So, the other day I was sitting trying to figure out a ton of random stuff at work when, all of a sudden, I got LL Cool J songs stuck in my head. Luckily, YouTube was around the corner and I was able to load up songs like “Rock the Bells”, “I Need Love”, “Going Back To Cali” and more. It was quite the trip down memory lane. I posted to Facebook

Sigh…I miss the Golden Era of rap. I’ve been sitting here listening to some old LL Cool J, like “Rock the Bells” and “I’m Bad”, Grandmaster Flash, Kwame, UTFO…the list goes on and on.

To which my old roomie and old school music pirate responded that “…it was all about fun stuff and not about killing cops and knockin’ up ‘ho’s”. Let’s put aside the Geto Boys, Public Enemy and N.W.A. for this post 🙂 But it was a period when there was actually a Rap Summit and the rappers of the era got together and discussed what rap truly was becoming, including the emergence of the white rappers. Anyone remember the uproar 3rd Bass caused during the summit?

The late 1980’s and the early 1990’s saw rap come into it’s own as a driving force in the music industry. It crossed cultural lines and made for some kick ass club nights down in Radford. I remember hitting any one of a number of clubs, having a few penny/nickle beers, pissing in a trough and dancing until 2:30 in the morning. We’d leave all sorts of sweaty. It was good times.

Even more important, though, is that it was good music. This is the kind of music that the current generation of kids who listen to rap probably think it is alien or dated. But once you listen you really do hear the artistry of the lyrics and the tracks. We bore witness to New Jack Swing, Trip Hop, cross-overs between rock and hip hop stars and the birth of gangsta rap and nu metal.

Plus you can’t forget the high top fades. Or the messed up, crazy ass pants.

DeLa Soul – Buddy
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I loved DeLa Soul and the Native Tongues movement (featuring Monie Love, The Jungle Brothers, and A Tribe Called Quest). They’re smart, irreverent, and they’re still around. In fact, I believe they were in Germany this year and my friend Shi go to see them. They were intelligent hippie rap. They weren’t as New Age-y and mainstream as P.M. Dawn, but they were able to garner the respect of almost everybody.

3rd Bass – Brooklyn Queens
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One of the first white rap acts, 3rd Bass f’ing RULED. And they’ll always remind me of my roomie Paul and his friends. I hear that Pete Nice is writing a book on baseball these days. They killed during their time, verbally taking down Hammer and Vanilla Ice. That’s right: Hammer and Vanilla Ice. Yeesh.

Oaktown 357 – Juicy Gotcha Krazy
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Speaking of Hammer, I recently ran across Oaktown 357, an offshoot of his massive entourage back in the day. Their songs were about…uh…let’s call it female empowerment. Catchy, dancy, trampy, and oh so classy. What the hell were our fashions back in those days?!

MC Trouble & The Good Girls – Make You Mine
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On the other side of the female rap coin was the Motown label’s first female rapper, MC Trouble. I really enjoyed her work but unfortunately she passed away before making a larger impact. In ‘Gonna Make You Mine’ she rapped along with The Good Girls. Meow. The Good Girls made me feel all tingly inside.

Monie Love – Monie In The Middle
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I include Monie Love because she was a protege of Queen Latifa…and because my roomies would annoy the piss out of me by constantly walking around the apartment singing only the chorus. Dave: Monie in the middle! Paul: Where she at?! I think they did this on a daily basis for three straight weeks.

Redhead Kingpin & The FBI – Do The Right Thing
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This wasn’t a part of the Spike Lee movie but damn it was good. I kinda miss dancing like this. One of my other roomies, Dee, would dance his ass off to this song…and then follow it up with a mix of Heavy D and the Boys, Janet Jackson (from Rhythm Nation) and on and on and on.

This doesn’t even scratch the surface. Slick Rick, K7, House of Pain, Teddy Riley, Twin, Onyx, Fushnickens, Mobb Deep, Le Tigre, Kwame, Cypress Hill, Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock, Kool Moe Dee, The Beastie Boys, Doug E. Fresh, EPMD, Wu-Tang Clan, Biggie, KRS One are a small sampling of artists from back in the day. Hell, I even liked KRS One’s girl Heather B.’s “All Glocks Down” (remember her from the very first Real World?).

I’m still in awe that it was like musical 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon, too. Anthrax singing with Public Enemy, Heavy D. singing with Janet and also New Edition, who spawned Another Bad Creation.

Now I know how ‘old people’ feel because I regularly find myself saying ‘They sure don’t make music like they used to! Today’s music is crap!’. And all the young kids think I’m insane.