Rap-Ture

Does anyone remember when rap music was a novelty and kind of fun? If not, you’re not old enough. It didn’t used to be so “dangerous”.

I was listening to Rappers Delight by the Sugarhill Gang this morning on the way to work and was taken back to my senior year in high school when this came out. I can remember listening to the radio and thinking, “What the hell is this? It’s not music, it’s not poetry – it’s something in between”.

But as a rock-n-roller, I couldn’t like it for cultural reasons – not unless no one was watching, then I could like whatever I wanted!!!

Black music was always R&B for me. It was the Isley Brothers and then it was Earth, Wind and Fire and the Commodores and all kinds of other stuff. Us white boys had our Led Zeppelin and Neil Young and the kids who didn’t know shit listened to whatever was happening on Top 40 radio. But I could always count on the black kids to bring something to the party that I didn’t have.

This was back when I knew that Ray Charles, Al Green and Marvin Gaye were cool but I just didn’t have that stuff in my collections yet. I wasn’t old enough (nor cool enough to break on through)

But as the folks in New York started this break dancing thing, the music changed and the old stereotypes were out the window. We could all see a new day coming and we just didn’t know how great the divide would be. How Hip-Hop would change the culture and not necessarily for the better.

I’m still a shallow fan of rap. Nothing hard but I can really get into the Beastie Boys and I like the old school stuff before it got too harsh and the language turned into something I didn’t recognize. Maybe that’s where the Ebonics thing came from, who knows? But I also like some angry Eminem and Kid Rock (what category is he in anyway?).

So anyway, if you’ve got any Rappers Delight around, give it a listen. And tip your hat to Grandmaster Flash and Kurtis Blow and all those guys that started something way back when.

And then watch the guy with the clock around his neck on the MTV show and remember why the audience is so, so, so…….different.

And bless our diversity!!!