April 22, 2004
1979: When the Culture Became a Commodity
Renee Graham in the Boston Globe notes the 25th anniversary of Rapper's Delight. The piece is unusually kind to Sylvia Robinson, who is often portrayed as a shady character. I remember she sued Blaze magazine after they noted her reputation for jerking Sugar Hill artists out of their money (immortalized by Naughty by Nature, who were signed to Sugar Hill briefly, in their line "I'm more feared than a Sugar Hill contract").
Hip + hop = one big bang
..."When 'Rapper's Delight' came out, people were caught off guard," says Ahearn, coauthor of "Yes, Yes Y'all." "People like Grandmaster Flash and Grandmaster Caz, who were creative elements of the hip-hop scene in the Bronx, didn't see this coming at all, either because they didn't believe you could make money from it or they didn't have the vision to do something like that."
Music business veteran Sylvia Robinson had the vision. She had her own hits, "Love Is Strange" as half of the 1950s duo Mickey & Sylvia and, in the 1970s, the breathy "Pillow Talk" as a solo artist. With her husband, Joe, she also co-owned All-Platinum Records, a small label in New Jersey. After hearing rappers in New York's late, great club Harlem World, Robinson put together a trio and recorded and released "Rapper's Delight" on her renamed Sugar Hill Records, rap's first important label.
"I think Sylvia Robinson should be given credit for having the will and the insight in making a commercial recording of hip-hop," Ahearn says. "She wasn't someone from the Bronx, she wasn't someone who really knew the players, but I don't think anyone should discredit her for what she did. She was the one who went into a studio and made something that obviously hit the nerve of everybody who listened to it..."
"...It's not like they slickened it up and made something pat and commercial," Ahearn says. "It's ridiculous that anyone would do that in a studio and think anyone would play it - but they did. DJs didn't know what it was or where it came from, but they were definitely swinging with it."
Still, the success of "Rapper's Delight" was not without controversy. Some of its verses were "borrowed," as Fricke put it, from New York rappers Raheim and Grandmaster Caz, who have been largely consigned to hip-hop's shadows. Others were upset that some patched-together crew from New Jersey - not the Bronx or Harlem - was getting the credit for creating hip-hop. As the Sugarhill Gang began touring and appearing on TV, some rap pioneers were left behind.
"They were perceived to be carpetbaggers," Fricke said about the Sugarhill Gang. "One of the things that's striking and depressing about the popular music world is that in just about every genre you go into, the pioneers don't get paid, and there are entrepreneurs who develop the independent record labels that break the music, and those people end up making more money than the artists. It's often the newcomers to the scene who make the money. That's just the way it is - it doesn't make it right, but it's a fact of life..."
There's no doubt Sylvia Robinson changed the course of hip-hop, and its funny to think the path that brought us to sit here having this conversation was paved by an outsider who wormed her way into the culture trying to figure out where the money was.
I wonder how hip-hop would have evolved if she hadn't introduced the formula for packaging it as a mass-produced commercial product, in bite-sized, individually wrapped portions? Would it have remained limited mostly to NY all this time, as a local tradition like Go-Go in DC, or would the world have discovered it sooner or later? Would we have seen the tremendous artistic innovation of the last 20 years if Sylvia hadn't pushed it towards shifting from a strictly live tradition to what is now primarily a studio art, driven by recorded works?
Posted by jsmooth995 at April 22, 2004 10:18 AM
"Behind every fortune there's a crime"
But in order for a genre to be born, there HAS to be a catalytic event that almost everyone universally agrees upon. "Rapper's Delight" despite its history really is the official first true rap track on wax.
"Rapper's Delight" is like "Rock Around The Clock"-- not the first, not the best, but definitely the most heard.
I wonder what Niles Rodgers from Chic thinks about that song, whose music track is basically "Good Times" with rapping over it.
Posted by: Sex at April 22, 2004 02:44 PM
I'm sure Nile must not have been too mad about it, cuz I saw him work Rapper's Delight into Chic's performances of Good Times later on.
Posted by: Jay Smooth at April 22, 2004 02:56 PM
Funny you mention culture becoming a commodity. Just watched "Style Wars", Henry Chalfant's '83 documentary about graffiti. What struck me was that the culture was not, at that point, a commodity. Some of those writers maybe were wishing for it to become a commodity, but it wasn't yet. There seemed to be much more flexability and acceptance, even though it was also a violent and fucked up time in NYC history.
Posted by: The Parasite at April 22, 2004 04:10 PM
deep down i know that hip-hop is not as black and white as it is portrayed. back in the days everyone got down together and there was much more of a meritocracy. the question should be framed as such: can the positive and creative gains of hip hop survive "success?" or will this thing of ours be so prostituted that not even common would want her back? finally, is there a way of re-orienting the goals of our youth, through hip hop, so that they will not be deceived into making poor life choices based on some illusory concept of success? as a former teacher i cant tell you how many students thought school was for losers but if you asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up they would say either a lawyer (or some other "rich" professional) or a rapper or a pro athlete. self destruction, we headed for self destruction.
Posted by: yojimbot at April 22, 2004 05:06 PM
On the topic of education: I used to teach middle school in a bad part of Pasadena (I know, it sounds like a contradiction in terms) and I recall one day when a girl came up to me talking about how she liked Jay-Z because he claimed on wax that he still lived in the ghetto.
I broke it down like this: "One, if Jay still lived in the ghetto he'd be getting robbed every day, and Two, do you think Jay would allow his own mother to continue to live in the poor part of town?"
Later that week, I overheard that same girl schooling her friends with that bit of logic.
KRS-ONE may have helped write "Self Destruction" but he also named one of his albums "Edutainment".
If you're a teacher, you're on the right path. Use your power to mold and shape the kids of today so that they'll use their minds effectively. If it means keeping abreast of their cultural heroes, then that helps. If I didn't listen to rap, I wouldn't have been able to convince her of my point. She would've seen right through it.
Posted by: Sex at April 22, 2004 07:33 PM
Strike 1
"On the topic of education: I used to teach middle school in a bad part of Pasadena"
strike 2
I broke it down like this: "One, if Jay still lived in the ghetto he'd be getting robbed every day,
strike 3
"and Two, do you think Jay would allow his own mother to continue to live in the poor part of town?"
This is the most racist thing I've ever seen on this site.
Posted by: k. orr at April 25, 2004 01:42 PM
k. orr, why is that the most racist thing you've ever seen on this site? Maybe you're joking.
Posted by: The Parasite at April 25, 2004 02:48 PM
Maybe I haven't been on the site that long.
I just assumed if you read this site, you care about hip hop, which implies a real interest in African-American, Latino, and urban culture.
Thus they would have learned something about the reality of African American and Latino life in the city, and would not make those incredibly racist statements
Posted by: k. orr at April 25, 2004 03:55 PM
What exactly is your point k. orr, the fact is that Jay Z does gangsta rap, he brags about his riches and dares any 'nigga' to come get it. If he lived in the ghetto he would need tens of bodyguards around him at all times because he knows he would either get robbed or killed and robbed. Its a reality, the streets of Newyork is not a pretty place to live.
And to reply to yojimbots comment, I think hip-hop whether you believe it or not is one of the primary reasons we as a black people still live in a racist world. Gangsta Rap I believe would serve a higher purpose if it made a more deliberate comment on how negative life can be on the streets, but frankly rap is doing the opposite, rap is telling the world that we as blacks love being thugs, we love getting money illegaly, and love being outcasts. If this weren't the case then why is it that even wealthy blacks wish they lived in the projects and had a taste of gangsta paradise.
Posted by: Biggie at April 26, 2004 02:34 PM
What exactly is your point k. orr, the fact is that Jay Z does gangsta rap, he brags about his riches and dares any 'nigga' to come get it. If he lived in the ghetto he would need tens of bodyguards around him at all times because he knows he would either get robbed or killed and robbed. Its a reality, the streets of Newyork is not a pretty place to live.
And to reply to yojimbots comment, I think hip-hop whether you believe it or not is one of the primary reasons we as a black people still live in a racist world. Gangsta Rap I believe would serve a higher purpose if it made a more deliberate comment on how negative life can be on the streets, but frankly rap is doing the opposite, rap is telling the world that we as blacks love being thugs, we love getting money illegaly, and love being outcasts. If this weren't the case then why is it that even wealthy blacks wish they lived in the projects and had a taste of gangsta paradise.
Posted by: Biggie at April 26, 2004 02:34 PM
"Would we have seen the tremendous artistic innovation of the last 20 years if Sylvia hadn't pushed it towards shifting from a strictly live tradition to what is now primarily a studio art, driven by recorded works?"
I think that someone would've eventually gotten an MC/ DJ in the studio. I think that the people who began applying more traditional song structures to hip hop were much more important.
For a more thorough explanation of the history behind "Rappers Delight" check out "yes yes y'all - an oral history of hip hop's first ten years." I can't recommend this book enough!
Posted by: s>c> at April 26, 2004 04:34 PM
i dont see how saying that jay z wont live in marcy projects b/c he's rich is racist. also, does pasadena have "bad" parts? to me, a bad neighborhood doesnt so much imply black/brown nabe as much as it does crime/drugs. lord knows i've seen enough cops episodes to know that whites live in these "hoods" also. ps i used to live on staten island which is like one gigantic jerry springer show. that is to say, trashy white and full of mullets. and even though im not seeing jay z paper, i have enough to say that i will never, ever live in that hell hole again. keep ya head up biggie, we miss you.
Posted by: yojimbot at April 26, 2004 05:04 PM
I really don't know if ya'll listen to the music or do you just skim thru it.
No offense
This is my first post and I have to say some of ya'll comments are so far off, it's like reading the opinons of educated dumasses.
1. Jay-Z does not make "gangsta rap". he is a hustler that raps and spits game and plays on people's intelligence as well as ignorance. Just cause some one reps the hood, dosen't mean he or she makes gangsta rap. He does so many things that people miss, and if you really don't listen or have some of the same expiriences, he's gonna blow right past you. In a sense, the teacher who told the student taht doesn't live in the hood was telling the thruth, but he/she failed to realize that the "hood" is a mentaliy, which he still represents, thus motivating him to strive to acheive more and keep huslting, at the same time revealing the blueprint and the game to those who choose the life he chose.
2. "I used to teach middle school in a bad part of Pasadena (I know, it sounds like a contradiction in terms)" - That was jk, stop picking words apart.
3. It's 2004, just because your on the net dosen't nessecerily imply that you care about the African American and Latino Culture, because it has spread to other cultures. Some people just like to engage in hip hop and/or the busniess aspect of hip hop, meaning you could be on this site for just tryin be down, or sociall awareness, who cares, cause you actually are open minded enough to engage, period. I was in Korea for a year, in Seoul and they have an area known as Iteawon, which is known a shopping area. Now you have some natives on that side of town who partake in actual elements of hip hop (writing, slang, culture, djing, grafh, etc) and you have some who rep the business element of it (Do all the stereotypical shit to get a dollar outta, really don't give a fuck about hip hop), but in reality, they represent the business aspect of hip hop or the hood, the hustlers who are out there getting money and will sell you anything to get by or ahead. So in reality, they are all hip hop and they have lil and/or no connection to african americans and the latino community, and prolly dont care to, but they're engaging in the culture that has trancended from these AA and latino communities. i personally don't fuck wit'em but they are open minded, thus makin hip hop go on and furthur
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