Search - Various Artists :: True School Lyrical Lessons From The Rap Legends: Vol. 1

The foundation

Andre M. | Mt. Pleasant, SC United States | 02/16/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a good Cd of what the first generation of hip hop fans were really listening to during the music's earliest appearance on record.



King Tim III by the Fatback Band was actually the first rap record (it beat out the better known Rappers Delight by about a month in late 1979). This is also one of the funkiest records of all time, musically based on the Godfather's "There Was a Time"



"The Adventures of Superrhymes" by Jimmy Spicer (who incidentally was the first rapper I ever saw perform-at a skating rink in Charleston in late 1979) is an underrated classic of syncopated storytelling, beating out Slick Rick by about five years. This is a funky narrative of Dracula and Aladdin and their trip to a nightclub. Very imaginative. Only problem is that this is a shorter version of the original. The same is true of the Funky 4+1 more's beloved classic "Rappin and Rockin The House."



"We Rap More Mellow" by the "Younger Generation" is actually the first record by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, containing most of the same lyrics as their better known "Superrappin." "Zulu Nation Throwdown" does not actually feature Afrika Bambaata on vocals (just his group the Cosmic Force), but its jivey, melodic chanting is the sort of thing that made this generation of hip hop appeal to teenagers of the era.



These records were greatly underpromoted at the time, since most people outside of Black east-coast teens dismissed this stuff as a passing fad, but at least you can see what most people were missing that should have been hits."