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80's Hip Hop
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fervouredimageFree Member
Feeling a bit nostalgic at the moment and watched Wild Style and Style Wars last night which has sparked my interest in Hip Hop from the 80’s. I only have a vague recollection of it from the time as I was just a bit too young to appreciate it.
So, could some afficionados point me in the right direction in rediscovering 80’s Hip Hop. Don’t really know where to start.
kayla1Free MemberRun DMC, Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, NWA and have a watch of ‘Fear of a Black Hat’ if you can find it.
Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition
Latest Singletrack VideosFresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...binnersFull MemberWell worth reading this
If you can track down the CD too, then it’s got some quality tunes – not the obvious ones – selections and commentary by Cool Herc
bikebouyFree MemberIf you ain’t into a lot of searching these series of compilations are a good place to start..
DiscJockeyFree MemberIf you’re interested in hearing the original stuff from the pioneers of that music scene, then you need to read a book called ‘Rap Attack’ written by David Toop.
There were quite a few good records made in the late 70’s, a good 10 years before all the gangsta rap rubbish.
You might find that some of the early stuff from the early eighties is more like electro, but that’s what was being listened to at the time, especially early break-dance parties (avoid any films made about this !).
Obviously this will be an opinionated subject, but I consider the best early ‘hip-hop’ record to be ‘The Message’ by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. It’s also worth hearing, also from 1982, ‘Planet Rock’ by the Soulsonic Force.
tenfootFull MemberSee if you can get access to the Streetsounds Electro albums.
There was a lot of electro on there, as the name suggests, but there was plenty of hip-hop – Run DMC, Roxanne Shante, Bambaataa, UTFO.
Some classic electro on there too such as West Street Mob, Newcleus, Herbie Hancock, Davy DMX, Arthur Baker (Breakers Revenge)…………………happy days
binnersFull MemberCheck out some decent british stuff too, including some Nu skool funk
[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IgCKPiCWRdg[/video]
We rock Hard is a superb album with the subwoofer up to eleven! 🙂
[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1F2HGNYIYUc[/video]
porlusFree MemberWas going to mention the electro compilation records. Had a few on vinyl and tape when I was a kid. If you go on YouTube someone has made them all available for streaming. Good for a nostalgic couple of hours.
binnersFull MemberStill got all my Electro’s and Street Sounds album on vinyl.
I first watched Style Wars when I was about 15 and it was an absolute epiphany. This led to a lot of my pieces on the bridges and subways of the North west, some very unhappy parents when I was inevitably arrested for criminal damage, when going back to finish off the final outline on a 20ft wall to wall, I’d spent 2 whole nights on. Did plenty for my credibility at school though 🙂 And it’s also the main reason I ended up as a designer and illustrator. I honed my style with a dust mask on and a spray can in my hand. Ended up with a career out of it, so worth the record I suppose 🙂
This bloke was my hero….
An absolute legend!!!
[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wdbdb1IKD4[/video]
I still do the odd bit of wild style for the kids 😀
EuroFree MemberSee if you can get access to the Streetsounds Electro albums.
Wish i still had mine. Mostly good stuff on them. Stupidly gave all my vinyl to a friend who was into mixing :oops:.
Very early DMC mix records are brilliant (probably impossible to get mind you).
No mention of Mantronix???
yunkiFree MemberHeh!.. Never had you pinned as an old head binners!
I also had the electro albums, along with a heavy dose of funk as my soundtrack to graffiti nights and days spent breakdancing on a square of lino in the city’s high street.. Graffiti and dancing were my thing, and I was always lucky enough to be surrounded by top notch DJs so my musical knowledge is shamefully lacking..
My graffiti apprenticeship was cut short when many of our crew were swept up in the infamous Operation Anderson of 1989 where kids mums houses got their doors kicked down in dawn raids, unique and irreplaceable photographic archives from all over the world, along with countless original artworks that would have great historical value considering how things eventually turned out, were seized and destroyed and teenaged boys faced prison and the threat of having to pay millions of quidsworth of damages individually!I was picked up myself in the weeks that followed, but evaded charges.. It was enough to make me consider a different career path to avoid breaking my mum’s heart..
The bug never really left me though, and graffiti, funk and old school hip hop are still the defining culture in my family home..fervouredimageFree MemberThanks all. Some great stuff to get started with there. Fantastic stuff – nostalgia overload.
binners – any examples of some of you work – current or from ‘back in the day’?
EuroFree MemberSome kindred spirits in here. Breakin’ ‘n’ bombin’ 😀
My mate Gee (Stix) and me (Zone) were… Bad Company. Signed our pieces Stix ‘n’ Zone Will Break Yo Bones. Seemed pretty cool at the time 😆 . Started off bombing subways, skateparks anywhere really and ended up doing murals in peoples houses and clubs. Must see if i can dig out some pics of pieces (honestly don’t think i have any though) from the 80s. Do have these that someone took and stuck on facebob – our first homemade halfpipe mid build, circa ’87 (me on the right with the lightsabre 8) and testing the ramp when it was done.
p.s. Also ended up as a graphic designer (or tarter-upper as i prefer to call it)
binnersFull MemberI’ll have to see if I can did up some pictures of my pieces from back in the day. If you traveled by train anywhere around manchester in the mid and late 80’s you’ll have seen my work. I’ve still got my old Adidas top with ‘Graffit Art Stylists’ (our old crew) painted on the back of it in Wildstyle.
This thread is great! I’m gettingg proper nostalgic 😀 Loving your work Euro. Got any of your recent stuff?
Yunki – I’d go as far as to say that the graffiti made me who I am. I was painfully shy when I was at school. When I discovered Hip Hop and more importantly graffiti, it changed my life. I was always drawing stuff, but I’d never had a focus for it. Wild style and style wars were an enormous influence on my life. From then on I spent my time (when I wasn’t BMXing) sketching pieces, planning, then bombing the bridges and subways, all night at weekends. Did loads of pieces on mates walls.
I’ve never really stopped. I just do it on a Mac nowadays. I’d bloody love to go and do a subway now. Nowadays I could even afford the paint, as opposed to the old routine of bunking off school, and ‘liberating’ them from B&Q 😉
fervouredimage – you must have seen my stuff on here. I’m not shy of posting it up. I try to do the Monday Night Pub Ride graphic every week. Heres last one of my illustrations…
a picture of Chipps, Singletracks esteemed Editor…
T shirt print…
More bike stuff. This is an A1 framed print…
Non bike stuff. The is one of the print and greetings cards designs I’ve done for the local railway
I hope you can still see I’m just an ageing bomber through the style and colour. More of my stuff here
Sorry if I’ve dragged it a bit off topic 😀
qwertyFree MemberGrand Master Melle Mel & the Furious Five with World War Three:
Life is a Game of Business
And in the end we sight (swear to god)
The new and old are bought and sold
And everybody thinks they’re rightWar is a game of business
A game we shouldn’t play (swear to god)
Cause men with guns killed all our sons
They blew us all awayThey Called it
World (Paranoina!)
War (it’s Almost Over)
3 (Cause Nobody Hears what the People Say)Realistcally the Bombs are ready
Technically, Nuclear by name
Capability of total Destruction
Radioactive death and flame
There is talk of a firey doom
Prophesied since the dawn of time
In a world of bloodshed, mass confusion
Killer diseases, Pollution and Crime
Man is in Conflict with nature
And that is why there’s so much sin
Mother nature’s delicate balance will fix it so nobody winsIn World (Catastrofic)
War (Reaganomic)
3 (and nobody hears what the people say)World (it’s Atomic)
War (catastrofic)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha haA thousand miles away from home
A mortally wounded soldier dies
And on the blood stained battlefield
His life flashes before his eyes
Before he dies the man saw jesus
And jesus christ took his hand
And on the soldier’s dying breath
The good lord took him to the promised landCause there’s.. No (people living)
More (People Dying)
Pain (Everybody Disappeared)[Hook:]
Breakdown, Pain
1984, See the world at war
Your darkest fears of reality are knockin’ down your door
Drones and mutations, Clones and deviations
And there’s no one that can escape the nuclear revelationBecause
[Hook:]
The silver moon, the midnight stars, jupiter collides with mars
And out of the darkness spirits roar
To cast revenge on the earth once more
The leaders of the world are hypnotized
By wizards, dark and in disguise
Brought to earth by an evil hand
To devour souls in a brand new land
They let the leader think that war brings peace
And out come the one with the mark of the beast
There’s evil behind closed doors
In the year of 1984[Hook:]
Long ago and all too soon
2 different wars fought on the moon
One put (creators?) on it first
Then we blew futher in the universe
Both of these were nuclear wars
Breaking universal laws
Then falling stars and meteorites
Dropped to earth by day and night
Twisters, earthquakes, hurricanes
Volcanos, drops and torrential rain
Then one day, the UFO’s
Came to see the whole world explode
We will pay the ultimate price
And a lesson is to be learned
When we play with nuclear fire
Everybody’s gonna get burned[Hook:]
Pain! Pain! (so let the music play on)
Between the boundaries of time and space
Was the planet earth and the human race
A world alive and centuries old
With veins of diamonds, silver and gold
Snow capped mountains over looked the land
And the deep blue sea made love with the sand
Full grown strands of evergreen hair
Kissed the sky with a breath of air
Where exotic fish once swam in the sea
And the eagles soared in the sky so free
But the foolish clan that walked the land
Was the creature, that they called man
They’re cannibalistic, paranoid fools
Tricking each other with games and rules
Training their men to kill and fight
Moving and stearing their mechanized might
Only thought that man had in mind
Was to conquer the world and the rest of mankind
And with the thought that they were right
They gave you permission to take a man’s life
The ones you killed fought just as hard
Then you even had the nerve to pray to god
But god don’t wanna hear all your mess
When you ain’t the one that he laid to rest
The devil’s children with no disgrace
Crushed and killed the human race
While they got rich off the games and war
What in the hell were you fighting for
A silly ass metal, a stupid parade
For all those innocent people you slaid
And after that, you couldn’t even get a job
Cause fighting that war made you a slob
A seargeant and major, a corporal, Lieutenant
Titles and positions were all invented
You, and me, and all this mess
Are just a bunch of pieces in a game of chess
It’s all the same, a third world war
A blood thirsty massacre just like before
It’s genocide, three billion tears
Feeding on a war every twenty years
Then one day we heard the sound
Of the whole damn world tumbling down
Just one big boom, and what do you know
The world is a ghetto, high and low
Crumbling buildings all around
Man’s creation burned to the ground
Chaos, panic, fear and pain
Days of radioactive rain
Grotesque figures burned alive
Miraculously seem to survive
Everything of reality is the science fiction on TV
Mutant dog and sabertoothed rats
Eat men with guns and baseball bats
The dead won’t die, the (rudie?) won’t cry
And everybody’s asking the question “why”
Until swarms of millions walk from the city
And thousands more went underground below
With their head held down in their own pity
Wondering where, they do not know
Cause in this game we had a chance
But we blew it for cheap thrills and romance
Maybe one day we’ll get another play
But until then remember what i say[Hook:]
One of my favorite tunes, fantastic lyrics & message, beats all that gang shite into a pulp.
Check out their other stuff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandmaster_Flash_and_the_Furious_Five
fervouredimageFree MemberI’ve seen a few bits and pieces of your stuff on here Binners but I hadn’t realised you did it for a living.
Really like the Downhill print. Do you sell prints of these?
EuroFree MemberSorry for the hijack OP, but i’m playing my ‘3 Pillars’ joker. Maybe we should do a new thread titled ‘things you made yonks ago!’
Cheers Binners, some nice stuff there yourself and still into bombing i see 😀 I gave up keeping any design stuff years ago. I suppose i really should but most of it is fairly bland stuff that pays the bills, then on to the next one.
I do wish i had more pics from BITD though. Hardly any of me riding my bike or of the pieces we did. But…
Euro – quoting himself…Must see if i can dig out some pics of pieces (honestly don’t think i have any though) from the 80s.
I had a rummage and found a few lo-fi pics of a couple of solo efforts. We did our best stuff as a duo, mind you.
One of my first and most memorable. Not because it’s good (it’s shit tbh) but it was a freezing winters night/morn with very heavy fog. The nearest light was orange which made choosing colours very hard (everything was various shades of brown 😆 ). Add in the fact that i had to shake each can for ages due to the cold and, at the time, the ‘troubles’ were flaring up again so there was a constant stream of soldiers driving up and down the road (which i kinda had to hide from). It took forever and i’d no idea what it looked like until the next morning.
An ‘action’ shot for Portglenone skatepark (’88). And a finished pic too – really crappy image as it was dark by the time i was done (shouldn’t have brought the board with me). The keen of eye might spot the ‘piece’ painted onto my All Stars (used to do custom hats and back panels of jackets too, which i’d completely forgot about)
Struck lucky with this one as there’s a few in progress shots (but again , not great quality)
Shit, almost forgot this one. Me on my bike, riding a ramp i help build and paint.
Like yourself, i’d love to have another go at it. Very much happy days.
You can’t see this, but i’ve just done a backspin, struck a pose and pointed at you! 8)
binnersFull MemberGreat pics Euro! I must have some somewhere. As an aside, my mates sons band, China White (who are worth a listen too) supported the Furious Five on a recent tour. I got backstage passes, and at 2 in the morning was sat having a beer and chatting with Melle Mel and Kurtis Blow, trying not to look too awe-struck.
Fervouredimage – I do indeed sell the prints. I’ve just got back from dropping one off now. I’ve just had my last batch framed. I’ve got one of the ‘All Downhill’ prints, A3 size, window mounted in a nice chunky black frame. Looks lovely! Mates rates apply to STWers. if your interested just drop me an email fella.
cubistFree MemberI’ve been reminiscing a bit of late and putting myself a hip hop play list on Spotify which has some cracking old school tunes (even if I do say so myself) http://open.spotify.com/user/1166049951/playlist/2nZR7EHjIveRw1vSDtp5d0
iwmuntFree MemberBoogie Down Productions, EPMD, Mantronix,
Eric B & Rakim, Derek B (UK) PE, Roxxane Shante. KMD bloody love it allcubistFree Member3rd Bass
Digital Underground
Gang Starr
EPMD
Eric B and RakimAll later in the 80 but rarely surpassed.
kudos100Free MemberThis is why I end up coming back to STW. Amongst the bickering and squabbling, you have gems like these. Great thread.
No quite as old as some of you guys, but still appreciate 80’s hip hop.
One from the late 80’s
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l2O-JOXG_I[/video]
kudos100Free Member[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjlNZQe6U-A[/video]
Takes me back to smoking soap bar in mates bedroom while cranking EPMD out on his 1210’s 🙂
binnersFull MemberFor the whole spirit of 80’s hip hop, we’ve got to have some Jurassic 5 😀
[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KeN9c2GYJkk[/video]
porlusFree MemberRight, back with a video this time
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phOW-CZJWT0[/video]
DezBFree MemberPosted this on the tune association thread the other day, first hip hop album I bought –
[video]http://youtu.be/DdAUYNVSrts[/video]Tom_W1987Free MemberThe big brother thread reminded me of this, not 80s – but 90’s. Still, it’s class!
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcYqcLDp3JM[/video]
addy6402Full MemberJust popping a reminder here…..takes me back a few years!
Saw Public Enemy on Friday night which was cool…
eddiebabyFree MemberJust started listening to it all over again that’s to the Hilltop Hoods having Nosebleed Section used on a XC video a couple of months back.
fervouredimageFree MemberI’ve accidentally created a really great thread. Some amazing stuff in here, some amazing photos there Euro, keep em coming.
Binners – i’ll drop you a mail.
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