CONCEPT
During the month of Lumas (June 23 – July 22), I began an exploration of Hip Hop. I had three goals:
#1. To listen to a broad spectrum Old School Hip Hop (pre-1985).
#2. To listen to a broad spectrum from the Golden Age (1985-1993).
#3. To take in all four elements (DJing, MCing, B-Boying, and graffiti).
This was, perhaps, over-ambitious, but the divides between the goals are somewhat hazy and arbitrary, so I erred on the side of definition. As it was I wish I would have deemphazied some of #1 (Kurtis Blow and the Sugar Hill Gang) in favor of some of #2 (Big Daddy Kane, etc.). I only dabbled in #3, but I’ve got some prior knowledge of all three, and anyway, I’m living in the birthplace of all these things. When my pocketbook got low, I made it up by listening to some Beastie Boys I already had.
Hopefully I’ll make this up at a later date.
Here’s, then, what I took in:
- Afrika Bambaataa, Planet Rock
- Beastie Boys, Licensed to Ill
- Beastie Boys, Paul’s Boutique
- Beastie Boys, Check Your Head
- Beastie Boys, Ill Communication
- Beastie Boys, Hello Nasty
- Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Adventures on the Wheels of Steel: The Best Of
- Kurtis Blow, The Best Of
- Kurtis Blow Presents the History of Hip Hop, vol. 2
- Kurtis Blow Presents the History of Hip Hop, vol. 3
- LL Cool J, All World: The Best Of
- LL Cool J, Mama Said Knock You Out
- Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
- Run DMC, Greatest Hits
- Sugar Hill Gang, The Best Of
My favorites of the early old school, besides Grandmaster Flash and Bambaataa, which are obvious, were the Sequence and the Funky Four + One More. But Public Enemy was the greatest discovery in this round.
END OF POST.