The five subjects we will touch on within that scope are:

1. Scratching / Turntablism
2. Sampling / House Music
3. Lyrical Content vs. 'Rapping'
4. Origin of a Superstar
5. Humor / Beatboxing

Tuesday April 8th 2008

TOP 5 VIDEOS: Significant Moments in Hip-Hop History

The Ballot Box is the Comment Section below.

Please Rock The Vote! Vote for your favorite..(1,2,3,4, or 5) simple as that. If you don't like commenting but had a nice time, feel free to give me thumbs up or join the fanclub.

If you're already thinking about "Walk This Way" by Run DMC & Aerosmith, it's no surprise, the song's importance has been blown up only to include the white masses in the conversation. How can you seriously start talking about Hip-Hop if the first chapter is Aerosmith. Get it? You've all seen it 1000 times anyway so what would be the point? We're going back to the days when the DJ, not the MC had his time in the spotlight. Why? Self interest. :P

Fact: Hip-Hop does not necessarily have to have any rapping on it. #1 & #2 have no real lyrics at all and they are certifiably part of Hip-Hop History. You know me by now. I like to diversify the subjects so as not to hammer the same point or bore any of my loyal audience. Trust me. These videos should be universally entertaining for all people interested in art.

AND THE NOMINEES ARE...

1) The first musician to feature a 'turntablist' in a song was jazz-funk fusion pioneer Herbie Hancock. I could spend a week on Herbie and barely scratch the surface. This video was also one of the first ever to appear on MTV featuring an African-American artist. Grand Wizard DXT was the man behind the turntables scratching records, something that most people had never heard before. That is unless they saw him cutting it up in the only true Hip-Hop movie of it's time, Wild Style. He was also featured in the documentary, Scratch. (2001) The inventor of the scratch however is credited to Grand Wizard Theodore an understandable misconception.

This video is widely regarded as the very first Artistic Music Video. Directed by Godley & Creme, (who's video "Cry" was a TOP 5 Video Winner just a few days ago) this highly conceptualized, suburban robotic sculpture-dance is now part of history. Rockit won five VMAs on MTV in 1984, and MTV's color barrior soon faded away.

In 2005 he recorded a duet album called Possibilities featuring pair-ups with Paul Simon, Jonny Lang, Annie Lennox, John Mayer, Joss Stone, Sting, Santana and many more. Never ceasing to amaze, Herbie Hancock's 2007 Joni Mitchell tribute album, THE JONI LETTERS won him the Grammy for Album of the Year, only the second time a jazz album was ever awarded this honor.

2) This song is so significant in the history of music Sampling that I had to create an entire HUB for it. This is also a milestone record in the history of British House Music as well. For more on sampling...

British 'One-Hit Wonder' M/A/R/R/Swas a collaboration between two different camps of DJs that did not go smoothly at all. The two camps eventually agreed todisagree and make their own short track and the two would be fused together later. That's probably why this song (which has no verses or chorus) never ever gets boring. It's a product of two groups trying to outdo each other. Hey, whatever works. It's all Hip-Hop.

3) Prior to this record, rap songs were silly and playful because the 'rappers' feared the backlash of negative publicity against their artform (which at this point was constantly under attack) in the mainstream media. Keep in mind, this is long before KRS-One and Rakim made intelligent rappers cool.

This was one of the first Hip-Hop songs to really bring the plights of the ghetto to the forefront. Duke Bootee and Grandmaster Melle Mel were members of The Furious Five when they wrote this future classic. Grandmaster Flash who was the DJ in charge of this group wanted no part of this song and did not contribute at all to it. He thought the negativity would ruin the group. It gave them a street cred that was never there before.

Flash was also not on board with Grandmaster Melle Mel's other monster pet project, the cocaine-induced "White Lines". Even though The Message is technically a song by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, the truth is well-known about it's origin. So well known in fact, that in 2007 they became the first Rap group inducted into Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Grandmaster Melle Mel also became the first rapper to win a Grammy for his guest work on Record of the Year "I Feel For You" by Chaka Khan.

Grandmaster Flash was also in the groundbreaking film Wild Style, while Melle Mel was featured in the admittedly weaker film Beat Street.

Their legacy is: Superrappin' '79~~Freedom '80~~The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on The Wheels of Steel '81~~It's Nasty (Genius of Love) '81~~The Message '82~~Scorpio '82~~White Lines (Don't Do It) '83~~New York, New York '83

4) One of the longest and most successful runs by an MC ever, Jay-Z is widely viewed as one of the all-time greats but before he was anybody, he showed up in this video!

The protege of a rapper named Big Jaz, it is no wonder he chose the name Jay-Z. This video came out in 1989, but Jay-Z as a solo artist did not show up on MTV until 1996. So this is Jay-Z seven years before he 'came out the oven'.

Jay-Z details like founding Roc-A-Fella Records, dating Beyonce Knowles, not writing down rhymes ever but rather 'freestyling' everything are all part of the story yes. Ownership in The New Jersey Nets...details,details. All you need to know is the guy has never taken a day off in his life. A TRUE HUSTLER.

Shawn Carter, a/k/a "Hov", "Jigga" and "Ya Boy!" will always be remembered for these massive hits....

• Dead Presidents '96~~
• Can't Knock The Hustle '96~~
• Feelin' It '97~~
• Who You Wit '97~~
• Money Ain't a Thing '98~~
• Can I Get a...'98~~
• Hard Knock Life '98~~
• Jigga What '99 (Guest verse by...duh!....his mentor Big Jaz)~~
• Big Pimpin' 2000~~
• Hey Papi 2000~~
• I Just Wanna Love U (Give It To Me) 2000~~
• Izzo (H.O.V.A.) '01~~
• Girls Girls Girls '01~~
• Excuse Me Miss '03~~
• La La La (Excuse Me Again) '03~~
• Dirt Off Your Shoulder '04~~
• Encore '04~~
• 99 Problems~~....well you get the point!

You can't knock the hustle of The American Gangster!

He's not a businessman, he's a business, man!

Born Marcel Hall in 1964 - Harlem, NY, 'The Biz' was going off real early and played a vital role in the development of Hip-Hop. He helped form Cold Chillin' Records with legendary producer Marley Marl. The clown-prince of Hip-Hop, Biz Markie was also one of the founding fathers of the art-form called beat-boxing where someone can similate a drum beat & record scratching using only their mouth. He did a great beat-box cameo for the electronic group Len on the trackMan Of The Year. He also appeared in Jay-Z's "Girls Girls Girls".

His classic jams are "Nobody Beats The Biz", "Vapors", "Make The Music With Your Mouth", "Pickin' Boogers" and the eternal (everyone's drunk so fu@kit, last jam of the night) song, "Just a Friend"! Drunk people love this song and so will you when you press play as the DJ.