Peel play these Gang Starr tunes on his show :

I think it was these Gang Starr tunes more than anything else that turned me from thinking of electropop / electrogoth as the peak of radical, cutting edge technological music, into someone who thought that hip-hop was the real cutting edge and really exciting music to listen to. Plus acid house was happening which also changed my musical world quite drastically.

Quora Answer : What is your favorite Rap song?

Sep 1, 2018

Digable Planets : Black Ego

The intro / skit is pretty long and, frankly, boring ... just jazzy widdling ...

But hold in there ... with the volume up ... because that moment Mecca, the Ladybug comes in on the first verse is one of the most chillingly beautiful and spine-tingling moments in any piece of music , in any genre, ever.

The first time I heard this (I'd just bought the tape and was listening to it on headphones) I literally had an eargasm at hearing Mecca's mix of ASMR intimacy and black radical self-confidence; all set against that weird desolate cosmic backdrop that makes you feel you're watching nebulae dancing at the heart of the universe.

And then when the drums hit 12 seconds later I was (metaphorically) spurting all over the place. (Apologies for the imagery, but I have a point to make here, people.)

Then it gets boring again ... why do they love that jazzy guitar riff so much?

It gets pretty good again when doodlebug and butterfly do their thing over the verse music. Then the playout it execrable. Unless you like some dude actually doing live jazzy widdling for about 3 unnecessary minutes. (Sorry jazzy guitar dude, I had a friend who loved that part, it just wasn't for me.)

But, really, it's Mecca's first verse which is one of the most sublime, perfect 40 seconds of music ever created by human (or insect) kind.

Quora Answer : What is your favorite rap music video? Why?

Aug 20, 2018

It's hard to love hip-hop videos.

Most of the time they're just "me and my teenage mates goofing off". Or "me and my teenage mates pretending we're either a) gang-bangers, b) billionaires, goofing off". Increasingly, goofing off in some soft-porn fantasy.

There are a few that go beyond that. Anything by Tyler, the Creator is usually pretty striking. Innovatively weird.

I think Danny Brown's "Ain't it Funny" is great. But grim.

Alt. rappers sometimes have some pretty good videos.

But it's definitely hard to "love" them.

Pushed I'd probably say this :

Outkast's B.O.B.

It's not that it's immune from a bunch of hip-hop cliches but Outkast manage to make this look like they're hosting possibly the best party in the galaxy. A party that you'd actually want to go to.

It's full on, high-energy assault from the first few seconds, and never lets up.

It has those amazing, lush inverted colours. Which really does make it look like another planet and does justice to Outkast's ATLien afrofuturist / funkadelic aesthetic.

It feels like it's a community thing, everyone wants to, and can come to this party. Rather than it being some vain exclusive ritual to show off and flatter the egos of the rappers.

Even the girls actually come across like hot girls going to a party to strut their stuff and enjoy themselves, not just bored models faking sexual stimulation. This thing might actually be fun for them.

That white-faced goth /mime girl dancing during BigBOI's verse is awesome. The gold-toothed girl driving the car is awesome. The gospel choir are awesome. The guys drumming on their MPCs are awesome.

It's a whole interstellar carnival where people can be what they want. Communitarian, creative, inclusive, individualistic. While there are several examples of hip-hop videos that aim at this community party vibe, few manage to be quite so spectacular and frenetic. And do it with such verve.